Notes: A bit longer of a wait for an update, and I apologize for keeping anyone who has been waiting for an update to be posted. It's here, and it's taken a long of debating and editing and figuring out how to make this all go. There were parts written years ago that I wanted to keep, and they needed to be blended now to fit in with the detour this story ended up taking as I came back to writing it. It's been a major pain in the behind to write this chapter, so after a lot of thought and debate over what had to go down between Dean and Manda here, this is how it turned out. There was a ton of dialogue that left me shaking my head and throwing up my hands, because if I don't quite feel it as I write it, then I know the reader won't either. These two have always had a flow that I found works well for them, so if I can't see them playing it out that way or hear them saying the things they do, it needs to worked on until I think the flow is right and it works.
Fingers crossed that everything has worked out and makes sense, and that the quality hasn't been compromised throughout. It's a bit of a longer chapter this time around, so do get comfortable if you're about to read it.
As always, the adult language (and there was quite a bit of it used this time) has been swapped out for this site, but the original remains intact over on ao3. So you can always head over there to read it that way instead.
Hope you enjoy how it turned out!
"Of course it wasn't. So what else happened?" Dean questioned her in a rough tone, instantly feeling pissed off that there was still more she hadn't told him. But in that same moment he felt the bulge of her slightly pregnant stomach between them. He hadn't when he had first pulled her against him, but feeling it now freaked him out and worried him at the same time. It also reminded him that she was in fact pregnant and upset. Fighting with her again wasn't exactly going to do her or the baby any good. He sighed deeply, closed his eyes for a second, and dropped his arms from around her, trying to shove all that fear and worry, not just the rising anger, down again. "And what more do I need to know?"
Having seen an odd look on him for a second, Manda knew her stomach's new shape had just registered with him. It was no surprise he had pulled away then. She took a step backwards. Dean clearly needed the space, and was now already trying his best not to yell at her. She wondered how long that would last since he wasn't going to like one word of what she had to say next. She sniffled softly, fighting off tears as she looked at him. "Which news do you want first – the crappy or the crappiest?"
He looked at her comically. She was trying to hold her hormones in check, trying to make light of the situation for his sake, and he wasn't sure how she was doing either, but she was. "Does it matter? Whatever you haven't told me yet won't be good. Never was any other time you held back on talking about something, was it?"
"Guess we'll start with the crappy then." Reaching out with one hand, she lightly caressed the side of his face she hadn't punched earlier. "Just know that everything I've done for the last three months, will do next… is to look out for our baby, and you, Winchester, not only myself. You're my family now, and like it or not, I'm frigging protecting all of us however the hell I can, okay?"
Dean saw the fierceness that he had always liked in her at the surface now. She was so like him that way that he knew he couldn't exactly tell her to let him protect them all instead. All that stubbornness she had, all that fiercely protective love she held for him and now their unborn child would override everything else. He knew it would for him, because it was like she had just said – they were family now, his as much as hers. "Like I won't do the same for you and the baby? But that's not what we're talking about right now, Chambers… so out with it."
Manda took a deep breath before she started to explain. "A couple days before realizing I was pregnant, I bumped into some other hunters at a bar… four guys I barely even remembered. Only met 'em once or twice a few years back through some mutual friends in the game, and they weren't the friendliest or fairest of our bunch back then either. Anyway, they must've tracked me down somehow, because it was like they weren't surprised to see me that night even if they tried pretending they were. But once we started talking, they seemed to know you and I had a thing once. One of them mentioned it because they said they were looking for you and Sam now… and then another one asked if I might be able to point them in your direction."
His eyes widened and he looked at her a little strangely. Why had she been worried about telling him this? The dots weren't quite connecting yet other than demons thought she might know how to find him, and now so did other hunters. "Well, the hottest two hunters out there hooking up… not a surprise word spread through the circuit about us at the time. I'm the most handsome eligible bachelor of our scene and you're definitely the sexy supermodel of it. We probably made the front page of some Hunters Monthly newsletter that gets passed around and we've never heard of. Gotta ask Bobby if he's got any copies of it lying around… But, uh, what's the deal? Why are some halfwit hunters looking for me and Sam?"
