Dean's eyes fluttered open, heavy lids threatening to lure him back to sleep. He was in Aziza's room and somehow managed to fit on her twin-sized mattress. He looked down at himself and saw that the 5-year-old was still curled in the crook of his arm while he was holding open a russet book.
He and Sam returned to the cabin yesterday after being lured to Salem, Missouri. Three people had gone missing within the same week, but a body was found with its throat ripped out and roughly, 6.2 ounces of blood missing from the corpse. All signs pointed to Vampires. Usually, Dean would've been thrilled to hack off Vamp heads for hours, but he hesitated. With Aziza in her current state, he had no idea how he was going to go Hunting without someone watching her.
Castiel offered to stay behind and look after Aziza. He ensured a highly skeptical Dean that since Aziza came back, he's been watching parenting programs on TV and he had better insight on how to take care of a Human child. After Dean reminded Castiel to call them if anything happened, Sam had to drag his brother out the door.
They stayed in Salem for 4 days, tracking and beheading the nest of Vampires with ease. Whenever they had a moment to spare, Dean was calling Castiel to check in. He kept reminding the Angel not to let Aziza eat candy for every meal, asking if she was still alive, then demanding proof in the form of talking to the blonde. According to her, she and Castiel have spent a majority of their time playing in Zeallegon. Dean had no idea what that meant, but pegged it as them pretending. At the end of every call, Sam would tell Dean that he was going to turn into a wart if he kept worrying.
The brothers came home this afternoon and Aziza was happy to see them both. Dean was relieved to find her in once piece and spent the rest of the day with her; she usually sat on his foot and hitched a ride around the cabin. She even helped him cook hamburgers and bacon-cheese fries for dinner. When it was time for bed, she asked Dean to read her a bedtime story, but there were no children's books within the cabin. Aziza didn't want a Mother Goose story anyway. She went down into the basement and easily found a leather-bound book containing the stories of Greek gods and goddesses, but it wasn't the Iliad or the Odyssey, nor was it written in Greek. Actually, the book didn't have a title at all. Dean wondered if Gabriel had written it himself or if the Archangel collected it within his time on Earth.
Aziza flipped though the severely aged pages with the utmost delicacy until she found the goddess she wanted to hear about. Dean read her the story of Helen of Troy and he didn't know which one of them fell asleep first, but he knew he succeeded in lulling the blonde to sleep.
He closed the aged book and set it on the table next to the bed. Dean used all his swiftness to slide Aziza off him and onto the mattress, then froze to see if she'd wake up. When she didn't stir, he slowly got out of her bed without making a sound. He remembered Gabriel's instructions about what to do when she went to sleep and spotted the music box on her vanity.
Dean stood and went to take a step, but he felt his shirt catch on something. Turning around, he saw that Aziza had the hem of his shirt clutched in her grasp. He tried to tug his shirt out of her hold, but each yank was to no avail. She was not letting him go. With a sigh, Dean pulled his shirt over his head and folded it as best he could next to Aziza's head.
Dean grabbed the music box, turned the handle time and set it back on the table. He tucked her in and dropped a kiss on her head before quietly leaving her room, keeping her door open just a crack.
"Sammy, get up here!" Dean called his brother from the top of the staircase leading to the library.
Aziza was still a 5-year-old and she was currently perched on Dean's shoulders. She spent most of the day in the lake because she managed to turn herself into a mermaid with a lavender tail. She conjured Marina the Mermaid from a French cartoon she liked called Zig & Sharko and they were giggling and splashing around in the lake for most of the morning.
Dean felt like he was going to go stir-crazy from how much time Sam's been spending in the library, so he planned an outing for them all today. He had absolutely no insight on how to style a little girl's hair, but he managed to give Aziza a pair of high pigtails with sparkly blue ribbons, resembling the floppy ears of a Basset Hound, and a bang to cover her forehead. He found a denim jumper in her closet, but she was wearing an old AC/DC shirt of his that he hemmed to fit her small frame. She'd gotten her hands on his phone and started playing the music on there, then she started grooving to You Shook Me All Night Long.
Dean didn't know why, but he was unbelievably proud of how she was being brought up...maybe because he was making such an impact on her. It felt right to him though, natural even. He knew he earned some parental intuition from his childhood and raising Sam, so maybe that was why he was at ease and found such happiness in raising Aziza.
Sam finally climbed up the staircase and he had that notepad in his hands again, but he glanced up from it to Dean. His eyes traveled higher and he smiled at Aziza perched on his brother's shoulders, which made the blonde coyly giggle. "What's up?"
"We're going out." Dean told him.
"Out where?"
"Outside." Aziza answered, sounding like a mini Gabriel.
While Sam was getting ready, Dean went to the Impala and strapped Aziza in the backseat. He was tempted to buy a car-seat when they came home, but without knowing how long she'd stay at her current age, he didn't want it to go to waste. When Sam was coming out, Aziza was asking to hear some of the music she heard on Dean's phone and he gladly popped an AC/DC cassette into the player.
Dean was driving them around Breckenridge and ignoring Sam's questions of where they were going. When Sam stopped his interrogation, Dean glanced at his brother and noticed he had that notepad in his hands again. Unlike before, Sam was freely writing on the yellow paper and he stopped a few times, but he got right back to penning. Dean wondered what his brother was scribbling, but it seemed pretty important, so he wouldn't go snooping.
Dean was keeping an eye out for the building he was looking for when he noticed Back In Black playing on the radio and he turned it up. He heard Sam's amused chuckle as he was tapping the steering wheel to the beat and he glanced into the mirror to check on Aziza. Dean smiled, bright and wide, when he saw the little blonde headbanging back there. He pat Sam on the arm and nodded his head to the backseat. When Sam turned, he just barely managed to stop himself from flinching when he saw that Castiel had appeared, but the Angel was watching Aziza. She was rocking out to the tune and she was mouthing the chorus, but she reached her hand up to Cas' head and guided him to start headbanging until he was doing it on his own. Sam laughed at them. Aziza was starting to remind him of Dean when he was a kid.
