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“This is Derek Hale, leave a message.”
Stiles let out a deep sigh, rubbing at his forehead with his free hand, the other holding his phone to his ear. “Derek. It’s me. Again. Look, can you just—please just call me back. Please. It was a misunderstanding, okay? Please just let me explain.”
Pulling the phone away from his ear, he hung up the call, then tossed it onto his desk, rubbing at his face with both hands and wishing he wasn’t so stupid. Actually, maybe stupid wasn’t the right word. Dense? Yes, dense. Or just... stupid.
Yeah, Stiles was just stupid. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him right now. This was the worst.
He still didn’t know how he’d been expected to figure out something so fucking vague! It wasn’t like he was new to Derek-speak or anything, so the fact that he hadn’t realized what was being asked made him really wonder if the others were right. A few hours ago, he’d been unsure, but now? No, now he knew. Now Derek wasn’t answering his phone, so Stiles knew. He knew.
Derek had asked him out.
And Stiles had said no.
But he hadn’t meant to say no! He hadn’t realized it was a date invitation! It wasn’t like Derek had made it obvious or anything! Sure, it was weird he hadn’t just left the scene once they’d finished off chasing the Chimera out of town like he usually did, but still! Derek had just hovered awkwardly, then wandered over and asked him if he wanted to grab a bite to eat.
Stiles was injured. He was tired. He had a black substance of uncertain origins on most of his shirt and jeans. The last thing he wanted to do was go out to brunch somewhere. So he’d said no. He’d told Derek he would much rather go home, because Stiles was clearly miserable.
Instead of saying anything like, “Maybe some other time,” or whatever, Derek had just stiffened, nodded awkwardly, and left.
And the second he’d disappeared through the trees, Scott had rushed over and asked what the fuck Stiles was doing, because he knew Stiles had the giantest of crushes on Derek, and very loudly informed him that, “Derek literally just asked you out, and you said no.”
To which Stiles had replied with, “He didn’t ask me out, what are you talking about?”
After which, everyone else in the pack proceeded to inform him that Derek had, in fact, been asking him out. And Stiles had just turned him down. And now Derek was gone.
To say Stiles had freaked out would be an understatement. Here he was, being asked out by the man of his dreams, whom he’d had a crush on for years, and he was too tired and sore and covered in grossness to recognize a date invite when it came up.
Stiles was stupid. He was so, so stupid.
He’d been trying to call and text Derek for hours, having returned home to shower and freshen up in hopes that they could maybe grab dinner. But so far, Derek’s phone kept going straight to voicemail, and none of his texts were being answered—which made sense if his phone was off.
“How was I supposed to know it was a date invite?!” Stiles demanded again angrily. He didn’t know who he was more pissed at. Himself or Derek for being so damn cryptic. It wasn’t like Derek had clarified it was a date! He’d literally just asked him to have food together.
They had food together! They’d had food together tons of times! Yes, usually it was Stiles who asked him to dinner, but still! Why would Stiles ever assume that the invitation was meant to be a date when none of Stiles’ invites had been dates? He wasn’t psychic! He just thought Derek wanted to grab a bite with his friend.
Stiles was slowly but surely losing his mind. He’d been obsessing over this entire thing for hours, constantly trying to get a hold of Derek. When seven rolled around, he knew it wasn’t going to happen and if he didn’t do something, he was going to go insane.
He drove out to the loft, being sure to speed into the front lot so that Derek wouldn’t realize he was there in enough time to escape. Exiting the Jeep, he headed inside and went up to the loft. The door was locked, but he’d made himself a spare years ago and he let himself in. The place was empty, which meant Derek wasn’t there. And because of his arrival, he knew that Derek hadn’t managed to sneak out before Stiles reached the loft.
That meant he hadn’t come home, and he could be anywhere. Hell, he could be halfway out of town by now!
Trying not to dwell on that last one, he instead went to Scott’s, because he didn’t know what else to do. The moment the door opened, he just flailed on the porch for a few seconds.
“What the fuck!”
“What?” Scott asked.
“Derek! Like, what the fuck! Scott! I don’t—are you sure?!”
“Are you still thinking about it?” Scott asked, surprised.
Right, because he hadn’t been a pining, obnoxious mess the moment he and Allison were on the outs all those years ago. Clearly Stiles was exaggerating, it was only the man of his dreams he’d been crushing on for years asking him out on a date and him fucking saying thanks but no thanks!
Stiles pushed his way into the apartment, raking one hand through his hair in agitation while pacing. Scott sighed and shut the door, going to sit on the couch and watching him, looking like Stiles’ entire existence was an inconvenience to him. Which, really, was rude, considering all the bellyaching Stiles had been forced to put up with the past few years about both Allison and Kira.