She let out a soft sigh. "Dean, it's not just them. There's a group of hunters out there that think taking you and Sam out will stop everything. Logic being if the Winchester brothers aren't alive, there aren't puppets to put on the show with."
Hunters want us dead? Ain't enough for heaven and hell to want our asses, now I gotta try to keep other hunters from killing us? Dean's hands curled into fists, because now it was all starting to make sense. He hadn't seen this coming, but it didn't completely surprise him either. "Awesome. Okay, not the first time other hunters have come after me and Sammy. Which means my fine ass is wanted by all sides now. Always knew I was a hot commodity, but this confirms it," he joked with a sarcastic grin. "Why did these guys think you'd be able to help find us? And why didn't you call me to give me that heads up after running into them?"
"They thought you and me might have been more than a fling, which we were… are, whatever… That's not the story I sold them. They bought it, but I wasn't taking chances. Those jerks would have hurt me to lure you in, especially if they knew about us being soul mates, hooking up on and off… or now that there's one thing that'll forever tie us together – this baby. And it also was clear they'd been keeping tabs on me for awhile. One of them even went as far as trying to pick me up that night," she said with some disgust. "Not like I was about to sleep with that creep. I went home with a local guy instead, because like hell I was tipping them off on how to find you that night or letting them use me to do it. Next morning I had interviews early for the new job I took on so I forgot to warn you, and then like two days later morning sickness had me puking my guts out."
"All right…" Biting down the bitter taste in his mouth, Dean tried not to get hung up on one part of that. It didn't matter if they were soul mates, they weren't actually together, and while he knew she was free to sleep with random men whenever she wanted, he still didn't want to know anything about it. "How'd you know they were keeping tabs on you?"
She shot him a look that said he had to be kidding. "Because I'm not an amateur, and I know when someone's been tailing my ass. They asked too many questions, let too many things slip... things they shouldn't have known. Not the brightest bulbs, that's for sure, but somehow they found me that night."
"I'm not buying all that. I know you, Manda. Knocked up or not, hunters, not just demons, looking for me through you wasn't enough to make you disappear the way you did. Kill your phones maybe, but not completely vanish on me or everyone else. Did they threaten you that night or something?" He asked the question with curious tone.
"No, I could have handled that without a problem. You know that." Manda just looked back at him, and got a little quiet for a minute, trying to figure out how to break the next part to him. "This baby makes me a golden ticket to get to you for any side now, so those clowns and then those demons were just part of me going off the grid once I knew I was pregnant and staying that way. But what happened when I was still in the hospital is what sealed the deal to run."
Dean gave her a look that said she better explain and quickly. He saw how afraid she was though, and whether it was because of what happened or how he would take it, he wasn't sure. He also had an idea of what she might tell him next, but since he hadn't seen her last bit of news coming he wasn't entirely certain what else might have happened to her. "Guess now we're on to the crappiest news, huh?"
Manda nodded regretfully. "The doctors wanted to keep an eye on me and the baby for a few days, and everything was going okay, but on the night before I was supposed to be released, I had this dream…" her voice went hollow as she tried to say it out loud. Her gaze dropped to the ground then.
Goddamn! I knew it. I knew that son of a bitch would come after you. "A dream about what?" he asked, his voice deadly serious now. When she didn't answer, he took a step closer to her. "Manda, who was in your dream?" He raised his voice this time, but the worry leaked through the roughness of it.
She anxiously looked back up at him, saw the horror wash over his face for one second, and then he just stared at her with something between despair and understanding. "You told me he was a huge dick, but that was a total understatement, Dean. Zachariah's one sanctimonious jerkoff that makes you wonder how angels are supposed to be the good guys. What a joke that is."