Finally, Dean parked in front of a white, light blue and cerise ice-cream parlor. He heard Aziza give a cheer of approval and when everyone got out of the car, Dean noticed Castiel joined them on the ride. They went inside the parlor and Aziza was on Dean's arm as they surveyed all the flavors to choose from, Sam explaining some of the flavors to Castiel. Once everyone placed their orders, they found a table big enough to hold all of them and began enjoying their treats.
Sam had a bowl of Azuki and Green Tea ice cream, commenting that he's been wanting to try it for a while when Dean questioned why he was eating green ice cream that wasn't mint. The older brother had a bowl of Rocky Road to himself. Aziza and Castiel were sharing a large sundae bowl of their own creation. A single scoop of Blue Moon, Cookies & Cream, Tiger Tail, Raspberry Ripple, Moose Tracks, Birthday Bash and Tutti Frutti ice cream with marshmallows, Gummy Bears, melted fudge and sprinkles on top. And to top it off, Aziza had 'borrowed' a bottle of chocolate syrup from another table just to take chocolate shots.
Sam and Dean were watching the divine beings now. They both had their lips covered in ice cream, but they were still enjoying their ice creams and neither's gotten brain freeze yet. When they finally stopped, they wiped their faces off and the brothers were waiting for them to start bouncing off the walls. They knew it took an entire liquor store of booze for Cas to get drunk, but they didn't know what the circumstances were for sugar.
"Dean, I gotta go potty." Aziza told the eldest brother, scrunching her face a bit. Sam was snickering.
"Do you need me to come with you?" She nodded and Dean sighed. "I'm so gonna get slapped."
"I'm fine with escorting her to the bathroom. I need to wash my hands anyway." Cas offered, oblivious to the real problem. Dean knew that the Angel viewed himself as gender neutral, regardless of the fact that he was inhabiting a male Vessel.
Dean slid his bowl to the side just so he could lean on the table, seriousness clear as day on his face. "Cas, if someone slaps you, woman or not, I'm gonna pry open a Devil's Gate with my bare hands and fling their ass in."
Even though his threat was earnest, Dean's words got the table to laugh and Castiel was even smiling, but Aziza let out a little yelp. "Dean, quit it! I'm gonna 'splode!"
Dean was quick when he stood and grabbed Aziza under her arms, pulling her over the table. He spotted the doors to the bathroom and was jogging to them as Aziza made little sounds of discomfort. "Don't pee, don't pee, don't pee, don't pee, don't pee." He kept chanting as he pushed the women's bathroom door open and set Aziza down in the first stall with an opened door. He pulled it shut and he heard her lock it, but he knocked. "Zia, don't sit on the seat. Put some paper down."
After getting an affirmative from the blonde and hearing her pulling one of the toilet liners from the dispenser, he leaned on the door and waited for her to finish. The parlor wasn't packed, but a few women drifted into the bathroom and they eyed Dean because he was clearly out of place, but he awkwardly pointed to the stall and the women seemed to understand the gesture. After another minute, he heard the toilet flush and the lock unlatching.
"Done?" Dean asked as he turned around. His brows raised in surprised when he was greeted with a tween-aged Aziza. She had to be 11 or 12-years-old now, her honey-blonde hair was starting to show golden-blonde streaks, but she took her pigtails down to let her locks flow freely down her back and tied the ribbons around her left wrist to act as bracelets. She could still fit the clothes he dressed her in, but they seemed to grow to accommodate her new size.
"All done!" She smiled, skipping over to the sink.
Dean noticed that even as she aged, her height seemed to be reluctant to change because she was the same height as the sink's counter, which was parallel to his hips, and she couldn't reach the soap or faucet. With a smile, Dean lifted Aziza and she washed her hands.
"Is that your daughter?" A voice asked from next to Dean.
He was watching Aziza dry her hands off at the air dryer mounted on the wall, but she was playing with it now. She stuck her head under the nozzle to let the warm air blow her hair back, then she tucked the nozzle into her shirt and let the air blow puff it up like a balloon, giggling the entire time.
Dean smiled, turning to the voice. "My little sister, actually."
When he focused, Dean realized that he was talking to a woman, which shouldn't have been a surprise considering he was in the women's bathroom. The woman could perfectly be described as a curvy cutie and her chocolate-brown hair was coiled with bouncy curls. Her jade eyes twinkled in delight as Dean's attention didn't stray from her, but she turned to the sink to wash her hands.
The brunette leaned over the counter, in a suggestive motion to give Dean an eyeful of what she had to offer from her full breasts to her plump ass, as she washed her hands. And Dean did just that, scanning her body with laudatory eyes and a wicked grin tugging at his lips. Something started pulling his hand though and looking down, Dean saw that Aziza had abandoned the air dryer to try to drag him out of the bathroom. Someone obviously didn't want him getting any feminine attention, so with a smile, Dean let Aziza pull him out of the bathroom.
Sam and Castiel were missing and their table had been cleared. After a moment, the pair came out of the men's room and Sam proposed they take a trip to a playground so that Aziza could get rid of all the sugar she just inhaled. It took almost 20 minutes of driving, but they found a large playground filled with cheerful children and their parents or babysitters. Before everyone got out of the car, Dean warned that the first time anybody called he and his brother a couple, he was going to castrate them in front of their kids.
"Alright, Zia. We're-" Dean looked down his leg, expecting the blonde to be there like she usually was, but Aziza was missing. She had to have gotten out of the car, but she wasn't anywhere in Dean's sight. He gripped his brother's shoulder, still frantically looking around the playground. "Sam, my tiny person is missing."
