Chapter 9

(Revised)

The following day, Dean didn't have to work overtime. He got off at his regular time, and barely missed rush hour traffic. He headed for Sam's work to pick him up. Sam had been getting to know, not only his co workers, but the security guard, as well. Since both men had to be down there, they would just shoot the breeze about whatever came to mind. Sam learned the guy's name was Steven, and was a gun enthusiast. It was a topic Sam knew, well, having a whole trunk full, hidden. They would share their opinions of different kinds and what each liked better.

"What gun range do you go to?" he asked Sam, once.

"Uh, the middle of nowhere, at beer cans. That's how my dad taught us," Sam explained.

"Sweet," Steven replied. "That sounds like a fun time."

Sam just shrugged. "I guess."

He shrugged, as well. "I had to teach my dad to shoot. He used to not like them before then."

"You taught your dad to shoot?"

He shrugged a second time. "It was something to do together."

Sam stared at the cement. He rarely talked about his father. But, so did Steven. Every now and then, one or the other would reference their fathers. The conversation usually remained with gun talk, and usually Steven would bring it up, first. Sam just went along for the company. He could tell how much of an enthusiast the guy was, just by him, lighting up and telling of past experiences.

Today, Sam left the floor he worked on, taking the elevator down to the first floor, and headed out to the parking garage. He walked across the ground floor and stopped at the guard shack where Steven was slouched in his chair, focused on his phone.

"Hey. How's the guard life treatin' ya?" he greeted the young man.

"Boring," the young man replied, not removing his eyes from the phone. "How's the sis? You get to talk to her?" Steven held his jaw in between his pointer finger and thumb.

"For a little bit, yeah." Sam nodded at the cement. "She, uh, actually spoke for the first time since she was three."

"Yeah?" He was scrolling his other thumb down his phone's screen. "That's good."

"She only said one word, though, and then booked out of the room."

"Why?"

Sam shrugged. "I think she just got scared. My brother and I are hoping to get home before she eats dinner. That's up to his boss and traffic, though."

Steven was silent that time. He finally looked up. "Sorry, I'm looking up stuff for D and D, this weekend."

Sam shook his head, "No problem. What's D and D?"

"Dungeons and Dragons. It's a tabletop, roleplaying game. My friends and I have been playing it the past couple of weekends." Steven went on to explain the concepts and objectives of the game, Sam knew nothing about. It must have shown on his face, because Steven stopped and eventually switched the conversation over to the subject they both knew.

Eventually, Sam saw the Impala pull up across the street. Saying bye to Steven, he hurried over and slid into the front seat.

"How was work?" Dean asked.

"Not bad. You?"

"Long," he said and pulled away from the curb. "Ready to head back to the motel and talk to Taylor, again."

Sam couldn't help smile. That sounded great.

"What? What do you mean, we can't talk to our sister?" The brothers had made it home in time before Taylor's group home sat down to dinner. However, the same staff worker, Diane refused to let them, talk to her.

"I don't know what was said, exactly, last night when you called. But, since then, Taylor has refused to come out," the woman told them.

"Refuse to come out from where?" Dean questioned.

"Out from under her bed."

Once he heard where Taylor was, his eyes darted over at Sam, full of worry.

"Taylor was fine before you called and now she's under there. She hit our overnight staff when she tried to get her out. I don't think it's best if you continued calling."

Dean's voice rose, loudly. "The hell it's not! That is our sister up there. If we can't see her, yet, I'm for damn sure ain't gonna let you keep me from calling her."

Sam tried to calm Dean, down. When that didn't work, he grabbed the phone from him and tried to explain to Diane, that nothing bad was said the night before and that if anyone could get Taylor to come out, it was them. Or, at least Dean could. Diane still refused. She told them, to have a nice night before hanging up.

Dean's blood pressure was rising as his fists clenched at his side.

Sam decided to use his phone to call Mindy, to let her know what Diane was doing. Unfortunately, it was already five by now. The office was closed and Mindy had already shut off her work phone. So, he left her a voicemail and hung up.

"She didn't answer. I'll try again in the morning."

