Deana/Caleb

22 – "I do this."

Caleb Bailey put on the robe and ate the dry cookie and drank the stinky tea. He paced the room until Father Murphy returned. He was full of questions and the priest took it as backing out. "Do you not want to do this?"

"It's just… last minute. I haven't exactly kept up my studies. So… I mean… do I have to go in there ready?" Caleb made a broad gesture with his hands.

"We're always at the ready, my son."

"I mean. Do *I* need to be *ready* when I go in there?"

Father Murphy crossed his arms. "Do you not want to do this, Caleb?"

"I want to do it. I just need to know some things." Caleb took a breath. "Do I need to be… erect… when I go in?"

"Oh."

"Do I need to prepare her? Or is she already… ready?"

"This is the intercourse part."

"Yes."

"Well… um… I've never asked previous participants." He motioned with his hands and closed his eyes. "I suppose the men are… ready. I cannot vouch for the girls. I suppose it's tricky for them but there don't seem to be many problems."

"Okay." Caleb nodded until the priest left and then gave himself a little playtime to get up to spec. When he walked in there, they were chanting. The girl was on the table in a robe. The chanting kept on and Caleb took up his place. Like himself, the girl was wearing a mask. He tried not to shake so much. There were so many people in the room. All around the edges of the room but they were there.

He tried to focus on the girl. Large breasts evident through the robe. He gripped her legs and pulled her to the edge, spreading her thighs. Parted the robe until he could see the goal but it fell open to her belly, showing him a little scar beneath her belly button. He opened his robe and prayed he stayed hard under pressure. He spit on his fingers and rubbed them over his penis. He pushed in and it wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. When he got the head in, her thighs clenched. Then he felt her tear as he pushed in further. She was so tight he gripped the table not to end it right there. It took a minute to get a rhythm then he noticed the chants matched his rhythm. It bolstered his nerves and he just went with it. Her hand clenched the edges of the table near his own hands.

Then he came. Hard. Fast. And A Lot.

He was struck by the sight of blood and cum slipping out of the girl's pink little vagina. He was rushed away and into the next room while a robed figure collected the… drippings.

The next day, he woke up and showered and joined the group for breakfast. It was impossible to know who had been in the room the night before and who wasn't. There were only a few women but the ones he saw with plates and cigarettes in the back were clearly not the virgin he'd "met" the night before. He took a seat with his coffee and eggs at the end of a table with a quiet man and his quiet daughter. He had mixed feelings about the ritual and didn't feel like talking anyway. He almost moved when he realized the girl had been crying.

They ate quietly until the father cleared his throat. "We've got to stay a couple of days before we can go pick up your brother."

"Okay." She nodded to her plate and sniffed a little. "I have finals next week… if you still want me to stay in school."

"The law says 16 but I say you graduate." He bit out softly. He met Caleb's eyes. "Can you tell her you graduated high school?"

"I did." Caleb nodded. "Just barely but I did. History was the only useful subject… timelines."

"Timelines." She nodded to her plate and motioned with her fork. "The year and the tick mark, right?"

"Yeah." Caleb nodded. He watched the man kiss her head and get up to get some more coffee. "Are you okay?"

"Not really." She shook her head and gave him a small smile. "Sometimes, I hate the hunting stuff and now I gotta go back to school on Monday… like I don't do this."

"It was weird for me." He nodded to her. "It was like eight years ago. I know. I'm ancient." She laughed and shook her head at him. "I missed a lot of school but… I graduated and I got a real job for a time after school. I do this."

"Me, too. I do this." She nodded and sniffed again.

"I'm Caleb." He held his hand out. She took it and gave him a firm handshake though she kind of looked like she was falling apart.

"Deanna."

"Good to meet you."

"This is my dad, John." She motioned as he took his seat once more and placed a biscuit in front of her. "My new friend, Caleb. He shakes hands like a real man."

"Is that an issue?" Caleb frowned.

"My last boyfriend shook hands like a dead fish. Daddy didn't approve."

John made a face at her. "Shook hands like a dead fish, drove a pinto and belched his name when he introduced himself. He was not a keeper, honey."

"I think not." Caleb agreed and finished off his eggs. When Deanna stood up, her shirt rode up and a little scar on her belly caught his attention.

John caught the look on his face. He waited until she was gone. "They try to make sure no one knows who was on the table at these things but the numbers are dwindling and she was the only virgin girl in the tri-state area. I didn't do such a good job with the birds and bees, it seems."

