Chapter Text
Stiles smiles as he lay in the sand, the sun beating down on him while his Labrador, Otis, is running around the sand dunes rolling around barking at nothing. Rolling his eyes, Stiles laughed at the stupid puppy.
“Otis!” Stiles snaps, “Stop.” He continues, moaning in annoyance. There’s gonna be sand inside his apartment for days. The dog looks at him with its tongue lolling out of its mouth as the two month old leaps at Stiles and flops down on his bare stomach. Stiles moaned in annoyance again after his breath escapes him he ended up covered in sand.
“You’re lucky I love you boy.” Stiles smiled down at the dog. Otis gave him a puppy dog look that reminded him so much of Scott it made his chest hurt in a way it hasn’t in four years. He’s managed not to think about the pack at all in that time, and it’s not going to change now.
“Get a hold of yourself, Stiles.” He scolds himself.
“You do know that talking to yourself can be interpreted as you being a crazy person, right?” Josh shouts, the snickering of Layla and Paul following his statement.
“You do know I have my gun on me, right? I can shoot you, I’m a well better shot than all of you.” Stiles smirks at them. He sits up and stroked Otis in apology as the dog looks affronted at being moved.
“Aren’t you a doctor? Don’t you guys have a code or something? You save lives! Not harm them.” Paul laughs.
“Yeah well-being an Army doctor gave me special privileges to shoot people.” He smiles at them, “and now that I’m SWAT, I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to shoot people.” He laughs as he flicks them off, “even if I am technically a SWAT medic, I’m the best shot you’ve got.” Stiles tells them, then stuck out his tongue when Paul laughs at him.
“Don’t let Jack hear you say that!” Layla chimed in, “He’s got a serious case of ‘want to be the best’ syndrome and, as a doctor I know you don’t need me to tell you it’s incurable! he’d probably challenge you to a massive pissing contest.” Layla added.
Stiles just smiles at his three friends, shaking his head at them.
He moved to Phoenix 8 months ago to start over after being discharged from the Army. He landed this SWAT gig almost 7 and a half months ago. It feels like a lifetime, though it’s only been 10 months ago he was in Afghanistan.
When he was discharged, he was looking for openings at the local hospitals, wanting something tame in comparison to what he’s been doing these last four years, but there weren’t anyone hiring.
If you asked him eight years ago what he thought he would be doing with his life, training to be a doctor was not one of them. Hell, joining the Army never even crossed his mind at the time. The only reason he did join was because he desperately needed to disappear from the pack, from his old life. Honestly, everything else was just a side effect of him wanting to disappear from Derek.
When he left Beacon Hills all those years ago, his pack betrayed him. Scott, his best friend in the entire world, betrayed him.
He was accepted into the FBI internship program after he graduated high school, something he always knew he wanted to do, but he knew the pact would know where to find him. They’d know how to bring him back into the thick of things, and he knew if they asked he would be weak enough to go back with them at the time.
So he switched majors. He changed his field of study to pre-med, the complete opposite of what he wanted to do originally. Once he started studying medicine, he fell in love. He just knew it was the right thing to do.
In three years he completed his undergrad degree, when usually it would take someone four. He went to class during the summer and winter breaks every year instead of going home to see his father. He couldn’t bear to see the pack, and because of this he got his degree by the time he was twenty-one
He was accepted at John’s Hopkins University and completed his medical degree and his intern year. Graduation was the proudest day of his life and it hurt him that his mother wasn’t there to see him walk across the stage, to see the man he’d become. She always said he’d help people, but she never actually got the chance to see him do anything good with his life.
His father had been proud of him enough for the both of them. Noah married Melissa McCall, a woman who was a second mother to him growing up and he couldn’t have been any happier for them. It was five days before he turned twenty-five when they flew all the way to Maryland to see him graduate medical school. So, seeing them out in the crowd made him feel good, no matter what shit went down between him and her son, Scott. He always loved Melissa.