"You're just preaching to the choir now, sweetheart," he mumbled harshly. "But I've already called dibs on ganking that high and mighty son of a bitch the moment there's a chance to. So, wild guess – he was hoping you knew where I was too?"
There was a quick nod from her, and then she was absently rubbing at her mom's ring on her finger. "He didn't say who he was, but I suspected it was him. All he did was ask if I would do one little favour for him – call you, find out where you were and let him know. A nurse woke me up just after I told him to go screw himself. Half an hour later I checked out of there, knew it was time to hit the ground, and the sooner the better. Crap wasn't just going from bad to worse… it was already there."
Standing there, watching the way it still unnerved Manda, and believing she was just as much as a pawn in all this as he felt he was himself, Dean felt his hate towards Zachariah growing stronger. He didn't think it was possible to, but he loathed that smug bastard even more now. "Bet you telling him off bunched his junkless panties. I know he doesn't take no for an answer very well." He chuckled a little, thinking of how annoyed the angel would have been by her answer at the time. He knew how much Zachariah hated his attitude, and hers was no better. "Was that, uh… was that the only time he hijacked your dreams?" He had to ask, had to know, because while that alone was enough to send her into hiding at the time, he wasn't sure that was all there was to it.
Manda turned around and looked at the angel blade lying on the hood of her car. She took a step towards the weapon and picked it up. "If only. I needed a place to hide until my arm healed up a little more, so Spence, the lawyer for my trust that you talked to, helped get me out to his place so I could lay low and plan my next move. But the whole week I was there…"
The whole week? His mouth dropped open at bit as that bit of information hit. "Whoa, back that up… are you telling me you were there when I talked to him?" His tone was sharp, and he shot a hard glare at the back of her head. Sometimes she just infuriated him to no end. "And you or your lawyer didn't think to at least let me know you were okay?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't okay, Dean. So he at least let you know I was alive," she snapped, her voice holding a hint of irritation. Turning around to face him again, she leaned back against her car, and then poked the tip of the angel blade with a finger. "Don't you dare give me hell for it either. You know you're the one person I wanted to run to, that I needed most, but I couldn't do it. Couldn't even think about seeing you even because that whole week Zachariah was popping in and out of my dreams and pestering me about finding you."
Hearing her admit to needing him then, what anger he was feeling towards her slipped away. He took a step towards her again. She looked so damned vulnerable to him right then, leaning against her Chevelle with a death grip on the angel blade in her hand, her stomach holding their unborn child in her womb peeking out from his unopened jacket she had on. "You told that patronizing prick where to go and then some, right?"
She let out a small chuckle with an impish smirk. "More or less in a different way every night, and not so nicely, Winchester. You know I did."
"Knew it. That's my girl," he uttered with a wide grin. "Your give 'em hell attitude is almost as good as mine."
Manda's eyes met his and she smiled at him, set the blade down on the hood again. "But you're right, he doesn't take no for an answer well, because after a few nights of that he cut to the chase. Informed me he knew we're soul mates, and that he was now through playing games with me and with letting me live. Then he started asking why I was hidden from angels, where I was, and what exactly it was I was hiding from him."
Dean let out a low growl. He took the last step between them and reached out to graze his fingers over her cheek. "Hey, I don't care if it costs me my trip to heaven, I promise I'm gonna kill that winged bastard, because if dicks like him are running that show, it won't be all it's cracked up to be."
"Tell me about it," she muttered with scoff. Then she just shook her head at him. "But you're not going back to hell. Not on my watch, and not if I can help it, handsome. In this shape or not I'll still find a way to shove that angel blade so far up that his ass he'll choke on it first."
Letting out a hearty chuckle, he just stared at her. She was completely serious, and he believed she would do it if she had the chance to. "Don't know if that'll work on him, but there's no freaking way you're ever getting close enough to him to find out, Manda. Because I swear, from what I'm hearing here I'm about to drive you home and lock your ass in that fortress against all things supernatural house of yours with Cass on guard. Or just make you bunk with him down in Bobby's panic room until all this is over."
