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Sam ran a hand through his hair, drawing a glare from Dean. “You’re either going to go bald or get a cramp, and neither of those are good looks for a first date. Stop fussing. You can do this.”
“Can I?” Sam winced at how much he sounded like a teenager again. In all fairness, that’s how old he was the last time he went on a first date, so maybe it made sense. He was about to leave to go on his first first date in almost a decade and a half. Dean had been so exasperated by Sam refusing to get back on that horse after losing Jess twelve years earlier, but Sam had been busy. He finally got talked into one, not because he felt he was missing anything, but because of who Dean was suggesting he date.
Castiel Ryder was one of Dean’s closest friends from the garage. When Dean found out that Castiel was both single and interested in men, he started talking up Sam – although he’d neglected to mention the part where Sam was his brother, so when he first introduced the two, Castiel commented that it was nice to finally meet Dean’s boyfriend. After an extremely awkward moment of correction and explanation, Castiel apologized and immediately asked Sam on a date.
Dean handed Sam the keys to the Impala. “You can. Just remember: I find one scratch on her, or one sniff of something out of place, I’m taking it out of your ass. Got it?”
“Dude. I’m not planning on getting laid tonight.” If it happened, that was one thing, but Sam was perfectly happy to take this slow. With Castiel having a kid, it seemed more important to do this right than to do this fast. He dropped the keys into his pocket and started out.
Dean followed him. “Don’t be an idiot. Have fun. Be good to Castiel. He needs this even more than you do, and that’s saying something.”
When Sam pulled up in front of Castiel’s house, a bad feeling took over. There was nothing obviously wrong, but he just couldn’t shake the sense that something had gone sideways on them. He should have known something would go wrong, but he was looking forward to this too much to listen to that little voice in the back of his head.
Castiel answered the door just before Sam could knock, dressed for their date but with his tie askew and hair wild. “Sam. I was just about to call you. We need to talk about tonight.”
“If you need to cancel, I understand,” Sam said, trying to hide the disappointment. After all, chances were this wasn’t Castiel’s preference either.
“I would prefer not to, but that will depend on you.” Castiel glanced over his shoulder. “My niece was supposed to look after my son tonight, but she just called to tell me that she injured her shoulder at basketball practice and won’t be home from the hospital for at least another hour, and is supposed to rest afterward. I hadn’t planned on introducing you to Jack tonight, but if you don’t mind, I’d rather do that and hang out here than cancel entirely. I’ve been looking forward to this too much.”
That wasn’t going to be a problem at all for Sam. After all, from what Dean had said, even if dating didn’t work out for them they were likely to end up good friends, so it’s not like he was just going to disappear from Jack’s life. “Me too. If you don’t have a problem with introducing me to your son now, I’d love to do that. I hope your niece will be okay.”
“Claire will be fine. She said she thought it was a broken collarbone. Unfortunate and painful, but she’ll recover fully, and she’s tough.” Castiel stepped aside, letting Sam in. “The other thing… this is a little embarrassing to admit, but I am a terrible cook. Claire was supposed to bring dinner with her when she came. I’m going to need to go pick it up from my brother Jimmy. Hopefully it won’t take long, but either we’ll have to get Jack into the car or you’ll have to babysit.”
Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “You only just met me, and you’re willing to leave your son with me?”
“Many people leave their child with babysitters they’ve only just met recently. I may not have known you long, but I’ve known Dean for quite some time now, and he would never have encouraged this if you weren’t trustworthy.” Fair enough, Sam had to agree. He followed Castiel as he led the way through the house. Castiel paused outside the playroom, speaking softly. “Jack is a very self-sufficient child, and as long as I explain to him why I’m going and why you’re here, he can entertain himself for the time I’ll be gone without giving you trouble. Feel free to borrow a book or get on the computer.” That would make this even easier. Sam smiled as Castiel walked in and crouched beside his son. “Jack?”
“Father!” Jack dropped his Luke action figure and held out his arms for a hug. “Is Claire here yet?”
“Claire won’t be here,” Castiel said gently as he gave Jack the hug. “She got hurt. She’ll be okay, but you might make her a card for tomorrow.”
Jack’s face crumpled, but he nodded and headed for a low table with boxes of art supplies and several stacks of paper. “Okay! I can do that.”
“Good boy, but first, I’d like you to meet someone.” Jack paused in the act of kneeling at the table. “This is Sam Winchester. You’ve heard me talk about my friend Dean. This is his brother.” He looked up. “Is it okay if he calls you Sam?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“This is Sam. He’s my friend, and he’ll be right here with you while I go get dinner. Okay?”
Jack looked at Sam, head tilted in a perfect imitation of Castiel’s considering look. It made Sam grin. “Okay!”
“Good boy.” Castiel got to his feet and turned to Sam. “It shouldn’t be more than half an hour. If you need something, feel free to call. And thank you.” He took off, leaving Sam and Jack looking at each other.
