Author's Note: This prologue served as an introduction to the characters and how they found themselves together under the same roof. Future chapters will be bits of daily life, with up and downs, happiness and sadness, of anger and moments of tenderness.
Know that it will follow a chronological order.
I wanted to write this story has a hymn to tolerance and the right to be different.
God is love, a phrase in sacred texts that certain people forgot to read or have forgotten.
I hope that you take as much pleasure out of reading as I have in writing this story. I have in fact, fallen in love with this family.
This is mostly a "day in the life" type of story, expect twists and turns as well as character growth.
This will be Destiel.
This prologue was translate by AnomalyLady, she did a wonderful job here.
I'll post a new chapter every two weeks.
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Enjoy.
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Prologue
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Dean had been studying the pictures lining the fireplace mantle for quite some time.
Memories of the past displayed before his eyes.
Almost two years now since Tessa had died…
He felt a strange sensation of distance and closeness… Like she was still there yet no longer occupying the space with him.
At times he woke up during the night hoping to find her next to him.
But there were days, now becoming more frequent, where he didn't think of her… Well didn't think of the pain of her absence that is…
He had finished grieving… Finally.
You could say the he had a lot to keep him busy… She had left him two beautiful children. A girl, Jewel, now 6 years old and a boy, Chadwick who was nearing 10… The treasures of his life… For them, he had endured, for them, he had survived, for them, he had gotten through it.
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Thanks to him as well…
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Castiel Novak, Tessa's best friend, becoming by happenstance, his. No… He smiled… By faith… By choice…
Dean had gotten along with him with the impression, from the very beginning, that they had always known each other.
He smiled as he remembered… Tessa had really started something.
She had invited him after Chadwick's birth… They had known each other for ages but had lost touch over time… He had moved to New York with his boyfriend at the time.
After five years of living together, they had split up… He had taken the road back to his home town after his father's death… Father who had, since he had come out, refused to see him, to talk to him, or even to write him…
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They had dinned, conversed, and laughed a lot as well… And once he had left them, late that night, she had told Dean that Castiel was gay.
Dean had had to admit that he hadn't noticed anything; Castiel wasn't effeminate, no mannerisms… He had none of preconceived notions one makes about homosexuals…
Tessa had forgone expressing this fact beforehand so that Dean would not judge him before even getting to know him…
Not that he was homophobic, he hadn't really even thought about it…
But for him, it was difficult to conceive that two men could be in love and much less share a bed.
Tessa had just hoped that her best friend and husband would get along and that was exactly how it turned out…
Dean developed a deep friendship with Castiel, she had even had moments of jealousy over their bond.
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Castiel was in a "relationship" with Balthazar though everyone called him Balty… A charming bisexual who enjoyed shocking his audience… With a caustic and sharp sense of humor but with a warm heart.
He was the only boyfriend which Castiel introduced to the family… He was the only one as a matter of fact.
Since his painful separation from his last boyfriend, he had only attached himself with this incorrigibly promiscuous man who had become a necessary stabilizing agent in his life.
He was his lover, his friend, an adventurous companion but they were not in love…
They were each other's security… They shared a rather peculiar relationship.
Castiel's only lover was Balty.
Balty had multitudes of conquests, with as many females as males… He loved sex and was rather vocal on the matter.
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At night, when the children were sleeping, he loved to tell tales of his encounters in every detail over a last drink…
Castiel and Tessa shared friendly laughs at the faces Dean would pull in his discomfort over Balty's crude words… Who loved to embellish every detail… The sexual life of a homosexual held no more secrets for Dean, despite him wishing otherwise.
Balty would keep going on, when with a single look, Castiel would order him to be quiet…
He always wore protection with his many lovers… He never did with Castiel…
He knew the reason for his friend's solitude… He accepted it… He joked about it on occasion but never at his expense.
Castiel meant too much to him to do anything that would hurt him and that solitude was a delicate subject that he rarely brought up.
He had known him for a long time… He could read him like an open book even if Castiel was rather reserved when it came to speaking about himself.
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Castiel became a full member of the family… He shared their birthdays, holidays and family dinners… Sometimes even their vacations.
The children loved him and even despite his awkwardness with them, he returned that affection tenfold.
He wasn't made for fatherhood and had never expressed any desires for it… But he adored Jewel and Chadwick.
Tessa's death, struck down at 31 by cancer, left Dean an inconsolable widower, father of two children aged 4 and 7 at the time…
Overcome by his sadness, he forgot about Castiel's who took care of the children with help from Jo, Dean half-sister… A young woman full of life and unending loyalty to her older brother…
She carried a torch for Castiel and for a long time thought she could change his orientation… To her grand disappointment, she had to make do with being friend rather than his lover.
To Castiel, Jo was the little sister he had never had.
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From the day of the burial during the first months of Grieving, tension ran high in the family apartment.
The cost of care, funeral fees and the loss of a salary left Dean struggling to make ends meet.
He was too proud to ask for help but no one was fooled.
