"Ready, Sammy?" Mr. Winchester asked. Sam nodded, and we got out of the car.
Sam had to go back to the doctor's for a recheck, and they were going to draw some blood. I had said I would stay home with Dean, but Sam had insisted that we both come with him.
Sam fell into step between Dean and me and took our hands.
"It'll be okay, Sam." I told him. We walked into the doctor's office together and sat down in the waiting room while Mr. Winchester checked in at the front desk.
When the nurse came out and called Sam's name, we all stood up, and she laughed.
"All of you are coming back? I don't know if we have any rooms big enough for the whole family."
"I'm not going unless they come too." Sam said decisively.
"All right, we'll work around it." The nurse shook her head. She weighed Sam and checked his height and his temperature, then led us into a small room that was decorated with jungle animals.
"Up on the table, young man." she said. Sam tried to climb up on the table, and Mr. Winchester said, "Use the stool, Sam."
There was a little step-stool under the table. Sam managed to get on the table by himself.
"How's he been doing, Dad?" the nurse asked.
"He's doing well." Mr. Winchester said. "He still gets tired out a little easily, but we're making sure he rests."
"Good. Appetite okay?"
"Yes."
"Anything else happening?"
"No, he's back to normal."
The nurse wrote something down on a clipboard and then looked at Sam. "The doctor will be in in a few minutes."
"Dean, sit with me." Sam said. Dean walked over and jumped up on the table next to Sam. They started swinging their feet fast, and then Dean pushed Sam's feet with his, and Sam pushed him back, laughing. Dean moved his leg and pushed Sam's leg so hard that Sam fell over slightly.
"Boys!" Mr. Winchester said. "Don't start rough-housing in here!"
"Okay Dad." Sam said, still laughing. He pushed Dean with his hands and Dean started to fall off the table.
"Sam!" Mr. Winchester stood up. "Dean, get over here." he said sternly. "Sit down right here." He pointed on the floor next to him.
There was a knock on the door and the doctor came in. She was a plump older woman with short hair.
"We've got the whole family here today, huh?" she said with a laugh.
"I don't like needles." Sam said. "Or doctors."
"So you want your brother and sister here for moral support? That's fine." She smiled at him. She looked Sam over while asking Mr. Winchester the same questions that the nurse had asked.
"Well, he looks great." The doctor said. "All of the kids that were in the hospital have had a full recovery, which is wonderful. We still don't know what was causing it."
"Maybe it was some kind of virus." Mr. Winchester said.
"That's a possibility." the doctor said. "Okay, Sam, I know you said you don't like needles, but we need to get some blood now. Are you okay with that?"
"No." Sam said.
The doctor chuckled. "Well, at least he's honest. The nurse will be in to draw blood in a couple minutes."
Ten minutes later, it was apparent how NOT okay Sam was with needles. Another nurse had to come in, and she and Mr. Winchester were holding Sam down on the exam table as he cried and screamed.
Dean and I were standing by Sam's head, trying to talk to him and distract him.
"I need you to take a deep breath, Sam." the nurse said. "Take a breath and relax for me."
"Sammy, what kind of ice cream do you want?" Dean asked, and his voice sounded desperate. Mr. Winchester had said we could go out and get ice cream after we left the doctor's office.
"Let me go!" Sam grunted as he strained against the nurse's arms.
"Be brave, Sam." I said encouragingly. "You can do this."
He turned his head and looked at me. "No I can't." He said, biting his lip. "Sing something, Kate."
"Um, what do you want me to sing?" I asked nervously.
"The song about the blooming heather." he said.
"Oh. Okay." I cleared my throat, and sang softly,
"O the summer time has come
And the trees are sweetly bloomin'
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the bloomin' heather
Will ye go lassie, go?"
"Got it!" said the nurse, standing up. "We're done."
The other nurse and Mr. Winchester let go and stood up, and the nurse put a band-aid on Sam's arm. Sam sat up, holding his arms out, and said, "Daddy-". Mr. Winchester picked him up and held him tightly, murmuring quietly to Sam and rubbing his back.
The nurse touched my arm. "You did a good thing, young lady." She smiled at me.
Mr. Winchester came over to me and squeezed my shoulder. "Thank you, Kate." he said.
