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"Slow down mischief or you're gonna fall and hurt yourself." Dean warned his almost fifteen month old daughter as she disappeared, giggling, around the other side of the car he was working on.
Shortly after he heard a soft thump and the wails of his offspring.
"Warned you." He sighed as he straightened and wiped his hands on a rag.
"Okay, let's see what you have done to yourself." He said as he headed to the back of the car.
He frowned when her crying suddenly stop.
"Can't have been too bad you've already stopped...son of a bitch!" He exclaimed when he rounded the side. "Cas! Castiel, get your feathered butt down here!"
"Hello Dean." Cas tilted his head and looked at Dean. "You look mad. Are you mad?"
"Care to explain this?" Dean snapped pointing to a sheepish looking Sabrathan crouching down, still holding Kaylas hands.
"She was in distress. I eased her hurt." He explained.
"There you go." Castiel shrugged.
"This workshop is not a safe place a child to be." Sabrathan added looking around. He stood and placed Kayla on his hip and tickled her with his wings.
"I...just...ugh! Enough!" Dean said. "You can't just keep popping in here any time she gets a bump or graze or owie!"
"But she was in pain." Sabrathan argued.
"And she is going to be in pain again. Life is pain! This whole world, our very existence is painful and it's something Kayla needs to get used to. She needs to learn how to get back up and keep going if she falls and she won't be able to do that if angels keep swooping in to save her!"
"But we are here so she won't need to learn that lesson." Sabrathan argued.
"Okay, that's enough from you Floyd." Dean said dismissing the angel. "Cas, I get that he has an affinity for children or what ever, but seriously, the moment something happens him or one of the others are there to fix it. It's like they're just hovering around her waiting for her to get hurt. Wait, you're not are you?"
"No Dean we're not." Cas said giving Sabrathan a pointed look. "They're just concerned...and they feel bad for not coming when Kayla was in distress during your ritual."
"I get that, I do, and anyway there would have been no way they could have got to her because Bobby had this place warded seven ways to Sunday, but you said yourself that she's not actually on any watch list in heaven or hell. You said that you're just watching her as a way to repay us for the whole, stopping the apocalypse and saving the world thing, right."
"Yes, that is correct."
"Then I'm putting my foot down. Time to call off the dogs."
"But I already scaled back to just Sabrathan, Diniel, Orphiel and myself after the teething episode." Cas said.
"Yeah and thanks for that. Bobby was not happy about a battalion of angels storming his house because of an erupting molar. But that's what I'm saying Cas. You can't come charging in here anytime she skins her knee. It stops. Unless she is in mortal danger, I'm talking spinal damage, serious head trauma, anything affecting her internal organs, you stay away unless we call."
"But.."
"No Cas. No buts," Dean snapped holding a finger up in the angels' face. "She is my child, and I decide what's best for her. Sometimes a human has to fall and skin a knee or break a bone jumping from a roof to learn the lessons they need to get them through life."
"Understood." Cas said.
"I mean it Cas. I will blade the next angel I see laying a healing touch on her without my express permission, and I will ward her room." Dean said giving Sabrathan a dark look.
The angel had the courtesy to look shameful.
"Okay Dean, I got it. You have my word." Cas nodded.
"Good. Now you give me back my child." He said taking Kayla from Sabrathan. "And you." He said pointing at Cas. "Take away the homing beacon."
"But then how will we know when she needs us?" A concerned Sabrathan asked.
"You won't, and that's the way it should be. If she needs help, we'll call." Dean said. "Kayla is my child and from now on I'm the only one who gets to decide if she needs heavenly intervention. Now do it."
"It will hurt her." Castiel warned.
"I remember." Dean said.
Castiel sighed and placed his hand in Kaylas chest. She looked at it and giggled at the angel. He gave a little smile back then fed his grace through his hand and re-wrote the inscription on her ribs. Kayla stiffened then began to scream. Cas withdrew his hand.
"It is done." He said solemnly.
"Can I just?" Sabrathan asked holding two fingers close to Kaylas head.
"No!" Dean said pulling her away.
He began bouncing her and placing little kisses on her head, hugging her close. Sabrathan huffed then disappeared.
"There, there princess, I know it hurts. Shhhh." Dean soothed the distraught child.
"I'm sorry little one." Cas said as he tucked a strand of Kaylas hair behind her ear with one finger.
Her cries eased slightly.
"I know what you just did." Dean said, his lips still pressed against the side of his daughters head.
"I just took the edge off. I didn't remove the pain completely." Castile confessed.
"Thank you." Dean sighed as he continued to hug and bounce Kayla. "Look, it's not that I don't appreciate having heaven at her beck and call it's just if she doesn't experience these things how can she empathise with others when they go through it? What if something happens to me, or Sam or Caleb or Bobby? How will she be able to grieve properly if there's always an angel to take away the pain?"
"Nothing is going to happen to any of you." Cas said.
"You don't know that. We're hunters, it might."
Kaylas cries had now reduced down to sniffles as she snuggled against her fathers chest.
"I see your point. And you're right, some of us have over stepped our boundaries somewhat."
"Good. And it's not like I'm banishing you all completely. I know how much that big lug cares about Kayla. They're still welcome to visit...occasionally. Like for her birthdays and holidays and stuff."
"Thank you Dean. That will be appreciated." Cas said with a lopsided smile.
"Hey, why don't you come in and visit for a bit. It's been a while since we saw you and I know Sam will want to say 'hello'."
"That would be very nice." Castiel answered as they walked toward the house together.
"You want to carry her?" Dean asked.
"That would make me very happy." Cas said taking the small child in his arms.
"Thank god! She was getting heavy!"
Cas cuddled Kayla close as they walked towards the house, and maybe, just maybe he let a little of his grace flow through his best friends child, just to wipe away the last of her pain. Cas still had trouble understanding human emotions but since meeting the Winchester's and especially the newest, youngest one, he now knew what love is.