CHAPTER 3
We drove to a restaurant that served Italian food and subs. I ordered a kid's pizza for one, Dean ordered a Philly cheese-steak and french fries, and Sam ordered a Greek salad.
"Aren't you going to have her get some vegetables?" Sam asked Dean after the waitress had walked away.
"Tomato's a vegetable." Dean said. "And so are olives."
Sam sighed and shook his head. "Do you like salad?" he asked me.
"Yeah." I said.
"Why don't we get you one then?" Sam asked, motioning to the waitress.
Dean rolled his eyes. "You and Sam with your rabbit food." he said. "Give me a cheeseburger and fries any day."
"Hey, eating healthy is a good thing, right Charlie?" Sam said, smiling at me.
"I like hamburgers and french fries too, Dean." I said.
"Your Dad has never liked vegetables." Sam said in a confiding tone, leaning over to me. "That's why he's shorter than me, because I ate better than him when we were kids."
"Really?" I looked at both of them, and they both laughed.
"No, as usual, Sammy's full of shi- crap." Dean said.
The waitress came back to the table. "You need somethin' else?"
"Yes, she'll have a side salad as well." Sam gestured at me.
"Dressing, hon?" the waitress looked at me.
"French, please." I said. "Can I get a Coke?" I looked over at Dean.
"Sure, why not." he shrugged. The waitress looked over at him, and then left the table.
"Caffeine is not good for kids." Sam said. "And it tends to keep people up at night if they drink it in the early evening."
"All right, Dr. Spock." Dean said sarcastically. "Enough with the parenting tips."
"Dr. Spock?" I laughed. "What does a guy from Star Trek have to do with parenting?"
"No, you're thinking of Mr. Spock. Dr. Spock was a famous pediatrician who wrote a book on parenting that was popular a long time ago." Sam explained. "Dean's just being a smart-aleck, as usual."
In the corner of the restaurant were a couple of old-fashioned video games.
"Look at that, Sam. Remember Galaga?"
Sam chuckled. "Yeah, I do."
Dean looked at me. "Want to go play some old-school video games?"
"Sure." I said. I followed him over and he showed me how to play the game Galaga. You had to shoot at aliens that were coming down at you from overhead. Dean was better at it than I was. There was a driving game next to it, where you sat in a seat and had to turn a steering wheel. I did better at that one.
"Have you played a game like this before?" Dean asked me, sitting in the seat for his turn.
"A friend of mine has a Wii with a driving game and we play it together." I said.
Sam walked over to us. "Food is here, you two." he said.
I watched Dean finish his turn and then we went over to the booth and sat down.
"Hey," Dean said to me, holding up his hand, palm out. "Good game."
I gave him a high-five and then started to eat my pizza.
"So..." Dean said, looking a little uncomfortable. "You can, uh, call me Dean, or Dad, or whatever..."
"I can call you whatever? Okay, whatever." I took drink of my soda and then looked up at both of them. They were both looking at me with disbelief on their faces.
I smiled at them. "I'm just kidding!" I said, and then they both looked relieved.
Sam glanced at Dean. "She's a smart-aleck, she's definitely yours." he muttered.
"You had me going for a minute, kid." Dean exhaled. He nodded at Sam. "And he's your Uncle Sam." He lifted his soda up to take a sip.
"Can I call him Uncle Moose?" I asked, and Dean choked on his drink, trying not to laugh.
"And where did she get that from, Dean?" Sam asked, raising his eyebrow and giving Dean a look.
"Sorry, Sammy, we were talking about how tall you are in the car...it just slipped out..." Dean picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth off. He looked at me. "I don't think Sam likes that, Charlie." he said.
"Kind of disrespectful." Sam said, looking at me a little sternly. For some reason I felt like shrinking up into a little ball under his gaze.
"Sorry Sam. I mean Uncle Sam." I said, and I meant it. He looked at me for a moment longer, and then looked down at his salad and started eating again.
"How's the pizza?" Dean asked me.
"It's good." I said.
"Make sure you eat your salad." Uncle Sam said to me.
