AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you wanting a big "makeup scene" between Sam and Dean, it already happened. In chapter 110, when Sam comes to the hospital after Charlie gets injured, he and Dean have a (very) brief conversation and apologize and hug each other. This is how I see the Winchester men making up after an argument- they're not touchy feely guys who have long drawn out conversations about their emotions.

LexieLou, sorry, but a Flagstaff fic is not in the cards.

Now, I have a favor to ask all of you. I seem to have lost my writing mojo again...and for the first time since I started writing this fic, I feel like I've lost interest. I'm concerned because when I came up with the idea for Charlie's story, she was so insistent on getting it told, and now it feels like my energy about writing it is waning. So I'm asking you to please leave me some encouragement- a review, some kind words, your favorite part of the fic, etc. I'd love to hear what you enjoy about the story, or if my writing has helped you in any way. I love writing so much, it's not just a creative outlet for me, I use it therapeutically to work personal issues out, and the fact that people read my writing and like it is a plus. So losing my motivation is upsetting in more ways than one.

I love that my writing is read by people all over the world, and I appreciate everyone who has ever left reviews on my stories. I know people have said that having my fics to read has helped them out during stressful times, so I'm asking you to return the favor and leave me some good thoughts and comments. Thanks so much for reading!

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I heard Daddy's voice saying, "-check her papers, gimme a sec." I raised my head and shuffled the paper with notes on it to the bottom of the pile, then picked up a pencil and put my head down again.

I heard footsteps and then Daddy's voice. "Charlie? You okay?"

I raised my head. "Head hurts."

"Let me see these." He picked up the papers and looked through them, then removed one and folded it in half. "You don't need this one." He tucked it in his back pocket and set the rest of the papers down. "Did you try to do any work?"

I shook my head. "Uh-uh."

He frowned. "Well, go upstairs and lay down for now, make sure your headache doesn't get worse. We don't want to push it."

"Okay." I sighed, like it was a big deal.

"I'll come check on you in a little bit."

I got up and went upstairs to my room, but I didn't lay down. I went over to my dollhouse and started to rearrange the furniture.

I thought about the things Daddy and I had talked about. I was glad that he said that he would help me with my abilities. I wasn't sure how, because he wasn't psychic, but I felt good that he said he was going to try. I still felt some shame about my powers, because I had been made to feel bad about them in the past. It would be nice if I could feel confident about them like Missouri or Pamela. I wondered if they had had people be mean to them about their powers and what they had done about it. Grandpa John had known Missouri for a long time, and I wondered if she had helped other hunters besides him. How did she feel about some hunters not liking psychics? Did they dislike her? When I thought about the hunters at Uncle Bobby's house and their feelings about psychics, it still made my tummy feel all funny.

I was so curious about the hunter's notes that I had read. I guessed that the person he was investigating could be the creature. If people were able to see it's aura, then maybe I could too. But how could I bring it up without letting Daddy know that I had seen and read those notes? I had no doubt that Daddy would be angry with me for doing that, and I didn't want to end up with a sore butt. For now I'd just try to listen to what they were saying about the investigation.

I wondered if all supernatural creatures had auras, and if their auras were different than people's. If an aura was an energy field, then they should have one. Would a person who was a werewolf have a different aura when they changed? What about a shapeshifter- if they could change how they looked, then would their aura change, or could they hide their aura? Could some creatures hide or change their auras? I wondered if Pamela would answer my questions. I worried that if I asked Daddy he would think I wanted to be a hunter, but I just wanted to know.

There was a knock on my door.

"Come in," I called.

The door opened and Daddy stood there, looking surprised. "I thought you'd be asleep." He said. "How's the head?"

"Better." I said.

"It's about time for lunch."

"Okay!" I put the dolls back into the dollhouse and hopped up to follow Daddy downstairs to the kitchen.

We were almost finished eating lunch when the doorbell rang. Daddy went to answer the door, and I heard a woman's voice talking. He chatted with her for a couple of minutes and then came back into the kitchen.

"What was that about?" Grandpa John asked.

"That was Stella, she wanted to let me know that the neighbors are setting up a meal train for Franny's family." Daddy said.

"What's a meal train?" I asked.

"It's when people sign up to bring food over to someone's house when there's a family member recovering from an illness. It's so the family doesn't have to spend extra time on cooking and all. Franny's not doing well right now, and they're trying to hold off on taking her to the hospital because she doesn't do well when she's there. So they're having a nurse come by every couple of days and her mother hasn't left Franny's side." Daddy explained. "I told Stella we'd throw in some money for them to get pizzas ordered one night."

"That sounds good." Grandpa John said.

Daddy looked at me. "She also wanted to know if you could play with the girls soon. She said that the girls got some new sidewalk chalk and wanted to see if you'd want to come over for that. I told her that as long as you didn't do any running or jumping, that would be fine. She'll let us know when the girls will be outside."

"Thanks, Daddy!" I said gratefully.

"Well, if your head is feeling better, how about you try to get some work done?"

My shoulders slumped. "O-kaaay."

He chuckled. "It's not the end of the world, kiddo. And you should get as much school work done as possible, so that you can show Uncle Sam." His eyes twinkled. "He's coming over this afternoon to talk about the case and he'll stay for dinner. You want him to be impressed with you, don't you?"

I jumped up. "Uncle Sam's coming over?" I asked excitedly. I hugged Daddy. "I can't wait to see him!"