“I just don’t understand how you didn’t realize he was asking you out,” Scott insisted, head moving back and forth while following Stiles’ pacing. “He was so awkward and nervous, and his heart was pounding a mile a minute, and he was sweating so much it was actually kind of gross.”
“I don’t have Werewolf ears!” Stiles reminded him, a little annoyed. “Or a Werewolf nose! Or any kind of observational skills, apparently!”
“Probably not when it comes to people liking you, considering.” Scott shrugged.
Stiles paused in his pacing, turning to look at Scott, eyes widening slightly. “Considering what, Scott?”
Scott stared at him, then winced. “Don’t worry about it, never mind.”
“Considering what, Scott?” Stiles repeatedly more heatedly.
It looked like Scott was going to tell him to forget about it, but he eyed him for a few seconds before sighing, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Okay, so remember Emma in our Sociology class?”
“Of course I do.” Stiles was the one who’d made friendly with her, of course he remembered her. They hadn’t spoken since the semester ended, but she’d been pretty nice.
“Yeah, she asked you out like, four times, and you kept turning her down.”
Stiles stared at him. “I what?”
“You actually get asked out a lot. Like, this past year alone, I’ve been present for at least eight different date invitations, not counting Emma’s. You turned them all down. I always thought it was because of Derek, which is why my brain kind of exploded when you turned him down.”
“Who’s asked me out?!” Stiles demanded, wondering what the fuck was going on. “I would know if people were asking me out!”
“Apparently not, since a lot of people have. Including Danny.”
“Including what?!” Stiles demanded, feeling like his brain was oozing out of his ears.
“Jesus, Stiles.”
He whipped around, startled at the reprimand, and saw Melissa hanging her sweater up by the door before shutting it behind herself, setting her bag down on the hall table and walking into the living room in her scrubs, crossing her arms.
“I could hear you from down the street. What’s going on?”
“Derek asked Stiles out,” Scott informed her.
The way her face lit up made Stiles’ stomach clench, because he’d accidentally said no, and this was the worst!
“Stiles said no.”
“You what?” Melissa asked, her expression shifting instantly to shocked and horrified. Only a mother could pull off shocked and horrified at the same time.
“Not on purpose! I didn’t know it was a date invitation!”
“How could you not know?”
“I swear, nobody here speaks to Derek, apparently.” Stiles threw his arms in the air. “How could I possibly know?! He asked me if I wanted to grab a bite to eat. That’s literally it. I say that to Scott all the time, are we dating?!”
“It’s the way he asked,” Scott insisted with a sigh.
“Poor thing,” Melissa said softly, though it sounded like she was more sympathetic towards Derek than Stiles. Which was unfair, considering he never would’ve said no if he’d just realized what he was being asked! “No wonder he’s been there all day.”
When Melissa turned to head for the kitchen, likely to get dinner started for herself, Stiles chased after her and shifted in front of her, forcing her to stop in her steps.
“I’m sorry, why he’s been where all day now?”
“You know, at the hospital,” Melissa said, giving him a weird look.
Stiles just stared at her. “Derek’s a Werewolf, why the hell would he be in the hospital?”
Melissa gave him an odd look, then turned to Scott for help, who looked just as lost. At least it wasn’t another one of Stiles’ oblivious moments, though considering Scott’s IQ, it wasn’t exactly hard to be down at his level.
Melissa turned back to Stiles, still looking confused. “Whenever Derek has a bad day, he always goes to the postnatal ward at the hospital. He likes being around all the babies, and he’s actually really good with them. The women up there love him, he can get the crying ones to stop in a second. Not sure if it’s a wolf thing or a Derek thing, but it’s very sweet.”
Derek did what now?
“Did you both not know this?” Melissa turned to include Scott in her inquiry. “He’s been doing this for well over a year, I figured you knew.”
Stiles allowed himself only one brief second of shock, and then hurried around Melissa, calling goodbye to both her and Scott before exiting the house and slamming the door shut behind him. He rushed to the Jeep and had to stop himself from speeding all the way to the hospital. It was a near thing, but he somehow managed.
He parked closer to the end of the lot, because he didn’t want to take a free spot someone else might need, and then hurried towards the entrance. He didn’t usually go through the front door, since he mostly entered through Emergency whenever he and Scott went to see Melissa. He was a little disoriented for a few seconds, then got his bearings and found his way towards the closest nurse’s station.
He’d never gone to the postnatal ward before. He hadn’t even realized that was a thing, so he had to find out where it was. The nurse at the counter was very nice, telling him exactly how to get there without having to go through any of the depressing wards, like palliative care. Stiles followed her directions through the hospital, reaching the third floor and rounding a corner before finally finding the postnatal ward.
