Cas was staring at the two young men with disbelief in his widened eyes. "They are...they both are.."

"So, Cas, I don't know if this is some sort of fruse heaven sent to try and get something from us-" Dean was quickly interrupted.

"No, no. It's very obvious, their graces are of human and angel combination. I can see the specifics in the lights as well- Sam and Gabriel." He indicated to Henry, and then narrowed his eyes even more as he gestured to James. "You and...and..."

"So, uh, meet our son, who came from the future." He said, clearly by the way he was saying it he still didn't quite believe it. Cas was completely silent, just watching and observing him for a second. "Feel free to chip in, Cas. Thoughts?" Dean spoke up, somewhat irritated at his absence of words.

"This doesn't make any sense." Castiel said, narrowing his eyes and coming forward, he took James' face into his hands as he placed his hands on two sides of his cheeks. He was observing James, who was looking up to him with wide eyes as he had his face in his hands, tipping it back and side to side, trying to find if something was special with him. "Nephilim are outlawed. Most are killed before they reach adolescene, yet, you must be..."

"I'm twenty. Well, almost twenty-one. My birthday's in a few weeks." James replied with a little smile.

"How are you...?"

"Alive?" He asked with a small smile, his deep blue eyes twinkling. "I have good news, dad. God comes back."

The angel looked absolutely shocked, and he dropped his hands from his face and stumbled backward in disbelief. "He..he..."

"Yup, Uncle Cassie. Gramps comes back, and he makes a few changes upstairs." Henry said with a grin, coming up and casually throwing his arm around James' shoulders.

"We aren't outlawed anymore. Nephilim, I mean. In fact, we're encouraged-" James continued, but was interrupted again.

"Encouraged?" Cas asked, narrowing his eyes and tipping his head to the side. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"Yeah, Jamie, you better start talking." Dean said, still strangely aggravated. The man swept his gaze to look up at him instead, and the little corners of his eyes crinkled up just a little as he smiled up at him. "The other you calls me Jamie too. Well, future you." Dean tried not to let him see that that comment kind of melted his heart, and instead lifted his eyebrows and prompted him to continue explaining.

"So, um, encouraged." He started, rubbing his hands together and thinking of the best way to explain it. He glanced over at his cousin for some help, but Henry instead made a very rude tongue-in-cheek blow job motion and grinned.

"Shut up, HJ. You know that's not how it works." He laughed, and turned back to Cas and Dean. "Gramps saw how much heaven disliked humans now, and as you know because of Lucifer's punishment, he never intended for that to happen. It wasn't him who outlawed nephilim, it was actually Raphael who did that. Grandpa's first plan to strengthen heaven's bond with earth was to have more creatures that linked the two together."

"Half-dicks, like us." Henry butted in, shrugging. "He figured if there were creatures to serve as a mediator, that angels would interact positively with the humans for once in several millennia."

"It didn't only become a request, it became more of a requirement. Almost all the angels were required to find and pair up with the most suitable humans to create a whole new generation of nephil with. And you two obviously made the lists for 'most capable humans'." James smiled.

"But, uh..." Dean started, and a pink flush began to already creep onto his cheeks and the tips of his ear.s "I'm obviously a dude, and uh..." He coughed, embarrassed, into his fist and tried to continue. "Cas is...uh, well, he's an angel, but he's like, um, a dude angel-"

James opened his mouth and was about to explain when Henry threw his arm out in front of his chest as if he were restraining him from saying anything so soon. "C'mon, Jimmy. Not yet, this is hilarious."

Dean clamped his mouth shut and his jaw protruded slightly as he clenched his teeth together. "Henry, you little shit." He said, narrowing his eyes. "Hey, future you calls me that too!" Henry burst out laughing and made a motion like he was tipping his cap. "Aw, go ahead and tell him, shortstop. He sure as hell isn't getting angry calmer."

James rolled his eyes but was smiling; Dean could tell James was probably the one who usually kept a cool head out of the two cousins. "Cas chose to pair with you to create the new nephilim generation. And I was a result of a combination of graces, like most angels are. Souls are like grace, just way smaller and less powerful." He explained, trying to use hand motions to explain but he eventually brought his fingers to his lips as he tried to think of how he'd explain. "I-well, hm.."

"How does that even work?" Dean blurted, and Cas looked equally confused. "Angels are beings made of light, much like how humans are made of earth. But angels do not have genetics, they are simply made of recycled grace..."

"Some nephilm can be born of Earth, with a woman and angel in a traditional human reproduction. But me and Henry were nephilim of light, born in traditional angel reproduction." He tried to explain. "You didn't talk much about it to me, really. It only came up a few times."