Sam took a look around himself, knowing that Dean sometimes relied on his eyes, but he didn't spot Aziza climbing on the GeoDome or being raised on a seesaw and his brother looked like he was about to have a Panic Attack, so he tried to soothe him. "Dean, calm down."
"She's missing, Sam! Demons could be lurking around this place!" Dean stressed.
Castiel scanned everyone within the park and found that none of them were supernatural beings in disguise. "Everyone here is Human." He affirmed.
"Oh, that's great. That's just groovy. That narrows it down to the possibility of some Human sicko luring her away with candy into his pedo-mobile." Dean's sarcasm could barely be detected because he was literally five seconds away from dropping dead. How could he have been so irresponsible? He saw Cas' confused face, but ignored it. He was not in the mood to explain what a pedo-mobile was.
"We're in a park. She probably just got excited and ran off to do her own thing." Sam reasoned and Dean looked at his brother like he was past insane. "She ate seven scoops of ice-cream and sucked down a bottle of chocolate syrup, Dean. She's sugar-high."
"Kids don't 'run off to do their own thing', Sam! As soon as she's 20-feet away, she'd start freaking out because she couldn't see us anymore! That's what kids do!" Dean knew that from personal experience, distinctly remembering how a young Sam had all but lost his mind when he couldn't see his big brother sitting on the park bench.
The trio of men each took a direction to search for Aziza and took off, calling for their blonde.
Unknown to them, Aziza had wandered over to the hospital across the street from the park. A crossing guard was there to safely get her across the street and she walked inside the medical building with another bunch of people. Due to her height, the receptionist didn't see Aziza walking by from over the desk.
Aziza wandered down the pristine halls of the hospital and poked her head inside some of the rooms with open doors. Most of the patients smiled when they saw her and she smiled back, but those people were fine. They were here for some kind of minor surgery or because they were experiencing symptoms of what they thought was some life-threatening disease, but was really just irritated allergies or a minor cold.
Aziza took the elevator up to the next floor and repeated the process of looking into patients' rooms to evaluate their health. Like on the previous floor, most of the patients would be fine, but she did come across a teenage girl who was bawling her eyes out because of the bulky cast surrounding her leg. She was on the phone with someone and wailing about not being able to go to Prom with whomever Charlie was, how her braces had been taken off a week ago and she just picked out the perfect dress last weekend, but wasn't able to wear it.
At this age, Aziza had no idea what Prom was, but it seemed like an important event for the girl. The teenager just put her free hand over her eyes, her dyed sangria hair falling over her face, as she continued to sob and Aziza stepped into the room. She put her hand on the older girl's elevated cast and learned that the broken bone was due to the teenager's participation in gymnastics.
As she kept her hand on the cast, Aziza could feel the damaged bone repairing until it was perfectly repaired. She ran out of the room, the squeak of her sneakers the only indication that she was there, and hid behind the door to watch. The teenager had sniffled and ran a hand through her hair to push it back when she looked down at her leg. She ended her call and carefully took her leg out of the splint it was resting in and tenderly set it on the ground. She buzzed for a nurse and one quickly appeared, stunned that the teenager was moving on what was thought to be a severely broken leg.
Aziza continued he journey throughout the hospital. She performed miracles on a few more patients and waited to hear their doctor or nurse confirm that they were cured. In one room, there was an elderly man lost in a coma. When Aziza touched his hand, she could hear his three daughters telling him that he was going to wake up in time to attend the youngest daughter's wedding. The ceremony was in 3 days, but the man wouldn't be conscious for another 7 months and even then, he wouldn't be allowed out of the hospital for weeks.
Aziza concentrated as hard as she could as she tenderly healed the man's aggressive brain tumor, that his family didn't know about until he had the seizure that landed him in his current state. Aziza completely destroyed each and every cell of the tumor and made sure that none would be able to grow back. As an added gift, she extended the man's life for another 10 years so he'd get to spend more time with his daughters and grandchildren.
Before Aziza left, she buzzed for the man's Nurse as he began to stir awake after being unconscious for a month. She continued to travel though the hospital in search of people to heal, but she passed the Play Room on her way and couldn't resist. She joined some of the other children playing with toys until they were ushered back to their rooms by their parents or nurses.
After her break, Aziza journeyed to the newly remodeled nursery for newborn babies. The hospital decided to move the room to a higher level due to a nurse kidnapping one of the children a few years ago. Aziza managed to sneak into the babies-only room and she was smiling in glee at all of the infants swaddled in blue or pink blankets. She was pleased to find that most of the babies were happy and healthy, even the few premature ones. However, there was one baby boy in an incubator because he was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.
Aziza slid her hand into one of the holes on the incubator, gently settled it on top of the baby's tummy and healed his tiny heart. The baby even cooed at her when she finished and she beamed at him.
Just about done with the hospital, Aziza figured that she'd go back to the main floor and to the playground. The elevator dinged and the doors opened to let Aziza out. As she walked past the rooms of the people she already healed, seeing that teenage girl who had a cast on her leg wearing a very posh dress as she posed for the other people in the room, she noticed that a previously empty room was now occupied.
Curious, Aziza looked inside the room to find a girl who had to be the same age as she was lying up in bed. There was a pink scarf tied around the girl's head, but she just slid it off and set it on her lap. The girl had no hair on her head and her eyebrows were thinning, but she must've been a brunette.
Aziza stepped into the room and parked herself next to the girl's bed. She was smiling at Aziza with an everlasting twinkle in her pear-green eyes that made the blonde grin too.
"Hiya, my name's Aziza."
"I'm Dixie."
"Are you sick or are you just here for a mean old shot?"
Dixie nodded and her smile turned from elated to doleful, but she tried to stay happy for Aziza. "I have Leukemia. The doctors say I gotta have chemo appointments to make it go away."
