Chapter Text
It was a truth more or less universally acknowledged, that Mister Derek was the best.
Though the general population of Beacon Hills remained mostly unaware, this truth was indeed well fixed in the minds of Mr. Derek’s third grade class at Beacon Hills Elementary.
If prompted, each and every one of Mister Derek’s twenty students wouldn’t have hesitated to share all the wondrous and amazing things that their teacher was capable of.
Indeed, his long list of accolades included being in possession of the smartest brain, the prettiest beard, the biggest heart, and, of course, the softest and fluffiest fur.
According to the twelve human girls and boys, Mister Derek’s ability to shift into the prettiest, fluffiest, and snuggliest big wolf was certainly his most spectacular power of all.
Patrick, Elizabeth, Parwana, Juan, Kelsey, Tyrell, Aniyah, Jameson, Vihaan, Xiomara, Joshua, and Nevaeh could always be cheered up with a ride on a fluffy and strong wolf back, their faces lighting up with joy and happy squeals ringing through the room.
To the eight supernatural students in the class, Mister Derek’s shifting abilities weren’t nearly as spectacular, but that didn’t mean that they loved and admired him any less.
In a way, Mister Derek’s supernatural students probably loved him even more, because Mr. Derek never got mad if they had a supernatural oopsie during class.
For example, the little Kitsune Kotomi sometimes made the light go on and off when she blinked too much, but Mister Derek always smiled and switched the fuse back on when she accidentally made the power go out completely.
Jazia the Phoenix had an unfortunate tendency to set her math problems on fire when she got frustrated or concentrated too hard, but Mr. Derek always extinguished the fire and then helped her figure out the problem.
Joaquin the Acalica was a very emotional little weather fairy who could make the sun shine brighter when he was happy and who could make it rain in the middle of a room when he was upset, so whenever Joaquin was sad and made it rain, Mister Derek morphed into a full wolf and splashed in the puddles until Joaquin laughed and the rain went away.
Then there was the little Banshee Eileen, who sometimes talked a little too loudly and made the other kids’ ears hurt, but Mr. Derek was always really nice about reminding her to be careful with her voice.
Araceli the Chupacabra, meanwhile, occasionally felt a little insecure about the raw goat lunches her daddies packed for her to take to school, but instead of laughing at her or making an icky face, Mister Derek sometimes transformed into a wolf and tried a piece.
Nakoa the Naiad loved Derek’s wolf snuggles and also really appreciated that he was allowed to put his feet into a bucket of water during class so he wouldn’t get too dry, even though he got a little fidgety sometimes and got the floor wet when he splashed around excitedly.
Last but not least, the fairy-trickster identical twins Enobakhare and Ewansiha perhaps loved Mister Derek most of all, because he never made them feel like he expected them to be bad, like most people did when they heard that the twins’ mother was a trickster.
Of course, there was one person in Beacon Hills who loved Mister Derek even more than all of his munchkins combined.
That person was a very special guy named Stiles, a young deputy with big brown eyes, a cheeky grin, and a fondness for calling Mister Derek “Sourwolf.”
The kids didn’t quite understand why Deputy Stiles insisted on calling Mister Derek “Sourwolf”.
If anything, Mister Derek was obviously the fluffiest and kindest wolf, so they all agreed that the nickname “Sweetwolf” would have been much more appropriate.
However, the kids had decided to tolerate Deputy Stiles’ eccentricities, because Deputy Stiles made Mister Derek smile like he thought Stiles was the best thing on the planet.
He was obviously mistaken, since Mr. Derek was clearly the bestest of all the best and no one would ever compare, but the kids could grudgingly admit that anyone who made Mr. Derek smile so much came in at a very close second.
Although the third graders of Beacon Hills occasionally disagreed on similarly important matters such as which ice cream flavor was the best and which character on My Little Pony was the coolest, there were a few universal truths on which the kids were in one hundred percent agreement.
=================
“A baby!”
“Look, Mr. Derek, a baby!”
“Is it fluffy?”
“Does it breathe fire?”
“Does it sparkle in the sunlight?”
“That’s vampires, dummy, wolf cubs don’t sparkle!”
“Mr. Derek, Patrick called me a dummy!”
“Did not!”
“Mr. Derek, isn’t it the cutest?”
“Can I snuggle it, Mr. Derek?”
“Mr. Derek, Patrick just called me a dummy!”
“Does it have tiny little claws?”
“Does it howl at the moon?”
“He likes to howl at pretty much everything, actually,” Boyd explained, gently swaying back and forth to keep the eight-month old strapped to his chest in a baby carrier from doing exactly that.
