Claire didn't mind Alex accosting her at school so much. It turned out you can bond a lot with someone when you lose Monopoly to your English teacher. But also, Alex hadn't asked too much about her mom, or probed too much into Dean and Castiel's relationship, and Claire liked that. Plus, Alex was a total brain so it made tackling homework easier when she was around.

And Castiel was fine with her hanging around Jody's house to work on homework. She and Alex would hole up together in Alex's room, play music and work on assignments together. Claire was slowly learning how Alex came to be with Jody during this time, but she never asked questions. Alex would tell her when she was ready.

The Friday after Monopoly gate, once they had finished homework and were watching dumb YouTube videos, Jody knocked on Alex's bedroom door, and stuck her head in.

"Hey Claire, I was going to ask if you wanted to stay for dinner, but your ride just got here."

Claire frowned, and got up from Alex's bed, gathering her things before she followed Jody to the front room.

"Dad normally waits until I text."

It was one of the good points about her father that she was learning. He was trying to respect her boundaries and her need for freedom. She was finding it harder to blame him for things when he had written every week without fail, even if she only just got those letters.

But it wasn't her father who greeted her in the entrance hall. Dean was looking around at Jody's pictures. He straightened up when he heard them coming and smiled at Claire.

"Hey," she frowned at him.

"Hey. So, Charlie couldn't work tonight and Cas is staying at the store, and I thought maybe you and I could go hang out?"

"Uh, sure," Claire shrugged, and followed him out of the door, Jody waving them off. Dean opened the passenger door for her and she slid into his car, dumping her books onto the floor and looking around.

"This thing is spotless," she told Dean as he climbed in the driver's seat.

"Yeah. Sam thinks I'm obsessed, but you got to treat a beauty like Baby real good," he caressed the dashboard.

"Are you cheating on my dad … with a car?" Claire was unimpressed.

"No. I'm cheating on Baby with Cas," Dean shot her a grin. "Anyway, how do you feel about burgers?"

"I could eat one."

"Sweet. But first, we should go somewhere. Bond."

"And we didn't ripping into my dad for not knowing any decent movies?"

Dean's smile widened.

"Still, I mean, I'm going to be a feature in your life, and Cas has made it so clear you're a package deal. So we should have a friendship on top of that. Beyond me being your principal."

"So how're we gonna do that?"

"Mini golf." Dean beamed. Claire rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on!"

"So tacky."

"Is that a no?"

Claire looked at him tiredly, but couldn't resist the offer either.

"Bring your a-game, old man. No dodgy knees or thrown backs getting you out of a butt whooping."

"It's on. And I'm not old."

"Right, sure." Claire nodded. "You actually lived in the eighties."

"Yeah, when I was a kid. Loser buys burgers?"

"And cheaters buy the shakes. Think both are on you."

Dean chuckled, and started the car, cheering as the engine caught first time.


Dean wasn't horrible at mini golf, Claire noted. But she was better. There was a friendly rivalry on every hole, and by the fourth hole alone they had brought in more rules and conditions for their dinner when it came after their game.

"So," Dean changed the subject on the fifth hole, which included going through a plastic castle. "How are things with Cas? I know it was tough when you first got here. But it seems like it's going better."

"Yeah, I guess." Claire lined up her ball, and tried to work out the angle she needed to get nearest the cup at the end. "His letters helped."

"Good. He was hoping they would, and that you wouldn't get pissed that he'd only tried to write."

"But he didn't," Claire looked at Dean, who was standing at the edge of the green. "He mentioned in his letters, trying to organise things and getting my room ready and coming to the hospital when my mom was sick. He tried."

Dean's expression was morphing into something close to sympathy, so Claire looked away before it could really register. She didn't want to be pitied.

"I know," Dean said quietly. "I didn't know you did."

Claire hit the ball, and they both watched it sail through the right side hole in the castle, and circle around the lower green at the back, stopping just beside the cup.

"Does Dad talk about it a lot?"

"Not a lot." Dean said gently as Claire went to chip the ball into the cup. "But he wanted me to understand what I was walking into."

Claire retrieved her ball and stood aside for Dean to putt, and noticed a group of kids at the start of the course. She recognised some of them as Alex's cheerleader and football friends, and instantly looked away. She didn't want to be recognised out with the principal.

"And you're still walking into it?" Claire asked, trying to distract herself.

"Of course," Dean grinned. "I think Cas could tell me he killed someone and I'd still want him."

"Gross."

"I try."

Dean finally potted the ball, and marked their scores on their sheet, moving on to the next hole just as one of the kids from school recognised them.

"Hey, Mr Winchester!" One of the guys crowed. Dean looked over and waved, before stepping aside so Claire could play first.

"Mr W, is that your girlfriend?" Someone else called.

"No it's that weird new girl that Alex likes."

"Oh, kill me now," Claire muttered.

"Ignore it," Dean suggested. "Just play on, okay."

"I thought Mr W was with his brother?" One of the cheerleaders giggled too loudly.

"They're not there," Dean said quietly, and Claire tried to ignore the catcalls going on behind them, though she could feel her cheeks burning. "Don't listen, okay?"

She was trying to focus on Dean's gentle approach, but the raucous laughter was getting to her too much. After accidentally knocking her ball into a nearby pond, she whipped around, moving to the end of their green. Dean grabbed her shoulders, trying to stop her storming over to the other kids.

"Claire, don't. You are still in front of your principal. You hit them, I'll have to discipline you, and I don't want to do that."

"We're off school grounds."

"Doesn't matter."

"They're saying crap about you and Sam too!"

