Chapter Text
“Hello, could I talk to Mr Hale, please?” Derek didn’t recognize the voice on the phone and instinctually sat up straighter.
“Speaking.” He got up and closed the door to his office to get some privacy. “Who is this?”
“Oh, sorry, my name is Amy and I work as a teacher’s assistant at your daughter’s school” the woman explained. “I was wondering if you had the possibility to come pick her up? Something happened at recess and Laura’s a bit upset. She won’t tell me what happened but I think that she’ll feel better being at home for the rest of the day.” Derek was already halfway out the door.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes” he barked out before disconnecting the call. “Fuck!” he then yelled, kicking a nearby post box, and received a scalding look of disapproval from an elderly woman passing by. He didn’t pay her much attention as he suddenly remembered that he had a board meeting that very afternoon. A board meeting that he’d already rescheduled because of Laura. Twice.
“Fucking hell!” The elderly lady went from a look of disapproval to being positively appalled by his behaviour and Derek tried to give her a smile to show that he really wasn’t all that bad. It must have come out as a weird sort of grimace though, because the lady pursed her lips and hurried away. He sighed and got in the car.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up” Derek murmured as a mantra as he thrummed the fingers against the steering wheel.
“Duuuuude, whazzup?” Trust Stiles not to answer his phone like a normal person Derek thought annoyed.
“For the love of… Don’t fucking call me dude, Stiles or I swear to god, I’ll…”
“Rip my throat out with your teeth, yep. You do realize that it’s been years since that threat was effective right?” Stiles asked. Derek suddenly felt ashamed of himself.
“Sorry” he said sheepishly and heard Stiles all but jump in surprise on the other end of the line.
“Okay, now I definitely know something’s up” he said suspiciously. “Come on, Big Bad, tell me.”
“It’ Laura” Derek said and would have continued if it wasn’t for the ‘Oh my god, how is she?’, ‘What happened?’, ‘Is she okay?’ and ‘What can I do?’ that burst from Stiles lips in a mad jumble. He waited patiently until Stiles ran out of breath, which took quite a while, and then explained.
“They called from her school, said something happened and that she was sad and wondered if I could take her home, but I have a fucking meeting that I can’t fucking reschedule and I was wondering if…”
“Bring her here” Stiles simply interrupted and Derek sagged in relief. “I might need to work a bit from home but I’ll just set her up with a movie or something.”
“You sure that’s you’ll be okay though? I mean…”
“Derek, I’m fine” Stiles interrupted. “It’s been two weeks since I left the hospital, get over it. All of you need to get over it in fact, I’m getting crazy being babied by the whole pack. So just take her here, we’ll be fine.”
“Thank you, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“No worries, man.”
Although he tried, Derek couldn’t persuade Laura to tell him what was wrong and he didn’t want to pressure her too much either. He just hoped that, if given a bit of time, she would talk to him about it and trust that he’d do everything in his power to help her. For now, he contented himself with hugging her tightly, playing her favourite music in the car on the way to Stiles and stopping at the diner to buy a strawberry milkshake (Laura’s favourite) and curly fries (the number one love of Stiles’ life beside Lydia). It brought a small smile to Laura’s face and it was the least he could do to thank Stiles for helping out on such short notice.
He dropped Laura off with the milkshake and fries in tow and barely had the time to say hello to Stiles before he had to floor it to make it back to the office in time. The meeting seemed to go on forever and afterwards he couldn’t even remember what he’d said, what they’d discussed. He’d ask someone about it in the morning but first he needed to take care of his daughter. Out of habit he listened for Laura’s heartbeat as soon as he got closer to the house and to his relief it was relaxed and steady, she was asleep.
He decided against knocking on the door to avoid waking his daughter and instead let him in using Stiles’ spare key. When he tiptoed into the house he listened for Stiles’ heartbeats as well and he soon found them, accompanied by the soft clattering of fingers against a keyboard. Stiles was working, computer on his lap and feet propped up on the low coffee table, and beside him was Laura, fast asleep and rolled up like a small burrito in a blanket and one of Stiles’ hoodies. Stiles seemed to sense Derek’s presence because he looked up from the screen and smiled as he motioned the other man to join them on the couch.
“She’s been crying a little” Stiles explained quietly. “I think that tired her out because she fell asleep in the middle of the movie.” Derek looked pained and stroked a hand slowly over her hair. Laura mumbled something in her sleep and leaned into the touch but she didn’t wake up.
“Has she… uh…” Derek paused to clear his throat. It felt like a failure that his daughter hadn’t wanted to confide in him and he didn’t want to ask Stiles and find out that Laura had talked to him, but on the other hand he really wanted to know what had happened. So he decided to ask anyway. “Has she told you what happened at school?” Stiles nodded carefully. He needed to tell Derek carefully so that the werewolf didn’t get to upset.
“I don’t think she really wanted to tell me, it just happened anyway” he answered. “But apparently some kids at school have been teasing her about being adopted.”
“What?” Derek exploded, waking Laura up with a start. “Sorry, pup, didn’t mean to startle you. Why don’t you go back to sleep?” he suggested, looking slightly sheepish.
“ ‘m wanna be with you” Laura mumbled sleepily and put her arms around Derek’s neck, demanding hugs and cuddles and Derek happily complied, at least until he realized that the noseful he’d gotten of Stiles’ shirt had set off a pleased rumbling and that the noise actually came from his own chest. It was embarrassing how easily he was affected by Stiles’ scent and he willed himself to stop immediately.
“So” Derek said carefully. “Stiles said that you guys talked about what happened today. Would you like to talk to me about it as well?” Laura tensed up and shook her head and Derek couldn’t help but feel his heart sink. His daughter didn’t trust him. “It’s okay, pup, it’s okay” he said, more for his own consolation than hers. He looked up to see Stiles looking at him with a worried expression and quickly got to his feet.
“You’re going home?” Stiles asked. “I could order us some dinner if you want to stay?” Derek shook his head.
“No, thank you, I think we’d better head home” he answered and put the blanket back on the couch. “Laura, darling, you’ll have to give Stiles his shirt back” he continued, tugging lightly in the hem.
“No, don’t wanna” she murmured and tried to bat his hands away.
“It’s ok” Stiles said. “She can borrow it for a little while.”
As Derek drove off and watched a smiling Laura wave goodbye to Stiles he had the feeling that he was the worst dad ever. Why wouldn’t she talk to him?