FIC TITLE: The Home for Wayward Children
Author- PTBvisiongrrl
Part- 9/? (I promise nothing else, which is why its marked complete, but ideas are a–brewing.)
Date- 8/24/16
Rating – PG-13/T (at least for now…I will clearly warn if it changes)
Pairings/Characters- Sam/Dean brother bond; Dean/Castiel romantic relationship
Word Count- 2,100
Genre- Angst, Family, Romance
Warnings- Spoilers- AU for Season 11. I had already written this before the finale.
Disclaimers- Unfortunately, I don't own any of these characters, and make absolutely no profit from taking them out to play…so please don't sue me. If I did own them, there would be a lot more shirtless Winchesters and Angels of the Lord getting some on the show!
Summary-
At 39, Dean has taken more hits than a NFL quarterback, and his body has begun to feel it. His bones practically grate against each other when he gets up in the morning, and the rain makes him want to ball up into the fetal position until the Tylenol and Jack kick in. But if there isn't hunting, what is there? All there has ever been is hunting things and helping people, the family business. Well, maybe it's time to help other people hunt things and expand the family.
Chapter 9
The whirlwind of Charlie arrived two days and another shopping trip later. She was a force of nature, under milder circumstances, but dropped in the middle of five kids?
The kids would love her, Dean was sure.
Knowing Charlie was on her way had Dean on his toes and sent him into cleaning mode for hours. Sam just looked at Dean like he had three heads, grabbed Colton, and they headed four towns over to shoot some pool so that they wouldn't be pulled into the madness, and to earn some more cash for now. Sam had already emailed Charlie his online database idea, so she had time to think about it before she got there, and other than regular chores, Sam felt no need to stay in the Bunker with this domestic whirling dervish version of Dean.
Sam also suspected that Dean might be displacing some nervous energy about the eventual conversation Charlie would make Dean have about his new relationship with Cas. Because Charlie did not let you avoid the hard topics, and Charlie really was like their little sister—she would want to make sure that Dean had thought things through, that this would really make him happy, and that Cas understood that angel or not, Charlie would kick his ass if he hurt Dean. Dean would be uncomfortable about 90% of those things, and the King of Denial was distracting himself from thinking about it by cleaning everything in sight. So Sam opted to take the easy way out and avoid, avoid, avoid for now.
Cas simply kept his mouth closed, minded children and followed Dean's directions for what to clean and move and move again. The guest room have been thoroughly cleaned after the kids had chosen their own rooms and moved out of it, but Dean did it again and made sure it had anything Charlie might need in it, down to a toothbrush and towels. Dinners were premade for the next two days, ready to dump into the crock pot (chili, with rice and cornbread) or oven (the lasagna, already made). Dean had even sat down with the children and gotten as much of their family, medical, and school histories written down as they could remember and he could decipher. He figured that would make creating new identities for the children faster for Charlie.
When there was nothing more to be done, and Charlie had not yet arrived (she had told Dean in the afternoon, and it was barely past noon), Dean sat himself down on Jerry's bed, the two youngest playing at the little wooden table from the thrift store, and finally cracked open his sketch pad.
Opening his laptop, he pulled up some Star Wars artwork. Flipping through, he found something (just a light saber, not a character just yet) that would be fairly easy to recreate and went to work. He was so into it that he lost track of time a little bit, and was surprised by Cas appearing at the door, Dean's cell phone in his hand.
"I didn't want to answer it for you, but it says Charlie." Cas held the noisy little piece of technology out to Dean, which blared Dean's personalized ring tone for Charlie (I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry).
Dean quickly nodded to the kids playing, silently asking Cas to keep an eye on them, and left his sketch pad and laptop on the bed in his haste to answer his phone. "Hey, Charlie! Be right there!" echoed down the hallway and with the speeding, heavy thuds of Dean's booted feet. Even in Jerry's room, Cas could hear the stomping up the metal steps to let her in.
Cas was nervous. He and Charlie had met, had talked on the phone at points, had even "hung out" a bit with her with the brothers, but he had not had a great deal of contact with her on a one-to-one level. Charlie was very much like a little sister to the Winchesters, and her approval of Cas and Dean's changing relationship would matter to Dean.
Not enough, Cas knew, to make Dean change his mind or try to end things. The kids were also involved now, and any change to Cas and Dean's relationship would affect them as well. But if Charlie didn't approve, it would bother Dean. Subtle, needling, annoying bothering that would make Dean less happy when he acknowledged it. Therefore, Cas very much wanted Charlie to approve.
But he still worried that she might not. Cas tried to brush that worry aside as he put Dean's art supplies on the top of the dresser before sitting, cross-legged, next to the boys to play while waiting for Dean and Charlie.
S & D/C… S & D/C… S & D/C… S & D/C… S & D/C…
Charlie barreled through the now-open door, dropping all her bags but her laptop case into a pile so that she could wrap her arms around Dean in a hug worthy of a much larger person. Dean hugged back just as fondly, though less forcefully, only letting go after several long minutes of hug returned. "Charlie!"
"Dean!" Charlie returned with a wide smile. "S0 good to see you guys! Where's Sam?"
Dean looked a little skittish. "He and Colton, that's the sixteen year old, are pool sharking for a bit. I'll let them know you're here; I'm sure they'll be back shortly."
Eyebrow raised, Charlie asked, "And Cas?"
Rubbing the back of his neck, Dean licked his lower lip before replying. "He's watching the two little ones, Jerry and Petie, in Jerry's room. Playing blocks, most likely. Wanna beer?"
Charlie read Dean well, conceding to put off seeing Cas and the kids to talk about whatever it was that Dean felt he needed to tell her. "How about I leave these somewhere out of the way?" she motioned to her bags.
