Emmie led the way, constantly pulling on his hand, she was entranced by the penguins and for the longest time Dean could remember he was having fun. He wasn't sure if he'd ever been to a zoo before; definitely not since he'd been a kid before his whole world was torn to shreds. Sammy had never been to the zoo... he'd never got past his first birthday. Dean pushed those thoughts aside, it was pointless to think about his little brother who'd been dead for over twenty years.
The little girl in the pink dress lasted until she'd seen the giraffes and had lunch and then she promptly fell asleep on Dean's legs drooling on the pocket. Dean carefully set her down on the blanket and packed the empty food wrappers and containers away before he picked her up and carried her and the basket back to his car. He was near the main gate when someone called his name
"Dean!" he looked up to see a brown haired man with expressive blue eyes, as soon as the man got close enough to see that Emmie was sleeping he lowered his voice "Sorry I missed the zoo, did she behave herself?"
"Yeah, she was good as gold" he replied trying to remember if he knew this guy; he hadn't been at the house but he clearly knew Dean and knew where to find him today
"Want me to take her?" asked the man. Dean went with his instincts, shook his head and held out the empty picnic basket instead. If by some unbelievable reason Emmie's mother had put her trust in him looking after her daughter then he wasn't going to hand her over to the first stranger he came across "We should do something special this weekend, there's a music festival that I know you'd love. We could leave Emmie with Gabriel and have a proper date; we haven't done that in a while"
"Date?" Dean swallowed nervously; who the hell was this guy?
They walked out into the lot and the man looked at Dean in surprise when he saw the impala sitting there
"Uriel didn't drive you?" he asked and Dean shook his head, he unlocked the car door but the man took Emmie from him and strapped her into the booster seat "She's worn out, I'm sorry I missed it. Did you take any photos? We can send them to my sister"
"Oh uhh no. I didn't think... I'm sorry" mumbled Dean. The man looked a little disappointed but shrugged it off
"Don't worry about it, as long as Emmie had a good time that's all that matters. I'll see you back at the house" said the man finally before he walked off toward an equally expensive car and drove off.
It didn't take Dean long to get back to 'the house', he was amazed that he could remember where it was to be honest. He parked the impala in the garage and carried Emmie inside; the blue eyed man was in the hallway toeing off his shoes when he came in "I'll put her to bed and we'll have the afternoon to ourselves. How does that sound Mr Winchester?"
Okay, so he's flirting with me now, thought Dean feeling completely off his game and yet there was a warm flutter in his stomach at the attention this guy was giving him. Then a light came on above Dean's head
"What about Emmie's mom? What time does she get back?" Dean grinned at his ingenious plan! The man blinked in surprise
"My sister? Dean, she's in Boston. I don't think she's going to be interrupting us any time soon" he chuckled. This guy was Emmie's uncle! The blue eyed uncle took Emmie from Dean's arms once more and carried her off up the stairs.
Panicked Dean hurried into the kitchen hoping to find Gabriel. Maybe the cook could fill him in on this babysitting lark and why his apparent boss was flirting with him. The kitchen was empty but something caught his eye, he turned to see a figure standing in the mirror at the far end of the adjoining dining room
"Finally!" gasped not-Sam eccentrically "I've been trying to contact you all day. Where have you been?"
"The zoo" Dean muttered under his breathe, suddenly ashamed that he'd been doing something so childish. It all came back to him and he remembered the warehouse and the trickster and being zapped by weird ass mojo "What did you do to me? Where am I?"
"I sent you to another reality and you're in New York. That's the reason I'm talking to you through a portal and not in person. I know I'm awesome in every way and all but if I made the trip to the reality you're in then I wouldn't be coming back"
"Have you stranded me here?" hissed Dean. Not-Sam rolled his shoulders and smirked at him knowingly
"Dean, I gave you a life. I'd hardly call it being stranded. No, the reason I can't come to the reality you're in is because Demons, Magic and all things that go bump in the night don't exist. There's no magic in that reality and nothing for you to hunt. There are no hunters, Dean, just regular people with the odd bedtime story. Anything scary is make believe"
"So you're telling me there's no ghosts... no demons? But... a demon killed my mom"
"Alive and well. Still living in Lawrence!" grinned not-Sam "You're really lucky; I could have killed you for killing my sister and I was going to but I think she would have preferred this instead. You're stuck in a place where the most significant part of your life is nothing but a child's bad dream"
"I don't get it" Dean shook his head
"You have to learn to be happy, Dean. I searched through all realities you exist in and in this one you're the happiest. It's something you don't know how to do... I think this is probably my most greatest trick"
"You sonova bitch"
"Dean, I hope you don't use that kind of language in front of your daughter!" laughed the not-Sam trickster "Just so you know; Emmie is your daughter and the guy who keeps flirting with you. He's your boyfriend... you've been disgustingly in love since college, you've even been planning to pop the question. So like I said Dean, have a nice life!" and then he was gone leaving Dean alone with his reflection in the mirror.
"You could have at least told his name" he grumbled. The man walked into the kitchen and grinned at Dean
"You don't have to stare at yourself. We all know you're good looking" he said as he wrapped his arms around Dean from behind "Emmie's down and I've given Gabriel and Uriel the rest of the day off so it's just you and me. Wanna fool around with me, Mr Winchester?" he asked right before his hands got grabby. Dean got hard in seconds and just as uncomfortable
"I uhh whoa..." he gasped as he pulled away from grabby hands
"What's wrong? Don't tell me work called..." pouted the man
"No uhh they didn't... I just... headache?" the man rolled his eyes but smirked and started advancing
"You always told me the best cure for a headache" before Dean knew it the man was on his knees undoing his jeans and pulling them down
"Oh, oh my god" he gasped loudly as wet warmth surrounded his erection. The man knew what he was doing down there! Dean wanted to stop, wanted to protest that he wasn't gay but that was a really hard sell when you were hard and receiving the best blow job you'd ever had from another guy. "Stop, you need to stop! I'm gonna..."
