Dean and Kristen were in the living room together, both sipping on a glass of wine, when Axel made her way back into the house. She wanted to creep back to her room, undetected by either parent, but the second that the front door opened Bubble was bounding through the house towards her, obviously blowing her cover as Dean called her into the living room, she reluctantly obeyed, Bubble at her heels.
"Where were you?" he father asked calmly, but Axel couldn't help but to cop an attitude.
"I had a school thing," she barked, letting her hand lightly scratch the top of Bubble's head, "Figured I might as well enjoy my last night of happiness before you make me leave."
Dean frowned, "Last night of happiness? You really think that this is the last time that you're ever going to be happy? You really don't think that is at all dramatic?"
She rolled her eyes, "I guess we will see. I'm going to my room. I'm tired and I guess I should start packing."
Dean sighed, "We made dinner, and bought an ice cream cake for your birthday. Don't you want to celebrate?"
"No," she stated, "I'm really not in the celebrating mood. Can I go?"
"Wait," Kristen stood up and walked over to Axel, "How'd the competition go?"
"It was fine," she said curtly, "Nothing noteworthy."
"Okay," Kristen nodded, "I started putting your clothes into a suitcase."
"Great. See you guys in the morning," she grunted out, patting her leg so that Bubble would follow her back to her bedroom, locking the door behind her and sending Dudley a text, asking him to come over.
Dean watched his daughter as she walked out of the room, wanting more than anything to follow after her, wanting for the last four years to not have happened… For her to still be the little girl that he'd left here and not the angry and broken young woman that was in her place, the one that Dean had created.
Kristen put a hand on his shoulder and met his eye, "It's going to be okay," she assured him, though she wasn't sure of that herself, "Axel, she's one tough cookie. She'll bounce back in no time, just so long as she's got someone backing her up. As long as she's got you."
"She does," Dean nodded slowly, "She's always got me."
"Good. Because she's going to need you now more than ever, but it's not going to be easy," she paused, "And Dean, I know you're not the biggest fan of dogs, but you've gotta let her take Bubble," he started to object but she held up a hand to silence him, "I want to make this perfectly clear for you, if you make her leave behind everything AND the dog that she loves so damn much she's NEVER going to forgive you," she locked eyes with the aging hunter, "Never."
Dean took a deep breath but nodded his head, Kristen was absolutely right, "I guess it's the least that I can do after… Well, after anything."
Kristen nodded, "You're right. It is the LEAST that you can do," she headed into the kitchen and started putting away the food that was going to go uneaten, "There's pillows and blankets in the hall closet," she said to him, "The couch is pretty comfy."
"You want me to sleep on the couch?" he asked, sounding quite offended.
"What? You got a motel or something."
"No."
"I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Axel's not going to let you sleep in bed with her."
"Well no, but I thought…" he trailed off, no meeting her eyes.
Kristen actually laughed out loud, "You're kidding me, right?" she asked, "You think you can just waltz into town unannounced and take my kid away from me and I'm just gonna invite you into my bed for a quickie before you take off again?" she shook her head, "These days I've got more respect for myself than that, Dean."
"What?" he asked, "You got a boyfriend or something?"
She rolled her eyes, "I waited around for you for years Dean, before you dropped Axel with me, and then after I really thought that you and I would be together… Raise her together, but you broke my heart over and over again, you really did. Gave me all this false hope and left me holding the bag. I'm not going to let you drag me down again, I'm not going to spend my life waiting for you," she took a deep breath, "So you can sleep on the couch or you can go get a motel room. Either way, sleep well," she threw a dish into the sink and stalked off to her own bedroom, shutting and locking the door behind her, just to make sure that he didn't get any ideas.
Axel had her stereo on, not too loud, just loud enough so that she wouldn't hear what was going on outside of her room and the adults wouldn't her what was going on inside of her room as Dudley climbed in the window and joined her in the packing.
"This really sucks," he kept his voice low, just to be on the safe said, "What the hell are Emily and I going to do without you?"
