AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have a lot of partially written short stories and unfinished chapters, and I've decided that due to the state of the world because of Covid19, I'm going to start working on finishing them and publishing them. I'm a high-risk patient, so I'm in self-imposed quarantine for the time being. Writing and sharing my writing makes me happy, so I can publish my fics for you to read, which will hopefully make you happy, and we'll all have a little happiness to go around! Plus it will keep us distracted from all the dire news. And please don't forget to leave a review, for this fic and for any fanfics you read! As excited as you get when you see a new fic or chapter from me, I get just as excited when I see comments and reviews from you, and they make my Muse happy! And a Happy Muse means more writing and more fics for you to read!

I will be responding to people's comments/reviews in the comment section of the fics for now, so if you commented on the last fic I published, 'Aly Learns a Lesson', hop over there and see my response!

And yes, I am well aware that it's been a while since I updated my other fics. I have plans for all of them and I will be working on getting new chapters published and written hopefully soon!

Aly: 11 years old Sam: 19 years old Dean: 23 years old

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

I approached Dean slowly, watching him. He was looking at something on Sam's laptop, his eyes moving back and forth as he read the screen.

"Dean," I asked hesitantly, "Can I..can I go to the mall?"

He didn't answer for a long moment. Finally he glanced at me. "What?" His tone was distracted.

"Lauren and a couple of my friends are going to the mall and they wanted to know if I could go too." I paused, crossing my fingers behind my back. "Please?"

He sat back in his chair, giving me his full attention now. "What do you mean, just you and a couple girls?"

"Yeah, her mom will pick us all up and then drop us off there for a couple of hours."

Dean shook his head. "Uh-uh, nope."

"Dean!" I protested, "Why not?"

"If you want to go to the mall, Sam or I can take you."

I huffed with annoyance. "I don't want to go to the mall with you, I want to go with my friends!"

"You're not going to go to the mall without any adult supervision." He paused, looking like he was considering something. "God help me for saying this, but what if I took you and your friends?"

"And have you following around behind us? No thank you!"

He drew back, offended. "Watch it, kid!"

"What if Lauren's mom comes too...then can I go?"

"I'll think about it."

"I need to know now! Pleeeeease?"

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "All right… well, all right, you can go as long as her mother takes you and stays with you the whole time. Got it?"

I threw my arms around him and kissed his cheek. "Thanks Dean! You're the best!"

"Okay, okay, relax." He chuckled, hugging me back. "When is this little excursion taking place?'

"Tomorrow afternoon."

~ spn ~ spn ~

I could barely contain my excitement as I sat by the front window, watching for my friend's car.

I don't know why Lauren had decided to befriend me- I was usually one of those kids on the fringes of the class, with maybe a couple of acquaintances or one kid who made friends with me. She came with a small group of girls who had welcomed me into their circle, and I sat with them at lunch and had been invited to a birthday party. I had also been allowed to go home from school with two of them and eat dinner with their families, which was huge, since my big brothers were so overprotective. Even though I rarely talked about my family and wasn't able to reciprocate any of their hospitality, the girls didn't make me feel guilty or weird about it.

Dean came over to me, taking out his wallet and handing me some money. "Here, so you can get something to eat while you're there."

I took it from him, beaming happily. "Thanks!"

My joy was short lived though- when the minivan pulled up outside and I started to walk out to it, Dean followed behind me.

"What are you doing?" I hissed over my shoulder.

"I want to meet this girl's mother," he said, "Is that all right with you?"

"Just...don't embarrass me!" I muttered.

He frowned at me. "What did you say?"

"Nothing!" I said quickly.

The driver's side window slid down at the same time that the side door opened.

A woman with short blonde hair stuck her hand out the window. "Hello there, I'm Christa Barnes, Lauren's mom. And you are-?"

Dean extended his hand and they shook. "Dean Winchester, Alyson's brother."

"Oh." Lauren's mother looked at Dean, wetting her lips. "Nice to meet you! I don't know if I'm smart or foolish taking this gaggle of tweens to the mall by myself!" She smiled, tilting her head.

