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Dean-23

Sam-19

Kate-14

It was a Thursday afternoon in late August. The sun was on its way down, taking its heat with it. Kate felt a small breeze and silently thanked the wind gods for allowing her to momentarily cool down. She looked up ahead of her as she wiped sweat from her brow with the sleeve of her shirt. She saw Dean waiting for her off to the side of the road by the hotel. He had finished long before her. Dean glanced down at his watch and looked up at Kate struggling to finish. "Hurry up!" he barked.

Kate didn't think she was going to make it. Every muscle in her body was in constant protest. She grunted, cursing at her father. Ever since he came back 2 days ago, he told Dean he was being way too easy on Kate and demanded they up the training. Kate assumed it had more to do with Sam leaving 3 weeks than anything. John finally realized they were down a hunter and was looking to replace him quickly, hence Kate being forced to step up her game. Kate attempted to channel all that inner anger at her father to fuel her strides the last 100 meters.

She finally reached Dean and instantly hunched over with her hands resting on her knees, breathing hard. She felt another small breeze and lifted her head slightly to embrace it as she heard Dean push some buttons on his watch.

"32 minutes," he said as his regretful eyes met hers.

"Well, I'm not…going…again," she said between breaths. Dean opened his mouth, ready to remind her that John said she had to get it in 30 minutes or keep trying until she did. Dean hated the fact that John was being so hard on her.

"Fine. Just this once," he replied as he put his hand on her back and gently starting guiding her in the direction of the room.

Kate opened the door slowly. She didn't want to go back, but a shove from Dean told her otherwise. She stumbled into the room from the harsh shove and John's gaze instantly met both of them.

"Well?" he asked, waiting for Dean to report.

"She did fine. 30 minutes exactly," Dean replied as he took a seat on the bed, wiping excess sweat from his forehead.

Kate smiled as she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and a towel from her bag. It was an extremely rare occasion when Dean would lie to their father, normally that would have been Sam's place.

"Where do you think you're going?" John yelled over to Kate who was walking towards the bathroom.

"I'm sweaty and nasty. I'm showering."

"No, you're not," John said. Kate looked from him to Dean, waiting for someone to explain to her why personal hygiene was such a crime now. "Do you really think a wendigo will just let you pause and take a shower after it chases you down?"

Kate let out a small, sarcastic laugh. There was no way he was being serious right now. She stared at him in disbelief, as his face grew harder. "No it won't. So get your ass over here and sit. We have some more stuff to go over." Kate wadded up her towel and threw it angrily on the floor. She practically stomped over and took a seat opposite of John. "You can lose the attitude while you're at it." Kate didn't feel a need to respond. Dean sensed the mood instantly change. He knew those looks all too well. Something was brewing. He'd refereed enough Sam-John altercations to recognize the warning signs. He got up and made his way over into the only remaining chair at the table. He'd kill for a shower now too, but leaving them alone was clearly not an option.

"Vampire is on your tail. What do you do? John began.

"Great. Here comes another round of 20 questions," Kate thought. She knew just about everything about any and every monster out there that her dad had encountered. She knew their habits, what they looked like, and how they attacked. Slowly but surely she was learning how to kill them. "Let it get close enough and inject him with some dead man's blood so you can get information out of him," she replied.

"And I highly doubt you will ever have any dead mans blood on hand. So how do you kill it?"

"Chop its head off," she replied with confidence. How could she not know that answer? She had some awfully painful memories of watching her dad and brothers do just that.

"Shape shifter," John continued, not feeling a need to even form it into a question.

"Shoot it," Kate began, but hesitated knowing there was more to it but unable to remember what exactly.

"With a…," Dean piped in, wanting to help her. John shot him a silencing look. Dean felt like a little kid being reprimanded all over again.

"…with a gun?" Kate finished, still unsure about what she was saying. Yes, she could have studied more, but she had other things to do. She had 2 group projects due this week and she didn't want to let her group down, so she had been working on those. She might have told her dad that she was studying hunting stuff though. Oops. But Dean knew the truth, which is why he kept trying to review with her in the car on their way to and from school.

"Bang!" John slammed his fist down on the table, causing both Kate and Dean to jump a little in their seats. "Shifter just shot you with your normal gun and ordinary bullets." John's temper was about to burst. "How much did you actually study?"

"I didn't," Kate mumbled quietly. There was no point in lying because the answer was already pretty obvious. Dean felt John's glare burn into him as he dropped his head, suddenly taking an interest in his thumbs.

"What did you just say?" John demanded.

"I said I didn't study. I had more important things to do." Dean looked over at her, silently begging her to stop.

"More important?! What could be more important than learning how to save lives—including ours?" John said as he motioned to all 3 of them.

"School, dad. School is important. I have group projects and I don't want to let my partners down."

"Well you're going to let you own family down when you get us all killed because you used the wrong weapon. Now take this and go sit over there and study," John finished as he held out his journal for her to grab.

Kate stood up and harshly grabbed the journal from his grasp. There was a long pause and Dean was positive he could feel the anger radiating off of John. "No," Kate said as she let the journal fall down on the table, causing an extremely loud boom to resonate through the hotel room.

"I will not have such a disrespectful daughter. Pick up the damn book and go study. You're already walking on thin ice, young lady," John said as he also stood up.

"I don't want to study. And I most definitely don't want to hunt!" Dean heard that thin ice shatter beneath them.

"You're acting like a 4 year old throwing a tantrum!" John said as he started walking to the other side of the table.

"No, you mean I'm acting like Sam did!" Kate yelled. Dean immediately stood up, not liking how this was going and blocked John from reaching the other side of the table.

"Come on, Kate, I'll help you study," Dean begged as he picked up the journal, his eyes pleading Kate to comply. She immediately felt betrayed and she was sure her face showed it. Dean had taken their father's side. Kate took one last look at both men and made her way to the door. She opened it and took off running down to the end of the hall and leaned up against the wall on the other side of an ice machine.

"Damnit it son! Don't you dare go after her!" She heard John yell. Then all she heard was the door slowly close. She shut her eyes, realizing she was really all alone.

She slid down along the wall and sat, pulling her knees in close. She opened up her hand and looked at her phone, thankful she had grabbed it as she stormed out. She felt tears begin burn in her eyelids. She couldn't handle this anymore…Sam leaving, the training, her dad being an ass, Dean not defending her…she had reached her limit.

She opened her cell phone and dialed the number she had long ago memorized. Right now she just needed her best friend. Someone who could make her feel better.

Ring…Ring…Ring…

A few tears escaped. Nobody was picking up her call.

Ring…Ring…

"Hello?" came the voice through the phone. Kate quickly tried to wipe her tears away and pull herself together to not sound like she had been so upset.

"Hiya, Sam…"

Just with those two words Sam could tell something was wrong. He knew her too well. "Katie? What happened?"

Kate couldn't hold back the tears any longer and they freely started flowing down her cheeks. She didn't even know where to begin.