A few hours later, I'd finished the math assignments and Sam took me outside to the park to get some energy out while Dean was finishing up his search in the records room. We met Dean in front of the library when he finally finished. As we walked through the park to the car, Dean reported that there were no little girls matching the description. Sam started talking about a woman who could basically hypnotize people psychically and make them do things. Dean admitted it might be fairy tales when we saw a huge frog in the middle of the path that wouldn't move.

That's when Sam noticed the pumpkin and the mice in front of a nearby house.

"Jessie, stay here," Dean said. They left me at the foot of the porch steps while they went into the house. I waited for a minute and then slowly walked up the steps to stand in the doorway of the open door, figuring I'd still be safe. I saw Dean and Sam draw their guns, and Dean crossed in front of the open door. He pointed down the steps and then closed the door.

I went back down the steps and sat on the bottom one, sideways, so I could watch the door. About fifteen minutes later, Dean came out carrying a big red apple and gestured to me to follow him to the car, which was a ways down the street from the house. Dean leaned against the car and patted the hood. I climbed up onto the bumper and sat where he'd patted. "When I tell you to 'stay here', you stay where you were. You don't get closer so you can watch. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Dean," I said.

"Other than that, you did just fine." He twirled the apple and tossed it from one hand to another. An ambulance drove by, headed for the house, lights on but siren quiet. I turned and watched it park. Paramedics rushed into the house.

"Sam's mad at me," I said, turning back to face Dean.

"Why's Sam mad at you?" Dean asked absently. "You mess up your schoolwork?"

"I wanted to read at the library, so I kind of faked doing an assignment so I could go read."

"And he caught you," Dean said. He shook his head. "Lying and not doing your assignment. You really know how to rack 'em up." He tossed the apple in the air, still completely relaxed. "You need to work on that lying thing and quick."

"He said he wants to talk about it later," I whispered.

"Do the crime, you gotta do the time," Dean stated like it was all the world's truth.

I sighed and rested my elbows on my knees, my chin in my hands. "Yeah," I said. "Dean, if I'm going to be a hunter like you guys, how is any of this stuff going to help me?"

Dean stopped twirling the apple and looked at me. "You're not going to be a hunter like we are. You can get that out of your head right now."

"I'm not exactly safe for the general public, Dean," I said, "what with the fire and all."

"You're not going to be a hunter, and that's that. Got it?" The look on his face stopped me cold.

"Ok," I said, quietly. I didn't mean it, though. I just knew better than to push right now.

He put his arm around me. "That's my girl." But I wondered what a firebrand like me could do if she couldn't be a hunter. Besides, if I saved people, maybe I could make up for the fact that I burned my parents to death. I swallowed hard against the grief that rose within me at that thought.

Glancing around for a distraction, I saw the apple that Dean was futzing with. "What's with the apple?" I asked.

"Ghost of the little girl left it for me."

"Snow White," I said. "You don't even have to read the Grimm version to know that. It was the first Disney animated movie or something. She have skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair as black as ebony?"

"Yeah," Dean said.

"Snow White," I said. I hopped off the hood and got my Game Boy out of the back of the car. I slid back onto the hood to sit next to Dean. He stayed lost in thought while I went back to playing Legend of Zelda. Eventually, Sam came ambling up the road and said that he thought that the girl was basically Snow White, who was put to sleep when she bit a poison apple her stepmom gave her. We headed back to the hospital.

The nurse at the hospital told them about Callie, the doctor's daughter who had been in a coma at the hospital for years. I trailed them while they found the doctor and questioned him about what happened with Callie. When they finished talking to him, we headed towards the entrance, but when we got there, an old lady was being wheeled in. The Emergency Room doctor said that it looked like she had been mauled by an animal. Dean used his FBI badge to get the next of kin information from the paramedic. Dean told Sam to find a way to stop Callie, and he was going to go off and stop the big bad wolf.

"You stay here with Sam," he told me. "It's safer." He took off. Sam took my hand and led me off to find the doctor. Once he found the doctor, he let me go and I hung back while Sam explained what was going on, even in so far as following the doctor into Callie's room. Once inside, I sat in one of the chairs in the room, trying to stay out of the way. That's when the doctor revealed that he had seen Callie as a spirit, too. At Sam's prompting, the doctor talked to Callie and convinced her to stop hurting people.

I sat there stunned as it played out and Callie died. Her father was stricken with grief. "At least she didn't die burning," I muttered to myself, too low for anyone else to hear.

Dean came back to the hospital to meet with us and we headed out to get food. After dinner, Dean took us to another local park where I could burn off my excess flame in a bonfire pit that was there. By then, it was after dark, and we headed back to the motel.

"Shower, teeth, and PJs," Sam said after he unlocked the door to the room. "Then come see me."

My heart sank. I'd been hoping he'd forget. I'd been hoping that the events of the day would make him too tired to deal with me. I'd just been hoping that I wouldn't be in trouble any more.

I probably took twice as long as I normally did in the shower and with brushing my teeth. I put on my nightshirt and dragged myself out to find Dean watching TV and drinking a beer and Sam waiting, sitting on his bed.

