Work Text:
Castiel didn’t say it was easy. Any therapist would probably label their dynamic as down right dysfunctional. Yet, at the same time their dysfunctional little family worked.
Before Dean’s father went missing, Dean would leave for a hunt a few times a month. He would do his research at home, then leave for a day or two to kill the monster. Castiel would do the same alternatively when Dean was home. Sometimes Dean and Cas would hunt together, Dean called it their romantic getaways.
That was before.
Now Dean was gone all of the time. It had been two months since he had departed. Castiel and Emma had fallen into a routine filled with work and school and nightly phone calls that left Castiel missing his boyfriend even more. The saying was absence made the heart grow fonder, he was sure his heart couldn’t grow any fonder and Dean should come home immediately. Of course, Castiel kept all these thoughts to himself. Dean felt guilty enough.
“Emma, we’re leaving in ten minutes!” Castiel called up the stairs. He knew the little girl was up, she just couldn’t seem to tear herself from her book long enough to brush her teeth or eat breakfast.
“Coming!” The sound of a book snapping shut followed by little feet pattering down the carpeted stairs.
Castiel finished his second cup of coffee and began pouring his third and forth into a thermos. Another thing he missed about Dean, rather low on the list, was not having to get up and make sure Emma was ready for school.
Emma slid into the kitchen in bright yellow socked feet. She grabbed herself a bowl, a spoon, and some cookie cereal. They tended to live off of cereal, pop tarts, sandwiches, and delivery while Dean was gone. They haven’t been gettin delivery as much because Castiel was currently saving his pennies to replace the toaster he had broken.
“Peanut butter and jelly, or ham and cheese?” He asked as he put chopped carrots from Ms. Mathews into a plastic baggie.
“PB and J, please.” Emma said around a mouth full of cereal.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, Emma.” Castiel wrinkled his nose.
“‘Sorry.” Emma said around a smaller mouth of food.
Castiel glanced at the clock and closed the cheap metal lunch box Dean had gotten from a thrift store. There was still paper on the corner where the five cent sticker had been picked off. “Go brush your teeth. We can’t be late again.”
Dutifully, Emma shoveled the last of her breakfast in her mouth, placed her bowl by the sink, and ran up stairs. Castiel sighed as he looked at the dirty dishes that were piled up. He would have to do those sooner rather then later.
The ride to the school was quiet. In the front passenger seat (the vehicle only had one bench seat) Emma watched the Sioux Falls countryside roll past the windows of Castiel’s rusty blue pick up truck. His Eminem tapes were stored safely in the glove department and the radio was turned to some Top 20 Count Down.
They pulled up to the elementary school. Castiel shifted the pick up truck into park behind Melissa’s white minivan with sparkly stickers of all eight activities her children were in. Emma gathered her backpack from the floor and hopped down.
“See ya, Cas.” Emma smiled brightly. She was so much like Dean sometimes it took Castiel by surprise. In a good way of course, regardless of Dean’s own opinion of himself, he was the best man Castiel knew, flaws and all.
“Goodbye, Emma. Have a good day.” Castiel said. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“‘Kay, bye.” Emma waved before slamming the pick up truck door too hard, a habit that drove Dean crazy.
Castiel ignored the disgusted looks of a few other parents as he pulled out of the drop off line. The venom some of the parents had had shocked Castiel the first time he attended one of Emma’s events. Apparently at first Dean, the hot single dad, had been tolerated minutely even though his parenting was appalling. When Castiel came along and Dean was no longer “on the market” then all tolerance was gone and the “claws” -as Dean put it- were out.
People’s opinions had never bothered Castiel anyways. Emma didn’t seem to mind, unless one of the kids said something negative about her family then she minded very much. She had a handful of good friends, so Dean wasn’t worried. If Dean wasn’t worried, Castiel wasn’t.
Sipping at his coffe, he enjoyed his short ten minute drive to work. Castiel liked his job as Gas N Sip manager, he really did, but he still savored his commute. He knew his job was underrated. He didn’t understand why. He got to interact with so many interesting people. He had had a conversation with a group of old women traveling across the country who had been friends for fifty years. A younger girl could recited the first one hundred letters of pi, well she got through the first thirty seven before her mother pulled her away for bothering him.
Then there were some not so happy encounters, but ones that still impacted how he viewed his job. He had rescued a young boy from being sold into sex trafficking. He had fed and held conversations with the homeless man who would come around occasionally. He had let kids shoplift bread and canned vegetables, his mind picturing a young Dean doing the same.
Today Castiel’s work day passed uneventfully. The slushy machine broke again, and the repair man was booked for three weeks again. He stopped a group of kids trying to shoplift a case of beer and candy. Then Castiel helped an old woman who continued to call him her grandson’s name.
