The Beauty of Love As It Was Made To Be 5/?
Title: The Beauty of Love As It Was Made To Be 5/?
Rating: PG
Pairing and Characters: Dean/Cas, Faith, OC
Spoilers/Warnings: None really
Word Count: ~2,300 (this chapter)
Summary: This is a sequel to "Like To Stay in Heaven..." you don't have to read that first to start this, but it would help a lot. That masterpost is here. You do need to read the prologue which is here. This starts two months after the end of my version of season 7.
This chapter: Sam has been gone for 2 months and the lack of work is getting to everyone. A new threat is on the horizon for the Winchesters and a new ally could make themselves known.
Notes: This story will most likely turn into another monster. I've had this story in mind for a while and haven't had a way to write it out. It could go on for a long time to see Dean and Cas' daughter grow to an adult. I don't know a lot about Nephilim and will make up most everything about them in this story with my unique little Winchester.
Previous
Dean was going crazy. He had barely left the house or worked in almost two months. Getting quality time with Faith and Cas was great. Dean loved watching his daughter progress more each day, but his need to work was making him more irritable as time passed.
Surprisingly, his emotions were channeled into going through and organizing the books and weapons in the cabin. He was once again aligning a set of books in the basement when Cas heard a shout. He ran downstairs.
“Dean, what happened?”
The man had a hand on his hip and a frown on his face. “I can’t find something.”
Cas sighed. “Is that all?”
“I just saw the damn thing yesterday.” Dean started looking over all the spines of the books.
“Was it an important book?” Cas rested a hand on the rail for the stairs. Dean had done this a couple times already.
“It was one of the Campbell’s journals. It could be important someday.” He pulled a couple books out to check behind them.
“Dean…” Cas jumped slightly as Dean tossed a few books from the shelf, one of them sliding close to Cas’ feet. He bent down with a sigh to pick up the book. “Dean, why don’t you just let it go for a while and come back later?”
Dean froze before turning to Cas. “Maybe there’s a ghost here that took it?”
Cas furrowed his brows in concern. “We have every type of protection surrounding this house. Nothing supernatural could be here.”
“Well,” he waved his arms in defeat, “what else could it be?”
“The book could be somewhere else and you just forgot.” He handed Dean the book in his hand. “And you’re so desperate to hunt that you’re imagining something.”
Dean shook his head. “I’m not desperate.”
“Last week you thought there were demons working at the gas station in town.”
“Those guys were acting shady, Cas.”
“And what happened when you kicked in the door and covered them in holy water?”
Dean looked at the floor. “They called the cops.”
“You’re lucky that I could talk them out of charging you with something.”
“It was an honest mistake.”
“What about the time before that at the grocery store and our cashier?”
“She knew my name!”
“She heard me talking to you.” That had almost been another trip to the police station when Dean started threatening her. “I think we need to get out of the house for a little.” Dean dropped the book on the shelf and ran his hands over his face. “We’re all getting a little stir crazy.”
“Yeah.” He walked away from the books he had been moving around for a good hour. “Sam said he would be back next week, at least for a visit. Sarah is probably coming too.”
“Good. I’ve wanted to meet her for a while.” He reached out to take Dean’s hand. “Come on. Faith is drawing upstairs and wants to show you something.”
He led Dean upstairs and they sat with Faith as she drew bright stars and tiny sparkling fairies that she says she sees around the flowers in the park. Dean hoped she wasn’t serious, not liking the ideas of fairies being around after what had happened to him before.
That night the three of them went out to eat. Dean had to admit that it was nice to go out with his family and act normal for once. He had a strange feeling in the diner, but Cas was probably right about him just jumping at shadows.
Faith was out for the first night this week and Dean was curled up with Cas by midnight. He was starting to feel like maybe his life could be like this more often.
He doesn’t know what time it happened exactly, but he heard their bedroom door open slowly and light footsteps approaching their bed. Keeping his eyes closed, he rolled over to his stomach and slid his hand under the pillow. The footsteps stilled when he moved. His fingers curled around the handle of his gun as he kept his face neutral in sleep.
