#3rd degree

“Wait,” Y/N says as she stands to follow Dean out. “You have a son?”

“Yea,” Dean answers as he holds the door open for her. “Uh, do you - is it okay to go with me? I mean, I was hoping to eventually introduce you to him, just not like this. I understand if it’s too much too soon or not what you expected.”

Y/N was practically running to keep up with him as he stalked toward his car. “I’m okay. I mean, yea I will go with you. I don’t want you to lose time to take me home. But, um. I’m not really dressed for a hospital.”

Dean stops and turns to look at her. He chuckles as he removes his suit jacket and hands it to her. “Yea, I guess not. Here take this, it’ll help.”

“Thanks,” Y/N pulls the jacket onto her shoulders and slides her arms in. The sleeves are longer than her arms but at least she’s mostly covered, although she still feels overdressed for the location they are headed.

“So,” she says once they are in the car and Dean drives out of the parking lot. “You got a kid. What’s his name? How old is he?”

“His name is Luke. He’s 8 years old. And sharper than a tack. smart; runs circles around me with his knowledge. He’s always asking questions that make you really think about the answer.”

Listening to Dean talk about his son warms Y/N’s heart. He is completely smitten with his son. But then the fact that if Dean had a son, there is a woman there who bore Dean’s child; a woman who Y/N is unsure about meeting. 

Did they break up amicably? Was it a messy divorce, with custody issues? Dean is so adamant about doing what is in the best interest for the children of the cases he takes on; is this why? Did he lose custody of his kid so he fights for others?

Is his ex a bitch and will cause a scene when the father of her child shows up with another woman? Is she still in love with Dean? 

“You’re quiet over there,” Dean says, bringing Y/N out of her internal dilemma. “Is this going to be a dealbreaker? For us, I mean.”

“To be honest, I don’t know,” Y/N tells him, genuinely. “I mean, this is….this is a lot. I had no idea you had a kid. Not that there’s anything wrong with it. I like kids. I just….I knew they weren’t in the cards for me so I didn’t specifically go out looking for them. You understand?”

“I think I do,” Dean says, taking his eyes off the road long enough to glance over at her. 

When they pull into the hospital Dean drives around trying to find a parking spot. Y/N finally gets the nerve up to ask him the questions that had her anxious.  

“I’m guessing that that was Sean’s mother who called?” With a nod from Dean, she continues. “Is me being here going to be an issue?”

“Why would it be?” Dean asks as he pulls in between two other vehicles and kills the engine.

“Because, Dean. We were on a date. I’m dressed like this,” she motions to herself. “Will she cause a scene because the man she still loves shows up with another woman!”

Dean laughs. “Anna isn’t like that. She doesn’t love me. Well, not like that. I’ll explain later. I just want to get inside and check on my boy.”

They get out of the car and Dean grabs Y/N’s hand as they walk toward the ER entrance. 

Inside the emergency department, Dean rushes over to a slim redhead who is sitting beside what Y/N discovers is a miniature replica of Dean. The little boy looks exactly like his dad, from the golden brown hair and green eyes to the dimples in his cheeks when he smiles seeing his Dad.

“Hey buddy,” Dean says, squatting down in front of him. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t feel so good,” the boys whines. “I throwed up and Mommy says I’m burning up. I don’t know what that means because I haven’t been on fire but she said I needed to come.”

Y/N smiles at the innocence and naiveté in the little boy. 

Dean ruffles the kid’s hair and chuckles. “Mom was right. We gotta get you better before you actually do burst into flames.”

Dean then turns to the redhead and whispers. The woman listens intently and then looks up at Y/N.

“Hello Y/N. It’s nice to meet you.”

Her greeting catches Luke’s attention and he looks past his dad to the lady wearing a jacket way too big for her. “Are you Daddy’s girlfriend?”

Dean looks over his shoulder and up at Y/N and then turns back to Luke. “She is a friend and she is a girl,” he tries to explain to his son but is surprised when Y/N speaks up, “Yes, I am his girlfriend.”

