Am I seeing things? Is this really Cas?
Cas puts his hand on my shoulder and in a split second we're standing somewhere else—back at the parking lot outside of our motel.
Sam and Dean are standing there, leaning against the Impala, Dean with a phone up to his ear. Looks like they got away from their demon captor okay, aside from a few scratches.
When they see us, they straighten up and their eyes widen.
Dean slowly brings the phone down from his ear and takes a tentative few steps forward.
"Cas?" he asks, rubbing his eyes as if to make sure the angel is actually standing in front of him.
Cas hands me the baby and walks towards Dean, stopping when he's about a foot away.
"I thought you were dead," Dean says, his shock evident in his voice.
Cas stands silently for a moment before saying, "I was. But I was suddenly back on earth a month ago." He glances up at the sky. "God must have found another reason to keep me alive."
Dean stands there another moment before pulling Cas into a hug. "I'm glad you're back, man."
Cas stands there for a moment, arms at his side, before he hugs Dean back.
Sam walks past Cas and Dean and over to me.
"So you got the baby?" he asks softly, trying not to interrupt Cas and Dean.
"I, um, I hope this is it," I say, holding up the baby slightly. She's bundled up in a blue blanket and watching the world sleepily. "I didn't actually go and get her, Cas did."
"Do you mind?" Sam asks, holding out his arms. I pass the baby to him. He smiles down at her, and she coos as she looks up at him.
"We should get going," I announce, so Cas and Dean can hear too. "The demons are probably searching the whole town for us."
Dean snaps out of his shock. "Yeah, let's go. I already packed up."
We all climb in the car, giving Cas the front seat. Looks like he's going to stick around, rather than flying off to wherever he goes when he's not with us.
I'm in the back seat with Sam and the baby, who's fallen asleep.
"Where are we going?" Dean asks as we start driving down the road.
There's a few moments of silence before Sam suggests, "Bobby's? Somewhere safe to get us back on our feet and find what to do next."
Dean nods. "Sounds good to me.
"So fill us in," Dean says to me and Cas. "What happened?"
I tell him about the brief time I was in the house, finishing with, "And then Cas showed up. Cas, do you know who that angel was, what he was doing working with Bela? I thought the angels were the good guys most of the time."
"I've been watching Bela and her demons for a while. I think he was the a fallen angel Asbeel."
"Fallen angel? Like Lucifer?" I ask.
"Yes," Cas says.
"What are they trying to do?" Dean asks.
Cas pauses. "I think they're trying to release Lucifer from his cage."
I sigh. "Goddammit. Haven't you guys been through this before?"
"Why? How do you know?" Dean asks Cas.
"Like I said, I've been watching them. I'm not sure how this will benefit her, but she seems determined. They appear to be using a book titled Reserans caveum."
Sam's eyes narrow at hearing the title of the book.
"Uh, something about a cave?" I ask cluelessly.
"No," Sam says bluntly.
"'Unlocking the cage,'" Dean translates for me instead. "Getting rusty on your Latin?"
"Yeah, I wasn't exactly raised speaking it like you two," I grumble bitterly.
"There is only one copy of the book, but I spoke to a theology professor who is familiar with it. Or… was. Bela killed him. It's a more detailed account of the seals that keep Lucifer's cage closed. If another sixty-six are broken…"
"Then the cage opens again," Dean says.
"But… The first and last seals have already been broken," Sam says. "Lilith is dead. It can't be repeated."
"There is another final seal," Cas tells us. "A sacrifice of the child of Lucifer's true vessel."
Huh. Convenient for Bela that a child of Lucifer's true vessel so recently came into being, then.
"So…" Sam looks down at the baby in my arms. "This baby."
"I believe that is what they were saving her for," Cas confirms.
"Well, I think that's good news," I say, holding the baby a little closer to myself. "At least we can't be tricked into breaking the final seal, like, uh…" I glance at Sam and he turns away to look out the window. It's a sensitive topic for him, understandably. "And as long as we can keep her safe, we can keep the cage shut."
"Bela has broken fifteen seals so far," Cas tells us.
There's silence for a few moments.
"What? Almost a fourth of them have been broken already?" I ask. Sam and Dean look as surprised as I feel.
"I have confidence in your ability to stop Bela," Cas tells us, and then he's gone, his seat left empty.
"What?" I say again after a moment, to no one in particular. Dean looks a little deflated and disappointed, and he keeps looking over at the seat where Cas had been sitting like he's expecting the angel to come back.
But he doesn't return, so we're left to sort out the information he gave us on our own. It's a five hour drive to Bobby's, so we'll have a while.
We stop to get childcare supplies on the way - the baby was screaming her head off which gave us the impression she needed something - and Dean is mostly the one figuring out how to take care of her. He has some babysitting experience after a year as a suburban dad a couple of years ago, which is more than Sam and I can say.
"Do you think Bobby will take care of her?" I ask. It's my turn to drive now, so Dean's sitting in the front seat next to me with the baby and Sam's in the back. "We need to do something with this kid. No way we're taking care of her doing what we do."
"Why not?" Dean asks. "Dad did that with us."
"And the two of you turned out so great," I say sarcastically.
He shoots me an irritated glance and I just smile back at him.
"We'll figure it out when we get there," Sam says tiredly. I look in the rearview mirror to see his face, but he just looks worn out and it's hard to tell his opinion on the matter.
We spend most of the rest of the car ride in silence, except for the occasional request to turn the radio on or off or change the station or turn up the heat or air conditioning, and we only stop once for gas and another time for Dean to change the baby's diaper on the hood of the Impala.
"You're gonna have to learn to do this yourselves at some point," he complained to us as we sat inside the car, me on my phone, Sam with a book, both of us ignoring him. "Ol' Uncle Dean isn't always gonna be around to clean up your child's poop."
We reach Bobby's house by the time it gets dark.
He must see the Impala pull up in front of his house because he's already out on the porch by the time we get out of the car.
"Boys," he says, nodding at them. "Eva." He squints at the bundled up baby in my arms, finally sleeping peacefully. "And is that…?"
I clear my throat awkwardly. I don't think he's been filled in on the whole baby situation yet. "This is our baby. Mine and Sam's, I mean."
"What?" Bobby says, dumbfounded. "Weren't you in hell just a few months ago?"
I sigh. "It's complicated."
There's a beat of silence before Bobby says, "Well, you'd best come in, then."