Serena Joy opened the doors where a Hannah was waiting with two, really egger looking newly four-year-olds.
"Come on in, fellas." Serena Joy greeted them brightly, "Happy birthday!"
"Thank you so much for doing this." Hannah told her, walking the boys inside.
"Consider it a birthday present." Serena Joy responded, "Now, come on birthday baking minions." Walking them into the kitchen, she added, "Because we're on a deadline, I already got some things started, but there's still plenty for you to do."
What there was to do apparently, was putting the blue food coloring in the bowl of ingredients which both boys did a little generously, then mixing everything together and putting in pans, then putting the pans in the oven.
As the boys watched the over eagerly, Serena Joy sat down with Hannah, each holding steaming ups. "So, forgive me if this is none of my business, but Reason said something about Sam being out of town?"
"He just got back in last night." Hannah told answered, "It's a long story."
Hannah had pratically had to push him out the door this year, but she was afraid that if he didn't make the sad yearly voyage, he would come to regret it eventually, no matter how much he protested. He called from the road every hour pratically to check in, and if she was being honest, she had been doing the math in her head and was starting to wonder if he, had time to sleep.
"He went ahead to the park to stake out a spot." Hannah continued.
"Ah," Serena Joy responded, nodding, then addressing the boys, "Hey, guys, this is gonna take minute, you might want to find something else to do for a while."
Just them, her kitten padded in from a bedroom, letting himself known with loud, "Mew!"
Both boys turned to look at it. "Can we play with the kitty?"
"Just be careful with him." Serena Joy instructed, "Cupcake's still a baby."
"And Dean, let me know if you start feeling bad okay?" Hannah requested. Dean's cat allergies had been rather mild before, and they had given him children's Benadryl before coming over, but she didn't want to take any chances.
They children nodded in agreement before running over to Cupcake, who soaked up the petting.
Meanwhile, Sam was standing under the picnic shelter, zipping up his coat and wondering if having it at the park had been a good idea. He sat the gifts that they had gotten for the boys, then sat down, waiting.
"Hey," A voice called from behind him, "Want some company?"
He turned around to see Charlie approaching with brightly colored bag.
"Hey," Sam began, hugging her she got close enough, "The boys are going to be so excited to see you. I thought you couldn't make it. What happened to Rhinelander?"
"I came, I saw, I conquered, I picked up some hodag merch at one of the many tourist traps before heading out of town, because I am an awesome aunt." Charlie explained, putting the bag down on one of the tables.
Meanwhile, inside a 1970s Winnebago, the leather and wood and everything else inside faded with age, Abigail was sitting in the driver's seat, staring at a plush Pikachu holding a specially made bouquet spottily. Getting, up she walked back to the living room/kitchen table, when Melanie was sat in the table bench, her hands in her lap with yellow ropes coiled around her wrist, a few cords a yellow also pinning her arms to her sides, as well binding her ankles, with a black cloth in her mouth. The terrified physic tried to rear back as Abigail reached out, and pulled the gag out of her mouth. "Mel, do you think this is okay? " Abigail asked, holding out the Pikachu, "I mean, I don't even know if these kids even like Pokémon, but I honestly have no clue what to get for a boy because I've never had to shop for a boy before, and maybe I should have gotten each of them one, I just don't know how to shop for twins."
After New Year's Abigail called Oliva and convinced her that she had "come to her senses" but needed some time to herself to clear her head, and was traveling the old Winnebago, crashing at a couple of the old places, which was technically true. They were isolated enough that she could do what she needed to them. Oliva had been too relieved to question it; thought she worried her sister suspected there was more to what she was saying. Tabbris, she still knew how to play when she needed to apparently, setting her plan into motion. All the while dragging Melanie either restrained in some form or fashion, or drugged, forced to divine whatever Abigail could get her hands, tea leaves, sand, pebbles, coffee grounds, even animal organs, to figure out where she was supposed to go. All the leads were currently tapped to the cabinets in the Winnebago kitchen area connected with bits of strings and sticky notes, trying to make sense of it all.
"Help!" Melanie started screaming immediately, "Somebody help me—" She was cut off by a slap in the face.
