Okay, I am going to respond to the reviews mostly as one, as a lot of them have a common theme and that is how Dean/Dana is keeping the fact that Caleb is Kaylas father a secret. I am ashamed to admit that I have turned Dean/Dana into the very type of woman I despise. I have watched family and friends have their children kept from them by bitch ex's from hell, in spite of custody agreements, court orders and even paying hundreds of dollars a week in child support. These are not actions I in anyway condone unless the child is in real and actual danger. This is not the case here. Caleb would never harm his child even though he has never wanted children. This is a statement made through out the original stories I borrowed him from. Dean/Dana knew this and maybe it was partially behind her reason to run. She never intended to keep Caleb out of Kaylas life but unfortunately things will not run smoothly over the next couple of chapters. Dean/Dana is stressed, frightened and overwhelmed and as we all know that is a dangerous combination for the older Winchester and it tends to bring out her over protectiveness, add in hormonal and exhausted and its not a pretty picture. The situation comes to an explosive head but will settle down after that. Please persevere and you will have quite a few cute and fluffy moments before then end, but as always I welcome your comments regarding anything that unfolds. Thank you and love to all. xx SSW ❤️
P.S. yes Shazza19, I too have noticed that the majority of children are girls...strange that.
Bingo-gals: yes it does eventually.😉

Vallygirl: that is exactly what I told another writer after leaving really angry reviews for chapters! ❤️

CHAPTER 62

"Is she okay?" Caleb asked as Dean entered the kitchen.

"Yeah, she's tired and Bobby's yelling just scared her a bit."

Caleb wanted to ask if he could hold her but was unsure of the boundaries yet. He decided to leave that battle for another day and let Dean deal with the upset child.

"Need anything?"

Dean pulled a sippy cup from the diaper bag and held it out.

"Could you put a little bit of warm milk is this and bring it up? I'm going to go see if I can get her to sleep."

"Sure. I can do that."

Caleb took the cup and grabbed the milk from the fridge. He checked the expiry date then poured some into a pot and set it on the burner.

"Where's Dean?" Sam asked as he entered the room.

"Upstairs, he's trying to get Kayla to sleep. I'm just gonna take this milk up to them."

The first tendrils of steam had just started to drift upwards from the pot so Caleb took it off the heat and swirled it a couple of times before tipping it into the cup and putting the lid on securely.

"I'll take it." Sam said reaching out for the cup.

Caleb was going to argue, but again, he decided it was an argument for another day. He handed the cup to Sam and watched as he left the room to go upstairs. He picked up his beer and took a drink. He'd had far too much time to think over the last day and decided a shit tonne of beer was needed to shut his brain up!

Bobby walked into the kitchen and snatched the beer from Caleb's hand, drinking deeply. He let out a belch then handed the almost empty bottle back to the other man. Caleb looked at the bottle before putting it aside and grabbing two fresh ones from the fridge. He opened them, throwing the caps into the sink then put one in front of Bobby and took the other and sat opposite him at the table.

"Hell of a thing." Bobby said.

"Yep." Caleb said taking a drink.

"Did you know?"

"Not a clue." Years of hunting had taught Caleb to keep his features straight and not react to every little thing.

"She called me 'grandpa'." Bobby said sounding slightly stunned.

'Looks like everyone gets a title except me.' Caleb thought to himself sadly. He forced a smile and held his bottle out across the table.

"Congratulations gramps."

Sam stood in the doorway of their room and watched Dean with her daughter for a few moments.

'Daughter, Damn!' He thought to himself. That was going to take some getting used to.

They were sitting on the bed and Dean was trying to distract Kayla with some toys. The tired child was having none of that and kept throwing them. She was still hiccuping watery and rubbing her eye. She leaned against Deans chest and took a shuddering breath.

"Is that Kaylas milk?" Dean asked finally noticing Sam in the doorway.

