Moon Plays The Ocean Like a Violin: musingsdeme: i know it’s not going to happen; but i really want sam...
i know it’s not going to happen; but i really want sam and dean to adopt krissy, josephine, and aiden, and take them back to the batcave and teach them lore and have star trek marathons and cheer at their soccer games and dean make pie for them when they get honor roll. And the…
Dean is antsy about leaving the kids on their own. He really fucking is; it’s not that they can’t take care of themselves, more because they can. So he throws out a side comment to Sam, who looks surprised and he makes a U-turn about twenty minutes after they leave town…I mean it’s not like they don’t have the extra room.
Krissy thinks Dean is being ridiculous; Josephine is unsure about the proceedings (until she sees the library); and Dean doesn’t really care what the hell Aiden thinks, as he gives him the stink eye. At least now Dean can make sure no one goes on any unsupervised vamp kills. When did he become a responsible adult anyway?
They pack up their stuff and move into the batcave within the week. Everyone gets their own room (Dean makes sure that his room is squarely between Krissy and Aiden, and Krissy gives Dean an eye roll that puts Cas’ to shame). Josephine loves the library. Aiden is impressed by Dean’s weapon collection. Krissy likes the war room.
It’s an adjustment for everyone, but, ultimately, the brothers’ feel more comfortable looking out for the kids (despite their constant refrain of ‘we’re not kids, Dean’). Sam enrolls them in the local high school, and Dean is not really sure how they’re going to pull this whole thing off, taking care of a bunch of teens with PTSD, raging hormones, and revenge complexes to rival John Winchester’s. As Sam reminds him, “dude, it was your idea.”
They test the waters of the Winchesters’ authority and willingness to set boundaries. After facing down archangels and the apocalypse, Sam and Dean have learned when to be immovable and when to give. There is a lot of negotiation and compromise in the first few weeks. Sam maintains that they should try for normalcy. If crazy Roger could do it, so can they.
Krissy joins the Lacrosse team. Josephine signs up for Debate Club and soccer. Aiden plays rugby and is a Mathlete, which Sam loves and Dean can appreciate. They go to their games on the weekends and form a cheering squad. Dean is the loudest, and all three kids roll their eyes and try to hide their smiles when he yells at the refs. Sam thinks Dean’s an idiot, but Dean knows that Sam is a hypocrite because Sam fucking beams like an idiot when Aiden gets top marks on his Latin Exam (he actually pins the A+ to the fridge), when Krissy puts together the logic behind a case before he does, or when Josephine translates Enochian sigils into English for the first time.
They settle into routines…new patterns. Dean is suddenly cooking for five, and he doesn’t mind at all, even though he gripes about it. His cooking repertoire expands suddenly: not just burgers, but salads, chicken, pasta, lasagna, pulled pork, biscuits, organic pizza, tofu. Cause, jeeze, those kids are like fucking bottomless pits. Sam is responsible for breakfast (they need more coffee than they used to). The Beatles (one of Dean’s many, varied nicknames for the kids) take care of lunch. They collectively set up chore rotations. Times for homework and school, extra-curriculars and weapons training; foreign languages, lore, strategy. Everyone works together: they bicker, they have different strengths and weakness, but they help each other and tease each other and support one another.
There are new things in the batcave: iPod docs for Josie’s indie rock; a tv and dvd player, a foosball table that Dean found at some yard sale. He and Krissy have epic matches. There are soccer cleats, lacrosse sticks, machetes, sneakers.
Josie and Aiden and Sam go to Target and come back with a Dry Erase Board to build grocery lists and leave reminders; a new coat rack, extra pillows and blankets, posters, dvds. The batcave becomes more lived in, more homelike, by the day.
When their Fall semester comes to an end, all three kids make honor roll and Dean bakes pies (which Sam accuses are more for him than Krissy, Aiden, and Josephine), and makes their favorite food for dinner and all three of them tell him he’s so ridiculous and a jerk, and an idiot when he says he’s proud of them.
They have strict rules for when the Winchesters go out on a hunt: number one is no armed combat, quickly followed by no parties, and no hunting. They let the teens be involved in the tracking and the planning and the research, but they only get to go on hunts that are local, because, obviously, they have to be at school on Monday morning.
They have movie nights on Friday, which is Dean’s idea (because a. he knows what he did on Friday nights when he was seventeen and no way and b. these kids know nothing about culture, jesus). Everyone else groans in unison, including and especially Sam, but that doesn’t stop them from grumbling into the sitting room with popcorn and candy and pizza to watch the Indiana Jones Trilogy and marathon Star Trek and have epic debates about Die Hard v. the Bourne movies.
Krissy calls Dean a dork. Aiden calls him old. Josephine just shares a commiserating look with Sam. “Whatever, guys, I’m awesome,” he says as he holds out a hand for a fist bump and one of the kids will eventually give in…when they realize he’s not giving up.
