Thunder and lightning split the sky outside the window, painted with an angel sigil, of Rufus's cabin. Jamie shudders a little, casting a sideways glance to the window and then down to her son as she finishes tucking him into bed. "Mama?" Mark asked softly, his wide blue eyes staring up at her intensely. "What?" Jamie smiles at her overly observant three year old, and lays a kiss on his brow.

"Nothing, baby. Go to sleep." She tells him, running her fingers over the mat of dark hair on his head.

"Want Daddy." He whines. It's a common complaint. One that's grown stronger in the last few months, when Dean's weekly visits have grown shorter. Jamie knows her brothers are busy with the trials, trying to close the gates of hell for all eternity. But Mark doesn't know that. He knows his daddy is away, fighting to keep him, his mommy, and his unborn baby sister safe, but he doesn't understand why. He wants his father more than anything else. Chuckling softly, Jamie takes her cellphone out of the pocket of her sweats and dials a number.

"Jamie?" Dean's voice crackles on the other end.

"Hey Dean. Your son wants to talk to you." She tells him. She holds the phone out to their boy, who takes it gleefully and puts it to his ear.

"Hey Mark. How are you, buddy?" Dean's voice is soft and low and Jamie smiles sadly. There is not a day that goes by that she doesn't wish for things to be different. AJ's ring grows heavy in these moments, though she's not entirely sure he wouldn't have also been an absent father. They would have lived a hunter's life, even if Mark had been born his son, and probably even moreso. Sometimes she curses Cas for being what he is, and herself for being with him, but she never goes so far as to regret it. Without their relationship, short and complicated as it was, Mark would have never been born, and she thanks fate every day for her strong boy. She thanks fate for her brother, who claims her son as his own and tries to be the father he deserves, but cannot have.

"Miss you, Daddy." Mark babbles into the phone. "Come here."

Dean laughs quietly on the other end. "I'll try to come see you and Mommy soon, okay?"

"To-mar-oh?" He asks. Jamie's heart falls at the boy's request, and she senses Dean's does the same. She knows he hates being away from Mark. She doesn't believe in a normal life, but hopefully, maybe, when Emmy is born and these trials are done they will all be together.

"Maybe." Dean says cautiously. He hates giving Mark false hope, but it's the best he can do. "I love you, Mark."

"Love you, Daddy." Mark says back.

"Good night, son." Jamie smiles, planting another kiss on her son's head as she takes the phone back. Mark snuggles against his teddy bear and closes his eyes. Jamie puts the phone back to her ear, holding it there as she quickly checks the devil's trap and anti-possession charms. "Hey Jamie." Dean says. "How are you doing?"

"Your daughter is going to kick her way out of me." She tells him as she backs out of the room and closes the door. "Do you know the second trial?"

"Kevin's working on it. You know, I'm really not that far from you guys. If I leave now, I'll make it in time for breakfast."

"Dean…don't make promises you can't keep. You sound exhausted, and if you drive all night, you're just gonna get here and pass out."

"I've gotta try, Jamie. That boy is growing up without his father, and I can't take it much longer."

"Close the gates of hell and you won't have to. We can be a family again."

"I hope you're right."

"Sam will be fine."

"I'm not betting against you. Alright, I promise I will find a way to come see you guys soon. Call me if you go into labor."

"Yeah. Bye Dean. I love you."

"You too." The line went dead and Jamie sighed, walking back into the bedroom.

She's awakened early the next morning by her daughter's impatient movements. She shifts uncomfortably in the bed as she rises up, stopping suddenly when a twisting pain in her stomach hit. The pain is oddly familiar and she sighs deeply, dropping back down unto the bed. She isn't ready for her daughter to be born. Even as she counts the weeks in her head and realizes it's close to time she can't stop the swell of dread that welds up in her being.

"Mommy?" The contractions come and go over over the next few hours, and she doesn't have the strength to get out of bed. Mark walks over to his mother, momentarily worried to see her still in bed.

"Hey buddy." Jamie says softly, opening her eyes to look at her boy. She hasn't called Dean yet. But the contractions come on too fast and too close together. Something isn't right, and she can feel it. Mark climbs into the bed beside her, curling himself up around his mother. He can sense it too, and that worries Jamie even more. After a moment she hits Dean's number and waits for him to pick up. Instead the voicemail answers. Jamie curses to herself. "Dean…um…you should probably get up here. I um…just…just come as soon as you can." She hangs up and sighs, looking down at her son, who stares up at her with tearful blue eyes. She does her best to calm him, even as the pain becomes more intense.

