The Angel, The Hunter and The Nephilim (Destiel x Daughter)

24. Road Trip

The next morning they're packed up and ready to go. Overnight, Leah's voice finally got back to normal, and Dean still keeps asking her to read the book to him since he has so much to do all the time. She's still not eating and she's falling apart with nightmares and weight loss so Dean has no choice but to bring her. He'll have to take her with him to Lisa so he can still monitor her and keep her safe, since Sam couldn't come.
Then, just before they put on their coats and go out the door, the phone rings and Dean stops and picks it up. Leah is standing in the doorway waiting for him, but she walks over to the stairs and sits down there, tiring quickly of standing and walking.
"Hey, Sam, what's up?"
"Hey, Dean, I got your voicemail last night but I guess it was too late to call you. I decided I'm coming with you to Michigan, if you still need me to."
"Yeah, I do, I really do," Dean says and throws a glance towards his daughter.
"We were just about to get into the car. Are you ready, have you packed, or...?"
"Yeah, I packed after the call last night. I figured you'd want to start driving early. I'm good to go."
"Good, fine. Um, what's Madison saying about this? With the pregnancy and all, I mean?" He lowers his voice at the last part, afraid of unnecessarily upsetting his daughter again.
"She thinks it's fine," Sam says, a little bit too fast. "I'm, uh, we had a fight and I need to go away for a little while."
"Oh, man, what about?"
"It was about the baby, I guess. We just need some time apart. With everything that happened to Leah, we needed to discuss the whole baby thing again, and she needs her rest. It's taking much of her."
Dean nods. "Okay. Well, we'll come pick you up in about five minutes, does that sound okay?"
"That sounds great. I'll wait outside."
Dean nods again and hangs up. He stands there for a moment, assessing everything. Did they bring all they needed? Leah won't need to bring so much since it's high time for a shopping trip. He had hoped that she had grown out of her clothes because she's always been practically skin and bones, but now more than ever. It hurts every inch of him looking at her. She didn't grow out of her clothes, she shrunk out of them.
"Sam is coming with us after all," Dean says, and Leah looks up apathetically.
"Oh," she says and smiles. "That's good."
Dean smiles back. "We're gonna pick him up in 5 so we've better get going, kiddo. Come on!" he encourages her and walks into his shoes while she gets up.
"Why are you so energetic about this trip?" Leah asks suspiciously when she walks up to him and lightly steps into her own shoes.
"I'm just happy to spend some time with you outside four walls."
"We're driving to Michigan, and the car has four walls," she points out, slightly smiling at her own point.
"Hey, don't kill my buzz! Outside the four walls of a hospital or our home. I meant a place where you live. We don't live in the car! Not anymore, anyway."
"You used to live in the car?" Leah asks as they walk out the door and he locks the house behind them. He picks up the bags and turns to her while they walk down to the car.
"Yeah, Sam and I were pretty broke before you showed up, we lived in motels and some other pretty shady places. Most of the time we lived in the car, though... not the greatest place to sleep. Then you came into our lives and gave me a new aspect of my life, and a new buzz," he says and he stops her, drops the baggage, leans down and kisses the top of her head.
"Because of you, I got to get married to Cas, I've lived in two different houses, and Sam is married and having a baby with the girl he loves."
He smiles lovingly down at her, but she doesn't smile back. She looks down, and then up again, but she can't look him in the eyes.
"And because of me, dad left," she whispers.
"No," he says and grabs her shoulders tightly. "Don't say that. Don't you dare say that. Cas leaving was more my fault than yours. But most of all it was his fault, because he was the one who walked away."
Leah looks back down and Dean feels helpless. Something tells him she isn't going to stop feeling like this for a long time. The guilt might be what's bothering her the most, the way she's been acting lately.
"We'll just go. Let's go, okay? Please don't feel like it's your fault, because it's not, not at all. Come on, we'll pick up Sam and go get some takeout."
Dean walks over to the car with the bags but Leah is not there with him; he turns around and looks back and she's still standing there. It's starting to rain and Dean just wants to get out on the road.
"Leah?" he asks. "You coming or what?"
"Where is he?" she asks with large, watering eyes, like she used to look like when she was little and asked about something she was curios about.
"Honey-"
"What is he doing? Doesn't he miss us?"
Dean walks back to her and crouches down by her side.
"I'm sure he misses you a lot, sweetheart, but I can't control where Cas is, or what he's doing. I have no idea. We'll just have to hope and wish that he comes back someday. I want him to come back too, you know."
He patiently wipes away her tears and hair from her face and gets back up and pulls her in.
"He misses you, I know he does, but sometimes things just go wrong and we can't fix them ourselves. Some things are just out of our control."
She sniffles and nods, and Dean hugs her tighter.
"Now, let's go! I promise I'll get you a burger for takeout."
"I'm not hungry," she whispers to herself, like she's said about every single meal for two weeks.

Sam hides the sadness behind a smile when he greets his brother and niece, but he sees the look his brother sends him. It means, we'll take this when she's sleeping.
Sam gets into the back seat, because Leah is planted shotgun with the blue book in her lap. She grins at him when he gets in and she turns around for a hug.
"Hey, uncle Sam," she says.
"Hey, Leah, good to see you're feeling better," Sam says while holding her tightly, and he lingers a bit when he sees that Dean is sending him another look in the mirror that means, she's much worse. He nods to his brother and lets go of Leah.
"What are you guys reading?" he asks as he puts his seat belt on and gets comfy.
Dean's already put his things in the back.
"The fault in our stars," Leah explains. "Dad demanded me to read the whole book to him."
"Well, you've read it twice now and you were gonna read it again anyway! I want to find the time to read it but it's not like I can while doing all the things I have to do in addition," Dean complains but smiles as he pulls out of the driveway. They can see Madison in the window and Leah waves at her energetically.
"Why isn't aunt Madison coming?" Leah asks and turns to her dad. Dean shakes his head and looks at his little brother in the rear view mirror.
"Uh, she's not feeling well, so she was gonna take these next few days to get better. Nothing to worry about," Sam says and smiles faintly.
"Okay! Takeout, anyone?" Dean exclaims after thirty seconds on the road. He plans to pull over at a diner in the city before they go out on the highway, especially because Leah couldn't get anything down last night, for dinner or supper.
"Yeah, I'm in," Sam replies, and Dean peeks over at his daughter.
"Leah?"
"I'm not hungry," she says quietly and opens the book as if to change the subject or put up a wall. Sam and Dean exchange quick looks again. Dean turns to her.
"Leah, hey, I'm gonna get you something anyway, okay? Maybe fries or chicken wings? You love chicken wings!"
"Whatever," she mumbles, quietly browsing through the book to find out where she left off last night.
"Okay, then will you read to me? Please read to me." Dean looks at her again and sees the corners of her lips turn upwards a bit. He smiles to himself when he turns his eyes back to the road, looking forward to a trip and some quality time with his brother and daughter.

It might just be therapeutic for Leah as well to get a change of scenery.