A/N: Apologies for those who expected this on Saturday. I spend most of the weekend catching up on sleep. You would think after nearly two years working the night shift, I would be used to it. Guess not. Anyways, this chapter is the end of the story. Like I said before, I'm still considering whether to put the prequel up or not. Thanks for reading and feel free to review. :-)
Utter silence was what greeted me.
And then utter panic set in.
I was up and out of the bed, faster than I could blink. I knew damned well that I wasn't being reasonable but I couldn't help it. The feeling of being out of control of a situation didn't sit right with me, not at all. For a former hunter, I guess that I should have been used to that feeling, since we went into most situation without heads or tails about what we were dealing with, but, this…this, I couldn't abide. Something was going to happen to the children and we were supposed to be happy as a lark, just mindlessly waiting for something or someone to take them out. Over my dead body.
Running into the our makeshift nursery like I had lost my godforsaken mind, I had pretty much scared the whole hell out of the little dysfunctional family unit that it had taken me years, even before the arrivals of the little ones, to figure out that I really wanted. While it wasn't the conventional happily-ever-after, it was Heaven on Earth for me. And I would do anything to keep it that way. Anything.
Castiel stood up violently from his spot, curled up in the rocking chair, the pupils in the swirling depths of his eyes widening in both fear and confusion. I could feel a brief surge of power in the air from the boy, which abruptly receded as he studied me up and down, almost as if he were both confirming my identity and reassuring himself all in the breath. I was proud; as least, he had refrained from lashing out violently as he sometimes did when somebody got the one-up on him. How could anyone try to take advantage? He's innocent as the day is long….
"Sam? What the hell is going on?" Dean yelled, glaring up at me from his seat at the little desk with annoyed eyes. I, honestly, wanted to laugh at his outraged expression. He had makeup and glitter smeared all over his face, making him look like a crazy clown, and was holding a glittery tiara. Rounding off the amusing picture was a picture of a pretty princess he had been doodling on practically glued to the table, crayons on the floor and the little girl, giggling merrily, complete with her own makeup disaster, tucked securely in his lap.
"Bad la'guage, Papa! You h've da put a qua'ter in the har!"
"Sorry, princess." Dean replied, face softening at the lisped remark as he pressed a soft kiss against the top of her uncontrollable brown curls. "I will." A wince of pain crossed his face as she kicked her feet out and he, gently, adjusted her on his lap. "Princess, Papa needs you to stop wiggling so around much. Papa's stomach is huge, remember?"
Eyes widening in horror, Eve, as we named her two years ago, looked up at her father with a pout in full effect. "Sowee, Papa. Didn't men to hurt you." She wiggled slightly before gently patting the worn white T-shirt covering his heavily protruding stomach in evident remorse. Even from where I was standing, I could see the shift of movement underneath as the baby stretched out at the touch, "Sowee, baby."
Yep, Dean was about due to deliver our third child in a matter of weeks. While I had been the one to lug Castiel around for nine months, the angels have either blessed or cursed, as Dean complained during ridiculous bouts of morning sickness, weight gain, horrible mood swings, etc with carrying our other two children to term. We had asked before as to the reasons why, even begged the elder Castiel for answers when carrying around Eve felt like he had been having the life sucked out of him, but they wouldn't tell us a damned thing. All they ever told us was to not worry at time of delivery; at least two of them would be with us during our home births. All we could do at the point was roll with the punches, much as we always have done.
Castiel sighed and flopped back into his seat, sticking his tongue out at his sister, who merely grinned. "Way to scare us, Dad…"
"Cas." Dean said, not saying another word. He, quickly, turned his eyes back to his book, crossing his hands over his chest, knowing that was Dean's no-nonsense voice. It was unfailingly effective.
"What's going on, Sam?"
I stared at him for a moment, carefully weighing my options. On one hand, I knew hiding the truth from him would backfire dramatically in my face once he found out. But on the other, considering his condition (and yes,, I know he's a not damned fragile flower just because he's knocked up, as he's screamed at me on plenty of occasions), I just plain old didn't want to upset him if there was even the remotest possibility there was nothing to freak about. The odds of that were slim to none, but hey, it didn't hurt to remain optimistic. Liar, liar.
What prevailed was the memory of what we had promised each other so many times, in so many situations. To always be honest with each other, even if the truth hurts…
"How about I tell you later…in private?" I asked, quietly. Dean merely glared at me with narrowed eyes before glancing at the children. I didn't know what he was thinking, but whatever it was made him nod his head in acquiesce. He had just opened his mouth to say something else when I cut him off at the pass. His mouth snapped shut with an indignant snap. "And yes, I will tell you everything. I know how bitchy you get when you're left in the dark…"
"Daddi! Sew'r jhar!"
