We followed Mr. Wade, the apartment manager, up the stairs to the apartment. As he put his hand up to put the key in the lock, we could see that the door was open just the slightest bit.
"What the-" Mr. Wade said.
"Stay back." Dean said in a deep, serious voice, and he reached behind him and pulled out a gun! Uncle Sam took my arm and pulled me backwards toward the opposite wall, pushing me slightly behind him.
Dean pushed the door open quickly and went into the apartment, holding the gun up in front of him and looking around like policemen did on tv shows.
"Mister, what-" Mr. Wade looked into the apartment, and then at Uncle Sam, shaking his head.
"He's police." Uncle Sam told Mr. Wade.
Dean came back in a couple of minutes. "It's clear," he said, "but it's obvious that someone's been here and been through the place."
"Dammit!" Mr. Wade said. He looked down at me. "Sorry, kid, I hope nothing valuable was taken. Let me go grab my cell and I'll call the cops."
"Go on in." Dean nodded to Uncle Sam. "I'll be right there."
Uncle Sam led me into the apartment. Stuff had been thrown everywhere. All the drawers had been pulled out and dumped, and all the cabinets in the kitchen were opened and stuff was out on the counters.
"Why would someone do this?" I asked, feeling scared.
"Did your mom have money here?" Uncle Sam asked me.
"Uh-uh." I shook my head. "She has a fire safe but all it has is papers in it."
"Where is that?"
"In her bedroom closet." I told him. I walked over to the side table in the living room.
"Oh goody!" I said. "My 3DS is still here!" We had a little charging station set up there for all of our electronics.
Uncle Sam walked over. "What's that?"
"You can play games on it." I told him. I held it out to him and showed him.
"That's pretty cool." he said. "We didn't have stuff like that when I was a kid."
"Well then, you must be old!" I said, grinning at him. "My mom has a Kindle, can we bring that too? She also has a laptop, but that belongs to her work and they'll want it back."
"Sure, we can bring the Kindle." Sam said.
I unplugged the Kindle and took the charging cords out of the wall.
"My games are in my room. Wanna come see?" I looked up at Uncle Sam.
"Sure." he said. I led him down the hall into my room. The drawers of my dresser had been opened, but stuff was just moved around in the drawers. Some clothes had been pulled out of my closet and thrown on the floor.
"Sam?" Dean called.
Uncle Sam stepped into the hallway. "In here-"
Dean appeared in the doorway. "I...persuaded Mr. Wade to give us a few minutes before he calls the cops, so we can get out of here before they get here."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well, we want minimal involvement with the police right now. And as far as they know, Sam is FBI, so it would look suspicious if they saw him here with us." Dean looked around my room. "This your room, kiddo?"
"Yeah." I said proudly. "I picked out the color a couple years ago and Mom let me help paint it. She paid Mr. Wade extra money so that I could have my room be lavender."
"That was nice of her." Dean said. He walked over to the closet and looked in.
"We should start packing your clothes, we don't have a lot of time." he said.
"Okay." I walked over to my bed and pulled the covers down. "Mary Bear!" I said, pulling a teddy bear out from under the comforter. "Mom made me leave her here when we went camping 'cause she didn't want me to lose her."
"Mary Bear?" Sam asked, looking over at me.
I held the bear up. It had shiny cloth angel wings sewn onto its back. "Mom got me this bear when I was real little. I called her Mary 'cause I used to see a lady named Mary who would talk to me sometimes. Mom said it was 'cause of the song "Let It Be", 'cause I used to love that song, but it wasn't."
I looked at Sam and then Dean. They were both looking at each other with funny looks on their faces.
Dean looked down at me. "What did this lady...named Mary...say to you?" he asked slowly. His voice sounded funny.
I shrugged. "I can't really remember, I was real little, like I said. But she was watching over me, and I think she was a angel. She would talk to me when I was scared at night."
"Do you remember what she looked like?" Uncle Sam asked, and it seemed like his voice shook a little bit.
