Romeo and Juliet (Had Nothin' On Us, Babe.) Arc Four

[c00kie]

Dean’s sleeping soundly with his arm resting protectively across Castiel’s chest, when he hears his alarm. No, not the one that plays classic rock, the other alarm. The blue eyed, black faced, sharp clawed, howling one. Dean opens one eye. “Go ‘way Djinn,” only the Siamese answers back with a loud yell.

“Just feed him, already,” Cas says, not even opening her eyes.

“I don’t want to get up,” Dean complains, nuzzling her neck. “Comfy. You feel any better?”
Castiel sighs. “A little.” There’s another minute of quiet before Djinn starts up again. “Just go feed him before he starts carving religious sigils in your chest.”

Groaning, Dean rolls over and sits up and looks at the time. Their actual alarm’s set to go off in another hour. He leans down, kisses Cas’ forehead and trods into the kitchen, murmuring along the way. ““Let’s get a cat,’ she says, ‘it’ll train us to be responsible.’ I wanted the orange tabby but no, Cas just had to get you.”

Djinn jumps up on the counter where Dean’s placed his food and water dishes and answers Dean with a flat meow. Dean tosses some cat food into the bowl, refills his water and sets to make the morning coffee.

While the coffee is brewing, Dean reads the morning paper and eats a bowl of cereal until Cas shuffles in wearing only one of his old shirts and makes herself a cup of coffee and eats a fruit on the bottom yogurt. She eats and drinks standing up, petting Djinn underneath his chin. Dean drinks two cups to Cas’ five. They shower together, a necessary, yet pleasant evil due to the hot water never lasting for more than ten minutes at most. Her skin’s still flushed and she looks like she could use another good four hours of sleep, but Dean knows better than to say anything.

Dean shaves and brushes his teeth while Castiel dresses into her I feel like shit but still look professional clothes.

“Have you seen my coat?”

Dean spits. “Back of the door!”

They trade rooms, Dean giving Cas a quick slap on the butt that makes her glare. “You will pay for that later,” only it doesn’t sound as heated as it normally would.

“I look forward to it,” he says, putting on the polo shirt with company logo he’s forced to wear for work, reminding himself they need the money while Cas finishes up her Veterinarian degree and works part time as an assistant. Soon, she’ll be done and they’ll be able to get out of this crap hole apartment.

Dean’s sitting on the couch putting on his shoes when Djinn hops on his cat stand in the corner and starts his daily list of complaints. Dean turns to look at him. One of Cas’ bras hangs off the stand, the other half guarded fiercely by Djinn.

“Really?” Dean asks, going over to snatch the bra away. “Can’t you collect something else?”

Djinn yawns and curls up to take a morning snooze. Checking to make sure that no one is watching, Dean scratches Djinn behind his ears, inciting a low purr from the cat.

“The toilet’s backed up again.”

“I’ll get it,” Dean sighs, going to find the plunger.

“No,” Cas says, shoving her books into her bag. “What you need to do is call the Super and tell him to fix it.”

“I’ll fix it,” Dean replies evenly. Their Super is a man with a lisp who creeps Dean out to no end. No way is he calling him.

Castiel glowers, ready to get into an argument when her cellphone rings. “This isn’t over,” she warns Dean before answering. “Hey, Meg.”

Dean grabs his lunch out of the fridge. It’s just leftovers from the Mexican restaurant they ate at the night before wrapped in a plastic grocery store bag.

Cas sits on the couch, tying her shoes with one hand while talking to Meg with the other. “No Meg, you can’t use our living room to film one of your videos…because it’s weird, that’s why,” she continues to talk to Meg while she walks through the apartment gathering her things, listing all the reasons her friend can’t make an S&M film in their apartment.

Dean takes a look a the clock. Crap, he has to go now or he’s going to be late. “Bye, babe,” he yells, opening the door. She mumbles a goodbye to Meg, tossing her phone into her bag when the apartment phone rings. She answers with a stiff hello because the only people who ever call the house phone are creditors, the Super and for some unknown reason, Chuck. Only Chuck sleeps till at least noon so there’s no way he can be calling at 8:45, shit Dean really needs to go. Calling out another bye, he grabs his car keys and runs out the door.

Five seconds later, he runs back in, grabs Cas, spins her around and quickly kisses her goodbye. She laughs, pushing him out the door.



Dean works in a major computer and electronics store in Lawrence, fixing broken electronics. He likes his co-worker Ash, the self-proclaimed Dr. Badass, who runs the computer department at least, and Adam, a pre-med student who works on the weekends and reminds Dean of himself.

“What’s going on here?” Dean asks, leaning against Ash’s counter. Ash looks up from his personal laptop to the store manager, Crowley, yelling at one of the salesmen.

“No clue, man,” Ash retorts. “Take a look at this,” he turns his computer around. On the screen is a pretty neat looking racing game. “Whatya think?”

“I think if Cas ever got a hold of that, I’d never see her again.”

Ash laughs, turning his laptop back. Seeing a man with a small boy at his own counter, Dean goes to help them. He’s holding a DVD player under his arm. If Dean has to guess, he’s about to fetch a Lego from inside the device.

“Welcome to Changing Channels, I’m Dean, how may I help you?” He never fails to feel like a total ass when he greats customers.

“Uh, yeah,” the man says, “This is broken.” He shoves the player at Dean’s chest. “Jesse, stop that!” he shouts when the kid continuously shocks him with his joy buzzer. “Alright,” Dean says, placing the DVD player onto the counter.

“Do you have a warranty with us?” Jesse touches Dean’s arm, shocking him. Dean jumps and the kid laughs behind his father’s back.

The man stares blankly at Dean. “A warranty? No, I was informed I didn’t need one and that repairs were free with cost,” he squirms. “God damn it, Jesse, I told you to stop!”

Dean sighs. Taking a look at this guy, it’s clear that he’s not going to like what Dean has to say. “Sir, without a warranty, I’m going to have to charge you for the repair.”

“What do you mean, charge me? I was told it would be free.” His voice rises more and more with each word.

“You were misinformed,” Dean retorts back to him, right as Jesse reaches for Dean again. This time he grabs Dean’s arm, not letting go. Dean wishes to hell he could just kick the kid away, but that would probably get him fired.

The customer hits his fist on the counter, “This is an outrage! I demand to see your manager!”
Dean fakes a plastic smile, “Alright,” he quickly pages Crowley, who turns sharply and glares at Dean’s customer.

“I’m the manager, what seems to be the problem?” Taking Crowley’s curt nod at him as a cue to leave, Dean goes into the back of the store to work. He spends most of his day there, only getting a couple more customers besides the irate Mr. Turner. He gets one voice mail from Cas saying she’s going to see her doctor and will probably be home early and to get a pizza for dinner.




Dean comes home with a box of pizza and a six pack of beer to find her snoring on the couch, a book splayed open on her stomach. Smiling, Dean puts the beer in the fridge and the pizza on the counter. Then he takes the book from Cas, marks it for her and sets it down on the coffee table. He puts an afghan over her and kisses her forehead.

“I’m only resting my eyes.”

“Right,” Dean smiles. “I’m gonna shower.” He showers work away, puts on his real clothes and then goes back to check on Cas. She’s turned over with Djinn sleeping in the bend of her knees. He checks his voice mail. There are three missed calls from Sam and one from Victor.

He calls Victor back first.

“Guess where I am!” Victor shouts.

Dean closes his eyes, judging by the sounds of bells behind him and a girl going, “Come on baby, I want to get the honeymoon suite,” Dean has to guess Vegas.

“Tell me you didn’t,” Dean sighs, sitting on the bed. “Seriously, man? What’s her name?”

“Constance, you’ll love her.”

“I liked Casey,” Dean says flatly. He loves his friend, really he does, but he has the worst taste in women. Casey’s the least offensive yet. He supposes they can’t all be awesome like Cas though.

“Come on baby,” Constance coos, “I want you to make me feel good.”

“That’s my cue to go man,” Dean’s met with dial tone. At least he didn’t have to throw another bachelor party. Hoping to be met with better news from Sam, Dean calls his brother. The phone
rings several times before it’s finally answered by an out of breath Sam.

“Can’t talk, call you back,” Sam breathes, hanging up.

Okay, is everyone getting laid here except him? He uses the bathroom, flushes only for the toilet to overflow onto the floor and his feet. “FUCK.” That damn toilet is out to get him, Dean’s sure of it.

He manages to get the toilet to stop running temporarily, cleans up the mess and then takes a cold shower to wash his feet. He longs for the days when he took cold showers because he was horny, not because they have the most fickle hot water heater in the world.

Dean’s stomach growls, reminding him that he hasn’t eaten since noon. He goes back to the kitchen, cracks open a beer and grabs a slice of pizza. In the living room the TV clicks on, his signal that Cas’ awake. “You hungry?”

“Thirsty, get me a grape soda,” Cas says, eyes on the baseball game. “Giants are down by three.”

“Who are they playing?” Dean asks, handing her the soda.

“Rangers,” she answers, lifting her legs so Dean can sit down. Dean keeps his beer in one hand and rests his other on her leg.

“How is it?” Dean asks when Cas shifts slightly. It’s not an overt move, but a lifetime has made him good at being able read her.

“It’s okay,” she says, “I think I might have over exerted myself last night.”

Dean inwardly curses himself. He should have known better. “Cas-”

Castiel meets his eyes with hers, giving him her patented stare. “Don’t you dare apologize. Last night was lovely. I’m sorry I ruined it by being sick.”

“You couldn’t help it,” Dean says, still feeling guilty, “Do you want some ice?”

“Just put your beer on it,” she suggests, so Dean rests his beer against her knee, studying her face for any signs of pain. She keeps her attention on the TV. Dean knows it’s more the thought of never being able to play again that hurts Cas and not her knee.

“Victor’s in Vegas,” Dean tells her, hoping that the distraction will work.

“What’s this one’s name?” She sighs.

“Connie?” Dean guesses, shrugging.

“It doesn’t matter,” Cas says with a flippant wave of her hand. “It won’t last.”

“I don’t know,” Dean jokes, “I heard her and I think she could really be the one.”

They watch the game for a couple more hours until it’s time to get ready for bed. Sam doesn’t call him back but Dean doesn’t blame him. Cas brushes her teeth while Dean undresses, then they trade. When he comes out, Dean finds Cas lying on her stomach, playing with Djinn whose sitting in his spot.

“Get,” Dean orders, receiving a sharp meow from the cat. Cas rolls her eyes at him and gently picks Djinn up and starts cuddling him. “Damn cat gets more love than I do.”

