Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or Happy whatever-you-celebrate. I hope you do it knowing how much you are loved.
Special thanks to Jenmm31. Everyone send her all the good Christmas vibes you can- she deserves them all.
A/N- in this story, Natalie is twenty months old. Please see profile page for disclaimers.
It had been a long night already, and it was only ten thirty. Dean rubbed his scratchy eyes. It wasn't so much that he was tired himself- it was the battle they'd been in for going on two hours now. It was just plain exhausting. Plan A hadn't worked. And when one strategy failed, they'd try the next, only to have it fail too. They were on Plan R or thereabouts at this point, and continuing to work their way through the alphabet as plan after plan was shot down. Dean didn't know how much more of this he could take.
The kid was STILL freakin' wide-awake.
Natalie was not having bedtime right now. Just not having it. As far as she was concerned it wasn't gonna happen any time in this millennia. And she had one simple, foolproof strategy. Any time Sam or Dean laid her down, she started screaming at the top of her lungs. Seeing as they were in a hotel room with very thin walls, this was not going to fly. And her nearly two-year-old smarty-pants self knew it. She had been bathed, cuddled, fed, given two bottles of warm milk, read every book they had that was age appropriate, and even been reluctantly sung to three times. Both Sam and Dean had walked miles around the room, bouncing, patting, shushing. She would tilt her head to the side, smile sleepily, and let her eyelids droop to the point of them shutting. But the split second they bought it (like suckers) and laid her back down on the sofa, her eyes flew open. She would hurtle herself off the couch shrieking as loud as she could. Once she was upright, she'd immediately stop, put her fingers in her mouth, and giggle in that sweet, impish way that she had.
It was cute at first. On the thirty-seventh time, not so much.
Dean was attempting to hold the squirming, struggling toddler on his lap instead of letting her tear around the room again. "Why don't you just let her loose?" Sam asked, dropping down on the couch next to his brother, looking like he himself had gone a few rounds with a werewolf. "Maybe she'll run some of the energy out."
"Dude, every time she does that, she comes back more amped up than before," Dean said grouchily as Natalie suddenly threw her arms over her head and stiffened, trying to literally slide out of Dean's constricting arms. But he was way too fast for her. "Oh, no you don't," he growled, his arm scooping quickly under her knees and pulling her back in to his chest. Natalie squalled her displeasure, putting her hands on his chest and pushing away.
"Down!" she commanded, pushing and wriggling as hard as she could.
"Natalie, I have told you a thousand times, you're not gettin' down. Now knock it off."
"Nooooooooo!"
"Quit yellin', you're gonna get us thrown out of here." Dean put his finger against her lips, catching and holding her eye contact deliberately. "Shhhhhhh," he said. It was something new Sam had been trying with her with varying results. Sometimes she shushed, sometimes she licked them. Now, her little face pinched into a pout, but she shushed. Dean tried to seize the small foothold he had there.
"Listen, kid, you gotta sleep," he said, holding her firmly and looking her right in the eye.
"No!" she shouted back.
"What have I told you about saying that? You don't get to say that when I tell you to do something."
"Mmmmmmm."
"That's what I thought. Now, look. It's way past your bedtime and-" She suddenly flipped herself around, twisting her torso at such an awkward angle that Cirque du Soleil would have hired her on the spot, and tried to break free from her father's arms. Almost too late to catch her again, Dean managed to keep the wriggling toddler on his lap, his eyes watering in immense pain when she simultaneously backhanded him in the nose and kicked him in the jewels.
Sam saw his brother take the hit and quickly reached over, trying to pluck the writhing child from Dean before she could do any more damage. She continued to flail and whine at the top of her little lungs as Sam desperately plunged his hands into the melee, trying to get a solid grip on her while Dean did his best to keep from doubling over and tried to remember how to breath again. Damn, she had a good kick for being only twenty months old.
Sam finally managed to haul her out of Dean's arms, his own arms absurdly curling Natalie to his chest as she wildly flung her limbs around, hollering her displeasure. Over the squalor, Sam called out. "You okay?" He looked at his brother in concern. Dean was still bent over on the couch, one hand gripping his knee while he stared at the floor. He managed to give Sam a thumbs up, but he didn't think he could talk just yet. Knowing all too well the agony Dean was going through, Sam didn't say anything and just tightened his grip on Natalie.
"Natalie!" he said in a loud voice. He was worried about the amount of noise that they were making, but also knew that she wasn't going to hear him over herself if he didn't speak up. "Calm down!"