Hearing how much he meant it, seeing the worry he had and the protective side of him kick in, she knew he would do it if he thought it would keep her safe and alive. "I'm not going home to be a sitting duck. So hold that thought. See, I found a way to keep him from poking around in my dreams the next morning. Because with the way those angels can read your mind and just waltz into it like this," she said, snapping her fingers then. "I knew it was just a matter of time before that jackass figured out you had knocked me up at this stellar time."
Dean was silent for a minute, working out what to say next. But seeing the look on her face, he could tell she was still holding something back. "Chambers… tell me that worked. Tell me that you're still keeping him out of there and the holy team doesn't know yet."
Manda's eyes filled with tears again, and she shook her head with an apologetic look.
Damn it! Crap… goddamn it! Zachariah will be gunning for you at full speed now, because you're right – goddamn golden ticket to take a shot at me. My kid, you… he'll use you to make me bend, and I-I… how the hell can I say no and watch him kill you and our baby, but how the hell can I say yes and watch Sam die instead? He thought, and then realized that was what she had been referring to earlier. It was why she'd been so reluctant to tell him. The choice he was left if it came down to it with was unbearable on either end. It was one he couldn't make at all, because how was he supposed live with losing his brother on one hand or the woman he still loved and their child on the other? He wasn't sure it wouldn't ever come down to anything but having to make that choice, and he knew he was once again damned if he did and just as damned if he didn't. "How long has he known, Manda?" The panic took hold of his voice. "How long has Zachariah known you've got a baby Winchester on board?" He asked harder and louder this time since she didn't answer right away.
"He finally managed to figure it out just this last week. I tried everything I could to keep him out of my dreams for as long as I could, Dean," she quickly replied. "Tried everything possible to stop that a-hole from finding out. But he's a frigging powerful angel. If any goddamned supernatural thing out there knows all the loopholes to breaking through your subconscious, it'd be one of them." Manda's voice cracked, she tipped her head and shuddered a little. "You know what he said? He claimed he could smell you on me, and that he should have realized why I reeked of your foul scent. He thought it was just the soul mate thing, not," she paused, and then put up her fingers to use air quotes, "Dean Winchester's unfortunate bastard spawn in the oven."
"That son of a bitch!" Dean let out a hard grunt of a scoff, his face twitching with anger. He wanted nothing more than to beat the holy hell out of Zachariah and wipe that self-righteous smirk off his face for good right then. Because when Manda looked back up at him, her eyes brimming with tears, he knew without any doubt that that dick had threatened her, their child, and now wouldn't stop coming for her until he found her. "Screw him. Only unfortunate thing about my… our spawn is their amazing timing. And if it's not my side that's gonna make them screwed every step of the way, it's yours, right?" he said, trying to joke a little and ease the situation for her sake as he closed the small remaining gap between them. "And yeah, maybe the kid's a bastard in that born out of wedlock bullcrap the upstairs is big on, but so what, Chambers? I'm okay with that, so are you. Doesn't mean the kid will be less loved because of that. We're still family."
Nodding, her face twisted with a sob that wasn't just from the hormones, and she tried to suppress it. Dean had admitted the timing was horrible, but everything else he had said was his way of saying he wanted this baby. That he could accept he was now a father and that they were family.
He just gently laid a kiss on her forehead to let her know it was okay. He was pretty sure all the crying was just her hormones working overtime now because she was even crying louder than she normally did, and that wasn't at all like her. "That all he had to say?"
"Not with the way he likes to hear himself talk." Manda shook her head, wiped at her tears with a hand. "Zachariah told me you weren't getting the chance to even be a deadbeat dad. He promised to find me, Dean. Said it wouldn't matter where I ended up or if I lived long enough to have this kid in the meantime. He vowed to make sure that the Winchester line ends with you and Sam once you've both played the parts you were destined for. That at least you would realize there was no other choice but to say yes to Michael with this tasty carrot to dangle once he found me."
