Work Text:
"Happy Birthday!"
Dean stopped in the doorway of the diner that was attached to the shitty motel he had spent the night in, blinking sleepily. The diner was pretty much empty this early in the morning, and the handful of people scattered around the room didn't look too pleased at Samandriel's yelling. Sam was just grinning, while Balthazar was rolling his eyes.
He got a little closer and slowly looked from them to their table, which had three empty coffee cups (which explained Samandriel's exuberance - for an angel, that kid could not handle caffeine) and a cake with green icing. Unlit candles adorned the top of the cake, which had the words 'Happy Birthday Dean' written across the top in sloppy white icing.
"Birthday?" he echoed dumbly, having to stop and think about it. Christmas had been about a month ago, so.... Christ, they were right. It was his birthday.
"You might not keep track, but I do," Sam said. "I didn't think you'd have another one." There was a funny look on his face for a moment; no doubt he was remembering Dean's last birthday, which had been spent with both of them trying not to think about Dean's rapidly approaching trip to hell.
"Me either," Dean said. He didn't add that he would've been okay with not having another one. Birthdays had never been a big deal in the Winchester family. It was just another day usually spent either looking for a hunt or on a hunt. John had never bought them gifts, but he and Sam usually exchanged something small - alcohol or porn, normally. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a cake. He sat down beside Samandriel.
"Once Gabe and Cas get here, we can cut the cake. I tried to get you a pie at the bakery, but... let's just say this looked like the thing least likely to give us food poisoning," said Sam.
"They're not here."
"What?"
Dean looked up, surprised by the force of the three stares. Even Balthazar seemed surprised. "What? They left a couple of nights ago. Something about Lucifer causing trouble again on the Eastern seaboard. I don't know when they'll be back."
Sam frowned. "They're missing your birthday?"
"It's not a big deal, Sammy," Dean muttered, uncomfortable. The truth was, he didn't even know if he'd ever told Castiel or Gabriel when his birthday was. It wasn't something that Dean thought about, so chances were he probably hadn't. And sure, it would've been nice to have woken up in bed with them instead of alone. A fantastic bout of morning sex was always better than a cold shower - because the motel's water heater wasn't working - alone. And now that he knew it was his birthday, a part of him did wish that his mates were here. But there was nothing to be done for it now. They had more important things to worry about, and Dean wasn't going to whine about it like a baby.
Sam still didn't look very happy, but it was Balthazar who spoke. "Then you might as well go ahead and cut the stupid thing."
"It's not stupid!" Samandriel said instantly, giving Balthazar a cute little frown.
Balthazar rested his chin on one hand. "I beg to differ."
"Then you don't get any," Samandriel said, blinking. Three plates, three forks and a knife instantly appeared on the table. Dean glanced over his shoulder, but fortunately it appeared that no one had noticed the use of angel mojo.
"I can make my own cake anytime I want," Balthazar said, but that didn't stop him from eyeing the cake.
Dean rolled his eyes and cut three large pieces. He still didn't like Balthazar that much, but since the angel seemed like he was important to Sam, Dean had to tolerate him or risk getting into a fight with Sam. So he gave Balthazar one of the pieces and, in lieu of a fork and plate for himself, cut another piece of cake and started to eat with his fingers. It wasn't half-bad, considering that it was cake instead of pie. Chocolate, with what tasted like key lime icing.
"Thanks for the cake, Sammy," he said.
Sam smiled. "You're welcome. It was actually Samandriel's idea."
Samandriel beamed. "I've been reading up on human customs," he told Dean. "And I've heard that cake is a very important part of celebrating a human's life."
"Yeah, I guess it is," Dean said. He'd been to a couple of birthday parties when he was in school, and cake had always featured pretty prominently. "Thanks."
"Balthazar got you a present too," said Sam.
"He did?" Dean raised an eyebrow.
Balthazar sighed, tipping his head, and a bottle of very fine, very expensive whiskey appeared on the table in front of Dean. Dean picked it up with the hand he hadn't been using to eat cake and glanced at the label, surprised to find that it was a couple hundred years old and probably worth thousands of dollars. It would definitely be the most expensive alcohol he'd ever tasted - worth a fortune if he tried to sell it. Not that he would, but he couldn't deny that it seemed like a waste to let a couple middle age hunters who regularly drank the shittiest alcohol there was drink it. Against his will, his respect for Balthazar increased another notch. He'd have to save it for a special occasions.
