Work Text:
Isaac was not okay. Isaac was not ready for this. Why had he ever thought that he could handle this? Fuck, this was going to be a disaster.
“You’ll be fine, baby,” Stiles cooed and Isaac knew that Stiles wasn’t talking to him.
“What about me?” he whined.
Stiles leaned in and kissed the baby on the forehead, then sighed when he looked at his partner. “Isaac, seriously. You are totally ready for this, I promise. Everything will go fine.” He brushed Isaac’s curly locks back from his forehead and kissed it, carding his fingers through Isaac’s hair in a soothing manner.
“I’m only okay because you’re around. I have never done this before. What if I break her? What if I hur-” It was obvious where he was going with that, but Stiles captured his lips quickly and cut it short. Isaac couldn’t bring himself to be upset.
Ava started to squawk in Isaac’s lap and they both pulled apart to look at her. She was gazing up at them with her blue eyes, babbling quietly. They both smiled dopily, but Isaac’s went sideways when Stiles stepped back. Then Isaac was staring at him with wide, desperate eyes.
Stiles sighed again and leaned in, kissing Isaac a bit more passionately than before. “Don’t even think about that, okay?” Stiles pressed his forehead against Isaac’s. “You’ll be fine. Call me if you need to, but I’m sure you’ll do great. I’ll be home in a few hours.” He kissed the both of them one more time and was walking out the front door before Isaac could squeak out another protest.
He stared down at the baby, eyes still large and worried. He’d held Ava an untold number of times, but suddenly he felt like she was a foreign object he’d never encountered before. He felt like praying, even though it wasn’t a thing he’d done in a very long time. “Baby... we’re gonna be okay, right?” he asked her, running his fingers over her head.
And then she started to scream.
Isaac tried not to panic; he’d heard her cry and scream loads of times, why would this be any different? He knew the routine: diaper, bottle, sleep. There really wasn’t a lot to it just now, not until she got older and was walking and playing and getting into things and “Oh god” he didn’t need to think about that right now, it was making him nauseous.
“I’m a fucking werewolf, I can handle this.” He took a deep breath and lifted the child in his arms, walking and rocking her as he made his way back to the nursery. “It’s okay, Ava, I’ll get you all cleaned up, it’ll be fine.”
Fifteen minutes later, Isaac was still holding a crying, wiggling baby, almost at his wit’s end. “I can’t handle this. Why did I think I could handle this?” He tugged his phone from his pocket and pressed Stiles’ number, still rocking the baby gently.
“Isaac,” came Stiles’ slightly exasperated voice over the speaker. “You can’t already be-”
“Stiles! I can’t - I don’t know what I did! I changed her, I fed her, but-but she won’t stop! She never does this when you’re here! What if-” he gasped dramatically. “What if she hates me?”
“Alright, baby, calm down. Go sit down in the rocking chair, okay?”
“How do you know-”
“Because I know you. You’re pacing. Now go sit down,” Stiles replied tersely.
Isaac complied, stuffing his phone in his pocket as he walked to the back of the house and sat down with the baby girl in his arms, trying to rock her into submission. “O-okay, I’m here. Stiles I swear I tried this, she doesn’t want to go to sleep.”
“She does, baby, she’s just fighting it. Now are you cradling her?”
Isaac nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay. Stop rocking her from side to side while you’re rocking in the chair, it’s too much movement, she won’t settle down.”
Isaac didn’t even bother asking at this point how Stiles knew what he was doing. “Right. Okay. Sorry.”
“Just keep rocking in the chair and hold her to your chest. She doesn’t hate you, Isaac, I’ve seen her respond to you plenty of times. You’re just too nervous and it’s making her uncomfortable too. So calm down and sing to her.”
“Sing?” Isaac croaked.
“Yes, baby, that thing you do when you’re in the shower? Sing her a song, it’ll make you relax and calm her too.” Stiles’ voice wasn’t impatient or unkind, he was just helping direct Isaac through it like he would’ve directed him through a panic attack.
To be honest, Isaac was calming down just hearing Stiles’ voice. He was so damn dependent on his partner, it was absolutely ridiculous. “What should I sing?”
“You’ll know, just choose something.”
“Are you going to hang up?” Isaac asked sheepishly.
“I’m right here, Isaac.”