“I love you plenty,” Cas reminds him with a smirk, “Would you like me to show you?”

Dean smirks back. “Are you offering?”

Cas looks at the clock. “I have my early class tomorrow,” she says by way of answer. No sex on nights she has an early class. “But you know I’m good for it,” she lets Djinn go who runs out of the room and then rests her head on Dean’s stomach. They stay this way for a while, both enjoying the quiet peace. She moves over to her side beats on her pillow a few times and then rests her head. Dean spoons her, resting his head in the crook of her neck, her hair tickling his face. How he managed to get through four years of college without her every night, he will never know. All he knows is now, he’s not letting her go, ever.

“How did your doctor’s visit go?”

“It was…illuminating,” she turns around, burrowing into him.

“You have a stomach virus, what’s so illuminating about that?” Dean knows something’s up the minute she starts drawing designs in his skin. “Cas?”

“He said I’m pregnant,” her voice is slightly muffled by the fact she’s talking into his chest, but he doesn’t misunderstand her.

Time seems to freeze around Dean and it’s like being shocked with a million joy buzzers all at once. It’s both worse and better than all the orgasms he’s ever had including the one the night before Cas left for Berkley and holy shit is this really happening? It doesn’t seem real.

There’s no way. They’re broke, they live in the apartment from hell, they’re not even married yet. Yet the fears are outweighed by a sense of pure, unabashed joy.
Her eyes meet his, still drawing sigils into his skin. “What are you thinking?”

He’s thinking about being nine and getting pretend married and taking care of her dolls while she went and brought back a loaf of bread and being fourteen and spending all his time in the shower thinking about her and being sixteen and kissing her for the first time and how amazing it and every kiss since then has felt and dancing with her next to the Impala during their prom and talking to her every day during college even if it was just to say hello.

He’s thinking of that one week where he thought he might want to see what else was out there and had coffee with one girl and felt so guilty about it he threw up after and the day they moved into their apartment together. He’s thinking how he loves her and their baby so much it's frightening.

He rests his forehead against hers. “I’m thinking I love you.”




When he finally gets a hold of Sam, his brother’s thankfully not too busy with his new girlfriend to talk, which is good because Dean’s having a full blown panic attack. “I’m screwed, Sammy.”

“Okay,” Sam laughs on the other side of the country. “Take a deep breath and tell me what you did.”

“I knocked Cas up.” Dean figures he might as well just get it out in the open, that way Sam can yell at him for being irresponsible and then they can get past it and actually figure a solution to his problem. The problem, of course, being what he’s going to do once Michael learns Dean’s bullets hit their target.

“Congratulations.”

That was not the response Dean was expecting.“Huh?”

“I said congratulations,” Sam says in his I’m rolling my eyes at you voice. “Is she there? I want to talk to her.”

“She’s still at the library,” Dean answers. “Wait, so you’re not mad?”

“Uh, why would I be mad?” Sam asks. “This is great!” I can’t wait to be an uncle. I’m calling Godfather.”

“Okay, maybe you didn’t hear me,” Dean says slowly, “Cas is pregnant. With my kid.”

“Yeah, that’s worrisome,” Sam admits, “But maybe Cas’ DNA will kill your DNA and we won’t have to worry about another you walking around.”

“Oh shut up, bitch.”

“Make me, jerk,” Sam replies easily.

Dean sighs. “Sam, let me explain to you why this is bad. One, we’re broke, two we live in an apartment not suitable for a kid, three we’re not married and four…I can’t actually think of a fourth, but it’s a doozy.”

“I’m sure it is,” Sam retorts. “Right, let me tell you why it’s a good thing. One: You love her. Two, You want this,” he says it just as Cas walks in the door. Dean waves hello to her and points to the phone, mouthing Sam’s name.

“Tell him I said hello," she says, putting down her bag and walking down the hallway.

“She says hello," Dean tells Sam.

“Tell her I said I love you," he replies.

“He says he loves you,” Dean calls after her.

“I love him back,” Cas shouts from the bedroom where she’s changing clothes. Some guys would be jealous at how close his girlfriend and his brother are, but for Dean, knowing that they consider each other family means the world to him. Castiel is genuinely like a sister to Sam.

“Three, if all those things you just said really bother you, then change it. Get a better job, move.”

“What about the other thing?”

“Asshole, you should have married her the minute you two graduated college. Why didn’t you anyway?”

He doesn’t have an answer. After he hangs up with Sam he turns on the TV to AMC where they’re having a Dirty Harry marathon. Cas comes out, holding two bottles of nail polish. “Pick one.”
He picks the lilac and Cas sits down and props her feet up on the coffee table and starts painting her toenails. “You know soon I’m not going to be able to even see my toes, let alone paint them.”

Dean frowns. “You don’t want me to do it, do you?”

She rolls her eyes. “Please, you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ll get Meg to do it.”

“And then she’ll make a video about foot fetishes,” Dean shudders. And I can so paint your toenails.”

She stares at him like he’s grown three heads and he thinks he might have because did he really just say he can paint her toenails? “I told my family.”

The switch in the conversation throws him. “You did?”

“Yes,” she doesn’t look at him, but at her toes as she works on them.

“How’d it go?” Dean needs to know if they’re going to come after him with pitchforks. He hears Canada’s nice this time a year.

“Fine,” she shrugs, looking up at the TV, “Oh come on! My Mom can hit better than that!”





After a long and tedious day of work the next day in which Crowley yells at no less than six people, two of which are customers, Dean punches out and goes straight to his parents' house, letting himself in and hoping he doesn’t catch them having sex in the den like the last time he showed up unannounced. Thankfully, they’re both dressed. Mary’s reading and John’s on the computer, playing a video game.

“Dean,” Mary puts her book down and stands to hug Dean. “Where’s Cas?”

“She’s at the clinic,” Dean answers, hugging his mom back. “I need to talk to you guys.” His parents share a look and John turns from the computer, putting his hands on his knees, leaning forward.

“Alright,” John says slowly, “What’s going on?”

Dean sits in his dad’s favorite chair and takes a deep breath. “I’m assuming Sam’s told you.”

They share another look and Mary shakes her head. “Told us what? About Jessica? We think she sounds lovely.”

“Well, as lovely as an anthropology major can be,” John chuckles.

Mary casts a glare at John. “John.”

“What?” John shrugs, “I’m just saying, what does one do with an Anthropology degree anyway?”

“Ignore him,” Mary tells Dean, “He’s just bitter because an Anthropology major rejected him in college.”

“She was a Liberal Arts major,” John argues, “Which is another word for indecisive if you ask me.”

“Cas is pregnant,” Dean blurts out. As fascinating as his parent’s banter is, he’s got more important things to worry about than his father’s opinion’s about liberal arts majors.

“I’m just saying, History, English, Communications, just pick one already,” John continues as if Dean hasn’t said anything. Mary on the other hand, is staring at Dean. He has to look away, his stomach coiling with nerves. He thought he would feel better once he told them, but he doesn’t. In fact, he feels worse. He feels his father’s eyes on him, slowly judging him. It feels like the time he was fifteen and took the Impala for a joyride around the block. They’d taken away his driver’s permit for a week. He feels like he should say he’s sorry and go to his room.

However, all those feelings go away when his mother jumps from her chair and starts jumping up and down, hugging John and himself. “We’re having a baby? We’re having a baby? WE’RE HAVING A BABY!”

“Yes, Mary, I think the neighborhood heard you.”

“Oh shut up, we’re having a baby. Oh, how is Cas? Is she alright? Does her family know? I need to call Missouri! Oh my precious little boy,” she puts her hand on Dean’s cheek. “I’m so proud of the man you’ve become. When is she due?”

Dean blinks. “You’re not mad?”

“Mad?” John replies, raising an eyebrow, “Why would we be mad? We’re thrilled.”

Dean shakes his head. “I don’t understand how everyone can be so calm about this. I’m freaking out.”

“Of course you are,” John laughs. “I was in complete panic for the first four months of your mother’s pregnancy with you.”

“Ah, is that why you threw up on the nurses shoes?” Mary asks.

“No, that was because I had that bad shellfish the night before,” John retorts, then he looks at Dean. “You know I still can’t eat oysters?”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Mary retorts, “Now I don’t care what plans you two had for tonight, you’re coming to dinner. Cas’ favorite food is still cheeseburgers, right? You and your father can grill.”

“While you grill Cas?” John asks.

She ignores him. “I’m going to call Missouri,” she goes into the kitchen, leaving Dean and his dad alone. For a minute, there’s silence apart from the ticking grandfather clock.

“You want a drink?”

“God, yes,” Dean answers and his father pats him on the back before going to the bar. He pours two glasses of whiskey and hands one to Dean who takes a sip, letting the amber liquid warm his bones and making him feel momentarily better.




Later, Dean picks Cas up from the veterinary clinic. She hops in, kisses his cheek and starts talking about her day while he starts the engine but before he can put the Impala in reverse, Cas puts her hand on his arm. “Yes?” She doesn’t answer him at first, content to just stare. Eventually though, she leans in and sweeps her lips across his.

“How mad will they be if we’re late?”

“Pretty mad,” Dean says, but he’s already turning off the engine and reaching for her. She sits on her knees, leaning over the gear shift. He fists his fingers through her hair, wishing like hell he could just take her back to their apartment and lift her against the wall. They make out until they’re out of breath, followed by soft, sweet kisses that make him want her even more.

"You know, the east parking lot at the church is usually empty now if you want to go have a quickie," Cas says, breathing into his ear.

Dean doesn't waste any time.


By the time they get to his parent’ house, everyone else is already there. The sweet smell of charcoal fills the air, along with apple pie baking as they enter the house. Gabriel’s on the couch making faces at Colt who immediately bounds up from the floor despite his ancient bones and runs to Cas. The mastiff stops right at her feet and tilts his head as if he senses something’s different about her.

She bends down, putting her forehead on the top of his head. Dean and Gabriel share a shrug, both knowing just how much Cas loves his dad's dog. He raises his head, giving her a slobbery kiss. She wipes her face with her hand, then wipes the slobber onto her jeans.

“So,” Gabriel drawls out, walking toward Dean in what is probably supposed to be a threatening stride.Which doesn’t quite work given Dean’s got a good three inches or so on him, but still, he makes his face as passive as possible. “You knocked up my baby sister.”

“Oh, God,” Cas groans, face coloring deep red. “Gabriel, you promised.”

“Nooo, I promised I wouldn’t pull any pranks. I didn’t say anything about talking.”