"We're finished here. The results should be in in a few days, if you don't hear anything from us you can assume everything is fine. We only call if there's a problem."
She opened a cabinet and took out a small plastic bucket. "Can Sam have a lollipop?" she asked.
"Go ahead, Sam." Mr. Winchester said.
"Only if Dean and Kate can have one too." Sam said.
"That's fine." The nurse held the bucket out to us. We each took a lollipop and thanked her.
"Thank you." said. "We ready to go?"
Dean and I followed him out to the car and he carried Sam.
On the way home, we went through a drive-through and Mr. Winchester got ice cream cones for the three of us. I was sitting in the back seat behind him, and I saw him looking at me in the rear-view mirror.
"Are you okay, Kate? You look tired." he said.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I told him.
"You're not staying up late reading, are you?" he asked, a little sternly.
"Uh, no." I felt myself blushing a little. I wasn't going to tell him that I had been going over to Brett's house in the evenings with Jake and his brother, and staying there until midnight or later.
I knew my father would disapprove, but I wasn't sure what Mr. Winchester's opinion would be, and I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. I didn't care if my father was disappointed in me, but the realization that Mr. Winchester might also be disappointed in me made me reconsider what I was doing.
"Would you mind dropping me off at my house?" I asked. "I've got to start this big dinner, and its going to be a lot of work."
"No problem." Mr. Winchester said. When he pulled up to the curb, I hugged the boys.
"I'll see you Monday." I told them.
I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher after the meal. My father and his co-workers had gone into his study to have cigars and whiskey. My mother was putting away the leftovers when my father walked in. He got the ice bucket out of the cabinet and filled it from the refrigerator.
"The meal was very bland." he said. "And the chicken was dry. Next time I'll just have dinner catered."
I turned around and said, "You're welcome. I guess the fact that I worked for three hours cooking, and used a recipe that Mom gave me, don't count for anything."
Dad walked up to me and grabbed my arm, hard.
"You will watch your tone with me." he said. He glared at me for a long moment, squeezing my arm, and I looked down at the floor, getting scared. After a moment he let me go and grabbed the ice bucket off the counter. "Join us." he said to my mother as he left the room.
I turned back to the sink.
"Katie, you shouldn't antagonize your father like that." My mother said with disappointment in her voice.
"Well, maybe he should appreciate everything I do around here!" I snapped. "I'm just a servant to him!"
"You know that's not true." she said.
"Do I?" I asked her. She shook her head and left the room.
The next day they made me go with them. We went to my father's office and sat around with a bunch of other people, folding letters and putting them into envelopes. Well, I sat with the other people and worked, and my father walked around the room, chatting with everyone and having his picture taken. The photographer came over to me and made my parents pose with me like we were all working together. It made me angry. I felt like all I was to them was a prop for his politics, and a servant at home. I wanted to be at home, reading in my room, or at the Winchester's house with Sam and Dean. Sure, I cooked for them sometimes and I technically was working for Mr. Winchester, but they treated me like I was a person and paid attention to me.
Sunday, I curled up in bed with a book, and then in the afternoon my father yelled at me for not doing laundry. Apparently he thought that when I was home on the weekends, I should be working all the time. I bit my lip so that I wouldn't say anything and I wouldn't cry, and I cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen and did laundry the rest of the day.
On Monday morning when I walked into the Winchester's house, Sam looked at me and said, "What's wrong, Kate?"
Mr. Winchester turned from the stove and Dean looked up at me fron where he was sitting at the table.
"Nothing." I said casually. "What do you mean?"
"You look upset." Dean said, frowning a little.
I shook my head and took a deep breath, feeling like I wanted to cry. "I'm just glad to be here is all." I sat down next to Dean and smiled at him.
Sam came over and hugged me, and said, "I'm glad you're here too!" I put my arm around his waist and hugged him back.
Mr. Winchester brought a plate of bacon and a plate of scrambled eggs over to the table.
"You hungry, Kate?" he asked.
"No, I'm fine." I said.
"I have to go, I'm running late." He kissed each of us on top of the head, took a couple pieces of bacon, and left.
"What do you guys want to do today?" I asked.
"Jake said we could go to his friend's house, he has a Wii and we can play it." Dean said.
"Can we, Kate?" Sam asked.
"Um, sure." I said. "Do you know who this friend is?"
