Castiel liked the tree too. He stood in front of it with big eyes looking up and down and walking around it. “It's so pretty, Dean…” “I know, I know.” “Did you see how pretty it is?” “Yup. I did. It's pretty,” Dean said and smiled a little. Cas was adorable sometimes. “It's so pretty…” Castiel kept mumbling. “So very pretty…” Dean chuckled and put an arm around him looking at the tree. It really was pretty.

“When I was little…  After we decorated the tree Mom used to put Rock'n'Roll Records on and we would dance until our sides would burn and we were out of breath. Then we'd eat pie,” Dean said and blinked a tear away. Castiel looked up. Dean rarely talked about his mother. He didn't talk about his family in general but Cas had asked him once about his mother and Dean had just answered: “She's dead…” and then he hadn't said anything for a long time. So Castiel had never brought it up again.   He looked at Dean now and saw how misty-eyed he was. He smiled and kissed his cheek softly. “That sounds like a lot of fun Dean.” “It was… it really was…” Dean mumbled.

In the night Cas woke up from sniffing next to him. He looked over and saw Dean curled up on the bed his face in the pillow. He smiled softly and touched his shoulder. “Are you alright Dean?” Dean shook his head still pressing his face into the pillow. “I miss my mom, Cas…” “I know…” Cas sighed and rubbed his back. “I'm sorry Dean.” Dean sniffed and nodded. “It's not your fault.” Cas hugged him and handed him the bee over. “Come on Dean,” he said and kissed his cheek. “No more tears,” he softly pushed his hair back. Castiel wasn't sure where he had that from but he thought it was the right way to comfort someone. Dean sniffed and sighed. After a while, he fell asleep in Cas’ arms. Cas was awake for a long time still holding Dean in his arms and thinking.

The next morning Dean didn't really eat his breakfast and Sam looked at him confused. “Are you okay, Dean?” he asked. As an answer, he just shrugged. Sam leaned over to Garth and whispered. “He's in his mom-mood. He gets really weird when he thinks about our mom, you know?” Garth looked at Dean and nodded understandingly.

Castiel was nowhere to be found. He hadn't gone to breakfast with them and that only made Dean's mood worse. Where was his friend? Charlie had noticed Cas’ absence too. “Did you and Cas fight?” she asked Dean. Dean shook his head and looked down. Charlie looked at him and sighed softly. “Okay… whatever.”

“Please, Sonny!” Castiel said. “It would be great for Dean and so much fun for everyone else.” Sonny looked at the boy. “Oh, I don't know, Cas…” Sonny said. “I'm not sure if it's against the rules or not…” “Please, Sonny. It would be so much fun…” Sonny sighed. “Alright. I'll talk with Jody about it. But I can't promise anything.” Cas smiled and hugged Sonny. “Thank you!” “No problem.”

In the evening Dean was staring out of the window of their room. “Do you wanna go play Uno?” Cas asked. Dean shook his head. “Dean, come, please. We can play a little Uno!” Dean shook his head again. “Please? For me?”Cas asked him softly. Dean turned around and sighed. Then he stood up and Cas smiled. “Thanks, Dean,” he took his hand.

Dean huffed when Sam told him he wanted to go to the park with all of them but one pair of sad puppy dog eyes got thrown at him and Dean couldn't really say no to that. Cas also helped as he thought it could be fun. So Dean gave in and they all walked to the big park on Sunday.   Sam and Garth were chattering along happily smiling at each other. Sam was excited that he was finally meeting the girl who Garth had made his card for. Garth was holding the card now. It was the last time before Christmas they would be able to see each other and Garth was obviously excited. "Do you think she'll like my card?" he asked for the dozenth time and looked at it. "Yeah, I'm sure," Castiel said also for the dozenth time and nudged Dean who was rolling his eyes. Charlie smiled. "Don't worry, Garth. She'll love it!" she said. Garth looked at the card again. "But is there enough glitter on it?" Dean who thought that there was in fact too much glitter on it huffed a little. "I think it's enough," Charlie reassured him. "Okay... if you say sooo..." Garth mumbled and bit his lip. "I say so," Charlie said and ruffled his hair, making his hat sit crooked on his head. Garth nodded and smiled a little. "Okay, Charlie..."