"Um, I think she had blonde hair. And she smiled all the time."
Dean cleared his throat. "Well, you should definitely bring her." he said. "She seems important to you."
"Yeah, she is." I said.
"Charlie, where is your mother's room?" Uncle Sam asked.
"At the end of the hall." I said.
"Charlie told me that her mom has a fire safe, I'm gonna go check it out and see what's in there." Uncle Sam said.
"I'll come too." Dean said. "Charlie, get started on picking stuff you want to bring, and I'll be back in a couple of minutes."
"Okay." I said as they both left. I had no idea why they were acting so odd.
I took my Harry Potter books off of the bookshelf and put them on my bed. Then I took some of my other books off of the shelf and piled them up. I started piling a bunch of my toys on the bed to take with me too.
Dean came to the door. "How's it going?" he asked. "We should get your clothes. Do you have a suitcase?"
"They're in the hall closet." I said.
"Be right back." he said. Uncle Sam walked by the room, going to the living room.
Dean brought 2 suitcases in. "I'll put the stuff that's in your dresser in this one." he said, unzipping it. He started to empty the drawers out.
"How about what's in the closet?" He asked me.
I got up and walked over to him. "Just those dresses. Everything else is too small." I pointed at a group of dresses that was at the front of the closet. He took them off of the hangers and laid them in the suitcase.
"Can I bring my dollhouse?" I asked.
He turned from the closet. "Uh, no, only stuff that's going to fit in the back of the car for now."
"Awww!" I whined. "I love my dollhouse!"
He looked at me. "How big is it?"
I pointed at it in the corner. It was three feet tall, made of wood, and the back opened up.
He shook his head. "Sorry kid, that's way too big." He looked at the stuff on the bed. "And there's no way you can bring all that stuff with you."
"But- but you said I could bring my toys!"
"Well obviously not all of them! We have a limited amount of space in the car, Charlie, so pick what's important to you!"
"How can I do that?" I yelled. "It's all important!"
"Hey!" he snapped. "You do not raise your voice to me, little girl! And watch your tone!"
I folded my arms and glared up at him. "Well you told me I could bring my stuff and now you're saying I can't! You lied to me!"
He took a step towards me. "I did not lie to you. I wasn't expecting you to have a whole store's worth of toys in here!"
"I don't have that much!" I snapped, stomping my foot.
Uncle Sam appeared in the doorway. "What's going on?" he asked, looking at both of us.
"He lied to me about what I can bring with me!" I exclaimed.
"I did NOT lie to you!" he said, and he stepped closer and loomed over me. "Little girl, I am about two seconds away from-"
"Dean." Uncle Sam said. "Take a break. Go check her mom's room for jewelry or something."
"My mom had a lot of not-fancy jewelry in the box on her dresser. But she had her fancy stuff hidden under the head of her bed."
Dean sighed. "All right, fine. See if you can convince this kid that she doesn't need to bring every last worldly possession of hers." He stalked out of the room.
Uncle Sam walked into the room and looked around. "You like Harry Potter, right? How about you bring your books and any stuff related to that."
"Well, duh, of course!" I said. "Can I bring some other books?"
"Like what?"
I showed him my other book collections, Narnia and the Guardians of Ga' hoole series and my Warrior Cats books.
"I have to bring my drawing stuff too." I picked up the messenger bag that had all my drawing stuff in it, and set it on the bed.
"So, you like to read and draw." Uncle Sam said.
"Yeah." I picked up my school backpack and settled on bringing some of my smaller toys, action figures and Hello Kitty dolls and small stuff like that.
Dean came to the door. "Police will probably be here any minute, we need to leave now." he said.
"Okayokay!" I said, standing up. He gave me a look and he and Uncle Sam picked up the suitcases. As we walked out to the car, I realized that this was the last time I was ever going to see the apartment. The home that I had lived in with my mom for all my life was no longer my home any more, and I was leaving it to go on to a completely different life.
