Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The silence of the room was shattered by the sounds of sobbing. Dean opened his eyes, his vision blurry as he looked around the darkness of his room. He had been in a deep sleep before he was woken up by the sound. 

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could make out a figure standing at the foot of his bed. The familiar shape of the trenchcoat and broad shoulders, which were heaving up and down, told him exactly who it was. 

“Cas?” He asked in a hoarse whisper. His voice thick with sleep. 

“D-Dean,” Cas choked. 

Dean sat up, realizing that Castiel was crying hard. His mind went immediately to Jack. His heart raced, fearing the worst. 

“Cas! What’s going on? Where’s Jack?” Dean said loudly. 

“Jack i-is fine. Dean, it’s horrible!”

“What?” Dean yelled.

Dean jumped out of bed and went to the angel to comfort him, trying to get him to spill what was wrong. He had never seen Cas like this. Cas was sobbing uncontrollably, unable to control his emotions. He leaned into Dean, crying hard onto his shoulder as he rested his head on him. 

“Cas, talk to me,” pleaded Dean, now even more concerned.

“They took away the potatoes, Dean!”

Dean froze. Confused, he mouthed the word ‘potatoes’ to himself. He didn’t understand, he asked Cas to clarify. 

Cas pulled back and looked at Dean. In the dark of the room Dean could just make out Cas’ face. His cheeks wet with tears, his eyes creased, his breathing heavy. 

“They took potatoes off the menu,” he cried. 

“Cas, I have no clue what you are talking about, man.”

“Taco Bell!” Cas stated loudly. 

“What?”

“Taco Bell took potatoes off it’s menu!”

Dean let out a deep sigh. “Cas, you’ve never had Taco Bell. You’ve never even had a potato.”

“That’s not the point, Dean!” Cas says, annoyed at Dean for not being distraught at the news. 

“What is the point?”

“They took them away and now I can never try the potato griller.”

“Cas, did you want to try it?” Asked Dean, annoyed and too tired to be dealing with this. 

“No,” whimpered Castiel. 

“Cas, you really woke me up for this?”

“Yes,” replied the angel softly. 

Dean paused a moment before replying. “Okay, well I need to go back to sleep, man. It’s been a long day and we have to head out in the morning. Did you want to get in bed with me and cuddle, try to calm down?” 

Cas sniffed, wiping his face on the sleeve of his trench coat. “Yeah.”

Chapter Text

There was nothing, an empty endless void and then there was everything. Castiel’s last memories were of pushing Dean Winchester aside, hearing his thoughts and letting go. The Empty breaking through the walls of the dungeon and taking him. He was happy. But after that there was nothing. 

Now Cas laid on the ground, the sun blinding his eyes as he looked up confused. A figure stood over him and as his eyes adjusted he saw it clearly. It was beautiful. Dean Winchester stood over him smiling like an idiot, tears in his eyes. 

“Cas!” Dean exclaimed,

He was older than Cas remembered. The lines on his face deeper, grey hairs streaked his beard. Cas wondered how much time had passed, and if this was even real. Dean was still so beautiful. 

“Dean?” Cas asked, confused as to what was going on. He sat up, reaching a hand out for Dean to help him up. 

Dean pulled him up and into his arms, hugging him tightly. The hunter pushed back, placing a hand on the angel’s face. He stared into Castiel’s eyes, searching for anything amiss with him. 

“Dean, I don’t understand…”

“Cas, ask me who I am,” said Dean, a smile creeping across his face. 

Cas narrowed his eyes. “I know who you are. You’re Dean Winchester.”

“No, Cas. I need you to ask me who I am,” replied Dean. His words and tone were serious, as if this was the most important thing he has ever said. 

Cas sighed. “Fine. Who are you?”

Dean’s entire body began to vibrate as he smiled. “I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.” 

Chapter Text

The books that Chuck wrote as Carver Edlund were creepy enough given they were detailed novels about Sam and Dean’s life, but the fact that it had a fan base creeped Dean out. While it wasn’t a huge fan base, it was big enough that googling his name could scar him for life. That didn’t stop him from doing it every once in a while. 

This time around he decided to search for his name and click on shopping. He figured it would pull up nothing, or a bunch of random items that seem to have nothing to do with him or each other. He didn’t expect to pull up page after page of shirts that say things like ‘Mrs. Dean Winchester’ and ‘Dean Winchester is my boyfriend’.  

Dean shuddered at the fan made merch at first. It was off putting and creepy. He wasn’t thankful he never saw someone wearing one in the wild. He’d probably have a heart attack right then and there. But then he got a horrible idea. 

Several weeks later Dean stopped by the post office in town on his way back to the bunker from a trip to the grocery store. Once home he set the large package on his bed, quickly praying to Cas to let him know he should come to the bedroom. 

“Hello Dean,” the angel said as he appeared behind Dean. 

“Cas, I, uh- I got you something,” Dean replied, tripping over his own words. 

Cas went to the box, he loved receiving gifts, especially now that he understood that he got to keep them. The first item he pulled out was a black t-shirt with bold lettering across the front that read ‘Protected by Dean Winchester’.

Castiel smiled, “I love it, Dean. It is true, you do protect me.”

“There’s more.”

The second shirt said ‘Dean Winchester is my boyfriend’. Cas blushed at this one, he was still amazed that he had Dean. They had been together for some time now, and he still turned red when he thought about how he was free to love Dean. 

The third shirt was his favorite, down the front of the black shirt said ‘My boyfriend drives a 67 Impala, eats pie and hunts demons’. Cas chuckled at the shirt, making Dean’s face drop.

“You don’t like them,” said Dean. 

“No, I do. I love them, Dean,” replied Cas. 

Cas immediately put on the third shirt. It was soft and fit perfectly. After Dean told him how he found these shirts, Cas made a mental note to google himself and find shirts for Dean as well. 

Chapter Text

Dean loved his car as much as Dean Winchester could love anything that wasn’t family or his husband, Castiel. He took the time each weekend to wash and polish her in the garage, wearing cut off shorts, giving Cas an eyeful. He’d repair any damage, and kept her in top shape. But he had one habit when it came to Baby: he constantly left her out in the open with the windows rolled down for hours on end. 

Every time she was stolen or got rained in he was shocked and angry. He couldn’t believe the weather would have the audacity to rain inside his car, his Baby. And anyone who took off in a joy ride in her would have hell to pay. Each time he cleaned her up and got back. 

Dean and Cas drove into town to go to the local diner for lunch. Cas sat across from him, his plate not yet touched, talking on and on about a case they were looking into. Dean wasn’t paying attention, he was watching the sky. A dark cloud was inching closer and closer at a steady speed. 

“Dean, are you paying attention?” Cas questioned, annoyance in his voice. 

“Yeah, a wraith in Arkansas. I heard you, babe,” replied Dean, turning his head to face Cas. 

Cas let out a heavy sigh and continued rambling on about the wraith and it’s victims. Dean’s eyes wandered back out the window. The cloud had caught up with them and was overhead pouring rain out of it. Right onto Baby. Her windows were all down and the wind was at just the right angle that she was getting soaked inside. 

“Son of a bitch!” Dean exclaimed angrily. 

Cas rolled his eyes and sighed, “We talked about this, Dean.”

With a snap of his fingers Cas and Dean were back at the bunker in the garage. Baby was parked in front of them. She was still wet from being outside of the diner just seconds before. Dean quickly opened the drivers side door, frustrated at the wet vinyl seats and the floor that had begun to become flooded. 

He cursed under his breath and quickly got to work to dry and clean her up. Cas watched as Dean raced around the garage grabbing the necessary supplies. He shook his head and snapped his fingers again. Baby was clean and dry, as if she had never been exposed to the rain. 

“Dean, we talked about this. You have to start rolling the windows up,” stated Cas. 

Dean was still frustrated, yet felt better that Baby was better. “I know, okay Cas. I just forget.”

“She keeps getting stolen and rained in. If you would just let me ward her, we could prevent either of those from happening.”

“I don’t want you hurting her.”

Cas gave Dean a look of frustration. He couldn’t believe Dean sometimes, he had such an attachment to his car. “Dean, it won’t hurt her. She’s just a car.”

Dean’s jaw dropped as he gasped. “Just a car? Babe, what if I said you were just an angel?”

“I am just an angel, Dean.”

“You’re my angel.”

Castiel smiled fondly at Dean. He was his angel, and Baby was Dean’s car. Baby and Cas were Dean’s two favorite things in the world. He wanted them both in his life forever and to always be safe. He signed and nodded once to Cas, giving his approval for the warding.

It took Cas only a moment and a quick and focused hand on the hood of the Impala for the warding to be placed. Dean was antsy, not wanting Baby to be damaged by the angelic warding magic. But she was just a perfect as ever. 

A smile crept across Dean’s face as he had an idea to test the warding. “If this doesn’t work you have to clean her up immediately,” he said.

Cas watched as Dean grabbed the hose. “I don’t understand.”

Dean turned the hose on and pointed it in the Impala’s open back window. It shot out with a force yet when it got to the where the window would be if it was rolled up it stopped. It was as if there was an invisible shield around the car. Dean laughed as he tried all four windows. Nothing. Not a drop of water made its way into her interior. 

“Awesome,” Dean said. “And she can’t get stolen?”

“No. Unless you give permission no one else but you can drive her,” replied Cas.

“Babe, you are awesome. Let’s go for a drive in the rain with the windows down.”

Chapter Text

It was quiet in the bunker and Dean was finally able to sit down and enjoy the lunch he had made for himself. It was one of those rare times it was just him and Cas in the bunker. Cas had wandered off a few hours before, leaving Dean to himself. 

The sound of footsteps running down the hall to the kitchen startled Dean. Cas stumbled into the room, a look of excitement on his face. 

“Dean! You have to come with me!” The angel stated sharply. 

Dean quickly got up, mentally preparing for the worse. He tried asking Castiel what was wrong, but he got no answer. He led Dean into the library, where Dean’s laptop was open on the table. He had let Cas use it earlier in the day. 

Cas turned the screen to face the hunter. It was open to the bunker’s CCTV footage. 

“Cas, there’s nothing. What did you see?” Asked Dean. 

Cas pointed to one of the feeds in the upper right corner. “Look!”

Dean watched the live footage. It was one of the cameras that was outside the large industrial building. It showed a cleared view of the road leading to the bunker. There was nothing there. 

“Cas, I don’t get what you are trying to show me,” Dean said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. 

“Just watch,” insisted Castiel. 

The two watched for another moment, suddenly there was movement on the screen. A fat bumblebee booped against the camera. Cas got excited pointing at it. 

“Dean! Look! It’s a bee!”

“Yeah, it probably thinks the camera is a flower. They do that sometimes.”

Cas’ excited smile turned to a frown, his eyebrows creasing with frustration. “It’s trying to pollinate the camera? Dean this isn’t good.”

“It will move on, Cas, and find a flower.”

Dean went back into the kitchen to finish his lunch. Cas stayed in the library, watching the bee on the CCTV. Hours passed, Dean tried to get Cas to walk away from the laptop. But he stayed, watching bee after bee come take a look at the camera, trying to see if it was a flower. 

The next day when Dean woke up he was met with Castiel’s bright blue eyes staring him in the face. 

“Cas, we talked about this. When you notice me starting to wake up, don’t just be staring like that. It’s creepy,” he groaned. 

“Dean, I have a solution.”

“To what?”

Before Cas answered he vanished. Dean groaned as he got up. He was used to Cas flying off to god knows where often. He was even more used to Cas being vague about where he was going and what exactly he was doing. 

In the kitchen, Dean was pouring his second cup of coffee when Castiel appeared next to him. 

“Dean, come with me,” Cas said as he put his hand on Dean’s shoulder. 

He didn’t give the hunter time to prepare before he teleported the two of them to just outside the bunker. Cas pointed up towards the cameras. Around each of them was an assortment of flowers, all positioned in a way that would not obstruct their views. 

“Cas, what the?”

Castiel smiled at Dean, “I went out and got flowers, ones suitable to the bees in our area. And put them around the cameras. That way when the bees get confused about whether or not the camera is a flower, they won’t have to go far to find a real one.”

Dean looked at the angel. Cas was something else. “That’s actually a really good idea, babe. But it kind of makes the cameras obvious.”

“Oh and the giant underground bunker in the industrial building that gives off massive amounts of magic isn’t obvious? I’m keeping them up, Dean.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I like it, Cas. Gotta make sure the bees are okay.”

Castiel beamed. “Yes. Yes we do.”

Chapter Text

Dean normally wore logging boots in a deep reddish brown color. He had worn through many pairs over the years, and they were one of the few items he spent a lot of money on. A good pair of boots were beneficial on hunts. But recently he invested in a pair of hiking boots. At least that’s what he told Castiel. What he didn’t tell his angel was that they were just a cheap pair from the Walmart up in Hastings. 

The two had taken up hiking in the last few months, now that they weren’t constantly hunting all the time. Dean had finally given in and decided to take a break from the hunter life, something he never thought he could do but had always dreamed of. 

Dean and Cas were in Vermont, hiking in a densely forested area when they came across an old broken and abandoned stable. The building was massive, the roof half caved in and old broken boards littered the dirt floor. 

“Dude, check it out,” stated Dean, slightly out of breath. 

The pair ventured into the stable, Cas carefully watching his footing while Dean ignored the ground below him. The angel warned him of any stray nails that might be sticking out of the boards. But Dean ignored the warning as well. 

Dean stepped down onto a large plank of wood on the floor and felt the sudden sharp pain in the sole of his foot. 

“Son of bitch!”

Cas was suddenly at his side, concerned for his husband. “Dean? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. I think I just stepped on something.”

Dean lifted his foot up and the board came up off the ground slightly before thumping back down. A long nail stuck up off of it, slightly coated in blood. 

“Well, that’s not good,” says Dean. 

Cas quickly got down to his knees, grabbing ahold of Dean’s foot. Taking off his hiking boot he felt just how cheaply made they were. He didn’t bring it up or tell Dean that he told him so. Instead he gave him a look that told Dean what he wanted to say. 

The nail had gone clean through Dean’s boot and foot. Blood pooled out of a small wound on both the bottom and top of his foot. Cas placed a hand on top of Dean’s foot, preparing to heal him of his injury but Dean stopped him. 

“Cas, no. It’s okay. It’s just a small cut, man.”

Castiel wanted to insist but knew better. Dean wasn’t a fan of the constant healing, especially when he had it coming and it wasn’t that big of a deal to him. 

“Fine, but let’s get you back to the bunker at least.”

Dean didn’t argue. It was getting late anyways and the trek back to the Impala would be a long one. He knew that Cas would bring Baby back home with them anyways. The next thing he knew he was home in the war room. 

Several days passed and Charlie stopped by to visit the boys. Everyone had taken notice of Dean's limping, but the warning glares from him made them back off. Charlie on the other hand, ignored the looks. A quick nod to Cas told him what she wanted, to get Dean to take off his boot and show them how the wound was healing. 

After much debate the boot finally came out. Dean’s foot was red and swollen, the cuts hot to the touch and clearly infected. 

“Gross, Dean. Why didn’t you let Cas heal you?” Charlie asked him. 

Dean shrugged. “It wasn’t that big of a deal. Still isn’t. Cas, heal me up, man.”

Cas rolled his eyes. “No, Dean. You need to let me heal you when I ask you to. I wouldn’t offer it if I didn’t think it was a big deal. That nail was very old, at least a hundred years. No clue what was on it.”

“Okay, so what do I do?” 

“You should get a tetanus shot,” said Charlie.

“A what?” Dean asked, confused. 

“Tetanus,” replied Cas. 

“Why would I need ten shots in my anus for a cut on my foot?”

“Oh my god,” stated Charlie under her breath as she closed her eyes rubbing her hand across them. “Dean! No. A tetanus shot!” 

“Ten anus.

Castiel rolled his eyes, sighing heavily. “Dean, not ten anus. Tetanus. In your foot. You know what, forget it Charlie. I’m just gonna heal him.”

The angel ran his hand across the wound, healing it instantly as he did. Dean’s foot immediately felt better and he was able to stand on it properly again. He wished he had just let Cas heal him when it happened. He had been in pain for days now. 

“Your husband is kinda an idiot, Cas,” said Charlie. 

“Yes, yes he is.”

Chapter Text

The pipeline from Castiel using instagram to Dean as well, then to tiktok wasn’t a long one. And it definitely wasn’t one that Dean was proud of, but here was, sitting up in bed before he fell asleep scrolling through social media. As much as he hated to admit it, it was a good way to keep in touch with everyone, and he did enjoy the shitposting. 

He came across a post that made him stop and turn to Cas who sat up in bed next to him. “Hey, so would you rather fight a chicken each time you got in the car or once a year at random fight a single orangutan with a sword?”

Cas didn’t look up from the book he was reading as he replied, “Dean, that’s illogical. Where would they even come from?”

“Illogical? Cas, babes, you’re literally an angel of the Lord. Our son is God. We used to hunt monsters for a living. I think we are past most things being illogical. Besides, it’s just a hypothetical question.”

“What are the rules?” Cas asked, finally looking up from his book and at Dean. 

Dean reread the post. “There… there is no rules. That’s all it says.”

“Well, does the orangutan have the sword or do I?”

“I… I don’t know. I think the orangutan does.”

Cas rolled his eyes, “Dean, why would an orangutan have a sword. They are very capable creatures in a fight. Actually, there was this one time-“

“Dude, if you are about to tell me that you fought a monkey,” Dean stated as he cut Castiel off. 

“Fine. I don’t understand this question, neither choice makes sense. You should get to bed anyways, Dean. It’s late.”

“Oh come on, man. Just pick one,” Dean said with a hint of begging. 

“Good night Dean,” Cas says as he placed two fingers on Dean’s forehead making him instantly tired. 

“I hate when you do that,” replied Dean sleepily as he yawned. 

“Night, beautiful.”

“Night.”

The next day Dean didn’t let up on the question, and neither did Cas about not wanting to choose. It didn’t make sense to him at all. He was more interested in where the animals came from, are they endangered, and who has the weapon. Dean didn’t bother with those questions, he knew his answer. 

“Come on, the orangutan is the clear choice here. He has a sword and I have a gun. Gun beats sword,” Dean stated. 

“They are faster and stronger than you, Dean. I can’t bare to lose you to an orangutan.”

“A monkey isn’t going to kill me.”

“Orangutans aren’t monkeys,” Cas corrected him.

“Whatever. It’s better than the chicken.”

Cas cocked his head, “Chickens are smaller and you are much stronger. I don’t see why you wouldn’t pick the simplest and easiest animal.”

“It would be every time I got in my car. Which I do multiple times a day. Plus all the blood and the chicken's talons would destroy the upholstery. I ain’t gonna let anything hurt Baby.”

“Well, I’m going to go with the chicken.”

Dean blinked a few times, confused by Castiel’s answer. “What car? The truck? You barely drive it, it sits in the garage.”

“I prefer to fly, and ride with you in the Impala.”

“Go with the orangutan then. I don’t need a damn chicken destroying Baby.”

“It says when you get in your car. Not a car. Baby is not my car.”

“Fair enough. It’s a dumb answer though.”

Cas stood there a moment, thinking the question over again. Finally he came to the realization. “Dean, you could always pick the chicken and just not drive on no bones days.”

“What the hell is a no bones day?” 

Chapter Text

Dean and Castiel laid in bed together, snuggled up after a long day of doing absolutely nothing. Dean was beginning to fall asleep while Cas gently ran his fingers through his hair.

“Hey, Dean,” Cas whispered to his husband. 

“Yeah?”

“You ever wonder what it would have been like if Jack never grew up when he was born?”

Dean looked up at the angel and studied his face. Cas looked solemn and deep in thought. 

“All the time. Why?”

“You know, when I found Kelly and brought her to safety, I spent most of the time learning everything I could about early childhood development. I had thought that I would be raising Jack from infancy. I love him dearly and enjoy every moment with him.”

“But part of you wishes that you and him got to experience those things? Baby things?” Dean asked, interrupting him. 

Cas nodded once. “Yes, Dean. Baby things. And Jack is four now. He’s a toddler but we don’t do things that a normal toddler and father would do.”

“Why not? Go do those things. I’m sure Jack would love it.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, man. Go play duck duck goose or something. I need to sleep.”

“How many ducks and geese do we need?”

Dean snorted, “Cas, no. I’ll explain tomorrow but you need a bunch of ducks and just one goose.”

The next day Dean ran into town to pick up take out that he had ordered. The bunker was quiet with Sam and Eileen out of town on a case in Smoot, West Virginia. The restaurant had taken a little bit longer than Dean would have liked, but he didn’t mind. He returned home little over an hour later. 

When he opened the entrance of the bunker he’d normally be met with a calm silence or the soft conversations being had inside. But today he was met with the loud and chaotic chorus of quacking, laughter and angelic screaming. 

“What the?” He said to himself as he looked over the balcony at the scene before him.

The crows nest of the bunker was filled with hundreds of ducks. They were everywhere, on the table, flying to the balcony, on the floor, in Jack’s arms. All of them quacking together in a chaotic harmony. 

Jack sat on the floor of the room, beaming with joy as the ducks flocked to him. They stood on his lap and walked around him. Castiel was busy trying to organize the birds, grumbling to them and himself about how they should be orderly and play the game. And sitting on the table, screaming the loudest of all the birds was a single duck.

Cas looked up and saw Dean. “Oh thank goodness, you’re home. I need help. These ducks won’t listen to me, Dean.”

“Why is the bunker filled with ducks, Cas?” Dean asked in reply, holding back laughter. 

“You told me to play duck duck goose with Jack. But when I tried asking you the rules this morning you said, and I quote ‘shh coffee not quacking hell fish birds’. And I couldn’t get ahold of Sam or Eileen to ask them. So I asked Adam and Michael, they called when you were gone by the way.”

“And they told you that you play duck duck goose with real ducks?”

“Yes! Now, come help me please, Dean,” pleaded Cas. 

Cas was overwhelmed at the task at hand. According to Adam and Michael, duck duck goose is played with a hundred ducks and a single goose. You place all the ducks into a large circle while the goose walks around it and picks it’s favorite duck. Then that duck must chase the goose and peck it before the goose reaches a safe zone. He and Jack would help either the duck or the goose in reaching their victory. 

The angel explained this to Dean, who burst out in laughter. 

“It’s not funny, Dean! The ducks won’t listen! I’ve tried asking them politely but they keep asking for food in exchange for international secrets.”

“Wait, you can talk to ducks?” Questioned Dean, baffled. 

“I can speak to all creatures. I know every language.”

Jack looked up at Dean and smiled. “The goose’s name is Honkle.”

“I… you know what… I don’t even know what to say. Are you having fun at least?”

Cas gave Dean a tired look. “I’m a soldier of Heaven not a duck herder.”

“This is the best day ever. Can we keep Honkle, Dad?” Jack replied. 

“We have to keep Honkle. He stole my angel blade and hid it and won’t tell me where,” Castiel retorted. 

Dean shook his head as he made his over to his husband and son. The ducks protested as he stepped over and around them. Quacking loudly while Cas tried to shush them. He thought twice before setting down the food on the table. Honkle honked at him loudly. 

“Shush.” Dean looked at the white goose, questioning to himself why he was telling a damn goose to be quiet.  He turned to face Castiel. “You have no clue what you are doing do you?”

“Not at all, Dean.”

Chapter Text

Dean was staring again. He had been staring at Cas all day as the angel went about his business in the bunker. Dean stared at him with curious intensity. Cas was beginning to understand how it felt when he did the same to Dean when they first met, and even now. It was annoying. 

“Dean, stop it.”

“So, you’re an angel,” Dean stated. 

Cas let out a heavy sigh and returned his focus on the dishes in the sink he was washing. “You just figure this out Dean?”

“No, I knew that. I’m not dumb.”

“Could have fooled me.”

“Shut up. No, like you said before that some humans can see your true form or whatever. Right?”

“Yes. And you aren’t one of them.”

“Yeah but like, could I see some of it? I mean, I could see your grace when we had to put it back. So… could I see your wings?”

Cas put down the plate he was rinsing and turned towards Dean. He studied his husband’s face, curious as to where this was going. “I suppose, if I brought them into this plane. But it takes a lot of energy and grace to do so. I’d deplete a large amount of it.”

“Okay, just asking.”

Dean left the kitchen leaving Cas wondering what that was all about. He wandered off to unknown parts of the bunker for the next few hours. Cas finished his chore and retired to his greenhouse on the very top of the bunker. 

In the middle of attending to his sunflowers that he planted because they reminded him of Dean, Dean sauntered in. His arms behind his back and a grin on his face that told Cas he was up to something. 

“Dean,” the angel greeted, unamused. 

“So I gave it some thought on what you said earlier about your wings. And I decided to do a little light reading.”

“I suppose that’s a book you are hiding then?”

“Yes. Yes it is. See, this is a book about angels.”

“Dean, you should know that there are very few books about angels that are factual. I doubt one of them would be here, they are rare. Rarer than any book the Men of Letters ever collected.”

“Ah, but you’re wrong. See, the Men of Letters didn’t collect this book. They wrote it. With the help of a few celestial dicks they ran into over the years.”

Cas put his pruning shears down and faced Dean. “What are you talking about, Dean?”

Dean pulled the book out from behind his back. It was a large dark blue leather bound book. The Men of Letters symbol meticulously placed on the front in gold. He opened it up to a page that he had marked with a receipt from a local liquor store. 

“While the average human cannot perceive angelic beings they can see certain parts of their natural form. The angel can manipulate it’s human vessel’s body, usually in order to heal it when damaged. But at times they may merge it with parts of it’s true form. If the angel’s true form holds the image of a lion, they may change their human vessel’s hand into that of a lion paw. As was the case with the angel Vincent who kindly demonstrated this to us.”

Dean closed the book after reading the passage out loud. He grinned at Castiel knowingly. He read the whole book in just a few short hours, learning more than he ever thought he would about angels. 

“You haven’t told me everything about angels. Do you look like a lion? Can I see your paws?” Dean asked. 

“I don’t have paws.”

“Oh.” Dean was disappointed. He was looking forward to seeing Castiel’s paws. He wondered if they would be soft. “So, what do you have? I mean if I can’t see what you really look like, maybe I could try to get the image in my head if you tell me.”

“I have wings.”

“I know that.”

“Ten wings.”

Dean’s jaw dropped. “Ten wings?”

“And eyes. I have eyes.”

“That’s vague. Well, what else?”

“That’s it.”

Dean couldn’t help but laugh. “Wait, hold on. Hold on. You’re telling me you’re just a bunch of wings and eyes?”

“Yes, Dean. I don’t see what’s so amusing about that. My true form is beautiful and strikes fear and wonder into those who see it.”

Dean wiped a tear from his eye. “No, no. I’m sure it is, man. Sorry, it’s just I’m imagining a bunch of wings and two huge blue eyes in the middle. So could I see any part of that? The book says that angels can change their vessels to show parts of their true form. Even if the human seeing it isn’t actually able to see their true form.”

“Why do you want to see what I actually look like? Is this body not enough for you?”

Dean straightened up, noticing the change in tone. “No, Cas, babes. It’s amazing and I love it. I love you. I just… I don’t know, man. I guess I’m just curious. I know you told me to wait until I died and that in Heaven I’d be able to. But I can’t wait, Cas. I want to see you, at least a part of you.”

“I can show you my eyes. It wouldn’t take as much grace as my wings would, even just the two main ones. But I would need to rest for a while afterwards. That means no healing for a few days, no teleporting you into town, no fixing dents in the Impala cause you didn’t think to lock the garage again and Claire took her for a joy ride.”

“Hey, that happened once. Okay, twice. Fine. Rest all you want, I’ll even throw in a foot massage. Just let me see your eyes, man.”

“You asked for this.”

Cas took a step back, lowering his head just slightly as he steadied his breathing. Grounding himself, focusing on his grace. When he raised his head again his eyes glowed a fierce blue. Dean instinctively took a few steps back. The intense blue glow from his eyes began to multiply, appearing all over his body. They shined brightly until a burst of white and white energy burst out, blinding Dean momentarily.

