Who: Dean, Alex S, and Claire What: Dean has another daughter…lucky him Where: the park When: the second day of the kids plot Warnings: probably language Status: closed/g-doc
The day before, Alex woke up to a normal work day. She ate some breakfast,showered, got dressed, did her hair, brushed her teeth, and applied some mascara and lipstick. Truthfully, Alex didn’t wear a lot of makeup, because she preferred glitter and ‘trashy’ makeup, which wouldn’t fly at the museum. But, she started watching a few makeup tutorials online to at least be a bit better with eye makeup.
She left a little earlier than usual, so she could swing by the blood bank before grabbing coffee for both her and Rebekah. Lattes in hands and blood in her reusable bag, Alex made her way to work. She had just added some blood to the latte when she heard, “Mom”.
After a very long conversation, Alex learned she had a daughter named Claire. A daughter with Dean, and a daughter who could also see greys, or ghosts and people called them in Madison Valley. Her daughter, though, hadn’t reached puberty yet, so ghosts couldn’t fucking touch her yet. If they tried, Alex would use every death word, phrase, verse she knew to protect her daughter.
After a back and forth conversation with Dean, they agreed to meet the next day at the park after Alex finished work. Apparently the Dome decided to give him multiple kids. How fun for him.
As they waited in the park, Claire casually said, “The ghost over there looks like he wishes he could join the kids on the slide.” Alex wondered at their lives in Claire’s world where Claire felt safe enough to mention these things. Of course, Alex realized at her young age, she didn’t know any better about hiding her secrets. Alex bought herself and Claire hot chocolates while they waited on Dean, with a third one for him.
“There’s Dad.” Claire pointed to Dean and waved.
The situation as a whole was completely fucked up and he wasn’t sure if he should have been concerned due to the fact he did know Alex, albeit not that formally. An alternate version of himself had slept with her during his brief time in Madison Valley, but if he had somehow gotten her pregnant, she would have known by now. Even though it seemed that this wasn’t just a phenomenon specific to him, it still worried him. Why the fuck would the dome be making all these random kids? Then again, when did anything the Dome do make sense?
He explained the situation to Lisa and agreed to meet with Alex and Claire the next morning. When he arrived, he spotted the two sitting together on a bench and when Claire pointed and waved to him he offered her a hesitant smile and a weak wave in response. Unlike the other two girls she had darker hair and resembled Alex more than him. It was easy to deal with the child he had with Lisa, but having to juggle the others was a little overwhelming, though he planned to do his best with all of them.
“Hey, how’s it going?” He greeted the two with an awkward smile, both hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket as he took a seat on the bench next to them. Alex was old enough to be his daughter and he still couldn’t wrap his mind around that fact. “So, uh…” Dean shifted against the bench to angle himself towards the two, not really sure what to say. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.”
Alex handed him a hot chocolate as well. Maybe he didn’t want it, but fuck she wasn’t going to be rude. Even if this felt fucking weird. Since she knew he had two other children appear from his texts, she gave him a friendly shrug.
“Hi Dad,” Claire said and gave him a brief one armed hug. “Mom explained the situation to me, kind of. Thanks for hanging out with us anyway.” Claire was mature for her age, had to be due to the ghosts it seemed, so Alex had told her Dean had two other children show up as well.
Alex asked Dean, “It’s okay. How are things going on your end?” At least she only had one kid show up, which seemed to obviously not be the case for everyone. She wished she’d at least had a kid with someone who seemed more comfortable around her, like Kenny.
“Oh, thanks. You didn’t have to get me anything.” He took the cup from her with an appreciative smile and took a sip. He had been expecting coffee, and while the taste of hot chocolate confused him momentarily, it was a pleasant surprise. Dean leaned over to return the hug, though it was brief, and she pulled away before he barely had time to respond, but he wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t nearly as excited as the other two had been, but then again, she was a little older.
“Yeah, it’s…” his hands moved to clasp around the cup and he looked over at them both, his thumb toying with the flap on the lid. “Things are going okay, I guess.” It was strange that he had gone to bed one night and woke up the next morning with multiple children. Kids he didn’t even think were going to be around for long, as much as he wanted them to be. “Actually found out I have another kid. She’s the oldest, it seems. Have no idea how we’re even related because she’s nothing like me, but…” he let out a tired laugh and shrugged his shoulders, noticing how Claire kept staring off into the distance, like she was watching something that wasn’t there.
“Uh…is she okay?” Other than his brief encounter with Alex, he knew absolutely nothing about the other woman and had no idea if she held any special powers.
It wasn’t that Claire wasn’t excited to see her father. But she didn’t always know how to handle relationships. A lot of her growing up involved learning about ghosts and how to protect herself. Less hugs and kisses. Actually she loved her father. And so she leaned over and leaned against her father for a moment.
Alex listened to Dean. “I hope one of the kids is with Lisa.” Or Dean would feel even more awkward. “How is she not like you?”
At the question, Alex looked uncomfortable. She rarely talked about her abilities and certainly never planned on a conversation with Dean about them.
“She’s fine. There’s a ghost over there and she’s observing.” Unfortunately, Alex would need to reiterate the whole ‘pretend ghosts aren’t there’ talk. “I see and hear ghosts. It seems our daughter inherited those abilities.”
Dean was a little surprised when the girl leaned in against him, but he moved to place his arm around her with a smile. “Yeah, one of them is with Lisa,” he nodded, shifting the hot chocolate in his hand so he could run his fingers through Claire’s hair. “She’s just really smart, it seems, and while I’m not a complete idiot, I didn’t even finish high school. Meanwhile, she’s anxious over the possibility of missing a trigonometry test.” He scoffed at the thought and rolled his eyes.