When they reached the park Garth ran towards a little girl wearing a pink Santa hat. She smiled and hugged Garth tightly. Garth smiled too and took her hand pulling her towards the others. "That's Bess..." he told them and looked at his feet blushing a little. "Hey, Bess," Cas said and smiled. "I'm Castiel and this is Dean." "And I'm Charlie," Charlie said. "And this one," she pointed at Sam. "Is Sam." "Yeah, I'm Sam. And I can tell her myself!" he said and glared at Charlie. Charlie giggled. "Nice hat you have there, Bess," she said to change the topic. "Thank you," Bess said and smiled softly. "I got it at that store in the center," she said and grinned. "They have like a lot of different colored Santa hats!" "Awesome," Charlie said and smiled. "Yes," Bess nodded and her blonde pigtails jumped up and done.

Dean nudged Garth. "Didn't you wanna give Bess something, Garth?" "Oh! Yes!" he said and started to fumble with the card he had made and almost dropped it into the snow. "Here... I made this for you..." he said and smiled softly. Bess' eyes got huge. "This is so nice!" she said and smiled. "Thank you!" Garth looked at the ground. "You're welcome..." "But... but I don't have anything for you..." she said frowning. "That's fine," Garth said. Bess made a face and then shook her head. "No, it isn't." She turned around, ran towards her father and talked with him. Then they both left the park leaving the group confused.

"Do you think she didn't like my card?" Garth asked looking at his feet. "I'm sure she liked it. She said she liked it," Sam said putting a hand on Garth's back. "Yeah, she did. Come on Garth... She'll come back soon," Dean said to the little boy. "You think?" "I know," Dean said and looked over at Cas who nodded also. "It'll be fine, Garth. Come on. Let's play a little, hm?" "Okay."

They ended up playing catch and it was a lot of fun even though both Garth and Sammy weren't really all that fast and the older kids had to run a little slower whenever they were the catchers. They set down on a bench when the two littlest boys were too exhausted to play. Garth looked around nervously. "You said she would come back soon. She isn't back yet." "She'll be back soon," Castiel said. He let him sit on his lap while Dean naturally took Sam on his.

Charlie jumped up. "Garth!" she said and nudged him a little. "Look who's coming!" Garth looked up. "Bess!" he said and got down from Cas' lap running towards her. "Hello, Garth," she said and smiled a little. "I... uh... I got you something and your friends too..." she smiled and pulled five Santa heads out from behind her back. Then she smiled. "I also have another secret present for you," she said and pulled a little box out. "But you gotta promise you won't open until Christmas..." Garth nodded. "Promise..." he said and Bess smiled. Then she handed the Santa hats over. They were awesome and all of them got a different color. Charlie's was yellow. Dean's was green. Castiel's was blue. Sam's was purple. And Garth's was red. They all thanked Bess.

"Your nose is red," Sam told Dean during breakfast. "Yeah, I know, Sammy..." Dean mumbled and stirred his Lucky Charms. "You look like Rudolph!" Sam said and giggled. "Huh?" Dean asked, still playing with his breakfast rather than eating it. "You look like Rudolph," Sam said again with a mischievous smile. "You know. The red-nosed reindeer." "Hm," Dean made and took the first spoon of the cereals. Castiel smiled at Sam. "He has a bit of a cold, Sam." "Oh..." Sam looked at his big brother. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine, it's just a cold," Dean said and sneezed into his sleeve. Sam squinted his eyes and looked between him and Cas. Castiel put his hand on Dean's shoulder and smiled at Sam. "We just have to make sure that Dean is taking it easy today, okay Sammy?" Sam nodded and smiled. "Okay!" "And you," Cas said and poked Dean's side. "You are really going to take it easy, you hear me?" "Uh-huh..." Dean mumbled and snuffled before he continued eating his Lucky Charms. Castiel sighed and looked at Dean worriedly. He wished Dean would have stayed in bed for the day. They didn't even have school today so there was no reason for him to walk around while being sick. There were a lot of other kids sick too and Castiel guessed that Dean got his cold from them. He sighed and rubbed Dean's back. "Leave it! I said I'm fine!" Dean said and coughed loudly. Cas pulled his hand back and looked at the ground. "I... I'm sorry, Dean..." Dean bit his lip and looked back at his bowl.

It was afternoon and Dean was playing Uno with his friends. But his head wasn't really in the game. His body was aching and he was so tired but he knew Cas and Sam were watching him so he definitely wouldn't let them know how bad he was feeling right now. He just continued snuffling and sneezing into his sleeve.

