Domesticity had always been something of a pipe dream for Dean Winchester. And yet, in the last few years, he had been blessed with little supernatural activity, allowed the peace to raise his children and make his house a home without interference from the new gods and old monsters that still proliferated the world. With the Olympians focused on consolidating their power after two thousand years in exile, nothing wanted to poke its head above the water, just in case it got a lightning bolt up the fundament.

So the Winchesters got to watch their children grow from babies to toddlers to children, and finally to be able to celebrate Christmas without too much in the way of destruction of the decorations and presents. Bertie was now an energetic six year old, and Hope and Anna not far behind him at five; add their six year old cousin, Alexandros, into the mix, and they were a very happy little bunch as Christmas Eve rolled around in 2019.

The kids were just about the right age for a visit from Santa Claus, though six-year-old Alex was starting to have his doubts, especially since he had an Olympian for a father. Whether they knew it was really Bobby wearing the red velvet suit or not, none of the children dared say, though a mumbled "Idjit" to Dean might have given him away. Whether the children knew or not, the visit had left them excited for Christmas morning, when they'd wake up to goodies in their stockings and presents under the tree.

Jo and Dean had, rather rashly, offered to host Christmas at their house this year, which meant they had a pair of Olympians in the spare bedroom, Ellen and Bobby in the study, and Sam and Becky on the couch. It was going to be a happy, but crowded, Christmas Day, that was for sure. But for a few hours, between midnight and around 4am, not a creature was stirring. All was well; peace on earth. And then, at exactly 4:07 am ....someone small and over-excited blew hard into a kazoo.

Jo groaned, rolling over to smack her husband lightly with her palm. "I told you nothing noisy," she grumbled, still half-asleep.

Dean pulled a pillow over his head in a vain attempt to muffle the annoying sound of the kazoo. He'd only turned in a few hours ago after putting together a pair of bikes for the twins and was nowhere near ready to get out of bed yet. "Don't blame me. I told them no one was allowed up until the sun came up."

"Maybe we shouldn't have put them all in the same room," Jo mumbled, pressing herself down underneath her own pillow in an attempt to block out the sound. Another kazoo joined the first, together with a familiar set of high-pitched giggles.

Dean winced, not so much at the giggles, as at the kazoo. "Whoever brought the kazoos is gonna get a good thrashing," he grumbled, without knowing who the guilty party might be. He sighed, looking over at Jo from beneath the cover of pillows and blankets. "Whose idea was this, anyway?"

"I think it was collective madness," she mused in a gravelly tone, blinking at him in their cocoon of covers. "Sam and Becky are the ones who'll get the full force of the kids first, with any luck."

"Sam and Becky are probably the ones who handed out the kazoos," Dean reasoned. After all, Sam and Becky didn't have kids yet and either didn't care or didn't realize that the kids would probably wake up before dawn to take a sneak peek at their presents. "It would serve them right to have to deal with the little rug rats this early in the morning."

Jo snorted with laughter, wriggling a little closer under the blankets. "We're probably not going back to sleep again, you know," she murmured. "But I'm not getting out of bed until at least half past 6."

"I am not getting up at ..." Dean trailed off, reaching for his cell phone to check the time and muttering a string of expletives when he saw what time it was. "You know what we should do?" he asked her, an evil smile on his face. "Wait until they're all asleep later and make some noise of our own."

She laughed quietly, reaching over to prod at his stomach. "Like you're going to be able to do anything but sleep by then," she pointed out. Christmas was always a little nuts in their house.

"I'm sure I could manage to do something," Dean replied, waggling his brows at her in the dark, though she probably couldn't see the expression on his face.

"Is it too early in the morning to give you your first present?" she asked thoughtfully, rolling her eyes at the expression she was pretty sure he was aiming in her direction right now.

"Depends on what that present is," he said, the smirk heard in his voice, even if she couldn't see it. He wasn't sure what she had in mind, but his thoughts had already gone to that of more carnal nature.

"Like I wasn't expecting that reaction," she drawled, laughing quietly at his one-track mind. Mind you, she had the same problem on occasion. "But I guess it's kind of in the same vein?"

