Chapter Three

Dean excused himself to the bathroom and as soon as he left the room, Maggie slid into his seat beside Lola. She took her hands gently, looking Lola in the face,

"How're you doing?" She asked gently,

"I'm fine." Lola replied with a smile,

"I do worry about you." Maggie admitted, "I mean…you and Dean, you've always had a really turbulent relationship and I often think about you."
"I'm sorry it's been so long, Maggie." Lola admitted, "I think six months is the longest we've ever been apart since we met."

Maggie smirked,

"That's true…I missed you a lot."

"I missed you too!" Lola beamed,

"What've you been up to?"

"Same old…same old…"

"Sam mentioned you'd gotten into modelling again."

Lola shrugged,

"I'm getting a little old for that sort of thing, honestly." She sighed, "I did a little for a special one off, it paid well and we needed the money at the time."

"Lola, you're twenty eight."

"I'm getting old!" She wailed,

"You're hardly over the hill." Maggie rolled her eyes, "Not like me."

"Oh please…" Lola huffed, "You look amazing!"

Maggie chose not to answer as Lola toyed with a silver bracelet around her wrist,

"Sooooo…" She began slyly, "When am I going to have a playmate for Josh?"

Lola's eyes flicked up quickly before back down to her pale wrists,

"If that's a round about way of asking when I'm going to have a baby…" She warned. Maggie held her hands up in defeat, leaning back in her seat,

"Okay…point taken!" She giggled, "You'd make a great mom."

"Maggie…I swear to God…" Lola warned, pointing a finger at her friend,

"I'm sorry…I guess I'm just trying to take my mind off of other things."

Lola smiled weakly,

"Everything'll be fine. I have complete faith in Sam and Dean. In the last seven years, I've never had a problem that they haven't solved."

"Not to be rude, Lola, but this is pretty big!"

"It is petty big, but we'll figure it out…" Dean said from the doorway, "Because Josh means the world to us." He said as he walked in slowly, leaning down on the back of Lola's chair. He draped his arms around her shoulders from behind lazily, placing a soft kiss a top of her head,

"Exactly." Lola agreed as Sam emerged from the other doorway, his face a deathly pale,

"What's wrong Sam?" Lola asked,

"Uhm…" Sam swallowed, "It's nothing…I just, y'know…forgot how much he tires you out."

Maggie smiled,

"Yeah…he sure does!" She beamed, "You sure you're alright Sam?"

"Yep."

"Okay well…I've been driving all day so I'm exhausted." Lola yawned as she stood up, "I'll see you all in the morning."

"Goodnight Lola." Maggie called,

"Night." Sam added. Dean leant forwards, kissing her softly,

"I'll be up a little while, okay?"

She nodded,

"No hurry."

Dean slumped into his wife's seat and looked at Sam sceptically,

"I'm really worried…if he goes back to school in September and does this, he's going to scare a lot of people. People are going to want to hurt him, Sam!" Maggie exclaimed, her voice cracking, "What if they take him away from me? He's all I've got left…"

"Hey…" Sam soothed, crouching down beside her, "No one's going to take Josh away…it'll be okay…Dean and I will take him out and have a really fun, great day with him tomorrow and we'll talk him through it and…it'll be fine. Don't worry about it."

Maggie nodded slowly,

"Okay…" Maggie sighed, though she didn't quite believe it.

"Hey Josh…" Dean smiled as he ambled up to Josh in the back yard as he sat in his sandbox, building a long thin wall across the centre of the pit,

"Uncle Dean!" Josh smiled, "Come help me build a fort!"

Dean tugged on his jeans legs and crouched down beside his nephew, gently stroking the hair back off of his face,

"A fort, huh?"

"Yeah…it's going to be my army base."

"Army base, eh?" Dean smirked, "For all your plastic soldiers?"

"No."

"What army then?"

"The yellow-eyed man's army."

Dean froze before licking his lips,

"You know…" He began, "The yellow-eyed man isn't your friend." Dean said which caused Josh to stop in his digging. He turned and looked up at Dean,

"Yes he is."

"He isn't, Josh…he's not a very nice man and your mommy and your uncle Sam and me, we don't want you to be around people who aren't very nice. Wouldn't you rather be around people that love you?"

"Yes."

"Well there you go then…so how's about you me and your uncle Sam go to the zoo today, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"The next time you see the yellow-eyed man, you tell me or Sam, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Great. Let's go!" Dean said as he bounced into a stand, reaching down his hand to help Josh up to his feet,

"Uncle Dean…" Josh began slowly, "Why don't you and aunty Lola have any children?"

Dean cleared his throat,

"Some people, like your mom, have babies very easily and others, take a little longer."

"Aunty Lola's like my mom, huh?"

Dean frowned,

"No Joshua."

"Oh…but she had a baby."

"What? No she didn't, Joshua."

"Aunty Lola had a baby. She didn't tell you about her though and she went to a clinic. You thought she went to see her brother, but really she was in New York. Uncle Dean…where's New York?" Josh asked, cocking his head to the side. Dean failed to answer, his face drained of all it's colour as he stared at the ground numbly. He looked at Josh, who was staring at him inquisitively, "Uncle Dean?" He asked with a blink, "Why didn't she tell you?"

"I…I don't know Josh." Dean mumbled, looking back at the house.