"Dean?" "Hm?" "It's your turn," Charlie said and pointed at the green seven that was at the top. "Oh..." Dean said and searched his cards for something green or a seven. "Are you okay?" she asked raising an eyebrow. "Yeah. Just got a cold," he told her. He wasn't sure how often he had told people that he had 'just a cold' today. He really hated it when people got worried about him. Worrying was his job after all.

He could see that Castiel was rolling his eyes from the corner of his eye. "Dean's been like this all day long," he told Charlie. "He's actually feeling very bad right now." "Poor, Dean..." Garth - Sammy had brought him to play with them - said. "Yeah, he really is poor," Charlie put a hand on his shoulder and sighed deeply. "Do you want to do something else? Maybe lay down for a bit?" "No," Dean said and looked at them. "I'm okay. Really. Just sucks right now but I'll be better soon. It's really just a cold." He felt bad for snapping at Cas earlier and he still had to apologize for that. Charlie sighed and shrugged. "Okay. But tell us if you start feeling worse, okay?" "Sure," he said and glanced over at Cas who was looking in his cards.

"You know your nose really is very shiny," Sam said during dinner. "Just like Rudolph's!" "Don't have antlers though..." Dean said and shrugged a little. "We could get you antlers," Sam said his mouth full with pasta. "Sam. Don't talk with your mouth full," Castiel said and looked at him. "Sorry..." Sam said, his mouth still full. "But he's right!" Garth chimed in. "We could get Dean antlers. Then he would really look like Rudolph!" Castiel sighed and put a hand on Dean's back. "I'm not sure if he wants that right now. Stop teasing him, you two." "We're nooot..." Sammy complained. "We're just..." Castiel raised an eyebrow at him and Sam concentrated on his plate again.

"Go to bed," Cas told him. It was evening and Dean was curled up on one of the armchairs in the group room. "Nooooo..." he mumbled. "Dean..." "I'm not tired..." "You're falling asleep on the chair, right now," Castiel said and sighed. "If you don't go to bed I'll tell one of the grown-ups how bad you're feeling." "That's unfair!" "No. It's totally fair," Castiel said. "I should have done it anyway and the only reason the grown-ups haven't noticed yet is 'cause they are all so busy with all the other sick kids." "Hmmph..." Dean made. "Dean. I mean it," Castiel said and took his arm. "Come on. Let's get you to bed..." Dean let him pull him from the chair and towards the bathroom.

  "Brush your teeth, Dean," Castiel said holding his toothbrush in his face.   Dean rolled his eyes. "I know, I wouldn't have forgotten that." Castiel sighed and looked at him. "Come on, Dean, you need to go to bed early if you want to get better," he said and looked at him. "Yeah, okay..." he mumbled. "Good."

Next, they knew Sam ran into their room and jumped on the bed. “IT'S CHRISTMAS!” he shouted and jumped up and down. Dean rolled his eyes sitting up in bed. “We know, Sammy, we know!” he said and sighed.

They got up and downstairs into the group room. Their stockings were filled and Dean grinned when he saw that. It also smelled really good. Castiel smiled and looked at him. “It's nice don't you think?” Dean nodded. “Yes, it is.”

They had to eat breakfast before they could exchange the presents but they did happily as the breakfast was amazing today.

Then they went to the group room to exchange the presents under the tree. Dean gave Cas a book about bees, Sam a plush dog, Charlie a Star Trek Lamp and Garth a tiny Teddy bear. Castiel gave Dean a little plush squirrel, Sam got his own card game, Charlie got a hobbit keychain and Garth got a little self-made star garland. Sam gave Dean a comic book, a toy car and a self-made card and two pictures, Castiel got a picture of a bee a folded box, also a self-made card and gloves, Charlie also got gloves and a nice picture of the Avengers and Garth got a funny new hat and a picture of him and Bess. Charlie got Dean a cool action figure of Batman, Castiel a little angel plushie, Sam a hat with doggy ears and Garth slippers that looked like monster paws. Garth drew a picture for everyone, Dean got one with a superhero on it, Cas got one with flowers and bees on it, Sam got one with dogs and Charlie got one where he had tried to draw the Avengers logo.

They all loved their presents and hugged each other. Then they ate more cookies and some pie (which especially made Dean happy) until they all had their tummy's aching.