Caterina blinked open her eyes. She didn't want to wake up; she was tired, upset, and very cold. Actually, she wasn't as cold as she remembered. Still half-asleep, Caterina shifted a bit and rubbed her eyes. Once her vision was clear, she realized she was in the backseat of a car. Not her car, either. Ahead of her, she saw two heads. The one on the passenger side was tall and had shaggy brown hair. She gasped in recognition. She remembered what had happened right before she'd ran outside. A pang of sadness hit her, reminding her that It had actually happened. Her mother had- well, she didn't know. The whole ordeal confused her, but she first needed to know where she was.

She decided to be her own detective. Thinking was mentally painful, so she tried to only think about the present. That head must be Agent Angus. Or Sam Winchester. She decided to go with Tall Guy and went on to guess who the driver must be. Either Agent Young or Dean Winchester. Codename: Other Guy. Considering It, Caterina decided that she was safe with Tall Guy and Other Guy.

She shifted her stiff body into an upright position, causing the blanket draped over her to make a rustling sound. Tall Guy looked at her and looked concerned.

"Are you okay? We're taking you to the motel. Your house really isn't a safe place for you right now."

"She isn't safe anywhere at all," Other Guy added brusquely. "There are demons that want to kill her."

"Well, thanks, Dean," Tall Guy replied sarcastically, glaring at him. Tall Guy turned his attention back to Caterina. "We're not trying to kidnap you or anything, I swear!"

She laughed weakly. "I know. Thanks for saving me. Were you spying on me?"

Tall Guy glanced at Dean. "Yes, actually. We were waiting for the demon- your mom- to come home. We'll explain later. How are you feeling?"

"Tired. Fine," she replied. "Who are you?"

"Right. Forgot the proper introductions," Tall Guy answered sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm Sam; this is my brother, Dean. We hunt things."

Caterina nodded, feeling slightly light-headed. "Great. Uh, how long have I been sleeping?"

Sam checked his watch. "An hour. We had to, ahem, clean up in your house, so we let you sleep. Do you have any place you could stay? Sorry, I know it's probably a tough topic, but you need a new home."

Caterina hadn't even thought about that. "Oh." She hesitated. "I don't know. The people that I would've chosen first are dead, remember?"

Sam winced. "Sorry. We'll get you a motel room for the night and we'll talk about it in the morning, alright? In fact…" he looked out the window, "We're here. I'll get you a room. Stay with Dean."

Dean parked the car slowly and got out, opening Caterina's door for her. He raised an eyebrow at her and leaned against his prized car, considering her. "Have any relatives you can live with?"

Caterina shook her head. "My mom didn't have any cousins or siblings. I don't have a dad. My grandparents passed away before I was born."

"Family friends?"

"I haven't seen them for years. I think they live in the west or something."

"Anybody else?" Dean tried again, shocked at Caterina's lack of connections.

"No. Nobody knows me well enough to take me in." Her face suddenly became guarded, scared. "Am I going to the foster system?"

When he saw that look on her face, Dean immediately felt as though he had to protect her, keep this little girl safe and with a family. He realized, plainly, how much he missed being the protective big brother ever since he agreed to treat Sammy as his equal. His whole life, he'd been keeping Sam safe. It was his job, trusted to him since Sam was born. 'Take care of your brother.' 'Don't let him out of your sight, you understand?' Dean had felt pointless for a long time, even more so when he couldn't protect Sam. Now, he had someone else. Caterina.

"No," Dean answered, locking eyes with her. He tried to sound as confident as he could. "I will do everything I can to make sure you're safe. You've got my word."

Caterina looked comforted. "I hope so."

Dean nodded and looked out ahead. Sam was running back, his nearly shoulder-length hair whipping in the wind behind him. As he came nearer, he threw the keys to Dean, who caught them in one hand above his head. Dean tossed the keys to Caterina, who was standing right near him.

She gave the brothers disappointed looks. "You coulda just thrown the keys to me."

Dean looked at her amusedly. "Would you have caught them?"

"Yes. Where's my room?"

"The one next to ours. Room 237," Sam answered sheepishly, like he shouldn't have strayed from business. He passed her a small duffel bag. "Dean, uh, got you some clothes from your room. I don't know if you'll like them, but we didn't want to make you wear the same clothes again." He scratched his head. "Sorry."

"No, thank you. You didn't have to do that." Caterina didn't know whether to be relieved, worried about them poking around her room, or concerned about if they got her fresh underwear too. She didn't ask. If they didn't, it would be too late, anyway. She smiled appreciatively at them. "Thanks. Um, where's Room 237?"

"Right this way. Follow me," Sam answered hospitably. The three walked to their rooms silently, Caterina fumbling with her keys at her door. She kept her head down, blushing with hidden embarrassment.

