Chapter 2

Dean and Eli met up in the hall outside of their classes and exited the high school crossing the parking lot to Eli's car. Dean had his hand on the passenger's side and was about to enter the car when a light hand tapped on his shoulder causing him to spin around and face a small brunette with hazel eyes.

"It's Dean, right?" the brunette asked. Dean nodded once and flashed the girl a smile. "I'm Charlotte," the brunette said smiling. "We have English together."

Dean looked past the girl to see a much taller ginger haired girl walk up to the car smiling. "Hey Eli," the girl called standing next to her friend. "Is this your cousin?"

Dean turned around to look at Eli. The older boy was had his driver door open and was leaning on the hood of his car. He nodded at the ginger haired girl. "Yeah," Eli gestured towards Dean. "Dean, this is Emily. Emily, Dean."

Emily shot Eli a look before extending her hand to Dean. "Nice to meet you, Dean. My sister Charlotte and I are having a party tomorrow night. I've already told Eli about it, are you coming?"

Dean turned again to face his cousin, confusion momentarily clouding his face before he turned back to the girls and flashed Charlotte a smile. "I don't know," he flirted. "I wasn't invited."

Charlotte smiled shyly, tucking a strand of her dark hair behind her ear and glancing down. Emily turned to face her sister. "Well that can't be right. Char, I can't believe you didn't invite him."

"I was getting to that," the girl said smiling and looking up into Dean's eyes. "It's just a small party that my sister and I throw every year. You should come; it's going to be fun."

Dean turned to look to Eli for support. The older boy just shrugged nonchalantly. Dean turned back to the girls. He mimicked his older cousin's relaxed posture and nodded once to the Charlotte. "I'll see if I can make an appearance."

Charlotte nodded. Emily handed her sister a pen. Dean paused in confusion as Charlotte took his hand and scribbled her name and number on his palm. "Call me sometime," she said walking off after her sister.

Dean cleared his throat once, keeping his voice even. "Sure."

Eli shook his head smiling as he climbed into his car and shut the door.

Dean followed suit. He turned to look at Eli as the boy pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the street toward the middle school. "What was that about?" Dean asked.

Eli shrugged. "What?"

"Back there with the girls," he looked at the palm of his hand. "Not that I'm complaining."

Eli laughed and shook his head. "I used to date Emily." Dean smiled and shook his head.

They pulled into the parking lot of the middle school across from the playground. Eli put the car in park and frowned.

"What the hell?" Dean said getting out of the car.

The two older boys frowned and moved quicker as they approached the playground getting a better view of what was happening.

Dean got to Sam first as the three other boys ran away. "What the hell, Sammy?" he asked helping his older brother to his feet, his eyes grew wide with anger as he noted his brother's split lip and bloody nose. He dusted the woodchips off of the younger boy.

"Sammy, what happened?" Dean asked the eleven year old. Sam shook his head, angry tears forming in his eyes. Dean gripped his brother's arm tighter. "Sammy, talk to me. Who did this?"

Sam tried to pull away from his brother's grasp. "Hey," Dean fussed at him. "Sam- Sammy,"

SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~ SPN ~SPN ~ SPN

Eli slammed his car door shut and headed for the playground. He could hear the three boys laughing and jeering as they ran away.

The two older boys took off at a sprint toward the playground when they caught a glimpse of their younger siblings. They had seen and heard Jennifer scream as one of the boys forcefully kicked over the trashcan that the ten year old was dangling upside down in, before watching another boy kick at Sam, who was already on the ground, then run off.

Dean reached his younger brother and helped the smaller boy to his feet. Eli passed by the brother's and ran to the aid of his baby sister.

He bent down and grabbed the girl by her ankles and forcibly pulled her out of the fortunately half empty trashcan.

"No. No. No. No." Jennifer cried desperately as she kicked and squirmed to get away.

"Hey," Eli said trying to calm the girl down. "Jen, it's me; bug, its Eli!"

Jen calmed down as she realized it was older brother grabbing her instead of the bullies. Eli helped the girl to her feet, picking the gum and candy wrappers out of her hair and off her shoulders.

"Jen what happened?" Eli asked frowning. Anger flashed in his eyes as he saw the gash on the girl's head that was bleeding, the torn sleeve of the long-sleeved plaid shirt and the bruise forming under the girl's eye, her glasses cracked and broken.

Jen shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "Can we just go home?"

Eli looked over to where Dean was shaking Sam and nodded. He stood, slowly clenching and unclenching his fist trying to calm himself as they walked back to the car.

"Someone tell me something!" Dean shouted exasperatedly after they had all gotten back into the car. Sam and Jen had both fallen silent. "Sam, what the hell happened out there?" Dean turned around in his seat to glance back at Sam and Jen in the backseat, but neither said anything.

Dean chanced a glance over in Eli's direction. The older boy was gripping the steering wheel tight as he drove. He was known for his temper and Dean could tell he was doing all he could to keep from lashing out at the youngest two until he calmed down.

Dean sighed. He was beginning to lose his patience. "Fine, you can either tell us what happened or you can just explain to Bobby and dad why you two are getting into fights at school."

Dean paused a beat, waiting to see the effect of his threat on the two in the backseat. It worked.

"It was my fault. Sam was only trying to help." Jennifer muttered continuing to look out the window as they pulled into Bobby's Salvage Yard.

