I plopped my feet on the desk and leaned back in my chair. I had a diet coke in one hand and a barrel of popcorn between my knees. I found some old Audrey Hepburn movie that I hadn't seen on Netflix. There wasn't much to do in the bunker, so I spent most of my time watching movies and exploring the place. Sam and Dean had mentioned something about a tablet that the prophet before me spent most of his time deciphering, but that seemed to be out of the picture now. I frowned a little to think of Kevin, who I had only met once, but who they both spoke fondly of. I was pretty sure the general response to his death was supposed to be sadness, but in my case it was more along the lines of 'fucking terrified'.

I remembered what happened to Krista when all the prophets were captured by Crowley. I'd never seen anyone die before, much less murdered in cold blood. Worse than that, that had been my first experience with the supernatural. Before that I'd never had any clue that any of this existed outside stories. I still had regular night terrors about the whole situation. Sam and Dean regularly came running into my room in the middle of the night to comfort me when I woke up screaming. They were usually very comforting presences. I knew, of course, that when it came to Abaddon, Metatron, Crowley, etc. that they couldn't ever completely protect me, but I always felt at least marginally safer around them.

Kevin had done with so much courage, at least that's what I was always told. Only wonderful things about Kevin. Kevin who was such an incredible help to everyone, while I sat in the bunker watching Netflix. Never in my life had I felt so useless and also so terrified. I used to think of myself as a brave person. I craved adventure and freedom, but when it came down to it, I was far more cowardly than the people around me.

As far as Sam and Dean told me, Metatron thought he had flipped a switch in Heaven to keep any new prophets from being 'activated' or whatever. Apparently Castiel had found a way to reverse that without anyone knowing. It was all way too complicated for me to follow, but the one thing I did gather was that as long as I stayed in the bunker I was safe. I was sure they told the exact same thing to Kevin.

The door to the bunker swung open and I jumped a little. My hand instinctively flinched toward the gun on the table. Dean had taught me a bit about how to fire it, but my aim was shit and I kept hurting my shoulder. I relaxed a bit when I saw three familiar faces come staggering through the door.

"Hey-o." I said casually, returning to my movie. Over the past few weeks I had immediately bonded with Dean, who had treated me more or less like a little sister, probably because I needed it. It might also have had something to do with how often I baked for the two of them. Sam and I had also become quite close, but I couldn't but find him just a bit more intimidating than his brother.

"Hello, Margaret." Castiel said. I looked up at him and smiled a bit awkwardly. I didn't know Cas very well. We had only met once and even then he had not spoken a great deal or made much eye contact with me, but Sam and Dean talked about him like a third brother. He was busy building an army or something. It struck me as unusual for him to talk to me so directly. As soon as I met his face he looked away to the side and didn't say anything else.

"Hey, um, Maggie can we talk to you for a second?" Sam said. He was very clearly uncomfortable with the topic he was broaching. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. That sentence screamed that something horrible had happened. Immediately my mind raced, coming up with a million possible horrific events that could have occurred. My brother had been killed, my mom kidnapped, my dad tortured. My face must have shown my horror, because Dean immediately shot Sam a glare.

"Geez, Sam don't freak her out. Everyone's okay, Mags." I talked about my family often to the boys, so Dean caught where my mind was headed right away. We were all extremely close, especially my kid brother and I. I always related to Dean when it came to how protective he was of Sam and I often envied the fact that they were able to stay together, while I hadn't seen my brother in what felt like ages. However, they had both insisted that my family was better off having nothing to do with me, and that they were surrounded by hunters they trusted. I let out a breath of air, relieved but they were clearly dancing around something.

"Okaaay… So, what is it?" I asked, wishing I didn't have to hear the answer.

"Let's go into the living room." Dean said, seriously. I stared at him, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in his head, but none of them would meet my eyes.

"Okay." I nearly whispered. My stomach turned and I felt like I was going to throw up. I didn't have anywhere near the energy to demand that they let me know what was going on immediately. Had I done something wrong? Were they throwing me out? What could I have done? I didn't do anything. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe I wasn't as useful as Kevin so they couldn't waste time and recourses taking care of me. They were going to put me out and then Crowley would find me and cut off all my fingers. I tried to take a deep breath like Sam had taught me, but it came out shaky and shallow. All I could do was follow them into the living room.