Dean chuckled. "Better you than me. I got straight up refused when I offered."

She chuckled too. "Yes, I'm sure that you'd be bored stiff having to listen to them chatter about boys and the latest fashions."

Dean shook his head, raising his eyebrows. "Yeah...that's all way beyond me."

She laughed musically, flipping her hair back.

Lauren leaned out of the van. "Aly, get in! Mooom, come on! We haven't got all day!"

Her mother rolled her eyes and smiled at Dean again. "Nice to meet you!"

"Yeah, you too." Dean put his hand on my arm. "Call me if you need anything, got it?"

I shook off his hand. "Okay, Dean, bye!" I climbed into the back of the van and the door slid closed behind me. He stood at the curb, watching as we drove away.

Ms. Barnes caught my eyes in the rear view mirror. "Well, he's a handsome guy. How old is he?"

"Twenty-three." I replied, buckling my seatbelt.

"What does he do for a living?" She asked.

"Uh, he's a..a mechanic." That was the standard answer when anyone asked about Dean; he was my official guardian when Dad wasn't around, and he did pick up mechanic's jobs when we stayed in one place for a while.

"He has a very strong grip." She said approvingly.

"Ugh, can you stop talking like you want to date him?" Lauren rolled her eyes. The other girls tittered with laughter.

"I'm just asking, young lady. I never said anything about wanting to date him! Although..."

"Eww, Mom!" Lauren protested, and Ms. Barnes laughed.

We walked into the mall and stopped in front of a huge fountain. Ms. Barnes said, "All right, girls, I'm going to go to The Coffee Bean Cafe and get myself some coffee. I have some cases to look over, so I'll be there for a while. Come find me if you need anything." She shifted her messenger bag on her shoulder and started up the stairs to the second floor. "We'll meet back here at 3 o'clock!" She called over her shoulder.

"Uh, I thought your mom was going to come with us?" I asked, looking at Lauren.

"She's got work to do and she likes sitting in the coffee shop. It'll be okay," Lauren shrugged.

"But you said she'd be with us-"

"Come on, geez, we're not little kids who need to be chaperoned! It's fine!"

With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I followed the girls. If Dean found out, it wasn't going to be fine for me. Should I have insisted that her mom be with us? I didn't want them to think I was a baby. Should I call Dean? Heck no, I wanted to be with my friends! I sighed and decided that I would go with them and just not say anything to him. He would tune me out as soon as I started talking about the mall and 'girl stuff' anyway.

We went into a couple of clothing stores and I watched as they tried on some shirts. Then we walked around for a while, window shopping. Kim pointed out an expensive shoe store that her mother always shopped at. Cassie told us that her sister's boyfriend had bought her a "promise ring" at a jewelry store that we passed by.

We ended up going into a store that sold jewelry, makeup and accessories for teens. There was loud music playing and a mirror ball hanging from the ceiling, casting light everywhere. Groups of teen girls and younger kids were all over the store.

"Hey, let's all get our ears pierced together!" Kim said. The store had an ear-piercing station in the corner.

"Uh, I'm not allowed." Cassie explained. "My mom says I have to be thirteen before I can get my ears pierced."

"You have to have a parent's permission anyway," Lauren said dismissively. She looked around. "Hey, want to do something fun?" Her eyes danced mischievously. "Come on."

She led us over to an area that was not as brightly lit and not as crowded. "This place is always really busy and they don't notice if you take something," Lauren glanced around.

"What?" I was shocked.

"Yeah, just grab a lip gloss or something small and put it in your pocket." She looked at all of us expectantly.

"I don't know…" said Kim uneasily."That's stealing."

"Oh come on!" Lauren said defiantly. "My Mom said they way overcharge for everything in the store. They're not even gonna notice a missing lip gloss or a bottle of nail polish. I do it all the time!" Lauren flipped her hair back.

"Lauren!" Cassie was shocked.

"How do you think I got all those lipsticks that I have? You guys are wimps!" Lauren huffed, turning and walking away from us.

Cassie and Kim looked just as uncomfortable as I felt as we trailed behind Lauren. She walked slowly, one hand in her jacket pocket, occasionally reaching out and taking something off of a shelf and looking at it, then putting it back. She glanced back at us, a tiny smirk playing on her lips.

