A/n: Again... I really have nothing to and just felt like I needed the Author's Note. .
-Ramble on Rose-
In the morning Dean is the first to wake up and he smiles tiredly when he looks down and sees Tabris sleeping on top of him. The girl is straddling his stomach and lying on his chest, looking a bit like a tree frog clinging to a tree. A tree frog clinging to a tree and holding a cow by the tail at the same time. The hunter smiles softly and rubs a hand up and down her back, making no move to get up. He is quite content where he is, thank you very much.
Sam is the next to wake up some time later and he glances over to his brother, eyes going wide when he sees the little girl sleeping on his chest. She makes a soft little noise and starts to shift on the older man's chest. Dean springs into action, rubbing a hand over her back and humming softly until she relaxes again and starts to sleep.
"When did she come down here?" Sam finally asks, his voice quiet as he gets up off the arm chair and comes to stand beside his brother's head. Dean looks up at him and smiles.
"Sometime around one in the morning," he answers softly, rubbing his hand in circles on the girl's small back. "She's a lot like you. When you were her age… If you started whimpering or moving around in your sleep you'd calm down if I rubbed your back."
Dean smiles softly at the memory and Sam cocks his head to the side, watching the two on the couch. He kind of likes seeing his brother like this, so at ease and happy. Sam wonders if Dean would be doing this with his own children by now if they had been able to live a normal life.
The man on the couch hums quietly, pressing his lips against the top of the girl's head while he runs his hand over her back. Feeling awkward, Sam backs away and heads into the kitchen, only slightly surprised when he sees Bobby sitting at his kitchen tables books spread out everywhere. The younger man starts poking through the cabinets looking for coffee and pouts a bit when he doesn't find any.
"Hey Bobby, where's the-"
"There ain't no more coffee, Sam. Drank it last night."
Bobby doesn't even look up from his book as he answers Sam's unfinished question, making him pout a little bit. With a shrug the young man moves to sit down across from Bobby, picking up one of his books.
"What is all this about?" he asks, wrinkling his nose as he scans the title, a language he can't read.
"Angel lore. After Cas showed up I started looking into it." He flips a page and grunts quietly at what he finds on the page.
"Why're you looking into angel lore now?" Sam isn't ever against research. He just thought they knew all they needed to know about the angels.
"The name Tabris sounded familiar so I started looking into it. I thought I had seen it in one of these books and I was right."
Sam's brows perk and he leans over the table to look at the book that Bobby is turning toward him. He scans the page until he comes across the name Tabris, his eyes widening.
'…Tabris, the angel of free will…'
"You don't think… She's just a kid!"
Bobby just shrugs and puts down his book, leaning back as he looks at Sam with his arms crossed over his chest.
"With everything you see doing what we do I would think you'd be a little more open minded, Sam," the older man says, getting up and moving toward the kitchen door to peek into the living room where Dean is still laying with the small child on his chest.
"But she isn't like the others… She seems so much more human…" The young hunter wrinkles his nose in confusion and looks up at Bobby who shrugs.
"According to that book she's a different kind of angel. More approachable than the ones from Heaven you've been encountering." The older man comes into the kitchen again and looks down at the book flipping through a few more pages before stopping on one and passing it to Sam.
There is an image on the page that Bobby stopped on. It depicts seventeen angels. Fifteen of them have three sets of wings. One of the angels with his or her back facing outward shows that the largest set comes from the top portion of her back near her shoulder blades. The next set is slightly smaller and they sprout from the middle of their back. The last, the smallest come from the small of the angel's back. There are two angels in particular who have no wings but seem to tower over the others and they are all hovering over what looks like a mass of people.
"According to the book, there, Lilith used to be an angel," Sam went wide eyed and looked up at Bobby.
"What? But she was… She set hell hounds on Dean!" the young man exclaims angrily, slamming the book down on the table and making a half filled cup of coffee jump, its condense sloshing up against the sides of the cup.
"Well it says in there she used to be an angel. So was Adam," he taps one of the wingless, towering angels, "They were supposed to be husband and wife but Lilith didn't go along with that plan and instead made a set of angels called the Lilim from her womb." He indicates the mass of people that the angles are hovering over as the Lilim. "After that Adam created these fifteen angels here to take care of them."
Sam wrinkles his nose and stares down at the picture.
"If she used to be an angel how did she get to be a demon and if that little girl is an angel then why does Cas think that she needs our help?"
Bobby only shrugs. "Dunno. I've told you all I know."
Sam opens his mouth to say something but goes silent when Dean walks into the room, sans a tiny angel. He doesn't say anything about what he's just learned. Somehow he thinks that if Dean knew that the little girl he's gotten so attached to is an angel it will make him sad. He likes to see his smiling and happy like this. Sam and Bobby share a look as Dean leans into the fridge, foraging for food. When he comes back out he pouts and looks at Sam.
"Hey… Sammy, you want to get us some food?" he looks around the kitchen and frowns at the empty coffee pot. "And coffee?"
Sam just smiles some and cocks his head to the side. "Yeah, I can do that, Dean," he says softly, getting up to leave.
As he passes Bobby he sends the man a pleading look, not wanting Dean to figure out about the little girl, at least not yet. Dean seems to like looking after her. Bobby scowls, obviously thinking that Dean should know. He reluctantly nods to Sam and the younger man smiles. Before he can leave the kitchen, though, his path is blocked by tiny Tabris. She's got the Cow's head tucked up under her chin, hugging the toy tightly. It looks like a bird made a nest in her hair in the night and her eyes are half lidded.
