99. Chapter 99

It was easily the best Christmas Eve that Dean had ever had. After breakfast was over, he finished opening up his gifts. Castiel and Gabriel had bought him tons of toys – so many that Dean wasn’t sure he’d ever have the chance to play with them all – including some things for their upcoming vacation, as well as a bunch of other stuff. Dean had been bolstered by breakfast but opening up everything else left him exhausted all over again.

He spent the rest of the afternoon cuddled up on the couch between Castiel and Gabriel, gently petting Sparks. She looked adorable in her new collar; it matched her eyes just as well as he had hoped that it would, and the silver tag stood out against her fur. He couldn’t help touching her tag, running his thumb over the engraving that Castiel had helped him to get. It was proof that he and Sparks belonged here.

Gabriel had cooked them two kinds of pie for supper: meat pie and pecan pie, both of which Dean ate with glee. Then Castiel gave him a warm bath with plenty of bubbles before giving Dean a bottle of milk-and-grace. He then tucked Dean into his crib. By that point, Dean was just so tired that he barely had enough time to enjoy the sparkling lights and soft melody of his mobile before he fell fast asleep. And for once, he was so tired that he slept the night through without any nightmares.

Castiel woke him up early the next morning, dropping the side of the crib and lightly shaking Dean’s arm. “Dean, honey, wake up. We need to go if we’re going to be on time to Bobby’s.”

“I’m still tired, Daddy,” Dean mumbled, not lifting his head from his pillow. Though he didn’t know what time it was, it felt earlier than the time when he usually got up. He really wanted to just close his eyes and sleep for another couple of hours, but the sound of Castiel’s low chuckle told him that wouldn’t be happening.

“I know you are, but don’t you want to meet up with everyone? See Sam? Give out your presents?” Castiel said, trailing his fingers down Dean’s arm.

“No,” Dean said, pulling the covers over his head. Sam would understand. When you were a hunter, you tended to value sleep pretty highly. He figured that was probably the one thing about Sam that hadn’t changed, given that he’d heard sleep was a precious commodity around universities and colleges too.

Castiel laughed. “Yes, you do. Come on.” He grabbed the blanket and pulled it away. Dean whined in protest and tried to hold onto the blanket, but of course he was no match for a fully fledged angel. The blanket slipped away from him and then the next thing he knew, Castiel’s hands were sliding under his arms and lifting him out of the crib. He was shortly being cradled against a familiar body.

Dean scowled sleepily as Castiel carried him out of Castiel’s bedroom and into the nursery. For once, the diaper change didn’t even phase him: as soon as Castiel laid him down on the changing table, his eyes slipped shut and he started to fall back asleep. So the fact that Castiel picked him up again as soon as Dean was in a fresh diaper made him whine even louder.

“Shh. I know you’re grumpy, but you’ll be glad you went,” Castiel said, gently patting Dean’s back. Though Dean didn’t say as much, he begged to differ. He was certain Sam, Bobby, and Jody would understand if they were a little late.

“We ready to go?” Gabriel asked, poking his head in the room.

“Someone is being a sleepy little grump,” Castiel explained, turning to face Gabriel.

“Ah, I see.” Gabriel nodded wisely. “Come on, Dean-o. Now that you’re already up, we might as well just go, right? Because if you go back to bed now, you’ll never achieve the same level of comfort that you had before. You’ll just be tossing and turning, and then you’ll have to get up anyway.”

That made a surprising amount of sense for an archangel who didn’t even sleep, and Dean had to begrudgingly concede that Gabriel was probably right. And so was Castiel, for that matter. Sam and Bobby probably wouldn’t be all that understanding: they’d be more inclined to tease him about it. Jody might be a little kinder about it, but there was a chance she might not.

“Fine,” he mumbled, hiding his face against Castiel’s collarbone, and both angels laughed.

“I’ll get Dean ready. You make sure we have our gifts,” Castiel told Gabriel.

“On it,” Gabriel said.

The mention of clothing made Dean lift his head again. “I can’t wear anything too babyish,” he said worriedly. He had gotten used to the childish clothing that Castiel and Gabriel usually made him wear. He didn’t even mind the silly t-shirts or onesies anymore. But he couldn’t bear the thought of wearing anything that embarrassing around the rest of the family.

“I know. Gabriel took care of it.” Castiel shifted Dean’s weight to one arm and opened up the closet door. From he far right, he produced a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt, as well as a dark green flannel overshirt. Dean squinted at them critically before nodding. They looked pretty close to what he used to wear before all this began.

Castiel helped him to dress, and then Dean spent a couple of minutes staring critically into the mirror. Both shirts were long enough to cover up the waistband of the jeans. The jeans fit well but weren’t so skin-tight that someone would be able to notice the diaper he was wearing underneath. All in all, if you ignored the wings, he thought that he looked pretty close to what he used to look like before.

Not that it mattered a whole lot, given that Sam, Bobby, and Jody had all seen him crying like a baby while screaming for Balthazar to save them when those demons attacked, but Dean was trying hard not to think about that part of it. Some things were best left not dwelled upon, or he’d be much more likely to lock himself into Castiel’s bedroom and never come out.

“Ready?” Castiel asked, standing just to Dean’s left. His wings were so big that they blotted out Dean’s, and for a moment Dean could almost see them as they used to be during the Apocalypse.

But then Castiel shifted and Dean’s wings came back into view, and Dean sighed and nodded. It was better this way. Much better. He didn’t know where he would be if it weren’t for Castiel and Gabriel, but it wouldn’t be anywhere good. He turned to Castiel and hugged him tightly, and of course Castiel’s arms came up around him and hugged him back.

