Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters, I do however own/co-own Milly and Lacey

Comforting the Auburn Girls

Sam groaned a little as he got out of bed, pounding being heard on the front door. He trudged down the stairs, and opened it up as John came to the top of the stairs, Dean putting his pillow over his head to drown out the sounds. Lacey looked up at him, rain dripping down her sad face, and Sam ushered her in. She hugged him and John hurried down the stairs to make some hot chocolate in the kitchen, Sam stroking her hair.

"What's wrong, Lace?" Sam asked her.

"I don't wanna go home." She replied.

Sam nodded and kissed the top of her head. "What happened?"

"Mom and Dad are fighting, Milly's being ridiculous, and I had nowhere else to go." Lacey told him, hugging him tightly as she buried her face in his chest.

Sam ran his hands along her back and kissed her head again, Dean trudging his way to the top of the stairs. He was going to make a smart-ass remark, but Lacey had started crying again, so he kept his mouth shut as Sam tried to comfort her.

"Would you like marshmallows in your hot chocolate?" John asked Lacey, poking his head out of the kitchen. "I can get you marshmallows."

"Thank you, Uncle John." Lacey told him. "Can I sleep over here tonight?"

"Of course you can." John replied, grabbing his coat and his keys. "I'll be back with marshmallows soon, I promise."

Lacey nodded and followed Sam up the stairs, Dean taking a breath.

"So...where is Milly?" Dean asked.

Lacey shrugged. "She took off to think. We're all pretty upset and can't be near each other right now."

"What was the fight about?" Dean asked her.

"Dean--stop asking her questions right now." Sam told him, smacking his arm. "Let her sit down and process."

Dean sighed loudly and went into his room, Sam helping Lacey into the room she normally spent her time in when she stayed at the Winchesters', and she laid on the bed, Sam climbing onto the bed with her. It was the middle of the night, and he knew he shouldn't badger her, so he just draped his arm over her and laid there. Lacey snuggled into him and thought about all of it, trying to figure out where exactly it all went wrong.

****

"Bobby, you're overreacting!" Lauren yelled.

Bobby scoffed. "I'm overreacting? You're the one that started yelling in the first place!"

Lacey sighed as Milly came in and sat on her bed. "This is the third time this week that they've yelled."

Milly nodded and flopped down on Lacey's bed on her back. "And all in a row too."

"They're arguing about you again you know." Lacey pointed out.

Milly shrugged. "Mom keeps bringing you up too."

"All I did was tell Milly to do what she wanted." Lauren said with a sigh. "You can't force her to go to college, Bobby."

"Maybe if you had a firmer hand with her she'd actually want to go!" Bobby thundered. "Lacey's going!"

Lauren groaned. "Lacey and Milly are two different people! They have different hopes, different dreams, different wants and needs--stop trying to make them do the same things! And stop trying to make them do what you want them to do! You can't control their lives forever!"

"Do you hear yourself?" Bobby asked.

"He can't make me go to college." Milly whispered.

Lacey sighed. "You could try to make it easier on him, you know? You've turned this not going to college thing to defy your father into a joke."

Milly sat up a little. "Well...do you really see me in college, Lace?"

"I think you could do it if you put your mind to it." Lacey replied.

Milly sighed. "I want to hunt--forgive me for wanting to do something with my life."

"College is doing something with your life too, you know. There's more to life than hunting--there's family and normalcy." Lacey told her. "I can't hunt forever, Mill--I need to have a family to count on someday."

"I support you going to college, I do--I just don't see why everyone's on my case when our parents hunt too." Milly said.

Lacey smiled. "It is kind of hypocritical, huh?"

Milly shrugged. "I'm not sorry for turning it into joke."

Lacey sighed. "Well you should be--he's only trying to protect you."

"You're letting Milly be too wild!" Bobby said.

Lauren scoffed. "I don't remember Milly losing her virginity first, Robert!"

****

Lauren flipped through the movies trying to figure out what to watch. Bobby had taken off in a huff, and she was hormonal, alone in the house, and incredibly upset. She had an open gallon of ice cream with her on the coffee table, a spoon sticking out of it, and she turned on the TV when the doorbell rang. She got up and answered it, smiling sadly.

