Chapter Text
“Have you prayed to Cas yet?” Bobby asked, in lieu of answering Dean’s question.
“He should be here soon,” Dean replied, “and we’ll be out of your hair soon enough.” He walked over to the bed, picking up Bobby John. Bobby couldn’t help the tiny smile at how easily Dean had taken to cradling the baby close to his chest. “Isn’t that right, Bobby John?”
The use of the name sent another spike of warm fondness through Bobby.
“I ain’t trying to kick you out, son.” Karen’s words were the one ringing in his head– you’d be a good dad – as he watched Dean. Whether or not he could be a good dad, he could be a good enough grandpa, right? “And if you ever need a night off, I’m here.”
He watched Sam and Dean– and a handful of other hunters’ kids, when the need arose– for plenty of nights. It wouldn’t hurt to watch over one baby for a few hours while Dean and Cas had their date night, right?
“Thanks, Bobby, but I should probably get the little guy out of here, get him somewhere Sam and the Campbells won’t look for him.”
There was another knock at the door, and Bobby could see Dean stiffen as Bobby crossed the room to peek through the curtains. He felt a wave of relief sweep through him as he saw that it was Castiel’s familiar figure, trench coat swishing around his legs and all, making his way up Bobby’s driveway.
“It’s just Cas,” Bobby told Dean, who nodded and made his way towards the front door. Time for the kid to meet his other dad, Bobby guessed, as he followed Dean.
“Hello, Dean,” Cas said as soon as the door opened.
He seemed to only have eyes for Dean and the young baby cradled in Dean’s arms, which Bobby couldn’t exactly blame the guy for. If Karen showed up with a baby one day, well…his first instinct definitely wouldn’t be to say hi to Karen’s weird substitute father.
Cas held out his arms. “May I?”
Dean gently handed off Bobby John as Cas crossed the threshold of the house, looking surprised. “Didn’t realize you were good with babies, Cas.”
Bobby John looked perfectly content in Cas’s arms, and it wasn’t long before his green eyes were slowly closing, his tiny head burrowed in the fabric of Cas’s trench coat.
Castiel, though, looked less than content, however. His face twisted into a tight, confused look as he frowned down at the baby. Finally, looking up, he said, “Dean, I think your baby has been replaced by a shifter.”
Bobby couldn’t tell who was more surprised– him or Dean. Bobby hadn’t heard the contents of the prayer Dean had said to Cas, but apparently he’d given Cas the same amount of information he gave Bobby. Cas probably assumed the same thing Bobby did, that the baby was Dean’s biological kid.
After a shocked minute’s hesitation, Dean laughed. “You thought the kid was mine ? Never change, Cas.” He turned to Bobby, as if looking for camaraderie, but Bobby only scratched at his beard sheepishly. The smile on Dean’s face faded into more of a scowl. “Don’t tell me you thought the baby was mine, too.”
Bobby huffed. “You showed up on my doorstep with a monster baby, what else was I supposed to think, ya idjit?”
“Not that I was shacking up with a shapeshifter!”
“Well, obviously I didn’t think you were with a shapeshifter !”
Bobby sent a pointed look at Cas, and he could feel Dean tracking his eyes, his mouth gaping open.
“A nephilim,” Cas said, eyebrows furrowed as if seriously considering the idea. “You believe Dean and I…conceived a child together?”
“That’s insane,” Dean said.
In Cas’s arms, Bobby John let out a tiny sniffle in his sleep.
“Yeah, tell him, Bobby John,” Dean said, looking almost proud of his monster baby.
Castiel nodded in agreement at Dean’s words. “Yes, a child of ours would be ‘insane’.” He even added the air quotes. “For one, it would require sexual intercourse between us, which would never happen…”
“Yeah, exactly,” Dean said. Bobby rolled his eyes.
“...because Dean does not sexually desire me the same way he does women.”
Dean did a double take. Bobby tried to hide his own smile. Idjits.
“Cas, why’d you say it like that?”
Cas blinked. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
Okay, nevermind, this was much better than the apocalypse. Bobby watched Dean, who looked like he was debating between finishing this conversation and giving Bobby John to the Campbells before jumping into the Pit.
“I mean ,” Dean said, apparently taking the coward’s way out. Idjit. “why’d you say it like that ? Like… I’m the only reason we’re not having sex?”
Another confused blink from Cas. Bobby almost wished Sam wasn’t off betraying his brother for his grandfather, so he could have someone to commiserate with.
“You are. You don’t like men.”
“I like some men!” Dean protested. His eyes flickered from Bobby to Cas, trying to gauge their reactions to the outburst. Bobby tried to keep his facial expression a steady mix of silent support and feigned surprise, because just because Dean had never said it before didn’t mean Bobby didn’t have eyes. “Cas, buddy, it sounds like you’re saying you’re attracted to me.”
“I am,” Cas said, matter-of-factly. “I rebuilt your body atom by atom when I saved you from perdition, Dean. You are a hard person not to fall in love with.”
Dean made a choking noise at that. He turned on Bobby, almost looking betrayed. “Did you know about this?”
“I have eyes,” Bobby replied, crossing his arms. “Like I said, I thought you were already dating. Thought that’s what you meant by ‘Cas was watching over you’ since the breakup.”
“You thought–” Dean took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You knew that I was in love with Cas and that he was in love with me and you still wanted me to go live with Lisa?”
“You’re in love with me?” Cas asked, sounding slightly awed.
Dean swallowed, gazing into Cas’s eyes. “Yeah,” Dean said. “I mean, not as long as Hell, but…you’re not too hard to love yourself, budd-- Cas.”
Bobby let Dean and Cas stare lovingly into each other’s eyes for a solid minute before squeezing between them to take Bobby John from Cas’s arms. “Offer of me giving you two a night off from baby duty still stands.”
“Good idea, Bobby,” Dean said, his eyes not moving from Cas’s. He stepped forward, swooping down, and– yeah, neither Bobby nor the baby in his arms needed to see that, especially not when Dean grabbed Cas’s tie.
Shielding the baby’s eyes, Bobby made a quick exit for any room that wasn’t full of Dean and Cas. He sat down on his bed just as Bobby John was stirring, letting out a tiny cry that Bobby tried to shush.
He wasn’t sure what compelled him to grab the framed photographs on his nightstand, but they seemed to do the trick, because Bobby John stopped crying in favor of trying to wrap both his fingers and teeth around the thick border of one of the photos.
“That’s me and your dad,” Bobby murmured, pointing out the faces with the finger that wasn’t holding Bobby John. “And on the other side, that’s your Uncle Sam. You’ve met him already, I think.”
He took another photo off his nightstand, a more recent one, from their “last night on Earth” all those years ago. There was a pang in his heart when he saw Ellen’s face staring back at him, but he pushed it down.
“See? There’s your dad, and me, and your other dad, Cas.”
There was one last photo. Bobby reached for it slowly, trying to swallow down the lump in his throat. His fingers were shaking slightly as he held onto it, bringing it closer to Bobby John’s face, his thumb stroking one of the faces in the picture.
“And this…this is your grandma Karen.”
The next time Bobby John would change, it wasn't hard to guess who he'd taken after, with his green eyes and brown hair traded for blue and black. Dean joked that he was surprised he didn't have his own trench coat. Bobby had to fight not to tear up a little, though, when he looked at the way that the slope of his nose looked just like Karen’s.