Finally five o’clock came and Castiel was grateful to leave. The sooner he left the sooner he could pick up Emma and the sooner he could talk to Dean.
He sighed as he climbed out of his pick up truck and walked up to Ms. Mathews house. His blue Gas N Sip vest had been discarded in the vehicle leaving him in his white dress shirt and dark jeans. Castiel ran a hand through his hair before knocking twice on the door then opening it.
“Hello,” Castiel walked into the kitchen and living room.
“She’s out back.” Ms. Mathews looked up from her book with a smile.
Castiel walked out onto the back porch to see Emma wielding a bubble wand at the back corner of the property. Her cheeks puffed out as she blew harshly into the little circle, smile wide as soapy bubbles appeared and danced in the late spring wind.
“Emma, time to go!” Castiel called. Emma groaned in annoyance, and Castiel could see her pout from where he stood at the porch. “You’ll be back tomorrow.” He reminded as she stomped her way over to him.
“Okay.” She sighed.
They said their goodbyes to Ms. Mathews and piled into the pick up truck. Emma rambled about her day through the quick ride home and dinner. It amazed Castiel how little kids could remember each part of their day and then find the energy to share all of it. Sometimes he struggled to remember what he ate for lunch.
They were sitting on the couch watching “Arthur” when the phone finally rang. Emma scampered over Castiel and reached his phone. She glanced at the name on the screen before flipping the phone open and bringing it to her ear. Her bright face told Castiel who was on the line.
Castiel half listened to one side of the conversation. It was mostly Emma repeated what she had already told Castiel. She also asked her dad different questions about the hunt they were on -some haunted land plot where a development was going.
He was a little anxious waiting his turn to talk to Dean so he left the couch and started washing dishes. At least he could be a little productive instead of impatiently waiting for a seven year old to end her nightly conversation with her father.
Castiel remembered when Dean told him he had a daughter. They had been dating for a few months. Mostly it was dinners when they crossed paths across country or taking hunts together. Then, one evening when they had been lying in a motel bed after some good sex, he had turned to Cas and nervously said he had a five year old daughter. Dean, scratching furiously at the back of his neck and running his hand through his hair, had said he wanted Cas to know before things got too serious.
Cas had been surprised, not because Dean didn’t seem as if he would be a good father, but because most hunters didn’t have kids. Dean had gone on to explain that the mother, who was a terrible person, was not around. It was just Dean and his daughter living in their house Dean was fixing up.
Cas had said okay, asked a few questions about who watched her while Dean hunted -Bobby Singer-and if that was why Dean didn’t leave the Midwest for hunts -it was. Then the topic really didn’t come up again until a month or so later.
The three of them had dinner at Emma’s favorite diner. Dean had introduced Cas as “a very good friend” and they had had a nice meal. Emma had been quiet the first few minutes before she slowly came out of her shell and began to chatter. Cas loved her the first moment he saw her. She was so much like Dean, but also sweeter, innocent, and filled with childlike wonder.
Dean had been cautious to let Cas in to his home life. Dean was a private person to begin with, but even more so when it came to his daughter. He didn’t want to whole hunter world to know he had a kid they could take advantage of. Then there was the simple fact that Cas was the boyfriend. It was awkward and slow, but eventually Cas found himself sliding into the Winchester’s lives. He found himself loving them both more then he thought possible. His family hadn’t been a particularly loving one, so to watch Dean interact with Emma and to interact with Emma himself was a surprise. The amount of love and trust between them made his heart expand.
Which is how he found himself elbow deep in dirty dish water, exhausted beyond belief, in charge of a seven year old, but content to his very soul. It was where he wanted to be. Emma and Dean were his world, and he would do anything to protect them.
“Cas!” Cas greatfully snapped off the water, only half done with the dishes, in favor of joining Emma in the living room.
“Off to bed. I’ll be up in a moment to tuck you in.” Cas said as she handed him the phone, shouting one last love you into it.
As Emma disappeared up the stairs Cas collapsed on to the couch with a sigh. “You sound tired, angel.” Dean chuckled from the other line.
“Hmm, my bed’s been cold lately.” Cas smiled.
“Yeah? Good to know you’re not replacing me.”
“Never.” Cas said seriously.
“So how was your day?”
“Relatively normal, Emma has conferences with her teacher next week.”
“Shit, what day?” Dean asked.
“Tuesday.”
“Okay, um, I’ll make it.” Cas could practically see Dean rubbing at the back of his neck.
“Dean, if you can’t I-“
“No!” Dean exclaimed. “I, I gotta be there. I’ve been meaning to swing home anyway.”
“Okay.”