"Come on in, John." She said, opening the door wider and heading back to the couch.

She sat down dismally and shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, starting up Titanic. John sat down next to her slowly, and looked at the television as the beginning scene started.

"So...you're wallowing then?" John asked. "Where's Milly?"

Lauren shrugged. "She took off before Lacey did."

John nodded. "And you haven't...I don't know...called her?"

"Her phone is off." Lauren replied, eating more ice cream.

"You worried at all, Lauren?" John asked.

Lauren looked at him. "Look, John--Milly can take care of herself, and if she's in trouble she will call. Now shut-up--the movie is on."

John held his hands up in surrender as the pregnant woman sent a glare in his direction and then he laughed a little. He reached up to touch his throbbing arm when Lauren hit him hard, and then he nodded slowly.

"You're having a girl." John said with a laugh.

Lauren looked at him. "Why would you say that?"

John shrugged. "Oh...you acted this way with the other two...and that's chocolate brownie chunk ice cream."

Lauren looked at the ice cream. "Shit...Bobby's not going to be too happy about that."

"Where's Bobby, Lauren?" John asked her.

Lauren burst into tears and buried her face in John's chest, making him make a face. He wasn't really into the whole...women crying into him thing, so he awkwardly patted her shoulder and then tried to move, but she glared at him and pinched his stomach when he tried to get up.

"Yeah...I'll just uh...sit...and watch this ridiculous movie." John told her.

Lauren leaned against him and looked at the TV screen. "I'm really only in it to watch the bastard drown."

****

Bobby looked at Lauren, a little stunned. "What a thing to throw in my face."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "All you do with Milly is complain about her not going to college--your youngest did the one thing that you didn't want either of them to do first and you just wrote it off!"

"I did not just write it off!" Bobby spat back. "I was disappointed! She's our youngest baby girl, and Sam off and ruined all of it! And you encouraged all of it!"

"Bobby, do you even remember what happened when we met?" Lauren asked. "Do you remember anything about me when we met? My parents were some of the strictest people and who popped a kid out of her at 18? It sure as Hell wasn't you."

"You'd think that being a teenage mother you'd be even more adamant about stopping your daughters from having sex! Your daughters!" Bobby stressed. "What happens when one of them has a kid? And Milly's the same age now that you were when you had her!"

Lauren ran her hands down her face. "If you've noticed anything about your daughters, you'd realize that they've got my spirit. Tell them not to do something over and over again, and it's only a matter of time before they rebel--it's been happening since they were little! Lacey touched everything! She'd go off and push things off of tables when we weren't looking and were still telling her not to touch--and Milly used to run into corners and take all her clothes off when you used your stern voice. Then you'd chase her all over the house trying to get her to put them back on!"

Milly laughed. "I forgot I used to do that--I don't think it would be as appropriate now...but just as fun."

Lacey rolled her eyes. "I dunno if this is the time to joke, Mill."

"It's about as good a time as any, Lace--they're fighting about us, you know? And way to go Mom for pulling out the V-card argument." Milly said with a laugh. "Dad couldn't fight his way out of that one."

"She didn't have right to bring that up." Lacey said angrily. "This fight isn't actually about us--it's about them and they're parenting conflictions."

Milly shrugged. "What do you care? It's not like Dad ever blames for anything--he's just going to defend you until Mom gives in."

"Like our mother ever gives in to anything." Lacey replied.

"Are you seriously picking sides?" Milly asked curiously.

"You certainly are!" Lacey said. "Are you still that mad at me for something as stupid as losing my virginity first even though I'm younger than you?"

Milly looked at her. "It's not just that...I'm upset that every night this week you've thought Mom was in the wrong! She's been the most supportive of your budding romance with the geeky Winchester."

****

Dean opened the door slowly as Lacey turned to face Sam, and Sam held her a little tighter. She'd told him a little bit about what was going on, but hadn't quite explained yet how out of control everything had gotten. She hadn't told him where Bobby had taken off to, or what her mother was doing, or about the entire fight with Milly. She was just happy that he was there for her.

"Did Milly tell you where she was going?" Dean asked Lacey softly. "Her phone is off, and I'm a little worried."

"Where do you think she went?" Lacey asked him. "She said she needed to go be alone."

