Anything But Rhythmic

Goodnight, Moon

Note: It's 3AM, I woke up at midnight, and I'm posting this on a whim.

Do you guys want this story?

Goodnight, Moon

Cas woke pressed against Dean's front, their legs intertwined, his hands trapped between their chests. Dean's mouth was still against Castiel's forehead, and their breath ghosted over each other's bare skin.

It was pitch dark when he opened his eyes, and so Cas knew that Dean needed to sleep for several more hours.

While he wouldn't be going to sleep anymore tonight, he still smiled and closed his eyes. He didn't see any reason that he should move. That would disturb his husband, and honestly? It would disturb Cas too.

::::::

Delphia sighed and rolled over again.

She was surprised when Sam followed her and laid a warm arm over her. "What's the matter?" he slurred in a sleep-heavy voice. "Can't sleep?"

"No," Delphia admitted. "I can't." She reached over and switched on the lamp beside the bed. Then she sat up against the headboard, pushing the blankets off onto just her lower half. "My mind," she said, "is just going a hundred miles a minute. I can't turn it off."

Sam squinted and blinked rapidly in the light. But he sat up too. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, his voice husky from having just woken up.

Delphia looked over at him, saw the lines of fatigue in his face and the redness of his eyes. Sam was exhausted, and they both knew it. But he was still offering to listen to her if she needed him to. She did so love this man. And he loved her. She knew that.

"Go to sleep," she said and leaned over to give him a soft kiss on the mouth. The dryness of his lips was somehow inviting. Maybe it was because she knew that moments like this– lying in bed at midnight with chapped lips and bloodshot eyes– could only be shared by people who truly loved each other. "I'll write it out. It's okay."

Sam frowned in concern, his hand finding the side of her face. Delphia welcomed the warmth, turning into his hand to nuzzle it just a little. "Are you sure?" Sam asked her.

"It's okay, Mi Vida," she told him with a gentle smile. "Sleep."

Sam smiled gently at her. "Okay."

::::::

Cas opened his eyes when he felt his child's presence growing nearer. "Darby," he said aloud, and he was surprised when Dean answered.

"What's the matter?" he slurred, frowning deeply and beginning to sit up already.

Castiel unwound himself from Dean's arms, and they both sat up. The room outside of their bed was cool, and the air felt unforgiving against his vessel's skin, crafting goosebumps across the surface of his arms. Darby's small shadow cast in front of the doorway half a second before the little boy stepped into view.

"Hey, Buddy," Dean said, rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"You're distressed," Cas observed and opened his arms invitingly.

Darby didn't need anymore than that. He skittered over to their bed and crawled up to sit in Castiel's lap. His body was so small and warm, and Cas felt the strong urge, as he always did when holding Darby, to protect this child with every fiber of his being.

"I had a bad dream," Darby confessed. He had his small hands against the bare skin of Cas' arms and was looking at Dean with a pinched expression.

"You wanna talk about it?" Dean offered.

Castiel could feel his husband's exhaustion, and his heart swelled with love knowing that Dean was such a good father as to wake in the night and offer comfort. He knew that Dean hadn't had that as a boy. And every child should.

"Nuh-uh," Darby said. "Can I sleep with you?"

"Of course," Cas answered and squeezed his son more closely against himself. "You may always seek comfort with us, Darby. You know that."

"C'mere, Buddy," Dean invited and laid back down. He lifted one arm, and Darby crawled from Cas' lap onto the mattress so he could curl up under that arm.

Cas laid down as well and took a deep, contented breath as he laid his own arm across the two of them.

As his family began to doze and then dropped lower into sleep, he remained alert. He did not require sleep, and he much preferred standing guard over his family to losing consciousness. Nothing would hurt them on his watch. Nothing.

::::::

Delphia ran her fingers down the page of her journal, feeling the indents her pencil had created in the paper. Her therapist often told her that there was power in writing, and Delphia believed that. Yet for some reason, each night when she journaled as a means of coaxing herself out of worry and into sleep, she found herself pressing her hands to the edges of a feeling of dissatisfaction.

"Mommy?"

That voice, however, did make things feel a little better.

"Qué tienes, Mamacita?" she asked gently and stood from her desk to meet Cadence in the doorway. Her little girl had tears in her eyes. It was painful even to look at such young eyes filled with sadness. "Did you have a bad dream?"

Cadence's mouth twisted off to the side for a moment before she answered. "I was thinking of earlier," she whispered. "I wasn't so nice to Daddy."

"You can't sleep," Delphia repeated in question, "because you're worried about the way you spoke to your father?"

Cadence nodded, her braids wiggling sullenly against the fabric of her cupcake print pajamas. "Can I say sorry to him?" she requested.

"Oh, Mijita. Of course, you can, but you must remember you don't need to worry about things like that. Sometimes we get angry with each other, but those feelings pass. Your father will never hold your words against you. He loves you very much."

"I know, Mama. But I just feel guilty," Cadence admitted. She scrunched her face thoughtfully. "I was gonna say sorry in the morning, but I kept thinking and... and I can't sleep."

"Would you like to lay with us?" Delphia offered.

Cadence perked up a little bit. Her exhaustion was clear by the bags under her eyes and the weary lines in her face. She needed to get to sleep, but she needed to speak to Sam in order to do that.

"Come on," Delphia encouraged. She took her daughter's hand and led her across the room to the bed where Sam was sleeping. "Sam," she called and helped Cadence climb up onto the mattress. "Sam."

"Daddy."

Sam rolled toward the sound of their voices and opened his eyes. He breathed deeply as he woke and then exhaled quickly. "What's wrong?" he asked with urgency and made to sit up.

"I'm sorry," Cadence told him. "I didn't mean it."

Sam's expression relaxed into a gentle smile. "Of course you didn't, Cade. I know that. I forgave you the minute you said it."

Cadence's relief was obvious, and Delphia pet her daughter's hair soothingly. "Can you sleep now, Mija?"

Cadence nodded. "Can I stay here?" she asked, looking back and up at Delphia.

There was simply no way to look into those big brown eyes and say the word 'no,' and so Delphia didn't bother trying.

End