SPN Fic: Quickened
Title: Quickened
Summary: Jo’s pregnant. Now comes the tricky part. 2,800 words.
Pairing: Dean/Jo/Castiel
Setting: Post-Apocalypse? Doesn’t really matter, it’s an AU happy future!
Rating: R
Warnings: [Spoiler (click to open)]a wee bit of mpreg, tentacle-ish sex, CRACK & SCHMOOP
A/N: I offered a drabble to anyone who found my spnkink-meme fill, and Snickfic said she was in the mood for Dean/Jo/Castiel. I wrote a bit more than a drabble of course because who am I.
I would just like to note that this could have been called “A Well Conceived Plan” or “Second Time’s The Charm,” but I RESTRAINED MYSELF.
Jo sank onto the bed, the plastic stick clutched in her hand. She’d thought she would spend the three to five minutes pacing like Dean currently was, but instead she’d felt an intense need to be still, like if she moved it would disturb whatever was inside her, which in turn would disrupt whatever chemical process was occurring in the stick. The mattress dipped beneath her as Cas settled beside her. She felt his gaze long before he said, contemplatively rather than with judgment, “I do not understand why we are performing this procedure when we already know that you are with child. I can feel its presence inside you.”
She could have been exasperated- they’d been through this enough times already- but instead she found herself smiling fondly at him. It was like squatting over that sick had released all her tension along with her pee, leaving her mellower than she’d felt in days- finally they were ready. It wasn’t how women usually felt while waiting for this particular result, she suspected; but then, they did already know their answer, didn’t they.
“Cas, this procedure is what humans do. You might be able to feel that I’m-” She faltered over the p-word, still unable to believe it could apply to her, even if only temporarily. She cleared her throat. “Pregnant. But I can’t feel it, and neither can Dean, and this procedure- this ritual- is what humans do instead. It’s how we feel it. How we know it’s real.” She looked at the still-blank stick and palmed her flat stomach involuntarily. “Besides, this is my only chance to make a positive pregnancy test. Might as well, right?”
She meant it to sound like a joke but evidently failed because Cas said gently, “You could change your mind someday. You are young.”
Jo shrugged. “Yeah, but there are always going to be monsters to-”
The stick changed. Her world turned upside down. Suddenly she was glad she had decided to sit.
Castiel gasped, an oddly human sound. A high, tremulous voice that didn’t sound like hers cried, “Dean!”
He was beside them in an instant, clutching her free hand. In her other she held out the test so they could all see the two red lines, bright, sharp, and unmistakable.
* * *
Her mother cried. Jo hadn’t really been expecting that that and marveled silently, grateful, at how much her mom must have been restraining herself over the years from pressuring her about grandchildren. Sam welled up and hugged her so hard she had to whap him on the back and wheeze out, only slightly exaggerating, “Can’t- breathe-”
They put the stick with its little human lines in a plastic bag, whereupon it promptly disappeared into her mom’s eager grasp. It was definitely weird to think of her mom hoarding her pregnancy test like she used to keep Jo’s baby teeth and macaroni Christmas ornaments, but it still made Jo doubly glad that she had insisted they wait the few days after Cas first detected conception for science to catch up.
But now there was no more waiting necessary. After the congratulations and everyone else’s tears (actually, the tears didn’t look like they’d be drying up anytime soon), it was back into their bedroom. They’d discussed the mechanics of what came next many times in the last few days while waiting, but inside, with the door locked firmly behind them, Jo still found herself hesitating, Cas staring back at her just as uncertainly.
Somewhat unexpectedly, given that his role in the proceedings was technically done, it was Dean who reacted first. “All right, both of you are wearing way too many clothes.”
It got the grin out of her that he may have been hoping for, and it made Cas reach dutifully for his tie.
Jo pulled her tank top up, and when it was over her head, her world turned to blue cotton, she felt Dean’s warm, calloused hands land lightly on her naked middle, his fingertips at the edge of her bra. His lips brushed the back of her neck. “I’ll get you ready while Cas does his thing, mmm?”
