The Huntress -Chapter 3
Portsmouth, February 5
“You’ve lost almost seven pounds, Dean. That’s a lot.”
Dean stepped off the scale and shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it.”
Sam, who was rocking a sleeping Sumiko back and forth in the stroller, cleared his throat.
“What, now?” Dean snapped back. “I told you, Sammy. I don’t feel any different than during the first pregnancy.”
He walked straight to the exam table, where a blue gown was waiting for him. He was used to the drill by now. With another exasperated huff, he closed the curtain.
Rania frowned at Sam.
“What is that all about?”
Sam only hesitated for a moment. “He’s been… sleepwalking.”
“Damn it, Sam!” Dean growled from behind the curtain.
Sam couldn’t understand why Dean was so embarrassed about it. They weren’t talking about a STD, after all, and to be honest, Rania had seen Dean in situations no one else had ever seen him in. Still, they’d had a fight in the car when Sam had mentioned that he wanted to speak to Rania about it, only ending the argument when Sue had started to cry.
“Is that something new?” Rania asked, ignoring Dean with all the detachment of a professional doctor.
“Yeah. Never happened before, not even during his first pregnancy.”
“How often does it happen?”
“M’ready,” Dean called.
“It’s happened four times in the past two weeks.”
“And what kind of somnambulism are we talking about? Does he walk through the house or is he accomplishing complex tasks?”
“Well, once, he peeled potatoes and last night, he packed a bag with food, like we were going on a picnic or something.”
Dean pulled the curtain back, a strange combination of pissed-off hunter with his arms folded over his chest and his face beet red, and vulnerable patient, looking white and too thin in the examination gown. “I’m standing right here, you guys.”
“I’m just worried,” Sam defended himself.
“Well, it’s…” Dean mouth remained open as he visibly tried to find a good reason for not telling Rania about his sleeping troubles.
“It’s probably just stress,” Rania told him in a reassuring voice.
“See Sam, nothing to fuss about.”
“Sit on the table, please.”
Dean did and kept glaring at Sam while Rania took his vital signs and took a blood sample.
“I wouldn’t say it’s nothing to fuss about,” the doctor finally said, gesturing to Dean so that he would lie down on his back. “Dean, you’re working full time, right?”
“It’s basically doing a whole lot of copying and pasting on the computer. I stay home, for Christ’s sake.”
“Yeah, but you have your daughter with you and you’re at the beginning of your pregnancy and morning sickness is an issue for you.”
As she was talking, Rania covered Dean’s lower body with a sheet and pulled his gown up. Dean’s weight loss was more apparent like that and, was Sam dreaming, or was there already a small bump on his brother’s lower stomach? Dean was only into his ninth week, and, as Sam remembered it, he hadn’t started to show until the end of the third month when he’d been pregnant with Sumiko,
“You’re showing,” Rania said, starting her physical exam.
Dean blushed. “Yeah.”
So. He was right about that. Sam repressed a smile and took a look at Sumiko. She was still fast asleep in her stroller.
“Well, let’s take a look at this little one.”
Dean’s hands tightened their grip on either side of the table. This would be the first ultrasound and he had been nervously anticipating it since that morning. Sam was nervous as well. Nervous, but excited. He tried to let go of all the worries he had concerning Dean’s health and just enjoy the moment.
It took Rania quite some time to locate the foetus, and Dean was getting paler by the second, biting firmly on his lower lip and frowning at the computer screen, like he could get the foetus to appear by shear will. And then suddenly it was there, the kidney-shaped thing resting inside the uterus that would become their second child.
“Here,” Rania murmured, pressing the wand on Dean’s stomach and starting to take the measurements. “It looks perfectly normal so far… Let me… Okay. It’s approximately 1.8 centimeters long. That’s nice. Here’s the umbilical cord and the huh… yeah, the placenta. It’s well located.”
“What about its heartbeat?” Dean asked, short of breath.
“I’m getting to it.”
Sam waited anxiously. He had been kind of scared of not feeling the same amazement he had when he’d first seen Sue on the ultrasound, but the sensation this time was just as intense. He had a wide smile on his face that he didn’t even control.
My little baby bean, he thought, a lump swelling in his throat.
Rania had turned on the volume of the machine and was slowly dragging the wand across Dean’s pale skin where is glistened with lubricant. A few seconds of searching and she stopped while the white noise was cut by the rapid thump-thump of a beating heart.
