Family Bonding
Supper was an eventful time for the Winchesters and their angels. There were candies that everyone enjoyed, but not as much as the angels. Balthazar especially loved the ones made of tamarind and powdered chili. They were spicy, something the angel wasn't used to when eating candy, but they were good. The Mazapan candies made of almond powder and sugar were Castiel's favorite and Gabe's favorites were the ones made of Cajeta, which Katie explained was a special caramel made of goat and cow milk. The others all settled with munching on skittles. Katie, Mellissa, and Sam had scolded the children and angels for snacking on the candy before their dinner, but Dean and Grandma Rosa made sure the kiddoes got their fill of candy.
As they sat around the table munching on their burgers, Raphael's family told a little bit about themselves. Rosa told them stories about her time traveling and meeting her daughter's father in the Americas and how he had decided to travel with her back to Mexico after the two married and had Mellissa. They also learned that Katie was originally from Puebla and that she was once married to a man named Joseph and together they had Tori and Danny before he passed away from cancer. When he died she said goodbye to her family and left with the kids to find herself, finding Mellissa instead. In return for Raphael's family's stories, the Winchesters and the others told a little bit about themselves. They all left out large chunks, but that was mostly for the family's own safety. There were some things people just didn't need to know.
"Sweetie, eat up! You look so skinny!" Grandma Rosa shouted, pushing another burger at the prophet of the lord. Kevin looked at the burger sickly. He'd already eaten two, but three was pushing it. Noticing Kevin's face slowly turning a funny shade of green, Dean reached out for the burger and claimed it for himself. He'd eaten the most burgers out of them all, currently munching on his fourth. Rosa grinned at him, patting him hard on the back. "Dios mío! Ahora, eso si que es un gran apetito!" Dean just grinned at her, not understanding, but taking whatever she said as something good. Sam just snorted and took a bite of the salad be had made instead. Dean stuck a tongue out at his brother and took a big bite of his burger, eyes skimming across the table to where the angels, Tori, and Danny were sitting. Castiel and Raphael were seated right next to each other, stiff and uncomfortable with being so near to each other. Katie noticed Dean watching the boys and leaned close to the hunter.
"I take it those two have a history?" she questioned, voice hushed to a whisper so the others chattering around them wouldn't hear. Dean licked his lips. History was only part of it. Raphael had killed Castiel, had fought him in the war for Heaven, and raced against him for Purgatory. The troubles between those two were never ending. It would take a miracle to get those two together.
Katie cleared her throat and Dean jumped out of his thoughts, looking to her. She smiled a little and nodded towards the two angels they had been discussing.
"I might have an idea," she whispered. Dean frowned, but Katie didn't elaborate. Instead, she turned and looked to Mellissa and Rosa. "Es un día precioso, ¿no es así?" she asked. Mellissa and Rosa glanced out the nearest window.
"Así es," Rosa stated. "Es un día perfecto para darse un baño, ¿no?" She glanced at Katie and received a wink. Rosa smirked and looked to the angels currently poking at their supper.
"Do you boys know what cenotes are?" she asked. Castiel, Balthazar and Gabriel shook their heads in confusion, but Raphael, Tori, and Danny both sat up with wide eyes.
"Can we go?! Can we go?!" the three chanted, practically jumping up and down in their chairs.
"What are cenotes?" Gabriel questioned.
"Swimming holes," Tori explained to the angel. "They're cool and fun and…Abuela, mamas, can we go?!" Mellissa and Katie laughed at their daughter and looked to Grandma Rose.
"What do you say, Mom?" Mellissa asked with a grin. Grandma Rosa bobbed her head in agreement.
"Why not," she hummed. "Our friends here can show you two what they need to before they have to catch their flight home while we're out." The angels and children looked to the Winchester's and the rest of the gang with big puppy dog eyes. Bobby smirked and looked at the Winchester brothers.
"Well? What do you say, idjits?" she asked. Dean took another bite of his burger.
"Sounds like a plan," he said with a mouth full of food. Sam finished off the last bite of salad and got up.
"Come on," he told the angels. "Let's get your swim shorts from the car."
Grandma Rosa led the children to the nearest cenote in the area. Vines clung to the sides of the rock surrounding the great pool of water and light shown from the hole above, illuminating the dark are and causing the water to sparkle. There were other tourists and residence there, but the group didn't have to worry about the angels being found out. Gabriel had used his grace to hide all of their wings, including Raphael's. Tori and Danny cheered and jumped into the water, giggling loudly as they splashed one another. Raphael waved his hands excitedly, pointing at the water in attempt to get his grandmother to go faster. She just laughed at him and carried him to the water, setting him into the water and making sure that the floaties on his arms were secure. A lifejacket would have been safer, but according to Raphael the jacket made his wings itch and he refused to let the thing touch him.