"I will." I said. "I mean, okay." I said agreeably. I didn't want him to look at me again the way he had just a minute ago.
I was hungry, so I ate all the pizza, except the crusts- I hate the crusts, they're boring- and my salad too.
"Can we go play the driving game one more time?" I asked, as they finished up.
"Aren't you going to eat your crusts?" Dean asked.
I shook my head. "I don't like them."
Dean picked one up and started eating it. "They're the best part."
"We should get back to the room, it's getting late." Uncle Sam said. I wasn't sure what he meant- late for who? I went to bed whenever I wanted to. Maybe he had to go to bed at a certain time?
Dean paid the bill and then we went back to the hotel. Once we were in the room, I turned on the tv and started flipping through the channels. I found a show that I liked to watch, a cooking contest. Dean and Uncle Sam sat at the table with the laptop and talked about tracking and stuff for a while, looking at the website Uncle Sam had found earlier, then Dean came over and sat next to me.
"What are you watching?" he asked me.
"It's this cooking contest. Every week someone gets eliminated and has to go home. At the end the winner gets a lot of money and their own cooking show."
"Must be nice." Dean said.
"Well, they have to make up the recipes in their heads and sometimes they have to cook with really weird ingredients." I told him. "Me and Mom watch it every week, but right now they're having a marathon, 'cause the new episode is on tomorrow night."
Dean and me watched the next couple of episodes together.
All of a sudden, Uncle Sam cleared his throat and when I looked up, he was giving Dean a meaningful look.
"What?" Dean asked.
"It's almost 11:00" Uncle Sam said, nodding towards me. "Shouldn't...you know..."
Dean looked confused, then said. "Oh!" he sat up and turned towards me.
"Charlie, you should go to bed now. It's way late."
"I'm not tired." I said automatically.
"You've got to be tired, kiddo." he said.
"Well I'm not." I said resolutely.
Dean picked up the remote and turned off the tv.
"Hey!" I said. "I was watching that!"
"Charlie, it's time for you to go to bed." he said seriously.
"Mom never made me!" I said.
"Well, you're with me, and I do things differently."
"When you remember." I said sourly.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You didn't even notice until he said something!" I pointed at Uncle Sam.
"You're right...look, I'll be honest, I don't know what it's like to have a kid. I'm flying by the seat of my pants here and we'll figure this out together, but you need to listen to me and do what I tell you, and I'm telling you it's time for bed."
"I don't want to go to bed!"
"Well, I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. Let's go." He sat forward.
"I don't want to!" I repeated.
He leaned toward me and his face got hard.
"Charlie, go get changed into your pajamas and brush your teeth now."
"No!" I whined.
"All right, the other choice is that I put you in bed just like you are."
"I don't want to go to bed!" I protested.
"Charlie, last chance." he said.
I folded my arms and glared at him.
"Fine." he said shortly. He stood and picked me up, carrying me over to the bed, and then dumped me on the bed. I was so surprised, I didn't even struggle.
"Get under the covers." he said.
"No!" I got off of the bed, but he took my arm and sat me down again.
"Do not get out of bed again." he said.
He let go of me, and I stood up again and stepped away.
He grabbed me and pulled me back onto the bed, then he flipped me onto my stomach and smacked my butt.
"OW!" I screamed and burst into tears. My mom had never done that! My butt was stinging!
"You can't do that!" I exclaimed angrily.
He leaned down. "Get under those covers now and don't get out again unless you want more." he said.
I glared at him, feeling hurt, and then did so, pulling the covers up over my head.
"We're going to have a talk about rules tomorrow, little girl." he said in a hard voice.
I ignored him and just kept crying. I curled up into a ball and cried myself to sleep.
I dreamed of noises. The growling, and the sounds of something crashing through the trees and underbrush, the sounds of fabric ripping, and crunching, and then the screaming and the howl that had made the hair on my arms stand up-
Someone was holding me, I wasn't sure if it was Sam or Dean. The room was dark except for a light on in the bathroom. I felt arms around me, a hand rubbing my back, and heard someone murmuring, "Shhh, it's all right, you're safe, nothing can hurt you, it's okay...got back to sleep now, you're safe..." and I eventually drifted back to sleep.
