Chapter 36

Serra

The mess in the Big House was something that none of us wanted to deal with yet, so we packed up all of the Winchester kids and headed over to the Small House, ordering pizza and laying on whatever piece of furniture we happened to get to first.

"Mother fucker, my knee hurts," I mumbled into the couch cushion I laid on.

Grace's voice floated up into the air. She was on the floor with Everett and Glory, both of them obsessed with being as close as they could be to her. "You tore your meniscus. You're gonna need surgery."

"Awesome," I replied, rolling to my back. Sam sat at the end of the couch, so I lifted my leg over him and plopped it down into his lap. He put a pillow under my knee, trying to keep it elevated.

"I could just heal it, you know."

My sister stared at me and grinned. "Why didn't you bring that up before?" I asked, my voice going up an octave.

She shook her head. "This is all still new, kiddo," she sighed. "Hold on a second and I'll take care of that."

"Want another beer?" Dean asked, getting up as I moved slowly closer to my sister. Sam turned and nodded, Grace put her thumb into the air and I raised my hand. He walked to the fridge and pulled out four more bottles and popped them open, bringing them to each of us. "Alright," he said as he sat back down into the rocker near the door. "Why didn't majority of them come for me and Sam? She seemed to really hate me."

"Matriarchal society," Grace mumbled from the floor as she put her hands on my injured knee. There was warmth in her palms and a slow glow under her hands as my knee stitched itself back together. After her work was finished, she leaned against the couch to continue as if she hadn't just performed a miracle. "They saw me and Serra as Alpha and Beta. You guys were just our mates. Easiest way to exact revenge was to kill us and the kids."

Dean pursed his lips, fighting a smile. "So who is Alpha?"

"I am," Grace said, rolling her eyes. "Obviously."

From my place on the couch, I laughed. "What makes you Queen Bitch?"

She rolled to her back, her shirt riding up slightly to reveal her sugar skull tattoo on her hip. Its color had returned slightly and she had a bit more curve to her, just as I remembered her having before she stopped aging. She smiled as she stretched. "I'm the oldest and the strongest; obviously the better fighter."

Sammy laughed and muttered, "Uh-oh," under his breath.

"Older, yes. Better fighter? Stop imagining things," I said, sitting up enough to take a drink. The pain in my knee was gone and I felt instantly better. "You look more like yourself, Gracie," I said quietly, changing subjects. "Not the sixteen year old you, the thirty year old you."

She looked up at me and smiled slightly. "Yeah, I think so too. I stopped directly touching Dean's Mark." She glanced at him and winked. "I think it's helping."

I watched Dean smile lightly back at my sister and then break eye contact and stare at his beer. It was the first time I had ever noticed Dean not hold her gaze. There was something under that look and we had just been through one of the biggest monster fights of our lives. Now was not the time for secrets. "What's up, Deano?" I asked, staring at my brother-in-law. "What are you hiding?"

He took a deep breath, glancing again at Grace as she stood to put Glory into the crib next to Levi. Stepping over Liberty, who snored quietly on the pile of blankets on the floor, she turned and picked up Everett as well. There was a moment of communication between husband and wife and she seemed to give her consent as she carefully laid Everett in between the other two babies. I continued to stare at the pair of them, waiting for the explanation I had expected since the night before when I had spoken to Dean over the phone.

Sam noticed as well. He stared at his brother and then down at me, knowing that I knew something, I just hadn't revealed that to him yet. "What is it, Dean?" he asked, finally breaking the silence that filled the room.

Dean glanced at Grace as she walked across the living room and sat down in the chair next to me. "Cas and Grace had a discussion the other day about Everett," he started, his voice low and emotional.

"A discussion?" I asked, looking from Dean to Grace and back again. "What kind of discussion?"

Grace took a breath and spoke, her voice clear and strong. I knew that whatever was plaguing my family's mind; a decision had already been made. "Rhett is a genetic copy of Dean, right down to The Mark of Cain," she began, folding her hands in her lap and leaning forward. "He's angry and confused all of the time and when he's apart from me too long, it causes him physical pain because his Mark is just like Dean's. It turns into self-loathing and outright hatred if I don't absorb it."

Dean was staring at the floor, holding his beer in one hand, listening to his wife speak. I sat up, turning towards my sister and furrowed my eyebrows. "Oh my God, Grace. What are you going to do?"

