Chapter Text
“Scott!” Stiles yelled in a hushed whisper into the phone that was tucked between his shoulder and his ear.
“When are you gonna get your furry butt over here with the diapers?" He listened to his befuddled best friend on the phone. Said best friend was having a hard time navigating the baby care aisle.
"As soon as I can, I promise. Stiles, there are a LOT of types of diapers here. They are all different sizes!"
"Really not caring at all right now man. Just grab a package and go. I am getting tired of getting peed on!"
They had run out of the small pack of diapers they had luckily found at a gas station near the border. While Stiles still had a decent supply of baby formula from the same store, and one clean bottle ready for the next feeding, he was not so fortunate on the butt-covering department.
"Okay, okay. Right. Umm...Pampers or Huggies?"
Stiles stared deadpanned at the receiver. "Dude, really? Do you think I'm an expert on diapers now? As long as it absorbs baby leakage, I really don't care!"
"Fine, alright. Babies like hugs, so I'll go with Huggies."
"Great! Wondeful! You get the Best-Uncle Award! Now get over here pronto, buddy! I have a very distressed little lady wolf in my arms.”
Instead of taking Stiles' comment for the sarcasm that it was, Scott smiled to himself. "Wow, I am kind of a uncle now. That is so cool! Be there in a few."
After Scott hung up, Stiles continued to rock and gently bounce the tiny baby girl in his arms. His heart went out to the poor little thing. When they found her the day before in Mexico, she wasn’t technically alive.
After all of the chaos with the Dead Pool, when Braeden skipped town to settle her business with the Calaveras family, they were not sure they were going to hear back from her anytime soon. Imagine their surprise when she called them a week later. She told them that they needed to come back to the ghost town they found Derek in, and right away. A little wary, he, Scott and Lydia made the trek. When Scott asked if this had anything to do with Derek, she had said, “Yes”. However, when Scott said that he would call Derek to let him know, Braeden insisted that he was not to come with them. Stiles believed it was too much of a coincidence that Braeden asked them to go back to Mexico the exact same week Derek went off to visit Cora.
What they came to find in the ruins would haunt Stiles for the rest of his life. Before the trio could lay eyes on what Braeden wanted them to see, Lydia had grabbed both boys by the arm in an iron grip.
“They…they took her. Kate and someone else took her body. She was buried, but they took her here, and did something to her body. Oh God.”
Looking into the hole in the wall, wrapped in vines, was the body of a baby. A dead baby.
Stiles had resisted hurling as Scott whimpered and angrily questioned why somebody would do this, and who she was.
Lydia, however, was the interesting one. She tilted her head, and kept muttering that the body didn’t match the image of the woman that was talking to her.
“That would make sense, since that right there, is Laura Hale’s body.”
Stiles and Scott’s heads had collectively snapped over in shock towards Braeden.
Stiles had pointed to the sad little infant. “That? That’s Laura Hale?!”
Scott looked bewilderingly between the infant, Braeden, and Stiles.
“But, no, it can’t be! Laura was cut in half. That baby in not, you know, in two?!”
Braeden had gone on to explain what she knew. Somehow Kate had stolen Laura’s body, and brought it back, presumably, when she kidnapped Derek. It was believed that she thought that if she gave Laura’s body the same de-aging treatment she gave her alive little brother, she could drain whatever little power she could out of the marrow of her bones. The process, like an eraser, actually formed the tissue back together.
The process seemed to have worked because instead of the adult female Scott happened upon in the woods, a baby was laid before them.
Scott, being the good Alpha and decent human being that he was, decided to bring her body back to Beacon Hills, and give her a proper burial.
Stiles, the kinda-decent-human being, agreed with his best friend. However, he was not looking forward to seeing Derek’s face when he found out that Kate Argent, once again, did something to a member of his family.
Especially Laura.
Because like hell he wasn’t going to tell Derek about the whole ordeal, no matter what Braeden said, or what Scott promised. Scott was the one that promised, not Stiles, nor Lydia.
