Chapter Text
Epilogue : Somebody to Love
One year later...
“So, how does it feel?” Jody asked, setting her beer aside, reaching for one of the last remaining french fries between them.
“What’s that?” Donna asked distractedly. The warm breeze was blowing her hair all around and she was fighting to get a hair tie off her wrist lest she end up with ketchup highlights she definitely did not ask for.
“Married life,” her friend clarified, fighting a smirk. “Now that you two have made it official and all, Mrs. Winchester .”
Donna shrugged and still her eyes were drawn to the golden sparkle on her ring finger, even after a month. Weeks before they had escaped on a nuptial road trip, ending in Vegas so they could get married by Elvis and spend their wedding night on a tacky motel bed shaped like a giant, red velvet heart. She wore a white dress fashioned in the style of the fifties with poofy skirts with her rhinestone boots and Dean wore all black and did something ridiculous with his lip just before promising to be hers forever, in sickness and in health.
It was perfect.
“Eh, you know how it goes, Jodes,” she said with entirely feigned nonchalance. “Every day I’m happier than the day before and I worship the ground he walks on. Just your usual marriage things, y’know.”
The sheriff rolled her eyes so hard Donna felt Earth’s center of gravity shift and she had to fight the grin threatening to break through.
“Ah, jeez, easy on the sweet stuff already. I’m going to get cavities.”
“Have I told you about—”
“Yes, you’ve told me he carried you over the threshold. You texted me immediately after, which I’m almost certain was a breach of some boundary I haven’t even thought of a name for yet.”
“He said he practiced in physical therapy to surprise me. Isn’t that sweet?”
“As sugar, Donna.”
As irked as Jody Mills was pretending to be, Donna knew that she was happy for them, and maybe only slightly miffed that their wedding was of the destination variety where it was just the two of them. The two of them and Baby and the open road, with all Dean’s old tapes and all the dive-y food stops, and only slightly better motels than those they had occupied while they were still running. It had taken them weeks to hit Dean’s favorite highways with their suitcases once again side by side in the truck, and it had tasted every bit like freedom.
The opportunity to rewrite those long weeks was a chance they couldn’t bear to pass up, replacing tense nights in separate beds with the specter of threat between them. Now she had the memory of nothing on her skin but his, twisted in thin sheets, waking late in the morning with nothing pressing them to hurry up and move. Donna thought that if heaven was real she might see those days again, soul light to the point of floating away with his hand on her thigh to keep her tethered to earth.
Luckily they had a very understanding group of family and friends, because it wasn’t even much of a surprise that they were planning to elope — not to those who knew them well, anyway. They had all been witness to the lengths the two of them had gone to for their happiness and no one held it against them when they wanted to start the next chapter of their lives on their own terms.
It had taken two months to make it back to Sioux Falls after the fateful night in Kansas. Dean had another two surgeries after the first — through which she’d shook and sweated and prayed through clenched teeth — and after coming through them with flying colors they had shipped him off to inpatient rehabilitation, where he got to cuss endlessly at his poor physical therapist as his shoulder got back to where it needed to be. He spent weeks with the arm immobilized and had only just been cleared to work after returning from their honeymoon.
Donna had made it out mostly unscathed, her ribs healing ever so slowly but still allowing her to be at Dean’s side while she fussed and he rolled his eyes at her before giving her a kiss and telling her not to worry.
Their parents had met in the ICU, while they were still sleeping, and Dean was less than thrilled about meeting them in his current state but Donna promised to put in a good word for him when they wheeled her outside for some fresh air. The good word wasn’t necessary, of course, not when he’d saved her life and his love for her was evident in every movement and look and smile that lit up his face when she looked at him. In the end her parents had loved him just like she knew they would, her father playfully arguing 80s hair metal against Dean’s beloved tape collection and her mother fussing over the state of his pillows. It was an invasive sort of affection her lover didn’t quite know how to accept but did anyway, for her sake.
Her parents had demanded to know what in the world she was thinking, of course. Hiding the entire thing from them, even if she was so sure she was doing the right thing and keeping them safe. The story had come out over the course of days at the hospital with her brothers and their families on the video call, demanding answers to their own questions while she pinched the bridge of her nose and tried not to start yelling at them like they were kids again. Luckily she also had Dean’s parents to relieve them of hospital duty, not to mention Sam and Eileen burning through their sick days to stay with them.
