Chapter 2: Bad Moon Rising
[August 2013 - 4 Months Pregnant - Cheap Motel Room - No Magic FingersTM, sorry Dean]
My period had been late before, I was sure this time wouldn’t be any different. The stress of being pursued by a demon was more than enough to delay my period like it had before. The tender breasts were new though. As was the nausea and weird cramps. I’d get cramps with my period but these were different, lower, and my abdomen felt almost…heavy? It had been four months since my last period and even stalked-by-a-demon stress wouldn’t delay it that long. I bought the cheapest test available at the pharmacy, which wasn’t actually all that cheap, and went back to my motel to use it. This was a weird time for penis envy to show up but it did, I think it would have been easier to pee on the stick if I had a dick to manually aim. I managed to soak it for three Mississippis like the instructions said. Now, just for the laying flat step and the waiting five minutes step.
There’s no way I could be pregnant. Dean was always so good about protection and there hadn’t been anybody else since my last trip to the bunker. I wasn’t on the pill or anything, since I couldn’t get to a doctor regularly enough for a prescription every three months, but maybe it was time to see about having the old tubes tied. Kids and this life do not go together under the best circumstances. I couldn’t even bring myself to think of the worst circumstances. I watched the line of moisture soak its way across the test window. The control line came into view quickly, saturated with a red pigment. Why couldn’t it be a fun color like orange or purple? It’s always blue or red in the commercials.
Nothing yet for the test line, but it’s only been two minutes. I should wait the full five just to be sure.
Three minutes. There it was, a second saturated red line. I’m pregnant.
“Shit!” I screamed aloud.
My motel neighbor bangs on the shared wall.
“Keep it down in there!”
He doesn’t sound happy either.
God, what the hell am I supposed to do now? Fat chance of getting an abortion in this political climate. Anywhere remotely close is going to be booked solid and even clinics further away will be taking in patients from neighboring states that banned it. Maybe I can get the abortion pill through the mail, but I’ll need to be someplace long enough and stable enough to actually get mail. Then there’s Dean.
What the hell am I supposed to tell him? “Hey, uh, I know you have daddy issues but guess what, here’s your chance to screw up another generation”? No way. After the situation with Lisa and Ben, he swore off any chance of having a family of his own. That was a late-night binge-drinking revelation, he wouldn’t have mentioned it at all sober. I switched to water before I was too drunk to forget and he let it slip. He’d been happy, yes, but there was a constant fear of something finding him and hurting them. He couldn’t truly settle into family life.
I pulled the covers down and got into bed. Curling up in a ball with a pillow hugged to my chest. This is bullshit, I shouldn’t have to bear this burden alone. There were two of us there that night, I shouldn’t have to be the only one doing all of the mental and emotional heavy lifting. Tears stung my eyes but refused to fall.
I guess I’m going back to the bunker.
Everything was quiet when I crept into the bunker. I noticed Baby, Dean’s ‘67 Impala, in the garage after I threw my stuff into “my” room, which meant the boys were close by. Suddenly there was a crash that sounded like it came from the basement. Nothing good ever happened in the basement. That was where all the hardcore demon, angel, and leviathan hunting gear was. Not to mention the cell.
Taking a deep breath, I forced my legs to carry me down to the basement to investigate. If it wasn’t the boys, someone or something was in the bunker and needed to be dealt with. Once on the stairway going down, I heard muffled voices that definitely sounded like Sam and Dean arguing. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with an intruder. The sound of my footsteps must have reached them because Sam called out, “Who’s there?”
He sounded exhausted.
“It’s me.” I answered, coming around the curve of the stairs into view.
Only Sam was visible. Where was Dean? I’d heard his voice.
“Now’s not really a good time Kate,” he said, running his hand through his hair.
As if that had ever worked to get rid of me before. I walked over to where Sam was standing outside the cell, peered in, and gasped when I saw Dean tied to a chair in the middle of a devil’s trap. His eyes were all black, the telltale sign of possession.
“Shit, Sam,” I cried in disbelief, “How long has he been possessed?”
“I don’t know.”
“Months,” came the raspy, metallic voice of the demon. “So good to see you again Kate!”
Sam and I turned to look in the cell at the same time. The demon started laughing viciously.
“I thought you guys–” I started to ask about their tattoos which were supposed to prevent demonic possession.