Cassie hurried over to her. "C'mon, Lauren, cut it out! Let's just go!"

"I'm just looking around, I can do that, can't I?" Lauren asked stubbornly. "I need some new eyeshadow." She turned and walked over towards the section of the store that sold makeup.

My stomach twisted uncomfortably as we followed her again. She ambled along, reaching out to touch things on the shelves as she passed. I saw her take her hand out of her pocket and grab a tiny bottle of nail polish and slip it into her pocket.

She stopped at the display case of eye makeup, and we stopped behind her.

"Come on, guys, let's go." I said.

Lauren looked at me. "Have you-?"

"No, and I'm not going to!" I snapped. "Let's go get a pretzel or something, I'm hungry."

Kim looked relieved. "Yeah, me too, let's go."

"Not until all of you take something!" Lauren hissed.

Kim set her jaw. "No, Lauren! I'm not going to, just because you say so!"

"You're just a bunch of babies! All of you!" Lauren snapped, and started to walk around us. Right into a tall man who was suddenly standing there.

A hand grabbed my arm and Kim's arm. I looked up and realized that the person who had grabbed us was wearing a uniform that said "Mall Security Officer".

"The four of you, come with us." Said the tall man.

~spn ~ spn ~

There wasn't enough room in the manager's office for the four of us and the officer and manager, so we had been split up. Kim and I were sitting in the Employee Break Room being guarded by a tall, thin girl who was lazily chewing gum. "Shopliftings a crime, ya know." She informed us. "Can get ya sent up to juvie. My cousin got sent there last summer." She cracked her gum, looking at her long nails. They were painted bright red with blue stripes.

Kim glanced at me. "How can we be in trouble?" She whispered. "We didn't even do anything!"

"Guilt by association." The employee drawled. "This store gets a crap-ton of shoplifting, and they're serious about prosecuting."

Tears filled Kim's eyes. "Oh man, I'm gonna be in so much trouble!" She nervously chewed on a cuticle. "I hope it's my dad that picks me up and not my mom. She'll start yelling the second she sees me and won't stop until we get home. Everyone'll be able to hear her all over the mall!"

My stomach did a nervous flip. Dean had gotten in trouble for stealing, when I was little, but I didn't remember much about what happened. I remember Dad had been so mad his face was red, and he yelled- a lot- and then Sam took me to play on the playground attached to the motel for a while. When we'd come back to the room, Dean had been in bed, facing away from us, for the rest of the night. He had winced whenever he'd sat down for the next day or so and been grounded for three weeks.

I was pretty sure that Dean was going to be upset with me, hopefully not at the same level Dad had been with him. I was not looking forward to seeing him.

The door opened, and both Kim and I stiffened.

The officer leaned in. "Alyson Winchester." He said.

I stood up. "Uh, bye, Kim." I said awkwardly. "Good luck."

"Yeah, you too."

Dean stood in the hallway, his arms crossed. His brows were lowered and he was frowning. "Let's go." He said curtly, beckoning me.

We had to walk through the store, and the flashing lights and loud music seemed amplified now. I felt like everyone was staring at me.

As soon as we stepped out of the store he took my hand and began to walk.

"Dean, what are you doing?" I hissed, trying to pull away, "I don't want to hold your hand!"

"Tough!" He said, gripping my hand tighter.

After I tried to pull away again, he stopped and pulled me close to him. He bent down and looked me in the eyes. "You're in trouble, little girl, so you'd better just do as I say so that you don't get yourself in any deeper. You're gonna hold my hand and that's that."

"I'm not a little kid!" I protested, tears coming to my eyes.

His voice was hard. "Your actions have proved that you're not as 'adult' as you think you are. You lied to me. And now you're going to hold my hand so I can keep track of you."

"But-"

"NO. All I want to hear from you right now is 'Yes, Dean', understand?"

I sighed. "Yes, Dean."

I walked with him to the car, wiping my eyes with my free hand.