"Hey." Someone said quietly. I felt a hand on my head, brushing my hair off my forehead.
"It's time to get up, Charlie." It was Dean. I rolled over and opened my eyes, then looked at him and remembered last night.
"You smacked me." I said sulkily, and I rolled over and turned onto my stomach.
"With good reason." he said. "You weren't listening to me."
"Mom never hit me!" I protested.
"Well your mom's not here!" he snapped, and tears came to my eyes. I started sniffling.
He sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that." he said. "Listen, I don't want to argue with you. It's time to get up and get going, we have to be out of the room in about 45 minutes. You need to get up, get dressed, and pack your stuff, and then we can go get breakfast."
"I'm tired." I complained, wiping my eyes.
"Well, that's because you were up late." he said. "Come on, get moving."
"I don't wannaaa!" I whined.
Dean's phone rang and he got up to answer it. He walked over to the other side of the room and had a quiet conversation.
A short time later I heard the door open. "She's not up yet? We need to leave in 10." Uncle Sam said.
"Dammit." I heard Dean say under his breath. He walked over to my bed.
"Charlie. Charlie, get up now. We need to go." He pulled on my arm and I ignored him.
"All right. Sam, pack her stuff." he said grimly.
I rolled over and sat up. "Hey! Don't touch my stuff!" I exclaimed.
"Well, get your butt up and do it yourself." Dean said.
I got out of bed and grabbed my clothes out of Uncle Sam's hands and pushed him. "You're in the way!" I said.
He backed up, hands in the air. "All right, all right."
"Charlie, you now have 5 minutes." Dean told me.
"I need to get dressed!" I protested.
"It's too late, we have to get going. You can get changed when we stop."
"You're mean!" I said, stomping my foot.
"And you're a disobedient brat." Dean said angrily.
I was shocked that he said that to me. I turned to him and glared at him for a long moment. Then I walked over and crammed my clothes into my back pack. I slung it onto my shoulder and walked around the bed, towards the door.
"Charlie?" Uncle Sam asked. "What are you doing?"
I struggled with the doorknob. It wouldn't turn all the way. It started to open and then there was a hand above me, shutting the door.
I looked up at Dean, who was standing behind me, glaring down at me.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" he asked angrily.
"I'm leaving!" I snapped. "I don't need to be with someone who calls me names!"
"You are not leaving, unless it's with one of us. So go sit down on the sofa until we're ready." Dean said firmly.
I put my hand back on the door knob. "No!" I said.
"Actually, we're ready. Unless you need to check-" Uncle Sam said.
"No, I'm packed up. Do one more sweep of the room, Sam, and check for anything else of hers."
Dean put his hand down and I opened the door and hurried out onto the sidewalk. He followed me and grabbed ahold of my backpack.
"Uh- uh, little girl." he said. "You're staying right with me."
I turned to the side. "Get off!" I snapped. He took my upper arm and led me over to the car, then he opened the back door.
"Get in." he said tersely.
I crossed my arms and glared up at him. He leaned down so that his face was in mine. His green eyes were intense. "I told you to get in the car. Now do as I say."
"I don't have to!" I snapped.
"Yeah, kid, ya do." he said. "I'm the adult and you're the kid, I tell you what to do, and you do it."
"You're mean!" I said again, sensing that I was losing ground.
"You think this is mean? You have no idea." He straightened up and pushed me towards the car. "Get in and get buckled."
"No!" I snapped, trying to pull away again. He took my upper arms in his hands and picked me up, putting me into the back seat. Then he leaned down again, looking me in the eyes.
"You listen to me, kid. I'm trying and trying to give you chances, because I know this has gotta be hard for you. But this shit needs to stop. You need to cool it with the attitude and the brattiness, and you need to start doing what I say. Otherwise there are going to have to be consequences."
"What does that mean?" I looked at him, and then down at my lap.
"Well, I really don't want to do this, but if I have to, I will put you over my knees and spank you."
"You- you can't do that!" I protested, looking at him again.
He gave me a look. "I can, and I will if it comes down to it."
