I dreamed about being at the campsite that night. In the dream, I came out of the tent, and Uncle Sam and Dean walked over to me as I stood there. A huge wolf- creature came galloping out of the woods and started to attack them. I stood there screaming, and when I woke up I was screaming too, and Dean was holding my arms and telling me to wake up. I was shaking and crying, and it took a long time for me to calm down and go back to sleep.

"It's time to wake up." Dean said, rubbing my arm. "Come on, Charlie."

I groaned. I felt so tired! "I don't wannaaaa!" I whined.

"Well, you have to." I felt him get up off of the bed.

"Can't I stay here with Uncle Sam while you go to the lawyer's?" I asked.

"No, Uncle Sam is going with Dad and Bobby."

"Oh." I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"I want you to get your dirty clothes together and we'll do some laundry later today." Dean said.

"I have to do chores too?" I grumped, getting off of the bed.

He turned to look at me. "What did you think? That Uncle Sam and I are going to wait on you hand and foot? You're old enough to do some chores."

"I already know how to do laundry!" I retorted. "I did lots of chores with my mom!"

"Then why are you balking about it now?"

" 'Cause I don't want to do laundry!" I snapped.

"If this is now it's going to be today, then I think you'll take a nap this afternoon while I do the laundry." Dean put his hands on his hips and gave me a look. "And watch the attitude, little girl."

I stomped my foot. "No! I'm not taking any more naps!"

"You took a long time to fall back to sleep last night, and I can tell that you're tired. It would help you if you took a nap." He tried to reason with me.

"Well I'm not gonna!" I glared at him defiantly.

He sighed. "Okay, I've had enough. Bring me your 3DS."

"Whyyyy?" I whined. "I need to bring it with me to the lawyer's so I have something to do!"

"I've already spoken to you more than once about your attitude. This is the consequence."

"Not FAIR!" I crossed my arms and pouted.

"Well, your attitude just lost it, so it's on you."

"When can I have it back?"

"Tonight. Get it for me, please."

I sighed angrily and walked over to my purse, yanking the zipper open and pulling the game out. I stomped across the room to Dean, who held his hand out. I slapped the game into his hand, and he leaned down to me and looked me in the eyes. "You're real close to getting another consequence." He said from between clenched teeth. "Maybe you need to sit in time out until you cool off."

"No!" I snapped.

"Excuse me?" He glared at me. "At this rate, you're headed for a sore butt."

We looked at each other for a long moment, and then I dropped my eyes. He straightened up and said to me, "Go and get dressed."

I turned and walked back across the room, muttering, "I was gonna," under my breath.

"What was that?" Dean called.

"Uh- nothing." I said, leaning over my suitcase.

Uncle Sam came into the room just then, with breakfast. He had stopped at McDonald's and gotten pancakes for me. I smiled at him as we sat down at the table.

"Thanks for getting me pancakes!" I said happily.

"Maybe that's how we should wake you up from now on, with pancakes, that way you wouldn't be so grumpy." Dean said. Uncle Sam looked at him and then me with a questioning look.

"Oh, it's already been fun here this morning. There's been lots of attitude." Dean told him.

"Hmm." Uncle Sam looked at me again. I blushed and squirmed a little on my chair.

There was a knock on the door, and Uncle Sam walked over to open it. Uncle Bobby and John came into the room with coffee and a box of doughnuts.

"We didn't know if y'all had already gotten breakfast." Uncle Bobby said.

"Can I have one of the coffees?" I asked. Uncle Sam had brought two cups in for him and Dean, and John had a drink carrier with four more cups.

"Uh, no." Dean said. Uncle Bobby and John chuckled.

"You like coffee, kid?" Uncle Bobby asked.

"She likes the fancy flavored coffees you buy at coffee shops." Dean said.

"But there's extras!" I complained. "Please can I have one?"

"The answer is no, kiddo." Dean said.

"Coffee'll stunt your growth." Uncle Bobby said.

"I'm already going to be short, my mom said so." I said to him. "So I don't care."

"No coffee." Uncle Sam said.

"Fiiine." I said. "Can I have a doughnut?"

"Eat the rest of your eggs first." Uncle Sam pointed at my plate with his fork.

I finished them off and then leaned over the table to look in the box of doughnuts. I picked out a chocolate covered one.

"You like chocolate?" Dean asked, looking at me.

