Rating: PG13.
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing(s): Dean/Castiel
Warnings: MPREG baby, slash, possible English mistakes, still more angel!whump but a bit more on the comfort Half of the hurt/comfort scale
Spoilers: none.
A/N: So I got quite a bit less feedback than I usually do and lost a few followers over the last chapter (which I've never noticed happen before), so I apologise to anyone who was not satisfied. Thank you very much to those of you who did review! It means so much to me to hear what you guys think, I can't even tell you. I'm pretty nervous about posting this chapter. I'm not sure if I did any good on it, but I hope everyone finds it more enjoyable than the last one (despite my very limited knowledge of anything to do with medical issues. AHH. I really hope I didn't write anything too ridiculous)! I was able to finish this chapter a bit faster than last time, thank god, despite how stressful this last week was for me and my very busy schedule as of late, so that's a plus. Thanks so much for reading! I'm sorry it's pretty short, but I really hope this chapter is enjoyable!
"Whoa there, buddy. Careful… take it easy."
But Castiel can't take it easy, because now he's working too hard on trying not to puke in the middle of the waiting room.
Dean quickly realises this.
"Shit. Hey - hey, it's okay, Cas," he tries to comfort, but it's not okay, because apparently people don't respond well at all to guys vomiting blood ten feet away while they're relaxing in their nice plastic hospital chairs.
Matthias isn't too happy about it either, and now with a screaming baby, they've got most of the waiting room watching them and not a single person getting up to help.
Dean notices they've caught the attention of a young nurse.
"You just gonna stand there, or are you gonna help us out?" Dean asks, seething with irritation.
She scurries off to go get someone, and the hunter returns his attention to Castiel.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay, buddy. Don't worry."
The angel coughs lightly, and the pained look on his face deepens.
He slouches against the hunter's body, shaking with exhaustion, and closes his eyes.
"Cas. Hey, you've gotta stay awake with me, buddy."
Castiel goes rigid for a second, and then limp. His breaths are sporadic and shallow.
"C'mon, buddy. Don't you pass out on me," Dean nearly whispers, shaking him gently.
The angel is unresponsive
"Cas, c'mon, man!"
His voice comes out more broken than he had been hoping for. Castiel is silent and still.
Dean is about to shake him again, but is carelessly brushed aside by one of several medics who are now crowding around Castiel and lifting him onto a gurney.
The last thing Dean notices is the stream of crimson steadily creeping down from Cas' mouth and the sudden feeling of immense fear and panic radiating from Matthias as he is taken away.
Matthias is crying harder now without Castiel close by, and the curious onlookers quickly lose their interest.
Dean is about to follow them, but the young nurse from earlier stops him.
"Please, sir, wait here. You'll only be in the way," she tries, nervously holding out a clipboard in his direction, "If you want to help, the best thing you can do for him at the moment is to fill out his medical history for us."
Dean is about to make some sarcastic remark along the lines of 'great, I'll just fill all that out with my extra set of arms', but the nervous look about her makes him decide otherwise.
He sighs defeatedly, taking the clipboard and pen from her with his free hand and going to sit on the floor against the wall where he had been with Cas just minutes before.
He begins filling out the basics: 5'11", 165lbs, but it's difficult to focus with Matthias so upset.
Dean notices an older looking man glaring very indiscreetly in their direction.
Dean returns the look and resumes filling out the paperwork.
Birthday, it wants a birthday… shit, what was Jimmy's birthday?
Matthias seems to be getting more and more upset. Dean tries to calm him down, rocking him slightly, quietly talking to him, but nothing is helping.
The man is still glaring at them, and it's really starting to piss Dean off.
The last straw is when he turns to them several minutes later and asks if Dean can tone it down a notch.
"Yeah, sure thing. Let me just find the volume control," he spits, feeling somewhat satisfied by the man's growing annoyance, "I know, it's just so irritating that he's fucking terrified."
The man is slightly taken aback and grumbles something in his own defence, crossing his arms as he turns back in his chair.
Dean continues trying to calm Matthias.
He tries everything. Rocking him isn't helping, and the waiting room is too noisy for his voice to be of any comfort. He tries holding him in different positions, seeing if he's hungry or too hot or too cold, rubbing his back…
Holding him to his chest where he can feel the vibrations as Dean softly hums 'Hey Jude' does some good, reducing the noise by a good measure, but the screaming resumes the moment he stops.
They've been waiting around for a couple hours now, and Dean has no idea how Matthias hasn't worn himself out yet and gone to sleep. He can't even get him to eat, and it's starting to become very worrisome.
He tries to convince the nurse to let them see Cas and, just to make his day that much better, finds out that he's been taken to the OR for emergency surgery due to severe internal bleeding and won't be out for another two hours at the very least.
Dean feels like his world is caving in on him, a crushing kind of fear and stress that condenses the atmosphere and makes it hard to breathe.
He calls Sam from a pay phone at some point, thankful that there's no one else in the hallway who could be bothered by Matthias' incessant crying.
He knows it's pretty much hopeless, but he still hasn't given up on trying to comfort the little guy and continues to sway back and forth while he listens to the dialling tone.
