Hayden & Dean (The Sequel) - A Tethered Love

Chapter 43: Half a Family

Charles ushers me into the house and locks all 5 locks and I try to stop the tears and wipe my nose with my sleeve "where is he?"

"Here" he walks me to a room. I open the door and although I want to scoop him up and never let go, I just stand and stare at him. The brokenness I've been feeling in my heart feels just a bit better now that I see Paul in front of me. I'm not sure how long I'm standing there for but eventually, I shut the door and make my way back to the main area to find Charles. He's sitting on a couch, reading a magazine. When he sees me coming, he shuts it and asks "Hayden, are you okay? What happened to you?"

I sit down on the side of the couch and I shake my head. My voice shakes as I talk "honestly, I'm not okay. I've never been so not okay before in my life." The tears come back to me but I let them fall as I look up through them and thank him. "Thank you for watching Paul for me. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you. Thank you so much for watching my son."

"Of course, I'd do anything for that little guy." He smirks at me "but what about you? What can I do to help you?"

He's sincere, and I can't help but be glad him and I are friends again. I wipe at me tears and just say "you know what, I don't even know. But I'm sure you have a million questions for me, let's start there."

He shakes his head to decline "no, we don't have to do that right now. You've clearly been through a lot. Why don't I make you some tea, or maybe coffee?"

"Tea would be great, thank you." I accept. He stands and leaves to go to the kitchen. As I finish my cup of tea, Paul begins to stir awake. I usher him out of the room and he's thrilled to see me. He smiles and hugs me tightly and once I place him on the floor he starts to stumble towards the toys in the corner of the room "ohh, I see a truck!" I exclaim as he reaches it "is that still your favorite?"

"Sure is, he can't get enough of trucks! That's actually why I got that truck out there, for his birthday." Charles throws out.

My head flips to him "You got a truck for Paul?" My mouth hangs open.

He laughs "well not for him. I needed something to get to and from the store. I figured he liked trucks so much he'd like it if he got to ride in one whenever we went to the store." He explains to me.

"Wow, that's really thoughtful of you." I tell him. Charles sits on the couch, mostly in silence as I spend time with my son. At some point he leaves the room and when he comes back he tells me he made dinner. "You made dinner?" I ask as I carry Paul into the kitchen.

I place him into the baby seat and there is already some cheerios and cut up fruit out and ready for him. "I'm not the best, but I'm learning." He tells me, walking over to place a dish down "hope you like frozen meatloaf!"

I chuckle, but assure him I do. When we are done eating I give Paul a bath and read to him in the small bed that's in his room. The first few books we read, he helps turn the pages with me. But eventually when he falls asleep I carry him over and gently place him down into the crib. I go back out to the living room and there's a glass of whiskey waiting for me "wow, how'd you know I needed something strong."

I sit down and take a big gulp. He then answers my question "well, you just spent a couple weeks with the devil. I pulled out the strongest I had."

I nod, knowing now would be a good a time as any to talk to him about everything. I take another swig then I ask "so, you know about everything now, huh?"

He says "I mean, I guess as much as I could know. What the hell Hayden, this is your life now?"

I shrug "Yeah, it wasn't planned but it's my life."

"Did he do anything to you?" Charles asks, moving a hand to my hand.

Our fingers brush but I shake my head "Lucifer? God, no. He hates people. He just made me help him trick the king of hell and call to assure Dean and my dad things were good. I think he was just holding me for leverage if he needed it."

"King of hell? What?" He asks. I look at him and I know I need to try and do my best to explain everything. He's helped a lot before and even more so with watching Paul while I was held hostage and Dean was off hunting. I owe it him, and it's a good a time as any to talk to him. I go over everything I can think of with Charles. From how Dean and I met, to my first encounter with angels, the miscarriage, the mark of Cain. All of it. He listens the entire time, getting up a few times to refill both our drinks. He doesn't ask any questions, either waiting till the end or just not being able to think of any as I go from one crazy story to the next. When I'm done, ending at how I got here with the help of God, Charles asks one question "what are you going to do?"

I sigh, not really having thought about that yet. Part of me doesn't know what he's referring to. Does he mean what am I going to do about Paul and his illness, or about Dean, or Amara? But the answer is the same for all of them and I tell him "I don't know."

He runs his hand through his hair and asks "does your dad know about all this, did your mom?"

"No! And he can't know. He's too old to handle all this crap, you can't tell him." I make Charles promise me he won't.

"I won't, I promise. I just can't believe you're going through this all by yourself. I'm sorry." He says, putting a hand on my hand, this time directly over mine. He squeezes it ever so gently.

"You know, you're being awfully nice. It's kind of freaking me out." I confide to him.

He chuckles and replies "Yeah, well that son of yours made me a real softy. What can I say?" He shrugs. Just then I yawn real wide and struggle trying to hide it. "Alright, come on. Go to sleep, I'll show you where you can lay your head."

"I'll just sleep here, I'm too lazy to move." I tell him, putting my head back on the couch.

He stands  "no, absolutely not. You haven't slept in a good bed in who knows how long. Let's go!" He opens his hand out for me to take. I allow him to help me up and he walks me to the main bedroom "here, Paul's monitor, I'm sure you'll wanna take care of him if he wakes up at all but he's pretty good at sleeping through the night."

"Thank you" I say as I take it from his hand "for everything."

"No problem" he smiles. He then leans down and kisses me on the cheek. He starts to walk away but calls back "hey, Hayden?"

"Yeah?" I call back.

"I'm glad you're okay." He smiles then walks off.