"'Sup, bitches!" Charlie's yell shook Henry awake even back in his room. He heard the bunker door slam shut and then voices talking that sounded like Sarah and Charlie. Henry rolled over in bed and grabbed blindly for the small digital clock that always rested on his nightstand. He missed the first time and it clattered to the ground with a loud thump. Henry groaned.

The voices got louder inside the bunker. Kevin's joined in. Henry reached over the side of the bed and finally got a firm grasp on the clock, lifting it up until he could read the clear 9:36 glaring across its face. He groaned again and set the clock back on the nightstand.

"Up and at 'em, Henry!" Charlie's voice yelled cheerily down the hall. "This was your idea, after all." Henry withheld a third groan, worried he was starting to sound like Cas. If there was anyone more difficult to wake up than Henry, it was Cas.

"I'm up," Henry attempted to yell, but actually only muttered it into the warm fabric of his pillowcase. He sat up with tremendous effort and put his feet down on the rug beneath his bed. Someone banged loudly on his door and Henry marched across the room to yank it open before Charlie could start yelling again. For a minute she looked surprised, then she looked Henry up and down and started to giggle.

"Looking top notch, Gramps," he said. Henry rolled his eyes. He ran a hand through his unruly hair, then looked down at himself. He was wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a too-large T-shirt with the Looney Tunes logo on the front. It had been a joke Christmas gift from Dean. Henry was too freshly awake to bother being embarrassed.

"Give me a couple minutes," he said. He heard laughing from the kitchen and the smell of pancakes and coffee drifted down slowly afterwards. It perked him up more.

"Alright, clean yourself up," Charlie said. She started to walk away but yelled just before Henry's door closed, "and you can go ahead and wake up Cas." He heard a burst of laughter from the others and sighed. This was your idea, he reminded himself. He pulled on some jeans and a long thermal. The chill from the cold Kansas winter still wore its way through the bunker on a daily basis.

Before he knew it, he was outside Cas's door. He glanced at his watch and recorded in his mind that the time was 9:49. He gave it at least 15 minutes before Cas was awake, longer before he was actually awakeand in the kitchen. This was your idea, Henry reminded himself again, then knocked on the door loudly before marching inside without waiting for a response.

One they had all eaten and sat together drinking coffee (it had actually only taken a total of 20 minutes to get Cas out and eating. Apparently the fact that it was for Dean made all the difference). Charlie stood and pointed at the stack of cloth grocery bags in the corner.

"We have a lot of decorations to get up, and not a lot of time," she said. Kevin looked dubious.

"Dean and Sam won't be back until, like, dinnertime," he said. Charlie's eyes widened and her gestures grew larger.

"Exactly! That's less than eight hours!" she said. "I should have come yesterday. At least you guys already cleaned." She looked around and Sarah gave a smiling wink. Kevin looked smug and Henry nudged him sharply with his elbow.

"Don't think you're getting out of decorating, Tran," he said. Kevin's smugness fell away and he nudged Henry back.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said.

"Boys, seriously?" Charlie asked. She looked somewhat desperate. "We are losing precious time here."

"Sorry," Kevin and Henry muttered in unison.

"Anyway," Charlie said. She walked to the big bags by the wall and pulled out multiple rolls of crepe paper in various colors. "Alright, Henry and Kevin are with me for decorating," she said. Henry and Kevin both started talking at once.

"Wait, what—"

"Hey, that's not—" Charlie silenced them both with a finger and a frustrated glare.

"Cas," she said, biting down hard on the name, "is going to help Sarah with food." Cas smiled slightly at Sarah and sipped his coffee. He was at that stage in waking up where he was really Zen about everything. It was the stage just after unreasonably grumpy bitch.

"Where are we decorating?" Kevin asked. Charlie grinned. She tossed the rolls of crepe paper at him (he only managed to catch one) then dove back into her bags to emerge with another five rolls. She had a frightening glint in her eyes.

"Everywhere."

They had been driving for a full hour and a half before Dean broke his silence. All at once he leaned forward, jabbed the volume knob of the Impala, and started talking.

"Do you think Cas it pissed at me?" he asked. Sam had to blink a couple of times after looking up from his book to try to orient himself in the conversation.

"What?" he asked finally.

"I think I pissed Cas off or something," Dean grumbled. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Not that I doubt you said something stupid at some point, but Cas is definitely not pissed at you," Sam said. He went back to his book assuming that would be the end of the conversation, but Dean didn't drop it.

"I think he's getting sick of me or something," he said. Sam looked over at him, concern building now.

"I highly doubt that," he said. "What's going on?" Dean shrugged like he wasn't going to say, but did anyway.

