Family Business

Epilogue

Dean put the last packages on the top of the pile, looking over at where Claire and Jody were carefully eating out parts of the cookies Beretta had left out earlier that night. Donna had gone outside to sprinkle chewed up carrots around the doors, too, so when they took the toddler out to play in the snow, she could see where the reindeer had landed. They were all trying to make this as real and as believable as possible - Dean wasn't going to let Beretta grow up without a Santa Clause experience, unorthodox childhoods be damned.

"Almost done there?" Dean asked Crowley, who was hunched over the desk, slaving over a letter from Santa.

"Just have to sign it."

It was actually very beautiful, all rolling script and beautiful handwriting, and in typical Crowley fashion, it was intelligent and addressed every one of Beretta's questions from her own letter.

"She can't even read, man." Crowley huffed, but didn't respond. "Did Kevin put her down tonight?" Dean asked.

Crowley just hummed. "Moose and my mother went out for last minute groceries. We apparently ran out of cranberry sauce, and they were insistent we have it."

"Where's Cas?"

"He's wrapping the last of the gifts from us," Jody called. "I know we finished the Santa gifts earlier, but there was a few more things we forgot about."

Dean smirked a little. It was a little amusing, actually, seeing a group of hardened hunters, a witch, the literal King of Hell, and an angel all pretend that a magical man in a red suit was flying through the skies tonight, dropping off gifts to all the good little boys and girls. In a world where the monsters of nightmares were real, it was nice to make something so purely good a reality for a kid. Their kid.

That was bizarre.

They had a kid. 

There was a kid living in the bunker. With them.

"Well, I'm going to catch some sleep," Dean said, standing up and stretching. "Beretta will be up early, and if I don't get my 4 hours, I'll get cranky."

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Beretta launched herself into Dean's bed, trying to get to her feet on the shaky surface and jumping up and down. Dean jumped and his hand twitched for his gun but he tried to keep that in check. This was a child, not a monster.

"Get up, Deen! Get up!"

Dean bit back a groan, instead opting to grab the toddler by the waist and pulling her down into the bed. The girl let out a shriek of laughter as Dean swaddled her in blankets and tickled her mercilessly.

"Stop it, Deen! Stop it!"

"Squirrel, you really shouldn't torture kids." Crowley said lowly, poking his head into the room. "Come on, Beretta, why don't you go wake up Castiel?"

The girl was off the bed and running just as quickly as she had come, and Dean flopped back onto his back.

"Thanks for that," Dean said sarcastically as he rolled out of bed. Crowley gave a low chuckle.

"Hey, she woke up on her own. I just told her to go get the rest of you."

"Did you stay up all night?" Dean asked, tugging on his jeans.

Crowley nodded. "I decided to stay up for a nightcap and it just seemed useless to try and sleep in the few hours Beretta was down."

Dean and Crowley made their way out into the main living space, where Jody, Donna, and Alex were all looking bleary eyes over mugs of coffee. Patience was laying across a couch, her head propped up on Claire's lap.

And there was Sam, sitting under the tree with Beretta in his lap, pointing out all the different gifts.

Cas came stumbling through the room, his hair a mess. "She jumped on my bed and spilled water across my desk."

Dean gave a snort. "She jumped on me, too, but I just tickled her."

"Where's mother?" Crowley asked, and there was a lilting call from the kitchen. Rowena appeared after a couple minutes, her hands clasped around a cup of hot chocolate and her face made up. "Jesus, mother, when did you get up?"

"I've been up for hours, dear, who did you think sent Beretta into your room?"

The ragtag family settled in around the room, and Sam pulled out a package for Beretta. "This one is for you, silly girl, from Santa!"

The two year old carefully peeled back the paper, her little hands lacking the dexterity needed to actually get a good hold on it. The paper ripped away in small strips, and after 3 solid minutes, they were still waiting for her to get the other half of the package unwrapped.

"This is going to take forever," Claire whispered to Cas and Dean, but the two both hushed her.

"It's Christmas, Claire, let her have her fun." Dean said, watching as Beretta finally got the wrapping off and Sam helped her figure out what the new toy was. Beretta shrieked in good fun, babbling excitedly about the new toy while Sam put it aside and grabbed another one from the pile.

Again, Beretta took small, careful strips away from the package. After a few minutes of tense silence, and a tight smile from Dean, Cas finally broke a little.

"Claire is right, this is going to take forever."