TM: This is...
It takes Claire a few moments to become alert enough to realize that the baby is crying on the monitor. She's been following the unwritten 'sleep when the baby sleeps' rule, but little Dean is as difficult as his uncle and always gets up before she's ready to. She pushes aside the covers and climbs out of bed, letting Sam continue to snore peacefully. Loudly, but peacefully.
She's not surprised to see the light on in the nursery as she moves through the hall, but it makes her walk a little faster. It's not until she gets to the doorway and sees Dean rocking her son next to his crib that she stops, breathes a sigh of relief, and realizes that Sam and Dean's 'nursery-phobia' is rubbing off on her. "This is getting ridiculous, she whispers, stepping into the room.
"Go back to sleep, JB. He's wet, I've got it." Dean answers, and Claire knows she's supposed to take little Dean's silence as proof that his uncle's undivided attention is currently just as good as his mom's. She's not surprised, given the way the boys race her to Dean's crib whenever he starts crying. Initially he had slept in Matthew's old cradle in their bedroom, but Sam's snoring woke him up more often than not. Now she uses the cradle when Sam's hunting, and relies on the monitor the rest of the time.
She nods, moving toward them instead of away even as she's allowing Dean to take care of him. "I know exactly what you and Sam are up to, don't think I don't" she tells him, wanting to make sure that Dean knows she's figured it out by now. Tonight is Dean's night to be on alert, but tomorrow night it'll be Sam who jumps up and rushes into the nursery if the baby so much as makes a noise. They do it so that she doesn't have to.
They also do it because of their mother's death, which happened over thirty years ago and yet has defined who they are now in every way imaginable.
"Up to?" He smirks down at the baby as he brings him over to the changing table. She'd be lying if she said she didn't think it was sweet. "Your mom thinks we're up to something," Dean tells him quietly, laying him down and expertly unfastening the tabs on the diaper and raising his nephew's bottom up slightly. "Save the target practice for Sammy," he warns, before quickly getting to work.
"Would you be this determined to beat me to the nursery if we called it something else?" Claire asks, covering a yawn with the back of her hand. She knows that she should let Dean handle it and go back to sleep like he told her to, but she feels guilty letting him take care of her baby by himself. Nevermind the face that she wants her son to know that she'll be there when he cries, even if someone else ends up taking care of him. It's bad parenting to pass him off on someone else, no matter how tired she is.
"Uh, it'd still be one, so no," he replies, picking Dean up again and carrying him over to her. "Okay kid, say goodnight to your mom. Your dad would freak if she passed out in here." She kisses her son's forehead first, and then plants quick kiss on his bossy uncle's cheek. She sees no reason to stick around when both Deans are behaving themselves, so the boys get to claim another victory over her. But she's the one who gets to go back to sleep, so she doesn't feel like she's lost anything, anyway.
"Thanks, Dean." She feels like she should say it, because she knows that both of them do this for her. Their fears are irrational at this point, and she doubts a yellow-eyed demon could do much to her if one was alive somehow, but they do it to protect her. They want their kids to grow up with both parents, in a house that's safe, feeling like there's nothing out there that could ever touch them.
"Welcome," he says as he sits down with Dean in the rocking chair. She can hear him begin to hum "Wherever I May Roam" as she's walking out.
Claire Bennet
Heroes
722 words