Once in the room, she turned on the light and locked the door in every way possible, shutting all the windows and blinds. The first thing she did was empty the bag of clothes on one of the two beds in the room. Dean had packed her a pair of dark skinny jeans, a tight-fitting white cotton V-neck, her hardly-worn denim jacket, and a big, old T-shirt to sleep in. Thankfully (or not), he did remember to get underwear and socks for her. She fell onto the bed, burying her face in the thick-threaded blanket. It smelled of unfamiliarity. She studied the scent, knowing that more would be on her way. All she wanted in that moment was to fall asleep. Not even go brush her teeth or change. She didn't even want to scoot herself toward the pillow and wrap herself up. She was exhausted, overwhelmed, and just plain tired.

A thought occurred to her. She didn't have a mother to tell her what to do anymore. She didn't have to do anything she didn't want to. Nobody could tell her that after being thrown by an unseen force against a wall and falling asleep on the hood of a car that she should take a shower before she hit the sack. Nobody could tell her she needed to brush her teeth or wash her face or be polite or follow the rules. Still, she felt guilty and stayed in the same position for a while longer. It could have been thirty seconds, or maybe twenty minutes. When she got up, she felt even more drowsy and had the quilt patterns pressed into her bare skin from lying face-down with her arms slightly tucked under her sides on the big bed.

After ten zombie-esque steps to the bathroom, Caterina finally stepped into the steaming shower to clean up and get ready for a well-deserved sleep.

Caterina was drifting in and out of sleep. At 1:24 a.m. (the radio alarm clock informed her of this with red glowing digits), she stumbled out of bed, her hair still limply damp, and went over to curl up on the couch next to the wall. She could hear voices and instinctively associated them with Sam and Dean. They sounded like they were yelling and she strained her still-asleep ears to make out their words. Every once in a while, she caught an insignificant word or two, but not enough to guess what they were discussing so importantly. Eventually, she drifted to sleep, lulled by the murmur of their voices.

Sometime during the dark and early morning, she found her way to her bed and continued her sleep, not waking up again until after the sun came up.

Sam and Dean lingered a bit outside the motel after Caterina had gone inside her room. A few moments later, they heard her door click shut and saw her close the blinds. On cue, the two of them took out a sack of salt and poured a line across the sill of each window, one in front of the door as well. With that taken care of, they entered their own room and made sure nothing had been stolen.

Half an hour of silence followed, each brother lost in his own thoughts. After a while, Sam started researching on his computer again as Dean went to take a shower. Sam didn't take one until an hour after Dean took his and they'd watched a long segment of the news.

Finally settled in and mostly ready to sleep at around one a.m, Sam started, "So, I was thinking… remember Jesse? Half demon boy?"

Dean looked up from his demon protection collection, startled. "Yeah. What, do you think Caterina is some sort of demon freak child?"

Sam seemed strained. "No. Maybe. I mean, the demon did say she's 100% Winchester, but really? They didn't add a little demon to her? To get a little kick out of it?"

"Who knows? All we know right now is that she is a Winchester. She's family. We have to take care of her. She doesn't have anywhere else to go, and I'm sure as hell not going to let her grow up without anyone to depend on."

Sam studied Dean curiously. He knew his big brother better than anyone. Dean hardly got emotional, even now, but Sam saw something in his eyes. Something hurting him. Something personal.

"Look, Dean, I know being a kid was tough for you. It was tough for me, too. But don't you remember what you said when we found out about Adam? We can't give her our childhood and drag her along on hunts. She still has to go to school. She looks like a smart kid; she could have a bright future ahead of her. She could go to college! I know that's all I ever wanted, to be normal. But-"

"But what, Sam? We're going to leave her alone, with no family? No way! She has demons on her tail, and unlike Jesse, she can't disappear from them. They'll find her unless we're there to protect her. And I don't want her to move schools every week. I would never want that for anyone, you know it, Sam. But it's her safety or her future. She can be secure and set for her life, but demons are still going to want to kill her. Or worse, they'll want to use her against us. Make her a monster. You know that can't happen."

Sam looked at a loss. He knew Dean was right, but he just couldn't admit it. All his life, he'd been dragged along on hunts, going to a different school each week or month. He'd worked so hard just to get out of the hunting life to go to Stanford. He'd succeeded, but once a hunter, always a hunter. He might not like it, but no matter what Sam did, he'd always be stuck with this life. He didn't want that for Caterina. He wanted to let her choose her own path. He knew, sadly, that if they brought her on board, she'd never be able to escape, no matter how much she hated it. "Fine," Sam finally said. "Fine. We'll tell her everything tomorrow and she can make her own decision. She deserves to know and she deserves to choose."

Dean was surprised. "Okay then. I expected more of a fight, Sammy." That was all he said, but his thoughts went on. He hoped to God Caterina would make the right decision, but he wished she didn't have to. He wished he could just give her a free pass back to normal. Of course, things never work out that way, do they?


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