"Wait." I said. "We're just gonna—gonna leave?"
"We have to, Charlie." Dean told me. "The police will be here soon."
"I forgot to get some pictures!"
"Oh, I took some off of the walls, and picked up the photo albums that were in your mom's room." Uncle Sam said.
"Thanks." I said. Then I just started crying.
"We need to get in the car." I heard Dean say. I looked up at him, and he led me over to the car and opened the back door. To my surprise, he got in the back next to me. Sam got into the front and started the car. As he pulled away, I got onto my knees and looked out of the back window at the apartment building. "Goodbye..." I said softly, and then I burst into tears. I watched the building get smaller as we drove away from it, and then I felt Dean's hand on my back.
"Turn around and sit so you can get buckled." he said quietly.
I sat down, still crying, and fumbled with the seatbelt. I could barely see through my tears, and Dean buckled it for me, and then put his arms around me and held me as I cried.
We had been in the car for a while when Dean's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket with one hand and put it up to his ear, still keeping one arm around me.
"Hey, Bobby." he said. "Oh, you are? Great. We're at the Ramada Inn off of Route 110. Do you know where that is? Just past the large rest stop, I think it was exit 127? Yeah, south. Okay. We're room-" he leaned forward. "What room number, Sam?"
"Room 208." Uncle Sam said.
"Room 208. We should be there in about 15 minutes. Okay, see you then." He hung up his phone and slid it into his jacket pocket.
"As you can probably tell, Bobby just got here. He'll get a room and then come to our room."
"All right." I heard Uncle Sam say.
Dean looked down at me. "You gonna be okay?"
"I dunno." I sniffled. He put his other arm around me again and I snuggled in to him.
By the time we got to the hotel, I was half asleep. I felt the car come to a stop, and then the door opened. Uncle Sam reached in and picked me up.
"You want to lay down for a while, Charlie?" he asked me.
"Mmm-hmm." I mumbled, resting my head on his shoulder as he carried me inside.
This hotel room had 2 twin beds and a sofa opposite, but then there was a small "sitting area" with a little loveseat and armchair, that was separated by a room divider.
"This opens out to a sofa bed, but I'll just put you down here for now." Uncle Sam told me. He laid me on the loveseat and then a moment later I felt someone covering me with a blanket. I rolled over, and as I fell asleep, I heard a knock on the door, and then a gruff voice.
When I woke up, I could hear voices talking quietly. My stomach was rumbling with hunger. I rolled over and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, then I looked around. The divider had little holes in it, and I could see three people sitting across the room through the holes. Who was the other person? I felt nervous all of a sudden.
"Charlie, you awake?" Called Dean. "Come meet your Uncle Bobby."
My who? I thought Uncle Sam was my only uncle. I stood up and walked around the room divider, glancing at them briefly and then looking down at the floor.
Dean came over to me and put his arm around my shoulder, then led me over to the table across the room where they were sitting.
There was an older man with a scruffy beard, wearing a baseball cap, sitting next to Uncle Sam.
"This is Bobby Singer, he's a family friend." Dean said. "You can call him Uncle Bobby."
I held out my hand. "Nice to meet you." I said timidly.
He shook my hand and said to Dean, "Kid's got better manners than you had at that age."
Dean sat down at the table and pulled the chair next to him out for me. I sat down.
"Wait-" Uncle Sam said. "If we called him Uncle Bobby when we were kids, wouldn't that make him Charlie's Great Uncle?" He looked at Dean with a grin.
"That's one step away from being a grandfather, you know." Dean smirked at Uncle Bobby.
"I aint' that old, ya idjit!" Uncle Bobby growled, and he smacked the back of Dean's head. Then he turned to Uncle Sam and smacked the back of his head too. "You're the one that brought it up. You're just as much a idjit as your brother!"
I couldn't help it, I laughed. Uncle Bobby looked at me. "I helped raise these two, and as ya can see, they're never too old to have their heads smacked."