It was surprisingly quiet, and the lights were dimmer here than in other parts of the hospital. One of the nurses looked up at him from her workstation, but it was one of the ones he knew because of Melissa, so she just smiled and went back to her paperwork. He figured nobody was worried about Stiles walking into the postnatal ward. He was the sheriff’s kid, it would be hard for him to commit any crimes without being caught.
He walked down the corridor, nodding and offering tight smiles to the few people he passed. Eventually, he reached a set of windows that looked into a large room. Stiles had never been up there before, and he mostly just knew about this area because of TV. It was weird to see all the babies, though most of the carriers were actually empty. Given the time, they were probably with their mothers, though there were still a few in the room.
And in there with them was Derek. He was wearing hospital greens, which was a little surprising, but Stiles figured he probably couldn’t go in there in his contaminated outside clothes. The fact that someone other than a member of staff or parent was in there was actually a little strange, but for that person to be Derek was surreal.
Stiles stood at the window watching for a long while. Derek was angled a little sideways, so that only his profile was showing. His head was tilted down and he was staring at a baby that had to be like, hours old, at most. He was rocking back and forth ever so slightly, shifting his weight from side to side, and Stiles had never wished so badly for Werewolf hearing in his life because he was pretty sure Derek was singing or humming some kind of lullaby.
He watched him while he rocked the baby back and forth. After a while, Derek carefully set the infant back into its little cubby, and when he turned—presumably to find another baby in need of lulling to sleep—he froze when his eyes caught sight of Stiles.
Not knowing what else to do, Stiles waved awkwardly, and Derek’s usual scowl fell into place. For a second, it looked like he wasn’t going to come out, but he eventually looked around at the few babies that remained and then stalked over to the door unhappily. He pulled it open, and stepped out of the room, shutting it firmly behind him and then standing protectively in front of it, as if worried Stiles was there to steal a baby.
They were pretty cute, but Stiles didn’t want to have ‘babynapping’ on his record, so he’d stick with just cooing at other people’s babies without stealing them.
“What are you doing here?” Derek demanded, crossing his arms defensively and shifting his weight.
“I was looking for you,” Stiles admitted, turning to look into the room. “I didn’t know you came here.”
“Well, I do.”
This conversation was going swimmingly. Stiles cleared his throat and shoved his hands in his back pockets uncomfortably, rocking slightly on his feet.
“How, uh, how long have you been coming here?”
“A while.” Short. Clipped. To the point.
Great.
“I’m surprised they let you in there. And where’d you get the scrubs?”
“I’m a volunteer,” Derek informed him dryly. “I donated funds to the hospital a few years ago, and I started coming around to see the babies. Eventually, they found out I was one of the donors to the hospital and they offered me a volunteer position in this ward.” He motioned the badge on his shirt, which Stiles hadn’t actually noticed until he pointed it out.
“So they saw you just hanging out on the other side of the window and thought, ‘Hey, this looks like a guy we should hire’?” Stiles asked, trying for a smile. “They didn’t immediately call the cops?”
“No, they did,” Derek informed him. Stiles’ smile slid off his face, because he’d been joking. To be fair, a big, scary guy like Derek hanging out outside the baby room was probably cause for concern. “It was Parrish,” Derek finished off. “He told them I was okay, that I had a hard life, and I probably just wanted to spend time around people before they turned into assholes.”
“That was nice of him. I guess.” Stiles wasn’t sure, actually, but at least Derek hadn’t gotten arrested.
Derek shrugged one shoulder, turning to look back into the room through the window before facing Stiles again.
“What are you doing here?” he repeated.
That was when Stiles realized he’d come by for a reason. He’d just gotten distracted watching Derek be amazing with babies.
“I didn’t know you were asking me out on a date!” Stiles blurted out, the words spilling out of him before he could stop himself.
Derek stiffened, clearly caught off guard, but he didn’t react otherwise. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Stiles sighed, rubbing at his face. “I’ve been calling and texting you for hours! I didn’t—I just thought you were asking me to go have food, you know, as a friend. And while I’d love to do that with you, as evidenced by the countless times I’ve invited you out, I wasn’t in a position to say yes earlier today. But if I’d known it was supposed to be you asking me on a date, I would’ve gone with you even if I had a gaping head wound.” Stiles took a step forward. “Derek, I didn’t know. I didn’t even know you reciprocated my feelings.”
Derek stared at him. “Your feelings?”
“Yeah,” Stiles said slowly. “Did you not... I’ve liked you for years. Did you not know this? You’re a Werewolf, how did you not know this?”