“We did,” Sam sighed. “But apparently, Dean’s was damaged and one decided to sneak in.”
“I had you all fooled for so long,” more rasping laughter, “and it looks like I left you a little present Kate.”
Sam’s hands tightened into fists.
“The bastard won’t tell me when he first took over Dean’s body. I don’t even know if Dean is awake in there, if he’s aware of anything that’s going on. Kate? Kate!”
I ran back down the hall, the bile rising in my throat, hot and bitter. I barely made it to the nearest bathroom before I puked my guts out. I only hoped that Demon Dean couldn’t hear me, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. I heard Sam’s voice but it was coming from really far away. My vision was tunneling and I was quickly swallowed by the darkness.
Throbbing on the side of my head was the first thing I noticed when I came to, followed immediately by a sharp stab of pain in the same area. Something cold and wet was lying next to me. I opened my eyes and realized I was in my bed, in my room. The wet thing next to me was a bag of partially melted ice and its sweat had left a large, dark puddle on the pillow. Gingerly, I felt the side of my head that was throbbing, sure enough there was a big goose egg of a knot there. I must have fainted and hit my head on the way down, but why—shit.
Me pregnant and Dean possessed for an unknown length of time.
Could he have been possessed that night or was the demon lying?
I need to find out, this was one situation that won’t get better with a “wait and see” approach.
I found Sam in the library alternating between several books of ancient lore and his laptop. He looked up when he heard me.
“Oh I thought you might be Dean. How’s your head?” He asked.
“I’ve had better days.” I said, sitting down across from him. “You thought I might be Dean, did you exorcise the demon?”
“Yeah, I got the son of a bitch with an old Muslim exorcism.”
“I didn’t know the Muslims had exorcisms.”
“Yeah, it’s part of a practice called Ruqya, the one that worked on Dean was called al-ruqya al-sharʿiyya.”
“Since when can you speak Arabic?”
Sam avoided my eyes at this question. I had a realization.
“You used Google Translate didn’t you?”
He nodded sheepishly. I leaned back into my chair, crossing my arms over my chest and staring off into space to contemplate. Sam went back to pouring over the tomes.
“Sam,” I said finally, breaking the silence I’m sure he was enjoying before I woke up. “What would happen if,”
God, how do I even say this?
“If what?” He asked when I didn’t finish my question.
Biting my lip, I looked up at him and took a deep breath. “If someone possessed by a demon…fathered a child?”
Sam’s expression dropped and his eyes widened. “Are you?”
Swallowing, I nodded. “I am, unfortunately. I’m pregnant and…it’s Dean’s.”
Sam stood up and began to pace.
“Will you say something?” I asked.
“It won’t be a nephilim, he wasn’t possessed by an angel, but Cambion doesn’t make sense either, not after Nebraska.”
“That’s reassuring, thanks.” I said sarcastically.
Sam looked at me and sat back down. “Sorry, I—it’s a lot to process.”
“How do you think I feel? I came here after I found out because I’m not going to handle this alone.”
“You mean, you want to keep it?” He asked.
I shook my head. “No. Maybe. I don’t know, but I meant I don’t want to go through any of this,” I gestured between the two of us and around the room. “By myself. First, we need to figure out when exactly that demon ‘snuck in’ to Dean.”
It was Sam’s turn to take a deep breath. “Right, when was, uh, when did you two…”
“The last time I was here, a few months ago.”
“Ok, that’s something. And he seemed normal to you?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary but I also don’t make a habit of dousing my partners with holy water beforehand either.”
Sam made a noise that sounded like it was part chuckle and part snort.
“I didn’t use to do it either until it bit me in the ass.”
I rolled my eyes. It’s not that I’m not interested in hearing about Sam’s run in with a demon in the bedroom, but I really wanted to get my own situation sorted first before I hear about anyone else’s.
“Is Dean sleeping?” I asked, bringing the topic back around to the matter at hand.
“Yeah, at least I think so. After the demon was exorcised, Dean passed out too. I had a hell of a time getting you both into your beds.”
“Thanks for that, by the way.” I said, blushing.
“Come on, I wasn’t going to leave you there. And now that I know you’re…you’re…”
“Pregnant. Don’t worry Sam, you can’t catch it by talking about it.”