She wants Bobby. She wants him, or her father. Someone who has some idea of what to do. It's been hours and Dean has not called back. Neither he nor Sam have answered their phones. She tried getting up, tried moving around, tried relaxing. Nothing works and the pain grows steadily more unbearable. Out of options she dials the only other number she has left. "Garth?" She winces. "Hey."

"Jamie, hey!" Garth says excitedly on the other end. "How are you?"

"Garth um…I could really use your help." She tells him.

"Sure, what's wrong?"

"Um…I'm in labor and…I think I'm dying." She says as calmly as she can. Garth drops the phone and Jamie curses. "Don't pass out on me, Garth. Just get your ass up here!" She hangs up quickly, dropping to her knees as the pain comes again. When she looks up she sees Mark hovering in the corner, tears in his eyes.

Garth doesn't delay. Within the span of an hour he's knocking on the door, and looks relived when she answers. "Oh good, you weren't serious about the dying part."

"Oh, I'm serious about the dying part." She tells him, closing the door behind him. He's holding a bag and several large books. "Should I ask?"

"Oh, this is everything I have on field medicine and pregnancy." He tells her. "So, uh…bedroom?"

Jamie stares at for full minute and then backs up. "Woah…uh…yeah, not how this going to work. I may be dying, but you are not," She makes a gesture with her hands. "No. You're gonna find Dean for me."

"Oh." Garth said, a little disappointed.

"Now!"

Jamie groaned in pain, curling up in a fetal position on her bed. Garth had finally insisted that she at least lay down for awhile. Her water still hadn't broken, but the contractions remained close together and ever-painful. Now a fever had taken root, causing the hunter to slip slowly into delirium. She called out mostly for John and Mary and Dean. Occasionally she begged for Sam and Bobby. Twice she called on AJ, sobbing for her long dead lover. Then there was one name she began to call for. Michael.

Garth was marginally surprised that she called out to Michael to deliver her from the pain. He never expected her to pray to the archangel, knowing full well the history between him and the Winchesters. But he had never heard the full story between Jamie and Michael, their history, how Michael had protected her for years. Somewhere in her fevered babble, Garth realized Jamie didn't share the same view of Michael that Dean and Sam held. She still clung to the belief that there was good in Michael. She loved him, she idolized him, she believed in him. It was Lucifer who tormented and tortured Sam and Adam in hell, not Michael. Michael was the one who saved them in the end. He distracted Lucifer long enough for Castiel to raise Sam from perdition, and Adam. He had attached Adam's soul to Cas, and that soul had become Mark's. Her baby was Michael's final act as her protector.

Despite the pain and the delusions, she never once cried out for Castiel. Not once did his name pass her lips. Garth wasn't sure what to think about that. He did what he could to try and bring her fever down, but it refused to break. He stared at the phone, willing it to ring, willing for Dean to be on his way. Finally, there was a rough knock on the door. Garth pulled it open to reveal both brothers, looking worn and haggard. Dean shoved right past him, heading into Jamie's room. Sam hung back, questioning the location of his nephew.

"Jamie?" Dean entered the room and got down on his knees beside her. "Hey. I'm here. Open your eyes." He laid a cool hand on her forehead and cringed at the warmth. "God you're burning up. Sam! Get in here." He called.

Sam handed his crying nephew to Garth and entered the room, slamming the door shut behind him. "God, she looks terrible." He said, frowning deeply.

"Yeah, we gotta get the kid out of her." He rolled his sister unto her back and felt her stomach.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"Dad showed me some stuff, when Jamie was having Mark." He said to his brother, taking off his jacket and stripping down to his t-shirt. He pulled off the light blanket.

Sam stared at the wall. "Dad? What?"

"Long story. You were unconscious." He replaced the light blanket over his sister. "Well she's uh what do they call it?"

"Dilating?" Sam offered.

Dean made a face. "Yeah. She's doing that, at least. And the baby isn't breach. I don't know what's going on."

"You wanna jump to the worst conclusion?" Sam asked softly.

"Demon doin it to her? Nah, I don't think it's that."

Jamie cried out just then, opening her eyes briefly before squeezing them closed in pain. "It's GBS." She said hoarsely. Dean and Sam quickly moved to her side. Dean held her shoulders while Sam sat at her side. "It's just a stupid human infection."

"I gotcha, Jamie. Are you alright now?" Dean's eyes were full of worry.

"It's psychic mojo." She told him, her eyes still closed. "I'm pushing it."

