Fic: The Shattered One (12/?)
See the masterpost for disclaimer, summary, and previous parts.
“Son of a bitch,” Dean cursed when he saw the forked crack in the windshield of his beloved car. “What the hell, Sam.”
“Dude,” Sam tossed one of their bags in the trunk, “talk to Cas.”
Dean went quiet, seething privately. “This happened when the baby did?”
“Yeah… I was hauling ass trying to get clear, but I still got hit with some kind of shock wave, and…” Sam waved at the windshield. “Just be grateful I managed to keep from crashing into a tree.”
Dean grumbled under his breath, but didn’t bitch anymore about the windshield. The back window was still busted out. In very little time, the Impala had gone from looking like a well-tended car to a rolling eyesore.
While Dean went back into the cabin, Sam stepped to the side and dug his phone out of his pocket. It was early morning as they packed up to head out. They’d stayed the first night (honestly, because Cas looked like he was in no shape to be moved), but Dean was shaking them awake before dawn to start getting their shit together. He didn’t want to stay where Lucifer had found them, and Sam was in complete agreement with that.
When Bobby answered Sam’s call, it was by launching into a tirade. “I’m going to stick a GPS up both y’all’s asses. Didn’t think I might be waiting to hear from you after sending you off into a god damn Hellmouth? You better be calling from a hospital where you just regained consciousness or I’m rolling my ass down there and killing you myself. Well?”
Sam winced. “Hey… sorry, Bobby.”
“Sorry… right. At least tell me everyone’s okay.”
“We’re all alive,” Sam answered. “Actually, I’ve got some good news and some bad news… which do you want first?”
“Might as well get it over with… the bad.”
“The demons got to Rufus before we could. He didn’t make it.”
“Oh, damn.” Bobby huffed, like it really sucked ass but Bobby wasn’t really surprised, either. Such was the life of a hunter. “So what’s the good news?”
“The Hellmouth’s gone.”
“Huh… how’d you boys pull that one off?”
“Actually, Cas did it.”
The noise Bobby made was suitably impressed. “Well, at least having an angel around is good for something. Wish I could tell you to throw back a few and take a minute to enjoy doing the damn-near impossible, but there’s something brewing down toward Los Angeles.”
“Demon activity?”
“How else would you explain a sudden bout of subzero temperatures?”
Sam glanced toward the door and saw Dean helping Castiel toward the car. The angel still wasn’t looking very good. He was leaning heavily on Dean and moved like everything was sore… he looked like how Sam had felt after the car accident with Dean and Dad, when he’d hurt from head to toe.
“So shag ass to the City of Angels and get on it,” Bobby was saying in his ear.
“Uh… that might be a little tough.”
Bobby’s expectant glare was in the silence.
“We, uh… we kind of ran into a little… snag.”
“… I’m listening.”
Dean eased Castiel into the backseat of the car.
“I don’t quite know how to say this, but… Cas sort of… had a baby.”
At first, there was only silence. Then Bobby’s hard voice growling, “Sam, I know your brother’s a lost cause, but I thought you had better sense than to drink this early in the morning.”
“I’m not kidding, Bobby. And I don’t know if we’re really up to fighting form right now. Cas is wiped out, and we’ve got a newborn baby in tow…”
“You’re not joking.”
“No, I’m really not.”
“Oh, of all the… and how in the hell does that angel manage to go and have a baby?”
Sam pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a long story.” Sam sighed. “But I’m serious… right now, I’d say we’re out of commission.”
“The Apocalypse ain’t exactly something where you can call in a sick day, Sam,” Bobby said lowly.
“I know, but we’re just going to have to take some time that we don’t have.” Sam swallowed as he flashed back to the angel writhing and screaming in agony on the bed. “You didn’t see him, Bobby. It almost killed Cas.”
Bobby went quiet. Sam looked toward the cabin again and saw Dean coming out, this time with the baby in his arms.
“All right,” Bobby finally said, “I’ll see who else I can put on this shit-storm in L.A. I suppose you idjits aim to head back here?”
“Well… just until we come up with a better plan.”
