Chapter Text
The first thing Dean became aware of was the cold floor underneath him. The second and third things were the dull ache in his head and the trio of concerned faces staring down at him. Not a one of them was familiar; two of the three were wearing scrubs in the cheesy patterns people who worked with kids often wore and the other was in jeans and a button down. The man in the jeans reached his hand down and helped Dean to his feet.
“You alright there, Dean?” the woman in scrubs asked as she snaked her own hand to Dean’s wrist. “Pulse is fine. Maybe a little elevated, but that’s to be expected.” She moved her hand to his forehead with a practiced gesture. “No fever, either.”
The third man drifted away as Dean looked around at his surroundings. Given the clear presence of two nurses in what looked like a cafeteria, he could only surmise he was in…a hospital cafeteria. He looked down at his own clothes, afraid he was back in some Gabriel induced Dr. Sexy fantasy, but he was dressed in his normal jeans with a plaid shirt unbuttoned over a black t shirt; he couldn’t remember if they were the same he’d passed out in.
The male nurse scrutinized Dean goodnaturedly. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were the pregnant one, Dean.” The two nurses laughed. Dean barely had time to be confused by the statement when the male nurse fixed him with a curious stare. “Have you eaten anything today?”
Dean’s hand instinctively went to his stomach (thankfully no evidence of a baby, whatever that statement had meant), and yeah, it was kind of rumbly. “I could eat.”
“Good thing we’re in a cafeteria, then,” the female nurse chirped brightly. “I’ll get you some jello.”
“And a burger,” Dean called after her. He didn’t know where he was or why he was there, but he might as well eat real food.
“You, sit.” The male nurse forced him into a chair at one of the tables that surrounded them. “And if you feel faint again, put your head between your legs. I’m going to page your better half.”
Better half? What the hell was going on here? “No, no, no. Don’t bother,” Dean blustered. “I’ve got an inner ear thing. It’s cool. I’m on antibiotics. I will be fine.”
The female nurse returned with a glass dish of jiggly green crap that Dean was not going to eat. “Where’s my burger.”
“You’ve got to watch your cholesterol, Mr. Dad-to-be. I thought you’d given up junk food.”
There that was again. Dean had never been more confused. Not when he ended up in the future, or in that alternate reality, or that other alternate reality, or the past—twice. He rested his hands against his face and felt the strange touch of metal against his cheek. Pulling his hands away again, he examined them. His left ring finger was encircled by an intricately engraved silver band—a wedding ring.
Dean attempted not to hyperventilate, as that would only draw back the attention of the two nurses who had finally given him some space as they wandered back to the cafeteria line with shy waves. In whatever alternate reality he was in, he was married and…god, he was expecting a kid, wasn’t he. Blind panic threatened to overtake him until he thought of Sam and whether he was trapped here as well. They’d been together in some crappy motel room on a hunt; Sam had been doing research while Dean napped. Finding a cell phone in his back pocket (fortunately unharmed when he presumably took a spill to the floor), he dialed the most likely number to find Sam at and crossed his fingers.
“Dean?” came Sam’s concerned voice.
“Sammy?” Dean breathed, relief flooding over him. “Where are you, man?”
“Washington D.C. What about you?”
Dean finally took in his surroundings in detail, looking for any indication of location, and lucked out that the name of the city was in the hospital.
“Chicago, apparently.”
“Dean, I…” Sam’s voice cracked with emotion. “I appear to be married.”
“Me, too, man,” Dean growled, turning his ring in a circle. As it moved, he could see a tan line marked its spot.
“There’s a picture on my desk. Me and Jess.” Emotion broke in his voice once more. “And two little boys.”
Mr. Father-to-be, echoed in Dean’s head, but he pushed it away for more practical thoughts. “What do you think, Sammy? Angels messing with us again? Any chance Gabriel’s really alive? Cas thought it was a possibility.”
“Djinn?” Sam countered.
“But we were in our motel room. Weren’t we?”
“Yeah, I think so. It’s all kind of fuzzy.”
“Tell me about it,” Dean growled. “So you’re at work? This universe’s work?”
“Yeah. I’m a lawyer,” he marveled, voice full of awe and pride.
Dean smiled to himself, proudly. Sounds like wherever they were decided to give Sammy the life he deserved, the one he should have had if destiny hadn’t intervened. “Then maybe go about your day until we figure things out?”
“What if I have to go to court? You do remember I didn’t actually attend law school.” Sam’s voice was tinged with panic that made Dean’s smile a bit brighter.
“Lawyers actually spend very little time in court, Sam. You’ll be fine.”
“How do you know that?” Sam asked confusedly.
“TV, Sammy. You’ve got to get your nose out of a book.”
Sam huffed in response. They finished up their conversation, deciding to meet up as soon as they could, but in the meantime play along to whoever’s game this was. If Sammy was living his dream life, then that pointed to djinn, but Dean couldn’t figure out how one could have gotten to them. They’d been dealing with a werewolf outside of Oklahoma City, nothing to do with djinn. He wasn’t going to rule out Angels, though, because the power to infect the two of them and create two separate but intersecting worlds for each seemed like a whole lot more magic than any djinn they’d faced before. Either way, the best thing to do was play along until the shit hit the fan.
But Dean didn’t exactly know what the hell he was doing here. He certainly didn’t look like a doctor, but the random nurses knew him. Oh, one of them offered to page his wife. He grinned lasciviously; he was married to a hot doctor. Nice. A pregnant hot doctor? This world wasn’t too bad.
And then the floor dropped out because a familiar redhead was making her way decisively towards Dean. A very pregnant familiar redhead.
“Hey, there, bitch.”
