Title: Into The Woods
Chapter 2
Notes: ‘Glory of Love’ is sung by Peter Cetera.

~~~~~~~~~~

Uzziel fully realized that Castiel and the other angels merely tolerated his enthusiasm for various things. He had to admit that he could be a tad grating and over the top when he got into a topic, but he’d never considered just how much free time he’d have with the war finally over. His endeavors with the angelic university really didn’t take up much time and neither did his duties on the administration side of running heaven. After all, he’d delegated pretty much everything he could, a thing Castiel still hadn’t gotten the hang of.

He had time and time was something angels had a ton of. Since idle hands were the devil’s tools, as the saying went (he’d found he loved learning things like that), he tried to keep busy. He attended classes, expanded his knowledge, and kept hoping that one day Castiel might bend and let him do Guardian stuff. Uzziel supposed that perhaps his fixation with Ellen was a deterrent…. He was completely in control of that now, however. Why, he hadn’t thought about her in maybe a day. Until now. What was she doing right now, he wondered. Was she fixing a meal or reading or driving? Doing one of any other hundred things she did on a daily basis?

With a guilty glance left and right, he reminded himself ‘I am a holy angel of the Lord’ until the urge to go see her disappeared.

He sighed. In a way, Uzziel sort of missed the war. He missed using his skills as an army leader and his angelic brain apparently wasn’t wired to understand human innuendo and jokes. Oh, he’d put on a good show occasionally, but that got tiring. He’d been very good at the whole ‘show’ part of his former job. Showing confidence when he wasn’t and that sort of thing. Working with Raphael had demanded it.

This, however, was a genius idea. Even his vessel agreed.

He looked over the list Jael had brought him and slipped down to earth, checking on a few things himself before returning to approve of the plan. The next thing to do was to corral both Castiel and Abigael. He felt confident he could convince them both.

A team building camping trip was exactly what they needed. He was certain the Winchesters wouldn’t mind the company.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jo’s expression was dazed when she stepped from the Impala. For that matter, so was Dean’s. Gwen let Sam go around to remove their son from the backseat and went to stand beside Jo as Dean unbuckled Jack from the car seat.

“What’s that look for,” Gwen asked.

She leaned against the car, hands in her jacket pockets. “Jack just spent an hour reciting The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, the lyrics to ‘Hells Bells’ and ‘Back in Black’, and two-thirds of the rite of exorcism -- in perfect, if slow Latin pronunciation. Back to back.”

Gwen stretched her back. “The Dr. Suess I get. The AC/DC I get, but who’s been reading him the rite of exorcism?” Gwen would read what Jack brought her and had assumed Sam did, too. Dean always read him silly books so he could make the funny faces and voices and Jo usually read Dr. Suess. Jack loved to be read to. It was one of his favorite things. He liked to climb up on a lap and ask for book after book to be read. He could drag out bedtime for hours if they’d let him. It was particularly amusing to watch him get Bobby to read to him. Maybe the rite was Bobby’s contribution to Jack’s education?

Sam appeared from behind the door, baby carrier in hand. Sean was awake and just beginning to fuss. Time for a change and a bottle. Gwen was glad she’d chosen to stop breast feeding -- an easy decision when half the time he’d refused to latch on. If she’d been breast feeding she would’ve had him feeding almost non-stop during the growth spurts.

“Sorry, Jo,” Sam said with a contrite look.

“Sorry?” Her brows rose.

“Yeah. Dean said it didn’t matter what I read to him and the book was right there. He really seemed to like the Latin. Settled right down and listened.”

“You read it to him once?”

“No, four or five times and the last time, he brought the book to me and read it out loud with me.”

Jo blinked. “So he’s fast at memorization and might have an ear for languages?”

Dean and Jack went into the tree line and behind a clump of bushes. Gwen heard something about ‘pee’ and ‘big boy pants’. “Could be. That’s a good thing.”

Sam smiled. “On the bright side, he’ll already have the rite memorized for when he’s older.”

Jo’s nose scrunched up. “That’s not a bright side, Sam. Sort of implies he’ll run afoul of demons.”

“He’s a Winchester,” was his dry response as he laid out a blanket, a couple of plastic pads and began to change Sean. “We run afoul of everything.”

“He has a point,” Gwen told her, moving to begin taking things from the back of the SUV. Of course, it wasn’t just the Winchester side that ran afoul of demons. The Harvelle side had, too. For that matter, the Campbell and Bennett sides of this family had had their own troubles with demons.

“Not one I want to dwell on.”

“Understandable.”

As soon as Sam was done changing Sean, he left the baby with Jo and came over to help Gwen. He leaned down to her ear. “This should be an interesting weekend with Jo feeling like she has to ralph every time she smells food cooking. Dean’s got this big camping food menu planned.”

“With any luck she won’t have the nausea much longer and everything will sort of even out.” Gwen wasn’t expecting that to happen however. Sometimes morning sickness lasted all through the pregnancy. Jo had discussed it with Dr. Ames, but the doctor wasn’t worried, assuring Jo she was having a normal pregnancy.

He took a few items to one side of the camp and returned. “You’re sure you’re okay with this? I mean, Dean’s been wanting to go camping again for months and --”

“Sam, are you kidding?” She leaned against the SUV and slid an arm around his waist. “I love camping. I don’t mind. It’ll be fun.”

But as she watched Jo, she wasn’t so sure Jo was going to find it fun. Jo wasn’t exactly the camping sort of woman, as Jo had pointed out back at the house. Maybe Gwen should have pushed them to head for the cabin. They could have put up tents in the yard while Jo stayed in the cabin.

Too late now. Gwen shrugged and went back to unloading the SUV.