Caleb didn't know what to say. The girl was 16 years old.

"When I first came into the life, they talked me into one of these. Last one I ever did. That girl was 14, I found out later. I was 35. Deanna's holding it together rather well compared to that girl."

"I…"

"It'll spin you." He took a breath. "I wasn't in the room. I couldn't... She agreed to it. We told her beforehand, how these things go. She still wanted to do it. Jim told me you were kind. Thank you for that."

"I… never do this… I didn't know… what the… etiquette was… I had no idea."

"Yeah. They don't tell you until after for a reason." He stood with his plate and disappeared.

Caleb had a cooler in the back of his truck and was headed toward three sheets to the wind when Deanna found him. Her eyes were still a bit red and she grimaced a bit when she hopped into the truck bed. "Do you mind? I don't… want to be in the house."

"Sure." He belched. It was quiet for a bit and he kept thinking about how he'd been the one to take that first time from her in a room full of hunters with everyone watching. He pulled a beer out and handed it to her. She smiled at the bottle and turned it in her hands but didn't open it.

"Can I tell you something?"

"What's up?" He adjusted the hat on his head so that he could barely see her.

"They did a fertility rite yesterday… and I was the… the virgin." Her shoulders hunched forward. "I volunteered but I didn't think it would feel like that."

"Like how?"

"It… was weird. I was laying on the table in nothing but a robe and this… dude came in. He was… kind of big, I think. He seemed… big. It hurt… a lot… in the beginning. It started to feel okay but by that time it was over." She turned the bottle in her hands. He reached over and opened it for her. She took a long swallow. "I just… maybe there's something wrong with me?"

"No." He lowered his gaze to his bottle. "It's like that for girls. The first time hurts. I'm sure he wasn't… you know… huge. Average probably."

"Then you think… maybe I'm… too… small inside?"

"No." He took a breath. "You… get used to it, I guess. You got muscles… down there like… anywhere else. You use them and they get use to it. Why are we talking about this?"

"There aren't any girls here. Those hunters out back, the women, they… got into a fight this morning and all took off. And all the dudes are old, except for you."

"I've been drinking. We shouldn't be talking about this." Caleb pulled on his beer.

"Deanna!" Her name was called over the yard. She handed him her beer and scrambled over the side of the truck bed to answer her father.

Caleb kept drinking. When he slipped into his room to pass out, he figured he'd get a move on in the morning. Except he was wakened in the middle of the night by hands on his chest. Deanna was naked and in his bed. She was whispering things about wanting to have sex with him so she could pretend it was him she'd lost her virginity to and not any of the old guys down stairs. He wanted to tell her but he kept his mouth shut and touched her face. She was a beautiful girl.

Still, drunk, he took his time. He kissed her softly at first, then hungrily. He got her ready, thoroughly, before he pushed inside her. He swallowed all of her cries with his mouth. Afterward, he rolled off her and kept her close. She was breathless and her hands drifted all over him. He woke alone and if not for the damp spot, it could have been a dream.

After breakfast, she followed him around and he thought it was obvious but didn't want to make a scene. There were hardly any hunters hanging around. It was Jim and his crew. John and Deanna were working on something for Jim. Well, John was. Every time Caleb was going to make a break for it, Jim needed his assistance for some manual labor task. It was mid-afternoon and Caleb had his keys in one hand and an unopened beer in the other. Every time that little girl wandered into his view, he needed to be gone or drunk. When Jim asked for help in the barn, Caleb opened the beer and slammed it before going to be of assistance.

So, he was hiding in the barn loft with his six pack when Deanna climbed up and sat beside him. She leaned on him and closed her eyes. He wanted to cry. He wanted to shove her away. He wrapped an arm around her and chugged the beer in his hand. He wanted to tell her. He wanted to explain. He didn't open his mouth except for more beer.

He wasn't sure who started the round. Somehow he had her pants around her knees, bent over a hay bale and his cock balls deep when he came and it was just everywhere. It was the longest orgasm he had ever had. He pulled out and just stared for a minute at his cum all over her ass and thighs. The sight got him hard again. Pulling her around, he set her on her back and tugged her jeans all the way off.

Leaning over her, he kissed her, kept asking over and over if she was okay. She just nodded, her lip tucked between her teeth. Took his time to explore her flesh as he slowly reentered and moved slowly. Wrapped her legs around his waist, pulled her knees up under his arms, then was whispering urgent things into her ear as he gave up and just fucked her out. Had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep the sounds in.

