Author's Note: Here's the 3rd installment and I think its nearing the end. I don't know how much time and effort I can but into this but we'll see. Also please, please review! I see all these story alerts so I know it can't be that bad but please review! I really enjoy knowing what you like, what you want to see or if you hate it then tell me. So please review. Enjoy!
Baby Steps
3:55 AM
Dean had seen the interaction of mother and son before. From his earliest memory of baby Sam and his mom to the countless families he had saved over the years. But never did he imagine he would be witness to his own.
He had a rough picture in his head of what his son looked like but to see him in the flesh was positively mind blowing. His eyes darted to Rachel's form holding Danny, his son, tightly in her arms. Rocking slowly back and forth trying to sooth her scared and tried son. Her palm moved in the small circles on his back, his tiny hands grasped around her neck.
"There aren't any monsters under your bed, Danny," she whispered, eyes briefly connecting with Deans.
"Really, Mommy?" His eyes still sleepily half closed. His tiny fists rubbing back and forth across his eyes trying to will his small body to stay awake.
"Yeah, really Danny. And you want to know why." Rachel's voice was strained and about to break. She had imagined this moment never happening that her son would only know his father through pictures and never in person. She cleared her head and finished her answer with her little boy looking up at her curiously. "Daddy's home sweetie, for good."
The little boy swiveled his head around to look at the man he had ignored when he ran straight for his mother. "Daddy?" He turned his head back to his mother and pointed to Dean behind him. Rachel could only nod her head. She walked over to Dean who stood on the other side of the island table. If it wasn't for holding Danny she would be shaking and collapsing on the floor in tears. But here she was holding onto Danny, her eyes locked with his green ones. Danny immediately fell into his father's arms, something Dean was least prepared fore.
Almost instantly Danny was sound asleep in Dean's arms. All the little boy's fear of things hiding in his closet and under his bed went away with his Dad finally there, home for good. It was an unusual feeling for Dean, to have this little boy resting in his arms. Sure he had lugged his fair share of heavy things around (unconscious bodies, weaponry and the like) but the weight of his sons' body was more than he could bear emotionally. He gulped down a large breath and looked back up a Rachel who stood in front of him glowing with pride. She nodded her head towards the maple staircase and Dean silently followed
Their shoes tapped the old weakened staircase and it creaked and groaned in resistance as they climbed the curvy gateway to the second floor. Dean saw a small light shinning from a room down the hall. Small words and decorations covered the door, definitely his sons' room. He moved toward the hall way but Rachel's hand rested firmly on his bicep. She nodded to the door directly in front of her. Her room. The last time he had been in this room was when he was busy creating the small boy in his arms.
The wall was still that pasty yellow color that reminded him of hospitals, but the smell was all her own. Lavender, rosemary and a strong mint sent flew at him as he walked over the threshold. Her bed was unmade, the sheets matching the walls and her light green comforter tangled up in her sheets like a weed. Getting the hint Dean laid Danny gently in the bed. After setting his sleeping son down on the bed, he shed his winter jacket revealing a worn thermal long sleeved shirt.
He was the first to speak.
"He's perfect Rachel." She looked up and smiled, shedding her jacket also.
"I know, since the moment he was born he was perfect."
He swallowed hard, "About that. . ."
"You've never needed an excuse Dean. We were dealt the same hand, I understand." Her voice turned serious and hard. Even with all the windows closed and the low hum of the heater he could swear on his life a cold wind just blew through the room.
His brow was furrowed; he'd almost forget how easily she made him angry. "You shouldn't have to understand, Rae. Never should anyone have to understand what I do to you. You called me and asked me to come back and see him, but no. No," he said firmly, "I had to stay out there and fight and watch innocent people die." By now his voice had risen considerably but Danny remained breathing soundly, still enraptured by sleep. "You needed me and I didn't come to your rescue."
"I don't need a knight Dean. You know that."
"He needed me, you needed me and I ignored it all."
"I wasn't expecting you to come rushing back to me Dean. Sam died, your father had been gone, it was the last thing you needed was to see another person in pain that you were close to."
He paused, "I love you Rachel. I loved you then and I loved you now. I should have been there no questions asked. It's not fair that you had to go through this by yourself."
She stayed silent this time. Instead she walked over to him and took his hands which had been restlessly thrown at his sides after his emotional speech. "You never need to blame yourself for missing Danny's birth or the start of his life. I've told him ever since he was young that his daddy had to make sure the world was safe before he could come home to play with him. He understood Dean and he waited for you, just like I waited for you. And now you're here."
"And now I'm here to stay Rachel. I swear this time. The demon," He sighed, the words caught in his throat along with his breath but he continued his eyes hardening with mention of the demon, "The demon doesn't want me. I don't know why but it doesn't want me, or you, or Danny even." He looked away from her.
"It won't get us Dean. I'm sure it wants too but he knows the rules, once he says he doesn't want something he can't have it."
He sighed again tightening his hold on her hands. "I know." He gazed down at the floor and then back at her trying to force a weak smile. She yawned quietly and let her body fall towards his arm wrapping around his torso. He then in turn wrapped his arms behind her shoulder blades pulling her deeper into his chest, her head buried in his shoulder. "I just don't want to end up like my father. So in love with a woman and then have her just disappear, not getting the chance to experience what life could be with her."
She raised her head from his shoulder and looked at him. He had never been like this before. When she first met him he had shunned away from any emotion, showing his true feelings only in moments of true desperation. To see him so open was heart melting. "You won't ever lose Danny or I. Don't think for one moment we won't fight back against whatever it is in this world that tries to rip us apart Dean. And when I say no one, I mean no one Dean." She raised her arms from his torso to around his neck. "Danny can more than take care of himself now and so can I."
Deans' eyes quickly met Rachel's. "Wh-wh-what?" He stuttered.
"He's been exhibiting powers recently." She was so calm about this while Dean could barely wrap his mind around it. His son exhibiting powers?
"What kind of powers?" He swallowed the gulp of air that had been caught in his throat and continued, "Like yours?"
"Yeah. He's only beginning to come into his own with them. A little telekinesis at first, some telepathy but nothing to major right now. It's the telekinesis I'm having a problem with." She laughed slightly bowing her head down towards his chest.
"We'll we can deal with it as it grows. Together." He had never expected their child to have supernatural powers. But then again Rachel was a blood born witch with powers and the Winchester line wasn't unknown to have powers themselves but it never even crossed his mind that Danny, or any child he produced would have powers of any kind.
Rachel smiled shyly at him and motioned her head to sleeping Danny in the middle of her bed.
"I know there are things we still need to talk about but I'm exhausted and I just don't know how much of this I can take without waking him. Tomorrow we'll talk, okay?"
Dean nodded his head and his eyes glanced over to his sleeping sons form wrapped in the light green comforter. Rachel moved her arms from Dean's neck to down by her body and started to walk towards the other side. Dean stood still in the floor, for the first time unsure if he should join her or go down the hall to the guest room.
She looked up at him as she climbed in, jeans and all, and motioned to the space on the other side of Danny. He let out the breath he hadn't known he had been holding and climbed into bed. Finally, he thought, I'm home.