"Sorry, baby." I smiled brightly at the whole lot of them. "How about we get some din-."
"Too late." Muttered a voice right behind me. I turned slightly, only to find Jo smiling brightly at all of us, a pouty Abby practically clinging to her leg, with Sebastian leaning against the other. "I already promised the twins I would take them out. Of course, they want your two to come along. Ya'll don't mind, do you?"
I had opened my mouth, intending to protest, wanting a normal family dinner, but Dean beat me to the punch. "No, no of course not. I needed to have a chat with Sam, anyway."
"Dean-"
"Sam-."
"Come on, Dad, I'm starrrving." Castiel, in one of his rare dramatic moments, pretended to clutch his stomach and rolled his eyes, as if he were about to hit the floor in a dead faint. "Pretty, pretty please? I wanted to talk to Sebby about the -."
"Don't call me that!" Seb said, huffily. Abby snorted, when Cas rounded on me, only to give me my own legendary puppy eyes. Under normal circumstances, this blatant attempt at manipulation wouldn't work but since he didn't see his cousins all that often, I would be made to be a complete heel and the worst father ever if I didn't let him go. How a child can get one over on me is beyond me. Uggh, why did I have to pass that on to him? It's my own look and I'm not even immune to it. I am such a sucker…
"Go on ahead, Cas." I finally said.
The bottomless pit known as our son made a move to run for the door before Dean stopped him with a cleared throat. "Take your sister with you, Cas. Just because we're not at the house don't mean the same old rules don't apply." Cas groaned at that and ambled over to grab his excited sibling by the hand. "And no sneaking desserts before you actually eat food. You didn't get away it with it the last time. I don't even know why you even bother trying."
He snorted under his breath, smooching his sister, affectionately on the cheek. While there were some moments I would swear that he couldn't stand her, there were moments, like these, you could practically see all of the love and affection between them. So far, we're raising them pretty well. "Not even one chocolate chip cookie? I even promise to share with Evie," he laughed, gently. Even Eve snorted in disbelief at that one.
"Cas!"
"Fine, fine." Both of them giggling and snorting all the while, the children ran in a stampede into the hallway and downstairs. Jo just gave us a long suffering look, mixed with a hint of concern before following behind.
"Help me up, bitch." Dean gave me an arch look, looking like a beached whale as he attempted to pull himself up with no success. "We got a couple of hours to ourselves, at least. We can talk in our room." It's usually a fight getting out of the Impala, too. He hasn't been able to gracefully since the 6th month. While I will honestly laugh about this until the end of days, I am nowhere stupid enough to say to him. He would probably maim me without the least bit of remorse. Then where would he be?
"Jerk." I muttered automatically, as my hand wrapped around his and I, gently, tugged him to his feet, grunting slightly as he lost his balance for a moment.
We didn't say much of anything to each other as we ambled on down to the bedroom, each of us lost in our own separate thoughts. I was sorely tempted to start off the conversation with a lie but of course, I knew damned well that wouldn't work. He knew me like the back of his hand and vice versa. Goddamn it, Cas, why in the hell does this always happen to us? Can't we just be happy and content, with nothing breathing our back for once? One lousy time. Is that way too much to ask?
Pushing the door open, I couldn't help but smile as I watched Dean well, waddle his way to the bed before flopping down on it with a relieved sigh. Next to our children, he means the world to me.
"Hand me a rag," Dean muttered, absently scratching his face, therefore smearing the makeup and glitter worst than it already was. "I don't know where Eve got this girly-girl mentality from, but it is got to go. My face is itching like hell."
"You just wish that she was still into classic rock, just like she used to be." I laughed, walking into the guest bathroom, wetting a rag, and bringing it over to him. "Cas used to bruise my ribs, doing cartwheels, every time Metallica was played anywhere near us, remember? It seemed as though as soon as they decided to make their entrance in the world, they couldn't stand it anymore. I wonder why? They must obviously developed some taste."
"Haha, very funny." Dean looked up at me, tossing the rag into the hamper before looking at me with a brief frown. "And stop distracting me. What's going on?"
No point in beating around the bush. "Cas paged me earlier. " I said without preamble and flopped down next to him, anticipating a minor freak-out at my next words. "Something is going on with the children, supposedly."
Dean just merely blinked at me before waving his hand dismissively. "That's all? Something's always going with the rugrats."