Bobby grunted and hung up. Sam pocketed his phone and hurried over to the car. Dean had just reached the open back door and was leaning down to look in at Castiel, the baby held gently to his chest. “Hey, Cas… look, I know you don’t want to, but… I need you to hold on to him while I drive.”
Castiel looked beleaguered at the request more than appalled. Maybe he was just too tired for appalled. “Very well.”
Dean carefully handed the baby over, lying him on his stomach on Castiel’s chest. Castiel looked down warily at the infant. His hands sort of hovered in midair at his sides, not sure what to do. The baby snuggled down, looking ready to fall asleep then and there and seemingly oblivious to Castiel’s reluctant roll of caregiver. With a look of resignation, Castiel finally laid one hand over the baby’s back and held it there.
“Was that Bobby?” Dean asked Sam over his shoulder.
“Yeah… told him we were heading his way.” Sam didn’t mention the demon ice-party in California. Dean had enough on his mind.
“Good… least there I can put my car back together. That’s everything out of the cabin… let’s hit the road.”
Sam claimed his spot sitting shotgun. Dean got behind the wheel, but before he started the engine he turned in his seat to look back at Castiel and the baby. Cas was slumped in the seat, sprawled like a teenager in homeroom. The baby was tucked contently against his chest, Castiel’s hand almost perfunctorily covering the child’s back.
“Cas… can you fly?” Dean asked.
Castiel looked miserable and stricken at the same time at the question. “Dean, I need time to recover…”
“I’m not talking about zapping over to Italy to grab us a pizza. I mean, could you fly a really short distance? Like, could you mojo out of the car?”
Castiel looked sidelong at the car door next to him, the world beyond only a few feet away. “I believe I could… but what would a journey so small accomplish?”
Dean’s jaw clenched. “Because we don’t have a car seat, man. I’ll be careful, but… if we get in an accident - and our luck lately, it would just figure - I want you to take the baby and get him out of the car before he gets hurt. Okay?” Now Sam realized why Dean hadn’t drafted him for baby-holder duty. He had no superpowers to safeguard the tyke.
Castiel looked steadily at Dean, his hand draped motionlessly over the baby’s body. “I would suggest you simply avoid any collisions.”
“Thanks, smartass… just look after him.”
“Very well.” The angel settled his hand more securely over the baby sleeping on his chest. Sam suspected Castiel would doze off before too long, considering how beat he looked.
He was right. They’d barely been on the road ten minutes before angel and baby were both sleeping in the backseat.
********************
Driving with a newborn to care for made the role of driver and passengers much more fluid. Castiel would hold the baby, but he was pretty much worthless for anything else. At least the infant seemed to be perfectly happy to stay cuddled up to Cas; he only fussed or cried when he was hungry or needed changing. That was when the Impala became musical chairs, with Dean swapping out with Sam so he could hop in the backseat and take care of the baby. Sam thought Dean was being a trooper about it, truth be told. He never bitched at Castiel for not doing more. He didn’t gripe about the growing amount of crap in the floorboard (blankets and baby clothes and bottles and wipe cloths). He didn’t complain about the added hassle the baby brought into their lives (at a time when they really couldn’t afford any distractions from saving the world). He just focused on the task at hand and did what he had to do, no whining.
Actually, Sam had seen it before. It was how Dean went into soldier-mode back when their dad was still alive and Dean was ever the good little lieutenant. He wondered if that was what Dean was like when he had to take care of Sam as a baby. He could too easily imagine that concentrated, intent look on a young Dean’s face, old beyond his years.
He did it all so easily that Sam didn’t realize how much the situation was actually weighing on Dean until they stopped for the night at some motel off the highway. Sam came out of the front office with the keys to their room and spotted Dean over by the vending machine. He was standing with one hand braced against the machine, head hung low while he just took a minute to get himself together.
Torn, Sam eventually opted to leave Dean alone for now and went to the car. He opened the back door and peered in at Cas. “Hey… got a room. Need any help?”
“I can manage on my own.” Castiel was looking much better than he had that morning. Hopefully he’d be back to fighting shape in a day or two (because much as Sam did care about Castiel feeling better, there was also the fact that having a capable angel on their side was kind of a tactical advantage they couldn’t afford to lose). Though that still didn’t answer the question how they were supposed to fight the Devil with a baby to look after.