When Dean was able to see again he was in shock at the sight. On Castiel’s face, arms, neck and poking out from under Dean’s old AC/DC shirt he was wearing was eyes. Lots of eyes. Intense blue eyes stared back at Dean, all blinking at the same time. Dean’s own eyes grew wide, he wasn’t expecting this. He had thought that Cas would only have two eyes but they would be different from that of his vessel’s.

Dean screamed. 

“Be not afraid,” bellowed Cas.

Dean continued to scream. He ran out of the greenhouse and down into the main area of the bunker. Cas followed behind him, telling him to not be afraid and that it was just his eyes. 

“Dean! Come back! I thought you wanted to see this!” 

“AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH”

“This isn’t funny! You are hurting my feelings, Dean! It’s just my eyes!”

“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Dean ran into their bedroom, closing the door behind him. He took a second to catch his breath. As his thoughts began to clear he realized what Cas had just said. Dean sighed as he came to terms with what a dick he just was. He had asked Cas to see this and he was an asshole about it. He hurt his feelings, and that was the last thing Dean wanted to do. He hung his head as he turned around and opened the door. 

Cas stood outside the door, his eyes still covering his body. “Dean?”

“Hey, I’m sorry, okay. That was… that was scary.”

“It’s okay. Before angels started taking vessels when we appeared to humans who could see us we had to tell them to not be afraid. It happens.”

Dean took a look at Castiel, studying the eyes. They were the same blue as his vessels and absolutely beautiful. Terrifying but beautiful.

“They are really cool, Cas. Beautiful.”

Cas smiled fondly. All the eyes creased as he did. “Thank you, Dean. I’m sorry I scared you, I didn’t expect that reaction from you. Given all that you have seen.”

Dean rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Yeah, well seeing your husband covered in eyes is kinda scary.”

“Want to go scare Sam?”

Dean’s face lit up. “Yeah!”

Chapter Text

Dean and Cas stalked the halls of the bunker, giggling madly to themselves. They were on the hunt for Sam to scare him with Castiel’s many eyes. 

“Ooh ooh ohh” The lightbulb above Dean’s head went off. “I got an idea to scare Sammy even more.”

“What?”

“What if I was a ghost?”

“Dean, that is by far the stupidest thing you have ever said. Sam is a hunter. Ghosts don’t scare him.”

Dean frowned. “Yeah, you’re right.” He took a moment to think, letting the lightbulb flicker. “Wait, I got it!”

Cas raised a single eyebrow. 

“Quick teleport me to Party City.” Dean requested. 

“If you are thinking of buying another wig for Sam forget it. He didn’t think it was funny. And it probably wouldn’t scare him anyways.”

“Come on, man. It’s gonna be so much better than a bad grey wig. Please?”

“Fine. You have twenty minutes and I’m sending you back here.” Cas snapped his fingers, only realizing afterwards how stupid that was. He was using enough of his grace already having his eyes on display like this. But that was a problem for later Cas. 

The angel leaned up against the wall, passing time in his head by naming all the species of bees in the world. He was startled when Eileen came walking down the hall towards him. She stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted his eyes. 

Eileen stared at Cas, he stared back. “Scaring Sam?” 

Cas nodded. “Yes.”

“Where’s Dean?”

“Party City.”

“Ookaay. Sam’s in the garage. He’s washing that Prius he had to have for the second time this week.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

Cas snapped his fingers when she went around the corner and Dean appeared next to him. He looked absolutely ridiculous. He was dressed as a clown, big rainbow wig, red nose, a colorful one piece outside and the largest shoes Castiel had ever seen. His face was painted white with a big red smile and bright blue around his eyes. His grin was wide causing him to look unsettling. 

“That is disturbing, Dean.”

“I know! Let’s go!”

They found Sam in the garage where Eileen said he would be. He was washing the stupid car he insisted he had to have. He said it was better for the environment and that Dean should think about his carbon footprint. Dean had told him that he should think about butt-on footprint he was gonna leave on Sam’s ass if he didn’t shut up. 

Sam didn’t look up when the two walked into the large room. He was too busy making sure the nonexistent spot was cleaned away. Dean looked at Cas with the excitement of a child left alone in a toy store. 

Cas tried to stifle a giggle as he bellowed out, “SAMUEL!”

Sam let out a yelp and stood up straight. 

Cas walked towards him, all of his eyes glowing with grace. “SAMUEL!! BE AFRAID!”

Sam took in a deep breath as he screamed. Much like Dean his first reaction was to scream then to run. He raced past Castiel and straight into Dean. He stopped, frozen in place as he looked at his brother. Terror swept over him as he gazed upon the worst thing in all of creation: Dean Winchester the Clown. 

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“You like balloon animals, Sammy? I can make you a nice moose balloon.” Dean's grin was inhumanly wide. 

Sam bolted from the garage, tumbling over his feet as he fled. The sounds of his terrified screams could be heard as he ran from his brother and brother-n-law. 

Dean turned his attention to Cas and burst out laughing. “Man, we got him.”

“I think we might have caused severe emotional damage.”

“Worth it.”

Later that night the screams had stopped and Eileen gave Cas and Dean a stern talking to, which was filled with muffled giggles. Sam found Dean and Cas in the kitchen sitting at the table enjoying their dinner. 

He looked at the two of them, his face still stained red from the tears. “I can’t believe you guys would do something like that. I’m gutted.”

Chapter Text

Deep in the forest in northern Pennsylvania, Dean and Castiel were trekking through the woods returning to the cabin. Somewhere along the way the two got lost, having gone off the path and night was closing in. Dean walked ahead, grumbling to himself. 

“Dean, I don’t see why we can’t get back using my powers. It’s not an issue.” Cas complained, unsure of why his husband was so stubborn. 

“Because Cas. I got us into this and I can get us out. I’ve been hunting for years, a lot of it in the woods. I think I can handle myself. Besides, no angel magic remember. That’s the rules.”

“Ah yes, because even though I can get us back to the cabin in seconds you’d rather get us even more lost. Is this how you planned our honeymoon to go? Get me stuck in the middle of the woods at night?”

Dean stopped, turning around to face the angel. “Yes, Cas. I wanted us to get lost in the woods. Should of went to Vegas like I had originally suggested.”

“I thought this was more romantic and you agreed.”

Suddenly to their left the sound of branches breaking ever so slightly echoed in their ears. The two stopped, they held their breath as they looked at each other with wide eyes. 

“Great, now we are going to get eaten,” whispered Dean. 

“We are not going to be eaten, Dean. It’s probably a rabbit or something.”

The sound of movement was heard again and Dean got curious as to what it was. Looking in the direction the noises came from he strained his eyes trying to see into the forest. The sun was setting and visibility wasn’t great, but he was able to make the movement out. The creature was trudging past, unaware of them standing just a few yards away. 

Dean nudged Cas and pointed at the creature. It was low to the ground, the size of a large dog and the ugliest thing either of them had ever seen. It’s skin hung loosely off its body, wrinkled and covered in warts. 

“What the hell,” whispered Dean, a little too loudly. 

The creature stopped. It turned to face the two, it’s eyes huge and watery. Cas and Dean stood still, shocked at what they were seeing. Neither of them had ever come across a creature like this. The animal walked towards them but kept its distance. It was curious, having never seen humans before. 

“That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen,” said Cas, bluntly. 

The creature, as if it could understand what Castiel had said, immediately began wailing. Tears swelling in its large eyes, a puddle slowly forming under it from the excessive amount of tears. 

“Great, you made it cry, Cas.”

“I didn’t mean to, Dean. I didn’t know it could understand me.”

“What even is this thing?”

“I got no clue.”

Instead of replying Dean took out his phone. Thankful that he had a bit of service, just enough to call Sam. “Hey Sammy. So I uh… I need you to look something up for me.”

Dean described the creature to Sam, who quickly got to work searching for it online. Cas’ eyes were glued to the creature, who was still crying loudly. 

“Sam says it’s a squonk. A local cryptid, it’s crying cause it’s ashamed of how ugly it is. Don’t blame him, if I looked like that I’d cry too,” he said as he hung up the phone and returned it to his jacket pocket. 

“I feel bad now, Dean. I didn’t mean to make it cry.” Cas hung his head, ashamed of his rudeness to the creature. 

“Babes, don’t worry. Sam said it’s just in its nature, and it is ugly. We should get back to the cabin, leave it be.”

“What? Are we just going to leave it? Dean, it’s a monster.”

The creature cried harder. 

“Yeah but it hasn’t done anything besides cry. Sam said there's no reports of it harming anyone.”

“I have to calm it. I’m going to feel bad if I don’t. Probably for the rest of my life, it’s going to keep me up at night.”

“You don’t sleep.”

Cas ignored Dean, crouching down he inched his way to the creature. His hand reached out towards the ugly thing. Suddenly, just as Cas was inches away from the squonk it dissolved into a pool of it’s own tears. The forest was silent, the cries gone. 

“Well, that’s something Sammy forgot to mention.” Dean was flabbergasted at the sudden disappearance of the creature. 

“I- I made it melt.” 

Dean walked over, putting his hand on Castiel’s shoulder. “Babes, you didn’t. Come on, I’ll let you zap us back to the cabin. I can think of a few ways to make you feel better.” He smiled at his husband, putting on the charm.  

Cas rolled his eyes. “For the last time, Dean. Putting together a seven thousand piece lego set is not what I’d call fun. I don’t even know why you put it on the wedding registry.”

“It’s the Millennium Falcon, Cas, come on.”

Cas shook his head, smiling at his husband one last time before he teleported them back to the cabin. The pool of tears left on the forest floor and somewhere in the distance another squonk cried at how ugly it was. 

Chapter Text

Castiel had grown tired of wandering around the bunker aimlessly each day when they weren’t off on a case. He had read every book, gone through his to watch list on Netflix multiple times, and had taken up several failed hobbies. First, he tried his hand at baking but it went up in flames, literally. He caught half the kitchen on fire the first time he tried to bake Dean a pie. Then he took up knitting for a while. He had made everyone sweaters that were too small and itchy. They hid their discomfort when he asked them to put them on for a family photo when he gave them their gifts on Hanukkah. Finally, he decided to take up photography, but Dean got annoyed with Cas following him around, constantly taking super close up photos of him. 

“Dude, cut it out,” groaned Dean. Spots of light in his vision from Cas taking a photo of his eye up close. 

“Cut it out? You mean taking photos or that close?” 

“That close! Both! I don’t know!”

“Dean, you seem frustrated. Is everything okay?” Castiel asked, his head cocking to the side. He was worried that he had upset his boyfriend. 

Dean took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look, babes, I know that you are just trying to find something to do. It’s boring here, I know. But you gotta pick something and stick with it. Something you enjoy.”

“I do enjoy this, Dean.”

“Yes, but I don’t. Please, is there anything else you’d enjoy doing?” 

Cas thought about it a moment. “Bees.”

“Bees?” Repeated Dean. 

“Yes.” A smile crept across Castiel’s face. “I like bees.”

“Sooo.. what? Beekeeping?”

“Yes, I think I’d enjoy that.”

___________

Several months had passed by and Castiel had calmed down on his cycling through hobbies. He had settled into his new and favorite hobby of beekeeping. He had even begun to consider beekeeping as a business. But there were a few problems. 

Mainly, the fact that the Queen wasn’t the best at doing her job and the hive was miserable because of it. She was laying poorly, mean to the worker bees and gave Cas attitude. Dean had learned quickly that his angel wasn’t just talking to his bees for fun, but that he could actually communicate with them. 

Cas flopped down on the bed one night, he looked exhausted, even if he didn’t need sleep. Dean, already in bed, looked over, worried about what was going through his boyfriend's head. 

“You good?” Dean asked. 

Cas let down a groan.

“Wanna tell me about it?” 

“It’s the Queen. She’s not cooperating.” 

Dean chuckled. 

“It’s not funny, Dean.”

“Okay, okay. Geez, I’m sorry. What’s she doing?”

“She won’t lay enough. She keeps being rude to the workers. Not to mention the fact that she insulting me.”

“Insulting…” Dean trailed off, still coming to terms with the fact that Castiel could talk to bees. 

“She called me a wingless drone today.” Cas says, sounding defeated. 

Dean laughed, deep in his belly. 

“I have wings. I’m not a drone, I’m an angel.” Stated Cas, as a matter of fact. 

“Yes, but does she know that?”

“Yes.” Cas paused. Thinking of what he could do to help the situation. “I could always get a new Queen. That’s what people do when their Queen isn’t the best for the hive.”

Dean looked over at his angel. “What are you going to do with this Queen?”

“Kill her. Take her out to the woods. Let her go free. I don’t know.”

“Dude, kill her? You? Kill a bee? Cas, babes, that’s not very angelic of you.”

“And neither is genocide, but we all have a past.” Castiel said, his face straight and lacking emotion. 

Dean blinked. It had been so long he nearly forgot about that. “Yeah, there was that.”

“It’s in the past, Dean. Besides, I’m fairly certain you have done questionable things in yours as well.”

 “Yeah, we all have a past. But dude… genocide… I didn’t do that.”

Cas turned to face Dean. “No you didn’t, I did. But you did Crowley, which is just as bad.”

Dean’s mouth dropped open. “That’s how you get thrown back into the empty.” He joked, hoping that it wasn’t too soon to tease Cas like that. 

“It took you seven years to get me out, I doubt it will take me making one joke about you and Crowley to make you throw me back in.”

“Touche. Seriously though, you can’t just kill her. Can you? Is that what people do?” Inquired Dean. He wished that he had read the several volumes on bees and beekeeping that Cas had given him when he began the hobby. 

“I’m not sure. I wonder…” Cas trailed off, deep in thought. 

Several minutes went by before Cas snapped his fingers. Dean raised an eyebrow at the angel, silently asking him what he did that for. Then just as suddenly as he snapped a yelp was heard off in the distance of the bunker. 

“I replaced her with a new Queen,” said Cas. 

Dean blinked hard again. “Wait… what? What was that scream?”

“Probably Sam, ignore him. The old Queen is dead, I removed her from the hive and replaced her with a new one. Dean, really after all these years you still seem so mystified by my powers.”

Dean scoffed. “Am not.”

Cas rolled his eyes. “Last week you got excited when I flipped your grilled cheese for you.”

“Okay, yeah but you didn’t even stand up. You just flipped your finger and did it. That was cool! And weird. Where’s the old Queen now?”

A smile danced across Castiel’s face, the lines by his eyes deepening. “Give it a few more seconds, Dean.”

Confused, Dean narrowed his eyes, waiting. Then he heard it, the booming and clumsy footsteps of his brother and the banging on their bedroom door. 

“Dean! Cas! Why did a dead bee just fall onto my laptop? I know this is your doing!” Sam bellowed from the other side of the closed door. 

Dean and Cas giggled, which then turned into roaring laughter. They could hear Sam get frustrated at them behind the door and him sulking off.  Once the laughter died down the two shut the lights off, ready to go to sleep. Well, at least Dean since Cas wouldn’t be sleeping. 

Dean let out a relaxed groan, as Castiel pulled him in close, snuggling up to him. “Night, sunshine.”

“Good night, honeybee,” whispered Cas as he placed a kiss on the top of Dean’s head. 

Chapter Text

Thwap! Thwap! Thwap!

The sounds of waddled running through the halls of the bunker echoed. Dean, in the crows nest sitting at the map table going over the information for the latest case looked up. Honkle strolled into the room, a devious look behind his empty eyes. 

“Cas!!! Your goose is doing it again!!” Dean yelled out. 

Castiel appeared in the room. “Dean, he’s just a goose. He’s not doing anything.”

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at me.”

Honkle stared at Dean. “HONK!”

Cas sighed, having been able to understand what the goose just said. “He’s upset at you.”

Dean frowned, moving his head back slightly. “What?”

“Honk honk honk honk… HONK HONK HONK!!” Screeched the goose. 

The angel tilted his head. “Oh.”

“Come on! What did he say? I know you speak goose!” Dean asked, impatiently. 

“He’s upset because he doesn’t know why he’s in the bunker and you keep hiding your keys from him.”

“No. I saw that dick trying to scratch Baby’s paint last week. I know he’s trying to steal her.”

“Maybe take him for a drive next time you take Miracle,” suggested Cas.

Honkle honked loudly in Dean’s direction. Dean narrowed his eyes at the white goose, he didn’t need Cas to translate it for him, he knew Honkle was upset at him. Honkle raised his wings, displaying them as he lowered his head and charged at Dean. 

“Son of a bitch! He’s doing it again!”

The goose went straight for Dean, aiming at the hunter’s jacket pocket where he kept his car keys. Honkle was quicker than Dean, stealing the keys to the Impala before Dean could move his hand to block him. 

Honkle, with keys in his mouth, raced for the garage. Determined to steal Baby. Cas rolled his eyes, sighing heavily. He shook his head as he vanished. The sound of honking came from the garage and Castiel arguing with the goose before he reappeared back in the crows nest, keys in one hand the goose in the other.

“Dean,” the angel said, handing the keys back to his husband. “Try to be more mindful of where you keep these. He’s determined to steal your car.”

“Well, I mean he does have good taste. But seriously, Cas, babes, the goose is weird. Why haven’t you taken him back to the pond like you did with the ducks?”

“He’s a fine addition to the family. We were two species short.”

“Got enough species,” mumbled Dean under his breath. 

Dean couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that his family was made up of three humans, one angel, God the nephilim, a dog and a goose. Honkle, unamused at Dean's laughter, charged him again. This time only nipping at the hunter’s leg before waddling off into the bunker in search of more mayhem he could get into. 

Chapter Text

Jack had said that as God he was going to be hands off. While at the time it was a thoughtful gesture, especially after everything Chuck had done, it wasn’t thought out clearly. Jack, even though he doesn’t look it, is still a child. Though he is older than he was when he took on the role of God, he is still young. Being hands off has never been easy. Thankfully he has his fathers, Dean and Castiel, to make sure he doesn’t cause too much trouble. For the most part he doesn’t get in trouble, and does stay hands off. That is, unless a dog is involved. 

Several states away in Pennsylvania, Dean, Cas and Jack were sitting on the beach enjoying their day at Lake Erie. They were on a well deserved family vacation, just two dads and their son. Dean and Cas sat on lawn chairs, enjoying the view as Jack sat down in the sand. 

Suddenly, a cry for help was heard coming from the water. Dean immediately stood up in search for the source of the screaming. A woman was crying out for help, her dog had swam out too far and was struggling to stay afloat. 

“Dad! Can I help?” Jack asked, frantically. 

“No, hands off, remember? I’m gonna go help, you stay here,” Dean replied before running down the beach to help out. 

Before he could get to the water the dog suddenly raised in the air. It yelped, alarmed by it’s sudden ability to levitate. It moved over to the beach and gently landed on the ground. The woman stood there, jaw dropped in awe. 

Dean sighed, turning away from the water to face Jack, meeting his eyes. “Really?” 

Jack shrugged and smiled. 

Dean made his way back up to where they were sitting. Cas was rubbing his face with his hands, somehow tired even without a need or ability to sleep. 

The people around them on the beach all flocked to the dog. They didn’t know that it was Jack that had performed the miracle. Yet they knew that it was an act of God. The Winchesters packed their belonging, not wanting to be a part of what was going to happen and quickly got back to the car.

Several days later, back home in the bunker Dean and Cas were sitting in the library when Sam walked in. Sam set his laptop down in front of Dean, opening it to show a news article from the town they were just in. The headline read: Dog rescued from drowning declared an act of God, now worshipped. 

“Explain this.” Sam stated firmly.  

“Wait,” said Dean, reading over the article. “Those people are worshipping that dog?!”

“Yeah, Dean. What happened?”

Dean smirked, shrugging his shoulders. “I have no clue, man.”

“Dean, stop.” Cas said, rolling his eyes at his husband. He turned to Sam. “Jack saved a dog from drowning. Don’t worry, we gave him a talking to.”

“He started a new religion, Cas,” replied Sam, tired of his brother and brother-n-laws madness. 

“It wouldn’t be the first time one of us did that. There’s still those people worshipping Cas from when he went and played God,” Dean reminded his brother. 

Sam picked up his laptop, rolling his eyes. “I don’t have time for this. Try not to start any more religions. Especially dog based ones.”

“No promises,” said Dean as Sam walked away. 

Chapter Text

A week of watching nature documentaries showcasing bears and Dean had had enough of it. The urge was too strong for him to hold back any longer. He let Cas know that he’d be gone for a few days and set off on the road. He had only one destination and one goal in mind; go to Washington and pet a bear. 

It was a dumb idea, he knew this. But when did stupidity ever stop Dean Winchester? He drove the thirty-something miles in almost one go, only stopping for gas and food when he needed to. He was too excited to sleep, driving through the night. 

Once there, he parked Baby with several other cars of campers and hikers and set off down the clearly marked trail. After several hours he realized that while there was always the chance of coming across a bear, he’d have a better chance going off of the trail. 

With no camping gear, no tent, and the most improper clothing he went off trail and hiked through the dense forest for two days. He was smart in bringing along an old backpack with two bottles of water and some food to snack on. He slept against trees at night, bundled up in his jacket. 

On the third day, he was going to call it quits and pray to Cas to come get him and bring him back to the Impala. But just as his hopes of petting a bear were brought down he saw one ahead in the distance in a field. Dean tried his best to slowly sneak up on the bear, hoping that the bear was friendly. It was not. 

The massive grizzly got a whiff of the human and turned around locking eyes with him. Dean felt a shiver run through his spine. Only then did he question whether or not this was a good idea. But those ears were so round and fluffy. The bear stood on his hind legs, roaring loudly at him. 

“Uh oh.”

With that the bear slammed down onto the ground and raced towards Dean. Dean stood up and tried to get away, running as fast as his legs could take him. It wasn’t very fast and the bear caught up and a sharp, hot pain stabbed through his back. Dean screamed out in pain as he was slammed into the ground. The bear’s massive claws and teeth ripping through flesh. 

“Cas!!” He cried out, praying. He hoped that Cas heard him. 

Suddenly a flash of white appeared all around him and the bear was gone. The pain remained, intense and unbearable. Dean was unable to move, his whole body riddled with agony.  

“Hold still,” Castiel said above him. 

Dean felt the cool touch of the angel as Cas placed a hand on his forehead. Suddenly, the pain was gone. He gasped loudly, finally able to breath deeply. 

“Thanks,” he told Cas. 

Cas rolled his eyes. “We’ve talked about this, Dean. You can’t go searching for bears to pet. They won’t let you pet them.”

Dean stood up, brushing off the dirt and giving himself a once over. “Yeah, well, I thought maybe the third times the charm.”

“It’s not. You could have been killed, Dean.”

Dean smiled at him, turning on the charm. “Yeah, well thankfully I got an angel husband who can come save me.”

Cas couldn’t help but smile fondly at Dean. “On day I might not show up.”

“Okay, then I’ll call Jack. You know, our son whose an angel too and oh wait, God. Or I could call Michael or Gabriel. There’s no shortage of angels to help me in a pickle.”

“This isn’t a pickle, Dean. It’s a bear!”

“I bet Gabe would want to pet a bear, should invite him next time,” laughed Dean. 

“Why do you want to pet a bear so bad?”

Dean shrugged. “They got cute fluffy, round ears.”

“Dean, they are dangerous predators.”

“Yeah and if they don’t want to be pet then why are they so cute and fluffy.”

Not wanting to have this conversation again, Cas rolled his eyes and let out a sigh before grabbing Dean’s hand. He zapped them off to the Impala. Dean got in the driver's seat and Cas next to him. They held hands as they set off on the road back to Kansas. Dean’s head filling with new and better ways to finally pet a bear. 

Chapter Text

Dean sat leaning back on his hands on the towel underneath him. Enjoying the sun shine down on his face and bare chest with Castiel next to him. It was rare for him to be able to get a day at the beach. The angel sat next to him in shorts and one of Dean’s old shirts. 

It was the first family vacation they’ve ever truly taken. Sam and Eileen had ran into town to get food for dinner. Jack splashed around in the ocean while his dads lounged around. Michael and Adam were walking along the beach talking to each other as they went. Though to any one happening to overhear it would sound like it was just one person talking to himself. 

They made their way over to Dean and Cas. “Cas out of that trenchcoat is weird, never going to get used to that.”

Dean chuckled. “It was a hassle to get him out of it. He’s probably gonna swim in that shirt though. Which one are you?”

“Oh, it’s Adam. Why swim in the shirt?” 

“I have a scar. It’s… embarrassing,” replied Cas, lowering his head in shame. 

“Can’t be that bad. Come on, let’s go for a swim.”

Castiel rolled his eyes, knowing that this was one battle he couldn’t win. “Alright, fine. But don’t say anything about it, okay.”

Adam raised his hands, showing that he meant no harm. “Okay, okay. I promise I won’t.”

Taking a deep breath, Cas lifted his shirt over his head letting it drop to the ground. He waited for the inevitable questions and laughter from his brother-n-law. 

Adam burst out laughing uncontrollably. He doubled over, his sides already aching. He laughed until he ran out of breath and nothing came out until he inhaled and started over again. 

“Dude! Why?” He asked. 

“You said you wouldn’t say anything.”

“Yeah well, I thought it was just a weird shape or place. Not that you have ‘I am coming’ scarred onto your chest!”

“This was a serious threat!” Cas said, trying to sound more commanding. 

Adam chuckled, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Oh, I bet it was. Oh geez, Michael needs to see this.”

Cas’ eye grew wide. “No! Don’t bring my brother forth.”

“Too late.” With that Adam’s eyes glowed blue and Michael took over. 

Michael took one look at his little brother and was immediately sent into a fit of laughter. “Castiel, what…. Why?”

“It’s not funny, Michael.”

“It’s actually very funny.”

Dean laughed, “Yeah, it kinda is, babes.”

Cas turned to his husband. “You too?”

Dean shrugged. “I mean, I know how and why that’s there and the context isn’t funny. But you gotta admit it is pretty funny out of context.”

Michael finally got his laughter under control. “Hold on, hold on.”

Cas narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing?” He realized soon what his big brother was doing; he was praying. “Don’t call Gabe!”

“Too late,” Gabriel said as he appeared next to Michael. He too erupted into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. “You got your own built in captions, little bro.”

Dean couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I mean…” He winked at Cas who just shook his head in frustration at him. 

“Why didn’t you ever heal it?” Asked Michael. 

“I can’t. I’ve tried but never been able to. It’s really not funny.”

“Yes it is.” Gabriel retorted. “It’s incredibly funny. Oh hey, beach day!” Gabriel snapped his fingers and he was suddenly in just a pair of neon pink swim trunks. “Come on!”

Gabriel raced down towards the water where Jack was still swimming and jumped in. Michael took off after him, yelling out for Gabe to wait up. Dean finally stood up and took Castiel’s hand. 

Dean leaned over and kissed the angel on the cheek. “Come on, let’s go swimming. I’m sorry we laughed. But it is sorta funny.”

“The captions thing was pretty funny,” replied Cas in a whisper so Gabriel and Michael wouldn’t hear him admitting that. 

Chapter Text

Dean paced nervously in the greenhouse as he waited for Cas. He had scratched off the warding on the door and prayed to him that it was time. He had spent the last several days getting everything ready for tonight. Dean had waited so long for this and even though Cas had only been out of the empty for not even a year; it was time. 

He heard the main door that opened out onto the rooftop of the bunker open and close with a thud, then the sound of the greenhouse door open. Cas called out to him. 

“Over here,” Dean called back. 

Cas walked slowly through his rooftop gardens, always taking his time to make sure to look at every plant and flower. This was his space and it was all thanks to Dean. He turned the corner going down the main passage away and saw Dean standing at the end of it. The angel’s eyes lit up at the sight. 