When we reached the living room, I sat down in a big plush chair and the others filed in after me, Castiel taking the farthest seat away from me and doing everything he could not to meet my eyes. He had something to do with this, I was sure. Otherwise he wouldn't even be here. I found myself glaring at him subconsciously. I kept telling myself to relax, that Sam and Dean would never let anything happen to me, but that was getting more and more difficult to believe.

When everyone had sat down, I nearly shouted, "What's going on, guys?" I did not handle suspense well.

"Well, we've got a little bit of a problem," Sam tried to say as gently as possible.

"What?" I demanded, cutting him off.

"Well… Um, you know how we told you about Nephilim?"

"Um yeah… Super major powered half angels half humans, right?"

"Yeah, and how there used to be a lot of them but there aren't anymore." I nodded, remembering. Castiel had killed the last one. "Well, when Dean and I went to see Garth, he had made some… interesting new connections and they let him in on some really… interesting information about a certain kind of Nephilim. This creature could, hypothetically, open or close Heaven and Hell." I looked from Sam to Dean excitedly.

"Wha… That's amazing! That's sort of perfect, right?"

"Right…" Same continued slowly, "But like I said, there aren't any left, and there hasn't even… ever… actually been a Nephilim like this." My face fell. What was he going on about and how did any of this have anything to do with me?

"Sam, you aren't making any sense."

"It's gotta be the kid of a prophet and an angel, Maggie." Dean took over. That's when it clicked. My jaw fell open and I stared, wide-eyed at Dean. That was why Castiel was there. That's why they needed me. They wanted me to have his baby! I floundered for words, probably sounding like a complete idiot. In the corner, Cas had turned a bright shade of red, still staring at his feet.

"What?" I demanded, though it was clear that I understood. I got up out of my chair and walked behind it. I hysterically looked for something to do with my hands. I settled for picking at the fabric of the chair intensely.

"I know it's asking a lot…" Sam said, trying to ease the blow.

"Wait, just hold on a second." I hissed moving on to the other side of the room. My arms holding on to my hair dramatically. "Um… Um… I don't think I can listen to this." I covered my face with my hands and shook my head as I paced quickly across the room. Any thoughts of breathing slowly and composing myself flew out the window. "You're… You're trying to tell me that you want me to have a child."

"Specifically, my child." Castiel chimed in for the first time. I stopped pacing.

"Thank you." I hissed in his direction. As if I didn't understand, I wasn't stupid. There were other angels, but none of them that Sam and Dean trusted.

"No. No." I said hastily, my hands returning to my hair, "I'm sorry. There has to be another way. You have to find another way. I'm not going to be your sacrificial lamb, Mary Magdalene type person."

"Actually, Mary Magdalene was a prostitute that…" Castiel said.

"Well I'm not being that either! You'll have to find someone else to pimp out to your angel buddy." I said. There was a long silence in the room and I crossed my arms over my chest. I suddenly felt extremely exposed. I thought about how if this were any other job I could totally sue all of their asses for sexual harassment. I knew that there was only one active prophet at a time, it could only be me, but I wasn't anywhere near ready to admit that to myself. When no one said anything in response to my outburst, I continued. "You two are the kings of loopholes. Find one! This is completely ridiculous. I'm nineteen! Being a teenage mother wasn't exactly part of my life plan!" Dean didn't even seem to want to look at me. I knew he was beginning to think of me as a second younger sibling. This whole conversation was clearly making him uncomfortable.

Finally Sam spoke up again. "We've all had to make compromises, Maggie. I mean, Dean and I have died more than few ti…"

"Shut up." I said, waving my arm in his direction. I turned on Castiel, "And you." His eyes shot up from where they had been firmly engrossed with his shoelaces, "What do you have to say about this?" Castiel looked from Dean to Sam for help but neither of them offered any.

"I…" He swallowed, "I am not entirely inexperienced when it comes to raising children." He paused and amended his statement with, "I have raised an army of angels. Also I have experienced sexual intercourse before…"

"Cas!" Dean barked.

"I can't believe I'm listening to this." I exclaimed.

"I know it isn't ideal," Sam started in again and I cut him off.

"I really don't want to hear you talk right now." Sam ran a hand through his hair and gave a 'fine, whatever' gesture.

