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“C’mon, Sam, hurry up!“ Dean groaned into his phone, trying to get the toddler on his lap to let go of his necklace. “Cas is making me go nuts.”
Sam barely supressed a chuckle. “Nothing unusual there, huh?”
“Ha ha. You’re absolutely hilarious. Not. Now find that damn cure and get back here!” With that Dean disconnected the call and looked down at Castiel, still trapped in this baby form. “Cas, stop pulling, you’re gonna choke me,” he grumbled with defeat. To say he was exhausted was a huge understatement.
For over a week now, Cas had kept the brothers on their toes 24/7. Literally. Every time Dean had dozed off from exhaustion the little angel had woken him by yammering or babbling incoherent things to himself and crawling all over him. Once, Dean had startled awake with a pained yelp to find Cas kneeling on his crotch, eyes wide open with confusion at Dean’s whimpers and curses and the ungentle way he had grabbed Cas and set him back into the crib next to his bed, glaring at a snickering Sam. The next moment Cas had started whining again.
Sam was right. The baby had a weird obsession with Dean. And the older Winchester honest to God was more than tired of it.
He still insisted on Cas wearing the tiny trenchcoat though.
“Listen, Cas, I’m gonna put you down for a moment and you’re gonna be a man about it, got it? I gotta pee.” Carefully, he lifted Cas up and managed to untangle small fingers from his necklace before placing him in the crib. He immediately pushed the wooden bumblebee toy into Cas’s hands before the toddler could start complaining again, knowing it was the only thing that kept him busy for a few minutes. Not for anything in the world would he risk Cas starting to scream again. The angel could reach a volume that was downright scary.
With a sigh of relief Dean shut the bathroom door and leaned against it, closing his eyes for a moment and praying to a God he was simultaneously cursing that Sam would finally find a reverse spell. Dean didn’t know how much longer he could deal with this.
Eventually he took a deep breath, crossed the small space to the sink and splashed some water in his face. He really needed a good night’s sleep but knew he wouldn’t get that until Cas was back to normal. The sixth coffee this day would have to do. He briefly wondered if he might have a heart attack before this case was over.
Soft babble followed by an excited squeal made him turn around and open the door to look what had caught Castiel’s attention this time. He found that the baby angel had grabbed two bars of the crib and pulled himself up, staring at a bird that had landed just outside the window with fascination. Dean couldn’t help the small, tired smile spreading over his face. When he wasn’t crying or pulling Dean’s hair, Cas was actually kind of cute, he had to admit to himself. And the blue of his eyes seemed even more vivid.
When the bird flew away a few moments later, Dean could hear a quiet “Nooo…” and prepared for the sobs that were sure to follow. As anticipated, Cas let go of the bars, flopping down on his butt, and turning his head towards the bathroom with wide eyes and a sniffle. However, when he spotted Dean in the doorway he stopped and turned around to fully face him, then he reached out his tiny arms towards the hunter and looked at him with even wider eyes.
Dean ran a hand over his face and sighed again but finally walked over to the crib and picked Cas up. “But no hair pulling again, you hear me?” Placing the toddler on his hip and out of reach of his necklace and more importantly his hair, he sauntered over to Sam’s bed and sat down after grabbing the remote control. The moment Dean had placed Cas on the bed next to him the little angel tried to climb into his lap again and Dean rolled his eyes. “You really gotta learn what personal space means…” he grumbled as he turned on the TV, flipping through the channels.
After a few minutes of channel surfing and nothing remotely interesting turning up he was about to switch it off again when he landed on a children’s channel and noticed how Cas immediately turned his attention to the show when he saw the main character. Dean shook his head and grinned. Suddenly everything but the TV was forgotten and Castiel slid off Dean’s legs and tried to get closer to the TV, almost falling off the bed.
“Whoa there, slow down.” The hunter caught Cas in the last moment and helped him to the floor, watching him immediately crawl right in front of the TV single-mindedly. “You into that?” Dean mumbled to himself, arching a brow and pressing a button to get to the menu and figure out what the hell this animation was about, earning himself a mewled protest. “Maya the Honey Bee? Really, Cas? You’re so predictable.”
Cas had settled down right in front of the TV and stared up at the screen. Dean couldn’t see his face from where he was sitting but he was sure Cas had the same expression on his face he’d had when they had found the bee toy – a dopey, blissful smile and a glow in his eyes.
Making himself more comfortable, Dean leaned back and fought to keep his eyes open just to fail after a couple of minutes. He realised he must have fallen asleep when Cas made a loud, disapproving sound that startled Dean awake. The angel was staring at the closing credits flickering over the screen that were soon replaced by another show. When Cas realised there were no more bees he looked back at Dean with a frown. “Dee!”
“Cas, I can’t change the – Wait a minute.” Dean slid off the bed and grabbed Sam’s laptop. While it was booting up he felt Cas’s stare on him and eventually picked him up to place him in the crib yet again. Then he opened YouTube and quickly pulled up a Maya the Honey Bee clip, not without noticing there were 52 episodes. He activated autoplay and set the laptop right in front of the crib, the volume turned low, then he watched how the characters on screen instantly caught Cas’s attention again.