"In the morning? Sam, did you not hear what she said, the other day?" Dean reminded his brother. "If we don't do something that kid's not gonna eat. She probably hasn't eaten all day! I'm calling the group home, back and demanding that woman let us talk to Taylor." He recalled the group home, getting Diane, once again. He didn't even wait for the introduction she says, every time. "It's me, again."

He heard a sigh coming from the other line. "Look, sir-"

"No, you look," Dean told her, firmly. "We have permission from her caseworker to call our sister. So, either give the phone to Taylor or we go to her caseworker."

"Once Taylor's caseworker is informed of what happened during your first call, she too will stop the phone calls," Diane replied, her voice, calm.

"Yeah? Well, we'll see about that."

The next morning, Sam said, he would call Mindy. The middle Winchester figured that should be for the best. During some down time, when he had the lowest volume of calls, Sam called his sister's caseworker, pushing the mic part of his headset, up.

"Yes, Sam, I got your message from last night. What happened?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. My, er, I mean, our brother started to sing a song our mom used to sing to us before she died. Then, out of nowhere, she spoke."

There was a short pause. "Taylor spoke?"

"Yeah."

"What did she say?"

"Uh, Dean. I mean, she stuttered on it, but she said our brother's name," Sam told her.

There was another pause. "T-that's incredible progress. A song made Taylor speak? What song was it?"

"Uh, Hey, Jude, by the Beatles. It was our mom's favorite."

"But, wait a minute. You have different moms, right?" she asked, remembering right.

Sam nodded at his desk, "That's right," and shrugged, "but, it could have been the words that Dean was singing to her. It could have been anything. Something triggered for Taylor to speak and then, probably got scared and booked it out of there to hide."

"And, you said, she's hiding where?"

This time, he paused before Sam answered. "Under," he paused again, "the bed."

There was silence on the other end. Occasionally, Mindy would take a couple breaths. This did not look good. Not good at all. "Okay. Sam, let me call you back. I was about to leave to go pick Taylor up for her therapy, anyway. I'll talk with them, and get to the bottom of this. We cannot lose Taylor, again. If I give consent for you call your sister, they cannot refuse you unless they're out on an outing and she can't come to the phone."

Sam nodded and let her go. At the perfect time, too, because someone was calling in, on his headset. He set his cell phone, down and pulled the mic towards his mouth. "Thanks for calling Tech Support. This is Sam. How may I help you today?"

Mindy had called back to inform Sam that everything should be fine, now. He thanked her before they hung up. He and Dean tried again that night, after dinner. They heard Diane sigh and asked Taylor's roommate to go try and tell Taylor to come down. Sam asked why she couldn't bring the phone up to Taylor.

"The girls can't have the phone, upstairs. They can only have calls down here where we can keep an eye on them," she explained.

So, the woman was having a teenage kid do what several adults couldn't? That didn't seem right. But, thankfully, after ten minutes, Julie returned with Taylor.

They heard Diane thank Julie before thanking Taylor for coming down. "I need you to keep it short, so you can eat and do your chore. We'll talk about your punishment for missing school and not coming down to dinner, later."

Dean stood there with his arms tightly folded. When he heard the familiar breathing of their sister, he spoke. He held back on the anger he was possessing since it wasn't Taylor, he was pissed at. "Hey, Kiddo. You okay?"

They waited to see if Taylor would speak again. It was just her breathing that was heard, increasing. Like she was going to start crying. Dean really hated the limited access he had with his sister, at the moment. Why did it take so long for a couple background checks?

"You gave us quite a scare there, Kiddo," Dean continued when it was apparent she wasn't going to speak. It was worth a shot. "Sam and I have been so worried."

They heard Taylor whimper before she said it, again.

Dean looked up at Sam, his eyes wide. He returned his attention to the phone, in Sam's hand. "I'm here, Kiddo. I'll be here, no matter what." Dean meant it, too, and he was going to make sure of that. "You gotta hang in there a little bit longer. As soon as we're able to, we're going to come see you, Sam and I." He heard her whimper, again. Dean ran a hand down, over his face, stopping over his mouth, holding his eyes, closed.

Sam spoke up at that point. "If we could, we'd be there right now, but we can't be. I know none of this is easy. For any of us, Taylor. You just have to trust us for now. Can you do that?" He paused, letting silence float through the phone.

