NOTES: This takes place in the beginning of Season 6, after Lisa tells Dean he should pursue hunting with Sam. Sorry for the vague beginning, but answers are coming, I swear. Some of you might remember the song "Renegade" from the episode "Nightshifter" - it's perhaps the greatest Styx song ever, and an appropriate title for our little fic here. Enjoy, and please feel free to leave feedback or constructive criticism. I'll try to answer everyone quickly.

RENEGADE
A Supernatural Story

Chapter One

Dean Winchester could handle demons. Vengeful spirits. Angels, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters. Wendigos. Reapers. Prophets. Hell, he had even faced off with the devil himself. But none of that, absolutely none of that, had prepared him for this nemesis. He stared down into a pair of angelic blue eyes and knew he was double-damned. Then she reached out, tugged on his jeans, and stomped her foot.

"Juice!" she demanded.

"…Sam!" Dean reached down and scooped up the two-year-old Auden Pace. "The kid's thirsty!" Under his breath, he added, "Again."

"JUICE!" She wriggled in his arms and Dean reminded himself of his promise to stuff a mattress full of Castiel's plucked feathers before this was all over. Oh sure, he had all of heaven to reorganize, he was way too busy to babysit. But he had no problems popping up one day, three inches from Dean's face, and holding out this little mobile pooper. No real explanation, just: "She's important." Then poof, and Castiel was gone again.

Friggin dick, Dean thought, and hollered, "SAM!"

"Okay, okay." Sam Winchester appeared from the bathroom, only half-dressed after his shower. Dean glowered at his brother and covered the baby's eyes.

"Dude, what happened to modesty?" he asked. Sam gave him a look.

"Dean. She's two."

"Juice!" she added helpfully.

Sam went to the fridge and got out apple juice and water. A midnight run to the store had yielded sippy cups, diapers, and a few other toddler-essentials, but Dean was in way over his head: even Ben had been weaned off nappies by the time he'd come into the picture. Infants he could deal with, five-year-olds he could lecture, but two-year-old girls with big blue eyes and dark curls and unquenchable thirsts for apple juice? He shifted her to his other arm and looked at Sam.

"You find out what the deal with this kid is yet?" he asked as Sam mixed juice and water together in a sippy cup for the baby.

"Bubkes." Sam handed Auden the cup, and immediately she stopped squirming. Content now, she settled against Dean's chest and closed her eyes, and Dean stared down at her. Babies. Why was it always babies?

"Nothing at all, huh?"

"Just a missing person's report."

Dean's head shot up. "A what?"

"Well, where do you think Castiel got her? She had to be somebody's kid."

"Yeah, sure, but I was thinking…I thought…I dunno, orphan, maybe? I didn't think he'd take her from her parents!" He didn't like that one bit. "We gotta take her back, Sam. Anybody sees us with her, and that's kidnapping. As I recall, the feds aren't super fond of us."

"Dean, we can't just drive her back to New York. Cas must have brought her to us for a reason."

"Sam, she has a family. Aren't you the one that keeps telling me that means something?" So far, Dean hadn't warmed up to his particular brand of misfit relations, but he understood family. And after so long with Lisa and Ben, he could imagine that Auden's mother was a total basket case.

"Just…just chill out, Dean. Let's see what we can find out about her. Did you try asking Cas?"

"What a genius idea," said Dean, who had spent the entire morning praying increasingly blasphemous prayers in hopes of getting the angel's attention. "Why didn't I think of it?"

"Alright, alright. Sorry." Sam pulled a shirt on and went back to his laptop. Dean looked down at the baby again and noticed that she was now asleep, and the sippy cup was dribbling juice down his shirt. He sighed and took her to the makeshift bed they'd constructed for her the night before. He was gonna have to find a clean shirt, dammit, and it wasn't like he'd had the luxury of time to do his laundry. He sat down on the floor next to his bed and covered his face in his hands, hoping to join the kid in slumber. This week had been too long already, and it was only Tuesday.

"Who's looking for her?" he asked.

"Finn and Aspen Pace. There's a reward – modest. It just went from local to national news this morning."

"Peachy." Dean rubbed his face. "If Cas doesn't tell me what the hell is going on soon, I'm taking her back, Sam. No arguments."

Sam didn't say anything. For a long time, the only noise in the room was the irregular tapping of Sam's laptop keys, and soon enough Dean did join Auden in the realm of dreams.