"Duh, I'm a girl. Girls like chocolate." Everyone chuckled, and I said, "What? It's true, isn't it?"

Uncle Sam got up from the table and squeezed my shoulder. "Charlie, you are a trip." He walked over to the closet and got his suit out, then went to the bathroom.

I ate half of the doughnut and then walked over to my part of the room to get dressed. I put some of my little toys into my purse so I could take them with me. Dean was talking to Uncle Bobby and John.

"We'll do some tracking tonight, after we talk to the rangers again." John said.

Uncle Sam came out of the bathroom with my brush and called me over to him. I walked over and stood in front of him. I saw John watching us as Uncle Sam brushed my hair. When he was done, he handed me the brush and I took it to the bathroom and then brushed my teeth.

"We need to go soon, Charlie." Dean said to me when I came back into the room.

I bent down to put my sandals on. "Dad?" I said.

"Yes?" both Dean and John said at the same time. They looked at each other.
"Sorry." John said. "I'm not used to the fact that I'm not the only Dad here." He and Dean smiled at each other.

"Can I bring my drawing stuff?" I asked.

"Yes." Dean said. "You ready?"

Uncle Sam came over to me. "Give me a hug, I won't see you tonight."

"Why?"

"We're going to be tracking all night, so we'll be back in the morning."

I looked at him and then at Dean. "But- but what if you get hurt? What if-"

"Charlie, it will be okay." Uncle Sam soothed. "Don't worry about that." He leaned down and hugged me. "Be good."

"I will." I grabbed my messenger bag and my purse, and followed Dean out to the car.

When we got to the building that the lawyer was in, Dean said to me, "We're supposed to go to a different office."

We went into a larger waiting area, and there were some other people with kids there too. I sat next to Dean, feeling a little nervous. When a couple more people showed up, a man in a suit came out of a back room.

"If the parents would come with me, please, we'll have a presentation about the finances. The children can follow Miss Tucker, we have a room for them to be in with activities for them to do."

Everyone stood up, and I looked up at Dean and took his hand.

"I'll walk you back." he said. We followed the woman down a hall to a room with a long table. There were printed coloring pages on the table with crayons spread all over, and in the corner was a huge plastic bin with Legos. At the end of the table there was a pitcher filled with lemonade and a box of cookies.

There were a couple of kids already sitting at the table coloring, and a woman sitting in a chair by the door.

Dean squeezed my hand. "Go ahead and sit down." he said. I looked up at him, feeling nervous again.

"It's all right." he said reassuringly. I walked over to the table and sat down next to a little girl. Dean left the room.

"Hi," the girl said to me. "What's your name? My name's Carla."

"Charlie." I said.

She looked at me and laughed. "Charlie is a boy's name!"

"It's a nickname, my name is really Charlotte, but I don't like that."

"Oh." she said. "I like your purse." She said shyly.

"Thanks." I said. The coloring pages were really easy ones, made for little kids. I took one and started coloring it anyway.

"Was that your Daddy?" she asked me.

"Yeah." I said.

"My Daddy died." she said. "His name is Rick."

"Oh. Rick was nice." I told her. He had been very patient with me when we were camping and had always taken time to explain things to me.

She stopped coloring and looked at me. "How do you know?"

I remembered just then that I wasn't supposed to have been at the campsite. "Oh, I, uh, remember when he was at the company picnic last year, he was nice to the kids."

"Yeah." She looked sad. "What's your Daddy's name?"

"Dean." I told her.

"Did your Mommy die?"

"Uh...yeah." I said uneasily.

"I hafta go live with my Gramma 'cause my Mommy is dead too." she said sadly.

"I'm living with my Dad and my Uncle." I said. "I didn't know my Dad before."

She sighed. "Everything is changing."

"I know." I agreed.

The door opened again, and a woman walked in, followed by two kids.

"Go sit down at the table." she said. I recognized them- it was the boy and girl from the playground at the memorial service, Mikey and his sister, Lacey! I hoped that Mikey would stay away from me.

In a few minutes, it was clear that Mikey wanted to cause as much trouble as he could. He dumped the bin of Legos on the floor, and then pretended to trip and stepped on a car that one of the kids was building while sitting on the floor. Then he came over to the table.

Lacey had sat down on the other side of me. She was coloring too. Carla had started to ask her questions, but Lacey wasn't answering any of them.

