Franki3Winchester: It's like you are reading my mind sometimes. The 'goodies' Cas left will come into play later, and don't worry, Cas will have them covered. Unfortunately though, you will have to wait a chapter or two until you get to meet Sprout.
Vrskaandrea: I didn't get the nesting thing too badly either. I did kind of overplay it with Deana, but it was fun to do. There will be some minor complications (of course and not giving too much away) but it has been a long time since I gave birth, so I hope I did this right.
ShadowXMoonlight: She will be a little bit distracted to get too mad, but there will be one tantrum at least.
Malic Malic: Mothers usually don't survive the birth of a Nephlim, at least in my universe, but they also don't have the help of an angel or two.
Chapter 40
*Disclaimer: I don't speak Hebrew and I tried to keep any Hebrew words to a minimum. Any words I did use I got from Google so I hope I've used them correctly. If I got anything wrong, please know there was no disrespect meant and feel free to send me a correction. x
Ellen didn't stop until she was past the wardnet.
"Castiel, you selfish son of a bitch." She spoke clearly. "Get down here. It's time."
She only had to wait mere moments before Castiel appeared in front of her. She stepped back behind the warding as the ground began to shake with the arrival of hundreds of angels, members of Castiels garrison. This time, though, each angel seemed to occupy their own vessel and appeared in human form, carrying long silver weapons.
"Hello Ellen." Castiel calmly greeted her. "This is Ruth." He gestured to a diminutive woman standing beside him.
"Shalom." She said.
"Yeah, hi."
"She will be assisting with the birth." Castiel explained.
"Awesome. Okay, you ready to do this?" Ellen said.
Castiel fixed her with a steely, determined look and gave a single nod. Ellen dropped the warding and Castiel and Ruth stepped through.
…
Castiels garrison stood at attention, alert and ready to protect their commander, his mate and fledgling. They didn't have to wait long before the first demons began to appear in the forest around them.
The demons waited patiently until the draw of the power that called to them became too much. With a clash of blade and sword the demons attack and tried to get to the powerful new life coming in to being and hopefully the favour of the ruler of Hell.
•••••••••
Deana was up and moving when Castiel entered the cabin.
"Hey Cas." She greeted and she leaned against the back of the couch. "I guess we're about to have a baby."
Ruth looked at the Angel questioningly and asked something in Hebrew. Castiel just shook his head minutely and Ruth huffed and looked back at Deana with her lips pressed into a thin line.
"How are you feeling?" Cas asked stepping toward Deana.
"Ah, like a half human, half Angel is trying to push its way out of my Vagina and drag half my insides with it." She snarked.
"So you're in pain then." He replied with a small smile as he stepped forward to place a hand on her back and his other palm on her forehead. "You could have just said that."
"Yeah well you can just bite m..., oh wow! That's good." Deana said as Castiel took her pain away. "Just keep doing that and we'll be fine."
Cas introduced Ruth to Deana and the others and translated as she spoke. Ruth wanted to do a quick examination of Deana to gauge how her labour was progressing. With some back and forth, Cas translating the relevant information, they were able to ascertain that Deana was still a ways off from delivering but she was progressing nicely.
They were just finishing up in her room when a particularly strong contraction hit almost dropping Deana to her knees. She cried out and double over against her bed. Cas placed a hand on her back and pushed a small amount of grace out to ease the pain.
••••••••••••
The labour progressed much quicker than anyone had anticipated and soon enough Deans was laying on the bed crying out with each contraction. Even begging the child inside her for relief didn't help and soon enough Cas was just sitting beside her allowing his grace to flow slow but constant to try to ease the pain Deana was feeling.
Ellen was out of the room, emptying out the bowl containing Deanas latest round of vomit, ("you could have warned me about this bit" she'd snarled at Ellen between heaves.) Bobby and Jim were gathering up some clean towels, although they mostly were avoiding the room completely, while Ruth examined Deana and, via Castiel, announced that while things were moving along, they still had a while to wait. She explained to Deana, again with Castiel interpreting, what to expect.
"So when the time comes." Cas said. "She'll give one of three basic signs."
Ruth held up one finger and inhaled deep then exhaled slowly.
"Nasham." She said, repeating the action.
"Breathe." Cas told her.
Deana nodded and copied the other woman's actions.
"Hit'nashėm" Ruth held up two fingers and panted quickly through her teeth.
"Pant." Cas translated. He nodded again.
"Got it." Deana told him.
