Surprisingly, the next week was incredibly uneventful. Other than Dean helping Castiel get used to the new weapons and showing him how to conceal them properly, nothing really changed. The morning before New Year's Eve Seraphiel came downstairs to see Dean drinking his morning coffee at the table, a rather pensive look on his face.
"What is it now?" She said, rolling her eyes as she sat down across from him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean your forehead currently has more wrinkles than a raisin. Something has to be on your mind."
Dean just looked down into his coffee.
"If you don't tell me I'm going to have to start guessing."
Continued silence. Sera made her "Oh, I'm gonna get you good" face.
"Alright. Twenty questions without verbal answers. This is going to be fun. Is it something to do with Cas?"
She analyzed his reaction down to the slightest muscle twitch and whatever emotion she could get off of him.
"Ok, so partially, but not really. This is a sort of umbrella issue, right? Some sort of problem you have with everything?"
He lifted his eyes. Suddenly a voice came from behind her.
"He's upset and distrusting of the fact that he is happy." It was Cas's voice. As he had the very moment they physically met, he understood Dean perfectly. She looked Dean in the eyes and saw that this was true. She reached out and put her hand over his. "Don't worry. After Thalia's born and you guys go back out on the road it will be suffering and bloodshed and angst again. You'll be back in your comfort zone. And you have plenty of time to prepare yourself for when I leave you all. But keep in mind that Castiel won't. He'll be with you until the end. It's not like he can go back to Heaven."
Dean angled his eyes up to look over her at Castiel, who nodded, then moved them back toward Sera's face. She took her hand away. "What do you want for breakfast?"
"Sera, you're like, a day away from going into labor, you should be on bed rest. I'll make breakfast," Dean said, sipping his coffee. Sera got wide-eyed. "Really?"
"You know I made breakfast all of the time when I was…" He sort of swallowed the end of his sentence. He had promised himself and made Sam promise never to speak of his time with Lisa again, and he wasn't going to be the one to break it. Sera understood this. "Yeah, I get it. Go ahead, and while you're at it put the kettle on." She kept watching Dean until she heard the chair at the end of the table scrape the floor. She looked over to see Cas sitting down.
He glanced down at her stomach. "It will not be long. Twenty-four hours at the most. I can feel it."
"I can too. I think everyone can. I mean, this is pretty huge. First one in a really long time. I think even Dean can feel it, even if he doesn't know what it is."
"Can you guys please not talk about me like I'm not here?"
"If I was talking about you like you weren't here, this would be an entirely different conversation."
She heard the utter silence of him pausing in the middle of whatever it was he had been doing. He even stopped breathing for that moment, before returning to his task. Sera just smiled and Cas put on that adorably confused expression he seemed to have on constantly these days. With all of the jokes Sera made combined with Dean's reactions he didn't understand most of the conversations where they were involved.
"So, Dean, still having trouble sleeping in that bedroom?"
"Not as much."
"Good. You need your rest for everything that's coming."
Dean had learned not to ask questions when she made statements like that. One of the phones was ringing. Cas got up to go get it. "Which one is it?" Sera asked loudly.
"FBI."
"You remember what to say?"
Instead of answering, she heard the slight click of him picking up the phone. He started to recite the lines he had learned, inserting the names given. Sera and Dean smiled at each other at the incredibly flat way he said it. It was very convincing. He sounded like a soulless government type, they were kind of proud. When he walked back in and sat back down, Dean was the one to ask. "Who was it for?"
"Garth. He must not be very convincing, I believe we get calls for him more than any of the others."
"Have you met him? I'm surprised he's not dead, he's such an awkward mess."
"The one time I worked with him he got knocked out in the middle of a fight. Completely useless." Dean said, throwing some slices of bacon into the skillet he had been heating up.
Sam wandered in, planting a kiss on Sera's cheek as he walked past her toward the coffee pot. "Morning, Sammy," She said cheerfully.
Sam glanced over at Dean at the stove as he filled his mug. "Since when do you cook?"
"Why does no one think I know how to do things?" Dean said defensively.
It was later in the day, around noon, when Sera felt a slight twinge. She put her hand on her stomach. Castiel noticed as he was walking by, carrying a bowl full of popcorn for Dean. He stopped in his tracks and set the bowl on the table. Dean stopped a few feet away, seeing that the angel was suddenly alarmed. Sera looked up at them both and then, suddenly, it started. She tried not to make any noise but it was hard. Dean suddenly felt like he was having really bad stomach cramps.
Sam didn't need anyone to tell him, he just rushed into the room, like he could sense it. He moved to take one of her arms and help her up, while Castiel took the other. Dean needed to sit sown in the swivel chair from the pain. Sera shrugged away from Sam and leaned on Cas. "Call Crowley…tell him it's time, he'll know what to do."
