A/N: Hello! I exist! I just haven't had any motivation for this story in several months! But here's a new chapter! And, uh… it's a good one, y'all.

Fourteen

MARCH 2023 — one year+ has passed since the last chapter for… reasons.

Brooke and Cass were celebrating. Actually, they'd been in a rather celebratory mood for the last few weeks, seeing as both of them had gotten promotions at work, almost at the same time. Brooke wondered if maybe Jack had something to do with it, and often stopped to thank him during the day, wondering how his time as God was going.

Mundane life had gotten easier over the course of the last year, and Cass and Brooke had their routines down pat. They worked, they came home, they made dinner—whoever got home first, or whoever had had the day off—they ate together and discussed their day, they went to bed. On weekends and any other time they had to spare, they spent together, or with Sam and Eileen, or Daphne and Peter, or with friends made at work.

It was all so normal that Brooke still had a hard time believing it was real. And the nightmares they both still had were a constant reminder of the past—though even those were lessening over time. Occasionally, Brooke woke in the morning and realized she hadn't had a nightmare—at least not one she could remember. It was a strange, good feeling. Strange because Brooke was not used to thriving in a normal environment. Pessimistically, she'd assumed she'd be fucked up forever, and never adjust, but it seemed that the human ability to adapt affected even ex-Hunters.

Brooke was happy, but sometimes she was afraid to say it out loud, to jinx it.

And then the promotions happened, almost at the same time, and more money came in, and would continue to come in. Daphne raised their rent a little, but they still had more money than they'd ever had before, and they'd been saving every penny over the last year. It wasn't very much, in the grand scheme of things, but it was a start, and they were comfortable.

They went out to dinner for the first time ever, in fact, a few weeks after their promotions, because that was something they could do now.

"Congratulations to us," Brooke said, and brought her glass of wine to Castiel's, across the table.

"Yes," he said, with a smile, staring at her over his glass. "Congratulations to us."

They shared lava cake for dessert—two forks—and went home, feeling jovial and, well, grown-up. These promotions were one of the first big things they'd accomplished as humans, legally, in the new world that Jack had created.

Castiel hummed softly to himself as he got ready for bed that night, brushing his teeth, splashing his face with water. He turned off the bathroom light and went back to the bedroom… to find Brooke sitting on the end of the bed, her hands clasped in her lap, looking nervous.

"Brooke?" he said, and moved toward her, but before he could sit down beside her, she stood up and went to him.

"Do you…" she began, her voice wavering. "Do you think we could afford a baby now?"

He closed his eyes, breathing through his nose, feeling somehow elated and heartbroken all at once. Excitement coursed through his veins, yet it was dulled by a sense of wrongdoing, as if he'd been stopping her from having a child all year. He hadn't been; they'd agreed that they needed to be more financially stable before trying. And yet, he felt guilty. He pressed his forehead to hers, and they breathed together.

"Oh, Brooke," he breathed, and cupped her face in his hands. He took a breath. "Okay."

"W-What?" she asked, a little blankly, as if she'd expected another rejection.

He felt tears sting at the corners of his eyes. "Yes," he said, firmly. "Yes, we could afford a baby now."

She stared up at him, her mouth opening and closing. "B-But… you didn't even… we didn't talk about anything. Don't we have to… go over finances or something?"

He smiled a little. "A baby is going to set us back no matter how much money we have, or how much we make. And if we keep waiting for a better time… we could be waiting forever. Besides… we're not alone. You know this. We have family and friends—

"So, you want to be a financial burden on our family and friends?"

Castiel paused, took a breath. "Brooke, I know you're talking yourself out of this because you're scared, but stop. We've saved everything we've ever made for the past year. We've skimped on everything. Tonight was the first time we ever went out to eat since becoming human. We… we can do this."

Brooke stared at him, and then hid her face against his chest. "Okay," she whispered.

"Okay," he repeated, running his fingers through her hair.

They were silent for a few moments, breathing, Brooke standing with both arms wrapped tightly around her husband, breathing in the scent of his sleep shirt. Then, she stood up. "Castiel."

"Yes?"

She smiled at him, mischievously. "Do you… wanna make a baby?"

He laughed through his nose, a sharp exhalation, and smiled. "Yes," he said.

###

(CASTIEL'S POV)

There was something almost spiritual about making love when the goal was to create life. It was something he had never experienced before, and, lying with Brooke in the afterglow, he would stare up at the ceiling and try to imagine what a little boy or little girl would be like, running about the house.