“Charlie!” Dean cried out, trying to make his voice sound delighted rather than terrified. Crap. Crap. Crap. In his dream life he’s married to Charlie? Lesbian Charlie? Little sister I never had Charlie? Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.
“Nervous?” She asked shrewdly. “I’m telling you, Dean. These little goalkickers are a-okay.” She patted her swollen stomach fondly. “Though I think you’re a fool for not wanting to know the sex of the monsters. I’d like to have something to call them other than Fred and George.”
“Right.”
Okay. Dean could handle this. In this dream-or-otherwise world, Charlie was his wife and pregnant with his babies. The shit has just hit the fan. That’s all. They were at the hospital because they were having a pregnant-lady doctor appointment. And they were having lunch. She wasn’t dressed as a doctor, and he can’t imagine a world where she’d make a very good one. Maybe she worked with computers in the hospital though. But, Charlie? What kind of screwed up world was this that something thought he’d want to be with Charlie?
“So are you gonna feed me, or what?” Charlie asked. “That was the deal.”
Dean made his way over to the line to get his burger and something healthy for Charlie and the babies she was carrying. His babies. Dean tried to slow his heart rate and ease the panic in his stomach. Because he could handle this. He just had to keep his cool until they got out of here. He mindlessly gave his order to the server, humming Metallica in his head to keep calm and running his finger over the design on his wedding ring.
The ring! Charlie wasn’t wearing one. His wife would be wearing a matching ring, wouldn’t she? It was a pretty distinct design; they’d probably had them made specially. He grabbed the food once it was ready and hightailed it back to Charlie to confirm his suspicion.
Charlie stared longingly at his burger as she began to dig into her salad. Yup. No ring. Not even a tan line like Dean had. But she was carrying his babies. He was pretty sure of that. Either this was really screwed up, or—
He hazarded a guess. “Thanks, Charlie.” He gestured to her stomach apologetically. “For, you know.”
“Are you kidding? For my two favorite people in the world? This is nothing. Plus no one deserves to be parents more than you two do.” She smiled beatifically. “Plus, the baby bump has done wonders for my dating life. The ladies love it.”
“Ew,” Dean grimaced, but inside he was flying. Charlie was a surrogate. They’d done a story like that on Dr. Sexy. Dean and his wife had trouble conceiving so they borrowed Charlie’s oven. Simple as that. So the hot doctor was still a possibility.
They made light conversation while they ate. Charlie worked at an internet company, most likely doing illegal hacking on the side even in this universe. Dean was apparently a fire fighter, and he felt a happy tinge of pride at that discovery. Maybe this world wasn’t too bad—apple pie life with a side of danger. Still saving people. That was good.
Once they’d finished up their meal, Charlie looked at her watch and proclaimed it time to get to her appointment. Dean guessed it was going to be just the two of them, then. He’d also learned from Charlie that he was on the first day of a two week break, though he was on call for any major fires. He sincerely hoped that there weren’t any of those. He didn’t want to be responsible for any fatalities caused by his incompetence, even only in his head. He followed Charlie through the hospital halls, gathering a few waves from occasional nurses and doctors. He smiled warmly at all of the greetings, starting to get into character and settle into this apparent dream life.
They checked in with the obstetrician’s office and sat in the waiting room, which was also filled with pregnant women. He wasn’t the only dad sitting anxiously by, so he made eye contact with one and smiled.
Charlie batted him playfully. “Hey, stop flirting. You’re a married man.”
Dean rolled his eyes and picked up one of the magazines and flipped through it while Charlie entered into a conversation with another pregnant lady.
“…works here in the hospital.” He caught the tail end of Charlie’s words. Yup. Hot doctor. He felt a little twinge of excitement at the thought of his imaginary wife. Maybe he was married to one of the Dr. Sexy doctors. Dr. Wang perhaps.
He was brought out of his reverie by the call of Charlie’s name. Alright. Time to play the doting daddy.
There were a lot of private things that Charlie had to undergo in the examination room. Dean tried his best to be unobtrusive, but Charlie didn’t seem to mind. They weighed her, and asked her about her eating habits and her bathroom habits, and a bunch more things that Dean wouldn’t have wanted to know even if that was his wife laying there with her legs spread. After what felt like an eternity, they were indicated to move into another room for the ultrasound. He’d get to see the babies, of which there were apparently two. Now, this was exciting.
Even though this world was imaginary.
Crap. He was getting too involved.
The doctor came in and explained what they were doing, and she was just about to squeeze the cold blue gel on Charlie’s exposed stomach when the door creaked open.
Cas’s head peeked through the door to Dean’s great surprise.
What the hell was Cas doing here? Had he come to rescue them? Did that mean it really was angels causing this?
“I haven’t missed it,” he growled in his deep voice.
“Nope. Just in time,” Charlie responded happily, as he bounded quickly towards her.
“Sorry I’m late. I got stuck in a consult that got complicated,” he explained, putting his hands up defensively. Nope. Not real Cas. Well, Dean supposed that if Charlie fit into his dream world, then so did Cas.
Even though he wasn’t real Cas, Dean could recognize familiar mannerisms and facial expressions, even though the wrappings were a bit different. Cas was dressed in a pale blue button down tucked into charcoal dress slacks; his sleeves were rolled up to the elbows exposing muscular, sinewy forearms. No trenchcoat. An unfamiliar softness touched the familiar gestures, though, and his demeanor was less stiff and awkward, more human. Dean huffed, realizing that Cas probably was human in this world. He barely had time to register what that meant for his suspected dream world, when Cas sat down on the opposite side of Charlie. He took her right hand in his, and reached across her full stomach with his other to take Dean’s hand.
Dean looked down confusedly at the offered hand.
Oh. There was the matching ring.