Jack picked up a piece of blank white paper, carefully folding it in half. Then he held it out to Sam. “Can you please cut this for me? Father won’t let me use the good scissors, and my scissors don’t cut neatly.”
“Uh, sure.” Sam took the paper and the scissors Jack handed him, doing his best to cut the paper evenly. He handed the two halves back to Jack, who reached for the box of markers. On one of the half-papers, he carefully wrote “GET WELL S” and then paused. “How do you spell soon? Is it like cartoon or like a music tune?”
“It’s like cartoon.” Jack added the “OON” and started drawing multicolor hearts around it. Then he set that paper aside and picked up the other one, drawing a yellow-haired girl in a blue and yellow basketball uniform. “This is my cousin Claire. She’s really good at basketball. I want to be as good as her when I’m old like her.”
Sam bit his lip, trying hard not to laugh. If Claire was old, what did that make him and Castiel? He wouldn’t say that to a little kid, though, their scales for time were way off. “Do you play any sports yet?”
“Father says soccer next spring. That’s a long way away though. For now I just run around the back yard.” Jack reached for the orange marker and started drawing a basketball. “Soccer balls are hard to draw though.”
“Yeah, they are.”
Jack looked up from his picture. “If you want to draw something, you can use my stuff. It’s fun!”
Sam raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t really wanted to draw anything, but somehow, he didn’t feel like he could turn down such a sweet offer. He picked up a piece of paper and a box of crayons. He hadn’t done this since he was very young. Hopefully, Jack wouldn’t judge him for his horrible art skills. He decided to draw Dean and the Impala.
Meanwhile, Jack had picked up a piece of blue construction paper and carefully folded it in half. Sam was half reaching for the scissors when Jack meticulously centered the get well soon paper on the front of the card. He picked up a pencil and traced the outline, and then picked up a gluestick. “Is that Dean? Father’s friend?”
“Yes, it is. How did you know?” Sam set down the green crayon and watched as Jack lined the paper up inside the outline and pressed it down, tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth.
“You’re drawing him the way Father draws Uncle Jimmy. Father said you were Dean’s brother. It made sense.” Jack picked up the yellow marker and carefully wrote his name in the bottom of the other picture.
Sam frowned a little. “Your K is backwards, Jack.”
“No it’s not.” Jack opened the blue card and started centering it. “Well, it is, but it’s on purpose. That’s what makes it my name instead of some other Jack.”
Okay, that was just too darned cute. Sam grinned and got back to work on the Impala.
They were still coloring when Castiel returned. At the “awwww”, both Sam and Jack looked up. Jack got to his feet and ran over to him. “Father! You’re back!”
“I am.” Castiel crouched to hug Jack. “Go wash your hands and then we’ll have dinner, okay?”
“Okay!” Jack took one step toward the door and then stopped and turned back. “Can Sam be my new dad?”
“Hmm?” Castiel stared at Sam, eyebrows drawn together. “Why do you say that?”
Sam held up his hands, dying of embarrassment even though he hadn’t done anything to bring this on. He loved the idea, but he did not want Castiel thinking he was trying to use Jack to pressure him into moving faster than he was ready for. That was the worst way to start this. “I didn’t say anything, I promise.”
Jack shook his head. “I heard Uncle Jimmy tell you that kids need two parents. He was trying to get you to date. I like Sam. I think he’d be a good dad.”
“Perhaps, then,” Castiel said. “It won’t be any time soon, but if you and he are both interested then perhaps one day. I agree that he would be a good dad.”
Jack accepted that, running off to wash his hands. Sam got to his feet. “I really didn’t say anything.”
“I believe you. He explained where the idea came from – Jimmy. Shortly before Dean introduced us, Jimmy was teasing me about my crush on my best friend’s boyfriend.” Castiel reddened slightly. “Once again, I’m sorry about the misconception, but if you’d heard how he was talking about you I’m sure you’d understand.”
“Oh, trust me, we get that a lot when we forget to mention the brother part first,” Sam agreed. As long as the people were good about it when they found out, Sam never minded… although he was very careful to mention something about Dean being his brother at least by the second time he caught himself gushing about him to the same person. “For what it’s worth, it sounds awesome, Jack’s a great kid.”
“He is.” Castiel turned away. “We should go. We don’t want to keep Jack waiting for his supper – he becomes much less of a good kid when he’s hungry.”
Dinner was delicious and surprisingly vegetable-filled, which didn’t seem to bother Jack one bit as he devoured his broccoli and cauliflower before he even started on his mashed potatoes. Castiel noticed Sam’s surprise and winked. “If he doesn’t eat his vegetables, he doesn’t get dessert. Between that and me genuinely loving most vegetables, he’s turning out to resemble me that way.”