Jo’s breath caught, and she nodded; so maybe Dean didn’t have to be an all-passive observer this round. She turned to kiss him, and it felt a little bit like getting lost, but somehow thy got her bra off and ended up on the bed, him pushing and her pulling in just the right rhythm.
When he drew back she barely had time to mourn the loss of his lips before they were attached to one nipple. She groaned even before his deft fingers tweaked the other and bucked into him. He’d always loved her breasts but god it felt different today knowing- well-
She wondered if months from now, when they were still small and empty, she’d feel a phantom fullness; she wondered what Cas’s flat nipples would like and felt a sudden surge of mingled jealousy and lust as she imagined Dean sucking on his instead.
Abandoning her breasts, Dean’s lips slid down her body, leaving wet, open-mouthed kisses in their wake, until he reached her hips. Jo felt her thighs tremble in anticipation. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cas standing beside the bed, naked now and watching hungrily, his dick already hard and leaking. It didn’t look any different than usual. Jo wasn’t exactly sure there was any “thing” Cas had needed to do; maybe Dean had just wanted to be involved- physically, that is, he was always involved; or maybe he’d wanted to be the one to do this for her because as far as Cas had come in the lady-loving department since this weird, wonderful relationships began, he was still the padawan to Dean’s master. And as much as Jo loved hearing- feeling- Dean coach Cs toward her climax, tonight wasn’t the night for games; she needed to be relaxed; as gentle and careful as Cas was going to be, his magical angel dick was still going to be doing unnatural things in uncharted territory.
Besides, it was a fitting role reversal from the actual conception, when Cas had brought her off before she and Dean made their baby.
Made their baby. Oh god-
Jo was mewling practically before Dean licked her. She closed her eyes as he hooked one, then two fingers inside her, his tongue doing things she didn’t have words for, and when he sucked on her clit she came, his name on her lips.
Dean usually liked to kiss her afterward, make her taste her own cum, the cheeky bastard. But the mouth that settled roughly over hers, swallowing any aftershocks, was Cas’s. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as fiercely, and pulled him over her. Dean yanked away from her legs with a muttered curse that probably meant he’d almost been kicked in the head; they’d make it up to him later.
“Are you ready?” Cas’s voice rumbled like a growl, and Jo felt her toes curl.
“Are you?” she challenged, and dug her heels into his back.
He grunted, spent one more moment positioning himself, and slid home.
It wasn’t until she realized that it felt no different from usual (other than just how wet she was; she hadn’t been so eager since Valentine’s Day with the cheesecake and the vodka and the whipped cream) that she even realized she’d been expecting it to feel different. It was just Cas, though, being his usual self: pumping just rhythmically enough to remind her that human sex didn’t come naturally to him, that they sometimes needed to coax out his creativity; kissing her like Dean kissed because that was how he had learned, except Cas tasted like rain and fresh spring air instead of liquor and fast food; gripping her with a gentleness that belied his intense expression because he was always afraid of accidentally hurting them with his Grace.
She rocked against him, glad today for his steady rhythm, when she needed all the normalcy she could get.
Gradually his thrusts became more erratic, as they always did when he was nearing climax. Today his enthusiasm bordered on urgency, though, his teeth clenched with concentration as his hips pounded hers forcefully; he was driving as deeply as he could, and it was starting to dip over that fine line between pleasure and pain. She tried not to wince.
“Jo,” he whispered, guttural, and her stomach flipped over; now; now it was going to be different. “I’m going to- are you-?”
“Yes,” she bit out.
With a full-body shudder, Cas’s forehead dropped to her shoulder; his hips jerked once more, and then he seized up- but he didn’t cum.
Jo held her breath. A hand slid over hers, on Cas’s back, and she gripped Dean gratefully.
Even knowing what to expect, Jo didn’t think she would have felt it at first if he hadn’t been completely still. The next thrust inside her would have felt like any other, albeit a little less sharp and a little more exploratory than Cas had been in a while.
But the rest of him remained motionless.
