Author's Note: Hello again, everyone! So I hope you've been enjoying the past few chapters, because some parts of them have been a pain in the butt to write. You know what I mean? It's like, I love the ideas that come into my head for some of them, and others I'm at war with my own imagination, trying to think of the best way to plot this story or the best way to write two sentences. And naturally, if you would all be so kind, leaving me a short review saying if you've enjoyed these chapters or not, as well as anything I could improve on – I'd be extremely grateful. Anywho, here's chapter eight!

~ Chapter Eight ~

Dean had gotten into the front seat while Castiel buckled Jo into her car seat after church, but his baby girl was in a fairly good mood this morning; she hadn't had the horrible nightmares last night from what they could tell. There was no screaming at three AM and no need to hold her and rock her back to sleep. Maybe he had been right, Dean realized with a smile, maybe her nightmares were growing shorter and fewer. Maybe this whole shitty mess was finally falling behind them; Sam had even called that morning saying that there was no sign of angry spirits, vengeful demons or any other kind of monster wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting town yesterday or this morning. Maybe everything was off to a good, fresh start.

"Daddy?" Jo asked once she saw that they weren't driving back home.

"Yeah, kiddo?" Here it was.

"Where are we going?"

Dean turned his head towards Castiel briefly who was already looking at him; Dean gave his husband a nod and Cas gave him his cutest smile.

"Jo, do you remember when you told us that you wanted a baby brother?" Cas asked; Dean could see him smiling widely back at their baby girl.

"Uh-huh…?" She cocked her head in that familiar way that Cas always did when he was confused; she probably barely remembered asking about that, and that made the situation all the better.

Cas was silent though, probably looking for the right words to say when Dean started watching Jo through the rearview mirror and he could see the gears start going in her head.

"I'm getting a baby brother!" She squealed, bouncing around in her car seat with joy.

Cas only nodded, but he was beaming at little Jo for a bit while she giggled and kept bouncing around, unable to contain her excitement.

The remainder of the car ride consisted of Cas squeezing his hand and Jo asking them if they were there yet every fifteen seconds. It was totally cute, but if the ride were any longer he would have told her to settle down.

"We're here, Jo!" Dean shouted back to her as he unbuckled himself as fast as possible in his own enthusiasm before moving to help her out of the car seat. She was out of the car and sprinting in her Sunday best towards the front steps of the orphanage in seconds, Cas calling after her.

"Jo! Jo, wait right there!" He shouted, chasing after her with Dean quickly by his side. Maybe they were a little more than excited too.

Jo waited, stomping her feet at the top of the steps while they charged on up the stairs, trying to keep up with the speedy little girl.

Once at the top of the stairs, Dean and Cas simultaneously grabbed one of Jo's hands, keeping her from dashing off again as they walked through the main doors to the front desk. A young woman was sitting at the front desk, typing away at her computer as they walked up.

"Hello!" Jo yelped, jumping up and down so that the lady at the desk could see her.

"Hi, sweetie, what's your name?" The lady asked softly, smiling down at her.

"Jo."

"And what can I do for you today, Miss Jo?"

"I'm getting a baby brother!"

The lady grinned, she'd clearly heard this before; she turned her attention up to Dean, not dropping her smile. "Last name?"

"Winchester."

She nodded, typed in something into that computer of hers, picked up the phone on her desk, called someone and had a quick, barely audible conversation. "The nursery is down the hall and to the left. Ms. Wilson will be waiting for you there."

"Thank you." Castiel's tone was as warm as the smile he gave Dean right then, and if it weren't for Jo and the prospect of their new baby, it probably would have felt like they were the only ones in the room right then.

They followed the desk-lady's directions down the hall and to the left, and were met with an frail, old woman standing in the doorway of what Dean assumed was the nursery. "Are you the Winchesters?" The old woman asked, sort of smiling at them.

"Yes." Cas responded quickly, still holding Jo's hand.

"Right this way, you three." She instructed, turning away from them and stepping inside the nursery.

As they walked in, Dean trailing Cas and Jo, he took in how suddenly quiet in was in here. There were more cribs than he'd expected in the one large room, but at least half of them were empty. There was one crib Jo was taking an interest in: one that held two babies in it, one was wrapped in a blue blanket and another in a pink one.

"Why are they together?" Jo innocently asked the old woman.

