Last Stop: Chicagoland
by phaballa, art by affectingly

Before Anne was actually and officially pregnant, before the whole test tube mixing, baby-making science experiment thing happened and they were just talking about it, just looking through egg donor catalogues and joking about whether the chick sounded like she had big tits or not, before Jensen had to endure way too many digs about Jessica Alba and having part-animal bits—before all that, Jensen didn't really think too much about what it meant to have kids. He never really thought he would because, hello, gay and a man and really not equipped for that sort of thing, but Jared was so excited and had all these ideas and before he knew it, there they were on the floor of Jensen's—their, whatever, he was still getting used to the idea of them together and sharing and all that—apartment with brochures spread everywhere. No pictures, because they didn't want to be all superficial about it, but personality profiles, likes and dislikes, test scores, IQ scores. Jensen looked at all of it and thought it would be really cool to have a super baby. Although not if actual animal parts were involved. He was willing to give up the super baby status to ensure an all-human kid.

Jensen came home one night from rehearsal pretty much dead on his feet and wishing he'd never agreed to do this summer thing with the Neo-Futurists, because he loved the whole Too Much Light, short-plays thing and it was fun and exciting and every night was different with live theatre, but it was exhausting, too, so yeah. But Jensen came home after a show and it was two in the morning, it was a Saturday night and Jared waited up for him. He was just sitting there, grinning, and Jensen knew. Anne was pregnant. Knocked up. In the family way. It was done. Anne was going have their kid.

It wasn't until that moment that Jensen started freaking out.

Credits:
I have a lot of people to thank, some of whom had no idea they were even part of the process of my writing this fic, which I do think is probably the best fanfic I have ever written. First off, I need to acknowledge my inspirations for writing this, namely a wonderful story by Sandy, When I Sleep You Are Near to Me. Even if you don't read popslash, I recommend reading this fic because it's truly wonderful and one of my favorites. I took a lot from it, including the basic idea of "married with kids," and all of the good stuff in my fic was probably stolen from Sandy one way or another.

The other fic that really inspired me to write this was, of course, With This Ring by babyofthegroup. I love this fic to pieces and it really helped turn me on to domestic schmoopy romance fic. Drew has been so encouraging of me not just with this fic, but with most everything I write, and although he wasn't able to be my beta this time around, he contributed so much in other ways. I feel like I wrote this in tribute to WTR and Sandy's fic (although she doesn't know me!), so I really wanted to just acknowledge my inspiration . I don't know that what I've written here is better than either of these fics, but it's in my style and my point of view, and I'm very proud of it.

Finally, I need to thank all of the people who worked with me to make this thing the best it could possibly be. topaz119, who helped me de-Sandy; why_me_why_not, who beta'd for my small child characterizations; anasuede and notthequiettype for listening to me whine and freak out and and have panic attacks during the whole process; brynwulf for stepping in and grammar beta-ing for me at the last minute; and most of all, wendy and madame_d, who've been with me from the beginning, encouraging me and sending me random texts and reading every draft I've had and dissecting my characterizations until I got them just right, up to and including a few panic-ridden emails late last night about the proper useage of 'lay' and lie.' Thanks to affectingly, who made some beautiful artwork and dealt with me being demanding and neurotic about the whole thing. I also need to thank everyone who read the little prequel drabbles I wrote for this and were so encouraging and excited to read the main event. Fandom has been really wonderful to me this year, and Supernatural fandom in particular. I'm getting sappy here, but y'all are the best and I feel lucky and privileged to be connected to all of you.

Table of Contents

Prologue
+Part 1: Dating on the Regular
+Part 2: Easy As Pie
+Part 3: The Worst De-Virginizing Ever

Last Stop: Chicagoland
+Part 1
+Part 2
+Part 3

Epilogue
+Part 1: SoLa Land
+Southland Tales (The More Things Change)

Extras
+Last Stop: Chicagoland, the music
+A Completely Biased, Not Entirely Accurate Walking Tour of Chicago
+Let the Rain Pour: Music Mix