"Hey!" Abigail snapped, "If you're not going to be helpful, this goes back in." She held up the gag, in case that wasn't evident.
"Please, just stop this." Melanie pleaded, "You don't have to do this. You haven't done anything yet. Just let me go, I won't tell anyone and go with your life. If you really think the baby is in trouble, you can do it some other way—" She was cut off by the gag being shoved in her mouth and tied back into place.
"You know what, I'm just going to chance it." Abigail declared, before walking away.
Meanwhile, back Serena Joy's apartment, everyone was blissfully unaware of Abigail's misguided schemes. In fact, the woman was the furthest thing for their minds. Today was all about Dean and Castiel.
Currently, after letting the cake cool and washing their hands, the two toddlers were smoothing white icing onto a light blue cake, with a little help from their mother and he friend.
"Nice job fellas." Serena Joy praised, as they finished up, "I think she's about ready to go."
"Aw!" Both boys lamented, saddened that there was no more to do.
"Come on little ones." Hannah said, taking them each by the hand, "You don't want to be late for your own birthday party."
Both boys lit up at that, happily complying.
Proving Sam to be right, the boys were ecstatic to see Charlie, running to her squealing happily. "You maded it!" Cas exclaimed and Charlie wrapped her arms around them both.
"Oft!" Was all Charlie could get out, having to fight to stay upright from the force of children.
"Guys, be careful with Aunt Charlie." Sam warned him, "She's not unbreakable."
The boys grinned up at her, before pulling her towards the playground. "Come play with us!" Dean requested.
"Yes, come!" Cas added.
"Come, come, come!" Dean repeated.
The trio were on the slide when Reason and Maudie came walking off. "Go play." Reason told her, taking the harness, "I'll be over here, okay?"
"Okay." Maudie agreed, running for her friends calling out, "Dean! Cas!"
The boys immediately ran for her, hugging her. "Aunt Charlie's here!" Dean announced, pulling her towards the woman.
"Hi." Maudie greeted the adult, giving her a wave.
Meanwhile, Reason was sitting a heavily taped package down on the slowly growing gift pile. "Maudie wanted to help with the wrapping," She explained as she did so, "So, how's the back?"
"Better today, actually." Hannah answered, resting one hand on her stomach.
Just then, Charlie walked up to them. "Hey, ah, Reason, while I was in Wisconsin, I, ah, picked up a little extra something for Maudie." She then pulled out a 7.5 dark green monster with four legs, white felt spines going down its back, white felt tusk sticking out of growling mouth of stitched fangs framed with red stitched lips, black dog-like plastic noised and stitched yellow orange eyes.
"You really shouldn't have." Reason told her, touched, taking, "But, um, not to sound ungrateful, but, uh, what is it?"
"It's a hodag." Charlie explained, "Aside from a few zombies, this little guy has been the main monster roaming Rhinelander Wisconsin since the 1800s, likes to snack on white bull dogs, can be taken out with dynamite, and the annual festival for it, makes the town a lot of money. "After a beat she added, "Got a couple more just like for the boys in the bag."
"I'll give it to her later, okay?" Reason responded, putting the creature in her back pack for now, "But I'll make sure she knows where it comes from.""
That was when a voice from behind them said, "Nice set up, guys."
They all turned around to see Abigail, standing there apprehensively, clutching a plush Pikachu with a bouquet of Japanese roses, which don't really look like roses in at all, just generic purplish flowers, sunny yellow primrose and purple sprigs of lavender surrounded with green chrysanthemum leaf, peach leaves, and bramble leaf attached to it.
"Look, I'm sorry, I know how inappropriate this probably is." Abigail began, "I just—I couldn't take it anymore. I-I needed to come apologize for those awful things I said the last time I was here."
"Ah, guys," Reason spoke up softly, "What's—"
"Reason, Charlie, this is Abigail Keaton, Jane's mother." Sam responded, an angry look on his face.
"Tabbris' ex." Hannah elaborated, as Jane was a common name.
"Ohhhh." Reason and Charlie both responded. "I am so, sorry about— "Reason began, not even sure what to say.
