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It'd been two months since Jack left to rule Heaven. Sam and Dean had already managed to come up with a routine for the two of them but it was still difficult to acknowledge their new lives. They tried not to focus on that too much. Sam, lucky bastard, succeeded to get in touch with Eileen again and work with her to rebuild their relationship, now, without Chuck in the picture. He seemed happy and relieved to know that a person he deeply cared for still wanted to stay in his life, despite everything that had happened. Every date that he was going on with Eileen left him more relaxed and optimistic. She was great at keeping that positive mindset going in Sam.
Meanwhile, Dean wasn't coping that well. He still hadn't told Sam what his last conversation really looked like which meant being forced to deal with that guilt alone. Guilt because the more time had passed, the more intense his true feelings were getting. At first, Dean thought that his depressive state was caused by the fact that his best friend was taken by the Empty. But the true was that it wasn't just his best friend. It was his love. That realization hit him right after he went back to the Bunker with Sam. The second his head hit the pillow, he started crying, sobbing, wailing, soaking the fabric.
Obviously, his brother came quickly to ask what was going on but Dean just made an excuse that the whole mess just overwhelmed him.
He really thought that the two months would be enough time to get over all the losses. That one in particular. But it wasn't.
In the morning, Dean was woken up by something wet moving across his face and the second he opened his eyes, he saw Miracle, happily standing right next to him on the bed, now more excited to notice his owner awake.
"Woah, woah, buddy, I'm up, I'm up," Dean chuckled softly and pushed the dog gently away from him so that he could sit up properly. His joints popped as he stretched and yawned, getting ready to start his day.
The Bunker was quite since Sam had spent the night with Eileen and, apparently, wasn't back yet. Dean smiled at the thought of that. He was glad to know that his brother was enjoying his life and letting himself settling down.
"Ready for some breakfast? I'm starving," the man gave Miracle a knowing look before grabbing a pan.
Soon, he was sitting at the table, devouring his scrambled eggs and bacon, sharing the latter with the dog that sat obediently by his leg. Those morning, no matter how peaceful they were, they lacked of one thing. One person. Dean would really love to have that one goofy angel, sitting across him and contemplating about the most random piece of information that he had found, surfing through the internet.
"You'd like him, bud..." Dean sighed, giving Miracle another bite of his bacon.
The two of them enjoyed the rest of the meal until they heard a thump coming from the war room. Miracle's ears quickly perked up and, barking, he ran straight to the source of the noise.
"Miracle! Wait!" Dean grabbed a knife, the closest weapon, from a cupboard and ran after the dog. There was no way he would leave his new friend alone with a potential dangerous creature.
However, the closer he got to the room, the more audible was... laughter?
"What the He— Jack?" Dean gasped when he spotted the boy, crouching in front of Miracle who was currently licking Jack's face with his tail wagging like crazy.
At the sound of Dean's voice, the boy quickly stood up and brushed off the dust from his pants. He didn't look hurt, thankfully, there were no signs of distress or anything like that. What could have been the potential point of Jack's visit? Not that Dean didn't like to see him. Every day he was wondering how the kid was doing. They had gone through ups and downs but ultimately he cared deeply about Jack. Apart from that, Dean still felt guilty for having said things he really regretted.
"Hey, Dean..." The kid waved at him awkwardly. There was no sign of his previous serious God attitude that he'd shown them the day he went off to Heaven.
"Hey, kid," Dean let a small smile, approaching Jack. "Everything's alright?" The boy nodded but the hunter wasn't convinced. "You might be God now but you still can't lie very well."
Jack sighed in defeat and looked down at his shoes. Right now, he was questioning his decision to come there. After all, that would mean changing Sam and Dean's lives again. Ruining their routine that they'd already come up with.
"Jack..."
Dean's voice started to grow more worried, witnessing the Nephilim's expression.
"I don't think I like being God..." In a way, Dean was glad that it was that and not some actual issue in Heaven. "I fixed Earth and Heaven. I also managed to get in touch with Rowena to make sure that no demons would interfere too much with humans... And then I started feeling weird..."
"Weird?
