Gravity-Defying House (chapter 5/6)
Originally posted here.
Title: Gravity-Defying House (Chapter 5/6)
Rating: I don't know... teen?
Pairing/characters: Dean/Cas, Sam, Bobby, Gabriel, a surprise character, an OC that I absolutely needed for plot and, you know, a baby. Mentions of Balthazar, Joshua, Jimmy and others.
Spoilers: Blanket for all aired eps.
Warnings/Kinks (aren't they the same?): MPREG!, established relationship, Gabriel is back from the dead, awesome!Sam, there WILL be some early stages of labour, but then it fades-to-black, mentions of sexual situations, there's some gender-bending at first, schmoop (no, really), angst (no, really), crack/humour, the baby isn't welcomed at first and notions of ending the pregnancy are entertained. ANGELS ARE DICKS! Like, really. Even Cas is going to be a complete SOB at first. Happy ending.
A/N: Author notes and list of people to blame are on the first post. This chapter was beta-ed by greenelysium.
OMG, writing this chapter SLAYED me. 1st it's twice as long as the others. 2nd it has tons of dialogue. 3rd it has the OC (hope you like her) and the surprise character and 4th, but absolutely not least, it has a birthing scene which I'm sure is harder to write than to actually give birth. I couldn't have done it without my f-list cracking birth jokes at me 24/7. You guys rock in a very weird way. I'm very proud of myself that I managed to write a birth scene without EVER using the verb to push. *pats self on the back* (ok, the fade to black helped)
Summary: He fully expected Cas to be around to take care of things. They all did.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4
It's a little after ten pm when there's a faint knock at the door. Sam looks at Bobby, frowning, before walking to the door, picking up his gun on the way.
He opens the door and gapes.
"You?"
Claire Novak is standing in front of him, a determined look on her face.
"I need to talk to Dean," she says.
Sam blinks, realizing how much more grown up she looks since the last time he saw her.
"Wha-- How the hell did you get here?"
"I'm turning sixteen next month and mom is already teaching me how to drive. So I may have borrowed her car." Claire blushes bright red and stares at her shoes. "I really need to speak to your brother," she whispers.
"Why didn't you call instead? Because I don't think it's a good idea…"
"I know everything, Sam!" She interrupts him. "About the baby. I know."
Sam spares a moment to pinch himself. Of all the weird things that happened in the last few months, his male brother getting pregnant included, this one takes the cake.
"How?"
"Castiel… contacted me?" She shrugs, looking as confused as Sam is feeling. "That's why I need to talk to Dean. I have a message for him."
Sam lets her in, after opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, without knowing what to say. Bobby raises an eyebrow at him when he sees Claire, but Sam holds a hand up at him, hoping he'll wait until Sam explains what's going on.
Upstairs Sam knocks at his brother's door and opens it when Dean replies, sounding wide-awake. The lights are on and Dean almost jumps out of the bed when he sees Claire.
She waves feebly at him.
"Oh, god, it's true. You really are…" She stops as if looking for the right word. "Pregnant."
"What are you doing here? Sam, what is she doing here?"
"Castiel communicated with me." Dean's mouth snaps shut at her words. "Or at least I guess that's what you’d call it. It was some weird sounds coming from my mp3 player that I could somehow understand." She shakes herself. "Anyway, he told me that you were… that, and that he was sent to heaven for some reason. He's trying to return and, I think the name was Joshua is trying to help him. And Gabriel and… Balthazar?" Sam nods. "They're on the run, don't ask me why. It was all really quick."
It makes sense that, if Cas is currently in his true form, he could only contact Claire, since she's his vessel, too.
"When is he coming back?" Dean asks her.
She looks down.
"I don’t know.” She looks back up at him. “Is the baby part-angel or something?"
Dean shakes his head.
"No, he's completely human."
"A boy then." Claire frowns. "So it's like he's my half-brother."
Sam turns to her and sees how she's holding her arms at her sides, her hands closed in tight fists. He's starting to understand why she came instead of calling.
"Claire…"
"Your dad has nothing to with this. Biologically or something, yeah, but." Dean observes at her for a moment. "Your dad's gone, Claire. I'm sorry."
Uh. That Sam didn't know.