"Look, Mags, we don't like this anymore than you do, but it comes down to this or the end of the world. It sucks. Big time. But there isn't another option."

I wanted to crawl out of my skin. This was not supposed to happen. I was supposed to graduate art school and travel around Europe from museum to museum. I was going to sleep in my car and do odd jobs for a living and collect stories to talk about on Facebook. I was going to write a book and be really poor until it got published and I made a million dollars in royalties. I was going to die with a ton of cats in some foreign land surrounded by interesting people. I hadn't thought about those dreams in a while, since I'd been swept off to the bunker, but suddenly they all came swarming back into my mind. I wouldn't be able to do any of that with a baby. Unless Castiel wanted full custody of it. Was that even a thing for angels? I wouldn't want that either. Worse! What if Castiel killed it after it had reopened Heaven like hie had with the last Nephilim? My head ached with all the horrible possibilities and I found that I had to sit down or I was going to fall over.

"And if I did agree to this, which I'm not, would you kill it like the last one?" I shot at Castiel. He didn't seem to enjoy being put on the spot.

Hesitating for a long time, he finally said, "No. Killing Jane was something I did when I was in a… bad place. Metatron… manipulated me."

"And you're not in a 'bad place' anymore?" I nearly spat at him.

"No." Castiel's voice lowered, suddenly extremely sure of himself. He looked like he would like to dig a hole into me with his eyes. "I would never let anything happen to our child." I just stared at him for a moment, a bit stunned by his intensity. Finally I shook myself out of it and covered my face with my hands again.

"This is insane…" I mumbled under my breath.

"Look," Sam said cautiously, "Why don't you and Cas talk alone for a little? You can have some time to think about it, but this needs to happen soon." Sam glanced at Dean and got up to leave. Dean gave me a quick pat on the back as he followed his brother out of the room.

I stared at my hands, pressed up against my eyes for what felt like a long time. Castiel didn't make any move to speak or approach me, which I was grateful for. My head was still spinning. The pain of childbirth, the rest of my life tied to a super powerful baby, having sex for the first time with someone I had now only met twice. My virginity wasn't something I usually went around talking about. Nineteen didn't seem that old to have not had sex, but it often brought up a lot of uncomfortable talking about uncomfortable things. I could admit to being a bit squeamish about the subject. I was brought up in Catholic school and we had it drummed into out heads pretty severely that sex wasn't something to mess around with. So even at nineteen, I'd subconsciously avoided it with my past significant others. It was something I was planning on getting around to at some point, but in my mind it had always been with someone I loved and trusted. Not a near-complete stranger who I was being forced to have a child with in order to save the world.

"Margaret?" Cas asked solemnly.

"What?!" I had hoped he wouldn't say anything until I had time to get my emotions under control, but already my chin was shaking and my upper lip wavering. I could feel tears pooling up. Talking wasn't going to help.

"I am sorry." He sounded so genuine and I suddenly felt horrible for having shaped at him earlier.

"No, don't be sorry, it's not your fault." I said shaking my head. I was clearly crying by that point. This was all so unfair and humiliating. I hated crying in front of people. "I'm just… I can't believe… I don't know. This isn't fair! It's not fair!" I knew I sounded like a five year old throwing a tantrum but I didn't care. A sob caught in my throat and I thought about how pathetic I must look. Castiel shifted in his chair, clearly trying to think of something to say to comfort me.

"Um. Please don't… cry, Margaret." His monotonal, husky voice combined with his honest attempt to sound concerned was almost comical.

"I'll cry if I damn well want to!" I shouted. "Dammit! I'm sorry, Castiel. You must be just as freaked out as I am."

"I'll admit that making a child with a human does not fall in line with my plans." I chuckled a little through tears. "However, I didn't… cry quite as much as you." I smiled in spite of myself. His voice was so honest, and even under such awful circumstances, it was funny to see him so flustered over seeing me cry. I shook my head and wiped away the tears. I was overcome with a desire not to make him as uncomfortable as I was. I stood up. I was so much more comfortable when I was moving. I always had been. I took a few successful deep breaths and was able to calm myself down a little.

"I guess I don't have much of a choice, huh?" I mused quietly.