Afterward, he was in the space between waking and sleeping and she was whispering to herself so quietly that he couldn't make out the words but he didn't really try. It was hot in the barn so when she draped herself along his side, it was uncomfortable and sweaty. "We're leaving in the morning. I probably won't see you again."

"Probably." He croaked out. "I should head out, myself."

"Thank you."

That made him shut his eyes. She was too young for anything they had done over the last few days. "Just… don't go telling people what we did, huh? I could get in a lot of trouble."

"I know." She kissed his cheek and got up. He tried not to get hard again while her tits were bouncing around. She had to clean up some before getting her clothes back on. He felt bad but he had no idea where all that cum had come from. Given the amount of sex he'd had recently, it should have decreased rather than increased. He gave her his undershirt to catch the eruption between her legs once she'd completely straightened up. She turned a bright red. He held the shirt for her, kissing the scar beneath her belly button. "Sorry."

"This is nothing." He kissed her belly again. "Go on. Get dressed. Go get washed up."

Once she was gone, he got himself together. He got his flannel on but didn't bother to button it. He tossed the shirt in a barrel blazing with some stray branches and kept moving. He nodded to hunters he saw on his way to the house. He grabbed his bag and jumped into his truck. He endured the smell of himself and her on himself until he got to a motel far enough away that he couldn't go back without a good reason.

Showered and dressed, he went and found some tail closer to his own age. He did that for months, trying to reassure himself that he was not in fact a pedophile. That he only reason he'd done what he did was to undo what he'd done. She was overdeveloped for 16 anyway. It wasn't about her age, her youth, her babyfat. It was the fact that they were in a thing together and there was no getting out of it.

Caleb didn't volunteer for anymore rites. He always spent that night alone and he always spent it drunk. Barflies came and went and when he was a solid 30 years old, he was called back in for a favor. Jim's place hadn't changed. He saw a bunch of faces he had seen before and since. John Winchester was in the yard when he pulled in. The man motioned him over immediately. "Caleb, how's it going, friend?"

"I dunno. You know what Jim wants?"

"I do… walk with me." John led him around the house to the back field where absolutely no one was and no one could hear them. "Jim's got an idea in his head that the rite we did a few years back bore fruit."

"Bore fruit?" Caleb's brain froze.

"Jim knows you were in the rite with my girl. You and I know that… we're the only ones. My…" John shook his head and looked to the sky. "My girl's head got a bit spun by that rite and I should have been prepared for it. She's a precocious shit and that's what bore fruit. She got herself knocked up sometime after we all left that year. It's near enough that Jim's got it in his head that my grandchild is the fruit of a fertility rite and that makes the kid special."

"So… why did… everyone come back?"

"If he's right, he wants to do another rite and it's a fucked up rite. He's certain enough that he called everyone back." John patted him on the back and started the walk back to the house. "He'll find out soon enough that he's wrong but I wanted you to have a head's up."

Caleb's fingers itched to wrap around a bottle or a gun or a just anything as an excuse to forget what he'd just heard. He stumbled his way back to the house. A bunch of kids ran past him and into the fields just shrieking their heads off. His hunter's vision kicked in and he took inventory. Most of them were very young. Six, seven, four, five, six, ten. His chest clenched as his eyes looked over the youngest of them. A boy with dark hair and green eyes and just the spitting image of his mother.

"You ruffians will stay within earshot! You got it!" That voice.

He turned and there she was jogging to the edge of the field. 20 years old and all the baby fat gone, all the curves settling in where they'd been just a tad awkward before. Deanna froze when she saw him. "Hi."

"Hi." He shoved his hands in his pockets. They stood there for a moment. "You know where the beer is?"

"Yeah, come on." Deanna motioned for him to follow her. There was a giant cooler in the yard that showed plenty of traffic marks around it. "He really did call every last soul back, didn't he."

"Yeah, I guess." Caleb couldn't help staring at her. "You look… grown up."

"I should hope so." She laughed. She took a beer and handed him one. She kept her eyes darting back to the field.

"Your dad told me about his grandkid…" Caleb jerked his head behind him.

"Yeah. The little one is mine." She opened her mouth a few times. "Look… Dad and I are the only ones who know why Jim called everyone back. Jim thinks the guy in the rite is the father of my boy but that's just not true. I didn't tell anyone what we did. I… I wanted to tell you… but… I didn't want to ask anyone and make it obvious."