Mikey walked over to us.

"That's dumb." he said.

We ignored him. He leaned over and grabbed Lacey's paper and yanked it away from her, making her scribble on the paper. "Whoops!" he said." You messed up!"

"Hey." she said timidly.

Mikey leaned over to me. "Do you think you're good at that? You suck." he said meanly.

I turned and looked up at him. "Nobody asked you, Mikey." I retorted. "So just go away."

His eyes got big as he recognized me. He turned and walked away.

Carla looked at me. "He's mean." she whispered.

"Just ignore him." I said.

All of a sudden, Mikey was back, standing next to Lacey again. He had a cup in his hand, and he tipped it over the table, and lemonade spilled across, getting on the papers that Lacey, Carla, and I had been coloring on.

"Hey!" Lacey jumped up as the lemonade began to drip off the table onto her skirt. Carla and I jumped up too so that the lemonade didn't spill on us.

"Oh, little boy, what did you do?" The woman who was sitting over by the door said. "I need to run and get some paper towels."

"Go away!" I shouted at Mikey.

"Oh yeah? Make me!" He stepped close to me, getting up in my face.

"You're just a big bully!" I said.

He got angry then, and I saw him pull his hand back. Then all of a sudden, his fist was coming at me, and I felt pain in my eye as he punched me.

"OW!" I yelled, and burst into tears. I put my hand up to my eye.

"What's going on here!" The woman was back with a roll of paper towels. She came over to us.

I pointed at Mikey. "He- he hit me!" I exclaimed.

"Little girl, what's your parent's name, so I can go get them?"

"Her Daddy's name is Dean." Carla said.

"My Daddy is D-dean Win-winchester." I sobbed.

"And what's your parent's name?" I heard her say.

"Get away from me!" Mikey hissed.

"Our Mommy's name is Carol Anderson." Lacey said.

"Thank you. I'll be right back. Little boy, you come sit over here." the woman said.

"No!" Mikey snapped.

I heard her sigh, and then the door closed.

"It's okay." Carla patted my arm. "Your Daddy will be here soon."

Mikey walked around, kicking Legos across the floor.

The door opened again, and Dean walked in, followed by a woman and a man.

Dean hurried over to me.

"What happened?" he asked me. He put his arm around my shoulders protectively.

"My brother hitted her.'" Lacey said. "Mommy, he was bein' mean to everyone again!"

"Michael, get over here now!" the woman snapped.

Dean leaned down. "Let me see, Charlie." He took my hand away from my face and tilted my head back a little, looking me over.

He glanced over to the side. "Can we get some ice for her? She's gonna have a shiner."

The man came over and looked at my face. "I am so sorry, sir." he said.

Dean straightened up. "Just get an ice pack, please." he said tersely. He looked down at me. "Are you all right, sweetheart?" he asked, his voice gentle.

I started crying harder, and he pulled me into a hug.

"I remember that kid from the memorial service." Dean said. "Lady, I don't know if your kid needs to have his butt smacked, or a shrink, but you better straighten him out." His voice was hard.

"I don't have to listen to this!" she said.

"Well, this is the second time he's hit my daughter, so yeah, I think you do." Dean said angrily, glaring at her.

"Here you go."

Dean let go of me and took a baggie that was filled with ice from the man.

"Hold this on your eye." he told me. I held it on my throbbing face. "Are we done here?" he asked tightly.

"Yes, I think so. The only thing left was the question and answer session and a group photo of everyone."

"I'd like to get out of here." Dean said.

"All right, sir. Let me go get your paperwork." The man left the room again.

"Michael, you are in serious trouble when we get home!" the woman said. "Go over there and sit down!"

"I didn't do anything wrong! They're all lying!" Mikey said.

"Nuh-uh, you are." Lacey said.

"Shut up, twerp!" Mikey said, and shoved her.

"Michael, that is enough!" his mother hissed. "Go sit!"

"Ma'am, you can't leave him in here." The woman said to her. "He was too destructive. He dumped out those Legos, and he spilled lemonade all over the table on purpose."

"Oh, my God!" the woman said. "Michael, what am I going to do with you?"

The man came back into the room. "Here you go, sir." He handed Dean a folder. "The check is in there as well. I'm very sorry this happened."