"Dachaf!" Ruth balled up her fists, gritted her teeth and and curled her upper body slightly and made a weird straining noise.
"Push."
"Yeah, I think I understood that one." Deana said. "Okay, one finger." She addressed the other woman while holding up her index finger. "Breathe." She took two deep breathes. "Then two fingers." She flicked up a second and panted quickly. "Pant and three is push? Yes?"
Ruth smiled and nodded.
"Great, fantastic. This is just gonna be so...fucking terrible." Deana said as she tensed up and dropped her head back, her breathing becoming irregular as she took quick inhales and held them.
"Are you okay?" Cas asked concerned.
"Yeah, just a contraction building."
She breathed her way through the current wave and once it subsided she slumped down against the pillows, a light sheen of sweat covering her body, despite Cas' grace flowing into her. Ruth looked up at Castiel and spoke. Cas nodded and turned to Deana.
"Ruth said moving around might help. Like going for a walk? It might help 'move things along'."
"Okay. Anything to get this over with."
With the help of Ruth and Cas, Deana manoeuvred her way off the bed and, leaning on the Angel for support, she began a slow shuffle out of the room.
They completed three full circuits of the cabin before calling it quits. Deana was back on the bed, the head rest raised for comfort when a severe contraction hit. They had been getting steadily closer, longer and stronger and Deana was on the bed with her legs bent, feet flat on the mattress. Her oversized T-shirt was pushed up to her belly and her lower half covered with a sheet. She groaned and gripped Castiels hand tightly as she tried to breathe through the pain. Her grip tightened dramatically, if Cas hadn't been an Angel he was sure bones would have snapped, but the sensation drew him to focus on Deana and for the first time he notice the golden glow beneath her shirt.
Eyes widening he stood and pushed up her shirt to see the golden streaks flowing from her womb. As her contraction subsided the light withdrew leavening a blackened mark in its wake. Glancing up at Deana he saw she had collapsed back against her pillows, eyes closed, her breathing evening out as the exhaustion was taking its toll. He placed a palm on her stomach.
"Have care. Your mother is human and therefore fragile. She cannot take such large dispersions of energy." He listened for a moment and sighed sadly. "I understand, I'll do what I can."
"Cas?"
He looked up and saw Deana watching him through half opened eyes.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, brushing her hair from her brow.
"I hurt and I'm so tired." She mumbled.
"Of course you are but you are doing so well, my love." He said as he placed a kiss on her forehead.
"Hm, thats what you reckon." She replied as another contraction started building.
Cas placed a hand on her forehead and watched with concern as the golden glow spread under her shirt.
…
Gods throne stood in the exact centre of Heaven. Slightly to the right of that was Michael's 'office'. His office was large, cavernous to be precise. The floor had been created to look and feel like terrazzo, the walls filled with tall windows allowing Heavens light and grace to flow in. Standing in the middle of this room was a white sandstone column topped with a large flat circular slab of marble, sitting on this was a crystal bowl in an ornate silver holder that climbed and swirled around the dish, the tendrils ending in small leaf shaped designs.
Michael slowly swirled the cloudy water he had drawn directly from the pools in Gods gardens. He had felt the exact moment the wards shielding his weapon were dropped and the first wave of power pulsed out through the universe and now was zeroing in on its source.
"Ah! I've got you now!" Michael exclaimed.
Behind him a door opened and closed and footsteps approached him.
"I thought I'd find you in here." Gabriel spoke as he approached his brothers back.
Michael stood and turned to face the other Archangel.
"I've found him. Castiel thought he was so clever hiding them from me but I have located the Nephilim."
"So now what?" Gabriel asked sounding bored. And he was. He'd had to endure months of Michaels bitching and raging about the missing weapon. He had to stand by and watch Michael interrogate Castiel as to it's whereabouts over and over again, several times stepping in before Michael could lose control and seriously and permanently hurt the younger seraph.
"Now? Now I'm going to go and take back what's mine!" Michael snapped. "And then Castiel will be severely punished for hiding it from me! I'll break his wings for this!"
Gabriel grabbed Michaels arm as he walked by.
"I'm not going to let you do that." He growled.
"How dare you! Castiel took our weapon and hid it from us then he lied about it for months!"
"No he didn't!" Gabriel snapped and he shoved his brother back. "You interrogated, tortured him for weeks and he kept telling you he didn't know where the girl was. You threatened to tertial him and he still didn't give them up!"
"He was just trying to keep her to himself in some misguided belief he loved the human. I should never have sent him." Michael sneered.