Spn ~ spn ~

The ride home was full of tense silence. Dean didn't even turn on the radio. I stared out the window, too nervous to even look at him.

He opened the back door and let me out, and I hurried in front of him, trying to stay out of reach of him in case he decided to hand out a swat or three by the time it took us to walk to the front door.

Sam was sitting on the sofa when we came in. I started to walk towards my room but Dean grabbed my arm.

"Oh no you don't!" He said firmly. "We need to discuss this."

I turned around to look at him and he let go of my arm.

"Wanna tell Sam what happened?" Dean asked, folding his arms.

I flushed, embarrassed. I knew Sam would be upset with me too. "No." I said, dropping my eyes.

"Let's try this again. Tell Sam and me what happened. I want to know everything."

I glanced up at him. He was giving me the Winchester Glare.

"We, uh, went to the mall and Lauren's mom went- she said that she was going to go sit in a coffee shop. Because she had work to do."

Dean said, "You told me that her mother was going to stay with you."

"I thought she was!" I protested. "I did, honest!" I looked over at Sam. He was watching me intently.

"Okay...what should you have done next?" Dean prompted.

"Um, I don't know..." I twisted my hands together.

"You should have called me to come get you!" He said loudly.

"Dean, no! I know what you told me- but, but- I don't understand why you're so mad about this? Ms. Barnes was one floor away. She said to come get her if we needed anything!"

"You don't understand why I'm mad about this?" Dean asked incredulously. He looked over at Sam in frustration.

"They would have called me a big baby if I'd said I had to go home because my Mommy wasn't there to hold my hand!" I snapped sarcastically.

"Hey!" Sam interjected sternly, "Watch it, Aly. You're in enough trouble already!"

I swallowed nervously, trying to clamp down on my anger.

We were all silent for a moment and then Dean asked, "So you'd rather risk getting in trouble with me, is that what you're saying?"

Sam added, "And you're more concerned about what these 'friends' think than you are about doing the right thing and obeying us?"

"You guys!" I protested again, "You can't gang up on me. That's not fair!" I was whining now and I couldn't stop.

Dean sighed angrily and pinched the bridge of his nose briefly.

"Oh, I am SO tired of hearing you say that!" He snapped. "You're always complaining about how unfair life is for you. Well, let me tell you, sweetheart, life could be a whole lot worse! You want me to make it so that you REALLY have something to complain about? Because I have no problem doing that."

"No!" I glared at him. They were both being unfair to me!

Dean huffed. "Let me tell you what's really unfair. What's unfair is that every time you want to do something, you beg me and beg me and I trust that you're going to do the right thing and then something like this happens!"

"I…I didn't do anything wrong!" Tears of frustration came to my eyes.

Sam said, "But you were with a girl who did do something wrong, and you didn't do anything or say anything. Then you ended up in trouble along with her."

"I had to bribe the manager to take your name off the report," Dean told me.

"What's that mean?" I was confused.

He explained. "I had to give him money so that he would take your name off the official report they made to the police! You know? So they wouldn't come knocking at our door!"

"They called the police?" I squeaked.

"Yes!" Dean shouted at me. "Because apparently, this isn't the first time that that girl- what's her name, Lauren? -has done this! She's already been in trouble at that mall for doing the same thing!"

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed. "I didn't- I didn't know that."

"Now do you get why I'm so upset with you, Alyson?" Dean asked.

The fight went out of me and I sank down into the armchair next to the sofa. "Yes," I whispered.

"Tell us what happened," Sam sat forward, putting his elbows on his knees and watching me again.

"Um, after Ms. Barnes left, we walked around for a little, y'know, and went into a couple of stores and they tried on some clothes. And then we walked around some more and just looked at stuff for a while. Then we got to 'The Boutique' and Lauren-she told us-she said that she stole stuff from there all the time because the staff are usually too busy to pay much attention. She said that her mom told her that they overcharge for everything, so the store wouldn't miss the things that she took."

Dean made a scoffing sound.

"Great logic," Sam said sarcastically, "This is from an 11 year old?"

I took a deep breath. "She said we all should take something. The other girls and I said no, and I tried to convince them to leave and go get a pretzel."

