A/N: I'm back baby! (cue happy dance) Sorry it's been longer than normal. The last week's been out of wack with me being sick and having to study for finals and the resolution of an ongoing family situation, all in about four days. That took the energy right out of me, so I've basically slept for the last two days.

This chapter didn't quite turn out the way I expected it too. It's been six months since Dean's diagnosis, and Kayla pushes the family to have a day out at a festival in town. They run into an old friend of Kayla's, but Sam doesn't react very graciously and has to apologize. Finally, Samantha is on the verge of her second birthday, but isn't very happy about it.

I have the next six weeks off from school. So, with the exception of the holidays, I am planning to keep up a more normal update schedule (one chapter every other day). I do have a definite plan for how this story will end, but it's still a long way away. My guess is that this story will round out to approximately 100 chapters. My longest ever.

Hope everyone's doing well!

Kayla's life had become all about taking care of everyone else. She took care of her husband and kids, but in the last six months had taken on caring for Dean too. She took him back and forth to appointments, made sure he kept up with his meds, brought his meals three times a week, and spent every weekend with him as Todd worked at the hospital for thirty six hour shifts. When Dean tried to protest and tell her that she needed to go home, Kayla's response was swift.

"I'm taking care of you now. Deal with it."

The truth, though Dean would never admit it, was that he was relieved. With John and Bobby gone, it was lonely sometimes around the house by himself. Kayla, Samantha, and even little Jesse were a lot of company for him. Dean wondered if Kayla had talked to Samantha about it, but the almost two-year-old seemed to sense when her uncle wasn't feeling well and would take it easy on him. She'd still beg that he hug her, cuddle her, or read to her from her countless board books, but she'd save her demands for tickles and hugs and slightly more rough playtime for when he wasn't feeling so sick.

At the moment, Kayla was focused on one thing. Samantha's upcoming second birthday party. Dean wondered if she was focusing so hard on the party in order to help distract her from caring for Dean. Dean knew actually caring for him wasn't what bothered her. It was the grim reality of what all this care would ultimately lead to. But focusing on the party meant focusing on decorations, a cake, games, all things that would only lead to happiness and good memories.

The whole family was out that Saturday at a small festival in town. Kayla had insisted on everyone going. Sam had been working overtime at his law firm for the last few weeks. Jess had been busy with helping Kayla get ready for the party. Mary, a junior about to become a senior in high school, had been sweating final exams for weeks. Dean was recovering from the end of his first round of chemo, and so had been viciously sick and throwing up for days. Though the fresh air felt good, he was still weak and felt grateful when Kayla didn't say a word, just grabbed his arm, squeezed it and smiled.

I've got you, Dean could see her saying.

"Mommy! Mommy! Wook!"

Samantha was holding her Nana's hand tightly, as instructed, but now was jumping up and down and pointing at a group of kids on the other side of the sidewalk. There was a magician giving a show to the kids.

"You want to go?" Kayla asked.

"Papa go." Samantha said.

Kayla chuckled. "You don't want Mommy to go with you?"

"Papa go wif Sammie." Samantha insisted.

Sam chuckled and picked up Samantha. "Come on, sweetie. I'll go with you."

"Yay!"

"Can Mommy have a kiss first?"

"Sammie bow kiss."

"Deal."

Samantha placed the palm of her hand to her lip and kissed it, then blew the kiss back towards her mother. Sam walked over towards the magician, and Kayla walked down the street with Jess, Dean, and Mary, who was holding six-month-old baby Jesse. They walked a little ways, enjoying the various vendors, until five minutes later when Kayla spotted Sam walking back towards them, holding a sobbing Samantha. He was rubbing her back and saying something to her as he walked back towards the family.

"What happened?" Kayla asked.

"No cown!" a distraught Samantha sobbed to her mother.

"What?"

"No cown, Mommy! No cown!"

"No clown." Sam explained. "The magician had a clown buddy that he pulled out in the middle of his show. He came up behind the kids and tapped Sammie on the shoulder. Scared her and she started screaming."

"Oh, honey. You want Mommy?"

"No cown, Papa." Samantha said again, arms squeezing around Sam's neck.

"No clown, baby girl. He's gone." Sam assured her. "You want to go to the bouncy house?"

"No. 'tay wif Papa."