The four got out of the car. Dean stared at his brother. Sam hesitated a moment, checking for Bobby's car before taking a deep breath and saying. "It wasn't even a real fight."

Dean followed after his brother into the kitchen. They had dropped their bags on the couch in the living room upon entering and the youngest two were sitting at the table. Eli was still silent as he attempted to clean up the gash on Jen's forehead, his body language relaying his anger.

"What do you mean it wasn't a real fight?" Dean asked handing Sam the icepack. He turned around and took a warm cloth and began to clean up the blood from Sam's nose, checking again to make sure it wasn't broken. It wasn't. Dean gave Sam a look that meant "answer me, now."

Sam looked down at his feet holding the icepack against his face. "It was just a few bullies who were trying to prove a point."

Dean frowned at his brother, "What's that? They can use your faces for target practice?" Dean shook his head.

"A name," Eli said speaking up for the first time since they had gotten in the car. "Jenny, who did this?"

"Eli, you're freaking out over nothing." Jennifer said wincing as the alcohol stung her forehead. "It was a simple disagreement that got out of hand."

"Right," Dean started with the girl. "A disagreement? Jen, you and Sam are bleeding. That's more than a disagreement."

"What were we supposed to do?" Jen lashed out. "Get into a fight and risk getting into more trouble?"

"You were already in a fight!" Dean countered. "What I want to know is why and with whom."

Jennifer fell silent. Dean was growing angrier and impatient. "I'm waiting."

The girl sighed. She chanced a look at Sam who sat with an icepack to his face frowning sympathetically. There was no getting around it. "McAllister," she finally mumbled.

Dean and Eli both stared at the girl. "What?" Eli asked his sister.

"Ken McAllister. It's not that big of a deal. He and his friends are just trying to prove that they're bigger and better. It's nothing we can't handle."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Clearly." He turned to look at Sam. "I've seen McAllister. You two would have no problem kicking his ass. It barely looked like you two were fighting back."

Sam stood up. "What would have been the point?"

Dean frowned at his brother? Are you seriously telling me that neither of you fought back? You just let them hit you?"

"Of course not?" Sam told his brother. "We didn't let them hit us."

"Then what?" Dean asked confused and annoyed.

Sam shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Like Jen said, we can handle it."

Eli placed a bandage on the cut on Jen's head and stood up. "You don't need stitches, but you sure as hell are done being those boys' punching bag."

"Eli, don't-" Jennifer started.

Eli shook his head cutting the girl off. "No, Jen. You and Sam could have been seriously hurt!"

Dean nudged Sam in agreement. "You know I don't believe in walking away from a fight and I certainly don't believe in losing them."

Sam shrugged off his brother's hand. "It wouldn't be a fair fight Dean and it wouldn't solve anything."

Dean scoffed. "If that means my little brother and cousin come home in one piece then I'm okay with that." Sam shook his head. Dean ignored him. "Handle it tomorrow, or we will."

"Why can't you just stay out of it?" Jen fussed at the older boy as she took the icepack from her brother. "I've got it under control. If you or Eli butt in you will only make it worse. It's hard enough being the kids of the town drunk without you making waves at my school. I live here. Dean, you and Sam will get to leave in a week or two. I'm still stuck here. Just stay out of it, please!"

Eli reached for his sister as the girl stormed out of the kitchen a few silent tears cascading down the girl's face. Jennifer shook her head as she ran up the stairs to her bedroom. She could hear her father's car pull up. She rushed up the stairs faster as more tears slid down her cheeks. She hated getting emotional like that in front of the guys. It was bad enough that she was the youngest, but crying was just a reminder that she was a girl and was weaker than them.

Dean raised a hand behind his head and rubbed the back of his neck, a solemn look on his face. He hadn't meant to upset Jen. He just hated the idea of someone hurting her and Sammy. It was his job to protect Sam and the two of them were currently making that hard.

"Maybe you should go get cleaned up Sam." Eli said breaking the uncomfortable silence that arose after the girl had left.

Sam looked down to his bloody shirt and nodded. He quickly grabbed his and Jen's bags from the living room and hurried up the stairs when he heard Bobby's key in the lock at the door.

Bobby entered his house, two grocery bags in hand. He turned his head in the direction of the stairs in time to see the back of Sam's head disappearing at the top. "Where's the fire, Sam?" Bobby joked. "Careful running up them stairs ya idjit."

Bobby shook his head as he entered the kitchen. Boys. Eli and Dean greeted the older man and took the bags preparing to put away the seemingly unnecessary groceries. Eli handed his father a beer before returning to put away the last bit of the groceries.

"John called," Bobby began after taking a sip of the beer. "I'm leaving to head on over to Indiana to give your daddy and Caleb a hand with that Vamp nest down there. It shouldn't take more than a week or two before we're back."

Eli nodded as Bobby stood. "You already packed?" Dean asked.

Bobby nodded. "Just wanted to make sure that y'all were good before I left." He looked around. "Where's your sister?"

Dean looked down for a moment. "Upstairs, in the shower." Eli lied easily.

Bobby frowned. "Alright but give her a hug and kiss for me. Y'all be good ya' hear? I'll call to check in."

Eli and Dean nodded to the older hunter as they watched him leave.