"Yeah, like that's really gonna work," Dean managed to wheeze. Sam shot him a bitch face.
"I just need to get her attention," he explained hotly, before focusing back on the child. "Natalie, c'mon. Hey, Natalie!" The squirming child granted him the grace of looking him in the face for two seconds, before putting her hands on his chest and pushing away from him this time. Sam flipped her upright in his arms and held on tight, despite her pushing against him with everything she had.
"You wanna read another book?" Sam said in a voice that he was praying came out more 'fun-loving' than 'begging'. Natalie continued to thrash and whine, her volume slowing starting to crank back up as Sam kept her pressed to his chest. "Okay, no book…maybe…I don't know…"
"Try cartoons," Dean said, trying not to wheeze through the words. He was slowly regaining feeling beyond the incredible pain in his junk. "They used to knock you out when you were a kid."
Sam shook his head despondently. "I don't think that'll work," he said. "There's been a ton of studies that say that the 'blue' light from the TV actually stimulates the senses, making it harder to sleep." He trailed off towards the end at the look on his brother's face. "What?" he said defensively. "Just because I read and know things…."
"The nerd strikes again," Dean grumbled. "All I know is I used to put on Scooby Doo and you'd pass the hell out."
"You really wanna take a chance on getting her even MORE wound up?"
"Fine. You come up with something then."
"What do you think I've been trying to do?!" Shooting a final bitch face at Dean, Sam turned on his heel, shifting Natalie to his other side and resting her on his hip. He absentmindedly began bouncing her gently. She put her fingers in her mouth and laid her head down on his shoulder, cooing happily.
Dean watched her carefully for any signs that she might actually be falling asleep this time, but her eyes were only closing to blink. He rubbed his eyes again, thinking. What could they do? Were they simply destined to spend another night wide-awake while the kid ran amok? Dean was halfway tempted to call Cas to come put her to sleep, but he pushed that thought aside almost immediately. He did NOT want to resort to that unless we were talking a serious emergency. Seeing Cas would only wind the little monster up even more.
Finally, after about five minutes of Sam walking the she-devil around the room and her still showing no signs of sleep, Dean slapped his thighs and stood up. "Alright. It's a long shot, but I've got an idea," he announced. Sam watched with wide, curious eyes as Dean walked over to his bed and started pulling his boots back on.
"What are you doing?" Sam asked. Dean looked up as he tied his laces. But before he could answer, Natalie let out a little barking cry, then another, then an almighty wail. Both boys' eyes shifted to her, wondering what she was suddenly so upset about. She stretched her arms out to Dean imploringly. He finished off his laces as quickly as he could.
"Hey, baby girl, it's okay," he said, hurriedly yanking the knots in place and standing up so he could take Natalie out of Sam's arms. "Shh, you're okay, squirt." Natalie obviously didn't believe him, as she continued to huff and cry, grabbing fistfuls of Dean's flannel shirt as she whimpered.
"What's the matter with her?" Sam wondered aloud, worried that he missed something.
"I think she thinks that I'm leaving," Dean answered, looking at Natalie's face. "I think she's made the connection that once the boots go on, I'm usually out the door." He turned back to the fussing child in his arms. "Calm down, Shorty. You're coming with me this time, okay? I'm not going anywhere without you." Not understanding, Natalie continued to cry and cling to Dean like she expected him to be ripped out of her arms at any moment. Dean sighed heavily and pulled her in close, patting her back and bouncing her at the same time. "You coming?" he asked Sam as he continued to soothe the baby.
Sam's brows knit in confusion. "Where are we going?" he asked, completely thrown by whatever Dean's new strategy was.
"She usually drops off in the car around…what…midnight? Eleven thirty?" Dean asked, his eyes seeking the bedside clock. "That's not that far off. I thought maybe if we get her in the car, drive around a little, she might drop off." He fully expected Sam to fight him, or come up with some other nerdy reason that it wouldn't work, but to his surprise, Sam shrugged.
"Not a bad idea. I'm willing to try anything at this point," Sam mumbled over Natalie's renewed cries. Natalie rubbed her arm across her face, hating, as always, the feeling of tears on her cheeks. She watching with hitching breathes as Sam pulled on his boots too. She let out a wail of agony, convinced that this meant that Daddy and Sam were leaving. She redoubled her grip on Dean's shirt and buried her sobbing face into his neck.