"You helped raise them?" I was curious.
"Yeah, their dad would go on a hunt and leave them with me for a while. Got into all kinds of mischief, these two did."
I looked at Dean and Uncle Sam. "I can't imagine you guys as little kids!"
"Yeah, they were little once. Little hell-raisers." Uncle Bobby said, and all three of them laughed. Uncle Bobby looked at me. "Dean, she's got your eyes, no doubt about it."
Dean also looked at me. "You think so?"
"She's also inherited his smart-aleck mouth." Uncle Sam said.
Uncle Bobby raised his eyebrows, looking at Dean. "Then I guess she's gonna spend a lot of time washing Baby, like I had you washing my cars when you'd mouth off to me?"
"I don't even know how to wash a car!" I said.
"We'll see." Dean said, putting his arm on the back of my chair.
"Dean's too protective of that car to let just anyone wash it." Uncle Sam said.
My stomach growled just them, loud enough to be heard, and everyone looked at me.
"You slept through lunch, I guess you're hungry." Dean said. "It is almost time for dinner. Should we go eat?"
Dean drove the car and Uncle Bobby sat in the front seat. Uncle Sam sat next to me in the back. We went to a steakhouse, which was a type of restaurant I had never been to. There was all kinds of pictures of cowboys and rodeos and horses on the wall, and decorations like saddles and rope and hats all over the place. At our table there was a little metal bucket filled with peanuts.
"Are we allowed to eat these?" I asked.
"Yes." Dean said. "And drop the shells on the floor."
"Really?" I looked down, and sure enough, there were peanut shells under our table.
I laughed. "I've never been to a place where they let you throw food on the floor!"
All three of them ordered beer for their drinks, and when the waitress brought the bottles, I asked, "Can I try some?"
"No." all three of them said at the same time, and then they all looked at each other.
Dean looked down at me. "And if I ever catch you trying any, you'll end up with a sore butt." he said sternly.
I was embarrassed that he said that in front of Uncle Sam and Uncle Bobby, so I opened up my menu and hid behind it.
"I finally got ahold of John yesterday, told him to call ya." Uncle Bobby said to Dean.
"Okay." Dean sighed. "You know how the old man is, he's a force unto himself. He'll call when he can, I guess."
"Who's the old man?" I asked.
"Our dad." Dean said. "Your grandfather. I'd like to let him know that he has a grand-daughter, but he hasn't returned any of my calls."
"If he's really old, maybe he keeps forgetting because he's senile?" I said.
Uncle Sam laughed, choking on his drink, and Bobby laughed too.
"No, he's not that old. And I would suggest that you not call him old man, cause I don't think he'd take too kindly to that." Dean told me.
"Oh." I looked down at my placemat. "Is he mean?"
"He can be a little...stern sometimes, but he's basically a good guy." Dean said.
"Am I going to meet him?"
"Yeah, that's the idea, if he ever calls me back." Dean said.
The waitress came over to the table and took our orders. They all ordered steak, and I ordered chicken strips because I don't like steak.
I pulled out my 3DS while we were waiting for the food.
Dean looked down at me. "Where'd you get that?" he asked.
"Uh, this place that helps families of cancer patients." I told him. "When Mom was first diagnosed, the hospital gave them Mom's information, and they brought us a bunch of stuff, groceries and clothes, hats that people made for when she lost her hair, and this for me and a Kindle for Mom, so we'd have something to do when she was getting her treatments."
"That's pretty nice." he said.
"Yeah, they also had people come in and clean a couple times after things started, 'cause Mom was too sick to do anything much except throw up."
Dean watched me play. "You're good at that." he said. I was playing a puzzle game.
"I like to do puzzles like this." I said.
When the food came to the table, I kept playing, until Dean said, "All right, Charlie, put it away and eat."
"I can play and eat at the same time." I said. "I always do."
Dean put his hand over the screen.