If Dean thinks Cas might rescue him, he’s wrong. She just shrugs, kisses Dean on the cheek and goes into the kitchen to be mauled by the other women. Dean might think talking to Gabriel’s going to be easy but then the back door opens and Michael and Raphael step in, their super brother senses tingling. Dean silently curses Sam for being in California, because really, talk about unfair.

“Alright, let me me have it,” Dean sighs, closing his eyes for the first blow. He does get hit, hard, on the back.

“Good job,” Michael’s laughing and it’s a very disconcerting sound to say the least.

“Wait, I got your sister pregnant before marriage and you’re saying good job?” Who the hell is this guy and what has he done with Michael?

The three of them look at each other in silent conversation and shrug. “While we disapprove of the order, we know better than to say anything that would interfere with our sister’s happiness,” Raphael explains.

Dean laughs. “Missouri threatened you, didn’t she?”

“Yes,” Gabriel answers as the other two nod and look away, “Yes she did.”

Dean just shakes his head and goes into the kitchen where Cas is sitting at the kitchen table,
drinking a glass of milk. Ellen and Jo are chopping vegetables for the salad and Meg is sitting beside Cas, waving her hands around. “So there I am, tying this guy up and he’s got a ball gag in his mouth when he starts tapping out like a little bitch.”

“Babe, we talked about this, no talking about work in public,” Jo gently reprimands. Meg sticks her tongue at her.

“Clarence likes my stories, don’t you?”

“I find them extremely fascinating,” Castiel admits to Dean’s complete non surprise. He’s actually lost track of how many times he’s woken up in the middle of the night in a cool bed only to find her sitting on the couch watching cable porn as if it was the news. Opening his beer with his ring, she stands so he can sit in her seat, then he pulls her down onto his lap. Somehow the conversation turns into an argument about baseball and as Cas waves her hands frantically as she argues with her brothers, Dean realizes really truly happy and what’s more, everyone’s happy for them. Sure, her brothers are giving him shit, but they’re not threatening to play a game of baseball using his head as a ball and Michael isn’t lecturing Cas about her future.




Dean calls his cousin a couple days later while Cas is still at school. “You’re a girl.”

“A fact that makes my girlfriend very happy,” Jo quips. “What do you want?”

“I’mthinkingofbuyingCasaring.”

There’s silence on the other end for a minute and then Jo finally replies. “You’ll want Meg for that, I know nothing about jewelry.”

Dean was afraid of that. “Fine, well, I need you, too just in case she tries to proposition me or something.”

Dean can hear Jo roll her eyes over the phone. “Please, you’re not her type.”

“No, but Cas is.”

Jo just laughs. Meg’s crush on Cas is old news. “True. Okay, we’ll help you.”

For some reason, Dean has a feeling he’s going to regret this. They make plans for Saturday, as it’s the one day a week all three of them have off. The only issue is distracting Cas. Dean has a plan for that though. One he instantly sets into motion after he hangs up with Jo.

On Saturday, Michael and Gabriel show up wearing Royals jerseys and caps and waving a ticket in front of Cas’ face.

“Go,” Dean insists, mouthing thank you to her brothers behind her back. “Have fun. Eat lots of peanuts and Cracker Jacks.”

“I don’t care if I never get back!” Michael and Gabriel croon together, dragging Cas in between them. “Sing with us, Casafras,” Gabriel insists, “and it’s root, root, root, you’re not singing!” Cas rolls her eyes but smiles as she joins in, “and it’s root, root, root for the home team and if they don’t win it’s a shame, ‘cause it’s one! Two! Three strikes you're out at the old ballgame!”

Dean laughs, kisses Cas goodbye. “Bye,” sending Cas and her brothers on their way. A minute later she comes through the door though and throws her arms around him.

“I don’t know what you’re doing, but you’re so getting laid tonight, Dean.”

“I look forward to it,” Dean says, kissing her again. After she leaves, he showers, gets dressed and goes to pick up Jo and Meg. Both of whom are far too excited for Dean’s comfort.

“So how are you going to do it?” Meg demands as she climbs into the back seat. “Are you going to do it over dinner? At a game? What?”

“Uh-”

“He doesn’t know, do you?” Jo says, looking at Dean. It’s not a question.

“I have a few ideas,” Dean lies. He has no ideas. “Whatever, let’s just buy the ring first and go from there.”

Meg shakes her head. “You make me sad, Winchester.”

Dean’s already regretting letting them help.

He’s really regretting it when Meg holds up a thick gold ring with a rock the size of Texas with a brown tinge to it and says, “Get her this one.”

“I thought you said she’s good at picking out jewelry,” Dean hisses into Jo’s ear.

Jo shrugs. “Oh did I say that? What I meant to say is,‘I’m mean and want to see my cousin suffer.’ If you actually wanted help you should have asked Becks.”

The thought of spending an afternoon with Becks is even scarier than one with Meg, so Dean decides to just grin and bear it. He’ll find Cas a ring, with or without anyone else’s help.

They’re at store number three when his cell phone rings and Gabriel’s name flashes on the caller ID. “Gabe.”

“Heeey,” Gabriel greets, “How goes the search?”

Dean knows instantly from his tone that something isn’t right. “What’s going on?”

“Well uh, Deano, it appears that hot dogs and baby don’t mix,” Gabriel laughs.

“I don’t know what to do,” Michael says worriedly in the background. “Do we go in there and hold her hair?”

“So yeah, she’s currently bonding with the toilet.”

Dean sighs. “Bring her home, dicks,” and hangs up just as Meg shoves another ring in his face.

“Look, it’s just like the one from Titanic!”

Maybe he would be better off with Becks.

“What’s wrong?” Jo inquires.

“Morning sickness, apparently,” Dean lets out a breath, “We should go.”

“You still have an hour before they get home. At least try one more store,” Jo insists.

Dean rubs his eyes. “Jo, I’m going to see diamonds in my sleep. At this point I think it’ll be easier just to give her a ring pop. She likes ring pops.”

“Dean Winchester, I swear to God if you give Clarence a ring pop I will make you regret it,” Meg threatens, poking Dean in the chest.

“What do you see in her?” Dean asks Jo, who just smiles. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”

So they go to one more store and once again Dean asks the nice salesgirl to see the engagement rings and once again, none are right. She’s going to be wearing this ring for the rest of her life. It has to be perfect. Yes, Dean knows he’s losing a lot of man points for this, but the way he figures it, a happy Cas equals a horny Cas, and then he gets laid and everyone’s a winner.

“Oh god, this is reaching new levels of pathetic. Show him something with sapphires.” Meg commands the salesgirl and then shrugs at Dean and Jo. “They match her eyes.”

Dean has to concede Meg’s right and so he starts looking through the diamond and sapphire rings, taking each one and picturing it on Castiel’s finger. One by one he does this until finally he gets to the one. It's a round two carat diamond with two pear shaped sapphires on either side. Damn if they don’t look like wings. It’s the ring, there’s no doubt about that.
But then he looks at the price tag. “Shit.”

Jo snags the ring and looks at the tag. “Dean, now is no time to be a cheapskate.”

“You know you’re going to be spending twice this much on the wedding, right?” Meg asks.

Dean can only stare at them in horror. “What?”

“She’s Catholic, that means big wedding,” Jo says without a hint of sympathy as she squeezes Dean’s shoulder. “Your face.”

“Your face,” Dean automatically retorts back.

“Just give the nice girl your credit card,” Jo demands, “Before I tell mine it’s okay to flirt with Cas.”

“Oh, I’m doing that regardless,” Meg smirks and Dean wordlessly hands the salesclerk his credit card.

He still doesn’t know how he’s going to propose, but he figures the hard part is over. After he drops Meg and Jo off, he goes home, showers, cleans and then draws until Gabe and Michael bring in a crying Cas in. Dean’s up from his chair in an instant, going to her.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, taking her from them and guiding her to the couch. She buries her head in his chest and all he can do is hold her while she cries. He looks up at Michael and Gabriel for help but they’re clearly just as confused as he is. They say soft goodbyes and leave, scared of their pregnant sister. “Cas?”

She looks up, eyes welled up with tears and nose all snotty so Dean leans over, grabs a tissue off the coffee table and hands it to her. She blows her nose and Dean waits.

“Our baby doesn’t like baseball.”

Now to anyone else, this would have been hilarious, but all Dean does is sigh. He knows how important this is to Cas. “No, our baby loves baseball. How can it not? It just doesn’t love hot dogs.”

She frowns, but her eyes are hopeful. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, and even if he or she doesn’t like baseball, I’ll tell ‘em to lie to you.”

Cas laughs, wiping her eyes. “Really?”

“I swear on my baby.”

She laughs, "Wow, you are serious if you're swearing it on your car," then she kisses him, soft and gentle. “Thank you.”

They spend the rest of the day on the couch, watching TV with Djinn curled up in the crook of Cas’ legs, purring happily. When the cat jumps off to go do something else, Cas’ fingers start unbuckling Deans’ belt.

Now the thing about being together for as long as they have, Dean and Cas know every silent signal, can translate every moan, and best of all, can do things to each other that other couples wish they could. Cas knows just how to flick her tongue underneath the head of Dean’s cock, and he knows that running his finger down her spine will make her practically hump his leg. He loves this, loves the sounds she makes while he tells her he thinks her mouth was made for sucking his cock. He comes hard in her mouth, giving her no warning but she doesn’t need one, swallowing him down and licking him dry. When she sits up her eyes are glassy and she’s got this satiated smile on her face. Even though she doesn’t ask, Dean kneels between her legs anyway, putting them around his shoulders. He doesn’t come up until she’s screaming his name.




Castiel graduates and she’s immediately offered a job at the animal hospital. Dean almost asks her then, but he doesn’t want this moment to be about them. It’s about her fulfilling her lifetime goal. So instead he takes her out to dinner, kisses her and shows her with his mouth and hands just how proud he is of her.

It’s been almost three months since he bought Cas her ring and he still hasn’t come up with any decent way to give it to her. It’s becoming more and more difficult to keep it a secret from her though, since everyone else knows about it. Figuring his dad will have some sort of advice for him, Dean walks into the police station after work. He’s greeted by Jo whose talking to her partner, Diana, and Rufus, John’s deputy as he walks into his father’s office.

“You give that girl her ring yet?” Rufus asks.

“Dean’s chicken,” Jo tells the older man. “Bawk, bawk, bawk,” she mocks. Dean replies by giving her the middle finger.

“Dean,” John waves him in to his office.

“Dad,” Dean sits down in the chair across from his father. “I need to ask you something.”