“Patrick that wasn’t very nice, you need to apologize to Joaquin!” Derek added quickly, giving the little boy a stern look when Joaquin’s lips began to wobble in a way that usually signaled an upcoming rain shower.
“But Mr. Derek, my sister says vampires sparkle in the sun!” Patrick protested indignantly and Derek bit his lip, trying really hard to remain stern despite his numerous fond memories of the time when the Beacon Hills’ chapter of the United Vampires of America had spent a month dramatically picketing each showing of Twilight in front of the local theater.
At first, his big sister Laura had thought the whole thing had been completely hysterical.
Then, she’d learned about imprinting and had spontaneously decided to join the picket as well, dragging Derek along because she was the Alpha next in line and he’d been fifteen and still a little too small for his ears.
“I’m sure vampires sparkle if they put on glitter lotion, but that’s not the point right now. Go apologize to Joaquin,” Derek said firmly, raising an expectant eyebrow at the little troublemaker.
“M’sorry,” Patrick mumbled, shuffling over to Joaquin and nudging his shoulder without making eye contact.
“Okay!” Joaquin beamed, slinging his tiny but deceptively strong arms around his classmate and smacking an enthusiastic kiss on his cheek.
Patrick turned beet red and levelled Derek with a look that was both pleased and thoroughly mortified, but Derek just nodded encouragingly, for once decidedly grateful that Joaquin’s moods changed as quickly as the weather in Ireland.
With the crisis successfully averted, Derek turned his attention back to his best friend and his little godson, who was currently staring at the excited children with interest.
Boyd had stopped by the school to drop off some of his nana’s famous cookies for today’s Christmas party after recess, because Nana Boyd was a saint and had agreed to help out on short notice after Derek had gotten distracted the other night and burned the batch of cookies he’d been making.
It had been Stiles’ fault.
Obviously.
Derek grinned, internally shelving the memory of Stiles’ distraction techniques for further perusal and focusing back on Boyd and little Sawyer, reaching out to tickle the baby’s feet.
Sawyer squealed happily and leaned forward as far as he could, happily babbling “Da, da, da, da, da!” and making grabby hands for Derek with a big grin.
Derek did not have to be asked twice.
When Sawyer was happily snuggled against his chest and babbling contentedly, Derek turned back to his little munchkins, who were all staring at him with big grins.
“Mr. Derek! Are you and Deputy Stiles going to have a baby, too?” Parwana asked excitedly, prompting the rest of her classmates to fire off another round of questions as they talked all over each other.
“Do wolf babies have tails?”
“Is it going to be human or a wolf?”
“Are you going to take the baby to school?”
“Where do babies come from, Mr. Derek?”
“Is it going to be as fluffy as you?”
“Guys, guys, I can’t hear you if you all talk at the same time,” Derek laughed, gently bouncing Sawyer when the baby cooed in obvious agreement.
Nakoa raised his hand, looking at the baby with open curiosity.
“Mr. Derek? Is it true that babies grow in a shell? My brother says that people who want to have a baby have to dive all the way to the bottom of the lake and look for a shell! If the shell is big enough, you know that the baby is ready to come out!”
“That’s not true! Babies are made out of fire!” Jazia protested immediately, looking like she’d never heard something that preposterous in her life.
“Nuh-uh! Babies live in the sky and every time there’s a strike of lightening one of the babies travels down to the earth to meet its mommy and daddy!” Kotomi explained, her eyes narrowing when Eno and Ewan emphatically shook their heads.
“That’s not true either! Last year, our mommy ate some cookies with our daddy’s fairy dust on them and then she got a really big belly and then she had to go to the hospital and the doctors at the hospital cut open her belly and pulled out our baby-sister!” Eno explained, looking at Derek for approval as his twin nodded beside him.
Juan let out a gasp and whirled towards them, his voice flabbergasted as he exclaimed, “Your mommy ate your baby-sister?”
“No! Course not! She ate our daddy’s fairy dust and then our little sister grew in her tummy!” Ewan corrected, rolling his eyes impatiently.
“My baby brother grew in my mommy’s tummy, too! But I don’t think she ate any fairy dust!” Xiomara contributed, looking at Derek in confusion.
“My mommy grew a baby in her tummy, too! But she didn’t have her belly cut open, my sister came out of my mommy’s hoohah!”
“Mr. Derek? What’s a hoohah?”
Boyd chuckled, patting Derek’s shoulder with a muttered “Sorry.”
Derek shook his head with a wry smile, mentally going through the list of the kids’ parents and deciding he could get away with a very basic answer without getting an angry phone call, a written complaint, or an overzealous congregation picketing in front of his house.
