It was the last day of the craft program at the library, and all the moms had decided to meet at a local park afterwards instead of going to McDonald's, for a picnic. Uncle Sam stopped at the store on the way there and bought a fruit tray to bring. Daddy came too, and he bought cookies, because he said that "you always need dessert at a picnic". Everyone had already started to eat by the time we got to the park. Daddy helped me get some food and walked me over to a table that was full of moms and kids.
I looked up at him. "Sit next to me, Daddy," I said.
"There isn't really room," he said. He and Uncle Sam stood behind me and ate. I noticed some of the moms looking over at them. Maybe because they were the tallest people there?
After I ate, I went to swing on the swings. Daddy came over and pushed me, and then the little boy next to me called to him, "Push me too!"
So Daddy did, and then he started to give all the kids pushes. At the other end, a woman started to talk to him. He stood there for a few moments, chatting.
"Daddy!" I called. "I need more pushes, please!"
Uncle Sam came over and started to push me instead, and I saw Daddy walk a little ways away from the swings, still talking.
"Hey, push me more!" the kid next to me said again.
"I'm done," I turned my head back to look at Uncle Sam. "I wanna get off."
He grabbed the chains and slowed the swing down so I could hop off. I walked over to where Daddy was standing, deep in conversation. I put my arms around his waist, and he glanced down at me.
"Who's this?" the woman asked. She had a tank top and leggings on, the type of clothing that a person wears when they are exercising.
"This is my daughter, Charlie," Daddy said.
"Oh," the woman said, tossing her hair. She smiled at Daddy.
"What's up, kiddo?" Daddy asked me.
"Nothing," I said. He gave me a little hug and then patted my shoulder. "Go on and play, we're talking right now."
I looked up at him. He was looking at the woman intently, and she was looking back at him.
Neither of them acted like they even knew I was there. I sighed and let go of Daddy, then I walked away. I went and found Abby, but she was playing some game with a couple younger kids where they were digging in the dirt with sticks, and I didn't want to do that.
One of the kids started to play tag, so I joined in and ran around with some kids for a while. When we were all hot and sweaty, one of the moms said we all needed to get drinks, so we stopped and they handed out juice boxes. I saw Uncle Sam standing by a tree, but I couldn't see Daddy anywhere.
"I gotta go pee," Abby said to her mom.
"Anyone else?" Miss Raquel asked. A couple kids chimed in that they had to go too, so Miss Raquel and another mom said they would take the group to the restroom. It was in a building that was next to the playground. There was a basketball court and an exercise room in the building, and a couple of rooms that the other mom said were classrooms. I went in with everyone and did my business, then washed my hands and went to wait in the hallway with the other kids. The moms had told us to wait for them to come out.
I turned and saw Daddy and the woman he'd been talking to, coming from down the hallway where the classrooms were. Daddy saw me and looked surprised.
"What are you doing in here?" he asked me.
"Going to the bathroom," I told him. "What are you doing in here?"
"Well, uh, Lori was, uh, showing me, uh, where she teaches aerobics," Daddy said, and his face got a little red.
I laughed, trying to imagine Daddy doing aerobics. "You don't do exercise, Daddy!" I said, and it looked like his face got even redder!
"She was just showing me around," he muttered, and they left the building as the moms came out of the bathroom.
We walked back to the playground, and I saw Daddy coming over from the parking lot, and a car driving away. Daddy raised his hand to wave goodbye to the car.
Uncle Sam walked up to Daddy quickly, and I heard him say, "What the hell, Dean, did you just-" then he saw me behind Daddy, and stopped talking. Daddy turned and saw me.
"What are you doing, Charlie?" Daddy asked, and he sounded a little annoyed.
"I wanted to be with you," I said, feeling a little hurt. "Is that a crime?" I snapped, and I turned and stomped away. I walked around the edges of the playground by myself for a couple of minutes, and then Daddy caught up with me.
"You okay?" he asked. I shrugged.
"Do you want to stay here for a while longer, or are you ready to go?" He took my arm and stopped me. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked. I shrugged again, not looking at him.
"Talk to me, kiddo," he said.
"I just- I feel like I barely saw you since you got back," I told him, suddenly feeling like I was going to cry. "And there's too much going on here."
Daddy squatted down in front of me. "Tell you what," he said, "I've got to give Baby a tune up when we get back, how about you be my helper? Want to do that?"