“Let me just finish typing up this report. You know, people think being a cop’s cool. Lots of running and getting bad guys. But really it’s a bunch of paperwork.” Dean nods, and looks around his dad’s office. There’s his police academy diploma and various certificates, photographs of his squad who he considers a second family, of his father on the day he was made Captain, and a few of his actual family. But what really surprises him are the framed drawings Dean drew of him as a superhero, fighting monsters and bad guys.

Dean decides to just ask. “How did you propose to mom?”

John takes a sip of his coffee. “Uh, well, we went camping and I got drunk, said will you marry me and then I threw up on her shoes.”

Dean pulls a face. There’s a weird history of his dad throwing up on people’s shoes he doesn’t want to know about. He hopes it’s not hereditary. “And she said yes?”

“Well, she made me do it again the next day when I was sober, just to make sure I meant it. Between you and me, I think your mother has few screws loose.”

Knowing all about crazy women, Dean can only nod and slump down in his chair. “I just don’t know how to do it.”

“Well, you better think of something soon, otherwise your kid will be born a bastard and no one wants that.”

Sometimes Dean wonders if his dad knows it’s the twentieth century.



“Are you going to eat that?” Now that Cas can eat without being sick, it’s all she does. Dean thought Sam ate a lot, but it’s nothing compared to Cas. It’s disconcerting on a financial level to say the least. But, if it means they have a healthy kid, then he’ll let her eat him if she needs to. Well, maybe not him, but one of their friends. Dean slides his plate of lasagna over to Cas and takes a bite of his bread so he doesn’t starve. When the waiter comes by asking if they care for dessert, she glares at the poor kid so hard Dean thinks his head is going to explode.

“Chocolate cake and the apple crisp,” Dean tells him. The waiter nods and forces a smile on his face, scurrying off.

“My fifth month ultrasound is next week. Do we want to find out what we’re having?”

“Do you?”

“It would make shopping easier,” Cas shrugs. She goes back to eating until the waiter brings out the desserts. Her face melts as she takes a bite of her chocolate cake.

“Do you want me to leave you two alone?” Dean grins.

“Yes,” Castiel says, moaning happily and making Dean’s jeans feel tighter. “I believe this cake and I would be very happy together.”

Dean eats his apple crisp as fast as he can, lest Cas get her hands on it and he starve.

They’re walking out of the restaurant when they run into Pam Barnes and her boyfriend. Dean expects some sort of cat fight but Pam smiles at Cas and the two end up making small talk and acting like old friends, catching up and asking each other about their lives. Dean’s seen this behavior before, but usually there’s a level of hostility involved. This time though, it’s like they’re genuinely glad to see each other.

Her boyfriend’s a tall man with a long black pony tail, a Megadeath shirt and an earring.

“Jesse,” he introduces himself to Dean while Pam asks Cas when she’s due.

“Dean,” he replies and they shake hands.

“Is it kicking yet?” Pam asks.

“Like clockwork,” Cas laughs, “It likes to move,” she turns to Dean, “We need to find out the gender, I’m tired of calling him or her an it.”

“You got it,” Dean replies, kissing Cas on the top of her head. Just then Pamela’s name’s called.

“It was nice talking to you two,” she says and Jesse nods silently in agreement. “I’m glad you two worked out.”

They both reply with a soft thank you and walk out of the restaurant. As soon as they’re in the parking lot, Cas sneers. “I hate her.”

“Oh thank god,” Dean lets out a sigh of relief. “For a minute I thought you’d been replaced with a Pod Person.” He tells her as he opens her door for her.

“Is it wrong?” Cas asks as Dean starts the Impala, “That I still hate her after all these years?”

Dean shrugs. “You’re not expected to like everyone, just like not everyone is expected to like you. Even though they should, since you’re awesome.”

Cas smiles brightly at Dean’s compliment. “I like when you call me awesome when you’re not drunk.”





The next week two things happen. One, Sam comes home and calls Jess and engages in a three hour, “No, I love you,” fest that makes them all sick. Two, they find out they’re having a girl. For Castiel, it means she starts talking to her bump about cute baseball players and for Dean it means he starts hating all boys who might ever want to date his little girl, especially baseball players.

“Yes, because that’s what our five month old fetus wants, to date,” Castiel rolls her eyes. “Do you hear yourself?”

“I think we know what kind of dad Dean’s going to be,” Beckett laughs, painting Castiel’s toenails because Dean’s forbidden Meg to do it.

“Funny,” Dean quips. “Chuck, help me out here.”

Chuck just stirs the pot of spaghetti sauce. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be helping you with, Dean.”

Dean glares at him. “Just for this, I’m demoting you to best friend number three.”

Chuck just mock sighs. “Dean, you demoted me in tenth grade after Victor got that one cheerleader to-”

“To help me with my geometry!” Dean interjects quickly and Cas, Chuck and Beckett collectively roll their eyes.

“Dean, I’m well aware of your sexual history,” Castiel reminds him. “You don’t need to apologize for having desires. I had them too.”

This time, it’s Dean’s turn to raise his eye brow inquisitively at Castiel. “I did!” she says defensively, “Just because I didn’t act on them doesn’t mean I was some prude.”

“Oh believe me,” Dean smirks at her, “no one thought that,” and she throws a pillow at his head.

After dinner while Becket and Cas engage in what Beckett refers to as, “Super Special BFF Time,” in their bedroom, Chuck looks through Dean’s drawings and Dean searches for a new job on the computer. All the engineering jobs want Masters degree and other certifications Dean doesn’t have.

“I still don’t know why you didn’t just go to Art school,” Chuck says.

“I like fixing things,” Dean shrugs.

“No,” Chuck sighs, “You like making things, which you could have still done had you gone to art school. You know, I wasn’t going to say anything until I was absolutely sure, but uh, I was talking to my publisher and she said they’re thinking of branching out and doing comics. So, I sent her one of our old ones and she liked it and well-”

“Spit it out, Chuck.”

“She wants to publish them. The comics. You’ll get full credit of course, two thousand per issue as well as five percent of the royalties.”

Dean closes his eyes. All of this seems a little too good to be true. “Um, how many are they going to publish?”

“Well, she said they’re going to start with the first five and see how those do, but a lot of people like the books so she figures…” Chuck trails on as Dean does the math in his head.

“You’ll have to draw some of the scenes again of course but, what do you say?”

It takes all of Dean’s strength not to say yes right there, but he’s got to talk to Cas first. Chuck seems to understand because he waves Dean away and continues to look through Dean’s work while Dean goes down the hallway. The door to their bedroom is closed but Dean can hear Castiel and Becks’ voices.

“So, still no proposal, huh?” Beckett’s saying.

“No,” Cas’ voice is shockingly forlorn to Dean’s amazement, “These brownies are amazing.”

“Thanks,” Beckett giggles, “I know how much you love chocolate.”

“I swear it’s all I want these days,” Cas sighs. “That and other things.”

“Sex?”

“He says I’m going to break him,” and the two dissolve into giggles. He’s about to knock on the door and make his presence known when Cas speaks again. “I want to get married and I know he does too, but every time I think he’s going to propose-”

“He chickens out like a six foot one chicken with the emotional maturity of a crayon?”

Castiel sighs loudly. “Yes.”

Dean knocks then and pokes his head in, “Hope I’m not interrupting,” they’re lying on the bed with a plate of brownies between them. “I need Cas.”

“I better go check on Chuck,” Becks says, quickly jumping off the bed and squeaking past Dean.

“What’s wrong?” Cas asks.

Dean sits on the spot Beckett just vacated and tells Cas what Chuck told him. She listens intently, just like she always does when Dean talks, letting him draw invisible lines in her hand.

“Do it, but only if you want to,” Castiel tells him and Dean nods back, brushing her hair away from her face. Then he helps her off the bed and goes to tell Chuck yes.




“Wait, so our lives are going to be out there for all the world to read?” Sam asks when he comes into Changing Channels to visit. They’re in the back room while Dean fixes yet another stereo.

“Not our lives, Simon and David’s.”

Sam makes a face. “I still say those names are horrible. Still though, it’s us. It’s a little creepy.”

“No,” Dean sighs as searches for his Flathead screwdriver. Ash better not have taken it,

“What’s creepy is drawing Cas as a dude.” Fuck, Ash does have it.

“So what,” Sam asks as Dean gets to his feet to go ask Ash where the flathead is, “are you having some sort of sexual identity crisis or something?”

“Or something,” Dean says as he walks out.

It’s not like he doesn’t get why Chuck thinks Castiel’s alter ego should be a male. Castiel was right all those years ago when she made her huge speech about David connecting with other men better than he can with women. It’s totally Chuck’s fault for scripting him that way. There’s something just really weird about drawing a guy who looks remarkably like himself, “staring intensely at the man with messy dark hair and a trench coat.” Of course Castiel’s argument is,
“You would love me even if I was a man,” which is so not the point. Maybe Sam’s right, maybe it is a little creepy.

He gets the Flathead from Ash and goes back to his little cave and starts working on the stereo again.

“Um, I’m not gay am I?”

Dean laughs. “I think that’s something you need to work out on your own, Sammy.”

“No, jerk, I mean in the graphic novel or whatever. Simon. He’s not gay, right?” He hastens to add, “not that I think anything’s wrong with that!”

Dean shrugs. “Not as far as I know. But he does have bad luck with women.”

Sam narrows his eyes. “What kind of bad luck?”

“Uh, well, I think they all die after they have sex with you. Your dick kills women, Sammy.”

Sam manages to look almost heartbroken over this, which makes it even more hilarious.

“That’s…why?”

Dean has a theory it has something to do with Beckett’s odd crush on Sam, but he’s not going to say anything. “At least you don’t have to draw it.”

Sam’s expression of disgust is worth it.




Missouri invites Dean and Cas over for dinner on Sunday. It’s a small, family affair, just her family and Gabriel’s new girlfriend, Kali. Kali’s an intelligent, gorgeous Indian woman and what the hell she sees in Gabe, Dean just doesn’t know. But she looks at him with fondness so he must have some sort of quality that makes her happy. Either that or she’s one of those women who likes projects.

“Castiel,” Kali starts during dinner, “Michael tells me you’re a veterinarian.”

“Yup,” she says, putting a pound of mashed potatoes onto her plate, “I mostly specialize in birds.”

“That’s fascinating,” Kali says and for a moment Cas eyes her, slightly distrusting but then she smiles. “Thank you. It’s very enriching work. What do you do?”

“I am in my third year of my psychiatry residency,” Kali answers, taking a sip of her martini.

“Ahhhh,” everyone says collectively, each knowing why the other is responding in kind.