“Okay. I love you, Stiles.”
“Love you too. Now scoot.”
Isaac nodded and set the phone down on his knee and wracked his brain for a song. It didn’t take him long, because there was a song his mom had sung to him when he was younger that had always calmed him down. Clearing his throat, he started to sing softly down at the child.
“I heard there was a secret chord,
that David played and it pleased the Lord,
but you don't really care for music, do ya?”
He stopped and stared down at her, wondering if it was actually doing any good. He heard Stiles’ “Keep going” from the receiver on his knee as if it was right next to his ear. He nodded slowly, leaning back into the chair more comfortably, rocking slowly back and forth as he sang.
“Well it goes like this -
the fourth, the fifth,
the minor fall and the major lift -
the baffled king composing Hallelujah...”
Isaac cooed four more hallelujah’s quietly, surprised at just how warm his voice sounded through his panicking. It felt like he could feel Stiles smiling through the phone at him while he stared down into Ava’s face, so indistinct but at the same time looked just like Isaac with a mop of dark curls and blue eyes that could literally pierce the soul. Isaac smiled and kept singing.
Before he knew it, he’d sung nearly the entire song, coming up on the last verse that his mother would always sing for him. He hadn’t even realized that Ava had stopped crying and was staring up at him with wide eyes, attempting to keep herself adrift consciousness so she could listen to her papa sing just a little bit longer.
“Maybe there’s a God above,
but all I’ve ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya.
It’s not a cry that you hear at night,
it’s not someone who has seen the light,
it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah...”
Isaac honed in on Ava’s breathing, the soft rise and fall of her stomach, and the tiny little heartbeat under her ribcage. He carefully picked up the phone, sighing into it. “She’s so beautiful, baby.”
“I know, she looks just like you,” Stiles said sweetly. “I’ll be home soon, Isaac. Love you.”
“Love you too, baby. Be careful.”
An hour or so later Isaac was woken up by Stiles shaking him softly, putting a finger over his own lips to indicate that Ava was still sleeping over in the crib. Isaac shook himself awake and looked around a bit confused, because from what he remembered, he’d fallen asleep in the chair with Ava still in his arms. Stiles must have moved her to the crib.
Once they’d left the vicinity of the nursery, Isaac wrapped his arms around Stiles’ waist, feeling a bit heavy and leaning on him for support. “Tired?” Stiles asked, kissing the side of Isaac’s neck.
“Mmm. I think the screaming wore me out. She’s got a set of lungs.” Stiles had steered them into the bedroom and was leaning Isaac down on the bed and cuddling up to him.
“Think it’s a werewolf thing?” Stiles asked.
“Probably a Stilinski thing,” Isaac mused, leaning into Stiles’ gentle touches along his side and back.
“It was your ‘X’ chromosome, jerk.”
“Doesn’t make her any less a Stilinski,” Isaac retorted tiredly.
“You look beautiful while you’re holding her,” Stiles said, kissing warmly on the exposed skin of Isaac’s neck. Isaac hummed happily in response.
“You don’t think I’m beautiful of my own merits?” he pouted.
Stiles snorted and looked up at him. “You have your moments,” he responded sarcastically.
“Not as many as Ava though, huh?”
“Nobody can compete with our baby, Isaac, not even us.” Stiles sucked a small mark into Isaac’s neck, making the werewolf squirm and moan lowly.
“I think I did alright,” Isaac said absently, ghosting his hand underneath Stiles’ shirt and feeling the hard planes of his back.
“You did. You’ll get used to it... and she’ll get bigger and it won’t be such an issue anymore.”
Isaac laughed. “Not an issue? She’ll be way worse when she’s older!”
Stiles nodded knowingly, looking him directly in the eyes. “But you’ll have this whole thing down pat by then, so I get to leave her with you when she goes on her Godzilla-city-stomping rampage through the house.”
“You’re an evil man,” Isaac replied with a mock-glare.
“I can make it up to you?” Stiles suggested and pulled Isaac’s shirt up so he could kiss and lick over exposed stomach.
Isaac sucked in a breath. “I forgive you.” He shoved his hand into Stiles’ hair and pushed on his head a bit, trying to get Stiles where he wanted him.
Stiles grinned and dragged his teeth over Isaac’s stomach. “You’re too easy.”