"You better not!" I snapped.
He raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me? You want to go one round right now?"
He reached for me and I scrambled away from him across the seat. "No!" I said.
"You will not talk to me like that again, do you understand!" he said sternly.
"O—kay." I said. "Sor-ry!"
He looked at me for a long moment. "You really need to think about how you're acting, Charlie." he said. "I'm not going to put up with it for much longer. Rules are going to be made, and you're going to follow them, or you're going to be in trouble. Now get buckled."
I looked at him defiantly, but something in his eyes made me nervous, so I looked down and then buckled the seat belt on.
"Thank you." he said, and shut the door.
Uncle Sam came out of the room and closed the door behind him. He walked over to Dean and they walked a couple of feet away from the car and stood there talking for a few minutes. Every once in a while, one of them would glance over at me. I didn't know if they were talking about me, or checking to make sure I was still in the car. At one point, Uncle Sam said something and then glanced at me and shook his head slightly. I felt myself blushing. Maybe they were talking about me and how obnoxious I was. Maybe Dean was deciding that he didn't want me after all. Maybe they were trying to figure out how to get rid of me.
They walked over and Dean got into the driver's side of the car and started the engine.
After Uncle Sam got in, they both turned around to face me.
"We have to check out here and go to a different hotel, we had only rented this room for a couple days." Dean said. "And after we get settled in the new room, we're going to have a talk about behavior...and rules. Understand?"
He was looking me straight in the eyes, and he was completely serious.
"O-okay." I said slowly, then I looked down. He was looking at me so intently I started squirming.
Dean stopped by the office so that Uncle Sam could drop off the room key, and then as he was getting into the car, both of their phones rang. I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, with them both talking at the same time.
Once they had both hung up, they looked at each other.
"There's going to be a memorial service tomorrow that Liz's office is doing, for all the people who, uh, passed away at the campsite." Dean said. He turned around to look at me. "Do you have a dress?"
"Why?" I asked, confused.
"Well, it's customary for people to wear nice clothes to a memorial service."
"What's a memorial service?" I asked.
"Oh...it's, uh, like a funeral. But it's for people who, uh, don't have a casket."
"Why?" I frowned, not understanding what he meant.
"Well, most of the bodies were...not... eligible for a casket." Uncle Sam said uneasily. "They've been cremated."
"What does that mean?" I asked, looking back and forth at them both. "I don't understand!" I huffed with frustration.
"Okay, look," Dean said. "This...creature, it tore the people up pretty badly, okay? And the M.E. decided to cremate the bodies, which means that they dispose of them in a fire instead of burying them in caskets."
"My mom...got burned up in a fire?" I said disbelievingly.
"Dean!" Uncle Sam said, as I lowered my head and started crying.
"Dammit!" Dean said under his breath again. "Sam, what the hell, I didn't know...how else was I supposed to explain it?"
"Well, not like that!" Uncle Sam said angrily.
"Charlie, I'm sorry." Dean said. "I didn't mean to explain it like that and upset you."
I just kept my head down and cried quietly.
"I've got to go back to the M.E. to go over some records later." Uncle Sam said. "And the police are probably going to be at the service tomorrow, so I'll have to suit up and pretend I don't know you."
"Bobby'll be here by then, we can get a ride with him." Dean said. He put the car in gear and we started driving. I stopped crying and wiped my face off with the front of my t-shirt. It was the same one I had been wearing at the campsite and it still smelled like the camp fire. I sat up and turned my head to look out the window.
Dean pulled the car into another hotel, and went into the office for a few minutes. Then he came out and drove the car around to a different section. Once he had parked the car, he turned to me again.
"You okay, kiddo?" he asked gently, looking at me.
"I don't want to talk about it." I said to him.
He sighed. "I get it. Listen, they told me that because of some legal stuff, we have to go into your mom's apartment today and get out any stuff of yours that you want. Do you feel up to doing that?"
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do I have to do that?"
"Well, for one thing, you're going to be coming to live with me. For another thing, because of the way your mother's estate was, all of her things have to be turned into assets to pay bills."
I shook my head. "I don't understand!" I said, frustrated again.