"Okay, so, Cas chose Dean, right?" Sam started, observing Henry intently. "But Gabe chose...me?"

Henry looked just a tiny bit sad all the sudden, but the small flicker quickly went away as a mask seemed to fall over his emotions. "He did that to protect you. And Heaven." Sam brought his eyebrows together. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Pops, you were pretty much already paired with an angel. Lucifer's sword, right? So Dad stepped in and paired with you so Lucifer wouldn't be able to have offspring." That little sad look returned to his face. Sam understood right away; he felt like he was unwanted, just the product resulting from a preventive measure.

"Hey, don't look at me like that." Sam said, feeling a horrible pinch down in his gut. This was his son, and he didn't want him to be hurting like that. Henry looked down at the floor, and when he looked up Dean recognized a very Sam-like puppy dog expression. Sam didn't even hesitate- he surged over and whumped the man into a tight hug. "Aww, dad.."

Dean was observing the scene, a tiny smile on his face. He knew how much Sam had always wanted kids, and he seemed overjoyed to finally have that come true. When Dean looked back down, he was extremely surprised to see James had sat down on the couch and that Cas was gently rubbing James' head, and massaging down to the roots of his hair. James closed his eyes and smiled slightly, looking like a cat enjoying a good rub.*

*A/N- Based on this post by veranke on tumblr, but this link has all the great comments- oswaldz . tumblr post/42075921461/

"Um, Cas? What the hell are you doing?" Dean asked, feeling like he would have laughed had this been a different situation. James looked up at him with wide eyes, prompting for Cas to explain. Cas looked at Dean, contemplating on what to say, but instead just looked down at James again. "Better?" He asked shyly, and James closed his eyes and nodded. "Ummhm. Thanks for noticing."

"Better what?" Dean asked, this time he did chuckle a little as James looked up to Cas with his big, prompting eyes and Cas gave in and began to massage his head again. "They are part angel, but still have many of the functions that we do, only usually less power. You are aware that angels have a true form, correct?"

"Yeah, Cas. But-"

"And that our true forms are not necesarily human? We have numerous animal parts, typically even several faces or additional limbs?" Dean looked down at James again, who had his eyes shut and looked like he was greatly enjoying his little rub-down. "You're saying my son is..growing another head or something right now?"

Cas frowned slightly. "No. But it's faces, Dean. Heads implies multiple brains." He gently rubbed in little circles by James' temples with his thumbs, and the young man almost seemed like he would melt any second as he let out a little coo. "He's going through his first set of Additions. His grace is expanding and embellishing with parts of creatures from God's creation. Kind of like when humans begin to grow in their baby teeth. Right now, it's stag antlers."

"I...what?" Dean felt like all of this was ridiculous. How the hell was he going to take care of someone who was half something that he barely had any knowledge about?

"Usually angels go through this at twelve plus seven years, at nineteen, the combination of two significant numbers in the testament. But nephilim may be a little late." Cas looked down at James, and he looked like he was proud of him. "It's almost over. I can tell." James nodded as Cas finally tool his hands away. "Yeah, thanks."

"I can't believe this. Cas, do you believe any of this?" He expressed again, and Cas simply shrugged. "I see the combination of lights that he consists of. It seems credible to me."

"Okay, let's just move onto what I do know about. You said you were a chasing a demon and wound up here, right?" Dean finally changed the subject, and Sam butted in with the next question, going and sitting down on one of the chairs, beginning to straighten up the papers that were strewn all over the desk. "You boys are hunters, then?" He said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I don't like it." Dean added right away, crossing his arms and remaining standing up as James sat on the couch and Cas continued to gently rub his temples. "Did I even try to keep you both out of it?" He seemed frustrated.

"Uncle D, we're half angels. There's no way you could have kept us out of it." Henry answered, and he then went on to gently bully James again by imitating his expression and rubbing his own forehead and speaking in a baby voice. "Oh, dad, my first additions are coming in, aww, it hurts so much...rub my tummy and get me some warm milk..."

"Shut up, shithead!" James tossed at him, scowling. "Let's just focus on the mission, okay?"

"Okay, well, first of all, how did this demon escape in the first place?" Dean asked, crossing his arms and looking from boy to boy. If they were going to be hunters, he hoped he'd at least taught them how to do it right.

The cousins quickly exchanged glances, they were finally reminded of what they'd even arrived here in the first place. "Why don't you ask Mr. Romeo over there?" James quipped, grinning and poking his tongue out at him.

