A/N: This is the first chapter I had planned in my head when I started this story. I promise I will get you back to the drama and darkness you're used to. But if I was gonna write this story, this chapter was gonna have to happen. It just had to, okay?
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything related to Supernatural.
...
Dean,
I'm sorry in advance for the toddler years. Every angel I know who ever fell had a hard time because they were just starting to become aware of themselves and their identity. I'm sorry in advance if I shout at you and scream that you're not my real father.
Of course, that was Anna's problem, and maybe I won't do that to you. I'm just warning you.
Be patient with me, Dean. An angel's life is a long one, and our human minds can't shield it entirely. I'm going to want to know more about Heaven and God than kids you're used to dealing with. I'm going to ask questions about the supernatural side of the world. You can lie to me about it if you want to, but I don't know how effective that will be. Maybe telling me the truth will help with the transition.
You also might want to know something about Lisa. She'll have borne an angel, and even a fallen angel can have a healing effect on whomever they live inside. She will be . . . incredibly fertile for the next few years after I'm born.
I know you said you didn't want kids, but you'll have me now, so this could be your chance to have some of your own if that's what you and Lisa decide. I'll try my very hardest not to be jealous.
~Castiel
…..
Cas had the best daddy in the whole wide world.
Cas's daddy let Cas call him Dean, and the neighbors didn't get to call their parents by their first names, so that made him pretty cool.
Cas's daddy let him lick the bowl when Mommy made dessert. He got to sit up on the counter with a spatula, and Dean would lick the mixers even though Mommy told him not to.
Cas's daddy let him stay up late and crawl in the bed with him and Mommy when he thought there was a monster in the closet. And Cas's daddy killed the monsters inside closets, so Cas always knew he was safe from them if Dean was around.
But the best thing was when Cas's daddy told him bedtime stories about Castiel the angel. That was where Cas got his name, and Cas liked to hear all the stories about the avenging angel who saved Dean from monsters and fought bad guys.
"Tell me another one, Dean. Please?" he asked. He wasn't really tired yet, no matter how many times Dean said he was, and the Castiel stories were his favorites.
Dean shook his head, but he was smiling, so that usually meant Cas was going to get his way. "Your mother's going to kill me if I let you stay up too late."
"Tell me the handprint story," Cas insisted. That one was his favorite, because Dean had a handprint on his shoulder where Castiel the angel picked him up and carried him out of Hell. One day Cas was going to meet his namesake and thank him for saving his daddy from Hell so that Cas could have him all to his very own.
"That one's kinda scary, kiddo," Dean said.
"It's my favorite!" Besides, he didn't think it was scary. He thought it was cool that Dean used to have a friend with superpowers.
Dean sighed, but he was still smiling. "Okay," he said at last. He settled in, scooting onto the end of Cas's bed so they could be closer and he could tell the story in a whisper. Cas liked the whisper stories; they were scarier, but they were also more exciting. "Once upon a time, there were two hunters—brothers named Sam and Dean."
Cas pulled the covers up tighter, closer to his face. He liked the stories when Sam and Dean were both together.
"One day, Sam got hurt real bad, and Dean asked the bad guys to save Sam. He said—"
"Please let my brother go and take me instead!" Cas supplied for him. He liked to be able to say all the good parts, and plus, Cas was better at being dramatic. He had seen it on TV.
Dean smiled again. "So the bad guys took Dean to this place called Hell. He was there for forty whole years, and the whole time he was there, the bad guys were mean to him."
"Did they call him names?"
"Lots of awful, dirty names," Dean said.
"Did they pick on him?"
"All the time."
"Did they give him a wedgie?"
Dean stopped his story and raised his eyebrows at Cas. That wasn't part of the usual routine when Dean told the story. Usually, Cas would ask if Dean was sad, and Dean would say that of course he was, but that was because he wasn't with Sam. "Cas," he said quietly, "have the neighbor kids been picking on you?"
