Pretending to be Married (destiel)

Chapter 48: the ending

And so they stay. In this dysfunctional family of angels and hunters and demons.

Sam finally gives in and moves in with Gabe, he talks about it as if he was worn down but everyone can see the truth of the situation in the way he looks at the archangel. In return for moving in with him, Gabriel promises to show him the world. And he does. He shows Sam things he would never find in books, parts of the world not yet written on paper, lives and moments hidden from history.

The adventures take them away from the family for weeks, sometimes months but they always know the way home and they're always missed. This part of the travelling is new to Sam, the landing back in the same place, the people waiting for them. Life on the road had been tough when it wasn't a choice, now it feels like a privilege.

Bobby and Ellen finally let themselves begin to grow older. They listen when their bones ache and let themselves take the mornings off to enjoy the sunrise with each other. Against all odds the two of them trust their kids to take over more with the running of the camp and take a step back.

Or as much of a step back as possible for two slight control freaks. Bobby still patrols the site most days and Ellen is always found in the kitchen in the afternoon, grumbling about the state it was left in from breakfast.

Bobby does step back from hunting, taking on the role of researcher or back up on the other end of the phone. On occasion he takes care of the odd local ghost 'to keep his joints from locking' but he finds himself volunteering to pack up and go less and less.

Rufus on the other hand refuses to slow down in any capacity. He continues to hunt and run activities at the retreat, all while bullying Bobby for taking a back bench in the game.

The rest of the group take up the reigns and do Bobby and Ellen proud. Jo, Anna and Cam take over the main day to day running's of the site, making sure the place doesn't fall down. Garth becomes head therapist, thriving under the work load. Charlie, Jody and Meg make a surprisingly strong team when it comes to management and keeping everyone on track. They all work just as hard on hunts too. Charlie bringing in her computer wizardry and Jo taking the role as lead hunter for the most part.

The operation ran as smoothly as it ever did. The addition of family and the change in roles having little impact on the effectiveness of the group. Living close to each other did on occasion cause grumbles but it was easily resolved by sending someone off on a hunt or just a bit of a holiday (although sending a hunter on a break and expecting them to not pick up a case while they're away is optimistic).

Dean and Cas pitch in with everyone as well. To some people's surprise Dean takes over the running of the kitchen, spending his time testing and trying every recipe he can think of. Anna commented once on how unexpected it was to find Dean in the kitchen and Sam just looked at her and smiled, his brother had always been the best chef, even when the ingredients were old boxes of mac and cheese and whatever he'd stolen from behind a diner. Castiel took a bit longer to find his place at first, often just helping out with whoever needed it that day until Garth took him under his wing and began to teach him the ins and outs of therapy. It fascinated the angel who began classes at the local college in order to fully step into the role.

A couple of weeks after they had chosen to stay Dean and Cas decided to build their own little home, close to where they had had their perfect picnic. Afternoons, evenings and weekends were dedicated to creating their little paradise. With working on the retreat, hunting and building their home, the first few months of having a permanent home were far from settled. Frustrations and lack of sleep was often taken out on each other, except now instead of fighting they had other options to relieve stress.

They didn't do the work all on their own though. Most of the group came to help when they could after they had heard that Dean was insisting that they do it by themselves 'the human way'. Jo and Charlie got stuck in with the building, as did Sam. Bobby and Rufus came most days, sometimes helping and often telling Dean that he was doing something wrong. On the rare occasion Gabriel joined Sam it was mainly to be a nuisance, however on one particularly sunny day Gabe surfaced in the house and dragged Cas away from his project to show him what he'd done.