"Never gonna frigging happen, Manda. Don't care what it takes either, that piece of poop's not getting his hands on you and our kid, and I'm not saying yes." The look on Dean's face turned dark, and then he just looked down at her. He cupped her face with one hand, his fingers going behind her ear, and brushed at a tear down her cheek with his thumb. "But I guess he still knows squat all about me. Do I look like the guy who shrugs off his responsibility? Ask Sammy. I've been responsible for that kid for like twenty-seven years now. He's a grown ass man these days, but he's still my baby brother and you know I won't let him do half of what he should be doing at his age. So me be a deadbeat dad? Funny. That's exactly what Zachariah and the rest of those douchey angels have, and he still can't tell the difference. Just a bunch of self-centered asshats who think annihilating the joint will bring Daddy home, and he doesn't care if they burn this earth to the ground."
Manda put her hand around his wrist and looked up at him. "Dean," she softly said. "I know what kind of dad you'll be, and it's a far cry from a deadbeat one. But his point was made – you may not get the chance to even be one."
Pressing his lips together, he didn't know what to say back right away. That point didn't need to be made for him to already know that was just the most likely outcome here. He wasn't sure if they'd kill her before she had the baby or if he'd end up dead in the next few months, but one of those was bound to happen. "Just what kind of a dad do you think I'll be, Manda?" he asked curiously, wanting to know what she thought regardless of what happened. He wasn't sure of what kind of dad he'd be himself.
"The kind who loves his child," she answered without hesitation. She removed her hand from his wrist, and then nodded at the spot beside her to silently tell him she needed him there instead of in front of her now. "Maybe you wouldn't be around much, but I know you'd be there when he or she needed you. You always have been for me."
Dean closed his eyes, knowing she'd just hit it dead on. He moved to be beside her and then leaned back against her car.
"You might not see their first steps, hear their first word, be around on a birthday… but there's no question you'd love our kid or that you'd do anything for them," Manda told him. "Look at how you are with Sam… no doubt you'll be the same with your own son or daughter."
"Maybe so, but sooner or later I'd only let them down," he confessed in a whisper. Deep down that was just how he felt about it. Because he'd felt too many times that he let down the people he loved most – like his own dad, his brother, and even her a few times now. So he knew he'd do it with his child too.
"Hey, no more than I will. I can shoot a target blindfolded, pick a lock the same way, break down a gun in no time, and I hunt monsters for a living. How's all that gonna help me raise a baby and be a mom?"
Unable to help it, Dean laughed at how she put it. The skills both of them had from being hunters wouldn't help with raising a baby at all. "You're still a chick, being maternal is like built into you. You'll figure it out." He put his arm behind her now to let her know that he was there and it was okay to lean on him if she wanted to.
She laughed, and then gave him a sidelong glance when she felt his arm behind her back, his hand somewhat close to her hip. "I'll try, but my life's been spent chasing and killing one boogeyman or another. It hasn't exactly made me mother material."
He surprisingly found himself chuckling again. "Hey, I know how you are with me, so it's clear to me you love this kid to no end already and you'll do anything for them too." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye with a cute smirk. "Upside to this is the kid's never gonna have to worry about the boogeyman."
She smiled a little, chortled softly. "True."
"Downside being the kid will know the boogeyman's real."
"Also true…" Manda uttered somewhat sadly. She shifted, leaned more into him, resting her head on his shoulder then and finally gave into what she'd wanted for months now – having Dean around and letting him look after her.
Glancing down at Manda first and then at her stomach which was now more visible from under his jacket again, Dean just tightened his arm behind her. "So, Chambers, you showed up here for a reason and now that I know what's going on… let's hear it. What are you going to do next? What's your plan?" He knew she had to have one up her sleeve, and now he needed to hear it.
There was no easy way to tell him her entire plan. Parts of it he couldn't know about. It would be better for both of them that way, so she settled for telling Dean the main part of it. "The plan is to do what I've been doing, but it's time to up it a few notches."
