fic: Marveille (Sam/Dean, Sam/Dean/Delphine NC-17) Part 6 of 7

[smalltrolven]

Part 5

“Have you seen Dean today, Del?” Sam asked as he walked into the laundry room.

It was Delphine’s turn for laundry duty, something that she enjoyed, still not over the convenience of the new-fangled machinery. She pushed her hair back off her sweaty forehead and straightened up with a hand on her lower back. Her belly had extended out into a beautiful curve now that she’d gotten past the six month’s mark.

“I have not, and he is usually in the kitchen when I have breakfast. I thought he had made an extra trip out for supplies,” Delphine said.

“No, that’s not it, all the cars are still in the garage. And he doesn’t just go out on walks, that’s not his thing, that’s my thing,” Sam said.

“Sam, stay calm, breathe with me,” Delphine said, gripping Sam’s wrist hard and pinching.

Sam gasped in a breath, then consciously made himself take some deep breaths in time with Delphine. He hadn’t realized he was in panic mode, and he found himself absurdly grateful to have someone here with him. He kissed Delphine’s temple in thanks.

“I’m going to summon Crowley,” Sam said.

“That seems rather drastic, are you quite sure?”

“Yes, the last time this happened it was all Crowley’s fault, and we haven't seen him in a very long time,” Sam said.

“How can I help?” Delphine asked.

“Stay out of the dungeon, let me handle it,” Sam answered, disappearing down the hall at double time.

Delphine growled under her breath and followed after him. Dean was important to more than just Sam, and she knew a thing or two about dealing with demons. She caught up to Sam just as he was lighting the ceremonial bowl.

“Do not say a word, Samuel,” Delphine said in a tone that she knew sounded very parental.

Sam just shook his head and wrapped his arms around himself. After a few minutes of waiting he began to pace back and forth the length of the dungeon.

A small puff of red smoke appeared in the center of the devil’s trap, hovering in the air for a long moment before being replaced by Crowley.  “Moose, it’s much harder to get in here now. You’ve been busy little bees on the warding, well done for you. And pray tell, who is this lovely creature?”

“Shut up, Crowley, she’s none of your business. You need to tell me where Dean is, right now,” Sam demanded.

“I have not seen him, although we traded texts a few weeks ago. One of my informants tells me he was taken by Lucifer to meet with my niece.”

“You must desist in calling her that; she is not really your niece, Crowley, and everyone knows that. It makes you sound like a pompous windbag,” Delphine said.

“Oh I do quite like the mouth on her,” Crowley said approvingly.

“Do you know where Amara is or not?” Sam asked, his own mouth set in a hard line.

“I do, but it isn’t a place you want to go. At least…not again,” Crowley said, smiling at him with that smarmy sly look that Sam had always wanted to permanently erase.

“Purgatory?” Sam guessed.

“Got it in one! Well done, Moose, you’re on fire today,” Crowley chortled.

“Take me there. I know the reapers have a back door there from Hell,” Sam demanded.

“I am not a reaper, and I do not have a way to open that particular door,” Crowley answered.

“I thought you were the King of Hell!” Delphine shouted, “How can you not control all of the exits?”

“The realm of Purgatory has never been under Hell’s control. That’s all the other team, darling,” Crowley purred.

Sam shouted out the banishing spell and Crowley vanished, taking his leering eyes and smarmy smile with him. Delphine waved away the lingering red smoke and wrapped an arm around Sam’s waist. “What now?”

“I’ll have to call on our reaper friend, Billie,” Sam said.

“No! Dean would not want that, Sam you know that. I can’t let you,” Delphine implored as Sam tried to detach her arm from its tight grip on him.

“It’s the only way. I can’t just leave him with Amara, she’s going to absorb him until he doesn’t exist and I can’t, Del…I just can’t,” Sam said with finality.

Delphine was about to start running after Sam’s retreating form when she heard the crash in the storage room several doors down from the dungeon. She walked into the dark room, cautious at first until she found the light switch. There was something moving around in the back, and then she heard a human sounding cough. Out of the shadows the person moved towards her, covered in dirt from somewhere muddy and a new layer of dust from this room. “Dean! How did you get back here? Oh no, Sam,” she said, heart sinking as she thought of what Sam had gone off to do.