His dick continued to move of its own accord. For a moment it still seemed tentative, gently prodding the deepest parts of her.
Probing.
Jo’s mouth felt dry, but she couldn’t work up any spit to swallow. It didn’t hurt exactly- in other circumstances she might even have enjoyed the novelty of it- but probing was definitely the word, like it had a mind of its own; pressing into her and stretching out and feeling her up like it was a- a-
A fucking tentacle.
Goddamnit, she was never telling Charlie anything about their sex life again.
Dean had laughed his ass off at the comparison until Jo suggested what a prehensile tentacle dick could do to his prostate. Then he’d shut up real quick.
For a brief moment Cas’s dick stilled, and she knew, with a flip of her stomach, that it had found her cervix.
“With my Grace I will be able to briefly alter my form and come inside you. I mean it literally, Dean, not like that. I will be able to penetrate your womb and transfer the child to myself.”
It started thrusting again, faster, until it felt more like poking than prodding, like jabbing, like it was trying to break through her-
Jo stifled a moan; any kind of pain there was one of the reasons she had never wanted to be pregnant, thank you very much.
“Squeeze,” she heard Dean say, as though from far away. She did, trying to ignore the barrage inside her, to think instead about the irony that crushing the father’s hand was supposed to happen during birth, not conception. In a few months he’d offer the same to Cas, and she would, too; unfortunately, Cas might literally crush their hands by accident-
A particularly painful twinge shot through her. Jo resisted the urge to dig her fingernails into his back; she didn’t dare do anything that might break his concentration; besides, she didn’t think he was even aware of what he was doing. He was lost in a stupor, all his energy focused on changing himself and finding their child-
Abruptly, the pain changed to a ticking sensation. Jo let out a sound that was more sob that mere gasp. Now she could barely feel it- where his dick ended and she began. It was all just- fuzzy. That meant he was in her uterus now, right?
Cas gasped suddenly, and Jo couldn’t keep from tensing. “What?” she and Dean demanded in unison.
“Are you okay? Is it okay?” Again, her voice didn’t sound like her own.
Castiel exhaled shakily. “Yes, it is- it’s fine. I have it. It’s- it’s in me.”
Jo felt her jaw drop. That had been the whole point, of course, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise- but still. Turning her head, she saw that Dean looked about the same, like an anvil had been dropped on his head; like he hadn’t really believed it could happen.
Had she believed it? Yes, she had to have believed they could do it or she would never have been willing to get pregnant first. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t a shock, wasn’t a relief- if it hadn’t worked, she didn’t know if she could have gone through with it herself-
“I can feel it,” whispered Cas, finally lifting his head from her shoulder. He looked dazed, and there were tears in his eyes as he glanced between them. “I can feel our child inside me.”
Jo let out what she thought was going to be a laugh; instead it sounded like a hiccup. She was crying, too, she realized, for the first time; she hadn’t been able to cry while it was still inside her.
“Good,” she said. “God, Cas, that’s- that’s-”
“A miracle,” said Dean, his face equally dazed now.
Jo looked between her two boys and felt a silly grin spread across her face. “Yeah it is. Now, Cas, get your tentacle dick out of me.”
* * *
“Think your mom will keep that one, too?” Dean lounged next to her on the bed, much more relaxed than he’d been the first round; no pacing needed.
Jo tore her gaze away from the second, negative pregnancy test long enough to roll her eyes. “I think I’m keeping this one.”
Too late she realized how that might have sounded. His eyes were gentle, though, free of judgment, as he slowly sat up. “You okay, sweetheart?” he asked quietly.
She nodded and then, before she could stop herself: “You know I want this baby, right? Even though I didn’t want to…”
It made him frown a little, but also not in a judging way. “’Course I do. And so does Cas.”
When she didn’t say anything he sidled closer and knocked her knee with his. “It’s gonna be okay. You’re gonna hunt as much as you want, and Cas, me, and Baby Makes Four are always gonna be here when you come home.”