That snapped Dean out of his odd skittishness. "Yeah, yeah, of course! Let me take some of that, and we'll leave it at the end of the hall for now."
Grabbing her fair share of luggage, Charlie followed Dean down the steps and to the kitchen after dropping off. Dean pulled two beers out, opened them and handed her one. She sipped it, watching Dean chug half of his in one shot. She waited until his stopped for breath before asking, "So when did you hook up with Cas finally?"
Dean sprayed the room—but luckily not Charlie—with beer. "What? How did you—"
Charlie laughed heartily. "Everyone could see it. We just kinda assumed you'd never do anything about it. But with how much you've been talking about Cas, and the kids, it seemed to me that you were over coming inertia. And meeting me at the door all nervous like that?" Charlie laughed and took another sip. "I mean, what, did you think my gaydar would start blaring when I saw you?"
Dean sipped his beer this time, soft pink under his freckles. "Maybe."
"So when?" Charlie slugged Dean gently. "Who broke first? Spill the deets!"
"Geez," Dean colored more. "You are such a girl."
"Yes, I am," Charlie agreed. "So give me the details!"
"I, uh, said something first," Dean admitted. "After that last battle, I just can't keep hunting. I really, physically, can't keep this up. And I told Cas that, and asked if he would move into the Bunker with me. He said yes."
"Into the Bunker, not into your bed, huh?" Charlie tutted.
"Charlie!" Dean objected.
"Don't play coy, Dean," Charlie shook her head and drank some more. "You are a horn dog with the ladies. Who knew you would be different with guys?"
"It's not guys, it's one guy, just Cas," Dean clarified. "And I'm not saying I didn't invite him into my bed. I'm just not sharing details of that."
"Well, considering how NOT into that I am, thanks for not over-sharing those details." Charlie crossed her arms and gave Dean a slightly contorted smile, squinting an eye at him. "But did he say yes?"
"Yes, he said yes," Dean answered. "We are sharing a room."
Charlie smiled and wrapped Dean up in another fierce hug. "And that is going well?"
Dean sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Yes, it is. I thought you didn't want those details?"
Charlie backed off, hands up. "That isn't what I was asking!"
Dean finished his beer and put the bottle in the sink. "Are you asking if we've had our first fight yet? Because we haven't."
"Actually, I was wondering if you'd had any big gay freak out or anything. I mean, this is your first guy relationship." Charlie shrugged. "Just curious."
"Nothing to freak out about. I kinda already did that…for, like, seven years. I'm over it," Dean made a forgetaboutit lip curl. "And the sex is pretty awesome."
"Dude!" Charlie protested.
Smiling wide, Dean laughed loudly. "Got ya! Cas is good for me. I hope I'm good for him."
"I hope so, too, Dean. It's really great to see you actually happy for a change." Charlie put her own half-full beer bottle on the counter. "Although I'm pretty sure the rugrats have something to do with that, too, huh? 'Cause that is one big adjustment."
Dean gave Charlie a long look. "They don't have anybody. We can be somebody for them. I'm never having my own kids, so this is the only chance I'll get to do that. And Sam and Cas fully support that."
Charlie met Dean's eyes seriously. "I wish I had someone like that for me. I'm really proud of you for taking the kids on."
"Thanks, Charlie," Dean genuinely smiled at her and tugged at her arm. "Why don't we go meet them?"
Charlie practically skipped behind Dean.
S & D/C… S & D/C… S & D/C… S & D/C… S & D/C…
Cas was carefully stacking blocks in a tower with Jerry. They were trying to see how tall they could build it before it collapsed, but by the third Godzilla-Petie interruption, Cas and Jerry gave up. Instead of towers, they began building small piles for Petie to knock down, which he happily did.
So busy with their game, Cas didn't notice Dean and Charlie in the doorway. Charlie observed Dean's reaction to watching Cas with the little ones, so happy for the two of them. Dean's face was glowing just looking at his little family, until he caught on to Charlie's attention on him and went pink again.
Jerry noticed the two adults first. "'ean! Is dis Charlie?"
Cas immediately looked up, saying hello, although he did not rise for a hug until he caught Petie up in his arms. The boy was quite the speed crawler, and Cas felt better with him in arm than under foot. "And this little man is Petie," Cas introduced Charlie before sitting back down to release the squirming child, greeting complete. Jerry ran right to Dean, however, how scooped him up and introduced him to Charlie.
"This is our good friend, Charlie Bradbury. She is amazingly smart, and funny, and a hunter." Dean made sure to point that out. He wanted Jerry and the kids to be able to talk about hunting without worry to someone other than their adult caregivers if they needed to. "She's even been to Oz."
Oz got more of a reaction than any other part of that introduction. "Oz? Like, wid da witch and da lion and da scaredy-crow?"
Charlie smiled wider than Dean had ever seen her. "Sorta, Jerry. I hung out with Dorothy, and Glinda the Good Witch, mostly. And I did see quite a few Munchkins. Do you like The Wizard of Oz?"
Jerry shook his head. "I don' like da witch. Witches be bad."
Charlie tilted her head. "Not all, but most seem to be, yeah. I'm back now, to help Dean and Sam and Cas with some stuff."
"'ean said you was gonta make me a new name," Jerry agreed solemnly. "But I like my old one."
"Well, Jerry, I'll see what we can do about picking you a name you'll like. How's that?" Charlie taped Jerry on the end of his nose.
Jerry studied Charlie like he studied everything new while he was deciding if he liked the new thing or not. "Okay," he agreed, shot Charlie a smile, and then tugged Dean's arm to let him back down. "After we play some?"
Charlie agreed, looking at Dean. "Yeah, after we play some." She winked at Dean and got down on the floor.