I shook my head. "No, I mean, something potentially bad. " I hesitated; I really didn't want to drop the bomb on him but I didn't have a choice. "According to Cas…"
"The war isn't over, Dean." I continued to stare him, watching helplessly as his face crumbled, briefly, before he regained control. It was like he already knew. I doubted it, though; way too much emotion had shown on his face in that moment. "The children…hell, everyone who had been bought back from the dead, have something to do with it. Dean-."
"Did Cas tell you anything else?" Dean asked, in a no-nonsense tone. Years of being with him had trained me to obey it without question.
I shook my head in the negative. "Of course, he had gotten a heavenly page right in the middle of telling me." I said, bitterly. His last parting shot was just to keep an eye on the children."
Dean nodded, looking down at his protruding stomach and rubbing it gently. "Then that is what we do." I opened my mouth, surprised that he wasn't fussing as he usually did. "I know what you're thinking, Sam, but seriously…look at me, I'm no use in a potential fight right now. The only thing we can do is keep an eye on the children….at least until the baby is born. For now, we just give Jo and Adam the heads up; they can't do what neither of us can right now."
"I need you here with me for now. You understand?"
I need you here with me. In the years we had been together, he had never quite laid it out on the line as he had just done. And with that, I knew I had to stand down for a while and not let the panic over the situation get the best of me. He was right; we had priorities at the moment and going off half-cocked on some flaky information and ill-cocked plan wasn't going to cut it. Who would have thought he would be the level headed one out the pair of us when it came to family. Not me for sure.
"Yes," I breathed, leaning over and pressing a brief kiss against his mouth. "I got you."
Almost lazily, he returned the kiss, purring lightly under his breath. Horny bastard. Moving my mouth along his jawline, I smiled with satisfaction at the soft grunt he released as I, gently, bit down.
"So, we have the whole house to ourselves, Dean." I whispered, lightly as I grabbed the bottom of his shirt."You have anything in mind?"
"You bitch." Dean laughed, green eyes crinkling with his mirth as he pushed my hand out of my way. "Shut up and fuck me."
Letting out my own groan, I couldn't help but rock down in arousal at the affectionate, yet demanding language. Only, he could affect me in the way.
I didn't even let him get his shirt all the way off before I leaned down to latch onto his nipple. Sucking strongly, my arousal also grew deeper at the taste of something sweet flowing over my tongue. No fucking way. Dean let out a sharp cry, clutching my head closer to him at the suction, pushing up in agitated motions before toppling over with me still attached. No freaking way…really?
I let go of my prize, absently licking in long strokes to get more of the sweet goodness. "Dean, you're leaking." That's hot as hell. I reached down to press my hand against my erection, vaguely surprised about how hot I actually found it. That's all me. I did that to him. Knocked him up with my seed. Mine…
He groaned, slapping a hand against his forehead and flushing a deep red. "It's only temporary. Wasn't supposed to happen." He jerked slightly as I closed my mouth over the opposite one, biting down hard. "Shit, Sammy,"
"Fuck, Dean."I groaned, suddenly dying to fuck him blind. Pushing myself forward, I slanted my mouth over his in a bruising kiss. Our tongues dueled for dominance, teeth clacking against the others, as we pulled at each other's clothes, anxious to see the other. Before he knew it, he had pulled away from Dean's insistent tongue only to have his mouth filled with spit as the sight of Dean moving restlessly over the bed, eyes dark with lust and affection as he stared up at me. His dick, nowhere covered by the expanse of his belly, stuck out insistently, flushed a deep angry purple, and leaking copious amounts of precome from the slit.
Slow as molasses, I dragged my tongue down the length of his body, wanting to get his dick down my throat as soon as possible. I wanted to spill down my throat, make my voice hoarse with the proof that he had been there…had always been there. "Sam…slow down," Dean groaned, trying to widen his legs to make more room as I swirled my tongue around his belly button. I could feel him tugging my hair to gain my attention but I was nearly too far gone; I wanted to please him badly…please the both of us.
I couldn't help but smile at the obvious need evident in his voice. Yes, this was pure torture but this was the best. "Shush, Dean, let me make love to you." I whispered, looking up into his dazed eyes. "Let me please you."
Dean's body jerked violently as I wrapped my hand around what I wanted the most, and stroked with enough pressure that his eyes rolled to the back of his head in his pleasure. Soon enough, Dean began moving to the pace of the strokes and making incoherent noises in the back of his throat. It was enough to make us both groan, loudly, in unison. How I adored pleasing Dean. He's everything to me.