"What do you need us to do?" Sam asked, grabbing her hands. He looked at Dean, frowning deeply.

"Get your hands on penicillin, hook up an IV. Should break the fever. Uh…" She passed out in Dean's arms. Dean's worried eyes darted from his sister to his brother. Sam nodded, bolting for the door.

Dean held Jamie against him, stroking her strawberry blonde hair back from her face as he waited on Sam's return. He's been calling for Cas, but the angel won't answer him. He isn't afraid of much, not anymore, not after everything. He's seen things no one should have to see, done things no one should have to do, been where no one should have to go. But he's still afraid of losing his brother and sister. He tries not to think about the consequences if Jamie dies. It means raising Mark and Emmy alone, raising them in the same life Dean always had, because he knows he'll always be an absent father, he doesn't have a choice. "God Bobby, I wish you were here right now." He whispers. Bobby would know what to do. Bobby always knew what to do.

"Dean?" He closes his eyes in silent thanks when he hears Sam's voice. "Hey." He pops his head into the room, a discrete paper bag in his hand. "I got it. She any better?"

"No." He answers stoically, easy out of the way so Sam can work. He watches with interest as his brother sets the IV up in record time, and heaves a small sigh when the clear fluid hits his sister's blood stream. "How long do you think it will take?"

"I don't know, an hour maybe." Sam guesses. He looks gravely at Dean. "What do you think? I mean, we should probably be realistic, right?"

"She aint gonna die, Sam. She's too damn stubborn. Besides, I highly doubt Heaven wants her, and Hell is afraid of her. She'll be fine." He's lying and Sam knows it, but he accepts Dean's misplaced optimism.

They wait. They pace. They wait. Mark cries uncontrollably and Dean leaves the spot he's picked to keep vigil for a few long moments to calm his son. Sam is always impressed when he watches Dean with his nephew. Like Dean and Jamie he no longer sees the half-angel as Castiel's son. Too many nights he's watched Dean drink himself close to tears after talking to Jamie and discovering yet another milestone that he's missed. It makes perfect sense to him that it was Dean who stepped in without a second thought. From the moment Jamie found out she was pregnant Dean had declared himself Mark's father. It had been odd, even bordering on wrong to him at first that his brother would call his sister's son his own, but he understood now. Dean had raised him and his twin in the absent shadow of their own father. Fatherhood was a second nature to him, though he'd never admit it. And he and Jamie shared a bond Sam would not ever be able to understand. They were almost too much alike, as though they should have been the twins, both fiercely loyal, protective, and an innate, firm sense of right and wrong. And Jamie, like Dean, accepts the life for what it is, and for that reason Dean is the most suitable father for her son. Because though he, like Sam, does not want to raise a child in the life, he can accept its necessity. And for Jamie the life is a necessity she cannot escape, not with psychic powers and a half angel son, not until the gates of hell are closed forever.

And then there was Cas. He's convinced the only people who don't know that Dean loves Cas is Dean and Cas. When Cas couldn't have Dean he settled on Jamie because Jamie was the female version of Dean in almost every way, her eyes were just a different color. And when Dean couldn't have Cas he chose to raise Cas's son instead. Mark is closest damn thing either of them will ever get to having a child of their own, that's a part of both of them, and he's pretty damn close. He has Castiel's eyes and Dean's features. He's built like Dean, but he vocalizes like Cas. With Cas's powers and Dean's hunter abilities, Mark was the almost perfect blend of them both.

"Dean!" Sam calls out into the hallway. Dean rushes into the room after his son is soundly asleep in his crib. He expects the worst, but instead finds his sister sitting on the bed, clutching Sam's arms in a death grip. Her teeth clenched, her blonde bangs sticking to her face and a puddle of fluid on the floor under her. The contraction relents and Sam helps his sister lay back down on the mess of pillows he's hastily assembled. "She wants to push." Sam tells him. "Her water finally broke and so did the fever."

Dean goes to her side and pulls the blanket back. Sam reaches for her again, holding her arms as he blocks her view of Dean. She closes her eyes, clenching up, until Dean throws the blanket back over her lap. Both she and Sam look at Dean worriedly. "You're ready to push." He confirms. "I'll be right back." He gets up and goes to the door. "Garth, she's ready to push."

"Is she alright?" Garth asks, handing Dean the bag he brought and a blanket.

"Yeah, the antibiotic is working, her temp is back down to normal." He slams the door in Garth's face and returns to Jamie's bedside. "How do you want to do this?"