“That explains it,” Dean mutters and Castiel laughs in agreement.

“Explains what?” Kali asks, sipping her martini.

“Why you’re with our brother,” Castiel explains. “But now we understand.”

“Don’t listen to them, babe,” Gabriel glares at them all, “I will have you know Kali says I’m one of the most well-adjusted people she’s ever met.”

“He is,” Kali says at their collective look of disbelief.

After dinner, Castiel and Gabriel fight over the last piece of chocolate pie and Castiel wins on account that she threatens to cry and Gabe cowers to her and offers her the slice.

“Being pregnant is awesome,” Castiel tells Kali, putting her feet up on the coffee table and her plate on her belly.

“I can see it has its perks,” Kali laughs kindly. Dean watches them make small talk until a hand grabs his arm and pulls him into the kitchen. He’s turned around and comes face to face with Missouri.

“Oh, hi mom.”

“Don’t hi, mom me, Dean Winchester. When are you going to give my angel that ring you’ve been carrying around in your pocket?”

Dean crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m waiting for the right moment.”

“The right moment was the minute she said she was pregnant, maybe even before then,” Missouri hisses, pointing her finger in Dean’s face. “Now look out that window. See how beautiful it is? The sun is setting and the snow's white and sparkling. If now isn’t the right time, then I don’t know when is.” Dean looks out the window at all the twinkling lights and knows Missouri’s right.

He nods back at her, marches into the living room, pulls Castiel up from the couch despite her protests that she wasn’t done eating, hands her her coat and takes her outside. The air is cold and she's rubbing her hands together The sky is made of brilliant shades of purple, pinks and dark blues that match Castiel’s eyes. Dean guides her to the tree Castiel fell out of, making her stand underneath the branch. She tilts her head, curiously.

“You know I don’t do speeches Cas, so I’m just going to um,” he bends down on one knee, instantly regretting it as the concrete side walk digs into his knee. “You’re amazing and beautiful and I think you’re absolutely insane for staying with me but I’m glad you did because I don’t know what I’d do without you because you’re like, my first best friend and I want to make you and our little girl happy so you need to say yes already.”

Castiel regards Dean for a long minute. “What am I saying yes to?”

Dean stares back at her. “Don’t be difficult, Cas.” He’s shaking with nerves and she’s freaking teasing him.

“I’m not being difficult, I honestly don’t know what the question is.”

“You make me want to pull my hair out,” Dean says, standing to his feet. “I swear to God.” He pulls the ring out of his pocket, takes a hand and puts the ring on her.

“You do realize my fingers are going to start swelling soon and I won’t be able to wear this?”

Dean hadn’t thought about that, no. He snaps at her. “Fine, wear it around your neck for all I care, but you are going to marry me, got it?”

Castiel stares for a moment before bursting into tears. For a minute Dean feels like an absolute jerk for fucking up the proposal but then she throws herself on him, kissing him so hard he nearly falls back. He regains his balance quickly though, wrapping his arms around her.

“You put it on the wrong hand,” she says between kisses.

“Oh,” Dean hopes the dimming sky hides his blush. It probably doesn’t. “Well uh, give it back and I’ll do it again,” she gives him the ring and for the third time in their life, Dean gets down one knee, “I’m never doing this again,” he tells her.

“I hope not,” she quips and he slides the ring on the correct hand. Then she pulls him up and kisses him again.

“You want to go inside?” Dean asks into her hair.

“In a minute,” she breathes into his chest.





Dean’s drawing a succubus when Castiel comes home, armed with shopping bags. “Should you be carrying those?” he asks.

“Probably not,” Castiel shrugs, “But I did.”

Dean frowns but hops off his chair anyway to go look at the merchandise. “So what’d you get? Anything sexy?”

“Maybe,” Cas says coyly, handing Dean a pink Victoria’s Secret bag. Dean takes the black sheer babydoll out of the bag. He’s so fucking grateful Cas isn’t one of those women who gets anxious about her weight during pregnancy, insisting she’s fat and undesirable. Of course, it probably helps her that Dean can barely keep his hands off her, but he swears the bigger she gets the hotter she gets. She’s wearing her ring around a chain around her neck, not wanting it to get stuck on her fingers as they swell, but it’s out where everyone can see it and she’s very quick to announce Dean as her fiance.

“We should start planning this,” Castiel says, dropping a bridal magazine down on the table with a large thud.

Dean quickly grabs a beer from the fridge, popping it open with his ring before sitting back down. “Okay.”

“Do we want to do it before or after the baby comes?”

“Before,” they say together.

“I don’t know what else to do,” Castiel says, flipping through the magazine, “maybe there’s a checklist?”

“Maybe you should call someone?”

Cas taps her fingers on the table. “Victor?”

“Being married five times doesn’t make him an expert on weddings, Cas.” Dean sighs, “It makes him an idiot.”

“That’s a mean thing to say about your second best friend,” Castiel teases.

“Funny,” Dean says, and after a beat, “Don’t tell him I told you that, you know how he gets.”

She rolls her eyes. “Oh I found it. Alright, it says the first thing we need to do is discuss our dream wedding.”

“City hall, right now.”

“The Vatican,” Castiel returns.

Dean nods his head to her, “Point. How ‘bout your church?”

“I will call Father Reynolds in the morning,” Castiel says, writing everything down on a piece of notebook paper. “Now what about an actual date? I would like to do it before I get so fat I don’t have to waddle down the aisle.”

“Sounds good,” Dean agrees, kissing Cas’ cheek. Cas smiles back and continues to flip through the magazine. “So um, I was thinking, this place kind of sucks.”

“Kind of wouldn’t, be the term I would use, but go on,” Cas starts tabbing the pages.

“I think we should move.”

Cas frowns thoughtfully. “It would be nice to live somewhere I wasn’t afraid of the ceiling collapsing and we did say we would start looking after I got out of school and started working full time, but I don’t know if I can look for a house, plan our wedding, work and incubate our baby at the same time though. I’m tired enough as it is.”
Sympathy for her races through Dean’s blood. She’s taking on so much in so little time that he can see it’s starting to get to her. He gestures for her to turn around and starts to massage her back. “Tell you what, I’ll find us a house, we’ll get our friends to help plan the wedding and you just continue to eat everything in sight.”

Cas turns her head to Dean, her expression hopeful. “Really?”

“Really, Bird brain.” Dean promises, pressing his lips against hers.

She smiles back. “There’s no way I’m letting our friends plan our wedding though.”

Dean has to agree. Who knows what kind of wedding they’ll have if Meg’s involved. There’s bound to be leather and chains and possibly a blood sacrifice.





Dean comes home to find a note on the door that simply says, “Took Clarence shopping, bbl.” He rips it off the door and goes inside. He feeds Djinn, showers, changes and grabs a beer from the fridge when his phone rings.

“Victor.”

“I’m getting divorced.”

Of course you are, Dean thinks, but instead he puts on his sympathetic friend voice. “Ah, sucks man.”

“She cheated, can you believe it?”

Dean would never have guessed. “Ahhhh.” He doesn’t say it’s because his friend is a raging workaholic with a dangerous job and is never home.

“Enough about me,” and Victor suddenly sounds cheerful. Dean doesn’t get how Victor can be that blase about women, but then again, he’s probably never been in love. “When am I getting my invitation?”

Dean laughs and turns on the TV. “Soon, man, soon.”

“Good. Now, I know you have to make Sam your official best man, but Sam knows shit about bachelor parties, so I’m throwing that, got it?”

Dean forces a laugh. “Got it.”




“Wait,” Sam says when Dean tells him what Victor said, “He said I can’t throw a bachelor party?
I can throw a bachelor party, Dean. I can throw the shit out of a bachelor party.” They’ve been looking at new homes all day and now all he wants to do is go home, take off his shoes and collapse face first onto his and Cas’ bed.

“I’m sure you can,” Dean grins at Sam who makes a perfect bitch face number eleven.

Sam waves a spastic finger at him. “You tell Henrickson to back down, because I’m going to throw you the party of the century.”

“You’re going to make us do a share circle, aren’t you?”

Sam’s voice raises about four octaves, “That was one time and we’re all better for it!”

Dean just laughs, parks the car in front of the animal hospital and they go inside. The vet technician, Madison, smiles up at them. “Dean, Dean’s taller brother.”

“Sam,” he laughs, reaching out to shake her hand, “You must be Madison.”

“What gave it away?” She asks, coyly.

“The name tag for one,” Sam flirts and Dean rolls his eyes and walks away. He notices a nine year old Claire Novak doing her homework in the corner. Her mother, Amelia, is the head veterinarian at the hospital and her husband Jimmy sells radio advertising.

“Heya,” he says, kneeling down in front of her. “How’s it going?”

She smiles shyly up at him. “Okay, I guess. Cas says you two are having a girl.”

“Yup.”

“Good,” Claire nods decisively. “Girls are better. She let me feel her kick earlier. It was weird.”

Dean laughs. “Yeah, it is weird,” he agrees just as Cas walks out of one of the offices with a blue Macaw on her arm. She puts him on a perch and gives him a piece of apple from her pocket. Her face lights up when she notices Sam and him in the lobby.

“Sam!” He leans over and hugs her gently, like he’s afraid he’ll squish her and the baby. Dean gives Claire a grin and goes to kiss his fiancée.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Cas,” he returns and then nods at the Blue Macaw who lives at the office.

“Alfred.” The bird stretches a wing out and waves it twice, as if to say ‘what’s up?’

They hear high pitched screeching from the other exam room.

“Shots,” Cas explains at Sam’s worried look. Moments later an old woman cradling a large, mean looking cat comes out, followed by Amelia. Madison turns to help the old woman with her bill, the cat still hissing at everyone in sight. Claire wanders up beside her mother, wrapping her arms around her waist. Amelia’s hands run through her kid’s long blond hair. It occurs to Dean that someday that’s going to be Cas and their daughter and another layer of the fear of parenthood slips away.

Cas puts Alfred into his cage while Amelia and Madison help close up the clinic as Claire gathers her homework. As when they’re ready, Sam and Dean stand by the doors as the four girls walk out of the building in a line. Sam closes the door behind him, Amelia locks it and wishes them a good night, guiding Claire to her car.

“Here’s my number,” Madison gives Sam her card, “You should call me.”

“Thanks,” Sam blushes like a school girl and it takes all of Dean’s strength not to roll his eyes and slap his brother on his head. As Sam explains it, he and Jess have an ‘arrangement’. Which doesn't really fit in with their "I love you more, no you hang up," phone calls, but whatever. He does however meet Cas’ eyes and she shrugs back.