~~~~~~~~~~

While the drive hadn’t been too long, merely a few hours, the weekend stretched on ahead of Jo. She leaned against the car a moment, watching Sam change Sean, then glanced around the clearing. The day was sunny, the sky clear, and the weather not too warm or cool. It was, as Dean said, perfect for camping.

Too bad she hated camping.

She opened the trunk and reached for her bag only to find it tugged from her hands.

“I’ll get that,” Dean told her.

She reached for the cooler.

He placed a hand on it. “I’ll get that, too.”

With glance at Sam and Gwen, who had already unloaded their own vehicle, then at the Impala, Jo crossed her arms. “So, what’s in the trunk that you don’t want me to see?”

“Nothing.” Dean smiled that flirtatious smile he always used when he tried to distract her from something. “I just think that you should take it easy and let me set up camp. After all, you’re sort of here under duress --”

“You bought a new fishing pole.”

“No, but I thought about it.”

“You bought a new tent, that super deluxe model you were drooling at in the sports store.”

“No, but I was tempted.”

What could it possibly be? “You’ve got a dead body smashed in there that you’re going to bury?”

“No, but there is room for one. Maybe even two.”

She sighed. “Okay, fine. You can put the camp together and I won’t peek at the trunk.” Turning, she saw Jack sitting on the ground by Sean’s carrier, rocking it with a hand and watching Sam take a tent from it’s case.

Gwen grabbed the shovel and, since her suggestion made sense and Dean obviously wanted Jo oblivious as to what was in the trunk, she started down the path with her. As they walked, her phone began to chirp with text notifications. She was almost sorry she looked at them.

It was Marissa, the annoying fan girl she couldn’t get rid of. It was somewhat her fault, she realized. She sort of felt sorry for her. While Marissa wasn’t quite as bad as Becky, she was just as annoying.

‘Bestie! Midnyt show here? In costume? Next fri?’

Jo’s reply was less than tactful and only halfway a lie. ‘Pregnant. Get car sick. Can’t drive distances.’

‘I’ll come 2 u then! My treat!’ A moment later, a second text came in. ‘AU idea. Jo preggers. How wld J &D react? Opinion?’

