The nausea had started a little while after they'd gone to Deaton's to get his memories of... that night back. The sudden rush of sensations long forgotten, the taste of fear in his mouth, losing feeling in his extremities; Isaac chocked it up to his body rejecting everything recent that had happened. The Alphas had done a bit of a number on his body, after all. Nausea was normal for a shock victim, he told himself. Nothing to worry about, he told himself, it'll be gone in a few days.
But there was a little voice in the back of his mind that told him no, do worry and no, it won't be gone in a few days. Go get help. Get Derek. Get Deaton. Get Scott. Tell someone. But Isaac wouldn't; besides, who would want to hear about his tummy ache when there was a demon wolf on the loose?
But lo and behold, the sickness did not retreat. It didn't even ebb- if anything, it had gotten worse since that night in the icy tub. Isaac had to be careful to not arouse suspicions; he left early in the morning, when he found he was most susceptible to being ill, and stayed away until he was sure the toxic smell of vomit and fear had worn off. At school, he had to tiptoe around Scott's nose that was trained to sniff out sickness. The Alphas were already the prime concern, why bother his pack with anything else?
Unfortunately, it wasn't his pack he needed to be worried about.
"Hey, is everything alright?"
Isaac was leaning against a locker, fighting off a wave of nausea with an accompanying headache, when Allison's concerned voice filled his thoughts. He spun around, one arm still supporting his weight.
"Why do you care?" he retorted rudely. He instantly regretted it, but anything to get her off his back. He turned his face back to the cool metal in hopes that she would go away along with his sickness.
Allison grabbed Isaac's shoulder and forced him to face her. "Hey," she said sternly, "I care because you're my friend, alright?" She gave him a look that a mother might give her son. "Now tell me what's wrong."
Her hand felt strong and reassuring on Isaac's arm and he met her gaze with tired eyes. The voice in the back of his mind told him to go for it; after all, werewolves didn't get sick. He needed someone else to know what was going on. Allison was right; they were friends to an extent. And she could then ask Scott, an aspiring vet, or her father, who knew as much there is know about werewolf lore.
Then the nausea kicked itself up a notch and Isaac had to bend over his stomach to cope. Allison caught him and held him tighter.
"I think," panted Isaac, "I think I'm sick."
The table in Deaton's office was no more comfortable than the tub of ice. It was cold and hard and it was too short for a person to lay on so Isaac's legs swung over the edge. The whole building smelled like other animals and cleaning supplies and it was making Isaac sick again.
As soon as she could, Allison had informed Scott of what Isacc had told her, Scott told Stiles, and Stiles finally passed the information on to Derek, and as soon as school was out, the whole team plus Lydia were headed to Deaton's office. Cora was unable to join them as she was undergoing job hunting and frankly nobody wanted Peter there. The pack sat out in the cramped waiting room while the vet looked Isaac over.
"Now, Isaac, I want you to close your eyes," Deaton lowered his voice to a calm hush, "and I want you to focus on the source of the sickness." Isaac did as he was told and shut his eyes, relaxing his body and doing a mental search for anything out of the ordinary. He started at his head, where there had been headaches for as long as the nausea, then moved to his chest and took deep, trying breaths in and out, then rested at his lower belly, where cramps had been setting in for a couple days.
As he did his search, Isaac reported everything out loud to Deaton, whom he could hear humming in interest. As soon as he mentioned the cramps in his abdomen, Deaton's humming stopped and the vet shifted on his feet. Isaac opened his eyes and saw that the vet was deep in thought.
"What?" the werewolf sat up on his elbows. "Is... is that bad? Are cramps bad?" Because they felt bad. Isaac just wanted to know what was wrong with him, get some medicine, and go home(well, to Derek's home, that the alpha had been so generous in sharing). But Deaton placed a hand on his shoulder and eased him back onto the table.
"For now, I don't know. I'm going to need a closer look." Isaac took a few more deep breaths as the vet lifted his shirt and began pressing his fingers into his hipbones and lower abdomen. He could hear Deaton's heartbeat begin to pound as his fingers worked harder into his tissue.
"Hey," Isaac exclaimed, grabbing Deaton's wrist, "that hurt!" He looked up at the vet who was, to Isaac's concern, looking back at him with a worried expression. Deaton had hit what felt like a soft spot at a low midpoint in-between his hips. A dull throb was still there like a warning.
The silence is the room was tangible as Deaton mentally processed all of the evidence Isaac had voluntarily and involuntarily given him. Isaac let go of the vet's wrist and stayed propped up on his elbows until a cramp panged in his belly and he lay back down.
"I'm going to need some things from you," said Deaton, donning latex gloves and handing Isaac a small plastic cup. "Just to be sure."
