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Sam got home to find chaos. The house was a mess, kids were screaming, Amelia and Anna were shouting, Meg was trying to deal with baby Ruby’s crying, Jimmy was in a corner rocking back and forth, and he couldn’t see Castiel or Kelly. He looked over to Dean. “What’s the plan?”
“You grab Jimmy and get him somewhere quiet. Then come back and see what kids you can help with.” Dean put out an arm, catching Ben as he ran by chasing Jack. “I know, you want to stay and get things settled here, but any of us can handle that. Only you can look after your husband when he gets like this. Go take care of him.”
Sam nodded, swallowing hard, as he picked his way through toys and pots and pillows to get to his husband. “Jimmy? Hey, sweetheart, come on, let’s go.”
“I can’t,” Jimmy moaned. “The kids… I’m supposed to be…”
“Hush.” Sam scooped Jimmy up into his arms, carrying him to the stairs. “Dean and I are home, Dean’s working on calming things down, you’re not going back down there until you’ve got your head on straight. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Jimmy looked up at Sam. “You’re not mad?”
“I may be when I find out just what the hell happened,” Sam admitted, getting a weak smile out of Jimmy. He kept climbing, getting Jimmy into their third-floor bedroom. “Okay. So… what happened?”
“You and Dean were gone hunting the manticore, Anna and Castiel got called out on a big raid by Lucien’s outlaws, Amelia and Kelly both went to work like normal, so Meg and I had the kids.” Sam frowned. He’d never really liked Meg, but Castiel loved her, and she’d been good for the family. Meg was fiercely protective of her kids and her brother-in-law, so what had happened? He couldn’t imagine she’d leave Jimmy alone with the kids.
Of course, Meg didn’t have to have abandoned Jimmy. The ten kids were a big job for two people. They’d all agreed that during this time, there would never be fewer than two people at home to look after the kids. Normally, they could let the older kids go outside and run around, but there was a townwide order that children should not be outdoors unsupervised. Between the manticore threatening the countryside and Lucien’s devils getting bold enough to raid into the town itself, no one who couldn’t fight was supposed to go farther from home than they could run in thirty seconds. “And?”
“And then Claire and Emma got into a fight while they were trying to do their hair. I had just finished dealing with that when I heard the twins crying.” Sam flinched. Two-year-old twins Bobby and John were eerily in sync, and while it was nice that they usually went to sleep and woke up at the same time, it could get frustrating when they both needed diaper changes. “Meg was busy trying to get lunch together, so of course I didn’t interrupt her, and Ben was already breaking up a fight between Hester and Rachel over who got to play with the ‘pretty’ doll, so Claire and Emma got to handle the twins’ diaper changes while I got Nikki. Then with all of us busy… Jack got into the pantry and went to town on a bag of sugar.”
“Oh, no.” Sam pulled Jimmy into a hug. “We may need to decide two adults staying home aren’t enough. Or take Jody and Donna up on the jokes about moving in with us. Sure, that’s three more kids, but they’re all old enough to take care of themselves and help out with the little ones. It sounds like you and Meg were overwhelmed.”
“I was. Meg didn’t have a breakdown like I did.” Jimmy curled up into a ball on their bed, tears coming as his whole body shook.
“That’s not fair, Jimmy, Meg’s more used to chaos than you are. If Meg had to keep track of the finances, she’d be the one breaking down.” She had been, the one time she’d tried to help Sam figure out how they were going to afford a place big enough to raise their combined families when neither Sam nor Jimmy were all that interested in leaving their brothers to move in with the other person. Even Sam had given up, broken down, and spoiled what had been meant as a surprise for his boyfriend by getting him to help figure out what was going on with everything. “Take as much time as you need up here to calm down before you come down and start trying to help clean up.”
Jimmy nodded, so Sam headed back downstairs. He barely had time to assess the situation before Jack crashed into his legs. Sam reached down and picked him up, swinging the three-year-old up onto his shoulders. “Hey there, buddy, what’s up?”