"Thank you." Abigail cut her off, before addressing the Winchesters, "But it was no excuse for what I said. I let my emotions get the best of me and said things that were not only out of line but unfair to you both and untrue. I apologize." She set the toy and flowers down and began to walk away, feeling like she was about to puke.
"Abigail, wait—" Hannah called out.
"Hannah, what are you doing?" Sam whispered over to her, still angry about what Abigail had said to him.
"Sam, what if one of our boys?" Hannah pointed out.
Sam froze at that, staring at him, and realized that it was only be sheer luck or maybe even but for the grace of God, that he wasn't Abigail. If one of his sons or his daughter died like that, if he outlived anyone of them, he'd probably be bitter too. Getting up he walked over to her. "Apology accepted."
Tears began to well up in Abigail's eyes. "Thank you."
"Come, you can put the toy with the rest of the stuff." Sam offered.
"I can't stay long." Abigail warned, "I know this is a big day for the boys." She picked up the plush and sat it on the table she gathered was for gifts. "I hope it's okay. I didn't know what they liked."
"They're moderately into the show, the fights at least." Sam told her, "Usually when anything plot related happens, they'll onto something else. Can I ask about the—" He gestured to the flowers.
"Oh, it's sort of a combined happy birthday, I'm sorry nosegay." Abigail explained, "Flower arrangement is sort of a hobby of mine."
"Tabbris told us." Hannah spoke up, "He brought the one who you made for the baby. It was very beautiful."
"Thanks." Abigail replied, before changing the subject, "So, ah, when you are you due?"
"We set the date for March 30th." Hannah answered.
As something occurred to Charlie, she started doing math in her head, and smirked.
"What?" Sam asked, catching the smirk.
"I just realized that makes the age difference between her and the boys four years, two months." Charlie explained, "Four years, three months if you round up."
"Yeah," Sam began still not getting it, "So?"
"That means they're only one to two months off from having the exact same age difference as you and Dean." Charlie pointed out.
Sam started doing the math.
"I'm sorry, what is going on here?" Abigail asked good naturedly, but confused.
"Remember before Dean was Sam's son, he was his brother." Reason reminded her, "As much since as that makes."
"Yeah, Dean was the older the one." Sam explained, "We were four years apart. Four years four months."
Abigail's eyes went back and forth. "Huh."
"It's a coincidence, I swear." Sam told her, "We did not plan this at all."
Just then two cars pulled up.
"That's my cue." Abigail said, hurrying off before they could stop her.
As Jody, Alex, and Elsbeth approached the adults, Vanessa, Scarlet and Dory ran for the birthday boys and Maudie. "Happy, birthday!" Vanessa exclaimed as Scarlet went in for a hug on Dean and Cas hugged Dory.
As the kids took turns on the little bouncy horses at the end of the play set, one last car pulled up. Cal got out of the driver's side as Adele got out of the shotgun seat, holding her son. "Okay, now, there's gonna be a lot of other kids here, but it's going to be okay, they're all nice." She was telling him, hopping she was telling the truth, "You sure you don't want to leave the bear in the car?"
Jerod shook his head.
"You want Mommy to walk you over there?" Adele offered, setting him down.
"Huh-un." Jerod answered taking her hand.
Cas the first to noticed their new friend coming over, walking over there himself, clutching coat.
"Hey, "Adele began, "Castiel, right? And your brother's Dean?"
Cas nodded, the pointed to the group. "And that's Maudie, Vanessa, Scarlet and Dory."
Seeing her friend talking to the strange woman, Dory started over.
"Hey, honey," Adele greeted her, "I see you both have little friends, there? They got names?"
"This is Coat and Dory's is Bambi." Cas answered for them both, "Dory don't talk much."
"I like your deer." Jerod told her.
"I like your bear." Dory spoke up.
"You wanna play?" Cas asked.
"Sure." Jerod answered and with that, the Comfort Object Brigade, including their new member, took off.
"Hey," Cal called out as he walked off, carrying a jug labeled Vinger filled with something red, "I know you, ah, said not to bring anything, but, um, Adele made Kool-Aid anyway."
