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The negative test shatters against the wall, and Stiles slides down to the floor, trying to slow the coming tidal wave of tears.
Another presence rushes into the bathroom, takes in the scene, and immediately pulls him into their protective grasp. Stiles turns and tucks his face into Derek’s neck, letting the first sob shake loose. Derek just cups his head and curls tighter around his omega in his lap, pressing kisses to his head as silent tears of his own drip into Stiles’ hair.
———
Allison literally tackled Isaac when she unwrapped the bundle of positive tests and a framed ultrasound photo with the words “Hi, Mommy” written on it. The scent of pure excitement was so potent in the air, the cut of jealousy and sadness was buried in the corner, as Stiles turned away and hid his face in Derek’s back as he laid against him. His mate reached up to cup his neck, offering what comfort he could before getting up to congratulate his first beta.
———
‘Not Pregnant’.
This time, instead of seeking the comfort immediately offered up by his alpha, Stiles jumps to his feet and storms out of the loft, breaking into a run when his feet hit the dirt road.
He sprints into the preserve, ignoring Derek’s shouts and letting the sounds and scents of nature consume him. He came up to the swimming hole his parents met at, and his world came crashing down. He collapsed at the roots of the big swing tree and wrapped himself up in his arms, screaming loud enough the entire preserve felt the pain of his loss.
———
Derek finally snapped when Stiles brought up breaking their mate bond so Derek could find a worthy omega, one who could provide him with what he wanted.
After their previous fight before his last heat, when Stiles insisted on going through it alone at a heat center, Stiles had been pulling away, and Derek wasn’t having it. He tossed the struggling omega over his shoulder and hauled him over to their bed, dumping him on it. He crawled up the bed to hover over his mate, who looked confused and defeated.
Derek leaned down to press a soft kiss to his lips, then along his jaw, under his ear, down his neck. Derek gently worshiped Stiles’ body with soft kisses, unable to form words. Stiles unwound slightly under his mate’s touch, and finally reached out when he saw tears begin to fall. He cupped Derek’s cheek and tilted his face to look up and meet his eyes. The water-filled multi-colored wonders he fell in love with looked so full of shame and sadness and literal heartbreak. Stiles swore then and there he would never let his favorite eyes hold so much pain again.
“Stiles, I love you. You’re it for me. The only one I will ever want. I want to die and have lived my life by your side, through all of the pain and the laughter and the successes and failures because imagining anything else is too dark a thought to bear. And if you can never get pregnant, I will love you for the rest of my life. We can adopt, or get a surrogate, or foster, or never have kids. But whatever it is, as long as it’s we… I’m all in. Always. So don’t you ever ask that I leave you and find someone else. Don’t you dare leave me, Stiles Stilinski. You are mine, forever and always.”
Stiles nodded vigorously, tears shining in his own eyes, and leaned up to press his lips to his lover’s. Their breaths hiccup with sobs, but they don’t pull away.
Stiles eventually pulls Derek down to crush his body into the mattress, wrapping his arms around him.
“I love you. I love you. I love you so much, Derek Hale. I won’t leave you. I’m sorry. I won’t leave. I couldn’t leave you. I would lose so much of myself to leave. I’m sorry. We, together. Til the wheels fall off.”
They fell asleep like that, and for Stiles’ next heat, it was more romantic and love-making than it had ever been.
———
It took 3 more heats, 3 more tests, and eventually, the Stilinski-Hales started the conversation of surrogacy. Stiles was up, making some pancakes for breakfast, when Derek came down from his shower, and pressed up against his mate’s back, tucking his nose into the crook of his neck and pressing kisses where his lips landed. Stiles leaned back into the touch and groaned when Derek’s hips pressed against his ass.
“Morning, babe. Our breaking of the nightly fast is scheduled for 15 minutes from now and I bought new rasp- Der, I can’t reach the berries if you don’t let go.”
Derek only tightened his grip against Stiles’ squirming, taking a more deliberate breath.