The first time they had sex with a child in mind, Castiel almost forgot that he was human, and was suddenly struck with overwhelming terror that his wife would die in a horrible birth, that her body would explode as a Nephilim child was born. For so long, they had been careful; for so many years, they had used protection during every sexual encounter. To go against that now would take some getting used to, though he had to admit to himself—and to Brooke—that he was enjoying the experience of unprotected sex. It was… thrilling. He thought of the reason they were doing this—the image of a small, faceless child running toward him—and felt a little guilty for his sexual pleasure, although he knew he shouldn't feel that way.

As he stared up at the ceiling one night, trying to sleep despite all the excitement flowing in his veins, a small whisper made him turn his head.

"Cass? Are you awake?"

"Yes," he whispered back, and turned on his side to face her. "What is it?"

"Do you… Do you think Jack… will be sad?"

"Why would he be sad?" Castiel asked, touching her face.

"He was… He was our first child. He is our first child, God or not. Do you… think he'll be jealous up there… in Heaven? Watching us?"

Castiel thought about it for a moment, because he always took Brooke's thoughts and feelings seriously, even when they were fueled by anxiety. His eyes unfocused as stared at nothing in the darkness of their bedroom. "No, I don't think he'll be jealous. He… he told us that he made us younger so that we could live full lives. So that we could… have a family."

"I know he said it," Brooke whispered, moving closer to him, resting her cheek against his shoulder. "But he's a boy. He's young. All siblings are jealous of new babies, I think. Even the ones that wanted a sibling."

Castiel smiled indulgently. "You know he… he won't come down from Heaven. He's… He's God now. I don't think he'd even think things like that."

Brooke was quiet for a moment. "I know," she said. "But if I talk about him like he's God, then he stops feeling like Jack. He was our son first. Our boy. And he still is."

"He always will be," Castiel murmured into her hair. "God or not. And he knows it. He feels it. He's hearing our conversation right now."

"We're not replacing him."

"No. No, we're not. We could never replace Jack. We're just… creating a… new addition."

Brooke turned away from him in the bed, and he felt her push backwards against him. He curled around her, as he'd done for years, his face buried in the crook of her shoulder, and fell asleep.

###

"Okay, coffee and raw fish I get," Brooke said, reading off of her laptop, "but I never would've thought about raw sprouts."

"Yes, that's because of possible salmonella," Castiel replied, running his finger along whatever pregnancy book he was currently reading that he'd gotten from the library.

"Well, yes, I know that," Brooke muttered. "It just never would've crossed my mind." She sighed. "No more junk food. No more chocolate—because of the caffeine…" She closed her eyes at the worse of them all: "No more coffee."

"One cup of decaf won't hurt the baby," Castiel murmured, still reading his book.

"Decaf isn't real coffee," Brooke replied, dramatically.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Cass' mouth.

Brooke stared at him over the top of her laptop. "So, how are you enjoying all the extra sex?" she asked, trying to get some kind of reaction out of him. Ever since their attempts at getting pregnant, he'd been so focused on learning everything he could that he had kind of sucked the fun out of it—just a bit. Not that Brooke wasn't learning everything, too. Of course she read all the same books he did, and shared relevant online articles with him. It was only that he sometimes spent a little too long studying, and not enough time simply enjoying the idea of having a child.

Castiel paused in his reading, his eyes lifting from the page to pin her there on the couch. "I'm enjoying it immensely," he said, his voice dropping an octave or two. (His voice, strangely, had lightened a little bit over time after he'd become human, as if it were the last vestiges of his angelic nature leaving him).

Brooke held his gaze. "Well, good. And don't go telling me we can't have sex once I'm pregnant because it'll 'hurt the baby,' 'cause that's bullshit."

"I am well aware of that," Castiel replied lightly, returning to his reading. "Please rest assured I plan on making certain that you are sexually satisfied throughout your pregnancy."

Brooke choked on her spit.

###

Two months had gone by and Brooke was not yet pregnant, but they were still optimistic. Some mix of luck, good timing, and science was involved for pregnancy to occur sometimes. And it gave her and Cass time to plan things, like nursery colors.

"I'm thinking green and yellow," Brooke mused, as they stood in the empty bedroom, looking around. "You know, like, soft green and yellow. Pastels. That way we don't have to wait to see what sex the baby is. Besides, that doesn't matter, anyways. The whole blue for boys and pink for girls thing is bullshit."

