Author's Note: Hello again, everyone! I hope that everyone is doing well today!
Welcome back, Kat Winchester! Yay!
This fic will follow Kat's life from when she was dropped off with the Winchesters at two years old and will probably continue through the series' plots and further. Each one-shot will be a certain event at a certain age, and it will all go up from there.
This should be a lot of fun!
Without further ado...
Dean flipped through the tv channels, bored. Settling on some brightly colored game show, he glanced over at his brother who sat beside him on the bed, nose buried in his science textbook.
Dean leaned to the side and peeked over Sam's shoulder, "How's the studying going, Einstein?"
"Good," Sam replied concisely. He didn't even look up from his textbook.
"Alright then," Dean sighed. Clearly Sam was not game for Go Fish or War. Dean looked over to his dad, who was hunched over a book of his own, though this one was full of lore.
Dean wasn't going to bother asking his dad how the research was going. Something about the tiny town of Murphy, Texas had his father more jumpy than usual, and Dean noticed. And it didn't seem to be the lore or the Wendigos they were hunting. No, it was something else. But what, Dean had no idea.
Until a knock suddenly sounded at the motel room door.
Dean tensed, shifting closer to Sam, who glanced up sharply. They both looked to John, who looked terrified.
Dean was shocked. He had never seen his father look like that. Not even when they were on a hunt. What could John think was behind that door that had him so scared?
"Dad?" Sam asked in a whisper, seeing John's expression as well.
John ignored them, creeping towards the door. His hand slid to his waistband, seeking the reassurance of the pistol that rested there. John looked out the peephole.
"Oh, God," John turned white as a ghost. Dean quickly reached over Sam to the nightstand and grabbed the knife that rested there, pulling the twelve year-old further behind him as he did so.
John didn't even look to his sons when he said, "Put the knife down, Dean." And he opened the door.
Dean shot to his feet, expecting- despite his father's words- to see some sort of monster, or at least a massive, angry man at the door.
But it was nothing of the kind.
Standing in the doorway was a woman. She was blonde, and she was staring at John with such a look on her face that Dean couldn't begin to describe it.
The woman clutched a toddler in her arms. The little girl looked to be about two, and she shared the same blonde hair as her mother. Her bright blue eyes were wide open, zeroed in on Dean's blade. But it wasn't fear shining in those blue orbs, it was curiousity.
"John," the woman said simply, shifting the little girl to her other hip.
"Melissa," John breathed.
The woman- Melissa- glanced behind John to where Dean stood, shielding Sam. And brandishing a fairly large knife.
Melissa set her little girl on the ground and pushed her inside. "John, a word outside please," Melissa disappeared, marching down the hall. John followed without hesitation, closing the door behind him.
Dean set the knife down slowly, noticing how the little girl's eyes followed his arm every inch of the way.
"What's your name?" Sam piped up before Dean could hush him. Sam slid off of the bed and stood beside his big brother.
"Katherine," the little girl said clearly. "What's yours?"
"I'm Sam, and this is my brother, Dean," Sam answered her. "How old are you, Katherine?"
Dean expected her to show them her fingers and tell them how many, but she didn't. Katherine just said, "I'm two, but I'll be three soon."
"How soon?" Dean figured that Sam's idea of keeping the toddler entertained with questions was a pretty good one.
"Forty-seven days."
"Really?" Sam replied, impressed. Hell, Dean was too. What two year-old could pull that out of her head?
"I'm sorry," Katherine looked down at her hands. "I shouldn't have said that."
"What do you mean?" Dean spoke for the first time since Katherine came into the room. "Why are you sorry?"
"Mom says I'm not supposed to do math in my head or use big words around other people," Katherine glanced up at them, almost ashamed.
"Why does she say that?" Sam asked.
Before Katherine could answer, the door opened. They all looked to see John walking back in.
"Where's Melissa?" Dean said after a minute of silence.
"Gone," John whispered. More loudly he continued, "She's gone."
"Dad, what do you mean 'gone'?" Dean pressed slowly. He glanced at Katherine and Sam, who both just stood there, frozen.
"Boys," John began, sinking onto a chair, "there's something you need to know."
"Dad..." Sam trailed off. Dean knew what he was thinking. Hell, he was thinking it too.
"A few years ago, I came here to deal with a couple of werewolves. I ganked the female on the first night, but the male had kidnapped a woman, the local bartender, and taken her back to his lair. He was going to make her his mate to replace the one he'd lost. I got there just in time. I killed the wolf, and I saved her: Melissa," John paused for a moment, his eyes fixing on Katherine. "That night, well. Anyways, a few months later, Melissa called me to tell me that she'd had a baby girl. My baby girl. And she named her Katherine Dilexisti Winchester."
Dean pushed himself to his feet and started pacing back and forth in front of the table. Sam was staring down at Katherine, who in turn was staring at her feet.
"Melissa recognized the Impala. She came to drop Katherine off," John finished.
"What?" Sam's eyes shot wide open. "Dad, why?"
John ran his hands through his hair tiredly, "Because I didn't get to Melissa in time." Before Dean could press him further, John continued, "I guess her pregnancy stalled the werewolf symptoms until after Katherine was born. Each full moon she would give Katherine to a neighbor, but last month, she was caught unawares. Melissa said that she almost killed her own daughter, and that she would never put anyone in that kind of danger again."
Katherine's breath hitched, and Dean glanced her way. The wave of protectiveness that washed over him surprised him as he watched the two year-old scrub a tear from her eye. Katherine seemed to steel herself and look ahead determinedly.
"Melissa is trusting me to find Katherine a good home," John said. "Obviously anywhere within 500 miles of here isn't a good idea, but I will find somewhere for her."
"We'll find a good home for her together," Dean insisted, Sam nodding along with him.
