Chapter 7

Dean

"Pie?" Dean asked. "Pie…"

Something in his memory stirred and he had an image of a clean, bright kitchen and the smell of something that smelled better than anything he had ever smelled before.

"Don't tell me you've never had pie. I know for a fact that Mary Winchester owned the recipe for -and was very adept at cooking- my secret Brown Sugar Pie. She also had my less awesome recipes for apple, cherry, and backberry pies. Never fond of blueberry pie. Much prefer blueberry tarts."

Dean thought about the idea of fruity pies and knew it just wouldn't stand with Sam. "Is there a chocolate pie? 'Cause now you got Sammy all in his chocolate zone and I don't think you're gonna get him to eat somethin' that's got good for you in it."

Dani sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Fine. You can have chocolate pie you petty, palate-less Neanderthal children. I'll go get the recipe."

Dani went into the pantry and came out with a big, thick book.

"This is a cookbook. It has a bunch of recipes for food, like pies. But there's a bunch of other stuff, too. See how yellow the pages are? That means the recipes are really old, which usually means they're really good, too. So we open up to the page on pies and it tells us how to make one," Dani turned a few of the pages until she found what she was looking for and pointed. "Can you read that?"

Dean squinted at the page, and read the words carefully, "Chocolate Cream Pie?"

"Yessir. You think that will be chocolaty enough for Sam?"

"I think so."

"Good. I'll get all the ingredients if you'll read them for me."

"Okay," Dean said, taking the book and sitting down in the chair facing Dani.

Dean read the ingredients off the page, and Dani looked for them in the cupboard. Dean thought that when Sammy heard the words 'chocolate' and 'cocoa' he would come in the kitchen. He was right, kind of. After Dean and Dani had started mixing ingredients together and the smell of chocolate reached his little brother's nose, Sammy wandered into the kitchen and watched the two of them while they stirred, getting his hand flicked every time he tried to taste the chocolatey mix.

Dani left the chocolate part of the pie to Dean, and focused on the crust, which looked like the hardest part anyway. While the crust was baking and the chocolate part was cooling, Dani attempted to start to clean up.

Sammy seemed captivated by the whole process, eyes flickering from Dean to Dani… until, that was, his two year old brain got bored. Then, as he was playing with a cup of flour, it overturned and there was suddenly a huge puff of white smoke.

"Sam, you okay?" Dani asked, wafting the powder out of the air with her hands.

The mess cleared to reveal a very sorrowful looking Sammy, face completely covered in fine white powder.

"Sorry."

Dean and Dani exchanged a look before bursting into laughter. Realizing that he wasn't in trouble, Sammy giggled along, and somehow a spilled cup of flour became an all out flour war.

Flour was tossed around so much that the entire kitchen was foggy with the stuff.

"HAWOONGA!" Dani yelled, jumping out of a white cloud to find Sam and Dean- Dean with his shirt on his head and Sam with floury war-paint on his face.

Sam and Dean yelled and threw down another flour bomb, racing around the table to escape Dani's flour-monster wrath. Dean grabbed Sammy's hand and pulled him under the table and they watched Dani's feet make several confused rounds before she peeked her head under at them.

Danica

"BOO!"

Sam and Dean yelled and tore out from under the table, great big smiles on their faces. They started to run again, but the oven made a pinging sort of noise and Dani squeaked in surprise. She'd forgotten there was something cooking, she'd been so distracted by her play with the boys.

She pulled the pie crust out of the oven and set it on the stove to cool, turning around to find the boys sitting calmly at the table, in the middle of a flour-covered kitchen.

"Oh don't you dare think you're gonna get away with not helping me clean this mess up. Go on, start sweeping the flour off the table. I'll go get the broom."

Dani swept while Dean sat Sam on the table and told him a story.

"Mom and me used to make pies when I was little," Dean said to Sam, and Dani could see Sam lean in closer to his brother, and Dani could tell that they didn't often talk about their mother. "They were always our secret though, just me and mom. And you, after you were born, you got to be part of the secret too. She made a pie that tasted soft and sugary, or one she made with berries in it and she used to let you taste just a little and you liked it even though it was good for you. We got to eat them just us, and if there was any left mom put it away and sometimes she would take it when she went into town and she'd give it to a scruffy looking guy. Sometimes we made them and gave them to the people next door or across the street- but we never made one for dad. I think she just wanted us to have something special together, her and me. And then her and me and you, because she loved us so much."

