Disclaimer: The characters of Supernatural do not belong to me. The original characters of Kayla and Mary Winchester (Sam and Jess's daughter, not the Mary Winchester from the show) do.

A/N: So, a friend of mine that wishes to remain anonymous requested this story for his birthday. It takes place during my story The Things Unseen (Make The Soul Ache). It isn't really entirely necessary to read The Things Unseen to understand this story, but I don't give a lot of background here, so I'll recap briefly. Kayla is Sam and Jess's teenage daughter. She had been getting into more and more trouble, to the point that Sam and Jess decided to send her to live with John. While she lived with John, Kayla confessed to her parents that she'd been drinking, smoking, and doing drugs back home. Sam tells her that while living with John, he and Jess will be making unannounced visits and giving her random drug tests. If she fails one, she stays at John's permanently. That's where this story takes over. They have just given Kayla one of her random drug tests, and she's failed it. That's where this story fits into the larger one. If you'd like more details, read the other story, but be warned that the other story is rated T.

This story is in two parts. This part tells mostly Sam's POV, and the second part will be more Kayla's.

Also, though I don't come right out and say it, it is heavily implied that Kayla is about to get a spanking in this story. If that makes you uncomfortable or offended, don't read.

Sam was used to the whirlwind of emotion that had become a part of his life. As he drove down the road back to his father's house, his heart was heavy with what he was about to do. Jess sat in the front seat beside him, and Sam could tell her mind was turning too. Sam was surprised Jess hadn't said anything to him yet. She had let him take the lead on this, but he knew that didn't mean she didn't have some strong opinions about it.

"Sam…"

Here we go, Sam thought. "Yeah?"

"Maybe we should talk about this before we go back to your Dad's."

Sam let out an irritated sigh. Kayla was also one of the few reasons the two of them ever argued, and Sam could sense one was on its way. He decided it best to pull over and get the fight out of the way rather than trying to drive and argue at the same time.

"Talk about what, Jess? We laid it out for her clear as day not one month ago. She fails a drug test, she stays here permanently."

"I know that, but…"

"But what?" Sam asked. "What, Jess?"

"Nothing." Jess said quietly, turning to look out the window. "Nothing, let's just get this over with."

"Jess, please look at me." When Jess continued to stare out the window, Sam grabbed her hand. "Please look at me."

Jess turned slowly, wiping the tears that stood at the edge of her eyes.

"Do you really think I want to do this?" Sam asked. "Do you think this isn't tearing me up inside? That it's not making me feel like a failure as a father?"

"I know it is."

"Tell me what to do." Sam said, and Jess was surprised to hear that he was pleading and not angry or frustrated. "Tell me what to do here. This just tells me one thing. Kayla needs someone who can keep a constant eye on her. I can't do that and work too. You can't do that and work and keep an eye on Mary. Give me some kind of alternative here. Please."

"There's programs…"

"Which I'm going to look into the second we get back home. But until we know for certain that Kayla is completely on the straight and narrow, I just don't trust her enough to come back home."

"Sam, she's fourteen. Can you honestly tell me you didn't do stupid crap when you were fourteen?"

"I did. I did do stupid stuff when I was fourteen. I ran away to Flagstaff and was gone for two weeks. I snuck out of the house, I broke curfew, I did a hundred other things. And every single time I messed up, my Dad and Dean were right there to turn me around."

"But we aren't right there." Jess argued. "We're not there. We're parenting from a distance. By phone calls and random visits. We are not there for her."

"We tried." Sam shot back. "Jess, we tried. For months. We tried. We grounded, we punished, we talked to her until we were blue in the face. It would work for a day or two and she'd go right back to whatever the hell she was doing. We can't keep that up."

"I know."

"And think about this. Jess, she was thirteen and was drinking, smoking, and doing drugs. If she was doing all that at thirteen, what was gonna happen when she was fourteen? fifteen? When she's sixteen and can drive? When she's eighteen and we can't do anything about it anymore?"

"I know. I know you're right. I just…"

"I know. I know it hurts, honey, I do. And if I could think of anything else to do, I would."

Sam swallowed hard as the reality of what this afternoon would mean hit him again. He kept a hand behind Jess's head, gently stroking her hair, and took some deep breaths against the pain shooting through his heart. He closed his eyes and remembered Kayla as a baby, playing peekaboo with him through the bars of her crib as he went in to get her in the morning. Kayla at two, dressing as a lawyer for Halloween, trying to emulate him. Kayla at ten, quiet and not talking to anyone after trying and failing to save her grandmother's life in a car accident.