Taking over the story, Dean glanced up at me, raising his eyebrows at me and Sam. "Cas had a vision," he began, leaning back in his chair, "of me and Grace having another kid. The next one would be another girl and she would be Grace's genetic duplicate." He took a swig from his bottle of beer and pressed his lips together. "She would inherit all of her abilities and she would be the one to pull Everett back." He paused and shook his head, "Just like Grace did for me."

Sam was shaking his head, "What if you don't want another kid? You guys were talking about being done."

"Then we start to lose Everett," he said quietly. "Think about how I was, Sam. Think about what I did before I met Grace. Now picture that, unchecked and part of his genetic code. He can't escape it. It'll destroy him."

"Then what are you still doing here," I asked, gesturing to the door. "Go fuck. Get knocked up. Save my nephew." Despite the situation, Dean and Grace smiled, making eye contact and holding it. I'm sure Grace was hearing Dean think all kinds of things that I didn't want to hear, but I smiled anyway. "How long can he wait?"

Grace shook her head, shrugging. "The sooner the better, Cas said, but he won't start to get really bad until three or four. We can afford to wait, I think. Spread them out a little?"

It was my turn to shake my head, "Grace, think about it. The terrible twos are awful for normal kids. What happens when Ev doesn't get his way? Or if he fights with Lib and Glory? Or Levi?" I looked at Dean for back up, "You get what I'm saying, right? He won't just self-destruct. He could take any of them down with him."

Dean licked his lips and took another drink. Grace turned to him as if he was speaking and I knew he had turned the conversation inward, speaking only to his psychic wife. She stared at him momentarily and tears came to her eyes. She nodded and looked away, glancing back at me. "You're right. Of course you're right."

I took a deep, ragged breath. "Hey, think of it this way. You're gonna need shop hands, cleaning up after Dean. He leaves tools everywhere." I smiled weakly at my sister. "Free labor."

She smiled back at me and nodded. "Right," she said, her eyes finding her husband again.

…

Later that night, Dean and Grace had taken their brood home and I carried Levi upstairs to his bed. I shook my head as I closed the door. Four fucking kids.

One thing I knew for sure: I would have to find a daycare for Levi. There was no way Grace would be able to handle five kids under the age of four on her own and come out still sane. I knew the hospital offered child care, but I had never researched it because Grace had watched him for free.

Quietly walking to the end of the hall, I joined Sam in our bedroom and smiled at him. "Four fucking kids," I repeated aloud. "Unbelievable."

He pressed his lips together, "For my brother, it's not so unbelievable." Sam sat on the edge of the bed and untied his boots. "He's always wanted a family. He'd never admit it, but this has got to be some kind of heaven for him." He paused momentarily, tilting his head. "Well, these days, he might admit it."

I walked over to him, sliding in between his legs and running my hands through his hair. "You don't want four kids, do you?"

He shook his head immediately. "No, Serra. Three seems too many. Two. I'd like two."

"Two would fine, I think," I said, smiling. I leaned forward to kiss him. I was so much shorter than him that sitting on the bed, he was still almost as tall as me. "Not right now," I said. "Can we at least wait until Levi is forming coherent words?"

Sam chuckled and pulled me down on the bed. "As long as you remember to take your pill," he said, pulling off my shirt and coming towards me.

I shook my head, "You bastard," I said, laughing as I rolled off the bed, dropping my jeans and walking towards our bathroom. I turned and held out my hand. "Come on, husband. I gotta wash the dog off me." He tugged his clothes off, leaving a trail of clothes behind him, and followed me into the bathroom as I started the hot water.

His muscles flexed as he gripped me, wrapping his arms around my body and pulling himself as close as he could get. My whole body ached from the fight with the werewolves, but I didn't care. I wanted him inside of me…he was like a drug. I was addicted, and there was no twelve-step program.

Shower sex was always dangerous. You get into a rhythm with water splashing all over and just pray that he has his feet planted, because honestly, you're in it too deep to care if you fall and crack your head open. It was no different for me. I wrapped myself around my husband, the hot water hitting my back and sending my hair forward, tangling around my shoulders and Sam's hands.

His oversized, delicious hands.

As he pushed harder and harder, I felt myself move back towards the tile wall and brace for the inevitable. Sam grunted with effort, and as I bit down on his earlobe, we couldn't help but cry out in pleasure together. "Holy shit," I gasped as Sam kissed me and pushed my hair out of my face. He hesitated backing away from me, still pinning me against the tile and grinned.

"We can practice as much as you want," he whispered in my ear, finally backing away from me. I pulled my hair back and closed my eyes under the spray of the water.

I nodded, smiling up at him, gazing into his hazel eyes. "Damn straight we can."