“That’s the heart. It’s very strong for a nine week old foetus,” Rania said, smiling at Dean.
Dean’s head was slightly cocked to the side, his green eyes wide and bright. He smiled back.
“She’s fine?”
“She?” Sam asked playfully.
Dean shrugged. “I don’t know. It just… slipped.”
“Boy or girl, its development appears perfectly normal so far,” Rania said before turning off the ultrasound screen. “And we want to keep it that way, Dean.”
The conversation they had after the exam was way less exciting. Rania was worried about Dean’s weight loss and stress level. She thought he was overdoing things. Of course, Dean took it as an insult.
“Listen, I’ve been hunting for years, sleeping when I could, risking death at least once a week. I’m not overdoing it. That’s ridiculous.”
Rania’s feature tensed and she suddenly became much more menacing. In her stroller, Sumiko groaned.
“The first trimester of a pregnancy is always tough, big guy. Whether you’re a delicate woman or a manly man like you. The hormonal changes alone are enough to cause stress and tiredness. Now, it’s worse for you since - and really, do I have to point this out - you’re not supposed to be able to get pregnant at all. Hormonal changes are a lot more brutal for you. Your body is under a curse, Dean. You also have to take care of a young child, which is enough to drive most parents to exhaustion during the first year. Add to that the sleepwalking, the trouble you have keeping anything you eat down and the weight loss.” At this point, Rania pauses to shake her head. “Like it or not, Dean, you have to slow down or it could affect your health and the baby’s as well.”
Rania’s face got redder as she spoke and Dean went from pissed off and exasperated to guilty and uneasy. He lowered his eyes. Sam was so impressed by Rania’s sudden outburst that he couldn’t, for the life of him, think of anything to say.
“Okay,” Dean mumbled after a few seconds of silence.
“Well, I’m glad we sorted that out,” Rania replied, taking a deep breath. “Now, there is one last thing I want to talk about.”
Dean rolled his eyes at Sam, as if they were accomplices of some sort.
“During your first pregnancy, the stretching of the pelvis and ligaments occurred around week twelve. There is nothing indicating that this time will be any different. Since you’re already into your ninth week, we’re getting close.”
“Geez, I forgot about that,” Sam said, remembering Dean curled on the backseat of the Impala and the sense of dread that had plagued the both of them, so sure that Dean had been miscarrying.
“I didn’t,” Dean groaned, wincing at the memory.
“So let’s try to take a proactive approach with it this time,” Rania stated.
Proactive was a word that he could get behind, Sam decided as he listened carefully.
:::
On the ride back, Dean left the driving to Sam and sat, brooding in the passenger seat with a big paper bag on his lap. In it were vitamins, iron supplements, protein shakes, disposable syringes and needles, some morphine, in its liquid form as well as pills.
Sumiko wouldn’t stop whining. It was the middle of the afternoon and she had taken a long nap at Rania’s which, for some reason, made her especially grumpy. Her feeding time was getting close and since she had barely swallowed half a spoon of pea puree at lunch, she was probably hungry. Despite the fact that she was a picky eater, a hungry Sumiko was basically the baby version of a hungry Dean.
Fun times, Sam thought as he drove through a snow storm that was getting stronger by the minute. He had tried to talk to Dean when they had first gotten on the road and had been rewarded by a muffled groan. After some of the longest minutes in his life, Sam felt exasperation building up until he just couldn’t help himself.
“I don’t know what your problem is, Dean! Nobody thinks you’re weak or-“
“Shut up.”
“No, I won’t. All I’m saying is that we can split the work. I’m not joking when I say I have free time at my job. When nobody messes with the system, it basically runs itself. I could at least make the graphs and charts while you enter the numbers. “
“Okay,” Dean whispered.
“And I…wait, did you just say “okay?”
“Yes, damn it, I said okay,” Dean snapped.
“Well… Great. And as for the baby-sitter, I know you don’t like the idea of leaving Sumiko alone with a stranger… I don’t like it either, but what if we hire someone to keep an eye on her while you’re home… Maybe just a couple of afternoons a week. You could do your work without being disturbed, but you’d still be there with her.”
“Okay,” Dean said again, looking out the window.
“Dean?”
“Now, what?”
