Chapter Eleven

Evy's Eighth Birthday

The clock was approaching nine, and Sam heard Evy and Lily giggling again from the bedroom. It was Evy's eighth birthday, and she was happier than Sam had seen her all summer. From the time they'd been at Jody's, Evy had been slowly recovering from her ordeal with Genai. Thankfully, neither Lily nor Linda had asked anything about what happened. Evy had fallen back into a halfway normal routine, except for one thing. She no longer wanted to have her sleepover at Lily's. She didn't want to be away from Sam. Linda and Lily had both been understanding, and Sam hated the thought of her leaving the house anyway. But he'd known the time would finally come, and on her birthday, it did.

Her birthday fell on a Saturday, and Evy had decided that she wanted Lily to sleep at their house on Saturday and stay at Lily's Sunday. The girls were having a great time in Evy's room, and Sam considered letting them stay up later. He decided on a compromise. At exactly nine, he walked to the door of Evy's bedroom.

"Alright, girls, you don't have to go to sleep, but you do have to go to bed."

"Aww, daddy, can't I stay up a little bit? Please?" Evy begged.

Sam hated himself for it, but he cracked under the pressure of Evy's big, cute, begging eyes. "Fine. But listen to me. When your bedside clock says 9:30, I want you in bed. Understand?"

"Okay. Thank you, daddy." Evy said with a grin.

"You're welcome, baby."

"Hey, uncle Sammy?" Lily asked.

"Yes?"

"You said we don't have to go to sleep, right?" Lily wondered.

"Right…." Sam answered, wondering where exactly she was going with this.

"Well, can we pull out the sofa bed and watch a movie?" Lily asked.

Damn it. Sam thought to himself. I knew I shouldn't have fallen for that one. "Sure."

"Yay!" Both the girls said together, making a sprint for the living room.

After pulling out the sofa bed and fixing it up for them, Sam started the movie and walked over to Evy's side of the bed. He kissed her cheek and made sure she was tucked in. Leaning over her with one hand on either side, he said,
"Good night, baby. Happy birthday."

Evy wrapped her arms around Sam's neck and pulled him close so she could whisper in his ear. "Thank you."

"For what, baby?" Sam asked.

"Letting me do this." Evy whispered, not wanting Lily to hear her. "Letting me be a normal kid."

"You deserve it, Cricket." Sam said. "I'm going to my bed. You two have fun. Love you."

"Love you too, daddy."

Sam felt his heart flutter when Evy called him daddy. He wished Lily a good night, reminded them not to be too loud, and headed to his bedroom. He remembered Dean was still out with friends, and shot him a text before laying back to go to sleep. Evy and Lily are watching a movie in the living room. Turn the TV off when you get in please. The next morning, Sam went to the kitchen to start making the girls breakfast, and was surprised to find Lily already sitting there with a glass of orange juice.

"Hi, uncle Sammy."

"Hey, Lily. It's not even eight, what are you doing up?" Sam asked, walking to gather the supplies to make breakfast.

"I couldn't sleep." Lily said. "I got me some orange juice, I hope that's okay."

"Of course it's okay. Why couldn't you sleep?" Sam asked as he gathered what he needed for breakfast.

"Uncle Sammy, whatever happened to Evy when school got out? I think it's still bothering her." Lily said.

Sam stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at Lily. "What do you mean?"

"She had a bad dream last night." Lily said. "She woke up crying."

"Why didn't she come get me?" Sam asked.
"She was worried you wouldn't let her stay at my house tonight if she did." Lily answered.

She was probably right, Sam thought, though he bet his tongue to keep from saying it. "Okay, sweetie, you did good telling me."

"Are you?" Lily asked.

"Am I what?" Sam said.

"Not going to let her come tonight."

Sam stopped himself from frowning. "If she still wants to go, honey, I'll let her go." When Lily smiled, Sam got an idea. "You remember what we need to make pancakes?"

"Yeah."
"Why don't you get the stuff together?" Sam said. "I'm just gonna go check on Evy."

"Okay."

Sam walked into the living room and sat next to Evy. His movement on the bed made Evy stir awake. She yawned and turned to Sam.