"But you did! You sent him and he laid claim over that human because he loves her! You've been so blinded by the plan, by the 'mission', that you couldn't see how much he was suffering, and not just by your hand. We used that girl and she did exactly what I told you she would! She ran and Castiel has been suffering ever since! Now the only thing you're going to do is go down there and make DAMN SURE that human survives this because if she dies, and I lose my baby brother, I will hold you responsible and I will make. You. Pay!"
Michael stepped back. He had never seen Gabriel like this before. His brother had always been the peace keeper, the jovial one, pulling pranks and keeping everyone's spirits up, even when Father left, but now his eyes were as hard as jade as Gabriel glared at him, his wings where solid, feathers sharpened and flared. Michael nodded once.
"Very well brother, I will do it your way.
(*'tertial' was taken from a story by NorthernSparrow called Broken. If I got it right it is when the tertial feathers of an angels wings are removed leaving them with no control during flight or ability to brake, also in this story the author puts it that the tertial feathers are where an angel stores their grace and without them the grace will just continually flow from their bodies.)
…
Deana growled with the exertion as her body told her to push. Ruth frantically waved two fingers in front of her face.
"Argh! Fine!" Deans snapped as she slapped the hand away and dropped against her pillow hissing in and out through clenched teeth.
"Soon, I promise." Ellen said placing a calming hand on Deanas shoulder. "You just need to dilate a little bit more. I know you want to get this baby out so you can meet it but you just wait a little longer."
Deana tipped her head side to side, tears leaking from her eyes.
"This sucks!" Her words ended in a scream as she arched up against the pain that invaded her body.
Ellen stepped back shocked as golden tendrils appeared from under the neckline of her shirt and climbed over her chest and up her neck.
"What the hell is happening Castiel?" She demanded.
"It's the Nephlim. It seems, under the duress of birth, the power is too much to contain and it seeks to disperse it. Unfortunately that means Deana is receiving completely undiluted grace."
"Isn't there anything you can do?" Ellen asked staring in horror at the receding golden light and the black marks left in its wake.
"I'm doing everything I can!" Castiel snapped back.
"What about that grace you left here the last time she was in trouble?"
"That could help." Cas agreed. "Deana? Deana where's the grace? The vials of Grace I gave you? Where are they?"
"The...the drawer." Deana said flapping a hand in the direction of her nightstand.
Ellen turned and ripped the drawer open. Nestled in a folded cloth were two glowing vials. She grabbed on and began pulling on the stopper.
"It won't open!" She exclaimed.
"It's warded so only Deana may remove the stopper. Give it to me."
He took the vial from Ellen's grasp and gently placed it in Deanas hand. She closed her hand around the cool glass.
"Deana, you have to open this."
She smiled weakly at Cas.
"You gotta let go of my other hand." She whispered with a forced smile.
Cas looked down, not even aware he had taken her free hand in his.
"Oh, right!" He said and released her.
With her hand now free she unstoppered the vial and Cas helped her raise it to her mouth.
"Drink. Breathe it in."
Deana inhaled deeply and the grace began working as soon as it entered her body. A bright glow enveloped the scorch marks on Deanas body and healed them instantly, her breathing seemed to ease and body relaxed, the tension she'd been holding dissipated.
"Ellen, pass me the other one." Cas instructed holding out his hand.
Ellen retrieved the second container from the drawer and handed it to him.
"Deana, take this one as well." He said, pressing the vial into her hand.
Deana shook her head.
"No, you." She looked up at Castiel. "You're running low. I can feel it."
"I'm fine Deana, but you're not." Cas said firmly.
"If you're not gonna use it, I'm sure as Hell not." Deana stated stubbornly.
Castiel sighed and took the bottle from Deanas fingers.
"Fine, we'll save it for later. Just in case either of us need it." The Angel countered.
"I can live with than." Deana said, blinking slowly.
"Good. Rest now, while you can."
Castiel handed the container of grace back to Ellen who returned it to the drawer. Deana was already asleep by the time they looked back to her.
…
a/n: so I'm going to let you in on a little secret. A couple of chapters ago, right around the 107,000 word mark, I decided I hated this story. It wasn't coming out like I had hoped, but I had started posting and I really dislike unfinished fics. Luckily a couple of the end chapters had already been written so I stepped away for a week or two and read some stuff and wrote some other stuff and with the encouragement of a few others I came back renewed and finished this and I'm really glad I did, because after reading it through, I'm pretty happy with the final product. Hope you are too. We're almost at the end, only a couple of chapters left!
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