Bobby visited for a while, threatening to knock Dean’s block off if he didn’t get better and get back to the shop. Strangely the visit had cheered Dean up and he promised he was working hard at it and wouldn’t dare put his uncle out like that again. There was subtext, of course, that Donna recognized but couldn’t speak to — unspoken words about family and worry and love, she was sure, but she was also sure that the two of them weren’t likely to air it out where someone else might see. On the last day Bobby was there Dean had held onto the man a little longer than necessary, his eyes a little shinier than usual, and had promised to be back in South Dakota as soon as possible.
Jody called a handful of times, promising she was ready to help as soon as they made it home. Bobby had given her permission to have the gas lines repaired from Walker’s damage before they’d run, and she had hinted at a bigger shower setup so that Dean would be able to get in without smacking his arm on the tile the whole time.
On one of the last days of their stay a dark-haired man with a very serious expression walked in Dean’s room and just stared at him before stating, “I chose the better coffee so I hope the turtles forgive me.”
Dean had cracked a smile so wide it lit up the room and Donna stood, confused, while the two of them embraced in an awkward half-hug to avoid doing anything to pull Dean’s bad shoulder. It was only after their greeting that Dean introduced them.
Castiel Novak.
The man who’d saved Dean’s life before she’d ever known him.
Donna hadn’t hesitated to hop from the chair as quickly as her side would allow to gather him into a tight hug, one she would not have let him exit if he tried. The somber, endlessly sweet man had only patted her awkwardly on the back and said,
“Hello, Donna. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Her eyes were glazed over with tears when she whispered into his ear.
“Thanks, Cas. You’re an angel.”
The man with the serious eyes only offered her a solemn expression before replying, “Thank you, but don’t tell anyone.”
She had laughed, hugged him again, and had demanded to know why he was waiting for forgiveness from turtles.
They were lucky.
They were so, so lucky to have found themselves surrounded by people who stood by them in the hard times without so much as a blink of hesitation. There was no one who walked in their room who didn’t want to be a support for the hardest part of their lives and Donna didn’t know how so much fear and violence had led into this new life, new love, new family — but it had. Against all odds, when she’d been the most alone she’d ever been, she had stumbled upon an entire safety net of people willing to hold her up. She was going to spend the rest of her life paying it forward, doing her level best to earn the gift that she’d been given.
“So, what are you up to these days?” Donna asked Jody, coming back to the conversation at hand as their late lunch came to an end. “How’s that boy of yours?”
“A senior in high school, somehow,” Jody answered and shook her head. “God only knows what happens when he goes off to college.”
“Not gonna be an empty-nester are ya?” she joked and Jody scoffed.
“Not on your life.”
“Not going to retire, sell the house, and roam around the country in an RV?” Donna asked with mock seriousness and Jody cut her eyes so quickly Donna could almost feel the sting of it. “I don’t know, Jodes. It could suit ya.”
“Not at well as handcuffs do,” she replied, “And thank God for that.”
Donna laughed and leaned back in the wicker chair, watching people walk past the little cafe without sparing them so much as a glance. If she occasionally found herself looking for a cold pair of dark eyes, it was only a remnant of a time she had firmly left in the past. The nightmares came and went, as did Dean’s, and they’d mostly managed to find a way to work through them. She was seeing a therapist and enjoying it, enough so that she was going to try and talk Dean into it before long. Still, there were ghosts in her peripheral vision and occasionally they haunted her heart into a gallop that she had to breathe her way out of.
“Donna?”
She turned back to her friend, a woman with eyes so shrewd she was certain she was an open book.
“Hmm?” she asked, shaking her head. “Sorry, distracted.”
“Good distracted or bad?” Jody asked and Donna shrugged, knowing already how Jody would worry if there was a hint that Donna wasn’t doing well.
“Just thinking about that threshold,” she lied and Jody’s eyes rolled again. “What? Can’t a woman just enjoy her hunk of a new husband?”
She was good.
Better than good, even with the ghosts.
“She can indeed,” Jody agreed and offered her beer up in a toast. “To new beginnings?”
Donna clinked her bottle against Jody’s and grinned.
“I’ll drink to that.”
***
“Yes, Mom, I’m fine.”
“You’re doing your exercises?” Mary asked over the line and Dean’s eyes threatened to roll for the dozenth time since she called five minutes before. “You know you need to keep up the strengthening if you want to be able to work.”
“Yes, I’m doing the exercises,” he said and it was only roughly… half a lie, he guessed, since he was supposed to do them every day and he was managing four to five days a week on average. “And I can do what I need to and whatever I can’t do, Bobby will help with.”
