Stiles was buzzing around the kitchen. He had been an absolute nervous wreck from the minute he'd gotten home. "Dad!" he shouted. "Where's the Diet Coke?"

"You know I don't buy any of that diet crap. Besides, you don't even drink it," John responded.

"But, Dad, that's what Lydia drinks!" Stiles lamented like it was the end of the world.

John smiled and shook his head. "I think she'll be fine with regular Coke."

Stiles groaned dramatically and collapsed against the refrigerator. Isaac started giggling and Stiles glared at him, but there was no real malice in it. "Isaac, you can't bother us. This is really important. Lydia will be here any minute."

"I thought this was a group project," John teased.

"Yeah, and the rest of them, whatever. But Lydia will be here, in my house. You guys can't be embarrassing. Please, I'm begging you."

The doorbell rang and Stiles rushed around in a panic. He grabbed the bowl of chips and the plate of Bagel Bites and set them on the table before running to the door. However, it turned out to be a false alarm because the girl at the door was not Stiles' crush. "Oh, hey, Erica," Stiles greeted.

"Hi," Erica replied nervously and stepped inside. She was carrying bags full of art supplies and she started to spread them out on the table.

Isaac climbed up into one of the chairs, standing on it in order to see everything. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the colorful jars.

Erica gave him one of the containers. "It's paint. We're going to use it for our project."

Isaac's blue eyes were wide and his face lit up. "What's it do?" he asked.

Erica looked slightly taken aback but started to explain, "Well, you take on of these paintbrushes and you dip it in then you brush it on whatever you want to paint." She used the dry paintbrush to gently tickle the end of Isaac's nose. He giggled and she smiled kindly at him.

Scott arrived shortly after Erica, not bothering with knocking or ringing the doorbell. He helped himself to a soda before sitting down at the table. "Hey, buddy," he said to Isaac.

Isaac was suddenly shy and sat down in his chair, blushing and folding his hands together. "Hi, Scott," he said.

The doorbell rang and the last of their group arrived. Stiles opened the door with a wide grin, but soon his demeanor changed when he realized that Jackson was standing behind Lydia. The two of them came inside, the looks on their faces clearly saying that they couldn't believe they had to spend their evening with the present company.

The sheriff lingered until he saw that the kids were settled in and then he drifted off to his office. Stiles watched Lydia open her textbook and start scribbling in her notebook. He worked up the courage to ask her if she wanted anything, but he was ignored.

Isaac innocently interjected. "Stiles, can I have a pizza?"

Stiles smiled. He was glad at least one member of the group hadn't noticed Lydia's millionth rejection of anything Stiles had to offer. He checked the temperature and then put a few on a plate for Isaac. He caught Erica smiling at him, but she quickly looked away when their eyes met.

"I guess we should get started," Stiles said.

They started on their project, each of them taking a paintbrush and a Styrofoam ball to paint. Isaac was watching wistfully, obviously jealous that the older kids got to paint so Stiles pulled Isaac into his lap and held the child's tiny hand to guide him, letting him finish the part Stiles was working on. It slowed them down, but Isaac was having fun and that's all Stiles really cared about. He ignored Jackson's impatient huffing and puffing and Lydia's constant reminders that they needed to finish at some point.

The comfortable silence of the night was shattered when Erica started to have a seizure. They crowded around her and Stiles shouted for his dad. John rushed in, turning Erica on to her side and doing his best to keep her from injuring herself or anyone else as the seizure ran its course. Minutes ticked by agonizingly slow as they waited for her to resurface.

Once she had, the sheriff called her parents to come pick her up. She had moved to sit alone in the living room. It was obvious she was deeply embarrassed and John quickly followed after her to make sure she was alright. The rest of the group just stared at each other.

"We can do the rest of it at school," Stiles suggested. "I can finish the painting and bring it with me."

Jackson and Lydia jumped on the chance to escape and soon they were out the door, but Scott stayed behind. "That was scary, huh, Isaac?" Scott asked.

Isaac nodded and wiped at his eyes. "I don't like that," he said. "Why'd she do that?"

"She can't help it," Stiles explained. "You know how sometimes you have bad dreams?" Isaac nodded and Stiles continued. "It's kind of like that. Erica has seizures sometimes even though she doesn't want to, just like you have bad dreams."

Understanding dawned on the four-year-old and he raced away. The teenagers just shrugged at each other.

"I guess I'll head home if you're sure you don't want any help," Scott said.

Stiles nodded. "Yeah, there's not much left to do. I'll see you tomorrow."

Stiles glanced around the kitchen, feeling absolutely no motivation at all to clean up the mess they'd left. Instead he joined everyone in the living room. Isaac had his teddy bear in his hand and he was offering it to Erica. She smiled and took it. She looked so tired, like she was ready to collapse.

"I need some air," she said feebly.

"I'll sit outside with you," Stiles offered.

She didn't say no, so he followed her out to sit on the porch and wait for her parents. Isaac had insisted that she keep the teddy bear with her and she flipped it over in her hands, examining the worn out fur before. "I guess I kind of ruined our project," she said.

