Seven months later
Alice screamed as the contraction raged through her. "You're ok, Alice, said the kindly looking woman in front of her, "This is all normal, it's ok, you're fine and the baby's fine. Now, push, hard as you can." A small cry filled the room, and the tiny infant was placed in Alice's arms. "Congratulations, it's a girl. Would you like to cut the cord?" the midwife smiled at the dark haired man standing at the head of the bed, he frowned and silently shook his head. Alice smiled, as tears rolled down her cheeks, "Mary Samantha", she whispered. "You're amazing and have brought me joy where there was nothing but pain. I will love and protect you forever." The baby stilled at the sound of her mother's voice and Alice looked up to the trench coated man standing next to her.
"You mustn't tell him until he's safe," she whispered. He nodded, and with a smile, he left the room with a quiet flutter.
Seven months before that
She'd phoned Julie from Heathrow, sobbing, that she was home, that she'd met someone and it had all gone wrong. Julie came at once to collect her, and folded Alice into her arms, distraught at the sight of her best friend who looked pale and exhausted, her eyes bloodshot from many hours of crying. Alice had stayed with Julie for a while; lying on the sofa in the small flat, alternating between staring into space and crying. Julie would go to work, come home, she would place a meal in front of Alice who picked at the food in front of her, and then repeat the process the next day. Eventually Julie had broached the subject of what Alice was going to do. "Go home, move on, I s'pose." Alice responded flatly, and in the end, that's what she'd had to do.
It had taken a few weeks for her to realise that something else was happening to her. She'd quickly found a job as a care assistant at the local hospital in the emergency room, it was a deliberate move because she'd decided that it was the best way to monitor for strange happenings near her, she'd looked out for people coming in with unexplainable injuries but so far, it had been mostly drunken accidents and car wrecks. Rummaging through one of the drawers at work she nervously removed one of the small packets and went to the bathroom, then stared in amazement at the two bright blue lines emerging on the stick. "Fuck, now what?" She murmured to herself.
She spent a sleepless couple of nights then, going round and round with whether Dean needed to know, how to get hold of him, and what to do. In the end, although she knew that there'd been a problem with Cas, she did what Dean had told her in that first conversation what he did to get hold of the angel.
"Castiel, in the name of heaven and all that's holy, I need your help. Please Castiel, it's important I think." She did this every night for a month, and then one time, he was there.
"Alice. You don't need to tell me. I can hear the heart beating inside you. Things are not…going smoothly for us. Sam has been unwell, Dean is ok, but he is angry with me, and Bobby has died. The best thing you can do is stay here. I will come back." And he disappeared again. Alice stood motionless staring at the spot where the angel had been. "Son of a bitch," she whispered.
Throughout the course of the pregnancy, Castiel would visit and tell her some of what was happening, that Dean was safe and Sam recovering well. He told her tales of heaven, and hell, and taught her some of the Enochean language and symbols. He helped her draw the devils' trap underneath her doormat, and one time brought her a silver knife to have near her bedside. He smiled at her growing belly and by the time the baby was due to arrive, the two of them had a strong, if slightly peculiar, bond. She'd asked him to be at the birth as Dean's stand in impulsively, but was pleased she had. She'd found his strong silent presence very reassuring as she'd squeezed his hand tight when the contractions came.
And now, here she was. A single mother, half hunter, half civilian, stuck in the UK in a small town, with a tiny baby girl depending on her, her best friend was an angel, and the love of her life was fighting a battle she could have nothing to do with. "Come on Mary," Alice stood up, resolved to survive this strange life and to keep her daughter safe and happy, "let's go home."