South was sitting on the porch after supper, enjoying the night air and processing everything from the last few months. It had been a whirlwind, and some pieces were still trying to come together. She had more faith than ever now, knowing this baby would be safe, and that she was meant to defeat these evil forces coming for her.

"Can't believe you're gonna be a mama," Bobby said. He sat next to her on the porch and cracked open a can of beer.

South smiled. "If you're the closest thing I have to a dad now, does that mean you're going to be a grandpa?"

"Sure feels like it."

"Don't sound so happy about it."

Bobby took a drink of his beer. "Happy isn't my strong point, you know that. But I am happy for you and Dean. I'm happy that you two are finally together and starting your family. I just hope you can find a way to make it all work."

"Me too," South replied. "Bobby, do you think I'll be a good mom?"

"I think you'll be a great mom. You had a good example growing up, but you've got one up on her."

"What's that?"

"You'll never leave your daughter, no matter what. Dean will never leave her either, not like John left him all the time. You both want to protect her from all that, and I know you'll do whatever it takes."

"Thanks." Without warning, she leaned over to hug him. "For the fatherly advice."

"Best piece of fatherly advice I can give you is to raise her to be like her mother, not her father," Bobby scoffed.

South laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

Bobby finished off his beer. The empty can scraped against the concrete porch ever so slightly when he set it to the side and turned to her.

"The boys and I have been talking," Bobby started.

"That's always a scary thing." She had a good idea that decisions had been made for her, something she was never fond of.

"Sam is going to come with me for a while. Dean is going to stay around here with you, find some mechanic work. He'll hunt as often as he can, to keep his edge and his sanity. He wants to be here with you, girly. None of us ever thought Dean would want to settle down. Now, maybe it'll work out, maybe it won't. But in order for him to get what he wants, and for you to have that extra measure of safety, that's how it's going to go."

South shrugged. "I can't say much about that, I suppose. I want him here. Imagine we'll be fighting at every turn but not much I can do about that."

It was Bobby's turn to laugh, although South had not been joking. "You two will figure things out."

"We always do," South ceded.

.&.

Once South had filled them in on everything Colby told her, life seemed somewhat anti-climactic. Sam started research on where the gate could possibly be while he left on a hunt with Bobby. Dean stayed behind to look for work, while South started a new job as a receptionist in a doctor's office.

Marie returned, already aware of the new information thanks to Castiel. Although South questioned the girl about her new companion, Marie didn't have much to say on the subject for the time being. She claimed she was trying to process everything, and South couldn't blame her for that.

A few days after Sam and Bobby left, a familiar man walked into the doctor's office. She checked him in, all the while trying to figure out how she recognized him. When it finally hit her, she tried her best to keep the realization off her face.

"Does he come in here often?" South asked one of the nurses.

The girl shrugged. "About once a week. They're trying to maintenance his blood thinner but having a hard time with it."

Difficult to do when you're possessed, I suppose, South thought to herself. The man came and went without incident though, so she said nothing more about it until she mentioned it to Marie and Dean over supper that evening.

"Keep an eye on it, but let's not act too hasty," Dean encouraged. "We don't want to instigate anything."

South eyed him suspiciously. "What happened to that 'give 'em hell' attitude?"

"You got pregnant, that's what happened," Dean replied matter-of-factly. "Not taking any chances with my kid."

South exchanged a glance with Marie across the table; the latter woman quickly excused herself from the table.

"Dean," South started softly, placing a hand on his arm. "Why don't you go meet up with Bobby and Sam for a couple of weeks? It isn't like the baby is going to come any time soon, and, honestly, we have some time before we are even out of the woods for this baby carrying to term."

"Your father said …"

"I know what he said, but every possibility is still there. Go and enjoy yourself – this got sprung on you and you didn't know that last hunt would be your last normal hunt. Go do what you were meant to do before all this happened."

He stood with his dinner plate and put it in the sink. He looked out the window into the backyard, and South thought he was really going to lay into her for the idea. Instead, he turned to her and shrugged.

"I will on one condition."

South raised her brow, urging him to continue. He walked forward and kneeled in front of her, taking her hands and turning his mother's ring around her finger.

"When I come back, we get married. Not a big to-do or anything, but let me make an honest woman of you."

"That the only reason you want to get married?" South teased.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Knew you'd make this hard on me, but no, it isn't the only reason. You and I are supposed to be together, so what's the point in putting it off? I'm not going to lose you again, to anyone or anything. Come on, Lulabelle. Marry me."

South smiled and made him sit in the chair next to her. "Dean, I want to marry you. I love you. I couldn't be happier that we finally are getting to have this, but we just started back up. We have the baby and we saw that whole scene, but things can change. We've also seen some pretty terrible things. It doesn't mean we need to rush into anything. Let's give ourselves a little bit of normal and just let this happen. What do you say?"

He leaned in to kiss her. "I say that I'm going to convince you to marry me, if it's the last thing I do. But I will meet up with Sam and Bobby, if that's what will make you happy."

With a sigh, South got up and sat in his lap. "Being away from you is the worst thing in the world. Knowing you're happy though, that's what matters to me."

She leaned down to kiss him again, this time with more passion behind it. Dean stood, carrying her to the top of the staircase.

"Any chance that tent room is sound-proof?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"Only one way to find out," South giggled.

.&.

She could feel the wind blowing the hair in her face, but it didn't quite touch her skin. She could feel the power and energy coursing through her veins, her muscles, her bones. Part of her, albeit a very small part, was scared. The rest of her never wanted this feeling to go away.

