I don't own Teen Wolf or any of the characters in the series, I'm just borrowing them from their respective owners to play with a little and I promise to give them back when I'm done. No copyright infringement is intended and I don't make any money from writing fanfiction.

In sickness and health

Leia is the cause of an early wakeup call and Stiles needs to rise the occasion and take care of the whole Hale family…

"Stiles! Stiles! Leia is sick!" Laura's voice pulled him away from his (very) pleasant dreams (about Derek) and had reality come crashing down over him when the covers were brutally yanked from his body. Stiles stumbled along like a zombie, Laura pulling at his hand frantically and groaned when he saw the large puddle of vomit on the floor in the hallway. Great, if it wasn't the kid throwing up over his shoes, then it was the dog. Just lovely. He blearily eyed the whole mess for a moment before rolling up his sleeves and getting to work. While he cleaned the mess, Laura kept petting and fretting over the small dog who seemed to be rather enjoying the attention, and when he'd put the mop away he took a moment to contemplate the situation. Leia seemed fine for the moment, wagging her tail and demanding more cuddles, but he wasn't really sure that she wouldn't be sick again and he'd never forgive himself if it turned out to be something more serious than a bad stomach and he hadn't had her properly checked over by a vet. Having made up his mind at last he picked up the phone and dialled a very familiar number.

"What?" Scott barked and Stiles winced a little at his tone of voice, not to mention the volume.

"Scotty, my man!" he started, trying to ease up on the tension a bit but Scott was having none of it and brusquely interrupted.

"What. Do. You. Want?" he growled, in a fairly good impression of Derek, and Stiles decided that he'd better get straight to the point, especially since he knew that Scott had come back late last night from a meeting with a potential employee.

"Leia's been sick, can you check her out? I know it's early and everything but please? She probably just ate something bad but if it's something else…" Stiles swallowed loudly. "I'd never be able to look Laura in the eyes again if I didn't at least get a vet to check Leia out and you're like our resident super vet so… Please?"

"I'll be there" Scott promised.

::

By the time that Scott arrived, Stiles was doing his best to calm an increasingly worried Laura. He may not have wanted to admit it but he was quite worried himself.

"Why is she worse?" he demanded to know and Scott raised an eyebrow at him. Stiles took the hint and shut up so that Scott could examine Leia in peace and he concentrated on gently rocking Laura who was sitting on his lap and whimpered quietly.

"Has she eaten anything today?" Scott asked, frowning slightly. Both Laura and Stiles shook their heads. The food bowl had been untouched and the normally cheerful and energetic little dog was now passive and didn't seem to be interested in what was going on around her. When Scott ran his hands carefully over her belly she let out a high pitched yelp and ineffectively tried to scramble away from him. Scott shook his head slightly and looked over at Stiles.

"I think we should take her to the clinic, we might need a couple of x-ray images."

::

As soon as Derek could, he made his way to the clinic and found Stiles and Laura sleeping on a chair in the waiting room. The sight had him stopping in the doorway to exhale slowly, calming himself down so that he could enter quietly instead of just barging in there and waking both of them up. Between the early morning that they'd had and all the anxiety as Leia went through the surgery they really needed all the rest they could get. He walked closer carefully and sat down next to them, slinging an arm over Stiles' shoulders and rubbing his cheek against Laura's head.

"Hey, you" Stiles mumbled sleepily and Derek moved even closer when he realized that Stiles was awake, or at least awake-ish. "You okay?"

"Not… not really" Derek admitted and Stiles shifted Laura slightly to free one of his arms.

"You know it's not your fault, right?" he asked and Derek looked away. "Hey! I mean it" Stiles continued, cupping his jaw and gently forcing Derek to look at him. "It could just as easily have been me who made that mistake, or anyone else that was there that night. Don't beat yourself up about it. It was an accident."

Derek still felt guilty. He might not have meant to, but it was still he who'd forgotten the leftovers from their pack barbecue in a place where Leia had access to them, resulting in an emergency surgery to remove the chicken bones that she should never have eaten, before they did more damage to her stomach. If only he'd…

"Hey!" Stiles poked him in the arm to get his attention. "If you're way off somewhere in dark Derek-land, thinking about how worthless you are and how you only hurt those you love, then I'm going to stop you right fucking there."

"Swear jar" Laura said, sleepily and disapproving at the same time and Stiles winced. He'd not thought that she'd be awake.

"Sure, as soon as we get home" he promised. "I need to talk to your daddy for a minute, why don't you go and check on Leia with Scott?" he suggested. "I bet she'll wake up anytime now." Laura nodded before stretching and heading off to find Scott, leaving the two of them alone. Derek opened his mouth to apologize but before he even had time to say anything Stiles interrupted him.

"It was an accident. A stupid, idiotic accident that could have happened to anybody, and this time it happened to be you. Hey, newsflash, you're human, oh well you're not but that's not the point, goddamnit, what I mean is that everyone, even you, make mistakes. Just as easily could have been me who forgot the chicken. But it was you this time, and hey, newsflash again, no one hates you because of it." Stiles explosively inhaled before setting off again. "Shit happens. This happened. We're lucky that it wasn't worse and that she'll make a full recovery and it'll probably be ages until you serve chicken on a barbecue again, if that ever happens, but the most important thing here is that no one hates you Derek. No one blames you."

"I almost killed my daughter's pet" Derek mumbled mechanically and Stiles groaned.

"Did you just listen, like, at all?" he complained. "But please, do go ahead and blame yourself, and see what I do about it. I'll go lace my bat with wolfsbane and hit you over the head with it until it gets through your thick skull that it wasn't your fault."

It might have taken a while longer but at last Derek managed to free himself from the guilt induced cloud of dark feelings that had been hanging over him ever since Stiles called to tell him they were at the clinic with Leia. Human or supernatural, everyone made mistakes, but he vowed to himself to never let Leia come even near a chicken again and let Stiles hold him as he pulled away the pain the small dachshund was feeling.

::

It was three months before chicken was served in the house again and Derek spent the entire meal making sure that the dog was in another room at all times, before taking out the trash immediately and putting a heavy stone the size of a football on top of the trashcan lid. Leia chomped on her kibble without a care in the world and Stiles almost rolled on the floor with laughter until Derek had enough and chased him three laps around the house.

All in all, everything was all right.