He cleared his throat, waiting until he had all of his munchkins’ undivided attention.
“Do you remember how we talked about how everybody looks a little different on the outside and that’s really great, because everybody is special, and the world would be a very boring place if everybody looked the same?”
The kids nodded and Derek smiled fondly, gently bouncing the baby when Sawyer let out a little yawn.
“Good. I’m glad you remember, because that’s very important. Today, we’re going to learn that people can look different on the inside, too. Some people have a little pouch in their bellies where they can grow a baby. Other people have two tiny pouches in their privates where they can make a special fluid that you need to make a baby.”
He nodded towards Boyd, giving him a little wink.
“My friend Mr. Boyd is a person with two tiny pouches that make that special fluid and his wife Miss Erica is a person with a little pouch in her belly. When they decided to have a baby, Mr. Boyd gave Miss Erica some of his special fluid and then she grew a baby in her belly.”
He kissed the baby’s head, noticing that his godson had finally fallen asleep.
“That’s how Sawyer was born,” he concluded softly, smiling encouragingly at his students.
“Do you have any questions?”
Eileen raised her hand, staring at Derek’s belly curiously.
“Do you have a little pouch in your belly that can help you grow a baby?” she asked, her eyebrows drawing together in a frown when Derek shook his head.
“Does Deputy Stiles have a baby pouch in his belly?” she continued, her eyes widening when Derek shook his head once again.
“No, Sweetheart. Deputy Stiles doesn’t have a pouch in his belly either.”
Eileen gasped.
“But Mr. Derek! If neither of you has a baby pouch in your belly then that means you can’t have a baby!” she exclaimed, her lips already starting to wobble and her eyes wide with misery.
“Mr. Derek can’t have baby?”
Beside her, Joaquin immediately began sniffling and Derek could already see the cloud forming above his head, so he quickly handed Sawyer back to Boyd and crouched down, holding out his arms.
“Guys! Guys! Don’t be sad!” he exclaimed, smiling as brightly as he could and ruffling Joaquin’s hair when the little weather fairy slung his arms around his neck.
“It’s true, Deputy Stiles and I can’t grow a baby in our bellies, but if we want to have a baby someday, there are other ways to become parents.”
To his right, Araceli shyly raised her hand.
“Mr. Derek is right! My Daddy and Papa couldn’t grow a baby in their tummies either, but they really wanted to have a baby, so they made a wish and then they found a nice Chupacabra mommy who gave them one! That was me!”
Derek smiled encouragingly, reaching out his free arm to hug Araceli, too.
“That’s right, you guys. Araceli’s birth mommy loved her very much and wanted her to have a really great home, so she chose Araceli’s papa and daddy because she knew they were going to love her very, very much.”
The kids hummed thoughtfully, some staring at Derek in contemplation and others looking at Araceli in awe.
The little Chupacabra flushed bright red and Derek gently nuzzled her hair, whispering “Thank you for sharing, Sweetie,” into her ear and smiling in relief when Araceli beamed proudly.
“Are you going to wish for a baby, too, Mr. Derek?” Nevaeh asked excitedly and Derek shook his head with a smile, giving Araceli and Joaquin a gentle nudge and getting up after the kids had returned to their previous spots.
“Unfortunately, you have to save up a little bit of money until you can wish for a baby. Deputy Stiles and I will probably have to wait a couple of years. But until then, I have a lot of time for all of my munchkins here at school, so you don’t have to worry about me,” he said brightly, his gaze briefly flitting to Boyd as he gave him a barely noticeable shake of his head.
Boyd immediately schooled his expression and smiled brightly as well, but Derek could still pick up on the regret in his scent, his heart feeling a little heavy as he watched Boyd buckle a sleeping Sawyer back into the carrier.
Even though a lot of progress had been made over the course of the past twenty years, inter-species couples still encountered many obstacles if they wanted to adopt a child, as most agencies refused to allow a human child to be adopted into a household that included a shifter and shifters were only allowed to adopt within their own species, which made it even more difficult.
In truth, the rules made it almost impossible for Derek to adopt, because the number of Omega wolves had drastically decreased after hunting had become illegal and cubs born within a pack structure usually remained within the pack, even if the biological parents weren’t in the position to take care of them.
There was, of course, the option of surrogacy as well, but Derek’s shifter status made that complicated, too, and Derek also held out little hope that he and Stiles would ever be able to afford the costly process on a teacher and deputy salary.
His munchkins were far too young for any of those details, though, and so he just smiled brighter, holding up one of Nana Boyd’s Tupperware containers filled with her delicious cookies.