“How was house hunting?”

“If I see another hot water heater I will lose it,” Dean tells her. He’s liable to punch something if he’s going to be honest.

Cas frowns and starts stroking Dean’s cheek. He instinctively closes his eyes and moves into the touch.

“Are you two ever going to stop being disgusting?”

Dean flips his brother off. “This coming from the guy who calls his girlfriend pookiebear.”

“Pookiebear?” Cas repeats.

Sam rolls his eyes. “Whatever, I’m going to Andy’s, he lives just around the block. Call me tomorrow, Jerk,” he tells Dean, hugging Cas goodbye.

“Whatever, Bitch,” Dean retorts.

They drive through the Taco Hut on the way home. When Dean yawns during Dr. Sexy, Cas tells him to go bed. He can’t bring himself to argue with her, so he gives her a kiss and goes to their room, changes into his pajama pants and falls into the bed. He’s slowly starting to fall asleep when Cas comes in. He can hear her get ready for bed, but he doesn’t open his eyes until the bed dips as she gets on it. She curls on her side, resting her knee on his hip and bends down to kiss the top of his head.





If Dean thought working from home would give him more free time, he’s dead wrong. Now he has deadlines and an editor who calls constantly and Chuck, who brings his typewriter over along with a bottle of cheap bourbon that he drinks like water.

“You do realize it’s 2008, right? There are these things called computers.”

Chuck flips him off. “I like my typewriter,” he rubs the side of it and Dean just laughs.
Working with Chuck is far better than fixing electronics. He goes back to shading his alter ego’s leather jacket, using Polaroids Castiel took for him to reference. Most of the pictures are completely inappropriate, but they made Cas laugh and that’s really all that matters.

“How’s the house hunting going?”

Dean groans. “It’s fucking hell, man. Found this place the other day, reasonably priced, good neighborhood, wasn’t caving in or anything, so I made an offer, only to be told it’d been sold just five minutes before.”

“Dude, that blows.”

They continue working for the next few hours until it’s time for Dean to go pick up Cas and Chuck has to leave. On his way to pick her up, he notices a house with a for sale by owner sign and stops to grab a listing. He does so just as a tall, lanky man with dark hair comes out of the house.

“Are you interested in buying this house?”

Dean looks up, startled. He has to admit, it’s a nice house. It’s a two story Tudor style home with a rose garden out front and a rod iron fence that goes around the back and sides it. It’s just the kind of place Cas would love.

“My fiancée and I are looking,” Dean answers, “I’m pretty sure this place is out of our price range though.

The man considers him. “Would you like a tour? It’s a bit messy because I wasn’t expecting any visitors. I’m Ezekiel.”

“Dean,” he shakes the man’s hand. “Let me just call my fiancée and let her know I’m going to be late.” He pulls out his cell phone and calls Cas, reaching her voice mail so he leaves a message as he follows the man inside.

“I am making soup,” Ezekiel says, “but feel free to look around the house and ask me any questions.” He turns around, going through an archway that leads to the kitchen. For a minute, Dean wonders if this isn’t some sort of Silence of the Lambs scenario, but he decides to risk it and starts looking around. The rooms are small, given the age of the house, but truthfully it’s in the best condition he’s seen during his search, new or old. He goes to the kitchen last, where the man is chopping garlic.

“I love food,” he tells Dean. “It’s why I’m selling this house, so I can tour the world and eat what it has to offer before I die.”

Dean has to admit, that’s a pretty awesome goal. Maybe he can convince Cas to do that with him when their kid is old enough. Of course knowing her she’ll want to go to every White Castle.

“Do the toilets ever back up?”

“I replaced the plumbing,” Ezekiel responds, “I have spent the last twenty years updating this house.”

“Yeah, it’s uh, pretty cool. I don’t think we can afford it though.”

“Tell me Dean, why are you looking for a house?”

Dean sits down at Ezekiel’s kitchen table. “Cas, that’s my fiancée, she’s pregnant and we live in this really crappy apartment and I don’t want my kid there.”

“I see,” Ezekiel says shortly, dropping a sprig of rosemary into his soup before sitting across from Dean. “Give me an offer and I will consider it.”

Cas is waiting outside for Dean when he comes. Her hands are on her bump and her eyes are closed but her mouth is moving. He honks the horn once and she opens her eyes and smiles, still talking to their baby girl. She gets in the car and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

“I have a surprise for you,” he tells her and she smiles back. He takes her back to Ezekiel’s house and parks. He gets out first, walks around and gets Cas. Her brow furrows, but Dean just leans down and kisses her. “What do you think?”

“It’s nice.”

“Yeah?” Dean shuffles his feet. “Because it’s ours if you want it.”

Cas stares back at him, unblinking. Dean chuckles, takes her hand and leads her to the front door. He rings the door bell and moments later, Ezekiel opens it, inviting them inside. Dean gives her a tour of the house, and by the time he shows her the den, she pushes him against the wall and kisses the hell out of him.

“Yes.”

“Thank God,” Dean groans. “I was going to kill myself if I had to look at another house. You sure?”

“When am I ever not sure, Dean?”

Dean grins. “I don’t know, there was that week in college where you thought you might be majoring in the wrong subject and we all had to talk you down from changing your major.”

“I liked politics.”

“You liked your professor,” Dean tells her. “You thought he was dreamy.”

Cas smiles fondly. “He was,” and then she leans back up and kisses Dean again, “Come on, I smell soup.”

Overall, it takes them a month to move into the new house. Dean can’t believe he’s actually a homeowner. The realization makes him collapse on the couch next to Castiel. Their friends are around, helping them move in, but since Cas can’t carry anything heavy, she’s planning the wedding instead.

“I just realized I’m an adult.”

Cas raises her eyebrow. “You just now came to this conclusion?”

“Shut up. I’m having a moment,” Dean groans as he rests his head on her shoulder, closing his eyes as she runs her fingers through his hair.



After that, it’s planning nothing but suit fittings, doctor’s appointments and cake tastings. The next thing Dean knows, he’s playing playing poker in the back room at the Roadhouse, getting more and more intoxicated as the night wears on.

“Read ‘em and weep, boys.” Rufus lays his cards on the table.

“You idjit,” Bobby slaps Rufus on the back of his head, “That’s a jack of spades not clubs.”

“Are you sure?” Rufus frowns. “I think you’re trying to cheat.”

“Oh here we go again,” John rolls his eyes. “Rufus, that’s a jack of spades. Bobby, you know better than to prod Rufus when he’s drunk.”

Rufus waves a flippant hand in the air. “Please, I’m as sober as a... as a... wait, it’ll come to me.”

“While we’re all waiting,” Victor shakes his head, “let’s get back to this hand.”

Gabriel slumps in his seat. “I thought this party was going to have strippers. I bet Cas’ party has strippers.”

Dean thinks about this for a moment and decide this is probably true. Cas is probably getting the show of her life from some built guy in a rip away police uniform and here he is watching two old men bicker.

At least it isn’t a share circle.

“That’s it,” Gabe throws his hand down on the table. “We’re going to a strip club.”

“I’ll have to bow out of this,” Dean’s father says with a laugh. “I’m too old to be coming home covered in glitter.”

“Me too,” Bobby agrees, pulling Rufus up by the scuff of his shirt. “I’ll take him home.”
Dean never thought he’d appreciate Michael and Raphael being sticks in the mud, but he appreciates since they are the only two sober enough to drive. “You’re awesome.” He tells Raphael, “I don’t care what Cas says.”

“What does Cas say?” Raphael asks, affronted, but Dean’s already heading over to their table.

The place is dark and seedy with red and black furnishings and a girl is spinning on a pole on stage to "Paradise City" by Guns and Roses.

“Oh won’t you please take me hooooooooome,” Sam sings in his ear, putting his arm around Dean’s shoulder, “Dean, I love you and I love Cas, and I love you and Cas together. You two are like two pieces of a puzzle you know? You just fit.” He looks close to tears, even in the dark light.

“Um,” Dean has no idea what he’s supposed to say to that. “Thanks?”

“I want that. To be in love like that. How do you do it?”

Thankfully, Dean doesn’t have to think about the question because someone’s pulling Sam away, telling him they’ve got a surprise for him. His seat’s instantly taken by Victor. On his other side is Gabriel, sucking a blow pop while his own personal stripper wiggles her ass in his face.

“I hear you’re the guest of honor.” She’s five nine in heels and wearing a catholic school girl outfit. She’s hot, there’s no doubt about that.

Dean gives her his best charming smile. “You bet I am.”

“Well then why don’t I give you a little dance,” She doesn’t wait for a reply, already starting to writhe around on his lap. He puts his hands on the sides of his chair, leans back and closes his eyes, and thinks of Cas.

Dean’s still slightly hung over by the time the wedding starts. Sam, Victor and Chuck are standing beside him and Jo, Meg and Becks are on the other side. Everyone is smiling as Castiel walks down the aisle, wearing white and her patented I know something you don’t smile, but then the smile goes away, replaced by a frown. For a split second, Dean wonders if she’s having second thoughts, but then she squeezes her eyes shut and clamps her arm around Michael’s, who’s staring at her like she’s grown tentacles out of her head.

“Angel?” Michael tries.

“I’m fine,” she shrugs, smiling at the crowd. “Keep walking.” She kicks his feet to get him to move. Dean however, jogs to her.

“What is it? Are you okay?”

Castiel glares. “I’m fi-” she grabs his hand and squeezes, hard. Dean curses under his breath. He knew pushing the wedding until the last minute was a bad idea. “Fine. See, I’m fine. Let’s get married.”

“You’re in labor,” Someone says. He should have known this would happen. All the excitement of the day, compiled with Cas being so close to her due date anyway, it was bound to happen.

“No I’m not,” Cas insists as she tries to straighten herself out. “It’s just indigestion, from Missouri’s biscuits and gravy.”

Dean doesn’t even try to argue with her. “Okay, tell you what, we’ll get this party started and we’ll see how far you can go, okay?”

Cas gives him a nod and Dean walks back to his place, watching as she and Michael walk the rest of the way. She gives Michael a kiss and he gives her away. In a sick part of Dean’s mind it’s his favorite part. Everyone is watching Cas with the same expression, waiting for her to have another bout of ‘indigestion.’

Father Reynolds gives Cas the same look. “Are you-”

“I assure you, Father, I am okay.”

