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Sam stared blankly at the house. When he’d left that morning, it had been a nice, normal house. He wasn’t even all that late in getting home. By his standards, this was downright early. In the ten hours he’d been gone, the house had transformed.
The whole thing was covered in spider webs, with very realistic fake spiders on them. On either side of the front door, ghosts hung suspended from hooks in the patio roof. There was an entire graveyard set up on one side of the front lawn, with another ghost hanging above it from the nearby tree. On the other side, inflatable witches gathered around a cauldron with boiling green goo, with black cats weaving between their legs. The walkway was lined with carved pumpkins and other gourds. There were bats dangling from the eaves all across the front of the house. It looked like Halloween had thrown up on the house.
There was even an entire shed that hadn’t been there when Sam left that morning. Sam hesitated, but he told himself he’d dealt with worse than any Halloween decorations could hope to be. He walked over to the shed, which opened on a motion sensor with a tremendous creaking noise. As soon as Sam crossed the threshold, there was a bright flash of light and a clap of thunder, and then a monster sat up with a groan. Sam shook his head and headed for the house. It was very well done, he had to admit, but what exactly was this?
“Gabriel!” It had to be him. Castiel wouldn’t have done all this, and Jack couldn’t.
Gabriel poked his head out of the kitchen. “Samsquatch! You’re home early!”
“What the hell happened out front?”
“Come on, you know exactly what happened, I got bored and decorated for Halloween. Don’t worry about Jack, he watched me put it all up and he thinks the Frankenstein’s monster shed is the best thing ever.” Gabriel stepped back into the kitchen. “I’m still bored, so I’m baking. There’s cookies in the oven, and there’s also some cookies that are out of the oven if you’re hungry.”
“Later. Don’t want to spoil my dinner.” Speaking of, if Gabriel was baking… “You did remember to cook dinner, didn’t you?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Well, not yet, but what I’ve got planned won’t take long to cook. Wasn’t expecting you home this early, hot stuff, but if you’re hungry I can start it right now.”
“You had a plan, you and Cas arranged Jack’s schedule around dinner being late, no hurry. But speaking of Cas, has he seen out front?”
“He has. He was too busy working to help set it up, but when I finished I dragged him out to see what I’d done.” Gabriel’s eyes sparkled. “Let me guess – you’re worried about him seeing the megacoven.”
“Megacoven?” That sounded like a ridiculous rock band, not something out in the yard. He could almost hear Dean mocking the band just based on the name.
“Megacoven. Because it’s so much better than the Grand Coven.” Sam just stared, so Gabriel explained. “Rowena came over to help me set up, and she’s the one who insisted that we had to have witches. I came inside to check with Cassie to make sure he’d be okay with it, and he said it was fine as long as they all had their own cats.”
That sounded like Castiel, all right. “Are you going to be mad if I mess it up by adding on to it?”
Gabriel looked up from the cookies he’d just finished cutting out. “Depends what you do. Castiel’s already said he’s going to spread some fake bones around the graveyard. What do you have in mind?”
“Eyeballs hanging around the porch. If Dean will let me have it, a wolf guarding the graveyard. Maybe the wolf could be chewing on one of Cas’s bones?”
Gabriel started snickering. “Out of context, you wanting a wolf to chew on one of your husbands’ bones is super weird.”
“Chewing Dad’s bones? Wouldn’t that hurt him?” Jack asked.
Gabriel waved the spatula at him. “I told you, no cookies until after dinner! Don’t go hitting your daddy with the puppy eyes to get him to give you one!”
Jack pouted. “I wasn’t going to, Papa. I wanted to say hi to Daddy!”
“Uh-huh.” Gabriel ruffled Jack’s hair. “I’d believe that a lot more if you hadn’t already stolen three, you know. You gonna help me frost them after dinner?”
“Can I eat cookies after dinner?”
“What do you think, Daddy? Can Jack have some cookies after dinner?” Gabriel said.
“Jack, you can have one cookie after dinner. We’ll see what happens at dinner to decide if you can have more. Okay? I don’t want you eating three bites of dinner so you’re not too full for cookies.”
Jack pouted. “But I like cookies!”
“Hey!” Gabriel put on an exaggerated pout. “Does that mean you don’t like what I’m cooking for supper?”
Jack tilted his head, squinting like Castiel. “I don’t know yet. What’s for supper?”
“Hot dogs, beans, potato salad, and steamed broccoli. You don’t have to eat the potato salad if you don’t like it, but you have to try it.”
Jack had started bouncing at the mention of hot dogs. “Okay!” He started to run off back to wherever he’d come from, but stopped short when Castiel came in. “Hi Dad! Hot dogs and I can have a cookie!”
“After the hot dogs, I’m sure.” Jack’s pout was adorable, so Castiel hugged him. “Hello, Sam, I thought I heard you. What do you think of Gabriel’s magic?”
“Kinda surprised, but I like it. That Frankenstein thing must have taken a lot of rigging, I’m impressed.”