Maggie laughed as she took a round blue plate from Lola's hands, laden with suds,

"Totally…" She agreed, drying the plate with the white tea towel she held as Joshua came running into the kitchen through the back door. Sam looked up from his seat at the kitchen table where he was sipping at a mug of coffee,

"Mommy!" He exclaimed, "Come play with me!" He said, tugging on her jeans leg. Maggie looked down at him and frowned, brushing his brown hair out of his eyes,

"But I thought uncle Dean was playing with you sweetie…" She cooed,

"No…" Joshua sighed heavily, "He's just sitting on the swings with a bottle."

Lola looked up from the sink quickly. She exchanged concerned looks with Sam and Maggie before stepping away from the sink to look out of the window, wiping her wet hands on his tight blue jeans as she did so, though all she could see was Dean's back as he sat slumped in one of Joshua's swings. In her low kitten heels, she clicked towards the backdoor before stepping down the step and into the yard. She picked her way across the grass and walked around him,

"Where'd you get the beer, Dean?" She asked, hands on her hips,

"The car…" Dean slurred as Sam and Maggie stepped into the garden, Maggie telling Joshua firmly to remain in the kitchen as they approached to investigate,

"What was beer doing in the car?"

"It's part of my secret stash!" He blurted before grinning and covering his mouth, "Oh crap…I shouldn't of told you that…" He snickered. Lola's eyes widened as realisation settled in,

"You're drunk."

"What of it?"

"You're drunk in front of a child? Dean…you know you can't drink because of your health!" She snapped, snatching the bottle away from him,

"Yeah…well…I had a revelation." Dean muttered, looking down at his feet,

"Oh yes? What was that then?"

He looked up at her, narrowing his eyes,

"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what?" She asked, oblivious,

"The baby."

"…" Lola fell silent, dropping her arms down to her sides, the beer bottle neck still loosely held within her fingers, "How'd you find out?"

"Josh." Dean said seriously, "So why didn't you tell me?"

Lola held up the bottle,

"This is why…or one of the reasons why." She said simply, "You are nowhere near ready to have a child…we can barely look after ourselves…and we're always on the road, hunting and…and what kind of a life is that?"

"It didn't do me any harm."

"LOOK AT YOU DEAN!" Lola yelled, "How could you want this for our child? Ugh…you're ridiculous!"

"Lola…" Sam soothed, approaching and placing his hands gently on her arms, "What's going on?"
"Stay out of this, Sam!" Dean snapped, "For once this isn't about you."

"Dean!" Lola snapped, "God you're exactly the same when you've had a drink. You're a nasty piece of work!"

"No…marriage did that to me."

"Ha!" Lola snorted, "You're a pathetic man, Dean…pathetic…you can't even resist a beer."

"You didn't tell me we had a child and you got rid of it without even asking what I felt…how did you expect me to react?"

All of a sudden Joshua ran out of the house, passed Maggie who was watching on in horror and up to Lola. He tugged on her hand,

"Aunty Lola…it's okay!" He said softly. Lola smiled, crouching down beside him,

"Awh…Josh…thank you sweetheart. You're right…everything is okay…but this is grown-up talk, why don't you go inside and play with your mom?"
"No…" Josh said with a smile, "I mean…it's okay for uncle Dean to have a drink, he does it all the time!" He beamed, "Like the time he said he went into rehab and he said you weren't allowed to visit…he was actually in Vegas."

"That's impossible…I would've noticed the money…" She was cut off by Joshua,

"He has a credit card you don't know about."

"…does he now…?"

"And all those times that he says he's going to counselling…he's really just going to the bar down town…but it's okay because uncle Sam knows!"

Lola shrugged Sam's hands off and turned on him,

"Please tell me that this is just the wild imagination of a child…or that I'm actually going insane?" She pleaded to her brother-in-law who struggled to look her in the eye,

"Lola…I…" Sam stammered, "I'm sorry…I promised him that I wouldn't tell…"

Lola turned back to Dean, tears welling in her eyes,

"Dean?" She asked, "You've been drinking behind my back?"

"Yeah…" Dean said defiantly, looking away from her,

"So you lied to me?"

"I guess that makes two of us then, huh?"

"You jerk…"She growled, shaking her head as she pulled at her hand, throwing her wedding band at his chest. It bounced off of his grey t-shirt and onto the grass as Lola turned her back and pushed the beer bottle into Sam's chest, "Seven years and I've had enough…" She muttered, stalking back across the garden,

"Lola…I…" Maggie began, but Lola held her hands up in the air to signal that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. Grabbing her jacket from the table and Dean's keys, she disappeared off through the house, slamming the front door behind her as she did, leaving the three siblings and Joshua in silence. Dean bent down and picked up Lola's wedding ring, looking at it curiously as he turned it in his palm,

"Man…I'm such an asshole…" He muttered more to himself than to Sam. Sam covered Joshua's ears, looking at his brother, not really knowing what to say. Joshua pulled free of his tallest uncle and ran so that he was standing in front of him,

"Don't worry uncle Dean…you won't have to live without aunty Lola for too long."

"Thanks kid…" Dean mumbled, not really understanding what his nephew meant. Sam, however, fully understood the six-year-old's meaning,

"Dean…sober up. We seriously have to talk." He said before pulling Joshua up and into his arms, "C'mon Josh. Let's go and have some lunch."