“Are you messing with me?”
“Why the hell would I do that, Sam! We’ll do it your way, we’ll follow every single word of advice Rania gave us. Now, are we done?”
Sam frowned. In the back seat, Sumiko let out an angry string of vowels.
“Yes, I guess we’re done.”
::: :::
Freeport, February 13
That morning, Sam went alone to the swimming class with Sumiko. Dean hadn’t slept well the night before - although there hadn’t been a sleepwalking episode, he had woken up from an obvious nightmare, judging by the sweat wetting the sheets, and hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. When Sam had proposed that he stay home, he hadn’t even protested.
Something was wrong with him and it bothered Sam so much he was constantly uneasy when he wasn’t home with him. Dean was withdrawn and broody. He rarely smiled anymore and Sam often caught a strange look on his face, like he was lost or confused or even both. His only smiles were reserved for Sumiko. Even so, their daughter was visibly affected by her father’s mood and was often as grumpy as he was, crying for no reason, waking up several times in the middle of the night and refusing to eat her cereal and vegetables.
Sam was at a loss as to what to do. He’d tried to talk to Dean a couple of times only to be ignored or rudely told to shut up. He was hoping that Dean’s mood was the result of the tiredness of the first trimester and that he would get better eventually. Dean took Rania’s vitamins every day and tried to eat the best he could. The shakes hadn’t worked. First time he’d tried one, he’d thrown it up almost instantly. Still, he ate small meals six times a day instead of three bigger ones and that seemed to help somewhat, although Sam wasn’t there during the day and had to take Dean’s word for it.
He had put up an ad for a baby-sitter at the local supermarket where they did their grocery shopping and on a website. It had taken some time to get any responses, but they had found three people who were interested and they were going to meet them this afternoon. That didn’t do anything to improve Dean’s mood, of course.
After the swimming class, Sam was invited by a couple of moms to go get coffee near the YMCA with their babies. He was almost tempted to say yes, thinking about how Sumiko enjoyed seeing other babies and that he wasn’t anxious to get back home to the broody brother who was awaiting him. Then, he felt guilty, of course, because there must be a reason for whatever was going on with Dean and he had failed to figure it out so far.
When he got home, he found Dean in the kitchen listening to the news on the radio, still looking half asleep. Sumiko had fallen asleep in the car, exhausted by all the yelling and feet flapping she’d done in the pool. Sam delicately put her in her swing, unsnapping her winter suit and pulling off her hat. She pouted, but remained fast asleep.
“How did it go?” Dean asked, voice still gruff.
“Great. She’s not scared of the water, not even a little bit. Of course, if she’d stop wanting to swallow the whole pool…”
Dean had half a smile, looking fondly at his daughter. “She’s the best.”
“Of course, she is.”
Dean cleared his throat and stood up in front of Sam. He was wearing one of his old pairs of maternity jeans, the material worn out and very thin.
“They won’t last for the whole pregnancy. I’ll need some new ones.”
“Okay, yeah. I’ll take care of it.”
“Good.” Dean blushed. “Fuck, I’m actually thinner than usual, but the bump is like… in the way of the zipper and I can’t button my pants.”
“Did you get some sleep?”
“A little.”
“Ready for this afternoon?”
“You know what I think of this,” Dean’s face closed down and he turned his back to Sam, starting to clean the kitchen counter.
“Yeah, I know, Dean. Just… promise me you won’t act like a jerk.”
“I promise I won’t act like a jerk,” Dean repeated with so little conviction Sam couldn’t even pretend to believe him. He sighed. It would be a long day.
::: :::
It was like they were in one of those bad, family comedies. The first potential baby-sitter they interviewed was a woman in her early sixties. Sam had been the one to speak to her on the phone and she had seemed like a nice, responsible woman. She’d just retired and was looking for a part-time job because she was bored.
She sat in front of Sam and Dean in the kitchen. Sumiko was on Dean’s lap, babbling and letting out small high-pitched noises like she wanted to let them known that she had a choice in the matter.
Lena Thompson was drinking her glass of holy water and answering Sam and Dean’s questions, but there was something clearly disapproving in her posture and the way she kept her lips pursed when she wasn’t talking. After a while, Dean got impatient, despite Sam’s silent warning.
“Okay, is there a problem here, mam?”
