Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree, Maknatuna, midnight0211, Maddy Love Castiel, FireChildSlytherin5, Avalonemyst, kb18142, Keefer, CassXDeano, CherylB1964, starshaker, Pizzapig, SARA1988 and Miahbug for last chapter's reviews! You guys are awesome! :-D

38

December 25th, 2022

Jody promised that she made sure to buy a happy turkey for our Christmas dinner and Bobby carved smiley faces into a few of the potatoes. I would say that your grandpa is clearly getting old, but I'm afraid he'll kick my ass if I do.

"I am trying really hard to hate you here," Val stated without any heat as she got more comfortable on Bobby's couch. Her feet had grown at least half a shoe size in the past weeks and were hurting severely, but she hadn't even gotten to throw a really nasty glare at her husband before he had already pulled her feet into his lap and had started to massage them.

"Awww, am I making that difficult for you?" Sam smirked, obviously very pleased with himself, "You still have a couple of months to yell at me for doing this to you."

Between the two of them the younger Winchester was the one who went through the pregnancy books and took notes on what they had to expect, so hardly anything could surprise him. This far the pregnancy had been perfectly normal and blissfully uneventful. It wasn't that unlikely that Gabriel had something to do with that, though. The first morning Val had complained about morning sickness had been the last, as well.

"Could you two be any more sickenly sweet?" Dean commented with an exaggerated groan, "It's Christmas. We came here for the presents, the food and the arguments."

Castiel was clearly about to say something to that, but the older Winchester pushed a cup with eggnog into his hands before he could do it. The dark-haired angel raised an eyebrow, but kept quiet. Dean had this way of giving him little hints when he was taking things too seriously again and Castiel had learned to recognize those hints most of the time.

"And the alcohol," Balthazar said instead, raising his wine glass for emphasis, "Imagine how much harder it would be to stand the lot of you without it! Radiant mothers-to-be and amazing little brothers excluded, of course."

Gabriel hadn't even paid attention to what his brother had said first, but he was pleased to know that an exception was being made for him, anyway. He didn't abandon his mission to sort the presents under the tree by the name of the person they were for, however. That should assure easier and quicker access later when they were actually allowed to open them. In theory, the archangel had enough patience to wait until after dinner and only then search for the presents that were for him, but the present sorting was something he had done for years, so it counted as a tradition.

"There isn't enough booze in the world to make you look as charming as you think you are," Dean snorted and got a deep chuckle out of Castiel with it. It wasn't easy to predict what jokes the angel would understand and even harder to figure out which ones he would think were funny, so the older Winchester was very pleased whenever he found another one of those.

"There once was, but a lot of women needed most of it to make you look like a suitable bed partner," Balthazar shot back with a smug grin.

The archangel pulled a face, sitting next to his mother and father on the couch. He had asked a few more in-depth questions about the birds and the bees after they had found out that Val was pregnant and while his dad had been careful about what he had told him the entire thing held a very high squick-factor for him. Boys weren't yucky and girls weren't either, but the stuff they did with each other when they had reached a reasonable age definitely was!

The older Winchester glared at the blonde angel while Balthazar only looked back smugly. Everyone knew that those two would defend each other to the death just as readily as they would everyone else in the family, but their personalities – which were actually rather similar in some things – clashed every time they saw each other. Sam had suspected that they both really just enjoyed bickering like a bunch of immature brats for a long time, however.

"A wise man once said," Castiel suddenly threw in his two cents, "We came here for the arguments."

Valerie couldn't help laughing at that. It might not have been the best joke ever, but the way the angel said it completely seriously and without a hint of humor just sold it. After she had managed to calm down again she finally pulled her legs away from her husband's lap and sat upright. Dinner probably was nearly done and they would move to the dining room soon. Besides, the relaxed and comfortable position had only made her sleepy.

"You know, at this point my daughter can hear you," Sam pointed out, "She's going to be born already knowing that uncle Dean and uncle Balthazar are bickering like an old married couple every time they are in a room together."