However, when he looked at who was sitting down next to the two most important people in his life, his world shattered. The entire pack sitting with them, and the anger on his father’s face was evident from where Stiles had stood on stage. He didn’t want them to come, he made it clear to his father, but they came anyway. Stiles was reminded why he ran away in the first place, and why he’d changed schools.
Walking across the stage, he reached for his diploma, shook hands with the dean as they got their pictures taken then sunk back into the massive crowd of people. He’d managed to escape the building before the pack or his father saw him, then managed to reach the bus still in his cap and gown to make it back to his apartment without incident. He could feel a panic attack coming on, and he did not want to deal with this today.
He’d seen a poster on the bus for the Army on his way back to his apartment and the idea stuck with him. He’d got home and when he calmed down, went on a research binge. He decided to fuck it and just do it. He passed the physical requirements to commission as an Army Medic, signed the contract, and the next four years was dedicated to the Army.
The experience was the most difficult and best thing he ever did, and the while he was in Afghanistan all his allowances, and duty pay were tax free. When his tour was over he managed to save about $140 grand a year. He managed to save lives, and he managed to escape the pack. Two things that was his goals from the beginning.
“Earth to Stiles?” Josh shouts as he smirked at him, he was waving his arm in front of Stiles face. The motion was making Otis think the other dude was playing, and made the dog jump up and run circles around the blonde. The whole group couldn’t help but do whatever Otis wanted, the damn thing was too cute.
“Sorry was just thinking about how unlucky I am.” Stiles laughed at him.
“Why’re you unlucky?” Josh frowned. The other man was play fighting with Otis, but Stiles knew he was still listening.
“Well when I got out of the Army I was about to turn thirty. Now that I’m older I was planning on just being a normal doctor and treating normal patients without the threat of death looming over me. I fancied being somewhere warm so I rolled the dice and landed in the great state of…Arizona. Lucky me, I couldn’t find a hospital opening but found this group of degenerates instead.” Stiles smirked at them teasingly.
“You love being a cop, and you love being a doctor. This job just conveniently combines two of the things you love most.” Josh laughs.
“Yeah and didn’t you say your dad was proud of you?” Paul asks.
“Yeah…” Stiles starts sheepishly, “he doesn’t actually know I’m a part of SWAT. He… doesn’t even know I was in the army” Stiles admits.
“How could you not tell your father you were fighting for your country?!” Layla asked, shocked.
“I didn’t want him to worry! He thought I was in Africa and other countries doing ‘Doctors without borders’” Stiles shrugged, annoyed at them.
“What would have happened if you died?” Paul questioned with a frown. Stiles rolled his eyes at them.
“Well the army would have told him I was dead, they have this notifying next of kin down to an art form.” Stiles was over this conversation, “Before deploying you have to have a will made, and my lawyers had a letter to him. I willed everything to him.” Stiles shrugs. “Besides it’s a moot point now that I’ve been back stateside for the last ten months. I even bought a puppy!” Stiles laughed softly.
“But you still haven’t bought a house.” Layla accuses.
“I like my apartment!” Stiles was offended, he was pretty sure the housing situation comes up a couple times a month with these guys, “it has a pool! Besides, I’ve literally been back ten months. I’ve only even had this job for 7 months. I’d rather wait till I’m more financially stable and I have job security before I buy a house, and all that other grown up bullshit.” Stiles waves a dismissive hand.
“If you want job security you chose the wrong job.” Layla laughs at him, “and the only security you get in SWAT is the secure knowledge that you could die if you make a wrong move.” Layla lays down the facts.
“You know I’m beginning to question why I spend my day’s off hanging around with you guys.” Stiles jokes, “maybe I need to make some new friends outside of work.” Stiles chuckles, and when he goes to say more all of their pagers go off at the same time.
Rolling his eyes he says, “What are the chances that we’ve all got low battery at the same time?” He checks his pager and of course sees the 911 from his boss.
