Work Text:
Sam ducked into the house he, his brother, and their partners were hiding. Fortunately, they were all gathered in the kitchen, so he could get this out and only have to say it once. “We may have a problem here.”
“What, they were out of macaroni?” Dean joked. “Because we’ve got everything else I need for mac and cheese, including a surprise ingredient to mix it up.”
Sam tossed the bag of elbows at Dean. “Worse than you not being able to make your mac and cheese.” Dean raised an eyebrow as he turned on the stove where a pot of water was waiting to boil. “I spotted a man at the store who was showing a picture. He said he was looking for his daughter Anna. He looked enough like Cas that I didn’t try to get a look at the picture before getting home to warn you guys that it seems like your dad’s in town.”
“Well, fuck.” Anna reached for Castiel’s hand. “Running’s not as easy as it used to be, either.”
Dean and Sam glanced at each other. “Only in that four people make harder tracks to cover than two,” Dean said firmly. “Me and Sammy know how to run, and even as comfortable as we’ve made it here, we can figure it out if we have to. It’s up to the two of you, he’s your dad.”
Castiel shuddered. “Part of me thinks it might be worth being found and getting it over with. Maybe we can convince him that meeting the two of you ended our confusion… but then there’s explaining to him that I’m bi and we have to go back to sneaking around, and if Dad finds out about the two of you, it just gets that much worse for all of us. He just might find a way to track down John.”
The slam of their front door got their attention. “Who do you think led Michael Godwin here?” John Winchester taunted. “Hello, boys.” He raised his gun, aiming it at Sam. “Did you miss me? Because I promise, I won’t.”
“What, you promise not to miss you? You’re going to kill yourself? Please do. Go for it.”
At Sam’s comment, John’s hand shook, and Dean took advantage to put himself between the two. “Dad, you’re gonna have to kill me too, you want a shot at Sammy. You know that.”
“Not if you want to protect the pretty redhead you… at least I damn well hope it was you… knocked up.” John smirked at the shock on Dean’s face. “So? Sammy or Anna and the baby?”
“Anna?” Castiel asked, guiding Anna to a corner and putting himself in front of her. “Are you?”
“I’m late, I bought a pack of pregnancy tests when I was at the store today, but I haven’t had the chance to take one yet,” Anna said. “Dean, if I am, it is almost certainly yours. Cas and I always use protection specifically for this.”
Dean swallowed hard. “Dad, you’re not taking two things into account here. Yes, I should be protecting my girl and our potential baby, but Cas can do that as well or better than I can. And secondly…” He glanced over his shoulder as Sam put a hand on his back. “You’re the idiot who raised me to believe with every molecule of my being that there is nothing more important than looking after Sammy.” He deepened his voice a little and quoted his father’s common parting, “Take care of your little brother, boy.”
“Yeah, well, this was not what I meant.” He sighed. “But I see that there’s no hope. Gonna have to kill both of you, then.”
“No one’s killing anyone!” Dean didn’t take his eyes off John’s finger, but from Anna and Castiel’s shocked gasp, he could guess that this was their dad. “John, what the hell are you doing? You told me that you just wanted to find your boys, that you wanted to talk!”
“I lied.” He motioned to the corner with his gun. “There you go. Your kids. Just as scared as mine, just as fucked up as mine, even worse because pregnancy’s a risk, but they are your kids. I’m not gonna hurt them. You do what you want, but don’t interfere with me and mine.”
“Cas. Anna. I swear to you, I just want to talk. Sam, Dean, I thought your father wanted the same thing, or I’d never have helped him look for you.” Michael moved to where Dean could see him, raising an arm. Dean recognized what was about to happen. He grabbed Sam and dropped to the ground.
Michael grabbed John’s arm and jerked it upward, so the shot went into the ceiling. Then the two men were wrestling for control of the gun. Dean looked over to Cas and Anna, jerking his head at a drawer that they never opened. Castiel nodded and opened it, pulling out the gun Dean kept in there. “Dad, let him go so I can shoot him.”
“Lethal violence is a last resort,” Michael said. “If we can subdue him and wait for the cops…”
“It’ll be easier if he’s short a functioning kneecap or two.” Castiel glared at Michael. “You’ll forgive me for not quite trusting your intentions on who all you plan to hand over to the police when they arrive.”
John used Michael’s distraction at the accusation to break free, and Castiel proved as good as his word. A shot to the leg dropped John to the ground, and Dean immediately got off Sam to roll John onto his side and pin him there. Michael helped, grabbing hold of the legs so that all Dean had to worry about was John’s arm, and Sam helped by grabbing the gun that finally dropped to the ground.
“Nice shot, Cas,” Dean said. “If you need to go throw up now, I promise I won’t let Michael do anything to Anna. Prefer no risk of it contaminating the mac and cheese.”
Four people stared at Dean in shock, and Sam just giggled. “Priorities, Dean. We need to get ourselves safe from the homicidal parent trying to kill us before we can worry about the mac and cheese.”
“No reason I can’t multitask!” Sam rolled his eyes and Dean turned his attention back to John and Michael. “So Cas does have a point. Dad can escape most jails. And, well… I’m not eager to get taken in for kidnapping, can’t imagine Anna is either, and it’d be nice not to have to live in fear anymore.”
“Well, if you’ll accept protection…” Michael said. He glanced over to Castiel and Anna. “I still hate what the two of you became, but I accept that it’s partly my fault, and all my reaction did was drive the two of you closer together. I thought I was doing the right thing, keeping the two of you isolated, away from the bad influences of the world… but I didn’t take human nature into account. Healthy young teenagers with no other outlets for their hormones? Of course you started looking to each other.”
“You…” Anna tilted her head. “You don’t sound like you approve, exactly, but…”
“Oh, I hate it. But I love the two of you more, and I’m hoping that with time and exposure to something a bit more normal, the four of you can find your way to two normal, healthy relationships.” Michael sighed. “And if it doesn’t, well… at least you haven’t become the kind of people who would drive your own children out onto the streets and let your brother hurt them rather than try to either parent them out of behavior you disapprove of or get your head around accepting it.”
“And the potential grandbaby…?” Anna said.
“Has nothing to do with anything, because I didn’t know anything about it until John said he saw you buying a pregnancy test. I still don’t really know, do I? Because you don’t.” Michael looked around. “All four of you are welcome to come home with me. Gabriel has promised to keep Raphael away from you. We’ll watch out for John, too, and if he can’t accept that he’s lost you and needs to let go, then…” He swallowed. “Then Dean, you do what you have to do. But I’d like to at least try letting him go to prison first.”
“Cas, Anna, and I get out of here while you get John set up for the cops,” Sam said. “We meet up at a spot Dean will know.” Dean nodded. He knew exactly where Sam meant. “Then we decide whether we’re going with you, or going our own way.”