Aziza frowned, but it wasn't at Dixie's words. It was because she was scanning her.
Aziza could see the inside of Dixie, saw her blood cells. Dixie had Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and the lymphocytes had already spread into her blood. Her white blood cells were in dangerously low quantities and another sickness or infection would have no difficulties affecting her. Fortunately, her Cancer wasn't growing rapidly, but more than half of the lymphocytes in her system were affected by the disease and her organs were next. It was rare that someone as young as Dixie would have this type of Cancer, but sicknesses didn't play favorites.
The chemotherapy treatments would only control Dixie's disease for another few months and that was only if the girl continued to fight. That was one of the hardest battle a kid could ever endure, but no child should. Dixie shouldn't be stuck in this hospital and in pain. She shouldn't always feel nauseous or be as thin as she was and she shouldn't have lost her beautiful chestnut-brown hair. She should be playing with her friends outside. Her parents shouldn't have to suffer watching their only child slowly fade away and being utterly useless to help.
"I'm gonna get better…I hope I get better." Dixie spoke as if she were expecting to receive a heartfelt apology from Aziza. She was used to people pitying her. Her head hung for a moment, then she seemed to perk up and she smiled, a genuine smile, at the blonde. "The Fireworks Festival's tonight. Mommy and Daddy have been taking me and my Uncle Tom to watch since I was little. I really wanna go, but I don't think I can this time."
"Maybe, we could wish you better." Aziza proposed and Dixie looked at her with hopeful eyes. The blonde climbed into Dixie's bed, mindful of the IVs and other monitoring devices attached to the girl, and sat on her knees next to her. "You and me together, we're gonna wish for you to be okay and I bet it's gonna come true and you're gonna go see the fireworks tonight."
"Okay." Dixie smiled.
Aziza gently took Dixie's thin, colder hands in her warm ones and layered them over one another with Aziza's hands like the bread to their hand-sandwich. She put her forehead on Dixie's and waited for the girl to close her eyes. Aziza kept her eyes open as she heard Dixie began to wish for better health, that her parents didn't have to cry anymore. Aziza didn't take her eyes off Dixie's closed ones as she saw her unique lavender light, the phantasmagoric shades of her very own hybrid Grace, shine in between the tiny fissures of their hands for a few seconds, healing the sick girl in bed, before dimming.
Aziza heard Dixie relaxed exhale and the girl's already feeble grip slackened as she leaned back into the pillows. Aziza carefully climbed off Dixie's hospital bed, buzzed for the nurse and left the room to let the girl sleep.
An hour passed as Dixie's parents were called and numerous tests were conducted on the girl. Aziza patiently waited in the hallway, nibbling on a Twizzler she got from a passing Nurse. She was sitting in a chair that gave her a perfect view of Dixie's father restlessly pacing as her mother stiffly sat next to the bed. Aziza felt a sudden spike of anxiety near her, but she didn't acknowledge it because she was waiting for Dixie to return from whatever tests the doctors were performing.
That walking source of crippling worry was none other than Dean Winchester as he searched the halls, backtracking when he noticed the blonde child sitting in a chair.
The only reason Dean bothered to look in the hospital was because he remembered Castiel telling him that he admired Aziza's ability to heal things. While searching for a case, he remembered seeing something in a newspaper about various hospitals in Breckenridge experiencing miracles too. One of the articles even stated that there had to be an Angel watching over town due to some of the patients miraculously being cured of all their ailments.
Dean sprinted down the hall and to Aziza. He got on his knees and hugged the girl like his life depended on it, but he was calming down knowing that she was okay.
"Don't ever run off like that again." Dean was trying to scold Aziza for wandering, but his tone held no harshness or anger. It was just full of relief. He pulled away and noticed that she wasn't paying him any attention, her eyes fixed on something over his shoulder. "Are you even here right now?"
"Shh." The blonde silenced him with a finger to his lips. She pointed to Dixie's room and the doctor had just returned to the room with the girl.
"I'm not sure what to make of it." The doctor told Dixie's parents. They were clutching each other's hands in a tight embrace as they tried to prepare themselves for the unbearable news that their daughter had a time-range until she died. The doctor tried to reassure them with her kind smile and Dixie was beaming in bed, feeling better than she has since she was diagnosed. There was even a layer of hair growing back on her head. "Dixie's immune system is functioning at 100% and her white blood cells have fully reproduced. She's gained a healthy six-and-a-half pounds and she walked down the hall four times without help or getting tired."
"You're saying she's…is she really…" Dixie's mother tried to ask the one question she's wanted to since the day her daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia. She couldn't hold back her jubilant tears, not that she wanted to.
"We've ran countless tests, but nothing's come back." The doctor replied. "There isn't a single trace of Leukemia in Dixie's system. She's cured. I guess the town's Angel stopped by."
And with that conformation, both parents broke out in relieved tears and heartfelt laughter. They went to their daughter and hugged her, smothered her in kisses. They told Dixie she was cured and the girl let out a squeal of pure glee.
Dean smiled at the sight and looked down at the little blonde at his hip. "You did that, huh?"
"She wanted to watch the fireworks tonight." Aziza told him. Her focus was still on Dixie's family and Dixie spotted her from under her parents' affection. She waved at Aziza and the blonde waved back, beaming.
"Why don't we go watch them too?" Dean offered, wanting nothing more than to give some sort of praise for what she did today.
Aziza's response was a bouncing laugh as she hugged Dean's leg.
SN*SN*SN*SN*
Dean parked the Impala in the lot of the venue hosting the Fireworks Festival, finally finding a spot. It was going on 8:30pm and there were groups of people headed towards the reserved space. Following the crowds, they all got green wristbands and complimentary blankets to sit on before walking through the gates. There were all sorts of booths and rigged games to play, port-o-potties, concession stands selling handheld foods or sugary snacks and souvenir kiosks vending sparklers, Bang Snaps, t-shirts and various glowing toys or accessories.
