Work Text:
Date Night
“Cas’s list is on the refrigerator, and if you need anything just call me”, Dean said to Claire as he slipped on his brown leather jacket on.
“Dad we’ll be fine, I’ve babysat before, and Jack’s like the sweetest kid”, Claire replied.
Cas was stood by the door with a wriggling Jack in his arms, Jack was way too excited at the idea of Claire babysitting him to listen to a word his dad had been saying to him. Jack had loved Claire since he’d first met her, he was ecstatic to have her all to himself for the evening.
“Alright, be good, okay?”, Cas said as he put Jack down on the wooden floor of his and Jack’s little apartment.
“Yes daddy”, Jack said very quickly, already pulling Claire towards his bedroom by the sleeve of her shirt.
“We’re fine”, Claire called to Dean and Cas, before she disappeared into Jack’s bedroom.
“He loves her” Cas said to Dean as he opened the front door.
“She loves him” Dean replied.
With that the two men left the apartment and shut the door behind them.
Meanwhile in Jack’s bedroom, Claire and Jack were sat on the floor on Jack’s road rug. The rug was green with stripes of grey on it, to look like roads, and it was covered in toy cars, trucks, vans and buses. Jack’s bedroom told Claire a lot about the little boy, his bed was shaped like a fire truck.
On one side of Jack’s bed was a bookshelf full of kids’ story books, on the other side was an armchair, most likely for Cas to sit in while he read Jack one of the story books. Across the room against the wall was Jack’s closet, a small desk with pencils, crayons and paper, it looked very similar to Cas’s work desk in the living room.
Finally, there was a toy shelf, and a small shelf on the wall with many different stuffed animals on it.
Jack was talking at about a million miles an hour to Claire about all his different toy vehicles.
“Oh, and, and, and this one, it’s my favourite” Jack said, kicking his legs with excitement, as he held out a small, red fire truck.
“that’s really cool Jack”, Claire smiled at Jack, watching him pretend to drive the fire truck across the rug. It had always been just Claire and her dad, sometimes Sam and Jess were around, but most of the time it was just the two of them, but now Cas and Jack were in their lives.
Claire liked it, she felt like she had a proper little family, but she wasn’t getting too excited, she couldn’t remember the last time her dad had a partner. Claire was just going to enjoy what they had right now.
Jack sent at least an hour telling Claire all his different car, barely stopping to breath. Eventually Jack’s stomach started to rumble, he was ready for dinner.
“You hungry buddy?” Claire asked, while Jack handed her the seventh action figure, he’d got out to show her within the last ten minutes.
Jack smiled, started jumping up and down, and flapping his arms, as if he was trying to take off.
“Yes, yes” Jack said just before he ran out of his room, properly going to the kitchen.
This kid gets excited over everything, Claire thought, chucking to herself, before putting Jack’s toys down, then going after him.
When Claire found Jack, he was stood in the kitchen. Claire scooped him up and sat him down on one of the dining table chairs.
“Let’s see what your dad left for dinner”, Claire said before going over to the refrigerator, there was a small list Cas had left on it.
Pizza and salad are in the refrigerator.
Bathtime 6:30.
Bed at 7.
We should be back by 8:30.
-Cas
Claire got the pizza out of the refrigerator and put it in the oven for 10 minutes, like it said to on the box, then she turned back to Jack, who was still sat on the chair, now swinging his legs and grinning.
“What’s got you all smiley?” Claire said smiling back at Jack, his happy energy was contagious.
“I’m having a good day”, the little boy said, his smile only getting bigger. Jack’s joy just warmed Claire’s heart.
“Oh yeah, want to tell me about it?” Claire replied.
Jack started bouncing in his seat, and talking very quickly about his day, talking about his breakfast, his drive to daycare, his friends, his lunch, and everything else he could think of.
“And then, and then you came over!” Jack said just as the pizza finished cooking.
“Woah Jack sounds like you have had the best day ever” Claire said as she got the pizza out the oven, then put it on the counter to cool down.
“The bestest” Jack said.
While the pizza was cooling down, Claire got the salad out, then started to put the food onto plates.
They sat down together and ate, Jack rambled on as they did.
Awhile later Claire was giving Jack a bath.
“Daddy took me to the park yesterday” Jack said as Claire washed his hair.
“Oh yeah?” she replied.
“And we saw the baby duckies, they swim in the pond” Claire listened to Jack talk, it was all she seemed to do this evening, but she didn’t mind.
“And, umm, and they were so fluffy, and they said QUACK! And they flapped their wings like this.” Jack flapped his arms up and down, slashing the water out off the tub.
Some of the water landed on Claire, a few drops even going into her eye, making Jack laugh.
“Oh, is that funny huh? Well let’s see how you like it” Claire teased, slashing Jack back a little, making him laugh harder.
“Alright should we get you out?” Claire asked.
Jack looked like he wanted to protest, but he was also shivering slightly. After a moment Jack nodded. Claire gently lifted him out of the tub and wrapped him in a towel, then walked Jack back to his room. Jack got dressed into his pyjamas with only a little help from Claire, then he sat down on his bed and yawned.
Claire looked at her watch, 6: 54, bedtime.
“I think it’s bedtime Jack.” Claire said softly, looking at Jack as he rubbed his eyes.
“Daddy reads me a story before bed”, Jack said with a small yawn.
“Okay, a short one yeah?” Claire replied.
Jack nodded and climbed across his bed to the bookshelf next to it, he stood on his tiptoes trying to reach a book on the top shelf. Claire went over to him,
“Which one do you want?” she asked, Jack pointed to a book with blue spine, Claire got the book of the shelf and looked at the cover, it had a cartoon-like illustration of a duck on the front.
Jack got into his fire truck bed and Claire sat down in the armchair next to it. Claire had only read a few words of the story book when Jack spoke,
“Claire?”
She looked up at him.
“Hmm?”
“Can you sit in my bed with me?” Jack asked.
“aren’t I a little too big for your bed?”
“Please” Jack’s big sky-blue eyes looked at Claire like she was his favourite person ever to exist.
Well, I can’t say no to that,
Claire thought, before getting of the armchair and sitting on the bed next to Jack. Claire opened the duck book again and started reading, she felt Jack curl up against her side, she kept reading.
When she finished the story, she looked down at Jack, he was out cold. Claire smiled to herself, he was such a cute kid, Jack was holding onto Claire like a baby koala. Claire started to feel her eyes growing heavy.
I’ll leave Jack, maybe I’ll just shut my eyes for a minute though, she thought to herself as her eyelids slumped shut.
It was 8:51 when Cas and Dean came into the apartment, they were whispering, laughing, and shushing each other, the pair had been drinking, but only a little.
“Shhh” Cas was leaning against Dean slightly.
“You shhh” Dean said planting a kiss on Cas’s rosy cheek.
They took their jackets off and hung them up, then they took their shoes off.
As Cas went to check on Jack, Dean looked around the living room, expecting to see Claire on the couch asleep, or watching a movie or something, but she wasn’t there.
A moment later Cas came back,
“Dean, you have to see this” he said taking Dean’s hand and leading him to Jack’s bedroom. Dean stood in the doorway of the bedroom with Cas, watching the scene in front of them.
Claire and Jack were cuddled up in Jack’s bed together, the duck book discarded on the floor, there was no sound other than jack and Claire’s soft breathing.
Cas and Dean smiled softly before backing out of the room, and shutting the door quietly, leaving Jack and Claire to sleep peacefully.