The woman wiggled on her chair. “I’m sorry, Mr. Winchester, but I don’t like to be lied to.”
“What?”
“I did not realise you were living with someone.”
The way she said it left no room for misinterpretation.
“He’s my brother,” Dean snapped, frowning. Sumiko groaned a series of “da-da-da’s” for good measure.
“If you’d been honest with me, maybe this would’ve been different. Even then, I’m not especially at ease with… alternative life styles.”
Sam was glad Dean had his hands occupied with their daughter, seeing how his face turned red all of sudden. What he didn’t expect was his brother turning toward him and giving him a long, wet kiss on the mouth. “Too bad, honey, we’ll just have to find someone who’s more open-minded,” he said in a voice full of dirty promises.
Sam blushed and Lena Thompson told them they didn’t need to show her the door.
“What was that about?” Sam asked afterward.
“She was a stuck-up bitch, that’s what it was about. I gave her what she wanted.”
Dean winked at him.
“At least she wasn’t possessed.”
“I’ve known demons nicer than her.”
The second candidate was a man, which had immediately raised Dean’s suspicions despite Sam giving him a lecture about the equality of sexes and the fact that they weren’t living in the fifties anymore. As it turned out, the problem wasn’t that the guy was… well, a guy. It was more that he looked completely high. He was in his early twenties, was looking for a second job to pay his rent (read: his pot) and he had been baby-sitting since he was a teenager. He drank the holy water, didn’t start yelling when Sam accidently spilled the salt shaker on him and didn’t even feel the sharp point of a silver needle when it poked him in the back.
After he was gone, Dean shook his head.
“Yeah, I know,” Sam sighed.
“I mean. He’s not a bad guy, but fuck if I’d leave him in charge of Sue. What do you think, monkey?”
“Monkey” was yawning loudly and rubbing at her eyes, settling herself more comfortably on Dean’s lap. He had a very soft smile for her.
The third and last candidate arrived ten minutes late, and Dean was ready to send her packing by the time she got there. Clover Griffin was a seventeen year old girl and, according to what she’d told Sam on the phone, she had a lot of experience with baby-sitting.
She didn’t look her age. She was thin and short with a mop of dark hair tied clumsily into a ponytail at the back of her head. She had round glasses, just like Harry Potter, and her face was full of freckles - not the discreet kind like Dean’s, but big spots all clustered together. She blushed and smiled, showing the metal braces on her teeth. She was a living cliché, Sam thought, looking at the way she was dressed - a long, shapeless, hippie style skirt and a hand-knit sweater with an uneven, square pattern on it. Sam could picture her walking along a high school corridor, being pointed and laughed at. And unlike in the movies, she wouldn’t suddenly become beautiful and popular once she’d replaced her glasses with contact lenses.
Dean was observing her sharply, letting Sam ask the questions and cradling Sumiko who was now fast asleep in his arms. Clover had graduated from high school in June. She wanted to study sculpture at the Maine College of Art and was currently working on a project that could get her a scholarship when she started in September.
All of this was almost whispered in a thin voice as Clover studied her fingers. Sam waited for at least an eyeroll from Dean, but his brother looked open and interested.
Huh, Sam thought.
“So, Clover, your experience in baby-sitting?”
“Yeah. Well I have a little brother, Jake, and he’s seven years younger than me. Our parents died in a car accident when he was still a baby. We’ve been living with our granny ever since but she has a store to run and I’ve taken care of Jake most of my life. And um… last summer, I worked as a counselor in a summer camp. I have the phone number for them and some references if you’d like to have them.”
Dean was now smiling sadly at her. Of course he empathized. There were too many similarities between Clover and him to ignore. She was winning him over, as unlikely as that had seemed at first.
“So, this is my daughter,” Dean told her. “She’s an easy baby.”
“She looks just like you,” Clover said, and Dean literally lit up with pride.
That’s it? They were hiring her? Sam had a whole list of questions they haven’t even asked her yet. For good measure, he did the spilling salt trick again. Clover blushed as if she’d been the one responsible for the mess as she brushed the salt off her skirt without even blinking. As she did so, the sleeve of her sweater got pushed back and Sam could see a charm bracelet on her wrist.
“Charm bracelet?”