Since the fireworks wouldn't start for another half-hour, the quartet investigated the minor attractions of the festival to past the time. Dean was primarily focused on getting Castiel to taste all the food they had, especially funnel cakes with powdered sugar and candied cherry pie filling. Sam seemed to be more open to interacting with Aziza because she was luring him to play the games with her and they were winning tickets at every stand. Once they had enough, they went to the prize booth and Aziza exchanged her tickets for a heart-shaped rainbow slinky and a bumblebee plush. Then, they found Dean and Cas, who'd moved on to Corn Dogs and Monkey Tails, and Aziza presented each man with a prize.
There were announcements that the fireworks were starting, so everyone grabbed a cheese pretzel and followed the crowds to the field. The grassy space looked more like Coachella than a field for a Fireworks show and it seemed as if the entire population of Breckenridge was attending.
"Until we find a space and to prevent one of us from getting lost, we're using the buddy system. Everyone, pair up." Dean announced and since Aziza had reclaimed her place at his leg, he took her hand. They literally took six steps before Dean stopped. "Buddy check!" He turned around and lifted a giggling Aziza a few feet off the ground to present her to Sam and Cas.
Castiel mimicked Dean and grabbed Sam's wrist, lifting his arm. "My assigned buddy is present."
"This isn't right." Aziza objected and Dean set her down. She took Castiel's free hand and led him to Dean, grabbing the Hunter's hand to intertwine with the Angel's. She then skipped over to Sam and grabbed his hand, smiling up at him before beaming at Dean and Castiel. "There. That's perfect."
"She is the Soulmate. If anyone knows about perfect matches, it's her." Sam smirked at his brother and Cas.
Sam, still holding hands with Aziza, proposed they find a spot to lay down their blankets and the pair went off in search of somewhere to settle. Dean and Castiel didn't follow them. Dean was staring down at his and Cas' still intertwined hands and he was partially hiding his blushing face. He didn't do it often, but he knew when it happened. He knew Castiel was watching him too.
"Dean, if you're uncomfortable, we don't have to hold hands." Cas stated, noticing how Dean was a little tense and how the Hunter wasn't looking at him. He knew the nervous traits of Humans and it was a bit surprising to see Dean, who was usually a walking body of confidence, experiencing some anxiety. "I always keep Sam and now, Aziza in my sights. I can feel your presence, so I always know where you are without looking…though, sometimes, I do just to ensure you're still there."
Cas hoped that by sharing that last bit of information, he made Dean feel more relaxed. It's been years since he raised Dean from Perdition, but ever since he became a member of Team Free Will, he's been fearing that Dean wouldn't be beside him one day. Hunting was easily one of the most dangerous things a Human could do and there was always doubt in Cas' mind that one day, Dean would not come back from a Hunt. It didn't matter if he could detect the Hunter's Soul just inches away from him, Cas sometimes had to look to make sure that Dean was still there.
Other times...Castiel honestly thought he'd imagined the whole thing, learning how to be Human, meeting the Winchesters, getting Dean out of Hell. It all seemed so surreal some days and he needed to look at Dean to let him know that everything that made their past actually happened. The Hunter was like a reminder to Cas. If Dean was here, he was living in reality.
Dean was still looking down and silent. Cas' words had made his heart flutter a little and he knew he'd starting blushing all over again, so he kept his head down. He took in a calming breath, felt the heat leave his cheeks and picked his head up to look at Castiel. The Angel was patiently waiting for Dean to tell him he was alright or if there was anything he could do to make him comfortable. Dean knew that there were quite a few things that Cas could do to make him comfortable.
"Castiel...I wanna use the buddy system for the rest of our lives." Dean's tone was warmed with honesty and sincerity. Hearing it himself effectively made another burst of red creep up on his cheeks, but he didn't give a damn if his macho-man persona was gone.
Dean realized just how much he's wanted this when he was in the bathroom with Aziza and the curvy cutie wanted his attention. Sure, he looked at what she had to offer and under different circumstances, he would've charmed his way into her pants, but he didn't get that feeling to pursue her. Even when he went to a bar, he hasn't been getting the urge to pickup one-night stands for a while now. At first, he thought it was due to the combination of Gabriel's warning and being around Aziza, but he realized just how long it's been since he picked up some random barfly for one night of passion. It stared long before they were headed to Arizona, but he passed off his lessening sex drive as him getting older and the stress of Hunting.
He was wrong.
It was because he wanted Castiel and it took that brunette, who he lost interest in just as quickly as he found it, and him remembering how protective he's become over a certain blue-eyed being for him to realize it.
He's wanted the raven-haired Angel, who raised him from Hell, for almost a year now and he wanted to share a new kind of bond with him.
Dean was watching an unresponsive Castiel. He wondered if Cas knew what he was proposing, but if the Soulmate was created for Archangels to bond with, then Angels had to know about relationships. He wanted to reverse time and reword his offer by using words he knew Cas would understand, but it was too late now.
As each second ticked on without a reply from the Angel, Dean was feeling a boatload of insecurity being unloaded on him. He shouldn't have said anything, but it seemed like the perfect time. Aziza had set the mood and Sam left them alone; everything within Dean's heart screamed for him to go for it, to try and pursue some happiness in his undeserving life. Now, he wished he would've told his heart to go to Hell because Castiel was probably thinking of a way to reject Dean's affection and the Hunter knew how horrible the Angel was at lying.
The Angel, however, was momentarily stunned by the sound of his name coming from Dean. Aziza usually called him by his full title and he was used to hearing it from her. Cas was so accustomed to being called by the cognomen the Hunter had given him that hearing his full title fall from Dean's lips, as rare as it was, had a stimulating effect on him.