"It's raining though." Dean protested.

Lacey sat up and looked at him. "Dean...has rain ever stopped my crazy sister before?"

Dean sighed and left the room, aware that Lacey wasn't quite sure where her sister was, and though she cared, she didn't want to talk about it right then. Dean grabbed his jacket and headed to the park, Milly sitting on a swing. Dean sat on the swing next to her and dug his toes into the mud.

"It's wet out here." He told her.

She shrugged. "I know."

Dean nodded. "Wanna tell me what the fight was about?"

"No." Milly replied.

"Okay." Dean said.

Milly sat there for a moment peacefully and then she sniffled a little and scrunched up her face.

"Please don't start crying." Dean told her.

"I can't help it." Milly said, the tears coming again. "I was a bitch to my sister, and I yelled at my Dad, and I think I ruined it all."

Dean nodded slowly. "Um...what happened?"

"Dad took off to go find a hunt away from Mom because they can't stand each other right now. I've been egging him on about college, and I'm still pissed at Lacey for stupid stuff." Milly said. "I'm cold, I'm wet, and I'm in a bad mood."

"That's probably because you're cold and wet." Dean told her with a smirk.

Milly looked at him. "You're not amusing right now."

Dean scoffed. "Yes I am--you're just too miserable from being cold and wet to appreciate my adorableness."

"You going to invite me to your house or not?" Milly asked him after a moment. "It's...not as fun out here as it was when it was just sprinkling."

"Lacey's at the house with Sammy." Dean told her. "We can go over there if you want to though--Dad made hot chocolate and then went to check on your mother."

Milly smiled a little. "Mom's prolly egging on Leo's death in Titanic right about now."

"Dean laughed. "Seriously?"

Milly nodded. "That or she's moved onto cursing Camelot."

"I thought you guys loved Camelot." Dean told her.

"We do." Milly replied. "We do...but it's one of those movies that you can watch where you can say the man deserved it, and then feel bad about it later and try to apologize--I did it when I was mad at you. You're my Arthur--but I won't ever cheat on you with Lance."

Milly laughed and Dean raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Dean asked her.

Milly laughed some more. "Nothing...nothing...just that Lance is short for 'Lancelot'."

Dean gave her a look. "I feel secure in our relationship even more now."

Milly stood up. "Take me home and make me feel better."

Dean wiggled his eyebrows. "It would be my pleasure."

****

Lacey was even more upset than she'd been before, and hurried out of the room into the living room to confront her parents. Milly followed her sister downstairs, and Lauren and Bobby looked up when they heard Milly.

"I don't think it's fair for you to side with the man who always blames your boyfriend!" Milly told her angrily.

"Well maybe if he hadn't gone and been all persuasive, none of this would have happened!" Bobby replied.

"Dad, it was just as much my doing as it was, Sammy's!" Lacey yelled. "Why did you have to go and pick a fight with Mom? She's pregnant for crying out loud!"

Lauren nodded. "Thank you!"

"Don't thank me! Dad backs you into a corner and the only thing you can think to come up with is about me and Sam? Why'd you have to open all of that up again?" Lacey asked, on the brink of tears.

"Maybe because it's one of those things that Dad never blames you for!" Milly yelled. "And yet, he blames me for all sorts of stupid stuff."

"Not going to college is your fault, Milly! Not anyone else's! He blames Dean--you know he does!" Lacey shot back.

Lauren held her hands up. "All right, can we please all just calm down a little. This fight isn't entirely about either of you. You are old enough to make your own choices--I trust you enough to make your own choices. Just...let your father and I have it out."

Bobby made a frustrated noise. "Old enough to make their own choices? Old enough to make their own choices? Lauren! Those two girls right there are our daughters! We're supposed to be protecting them and making sure that they get what is best for them out of life! That is an education, and the ability to know how to protect themselves from demons."

"Why do you think I'm going to go hunting after graduation, Dad?" Milly asked him. "That's going to give me a lot more hands on experience--I think I'm educationed-out."

"Milly...not now." Lauren told her, sending her a look. "Stop torturing your father with that--you don't have to go to college."

"What kind of mother tells her daughter that she can go put herself in life or death situations instead of going to college to make something of herself?" Bobby asked Lauren, looking quite livid.

