Chapter 10! I honestly didn't think I'd make it this far. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the reviews (especially to Rachel, who posted a review after every chapter), and the follows, and the favorites, the hundreds of views!
Please don't forget to keep reading, and to keep favoriting, and keep making my day with your reviews!
Now, without further ado, the chapter that the website wouldn't let me call Don't Worry, Dr. Caplan McDougall, She's A Certified Beheading Instructor. How is that too many letters?
"When's the baby gonna come out?" Joanna whines, just like she does about fifty times a day now. "Now?"
"No," I tell her, not looking up from my phone, where I'm texting her father that I 'don't fucking care if the ghoul has killed five people, or five hundred people, he will bring his feathery ass back to Kansas because our daughter is making my ears bleed with her incessant inquiries of when the baby will be born'.
"Now?" She asks again, bouncing on her knees. I almost expect her to rise from the couch, but she hasn't grown wings yet, so she can't.
"No, Joanna," I reply, texting all caps now.
"Now?"
"JOANNA WINCHESTER-!" I start, but she darts out of the room before I can continue.
I hear my mother scream in the next room, and I leap to my feet.
"Joanna, what did I tell you about being careful around Grandma?!" I start, sure that my always-active daughter is causing yet another problem. I love Joanna, but she's certainly a handful. Can Cas and I really handle another baby, especially if he takes up as much of our energy as Joanna does, not just now, but when she was a newborn baby?
"No, it's ok," Mom says, leaning forward in her armchair. "It wasn't Joanna, it was a contraction."
"Contraction, contraction," I repeat, taking a deep breath. "I'm familiar with those. Cas had those. That means the baby's coming. Ok."
"No, since it's so early, it could just be Braxton Hicks." She pokes at her stomach as if trying to find out the baby's opinion on the matter. "Oh! No, that was my mucus plug, ok, that means it's really coming. Whew."
"It's really coming." Will this ever be not-stressful? It's so nerve-racking to know that your baby is falling out of someone else's body and there's not a whole lot you can personally do.
"Yeah." She grimaces a little, but puts one hand on her very-round stomach delicately. "I'm certainly ready for this baby to be out of me."
"I'm sorry," I apologize again, because what are you supposed to say to someone who's complaining about the fact that they're uncomfortable because they're carrying your child even when they had absolutely no obligation to? "Should we go to the hospital yet?"
Last time, Cas and I got to the hospital before the contractions were close enough together and they wouldn't give us a room. We stayed in the waiting room since we were out of state, but this time, they might not let us do that.
"Maybe we'll wait an hour or two. Joanna, how bout you help Grandma pack her bag," she suggests, rising.
"No, it's ok, Mom, I'll pack your bag. Joanna, stay here with Grandma, keep her company, ok," I command, putting a hand on her shoulder to guide her back into the chair. "Just think about good things. When Sammy and I were little, and when you got a grandchild, and when you met dad…"
"Yeah. Just go, Dean, I'm ok." She pulls Joanna toward her before saying, "Joanna and I will be ok here. Right, Anna?"
I leave and go to Mom's bedroom where I pack a bag with some magazines, a pillow, a change of clothes, and some of her favorite candy, Hot Tamales (which I know she keeps in her desk drawer to snack on constantly).
I call Cas frantically and leave a message. "Hey, Baby. I know the baby's not due for another three weeks, but Mom had a contraction, and something called her 'mucus plug' came out, and the baby's coming. Just come home as quickly as possible, or we might be at the hospital, so we'll be at Sinai, so find us. I love you so much. We're going to have another baby. Joanna's gonna have a little brother! I love you."
I go back to Mom and Joanna and I sit with her, watching Curious George as the contractions get increasingly closer and closer together.
"Ok, I think it's time," I say finally as Mom gasps through another contraction. "Really, Mom, they're six minutes apart now, we should really go."
"Cas isn't here. Doesn't Cas want to be there? How far away is he?" Mom stutters nervously.
"Are you ok?" I question.
"Yeah. I mean, I've done this before, twice, and whew. I'm going to have another grandchild, and you're going to have another baby. And that makes the increasingly more excruciating pain this baby is going to put me in worth it."
"He's still an hour and a half away. Why did he go three and a half hours away when the baby could come any minute?" I groan.
"In his defense," she argues, standing up and starting to the garage of the Bunker, "The baby wasn't due yet. But it's coming now."
"Daddy," Joanna says tugging on my sleeve.
"Hold on, Joanna. You're having a baby brother," I tell her distractedly, picking her up and balancing her on my hip.
"But I had an ax-ident, Daddy," she complains.
"Joanna Winchester!" I groan, putting her down so as not to be pee-stained when I welcome my second child into the world. "When we get to the hospital, I'll find you a change of clothes. Or I'll have Daddy come back here and get you something. Whatever. We have to go, Joanna, alright."
"No, it's ok, Dean. I can wait five more minutes," Mom groans. "I can get myself to the car. Be a good parent, and don't let your child sit in their own pee for several hours."
"Ok." I take Joanna back to her room and change her quickly, and when I finally run her to the car. I buckle her into her carseat. Then I get into the driver's seat and drive to the Mt. Sinai Medical Center.
It's not long before Cas gets there, but it feels like forever as I try to keep Joanna happy, or at least occupied, while I also listen to my mother birth my baby (God, that sounds so wrong). Then Cas takes over Joanna duty and I just hold my mother's hand as she gives birth.
"Alright! Who's ready for this baby to be out?" A new doctor asks, coming in with a clipboard and a stethoscope around his neck.
"I AM!" Mom screams, nearly breaking my fingers.
"What about you, Daddy? Ready for your wife to have her baby?" He asks, still so fucking cheerfully.
"She's not my wife," I say, glancing out into the hall before Dr. Caplan-McDougall closes the door. Cas is pacing with Joanna, who's greeting everyone with a 'Hello. I'm Joanna, and I'm gonna be a big sister!'.
"But you have the same last name."
"Yeah, she's my mother," I clarify, just to see the look on his face. Sorry.
His smile wavers a little, falling into wrinkles that reveal his true age. "What?"
I'm debating whether or not to draw this out (because this is actually kinda fun. Mom looks physically the same age as me, and she's my mother, and it's so much fun to watch a person who doesn't understand our unique situation try to puzzle through it.), when Mom speaks. "HE'S lying, sure, I'm his wife, just get this baby out of me."
And after just another hour, I'm holding my first son.
Mom rests in the hospital bed and Cas and Joanna and I coo over our new baby.
"Can I hold him?" Joanna asks, so softly that I almost don't believe it's her. She's awestricken with her new brother.
"Sure. Say hello to your little brother, John Gabriel Winchester."
Cas pulls Joanna into his lap and then I place the tiny, blanket-wrapped baby into her arms.
"Hi, Johnny," she greets him softly. "I'm gonna be the BEST sister, ok? And I'm gonna teach you to behead a vampire."
A nurse passing by stares at us strangely, but all I can do is laugh. Sure, we're nowhere near normal, but I have a handsome husband and two beautiful children.
I put my arm around Cas's shoulders and he nuzzles me. Then we just watch Joanna detail exactly how to behead a vampire while Johnny watches his older sister with wonder.
-What'd ya think? Review, review, review! If you review...maybe I'll start posting my SPN fansongs. There we go, there's an incentive! Who wants to read the fansongs I write at one in the morning? You do? Great! Write a review!