"Morning," she says quietly, tilting her head up to smile at Sam.
Sam smiles back and watches as the girl shuffles up to Dean and reaches up to him. His brother swoops down to pick her up without any other prompting.
"Good morning, Darlin'" he says, making the girl giggle.
Sam leaves then, unable to shake the look in the girl's eyes when she smiled up at him. He feels like she knows that he knows what she is.
-It's Been Raining-
When Sam gets back Tabris is dressed and Dean is sitting behind her on the couch… braiding her hair. He looks up and sees Sam then points at him threateningly with a hair brush.
"You say a word and I will kick your ass," he states. The girl giggles quietly at this and bites her lip.
Sam's mouth snaps closed with a click of teeth and he just laughs quietly and leaves goes to the kitchen with his styrofoam boxes and cups of coffee. There's one cup of orange juice for Tabris. Dean comes in moments later, holding the girl on his hip. Sam can't help but smile some.
"You know I think she can walk, Dean…" he points out, Dean just shrugs and puts the girl down in a chair. Lifting up the first box in the stack he peeks in side then grins because he sees hash browns, sausages, and pancakes.
"So… Do either of you boys who what you are protecting her from?" Bobby asks as Dean goes through the boxes, eventually settling on a box of waffles for Tabris and the first box for himself. Bobby picks up his own, not caring all that much about what is in it. Dean just shrugs, cutting up Tabris' waffles for her before he moves over to his own box.
"Nah. He didn't really say, just asked us to keep her safe. I figure if anything comes for her we can put her in the panic room," he says, smiling at the older hunter and popping a sausage into his mouth while keeping one eye on Tabris.
Sam just leans up in the corner with his box and the plastic fork that came with it.
"Maybe we should try asking her?" the youngest man suggests, looking at the girl as she chows down on her waffle. Sam snorts quietly because her eating habits seem to be about as bad as Dean's .
Every eye in the room turns to her expectantly and she pauses with a square of waffle midway to her mouth. She looks around at everyone and puts her fork down. Dean takes the opportunity to wipe her now syrupy mouth with a napkin.
"Do you know what Cas wants us to keep you safe from?" he asks, cocking his head to the side.
She sighs softly and leans back in the chair. Her eyes look older that the eight years old that her body seems to be. Eventually, after e moment of silence, she crosses her arms over her chest and looks up at the ceiling with a little scowl.
"Everything… But I wouldn't need protection of it wasn't for those two," she said, pouting some, and looking down at her lap. Sam wonders what she's thinking about.
-Because-
Later that day, as the sun is going down, Dean and Tabris are sitting on the porch. She is snuggled up to the man's side and he's slowly drinking a beer. All that day they have been playing games like Hide and Seek and watching tv. They were even able to get Sam to play some. The little girl nearly gave Dean a heart attack when she hid in the trunk of an old car and Dean couldn't find her, though.
Now they are just sitting outside together, quiet while they watch the stars slowly coming out. Dean smiles softly and a bit sadly his eyes half lidded as he stares up at the sky.
"You aren't just some little girl, are you?" he asks softly, looking down at the wood between his feet.
Tabris hangs her head and sadly shakes her head. She doesn't like the sadness that is coming off of Dean at the thought that she isn't human. She wonders if he knows the vibes he is giving off.
"No," she finally says, looking up at Dean. He looks down at her and sighs, putting down his half empty bottle.
"What are you?" he asks, leaning back and looking down at her. She smiles softly.
"An angel," she answers quietly. Dean snorts and cocks his head to the side.
"What with like… tiny wings and stuff?" he asks, leaning back so that he can look at her back as if he expects there to be little feathery appendages poking out from the back of her pink shirt.
She giggles quietly and nods, then stands up and moves to stand between Dean's legs. She stares at him for a moment then leans in and wraps her arms around his neck. He is slightly startled at first but gently hugs her back, eyes closing as he presses his face against her small shoulder.
"You know even though I'm an angel I still need you to take care of me," she says quietly, running her small fingers through the older man's hair. "I am, at the moment, very, very weak. That's why Cas gave me to you… Even angels need to be taken care of sometimes… We can't handle everything by ourselves, especially us tiny ones."
Dean smiles like that and leans back, to kiss the top of the girl's nose, making her laugh.
-Bowl of Oranges-
The next morning Sam wakes up first again and again, Tabris is curled up on his brother. Only this time she's sitting in his lap and reclining on his chest since Dean got the chair last night instead of the couch. After Dean and Tabris came inside last night there came to pass, the inevitable confrontation between Sam and Dean and the fight about hiding things from one another.
Sam lets out a quiet sigh at the memory and reaches up to run a hand over his face as he sits up, looking at his brother again. Dean is awake too by now, sending Sam a little smile as he pets the little girl's hair, his eyes half lidded.
"You know she's an angel, right? She's way older than she looks and she's probably stronger than either of us…" Sam says quietly, still watching.
Dean just shrugs and rests his head against Tabris'
"Everyone needs help sometimes, Sammy… Even tiny angels."
-Your Song-
A/n: Songs used as line breaks are as follows: Ramble on Rose, by The Grateful Dead. It's Been Raining, by Kimya Dawson. Because, by The Beatles. Bowl of Oranges, by Bright Eyes. Your song, by Elton John.