Chapter 9: Inferior

"Clarence?" Meg entered his room tentatively. It had been one thing laying it all out as a clever plan in front of everyone, it was another looking into Castiel's eyes and letting him believe that their love child meant nothing to her but a tool in her cause to serve Lucifer. So Meg was hesitant in her approach till she heard the sounds coming from the bathroom. Turning the corner and looking through the open door, she found Castiel grabbing the rim of the toilet as if it would've been his only hold on to the world, throwing up violently. His shaky kneeling legs did not look like they would keep him upright much longer, propelling the demon forward to prop his unsteady form herself. The woman watched him with a feeling of powerlessness, resorting in her helplessness to nothing more than calling out his name while he expelled more than she thought could be in his generally empty stomach and when the dry heaving wouldn't let up for minutes, she was contemplating running for the Winchester. As last resort, she grabbed the towel from the rail, submerged it in the water from sink and held it up to Castiel's clenching midsection, slipping under the shirt. "Try to take big breaths, Clarence. Come on, you can do this. You need to stop vomiting, you're going to hurt yourself at this rate." It all sounded bloody ridiculous. Weren't pregnant women supposed to learn breathing techniques for the birth? Wasn't she the one who was meant to have morning sickness? "What's wrong? Should I call Dean?"

Castiel shook his head, leaning into her. Perhaps he was just exhausted, but Meg took it a positive sign until he fixed his best smiting gaze at her, albeit majorly losing effect due to his wheezing, "I need to ask..ask you something."

"Okay," she permitted, "but maybe we should get you to bed first?" He didn't object and his gaze wavered, so she manoeuvred herself to her feet while still supporting his weight against her side, then placed her hands under his armpits and hauled him up.

"Meg. Meg!" He turned in her arms and put a hand on her shoulders to steady himself, "the baby. You shouldn't be lifting weight."

The demon gave an uneasy, albeit somewhat relieved laugh, "weight. You gotta be kidding me Clarence. You weigh as much as one single feather. Which reminds me, you need to take some water at least, especially after that performance," she sat him down on the bed and went back to the bathroom to fetch the glass by the sink.

"Thank you," Castiel took the fresh, cool water she supplied him with and took some little sips.

"You better now?" Meg sat next to him, her fingers rubbing his back concernedly.

"I'm not sure," the ex-angel held his belly hesitantly, "the urge to vomit has passed, but my stomach is still quite sore."

"Maybe it will pass as well soon," the dark-haired demon encouraged, "but if it doesn't, I will have to see if Dean can do something. I sometimes don't remember everything there is to know about being human. Come on, lie down, possibly it will help," she manoeuvred the ailing man to lie on his side, "now care to tell me what that was about?"

Castiel grunted, "I'm so angry with this body, the way it takes its own decisions, the way my stomach churns and tightens against my will and how lightheaded that makes me!"

"You're angry with your body, but not me?" Meg started hopefully.

"I thank you for the opportunity you give me to save my family," Castiel offered composedly, unemotionally, "I should've thought of something like that earlier myself."

"But your stomach doesn't agree," his lover confronted him.

"This..this body never takes logic's approach. Human emotions interfere."

"Emotions aren't always bad, Clarence," Meg opposed, but her sad voice said otherwise.

"No, they aren't." Castiel raised himself up on one elbow. "Meg. Nahara of Assyria, please marry me."

Meg started at him taken aback for a moment, then burst into chortles, exacerbated by her relief over his mild manner in connection to their offspring. "We don't live in medieval times Clarence, you don't need to get hitched to make sure the child doesn't get born out of wedlock." Not to mention that the whole idea of considering the notion of sin was freaking hilarious.

Castiel took hold of and pulled her hand to his heart nevertheless, not letting himself being shaken off. "I want to marry you because I love you, because I want to show heaven and hell that we belong together and because I want our child to know that no matter what happens or what he will choose, he or she can always count on dad."

The demon froze instantly, almost shaking with the wrongness of how she laughing at him must've sounded. "Castiel..I..."

