It took him by surprise when Dean saw that Piper's birth control wasn't on the counter. Well, "totally blew him away" was probably a better way to put it.
He only thought for a moment, but it seemed like he thought about everything all at once.
He thought about Piper, carrying his child. He thought about pressing his lips to her swollen belly, about wondering aloud what their baby would be like. He thought about being in the delivery room with her, brushing her damp hair off of her sweaty forehead. Whispering to her how much he loved her, how good she was doing, how beautiful she was. About holding their child, hoping that the baby would have hazel eyes and a happy smile. He thought about Piper as a mother, how well her loving, fierce spirit would fit into that role.
So it only took him a moment to decide to leave the birth control in the cabinet.
He left the bathroom looking forward to the future for the first time in a long, long time.
xxxxx
Piper took a day off without telling Dean to go to the doctor. She just wanted to make sure she was healthy.
"Well!" Dr. McCormick said genially, coming back in after she'd put on her clothes again. "Mrs. Winchester, you're fit as a fiddle!"
She smiled, relieved. "Really?"
He nodded happily. "Yes, ma'am! Your numbers are good. You are a little bit past the prime age, but your levels are those of a woman ten years younger."
She smiled, a little unsure how to take that. But, since it was good news, she decided to really commit to the smile. "That's wonderful!"
He sat in the exam chair. "So, is your husband on board?"
She nodded. "Yes, we're… We're very excited."
He nodded back. "Well, I'm glad you came in for the prelim exam. No such thing as too prepared when it comes to having a baby, I say." He smiled. "When can we expect your husband for his exam?"
She blushed, and he chuckled. "Can I assume, then, that he doesn't know you're here?"
"He knows about the baby, or, at least, wanting a baby," she rushed to explain. "I just…" Piper took a deep breath. "I just wanted to be sure. Before we did anything. That we could."
He gave her a sympathetic look. "Have you tried before? And nothing came of it?"
"No!" she exclaimed, then winced. "Sorry, but no. No, it's just… My husband has been through a lot, Dr. McCormick, and I love him more than anything in the world. I don't want us to try to have a baby, and then have that be one more thing he can't have."
The doctor gave her a gentle smile. "I think, Mrs. Winchester, if he has you, he has plenty."
xxxxx
Piper woke up on the morning of the one year anniversary of Sam's death. The second most important anniversary in her life.
She'd asked if Dean wanted to take the day off, but he'd said no. He didn't want anything to be different than any other day, so she'd agreed. Anything he wanted, anything to help him get through this day.
The alarm went off the same time it always did, but they were both already awake. He reached up to turn it off, then kept his arm around her and stayed where he was. He ran his fingers through her hair, and she leaned into the touch a little.
She looked up at him and smiled gently. "You okay?"
He nodded, but kept his gaze on the ceiling. "Yeah, kitten. You?"
She thought for a moment. "Nope."
He smiled. "Yeah, me either."
She leaned up to press a kiss to the underside of his bearded jaw. "Let's go to work anyway."
xxxxx
Dean couldn't have been more grateful for Piper as he watched her make breakfast. Her hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, and she was humming as she cooked.
He stood and moved to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her slender waist. "I love you," he whispered into her hair.
He savored the way she leaned back into him. "I love you, too, handsome."
xxxxx
He sent her the picture of the claw marks and blood he'd found in the hotel.
"Hey, Pipes. Does this look like something to you?"
"Come home, Dean. You're sending me pictures of walls, you've lost your mind."
xxxxx
"I don't know, Pipes! I was walking out of the bar, and I heard a woman scream. I went to investigate, old habits. But there was no one in that building. So I go in further, trying to scope the place, and there's these claw marks and blood." He groaned and ran a hand down his face. "And you're telling me you didn't see anything?"
She shook her head and bit her lip. "No, it's just a picture of a wall when I look at it. So either you're seeing things, or I'm not seeing them."
He nodded. "What do you think is going on?"
She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know, baby, but we can find out."
xxxxx
"And no one's called about a missing person" Dean asked late that night.
"Well, I could expand the search for the last week-"
"No, this would have been today."
"I'm not seeing anything here."
"So, no reports of anything around Vineland and Oak Street, near that hotel renovation?"
