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Kelly wasn’t due to pick Jack up from the Winchesters’ for another hour and a half, so when Castiel saw her car pull in, it was upsetting. Then she got out of the car, and it got worse. He’d assumed something had come up and she was here to take Jack home; while that still might be the case, whatever it was had to be serious. Her entire body radiated fear and defeat, and Kelly was a brave soul who believed that fighting was always an option.
“Jack, keep playing, I need to step outside for a minute.” Jack nodded and barely paused as he kept playing Third Eye Blind – a song specifically chosen to irritate Dean, who thought Jack should be learning the classics and Garrison of Angels music only. Learning “Semi-Charmed Life” before “Stairway to Heaven” was going to drive him crazy. Besides, Kelly and Jack both liked the song.
Kelly threw herself into Castiel’s arms as soon as she got close enough, letting the tears she’d been holding back come. “Lou found us. He wants Jack.”
Castiel shuddered. Fortunately, he knew an expert in family law with reasonable rates and a good reason to be stubborn as hell in this case. “Sam will figure out how to make sure that doesn’t happen. Is Lou actually here, or did he just contact you?”
“He’s here. He knows where Jack and I live. I don’t…”
“We’ve been talking about you and Jack moving in with us anyway.” Jack had bonded quickly and deeply with Sam in Sam’s extracurricular research program, which meant that the Winchesters were his favorite babysitters. Unusually for a teenage boy, he preferred having the Winchesters as babysitters even to being left alone for more than a couple hours. With Kelly being a single mom, it would make it a lot easier on her, and the only concern Dean had about it was whether it could cause problems for him playing football. “Sounds like it’s time to do it. What do you want to tell Jack?”
“The truth. I’ve told him very little about his father, but if Lou’s around, it’s probably time he knows anyway.” Kelly swallowed hard. “Can you be there? While I talk to him? You knew Lou, you can help confirm that what I’m saying is true.”
Jack took hearing the truth about his father about as well as could be expected, asking a lot of questions and trying to understand. Neither Castiel nor Kelly were fooled by his fake cheery “Okay, then,” when they were done, but the boy deserved time to process. When he was ready to talk more, he’d come find one of them, or Sam. Most likely Sam.
After Jack went to bed, Sam called a family meeting. “Jack told me what you said about Lou wanting him back. Kelly, I’m your lawyer if you want me. I know it won’t be easy to talk about it, but the more you can tell me and a court about how Lou treated you and Jack before you left, the easier it will be to make sure he never gets a chance. I’ve already got Eileen and Charlie tracking his movements over the last fifteen years, seeing if there are other victims who might be willing to come forward. If you can think of anyone they should know about, let them know.”
“Thanks, Sam.” Kelly hopped up and gave Sam a big hug. “When I left, I wrote out everything I could remember. I’m not sure where that diary is at the moment, but it should turn up when I move over here. I know I brought it when I moved here.”
“That’s good. We need this case to be as strong as possible.” Sam paused, shuddering a little before he continued. “There’s one thing, I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not. Raphael has introduced legislation to ‘address the imbalance in women’s favor in custody disputes.’”
Castiel squeezed his eyes closed. Coincidence seemed unlikely. Raphael changing the rules for his bag of dicks brother seemed perfectly in character. The sad part was that despite his newness to the House, Raphael had gotten in good with the leadership and most likely had the power to get this passed. The president would sign it. Even if it were coincidence, Lou would be aware of it. “Lou won’t pull any kind of legal maneuvers until it becomes law, but he’ll likely strike as soon as it does. Get in before the courts can do anything.”
“Shame none of us know any representatives or lobbyists we could get to bug Raphael,” Dean deadpanned, staring hard at Sam. “Don’t we have more important things for the House to be doing? Like maybe finding a way to get women paid properly or something?”
Dean may have been directing it at Sam, but Castiel’s stomach flipped. He could go one better, if he could just find the courage to do it. All he’d have to do is call Gabriel, get Raphael’s current contact information, and talk to Raphael for the first time since the breakup.
Castiel set down his guitar when his phone rang. He stared at the number in disbelief. “Gabriel? I was just thinking about calling you. What do you want?”
“Look, I know why you haven’t done it. Raphael’s a dick, but his wife and kids are decent people and don’t deserve it, and you’d rather just leave everything in the past. This law, though. Raphael gets this passed, Lou’s going after his kids.”
“Kids? More than one?” Castiel swallowed the bile. One was bad enough. It strengthened his resolve. “Kelly found her way here. Jack ended up in my boyfriend’s program and his brother’s football team. There is no way I’m letting Lou near this kid, Jack deserves so much better. Give me the number.”
“Oh, thank god, I thought I’d have to convince you. I’m behind you, Cassie. Whatever you have to do.” Gabriel hung up, and Castiel gathered his courage.
