"Daddy?"
"Hey, Chloe. Long time, no see."
Chloe suddenly gripped the door handle as hard as she could. She wanted to call for her mom, or Dean, but her mouth didn't want to work. Chloe was saved when Dean came to the door.
"Kiddo, what's…Chloe, go to the living room. Now."
"Chloe can stay if she wants to." Scott said. "In fact, that's why I came."
"I'm not going anywhere with you." Chloe said forcefully. "What are you doing here?"
Scott scowled. "Watch it, kid."
"She doesn't have to watch a damn thing. Not with you." Dean said.
"I just want to talk to my daughter. That's all."
"She's not…" Dean said, only to be cut off by Chloe.
"Dean, let him in." Chloe said.
"Chloe…"
"If we kick him out, he's just gonna come back and he won't leave us alone. But if we hear him out then tell him to go away, maybe he'll actually do it." Chloe said bitterly. She turned back to Scott. "I'll talk to you. In the living room, with Mom, Dean, and Grandpa right there."
Scott shook his head. "I see you're still as big as a brat as you used to be…."
"You heard her." Dean said, stepping behind Chloe and placing a hand on her shoulder. "She's being a lot nicer than I'm inclined to be."
"And just what do you plan to do about it?"
"I'm pretty sure you don't want to find out." John had stepped into the hallway, joining Dean and Chloe when he'd seen Amanda tense up the way she did in the living room. "Now Chloe and Dean gave you a choice. Leave or come in and talk to all of us."
Scott scowled, but chose wisely. "I need to talk to you. Everyone can stay."
"Fine."
Everyone moved to the living room. Chloe stuck close to John, taking her seat next to him on the couch. She'd been dealing with a lot of memories lately, and one struck her that wasn't nearly as pleasant as the one she'd shared with John earlier. Little did Chloe know, as Amanda crossed her arms on the far side of the room and shot daggers at Scott, and Dean stood next to Amanda, both of them were having the same flashback.
Dean was a nervous wreck. Things were getting real now. The wedding was in five days. He and Amanda had just moved into their new house. Boxes were everywhere. Dean kept unpacking boxes, working with an also nervous Chloe. Chloe was starting kindergarten in two days, and until that morning had been chattering about it nonstop. Dean was also trying to keep Chloe occupied so he didn't have to think about what Amanda was doing at that very moment.
Amanda's divorce had been finalized three days earlier. While it was a relief that the year of court dates and phone calls and Scott fighting paying any child support was over, and that today would hopefully be the last court date ever, Dean knew that whatever happened would change all their lives. Whether for good or for bad, he didn't know, but it would change.
"Where do you think this should go, kiddo?"
Dean held out a picture that Chloe had drawn of the three of them and that Amanda had framed. Chloe looked at it, put a finger on her chin, and looked around the living room.
"There." she declared, pointing at a spot on the wall next to a photo of them.
"I like it." Dean said. "I like it a lot."
"Can I hang it?" Chloe asked. "Like you helped me hang the angel on the Christmas tree?"
"Sure. Come here."
Dean picked up Chloe and handed her the picture. He helped her put the picture hanging nail in the wall, and Chloe giggled when Dean hit his thumb with the hammer. After making sure it wasn't broken, he handed the picture to Chloe and showed her how to hang it.
"What do you think?" Chloe asked.
"I think it's perfect, kiddo." Dean said. "It's beautiful."
The front door opened and Dean and Chloe turned to see Amanda coming in. Dean saw something was wrong right away. Amanda's eyes were puffy and red. As she slipped off her shoes, she quickly wiped her face so that Chloe wouldn't see her crying. But Chloe was so happy with the decoration of the new house that she beamed at her mother, happily oblivious that anything was wrong.
"Hi, Mommy! Look, we finished the living room!"
"I see that." Amanda said with a pasted-on smile. "Come here, boogie. Mommy needs a hug."
Amanda pulled Chloe away from Dean's arms and held her tight.
"Mommy? What's wrong? Why you so sad?"
"We need to talk, honey." Amanda said, rubbing Chloe's back and dreading the conversation she was about to have.
"Am I in trouble?" Chloe asked.
"No, baby. No. Come on." Amanda sat down on the couch holding Chloe, and signaled to Dean to join them. "Listen, Chloe. We need to talk about where I went today."
"Where'd you go?" Chloe asked.
"Well, do you remember when I talked to you about me and Daddy not being married anymore?"
"Yeah. 'Cause you're gonna marry Deanie right?"
"Right." Amanda said. "Well, Mommy went to court today to talk to the judge and your Daddy about when he'll be able to see you."
"Really?" Chloe asked. "When do I get to see him?"
"You mean you want to?"
"Well, yeah. I guess. I don't want to be alone with him, though. I want you or Deanie to go with me."
Amanda swallowed, a sudden lump forming in her throat. This was going to be so much harder than she'd thought. She cursed Scott in her head before breaking the news to Chloe. She'd debated in the car on whether or not to tell Chloe about this at all, but decided it was better to be honest now than to have to field a thousand questions later.
"Sweetheart, the judge today wanted your Daddy to get in trouble for what he did to us."
"What he did?"
