"I don't know...", the boy looked down at his lap, feeling more so then ever the nerves of just what his answer to this suggestion might entail, and it wasn't as if the other was demanding him to give the answer he so clearly wanted to hear, but still, this was a lot to ask of him.

"What scares you the most about it?"

He rubbed at his head slightly, finally turning to meet the blue eyes that shown just a shade lighter then his, they shone with an inquisitive nature, not demanding and certainly not angry at his stalled response. What was desired was clear, as clear as a summers day, but he wasn't sure about it. It scared him.

"What if...", his eyes shined in the lamp light, "What if something bad happens?"

"Then we will protect you.", the older man stepped forward, pushing away from where he'd been leaning against the desk, and moved to sit next to him on the bed, "Nothing, absolutely nothing, will happen to you. Nothing will touch you.", he reached up to brush some hair from his eyes, "I won't let it. None of us will."

It had been nearly an hour since he had brought up the matter. An hour that the others were waiting to hear from them. An hour since they had locked themselves up in their room like they had.

When Lucifer had first brought his idea to the forefront, it was met with a bunch of different reactions, Dean had been against it from the start, Sam was curious, Gabriel was all for it, Castiel nuetral either way, and Jack, Jack was unsure. He wanted to try it but there was a part of him that wasn't sure.

"How old would you make me?", Jack's voice was small, unsure, and nervous. He turned to peer up at the archangel and Lucifer smiled down at him, brushing his hair back lightly, "Would I be a baby?"

"Well you truly are only months old", He chuckled softly, "But no. Not if you didn't want to be. I was thinking more along the lines of a toddler."

Jack sucked in a breath, letting it go slowly, "Will it hurt?", Lucifer shook his head, "No more then a pinch.", he seemed to think it over for a long moment, looking back down at his lap.

"Jack,", a knuckle under his chin had him looking up again, "Kiddo, I want you to have the opportunity to live the childhood that you missed out on. You had to grow up so fast, I want you to experience it, to be able to be carried around, sit on someones shoulders, I want you to be a kiddo.", he brushed a thumb over his cheek lightly, "If you would want to."

It wasn't to say that they didn't have fun as they were now, they had a blast, Lucifer was such a trickster, and uncle Gabriel was self explanatory, they played jokes and games and everything was great. Jack giggled a lot, often seen within the same line of sight as his father was, there was more then one occasion where either of the Winchesters would wake up in the morning and find both archangel and son curled up together on the couch whispering secrets to each other and giggling at whatever was shared.

"How will we know when they decide?"

Gabriel waved the hunter away, flipping through a magazine he'd snapped up, "When they come out."

Sam was watching the door intently waiting for them to come out again. They had been in there for some time now and part of him was worried that perhaps Gabriels plan had somehow backfired on them and Lucifer was taking advantage of this freedom with his son and ditched them.

The messenger glared at him for a moment and turned his attention back to the door as well, focused on whatever or whomever might make their way out of there.

He smiled when the door handle began to turn, and stood from his seat to greet whatever may be on the other side, Gabriel tilts his head slightly, when the only one who appears is his older brother, and worry began to creep up on him.

"Luce...", he tries to spy for anything, "Where is...?"

Lucifer smiles at him, reaching a hand behind him, and the room falls still when the first sighting of a little hand makes its appearance, clutching at the archangels fingers, a little head of floopy blonde hair pokes out from behind the morningstars leg. Gabriel can feel the smile forming even before it appears for them to see, his wings flutter at the light storm blue eyes that peer up at them nervously, they settled on a nice toddling age and it suits them.

He kneels, "Hey kiddo?", and waves his fingers at him in greeting, "How do you feel?"

The little one makes a face, a face he most certainly inherited from his father before him, and tilts his head to the side, "Small."

Gabriel barks a laugh and nods, "Well you are small."

"Not as small as you."

Normally, Jack is almost a few inches taller then his uncle is, Gabriel gripes about it in good nature, all playful anger, and its a running joke that he was the runt of the archangelic family. But now, now he's finally taller then the squirt, and if you think he's not going to take advantage of it then you don't really know him all too well, and he reaches out to poke his chubby toddler belly.

Lucifer smiles when the boy giggles softly, nearly silently, and twists into his leg.