"No, Jake told us about it yesterday. We went to the Circle and played basketball with him and Tim." Dean told me.
Jake met us when we were walking to the Circle.
"C'mon, Brett said we could go to his house this week. His parents are out of town and his brother's watching him."
We followed Jake and Jesse caught up with us. We went into the basement and the Sam and Dean were in awe of the place. Tim was there with a couple of the younger neighborhood kids already, and they started showing Dean how to play the Wii. Sam wanted to play foosball, so I played with him, although I wasn't very good at it.
"Hey, Kate." Brett came over to me. "Is this your little brother?"
"I babysit him and his brother." I said.
"My parents are gone this week, so we're having a...get- together tonight. You should come with the guys." He smiled at me and walked away.
Sam glanced at me. "How do you know him?"
"I've, um, been here a couple times, with Jake and Jesse." I said.
"This is really cool!" Sam said. "Can I play the Wii too?"
We stayed there until the late afternoon, when I noticed that Sam was getting tired and cranky.
"Boys, we should go." I said. "Sam, you need to take a break."
"No I don't!" he snapped. "I want to keep playing!"
He and Dean were playing a racing game together on the PlayStation.
"After this game is over we need to go home, and get you some lunch, and you should rest." I put my hand on Sam's shoulder.
He jerked away from me. "I don't need a nap, I'm not a baby!" he said.
"It's cool, Sam, this stuff will be here tomorrow." Jake said.
I sat and watched the boys play until the game finished.
"Let's go." I said.
Sam made a frustrated noise in the throat, but he got up and followed me out of the house.
We walked back to their house and I made lunch for us. Afterwards, the three of us sat down to watch cartoons.
Someone was shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes. Mr. Winchester was leaning down, looking at me. " Are you okay, Kate?" he asked.
I sat up. "Yeah, I didn't mean to fall asleep." I rubbed my eyes and stretched. Sam was on the other end of the sofa, asleep as well.
"All of a sudden, both of you were out!" Dean said, and laughed.
"Sorry, Dean." I said.
He shrugged. " 'S okay." he said. "I read some of my comic books."
Mr. Winchester picked Sam up. "Hey buddy, time to wake up." he said softly. Sam stirred in his arms and opened his eyes. "Hi Dad." he mumbled, putting his head on his Dad's shoulder.
"Why do you smell like smoke, Sam?" Mr. Winchester frowned as he put Sam down.
"Where did you go today?"
"We went to this boy's house, he's a friend of Jake and Jesse!" Sam said, perking up instantly. "He has a Playstation and a Wii, can we get a Playstation, Daddy? Please? I love the racing game!"
Mr. Winchester looked over at me. "Whose house did you go to?"
"Uh, his name is Brett. He lives over past the other side of Forest Avenue, on Woodsdale Road." I said.
Mr. Winchester nodded. "I know the family. That still doesn't explain why Sam smells like cigarettes."
"His brother is there this week watching him, and some of his friends are there too. A couple of them were smoking." I explained.
"Wait, his brother is there watching him? Does that mean his parents aren't there?"
"Um, no, they're not."
"So there are a bunch of college age kids with younger kids, all day and night." Mr. Winchester folded his arms.
"What's wrong, Dad? It's really fun! Everyone is really nice!" Dean said.
"What's wrong is that there are no parents there."
"But his brother is an adult, he can buy beer and everything." I said.
"And how do you know this?" he raised his eyebrow.
"Uh, I heard him talking about it." I felt uneasy. Every time I went over there in the evenings they offered me alcohol and I always refused.
"All right, I don't want you three going back to that house. New rule, you're only allowed to go to someone's house if there are adults there. Is that clear?" He looked at all three of us.
"But Daddy, it's fun there! He has a foosball table too!" Sam said. "Please, can't we go back?"
"No, Samuel." Mr. Winchester said sternly. "Is that clear?" he repeated.
"Yes sir." We all mumbled.
"I'm sorry." I said. "I didn't think there would be anything wrong with us going there."
"Well, I'm glad I found out about it now rather than later."
"I should go." I said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
For the past three nights, I had gone to Brett's house. Every night there were more and more people there, a lot of whom I didn't know. I stayed in the basement with the kids that were my age, and Brett's brother and his friends were upstairs. They played loud music and there was apparently lots of alcohol. Brett and Jesse had snuck upstairs to try and steal some.
