For some reason everyone was avoiding Tarzan's treehouse, although it could have been the fact that three of the witch children were giving off sparkles. It seemed that Johnny was a quick study and he liked the sparkles as much as Amber did. Of course he liked bananas more and it only took one example of Phoebe using a shielding spell to keep Johnny's fire power under control before Wyatt began using his shield to catch Johnny and Amber's sparkles. Jess and Sam didn't even blink at the magic that the children were playing with and Sam only had to use the fire extinguisher once. This time it was Piper who fixed the damage.
It was this nonchalant attitude from the non-witches that made Mrs. Long relax around the kids. Both Becky and her father had gone on the ride with about half of the Winchester group. None of the Halliwell ladies had wanted to go on the ride, so they were the ones watching the kids and making sure that there was no destruction, or at least that whatever destruction was done was fixed before anyone found out about it. Sam was the only man there and he was the one watching Mary as she tried to crawl up the path through the treehouse. She hadn't mastered sitting up yet, much less crawling, but it was already obvious that she had the Winchester determination in spades. She was going to make one hell of a Slayer when she grew up.
"So, your nephew is going to grow up to be a witch and your niece is going to grow up to be a Slayer?" Mrs. Long asked. "How do you deal with that? How does your brother?" Even if her husband hadn't recognized the Winchesters, she had and she knew that if she was to be able to get a handle on what her child's life was going to become these were the people to ask. They were neck deep in that world and had been for years before Sam's becoming a Seer.
"We deal with it as a family. Dad and Dean took jobs as Watchers because the Council is really short on Watchers right now. All three of us have the training we need to be Watchers but I was still in school so the Council was waiting until I graduate before offering me a position. When they found out that Mary is a Potential, Willow came and told us. That was when Jess and I volunteered for the job. When Mary is Called, I'll be her Watcher. Jess has volunteered to become the Watcher for Mary's partner. No Slayer works alone these days. That keeps everything in the family and that's the way we like it." Sam grinned, that was an understatement. The Winchesters as a rule were a paranoid bunch. But that came with the territory because there really was something out there that wanted them dead. Actually, there was more than just one thing; they'd made a lot of enemies on the other side over the years.
"A Watcher is a vital part of a Slayer's life. He or she becomes mentor, partner, friend, confessor, emotional rock; there really isn't a way to explain everything that a Watcher does for their Slayer. It is our job to provide our Slayers with everything they need from research to training to personal needs. The one thing that they can't be is a parent. We're really skirting the line with my being Mary's uncle but Dean doesn't trust anyone else to look after Mary and Mary's Watcher needs to be someone he trusts because he has his own Slayer to Watch. He can't be worrying about Mary; he has to worry about Hannah.
"That is the one thing you're really going to have to prepare for. Watchers and Slayers are partners. Becky isn't going to want to share a lot of that part of her life with you. She's going to want to shield you from the bad stuff in her life, just like you want to shield her from the bad stuff now," Sam said as he picked up Mary from where she gone down on her belly. She screwed up her face in a huff and he could tell that she was about to scream so he distracted her with a teething cookie. She grabbed it and as she was busy exploring it he got the large plastic bib around her neck. Those cookies were really messy when gummed by a baby.
"And that's why a parent can't be their child's Watcher," Mrs. Long said as she watched Sam deal with Mary.
"Yes, because a parent's first reaction is to put themselves in the way of something that is going to hurt their child. That doesn't work when you're on a Hunt. Everyone has their own job to do and a Slayer's job is to be in the line of fire." Sam said. "But that doesn't mean that you can't be involved in her life as a Slayer too. Learn Latin so that you can help with research, learn how to maintain her weapons, learn how to protect yourself so that will help her to not worry so much about you, if you don't know how to cook or you only know basic cooking, learn how to cook extremely large amounts of high energy foods, doing things like that will show her that you want to support her and she'll be more willing to let you into that part of her life."
"How's my girl?" Dean said as he came up beside Sam.
"If she isn't crawling by the end of the week it won't be for lack of trying," Sam said as he passed Mary over to Dean. "How was the ride?"
"Not bad," Dean smirked. "I didn't know they actually had some good stuff here. But it sure is hard to find under all this sickeningly sweet sugar crap."
