"Well, miracle upon miracle, in spite of the whole ordeal, you haven't sustained any injury." Dr. Robert declared, examining Hannah after they reached the bunker and got her back in.
Hannah was currently lying on her bed, wearing one of Sam's shirts, this time because they were easy on her stiches, while Sam stood nearby holding Grace.
"I have to agree with him." Tilly, who since most of it was out in the open now was asked to come over by the Patrona, "I mean, they stopped all the hemorrhaging, and we're going to keep an eye on that, but as long as you stick to your recovery plan, you should be fine."
"That means avoid lifting anything heavier than Grace for the first few weeks." Dr. Robert added, "I've written you a prescription for a non-steroid anti-inflammatory for the pain, I didn't use my actual name, so you should be able to get it filled. "
Sam took the prescription from him, as Hannah wasn't in position to take it. "Thanks."
"And you will need to rest." Dr. Robert emphasized, addressing Hannah again, "It's normal to take longer for Mom to be up and about after a C-section. See you in a week for the follow up."
Outside, Sam's army was still milling around, starting to disburse and go back from wince they came. The House of Oddities had already head it out taking Adam with them, as had most of the angels, Bonnie and Clive, taking Amity with them, and Cal, taking Adele with him. Wally and his daughters were loading up the car and were about to. Jody and Donna were searching through the crowded garage. "There she is." Donna declared, pointing towards the girl they were looking through.
Alex was next to an old boxy car talking with a group of girls.
"Alex!" Jody called out, running towards her foster daughter.
Alex looked up when she heard Jody's voice.
"They just told me you were here." Jody told her.
"I just got in an hour ago." Alex confirmed, "These guys just told me Hannah and the baby got out okay. Have you heard anything?"
"The doctors just cleared them both." Jody answered, "So, ah, who are your friends here?"
"Oh," Alex began, "This is Patience Turner, psychic, Kaia Nieves, Dream Walker, Claire Novak, Artist and Angel Channeler."
"Actually, ex-angel channeler as of five minutes ago." Claire spoke up.
In the car, Sissy and Audrina knocked on the glass, getting their friends attention and waving goodbye one last time as the car pulled out.
"Call us when you get back home." Claire called out before turning to Kaia, "Speaking of which, we should probably get on the road before Mom realizes what we were actually doing."
"Right. " Kia agreed, getting up along with her.
"Come on," Hannah gritted as she tried to get an increasingly hungry and distressed Grace to latch, but for whatever reason the child just couldn't. The hungry cry from Grace was heart breaking. "I'm sorry."
She had been trying to nurse all day, but nothing seemed to be working. At one point Sam had stop and pick up milk just to keep Grace stated until they could figure this out.
That was when Reason took a peak in, and, seeing the problem, walked into the room.. "Where's the breast pump I gave you?"
Reason showed Hannah how to use the pump, and while it was a long, painful process, and Grace crying didn't make it any better, they managed to get a bottle's worth of milk, which Grace drunk down.
"It's okay." Reason assured her, "You're doing your best and there's no shame in bottle-feeding. I did it with Maudie, that's why I had the pump in the first place. Just enjoy your baby, and that's how a mother and child bond. Just look at you and the twins."
Hannah felt a wave of relief wash over. Reason had a point there. "Thank you."
Meanwhile in a corner in the main aera of the bunker, Tabbris had just finished telling Ruth everything. Everything. Perhaps not surprisingly, the female angel just stood there, staring blankly.
"Ruth?" Tabbris began finally, waving a hand in front of her face, "Ruth, are you alright?"
"No one can know about this." Ruth declared.
Tabbris was relieved, he was hopping that if it came to telling her the truth she would be on their side, but still a bit concerned. "And when you say no one you mean—"
"No one." Ruth repeated, "At all. This stays between you, me, and the stupidest angel. Also, the stupidest Winchester who married the stupidest angel."
Back in their room, Hannah was in the bed, holding Grace, Sam by her side, making sure everything was in order before he went to pick up the boys. "Are you sure you're okay being in this room? I mean I know hostages have issues being in places they were taken from or kept…"
"Sam, you know the past 48 hours are hardly the worst thing that's ever happened to me." Hannah pointed out, "I won't let them take this from us."
Before Sam could respond, Reason ran back into the room. "You need to come outside. Now. Don't worry, I'll stay with Hannah."
When Sam got outside, Serena Joy and Rawls were standing in front of the bunker, Serena Joy holding Castiel, whose wings were exposed.
Sam's heart plummeted. "I guess that means—"
"The boys got messy and needed a bath." Serena Joy explained, "I said I would handle it, but Rawls still saw them."
