Castiel was crouched down in front of his 3-year-old daughter, Claire, rubbing the back of her leg gently and making soft hushing noises even though the little girl had stopped crying some time ago.
Every now and then he would cautiously glance at the scrap on her knee and the cut going across her palm which had resulted in them visiting Castiel's brother, Raphael, who was a doctor at their local hospital. Castiel hated seeing that his precious little bundle might be in any kind of pain and wished that his brother would just hurry along with his other patients.
Dean was stood a little further back from his husband and daughter. He personally thought that Castiel was overreacting but Dean knew that he was in deep trouble anyway.
He had returned home from work and found Claire riding up and down the driveway on her tricycle with Jess who had been babysitting her. Once Jess left Claire insisted that she was growing bored of simply going in a straight line and wanted to try something new. So, Dean had tried to teach her a few little tricks, but needless to say they had not ended well.
"You're going to be alright, honeybee" Castiel insisted as Claire started to impatiently kick her legs against the chair.
"I know, Papa" Claire replied. "You being a fussypants."
"I'm just worried about you" Castiel said with a small smile.
"I okay" the little girl grinned. "Was fun 'til it hurt."
"I'm really sorry about that, baby" Dean said as he tried to ignore the way that Castiel was glaring at him. "Daddy is going to buy you a nice new toy for being so brave. I should probably get Papa something too."
"Yey!"
Before Castiel could start lecturing him about using materialistic means to gain forgiveness Raphael finally entered the room carrying all the all supplies he would need to give Claire some stitches.
"Hey, Claire" he said with a smile. "We really must stop meeting like this. Last time Papa brought you in just because your nose was running."
"Fussypants" Claire affirmed.
"He certainly is" Raphael chuckled. "Take a step back please, brother, you know that she's in safe hands."
Castiel reluctantly did as he was asked but refused to even look at Dean as he want to stand by his husband's side.
Raphael moved Claire up onto the examination table and started his inspection of the wounds.
"How long are you going to enforce this stupid silent treatment?" Dean asked.
"Until you realise that trying to teach our very young daughter to do ridiculous stunts on her tricycle was a huge mistake!" Castiel hissed.
"Okay, first of all, you just talked to me" Dean petulantly retorted. "Secondly, I do realise that now but they were not ridiculous stunts they were tiny tricks at the most-"
"Guys" Raphael said quietly as he approached them. "As your doctor I'm politely asking you to take this outside. As your brother and Claire's uncle I'm telling you to get out of my office because you're distracting me and I don't want you to upset Claire."
Before either Dean or Castiel could protest they found themselves being ushered outside by Raphael and then the door closed promptly behind them.
"Wow you really do all have the Shurley attitude" Dean huffed, but when he turned around he saw that Castiel was already storming off down the corridor. "Hey, wait up!" he called as he jogged to catch up with his husband. "Can we please talk about this?"
"Jackass" Castiel seethed.
"Um…no I got them from YouTube actually."
Castiel rolled his eyes despairingly. "No, you are a Jackass!"
"Hey, I think you're maybe taking this a little too far" Dean said now firmly affronted.
"Our daughter is in the hospital, Dean!" Castiel exclaimed as he continued to angrily pace to nowhere in particular.
"Yeah but three or four stitches and she'll be fine!" Dean argued. He was desperately trying not to show any strain from attempting to keep up with his husband.
"She shouldn't need any stiches! She shouldn't be injured!"
"I was at her side the whole time. I didn't think anything would go wrong!"
"Well, I didn't think I would come home and find Claire on the ground sobbing, yet here we are! You are so irresponsible sometimes-"
And then Castiel went off on a rant about having grown up with four older brothers, one of them being Gabriel, and seeing what damage tiny tricks could do. Dean was only half paying attention to his husband's lecture though as he was trying to focus on looking apologetic and complacent, but really it just seemed like he was thinking about anything else.
"What if something awful had happened to her?!" Castiel almost shouted to break through Dean's consciousness. "What if she'd broken something? Or worse!"
"You're being uptight" Dean responded. "Nothing like that did happen, so let's just be grateful and move on."
"I can't when you seem to think this is some kind of joke!"
"Fine!" Dean exclaimed as he stopped in his tracks. Castiel turned to him with a slight frown. "You're the super dad, Cas, and I'm a terrible father! I'm the worst. The literal worst! I put our daughter in danger and I do not need you to make me feel even guiltier about it!"
Castiel immediately softened and he could see now that his husband was visibly upset.
"I would never say that you're a bad father" he said as he took his husband's hand. "You're an amazing father. I know that you were just trying to make Claire happy but…seeing her hurt like that really shook me up."
"Me too" Dean confessed. "But our Claire is a little fighter and you know that she'll be back on that tricycle tomorrow. And trust me; I will never try something without thinking about the consequences again."
"I know" Castiel said with a small smile. "I'm sorry I've been so snappy. Maybe you're right; I do worry too much."
"You're protective of our baby girl" Dean reasoned. "And there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just need me to tell you to let loose, and sometimes you need to tell me to reign it in. We balance each other, see? We're doing fine."
Castiel nodded in agreement and then wrapped his arms around Dean's waist and rested his head on his husband's shoulder.
"I love you" he murmured.
Dean smiled at he returned the embrace. "Love you too" he said and placed a delicate kiss in Castiel's hair.
They stayed holding each other for a few more moments before deciding to go and see how Claire and Raphael were getting on.
On their return they found Claire giggling as she played with the stuffed bear Raphael had given to her to distract her from any discomfort.
"Are you feeling better now, honeybee?" Castiel asked as he rushed to Claire.
"Yes, Papa" she said with a grin. "Look how cool, Daddy!" she said as she showed off her stitched palm to Dean.
"That's pretty badass" Dean said with amusement.
"It should be healed up in a few days" Raphael said. "She was good as gold."
"Oh, well done my brave little trooper" Castiel gushed as he scooped Claire up and then went on to pepper kisses all over her cheek.
"Ew, Papa, stop!" she squealed. Castiel did relent eventually.
"I think you deserve one of these for being so good" Raphael said as he brought a jar of lollipops down from the shelf. "Which flavour would you like?"
"Green like daddy's eyes!" Claire exclaimed excitedly. "Daddy don't get one though; he naughty."
"Hey!" Dean said with a pout.
"Daddy have to go on the naughty step" Claire sung.
"You know, that actually doesn't sound like a bad idea" Castiel teased.
"Oh well then you can both walk home" Dean jibed.
"No, daddy!" Claire complained.
Dean and Castiel laughed. As long as Claire just kept on being Claire then they were all going to be okay.