"I know. I know." Dean managed to ease her back. "But think okay? If you go hitting them because of the things they say, it just validates it. You know I like your dad, you know how you feel. Don't fuel it."

"If they can't talk-"

"You know what? Golf's over. You win. Let's go grab burgers."

"Isn't that going to make it worse?" Claire asked sarcastically.

"No, that's making sure I don't have to suspend you for fighting."

Dean frog-marched her to the exit, where the catcalls followed them. Dean returned the clubs and his ball, and handed over ten dollars for the one Claire had lost into the water, and then he made her get in his car. They rode in silence as Dean drove over to Eileen's cafe. Claire refused to speak as they went inside and Dean handed her a menu. He leaned across the formica towards her.

"Those rumours about me and Sam, they've been there since the beginning. Eileen almost didn't go out with him because of them. I guess I'm used to them, and I know it's ridiculous so I just don't let it get to me. But I haven't forgotten how it felt the first time, and I know you get angry over what you think are injustices. You shouldn't lose that, but maybe you could channel it some other way instead."

Claire rolled her eyes, and Dean smirked.

"Was that Claire speak for 'you're not my dad'?"

"You're so old."

"Yep," Dean said cheerfully. "And I knew I could make you talk."

He waved, and Claire looked around as Eileen approached, beaming at them both. She had her notepad and pen in hand, and Dean gestured at Claire first. She ordered, then he did, and Eileen squeezed Claire's shoulder as she walked away. Dean took out his cell phone and started tapping away, and Claire looked around the diner, drinking in all the touches that made it so retro: the black-and-white floor tiles, the dated posters, the juke box and the red pleather upholstery edged in chrome.

"Have you ever brought my dad here?" Claire asked. Dean shook his head.

"I take him out of town. It's just easier."

Claire didn't have to ask what he meant by that, the day had been enough to give her that information.

"Would you ever go public?"

"Yeah, of course. If he was ready for it, and you were, and I was. Maybe if we get to a point where we want to live together or get married. But we're not there yet. It hasn't been that long."

"But you like him."

"Yeah," Dean gave a soft smile. "Dork though he is, I do. It was there the moment I met him."

"I know, it was gross."

Dean gave her a strange look, but then their meals were arriving and they both tucked in, conversation diminishing as they relished the burgers and fries.

When they finished eating, they climbed back into Dean's car, but he didn't start the engine straight away. Instead, he looked at Claire thoughtfully.

"I might be stepping over the mark here, but … you weren't there when I first met your dad."

"What?" Claire shot back. "Yes I was, you were giving each other these dorky faces while you stared at each other when you were meant to be doing that welcome speech."

"That wasn't the first time." Dean shook his head. "And I'm only telling you because I think you deserve to know how Cas is thinking. That was the second time I met him."

"When was the first time?" Claire rolled her eyes. Dean grinned.

"A couple of months before. I'd been at a bar, just enjoying a quiet drink, giving Sammy and Eileen some privacy at home. And this guy sits down next to me, orders red wine, and when I laugh at that he looks over at me. And there's just something there, you know? So red wine and I start talking, and next thing I know, the bar's closing. And red wine comes home with me. And I know I want it to be more than one night, and it feels like he does too. But when I woke up he was gone. It felt pretty awful, knowing I wanted this guy and I'd got him so completely wrong. And then I hear about this kid who lost her mom and she's getting a bad name for herself and I want to help because it sucks to lose your mom. I'm still not over losing mine. I did not expect red wine to follow this girl in." He looked at the steering wheel, fighting a smile. "I realised pretty quickly that maybe the firestarter was the reason why red wine bailed on me. And when I got Sam to come with me to your bookstore, Cas confirmed it for me. That he hadn't wanted to leave, but he got a phone call about his estranged daughter and he had to go to her." Dean looked at her, the smile fading. "Cas cares about you Claire, so much. He put you before me and I know he'll do that again and again. But I can be there for you too, you know? Because one day … one day I'd like to be your stepdad."

Claire sat back on the Impala's front bench, looking at the schoolbooks by her feet.

"Too soon?" Dean asked quietly.

"Can you take me home?"

"Sure." Dean looked disappointed, but turned the ignition and pulled out of the diner's lot.

"I just think we've both been away from Dad too long."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, we are his two favourite people, right?"

Dean just smiled as he drove.

"And I suppose it'd be okay, if you were my stepdad."

"Yeah?"

"I'd get special treatment at school, right?"

"Don't push it."

"Thanks, fake Dad."

"That wasn't a yes!"

"I'll tell my real dad."

Dean shook his head.

"It's so sad, the way you get detention so easily."

"Pffft, the teachers are meant to suck up to you, right?"

"Failing English, it's just pathetic."

"I could not be okay with you and Dad."

"Straight A's, you say? Great report card!"

Dean pulled up behind the bookstore, and Claire scooted across the bench, giving him a quick hug.

"You don't suck. For an old man."

"I need that in writing."

"Are you coming in to be all mushy with dad?"

Dean grinned.

"And gross you out? Wouldn't miss it for the world."

They got out of the car and Claire let them into the apartment, where Castiel was sitting on the sofa, reading a book and sipping from a glass of wine.

"Night!" Claire called, and left Dean with her dad, watching from a crack in the door as Dean sat beside Castiel, reaching across for a kiss. But this time, it didn't upset her. This time, it just seemed right. Whether her dad was ready to admit it or not, it was clear that they were falling in love. She crept away from the door as they began talking quietly, and went on her phone, texting Alex and giving a very basic version of what had happened since Claire had left her house.