"Ah, thanks." Sam said, taking it from him, "Ah, what's with the vinegar label."
"I made it with one of the empties I filled up with water." Adele explained, walking up, "You know, waste not want not."
"Can I ask— "Charlie began.
"You know pancake mix and maple syrup keeps forever?" Adele remined her, "So does Kool-Aid powder. Nice to have around when you have a kid." After a beat, she asked, "Ah, probably a bad time to ask, but what's your stance on candy cigarettes and cigar gum?"
Shortly after that, the kids noticed who else had shown up, running for Alex. "Hey, guys, happy birthday." She told the two toddlers wrapped around her legs.
"You want to come play?" Dean asked.
"Sure." Alex agreed, letting them drag her off.
"Aunt Charlie, come too!" Cas called out, still pulling at Alex.
"I got to go guys; I'm being summoned." Charlie told the adults, going off to join them.
"A whole park full of kids and they still want Alex and Charlie." Sam grinned, amused.
A few minutes later, Sam left and came back with a stack of pizza boxes. "Kids," Hannah called out, "Lunch is here."
The kids came running and the adults tried to get them in an orderly line, which proved liked heading cats, but the pizza got disturbed then the adults took their, Sam pulling out a box from the bottom and opening it, presenting it to Hannah and pointing it to one side. "No sauce, no spices."
"Thank you." Hannah responded, taking it, "Sam Winchester, you are a prince among men." Tomato sauce of any kind as well as garlic and most other spices one usually found on pizza, had been her enemy for the past month or so.
As they eat, Adele let out a moan of pleasure after biting off a piece of pepperoni pizza.
"Ah, you okay there, Adele?" Elsbeth asked slowly.
"Oh, yeah, just—this is my first slice of pizza in five years." Adele explained.
Elsbeth's eyes darted around, but decided not to question it.
Jerod also was enjoying his pizza, and took a bit of pepperoni off and decided his friend should try some too, taking a bit of topping and trying to feed it to his bear.
"Jerod don't feed the pizza to Yellow Eyes." Adele requested, "That's gonna be impossible to clean out."
Shocked, Sam spewed out the Kool-Aid he had been drinking across the part. Hannah out a hand on his knee, looking at him concerned.
"It's okay," Sam assured her, "It's okay, I'm okay. I just—wasn't expecting that."
"Ah, what did I say?" Adele asked, having a feeling it had something to do with what she had said.
Since Cal was between them, Charlie whispered to him, giving a brief explation. "What kind of—" Cal began.
"Ah," Charlie warned, gesturing to Elsbeth, the honorary not in the know civilian among the adults, and then to the kids, whose exact knowledge of the supernatural world varied.
"Right," Cal replied them whispered the situation to Adele, who covered her month in horror. "Sam, I—"
"It's okay." Sam assured her, "It's not like that was his real name anyway. Plus, it's better name for the little guy then Plaid Skin." He wasn't about to make a big deal out of an innocent child naming him innocent bear, an innocent-sounding thing.
"Why do I feel like I missed something important?" Elsbeth spoke up.
"I'll tell you later." Hannah told her.
Pausing a moment, Elsbeth said, "You know, one of these days you're going to actually have to tell me later."
In a moment of complete honesty, Hannah said, "Yes, and I fear that day because you are going to pick up your girls and run screaming."
Elsbeth gave her a synthetic look. "I'm sure it's not that bad."
After lunch, like last year they asked if they boys wanted to eat cake first or open presents, and this time they were both in agreement. "Cake!"
Surrounded by their parents, friends, friends' parents and extended family, Sam put the cake in front of him as everybody singed, some of them off-key, "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Dean and Cas. Happy birthday to you."
Both of them blew out the candle at the same, managing to mostly get it out on the first try. They were also better as eating the cake this year, using plastic forks and not getting as messy.
After cleaning up the plates, Dean and Cas was sat on the bench of the table the adults had stacked the presents on.
"Okay," Sam began, picking up a bag with balloons on it, "This one's from Miss Jody and Alex."
