Chapter 11

Here is the new whapter, hope you'll like it.

The thugs were put in a cell quickly, as for Dean and Cas', they got home as soon as they reported it. The dogs greeted them with whimpers, as if they could feel something happened, an Cas' immediately went to see his daughter. It was weird, but he needed to see her whenever something like that happened. He silently went in her room and distinguished her small frame in a bed and heard her breathing. Fearing to wake her up, he went out. The nanny was sleeping in the room beside hers, of course, she was a professional and yet Cas' kinda wished Mrs Simmons had been the one to babysit her.

He went to the room he and Dean were now sharing. He saw his future husband bare chest, he had a bruise, along with a swollen lip, but he still looked good. Cas' had a few bruises too, but he felt fine, still satisfied from winning a fight.

"I'm gonna sleep like a log," Dean declared. "There is still one thing, though: Crowley told me you were a fighter in his fighting ring?"

"Yep. Does that shock you?"

"I didn't imagine you like that!"

Castiel grinned at this, he liked to surprise people, and Dean seemed more genuinely astonished than outraged.

"There was a time I didn't have much money, I had to study to become a teacher, and then I had Claire. Her mother left when she was only a few weeks old. So even if I had a small student loan, I still had a lot of bills to pay. I knew how to fight, and I had already done that in illegal rings when I was a teen, so it was one of the best way to gain money. Those were happening at night, so during the day, I was free to juggle between my daughter and my studies."

"Wow…How did you manage?"

"Well, it wasn't easy, but I had to go on, I wanted to become a teacher to have a respectable life. When Anna gave me a chance, it was a relief."

He intended to sleep, his eyelids were getting heavier. Yet he had to as Castiel one last thing: "Why did you kiss me this time? Your father wasn't around."

"I don't know…Let' say I had been a bit prejudiced against you. Don't get me wrong, I'm still mad at you, you're still freaking selfish! But I admit I was wrong about some things, and at that moment I just wanted to kiss you to…Let go."

"I'm not sure to understand."

"It's a long story, maybe it should wait for tomorrow. Don't we have a plane to catch the next afternoon?"

"Yeah. You packed along with Claire?"

"Of course we did. Good night."

They did fell asleep like logs. In the morning, Dean almost broke the clock-alarm when it rung, he growled and looked at Castiel. He saw his husband had his eyes open, breathing steadily.

"Hey…Slept well?"

He got no answer at all, in fact, Cas' didn't move at all. This was like an adrenaline shot, he sat up and shook the man at his side, understanding immediately what was going on.

"Hey! Snap out of it!"

Castile blinked and moved very slightly before finally shifting. He rubbed his eyes and sat, Dean's hand still on his shoulder.

"It's okay, you don't have to panic, I know how to handle that."

"Still!"

Cas' huffed in amusement, yet that concern was quite touching. They took breakfast with Claire, the babysitter left as soon as they were awake, and the little girl babbled happily, not aware that the two men hadn't slept much. She was excited to take the plane and go to the sea.

"We'll swim, and we'll jump in water!" She exclaimed.

"We will, sweetie, be sure of that."

"We take the doggies?"

"No, they'll stay here with Mrs Simmons," Dean explained.

She was disappointed but still happy. When they finally went to the airport, Dean decided to drive, though he had a driver, he sometimes liked to go by himself. And this time was one of those, especially since he wanted to discuss some things with his future husband. To be honest, he was pretty impatient to get out of here, not only to see Sam but also because he wanted to get away. He knew someone was plotting against him, and it was better to be away from New York for some times, it would be better for Cas' and Claire, and even for himself. It would give him time to think. As Claire started to doze in the car, lulled by the moves of the car, Dean decided to go back to their last night's conversation.

"What were you talking about when you said you were prejudiced against me?"

After a short hesitation, Castiel just shrugged. "Well, I knew Ellen and Jo, and one day, I learned Ellen was selling and moving away from New York. She didn't tell me why, but I heard rumors."

Without any lies, he explained him the whole thing. Dean snorted when he heard all this. He felt weird, almost like he was seeing things in a new light, and a lot of thing made more sense now. He felt a lump in his throat he attempted to ignore.

"So those fuckers would rather pretend an eighteen years old guy snatched what they wanted instead of admitting that Ellen would rather sell to me? Pretty pathetic."

"That's why he didn't last long," Castiel answered.