Y/N glances at the redhead and is surprised to see a smile on her face.

Dean stands up and  clears his throat. “This is Y/N Y/L/N, my girlfriend. Y/N meet Luke and Anna.”

The introductions are interrupted when Luke whines and then leans over and pukes into the bag that the nurse had given him to hold.

Both Dean and Anna’s attention is on their son so Y/N takes a seat across the room and watches.

She sees the worry and concern etched on Dean’s face; how he tries to alleviate the situation with a joke; how he holds his son’s body close to his chest when the boy climbs into his lap. 

Dean Winchester is a heck of a lawyer but is heroic in the role of ‘father’.

When the nurse comes out and calls “Lucas Winchester”, Dean stands up, still holding his son and follows her into the examination room, leaving Anna and Y/N alone in the waiting room.

“Don’t you need to go in there too?” Y/N asks.

“Dean has this handled,” Anna explains. “We need to talk.”

Y/N swallows audibly as she watches the other woman rise and walk over to the seat beside her.

Y/N feels her stomach drop and begins to wonder if she needs to ask for a barf bag herself. Her hands are shaking and sweaty, although it is cool in the waiting room and she is dressed in a barely there dress and a suit jacket.

Anna is slim, her gait confident. Y/N studies the woman who sits beside her. Anna’s skin is alabaster and clear, her red hair almost like flames and her eyes are a slate gray with flecks of brown in them. 

“Tell me about yourself, Y/N.”

“Uh…my name is Y/N. I work with Dean; his assistant. Um, I’m 28 years old. I went to community college and got my associate’s degree in paralegal studies.”

“Smart girl,” Anna smiles as she turns and leans against the armrest between the two chairs. “But that’s not what I asked. Now tell me, do I need to worry about you being with the father of my child? Do I need to warn Lukey about anything he might hear or see when he is at his dad’s?”

“No. Absolutely not,” Y/N answers. “I mean, I’ve only been to Dean’s once but if I were to be there when Luke is, you’d have nothing to worry about. I swear.”

“Do you like kids, Y/N?”

“Yea sure.”

“Do you have any?” Anna inquires.

“No.”

“Do you want children?”

Y/N looks at her interrogator and huffs. “I don’t know how that is any of your business.”

“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry,” Anna chuckles, holding her hands up in surrender and sits back. “Listen, Dean and I, we’re best friends. Have been best friends all our lives, our Mom’s were too. I’m what you call, Dean’s wingman. I always vet his prospects, see what I can get a sense of - what kind of girl she is, if she’d be good for Dean, that kind of thing.”

“So, uh-” Y/N smacks her lips together. “What’s the verdict on me?”

Before Anna can answer, Dean steps out of the examination area. Both women look toward him as he walks closer. 

“They sent off swabs to test. We just have to wait. Right now, he is watching cartoons on his iPad. How’s -” he glances between the two women “-everything out here?”

“Good,” Anna answers, standing up. “Just perfect. I’m going to go in and love on my little man for a while. I’ll text when they have the results.”

She passes by Dean and grabs his hand, squeezing it as they have a silent conversation. When she is gone, Y/N lets out a puff of air.

Dean takes the seat Anna had vacated and leans his head back, closing his eyes. 

“I’m sorry our date got ruined, Y/N. This is the first real health crisis he’s had so when she called, I freaked.”

“Dean, I swear it’s okay. Completely understandable. We’ll just have to plan another date night.”

He lifts his head and opens his eyes and looks at her. “Really? So you’re still willing to go out with me?”

“That’s what girlfriend means, silly,” Y/N laughs as she bumps her shoulder with his. Dean chuckles and grabs her hand, lacing their fingers together.

“So tell me,” he starts. “How was the inquisition?”

Y/N explains how Anna told what she was to Dean and how they had been friends for a long time, how it was perfectly normal for the redhead to worry about the people who are in her child’s life. 

