Title: Nothing and Everything

Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~~

In high school, Jo had suffered through a tape in health class of a woman giving birth. At the time, she’d wondered why anyone thought showing it was a good idea. It was disgusting. Blood and fluids everywhere. The woman on the tape screamed like she was being murdered. Ellen had insisted Jo see the tape, even previewing it first. Why have Jo see it? So she could understand the consequences of sex and realize that they’d be painful.

Oh. My. God, were they painful!

Jo panted, gasping, more than ready for them to give her the pain meds they’d promised. What was taking so long? She’d thought dying was painful, but this was right up there with it! She gritted her teeth.

“You can’t push yet, Jo,” Doctor Ames said in a soothing tone that made Jo want to shoot her. If she’d had a gun with her, she just might have. “You’re not fully dilated. We’ll take care of the pain in a minute.”

“Screw this. I can’t do this. I want it to stop. Can you give me something to stop this? I’ll go home, come back in a month.” She knew better however and didn’t try to move, starting to cry, tears filling her eyes. Home was going to be very different from now on. They’d have to do some things differently and while they’d known that, it all came slamming into to her in a rush.

She and Dean were going to be responsible for a baby, their baby. They’d have to do dinnertime, bath time, naptime, story time and all the sort of ‘times’ that went with being a parent.

Fear snaked through her and Jo squeezed her eyes shut. Where was Dean? She needed him there with her now! He and Sam had left early. They should be back. He should be here at her side.

Ellen clasped her hand. Her other hand stroked Jo’s hair with gentle touches. “Shhh, Jo. Do your breathing when they come and rest when they aren’t. Save your strength for when it’s time to push. It might be awhile, sweetie.”

Jo gripped the rail as tightly as she could with her other hand. “I want Dean! Mom, I want Dean!” Tears wet her face. “Where is he? He should be here by now!”

“I know. I know. You want me to go out and try him again? See how close they are?”

She nodded and tried to distract herself by thinking of everything that had happened until now, all of the happy moments with Dean and their excitement for this moment. She sighed in relief as the pain lessened, the meds taking effect.