Dean looked at him briefly before watching the road again. "So, that's why you disliked me so much."

"Yeah…"

"You could have asked me!"

"When? At the cocktail? Should I have asked you: 'Hey sir, are you the one who forced a woman to sell her bar for your benefit?' You would have considered it an insult."

Dean rolled his eyes but had to admit it wasn't untrue. Now he thought of everything that happened, the way Castiel got away from him the first night he saw him, looked at him with such distaste…

"Is that why you crashed against my car?"

With a huff, Castiel replied in an amused voice: "No, I didn't know it was yours, it was a coincidence. I really was a bit drunk."

A short silence followed. Dean could have protested it had been unfair of him to believe that, yet he knew how powerful rumors could be, and rich families would always have their lot of stupid gossips and lies. This wasn't the first one, nor the last, but Dean couldn't just brush it off.

"I thought you hated me because I was rich."

"What?"

"You don't seem to like rich people much."

"I don't hate them all, I like that Harold guy who flirted with Lexie, and your friends aren't exactly middle-class and I still find them nice. Anyway I didn't hate you for that."

"But…" Dean trailed, knowing there was a 'but'.

"Let's say that most of times my experience with rich people wasn't pleasant. The rich students we had already, well…Let's say their parents thought they were above everything. For example, I remember the first time I punished one of those students for not making her homework. Her parents came and acted as if I had punished their daughter for nothing and threatened Anna like crazy. In the end she had to yield. I hated that, I mean how am I supposed to teach if the parents will not allow me to bring discipline?"

"The 'my child is entitled to anything'? I know it. To be honest there were some kids who had parents like that in my school. And there were others who had parents like my dad."

"Which means?"

"Well, one time I had detention and I refused to attend, my dad was called at school. When he came, he was explained everything, and instead of defending me, he asked the teacher to give me twice more detention. When I asked him why, he told me he didn't want me to misbehave and that it was part of their job to punish whenever I screwed up. He also told me he didn't like having to ride to school because of me!"

Castiel couldn't help but laugh a bit at the last sentence. "Your dad seemed like the tough but fair kind."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. He valued hard work, he had to do a lot to build what he did, and he didn't want us to become lazy."

"…About your brother, since I'm gonna meet him, can you tell me what really happened? I mean after all, you know a bit about my past"

"Well, the story you heard is quite true. He met Jessica when he was like seventeen. She was really a middle-class girl, and maybe it was the way she was so impressed by everything we had, but we were suspicions. My father and I thought she was with him for money. Now that I think about it, it was maybe natural for her to react like that, she wasn't used to those things. We argued a lot about it with Sam. One day, he told us they intended to live together and that he would propose her in the future. My father told him that they had to break up otherwise Sam would have no money from him anymore."

He took a deep breath, it was painful to remember that, but he went on: "He didn't really want to punish Sam, it was just a way to make Jessica show her true colors. We were sure she would dump Sam as soon as he would be broke. Well, it was the contrary. She said that if Sam was ready to throw away everything for her, then he was the man of her life. She actually supported him at first, I heard, before he got a job. My father offered to send him money afterward, to make peace and so did I, but Sam refused, he was mad at us."

"I can understand why!" Castiel huffed. "Why were you two so wary of her? Even if she was impressed, it wasn't that much of a reason! I mean if she was from a modest family as you said, that was understandable."

Dean hesitated and his expression was so grave Castiel realized there was something else, something really bad.

"I will explain more one day, but not now. We're close to the airport anyway."

Dean was nervous as they advanced. He never liked the plane, he had a fear of flying and if it wasn't for Sam, he wouldn't have taken the plane. It wasn't the first time, his job had required it sometimes, and he hated it each time. Claire looked excited as hell however.

"We're gonna fly high?"

"Very high, honey! You know it's the first time Daddy takes a plane?"

"Seriously?" Dean answered before the girl could.

"Yes. I already took the train, but not the plane. I never went out of the East Coast."

"You don't seem nervous."

"No, not really. When you think about it, there are less car accident than plane crashes."

"Those are deadlier!"

Castiel titled his head and grinned a bit: "You're scared."

"No, I just don't like it."

His future husband giggled and Dean threw him a deadly look. Once in the plane, Claire was smiling like crazy, even her dad seemed impressed but Dean had to take a deep breath to keep composure. They had taken a second-class travel, there were no seats left in First-class and Dean honestly didn't care. When the engine started, he tensed, making Cas' smirk a bit.