"I'm assuming this is one of those things that I don't know about you and Hannah." Rawls guessed.
"Yeah, you'd be right." Sam confirmed, "Can you put Cas back in the car and then we'll talk? I really don't want to have this conversation in front of them."
"Fair enough." Rawls agreed, handing the child to Serena Joy.
And so, Sam told Rawls the whole story, from Dean and Cas' de-aging, why they chose to give up the search for a reversal spell, to Hannah's rescue from the Stynes. Surprisingly enough, he actually took it in stride.
"Well, that actually explains a lot." Rawls said once she was finished, "How's she doing? I mean, that—"
"Yeah, I know." Sam agreed, "But, um, she's saying she's okay. She, um, just wants to see the boys."
"Oh, of course." Rawls replied, leading Sam to the car where Serena Joy was waiting with the boys.
"Okay, guys, remember you have to be careful Mommy." Sam reminded the boys as he carried them down the hall. They were obviously keeping some of the details from them for now, but Sam had explained to the boys that their mother had undergone surgery to take the baby out of her tummy.
"Alright." Dean agreed, and Cas nodded his understanding.
As they got closer, Sam heard voices from the room. Panicked, Sam sat them down. "Stay here." He ordered, grabbing his gun.
He ran into the room and busted inside, finding Hannah, Reason, and Tabbris and Ruth, having a clam, rationally conversation.
"Sam," Hannah began, "It's alright. Put the gun down, honey."
Sam slowly lowered the gun. "Ah, what's going on here?"
"I had to tell Ruth the truth." Tabbris explained.
"I wanted to talk things over with her." Ruth said, "And before you get worked up, I'm not telling anyone, none of the other angels I brought have figured it out, and before they left, I swore them all to secrecy and swore them not to ask any questions. I can't guarantee that they won't ever find out, but they won't find out today."
"Thank you." Sam said sincerely. With everything going on he hadn't really given much thought to how much the angels Tabbris sent for knew.
"It's almost purely selfish." Ruth told him, "After I vouched for you all that would be a lot of egg on my face, that's a thing, right, that's a thing that people say, not to mention the upset this could cause. Just be more careful from now on, okay? They can render people infertile now, is all I'm saying." With that she.
"That's not the only reason I came in here." Tabbris admitted once she had left, "Look, I know what Abigail did is inexcusable, but-you can't keep her in your dungeon forever. Please let me take her, try to get her help. I promise, she'll never bother you again."
"After everything she's done—" Sam began, "You still care about her?"
"I don't—I don't know how to stop." Tabbris answered.
Sam gave him a look of pity. "Look, if you can get Melanie on board with this plan, you can have her. She finally came down from whatever Abigail gave her, she's in the stacks. Donna was going to take her home; you should be able to catch them if you hurry."
"Thank you." Tabbris replied, running from the room.
With that out of the way, Sam went to the door. "Okay guys, you can come back in."
Dean and Cas ran into the room shouting, "Mommy!" They both jumped onto the boys.
"Boys remember what I said." Sam told them.
They hugged their mother as carefully as possible. "I missed you!" Dean exclaimed.
"I missed you, too!" Cas added.
"We missed you, we missed you, so, so, much!" Dean declared.
"I missed you two as well." Hannah said, tears welling up in her eyes. She had been so scared that she would never see them again.
"Why are you crying?" Dean asked.
"I'm just—I'm really happy to see you both." Hannah answered, which was true, "There's um, someone Daddy and I want you to meet. This is your sister. This is Grace."
Dean and Cas stared down at the little half sleep bundle in their mother's arms. Sensing them, her eyes fluttered opened and she looked at them in curiosity.
"She's beautiful." Cas declared.
"Yeah, yeah, she really is, bud." Sam grinned from ear to ear.
"Do you want to hold her, little ones?" Hannah offered.
Both boys nodded.
"Okay, since he's closer, Dean can hold her first and then, Cas, you can." Hannah reasoned, as she sild the baby over to Dean, Sam coming over to help.
"Careful, buddy," Sam instructed, "You have to make sure to support the head."
Supporting the head with one arm, Dean felt a surge of unconditional love, though being only four he wouldn't know to describe it as such, as he peered down at being before him, at how pink and precious she was.
Cas snuck in, touching Grace's cheek. "She's soft."
"She is, isn't she?" Hannah agreed.
"Can I hold her now?" Cas asked.
"I want one more minute then you can have her." Dean negotiated.
"Okay." Cas agreed.
In the garage, most anybody who wasn't staying for a period of time had left, thought there was some unfinished business being dealt with.
"Hey," Joel called out to Jody and Alex as they were walking off, "You guys are staying for a bit, right?"
