One day I will update this at a normal time. Today is not that day.

"Dean!"

"Hey, Ben!" He ruffled his hair. "What are you doing here?"

Ben reached up to fix his hair. "Mom's gotta take Grandma to the hospital."

Lisa gave him a sheepish smile. "Do you mind? It'll only be a few hours. My mom has an appointment she has to get to."

"No, it's fine. You know I love spending time with him." He stepped aside to let them in. "If you're hungry, I've still got some food out. Sam was just here."

"Yeah, we saw him and Sarah outside. They let us in the building." She stepped into the apartment and stopped when she saw Cas. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh, right. This is Castiel. Cas, this is Lisa and her son, Ben."

Ben snickered. "Dean's got a new boyfriend!" he teased. Dean shoved him.

"It's nice to meet you, Cas."

And you, he signed.

"Deaf or mute?"

"He's mute." Dean thought Ben's eyes were going to pop out of his head.

Castiel's own eyes widened when Ben started signing. He looked at Dean and tilted his head in question.

"I taught Ben sign language too," Dean said. "Humor him. He hardly has any occasion to practice."

Ben dragged Cas into the other room, leaving Dean and Lisa alone.

"You want a drink?" Dean said.

"Sure."

They were silent while Dean got a glass out.

"So..." Lisa said.

"So?"

"Cas, huh?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, Cas."

"Well you certainly have a type."

Dean chuckled. "Sure seems that way, doesn't it?"

Lisa looked down at her feet. "I really am sorry things ended the way they did."

"I know you are, Lis. And you know that I don't hold it against you."

"Maybe it was for the best. I mean, at least we have Ben now, right?"

"Right."

Lisa looked like she was about to say something else, but then her phone rang. "Ah, that's probably my mom. I should already have been there by now."

"Then go." He ushered her to the door. "Tell her I said hi."

"I'll be back in a couple hours to pick him up." She answered the phone. "Hello, Mom? Yeah, I'm at Dean's. He says hi. I know, I'll be right there." She waved over her shoulder. "No, I'm not gonna tell him that."

After locking the door again, Dean went back to the living room, where Cas and Ben were signing back and forth.

"Sorry," he said to Cas. "She usually calls first."

Cas paused in replying to Ben. It's fine but you are explaining later.

"Of course." Dean pressed a kiss to his temple, ignoring Ben's exaggerated gagging.

"Thanks again for watching him!"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Stop thanking me. I love the kid, it's no trouble."

"You are a god among men, Dean Winchester." She poked him in the arm.

Dean laughed. "Don't you forget it."

He closed the door behind them and leaned up against it, sighing dramatically.

Cas gave him a meaningful look.

"Right," Dean said. "I promised to explain. C'mon, let's sit down first."

Cas looked at him expectantly again when they were sitting on the couch."

Dean took a deep breath. "I met Lisa when I was nineteen. She was a one night stand turned into a very bendy weekend, somehow turned into a steady relationship that lasted three years."

So Ben is your son? Cas signed.

"No," Dean said. "The kid's great. I'd be honored if he was mine, but no."

Then what happened?

"I was doing the laundry one day. Found a shirt. Wasn't mine. I asked her about it, and she said she was drunk, it was a mistake, and it would never happen again. I mean, I believed her, but after that..." He paused for a moment. "Anyway, she understood and we parted ways.

"Then about a month later, she calls me up, says she's pregnant and doesn't know who the father is. We eventually found out it was the other guy, but her father was dead, and her mother had breast cancer, so I stuck around for her, and when Ben was born, she made me his godfather."

I'm so sorry that you had to go through that Dean.

"Nah, it's fine. Sure, I was ready to settle down with Lisa, but if I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm a better person because of it."

Cas smiled at him. You are... He stopped.

"What? I'm what?"

Remarkable.

Dean nudged him with his shoulder. "You're not so bad yourself."

How do end chapters? Anyway, so yeah, that's what's going on with that.

Hopefully the next chapter will be something other than them just meeting people. Possibly some plot? Maybe more Gabe. I dunno, we'll find out.