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

30. Family Matters

"So, it was really icy out, and super cold. My dad and I went outside after breakfast to shovel away the snow to get the car out. It had been raining a bit and then it froze over. And just as my dad was about to start scraping the windshield, he stepped wrong and landed flat on his ass."
Leah laughs at Lucas' story while they're walking side by side. All her worries seem to be gone in this exact moment when she can just let herself be free and not having to think about anything bad. She's walking along the roads with Lucas like they've done several times these past weeks when he's shown up at the door and gotten her to go out with him.
It's a late September night but it's not getting that cold outside yet and they can spend hours upon hours roaming the rainy roads together. Leah has come home after dark many times these past few weeks, completely soaked in rainwater, and Dean has put towels next to the front door so she can dry off when she finally gets home at night. He seems bothered by her blatant refusal to come home at a decent time, but she doesn't seem to care. She hasn't even told him about how in love she is with Lucas, but he's probably noticed from the way she seems happier and more outgoing. But she's still not letting him in on her social life even though he's asked several times who she spends her days with.
They're a mile from home, and Lucas is following Leah to the door which he does every night. Afterward he drives home on his motorbike that Dean for the life of him won't let Leah get on. They have been talking about everything from heaven to hell, their dreams and their interests, and exchanging jokes and fun personal stories, though Leah doesn't have much of those, at least not from this year that has passed. Lucas wants everything there is to know about his new girlfriend, and vice versa, but some things Leah just won't talk about.
Like why she has a feud with her father, why their lives got turned upside down, what happened to Leah the last time she was in love. That's why she won't let herself fall too deep into it this time. But even through this, her absolute fear of letting someone in, she feels like the entire thing is different and this guy is someone she can trust. But to see it that way, she thinks; he still hasn't tried to drown her, knocked her down and kicked her, or assaulted her. The poor girl's standards are definitely pretty low for a normal person.
Lucas has asked, but he doesn't get many answers when he goes into her life from before she came to Sioux Falls. There's so much to say, so much that it'll destroy everything good they have together. The bond. Leah smiles and takes his hand that he reaches out to her, and they walk in silence for a bit, peeking at each other alternately on their way up the last bit of the hill to her house.
When they get up to the Winchester family's property, there's a strange car parked in the driveway. Leah frowns.
"That's weird, dad didn't tell me we were having visitors tonight."
Lucas shrugs. "Maybe it's your uncle?"
"No," Leah replies and shakes her head, her hand still in his. "No, I've never seen this car before. Kansas plates? It must be an old friend from Lawrence or something," she says as she walks up on the porch and opens the front door.
Lucas comes in behind her to dry down a little before he goes home. He's blocking the door, about to hang up his jacket on the coat rack when he hears Leah's cry from the kitchen. Suddenly she comes running out of there like a wounded animal, and hears Dean and another person approaching just as she disappears back out the door she entered less than a minute ago.
Her father kicks on his shoes and runs out after her without his coat on, and two people are left standing puzzled in the hallway; Lucas, and a man he doesn't know, dressed in a long, beige coat with black hair and piercing blue eyes. He stares worried out the door before he introduces himself to Lucas as Dean's husband.

"Leah," Dean calls out in the now heavy fall rain. She's stopped running about fifteen yards in front of him on the road, already exhausted, and he catches up quickly, putting a hand on her shoulder. She immediately brushes it off and turns around to glare at him with raging anger shining from her green eyes.
"Why is he back here?" she screams. Dean shakes his head.
"Leah, come inside and we'll talk about it."
He reaches for her again, but she pulls back.
"No, both of you can go to hell. I was having such a nice day, I've had such a good life these past weeks, and then this? Does he know how much we missed him? Does he know what he put us through?"
"Yes, Leah, I've talked to him, he came home hours ago when you were out cruising with your boyfriend. He knows everything, and he misses you, honey, he misses us."
"Have you forgotten what he said at the hospital? He said that I wasn't his daughter, that I never had been. He didn't listen to me when I told him that he's always been my dad. He hated me, I could hear it in his voice," Leah sobs.
"I know you think I don't remember anything from that moment, but I do, I remember it more than anything. That, dad, is what comes back to haunt my dreams. That's one of the things I have the most prominent nightmares about. He can't ever have cared about me if he just decided to hate and disown me at a moment's notice. He can't know how much we hurt without him, how much damage he did."
Leah breaks apart and lands on her knees on the soaking wet pavement, hiding her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. That good, happy mood she was in just less than ten minutes ago evaporated immediately upon seeing Cas, ripping up that horrific memory of his hateful words.
Dean slowly walks over and kneels by her side, and he hugs her close in a tight embrace. And for the first time in forever, she doesn't protest. She just lets it happen, too broken at the moment, to care about the fight that's been going on between them for far too long.
"Leah, let's go inside, okay? We'll talk about this," Dean mutters as he tries to get her up on her shaking legs, just as she hears Lucas' motorcycle start up, and she looks up to see him drive out of the driveway and down the road towards the town, away from her.
Dean pulls her up, letting her lean on him and starts half carrying her back up to the house. Castiel meets them in the door, and in a defiant, raging response, Leah breaks out of her father's arms, doesn't even bother taking off her wet shoes, and runs right upstairs and slams the bedroom door shut as hard as she can.
Dean and Cas exchange looks and Dean closes the front door behind him and takes off his soaking flannel shirt, putting it on the back of a kitchen chair,
"Well, that went as good as it possibly could," he says, but puts a hand on his husband's shoulders, looking into his worried blue eyes.
"But don't worry, Cas, I'm gonna explain everything to her. It won't be like this forever."