Dani bit her lip and bent down, mostly to sweep the giant pile of flour into the dustpan, but also to let loose a tear.

She had known Mary Winchester- and if there was anything that had been predictable about the Mary she had known, it was that she would make a wonderful mother one day.

"Boys, time for chocolate!" she said, shaking old memories from her head and putting on a smile for the rugrats in front of her.

Dani directed Sam to hold the pie crust still while she held the bowl and had Dean spoon the chocolate into the pastry.

After that it was as simple as a thin layer of whipped cream and some drizzly chocolate fudge.

"Done!" Dani said, standing back to look at her masterpiece. The moment of pride was short lived, as Sam and Dean both reached a finger in and scooped some of the whipped cream right into their mouths.

They giggled at the horrified look on Dani's face before she stole the pie right out from under them.

"Little barbarians!" she said, putting the pie on the top shelf of the fridge. "No pie for you until after dinner."

Dean made a face and crossed his arms, and Sam pretended to start to cry.

"AH AH AH! NO! You faker. Don't you try to fool me with your crocodile tears, Sam Winchester."

Sam made a pouty face, but stopped trying to cry.

"What do we want to eat for dinner, anyway?"

No sooner had Dani finished her sentence than she heard the front door open.

In the instant between when the door opened and Bobby took a step inside , Dani flashed from the kitchen to the living room, and was waiting in the foyer, pistol in hand.

"Oh. Sorry." She said, lowering her gun. "Wasn't expecting you back til later this week."

"We weren't plannin' on bein' back so soon, but we had some unexpected company." Bobby eyed Dani and her gun with a father's disapproval.

She uncocked the gun and put it in the back of her jeans and stuck her tongue out at him before Sam and Dean came running into the entryway to join her and Bobby, each attaching to one of her legs.

"How did you DO that?" Dean asked, eyes wide.

"Superman!" Sam squealed.

Dani smiled nervously, "Must have been some left-over flour monster powers."

"A what monster?" John asked, trailing behind Bobby with another man at his side.

"Oh keep your boxers on," Dani snorted.

John made a face and his boys, upon noticing their father, detached themselves from Danica's legs. Sam ran to his father and jumped up and down until John picked him up, but Dean walked to his father's side and stood silent and serene as a statue.

"Okay keep your panties on, then. It was a make-believe monster. No need to bust out the big guns. PS, who's the new guy?"

The man next to John stepped over the threshold, officially passing Dani's first test- a line of salt just under the doorframe. He was tall, broad shouldered and golden blonde with laughing brown eyes. The only wrinkles on his face were laugh lines, and there were curves etched into his cheeks from his smiles. Next to John they looked like the epitome of Comedy and Tragedy.

"Bill Harvelle," The man said with a friendly grin, extending a hand.

Dani shook it and beamed back. "Danica. Otherwise known as Dani, or just 'Hey You'."

Bobby rolled his eyes and wandered into the living room, and the other two men and one boy following him.

"I was just going to make the boys some dinner. I suppose that'd dinner for six now, though."

Immediately there were protests.

"I can't, I've got to get home,"

"I should get the boys down to a motel-"

"-old ball and chain-"

"Don't want to put you and Bobby out-"

Dani shushed them all with a curt swish of her hand. "Ah no no no. You're all staying the night. It's almost eight now, I'm not having you all drive home in the dark. Please, sit down. Have a nice meal, sleep easy for once. This house is a veritable fortress from baddies of the night, and we have two bedrooms and a helluva couch."

"And if you don't agree to sleep over, she'll drug you and you'll have to do it anyway." Bobby said with a chuckle.

John cracked a smile and reached down to ruffle Dean's hair. The six year old practically glowed.

"One time!" Dani complained, throwing her hands in the air and heading for the kitchen, "You drug some guys one time and no one ever forgets it."

The men sat in the living room and talked a while, but after a while it became clear that they couldn't continue their conversation with the boys listening in, so Dean and Sam were sent to the Kitchen to help Danica prepare dinner.

Dani gently directed the boys in mashing potatoes and washing string beans while she cooked a great big ol' hunk of meat in the oven. Dinner was ready within the hour, and Dani sent the boys off to set plates and silverware out in the living room on all of the surfaces that could be spared.