"Good girl." Sam said. He gave me a little smile. "Go on."

"Lauren said that we were being wimps and that she wasn't going to leave until we had all taken something. I saw her, um, I saw her...sneak a little bottle of nail polish into her jacket. She tried to get us to steal again and we said no again and she called us big babies and when she turned away from us, she ran straight into the manager." I babbled. "There was a security guard guy there too. The manager-he yelled at us." I blushed, remembering how embarrassed I'd felt when he was telling us we ought to be ashamed of ourselves and that it was 'kids like us' that made their prices so high.

I continued. "There wasn't enough room for all of us in the manager's office so they split us up." My stomach twisted as I recalled the anxiety I felt when I gave the manager Dean's phone number to call. He had dismissed me and Kim to go with the employee so I hadn't gotten to hear the conversation. "Kim and I had to wait in the employee's lounge."

A look passed between my brothers like they were having a silent conversation.

"Imagine my surprise when I got a call from someone telling me that my little sister had been picked up for shoplifting," Dean paced in front of me, "That's a call I never would have expected to get."

I felt my face flushing again. "I didn't do anything though!" I looked at both of them. "Don't you believe me?" Tears filled my eyes and I wiped them away.

" Oh, I believe you." Sam said."I just think you have incredibly poor judgement."

That hurt my feelings. "What was I supposed to do?" I asked defensively.

Dean stopped in front of me, crossing his arms over his chest. "Hmm, I don't know, you could have left the store maybe? Gone to find a pay phone and called me? Gone to the coffee shop and told this girl's mother what was going on?"

"I couldn't do that!" I objected.

"And that's exactly the problem." Sam said. "Like I said at the start of this conversation, you care more about what people think than about doing the right thing. Doing what you're told."

My eyes filled with tears. "You're not- not being-"

"Little girl, if you say fair, I swear to God my belt is coming off." Dean snapped. "We are being more than fair with you. Let me tell you, if this had been one of us, and Dad was the one dealing with this, we would have already been punished. He probably would have walloped us in the parking lot and then taken his belt off as soon as we walked through the door!"

I gulped audibly. "I'm sorry." I said in a small voice. I had never been spanked with the belt; Dad said I was too young. But maybe I was in so much trouble that Dean was going to use his belt this time?

"Yeah, sorry doesn't cut it." Dean said harshly. "All I can say is, thank God that manager had dollar signs in his eyes when I took out my wallet. You are extremely lucky that he said he would take your name off the report. Do you know what would happen if the police ran your name through their computers? A whole lot of trouble, that's what."

I didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"Let's just say that Sam and I have had...run-ins with the police before, and we have records. And if the police got ahold of us, or you, things would go South very quickly."

"Go South?"

"We'd most likely get hauled into the station, put in jail, and you'd be carted off to foster care. And then you'd be in that system forever, and it might be hard to get you back out. CPS doesn't like giving kids back to convicted felons."

As I took in what he was actually saying, I burst into tears. I hadn't realized that just hanging out with a friend who liked to shoplift could potentially have such serious repercussions.

"I'm sorry!" I wailed. "I don't want either of you to get in trouble with the police! I don't want to get taken away!" I felt scared and ashamed now.

"You won't be." Sam said, trying to reassure me.

"All right, all right, settle down!" Dean snapped.

"Dean, you upset her with all that." Sam said angrily. "How can you expect her to just calm down?"

"Well, there's still the matter of her punishment." Dean said. "Go to your room." He ordered me.

"Punishment?" I sniffled. "But I-I didn't do anything wrong!"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Were you even listening to everything we've been talking about? No, you didn't shoplift, but you showed poor judgment and you went with your friends alone, without an adult, after you told me that her mother would be with you!"

"But-but-that's not-"

Dean held his finger up. "Don't. Say it." he said in a hard voice. "Go to your room!"

I got up and ran, crying now. "You're so mean!" I wailed.

I threw myself down on my bed, sobbing into my pillow. I was frustrated by Dean's continued over-protectiveness of me. But what he had said scared me. I just wanted someone to comfort me and tell me that nothing bad was going to come of this. That we were going to be safe and it wasn't my fault.