‘Ris, gotta go toss cookies’

‘K. Feel better!’

She’d figure out how to really answer her later.

~~~~~~~~~~

Since Gwen had something of an idea what Dean was up to, she approached Jo and slung an arm around her shoulders. “Come on. Let’s go find a place to dig the pee pit and let all the guys do the manual labor.”

“Digging is manual labor,” Sam called out.

“Never said we were going to dig it,” she replied with a grin. “We’ll just find the spot. You can dig it later.”

“Not quite the equal division of labor we talked about, Gwen.”

“I’ll make it up to you later.”

“I’m holding you to that.”

They found a good spot not too far away, Gwen anchoring the shovel in the ground. Jo was busy with her phone, rolling her eyes and snorting at the messages that were coming in. As they started towards the water, Gwen cleared her throat.

“Care to be social?”

She glanced up. “Sorry. It’s Marissa.”

“What’s she want?”

They’d met Marissa during their last attempt at a vacation when Gwen had been pregnant with Sean. They’d walked right into a Supernatural convention by accident, though Gwen was beginning to suspect that nothing like that was ever an accident with them. There were too many weird coincidences in their lives. Marissa was a fan of Jo in the Supernatural books and considered Jo, who she thought was really named Beth, the best LARPer ever. She was constantly texting and leaving messages. Jo’s habit of taking days to get back to her didn’t deter her as she seemed to think Jo was her ‘bestie’.

“You know how ‘Route 666’ was delayed in opening?”

Gwen nodded. “Of course, I do. Dave invited you and Dean to join him and Rose for the premier.”

Dave was the actor portraying Dean in the movie. He’d taken a liking to Dean at the convention and, since Dean had given him advice on how to woo Rose, he’d even kept in touch. Dean had alternately wanted to go and refused to go, something about seeing himself not himself in bed with an old girlfriend in front of his wife. He’d ended up finally refusing the invitation, claiming that they had too many cases to leave town for even a day or two and promising Dave that they’d come out soon and visit.

“Yeah, well, she wanted me to drive across the state to go to the opening midnight show with her in costume. I told her I was pregnant and get car sick now.”

She sensed the typical Marissa response of overriding all objections coming. “And?”

“She offered to drive to pick me up and pay for everything.”

“Sounds like someone has a crush on you.”

“No, it’s more like she’s lonely. She really doesn’t have any close friends and her boyfriend broke up with her a couple months back.”

Bending, Gwen picked up a rock and skipped it across the water. “Don’t do it,” she warned.

“Do what?”

“A pity get-together.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Her expression indicated she’d been thinking about just that.

“Wouldn’t you? Come on. I know you. You feel sorry for her and if you do that, you’ll regret it. You can’t drink, remember?” She skipped another rock. This one went further. When she’d been eight, Christian had taught her how to skip rocks, one good memory she had of him. “Why don’t you change numbers and lose her info? Problem solved. We do it all the time.”

“No, Dean and Sam do it all the time,” she corrected. “You, me, mom, and Bobby all tend to keep information and numbers in case we can use favors in the future.”

“Sure.” Jo was right. “But what can you get from Marissa?”

“I’m using her to keep my thumb on the pulse of the fandom.”

That actually wasn’t a bad idea. Marissa, while Jo-slanted in her information, did seem to know things about the fandom. “Hmm. Better than using Becky.” Gwen would prefer not to have anything to do with Becky ever again. It was bad enough that Chuck had forwarded a baby gift from her to Bobby, who’d passed it on to them. She’d sent them a hand-stitched quilt, a hideous teddy bear, and several onesies with cute sayings on them. Gwen had opened up the teddy bear and removed the stuffing looking for any cameras and the like, then washed the quilt and onesies in boiling water. Dean had said she wasn’t being extreme enough in her reaction to the gift and suggested washing everything in holy water, too.

Jo averted her eyes and pretended to be answering a text, except she wasn’t actually texting. She was pressing keys and backspacing, but never hitting send. Gwen recognized the movements as she’d used that tactic herself to delay responding.

“What? Tell me.”

She turned her phone off and put it away. Her innocent expression didn’t fool Gwen for one second. “Beautiful spot the guys picked for this, huh? Bet the fishing is really good.”

“Jo. Tell me now or I’ll get it out of you later.”

“Gwen, it’s nothing. I’ll keep my eye on all the fandom stuff. You guys just pretend it doesn’t exist.” She put her hands in her jacket pockets. “Oh, and Marissa started a Jo/Dean AU where Jo gets pregnant and she wants my opinion on how they’d both react.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“That I had to go throw-up.”

Gwen laughed.