"No," Cas said. He didn't let kids pick on him, and they were too scared to, anyway. Cas had a big brother named Ben who was a whole eighteen years old, and he hunted the things in closets with Uncle Sam sometimes when he wasn't working in the garage down the street where Dean worked, so he could be pretty scary to the mean kids in Cas's neighborhood. "But they were picking on Junie, so I told them to stop."
"And did they stop?"
"No."
"So what did you do?"
"I hit him," Cas said.
Dean was trying very hard not to smile. "Cas, you shouldn't hit kids," he said, but he was smiling anyway, so Cas knew Dean was proud of him.
"He had it coming, and Ben says I shouldn't let bullies get away with anything," Cas insisted. He knew he was right because Ben told him stories about how Dean taught him to kick bullies in the place that hurt the most. When Cas was bigger, Dean would teach him that, too, but for now, cas had Ben to teach him all the things he wasn't supposed to learn yet.
Dean just shook his head. "Cas, what am I gonna do with you?"
"Chuck me to the moon!" Cas said. That was what Uncle Benny said all the time, that he was gonna chuck Cas to the moon. And then he would throw him up in the air like he was really Castiel the angel. (Uncle Benny also said that he was the crazy aunt of the family, and Dean seemed to think that was really funny, but Uncle Benny was an uncle, not an aunt, so Cas thought they were just being silly.) "You gotta finish the story, Dean."
And then his big brother, Ben, swooped into the room. He had been hiding in the shadows so Cas couldn't see him, and he shrieked in delight as Ben tickled him. He didn't get to see his big brother much, not now that Ben had graduated high school and Dean had fixed him up a car. (Ben told him about the car, said it was a "reed-stored sixty-six Car vet," which meant that maybe his car fixed up sixty-six hurt animals that other cars ran over one time.)
"Was Dean telling you the handprint story?" Ben asked once he was done tickling.
Cas hiccoughed. "Yeah!"
"Where was he?"
"The bullies were teasing Dean in . . . ." Cas leaned forward, since Mommy said he wasn't supposed to swear. "They teased him in Hell." He giggled. Ben and Dean let him swear, but he wasn't supposed to tell Mommy that, even though Hell was a real place and not a swear word, according to Ben.
"And then Castiel the avenging angel came swooping in!" Ben said. He knew the story really well, too, and he was much better at acting it out than Dean was. He made flapping noises with his wings, then jumped onto the edge of Cas's bed, nearly knocking Dean over.
Dean was laughing now. "And Castiel fought all the bad guys away—" (Ben pretended to sword-fight with invisible bad guys) "—and woosh!"
Ben, at this point, reached under the covers, picked up Cas, and grabbed him up into his arms. "He picked Dean right up out of Hell and saved him!"
Cas shrieked in delight as Ben proceeded to fly him around the room and plop him right back down in his bed, ending the story like Dean always did: "And bam! Next thing Dean knew, he was awake in a field with a big ol' handprint on his shoulder where Castiel touched him in Hell."
Dean rolled up his sleeve like he always did to show Cas the handprint, and Cas would always place his tiny hand on Dean's shoulder. One day, maybe, Cas's hand would be big enough to be like Castiel's hands. One day, when he grew up, he was going to be a superhero, too.
"One day, Cas, you're going to be a hero just like Castiel the angel," Dean said. That was always the end of the story. He always made that promise. And Cas knew it was true because Dean didn't tell him things that weren't true.
"And don't you forget it!" Cas said. He pretended to sword-fight again with Ben, and Ben let him win this time. (Sometimes Ben would pretend to beat Cas, and then Cas was really good at pretending to die, but Ben was also good at falling over without catching himself with his hands.)
"Okay, okay," Dean said at last. He picked Cas up underneath his arms and set him back down inside the covers. "We were supposed to be calming down for bed, and now you've made him all hyper," he said to Ben.
"Aw, come on. You know he loves me," Ben said.
Cas nodded. He did love his big brother. Lots and lots.
Dean just laughed and shook his head. "Give me a minute, okay? I want to hear about what you and Sam found out."