"Why don't we all get an early lunch?" Kayla suggested. "Hopefully by the time we've eaten she'll feel better."

"That sounds like an idea."

Kayla had everyone sit down. She'd packed them all picnic lunches to avoid having to overspend on the festival food. Luckily, she noted, the two kids were too young to notice the difference. Mary fed Jesse from a bottle that Kayla had packed, and Samantha sat in Sam's lap as she chowed down on a ham sandwich with 'mussard and cheese' Mommy. Kayla was the first to finish when she noticed Jess staring at her.

"What?"

"It's nothing" Jess said.

"You're staring at me."

"It just amazes me sometimes." Jess said. "You were so worried you wouldn't be a good mom. Now you're not just one to your kids, but the rest of us too."

Kayla blushed. "What do you mean?"

"Look. You made lunch for all of us. You planned this all by yourself. I'm really proud of you."

"I'll second that." Sam agreed.

"Ditto." Mary said.

"Here here." Dean said.

"Guys, you're embarrassing me." Kayla said, though she leaned over and kissed her mom's cheek. "Thanks though."

"No mommy!" Samantha stood up and toddled over between her mother and grandmother. She planted herself between them and snuggled up to Jess, then held a hand out to Kayla. "My Nana."

Kayla laughed. "Your nana?"

"My nana."

"She was my mommy first before she was your nana."

"My nana." Samantha said, grabbing Jess's arm to pull around her waist.

"Kayla?"

Kayla turned around, and a woman was standing there, holding a purse and staring at her. The woman looked familiar to Kayla, though it took a minute to place her at first.

"Tayler?"

"Yeah."

"Wow." Kayla stood up and hugged Tayler. "How are you?"

"I'm good, how about you?"

"I'm great. You remember my mom and dad?"

"Sure I do. Hi."

Kayla was so excited seeing her old friend that she failed to notice the scowl on her father's face. They chatted and caught up for a while, but all Sam could think about was the last time they'd seen Tayler.

"You all need to stay away from my daughter."

"Mr. Winchester…" Tayler tried.

"No. It's over. I don't ever want to see you again. Understand?"

"I understand."

"Sure. Hang on one second."

Kayla turned to her family. Samantha was still happily chomping away on her sandwich, though she'd moved to Dean's lap to do it. She was trying to give him small pieces of it, but Dean had zero appetite. Mary had finished feeding Jesse and was trying to burp him to sleep. She and Jess both noticed Sam tense up, though Kayla hadn't seen it yet.

"You guys mind watching the kids for a few minutes?"

"Sure…" Mary started to say.

"Yes. We do." Sam said.

"What?" Kayla asked, taken aback by how rude her father was being out of nowhere.

"Yes, we do mind watching them." Sam said. "Tayler it was good to see you again."

"Tayler, give me a second. I'll be right there."

"Sure." Tayler said, walking over to join a man and two other children.

As soon as Tayler was out of earshot, Kayla rounded on her father. "What was that?"

"What was that? I could've asked you the same question."

"She's a friend. You could've been nicer to her."

"She's not supposed to be a friend." Sam was almost growling. "I told you not to see her anymore."

Kayla's eyes bulged. "You can't be serious. That was over ten years ago."

"I don't care. You were thirteen, and she was giving you booze and drugs…"

"First off, she didn't give me anything. She tried to talk me out of doing those things. But when she couldn't, she kept an eye on me and made sure I didn't overdo it. She's the only friend I had for a long time."

"Some friend." Sam muttered.

"You know what? You want to drag up the past? Fine. If it's such a problem for you to watch your grandchildren for five minutes while I go talk to my friend, then don't do it. Mom? Mary? Dean? Are you okay with it? I'll be right back."

Kayla didn't wait for anyone to answer, just walked away with one last withering glare at Sam. There was an awkward silence for close to two full minutes which felt like two hours to everyone else. Sam realized almost right away, without anyone saying anything, that he'd been ridiculous. It had been way over ten years since Sam had banned Kayla from being friends with Tayler, and, most importantly, Kayla was an adult now. Her friends, no matter how good or bad Sam thought them to be, were Kayla's decision now. As Mary was laying a sleeping Jesse down on the blanket, and Samantha was picking up the bottle of water Jess had been drinking and attempting to drink it herself. Before anyone could say anything to him, Sam got up and walked over to where Kayla and Tayler were talking. Tayler, who had just been saying something to Kayla, was the first to spot Sam and stop talking. Kayla, noticing that her friend had gone silent, looked over and spotted her father, looking rather sheepish and sort of embarrassed.