“What about Sam?” Dean asked, eyes darting around the room quick and feral unlike she’d ever seen him.

“He’s about to call on a reaper to try and rescue you from Purgatory,” Delphine said in a rush. “He just left me, run! Please, you have to stop him, Dean!”

Dean took off at a dead run down the hallway, not caring about whether Delphine could keep up, intent on getting to Sam before he did the unthinkable. He began screaming Sam’s name as he ran, hoping to make enough noise to stop him in time. At the end of the hall, the light was on in Sam’s room and Dean sprinted the rest of the way. Sam was laid out on the bed, dead still, but barely breathing.

“Sammy, it’s me, I’m back! What the hell did you do?” Dean scanned the room and saw the empty bottle of painkillers on the bedside table. He checked Sam over quickly, pupils were tiny pinpricks, his breathing was more and more shallow and his fingertips were going blue. He turned Sam onto his side and stuck his fingers down Sam’s throat, praying with everything he had to whoever the hell happened to be listening. As Sam vomited weakly off the side of the bed, Dean couldn’t stop the flow of words coming out of him, “You can’t have him yet, you can’t take him, he’s mine, I need him. Let him go, damn you, Billie!”

Billie flickered into view at the foot of the bed and shook her head at him. “We have got to stop meeting like this, Dean. I warned you both that it was permanent this time—“ her words stopped as a thin golden chain appeared around her wrists. “What the hell is this now?” she demanded.

“It is I who hold you leashed, Billie. You will bring Sam back now,” Delphine said, entering the room holding the other end of the near-invisible golden chain.

“Oh little girl, you have no clue what you’ve done,” Billie threatened.

“I know exactly what I have done, and I swear you will be leashed to me and mine for the rest of our lives unless you do this for me. Now, reaper, now!” Delphine shouted, shaking her end of the chain.

Billie rolled her eyes and lifted a few fingers in Sam’s direction. Sam’s body jerked and then seem to take on more presence and weight. Dean grabbed Sam’s shoulders, shaking him. “Sammy!”

Sam opened his eyes to slits and wiped weakly at his mouth. “’s that you, Dean?”

Dean laughed with relief and pulled Sam up into a hug. “You idiot, jumping the gun like always.”

“Release me now, or that child of yours will not see her first birthday,” Billie threatened.

“Why would I when you are continuing to threaten me?” Delphine asked. “You must know that we are battling the Darkness. Why would you want all of God’s work to be undone?”

“It’s not really my gig. I’m filling in for Death. You know, the all-powerful force that your buddy here decided to kill instead of his precious Sammy.”

“So it is for revenge that you would let our world be erased?” Delphine asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” Billie said, sounding a little more uncertain.

“Can you not understand what love makes we humans do? Dean had no choice, not with how they have lived their lives, surely this is no mystery to you, Billie.”

“Sure, I guess, doesn’t bring my boss back though,” Billie said.

“I’m sorry for that, Billie, I am,” Dean said. “Death was always more than fair to me, but I couldn’t do that to Sam. I wasn’t strong enough.”

“Billie, is it possible that if Amara is locked up again, Death would come back?” Sam asked in a weak voice, head lolling against Dean’s shoulder.

Billie tilted her head as she thought about it. “I don’t know, I hadn’t thought of it really. Okay, I’ll back off and let you guys give it a try, okay?”

Delphine undid the binding spell and the golden chain disappeared from around Billie’s wrists.

Billie pointed at Delphine and then at her swollen belly. “Make sure you take care of that child. She will be important in all of this.” She winked out of existence then and the three humans remaining looked at each other in shock.

“Guess we don’t need to go get that sonogram, huh?” Dean joked as he straightened Sam’s shirt.

“Stop it, don’t joke, Dean, not now. What happened to you?” Sam asked.