"I don't know. He's keepin' secrets from me, which is bad if Cas's record is anything to go by," Dean said. Sam nodded but stayed quiet and Dean continued. "Plus he gave me kind of a bullshit reason for not coming on this hunt." Sam smiled softly.

"What, you mean I wasn't your fist choice?" he asked in mock offense. Dean reached over and slapped the back of his brother's head.

"You were actually my third," he mumbled. Sam slapped him back, despite the fact that Dean was the one driving. Hell, most of the time Dean never even looked at the road and they still didn't crash, so it couldn't be that dangerous. True to Sam's theory, the Impala didn't waver at all on the blacktop.

"Dude, I promise Cas is still mushy in love with you," Sam said. Dean still looked uncertain so he continued. "Seriously, you don't have jack shit to worry about. He's still your boyfriend." Dean's nose scrunched at the term. God, he still hated that one. It felt juvenile. And his thing with Cas just… wasn't. Dean re-adjusted his grip on the wheel and looked over towards Sam.

"Yeah, maybe," he said. He cranked up the music before Sam could offer more reassurance. Dean knew what he knew, and he knew Cas was acting squirrely. He also knew he couldn't possibly maintain the level of contentment he'd been living since he and Cas got together. That shit just didn't happen to him.

The bunker was heavily draped and decked out. There was blue and green crepe paper draped around every doorway. Multicolored balloons floated against the ceiling in every room, some getting dangerously close to the more heavy-duty overhead lights. The war room table had confetti scattered all over it. There was a stack of party hats on the table in the living room, which was covered in a yellow tablecloth. It also had a huge (very much spiked) bowl of punch and some plastic champagne cups stacked around it.

The entry staircase had paper fans along the side and the banister had lights wrapped around it top to bottom so the whole entry way glowed. Charlie stood in the middle of this whole shining mess of insanity. The manic glint in her eye was still there. It hadn't faded once. Not even when she thought she had forgotten the Gandalf "birthday boy" hat. It had been located a few minutes later in the trunk of her car. Cas considered trying to hide it again, but decided he was actually more afraid of Charlie than of Dean.

Across the doorway from the entry to the library was a strung up series of letter that spelled out "happy birthday". It was Cas's favorite decoration. Besides the lights on the staircase, which would only be turned on after Dean came inside. In the library, streamers hung down off of every shelf, twisting until they reached the floor. Henry walked in and put a hand on Cas's shoulder, looking around with same pride as Charlie, though his eyes lacked the manic expression.

"Damn," he said.

"Damn is damn right," Charlie said. She turned and grinned at them, cheeks pulling wide with the expression. It drew big smiles from both Cas and Henry as well. Sarah walked in from a side doorway that led to the hall and whistled.

"Looks great, guys," she said. "Kevin is with the pies, keeping guard in case little Bess here gets away from me again." Henry decided he didn't want to know what had happened when Bess got away from her the first time. Sarah leaned down and plucked the little girl off the floor. She was looking with wide eyes at the whole room, paying special attention to the twinkling lights and the balloons.

"Wow," she said, in her tiny voice. If possible, Charlie beamed more widely. Henry's phone buzzed in his pocket and he snatched it out quickly.

"Alright, they're pulling into the garage in about a minute," he said. He felt a thrill in his chest. He'd pulled it off. He did something right for Dean. When he glanced over at Castiel, he could tell the former angel was thinking along the same lines. Honestly, everyone seemed to be thinking about it. Dean, always doing nice things for all of them, and now they'd all managed to do something in return. And dammit, Dean was going to enjoy it.

"Alright, everyone hide," Charlie quickly said, throwing her arms out. "I'll get the lights."

Dean slammed the door of the Impala abruptly. He was still in a bad mood. Sam might call it moping, but Dean was most definitely not moping. Dean Winchester did not mope. Absolutely not. He was just in a shitty mood that he couldn't seem to get out of, and he sometimes lashed out at Sam and alright, fine, he was totally moping. But as far as he could tell, Cas was going to break up with him or something. That was the only explanation for the weird behavior. And Henry was in on it. He must know. That was why those two kept sneaking off together. Dean's heart clenched again. Henry giving Cas advice on how to break it off. Could Dean's life get any fucking sadder?

Sam sighed at Dean's slammed door and shook his head, but said nothing. He'd done his fair share of reassuring Dean by now, and there was no longer any point. Once Dean decided that something terrible was going to happen, there was no changing his mind. He was just going to have to let this happen and hope that Henry and Cas knew what they were doing.

"Hey, Dean," Sam said, taking a couple of quick steps towards Dean. "Why don't you let me take your duffle?" Dean gave him a mystified look.