He knew his strawberry blonde friend would back him up on that. Well, if she wasn’t so busy...you know....conversing with the dead. Presumably Laura Hale herself.
It kind of hurt Stiles' brain trying to process that.
“Stiles,” Lydia said all of the sudden, sounding perplexed, “she says that she…needs you to help her. She says that she can see you, and that you shine like a beacon. Touch her.”
If questioned years later, Stiles could not tell what made him do it. He was a squeamish kid, that was for sure. Hearing Lydia speaking the disembodied-Laura’s request, about needed his help of all people…
He never really knew Laura Hale. He briefly remembered her around town, and had once spied on one lone picture Derek kept tucked in his wallet. He was not sure what she really wanted from him. He was just a gangly human guy. Point was, besides feeling remorse for the baby before him, and guilt from digging her up with Scott back home, Stiles had never come in contact with the woman. Why was she talking to him? What could he do?
He did know, though, that whatever he could do, he would to the best of his ability. Laura had meant the world to the man that he had been pining over for the good part of two years, and he would do anything for Derek Hale.
As if in a trance, reached out to touched the chilled skin.
The next thing he knew, he felt an electric spark that shocked his hand…and heard the wail of a healthy and very much alive baby werewolf.
According to Deaton, (via phone call), he explained that Stiles' “spark” was all that was needed to jump start the life in the newly tiny baby body of little Laura. Like in an episode of Doctor Who, Stiles played the part of Donna Noble and brought metacrisis!Laura to life.
Also according to Deaton, unlike Derek, who had been alive when he had been de-aged, Laura would not be turning back into an adult. She would have to grow up all over again.
“It is a miracle that she is alive at all. Bring her in for a checkup." Deaton paused for a second before carrying on, "Stiles, I believe I misjudged how powerful your magic has grown lately. While it turned out good for Laura, it could get very dangerous. Both of you come in first thing Monday morning.”
That explained the baby werewolf Stiles had wrapped up in one of his flannel shirts.
So why was Stiles on baby duty in the first place?
Lydia helpfully explain, as Scott pushed the wailing girl back into Stiles’ tired arms like a hot potato when they reached the Jeep.
“Stiles, you literally brought her into the world with a piece of yourself. You were the first person she saw and scented on when you picked her up. What does that tell you?”
Stiles eyes widened.
“Oh God, she thinks I’m her Mom!”
Lydia shook her head, as she motioned for him to sit in the back of the Jeep with the happier baby, taking the keys to drive.
“She sees you as her parent. That is why she doesn’t want to be held by anyone else.”
So hold her he did. Since they didn’t have a car seat, he held her all the way back into the States. While he had to put her down to do things like eat and use the bathroom, or pass her off occasionally to Scott, Lydia, and a bewildered Kira when they got back to town, Stiles had been crowned Laura’s keeper. Things would be reassessed when they talked to Deaton
…and Derek.
Fixing the bottle, Stiles sat by the window with little Laura. Fitting the nipple to her tiny mouth, Laura adorably attacked her food like... well...like a baby wolf.
Stiles eyes softened as he ran his finger down her downy cheek. It had only been a day. One freaking day, and his heart was lost. He had slept on the couch in his living room, hand draped over the laundry hamper/makeshift crib, not baring the idea that she would wake up feeling alone and scared for even a second.
Logically, he knew that this was a de-aged Laura Hale. He knew that the infant in his arms was Derek and Cora’ older sister. He knew that...but it didn’t seem to matter.
The facts didn’t seem to stop his heart from getting quickly attached.
Baby Laura might have duckling imprinted on him as her parent, but Stiles was just as in deep as she was. Scott could see it, and kept shooting his friend fuzzy yet worried glances.
After all, how was Derek going to take that not only was his sister alive again, a baby that wouldn’t remember him…and that Stiles was now her Dad?