Candles floated in the air lighting up the passageway. A row of sunflowers, tall and in bloom, on each side. Bees buzzed happily around. It was gorgeous but the most beautiful sight of all was Dean. Dean stood there waiting, he was nervous as hell but it would all be worth it.

“Dean,” Cas said softly, his heart melting. “What is all this?”

Dean reached out a hand, taking the angel’s in his own. “Thought you deserved something special. I added a new addition.”

Behind Dean was a large planter box that sat empty except for the soil. Dean showed Cas excitedly but Cas frowned, not understanding the gift.

“It’s empty.”

Dean smiled, shrugging his shoulders. “It won’t be for long.”

“Dean?” Cas asked. 

“Yeah?”

“I love it.”

“I’m glad. But uh… an empty planter isn’t why I brought you up here. And sure as hell wasn’t why I did all this,” said Dean as he gestured to the rest of the elaborate set up in the greenhouse. 

Dean took both of Castiel’s hands in his own as the angel cocked his head to the side in curiosity. Dean took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He repeated what he had been going over in his head for weeks now. He’s got this, he can do this. 

“Cas, we’ve known each other for a long time now and most of that time we didn’t know each other like we do now. We… well I really… couldn’t see what was in front of us. When I lost you to the Empty, I lost everything, man. These past eight years have been the roughest in my life. I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing. All I knew was that I needed you back because I love you, Cas.”

Castiel smiled, warmly. “I love you, too.”

“Since you got back and I finally was able to break down the walls I had built up for so many years I’ve finally been able to breathe. For once in my life I can say with absolute certainty that I’m free. And it’s because of you. Because you love me. I don’t want this to ever stop, Cas. I need you. I love you, Cas.” 

Dean took a moment to inhale and exhale again, slowly. Cas waited for him to continue, tears swelling in his eyes. 

“I want to be with you for the rest of my life and even after that. Forever, Cas. We can have forever together. But before we do that I need your answer.”

Cas tilted his head to the side. “What answer?”

Dean’s eyes sparkled in the light as he smiled. His knees have never been at their peak and now they were definitely well past it. But nonetheless, he got down onto one knee and looked up at the angel. Cas realized what was happening, tears now streaming down his face as he smiled at Dean. 

Dean, still holding onto Castiel’s hands smiled. “Florere,” he whispered. 

Behind him in the empty planter box flowers began to bloom. Hundreds of flowers in every color imaginable rose up from the soil, blooming into their full and most beautiful state. Cas watched in awe as letter by letter the flowers spelled out the most beautiful words he had ever read. 

‘Will you marry me?’

“Dean?” He asked, unsure if he was too excited or too nervous. 

“What’d ya say, Cas? Marry me?”

“I love you, Dean.”

“Is that a yes?” Dean inquired, smirking. 

“Yes! It’s every yes in existence. I can say it to you in every language known and unknown to man. Yes. I’ll marry you. I’ll always marry you.”

Dean stood up, embracing Castiel in a tight hug before kissing him deeply. When he pulled back from the kiss they rested their foreheads against each other’s. 

“Sorry, I don’t have a ring. Didn’t know if you’d be into that and kinda hard to ask for your ring size without you catching onto the plan,” whispered Dean, chuckling softly. 

“That’s okay. I don’t need one to say that we are going to be married. How’d you pull this all off anyways?”

Dean stepped back, breaking the contact but never letting go of Cas’ hand. “You like it?” He asked with a grand smile. 

“I love it.”

“Rowena helped out. She did the spell to enchant the candles, thought it was very Hogwarts of her. And the flowers too, that little spell is one of her own design.”

“She did amazing.”

“Yeah, well, it was mostly me. I thought up everything in here. She and a few others just helped make it possible.”

“I love you so much, Dean. This was perfect.”

Chapter Text

It was rare these days for Dean to take on a case. He was content in his life now and the world was in good hands. But that didn’t stop him from enjoying the occasional hunt every now and then. When Sam mentioned gathering up some of their hunter friends to take on a massive vampire nest, Dean immediately decided to take it on himself; with a little help, of course. 

Dean insisted that Sam stay home with Eileen for this one, and that he would deal with the nest. Over the next few days, and many calls later, it was finally go time. He and Castiel loaded up the Impala and headed off to Arkansas to meet up with everyone else. He made sure to keep one item hidden from Cas, not wanting to ruin the surprise. 

Charlie was leaning against her own car when the two got out of the Impala. “You really need all of us for this?” She asked, grinning at him, excited to take on the vamps inside the warehouse. 

Dean cocked his head to the side briefly, eyes sparking in the light. “Yeah, figured we could girlboss this one together.”

“Girlboss? Really?” Meg said from behind him. “I expect to hear that from Clarence, not you, Dean.”

“What can I say? He rubs off on me sometimes.”

A chorus of ews from behind them came from the rest of those invited; Jody, Donna, Claire, Kaia and Rowena. Dean rolled his eyes, shaking his head. They knew full well what he meant by the statement. He went over the case once more. There were at least forty vampires inside and they all had to be taken down. Beheading them was the easiest way out of this, making sure they were all properly armed. 

“One last thing,” said Dean excitedly as he opened Baby’s trunk. He pulled out a large boombox, placing a cassette inside of it. “We’re gonna have some fun with this one.”

Everyone exchanged glances at each other before shrugging. Dean was full of surprises these days, and they had grown used to the man he had become. Blades in hand, they walked up to the large metal doors of the warehouse, opening it up to step inside of the darkness. The room suddenly lit up and a hoard of vamps all came rushing at them. The group readied their weapons, fire in their eyes at the anticipation of the battle ready to take place. 

Dean held up a hand, making everyone- vampires included- stop in their steps. He was calm as he set the stereo down and pressed play. The opening to Shania Twain’s Man! I feel like a woman! came blaring out, as everyone was suddenly extremely confused. 

“Let’s go, girls,” Dean said along with the music. 

As the music started up, Dean readied his machete as ran to the first vamp, slicing the blade across his neck, beheading the vamp just as the first verse started up. Everyone stood in silence, watching as Dean stood there with a smirk on his face. The vamps were dumbfounded by the sight, the notorious hunter, Dean Winchester, girlbossing his way into their nest. 

Claire stood with the rest of the hunters, her eyes wide and jaw dropped. “Holy shit, dad,” she whispered under her breath. She quickly prayed before she cried out a scream, hungry for the battle, and raced forward, blade in hand. She drove her blade forward, taking the head clean off the first vampire to make a move. 

Soon, the rest of the hunters followed as the vamps raced towards them. The music surrounded them in the air, as the screams of everyone and the clash of hunter verses vampire raged on. 

“The best thing about being a woman,” Donna sang along, smiling as she sliced through vamp after vamp. “Is the prerogative to have a little fun!”

“Oh, oh, oh, going totally crazy!” Jody sang, fully embracing the chaos that was happening around her. 

Rowena looked at Meg, the two smirking at each before her eyes turned purple and she lifted her hands up. She cast a silent spell at one of the vamps, glowing purple shot out from her hands like electricity. The vamp froze in his step as the spell thrown at him suddenly ripped him apart, disappearing in a haze of blood. 

Dean never stopped moving as he bellowed out. “Men’s shirts, short skirts. Oh, oh, oh!”

Donna and Jody were back to back, moving in tune with each other as their blade swung through the air with precision. Kaia and Claire laughed together as they, too, took on several vampires at the same time, always keeping an eye on each other. 

Charlie burst out laughing at the sight she was met with. “Go totally crazy, forget I’m a lady!” She cried out before racing forward. 

Castiel’s eyes glowed with the rage of his grace as he steadily walked up to a vampire charging at him. His hand came down upon its head, smiting the vamp where it stood. “Get in the action, feel the attraction.”

Dean stopped, whipping his head around to face his husband. A smile of pure joy spread across his face. He had this crazy idea in his head for weeks now and was overjoyed to finally be doing it, and even more that everyone was having fun, especially Cas. “I wanna be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel,” he sang, grinning the whole time. The lyrics ran true to him. He wanted to be free to feel how he feels, about himself, about Cas, about everything. Years of hiding who he was and how he felt had all but disappeared in the past two years since he had his angel back. 

“Man, I feel like a woman!” Rowena cried out as she blasted another spell. 

The sounds of wings filled the room and suddenly Michael and Adam were standing in the middle of the battle. “Claire told us we should be here,” they said. 

“Which one are you?” Dean asked, out of breath as he swung his blade at the next vamp, never taking his eyes off of the battle at hand. 

They shrugged, “Both of us. What the hell is happening? Why is everyone singing along?” 

“Don’t question it,” replied Kaia as she sliced her way through another vamp, its head thudding to the ground below. 

Cas vanished only to reappear next to his brother and brother-n-law. “Can you two still interact with the world separately?”

“Yeah, why?” They asked, confused. 

“Then get to it!”

Michael and Adam shrugged their shoulders before their eyes glowed whitish blue. What no one else could see was Adam standing next to his own body, blade in hand. Together they headed towards the nearest vamp, working together to smite and behead the bastard. 

“The girls need a break. Tonight we’re gonna take the chance to get out on the town,” sang Claire loudly, laughing as she did. 

Soon half the vampires were dead on the ground, heads rolling while the battle continued on. The hunters sang along with glee as they sliced through monster after monster. Dean knew his body would not be thanking him tomorrow for this, but right now, he didn’t care. He shouted along, letting his blade take the lead. Next to him, Charlie sliced her small sword she preferred to weld in the air, cutting clean through the throat of a charging vampire. Castiel and Meg worked in unison, taking down multiple of the vile creatures. Kaia and Claire kept an eye on each other as they moved in unison, a perfect mirror image of each other’s movements with their blades. Rowena, with the fury that only the Queen of Hell could render, rose above the crowd, blasting a group of four vampires back before they exploded. Donna and Jody, always making sure to keep an eye on their family, continued through the sea of monsters. Adam and Michael, joining in fully now, made their way through. Michael smited vamps while Adam, invisible to everyone else, sliced through. 

With the song almost over, and everyone singing along, there were now only a handful of vampires left. Soon as the last lyrics began, the final vampire stood. It was one against nine. The vamp knew he didn’t stand a chance, his brethren dead all around him, but he wouldn’t go down without a fight. 

“I wanna be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel,” sang Dean as he raised his knife with a smile. He winked at the vamp, letting it know it was going to be over for the monster soon. 

“This is ridiculous,” muttered Meg under her breath with a laugh. Castiel stood next to her, nodding in agreement before they both couldn’t help but grin at the situation. 

“Act totally crazy,” Jody sang. 

Donna continued, “Can you feel it?”

“Come, come, come on baby,” Dean sang, staring at the vampire, beckoning it the come at him. 

The vampire charged at Dean, a scream bellowing out of it. Only to be silenced as Dean’s blade cut cleanly through its neck. For a moment, it stared at Dean, eyes wide and full of fear. 

As the head of the last vamp fell to the ground, Dean finished the song. “I feel like a woman.”

Everyone stood in their spot, out of breath and covered in blood and sweat. The song was now over, and silence filled the air. The only sound to be heard was their heavy breathing. 

Charlie was the first to break the silence. “So that’s what you meant by girlboss this.” 

Dean turned around to face her, smiling brightly. “Hey, I spent enough time not girlbossing. This was fun, we should do this again.”

Chapter Text

7:00am 

Warmth surrounded Dean, huddled under blankets and his back snuggled against Castiel. He leaned back further into the warmth, letting out a soft hum of content as he did. Cas stirred behind him, putting his arm around his husband. 

“Mornin, Cas,” mumbled Dean, his voice hoarse from sleep. 

“Hello Dean,” replied Cas, sounding like he was wide awake because he was. He didn’t sleep, instead he held Dean throughout the night, watching over him. “Want me to go make coffee?” 

Dean groaned in disapproval. “No. I got it. Sammy’s probably awake by now.”

“He is.”

Dean took several more moments before he gathered enough energy to throw the covers off and groggily walked towards the door. Barely opening his eyes, he grabbed the dead guy robe and threw it on. Stumbling into the kitchen, he poured himself a cup of coffee, still hot and freshly brewed. He sat down at the table and noticed a yellow pad of paper with a note written on the top. 

Dean

Eileen, and me got a case on the other side of the state. Shouldn’t take too long. Be back tomorrow. 

-Sam

P.S. Rowena dropped off an ingredient for a spell we are working on. It’s in the fridge. DO NOT OPEN IT.

8:15am 

“Where you headed?” Dean asked Castiel, who just came into the shower room Dean was getting ready in to tell him he’d be back in a few hours.

“There’s a book I’ve been wanting to get. I shouldn’t be long.”

Dean raised a brow, taking the toothbrush out of his mouth. “Okay. You know, we could just order it.”

“I’m afraid not,” replied Cas with a sigh. “It’s in another universe.”

Dean almost choked. “What? What kind of book is this?”

“Poetry.”

“And you can’t get poetry here? In this universe?”

“Sadly, not by this author.”

Dean shrugged, having been more than used to Castiel’s chaotic nature at times. “Whatever, man, just be careful. Don’t need you getting stuck over there. 

9:30am

Dean stood next to the small patch of grass that Miracle was sitting on. With hands on his hips, looking down at the dog, he pleaded with him. “Come on, just poop so we can go inside.”

Miracle stared up at him, tongue hanging out and head cocked to the side. Completely clueless about everything. 

“I’ll give you fifty bucks if you poop right now.”

10:07am 

Wednesdays were reserved for supply runs into town and laundry, which meant Dean had his hands full today. He gathered up the laundry, choosing to ignore Sam and Eileen’s since they could do their own. Cas had become accustomed to hoodies and leaving them all over the place. He grabbed the hamper from his room, picking up clothes from the small pile on the chair to place inside. He wandered around the bunker, looking for anything of theirs that might have been thrown aside elsewhere. Dean found one of Claire’s sweaters, a shirt that was clearly Meg’s and a pair of Star Wars leggings that was obviously Charlie’s. 

He tossed them in the hamper before making his way back to the dormitory hall, stopping at Jack’s door before knocking. “Hey, laundry day!” He shouted. 

After there was no answer, Dean opened the door, calling out once more to make sure Jack wasn’t actually in there. The room was empty, but it was clear that it hadn’t been for that long. Dean went around, gathering dirty clothes tossed about the place. He made a mental note to tell his son to pick up more before he made his way to the laundry room. 

With the dirty clothes now in the washing machine, Dean headed to the kitchen. He took out his phone to write down the grocery list in his notes app. He opened the fridge first, taking count of what they had left. He kept an eye out for the mysterious ingredient he had been warned to not touch in there, but to no avail. Curious, he looked around the room to see if he could find it. A white paper bag in the trash can caught his eye. Taking it out, he saw the words ‘Rowena’s don’t touch’ written in bold red marker on the front. It was empty.

“Great, just great,” he muttered under his breath. 

10:49am 

With the list complete, Dean set off into town to the small grocery store to pick up what they needed the most. Anything else would require a trip into Nebraska to a larger store. Stopping on the way there at the post office, picking up their mail for the week before continuing on to the store. 

Lebanon was a pleasant town, a place he was more than happy to call home. As much as he wanted to believe that everyone in town just saw him as another resident, just another guy, he knew they didn’t. He saw the staring and heard the whisperings about the mysterious Campbell brothers; he and Sam. No one knew where they lived exactly, but he had once overheard a group of teenagers swearing up and down that they lived in the old abandoned factory on the outskirts of town. 

11:36am 

Dean unloaded the groceries into the fridge and cupboards when Jack walked into the room. 

“Dad,” he grumbled. 

“What’s up, kid?” replied Dean, not looking back at him while he put food away. 

“I don’t feel good.”

Dean closed the fridge, going into dad mode. “What’s wrong?” He asked as he turned around. 

The sight of Jack stopped Dean dead in his tracks. Jack stood in the doorway, paler than normal and clearly on the verge of getting sick on the kitchen floor. He held his stomach in his hands, trying to steady himself. Dean went over to him, resting his hand on Jack’s forehead. 

Dean frowned, concerned. “No fever. Want me to make you soup or something?” 

Jack’s face almost turned green as he gagged slightly. 

“Okay, I take that as a no,” stated Dean, taking the hint. He narrowed his eyes at Jack. “You ate what was in the bag, didn’t you?”

Jack nodded slowly. “Yeah. It was cheese.”

Dean leaned his head back quickly. “Cheese?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would Sam need Rowena to bring him cheese for a spell?” 

“I don’t know, but I don’t feel so good now.” Jack replied with a hiccup. 

“You try to magic it away?” 

“Yeah.”

Dean let out a long sigh, trying to figure out the best course of action. “Uh, I guess you should go lay down in bed for a bit. I’ll call Rowena and see if she knows what to do. Don’t… don’t eat stuff label do not eat, Jack.”

12:20pm

Dean got off the phone with Rowena. Turns out they were lucky, or more so that Jack was lucky. The cheese had been found in an ancient cave that no human had set foot in in over three thousand years. Ancient witches had enchanted the cave that had been once their home, so that everything inside remained as fresh as they had left it. The ancient magic inside of it was perfect for a banishing spell she and Sam were working on. 

She was upset that they had to now rework the spell, since the small block of cheese was the only item from within the cave she was able to get her hands on. But the cure was simple enough; a few days’ rest. If Jack had been human, it would have been an entirely different story. 

1:16pm

Cas stepped down into the war room where Dean was seated at the table, responding to an email from a hunter they knew asking advice on a case. 

“Hey, babes,” greeted Dean, looking up briefly. “Get your book?”

“Yes,” Castiel replied, holding up the small bag from the bookstore. “It’s quiet. Where’s Jack?”

“In his room. He’s sick. Ate cheese from dead witches.”

Cas narrowed his eyes, confused but not surprised. “Okay. I’m gonna go check on him then, I guess.”

“Rowena said he’ll be fine in a few days.”

2:29pm 

Music played loudly in the garage as Dean made sure there was not a spot left on Baby. This was his time to himself, just him and the car he loved so much. With shorts on and not giving a damn about anything, he let his cares disappear. That was, until the feeling of being watched swept over him. 

Dean narrowed his eyes, looking around suspiciously. He went over to the stereo, turning off to listen to the silence. Nothing. Then, just as he was about to press play again, he heard it. The unmistakable sound of small feet smacking on the tile flooring. 

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered under his breath. 

Instinctively, he checked his pocket for his keys, making sure they were still there. They were, and he let out a sigh of relief. Silence filled the air once more. The noise came again, this time much closer, setting Dean on edge. 

“Honkle!” Dean shouted into the seemingly empty garage. “I know you’re there. Don’t try anything. Dick.”

Just as Dean felt comfortable enough to continue, this time keeping the music off to keep an ear out, he turned back to the Impala. A loud screeching honking came from behind him and the sound of little goose feet charging at him startled Dean. But before he could once again stand up, he left pressure on his side as the goose reached it’s bill into his pocket, stealing his keys. 

“HONKLE!”

“HONK!!!!” screamed the goose as he raced around the car. 

Dean followed it, his knees only carrying him so fast. “CAS!! Come get your damn goose!!!” Dean bellowed out. 

Castiel appeared, looking tired and absolutely done with everything. He quickly grabbed Honkle, taking back the keys from the goose’s mouth before tossing them to Dean. “Maybe if you tried to befriend him, he would stop doing this.”

Out of breath and his knees and hips aching, Dean replied, “Yeah, well… shut up.”

3:37pm 

“I’m telling you, it’s good.”

Claire, who had stopped by not long before to pay her dads a visit, rolled her eyes at Dean. “It sounds disgusting. I have to try it.”

“Thata girl,” Dean boasted, proud of how much she took after him. He tossed the bag of cheese cubes to Claire. 

She caught it out of the air, taking a handful out before drizzling an ungodly amount of honey on them. She took a deep breath, wondering if she would regret this before shoveling them all into her mouth. Dean leaned forward, eyes wide with anticipation as he watched for her reaction. At first, Claire frowned, but soon her eyes lit up.

“That’s actually good,” she exclaimed. 

“Right! I told you!” 

At that moment, Jack walked into the kitchen, his face turning sour when he saw the cheese. He had his fill enough for one day, and was still feeling the full effects of the ancient cheese. 

“Jack, you gotta try this,” Claire said, turning to her little brother. 

“No, thank you. Dad already had me try it. It’s good, but I don’t think cheese is something I should be eating right now.”

Claire chuckled. “Yeah, he told me what happened. You good?”

“I don’t feel good, still.” He turned towards Dean. “When’s dinner?”

Dean shook his head with a laugh. “You don’t feel good and yet you’re wondering when dinner is?”

“Winchester priorities,” teased Claire with a smirk. 

“It’s not gonna be for a few hours. Want something to snack on, though?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah.”

“Alright, I’ll make us sandwiches. You two head on to the tv room. I’ll be there in a bit.”

4:28pm 

With the three of them having now finished lunch, Dean went off in search of Castiel. After going to the usual spots the angel hung out in, Dean finally found his husband in one of the many storage rooms. Cas and Sam had been painstakingly going through it in the past few weeks, since most of the books and items in there were of angelic origin. Cas sat on the floor with his legs crossed, going through one of the many boxes and a notebook open next to him. 

Dean leaned against the doorframe, watching Castiel as he worked, deep in concentration. Cas examined one of the items, a small silvery dagger, before writing down on the notebook in enochian. Dean cleared his throat, letting Cas know he was there.

“Hello Dean,” greeted Cas, not looking up from his work. 

“Still cataloging?”

“Yes. We’ve barely gone through half of what’s in here. It’s taking a lot longer than I expected.”

Dean scoffed. “Might go faster if you put it into Sam’s catalogue system on the computer right away instead of taking notes by hand.”

Cas looked up, arching a single brow. “You know I don’t trust computers. Besides, I prefer to do it like this.”

Dean crossed his arms in front of him, adjusting his footing. “Okay, but you could write it down in english, it’s not like Sammy can actually translate your notes. You have to translate it afterwards anyways. It would make it even a bit quicker.”

“I focus better in my native tongue. I don’t mind translating it into english, Dean.”

“Wait, do you think in enochian?” Dean asked, perplexed. After all this time, there were still things about the angel that baffled him.

“Yes,” replied Cas, going back to his work. “Though I don’t think like humans do. But when it comes to thoughts of words, yes, I do think in enochian. I also think in my proper voice.”

“That’s weird, man. You’re weird.” Dean was once again reminded of how other Cas was. The man sitting on the floor in front of him wasn’t human. He didn’t even look like how he does now. He shook the thoughts away, clearing his mind of the thoughts that his husband was an ancient cosmic wavelength of celestial intent as Cas has once described himself. “Yeah, so I’m gonna go and make dinner. Chicken sound good to you?”

“Given the fact that I taste every molecule and don’t actually need to eat.” Cas looked up, his face softening as he looked at Dean. “Yes, that sounds good.”

5:06pm 

Dean had finished preparing the chicken and had just put it into the oven, closing the door, when he heard it again; Honkle. He let out a huff of air, trying his best to ignore the goose menace. He turned his attention towards making side dishes when the thwaping sound of goose feet against the tile filled the air. Dean spun around to see Honkle frozen mid-run, staring up at Dean. 

“Ha! Catch you! Can’t sneak up on me!” Dean boasted. 

“HONK!!!”

Dean smirked. “You’re in my domain now, goose. In here, I rule and guess what? You’re kosher!” He picked up a large butcher knife, admiring it before looking down at the goose. 

Honkle yelled at him before charging. Dean meant nothing by the empty threat, there was now way he could actually bring harm to the goose. But it was still fun to make Honkle back off. He didn’t have time to react fast enough before Honkle was at his feet, screaming up at him. 

“HOOONNNKK!” Mocked Dean. “See, I can do it, too.”

Honkle didn’t yell back, instead he bit Dean’s calf. Causing him to scream out in pain. 

Cas then suddenly appeared, looking tired once more. He scooped Honkle up and disappeared once more. He muttered something under his breath. Dean only made out a few words that sounded like ‘just a goose’ and ‘idiot’.

6:37pm 

While Dean would never actually tell his brother this, he did sometimes prefer it when Sammy and Eileen were away and Claire came over. It made them feel like a normal family. They sat around the table eating their dinner, just two dads and their children. Of course, nothing about it was normal. Dean, one of the humans at the table, had spent the last fifty years hunting monsters, stopping the end of the world, fighting the original God. He had been a demon, vampire, ghost; you know it. Then there was his husband, Castiel, Angel of the Lord. A fallen angel who had seen the first spark of the universe forming together. 

Then there were their two children, Claire and Jack, both adopted and yet somehow still blood; not that blood mattered to any of them. First, there’s Claire Novak, the daughter of Castiel’s vessel. She lost her parents to Heaven, adopted by Jody, and then Donna as well, and finally Cas and Dean. She was an incredible hunter, who held her own against the best of them, alongside her wife, Kaia. And last, Jack Kline, a nephilim and the new God. The biological son of Lucifer and an amazing woman named Kelly. Forced to grow up from the time he was born, he was much younger than he looked, only ten years old. 

As they sat around the table, Dean smiled at his family. Nights like this were always his favorite because he felt like just any other dad. He watched as Claire teased Jack, flicking bits of rice at him with a smirk on her face. Jack retaliated by making the small speck of rice fly back at her. 

“No powers at the table,” stated Dean firmly. “I can’t believe that’s something I have to actually say. My life is weird.”

Jack’s brow creased in frustration. “She started it.”

“Yeah, listen to dad. No powers at the table.” Claire repeated jokingly. 

Cas rolled his eyes. “Both of you.” He looked between the two of them, letting his eyes glow for a quick moment. 

“That goes for you, too, Cas,” warned Dean. This only caused Claire and Jack to burst out laughing. It was a good night. 

7:48pm 

Claire had said her goodbyes a while earlier, making her way back home. Jack, who Dean and Cas were trying to let him have a normal childhood, at least at home, had retired to his bedroom for the night. Dean and Cas were now in the Dean Cave, cuddled up on the sofa that Dean had moved in there recently, catching up on their shows together. 

“Chicken was good night, Dean.”

Dean snorted. “You couldn’t even taste it.”

“I could, just not in the way it was intended. Doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.”

“Let me guess, you enjoyed it because I made it?”

Cas looked at Dean with a smile. “Yes.” 

Dean shook his head, chuckling softly. “Of course. Well, I made it with love,” joked Dean. 

“I know you’re just joking, but you really did, Dean. You made that dinner for your family, that’s love. Everything-“

Dean cut him off. “I know. Everything I do is for love. I remember.”

Cas didn’t need to say anything else. He just kissed the top of Dean’s head before turning his attention back to the television. Dean could stay like this forever, warm in Castiel’s arms as they relaxed together. No monsters, no ends of the world looming overhead, nothing trying to tear them apart. Just a fallen angel and the righteous man finally at peace in each other’s arms. 

11:17pm 

Dean pulled back the covers, yawning as he climbed into bed. He watched as Cas turned the light off and came to bed. 

“Sam and Eileen coming back tomorrow?” Asked Cas. 

“Yeah, I texted Eileen earlier. They are gonna be in the morning.”

“Good, there’s a farmers market in Beloit. I was thinking that her and I could go to. It’s only for tomorrow.”

“You gonna try to sell some honey?” Asked Dean, moving closer to snuggle up against Cas. “I know you’ve been thinking of it.”

“Maybe. Do I need a permit?” Cas asked. Dean didn’t need to see in the darkness to know the angel’s face was currently a frustrated frown. 

“I got no clue, Cas.” Dean yawned again. “What I do know is that I’m tired.”

“Go to sleep, Dean.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna do that.” He leaned up, kissing Castiel gently. “Night, Cas. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Dean.”

The last thing Dean felt before drifting off to sleep was a slight pressure and warmth wrap around him. A feeling he had grown accustomed to in the last year and a half since he got Cas back and they were together. It was the feeling of Castiel’s wings. 

Chapter Text

“We should of done this sooner. Way sooner. Why haven’t we ever done this?” 

Sam looked over to Dean, shrugging his shoulders. “Didn’t really have time with all the apocalypses.”