"Come here," he said.

"It's ok," I said, taking a step back into the bathroom. "I learned my lesson. You don't have to spank me."

"Thank you for the assurances," he said. "Now come here."

I hesitated. I really didn't want to go over there. He didn't look the same level of angry that he had before, but he wasn't happy with me. "The doctor didn't spank Callie. He just talked to her," I tried.

"Callie was a ghost," Sam said.

"Her body was right there," I said.

Sam rolled his eyes and said, "Young lady, don't make me come get you." I gave up and just went to him.

Sam wasn't one for talking before a spanking. When I was in front of him, he tipped me over his lap and brought his huge hand down on my butt without any preamble. I shrieked, mostly out of surprise. He held me there easily as his hand descended over and over again while I kicked and struggled, trying to catch my breath.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Jessie? Do your assignments when I tell you to. Don't make up other things that you have to do first. Don't go off in daydream mode. If you decide for some reason not to do your assignment, then don't lie to me, either by word or action, and tell me you did. I have no idea why you could have possibly thought you'd get away with that. What were you thinking?"

I was lost. I couldn't answer him because the only thing I was thinking about was the fire on my butt, but he paused and gave me a second. "Well?" he prompted.

Through tears, facing the ugly green rug, I said, "I wanted to help you. I wanted to help with the case. I don't want to be useless."

"You're not useless, Jessie. You're eleven," Sam said, and then he started spanking me again, punctuating each word with a swat. "And you do not lie to us. You do not make decisions on what you will study. You do your schoolwork." He stopped again. "Do you understand me, Jessie?"

"Yes," I sobbed. I had pulled the bedspread into a ball, wrapped my arms around it, and was crying into it.

"Who makes the decisions?" Sam asked me.

"You and Dean," I said. I started to calm down a little, thinking he was done, but then his next words panicked me.

"And what's the punishment for lying?"

I tried to push myself off the bed, off of his lap, but he simply placed a hand on my lower back and held me down. "No, Sam, please! I didn't lie. I didn't lie!"

"You didn't write a bunch of answers on a sheet of paper so I'd think you did the assignment when you didn't?"

I didn't say anything. I just started crying again.

"That's lying, young lady. That's manipulation and falsehood, and I'm not going to put up with it. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Sam," I said, my face buried in the bedspread.

"What's the punishment for lying?" he insisted.

"Twice whatever I was already getting, but please, Sam. Please? I swear, I've learned my lesson." I tried to twist, to push off his lap again, but he wouldn't let me and then his hand came down again.

"You do not get to trick us so that you can have your way. That's now how this works," he scolded as he spanked. "You obey the intent of the instruction, not the word. You will learn that."

His hand descended again and again. I kicked and squirmed and eventually gave up and just cried into the bedspread again. I can only assume it was twice the original amount because I couldn't count them.

When he was done, he scooped me up and hugged me to him, kissing my hair. "Schoolwork is important, Jessie," he said. "I can't count the number of times something has happened during a hunt that something I learned in school helped me with. Just do the work and if you have problems, ask me for help. Ok?"

"Yes, Sam," I said, calming down a little.

He stroked my hair. "No more tricks, no more manipulation, no more falsehoods. Got it?"

I nodded. He carried me to my bed and tucked me in. Dean hugged and kissed me, too. I rolled over to go to sleep.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up when I heard someone moving around the room. It was Sam. He'd packed a backpack. He looked over at Dean and headed towards the door. I sat up and whispered, "Sam!"

He turned guiltily to see me sitting there. He came over and kissed me on the head. "It's ok, squirt. I'm just going out for a bit. Go back to sleep," he whispered. He helped me back under the covers and tucked me back in.

"Are you going to be gone long?" I whispered.

"No, not long. I'll be back in a few hours, ok?"

"Ok," I whispered. He crept out the door, checking on Dean once again before he left. I slipped back into a fitful, uncomfortable doze, but I wasn't able to go back to sleep until Sam came back. Once he was back, I went back to sleep hard.

Morning came too soon. Dean woke me up in his normal way by shaking me. "What time is it?" I groaned, covering my head with my blanket.

"8 a.m.," Dean said, pulling the blanket back off of my head.. "Get moving. Sam went out for coffee, but we need to be out of here soon."

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Why? We just finished a hunt."

"Come on, Jessie. Get up," Dean said, not answering my question.

I groaned and lay back down. "Just a few more minutes, please? I didn't sleep that well."

"Why not?" Dean asked, gathering up his things and stuffing them into his bag. I considered, but decided that since Sam had been so adamant about Dean not seeing him leave, I shouldn't tell Dean that he had left.

"Nightmares," I said. "I kept waking up."

Dean sat down on the edge of my bed and looked at me with concern. "You have nightmares, you can wake me up, you know. You don't have to lie in the dark alone."

I hadn't, but the idea made me feel warm inside. "Ok," I said. "Maybe next time." I crawled out from under the covers and hugged him. He hugged me back.

"Get moving, sweetheart," he said, letting me go. I climbed out of bed, grabbed my backpack and headed into the bathroom to get dressed.