It wasn’t exactly the reassurance she’d been hoping for. Jo was quiet for a moment before giving in. “You don’t think I’m being selfish, do you?”
“No,” said Dean, without hesitation. She’d known that would be his answer, but the tightness in her chest still eased a little. “I think you like the idea of kids but you’re young and there’re a lot of other things you want to do with your life first, and there ain’t anything wrong with that. If anything, me and Cas are the ones that are selfish. We wanted a kid, and you love us, so you wanted a kid, too; just this particular kid that’s all of ours. But you don’t have to worry about doing the things you want. This kid has Cas and me, plus the best uncle and grandparents a kid could ask for, so it’s gonna be fine, even if Mom is off huntin’ a lot. It’s not gonna be like it was for-”
He stumbled, as he always did when he felt guilty for saying anything that resembled criticism of his childhood. “For Sam and me. And it’s not gonna be like you, losing a parent to the business. We’ve got an angel in the family now. So no, Jo, you are definitely not being selfish.”
He kissed her forehead. “And if a few years down the road you decide you’re done with hunting and want to try it, we can give the kiddo a sibling the old fashioned way,
With a non-committal nod, Jo leaned into him, lacing their fingers together on his thigh.
“We could take turns,” Cas announced brightly, stepping out of the bathroom, where he had been admiring his knocked up reflection. “I believe I could modify Dean’s body for pregnancy the same way I am modifying mine.”
With her head tucked beneath his chin, Jo felt as well as heard Dean choke.
“You what? No- no, I don’t think that’s gonna happen-”
“Don’t worry, Dean.” Jo pulled away to grin up at him, only a little bit pointedly. “You don’t have to make up your mind now. You can see how you feel in a few years. We both can.”
His mouth shot open, but then he hesitated.
“Yes, no need to decide now,” said Cas, oblivious, and came to sit on Jo’s other side. He moved slowly, like he already had a belly to take into account; it was, Jo decided, very attractive. “We have our baby.”
Jo squeezed Dean’s hand. Smiling, she kissed Cas’s cheek as she rested her other hand against his stomach. “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”
Fin
Summary: Jo’s pregnant. Now comes the tricky part. 2,800 words.
Pairing: Dean/Jo/Castiel
Setting: Post-Apocalypse? Doesn’t really matter, it’s an AU happy future!
Rating: R
Warnings: [Spoiler (click to open)]a wee bit of mpreg, tentacle-ish sex, CRACK & SCHMOOP
A/N: I offered a drabble to anyone who found my spnkink-meme fill, and Snickfic said she was in the mood for Dean/Jo/Castiel. I wrote a bit more than a drabble of course because who am I.
I would just like to note that this could have been called “A Well Conceived Plan” or “Second Time’s The Charm,” but I RESTRAINED MYSELF.
Jo sank onto the bed, the plastic stick clutched in her hand. She’d thought she would spend the three to five minutes pacing like Dean currently was, but instead she’d felt an intense need to be still, like if she moved it would disturb whatever was inside her, which in turn would disrupt whatever chemical process was occurring in the stick. The mattress dipped beneath her as Cas settled beside her. She felt his gaze long before he said, contemplatively rather than with judgment, “I do not understand why we are performing this procedure when we already know that you are with child. I can feel its presence inside you.”
She could have been exasperated- they’d been through this enough times already- but instead she found herself smiling fondly at him. It was like squatting over that sick had released all her tension along with her pee, leaving her mellower than she’d felt in days- finally they were ready. It wasn’t how women usually felt while waiting for this particular result, she suspected; but then, they did already know their answer, didn’t they.
“Cas, this procedure is what humans do. You might be able to feel that I’m-” She faltered over the p-word, still unable to believe it could apply to her, even if only temporarily. She cleared her throat. “Pregnant. But I can’t feel it, and neither can Dean, and this procedure- this ritual- is what humans do instead. It’s how we feel it. How we know it’s real.” She looked at the still-blank stick and palmed her flat stomach involuntarily. “Besides, this is my only chance to make a positive pregnancy test. Might as well, right?”
