Chapter 8

Caleb's body hummed through the whole pregnancy. While hunting, while studying, while sleeping, while fucking his knockout of a pregnant girlfriend, while eating, while waiting for ultrasound results. He did try to put healthy food in her body but she and the baby preferred crap. Nachos and hot dogs and twinkies. She just laughed at him when he couldn't figure it out.

"I dream of nachos and hot dogs and twinkies, babe." Claire rubbed her belly, it looked enormous but she was only halfway there. "I would eat them always except that my thighs and my ass would swell to unsightly dimensions."

"You are such a salad girl, though."

"So that I can have my twinkies." She kissed his puzzled face. "When I first came off the meds after the pixies. I was so hungry all the time. I must have put on like 20 pounds because John never ate anything but burgers and pizza. My main motivation for hustling was to have my own money so I could have a salad every once in a while."

Caleb knelt and held her belly in his hands. "You know. I get… riled up when you mention him but if it wasn't for him… you wouldn't be here."

"If it wasn't for that damned possessed man… I wouldn't have been there for John to save." She looked down at him. "We could do this all night. I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be." She stared at his bald head. "If I had really wanted to fight for it, I could still be with him… wearing him out every night so he could barely hunt."

Caleb laughed, "like you do to me.?"

"It was easier with him. He was older."

"What does that mean?"

"That you were kind of right. He was old for me. Our… libidos didn't match. I could take him down for the count and still want to play." She ran her finger over his receding hairline. "You go down for the count and I'm down, too. Every time." She kissed his head though it was awkward with her belly in the way. "I love that so much."

He looked up at her and she had a strange expression on her face. He kissed her belly and nudged her legs. "What's up?"

"Just… trying to find a scenario where I could have met you some other way."

"Sh…" He stood and pulled her to her feet. "Come on. It's time to go."

The ride was quiet. The waiting room was quiet. Then the tech was squirting lubricant on her belly. The wand ran this way and that and then the question. "So, Mom, Dad. Are you ready to find out what we got in here?"

"Does it have a tail?" Caleb blurted out. Claire hit him. "I was joking."

"No tail." The tech gave them a smile.

"Is it a boy?" Claire asked, ribbing him again.

"It's a girl." Caleb glanced at the monitor.

"Done this before?" The tech asked as she began cleaning the mess.

"Second time for both of us…" Claire looked up at him. "We're both on our third lives."

"Just six more." He winked at her.

They were quiet until the doctor came back. Everything was fine. She was chided on her diet after Caleb gave away her twinkie routine. She looked at the two of them. "You're both very excited. Sleep now while you can. That baby will be here in four months."

On the way home, they got takeout. A mountain of lo mein noodles for the mother-to-be. Then Claire spent a long time reading through the name book with a highlighter and dental floss as bookmarks.

Caleb worked on designing the baby furniture and looked through samples for girl colors. She laughed at him. "We are not going to have a hydraulic changing table."

"You might not be able to live without it once you see it."

"We'll see."

Halfway through the mountain of lo mein, Caleb had to run into town for fruit. Just that. So, as he was standing in the produce isle, he realized he'd forgotten to get her to specify what fruit. So he had a couple of pieces of everything he could find. Then he was putting melons in his cart. Watermelon, honey dew, cantaloupe. Then he was staring at kiwi and not sure what to do.

"You making a salad, man?" Adrian had a kid in the cart and the other on his hip. "You look confused."

Caleb turned a bit. "She sent me for fruit. She didn't tell me what kind. She eats everything and she has a craving… I… she wasn't specific…"

"That blonde?" Adrian motioned with his hand toward the square.

"Yeah."

"Congratulations, man." Adrian looked over the basket. "They got this dip over here. There's a plain one and a chocolate one. Get one of each. More strawberries, though."

"Now, I just got to find the twinkies." Caleb raised his eyebrows. "I show up without those, even if they aren't on the list, and I'm sleeping on the couch."

"Good luck." Adrian clapped him on the shoulder. "My sister wouldn't want you to be alone. The folks miss you but don't."