It felt like a long time had passed before there was a tap on my door.

"Come in," I called as I sat up.

Dean entered the room, closing the door firmly behind him. He turned toward me, and I noticed with a shock that he held the wooden hairbrush in his hand.

"Deeeeaann, I didn't lie!" I whined. The hairbrush was reserved for when I did something really bad, and it had "cured" me of lying when I was younger. It was big and heavy and old and painful and I hated it.

He came over and stood by the bed looking down at me. "No, you technically didn't lie. But you showed very poor judgment, and you technically put yourself-and our family-in danger."

I started crying again. "I-I said I was sorry!"

He sat down on the edge of my bed. "And I'm going to make sure of that. Now come here." He set the hairbrush on the bed next to him.

"Deeeaaaann!" I whined again, trying to give him puppy-dog eyes.

"Save it, Alyson. I'm still pretty upset by all this and you don't want to push me any more. Now get-over-here."

I took a deep breath and stood up as he shifted his body. I wiped my face and then lowered myself over his thighs, my torso resting on the bed. The hairbrush was next to my shoulder. I took hold on the blanket and buried my face, scrunching my eyes closed.

He started spanking me, his hand falling hard and fast like it usually did, and I burst into fresh tears as the sting built up. He spanked every inch of my jeans-clad butt, and I wailed and kicked a little as he started a second round. After he'd landed several hard swats on the undercurve, he paused.

"I don't ever want to get another phone call like that again." He told me. "If I do, you'll get the hairbrush every night for a week, is that clear?"

"Yes sir." I sobbed.

"Hand me the hairbrush."

"Dean!" I objected.

He spanked me hard, once, right in the middle of my bottom, and I howled.

"What-did-I-tell-you?" He growled.

I picked up the hairbrush and turned back to hand it to him.

He took it from me and I buried my head again, pulling the blanket to my face to muffle my cries.

I cried out each time the brush swatted me, turning my already scorched behind into an inferno.

He set the brush down. "All right, it's done."

I felt him smoothing his hand over my hair as I laid there sobbing.

He pulled me up to sit on his lap. "Alyson, that really scared me today." He told me. "I don't want to have to go through that again."

"M'sorry, Dean, I'm so sorry." I sniffled. "I-I d-didn't know about th-the police, and what if-what if they t-take me away?" I wailed, starting to cry again.

"All right, shh." He put his arms around me and hugged me as I sobbed into his flannel. "That's one reason why we have the rules that we have, and why you're expected to obey them."

"M'sorry," I said again, my chest hitching.

"I know. Nothing like that's gonna happen, all right? Because now you know, and you're gonna do the right thing."

"Yes, Dean." I nodded into his flannel. He tightened his arms around me.

When I had quieted, he pulled back to look at me. "In the future, before you go anywhere with friends, I'm going to insist on meeting their parents."

"What will that do?" I wiped my face with my hands.

"Well, hopefully it will give me a sense of what they're like, and what their kid is like."

I shrugged. "That won't prove anything, people hide stuff a lot, you said that before."

"It will- make me feel better. I've got a good bullshit detector, and if I think something's up, then I can veto the whole thing and take you home."

"Great." I said sourly. "Then I'll look stupid."

"I'd rather you look stupid than end up in an unsafe situation, Aly. Which is what happened today. And I couldn't just let that go. Do you understand why?"

I sighed. "Yes. I should have called you or something. I'm sorry Dean." I sniffled, grabbing his shirt.

"I know." He hugged me and rubbed my back. "Sam and I talked, and we're going to get you a cell phone, so that if you ever get in a situation like that you can call one of us."

I looked up at him. "A cell phone?"

"Yes. But it's only going to be for emergencies right now, understand? You don't need to be playing a bunch of games or texting your friends or whatever."

"Thank you, Dean!" I hugged him tightly.

"We just want you to be safe, kiddo." He said, kissing my head.

The pain in my butt didn't seem quite as bad with the knowledge that I was going to be getting my very own cell phone. Even if it was supposed to be only for emergencies.

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

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