After a short trip to the bathroom, Isaac was subjected to more deep-tissue excavations and having blood drawn.
"Scott," Deaton called into the waiting room, "I'm going to need a little help in here."
As the vet and vet-to-be ran different tests, Isaac put his shirt back on and got off the cold table. He leaned against the back wall and wondered what could be wrong with him that Deaton needed to run all these tests.
"Dr. Deaton, I don't understand," Scott was holding a small vial of isaac's blood in one hand and a small white palette in the other, "why are you doing these tests? These are for-"
"Just trust me, Scott," replied Deaton, saturating a sample of the urine with powder and swirling it around. "These are just precautions. If none of them, then it will be for the better."
Isaac shifted on his feet nervously. "Are you guys gonna tell me exactly what kinds of tests you're doing over there?" It was getting late. He just wanted to go back to Derek's and sleep.
Scott looked over at Deaton, who shook his head in a warning. Scott then looked back at his friend and gave him a sympathetic look as if to apologize, then went back to working.
Tuning his hearing out to the waiting room, Isaac could hear Stiles's foot tapping impatiently, Lydia texting, and Allison talking to Derek.
"...Be fine," he heard her say in a comforting tone. "It's just a bug. He'll heal and this'll all be over."
"Werewolves don't get 'bugs'," Derek replied forcefully. Even from the next room, Isaac could hear the anxiety and frustration in his voice. "Never in my life or in my family has anyone ever gotten a 'bug.'" The alpha paused and when he next spoke there was a growl in his voice. "The Alpha pack did this. They did something to my beta."
There was a hint of vendetta in his voice and Scott looked back at Isaac as if he'd heard it, too.
At some point in the night, Isaac went back out into the waiting room. Allison went on a food run and everyone ate tacos, except for Isaac.
"Aren't you hungry?" Lydia asked, delicately wiping a piece of meat from her lip. "You didn't eat anything at lunch, either." Isaac shook his head and refrained from looking at anyone's food.
"I'm fine, thanks. I'd probably just throw it back up anyway."
At around 8:45, there was a small commotion in Deaton's office where, to those with werewolf hearing, it sounded like Scott was arguing with the vet over the result of one of the tests.
At 8:48, the arguing continued and it had risen to the point that even the humans could hear it now, but no one could make out explicitly what they were arguing about. Sometimes it sounded like they were arguing about the color blue and sometimes they were arguing about moon phases. Isaac just sat patiently and wished he were asleep.
At 9:00, Boyd went home and asked that someone give him the results tomorrow.
"It is getting late," Lydia remarked, checking the time on her phone. "I canceled a date for this, you know." She crossed her arms and legs in a huff. "I don't even know why I'm mixed up in all this crazy werewolf business anyway-"
"Yeah, well, no one asked you to come, alright?" Stiles exclaimed, nervous anger in his voice. He'd been quiet all night, chewing his nails and bouncing his legs. It seemed that the anxiety of the situation had affected him as well. Isaac observed as Lydia looked down at her knees and Stiles went back to worrying his fingers. Everyone it the room knew that there was more to this than a bug.
"Isaac, Derek." Dr. Deaton stood in the doorway to his office with his hands clasped in front of him. "I need to talk to you."
His tone was heavy and the two werewolves obeyed immediately. Soon it was just the three humans left in the waiting room.
Scott was leaning against the counter with a pitiful look on his face. He gave Isaac that apologetic look one more time and then turned to grab the test results.
"I can tell you right now that Isaac's not sick." The vet took the materials from Scott and laid them out on the examination table. There were two plastic sticks, a printed piece of paper, and a cup of blue liquid. "But I'm afraid the news is a little heavier than the flu."
"What did the Alphas do to him?" Derek asked, remaining calm for the time being. Deaton just motioned to the items on the table.
"Do you know what these are?"
The two wolves not in the clear looked over them. Isaac shook his head, but Derek pointed the plastic stick shaped like a digital thermometer.
"I'm fairly certain what that one is," he pointed to the piece of paper. "And I can also read. Now tell me, what is wrong with Isaac?"
Scott motioned to the first plastic stick. "This is a human pregnancy test," he explained, then moved on. "This is a test for a chemical called relaxin. This is a urine test for hCG, and this is a blood test for hCG and progesterone." He paused. "All of them are positive. And all of them are from you, Isaac."
There was a stunned silence in the room as Isaac processed the information. Derek clenched his fists and looked down, as if he'd already known what the answer was going to be. Both Deaton and Scott were gauging Isaac's reaction.
"So that means..." Isaac began, but lost the words.
"It means you're pregnant," Deaton finished for him.