Cas was tensing next to him and Dean knew he could hear the steps too. Dean waited with his gun in hand as the steps moved closer. He could hear the intruder breathing steadily as the shuffling steps stopped behind him. The breathing got louder. When Dean could feel the breath close enough, he rolled over quickly, pulled his gun out, and grabbed the neck of the surprised intruder.
Dean flipped their positions, sliding off the bed and pushing the stranger into the bed. Cas was moving to take his silver knife from under the pillow as Dean took aim for the pinned stranger.
“Whoa!”
Now that Dean had stopped moving, he was able to get a good look at the person he had grabbed. It was a woman. Her slim hands were lifted up in surrender and her eyes were wide in surprise. Long brown hair was splayed out behind her and over her face.
“Wait, please.” She kept her hands up and still, not wanting to scare them any more.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” Dean had his finger on the trigger, ready if she tried anything.
“My name is Tracy. I need your help.”
She sounded sincere enough but Dean didn’t buy it. “Really? Is that why you broke in and was creeping around our room?”
“It was the only way.”
“What?”
Cas stood on the opposite side of the bed, knife in hand. “The only way to what?”
“The only way to get in here safely.”
Dean looked at Cas in confusion. “Safely?”
“Why don’t you put the gun away, and I’ll tell you?”
Dean nodded to Cas, who held his knife at the ready before Dean pulled his gun back. He let go of her and stood up straight. “Are you a hunter?” She had gotten past the angel warding and the devil’s traps and the lines of salt, so she wasn’t a demon, angel, or ghost.
She smiled. “Sort of.” She sat up slowly. “I kill evil if that’s what you mean.”
“Cas,” Dean glanced up, “go check on Faith.” He looked like he might protest but he moved quickly out the door. “So, you’re kind of a hunter that broke into our house in the middle of the night, snuck into our room, and now you want our help?”
“I’ll make it worth your while.”
“What do you mean?” Cas came back in and nodded. Faith was still sleeping.
Tracy laughed and looked at both of them. “You really don’t know? Wow.” She straightened her hair with her fingers. “You’re being watched.”
Dean’s heart started to race. “What, by who?”
She raised her eyebrows and counted off on her fingers. “Uh, demons, shifters, vamps, leviathans, you name it.” Their eyes widened. “Did you really not notice?” She laughed again. “Man,” she stood, “I thought you two were good. After all I’ve heard about you.”
“How do you know about this?”
“They’re outside.” She walked over to a window. “They always are. When you go out, they follow you, watch you. They could be anyone passing you in the street.”
“Like a cashier or gas station workers?” She nodded. Dean looked at Cas. “I told you!”
“Dean,” Cas raised a brow, “this isn’t a good time.”
“Why aren’t they attacking us?”
“They’re waiting for the right time, or for the right motivation.” She smirked at them. “Like your little, Faith was it? She would go for a high price for any of them.”
“Let me guess,” Dean walked closer to her, “you’re gonna get them off our backs if we help you?” She shrugged. “Even if we believed you could do that, why should we trust anything you say?”
“Because I can get inside. For once, these monsters are working together. They’re putting aside differences and working towards a common enemy: the Winchesters. If you thought they were dangerous apart, you can’t imagine their strength if they form their own monster mob.”
Dean didn’t want to imagine. They had had a taste of that when Eve was making her rounds. Cas stepped around the bed and closer to Dean. “You said you could get inside? How would you do that?”
“I would just walk in. I already have actually. They trust me because,” her eyes flashed as a second eyelid blinked and her eyes glowed, “I’m one of them.”
Dean raised his gun at Tracy. “You’re a shapeshifter?!”
She held up her hands. “Wait!”
“You’re lucky I haven’t already shot you. Give me one good reason not to.”
She swallowed as Cas inched over to block off her escape route. “I’m here to help you. I meant it when I said that I was a hunter. I haven’t killed anything that didn’t deserve it.”
“That’s what murderers say.”
“You would know, wouldn’t you?” They glared at each other for a moment. Tracy sighed. “I’m a hunter. I kill evil, ghosts, vampires, other shifters. We’re not all the same, Dean. Just like humans, some of us are different.”