The boys pulled out the milky white tissue paper, and Dean pulled out a plush elephant of colored squares, and a book with the same elephant on it, pratically hidden on the patchwork background. Elmer, it read.
"They match!" Dean declared happily, squeezing the elephant.
"Yeah, bud." Sam agreed, trying to figure out why the book looked so familiar.
"What do you say?" Hannah prompted.
"Thank you!" The boys both chimed.
Pulling out a wrapped package, as they had a few more than last few to get through. "And this one is from Mommy and Daddy."
They unwrapped the paper with slightly more persidion than last year, thought it did go everywhere, revealing a box with pictures of little cards on it. "Thank you!" Dean exclaimed, "What is it?'
"Remember how you guys saw those Legos on TV?" Sam asked. They tried to moderate the kid's TV intake to reasonable level, especially when it came to adds, they had saw adds for Lego Jr. and began fascinated with them.
The boys face lit up again. "Thank you!" The both squealed.
As the rest of the gifts were unwrapped, each was given its proper due, both boys knee deep in Legos (Elsbeth and the girls and Reason and Maudie both got the boys Lego sets), candy, (Charlie had brought hodag shaped chocolates along with the plushes, Tova had sent a box of Turkish delight, and Adele and Jerod had, as warned brought the boys serval boxes of candy cigarettes, gums cigars seemingly in every flavor known to man, along with chocolate, licorice and spearmint mints, and two sets of homemade Tommy Walkers), a remote control jeep, (Garth sent it) , and plush Stich found a place next to the hodags and Pikachu.
"How have the kids not seen Lilo & Stich?" Serena Joy, the giver of the plush, was asking Sam and Hannah in disbelief, "It's iconic! It's a classic!"
"Aren't their a few intense moments in that one?" Hannah asked, "Don't you think they're a bit young for that?"
"There are intense scenes in Frozen." Serena Joy pointed out, "You let them watch that."
"Touché." Hannah conceded.
"We'll—work on remedying the situation." Sam promised.
Meanwhile, Dory had climbed up next to Cas, both of them examining the Pikachu and the bouquet. Cas side out a Japanese rose, handing it to Dory. "You can have it."
Dory shook her head. "It's yours."
"I want you to have it." Cas insisted.
Seeing the exchanged Vanessa asked, "Let me see that for a moment." Dory handed Vanessa the rose, and she put it in her baby sister's hair. "There you go. "Vanessa declared, "You're as pretty as picture."
Meanwhile, Dean had worked the lid off of the Turkish Delight box. Taking one out, he handed it out to Maudie, "You want some?"
Maudie slid up next to him and took it, sticking it in her mouth. It felt funny, its kind of tasted like oranges.
Taking out another one, Dean handed it to Scarlet.
By time they were finished, every child at the party had gotten a flower from the bouquet, a piece of Turkish Delight and several candy cigarettes.
"That was very sweet of you, boys." Hannah told them as they sat next to her, munching on their candy, "I'm proud of you."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"For being so generous with your friends." Hannah explained.
Both boys grinned. It made them happy that they made Mommy happy
That was when Scarlet ran up, "Hey, guys, you want to head back to the playground?"
They didn't have to be told twice, running for the playground.
They children played for about another hour or so, before it started getting late and the party broke up.
"So, you have a good birthday, guys?" Sam asked, looking at the kids in the back seat, sitting next to pile of parents.
"Un-huh." Dean answered, Cas nodding.
By the time they got to the bunker, both kids were asleep.
"You want to make the block?" Hannah suggested.
"You know that's not a bad idea." Sam replied, driving past their destination.
Meanwhile, Abigail put a silver-colored kettle on in the kitchen of her Winnebago.
Melanie was sill sat at the table—not for a lack of trying while her captor was away—whimpering, her eyes darting around the room. Abigail had been on edge ever since she got back. She winched as Abigail cut open a tea bag.
Reaching on the cabinet Abigail picked up a bad of pit sticky notes, and wrote March 30thon it, before sticking it to the note covered cabinets.
"March 30th." Abigail repeated staring at the notes, "We got until March 30th…."