"Look who's talking short stack.", He rolls his eyes at their banter, chuckling softly as he shakes his head, "Gabriel", he admonishes softly, "Do not tease the fledgling.", Jack ducks behind his fathers leg when Gabriel looks up at the older angel with shock and sticks his tongue out when the golden eyes turn back to him.

Sam is stumped silent for a moment, not sure how to react, when Lucifer had brought the matter up they had all sort of overlooked it. None of them had thought Jack would agree to this, and that included Lucifer himself, but seeing him now cemented a level of trust he had in his birth father that none of them thought he had.

None of them had actually seen them spend the time together that this trust would call for, but then again, Lucifer was a pretty private person when it came to those sorts of things, Gabriel assured them time and time again that they spent lots of time together, talking and getting to know one another, but even that they had taken with a grain of salt.

When Lucifer had first moved into the bunker, Jack had pretended he wasn't really there, and they weren't sure when that had changed, but it had.

And now here they were.

The hunter shook himself from his thoughts, "Uncle Sam?", and smiled at the moniker. Something he was still getting used to. Jack had a lot of people to care for him in this world, and he was happy to be one of them, he liked the kid a lot. Jack was standing in front of him, brushing his floppy hair away with little fingers, looking up at him with concern. The room had fallen silent in his reverie and he could feel the eyes on him from all around.

His face flushed a deep red.

"Yea kiddo?"

Jack looked back at the archangel behind him, Lucifer met his gaze over Gabriel's shoulder and smiled, "Papa wants to know if you want to come to the Zoo with us?"

"Oh hell no.", Dean finally found his voice, jumping in quickly, there was no way in hell they were letting him out of the bunker onto the world, as far as he was concerned Lucifer was a glorified prisoner who was allowed way too much freedom. "You aren't going anywhere with him."

The smile faded from the little guys face, and he turned to look at the archangel again, Lucifer had promised. The blonde archangel frowned at the older hunter for upsetting his son.

"But-", Dean cut little Jack off, "No. Google a picture of a Zoo. But you're not leaving with him."

His eyes fell to the floor in defeat, downcast, and nodded silently. Sam side glanced his older brother when Gabriel turned a glare over his shoulder. Clearly he and Lucifer had been discussing plans, things that they wanted Jack to experience at this age, and this was not something that was going to be taken lightly.

Lucifer heaved a sigh when Gabriel shot him a pointed look, and stepped passed him, crossing the room for his son. Jack gave a sad little hum when fingers hooked under his arms and lifted him from the floor. He was settled on the archangels hip and he turned his face to hide in his neck when he felt his eyes start to water. Lucifer was warm, surprisingly so, and the hum of his grace under his skin was soothing to the fledgling. His large hand pat at his bottom softly, his bristled chin rubbing against his forehead as he turned, addressing the issue.

"We're going to the Zoo. He said he wanted to see the Zoo, so we're going to see the Zoo, you don't have to like it but you won't talk to him like that."

Jack peeked out at the hunter from his hiding place, and turned back when he saw his eyes darken, little fingers gripping at the archangels jacket. Lucifer felt his movement and pat his bottom again.

"We're going to the Zoo.", his bristled chin rubbed against his cheek as he leaned down slightly, "And then to the Carnival.", Gabriel gave a whoop of excitement from behind them and he giggled softly at the sound.

"Can we go there! There! The elephants!", he tugged at the blonde hair with his little fingers, swaying with every step the man took, bobbing up and down, the man grunted slightly and squeezed his ankles, "Hey! Watch how hard you pull there kiddo!"

He giggled and leaned down, hugging his arms around his head tightly, and the man chuckled, fluttering his fingers over his bare little feet. Giggling and kicking he uttered an apology. They turned, steering towards the large pen with the elephants in it.

One turned to look at them as they approached and turned to make its way over. The woes of being an archangel visiting a Zoo, the animals knew who you were instinctively, and did anything to please you, Jack giggled when the elephants trunk reached for him, and Lucifer, though smiling at the sound, waved the large creature away before it could draw attention to them.

"Hey hey hey," his fingers brushed against the elephants truck, "Don't do that! You'll draw unwanted attention!"

There was another tug to his hair and he looked up, "Papa can they understand us?", Lucifer quirked an eyebrow, "Of course they can.", and the boy beamed, "Cool!"