"Okay." Claire takes a deep breath. "Okay. I remember how it was, so that's a good thing, I guess." She stops for a while, thinking of something. "Why did it happen? Is he using you as some type of incubator for new vessels?"
"Claire!"
"Claire…" Dean sighs. "Cas in nothing like that. And he’s changed a lot since you met him." He glances at his brother. "Sam, can you leave us for a minute?"
Sam leaves, going downstairs again. He really hopes Dean manages to talk Claire out of wanting to 'save' the baby. He tells Bobby about Cas' message and Claire's suspicions.
"You think she's right, son?"
"Bobby, the hell?"
Bobby shrugs.
"Just sayin' it's very strange that the angels went missing now."
Sam is about to reply when they're interrupted by a loud shriek coming from upstairs.
"SAM!" Claire screams, running down the stairs. "There's something wrong."
They run to the room Dean's staying in to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, pale and scared. In the place where he had just been lying there's a large wet spot with blood pooling into it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Bobby," Dean warns. "What are you doing?"
Sam turns to see Bobby scrolling down the contact list on his cellphone.
"Calling the daughter of a hunting buddy," he says, holding out a hand. "She's also a hunter and a licensed midwife." Dean raises an eyebrow. "Most female hunters don't like social workers askin' them about their broken bones and scars when they're popping out babies, so they go to midwives that hunt. She'll know what's wrong better than us." After a while a faint voice sounds from the other end of the cellphone. "Martha? Bobby Singer here," Bobby says, as he leaves the room.
"Dude, I'm taking you to the hospital now."
"No," Dean says. "Forget it, Sammy."
Sam clenches his fists and counts to ten, trying to control the urge to kick something.
"Oh, my god, why?"
"Because! A pregnant guy in a public hospital? Do you really think it would stay a secret? I'd be in the news all over the world!" Dean rubs his face with both hands. "And then what? A reality show deal based on my life? We're hunters; we're supposed to lay low. Not to mention that I'm legally dead and have the entire FBI on my tail."
"Did you really need to make sense?" Sam sighs.
"Yes, Martha, he's a guy," Bobby says, walking into the room again. "Yeah, an angel. After that hunt we went with your dad in 2005, you find this weird?" He huffs. "Okay, see ya then."
"Do I want to know what hunt that was?" Sam asks.
"Let's just say it involved ghouls and genitals and leave it at that." Sam shudders at the idea, horrified. "She's getting here in half an hour. And don't worry, son," Bobby tells Dean. "She'll keep quiet."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martha is small, but built like a hunter, her hair already turning grey even if she's not that much older than Dean. When Bobby leads her to the bedroom and she sees Dean, her jaw drops.
"Oh, boy."
"Yeah, exactly," Dean points out. Sam rolls his eyes.
"Right." She takes a moment to look around, eyes a bit too wide, before collecting herself with a deep breath. "So, you're… Dean, right? And you must be Sam, then. And just who are you, sweetheart?"
They all turn to the corner of the bedroom and see Claire sitting crossed-legged on the floor, looking spooked. Sam mentally slaps his forehead for having forgotten about her.
"That's Claire," says Dean. "She's… um, family. Of sorts."
“Okay,” says Martha, and then turns to Claire. "Sweetheart, would you mind bringing us the cushions from the couch downstairs and all the pillows you can find?" Martha asks her. "Take your time. Don't need to bring them up all at once."
Claire takes the clue and flees out of the bedroom, seemingly glad to have somewhere else to be.
Martha sits by Dean on the bed and takes a blood pressure monitor from her valise. She wraps it around Dean's left upper-arm and after a while removes it, nodding, looking satisfied. Sam sends Cas a silent thanks for that one, wherever he may be.
"Well, Dean, do you mind undressing? You can get under this, don't worry", she tells Dean, handing him one of the sheets Bobby brought her. Dean covers himself with it and after a bit of a struggle hands Bobby his shirt and his wet and slightly bloodied pants and underwear and lies back on the bed.
After prodding his belly for a while, Martha goes to the foot of the bed and waves, coughing and looking embarrassed, at Dean's knees.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Dean rolls his eyes and bends his legs at the knees, spreading them. Sam feels a bubble of laughter rising in his chest from how much Dean is blushing.
Martha settles herself in front of his feet and slowly raises the sheet folding it over his knees. And then stares.
