Half Human, Half Banshee - Stiles & Lydia

16. Permanent Mark

This love is good, this love is bad

This love is alive back from the dead

These hands had to let it go free

And this love came back to me

''The test can be made upon 7 weeks'' the doctor stated as soon as Stiles accidentally made public all of his doubts ''It's not invasive and follows no risk to pregnancy''

His name was Dr. Cherian, and apparently, he was the best of the region. It didn't matter though; all the diplomas and certificates and medals hanging on the creme walls served as nothing but simple and disposable decoration. Only Deaton's assurance that the doctor of indian ancestry was genuinely qualified and a personal friend of his brought some kind of comfort, yet still not enough. Nothing would ever be enough when it came to Lydia and the baby's safety.

Stiles, also accidentally, couldn't help but compare Dr. Cherian to their doctor from Beacon Hills, Eva Brown. Not that he was any less charismatic or pleasant, but not knowing someone's first name is probably a sign that there's no familiarity nor harmony whatsoever. He looked like a Stuart though, the thick round glasses hanging from his pointed nose, so it was mentally decided that that's how Stiles would refer to him in his own head.

''And is it accurate?'' Lydia asked. After seemingly endless hours inside the Jeep -- disregarding the infinite stops at service stations because she had to pee --, her strawberry blonde hair crumpled, like it's been violently cluttered by someone. She's never been so beautiful.

Stuart crossed his hands in an X form, the kind of thing adults do when they want to sound serious. ''There's a 95.4% accuracy on determining the male gender and 98.6% on determining the female''

To the logical and scientific Lydia -- which always seemed slightly ironical, considering she was a banshee in a pack full of supernatural and unexplainable creatures --, the accuracy numbers were enough. Stiles, though, could only think about the 4.6 and 1.4%. Was it pessimism or simple realism?

Still, it's not that he wanted to go back; in fact, he definitely wanted to go ahead and have at least one answer in a moment of such uncertainty in both their lives. As soon as Lydia shook her head in an agreement when Stuart  requested her final answer, Stiles held her hand one more time and mouthed It'll be okay before leaving the room. He couldn't be inside for the procedure, but thankfully Scott and Kira were right in the waiting room, eyeing boring old magazines and ready to share false words of wisdom. They wanted to help, but how could they? They didn't know what was happening, much less what would happen later. No one did.

Lydia's face when leaving the room many minutes later was the worst. Anxiety, fright, tiredness, all reflecting in the blink of an eye. That was it. The result would come quickly, and as they waited, Stiles couldn't stop thinking about how for the past couple of weeks he's complained about the ephemerality and brevity of life and now nothing scared him more than the sudden certainty. 

God, and it was endless. A second went by like a minute and a minute went by like an hour; not too different from what's been going on since day one, though. Passing time is a gift Stiles hadn't put his hands on in a long time, on the contrary, he's been through way more slow motion moments than he'd ever desire. What could he do about it? Could he yell at Stuart, fall to his knees and beg him to just say it? Most likely, the doctor couldn't understand the seriousness surrounding the result; he was used to happy couples living a normal life, simply excited to know which color to paint the nursery.