When Castiel didn’t protest as Dean walked back to his bed and lay down, didn’t even take his eyes off the laptop, Dean grinned. This show seemed to be a blessing. Maybe God had heard his prayers after all, he thought, and fell into a peaceful sleep for the first time in over a week.
***
The ringing of his phone woke him almost eight hours later. He snatched it off the nightstand, noticing that Cas didn’t seem to have moved the entire time and was still staring at the screen. “Sammy, I found a way to get him quiet,” he said instead of a greeting.
“Please tell me you didn’t smother him or something…” Sam mumbled.
“No, Maya is keeping him occupied,” Dean quipped.
“Maya?!” Sam sounded honestly concerned. “Dean, you didn’t hire a prostitute to take care of a baby, did you?!”
“What? Dude, I was talking about that talking bee from that animation! Seriously?! What’re you even… You know, never mind. You better have a good reason to be calling me when I finally got some shut eye.”
“Yup, I found another witch that’s almost as powerful and got the spell. At least I hope it’s gonna work… I’m heading back to you right now, should be back in a couple hours.”
“Finally. Hurry up.”
“Shut up, jerk.”
“Bitch,” Dean replied, but the line was already dead. He looked back at Cas and decided now was the time to take a shower. Who knew how much longer the bee would manage to capture his attention.
Apparently Cas still wasn’t getting tired even after about nine hours of binge watching children’s shows he didn’t even understand because when Dean got back out of the bathroom more relaxed than he’d felt in a long time the toddler had stuck his hand through the bars and tried to touch the laptop’s screen and finally settled on waving at Maya’s bee friend.
“Hey, Cas, think you’re gonna be okay while I grab a bite to eat?”
Castiel barely glanced at Dean and the hunter took that as a yes. He returned half an hour later with a burger, fries and even a slice of apple pie and sat down on the bed, watching the show with Cas as he devoured his dinner.
***
“About frickin’ time, what took you so long?” he growled when the door to the motel room opened the next day and Sam stepped inside.
Sam glowered at him and threw his duffle bag onto his bed. “I figured since you’d gotten some sleep and Cas was busy I’d stop and get some sleep too instead of driving the whole ten hours without a break.” He nodded at Cas who was currently trying to fit his tiny foot into his mouth and occasionally looked over to them only to turn his head back to the laptop still in front of the crib a moment later.
“Looks like it’s still going great.” He smirked.
Dean shut the laptop, completely exasperated. “I swear if I’d have to listen to this god damn bee and her friends another minute I would’ve punched something. I had to start again from the beginning because Cas wouldn’t stop whining, this is episode thirteen or something. Thing has 52 episodes all in all.” As if on cue, Cas gave a whimper as soon as the laptop was closed and glared at Dean. “I really don’t like when he looks at me like this, it’s creepy. Let’s get this over with, I want him back in his normal form.”
Sam was wise enough not to say anything but he didn’t fight the shit eating grin on his face. It disappeared the next second, though, as Cas suddenly started wailing without a warning.
“Oh come on!” Dean picked the crying Castiel up, throwing a glare at Sam who snickered and went to get something from his bag. Dean rocked the angel, muttering “Shh”s and “It’s okay”s at him until Cas quieted down and finally nuzzled against Dean’s shoulder.
Luckily it didn’t take Sam long to set up everything he needed for the spell and he soon turned to Dean. “Let’s get Cas back, shall we?”
“Definitely.” Dean nodded frantically and tried to take Cas off of him. As usual Cas was anything but happy about it and just held on to Dean’s shirt even tighter. “Ugh, really?”
“Just sit down and put him on the bed next to you,” Sam suggested with a barely held back chuckle.
Dean glowered at him but did as he was told. When he was sitting and finally had gotten Cas to let go of him and lie on his tummy on the bed next to him Sam started mumbling the spell and lit a match to burn the ingredients he had mixed together. Just as he was about to set them on fire Cas climbed onto Dean’s lap again and pulled himself up until his eyes were level with Dean’s.
“Sam, stop!” Dean warned, an edge of panic to his voice, but it was too late. The ingredients went up in flames and Dean fell back onto the bed with an “Oomph!” that drowned out the sound of ripping fabric, buried under 170 pounds of angel.
“Shit, Cas, get off me, you’re crushing me!” Dean groaned and tried to push him away, grabbing at naked skin and immediately stopping, staring at the angel with wide eyes and being met with a mix of confusion and shock.
Sam stood stock still for a moment, clearly just as shocked, then burst out laughing and turned around to face the wall, holding his stomach and panting between bursts of laughter.
Cas was still blinking at Dean and the hunter felt his face grow hot. “Dammit, Cas, off, now!”
“Uh, I… Sorry?” Castiel mumbled insecurely, sliding off the bed and looking around before staring back at Dean who was desperately avoiding his gaze. “What happened? Where are my clo-?”
Before he could even finish Dean gestured at the table near the door, the other hand covering his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Cas, get dressed and then we’ll, um, explain…” He was sure he would never forget this moment in his entire life. Why did shit like this always happen to him? Fate had to hate him… Then his eyes fell on the beige pieces of fabric in his lap. “Dude, you ripped that poor trenchcoat into shreds.”
Castiel turned his head and looked at Dean with befuddlement, then back to his trenchcoat hanging over the back of the chair in front of him. “Which trenchcoat?”