Although the demon fought and scratched to invade her being, South kept the spirit at bay. It circled around her, around her growing baby, but could not get inside her. Somewhere in her mind, she was aware of the ability to toss the demon away as though it were nothing. She let the thing think it had hope; eventually, she would destroy it. For now, she had to find Dean.

On that main street in a town she did not recognize, a storm was brewing. The clouds swirled above them, thunder and lightning crackled overhead. South calmly searched the street for Dean. He was here, she just needed to see him.

She spotted Sam first. His body was broken and limp on the asphalt. The last she had seen him alive, Bobby was by his side. That man was not far from Sam, a pool of blood forming underneath him. Had she done this? Not intentionally, surely.

"South!"

Dean's voice rang out over the elements. Her mouth formed a calm smile as she approached him, that demon still fighting to possess her. "Dean. Everything's going to be all right. This is for us. For our family."

"How can that be? How can you be so sure?"

"Antequam nasceretur, elegit Deus, et vocavit per gratiam suam admirabilem."

He threw his head back in frustration. "Damn it, South! I don't even know what that means. Do you know where we are here? The place I never wanted to be!"

She shook her head and leaned forward to kiss him softly. Her hair whipped around his head, and his hands came up to cradle her face before he leaned his forehead against her.

"Please," he begged her in a whisper. "Don't make me do this."

Tears spilled down her cheeks. "You're not supposed to see this. I'm sorry."

She laid one hand on his cheek; Dean was forced back to the asphalt not far from Sam. He lay unconscious on the ground, but as much as she wanted to, South could not go to him. She had a task to complete. Someday, he would understand why it had to be this way.

.&.

South woke with a start. It took a few seconds to compose herself, but once she realized she was in the upstairs bedroom, safe for the time being, she was able to get out of bed and start getting ready for her day.

Dean had been gone for two weeks. In truth, South felt like it was much longer, but there wasn't much she could do about that. He was happier when he was hunting. There was no doubt in her mind that he would be there with her if she would just ask, but that time would come. In the meantime, South was working on having something for him to do when he did come home to her and the baby and letting him enjoy his time doing what he had been raised to do.

"You've got an appointment with the baby doctor on Thursday," Marie reminded her over breakfast that morning. "Is your baby daddy going to show?"

South smirked at her reference to Dean. "He's going to try. They've been tracking this vampire coven for a few days now. If Sam and Bobby can go it without him, he'll come home. If not, he'll call during the appointment."

"I don't know how you do it," Marie said, shaking her head. "I mean, you're fourteen weeks pregnant, anticipating being a key player in a potentially apocalyptic event, and you're fine with your fiancé gallivanting around the country hunting monsters."

"First of all, he's my boyfriend, not my fiancé," South corrected.

Marie rolled her eyes. "He proposed, you pretty much just said, 'Not right now', which is a form of yes. So in my book, he's your fiancé."

"Whatever. Second of all, the other faction in that potentially apocalyptic event you mentioned can't do anything until the baby is viable. Which means I have at least four months before anything comes my way."

Marie shrugged. "I'm just saying, you're a bigger woman than I am."

South got up to put her dishes in the sink. "Thanks … I think. I'm off to work. See you tonight."

"I'm making dinner tonight, by the way. Not a big dinner, but you might want to be around for it."

South turned on her heel. "Why is that?"

"Cheeseburger casserole. My specialty."

"Right." South thought on that for a moment and sat back down, eyeing Marie suspiciously. "Cheeseburger casserole."

"Yes, that's what I said. What's the big deal?" Marie shrugged, pretending to go back to the newspaper in front of her.

"The big deal, my dear friend," South started, pushing the paper to the table, "is that Castiel happens to love cheeseburgers. Maybe he doesn't understand a lot or like a lot of things down here, but cheeseburgers, he is all for. It's the Jimmy still in that vessel."

"Jimmy?"

"Castiel doesn't look like that in Heaven. In angel form. Jimmy Novak was his vessel – long story. Let Cas tell it. Anyway, my point is, is Castiel coming to dinner?"

Marie let out a deep breath and tried to appear nonchalant. "He said he might be by this evening to teach me some things, and as he had previously mentioned that he enjoys cheeseburgers, I thought I'd make something he would like in case he was here around supper time."

"First of all, Castiel doesn't just come by. Second of all, how often is he coming to see you, Marie?"

Finally, Marie gave in. "It wasn't that often at first. I mean, I guess he was around, but I didn't see him. Then it was every once and a while. But he's been around almost every night since he and your father came to you in that dream."

South nodded and stood up. "Interesting."

"Why interesting?" Marie inquired.

"In all my life, I only saw Castiel a handful of times, and that was when he came to visit my father. And here you've seen him every day for what – almost a month now? Just find that very interesting." She shouldered her purse and grabbed her keys. "The grace is always around you, which means he's probably around more than you know. Just putting that out there."

Marie bit her lip. "I'm done talking about this for now."

"I understand. It can be overwhelming," South empathized. "I'm here if you ever want to talk about it."

"Thank you," Marie replied sincerely. "And even if Dean is on the phone with you at your appointment, if you don't want to go alone, I'll go with you."

"Thank you," South smiled. "See you later."

As she backed out of the driveway, South took a few moments to make sure that grace was surrounding not only Marie but the whole house. As happy as she was to have Marie be in the know and beginning to really understand, she had learned to control the hyper levels of her abilities; currently she was hyper-alert and aware that someone or something was staking out the house, and not for any good purposes. It made her hesitant to leave, but seeing the grace around the whole structure, she was able to force herself to go to work.