Grandma Rosa looked to Gabriel, Balthazar, and Castiel then, waving at them to jump in too, but not before warning them to take care and that the water might be cold. Not wasting a second, the three jumped into the water, giggling loudly when they swam back to the surface. Rosa hadn't been kidding about the coldness of the water. But with the heat and sun beating down around them it was a welcomed cold.
They squealed and kicked at each other through the waves of water their disturbance had created, enjoying the pleasant feel of the cool liquid on their skin. Raphael kept his distance from them even when Tori and Danny swam over to the three other angels to play Marco Polo. Instead, he swam in circles, grumbling to himself about annoying brothers and so forth. He was so lost in his own thoughts he didn't notice that he had scraped a floatie against the edge of a sharp rock before it was too late. His floaty popped and Raphael cried out when he suddenly sunk underwater. Rosa cried out in shock and the angels in the water dived. Danny tried to dive after his little brother too, but Tori held him back. Danny wasn't a strong swimmer and she didn't want to risk him drowning too. Instead, she swam back to Rosa with Danny. Her grandmother pulled her and Danny from the water, holding them tight as they watched bubbles float to the surface where the angels struggled to reach Raphael. Rosa closed her eyes, muttering softly under her breath until the sound of several bodies breaking the surface forced her eyes open again. She looked over the surface with Tori and Danny, watching as Castiel gasped and sputtered in attempt to hold Raphael's heavy body above water. Gabriel and Balthazar had both popped up from the surface too and were reaching for Cas to help him hold Raphael's head up while they struggled to land. Rosa released Tori and Danny from her chest and they all helped the angels drag Raphael back onto shore. Raphael sputtered and gagged up water the entire time and Rosa wrapped him in one of the towels she had brought along and kissed Raphael to no end.
"Raphy, are you alright? Are you hurt?" she questioned, dabbing at his face lightly with the towel. Raphael nodded, rubbing at his neck sorely while glancing at the three angels, breathing heavily by his side.
"Yous…save me…" he choked. "Why?" Gabriel and Balthazar both snorted.
"Seriously?" Balthazar asked while raising a brow at the smaller angel. "We weren't just going to let you drown." Raphael shook his head.
"Why?" he pressed.
"Well –"
"You're our brother," Castiel finished for Gabriel. Raphael's eyes fully fixed onto Castiel's blue ones, searching for the lie that might be lingering in them. He found only truth in the large blue eyes. Raphael licked his lips, nodding at the dark winged angel and the others.
"Thank you…,brothers," he whispered. Grandma Rosa let out a long sigh and kissed Raphael again on the cheek.
"That's my boy! Look at you being all brotherly."
"Brotherly?" Raphael snorted. "I a archangwel of thwe lord. I just showing respwect for my saviors," he stated, sticking his nose into the air. Gabriel, Balthazar, Castiel, Tori, and Danny all snickered at the archangel knowingly while Grandma Rosa rolled her eyes and messed at Raphael's hair.
"Whatever you say, Sweetie."
The angels, Tori, and Danny were back to their game of Marco Polo not long after the little fiasco with the rock and Raphael's floaties. Luckily, they had brought extra floaties along and Raphael could still swim. He had asked to join the game when it started up again and Castiel, Balthazar, and Gabriel welcomed him with open arms. It was a lovely sight and Grandma Rosa couldn't pull her gaze from the smiling group.
"Watch out bellow!" a voice shouted from behind, accompanied then by a loud splash as a body hit the water. Rosa's eyes widened and she watched as Sam Winchester's head popped up from bellow the water. Two pairs of feet could be heard running up from behind Rosa and she turned just in time to watch Kevin and Charlie race past her and into the water with Sam.
"Don't run here you two hooligans! The floor is rock and slippery! Do you want to hurt yourselves?!" Grandma Rosa scolded.
She received a "sorry Grandma Rosa" from the water where Charlie and Kevin were, but she still gave the two her best worried/angry grandmother look.
"Hola, Mama!" Mellissa shouted from behind. Rosa turned, watching as her daughter walked over with Katie, Dean, and Bobby. Dean was carrying a blue cooler in hand a colorful beach ball. "No seas tan dura con ellos," Mellissa stated, telling her mother not to be too hard on Charlie and Kevin.
"Hola, cariño," Grandma Rosa said with a smile, kissing her daughter and Katie on the cheek when they stepped to her side for a hug. "What are you all doing here?" Mellissa took a seat next to her mother, soaking her feet into the water too.