"Thank you." Dean said. "Come on, sweetheart." he said to me. He picked me up and put me on his hip, carrying me to the elevator. I put my arm around his shoulder and leaned my head on him, feeling safe in his arms.

"Let me see." he said, taking the ice pack off of my face. He inhaled when he looked at my face. "Yep, you're going to have a black eye. Sorry, kiddo." He put the ice back on my face. "I don't know what the hell was wrong with that kid."

"He's really mean." I said. The elevator door dinged and opened. He walked us in.

"Can I press the button?" I asked.

"Go ahead, press the L." he told me, leaning forward so I could press the button. "We're going to meet Uncle Sam and them for lunch, and then they're going to head out."

We drove to a restaurant that served Greek and Italian food. The men were already at a table when we walked in. Uncle Sam stood up and came around the table when he saw us.

"What happened to her?" He asked with concern.

I took the ice pack off of my eye, and all three of them exclaimed.

"Remember that little brat at the memorial service who jumped her? He was there again, wreaking havoc, and he hauled off and punched her." Dean told Uncle Sam.

"A kid did this to her?" John sounded angry. "I hope you gave his parents hell." He stood up and came over to us. I stepped back towards Dean, feeling intimidated by John.

"Well, I tried, Dad. His mother didn't seem to want to hear it." Dean said.

"Let me see." John said. He took my chin in his hand and turned my head one way and then the other. He gently touched the skin around my eye, and I gasped, because it hurt.

"Sorry." he said. " It looks like it's just surface bruising. Does your eye socket hurt?" he asked me.

"Uh-uh, just my skin." I said.

"Good, it most likely is just a black eye and not a fracture. You let one of us know if you have more pain, all right darlin' ?"

"Okay." I looked at him and he smiled at me, showing his dimples.

"Dad did some medic work in the Marines." Dean said. "So he's kinda like our family doctor."

"Oh." I said. "He doesn't give shots, though, right?" I asked nervously. I hated shots!

Dean and John chuckled. "No, I'm not qualified for that!" John said. "Just bandaging up injuries mostly."

We sat down at the table and a waitress came over.

"Can I start you all with something to drink? Oh my, what happened to the little girl?"

"She got hit in the face by a little punk kid." Dean said.

"Oh, the poor thing." the waitress said sympathetically. "Can I get you something special, sweetie?"

"Can I have a Coke?" I asked, looking at Dean.

"Sure." he said.

Everyone opened their menus and looked at them for a few minutes. After the waitress had brought the drinks and taken our orders, Dean said, "Well, the big news- besides the fact that Charlie got a black eye- is that there was a large insurance settlement for the whole group of families, and they're dividing the money up and putting it in a trust fund for each child. Available when she's 18."

"Just in time for her to go to college." Uncle Sam said. "That's great, now you won't have to worry about that!"

"There was also a 'bereavement payout' that each family gets, it's supposed to offset the costs of the funeral and all that, but they paid for the cremation and all...so there's a little bit of money." Dean looked relieved, and smiled.

"You got money 'cause my mom died?" I asked, frowning.

"Well, no, Charlie, it's not like that-" Dean started to say.

"Where did the money come from?"

"The insurance company." Dean said. and rubbed his forehead.

"Why did they give you money?" I was confused.

"Your mom used insurance to help with her treatments, right?" Uncle Sam asked.

"Oh, yeah, she had to spend a long time on the phone with them. A lot! She hated talking to them."

"Well, they have policies that help you pay for things like if you get hurt in a car accident or at work, or if you die, your family gets money. To help them out. Understand?" Uncle Sam smiled at me.

"Did my mom know that they were gonna give out money?"

Dean and Uncle Sam looked at each other. "Probably. When you sign up at a job, they make you go through all the different policies and decide what you want." Dean said.

"It really makes you face your mortality." John said.

"What's mortality?" I asked.

"When you're going to die." Uncle Sam said.

"Oh." I said. I realized that my Mom had known she was going to die, and she hadn't told me, and she had faced it on her own. I felt tears come to my eyes, but I blinked them away. The waitress walked up with a huge tray of our food, so I was able to rub my eyes without anyone noticing.

I fell asleep in the car on the way back to the room. I guess getting punched in the eye and crying about it makes you tired.

I woke up on my bed. Dean was sitting on the sofa, watching t.v. and folding clothes. I got up and walked over to him.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Dunno." I mumbled. I felt out of it and groggy.