The angel held the baby to him with both hands and shifted around until he could swing his legs out of the car. He stood easily, no hint of swaying, and glanced toward Dean. The way he was holding the baby looked odd… like an afterthought. It was distant and impersonal… it may as well have been a potted plant for all the tenderness Cas was showing.
And yet, the baby looked peaceful in his arms, curled against the angel’s chest and peeking up calmly at Sam with one blue eye, the other eye smushed against Castiel’s body.
“How is it he looks like that?” Sam asked without thinking.
Castiel looked toward Sam, then down at the dark head of hair so close to his chin. He cocked his head at Sam in silent question.
“Why does he look… human? Shouldn’t he be, you know, light and energy or something?”
“He is… inside. So are you. But if you are asking about his physical form… the part of him that is human has dictated his appearance. Uncontained grace would have destroyed the human in him; he has a body because that is what he needed to have in order to survive, being what he is. Were he pure angel, he wouldn’t look like this.” Less of a nuisance/burden/liability was what Castiel’s tone implied. Sam wasn’t going to touch that one.
“Oh… so, when he grows up, is he still going to be like a human on the outside, or…” Sam trailed when he saw the blank look on Castiel’s face. He realized why. Castiel wasn’t thinking of the baby growing up at all.
Before Sam could get a handle on the discomfort of that notion, Dean joined them, game face back in place. “What’s with the standing around in the parking lot? Come on, let’s go inside. Here, Cas, you can let me have him.” Castiel readily passed the baby over to Dean. The baby wiggled and squirmed until he was pressed softly against Dean’s body, where he settled with a happy mewling noise.
Dean snorted. “Are you sure this little guy isn’t part Sam? Because he’s a huge cuddler.”
“You know what,” Sam sighed, “I’m too tired to even come up with a fitting caustic response to that. I call dibs on the shower.” He went first into the room, angling for the bliss of a hot shower.
He hoped Dean didn’t turn on the TV and see any news reports about Los Angeles.
Next
“Son of a bitch,” Dean cursed when he saw the forked crack in the windshield of his beloved car. “What the hell, Sam.”
“Dude,” Sam tossed one of their bags in the trunk, “talk to Cas.”
Dean went quiet, seething privately. “This happened when the baby did?”
“Yeah… I was hauling ass trying to get clear, but I still got hit with some kind of shock wave, and…” Sam waved at the windshield. “Just be grateful I managed to keep from crashing into a tree.”
Dean grumbled under his breath, but didn’t bitch anymore about the windshield. The back window was still busted out. In very little time, the Impala had gone from looking like a well-tended car to a rolling eyesore.
While Dean went back into the cabin, Sam stepped to the side and dug his phone out of his pocket. It was early morning as they packed up to head out. They’d stayed the first night (honestly, because Cas looked like he was in no shape to be moved), but Dean was shaking them awake before dawn to start getting their shit together. He didn’t want to stay where Lucifer had found them, and Sam was in complete agreement with that.
When Bobby answered Sam’s call, it was by launching into a tirade. “I’m going to stick a GPS up both y’all’s asses. Didn’t think I might be waiting to hear from you after sending you off into a god damn Hellmouth? You better be calling from a hospital where you just regained consciousness or I’m rolling my ass down there and killing you myself. Well?”
Sam winced. “Hey… sorry, Bobby.”
“Sorry… right. At least tell me everyone’s okay.”
“We’re all alive,” Sam answered. “Actually, I’ve got some good news and some bad news… which do you want first?”
“Might as well get it over with… the bad.”
“The demons got to Rufus before we could. He didn’t make it.”
“Oh, damn.” Bobby huffed, like it really sucked ass but Bobby wasn’t really surprised, either. Such was the life of a hunter. “So what’s the good news?”
“The Hellmouth’s gone.”
“Huh… how’d you boys pull that one off?”
“Actually, Cas did it.”
The noise Bobby made was suitably impressed. “Well, at least having an angel around is good for something. Wish I could tell you to throw back a few and take a minute to enjoy doing the damn-near impossible, but there’s something brewing down toward Los Angeles.”
