I'm starting to wonder if I can remember the ending to this. Ooops! Anyway, I got an email saying we still have our tickets, phew! I have not enjoyed the last week! Let's celebrate, have a chapter!

Faith was the first one outside after everyone had eaten breakfast, taking a brief run from the doorway and shooting up into the sky, her wings flapping slowly, but lifting her quickly. By the time Dean, Dax, Sam and Castiel reached the doorway, she was far up, not high enough to touch the clouds, but enough to be able to see the whole of Lawrence from her vantage point.

Dean laughed as he watched her looping around in the sky, with a sense of deja vu that felt warm and welcoming rather than cautionary. Her attitude to flying was the same it had been when she was a nervous toddler. Dax sucked in a breath beside him, and Sam clapped him on the shoulder.

'Yeah, it's a shock, isn't it?'

'My girlfriend's flying.' Dax managed to breathe out.

'That's pretty much how Sam reacted when they first appeared.' Dean smirked, walking forwards to watch her progress. Sam shook his head at Dax, who smiled weakly.

'Seriously, she sprouted them at daycare. Dean went to get her, and just let her fly around the bunker and I was freaking out but he was just like 'let her fly' so I had to be casual back. But seriously, it's not every day a toddler sprouts wings.'

'We knew there would be things to set her apart, being nephilim,' Castiel spoke up behind Sam.

'You and Dean were a lot more prepared for it than I was,' Sam shrugged.

'It gets easier though, right? To get used to whatever this means?' Dax pressed. 'I mean, I've seen her do some crazy stuff, but I thought maybe she made a deal or knew a little magic.'

'What would you have done if she had made a deal?' Sam sounded curious.

'What anyone would. I would've made a deal to go in her place.'

Sam clapped him on the shoulder again.

'You're a good guy, Dax.'

'Thanks. So, you're her uncle?'

'Yep.'

'Did she really used to steal your clothes?'

Sam laughed.

'Yeah, my shirts, my breakfast, most of my stuff. She had too much help in the "mine" phase from Dean. But she was a sweet kid, she used to bring her toys to life to have tea parties.'

Dax burst out laughing.

'Faith used to have tea parties?'

'Yep. You should've heard her toy names. Her teddy was Bear, her unicorn was Pony, her rabbit was Rabbit-'

'And Mrs Rabbit,' Castiel stuck in. Dax was laughing again, looking back up in the sky and watching as Faith soared higher, arms outspread and wings practically flat against her back before she levelled out. 'I remember her making Pony real, and her flying him in her projection.'

'Dean freaked.' Sam told Dax.

'She listens to him, though.'

'She always did. And she listens to you.' Sam pointed out.

'Nah, she argues with me all the time. She always thinks she's right.'

'She's a lot like Dean in that respect,' Castiel said quietly. Dax blinked at him through his glasses.

'So she's not like her Mom? I've not heard much about her, yet.'

'She used to be,' Sam answered, shooting Castiel a sideways glance. 'But the Mom situation's complicated. Angel lore.'

'Right.' Dax nodded, as Faith flew back towards them, almost dive-bombing, but pulling up at the last second and hovering in front of Dax.

'How amazing is this, Dax? I can fly! Wanna come up with me?'

'No, I think I'll be sick.'

Faith rolled her eyes and shook her head.

'Dax, you're disappointing me.' She fake-pouted.

'I'm talking to your uncles. They're okay. I'm okay. You go fly.'

'You're boring, Dax.'

'Ask your Dad if he'll fly with you.' Dax shrugged.

'Fine. Killjoy.'

'Love you too.' Dax called as she swooped away, flying low near the ground to where Dean was sitting on a verge, watching.

'Whatever!' They heard her call back. He laughed as Sam did, and Sam watched until she was hovering in front of Dean.

'This is going to be interesting, Dean's scared of flying.' Sam muttered.

'He flew on Pony once, to go looking for her. He might agree.' Castiel pointed out.

'And he puked. I doubt it.'

The three of them watched as Faith talked fast to Dean, and he paled slightly, but talked back, and after a few minutes, stood up, stepping forward.

'Oh, she's good,' Sam smirked. 'I wanna watch this, but I don't wanna get puked on.'

'I'll make sure he doesn't vomit on anyone,' Castiel promised. They huddled together, watching and listening to Dean cursing as Faith flew, lower now, slower, without all her fancy loops and dives. Eventually Dean stopped cussing and they could hear him singing, off-key, Metallica.

'So, have you talked to her, Cas?' Sam spoke up eventually.

'No, she seems to resent me. And Dean is displeased with me as well.'

'Dean'll come around, especially now she's back.'

'I don't know, Sam. He's defending her and neither of them are listening to the real issue.'

'He's always gonna stick up for her Cas, but he loves you. Just let him calm down.'

'It feels as though neither of them want me as part of the family right now.'

Sam slung an arm around Castiel in an awkward "bro" hug.