“I was outside, taking out the trash this morning and I guess I stepped outside of the warding lines. Then Cas was there—Lucifer I mean, he grabbed me and I was in Purgatory where Amara was tearing everything up. She tried to absorb me, like she’d threatened to, but she couldn’t, something strange happened.”

“What, stranger than being in Purgatory?” Sam asked with a small grin.

“Yeah, you know how she has the Mark of Cain on her chest here?” Dean asked, pointing to a spot above his heart. “It started sparking like it was catching on fire because there was this gold light and it was coming from this.” Dean gripped the amulet around his neck.

“It really did protect you then,” Delphine said, clapping her hands excitedly.

“It sure as hell did, thanks, Del. So, she uh, threw me out of there. Right out of Purgatory back into the storage room downstairs. I guess it was to try and get the amulet away from her or something? Maybe it was hurting her, I don’t know.”

Delphine stepped towards both of them and enclosed them in her arms, round belly fitting into the space between them. “We’ve got you back, Dean, that is all that matters now.”

Delphine was a week past her due date and she was either pacing up and down the stairs or lying in bed, expecting at least one of them to be there to rub her back. All of them were a little antsy for this baby thing to actually happen. They were lying together in bed, Delphine between the two of the brothers so they could each be touching her as much as possible. She was so relaxed from all the attention that she finally felt able to share something that had been on her mind for the last few months.

“I have never told you, what I mean is that it never came up. But I have been dreaming about it lately, about having this conversation with you. It has to do with my heritage, I am the last of a long line, called the Mary Line, that the Men of Letters had researched for many years. It was said, not that I ever really believed it, but that I am directly descended from Mary,” Delphine finished, looking up at both of them expectantly.

Dean spoke first, “Mary, as in the Mary the mother of the Jesus.”

Delphine nodded.

“And you weren’t supposed to live. I mean, if you hadn’t been brought here by Lucifer along with Dean…then the line would have ended with you, right? And now, in this time, the Mary Line will continue. I wonder if that changes anything?” Sam asked, suddenly excited at the possibilities.

“But we’re from what’s probably an even older line though, one that the angels arranged so that we’d be born and end up the vessels for Michael and Lucifer, I think Cas or Zachariah said it went back to Cain and Abel. Huh, maybe that’s why I got along so well with Cain. Anyway, I wonder if it not only changes something, but combining the Mary Line with the one we’re from means anything?” Dean asked.

“She’s going to be special to us. That is all I really know. I just wanted to tell you this thing, just in case,” Delphine said.

“Just in case what?” Sam asked.

“Well, childbirth is not always safe for the mother, you know that, Sam,” Delphine said.

“It’s not the nineteen-forties, it’s a whole lot safer now. C’mon, Delphine, we’ve got the midwife and doctor all ready for you, you know that. It’s going to be fine,” Dean said.

“I know, I know. It is just a mother’s worry, or perhaps I am trying to develop one,” Delphine said.

Sam and Dean wrapped her up between them under the covers, rubbing gently at her extended curve of a belly. Dean was humming under his breath. Delphine soon fell asleep from their gentle ministrations.

“Dean,” Sam whispered, “you need to hum something besides Metallica to the baby.”

“She already loves it and she’s not even born yet,” Dean whispered back, “you've got all the other lullabies covered, Sammy.”

“Why’d she tell us all that, do you think?” Sam asked.

“Worst-case scenario thinking, maybe? Or like she said, it used to be more risky back in her time.”

“You think this whole heritage thing might mean anything?” Sam asked.

“No idea, I just know that she’s gonna be an awesome kiddo,” Dean answered.

Delphine woke up the next morning, ate a huge breakfast and then her water broke as she took her shower. The brother’s ability to function during crisis seemed to disappear. Even though they had a go-bag prepared and had rehearsed their roles, there was still a lot of unnecessary hustling around in the hallways. After they were all finally in the Impala, it was a quick trip to the midwife’s birthing center.