"Ah, yeah," Jody began slowly, "Why?"
"Would you mind giving this to Sam?" Joel requested, handing them a number on a piece of paper, "It's a number of a college of mine who used to be a therapist, she still sometimes does pro bono work for special cases if you get what I mean, like being snatch by mad scientists. Just in case, you know, Hannah needs some extra help?"
As Jody nodded her understanding, Freddy came up to them. "Listen, I already gave it to him once, before but in case he doesn't have it anymore, could you give Sam this number? It's for a hunter who use to a physicist, her name's Eliz…."
"Elizabeth Donovan." Joel said along with him, realizing the connection.
"Really?" Freddy responded surprised, "Uh, small world."
Back in the bedroom, it was finally Castiel's turn to hold their new sister. "Watch the head." Sam repeated, and Hannah helped the baby be transferred over.
Cas did, also burying himself in the crook of their mother's arm as he stared down with Grace in the same amazement his "twin" had, Dean peering over his shoulder. Grace's eyes fluttered opened, giving up on sleep. Not that she seemed to mind, very much.
"Why are her eyes two different colors?" Cas asked, then gasped as a horrid through occurred to him, "Did we break her?! We didn't…"
"No, no," Sam assured him, crouching down in front of them, "Nobody broke her. She was just born that way."
"Sometimes people are born with two different colored eyes, or sometimes something happens and one of their eyes changes colors." Hannah explained, "It's called Heterochromia."
"Hetero—Heteroch-" Cas tried to the word on his tongue.
"Hetero—Heta—" Dean tried.
Sam chuckled, "Alright, don't hurt yourselves, guys.
Back in the garage, Crowley and Rowena were having an argument that proved just how small the world really was.
"So, locking me away in a salquid workhouse was your solution?!" Crowley challenged.
"I will not apologize for being a career woman!" Rowena exclaimed.
Just then Tina came running up to her. "Ah, everyone's ready-"
"Alright, my love, be there in a second." Rowena told her, then followed the girl.
"What, was I your practice kid?!" Crowley called after her.
Just then Luna appeared. "Shouldn't you be getting back to Hell? If you go now, you can beat Cain. I think he's visiting with Cassidy and Sunflower for a bit."
Realizing she was right, Crowley said, "Thank you, biddy girl reaper." Then he walked off
Melanie getting into the shotgun seat of Donna's car when Tabbris appeared calling out, "Hey, wait up!" Stopping in front of her, he said, "It's Melanie, right?"
"You want my permission to try to spring Abigail and reform her." Melanie said blankly.
"Yes." Tabbris confirmed.
"I can't believe I'm about to say this, but yes." Melanie agreed.
Back in the bedroom, Sam was sitting in a chair by the bed, while Hannah had Dean and Cas on either side of them, both nuzzled into the crooks of her arms for an impromptu nap.
"You they won't sleep tonight?" Sam pointed out.
"I know but…I don't have the heart to wake them up." Hannah admitted, then turned her attention to their newest addition. "How is she doing?"
"She's out like a light." Sam told her. Staring down at the baby girl he made an observation. "I think she has your nose."
"I could've sworn she looked more like you." Hannah replied.
"Maybe." Sam mused, "But that's definitely your nose."
After the last of the rescuers left, Charlie was in the kitchen, peering into the fridge, Jody, Magda, Alex and Cyrus standing behind her. "Okay, so we got chicken casserole, tuna casserole, taco casserole, spaghetti chicken casserole, the green bean casserole everybody's grandma makes, something that looks like the seafood casserole from Rash, bean and onion stew, root vegetable stew, chicken stew, fish stew with powdered sea greens and heart nuts, corn pudding, bird's nest pudding, which is probably more for dessert, and four different kinds of milk soup. Which is something I didn't even know was a thing. "
"Also Serena Joy left muffins." Alex added, pointing to the basket of wholesome, soft-looking tan baked goods, all stubbed with pepitas, "Thought she did say that if she ever baked anything that caused emotion-induced vomiting, those would be it."
Jody blinked, then took charge. "Okay, why don't we just do the chicken casserole?"
Looking back at the over-stuffed fridge, Magda asked the obvious question. "Um, how do we get it out?"
Later, Charlie walked back into Sam and Hannah's bedroom, where, now that everyone was awake, the boys were taking turns holding Grace again. "Hey, guys," Charlie spoke up, "We, ah, we got dinner ready."
"Charlie, you didn't have to do that." Sam told her.
"Sam, it's the whole reason we're staying." Charlie pointed out.
"Can we eat with Mommy?" Dean pipped up.
Sam looked at Hannah.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Hannah agreed, just wanting the boys by her side.