A sad chuckle escaped Axel, "You guys will be fine. You'll find another loser to pull into your inner circle. It's me that's going to have to figure out what I'm going to do with my life and with my time now that I've got no friends," she sighed, "I can't even imagine starting a new school where I don't know anyone."
"Won't you be going back to your old school in Kansas?" he asked, "What about all the people that you knew before?"
She shrugged, "They've probably long forgotten me, and even if they haven't it's been so long since I saw any of them it's not like we're going to have anything in common anyway. Maybe I'll drop out, get my GED or something."
"Hell no," Dudley barked, "You've got 4.4 GPA, you're the smartest person that I know. You only take honors courses, you could have your PICK of colleges. You can't quit school, you just can't."
Axel lay her head on his shoulder, "I wish that I could stay here."
He wrapped his arm around her protectively, "We'll text and call all the time," he promised, "Write letters even… Where do you buy stamps?"
She smiled weakly, "Thanks Milk Dud."
"You can visit too, I bet your mom … Er, Kristen would let you," he paused, "Are we still calling her your mom? I'm sorry, I don't want to be insensitive."
"You're fine," Axel laid back on her bed, "Call her whatever…. She's the only mom that I've ever had."
"Think your dad will tell you who your real mom is?"
"No idea. Not sure that I would even believe him if he did. I mean, he lied to me once already. What's to say that he wouldn't do it again?"
"You got a point, sister."
"How's Emily?" she asked, "Is she okay with everything?"
He shook his head, "Hell no. She was crying her eyes out, she is going to miss the hell out of you. So am I."
"Should we go back over there? All three of us should spend my last night here together."
"She's asleep," he explained, "She passed out. Otherwise I would have brought her with me."
Axel nodded and closed her eyes, grabbing the hand of one of her best friends, "Don't leave, okay?"
"Wouldn't dream of it, Axel."
The two fell asleep side by side. It was nothing that they hadn't done before, Emily usually being there with them, but it wasn't the first time that it had just been the two of them. It was innocent, completely innocent. There was nothing romantic between the two, not now and never before. And there never would be, because there was nothing but platonic feelings between the two. However that didn't stop Dean's mind from running wild the next morning when a barely awake Dudley came walking out of the formerly locked bedroom door and heading into the bathroom. Dean himself had barely woken up, he was sitting on the couch with a piping hot cup of coffee that Kristen had just made him in his hand, which immediately dropped from his hand and burned his bare feet, but he didn't notice that as he was across the room in an instant banging loudly on the bathroom door.
"Who the hell are you?" Dean hollered, his fists pounding loudly against the wood of the door, "Get the hell out here and face me like a man!" luckily, Dudley was smart enough to ignore that request.
"Dean!" Kristen yelled, pushing him away from the door, "What the hell is the matter with you?"
Axel stumbled out of her own room, wiping the sleep from her eyes, but she was mostly awake, "Who the hell are you screaming at?" she demanded.
"Who is that guy who just came out of your bedroom? Did he spend the night?" Dean demanded.
Axel blinked slowly, "Dudley?"
"Is that his name?" Dean demanded then looked to Kristen, "How the hell could you let her have a guy over?"
"Damn Dean, it's just Dudley," Kristen defended herself, "That's her best friend."
"So you let her have little sex sleepovers?"
Kristen scoffed, "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response," she paused, "They're friends."
In Axel's sleep riddled brain a half-baked idea came to mind, "We're not friends," she said with a yawn and a shrug.
Both Kristen and Dean turned to look at her, waiting for her to continue and Dudley's voice came from behind the still locked door, "We're not?"
Axel yawned again, "No, I mean we're not just friend. Milk Dud's my boyfriend. He has been for what… About a year now, right Dud?"
He hesitated before going along with her lie, knowing she must have a pretty good reason, "Yeah, a year next month."
"So yeah, we're sleeping together," she said, looking unashamed at both of her parents, but feeling guilty knowing that Dudley was likely metaphorically shitting his pants on the other side of the door.
"I'll kill him," Dean stated, turning to attack the door some more, but Axel grabbed him by the arm and turned him back around.
"Why?" she demanded angrily, "Why kill him? I love him, it's not like he's thirty years old and forcing me to sleep with him. We're the same age, and like I said we've been together for almost a year."