This time they both went, with a prepared story about Dean being a very involved brother and uncle. Hopefully the midwife wouldn’t care too much and concentrate on the whole birthing thing. Delphine was quite vocal the whole way there, gripping Sam’s hand so tightly he thought he might lose the use of it for a while. So it was a damn good thing Dean was driving.

Dean looked in the mirror and locked eyes with Sam for a long moment; the terror and excitement and love all swirling around in his brother’s gaze made Sam’s heart skip because he was feeling all of it too. Their lives were never going to be the same from this day forward.

Delphine switched over to holding Sam’s other hand to give him a break and then they were finally there. Sam carried her inside, bridal-style since she was in the middle of a powerful contraction, and Dean followed behind with the go-bag they’d actually managed to remember to bring along.

The midwife met them at the door and showed them back to the delivery space, it was airy and light, very comfortable with a lot of options for how Delphine could deliver. She chose to start out walking in-between her contractions, being supported by one of the brothers. Then she wanted to have the comfort of warm water so they all got into the delivery tub. Her contractions sped up then, like the baby knew they were all in position.

The midwife arrived back in the room in time to help Delphine out of tub so she could begin pushing. Delphine held onto both Sam and Dean, and one arm each would have a small hand-shaped bruise for weeks afterward. But they didn’t care. The powerful woman between them was truly awesome, they’d never witnessed anything even close to this. She was a wild thing, pushing and breathing and straining and howling French curse words that Sam didn’t want to ever try to translate.

There wasn’t too long of a wait until the baby’s head was out and then the body slipped through. Sam cut the cord while Dean held onto Delphine’s shoulders. The midwife cleaned up the baby and handed her to Delphine. There was an electric moment between the three of them then. This had sealed them together for the rest of their lives no matter what came next. The fact that this new life that they’d all had a part in creating was finally out in the world, in her very hands wasn’t something that could be denied. The baby was perfect in that way that most newborns are if one is lucky, pink and perfect, a shock of thick dark hair and scrunched up dark blue eyes.

“She’s a miracle, isn’t she? That through all time, I found you, that we made her together. I name her Marveille, which means Miracle. You can call her Mari, after your mother, for her short name.”

“Delphine, it’s perfect for her. I knew you’d find the right name,” Sam said, folding her and the baby into a soft hug.

Marveille stirred then and began rooting around on Delphine’s chest. She leaned back and lifted the baby to her breast, and the midwife stepped in to help the latch position be the best it could be from the start. It was then that the miracle of the whole thing hit Sam. Together, he and his brother, they’d participated in making a whole new precious being. Was there any other high like this worth having? He met Dean’s eyes over Delphine’s head and felt himself fall forward into their green depths. There were a few tears on Dean’s cheeks too, and he looked the happiest Sam had ever seen him.

Finally getting something you’d given up ever having or even wanting was terrifying while simultaneously being the best feeling in the world. Sam felt like he could have flown them all around the world on a sudden burst of feeling and power.

Dean clamped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed a few times. It broke Sam out of it, the feeling of letting loose deep inside much too similar to the high of using his old demon powers. Of course they weren’t there anymore, but that familiar feeling still was. And it stopped everything for Sam for a moment remembering how using those powers had made him feel, something so separate from the demon blood, more pure and innate and just his and his alone. But then Marveille began to cry and the world started up again for him.

Sam helped re-swaddle her and the midwife showed him how to burp the baby. Delphine looked up at him with such love and contentment and exhaustion it took his breath away. But then he saw Dean swoop in to hold Delphine close and all he could do was smile. His whole body felt the joy of that smile, it swept through him and he finally felt clean, so clean inside after a whole lifetime of feeling soiled and wrong. And it was all because of this little one, this little miracle that he held in his arms, their Marveille.

Almost six months had gone by and their household was constantly sleep-deprived due to being up with the baby or researching. They had found more and more information about warding against angels, and set those up all around the bunker. There were woolen cloaks they had to wear whenever they left the bunker that had been en-spelled with the same wards, and luckily they seemed to work, or maybe Lucifer had been called off their case by Amara.