When Cass didn't respond, she turned to look at him, only to see him smiling at her with a strange expression on his face. "What?"

He glanced at the floor, still smiling. "Just… never change," he murmured, putting an arm around her. "Green and yellow is perfect."

###

Brooke stared down at the small white object in her hand.

Two pink strips.

She began to cry immediately, and thought to call out for Castiel, but he was at work. "Fuck," she said, realizing she would not be able to tell him the good news for several more hours. She glanced down at her as-of-yet flat stomach and muttered, "Sorry. We'll have to do a swear jar for me or something, or the first word out of your mouth will be an F-bomb."

She spent the rest of the day in a kind of trance, half-crying, half-laughing. She thought to call Sam or video chat with Eileen, just to tell someone the news, but she decided against that. It seemed wrong to tell anyone but Cass first. She found herself resting a hand on her stomach often, stopping in the middle of some chore or another just to imagine the life growing inside her.

She tried to make dinner, but could hardly focus, and gave up after burning the pasta, forgetting to stir it so that it would not stick to the bottom of the pot. She cleaned up, then went and sat down in the living room, both hands on her stomach, staring into space…

"I'm home!" Castiel called.

Brooke shot up off the couch so fast that she became dizzy, and had to stand still for a moment, holding her head in her hands. "Cass!" she yelled.

"Brooke?" he said, coming into the living room.

"Cass," she whispered, turning to him, swallowing the lump in her throat, tears springing to her eyes for the umpteenth time that day.

"Brooke, what's wrong?" he asked, coming toward her, holding her face in his hands. His gaze was gentle and concerned, and right then, an extra shot of love for him went through her.

"Cass," she said, again, and placed the pregnancy test, covered in clean toilet paper, into his hands.

"What's this?" He began to unravel it, and then lifted it up to eye level and stared at it for a long, long time. He did not say a word.

"C-Cass?" she asked, after a very long minute had passed.

He choked on a sob and wrapped her in his arms.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Startled, they pulled apart and turned to stare towards the front door.

"It doesn't matter," Castiel began to say, turning back towards Brooke, clearly wanting to ignore whoever was at the door.

Whoever it was knocked several times, loudly.

Castiel sighed, closing his eyes in frustration. "I'll be right back."

"We'll both go," Brooke said, reaching out and taking her husband's hand.

He smiled and they went to the door, opening it.

Brooke blinked, stared, mouth falling open.

It was Dean Winchester, whom they hadn't seen in over a year.

Brooke was so surprised and so emotional from the discovery of her pregnancy that she smiled and laughed and broke into sobs. "Dean!" she said, her voice coming out as a croak.

Dean stared at her for a moment, clearly shocked by her response to him. He broke eye contact after a moment, rubbing the back of his head. "Did I fuck somethin' up already?" he mumbled, looking troubled.

Brooke's heart skipped a beat at those words. Already, she could tell he was different.

"What—no!" Castiel said, reaching his free hand out, then realizing he was still holding the pregnancy test. He pulled his hand back. "That's not it at all."

"Listen, if this is a bad time…" Dean began, and started to back away.

"I'm pregnant," Brooke blurted.

Dean stopped all movement. The world went quiet and still. Dean stared at her, then at Cass, then blinked several times. "Wh…"

"Show him, Cass," Brooke said.

Castiel smiled and handed the pregnancy test to Dean, who took it as if he had been forced to handle a bomb.

He stared at the test for a long time, just as Castiel had, and then suddenly lifted his gaze, and smiled, and laughed. He looked so happy that Brooke wondered if she'd ever seen him truly happy before that moment. His whole face lit up, green eyes bright with emotion.

"Oh man!" Dean said, and laughed again. "Congrats!" And he stepped forward and embraced Castiel for the first time in over a year.

Brooke stepped back a little and just witnessed their hug, one hand covering her mouth. And suddenly, Dean was hugging her, too. And she found that she did not mind it, or feel any ill will towards this man. He had come at exactly the right time, she thought. She stepped back from him, looking up into his face, and saw how relaxed it was, free of hard lines and angles, free of anger and fear and hate.

"D'you wanna come in?" she asked. "You could stay for dinner."

"Only if…" he began, and turned to look at Cass.

"Please," Castiel said, "stay."

Dean smiled again, a tremulous, beautiful smile full of hope. "Okay."

Castiel shut the front door and he and Brooke led Dean to the living room.