"Dean it isn't that bad, well most of it isn't," Sam had to admit that some of it was. Some of those early Princess movies were so bad they could gag a Troll. "And speaking of really sickeningly sweet stuff, I've got an idea I want to run by you." As the Longs left and everyone was getting kids back into strollers, Sam pulled Dean, Hannah and Jordan over to help get the twins set up and to make sure that no one overheard him outline his idea to his brother. An idea that left all three of them snickering and agreeing to help. John wasn't going to know what hit him come Christmas.
Next up was the French Quarter, starting with the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. That was one the entire group could go on so they got in line. It was hot, it was boring and kids were whining. 'At least they aren't our kids,' Dean thought as he pushed the baby carriage along. His kids were busy chewing on their stuffed animals and Johnny at least had gotten bored making sparkles. Amber was still making them and Wyatt, pesky little brother that he was, was busy trying to catch them with his shield magic. Chris was busy with a bottle. 'Their group was no doubt the best behaved in the entire place.'
The ride was another one that Dean was more than willing to go on again. If these rides were the reason Sammy had bullied his way into getting them there, then Dean had to admit that they were worth the trip. And this was the best place to pick up the supplies that were needed to pull of Sammy's idea. He kept his eyes open as they walked through the area's shops but nothing really jumped out at him as being perfect. The girls on the other hand, found lots to admire so he wasn't inclined to do anything but try and relax as he wandered after them. The search kept it from being too boring.
Their last stop in the French Quarter was the meet and greet with Captain Jack Sparrow and listening to the pirate band. While Amber got her book signed, Dean listened in on John's quiet lecture to Jordan about how to deal with real ghost pirates. He shuddered as he remembered that job. Those had been some really tough ghosts. 'And speaking of ghosts, guess where the next stop was?' Dean snickered as they got in line. He thought it was hilarious that they were taking a tour of a fake haunted mansion.
That is until Amber got nervous. "Don't worry about those ghosts Amber," he knelt down so that he could look at he little girl behind him. For a Princess loving little witch, she was a nice kid. "Not one of them is real. Do you remember the snake that Hannah broke in the jungle ride?" Amber nodded her head. "Well that wasn't a real snake either. If there are any real ghosts in that ride, I'll take care of them." He opened his bag and let her peek into it. "I've hunted ghosts before and I know what real ones look like. I've got most of what I need to take care of any real ghost right here. And what I don't have, I can get really fast. All I have to do is ask your dad. Does that help?'
She nodded, relieved. "Here, take this," Dean said as he gave her a plastic bag filled with rock salt. "If there is a real ghost in there, that'll protect you. You just throw that right in its face when I tell you and it'll disappear."
"Thank you Dean," she whispered and gave him a big hug. It helped having an expert along. The mansion was decked out in it's Holiday finery, so there were extra characters and things that weren't there the rest of the year, most notably Tim Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. To Amber's relief (as well as the adults with her) the ghosts turned out to be funny rather than scary.
It wasn't until Sam shot both John and Dean a hand sign that Dean's amusement was shot. It seemed that there was a real ghost in the mansion. John flashed then the sign for tonight and both Winchesters nodded. It seemed that this was where they would be taking their nightly patrol. The park closed at eight. They'd have to make a stop at the Park's security to let them know that they would be investigating. It was really unusual. Dean had dug up everything he could on the park's history. Mostly, he admitted to himself, to see if there was anyway he could get out of going, but he hadn't found any indications of ghostly activity. At least not the deadly kind, could Sam have actually seen a benevolent ghost?
That question bothered him enough that he didn't bother to ask Jess where she was taking the twins while he and Sam rode the Splash Mountain ride. The line was a pain but it gave the Winchesters enough time to go over what Sam had seen while on the Haunted Mansion ride. There was definitely something there to investigate but nothing that sounded very serious. A benevolent haunting was rare, but not unheard of in their line of work. The information was enough to let him settle down and enjoy the ride. He did like the story of Briar Fox and the last plunge was great! At least it was until he saw the Halliwells coming out of the Winnie the Pooh ride.
"Jess, Phoebe," he heard Sam call. That was when he realized that the girls weren't with the rest of Phoebe's family. "Did you find anything worth buying?" Sam asked.
Phoebe laughed and pulled out a shirt with Tigger on it saying 'Tiggers DON'T like honey!'. "I love Tigger. He's the best character out that series."
"What's next?" Dean asked.
Sam pulled out his map, "Frontierland, there's a rollercoaster and shooting range attraction. We need to go back to Tarzan's tree and take a left."
Dean perked up, "You mean I actually get to shoot something?"