Cas heard the sound of a door opening and closing followed by street noises. Dean must have stepped outside.
“Fuck, I miss you.” Dean sighed.
“I miss you, too.”
“I’m sorry this is a crap show. I just...Sam’s not good. He’s barley eating. He’s not sleeping. I don’t know what to do.”
“You’re doing everything you can. Just being there is helping, I sure. You’re dad will turn up soon.”
“How do you always say the right thing?” Dean’s got a smile in his voice. “So Emma’s got a parent-teacher shindig on Tuesday?”
“Yes, at six-thirty.”
“Ugh.” Dean groaned. “That teacher hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you.” Cas smiled.
“Yes, he does.” Dean grumbled like a child. “He slept with Melissa and now he hates me.”
“Melissa is married to the man with the aggressive smile.” Castiel recalled seeing them at the last spring concert.
“Yeah, but that ain’t stopping her.” He knew Dean had a crude smile on his face.
“Dean-“
“Ah come on, Cas. The guy is clearly a workaholic, and Mr. Thatcher isn’t that bad looking-“
“Dean!” Castiel was smiling wide.
“What?” Dean’s laugh tumbled through the phone. “I’m not going to leave you for him.”
“He is straight for one.” Castiel ignored Dean’s scoff. “Secondly, Melissa is having an affair with the gym teacher. More then one affair would simply be too much for her to handle.”
Dean was laughing hard. One of the first things Castiel learned about Dean was that he was infectious. His laugh made Castiel want to laugh. His smile made Castiel want to smile.
“I’ll be back Tuesday morning. Well stay for a day or so, figure out our next move.” Dean said, planning things out in his head. “You can take some time to yourself, I’m sure Emma’s driving you crazy.”
“Emma can’t drive.” Castiel commented, confused. Emma shouldn’t be driving at her age.
“Figure of speech, angel.” Dean chuckled softly.
“I should go tuck Emma in.” Castiel replied reluctantly.
“Yeah, I’ve got some research to do.” Dean sighed again and yawned.
“Promise me you’ll get some sleep.”
“Tell that to Sam.”
“I’m not talking to Sam. I’m talking to you.”
“Promise.” Castiel could hear Dean’s smile. “I’ll see you next week. I love you.”
“I love you too.” A beat of silence, both not wanting to hang up. Dean hung up first.
Castiel stared at his dark phone screen for a while. The tv flashed across room. Sighing, Castiel stood, turned it off, and walked up stairs. He eyed the photos that lined the dark hallway fondly. It was true, once Dean Winchester let you in, it was a hundred percent all in.
Emma’s door is open and the light it on, but when Castiel peaks his head inside the little girl is asleep. Her dozens of stuffed animals are meticulously lined around her. Castiel smiles and brushes her hair from her face.
“Goodnight, honeybee.”
Later Castiel woke. His eyes snapped open to an unknown sound. His hunter instincts kicked in and he reached for his knife in his dresser drawer. His fingers locked around the handle-
“Cas?” Emma’s voice came from the darkness.
“Emma?” Castiel sat up and dropped his hand. “Are you alright?”
“I had a nightmare.” Emma whispered, her arms wrapped around a stuffed rabbit.
“Would you like to sleep with me?” Castiel rubbed at the sleep in his eyes. She wasn’t one to sleep in the same bed as him and Dean, but every once in awhile she had a nightmare that would wake her and send her crawling into the it bed. Her life before Dean got her was one that left her shaking.
Emma nodded her head insistently. Castiel pulled the covers up and she dashed under them. Castiel was glade she felt safe enough around him to come to him for comfort. “When’s Dad coming home?” She sounded so tiny in the dark.
“Tuesday.” Castiel was relieved to give her good news.
“Really?” Emma burrowed her face into Dean’s pillow.
“Yes.”
“I miss him.”
“I know.” Castiel tucked the blanket around her. “I miss him too, but he’ll be back really soon.”
“Then he’ll leave again.” Emma’s voice wavered.
“Hey,” Castiel’s eyes pierced through the dark to look at her, “your Dad is always going to try his hardest to come home. You are so important to him. He loves you so very much.”
“Even more than Baby?” Emma’s smile was lighting up the room.
“Even more than the impala.”
“Even more than pie?”
“I think it depends on the kind of pie.” Emma giggle at him. “Yes, he loves you more than any pie and any car. We both do.”
“‘I can’t wait for him to get home.” Emma said followed by a yawn.
“Me too. Get some sleep, okay?”
Emma brought the rabbit up to her face and fell asleep. Her snores filing the room. Castiel watched her in the dark. Dean would be home soon. Until then they would be okay. Dean was always going to come home to them, or die trying.