She meant it to sound like a joke but evidently failed because Cas said gently, “You could change your mind someday. You are young.”
Jo shrugged. “Yeah, but there are always going to be monsters to-”
The stick changed. Her world turned upside down. Suddenly she was glad she had decided to sit.
Castiel gasped, an oddly human sound. A high, tremulous voice that didn’t sound like hers cried, “Dean!”
He was beside them in an instant, clutching her free hand. In her other she held out the test so they could all see the two red lines, bright, sharp, and unmistakable.
* * *
Her mother cried. Jo hadn’t really been expecting that that and marveled silently, grateful, at how much her mom must have been restraining herself over the years from pressuring her about grandchildren. Sam welled up and hugged her so hard she had to whap him on the back and wheeze out, only slightly exaggerating, “Can’t- breathe-”
They put the stick with its little human lines in a plastic bag, whereupon it promptly disappeared into her mom’s eager grasp. It was definitely weird to think of her mom hoarding her pregnancy test like she used to keep Jo’s baby teeth and macaroni Christmas ornaments, but it still made Jo doubly glad that she had insisted they wait the few days after Cas first detected conception for science to catch up.
But now there was no more waiting necessary. After the congratulations and everyone else’s tears (actually, the tears didn’t look like they’d be drying up anytime soon), it was back into their bedroom. They’d discussed the mechanics of what came next many times in the last few days while waiting, but inside, with the door locked firmly behind them, Jo still found herself hesitating, Cas staring back at her just as uncertainly.
Somewhat unexpectedly, given that his role in the proceedings was technically done, it was Dean who reacted first. “All right, both of you are wearing way too many clothes.”
It got the grin out of her that he may have been hoping for, and it made Cas reach dutifully for his tie.
Jo pulled her tank top up, and when it was over her head, her world turned to blue cotton, she felt Dean’s warm, calloused hands land lightly on her naked middle, his fingertips at the edge of her bra. His lips brushed the back of her neck. “I’ll get you ready while Cas does his thing, mmm?”
Jo’s breath caught, and she nodded; so maybe Dean didn’t have to be an all-passive observer this round. She turned to kiss him, and it felt a little bit like getting lost, but somehow thy got her bra off and ended up on the bed, him pushing and her pulling in just the right rhythm.
When he drew back she barely had time to mourn the loss of his lips before they were attached to one nipple. She groaned even before his deft fingers tweaked the other and bucked into him. He’d always loved her breasts but god it felt different today knowing- well-
She wondered if months from now, when they were still small and empty, she’d feel a phantom fullness; she wondered what Cas’s flat nipples would like and felt a sudden surge of mingled jealousy and lust as she imagined Dean sucking on his instead.
Abandoning her breasts, Dean’s lips slid down her body, leaving wet, open-mouthed kisses in their wake, until he reached her hips. Jo felt her thighs tremble in anticipation. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cas standing beside the bed, naked now and watching hungrily, his dick already hard and leaking. It didn’t look any different than usual. Jo wasn’t exactly sure there was any “thing” Cas had needed to do; maybe Dean had just wanted to be involved- physically, that is, he was always involved; or maybe he’d wanted to be the one to do this for her because as far as Cas had come in the lady-loving department since this weird, wonderful relationships began, he was still the padawan to Dean’s master. And as much as Jo loved hearing- feeling- Dean coach Cs toward her climax, tonight wasn’t the night for games; she needed to be relaxed; as gentle and careful as Cas was going to be, his magical angel dick was still going to be doing unnatural things in uncharted territory.
Besides, it was a fitting role reversal from the actual conception, when Cas had brought her off before she and Dean made their baby.
Made their baby. Oh god-
Jo was mewling practically before Dean licked her. She closed her eyes as he hooked one, then two fingers inside her, his tongue doing things she didn’t have words for, and when he sucked on her clit she came, his name on her lips.