"We finished our little lesson on angel care so we decided to join in on the fun," she stated. Dean walked over then, eyes on Castiel and Raphael as the two splashed at each other and laughed.
"We've seen a lot in our day, but that….that is a miracle all on its own," he stated. Rosa chuckled.
"Well, cenotes are miraculous places," Grandma Rosa told him with a wink. Dean nodded and leapt into the water, landing a few feet from Castiel and Raphael. The angels squealed when the wave of water from Dean's cannon ball hit them and the hunter popped up to the surface, scooping both angels into his arms and tossing them one at a time into the air and into the water. Soon, the Winchester had all the angels and children around him, shouting, 'My turn!' and 'Me next'. Dean granted each shout by flinging them into the air or spraying them with water, joining in with their laughter. The others quickly gathered around too, helping him toss the children and angels into the water and throw the beach ball back and forth. Grandma Rose watched on the sidelines with her daughters and Bobby, sipping at a beer Bobby had given her from the cooler. She took a long drink and nodded at the group playing in the water.
"How many angels are there like them?" she questioned. Bobby shrugged, setting his beer aside.
"Honestly? Too many for us to know," he sighed. "…and way too many of us to find." Bobby thought back to what Lydia had said when she had shown up at the house. Not only did they have the angels in America to hunt down and the ones Crowley kidnapped, but now they had angels that were scattered all over the world. It was maddening.
Rosa lifted a hand and slapped Bobby across the back of the head.
"Now don't you talk like that," she warned him. "Anything is possible. You just need a little help and we'll be happy to keep an eye open around here for you." She held her hands out, motioning to the two of them and the others in the pool. "Somos una familia después de todo." Bobby laughed, looking down at his beer.
"That we are," he sighed. "Blood or not."
At the end of the day the kids and the angels were worn out and napping soundly in Raphael, Tori, and Danny's room. Dean walked down the hall from the room after putting the kids to sleep, walking past Charlie and Sam. He asked if they were in need of any help packing, but the two told him that they were fine. Dean nodded and continued walking, spotting Kevin and Bobby talking to Melissa and Katie about Mexican creature lore and white magic. Dean contemplated joining them, but the sound of the TV blasting in the other room tied him up and pulled him towards it.
Grandma Rosa was the one watching TV and the curious hunter took a seat next to the old woman.
"What you watching, Gma?" he asked. Rosa glanced up from her program, grinning at him.
"Oh, Deany Pie, it's a Telenovela, a soap opera I suppose for you. It's the finale and I need to watch it," she stated. Dean frowned at the odd nickname, but brushed it off. Instead he asked what the show was about. Something sparkled in Rosa's eyes and she waited for a commercial break before turning to him. "The protagonist is a girl named Maria, her mother Carmen married this rich fiancé of a rich, but very evil woman Catalina," Dean's eyes widened, finding himself intrigued. "Catalina plotted against the fiancé with his younger brother to kill them…" she paused. "You following the plot alright?" she asked. Dean nodded. "Good. Now where was I…" Kevin peeked into the room, raising a brow at them.
"Dean, Sam wanted to know…"
"Kevin, shhh! Gma Rosa is telling me about this kick ass show!" Dean shouted at the prophet. Kevin raised a brow and glanced at the TV as it flashed the title of the show the two had been watching.
"Are you watching a Mexican Doctor Sexy?" he questioned, squinting at the screan. Dean's cheeks heated up a bright pink.
"What?! No, of course not." Grandma Rosa patted Dean on the shoulder, squeezing hard.
"Don't you worry, Deany. You enjoy your shows. No shame!" she shouted triumphantly. Dean gave her a wide smile and glanced back at Kevin.
"Uh, what did Sammy want?" he asked.
"We've got everything packed up. Do you want to head back now or wait till morning?" Dean licked his lips and shook his head.
"Nah, the angels are sleeping. Anyway, I need to see the finale of this!" Dean said, waving at the screen. Kevin laughed, rolling his eyes and turning his back on the two.
"Alright, have fun with your show you two," Kevin called over his shoulder before disappearing to find Sam and Charlie. Dean turned back around, wrapping an arm around Grandma Rosa's shoulder.
"You know…I think I'm going to miss you the most, Gma," Dean muttered as he watched the characters on the screen. Rosa smiled, planting a kiss to Dean's cheek.
"I'll miss you too, Deany. But…" She waved a hand at the television. "We'll always have this and the cenotes, right?" Dean laughed and nodded, turning his gaze back to the coma patient on the screen with Rosa and enjoying the rest of his last night in Mexico.
Again, thanks you, xxXkmiXxx for helping me write these past two chapters.