Dee pulled her car into the parking lot of the Easy Daze dinner just outside of Palo Alto on I-280. It was the kind of place she'd grown up in, small time, run down but friendly in it's own way. There really wasn't a more fitting place to meet after SO long. She slid into a booth toward the back and ordered a coffee from the middle aged waitress beaming an amiable smile down at her. She knew she was nervous because the sight of the diner's prodigious selection of pies did nothing for her, heck she was pretty sure the coffee she was nursing would end up stone cold before it was more than half finished. Tonight she didn't think she could hold down even a single piece of pie and throwing up on his shoes sure would be a great way to say say hi to Dad again after nearly four years!

Dee had no idea why he'd called, why he'd sounded so earnest and un guarded and insistent on the brief voice mail she'd gotten and she REALLY didn't know how she felt about reconnecting after everything that had happened. She certainly wasn't going to tell Sam. He'd be mad at her for keeping it from him but big time college degree or not she was still his big sister and she was going to protect him. Truthfully, deep down she also knew it wasn't just Sammy she needed to protect. A very large part of her, the part that she knew was just like their father, wanted to tell Dad to go fuck himself. If he couldn't be there for his kids when they needed it, back when they actually WERE kids then why the hell should she waste her time with him now. Yet... here she was, waiting, feeling about 16 rather than 26 with her stomach doing back flips and a tiny self destructive voice in the back of her head still desperate for John Winchester to stride in, clap her on the shoulder and look at her with pride... just like he used to.

Four years ago she and Sam had left. Sam had gotten his full ride to Stanford, the little nerd that he was. It had been the push that they'd both needed to cut their losses and build their own life away from John Winchester and his expectations, his demands of their lives and what they should be. For Sam that had meant a life of hunting, the family business. Something that he had never accepted through tears, tantrums, screaming arguments and finally stoney silences that had in the end become all that was left. For Dee it had been more complicated, the family business had never been an issue for her. She was only four when Mom died but she remembered it clear as day and she STILL hunted, however much it pissed Sam off. For her it went deeper. She'd been very young when she first really realised that there was something wrong with her. She'd thought it might have been because they lost Mom, that she was reaching desperately to get her back, to replace her even but over time she knew it was more than that. She knew that the boy her father and brother saw, that everybody saw wasn't who she was. Pointing out that John Winchester's first born son, his little boy, was a girl, that had been impossible. It had been inevitable too and in the end far from screaming matches like Dad and Sam they wound up speaking just enough to carry on hunting. Just enough to plan attacks or to burn some poor bastards bones. In the end all they really had left were silences and utilitarian conversations where there eyes never met. So when Sammy left, so did she.

Her mind wandered as she nursed her now luke warm coffee and checked her watch. Dad was a full half hour later than he'd told her and she wondered would he even recognise her when he saw her? She'd been on hrt and testosterone blockers for a few years when they left but it had always been easier if she'd kept to increasingly ill fitting guy's clothes and shortish hair. A practical look for hunting and it's not like she was all high heels and lace now but she did look different. Longer hair to start with and dyed a mid blonde for no other reason than she kinda dug it. Reaching about half way down her back in tumbling waves she knew it was hardly "regulation" but she kept it out of the way in a fight. Her tank top and leather jacket didn't exactly show off her breasts but they didn't hide them like thrift store paid used to either and her jeans showed off a curvier build than Dad was sure to remember. All in all Dee had gotten to a place where she was content with her body, at times she was even pleased with it. She was a god damn awesome bad ass and as far as she was concerned being trans meant that she could fight harder than most of the hunters she'd met. God dammit, Dad would have to live with the daughter he had if he was so desperate to get back in with his children.

With John almost 45 minutes late Dee was beginning to consider forgoing caution and ordering a piece of pie after all. She was interrupted by a familiar rumble finally erupting in the parking lot. For about fifteen seconds her only thoughts were of missing that damn car and how awesome it would have been to inherit the Impala rather than driving her beat up Corolla. Eventually she was interrupted again, this time by the similarly familiar clunk of boots and the creak of old leather, sounds and smells of her father that stopped just short of her booth.

"Dean." Her father simply acknowledged, his voice devoid of emotion.

Dee gritted her teeth at the name and raised her eyes slowly and deliberately from her stone cold and half empty cup of coffee. Locking unblinking eyes with him she spoke one word in reply.

"Deanna."