His chest constricted a bit more. "Is… he…?"

She nodded. "He's yours. I'm pretty sure. I mean… I am sure… unless there's a slight chance it was the guy in the robe but… I was with you much… much more than I was him. There wasn't anyone else until I was legal. Told my dad it was a guy at the next school I went to after we left here." She shrugged. "I just told Jim he could do his blood test if he was so sure. I'm not."

"Fuck." Caleb breathed finally and chugged his beer. "I… Deanna… there's something I gotta tell you." He kept picturing her on that table and all that cum he'd shot inside her. That night in his bed. That day in the barn. So much fucking cum.

"If it's about being honorable or not… I don't care. I don't need you to take care of me or Isaac. Just… thought you should know before the madness starts inside. I've been taking care of Isaac pretty much by myself. Dad's… he's never been a great dad and he's an awesome granddad but… anyway. I got Isaac and that 10 year old is mine. She's… a souvenir I picked up from a hunt. Figured I'd turn her fearlessness into a hunter."

Caleb paced and polished off his beer. He had to do it. "There's the thing… I mean… I would have liked to know. I'm not good for much. I'm not. I'm like to get myself killed on a hunt or in a bar brawl or for fucking the wrong woman."

"Look."

"Can I talk?" Caleb took a deep breath. "There's…" He didn't know how to phrase it. "I talked to your dad about this already because he knows something you don't and you know something he doesn't and it's all about that week we were all here together." He stared out into the fields for a moment, he could see the grains waving as the kids ploughed through them in their play. "You know that I am in fact a candidate… your dad doesn't."

"So… I mean… I said I wouldn't tell."

"Your dad knows who else was in the rite that night." He didn't meet her eyes. "It was me. It was always me."

"But…" She stared at him while she digested the words. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were so upset and I was… upset that you were that way… and when you came to me… I just wanted to fix it. I figured if I did it all right… you were going to be okay… and I wouldn't have to live with myself knowing that I'd fucked a teeny bopper who was traumatized by the experience." He watched the blood drain out of her face. "And then… you just kept coming to me and I couldn't keep my hands off and…"

"So… no matter what… Jim is right."

"What is the rite? What is he trying to do?"

"If he was conceived that night?" Deanna breathed out and lifted her beer to her mouth. "He's special. His blood is special. It's blood magic. He wants to create a warrior out of my boy and my boy is already going to be a warrior. He's a hunter. I'm… I'm not giving my boy to the church to raise. I'm going to teach him to hunt."

"I'll take care of it." Caleb nodded to the ground as the kids came shrieking back in from the fields. Isaac ran straight for Deanna, who swooped him up and kissed his face. The girl stepped up shyly and Deanna yanked her in for a hug. "You're a good mom, Deanna. I can see that. I will take care of this."

Caleb waited. He knew Jim would approach him and he wouldn't do it in front of everyone. It was after dinner and after Caleb had the chance to watch Deanna and John with both Isaac and Mika. Deanna's brother, Sam, was sulking in a corner with a book but that seemed to bother no one. It was after a round of storytelling in the dining room with a bottle of Jack. Jim simply touched Caleb's shoulder and they moved to the study. Jim moved to his desk. "I need some of your blood, Caleb."

"Oh?"

"Well… there's…" Jim looked up at the man on the other side of the desk. The young man who had taken a seat and made himself comfortable. "The rite you participated in has borne fruit. I'm certain. I was told that I needed to be certain and to do that, I need to perform a DNA test." Caleb took a deep breath and let it out. "Has someone told you?"

"Yes. Don't ask who." Caleb waved off the old man. "Anyone who told me about what you wanted, did it to relieve me of responsibility that… frankly… well, it was misplaced advice."

"How so?"

"The kid is mine, Father. There's no doubt about it." Caleb fiddled with the bottom of his shoe where it rested on his knee. "I… um… I'm not sure what date is the date that's important."

"How do you mean?"

"I was told that the rite was the night… or at least, that's your feeling." He shrugged. "I mean, if we made him that night, then you are right… but there were other nights when I was with her that would have resulted in the same child." He shrugged. "I knew I was there. She knew she was there. I didn't know she was there. She didn't know I was there… til this."

"Caleb…" Jim froze. "She was 16."