The woman on the other end was silent for a moment. "And why are we looking there, again?"
Dean stifled a groan. "Uh, call it a hunch."
"A hunch," she repeated skeptically.
"I've been a cop for a long time."
"Uh-huh. Well, I'll keep an eye out and do some more digging."
"Okay, yeah."
"Do you want me to email it to you?"
"No, I'll call you tomorrow. Thanks."
Dean hung up and finally let the groan out. He buried his face in his hands. "Fuck."
Piper's small hands on his shoulders had him raising his head. She leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek to his. "Stop it," she said quietly. "You're not going crazy. This is something. We'll figure it out."
He sighed. "Yeah, I guess."
"Well, I know. So let's go to bed. We'll call into work in the morning, and get to the bottom of this. Deal?"
He turned his head and kissed her briefly. "Deal, kitten."
xxxxx
The next day, Dean hit the books, and Piper called Bobby.
She fought with herself for a while before she hit the "call" button. Maybe he knew something, maybe he could help, but would he? He had certainly been hiding something at Thanksgiving, but would he still be hiding something?
She wrestled with herself, then hit the button and held the phone to her ear. It rang for several moments, then went to voicemail. She hung up without leaving a message, frowning. "God dammit," she said softly.
She stood and went to the living room where Dean was researching. She stood in the doorway and watched him for a moment. His handsome face was creased in concentration as he read, his eyes moving slowly across the page, absorbing information meticulously.
Her heart ached for him. He didn't want this, he didn't deserve it. She wanted to protect him from this somehow, she wished she was the one who was being affected.
You wouldn't have lied to him, though. He'd still be in the thick of it with you.
No, she wouldn't have. But some part of her still wished she could take this away from him.
Instead, she went to him on the couch, sat close enough that they were pressed together hip to knee, and pulled one of the lore books into her lap. If she couldn't face it for him, she would face it with him.
xxxxx
Dean figured out they were facing a djinn. Piper puzzled that it was a different type than they'd faced before. Dean felt a little stupid about being the one the djinn had gotten to, but Piper insisted the creature could pass as human. "It could have been me just as easily."
He approached the garage slowly, anger burning beneath his calm.
God dammit, they were supposed to be done with this. They were supposed to be living a normal life. They'd gone through the grief, through her long silences and his heavy drinking, and they'd come through on the other side. For fuck's sake, they were going to start a family, and now here he was, hunting like nothing had changed at all.
Dean embraced the anger and went inside, gun drawn.
The lights were starting to flicker, so he looked around the garage, tensed for battle.
He didn't think he could be more shocked to be confronted with Azazel.
"Hiya, Dean," the yellow-eyed bastard said with a smirk.
That was all the demon got to say before he grunted. When he looked down, there was the end of a knife sticking out of his chest. The demon dropped, revealing Piper standing behind him, an unreadable expression on her face.
xxxxx
Piper watched the djinn fall dispassionately, unsure of what she was feeling. She was just glad that it was over, she decided.
She gave Dean a shaky smile. "Well, that's that."
"Good job, Pipe," a familiar voice said behind her.
Without thinking, she replied, "Thanks, Sammy."
She felt the blood drain from her face as the words left her mouth. Dean had frozen in the act of standing, so now he was in a sort of crouched position, staring with wide eyes behind her.
Slowly, so slowly, Piper turned around.
There, standing in the opening of their garage, like it was totally normal, was Sam Winchester.
Or, something that looked like Sam Winchester.
Piper pulled the gun from her waistband and pointed it at "Sam," who immediately held his hands up. "What are you?" she asked evenly.
"Pipe, I-"
"You keep my name out of your mouth," she snapped. "I know you're not Sam, so what are you?"
"It's me, Pi-… Uh, it's me."
"Prove it," she demanded. Without turning, "Dean, there's holy water under the sink, and the knife I used on the djinn is silver. Hand it over to… Whatever this is."
"Sam" winced. "I don't love the idea of slicing into myself with a bloody knife."
Piper fought with her temper. "Do you love the idea of being shot?"
"Pipes," Dean said quietly from behind her. "There's, a… I have a silver knife under the bed. If… If that's… Him, he's got a point. He could get the poison from the knife."
She fought with herself, then nodded. "Okay. Go get it."