“Let’s go,” Dean said. “I just gotta get Sparks.”

Gabriel flew them to Bobby’s house. Dean’s stomach churned with apprehension as the house came into view. He hadn’t been back here since the demon attack, and seeing the backyard brought back all sorts of uncomfortable memories. Castiel rested a hand on his shoulder, and Gabriel patted his head. Both angels, of course, knew exactly what was going through his head.

“Dean! Hey!”

“Sammy!” Dean’s head snapped around as Sam burst out of the house. Some of his apprehension faded away as Sam jogged over to them, and he eagerly moved forward to hug Sam. It was hard to believe that it had been almost six weeks since he’d last seen his brother.

“How have you been?” Sam asked, hugging Dean so tightly that it would’ve been enough to make a regular human’s bones creak a bit.

“Not too bad,” Dean said, realizing that Sam had probably been worried. It hit him then that he should’ve contacted Sam after the whole attack to let Sam know that he was okay, but it hadn’t even crossed his mind to do so. Which honestly, was a little weird when he thought about it.

“Good. I’m glad,” Sam said sincerely, pulling back and smiling. Dean got a good look at him then and was relieved to see that Sam didn’t look much different than he had at Thanksgiving. He was still a little thinner than he’d been while they were hunting, but not dangerously so. And it didn’t seem like the circles under his eyes were any more pronounced.

“Hey Sammy,” Gabriel said, and Sam turned to the angels.

“Hi Cas. Gabriel,” he said. “How are you doing?”

“Hello Sam. We’ve been good,” Castiel said, smiling at Sam. “Would you take this for a moment?” He handed Sparks’ carrier over to Sam, who held the carrier up so that he could Sparks.

“Hey Sparks. How have the angels been treating you?” he asked, pressing a finger to the netting. Before Dean could warn him, Sparks attacked. Sam jumped as her little claws snagged in his skin, and quickly pulled his finger away.

“Sorry! She doesn’t like flying,” Dean said.

Sam just laughed. “I guess I should’ve expected that. Come on. Bobby’s got you set up in the same room as before. You can let her out there.”

“Where is Bobby?” Dean asked, a little surprised that he and Jody hadn’t come out of the house yet. The thought flickered through his mind that maybe Bobby and Jody didn’t want to see him – maybe they blamed him for what had happened –

“They went into town for groceries. Jody’s been looking through all these recipe books and at all these cooking websites to figure out what to make for supper tomorrow. It’s driving Bobby crazy that she keeps changing her mind,” Sam explained, smiling as they walked to the house. “He pretty much said that this was their last trip into town because the fridge can’t hold anymore food, so Jody better make it count.”

Dean smiled too, more relieved than he wanted to admit. “Un – ah, Gabriel can just enlarge the fridge,” he said, catching himself before he could call Gabriel ‘Uncle Gabriel’.

Sam didn’t blink at the minor stumble, just shrugging. “Hey man, if you wanna get between Bobby and Jody when they’re both in a mood, that’s your funeral. I prefer to save my own skin and stay out of it.”

“You’re a wise man, Sam Winchester,” Dean said with a smirk.

“Right?” Sam said, smirking back. They walked upstairs together, and it took Dean a moment to realize that Castiel and Gabriel had not followed them. He debated going back downstairs to see what they were doing, but then Sparks let out a pitiful meow and he decided that it was better to let her out. He set the carrier on the bed and opened it up. Sparks emerged immediately, ignoring Dean’s outstretched hand, and stretched.

“I know, you’re mad,” Dean said to her, gently running his hand over her fur. She ignored him for a moment longer before begrudgingly turning her head and bumping her head against his palm.

“Are you happy, Dean?”

The question seemed to come from nowhere, and Dean turned to his brother in surprise. Sam had taken a seat in one of the old armchairs that Bobby had stored up here. Later tonight, Dean knew, Castiel would change that old chair into a rocking chair, and that was where Dean and Castiel would sit tonight while Dean had his bottle. But in the meantime, Sam had settled into it and was looking up at Dean with a strangely pensive expression.

“Yeah, I am,” Dean said. “I didn’t think this would be for me when Cas first approached me with the idea, but… it’s gone a lot better than I expected. Demon attacks aside, of course.”

“Of course,” Sam said, nodding. “So… you didn’t find it weird?”

Dean snorted. “Dude, it was super weird. It was a tough adjustment for me and I’m sure it was on Cas as well… and Gabriel too, for that matter.”

“If it was that weird, why did you do it?” Sam wanted to know.

“Because every day, it got a little less weird,” Dean said after a moment’s thought. “Even now, I still have the occasional moment where something seems weird or whatever but… but at no point was there ever a moment where it was so weird that I was willing to give up the good parts to avoid dealing with the weirdness.” He hadn’t fully realized that until he spoke the words out loud, but it was the truth.

He would always be grateful to Castiel for insisting on this. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

“I see,” Sam said slowly, and Dean glanced over at him curiously. He really wanted to ask why Sam was asking these questions, but he also knew that Sam wasn’t yet aware of Gabriel’s plans for him. And Dean knew his brother: if Sam could come around to the idea of becoming a nestling or hatchling on his own, things would go over a lot better for everyone. Too many questions right now might scare Sam off from even thinking about it.

So Dean just smiled at him and said, “Besides, someday I’ll be a badass angel who can strike fear into the hearts of my enemies. Who wouldn’t want that?”

Sam laughed. “Sure Dean, sure.”

“Your skepticism hurts, Sammy,” Dean said with a mock pout, which just made Sam laugh again. That was alright. The seeds had been planted, and they all just had to be patient at this point.