“Otis! Here boy!” Stiles shouts, watching as the dog runs back to him. he attaches the leash onto his collar and says to the dog, “One day boy, we’re going to be able to spend my full day off outside.” He pulls Otis a long as they all run towards their cars, Josh and Paul jumping in his as he drove them to the “office”.
//////////////
“Dr. Stilinski, nice to see you again.” Doctor Mendes smirks at him. She tuts at him and looked down at his shoulder and chest, shaking her head. He gives him a look as she examines him.
“I told you to call me Stiles Doc, I’m fine. You don’t really have to worry, the bullet hit my protective gear. It knocked the wind out of me, and I’m gonna have a hell of a bruise, but I’m fine.” Stiles shrugged, wincing when his ribs twinged a little. He was shot while saving Josh’s life, so in his book it was worth it.
“You know… for a doctor you’re pretty blasé about your own health and wellbeing.” She laughs at him rolling her eyes again.
Looking him over again, she gets on with the examination. She reminds him of an older Melissa, she’s about sixty and she’s been the one to treat him all four times he’s been hurt since joining SWAT. He’s never been injured too badly, and every time he was injured he would have been able to treat himself if it was policy to be signed off by another doctor to be put on active duty.
“You’re probably right about your ribs being bruised. I’m going to x-ray your ribs just in case you’ve got any hairline fractures hiding or something.” She tells him, smiling. She turned to the nurse to tell her to book the scan.
“I’ll just wait here till it becomes available, then. Take your time…though, can you try and get me out of here as fast as possible? My boss is sort of looking after my puppy in the precinct.” Stiles smiles, turning up the Stillinski charm.
He plays “gardenscapes” on his phone as he waits, and texted the squad to give them updates. He laughs and then regrets it as it pulls at his injured ribs when his boss sends him a snapchat of his grumpy face with the caption ‘your dog peed on my office carpet.’
He texts his boss back reminding him he saved Josh’s ass, and he shot the suspect in the arm disarming him when he was about to shoot the boss. Luckily, at this reminder Otis gets a break.
He’s waiting for his x-ray results when he gets a phone call. He answers it without looking, since he’s expecting it to be one of the team or his boss moaning about Otis but it wasn’t.
“Is this Stiles Stilinski?” A female voice comes through the phone.
“Yes, who’s speaking?” He asks looking up when the doctor comes in with his x-ray’s in hand. She puts them on the x-ray illuminator and looks over to him.
He stands, his eyes automatically looking over the x-rays and smiling to himself. He sees he’s got no hairline fractures after all.
“My name is Lucy Wood, I’m a nurse at Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital, I’m phoning because I have the sheriff here and you’re his next of kin.” She tells him.
“What happened?” He asks immediately, dread forming in the pit of his stomach.
He moved towards the bed and grabbed his shirt to pull on over his head. He reached for his bag and attached his gun to his belt. “Just a second.” He tells the nurse, as he looks over at his doctor “My Dad’s been shot, I need you to get me my discharge papers now.” he nodded some thanks when she tells him ‘of course’ and leaves the room with a sense of urgency.
“He was at the diner, having a burger.” She says and Stiles lets out a huff of breath.
“He’s supposed to be eating healthy.” He tells the nurse, then apologizes when he realizes he’s interrupted her.
He was off duty, and the place was held up. The robber tried to take everything from everyone at gun point, When the robber went to point the gun at his wife sheriff stepped in front of her and was shot at close range in the abdomen.” She tells him.
“Is he awake?” he asks. He was moving on autopilot as he talks to her, he left his room and looked around for Doctor Mendes. She was over by the nurse’s station, and she hands him the paperwork when he moved over to her.
“He’s in surgery right now, Melissa asked me to call you because she thinks…” the nurse stops mid-sentence and Stiles can hear her sigh. He runs out into the parking lot and almost punches the wall when he realizes he was brought here in an ambulance.