“Yeah, but there hasn’t been one of those in years.”

“You weren’t around for years.”

“Right,” replied Dean, nodding. He hadn’t forgotten the seven years he was gone when Castiel was still in the empty. But sometimes it felt like so long ago. “Well, he’s back, I’m here, you and Eileen are here. We can finally do this.”

They stepped down onto the beach from the hot paved pathway. Dean dug his toes into the sand, letting it cover the tops of his feet. It was hot, already clinging to his skin as the sun beat down him. 

“We get ourselves a beach day, Sammy,” exclaimed Dean, excitedly. 

It wasn’t long before Dean found himself lying on a towel under the sun. He had thought that he would be spending the day in the ocean swimming, but it didn’t take him long to get cramps in his calves and Eileen sent him back onto the beach instead. With his eyes closed and his arms crossed behind his head, he relaxed. Feeling the heat of the sun beat down on his bare chest. 

The sun was suddenly gone when Castiel said, “Dean, they didn’t have any nachos.”

Dean opened one eye. “Cas, sun. Move.”

“I’m sorry, Dean,” replied the angel as he stepped out of the way. 

Dean closed his eye and went back to relaxing. “That’s fine. We’ll go get dinner later on.”

Cas stood there, motionless as he watched his boyfriend lounge in the sun. His fingers fidgeting at his sides as he looked at Dean.

“Cas.”

“Dean?”

“Relax, man. We’ve never done this before. Lay down or something. That towel is for you.” Dean stated, motioning his head to the empty towel next to him. 

Cas nodded and sat down on the towel. The sand shifted next to him as he finally laid down, mimicking Dean’s position. They laid together like this for a few minutes before Dean finally opened his eyes to look at Cas. 

Dean snorted. “Dude, really?”

“What?”

“How many layers do you have on? Aren’t you sweating your ass off?”

“I don’t sweat, Dean. I can also regulate my body temperature. It’s not hot at all for me.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Right, yeah. Cas, you’re wearing a suit and trenchcoat right now. Still don’t see why you wear that thing all the time.”

“I like it,” replied Cas. 

Dean stood up, now blocking the sun for Castiel. He held out his hand, offering it to his boyfriend. “Come on, I got an extra pair of trunks in the room. They fit me a bit weird but should fit you.”

“I’ll find them, just stay here, Dean. You deserve the relaxation,” replied Cas as he took Dean’s hand. 

Dean didn’t argue with that; Cas was right he did deserve this. Instead of laying back down, Dean went to where Sammy and Eileen were as they just got out of the water. He was in the middle of discussing the plans for dinner when Cas made his way over to them. 

Dean’s face flushed red when he saw Castiel. The dark blue trunks clung tightly to the angels thighs, outlining every muscle. His bare chest, still marked with scars and the tattoo on his ribs curving with his body. Dean had seen Cas naked, it wasn’t new to him anymore. But there was something about seeing Cas out of the trench coat that seemed even more nude that nudity. It was forbidden. 

“How do I look?” Cas asked. 

“Thighs.” 

Cas cocked his head to the side while Sam and Eileen snorted, bursting out with laughter. Dean stood frozen in place, face red and mouth hung open. 

“Yes, my vessel has thighs, Dean. How does it look though?”

Dean shook himself out of his trance. “Uh, you look great, babe. Yeah, they fit good.”

“Thighs?” Sam asked, still laughing. 

Dean frowned at him. “Shut up.”

“I’m never going to let you forget that.”

Dean groaned, knowing that Sammy meant what he said. He cursed his mind for not keeping an eye on his mouth. He was right though, Castiel’s thighs were a thing to be marveled at. The angel was carved from marble in the halls of Heaven and it was obvious. 

It wasn’t long before the couple found themselves on the towels again, basking in the sun. While Dean was relaxing calmly, halfway to falling asleep, Cas was next to him deep in concentration. 

“I like your thighs too, Dean.” The angel declared like it was nothing, the most normal thing to say in the world. 

Dean couldn’t help the small snort that came out. “Thanks, babe.”

Chapter Text

Today was a perfectly normal day in the bunker. Sam and Eileen were in the library, going over a file Sam had put together for their next case. Jack was outside playing with Miracle, Cas was up in his greenhouse tending to his flowers and bees. And Dean was in the Dean Cave, feet kicked up, watching a movie. It was peaceful, calm. Dean was looking forward to dinner later that night. He planned to cook them burgers on the grill outside, given how nice of a day it was. Everything was perfect, but something lurked nearby. Something that wasn’t sinister but also wasn’t here to bring about even more relaxation, especially for Dean. 

Having been a hunter his whole life, and knowing to trust when the air shifts, Dean tensed. Without pausing his movie as to not draw attention, his ears perked up, and he scanned the room as much as he could. 

Nothing.  

He shrugged it off. Figuring it was probably nothing. It was an old bunker after all, and being underground meant the air changed sometimes. And who knows what ghost could lurk about. But then Dean remembered that there was none. His home was free from monsters of any kind. Well, outside of his husband and son. And the occasional guest like the Fitzgeralds, Meg and Rowena. 

It was only then that he remembered the other member of the bunker. The one who taunted him, always there. Always watching. The one that Dean was certain was trying to steal his car. Honkle. 

Dean stood up from his recliner, kicking the leg rest back down as he spun around. Honkle stared at him, his dark beady eyes looking at Dean. Something lurked behind them, something mischievous. 

“How’d you get in here?” Dean asked the goose. He told himself how stupid it was that he was talking to the damn bird. 

“HONK!”

“Yeah, honk yourself. Get out of here. Go bother Sammy.” 

Dean started to make his way to the door, making sure to keep space between himself and the goose. He had learned his lesson about getting too close to the bastard when he learned that geese not only had teeth but also on their tongue. 

Before Dean could get to the door, Honkle let out another screeching honk. Dean froze. There was something off about this honk. It wasn’t just random yelling from the goose; it sounded purposeful. He turned around slowly and looked down at the goose. 

Honkle raised his wings, stretched them out in the small room, and let out a deafening honk. As he did from within his wings and out of his mouth, thousands of eels escaped. Dean screamed, unsure if what he was seeing was real. He watched at the goose let thousands upon thousands of black, slimy eels fill the Dean Cave. 

“What?!” 

Dean raced to the door, escaping out and slamming it shut behind him. He could still hear the goose honking in victory and the eels slithering about. Panic set in and he raced to the roof of the bunker, praying in his head for the angel to come help.   

“Cas!” Dean called out as he made his way through the greenhouse to where Castiel was tending to his sunflowers. “Honkle! Eels!”

Cas looked up at Dean, frowning. “What are you talking about, Dean?”

Out of breath, Dean replied, “Honkle filled the Dean Cave with eels! He ain’t normal, man.”

Cas rolled his eyes. “He’s just a goose, Dean. He can’t summon eels at will. That’s not possible.”

“I’m telling you that he did.”

“Fine. Come on, let’s go see.” Cas placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder, zapping them back to the Dean Cave. 

Cas looked around the room, which was now free from the eel invasion. The only thing left was Honkle staring up at them. Dean’s jaw dropped at the lack of eels. The angel stared at the goose, having a private conversation that Dean couldn’t hear. 

Cas let out an annoyed sigh. “I don’t know why you had to lie, Dean. There are no eels here. Can you please try to get along with Honkle? He said that there were no eels and that he just wanted to relax in here. He said it’s cool in here and he enjoys the temperature.”

“Babe, he’s lying. I’m telling you what I saw.”

“I don’t have time for this right now, Dean. The farmers’ market is next week, and I still have to get all the honey prepared and bottled.” And with that, Cas vanished, leaving Dean and Honkle alone. 

Dean glared at the goose. “You can fool him but you can’t fool me. I know what you’re up to. You’re a little trickster.”

Something in Honkle’s eyes sparked, just for a moment, when Dean called him a trickster. Something that was beyond a goose. Something familiar. He looked up at Dean and winked. 

Dean stared, bewildered but the spark. Suddenly, he realized the truth. “You son of a bitch,” he whispered. 

Suddenly, Honkle transformed in front of Dean’s eyes. And in the place of the goose was Gabriel, archangel and trickster. He smirked at Dean, the same spark in his eyes. 

“Heya Dean-o,” Gabriel said with a smile. 

Dean’s eyes grew wild, refusing to believe what he was seeing. “What?” He yelled out. “Cas!!!!” 

“Wow, Dean, I must say you got old. What are you like fifty, fifty-one now? You went domestic, settled down and got married. I guess that means I’m your brother-n-law now.”

“You’re dead! What?”

Cas appeared in the room again, having heard Dean call out for him. His face dropped its annoyed expression when he saw Gabe. Shocked to see his brother standing there. “Gabriel?” He asked, his voice small. 

“Hey lil bro.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand.”

“This asshole was the goose all along!” Dean stated. 

Cas turned around to look at Dean and then back to Gabriel. “That doesn’t make any sense. I would have known if Honkle was actually Gabriel.” 

Gabe grinned mischievously. “That’s where you’re wrong, Cas. Trickster, remember? I fooled you all. Oh, and the whole being dead thing? Yeah, didn’t work out. I wasn’t killed. Decided to go explore some of the other universes. Came back and decided to be a goose for a while and when Cas showed up. Oh boy, did I have a plan.”

“What plan? To taunt me and try to steal my car? You bit me!” Dean yelled. 

“Calm down, okay. Yeah, I bite you several times. But it’s nothing compared to what happened to you in the other universe. Stay away from rebar in Ohio, Dean.”

Dean tilted his head to the side. “What?” 

“Oh, that reminds me the tags probably should be updated now.”

Dean shook his head. “I am so confused right now.”

“So am I,” replied Cas. He was still trying to wrap his mind around everything. 

Gabriel just stood there, smiling at them. Proud of the long haul trick he had played on his little brother and Dean. He gave them once last wink before vanishing. 

“Where that asshole go?” Dean asked. 

“I don’t know. But I have a feeling he’s going to come back soon enough.” 

“I’m gonna fill his room with eels,” Dean mumbled under his breath as they took one last look around the room. 

Chapter Text

Malls always freaked Dean out. The once busy buildings were now mostly empty, halls lined with mainly closed stores and only a scattering of people. He didn’t see how they stayed in business, and he wasn’t entirely sure what they were doing here. Cas had dragged him along, wanting to check out a small bookstore that was located within the creepy mall. Dean had wandered off while Cas browsed the aisles. This place gave him the creeps. 

“Excuse me, sir?” A woman’s voice said, almost echoing in the desolate place. 

Dean looked in the direction of the voice to see a woman smiling widely and waving him over. He took a look around. There was no one else except for a few elderly people walking past. With his hands in his pockets, he shrugged his shoulders and went to the woman. 

She smiled at him; it was too wide and too fake for his liking. “Good afternoon, sir. How are you today?” Her voice was just as fake as her smile. 

“Fine, I guess.”

“That’s great. Do you travel a lot?”

“Not as often as I used to. Would like to get back into it if I’m being completely honest.” Dean scratched the side of his face as he said this. It was true. He did miss being on the road sometimes. 

“What about a family? I’m sure your kids are grown and out of the house by now. And I’m sure your wife would love a chance to get out and explore all that America has to offer.”

Dean raised an eyebrow at the woman. He wondered what made the woman think he had kids and if they were already grown. “Uh, husband, actually. And yeah, we got two kids. Oldest one is about to turn thirty-one soon and the youngest is eleven. We did some traveling, well, a lot of it, actually. But yeah, it was nice being on the road.”

The woman looked slightly shocked when Dean corrected her to say husband. But she brushed it off and maintained her calm and overly excited and fake demeanor. “Oh! Well, I’m sure you have a beautiful family. A great way to travel is with a Winnebago. And today is your lucky day, Sir. For only five dollars, you can get a chance to get your hands on a brand new one! Wanna try your luck?”

Dean cocked his head to the side. He was confused by what that had to do with traveling and his family. But he didn’t question it, even though he thought five bucks was way too expensive. But he paid and signed up anyway, figuring that if he did win it would probably be a year’s supply or something like that. 

He set back off to find Castiel again, and the two set off to head back to the bunker. Dean didn’t mention the contest, it wasn’t important, really. He forgot about it until a month later when he went to the post office to pick up their mail. There was a letter addressed to him from a company he didn’t recognize. When he got home, he tossed it in the trash but Cas took it out, knowing that Dean had a habit of throwing away important mail without looking at it. He opened the letter and read it to himself, his eyes growing wide as he did. 

“Dean, did you enter a contest to win a Winnebago?” The angel asked. 

Dean nodded. “Yeah, like a month ago. It was a damn rip off honestly.”

“You won.”

Dean looked up and smiled. “Wait, what?”

Cas furrowed his brow. “Yes, it says here that you won and have to give them a call in order to receive your prize.”

“Awesome. I hope it’s like a year’s supply or something. And not just a single one.”

Cas cocked his head to the side. “Why would it be a year’s supply?”

“Well, I mean to enter cost five bucks. I can get several with that.”

Cas stared at Dean like he grew an extra head. “Dean, what do you think you won?” He asked his husband slowly. 

“A bagel,” replied Dean as a matter of fact. 

“Winnebago.”

“Yeah, it was a contest to win a bagel.” Dean wasn’t sure what Cas was getting at. 

“Winnebago,” repeated Castiel, this time more slowly,

hoping that Dean would understand. 

Dean rolled his eyes. “Yeah, heard you the first time, babe. Win-a-bagel.”

Cas sighed and grew instantly tired. “Dean, no. Winnebago. You didn’t win a bagel. You won an RV.”

Dean looked at Castiel, confused. He slowly repeated the word ‘Winnebago’ silently. Suddenly realizing his mistake, he became saddened by the prize. “Wait, so I didn’t win bagels?”

“No. But we can go get some.”

“Awesome. I’ll grab my coat.”

Chapter Text

While walking past Jack’s bedroom door, Dean decided to see what he was up to. He knocked and Jack called out to him, letting him know it was fine to come in. Jack was sitting at his desk, eyes glued to his laptop. He was clicking madly away at the mouse. 

“You winning, son?” 

“Dad, it’s not a game,” replied Jack, not realizing the humor in Dean’s tone. 

Dean smiled, letting out a huff of air through his nose. “What you doing?” He peered over Jack’s shoulder to see thousands of little crabs filling the screen. 

“It’s tumblr,” replied Jack. He looked back over at Dean with a wide grin spread across his face. “For April’s Fools Day they are doing this clicking thing. I don’t really understand it, or the holiday. But you can summon crabs. I love the crabs.”

Dean raised a brow, confused by the site and the purpose of the crabs. “What’s tumblr?”

“A social media site. Don’t worry I got a parents permission to sign up, from dad.”

Dean shook his head. “You lost me at tumblr, kid. Alright, well you have fun with your… your crabs.”

He turned back and left Jack’s room. Still not knowing what to do with himself today. They had been busy for the last few weeks with the house being built. And for the first time since they began he actually had a day with nothing to do, given they were waiting on a shipment to come in for lumber. Sam and Eileen were out on their property, working themselves. That left only Castiel left in the bunker to go bother. 

Dean found his husband in the war room, hunched over his laptop. The one he insisted he didn’t need but now was on it every chance he could get. Dean thought it was cute how he typed with two fingers, taking his time to search for the correct keys. Right now, though, he was staring at the screen intensely while clicking the touchpad rhythmically over and over. 

“Hey, babe.”

“Hello honeybee,” replied Cas, not breaking his concentration.

“What you doing?” 

“Can’t talk. Crabs.”

Dean walked around to take a look at the screen. “You too?”

“Jack showed me tumblr this morning. He told me about the crabs. I love them, Dean.”

Cas’ screen was filled completely with the little red critters. He summoned thousands of more than Jack had. There was nothing behind them but more crabs. 

“Dude, how long have you been doing this?” Dean asked, bordering on concern. 

“What time is it?” 

“‘Bout five.”

“Ten hours. I had to restart twice because the site crashed. I think I was the cause of that.”

Dean shook his head. “Y’all are weird, man. I’m gonna go to our room. Have fun with your crabs.”

Castiel didn’t reply, too focused on summoning crabs. Dean couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he went back to his room. His husband and son were so much alike, their joy at something as simple as a little cartoon crab dancing around the screen made them so happy. Weird, but happy. He laughed to himself at the thought; it perfectly described his life these days. 

Once in his room, curiosity got the best of him and he grabbed his laptop and sat down on the bed. He pulled up the internet and typed ‘tumbler’ into the search bar. The only thing that came up was a bunch of cups, and a notice at the top that said ‘did you mean tumblr’. He clicked it and found the site that head Cas and Jack’s attention. He paused for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to sign up or not. All for a little crab. 

But he was curious about it, and signed up. After getting through the hassle of picking a username and filling everything he needed out he was finally there. But to his disappointment there weren't any crabs. He searched around trying to find it, a light switch in the corner caught his attention and he clicked it. Suddenly, the sides of the screen was filled with random little things, none of it interesting to him. He was here for one purpose; crabs. 

Finally, he saw it. A little sign that said ‘summon crab’. Excitedly he pressed it. A single little crab popped up on the screen. Dean stared at it, understanding now why Jack and Cas loved the little guys so much. It was so small and cute. He loved the crab. He clicked the button a few more times and smiled gleefully. 

But he refreshed the page, making the summoned crabs disappear. Once more he clicked the light switch and then the summon crab button. This time he didn’t press it again. He didn’t need nor want to. He was happy with the one. It was his little buddy. 

“Hey, little guy,” he said to the crab on the screen. 

He hovered the cursor over the crab, but was too nervous to click it. Nervous that it would disappear. He watched as his new little buddy danced around its spot on the screen. Transfixed by the crab, Dean watched it with a stupid grin on his face. 

“You need a name,” he said to the crab. “Tummy…. Cause tumblr… No that’s dumb. Crabby?”

He thought about it for a minute, trying to come up with the perfect name. Then he figured it out. “Lenny.”

It wasn’t long before his time spent watching Lenny dance around the screen was interrupted by Jack screaming out for his dads. Dean went from idiot mode to dad mode and raced out of his room and down the hall to Jack’s. Cas appeared next to him, panic on his face. 

They burst into Jack’s room, praying for everything to be okay. But what they discovered wasn’t exactly bad, but nonetheless disastrous. Jack stood on his bed, a look of both panic and joy on his face. Around him were thousands and thousands of crabs. They scurried around the room, climbing over each other and on top of everything. They spilled out into the hall and around Dean and Cas’ feet. In the middle of the room stood Honkle, screeching loudly at the crabs. They clacked their claws, a symphony of chaos. 

“What the?!” Exclaimed Dean. 

“What did you do?” Asked Cas, sternly. 

“I wanted a real crab cause I love the crabs and I summoned a real one. But then I wanted more so I summoned more. And I think I got a little out of hand,” said Jack. 

Dean scoffed. “A little out of hand? Really? Ya think?”

“What do I do?” Asked Jack, panicking now. 

“Put them back where you got them, kid.”

Jack nodded and raised his hand to snap his fingers. But Dean held out a hand to stop him. Cas and Jack’s head’s both tilted to the side confused as Dean kneeled down and picked up a single crab. 

“Okay, get these out of here. But I’m keeping this one,” said Dean. 

He looked up at Jack and Cas just staring at him with bewildered looks on their faces. 

“What?” He asked.  

“Why do you want the crab?” Questioned Castiel. 

Dean shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s friend shaped. I’m gonna name him Lenny.”

“Lenny?” 

Dean smiled. “Yeah, like Lenny from Red Dead two. He’s friend shaped and so is the crab.”

Cas nodded. “Ah, the cowboy video game you were obsessed with. The one you kept saying you only enjoyed because of the plot, and not because of cowboys or Arthur.”

“Dude, man’s hot, okay.”

Cas just shook his head and turned back to Jack. “Don’t summon anymore crabs. Or any animal for that matter.” 

The two left their son’s room and headed back to do their own thing again. Dean stared down at his new buddy, smiling like mad. He loved his crab friend, Lenny and was already planning the elaborate tank he was going to create for him. 

Chapter Text

With only a few more weeks until the wedding, Dean and Cas were stressed enough preparing everything for the ceremony. But when Sam mentioned the marriage certificate they would need to require to make the marriage legal, they went into a panicked frenzy. They had enough on their plate with the ceremony itself, then there was the Ketubah that they were working on writing together. But this sent their heads spinning. 

Dean had completely forgotten about the marriage license. He had brought up just forging it to Cas but was quickly shot down. Then there was the issue of them both needing proof of identification. For Dean this was easy enough. He had plenty of fake paperwork and ID’s, several of which had his real name on them. Though he did use the license that stated his name was Dean Campbell most often, especially when in town. But Castiel didn’t have any that weren’t obviously fake names. 

The two sat around the kitchen table, going through the box of fake ID’s Dean kept in the Impala’s trunk. They searched through trying to find the right one for Castiel to use. They formed two piles, one for possible names, and another even larger one they decided against completely. 

“What about Castiel Swift?” Dean asked, holding up the license between two fingers to show Cas.

The angel shook his head. “No. It’s not a very common name, and I’m sure someone would figure out its fake sooner or later.”

“Whatever,” replied Dean, tossing it into the against pile. 

Castiel picked up another one, reading it carefully. “What about this one? Ackles?”

“Nah, sounds dangerously close to ankles. Wait… how do I know that one?”

“Sam told me that was what the fake yous last name was when Balthazar sent you two to another universe. I kinda like it.”

Dean shuddered, remembering when that happened. “Yeah, definitely not. That was too weird, man.” He picked up another card. “Minaj. Nope.”

They spent almost an hour going through names. Most were from pop singers that Castiel was fond of. They ended up going through the names that Sam and Dean had gone by even. But Cas shut most of those down rather quickly, none of them sounding interesting to him. 

“Dude, you realize that you’re only going to have this name for a few days right? Then you’ll have mine,” Dean reminded him. 

“What makes you think that I’m going to take your name?” 

“Well, I mean, I just assumed.”

“Castiel Winchester,” said Cas, taking a moment to let it sink in. “I love it. But still, this is important and I want it to reflect who I am. Names are important, they hold meaning. It’s important for me to pick the right one that reflects who I truly am.”

“And whose that?” Dean asked, half jokingly. 

“Someone you love and who loves you,” replied Castiel fondly. 

Dean blushed, smiling at his angel. “What about Holliday?” He asked enthusiastically. 

Cas let out a sigh. “No, Dean. I do not want to be named Doc Holliday. You’re cowboy fetish has gotten out of hand, I swear.”

Dean scoffed. “I do not have a fetish.”

“What about Houghtaling?”

“What?” 

“As in John Joseph Houghtaling, the inventor of the magic fingers. I know you’re quite fond of those.”

Dean grinned, thinking about the magic fingers in crappy roadside motel rooms. “Yeah, but that sounds too fake. I mean, John Joseph, no way that’s a real name, babe.”

“Isn’t the point of this is to find a fake name for me?”

“Touché,” replied Dean, picking up one of the random cards in the box. He examined it curiously. “Dude, why is there a boating license in here? When have any of us ever been on a boat?”

Cas reached out, taking the card from Dean. The name on it was Dean Del Mar. “I’m not sure, but it’s for you. I see you picked the name from Ennis Del Mar. Again with the cowboys.”

“Shut up,” replied Dean, trying to deflect from his obvious obsession with cowboys. It wasn’t his fault they were hot. 

The two sat in silence, brainstorming names for Cas, for several minutes. Dean sat with his chin in his hand, fiddling with his lower lip as he tried to concentrate. But he kept coming up blank. 

“What about just Novak?” He inquired. 

Castiel shook his head, letting out a deep sigh. “No, it doesn’t feel right. Besides, I don’t think Jack would like that very much. He’d be jealous that I went with the last name that his sister has and not him.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

After several more minutes of thinking in silence, Cas’ face lit up. “I got it. The perfect name.”

Dean sat up straighter and leaned forward, excitedly to hear the name Cas picked. 

“Dombrowski,” Cas declared proudly. 

Dean stared at him, baffled by the name. “I don’t get it.”

Cas narrowed his eyes at Dean. “What’s there to get. I like the name. I think it suits me well.”

“How?! You said you wanted a name that reflected you. How is Dombroski a name that reflects who you are?”

The angel arched a brow, unamused. “It’s DomBROWski not DomBROski, Dean. And I don’t have to have a reason. I like it. Castiel Dombrowski. It’s a good name, fitting.”

Dean looked defeated as he leaned back in his chair exhaling deeply. “Whatever you say, babe. Just write it down so I can go get what you need made up. What about a middle name?”

“Clarence is fine. Thank you for letting me pick what I wanted.” Cas wrote down the name on a piece of paper and handed it to Dean. 

Dean took the paper, shaking his head at his boyfriend. “Dude, Castiel Clarence Dombrowski is weird, but hey, it’s what you want. Still better than my middle name though.” 

Chapter Text

7:00 am 

Castiel laid on his back, Dean’s head resting on his chest. He watched as the man’s soul swirled around and throughout his body. It was beautiful. He smiled as he remembered seeing it for the first time, falling in love with the righteous man even as that very soul was bound in Hell. He felt his own grace connected with Dean’s soul, surging through him. The feeling was bliss. 

Dean stirred, moving slightly, adjusting. “Morning,” he said in a groggy voice. 

“Morning, honeybee. You sleep good?” 

“Yeah, had a weird dream that Jack had a beard,” replied Dean. His voice was husky, deep with sleep. 

“That is weird.”

“Wanna make us coffee?” 

“If you get off me I can.”

Dean rolled over onto his back, eyes still closed. “What time you headed into the shop?”

“In an hour. Kaia doesn’t come in until ten today.”

Castiel disappeared and reappeared ten minutes later, two cups of coffee in hand. He handed Dean his, and sat on the bed next to him. Dean drank his coffee while absent mindedly tracing the handprint on Cas’ arm. They sat together in silence, enjoying the moment today. Life was peaceful. 

8:38 am 

The shop had only been open for the day for less than an hour and already Cas had three customers, a lot more than usual at this time. All of them came in wanting boutiques, full of color and aromatic. The people of Lebanon were happy to have a florist in town, there had never been one before. The shop drew in people from all over the state, though. His ability to grow plants and flowers all year long, and from all over the world was fascinating to them. They had no idea that he was able to perform such amazing gardening through angelic powers. 

Cas was in the back of the shop, organizing decorative planters when the bell above the door jingled. “I’ll be right with you,” he called out. 

He went to the front of the store to find a young woman browsing the many flowers in the shop. He smiled at her as he approached. 

“This is better than the reviews said it was,” she stated. 

“Oh, thank you. Anything I can help you with?”

“I’m hoping you can. I keep hearing that you have rare flowers, and was hoping that you had fire lilies.”

“Lilian bulbiferum, yes we do have those. Though, sadly we do not have them in the store. I do have them in my personal greenhouse at home.”

The woman looked esatic. “Is there any way I can purchase some from you? I’ve been looking for them for a while now. Been dying to get my hands on them.”

Cas smiled at her warmly. “Of course. I’ll give my daughter-n-law a call, she also works here but won’t be in for a few hours. I can have her stop by the house and pick them up. You can pick them up anytime after ten today.”

9:13 am 

The sound of Queen blasting from outside told Cas that Dean had just pulled up to the shop. He sighed, preparing for the usual interaction they had every morning at the shop. Though, if Castiel was being honest with himself he did love it. 

The bell above the door jingled as Dean strutted in. A smile spread across his face as he made a b-line for Castiel. “Hey, I was wondering if you could help me with something?” 

Cas rolled his eyes. “What do you need help with?” 

“I was thinking of getting my husband some flowers, but I don’t really know what to get. I need something that reminds me of him.”

“What’s he like?” Asked Cas, repeating the same thing he said the day before and will probably say everyday.

Dean smiled. “Well, he’s an angel, literally. He’s got these gorgeous blue eyes, messy dark hair. He a dick, like a complete dick but also the sweetest and hottest guy I’ve ever met. He got me out of Hell, and he fell from Heaven for me. What flower is that?”