"Hi, daddy."

"Hey." Sam said. "How'd you sleep?"

"Okay." Evy said.

"Did you?" Sam asked. "Lily told me you had a bad dream."

"Oh." Evy said, looking away from Sam.

"Baby, why didn't you come get me?" Sam asked.

"I thought you might not let me go to Lily's tonight if you knew."

Sam sighed. "If you still want to go, baby, you can. I just wish you'd told me last night. I don't like you sitting up alone, scared."

"It wasn't about aunt Jody's. And it wasn't a scary dream." Evy said. "It was a sad one."

"What do you mean?"

"It was about mommy." Evy said. "We were having a birthday party. For me. We were waiting on her to show up, but she never came."

"Oh, baby." Sam said.

"If I tell you something, you promise not to be mad that I didn't tell you before?" Evy asked nervously.

Surprised by her sudden question, Sam asked, "Baby, what is it?"

"Remember when you found me at the bunker?" Evy asked. "When I got mad at you because you couldn't send me back?"

"Yeah, I remember." Sam said. "I always wondered what made you change your mind about that."

"It was mommy." Evy said.

Sam, stunned, wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"She came into my room and told me that you were gonna take care of me now." Evy continued. "She promised me I'd be okay with you."

"Are you glad you listened to her?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. I am." Evy said. "I liked that you were there before, but…"
"But what, baby?"
"But I'm happier now." Evy said. "Everything's so much better."

Sam stroked Evy's cheek for a moment, unable to believe how blessed he was, yet again. "Do you know how much I love you, my baby?"

"Love you too, daddy." Evy replied.

"Evy?" Sam and Evy looked towards the door leading from the living room to the kitchen. Lily was standing there, watching them and looking worried. "Are you okay?"

"She's okay, sweetheart." Sam said. He turned to Evy and asked, "You want to help us make pancakes?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

Evy had a great day, and towards dinnertime that night, the girls prepared to go to Linda's. Sam took them over, and helped Linda make dinner. As he prepared to leave, Linda made sure the girls were occupied and told Sam,

"You know, if you want to sneak back after they're asleep and stay on my couch, you can. You can sneak back home before they get up."

Sam laughed. "Am I that obvious?"

"Sam, it's okay. I can only imagine if something like that happened to Lily how scared I'd be for her to stay somewhere without me." Linda said.

"No, it's okay. I trust you." Sam said. "I'm just gonna say goodbye to Evy." Sam walked down the hall in the direction of the girl's giggling. "Hey, baby, I'm headed home."

"Okay, daddy." Evy said. She got up from the floor where she and Lily were looking at a book.

Sam knelt down in front of Evy and told her, "Have fun baby. But remember what we talked about."

"Tell aunt Linda if I have a bad dream." Evy said. "And call you if I want to go home."

"Right." Sam said. "I love you."
"Love you more." Evy said.

Sam smiled and turned to leave. He arrived back home about five minutes later, to find Dean sitting in the living room with a beer, watching TV. Sam locked the door behind him and walked in, sitting on the other end of the couch. The house felt strange without Evy in it. Empty and hollow.

"Baby girl okay?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." Sam said. "How was work?"

"It was okay." Dean said.

Sam noticed that Dean sounded less than thrilled. "Do you miss hunting?" he asked.

Dean thought a long time before answering. "Yeah." He said honestly. "But seeing baby girl happy makes it worth it."

"You know what she told me tonight?" Sam told Dean about the dream and about Evy seeing Missy the day she showed up at the bunker.
"You think it was real?" Dean asked. "Did Missy really…?"

"Yeah. I think she did. I think she brought Evy to us."

"Damn." Dean said.

"I'm going to bed." Sam said. "Night, jerk."
"Night, bitch."

Sam put on a pair of sweatpants and a light shirt and washed his face. Before going to bed, he stopped into Evy's room and sat on her bed, looking around. He grabbed the photo he'd given her on Father's Day, which she kept on her bedside table.

"Thank you." Sam said sincerely. "Thank you."

Next Chapter: Sam and Evy's Halloween night takes a terrible turn.