Chapter 12! I never thought I'd have so many chapters...thank you guys SO much for all of your reviews and adding my story to your favorites and story alerts. I'm loving writing these, so I hope you guys keep enjoying them :)
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Dean-20
Sam-16
Kate-12
"Sam," Kate said from the bed where she was laying down. There was no response. "Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam." Katie grunted in frustration. He had to be able to hear her. One, he was literally sitting about 15 feet away, at most. Two, there was no way he was that concentrated on the research sprawled out across the table in front of him because three, he was a hunter. It was basically his job to hear anything and everything around him. He was clearly ignoring her on purpose.
All of a sudden the cell phone started vibrating on the table. Sam reached for his phone and saw it said private caller. "Weird," he thought as he opened the phone. "Hello?"
"Sam. Sam. Sam!" said the voice. Sam slammed his phone shut and turned around to glare at his sister as she was also putting her phone back down.
"Seriously?" Annoyance was clear in his voice.
"You shouldn't ignore me. It could be something super important," she replied nonchalantly.
"Well?"
"I'm thirsty."
Sam's eyes narrowed. "Dean will be back with dinner soon." Normally he didn't care about hanging with his little sister, but this was different.
"But I'm thirsty now," Kate complained. A scowl formed on Sam's face. "What? It's not like I wished for this to happen. And I do remember you being involved." She used both hands to point to her right foot that was propped up on top of 3 pillows and wrapped up in a black cast that came halfway up her shin.
"You're really milking this thing, you know," Sam said as he relented and got up. Damn her for knowing the Winchester weakness—feeling guilty. He went over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. He made his way to the bed and handed it to her.
Thanks," Kate replied satisfied.
"Yeah, yeah," Sam mumbled as he took the palm of his hand and quickly rubbed it on Kate's head completely messing up her hair. She smacked his hand away and he retreated back to his table with a smirk.
FLASHBACK—2 days earlier
"Deeean, I'm tired. Let's just go home already," Kate complained as she wiped some sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. It was a Saturday afternoon in mid September. The sun was beating down on the 3 Winchester siblings as they all stood in a clearing in the woods. Dean had dragged them out there a few hours ago so they could do some training. Apparently John had left Dean with strict orders to step up the training, especially with Kate, since he thought Dean had been too easy on her lately.
"No. We're done when I say we are. Come on, Sam." Dean looked over at Sam who was finishing off the last of his water. Sam always seemed to draw the short straw when it came to training, now that Kate had become part of it. Being the middle child was not fun. First he had to spar with Dean and then he had to turn around and spar with Kate because somehow it wouldn't be fair for Kate to go up against Dean. No one cared that none of this was fair for him. He hated this and everything else about hunting.
"This is stupid," Kate mumbled under her breath as she kicked some dirt. She could feel Dean's infamous threatening look burn into her, but she refused to make eye contact. Finally Sam made his way over and stood facing her.
"Okay. Now Kate, I want you to really work on what we talked about," Dean said. She just nodded her head and both she and Sam raised their fists up, ready to get this over with.
Sam threw out his right arm, which Kate instantly blocked. She slowly took steps backwards, trying to stay out of Sam's immediate reach. Sam followed her, waiting for her to do something. He didn't like doing this anymore than she did. They exchanged a couple more blocked shots, feeling that it was just becoming more of a poorly choreographed dance routine than anything.
Kate punched her arm towards Sam's chest, but he effortlessly grabbed on to her wrist before she could make contact. He yanked her forward, let go of her wrist, and gave her a good shove backwards.
What Sam didn't see was a large rock planted in the ground behind her. As he pushed her back, her right foot got stopped by the rock and she began to lose her balance and fall. The force of the push caused her to start to fall to the side, but her foot was stuck in front of the rock and couldn't turn with the rest of her body. It was one of those moments where everything seemed to happen in slow motion, but fast enough where there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
Crack.
It was the only sound the three of them heard as both Sam and Dean rushed over. It took Kate a second to realize what happened. She twisted her body upright and pulled her leg out in front of her and saw her ankle was already swelling up, hurt like a bitch when she tried to move it.
"Kate! Are you ok? I'm so sorry. I didn't me…" Sam was cut off.
"Sam, shut up," Dean commanded as he knelt down beside her. He took one look at her ankle and muttered, "Shit." Kate immediately noticed the worried look on Dean's face. "Can you move your toes?"
