Thanks again for reading and to those of you who review. Sorry for the delay on the last two chapters and that this one is a little short.


I jumped to my feet and flung myself at Dean. "No! No! Please, Dean!" I begged. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

He hugged me, but he didn't relent. "We can't trust you when we're not around. If we can't trust you, you can't stay."

"I'll do better, please!" I begged him.

"No," Dean said, his voice hard. "You've said that before and you behave yourself for two weeks or a month, but we keep ending up back here. The deal was that for you to come with us, you had to behave and obey us, and you don't do that. We can't trust you. You're going to Bobby's."

Still clutching Dean, I looked at Sam, but he just shook his head. "We called him. We'll put you on a bus tomorrow, and he'll pick you up."

Despair swallowed me. "You're not even taking me? You're just sending me there on a bus?" I started crying, unable to stop the tears. I could barely breathe. No, no, anything but this. "Please, don't send me away," I whimpered and started coughing.

Dean sat down on the bed and pulled me into his lap. "It's not forever, sweetheart. It's for a week. Long enough for you to think about what it means that we need to trust you."

I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his shirt, sobbing. "Please, Dean. Please, just spank me. Don't send me to Bobby's. I don't want to lose you both!"

He looked down at me. "Jessie, look at me. Come on, look at me." I unburied my head and he put his hand under my chin so that I was looking up at him again. "We don't want to lose you either, and that's exactly what's going to happen if we can't trust you to obey us when we're not here. You're going to do something you haven't thought through and we're going to come back and find you seriously hurt or dead. I can't handle that."

Sam sat down next to Dean on the bed and I looked at him. "I can't handle it either. We're sending you away so you can think about what you keep doing here and think about how you're going to change that behavior. The stuff you've pulled in the last 48 hours alone astounds me. You need to reevaluate your priorities, young lady. Once you've proven that you've done that, you can come back."

I sniffed and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. "How am I going to prove it?" I whispered.

"You're going with a list of essays you're going to write for us. Bobby will email them to me when you're done with them."

"What if I haven't proven it when the week is up?" I asked, looking at him from under my bangs, tears in my eyes.

"The minimum time you'll be there is a week," Sam said. "The maximum time is up to you. You don't finish the essays to our satisfaction, you don't come home."

I started crying again. Dean shifted me until my head was against his shoulder. "We want you here, Jessie. We both want you with us, but we want you safe more. You need to understand that the two are dependent on each other. If you're going to deliberately endanger yourself when you're with us, then you can't be with us. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I whispered, and I did. It hurt terribly, but I understood that if they couldn't trust me, then I couldn't stay with them. "Please don't make me take a bus, though, Dean. His house isn't that far away. Please just take me there."

Dean and Sam both shook their heads. Dean said, "No, we have things we need to finish up here and we can't keep you here until we're done for the same reason we're sending you to begin with."

"Jessie," Sam said. "You understand that we love you and want you here with us and that's why we're doing this, right?"

"Yes," I said, but I couldn't meet his eyes.

"You understand that if you get hurt while we're gone because you disobeyed us then that hurts us, right?" Sam said. "It hurts us because we love you and we want what's best for you."

"Yes," I said, guilt stringing its way through my midsection.

"Do you understand that if you get hurt and someone who is not us finds out that they can take you away from us?" Sam asked. "They can call social services and take you away."

Panic shot through me. "You wouldn't let that happen," I said. "You wouldn't!"

"No, but do you understand how much trouble that would land us in, if we had to snatch you back from a foster family or from social services? We'd have warrants out on our heads."

"Oh my god," I whispered, the guilt and shame and worry spiking. I started crying again. "I'm so sorry, Sam," I said. "I'm sorry."

Sam nodded and leaned over to kiss me on the head. "This is what I mean about thinking about things and asking before you do things. I want you to keep that in mind while you're writing the essays."

"Ok," I said. I felt so ashamed of myself that I didn't know what to do. I wanted to hide away from everyone, but I knew that wouldn't help either. I leaned into Dean and fought my tears. "Can I go back to bed now?" I asked.

Dean shifted and said, "You've still got a spanking coming for stealing."

"What?" I sat up straight, panic shooting through me. "I thought you were sending me to Bobby for all the stuff I did."

"We're sending you to Bobby's so you can get some perspective and realize we need to be able to trust you," Dean said. "That's got nothing to do with you stealing. You know better than to steal from family. You know better than to steal from strangers without a damned good reason, and you did both of those things today," Dean said. Sam got up while Dean flipped me over his lap and pulled my shirt up in one fluid movement. "Didn't you?" he said.

"Yes, but isn't exile enough?" I wailed, but his hand came down on my pantied bottom. He spanked and spanked, and I just cried. He didn't stop except to ask Sam to get him the hairbrush, and then he peppered my butt cheeks with that fucker from top to bottom until I was sobbing and very, very sorry.

"Do not steal without a good reason," he scolded after tossing the hairbrush onto the bedside table. Then he pulled me to a sitting position and wrapped his arms around me.

"Yes, Dean," I said. He held me for a long time, stroking my back and hair until I stopped crying.

He set me on my feet and got up. "Are you hungry?" he asked me. I shook my head, so he pulled the covers back. "Get in bed," he said. I obeyed and he tucked me in. Sam came over and kissed me goodnight too. I closed my eyes and eventually fell asleep.

The next morning, I felt like an automaton. It was after noon when we woke up. Sam had gotten bagels and Dean made me eat them, and then they made me get ready to leave. I packed my stuff in silence, feeling empty inside. Once I was done packing, I basically glommed onto Dean until he was ready to go. We walked to the Impala, Dean carrying my duffel and Sam carrying my schoolbag. They put them in the trunk and then we all got inside. I kept hoping against hope that they would take it back; all the way to the bus station I hoped that. When I saw the Greyhound sign, though, I knew it was too late.

"Please, Dean, Sam, please? Please don't send me away," I tried again as we parked.

"Jessie," Dean said, his voice hoarse and his face pained. Sam looked at me and he had tears in his eyes too. "It's for your own good, sweetheart," Dean said. they led me inside and I stayed with Sam while he bought my ticket, wrapping my arms around his waist.

Sam looked down at me and then kissed the top of my head. "We love you, honey," he said. "This is not what we want any more than it is what you want, but you have got to learn to obey. Write the essays and you can come home," he said.

Dean came back and handed me my ticket. The bus was already boarding. No long goodbyes for me. "It's only an hour and a half ride," he told me as they led me to the door. "You'll be fine. Call us when you get there, and call us anytime you need anything. We'll miss you, sweetheart."

"I'll miss you, too, Dean." I wiped my eyes and hugged him tight. He kissed me and then I hugged and kissed Sam. "I love you," I said to both of them. Then I walked out the door carrying my duffel and backpack and got on the bus. It wasn't very busy and I got my own seat, right behind the bus driver. We sat parked for another ten minutes before we pulled away from the building and I was on my way to Bobby's.

I stared out the window the entire way and thought about what Sam and Dean had said. I already knew they were right, but I had known they were right before I even did it, and yet I'd still acted impulsively and done it. I deserved to get sent away. I promised myself that I would work hard on the essays so that I could get back home as soon as I possibly could.