His lifted a brow at her curiously. "A few notches? I couldn't track you down and I'm damned good. So just how much further underground can you go?"
"You are, so I'll take that as a compliment." Manda grinned up at him sweetly. "Wish it was safe for me to stay with you though, that we could do this together, but we both know that's not happening. Not with everything else going on right now. So next it'll be time for me to get lost and run a little deeper into the wind, Dean."
He stayed quiet, thinking it over for a few minutes before nodding in agreement. He didn't like this plan of hers at all, didn't like the idea of her being out there on the run alone and pregnant with his child one bit. But he knew that it was her best bet at staying alive. It had worked for the last few months as it was. Yet, he really didn't even want to know how much more she could get lost after this. She'd already been a ghost these past few months, and it was only going to get worse. "You're right on that one. The deeper underground you go, the better."
"And there's still no guarantee that'll help at all," she whispered out the truth of it.
"No there's not. So while you do that, I'm just supposed to…" Forget? Worry? Pretend you're not out there with our kid? Wait it out until one side kills you? He thought of the ways to finish that, but didn't know what he was actually supposed to do once she disappeared again.
"Do what you're doing. Keep fighting it. Find a way to stop everything," Manda interjected as Dean paused. She lifted her head off his shoulder to look at him. "It's not like we have a lot of options to work with. You know I can't go with you any more than you can go with me. If any side finds me like this with you… we both know how that'll end. I-I can't let that happen. So, Dean, you gotta go one way, I gotta go another. Same as always."
Closing his eyes, he took a minute to just let that sink in. There was no argument to be had about it even if he wanted one. It wasn't like he could drag her along with him and Sam to protect her like a big part of him wanted to do. She really was better off disappearing on her own, and he was, for lack of any other choice in his opinion – better off to keep doing what he was doing – resisting and looking for to stop things. Giving into Michael was getting more tempting, but it was a last resort, one he wasn't sure he could take even if he tried no matter of the costs now. If he could stop the apocalypse, he still wanted her alive at the end of it. Wanted her and their child to make it with or without him. "You got it all figured out, don't you?"
"I've had some time to think about it," she admitted. "Maternity leave is…well, pretty boring. Only worked one case in the last two months, and that was because there was a higher chance of slipping in the shower than getting hurt."
Dean couldn't help but chuckle softly as he looked at his with a ridiculous look. "Yeah right. What kind of job was that?"
"Found a shtriga by accident," Manda answered, a bit of a bitter tone in her voice. "Those suckers always want to snack on kids. I couldn't wait for someone else to pick up the trail. Must've struck a bigger nerve than it usually does."
He looked at her surprised and then curiously. She sounded like a mom to him already. But to take on a shtriga while pregnant? That reckless streak of hers was so much like his that while it annoyed him, he understood it completely. "Chambers, are you nuts? You're a combo meal at two for the price of one right now... no way it could refuse snacking on you for that reason either." He shook his head, knowing it would have excitedly gone after her because of that.
"Oh, I let it get close enough to try. Then I pumped that witch so full of iron that's all I could taste for the next week." She smiled a little with that memory. "There's still all the usual evil suspects out there, Winchester. Hunting's not really an option like this, but it was little kids and I could save them. I needed to just in case I can't actually save my own kid. So, guess I was feeling totally maternal thanks to the annoying hormones flooding my system these days."
Guffawing at knowing she wasn't lying about tasting iron for a whole week after that, Dean looked at her with a bit of wonder. While he couldn't disagree with why she had taken that case on, he also saw that she had a point. What if she couldn't save their child? And what if he couldn't either? Then all of this would be for nothing. Her running and hiding, and him letting her go it alone wouldn't be for anything other than an outcome he couldn't bear. Looking back down towards her stomach again, he lifted his hand and then hesitated to move it. And then he reached out with the arm not around her, and placed his hand on her stomach. "Manda…" he started, and then choked on what he was going to say. Because as soon as his fingers had splayed over that taut bump that held their child within it – he felt a surge of love and protectiveness rush through him, but also dread over the whole situation.