"I don't even know what I'm looking at…"
"Yeah?" Dean snaps at her, blushing even more. "Do you need me to tell you what it is?"
"I know what it is!" Martha snaps back. "I just… never saw them together, that is." She grabs a towel and reaches between his legs. Dean almost shoots forward, eyes wide.
"Hey!"
"Sorry, just needed to take that out of the way."
Bobby and even Claire, who just came back carrying yet another cushion, laugh out loud and are glared at by Dean. Sam manages to shut his mouth.
"Okay, Dean, now try to relax or else this will be uncomfortable," Martha tells Dean, putting on a rubber glove and reaching again under the sheet. Dean winces, holding his breath and Sam no longer feels like laughing. "Well, it's starting," she says, removing the glove and tossing it in the garbage.
"What's starting?" asks Bobby.
"You know, labor."
"What?" Dean's starting to sound panicked. "That can't be! I still have one month to go and isn't it supposed to hurt like a bitch? Because save for some pain on my lower back, I'm fine."
"The baby is already ready to live outside. And those lower back pains are usually a sign," Martha points out. "Have you felt any pressure like a belt around your waist?"
Dean grimaces.
"A couple of times in the last few hours. Why?"
"Those are contractions. They don't hurt at first."
"Butbut…" Sam can feel himself getting panicked, too. "Cas has to be here. He's supposed to take care of everything and not let anything go wrong."
Martha glares at him.
"Nothing. Is going to. Go. Wrong. Plus, like I said: it's starting. It can take up until two days before the baby arrives. Cas? Right, Cas has enough time to get here."
"Okay," Dean says. "Okay, just… You're gonna give me something for the pain, right? Because I sure didn't sign up for this."
"Sure." Martha takes a syringe and a small bottle from her valise.
"What's that?"
"Demerol," she says.
"I was hoping for an epidural…"
Sam sighs.
"Dean, you can't have an epidural without having it being given to you by a doctor."
"I knew that! I was just hoping I was wrong." Dean rubs his face with his hands. "Isn't Demerol bad for him?"
"Right now it's perfectly safe." Martha motions Dean to turn. "And I can give you a couple more when this wears out in a few hours. But after that, I'm sorry. You'll have to deal with it." Dean winces when she gives him the shot on the butt. "This will make you relax, too, so you can rest for a while. And Dean, I really want you to rest. It's late and you still have a long way ahead of you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About an hour later, with Dean sleeping and after calling Amelia and swearing that Claire is safe, Sam finds Martha in the hallway texting someone.
"Just telling my husband I'm doing a labor and that it may take long," she tells Sam. "Don't worry, I didn't tell him who the 'mother' is."
Sam nods.
"How do you think this is going?"
Martha shrugs.
"Honestly, despite the weirdness of the situation, so far everything is running like it should."
"But?"
"I don't know, Sam. I don't know if he has the right muscles. I don't know if there's enough space. I mean, his hips seem to be the right size, but still. I'm not a physician and it's not like there's a handbook on this, is it? We'll just… wing it as we go."
Well, it's not like that hasn't been the Winchesters' way all along.
"Just don't tell your brother that," Martha warns him. "You don't want to make it harder for him."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam is sitting on the floor, between the bed and the bedside table, staring at the ceiling. It's been almost forty hours since Claire arrived and Cas is still missing. They're all tired, they haven't slept anything since yesterday and he's worried about how exhausted Dean's getting.
He turns when he hears a whimper behind him. Dean buries his face on a pillow, letting out a pained groan. Claire is kneeling behind him, kneading his lower back. Martha kept asking her for things, distracting her, until she offered to help with anything. Sam is glad for that, because the last thing he wanted was to deal with a hysterical teenager on top of everything.
"Fuck!" Dean cries out, punching the mattress and turning his face even more into the pillow. After a while he relaxes again, letting out a sob. Sam has a hand on his arm, while still kneeling on the floor.
Martha touches Dean's knee carefully.
"Dean, I'm going to check you again, okay?"
Dean sighs and turns on his back, wincing, his eyes still closed. Martha lifts the sheet again and after a quick check, she reaches to squeeze Dean's shoulder, giving him a strained smile.
"It's time to bring him out, Dean."