"They're twins, dearie." She explained, "We can't separate them because they love each other very much, and they have to be adopted together." She spoke very delicately to Jo, as if she was a baby too, and that just wasn't the case. Jo may have been little, Dean of all people knew that, but she wasn't that small.

Cas shook his head when Jo looked up at him with pleading eyes after looking at the twins, and Dean was wholeheartedly thankful for his response. He'd only agreed to one more of these things, not two.

They walked around the nursery a few times, Jo quickly scanning over each of the babies and Dean having to follow her around and make sure she didn't bother one of them.

"Dean?"

Castiel was standing beside one of the cribs, and Dean quickly joined him, curious to see what was catching his partner's attention like this.

"Look." Cas motioned towards the baby in the crib that was staring blankly up at him.

It was a baby boy, as far as Dean could understand by the fuzzy blue blanket, with fair skin and a tuft of black curls on top of his head. What really stood out were its watchful bright green eyes, as they held Dean's attention for a long time.

"Daddy, I wanna see!" Jo's voice snapped him out of the little trance the wide-eyed baby got him into and he stepped aside, letting her squeeze in between them, staring at the baby between the bars of the crib.

They must've been standing there forever: Cas and Dean staring at the green-eyed baby while Jo caught its attention by being so much closer to its face. "Hi baby!" Jo whispered in a loud sort of way.

The baby didn't really react, just give Jo a very confused look and squirm around under his blanket. But confusion was better than tears, Dean realized, as the baby easily could have started crying from all this extra attention. Did they even do that? Would a baby start crying if it didn't want so many people crowding it?

At this thought, Dean instantly wanted to take a step back and not crowd the baby, but the old woman was beside him all of a sudden, reaching for the baby. He didn't react here either, just gave the old woman the same confused look he gave Jo; the old woman frowned as she cradled him, looking from Castiel to Dean and then back at the baby.

"He's a strange baby, this one." She bounced him a little bit, "He doesn't cry very much, but he doesn't really try to make any noise other than that."

A quiet baby? There couldn't possibly be anything wrong with that, Dean thought, trying to figure out why the old woman had seen this as something to frown about.

"May I?" Cas had so silently moved around them to the old woman, obviously still as charmed by this baby as they all were – even Jo was keeping herself hushed.

The old woman carefully passed the green-eyed baby into Cas's arms, and Dean swore he could feel something swelling in his chest at the sight of it.

/

Castiel fondly remembered how one was supposed to hold a baby, with one arm arranged slightly higher so that its head would have appropriate support. Once in his arms though, the infant looked up at Castiel, its green eyes not looking so confused anymore. The color of its eyes combined with the sheer warmth that was coming off the baby somehow made him think of Dean.

Castiel smiled down at the apparently silent infant and rocked him gently before looking up at his family again. Dean had the most affectionate, beaming smile on his face, looking at the baby, and it only grew when his partner offered to hold the baby. Dean gladly accepted, forming a sort of tense cradle for it as Castiel gently placed the baby into his husband's arms. Dean's face lit up, holding the tiny infant as it lifted one miniature hand and held his finger for a moment, staring up at him with as much sentiment as an infant possibly could have.

"Papa?" Jo pulled on Castiel's hand softly.

"Yes, dear?"

"I wanna hold him too."

He nodded and looked up at the caretaker of the nursery, "Would you mind if she held him?"

"As long as you help her, not at all." The old woman's smile was genuine; Castiel could feel it and it comforted him to know that she was in charge of caring for the babies, especially this one.

Dean had heard the conversation and glanced over at his husband who willingly knelt down to Jo's level and fashioned her arms into a proper cradle. It was a spread cradle of her arms, since she was so much smaller than him or Dean, but it would do. Dean got down as well and Castiel couldn't pull his eyes away as his partner so tenderly rested the infant in their daughter's arms.

Castiel stood up and watched with awe as the baby reached for a lock of Jo's hair and held it briefly, much like he had done to Dean's finger.

"How old is he?" Dean asked before Castiel could.

"Three-months today."

"He's so tiny." Jo spoke, a big grin on her face.

They had adopted Jo from the same orphanage, when she was even younger than this; she was only a month and a half old when they brought her home. She was an even smaller baby that cried all through the night and had a blonde tuft of hair that fell out and grew back several times in her first year of life. And much like when they had first found baby Jo, they couldn't bring themselves to let her go, let alone look at the other possible options.

Castiel looked up at Dean, sharing a brief moment of understanding and joy before he nodded – this was the one.