Ch. 4: A Little Hope

The pizza that the two adults were eating was of little interest to the brown haired toddler but catching sight of the bottles that both of them were nursing did serve to snag his attention. Crevan studied them for several long minutes with his baby blues intently on the bottles, the contents of which had to be good based on the reactions of the men, and then he looked around and noticed that there were more of them on the table.

"…mine," the little one murmured before toddling his way over to the table.

It took some acrobatic work on his part but he managed to grab one of the bottles before taking a tumble to the floor, which scared him more than it actually hurt. And even though he ended up falling the child still managed to hold onto the bottle that he had swiped, not spilling it since it wasn't open.

Dean looked over when he heard the noise and he could guess what had happened just by surveying the scene. "Whoa, are you okay Crevan?" he asked as he got to his feet and walked over to the child, kneeling down so that he was more on the little guy's level.

Crevan had recovered from the tumble pretty quickly and he was attempting to open the bottle that he had successfully acquired though he was having less luck with that than he'd had with getting it in the first place.

"Opens," the little guy said to Dean as he held out the bottle, fully expecting that the man would help him out with this.

"Oh no…nonono," Dean said with a shake of his head, reaching out and taking the bottle but he was pretty quick to set it out of Crevan's reach. "No we'll not be having any drunk babies stumbling around."

Crevan watched expectantly as Dean took the bottle but he teared up immediately when instead of opening it the man simply set it out of his reach. "Mine…" the toddler said, pointing toward the bottle insistently while at the same time looking at Dean with that teary look.

A look that melted Dean's heart and made him actually want to cave in.

But even he wasn't that irresponsible so there was no way that he was giving booze to a toddler.

"Sorry buddy but that's just for grown-ups," Dean told him, reaching over and scooping the child up in an attempt to stop any fussing on his part.

Crevan was having none of it.

The little guy pushed at Dean's chest with surprising force and as he did so his hands glowed a split second before Dean felt a sharp pain and reflexively released the child. "Agh! What the hell?!" he exclaimed, his gaze going to the child as Crevan squirmed away and then turned to look at him with that same upset look on his face.

Sam was on his feet the moment that his brother issued his exclamation, his eyes wide as he looked from Dean to Crevan. "Dean what's going on?" the younger Winchester asked as a wind seemed to suddenly whip around them from out of nowhere.

"What does it look like Sammy? Kid's having a supernatural temper tantrum," Dean said, having to raise his voice just so that his younger brother could hear him over the noise that was being created by the wind.

And all because he wouldn't give the kid a beer.

Briefly Dean wondered what exactly he was supposed to do about this since he didn't actually want to harm the child but at the same time he and Sam could end up getting hurt from the looks of things. Especially given the fact that the wind was currently tossing things around the room as though a mini hurricane had been unleashed or something.

"Crevan!" Dean said in the same stern tone that he'd used with the boy before, again having to raise his voice just so that the little terror could actually hear him. It didn't really have the same effect this time and the man actually had to duck as a beer bottle, the exact same beer bottle that the toddler had been fussing over before, went sailing over his head only to smash against the far wall.

"Dean do something!" Sam said, thinking that out of the two of them his brother was the one best equipped to handle this situation.

If only for the fact that Crevan seemed to have bonded to him.

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Dean sort of snapped at his brother, giving Sam a look since it was obvious that he was trying to do something. It was equally as obvious that he wasn't having any luck with it and that fact was more than a little bit frustrating to him. "I don't know what to do! I don't wanna hurt the kid and we don't even know what he is!"

Sam opened his mouth to say something but was silenced when he had to duck more flying debris that was being tossed around by the wind.

Dean's eyes sort of flashed at that point and he took a few steps toward the child but then he heard what sounded like a whooshing of wings and the wind abruptly died down. The noise was familiar and Dean looked around to see Castiel standing between Crevan and himself and Sam.

"Dean…" the angel said in that infuriatingly nonchalant tone that he always managed no matter the situation.

"Seriously? You show up NOW after I've been calling you for hours?" Dean demanded as he looked at the angel though his gaze shifted again when he heard the sound of little footsteps. His green eyes shifted to Crevan and he watched as the child scampered away from the group and ended up sort of huddling in a corner.

This was even more extreme than the child's reaction to Sam and that caused the elder Winchester to look back to the angel of the Lord. "Cas you scared him," Dean pointed out needlessly before gesturing toward the child. "That's the reason I was calling you… we found him and we don't exactly know what he is but he has healing powers…"

"He is Hope," Castiel said simply when Dean pointed out that neither he nor Sam knew who or what the child was. His gaze shifted in the direction of the cowering child and he was admittedly a little surprised by the way that the child was reacting to him.