It took Castiel coming to him with a suggestion of finding a house for all of them share, they could split the rent and expenses… His own apartment's lease was coming to an end: so this way they could kill two birds with one stone.
Dean hesitated for a long time… He liked Castiel a lot but he had never thought about living with him and sharing their personal lives… The intimacy that comes from living together day to day especially.
Tessa had been gone for 7 months, he hadn't gotten past it but he needed to move forward… He agreed… Castiel and Jo started began house hunting.
They finally found a place just outside the city… With a small fenced yard, an attic converted into a loft that would be suitable for Castiel…
A three bedroom house… It was perfect.
Jo brought the children and Dean to see it… Faced with everyone's enthusiasm… He accepted and two months later, they all moved in together.
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On the mailbox read
"Winchester Family"
"Novak, Castiel"
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It was then that started a family life which Dean considered "ordinary".
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www
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Dean sighed… He turned when the front door opened and heard voices, Jewel, out of breath, she must have been talking nonstop during the trip and Chadwick who was trying in vain to get in his say so…
Castiel came in, exhibiting a frown… He had gone to pick the kids up after school, and by the looks of things hadn't been given a moment of peace.
Dean smiled at him while being mobbed by his children.
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Such an ordinary life… with people who weren't… Well, not to him anyway…
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As per usual, Dean took care of dinner while Castiel was in charge of homework… They sat in the kitchen, Jewel on the right with a glass of milk close by… Chadwick dragged his heels but sat down at Castiel's threat to remove his internet privileges…
Dean in the meantime prepared dinner while laughing as the children asked questions out of left field and Castiel attempted yet awkwardly to answer them.
He was much more patient than Dean in that respect… He couldn't quite remember how they had settled into such a strange weekly routine.
Castiel was a lot more patient, was more cultured and intelligent than Dean… He didn't mind the fact at all… Dean was better with his hands, had fiery spirit and was more pragmatic than Castiel.
Between the two of them, they made the perfect team.
Once supper was finished, they went back to doing their own things.
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Castiel went out with friends, gay or not…
Dean met some buddies once a week for a sports outing or just a friendly get-together…
Jo played baby-sitter when neither Dean nor Castiel were available…
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Dean never brought his conquests home… It had been close to a year now that resumed his sexual life but not his love life… He didn't want to expose his children to the women from his one night stands.
Castiel had Balty over often… The children liked him, Dean as well…
He was part of their closed family circle, with the same title as Jo or Uncle Bobby…
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Dean only asked that he avoid divulging the details of his sexual life in front of the kids, even if they did understand the sort of relationship he had with Castiel… For them, it was simple and normal as could be, for Dean, an adult, there was much more to it than that and it could be rather complicated.
When one morning, he found Balty dressed in only a pair of bright fuchsia boxers surrounding by the kids who were laughing hysterically, while he cooked breakfast, acting like a dandy for laughs, he told himself that after all, hearing his children laugh was well worth a little bit of rule bending...
It was surprisingly, Castiel who commented.
Balty continued goofing around… in pyjama pants.
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Week-ends were never planned out… Dean sometimes worked at the garage on Saturdays if needed… Castiel would then bring Jewel to her dance class and Chadwick to his swimming lessons…
He would use the time to do the groceries and to pick the kids back up on the way home.
When Dean didn't work, it was his job to take care of the kids and Castiel would take his Saturday.
Sundays were sacred… It was Dean's day… The day he dedicated to his kids.
It was the only day he barely saw Castiel…
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And so went their lives… Routine somehow sidetracked by life's whims but the routine was necessary for the children's wellbeing… They had found themselves without a mother but surrounded by a father who loved them twice over and a man, Castiel, whom they considered to be like a second father.
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Despite the pain from the loss, they had succeeded in overcoming their sadness and even if sometimes Chadwick buried in tears in his pillow just like his father did, or Jewel asked questions about Paradise and her mommy in the sky, they were happy.
Jo and Balty watch them live… Amazed by this extraordinary family who met life's challenges head on, who found true happiness in the simplest things… In being together… being a family.
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Of course there were some people who judged, who spoke ill of the fact that a homosexual share the life a widowed father of two… People talked, and it had surprised Jo in the beginning, Dean however didn't take notice… He had long ago gotten passed Castiel's preferences.
For him, he was just his best friend, the best one could have… The only one he wanted by his side.
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Castiel accepted his orientation and thus, didn't feel the obligation to advertise in order to validate himself.
Jo was sure that if Castiel had been Balty, things would have been much less easy going for her brother…
Dean liked Castiel's discretion and in return he enjoyed the fact that Dean regarded him as a friend, a man and not an abomination of nation as his deceased father had claimed…
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Of course there were arguments, hurtful words, moments of silence and sadness at times…
But that were moments of closeness, laughter, sharing, and little bits of happiness from day to day life…
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This house, a silent witness to the fact…
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End of prologue
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Hope that you like this prologue. See you in two weeks if you fell like it.
Thank you.