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

35. Sweet Sixteen pt. 1

A few days later, the youngest Winchester wakes in the morning and finds herself in disarray and unaware of what day it is when she opens her eyes and feels something heavy pushing her down in bed. She pulls her covers to the side and gasps upon the sight of her stomach seemingly having grown overnight. She carefully gets up so she won't get dizzy and realizes she's grown out of all her clothes. The stomach is pushing out of her pajamas making the buttons buckle, and she hasn't had the chance to buy maternity clothes yet in all the chaos, as her dads just found out four days ago. She panics a little and pulls off her pajamas and starts scouring through her closet for something that might fit. There's a pair of tights and a flannel shirt Dean had given her when she was in the hospital with frostbite, and she pulls them on quickly, realizing that the shirt actually does something when it comes to covering her very pregnant stomach. She pulls her hair up in a ponytail, realizing she has to wash it soon, picks up her phone and walks into the hallway to hear her dads conversing in the kitchen downstairs. Leah walks calmly down the stairs, in case she'll trip and fall, and uses the wall to hide behind when she peeks into the kitchen.
"Dads?" she asks, her voice slightly breaking, and both of them look up, happy to see her.
"Leah, honey," Dean exclaims and puts down his coffee cup. "How are you doing?"
Leah clears her voice and looks at her stomach. "I think we have a problem," she announces, and both her parents get up at once. "What, why?" Cas asks.
She holds one hand on her back that's aching and one hand on her stomach to show them how big it's gotten just overnight and takes a step into the kitchen. Both her fathers stop in their tracks and stare at her.
"Oh my God, what happened? Does it hurt? Did this happen overnight?" Cas stutters and puts a hand on her stomach after being given permission. Leah shakes her head in reply and looks at Dean. "I don't think this is normal," she says with a shaking voice, it's time to panic.
Dean shakes his head and comes over to give her a hug. "We'll go to the hospital and check it out if it makes you feel better. We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise. I don't know much about pregnancy, maybe this is normal?"
Cas shakes his head while he looks at his daughter's pregnant belly from all angles. "No, this has got to be something else."
Leah tries to take a deep breath but almost starts hyperventilating, and breaks into tears. "What do you mean 'something else'?" she cries.
Dean pulls her in again and puts a hand on the back of her head, shushing her. "Leah, it's okay. It's gonna be okay. We will figure this out. But until then..." he says as he wipes her face and smiles down at her. "Breakfast. Aren't you hungry? We made you blueberry pancakes, your favorite!"
Leah looks from Dean to Cas with a frown and strokes her stomach again, it's growling. She actually is hungry and not nauseous for once. And now she's suspicious as well.
"Why?"
Dean's face glows up. "It's birthday breakfast! We do this every year on your birthday!"
Their daughter stares at them for a while before she chuckles. "No, it's not my birthday."
"Yeah, honey, it is," Cas says and walks over to the fridge, opening the door and showing her the chocolate cake they've stashed inside that they were up all night making. "We even made you a cake and everything!"
"My birthday is the fifth," she exclaims, and Dean replies by turning around and pointing at the calendar on the fridge. They started crossing out dates to indicate how far along she was. Leah can't believe it's already been four days since the ultrasound, the days have just flown. Cas even hung up the ultrasound picture on the fridge. Leah smiles a bit when she sees it.
But today it actually is her birthday, and her dads both circle around her and embrace her in a huge hug. She smiles and buries her face in Dean's chest, letting them love her for a little while. It's nice to have such a happy moment together after all the terrible things that have happened lately.
"I don't fit into my clothes anymore," Leah says when her parents break the hug, and she looks down at her stomach. Dean puts his hands on his sides.
"Yeah, we should probably go shopping. But don't you want breakfast first?"
His daughter looks up at him and shakes her head. "I'm not hungry anymore. I'm just stressed out about... this."
"It's your birthday, you're not allowed to be stressed," Cas remarks with a little smile. "I know things seem tough right now, but we'll fix this. It will be fine."
Leah looks down on her pregnant belly and shakes her head again. "Can we just go? I can't be dressed like this all day."