"She was 16 the night she was on the table, Father. I would like to say that I'm a better man than that but… she was a beautiful 16 year old… and she was really eager. I'm only a man. A beautiful girl like that gets naked and climbs into bed with me… I wanted to be the kind of guy who would send her on her way back to her father but… I'm weak." Caleb set his eyes on his shoe. "Every time I thought I should do the right thing… she came at me again. I was weak and I gave her what she wanted. John tells me that she was always… precocious."

"I guess what's done is done… there's no real way to test that… or which night…"

"That tea… I had to drink… it was potent, right?"

"I suppose that's a word for it. To ensure that there was… plenty to work with… keeping things risen, so to speak."

"How long was that supposed to stay in my system?"

"I'm not sure. No one has ever said… even so, the only night that would matter is the one in question." Jim began shuffling through his notes.

"So… if you tried to use his blood to bind him to this life… and he isn't who you think he is… what would happen?"

"Nothing good, I'm afraid." Jim lifted his eyes to the young man across from him. "How many… times?"

"Define… times." Caleb sighed. "I mean… the meetings were few but the length of the meetings varied a bit… congress met more than once at some of those meetings. The… satisfaction levels were high, the culminations of negotiations bountiful and use of rhythms neglected." When the pastor seemed lost, Caleb clarified. "We had a lot of sex, with a lot of orgasms and I never pulled out once. All the seed… inside… ready to babymake."

"If you had to hazard a guess at which… union was the most… bountiful."

"It was the last. Definitely. I had to use a shirt to clean it all up and I burned that on my way out."

"Burned it, you say." Jim sank back in his chair. "I had a few barrels going."

"The sacred barrel was in the back, near the field, right? Had all the robed fellows surrounding it for days? I tossed the shirt in the one near the barn where the trash was being burned."

"I see." Jim shut his eyes.

"Deanna and I have to… have a talk… about what parental rights she thinks I should have."

"Of course… I'll send them all away." Jim sighed heavily. "I wish you would have told me."

"I wasn't going to tell anyone what I did. I felt… bad about myself for a long time." Caleb admitted as he got to his feet. "She's a beautiful woman and she doesn't need me."

Caleb was still awake when his door opened. Deanna wore a faded Henley and some flannels as she sat on the edge of his bed. "I was hoping you'd be up."

"Couldn't sleep." He shook his head but didn't sit up. "I told him… well, I said a lot of things. He's got enough information that he can't do his rite."

"Okay. Thank you." She tilted her head at him. "What did you tell him?"

"The truth. We had so much sex after the ritual that it's much more likely that Isaac happened in our last… session." He shrugged and laughed a bit. "I didn't tell him that I think I was still under the effect of that damned tea. If he had known what a geyser my dick was that day, he might reconsider."

"Geyser. Yeah." She laughed. "That was the messiest sex I have had in my entire life."

"Mine, too."

Deanna sobered. "I didn't mean to say that you couldn't be a part of his life… I know I kind of came off that way. I have to defend myself every day to my dad and he… well, if he finds out it's you… well, you're dead meat."

Caleb smiled. "He'd be right. I should have kicked you out of my bed but… you cut… such a picture."

"And I threw myself at you."

"You did a bit but… I still let my cock do the walking."

"I have no regrets. He's beautiful."

"He looks like you."

"He's got your hair."

"Poor boy." Caleb ran a hand over his scalp. He'd started shaving it since that night. To hide where the hair had gone missing. Finally, he sat up and ran a finger down her face. "I honestly don't know that I'm cut out to be a father."

"Okay."

"But… I'd be lying if I thought I could stay away from you."

"Well, one is dependent on the other."

"I know."

"I love my kids." She cleared her throat. "I just… don't want them to be raised quite like I was."

"I understand."

With that, she left him to his sleep. He didn't, of course. In the morning, he packed up before everyone got up. Most skipped breakfast and headed out. It was just the few who stuck around for the pancakes and coffee. John had a grandkid on each knee while he sipped his coffee and listened to stories of adventure in the backfield from each one. Caleb ran his eyes over Isaac, and tried to commit the features to memory.

"Hey there, Jim's got someone churning out pancakes." John nodded to him. "Sent everyone on last night, I guess."

"Yeah." Caleb's weight shifted and he still didn't know if he was slinging the bag under the table or onto his shoulder until the movement was done. "I gotta get going."

"Something wrong?"

"No. Everything's the way it's supposed to be." Caleb turned and walked out. He was pulling out when he saw her standing in the doorway to the house. He just couldn't do it. It wasn't what he did.