"You have good taste," Dean said.
"I know," Balthazar said smugly, leaning back and tossing an arm around Sam's shoulders. Dean glared at him. Balthazar just smirked back at him, unrepentant, and since Sam was leaning into the touch, there was nothing Dean could do about it. Grumpily he swiped his finger through the cake's icing and lifted it to his mouth.
Before it got there, a hand seized his wrist and redirected his finger up to another mouth. Dean jerked his head up in surprise just as Gabriel's tongue made impact with his skin and the icing. Gabriel was smirking, eyes shining with mischief as his tongue very thoroughly cleaned Dean's finger of the sweetness. Dean just stared at him, too surprised to bother trying to pull away. He hadn't felt his mates materialize anywhere around the diner, or felt their approach. Maybe because he hadn't expected either of them to show up.
"What are you doing here?" he burst out, and Gabriel laughed.
"One would think you didn't want me here, sweetheart," he said with a wink, and Dean blushed the way he always did at the endearment. Judging by Gabriel's grin, that was his intention.
"But you said... you had demons to take care of. You didn't call them, did you?" Dean demanded, head snapping around to stare at the other three occupants of the table. But all three of them shook their heads.
"They didn't have to, Dean. You didn't really think Cassie and I would forget your birthday, did you?" Gabriel said, ruffling his hair playfully. "Come on."
"But I didn't tell you it was my birthday."
"Cassie knew already," Gabriel replied. "And I'm sorry we're late. We meant to return earlier this morning before you woke up. I had plans..." He looked off into the distance for a moment, eyes dreamy. "Such plans."
"Dude, come on, I'm eating," Sam said. "Could you not daydream about my brother when I'm sitting right here?"
"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Sam. I'm thinking about your brother naked all the time."
"And I'm done." Sam pushed his half-eaten cake away. Samandriel seized his chance and grabbed the plate, dragging it closer.
Dean rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “I’d rather not scar my little brother’s imagination any more than we already have. So if that’s how you want to spend the day, let’s relocate.”
“First of all, it’s not my decision how we spend the day. Your birthday, your choice. Second of all, I would like nothing more than to strip you naked right now and give Sammy something to really whine about. But I’m man enough to know when you have a much better offer on the table.”
“A better offer?” Dean repeated, confused. Gabriel jerked his chin up, grinning, and Dean twisted around automatically. He heard Sam’s startled inhale before it clicked, and when Dean realized what was going on, his own chest seized up and he couldn’t breathe.
Mary Winchester was standing in the doorway of the diner, arm-in-arm with Castiel. Their heads were tipped together and Castiel was whispering to her. Mary had one hand over her mouth, but that couldn’t disguise the laughter in her eyes. Simultaneously they both looked up at Dean, and all Dean could do was stare back helplessly. Castiel said something else, still too low to be heard, and Mary nodded. They both walked over to the booth, but Mary was the one who stepped forward.
“Mom?” Sam whispered, shaky, like he might cry, and Mary’s eyes immediately filled with tears.
“Oh Sammy, my baby,” she said, and Sam jostled the table hard enough to tip the coffee cups over as he shot to his feet. In two long strides, he was out of the booth and pulling Mary into such a big hug that her feet left the ground. Mary threw her arms around his shoulders, one hand cupping the back of Sam's head, and held him. Dean could see her lips moving, though he couldn't hear what she was saying. Not that he was trying. He was still frozen, trying to figure out if this was some kind of trick.
Castiel set a hand on his shoulder, right over the handprint, and bent to speak to him. "It's okay, Kitten," he murmured. "It's her. Happy Birthday."
"You..." Dean could barely force the word out, but his angels understood the unspoken question.
"Just for a couple of hours," Gabriel said, hand sliding over his own handprint on Dean's hip. He actually sounded apologetic as he added, "Any longer and someone would definitely notice. As it was, it took every trick I know about heaven just to sneak her out for this long."