"Why the fuck would you need to take my bag?" Sam swallowed. He could think of no reasonable response so he just shrugged and Dean rolled his eyes before pushing the door open. The lights in the hallway were on, but Dean could immediately tell that they were off in the rest of the bunker. He made a confused huffing noise.

"Everyone asleep at six in the goddamn evening?" he muttered.

"Maybe they're in the entryway," Sam said, like that was a reasonable thing to say. Dean gave him another weird look but followed when Sam turned right down the hall. The hall lights faded into darkness as they walked forward.

"Can we maybe turn on a fucking light?" Dean asked. Sam ignored him and pressed forward more quickly, hoping that Dean would stay at least reasonably calm for a few more steps. And somehow he did. They made it to the darkened entryway and Sam let out a breath. His job was done. He stood slightly off to the side so Dean could stumble forward in the dark.

"What the fuck?" Dean said again. Sam could make out the shape of him looking back and forth before all the lights turned on at once and there was a huge shout.

"SURPRISE!" Henry, Cas, Charlie, Sarah, Bess, and Kevin all jumped out from various hiding places at the same time as the lights flicked on. And Dean pulled his gun out of the back of his pants and had it cocked before anyone could move. Everyone froze in place, shock replacing the excitement that had been in their eyes before. Sam jumped forward with a little yelp and plucked the gun from Dean's hands before stepping quickly to the side again. Everyone's expressions were frozen. And all eyes were on Dean. His eyebrows drew together and he squinted.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked. There was a long, awkward silence before Henry cleared his throat.

"It's, uh, a surprise party, Dean," he said. He could see the others from the corner of his eye hanging back near their hiding places. Bess was clutching Sarah's leg, barely visible.

"Surprise? For what?" he said. Another awkward silence and then a shocked laugh from Sam.

"Oh my god," he said. Dean whirled on him.

"What?" he demanded. Sam put a hand over his mouth.

"Dean, it's your birthday, you dumbass," he said. There was another long silence while everyone stared at Dean. Slowly his posture loosened, his shoulders dropping. His eyes moved around the room, finally seeming to take in the decorations, before stopping on the Happy Birthday banner above the entry to the library.

"Holy shit," he said. Sarah sighed.

"I would get after you for your language, but what's the point?" She knelt down and seemed to reassure Bess quietly. Dean's cheeks turned a faint shade of pink. Cas was the one to finally break the uncomfortable tension. He moved quickly around Henry and pecked Dean on the lips.

"Happy Birthday, Dean," he said. Dean smiled sheepishly.

"Thanks," he said. Charlie barked a laugh.

"Well, this is a Winchester birthday," she said. "Who thought we were going to make it through the night without a gun being pointed at someone? Now, who wants drinks?" After that, the party went fairly smoothly. On his third drink, Henry wandered over to Dean and spoke, quietly enough that no one else would overhear.

"Did you really not remember it was your own birthday?" Dean looked down into his own cup of punch. At first, he had demanded beer, but he'd given up and accepted the plastic champagne glass of red punch. It was fruity tasting, but alcoholic enough to be good.

"Don't pay a lot of attention to birthdays, Henry," he said. Henry shook his head.

"Well, it's time you enjoyed one of them," he said. Dean looked up at Cas, who was talking to Charlie and smiling as she laughed.

"Did you plan all this?" Dean asked. Henry shrugged.

"It was my idea, but everyone helped," he said. Dean glanced around and then awkwardly pulled Henry forward into a firm hug, slapping his back a couple of times before pulling away.

"Thanks, Henry. Seriously."

"My pleasure," Henry said with a smile. "Now, I think presents are in order." The way Dean's eyes lit up at this announcement made Sam's heart clench a little. Everyone dispersed and came back rapidly, each holding different sized gift boxes or other variously wrapped objects. Dean's grin was wider than his face and the laugh lines around his eyes were more pronounced than Henry had ever seen.

"Alright, to the birthday chair, birthday boy!" Charlie said. Dean followed her instructions with embarrassment. Which was only exasperated when she pulled the Gandalf birthday hat from nowhere and plopped it down on Dean's head. It was the same size as the one from the movies, but this one had the words "birthday boy" embroidered across the font in that Lord of the Rings font. Dean almost removed it before a dangerous warning look from Charlie.

Kevin's present was opened first, and Dean grinned at it. He removed the Gandalf hat momentarily, giving Charlie a placating hand movement, so he could pull the present on. It was a sweatshirt from the college that Kevin was attending nearby. Kevin smiled sheepishly.

"I know it's dumb, and a total cliché, to give people gifts from school," he said. Dean shook his head and his smile was genuine.

