SUMMARY: Aly is feeling full of tween-age angst. Sam takes her out for the day to try and make her feel better. Some fluff from the Aly-verse.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello Dear Readers! If this is your first time reading one of my fanfics, please check out my profile for more stories with Alyson Winchester. The main story is called 'The Adventures of Alyson Winchester', and there is now a sequel called 'Winchester Interrupted: The Further Adventures of Alyson Winchester', and there are also several one-shots about Aly at different ages. I hope you enjoy them, and if you do, please leave me a review!
This one-shot is written by request, for Happygoddess2003.

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I came into the living room and closed the front door harder than I meant to.

Dean walked in from the kitchen. "Hey, watch the door," he said.

"It was an accident," I grumped, slinging my backpack on the floor.

Dean looked at me, his eyebrow raised. "What's up with you today?"

I glared at him. "Nothing." I said. "Absolutely nothing."

I turned and walked into the kitchen and took a glass out of the cabinet so I could get some water. Dean followed me.

"Come on now," he said easily. "I can tell something's wrong."

I turned the tap on and filled the glass, then took a drink. "Nope," I said.

He shifted, still looking at me. "Want to drive over to the Gas-n-Sip and get some junk food and chocolate?"

I slammed the glass on the counter and glared at him again. "No! I'm not a little kid anymore!" I snapped, feeling my eyes fill with tears for some reason. He still thought I'd be placated with chocolate and potato chips! I stomped to my room and closed the door. Even though Dad wasn't here, it had been ingrained in me that you didn't slam doors in the Winchester household. Doing that was a quick way to end up looking at the floor as Dad warmed your butt. Loud noises tended to startle him sometimes- something about him having been in the war.

I futzed around in my room, putting away the laundry that had been piled on the dresser and straightening the books in the small bookshelf.

There was a knock on the door.

It was Sam. He came into the room, and stood by the bed. "Hey, Aly, what's up?" he asked.

I turned from where I was squatting in front of the shelves, and stood up too.

"Nothing," I said.

"Now you and I both know that's not true," he said. "Come on, tell me."

I walked over to the bed and sat down, then I leaned over and put my head in my hands.

"Did you ever want something really bad, and it just didn't happen?"

I glanced up at him as he sat next to me.

"Well, yeah, lots of times. I don't know how many times I'd be partway through a soccer season and we'd have to pick up and go," he paused, and put his hand on my shoulder for a moment. "What's up?"

"Remember how I told you I tried out for the musical?" I asked. "Well, I didn't make it." I said bitterly. "And the group of theater people are so- they're such a clique already, and they act so—so exclusive and all!" I cringed as I remembered how I had seen some of them smirking and talking behind their hands as I had been on stage. When I had tried to read for a scene with one of the guys, a senior who was well over 6 feet tall, there had been audible giggles because of how ridiculous we looked together. I was barely 5 feet tall and was probably done growing- it was a joke in our family that the 'Winchester Tall Gene' had skipped over me completely.

"That's the way they are," Sam said. "I did sound for some of the plays in high school, and it was the same way back then too. Every social group is that way, pretty much. In the long run, it won't matter."

"Who cares about the long run?" I asked. "What matters is now!"

"I understand," he said."I'm sorry you didn't make it. I know you had your heart set on it. There's always next year, right?"

I glanced at him. "Yeah, and who knows where we're going to be next year, if I'm even going to be at a school that has a drama and music department!" I felt tears threatening then, and I bowed my head and began to cry. I had felt like this was my one chance to shine. The schools that I ended up going to when we moved were hit and miss sometimes.

Sam reached over and pulled me into a hug, and held me while I cried myself out.

"I know, Alybug," he said gently. Hearing him call me by my childhood nickname made me feel sad for some reason and I cried harder.

"Why do things have to be this way?" I sobbed. "With all the groups and everything, and if you're not in a group you're nobody!"

"You'll find yours," he said reassuringly. "You're still young yet- wait until you get to high school. People aren't quite as judgemental then- and also you won't care as much either." he chuckled. "By the time I got to 9th or 10th grade I didn't care what people thought about me anymore and just did my own thing."

"Yeah, but you're also a hunter," I said. "You've already got that to fall back on."

"What does that mean?" he asked. "That's not a real job, it doesn't pay anything."

I looked up at him. "But you're doing something important with your life!" I said.

"Aly, you're 12," he said. "The most important thing you're supposed to be doing is school."

I sighed. "I just feel so- so outside of everything. I want to do something."

"I know," he said. "Most kids your age feel that way. I think it's just part of becoming a teenager."

"Well, I don't like it, it's annoying." I grumped. He chuckled and pulled me into another hug. He must have told Dean that I was feeling bad, because for our Friday night movie, Dean let me pick instead of insisting on a guy flick. He even sat with me while we watched a musical.

The next day at breakfast, Sam told me, "Wear comfortable shoes for walking."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because we're going for a walk." he said.

"Sam, I'm not in the mood to go hiking-"

"I didn't say hiking, I said walk. We'll leave in about 20 minutes."

We drove into the city.

"Would you tell me where we're going?" I asked with frustration.

"I thought you'd like to go to a museum," he said. "I know you've talked about wanting to go."

"Oh, wow, cool." I said. "Thanks!"

"And there's something happening there today too," he sad mysteriously.

We spent a couple of hours walking though the museum. They had a large collection of medieval artwork and also a collection of Egyptian artifacts. It was quiet and bright and wonderful to walk around looking at art from all over the world and from different time periods.