I looked up at him. "Hey!"
"I said put it away and eat." he said in a serious voice, and he gave me a look.
I sighed. "O- kay." I said, and turned it off. I ate quickly, getting bored as they talked about hunting and weapons and stuff. Once I was finished, I picked up the 3DS again.
Dean looked at me. "Little girl, are you finished eating?" he asked, and his voice was that deeper tone that he got when he was annoyed.
I shrank down in my seat. "Yes! And I'm bored of listening to you guys talk!"
Uncle Bobby chuckled. "Dean, you sounded just like your old man for a second there."
Dean made a "hmph" sound, and then looked at me. "Fine, you can play." he relented.
I concentrated on my game until the dishes were cleared away. As we stood up to leave, Uncle Bobby said, "I'll come to your room after 9 pm and we can go out and do some tracking.
"Will do, Bobby." Uncle Sam said.
I looked up at Dean. "What does that mean?"
"You really were involved in your game, huh?" he said. "Uncle Bobby and Uncle Sam are going to go out later tonight and see if they can track the creature."
I got worried. "But- is that safe? What if they get hurt?"
"Don't worry." Dean said. "They know what they're doing, theyll be fine."
Once we got back to the hotel, Uncle Bobby went to his room. I grabbed the tote bag that had my books in it and sat down on one of the beds. I took out some of my Harry Potter books and looked at them. Uncle Sam and Dean stood over in the corner of the hotel room, talking quietly for several minutes. Then they brought chairs over and put them down by the bed, then sat down.
"Okay, kid." Dean said. "Time to have a talk."
I felt a nervous pang in my stomach, but I didn't let it show. I opened one of the books and read the inside flap. "About what?" I asked casually.
"Charlie, close the book and pay attention." Uncle Sam said sternly. "That's rude."
I felt myself blushing a little bit and closed the book. I looked at him, and then at Dean- they were both looking at me with serious looks on their faces. I couldn't keep looking at them, so I dropped my eyes and stared at the bed spread. It had big orange, brown, and yellow flowers on it.
"Now, like I said earlier, this is a big adjustment for all of us." Dean said. "I know it's a huge change for you, and we're willing to cut you some slack. But your behavior has got to change some."
"No more rudeness, no more disrespect, no more attitude." Sam said. "When one of us tell you to do something, you do it, without a lot of sass."
"Wait a second, you're getting ahead of things." Dean said. "I know with your mom things were...a lot more relaxed. From what you've said, it sounds like she didn't have any rules for you and she didn't really enforce anything, so you pretty much did what you wanted. Am I right?"
I squirmed, embarrassed. Why did he have to make that sound like it was a bad thing? "Yeah, I guess..." I said quietly.
"Well, that's going to change. I'm going to make rules for you, and there are going to be consequences for breaking those rules."
"Consequences?" I asked. "What do you mean?" I didn't like the sound of rules, but I liked the sound of consuquences even less.
"We'll get to that in a minute." Dean shifted in his chair. "Some of your rules are going to be- you don't go anywhere on your own right now. When we're out somewhere, you don't wander off, you stay with us. You do what we tell you to do, right away, without complaining or mouthing off. No rudeness, no disrespect, no more attitude, like Sam said. Your bedtime is at 8:30."
"8:30!" I complained. "That's early!"
They glanced at each other. "Let's see how you do with that." Sam said. "We can re-negotiate later if it isn't working out."
"I will look up some game sites if you give me the names of them." Sam told me, looking at me. "But for right now, you are not allowed on my laptop. And you will always have to ask permission before you do anything on it. Understand?"
"Okaaaay." I said.
"Now, consequences." Dean said.
My stomach twisted nervously. I looked at him, my mouth going dry. He had said before that he would spank me. My mom had never spanked me, not even a swat.
"Consequences are going to be things like early bedtime, taking away your 3DS, writing lines-"
"What is that?" I asked.
"When you write the same sentence over and over." Uncle Sam said. "Like, 'I will follow the rules'."