“What do you guys say? Would you like to have a pre-party cookie before recess?”
The kids’ cheers were so loud they startled Sawyer awake, and in between Boyd’s off-key attempts to sing his son a lullaby, the kids’ laughter, and cookie crumbs flying everywhere, Derek was far too busy to ponder sad thoughts any longer.
As he started setting up the tables for the party, he also didn’t notice a pair of bright eyes and identical mischievous grins.
=================
“Mr. Derek! You have to eat a cookie, too!”
The Christmas party was over, most kids had already been picked up, and Derek had just said goodbye to Vihaan and Aniyah when a little hand tugged at his shirt.
He turned around and smiled at Eno and Ewan, who were the last students in the class and were beaming up at him expectantly.
Eno grinned wider and nudged Ewan forward, who held up what appeared to be the last of Nana Boyd’s sugar cookies.
“Don’t you guys want to have the last one?” Derek asked, but the twins shook their heads immediately.
“No, Mr. Derek! You didn’t get to have any and that’s really unfair!” Eno explained and Ewan nodded emphatically, holding up the cookie with more insistence.
Derek smiled, shaking his head.
“That’s okay. Nana Boyd made those for the kids and I’m a grown-up. These cookies were for you.”
“But Mr. Derek! Sharing is caring!”
Two identical faces were pouting at him and Derek gave in, helpless under the onslaught of that much cuteness.
He chuckled and reached out to take the offering, flashing the kids a fond smile.
“That’s really considerate of you guys. Thank you for noticing.”
“Aren’t you going to eat it? It’s really good! You should eat it now! Cookies get yucky if you don’t eat them immediately!” Ewan exclaimed and Derek laughed, glancing down at the snowman shaped cookie covered in pink sugary glitter.
“Is that so?” he asked, biting his lip in amusement when the kids nodded immediately.
“Yes! You have to eat it right now!” Eno declared and Derek gave in, popping the cookie into his mouth and letting out an exaggerated hum.
“Hmmm. Nana Boyd makes the best cookies, doesn’t she?”
“That’s right, Mr. Derek!” the twins beamed, their eyes wide and their cheeks glowing with excitement as they watched Derek lick the remnants of the sugar sparkles from his fingers.
“Eno! Ewan! Are you guys ready? Say bye to Mr. Derek!”
Derek turned and waved at Mr. Amadou, who’d poked his head into the classroom and was grinning at his sons.
The boys nodded and waved at Derek excitedly, before rushing towards their father and almost barreling him over.
“Ooof! How many cookies did you guys have?” Mr. Amadou laughed, and the twins beamed up at him with conspiratorial smiles as Eno whispered “Many!”
Derek shook his head and laughed, flashing Mr. Amadou an apologetic grin.
The twins’ Aziza fairy father chuckled and smiled ruefully as he herded his sons out the door, and Derek’s smile widened when he heard the boys excitedly telling their father about their day in his mother tongue Fon, talking a mile a minute as per usual.
When the door had fallen shut behind them, Derek huffed out a laugh and collapsed onto his desk chair.
The Christmas party during the last week of school before the holidays was always a highlight of the year for him, but keeping twenty sugar-hyped, excited munchkins in line was definitely tiring, even for a werewolf.
Behind him, the door to the classroom opened again and Derek smiled, tilting his head up in anticipation and accepting the gentle kiss the newcomer pressed against his lips.
“Sorry that I’m late. I tried to get off work earlier, but Mrs. Johnson reported a sighting of a – and I quote – suspicious Grinch-like figure, so of course we had to go and make sure the tricksters over at Washington Lane hadn’t gotten into the egg nog again.”
“Did they?” Derek asked and Stiles snorted, shaking his head.
“Even better. It turned out that the werelion who lives across the street is having a little midlife crisis about turning gray and had a little mishap when he tried to dye his mane. Mrs. Johnson heard him roar in frustration and saw a furry green head pacing around the garden and jumped to the wrong conclusion.”
Derek laughed, getting up from his chair and grabbing his bag.
“Did you fix the crisis?”
Stiles grinned, taking Derek’s hand as they started heading towards the door.
“Obviously. After she had calmed down, Mrs. Johnson revealed that she used to work as a hairdresser and offered her assistance. When we left, they were already two glasses into the mulled wine and reminiscing about their glory days, so I think it turned out well for everyone involved.”
He kissed Derek’s cheek, interlinking their arms after Derek had locked the door.
“How was your party, Sourwolf?”
“Very loud, very sticky, and very jolly. I wish you could have come, the kids really missed you.”
Stiles winked.