Ben nodded and left the room, waiting out in the hallway. When he was sure Ben was gone, Dean turned back to Cas. He tucked the covers in around him so that he couldn't be wriggly, then patted his hair. "Alright, Cas. It's time for little angels to go to sleep now."
"And you'll protect me from all the monsters?" Cas asked.
"Every single one of them," Dean promised.
Cas snuggled down in his covers and turned over, closing his eyes. Dean stayed next to him for a long time, patting his hair and rubbing his back, and he didn't leave until he thought Cas was asleep.
But Cas was awake, and he sneaked out of bed once Dean left to go listen at the door. He wanted to hear Ben tell about the monsters he saved people from. Cas's big brother was a hero, just like his daddy, and one day, Cas was going to be just like them.
"I thought we agreed that you'd at least try to live a normal life," Dean whispered. He was trying not to wake Mommy, who was sleeping a lot more than usual.
"What, so Cas is the only one you're going to teach to hunt?" Ben shot back. He and Dean had this fight a lot, and Dean was losing because Uncle Sam was a "bad influence." "Besides, we think we found MacLeod's bones."
"For real this time?"
"There's a couple dozen ghouls and a nest of vampires in the area. Yeah, we're thinking he paid them off to guard him."
Dean looked thoughtful. "I mean, we've tried it before, and it didn't work."
"We're pretty sure this time. And it's not like we've got a double-agent angel getting us the bones this time. And anyway, even if it doesn't kill him, it's guaranteed to at least slow him down, weaken him. He's been getting stronger, you know."
"I know." Dean looked sad, and Cas remembered seeing that sad face a month ago when he got back from being gone for three weeks. He had come back with staples in his head, and his eye was purple, but Cas pretended not to notice because Mommy said Dean didn't like to talk about those things.
"I can run the garage," Ben offered. "You and Sam should check this one out. I'd only get in the way." Ben looked sad, and Cas wanted to tell him not to worry, that he was a really good hunter and that Dean thought so too, even if he only told Mommy that and not Ben.
Dean tilted his head at Ben. He looked at him for a really long time, and Cas knew he was thinking. He had thinky face. "It wouldn't be too awful to have some backup," he said slowly.
And then Cas leaned too far into the floor, and the boards underneath him creaked. He tried to run back to his bed and pretend his was asleep, but he didn't get under the covers in time, and Dean was standing there in the doorway with the look that meant he was in trouble for something.
"Cas," he said, "you're supposed to be asleep right now."
"Are you gonna leave, Dean? Are you gonna be gone again?" Cas didn't like it when Dean was gone, even if he had a very good reason to leave because he was a hero and he saved people.
Dean sat down on the edge of Cas's bed and smiled. "Your brother and I are going to go try to stop a bad guy."
"He must be really bad if you both have to leave," Cas said. Dean and his brother never left at the same time; one of them was always around to take care of him and Mommy.
"Don't you worry," Dean said. "I promised you I was going to raise you up right, and I'm not about to break that promise." He ruffled Cas's hair. "We'll both come back in one piece; just you wait."
"But how long will you be gone?"
"Shouldn't be more than a couple days. I'll have Uncle Benny come visit."
Cas smiled. He liked Uncle Benny. Uncle Benny was a vampire, so he could throw Cas so high that he could pretend he was Castiel the angel—but Uncle Benny said not to tell Dean about the flying lessons. "Okay. Are you sure?" he asked.
"I'll call home every night," Dean promised. "And you have to promise me something, okay kiddo?"
"Uh-huh."
"You've gotta take care of your mom, okay? She's not feeling very good, and she needs her little angel to take care of her. You got that?"
"Is my new baby brother giving Mommy an upset tummy?" Cas asked.
Dean laughed. "Why do you think it's a brother?"
"Because I want to have a Sammy like you have," Cas said.
Dean smiled again. "Okay, then. Well, you take care of your baby brother and your mom while we're gone. I'll call every night to make sure you're sticking to this. Think you can handle that?"
Cas nodded. "I'll be Mommy's angel."
"That's my boy."