~~~~~~~~~~

After awhile, Jo wondered if Gwen had been recruited to keep her occupied. She seemed to be thinking of task after task to be done outside of camp, like scouting out the best fishing spot nearby and the spots of poison ivy Jack was likely to find fascinating.

He would, too. He was a typical boy except for the whole ant thing. He’d pick up anything he found on the ground and still managed to get filthy within minutes of going outside to play. It was a talent.

Jo opened a plastic baggie and pulled out a cracker, nibbling at it. She wasn’t having any nausea right now and was actually starting to feel hungry. Gradually, she became aware of a noise nearby that wasn’t a sound of nature.

“What’s that sound?” Jo cocked her head and listened. It sounded like a motor of some kind.

“Not sure.” Gwen’s smirk was knowing, belying her claim of not knowing. “It’s coming from camp though.”

They stepped back into the camp to find the tents up, Sam laying a fire and Dean in one tent, the flap opened wide. He was kneeling in the entrance and when Jo got a look at what he was doing and what the noise was, she smiled. “Oh, honey, you didn’t have to.”

He’d brought an inflatable mattress and was trying to inflate it. The air pump he was using was what the noise was. Trying was the word, too, as Jack was rolling around on the half inflated mattress.

Jack grinned. “Faster, daddy!”

“It only goes so fast and if you bounce one more time you have to go help Sam.”

“Aww….” Jack laid down and was still, or as still as a toddler ever got when not sleeping. “Don’t wanna help Sam. There’s ants.”

Dean glanced back at Jo with a grin. “Anything for you, sweetheart.”

“Is this what you didn’t want me to see?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Mommy, it bounces!” Jack scrambled off the mattress and to her, taking her hand. “Come try.”

“I’ll try it later, when it’s all done.”

The afternoon passed quickly. Once camp was established, they settled in. Dean dug the pee pit, as Gwen had called it, with Jack ‘helping’. His help extended to playing in the dirt and picking up bugs, then screaming and running to Jo when he saw ants. Gwen, Dean, and Sam did all the work, and while Jo didn’t mind not having to do camping stuff, she did mind the assumption that she was in such a delicate condition that all she could do was watch the kids.

“I can do something, guys,” she said, peeling Jack off her leg and picking him up. “I’m not helpless, you know.”

He laid his head on her shoulder and murmured, “I love you, mommy. Can I have a snack?”

“Love you, too, sweetie, and it’s almost dinner time. Dean, I can pick up firewood or something like that.”

Dean went to the wash basin and began to wash his hands. “Nope. You didn’t want to come and since we overrode your objections and forced your participation, you, my beautiful wife, are exempt from actual camping jobs.”

She raised her brows in surprise and tried not to let her satisfied smirk show as she remarked, “Sweet.” Easiest way she’d ever gotten out of camping tasks. All she’d had to do was emphasize that she didn’t camp. Awesome.

“We voted on that and everything,” Gwen told her.

“When?”

“After you went to bed last night,” Sam replied, getting out a pan and looking through the food boxes.

“That’s sweet, guys, thanks.”

