A/N: You are all so kind! Thank you!

Warning: Spanking.

They opened the motel room door only to be greeted by the smell of beer and liquor, and the sound of Dean's drunken snore. He laid sprawled out on the bed with his mouth hanging open and the most obnoxious snore emerged from his mouth. A wad of cash from his winnings sat on the nightstand beside him. "Dean!" Sam snapped angrily as he kicked the corner of the bed.

"Hey! Where's the fire?" Dean mumbled loudly without barely moving his lips or body. Sam knew it was useless. His brother was wasted and was in no shape to confront their thieving little sister.

"I guess we'll talk about this tomorrow," Sam turned and said to Brinley. She only nodded her head in response, still disappointed in herself about how things went down at the mall. Brinley grabbed her pajamas from her bag and headed into the bathroom.

"This is so not fair," she said to herself quietly as she glared at herself in the mirror. "They can swear, steal, and lie but when I do it, it's like the sky is falling," she grumbled angrily. In fact, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. "Hypocrites," she sighed, "And terrible role models." Instead of putting her pajamas, she marched back out of the bathroom to where Sam was sitting at a small table with his laptop open in front of him. She paused, and glared over the top of the screen at him.

"Can I help you?" Sam asked with confusion as he slowly closed his laptop and looked up at her. He decided that she appeared confrontational and braced himself for what was about to come out of her mouth. He admired her spunk, and knew it would suit her well someday. However, in the meantime, he knew it would be a challenge.

"I've decided that I want to go live somewhere else until my Dad can take care of me," she huffed with her arms crossed tightly against her chest.

"Really?" Sam questioned.

"You and Dean are hypocrites and…and I don't want to deal with it anymore," she stammered. "I mean…look at him," she snapped as she pointed to Dean. "He's a drunk! And he lies, and he swears, and he steals, and I don't think either of you should be role models for me…..and I intend to tell my Dad all of this." Sam took a deep breath, and contemplated how to react to her tantrum. "And you stole a car!" she accused angrily.

"Hey, hey, quiet down," Dean grumbled with a snort causing Brinley to roll her eyes with annoyance.

"Take a seat," Sam offered calmly as he pushed out the chair across from him with his foot.

"Fine," she huffed as she sat down, still with her arms crossed against her chest.

"I get it…and I can kind of relate," Sam said. "I had some of the same feelings growing up in this life. My Dad broke a lot of rules to protect others and he was really strict with me and Dean." Brinley unfolded her arms as Sam spoke. "It was confusing at times but as I got older, I realized my Dad was so strict because he needed to know that we would follow orders when we were told to, and it was for our own safety." Sam was relieved to see her body language changing to a less defensive mode. "The fact is…..Dean's an adult Brinley, and so am I," Sam replied. "We can make our own decisions, and we need to take responsibility for those choices just like you….but there's a difference….sometimes we need to steal or lie to protect others. That's just the nature of what we do." He paused for a moment and glanced over at his brother. "And Dean has a lot to deal with, he's not a drunk, but he is allowed to have a few beers if he wants." Sam paused for a moment to see if she wanted to say anything, and continued when she didn't. "You are just a child and you're just learning how to be a part of this life with us and it's going to be a learning process for you…..and us and well, it may not always seem fair. Does that make sense?"

"I guess," she replied with a sigh. "But I don't like it."

"I know it's hard," Sam said gently.

"When do you think I'll be able to meet my Dad?" she asked.

"I don't know," Sam replied. "I wish I knew." He could the disappointment in her face. "Brinley, it's not that he doesn't want to meet you…..he just wants to make sure it's safe for all of us." Brinley nodded her head, but she knew it was because her Dad just didn't care. "We should probably get some sleep," Sam said as he glanced at his watch. "It's getting late and I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted."

"Sam, I didn't say it before, but thank you for saving us from the scarecrow….you're really brave," Brinley said with a yawn. "And I get it, you guys are kind of like superheroes against supernatural creatures." Sam smiled and reached across the table and ruffled the hair on top of her head.

"Thanks Brinley, that means a lot coming from you," Sam commented, feeling good about their conversation.

"Does this mean I'm not in trouble anymore for stealing?" she asked hopefully.

"Not a chance," he replied.

"I thought I'd try," she said with a pout.

Brinley tossed and turned all night. Mostly because of Dean's incessant snoring, but also because the springs on her rollaway were poking her in the back, and she was worried about facing Dean in the morning. She finally fell asleep by 3am and woke up few hours later to Dean and Sam's voices. She peered around the room to find them sitting at the little table in the corner of the room. They were both still in their pajama bottoms and t-shirts. Dean was gulping down a bottle of water while he listened intently to Sam. Her bed creaked when she climbed out to use the bathroom. There was an awkward silence as they both turned to face her.

"Hey kid….we were just talking about you," Dean finally commented.

"Oh," she replied as she froze awkwardly next to her rollaway. She wondered if he knew, but if he did, he didn't look too upset.

"Sam said you have something to tell me," Dean replied. Brinley eyes darted to Sam and he nodded his head in response.