The guy didn't stop just started bobbing his head faster until Dean lost all coherency and tumbled back against the wall feeling content. He came back to himself to find that his dick had been tucked back into his pants and the guy was making out with him. Dean had been kissing back completely unconsciously; dude wasn't that bad a kisser.
"Papa?" came the sleepy voice. Emmie came marching in still wearing her pink dress, if now slightly crumpled, a bear was tucked under her arm and she rubbed sleepily at her eyes "Dadda took us ta see deh penguis"
"Did he now?" the man grinned as he picked her up. Okay, thought Dean, this is definitely not Emmie's uncle. With the new information the trickster had so kindly given him; he guessed that they were loaded, all those cars were his, this was his daughter and not some babysitting job he'd stupidly wandered onto and that he was gay for the blue eyed dude with the grabby hands and mad scientist hair. Mad scientist hair that had been soft and nice to tug on, but no one heard Dean think that. "Are you hungry, baby?"
"I wan dadda ta make red rice soup" she demanded still rubbing at her left eye
"Dean, make her some soup while I go grab the thermometer. She's feeling a bit warm" he pressed his palm to her forehead but she shrugged him off
"Not sick!" she yelled fiercely, as she stuck out her lower lip in defiance before she started to sniffle "Wan soup! Papa... potty!"
Dean chuckled for a moment at her words until he saw a stream of moisture running down the un-named man's dress shirt. So much for giving a decent warning! Emmie chose that moment to burst into a fully fledged crying tantrum because she'd wet her dress
"It's okay baby. Dadda's gonna make you soup and I'll run you a bath" he told her and Dean had to hand it to the guy; he was one awesome parent! Anyone would look disappointed that their sexy fun time had been interrupted but not him, he was Mr Dad and didn't seem to care that he'd just been pissed on by a grouchy three year old.
So while Mr No Name took their daughter upstairs to have a bath, he concentrated on boiling some rice and heating up tomato soup. It had been what his mother had made him when he was sick before she died; Dean froze as words hit him. The trickster had told him that his mother was alive and well because there were no demons... that meant that his brother had to be alive as well!
"I searched through all realities you exist in and in this one you're the happiest"
If his mother and brother were alive then did that mean his father was too? He pulled out his phone from his pocket and scrolled through the address book until he found 'Dad' listed. With his heart thrumming in his throat Deam pressed the call button and pressed the phone to his ear
"Hello" came the gruff sleepy voice he'd recognise anywhere. His dad had been dead for three years after dying in a car accident and yet here he was talking to him on the phone like nothing was out of the ordinary
"Dad?" he whispered before swallowing sharply; his dad was alive and he had no clue what to say to him
"Sammy?" John replied, Dean cleared his throat
"No dad... uhh it's me. Dean"
"I don't have a son called Dean. I only have one son" he told Dean and the young Winchester felt his blood freeze in his veins
"But dad..." had he got the wrong number?
"Look, I told you not to call here anymore. We don't want anything to do with you or your lifestyle and stop sending us money. We don't want your filthy bribes" snapped John then he hung up leaving the dial tone echoing in Dean's ear.
His family was alive but they wanted nothing to do with him all because of the grabby hands guy with the mad hair and little Emmie? Dean wanted to grab his car keys and go home to his family but something was stopping him; there must have been a reason why he was here and not there. Even beyond Emmie being cute and grabby hands being good at blowjobs.
Dean prepared the red rice soup with tears clouding his eyes. He put it in a little bowl that couldn't belong to anyone but Emmie and carried it up on a tray for her. She was out of the bath and dressed in clean pj's as the man tucked her into bed
"I sowee I peed on ya papa" said Emmie sleepily
"It's okay baby, you're not well. Hey, look what dadda's brought you" he grinned as Dean carefully set the tray down on the bed
"Fanks dadda. I love you" she stared up at him with big green eyes and he gasped. He'd not really looked at her properly the entire day he'd been around her but she had his eyes!
"I-I love you too Emmie"
They sat with her until she ate most of the tomato rice soup and fell asleep. The man put the tray on the bedside table next to the lamp before he ushered Dean out of the room
"I'm going to take a shower, could you grab the baby monitor from our room and take it with you just in case she wakes up?"
"Yeah, sure" nodded Dean and did as he was asked.
He was sitting on the bottom step of the impressive staircase holding the baby monitor in his hand when the man came down fresh from the shower, rubbing his hair dry with a small towel
"Dean? Baby, what's wrong?"
"Can you tell me your name?" Dean replied not taking his eyes off the monitor
"Whu... why? Dean you know my name" the man replied
"Please" begged Dean finally looking up at the blue eyed man, something in those blue eyes caved and the man sat down next him on the step
"It's Castiel James Novak, is there anything else you wish to know? Or are you going to tell me why you needed to ask?"
"I called my dad" Dean told Castiel, his voice barely audible like he was ashamed. Castiel blinked in strange understanding and put his arm around Dean's shoulders; Dean denied himself that that simple act gave him comfort "I want to see my family"
"God, I love you Dean. Only you could be so forgiving about what they did to you and want to see them again" sighed Cas "Is it because of Emmie? I know you've been keeping tabs on them since she was born"
"I-I miss them and they should know her. She's beautiful and so clever even when she pissed on you" he chuckled making Castiel laugh too
"Yeah she is. I could get us some flights to Kansas if you want... we could go next week, all three of us"
"I'd like that" Dean nodded. Castiel smiled and kissed Dean, Dean let him.
TBC...