“Yeah, right. How do we know this isn’t some kind of trick?”
“If I wanted to kill you, I would have already. If I wanted to take your daughter, I would have before you even woke up.” She took a couple steps closer to Dean. “I am your best hope of getting out of this alive, of getting your family out alive.”
Dean shook his head. “Get the hell out.” He stepped aside and pointed to the door. “Tell your friends that if they come near me or my family, I will kill every one of them.”
She nodded slowly. “If you change your mind,” she eased around them to the door, “I’ll be around.”
Dean dropped his gun on the bed when he heard the front door close. Cas did the same with his knife. “Dean, what are we gonna do?”
“I don’t know. Clearly we need better protection on the house.” He ran a hand over his face. “If they’re waiting for the right time to attack, maybe we should tell Sam to stay away or leave Sarah in New York at least.”
“Even if we do that, they won’t wait forever. If they catch sight of Faith, they’ll slaughter us to get her.”
“We can take ‘em.”
“We don’t even know how many of them there are. We could kill all but one of them and that one could bring thirty more.”
“We’re always being hunted, Cas. My whole life has been running from evil that wants to kill me.”
“They’ve never been camped outside the house.” He took a breath before continuing. “I don’t think we should have turned Tracy away so quickly.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“She could be of great help, Dean.”
“She’s a monster, Cas!”
“She’s a hunter!”
“So she says.”
“We may not have another option, Dean.”
“No.” He pointed out the door. “Working with her is not an option.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, I won’t hesitate to ask for her help.”
Dean tightened his lips in frustration. He turned away from Cas and walked to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna check all the doors and look outside.”
Cas waited in their room for a while before checking on Dean. He was staring out a window by the door. They both knew how much trouble they were in and neither one knew what they should do. “Dean, there’s nothing you can do right now. Just come to bed.”
“No.”
“Please?”
“How can you sleep now?” Dean turned to look at him. “Knowing that they’re literally right outside?”
“Tracy said they were waiting. We don’t know how long they’ve been there. It won’t happen tonight.”
“You don’t know that. She could have been a spy and she’s telling them everything.”
“Then why not kill us or take Faith? She had every chance but she told us about them instead.” Dean fell quiet and turned back to face the window. Cas was tired of repeating himself so he walked up to kiss the back of Dean’s neck briefly before pulling back towards their room. “Goodnight, Dean.”
Dean had wondered back into bed sometime around dawn. Cas woke up briefly as he wrapped his arms around him. Cas got up a few hours later to check on Faith. He found his daughter standing in her crib waiting for him. He carried her into the kitchen and gave her breakfast. They ate together as Cas looked through the paper Dean had bought the day before.
When Faith had finished her food, she started rocking in her highchair. “Daddy,” she whined, “Daddy!”
Cas picked her up. He knew she meant Dean. ‘Daddy’ was Dean and ‘Poppa’ was Cas. “Daddy’s sleeping, honey. Afraid you’re stuck with me for a while.”
She frowned and tilted her head. “Daddy and Poppa.” She tried to wiggle out of Cas’ hold.
“Faith.” He tried to hold her but she wouldn’t have it and he had to put her down to avoid dropping her. She immediately ran to their room. “Faith, don’t.” He followed her quickly.
She was too fast for Cas and she beat him into the room where Dean was sleeping. She couldn’t get on the bed but she was trying. Cas scooped her up. “Honey, you need to let Daddy sleep.” He kept his voice hushed. She struggled against him. “Come on, it’s okay.” The closer he got to the door, the louder she whined. “What do you want, Faith?”
“Daddy and Poppa!” She pulled on his collar and looked at Dean.
He sighed. “Okay.” He went to the bed and sat her down next to Dean. She crawled up to be close to his face. Cas laid down next to them. Faith snuggled between them. “You okay now?”
Faith made a happy sound and snuggled closer to Cas. He smiled and nuzzled the top of her head. He saw Dean smile, probably waking up as soon as Faith ran in. Cas brushed a hand up Dean’s arm lightly. Dean shifted closer to Faith and put his arm around the other two. None of them needed more sleep but they were all content to remain where they were for a while.
Next