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“Maybe I shouldn’t go,” Dean said for at least the hundredth time that day.
Castiel rolled his eyes and shover another one of Dean’s barely folded shirts into his bag. “No, you should go. You haven’t seen Sam in almost a year and he wants you to be there for the engagement party. You’re going if I have to shove you on that plane myself.”
Dean made a face and left Castiel to do the packing for him while he went over to the blanket on the living room floor that was currently occupied by Mary Anna, their ten month old adopted baby girl. She waved her hands at Dean when he got close enough for her to see him and he picked her up and cradled her against his chest. “But what about Mary? You’ve still got to go to work while I’m gone and she’ll be lonely -”
“She won’t be lonely. Anna is going to watch her when I have to go to work. We’ve already talked about this,” Castiel shoved Dean’s duffle bag into his free hand and helpfully relieved him of Mary’s slight weight. “Now we’re going to go to the airport and you’re not going to complain the whole way, understand?”
Dean grumbled the whole way to the airport while Mary Anna cooed happily at the toys swinging over her head in the backseat. Castiel parked the car outside of the airport and got himself and Mary Anna out so that Dean could kiss both of them goodbye, squishing Mary Anna between them when he hugged Cas. She squealed happily and Dean smiled down at her when he ruffled her sparse hair.
“Call me when you get there,” Castiel reminded him softly. “And don’t forget to enjoy yourself. It’s only for a week and then you’ll be back. We’ll all go together next time.”
Dean brushed his thumb over Castiel’s cheek, ignoring the looks that they were getting. Seriously, people could not get over themselves. There were plenty of heterosexual couples that did coupley shit in public all the time. Dean leaned in to kiss Castiel once more. “Yeah I’ll call you.” He tapped Mary Anna’s nose. “Be good for Aunt Anna.”
Mary Anna made a grab for his fingers and he let her capture his index finger for a moment before he had to pull away and board his plane. When he looked back, Castiel was standing there helping Mary Anna waved goodbye even though she was more interested in trying to grab at the ring on her dad’s hand. He waved forlornly before getting on the plane. God he hated planes.
———
It wasn’t hard to find Sam when he finally made it off that god forsaken plane. Dean was sure that Sam had grown another few inches while he was gone and as soon as Sam spotted him, that humongous sunshiny puppy dog smile came out and before Dean knew it he was wrapped up in a ridiculously strong hug and all but dragged off the ground.
“Hey, Sammy,” he wheezed out.
Sam finally let him go. “I’m so glad you’re here. You’re going to love Jess I just know it and she’s going to love you and I need you here man this whole wedding thing is crazy.”
Dean blinked at him uncomprehendingly for a minute. “Wait you’re expecting me to be able to actually help you with this shit?”
The angelic smile made an appearance. The one that had always gotten Sam precisely what he wanted. “Well yeah, you’re the best man. You’re supposed to be my bitch for this entire thing.”
“Yeah good luck with that while I’m in Kansas and you’re here dealing with wedding colors and whatever,” Dean answered but he made sure that it didn’t sound uncaring. He’d be more than willing to do whatever it was that Sam wanted.
Sam grabbed the duffle out of Dean’s hand and hefted it over his shoulder. “Come on, Jess is waiting back home.”
“I can carry my own bag, you overgrown child,” Dean grumbled. Sam just smirked at him.
Sam had moved into Jessica’s apartment since the last time that Dean had been by. It was a nice place, definitely had the feminine touch going on that Sam had teased Dean about not having in his apartment that he and Cas lived in. Jessica was in the living room when Sam opened the door and she greeted him first with a kiss and Dean tried to not let himself make an ‘ew my brother is kissing people’ face. Then she turned to him and her eyes lit up and Dean could see why Sam liked her so much.
“Dean, so nice to finally meet you,” she said. He expected her to hold out a hand to shake but she just bounced right over to him and wrapped him in a hug and if he hadn’t been in a loving relationship with another man for nearly five years he would have tried to get a little extra groping going on.
“Nice to meet you too,” he said when she finally pulled back.
“Sam assures me that you’re going to be bring your partner and daughter to the wedding when it finally rolls around,” Jessica said.
“Uh. Yeah. He said he wanted to come and we can’t just leave Mary Anna at home with Cas’s sister. She’s not all that great with kids. It’s a risk to let her watch Mary Anna for an afternoon sometimes,” he said with an easy grin that she returned.
“Well I can’t wait to meet the only other person who will ever understand the pain of being married to a Winchester boy,” Jessica joked. “Come on, I’ve started dinner but Sam said he wanted to make a salad just because you don’t like them.”
