Chapter 1
Everything Changes
"Listen, Dean, I don't think Jennifer or Kate should come, it might be too much for them," Sam said to Dean who was standing in front of him in the kitchen, his back leaning up against the counter.
"I agree," Dean said, his eyes drifting over to the kitchen entrance, falling upon the wall that kept him from being able to see the staircase. Music was playing louder than usual, and he knew it was Kate. For as long as he could remember, she would play music whenever she was upset.
"Dean?"
Dean looked back at Sam, raising his eyebrow slightly at him, giving him a 'what' expression.
"Who's playing that music?"
"Kate. She does this whenever she's upset."
"I never knew that."
"Yeah, she started doing it while you were away at Stanford," Dean spoke as he stepped away from the counter and turned toward the extra table next to the wall. He sighed when he saw all kinds of food people had given them to say their sorry. "I don't know where we're going to put all this food."
"That makes two of us."
Dean made his way over to the table and lifted up a side of the Reynolds wrap to see what was underneath it. He shook his head. "Another casserole," he said.
"That makes what, the third one?" Sam wondered.
"I'd say more like the fifth one," Dean said pressing the Reynolds wrap back down before turning to face Sam again. "When should we leave?"
"Now, if you want?"
Dean nodded without saying anything. "I'll go let Jennifer know."
"Alright," Sam said before Dean walked out of the room. Sam stood up and moved to the refrigerator, opening it up and eyed it, figuring out how much it could hold. "Plenty of room for half of the food…" he said to himself as he went over to the table that had the food and grabbed what he could before going back to the refrigerator.
Dean stood by Jennifer's bedroom door, looking in, she was lying on her bed with her CD player on the bed and her head phones on, and her eyes closed. He stepped inside and knocked on the door to let her know he was there.
Jennifer opened her eyes, "Hey," she said pulling the head phones off and pausing the CD player.
"Hey," he said sitting on the bed. "What're you listenin' to?"
"Foo Fighters, All My Life," she told him.
"Are you trying to block out Kate's music?"
"Yes," she admitted. "I was fine with it for a while, but now I need to block it out. I didn't want to tell her to shut it off when I know she's upset and needed something to do to get her mind off dad dying."
"Yeah. Music is the only thing to help her right now."
"I know."
"Listen, Jen, Sam and I are going to take care of dad's truck. Get his stuff out of it before someone else does."
"Ok."
"Do you mind…"
"I'll stay with Kate," she said already knowing what he was going to say.
"We'll be back later," he said standing up.
"Alright…"
Dean gave her a pat on the knee before walking out of the room.
Jennifer sighed and set the head phones back on her before pressing play again. She turned her head to the nightstand and stared at the picture she had of her family. Her mom and dad standing in the middle, Sam was on the far left with Kate on his right side, Mary stood beside her, and Dean was on the far right with his arm around John's shoulder.
They were once a family, but it was slowly becoming less of a family over the years.