Dean furrowed his brows, his wife's response confusing him further. "So, what ....You got me a virility charm?" he asked. "Thoughtful, but I don't really need one, you know," he pointed out, that smirk heard in his voice again.

"Oh, believe me, I know that," she assured him, nestling closer until her nose touched his. "Your little dudes are definitely firing on all cylinders. The proof's going to be arriving around June."

He snickered at her remark, before falling dead silent as he realized what it was she was telling. "Wait ..." he said, furrowing his brows. "Are you ....You're not ....Again?" he said, incredulously.

She giggled at his reaction, kissing the tip of his nose. "Looks like Johnny really wants to join the family," she told him. And with luck, he would be the last addition from them.

"Really' Seriously?" he asked, forgetting it was just after four a.m., forgetting there were kazoos playing in the background, forgetting he hadn't gotten more than a couple of hours sleep. He jerked upright in bed, tossing off the blankets and the pillows and turning to face her. "You're pregnant"!"

"Dean!" Startled to find herself outside their warm little cocoon, Jo rolled onto her back, looking up at him with amused indignation. "Yes, I'm pregnant!" she confirmed with a laugh. "About two months gone."

Dean flopped down beside her, half covering her with his body so that he could meet her gaze, nose to nose. "Two months ....That means Johnny will be born in ....Julyish?" he asked, doing the math in his head. Or thereabouts. "Wait, how do you know for sure that it's a boy?"

"Oh, well ....Maybe someone shouldn't have put kazoos in their stockings," Dean remarked, a cheesy grin on his face, though he wasn't accusing anyone in particular. "Okay, everyone out of the kitchen!" he said, suddenly, with a shooing motion. "Mrs. Scrooge and I are making breakfast, and then we open presents!"

"Daddy ..." A small hand tugged on his pajama bottoms, drawing his attention down to Hope and Anna, who were smiling innocently up at him. "Can we have a drink?"

Becky rolled her eyes, obediently shuffling back out of the kitchen to go and help Sam with the boys.

"Of course you can, my little angels. What would you like" Orange juice" Chocky milk?" he asked, going down on one knee so that he was at eye level with his twin daughters.

"We can has chocky milk for bwekfast?" Anna asked, wide-eyed with amazement.

Hope, on the other hand, went straight for the kill. "Inna big mug wiv a straw?"

"In a big mug with a straw," Dean confirmed, an adoring smile on his face for his two little angels. "But ..." he said, lifting a finger to indicate there was a condition. There was always a but, after all. "You have to promise to eat at least one pancake each. Can you do that?"

Two identical heads nodded with emphatic certainty, bright-eyed with hope over getting chocolate milk for a drink before breakfast. Jo had to hide her face behind the fridge door for a moment - she'd thought Dean was a pushover for Bertie, but the girls had him so wrapped about their fingers, it was a wonder he could walk straight some days.

Almost as if sensing - or remembering - there was another parent in the kitchen, he looked around for Jo. "Is that okay, Mama?" he asked, as if he needed her permission before he could give the girls permission, but it was Christmas, after all. He didn't think it would hurt this once.

Schooling her expression, Jo leaned back to look over at the three of them, unable to keep from smiling back at them. "Well, it's a special occasion," she conceded. "Just one mug, then juice with breakfast."

"You heard Mommy. One mug and then pancakes and orange juice, okay?" he said, looking from one twin to the other. They were good girls, but they sure did know how to get what they wanted from their father.

"Yes, Daddy."

"Fank you, Daddy!"

Two little women pounced him happily for a moment and then stood back, waiting impatiently for their drinks to be handed to them.

Jo slid the carton along the counter for Dean with a grin. "So cute, Daddy," she teased.

Dean hugged his girls back before moving to his feet to concoct the chocolately beverage. He shrugged as he reached for the milk carton. "It's a gift," he told his wife with a wink, making no apologies for spoiling his daughters. Even now, it filled his heart with joy to hear his children call him "Daddy." It wasn't so long ago that he'd been convinced he'd never have children, until he'd gotten a glimpse of a very dim future and decided he needed to do something about it.