"Uh...okay?" I said. "Who's Baby?"
He stood up. "My car!" he told me.
"Why do you call her your baby?"
"She's not my baby, she's just 'Baby'. You're my baby, my baby girl," he said, and he swung me up onto his hip and hugged me. We walked over to Uncle Sam, who was chatting with Miss Raquel.
"Bye, see you later!" some of the kids called. As we walked to the car, Uncle Sam said,
"More phone numbers. For meeting at the park every week, not for dates. Well, maybe for you, Dean." He gave Daddy a look.
When we got back to Uncle Bobby's house, Daddy pulled the car into the front of the garage, and brought out a huge chest- of- drawers thing on wheels. It was a giant tool box.
"Uncle Bobby said I'm not allowed in the garage," I said nervously.
"You're with me, it's fine," Daddy said. He opened the hood of the car and started to look at it, then he walked over and took some tools out of the drawers.
Over the next hour, Daddy taught me what a carburetor was, and about the different parts of the engine like pistons, spark plugs, fan belt, and alternator. He showed me how some of it worked and let me try to tighten a bolt. We both got grease and dirt on our hands, but it was fun to be with Daddy and listen to him telling me stories about the car.
It had been Grandpa John's car before, and they had driven all over the U.S. in it while Grandpa John was hunting. Daddy said that he and Uncle Sam had grown up riding in the back seat and that it felt like their home away from home.
"Come here," he motioned to me. "Take a look at this," he pulled up a floor mat in the back seat. There were two sets in initials carved in the bottom of the floor, "D.W." and "S.W."
I looked at him. "Did you and Uncle Sam do that?" I asked.
"Yeah, when we were kids," he said, a little sheepishly. "Your grandpa still doesn't know."
"Can I put my letters there too?" I asked.
"Well...sure." Daddy pulled a knife out of his pocket and opened it. He let me hold it and put his hands over mine, then we carved, "C.W." into the floor, next to his initials.
He straightened up and closed the knife, and I hugged him. "Thanks, Daddy!" I said happily.
"You're welcome, sweetheart," he said, smiling at me. He hugged me back, and then said, "I think we are both going to need baths tonight, I know I'm all greasy, and now you're all dirty too!"
"I don't care, I like being with you," I told him. I helped him put the tools away, and then we went into the kitchen.
Grandpa John was at the stove, stirring a pot. "Well, look here, we've got Mr. Grease Monkey, and Grease Monkey Junior!" he grinned at us.
"Come into the bathroom, Charlie, and I'll show you the soap we have to get the car grease off," Daddy said. There was a special soap to use for that, for the black grease on our hands.
I took a quick bath while dinner was cooking, and then after dinner, Daddy took a shower. Uncle Sam was getting ready to go on his date with Miss Raquel. He came into the library where we were all sitting around. I was on the sofa next to Grandpa John. I was reading a Hardy Boys book, and he was looking through a newspaper.
"Should I wait up for you?" Grandpa John asked with a teasing smile.
"No, and don't tell me I've got a curfew either," Uncle Sam said.
"Thank God we don't have to worry about that any more, huh Sammy?" Daddy came into the room with a towel around his neck. "Breaking John Winchester's curfew always meant a sore butt."
I looked at Daddy. "Grandpa John would spank you?"
Daddy sat down next to me. "Yep, he did, when we broke his rules or disobeyed. He could be pretty strict."
"Well, you need to follow orders when you're hunting, because it can be a life or death situation. I was training you two, and now you're great hunters because of that."
"Oh, I know, Dad. When I was a kid, I didn't like it though. No kid likes having their butt walloped." Daddy said.
"Now that he's a grandfather, he's an old softy," Uncle Sam grinned at Grandpa John.
"Well, that's what grandparents are supposed to be, right? They're supposed to spoil their grandkids, fill them up with candy, and send them back to their parents." Grandpa John smiled at me and leaned over to tweak my nose.
"How come you never let me fill up on candy?" I asked him. "You owe me, big time!"
That made all of them laugh.
"All right, I'm leaving." Uncle Sam beckoned to me. "Give me a hug, Charlie. Have a good night."
I hugged Uncle Sam and Daddy gave him the keys.
"Be good to Baby," Daddy called. "No food in her, remember?"