“Everything’s loud and everyone’s yelling and I can’t hold still!” Jack was, indeed, squirming quite a lot as Sam followed the sounds of voices to find whoever was nearest. “Did you kill the monster?”
“Sort of. Dean got the actual kill, but it was a team effort.” Sam reached up and caught Jack’s hand as it was about to smack his head. “I hear you got into the sugar. We’ve talked about that, haven’t we?”
“I know, but… I forgot.”
Sam didn’t have time to respond to that before they found Castiel, hugging Meg and their baby. “Oh, good, you have Jack,” Castiel said. “Dean and Anna took the little ones up for a nap, and Amelia took the older ones out back. As soon as Meg finishes taking her moment to lose her shit over the stressful day, we’ll call them back in and get to work cleaning up.”
“What about Jack?”
“What about him?” Castiel smiled softly up at the small boy, who was bouncing again. “The only person better with him than you is Kelly, and she’s still at work. I’m going to go get her and escort her home at sundown, and the mayor’s already not happy about that.”
“Mama!” Jack started drumming on Sam’s head again, causing Sam to reach up and grab his hands to hold them still. “Mama come home?”
“Not till later, buddy.” Sam reached up and pulled Jack down to sit on his hip, instead. Drumming on his tummy or chest and his back, he could deal with a lot more easily. “I’m gonna take Jack out back. Meg, are you okay? Ready to tackle cleanup?”
“Yep. But we’re having a family meeting tonight. I can’t do this, not the way we’d originally planned.”
Wearing Jack out took forever, but Sam did manage it. After a nap, he was back to normal, and he had no trouble getting to bed on time. The three oldest kids were invited to the meeting, as were Jody, Donna, and their three girls. “Normally, our kids are awesome and I can handle them if I have help.”
“I’m sorry…” Jimmy started, but Meg shook her head and tossed a doll that had been missed during cleanup at him.
“I didn’t mean that I didn’t have help today, not-Clarence.” Meg stuck her tongue out at him before returning her attention to the group as a whole. “Things aren’t normal. I’m not saying every day’s going to be like today, but days like today are going to be more common, and we might even have worse. We’ve got a lot of kids here, and they’re confused and they’re picking up on all of our stress too, so we need to find a way to reduce that. Only way I can think of is to have more people stay here.”
“Which is where we come in,” Jody guessed. “You want us to come live with you.”
“It’s one way to do it, it only puts one of the three fighting teams out of commission so that Jimmy, Amelia, and Kelly can work two days out of three and we still have four people here to look after the kids. Most days it won’t take all four, so we can have breaks or get some other stuff done. Your girls aren’t left alone while you and Donna are out on patrol. I know none of you are related to anyone here, but who cares? You’re still family.”
“What about you?” Dean asked. “When do you get a day away from the kids?”
Meg rolled her eyes. “If one of you guys gets hurt and needs a backup field partner, I sub in. Otherwise, house and kids are my job. Just like we agreed when we set up this arrangement. With some extra help, I can get an hour or two off when I need it. If I need a whole day off, I can call a meeting, or talk to someone about taking an extra day off from their job.”
“Sounds like a plan, then,” Donna said. “I know Alex, Kaia, and Patience will be willing to do their share, too. More older kids will help a lot.”
“Awesome.” Sam turned to Jimmy. “Where’s the welcome-to-the-family cup?”
Jimmy put a hand to his mouth. “I thought we were done adding people after Amelia brought in Kelly and Jack and Meg said Ruby’s her last kid, so I didn’t think it was important anymore. I sold it to a dragon.” Off the glares, he added, “I got a ton of coins for it, though! How did you think I funded the education funds?”
“You’re joking,” Meg said. “I said I was done after Nikki, too, didn’t I?”
“Yes, I’m joking, but you should see the looks on your faces.” Jimmy got to his feet and left the room, coming back with the family cup and a bottle of wine. “Welcome to the family, Jody and Donna.”