He missed those moments desperately. But he could see no other alternative right then. As much as Sam loved his father, he hated how much he felt like John at the moment. No matter how much pain it caused Kayla, Sam would rather live apart from her and feel certain she was safe than have her live at home and worry that the next phone call he got would lead to having to bury Kayla. Sam had been through a lot in his relatively short life. A lot that should have killed him. But he was certain that getting that phone call would accomplish what all the monsters and ghosts and werewolves and other supernatural creatures hadn't been able to do.

"Sam?"

Jess's quiet voice broke Sam out of his own train of thought. "Yeah."

"Promise me something."

"What?" Sam asked.

"I know we told Kayla this was permanent. I can't do that to her."

"Jess…"

"Just hear me out. Please. I heard you out when we first decided this, just give me the same courtesy, please."

Sam nodded. "Okay."

"I just keep imagining myself in her shoes. I'm fourteen, and Mom and Dad have told me there's no way I'll ever be able to come back home. There's no way I hear that and think that Mom and Dad still care about me. No matter what they say, there's no way I hear that and believe they still love me."

Sam was silent. He'd been thinking the same thing.

"And add to that the fact that we didn't come when she actually asked for us to come. We keep telling her that we're here for her, but when she actually asks for us to be there, we aren't." Jess wiped a tear away, remembering how guilty they'd felt when Kayla asked them to come to her school play and they didn't. How defeated she'd sounded.

"You know why we couldn't make the play…"

"I do. I also know that we could've given her the choice-be there for the play or be there for her birthday. But we didn't do that either. Sam, as distant as she's become, I still feel like I know her. I still feel connected to her. And I'm scared to death that for every one time she's asked for us to be there, there's a hundred where she's woken up in the middle of the night wanting her Mommy and I wasn't there. Or wanting you and we're across the country."

Now Sam's own tears were coming out.

"I can't do that to her, Sam. I just can't do it. We extend the deadline, tell her another year on top of the one we told her when we were here last, but we don't tell her it's over."

"We need to be consistent on this…"

"And if we don't taper that consistency with some compassion, some kind of understanding, then we don't deserve to have Kayla back. Or even to keep Mary. Because this isn't just on Kayla. That last week she was at home with us, we gave up. We gave up on being her parents. And I'm afraid if we tell her this is permanent, she'll think we're doing it again, but willingly this time." Jess took a breath and said something she had never pictured herself saying. "I'm not going along with keeping her here permanently. If you don't tell her that we've changed that, that we're still giving her a chance to come back home, then I'm packing up me and Mary and moving in with your father and Bobby."

Sam was shocked. "Jess…"

"I won't leave my child forever. I won't do it. I agree she can't come home right now. But I'm not going to take away her only reason to try harder and do better. So tell me now, before we get back on the road. What are we gonna do?"

Sam took a deep breath. He knew, deep down, that Jess was right. He'd known it the second he said it to Kayla. He also knew Jess was right about them giving up. The week before they'd sent Kayla to John's had been full of angry silences, tears, and had caused more damage than all the months of fighting beforehand combined.

"We tell her another six months. Make her go to drug counselling, make her take weekly tests. She fails another test, we add on another month."

"I can live with that." Jess agreed.

"Okay." Sam said, reaching for the key to start the car again. He turned to Jess again. "You know what my Dad is probably gonna do with this?"

Jess nodded somberly. "Yeah."

"I can tell you from experience. It will hurt. It'll hurt bad. But he won't harm her. You understand the difference, right?"

"Yeah." Jess said again. "Yeah."

"If you want, we'll get a room in town tonight." Sam said. "Or we'll start back home."

"Let's just see how this goes." Jess said. "Come on. Let's go."

"Okay."

Sam started the car again, and drove on towards the house. When he arrived, he found Dean, Bobby, John, and Kayla in the kitchen, listening to an excited Mary telling them all a story. To Sam's relief, family friend Jody Mills was there too, giving them a perfect place to send Mary while they talked with Kayla. Mary was animated, using her hands to illustrate whatever point she was making. Everyone was laughing, making Sam and Jess dread the conversation all the more. When Mary was finally winding down her story, Sam cleared his throat from the doorway.

"Daddy! Mommy!"

Mary jumped up from her seat at the table and ran to her mother, who scooped up Mary and squeezed her tight. "Hey, baby. What were you doing?"

"I was telling everybody the story I made up in school this week. You wanna hear?"

"Maybe later." Sam said with a smile, kissing Mary's cheek. "Hey, Jody? We have a great big favor to ask."

"What's up?"

"Can you take Mary out for a couple of hours? We need to talk to Kayla alone." Sam said.

"I don't wanna leave. We comed to see Kay'a." Mary protested. "Please, Daddy."