Jack frowned, trying to find the best words to describe those feelings. "I think I started to miss home..." That immediately softened Dean's gaze. "And I know that I said I wouldn't come back because I was needed in Heaven so I would understand if you didn't want me here—"
"Woah, okay, I'll stop you here, kid." Dean came up to Jack and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently. "That's your home, you're always welcome here. Your room is waiting for you," he smiled softly and that was all there was needed to make Jack break. He immediately wrapped his arms around Dean in an almost crushing hug but the hunter could do nothing else than return it. "Welcome back home, Jack."
Once Sam returned to the Bunker in the afternoon, he couldn't describe how happy he was to see Jack back. They both shared a tight hug and a lot of kind words. The three of them chatted for at least a few hours. Sam and Dean's first question was what happened to Amara.
Apparently, Jack didn't feel like trapping her inside of him so he let them free. After all, after falling in love with that world she could never think about destroying it or doing anything to sabotage it. Dean wasn't too convinced about that idea but he trusted Jack.
Among other questions, there was another one that the older Winchester was considering to ask. However, he was too afraid of hearing the bad news. Castiel's name hadn't been mentioned once during that long conversation so Dean decided not to bring it up. Not even Sam said anything in that matter which gave his brother an impression that he knew what was going on. Dean really hoped he didn't.
Another month had passed, now, since Jack's coming back. He adjusted to their routine pretty quickly. Still, not wanting to interfere with the human world too much, he wasn't joining the brothers on their hunts but rather staying in the Bunker, doing all the important research. In fact, it was great to have the boy back. Next to Miracle, he was another ray of sunshine that brightened up Sam and Dean's day. It was also nice to notice that around them, he let himself be just Jack — not God Jack.
Unfortunately, that another month didn't heal Dean's quiet suffering, so he tried even more busy his mind with everything else but thinking about Castiel.
"Alright, Miracle, ready for a wa—" The sudden ruffle of wings caught him of guard. "For God's sake..." Dean sighed and walked to the war room, ready to scold Jack for not using the door. "Jack, how many times do I have to—"
"Hello, Dean."
A leash that the hunter was holding in his hand was dropped on the floor. He could hardly believe his eyes when those were met with the blue, too familiar ones.
"Cas...?" It had been over three months since he'd said that name out loud and, quite frankly, he didn't think he would be doing it ever again. Let alone to the angel's face. "But the Empty—"
"After taking over Chuck's powers, Jack resurrected me and asked to help him with rebuilding Heaven."
"And you never thought of coming down to let us know that you're alive?!" Dean's voice was a mix of frustration, disbelief but also relief.
Castiel sighed, already feeling that he'd made a mistake. "We've got specific orders not to interact with humans."
"Screw this," the hunter was quick to reply to that. "You really think that I'm going to belive that Jack wouldn't let you come down to Earth? Especially, when he did it himself just a month ago?!"
Truly, the angel didn't have a good answer to that. The correct one wouldn't be the right one.
"Then tell me, why are you here now?" Dean clenched his jaw, glaring at Castiel, not moving his eyes away from him... Also because he didn't want to let the angel leave the second he would stop paying attention to him.
"I wanted to check on Jack..." he said hesitantly.
"Bullshit. I heard your wings, you got your powers back, didn't you?" Castiel nodded slightly. "So you know he's not here. You know he's with Sam in Colorado. Why. Are. You. Here." He put emphasis on each word. He was on the edge of bursting but he didn't want his first meeting with Castiel after his (not)death to turn into an argument.
The angel took a big breath. "I wanted to check on you..."
The silence grew thicker between the two of them as they just kept staring at each other, not really knowing what to say. Their goodbye wasn't the nicest one and left a lot of tension and awkwardness that was new perfectly present. Not even Miracle who was sniffing Castiel could help. It also didn't help that it was just the two of them in the Bunker. Nobody to save them from that dreadful atmosphere.
"Only now...? Dean finally asked.
"I was busy—"
"Cas."
Again, the angel took a big breath, knowing that the conversation could go two ways. Obviously, he preferred one above the other.
"You're right. Jack didn't forbid me from coming here. I was just afraid." Dean frowned, trying to find sense in whatever his friend was doing. "After everything that I'd said, I didn't feel that it would be right of me to come back."
Dean smirked. "So you mean that you confessed your love, let himself be taken by the Empty and all that without letting me saying anything in reply."