Henry ran a hand through his hair and pressed his lips together. "Okay, yeah. That. Well, we were in hot pursuit, and the bitch just went up and disappeared."

"Oh really? What about before that, hotshot?" James lifted a dark brow in a very Dean-like way.

"I swear I had my eye on her the whole time." Henry shot back, opening his hands palm-up and shaking them for emphasis. "We were tracking her from a bar, and well..."

"You were checking out some girl again, weren't you? Just like that time with the siren, when she got away because some idiot was staring at her ass and not focusing on the job?"

"Gramps be damned, couzie! That was one time!" Henry rolled his eyes and plopped down on the couch next to his cousin. "Bitch was fast! I had my eye on her at the bar, and next thing I know she's gone and high-tailing it into the woods! I'm sorry, okay?"

Dean and Sam did not look amused. "Well, just tell us how we can gank this bitch. That's why you came here, right? To help us get the leg up on her?"

James nodded in agreement. "We saw that she's time-traveled, to now. And that's pretty damn bad."

"Why?" Dean and Sam asked at the same time, and James didn't look like he was looking foward to explaining it to them. "Well, you guys know of Abbadon, right?"

The two exchanged glances and nodded. "But we put a trap bullet in her skull and chopped her up. She didn't get out, did she?" Dean asked, feeling a bit of fear seize in his gut. If she got out again- she had been the only demon he'd ever encountered that hadn't died when he stabbed her with the demon blade, and he didn't even know where to start in killing her.

"She didn't get out, at least I don't think so. See, the problem is, the demon we were chasing was one of her triplet sisters, her name is Mammon. We think she came to this time to liberate her sister and find their last person in the trio, the third sister named Asmodeus." Dean looked extremely overwhelmed when he'd finished. "So there's three of them?"

"Triplets, yup. They're the daughters of one of the seven princes of hell. That's why they weren't so easily killed by that pretty little butterknife of yours. It belonged to their father." Henry added. "So we followed her time-stamp to now. She must be looking for her sister as we speak."

"Well, we got Abbadon six feet under and incased in cement, so I don't think you two have to worry about her for a little while." Dean said, covering up the fact that he saw the two boys looked worn out from the trip over and it would probably be best if they took a few hours to rest before running off again.

"Maybe not for tonight, but you're going to need to let us do our job sooner or later, dad." James replied, and closed his eyes, he seemed very tired all of the sudden. "We've been tracking Mammon for months. I just hope all that work doesn't go to waste." Dean saw his concerned expression and immediately felt his heart clench in his chest. He had that same look, a look he often saw on Sam's face or in the mirror- sheer determination, the need to keep people safe and get rid of the bad. He liked that he could see that look on his son's face.

...

They'd taken the short drive back to the Men of Letters HQ, and it was already almost pitch black when they left the motel after one of their hunts and began the drive home. When the boys weren't almost falling asleep in the backseat they would occasionally burst into the shortest of quibbles.

"Move your stupid foot, HJ!"

"You move yours! It smells like french cheese for God's sake!"

"Stop stealing the blankets!"

"Hey, I got way more body mass than you to cover anyway!"

They'd grumble a few more insults before settling it without a word and snuggling down and trying and sleep.

The brothers didn't say a word to each other about the strange situation as they hopped out and Sam prepared a bed for Henry on one of the couches in the living room and Dean prepared the other. "Think these will be okay?" Dean asked, and Sam was almost too quick to answer. "Yup, uh, yeah. They'll be fine out here, these couches aren't so bad." But it wasn't like they could avoid talking about their pairing with angels forever.

Later that night, Dean got ready for bed himself and also made sure he didn't forget something for James. Dean came quietly into the living room and made sure that James was awake before he'd disturb him. Henry was fast asleep on the couch adjacent to him, splayed on his stomach and snoring softly, but James was up and reading a book in the dim light that was coming in from the reasearch room. "Hey, Jamie." Dean said quietly, careful not to wake Henry. James set down the book at looked up at Dean with a surprised expression. "Oh. Hi, dad."

Dean sat down on one of the ottomans and placed the tray he was carrying in his lap. "Whatcha reading? And I swear, if it's those books Chuck wrote..." James laughed softly and his eyes twinkled in the soft light. "No, dad. I'm pretty sure you went out and burned all of those things when you had a day off." He showed him the title, smiling serenely. "War and Peace. It's one of Cas's favorite books too. It calms me down." Dean cracked a smile. "You sure you're not Sam's kid?" James rolled his eyes playfully and set the book on the table next to the couch. "Aw, shuddup."