"What's wrong with my flannel shirts?" Dean asks laughingly.
"It's too big, that's what's wrong," Leah says and smiles.
"Alright, let's go," Cas replies and grabs the car keys from the kitchen table.

Leah retreats to her room the second they get home. They've been out and about for almost three hours and her legs and her back are sending jolts of pain through her body. Right after, Dean and Cas realize they forgot to go to the grocery store, and they call Sam to come over and be there in case Leah needs help with something. Sam invites the guests to Leah's birthday party, and under instructions from her fathers, he tells the guests that Leah is pregnant so they won't comment on it and make the birthday girl uncomfortable.
And soon after, the party is underway. Among the guests are the sheriff; an old friend of the Winchesters. Lucas' father, Lucas and Bobby are also there, and Sam, they're all downstairs.
Leah has dressed up in a loose maternity dress that covers her stomach as much as possible, and she's in her room listening to the music playing in the living room one story below, dreading to go downstairs because she knows that Lucas will be down there and he doesn't know. And she doesn't wanna tell him.
Dean and Cas have been up every fifteen minutes like clockwork to tell her it's fine, the guests all know that she's pregnant and they won't judge her, but she's still nervous.
"Leah, we need someone down there to blow out the candles on the cake," Sam says, leaning against the door frame after being sent up there by Dean to once again give his daughter a nudge to go downstairs and celebrate her 16th birthday.
"I don't want cake. Someone else can blow out the candles," Leah mumbles while looking out the window. She's dressed nicely up; the lilac dress reaching to her knees, her hair braided and with a bow in it, and she put on makeup, but it's smudged and runny. Sam lowers his shoulders and walks calmly over to the bed, sitting down next to his niece. She sniffles and quickly wipes her face with the back of her hand, as if he hasn't already noticed that she's upset.
"Why don't you wanna go down there?" he asks quietly while looking at her, his head cocked.
"The last time I saw Lucas, I only had one parent. I wasn't pregnant, and now I'm very pregnant, or at least I look like it, and I have twins on the way."
"Well, you were pregnant then too," Sam argues and frowns.
Leah sniffles again and takes a moment to reply while she wipes her face again, turned away. "Yeah, but I didn't know. It didn't show, either. Then dad came back, suddenly, after I'd thought for months that he wouldn't. The next day I got sick and found out. Then just a few days later I found out that it was twins - while I had been reported missing. And my boyfriend's dad started the search for me. And after I've been avoiding talking to him for days and days, he's just gonna think that I'm crazy. I can't deal with that. Not right now."
"Cas came back because he loves you, he just was afraid after he said all those stupid things, that neither of you would have him back. And-"
"I'm afraid too, sometimes," Leah whispers.
Sam stops and turns his head to her so fast his neck cracks. "Why? Of what?"
"That I'll do something so stupid they won't want me anymore. That they'll turn me away. And of what happened with dad will happen again. I remember how hateful he sounded. And I'm scared daddy is gonna be even more angry, angrier than he already is," Leah says and looks up at her uncle, her lower lip trembling.
Sam's face warps into a worried frown. "What do you mean? What's wrong? You have no reason to be afraid of your dads, not ever."
"I'm giving up their grandchildren," Leah whimpers and stares at Sam while the tears are pouring from her eyes. "Now, how do you think they're going to react when they find out about that?"
Sam lowers his gaze to her stomach and then at the floor while he rubs his face. "Well, honey, it's your choice. All I know is that you have nothing to be afraid of, ever. Dean and Cas are going to support and protect you one hundred percent no matter what you do, no matter where you go. You were lucky with those two. Don't push them away, talk to them. They'll listen. Everyone occasionally does reckless things when they're kids, whether they mean to or not. You ran away from home, but you made sure it was to someone you felt safe with. And that's fine, you're not the only one in this family who's done that. The fact that you didn't tell your parents, even more so."
"I got pregnant," Leah says, expressionless, and wipes her face again while she stares down at the floor at her swollen legs. "Has anyone in this family ever done that unintentionally?"