Dean couldn't put into words right then just how insanely touched he was. Two hours with his mom was more than he'd ever thought he would get, and there was definitely no need for his mates to apologize that it couldn't be longer. He might not have been able to get the words out, but he managed to collect himself long enough to shove everything he was feeling at their bond in the hopes that somehow, they would understand anyway. Castiel's eyes widened and Gabriel's grip on his hip tightened, but then Mary was calling his name and Dean forgot all about them.
"Dean," she was saying, and Sam had stepped aside, though still within reach, and Mary was holding her arms out to him. "Dean. My angel."
He stood up like he was in slow motion. This wasn't some dumb trip to heaven, with the memory of his mother playing out a scene. This was real. The way her arms wrapped around him, the smell of her perfume, the feel of her hair against his cheek, the sound of her voice as she said his name again. It was all real. Tears rushed to his eyes and Dean didn't even bother trying to fight them. He dropped his head onto her shoulder, holding onto her so tightly that it had to hurt.
"Mom," he said again, the word muffled against her shirt, but she heard him anyway. She shifted so that she could cup his face in her hands and smiled so lovingly that it left him breathless.
"My angel. Dean, I've missed you and Sammy so much."
Sam. Dean glanced at his brother and saw that Sam's face was wet with tears too. They were alone now, he realized; the rest of the diner was empty. Even the angels were gone. Not that he really cared. His sole focus was on his mother. Somehow, they ended up back in the booth with Mary in between them. For a couple of minutes, all Dean could do was sit there and try to absorb everything. It was the little things he'd forgotten, like the scent of her vanilla shampoo, or the way she tossed her hair back - eerily like Sam - or how she crinkled her nose right before she smiled.
"My boys," Mary said, looking from one to the other. "I want to know everything about your lives."
"Our, uh," Sam swallowed and shot Dean a nervous look, no doubt remembering their encounter with a younger Mary, who was dead set against being a hunter anymore. "Our lives?"
"I know you're both hunters, Sam. Your father and I have talked."
"You saw Dad?" Dean blurted out.
Mary nodded. "A couple of times. We don't share a heaven, but we've spoken." There was a steely undertone to her voice that Dean had heard before, one that usually followed an epic fight with John, but in the next instant she smiled. "It's okay. It's not what I wanted for you, but I'm so proud of you for protecting people."
It was what Dean had wanted to hear for years.
"I went to Stanford for a little while," Sam volunteered. "I mean, I didn't get to graduate, but I had a 4.0 GPA while I was there. I'm gonna be a lawyer someday."
"A lawyer! Oh Sammy," Mary said, her eyes bright with pride.
Sam smiled shyly back at her. "Yeah. It might be a little while. Dean and I, we're kind of in the middle of something. But I really liked it while I was there."
"Tell me about it," Mary asked, squeezing his hand, and so Sam did. Dean heard more about his brother's time at Stanford in the next forty-five minutes than he had in five years of traveling with Sam. But then again, he'd never wanted to hear the details before, too worried that talking about Stanford might make Sam want to go back - and unsure of how to even start broaching the subject of Jess. And Sam had never volunteered the details. Even now, talking about Jess was enough to make his eyes fill with tears again.
"She was amazing, Mom," he said. "You would have loved her."
"Oh, honey. I'm sure I would have. I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Mary wrapped an arm around his shoulders and leaned over to kiss his temple, humming softly. They stayed like that until Sam had stopped sniffing, at which point she turned to Dean.
"What about you? Tell me about your life."
"There's, uh, not much to tell," Dean said. For the first time ever, he was starting to regret not having gone to college. At least Sam had something noteworthy to say. All Dean had was a lifetime of hunting.
"I don't believe that for one minute. You're a hunter. You must have some interesting stories," she persisted.
Dean squirmed uncomfortably. "Uh, well, there was this one time when Sam and I got trapped in some television shows."
"Really, Dean? That's what you're going with?" Sam said, exasperated.
"Just because you never got over the herpes thing -"
"It's not just about the herpes thing -"
" - and besides, Gabe said he was sorry for that -"
" - he also whacked me in the nuts, and besides he was not sorry -"
"Boys," Mary said sharply, and both of them fell silent. "That's better. Continue, Dean."
