Dean’s next shift started well enough to put him in a good mood – despite everything going on with Sam and Eileen. He had dragged Cas in with him for the happy occasion – Owen was cancer-free, and that was well worth celebrating.
TK was smiling happily, “And the second opinion confirms it – you are officially cancer-free. Congratulations, Dad.”
They all clapped – everyone was here – Judd’s beautifully kind wife Grace and Carlos too, of course. Cas and Grace hadn’t had much of a chance to talk, but Dean figured that was probably a good thing with how religious Grace was.
“Tumour slayer!”
“Way to go, Cap!”
“Bout time we had some good news around here,” Judd agreed.
“Hear, hear,” Dean said, smiling warmly at the people who had become like a family to him over this past year. The way they had blindly accepted Cas too, it just made Dean’s heart swell. Not that he’d ever say that out loud cause it was corny as hell.
Grace smiled too, “Whole lotta folks been praying for you, Captain.”
Cas nodded solemnly, and Dean braced himself.
“I prayed to God myself, Captain Strand. And I have a very direct line to him. He takes my opinion incredibly seriously.”
Grace looked at Cas a little strangely, and Dean did his nervous ‘Cas you’re saying crazy shit again’ laugh. He put an arm around his boyfriend and said, “Cause you’re a missionary, of God, huh Cas?”
Cas nodded, realising his mistake and playing along, “Yes.”
Grace nodded, seemingly accepting that answer, and Owen chuckled, “Well, I appreciate all that praying, guys.”
He was smiling, and he had meant the words. It wasn’t a condescending thing, said to someone religious when you didn’t believe in a god yourself. And Dean respected his captain all the more because of that.
“Uh, but this is the ugliest cake I’ve ever seen. What…why…why does it look like this?”
Dean chuckled. It was an ugly cake; the captain wasn’t wrong about that.
“It’s your tumour,” TK said.
“It’s my tumour?” Owen asked in disbelief.
“It’s your tumour a year ago,” Marjan nodded.
YOU ARE READING
Lonestar State of Mind
FanfictionThe one where Dean doesn't die on a rusty nail, and after some hospital mandated therapy and a late-night showing of the movie "Backdraft" on tv, he decides to become a firefighter.