Dean was at loss for words.
"Besides, you're taking me away from him, forcing me to go back to Kansas, so what's killing him going to accomplish that you're not already going to accomplish by taking me across the continent?"
Still he couldn't think of anything to say. It's a very uncomfortable moment when your teenage child is making more sense than the parent.
"Milk Dud, come on out. Go get Emily, so that we can all say goodbye."
"I'm gonna go out the window," Dudley squeaked out.
"Just come out the door, boy," Dean barked, "I'm not gonna touch you."
There were several moments of silence before the lock clicked and Dudley walked out, quickly grabbing his shoes from Axel's room and getting the hell out of that house. He did not want to be around for anything else, and he had no idea what Axel's endgame was.
"You guys are together?" Kristen asked, looking extremely hurt, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Axel almost admitted to the lie right then and there, she hated the fact that she had hurt this woman. The one that she'd wanted to hurt was Dean, but then a cruel thought entered her mind and she couldn't stop it from rolling off of her tongue, "I don't think that my secret was anywhere near as big as yours," she watched as Kristen face fell even further.
Dean frowned, "Why would you say that to her? She's been nothing but good to you. She loves you."
"Then she shouldn't have lied to me," she met Dean's eye, "And neither should you. But hey, I'll know in the future that you just introduce me to random women and call them my mother, so I'll never know for sure who she is."
"Quit being so dramatic," Dean barked, "Act like a damn adult."
"I will as soon as you do," she bit back angrily, "Sorry for the attitude, must be these pregnancy hormones. I'm having a hard time controlling them."
Dean blinked slowly, "What?" his voice was strained and he turned to Kristen who looked just as shocked as he felt, but Kristen was looking right at Axel now.
"You're pregnant?" her voice broke, she wanted to cry.
"How the hell could you let this happen?" Dean demanded.
Now Kristen looked to him, "How could I let this happen? You're kidding me, right?"
"No I'm not kidding," he shook his head, "You were supposed to be taking care of her, not letting her run around the town and get knocked up. Jesus Christ, it's like Bobby all over again."
Kristen shook her head and looked back to Axel, "Why didn't you tell me, about you and Dudley?"
Axel shrugged, "I don't know," she muttered.
"Well, you're not having a baby," Dean insisted, "This isn't happening," he stated firmly.
"Shut up, Dean. You're not going to try that shit on her the way you did your sister. It's her body and it's her choice," Kristen defended.
Axel's eyes went wide as she looked between the adults, "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing," Dean insisted.
"You dad tried to force his sister to have an abortion when she was your age. She didn't have one, Axel. It's your choice."
"No!" Dean barked, "It's not! She's sixteen! She doesn't get a choice!"
"Yes she does!" Kristen yelled back at him.
Axel knew that this was going to escalate, and for nothing, so she had to put a stop to it, "Shut up!" she screamed at them, "I'm not pregnant. Jesus Christ, I just said that to piss you both off," she stomped back to her room and slammed the door behind him, locking it, and throwing herself down on the bed and burying her face into her pillow.
Dean shook his head, "What the hell did you do to my kid?"
"What did I do?" Kristen's eyes were wide, "I was here for her, every single day of the last four years. If you want to blame someone then you need to look in a damn mirror. It's not me that she's pissed off at."
"You turned her against me," the man insisted, "You must have told her awful things about me, that's why she hates me so much."
"No, Dean," she growled, "The reason she's pissed at you is because you lied to her and let her down over and over again, and here you are pretending like the last four years didn't happen."
"Well, I'm here now and it's obvious to me that you ruined my baby girl."
"Get out," Kristen snarled, pointing to the front door, "Get the hell out of my house."
Dean scoffed, "I'm not going anywhere. Not until Axel's in the car and we're on the way home."
"Get out of my house."
"No."
Then Kristen pushed him against the wall, "I can't make you leave here without her, but I sure the hell can make you wait outside until she's ready to go," she took her hands off of him and pointed back to the door, "Now get the hell out."
Without another word Dean shook his head and walked out of the door.