Hearing that Alex had the ability to see and hear ghosts was definitely surprising, but given his line of business, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. “I hope they don’t bother you, or her too much. If they do, I can maybe help you get rid of them. Or, I could at least give you some stuff to keep you protected so they don’t harass you. I don’t think I ever mentioned it before, but I deal with the supernatural and I have taken care of my fair share of ghosts. They aren’t always bad, but they often end up becoming dangerous. I’m sure it wasn’t easy growing up with such an ability.”
Now that he knew, he found himself wishing he could actually be there to protect his daughter from anything the ghosts might throw at her, but he was sure Alex could handle it.
Claire leaned against her father. She rarely accepted physical attraction, but from her father it felt nice. “Thanks Dad.”
Alex snorted. “Trig, huh? I never took it, but good on your kid for caring about school.” Claire murmured, “Please don’t make me take trig.” Alex said quickly, “We wouldn’t. Although you’re smart.” Alex could tell, as quiet as their daughter was.
At the offer Alex shrugged. “Here, the ghosts don’t seem to bother us. But, death words seem to work on the ghosts here as well, if any of them won’t leave her alone.” Alex made a list of phrases, poems, and words which would send a ghost away. “Back home…the people who could have told me how to protect myself didn’t until it suited them. And I will not let the same thing happen to our daughter,” she said with a fierceness which surprised her.
“It’s okay Dad. You’re still a good father,” Claire said, as if reading his thoughts.
“Yeah, of course. Anytime, kiddo.” Dean looked down at her with a smile, turning his attention to Alex again. Upon hearing that nobody back home had lifted a finger to assist her with the issue, he found himself angry, and if he could, he would have punched them all in the face on her behalf. “Seriously, though. I mean it, if you need anything, I am more than happy to help you both out. Though I am glad to hear they don’t bother you too much.” He knew all too well just how awful ghosts could be, especially when they were trying to get the attention of the living and most couldn’t even see them.
He looked at Claire with a raised brow, curious about her sudden comment. “Uh…thanks? I mean, I’m trying at least.” Hearing so many different girls call him father in the past two days just felt weird, but he was actually enjoying it. In another life he would have loved to settled down with a bunch of kids, but this was probably the closest he would ever get to such a reality. “So, do you two have anything exciting planned for the rest of the day?”
Alex saw the emotions run through Dean’s face and the fury returned to her momentarily. The realization that death words could have protected her for her entire life and the ones watching her didn’t tell her. Didn’t protect her. When Darlington told her, the elation turned sour in her mouth and she’d been so angry. But, Darlington understood and watched her break all of the valuable crystal in Lethe. Because Lethe didn’t care enough to protect her, just enough to see what she could do for them.
Claire watched her mother’s reaction and felt the need to reassure her. “It’s okay, Mom. You know how to protect us now and dad helps when he can.” Claire said quietly, “In our future, you help mom when she relapses.” Alex didn’t feel any surprise over the fact she relapsed. But at least for now, she remained clean.
“Thanks Dean. I appreciate it.” She smiled and pushed down all of anger, refocusing on the amazing daughter in front of them.
Claire asked, “Did you have any other kids show up? Mom just has me.” She saw what the network had to say.
Dad helps when he can. All of these alternate futures sounded like total bullshit and he hated that even in another world, he wasn’t always there. Though who could even say why. Well. Claire, obviously, but it was better left unknown. When she told him that he would help Alex after a relapse, he had no idea what she meant by that. Had she been an alcoholic, addicted to drugs? She was still practically a child herself. One thing he knew for certain was that he had every intention of getting closer to Alex in the future. Not that she needed his help or anything, but he couldn’t just ignore all the things he had heard.
“Yeah, I did. I have a few daughters, apparently. One of them is with someone I had never even met before, so that was pretty weird.” Dean leaned back against the bench and stretched his legs out in front of him, his hands firmly around the cup of hot chocolate. “Did you maybe want to spend some time together doing something? Shopping? I don’t know.” When it came to what girls enjoyed doing in their free time, he was pretty much clueless.
Alex said softly “It was drugs. I’ve been clean for about a year and a half.” She hated to feel so exposed, but she couldn’t fault her daughter for speaking her truth, not when Alex fought so hard to speak hers. People ignoring her truth, or rather not believing her, was why she ended up a drug addict on the streets.
Claire laughed. “I’d like to meet them, although it must be weird to have a child with someone you hadn’t met before.” At the mention of hanging out, Claire nodded. “I like games. And comic books.” In fact, Claire read a lot of Marvel comics. “We could play some games or visit…wait does Madison have a comic book store at this point in time?”
He held no judgement over Alex whatsoever and figured that if drugs or alcohol had been the case, she was only trying to survive and he couldn't fault her for that. "Hey, you don't even want to know all the shit I got into as a kid." If John hadn't been so strict on them, he likely would have turned to booze at an early age himself. Hell, at this point in his life he could possibly be classified as an alcoholic, but he preferred to pretend that problem didn't exist.
"Sure, you can definitely meet them. So long as it's cool with their mothers. I only have the one at home, so I can't speak for everyone." At the suggestion of playing games and checking out comic books, Dean practically flew to his feet. "Uh, yes, yes we can absolutely check out the comic book store and the arcade. I am so down." Claire was definitely someone he was going to end up missing when she was gone, but at least he would get to know her a little bit before that.