Dean sat back in his seat and groaned. Of course. Kelly was out there, somewhere, pregnant with Lucifer's kid, and they had no idea how to find her. And she took off in Cas' car, so they had nothing of hers for Hermione to even do a basic locater spell. So they would have to rely on good old fashioned tactics to try and find her. And on top of baby Lucifer they had the British Men of Letters out there trying to eliminate all monsters good and bad from the States. AND his mom wanted to break up him and his girlfriend. Talk about everything piling on at once.

"What can we do from here?" Sam asked. "How do we find Kelly and convince her to get rid of the baby?"

Cas shrugged. "I don't know. I was hoping that Hermione would have an idea."

Mary scoffed. "Hermione. Do you guys rely on magic for everything now?"

"Saved our asses from the government just now didn't it? Save my life on multiple occasions. Don't see the problem of using resources that we have to our disposal. Would you rather we just ignored the fact that Hermione has all these tools that will make everything easier?" Dean said, annoyance evident in his tone.

"I would rather you send her back to England and move on. You can't have this kind of distraction around when we're dealing with a nephelim."

Dean stood up from the table, the chair scraping across the ground. "You should have just stayed gone."

He stormed out of the room, needing to distance himself from his mom before he said or did something he wouldn't be able to take back.

"Dean," he heard behind him. He stopped and turned around, Cas was there.

"Hey, Cas."

"Sorry I lost Kelly. I shouldn't have believed her when she needed to use the bathroom."

"No, Cas, you should be able to trust that people are using the bathroom when they're using the bathroom. This is not your fault."

"When I called Hermione, she was the one who told me that she was tricking me. I'm sorry that I caused a problem between you and your mom by assuming Hermione would be the one to help us find Kelly."

Dean shook his head. "No, man, don't worry about it. We've been having issues with mom before you came back," Dean paused. "Hey, do you think it's a mistake for Hermione and I to start a family together?"

Cas smiled widely. "Absolutely not. Dean, I think that would probably be the best thing you can do. You deserve to be happy. You both do. I've liked Hermione since the moment we walked into her bookshop. I could tell that she was something special. The fact that she was so willing to drop everything in her life to help us showed her character immediately. She's a good soul, Chuck even said as much to me at one point during the whole Amara business. I healed her so she could have something that she desired but was robbed of during her selfless quest to rid the world of Voldemort. The fact that she's chosen you, my best friend, one of the people I love most, to use my gift with? I mean, Dean, I don't think I could be any happier."

Dean smiled. "That means a lot to me, man. But you don't think bringing a baby into our lifestyle would be dangerous?"

"Of course it would be dangerous. But that doesn't mean something terrible will happen. The baby could grow up and be completely normal. Certainly magical, but normal. Your child doesn't have to have the same childhood you did, Dean. You won't be your father."

Dean felt something release in his chest, like a weight being lifted up from him. Something he had subconsciously worried about from the moment he and Hermione had made this decision. Was he destined to be his father? He loved his dad, but he wouldn't have won any father of the year awards, that was for sure. He reached up and wiped a tear that had escaped from his cheek.

Cas closed the gap between the two men, embracing Dean. "It's okay. You and Hermione love each other more than I've seen most people love each other since I've been on earth. To fall that deeply in love in such a short amount of time means something, Dean. And when you bring a child into this world, that child will have so much love surrounding them. Between the two of you, Hermione's family, Sam and I, that kid will be surrounded by love and so very protected. Even though they'll be raised in this bunker, they won't feel like they will had been denied a childhood. They won't have to grow up before their time. They'll grow up as normal as possible. Any child of yours and Hermione's deserves what the two of you were denied. And we'll work hard to make sure that it happens.

"When you ask if you're making a mistake, the answer is no. No. If you're wondering if you guys will ever have a good time to bring a child into this world, the answer is no, but that's the nature of your life. You can't stop living and moving forward. That's no way to live your life."

Dean hugged Cas tighter to him. Hearing what the angel said made him feel more at ease than he had felt in a long time. Two minutes with Cas and everything that had been weighing on his mind immediately started dissipating. How the angel knew exactly what he needed to hear, he had no idea. And he didn't care.

