Disclaimer: The characters of Supernatural do not belong to me.

Mary savored the silence of the early morning. She always got up an hour before John, much to his endless frustration. As Mary scooped more pancake mix into the pan, she hoped for a peaceful morning. John and Dean had been butting heads constantly lately. Dean was becoming the typical moody teenager, no longer the same little boy that hero-worshipped his Daddy. Dean was the exact opposite of ten-year-old Sammy, who was wanting to spend more and more time with his father these days. As she flipped the last of the pancakes and turned off the burner, Sammy came into the kitchen with John.

"Morning, mom!"

"Good morning, sweetheart." Mary said, thankful Sam still wanted a kiss from his mom in the morning. "Hi, babe."

"Hey." John said. "Breakfast smells good."

"Thanks. Is Dean up yet?"

"I can call him."

Mary looked at him and said seriously, "Could you please just go to his room and ask him nicely to get up?"

John sighed. "I am plenty nice to that boy."

"That boy has a name, and he has asked you, over and over, to call him by it." Mary said. "John, please, don't start with him today."

"Start what?"

"Just be nice to him." Mary begged.

"Fine." John stood at the entrance to the kitchen and called up the stairs. "Boy, you've got two minutes to get down here." At Mary's frustrated look, John amended his statement with an only slightly sarcastic, "Please."

Mary shook her head and grabbed plates from the kitchen cabinet.

"What? I was nice to him."

"Just forget it, John." Mary said. "Sit down and eat breakfast."

"Mary…"

"I said forget it." Mary snapped.

John knew better than to push his luck, and sat down to have breakfast with Sam. The two of them talked quite congenially, and Mary wondered where the relationship between John and Dean had gone sour. She prepared a plate for Dean, then sat down with a plate of her own. Five minutes later, Dean walked in, fully dressed and with his backpack on his shoulder.

"It's about time." John said as a greeting.

Dean, who had made a promise to himself to get along better with his father, simply stopped for a moment, took a breath, and made an effort to grind out, "Good morning, Dad."

"I called you down here five minutes ago."

"I'm here now." Dean said.

"Don't get smart with me, boy." John snapped impatiently.

Dean's patience was beginning to match his father's. "If I see someone named 'boy' I'll be sure to let him know."

"Enough, you two." Mary said from the table. "Dean, come when your father calls you. John, he's asked you to stop yelling at him and start calling him by his name. Do it. Now sit down and eat breakfast and I don't want to hear another word about it from either of you. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am." Dean answered respectfully.

"Yes." John answered.

"Okay. Now, Dean, what are your plans for today?"

A slightly more relaxed, but still tense conversation passed between the family. It was Friday, and Sam would be straight home from school that day, but had a soccer game the next afternoon. Dean had tutoring after school.

"Are you actually gonna do your work today?"

"I always do, Dad." Dean said with a frown. He had only been downstairs for ten minutes, why was his dad riding him so hard already?

"We know you do." Mary said, trying to diffuse the upcoming situation. "Finish your breakfast, bud. Your bus'll be here in a few minutes."

"If you had gotten up when I told you to, you'd have more time."

A frustrated Dean threw his fork down on the table and stood up. "I'm leaving now. Thanks for breakfast, mom."

"Dean, wait…"

"Listen to your mother, boy. Sit back down and eat that breakfast she worked hard on for you." John said.

"Dad, stop. Stop calling me 'boy'. I'm not a dog!" Dean said, cheeks flushed and frustrated tears threatening to fall.

"John, stop it. Dean, do you want me to take you to your bus stop?"

"No thanks, Mom. I'll walk." Dean said.

"Okay. Have a good day, sweetie."

"Thanks."

Without waiting around to hear if his father would wish him a good day too, Dean grabbed his backpack and headed out the door, taking no special care not to slam it behind him. Mary could tell John wanted to sail from the table and grab Dean to lecture him about slamming the door, but she grabbed his shoulder and pointed to the chair. Mary sent an upset Sam out the door to wait by John's truck to take him to his elementary school.

"Don't even think about it. You started that, and you deserve it."

"So I have to cater to his every whim but he can slam that door and yell at me?"

"God, you are worse than a teenager sometimes! What every whim? He's made two requests from you. Don't yell at him and don't call him 'boy'. You know it gets under his skin and you do it on purpose."

"I didn't yell at him, and I can't always help it."

"You don't do it to Sam." Mary pointed out.

"Because Sam doesn't treat me with the same disrespect that Dean does."

Mary closed her eyes and took a deep breath. John was the love of her life, but she could honestly slap him silly sometimes. He infuriated her. John seemed to sense that he was crossing a line, but was too stubborn to back down. Mary opened her eyes and spoke calmly and evenly.

"John, I am disagreeing with you right now. Am I disrespecting you?"

"No." John admitted reluctantly.

"This is exactly the tone of voice that Dean used when he asked you politely to stop talking to him the way that you do. It makes him feel like he has to walk on eggshells in his own home. Like you don't want to be around him. I understand that Dean is moody sometimes, and he doesn't always speak very respectfully. But the best way to get him to stop is to be respectful to him. Now I understand that the boys respecting you is very important to you. But you have to show it to Dean if you want to get it back from Dean. When you deliberately ignore something he asked you very nicely to do, you are not respecting him. And if you keep it up, you'll not only continue to be at odds with Dean, you'll start getting in trouble with me too. Now I'm going to make this really simple for you. Stop treating Dean like crap. I don't like it, and I won't put up with it much longer. Clear?"

"Clear."

"Good. Now, if you want, I will talk to him too. But I'm putting you on notice. You want Dean to treat you differently, you're gonna have to do the same."

"Got it." John said.

"Good." Mary walked over, kissed John's cheek and wrapped arms around his neck, finally making him smile. "I love you. You're a good dad. Just loosen up some. Okay?"

"Okay. I love you too."

"Alright. Now go to work. I'll see you tonight."

"Yes, ma'am."

After a couple more kisses, John was out the door and headed towards Sam's school then his own job. Mary wished that she had made Dean wait for her. She was worried about him. Dean was struggling in school, not just academically but socially. His best friend had moved away over the summer, and he was missing Jimmy terribly. Once a week tutoring was also tough on him. He got teased for it by his classmates. Mary tried to temper the teasing by praising Dean for any progress he made in his grades, even if it was just a point or two. But her praise tended to be overshadowed when the first words out of John's mouth would be 'why haven't you done better'? Mary shook her head to clear her thoughts. Right now, the breakfast dishes were waiting. She'd have to come up with a plan for John and Dean later.