"I know." He nodded and pushed the cart to find the twinkies. The drive home was weird. He hauled the bags to the kitchen table and started chopping. Claire wandered in and started picking through the mess. "Oh my God. I forgot about this stuff." She opened the dipping sauces and dipped her fingers in. "Thank you. Oh. Strawberries."

"I thought I'd throw the melons in the fridge for a day or so."

"Cold melon. Good idea." She kissed his face. "You are so good to me."

He chopped up a bunch of the fruit and handed it to her in a big bowl. Then he put away the leftovers and just stood in his kitchen for a long time. He took a walk and when he got back, she was sitting in front of the TV with the remains of her fruit in front of her. She motioned him closer. "Come on. This is hilarious. It's a show on the history of the werewolf myth."

Then he turned off the TV and got on his knees for more exhilarating entertainment. When she was limp and catching her breath, Caleb came up for air. He sat next to her and covered them both with a blanket. She stared at him for a long moment. "I got mine."

"It was all my pleasure." He shook his head at her. She kissed his face.

"You're weird."

"Possibly." He nodded.

"You sure…" She ran a hand down his arm.

"I just wanted to make you feel good." He shrugged. Then he took a breath. "I ran into Adrian in town."

"Did he give you a hard time about something? He's got no right." She started to get riled up.

"No, the opposite. But seeing him… telling about us and… Makes me sad."

"Oh baby." She snuggled up against him. "You want to hunt something?"

"Yes… but no."

"We should go out. To dinner. To dance. Somewhere. Bowling."

"Target shooting." He nodded to her. She nodded back.

"Target shooting." She agreed.

Caleb looked at the guns. Civilians. He looked at his buddy. His buddy shrugged. "Really?"

"I can't let a pregnant woman have at the good stuff, Caleb."

"She was in the Airforce. She flew guns bigger than you. Hell, she can handle anything in my personal stock."

He stared at them for a long moment and when he heard a door shut behind him, he started loading the cart with heavy artillery. "You go out. Far out. You got it? Old man knows I sent preggo out to full metal jacket, he'd kick my ass."

Caleb got the guns loaded and he loaded them on the mechanical arm for her. Once he was sure she had her stance down, he moved over to get his own gun loaded and his mind emptied for twenty minutes while he shot round after round into the target. Then his phone went off in his pocket. He had to hop back in the van to hear over the sound of gun blasts.

"Caleb. I need you." John Fucking Winchester.

"What you got?"

"I need help with this hunt but I got signs showing in more places than I can get to. I'm sending Dean off on his own… just… I won't be able to help him if he gets in over his head…"

"Oh, no. Yeah. I'll be his back up when he needs it."

"Thanks." John breathed heavily. "Could you meet me? I'm close by."

"I'm out at the range with Claire. Let me get her home, first."

"Alright. Two hours?"

"Yeah."

Caleb spent another twenty minutes shooting then they started dismantling the guns to return. Claire wanted lunch. They grabbed some boxes to go. Caleb inhaled what he could and left the remains for Claire. She kissed him hard on his way out. It started raining. Caleb picked up more food and was in the basement apartment shedding his soaked shirt when John came crashing down the stairs with a box of research. John stared at the bags on the table. Caleb motioned. "Dig in. Figured you'd be starving."

"Thanks." John shucked his jacket and set down his box. Burgers and fries.

"The fries are all yours, save me a burger though." Caleb murmured as he started going through John's research. "This has started…"

"It has. I don't know where they're going, though." John mumbled around his mouthful and took the fries with him to the table. "I'm afraid they're going to take Sammy, soon."

"To do what?"

"I don't know. It's just two or three off of my lists but they vanished without a trace."

Caleb sat and absently chewed on his burger. He read over John's notes. "You're not going to bring Dean in on this?"

"Eventually, maybe." John shrugged. "That kid… I put so much on him already."

"He can take it. He's a good kid, John."

"I've been putting it on him since he was four." John pointed out. "That kid… takes care of me and his brother… Took care of Claire when she was with us." John cleared his throat. "How is she doing?"

"Healthy. We're almost there." Caleb shoved his burger into his mouth.

"Maybe she'll sit her ass down, now."

