Chapter Text
“Dad! Dad! Today we learned about the solar system!” Isaac called as he ran over to his dad.
“Hey buddy!” Stiles smiled as he picked up his 5-year son and twirled him around. “That’s so cool! Did you learn about Pluto?”
“No,” Isaac frowned, wrinkling his nose. “Ms. Allison says that Pluto isn’t a planet anymore.”
Stiles grinned and put his son back on the ground. “Pluto is totally a planet, trust me.”
“Ok,” Isaac brightened. His smile just melted Stiles heart.
Isaac was Stiles’ world.
Literally.
If Stiles’ life was anything like the solar system that his son had just learned about, then Isaac would be the sun, and Stiles would be everything else, constantly revolving around Isaac.
Stiles loved Isaac so much. His 5-year old son had the uncanny ability to brighten up Stiles’ day no matter what. The rent was late? Isaac would give Stiles a drawing. Stiles was feeling lonely? Isaac would crawl into his lap and say that he was the best dad ever.
Being a single dad was hard. But Stiles had sworn that he would give Isaac the best life ever, and that was a promise he intended to keep.
As soon as he had graduated High School, Stiles had moved in with his high school sweetheart, Jenny. He thought he had loved her. He really did. He had even been saving up money to buy a wedding ring to propose.
Except for the fact that Jenny wasn’t in love with Stiles the same way Stiles was in love with Jenny.
Stiles figured that things started going south the day Jenny figured out that she was pregnant. She started distancing herself from Stiles. She never wanted to do anything. It was almost as if she was upset that she had gotten pregnant.
Stiles, on the other hand was ecstatic. He took it upon himself to learn everything about pregnancies. He checked out books from the library, he became a master of Wikipedia, and he talked to his elderly neighbors if it was normal for your wife to start hating you during her pregnancy.
Stiles even picked up a book of baby names. He spent weeks saying different names over and over, rolling them around in his mouth, seeing if he would enjoy saying them for the rest of his life.
He eventually decided on Isaac, because he liked the way it sounded, and it meant ‘laughter’. Stiles was determined to make sure that Isaac would always be happy and would always be laughing.
He swore that to his unborn son.
The day Isaac was born was the happiest day of Stiles’ life. As soon as the doctor handed Isaac to Stiles, Isaac grinned, made a small cooing noise, yawned and snuggled into Stiles’ chest. It was the single most adorable thing on the planet. At the risk of sounding totally cliché, but it was love at first sight.
Stiles was a father.
He had a beautiful, healthy son.
It was the happiest moment of his life.
Unfortunately that moment was spoiled almost immediately.
“Him or me.” Jenny said quietly, from her place in the hospital bed. She had just finished giving birth, and she still had IV’s hooked up to her arms. But there was no mistaking what she had just said.
“What?”
“You heard me Stiles. You have a choice to make. You can have me or you can have Isaac. But you can’t have us both.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m not going to share you with a toddler. I didn’t even want to get pregnant.”
“Jenny,” Stiles gasped, his lungs were suddenly void of oxygen. “Jenny you can’t be serious.”
Isaac made a small mewling noise and started nodding off into sleep.
“I am. And the fact that you haven’t chosen me already, tells me that you chose Isaac over me.”
“No,” Stiles whispered, eyes starting to water. “No, you can’t do this. Please.”
“It’s already done, I brought my plane ticket last night. I’m leaving on Saturday.”
Stiles froze.
It was Thursday night.
“It’s over, Stiles,” Jenny continued sadly. “You’ve made your choice. I knew you would. When I get discharged I’m going to move in with my aunt in Pennsylvania. You’ll never have to see me again.”
“Jenny please,” Stiles cried.
“I’m sorry.”
Stiles never saw Jenny again.
He had run out of the room, clutching Isaac close to his chest. When he had regained his composure, Jenny had already been discharged and she was long gone. Two weeks later, Stiles got a letter in the mail, containing legal documents where Jenny signed all rights over to him in regards to Isaac. Child support agreements, visiting rights, it was all there.
It was a done deal.
Stiles was a single father.
“Dad, do I have a doctor’s appointment today?” Isaac asked, snapping Stiles out of his daze.