Lacey growled. "Why do you both have to keep provoking each other!"

"You can leave." Lauren told Bobby. "You don't have to stick around if my parenting isn't what you want it to be."

Bobby nodded and grabbed his coat angrily. "If you need me, I'll be hunting."

"You're a hypocrite!" Milly yelled after him.

"And you're making it all worse!" Lacey yelled back.

Milly nodded and then hurried down the stairs and grabbed her coat too. She headed out of the door and Lauren crossed her arms over her chest, looking down at her shoes. Lacey swallowed a moment, and then she went down to grab her jacket too, heading over to see Sam. Lauren ran her fingers through her hair and then went upstairs, grabbing out a selection of movies to wallow over.

****

"There is so much tension in that house right now." Lacey said quietly, looking up at the ceiling.

Sam nodded and rested his head against hers. "Sounds like it."

"I just...I wish that Mom and Dad didn't egg each other on all the time--they're both too stubborn to just suck it up and back down." Lacey explained. "And Milly--she almost likes to watch it all happen."

"I think Milly just has to make her own independence known to your father. She's at the point in her life where she has to defy, and she's on the brink of being able to do anything she wants. After High School...she doesn't have to listen to Bobby anymore." Sam tried.

Lacey nodded. "I know that, Sammy--but it doesn't mean she has to go and make everything worse. That and...I thought she was over the whole me having sex first thing. I didn't realize that age had anything to do with it--it's not my fault Dean doesn't have any feelings."

Sam chuckled. "You're right...it's not your fault my brother has the emotional range of tissue paper."

Lacey smiled and held his hand, looking him in the eye. "Thank you...for just kind of laying here with me."

Sam kissed her softly. "You're welcome. You wanna try and call Milly?"

Lacey sighed a little. "Sure...I'll be right back."

She kissed Sam again, only this time longer, stroking his cheek before she pulled away and then grabbed her cell phone and went into the bathroom to call her sister. While she was doing that, Lauren growled at the television, and John sighed. Then suddenly, Lauren burst into tears and Milly and Dean headed upstairs to her room without John and Lauren catching on.

"What is wrong with her?" Lauren cried. "She just let the best thing in her life get away!"

John stroked Lauren's hair as she cried on him again. "Shhh...stop crying, Lauren."

Lauren started crying even more. "I've ruined it! I've ruined my relationship with him! He's right--I'm a terrible mother!"

John was a little surprised. "He actually said that to you? You keep your children safe."

"I may keep them safe, but he's right--I'm too lax in raising them." Lauren told him. "I shouldn't be letting them do whatever they want to. I trust them, but there are certain boundaries when you're a parent. There are things you have to do to show them who's boss...but I don't want to force them to do what they don't want to do. They're young and in love, and Milly wants to hunt, and Lacey wants to go to college--why can't they do that? Why can't I make this better between me and Bobby?"

"Where is Bobby, Lauren?" John asked her.

Lauren shrugged. "Out hunting--I don't blame him. I told him to leave if he didn't want to be here...he doesn't want to be here."

John stood up. "I'm going to go find him and bring him home--he doesn't really want to be gone from you guys...he's just upset."

Lauren blew her nose. "I'm going to go take a nap, John--thanks for sitting though movie with me."

"You're welcome, Lauren--I'll be back." John told her, and went out the door.

Lauren cleaned up a little and then she went up to her room, Milly snuggling up against Dean and sighing.

"I don't feel any better." Milly said.

Dean nodded. "I know."

"I wanna talk to Lacey." Milly told him. "I feel like a bitch for how I was acting."

"You kind of were one." Dean replied. "Sorry."

Milly laughed a little. "You suck at comforting people...but at least you tried."

Dean kissed her forehead. "Glad I could help."

Milly looked over at the nightstand as her cell phone rang and she smiled a little--it was Lacey. She looked at Dean, motioning her head to the door for him to leave, and he sighed.

"Oh so now you're kicking me out?" He asked.

Milly nodded. "Grab your clothes and go--I have to talk to my sister alone."

Dean kissed her softly. "Call me later, Mill."

Milly smiled and kissed him one more time. "I will--go."

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