"Hey, hey, hey, you're okay, you're coming too, Natalie," Dean whispered, his hand gently stroking her soft, baby hair. She put her fingers in her mouth, sucking and biting on them as Dean's touch calmed her down. Dean kept stroking and shushing while Sam laced up his shoes, and eventually the wracking sobs died down and stopped. "Better get going while the getting's good," Dean warned Sam, albeit in a quiet tone. Sam nodded and thrust his arms into the sleeves of his jacket. It was chilly outside. He looked with concern at the baby.
"Should we try to put her coat on her?" Sam asked. Dean shook his head, knowing that if he tried to break her grip on him right now, all hell would break loose.
"Just grab a couple baby blankets- we're only going in the car. I'll crank up the heater. We'll cover her up- she'll be fine," Dean said, continuing to speak in a soothing tone as he rubbed circles on his baby's back.
As Dean made his way towards the front door patting her gently and holding her, Natalie realized she wasn't being left behind. She exhaled heavily, relieved, and sat up in Dean's arms. She looking inquisitively into Dean's face, then looked back at the room, holding her one hand up and opening and closing her fist. Dean grinned.
"That's right, squirt, say goodbye to the room," he teased, knowing that the gesture from Natalie meant that she understood they were leaving. "We'll be back soon, but if this goes the way I'm hoping, you'll be so far under you won't even notice," he said, rubbing his nose on her cheek. She giggled in response and released the death grip she had on Dean's shirt. She loved car rides, and this got her out of bedtime, too! Score!
Dean quickly buckled her into her seat as she began her baby babble. It was so funny when she did this, no matter how tired he was. She clearly had picked up that people talked in long sentences rather than the couple words that she had mastered, and so she would imitate that but not make any sense at all. He loved answering her back like what she was saying made total sense. Tucking a blanket around her legs, she babbled to him.
"Ahhh zzmm obbbrh," she said.
"Yup, that's right," Dean responded, making sure the blanket was snug so she wouldn't get cold.
"Brrrrchem da bubba sssh ba da opieee."
"You tell 'em, Nat."
"Wwssss a bchae da rep rep rep!"
"I never thought of it that way, but you make a good point."
"Yeah."
Dean snorted a laugh at the self-satisfied look on Natalie's face. It was obvious that she thought Dean had completely understood her and she had made quite the eloquent case. He carefully shut the door and hurried around to his side, anxious to start up the heater and make sure she was okay. "Geez, you'd think it'd be warmer, this far south," Dean muttered as he cranked up Baby's engine.
Sam shrugged back. "Hey, even Georgia gets snow sometimes this time of year," he commented.
"How many days until Christmas?" Dean asked, looking behind him as he pulled out of the parking spot. "I've lost track."
"Uh…" Sam responded, pulling his phone out of his jacket pocket. "Wow. It's exactly one week away. Didn't realize it was coming up so fast," Sam said, low in his voice as he tucked the phone away. Dean shook his head as he pulled onto the empty street.
"Should we…I dunno…should we celebrate it or something?" Dean asked baldly. "I mean, the kid… she don't really know what's going on but shouldn't we still…I don't know…"
Sam tried to hide the smile on his face. Last year, their first Christmas with Natalie had been in a motel room, albeit with a night to remember. It was also only a couple years ago that Dean wanted to celebrate Christmas since it was going to be their last Christmas together, or so they both thought. My, how the times had changed. And maybe for once, for the better. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think that'd be cool to do that."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Just don't get all Scrooge on me if we decide to do this, alright?"
"I won't get 'all Scrooge' on you. Besides, I think it's a good idea to celebrate things that a normal family would, you know? Help Natalie get a sense of some stability."
Dean rolled his eyes at that, but didn't comment. He looked in the rearview mirror. "How's it going back there, Squirt?" he asked his still wide-awake kid. In response, Natalie pointed out the window and babbled some more nonsense. "Good. Glad to hear it," Dean said back, turning into a suburb. Maybe the slow pace of the car on a quiet street would do the trick. However, Natalie just kept babbling. Dean shook his head, smiling. At least it was entertaining. But suddenly, the baby talk cut off. Dean's eyebrows knit together in confusion and he was just about to look over his shoulder to make sure she was okay, when he heard it.
"Oh, WOW!"
Dean almost stomped on the brake in surprise. Sam turned to Dean, the look of incredulity mirrored on his face. "Did she just say-" Sam began, but didn't have an opportunity to finish his sentence.
"OH, WOW!" came the delighted squeal from the backseat again. Dean did brake the car this time, and both boys turned around to see what was up. Natalie was leaning out of her car seat as far as the straps would allowed, her little mouth hanging open in delight, staring at something. As both boys followed her gaze, they landed on a house decked to the nines with Christmas lights, blow up characters, and dancing lasers splashed over and draped off of every still surface.