Jo snorted with laughter at the sight of two little noses and two sets of fingers peeking over the edge of the counter to watch Dean make the drinks. "You two are ridiculously adorable sometimes, you know that?" This got a giggle from the twins, but they were fixated on their special Christmas drink.

"They take after their mother," Dean told her. "Why don't you girls go ask Bertie and Alex if they'd like a glass, too," he suggested. It was only fair, after all, though he'd only just banished everyone from the kitchen.

Impatience warred with a desire to be obedient, but Anna was the first one to break.

"'kay, Daddy. C'mon, Hope."

She gripped her sister's hand and pulled her out of the kitchen. A moment later, the entire house heard Hope asking the question of the boys.

Dean grabbed two more glasses from the cupboard, chuckling as he overheard their daughter asking her question a little too loudly. "Do you remember Hope ever being that loud?" he asked, of the future form of that daughter they’d met some years before. Sam and Hope had come back in time to help their parents defeat Hades, but only Sam had stayed in that timeline.

"You know, that volume really doesn't surprise me," Jo admitted, pretty sure she had the right amount of breakfast meat out to start cooking. "What does surprise me is that Anna's the dominant one when she's the quiet one too."

"You think so?" he asked, as he stirred chocolate sauce into the first glass of milk. Thankfully, the mugs were child-size and not so big they'd spoil their breakfast.

"You watch them sometime when they're deciding what they want to do," Jo suggested with a grin. "Hope always folds if Anna insists." The clumping of small feet announced the approach of all four of the smalls in the hall outside the kitchen.

"Hmm, I hadn't noticed that," Dean said, though now that he thought about it, she was probably right. Before he could add anything to that, they were being interrupted by a small stampede of little feet coming to claim their "chocky milk". Dean chuckled, raising a hand to stop the herd of children in their tracks. "Slow down. Everybody take a seat at the table."

That was an adventure in itself, given that the girls needed a little help from the boys to clamber up into chairs at the table. Jo kept an eye on that little proceeding as she portioned out the food for cooking, smiling to herself when all four were safely settled and waiting impatiently for their Christmas treat.

"Wow, are you sure these are our kids? They seem awfully well behaved," Dean teased as he passed out four glasses of "chocky milk", complete with straws. He could no longer threaten that Santa wouldn't bring them presents when there were presents a-plenty beneath the Christmas tree.

"Well, three of them came from you," Jo pointed out, tossing a wink to the quartet at the table.

"Well, they can't really unwrap this one just yet," she laughed, plating up the potatoes. One by one, the serving dishes made their way over to the table, laid out for people to help themselves.

"You realize Ellen probably already knows, and Sam probably has a pretty good idea," he pointed out. One by one, each place was set with about as much care as a man like Dean Winchester was wont to give. All that really mattered to him was that his family was all together, safe and sound, despite the chaos.

"And Ayden, too," she agreed in amusement. "But it would be a surprise for the others." She paused, reaching out to gently curl her hand to his jaw. "I don't mind who knows, or when, baby. Your present, your decision."

"Well, you know, I have a little surprise for you, too," he told her, with a playful gleam in his eyes. He'd had plenty of time to give her a present before the kids were up, but for some reason, he was only mentioning it now.

"Oh, really?" She raised her brows, grinning at the look on his face. "And here I thought you'd already given it to me before we got out of bed. How wrong I was."

"That's not just for you, though," he admitted, since he got just as much fun from their romps as she did. "I mean, a real present," he said, a mischievous grin on his face that said he knew something she didn't.

"Because that look doesn't make me suspicious at all," she countered laughingly, looping her arms about his waist. "You seem to be feeling the need to give me this present before we all sit down to eat, hmm?"

"Mmm ....Maybe," he murmured, that smirk still on his face, as his looped his arms around her waist. They were in danger of letting breakfast get cold, but he was having a hard time keeping her "present" a secret much longer.