I’m going to be a mother, she thought. Soon, it’ll be over and I’ll be a mom, not just some pregnant chick. God help me.

~~~~~~~~~~

It occurred to Gwen after an hour that she needed to go back to the house. Jo’s bag was still there, since they hadn’t expected her to go into labor for another month, not to mention there was the little matter of Trickster-proofing the place somehow.

A sharp sense of violation pricked at her like a knife, followed by outrage. The two slid back and forth in varying degrees, one rising as the other fell, over and over.

She was debating whether or not to simply walk back and talk to Ellen when Ellen came out and tossed the car keys at her. “Here. Run to the house and get Jo’s bag, the birth mix cd or iPod or whatever it was Jo and Dean made for this, then stop at my house and make sure Mel locked up.”

“How is she? Any progress?”

“Jo’s fine. They were getting the pain meds ready when I stepped out, but it’s gonna be hours yet. She’s barely dilated at all in the past hour.”

The drive to the house was a tense one. Who knew what she’d find? He could have been in there any time, maybe gone through her drawers…. Gwen shuddered and turned into the driveway, stopping halfway to the house. She turned off the engine and sat there a moment, watching the house. Had Abigael managed to take care of him? She hoped so. She hoped the angel had burned him up or something to get rid of him. Gwen didn’t care, as long as he was gone.

The house was silent and still in the late afternoon sun. There were no signs that anyone or thing was inside and yet Gwen couldn’t force herself to get out of the car and go in. She didn’t want to do this alone and knew she needed help anyway, so…. Gwen took out her phone and dialed.

Bobby Singer answered on the fifth ring. “What?”

“Bobby, it’s Gwen.”

“You just called an hour ago. Jo drop the kid already?”

“No, no, it’ll be awhile. I need to talk to you.” She got out of the car and shut the door, feeling a bit better for having his voice there in her ear.

“Can it wait? I got work.”

“No, it can’t wait. I need a protection spell or symbol or something against tricksters. I don’t care what as long as it works or might work. Anything.” The yard looked the same as it always did, nothing out of place and she took a few steps towards the house.

“You wanna tell me what happened to get you in a tizzy to do this now?”

“Not particularly.” Gwen glanced back at the car, reassuring herself it was still there.

“I’m in the middle of something and if you want me to drop it all and help, you gotta tell me something.”

She let loose a long sigh. “I can’t give you the long explanation right now, but…the Trickster showed up. The Alpha one, Bobby, the original, not one of his descendants. He’s been in the house and I need to get protections against him up ASAP.”

“You’re sure?”

“He admitted it and I believe him. Do you have any protections against him?”

“Off the top of my head? Maybe. Might be a long shot, but…. I’ll take a look and get back to you.” He hung up on her.

She paced on the front lawn, trying to pretend she wasn’t afraid to go in the house alone. It was silly and yet…. One hand raised, touching the bruises developing fast on her throat. It wasn’t silly. He was dangerous and he’d made it clear he could find her, that he wanted to find her. She’d made the mistake of not putting him in that ‘dangerous’ category in her mind and he could have killed her. He could have killed all of them.

Close to an hour later, a car pulled up beside her, dust from the drive swirling up and dissipating. Bobby got out. He brought a sheet of paper to her. “Closest thing I could find fast. Don’t even know if it’ll work. It’s the first one I could find.”

“Thank you. Would you mind…going in with me?” She gestured at the house.

He stared at her, eyes narrowing, and adjusted his cap. “He really spooked you?”

She glanced away quickly, bit her lip, and admitted that weakness before looking back at him. “Yeah.”

“It’s never fun when they take the fight to your home.” Expression softening, he went up the steps and into the house. “Come on. We’ll give it a once-over and do some painting.”

They added the symbol to those already adorning various places in the house and when they were done, Gwen found Jo’s hospital bag and returned downstairs. “Thanks, Bobby. I feel kind of silly now.”

“Don’t. It’s not fair they do that, but life ain’t fair. You got a base, they’ll swing by to put you on high alert every so often. Thought you knew that? You grew up on a base, right?”

“I did. As a kid, I never noticed.” She’d known they’d watched and waited for things to attack. She’d seen it all, and yet it had never connected to her until this moment that things had breeched their defenses sometimes. As a child, it hadn’t registered and as a teenager, she’d been occupied with other issues, like the woman she’d called ‘mother’ and loved as one dying of cancer.

“Then your folks were doing a good job of protecting you.”

She returned to the hospital to wait.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dean paced back and forth, glancing either right or left every couple paces depending on which direction he was turned. This wasn’t going the way he’d assumed it would. He cleared his throat. “You’re jealous, I can see it. You’ve had my attention for years and now my attention is going elsewhere. You’re feeling neglected, hurt, maybe even a little angry at me, but right now is not the time to be acting out! Come on!”

Sam returned from the gas station across the street, set a plastic bag in the car and opened one bottle of water. He took a long drink, then recapped it and asked, “still won’t start?”

“No.” The word came out almost a sob. They were so close and yet so far away at the same time. “I’m missing the birth of my own son!” It was entirely possible in his opinion that by the time they got there, his son would be born and Jo would be pissed that he’d missed it. He really wanted to be there, too. Dean gulped in a breath.

“Wait, you knew it was a boy?”

“Of course I know, Sam.” He leaned over, peering at the engine he knew so well, attempting to piece together what could possibly be the problem. He’d looked at everything already. Nothing should be wrong. He kept her in tip-top shape. They should be driving, getting closer by the minute, but no….. His baby decided to stall and stop an hour from home. “What with the little blue clothes, the sayings on them, the books Jo’s reading, and the Doc’s circumcision questions there was no way I wouldn’t put the numbers together.”

“Right. We’re only an hour out --”

“That’s an hour my boy could show up without me there!” He looked over at Sam, watching several expressions flash across his face in wild fluctuation. Unease, panic, apprehension. All negative things.

“Um…well…he’s…Jo’s first baby and I read somewhere that first babies take awhile on average, sometimes over twelve hours. So…try to relax. We’ll get you there.”

Try to relax? That was all he had? “When Gwen is pushing out your kid and you’re an hour away and can’t freakin’ get there, then you can tell me to relax!”

He held up his hands. “Sorry. I’m trying to be reasonable and calm --”

“You think it’ll take awhile? Not that I want Jo to have a twelve hour labor….”

“It’ll be an hour to get Bobby here and another hour to get back. That’s two, which’ll make four since Gwen and Ellen called.”

Actually, it was more like four and a half. He’d been counting. “But they said she’d been having pains for hours. Doesn’t that count?”

“Um…I…I don’t know.” He shrugged, uncertainty slipping across his face.

“Because if it does, she’s already up to seven…eight hours!”

Sam shrugged slowly. “I don’t know,” he repeated.

“You can spout off obscure folklore, but don’t know at what point it’s considered labor?” Sam’s freakish well of obscure knowledge had to fail now? Figured.

“Yeah….”

“I can’t just stand here waiting for Bobby to show up.” He got back under the hood, sweet talking like she was Jo being a bit ornery. “Come on, baby. I’ll still spend plenty of time with you. Not like I’m putting you in storage. We’ll still go out together….” Dean went back through all the steps he’d previously taken, talking in a low soothing voice the entire while and forcing himself to move slowly when he wanted to hurry.

Finally, he leaned over. This better work, he thought. If it didn’t, he might just have to start hitching and leave Sam to wait for Bobby to show up. “Okay, start her up.” The engine roared to life and Dean let out a relieved laugh, closing the hood. “She just needed a little reassuring, that’s all. Move over, I’m driving.”

Dean drove as fast as he could, ignoring Sam’s dramatic white knuckles and gasps. He was only going…thirty over the speed limit. That was nothing. He pushed the accelerator harder. Vaguely, he was aware of a buzzing noise behind them, but ignored it, parking in front of the hospital by a ‘no parking’ sign and telling Sam to take care of whatever the noise was. It wasn’t the Impala, so he didn’t particularly care. He found the front desk. “Hey, hi, my wife is in labor.”

Within twenty minutes he was gowned up, and taking Ellen’s place beside Jo.

