Nine months

Mother Nature had given birth over 50 times in at least a dozen different vessels over the millennia. Amelia had seen no need for pre-natal exams, or any of the other 'clap trap of modern medicine'. But Sam, and Dean, and especially Jody had pestered her until she had found an obstetrician who worked with mid-wives and made an appointment.

As she grabbed Sam's hand when she felt another contraction starting, she thanked him profusely for making her be prepared for her first human birthing experience; and then cursed his very existence with her next breath. As the baby crowned, she wondered how the human race had continued past the first few times women had given birth.

X

After that morning, when Dean had sprung his surprise on Sam and Amelia, they had all been involved in a whirlwind of legal, and illegal, activities of planning and finalizing their plans for the future. The three of them had wanted to find a place to stay until the house was ready, not wanting to intrude on Jody for so long. But, Jody had been insistent Amelia would be better off with some stability. She hadn't said she'd been lonely in her big house since her husband had been killed by their zombie son; she hadn't needed to, Dean and Sam knew what she had been through.

Having Amelia in a safe place had actually allowed Dean and Sam to take care of a few hunts Garth had called them about. It had been while she was alone with Jody, that Amelia had finally been convinced about getting pre-natal care, and becoming Sam's widow, at least on paper. It had turned out the lawyer who had handled Bobby's will was familiar, and more importantly comfortable, working in the legally gray areas that hunters survived in. He had been helping Jody deal with Bobby's estate long before Dean had contacted her to start building a house on the property.

As summer had faded into fall, 'Amelia Winchester' had legally inherited her late husband and brother-in-law's estate from Robert Singer. Sam had asked Amelia to at least fake marry him, when they had obtained the forged marriage license to give to the lawyer. They had arranged a simple but lovely 'ceremony' with the two of them, and Dean, that they held, amid the construction clutter, on the spot where they first met.

The house was progressing nicely. Nearly weekly, Sam had expressed his wonder and admiration for Dean's planning and design of the house. The house had two wings of living spaces; one for Sam, Amelia and their children (and they would have to 'go at it like bunnies' to have enough kids to meet his brother's expectations); and another, smaller set of rooms for Dean. Sam never commented on it, but he noticed his brother's wing had a couple extra rooms. It made him profoundly happy to think Dean hadn't given up on having a family of his own some day.

There were also the central, combined spaces; including the masterful kitchen, and all the other, usual things in a normal house, plus a library-research room, and in the basement the weapon room, gym and tunnel to the panic room. Every exterior wall and sub-floor had wards painted in them. And just as Dean had mentioned, every room was wired with hard, land lines for phone, internet and cable; all buried and nearly unbreachable and the whole house had excellent wi-fi reception.

Two months after arriving in Sioux Falls, Thanksgiving had been rapidly approaching, and Jody invited Missouri, Cassie, Charlie and Garth to join them. Amelia had volunteered to help with the preparations, but had been told, as politely as possible but in no uncertain terms, she was to stay away from the kitchen that week. If the woman had been a klutz before, with her baby bump she had almost become a menace to society. On the other hand, Jody had commented 'my yard and flowers have never looked better'.

As Jody's house started to fill up Thanksgiving morning, Garth pulled Dean outside. "I'm not going to ask, nobody ever will. But, no one has seen or heard from Walt, Roy or Tim for over a month. Anything we need to talk about there?"

"Nope." Dean replied very evenly. Garth had watched his eyes, and either Dean Winchester was the best liar he had ever met, and he'd met lots of really good liars, or he didn't have anything to do with the disappearance of the three hunters.

"Okay. Damn, that turkey smells good." And they went back into the house; and nobody asked about the three rogue hunters again, ever.

After the traditional 'what I am thankful for' exchange around the Thanksgiving table; the extended Winchester clan shared their latest news. Not that much of it was news; they had all stayed in close communication. Garth and Charlie had made a lot of progress developing an application, to access their supernatural lore database, on mobile devices. They also shared that Lee Chambers and Jenny Cooper had moved in together and were getting married in the spring.

Missouri told them it had taken weeks, but her neighbors had finally quit bugging her about those couple of days in July. Cassie said she was still interviewing contacts she had obtained during the party, and she was also working with Charlie and Garth.

Jody announced the FBI had officially closed the case on the building collapse in Spokane and stopped looking for the mysterious Amelia Stone. Seemed Amelia's mother had called and reported that the young woman everybody had seen wasn't her daughter. That whoever she was must have stolen her identity. Everybody turned to look at Amelia. She shrugged her shoulders as she said, "She was glad to help, long as we bring the baby out to meet her someday."

The widow Winchester and her 'distant cousins' Sam and Dean moved into the house right after New Years. It still had some finishing touches needed but they all thought they had imposed on Jody long enough; and they were anxious to be in their own home. Even Dean and Sam knew the landscaping would have to wait until spring; after all, it was winter in South Dakota.

Moving day wasn't quite as big a deal for them, as most people; a few duffel bags, backpacks and a couple of boxes. But Amelia started hitting the second-hand stores and garage sales; and within a couple weeks, she had the house nicely furnished. She may have been disaster in the kitchen, but woman had an eye for home décor. She and Dean worked together until the house was comfortably and practically finished. Sam concentrated on getting all Bobby's books brought out of storage and cataloged and arranged in the library.

Late in the afternoon of April Fools' Day, Amelia had just tried to smack Dean upside his head for the seventh time, for making 'duck noises', as she walked by. She had informed him ex-goddesses did not waddle even when 9 months pregnant. But, between Dean expecting her swat and ducking and her balance being severely off because she was carrying 'Sam's enormous baby' around; Amelia lost her balance and fell to the floor, hard.