"Don't worry about that part, okay, it's grownup stuff...too hard to explain to you. I'm dealing with it. But we need to go and get any of your things out of there that you want- clothes, toys, books-"
"Can I get my Harry Potter stuff?"
"You can get what ever you want." Uncle Sam said warmly.
"Think you can handle it?" Dean asked.
I nodded.
They looked at each other.
"I'll drop our bags in the room, and then we can go get some breakfast." Uncle Sam said.
"And then we'll go over to your place." Dean said to me.
"Okay." I said.
Uncle Sam got out of the car and opened the trunk, and I watched him walk the bags into the room. In a couple of minutes he was back, and he got back into the car.
"What do you like for breakfast, Charlie?" he asked.
"I want pancakes...or waffles."
"There was a Pancake House off the main road back there." Dean said. "We can go there."
As Dean turned the car around to leave, I noticed that there was a playground across the parking lot.
"Look!" I said to them. "Can I go play on the playground later?"
"It depends what time we get back." Dean said.
"I can go in the dark, I don't care." I said.
Dean looked at me in the rear view mirror. "Well I care." he said. "I don't think being on a playground in the dark is such a wise idea. And you're not allowed to go their on your own, either, you hear me? Only with me or Sam."
I turned my head to look out the window.
"Charlie? Did you hear me?" Dean asked.
"Yes!" I said with annoyance.
"Watch your mouth, kid." Dean said, and his voice was almost a growl.
Once we were inside, I went to the bathroom. As I washed my hands, I looked at my face in the mirror. My hair was a little messy and rumpled looking – I hadn't brushed it since the day we went camping- and my clothes were dirty. There was still some soot from the campfire on my shirt and some dirt on my shorts from when I had sat down on the ground to toast marshmallows. If Mom was been here she would have made me brush my hair and change my clothes and take a bath, but I didn't care. And if Uncle Sam and Dean didn't notice, I wasn't going to say anything to them.
I slid into the booth across from them and opened the menu.
"I want pancakes." I said. "Can I get bacon too?" Then I remembered Mom telling me about Rick cooking bacon over the campfire, and tears came to my eyes.
"Charlie?" Uncle Sam asked. "What's wrong?"
I blinked the tears away. "Nothing." I said. "I want sausage instead. And can I get a blueberry muffin too?"
"You should get some fruit." Uncle Sam said.
"Do they have strawberries?" I asked, looking at the menu.
"It says whatever is in season." Uncle Sam said. "How about we get a large fruit cup and share it?"
"Okay." I agreed. "I don't like that green melon, though."
"I'll eat whatever you don't." Uncle Sam said, smiling at me.
Dean was watching me.
"What?" I said.
"You bounce back from things pretty quickly, don't you?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" I didn't understand him.
"Let's hope it's bouncing back and not repressing everything like you do." Uncle Sam said to him.
Dean made a scoffing sound.
"I took care of my mom a lot, so I didn't have time to cry about things." I told them. "When she was getting her treatments she would be too sick to move around and do stuff so I had to get her meds and bring her ginger ale and stuff. I learned how to do the laundry all by myself." I said proudly. I had had to learn how, so that we could change her sheets when she threw up on them or got so sweaty that the sheets would get damp.
They glanced at each other.
"So you had to pretty much figure stuff out on your own." Dean said.
"Yeah, but it was okay. Mom kinda let me do what I wanted anyway. We were best buds." I told him, and then tears came to my eyes as I remembered how we would watch movies on the weekends together and paint each other's nails. I turned my head to the side and blinked the tears back again. I was tired of crying all the time!
"So she was more like a friend than a mom." Uncle Sam said. "And then she got sick and you had to take care of her and also do things on your own."
He looked at Dean again, and again it was like they were talking to each other without words. Uncle Sam gave a little nod.
Dean looked down at the table and fiddled with a napkin, then he looked up at me.
"Well, listen, I understand that that's how it was with your mom...but things are going to be different now. I do things differently than your mom. And it's going to be an adjustment for all of us."
The waitress brought our food over and set everything down. For the next several minutes we were quiet as we ate.