“This was a piece of cake compared to what Emily will put you through,” Y/N warns. “Em and I are like this -” she crosses the fingers of her free hand “- so you better be prepared.”

After a bit of silence, Y/N leans over and whispers, “At least Anna didn’t inquire about our sex life. Emily absolutely will. And want details.”

Dean’s face jerks toward her in shock. “Did you tell her about -”

“Oh yea. Every sordid detail,” Y/N giggles and Dean groans. 

It is almost 2 hours later when Dean’s phone dings with a text. Y/N has her head laying on his shoulder, their fingers still linked. From her vantage point, she sees the screen when Dean brings his phone to life.

The HOME screen is a picture of Dean with a younger Luke sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, matching smiles on their faces. Y/N heart warms at the sight. 

She can also see the messages between Dean and Anna when he opens the text app. 

“Flu A and a nasty stomach bug. They’re giving him some meds and then releasing him to go home and rest.”

“Tell Y/N I’m sorry for scaring her. :)”

“I like her, Dean. She’s good people.”

“Thank god!” Dean says low. 

“I’m glad it’s nothing worse,” Y/N tells him, lifting her head to look at him. “You want to wait and tell them bye?”

“Would you mind?” Dean asks, thankful.

“Not at all.”

They resume their previous position and are quiet for a while, a tv on the other side of the room playing low and the normal hustle and bustle of an emergency department around them.

After a while, Dean speaks up. “So, how bad was it?”

Y/N lifts her head and looks at him. “What?”

“Anna. She can be extreme.”

“She cares about you Dean,” Y/N tells him. “She has to be that way because who you date not only affects you but your son. I understand her stance, her concern.”

“Good. Because I really like you Y/N,” Dean says. “I know this isn’t an ideal place to have this conversation. I was planning on asking you to be more than my assistant tonight.”

“I think I answered that anyway,” Y/N laughs.

Dean leans over and places a chaste kiss to her lips.

The door opens and Luke runs toward them. “Daddy, you’re still here!” the boy says and then turns to Y/N. “Look I got two stickers-” he shows them to her excited and proud. “One is a panda bear and one is a tiger. I like both of those animals and couldn’t decide so they let me have both. That’s cool, isn’t it?”

Y/N looks at the stickers, feigning interest while the young boy’s parents talk. After a few minutes, Anna grabs Luke’s attention. 

“Okay buddy. Time to say goodbye,” she says, affectionately. 

“Okay,” he says reluctantly and then turns to Dean. “Dad, are you still coming over this weekend? Remember you said we’d watch ‘The Lion King’ together.”

“As long as you’re feeling up to it, bud,” Dean chuckles. 

“Can Y/N come too?”

The three adults pause and look at one another, each waiting for one of the others to answer. Finally Dean says, “Not this weekend buddy. She has things to do tomorrow but maybe she will come over with me soon.”

“Promise?” Luke asks, turning to look at Y/N.

She smiles and nods her head, “Promise.”

Anna and Luke walk out of the emergency department hand in hand with Dean and Y/N behind them. 

After hugs in the parking lot, the foursome go their separate ways.

“Well, this is not the way I thought the night would go,” Dean says as he heads away from the hospital.

“Oh so you weren’t planning to gain a girlfriend,” Y/N jests.

“That was the one thing that turned out right,” he says, squeezing her hand and glancing over at her with a smile. “I’m starving. Want to find some place to eat?”

“How about we hit up a drive thru and get some burgers and take them back to your place?” When Dean looks at her curiously, she adds, “I told you I was planning on fucking you, didn’t I?”

Dean presses his foot against the gas and they speed down the road while Y/N laughs. “Don’t kill us or you can forget about getting lucky!”

Dean pulls into the first restaurant he finds that has a drive thru. They order some food and he pulls around to pay. As soon as the bag is handed over, he speeds out of the parking lot and turns toward his house.

The food is left on the kitchen counter, unopened because as soon as the door was shut and locked, Y/N was picked up, thrown over Dean’s shoulder and carried to his bedroom. 

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