"What?" Sam's head shoots up to her. "No! You said he still had time to wait for Cas."
"Sammy, quit it."
Sam's shoulders slump when he hears how defeated Dean sounds. He gets up from the floor to sit next to him on the bed.
"Are you scared, man?"
"Nah, Sammy, you think? I'm fucking terrified."
Martha gives Sam a pointed look.
"There's no reason for that," she says. "Trust me when I tell you that everything is running how it should." She turns to Sam. "Help your brother sit up, while Bobby and Claire put the cushions and the pillows behind him, will you?"
They all help Dean settle as comfortable as possible. Martha kneels in front of him, placing her hands on his knees.
"Now, Dean, I want you to stop between contractions and breath, all right? Or else you'll faint and we don't want that."
Dean nods, before reaching to his sides and grabbing the sheets tight. Martha strokes his left ankle.
"Okay, lets get this show on the road, then."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean is slumped against where Sam's sitting, breathing shallowly, the pillows that were keeping him propped up all strewn across the room when he became too tired to be sitting. The way his legs are shaking makes Sam think that he's only holding his knees up because Claire and Bobby are helping him.
It has been hours. All the books that Sam read trying to figure out what was going to happen to his brother all said that active labor taking this long was not a good thing, but Sam never dwelled into it, because he fully expected Cas to be around to take care of things.
They all did.
Martha strokes one of Dean's legs lightly.
"Dean," she whispers. "It's time. You have to finish this."
Dean lets out a pained whimper and shakes his head, his eyes closed. Bobby looks at Sam and he doesn't need to say anything: Sam knows just how worried he is.
"Dean." Martha tries again.
"I can see his head," Claire tells him "He has really dark, wavy hair. Come on, Dean, don't you want to see him?"
Sam watches her, not sure if she's realizing she pretty much just described Jimmy's hair. But she gives him a strained smile and, yeah, she does, and Sam is really fucking grateful at her for that.
And apparently it works, too, because suddenly Dean takes a few deep breathes and his hands reach blindly for anything to grab onto.
Sam puts an arm around Dean's shoulders and hauls him up, while Claire holds one of his hands. Dean groans, his faced scrunched up in effort.
"I mean it, Dean," Martha warns. "You really need to give it all now."
"I. Am," Dean manages to say through gritted teeth.
"Then stop to breathe and try again."
Dean pants, glaring at her and, boy, if looks could kill. Then he drops his head and starts groaning again, low and steady, until the sounds turns into a horribly broken scream that Sam wishes he never had to hear his brother give.
They all watch, holding their breaths, as Martha pushes this tiny pale creature against Dean's chest. She cleans his airways and rubs him with a towel and in hindsight Sam will know it only takes a few seconds, but it feels like hours until he finally lets out a high-pitched wail, his skin turning pink.
"Well, he's small but he sure has big lungs." Martha smiles at them.
Dean lets his head fall back, taking big gulps of air, his hands reaching up to hold the baby. Claire is grinning like an idiot at Sam and Sam is pretty sure he's giving her his biggest shit-eating grin ever, because he can feel his face splitting up. Bobby… well, Bobby's weeping.
"Dude! Dude, you did it!"
"Yeah." Dean sounds exhausted, his voice wrecked and cracking. "Dunno why we were all so worried. It really wasn't all that."
Sam's eyes go wide and he turns to Martha, who's carefully clamping the cord and cutting it. Dean has to be kidding, right? Martha shakes her head with a grin, looking amused.
"Usually they forget right away."
Uh.
But it doesn't matter, because Dean's peeking at his kid, touching his tiny hand with a finger that the baby eagerly grabs onto. And, fuck if it's not the sweetest thing Sam has ever seen.
And then Dean's hand drops.
"Dean?"
"Claire, take the baby and be careful with the head." Sam really doesn't like how Martha sounds or how pale Dean is getting.
Claire nods, picks the baby up in her arms and steps back, eyes wide. Bobby shakes Dean's shoulder.
"Son, look at me."
But Dean just blinks sluggishly, eyes unfocused. Sam watches in horror as Martha brings a blood-covered arm up to press hard against Dean's midriff, the sheet covering him turning red fast.
"Dean?"
Dean's eyes roll back and his head falls to the side.
"DEAN!"