He laughed and ruffled my hair. "Yeah, me neither."

"What about Imani? Is she coming too?"

"No, she has a pre-natal yoga class she's been taking in the evenings."

"If you're finished, Charlie, why don't you clear the dishes." Grandpa John said.

"Aww, do I have to?" I grumped.

Daddy raised his eyebrow. "That's one of your jobs, isn't it? If you're feeling better, we should try to get back into the swing of things."

I sighed. "O-kaaay." I said again.

"Hey, enough of that." Daddy said in a stern voice. "You're acting like we're asking you to do these horrible things, and we're not. Doing school work and chores is a part of life."

"Doesn't mean I hafta like it." I grumbled.

"No, it doesn't. But complaining about everything just makes it harder on yourself, so cool it." Daddy pushed his plate toward me. "Go on."

I tried to stifle my sigh and got up. I took their plates and placed them in the sink.

Daddy stood up and got another mug of coffee. "Let me know if you need any help with your school work."

"Okay, Daddy." I said agreeably. I went into the dining room and sat down at my desk.

I was able to do two social studies assignments, three vocabulary assignments- I never did mind looking up definitions of words- and I was on my second math assignment when Daddy came out to the living room. "Uncle Sam just got here." He told me.

I got up and ran over to him. "He's here!" I said excitedly.

Daddy held his hand out. "You stay put, I want to talk to him." He went outside and I walked over to the door to watch.

Uncle Sam leaned on the side of the car as Daddy walked up to him and started talking. By the way Daddy was moving, I could tell he was explaining something- he looked down at the ground, he gestured, he ran his hands through his hair. Uncle Sam looked down at the ground as he was responding, and then he smiled and nodded. Then they hugged.

As they came onto the porch I couldn't wait anymore and I flew out the door. "Uncle Sam!"

"Hey, Charlie!" He picked me up, swinging me up in the air, and then hugged me.

"I missed you!" I threw my arms around him, getting tears in my eyes.

"I missed you too." He smiled at me. "Thanks for advocating for me."

"What's that mean?"

"You got your dad to talk to me. You know he's not good at that kind of thing, but you convinced him to give it a try. So thanks." He kissed my cheek.

I looked over at Daddy. "You talked to Uncle Sam about…"

Daddy looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah, I did." He ruffled my hair. "It wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be." He opened the door and we went inside.

Grandpa John was coming into the living room. "Sammy!" he exclaimed with a big smile.

Uncle Sam put me down, and then he went to hug Grandpa John. They were both smiling so big that their dimples showed.

"So, you want to look at the case now?" Daddy asked.

"Let me spend some time with Charlie." Uncle Sam put his hand on my head. "What have you been up to?"

"I'm still getting headaches, but not as bad." I said. "We went over to Uncle Bobby's and there were some other hunter guys there." I made a face.

Uncle Sam laughed. "What's that frown about?"

"They weren't nice, one of 'em said that he hates psychics!" I said hotly. "He said they should burn with witches!"

Uncle Sam raised his eyebrows. "Really? That kinda...harsh."

Grandpa John said, "Well, they're old school, I've known one of them for quite a while. A lot of older hunters have very-conservative outlooks on things."

"How did that make you feel, Charlie?" Uncle Sam asked.

"I didn't like it! I thought they were mean!"

"They're not really mean, they just view things in black and white." Grandpa John said. "It used to be thought that all psychics weren't real and that all witches are evil. And now we know that both of those things aren't true."

"Well, I hope you didn't take it personally, Charlie."

"It did bother me. But Daddy and I talked about it."

Daddy smiled at me. "Yeah, we had a good talk."

"That's good." Uncle Sam smiled at Daddy, then looked at me. "Have you been able to do much school work?"

"Not a lot...but I did some today! Wanna see?"

He smiled. "Sure! Lead the way."

He followed me into the dining room and sat next to me at my desk.

I looked at him. "Is Imani's tummy big yet? When is the baby going to be born?"

He laughed. "No, she's at the beginning of the second trimester and her stomach is just starting to get a little bit big, but you can't really tell if you don't know she's pregnant."

"What's the second trimester?"

"Pregnancy is nine months long, divided into three sections called trimesters- 'tri' means three. Each section is three months long. She's about 4 months along, so she's in the second trimester."

"Is she feeling better now?"

"Yeah, her nausea is mostly gone, she still gets very tired. What have you been working on?"

I picked up the tablet and opened the Language Arts folder. "I did some vocabulary tests and got a hundred percent all three times!"

He took the tablet from me and scrolled through everything. "That's great, Charlie!"

I showed him the other work I had done.

"You're almost finished with that Social Studies unit, I'll have to find another one for you to work on." He told me. "Give me a couple of days to look into that, okay?"

"Okay. Is Imani ever going to come back over here?"

He stood up. "Yeah, she will. She was having a really hard time before when she was nauseous all the time." He ruffled my hair. "I'm proud of all the work you've done, Charlie. I'm going to go find Dad and see what he's been up to."

I turned off the tablet and put it away, then I went back up to my room. I knew that they were probably talking about the case in Grandpa John's room. I considered sneaking down the hall to see if I could listen in, but I knew that if I got caught, I'd end up getting another spanking, and I didn't want that to happen.

I got out my coloring books and laid on the bed and colored.