He looks skeptical, and glances at Dean, who can only shrug. “Well, if you’re sure you want to continue, so be it.” He looks over the crowd, “We are gathered here today in the house of our-”

“Ow!” Castiel digs her fingers into Dean’s shoulder as another contraction hits her. John stands up from his seat, announcing he’s going to bring his car around to the front. People are starting to crowd around Castiel now, asking if she’s okay and if she needs anything. Dean leans down and whispers, “You can kick my ass for this later,” and picks her up and carries her out of the church. His dad’s outside, waiting in the car. Dean puts her in the back seat and then turns around and hands the keys to their house to the first person he sees, who happens to be Jo.

“Cas’ bag is in the closet by the front door, and uh, I dunno, just grab whatever.”

“Bag, whatever,” Jo repeats, snapping into action after giving Cas a little wave.

“We’ll uh, see you guys at the hospital,” Dean tells their family as he gets in the back seat with Cas.

John turns the siren on in his truck, weaving in and out of traffic until they’re at the hospital.

“We can’t just leave, Dean! I spent months planning our wedding!”

“Exactly!” Dean yells back without thinking. “You spent months planning and now you’re having our baby in dad’s car!”

John halfheartedly glares at them in the rear view mirror. “You best not.”
They both ignore him in order to keep fighting with each other. “I cannot believe your selfishness, Dean.”

“My selfishness?” Dean repeats, “My selfishness? What were you going to do, have our first dance with our daughter’s head between your knees?”

“I was handling it,” she says through clenched teeth.

“Handling,” Dean rubs his face, “Right, this is you handling it.”

“This is our wedding, Dean! Think of how much time we put into it! What about wedding favors? The guests need their chocolate!”

Dean’s eyebrow rises on its own volition. “You mean the ones you kept sneaking when you thought no one was looking?”

“YES!” Cas screams as another contraction overcomes her. Dean grabs her hands and stares her right in the eyes.

“It’s okay, just breathe.” Her head falls into his chest right as John pulls into the hospital entrance. It’s a mass of confusion as there are doors opening and orderlies helping Cas into a wheelchair and he’s answering questions and following as they wheel her to the room.

“Has your water broken?”

Dean starts to say no but then he catches the guilty expression cross Castiel’s face. “Cas?”

“The orchids were wilting, Dean!”

“We are so going to fight about this later,” Dean informs her and then looks back at the doctor. “You’ll have to excuse her, she’s crazy.”

Castiel crosses her arms over her chest, glowering. “If I’m so crazy why are you with me?”

Dean throws his jacket over the chair. “No clue,” he says, walking out of the room.

He runs into Michael and Gabriel in the hallway and tells them to go ahead and go in. Michael gives him a nod. Gabriel tells him everyone’s in the waiting room, so Dean goes there first. He looks around for his mom, but she’s not around.

“Where’s mom?”

“She’s taking the food for the reception back to your house,” John says, “Don’t worry, she’s coming.”

Dean sighs, relieved. “Good.”

“You know, I’m really proud of you son.”

Dean laughs but he doesn’t feel it. He just wants to go back to the room and make sure Castiel’s alright. John can apparently see it in his eyes because he claps Dean’s back and tells him to go. Meg takes the bucket from Dean as she and Jo whiz past. Knowing Cas will tell them of their fight and not wanting to look like the bad guy,Dean chases after them.
He kicks them out, much to the disapproval of everyone else, including Castiel.

“Come to tell me I’m fat, too?” She’s hooked up to a dozen different monitors and there are IV lines in her wrists but nothing going in them yet. Her eyes are on a Braves VS Indian’s game, but he doubts she’s really watching it. He moves his jacket and slumps into his chair.

“Cas-”

“No,” her voice is too soft, “Don’t talk.”

“Do you want me to leave?” He’ll do it if she wants him too, but he silently prays she doesn’t.

“You may stay, just-”

“Don’t talk, got it,” and he doesn’t. Not as the doctor and visitors come trickling in an out.

They all give him weird looks, like they know something’s wrong but no one seems to want to approach it. Just when he thinks he can’t get any worse, Balthazar shows up with a teddy bear dressed in a stupid V-neck shirt.

“You look beautiful, darling,” Balthazar kisses the top of her head. Dean has to hold onto the chair to keep himself from tackling the smarmy dick and sending him to the ground. “But you always look beautiful.”

To drown out the flirting, Dean turns the channel to a re-run of “Dr. Sexy: MD” and turns the volume up. He’s happily surprised when it turns out to be one of his favorite episodes.

“Awesome.”

“What’s with tall, dark and broody?” Balthazar asks.

“He’s a jerkface,” Castiel replies.

“Right back at ya, babe,” Dean retorts, opening up a Kit-Kat bar and starts to eat. “Mmm.” In the back of his mind he wonders if he’s not being too harsh on her, but then she throws an ice chip at his head and he decides no, definitely not too harsh.

Balthazar raises his hands. “Awkward. I believe that’s my cue to leave,” he says, backing up until he’s at the door. “Call me, Cassy."

As soon as the door closes, Castiel orders Dean to turn the channel back to the game.

“No, Dr. Piccolo’s sister is about to tell her she’s a lesbian. If you don’t like it I can always go get your boyfriend and you can marry him.”

This time she throws the entire bucket at him. It collides with his chest, splashing him with ice and water, soaking his shirt and chilling him to the bone. “Happy now?”

“No, now I’m out of ice chips.”

Dean throws up his hands, picks the bucket off the floor. “I’ll go get more. I need to find something else to wear anyway.”

He’s on his way to the waiting room when he hears Missouri calling his name. Slowly, and feeling somewhat guilty, he turns around. “Hi, mom.”

She tisks at him, shaking her head as she moves the bucket from his hands. “I’ll go get her more ice, you go find something to wear.”

He has to send Sam to the house to get him new clothes, so it’s over half an hour by the time he gets back. Dean spends most of his time either pacing or sitting next to his mom, squeezing her hand. When Sam finally returns, Dean snatches the t-shirt and jeans out of his hands. “Took you long enough.”

“Thanks, Sam! I appreciate the fact you took the time to go...” but whatever else Sam says falls on deaf ears because Dean’s already going back to the room. Missouri’s leaning over her, wiping Cas’ face with a cloth. He slips into the bathroom and changes, hearing the steady beeping of the machines and Missouri’s voice, saying soothing words to Cas. It’s too much for Dean to deal with. It should be him out there, wiping Cas’ head and holding her hand and telling her how amazing she is. But all that can come out is petty diatribes and insults. He can’t even pretend it’s his way of distracting her.

If he’s really a man, he would go tell her he loves her, kiss her and turn the channel back to the game. It takes him a few more moments to collect himself, but finally he comes out just as the nurse walks in carrying a clear plastic bag. She attaches it to one of the IVs and for a few minute’s her head droops and he thinks maybe she fell asleep. Then he notices her picking at her sheets.

“Cas?”

She looks back up, straight at Dean. For a minute he thinks her head is going to spin around like the Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist.

“Hello, Dean,” she giggles. Dean’s not sure what to do with her when she’s giggling. It’s unnatural. She wasn't even this loopy when she busted her knee and they dosed her up on painkillers.

“I’m going to find something decent around here to eat,” Missouri says, rolling her eyes as she leaves, “Good luck.” She whispers as she passes by Dean. Dean nods back and looks at the monitor that gauges when her next contraction is going to hit and goes to stand next to her.

“Okay, Cas, just hold my hand and breathe.”

She tilts her head at him and then does a salute. “Aye aye, fearless leader!”

Gone is the pissed off bride who threw her ice bucket at him. In her place is something even scarier.

“Bada bada bada bada, BATMAN!” She shakes Dean’s arm. “Dean, you’re not singing! bum bum bum bum bum, BATMAN!”

“I think you’re doing a good enough job for the both of us.”

“But I want you to sing! I like it. It’s like..like. like. that’s a funny word. Like! Like, like. It means to find suitable. Do you find me suitable?”

Dean smiles, rubbing her wrist with his thumb. She's more than just suitable. “Yeah.”

“Good,” She reaches out and pokes his nose. “Bop!” Then she falls into another fit of giggles.

“I think I prefer the Cas before the drugs,” Dean mumbles to himself.

“Noooo,” Cas shakes her head violently. “Not her. She’s a poobutt.”

“You know you’re insulting yourself, right?”

Cas ignores him. “Crazy,” she waves her hands around as to illustrate her point. He grabs them, forcing them down.

“You’ll tear out your IV.”

Cas leans in until their noses are touching. “You smell like chocolate. Let me lick your teeth.”

“Maybe later,” he promises, leaning away but she grabs his shirt, to keep him still.

“No,” her bottom lip pouts out. “Later you’ll brush your teeth and it won’t be the same.”

It’s a bad idea, but Dean just closes his eyes and meets her halfway. Only when their lips touch she starts giggling again.

“Now what?”

“Your chin is scratchy.” She literally growls before biting his chin.

“Okay!” Dean backs up and sits back down in the safety of his chair because he’s pretty sure they’re now allowed to do that. “You go back to singing Batman.”

“BATMAN!”

“Good girl.”




Dean is not freaking out. He’s not. He is the perfect picture of calm. Cas’ painkillers have worn off, considered too harmful for the baby, so now screaming, in pain, Cas is back.

It’s pretty safe to say it’s his least favorite Cas of all.

“I don’t understand,” they’ve been in the delivery room for what feels like ten hours, but has really been closer to an hour and a half, “why I have to do all the work. You’re the one who seduced me with your stupid freckles.”

Dean’s not quite sure how to respond, but he knows he has to say something lest she keeps glaring at him. “Uh, my freckles are sorry?”

“They should be!” Cas yells, “Oh, I’m Dean Winchester, I’m hot, you should fu-” he clamps his hand over her mouth.

“It’s nothing we haven’t heard before,” the doctor says absently. Dean sheepishly pulls his hand away. Mostly because he’s half afraid she’ll bite him.

“Fuck me,” she finishes, “Hah, I said it! In your face!”

Dean just looks at the nice man about to deliver his daughter. “You sure those drugs have worn off?”

“Positive. Trust me, this is pretty typical.”

“Right,” Dean doesn’t know if he should believe him, but he looks back at Cas anyway, who’s frowning down at the doctor.

“How much longer is this going to take?” she asks.

“Not too much longer,” the doctor replies, and both Dean and Castiel roll their eyes.

“What does that mean?” she asks, “ten minutes, an hour? five hours?”

“Please tell me this won’t take five hours,” Dean groans.

“An hour, tops,” the doctor swears. “It’s time to start pushing again.

Dean’s not sure where the man got his medical degree, but he’s pretty sure he’s from Liar University, because that is what he is. A liar. An hour, tops, Dean’s hairless white ass.