"You can come back tonight, honey." Sam promised, hoping that the confrontation they were about to have didn't go so bad that they ended up having to leave before he could keep the promise. "But we have some grown-up stuff to talk about with Kayla first."

"Daddy? What's wrong?"

"We'll talk about it in a minute." Sam said, a little sharper than he meant to. When Kayla flinched, Sam asked, a little softer, "Jody, do you mind?"

"Sure." Jody stood up and walked over, taking Mary from her mother's arms. "Come on, kiddo. You wanna help me put some bad guys away?"

"Only if Kay'a comes too." Mary said, crossing her arms and pouting.

"It's okay, Mary. Go." Kayla urged. "You can tell me about it tonight."

"You sure?" Mary asked. "I don't care if I get in trouble for it. I'm not going if it'll make you sad."

"Mary, you don't have a choice." Sam snapped. He pulled out his keys and handed them to Jody. "Jody, you can take my car since her car seat's in there."

"It's okay, Mary. It won't make me sad." Kayla said. "Go. Have fun."

"Okay. Loves you, Sissy. Bunches and bunches."

"Love you too. Bunches and bunches."

With one last dirty look at her father, Mary left with Jody. When they heard the car backing out of the driveway, a heavy silence had fallen on the kitchen. John was the first to break it.

"Sam? What's wrong?"

"Kayla? Do you want to tell them or should I?"

"Tell them what? I don't know what you're talking about."

She sounds almost convincing, Sam thought. "I have the results from your drug test in my pocket."

Kayla flushed and eyed her grandfather. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

"I said I wouldn't tell if you passed. Kayla, you failed. You tested positive for marijuana and pain killers. The levels, the tech said, were off the charts."

"That's impossible." Kayla protested. "I haven't done anything!"

"Kayla." John said from the table. "I told you what would happen if you did anything illegal here."

"I didn't do it!" Kayla insisted. "Grandpa, please believe me, I didn't do it!"

"Then explain this, Kayla." Sam pulled the results out of his pocket. "Explain how this got into your system."

"There's nothing in my system!" Kayla said. "The only thing I've taken since I got here was grandpa gave me when I sliced up my hand. That's it. I swear that's it!"

"Go to your room, Kayla. Your parents and I need to talk." John said, calmly but authoritatively.

Kayla, in a full blown panic now, burst into tears. "I didn't do anything. Please, please, please believe me. There's some kind of mistake."

"Kayla, get to your room. Now. Unless you want me to keep my promise in front of everyone." John said, his voice descending to a low growl.

Kayla decided to try her last, desperate attempt to get someone to listen to her. She pushed herself out of her chair and grabbed her mother's waist tightly. "Mommy, please. I didn't do this. I promise I didn't."

Sam expected Jess to give in. He loved her, but it was just her nature. When Kayla or Mary cried, Jess's heart shattered and she wore her heart on her sleeve. But just as he was about to grab Kayla's arm and pull her away, telling her again to go to her room, Jess stopped him.

"Sam, wait." Jess gave Kayla the hug she was so obviously craving, but held her ground. She pulled Kayla's chin up and wiped her face. "I love you. I love you so much I can't stand it. But you promised me and Daddy this was over."

"I didn't…"

"Stop it, Kayla. We have proof. Solid proof. Now do what your grandfather said. Go to your room. We're all going to talk for a minute, then Daddy and I are going to find your sister. We'll be back for dinner. You're back on the grounding you were on back home. We will discuss the details when your father and I get back tonight. But you have really let us all down."

"Mommy…"

"Go, Kayla. Now."

Jess pointed up the stairs in the direction of Kayla's bedroom. Every ounce of her energy was being used to maintain her composure. A devastated Kayla left the kitchen and slumped to her room, her howling cries heard all the way downstairs. John was already standing and going towards the staircase. He stopped and patted Jess's shoulder.

"I know that was hard on you. But you did the right thing."

"I can't…I can't be here for this." Jess said. "I just can't."

"It's okay." John answered. "I understand. I won't hurt her."

"I know. I trust you." Jess said. "Sam, let's go."

"Sam?" Dean spoke from the other side of the kitchen. "You need anything, bud?"

"No." Sam said. "Thanks, though."

"Sure." Dean answered awkwardly. "Bobby, maybe we should…?"

"Yeah." All too eager to get away from what was about to unfold, Bobby and Dean started to race out the kitchen door.

Sam's cell phone rang. He thought about not answering, but when he checked the caller ID, he noticed it was the clinic. He picked it up and couldn't believe what he heard. He thanked the technician again, and though he hadn't believed it possible, Sam felt even worse than he had before.

"Oh, my God."

"Sam, what is it?" Jess asked.

"That was the clinic. There was a mix-up with Kayla's test. It was a false positive."