“Demon activity?”
“How else would you explain a sudden bout of subzero temperatures?”
Sam glanced toward the door and saw Dean helping Castiel toward the car. The angel still wasn’t looking very good. He was leaning heavily on Dean and moved like everything was sore… he looked like how Sam had felt after the car accident with Dean and Dad, when he’d hurt from head to toe.
“So shag ass to the City of Angels and get on it,” Bobby was saying in his ear.
“Uh… that might be a little tough.”
Bobby’s expectant glare was in the silence.
“We, uh… we kind of ran into a little… snag.”
“… I’m listening.”
Dean eased Castiel into the backseat of the car.
“I don’t quite know how to say this, but… Cas sort of… had a baby.”
At first, there was only silence. Then Bobby’s hard voice growling, “Sam, I know your brother’s a lost cause, but I thought you had better sense than to drink this early in the morning.”
“I’m not kidding, Bobby. And I don’t know if we’re really up to fighting form right now. Cas is wiped out, and we’ve got a newborn baby in tow…”
“You’re not joking.”
“No, I’m really not.”
“Oh, of all the… and how in the hell does that angel manage to go and have a baby?”
Sam pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a long story.” Sam sighed. “But I’m serious… right now, I’d say we’re out of commission.”
“The Apocalypse ain’t exactly something where you can call in a sick day, Sam,” Bobby said lowly.
“I know, but we’re just going to have to take some time that we don’t have.” Sam swallowed as he flashed back to the angel writhing and screaming in agony on the bed. “You didn’t see him, Bobby. It almost killed Cas.”
Bobby went quiet. Sam looked toward the cabin again and saw Dean coming out, this time with the baby in his arms.
“All right,” Bobby finally said, “I’ll see who else I can put on this shit-storm in L.A. I suppose you idjits aim to head back here?”
“Well… just until we come up with a better plan.”
Bobby grunted and hung up. Sam pocketed his phone and hurried over to the car. Dean had just reached the open back door and was leaning down to look in at Castiel, the baby held gently to his chest. “Hey, Cas… look, I know you don’t want to, but… I need you to hold on to him while I drive.”
Castiel looked beleaguered at the request more than appalled. Maybe he was just too tired for appalled. “Very well.”
Dean carefully handed the baby over, lying him on his stomach on Castiel’s chest. Castiel looked down warily at the infant. His hands sort of hovered in midair at his sides, not sure what to do. The baby snuggled down, looking ready to fall asleep then and there and seemingly oblivious to Castiel’s reluctant roll of caregiver. With a look of resignation, Castiel finally laid one hand over the baby’s back and held it there.
“Was that Bobby?” Dean asked Sam over his shoulder.
“Yeah… told him we were heading his way.” Sam didn’t mention the demon ice-party in California. Dean had enough on his mind.
“Good… least there I can put my car back together. That’s everything out of the cabin… let’s hit the road.”
Sam claimed his spot sitting shotgun. Dean got behind the wheel, but before he started the engine he turned in his seat to look back at Castiel and the baby. Cas was slumped in the seat, sprawled like a teenager in homeroom. The baby was tucked contently against his chest, Castiel’s hand almost perfunctorily covering the child’s back.
“Cas… can you fly?” Dean asked.
Castiel looked miserable and stricken at the same time at the question. “Dean, I need time to recover…”
“I’m not talking about zapping over to Italy to grab us a pizza. I mean, could you fly a really short distance? Like, could you mojo out of the car?”
Castiel looked sidelong at the car door next to him, the world beyond only a few feet away. “I believe I could… but what would a journey so small accomplish?”
Dean’s jaw clenched. “Because we don’t have a car seat, man. I’ll be careful, but… if we get in an accident - and our luck lately, it would just figure - I want you to take the baby and get him out of the car before he gets hurt. Okay?” Now Sam realized why Dean hadn’t drafted him for baby-holder duty. He had no superpowers to safeguard the tyke.
Castiel looked steadily at Dean, his hand draped motionlessly over the baby’s body. “I would suggest you simply avoid any collisions.”