“Spit it out” Stiles shouts, as he runs towards the road looking for a cab.
“She doesn’t think he will make it.” The nurse admits.
He hangs up, and takes a deep breath. He needed to stop himself from having a panic attack, he can do this. He can handle this clinically, he’s a doctor. He’s dealt with death, and tough odds before. His father is a fighter, Stiles knows he will make it.
The Taxi dropped him at the station, but he was in a daze and didn’t realize they were even moving, he’s thankful he had his wallet with cash as he paid the driver and stepped out of the car. He had booked the next nonstop flight out of Phoenix to California, it leaves in three hours. He needs to pack and make it to the Airport in two. It’s an hour and forty-minute flight to California, then it’s another hour or so to get to Beacon Hills. His father can hold on the 5 hours it’ll take him to get there.
He rushes into the precinct, and waved off people as they all cheer and welcome him back, he rushes into his boss Jacks, office. He looks around and sees the man on the floor playing with a tennis ball. As soon as Stiles makes it through the door Otis runs happily up to him and Stiles finally lets out a small smile. He had paid extra so he can take Otis with him, there was no way he was leaving his dog here.
“Stiles? You get the all clear? You look white as a ghost, dude.” Jack asked, concerned. Standing up with a groan, his knees make and audible crack. “I’m getting too old for this shit.” Jack mutters to himself.
“I need to take some time off work right now.” He tells his boss “I just got a call, and my dad’s been shot.” Stiles still can’t believe it.
“Shit! Is he okay?” Jack questioned, he walked over and gripped Stiles’ shoulder. Only to quickly pull away when Stiles winced.
“I don’t know.” Stiles ran a frustrated hand through his hair, “I just need to go back to California. I’ve got a flight out in a few hours, and I’m probably going to need to stay there for a while.” Stiles tells him, “I don’t know for how long, and I especially don’t know what to do.” Stiles makes his last confession. He was looking around the office frantic.
“Stiles, don’t worry about it.” Jack’s voice was soothing, “take a month off. I’ll put it through as sick leave and we all know you never take vacation so it’s not like it’ll be a problem.” Stiles had to remind himself that Jack was a professional, “I’ll get in a temp medic if you need any longer. I’ll skype you in a few weeks and see if you wanna go on a sabbatical and discuss your options. Don’t worry about work now, just go be with your dad.” Jack tells him.
“Thanks.” He tells him, grateful. He grabbed his car keys and bent down to put Otis’ leash on him. Once done, he tugged on the rope a little and they were running out to his car.
When he made it back to his apartment he rushes to get everything he needed. He saved putting his weapon in his gun safe and then into his luggage as the last thing to be packed, then he managed to force Otis in his pet carrier. He frowned down at his hastily packed luggage and prayed he didn’t forget anything, glad, at least, that he remembered to pack his weapon. He doesn’t know why he needed to pack it, he just doesn’t feel sage without it anymore.
After making one last check of his apartment to see if he forgot anything, he shoves everything into the back of his car and speeds off to the Airport, and managed to check into his flight on time.
Declaring his weapon is the first thing he does at the check in counter, then he bent down to make sure Otis was okay for the short trip to California. Satisfied he took his tickets from the man at the counter and shouldered his bag, walking nervously through the airport looking for his gate.
Every second he walks aimlessly around the airport feels like an hour, his nerves getting the best of him as he pulls out his phone to check the time. Cursing softly, he notices his phone had died, then a second time when he realizes of all things he forgot his phone charger at home. He can’t be contacted if something bad happens to his dad
When his flight number is called and then his group number, Stiles ruses on board and sits in his aisle seat nervously, unable to stop his leg from shaking.
He doesn’t know how the hell he manages to make it an hour and forty minutes, but his plane finally touched down in LAX, and he really doesn’t know how he makes it out of the Airport forty minutes later without punching someone.