"That sounds really boring and stupid." I said.
Uncle Sam cleared his throat. "All of these consequences are negotiable."
"The last consequence is spanking." Dean was looking at me intently.
"But- but- I- you- you can't!" I started to scoot backwards on the bed.
"And why not?" Uncle Sam asked calmly.
"My mom never did that!"
"Well, like I said, things are different now." Dean told me. "I'm not like your Mom, and neither is Sam."
I looked back and forth at them. "Wait...is he gonna spank me too?"
They glanced at each other again, and I could see them doing their 'silent talking' thing.
"Yes." Dean said. "There's going to be times when I'm not here and Sam will be the one taking care of you."
"But- but- I don't want to be spanked!" I protested.
"No kid ever wants to be spanked." Uncle Sam said. "It's kinda the point, it's a deterrent for future bad behavior."
"Huh?" I didn't understand what he meant.
"The idea of getting a spanking is supposed to make you want to behave enough so that you don't get one." Dean said.
"Oh. Right." I said. "Well I don't want to be spanked at all!"
"Then you'll have to follow the rules, won't you?" Dean asked.
"But- but what if I forget?"
"We'll remind you." Uncle Sam said. "We'll cut you some slack at first, because we know it's going to take some getting used to."
"I don't like this!" I said, frowning.
"It's going to be hard at first." Dean said. "We'll all help each other. It's almost 8:00 now." Dean said. "I'd like for you to take a bath and then get your pajamas on for bed."
"But you said bedtime was at 8:30!" I complained.
"In bed with lights out at 8:30, not getting ready at 8:30."
"I really don't like this!" I snapped.
"Well, you don't have to like it." Uncle Sam said. "But it's the way life is now."
"Well I think it's dumb! And all these rules are not fair!"
"Listen, the rules are to keep you safe. They don't have to be fair." Dean told me.
"And you need to watch your mouth." Uncle Sam said.
"I can't say how I'm feeling?" I asked angrily.
"You can express yourself without giving attitude." Uncle Sam said calmly. "Or sassing."
I sighed heavily. "Fiiiine." I said.
"Watch it." Dean said warningly. "Sam just talked to you about attitude. Do you need a consequence right now?"
"No!" I snapped, and they both glared at me. "Uh, I mean, no." I gulped. "Sorry." I muttered.
"I think that from now on, when you answer us, it's going to be 'Yes, Dean', and 'No, Dean'. Without any sass. And if that doesn't work, it's going to be 'Yes Sir' and 'No Sir'. Is that clear?"
"Yeah- uh, yes Dean." I said.
He stood up. "Do you take showers, or baths?"
"Bath." I said.
"All right, I'll get it started." He went into the bathroom and I heard the water running.
I got out my pjs and a clean pair of underpants and went into the bathroom.
"Is this too hot?" Dean turned to me and I leaned down and put my hand under the faucet. "Yeah." I said.
He turned the tap slightly. "How's this?"
"Better."
He straightened up. "So, uh, do you need any, uh, help...washing or anything?" He looked uncomfortable.
"No, I'm not a baby!" I said. "I can wash myself just fine."
He looked relieved, then he turned the water off after a couple of minutes. "I'll leave you to it then."
He left the room and closed the door behind him. After shedding my clothes, I got into the tub and did a quick wash, leaning back into the water and using the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner that were on the edge of the sink. They made my hair smell all perfumey.
I realized that I had a problem after I had dried off and gotten into my pjs.
I walked into the room, holding my pink Hello Kitty hairbrush.
"Uh, I need help." I said awkwardly. "I have a couple big knots in my hair that I can't get out."
Dean was sitting on the sofa holding a bottle of beer, and he patted the cushion next to him.
"Sit down and I'll give it a try." he said. I sat next to him and turned my back to him.
He wasn't good at brushing knots out of hair at all! After the third time of him yanking my hair, I got tears in my eyes.
