"Dean. Dean, I think she's awake."
Dean groaned and buried his face in his pillow. "So?"
"So you should go see her."
"Why don't you go see her? You don't sleep anyway."
"I can hear her thoughts. She wants you."
"Fine. But next time, you go see her."
Dean rolled out of bed and landed lightly on his feet, a move he had practiced when he was still hunting in case someone tried to sneak up on him as he slept. He reached down and moved his pillow so it hid the gun he had under there before treading down the hall to his daughter's room.
He knocked lightly on the door and pushed it open a little bit. "Jo honey, you okay?"
The little girl was sitting on the edge of her bed, fiddling with the chain around her neck. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a nightmare."
Dean walked over and sat down beside her and she immediately threw her arms around him. He hugged her back just as tightly, resting his chin on top of her head. "Hey, it's okay sweetie, I'm here. What did you dream about?"
Jo pulled away from him and wiped her eyes dry. "Vampires. Uncle Sam told me about that time you got turned and it scared me."
Dean closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath to calm down. He would skin Sam alive for telling Jo about that. Basics, he'd told his brother. She needed to know the basics, just so she knows that there are dangerous things out there. She didn't need to know about specific hunts or issues that they'd had.
"You're safe, I promise. Nothing can get in here."
"Promise?" Jo asked, staring up at Dean with her big blue eyes.
"Here, I'll prove it to you. Just hang on one second." Dean went down to the kitchen and grabbed the box of salt and brought it back up to Jo's room. "Watch." He made a line across the window, and in front of her closet. "And if you want I'll make a line outside your door after I leave." She nodded. "And you've got your necklace, right?" Jo held up the charm around her neck, identical to the tattoo on Dean's chest. "And in your nightstand?" She slid open the drawer on the little table beside her to show her daddy the two tiny vials, one of holy water and one of dead man's blood. "And your doorknob is iron. You are perfectly safe, sweetie. Nothing can get in here."
She nodded and opened her arms for another hug. Dean gladly obliged, then laid her back on her bed and pulled the covers over her. "Now go back to sleep. Papa and I are just down the hall if you need us."
She nodded and drifted back to sleep pretty quickly. After shutting her door gently, Dean made sure to make a thick line of salt. Too tired to go back downstairs, he just left the box of salt on the floor and went back to bed.
"What was the problem?" Cas asked as Dean crawled back into bed. Dean immediately snuggled up to his lover, resting his head against Cas' shoulder and his arm around Cas' waist.
"Just a nightmare. She's fine now."
"Do you still think telling her was a good idea?"
Dean stiffened. "Cas, we've talked about this. She needs to know about these things. She needs to be able to handle herself if we're not there."
He felt Cas' hand brush along his jaw soothingly. "I know, but now she's scared. And she's involved with it."
Yeah. That was a problem. Dean had wanted to keep her out of that world, to keep her safe, but at the same time he knew he wasn't entirely forgotten, that there were still creatures out there that might come after him and if they did, she had to be able to handle them if something happened. Not that anything would. But just in case.
"I still think it was a good idea to tell her," Dean said softly. "It's Sam's fault for scaring her."
Cas turned them slightly so they were laying on their sides facing each other and ran a hand through Dean's hair softly. "We can yell at him tomorrow. For now just sleep. I'll watch over you."
Dean smiled a little and snuggled closer to his angel before falling back to sleep.
A/N: Well, hello! This is my first ever fanfiction, so it's probably crap. I love to hear opinions! I'll be posting more stories in the near future, a lot of Destiel and a little Sabriel I think. So...yeah.
-Burning Ink