~~~~~~~~~~

Although Sam did his best not to react to Dean’s driving, he couldn’t help the tight fists or gasps at the close calls they made and when they hit the bridge and he heard sirens, he slid down in the seat and braced himself for the inevitable.

Sheriff Jodie Mills walked up to the passenger door and waited for him to open it and get out. She crossed her arms. “You know, one of these days, you boys are going to hit that bridge at eighty and it won’t be me watching for speeders.” She cleared her throat. “Though it was closer to ninety this time.”

Sam glanced around them. People were curious, slowing their steps, trying to hear what Sheriff Mills was saying. “Yeah, Sheriff, I know. I’d say it won’t happen again --”

“But it will and we both know it.” She glanced at the hospital entrance, her stern expression softening. “I’ll give you a verbal warning this time only because I know Jo’s in labor and Dean’s a first-time daddy. Heck, he probably didn’t even hear the sirens. Pass it on to Dean after the baby is born and I suggest you park in the garage across the street.” Jodie gestured with a hand. “Try to stick to the speed limit for awhile. I’ll stop by when I get off work to see how things are progressing.”

“Thank you, Sheriff. I will.” Sam parked where she suggested and went in search of the maternity waiting room. He found Gwen there, sitting cross-legged in a chair and flipping through a magazine while she listened to music.

She saw him and got up, setting aside the worn magazine and battered iPod.

He hugged her, then drew back a fraction, curving his hands around her upper arms and squeezing lightly. There was a hint of strain on her face that seemed out of proportion to the situation and he noticed bruises on her neck. “How is she?”

She shrugged, her hands resting on his chest. “In labor. I guess it’s going okay. Ellen went in with her until Dean could get here.”

His attention slid down to the marks on her neck and he touched a finger to them. “What happened? Where’d you get these?”

“I’ll tell you later, okay?”

“Looks like someone grabbed you by the throat.” Sliding his hand onto the marks, he realized he had to be right. Someone had tried to choke her. “A little excitement today? What hap--”

“I’m okay, Sam. Not ready to talk about it.”