"Kev, I love it," he said. Kevin smiled down at the floor. Sarah's gift was equally well-received, a big waffle iron because she'd heard Dean mention once or twice or a thousand times that he wanted to be able to make waffles for everyone. He thanked her with a bear hug. Sam didn't even bring up the fact that a couple years ago Dean had no idea what a waffle iron did. Bess gave him a colored picture of everyone who lived at the bunker, with the addition of Charlie, which he promised he would hang up on the fridge. He gave her a kiss on the top of her head and she shrieked out a giggle and ran away quickly. Next, Sam produced a little square folded up in newspaper.

"For old time's sake," he said. Dean's grin stayed in place. He ripped off the paper and a little mp3 device fell out. He looked at it for a minute, his grin tipping down in confusion.

"Oh," he said. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Alright, you need to not be a total ass about this," he said. "I got all your fucking tapes from the car and put them on an iPod. Which you can plug into the new speaker in the kitchen. That way you can listen to the same forty songs while you cook too." Henry blinked in surprise at Sam. He hadn't seemed to take the surprise party seriously, but it was a gift that had obviously taken a lot of work and consideration. Dean turned the iPod over in his hand. He looked up slowly at Sam, a smile dragging up a corner of his mouth.

"You douched up my kitchen?" he said with a laugh. Sam rolled his eyes.

"You're welcome," he said. Dean grabbed one of the couch pillows and tossed it at his brother, who easily deflected it so it hit Cas instead.

"Thanks, Sammy," Dean chuckled while Sam tried to apologize to Cas, who looked amused.

"Me, me, me!" Charlie said. She grabbed her bag off the floor and handed it to Dean. Inside, he found a robe that, when tied closed, made him look like he was wearing Kirk's captains outfit, and a light blue mug that had the words "Doctor Sexy, M.D." painted on the side. He pulled the robe on over his new sweater and held the mug up in a toast to Charlie as a thank you.

Cas's gift was small, wrapped in brown paper. Dean pulled it open and found a leather-bound copy of Slaughterhouse Five. The room was quiet while he turned it over in his hands and flipped through the pages. Cas settled down next to Dean on his chair, uncertainly.

"Cas, I love it," Dean said softly. Cas's answering smile was one of the biggest Henry had ever seen from the former angel. Cas leaned over and whispered something into Dean's ear and Dean turned a shade of red as he nodded. "Oh, ok," he said. Henry decided he didn't want to know.

"That leaves Henry," Sarah said. Bess was curled up in her lap, slowly fading into sleep. She ran her hands through her daughter's hair lightly. Henry cleared his throat and produced a package that looked remarkably similar to Cas's. Dean pulled it open and let the paper fall.

"It's not for hunting," Henry said quickly. Everyone in the room looked at him oddly, including Dean. He held up a journal the same size and shape as John's in response to the outburst. Henry shook his head. "It's traditional," Henry explained further. "My father received one from his father, and John got mine. But it doesn't have to be for hunting. Just fill it with… memories." He scratched his neck awkwardly but Dean smiled softly and held onto the book tightly.

"Awesome," he said. The party didn't last much longer after that. Kevin complained that they were all old, going to bed before midnight, but helped clean up when Sarah asked. Dean started to pick up cups and got yelled at by Charlie, Henry, and Sarah at the same time. He put his hands up in surrender.

"Your party, you don't clean up," Charlie said with a firm voice. Dean chuckled.

"Fine, I give," he said. She nodded and picked up the nearly empty punch bowl before disappearing. There was still pie leftover that Sarah promised she would pack away into the fridge, so that was whisked away quickly as well. Cas snuck up behind Dean with practiced ease.

"Hello, Dean," he said. Dean smiled and leaned back so that his weight was settled against Cas's chest.

"Hey, babe," he said.

"Would you like the rest of your gift now?" Cas asked in low voice. Dean swallowed and tried to laugh, but it came out thickly.

"Um, maybe we should wait until everyone is, like, asleep, Cas," he said. Cas wrapped his arms around Dean and leaned forward to press a kiss into Dean's neck.

"But I want to give it to you now," he said. Dean shot straight up, pulling himself free of Cas's arms. He reached behind him and snagged one of Cas's hands. Henry wandered back into the room, followed by Charlie and Kevin.

"Well, we're beat," Dean said quickly. "Thanks for everything. It was amazing. Seriously. Goodnight." He pulled on Cas's hand and the others in the room rolled their eyes.

"Never ones for subtlety," Charlie chuckled. Henry laughed in response.

"Well, he deserves a good birthday," Henry said.