"Yes, Dean, I remember," Uncle Sam rolled his eyes as he walked out of the door.
The next morning I woke up to all four of them deep in conversation in the library. There was a couple of maps spread out, and one of them had lots of red marks and Xs all over it.
"What are you doing?" I asked Daddy. "Can I help?"
"No, and don't touch anything," Daddy said. "We're working on a case, Charlie. This is important."
"Uncle Sam, how did your date go?" I asked him.
"It was fine," he said, but he was distracted.
"Will you make me some oatmeal?" I leaned on his arm and looked at him, but he was looking at his laptop.
"No, Charlie, I'm working right now."
"Go get yourself some cereal," Daddy said. "We need to concentrate on this."
"Okay," I agreed. I went into the kitchen and got myself a bowl of Lucky Charms. After I ate, I went back into the library. Daddy was sitting at the desk, looking at what looked like a map on the computer.
"I'm plotting the co-ordinates of all the weather patterns in the area," he was saying.
"Can I sit with you?" I asked him.
"Not now, Charlie," he said. "Go find something to do."
"But Daddy-" I started.
Daddy turned to me. "Charlie. This is a big case, and all of us are working together on it. We need to be focused, so you need to go and do something on your own."
I looked up at him, feeling a little hurt. "Can I watch a video on the laptop?"
"No, I don't trust you with the laptop, and Uncle Sam is using it anyway. Go play," he said dismissively. That hurt my feelings even more, and I stomped out of there and went upstairs to my room. I got out my Polly Pocket toys and played with them for a while, but then I got bored and went back downstairs. They were all still looking stuff up. There were books open all over, and Grandpa John had a pad of paper and was writing a list of something on it.
"I found more cattle mutilations in the south of the area," Uncle Sam said.
I walked over to him instead of Daddy. He glanced at me and shut his laptop abruptly, but not before I glimpsed a photograph with what looked like a cow head and lots of blood. I looked up at him, feeling scared.
"What was that?" I asked. "Are you trying to find another creature like Aunt Michelle?"
"No, Charlie. Don't worry about it," he said. "You shouldn't be in here right now."
"Stop saying don't worry!" I snapped. "And what am I s'posed to do, I'm bored!"
"How about you write some lines, 'I will not snap at people'," Daddy said sternly. I turned to look at him, and he was watching me with an angry look on his face.
"Nooo!" I whined.
"Excuse me?" he said, raising his eyebrows.
"I just want to be with you!" I said, whining again.
"We're still working on this." Daddy told me. "You have to find something to entertain yourself. If you can't, I'm sure Uncle Bobby's kitchen floor needs to be swept and mopped."
"I don't want to do any chores!" I snapped.
Daddy leaned forward. "You're this close to getting a consequence, kid," he held his hand up with his thumb and forefinger right next to each other.
"You're mean!" I said, and I turned away from him and started to walk out of the library. Daddy came after me and caught my arm at the bottom of the stairs.
"Charlotte Anne." he said tightly. "I'm not going to put up with this today. Rein in the attitude now, or you're going to find yourself over my knee. I'm not in the mood to give you a bunch of warnings while you sass me over and over."
"Fine, then leave me alone!" I tried to yank my arm out of his hand.
He pulled me close to him. "We are working on something very important right now," he said, and his voice was hard. "Things aren't always about you and what you want."
"I said fine!" I tried to pull away again, and he smacked my butt once.
"Go to your room!" he let go of me and pointed up the stairs.
I ran, tears filling my eyes, and threw myself down on the bed. I cried for a few minutes, then I got off the bed and started to clean up the toys I had left out before. I got out all of my Hello Kitty figurines and looked at them. I wished I could get more of them. I wished I had my big dollhouse that I had had in the apartment with my mom. I had loved playing with it and could easily spend hours playing with it and re-arranging the furniture and stuff. I took out one of the Harry Potter books and started to read that for a while.
There was a knock on the door. I sat up and called, "Come in."
The door opened and Uncle Sam said, "Lunch is ready, are you hungry?"
He had made ham and cheese sandwiches for everyone, and he sat with me in the kitchen while I ate. He let me have some potato chips with lunch too, instead of insisting that I eat vegetables. Everyone else was still in the library working.
After lunch, Uncle Bobby got out some gardening tools and took them out to his back yard. He had marked off a small square near the door.