"No, but that wasn't your fault, not at all. You couldn't have stopped it."
"What if I could? I could have tried harder to fight him."
Just as Sam is about to start lecturing his niece against putting herself down and thinking she could control something she couldn't have, he's stopped by another person suddenly and quietly showing up in the room.
"You honestly can't think like that, sweetheart," Dean butts in. Leah turns around to see him leaning into the doorway with his arms crossed, and he looks worried and hurt. He walks over to the bed, and Sam gets up, trading places with his older brother. Dean quietly sits down next to his daughter.
"Just don't, alright? Some things just can't be stopped. Some things are just out of our control. I know you, and I know you fought the best you could. And I know that if I could have been there to stop it, I would have. But we can't go back in time," he says softly and puts a hand around his daughter's shoulders and she leans into him.
"Dad, I can't do this on my own," Leah cries and shivers into his chest.
"You won't need to. We're here. All of us. We're fighting for you and whatever you feel is best, we're backing you up. And in the aftermath, we'll help pick up the pieces. There's a whole room downstairs filled with people who want nothing more than to help you. Let us, please. I can't see you turn into how I was at your age. I can't stand you turning people away."
"It's not only that, though, it's just... I don't know how to tell Lucas. God, he probably won't even show up." She gets up off her bed and sniffles and wipes her face over and over, getting dizzy from getting up too quickly, so she leans against the desk to steady herself. The mascara is running black streaks and her face is blotched and red when she looks in the mirror to try to salvage the situation. She can see Sam standing by the door still, his arms crossed. Dean folds his hands and leans back, a smile playing on his lips. "Lucas has been down there since Sam called him hours ago. He was the first one here, and he's been desperate to go up here to you and see you. I didn't send him up because I understand if you want nothing with that relationship after what you went through last time, but I know that kid down there loves you, kiddo. He doesn't mind that you're pregnant because he knows and understands that it's not your fault."
Leah slowly stops rubbing her face with the makeup wipes and looks at her father and her uncle's reflections in the mirror. Sam sends her a small smile. "I tried to tell you," he says shortly and shrugs before he turns away and goes down the hallway and down the stairs. The youngest Winchester stares blankly at her father who's still smiling. "You heard me right, kid. He loves you, okay? He wants all the good things for you and he thinks he can be one of them. And I'm with him on that one. If you're not cool with that and you don't wanna see him, you tell me and I'll send him home right now. If you are, then that's cool with me."
"Oh, dad," Leah sobs and turns around and throws herself into Dean's arms. He shushes at her while he strokes her hair.
"I get that you're scared, it's so natural after everything that's happened. I would be more worried about you if you weren't. But you don't have to be. We're here, all of us. You have a nice guy and so, so many other people who love you if it doesn't work out. But you should at least try to make an appearance at the party downstairs," he chuckles and Leah tries to steady her breath. She pulls back and finds a clean sheet with makeup remover in a drawer under the mirror and rubs away the rest of her makeup, opening her eyes just in time to see her boyfriend in the doorway. Dean turns to look at him, and Leah turns around on the spot. She's trying to keep the tears at bay but seeing Lucas and his comforting smile is just too much to not let her feelings out, and she runs into his arms. Her father sits quietly on the bed and smiles at them until Leah finally breaks the hug and looks at Lucas before he kisses her and smiles.
"God, I missed you," he says and pulls her back into his arms and kisses her forehead. "I love you. You know that, right?"
"I love you too," Leah cries into his shirt, and Dean has to turn from the young couple to wipe away a happy tear. Maybe now she'll understand what he's been trying to explain to her these past months.
"Are you feeling okay? My dad told me you were pregnant. I didn't believe it, but you really are, aren't you?" he asks and holds her out in front of him and looks at her stomach. She puts her arms over it and looks away, but he smiles lovingly and kneels to kiss her pregnant belly, triggering her cries again.
"It's fine, sweetheart," Dean says as he comes over and puts his hands on her shoulders and placing a kiss on the top of her head. "We're not letting you do this alone. We all love you a lot."
"We really do," Lucas confirms and smiles at her and Dean.