Cas was trying to understand what Dean had just asked him and it took him a moment, but after remembering how Aziza had deemed them a correct pair, he figured it out. The Buddy System wasn't just a way to prevent getting lost in a large crowd of people by having someone be your partner. It was being paired with the person you trusted the most and comforting them if they got lost, promising to never leave them.
And there was nothing in this world or the next that could make Castiel leave Dean Winchester's side.
Now, Cas was thinking about the future because Dean wanted to use this system for the rest of their lives. The Angel knew that he would outlive Dean and Sam. That was inevitable because they were Humans who were constantly endangering their lives by hunting the evils of this world and he was a celestial being. He did wonder if Dean would die before his brother or if Sam would, but he didn't want to think about the intolerable amount of anguish and misery he would feel when either of them did die for good.
At that moment, Castiel made an oath to himself. Knowing that Sam and Dean would die one day, he vowed to himself that he would be the one to escort them to their shared Heaven. He knew he was forbidden to return to Heaven for 'betraying' his home by getting too attached to the Winchesters, but he dared an Angel, or even an almighty Archangel, to try to stop him when it was the brothers' time. He wouldn't allow a Reaper to come anywhere near either of the Winchesters' Souls and he would kill one if he had to. He also promised himself that if one brother died before the other, he would stay with the remaining sibling until it was his time, then he'd escort him to Heaven. He doubted that Aziza would die and not be reborn, but if that happened and Gabriel allowed it, he would guide her to Heaven as well.
Once the Winchesters were in Heaven and there was no possibility that they could reverse their deaths, Castiel would not return to Earth.
As much as he liked the planet and all of the peculiar things within it, the world would lose its appeal without Dean and Sam, without his Humans. The Angel would stay in Heaven with them, with his family, if they allowed him to.
Castiel still hasn't said anything and Dean averted his eyes to their intertwined hands again, savoring the feeling for what would probably be the last time. He couldn't imagine how awkward things would be between himself and Cas now, but he hoped they could quickly work through it or just act like things were okay. Dean tried his best to prepare himself to feel the loss of the warm hand in his grasp, but he felt the Angel squeeze his mitt tighter. He looked up at Cas and saw the tenderness in his indescribable blue eyes, watched him begin to smile like this moment was the best thing to ever happen in the millenaries of his lifetime.
That was Cas' answer and Dean heard him loud and clear, no words needed to be said.
Dean let out a chuckle of relief before looking around to see if he'd spot his brother anywhere. After a series of whistles between the brothers, Dean and Cas found the pair. Sam and Aziza had found a spot in the dead center of the field and had a perfect view of the dark sky. It wasn't too far from Dixie and her family either. The two girls were laying their own blanket, sharing Aziza's pretzel, while Dixie's parents and Uncle were a space to their right, then Sam, Dean and Castiel a space to their left.
There was another announcement and then, the fireworks started. Everyone watching the colorful explosions shifted to lay on their backs or stomachs to get a great view. Aziza and Dixie's faces were being coated by the bursts of colors and they were steadily in awe of each firework. Some of the shells even exploded in shapes. Hearts, stars, willows, waterfalls. There were even busts of fish that looked to be swimming across the nighttime sky.
Dean couldn't take his eyes off Castiel and he missed most of the fireworks, but the expression on the Angel's face was worth it. Cas looked astounded. As every burst of color erupted in the night sky, the Angel would watch the firework until it sizzled out, then he'd squeeze his bumblebee plush in anticipation and almost frantically search the sky for the next one. The Angel had felt a sense of nostalgia while watching the fireworks. He thought back to Kokabiel and his beautiful creations of stars, watching his creations with his brothers and sisters. These fireworks weren't nearly as epically stunning, but they hit home for Cas in the saddest, yet most enjoyable way.
After an hour and a half of watching the dazzling fireworks show, the spectacle came to an end. Aziza and Dixie managed to stay awake to watch all of the fireworks, but it was clear to Dean and Dixie's parents that the girls were ready for bed. Dixie's Uncle managed to scoop his niece up without waking her and he left with Dixie's parents. Sam had done the same to Aziza and walked to the Impala with his brother and Cas, getting in the backseat. Barely 10 minutes into the drive home, Sam had drifted off.
Dean, noticing how quiet the Impala was, glanced at Cas first. The Angel was smiling down at his bumblebee plush and Dean knew Cas was happy to have a personal possession, other than his trench coat. It was the Angel's first gift too. Dean smiled, then glanced into the mirror to check on his backseat riders. He chuckled when he saw them. Sam had stretched his abnormally long legs out across the backseat and Aziza was settled on his chest with one of Sam's arms draped across her smaller body to keep her from sliding off.
"Cas, steer for me." Dean requested as he dug into his pocket for his phone. When he got it, he leaned over his seat and he felt Cas' arm pressed against his leg as the Angel grabbed the steering wheel.
"This is very reckless, Dean." The Angel chided.
Dean smirked. "Reckless is my middle name."
He aimed his phone at the pair, zoomed out a little bit and waited until they went past a street light before he snapped a picture. Due to the sudden source of light, the picture came out displaying Sam and Aziza's adorably calm sleeping faces and that just melted Dean's heart.
He knew Sam was initially distancing himself from Aziza because he was still getting over her death. His brother had to watch the sweet blonde die in his arms and if that wasn't enough, she sacrificed herself to save Gabriel too. Dean knew, even if Sam didn't tell him, that memories of Jess had to have resurfaced after that night and working through that must've been an emotionally draining experience for his little brother, but it was one of the very few things Dean couldn't help with. He knew that Sam had to work through the motions on his own.