"We are flying?"

"No, sweetie, when Dean will puke then it will mean we are flying," he teased.

"Eww," the kid uttered with a grimace.

"Your daddy is kidding, I'm not gonna vomit. Being scared doesn't mean you're gonna have throw up," he declared with another deadly look toward Cas'

"So you admit it: you are scared!"

"…Shut up," he growled with embarrassment, making Castiel even more satisfied and amused.

He held his breath when the plane actually started flying and Claire look with fascination outside, her dad rubbing her back, happy to see her so excited. "We fly!" She exclaimed that out loud, making some people laugh, Dean cracked a smile as well in spite of his nervousness. Her dad kissed the top of her head.

"Indeed, we're gonna go above the clouds," he murmured.

Time passed too slowly for Dean, but he was amused by Claire, she had been ecstatic when they had been through the clouds, and was now quieter, looking outside with wonder. Her dad had also been impressed but he was now reading. Dean couldn't believe how relaxed he was, like he had always done that when it was actually the first time he travelled like that. He looked at what Castiel was reading and was quite surprised to see it was The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. He raised an eyebrow, was this really what he liked to read? But now that he thought about it, he had been looking at the library with a lot of interest.

"You read Shakespeare? You're not working."

"I enjoy it even outside work."

Well, he wasn't an English teacher for nothing. "…You're one hell of a nerd, you'll get along with Sam."

"Shakespeare helped me a lot, in a way you wouldn't know, William Blake too, not sure if you know who he is."

Dean rolled his eyes at this. "I do. I'm not a bookworm but I went to school, you know."

"And you like it?"

"Not really."

Castiel shrugged and went back to what he was reading. The little girl was starting to wave her legs, and Dean picked up the signs of impatience. Even though she was fascinated by the view outside, she was still a child and sitting for too long was annoying to her.

"You want to be at sea already?"

"I am a mermaid! And there are fish in the sea," she uttered with excitement.

"Of course, I saw many. You know, we would go in California with my brother when we were little."

"In plane?"

"Yes, in a plane. We would go with my mom and my dad and we would sail on a boat. You already went on a boat?"

The little girl seemed to think, and then shook her head. Dean smiled: "On the boat we took, we saw dolphins and whales, even a shark. We'll do that with your dad."

She gaped at this. Castiel put down his book and took another one for Claire, a child book about sea animals h had bought for her yesterday. The kid looked at it with some excitement, but mostly remained focused on the clouds. Eventually, Castiel softly told her a short story and she fell asleep, leaning her had against her dad's arm. Now that she was sleeping again, Castiel asked something that had started to nag him since they got into the plane. He leaned closer because he didn't want people to hear.

"Dean…I was thinking about those guys again I remembered something: you asked who sent them."

"I did."

"Why do you think someone sent them?"

Dean hesitated and finally explained: "I have enemies, and I know some of them are trying to get to me. It might not be linked, but I needed to be sure."

"What do you mean by that? Is Claire in danger?"

"No, I have no reasons to think so."

He said that to reassure him, but he actually had no insurance. He knew damn well that some people didn't shy away from targeting children. Unwanted memories resurfaced again and he bit his lip. When he asked Castiel to marry him, he didn't know someone was trying to get to him, now he knew and he was scared for the two of them. Maybe they wouldn't be targets, maybe those thugs had only been sent for him, maybe Castiel wasn't supposed to be here. Yet he doubted that. He would have to be very careful. Could he trust Crowley? After all the man did warn him, but maybe that was because he wanted to make Dean drop his guard.

A sudden move from the plane startled him and he tensed, not thinking about all this anymore. The little girl growled slightly, kinda sounding like a kitten. Castiel looked at Dean once more and waited a bit.

"I don't want anything to happen to my daughter."

"I'll never allow it."

This time he was entirely sincere. Whoever was doing this wouldn't hide in the shadows for long, Dean wouldn't let them. A plan started to form in his mind, it would take some times, though. They landed smoothly, and Dean was relieved to finally walk out. Castiel was carrying Claire in his arms, a warm wind blew strongly as they walked outside of the plane. A buzzing sound was heard and Dean's guts tightened as he saw it was a message from Sam indicating where he and Jessica were waiting.

He was going to see them again…Was Jessica still angry at him? How would it go with Castiel? He would know soon.

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