Biting back the tears as she felt his hand on her stomach, she looked him in the eye then. She saw the sadness in him, and then felt his hand slip away from her stomach. "Shhh," she whispered softly. She reached up to graze his cheek with her fingers and then just gave him a soft kiss. "It's all right, baby… no regrets, okay? Besides, what's left to lose these days? I'll make it or I won't. Still a hunter, still the apocalypse, and it's still the same roll of the dice with or without the bun in the oven."
"Same?" he gruffly uttered with scepticism. "It's not the same. The gamble you're taking doing this… you're… you're betting on black and falling on red, sweetheart."
Nodding, Manda was quiet for a minute. He knew as much as she did that this was bound to be the death of her. "Probably… but I need to believe this happened for some other reason than being the end of me. Maybe it's selfish and wrong, but if the outcome's the same no matter the route – least I go out knowing I gave the kid a chance." Her smile was thin and heartbroken as her eyes gazed into his. "That I tried to have a piece of that other life, one I can't imagine doing with anyone else, Dean."
Her words dug into him, and they were what he wanted to hear and still hurt. He dropped his gaze away from hers. How could he look at her when she was risking it all to have something she'd always wanted, and with him and yet without him? Still, his guilt was there because he wanted that life too, and while it was happening now, he wasn't going to be able to be around for it unless he could figure out how to stop Michael and Lucifer from getting their way. "The old if things were different speech, huh?"
"That day would never come. This one did. And I really could've done worse but I lucked out for my baby daddy… found a good man with a good heart. Just happens to be totally handsome and a great hunter with a sweet ride. Has awesome taste in music too. He might be a pain in the ass most of the time, but that's all part of his charm," she teased, hoping it would lighten things up a bit.
Dean gave her an impish look and a cocky grin. She was teasing and she wasn't, just letting him know how she felt about him again. "Quit making me blush, Chambers. But you think I'm just a great hunter? Really?"
"One of the best, and you know it." Manda smirked and nudged him gently in the ribs with an elbow. "Would've done better on a few jobs with you around, Dean, and slept a little sounder some nights because of it too."
"You wouldn't have gotten too much sleep with me around," he mused with a slight chuckle, the grin on his face widening now.
She laughed. "Yeah, between all your snoring and the smells you release from the crap you eat most of the time…"
"Oh, shut up. Not like you always smell of roses, woman," he teased back. "Don't even get me started on that disgusting salve you use on wounds…" He made a gagging sound.
Locking eyes with each other again, they both chortled and then rolled their eyes at the other. And then they both went silent, neither knowing what to say to the other now.
Dean broke the silence first. "So this is why you got brought back that night, huh?"
"Seems that way," she admitted.
"Manda, if I had known…" he started to say then.
"You wouldn't have called me to come out here that night? You would've stayed far away from me and this wouldn't have happened?" Manda let out a loud scoff.
"Your birthday… it had to be that night…" he trailed off.
"Probably… did seem like it was too good to be true. That might've been the best night we've ever had… and maybe not just with each other either."
Dean nodded with a raised brow, remembering the way that night had been. How nothing had existed outside of Bobby's panic room, and it felt like it had just been him and her and that was it. But Manda was probably right because that night was one of, if not, the best he'd ever had. And he had had plenty of nights. "Well yeah, but how? I mean… I use condoms, you wear that patch thing…"
She shrugged. "A pure accident? Or was it fate? Destiny? God's twisted sense of humour? Take your pick. I'd like to think none of those had a hand in it, but the timing… it couldn't be better and it couldn't be worse."
"Pawns, we're pawns in all this, and our kid is part of some other endgame for them," Dean said, the bitterness strong in his voice. "My parents… "
"Sam filled me in." Manda looked at him sadly. "Maybe we're like them, maybe we're not. But it's not an exact copy of history repeating itself from what I hear. We liked each other from day one, Winchester. And then we both fought those feelings until we couldn't."