“At least tell me it’s not ghost related.”

“It’s not, though it is a problem.”

“You’ll tell me about it in the very near future?”

Resignation flickered in her eyes. “Soon. I need to get my thoughts straight about it first.”

Ellen joined them as he took the chair beside Gwen.

“For awhile there, I was worried you boys wouldn’t get here.” Ellen sat as well.

“For awhile there, I didn’t think we would either.” He related the troubles with the Impala. “I thought she had a month to go. Is there a history of preemie births in your family?”

“Not a one, but the baby is big. Dr. Ames thinks it’s just time. He’s impatient to meet the world.”

The waiting was the hard part. Late afternoon became evening without much in the way of progress in labor, though Ellen assured Sam and Gwen it was normal for dilation to take awhile. She said it had seemed like hers took a full day to happen, which wasn’t a thing Sam had cared to know, but since Ellen rambled on about babies and births and what was and wasn’t normal, he decided it was best to let her talk and ease her worries that way. Sort of the same reasoning behind letting Dean carry on with horrible jokes. She didn’t appear to care if they were really listening.

Sam took Gwen for a late dinner in the cafeteria. They went through the line, putting together salads from the salad bar and picking up the daily special. He led her to a table at the far corner of the room away from the other people.

He stirred his salad. “You okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.”

Taking a bite, he studied her out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t start to eat and after a long moment, she cleared her throat and turned in her chair.

“Sam, what do you know about the Trickster? His powers, I mean.”

“Why do you ask?” His heart beat a bit faster at the mention of that creature. He’d be very happy if they never had another run-in with him ever again.

“Just tell me.”

He shoved his tray back and turned to face her. “Well, he creates alternate realities from reality, likes to teach people lessons, especially the jerks of the world. He causes chaos, disorder….”

“Can he fling an angel away from him?”

“Maybe, I guess. If he wanted. Create a reality and shove one into it. At least I assume he could. I’m not sure. Don’t know how much of what Dean and I know was actually Gabriel’s powers. Castiel said Gabriel was too powerful to be a Trickster, but he never explained which power tipped him off to that. It could have been how he kept sending him away, or it could have been how well he was able to trap Cas. I don’t know. Why?”

Gwen looked ill, hand pressing to her stomach and lip curling. “Because he was at the shower.”

“What!” He leaned over, lowering his voice to just above a whisper. “What do you mean he was there?”

“He walked right in like he’d been invited, pretended to be a woman. Abigael outed him in the kitchen and he flung her from the house twice before she was able to get a grip on him.”

“What’d he want?”

“His usual wooing me stuff --”

“He’s stalking you now?” He shook his head and uttered a short, humorless laugh. “That’s just great. I don’t recall ever dealing with a supernatural stalker before.”

“Sam, I think he knew Aaron. He told me Aaron was more than I think, that he was a pain in the Trickster’s ass, that he’d done something to the Trickster that few people were able to, and he said it…and grabbed me by the throat. Talking about Aaron made him angry.” She turned back to face the table. “He was furious in seconds.”

“Where is he now?” He curled one hand into a fist.

“Abigael took him away.”

The fist relaxed. “Then I’ll wait until I hear what she has to say before going after him.”

She nodded and licked her lips. “I called Bobby, had him find a protection symbol. He helped me add them and then he did Ellen’s house, too.”

Time passed. They returned upstairs.

In gradual degrees, the waiting room emptied out over the hours until it was only Sam, Gwen, and Ellen left. Bobby had called a couple times for information on Jo, but hadn’t put in an appearance. Sam didn’t expect him to. Ellen dozed with her arms crossed, legs stretched out, and chin to chest. She’d declined the pillow and blanket the nurses had offered.

Gwen hadn’t. Currently, she was asleep with her head on a pillow on Sam’s lap, the rest of her stretched out on the chairs in an awkward position, a blanket over her.

Sam didn’t doze. He couldn’t. Not when he could hear Jo. It was faint, yet definitely her voice he heard. He was afraid for her and Dean and sat still, stroking Gwen’s hair while she slept and staring at the tv bolted high on the wall. It was on a cooking channel. The nurses kept offering to change the channel for him and he declined. It wasn’t like he cared what was on.