“Yeah… my granny. Her shop is kind of a new-age apothecary store. She sells herbs and charms and stuff, you know? Crystals and stones and incense. She was a hippie back in the day. Maybe you’ve seen her shop. It’s on Maine Street. It’s called The Alchemist. But… you know, she mostly caters to tourists and college students. We live just upstairs. I sometimes help with the store but I have a lot of free time.”
After that small lecture, Clover bit her lips as if she’d said too much. Sam and Dean exchanged a look. How much of a chance was there that Clover’s sweet granny was really a witch? By the way she talked about it, not much, but they definitely would have to check it out.
“Tell you what,” Dean said, clearing his throat. “Leave us those references from the summer camp so we can check them out and we’ll call you back.”
“Okay, no problem. I really would like to work for you, Mr. Winchester. I… I love kids.”
On the way to the front door, Sam poked her with the silver needle. She jumped, and a small droplet of blood stained the back of her sweater. When she turned to look at Sam, he was the image of innocence.
“I’ll wait for your call,” she said, rubbing at her back.
“So, really? You wanna give Ugly Betty a try?” Sam asked Dean in a low voice as his brother settled Sumiko in her swing, careful not to wake her up.
“Don’t call her that.” Dean snapped in the same whispered tone.
“Geez, sorry. I just said it before you did. But… really?”
“I don’t know, Sam. I… I trust her.”
Sam’s mouth dropped open and, although he managed not to voice his utter astonishment, it was a near thing. Dean didn’t trust easily, especially not when it came to his daughter.
“We’ll have to check the grandmother’s store,” Sam finally said. “What if she’s a real witch?”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Dean said distractedly, grabbing an apple from the counter. Leaning against it, he took an enormous bite. “But I suppose we still need to check,” he added around a mouthful.
“Of course we do. Dean, are you feeling okay?”
Dean shrugged. “Yeah. Dude, what’s the matter? You wanted us to hire a baby-sitter and now that I’m going with it, you don’t like it?”
“No, it’s not… S’just…”
You’re different. I don’t know why but you are.
“You know what? I’m actually hungry for the first time in two months. Let’s order a pizza for dinner.”
Dean smiled and Sam didn’t say anything.
::: :::
Sam visited the shop the next day after checking that Clover wasn’t working. Her grandmother really wasn’t anything more than an old hippie who actually seemed to believe in all the crap she was selling. She definitely wasn’t a witch, not even one into the new age Wiccan stuff. Sam was satisfied. An herbal shop was a natural dark forces repellant, so if Clover ever had to babysit Sumiko at her home, there would be some protection. During his visit, Dean called the summer camp and learned that, although Clover was awkward and really shy with adults, she got along perfectly with kids and, for many, had been their favorite camp counselor. Dean told this to Sam with a triumphant smile on his face, like his brother had been worried for no reason.
They decided to have Clover come to watch Sumiko on Monday morning, since Sumiko’s sleep pattern had started to evolve lately. She normally didn’t sleep at all in the mornings anymore, but took a longer nap in the afternoon. That way, the baby-sitter would have time to get familiar with the baby.
It was just as big a step for Dean as it was for Sam, despite his strange enthusiasm toward Clover. They were including someone new in their inner circle. Eventually, they would have to work around the fact that Dean’s belly would become a lot more apparent, but for now, they had agreed to take it one day at a time.
::: :::
According to Dean, things went well with Clover during her first shift. Sumiko took to her immediately and the two seemed to get along perfectly. Dean even had time to fix a leaking pipe in the basement. After some discussion, and working with the girl’s schedule at her grandmother shop, they agreed she would come every Monday and Wednesday morning. Sam took some of Dean’s work with him to school, despite his brother’s reluctance. All in all, the work Dean was given for the week was done by Thursday afternoon. He looked less stressed and tired, slept better that week -even the nausea seemed to back off, although they couldn’t tell if it was because of Dean’s more laid-back schedule or the fact that he was heading toward his third month of pregnancy and it was just a natural outcome. Still, Sam was relieved to see some color returning to Dean’s face. He hadn’t done any sleepwalking at all the whole week, so maybe that was all it had been: stress and exhaustion.
As for the fact that Dean had been so prompt to trust Clover, maybe he simply saw something in her that Sam didn’t, like the fact that they’d both raised their younger siblings. Sam liked the girl, had nothing against her, but he still wasn’t ready to give her his complete trust.