Kate shook her head no as tears began to stream down her face. She couldn't remember the last time she felt this much pain. "Ouch! Is it bbbbroken?" she said between sobs.
Instead of answering her, he looked up at Sam. "Grab the stuff while I get her in the car." He placed one arm along her back and the other under her knees and gently picked her up.
"I told you we should have stopped, Dean!" Accident or not, Kate didn't seem to care. She was in pain and needed someone to blame it on. Dean didn't respond to her because he was focused on getting her into the car and getting this fixed. "Ouch..Ouch…" she said as he slowly placed her in the backseat of the Impala with her leg propped up on the seat. "Wwwwhere we going?" She was trying to get her tears under control, not wanting to look like a complete baby in front of her brothers, but the pain took on a mind of its own.
"Hospital," Dean responded firmly as he slipped into the driver's seat. Sam came up and threw the supplies in the front seat and scooted in the back beside Kate. He got up against her back, allowing her to rest on him. He wrapped both arms around her as Dean took off down the path.
As he turned onto the main road, Sam loosed his grip a little, since the ride was now a bit smoother. Kate was quietly sniffling as she closed her eyes to not focus on the throbbing sensation in her ankle. It killed them to see Kate in pain like this, but neither of them knew what to say. Sam took his hand and brushed it along the top of Kate's head in slow, soothing strokes, trying to calm her down. "It's going to be ok," he whispered as he kissed the top of her head. He didn't know what else to do.
Dean glanced in the rear view mirror and caught Sam's eye. He could tell that he was already blaming himself. Sure Kate and Sam have had their fair share of rough housing and cuts and scrapes, but Sam had never hurt Kate this bad, even if it was just an accident. Dean reflexively pushed down on the gas pedal harder—wanting to get into town now. He wanted to tell Sam to stop blaming himself because it wasn't really Sam's fault...it was his. He should have just left earlier when Kate had wanted to, but instead he forced them to push on even though he knew they were both exhausted and not on top of their game. He should have known something was going to happen. He cursed at himself as he gripped the steering wheel tighter.
END FLASHBACK
"Food's here!" Dean announced as he walked through the motel door, holding up 2 large bags.
"Bout time!" Sam said he picked up his chair and took it over to sit beside Kate's bed. Dean tossed him one of the bags as he sat down on the bed beside his sister. He pulled out a cheeseburger and fries.
"And for the cripple," Dean said as he handed her the food. She didn't reach up to grab it.
"I'm feeling so weak," Kate said in a fake raspy voice, adding an even more fake cough.
Dean looked over at Sam, silently asking if he had missed something. Sam just shrugged his shoulder and shook his head no. "You broke your ankle. Not your arms," Dean said. Kate threw on the puppy dog eyes. "Oh hell no. I'm not freaking feeding you."
Kate's puppy dog eyes instantly turned into a pout. She thought she had both of them wrapped around her finger, but she guessed it all had to wear off eventually.
"Fine," Kate said as she grabbed her food and sat it down on her lap. "Can I have some of your onion rings?" Kate said as she shoved a fry in her mouth and saw Dean get his own food out of the paper bag.
Dean instinctively pulled the onion rings closer to him, out of her reach. "No."
"Hey, I'm pretty sure this is half your fault anyway," she replied as both of their gazes went to her cast.
Kate knew how to pull on their guilt strings. Dean reluctantly held his onion rings out for her to grab a handful. She noticed Dean's face and how he obviously still felt really bad about what had happened. Now Kate felt bad for making HIM feel bad. Round and round the Winchesters go, where the guilt stops, nobody knows.
Kate picked up her fries with her free hand and held them up in front of Dean. "Ya want some?" Dean cautiously searched her face for any form of hidden sarcasm behind those words. When he saw that she was actually being sincere, he reached and grabbed a few fries. She turned to Sam and offered him some too since he had only ordered some sort of healthy salad shaker thing. He noticed how genuine she was being for a change, so he grabbed a few fries. They all three smiled to themselves as they continued to eat their dinner and watch Wheel of Fortune. The Winchesters weren't so much a family of words as they were a family who spoke through food. And Sam and Dean inwardly knew that offering to share food was the Winchester way of offering forgiveness and moving on.