He fills Sam in on everything that's going on, maybe even cries a bit, and that's all it takes to get his brother there in record time.
It's about an hour after Sam arrives that a nurse comes out to the waiting room with the news that Castiel is in recovery, drowsy and very delicate, but awake and available to be visited. Dean can physically feel the relief it brings him and is making his way down the hall the moment he has the floor and room number.
Matthias continues to cry the whole way there, and Dean hums to him again in hopes that he will quiet down and not disturb anyone in the rooms they're passing by.
He calms down significantly the moment they reach the door, and even more once they step inside the room.
Castiel has his eyes mostly closed. He still looks like shit, but it's a hundred times better than when Dean last saw him, so there's no complaining.
"Cas?" he calls softly.
The nurse had said he was tired; he could easily have fallen asleep in the time it took to get there.
The angel opens his eyes a bit more and gives a small but genuine smile to the hunter standing in the doorway.
"Hello, Dean. Hello, Sam."
"Hey," he returns with a grin as Sam nods in acknowledgement, "How're you feeling, buddy?"
Castiel shifts slightly.
"Much better," he says with a light cough but no pain to his expression, "However, I still find these beds heinously uncomfortable."
Dean gives a small laugh.
"Yeah, that's one thing you can always count on."
He walks to the edge of the bed, pulling a chair up close and sitting down; Sam remains standing awkwardly in the doorway.
"Little guy missed you," he says, "Started screaming bloody murder when you left and hasn't calmed down until just now."
Matthias is still crying, but it's quiet in comparison.
Castiel furrows his eyebrows, watching their baby closely as Dean carefully passes him over.
Once he is in Castiel's arms, it's only a matter of a few hitched breaths and a long sigh before Matthias has quit crying completely and is relaxed and content, mere seconds to end what had been unstoppable for hours.
"He was afraid," Castiel says observantly, "He must have sensed something was wrong and panicked when he could only detect one of us in the vicinity… his movements are weak"
The angel holds him closer, looking a bit worried.
"I bet he's exhausted… probably starving too," Dean says guiltily, obviously blaming himself, "I couldn't even get him to eat."
Castiel doesn't speak for a moment, quietly observing Matthias as he lays calmly in his arms, watching him back with dark blue eyes that may or may not actually be green. He raises a tiny, uncoordinated hand that grabs onto the angel's shirt, opening and closing around the fabric, curiously feeling the texture of the hospital's provided attire.
"He still needs to draw energy from my grace on occasion," Castiel adds, still watching the baby, "He is doing so now. I… believe that absence may have contributed to his distress."
Matthias starts to fuss again, and Castiel gently repositions him to lay at a more upright angle.
"His hunger is beginning to catch up with him," the angel informs, brushing a soothing hand over the baby's hair.
Dean gets a bottle ready, and Matthias sucks it down so quickly, the hunter is worried he might choke. He's fine, though, and is asleep in the blink of an eye.
Sam doesn't hang around long either, and soon it's just Dean and Cas.
"You sure you're doing alright?" Dean asks skeptically.
The angel nods, absently ghosting his thumb back and forth across Matthias' cheek.
"This physical aid is very helpful. There is still much repair to be done, but I can can feel my grace beginning to mend itself."
The hunter visibly relaxes.
"Good. That's great," he says, feeling tremendously relieved by this new information, "And you're feeling better too?"
Castiel nods.
"Significantly."
Matthias sighs loudly in his sleep, his little limbs twitching and moving on occasion.
Dean can't help but smile proudly at him.
"Man, he's a wiggly little guy, ain't he," he comments.
The angel nods in agreement.
"I remember it was very bothersome when I was trying to sleep."
Dean smiles a little bigger.
"Yeah, speaking of which, Cas, you should probably try and get some shuteye."
The angel nods, quietly glancing down at their son.
"And you will watch over him?" he asks, handing him to the hunter.
"Nah, I'm just gonna set him on the table and leave," Dean deadpans.
Castiel looks horrified for a moment and then seems to realise it's a joke.
Dean smirks, patting his angel's shoulder and planting a kiss on his cheek.
"I'm not going anywhere, Cas," he assures.
"Thank you."
They talk quietly until Cas falls asleep mid-conversation, and Dean is left watching the steady movements of Matthias' tiny chest as it rises and falls, listening to the soft noises he makes with each breath.
He sleeps for several hours before waking up, hungry again, but Dean somehow manages to keep him quiet enough not to wake up Cas. He eats quickly and is out again like a light, nestled closely in Dean's arms.
The hunter frowns slightly, hoping it isn't harmful for him to be so exhausted.
He holds Matthias a bit tighter, taking the baby's little hand in his own and gently thumbing over his tiny fingers. Not a single word he can think of does the feeling any justice.
It's indescribable, to hold this tiny person, warm and soft and solid in his arms, moving and breathing and very much alive, and know that he and Cas made this.
He glances over at his angel, who is still laying as he was when he had fallen asleep several hours ago on his side, body slightly curled, lips gently parted, one arm tucked into his chest, and the other slightly outstretched in Dean's direction where the hunter had previously been holding his hand.