Dean usually liked to kiss her afterward, make her taste her own cum, the cheeky bastard. But the mouth that settled roughly over hers, swallowing any aftershocks, was Cas’s. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back just as fiercely, and pulled him over her. Dean yanked away from her legs with a muttered curse that probably meant he’d almost been kicked in the head; they’d make it up to him later.
“Are you ready?” Cas’s voice rumbled like a growl, and Jo felt her toes curl.
“Are you?” she challenged, and dug her heels into his back.
He grunted, spent one more moment positioning himself, and slid home.
It wasn’t until she realized that it felt no different from usual (other than just how wet she was; she hadn’t been so eager since Valentine’s Day with the cheesecake and the vodka and the whipped cream) that she even realized she’d been expecting it to feel different. It was just Cas, though, being his usual self: pumping just rhythmically enough to remind her that human sex didn’t come naturally to him, that they sometimes needed to coax out his creativity; kissing her like Dean kissed because that was how he had learned, except Cas tasted like rain and fresh spring air instead of liquor and fast food; gripping her with a gentleness that belied his intense expression because he was always afraid of accidentally hurting them with his Grace.
She rocked against him, glad today for his steady rhythm, when she needed all the normalcy she could get.
Gradually his thrusts became more erratic, as they always did when he was nearing climax. Today his enthusiasm bordered on urgency, though, his teeth clenched with concentration as his hips pounded hers forcefully; he was driving as deeply as he could, and it was starting to dip over that fine line between pleasure and pain. She tried not to wince.
“Jo,” he whispered, guttural, and her stomach flipped over; now; now it was going to be different. “I’m going to- are you-?”
“Yes,” she bit out.
With a full-body shudder, Cas’s forehead dropped to her shoulder; his hips jerked once more, and then he seized up- but he didn’t cum.
Jo held her breath. A hand slid over hers, on Cas’s back, and she gripped Dean gratefully.
Even knowing what to expect, Jo didn’t think she would have felt it at first if he hadn’t been completely still. The next thrust inside her would have felt like any other, albeit a little less sharp and a little more exploratory than Cas had been in a while.
But the rest of him remained motionless.
His dick continued to move of its own accord. For a moment it still seemed tentative, gently prodding the deepest parts of her.
Probing.
Jo’s mouth felt dry, but she couldn’t work up any spit to swallow. It didn’t hurt exactly- in other circumstances she might even have enjoyed the novelty of it- but probing was definitely the word, like it had a mind of its own; pressing into her and stretching out and feeling her up like it was a- a-
A fucking tentacle.
Goddamnit, she was never telling Charlie anything about their sex life again.
Dean had laughed his ass off at the comparison until Jo suggested what a prehensile tentacle dick could do to his prostate. Then he’d shut up real quick.
For a brief moment Cas’s dick stilled, and she knew, with a flip of her stomach, that it had found her cervix.
“With my Grace I will be able to briefly alter my form and come inside you. I mean it literally, Dean, not like that. I will be able to penetrate your womb and transfer the child to myself.”
It started thrusting again, faster, until it felt more like poking than prodding, like jabbing, like it was trying to break through her-
Jo stifled a moan; any kind of pain there was one of the reasons she had never wanted to be pregnant, thank you very much.
“Squeeze,” she heard Dean say, as though from far away. She did, trying to ignore the barrage inside her, to think instead about the irony that crushing the father’s hand was supposed to happen during birth, not conception. In a few months he’d offer the same to Cas, and she would, too; unfortunately, Cas might literally crush their hands by accident-
A particularly painful twinge shot through her. Jo resisted the urge to dig her fingernails into his back; she didn’t dare do anything that might break his concentration; besides, she didn’t think he was even aware of what he was doing. He was lost in a stupor, all his energy focused on changing himself and finding their child-
Abruptly, the pain changed to a ticking sensation. Jo let out a sound that was more sob that mere gasp. Now she could barely feel it- where his dick ended and she began. It was all just- fuzzy. That meant he was in her uterus now, right?
Cas gasped suddenly, and Jo couldn’t keep from tensing. “What?” she and Dean demanded in unison.
“Are you okay? Is it okay?” Again, her voice didn’t sound like her own.