"Doesn't mean we have to know everything he's getting," Kevin said with a disgusted expression. Charlie's responding laugh sounded more like an explosion.

Dean and Cas ran into Sam on the way back to their room and his eyes widened in realization as he took in their holding hands and rushed expressions.

"Oh," he said. Dean and Cas stopped short as Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out a clumped bit of fabric and tossed it to Dean, who snatched it from the air and unfolded it.

"You're kidding me," Dean said. Cas leaned over and chuckled.

"Garth says 'Happy Birthday'," Sam said with a smile. The clump of fabric turned out to be a ball cap with the word Garth'd on the front and Dean groaned.

"Garth was in on it and I still didn't know?" Sam shook his head.

"Regretting all that moping you did yet?" he asked. He didn't wait for an answer and just wished them a bright "goodnight!" before disappearing down the hall. Dean and Cas continued on their way.

"You were… moping?" Cas asked as they reached their bedroom door. He didn't turn the knob and Dean sighed.

"I thought, uh," he drifted off, thinking about how ridiculous what he'd been thinking actually was. "Well, you guys sneaking around freaked me out. I didn't like… you were lying." He looked down at the last word but he could feel Cas's intake of breath as he understood. The former angel reached over and tipped Dean's head up so he could look into the hunter's eyes.

"I would not ever lie to you about something serious again," Cas said. "I lied too many times. I won't hurt you again." Dean's expression melted as Cas kissed him softly.

"I know, I was being stupid," Dean said. Cas shook his head.

"Just underestimating how much we care about you," Cas said. "Now, would you like the rest of your present?" Dean nodded eagerly and Cas nudged the door open. Dean quickly pushed them both inside and shut the door behind them with his foot before pressing himself against Cas with eager, firm kisses. Cas responded smoothly, biting Dean's bottom lip lightly. But after a few moments, he pushed Dean away. Dean made a sad noise.

"What now?" Dean said in what was definitely not a whine. Cas smiled fondly.

"Your present isn't sex, Dean," he said. Dean's mouth clamped shut and Cas shook his head. "Well, not entirely. We can still do that later. But that wasn't part of your present."

"Oh," Dean said. He shifted on his feet. "What, then?"

"Turn around." And Dean did, slowly, until he could look at the wall next to his side of the bed. Where there had been blank space and a few guns before, now there were neatly framed pictures covering most of the wall. They were of a variety of sizes. Some were old, really old, that Cas must have asked Sam for. There were shots of Dean and Sam from right after they started hunting again, probably ones that Bobby took. There was a picture of Dean and Bobby, clinking bottles of beer together. One was a picture of the whole Winchester family from when Sam was only a couple of months old.

Then there were the newer shots, ones that had been taken since Henry had shown up. There was a picture of Cas asleep in the passenger seat of the Impala that Dean had taken. One was of Sarah and Bess, all wrapped up in each other and laughing enthusiastically. There was one of Cas and Dean, slumped together on the couch, and one of Charlie and Kevin playing some tabletop game while everyone else stood in the background, totally confused. There was a big one of Dean with his arm around Henry's shoulders as they both grinned. And then there was the one of Sam, Dean, and Mary that had been taken the day before their attack on heaven.

"Cas, it's… everyone," he said. It wasn't the word he meant to say, but it was the one that came out. Cas nodded like he understood. And he probably did. He always did understand Dean better than anyone else. That much was clear from the gift alone.

"You are happiest when you are surrounded by your family," Cas said. "So, now they are all here always." Dean denied the lump that was building in his throat. He coughed to clear it.

"I love you, Cas," he said, softly. He could feel Cas's smile when he kissed Dean's cheek.

"And I you," Cas said. Dean turned so he could give Cas a more full kiss on the lips. He pressed into Cas with practiced ease, his mouth opening at the soft touch of Cas's tongue. He wrapped his arms around the curve of Cas's lower back and slowly pushed them backwards, until Cas's knees buckled and he fell back onto their shared bed. Dean smiled into Cas's mouth.

"Best Birthday ever," he said. Cas smiled back, but it was a hungrier expression now.

"It isn't over yet." Dean chuckled and kissed Cas firmly, pulling his shirt off at the same time. Later, when Cas was sleeping soundly, Dean leaned over and pressed another soft kiss against Cas's neck. And Dean fell asleep with the words I love you slipping from his lips.

AN: Alright, that concludes part 3 of the Henry verse! I hope people are still enjoying this verse, and I hope you enjoyed this part even though it was much shorter than the rest. Thanks to people who have stuck around this long! Comments and likes are very welcome, if you would like to leave them. Oh, and be sure to follow me on tumblr at preparetobemildlyentertained!