“Your uncle is getting older.”
“Don’t tell him that, he’ll get grumpier.”
“Luckily Donna’s there to help,” she replied and it was there that Dean couldn’t find it in him to argue. She had wanted to stay on at the garage to keep the two of them in line and now he had even more to look forward to, knowing he would get to see her throughout the day. His mother added, “And I’m sure she’s happy to have something to do.”
Dean scoffed. “It’s already a headache just keeping the two of us in line, much less the schedules and paperwork.”
“So give her a raise.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s nepotism.”
“That’s all this family does. Without family none of us would ever have had a job, except maybe your brother. Which reminds me, he’s going to call—”
“Honey pie, I’m home!” Donna called as she walked in the door, sun setting prettily behind her and forcing a smile across his face.
“And there’s my cue,” Mary said and chuckled fondly. “Bye, Dean. Call me later.”
“Will do. Bye, Mom.”
He ended the call and swiveled to face her in his recliner, leaning back and clasping his hands behind his head.
“Well, look what the sheriff dropped off,” he drawled and Donna smirked over her shoulder as she hung up her keys and her purse on the hook behind the door. “How much trouble did you get into?”
“Oh, just a little drunk and disorderly,” she said with the easy cadence of a playful falsehood. “Nothing too bad, I swear.”
“Well, good, because Jody was going to have to bail you both out.”
“Can she bail herself out?” Donna asked, tilting her head in thought. “For that matter, can Jody arrest herself?”
“Not sure anybody else would try,” he observed and Donna chuckled lightly as she drifted over to him to sit on the arm of the chair he occupied. It was her spot, now — a little perch she occupied to be close to him. He loved it, loved being able to tilt his head up to see her profile in the glow from the TV and get his breath taken all over again.
Now she threaded their fingers together and brought them up to kiss the back of his palm like a suitor in an old romance before sighing happily.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said quietly.
“Hey yourself.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Absolutely,” she said and sighed. “Missed you though.”
He chuckled, “You were only gone for a few hours.”
“I said what I said.”
“I missed you too,” he told her and kissed the tip of her shoulder. “I didn’t make dinner, I thought you’d be gone longer.”
“Just as well, I’m not hungry.”
“Full of booze?”
“And happiness,” she said, nuzzling into him like she always did as she slid in closer to his side, threatening to collapse into him entirely. Her skin was warm and smelled like something tropical, coconut or cocoa butter or something else that called to mind beaches and tanned skin. “What’s on TV tonight?”
“No clue. We could clear out some of the DVR,” he offered. “I might even agree to one of your awful crime shows. CSI: Timbuktu or whatever it is now.”
“Ooh, now we’re talking.”
This was their life, now, he thought with so much gratitude he thought it might break him. It was small, he realized. These little pleasures like afternoons with friends and calls from his mom and the safety to do nothing else but argue over what they would watch until they dragged themselves to bed. They were small and mundane and still they were all he wanted after the hell they’d walked through to get there. They’d shared this life for a few months now and the shine hadn’t so much as dimmed — he still had stars in his eyes and if he never saw clearly through them ever again he would die a happy man.
Dean would have been content to stay there forever, curled up in his chair while he grumbled under his breath about knowing who the killer was, but those moments weren’t meant to last. Instead they stayed there until the sun had fully set and he was considering ordering a pizza when his phone went off again, the blaring guitar riff making them both jump out of their skin. It was an unfortunate side effect of their ordeal but at least it was one they shared and understood.
“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled as he fished for the phone slipping into the recliner cushion. Next to him Donna reached to turn on the lamp and he freed his phone just in time to see his brother’s name on the screen.
“Sammy!” he cried as he accepted the call and settled back into his spot, wrapping a distracted arm around Donna. “What’s shaking?”
“Hey Dean,” his brother replied, begrudgingly accepting the old nickname, “You busy?”
“Nah,” Dean said easily and watched as Donna paused the show and settled in to listen. “We’re never busy.”
“Must be nice.”
“Oh, it absolutely is. One day you’ll get it.”
“Not for a while, it looks like,” Sam told him and Dean perked up, back a little straighter than it was a moment ago.
“Why’s that? Another big case?”
“The biggest yet,” he said and Dean felt his throat tighten. A promotion, maybe? More of Sam messing with people who had no qualms about using violence to get out of a jam. “Hey, is Donna around?”