"All the times he hurt you and me. And especially the night he dumped us on the side of the road." Amanda clarified.
"Oh." Chloe said quietly, looking down to the floor. She didn't like thinking about that night.
"But Daddy came up with a way to stay out of trouble and the judge agreed to it."
"What was it?" Chloe asked.
Dean started to see what Amanda was saying, and he braced himself for what was sure to be Chloe's shattered heart.
"Well, Daddy got out of trouble for all that, if he agreed to not see you again." Amanda's heart ached and cracked watching Chloe's little brain figure out exactly what she was saying.
"You mean…"
Chloe's eyes filled with tears. She looked first to her mother, then to Dean, and back to her mother again. She didn't think it could be true. Mommy had told Chloe that she was a gift, that she was a blessing, and that she was more precious and important than anything in the whole world. But if her own Daddy agreed to not see her at all just to get out of trouble with a judge, how could all that be true?
"You mean my Daddy don't want me?"
"I'm sorry, baby." Amanda was crying again too. She wanted to take it back, to tell Chloe it was nothing but a cruel joke, but she couldn't. "I'm so sorry."
"But how come? What'd I do?"
"You did nothing, baby. Nothing. Okay?" Amanda worked to wipe the tears from Chloe's face, but it was difficult when they were falling so fast out of her own. "You did nothing to deserve this. I know it hurts, but this is not your fault. And I don't want you to think it is."
"Yes, it is. He left us 'cause I had to go potty that night and I made him mad." Chloe cried.
"Chloe. Stop it. Listen to me."
Dean, who had been observing the entire conversation from the arm of the couch next to Chloe, picked her up, took a seat, and placed her in his lap. Chloe calmed a little from Dean's stern but compassionate tone, and waited a few seconds as she calmed down a little more before speaking.
"I know he's still your Dad. And I know this hurts. I get that. But the one losing out here is not you. It's him."
"What does that mean?" Chloe asked.
"It means that if your Daddy is not smart enough to realize what he has with you, then he doesn't deserve you." Dean said. "He has to work to deserve to be your Daddy. And if he's not willing to do that, if he doesn't realize how lucky he is, then you're better off without him."
"But…"
"No buts, young lady. You hear me? No buts. Now it's okay to cry over this. That's fine. But I better not ever hear you say that it's your fault again. Do you understand me?"
"Yes."
"Good girl." Dean said.
"Deanie?"
"Yeah, kiddo?"
"Will you do it?" Chloe asked. "Since Daddy don't want to?"
"Do it…? You mean, will I be your Dad?"
"No. I don't want you to be my Daddy. I want you to be my Deanie." Chloe said. "'Cause you better than Daddy. You really do love me and want me. Please?"
Dean couldn't remember being struck speechless before. When he recovered, he looked to Amanda, whose mouth gaped open and who was now smiling instead of crying. Chloe held a hopeful look in her eye, and Dean used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the tears she still had climbing down her face.
"You bet I'll do it, kiddo. I'd be honored."
Chloe smiled and leaned forward for a hug, joined by her mother. For a few silent minutes, Dean held his girls, until he could no longer stand the chick flick moment and broke up the silence by starting to tickle Chloe.
"Well, we're here now. Say what you have to say so we can all move on."
John's sharp voice shook Chloe out of her memories, and to everyone's surprise, she reached over and grabbed his hand. John was taken aback, but other than a brief flash of surprise, his face remained stony. He squeezed Chloe's hand in comfort.
"My, my, Amanda. Looking good."
"Shut the hell up and tell us what you want." Amanda spat, speaking for the first time since Scott had appeared.
"Oh, feisty as ever too."
"You heard her. What the hell do you want?" Dean asked.
"You must be the dude that stole my kid."
"You mean the kid you dumped on the road in the rain? You're damn right I did." Dean said.
"So that must mean it was your brother that showed up to my job site and told me if I knew what was good for me, I'd sign a consent form for an adoption."
"Yeah, that was him. If I know Sammy, he also told you to stay the hell away."
"He did. But I never was one for listening to anyone else." Scott turned back to Chloe, who refused to look at him. The memory of being told she wasn't wanted by her father still stung, even after all those years. "Chloe? You got a hug for your old man?"
"No." Chloe said simply.
"Okay. Fine. I'll get to the point then."
"It's about damn time." Dean said.
Scott ignored Dean's comment and kept his eyes on Chloe. "I came here to share some news. I'm getting married."
"Who's the unlucky girl?" Amanda asked. "I should warn her."
"She's actually a friend of yours." Scott said. "And she asked me to come here so we could all settle things amongst ourselves before the wedding in two days."
"I don't have a friend stupid enough to marry you." Amanda said.
"We'll see. She's out in the car. Give me a second and I'll bring her in."
"What's her name?"
"Emily Sampson."
John felt Chloe's squeeze his hand very hard, and heard Dean and Amanda exclaim at the same time. Dean said 'son of a bitch!' and Amanda simply uttered a disbelieving 'what?'. Lost, he turned to Chloe.
"Who is Emily Sampson?" he asked her.
Chloe looked at him, her eyes a mixture of profound sadness and anger. "She's Riley's mother."