“That’s a good thing, really. For me, it was rebellion in my teens against the way Dad fed us.” The broccoli and cauliflower were delicious – whoever had cooked them was very good at it. “Dean’s a bit of a twit about it, though. You may have noticed.”
“I certainly have. If it’s not pie, he won’t even eat fruit, he says.”
“How can you not eat fruit? Fruit is yummy!” Jack interrupted.
“Fruit is yummy, but we didn’t get much of it when we were kids,” Sam explained. “Vegetables, either. We ate a lot of hamburgers and tacos and potatoes.”
“Boring.” Jack picked up his chicken strip and dunked it in ketchup. Sam had to smile. He was a kid.
After dinner, Jack headed upstairs. Castiel signaled for Sam to stay with him. “I don’t want to leave the house, but he’ll happily play on his own until bedtime. We can enjoy some date time.” He glanced over at the TV. “Usually, I watch a nature documentary, but we can play a board game or watch whatever sports are on or whatever other ideas you might have.”
“Nature documentary’s good. I know this isn’t what we’d planned, but I’m really having a good time tonight.” Sam followed Castiel to the couch, where he turned on the TV and found a show about investigating the Amazon rainforest. They sat and cuddled and listened to the narrator talk about birds.
At eight, Jack came downstairs. “Father? I’m ready for bed.”
“Of course.” Castiel got to his feet and handed Sam the remote. “Excuse me for a bit, it’s time for Jack’s story.”
“Can he come too?” Jack asked.
Castiel looked to Sam, who just shrugged. He didn’t want to intrude on bedtime rituals and give Jack false hope of him being New Dad sooner rather than later, but he would certainly defer to Castiel when it came to Jack. Castiel nodded, so Sam put the remote on the end table and got to his feet to follow them.
He stood in the doorway as Castiel tucked Jack into bed. “What would you like to hear, Jack?”
“Fairy tale! Dragons! Magic!” Castiel went to Jack’s bookshelf and chose a book, settling in to tell Jack the story of a knight who rescued an innocent maiden from a dragon. Jack pouted at the end. “How come dragons are always bad? Aren’t there any good dragons?”
“There are. Nothing is inherently good or bad, and it’s good to question when they’re portrayed that way. Tomorrow night, I’ll tell you a story about a good dragon, okay?” Jack nodded and curled up under the blankets. Castiel kissed his forehead. “Good night, Jack.”
“Night, Dad.” He uncurled and looked over to Sam. “Good night, Sam.”
“Good night.” Jack curled back up, squeezing his eyes closed.
Castiel turned out the lights as he left the room, heading back downstairs. “So he eats his vegetables, keeps himself entertained, and doesn’t fight bedtime. Are you sure he’s a real boy?”
“You haven’t seen him in the mornings. He is incredibly grumpy when he gets out of bed. He was a nightmare to potty train, and still has accidents overnight sometimes. He would watch TV all day if I let him. He’s a real boy.” Castiel glanced back up the stairs fondly. “I wouldn’t trade him for the mythological perfect child ever.”
“Good.” Sam headed back to the couch, and Castiel settled in beside him. They finished watching the birds, and then Castiel shut off the TV. Sam grinned. “Setting a good example for Jack by not watching too much TV yourself?”
“Exactly.” Castiel got to his feet. “What would you like to do now?”
Sam decided not to say the first thing that popped into his head, which was that he wanted to go upstairs. “I know you don’t want to go far, but is the back yard too far? Go look at the stars?”
“Not at all, but let me check on Jack first.” Castiel headed upstairs, and came back quickly. “He’s asleep and unlikely to wake up unless he has a nightmare, an accident, or both. Let’s go.”
Castiel had a swing on the back porch, which had a decent view of the sky. He and Sam sat on it, and Castiel cuddled up against Sam as he pointed out constellations and the planets that were visible. When Jupiter rose, Castiel startled a little. “It’s gotten later than I realized. I know this wasn’t what we’d planned on doing, but I had an unexpectedly good time tonight.”
“Me too. We should definitely have a second date soon.” Was tomorrow too soon? He could hear Dean saying no, but that only made him more hesitant.
“We should… would you be terribly disappointed if I didn’t ask you to spend the night? I want to, but I’m a bit worried about Jack misinterpreting.”
Sam shook his head. “Not a bit. If you asked I’d be happy to spend the night, but I’m all for taking things slowly and sensibly.” He reached up to cup Castiel’s face in his hands. “That said, I really want to kiss you right now. May I?”
“Please do, you’ll save me the trouble of needing to kiss you.” Sam bent down, pressing his lips to Castiel’s with a smile. The kiss was great, and Sam was thoroughly happy with where they were leaving things when he pulled back. “Thank you for not cancelling, and for being such a good sport about Jack. I hope that it won’t be too long before I can say yes to you being Jack’s new dad.”