“Just the kids?”
Derek rolled his eyes.
“Yes, Stiles. Just the kids.”
Stiles hummed contemplatively.
“Hmm. I guess I need to distract you some more tonight. Remind you of why I’m definitely worth missing.”
Derek was still rolling his eyes when Stiles’ captured his lips in another soft kiss.
=================
The Next Day
It was the last day of school before the holidays and Derek got to work a little earlier than usual.
Ever since a Sunday afternoon spent in bed with Stiles and trying not to tear up over Youtube video two years ago, Derek had decided that every Friday was a ‘special greeting’ day.
Each Friday, the kids lined up in a row and got to tap on a poster hanging next to Derek’s classroom door, telling him whether they wanted to be greeted with a hug, a dance, a fist-bump, a handshake, or a high five.
The kids loved the idea and Derek usually gave out a lot of hugs, except on special occasions such as the last day of school before the summer break, when the poster also offered the option of a ride on a furry wolf back and Derek just stayed shifted because he knew that all were going to choose the wolf.
Eno and Ewan usually went for the fist-bump or the high five, so Derek was a little surprised when both of them chose hug on the last day before the winter break.
Smiling, Derek opened his arms and the fairy-trickster twins both flung their tiny but strong arms around his midsection, hugging him like they hadn’t seen him in weeks and smushing their faces against his belly.
When the boys let go of him, both wore identical expressions of confusion, their brows furrowed as they stared at his belly.
Derek raised an eyebrow at them.
“Are you guys okay?” he asked, and Ewan bit his lip, sharing a quick glance with his twin.
“Everything’s awesome, Mr. Derek!” Eno decided, flashing Derek a big grin and tugging at Ewan’s hand as he dragged him into the classroom.
Derek shrugged and decided to let it go, his attention already demanded by Parwana, who tapped hug and then all but jumped into his arms.
Since it was the last day before Christmas, Derek had decided to do some last-minute craft projects with the kids so they could make some extra presents for their parents and grandparents and it was almost noon by the time he noticed that something was wrong.
He was bending over Kotomi’s table and helping her tie a bow for her gift when his belly gave out a painful twinge, not quite a full-blown cramp but painful enough to make him let out a little hiss.
“Mr. Derek? Did you poke yourself with the scissor?” Kotomi asked worriedly and Derek smiled down at her reassuringly, shaking his head and letting out a soft breath when the twinge of pain went away.
“I’m fine. That’s a really good job you did! Your grandma will be very proud of you!” he praised the little Kitsune and Kotomi beamed, her previous worry instantly forgotten.
Derek had just knelt down between Kelsey and Jazia’s tables to assist them when the pain returned, a little sharper this time and definitely a cramp now.
He bit his lip and then exhaled softly, trying not to let on that anything was out of the ordinary as he helped Jazia wrap her gift and instructed Kelsey how to tie her bow.
He’d just started heading over to Patrick and Joaquin’s table when the pain got worse, his stomach feeling like he’d been stabbed.
This time, he couldn’t muffle the agonized groan and when the next cramp hit, he gasped and bent over, both of his hands pressed against his stomach as the sharp pain morphed into a burning sensation that seemed to engulf his entire middle.
“Mr. Derek!”
“Mr. Derek, what’s wrong?”
“I’m fi...oh god!” Derek groaned, the reassurance dying on his lips when the next surge of pain almost brought him to his knees, one hand pressed against his stomach as he supported his weight on Joaquin’s table with the other.
The sound of thunder rumbled above, and Derek tried to smile at Joaquin, who was looking at him with wide, terrified eyes.
“I’m fine! Joaquin, I’m fine! I just ate something bad, I just...”
He couldn’t finish the sentence, the pain once again so bad that all he could do was groan and gasp.
“Mr. Derek!”
“Get...the...nurse!” Derek got out, squeezing his eyes shut and using all of his concentration to keep himself upright so he wouldn’t crumble to the floor and freak out his terrified students even more.
The door banged open as Jameson and Elizabeth trampled out of the room, while the rest of the kids surrounded Derek and talked all over each other, their voices going high in their panic as more thunder rumbled through the classroom.
“You’re going to be okay, Mr. Derek!”
“Don’t die, Mr. Derek!”
“Are you going to come back as a ghost if you die, Mr. Derek?“
“Please don’t become a ghost, Mr. Derek!”
Derek’s breath came out in harsh gasps as he opened his eyes with some difficulty, just in time to see Joaquin burst into tears as the first droplets of rain started falling in the classroom.
“I’m no-not going to die! I pro-promise! It’s just a stomachache! I’ll be fi-fine!” he gasped, trying to muster another smile as the rain started pouring.