"Can I talk to you both?"

"I don't know if it's a good idea…" a still angry and frustrated Kayla started to say.

"Kay? It's okay." Tayler said.

"Thank you, Tayler. I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I was really rude to you over there and that was inexcusable."

"Yes. It was." Kayla agreed.

"Kay." Tayler said simply. "Mr. Winchester, it's okay. I can't really say I blame you. The last time we saw each other wasn't the best of memories. For either of us."

"Thank you." Sam said. "But Kayla said, and she was right, that it's been a decade. None of us are the same person we were back then."

"I'm glad you think that way." Tayler said. "I was just telling Kayla that I've moved here. We were talking about setting our kids up for playdates. Here, meet my husband."

Sam was impressed with the change in Tayler. She was an accountant, a bookkeeper for a few of the major businesses in town. Sam was surprised to find that Tayler had been living less than ten miles away from the family for almost five years, yet had never run into any of them. Tayler met up with Jess, Dean, and Mary, and the day turned into the nice family get together that Kayla had pictured.

Later that night, after Kayla and Todd thought they had put both kids to bed, Samantha couldn't sleep. She knew what the next day would bring, and couldn't understand why everyone else was so excited about it.

She was turning two. Turning two meant one thing to babies. Samantha would no longer know things that adults didn't know she knew. She wouldn't remember her grandma or her other brother or maybe even her little brother. It wasn't fair. She didn't want to turn into a big girl. Samantha thought about crying, but she didn't want her mommy and daddy to come into the room. They just wouldn't understand why she was so sad.

Then she got an idea. Samantha had known for months how to climb out of her crib. There were nights that she crawled out of it and was out for hours and no one ever knew. She would head over to her brother's room and play with him, then walk back to her own room when Bubble decided that Samantha staying too long would make Mommy and Daddy suspicious.

"I have to wake them up at least every couple of hours or Mommy comes in and thinks I might be dead or something."

Samantha climbed out of her crib and opened her door, then headed silently down the hall to Jesse's room. She found her brother sound asleep, laying in his crib sucking his thumb and holding on to a little stuffed elephant he'd gotten when he was born. Samantha very carefully climbed the bars of Jesse's crib and got in beside him, the motion enough to wake her sleeping brother. While what they said to each other might have sounded like unintelligible baby talk, to them it was perfectly clear.

"Why'd you wake me up?" Jesse grumbled.

"I couldn't sleep." Samantha explained. "'m scared."

"About what? About turning two tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna forget everybody." Samantha said.

"No you won't. I won't let you forget me."

"I didn't mean you. I meant everybody from before. Grandma Leslie and Grandpa and uncle Bobby and Grandma Mary and all the other kids. Why can't I keep them?"

"I don't know." Jesse said. He was almost as frustrated as Samantha was. He wanted to give her a hug, but his little arms were just too short. "Maybe if you can't remember, you won't miss them so much."

Instead of making Samantha feel better, Jesse's words had the exact opposite effect. She started crying. "What if Grandma thinks I don't love her anymore?"

"She won't. She knows you do." Jesse said.

"And we'll stop being best friends."

"I won't let that happen." Jesse promised.

"You swear?"

"Swear." Jesse said. "You wanna sleep in here with me?"

"I don't need to go back to my room?"

"Nah. Mommy'll think it's really cute." Jesse said. "The worst she'll do is take a bunch of pictures and send them to Nanny and Mamie and Grammy."

"You think it'll be fun tomorrow?"

"I think so. Mommy said there'll be games and cake and music and a lot of fun stuff."

"I hope there's no clown like at the festival today. He was scary."

"I don't think Papa will let there be a clown." Jesse said.

"Good." Samantha yawned and laid down. "Can I hug you while we sleep?"

"Sure." Jess said.

Samantha pulled her arm around Jesse's middle. "Night night, Bubble. I love you."

"Night night, Sissy. Don't have no bad dreams." Jesse said with a yawn of his own. "Don't worry. Everything be okay tomorrow. Love you too."