But as the week went by, Sam thought, maybe, the whole Dean-being-different thing had only been in his mind.
Then Friday came.
::: :::
Freeport, February 12
If you’d asked Sam, it was a date, but since his survival instinct was pretty acute, he didn’t say that out loud. Dean had called him at work to say he’d found an old barbecue grill in the basement with charcoal that was still dry and could Sam maybe pick up some steaks on his way back? They’d wait until Sue was asleep to eat in peace.
So. A date. Definitely. Sam bought two of the biggest rib steaks he could find and, when he got home, the barbecue grill was already on the porch. It had been snowing all day and now the wind had picked up. Dean just raised an eyebrow at Sam when he said that the charcoal would never take in this cold, and yeah, it was a pretty stupid thing to say, considering Dean’s tendencies toward pyromania.
They ate around nine thirty because Sue wouldn’t go to sleep. She had started to crawl that afternoon and just wouldn’t stop, going backward and forward, spinning on herself and drooling all over the floor. When Sam finally put her down, she crawled all the way to the upper corner of her bed, then closed her eyes and sighed, falling asleep almost instantly.
And sure enough, when Sam went back downstairs, the barbecue was running and smoking despite the wind, and Dean was cooking the steaks. Sam observed him through the window and Dean, sensing it, raised his head and smiled at him, his face surrounded by the faux fur of his parka hood, his cheeks red from the cold. A wave of love ran through Sam’s body and made him shiver. God, the things Dean had put up with over the last year, and there he was, standing tall and proud with a freaking baby inside of him, still sane -most of the time- and going through every day, the good ones and the bad ones, with this fierce will to live and to protect what was important to him.
“I love you,” Sam said later, as they were eating in the living room, their plates balanced on their laps.
“Mmm mmm,” Dean groaned, shoving another enormous piece of steak into his mouth, but there was a light in his eyes that betrayed the effect those words had on him.
They made love that night. Dean was so aroused he was already hard and leaking by the time they undressed in their bedroom. He was in a playful mood. As Sam finished undressing himself, Dean kneeled on the bed, sitting on his heels, stroking his cock, eyes reduced to slits.
“Fuck, I’m hard,” he groaned. “Been half-hard all day.”
Sam joined him, mimicking his position and stroking himself as well. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Thinking about you licking my ass… making me come just like that.”
And Jesus, Sam was only human. He shivered as his mouth filled with saliva and he bent forward to kiss Dean, shoving his tongue into his mouth, licking every single inch of him. Dean wrapped his hand around Sam’s on his cock and added just the right amount of pressure, jerking him hard and fast. When they parted, they were both panting hard and sweating. Without saying anything else, Dean lay on his back and parted his legs, his cock letting out a steady stream of precome. Sam grabbed his thighs and shoved them against his oh so slightly swollen stomach, exposing his tight pink hole, fluttering in the middle of a few strands of light brown hair. Licking his lips, Sam bent down and gave a tentative swipe of his tongue, which had Dean moaning loud and long, pressing his ass back against Sam’s mouth. They were both too far gone to tease each other anymore, and Sam went for it, closing his mouth around Dean’s asshole and sucking with a steady pressure. Dean shivered and tensed, grabbing Sam’s hair with both hands, letting out a hoarse cry. It didn’t take long before he resumed stroking his cock. Sam could hear the loud squelching sound as Dean picked up his pace and he release one of his brother’s thighs to grab his own shaft, muffling a groan against Dean’s ass at how good it felt.
“Oh jesus, oh god, Sammy. Can’t hold it anymore…” Dean panted, and Sam couldn’t help but smile before he shoved his tongue inside Dean’s dilated anus. The effect was immediate. Dean made a sound that was a cross between a yelp and a sob, his muscles locked and he started coming, shoving his ass against Sam’s face.
Sam waited for Dean’s violent tremors to recede a little, then he rose on his knees and jerk himself faster, still holding one of Dean’s thighs, until he came all over his brother’s abused asshole, groaning deep in his throat, his hair wet with sweat and hanging in his face. He collapsed next to Dean, trying to catch his breath as his brother gently rubbed soothing circles on his back.
A few minutes passed before either of them was ready to talk. It was Dean, who used all the dirty words he could come up with to tell Sam how good it had been.
Sam chuckled and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I suppose I have to get a wet towel now?”