Gabriel nodded along with what his father was saying. He wasn't reading the pregnancy books, but he let his dad tell him the most important things about the stage of development his little sister was in every week. He was already trying to make sure that she would know his voice by talking to his mom's tummy ever so often, telling her nice little stories and making promises about the cool things he'd teach her once she was born.

"But it's really uncle Dean and Cas who are an old married couple," Gabriel spoke toward Valerie's baby bump, putting his hand on it to feel more like he was talking to his sister. He knew that his mother was often telling people to please back off when they were trying to touch her, but he and Sam were allowed to whenever they wanted.

"Woah," Val exclaimed a moment later, taking her husband's hand and putting it on her belly next to Gabriel's, "She just kicked."

Sure enough there was another kick close to where she had felt the first one. Sam's eyes widened nearly comically before he leaned in to kiss his wife.

In the meantime Gabriel ran off toward the kitchen to tell Bobby and Jody. When he returned a minute later he was still grinning from ear to ear and also brought the news that dinner was ready and they should gather around the table.

"I have been advised to give more personal gifts this year," Castiel explained to Dean when he got a chance to speak to the hunter without everyone else listening to their conversation. He had the feeling that the older Winchester wouldn't appreciate making a big show out of this.

"What? No Walmart gift card this year?" Dean joked, nudging Cas with his elbow. He knew that the angel hadn't had much time to think about the presents he wanted to get them the previous year and thus had gotten all of them gift cards for shops he knew they went to regularly.

Castiel didn't say anything and simply handed a small box to the older Winchester. The present had cost him a lot of time and ultimately money. Not that the angel had to consider the monetary factor. In theory he had access to a basically unlimited amount of it, after all.

Dean raised an eyebrow, but opened the box revealing something that made him smile immediately. The older Winchester grabbed the leather cord and put the amulet around his neck, patting Cas' shoulder gratefully.

"You made a duplicate?" Dean asked.

"I found the original," Castiel replied with a frown. The thought of getting a replacement instead of the original had never occurred to him. He had wanted to give something to the older Winchester he knew would mean a lot to him. Thoughts of the amulet his younger brother had given to him for Christmas many years ago and that he had thrown away after finding out that it wouldn't help them to track down God had crossed Dean's mind again and again over the years, so the angel had figured that if there was a perfect gift, this would be it.

The older Winchester swallowed heavily and pulled Castiel into his arms, hugging the life out of him without thinking about it for a second. Damned, if he wasn't the luckiest guy on Earth.

"Hey Sammy, look what Cas got me!" Dean yelled a few long moments later, taking off toward his younger brother to show him the best present he had gotten in his life, even if he had gotten it for the second time.

The dark-haired angel just looked after the hunter with a happy smile on his lips. It seemed like he had done something completely right for once and it definitely was a wonderful feeling.

At the other side of the room Gabriel was putting his new car racing track together with the help of his grandfather. The one he had had before had stopped working some time ago and this one was bigger and better, anyway.

The archangel took one of the cars that came with the toy out of the box and looked at it critically. The two toys were red and yellow, even though the boy knew for a fact that cool cars had to be black.

"Do you think I can…? Would it be bad, if I…?" Gabriel asked his grandfather in a quiet tone. He didn't want to break any rules or hurt anyone's feelings, but the cars just weren't as cool as they could have been.

"It's your present, knock yourself out," Bobby replied with a shrug. He thought he had a pretty good idea what the boy wanted to do and he surely didn't mind if he gave the toys a new look. Hell, if getting a toy Impala for the track had been an option Bobby and Jody would have gone for it to begin with.

The archangel smiled widely and concentrated on the two cars for a few moments until he was sure he had given them the form he wanted. Playing with a miniature of his uncle's Impala and the Dodge Charger his father drove just sounded like more fun than using the generic toy cars every other kid had, too.