Lauren and her sister and I were playing the dancing game on the Wii. Suddenly there was shouting and Brett and Jesse came running downstairs, laughing.
"You better cut it the fuck out! Stop trying to steal our shit!" Brett's brother yelled. "I told you to stay downstairs!" He walked halfway down the stairs and glared at all of us.
"Okay." He said. "All of you need to go home. I'm tired of dealing with you and your snot-nosed friends, Brett. Get out of here." He walked down a couple more steps. "Go on, all of you run home to your mommies!"
"Fuck off, Taylor!" Brett muttered.
"Brett, I'm gonna kick your ass!" Taylor and Brett glared at each other for a long moment, and then Jake said, "Come on, guys, let's go."
Someone turned off the tv and all of us stood up. I followed Jake and Jesse out of the house into the back yard.
"We can go hang out in my yard." Tim said.
"Nancy and me need to go home." Lauren said. We started to walk, a different way than I had gone before. I wasn't sure which street we were on. Jesse stopped us for a moment and pulled something out of his shirt. It was a full bottle of something called Jack Daniels. He opened it and took a long drink of it, then offered it to Jake. He took a swig and passed it around. Lauren held it out to me and I hesitated.
"No thanks." I said. She shrugged and drank, then her sister took it. We started walking again. Jesse and Tim started laughing and singing loudly. We turned a corner and started walking down a hill.
"You all need to be quiet, people are trying to sleep." said a deep voice.
We turned. I realized where we were- right outside of Mr. Winchester's house, and he was standing on the porch.
"Why don't you go to sleep, old man." One of the boys called, and they laughed.
"Go home." He told them.
We started to walk, and then I heard him say, "Kate?"
Everyone turned and looked at me. "Ooooh, Kaaaate's in troooobuuuuul!" They laughed.
I swallowed nervously and turned around.
"Come here." Mr. Winchester called to me.
Slowly, I walked partway up the stairs, butterflies dancing in my stomach. Was he going to be angry with me? I wasn't doing anything wrong.
"See ya!" Jake called, and they continued walking down the street.
Mr. Winchester looked down at me and folded his arms. "What are you doing out so late?"
I stared at my feet. "Uh, walking home from a friend's house."
"Let's go inside." He said, opening the door. I followed him into the kitchen.
He turned to me, putting his hand on the back of a chair. "What are you doing, Kate?"
I felt a flash of defiance. "I told you, I was just hanging out with friends!"
He gave me a look. "Kids like that do more than just 'hang out'. I know the type, I've been there before. Someone like you is liable to get hurt."
I bristled. "Someone like me?" I asked angrily. Suddenly I was tired of always being 'the good girl'.
"You're not like them. I think you're just doing this because you're angry with your parents and you're trying to rebel."
"What?! I-I-" I was shocked into speechlessness. I hadn't even realized that that was what I was doing, and yet he had me all figured out.
"You smell like cigarettes. Were you smoking?"
I stared at my feet. "No."
"I saw one of those boys had a bottle. Were you drinking?"
"No!" I snapped angrily. I had thought about trying some of what they were passing around.
"Underage smoking isn't against the law, but underage drinking is. If you got in trouble with the police, that would bring a whole mess of trouble down on your head and your father's."
"Who cares?" I scoffed. "He doesn't care about me."
"Well, I do, and the boys do. Since I've gotten to know you, I feel like you've become part of the family. And since your parents aren't very involved in your life, I feel like I need to step up and be your parent, because you need one."
I scoffed again, feeling rebellious.
"I don't want to see anything bad happen to you." He looked at me seriously. "'I'm not going to let you go down the wrong path, and I think that's where you're headed. I'm telling you, if I find out you were smoking or drinking, you will have to answer to me."
I crossed my arms and huffed, not meeting his eyes.
"You need to really think about this, young lady." he said sternly. "I don't want to see you out on the street this late again either. What time are your parents due home?"
"If they're not home by now then they're staying at a hotel." I said.
"I'm going to walk you home. If they aren't home, do you want to come back and sleep here?"
"No, I'll be okay." I said.
The house was dark when we walked up to the porch. I got out my key and opened the door.
"Straight to bed." Mr. Winchester said. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Good night." I said, and went into the house.