“Der? I can barely breathe.What’s wrong?”
Derek turns Stiles around to face him, flicking off the stovetop as he goes. Stiles’ noise of protest cuts off when he meets his alpha’s eyes.
“Stiles, I think you should take a test.”
Stiles’ eyes widen, a question on his tongue that dies as Derek’s words register in his mind.
“Ok. I have some upstairs.”
Stiles leads Derek up to their shared bathroom, pulls a test out of the medicine cabinet.
The timer had been set and 2 minutes had passed. Stiles and Derek sit side by side on the floor against the wall, holding both hands and not saying a word. Stiles couldn’t speak. Derek wouldn’t have said anything about taking a test if he didn’t think there was an absolute possibility. He knew that. He’s standing right on the edge of having everything he ever wanted. In 15 seconds, he’ll know.
The timer goes off, but neither of them move. Not for the test, not to stop the buzzing, not a muscle twitch. Then, slowly, Derek turned his head to look at Stiles. Sti turned his so their eyes connected. A lifetime’s worth of love and support passed through that look… and then Stiles reached out, and picked up the test from the counter.
The positive test clatters to the floor and Stiles sticks his hands out in front of his face, trying to count his fingers through his tear-blurred vision. Derek shook with quiet tears before moving to kneel in front of his husband, taking Stiles’ hands into his own, smiling so big through his teary face.
“Babe, it’s real. You’re you. I’m me. This is real. It’s really positive. It’s positive, baby, I promise.”
Stiles’ body shakes as he tries to breathe normally again, taking in the pure happiness and excitement rolling off Derek, and the most brilliant smile he had ever witnessed on his face mixed with old and new tear tracks, making the whole sight slightly watery.
“You promise it’s real? I’m actually pregnant? We’re gonna have a baby? Are you sure? We did it?”
Derek’s hands moved up to cup his lover’s face, head shaking up and down, breaths hiccuping as he wiped away the tears under Stiles’ eyes.
“Yes, Mietek. I promise. We did it. You’re having our baby.”
Stiles surged forward as that last word left Derek’s mouth, crushing their lips together as the emotions set in and the sobs came faster. When it became too hard to breathe, they rested their foreheads together, and with one hand still cupping his love’s cheek, Derek dropped the other to rest over Stiles’ flat stomach, willing himself to feel with his hand the life growing in the body of his mate. Stiles laughed at whatever thought he was having and brought his own hand down to rest over Derek’s, and in a croaky whisper said, “hi baby”.
———
They waited until well past the minimum risk limit before planning an announcement. Stiles was on a scent suppressant that hid the pregnancy scent that blended with his own so deliciously it drove Derek crazy.
They invited the pack over for Sunday brunch, like always, and finished the meal with a walk in the preserve. Derek lead them to a small clearing, with dozens of trees that had carvings in them. The pack had been here before, every time someone was married, died, or brought into the pack. This is the living history of the Hale pack, instead of a family bible, they remember their pack through the forest. Each person had marked their names in the trees for one reason or another. The last time they were there was to add Cassidy Argent’s name to Allison and Isaac’s tree. The first Argent born into the Hale pack. Stiles felt like dancing on Kate’s grave and waving that bit of information in her face.
No one but Derek and Stiles knew why they were there. They gathered in a semi-circle around Derek and Stiles, who stood hand in hand. Scott asked why they were there, and without a word, Derek and Stiles turned and pressed their hands to the tree with their names on it. A deep red light flashed and in the bark of the tree appeared
“Talia Claudia Stilinski-Hale, Due June 2018”.
Scott was the first to be able and roared for the entire forest to hear. The pack surrounded the now crying dads-to-be, and when they parted, Noah came up to Stiles, tears running freely down his face. He cups one of Stiles’ cheeks, and one of Derek’s, looking between them both with the strongest proud dad smile he could muster. And promptly says the last thing you’d imagine to come from the Sheriff’s mouth:
“Fucking finally.”