After one last look at Sam, Dean obeyed. He told her the story of the archangel who'd trapped them in TV land for weeks, omitting some of the finer details. If their mother didn't know about the Apocalypse or Michael or Lucifer, he didn't want her to. Mary laughed at all the right moments and glowed with pride when she heard of how they'd ultimately outsmarted Gabriel. Dean committed that expression to memory, knowing that there would be a lot of painful moments in the future when he'd need that proud look to make it through.
Their time together was too short. He understood now why his mates had apologized, when Mary's laughter stopped and she sighed, wiping at her eyes. She was looking at something outside the diner, and Dean followed her gaze to see that Castiel, Gabriel, Balthazar and Samandriel were standing outside. It was time for her to leave, he realized, and it wrenched at something deep in his chest. He wanted to cling to her like a child so that she could never go, but at the same time the adult side of him understood that would mean bringing at least Michael, if not Lucifer, down on them. And they couldn't afford that right now.
When Mary requested a moment alone with Sam, Dean was almost glad to grant it. He slid out of the booth and took several steps away, trying to get himself under control. It wasn't working. He'd spent years imagining what life would've been like if his mother had been around, and now he was getting a firsthand glimpse that made it all the more painful. He wouldn't have lost these two hours for anything, but at the same time he wanted to just get the departure over with. He clenched his hands into fists.
"Dean." Mary touched his shoulder a minute later, and after one last deep breath he turned to face her. For the first time, he realized just how young she was. Mary had been in her early twenties when she died, and she was no older now. She was younger than him. But her tender smile was wise beyond her years when she cupped his cheek and called him her angel.
"You really shouldn't call me that, you know. Angels are real," Dean said past the lump in his throat.
"I always knew they were, just like I always knew they'd watch over you. But no one is more of an angel to me than you."
"Mom -"
"I know," Mary said gently, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "I know about Castiel and Gabriel, baby. It's okay. All I've ever wanted was for you to be happy. If they love you, if they make you happy, that's all I care about."
Dean knew if he spoke, he'd start crying. So he just pulled her into an extra tight hug and pretended that there weren't tears streaming down his face. He held her for as long as he dared, until Mary pulled back. He and Sam accompanied her outside. Hannah had joined the other four angels, and stepped forward.
"I will accompany you back to heaven," she said.
"What?" Dean said, maybe a little too sharply. "Why you?"
"Dean," Castiel said. "Gabriel is still hiding, and I'm not welcome in heaven. Hannah has the best chance of returning your mother unnoticed."
He wanted to ask why Samandriel and Balthazar couldn't take her (and that was not a thought he had ever expected to have in relation to Balthazar), but Sam was already freely crying and leaning against Balthazar. His brother would need them too much when she left. So he gritted his teeth and nodded jerkily.
"Fine. But be careful."
"I will," Hannah promised.
"Goodbye, my angel," Mary whispered, pressing one last kiss to Dean's forehead. She kissed Sam in the same way and stepped towards Hannah, who very carefully grasped Mary's arm in the way of an angel who isn't certain of their strength. Between one blink and the next, they were gone.
At the same time, Gabriel touched Dean's shoulder. Dean found himself standing in an upscale hotel room, one of the sort that Gabriel generally favored. Normally he enjoyed looking around at the rooms, amazed at the luxury he never thought he and Sam would experience, but right then he felt too torn up to enjoy it. He tried to hold it together, but first the room started to blur and then he felt new tears on his face. Within seconds he collapsed, sobbing, into the waiting arms of his mates.
They held him close and, after a few minutes, carried him to the bed. Castiel stripped them all of their clothing while Gabriel darkened the room and plied the bed with blankets, until Dean was lying between the two of them under a cocoon of soft blankets and feathers. Dean cried until he couldn't cry anymore, and his head pounded and his eyes ached with heat. Even his throat was hoarse when he finally managed to speak, putting every ounce of gratitude he could muster into those two words.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, Princess," Gabriel said, kissing his cheeks and his throat and his forehead. Little tingles followed each kiss, soothing away the pain.
"Sam is with Balthazar and Samandriel," Castiel added, stroking Dean's hair. "And Hannah says your mother was returned to her heaven safely, Kitten."
Dean just nodded. Though relieved, he was too emotionally wrung out to say anything else. He just wanted to lay here with his mates and enjoy the rest of what was easily the best birthday he'd ever had.