Next Chapter
Title: Gravity-Defying House (Chapter 5/6)
Rating: I don't know... teen?
Pairing/characters: Dean/Cas, Sam, Bobby, Gabriel, a surprise character, an OC that I absolutely needed for plot and, you know, a baby. Mentions of Balthazar, Joshua, Jimmy and others.
Spoilers: Blanket for all aired eps.
Warnings/Kinks (aren't they the same?): MPREG!, established relationship, Gabriel is back from the dead, awesome!Sam, there WILL be some early stages of labour, but then it fades-to-black, mentions of sexual situations, there's some gender-bending at first, schmoop (no, really), angst (no, really), crack/humour, the baby isn't welcomed at first and notions of ending the pregnancy are entertained. ANGELS ARE DICKS! Like, really. Even Cas is going to be a complete SOB at first. Happy ending.
A/N: Author notes and list of people to blame are on the first post. This chapter was beta-ed by greenelysium.
OMG, writing this chapter SLAYED me. 1st it's twice as long as the others. 2nd it has tons of dialogue. 3rd it has the OC (hope you like her) and the surprise character and 4th, but absolutely not least, it has a birthing scene which I'm sure is harder to write than to actually give birth. I couldn't have done it without my f-list cracking birth jokes at me 24/7. You guys rock in a very weird way. I'm very proud of myself that I managed to write a birth scene without EVER using the verb to push. *pats self on the back* (ok, the fade to black helped)
Summary: He fully expected Cas to be around to take care of things. They all did.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4
It's a little after ten pm when there's a faint knock at the door. Sam looks at Bobby, frowning, before walking to the door, picking up his gun on the way.
He opens the door and gapes.
"You?"
Claire Novak is standing in front of him, a determined look on her face.
"I need to talk to Dean," she says.
Sam blinks, realizing how much more grown up she looks since the last time he saw her.
"Wha-- How the hell did you get here?"
"I'm turning sixteen next month and mom is already teaching me how to drive. So I may have borrowed her car." Claire blushes bright red and stares at her shoes. "I really need to speak to your brother," she whispers.
"Why didn't you call instead? Because I don't think it's a good idea…"
"I know everything, Sam!" She interrupts him. "About the baby. I know."
Sam spares a moment to pinch himself. Of all the weird things that happened in the last few months, his male brother getting pregnant included, this one takes the cake.
"How?"
"Castiel… contacted me?" She shrugs, looking as confused as Sam is feeling. "That's why I need to talk to Dean. I have a message for him."
Sam lets her in, after opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, without knowing what to say. Bobby raises an eyebrow at him when he sees Claire, but Sam holds a hand up at him, hoping he'll wait until Sam explains what's going on.
Upstairs Sam knocks at his brother's door and opens it when Dean replies, sounding wide-awake. The lights are on and Dean almost jumps out of the bed when he sees Claire.
She waves feebly at him.
"Oh, god, it's true. You really are…" She stops as if looking for the right word. "Pregnant."
"What are you doing here? Sam, what is she doing here?"
"Castiel communicated with me." Dean's mouth snaps shut at her words. "Or at least I guess that's what you’d call it. It was some weird sounds coming from my mp3 player that I could somehow understand." She shakes herself. "Anyway, he told me that you were… that, and that he was sent to heaven for some reason. He's trying to return and, I think the name was Joshua is trying to help him. And Gabriel and… Balthazar?" Sam nods. "They're on the run, don't ask me why. It was all really quick."
It makes sense that, if Cas is currently in his true form, he could only contact Claire, since she's his vessel, too.
"When is he coming back?" Dean asks her.
She looks down.
"I don’t know.” She looks back up at him. “Is the baby part-angel or something?"
Dean shakes his head.
"No, he's completely human."
"A boy then." Claire frowns. "So it's like he's my half-brother."
Sam turns to her and sees how she's holding her arms at her sides, her hands closed in tight fists. He's starting to understand why she came instead of calling.
"Claire…"
"Your dad has nothing to with this. Biologically or something, yeah, but." Dean observes at her for a moment. "Your dad's gone, Claire. I'm sorry."
Uh. That Sam didn't know.