“Well, I’m sure his favorite flower would do just fine. And I suspect that his favorite would be sunflowers because they not only remind him of you, but your kids as well.”

“That’d be perfect then. I’ll take one sunflower and just put it on my tab.”

Cas shook his head as he went over to where he kept a small gathering of dwarf sunflowers and got one for Dean. He went back to his husband and handed it to him. Dean took it, smiling before handing it back to him. 

“Here ya go, sunshine.”

“Thank you, honeybee,” replied Cas. “Must we do this everyday. I’ve been giving you the same sunflower for weeks now.” 

Dean shrugged, putting his hands in his jacket pockets. “We don’t have to but where’s the fun in that?”

“You headed to the garage?” Asked Cas as he put the flower back in its vase. 

“Yeah, Claire is probably already there. She’s been coming in early lately, working on that Chevelle she got.”

Cas went over to Dean and kissed him. “Better get going then. Want me to bring you two lunch?”

“Nah, we got it. Love you.”

10:25 am 

Kaia sat at the front desk, looking over the schedule for the next week. They had a lot of orders, one of which was for a large wedding coming up. She got to work figuring out what needed to be done today when Cas came into the front of the shop.

“Hey Cas,” she said to him. 

“Good morning, Kaia.”

“Hey, so the Donovans wanted blue and white boutiques for their anniversary party but left it up to us to decide what flowers they should be. They are going to be picking them up later today and I completely forgot about it. The only request they had was to include leather leaf but we don’t have that.”

Cas frowned, before snapping his fingers. “Yes, we do. Include Lisasntus, Forget-Me-Nots, Himalayan blue poppy, and Heliotrope in it.”

Kaia smiled, never ceased to be amazed at Castiel. “Thanks. They’re going to love these.”

11:14 am 

“ Hey Cas! If you can get here, come for lunch,” a familiar voice boomed in Castiel’s head. He smiled at her voice and looked forward to meeting her. 

“Kaia, I’m going to head out for lunch. You okay by yourself?” 

Kaia was on the floor, gathering the needed flowers for an order. “Uh, yeah. I should be fine. You going to the garage for lunch with Dean?” 

“No, a friend prayed, she wants to meet up.”

Kaia looked up, smirking at him. “And by friend do you mean a certain demon?” She teased. 

“No, not Meg. Though, I really should give her a call,” replied Castiel before he suddenly vanished without another word. 

When he reappeared, he was in the middle of a restaurant he was unfamiliar with. He looked around before spotting her. Her face lit up when she saw him, and waved him over. 

“Hey! It’s been a while,” she said, excitedly. She smiled brightly at him with joy. “You eating today or no?”

“Hello, Danneel. I’ll eat, yes. What does this place have?”

Danneel looked at him like he grew a second head. “Cas, it’s Taco Bell.”

He looked around and noticed multiple signs stating just that. “Oh, I’ve always wanted to go here. Shame they took potatoes off the menu. Always wanted to try a potato griller.”

“They brought them back,” she assured him before her eyes went wide. “Wait, your world is ahead of ours. Do they take them away again?”

Cas furrowed his brow. “I’m not sure. We don’t have one near us and I try not to let Dean go to many fast food establishments. How do we order in this place? I don’t see a menu.”

“Come on, we go up to the counter.”

Several minutes later they were back at the table with their food. Cas wished he could properly taste food, so that he could fully enjoy the griller. But still, it was great. He enjoyed when he got to come to this world to visit with Danneel, even if it was particularly odd doing so. She had first showed up in his world the year prior, overly excited to meet him. Since then, she had returned to her own universe and prayed to him to get him to come visit her. Which he did, crossing over into her world to spend time with her. 

“So, how’s Dean?” She asked. 

“He’s doing good. Opened the garage finally, a few months back. The house is almost finished, too.”

Her eyes lit up. “Ooh, I’ll have to come see it when it’s finished. I miss you guys.”

“I must warn you, once again, that while I am able to go between worlds, you shouldn’t. It’s not safe.”

“It’s fine. I did it once. I should bring Misha with me next time.”

He raised a brow at her. “Misha? I would enjoy meeting him. I read his book. He’s quite the poet.”

“Oh, you read the book? How?” 

“I can here a while back, after you told me about it. Don’t, what did you call it? Right, don’t French Mistake yourself.”

She playfully rolled her eyes at him. “Fine. Oh, I got you something!” She reached under the table, and picked up a gift bag. “I got you and Dean somethings. There’s a cd in there, it's Jensen’s band, Radio Company. He wrote a song about Cas, it’s on volume 2. It’s called Watching Over Me. I think you’d love it.”

He took the bag and peered inside. There was the cd and several shirts as well. “Thank you. I didn’t get you anything,” he replied, looking down sadly. 

She waved him off. “Don’t worry, Cas. Just you coming to hang out with me for a bit is enough. There’s also shirts of Radio Company and the brewery in there for you and Dean. Wait, that’s not going to case your world to explode or anything?” 

Cas shook his head, chuckling. “No, I don’t think it will.”

They spent the rest of lunch catching up, showing each other photos of their families and what everyone was getting up to. He loved these visits with her, even if it was all very confusing. 

12:49 pm 

Castiel had returned to his world and the shop to find Dean and Claire inside. The normally calm, and quiet floral shop was loud and chaotic. Claire was sitting on the front desk, talking to her wife while Dean was touching every flower for some reason.  

“What are you doing?” Cas asked, tiredly. 

Dean looked up. “Oh, hey. You’re finally back. What’s in the bag?”

“Something for us.” Cas handed the bag to him. “I had lunch with Danneel. What are you two doing here?”

Dean peeked into the bag. “We were also having lunch, decided to spend it with you and Kaia. But you weren’t here. We were thinking of closing shop early today, head back to the bunker and have a Dr. Sexy marathon. Wanna come?”

“I can’t believe that show is still running.”

“What? Soap Opera’s never end, dude.”

“I can’t, Dean. We still have orders to fill. But you and Claire go on ahead, I suppose.”

Kaia, having heard the conversation, spoke up. “I can stay behind, if you want. Go hang out, Cas. You deserve the break.”

“You sure?”

She nodded and smiled at him. “Yeah, besides it’s only a few more orders and we got everything. I’ll be fine.”

Dean clapped his hands together. “Great! It’s settled then, let’s go.”

1:32 pm 

“I am four hundred million years old. I have led armies into battle, marched into Hell and back. I have seen civilizations rise and fall, oceans form and mountains crumble to dust. I am a force not to be messed with.” Castiel let his eyes glow, showing his grace and power. 

Dean just rolled his eyes. “Come on, babe. It’s just Mario Kart.”

Castiel let his grace fade back into his body, defeated. “You won’t let me win, Dean. You keep throwing turtle shells at me.”

Claire burst out laughing. “Dad, you’re supposed to. You never use any of your items.”

“I’m not going to let win, sunshine,” added Dean, still laughing. “Also don’t pull that ‘I’m old as shit and used to be a soldier’ crap. You’re not scary, Cas.”

“You’re really not,” added Jack. “You cried watching Shrek.”

“And Cars 2,” said Dean. 

“Don’t forget the time he cried watching videos of baby cows,” stated Claire. 

Cas looked at his family with defeat. “Fine, but still. I should be given a fair chance.”

2:26 pm 

“ Hey, uh, Cas? Mind handing me my phone?”  Dean asked in prayer. 

Cas, eyes still glued to the episode of Dr. Sexy they were watching, picked up Dean’s phone and handed it to him

“ No, do the floaty thing. It’s cool.”

Cas rolled his eyes, but did it anyway. With a wave of his hand, he made Dean’s phone float in the air and into his hand. Dean thanked him with a kiss on the cheek and went back to watching their show. He didn’t understand why Dean insisted on him using his powers for meaningless tasks, but then again, he did the same.  But not around Jack, who they were trying to teach to not rely on his powers. 

Jack and Claire were on one couch, while Dean and Castiel were seated on the other one in the tv room. Having grown tired of Mario Kart for the time being, they settled in to marathon the show like originally planned. Cas wasn’t as big of a fan as Dean was, but he still enjoyed it. Though, the new plot of Dr. Sexy being kidnapped by a deranged patient was intriguing. 

“Why hasn’t the police traced his phone?” He asked, whispering to Dean. 

“Cause they can’t. That’s the phone he had only to contact Linda, the woman he was having an affair with. She died two seasons ago and he only keeps it on him to hear her voicemail. It’s tragic.”

Cas nodded slowly. “Ah.”

3:56 pm 

On top of the roof of the bunker, Cas wandered around his greenhouse. Making sure everything that grew there was happy and healthy. The most important part was his bees. If they were not content then they would not produce enough honey. His honey was rated some of the best in the area, and was a staple at every local farmers market for the past two years. 

The bee’s buzzed around their hive, happily. Castiel watched as they went about their work, pollinating around the greenhouse. It was peaceful watching them, while listening to the sound of their gentle buzzing. He took time to speak to a few of them, making sure all their needs were met. 

4:27 pm 

Cas was walking towards the war room when he came across Eileen and Dean standing around the corner from the entrance, giggling to themselves. He cocked his head to the side, curious as to what they were up to. 

“What are you doing?” He asked. 

Dean spun around, shushing him, causing Eileen to do the same. “Shh. Sam’s in there and he doesn’t know that Michael is in there with him. He’s invisible. We are going to make him think the bunker is haunted.”

Cas let out a sigh. “This is asinine. There’s no reason Sam would believe the bunker is haunted. It’s extremely warded.”

“Yeah, but we told him that we accidentally erased some of the warding when fixing the cable and haven’t redone it yet,” said Eileen. 

Cas just shook his head, and continued walking past them. He reached a wing out and smacked head across the head as he did, laughing to himself. 

“Hey! Not funny, dude.”

“Yes, it is, Dean.”

5:46 pm 

Dean was in the kitchen with him, preparing dinner. They had to make more than they had originally planned since they had guests over. Kaia came after she closed up with the shop for the day, and Claire was still here. And due to the failed plan of scaring Sam, Michael and Adam were also in the bunker. Dean put the chicken in the oven, having just prepared it. He closed the door and went to check on Cas. 

“How’s those coming along?” He asked. 

“I think they are ready, Dean,” replied Cas as he checked the potatoes were mashed enough. 

“I’ll take that.” Dean picked up the pot and placed it on the stove. 

This was one of Castiel’s favorite times of day. Just him and Dean cooking together. It was something that came so effortlessly to Dean. Cas loved watching him in the kitchen, it was almost meditative to Dean. He was beautiful to watch, lost in thought as he went about the room making every dish he ever dreamed of. It was peaceful and reminded Cas exactly why he loved him so dearly. 

6:58 pm 

“So, why can’t you just get another vessel for it? I mean it would only be for a few hours?” Sam asked. 

Michael sighed. “Because that would be weird. We want to experience it together but also want to be in control for it.”

Dean shoved a fork full in his mouth. “It’s just a rollercoaster, I don’t get why you can’t just go like you normally are.”

Jack, who hadn’t been paying much attention up until this point as he ate his dinner, looked up. “I could always just give you your own body. I can make it look just like Uncle Adam, too.”

“No,” Cas stated firmly. “That would count as interfering. And it’s misusing your powers. They can figure this out for themselves.”

Jack looked down, sadly. “Never let me use my powers.”

“Yes, we do. But you said you didn’t want to interfere as God, so I’m not only to let you. You’ve already created two new religions, and let Gabriel use the president as a vessel in order to make your birthday a national holiday.”

Claire burst out laughing. “Hey, that’s not something to complain about. We all get the day off then.”

“We work for ourselves. You’d get the day off anyways.”

8:42 pm 

Dean and Cas had settled into the tv room after everyone over had left. Jack had retired to his room, while Sam and Eileen were in the library. They sat in the dark, the only light coming from the tv as they continued their Dr. Sexy marathon. Dean snuggled up against Cas, as he explained what was happening, knowing that Cas had missed some episodes. 

He listened to Dean talk, in hushed tones, feeling the vibration of his voice on his chest. If he could sleep, he would want to be lured asleep by the sound. It was beautiful. He rubbed Dean’s side carelessly, watching the show play out on the screen. Thankful that he got to experience this moment, and every one he ever had with Dean. 

Sometimes Castiel would think back to the twelve years prior to his last death. All the longing he had for Dean and the doubt he had that he would ever get to call Dean his. And now he was here, married to Dean watching bad television shows with him and it was the best life he could ever hope for. 

11:24 pm 

Dean yawned as he climbed into bed, waiting for Cas to get in as well. Cas snapped his fingers turning off the light as he did so. 

“You listen to the cds Danneel gave us? The one song she told me about?”

“Yeah. It’s my new favorite song, babe,” replied Dean, sleepily. 

“Mine too.”

“Oh, tomorrow Charlie is coming over. There’s a renaissance fair coming up, she wants to help us design our outfits.”

“I thought you two wanted to go as the Doctor and Donna Nobel? Again.”

“We wanna change things up this time. Besides, that involved a lot fo running and I don’t think my knees can handle it.”

“Could always go as our D&D characters,” suggested Cas. 

Dean gasped. “I didn’t think of that! She’s going to love that ideal, babe.”

“You should get to sleep, honeybee,” said Cas as Dean settled into his arms. 

Dean yawned. “Yeah, probably. Night. Love you.”

“Love you, too, beautiful,” replied Cas. He gently kissed the top of Dean’s head, letting his grace flow into Dean, soothing him to sleep. 

Chapter Text

Claire took a look at her watch. It was past noon and she decided to take her lunch break. She began to head out of the garage, throwing her jacket on quickly as she did. Two men walked into the garage. As she was leaving, she glanced them, noticing it was her dad and uncle. 

“Hey, dad,” she said, not wanting to stop and talk. She frowned and paused though, she could have sworn she saw her dad recently in the back of the shop. 

“Dad?” the man asked, sounded offended and shocked at the name. 

“Okay, not dad,” she replied, confused. She turned towards the back of the garage and yelled out, “Dad!!”

“What?” Dean yelled out in the garage's distance. 

“There’s a guy here with your face!”

“What do you mean, a guy with my face?”

Claire turned to face the other Dean. He looked like her dad, but he was more put together, like he took more time in the morning with his skin and hair, which was shorter. His clothes were cleaner and looked as if they were bought at high-end stores and not thrift stores. He looked at her with a bewildered look on his face.  

“I don’t know. He’s got your face. There’s a guy with Sam’s face, too.”

From within the shop, Dean yelled back. “They look kinda fruity?”

The other Dean scoffed. 

Claire gave them a once over yet again. “I mean, yeah. But that doesn’t say much. You’re kinda fruity too.”

“No I mean,” replied Dean. He paused for a moment before continuing. “Kinda fruity.”

“You did the hand thing, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, forgot you can’t see me. Yeah, I know them. Hold on.”

Claire turned back to face the other Sam and Dean. She gave a half smile and said, “He’s going to be right here. This is weird.”

“Fruity?” asked the other Dean. “I am not fruity, okay?”

“Really, cause you look kinda fruity to me. Besides, we are all.”

“And what do you mean by ‘dad’?”

Claire sighed. “This is weird. I’m just gonna head out to find Kaia.”

With that, Claire left and Dean emerged from the back of the shop. He was wiping his hands on a rag, his hair hung in his face. He looked defeated and utterly exhausted at the sight of his otherworldly counterpart and the other Sam. 

“What are you guys doing here?” He asked, tiredly.  

The other Dean smiled gleefully. “We were in the area and wanted to come see you guys again. Wanted to know if you wanted to team up on the case we are working. Saw the sign out front and it said Winchester’s Auto and figured it would be you guys.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it’s me. Well, me and Claire. I thought I told you two to not come back here. What happened to Rio?”

The other Sam rolled his eyes as well. “We were there for a few years before we headed back to the states. Figured we’d been gone long enough that you wouldn’t mind us popping in for a visit. Especially if it involved a case.”

“Yeah, no. Still doesn’t mean you should come back. And I don’t hunt anymore, well, mostly.”

The other Sam cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean, you don’t hunt anymore?”

“Yeah, and what happened to you? You really let yourself go,” stated the other Dean.  

“I did not let myself go. I just got old.”

“Didn’t stop me from keeping up appearances,” replied the other Dean confidently. 

“Whatever,” replied Dean, sighing. “I’m gonna get you two zapped out of here. Come on.”

“Zapped?” questioned the other Sam. 

Dean headed out of the garage and onto the street, closing the large garage door behind them. He lead them down the street to the florist shop, ignoring the other’s persistent questioning and bickering. Finally, when they were in front of the shop, he turned around to face them. 

“Okay, here’s the deal. I’m going to have Cas zap you two to wherever you want as long as it’s not here. You are to not show up here again, got it?”

The other Sam opened his mouth to speak, but the other Dean stopped him. His eyes were wide. “Cas?”

“Yeah, Cas. Ya know, Castiel. Come on,” replied Dean as he went to open the door. 

The other Dean pushed Sam aside, getting closer to Dean as they stepped into the shop. “Wait, you don’t mean Castiel Castiel? That angel that saved us from hell? What was that twenty years ago?”

“Twenty-two years ago, and yeah, the same one. Now, let’s go.”

“But he just disappeared. I never saw him again after the first few times that we met. He’s still here for you?”

Dean stopped, turning to face the other Dean. He had forgotten what Chuck had told them years ago, that his Cas was the only one who didn’t obey. “Yeah, he stuck around. That woman you met before, that’s Claire. She’s Cas’ vessel’s daughter, and well, our daughter.”

“Our daughter?” Repeated the other Dean, raising a brow. 

“Yeah, Cas and I have a daughter and son, Jack. We’re married. This is his shop.”

The other Dean looked around the shop, admiring the flowers that Cas had put on display. He smiled softly to himself. “I’m so happy for you, Dean.”

“Whatever, let’s go.” Dean led them to the front desk of the shop, to where Kaia was sitting. “Hey, Cas here?”

“What’s going on?” She asked, confused. Her eyes darted between Dean and the other two. 

“It’s a long story.”

“Uh, sure. I’m gonna go get him.”

She left her post at the desk and went into the back area. Moments later she came back out, Castiel following behind her. The three men, Dean and the ones of the other world, stood waiting for him. Cas froze in place when he saw them, growing instantly tired looking.  

“Dean, what’s going on?” He asked. 

Dean shook his head. “I don’t know, man. They just showed up. Need you to use your angel mojo and get them someplace else. Preferably someplace far away from here.”

The other Dean walked towards Cas, captivated by the angel. “Castiel?” He asked softly. 

“Yes?”

The other Dean smiled at him. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

Cas looked to his Dean and back at the other. He let out a long sigh. “I’m not the Castiel that rescued you from hell. I don’t know what became of him, but that isn’t me.”

“No, I know that. It’s just… I never got a chance to thank him. So, thank you. I know you’re not him, but…” his words trailed off, unsure of how to finish his sentence. 

Castiel’s face softened. He hated to think of what his Dean would have become without him. “I understand. I’m sorry he didn’t stick around, Dean. But I’m sure you’ve done just fine without him.”

The other Dean snorted softly to himself before turning back to Dean. “You two are really married?”

Dean smiled and nodded. “Yeah, we are. What about you? Did you leave someone in the other world? Or find someone here?”

The other Dean nodded sadly. “Yeah. We weren’t married, but we had a good thing going. Even though about settling down. But once a hunter, always a hunter. At least, that’s what dad always said.”

The other Sam chuckled. “He never could settle down, didn’t expect his sons to do the same.”

“Who’d you end up with?” Dean questioned, now curious about the life his other world twin had lived. 

“His name is Benny. We met in-”

“Purgatory,” Dean said, finishing the other’s sentence. 

The other Dean beamed. “Yes, Purgatory. Did you two ever have a thing together?”

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago. He’s no longer here in this world.”

“Alright, if we are going to do this, let’s do this,” stated Cas, stepping forward. He reached out his hands to teleport them some place else. 

Dean stepped towards Cas, holding his hand out to stop him. “Wait, Cas. This isn’t right.”

“What?”

“They deserve to go home, babe.”

“What?” the other Dean asked, confused. 

Dean looked at him sadly. “Look, I you two weird me out. I’m not going to lie. But I know what it’s like to live in a world without Cas. I know what it feels like for you. The feeling that you lost someone you love, and that you feel like you can’t bring them back. Our son, Jack, he’s… he’s God. If anyone can open a portal to your world, it’s him. You deserve to be back with Benny.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah. And what about you, Sam? You missing anyone?”

The other Sam smiled sadly at Dean. “Jess.”

Dean’s face fell at the name. He turned to face Cas once more. “Oh yeah, we got to get them home. Call Jack and tell him to fly his ass here now.”

While they waited for Jack, Dean told them all about their lives. Castiel’s confessions and the seven years spent searching for a way to bring him back from the empty. He told them of Eileen and what had happened to Sam’s first love, Jessica. Of the ends of the world, and the peace he had found since Castiel had returned. Finally, after a short time had passed, Jack appeared, and they had to explain to him the situation.  

Jack frowned, his brow forward as he concentrated. “I don’t know if I’m able to do this more than once. Opening a portal to another world, and in the past, in that world, isn’t going to be easy. It would be better if we had Rowena here to help, but she isn’t able to come help right now. So we’ll only have a few moments to do this.”

“You got this, Jack. They deserve to go back,” stated Dean. He turned to the others. “You two ready?”

The other Sam nodded confidently. “Yes. It’s been too long.”

The other Dean stayed silent for a moment before he looked up at Dean. “Are you happy, Dean?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Good. You deserve to be happy. We both do. We haven’t had an easy life.”

Dean couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. “Really? You? Come on, man. You have your own planes and Hunter Corps. How hard can it be?”

“I still went to Hell, Purgatory. Dealt with the end of the world, being forced to be some angel’s vessel, which I refused. I did all of that, Dean. We aren’t so different, you know.”

Dean just looked at his otherworldly twin. “I know,” he replied, softly. 

“Come on, let’s get this over with,” replied the other Dean, smiling. He turned around to face Jack. 

Jack looked to his dads for approval and then closed his eyes, concentrating. When he opened them again, they were golden and glowing. He raised a hand in the air and brought it down slowly. A crack opened up in the air, it hissed as it opened up ever so slightly. 

“Okay, you have to hurry. I don’t know how long I can sustain the portal,” declared Jack.  

“Alright, this is goodbye,” said Dean. 

The other Sam gave a half smile and stepped forward towards the portal. “Tell Sam I said goodbye.”

“I will.”

With that, the other Sam stepped into the portal, disappearing. The other Dean went towards the crack. He stopped just before he stepped into it and turned to face Dean once again. 

“You have a good life, Dean. You more than anybody deserves that. I’m so happy to see how it turned out for you.”

“I will. I already do. It’s better than anything I could’ve ever dreamed of. Now, you get gone. Go find Benny, man.”

The other Dean smiled widely, his eyes lighting up at the thought of Benny. “I will. And I think it’s time I quit hunting, too. Settle down for once.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan, man.”

“Well, I guess this is it.”

“Yeah.”

“Bye,” said the other Dean. He turned back to the portal and stepped forward into the crack. It hissed and fizzled out, closing around him as he disappeared. Jack’s eyes stopped glowing as he lowered his hand. Dean and Cas just looked at each other, unsure of what to say next. 

“What the fuck was that?” Michael and Adam asked together from behind them. They hadn’t seen them land in the shop and were unaware that the two of them had witnessed. 

Dean let out a groan. “Yeah, not dealing with this right now.”

“No, seriously. What the fuck?” They asked once again. “Why was there a gayer version of you here, and what was that portal?”

Dean shook his head, annoyed. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I got to get back to the garage and forget this whole day happened.”

Chapter Text

Claire stepped into the dining room, where Dean was seated at the table on his laptop. She rubbed the back of her neck nervously, unsure of how to start the conversation.  

“Hey, dad?” She asked. 

Dean looked up. “What’s up?”

“I… I need to talk you and dad.”

Dean raised a brow at her, as a faint mischievous smile danced across his face. “Cas! It’s happening! Family meeting now!”

Claire’s face dropped, knowing full well what was coming for her. Castiel appeared in the room and sat down. Claire followed, sitting across from her dads. They smiled at each other. They loved playing this game with her and Kaia. Dean reached across and took her hand. He tried to make his expression serious, but his lips kept curling up into a smile.  

“Claire, we’ve known for a while now. And we just want you to know that it’s okay, and that we love and support you,” declared Dean. He let go of her hand and took Cas’ in his own. He looked at his husband lovingly before turning his gaze to her. “This might come as a shock to you, but your dad and I are also gay.”

Claire rolled her eyes and let out a long sigh. “Do you have to do this every time I have something important to tell you?”

“Yes. Yes, we do,” stated Cas. 

Rolling her eyes once again, Claire replied, “Fine. Yeah, I’m gay. Happy?”

Dean grinned at her. “Yeah, I am. Now what is it that you wanted to tell us?”

Claire took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Kaia and me have been talking for a while now, and we feel like this is something we want to do. It’s what’s right-”

Cas cut her off mid-sentence. “I’m too young to be a grandfather.”

Dean and Claire both narrowed their eyes and looked at him, baffled. 

“Dad, you’re like four hundred million years old.”

“Yeah, well, that’s still young.”

“Not really, dude,” said Dean, chuckling. “You’re really old. Like really old.”

“You still look older than him,” stated Claire. She let out a huff of air through her nose, laughing. 

Dean whipped his head towards her, glaring at her. “Fine. Come on, spit it out.”

“Kaia and I are thinking of having kids.”

The three sat in silence for a moment that lingered on longer than it should have. No one knew what to say. This was a big decision for Claire and Kaia to make. But Dean and Castiel knew that it did not come on a whim. 

“And I hate the car you gave me for my birthday,” she added, quickly.  

Dean’s mouth hung open. “How could you hate the car? Claire? It’s a 66’ Charger? She’s beautiful. I fixed her up just for you.”

“I know, dad. But I prefer the Chevelle that I already have. Don’t know why you fixed the Charger up for me.”

“Give it to Kaia then.”

“She wants my truck, actually. I was thinking of getting a new one, and said she could have the one I have now,” clarified Castiel.  

Dean looked at his husband, offended. “Great. So no one wants any of the cars I get for them. I can see how appreciated I am. But back to this kid stuff. Claire, you sure?”

She nodded at him. “Yeah, we are. We’ve been talking about it for a while now, and it’s right for us.”

“What about hunting?” Questioned Cas, concerned. 

“It won’t happen overnight. We still aren’t sure what route we want to take and in the meantime we can continue hunting.”

“Don’t raise a kid in this life, Claire,” said Dean. His voice dropping to a more serious tone. “It’s not a good way to grow up. I know how much you two love hunting.” 

“I love working in the garage with you more, dad. And Kaia really loves being a florist. We don’t have to stop just yet, but when the time comes, we are ready to quit. It’s time.”

Dean and Cas looked at each other, smiling widely. When they looked back at Claire, they both looked as though they were going to cry. Dean was happy. It wasn’t a joke or a lie earlier. He was truly happy in his life, and Claire and Kaia being happy made him even more so. 

“While you two figure out how you want to go about this, why don’t you two go on some cases? Take some time off from work. We’ll be fine.”

Claire’s face lit up. “Really? You sure? You’re okay with this?”

Dean shrugged. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“You need to do what you want, Claire,” added Cas. “If this is what you both want, then do it. We are excited for you both.”

“You guys are awesome.”

“We know,” replied Dean with a smirk. 

“Don’t expect to hear me say that again,” retorted Claire jokingly. “But you guys got to promise me one thing.”

“Anything,” said Cas. 

Dean held up a hand, pausing Cas and Claire from continuing. “Within reason.”

Claire snorted. “You’re such a dad. No, promise me that when the time comes to get this whole having a kid thing on a roll, we will all go out on a hunt together. All of us. One last case for Kaia and me. A big one.”

“All of us?” Inquired Dean, raising an eyebrow at her. 