And even more surprised to see him there with the Winchesters in the first place.

"What?" Dean said when he heard what Castiel had to say about the boy, a clearly confused and questioning look appearing in his eyes. "Dude, you're not making sense so you mind running that by me one more time? Maybe with a little more detail?"

"The child is one of what we call the Seven Heavenly Virtues," Castiel said, speaking as though he were trying to explain something very complicated to a very small child. "As one would expect there are seven in total and they are the embodiment of the virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance and Prudence. As I said before this child is the Virtue of Hope."

"Okay…that's weird," Dean said with a shake of his head before once again focusing on the obvious fact that the child seemed terrified of Castiel. "So why, if this kid is heavenly anything, is he scared of you? I mean you're a friggin' angel."

"I believe that is most likely a direct result of his caretaker," Castiel replied, his gaze going to the boy that was still occupying space in the corner of the room and staring at him with wide, terror filled eyes. "Each of the virtues are Nephilim, born of a human mother and an angelic father, and they are given over to an angelic guardian to be raised and taught to use their gifts."

"Whoa, whoa hold it," Dean said, holding up his hands and trying his best to absorb everything that was being said in this moment. "So that kid, Crevan, he's half angel?"

"Technically speaking however his powers will be greater than my own," Castiel said, still having that blunt and matter of fact way of speaking as he said this. It didn't seem as though he was concerned with the fact that the powers of a toddler were going to trump his own. "Which is why he needs training and why we need to return him to his mentor."

"No," Dean said, this time his voice taking on that blunt, matter of fact tone.

"Excuse me?" Castiel said as he turned around again to look at the hunter, taking note of the look of determination that was on the elder Winchester's face.

"Just what I said, no," Dean repeated, his jaw set. "Look I don't know anything about these virtues or whatever the hell they are but I do know that if the kid is this terrified of you then I'm not just gonna hand him back over to the one that caused it in the first place. No, we're keeping him until I figure out just what the hell is going on here."

"Dean that is not a good idea," Castiel felt the need to tell him, though why he bothered was anyone's guess since the Winchesters were both notoriously stubborn and rarely took his advice.

And they never listened.

Ever.

"Yea well when is anything we do a good idea?" Dean countered with a shrug of his shoulders. After saying that he turned and made his way over to the spot where Crevan was cowering, the man leaning down and scooping the boy up to hold in his arms. "Hey, it's okay Crev, you don't have to be scared of Cas, he's not gonna hurt you," he said to the child, his voice taking on a softer tone. And as he spoke he gently lifted the child up to hold in his arms, not even noticing just how more natural the motion was to him now than it had been when he and Sam had first found Crevan. "And no one else is going to either or else I swear I'll break out the holy oil and we'll have ourselves a barbeque."

The revelations that were coming from Castiel were definitely ominous to be sure and Sam just stood by and listened, making mental notes and then listening as his brother predictably put his head into the figurative noose. Not that he was the least bit surprised by this, that was pretty par for the course for them, but in this instance he had mixed feelings on the matter. He didn't like the thought of handing the kid over to someone that had terrified him but by the same token neither did he like the idea of going up against angels.

Because that just never worked out well for them.

"Dean," Castiel said in what could only be described as a scolding voice when he heard the eldest Winchester saying that they would barbeque any angel that attempted to hurt the little Virtue. There was a clearly displeased look on his face as he gazed at the man, not liking that plan of action, which was obvious.

"Cas," Dean said as he gazed at the angel. "There is no reason why anyone should be terrifying a baby, I don't care what kind of baby he is…"

Castiel shook his head in response to those words. "Once again you fail to realize just what it is that you're dealing with and you're jumping to conclusions. The virtues are vitally important and they have to be raised with certain…standards in mind. Because they are literally linked to the virtue that they represent," the angel attempted to explain though he doubted that his words were really going to have much of an effect on the stubborn hunter.

"Cas… you say that like you expect me to care… I mean seriously when has that ever mattered?" Dean said with a shake of his head, not thinking that this had any bearing on the point that he had made. He didn't care what sort of big plans the angels or anyone else had for the child, as far as he was concerned the fact still remained that it was a child and he was serious about making sure that nothing happened to the little guy.

"…we apparently adopted a kid and I'm not even sure how this happened," Sam said as he looked at his brother.

"Don't try to make sense of it Sammy, just don't," Dean said with a shake of his head, his arm still protectively around the child that he was balancing on his hip.