"Ow, Dean! You're hurting me!" I put my hands up to my head and leaned away from him.
"Sorry, kiddo, I have no experience with brushing hair. Mine's always been short."
"Come here and let me do it." Uncle Sam said. He was sitting at the table. I walked over to him and sat in a chair next to him.
"Oh, like you have experience?" Dan scoffed."Well, I guess you do, since your hair's always been long."
"Shut up, Dean." Uncle Sam said. "I used to brush Jess's hair."
"Who is Jess?" I asked, handing him the brush.
"My girlfriend." he said shortly.
"You had a girlfriend?"
"Yes." he said, gently working the brush through one of the tangles.
"How come you're not together? Did you break up?"
"No. She...passed away."
"Oh. Sorry." I murmured, glancing back at him. His brows were furrowed in concentration as he divided my hair apart. He started to work on another section.
"You're good at this." I said, closing my eyes.
"Thanks." he said. After he got all of the knots out, he brushed my hair until it was smooth. It was relaxing to have someone else brush my hair like that.
"I'm guessing that you like this cat." Uncle Sam said, handing me the brush. My pjs had little pictures of Hello Kitty on them too, it was a shirt and shorts set that had a little ruffle on the sleeves and hem, but it wasn't too girly, which I liked.
"Hello Kitty is awesome!" I said.
"That's a cat?" Dean asked, looking confused.
"Yeah, can't you tell?" I said.
He shook his head. "Could've fooled me. Did you brush your teeth?"
"Not yet." I said. I walked back into the bathroom and put the brush on the edge of the sink, then I brushed my teeth. When I walked back out to the room, Dean had opened up the sofa bed. He pulled the covers down a little ways.
"All right, come on." he said, motioning to the bed.
I looked over at the clock on the t.v.
"But- but it's not 8:30 yet!" I protested.
"Close enough." he said.
"But- the new episode of Kitchen Wars is on at 9, and I have to watch it!" I looked at Uncle Sam, and then at Dean."Please, I have to!"
"We may be able to record it, or look it up online tomorrow." Uncle Sam said.
I stomped my foot. "No, I don't want to watch it tomorrow!" How could I explain to them that this was the closest thing to a routine that I had had with my mom, and I felt like it was a way to stay connected to her?
"I have to watch it tonight!" I shouted angrily.
"No, the only thing you have to do right now is go to bed." Dean said, and his voice was that growl that meant he was getting angry. I walked across the room and sat down on the sofa, picking up the remote and turning on the t.v.
"Charlie-" Dean said. "Turn off the tv and come get into bed."
I ignored him.
"Charlie." Dean said, and his voice was deeper. "If you're not over here by the count of three, I will spank you. One..."
I had heard Moms on the playground counting like that to their kids, and the Moms never got to three because the kids always behaved when they started to count. Did a spanking really even happen? I looked over at Dean. His hands were on his hips and his eyes were narrowed. I looked at Uncle Sam. He was watching me with his eyebrows raised.
"Two..." Dean said slowly. A muscle twitched in his cheek, and I realized that he was really angry. I decided that I did not want to find out what happened at three, and I stood up and hurried over to the sofa bed just as Dean said, "Three."
He met me partway across the room, and picked me up by putting his hands under my armpits. He carried me over to the sofa bed and laid me down on the bed on my tummy, putting his hand on my back, and then he spanked me rapid-fire, onetwothree times, and I yelped and burst into tears. He let me up and I crawled onto the bed, pulling the covers up around me. I reached back and tried to rub the sting out of my bottom.
"I just wanted to watch the show 'cause me and Mommy always watch it!" I sobbed. "It's something we do together!"
"Dean-" I heard Uncle Sam say, and then I heard Dean say, "Shit." under his breath. I heard Uncle Sam say something quietly to Dean.
I felt a hand on my back. "Charlie-" Dean said, with regret in his voice. "I'm sor-"
"Leave me alone!" I yelled, pulling the covers up over my head.