She smiled, nodding her head. “Yeah. Me, Kaia, Jack, Sammy, Eileen, moms, both of you. All of us. One last hunt for the ages.”

Dean grinned, excited about the hunt that laid in their future. “Can’t wait for it. It’s gonna be awesome.”

Chapter Text

Dean Winchester could proudly say that he led a very normal life. He was a husband, father of two, business owner and classic car enthusiast. But what was normal for him was far beyond the realm of normal or even understanding for anyone else. He was a Winchester, a name known by every hunter. And while he took on cases far and few between these days, settling into his domesticated lifestyle with ease; the life still followed him everywhere he went. 

And right now the thing following him around was an angel. 

After over twenty years of dealing with the divine assholes, Dean knew the tale tell signs of when he was being watched by one of them. It was the uneasy feeling that crept up the back of his neck, and the subtle breeze as one of them ran past him. Rolling his eyes, when the feeling snuck up on him as one of them crept past him. Neither of them were playing fair. 

The Men of Letters bunker was massive, its halls lined with many rooms to hide in with ease. But Jack and Castiel didn’t care to hide in any of them. They found it more amusing to just wander around, invisible from human sight, trailing Dean as he searched for them. It was two against two, humans versus angels. Dean and Claire teamed up again Cas and Jack in a game of hide and seek. Dean had tried to lay down the rules before they began, telling the angels to not use their powers. But he had been unable to finish his sentence when Jack and Claire raced off to find their starting spots. 

Round one was the angels hiding. After counting as high as they could before growing bored, Dean and Claire set off in opposite directions to find the angels. It had been an hour since he saw his husband and son, and was ready to call it quits when he came into the archives. Claire stood at the back wall, her hands behind her back. 

“What you got?” Dean asked her, curiously. 

“You find them yet?” She asked in reply, ignoring his question. 

Dean shook his head. “Tried telling them to not use their damn powers. I swear I can feel them breathing down the back of my neck constantly.”

“They can’t get in here,” she replied, smirking at him. She nodded her head, pointing it in the direction behind Dean. 

Turning around he saw a large sigil on the door, warding to keep angels out. “We’re not the ones hiding, Claire.”

“I know. I’m not done, was just waiting for you to come in.”

She turned her attention to the wall behind her, taking her hands out from behind her back. Dean saw the large cut on her palm as she used her fingers to draw a large sigil once more. This time it was one that summoned all angels in the area, forcing them to not only appear in the room, but appear visible to the human eye. 

Dean raised an eyebrow at her, curious about her plan. He had been ready to call it quits, ending the game, but now he saw that it was possible for them to win this round. 

“You were going to tell them not to use their powers but I doubt you thought about us using our skills,” she stated, proudly.

“I didn’t think about that. When you’re ready want me to scratch the sigil on the door?”

“Yeah. Almost ready,” she replied, putting the final touches on the symbol. “Okay. Now!”

Dean went over to the door, taking out his pocket knife from his back pocket and scratched the dried blood off in an area; breaking the warding. Somewhere off in the bunker, Castiel and Jack felt magic decreasing. But before they could decipher if it had anything to do with the game they were flung through the bunker, transported to the archives. 

Claire had slapped her bloodied hand on the wall, the sigil sparking as it worked. With a loud whooshing and fluttering with wings, Castiel and Jack landed in the room, visible once again. 

“Found you,” declared Claire, triumphantly. 

“That’s not fair, Claire,” retorted Cas. His shoulders slumped as he let out a sigh. 

Dean narrowed his eyes at his husband. “Whoa. Not fair? Really? You two have been invisible this whole time. I think we can use magic to find you.”

“It’s a natural skill, we should be able to use them.”

“Yeah, well magic is a natural skill, too.”

Jack furrowed his brow. “But it’s not. You had to learn it.”

“It’s the principle of it, Jack. No powers so we don’t have to resort to magic.”

“Never let me use my powers,” grumbled Jack, sulking. 

“You don’t know when to use them and when not to,” clarified Dean. “Remember Jack in the box?”

Jack looked down at his feet. “Yeah,” he replied softly. 

“Yeah, you made your straw float in front of a crowd for fun.”

“Don’t forget when he told the cashier that his name was also Jack but he isn’t a fan of boxes cause his dad locked him in a box,” laughed Claire. 

Castiel rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “To be fair, Dean, you were the one who put him there. And you didn’t actually tell us not to use our powers.”

Dean’s mouth hung open. “Really? Cause if I remember correctly I tried to say something and those two took off. Why didn’t you listen into my head, like you always do, and hear what I was going to say?”

“I was respecting your privacy, Dean. And you really can’t blame me for this. Jack can also read minds.”

Dean turned towards his son, who’s face was now red with shame. “And did you?”

“Maybe. But in my defense, it’s more fun this way.”

“He’s got a point, dad,” added Claire, agreeing with her little brother. 

Dean closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Angels.”

Chapter Text

Since the goose that had been tormenting him for the past year had been revealed to be Gabriel, and had then since vanished, Dean felt less at ease. He thought that he would be comforted knowing that the goose menace was no longer lurking in the shadows of the bunker. But instead he felt more uneasy knowing that it had been Gabriel all along and he had since disappeared. 

It had been three weeks since the eel invasion and the reveal of Honkle’s true nature. Dean had spent this time trying to wrap his mind around everything that had happened. There was many aspects of everything that he didn’t understand. Mainly, how did Cas not know? While his husband did explain to him that an archangel's powers are much more intense than a seraph’s, and could easily hide themselves. This still baffled Dean. But then again, this wasn’t just any archangel; this was Gabriel, the trickster. It wouldn’t have been the first time he cheated death using his trickster abilities. 

He pushed the constant nagging in the back of his head on where the angel could have run off to. There was a lot more on his plate today than Gabriel. They had one week left before Jack’s birthday. He and Castiel had to make sure everything was going smoothly, and all the preparations were ready. They were in the middle of going over the guest list once again, when Michael and Adam flew into the room. 

“We got a problem,” declared Michael. 

Dean picked his head up. “What now?” He asked, groaning. He didn’t have time to deal with angel problems. 

“You two need to turn on the new.”

Castiel and Dean exchanged looks before getting up and headed into the tv room. Dean turned the tv one and switched it to the first news channel he could find. What he saw confused him. It was just the president giving a speech, nothing special or out of the ordinary. 

“When did you get so into politics?” He asked, baffled. 

“Oh no,” stated Cas. 

“Oh no? What?”

“This isn’t good.”

“Can someone clue me in on what isn’t good?” Questioned Dean, annoyed. 

“That’s not the president,” replied Michael. 

Dean watched the speech on the television, trying to figure out what the angels could see but he couldn’t. Everything happening on the screen seemed normal. The president was giving a routine speech, but it was the way he smiled that made Dean see it. There was a spark to his eyes, the way his lips turned upward. Things that unless you knew what to look for you’d miss entirely.

“Son of a bitch.”

“Guess we found where Gabriel went,” said Cas. 

“Remember what happened last time one of you dicks using the president as a vessel,” replied Dean. 

“This is different. He’s not Lucifer. This is just a game to him, Dean.”

“Well, go get him!”

Michael shook his head, eyes still glued to the tv. “Can’t. I’ve been trying since this speech started. He has the whole area warded.”

“Well, I don’t know, figure something out before he causes world war three.”

“He hasn’t done anything yet. He seems to be following a script and keeping to it. I don’t know if he’s just doing this for fun or what.”

The three went silent and watched the television. Dean tried to figure out Gabriel’s endgame in the situation. It would’ve been simpler if Gabe was changing stuff and causing chaos, but he wasn’t. 

“One last thing before I leave you,” stated Gabriel in the presidents body. “Next week on the eighteenth of May it will be the first in a new national holiday. May eighteenth will from then on be known as Jack Day.”

“What?” Dean yelled. 

Castiel shut the tv off and turned to face his husband and brother. “Where’s Jack?” He barked. 

It was then that Jack appeared in the room, his face bright with joy. “Did he do it?”

Not liking the sound of that, Dean spun his head towards his son. “Did who do what?” He asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. 

“Uncle Gabe asked what I wanted for my birthday and I said to make my birthday a holiday. He said he was going to make it happen.”

“Dammit, Jack,” groaned Dean. He rubbed the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “Why did you want it to be a holiday?”

“Well, if it’s a holiday then we don’t have to work or go to school,” replied Jack with a smile. 

“First of all, you don’t go to school. Secondly, you also don’t work. And the whole God business, yeah no, you’re hands off. Mostly. Besides, Jack, we all work for ourselves. We can just take the day off anytime.”

Jack nodded his head slowly. “Okay, but now other people get to as well,” he said happily.  

Before anyone else could get another word in, Gabriel appeared in the room. A wide grin was spread across his face as he held his arms out triumphantly. “What you think? Happy early birthday, kiddo.” 

“Thank you!” Replied Jack with glee. 

Castiel let out an exasperated sigh. “Really? Did you even think before using the president as a vessel to make Jack’s birthday a holiday?”

“Hey, don’t be mad, little bro. The kid asked nicely, what was I supposed to say?”

“You say no!”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Dean shook his head, throwing his hands in the air. “No more holidays! No more accidentally making religions. And no more geese!”

Chapter Text

While Dean had grown into his domestic life, it was far from mundane. Being married to an angel and being the father of God assured this. But there were moments in his life where it felt like everything was completely normal. As though he hadn’t spent most of his life hunting, that he hadn’t begun and stopped the end of the world multiple times. Right now was one of those times. Jack was off in Heaven and would be home later on while Cas was outside in the garden. Dean was busy inside, finishing up the list of things that needed to be done around the house. It was the mundane domestic life he never thought he could have, but settled right into once he finally had the freedom and chance to experience it. 

Currently, Dean was unloading the washing machine to put the laundry into the dryer. His bare feet were cold on the tile floor as he moved quickly, hating the feeling of wet clothing. He could hear his music playing upstairs where he had been cleaning the kitchen. It was calm. But the calm only lasted a few more moments until he heard the front door slamming shut and running throughout the first floor just above him. 

“Dad!!! Other dad!!!!” Claire screamed. 

“Dean!! Cas!!” Kaia yelled after her. 

Dean rolled his eyes, shoving the clothes into the dryer, and started it up. He made his way upstairs, his knees creaking in pain with each bend as he climbed the stairs.  

“Getting too old for this shit,” he said to himself. 

He found Claire and Kaia in the hall as he stepped onto the first floor. They stared at him with wide eyes and grins. 

“What’s going on? Why the screaming and running?”

“It’s time!” Claire declared. 

Dean shook his head, confused. “Time? Time for what?”

Kaia looked at her wife and took her head before turning back to face Dean. “We’re gonna have a baby!”

Dean’s face dropped at first before a smile spread across his face. He ran to the girls, forgetting the list of chores that needed to be done. “Already?! Are you sure? Have you had enough time? What about hunting?”

Claire laughed softly. “Dad, it’s been months since I told you. We got it out of our systems. It’s time. We’re ready for this.”

“And we found it,” added Kaia. “We found our last case.”

“Great! Hold on, let me get your dad,” replied Dean. He prayed to Cas in his head, telling him the girls had news for him. 

Castiel appeared next to Dean. He looked down at his dirt covered hands, cleaning them off with just a thought. “What’s the news?”

_____________

Two days later everyone gathered in the war room of the bunker while Claire and Kaia went over the case they found one more time. 

“A classic hunt,” started Claire. 

“Vampires. Lots of them,” Kaia stated, finishing what Claire begun to say. 

“In the most stereotypical setting,” added Claire. 

“An abandoned warehouse,” said Kaia. 

Sam raised his hand slightly, letting the girls know he wanted to speak. “Okay, so how many vamps we talking?”

Claire shrugged her shoulders. “Dunno. But what we do know is that there’s been talk within monster circles. Garth gave us the heads up on this one. There’s a large gathering of vamps, dangerous ones. And it’s happening this weekend.”

“More like tomorrow night,” remarked Kaia. 

“Is this going to have a soundtrack? The last time we went on a hunt this big with vampires, Dean turned it into a musical,” asked Charlie. She looked over at Dean and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ at him. 

Dean shook his head. “Hey, that was awesome, okay? But will it? Cause I got a lot of ideas for songs we can use.”

“No!” Kaia and Claire responded at the same time. 

Claire rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Look, no music, dad. That was fun, but this is not the time. Though if you want to wear headphones, I guess that’s fine. But I want to hear the sounds happening around me. This is my last hunt, and I want to experience it fully.”

Clapping her hands together, Kaia looked at everyone in the room. “So, what do you say?”

Everyone looked at one another. The excitement and anticipation of the hunt filled the air. It would be the last time they hunted together as a family; all of them. Dean, Cas, Sam, Eileen, Jack, Charlie, Michael, Adam, Jody and Donna. Everyone. The Winchesters. 

Dean smiled, excited about what would be the greatest hunt he’s ever been on. “Let’s fucking do this.”

_______________

Castiel’s angel blade cut clean through a vampire that had charged him. It screamed out in agony as his hand came down on the top of its head. As it dropped to the ground, he immediately went towards the next. Across the large warehouse, Dean was back to back with Charlie, laughing together as they each took down a vamp. Castiel smiled, watching his husband. They didn’t hunt often these days. He had missed the look on Dean’s face when he was victorious. 

Donna and Jody, always keeping a watchful eye on everyone, worked together. Their blades slicing cleanly through the air and across the necks of the surrounding monsters. Jack was surrounded on all sides, panic in his eyes for a moment, until a sly grin spread across his face, reminiscent of his human father’s. With a simple snap of his fingers, the vamps around him burst into a mist of blood. 

“Ew,” he said, wiping his face off. 

The large room of the warehouse was on the second floor, overlooking the main floor. Claire and Kaia were right; there was a large gathering of vampires here. When they first walked into the warehouse, Cas had counted at least fifty, but was unsure of how many more there were. There were moments in the battle that felt like all was lost, but then someone always came up to help. It was something Dean loved about his family; they watched out for each other. 

Dean took a moment mid-battle to watch the surrounding fight. The screams and sound of metal against flesh were a symphony to him. He missed hunting. As much as domestic life suited him, he did miss it. But he was getting too old for this life, and had other priorities these days. He wasn’t sure if his knees or back could handle it, either. He looked at his machete and wiped the blood off it on his jeans just as another vamp ran to him, baring its teeth. 

“Fuck!” He yelled, startled by the vamp. He swung his blade, cutting the vamp’s head clean off. 

Michael and Adam suddenly appeared next to him. “Dude, stay on your feet,” they said before racing past him.

Dean rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am.”

_______________

It was almost over, only a few more vamps to go. Sweat dripped from Dean’s brow as he swung at the vampire charging him, a clean swipe across its neck. The vamp’s head thudded to the ground as Dean quickly turned his attention to the next one. The sound of the battle flooded his ears, the clash of metal against flesh, the roaring of victories and death. It was a beautiful symphony. 

Dean had only taken on a few cases these last couple of years. He settled in nicely in his domesticated lifestyle. But he still loved the thrill of a hunt, the way the weight of a gun felt in his hands, the feeling he got when they saved the day. He missed it. That was something he never denied. And the feeling he felt in this moment reminded him of how much he loved it. 

As he swung his blade across the neck of yet another vampire, its blood sprayed across Dean’s face. The body thudded against the ground, and Dean looked up to see his family and only two vampires left. He stopped to admire them, the incredible hunters that they were. When the last vamp was dead, Dean took a step back. 

“Ahh, so best last hunt or what?” He yelled out to Claire and Kaia. 

“Dad, watch out!” Claire yelled back, her eyes wide as she raced towards Dean. 

Dean wasn’t watching where he was going, and when he brought his foot down, he brought it down on the head of a vampire that had been rolling on the ground. His foot caught on it and before he knew what was happening, Dean was sent flying back. He flew off the ledge and plummeted down below, landing with his back on a steel rod that jutted up from the ground. His body twitched as he screamed out. 

His family raced to the edge, crying out for Dean. The last two to approach were Castiel and Jack. They all stared over the ledge, looking down at Dean. His body no longer twitched and his eyes stared up at them. A thin line of blood poured out of his mouth. He was dead. 

Castiel was the first to speak, letting out an exasperated sigh. “We‘ll go get him.” He nodded to Jack, and the two vanished.  

Everyone stood there in silence. Unsure if they should cry out or scream. The silence was deafening and awkward. Finally, Donna clapped her hands together, causing everyone to look in her direction. A wide grin spread across her face, making her look almost crazy, but she knew that Dean would be back in no time.  

“Okey dokey, we got a lot of bodies to burn while we wait for those three. Let’s hop to it.”

_______________

Dean felt intense, searing pain and then nothing. He laid on the hard ground, felt the dirt beneath his hands. He adjusted his fingers slightly, feeling the sandy dirt shifting. Confused, remembering there was no dirt in the warehouse, he slowly opened his eyes. A figure stood above him, looking down at him. As his vision came into focus, he was met with the face of Bobby Singer. 

“Yeah, he’s awake,” stated Bobby, looking over at another person. “Never seen anyone get here passed out. What the hell happened?”

“He fell,” stated Cas. 

“Fell? Onto what?” 

“A big pole,” said Jack.  

“Any help here, you guys?” Groaned Dean. 

Bobby put out a hand, helping Dean to his feet. He looked around to find a lush forest and a road that seemingly went on for miles. He was confused as to where he was at first, but then realized that he was dead. This was heaven. 

“Son of a bitch!”

Bobby let out a chuckle. “You’re dead. Welcome to heaven. But you can’t stay, Dean.”

“I sure hope not. I’m not ready to die. What the hell happened?”

“You tripped on a vampire's head and fell to your death. Impaled,” exclaimed Castiel. 

Dean stared at his husband, replaying the words in his head carefully. “Vampire head? I tripped on a vampire head? I died like a kebab? I hate that, actually. Like, I really hate that. Might put me off kebabs forever.”

“That’s doubtful,” replied Castiel, sarcastically. 

Dean beamed at his husband. “Yeah, you’re right. But still. Shit way to die.”

Dean looked around more, noticing the large shadow on the ground. He turned around to see Harvelle’s Roadhouse standing behind them. A smile spread across his face, knowing who was more than likely in there. Before he could take a step towards it, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Cas shaking his head at him. 

“Dean, that isn’t for you.”

“But…” Dean’s voice started to break. “I just want to see them. My mom…”

“No. You’re not supposed to be here just yet.”

Dean nodded, understanding even if he hated it. He turned to Jack and nodded once more. “Fine. Alright kid, take me back.” Dean couldn’t help the tone of disappointment in his voice. 

Jack looked at Cas nervously. “Dad?”

“It’s up to him, Jack,” replied Cas softly. 

Dean raised a brow at them. “You gonna let me in on whatever this is about?”

Being the voice of reason, Bobby drew in a breath and stepped towards Dean. “A while ago, Jack and Cas were here, and Jack had an idea.”

“We know how much you miss hunting, but we also know your concerns,” added Cas. 

“Okay? And? I still go hunting. It might not happen more than a few times a year, but I still do it. Besides, with the garage, I don’t really have time.”

“I can hear your thoughts, Dean. You are afraid of losing me again. I know you’re afraid that one day we won’t be the same because you grew older.”

Dean scoffed. “Cas, that’s not a big deal. You’re already way older than me.”

Cas tilted his head to the side, softly. “Dean, you don’t have to hide it. We know that it’s something that scares you.”

“So, Jack came up with a solution,” stated Bobby. “Kid has the ability to make it so you don’t have to worry about these things.”

“What? Make me immortal or something?” Questioned Dean, laughing. 

“An angel,” Jack said, bluntly. 

Dean’s face dropped, baffled by what he was hearing. “Wait, you can’t just do that. Can you? I mean, I’m dead. Oh shit, I’m dead,” said Dean, panic starting to set in.  

Castiel went to him, putting a calming hand on his shoulder. “You’re not going to be dead for long, honeybee. Jack is able to do this. We were going to wait to ask you about it. There’s only two archangels left. It’s disrupting the balance in heaven.”

“The balance in heaven? What are you even talking about, man? I thought everything up here was fine. I mean, Jack barely comes up here anymore.”

“Everything is fine, dad. There’s not really a lot I can do, especially since I want to be hands off. But dad is right, the balance is disrupted here. Without more archangels, heaven will never be perfect. There will always be the risk of everything falling apart. We didn’t realize this until a few weeks ago. I asked dad if he wanted to become one, and we talked about asking you.”

“Why wasn’t I told about all of this?” 

Cas looked down. “Because we didn’t know how’d you react or if we were even making the right choice in asking you.”

Dean thought for a moment, debating whether or not this was a bad idea. Finally, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Okay. What would I need to do?”

Bobby looked at him, bewildered at his sudden willingness to go along with everything. “Just like that? You’re okay with becoming an archangel?”

“No, I don’t know, okay? But say I agreed to this. What would I have to do?”

“Nothing,” replied Jack. “There’s no war here, no apocalypse waiting to happen. All you’d have to do is just live. Just be.”

“By simply being an archangel, along with me and my brothers, we would help heaven remain stable,” added Castiel, his hand remaining on Dean’s shoulder. 

“And what would happen to me?” Questioned Dean, his voice nearly breaking.  

“Nothing. You’d be the same. But you’d never have to worry about dying. You could come and go in heaven as much as you please, see your family. And every power that comes along with being an angel.”

Dean swallowed hard. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

_________

The group stood around a large fire pit. The stacks of vampires turning the ash below them. Sam stood observing the fire, nervously waiting for the return of his brother. The sound of wings flooded their ears, and the three stood behind the group. 

Claire spun around, having grown tired of waiting for them. “Really dad? You had to go and die on my last hunt?” 

Dean raised his hands, a smirk spreading across his face. “Hey, it’s not my fault, okay? I didn’t see where I was going?”

“You’re lucky you’re married to an angel and your son is god,” said Claire. “Otherwise it would be your body on the top of this heap.”

Dean opened his mouth, looking offended as he tried to stifle his laughter. “Really? Just going to throw me on top of a bunch of vamps? I see how you feel, Claire.”

Jody shook her head at the conversation. “Alright, pack it up, you two. Dean, don’t let this happen again.”

“I doubt it will,” he replied, smiling at her. “I got some upgrades while in heaven.”

Before anyone could say another word, Dean’s eyes glowed. He rolled his shoulders, standing up straighter. As he did, the shadow of large wings was cast against the warehouse behind him. He couldn’t help the smirk on his face, and the chuckle that came out. Everyone stared at him with wide eyes, dumbfounded by what they were witnessing. Jack looked at his dad with pride, while Cas just shook his head, knowing the chaos that would soon happen because of this. 

Chapter Text

“Dean, you need to listen to me,” Cas implored. 

Dean drove down their driveway, dismissing his husband’s pleading. “Babe, it’s not a big deal. I’m still me. Everything is going to be the same. I just got a few upgrades, no biggie.”

“Even I have to be careful right now. This is unlike any power I’ve had before and for you to go from human to archangel like that… it is not without adjustments.”

“Okay, fine,” replied Dean, turning off Baby. “Look, why don’t have a nice, relaxing week in? I can adjust to this, you can do the same. Get some flying lessons in, pop in on everyone via a little angelic teleportation. Have some fun in our true forms?”

“Dean.”

“What? Do I not have one?” 

Castiel let out a long sigh. “You do. But that will come later.”

“Yeah, it will,” teased Dean getting out of the car. “Come on, Jack went to go pick up Miracle from the puppy hotel. He should be back by now.”

Castiel followed Dean inside, expecting the next week to be a disaster. To his surprise, the rest of the night went by smoothly. They ordered in and spent the night relaxing on the couch, catching up on Doctor Sexy, which was still somehow airing. While neither of them now needed sleep, Dean still dozed in Cas’ arms on the couch. 

In the morning when he woke up, Cas knew today wasn’t going to be quiet. 

Dean was barely finished with his second cup of coffee when he looked at Cas with that devious look in his eyes. “So, honeybee? Flying?”

“Take Miracle out for his walk first, and maybe we’ll talk about it.”

Dean rolled his eyes, mocking Castiel’s words with a smirk. “Fine. But I’m gonna complain the whole time.”

“Dean,” replied Cas, sternly. 

“Gonna make you think I was sick in the hospital with all the complaining I’m gonna do ‘til I get to fly.”

Dean found Miracle lounging in the sun near the front windows in the living room and headed out to the large front yard. He watched as the dog took off running, getting out energy before finding a spot to do his business. Dean trekked over to the spot, bag already in hand, ready to deal with it. He wondered if he could angel mojo it away with a snap of his fingers. The thought then turned to where it would go. 

“A snap and it’s gone,” he said to himself. “But where would it go?”

“Sammy’s yard,” a voice said from belong him. 

Dean looked down with a bewildered look on his face, hand still raised in the air, ready to snap. At his feet sat Miracle, staring up at him, tongue hanging lazily out of his mouth. 

“Did you.. did you just talk?” Dean asked slowly. 

“Right on his front steps,” replied Miracle. 

“Oh, my… CAS!!!!!” 

Cas appeared next to Dean, panicking. “What is it? Is everything okay? Is Miracle okay?”

“He talked!” Dean bellowed, pointing at the dog, who sat there innocently.   

Castiel sighed. “Dean, I‘ve tried to tell you there’s going to be a lot of changes.”

“But you never said I could talk to dogs? Can you do this?”

“Yes, I can. I speak all languages known and unknown to man. Communication with animals is included. We have lovely conversations every day. Now, pick up his waste and throw it out and come inside.”

It wasn’t much longer until Dean was back inside that the second bout of shock over his new powers hit him. This time it wasn’t talking to Miracle or anything of the sorts. It was one that up until now had completely forgotten about. 

Inside his head, he heard Gabriel yelling. “DEAN! IS IT TRUE?”

“AAHHHH!!”

Castiel stopped what he was doing and turned to Dean. “What’s wrong?”

“Gabriel! He’s in my head!” Dean yelled, his ears ringing. 

“Angel radio. Just tune it out.”

“Tune it out?! How?”

Cas shrugged. “Like this.”

“That explains a great deal, sweetie,” replied Dean sarcastically. 

Before Cas could figure out explaining how to tune out angel radio to Dean, the sound of wings landing filled the room. Michael and Gabriel were suddenly standing next to them on either side of Dean, staring at him with wide eyes. 

“Holy shit,” said Gabe. 

“Do I do that?” Asked Dean. “Do I still.. know what? Gonna let that one be a mystery.”

“He really is,” added Michael. 

The two brothers looked at each other, beaming with excitement, before they both yelled out. “ONE OF US! ONE OF US! ONE OF US!”

“Guys!” Castiel said loudly. “Enough! Dean and I need time to adjust. Please leave!”

Gabriel turned to Castiel, still grinning. “You’re one of us too. This is going to be so much fun. Oh, I’m going to teach you all my tricks.”

“No, you’re not,” replied Cas. 

“Yes, he is,” added Dean. 

“See, he gets it.” Gabe stated, smiling triumphantly. 

“Fine. But not now. Adjustment time. Go!” Castiel declared. He glared at his brothers, letting his grace shine through his eyes. He was a force not to be reckoned with and they knew this, even if it was an empty threat. Nonetheless, they left anyway, sulking as they vanished. 

The rest of the day and well into the second day went without a hitch. Until Cas got a call in the afternoon from Meg. She had heard a rumor that not only was her favorite angel an archangel now, but so was Dean Winchester. 

“Meg, please. Stay away for a while. I know we had plans, but now is not the time,” he said to her on the phone. 

“Too late,” she replied, ending the call. She was already in the kitchen with them as she put her phone back in her pocket. 

“GAHHH!” Dean yelled when he saw her face, nearly falling off of his stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen. 

“Nice to see you too, Dean,” stated Meg. 

“You… you um…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can see the demon beneath the meatsuit. Get over it.”

“You are fugly.”

“Dean!” Cas exclaimed, sternly. “She’s beautiful.”