Crevan ended up clinging to Dean the instant that he was picked up but he was keeping his blue eyes focused on Castiel as though thinking that the angel was going to do something. His gaze never left him and he pointed a tiny finger at Castiel as he said, "Baaaaaaad." The little one ended up dragging out the word as though trying to put emphasis on it while at the same time tugging on Dean's shirt in the hopes of getting the man to put some distance between them.

Clearly despite the earlier reassurance the little one was still viewing Castiel as a threat.

"Guess we found someone he's more scared of than you Samsquatch," Dean said as he looked at the child that was tugging on his shirt. "It's okay Crev, Cas is my friend and he's not going to hurt you." After saying that he gave Castiel a pointed look as he asked, "Right Cas?" There was a prompting tone to his voice as he said this, Dean hoping that the sometimes clueless angel would get it and offer up the answer that he was looking for.

Not that he really expected it to work out that way since it never worked out that way.

Hence why he kept calling Castiel a baby in a trench coat.

"No, I am not going to harm him…" Castiel said in response to the prompting however there was something about his tone that made it clear there was an inescapable 'but' in that statement. "There are however others that might harm all of us if they find out that he's here." For that matter Castiel was still trying to figure out exactly why the child was here in the first place, it didn't make sense to the angel. His caretaker should have been guarding him much better than this, the Virtues were given high ranking guardians. "This is going to turn out badly."

"Yea so what else is new?" Dean said with a shrug, pretty used to things turning out badly at this point, that was just the way that life went for them.

Crevan was starting to calm down a little at this point and while he was still eying the angel with a wary look the child had stopped pointing and was now just resting his head against Dean's shoulder. This man represented safety in his mind and while it was unclear just why it was that the little one had formed such an immediate bond to the elder Winchester it was visibly clear that he had. Crevan was once again gripping Dean's shirt as he rested against the man's shoulder, appearing to have worn himself out with his earlier tantrum.

"Sleepy?" Dean asked the child that he was holding.

"No," came the predictable answer that one would expect from any child.

"Yes you are," Dean said with a chuckle, rubbing the little one's back.

Watching the exchange between his brother and the child Sam couldn't help but chuckle as well, the younger Winchester going over to the bags that he had discarded upon returning to the motel room. Once he reached them he knelt down and started looking through them, pulling out a pair of pajamas as well as the plush fox that he had purchased. "Dean," he said to get his brother's attention, placing the items on the bed and then looking back at the bags for a moment before producing a diaper as well. "Not sure if he needs it but got it anyway," he said by way of explanation as he placed that near the other things, producing the pacifier as well.

And while he didn't offer the same explanation as he had for the diaper he figured it was implied.

"Wow Sammy, you'll make a good mommy someday," Dean said with a smirk as he carried Crevan over to the bed. "Alright Crev, let's get you ready for bed," he said to the child, giving him a look as he did so in the hopes of forestalling any whining. "Be a good boy and we can watch some more TV," he offered as a bribe, taking the fox plush and handing it to the child.

"Good…" Crevan repeated as he gazed at Dean, the little guy taking the toy fox that he was handed and snuggling it against his chest. "…soft."

Dean smiled slightly as the boy was distracted by the toy that he had been given. Using that to his advantage he got the kid undressed and then attempted to redress him. The diaper was a bit of a challenge but he managed after some struggles, the man shooting his brother a dirty look in response to Sam laughing at him. After getting that taken care of he had a somewhat easier time with the onesie pajamas, the man getting the little guy's somewhat flailing limbs into the sleeper and then zipping it up.

"There," he said, sounding a little out of breath. "And no one got hurt."

"You sound so proud of yourself Dean," Sam commented as he smirked at his brother.

"Shut up," Dean told his brother as he once again scooped Crevan up into his arms. "Okay… you were good so TV," he said, walking over to the chair and sitting down. Once he'd settled Crevan on his lap the elder Winchester turned to his brother as he said, "You should probably crash… cause we're gonna have to figure out what's going on…and trouble's probably gonna find us sooner rather than later."

"Right," Sam said, knowing his brother had a point.

"And Cas," Dean said, turning his attention to his angelic friend. Or at least that was what he was trying to do but it was only to realize that Castiel was already gone. "I friggin' hate it when he does that," Dean complained with a shake of his head before grabbing the baby blanket and covering both himself and Crevan with it.

Settling down Dean again wondered just what it was that he'd gotten them into this time but as he looked at the child that was snuggling with him he couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, something good would come out of it this time.

Wishful thinking on his part, he knew somewhere in the back of his mind, and yet he was still able to find that hope.

Hope…

TBC…

A/N: End of another chapter, hope that you enjoyed. I'd greatly appreciate it if you left me a review. Thanks for reading.