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“Ok, perfect!” Dean sighed as he parked Baby on the side of the street, right down from where the festively decked out sleigh was waiting. “Come on, come on, come on. Let’s go!” He hurried the gang from the car, and towards their ride for the night. “You all get in, I'll find the driver.”
“Coachman.” Jack corrected, following behind Cas into the sleigh.
“Yeah whatever!” Dean laughed. The man was sitting on a bench sipping down something Dean was sure wasn’t hot cocoa, from a flask. “Hey. We’re here.” He called over to him, getting no response, or even an indication the man heard him. “Winchester family, 7 o clock.”
“It’s 7… *drunken hiccup* o 5. You missed your ride.” He slurred, followed by another big swig of his drink.
Dean looked at his watch. “Oh come on, man! Five minutes really?!” The man shrugged. “You’re serious? I already paid and gave you extra for a longer ride!”
“Then you should have been here on time.” The man grumbled pointing towards the No Refund warning on the sign for the rides.
Dean sighed. Dammit! Everyone had been looking forward to this ride. Mostly because he had hyped it up all morning, afternoon and the whole evening leading up to their arrival. But, wrangling five people up and out and adding traffic caused them to run late; a whole five minutes… perfect .
When he finally realized, or more so accepted, the man wasn’t changing his mind, Dean slowly turned back to his family.
“So, no sleigh ride?” Jack asked softly, almost sadly. Dean sighed. He looked at the man, three sheets to the wind, then at the horse, barely even tied to the post. It would be so easy to just…
~✶~
“We’re all going to jail.” Sam groaned as the sleigh soared down the road as fast as the horse could take it. He wrapped an arm protectively around his wife as Dean carelessly took them off the paved road and down a dirt one towards the trees.
Once they were out of sight of the road Dean slowed the horse to a trot. Eventually they came to a clearing where the path ran beside a lake. The night air was chilly and Sam pulled the sleigh’s blanket over Eileen, running his hand over the slight curve of her baby bump. She looked at him and smiled, snuggling closer to his side.
Jack was seated next to Dean, and when the hunter finally had the horse at a slow steady speed he held out the reins. “Really?” Jack asked excitedly.
“Think you can handle her?”
“Actually the horse is a boy.” Jack corrected. Dean stared for a moment then rolled his eyes and handed the rope to Jack, then climbed into the back.
Cas still had his this is a reckless idea face so Dean wrapped an arm around him and worked on kissing it away; relishing in the soured look it brought Sam. Once Cas’ face was left with only a sated smile, Dean reclined back and the four just took in the beautiful landscape.
“It’s beautiful.” Eileen sighed. The moon was full and bright and it’s reflection glimmered in the water.
“Know what would make it better?” Jack asked, and snapped his finger. A light snow began to fall.
“Now this was worth the extra money.” Dean laughed, keeping his arm snug around Cas.
~✶~
They rode through the falling snow for quite some time before the sounds of sirens could be heard; likely looking for the stolen horse and sleigh. Jack snapped once more and they were all back in the Impala, and the horse was safely secured where he would quickly and easily be found.