Delphine had been instrumental in helping Sam and Dean figure out some of the crucial things about the Letters’ operations that they hadn’t been able to discover on their own. There were detailed training manuals that had been en-spelled to look like yet another set of encyclopedias as well as implements of initiation. She performed the initiation on both of them while Marveille napped in Dean’s bedroom one afternoon, so that they would know how to do it themselves, just in case.

They were all relaxing on Dean’s bed after the ceremony, taking the chance to doze while the baby was asleep.

“How does it feel to be official Men of Letters now?” Delphine asked.

“Not one bit different,” Dean growled, grumpy to be woken up out of his doze.

Sam slapped at Dean’s shoulder and laughed. “It’s good, Del. Now I won’t feel guilty looking at all the Letters Only stuff in the archives.”

Marveille woke up when she heard Sam laugh, gurgling happily in her crib.

Delphine brought her into the bed with them, sitting her up against her legs so Marveille could look at all three of them.

“She definitely has your eyes, Dean, look at how green they are now,” Delphine pointed out, reviving a long-running argument they’d been having.

“No, she’s got Sammy’s. They’re always a different color, just like his,” Dean argued.

“I think they’re most like yours, Delphine,” Sam said.

“You’re just being difficult, not wanting to take sides!” Dean protested.

“Yeah, so what if I’m smart that way? She’s beautiful, and she’s all ours, no matter who’s the father, and that’s all that matters to me,” Sam said, stomping out of the bedroom with Marveille bundled up in his arms.

Dean and Delphine gaped after him for a few moments, then looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“He’s got our number, doesn’t he?” Delphine gasped in a fit of laughter.

“And he’s got our daughter. I’m gonna go after him,” Dean said, laughing as he dashed out the bedroom door towards the baby noises coming from the kitchen.

“Yes, you can drink all of this, I know you can, Mari,” Sam’s voice said, soothing and even.

Dean heard Sam chuckle and peeked around the doorway. His brother held their baby in his arms, soft cotton woven blanket wrapped around her, feeding her a warmed up bottle of formula. Mari had one of her small hands around the bottle and was sucking vigorously, but was also holding onto Sam’s pinky finger with an iron grip. Dean’s heart flipped over several times and seemed to expand in his chest. He’d never thought he’d get to see this sight. His beautiful, strong brother, completely wrapped up in a baby, a baby that was theirs. It was too perfect and Dean blinked back tears that were suddenly threatening, because it couldn’t last, he knew it couldn’t. Nothing this good ever did for them. He tried not to concentrate on the ill foreboding feelings and on his brother’s peaceful face full of happiness and love.

“You can come in, just don’t wake her up,” Sam said in a whisper. “She's almost back asleep.”

“Guess I need quieter shoes,” Dean said, coming closer to the peaceful scene. He hugged Sam from behind, peering at Mari over his brother’s shoulder.

“I always hear you, you know that,” Sam said, turning his head to kiss Dean’s forehead.

“We have a baby, Sammy,” Dean said, his voice trembling and full of wonder, and he heard himself getting mushy and he just didn’t care. Sam needed to know what this meant to him.

“I know, Dean, I’m holding her,” Sam said with that beautiful, edible smile that made Dean want to gobble him up immediately.

Dean went on tiptoes to reach Sam’s mouth, careful not to disturb Mari in his arms. He kissed Sam as well as he could with a baby between them, attempting to communicate the depth of his feeling about the way their life had changed. Dean sank back down to the floor, ending the kiss. Sam looked a little stunned, so some of it must have gotten through.

“It means everything’s changed now, doesn’t it?” Sam said, rocking her gently. “It’s all so much more important that we figure out how to get rid of Amara and cage up Lucifer again without either of us dying. Because she needs us now, and Delphine too, it’s not just us anymore, Dean.”

“Whatever this is that we’ve made here, together with Delphine, this family, it’s what we’re fighting for. And we’re going to win, Sammy, because there’s no other choice. We grind it out until we’ve got a plan. We’re getting there, and we’ll do it, together, with Delphine,” Dean said, holding his brother and daughter safely in his arms.

Part 7