"After I'm done with this, I'm going to take a shower." he told me. He handed me a stack of clothes.

"Those are yours, put them away."

I took them over to my side of the room, putting them on my bed.

"It's pretty messy over there." Dean commented. "You should clean your stuff up."

"Like what?"

"I noticed you've got a bunch of toys on the floor."

"I'll do it later." I said, yawning.

Dean stood up and carried the folded clothes over to the dresser where his duffel was, and put them away. Then he went into the bathroom, and in couple minutes I heard the shower start running.

Uncle Sam had left his laptop here, since they were going to be walking through the woods.

I walked over to the table and looked at the laptop, which was open and on. I missed being able to play computer games- when Mom was asleep I would take her laptop and play almost every night. My teachers were impressed with how good I was on the computer.

I couldn't stay away- I opened a new browser window, then went on one of the math game sites that I liked to play on. This was a great site, the games were fun and fast and I was really good at it. Dean was in the shower for about 15 minutes, so I got a chance to play a couple games. When I heard the shower turn off, I closed down the browser and then hurried over to the sofa. I found a cartoon, and by the time that Dean opened the bathroom door, I was watching tv.

"It'll be just us for dinner tonight, where do you want to go?" he asked me.

"I dunno." I said, yawning again. I flipped through the channels aimlessly.

Dean walked across the room, and I saw him go over to the sofabed.

"Charlie, I told you to put your clothes away, not just lay them on your bed." he said.

"I will." I said. "Later."

He turned to me. "No, I want you to come over here and do it now. Get this area straightened up. I told you to put away all your toys, too."

"I said I would do it later, gosh!" I snapped.

Dean walked over to me quickly and held his hand out. "Give me the remote."

I looked up at him. "Why?"

He huffed. "Because I told you to, little girl!" his voice was raised. He glanced at the t.v., and then looked at it again. "What are you watching? Is this that reality show?"

"No!" I sat up. "It's, uh, a different one."

"Uh-uh." Dean shook his head. "No reality shows for you, period. Now give me that remote!"

"Noooo!" I whined. "Why do I have to? I'll change the channel!"

"Too late. No t.v. right now, I want you to go straighten up your part of the room."

I folded my arms. "I don't want to!"

"Well too bad, because I told you to."

"No!" I shouted.

He leaned over and reached for the remote. "Charlie, so help me-"

I leaned over and threw the remote. It flew right by the t.v., hitting the plastic edge of the t.v. screen and clattering to the floor.

Dean straightened up, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Charlotte Anne Winchester, I have had enough!" he yelled. I flinched at his raised voice. He walked a couple steps over to the t.v. and turned it off, then he walked across the room and bent down to pick something up. He came back over to me and I saw he was putting the batteries back in the remote.

"You're lucky you didn't break something." he said. "You just lost your t.v. privileges for now."

"What?" I looked up at him. "What does that mean?"

"No t.v. until I say so."

"Noooo!" I whined. "That's not fair! You're mean!" I stomped my foot on the floor, getting angry at him.

He leaned down and put the remote on the coffee table.

"Charlie, I don't want to hear it." he said. "I want you to-"

I reached out and grabbed the remote. I was gonna watch what I wanted!

He stopped talking. "Charlie, put it down."

I just sat there and looked at him, feeling defiant.

"Put it down now, little girl." His voice was hard and calm.

Then he reached over. I leaned back, away from him, and he stepped over to me and took the remote out of my hand.

"This has gone far enough." he said. "I'm tired of repeating the same things to you over and over again with no change in your behavior. You don't seem to care about the rules or about how you're acting; you are going to start caring."

He sat down on the sofa next to me, and then turned me over his lap.
"Dean!" I yelped. "Lemme up!" I struggled, trying to push myself up on the sofa, and he moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the cushion and my body was hanging over his knees. He landed three swats on my bottom and I yelped again and jerked my body, trying to get off of his lap.

"Nooo!" I yelled angrily. "Lemme GO! Rules are dumb!"

He responded by moving his leg so that my legs were pinned under his right leg and tucking me into his side.

"I'm talking, and you're listening, little girl." he said firmly. "You need to realize once and for all that you are not on your own any more. You cannot go around doing whatever you want."

His hand fell on my rear once.

