95: Bringing Home Baby
"Angie, she's gorgeous." Jane said, smiling crookedly at she stared down at the infant in her friend's arms. "Look at all that hair…"
"Yeah, look at it." Angie sounded tired, pleased, but tired. "Where'd our husbands go?"
"Outside for a cigar." That had been Dean's idea. Dean and Landon, Angie's husband, had kind of been forced to hang together over the past month as Jane and Angie grew closer. Naturally, the men had forged a bond that they justified with 'women', though Dean had been mildly horrified at the rollercoaster of emotions that the other man seemed to experience. Apparently sympathy pregnancy had hit Landon hard. "May I?" She wasn't sure why she wanted to hold the baby, but she did.
Angie nodded, watching as Jane bent down to carefully pick up the infant. "Maybe it's time to convince Dean you need a few of your own."
"I don't know about all that…" Jane could not remember the last time she had held an infant, or anything small and cuddly… her brow creased with her frown for a moment. "Have you guys finally decided on a name?"
"Samantha." Angie was trying not to yawn anymore, nestling back into her pillows as she watched the pair. "Landon is already calling her Sammy."
"Sammy…" Jane echoed, her brother-in-law now at the forefront of her mind. "Samantha is a beautiful name." Which it was, but now, Sam was there, smiling at her, and she blinked away what was likely some vague memory. Thinking about Sam still hurt, and the few times Dean had actually talked about his brother… made the ache all the worse. She could still hear Lucifer in her head, revealing a little piece of himself had been in her head all that time… to 'take care of' Sam. "Beautiful…" She echoed.
"Sweetheart, I hope you don't have baby fever now."
She nearly jumped out of her skin, though she didn't miss both the amusement and concern in Dean's tone. Turning, she spotted him and Landon standing just inside the room entrance. Landon was gazing adoringly at his wife, while Dean was watching her. "Oh, I don't know," She began teasingly, trying to inject some amusement of her own into it. "What's one or two little ones running around?"
He couldn't tell if she were serious or not, his eyes dropping to the baby in her arms.
"Having a baby looks exhausting."
Jane nodded her agreement, sinking down into the chair Dean pulled out for her. They hadn't been there for the birth but afterwards, after immediate family and friends more intimate then them had visited. Even then, Angie had looked ready to fall asleep, and Jane had a feeling without the pain medication Angie had admitted to using, Angie would have been in some agony. "I don't think I'd want to sign up for that."
"What happened to one or two running around?" He teased, settling himself opposite of her and gesturing for a waitress. "Changing your mind already?"
"While making them would be fine, I'm not so sure about hours of agonizing labor and then an eighteen year prison sentence."
"Harsh view, Janey."
She smiled sweetly. Jane waited patiently while Dean ordered before placing her own order, feeling rather famished. Landon, the poor guy, had decided to try eating out of the hospital cafeteria and what he had brought up to the room hadn't looked very appealing. Angie hadn't though so either because she had begun asking for Arby's, with extra cheddar. Arby's sounded great but they didn't serve beer, so… local bar it was. "You sound like you've got baby fever, Winchester."
"It'll pass." He informed her, leaning back in his chair and surveying the room. They might've been 'retired' but that didn't stop him from sitting facing the door, or noting the other patrons, exits, all that fun stuff. Some habits die hard, if at all.
"Wait… you're admitting you-"
"We're not getting any younger Jane, and we're retired, you know…" He flashed her a crooked smile. "It might be nice to one day, a bit further down the road, to… have a kid or two."
"Uh huh." She eyed him skeptically.
"Like I said, it'll pass."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Well," He leaned back in his chair, nodding as the waitress set a beer before him. "We could adopt a dog or something. It's about the same thing." He knew it wasn't, he just liked seeing the look on her face. This topic was… way off base for them. Sure, the kid thing had come up a few times, hell she had even been magically pregnant for twenty-four hours, but… actually having kids and being a hunter did not mix. He and Sam were proof of that. Granted, they had been sort of functioning adults but he wouldn't want to raise children the way he had been, it just didn't seem right. "And now we need to change the subject."
Jane cocked her head to the side curiously. She took a sip of her own beer but didn't say anything.
Dean didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused when he came home from work a week later and found a dog laying on his couch. "Sweetheart?" He closed the door with his foot, tired eyes fastening on the pair. It was a mutt, smallish, and curled up against her. She was sitting with her legs drawn up on the couch, a book on her knees, and one hand idly petting the dog. "What the hell?"
Jane gave him a 'don't be stupid' look. "What does it look like?"
"Like it belongs somewhere besides my couch." He perched on the edge of the recliner, bending down to begin unlacing his boots. "Why do we have a dog? You're just watching it, right?" He had nothing against dogs, but he certainly hadn't expected to come home to one.
"No, this is our dog now." She smiled sweetly at him, her grey eyes lighting with humor. "This is Baby."
"Baby? You named the dog baby?" His car was Baby, there was no replacing Baby, even if she was parked and tarped.
"Yes, Baby is our baby."
Their conversation from the bar, after the birth of Samantha, suddenly replayed itself. Including his comment about dogs being the same thing as babies, and Dean groaned. "You're a smartass, Jane, you know that?"
"You're the one who said it, not me. You can view it as practice." She watched Baby as her new mutt puppy did a sliding fall off the couch before waddling its way over to sniff at Dean's boots before sniffing him. "Aww… she likes you."
"Uh huh." He eyed the chubby thing skeptically. Mixed breed was right, but it was also… cute. Round belly, short black fur with some areas that were brown, short ears and a furiously wagging tail. He held out his hand, watching as the dog considered it before giving him a sniff and then a lick. "So we're really keeping it?"
"I was planning on it, yes."
He bent down to pick up… Baby, he was going to spank his wife later for this one, and held her up, examining her thoughtfully. "You got everything she'll need? She been to a vet?" He asked gruffly, slowly bringing the dog closer to him until he felt her furry little head butting at his chin followed almost immediately by a barrage of sloppy, doggy breath licks on his jaw.
"Yes, and yes." Jane was trying not to smile, really she was. He just looked so cute holding Baby, and she could see he was beginning to crack, to melt. The corner of his mouth was drawn up in a reluctant smile. "So can we keep her?"
He heaved a great sigh, more for show than anything, eyeballing his wife and then the dog. "Fine. We can keep her. But," He added, idly scratching Baby's head. "Can we change her name?"
"We can start calling her The Baby."
"Baby it is then."