"After this, we can get some lunch," Sam steered me over to a large open courtyard area where people were gathering. He gave a man who was standing at a podium two tickets and we went to sit down.

I was handed a program and looked at it.

It was a concert by a group that specialized in "Early Music", which was music from the 16th century and before. They were called, "The Harmonious Ladyes and Gents". They had several odd looking musical instruments, and during the program they showed the audience and talked about the instruments and the types of pieces they were performing. They performed some dances, and a couple of them demonstrated the dance steps, and then they put the instruments down and performed some music called "madrigals" which was them singing in a chorus. I loved every second of it, and watched and listened, enraptured.

After the show was over, we walked over to a table where they were selling CDs, and Sam bought one for me.

"You like this too?" I asked him.

"It was okay," he said. "but just think of how nuts this is going to drive Dean, when he turns on the stereo in the car expecting AC/DC and hears "Now is the Month of Maying" instead." Sam had such a devious look on his face, I burst out laughing.

He took me to a nice restaurant, nicer than I'd ever been in before. There were paintings all over the walls and all the furniture was old and dark and heavy.

"This is a long way away from diner food," I said with a grin. "Dean wouldn't know what to do with himself here!"

Sam chuckled. "I know, the burgers are made with sirloin and all the beers are imported."

After we ordered, Sam looked at me across the table. "How are you," he said. "Feeling a little better?"

"I guess." I smiled at him. "Thanks for taking me out, Sam."

"I think we both needed a day away." he said. When we had left, Dean was preparing for a movie marathon with chips and salsa and plenty of beer. I certainly wasn't in the mood to listen to the explosions and car chases that were going to be coming from the t.v. all day.

We ordered, and the waiter brought a small cutting board with fresh bread and butter.

"Some day, Aly," Sam said, taking a drink of water. "Some day, I'd like to get out of this, and take you out of it too. Hopefully before you go off to college, but maybe not until after."

"What do you mean, Sam? How could you get out if it? At this point it's practically in your blood." I sliced a piece of bread off of the loaf and buttered it.

"Yeah, but someday, Dad's going to catch that- well, you know. It's going to be caught and dealt with, and then where will he go from there? Where will any of us go? That's been his life's mission, you know?" Sam sliced and buttered a piece of bread as well.

"Do you think he'd want to keep at it, after that happens?" I asked. "I mean he's been doing it for so long, that's kinda all he knows."

"I hope he does get out of it someday," Sam said. "Because the majority of hunters don't live to a ripe old age, and they don't really die of natural causes either."

I guess I looked scared or uncomfortable, because he shook himself and said, "Anyway, let's not think about that. What do you think you want to study in college?"

"Geez, Sam, I don't know." I shrugged. "I barely know what I want to study next year!"

"Well, haven't they given you any of those career tests yet?"

"Yeah, one said I'd be good at something having to do with English language, like teaching or doing reporting or something. Or doing some kind of counseling thing."

I felt uncomfortable again. "I don't want to think about college." I told him.

"Why not?'

"Because Dad threw such a fit about you going away, I don't think I could- could-" Remembering how angry Dad had been, and how painful it was when Sam left, made me want to cry. If Dad ever turned that much anger on me I don't know if I could survive it.

"Well, he'd have to let you go. I'd make him. And I'd make sure you weren't alone." Sam said. "If I've done it, you can do it, Aly."

He took another drink and sat back. "If you could live somewhere, where would you want to live? In a small town or in a city?"

"I don't know...I guess a small town, but a place where the houses aren't right on top of each other. And I like the older housese with all the ornamental woodwork."

"Older houses are the ones that tend to be haunted." Sam said. "Sorry, thinking like a hunter. Go on."

"A place where we could have our own rooms and there would be other rooms in the house too, like a study or a library or something."

"What about a farm?"

"I don't know anything about that," I said. "Would you want to live on a farm?"

"I don't know. Maybe. It could be fun, but a lot of work. I like your idea of a big house."

"Why don't you try to go back to school?" I challenged him.

"Nah, I think that ship has sailed," he said. "I'm too far into this."

"If I can go, so can you," I said. "Hey, how about, when I go to college, you come with me, and we can live in the same dorm?"

He laughed. "Aly, as great as that sounds... you probably aren't going to want me around at that point. It would be like having a parent around all the time, I'd cramp your style. Trust me, no college kid wants their parent or big brother around while they're in their dorm."

"I would," I said resolutely. "Family is important."

"Well, we'll see," he said. "It's a nice idea, but I don't think it would happen. Plus, if two of us went away to college at the same time, I think Dad's head would explode!"

I laughed. "Yeah, he'd probably never get over it."

The waiter brought our meals at that point- I got a steak instead of a burger, and it was really good. Sam got a grilled chicken meal.

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My stomach was hurting from laughing so much. Sam had taken me to one more place- a miniature golf course that had a pirate- ship theme. The contrast of Sam's tall, huge body and the little golf clubs and statues was hilarious. He had to lean way over to hit the ball because of how tall he was, and then he started to do this little hip wiggle thing, which made me laugh even more. He kept grinning at me and making me laugh, so I could barely hit anything.

He won the game, but I didn't care. By the time we got into the car, my belly and chest were sore from all the laughing.

I got into the back seat and scooted forward to hug him. He put his hand on my arm and squeezed it.

"Thanks, Sammy," I said gratefully. "I had a great day with you."

"I had a pretty awesome day myself," he said. "Time to get back to the grind."

I sat back and buckled my seatbelt as he put the car in gear. Even if I didn't have a group of friends in school, I had my family, and they were the most important thing in the long run.