"You're a great friend, Cas," Dean whispered into Cas' ear. "I don't know what I would do without you."

They two men pulled apart. "You're a good man, Dean Winchester. Don't let your mom convince you otherwise. She's hurting and confused, and she's trying to figure out her own life. Give her some time."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I get that. It's just really hard when every interaction I've had with her since we've reunited has been defensive. She's been with the British Men of Letters."

"They're here?" Cas asked, his brow furrowing.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, and apparently they have a no monster spared policy. They have apparently rid Europe of all monsters, and are going to start here. Mom's been working with them since she left Sam. I guess they have a headquarters here in the States that they have been working on. And since they have a non-discriminate elimination policy, they have indicated that Hermione is on their extermination list."

"But she's a born witch."

"Apparently that doesn't matter."

"But it should. If what you know about the British Men of Letters is true, and they've rid Europe of monsters, there must be some deal between them and the magical world..."

"Because Europe has plenty of magical people," Dean finished.

"Exactly. We need to find out what there is, so that we can use that as leverage to keep Hermione out of their sights. Because I have a feeling if they eliminate her, that would be bad for the relationship between the worlds."

"It could start another war," Dean mused. "Yeah, I'll have Hermione ask Harry what he knows, since he works for the magical law enforcement. And she's friends with the current Minister of Magic, she'll be able to figure out something quickly."

"In the mean time, we need to find Kelly."

"Yeah, we'll have Sam start looking at street cameras. She's gotta show up on one of them. I wish we knew where she was heading."

"Me too. This pregnancy isn't a typical nine months like a human, it's only five months. Maximum. We need to find her, soon."

OoO

Sam watched Dean leave the room, and Cas follow him before he turned back to his mom.

"You really need to lay off," Sam said.

Mary sighed. "Sam-"

"No, I mean it. If you keep on this anti-Hermione track you're on, you'll alienate Dean. If you want to have a relationship with him, you need to just keep quiet. I'm not saying you need to like Hermione, I'm saying that you should stop being so openly hostile toward her."

"I don't know if I can do that. It's not in my nature."

"Then it won't be in Dean's nature to want to spend time with you. And eventually in mine."

"You would choose some girl over your mother?"

"Right now, that "girl" means more to us. We know her better. No offense, mom, but I don't know you. At all. Unlike Dean, I don't have any memories of you from before. I was only a baby. I had an idealized version of you that I would dream of on nights when Dean and I were in some motel, just the two of us, while dad was out on a job. I would think that if only you were there, then maybe I would be able to go to a school and stay there. We would have a real Christmas. We would have a home. Getting you back? I was so happy. But now? What I've seen? I'm starting to think having you back isn't the dream that I once had. You've been nothing but mean. You left us, again. And you haven't even tried to get to know us. We're not the small kids that we were when you died. Maybe if you took the time to get to know Dean and I who we are now, maybe you'll start to understand where we are in our lives, and then maybe you'll be ready to accept Hermione into the fold."

He watched as Mary wiped a tear from her cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I've been selfish."

"Yes, you have. But that doesn't mean we can't move on from here. Know better, do better."

Mary gave him a smile. "Okay, I'll try. But if Dean makes me a grandma before I know him more as a man instead of a four year old, I will rebel."

Sam smiled. "Yeah, I can promise that won't happen. I don't know how wombs that have been healed by an angel work, but I'm guessing it won't be too long before there's some kind of announcement."

"Wombs healed by an angel? Oh," Mary said. "Her rant. About her husband leaving her because..." Mary fell back into her chair. "That poor girl."

"See," Sam said, smiling. "You're already starting to warm to her a little."

Mary returned his smile. "Well, give me some time. If both of you boys care for her so much, then she can't be that bad of a person."

Sam walked over to a pile of books, picking one off the top of the pile, handing it to his mom. "Read this," he said. "She made us read it right after we learned she was a witch. If you don't want to read the whole thing, the last couple chapters are relevant to Hermione."

"Hogwarts a History," Mary read. "What's a Hogwarts?"

Sam laughed before pulling a chair out and settling down to explain a few things to his mom.