In the hallway, Derek could hear the concerned murmuring of his colleagues and then the nurse was there, her nostrils fluttering as the fellow werewolf grabbed Derek’s arm and started draining his pain.
“Did you eat some Wolfswurz?” Nurse Hernandez asked, using the German term for wolfsbane so the supernatural kids in the class wouldn’t understand.
Derek shook his head, his teeth clicking together when the pain made his entire body shiver.
“N-no! Impo-possible!” he gasped, his fangs almost biting through his lips when he tried to keep in an agonized whine.
Nurse Hernandez nodded and checked his temperature, letting out a soft hiss and looking even more worried.
“You need to go to the hospital, Derek. You’re burning up!” she decided, hooking his arm across her shoulders to help him stay upright when Derek’s knees began to buckle.
“Is Mr. Derek going to be alright?”
“Please be alright, Mr. Derek!”
Derek tried to smile and failed miserably, his heart twisting almost as badly as his stomach when he saw the tears in the kids’ eyes.
Across the room, Eno and Ewan were staring at him in horror, their faces ashen and their hands clasped tightly together.
“Please don’t die, Mr. Derek!” Eno whispered and Ewan let out a sob, gripping his twin’s hand tighter as he choked out “We’re sorry!”
“I’ll be okay!” Derek assured them, not allowing his own fear to overtake him until he was safely out of earshot and one of his colleagues had rushed into his classroom to take over and calm the kids.
“Eliza, what’s happening to me?” he gasped, his stomach cramping so badly he could barely stay upright despite the other werewolf’s tight grip.
“I don’t know. We’re going to figure it out though. You’re going to be fine, Derek. Just breathe,” Eliza said calmly, her voice without a trace of the worry that Derek could sense in her smell.
“Don’t call Stiles, alright? He’ll worry and...”
“Not a chance, Derek,” Eliza cut him off, all but carrying him the rest of the way to her car.
By the time they got to the hospital, Stiles was already waiting in front of the entrance, his face pale and his eyes wide with fear as he took over and supported Derek’s weight.
“Derek! What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know,” Derek whimpered, burying his face into the crook of Stiles’ neck and trying to calm himself through his boyfriend’s soothing scent.
His stomach was still burning with pain when Melissa hurried into the examination room, followed by the werewolf specialist on the hospital staff.
“What does the pain feel like, Mr. Hale?” Doctor Grimm asked, his veins turning black as he took a little of Derek’s pain.
“Like...like I’m getting stabbed. And burned. And torn in half. All of that,” Derek croaked, squeezing Stiles’ hand tightly as Doctor Grimm placed his hands on his stomach and started examining him.
“What’s wrong with him? Can you fix this?” Stiles exclaimed, his voice tight with fear as Doctor Grimm let out a confused sound and frowned.
“I don’t think...there’s something...this doesn’t feel right at all,” the doctor said, turning to Melissa and adding, “Please get the ultrasound.”
Stiles’ grip on Derek’s hand tightened.
“Ultrasound? Why? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Doctor Grimm admitted, placing his palm on Derek’s exposed stomach and taking more of his pain.
To his relief, Derek could actually feel the effect of the pain drain this time and he was breathing almost normally when Melissa wheeled in the ultrasound machine, his stomach still uncomfortably tight but no longer feeling like he was going to burn from the inside out.
Doctor Grimm motioned for him to roll up his shirt and squeezed a dollop of cool gel on his stomach, his brows furrowed in concentration as he placed the ultrasound wand on Derek’s abdomen and stared at the screen.
“Huh.”
“Huh? What does huh mean?” Stiles asked frantically, but Derek wasn’t paying any attention to him, focusing instead on the doctor’s rapid heartbeat and the confusion and shock in his scent.
“Doctor Grimm? What’s wrong with me? What can you see?”
Doctor Grimm frowned.
“Mr. Hale ... this is going to sound like a strange question but ... have you by any chance been dabbling with fertility spells, lately?”
“What?” Stiles exclaimed and Derek pushed himself up on his elbows, the pain now almost completely gone but his anxiety spiking to unprecedented levels.
“Fertility spells? Of course not! Why would you even ask me that?”
“Are you absolutely sure? Is there a possibility that you might have had an encounter with a magical creature in recent weeks?”
Derek frowned.
“I teach an integrated third grade class over at the Elementary school. Almost a third of our students are magical in some form or another!”
Doctor Grimm hummed skeptically, tapping a finger against the ultrasound screen.
“No, I doubt that a third grader would have the magical mojo to make something like this possible. Do you see this?”