The brothers kept up with calling Taylor, every single evening. Neither one was happy to hear she was punished for refusing to come out from under her bed, all day, Thursday and Friday. Diane said, it was because she had to come out for school, dinner, and her chore. Dean felt they could have cut the poor kid some slack, at least. But, she told him, it wasn't fair to the other girls. Besides, Taylor was just grounded from watching TV and staying up late, over the weekend. The kid spent most of her time in her room, anyway. So, in retrospect, it really didn't affect her. To Dean, though, it was still the principle of the matter.

Two weeks went by. They drove on slowly as the brothers continued to work. In the evenings and on weekends, they would look through apartment guides for any three bedroom apartments. Sam and Dean had to wait a few paychecks before they could afford all of the expenses that came with it. During the week, they would look online and through a booklet, one would get, free, at a grocery store. On the weekend, was when Sam and Dean would go check out places, talking with the managers in charge, and taking tours of the apartments. Sam used his phone to record videos. For one, so they can refer back to them later. And, also, if they did choose it, if it had any damage before the siblings moved in, they couldn't be blamed for it.

Finally, after three whole weeks of waiting, Mindy finally called Dean and asked them to come in and get fingerprinted, and to decide on a day for them to have weekly visits. He asked if it was all right to come in that afternoon. She said, it was fine since there wasn't anything else in her schedule. Dean also requested from his boss to leave, early that day, getting an hour off. He got off, thirty minutes before Sam, which surprised his brother when Dean pulled up, earlier than normal.

When Dean explained the background checks were done, Sam felt just as relieved as Dean was. They hurried over to Mindy's office and got the fingerprints done, as well. It seemed strange, freely giving someone their fingerprints, and it wasn't because the brothers were being arrested.

"So, what day-" Mindy wasn't even able to finish her sentence.

"Tomorrow," Dean blurted out.

"So, you boys want visits on Fridays, then?" she asked, looking between them.

"Yeah, sounds good," Sam nodded. "Something to look forward to, throughout the week."

Dean agreed with a single nod.

Mindy just smiled. "Well, the longest I can give on a weekday, is two hours. That okay?"

"How much can we have on a weekend?" Sam asked.

"Three hours," she replied.

He looked over at Dean. "What do you think? We could have an extra hour if we wait another day. I mean, we've waited this long, right?"

Dean stared at the floor, thinking it over. He really wanted to see Taylor, as soon as possible. But, three hours did sound better than two.

"We could go look at apartments, Saturday morning, grab lunch, and then head to Taylor's house."

"I would choose Saturday, actually, if I were you," Mindy spoke up.

Dean looked up at her. "Why's that?"

"I guess they try to keep the girls, active with extracurricular activities. So, they signed Taylor up for soccer. Her first game is Saturday. I can approve for you to be there, on top of the three hours, if you want."

Dean's heart leapt inside his chest. "Hell, yes," he stated.

She looked over at Sam, who nodded. "Why didn't we hear of this, before?" he asked of her.

"I just learned, this morning, when I picked Taylor up."

"Did she choose the sport or did they choose for her?"

"I think Taylor picked it. It was either soccer, volleyball, or dance," Mindy told them what the group home staff had informed her.

Sam shifted on his feet, stealing a glance with Dean. "What about art classes? That's what Taylor likes to do."

"They have art groups on Mondays, together. They want the girls to be out there, doing something and not sitting around the house all the time." She shrugged, "Who knows, maybe Taylor will enjoy it and will want to keep playing. I have a couple other kids who likes both the arts and sports."

"Well, I mean, I guess so. I loved science fairs and I played soccer when I was her age. That could be something the two of us can do, together," he ended up agreeing with.

Dean smiled up at his brother. He knew his brother was still trying to think of ways to make up for what happened back at the bunker. "Guess, we won't be looking at apartments, this weekend, afterall. Not Saturday, anyway."

"Well then, it's settled. I'll set up Saturday visits with the group home for the three of you, and will give you a call by tomorrow with the address and directions, and for the games, as well," she said.

It was such a relief to know Sam and Dean were about to finally see their sister, in a couple days, and even get the pleasure of watching her play in her first game of the season.