Sitting back down, Dean regained control of the Impala and he still had a smile on his face. He thought back to when Aziza was still a 5-year-old and how she told him that she was going to marry his brother. She'd said it so earnestly too and Dean knew kids didn't lie about things like that. If they truly wanted something, they'd tell someone with all the honesty in the world and Dean was looking forward to the day he'd get to walk the sweetest girl in exsistence down the aisle to marry his little brother.
Dean quietly sniffled, realizing he'd brought tears to his eyes just by thinking about the happiness of Sam and Aziza. He quickly swiped his wrist across his eyes, but a blinking light was going off in his head, reminding him.
"Cas, do me a favor?"
"Anything." Was the Angel's immediate response as if he were waiting for Dean to ask him something.
Dean's grip on the steering wheel tightened, just a little bit, as the submissiveness of that word coming from Castiel sent a shock of lust through him. He cleared his throat and pointed to the unlocked glove-compartment located in front of Cas' knees. "Uh, reach there and grab that little case. It's a circle with golden stars on it."
Cas pulled the handle to the car's compartment and rummaged inside, pushing away a small box filled with various disposable cell phones and little notes that Sam and Dean have written, mostly tidbits of lore they kept because they'd always forget. Cas' hand finally touched something circular and he pulled it out, holding it up near his eyes to get a good look at it.
"This container is enchanted." Castiel noted as he examined the music box, turning it in different directions to see every inch of it. "Did Gabriel give this to you for Aziza?"
"Yeah, said it'll get all her memories and personality back." Dean answered. "Crank it a few times, then set it back there."
As instructed, Castiel located the little knob on the bottom of the music box, turned it and lifted the top to reveal the silver Angel that began to spin when the music started. He reached into the backseat, extending his arm over Sam and Aziza's snoozing forms, and set the tinkling box on the rear parcel shelf near Sam's head. When Cas settled in his seat, his head was turned to listen to the wordless song because it sounded so familiar to him. After another minute of listening, the song's title and lyrics revealed itself to Castiel.
"When the blackbird in the Spring,
on the willow tree,
Sat and rocked, I heard him sing,
singing Aura Lea"
Cas hummed out the words in his deep voice, in tune with the music box, making Dean glance at him when he'd started singing.
"Aura Lea, Aura Lea,
maid with golden hair,
Sunshine came along with thee
and swallows in the air"
Dean realized why the song sounded so familiar now. Elvis Presley's adaptation of the song was Love Me Tender and he remembered his Dad listening to the song around the time of Mary's birthday or when their anniversary rolled around.
"That was really good, Cas. We need to get you signed to Motown." Dean praised, smiling.
Without a word of warning, Castiel reached over to Dean's side and grabbed the Hunter's free hand, which was settled on his denim-clad thigh and so perilously close to his crotch. Dean's foot slightly pressed down on the gas for a split second, then he relaxed. He curled his fingers around Castiel's hand, but lowered their hands closer to his knee. Just to be safe.
After they established what personal space was and the Angel leaned to take a few steps back, this was the second time Castiel's been intimately close to Dean, the first being unintentional when they were at the Red Rock motel in Arizona and Dean had sat up in bed only to find himself perfectly leveled with Castiel's belt buckle. He wanted to easily undo that leather belt, shove those dress pants down to Castiel's ankles and do such unholy, downright blasphemous, yet amatory and idolatry things to his Angel.
Dean honestly didn't know how much knowledge Cas had on being intimate with someone. He knew there wasn't a Sex Ed class in Heaven, but he remembered that the Angel watched a porno before and got a boner from it, so he had to know a little something because Cas learned from watching. Of course, there was no better way to learn than though one's own experience.
Dean glanced into the mirror to look at his brother and Aziza still snuggled together and fast asleep. He knew Aziza was going to be out for the rest of the night and Sam would likely follow suit, then probably start looking for another case tomorrow. He wanted to know where Cas stood on that intimacy boundary and he had a plan on how to figure it out.
Castiel had asked him about Human hygiene when Sam was turned into a teenager. He wanted to experience showering, but Dean's been stalling because he didn't have faith in his self-control and it was steadily wavering with each innocent touch from Cas. When they got back to the cabin, Dean would ask Cas if he still wanted to learn how to shower like Humans did and they could take things from there.
Maybe Dean would be giving the Angel a lesson in a totally new subject tonight.
1413 miles away, Gabriel was in Brecksville, Ohio. He was sitting in a gazebo in a park, picking a piece of candy from the pile on the table as he waited. Nayeli told him that she was assigned to make a couple dozen people fall in love today and her route ended here, but Gabriel hasn't seen her yet.
Cupids didn't care for cell phones or any worldly possessions, they'd go without clothes whenever they could, so Gabe couldn't call her and while there was a summoning spell for Cupids, it wasn't down to an exact science. If he performed the spell, the nearest Cupid would be beckoned to him and while Gabriel didn't worry about Cupids going back to Heaven and blabbing that he wasn't dead, he didn't want to start on a new one when he didn't get anything out of Nayeli yet. He felt something with her and he was following his gut because its led him in the right direction in the past. He didn't like the idea of getting stood up though.
Gabriel tapped his phone's screen and saw that it was a little past 10:30. There was no way to know how Aziza would age, if she'd grow within a day or if it'd take weeks or months, but he knew that she never stayed as a baby longer than a day, so she had to be walking and talking by now. He wanted to give Dean and Sam the opportunity to experience her growing up mainly because they had to watch her die for the first time and their wounds would still be fresh. But as soon as they laid eyes on that bubbly little girl with a smile like sunshine, the pain would go away. He wanted the brothers to have that happiness.
Gabriel scrolled though his contacts and he stopped at 'Cassie', but kept scrolling. His finger was now hovering over 'Righteous Man' and he was about to tap the 'Call' button, when Trey Songz's 2 Reasons began chiming, 'Balthy' appearing on the screen. Gabe furrowed his brows. He's been out clubbing with Balthazar more than once, but since the blond Angel was informed on what happened between himself and Lucifer, he's adapted a huge sense of seriousness.