What he cared about was that, for Dean’s sake, Jo and the baby were healthy at the end of this and each passing hour dragged his worry higher.

Ellen made a snorting noise, gasped and opened her eyes. She sat up, rubbed a hand over her face and squinted at the clock. “That say two or three?”

“It’s almost three.”

She nodded and got up, stumbling around the room for a moment before going into the bathroom at the far end of the room. When she emerged, she came and sat beside him. “It’ll be okay,” she told him and took his hand in hers, squeezing it.

It was the gesture more than the words that reassured him and Sam nodded. “I hope so.”

“Jo comes from good stock on both sides. Dean does too. That’s a lot of good in that room.”

“Do you have any idea how surreal this feels to me, Ellen? Dean has a wife and they’re in there having a baby. A baby. I just…. I want…. I….” He shrugged, glancing down at Gwen to make sure she was still asleep. She was. “She said once I’m like a kid standing outside with my nose to the glass looking in, afraid to come inside. Do you think….?”

He meant to ask if she thought that some day he’d have a wife and child as well, but the words wouldn’t loose from his throat.

Ellen released his hand and raised hers, pressing it to his cheek and swiping her thumb along his skin. “It’ll come, sweetie. All in good time.”

“Ellen --”

“One day you’ll blink and you’ll know. As strongly as you feel things? You’ll know.” She dropped her hand. “I’m going to try to sleep awhile longer. You should to. I suspect tomorrow is gonna be the big day.”

Sam didn’t sleep. He stayed awake and waited for news.

~~~~~~~~~~

It was maddening to not have any control over any aspect of this experience except making sure Jo’s face was wiped with a cool cloth every so often and that she had his hand to crush whenever she wanted to. Dean wanted to have it over already and the baby there with them. As time passed, he grew antsy, glancing towards Dr. Ames, trying to gauge the actual progress by her expressions. She’d never seemed anxious these past hours, always calm whenever she came in to check Jo’s progress

“You are so having the next one,” Jo gasped, relaxing a moment.

She’d been in labor for twenty-two hours now. Only the past three had been devoted to pushing. Her face was shiny with sweat, her cheeks red, and her hair plastered to her skin, but to Dean, she’d never been so beautiful as right now, giving birth to their child. “You’re doing great,” he told her, blotting her forehead with a cloth.

She slanted an annoyed glare his way and, chin to chest, pushed again. “Get him out,” she growled through clenched teeth.

Dean pretended he hadn’t heard that little word ‘him’. He was avoiding looking anywhere but at her face, doing what Dr. Ames had suggested. She’d told him to focus on Jo, try to make her feel beautiful and special and completely in control of this out of control situation. He’d ignored the angry phase Jo had gone through at hours fourteen to nineteen where she suggested he march himself to the nearest doctor and demand to be snipped before the baby was even born. He’d also ignored the muttering that if he didn’t, she’d just do it herself because he had to sleep sometime.

Even with the drugs she’d insisted on, she was in pain. He could see it, plain there on her face, and it was hurting him to know he couldn’t do anything about it. There was nothing he could do to ease any of this except just do what he was already doing, so he did that to the best of his ability.

The first glimpse of their child knocked the breath from him. He struggled to breathe, relieved and happy. Their boy was alive and well.

He swallowed hard.

He was a father now.

Dean’s hands shook when he was allowed to embrace his son for the first time. His emotions ran wild, but beneath all of them was a single question: why had he been scared of this? This was a good thing, a right thing, and he wanted to feel what he was feeling forever. He grasped a tiny hand in his and didn’t try to stem the flood of tears that fell from his eyes.

“He’s beautiful, Jo. God, look at him.” He let the nurse take him and hand the baby back to Jo. “I think I want ten more now.”

“Ten?” She half laughed, half cried. “What’s say we at least get through the terrible twos before we start talking more babies?”

The moment was perfect and Dean basked in it, willing it to last as long as possible. The world could wait.

Bending, he kissed Jo, watching to make sure the nurse only took their son across the room. He alternated his attention between the baby and Jo, snapping pictures with his phone whenever he remembered he had it with him, and barely paying attention to anything else. Minutes went by, Dr. Ames telling Jo to just relax and they’d be done in a minute. Dean turned his head.

Dr. Ames held something up and he looked at her, trying to make sense of what she was holding. He blinked, squinted, and asked what it was right as he realized what it was. The afterbirth.

He had a sudden strange sensation of lightheadedness. The world tilted sharply and Dean lost consciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~

Pain meds were wonderful, Jo reflected. When Dr. Ames told her to stop pushing, Jo listened carefully for a tiny cry. She was rewarded a moment later by a cry and a sensation of relief so overwhelming that exhaustion slid through her like a wave, crashing over her. She looked up at Dean. He was crying and Jo knew she was too. Their baby was born, their beautiful precious baby boy. Red, wrinkly, and beautiful.

The following moments were a blur until….

“Hang on, Jo,” Dr. Ames said. “Don’t push, okay? This’ll just take a minute and we’ll be done.”

Jo closed her eyes, smiling at having it finally over.

“What the hell is that,” Dean asked. His hand slipped from hers and there was a loud thud.

“Dad on the floor,” one nurse remarked.

“Dean,” Jo called out, opening her eyes. He was on the floor, out cold. “Dean?”

The nurse stepped over to him and crouched down, smiling up at her. “Happens sometimes. Big tough guys can’t stand the sight of the afterbirth..

“Oh.”

He roused quickly and the nurse led him outside into the hall.

Quickly, the room was cleaned and the nurse who’d been with her when they’d brought her in -- Bess -- helped her to shower and put on a clean gown, then return to bed. She’d have a little while to rest and then she, and the baby, could have visitors.