"Oh…uh," she stammered. She was so exhausted that she felt as if she would break down into tears at any moment. "I…I…stole from a store at the mall yesterday," she blurted out quickly. Dean's eyes widened with surprise and he turned and looked back at his brother. Sam nodded his head in confirmation. Dean's whole demeanor changed.

"Sheesh Sammy, you could've prepared me for this," he huffed. "What did you steal?" he demanded as he focused his attention back to Brinley. She was silent, and bit her lower lip. "Listen kid, you had better start explaining yourself because I don't have a lot of patience right now," Dean ordered with frustration.

"Uh! It was a tool thingy and it had a knife on it!" she shouted, "I stole it because you took my knife!" She sat abruptly on her rollaway and covered her face with hands. She fought back her tears. Dean turned Sam, and Sam confirmed that she was telling the truth.

"I'm going to throw some clothes on and see if I can find us something for breakfast," Sam mentioned calmly as he stood up from the table. He trusted that Dean had the situation under control. Dean moved from his seat at the table and sat down on the edge of the bed that was directly across from Brinley.

"Looks like you struck out kid, big time," he commented with disappointment to his voice. He reached out and moved her hands away from her face. Her eyes met his, and for a moment Dean felt bad. Her big, brown eyes were very similar to Sam's, and they seemed so innocent and sad. He quickly snapped out of it to address the situation at hand. "What did we tell you would happen if you got to strike three?" he asked firmly. Brinley shrugged her shoulders in response. "Oh, come on, is that the best you can do? You always have a response for everything." Meanwhile, Sam emerged from the bathroom with his wallet in his hand.

"You got this Dean?" he interrupted.

"I think I can handle it," Dean replied.

"I'll be back in a little while," Sam said as he hurried out the motel room door.

"Ok, well, since you seem to have lost your voice….let me remind you," Dean stated firmly. "We told you if you made it to strike three, you'd be punished….you were disrespectful, you lied, and you stole…and now it's time for that butt warming I promised you." Brinley's heart began to race, and she narrowed her eyes at him angrily.

"Fine," she snapped angrily. "But don't expect me to cry like a little baby because I won't…you big, arrogant jerk! I hate you!" Dean decided it was enough talking.

"All right, let's get this over with," he sighed as he quickly stood up, lifted her from her spot on her bed, sat down, and placed her over his lap. He was surprised when she didn't fight him. Instead, she grabbed the blankets beneath her hands, squeezed tightly, and buried her face. She was worried and scared, but she wasn't about to give Dean the satisfaction of letting him know. Dean paused for a moment. He hated this as much as she did, and he was angry that he was left with the responsibility. However, he knew he had to accept the responsibility, or they would have a long road ahead if they allowed her to behave the way she had been.

Dean wasted no time. Brinley gasped when the first spank came, and it hurt more than she had imagined it would. "I hate you!" she cried into the blanket beneath her. Brinley's grip on the blankets got tighter and tighter as each spank came, and she found it more and more difficult to hold back the tears. She stopped counting after ten, and finally broke down into tears but kept her face buried so Dean wouldn't see. However, Dean could hear her muffled sobs when he decided that she had had enough and stopped.

"It's over kid," he sighed. Dean attempted to help her off of his lap, but instead Brinley crawled toward the head of the bed and buried herself under the covers. She grabbed a pillow and buried her tear stained face. "It's ok kid, I know it hurts like hell," Dean commented as he stood up and moved closer to where she had buried herself. "It's ok to cry," he said as he sat down next to her.

"Leave me alone!" she sobbed. "I hate you!"

"Sure kid, we can talk about it later," Dean replied. He stood up and grabbed the remote and took a seat on the other bed while he waited for Sam to return. About twenty minutes later, without saying a word, Brinley emerged from hibernation. Dean watched as he grabbed her bag from her bag, and made her way to the bathroom. As the shower kicked on, Sam entered the motel room with a bag from Starbucks and 2 cups of coffee and a hot chocolate. "Hey man," Dean greeted as he made his way to the table where Sam set down his purchases.

"How'd it go?" Sam asked with hesitation.

"She hates me," Dean replied matter of factly, "But that's nothing new."

"Dean, she doesn't hate you," Sam replied. "She'll come around."

"Easy for you to say Mr. Good Guy," Dean teased as he reached into the bag and pulled out a muffin. They both sat down to discuss their next case when Brinley came out of the bathroom with black leggings and an oversized pink hoodie on. "Sam picked up some food," Dean commented as she made her way past them. Brinley contemplated just ignoring him, but realized that would make a bad situation even worse.

"I'm not hungry," she replied. She had finally gotten her crying under control, but felt as if she was on the verge of tears and she didn't understand why.

"We can save you a muffin," Sam offered.

"Ok," she replied. She glanced over at her brothers and tears came to her eyes. She knew they were "trying", and she had been nothing but a miserable brat to them for days. She took a deep breath and made her way to the table. They both stopped what they were doing and looked up at her, not knowing what to expect. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I'll try not to cause anymore problems."

"We don't expect you to be perfect," Dean replied. He stood his chair and offered her a hug. Brinley accepted and Dean pulled her in tightly. "We're all going to be ok," he said reassuringly. "I promise."