"No, not at all," Stiles replied quickly.

Erica sighed. "Your little brother is really sweet."

Stiles smiled. "Yeah, he's great."

She hesitated and then said, "I can see where he gets it."

It took Stiles a moment to register that a girl was actually complimenting him and of course by the time it registered, her mom's car had pulled up to the curb. She stood and he rushed to follow her. "Hey, do you think maybe I could call you or something?" he asked lamely. Was that even a thing people asked? He had no clue.

"Sure," she said.

Stiles stood there smiling like an idiot until the car was out of sight. He turned around and walked back up to the front door, bending to pick up Isaac's teddy bear along the way. He almost didn't want to go inside. He just wanted to sit out there all night and think about the way Erica's hair looked like gold in the moonlight.

When Stiles finally went inside, he saw that his dad had already started cleaning up. "Stiles, do you mind getting Isaac to bed?" John asked.

Stiles bent down and picked Isaac up. He lifted the small boy in the air and made plane noises as he zoomed them to Isaac's bedroom. Isaac insisted on dressing himself for bed and for the most part he did a good job, aside from trying to put his shirt on backwards. Stiles helped him brush his teeth and was cajoled into being an airplane one last time.

"Uh-oh, crash landing!" Stiles cried as he dropped Isaac onto the mattress.

Isaac's laughter turned into a yawn and he crawled under the covers. He was sleepily rubbing his eyes, but still found time to be nosy. "I like Erica. She's nice. Do you like her?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Do you wanna kiss her?"

Stiles laughed. "What would I wanna do that for?" he teased.

"Boys kiss girls," Isaac said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Stiles turned on Isaac's nightlight and pondered for a while. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

"Hey, Stiles?"

"What?"

Isaac pulled his covers up over his head. "What if a boy kissed a boy?"

Stiles smiled, amused and confused. "Well, that happens too."

"My dad said that's bad. He said its faggots."

Stiles winced at the word. "That's not a very nice thing to say."

"Why'd he say it for then?" Isaac peeked out from under the covers.

"Some people are mean," Stiles said. "It's not wrong for a boy to kiss a boy."

"Promise?"

Stiles smiled and kissed the top of Isaac's head. "I promise."

Stiles left the room, turning off the light. He'd put two and two together and he figured that Isaac had developed a crush on Scott, but that was an issue for another day. He had a late night ahead of him finishing the rest of the group project.

::::::::::::

In a turn of events, it wasn't Isaac that had a nightmare that night. John woke up in a cold sweat. He couldn't recall the details exactly, but he remembered the paralyzing fear of not being able to find his sons. It shook him up pretty badly and he wasn't ashamed of the fact that he checked on Stiles and Isaac before he went back to sleep.

:::::::::::::

The next morning in the Stilinski house was particularly hectic. The sheriff was working a day shift so not only did he have to get Stiles up and ready for school, he also had to get Isaac ready to go to the babysitter's. Neither of his boys were being cooperative, but they finally got out the door. So what if Isaac's hair was a wild cloud of curls and he only had one shoe on? At least they were on time.

"Don't forget to give this back to Scott," John said, handing the inhaler to Stiles. Scott was always leaving those things at the house by accident and John knew how expensive they could be.

John breathed a sigh of relief when he dropped Stiles off in front of the school. That was one less thing to worry about. Next, he dropped Isaac off at the babysitter's house. It was usually hit-or-miss. Some days Isaac went without a fuss, other days he didn't want to be left at Ms. Patterson's house and nothing would convince him. Luckily, Isaac was too sleepy to argue and he went straight into the living room and fell asleep on the couch.

When he returned to his patrol car, John sighed. Scott's inhaler was still sitting in the front seat. John put it in his pocket and after handing out a few tickets for traffic violations, he stopped and grabbed coffee for two and drove to the hospital. Luckily, Melissa wasn't busy.

"Hey, John. I'm surprised to see you. What's up?"

John handed her the Styrofoam cup and then reached into his pocket. "Scott left this at the house again."

Melissa sighed and smiled. She took the inhaler and put it in her pocket. "Kids, right?"

John nodded. "Yeah, they do know how to make ya crazy."

"It'd be nice to have a day off. Or even just an evening."

John wasn't really sure what made him think of it, but before he could come up with an excuse not to, he spoke. "I think on Friday we should have the boys babysit and we should go out to dinner and a movie, just the two of us." Suddenly, he was nervous. He felt like he was in high school again.

Just when John had convinced himself he'd made things permanently weird between them, Melissa responded. "That sounds great, John. I haven't done that sort of thing in a long time."

John smiled. "I haven't either. It'll be nice to have a night out without the kids to worry about."

There was a beep from behind the nurses' station and Melissa leaned over to check which room was calling. "I guess I'll see you Friday then," Melissa said before returning to work.

John's panic renewed. So she'd said yes. Was this a date? He replayed the conversation. It wasn't exactly clear, but he really hoped it was.