“Thanks, smartass… just look after him.”
“Very well.” The angel settled his hand more securely over the baby sleeping on his chest. Sam suspected Castiel would doze off before too long, considering how beat he looked.
He was right. They’d barely been on the road ten minutes before angel and baby were both sleeping in the backseat.
********************
Driving with a newborn to care for made the role of driver and passengers much more fluid. Castiel would hold the baby, but he was pretty much worthless for anything else. At least the infant seemed to be perfectly happy to stay cuddled up to Cas; he only fussed or cried when he was hungry or needed changing. That was when the Impala became musical chairs, with Dean swapping out with Sam so he could hop in the backseat and take care of the baby. Sam thought Dean was being a trooper about it, truth be told. He never bitched at Castiel for not doing more. He didn’t gripe about the growing amount of crap in the floorboard (blankets and baby clothes and bottles and wipe cloths). He didn’t complain about the added hassle the baby brought into their lives (at a time when they really couldn’t afford any distractions from saving the world). He just focused on the task at hand and did what he had to do, no whining.
Actually, Sam had seen it before. It was how Dean went into soldier-mode back when their dad was still alive and Dean was ever the good little lieutenant. He wondered if that was what Dean was like when he had to take care of Sam as a baby. He could too easily imagine that concentrated, intent look on a young Dean’s face, old beyond his years.
He did it all so easily that Sam didn’t realize how much the situation was actually weighing on Dean until they stopped for the night at some motel off the highway. Sam came out of the front office with the keys to their room and spotted Dean over by the vending machine. He was standing with one hand braced against the machine, head hung low while he just took a minute to get himself together.
Torn, Sam eventually opted to leave Dean alone for now and went to the car. He opened the back door and peered in at Cas. “Hey… got a room. Need any help?”
“I can manage on my own.” Castiel was looking much better than he had that morning. Hopefully he’d be back to fighting shape in a day or two (because much as Sam did care about Castiel feeling better, there was also the fact that having a capable angel on their side was kind of a tactical advantage they couldn’t afford to lose). Though that still didn’t answer the question how they were supposed to fight the Devil with a baby to look after.
The angel held the baby to him with both hands and shifted around until he could swing his legs out of the car. He stood easily, no hint of swaying, and glanced toward Dean. The way he was holding the baby looked odd… like an afterthought. It was distant and impersonal… it may as well have been a potted plant for all the tenderness Cas was showing.
And yet, the baby looked peaceful in his arms, curled against the angel’s chest and peeking up calmly at Sam with one blue eye, the other eye smushed against Castiel’s body.
“How is it he looks like that?” Sam asked without thinking.
Castiel looked toward Sam, then down at the dark head of hair so close to his chin. He cocked his head at Sam in silent question.
“Why does he look… human? Shouldn’t he be, you know, light and energy or something?”
“He is… inside. So are you. But if you are asking about his physical form… the part of him that is human has dictated his appearance. Uncontained grace would have destroyed the human in him; he has a body because that is what he needed to have in order to survive, being what he is. Were he pure angel, he wouldn’t look like this.” Less of a nuisance/burden/liability was what Castiel’s tone implied. Sam wasn’t going to touch that one.
“Oh… so, when he grows up, is he still going to be like a human on the outside, or…” Sam trailed when he saw the blank look on Castiel’s face. He realized why. Castiel wasn’t thinking of the baby growing up at all.
Before Sam could get a handle on the discomfort of that notion, Dean joined them, game face back in place. “What’s with the standing around in the parking lot? Come on, let’s go inside. Here, Cas, you can let me have him.” Castiel readily passed the baby over to Dean. The baby wiggled and squirmed until he was pressed softly against Dean’s body, where he settled with a happy mewling noise.
Dean snorted. “Are you sure this little guy isn’t part Sam? Because he’s a huge cuddler.”
“You know what,” Sam sighed, “I’m too tired to even come up with a fitting caustic response to that. I call dibs on the shower.” He went first into the room, angling for the bliss of a hot shower.
He hoped Dean didn’t turn on the TV and see any news reports about Los Angeles.
Next