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"What do you mean, he's escaped?"
Dean's day had been going splendidly to be honest, a hard case had developed into a direction where they had been able to solve the mayhem with a rather simple salt and burn. It happened so rarely in their line of work that it had caused even Cas to see a reason for celebration, so he had gone out to the diner around the corner from their motel to fetch them something to eat. Dean had driven straight back to the motel where Sam had been watching over Jack and gotten started on research for the haunting they wanted to tackle on the way back to Lebanon.
Of course when things looked like daisies, they were always quick to get thorns in Dean Winchester's life, as it stood he had returned to the motel room and a frantic little brother.
"He was there the last time I checked and then he was suddenly..." Sam racked a hand through his hair again, the other hand made a kind of 'poof' motion.
"I'm not fishing for the definition, dickhead." Dean growled out and went down on his knees to check under the beds, ever since being turned into a pint-sized munchkin, Jack had found total glee in hide and seek, especially without announcing the whole game. "I'm nitpicking your language. Escaped? He's a toddler, not some wild animal!"
"Seriously? That's what you're on about now?" Sam complained and Dean could hear him open the closet, a grunt signalling that no he still hadn't found Jack there, no matter it being the third time he had checked. Dean huffed and straightened up again so he could look into the bathroom, Jack was actually tiny now, he fit fucking everywhere, one of the funniest games nowadays was to crawl under the fucking bench in the Impala.
"Ever since he started walking, you look like you want to find a leash. And now he's escaped?" Dean argued even though he really knew that Sam was doing his best with this situation they had been dealt by Chuck, as he had pointed out often enough to an overwhelmed Cas in the beginning, raising Jack for good now was maybe exhausting but it meant he was alive and still with them. Better have sleepless nights because the kid had run you ragged again than because you couldn't deal with the pain of losing him.
"Dean, there is a two year old Nephilim running around this motel without supervision and you seriously want to get into a word war with me right now? Cas is gonna smite our asses if something happens to Jack!" Sam gruffly pointed out and slipped into his shoes before storming outside, Dean threw up his hands and followed.
"Fine, let's get looking."
--
Time was running out on them as they seemed to check every little cranny on the motel grounds, if Cas came back before they had found Jack they were in for an angel on the warpath. Dean especially would get it because he had only this morning managed to convince Cas that Sam could stay behind this time so Cas could go out with Dean. It had taken enough time to reach this point, nothing could go wrong no or Dean would never be able to go a hunt with his best friend again anytime soon.
He was still close to calling it quits and let Cas hear what happened so his Grace could find his son in no time but then he stumbled upon a giggling plotted palm tree in the lobby. He smiled despite the seriousness of the situation and swept Jack out from behind the huge red flower pot. Immediately Jack began to laugh and clap his hands, beaming bright and happy when Dean settled him onto his hip.
"Dee, find. Dee, find!"
"Jack," Dean began with what he intended to be that serious tone meant to lecture but Jack's smile was contagious as always. "How many times do I still have to tell you: if you want to play hide and seek, you have to tell us before you hide. You made Sammy really scared." Jack pouted with big round eyes and then sighed in that way that he had copied over from Cas, he slumped back against Dean's hold on him.
"Jack bored."
"Sam would have surely played with you if you had asked, now you made him really scared because he thought something could have happened to you," Dean explained and began to walk back in the direction Sam had chosen to check out.
"Jack good, look, Jack good," Jack raised both hands that were maybe a little dirty but looked fine otherwise.
"I know, munchkin, but something could have happened. You can't run away from us, Jackie," Dean looked at those big eyes until Jack nodded. "Alright, now let's see that we find Sam and show him you're alright." He found his brother when he rounded the next corner, talking to a fully unimpressed looking Cas who was sans food but with his arms crossed over his chest. Dean groaned and hurried up his steps.
"We're fine, we're fine," he announced himself and Jack, watching how Sam's shoulders untensed and his panicked face smoothed over, Cas though didn't stop frowning. "We wanted to play hide and seek and forgot to tell again. But look, all fine." He gave Jack over to Cas so he could see for himself and then reached up a hand to squeeze Sam's shoulder once. "Come on, let's just get back to the room, eat and then pack up to leave. We can worry about toddler proofing the motel room doors when we hit up the next place."
Or Dean would end up buying that child leash after all.
And somewhere sunny Chuck was laughing himself silly.