First, he called Anna. “Garrison of Angels may be facing some bad publicity.” He explained the circumstances and what he was going to do if Raphael wouldn’t see reason just to protect his niblings. “I’m sorry, but it’s Jack. I can’t let…”
“I know. I’ll warn the others. And Cas? I’m proud of you. Kick it in the ass, dude.”
Raphael covered it well, but Castiel could still see the surprise when he responded to the video call. “Castiel? I haven’t seen you in years. How have you been?”
“This isn’t a social call. It’s about the legislation you’re sponsoring,” Castiel snapped. The idea of pretending to be old friends made him sick.
“Of course, the custody one. I hear you’re playing rock star now, are you calling to thank me for helping you get access to the offspring of your groupies?”
Castiel’s jaw dropped and he took a moment to compose himself. “Raphael, in the three years we were together, you never noticed that I’m gay? Not bi or pan, gay. I have no romantic or sexual interest in women. Therefore, it’s extremely unlikely that I would have groupie offspring. That I have a husband I have been fully committed to since we got together makes it even less likely.”
“Oh, I see, you’re still in your experimental phase. I should have known, you being in a rock band… when are you going to grow up and make something respectable of yourself, Cassie darling?”
Once again, Castiel needed a second to deal with Raphael’s arrogance and sheer fucking nerve. “I didn’t call to talk about me, Raphael. I called to ask you to withdraw your support for your terrible bill. Do you not realize how abusive husbands and fathers will abuse it to continue to keep their victims in their lives?”
“You’re so pessimistic, Cassie. Obviously, the courts will be expected to use their common sense and deny an abusive father custody. This bill is to make sure that the courts are forced to think it through and deny abusive mothers custody instead. To make sure that good fathers don’t get their children cut out of their lives against their will. Have a little faith, would you?”
“Raphael, your brother Lou is here in town harassing his ex-wife Kelly for custody of Jack. I remember the fear I felt when Lou started going off on how if some bitch whore stole his kid, he’d hunt them down and kill them both when he got them back. You agreed with me then. Kelly stole his kid. Do you not see the danger you’re putting Kelly and Jack in, that the timing here is unlikely to be just luck?”
Raphael took his turn to need a moment to think before answering. “Lou always did talk big, but actually hurting his child? I don’t think he’d go that far.”
“And what about Kelly? No concern for her safety?”
As predicted, Raphael put on a fake sympathetic voice. “Of course I’m concerned about her safety. If Lou hurts her, he hurts Jack. Lou wouldn’t hurt Jack, so he won’t hurt Kelly.”
“And you’re willing to stake women’s lives on this. Gabriel tells me there are other children out there. For god’s sake, Raphael. I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I do have a backup plan if you won’t do the right thing for Kelly and Jack’s sake, and those like them.”
Raphael raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what’s that?”
“TMZ.” Off Raphael’s blank look, Castiel explained. “You made a big deal in your campaign about fighting back against the homosexual agenda, the people who want to overturn society by destroying the social order. What do you think will happen when I give TMZ the photos and letters of our time in college, and an interview about the relationship? It may not bring you down, your constituents may be forgiving enough to vote you back in, but it would embarrass you to your family, to your wife, to your colleagues.”
At first, Raphael had looked shaken. His resolve tightened up, along with his lips. “I’m touched that after all this time you still have those letters. But if you were going to go public, you would have. I don’t believe you’d do that to Ruth and the kids.”
“For myself, I wouldn’t. Your children are innocent, and the only thing Ruth did to deserve this was marry you. The thing is, I’m not doing this for me. I’m doing this for Jack and Kelly. Jack has become like a son to me, and Kelly like a sister. Ruth deserves to know, really, and your children will survive. Possibly even learn some empathy for those you deem unacceptable. You have a week, Raphael. Then I expose you for the dick you are – and yes, I still have that photo of it, and yes, it will be among the photos given to TMZ. Be prepared to see people discussing the exact shape and heft of your dick if you can’t find it in your he… in your soul to stop this bill.”
It didn’t take a week. Three days later, Castiel couldn’t help the smugness as he watched Raphael deliver a prepared speech about how, after speaking with constituents and hearing their concerns, he had determined to withdraw his support for the bill while he reconsidered it to determine how best to protect victims of abuse from their abusers while still supporting good fathers’ rights to their children.
Jack came home from school in confusion. “Lou came in to talk to the school. They called me out of class to come talk to him, but as soon as I got to the office, he looked at something on his phone, made a face, and couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I told the school that Mom doesn’t want him to have any contact with me, so hopefully this is the end of it?”
“Good.” Castiel hugged Jack tight. “I think you should be safe now, Jack. I hope so.”
“Good, because any time Mom thought Lou was getting close before, we ran. I don’t want to run anymore. I don’t want to lose you and Sam and Dean.”
“You won’t,” Castiel promised. “You’re family now, Jack. We love you.”
“Thanks.” Jack hopped up. “I’d better go get my homework done.”