Now, it was Castiel who looked confused. "You told me 'not to do it'."
The hunter groaned and made his way towards the table, pulling two chair for both of them to sit. That would made the talk at least a little bit more comfortable. Castiel, fortunately, understood the invitation and soon they were both sitting next to each other.
"Everything happened so quickly that I didn't know what to say," Dean started with a little sigh. "When I knew, it was too late. You were gone." Castiel could have been mistaken but he was nearly sure he heard Dean's voice breaking a little.
"So... What did you want to say?" The angel leaned forward, attempting to study the hunter's face.
Now, that was the hardest part. Dean wasn't the best at talking about his emotions but there was no coming back. In fact, Dean didn't want to come back. He couldn't be happier about having Castiel back.
"That I... I love you too, Cas." Their eyes met again. Now, the two were staring at each other with tons of thoughts running around their minds. "I'm sorry that I'm only telling you this now..."
Expecting the angel to get mad or just immediately leave, Dean was taken aback after hearing him sob.
"Cas, are you okay?" he asked with slight panic in his voice. Making the angel sad was not on his bucket list.
Castiel quickly wiped off his tears and tried to hide his crying behind a nervous chuckle. "Yes. That was not what I expected. I honestly thought you'd tell me to leave and never come back."
Dean shook his head slightly. "Never."
They both shared smiles and before they could realize, their fingers were intertwined as their faces moved closer to each other. Soon, their lips met in their first kiss. One that showed how desperate they were for one another. How much they truly wanted— needed that to happen. And there was no coming back now. Fortuantely, none of them wanted to coma back.
So Castiel stayed in the Bunker to both Jack and Sam's happiness. Dean was always offended that the two of them didn't seem surprised when Castiel would initiate some public display of affection. Were the two of them really that obvious?
Fortunately, they didn't care about that too much and just carried on with their daily life now together again. Everything seemed to be working great. Sam was happy for his brother that he'd finally let himself experience love. Dean couldn't enjoy his time with Castiel more.
However, there was still Jack who no matter how carefree he was able to be, he still seemed that there was something troubling him. It took Castiel and Dean a few weeks before the kid finally revealed what was the real issue. Once they sat him down on a couch in Dean's Cave, he knew there was no way of hiding his problem from the two of them.
Apparently, Jack, after successfully bringing order to the world, started to feel his human part calling. After all, the one thing that distinguished him from Chuck was that he wasn't entirely a celestial being. Kelly's human side of him was still very much alive and the more time he spent away from humans the more homesick he was feeling. He felt that coming back to the Bunker would give him peace but it didn't happen. Every time he was watching human families spending time with one another, he was feeling sad that he'd never been able to experience that. He'd never experienced being a true human, to be precise.
The moment he was born, he wasn't allowed to develop naturally because the world was too dangerous for that. However, when now everything seemed peaceful, his body and soul started demanding to be heard.
Dean understood it sooner than Castiel. Jack wanted to give up his powers, not entirely letting them be taken away, but making them almost non-existing in order to make the experiences more real. But that wasn't the only wish Jack had.
"I would like my life to start again." He wanted a fresh start. Dean couldn't blame him. "Which would mean letting both my mind and body regress... Letting most of my memories to fade away temporarily until I grew enough to be able to comprehend them again. However, to that I figured I would need to have somebody who would take care of me... Somebody I trust..." Dean and Castiel shared knowing looks. On one hand, they were glad to hear that Jack trusted them but on the other, they knew that what they were going to agree to was not going to be an easy task.
But they did. After making sure that Heaven was safe and it didn't need much supervision from Jack — now, that Amara was in the picture and Castiel who kept in touch with her — they agreed.
Once they informed Jack that everything was ready — after all, they had to prepare the Bunker (and themselves) for a newborn — the boy finally let himself give in. After a few seconds, in the same armchair that Jack had just been sitting on, Dean and Castiel could see a baby, crying softly, for sure confused with the new situation.
The hunter was the first to let his father instincts kick in and held the newborn in his arms. That was undoubtfully Jack. Their Jack.
Dean and Castiel wasn't too sure what they'd just got themselves into but they were ready to be the best parents to the boy. They were determined to give him the best childhood and life possible.