"Huh? Oh yeah." Sam was so busy watching his brother and niece that he'd almost forgotten why he had come up there in the first place.

He walked over to the bed and handed the cup to Dean. She took it and placed the soft spout against Kaylas mouth. The little girl immediately grabbed the handle and began drinking furiously, snuggling further against Dean and winding her free hand into her hair. Sam sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at Dean. She hadn't changed a lot over the last year and a half. Her hair was longer and she wore it in a simple ponytail. Her face, while showing signs of tiredness, looked stress free. As she sat watching her daughter drink, she had a sense of contentment about her that Sam hadn't seen since before he went to Stanford. Kayla turned her eyes to Sam, wiggling slightly in her mother's arms to get a better look.

"Uh?" She said, pointing to Sam and looking up to Dean.

"Yeah, that's your Uncle Sammy. Goofy looking isn't he?"

"Ah?"

"Yeah good try kid but not quite."

"Did she just try to say my name?" Sam asked.

"Not really. Everything is 'ah' at the moment. Her cup is 'ah', the car is 'ah', the dog is 'ah'." Dean said with a shrug.

"You have a dog?"

"No, the gara...um, a place we went did." Dean said.

"Ah?" Kayla said again, pointing at Sam.

"That's right. Sam." He said as he leaned over and gently took her little hand and wiggled it. "Best birthday present ever."

"Oh yeah, that's next week." Dean said looking at Sam.

"Yep. Then Kaylas not long after."

"Yeah...the big 0-1." Dean sighed. "I'm sorry Sam. I'm sorry I left. I'm sorry I stayed away. I really didn't feel like I had a choice. I had to protect her."

"Protect her from who? From us?" Sam asked softly.

Dean shrugged.

"From you, from myself. I don't know. I just knew I had to go. I couldn't stay." She looked at the child in her arms. "All I do is kill, Sammy. I destroy everything I touch. Kayla...well, she was a chance, my only chance to do something right. To create something pure and innocent."

Dean breathed deeply and blinked to fight back the tears that were threatening. In her arms, Kayla had finally given in to sleep, her cup still grasped in her hand, dangling down beside her. Dean turned and placed her gently on the bed. She carefully pulled the blankets over her and placed some pillows beside her to prevent her rolling too close to the edge. She kissed her on the head and whispered in her ear.

"Well, I supposed Bobby and Caleb are wanting some answers. Better go down stairs." Dean said standing.

"No." Dean looked at Sam, surprised. "You're exhausted. I think you should stay up here and get some sleep. Answers can wait until the morning."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Stay here and sleep."

Dean looked from the doorway to the bed. She was tired. All the months of staying on the run was catching up with her, especially now she was 'home', but she'd rather get the inquisition over with.

"Stay, sleep." Sam said.

Sighing, Dean nodded.

"Thanks Sammy."

She lay down, fully dressed, beside her daughter and closed her eyes. When Sam was sure she was sleeping he went down stairs.

Caleb and Bobby looked up when Sam entered the kitchen.

"They're sleeping. Deans wiped. I thought it best." Sam explained before either of them could utter a word.

He grabbed a beer from the fridge then sat at the table with the others.

"So, a baby?" Bobby said. "Did you know?"

"Nope. I didn't even know she was hooking up. I mean, I knew about Marnie and the other chicks, but dudes? Had no clue."

"You were with her almost all the time. You didn't see any signs?" Caleb asked.

"Looking back, yeah, I guess there were clues. She stopped eating for a while and when I confronted her about it she said it made her nauseous but it was just after the werewolf hunt. I just thought it was because of the blood loss. She vomited a few times but I put that down to the concussion. Knowing what I do now...well, I guess, yeah the signs were there." Sam said with a shrug.

"Did she say anything about why she left?" Bobby asked.

"Just that she had to protect the baby."

"From who?" Caleb asked.

"Don't know...us..." Sam replied.

"She honestly didn't think we'd hurt her or the baby, did she?" Caleb said, slightly shocked.