"Did she say 'oh, wow'?" Sam asked, his surprised gaze going back to his niece's rapt face.
"Sounded like it."
"Where did she pick that up?"
"No idea. She never said that before. You ever hear her say that?"
"No, never. I wonder where she heard it."
"Oh, wow!" Natalie squealed again, interrupting their dialogue. She pointed her finger impetuously towards the house, clapping her hands together and giggling. Both boys exchanged another look. It wasn't completely out of the realm of normal for her to suddenly break out a new saying or action. She was almost two and discovering new stuff every day. What was surprising was that when they looked back at her, she let out a huge yawn. In tandem, both of the boys' eyes got wide as saucers. It was the first sign of her being legitimately tired that they had seen all night.
"Dude…" Sam whispered, hitting Dean with the back of his hand.
"Yeah, I saw," Dean said back, not daring to take his eyes off his daughter. She rubbed her hand against her eyes, but this time, Dean recognized that gesture. It also meant she was getting sleepy. Slowly turning back around, he let his foot off the brake. Baby rolled forward into the wintry night. There was another house up ahead that had lights on it. Curiously, Dean made his way towards that house to see if Natalie would do it again. Sure enough, as they got closer, they heard the delighted squeal from the backseat.
"Oh, wow!"
"I don't care who you are, that's freakin' adorable," Dean smirked at Sam, pointing over his shoulder at the baby. He stopped the car so she could see better, and looked over his shoulder again. This time, the yawn nearly split her face in two. I wonder… Dean thought to himself. He turned a corner, getting deeper into the subdivision. An entire street with houses that were clearly trying to outdo each other in Christmas decorations greeted him. "Jackpot," he muttered delightedly to himself.
They crept down the street, Natalie nearly tripping over her own tongue as she 'Oh, WOW'd everything in sight, punctuated frequently by her yawns. Finally, after about ten minutes, the boys carefully looked back. She was dead-to-the-world asleep in her car seat.
They looked at each other, a mixture of disbelief and wild hope on their faces. Suddenly, Sam's cell went off. In the quiet atmosphere with the sleeping toddler, it sounded like a foghorn blasting inside the cabin. Sam nearly jumped out of his skin and immediately began fumbling to pull the phone out of his pocket, while Dean accidentally stomped on the gas in surprise at the sound, then gave them all whiplash as he ground down on the brake. Throwing Baby into park, he fearfully looked over his shoulder. Natalie hadn't moved through any of it, still giving off a tiny, whiffling snore. Dean thanked Heaven for small favors.
Sam finally managed to extract the phone from his pocket. Sliding his finger frantically across the screen, he thrust it to his ear. "Hello?" he said in a whisper.
"Sam? Why you whispering, boy?" came a voice on the other end. Sam rolled his eyes.
"It's Bobby," he said in a low tone to Dean, who nodded and scoffed as if to say 'of course it was'. Dean carefully took Baby out of park and started making his way back to the motel. Sam focused back on the conversation. "Hey, uh, sorry Bobby," he said, still in a low voice. "Can I call you back in a little bit? We've got the kid to sleep in the car finally, and I don't-"
"Say no more," came the crusty voice on the other end of the line, before it went dead. Sam looked at the phone in surprise, then shrugged, slightly annoyed. He could have at least said goodbye.
About ten minutes later, they pulled into the motel. Sam and Dean took a deep breath in tandem. Here was the super tricky part- could they move the sleeping baby from the car seat to the sofa without waking her up? With the delicacy of a Navy Seal de-arming a bomb, Dean carefully unbuckled Natalie, lifted her up, and cradled her gently in his arms. Sam ran ahead of the way, opening the door, turning on lights, and making her little bed as it was still destroyed from her earlier machinations. With bated breath, Dean oh so gently laid her down on the couch. He took a step back. Neither of them moved. Neither did she.
The boys looked at each other as if they'd just discovered the treasure of the Sierra Madre.
After an hour, when they were sure Natalie was well and truly completely asleep, Sam returned Bobby's call.
"Good god, Sam, it's nearly one in the morning," Bobby snarled at him after the first ring.
"Hey, you called us first."
"Yeah, at a decent hour."
"You're still up."
"Waiting for your dumb ass."
"Yeah, yeah, okay, I'm sorry. We just really wanted to make sure Natalie wasn't going to start another hurricane again before calling."
"Kid not sleepin', huh?"
"It's like she's got some personal vendetta against sleep, Bobby. I don't know how much more we can take."