As soon as the boys were out of the kitchen Bobby entered, nose twitching and eyebrows burrowing towards each other like angry, hairy little caterpillars.

He sniffed the air and cast a suspicious look at Danica.

"What're you cookin'?" he asked.

"Roast beef with mashed potatoes and green beans. Unless you want to know what Sam is eating, in which case mashed potatoes and weird baby-food meat and some mushy vegetables. Personally though, I find that much less appetizing and I don't really have the right size jars for a man of your… girth."

Bobby looked around the kitchen and his eyes landed on the open cookbook.

"Found it on the shelf with all the other ones- this one looked older, though, and older tends to mean yummier. Yummier recipes, I mean, not yummier books. I don't often eat books, and when I do I usually don't enjoy them."

Bobby was silent and simply walked over to lay his hand gently on the book. Since Bobby tended to do very few things gently, Dani gave him his moment of peace.

"It was hers, wasn't it?" Dani asked, wiping her hands on her apron.

Bobby nodded, his head low.

Dani placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged lightly- not hard enough to shake her hand away- and wiped his hand across his nose. "No, 's fine. She'd want someone to use it. She used it pretty much every day when she was still… here."

"Well we'll put it to good use, then, won't we?" Dani said with a reassuring smile. "Come on, you can help me serve dinner. I have a feeling Dean will want to carry the heaviest thing in front of his dad, but that hunk of meat weighs more than he does."

Bobby turned and, instead of picking up the big plate of food, gathered Danica into a bear hug.

"Oh. Okay. This is... lovely." Dani said, hands pinned to her sides. Bobby had often given her a heartfelt and heavy pat on the back, or a ruffle of her hair (which was always irritating) but never before a bear hug.

It was a few seconds before Bobby let go, straightened his shirt and wiped his nose again. "Heat of the moment, I guess."

"You great big hairy girl." Dani said, rolling her eyes. "Help me with the damn dinner."

Dani and Bobby brought the food into the living room dish by dish, and everyone served themselves. No one bothered asking about grace, and simply dug in. There was light conversation, nothing of import in front of the kids. Thankfully, though, after a heavy meal their energy dwindled and the boys were asleep, leaning on their father, within the hour.

"Tykes." Dani said affectionately. She looked up at John, "You boys can take my room, up on the second floor. I'll get… I am so sorry what was your name again?"

The man who'd accompanied John and Bobby bowed his head and Dani had a feeling that if he'd been wearing a hat, he'd have tipped it. A gentleman. She hadn't met one of those since the 1800's.

"William Harvelle, ma'am. Bill, if that's alright."

"Bill is fine with me. You mind sleeping on the couch down here? It's dead comfortable, just ask John."

Already halfway to the stairs, a boy in each arm, John made a non-committal grunt.

"See? Lovely couch." Dani said, fussing with the blankets and trying to make a suitable bed while Bobby carried the dishes to the sink. "Leave 'em, Bobby, I'll wash them tonight."

"You made dinner-"

"Yeah, and then you ate it and you're about to fall over from an overload of carbs. Go to bed."

Bobby made a face, and made a show of putting his hunting gear away very slowly before finally following Dani's orders and pouting like one of the boys all the way up the stairs.

"Sorry about all of the children in this house, Bill. I try to keep them all under control but," she shrugged.

Bill smiled, standing up and stretching into a behemoth of a man. He was taller than Bobby, and John. And blonde. And might be just the friendliest giant she had ever met. "Mind if I make a call, Miss Danica? Just one before I tuck in."

"Feel free." Dani said, gesturing towards the kitchen. "Phone's over by the table."

After a few moments of dialing and what Dani assumed was ringing, she heard Bill's voice float from the kitchen to the living room, where she was trying so hard to tuck blankets and puff pillows into just the proper configuration.

"Guess who?" Bill said into the phone, and there was a smile on his face so big Dani could hear it from the other room. "Hey baby. Hunt was a cakewalk; I met some good men up here and got the job done right quick, so I'll be back to you and Jo tomorrow. Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Yeah I know. I know. I love you too. I'll see you both tomorrow. Give my baby girl a kiss goodnight for me. And both of you be safe."