Meg’s face softened as she looked at Castiel. “Aww, Clarence. You still know how to treat a girl. So, it’s true then. Dean really is an angel. Has this ever happened before?”

“You mean a human becoming an angel? Yes, there’s quite a few of them in Heaven right now,” replied Cas.

“No, I mean a human who had been a demon at one point.”

“Oh.”

Dean, barely able to look at Meg for more than a few seconds, turned to Cas. “Yeah, I mean, we didn’t really talk about that. That’s not going to have any issues, is it?”

Castiel shook his head. “No, I don’t believe it will. Jack doesn’t think so either.”

“Awesome, okay. But, hey, babes, I know she’s your best friend and all but right now-“

“Yeah, I get it,” Meg said, cutting him off mid-sentence. “Give me a call when he figures this out and isn’t squeamish, Cas.”

“I will,” replied Cas. 

Meg vanished, heading back to Hell. Cas turned to face his husband, shaking his head, exhausted already. Dean sat at the island, smiling foolishly at him. Cas couldn’t help but smile back. Everything was new to Dean. He was new. And the week had only just begun.

“So, do I?” Dean inquired, distrusting the brief yet peaceful moment. 

“Do what?”

“Ya know, take holy shits?”

Castiel let out a long sigh. “This is gonna be a long week.”

Chapter Text

The sound of wings made Dean sit up on the couch. He had been waiting for several hours now, and had only sat down twenty minutes before after trying to find something to pay the time. Cas walked into the living room, the prized dvd box in hand. 

“You got it?” Dean asked, perking up at the sight of what Cas held. 

“I got it, yes. Sorry it took longer than expected. Once we started talking it didn’t stop.”

“That’s normally how it is with you two. She give us any more gifts?” Dean asked, his eyes lighting up, hopeful. 

Cas sighed. “No, Dean. Just the new season.”

“Damn. Okay, well next time I’m going with you. I wanna go, too. Come on, pop in it.”

A few months back Castiel had gone to visit Danneel who told him that the other Dean, Jensen, was going to be in another show; The Boys. She gave him a copy of the first two seasons, since it wasn’t something that existed in their universe. Given the fact that there was no Jensen Ackles here, just Dean Winchester. And he certainly wasn’t some actor from Texas. The two binged it in a weekend, and now it was time for them to sit down to watch the third season. Danneel had told Cas that this was the season Jensen came into the show. Dean was curious to see what the other universe him was like, he had made sure to steer clear of checking out all the photos Danneel tried to show them when she came to their world.  

With the lights dimmed, the two snuggled up on the couch. The first episode thoroughly traumatized Dean within the first twenty minutes. He shuddered, knowing he’d never get the image out of his head. Though, it didn’t stop him cracking jokes about it, making Cas roll his eyes. 

“Secret tunnel, secret tunnel,” Dean softly sang, laughing to himself as they watched the scene play out. 

When the other him finally showed up on screen, Dean leaned forward, eyes glued to the screen. It was weird; watching someone else who was essentially him on the screen. Cas watched Dean, smiling at his husband. He reached out a wing, gently rubbing Dean’s back with it. Dean leaned back into the touch, grounding him from the surrealness playing out in front of him. 

“Danneel said you don’t come in til this next episode. But she said we will be in for a shock,” said Cas as he pressed next on the remote. 

“A shock,” scoffed Dean. “What? Another sneeze? Timothy 2.0?”

“ Dean.”

“Fine. Fine. Come on, let’s watch it.” Dean paused, a smile crept across his face. “Is it weird that I’m kinda nervous? I mean, we already saw him- me- him. But, I don’t know, it’s weird.”

“It is weird, I agree.”

The two continued to watch, waiting for the moment they would see him again. Finally, it happened. Pink smoke billowed out on the screen and Dean quickly grabbed the remote to pause. On the tv screen in front of them, on full display was the other him’s ass. His ass. 

“Cas?” Dean choked out. 

“Oh.”

“That’s… that’s….”

“My.”

“My ass! His ass! Our ass!”

“God.”

Dean was stunned. He stared at the screen, studying the other him’s bottom. “Does it really look like that? Why is he so… so muscly? Why don’t I look like that? I never looked like that?”

“I mean, you do have his hair, though he clearly hasn’t started going grey. And you did have the beard at one point.” Cas pointed out. “Though now it’s trimmed. I prefer how you look now.” 

Dean rolled his eyes at his husband. “I know, I’m hot.”

“You are, yes. Very much so. But it should be noted that he is younger than you, and worked hard to get into shape.”

“Younger? How much younger?”

“Danneel said he’s forty-four, Dean. Though, you do have similar features,” replied Cas. He arched a brow at Dean, lids half closed as he looked at Dean through his lashes. 

“Oh? Really? It looks like that?” Teased Dean back. “You saying your into him?”

“Not at all. While he looks like you and is basically you, I am not into him in the slightest. I prefer the real you. The original you.”

“Who's to say he’s not the original? Or the weird hunter corp me isn’t the real me?”

“I am.”

“But you do like his ass, huh? His.. jass . You like it, the jussy, the jooty, the jutt.”

Cas tilted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes in confusion. “Dean, I don’t get it.”

“Hey, I know how the kids talk these days. What would mine be called?”

“Your what?”

“My ass,” clarified Dean. “Dass? Dussy? Dooty.” He stopped to laugh at the childish joke. “Ha, doody.”

“You never fail to confuse me sometimes, Dean. How is it you can be so childish.”

Dean gave a half shrug. “Hey, what can I say? I’m a himbo.”

“That you are.”

“What ‘bout you? Cass? Spelled C-A-S-S. Or is that too close to Cas?”

Castiel laughed softly. “Well, Danneel did tell me that the character of Castiel in the show in her world is shortened to C-A-S-S. But it’s widely hated by the fans who prefer to spell it the proper way.”

“Spelling it with two instead of one s is just weird. Do they not know how to spell Castiel? Wait, I got it. Cass, spelled C-A-S-S stands for Celestial Ass.”

“Are you calling me an ass?” Frowned Cas. 

“Well, yes. But mostly it means you got one hell of an ass.”

Castiel rolled his eyes, taking the remote from Dean’s hand. “Come on, let’s finish watching.”

Chapter Text

Like many ideas Dean had, sometimes it wasn’t good to question them or the motives behind them. They sound brilliant in the moment they are thought up and that’s that. Nothing more to think about, even though he probably should give it at least a second thought. Run through the logic and reasoning behind the idea, but alas Dean wasn’t in the mood to sit and ponder on his idea. 

He focused in on Castiel, closing his eyes, bending his knees slighting before teleporting him to where his husband was in the garden behind their home. Castiel looked up briefly, not paying Dean any attention. This sort of behavior was becoming routine as Dean learned more and more about his new found abilities since becoming an angel. 

“Cas!” Dean exclaimed excitedly. “I got an idea!”

Castiel let out a sign. “What is it now?”

“Okay, so you got wings,” stated Dean. He raised his hands above his head, fanning them out in the shape of wings. 

“Yes,” replied Cas, slowly. “You already know this, Dean.”

“And you can bring them to this world, like I can see them.”

Slowly nodding, Cas replied, “Yes, you’ve seen them before, Dean. What are you getting at?”

“And your grace, you can bring it out of your body, right? Like you could make it into a giant hand and smack me if you wanted to, right?” Dean asked eagerly.  

“This isn’t a cartoon, Dean. But I’m sure I could if I wanted to.” 

Dean beamed at the angel. “Great, okay, so I got an idea. You should bring your wings forth, and make them super big, right. Then you should fly up into the air, and make your grace come out and form giant talons and pick me up!” He had a look of bewildered madness on his face.

“Dean, you realize you can fly. You just flew to get from inside the house to outside. You also have wings.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dean’s shoulder slumped. “But this is cool, okay. It will be fun, I promise.”

Castiel rubbed the bridge of his nose, shaking his head at his husband. “Dean, when I say I am old I mean I am old.  I have heard every brilliant and stupid idea ever uttered by man and creature alike. But in all the four-hundred million years since my creation I have never heard a more idiotic idea. No, Dean, I will not treat you as though you were some prey for me to pick up and carry off to a nest.”

“You got a nest?” Dean asked, jokingly. 

Cas groaned. “Dean, the answer is no.”

“Oh, come on, please,” begged Dean.  

“No.”

“Fine,” said Dean, defeated. He walked back into the house, no longer excited to fly back as he had been doing lately. 

Several days later, Dean was walking between his and Castiel’s house to Sam and Eileen’s. He had promised Sammy he’d come over to help out with a project Sam was working on. He was grumbling to himself, not looking forward to what was most likely more cataloging ancient tomes and spell books that Sam was given by Rowena. He dragged his feet as he walked the short distance through the field that separated their properties, not looking where he was going. 

Halfway between their homes, the sky above Dean suddenly became dark as a large shadow was casted over him. He stopped when he noticed it and looked up. But before he could register in his mind what was causing the shadow, he was picked up by what felt like large claws. Screaming, he flailed his limbs as he was taken up into the air. The talons wrapped around his waist, carrying on his side. 

“Calm down,” said Cas above him. 

“Cas?!”

Dean looked up to see Castiel above him, his black wings gently going up and down; flapping slightly to move himself forward in the air. Dean looked at the talons holding onto him, they were the same blueish white as Castiel’s grace and came flowing out of the angel’s legs. 

“What the?!” Dean yelled. 

“Is this not what you wanted?” Cas asked, looking down at Dean innocently.  

“Yeah but not like this? I didn’t want to be picked up like a rabbit.”

“You’re not a rabbit, Dean. You’re an angel. Would you like down or would you like to go higher?” Cas asked, calmly.  

Dean thought for a moment, relaxing into Cas’ grace holding onto him. “Is it safe?”

“I’d never hurt you, Dean, you know this.”

“Okay, uh, yeah. Let’s go higher.” 

Castiel’s wings rose up and came down in one long swoop, pushing them higher into the air. Relaxed, Dean looked around at the vast nothingness of Lebanon, Kansas. The small town now a random assortment of dots that reminded him of legos below them. The fields of farmland surrounding the town were squares of land, as far as the eye could see. It was a stunning sight, one that on the ground Dean appreciated but above in the skies, what would normally be the boring country side of the Midwest was beautiful. Maybe it was just him that would take one look at this place on the map and think it was the best place in the world to live, and how amazing it was. But Dean didn’t care, it was home. And from up here in the clouds it was even better. 

Castiel circled around the town, swooping low going through fields so that Dean could reach a hand out, grazing the tall stalks of vegetation. Dean was glad that he had this idea in the first place, it was better than he could have imagined. Soon, Cas circled back around, headed back towards the bunker and the houses. Slowing down as he approached Sam and Eileen’s home, he began to descend. 

“You still going to Sam’s place today?” Cas asked. 

“Yeah, for a few hours I guess. You gonna come by later on? Maybe we could all have dinner together.”

“I’d like that, yes. Tell Sam and Eileen hello for me. I’m going to get back to the garden.”

With that, Castiel’s grace talons disappeared and Dean had less than a second to steady himself. Bringing forth his own wings, he spread them out before slowly flapping them to bring himself down to earth slowly. He loved the feeling of the wind through his feathers, and the light yet heavy feeling on his back when they were out. As he grew closer the ground, he focused, steadying himself even more as he landed, planting two feet on the ground. 

Rolling his shoulders, he shook his wings out, enjoying the last few moments he had with them out before returning them to the plane Cas taught him to put them in. He could still feel them, they were always there, but now they were no longer visible from sight. He tucked them back behind his body, folding them in close before he walked up the porch steps of Sammy’s house. 

Before he knocked on the door, he paused. Thinking to himself about what exactly just took place. “That was weird. Maybe that wasn’t the best idea,” he said to himself, softly. He shook his head. “Nah, that was awesome,” he added before knocking on his brother’s front door. 

Chapter Text

It takes three trips in Cas’ pickup to haul every barrel back to the bunker. Dean bickered the whole way, wondering why in the hell Cas never cared to ask the man what his booth at the farmers market was. But Cas stood his ground, telling Dean that it wasn’t about what the man sold, but the integrity of his words. He bet Castiel his whole summer's worth of product on who could grow the largest heirloom tomatoes. And if Cas lost, he’d have to hand over his whole season's worth of honey. A bet's a bet, this much Dean understood. But the simple fact that Cas never once went back to the man and asked what he sold utterly baffled him. 

This was how they ended up with six, fifty gallon drums of pickles. All because Cas used his angel mojo to make an eight pound tomato, compared to the man’s measly three pound one. And how Dean was all but forced on making room for them and learning how to cook with pickles more. 

They ate pickles for snacks, sliced them thinly on top of burgers, and put them in salads. He fried them, made relish, marinated meats in the juice. He even grew bold, covering them in a thick coating of melted cheese, dicing them finely and using them as a topping on ice cream. Anything he could think of to rid the bunker of the pickle infestation; even if most wasn’t that great. Though the best snack he had come up with was putting diced pickles in his patented Dean Cream; a name everyone regretted allowing him to come up with. It was his homemade aioli, and while everyone loved it they turned their noses up at the name. 

Dean sat in the tv room, a bowl full of Dean Cream, dipping pickle spears into it as he mindlessly watched a movie. He didn’t hear Sammy step into the room over the movie playing and the crunching of pickles. 

“This whole place reeks of pickles, Dean,” groaned Sam as he slumped down onto the couch. He was sick of them, the new staple of every meal for the past month. But he eyes the jar in Dean’s hands, unable to help him. “Gimme.”

Dean sat the jar and bowl between them, and the two spent the next half an hour staring at the screen, eating the same snack they had every day since the bet was won. Dean was the first one to break their concentration on the movie, mumbling to himself so low that Sam could barely make out what he was saying. 

“Dean, you gotta speak up.”

“Pickle is a stupid name,” Dean repeated himself, speaking louder. 

Sammy snorted. “Yeah it kinda is. We should come up with a better name for them.” He paused, coming to regret his statement. “Maybe on the other hand, you shouldn’t be the one to name it.”

It was another week before Dean brought it up again, this time over dinner. Sammy groaned, burying his head in his hands as Dean excitedly told them he was going to rename pickles. Claire and Jack exchanged looks, curious to what their dad was up to this time. While Cas and Eileen just shrugged their shoulders at each other, Dean's shenanigans were nothing new. 

“Pickle is a dumb name. They need a new one. Gimme your suggestions,” declared Dean, pushing away his half eaten plate. He had attempted a new kugel recipe, one that despite his insisting was good was far from it. Jack was the only one who seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. 

Cas was the first one to speak up, figuring it was easier to go along with Dean’s antics at times then say nothing. “How about Cas? I’ve never had anything named after me.”

Dean thought for a moment before shaking his head. “That’s a nice sentiment, Cas, but that’s gonna get weird.”

“I don’t see why.”

“Yeah, wait until someone says ‘I can’t ‘til we run out of Cas’. Won’t be nice then.”

“I see your point, Dean.”

Eileen spoke next. “What about Bill?”

“Again… that’s weird. Anyone else?” Dean looked around the table, landing on Claire. “Claire? Any suggestions?”

“Dave.”

Dean sighed. “No. No normal names. It’s too weird. What if we invite someone named Dave over and tell him we ate all the Daves?” 

“When do you invite anyone over?” Snickered Claire. “You know like ten people, and most are here right now.”

“Touché. Jack?”

Jack frowned, furrowing his brow as he thought hard about what he thought pickles should be renamed. “Spoob.”

“Spoob,” repeated Dean slowly. He snapped his fingers, pointing at Jack. “I like it. It’s weird but not Dave weird. What else? Anyone got one better than Spoob?”

“King Hernado IV,” suggest Cas, causing everyone to stare at him. “What? It sounds fancy.”

“Okay, fancy pickle,” stated Dean. 

“Lord Huron,” Sammy suggested. 

“Becky,” said Eileen, trying to hold in her laughter. Sammy glared at her, rolling his eyes. 

“Steve,” added Castiel. 

“Taylor,” Claire suggested. 

“Again, no normal names. But I do love Steve,” said Dean, looking fondly at Cas. 

There was a long silence as everyone thought up another name. Finally, it hit Dean what he should name them. “I got it. Betty’s!”

“Didn’t you say no normal names. If you’re going to go with that, why not go with Dave, or Bill, or Cas or Taylor?” Questioned Sam. 

“Don’t forget Steve,” Cas remarked, hopeful. 

“Can’t forget Steve, Dean.”

Dean rolled his eyes at his brother, knowing full well that he was breaking his own rule. He just didn’t like to be put on the spot; even if he did this to himself. “Betty, ya know, like bet. Cause Cas won them in a bet.”

They all exchanged looks, before shrugging and giving in. They agreed to naming pickles Betty’s from here on out and all prayed they would soon run out of them. With everyone’s meals half finished, not daring to eat any more of it, they sat around talking for the rest of the time being. 

Jack’s plate was empty, he looked at it sadly. “Can I have some more?” He asked, politely. 

“You can’t be serious,” remarked Castiel, staring at his son in disbelief. 

“It’s good.”

“It’s cursed.” He turned to Dean, staring at him lovingly, hoping that it would make Dean listen to him. “Dean, I love you, and most things you cook for us. But please, never make this again.”

“Never make bets without knowing the prize again, and I promise I won’t.”

“Deal,” replied Cas. 

Dean looked over at Jack, sending him a prayer in his head to promise to make it for him again. Cas, having clearly known what Dean was doing, smacked the back of his head with an invisible wing. This caused everyone to burst out in laughter before turning the conversation on ideas on recipes to use the rest of the Betty’s in. 

Chapter Text

Days when the shop wasn’t busy and Dean could relax and work on restoring the 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner he got from a man in Idaho. It had been his pet project for the last month, restoring her to her former beauty. He and Claire only had two cars to work on so far today, both routine jobs that took less than an hour. This gave him the whole day to just relax. 

While he was out in the back lot, he could hear Claire on the phone in the garage. He paid her no mind. Slow days meant nothing to do. He was just about to roll out from under the car to tell her to take the rest of the day off when he heard her tell whoever she was talking to that she’ll see them later. 

“Hey dad?” She called out, stepping into the overgrown back lot. 

“What’s up?”

“A friend of mine is bringing us lunch. You hungry?”

“Always. What we gonna have?” 

“Burgers.”

“Awesome.”

It was an hour later, and Kate finally arrived. By that time Dean was starving and was looking forward to the burgers. He came into the main area of the garage and out through the front to find Claire and Kate sitting at a picnic table he put off to the side for them and customers to use while they waited. The two were talking to one another when he went up to them. He expected to see a take away bag or something on the table, but there was only a canvas tote bag from the local grocery store. 

“Where’s the burgers?” He asked, bluntly. 

Claire glared at him. “Dad, don’t be rude. This is Kate.”

Dean nodded at Claire’s friend. “Hey, Dean. Burgers? Where?”

Kate took it in stride, having learned all about her friend’s dad beforehand. “I got them, don’t worry.”

“Oh, I’m not worrying. I’m hungry. Come on, gimme.” Dean held his hand out impatiently. 

Kate and Claire exchanged glances, smiling secretly to themselves. Kate reached into the tote bag on the table and handed Dean a tin can. “Here.”

“A can of tuna?” Dean asked skeptically. “I thought you said you were bringing us burgers. What am I supposed to do with this? I’m not a cat.”

Kate just laughed, holding the can out. “No, read the label. I said I was bringing up burgers, and I did.”

Dean took the can from her, looking at her suspiciously before reading the label. There was a photo of what appeared to be a lake for some reason, with the word ‘cheeseburger’ on it. He studied the can, trying to figure it out, but couldn’t wrap his head around it. 

“What is this?” He asked, confused.  

“It’s a burger, dad. Open it and eat,” Claire replied, sounding frustrated.

Narrowing his eyes at Claire and Kate, Dean opened the lid, pulling it back with a crack. Immediately, a smell hit him that Dean could only describe as wrong. Finally, he looked down and regretted it immediately. Inside appeared to be the top of a burger bun. It was slimy and wet and somehow looked diseased. Curiosity got the best of him, and he prodded it with a finger. It squished down like an old sponge. Worst of all was the squelching sound it made. Dean regretted everything. 

He put the can down on the table, wiping his finger on his jeans; regretting that choice as well. He stared daggers at Kate, who was trying not to laugh. “You have until the count of three to get that… that abomination out of my sight. And get back here with real burgers. One.”

“It is a real burger,” Kate replied. She stared at Dean right back. 

“Two.”

“Dad, it’s a burger. Just eat it.”

“Three.” Dean reached behind his back and drew his gun. Pointing it directly at Kate before pointing it at the canned monstrosity instead. He fired out three rounds, sending it back to Hell, where it obviously came from. 

“DAD!” 

“What the fuck!” Kate yelled at the same time as Claire yelled dad. 

“Dammit, it was a joke!” Yelled Claire. 

“A joke?” Dean questioned. “What kind of sick joke is this? Trying to feed a man canned Hell. Actually, you know what? I’ve been to Hell. This is worse.”

“We weren’t going to make you eat it!” 

“You said she brought burgers!”

Claire rolled her eyes at him. “Dad, come take his gun away,” she prayed out loud. 

Within less than a second, Castiel appeared next to Dean, furrowing his brow at his husband. He snatched the gun out of Dean’s hand and tucked it away in his jacket pocket. 

“Claire, Kate, hello,” he said kindly to them. 

“Hey, Castiel,” Kate replied. 

“Thanks,” said Claire. 

Cas turned to Dean, glowering at him. “Dammit, Dean. What were you thinking? It was just a prank.”

“You know about this?!” Dean exclaimed. 

“Yes, Kate told me about it earlier. She dropped off burgers for me and Kaia at the shop before heading over here. We thought it would be funny.”

“Well, it’s not.” 

Kate chuckled at the interaction before reaching into the tote bag again. This time, she pulled out an actual takeaway bag. “Don’t worry, I got us real burgers, too. You gonna pull a gun on me this time?”

“No,” replied Dean, shamefully. He sat down at the table, taking the burger that Kate handed him. “Wait, Cas just appeared, and you said nothing.” He asked her. 

Kate shrugged. “I was at Claire and Kaia’s wedding. Everything was explained to me then. He’s an angel, I know.”

Dean examined the new burger, making sure it was real before taking a large bite. “So am I,” he said with his mouth full. “Watch this.”

Claire let out an exasperated sigh while Kate watched with curiosity as Dean disappeared and reappeared on the Impala several feet away. He took another bite of his burger, grinning at them before zapping back to the table. 

Just as he sat back down, Castiel reappeared. “Stop that.”

“Fine,” replied Dean, defeated. “None of you are any fun.”

Cas left for a second time, and the three sat and ate their burgers. Bits of the abomination were all over the place, and Dean made a mental note to burn the picnic table when they were done. He put a new rule in place as well: only real burgers allowed, no damned creations. 

Chapter Text

Dean’s been excited to get home all day while out on a supply run into town. He had been hinting to Jack all week on what he wanted: beer, stuff for Baby, and pie. He was expecting to arrive home to the bunker and see all of these plus more. It was his day after all. 

Besides him Cas was helping him to carry the bulk of the groceries. He had an annoyed look on his face, tired of hearing Dean ramble on and on about how excited he was. He didn’t really understand what the big deal was, it was just Father’s Day after all. 

“Dean, it’s not that big of a deal,” he says as he sets the bags on the kitchen table. 

“It’s Father’s Day, come on,” replied Dean, gloating. 

“I don’t understand what’s the big deal. Also, didn't you just celebrate Mother’s Day? I still don’t understand why.”

Dean pulled a bag of beef jerky out of a bag, ripping it open and stuffing a piece into his mouth. “Yes, and?”

Cas rolled his eyes, “Dean, you’re not a mother.”

“Cas, I’m not going to get into this with you. I celebrate Mother’s and Father’s day, and parents day. More gifts that way too. You should be happy, babe, you get presents today too.”

“Well, why can’t I celebrate Mother’s Day as well?” Cas asked, curious as to why Dean was so special.

Dean paused, thinking for a moment. “You’re not a Mother.”

“Neither are you!” Cas stated, annoyed even more now. 

Dean chuckled as he got another piece of jerky. “Yeah, well the rules are different for parents who are angels,” he says, making it up as he goes along. 

Dean laughs to himself, he likes seeing Cas flustered. He’s cute when he’s confused, the way his head tilts to the side, the way he rolls his eyes and takes a deep breath. In the long run this conversation isn’t a big deal to Dean, he doesn’t care what parental holidays Castiel celebrates or doesn’t. 

“If it’s not a matter of gender then I should be able to celebrate all of them,” Cas says as a matter of fact. 

Dean’s mouth curls downward as he tilts his head to the side nodding, “This is true, but like I said. It’s different for angels.”

Cas breathed out hard, rolling his eyes making Dean laugh softly. “Fine. Then for Mother’s Day I will get a vessel whose gender would fit better.”

The hunter’s brow creased in confusion. “What? Cas, I don’t… what?!”

“Cover your eyes,” states Castiel, bluntly. 

Dean obeys, still laughing to himself. Suddenly there’s a bright flash of light and a loud thumping sound. He peeks out from under his fingers to see Cas laying on the floor. Dean looks around, stumped at why Cas is just laying there. He pushes him with his boot softly in the ribs. Nothing. 

“Cas?” 

He pushes a few more times, saying Castiel’s name again. Still nothing. He sets the bag of beef jerky on the kitchen island and reaches down to shake Cas. 

“What the?” Dean says to himself under his breath before loudly yelling for Sam. 

Sam comes running into the room, confused and a bit panicked. He looks to Dean then to Cas, and panic sets in more. “Dean!” He yells, racing to his brother’s side. “What the hell happened?”

“I-I don’t know! One minute I was teasing him the next he told me to cover my eyes and he just dropped!” Stammers Dean. 

“Dean, I think he left,” replied Sam, more calm now that he knows what’s going on with Castiel. 

Dean doesn’t reply, he just gives his brother a confused look. Sam rolls his eyes at him and stands up. Dean stands up as well, looking to Sam for answers. 

“I think that’s Jimmy. Cas must have left his vessel,” explained Sam.

Dean nodded once, “Oh.”

Dean once again began poking at Jimmy with his foot, saying his name over and over, like the difference would wake him up. Still nothing. The vessel is still laying there on the floor, unmoving. Panic sets in for Dean again, he looks to Sam for help. 

Sam, now annoyed at Dean, just replied, “Dean, Jimmy’s dead.”

“I knew that,” replied Dean, not wanting to admit that he had forgotten at that moment. 

“Jimmy’s been dead for years. Cas will be back soon probably. What the hell did you tease him about that made him leave his vessel?”

“Father’s Day.”

Sam just rolled his eyes, not wanting to deal with his today. 

“Wait, so since Jimmy is dead…. Does that mean this whole time I’ve been…” Dean says slowly, not wanting to think about the it. 

“Yeah.”

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Suddenly the found of wings fills the room and Claire is standing in front of them. Sam knows immediately what is going on but Dean is slow to realize. He frowns at her, confused. 

“Is this better?” She states, raising her arms and gesturing towards herself. 

“Hey Cas,” says Sam. 

“Wait, Cas?!” Dean exclaims. 

Cas rolls his eyes- Claire's eyes. “Yes, Dean. I got a vessel more fitting for Mother’s Day. Next year if I’m in a fitting vessel would I be able to celebrate?”

Dean chokes back laughter, thinking of how he could change the rules yet again. “Cas, no!”

“Why not Dean?”

Dean laughs harder. Seeing Cas in Claire’s body is hilarious in itself, but hearing her voice try to sound gruff and deep is even funnier. Cas is still Cas no matter the vessel.

Dean finally calms down enough to reply, “You can’t celebrate Mother’s Day using Claire as a vessel.”

“Why not, Dean?”

“She’s our daughter. Now get back in Jimmy please. This is weird.”

“Cover your eyes.”

Sam and Dean cover their eyes. The flash of light seeps in between their fingers. Sam is trying hard not to burst out laughing at the situation. Dean’s long since given up holding back, his stomach and shoulders vibrate from the laughter. 

