The whole house awakens to the sound of retching echoing from the bathroom. Derek knocks on the door.
"Please leave me alone," Stiles groans. Derek sits down outside the door and waits. The pack files by on their way downstairs. He waves them on.
Stiles flushes the toilet and turns the faucet on. Derek hears him put his hand on the door knob, but the next thing he hears is the second wave of nausea hit.
"Can I get you anything?" Derek just wants to do something to help.
"No…" Stiles whines. After a few more minutes Stiles unlocks the door. Derek hurries to stand up. Stiles opens the door and leans against the frame. "Do I look as green as I feel?"
Derek walks him back to the bedroom. He helps him into bed and kisses his forehead. "Try to go back to sleep." Derek turns out the light and goes down to the kitchen to be with the pack.
…
~1 week ago~
Everyone is crowded around the kitchen island. Stiles has been back for a whole day.
"So, how did this happen exactly?" asks Scott. Stiles slides the book over to him.
"Werewolves are sexist. Turns out, hey!, the alpha female actually has to be a female." Stiles is clearly back to his old self now.
"So, being a shape shifter, his shape shifted," adds Derek.
"Not completely, thank God. I seriously would have murdered you."
"But you're still a guy." Scott, as usual, is really confused. Jackson leans over and points to a picture of a wolf.
"When the time comes, whoa, that sounds weird; anyway, that's what I'll look like. I'll, like, fully wolf out, tail and all."
"So, what'll the kid look like?" Scott says horror seeping onto his face.
"No one knows," Stiles actually laughs. "you see, a wolf-mom…"
"She wolf," supplies Lydia.
"… is so protective, she finds a spot off by herself and won't let anyone near her."
Derek interjects, "When the pack can see the child, it looks like a human. So does the… she wolf." Lydia smiles.
"So the question is- does it come out looking like a wolf and change, or is it human all along." Stiles waves his hands mysteriously.
"Why can't the mother just tell what it's like afterward?" Allison asks.
"This scenario only happens to male alpha female werewolves. For anyone else it's just a normal birth. Since it's not normal," Derek continues, "it completely exhausts both the body and the mind of the mother. They don't remember any small details afterward."
"Small details?!" Scott shouts. "What your kid looks like –dog or human- is a small detail?!"
"It's not really that big of a deal," huffs Jackson.
"You could tape it," Scott offers. The whole group groans.
"Eww! You want to watch your naked, male, best friend give birth?" Stiles gags out.
"You'll have fur!"
The whole group laughs. Then they quiet down and don't speak for a while. Lydia breaks the silence.
"Is it bad that I'm excited?"
Stiles rubs his hands over his head. He groans, "I'm kinda excited, too." Everyone smiles. They now know that it's okay to be happy about it.
"You won't be excited when the morning sickness hits," smiles Allison.
"Yeah right. My stomach's made of solid steel!"
…
~present~
The toilet flushes upstairs.