"Owww!" I whined, even though it didn't really hurt that much.

"No more watching reality shows late at night, no more going off on your own, no more going to the playground by yourself." Three more swats landed. I gasped, because those swats did hurt! Tears came to my eyes.

" No more complaining when I've told you to do something. No more sassy mouth and attitude about everything." Two smacks, lower down on my bottom, and I whimpered at the sting.

"The hitting and kicking and throwing things is going to stop, do you understand me? I'm not going to put up with it any longer."

"Y-yes, De- OW!" I exclaimed as another hard swat fell.

"I am the adult and you are the child; I tell you what to do and you do it. I make the rules and you follow them. You got it?" He rested his hand on my lower back.

"Y-yes, Dean." I relaxed, thinking that he was done. He tightened his arm around my waist and removed his hand from my back; I turned my head as he was bringing his hand down again, and I realized that he had just been starting.

I whined wordlessly as he began to spank me, and as his hand landed again and again on my bottom the sting built up and I squirmed over his lap.

"Please, Dean! I'm sorry, I'll listen!" I tried to sound reasonable. "You can stop now, okay?"

He did stop spanking me for a moment.

"I can stop now?" He said, and he almost sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, I said I was sorry, okay?" I tried to get up, but he held me firmly.

"Hey!" I protested."I said I was sorry!" I repeated.

"You don't tell me what to do. You don't get to decide that I'm done. I will decide when I'm done." He paused for a moment. " And I'm not done."

His hand began to fall again, but harder, and then faster, until he was peppering my butt with sharp swats. I broke down into tears, my anger and defiance gone.

"You are going to follow the rules, and you are going to do as you're told." He emphasized every other word with a hard smack to the lower part of my rear end and I shrieked and kicked my feet.

"Is that clear?" When I didn't answer right away, he spanked me again.

"Yes! Yes, Dean!" I sobbed out.

His hand began to fall again and I wailed, feeling like I was never going to get off of his lap. My bottom was throbbing as several more swats fell, and I just laid there, not struggling any more, my chest shuddering with sobs. Then I realized that he had stopped. I gasped and sniffled, trying to get myself under control.

After a few moments he lifted me up to sit on his lap. He took my chin in his hand and tilted my head so that I was looking at him, even though I could barely focus on him through my tears.

"I want to see a change in your behavior, little girl." he said sternly. "Or else we're going to be right back here, as often as it takes."

"Y-yes, D-dean." My breath caught in my chest, and he put his arms around me and pulled me close. I leaned my head on him and sobbed. After a minute or so, I turned to him and put my arms around him, burying my face in his flannel. I knew I was getting tears and snot all over him, but I didn't care, and I guess he didn't either, because he pulled me in tighter.

"You need to stop trying to take care of yourself and just be a little girl." he murmured, stroking my hair. "Let me and Uncle Sam take care of you, we're the adults and that's our job. That's what the rules are for, to take care of you. You don't have to any more. Do you understand?"

"No." I said. "Well...kinda."

"You took care of your mom and yourself so much that you stopped acting like a kid...you don't have to do that anymore. Uncle Sam and I are here to take care of you, to make sure you go to bed on time and eat vegetables and buy you shoes that fit and even spank your butt if you misbehave. That's what being a kid is, sweetheart. It's okay."

I had settled down, but that made me start to cry again. He rubbed my back and said, "Go ahead and cry it out, it's all right."

By the time I had calmed down again I was exhausted.

"Do you want to lay down?" he asked me, and I nodded. He picked me up and carried me over to his bed, laying me down. He took a tissue from the bedside table and wiped my face, then held another one up to my nose and told me to blow. He wiped my nose and I laid down on my side. He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Get some rest, Charlie." he said quietly, and then got up.

I dozed off right away, and then Dean was rubbing my arm and saying, "Charlie, wake up. I'm going to order us some Chinese food... what do you like?"

"Umm, sweet and sour chicken." I mumbled. "And dumplings too."

He chuckled. "Okay. You should wake up now." He stood up and I heard him calling the restaurant.

I sat up and then winced as my butt came in contact with the mattress. It was still a little sore. I walked over to where Dean was sitting at the table, looking at a paper menu that the hotel had left in the room.

I looked up at him. "I'm- I'm sorry I was bad before." I said. "I'm sorry I threw the remote and was rude."

