Hi there! Felt like I needed to clarify. This big plot arc in the Domesticity AU will end in the next few chapters. And I'll take a (brief) hiatus from this particular fic while I plot out the next big section. It's gonna be great! A few new OCs (including a love interest for Sam) and much more Dean & Sophie. In the meantime I'll keep posting to the Domesticity AU one shot story. Enjoy!
Sophie was still fast asleep when the alert came through on both their phones. Winter storm warning. Heavy snowfall starting that afternoon and expected to persist for more than two days. Dean rubbed his eyes and considered their options. They were due to leave for Sioux Falls in four days. The roads should be clear by then - if the forecasts were right. He figured he'd head into town and stock up on everything, then they could just wait it out.
He didn't want to leave her here with Sam, even for the hour or so it would take to run into town and buy groceries. The trials were eating away at Sam and Sophie was just so dang close to having this baby. Sam had spiked a fever twice overnight, and Dean had spent the hours of two to five in the morning sitting on the bathroom floor with his little brother in an ice bath and his wife asleep on his lap. It was turning into a family tradition. But it was nearing seven now and Sophie was tucked in his arms. Sam was asleep on the couch.
No alternative options presented themselves. So Dean got up, scribbled a note and stuck it to his pillow then kissed his sleeping wife, checked his brother's temperature - blessedly normal - and headed to the car.
Sophie got up around eight and found Sam in the kitchen when she went to make herself a cup of tea. These last two weeks her doctor had her on a regimen of herbal teas that - in theory - would help for an easier labor. In practice it meant she was drinking a total of seven cups of herbal tea a day, and thanks to the full term baby sitting directly on her bladder, it also meant going to the bathroom approximately every forty minutes.
"You want pancakes?" Sam asked from his place at the stove.
"Did you do anything weird to them?" Sophie questioned in reply, "The last time Dean offered me pancakes he'd somehow made them with tofu because he heard it was healthy for the baby. They tasted like cardboard."
"These are one hundred percent normal pancakes," Sam assured her.
"You're chipper today," Sophie commented, taking the plate he offered.
"I don't feel like absolute shit," Sam replied, "I'm unclear how many aspirin Dean gave me last night to get us here, but I'm appreciating it nonetheless."
"Couldn't tell you," Sophie said, sitting down at the table, "I remember waking up a couple times to Dean pacing and muttering something about Crowley, then again a few times on the bathroom floor where he had you in an ice bath, then once more in our bed because he was dripping wet after having removed you from said ice bath. If I remember right that last one was around five o'clock."
"Well whatever he did, it worked," Sam said, but Sophie only half heard him.
Something felt…strange.
Her lower belly hurt. Almost, but not quite, like period cramps. And then there was a tight, squeezing, popping sensation and she could feel water dripping down her legs.
"I'll be right back," she said hurriedly, leaving the pancakes and rushing for the bathroom.
"Did they taste like cardboard?" Sam called after her.
Sophie sat on the bathroom floor, focusing on the growing puddle of fluid around her hips. It was clear and very, very liquid. And as much as she tried to convince herself otherwise that could only mean one thing. Her water had broken. Before they made it up to Sioux Falls.
"Sam!" She screamed.
He came stumbling into the bathroom moments later.
"I'm having the baby," Sophie said.
"What now?" Sam asked in disbelief.
"Apparently," Sophie said, gesturing frantically at the growing puddle of amniotic fluid.
"Okay, okay," Sam started pacing, "I read up on delivering babies. Just in case."
"You read up on delivering babies?" Sophie asked. The pain had stopped for now, and, at least for the moment, she could think clearly. Though she doubted how long that would last.
"To clarify," Sam replied, "I read a chapter on how to deliver twins in an emergency in a book by James May."
"Shut up and call my husband," Sophie chucked her phone in his direction.
"Right," Sam said, catching it, "Right."
"Call! Dean! Now!" Sophie insisted.
When Dean saw Sophie's contact pop up on his phone his first reaction was happiness, followed swiftly by a wave of panic. Did Sam's temperature spike? Was she throwing up again? He'd only been gone for sixty-eight minutes at this point. He wasn't even expecting them to be awake. What had gone wrong this time?
"Dean," Sam's voice was worried. Why the hell was Sam calling from Sophie's phone?
"What is it, Sammy? You okay? Sophie okay?" Dean asked.
"Yeah everyone's fine," Sam sounded dazed, "It's just…"
"Spit it out," Dean snapped.
"Sophie's water just broke," Sam said.
"I will be right there," Dean said, hanging up. He abandoned his basket of groceries and sprinted to the car.
It was already snowing heavily.
No way they were getting to Sioux Falls.
They'd just have to…improvise.