"I don't know. All she said was she couldn't stay, she had to protect Kayla."

They were all silent for a moment before Caleb chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Bobby asked.

"We've been talking about Dean for five minutes and we keep referring to him in a feminine sense."

"Yeah, well she gave birth. It's a bit hard to think of her as 'brother' now." Sam said, scratching at the label of his bottle with his thumb.

"It's okay. You can call me 'she'." Dean said from the doorway.

"How long you been there?" Bobby asked.

"Not long." Dean said walking to the fridge. She pulled out four beers and handed them around before taking her place at the table.

"You should be sleeping." Sam said.

"Probably, but I couldn't." She took a drink from her beer and then sighed. "Okay, let's get this over with. Questions?"

"Her father, you said he's human." Sam said.

"He is."

"Does he know about her?" He asked.

It took all of Dean strength not to look at Caleb.

"He does. And before you ask, no that's not where I went."

"Did you consider it?" Bobby asked gently.

Dean had known Bobby long enough to read between the lines. She shook her head.

"There's no happily ever after there. No picket fences or pet labradoodles, I'm afraid."

"Then where did you go?" Sam asked.

"Some where I knew I'd be safe."

"How long did you know before you left?" Caleb asked.

Dean looked down at the bottle in her hands and grimaced.

"I took a test the day Bobby called. Sam was at the library so I went to the pharmacy and got one. It was positive. An hour later Bobby called to say he found the reversal spell. It was only after your crack about bleeding profusely that I realised I hadn't been." She said looking at Sam.

"So almost a month?" Sam asked shocked.

"Yeah. I was in denial at first. Then I did some research. There was a very minute chance that the ritual worked, but I would still be pregnant. I don't know about you but trying to explain a pregnant man wasn't something I wanted to do. Second scenario was the ritual wouldn't work at all. But the most likely outcome would be that the ritual worked but she would just have disappeared when I changed back. It would have been like she never existed. At first I was on board with that, for like a New York minute, but then the closer the ritual got the more I became convinced I couldn't go through with it. So I left."

"Why didn't you just say something to us?" Sam asked, a slight edge to his voice.

Dean looked at her brother. She could see the toll that her leaving had taken on him, and right now that damage was clearly displayed on his face, just one more burden for Dean to carry.

"I couldn't risk it. Everyone was so excited, I couldn't risk being talked into going through with the ritual. I know I pushed and pushed to find a cure and I'm aware how hard everyone worked to find it. I'm well aware how much of a bitch I was the whole time but... I had to go. I had to protect her."

"You keep saying that!" Sam shouted. "But protect her from who?"

"I don't know!" Dean cried. "I just knew I had to leave. That it would be best for every one!"

"We would have protected you! Leaving like that put you, put Kayla, in danger." Caleb said. "You'd have been safe here!"

She pushed her mostly untouched beer away and after rummaging through Bobby's cupboards began to make herself a cup of tea.

"We were safe. I couldn't give her up." She said while she waited for the kettle to boil. "I left to protect her because, at the time, I thought it would be best for everyone, but now I'm back because, I know, Dean is the best person to keep her safe, with all your help, of course." Dean gave a weak, hopeful smile. "But I'll leave if you don't want us here."

"No. You'll stay. This is your home, and now it's Kaylas. I never thought I'd ever have children and then you two, three," Bobby said pointing to include Caleb. "Landed in my lap and I couldn't have been more grateful until tonight. I'll admit it's a shock that will take some time getting used to but you gave me a 'grandchild', something I never dreamed to hope for, and for that I'm thankful. I just wish you didn't stay away that long. We could have helped you."

Bobby had left his seat and stood near Dean as he spoke and now, in a very un-Bobbylike move wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. Just as Deans emotion were about to overflow a cry from upstairs sounded. Dean stepped back and wiped her eyes.

"Well I guess that's the end of tonight's session." She said and walked from the room.