'You know that's not true. Dean's just appealing to the human side she's gotten used to. Give her some time, she'll get used to the angel parts too. And she needs you to point out what those are and how to deal with them. She's probably forgotten everything you used to teach her.'

Dax looked at them both, confusion clearly written on his face.

'So, you're like her Gandalf or her Dumbledore or something?' He asked Castiel. Sam chuckled.

'No, Cas is more like Lily, without being dead, you know?'

'I don't understand the reference,' Castiel frowned. 'I'm not a funeral plant?'

Sam and Dax laughed, as Charlie appeared in the doorway, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

'Is that Dean and that girl? Flying? What the hell did I miss last night?'

'A lot, apparently. It's Dean and Cas' girl, Charlie.'

'The dead one Dean's been drinking his life away over?'

'Nicely summed up, Charlie.' Sam shook his head in amused exasperation.

'I try. I can hang around, right? I love visiting you guys, this place will never stop being so damn cool. I wanna look at the computer room again.'

'Sure, I'll come with you.' Sam turned around.

'Can I come too?' Dax asked quietly, shifting his feet. 'Faith's going to try and get me to fly again, I know it. And I wanna hear more about her as a kid.'

'Sure, I'll look for the photographs.'

The three of them walked back inside, leaving Castiel watching Dean and Faith flying slowly nearby. Sam let Charlie and Dax into the computer room and disappeared again quickly, returning after Charlie had opened up a panel with a small stack of photographs.

'Dean'll kill me for taking these for you before Faith gets a look in, but you wanted to see them, so,' Sam pulled a chair up to where Dax was perched on a counter, and straddled it from behind. Even on the lower seat, he towered above Dax. He held each picture up in turn, telling a little story with it.

'So, this is when she was first born. Dean was keeping me in the dark then, and I think he told me he was getting ammunition when he went to see her. She was only a couple hours old there. And that's Cas with her-'

Dax took the second photograph, of Castiel standing with a tiny baby in his arms, their faces close together and a contented smile on his face, his eyes shining with pride. Sam had called Faith "Dean and Cas' girl" earlier, hadn't he? But Castiel looked as male as he did even now. He didn't look any older, unlike Dean and Sam, who had both wrinkled slightly, their hair turning the same dark shade of grey.

'So, Cas is Faith's mom?' Dax double-checked. Sam smiled, and handed him another picture.

'Yeah. I mean, that's only his vessel, the guy you can see there. He normally looks like that. But for something like a week, for reasons I don't think we ever found out, Cas had to use another vessel, and he found Cassandra. I mean, technically Cassandra had Faith, but at the time she was made, Cas was in the driving seat. Like I said, it's complicated.'

'So what happened to Cassandra?' Dax wanted to know. Sam flicked through the photographs in order, showing the tiny baby growing slowly even as she developed enough to sit up, stand, and walk in a succession of photographs Dean had kept private. Dax didn't know much about babies - he and Faith had ignored them in the home, sticking close together whenever they could - but even he could tell that there was an intelligence in her eyes from the very start, far beyond any normal baby. Eventually, they got to the photographs with Sam in, and Dax realised he hadn't been in any of the pictures so far.

'I only met her when Cassandra died,' Sam informed Dax quietly. 'It was a strange situation, knowing that she was this huge part of my brother and I didn't know her at all. But they wanted her life to be normal, you know? They didn't want her to get dragged into hunting. Dean was adamant she wouldn't grow up like we did, living out of a car with a dad who was only really there in body, and even that was occasional. At least with Cassandra, she had stability, you know? And then someone killed her, and they had no choice.'

Dax nodded, unable to answer, just staring at the toddler version of his girlfriend in the newest photograph that Sam had passed him. Her hair was slightly unruly, and she was indeed in a plaid man's shirt, her huge mis-matched eyes betraying her sense of fear as she stood in the middle of a room littered with toys. The only real defining thing Dax could see in the picture was the teddy that she clutched tightly, like a security blanket.

'She looks scared,' he commented. 'Faith never gets scared.'

'Maybe, maybe not. But she was two years old, her surrogate Mom had been killed in front of her, and she didn't enjoy daycare. She was allowed to be a little scared, right?'

'She's going to hate seeing these pictures.' Dax breathed.

'Maybe, maybe not. It might answer her questions, or spark a memory. And if not, it might help her bond again with Castiel.'

'He has been kind of a tool.' Dax valiantly tried to back Faith up. Sam smiled patiently.

'Maybe, but doesn't everyone have problems with their parents when they're teenagers?'

Dax shrugged, and Sam's face fell.

'Sorry, Dax, I didn't mean … I mean, our Mom died too. I never even knew her.'

'Okay, guys, I'm going to interrupt the love fest, do you even know how amazing this place is? I could totally rewrite the program to simulate pokemon in the bunker.'

'Please don't,' Sam sighed, rubbing his face. 'I don't want to wake up in the morning next to one of the annoying ones.'

Charlie glared at him, and Dax chuckled, flicking through a few of the pictures again, finding his favourite in the bunch and sliding it out into his pocket.