He has to stop himself from getting violent with the man at the car rental place when he takes too long to get him his car. It’s nearly 8pm when he starts his drive to beacon hills. Otis is thankfully sleeping in the backseat, and he manages to plug his phone into the cars USB drive to charge.
It’s been nearly seven hours since he found out about his father, and when he drives past the ‘welcome to Beacon Hills’ sign, it’s near seven hours twenty.
Forcing himself to not go to the hospital immediately, he makes his way to his father’s house to put his bags and Otis inside. He felt bad for keeping the puppy cooped up in that carrier for most of the day, so he opens the door to let him loose. He opens his bag and places his gun on his belt with his badge, with one last look at his dog, he heads back out to his car.
Now that the puppy is out of the car, he can drive faster so he makes it to Beacon Hills memorial in three minutes. Double parking the rental sloppily, he hurries inside the hospital, frantic.
“I’m looking for my dad!” He shouts to the nurse behind the desk, “Sheriff Stilinski? Where is he?” He forces himself to calm down.
“The sheriff is on the ICU ward on the second floor. He just got out of surgery.” She says it like his life didn’t just end when he got the phone call. He thinks he thanks her and he runs for the elevator and triple pressing the floor number. His nerves come back full force as he waits for the elevator to reach his floor.
As soon as the elevator stops, he’s sprinting out the door and rounds the corner to the ICU ward. Stopping himself before opening the door, he takes a deep breath and opens the door.
The entire pack is there. He shouldn’t have been surprised. They’re all looking older than he saw them last – five years ago. Immediately after having that thought, it dawns on him that he hasn’t seen his father in that long, too. He’s joined that Army since then, he can’t let his dad die when the last time he saw him was from the stage at his med school graduation. Sure, they talk a lot on the phone, but it really isn’t the same as seeing him alive and well.
“Stiles?” Scott says the word like it was a part of his breath when he sees him. He’s surrounded by Isaac, Erica, Boyd, Malia, Allison, Liam, and Derek. Derek, whose dressed in a deputy. When the hell did THAT happen?
He ignores them as he pushed his way past them and into the room his father was being cared in. He sighed in relief when he sees Melissa sitting next to his father’s unconscious body, her hand was cradling his. She was too calm, she wouldn’t be this calm if her husband just died, right? Maybe she was sleeping?
When he hurried over to his father’s bed, he finally got his first look at the older man in five years. Forcing his eyes to his right, he read from the machines that his vitals were fine. Sighing in relief, he crossed the room in two strides and opened the door. As he grabbed his dads chart from the clipboard attached to the door, he finally let his relief show. He was all right. His dad was fine.
“Stiles?” They seem to have a thing with saying his name today, and this time it was Derek saying it. The older man had taken a step towards the open door cautiously, and was giving Stiles a once over. Stiles saw Derek’s eyes widen in surprised when he took in the badge and gun hanging from his belt, and watched as his lips moved to a frown.
“I thought your dad said you were a doctor? You graduated from med school!” Derek frowned at him again.
“Fuck off Derek.” Stiles rolled his eyes, “my dad’s just been shot, and now’s not the time to talk about my career.” He huffed. He made a show of slamming his dad’s medical notes back in the holder outside the door, and walked back inside the room. Melissa seemed to have heard the commotion because she was looking up at him when he moved closer to the bed. She gave him a tired smile as she stood up to bring him in for a massive hug.
“He’s going to be fine.” She assures him, and rubbed his back soothingly. Stiles knows she’s trying to reassure herself more than she was him.
“Of course he is!” Stiles tried to play it cool, “he’s only fifty-seven, I was planning to take him to Hawaii for his sixtieth birthday.” Stiles smiled down at her when she let out a small sob.
“Why don’t we do that for my fifty-eighth birthday in a few months? I could really use a holiday.” His dad’s weak and small voice piped in. It sounded like it was being shouted in the now silent room. Then, a sob is audible after, and he doesn’t know if it came from him, or from Melissa, but they both launch themselves at his father- grabbing whatever part of them they could.