"I, uh, brought you something." Dean said, taking the little Dixie cup of pain pills and the glass of water and handing it to him. "For the, you know." He indicated at his head once James had taken the two cups in hand. "Uh, growing pains."

"Thanks." James felt immeasurably happy that Dean was this okay with it. He knew it must have been a shock to hear about his angel side and what came with being a baby celestial being. "Sorry if this is kind of weird for you."

"Hey, it's okay. Sammy used to get them all the time when he was a teenager. Kid shot up like a friggin' bamboo shoot. Just...uh, let me know what's up, kay?" James tipped the pills into his mouth and drank a few mouthfuls of water. "Yeah, I will." He looked into Dean's intensely concerned gaze and quickly spoke up again. "It's really not that bad. It only hurts a little."

"So on the angel spectrum, you're still a baby?" Dean asked, and it seemed like so strange a concept. James shrugged. "I guess. You called it 'teething'. Well, future you." He laughed quietly.

"So what about Gabe Junior over there? He's older than you, right? Is he done with it?"

James looked sadly over at his cousin. "He's twenty-four, and no, it's different." Dean lifted an eyebrow and prompted him to keep explaining. "He's the son of an archangel, they age differently than regular angels. He'll probably get his when he's around a hundred. But he did get his second and third sets of wings when he was seven." James closed his eyes as if he were remembering. "That was scary."

He'd woken up in the middle of the night, because things were getting so loud in Henry's bedroom. James had been three at the time, and he hadn't quite understood all that was going on with his cousin. He was scared as James had grabbed his blanket at pushed his way into his older cousin's bedroom. He peeped from the doorway and saw his uncle Sam and Henry together on Henry's big-boy bed, and Sam was holding him tightly to his chest as the little dark-haired boy was gripping tightly to his shirt with a fist and burying his head in his shoulder, whimpering, sobbing, his body shuddering.

James felt seized by fear as he'd gripped his blanket tight to his face, watching as Sam firmly kept an icepack on Henry's back. "It's okay, baby. Daddy's here, okay? It's going to be over soon." Sam, with his human eyes, was only able to see the occasional dim shadow as his new wings grew in, but James was able to see everything. He saw the six stacked wings, three pairs on each side, the topmost layer was bright and shining gold, while the bottom two were downy and somewhat moist, stretching and flapping uncoordinatedly as the newfangled wings tried to figure out what to do with themselves. The bottommost level was what appeared to be a deep, chocolate brown, while the middle was a golden-brown, a gradient of brown and gold.

Sam looked up and had seen James staring in fear from the doorway, his eyes widened as his breathing was coming heavier. "Hey, Jimmy. It's okay. Do you want to come here and give your cousin a hug?" The three-year-old nodded and quickly came up to Henry, who was still crying quietly in Sam's strong arms. "Are you okay, Engee?" He asked in a high-pitched voice, he still wasn't quite able to pronounce his cousin's name. He got no response, and James also climbed into Sam's lap and gave his cousin a gentle hug. "They is real pretty, Engee." He'd said, and his cousin had tightly hugged him back. That was the first time that James had really seen his cousin hurting, he always worked hard to mask everything, even when he'd been little.

"I know he can be a cocky bastard, but Henry's seen some shit too." He looked over at his friend's sleeping face. "It isn't easy being an archangel's son. He always did his best to be like an older brother to me too." He looked up at Dean with a small smile. "He's a good kid, dad. He can get distracted sometimes, but he's got his heart in the right place."

Dean smiled down at him as he felt his chest start to expand. Sure, at first he hadn't believed it, but after all that explaining and after he got to know them better, there was barely a doubt in his mind. "Don't worry about that demon tonight, okay Jamie? We can just start working tommorow." He reached over and took War and Peace and tucked it under his arm. "No more reading tonight, okay? I didn't raise you to be such a nerd, did I?"

"Nah, that was all Cas." He smiled and pinched his eyes closed as Dean tentatively began to rub his temples like he'd seen Cas doing previously. "We'll help find Mammon tommorow, okay?" He nodded slightly in agreement and kept his eyes closed. "G'night, Jamie." He said quietly, and patted his shoulder softly before leaving. "Night, dad."

A/N

Hello! It has been my headcanon how baby angels develop, and I just thought it would be cute to have Dean and Cas take care of a 'teething' baby angel, I kind of use the same "rules" as my other story "Heart of the Survivor" if you've read that too ;)

Please review! What did you like or dislike about the chapter? Anything you'd like to see next? I'd love suggestions :)