"Okay." Claire takes a deep breath. "Okay. I remember how it was, so that's a good thing, I guess." She stops for a while, thinking of something. "Why did it happen? Is he using you as some type of incubator for new vessels?"
"Claire!"
"Claire…" Dean sighs. "Cas in nothing like that. And he’s changed a lot since you met him." He glances at his brother. "Sam, can you leave us for a minute?"
Sam leaves, going downstairs again. He really hopes Dean manages to talk Claire out of wanting to 'save' the baby. He tells Bobby about Cas' message and Claire's suspicions.
"You think she's right, son?"
"Bobby, the hell?"
Bobby shrugs.
"Just sayin' it's very strange that the angels went missing now."
Sam is about to reply when they're interrupted by a loud shriek coming from upstairs.
"SAM!" Claire screams, running down the stairs. "There's something wrong."
They run to the room Dean's staying in to find him sitting on the edge of the bed, pale and scared. In the place where he had just been lying there's a large wet spot with blood pooling into it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Bobby," Dean warns. "What are you doing?"
Sam turns to see Bobby scrolling down the contact list on his cellphone.
"Calling the daughter of a hunting buddy," he says, holding out a hand. "She's also a hunter and a licensed midwife." Dean raises an eyebrow. "Most female hunters don't like social workers askin' them about their broken bones and scars when they're popping out babies, so they go to midwives that hunt. She'll know what's wrong better than us." After a while a faint voice sounds from the other end of the cellphone. "Martha? Bobby Singer here," Bobby says, as he leaves the room.
"Dude, I'm taking you to the hospital now."
"No," Dean says. "Forget it, Sammy."
Sam clenches his fists and counts to ten, trying to control the urge to kick something.
"Oh, my god, why?"
"Because! A pregnant guy in a public hospital? Do you really think it would stay a secret? I'd be in the news all over the world!" Dean rubs his face with both hands. "And then what? A reality show deal based on my life? We're hunters; we're supposed to lay low. Not to mention that I'm legally dead and have the entire FBI on my tail."
"Did you really need to make sense?" Sam sighs.
"Yes, Martha, he's a guy," Bobby says, walking into the room again. "Yeah, an angel. After that hunt we went with your dad in 2005, you find this weird?" He huffs. "Okay, see ya then."
"Do I want to know what hunt that was?" Sam asks.
"Let's just say it involved ghouls and genitals and leave it at that." Sam shudders at the idea, horrified. "She's getting here in half an hour. And don't worry, son," Bobby tells Dean. "She'll keep quiet."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martha is small, but built like a hunter, her hair already turning grey even if she's not that much older than Dean. When Bobby leads her to the bedroom and she sees Dean, her jaw drops.
"Oh, boy."
"Yeah, exactly," Dean points out. Sam rolls his eyes.
"Right." She takes a moment to look around, eyes a bit too wide, before collecting herself with a deep breath. "So, you're… Dean, right? And you must be Sam, then. And just who are you, sweetheart?"
They all turn to the corner of the bedroom and see Claire sitting crossed-legged on the floor, looking spooked. Sam mentally slaps his forehead for having forgotten about her.
"That's Claire," says Dean. "She's… um, family. Of sorts."
“Okay,” says Martha, and then turns to Claire. "Sweetheart, would you mind bringing us the cushions from the couch downstairs and all the pillows you can find?" Martha asks her. "Take your time. Don't need to bring them up all at once."
Claire takes the clue and flees out of the bedroom, seemingly glad to have somewhere else to be.
Martha sits by Dean on the bed and takes a blood pressure monitor from her valise. She wraps it around Dean's left upper-arm and after a while removes it, nodding, looking satisfied. Sam sends Cas a silent thanks for that one, wherever he may be.
"Well, Dean, do you mind undressing? You can get under this, don't worry", she tells Dean, handing him one of the sheets Bobby brought her. Dean covers himself with it and after a bit of a struggle hands Bobby his shirt and his wet and slightly bloodied pants and underwear and lies back on the bed.
After prodding his belly for a while, Martha goes to the foot of the bed and waves, coughing and looking embarrassed, at Dean's knees.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Dean rolls his eyes and bends his legs at the knees, spreading them. Sam feels a bubble of laughter rising in his chest from how much Dean is blushing.
Martha settles herself in front of his feet and slowly raises the sheet folding it over his knees. And then stares.