The elephant honked as it was pushed away, and Jack turned quickly, fingers tightening around his ankles to steady them, "Hi!"

Recognizing the fledgling in front of it, the elephant gave a loud greeting, drawing the attention of the others in her pen. There was a little calf, tooting excitedly at them, and Lucifer waived down at it and it tooted again, Jack tugged on his hair, "He's so small!", and he chuckled, "Just like you?"

"I'm not small."

There was a sharp yank on his hair and he grunted, tugging on the boys ankle, "Kiddo, you pull my hair like that again and you'll regret it."

Jack giggled again and bent slightly, the soft blonde locks rubbing against his little cheek, and kicked lightly when he felt a thumb dig into his left foot.

"Oh ho ho you'll regret it."

"Okay guys! Turn! We need a picture!", they both exchanged a glance at the Messengers cry but turned indulgently so he could snap his photo. Already they had a number; one of them at the penguin exhibit, Jack leaning over his father's head as he peered in at the different creatures, clutching a stuffed polar bear under his little right arm, theres one of them at the petting portion of the Zoo and Lucifer holding the tyke up under his arms so he can pet the Llamas and goats, Gabriel got a picture of them eating ice cream during lunch where both of them are smiling at one another, and another one of them long after the ice cream treat in the middle of the courtyard laughing, Lucifer was holding the little guy up above his head, leaning back slightly as he peered up at him, both of them were laughing about something or other, his tennis shoes in the bag the morningstar had over his shoulder among his various toys and souvenirs.

Something to remember it by, he said, and they indulged the messengers whims.

His scream was loud enough to be heard from all corners of the tent, some parents turned to look in concern, and Sam gave him a sympathetic glance, as Jack ran for his father's legs. The poor circus clown looking alarmed and put out at the little guys reaction, Lucifer bent at the right moment, scooping the boy up into his arms. Jack burrowed into his chest and heaved a sob.

Apparently nephilim could have fears like this one.

Sam felt bad that he was so terrified but was happy he wasn't the only one scared of clowns.

Dean may think it's funny to make fun of him about it, but now that they knew Jack was too, maybe he'd think twice about it.

"Luce,", Gabriel came to a stand beside him as they watched the little guy play in the sand, "Why here?"

Lucifer turned in his chair to look at him, sipping at his tropical drink, and met his brother's gaze.

"His mother loved the beach."

They turned at the tykes happy laughter, smiling as he ran from the waves as they came in, jumping over them and into them, his toes wiggling in the wet sand.

"I wanted him to see it."

Of course Lucifer would know about Kelly Kline, though they had never actually talked about it, being an archangel had its perks when it came to those sorts of things. He wanted his son to know who his mother was, even if he wasn't fond of humans himself, he had a right to know her.

Gabriel smiled at his older brother, watching him even as he turned his own attention back to his son, there was a change in him that, though he wasn't sure the others saw, he wasn't so blinded to. He adored that boy, to pieces, he did anything to make him happy.

"Uncle Gabriel!", the little guy rammed into his legs, tugging at his shirt, "Will you come play with me!"

He wiggled his fingers into his belly, and Jack jumped back with a squeal, "Oh I'll play with you kiddo!", he jumped from his seat and chased the little boy towards the waves, Jack gave a shriek of joy as he was caught up and tossed above the messengers head.

Lucifer shook his head at the pair and took another sip from his drink.

All good days come to an end, and thus theirs did too, dinner and bathtime and snacks, left Lucifer pacing from one side of the room to the other little Jack half asleep on his shoulder. A few more minutes and he'd be completely out and ready to be put to bed officially.

Walking back and forth, humming and swaying, rubbing small circles over his little back.

There was a soft snap and he turned slightly to look at who was in the door way, Gabriel smiled at him and lowered his camera, "You think he had a good day?", they looked over his new collection of stuffed toys and other knick-knacks. Jack mumbled and curled further into his neck, Lucifer felt it when he drifted off completely and his little fingers loosened their grip, and he smiled, "I think he did."

And he leaned down to set him to bed.

OK! Jack being scared of clowns is bestest! Lucifer and Jack exploring a Zoo though? And Gabriel taking pictures of them? It's so cuteeeee!