Everything is good right now; they're together, they have Matthias, and Cas is already doing way better.
It's just after Matthias wakes up a second time to be fed that things start of go bad. Dean gets him back to sleep with no troubles, and he stays that way, resting peacefully for a whole ten minutes before he begins fussing in his sleep and wakes up, scared and upset.
Dean tries for a moment to soothe him, but he only cries louder.
Cas blinks his eyes open, propping himself up with more effort than he should need. He looks confused for a brief moment and then he frowns, eyebrows furrowed and look clearly expressing that something is wrong.
Then it starts with a small stream of blood falling slowly from his nose. He reaches up a hand to wipe away the unknown substance, looking surprised at the red on his hand and horrified the moment it registers as blood.
"Dean," he says quietly, tone serious, voice shaking, and eyes wide with fear.
He opens his mouth to say something more, but another stream of blood runs over his teeth, filling the lines in his dry, cracked lips, and trickling down the side of his mouth. He raises a hand to catch the liquid, a small pool forming in his palm that then drips through the cracks of his fingers, landing in splattered red dots on white sheets.
Matthias screams as if he were being tortured, tiny lungs desperately gasping for air to create the most terrifying sound Dean has ever heard.
He's torn and heartbroken between his baby and his angel. Something, clearly, is very wrong with Cas, but Matthias sounds like he's in physical pain.
Dean panics. He checks Matthias anywhere for blood but finds nothing, then looks back at Cas, who has fallen into a fit of wet, bloody coughing and looks like he's trying desperately to catch a break and say something.
They're saved by a nurse who had heard Matthias screaming and come to make sure everything was alright. The affair ended in a repeat of earlier, Cas being rushed off to the OR and Matthias screaming his head off for the next several hours while he was gone, and Dean spends the entire wait internally beating himself over the way he froze up and just stood there like an idiot.
One of the doctors had taken a look at Matthias and found nothing wrong with him, said he's perfectly healthy aside from being a bit under-rested, then proceeded to scold Dean about letting Cas get so dangerously dehydrated and not bringing him to the hospital sooner. If the 'take better care of your family' wasn't already implied, it was in the doctor's expression and did nothing to dull the hunter's already raging self hatred.
Cas isn't awake this time when Dean gets to see him again. He had somehow managed to tear out every single one of his stitches, Dean had found out, and is now laying flat on his back, eyes closed and arms exposed to the less than comfortable chill of the room (Dean pulls the thin blankets up to cover him). There's an oxygen mask over his face and multiple bags on his drip feed.
Matthias has reduced his crying to a small snivelling in Dean's arms. His eyes are looking heavy, and the hunter's trying to rock him to sleep and feed him simultaneously is so far proving to be successful and eventually turns into another cycle of Matthias sleeping, waking up to eat, and falling back to sleep.
Dec. 6
It isn't until Cas wakes up that he notices. It's when Dean sort of just stares at him and his open eyes, when he removes the oxygen mask from his face, and the first thing he says to the hunter is, "You look unwell."
It's then that Dean suddenly realises he hasn't eaten in at least a couple days, or slept at all, for the matter. Not to mention the lack of a full night's rest in the days preceding to Cas' hospital stay.
He probably really does look like shit, so he brushes past the comment.
"Cas," he says quietly, his relief evident in his face, "Jesus, I thought I told you not to scare the shit out of me like that!"
Castiel watches him for a moment, looking a bit confused like he's trying to remember something.
"I apologise for causing you distress," he says, still with his eyes on the hunter.
Dean shakes his head.
"How're you feeling, buddy? You still aren't looking so hot."
The angel averts his gaze.
"I feel tired," he mumbles, "I feel very tired, and… there was something I needed to tell you, but I can't remember what it was… it was important."
"Okay… that's okay. Just take your time," the hunter responds patiently, "Are you feeling any better?"
Castiel blinks slowly and looks at Dean again.
"I can't tell. I just feel… drained."
"Yeah, you're telling me."
Castiel starts to shift, then winces and stops.
"Dean, I needed to tell you something important," he says, clearly stressing over the subject to the point that he's nearly frantic.
"Okay," he says, worry etched in his voice, "Alright. Don't worry; we'll figure it out."
Matthias makes a series of small noises from his place in Dean's arms that attracts the attention of both his parents.
Dean looks back at his angel, who is still watching their son.
"Was it about him?" the hunter asks
Castiel isn't immediately responsive to the suggestion.
"…Or the angels?"
Dean wishes, the moment the words leave his mouth, that he hadn't said anything.
Castiel stiffens, eyes wide and fearful, his breaths quickly becoming desperate gasping for air.
"Cas! Cas, calm down! You're gonna hurt yourself again!"
"Dean," he breathes out, now coughing slightly, dotting his hand with small flecks of blood, "Dean, they've been suffocating my grace… they are trying to kill me."
I hope that was an enjoyable chapter. I'm sorry about the cliffhanger, but I feel like I'm starting to lose peoples' interest, so I've got to keep it suspenseful.
Like I said, I was really nervous about posting this chapter, so I'd really appreciate to know what you think!
Thanks so much for sticking around and putting up with my crap for ten whole chapters!