Her lover nodded at her proudly, "so glad to have made you speechless. It doesn't happen that often."

Meg splayed her fingers out on his chest, "I don't know what you expect from me Clarence. demons are not meant to know how to love, to want to."

"And yet you do. Don't object. I can say that, even if you can't. I've seen your caring, your loving, your compassion. I know that you love me and I know with utter certainty that you love our child and you will do everything in your power to protect that life inside you. Not for Lucifer or anyone else, but for itself. If you think what you proposed is a good plan, I trust you and I will stand by you. All I ask is that we do it together. Marry me Nahara, marry me before we ask Lucifer for help."

"I'm sorry to crush your dreams Clarence, but churches don't really agree with me all that much, remember?"

"Is that your only objection?" Castiel raised an expectant eyebrow, "cause I was thinking of the boundless vows of the Buddhist rite. I apologize but I don't think you could find anywhere where they would join us in matrimony according to the ceremonies of Assyria's ancient god Ninkharsag, though saying thanks to your fertility goddess would maybe seem more appropriate under the circumstances."

His ponderings earned him a thump on the shoulder by the demon and a shake of the head with a grin, "Ninkharsag? You're off your head again you know that? The name hasn't popped up in my head for centuries!"

"Is that a yes?"

Meg sighed, "and where were you Clarence when Alexander captured Babylon?"

"At the anti-Spartan ca.."

"No, no, I didn't mean for you to answer that. I just wish we met earlier. So much could've been different. Not that I mind being a demon and I need you to understand that. You have changed me, but don't ask for more, anything that I'm not ready to give."

"So is that a no?" Castiel searched her face confusedly.

Meg shrugged, "ah, what the heck!" She made a grin that could make the devil proud and put an arm round him, but given his ailment she didn't yank him to her roughly like she usually did. Her eyes didn't flash with their usual lust either, but they both knew their lives would change forever the moment their mouths touched. She kissed him, pressing her body against his, tangling her fingers in his slightly curled hair, wanting him. Castiel didn't rush her, softly kissing back and savouring the caress. Safe in each other's arms, everything was different now. Parting her lips from his in heartfelt devotion to the hallowed moment, Meg looked up to stare in his sky blues, "don't you know I'm already yours?" She whispered, then blinked, shaking herself out the moment and straightening up as if realizing something, "but Clarence, where's my ring?"

Castiel pulled back sheepishly, sitting himself to pull something out his pocket, "it's makeshift, it's homemade, but with the resources available to me in a short time I could only think of melting out the inside of a coin," he offered her the small item on his palm, "I would buy you a real on at the Buddhist temple if you'd care to teleport us?"

Meg picked up the item quizzically. Given Cas was a human for the time being, it wasn't bad work, but it was the Enochian symbols squiggled awkwardly, almost unrecognizably in, that made her pause for a bit: the path of transformation to our ethereal promise. "Yeah Clarence, that's nice, I'm not wearing that. I'm still a demon! There's much, and there's too much. I'm choosing the wedding ring. And don't expect me to call you 'my love'."

"Can we go then?" He reached for her hand, "I don't want to delay helping Sam and the angels any longer than necessary, but I'd like Lucifer to gain knowledge of our child only after we are joined in matrimony."

"Now? You don't look well enough for a groom," she considered, inspecting his appearance, "you look like you'd throw up at..uhm yeah, a dress, even black. Not gonna happen."

"What is it you suggest then?" Castiel sat back confused.

"You need some medicine, Dean would know what. And we need to get your stomach a bit better so you could eat and gather some strength. The rate you're going, I'll have to push you down the aisle in a wheelchair! You need to take care of yourself, abide by the human condition's requirements, or you're going to get gravely ill."

"We don't have time for this right now Meg!" He grumbled at her, "angels are undergoing a huge upheaval right now and some won't even know why they were put in the position to suffer all that sorrow."

"I don't give the slightest shit about your dear angels right now, Clarence. I care about one. Lie down a bit, I'll be right back."

Tbc