CHAPTER SIX

"Hey, where are Ev's grapes?" Carter asks as Sam's looking at creepy Santa pictures.

"You mean the ones you left on the floor?" He looks at him. "They're in the fridge."

"Okay, first, I left them with her. And second, they're in a bowl." He argues, and Sam shakes his head.

Dean walks into the room then and steps over his son's blocks. "Hey, Munchie. Nice mess."

The two brothers start talking about their case, and Sam tells Dean that he thinks their monster is evil Santa.

"Hey, don't say crap like that in front of the twins." Carter tells him. "Those two words don't go together for toddlers."

They keep talking, and Dean obviously doesn't believe it. In all fairness, Sam's talking about the anti-Claus. Or Santa's evil brother.

"Santa doesn't have a brother." Dean tells him. "There is no..." He clears his throat as he looks between the kids. "Well, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Sam nods. "You're the one who told me that in the first place, remember?" He says, and Dean doesn't exactly know how to respond to that one. "Yeah, you know what? I could be wrong. I...got to be wrong." He says as she closes his laptop."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"I'm gonna hop in the shower. You two got the twins?" Carter asks, and Sam says they do as his brother tells him what he found.

They then take the twins and go to a place called Santa's Village. "It does kinda lend credence to the theory, don't it?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, but anti-Claus?" His brother questions, Alex on his hip. "Couldn't​ be."

"It's a Christmas miracle." He says. "Hey, speaking of, we should have one this year."

"Have one what?" Sam asks.

"A Christmas."

He scoffs. "No, thanks."

"Come on, we'll get a tree, a little Boston market. Just like when we were little." He says as he puts Everly on his shoulders. She holds onto his fingers as he walks.

"Dean, those weren't exactly Hallmark memories for me, you know?" He says.

"What are you talking about? We had some great Christmases." Dean argues.

"Whose childhood are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on, Sam."

"No. Just...no."

"What about for the twins, you Grinch?" He asks. "This is the only one I'm gonna have with them. It's bad enough that I screwed up their birthday."

Sam looks up at Everly and then to Alex before he sighs. "Yeah, alright, we can do something small for them." The younger boy agrees.

"Good." Dean nods. "So, what are we supposed to be looking for?"

"Uh... The lore says that anti-Claus will walk with a limp and smell like sweets." He tells his brother as they start walking again.

"Great, so we're looking for a pimp Santa." He says sarcastically​. "Why the sweets?"

"Think about it, Dean. If you smell like sweets, the kids will come closer, you know?" He says, and Dean pulls Everly back into his arms.

"That's creepy." He says, keeping her against him. "How's this thing know who's been naughty and who's been nice?"

"I don't​ know."

They stop a few feet away from where there's a Santa that has a kid sitting on his knee. His voice is rough and it's creepy when he chuckles.

"Welcome to Santa's Court." A woman dressed as an elf greets as she walks over to them. "Can I escort your kids to Santa?"

"I'm not letting my kids anywhere near that creep." Dean tells her, and she looks taken aback by his tone.

"What my brother means is, uh... We'll pass, thanks." Sam tells her, and she nods before walking away from them.

Creepy Santa gets up and starts walking, and he appears to have a pretty bad limp. "Check it out." Dean says as he adjusts Everly so she's not near him as he passes. "Are you seeing this?"

"A lot of people walk with limps, right?"

"Tell me you didn't smell that. That was candy, man."

"That was ripple." He argues. "I think. Had to be."

"Maybe. We willing to take that chance?" He asks, and Sam just looks at him, not wanting to believe it. Everly then grabs Dean's face, and he looks down at her. "Yes, Princess?"

"Dada." She smiles, and his face softens as he looks into her big brown eyes.

"She has Nyx's eyes, don't you think?" He asks. "Not just 'cause they're brown, but the shape too?"

"Yeah, man." Sam nods. "She does."

"I look at her, and I see..."