While that was true, he couldn't help but wonder if it was a repeat of history though, because the similarities were almost too scary now that his mind was running with them. Manda had lost her parents to a demon just like his mom had, but the only difference was there hadn't been a deal attached to it. They weren't married like his parents had been, and Dean wasn't his dad. Despite what he'd always thought, he wasn't like John Winchester all that much, and more and more he realized it. "I wasn't going to call you that night, you know," he admitted. "But after what happened those few days before, I just needed…I needed…"
"Us," she whispered. "It's okay. Like the day before that I was going to call you. I had that need to see you too."
He looked at her a little funny, not having known that at all. "So why didn't you call?"
"My phone was dead. The car charger wasn't anywhere in my bags or in the car. Funny, I found the night you did call. When I got to the hotel, I noticed it was stuck under passenger seat."
Dean shook his head with some disbelief. "So what then – some sort of divine intervention brought us together again?"
"Maybe. Because I decided not to call you when I couldn't find the damn thing," she chuckled. "Plugged in my cell when I got in my room to crash for the night, and wham, you called within two hours like you knew." She hummed a few bars of Golden Earring's "Radar Love" at him.
Recognizing the tune, Dean smirked at her for it. That seemed to be just how it was for them, so he gave her a knowing look. "Not quite the same as the song, but yeah, we've always had a little of that going on if you think about it. Second time we met after saving Church – same job, same bar, same motel. From then on out, I'd think about calling you and most times I'd hear from you within a day. Sounds like it also worked that way on your end. And when we'd go to meet up, we were never all that far out of each other's way… hell, I swear you've read my mind sometimes, and I know it's like I've read yours at times."
She tipped her head in agreement. "Well, we're soul mates. So maybe it's all down to fate or the Almighty, but they don't get all the credit for everything. Manipulated by either or not, it still doesn't change how I feel about you or this baby now," she said with a soft tone. "So screw fate. Screw God. Screw Zachariah, screw Michael, screw Lucifer, and screw everything other goddamn thing that thinks they wrote the book and they know how our story's gonna end, Dean."
His lips curled with a smirk. "Damn straight. Screw all of them," he agreed. "They can shove that ending up… well, who knows what holes they actually have, but you know what I mean."
Manda laughed, and then she just started crying. She leaned into him then, pressed her face against his shoulder.
Dean wrapped his arms around her tightly and held her close knowing she needed him to. He felt some relief when her felt her arms slip around him. "Okay. Take a minute, have your moment, Manda. It's all right, I got you tonight, baby," he whispered in her ear. "And you know I'm not letting anything happen to you here."
Closing her eyes and fending off more tears, she nodded, and then let herself take in the feelings of safety, love, and comfort Dean always offered her. And then she heard the sound of a car approaching in the distance and all of that slipped away.
Notes: So that's how it went. How you thought or not at all. Was it lacking in anything or just too long?
There was a lot for Dean to hear here, stuff he needed to know and work out. Hence all the dialogue. I hope that despite all that, it flowed well and made sense. They needed to talk it out and work through that.
So now Dean knows about the other hunters looking for him, Zachariah knowing Manda is pregnant, and that her plan is still to go this alone without him or his help. Which a ton of things could happen there...
It seems Dean might actually have to let Manda go after this little meeting at Bobby's house. So how the next chapter or two pans out between them might get a little interesting. Or it could be boring. Who knows. We left on a bit of a cliffhanger in this one... so whatever happens next is anyone's guess.
The next chapter may take awhile again. I wish I could get it all written a lot quicker, but these things take time, and there's a lot of editing and rewriting to do at times because of needing the right flow of words. So bear with me, please. I'll try to get it up as quickly as possible, so... if you have an account over here, you know what to do to be alerted for updates. If not, check back once in awhile to look for the last date the story was updated under the summary.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter and are liking the story this far in still. Thank you for stopping by and reading these mostly cheesy and probably badly written fanfic attempts!