Derek squinted, staring at the screen uncomprehendingly.
“What am I supposed to see?”
Doctor Grimm cleared his throat.
“Well, Mr. Hale. I’m not sure why or how, but it appears that you were experiencing pain because your body has recently grown a uterus.”
“Say what now?” Stiles exclaimed, his mouth opening wide in his shock.
Derek gasped, pushing himself all the way upright and staring at his belly in stunned confusion.
“My body did ... what? What are you ... how is that ... why would I ... what?”
“I must admit, I’m baffled,” Doctor Grimm replied, placing the ultrasound wand on Derek’s abdomen again and pressing down gently.
“No. This is definitely a uterus. Mr. Hale, are you absolutely sure you didn’t accidentally perform a fertility spell on yourself in the past couple of days?”
“In what universe does one accidentally perform a fertility spell on oneself?” Derek snapped, sharing a panicked look with Stiles when his boyfriend shook his head rapidly.
“Besides, even if he had performed such a spell, why would he have grown a..uh...a uterus? Shouldn’t a fertility spell have given him...hell, I don’t know, faster swimmers or something? This doesn’t make sense!” Stiles exclaimed, staring at the doctor in agitation.
Doctor Grimm shrugged but before Stiles could continue, Melissa poked her head into the exam room again, looking a little stunned and a lot sympathetic.
“Uh...Doctor Grimm? Stiles? Derek, honey? There’s someone out here who might have an explanation.”
“What? Who?” Stiles exclaimed and Derek blinked, closing his eyes and focusing on the voices in the hallway, his confusion growing when he heard muffled whispering in Fon and recognized Eno and Ewan’s voices.
“What are my students doing here?” Derek asked, swinging his legs over the exam bed and accepting the paper towel Doctor Grimm was handing him to wipe off the gel on his belly.
When he turned towards the door, a very apologetic looking Mr. and Mrs. Amadou were staring back at him, each of them holding on to a teary eyed and very guilty looking twin.
“Mr. Hale? Deputy Stilinski? May we come in? I’m afraid we have some explaining to do,” Mrs. Amadou said hesitantly, her lips twisting into a slight grimace when she glanced at the still image on the ultrasound machine.
“What are you guys doing here?” Derek asked, blinking in surprise when Eno and Ewan tore themselves from their parents’ grip and all but flung themselves at him.
“We’re so sorry Mr. Derek!” Eno wailed, clinging to his neck and sobbing bitterly.
“We didn’t know it was going to be like this!” Ewan hiccuped, his face pressed against Derek’s chest and his shoulders shaking with his sobs.
“We just wanted...we just wanted...we just wanted to make your wish come true!”
“Wish? What are you guys talking about? What did you do?” Derek asked, frowning down at them in confusion.
“The co-cookie!” Eno sobbed, pulling back and looking absolutely miserable.
“Our Daddy always says that if fairies really, really, really concentrate then...then...then we can make a wish come true! We just wanted to help!” he explained as more tears rolled down his cheeks.
Across the room, Mrs. Amadou cleared her throat again.
“We are so sorry, but I’m afraid my husband and I are partly to blame, Mr. Hale. You see...when I got pregnant with the twins’ baby-sister last year the boys had a lot of questions and...well...we thought that seven years old was a bit too young for the sex talk and so we...uhm...came up with an alternative explanation.”
Mr. Amadou nodded, giving Derek another apologetic glance.
“My wife really loves cookies, so I told my sons I’d sprinkled some of my fairy dust onto a cookie and gave it to her and then she ate it and that’s how we made the new baby. I’m afraid my sons took that idea and ran with it.”
“What do you mean, why...oh. Oh. But that...what?” Derek exclaimed, the image of Ewan holding up a sugar cookie with pink sugar sparkles suddenly clear in his mind.
Mr. Amadou nodded again, looking very uncomfortable.
“Yes. I’m afraid my sons tapped into their combined Aziza and trickster power yesterday and somehow figured out a way to enchant the cookie they gave you with a fertility spell. Specifically, a spell intended to give you a baby pouch. At least that’s how they explained it to us earlier.”
“A baby pouch,” Derek whispered, his eyes widening as he stared down at the terribly guilty looking twins in his arms.
“Fuck me!” Stiles whispered behind him and Derek shot him a quick glance, hissing “Language!” and feeling like he’d just entered the twilight zone and rented a nice little apartment there.
“Don’t be mad, Mr. Derek!” Ewan begged, tugging at his shirt to get his attention and clearly so distraught that he didn’t even have time to gasp over the forbidden word.
