Kayla was pissed.

Dean had been dead for two weeks, and like always, Kayla had been more focused on taking care of everyone else than herself. Sam had shut down, only coming out of his house to help spread Dean's ashes. Kayla had come by every day, trying to convince him to come out and spend time with her and the kids, but Sam refused. Every time Kayla came to see Sam, he was either in bed or sitting at the kitchen table, drinking.

It was the drinking that, until today, had bothered Kayla the most. Sam had the occasional beer, usually with Dean or, when she was younger, with John. Kayla could not ever recall seeing her father drunk, and definitely not to the point of stumbling over, as he had been twice in the last five days. Both times, Kayla had helped Sam lay down and get to bed, then spent the night.

Things had continued that way for days. Kayla received a call from Sam's boss, Mr. Drew, asking her to come into the office. Apparently, Sam had not called him to tell him Dean had died, so his boss just thought Sam had disappeared. When Kayla explained the situation, Sam's boss, a gruff but kind man that reminded Kayla a lot of her uncle Bobby, immediately gave Sam an extended leave of absence. The kind gesture, however, was underlined with a warning.

"If you can, I'd like you to try and get your father to consider retiring."

"Retiring? Is something else going on I should know about?"

"Well, sort of. See, at first I chalked it up to your father being upset about your mom and sister."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your dad's missed more days of work than he's been here." Mr. Drew explained. "He's passed on all his cases to other lawyers. He comes in and consults sometimes, but I really don't have the finances to keep him on just in that role."

"But…he's been leaving the house almost every day. If he's not coming here, where's he going?"

"I really don't know what to tell you." Mr. Drew said. "But it's not been here."

"Okay. Thank you, Mr. Drew. For everything."

When Kayla left the office, she had been at a loss as to what to do. Todd was working an extra shift at the emergency room, trying to make up missing so much work after Dean's death. Kayla thought about calling him, asking him what she thought he should do, when she noticed that he'd texted her while she'd been in the office.

It's pretty slow. I'm taking a nap before going back out tonight. I'll call you when I get up. Love you xoxo

Kayla sighed. Sleep was a precious commodity for Todd, so she decided not to bother him. She checked the clock and decided to call Tara, who at that point in the day should have been giving Jesse and Samantha their after school snack. Before she could dial the number, however, another number began to call Kayla. It was familiar, but wasn't one Kayla had stored in her contacts. Normally, she didn't answer numbers like that, simply allowing them to go to voicemail. But something told her to answer it this time.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Kayla, darling?"

The voice was one Kayla knew, but it took a moment for her to place it. "Miss Betty?"

"Yes, sweetheart. I wasn't even sure I had the right number…"

"Is everything okay?" Kayla asked. Betty was Sam's next door neighbor.

"I'm not sure, sweetie. I wanted someone to know. Herbert's on the phone with the fire department."

"Is your house on fire?" Kayla asked. "Dad should be home if you want to go over there…"

"No, dear. We're calling because we noticed smoke coming from your father's garage."

Kayla's mind stilled, unable to fully process what Betty was telling her. "There's smoke?"

"Yes. There's smoke coming from his garage." Sirens could now be heard in the background. "I hope it's nothing, dear, but we don't see your father's car in the driveway, and we can't get him on his phone…"

"You did the right thing, Miss Betty. Thank you. I'm on my way now."

Kayla raced towards Sam's. When she arrived, she found an ambulance pulling away. There was smoke pouring out of Sam's garage, but Kayla could see no flames. Kayla parked her car and ran towards the house, but was stopped by a firefighter on the lawn.

"Ma'am you can't go in there."

"My father's in there…"

"Is your father Sam Winchester?"

"Yes. Is he okay?"

"No, he's not. We just took him to the hospital."

"What happened?"

The firefighter swallowed. "Ma'am, you should get to the hospital."

"Where's my father? Is he alive at least? Can you tell me that?"

"He's alive." The firefighter said. He took a deep sigh and broke the news. "Ma'am, when we got here, we found your father in the garage with his car running."

"You mean…he tried to kill himself?"

"That's how it looks. Yes."

That had been twenty-four hours earlier, and Kayla sat at Sam's bedside, waiting on him to wake up again. She'd planned to have a discussion with Todd, but was shocked when he mentioned the plan first. She'd arranged for the kids to stay with Tara, and mentioned to her and Steve what was about to happen. Sam had woken up for a while and was examined by a doctor, who had one recommendation for Kayla.

"Be gentle with him for a while. If you're not, it could push him further over the edge."

Screw it, Kayla said. She was at the end of her rope. She loved her father, and she always had. But this had crossed a line. And she planned to let him know it. Kayla discussed Sam's treatment with his doctor, and convinced the doctor to allow her to follow her plan. Late that night, Sam was finally awake, staring out the window, and Kayla finally confronted.

"You want to tell me what the hell you were thinking?"

Sam turned and stared at Kayla, surprised at the question but still barely registering what had happened. "What?"

"I said, do you want to tell me what the hell you were thinking?"

"No." Sam said simply, turning back around to stare at out the window.

Kayla felt her angry rising steadily. She stood up from her chair and walked to the window, roughly pulling down the blinds and standing in front of Sam, trying to give him no choice but to look at her. "Too bad. Answer the question."

"I can't do this right now."

"You think I can?" Kayla asked, livid and trying to keep her voice down. "Do you think I could handle getting a call from your boss saying that you haven't been going to work? Or getting a call from Miss Betty saying your garage was on fire and you were nowhere in sight? Do you think I could handle that?"

"Kayla, please…"

"No. I'm not leaving until you answer the question. Tell me what you were thinking."

"I was thinking I'm exhausted, okay?" Sam spat at her. "I'm tired of this."

Kayla snapped. Never in her life had she ben so angry with her father. She saw nothing but red, and she lit into Sam in a way that Sam would never forget.

"And what exactly are you tired of, Dad? Because you haven't had to do one damn thing for yourself in two years now."

A shocked Sam was finally looking at Kayla. "Kay…"

Kayla barreled over any explanation Sam was about to give. "I cook for you, I clean for you, I make sure your bills are paid, I've been taking care of Dean for three years. All that while taking care of my own kids and husband. So guess what, Dad? I'm tired too."

"I know…"

"No, you don't know. But I'm gonna tell you now. The doctors are keeping you overnight. When you leave, you have two choices. You can be admitted to the psych department here, under a suicide watch, and when you get out, move in with me and Todd. Or, the option I would take if I were you, you move in with me and Todd tomorrow. Because no matter what you say, I will not lose anyone else. So get some sleep, Dad. And you better damn well be here when I get back tomorrow."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going home to check on my kids. Because they've gotten the short end of the stick lately. So think about what you want to do, and I'll see you in the morning."

Without giving him a chance to respond, Kayla walked out. She went to talk to Todd, asking him to check on Sam every couple of hours if he could, then headed to her car. Her phone beeped with a text from Tara.

Could you call? Samantha's begging for her mommy. Has been for about an hour now.

Kayla immediately felt guilty. She'd been relying on Tara a lot during the last couple of weeks. While she knew that Tara didn't mind, she wondered how the kids felt about it. Apparently, she now had an answer.

I'll do better than that. I'll be there in ten minutes.

Kayla headed towards Tara's, and got there in just under the ten minute mark. She found Tara holding a distraught Samantha, who had woken up from a nightmare. Kayla held her as she went back to sleep, and wondered how their lives were about to change.