When Derek didn’t answer, Stiles figured it out for himself, and he instantly felt sad.
Derek had noticed Stiles was into someone, he just hadn’t believed it was him. He’d probably always thought someone around was interesting to Stiles and it likely hadn’t ever crossed his mind that the person around who was interesting was him.
“Derek, I have legitimately had a crush on you for at least three years. If I had known you were asking me on a date earlier, nothing short of death would’ve stopped me from going. Hell, maybe not even that.” He took another cautious step forward but Derek moved back a step and Stiles felt hurt zing through him.
Derek seemed to realize that because he shook his head urgently. “No, I wasn’t—I can’t let you too close. Their immune systems aren’t great, and I don’t want to risk it.”
Oh. Right. The babies.
Stiles glanced back into the room, a few of them shifting around and wiggling adorably. God, babies were cute. No wonder Derek came by to hang out with them. And he was probably really good at it, too. Because he was so quiet, and being a Werewolf meant he didn’t have any illnesses to bring in, and he naturally ran hot so he was probably a furnace to them.
“They’re really cute,” Stiles said, knowing they weren’t done with their conversation, but since Derek hadn’t said anything, he was a little nervous to realize the others were all wrong and crazy and Derek had no fucking idea what was going on right now.
“Yeah,” Derek agreed.
“Do they have names?”
“Some of them. Others are still being debated on. That little guy I was holding is called Zach.” He motioned the one he’d set down before spotting Stiles, his expression softening slightly. “He’s been kind of unhappy since his arrival, so I’ve been trying to keep him calm.”
“Hey, I’d be unhappy too if I was thrown into this messed up world we live in,” Stiles offered, letting out a small laugh. His eyes raked across all the names he could see and he frowned at one of them. “Is there literally someone here whose last name is ‘Doe’ and named their daughter ‘Jane’?”
Derek let out a small sigh, looking sad. “No. She’s a Jane Doe because she was abandoned in Emergency. One of the paramedics found her when he was rushing to go to the bathroom. Didn’t actually make it there before he had to go back out on a call, because he brought her inside to make sure she was being taken care of.”
“People do that?” Stiles asked quietly. “Leave their babies here?”
“Sometimes.” Derek turned to him and managed a small smile. “Don’t worry about her. She’s a tough little thing. She’s going to be okay. Someone good will come along and she won’t even think about being left behind like this.”
Stiles smiled, watching Derek while he spoke about the babies in the other room. “You really like kids, huh?”
Derek shrugged one shoulder again. “I used to take care of Cora and my brother Matthew when I was younger. It’s calming, taking care of someone who needs you. I like being in there with them. New life and all that. Ready to take on the world, one step at a time.”
Stiles just let out a small hum, the two of them looking into the room. One of the babies shifted a little, and after a few seconds, Derek quickly opened the door and Stiles realized it had made some kind of sound that preceded crying.
Derek was beside the baby instantly—this one only labelled ‘Wyatt, Jennifer’ which suggested there was no name—and he pulled it into his arms quickly, beginning to rock gently and smiling down at the crying infant. It was the most amazing thing Stiles had ever seen.
He never would’ve thought Derek could be good with kids, but he supposed it was because he just saw the big, scary, Werewolf side of Derek. This was the softer side. His more human side. The one who bought candy on Halloween every year, and donated to a hospital, and always made sure Lydia got home safe when he saw her around town late at night. This was the Derek Stiles had only ever seen brief stints of, and if he hadn’t already loved him before, shit would he ever be super in love with him now.
“Hey Derek?” he said softly, knowing he could hear him.
Derek glanced over at him, but continued to rock gently from side to side, the baby beginning to calm the longer it was held.
“I didn’t know it was meant to be a date. I’m really sorry. To make up for it, I’d really like to take you out to dinner. And to be clear, I mean in a date capacity.”
Derek paused in his rocking, but only for a second before starting it up again. He offered Stiles a small smile, then inclined his head in agreement, but jerked his chin down at the baby. He probably meant he was going to be a while longer, and Stiles just shrugged.
He didn’t mind. Watching Derek rock babies to sleep was definitely something he could get used to. And as long as he did get his date with him tonight, he really didn’t care what time it was at.
Derek was amazing. He was phenomenal. And apparently, he loved babies.
Stiles thought they were pretty great, and while he was standing outside the window looking into a room full of adorable babies, he found he wasn’t really watching them, but the man making sure they were all safe, cared for, and loved.
Stiles loved this soft man just as much as the growly one. He was never going to let himself misunderstand anything Derek ever said again.
Next time Derek asked him out on a date, Stiles was definitely saying ‘yes.’
END.