"Margaret, if you are implying that I would force myself on you without your conse…"

"No, no, no. No, of course not." I interrupted him, shaking my head. I fiddled with the table cloth on the coffee table. "I just… I don't know. I'm upset. I barely know you. I mean, Sam and Dean talk about you all the time. I'm sure you're wonderful and you're certainly very handsome. I'm sorry that was weird. Your vessel is very handsome. I don't know what I'm saying." I sat back down and shoved my face in a chair pillow. Cas was silent for a while, just staring at me. It was extremely awkward and the tears were starting again. Finally I exclaimed, "Please, say something!"

Castiel slowly got to his feet and crossed the room to where I sat. He sat down in the chair next to me and carefully took my hands in his. I peered out nervously over the pillow into his piercing blue eyes. His hands were warm, calloused, and twice the size of mine. There was something about him that felt safe and stable, especially when I felt like such a hurricane inside. Holding his hands, I felt more taken care of than I had since his whole thing started.

"Don't worry. You're going to be alright. I won't let anything happen to you." I sniffled.

"You're being so nice to me." I said with a small awkward chuckle.

"I don't want you to be afraid." More than anything I wanted to rest my head on his shoulder and let him wrap his arms around me. I couldn't remember ever having felt so strongly about a person so quickly. It didn't make the situation any better, but I felt more sturdy than before with his hands around mine. My mind rebelled against my instinct though, and I freed my hands and stood up and returned to pacing around the room.

I cleared my throat, "So how does this work? Who teaches this kid to open the gates of Heaven? And how long will that take?" I thought maybe talking about business would help distract me.

"As soon as the child is born it will be able to open the gates. It will not need to be taught. It will be instinct

"So what, it pops out and magically everything goes back to normal?"

"I'm not sure. This has never been attempted before."

"And it's not gonna turn around and eat me like a spider or anything, right?"

Castiel frowned thoughtfully and then decided, "No. It will not." I giggled a little at his serious demeanor. Of course, giggling just reminded me of how upset I was. I had never felt such a range of emotions in such a short time. The way he looked at me was so damn piercing, as if he saw parts of me that even I couldn't see. It was extremely frustrating and made me want to cover up. I couldn't imagine how soon he'd know me in a much more physical way than anyone else had. That thought made my mind jump to exactly what 'soon' meant. Did he plan on having me in the next room as soon as we finished our conversation? Just the thought made me panic and my heart race. I wasn't ready for that. I knew I wasn't ready for that. Suddenly tears filled my eyes again and I was crying before I could stop myself. I felt like such an idiot, and the way Cas was staring at me didn't help.

"So um… What's your plan here?" I asked somewhat more hostilely than intended, "Are you just gonna jump my bones after lunch and get it over with?" I really wished I could have sounded less insulted by the notion of it. I glanced hesitantly over at Cas, who did look a bit offended by how I'd put it. He stood up and closed the space between us.

With an air of perfect detached professionalism, he said, "If that's what you would like. We should not have to do it more than once." My bottom lip trembled, and I held back a sob. Cas cocked his head to the side slightly, seeming to be extremely confused as to why I was so upset. "That is not what you want." He finally decided. I shook my head, biting down on my lower lip hard. With an air of finality, he said, "You should take as much time as you need. In the mean time, I will look into fertility strategies. You should keep track of your menstrual cycle." And suddenly I was laughing again. Cas frowned trying to understand where the humor was. "That was not intended to be a joke, Margaret, there is a very specific time in a woman's cycle when she is most fertile and if we…"

"Thank you, Castiel, but I think I get the picture." He nodded.

"Well…" He cleared his throat, "I think I should go. Dean suggested I ask if I could kiss you… Would that be acceptable?" He seemed hesitant to ask at all, given that my eyes were still a little wet, but his intentions seemed warm. While no less intense, his whole face seemed to soften into an almost vulnerable place. I hesitated for a moment, and then took a step forward, until I could feel his breath. In answer to his question, I lifted up slightly off my heels and placed a small chaste kiss in the corner of his mouth. He responded by carefully and gently placing his hand over my cheek and moving into a full kiss. He seemed to want to deepen the kiss, but I stepped back, breaking away from him before he could.

"I'm going to go be by myself now." I breathed. Castiel nodded.

"Good bye, Margaret. I will see you soon." And with that he was gone.