It had to be expected that Dean would show a great interest in the car racing track as well, especially after the Impala had gotten involved. Sam watched the two other Winchester males play for a little while before he turned back to his wife, taking her hand and leading her to another room and handed an envelope to her.

"What is it?" Val asked with a slight frown before she even unfolded the papers inside. Sure, she might have waited another moment and taken a good look first, but she had no idea what this could be, so the question had just slipped out.

"Adoption papers," Sam explained, smiling a little awkwardly, "For Gabe… if you want."

He had had to wait for a moment when everyone else was distracted to drop that bomb in case she wanted to think about it first or wasn't ready for this at all. Gabriel shouldn't have to hear, if anything like that happened. The younger Winchester had thought about this for quite some time and he knew that his son would be completely on board with the idea. He was pretty sure that his wife would be, too. Still, it had seemed better to take her aside and keep it between the two of them until he knew for sure.

Tears sprung to Valerie's eye, making it impossible for her to speak around the lump in her throat. Sam had his arms around her immediately, stroking her back as he made soothing noises. He only had to wonder if this was a good or a bad sign for a moment before she nodded vehemently against his chest.

"Yes?" the younger Winchester asked, the smile evident in his tone.

"Yes," Val confirmed in a choked up tone, "Damn hormones."

She wasn't sure if she could blame this completely on her pregnancy, but it was a damn good excuse for most things these days. She had to admit that being emotional wasn't a completely new thing, though.

"I guess that's my fault now," Sam stated in a mostly faked resigned tone. She hadn't blamed him for any of her pregnancy related symptoms, yet. But as often as she brought these things up jokingly, the younger Winchester couldn't helping wondering, if she was really going to yell at him for ever putting her into this situation when the contractions set in. They'd have to cross that bridge when they came to it, which should have been sometime around the end of March.

"Whose else?" Val chuckled, hitting her husband's chest with her palm lightly, "I love you."

"I love you, too," Sam replied, cupping her face in his hands before he leaned in to kiss her deeply. They got to make out like the teenagers they had been quite some time ago for about three more minutes before Gabriel announced that Dean wanted to challenge his younger brother to a car race. Even if they only were models, he wanted to prove that the Impala was a thousand times better than the Charger and that he was the better driver once and for all.

Valerie watched how the brothers got their little tournament over with and how – with the help of some misuse of heavenly powers – Gabriel and Balthazar conjured up two more model cars, so they could join the race.

"It took me years to understand what makes so many seemingly banal things so special to humans," Castiel stated seriously, standing next to the blonde woman, his hands in the pockets of his trenchcoat. He simply hadn't seen the point in taking it off. It wasn't like he could get too warm or too cold and he was used to wearing it wherever he went.

"You seem to see, hear or even taste and smell things that give them strong emotional reactions all the time and when they are positive you search them out again," the angel added a moment later, "Traditions are born that way, I believe."

"Are you saying you don't have that sort of emotion?" Val frowned, rubbing her palm over her baby bump absentmindedly. They had waited for the baby to start kicking for some time and now that she had it looked like she didn't want to settle down again.

"It's not something that comes to us naturally," Castiel nodded slightly, before he looked at his little brother and amended, "To most of us."

Valerie wasn't quite sure what to say to that. Hell, she wasn't even sure why the angel was telling her these things. Maybe he just wanted to talk and this was something that counted as small-talk in his opinion.

"I have learned to allow all those emotions, but they are still very perplexing sometimes, even after all those years," the dark-haired angel admitted before he added the reason for this little confession, "For instance, I really don't understand why I have the strong urge to… feel your unborn daughter kick."

He also didn't comprehend why Val started to chuckle right after hearing that, but it didn't seem like a bad response to his request and that clearly was a good sign.

"Oh, alright," she nodded, taking the angel's hand and placing it on the area where she had felt the last few kicks. The completely enraptured expression on Castiel's face let her know that she had made the right decision.

Next year at this time we're going to have another little Winchester around. I think we're going to need a bigger tree to fit all the presents underneath then.