"Just…just hold me for a second." She reaches out to her big brother and he takes her into his arms for a moment. A second later she starts sobbing. Dean runs a hand through her hair and rubs her back.

"Shh…you're alright. You're gonna be fine. Emmy is going to be fine." He tells her. Sam has fear in his eyes and Dean sends him a reassuring smile. "Okay, Jamie?" She nods, pulling back from him and leans against the pillows. "Sam, hold her." He nods, moving unto the bed beside her and taking her into his arms.

Another contraction hits and she cries out, reaching to grabs fistfuls of Sam's shirt. Dean holds her knees, counting to himself rather then outloud. When the contraction ends Jamie collapses into Sam, breathing heavily. Dean rubs her legs, comfortingly. She yells out a slew of curses and begins to push again. Sam grabs unto her shoulders, giving her more resistance, while Dean pushes his shoulders against her knees. After a few minutes Dean looks up and smiles. "She's a ginger." He tells her, when she falls against Sam again. Jamie laughs through tears at that and Sam smiles. The next push has Dean helping his daughter's head out. Jamie screams about being ripped apart, but Dean assures her that their daughter just as a Sam-sized head. A minute later Dean is cleaning out the baby's nose and mouth while Jamie forces out the rest of her daughter's body and falls into Sam's waiting arms, crying.

Dean grins as the baby girl lets out a resounding whelp and opens green eyes at her father. "I've got her, Dean." Sam says softly, taking the baby while Dean gets rid of the afterbirth and throws a clean sheet over his sister. Sam cleans her off and wraps her in a soft pink blanket. "Jamie." He says softly. Jamie opens exhausted eyes and looks at her twin. Dean moves unto the bed beside her and Sam puts their daughter into Jamie's arms. "She has Dean's eyes but she looks like you." Sam tells her with a kiss.

"Mary Emilia Winchester." Jamie says, kissing her daughter's forehead as she smoothes back auburn colored hair. "Welcome to the world." Her infant daughter opens her eyes again, instantly soothed by her mother's voice. "This is your daddy." She lays her head against Dean's shoulder. Dean smiles, brushing his fingers over his daughter's cheek.

"Hi Emmy." He says softly, leaning in to kiss her. "I'm glad you're here."

"Should I get Mark?" Sam asks. Jamie nods, smiling broadly at her twin. Sam returns with the tired boy a moment later. "Mark, your mommy and daddy have someone who wants to meet you." Sam tells him.

"Emmy?" Mark asks as Sam carries him over to the bed.

"Yeah, this is your sister, Emmy." Jamie tells him.

"Emmy, this is your brother, Mark." Dean tells the baby, who flashes her eyes to Mark's face. Mark in turn giggles in excitement.

"Mama okay?" Mark asks, tearing his eyes away from the baby to his mother.

"Your Mom is just fine, son." Dean brushes back Mark's hair with a smile.

"I'll be alright, son." She says, kissing his forehead. Mark reaches out and touches her face. Instantly the residual pain and exhaustion leaves her body, along with the blood coating the bed underneath the sheet. "Mark." She says, blinking as she realizes he healed her. "Thank you." She kisses him again and he smiles, cuddling his face against Sam's chest as he gently touches his baby sister's hand.

Dean leans in closer to Jamie, fishing something out of his pocket. "I found this, a long time ago, back in Dad's lockup." He puts it into her hand and she gasps quietly. Sam smiles, hugging Mark as he looks at Dean.

"Oh my god." She leans her head against Dean's shoulder, tears already coming. "I thought this was lost forever." She sobs through the tears. In her hand is a silver locket with a pentagram engraved on it.

"Yeah, I guess Dad found it. I'm just sorry he didn't get a chance to give it to you." He kissed her head. Jamie turned the locket over to reveal the words.

"Semper et in Saecula." Sam mutters, looking at his siblings.

"Usquequo te amabo et salvabo pro. How long I will love you for." Jamie's eyes flash to Sam and Dean and then to her children.

While she looks down at their newborn daughter, Dean looks up at their son. "Always and forever." They say together.

Jamie looks at Dean and then at their daughter. "That was the last thing your grandpa ever said to me, baby girl, and your daddy and I mean it too." She leans forever and kisses her, before reaching to her son. "Come here, son." Sam brings him in closer and she holds him tightly. Dean reaches across to hold all three of them. Sam wipes tears out of his eyes, reaching over and holding Dean's hand. The brothers stare at each other for a moment. For this moment there is peace for the Winchesters. They are together. They have a family, they have love, and nothing can rob them of their happiness. For this moment.