"I don't even know what I'm looking at…"
"Yeah?" Dean snaps at her, blushing even more. "Do you need me to tell you what it is?"
"I know what it is!" Martha snaps back. "I just… never saw them together, that is." She grabs a towel and reaches between his legs. Dean almost shoots forward, eyes wide.
"Hey!"
"Sorry, just needed to take that out of the way."
Bobby and even Claire, who just came back carrying yet another cushion, laugh out loud and are glared at by Dean. Sam manages to shut his mouth.
"Okay, Dean, now try to relax or else this will be uncomfortable," Martha tells Dean, putting on a rubber glove and reaching again under the sheet. Dean winces, holding his breath and Sam no longer feels like laughing. "Well, it's starting," she says, removing the glove and tossing it in the garbage.
"What's starting?" asks Bobby.
"You know, labor."
"What?" Dean's starting to sound panicked. "That can't be! I still have one month to go and isn't it supposed to hurt like a bitch? Because save for some pain on my lower back, I'm fine."
"The baby is already ready to live outside. And those lower back pains are usually a sign," Martha points out. "Have you felt any pressure like a belt around your waist?"
Dean grimaces.
"A couple of times in the last few hours. Why?"
"Those are contractions. They don't hurt at first."
"Butbut…" Sam can feel himself getting panicked, too. "Cas has to be here. He's supposed to take care of everything and not let anything go wrong."
Martha glares at him.
"Nothing. Is going to. Go. Wrong. Plus, like I said: it's starting. It can take up until two days before the baby arrives. Cas? Right, Cas has enough time to get here."
"Okay," Dean says. "Okay, just… You're gonna give me something for the pain, right? Because I sure didn't sign up for this."
"Sure." Martha takes a syringe and a small bottle from her valise.
"What's that?"
"Demerol," she says.
"I was hoping for an epidural…"
Sam sighs.
"Dean, you can't have an epidural without having it being given to you by a doctor."
"I knew that! I was just hoping I was wrong." Dean rubs his face with his hands. "Isn't Demerol bad for him?"
"Right now it's perfectly safe." Martha motions Dean to turn. "And I can give you a couple more when this wears out in a few hours. But after that, I'm sorry. You'll have to deal with it." Dean winces when she gives him the shot on the butt. "This will make you relax, too, so you can rest for a while. And Dean, I really want you to rest. It's late and you still have a long way ahead of you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About an hour later, with Dean sleeping and after calling Amelia and swearing that Claire is safe, Sam finds Martha in the hallway texting someone.
"Just telling my husband I'm doing a labor and that it may take long," she tells Sam. "Don't worry, I didn't tell him who the 'mother' is."
Sam nods.
"How do you think this is going?"
Martha shrugs.
"Honestly, despite the weirdness of the situation, so far everything is running like it should."
"But?"
"I don't know, Sam. I don't know if he has the right muscles. I don't know if there's enough space. I mean, his hips seem to be the right size, but still. I'm not a physician and it's not like there's a handbook on this, is it? We'll just… wing it as we go."
Well, it's not like that hasn't been the Winchesters' way all along.
"Just don't tell your brother that," Martha warns him. "You don't want to make it harder for him."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sam is sitting on the floor, between the bed and the bedside table, staring at the ceiling. It's been almost forty hours since Claire arrived and Cas is still missing. They're all tired, they haven't slept anything since yesterday and he's worried about how exhausted Dean's getting.
He turns when he hears a whimper behind him. Dean buries his face on a pillow, letting out a pained groan. Claire is kneeling behind him, kneading his lower back. Martha kept asking her for things, distracting her, until she offered to help with anything. Sam is glad for that, because the last thing he wanted was to deal with a hysterical teenager on top of everything.
"Fuck!" Dean cries out, punching the mattress and turning his face even more into the pillow. After a while he relaxes again, letting out a sob. Sam has a hand on his arm, while still kneeling on the floor.
Martha touches Dean's knee carefully.
"Dean, I'm going to check you again, okay?"
Dean sighs and turns on his back, wincing, his eyes still closed. Martha lifts the sheet again and after a quick check, she reaches to squeeze Dean's shoulder, giving him a strained smile.
"It's time to bring him out, Dean."