“Better?” Cas says in his normal voice. 

Dean uncovers his eyes, his husband back in his normal vessel. Claire is standing next to him, her face red with anger. Sam quickly ducks out of the room, no longer wanting to stick around and be in the middle of the argument that’s about to break out. 

“What the hell?!” She barks. 

“I apologize, Claire. I know it can be unpleasant being a vessel at times,” says Cas, his voice is softer now. 

“I was in the middle of a date with Kaia! You just appeared and asked ‘Can I borrow you for a second?’” She says, deepening her voice to mock Castiel. She continues, “I thought you wanted to talk to me in private, not possess me for some dumb argument with Dean!”

Cas frowns, realizing that he should have explained to Claire better. “I’m sorry, Claire.”

Claire’s face softens, she knows he’s genuinely sorry. As much as she is angry, she can’t help herself. “It’s fine. Can I just get back to my date please?”

Cas nodded, placing his hand on her shoulder and they were gone. Moments later Castiel returns alone. Dean’s laughter is gone now, he just looks at Cas, slowly shaking his head. 

Jack came into the kitchen suddenly, he heard from Sam what was happening and was more excited to give his Dad’s their gifts then see an argument. “Dad! Dad!” He says to them both. “Happy Father’s Day!”

Jack hugs them both, grinning widely. Dean asks about his gifts and Jack leads them to the library. On the large table are several wrapped presents for both of them. Two pies sat on the table as well, still hot and steaming. Dean beams at the sight and immediately goes to find his presents. The first one says ‘to Dad from Jack’ but the doodle of wings let’s him know its for Cas. 

Dean hands it to him. “Here, babe. It’s yours.”

Cas takes the gift, the wrapping paper disappears and reappears on the table neatly folded. Dean shakes his head slowly, Cas is such a show off at times. Cas opens the long box and smiles at what’s inside.

“Thank you, Jack. I love it,” he says. 

Curious Dean peaks over the box to see what Jack got him. A new tie, exactly the same as the one he always wears, a simple blue tie. Dean grabbed another gift, this one clearly for him. He tears into the wrapping, not caring to open it carefully. It’s a bottle of brake fluid for the car. He grins, overjoyed at the gift. 

“Sam helped me pick it out,” said Jack with a smile, proud of his choices of gifts. 

“Thanks, kid.”

Dean puts the bottle down and hugs Jack again. He’s proud of his son, proud to be his Dad. As much as Dean loves getting gifts, he knows today isn’t about that. It’s about everything they’ve been through together as a family. Cas comes over and hugs Jack as well, and Dean smiles. 

“I love you winged dicks,” he says softly. He doesn’t mean it in an insulting way, like he used to call angels. These are his angels, his husband and son. 

The two open the rest of their gifts and eat the pie. Even Cas joins in with the pie, it is a special occasion after all. Later on Claire comes back, this time without being used as a vessel, to celebrate with them. Dean can’t wait for parents day and begins making up rules for angels in his head, excited to see how hilariously annoyed Cas gets again. 

Chapter Text

There’s a special kind of magic when you wake up late into the night, and look out your window to see the ground covered in snow. It doesn’t have to be the first snowfall of the season either. It can be the second or third or even forth. But it’s the snow that comes down softly, like feathers gently floating down to earth. Covering the ground in its soft, cold white blanket. The street lights give off a haze of yellow, and the moon has begun to make its way back to its place of slumber. It’s calm here and feels like you are the only one to witness this magic. 

This is the feeling Jack felt as he looked out his bedroom window. Looking at his clock, he saw it was just past three in the morning. He should be asleep, but he was restless. He wanted to go out there and feel the cold dampness of the snow on his gloves. He wanted to hear the sound of the delicate crunching sound of the snow under his boots, and fear the gentle silence of his neighborhood.

Putting on an extra layer over his flannel pajamas that Donna gave him that matched with his sisters and dads. Dean had rolled his eyes at the gifts, but immediately flew to his room to put them on with a joyous grin on his face. Back before everything happened, this was the image Jack had in his head of family; laughter erupting throughout his home over something as simple and as silly as matching pajama sets. With his glove and hat on, Jack made his way downstairs to venture outside. 

He was barely near the front door when he heard Dean clearing his throat. Jack turned around, face red with embarrassment for getting caught. “I just wanted to go out in the snow,” he began, explaining himself. 

“Okay,” replied Dean, shrugging. “Why are you sneaking out to do that? You can fly and teleport.”

Jack blinked slowly several times. “I don’t know.” He tilted his head to the side, curiously at his dad. “Why are you up?”

“Charlie needed help with something. I just got back.” Dean took a minute to think before he continued. “Come on, let’s go outside. I love it when it’s snowing like this. It’s… it’s peaceful.”

“It is, yeah.”

As the two stepped out onto the porch, Jack’s face lit up. “Oh, hey, we should walk around the neighborhood and look at all the Christmas decorations.”

Jack was a bright kid. He was wise beyond his years, a skillful leader when he had to be, and one of the smartest kids Dean ever met. But sometimes, he said things that not only reminded Dean that he was very much a kid, but also that he was also his kid. 

“Jack,” Dean began slowly. “There’s only five houses near us. Not much of a neighborhood.”

“So?” Jack asked in reply as he made his way down the sidewalk, looking. 

“And there isn’t any Christmas decorations.”

Jack stopped and pointed across the street. On the lawn of the house just past Sam and Eileen’s was a tall inflatable snowman. “Hey, look, it’s Santa!” He announced with glee. 

The sigh that came out of Dean could break records for the heaviest sigh to ever come from a dad. “Jack, that’s not… no.”

Without skipping a beat, Jack turned his attention to a car parked just a ways down the street. “Hey, a car is getting towed.”

“What? Lemme see, kid,” replied Dean, curiosity getting the better of him. Not recognizing the car, he shook it off, no longer caring. “Come on, let’s get inside. It’s cold.”

“Oh, come on, dad. I want us to go look at all the Christmas decorations.”

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Dean wondered where his son got his enthusiasm from. “Jack, there are five houses near us. All of them are occupied by people you know. All of us are Jewish. There’s no Christmas decorations.”

“Clearly, there is,” Jack quipped back sarcastically, gesturing up at the snowman. “See? Santa. Christmas. Aaron celebrates Christmas.”

“He’s our rabbi… I… I don’t even know what to say right now, Jack. That’s just a snowman. And I’m pretty sure Golem put that up. He likes snowmen.”

“Nope. Christmas.”

“Jack, we literally went to his house last night for dinner. For Chanukah. I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.”

Continuing down the small stretch of road, the two walked in silence. The only sound was the gently crunching below their feet and their own breathing. Dean couldn’t help the feeling of pride as he looked at the small row of houses. Three on his side and two on the other. What began as two homes being built soon became five. Once word got out, others wanted to settle into their little area of Lebanon. First, Claire and Kaia relocated closer to home. Then Aaron and his Golem, and finally Michael and Adam. It was nice having so many people close by. Especially this time of year, when being surrounded by family was so important. 

“Hey dad?” 

“Yeah, bud?” 

“Why does Golem like snowmen?” Questioned Jack. 

Dean thought back to that strange night the year prior. He was still so unsure why Golem loved snowmen. Maybe he related to them in some strange way, maybe he just liked their icy, round bodies. Either way, it was an odd thing to wake up to. 

_______

One year ago 

“Hey, Dean,” Cas called out into the house. “Come look at this.’

Stepping out onto the porch, Dean was taken aback by several snowmen on their front lawn. Looking out around the neighborhood, he saw more. They dotted the yards, several sizes, adorned with clothing. 

“What the?” He asked himself quietly. He looked across the street at Michael and Adam’s house to see Golem rolling a large ball of snow across the yard. 

“What is he doing?” Cas questioned, his head cocked to the side. 

“Hey, Golem!” Dean called out in a hushed yell, hoping he could hear him. 

Golem stood up straighter, turning his body slowly to stare at Dean. 

“What-a, what you doing there?”

Golem turned to look at the snowmen already in the yard and then back at Dean. “Yedidi,” he groaned. 

Dean nodded, pretending that it made any sense. “Your friends, okay. Well, um… okay.”

Golem went back to rolling the ball of snow, gathering more as it grew larger in size to create the base of his newest snowman. Dean and Cas watched, confused and baffled by what they were witnessing. 

Without taking his eyes away from the sight in front of him, Dean took out his phone, only glancing away to find Aaron’s number. “Hey,” he said, sounding distant almost. 

On the other end of the line, Aaron grumbled, barely awake. “Dean? It’s one in the morning.”

“Do you know where your golem is?” 

“Huh? I don’t know, somewhere in the house. Why?” 

“He’s um… he’s made like fifty snowmen in everyone’s yards. Says they’re his friends.”

Aaron let out a long sigh. “I’ll come get him. He’s gotten into snowmen lately, I don’t know what his deal is with these. I’ll figure it out.”

______
Dean shrugged, shoving his hands in his jacket pocket. “I don’t know, man. He just likes them.” 

The two turned around and made their way back home. Jack stuck his tongue out, catching tiny snowflakes as they landed. Looking up to the sky to watch the snowy blanket fall to the earth, Jack marveled at the beauty as the freshly fallen snow danced gently to the sound. Dean smiled fondly at him, it was times like these that he was so thankful that even with everything that happened he finally got the family he never imagined he could have. 

“Hey, dad?” 

“Yeah, kid?” 

“Wanna go make grilled cheese and watch scooby-doo?” 

Dean’s face lit up, and he grinned widely. “Yeah, come on.”

“Oh, and can we have mango popsicles?” Asked Jack enthusiastically. 

“Sure, but aren’t you sick of them?” 

Shaking his head, Jack answered, “No. I don’t think I could ever get sick of them.”

“You are a strange kid, you know that, right?” Dean asked, jokingly as he climbed the front porch steps. 

“Claire says I get it from you,” Jack informed him as a matter of fact. 

“Did she? Well, she’s not totally wrong. Come on, I’ll go get the stuff to make grilled cheese.”

Chapter Text

 Mornings, which were either lazy or busy, came with a set of rituals for the day. Before beginning the usual tasks of getting dressed and eating breakfast, Jack first recites the Shema. With his right hand covering his eyes he recites the words taught to him by his dads. Letting his mind stay within the moment, the words wash over him. But when that hand drops the thought of why comes to his mind. 

Why does he say these words if he himself is God? Brushing the thought to the back of his head to fester, Jack goes about the rest of his morning. Until he gets dressed to leave his room and he puts on the final piece to his outfit that he wears every day. His purple kippah, the one he picked out himself, and wore nearly every day. He had many others, some were gifts, some he bought himself, some he had no memory of how he received them. He loved all his kippot, especially the one with his name embroidered in Hebrew on it. But his purple one was his favorite of them all. 

As he put it on, adjusting it so it sat just right, Jack had another thought. Why does he wear this? He was God, therefore there was no one above him. It made no sense to him to pray to himself. Looking at himself in the mirror one last time before heading down to breakfast, he frowned at his uncertainty. 

In the kitchen, Castiel sat at the table while Dean plated their food. He had made them omelets, stuffed full of veggies; peppers, onions, mushrooms and little cubes of potatoes. As Dean put the last one on a plate, Jack sat down in front of it. 

“Mornin’ kiddo,” Dean greeted. “You sleep okay?”

“Yeah,” replied Jack with a huff. 

“What’s wrong?” Questioned Castiel, concerned. 

“Dad?”

“Yeah?” Castiel and Dean both said at the same time. 

“Why do I wear a kippah?” 

The two exchanged looks, confused by the question. They had told him why before, and it wasn’t like the reasoning was lost on him. 

Dean sat down next to Cas before replying. “It’s a reminder that God is above you. He’s everywhere. Come on, kid, you know this.”

“It’s also a reminder that you are Jewish, and you have pride in that,” added Cas. 

“I get that, but I am God. I’m not above me, and I’m not everywhere. I’m right here,” replied Jack, feeling even more confused. “I don’t get why I wear this, or pray. I’m God, and it just feels weird to hold myself to such a high level.”

“Jack, you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want,” said Dean, taking a bite of his food. 

“No, I do want to. I just…” Jack let his words trail off as he searched for what to say. It was hard to put his emotions to words when he himself didn’t fully understand it. “Why do you wear yours?”

Dean took another bite as he thought about the reason. “I don’t think it really has much to do with you, or Chuck, for that matter. My dad wasn’t really… When my mom died we lost touch with our jewishness. My dad wasn’t Jewish, so we weren’t raised in a Jewish house. I tried to raise Sammy like how I knew our mom would raise us. I’d always find us a synagogue in whatever town we were in, if they even had one. I read him the Torah every day, teaching him the lessons and stories. I went over the Talmud over and over. Hell, I even taught myself Hebrew so that I could teach him. I take great pride in that, in who I am. But it wasn’t until I was older, way older, that I wanted to show that pride. To me, wearing it isn’t a symbol of God but a symbol of who I am as a jew.”

Castiel beamed at his husband’s answer. He was proud of him for how far he had come in life. He turned to Jack, knowing exactly what his answer was. “I wear mine because I love you, and I’m proud of you. And like Dean, I’m proud of who I am.”

Dean rolled his eyes, laughing gently to himself. “Dude, that’s cheesy as hell.”

“Well, it’s true.” Cas turned back to his son, seeing the frustration in his eyes still. “Why don’t you ask Sam? He might have the answer you’re looking for.”

After breakfast, Jack cut across the lawn and into Sam’s. Letting himself inside, he found his uncle in the den with his feet kicked up and nose in a book. “Hey Jack,” he greeted, barely looking up. 

Jack plopped down on the couch next to him. “Why do you wear a kippah?” He asked straight out.

Putting the book aside, Sam looked at him, confused. “I don’t,” he replied. “I mean, I do when we go to the synagogue, or events and praying, but that’s it.”

“Okay, but when you do, why?” Pressed Jack, searching for an answer. 

“Because it’s tradition, it’s a custom. A reminder of my faith and belief in God. Why you asking?” 

“I don’t know why I wear it. If I’m God, then there’s no one else above me. No one around me. I am me. So why wear it?”

Sammy shrugged, unsure of what to tell him. “Look, Jack, just because you are God doesn’t mean you can’t wear it. It’s your choice to wear it, and the reasoning is something that means something to you. Have you asked Michael? He’s older than Cas, so I’m sure he has more insight.”

“He’s on vacation with uncle Adam. They said to not bother them,” replied Jack, defeated. 

“Huh, what about Bobby? When I was your age, I used to go to him a lot for these types of questions.”

“Yeah, he always has an answer for everything. Thanks Uncle Sammy.”

Before Sam could get another word in, Jack vanished from sight. He reappeared in Heaven, in front of Bobby’s house. It was the same as his home on earth, with a large salvage yard surrounding the old house. Bobby sat out front, a large dog at his feet. He waved at Jack as he approached him, and a second chair appeared next to him out of thin air. 

“Didn’t expect this visit,” the old hunter said. 

Sitting down next to him, Jack closed his eyes and felt the peace of heaven wash over him. He loved it up here, especially at Bobby’s house. It felt like home to him. 

“Uncle Sammy said I should ask you, and my dads said I should ask Sammy,” said Jack. 

“You gonna tell me what you wanted to ask? I ain’t a mind reader , kid.”

“Why do I wear a kippah?” 

Bobby looked at him, surprised. He hadn’t expected the question. It took him back to when Sam and Dean asked him the very same one. He smiled at the fond memories back before the shit hit the fan and the end of the world was a weekly occurrence. 

“What makes you ask that?” He asked Jack. 

“Well, since I’m technically God now, there’s no reason for me to pray to myself or wear something that symbolizes God above me. I’m not above me. I’m not anywhere but right here. I get why people who don’t know me wear theirs, and why my dads do. But it feels off to wear on myself.”

“Jewish law says you must cover your head, especially during prayer and torah study. But that doesn’t mean you absolutely have you. That’s between you and, well, you.”

“But it’s not technically a halachic requirement, I thought. Dad said I don’t have to wear it if I don’t want to. And I do want to, but I don’t see a reason to wear it.”

“Jack, you are God now. You get to make the rules for yourself. Therefore, the reasoning needs to be what you make it, not what someone else is telling you.” Bobby paused, taking a deep breath. “I got a bunch of books inside that might have the answer you’re looking for. I’m sure the Talmud has a ton of answers.”

“No, that’s okay,” replied Jack, looking at his hands in his lap. 

“Why don’t you ask your rabbi? I mean, it is his job.”

Jack looked over at Bobby, beaming. “Yeah! I’m gonna ask Aaron. He always has the right answers.”

With that, Jack once again vanished. When he appeared again, he was standing directly in front of Aaron as he walked down the sidewalk. Aaron let out of yelp and jumped back, startled by the sudden appearance of the Nephilim. 

“Shit!” He yelled out. “Don’t do that!” 

Next to him, Golem groaned deeply, annoyed at Aaron’s foul language. 

Apologizing, Jack began to go off into a rant explaining his question and the reasoning behind it. He spoke quickly, trying to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything. Finally, when he was done, he took a deep breath since his speech took so much out of him. 

Aaron stood there nodding the whole time, trying to process everything being thrown at him. “Yeah, so that’s a great question, Jack. I don’t know. You do know you don’t have to, right?”

“I know that. Everyone keeps telling me that. But I want to, there’s just no reason,” replied Jack, feeling even more defeated in his quest for a suitable answer. 

“Yeah, I got nothing for you. Everyone else told you all I could say.”

Golem looked down at Jack, remembering to not bow like he used to. “Self respect,” he said solemnly. 

“Huh?” Jack asked, confused. 

“Wear it to show self respect.”

“That’s actually… a good reason,” replied Jack, hopeful that he finally found an answer he deemed acceptable. 

“Yeah, and it shows that you are one of us. Just because you are God doesn’t mean you aren’t Jack,” added Aaron. “You weren’t always God, but you have always been Jack. You treat everyone as equals. That’s what separates you from Chuck. Maybe the reason you wear it should be to be proud of who you are as not only someone who’s Jewish, but as a reminder of self respect and respect for everyone who believes in you.”

Jack thought about it for a moment, liking the answer even more now. He didn’t see himself like Chuck saw himself. He wasn’t this all powerful God that ruled over his creation. He wasn’t writing a story and had no plans to end it all when it didn’t go his way. He was simply Jack Kline and at his very core, he was just a kid. Nothing more, nothing less. His title as God didn’t separate him from his family and the people of the world. It might have been for Chuck, but Jack wasn’t like him and didn’t want to be him. This was something he was greatly proud of, and the thought made him proud to wear his kippah. 

“I think I get it now,” said Jack. “Thanks, Aaron.”

“No problem- “ Aaron began, but Jack disappeared before he could finish. “Angels,” he whispered under his breath. 

___________

Dean found Jack in the field behind the house. Sitting down next to him, he looked out over the tall grass that blew in the late afternoon breeze. “You find your answer, kid?” 

“Yeah, I think so.”

“What was it?” 

“Self respect and respect for those who believe in me. I think I’m going to keep wearing it to show that respect.”

Dean nodded, smiling at how proud of Jack he was. “That’s a good reason. You know, I don’t wear mine to put you on some pedestal. It was never about you, or Chuck, or anyone. I don’t think anyone who knows you does anything to do that. I think it’s more about loving you, supporting you. But also for themselves, we all have a reason for doing the things we do and wearing what we do. It’s deeply personal, and we all need to find the reason why. And your reasoning is perfect.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. But the bigger question is, why purple?” 

Jack laughed at the question. “Cause I like purple, I guess. Why do you wear your green one a lot?”

“Cause I like green.” 

Chapter Text

It was quiet when Dean woke in the late morning. The bed next to him was empty, and at first he didn’t think much of it. Cas rarely stayed beside him throughout the night. He often got up during the night to wander or go into the living room to sit and read whatever latest novel he, Meg, and Charlie were reading together. Usually when Dean woke alone the rich aroma of coffee filled the air, drifting up from the kitchen. But this morning the smell was absent, and the house was silent. 

Making his way downstairs, Dean found himself to be alone. He checked Jack’s room to find that he too was missing. Not thinking much of it, Dean figured Cas and Jack went off in the early hours of the morning. He relaxed, knowing they were together and were safe. He got the coffee brewing and rummaged through the fridge looking for something to eat. 

As he closed the door to the fridge the sound of wings filled the air. Dean turned around expecting to see his husband and their son. But instead he saw a very panicked Castiel and a very annoyed Michael. 

Panic hit Dean like a sack of bricks. “What’s going on?” He asked, fearing the worst.

”It’s your children,” replied Michael, sharply. “Do you know where they are?”

”I thought Jack was with Cas. Claire, I don’t know? Probably home. The shop doesn’t open until two today. She’s probably sleeping.”

”Try again,” said Michael sarcastically. “Try Fort Knox.”

”Fort? Fort Knox?! The fuck are they doing there?”

”If I knew I’d tell you. But right now, no one has answers and it turns out your government has that place locked down.”

”Well, yeah. It’s Fort Knox, Michael.”

Michael stepped forward, invading Dean’s personal space. “No, Dean. Locked down as in warded. Against everyone.”

”Oh.” Dean looked past the angered archangel to his husband. “Cas? What do we do?”

”I don’t know, Dean. Somehow Jack got past the warding. I think he disabled them, but once he got inside they went back online. Claire prayed to me, asking for help. They’re stuck in there, Dean. I don’t know what to do. I tried going down there and helping them, but I can’t. The warding, it’s too strong. So I got Michael, thinking he could do it, but again nothing.”

Dean pushed past Michael, and went to his angel. He held Cas tightly, running his hand through the hair on the back of his head. “Cas, it’s okay. The kids are going to be okay. If you two can’t get in, maybe me and Sammy can. We can’t panic. Not yet.”

”And how exactly do you propose two humans break into the most heavily fortified place in the country?” Questioned Michael. 

Turning back to look at the archangel, Dean smirked. “Leave that to us. Sammy and I escaped a black site once. I think we can handle Fort Knox.”

___________

Three hours later, Dean and Sam were in the Impala on the road to Kentucky. It was a twelve hour drive if they drove straight there. Dean was certain he could make it there in sixteen. Cas had thought it would be wiser to be teleported there. But Sam pointed out that with the warding it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to assume the warding went far behind the Fort itself. Not wanting to risk being seen, Cas agreed to letting the brothers drive. The two angel’s went ahead to get close as they could without tripping the anti-nonhuman sensors to keep an eye out. 

They just past into Missouri when Sam chortled, laughing to himself. 

“What?” Dean asked, slightly annoyed at the sound that came from his brother.

”Nothing,” replied Sammy, still chuckling to himself. “It’s just… your kids are kinda stupid.”

”Hey! I will get Cas to zap your ass back home. They aren’t stupid. Just… okay, yeah. When it comes to this they are stupid. What the hell were they thinking?”

”Beats me. Maybe the found something in there.”

”What they’re gonna find is a year long grounding.”

”Jack, sure. But you can’t ground Claire. She’s an adult. A married one at that. You think Kaia knows?”

Dean shrugs. “Probably. If Claire told her, she would’ve told me and Cas right away. Cas probably informed her when we headed out.”

”You know where they get this from, right?” Sammy asked, smirking. ”I’m not saying you and Cas are stupid. Neither are the kids. But, Dean you both can be a bit-“

”A bit, what, Sammy?” Dean asked, interrupting Sam’s sentence. 

“A bit thick. You’re not stupid, not by far. Remember when you made that EMF reader? Someone stupid never could have done that. All these years, I never told you, but you’re the smart one, Dean. I don’t give you enough credit. Cas isn’t dumb either. He knows more than any of us combined.”

”But he’s an angel, and angel’s can be kinda dense,” remarked Dean, relaxing a bit more. “I ever tell you how a few months ago I sent him on a store run to go get body wash?”

”No,” replied Sam, confused. 

“Yeah, he came home empty handed with that look of panicked confused he gets. You know the one. Turns out he went to Soapland. Thought it was the same as bath and body works.”

”Isn’t that?”

”Yeah, yeah it is. Oh, and the week before that he had to go to Heaven with Gabriel . He decided to leave his vessel behind since they were going to be in their true form most of the time. That was freaky. Anyways, when he came back and went back into his body he made a little oopsy. For some reason, he had a new, third nipple. Right in the middle of his stomach. When he tried to get rid of it he just panicked. The thing grew and grew, man. Within an hour it took up his whole torso. Turns out it was a prank Gabriel did.”

”That sounds more like Gabe being a dick than Cas being dense.”

”You’d think so, right? Well, turns out the prank was started when Gabe asked Cas if he could hold onto his third nipple. Cas feel for it. Still don’t know what that means, but he fell for it. Dude’s four billion years old and still falls for pranks like that. He also falls for the whole pull my finger thing.”

Sam laughed. “Dude, so do you.”

”Yeah, cause it’s funny. I know the farts are coming, Sammy.”

_______

”So what’s the plan?” Asked Sam as Dean turned off the highway. 

They were close now to Fort Knox. Cas had called Dean an hour before to inform them that Claire prayed to him again, informing him that she and Jack were still okay. This made Dean feel slightly comforted. At least, as much as he could feel comforted right now. The issue at hand now was the fact that they still had yet to form a plan. 

Dean shook his head, unsure. “I got no clue, man. Cas said Michael wants us to get as close as possible and go on foot the rest of the way. I think we should try to figure out how the kids got in, and go in the same way they did. Wait, what’s that?” 

Pointing ahead of them on the road, Dean slowed the car down. Ahead in the darkness as a long orange glow was moving slightly up and down. It looked as though it was coming closer to them. 

“What is that?” Sam asked, more to himself than to Dean. 

Dean carefully drove closer to the mysterious glowing object. Soon, he was able to see that the glow was fire. It wasn’t until they were right on top of the flame he could see the faces of Jack and Claire. He pulled the car over quickly, gravel flying under the tires. Getting out of the car, Dean glared at his children. 

“Get in the car,” he said, his voice demanding and stern. 

Jack and Claire got into the car. The long flame turned out to be a sword that went out as they got in. Claire looked sad as it went out, but shrugged dismissing it. Once the sibling duo were in the backseat, Dean took off down the road and prayed to Castiel and Michael, forming them of the kids' safety. 

“What the fuck?!” Dean bellowed, glaring at them in the rear view mirror. “In what world did you two think it was a good idea to break into Fort fucking Knox? And how did you even pull that off? And what the fuck is that sword?”

”This world,” Claire said, answering the first question.

”I disabled the wardings, and security systems. And made the guards think we were one of them,” said Jack, answering the second question.  

“You have working eyes, congratulations. Yes, it’s a sword.”

Dean rolled his eyes at his daughter's sarcasm. “Watch it, I can still ground you. Why didn’t you tell us what you were planning to do? Also was that sword in there? How the hell did you know? Man, I got so many questions. Mainly, why did you sneak off and why haven’t you prayed to Cas to tell him you got out? Wait, how did you get out?”

”If we told you, you and dad wouldn’t have allowed us to go,” answered Jack. “We forgot to tell him we got out. I figured out I could just reverse the warding like I did when we got in. I heard about the sword from grandpa.”

Sam and Dean exchanged looks before Sam asked, “What did he tell you exactly?”

”The other day I went up to Heaven to visit him and he told me that in Fort Knox the government kept ancient Heaven weapons. Like a flaming sword. I told Claire and she thought we should go in and get it. It was fun.”

”Dammit, Bobby,” Dean growled through his teeth. “I’m gonna kill him. I’m going to raise him from the dead and kill him again. Actually, no. Sammy, I need you to kill me, so I can go and tell him to not tell Jack about any more secret weapons in heavily guarded government buildings. And Claire, don’t tell your brother anything else would be fun. Don’t do that.”

”He also told me that there aren't any aliens in Area 51,” stated Jack. “He said it’s actually just a testing facility. But that there is stuff there that Chuck influenced scientist and engineers to create. So, it’s sorta divine.”

”No! You are not going! Son of a bitch, Bobby!”