Kevin comes by sometimes and it’s fucking awesome to see him interact with the Goonies (they don’t fucking know who the Goonies are; Sam had to really support Dean through that disturbing revelation). Dean and Sam forget sometimes that Kevin is only nineteen, but when he’s hanging out with Aiden, Krissy, and Josephine, it’s like he’s suddenly able to be his own age again. Sam thinks he’s got the hots for Josie, and Dean isn’t sure how he feels about that. Nine times out of ten he doesn’t fucking know what the hell the kids are talking about: bands and movies and tv shows and weird adjectives and texting slang. He catches himself thinking that and has to remember that he’s so not old enough to sound like a disgruntled grandpa, even if he is kinda sorta maybe half raising a bunch of teens.
Dean is content, the Gates of Hell still need closing, there are still monsters roaming the earth and demons to deal with, but he’s got a home to come back to, people he cares about. The only thing missing…well, he shows up two months in. Castiel scares the shit out of Krissy and Aiden (who may or may not have been making out on the couch) when he suddenly appears in the batcave. They’re yelling for help and Josephine and Sam run in from the library, Dean from the kitchen, and he’s so fucking relieved to see the angel that he totally overlooks Krissy’s disheveled hair and Aiden’s flushed cheeks.
He crosses the room in three strides and is hugging Cas so hard that, if he were human, he’d be worried about breaking some ribs. Most surprising of all, Castiel hugs Dean back.
“’Bout time you showed up,” he snarks when he pulls back.
“My apologies for the delay,” Castiel looks it too.
Dean is feeling surprisingly generous about it, plus, it’s not like they can fight in front of the kiddies, it would send the wrong message. He’s pretty sure he heard that somewhere…probably from Sam, who heard it from Oprah or something…
Castiel is regarding the gun toting teens with a curious tilt of his head…
“Uh, yeah,” Dean scratches the back of his head, “we kind of adopted some honorary Winchesters.”
It’s the first time he’s said that and the kids look nonplussed but strangely pleased at belonging to this family. Sam has that tender touchy feely smile for his brother, like he’s proud.
“C’mon,” Sam says, “You’re in time for dinner.”
Krissy grills Cas pretty thoroughly, and, somewhere mid-bite of his burger, Dean realizes that she’s giving him the third degree to protect Dean’s honor, and he has a fleeting thought of ‘that’s my girl,’ because Cas actually looks ruffled and it takes some damn impressive interrogative technique to ruffle the dude’s feathers. Josephine and Aiden are more interested in angels and heaven and what the hell. Sam just repeatedly expresses how happy that he is to have Cas back and asks where the hell he’s been. Dean mostly observes the madness—Josephine flinging a broccoli floret at Aiden’s head when he makes and insensitive comment; Sam telling her that’s not a mature avenue of retaliation until Krissy chucks a napkin that lands neatly on Sam’s face—his leg is pressed against Cas’ under the table. The angel observes the chaos as if he is slightly overwhelmed, but he gives Deana small smile when the hunter wrangles some of the youngsters to help him clear the table. Krissy takes Cas into the living room with Sam. Josie, Dean, and Aiden wash and dry and bring a plate of cookies with them into the sitting room, where Sam has apparently decided they’re going to watch Star Wars.
Josie sits on Dean’s left, Cas on his right, pressed close against his side. It feels like a natural extension to wrap his arm around his shoulder, make sure he stays close, and Cas rolls with it. Krissy and Aiden are snuggled clos on the other couch; Dean raises his brows at her, darting a glance at Aiden; and Krissy repeats the same action with Cas. She and Dean share identical smirks and eye rolls. Sam is sitting on the floor propped, shooting comments at Dean the whole time.
Josie and Krissy start talking about how “hella fucked up” it is that Leia makes out with Luke to which Aiden shoots a worried glance at Cas and yells “dudes, spoilers.”
Cas turns to Dean, “I don’t understand what they’re saying.”
Dean shakes his head in commiseration, “Don’t worry about it, Cas, kids today, you know?”
Cas nods solemnly in agreement.
“Don’t be bitter, old man,” Krissy snarks.
“Hey!”
“She has a point,” Sam interjects.
“Dude, loyalty here, c’mon,” Dean retorts.
“Sam can’t help that he’s just way cooler than you, Dean,” Josie teases.
“Traitors, the lot of you,” he makes a show of distress, “see if you get any more pie.”
Aiden straight up laughs, “Yeah, cause that would seriously be a punishment for us.”
“Don’t antagonize him,” Sam smirks, as if he hadn’t been doing the same thing two seconds ago. The rest of the movie is accompanied by similar good-natured teasing.
They all head to bed circa midnight, because it’s a school night.
“No funny business,” Dean glares at Krissy and Aiden. The latter has the good sense to look frightened. Krissy just sticks out her tongue and says, “Night, gramps.”
Sam tells Cas that he’s glad he’s back, and Josie reminds Dean that she has soccer practice till five tomorrow.
“No sweat, kid,” Dean gives her a one armed hug, “night.”
Sam gives Dean a raised brow and knowing smile when he bids him goodnight. After Dean clears up the plates and cups, he comes back to find Cas still sitting on the sofa.
“Well,” Dean offers his hand and Cas regards it quizzically, “c’mon, I saved you some space in my room, if you want…”
Cas stares at him for a beat, while Dean feels like an idiot, but then Cas smiles and takes Dean’s hand, “I would like that.”
“Good,” Dean grins stupidly happy, and he leads Cas down the hall, past the sounds of snoring teenagers and Sasquatch, to his room, their room. He feels happier than he has for years.