"What?" Sam's head shoots up to her. "No! You said he still had time to wait for Cas."
"Sammy, quit it."
Sam's shoulders slump when he hears how defeated Dean sounds. He gets up from the floor to sit next to him on the bed.
"Are you scared, man?"
"Nah, Sammy, you think? I'm fucking terrified."
Martha gives Sam a pointed look.
"There's no reason for that," she says. "Trust me when I tell you that everything is running how it should." She turns to Sam. "Help your brother sit up, while Bobby and Claire put the cushions and the pillows behind him, will you?"
They all help Dean settle as comfortable as possible. Martha kneels in front of him, placing her hands on his knees.
"Now, Dean, I want you to stop between contractions and breath, all right? Or else you'll faint and we don't want that."
Dean nods, before reaching to his sides and grabbing the sheets tight. Martha strokes his left ankle.
"Okay, lets get this show on the road, then."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean is slumped against where Sam's sitting, breathing shallowly, the pillows that were keeping him propped up all strewn across the room when he became too tired to be sitting. The way his legs are shaking makes Sam think that he's only holding his knees up because Claire and Bobby are helping him.
It has been hours. All the books that Sam read trying to figure out what was going to happen to his brother all said that active labor taking this long was not a good thing, but Sam never dwelled into it, because he fully expected Cas to be around to take care of things.
They all did.
Martha strokes one of Dean's legs lightly.
"Dean," she whispers. "It's time. You have to finish this."
Dean lets out a pained whimper and shakes his head, his eyes closed. Bobby looks at Sam and he doesn't need to say anything: Sam knows just how worried he is.
"Dean." Martha tries again.
"I can see his head," Claire tells him "He has really dark, wavy hair. Come on, Dean, don't you want to see him?"
Sam watches her, not sure if she's realizing she pretty much just described Jimmy's hair. But she gives him a strained smile and, yeah, she does, and Sam is really fucking grateful at her for that.
And apparently it works, too, because suddenly Dean takes a few deep breathes and his hands reach blindly for anything to grab onto.
Sam puts an arm around Dean's shoulders and hauls him up, while Claire holds one of his hands. Dean groans, his faced scrunched up in effort.
"I mean it, Dean," Martha warns. "You really need to give it all now."
"I. Am," Dean manages to say through gritted teeth.
"Then stop to breathe and try again."
Dean pants, glaring at her and, boy, if looks could kill. Then he drops his head and starts groaning again, low and steady, until the sounds turns into a horribly broken scream that Sam wishes he never had to hear his brother give.
They all watch, holding their breaths, as Martha pushes this tiny pale creature against Dean's chest. She cleans his airways and rubs him with a towel and in hindsight Sam will know it only takes a few seconds, but it feels like hours until he finally lets out a high-pitched wail, his skin turning pink.
"Well, he's small but he sure has big lungs." Martha smiles at them.
Dean lets his head fall back, taking big gulps of air, his hands reaching up to hold the baby. Claire is grinning like an idiot at Sam and Sam is pretty sure he's giving her his biggest shit-eating grin ever, because he can feel his face splitting up. Bobby… well, Bobby's weeping.
"Dude! Dude, you did it!"
"Yeah." Dean sounds exhausted, his voice wrecked and cracking. "Dunno why we were all so worried. It really wasn't all that."
Sam's eyes go wide and he turns to Martha, who's carefully clamping the cord and cutting it. Dean has to be kidding, right? Martha shakes her head with a grin, looking amused.
"Usually they forget right away."
Uh.
But it doesn't matter, because Dean's peeking at his kid, touching his tiny hand with a finger that the baby eagerly grabs onto. And, fuck if it's not the sweetest thing Sam has ever seen.
And then Dean's hand drops.
"Dean?"
"Claire, take the baby and be careful with the head." Sam really doesn't like how Martha sounds or how pale Dean is getting.
Claire nods, picks the baby up in her arms and steps back, eyes wide. Bobby shakes Dean's shoulder.
"Son, look at me."
But Dean just blinks sluggishly, eyes unfocused. Sam watches in horror as Martha brings a blood-covered arm up to press hard against Dean's midriff, the sheet covering him turning red fast.
"Dean?"
Dean's eyes roll back and his head falls to the side.
"DEAN!"
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