“I’m here!” Donna shouted and Dean put the call on speaker before laying the phone in his lap between them.
“Hey, Donna.”
“Hey, Sam.”
“Hi Donna!” another voice cried and Donna lit up.
“Eileen!” she cried, knowing that Sam would be willing to pass on her excitement. “Wow, we never get to talk to both of you guys. What’s the occasion?”
“You moving up in the world, Sammy?” Dean asked and tried to soften the anxiety tightening in the back of his neck. “What’s it this time? Judge? District attorney?”
Both positions with inherent risks.
“Not quite,” Sam answered, “I was thinking about trying something different.”
“Like what?”
“Like ‘Dad’.”
A beat of silence passed, then two.
Then all holy hell broke loose when Donna jumped off the recliner and started screaming like a lunatic, prompting screaming from the other side of the phone as Eileen joined in. Dean flinched away as Donna grabbed the phone out of his lap to hop up and down and force Sam to translate for her while she yelled congratulations and demands for details that Sam answered like he was under attack, fending off jabs in the form of squeals and laughter. Dean could only sit in his chair and marvel.
Sam was going to have a kid.
Sam was going to be a father.
And then, with the utmost confidence, Dean thought — And Sammy will do it right.
When finally Donna calmed and took to her own phone to text with Eileen rather than go through the middle man, Dean finally got his phone back to talk to his winded younger brother. It was as though another small piece of this perfect life had slid into place while he wasn’t looking but the surprise only gave way to something better, something like happy anticipation and yet another new beginning.
“Hey, it’s me.”
“Hey,” Sam said on a breathless chuckle. “So… yeah.”
“I’m happy for you, Sammy,” Dean said honestly, smiling as Donna paced and texted. “You’re going to do great.”
“Thanks.”
“When should we plan on being in New York?”
“Middle of January,” Sam answered. “We don’t know the gender yet but Eileen says it’s a boy. We’ll find out in two weeks.”
“I’d take Eileen’s word for it if I were you.”
“Way ahead of you.”
The two of them talked a little longer, long enough for Dean to lightheartedly needle Sam about how great a name Dean was in the grand scheme of things, but then it was getting close to midnight in New York and their wives were still texting like their lives depended on it. Donna had already sworn to throw the shower and would be doing her level best to convince Jody to come - which Dean seriously doubted Jody would go for, but he knew better than anyone how convincing Donna could be when she put her mind to it. When finally Donna put her phone in her pocket and faced Dean it was with a beatific smile on her face, eyes a little wet in the low light of the lamp.
“Yeah?” he asked pointedly, needling her too while he was at it.
“Yah,” she said and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m just… I’m so happy for them.”
“Me too.”
“They work so hard and they’re so selfless with their time and energy and…” Donna trailed off, reclaiming her spot on the chair next to him. “And they deserve this. They deserve this little family they’re cooking up and I am so gosh darn excited.”
Dean grinned.
“I don’t know, you sound a little wishy-washy on the whole thing.”
“Hush, you,” she said, cutting her eyes at him and wrinkling her nose. “I’ve got to start thinking of shower games. My cousin Rita’s third baby shower had this game with melted candy bars in diapers, I swear I have never laughed so hard in my life.”
“I’m sure that’s exactly what Eileen has in mind,” he said and this time didn’t bother to hold back the laughter. “Fake dirty diapers before she gets to the real ones.”
She just shook her head while Dean kept laughing and when he was done his stomach hurt and he had to wipe the corners of his eyes. Donna only looked on like the long-suffering wife she was, tolerating her husband’s immaturity because she loved him. It only made him pull her closer, into his lap where she yelped in surprise and wrapped her arms around his neck. It wasn’t entirely unlike how he’d carried her into the house a few weeks before, presenting the castle they’d be sharing for the rest of their happily ever after.
“Uncle Dean?” she asked quietly, dark eyes softening in the low light. The title attached to his name was yet another piece clicking quietly, perfectly into place.
“Aunt Donna.”
“Kiss me?”
He leaned in and tipped his nose against hers, just enough so that their lips brushed and the warmth of her breath lapped over his mouth. Teasing, tempting. Until Donna tried to bring her chin up and take the kiss he was holding back. Her glare was warm on his face without ever checking to see that it was there and he wasn’t sure he would ever be happier than he was now — with his brother’s kid on the way and his wife in his arms, asking for a kiss like it was ever something he would be able to deny her.
Dean grinned.
“Thought you’d never ask.”