Sam's brows furrowed. "Crowley?" The rest of his question was interrupted by Sera and Dean both screaming. When she could breathe again she lifted her eyes to Cas to confirm he understood her orders. He nodded and she gave a weak smile, switching to lean on Sam so Cas could go. He simply vanished.
She looked at Sam. "Our little girl's coming, Sammy." She took a breath. "I'm good, still in the early stages. Go tend to your brother, I'll get upstairs."
"You sure?" He asked, and she nodded and pushed him away, then vanished, he could hear her footsteps on the floor above. He went over to Dean, who was doubled over, and grabbed his shoulders and pulled him upright to look at him. "You gonna live, man?"
"I seriously do not know."
Sam breathed easier when Castiel appeared in the kitchen then walked into the library, but frowned when he saw he was alone. "Where's Crowley?" He asked, and then flinched as the house was filled with screams again.
"He's on his way. He had to track someone down." Castiel said flatly, as if there was nothing at all important going on. He went over to Dean and put his hand on his forehead, "Would you like me to force you into deep sleep?" He asked. Dean shook his head. "No, I…I can take it…"
"That is not what I asked. I know what you can and cannot take, I was asking if you wanted it to stop."
Dean just looked at him, and Sam had to look away from them, uncomfortable with the tension. Suddenly Crowley appeared in the kitchen, a leather bag in one hand while the other held tight onto a head full of dark hair. The face of it's owner was hidden until Crowley jerked her up and Sam saw a familiar face. "Meg?" He said, disbelieving. "What…why?" Was all he could force out while looking at Crowley. He let her go, and she looked around. "You didn't have to be so rough with me, Crowley, I agreed to come."
"You could have just used it as an excuse to get out of the Chamber. I had to make sure you wouldn't run off."
"Excuse me, can someone please tell me why she's here?" Sam asked, looking between Crowley and Castiel while pointing at Meg.
"Because, she's the only demon besides me that owes Seraphiel a favor."
"But how is she going to help?"
Meg held her hand out to Crowley, who handed her the leather bag. "Surprising that as many times as we've run into each other, you guys never asked about who I used to be. It seems out of character." She said, stepping forward into the library and winking at Castiel before turning to Sam. "I was a witch when I was alive. The traditional kind, not the hardcore chicks you guys are used to. Most witches in the Colonies were trained midwives and healers. That knowledge combined with the torturing skill I learned in hell…well let's just say I could work miracles that could put pretty much every modern Doctor to shame, and clever Sera, well I guess she knew the day would come when she would need those kinds of skills. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a miracle baby to deliver."
"Fine, but I'll be watching you," Sam said sternly, and followed her upstairs.
"How…how does a midwife end up becoming a demon?" Dean breathed out, like listening to a story would give him something to focus on to lessen the pain.
Crowley rolled his eyes, "You'd have to ask her that, sunshine." He looked at Castiel. "Can't you shut your boyfriend up? He's only going to get worse."
"I'm not his…" Dean groaned, then just gave up. He looked at Castiel's left hand, and noticed something he hadn't before. He was still wearing the silver ring Sera had given him to match Dean's when they were fake married. They still matched. Somehow that seemed significant. Dean wondered if he had kept it on purpose or had simply forgotten to take it off.
Upstairs, Meg untied a leather surgical kit and unrolled it on their dresser. Sam sat next to Sera and had her hand in his to squeeze during the contractions, although he would probably regret it when one actually happened. She would probably crush it.
"So how does a midwife end up becoming a demon?"
Meg sighed and she began looking from Sera to her tools, as if strategizing what she would need to do should something bad happen. "It's not all that complicated. I was pretty, and smart, and the preacher man didn't like it too much when he tried to accost me and I kneed him in the groin, so he started a witch hunt, and I was the first to be arrested."
She took a scalpel from it's place and obviously held it like one who knew how to use it properly. "Azazel came to me in my cell, offered to make all of my problems go away and give me ten extra years of freedom if I just gave up one tiny little insignificant thing. I didn't agree the first time, I knew about demons and the tricks they could play, and had been tempted by them before, but after the few days that followed…all of the torture and interrogation…he came back, and offered it to me again. I gave it up that time." She looked at Sera, who gave her a weak smile, then at Sam, "Don't know why he came back after I said no. It's not like I was anything special."
"Don't do that, Meg, you're very special." Sera said breathily. Meg set the scalpel back down in its slot then walked over to the bed and put her hand on Sera's stomach.
"Before I got here, were you walking?"
"Of course."
"We've still got a way to go. You should get up and move some more if you want this to speed up." She looked at Sam. "Help her up."