"Decide quickly, princess," she warned with a grin, rising onto her toes to kiss him. "Or face the wrath of Bobby when he sits down to a cold breakfast."

Except for the fact that even Bobby was in on the surprise, but how was she to know that' "Okay, close your eyes," he told her, backing away and waiting for her to do as he instructed.

Jo sighed through her smile, obediently closing her eyes. She laid her hands on her hips, expecting something embarrassing or ticklish to happen to her at any moment.

Dean waved a hand in front of Jo's face to make sure she wasn't peeking, before she heard the sound of feet shuffling as he went to the back door to fetch her present from an accomplice who he'd made arrangements with on the sly. The only real sound that might give the surprise away was the sound of a muffled whimper and more shuffling feet.

Jo's head turned toward the sound, suspicion touching the smile on her face once again. "Let me guess," she said in amusement. "It's not another knife for my collection."

"Do you really need another knife, baby?" Dean asked. Besides, what kind of present was that' No, he'd gotten her something much better than that, as evidenced by the sound of a small "Woof?.

Whatever she might have said, it was lost in a sudden snort of laughter at the unmistakable sound that followed his question. "Well, I've never heard a knife make that sound coming out of a sheath before."

"Open your eyes!" he said, more nervous about her reaction to his "present" than he had been when he'd asked her to marry him. If she told him to take it back, it just might break his heart.

"So commanding, Mr. Winchester," she teased, but opened her eyes just as he told her to. It took a moment to readjust to the light, but as she did, she automatically focused her gaze onto the adorable ball of fluff in her husband's hands. "Oh ..."

"Well" What do you think?" he asked, scritching the little ball of fluff's chin while he held it in his arms. There had been a time when he hadn't been very fond of dogs, but a lot had changed since he'd married Jo. Besides, this wasn't a dog - it was a puppy!

"Oh, my god ..." Jo laughed as she reached out for the tiny dog, letting it sniff her fingers before her hand joined Dean's in scritching its fur. "Aren't you gorgeous" Is it a boy or a girl?" she asked, giggling just a little as the puppy licked her palm.

"It's a girl," Dean replied, a slightly sheepish smile on his face. "I, uh ....I know I said I don't like dogs, but ....How can you resist that face?" he asked.

"She's adorable," Jo assured him. Her own wariness of dogs was very specific to hellhounds, and since she could now see those, dogs in generals weren't such an issue. "Can I hold her" What's her name?"

"I, um ....haven't named her yet," he said, carefully handing the puppy to Jo and hoping she didn't pee on her. "I know I should have asked you first," he told her, especially considering the news she had shared with him a little while ago.

"Hey, you." Though Dean seemed worried about her reaction, it couldn't be more obvious that Jo was delighted with her unexpected present, gathering the excited little canine into her shoulder and laughing as the puppy licked her cheek. "She's beautiful. Thank you." With her free hand, she drew him close to kiss him. "Stop worrying so much. Pretty sure a lot of other people would have stopped you if this was a bad idea."

Dean smiled, relieved that Jo seemed pleased with her gift, though he wasn't sure she'd feel the same the first time the puppy peed on the carpet. "Sam said we had a dog, but ....he didn't tell me what kind. I didn't believe him at first ....until I saw her."

"She's perfect," Jo told him, her smile still wide with pleasure. "It'll be good for the kids, too. And I'll have someone to keep me company on the nights I can't sleep coming up." She winked at him teasingly.

"Don't I keep you company?" he asked, despite her teasing, as he scritched the puppy behind the ears. He was just about to say something else when there was a stampede of little feet and an audible gasp as the younger set found them with the puppy.

"Don't you "um" me, spit it out," Ellen told him, grinning as Jo dissolved into giggles.

"It was your present, baby, you get to share it," Dean's wife informed him, winking over at Sam, who could probably guess at this point.

Sam actually rolled his eyes at this point. "Isn't it obvious?" he asked, wondering why no one else seemed to grasp what his father was hinting at.

"It will be in a few months," Dean murmured.

Ayden was very deliberately looking down at her plate, grinning around her over-large mouthful. She knew, but it wasn't her secret to share.