"Sam!" Dean yelled for his brother, as he gently rolled his unresponsive sister-in-law over and saw the already forming lump on her forehead. "Amelia? Come on Amelia, wake up." He called to her as he waited for Sam.

Dean had given up on Cas months ago. He had prayed/called/screamed/begged for him for weeks. He had wanted to let him know he was forgiven, that he was family, and that it was time he came home. He didn't really expect him to listen now, but he was needed; he loved this woman almost as much as his brother did, and she was hurt.

But, just as he closed his eyes to start calling for Cas, there was a flutter on the other side of Amelia and he looked up to see Cas. Sam reached them just as Cas was laying a hand on Amelia's forehead. Sam was on the floor next to Dean by the time Cas pulled his hand back, and a second later Amelia opened her eyes.

"Castiel, nice to see you again." She said as the angel took a step away from the threesome. She turned to Dean and smacked his upside his head. "No more duck noises!" Then she turned her head to look at all three of them. "So, are you just going to leave the pregnant woman lying on the floor?"

Dean had wanted to take her to the ER, to make sure everything was okay. But, Amelia and Sam finally convinced him that both an ex-goddess, who was still amazingly in touch with every aspect of her bodily function, and an Angel of the Lord, said she was fine.

Sam knew this would be one more guilt trip his brother would try to carry around for years. But, it seemed Amelia had found a method of breaking Dean's occasional bout of self-doubt and guilt, that he had never been able to master. It was based on the old parental adage, 'I'll give you something to cry about'. She'd quickly find something else really stupid to accuse him of; and he'd get so defensive over the perceived slight, he'd forget his guilt over whatever he was beating himself up over.

"Holy Crap. Dean Winchester, you've hurt my hand with that hard head of yours!" She said shaking her hand after they had helped her up off the floor.

Dean looked stunned for a split second, but then a smile crept onto his face. He reached out and took her hand, and kissed it. "Okay, is that all better goddess?" When she nodded her head, they stared at each other for a second and then he 'quacked' once.

Sam smiled; just like that everything was back to normal. "Wait! Where'd Cas go?"

"Sonofabitch!" Dean and Amelia swore in unison.

X

A week later, Sam's hand was being crushed by Amelia as the mid-wife was telling her to push. Dean had been hovering outside the door of Sam and Amelia's room since she had gone into the final stage of her labor; other than the occasional trip to get her ice chips or some other errand Jody found to keep him busy. Amelia had told him he could be in the room; that he was part of the family she and Sam were creating.

He had declined, not sure if it was seeing that much of Sam's wife, and by now that's what everybody, including Amelia, considered her; or if it was 'the whole gooey mess' thing and the yelling that he wanted to avoid.

They hadn't seen Cas since the day he had healed Amelia, but fresh flowers and pastries, something Amelia had developed had a craving for a couple months ago, would be in the kitchen every morning when they got up. Dean had joked 'I wish he'd throw in sausage and hash browns' the third day, and the next morning the kitchen table was loaded with every breakfast food Dean and Sam had ever heard of.

Dean cringed when he heard Amelia scream. He knew it was normal, or at least that's what they kept telling him. He thought she was nuts for wanting a 'natural' home birth, when they had such lovely drugs at the hospital.

"What….Who are you?" Dean heard the mid-wife shout from inside the room. He was through the door, reaching for his waistband, when he remembered he never carried his gun in the house. He saw Castiel disappear just as he burst into the room.

Amelia looked up at Dean as he stood by the door, and winked at him. "Hey Dean. You're a couple minutes early. And, tell Cas thanks for me."

The mid-wife looked at Amelia, then around the room. "Okay. I don't know who that was, or what just happened; but somebody is going to tell me in about 10 minutes; or I'm shoving this kid back up inside her." She turned to the woman who had been having a moderately difficult labor, and who now looked and acted like she was drunk. "Okay, Amelia; final push!"

Despite his plan to not watch Amelia give birth, Dean found he couldn't look away. From where he was standing he could see the baby's head coming out of Amelia. She took a deep breath and pushed, and he saw his niece slide out into the nurse's hands, and heard the newest Winchester let out her first wail.

There was a flurry of activity; putting the baby on Amelia's stomach, Sam cutting the cord, checking the baby and wiping her clean. Dean just stood in amazement and watched Sam, Jody and Nancy, the mid-wife, tend to the immediate needs of the baby and mother. He watched his brother hold his new born daughter for the first time; and was suddenly very thankful for Cas' lack of boundaries and timing. If his bashful friend hadn't startled the nurse into shouting, he would never have come into the room, and he would have missed all this.

A few minutes later, Sam waved him over to the bedside. "Dean. Come meet your niece." He didn't pause or hesitate; he walked over and sealed his membership in this new family. Sure, he may have held a baby before, when he'd been with Lisa; but this tiny little girl was family, blood.

Sam handed him the small bundle and he cradled her next to him. She managed to get an arm out of her swaddling blanket and grabbed his finger.

"Boy, she's an active one." The mid-wife said. "I'm pretty good at wrapping them up. I've never seen one so new get an arm out like that before."

"That's 'cause you've never seen a Winchester before." Dean said, trying, and failing to hold back tears.

Sam looked down at Amelia, and she nodded her head. "You're close. That's because she's never tried to hold Dean Winchester's niece still before. Dude, say hello to Deanna Roberta Winchester."