"So how'd you get her out this time?"
"Well, you're not gonna believe it, but we drove around for a while, and…oh, wow, this is going to sound crazy, but…we think that Christmas lights put her to sleep."
Silence.
"Look, I said it sounds crazy, and maybe it is. All I know is that it worked."
"You honestly telling me that a bunch of little twinkly lights put that no-sleep monster down?"
"Yeah, we think so. She was mesmerized by them. Kept saying 'Oh wow!' every two seconds. And before we knew it, she was sound asleep."
"Really?"
"Honest to God."
"Eh, not the strangest thing I've heard come outta your mouth, boy."
"Ha, ha. So what's up?"
"Oh. Uh, I…well I was wondering…how the case is wrapping up in Georgia."
"We're doing fine. We're getting the last ingredient for the spell tomorrow. The actual spell itself is in a book in the town museum, which, believe it or not, is guarded to the nines. No chance of a smash and grab, so we've been going in as curators. They're turning the book over to us tomorrow, and all we need is one page of it. Bam, done."
"Good, that's real good boy. So…you think you'll be heading my way after that?"
"Yeah, probably. I mean, if another case doesn't come up."
"Aw, you two need to take a break. It's Christmas. Let someone else do the saving next week."
"Bobby? You feeling okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because that doesn't sound like you at all."
"What, you sayin' you wanna keep your nose to the grindstone instead of taking a little breather?"
"No, it's just…I never thought you'd say that. That's all."
"Well, you two idjits pack up and get over here. It's Christmas, and I think….well I think it'd be nice for the kid to have a home instead of a motel room, that's all."
A slow smile crept across Sam's face. "Bobby, are you…are you asking us to come home for Christmas?"
Silence, then… "I guess I am. Don't make a big deal about it."
*SPN SPN SPN*
For the next couple days, any time bedtime rolled around, Dean and Sam loaded Natalie up into the Impala and drove around the festooned neighborhood. The baby never got tired of it, giggling, squealing and clapping at every decoration. She even picked up the word 'light' as the week went on. She'd be utterly delighted for as long as she could keep her eyes open, 'oh wow!' and 'lights!', constantly coming out of her mouth, and then instantly fall asleep, and stay that way for the whole night. There was no fussing, no fighting, no more getting 'nutcrackered'. It was heaven.
The brothers had talked about it, and decided to head over to Bobby's for Christmas, as requested. They both knew in their hearts what the old man was too tough and proud to say- he wanted to spend Christmas with them and his adopted granddaughter.
"You think he'll put up a tree?" Dean asked jokingly, as they pulled into Sioux Falls on Christmas Eve.
Sam laughed a little. "Who knows. I've never known him to get sentimental about anything- EVER- so who knows what we're walking into."
"One thing's for sure," Dean grumbled. "I'm gonna miss having that neighborhood to drive around in to put THAT one to sleep," he muttered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the hyperactive child, wide awake and strapped into her car seat. "We're gonna have to find some lights somewhere if we have any hopes of sleeping for the rest of the year, Sam."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that, too. What are we gonna do when Christmas is over, and there's no more lights to take her around to see?"
Dean held up his hand. "Not thinking about that now. I just wanna get as much sleep as I can while the getting's good. I'll deal with the Tasmanian Devil after the New Year."
Sam was just about to answer, when suddenly, Natalie piped up from the backseat. "Oh, wow!" she squealed delightedly. Sam spun around to see where she was pointing. But before he could follow the direction of her finger, Dean spoke up.
"Sammy, look," he said in a tight voice. Sam turned back around. Bobby's house was done up in colorful Christmas lights. They were lining the edge of the roof, and wrapped around the porch pillars. It wasn't nearly as neat and tidy as the ones they'd recently seen, and they were definitely from the dollar store, but it was still more than they'd ever thought they'd see at Bobby's place.
Other than Natalie's giggles and proclamations of 'oh wow' as they pulled in closer, the boys drove in total silence, completely taken aback by Bobby's holiday spirit. As they pulled up in the usual spot close to the front door, they saw the silhouette of the old man in his wheelchair, sitting on the front porch waiting for them.
As one, the brothers got out of the car, mouths agape, just staring at their surrogate father.
"What?" Bobby said defensively off their incredulous looks. "I didn't wanna be up till all hours for lack of a couple stupid strings of lights. Now get in the house before that baby freezes. Idjits." They couldn't help but hear the slight smile in Bobby's voice as he whipped his chair around and wheeled back into the living room, where every window glowed with light.