The hand moved away, but then a couple moments later I felt a hand on my arm, and the covers were being pulled back. Dean picked me up and turned me around to face him.
Uncle Sam was standing right next to the bed. I gulped- was he going to spank me too?
"I didn't know, Charlie, and I'm sorry." Dean said, sitting down on the bed. "I should have asked you."
He pulled me into a hug and I sat there stiffly for a moment.
"Sometimes I'm going to screw up." Dean said. "And the only thing I can do is apologize."
"We can make exceptions for bedtime sometimes." Uncle Sam said. "Nothing is written in stone."
"Did you have any kind of bed time routine with your mom?" Dean asked gently.
"No," I said. "I just went to bed whenever. A lot of the time her meds would have made her go to sleep before me. The only routine we had was when we watched our shows together." I wiped my eyes with the sheet.
"Well, tomorrow, you tell me what other shows you watched with her and we'll make sure you can watch them, okay?"
"Okay Dean."I said, and I put my arms around him and hugged him back. He squeezed me for a moment, and then dropped a kiss on the top of my head. Then he let go and stood up.
Uncle Sam came over and leaned down, giving me a quick hug. "Talk to us, Charlie." he told me. "Let us know things like this, okay?"
"Yes, Uncle Sam." I sniffled, hugging him back. I laid down and he pulled the covers up.
"Goodnight." They both said. They walked around the room divider, and then I heard the fridge open and the sounds of them taking the tops off of beer bottles.
"Jesus, I feel like a dick." Dean said in a low voice.
"You didn't know, Dean." Sam said quietly. "It'll be all right."
I woke up with a start, having had another dream about hearing the noises at the campsite. The only light in the room was the bathroom light, with the door partway open. Dean was asleep in his bed and Uncle Sam wasn't back yet. I got out of my bed and walked over to Dean's bed, getting in next to him. I curled up with my back against his back, feeling the warmth of his body, and fell back to sleep quickly.
I woke up early, for some reason. The sun was just starting to shine into the windows a little bit. I sat up and looked around. Uncle Sam was in his bed, sound asleep, and Dean was in bed next to me. I shook his arm.
"Dean." I whispered. He didn't respond at all.
I got off of the bed and found my 3DS. It was out of power, I had forgotten to plug it in to charge last night. My bag with my drawing stuff must still be in the car, and I wasn't in the mood to read. I didn't want to turn on the t.v. and risk waking them. I decided to go check out that playground that we had seen.
With my mom, she was usually so out of it that I couldn't wake her up, so I stopped trying to bother her and instead just let her sleep. I learned to do lots of stuff on my own. I made my own soup and mac-n-cheese in the microwave, I dragged the laundry up and down the stairs and put everything through the machines, then folded it and put it away, I went down to the ground floor and got the mail out of our mailbox, and I went to the small playground/park that was next to our apartment complex. There were usually people there- if not school kids, then some of the people that lived in our building. There was usually at least one old lady walking her dog, or one of the moms with a baby or toddler or two there. I always felt okay there.
This playground should be the same- it was part of the hotel, so only the people who were at the hotel should be there, I reasoned to myself. I found my shoes, halfway under the sofa, and put them on. I went to the door and unlocked it, then I stopped. Should I leave them a note? I shook my head- I'd probably be back before they woke up. And I didn't want to wake them up, especially Uncle Sam, since he had been out so late. I opened the door quietly and slipped out onto the sidewalk.
I was the only one on the playground. It was small, and there wan't much to do, but there were swings, which was my favorite. I swung for a long time, closing my eyes and feeling the breeze in my hair, and enjoying feeling the sun on my skin.
"CHARLOTTE ANNE WINCHESTER!" a deep voice shouted.
I was startled by hearing my name, and opened my eyes. Dean and Uncle Sam were walking across the parking lot towards me, and I could tell by the looks on both of their faces that they were mad. Uh-oh.