Chapter 11

Dean wiped his hands over his face and took a deep breath as Sam waited for him to speak. He nodded his head and looked over at his brother. He tried to smile, but it was pained. "I need to go in and apologize."

Sam nodded. "You okay?"

"Nah." He tried again to smile. "But I'll get over it." As he walked away to go back into the house, he added, "I usually do."

Lily and Bobby were standing in the living room when he returned. Lily looked upset and Bobby looked pissed.

Dean looked at them. "I, uh, I'm sorry about…." He gestured toward the door and outside. "I'm, um, I was a little surprised." He tried again to smile. "I usually take surprises better than that." He leaned into Lily and pulled her into a hug. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Dean. What is it?" she asked, pulling back and holding him at arms length. Lily took hold of his face in her hands and was looking into his eyes. She could see the sorrow there. "Lisa?" She looked at Sam. He nodded. "Oh, Dean…. Oh, I'm so sorry!"

She took his hand and sat with him on the couch. She was holding his hand and trying to think of something to say. "It's weird. Ever since May I have been having flashes of … something. Intuition, I guess. I just know when something is wrong." She looked like she was going to say more, but was nervous about it. All three men were looking at her in surprise. "I know, I know! When somebody tells you guys something like that you immediately go into 'Hunter Mode', but…."

Just then, in a flurry of wings, Castiel was standing there. He was looking at them with that same odd look on his face as before. "I saw the angel again; he sent me here. Is there something wrong?"

Dean stood up, "Cas! Where the hell have you been?"

Cas barely glanced at him, as if he had trouble making eye contact, "I've been busy. Now," he repeated, "is there something wrong?"

All four adults in the room were just staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

Bobby was the first to speak. "Lily's pregnant."

Castiel was surprised; he looked at her and then at Bobby. They were confused by the alarm on his face, "When?"

Bobby just looked at him,. "When is she due?"

"No, when did she conceive?"

"Well, not that it's any of your business, but we were together the night before you saved her life."

Castiel was looking at him with horror.

Dean stood up. "Cas, what is it? What's wrong?"

Cas moved over to a chair and sat down heavily, as if his legs couldn't hold him any longer. Then he stood back up and started to pace in the confines of the small room. "In Europe, there are scientists working with a particle accelerator to try to recreate the first moments after the Big Bang. What they fail to understand is that all over the world, at any given moment, the conditions are recreated inside a woman's body, as she conceives. After conception, cells are dividing and dividing, again and again. In those first moments everything needed has been determined. This is exactly the way God formed the universe. A spark…and life begins. If some outside thing had been added while in those first few moments, then the whole universe would have been different."

"Cas, as much as we appreciate the speech on where babies come from–," Dean began.

Castiel interrupted. "Did you ever wonder why I was unable to fix Bobby when he was stuck in that chair? Or why I was able to bring him back to life just months later?"

"You were cut off from heaven. You'd lost your angel mojo. That's what you said," said Sam, shifting on his feet.

"And God brought you back, so you were full-on angel again. That's how you saved Bobby," added Dean.

"I was cut off from heaven. I was losing my grace. By the end, even my wings were gone. I was, for all intents and purposes, human." He turned and looked at them. "When my grace was returned to me, I used it to save Bobby." His gaze shifted to Lily. "When I cure someone, I give them some of my grace – depending on how hurt or damaged they are. Dean has a lot because I brought him back to life and needed to restore his body. Bobby has a great deal as well because he was dead. Sam has some of Michael's." He paused a moment, "I healed you just as the cells in your body were dividing. Just as a new life was beginning. I added my grace to that."

Lily stood up at that, staring at the angel, as if she understood that there was something intense in what he was saying, but not exactly knowing what it was. Castiel moved toward her. "Angels are attracted to babies. They are perfect beings, as close to angels as humans get." He reached out his hand. "May I touch your stomach? I need to know something."

Dean stood up with alarm on his face, "Cas! Don't!"

Castiel looked over at him. "I won't hurt her." Dean looked uncomfortable, but remained silent. Sam was confused by his outburst. Castiel laid his hand over the small baby bump, holding it there for a moment, and then he turned away. He couldn't look at any of them. "Your mother wasn't lying to you Dean, angels do watch over babies. As I said, we are attracted to them, drawn to them. We know how very attached and protective you humans feel toward your offspring and it's one of the things we respect and admire about you."

He turned to Bobby and Lily, who had gravitated toward each other. "I can feel the overwhelming love you have toward that child. I can tell you the baby is perfect in every way. I can give you the gender of the baby if you want."

Lily looked at Bobby, then she turned to Cas and nodded.

"It's a girl," he murmured.

Lily gasped and a small sob escaped her. She couldn't speak; she just nodded again. Castiel looked at them and then turned to Sam and Dean. Both men had tears in their eyes.

Dean cleared his throat. "Cas, what's with the conception story and the Big Bang stuff and talking about your grace?"

Castiel looked very sorrowful. He turned to Bobby. "I would give anything not to tell you this. I know how humans are about their children." He looked away. "I gave Lily my grace to cure her just as life was taking shape inside her body. That baby is yours."

He turned back and looked directly into Bobby's eyes. "But she has my grace… that baby is also mine."

AN: I'm sorry, but every time I read over the last lines of this chapter, I hear a dramatic "Duh, Duh, Dummmm" in my head. It still makes a perfect ending to a chapter; bit soap-opera-ish, though. What do you think?