He pulled me to him and hugged me. "Good girl for apologizing." he said. I hugged him back and leaned into him, putting my head on his chest.

"We're going to go over the rules every morning, all right? To help you remember them."

"Okay. I mean yes Dean."

He ruffled my hair and let me go. He looked at me. "I want you to go and do what I told you to do before."

"Uh- what was that?" I asked uncertainly.

"Put away your clothes and toys."

I turned and walked over to my bed, putting my clothes in my suitcase, and then I crawled under the bed to grab the action figures that I had left under there. I got distracted and started playing with them.

In a few minutes I heard Dean say, "Charlie, what are you doing?"

I pushed myself out from under the bed and sat up. Dean was standing by the bed. "Playing." I told him. "I, uh, have this game that I do with them." I felt embarrassed.

"Oh. Well, make sure you put everything away." He walked away again.

I picked the rest of the toys up off the floor and sat on my bed with them, still playing, but doing it quietly.

There was a knock on the door, and Dean answered it, and paid for our food.

"Come eat." he called to me.

I got up and started to walk over to him.

He looked around me. "Charlie, you still didn't clean up your toys!" he said with annoyance. "Do you need another spanking?" He stepped towards me and I backed up.

"No, I forgot!" I said quickly. I hurried back over to my bed and scooped all of the toys into my backpack and zipped it closed. Then I went back to the table. He was opening all the containers, and he handed me a fork.

I sat down to eat. "What did you get?" I asked him.

"Kung Pao beef." he said. "It's spicy. Want to try it?"

"Uh uh, I don't like spicy foods." I said.

Dean's phone rang and he answered it. "Hey Sam, how's it going? You did? That's good, I'm glad they were helpful. Yeah I can check, hold on." He got up and walked over to the dresser, where he had put the laptop. He typed something in. "It doesn't say anything on the website about that. Okay, well, good luck with that." He laughed, and then glanced at me. "She's doing okay. We had some issues, but they've been dealt with. Yeah." He walked back over to the table and sat down.

"Uncle Sam says hi." he told me.

"Hi Uncle Sam, I miss you." I called.

"Did you hear that?" he chuckled. "Okay, we'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, okay. Bye." He hung up and put the phone on the table.

I ate a couple dumplings and then looked at him. "Can I be done? When can I have my 3DS?"

Dean leaned over and looked at my plate. "I guess. You can have some more if you get hungry later." He stood up and went over to his dresser, picking up my 3DS. He handed it to me.

I turned it on, but the screen flickered and then went off.

"Dam-dangit!" I muttered, frustrated that it had no power left.

"Charlotte." Dean's voice was deep and I looked up at him. He leaned towards me, looking me in the eyes. "You'd better watch your language, little girl, or you're going to end up with a sore butt and a soapy mouth."

"Huh?" I didn't understand what he meant. "How would I get a soapy mouth?"

"Because I will wash your mouth out with soap. Haven't you ever heard of that?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah. One of my classmates said her mom washed her mouth out 'cause she called her a bitch and she threw up from it and her mom felt bad that she made her throw up, so she wasn't in trouble after that."

The corners of Dean's mouth twitched. "You just make sure you watch what you're saying."

"Okay. I mean yes, Dean." I put the 3DS on the table and turned around. "Can I watch tv?"

Dean gave me a look. "No, little girl."

I sighed with annoyance. "What am I s'posed to do then?"

"How about we clean this up and then I'll take you over to the playground?"

I smiled at him. "Okay!"

Dean let me play on the playground for over an hour. He pushed me on the swings for a long time, and then some other kids came over and we played tag while Dean sat on the bench and chatted with the kid's mother.

As I laid down in bed that night, I thought back to when I had been swinging with the kids on the playgroud, and called over to Dean. "Look at how high I'm getting!" I had said, and he had looked over at me and given me a big smile, and it make me feel good. I had usually been on the playground by myself before, because my mom was sleeping. It made me happy to have someone to pay attention to me.

Dean leaned down to kiss me and I put my arms around his shoulders. "Dean? I mean Dad?" I said.

"Yes?" he looked at me.

"I—I love you." I said shyly, smiling at him.

He picked me up into a hug and held me for a long moment. "Well, I love you too, sweetheart." he said.

He laid me back down and smiled at me as I rolled over onto my side.