“You sure do,” Stiles grinned, ruffling his son’s hair. “Are you excited to see Dr. Derek?”
The infamous Dr. Derek Hale. He was kind of a big deal at the Beacon Hills hospital. He was only 28, about a year older than Stiles, and was already the head Pediatrician at the hospital. He was also a part-time paramedic. Derek also had a reputation for being particularly gruff with some of his patients. Rumor has it that one time a little girl had thrown up on his scrubs and he had actually grew fangs and growled at her until she cried.
But for some reason, Derek was really nice to Stiles and Isaac. At the PTA meetings, Stiles overheard a lot of the other parents complaining about how gruff and mean Dr. Derek Hale was with their children, but Stiles could never chime in because Dr. Derek was always nice to him. Thankfully, Stiles and Isaac had never experienced the bad side of Dr. Derek. In fact, Derek seemed to be happy just to see them both, like seeing Isaac and Stiles just made Derek’s day.
Whatever it was, Stiles would take it.
“Yeah! I love him! He gives me lollipops!”
Stiles smiled to himself. Personally he didn’t know who was more excited to see Dr. Derek, him or Isaac. Outside of Stiles, Derek was Isaac’s favorite person on the planet. But Stiles’ couldn’t blame him, Dr. Derek was hot. Stiles wouldn’t mind getting sick more often if it meant that Derek would be the one taking care of him.
“Dad come on! We’re going to be late!”
Stiles snorted as he buckled Isaac into his car seat. Isaac was kind of a weirdo. If Stiles had to make a list of all the things that Isaac loved, the list would probably look like this.
1. Stiles
2. Dr. Derek
3. Lollipops.
4. Danny, Isaac’s ‘boyfriend’
“Well we better hurry up, so you can get a lollipop,” Stiles smiled, tickling Isaac, who squealed with glee.
Once Stiles and Isaac arrived at the hospital, they sat around in the waiting room. Isaac picked up some trains and Stiles picked up a magazine, hoping to hide behind it when Dr. Derek showed up.
Stiles always blushed when Dr. Derek showed up.
It was unfair how hot that man was.
He should be an actor or something.
“Isaac?” Derek’s voice called.
And fuck, there he was.
Dr. Derek Hale, looking hot as usual. He was sporting his delicious stubble, and the sleeves of his scrubs were rolled up to his elbows, exposing his muscled forearms. He was even wearing those hideous hospital regulated crocs, and he still looked like sex on legs. His stethoscope was hanging around his neck, and was looking around the room for Isaac.
Basically Dr. Derek was just the hottest thing on the planet.
“Dr. Derek!” Isaac shouted, abandoning his trains and running to give Derek a hug.
“Hey pup.” Derek smiled.
Stiles bit back a grin. Isaac treated Derek almost like a second dad, which was saying a lot, considering how he only went saw Derek once every 3 months for a check up. Of course, Stiles wouldn’t mind if Derek actually became Isaac’s father. Because that would mean that Stiles would be Derek’s husband.
Stiles was very ok with that idea.
“Just a checkup today?” Derek asked, looking at Stiles.
“Oh… yeah,” Stiles stuttered. He felt his face heat up and he knew he was blushing. Derek was smirking, so Stiles knew he had seen it. Why was this his life?
“Alright,” Derek grinned, still looking at Stiles. “We’ll be out in about 15 minutes.” Then he turned to Isaac, who was literally vibrating with pleasure. “You ready to go, Isaac?”
“Yeah!” Isaac grinned.
Stiles watched as Derek took Isaac’s hand and led him back to the pediatrics room. Stiles took a deep breath and let it all out slowly. He tried to relax, but he couldn’t.
He was just thinking about how fucking hot Derek looked, and how great he was with Isaac, and how nice it would be to date Derek. How nice it would be to marry Derek. How nice it would be to raise Isaac with Derek. How nice it would be to have sex with Derek.
Stiles groaned and pushed the thoughts from his head. He couldn’t afford to think like that. Derek was way out of his league, and Stiles couldn’t afford another heartbreak. Plus Derek probably got the same reaction from Stiles that he did from all the other women who brought their kids into Beacon Hills General for check ups.