“Two hours, Dean,” Cas pants, “It’s been two fucking hours and do you see a baby?”

“No.” Dean replies, wiping Cas' forehead.

She glares at the Doctor. “Do you hear a baby?”

“I don’t.”

“He said we would have one by now,” Castiel scowls at the Doctor who doesn’t even have the decency to look contrite. “Look, you,” she points a weak finger at him, “I am tired, hungry and
I want my baby. Give her to me now.”

Dean decides to go for a more realistic approach. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” the doctor chuckles, “she’s just taking her time.”

“Taking her time?” Cas repeats. “Do you know what this means, Dean?”

Dean really hopes she doesn’t say what she’s about to. “Uh, I have to wait for two women now?”

“It means we could have gotten married!” Yep, she said it. "I was really looking forward to dancing with you and tossing the bouquet," Dean snorts at this, "and eating cake." Bingo.

“I’m sorry,” Dean replies, quickly kissing Cas’ sweaty forehead. Her face scrunches up, all adorable and confused.

“What?”

“I said I’m sorry,” Dean half smiles. “I was an asshole.”

For a minute Castiel doesn’t say anything and he thinks maybe she’s going to cry or tear his head off, but that’s not what happens. She just smiles and pats his cheek. “I forgive you.”

“Awesome,” Dean laughs.

“Alright,” The doctor interrupts, “It’s time to start pushing again.”

Cas goes back to pushing, fingers laced with Dean’s and he hums “Enter Sandman,” by Metallica under his breath.

“Mr. Winchester, if you can’t stop that I’m going to have to ask you to leave the delivery room,” the lead nurse says. He’s about this close to telling her to fuck off.

“Keep doing it,” Cas says with gritted teeth.

So he does, ignoring the glares from the nurses and trying his best to keep his eyes off the floor.

“Okay just a couple more pushes,” the doctor says squeezing his hand. It’s probably broken by now but he doesn’t care. He just tries not to look at the mess on the floor and focuses Cas.

“Alright, her head is out! Do you want to come see this?”

There are no words for how little Dean wants to see any of that, so he rapidly shakes his head.

“It’s the miracle of life,” one of the nurses tells him.

Dean grimaces, keeping his hands on Cas’ shoulders. “I’m good.”

“Just one more push,” Doctor ‘No Good At All,’ says.

“Do I have to?” Cas asks, sounding tired and pained. Dean wants nothing more than to make it
all just go away.

“Yeah, you have to,” he says, moving her hair from her face.

“For the record, we’re never having sex again.”

“Thank fucking God,” Dean prays, as he looks at all the gore.

“Come on!” the doctor urges and Cas grits her teeth and lets out a bellowing scream. Dean has no idea such a sound could come from someone as small as her. But then he hears a tiny, high pitched wail and he’s looking at his daughter.

She’s slimy and red and incredibly tiny, and his hands shake while he manages to cut the umbilical cord before they take her to clean her off.

“Dean?”

Dean looks back at Cas and smiles. “You’re awesome, I ever tell you that?”

She gives him a half smile as the nurse comes back over with their girl. She’s clean now, wrapped in a pink blanket and wearing a little white cap.

“You want to hold her, Daddy?” The nurse doesn’t wait for an answer, just slips her into Dean’s arms with a soft reminder to be sure to support her head. Dean stares down at her, and she stares right back. He’s had nearly forty two weeks to get used to the idea of being a father, but it’s not until he’s holding her that he realizes just how in love with her he is.

“Dean, can I have-”

“In a minute.”

“Looks like someone doesn’t want to let go,” the nurse says cheerfully. He does though, giving her to Cas who looks at their baby like she’s better than Baseball, Batman and Cheeseburgers combined.

“I need her name for the birth certificate,” one of the nurses tells them.

Dean looks back at Cas, they’d discussed names but as far as knows, they haven’t actually decided on anything.

“I still like Alex,” she shrugs, tiredly.

Dean gazes down at the tiny human in Cas’ arms. “Alex is good. Uh, Alex Mary?”

Cas mutters something about Dean being a momma’s boy, but tells the nurse to write down Alex Mary Winchester anyway.





Later that night after visiting hours are over and Cas has finally had her cake, it’s just the two of them with Alex sleeping in her bassinet, Dean and Cas are curled up beside each other in her bed.

“I can’t believe we made her,” Cas whispers.

“I can,” Dean whispers back. “Have you seen us? We’re hot, babe.”

She giggles softly. “Of course. I'm sorry too, Dean. I didn't mean what I said about hating your freckles. I love your freckles.”

Dean kisses her temple. "I kind of figured."

"It was your fault though."

He laughs. He could argue with her that it was her fault for dancing around the apartment to "Rag Doll" by Aerosmith in his shirt and nothing else. Instead, he asks,“You still mad about not being able to get married?”

Cas sighs. “Technically we already are, since we have the marriage license.”

“Oh, but you want the ceremony and all that, right?” Dean asks. Cas scoots up in the bed.

“I want to hear you say it,” Castiel replies.

“Okay,” Dean nods in agreement as he reaches into his jacket pocket for the rings he got from Sam earlier. “You want the words, you got it,” he takes her hand and looks into her eyes. He flashes to to the day Castiel tricked him into marriage when they were kids. “I, Dean Winchester, take you Castiel Paradis, to be my wife, for good or for bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer and in the seasons of the sun, amen.” He slips the ring on her finger, and as she laughs into her other hand to keep from waking Alex. She repeats the vows, and slide the ring onto his finger.

“So how long does this marriage thing last, anyway?” he teases.

“Forever,” she replies easily, “Everyone knows that.”

He’s good with forever.


The End.

For Now.






Note: For anyone who wants time stamps, I am more than willing.

Note the Two: If you're wondering why there's no college arc, it's because I didn't finish the draft in time. But I'll probably write a time stamp for it.

Note the Three: I really hope you liked this and the art. Nee is an amazing artist and gave me far more than I was supposed to get.

Fic Masterpost
Sketch Masterpost
Art Masterpost

Comments

[romeoambiences.livejournal.com]

I want a Balthazar to flirt with! Anyway... This was such a feel-good story. It was a pleasure to read and left me with this ball of warmth in my belly.
Castiel was wonderful. Gotta love a girl who never stops loving Batman and baseball. I'm glad Dean wised up to follow his heart, but I still hold a grudge for how he treated her before he came to his senses.
Would be more than happy to see timestamps. Want to see Dean with his little girl and would love to see more children, more family, just more.
Thank you for sharing this sweet universe. It's nice to leave a story with a smile on my face.

[c00kie]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[elemersglue.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading this very, very much. I am sooooo glad you decided to continue writing this again! It isn't very easy to picture Cas as a girl, but from the very start of your story, I was already comfortable with the fact that your Cas is, well, a girl.

You captured their characteristics so perfectly! I think Dean & Cas would be like this if Supernatural was set in an Alternate Universe sans the death and all. Of course Dean would be THAT cocky in high school, and Cas would be the tomboy, feisty weirdo. I love that their relationship wasn't perfect at first, but OF COURSE they belong together, and in the end, all was well! I love your John & Mary (And Sam!), too! And your Gabriel, Raphael & Michael! Your Jo, Meg, Chuck, Becky.. sigh. I love how the story doesn't just revolve around Dean/Cas, you actually have little stories about all the other characters! Fantastic!

What I especially like were Dean's little quips - like the Eurowhore comment, John puking on everyone, the apple crisps, etc. Every scene is just too darn memorable, I wanna cuddle this fic sooooo bad <3 I am so in love with this story! Thank you for writing this <3

[c00kie]

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

I love love love love love love this story! One of my favourites of the dcbb fics so far. It was original but still just about people growing up, I was glued to my computer the whole time. Normally I'm more of a lurker, but i really wanted you to know how much I loved it :p So I think it's no wonder I'd have no trouble with reading a time stamp, especially set in college :)

[c00kie]

One college time stamp, coming up!

Thanks for reading! Glad you came out of lurkedom!

[arabella_w]

This was amazing!!! So very sweet and adorable.

I'll be looking foward the time stamps

[c00kie]

Anything specific you would like to see?

Thank you!

[arabella_w]

It would be awesome to read their prom night <3

[malcolm_doyle]

This was so damn perfect. I've never read a girl!Cas fic but this one totally sold me on the concept. This was such good writing, everyone was so IC. Lovely job, I really loved it. :)

[c00kie]

Awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[crimson_vipera]

I kept on smiling all through this. Even in arc two, when I was all 'typical; Just don't fuck it up too bad, boy' at Dean, I was still smiling.

This story was so warm and... I don't even... The word 'sunny' comes to mind.

I love all the tie ins to the series that are there. And I really could see Dean and Cas from the show in there, even though their lives were so different.

There were some serious grammar problems in the later arcs. That they didn't throw me out of the story is another testament of how good it was. I'm very particular about that side of my reading material.

Can't wait to see those time stamps!

CV

[c00kie]

Yeah, my beta and I had to rush to get it done in time, so obviously we missed a few things. Or rather, I rushed it.Was there anything in particular you noticed?

Is there any specific time stamp you would like to see?

[papercute]

This is absolutely adorable! I don't normally read het but I just could not pass over a lovely kid fluff fic. I guess I'm a bit disappointed you didn't get to do the college arc because it would be nice to see a break or something in their relationship. I mean it was gorgeous from the get go with little piggy bank and all. And then Dean got too cool for school but he very soon realised the error of his ways. It would've been nice to see some conflict is all. What with that dreamy college professor. (I am an angst-whore, shall admit). The wedding and the baby and everyone else also growing up as well. The only thing I was worried about was that Cas was pregnant and she's a vet. Around cats. Pregnant people shouldn't be around cats, they can pass on some pretty icky illness/diseases. Other then that it was a lovely feel good happy fluff fic. Fabulous.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for reading.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, I absolutely love this fic and all its wonderful details and flow and characterization. Wee!Cas and Dean are such adorable cuties and when they grow up they're so perfect together it makes me want to puke rainbows and throw confetti and celebrate and also they have a cat, it's the most achingly domestic thing I've read in a while <333

[c00kie]

Haha. Thanks! I feel the same way about them. I'm glad you liked it!

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of this was very enjoyable, but I think you have my favorite Raphael ever.

- orange-8-hands

BEST.FIC.EVER.

[(Anonymous)]

THIS STORY NEEDS A GRAMMY I JUST KEEP COMJNG BACK TO IT OMFG IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!! Sorry I said that all in one go and I just couldn't stop with the praise XD PHENOMENAL SPECTACULAR JOB!!!