Castiel exhaled shakily. “Yes, it is- it’s fine. I have it. It’s- it’s in me.”
Jo felt her jaw drop. That had been the whole point, of course, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise- but still. Turning her head, she saw that Dean looked about the same, like an anvil had been dropped on his head; like he hadn’t really believed it could happen.
Had she believed it? Yes, she had to have believed they could do it or she would never have been willing to get pregnant first. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t a shock, wasn’t a relief- if it hadn’t worked, she didn’t know if she could have gone through with it herself-
“I can feel it,” whispered Cas, finally lifting his head from her shoulder. He looked dazed, and there were tears in his eyes as he glanced between them. “I can feel our child inside me.”
Jo let out what she thought was going to be a laugh; instead it sounded like a hiccup. She was crying, too, she realized, for the first time; she hadn’t been able to cry while it was still inside her.
“Good,” she said. “God, Cas, that’s- that’s-”
“A miracle,” said Dean, his face equally dazed now.
Jo looked between her two boys and felt a silly grin spread across her face. “Yeah it is. Now, Cas, get your tentacle dick out of me.”
* * *
“Think your mom will keep that one, too?” Dean lounged next to her on the bed, much more relaxed than he’d been the first round; no pacing needed.
Jo tore her gaze away from the second, negative pregnancy test long enough to roll her eyes. “I think I’m keeping this one.”
Too late she realized how that might have sounded. His eyes were gentle, though, free of judgment, as he slowly sat up. “You okay, sweetheart?” he asked quietly.
She nodded and then, before she could stop herself: “You know I want this baby, right? Even though I didn’t want to…”
It made him frown a little, but also not in a judging way. “’Course I do. And so does Cas.”
When she didn’t say anything he sidled closer and knocked her knee with his. “It’s gonna be okay. You’re gonna hunt as much as you want, and Cas, me, and Baby Makes Four are always gonna be here when you come home.”
It wasn’t exactly the reassurance she’d been hoping for. Jo was quiet for a moment before giving in. “You don’t think I’m being selfish, do you?”
“No,” said Dean, without hesitation. She’d known that would be his answer, but the tightness in her chest still eased a little. “I think you like the idea of kids but you’re young and there’re a lot of other things you want to do with your life first, and there ain’t anything wrong with that. If anything, me and Cas are the ones that are selfish. We wanted a kid, and you love us, so you wanted a kid, too; just this particular kid that’s all of ours. But you don’t have to worry about doing the things you want. This kid has Cas and me, plus the best uncle and grandparents a kid could ask for, so it’s gonna be fine, even if Mom is off huntin’ a lot. It’s not gonna be like it was for-”
He stumbled, as he always did when he felt guilty for saying anything that resembled criticism of his childhood. “For Sam and me. And it’s not gonna be like you, losing a parent to the business. We’ve got an angel in the family now. So no, Jo, you are definitely not being selfish.”
He kissed her forehead. “And if a few years down the road you decide you’re done with hunting and want to try it, we can give the kiddo a sibling the old fashioned way,
With a non-committal nod, Jo leaned into him, lacing their fingers together on his thigh.
“We could take turns,” Cas announced brightly, stepping out of the bathroom, where he had been admiring his knocked up reflection. “I believe I could modify Dean’s body for pregnancy the same way I am modifying mine.”
With her head tucked beneath his chin, Jo felt as well as heard Dean choke.
“You what? No- no, I don’t think that’s gonna happen-”
“Don’t worry, Dean.” Jo pulled away to grin up at him, only a little bit pointedly. “You don’t have to make up your mind now. You can see how you feel in a few years. We both can.”
His mouth shot open, but then he hesitated.
“Yes, no need to decide now,” said Cas, oblivious, and came to sit on Jo’s other side. He moved slowly, like he already had a belly to take into account; it was, Jo decided, very attractive. “We have our baby.”
Jo squeezed Dean’s hand. Smiling, she kissed Cas’s cheek as she rested her other hand against his stomach. “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”
Fin