He put a hand on her back, sending comfort through her. "Be careful, baby," he muttered.
She nodded, not taking her eyes off of the man in front of her. "I will."
He pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek, then walked away.
"Sam" was smiling. She would have called it fond, but something about it was… Off.
"That was sweet," he said softly.
"Shut up," she snapped. "No talking until he gets back."
He held his hands up in surrender, and the gesture was so much like Sam it had her eyes filling with tears. "If…" she swallowed hard. "If you're really Sam, how did you get back?"
He shook his head. "I don't know."
She swallowed hard again. "What do you mean, 'you don't know?' Where did you come back at?"
"That field in Kansas."
"When?"
He was saved from answering by Dean's return. He had a jug of water in one hand and a silver knife in the other. Piper smiled a little. She'd gotten him that knife for his birthday a couple of years ago. She hadn't even known he still had it.
Dean handed them to Sam. Sam sliced into his forearm, then took a swig of the water. When he was done, he just looked at them.
Piper moved first. She holstered her gun, then took two long steps forward and buried her face in Sam's chest.
He smelled like Sam, and he felt like Sam in her arms. He even put his arms around her and held her close, which was a very Sam thing to do.
But when she stepped away to let Dean hug him, she felt a deep disquiet work its way through her. She put it up to shock and shook it off.
She was brought to tears again by the way Dean held his brother. Then Dean stepped back and shook his head. "Wait, wait. You… You were… You were gone, man. I mean, that… That was it. How the hell-"
"I don't know." Sam interrupted.
Dean frowned and met Piper's eyes briefly. "What do you mean, 'you don't know?'"
Sam smirked and looked between the two of them. "You guys are definitely made for each other." His gaze landed on Dean again. "I mean I don't know how I got back. I'm just here."
"And Castiel doesn't know who did it?" Piper asked.
Sam scoffed. "You tell me. I've been calling. Cass hasn't answered my prayers. I don't even know where he is. I mean, I was… Down there, and then, next minute it's raining, and I'm lying in that field, alone." He shrugged. "It's kind of hard to go looking for whatever saved you when you've got no leads. But I looked. I mean, believe me. I looked for weeks."
Hurt cascaded through Piper, and she was shocked into silence for a moment. Just a moment, then, "Weeks?" she whispered. "You've… You've been back for weeks?"
Dean stepped back and put an arm around her waist. She resisted the urge to lean into him. They would be strong together through this, she wouldn't make him carry her.
"How long have you been back, Sam?" Dean asked coldly.
"About a year."
Piper felt dizzy. "About a year?" she cried, hands flying up to cover her mouth. "You've been back for a year?" she whispered through her fingers.
Sam winced. "Pipe-"
She stepped forward and slapped him across as hard as she could. Her palm stinging, she turned and walked back into the house.
"I don't want to hear it, Sam."
xxxxx
Dean winced when Piper hit Sam, and made no move to stop her when she walked back into the house. He got it. He was angry, too.
He swung to face Sam. "What, did you lose the ability to send a text message? For a year?"
Sam was rubbing his face. "You guys were happy, Dean. You had what you wanted."
"What we…" Fury washed through Dean. "Sam, what we wanted was you, alive."
"No, you guys wanted a family. A normal life. You only gave it up because of the life. But you guys… Dean, you and Piper were building something here. Had I shown up, you guys would have just run off. I'm sorry, but you guys deserved some normal."
xxxxx
Piper was staring out the kitchen window into the backyard, stroking Monster, who had jumped into her arms the moment she'd walked in. Maybe we should get a dog. Monster would like a dog.
Dean's arms around her waist had her closing her eyes in relief. "Sam wants us to go with him. To meet the people he's been hunting with."
She leaned back into him. "Do you want to go?"
He sighed. "I don't know."
She smiled. Piper Winchester knew her husband like the back of her hand. She knew what his answer would be. Even if he didn't.
"Let's go meet them then."
xxxxx
Hi, beautiful readers! Here are my notes:
I own only Piper Finley, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters. (heartbroken).
Reviews, comments, and kudos give me life and keep me going.
And, as always, thank you for reading, you beautiful, beautiful people.
**This chapter hurt to write. I want Dean and Piper to have peace so bad.