Stiles was nothing special.
He had to move on, and focus on himself and Isaac.
But it was still hard to get Derek’s beautiful smiling face out of his head.
Why did Derek always smile at him, if he didn’t want anything to do with Stiles?
About 30 minutes later, Derek came out into the waiting room with a less than pleasant expression on his face.
“I need to see you Stiles.”
Stiles felt his heart plummet. It was probably somewhere in his stomach right now. He instantly thought of worst-case scenarios. Isaac had cancer and had 6 months to live. Isaac had a brain tumor and had 5 months to live. Isaac had diabetes.
Stiles didn’t know. He just knew that he couldn’t lose Isaac. He absolutely could not lose his son.
Stiles legs suddenly decided that they were going to walk, and they carried him to where Derek was standing. “Ok,” Stiles choked out. “Let’s go.”
Derek nodded and led Stiles back to the pediatrics room.
“Hi Dad!” Isaac beamed, as Stiles walked into the room.
“Hey bud,” Stiles forced a smile, sitting down and pulling Isaac onto his lap. He rested his forehead against the back of Isaac’s head and kissed the back of his neck. He squeezed his son tight, and anticipated hearing the worst.
“It’s nothing serious,” Dr. Derek started. “I probably should’ve told you that up front.”
“What?” Stiles choked out. He had just spent the last couple of minutes freaking out that his son was dying and now it wasn’t anything serious? The fuck?
“I’m sorry,” Derek frowned. “I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“What’s wrong with my son?” Stiles demanded, a little harsher than usual.
Derek winced.
“It’s nothing serious,” he repeated. “It’s just he has an irregular heartbeat. I would classify it as a level 2 heart murmur.”
Stiles wracked his brain of all the things he knew about heart murmurs. He had taken an anatomy course in college, and from what he remembered, heart murmurs were when deoxygenated blood mixed with oxygenated blood. Dr. Derek was right, usually they weren’t serious, but they could become serious. If they got bad enough, eventually the patient could die, just from not being able to get enough oxygen around their body.
Stiles panicked.
His breaths became shorter and he started clutching Isaac tighter. His palms started to sweat, and he was at a loss for words.
“So what do we do?” he finally asked.
“Well I’d like to monitor him a little more frequently,” Derek replied, knitting his eyebrows together. “Heart murmurs can progress, and I’d like to see him maybe once a week to make sure that his isn’t getting worse.”
“Ok, ok,” Stiles repeated, clutching Isaac tightly. “We can do that. Every Thursday around 3, sound good? We can come right after school.”
“That sounds great,” Derek smiled. He smiled, why was he smiling? “I guess I will see you guys in a week then.”
“Bye Dr. Derek!” Isaac called, wriggling out of Stiles’ grip and running to give Derek a hug. Isaac was so small and Derek was 6 feet tall, so when Isaac wrapped his arms around Derek’s knees, his head was…
Well we’ll just say that Isaac’s head was where Stiles wanted his head to be.
“Bye pup,” Derek smiled, reaching down and patting Isaac on the back. “Be nice to your dad for me.”
“I will,” Isaac smiled.
“Go out to the receptionist and get a lollipop. Tell her that Dr. Derek said that you could have 2 for being a great patient.”
Isaac smiled brightly and took off down the hallway back to the waiting room, leaving Stiles alone in the hospital room with Derek.
“He’s a great kid,” Derek smiled. “Always happy. He’s one of my favorite patients.”
Stiles nodded. “Yeah, he has a tendency to just brighten everyone’s day.”
“He’s going to be ok, Stiles.” Derek assured. “Heart murmurs are harmless about 90% of the time. He’s going to be fine.”
“Ok,” Stiles said softly. If Derek was confident that Isaac was ok, then Stiles could be too. After all, Derek was the one with the degree in pediatrics, not Stiles.
“So I’ll see you both on Thursday then.”
“3 o’clock.”
Derek extended his hand out for a shake and Stiles took it. As Stiles was leaving the room, he couldn’t help but think that Derek’s hand had lingered a little bit too long for a friendly handshake.
He shook his head and went out to the waiting room to make sure that Isaac didn’t charm his way into getting any more than 2 lollipops.