~~~~~~~~~~

Castiel stood with three women, two of which appeared bored and were looking down at their clipboards and writing. Every so often, the oldest of the two would glance at the oldest of the three in question. Anticipation was palpable in the air and not just from the four of them, but from the humans present.

From his place, he had the sort of clear view of Jo’s nether regions that would have Dean wanting to draw and quarter him if he knew Castiel was there. He avoided looking, keeping his attention on his companions and on Dean.

He’d seen Dean in many different situations before, many of them dangerous and life threatening, yet he’d never seemed as brave as he did now. Odd how being present at the birth of his own son made Dean seem brave. It was a truth, though. This birth was a terrifying moment. Inside Dean’s mind swirled the fears of every single thing that could go wrong. If anything should go wrong….

Castiel looked at Clotho.

She made a tick on her clipboard and stretched her hand out for him to shake. She’d come and gotten him hours earlier, announcing that ‘it was time for the next generation of Winchester to be born’. Lechesis and Atropos had met them at the hospital. “To a long departmental partnership.”

He shook her hand and nodded.

She tucked her own clipboard beneath her arm. “I’ll be going now. Lechesis? Are you coming?”

The middle sister shook her head. “In a moment. Not quite finished…. Atropos, you’re not needed today.”

The youngest of the Fates left with the oldest, leaving Lachesis behind. She wrote busily in her book as the cries of Dean and Jo’s child ringed the room. Finally, she closed the cover over the board and smiled at him. “Don’t worry so, Castiel. You have three days to bring the child’s Guardian to meet him.”

“Will something happen after three days where he’ll need her?”

“Would I tell you,” she quirked a brow at him and smiled.

“No, but I thought I’d ask nonetheless.”

She slid an arm chummily through his. Lachesis had always been the friendliest of the three. “Relax, Castiel. You’re far too uptight. The basic course of the child’s life is determined. After his guardian meets him, have her make an appointment to see me and I’ll share the pertinent data with her. I merely say three days because that’s how long I’ll remain in the area. Really. I’d thought you’d remember I always stay three days.” She drew him from the room and into the hall. “This is a happy day.”

“It is.”

“I’m very glad all of our departments are working together. I mean that. You and I could be seeing quite a bit of each other over the coming centuries. We should go have a drink to celebrate, get to know each other --”

He loosed his arm from hers. “I should find the child’s Guardian. You did say three days.”