"Please…please…"
"Please, what?" I asked, quietly, giving the underside a brief lick. I could tell by his restless movements that he was getting impatient and to be brutally honest, so was I.
"Sonofab-"
I couldn't help but smile at the loud exclamation. "Sure, Dean, anything that you want,"
It was almost difficult to accomplish, considering Dean's size, but I reaped the reward for my struggle when he moaned out again in pleasure and began thrusting heavily into his mouth…so rapidly that I was forced to hold tightly on his hips as the both of them struggled to give each other as much pleasure as they could give. It was too much sexual energy to be contained. I briefly lost control over my latent abilities and I could hear the window crack and the light over flicker in response. I groaned as my own erection began throbbing with more urgency…I needed to get into Dean before I shattered into a million pieces.
As always, Dean was in tune with my thoughts. "Damn it, Sam," Dean wheezed, gently pulling himself away from my mouth. "Come on, I need you right now. I want to feel you inside me…come to me, please."
More out of control than he wanted to admit, I reached over and digging through the nightstand hurriedly, grabbed the tube of strawberry flavored lube. Giving Dean a piercing look, I brushed a brief kiss over his mouth. "Tell me if I hurt you." I muttered as Dean turned over onto his side, in an effort to accommodate his stomach. "I don't ever want to, not now…not ever."
He nodded and using probably more lube than was strictly necessary, I whispered words of devotion and love into his ear as I started to sink into his tight, snug warmth. Dean's soft gasps of pleasure were almost enough to make me lose my natural mind but I meant what I said: I would never hurt him. NOT EVER. Trying not to lose myself to the blinding pleasure and gently sinking my teeth into Dean's shoulder, I started to thrust more heavily.
"Sam…Sam…Sammmy…"
"Dean…Dean…Dean…"
Feeling my balls tighten against me in eminent release, I released my grip on Dean's hip, intending to jerk him into a blinding orgasm, but Dean had already beaten me to it. He was always so messy when he was pregnant; he leaked enough precome to soak both of our hands and I could hear his wheezing gasps of breath as he danced closer to the edge. Swiveling my hips in the way I knew he especially adored, I was rewarded in a loud, keening cry and a sobbed out "SAMMY!" before I could feel his body jerk and his heated release spread out over both of our hands.
"That's it." I hissed into his ear, biting down on his earlobe gently. "Give me everything you got. Let me feel you…you're all mine, aren't you? Mine, and mine, alone."
"Possessive little bitch." Dean laughed out, purposely contracting hard around me. I wasn't expecting it in the least bit; a strangled cry cresting in my throat, my orgasm ripped though me and I slammed hard enough into him that I'm surprised that he didn't either go flying off of the bed or slam into the headboard. I could vaguely hear Dean murmuring appreciatively as I filled him up, hips gently working their way through my release. "Like…like…I said, possessive…"
We lay there for a moment, basking in the afterglow and me still snug in Dean's warmth, before it blatantly dawned on me that we both probably needed a shower. I pressed a gentle kiss against his shoulder and listened for any signs of discomfort from Dean. Besides a soft sigh of contentment, there was none and I couldn't help but reach down and gently, sink a finger into his slick, tight warmth. "I'm always going to be possessive about you, Dean," I said, hearing his slight gasp at the intrusion and feeling his body flex in response. "Always."
Gently pulling away from me, Dean flipped over and placed his clean, warn hand against my cheek. "I know, Sam. I know."
I pressed gentle kisses against his fingers and cupped my own hand on top of his rounded belly. I remembered when I was pregnant with Cas, I wouldn't let Dean anywhere near me in a foolish, paranoid attempt not to hurt the baby. Dean had no such compulsions pregnant with Eve or even now; his sex drive was just as strong as ever and he demonstrated it as much as he could possibly get away with. We both snorted with laughter as the baby gave a resounding kick at my touch. Girl or boy, they were truly a Winchester child, all right.
"Come on, let go hop in the shower." Dean whispered, gently sucking a bruise into my throat. I wasn't fooled in the least but of course, I wouldn't let him know that. "This is just disgusting…plus the kids will probably be back soon enough. Cas will never forgive us for traumatizing him before…."
Pulling him to his feet, I couldn't help but smile at the gentle clink of the matching silver wedding bands that told the world who we were to each other, even if they were sometimes left wondering what exactly.
A simple inscription, written in the inside that meant everything to the both of us:
Family.
Lowering my face closer to his as we stumbled…well, he waddled, our way to the ensuite bathroom, my hand against his lower back, I pressed a kiss against his mouth that he returned, happily.
Forever and always, we're a family.