“I’ll eat a salad,” Dean grumbled good naturedly, “but I won’t like it.”
“Well at least Cas has been some kind of good influence on you. After seeing him down three burgers in one sitting I was afraid that the two of you would just live off fast food for the rest of your lives,” Sam said.
“Uh no his entire family is vegetarian. It took all my power to just get him to try a hamburger once,” Dean corrected.
“So you’re the bad influence,” Jessica noted.
“I like to think so,” Dean snarked back with a smile. And yeah, Sam had been right, he did like this girl.
———
Two days without seeing Cas’s face was making Dean a little bit ridiculous to be around and Sam finally offered to let Dean used his laptop to video chat with Cas so he would stop being all whiny. Jessica and Sam crouched nosily in the kitchen to watch around the doorframe while Dean struggled to pull up the video chat for a minute. They could tell the moment that Dean got it to work because a huge smile suddenly broke out on his face.
“Hey, can you hear me?” Dean asked just a bit too loudly. Sam rolled his eyes at Jessica and she tried not to giggle while shushing him.
“Yeah I can hear you,” Castiel’s deeper voice rumbled through the tiny speakers. “I don’t understand why you can’t just call me.” He didn’t sound irritated though.
“I just wanted to see your face. Thought you might like to see mine,” Dean teased.
“I’m always willing to see your face, Dean,” Castiel answered with far too much sincerity and Sam remembered that Castiel had seemed like a very serious man when he’d met him, sometimes completely missing jokes or sarcasm in a way that Sam was sure was completely genuine. Castiel just seemed to be literally incapable of not taking everything seriously. Tiny baby noises came from the background. “Do you want to see Mary Anna?” Castiel asked.
Dean’s smile was so big, Sam was concerned it would break his jaw for a second. “Yeah. I thought she would be with Anna right now.”
“Anna was housing Gabriel today so I took the day off to keep Mary Anna from being subjected to their combined presence,” Castiel answered blandly. There was the sound of some shuffling and the baby noises got louder until they heard a huff that was Castiel sitting back down in his chair. “Look, Mary Anna. Daddy’s right there,” Castiel said in a voice so sweetly different from what it had been earlier that it was a little jarring.
Dean waved at the camera. “Hi, baby,” he said softly. “Look at me, Mary Anna. I’m right here.” Delighted baby laughter filtered through the speakers. “You being good for Papa?” he asked sweetly.
Sam glanced at Jessica to see her smiling at him with the biggest, brightest smile he’d ever seen on her face short of the day he’d asked her to marry him and he just knew that she was thinking about when they had kids of their own. He laced their fingers together and smiled back.
“She absolutely refuses to sleep without you here to sing for her,” Castiel grumbled.
“Call me when you’re trying to put her down and we’ll see if she’ll fall asleep if I sing through the phone, okay babe?” Castiel must have nodded because Dean went on, “How’s Anna doing acting like a mommy?”
“Anna does not ‘act like a mommy,’” Castiel said dryly. “She’s doing an adequate job of making sure that Mary Anna is fed and clothed and generally happy when I go pick her up but I think that Anna is resorting mostly to just giving her toys and leaving her alone.”
“Well that’s marginally better than how you did at first,” Dean teased. Mary Anna made a noise that Sam knew she was on the cusp of starting to wail about something. “Sh, sh, baby,” Dean soothed immediately. He raised his hand to the camera. “I’m going to be home soon, princess.” Mary Anna giggled.
“If you try to get on a plane earlier than Saturday I will call the airport and tell them that you’re an international criminal and you are not allowed on the plane,” Castiel deadpanned.
Dean actually tipped his head back and laughed at that and Mary Anna seemed to find it hilarious too because her giggles got louder. “I won’t try then. I’m going to video chat call or whatever you again, alright?”
“Of course,” Castiel answered. “I have to put Mary Anna down for her nap but I doubt she’ll sleep now that you’ve gotten her all excited.”
“Good luck with that,” Dean replied. He waved at the camera again. “Goodnight, princess. I’ll see you later. Bye, Cas, I love you, babe.”
“I love you too, Dean,” Castiel answered.
Dean struggled to shut the video chat off for a second but he managed and closed the laptop and he just sat there for a moment, smiling to himself, and Sam knew that there was now another thing that he could look up to his big brother for: how to be a father and a loyal husband no matter what.
Sam kissed Jessica’s knuckles and dragged her down the hallway to hide in one of the rooms farther back in the apartment to make it seem like they hadn’t been listening. She smiled as she followed him the whole way.