She straightened his tie, then smoothed his coat. “Very well. Perhaps we’ll have that drink another day?”

“I don’t think so, Lachesis.” He took a step back. “I believe you’re more fate than I can handle.”

Lachesis laughed. “You sweet talker. Way to let a girl down easy.” She began to walk down the hall towards the stairway, then glanced back. “Until the next child, Castiel.”

He waited until she was gone, then smiled softly to himself. It was nice to see lighter hearts in all of the departments associated with heaven, especially those three. They could do an unstoppable amount of damage if they chose.

Castiel went in search of Abigael.

~~~~~~~~~~

Abigael waited in the park down from the hospital, sitting on a bench contemplating her failure. What a way to really start her job. She’d let the Trickster get close to Jo and the baby, hadn’t been prepared when he’d flung her halfway across the world, twice, before she’d managed to grab hold of him, and had had to spend precious time taking care of him.

The ensuing fight had been difficult, countering his brand of magic harder than she’d anticipated, and she was currently exhausted. Attempting to wipe his mind of the Winchester’s location had been as tricky as he himself was, but in the end, she’d managed and never wanted to have to do that again. Humans were hard, but creatures like him were a different breed of mind. The way his mind was put together was unusual and didn’t make a logical sense. Chaos for a chaotic creature.

No one had told her he was that powerful. Castiel hadn’t mentioned it. She hadn’t known he could push her like that, hadn’t realized what he could do. Changing reality was one thing. Shoving an angel through time and space quite another. She’d underestimated him.

She heard a fluttering of wings, but didn’t look up from her contemplation of the sidewalk. “You didn’t tell me the Trickster had that power. He sent me to Afghanistan in the middle of a battle, Castiel. I wasn’t prepared. It left the baby open to attack.”

“Did he attack?”

“No, unless his presence is what made Jo go into labor.”

“You fought him.”

“And I’m tired. Do you know how hard it is to alter the memory of a creature like him? Have you ever tried that? I almost thought I was going to get lost in his mind.” Yet she’d managed, altering his memories, then dumping him back in Las Vegas to wreak havoc there on the tourists. A part of her wondered if she should have taken his life.

“What did he want at the baby shower?”

“I think he wanted Gwen.”

“What did you find in his mind?”

She swallowed hard. “I saw memories of her father. His fixation on Gwen --”

“Is not your concern.”

Abigael looked up at him. “Castiel?”

“Your assignment is the child, not Gwen. Let it go.”

How did he expect her to let it go? She couldn’t. The creature had slipped into the base right beneath her nose. “When he thinks about her again, he’ll search her out, likely with the same sort of results.”

“She’ll deal with him. Or Sam and Dean will. Maybe Jo. One of them. Your focus is only the child. You’re his guardian, not theirs.”

“He’ll find her and …” her thoughts turned in furious circles as she tried to find a loophole, “by extension, he’ll find the child. The two are connected -- ”

“The rules --”

“Screw the rules.”

He blinked, head drawing back as though she’d punched him. His mouth opened and he let out a breath, obviously taken aback by her vehemence. Was he remembering that he’d said pretty much the same thing once? He should. He paced a few steps, looked at her and paced a few more. Finally, he nodded. “Your reasoning is sound. If he returns to the house looking for Gwen, harm could befall the child. Use your discernment for the situation. In your position, you have liberty to use it, choices with it others won’t have, but your decisions must have the welfare of the child in mind in some way. Remember that, Abigael. The child.” He slid his hands into his pockets. “Speaking of him…he’s born. You’ll need to meet with Lachesis within the next couple days to receive the data pertinent to your position.”

“I’ll see her later today.”

“Good. Abigael? Remember as well that this is a Winchester child. Anything that could go wrong, just might.” He glanced towards the street. “I’ll return in the morning to take you to meet him.”

He was gone with another fluttering of wings and Abigael pondered his statement. Anything that could go wrong….

Perhaps she’d better have a cram session regarding all of the creatures the Winchester brothers had ever dealt with, then the ones Jo and Gwen had dealt with. It was for the welfare of the child, of course. It’d be best to be prepared just in case.

She left to do research and set up her meeting with Lachesis.