Nowadays, Balthazar called Gabriel to tell him when he was moving to a new area or if he had information on Lucifer and what he was up to. Knowing that, Gabriel quickly answered the phone and the first thing he asked was if Balthazar was okay.
SN*SN*SN*SN*
"Please...let me go, please." Nayeli begged, blood dripping down her face.
She was in a dark room, strapped to a stiff chair that was keeping her from escaping or using what little divine abilities she had. She didn't know where she was or who had kidnapped her because it all happened so fast.
Nayeli had just made the last couple on her list meet each other and she watched her new match until she was sure they made a date, then she was on her way to meet Gabriel. He charmed his way into making a date with her to talk about something and since she didn't have to immediately return to Heaven, she asked that he meet her in her favorite gazebo in Brecksville. That gazebo was where she made her first match made in Heaven fall in love and they even got married in the park.
As she was headed to the park, Nayeli was confronted by a pair of Demons and the next thing she knew, she was being dragged to this place and tortured. The source of her continuous agony was the metal headgear with who knows how many metal spikes impaled into her bloodied skull. She couldn't stop trembling, mostly in fear, but also from shock of experiencing pain for the first time. Even the slightest movement, something as trivial as a gust of wind, made it feel like one of those spikes were digging deeper into her brain. Cuts and slashes of all lengths and widths were littering her arms, bare legs, stomach and face. Her feet were pinned to the floor by what felt like nails made from a melted Angel Blade going through each toe. Some kind of abrasive cuffs were fastened around her wrists to keep them on the chair's steely armrests, forearms facing upwards, but they felt like they were burning into her flesh like Holy Fire.
The being who ordered her kidnapping was unaffected by Nayeli's desperate plea for mercy as he walked to the tray holding a variety of instruments of torture. He was as heartless as they came, so perniciously skilled with a knife or in this case, an Angel Blade pilfered from an Angel's carcass. Those feathered monkeys have gone absolutely ballistic since Lucifer's release and some of them were committing Angel-on-Angel murders, giving the Demons the advantage of more numbers.
"This is a very simple situation, Nayeli." Even in the midst of a torture session, the male's voice was beguiling, but it was the scariest thing Nayeli's ever heard. He was calm and confident, his voice nothing more than an accessory to the power he held, an insidious reminder that he could and would do whatever he pleased. He picked up the Angel Blade and lazily twirled it about as he turned to the bound Cupid. "Tell me what you know about Lucifer's Bride and Michael's Wrath. I know she's somewhere on this planet, so where is she hiding?"
"I've told you already! I don't know what you're talking about!" Nayeli cried out, desperation coating her words. The man's been asking her that question over and over since she got here and she kept telling him the same thing. She had no reason to lie and she hasn't. Being untruthful certainly wouldn't get her out of her current predicament.
Nayeli heard him sigh and her frightened whimpers were echoing off the walls of the dark room. Her abductor sauntered over to stand in front of Nayeli, making her sporadically flinch as his presence remained. There was no light in his eyes, they were completely barren, void of everything. There was no sympathy or pity or any signs indicating that he was going to just cut her lose or simply end her life. He was, in a word, inhumane.
"Until you remember something about the Soulmate, I'm going to keep carving into you like a jack-o-lantern." He bluntly told her, his cruel words triggering the Cupid's sobs. She began to beg for mercy again, but he ignored her fruitless beseeches. "I know Cupids aren't built like Angels or Archangels, but Agápios lasted 9 days before he croaked. Maybe you can set a new record."
For a solitary moment, Nayeli forgot about the pain coursing through every inch of her body when she heard the torturer speak of that Cupid. Agápios. She knew that name and she was sure every Cupid in existence did too. Agápios was one of the few veteran Cupids and rumors speculated that he was made as a gift to God by Aphrodite. After all this time, Agápios was still spreading love to all the Humans on Earth and every Cupid aspired to be like him.
Nayeli was brought back to her reality of a nightmare when she let out a harrowing cry as the Demon slowly dragged the razor-edged blade down the center of her arm, slicing open a major vein of her Vessel to let the crimson blood spill out. If she were Human and that vertical cut was inflicted on her, she would've bled to death in mere minutes. But she wasn't Human. She was a Cupid, one of the weakest, but most amicable creations of Heaven. Cupids caused no harm, their purpose, even while Heaven was primarily focused on Lucifer, was simple: spread love amongst the Humans. And that's what they did with such passion and zeal.
Nayeli continued to scream in the dark, but no one could hear her, nobody knew where she was.
And nobody was coming to save her.
Please excuse the lateness of this Chapter. Internet's still being an uncooperative bitch, so I went to the library just to freeload off their free WiFi and upload this XD
To my mysterious Guest reviewer, thanks for your long Review! So glad you, and everyone else who left a Review, seem to be swooning over Baby!Aziza's cuteness :3
I did remember that Alex and Claire weren't with Jody in Season 5, but I wanted to at least mention them in this story because, in my opinion, Jody is one of the best female characters to ever live on Supernatural. She's just as kickass as Ellen was and she was a great mother-figure to Dean and Sam, so I figured they called and visited her often. Them being mentioned was very much intentional.
Aziza has to get back to the right age before Gabe finds out about she and Sam, but trust me, it will be hilarious when he finds out.
Demona Evernight, with Aziza having the ability to be reborn when she dies and, like Gabriel said, Michael and Lucifer fighting over her or with each other in her past lives, Lucifer wouldn't be freaked out at all if he saw her as a baby.
kai-baekyun98 and Douttful, thanks for the encouraging words and a huge thanks to everyone being patient with me as I struggle with my wacky Internet!