"I wouldn't count on it." Caleb shook his head. It was the thing in the back of his head. That little bit of doubt that was always there. That always grew when John was around.

"Could you make sure she has a place to be? I worry about her but… I worry less now that I know she's with you."

"John…"

"I just keep thinking… if she wanted to use you. She could have tried to pass off your kid as mine. I think she's got the crazy in her to do that if that's what she wanted. I don't know what I would have done. Probably nothing good. She didn't do that."

"She almost didn't tell me because of what I did with that possessed man who killed her kid."

"Missouri told me the whole story finally." That was the closest that he was gonna get to that apology.

"I think… she… needed to hear that. You don't need to worry about her anymore. She's not hunting now. She wants to make sure our daughter is safe."

"A girl?"

"Yeah. Yeah. We found out the other day." Caleb nodded. "Excited."

"I always wished Mary could have had a daughter." He sighed. "I wouldn't have known how to raise one. Raising boys is hard enough."

"So, what's Dean got?"

"New Orleans. Poltergeists. Ought to keep him busy for a while."

"That it will." Caleb laughed.

Caleb went home to pick up his favorite guns. He gave instructions about plants and breakers and she followed him out to the porch and he wished she hadn't. John was waiting in the driveway. He just hoped the rain kept her from seeing who was in the truck. She kissed his mouth and waited on the porch until they were down the drive. Caleb watched the side view as she wandered back inside.

"Well, she ain't going hungry." John grunted.

"Hot dogs and twinkies all the damn time." Caleb shook his head. "She ate a chicken fried steak bigger than my head and didn't break a sweat."

"Pregnant women will do that."

Caleb didn't know what he was doing except John had always been his friend and he missed that feeling being able to talk to someone about changes in life. "I'm kind of freaking out."

"If you want out. Tell her. She raised a kid alone before. She'll do it again."

"I don't want out."

"You're sorry you're not married. You're sorry that you lied about who you were hunting with. You're sorry that you could die on a hunt and your daughter doesn't have a father."

"And I'm sorry that I always feel like I want to punch you in the face… wait. Not sorry about that."

"Comes with the territory." John nodded. "Through everything… The last couple of years… People have told me that despite what people felt about me… Everyone loves Dean. Everyone loves Sam. I know that everyone wants to take care of Claire. I might not be worth much but somehow… I brought them into this life. I brought people into this life that I felt should be shielded from it. I taught them how to fight it and they do it so much better than I do."

"Not sure they would agree with that."

"Talk to me again when your daughter is Sam's age and you don't know what you're going to do to keep her safe if she's running away."

"Well, that's not going to happen. She's going to be cryogenically frozen at age five."

"Good luck with that." John got the truck on the freeway. "I would have frozen Dean at… eight… and Sammy at two."

"Why?"

"Dean was… um… just coming into himself. Taking care of Sammy and learning to shoot and hunt and he was having a blast with it. Eager to learn and just… good at everything. That age where he didn't question if he could. He just did. It's amazing when you can teach them at that age. If you wait too long, they doubt." John watched the rain pelt the windshield. "Sammy couldn't talk at two. Just a lump of chub. Fucking cute and he hadn't figured out how to hate me yet."

"He doesn't hate you."

"But he learned how to say it." John nodded to himself. "And then he just couldn't stop saying it."

It was a long week of dirty motels, sketchy interviews, dusty tomes and musty tombs. Caleb dragged his bones out of the crypt and collapsed in the truck and waited for John to show up and get him home. He hauled out his phone. He called to check in. Claire was out hustling and he could barely hear her. She sounded happy. He promised to be home soon. John climbed in the truck and they were off for a motel to spend the night. When Caleb woke in the morning, the sun was just coming up. John was still awake. "You slept through the night. When did that start?"

"Claire." Caleb shrugged and got his ass up to take a piss. "If you fuck all day, you gotta sleep all night and vice versa."

Dressed, he got his bones out to gather his things. John sighed. "You're ditching me."

"We're not making any progress and that baby… I gotta be there. John… if she goes into early labor or something happens and I'm not there…"

"Okay." John nodded. "You'll be fine. Caleb. You'll be a fine dad."

TBC