“We just did it because you looked so sad when you said you couldn’t have a baby and we just wanted to help!” Eno added, his lips wobbling again.
The boys were barely able to meet Derek’s eye, the guilt and misery wafting off of both of them in waves.
Derek swallowed, trying to stay calm as the truth of what had happened began sinking in.
“I...I’m not mad. I promise. You shouldn't have done this, but I know you meant well. I'm not mad at you guys."
He took a deep breath, turning towards the twins' parents.
"Would it...would it work?"
Behind him, Stiles gasped and Derek grasped for his hand, squeezing it tightly as Mr. and Mrs. Amadou shared a thoughtful glance before nodding in unison.
“Yes. The boys’ magic has steadily gotten stronger in the past two years and it is indeed very likely that it would work. If you wanted...my husband can undo the spell, if that’s what you want, but he could also reinforce it to make sure. But only if that’s what you want.”
Derek blinked, staring down at his stomach again.
“Huh.”
“Could you give us a minute?” Stiles asked, his voice calm but his heartbeat hammering rapidly as he placed a comforting hand on Derek’s shoulder.
“I think my boyfriend and I need a minute, here.”
“Of course,” Mrs. Amadou said politely, turning to the twins and giving them as a stern look.
“Enobakhare! Ewansiha! Come on! Give Mr. Derek some space!”
The twins looked like they wanted to protest, but Derek nodded at them, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible as he said, “Boys. Please.”
When the door had shut behind everyone and they were alone, Stiles let out a long breath through pursed lips.
“Wow.”
“I know,” Derek agreed, rubbing a hand across his face and placing his palm on his belly, still not quite sure he hadn’t dreamt the past couple of minutes.
After a moment’s hesitation, Stiles’ hand joined his.
“Are you okay now? You’re not still in pain, are you? Seeing you like this was...you’re okay now, right?”
“I’m fine,” Derek replied, figuring that it was only partly a lie.
He looked down at his belly again, still feeling completely shocked and steamrolled ... but also hesitantly hopeful.
“Stiles. Do you realize what this could mean?”
“Yeah,” Stiles said solemnly, wrapping his arm around Derek’s shoulder and resting their foreheads together.
“You know the chances of us ever being approved for an adoption are virtually non-existent, right?” Derek asked quietly and Stiles nodded, pressing a soft kiss to his temple.
“Yeah. I know. The twenty agencies we contacted in the past two years made that pretty damn clear to us.”
He pulled back a little, his eyes on Derek warm and full of hesitance.
“Are you...would you really want to go through with this though? I mean...how do we know it wouldn’t hurt you?”
Derek shrugged, nodding towards the closed door.
“You heard them. If Mr. Amadou can strengthen whatever the boys did, then maybe it would...I think I would be fine.”
He bit his lip, cupping Stiles’ cheek.
“Do you want me to do this? I know we’ve always said we wanted kids, but...now that it seems like it could actually happen I just...you still want this, right? With me?”
“I want this, Derek. So much!” Stiles said fervently, leaning forward to kiss him a little desperately.
“I definitely want this. But this is a lot to ask of you. If you didn’t want to do this, I wouldn’t be upset. If you want to undo the spell, I’d be one hundred percent behind you! You know that, right?”
“I do. But I think...I want to do this.”
He smiled, covering Stiles’ hand on his stomach and pressing down gently.
“I want this. I really, really want this.”
Stiles nodded, swallowing heavily and closing his eyes.
When he opened them again, they were bright and brimming with tears.
“We’re really going to have a baby?”
Derek smiled, pulling him in for another kiss.
“Yes. We’re going to have a baby.”
================
5 Months Later
On the day that Mr. Derek’s class graduated third grade, the kids still upheld the universal truth that he was the absolute bestest.
He was still in possession of the smartest brain, the prettiest beard, the biggest heart, and the silkiest, softest fur, which was shinier and smoother than ever and gave him an almost ethereal glow when he shifted into his full wolf form.
However, the best and most amazing thing about Mr. Derek was his tummy, which was no longer flat but getting bigger and rounder every day and sometimes moved and jumped all on its own like it was magical.
The kids understood that there had been a little bit of magic involved, of course, but they were far more interested in whether the two little babies in Mr. Derek’s belly made his tummy jump because they were having hiccups or because they were trying to play soccer again.
Though the kids had yet to agree on which names would be the bestest and coolest and all around awesomest for Mr. Derek’s little babies, they were one hundred percent convinced that Mr. Derek and Deputy Stiles’ son and daughter were going to be the cutest, prettiest, and bestest babies in the whole world.
It was, after all, a universal truth.