Hope looked around at the adults. "Did Mumma get you a good present, Daddy?"

"A very good present, but technically it won't arrive for another, oh, eight months or so?" Dean replied with a smirk. Though Hope would most likely not understand that reference, the adults around the table should.

Jo tilted her head, lips moving as she counted silently. "Six months," she corrected in amusement. She squawked as Ellen abruptly lurched up from her seat to smother her in a tight hug.

Hope, on the other hand, just looked confused. "But how's it a pressie for now if it's not here?"

"Six months. I stand corrected," Dean said, that smirk still in place on his face. He turned then to Hope, his smile softening for his eldest daughter - older by a few minutes anyway. "What would you say if I said you're gonna have a baby brother?" he asked, the question not only directed at Hope but at Anna and Bertie, too.

Hope pulled a face, apparently not that delighted with the idea, but Bertie's face lit up excitedly.

"You're gonna make a baby boy?" he asked brightly. "I get another brother?"

Jo's smile softened as she caught Sam's eye; she deeply loved that her children all referred to him as their brother, despite his attempts to distance the relationship in early days.

"That's the idea," Dean confirmed, looking to the girls for their opinion on the matter and noting the look on Hope's face. "That would make you two big sisters," he pointed out. "Think you can handle that?"

Anna looked to Hope, as if to see what her twin sister would say on the matter before replying for herself.

"Do I have to play with him?" Hope asked. She was a ways from being sold on the idea of a new baby, it seemed, but if Anna was excited, it wouldn't be long before she was, too.

"You don't have to do anything, but be nice to him," Dean told her. "He's going to be part of this family, like the rest of us."

Despite her sister's question, Anna finally spoke up. "I'll be nice to him, Daddy," she told her father, sweetly.

"You have time to get used to the idea," Jo promised the girls gently. "He won't be ready for a long time yet." She was fairly sure Hope would come 'round in less than six months.

"Congratulations," Ares interjected, lifting his cup of orange juice to toast the good news.

"Does that mean I'm gonna have a new cousin?" Alex asked, looking a little confused.

"Yes, agori mou," Ayden told her son. "The new baby will be your cousin, just like Bertie, Hope, and Anna are." She smiled at him fondly.

Alex seemed to consider that a moment before blurting, "I would like a little brother someday." He had a little sister already, but she was too little to have any fun with yet.

Ares chuckled and reached over to affectionately ruffle his son's hair. "All in due time, my lad."

"We have plenty of time for that," Ayden agreed in amusement. Melita, their youngest, was currently asleep in the living room, but she would be awake and a part of the festivities in short order, no doubt.

Anna looked suspiciously at her mother's belly and pointed at it with a forkful of pancake. "How d'you know it's a boy in there?"

Dean reached over to halt the fork-pointing before his daughter accidentally launched a forkful of syrupy pancake at her mother.

"It's a feeling, sweetie," Jo told her, trying not to laugh as Dean intervened. "We'll find out for sure later on."

"I bet Auntie Ayden knows if it is or not," Bertie said, eyeing his aunt hopefully.

Ayden just smiled back at him. "You're right, I do," she agreed. "And I need to check on Melita." She rose from the table, neatly removing herself from the conversation. Ayden had learned quite quickly how to keep herself from blurting out truths better kept under wraps.

"Ayden isn't the only one who knows," Dean muttered, mostly to himself.

"Well, can't say I'm surprised ....considering," Bobby remarked, with a cheesy grin.

"Considering what?" Dean asked, brows furrowed.

"You know what," Bobby countered.

"Bobby Singer, if you say what I think you're going to say, I'm goin' to make you baste the turkey with a teaspoon," Ellen interjected quickly. "Honestly, the men in this family. Little ears don't gotta hear everything that comes out of your mouths."

"Just sayin'," Bobby said, lifting his hands in a show of surrender. He was smart enough not to pick a fight with his wife, even if he didn't think Jo's news was all that surprising.

"What?" Ares asked, looking from Ellen to Bobby in confusion.

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"Bandit"