“As far as I know, I’m still the pregnant one, so yeah,” Dean groaned, shoving his elbow in Sam’s ribs. In retaliation, Sam ruffled Dean’s short hair, which he knew annoyed the hell out of him.
A great date, all in all, Sam thought to himself, smiling as he got up.
They fell asleep wrapped around each other.
::: :::
It wasn’t the noise that woke Sam up. It was Dean’s body trembling against him. As he slowly awoke, he thought sleepily that they were in for another round of sleepwalking. Then, he heard it.
Sobbing. Long, gruff sobs, intermittently cut off by hiccups and wet sniffling sounds. Sam extended his arm to turn on the bedside lamp and saw Dean lying next to him, curled in on himself with both of his arms wrapped around his middle. His eyes were closed shut, his face half buried in the pillow, and he was crying with so much heart Sam immediately felt a lump swell in his throat. His first thought was that maybe the pain in his pelvis and hips had started.
“Dean?” He shook his shoulder gently. “Dean, what’s going on?”
Dean didn’t answer and burst into another sob. It was hard to tell if he was asleep or awake, and damn it, Sam felt a rush of anger coursing through him, seeing his brother in so much distress. Why couldn’t anything ever be easy for him?
“Dean…” He said more forcefully, accentuating his pressure on Dean’s arm.
Dean hiccupped and blinked, stopping mid-sob as tears kept rolling down his damp cheeks.
“Sa-Sammy?” He murmured.
He had been asleep. Confused and shaking, Dean looked around, probably trying to shake off whatever had been plaguing him.
“Are you hurt?”
“N-no. Fuck Sam, I…”
Dean dragged his wrist under his nose and wiped his face with the sheets -which was kind of gross, but Sam so didn’t care right now.
“Was it a nightmare?”
“I…” Dean shook his head. “Yeah. Yeah it was. Damn it.”
“You wanna tell me about it? Dude, you were crying your eyes out.”
“So what? T’s not like I can control it when I’m freaking asleep,” Dean snapped back.
He turned on his back and stared at the ceiling, his chin still wobbling.
“I’m sorry, but it was kind of scary. What the hell were you dreaming about?”
“I was… Jesus, I don’t know where I was,” Dean mumbled in an uneasy voice. “T’was dark and I was trapped there and… fuck, Sammy, I was so. Freaking. Scared.”
Dean swallowed back another sob while Sam hesitated, unsure of whether it was better to touch him or not. Dean usually didn’t share his dreams - neither did Sam - they both could easily guess what kind of nightmares were plaguing the other- and he looked so disturbed Sam knew a simple touch could make him snap. He settled for turning on his side, head in his hand, being close without touching.
“Did something else happen?” Sam asked gently.
“I don’t… I was pregnant but like, really pregnant, ready to pop and something wanted the baby. Sam, something was after the baby and I couldn’t do anything.”
Then, to Sam’s shock, Dean burst into tears all over again, hiding his face in his hands. “Fuck, I couldn’t do anything to protect her and… It wasn’t like a normal dream, Sam. I felt awake. I smelled the humidity of the place and I heard water dripping somewhere nearby and I… I was hungry and I couldn’t breathe and I felt like I had a fever and even felt the baby kicking… Fuck.”
“God, Dean…”
Sam couldn’t help himself. He put his hand on Dean’s belly, feeling the small, but firm, swell. Dean didn’t push him away. He was trying to get his self-control back, clenching his jaw and muffling his sobs as his chest shook hard to contain the sobs.
“Do you think…” Sam hesitated before going on. “Do you think this dream is like… supernatural or something?”
Dean pushed his hand back and rose on his elbows, frowning at him. “No. You were the one with the visions, remember? This… this is just a fucked up pregnant man’s nightmare, nothing more.”
He was so insistent, like he was trying to convince himself. He got up to drink some water and seemed calmer, composed, when he got back. Sam barely had time to open his mouth before Dean cut him off as he slid under the sheets. “Sorry for waking you up. Geez, I’m tired.”
Then he turned on his side, his back to Sam, and Sam knew they wouldn’t talk about it again.
Just a weird pregnant man’s dream, like that time with Sue when Dean dreamed he’d given birth to puppies.
Just a dream that had Dean scared enough to cry in his sleep, and again when he told Sam about it.
What the hell was going on with his brother?
Chapter 4