Jo and Dean took Jack for a walk down by the water while Gwen and Sam made dinner. After they were finished eating and the dishes were done, they settled down in chairs by the fire, talking softly. Jack crawled up on Jo’s lap and snuggled against her, falling quickly into a doze. He’d had a long, active day. She looked down at him. He was looking more like Dean every day and Jo knew he was going to be a heartbreaker when he was older.

Gwen bounced Sean lightly on her knee. He smiled and made happy noises.

A silence fell upon Sam and Dean and Jo knew something was up from the way they appeared to be carrying on a conversation with only grimaces, raised brows and pursed lips. She waited for whatever the two had planned. It could be anything.

Dean cleared his throat and got up from his chair.

Sam also stood with a long-suffering sigh. “Are we really doing this?”

“Shut up and get your gadget. We agreed.”

The gadget Dean referred to was a set of iPod speakers in a small hard case. Sam attached his iPod. After a moment, the ‘Glory of Love’ began to play. From the devilish twinkle in Dean’s eyes, Jo knew what was coming next. A duet.

She grinned. This was so them.

Gwen turned Sean around to face them.

While Sam was somewhere in the vicinity of the right key to begin with, Dean was terribly off, crooning the lyrics in his adorably flat tone-deaf way. At least it wasn’t directly in her ear this time. As the song went on, Sam’s pitch varied between Dean and Peter Cetera, though mostly Dean as he was louder. They did some bad choreography and Gwen burst into laughter.

“I’m always strong when you’re beside me.” Sam made strongman arms.

“I have always needed you.” Dean pointed at Jo.

“I could never make it alone.”

Jo smothered her own giggles right up until Dean dropped to his knees, using a flashlight as a microphone. She couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Like a knight in shining armor, from a long time ago --”

“Just in time I will save the day --” Sam dropped beside Dean and they spread their arms, singing in unison.

“Take you to my castle far away!”

Jack woke and covered his ears with both hands. “Daddy, stop! Too loud!”

They laughed and continued despite the protest.

“We did it all for love,” Dean crooned, with what Jo recognized as his sultry lounge lizard expression. He often used that expression when he was feeling frisky and silly at the same time.

Sam bent and kissed Sean on the forehead, then kissed Gwen. “I trust my humiliation has amused you?”

“Immensely,” Gwen assured him with a grin. “Hope you two didn’t scare away the fish for tomorrow.”

“They’ll be back. Let’s get Sean put to bed.”

Dean knelt, his hands resting on the sides of Jo’s thigh’s. “It’s that time for you too, Jack. Come on, buddy. Bedtime.” With a yawn, Jack leaned towards Dean to be picked up and Dean stood, the boy in his arms. “I’ll be back soon,” he told Jo.

She stretched her legs out and listened to the sounds of Dean putting Jack to bed and of Sam and Gwen talking softly as Sean made contented murmurs.

True to his word, he was back within fifteen minutes, pulling a chair close. Dean grasped her hand and pointed at the sky, then towards the lake. “What’d I tell you? Relaxing. Stars, fire, water, family. Tell me this isn’t fun?”

“It’s acceptable so far.”

“Acceptable?” Leaning over, he began pressing feather light kisses against her neck. “This better?”

“Getting there.”

“Next time, maybe we could come out, just the two of us….”

“Get a room,” Gwen remarked, coming out of the tent she, Sam, and Sean were using.

“We have a room. It’s just back at the house.” Dean sat back in his chair.

She got a water bottle from one cooler. “Sam and I are turning in. Sean doesn’t seem inclined to settle down unless Sam’s actually holding him tonight, so…goodnight.” She returned to the tent.

Dean released Jo’s hand and put his arm around her. “This is the perfect evening. Admit it.”

Jo decided she could relax and enjoy herself. After all, what could possibly happen? They were miles from any trouble (Sam had fanatically checked right up until the time they’d left), the weather was supposed to be beautiful, and Dean had everything planned out for them. “It is perfect,” she told him, and leaned close, resting her head against his shoulder and watching the fire.