A few minutes later, everyone was on the bed, in a chair on the floor with plates of chicken casserole.
A few hours later, after the last of them had cleared out, Grace was in her crib, sound asleep, the boys were put to bed, and Hannah was lying beneath the covers when Sam entered. "So," The hunter began, "The boys are asleep, both Jody and Alex and Charlie and Magda are squared away, so is Cyrus." He began taking off layers of clothing.
"Thanks for being okay with him staying here for a few days." Hannah responded, laying back.
Walking over to the bed Sam commented. "Well, we did kinda take out most of his family and burn down his house. The kids have nowhere to go."
"Maybe we could find his mother's family." Hannah suggested, "They might take him in."
"It's a thought." Sam began, getting in. He just stared at her for a moment then leaned in, kissing her forehead and eyelids.
After Sam pulled back, Hannah looked at him. "They told me you were dead." She told him, "I never believed it."
Sam pulled her closer. "You had to have been so scared." He felt a wave of guilt for failing to protect her, for being lured away, but said nothing.
"I kept wondering if I would ever see you and the boys again." Hannah admitted, resting her head on his shoulder.
Sam held her tighter, trying to think of the words to say, something to reassure her. Tell her it was over now, that nothing would ever invade this scared space again. But for some reason what came out of his mouth was. "Nice work on the shiv."
Hannah smiled. "It was nothing really. All I did was break glass." Then she kissed on the aera between his cheek and neck. "I love you."
"I love you too." Sam agreed.
The couple of tried to sleep, but neither of them slept all that well. Sam kept having his fits, and when Hannah put hands on him, trying to reach out, she couldn't quite make a connection. She knew she had some powers back; she wasn't tired for the most part, and she was able to tune into angel radio for a few minutes to make sure there was no chattered they needed to worry about, but she couldn't really work up the strength for much of anything else. It was like she could hobble around the track, but couldn't get back to running marathon's yet.
It was at that point baby Grace started to cry.
Sam pratically jolted up in the bed. Hannah tried to get up and her pelvis screamed out, causing her to lept out a gasp of pain.
"Don't worry, I get her." Sam told her, getting up and going to the crib.
Figuring out Grace was hungry; Sam went to the kitchen and took out one of the bottles Reason and Serena Joy had helped to prepare. He pulled bowel of water he had just microwaved and put the bottle in it. "Don't worry, Gracie, it'll be ready soon." Sam assured her, gently bouncing her.
As Sam took the bottle out of the water, rain began to pattern down on the bunker, hard, accented by burst of thunder.
"That's not you this time, is it?" Sam asked, as if the baby Nephilim could respond, "Maybe we should have named you Storm." After a beat he added, "You know, it stormed the night we brought your big brothers' home, too. Course a few hours before they had been our brothers but…things got complicated."
In their own rooms, Dean and Castiel were awoken by the thunder. Getting scared, they looked at each other and made the decision to get out of bed, Dean taking Cas' hand and Cas dragging Coat behind him.
Hannah raised up at the sound of the pitter patter of little feet, seeing too shadows in the doorway. "Did the thunder wake you up?"
"Coat got scared." Dean explained.
"Then it's a very good thing you brought him here." Hannah said, outstretching her arms and gesturing for them to come, "Come here."
With Grace fed and happy, Sam walked back to the room, appearing just as the boys got to the bed.
"Coat got scared." Hannah explained with a coy smile.
"Hold on guys," Sam requested, sitting Grace in the crib and tucking her back in as her eyes closed. Then he went over to the boys and picked them up, sitting them in the bed and arranging them between their parents. "Good night guys."
"Goodnight, little ones." Hannah added softly.
"Goodnight Mommy and Daddy." Dean replied.
"Goodnight Grace." Cas called out.
With that, the strange little family closed their eyes and fell asleep, secure in their cocoon of love.
Yes, their situation was complicated. It could get messy. It wasn't them most traditional, nuclear type set up. But they loved each other, truly, deeply, unconditionally. They took care of each other. They fought for each other—thought sometimes they thought with each other. They needed each other, and for the most part each was willing to fill that need. It wasn't a Norman Rockwell Painting. But it wasn't The Jerry Springer Show, either, so, that was something right? Their life was complicated, but it was their life. And as long as they had each other, somehow, everything would all work out in the end.
AN: This is it, folks. I want to thank everyone who reviewed, followed favorited or just took time out of their day to read this thing. I hoped you enjoyed it. If anyone is interested, a sequel, "Adventures In Baby Rearing" (I sometimes suck at titles) should be up next week. :)
Have a blessed Good Friday and Happy Easter. Stay safe out there.