"I know." He nods. "Let's get them back to the motel so Carter can watch them while we keep an eye on Santa." He says, and Dean nods before they take the twins back to the car. Alex's practically been sleeping on his uncle's shoulder the whole time.

—

"So, you guys are dealing with a Pagan God then?" Carter asks, and Sam nods.

"Yeah, probably Hold Nickar, God of the Winter Solstice." He tells him.

"I hate Pagan Gods." Dean says, and his brother looks at him. The last time they delt with a Pagan God, he and Nyx were almost sacrificed in an orchard.

Alex tries running, but he bumps into his dad's leg and falls on his butt. "Hey, look at you, Munchie. My little over achiever." Dean says as he helps him back to his feet.

Alex is walking pretty well, trying to get to running. Everly​, on the other hand, is moving at a slight slower pace than her brother, always following behind him. But Dean talked to Meredith, and she said that it's perfectly normal. All kids are different and they advance at different rates.

"Dada!" Everly yells, and he looks over at her. She opens her mouth, telling​ him she wants food.

"You got it, Princess." He says before getting up to get her grapes — her favorite snack.

—

"You guys killed the Gods, huh?" Carter asks, and Sam nods.

"Yeah, Dean was pretty happy about it too." He says. "I think the whole Pagan thing was getting to him. Reminding him too much of an old case."

"Yeah, Nyx told me about it before." He nods. "She didn't like them much either."

"Yeah." He sighs as the door opens, and his brother walks in. "Hey, you get the beer?"

"You really went all out, didn't you, Sammy?" Dean asks as he looks at the tree and the few decorations he put up.

"Here. Try the eggnog." He says​ as he hands him a plastic cup. "Let me know if it needs more kick."

Dean takes a drink and then shakes his head. "No, we're good." He says, and the other two men laugh.

"Good, well, uh, have a seat." He says. "Let's do Christmas stuff or whatever."

"Alright, first thing's​ first." He sits down and pulls out two wrapped presents.

So, they quickly do gifts. Dean got them both the same thing: skin mags — in Sam's words — and shaving cream. Carter just got a bunch of candy for them and some motor fuel for the car. Sam gives Carter a shirt because he's​ lost a few due to the twins, and then he turns to his brother.

"Actually, I got these last two things a while back from Stefan." Sam tells Dean. "I didn't want to give them to you before, but you're in a better place now. So, I figured..." He hands him a brown paper bag.

Dean opens it up and pulls a teddy bear out of it. "This is the one that Nyx won at the carnival a while back." He says, and Sam nods. "And her vervain necklace." He lifts the silver locket that's around the bear's neck.

"Yeah, uh... He found the bear in her old room at the Boarding​ House, and he snagged the necklace before the fire." He says. "I've been holding onto them since he got his memories back. That was the first time anyone had gone into her room over there."

"Thanks, man." Dean says, and he nods.

They didn't really get anything for the twins because most of their stuff is either at Matt's or at Bobby's. They can't carry too much around with them all time. But Dean fully intends to leave the bear for Alex and the necklace for Everly after he's gone.

Carter turns on the football game, and then Dean picks up Everly from the floor. Alex is sound asleep on the couch next to Sam. Dean sets the bear down next to his eggnog on the coffee table and reaches into his shirt pocket. He pulls out a picture that he had printed up a while back.

"Mama." Everly says, looking at the picture, and all of the guys look at her.

"Yeah, Princess." Dean nods. "That's Mama."

It's the picture he took when they were working the trickster case in Ohio, when the twins were babies. Alex is sleeping on Nyx's chest, and Everly's asleep beside them on the bed.

"Mama." She's pointing at Nyx, and Dean smiles as he leans down and kisses the top of her head.

Nyx — on the other side of the room — smiles as she watches them. Alex stirs slightly, but simply rolls over and goes back to sleep. She watches as Dean talks quietly to Everly, and she stares down at the picture.

"Now, there's the man that I know and love." Nyx whispers, still smiling.