"Here ya go, kid, start digging," he told me.
"What do you mean?" I looked up at him.
"Well, you're always asking about the garden back here, so I figured I'd let you do some planting of your own. Dig up the grass in this area I've marked off, and really get the soil turned over, and then we can go buy some plants for you to put in here." He took his cap off of his head and re-settled it.
"Thanks, Uncle Bobby!" I hugged him.
"Go for it, kid," he said, and went back inside.
I walked into the kitchen, feeling sweaty and hot. I could hear loud voices coming from the library. I stood by the table, listening to them talk.
"-know it killed Mom, but it killed Jess too. My girlfriend. I should be the one there helping Dad. I need to be there, Dean." Uncle Sam said.
"Sammy-" Daddy started.
"No, don't pull out the childhood nickname. I've been here playing sitter for a while now, I need to get out there and see this through, for Jess." Uncle Sam's voice was bitter.
"This is something we've all been working towards, Sam, we should all be there-" Daddy said.
"Dude, she needs you, your kid needs you to be here for a while, not running off on hunts all the time," Uncle Sam said. "She doesn't say it, but I know she misses you."
"I get that, man, but when's the next time we're going to get this opportunity? This is big, bigger than all of us, and she's gonna have to just deal with that. Bobby said she could stay here as long as we need to be gone-"
"And you seriously think she's going to agree to stay with a grumpy old man she barely knows?" Uncle Sam's voice came closer. "I need a beer, anyone else?"
Uncle Sam was glancing behind him as he walked into the kitchen. He turned his head and saw me. "Charlie!" he said in a surprised voice.
"I'm hungry... you- you're going to go away and leave me here?" I squeaked out, tears filling my eyes.
Daddy came to the door just then. "Oh, Charlie-" he started to say, but I turned and ran up the stairs.
He came to my bedroom door just as I was closing it, and I slammed it in his face. He grabbed the knob and pushed on the door, preventing me from locking it.
I let go and ran over to the bed, burying myself under the covers.
I felt the bed dip as Daddy sat down. "Talk to me," Daddy said in a quiet voice.
"Why did you take me if you're just going to keep leaving me all the time?" I asked. "Why don't you want me?"
"Charlie, I do want you," Daddy said earnestly. "But this- -this thing that's happening, it's something that I've been waiting for for a long time, we all have, and it's very important-"
"Then go!" I shrieked. "Go away and leave me alone!"
I felt his hand on my side, and I wrenched my body away from him. "Don't touch me!" I shouted.
"Charlie-"
"NO!" I shouted. "GO! AWAY!"
"Can I tell you something?" he asked quietly. "You know that my mother... passed away, right? Well, she was...killed...by something supernatural, too. Just like your mom was. And Grandpa John has been searching for it, ever since. And he thinks that he's found it, and...Sam and I want to be there when he...does away with it."
I pulled the covers off of my head. "What is it?"
He looked uneasy. "I don't think you need to know that right now. In fact, the less you know, the better."
"Fine, then just go." I sighed, turning away from him.
"Charlie, please-" he said, and his voice broke.
"Dean," Grandpa John said from the hallway. "I need to talk to you, come downstairs."
Daddy leaned down and kissed the side of my head. "I'll be back," he told me.
I heard their footsteps walking down the stairs.
I curled up in a ball and cried. I felt hurt and sad- was he really going to go away and leave me here with Uncle Bobby?
I heard their voices getting louder and sounding angrier. They were arguing. It sounded like Daddy said, "You can't tell me what to do!" and then their voices got angrier sounding.
"THIS IS MY BATTLE TO FIGHT!" Grandpa John roared, and I heard a door slam, so hard that the walls shook.
It was quiet after that. I smelled food cooking, and then Daddy came to my door.
"Charlie- you awake?" he asked. "It's time for dinner."
I sat up, and he walked over to the bed. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry-" he started to say, and I jumped off of the bed and threw myself at him. He picked me up and hugged me close.
"Listen," he said, as I tried to make myself not cry, "I'm not going anywhere right now. None of us are. And I do want you, Charlie, I'm happy that you're my daughter. All right?"
"Okay, Daddy," I said, sniffling. He carried me downstairs, and set me down in the kitchen. Uncle Bobby had made hamburgers.
"Eat some salad," Uncle Sam set a bowl next to me. We sat and ate silently.
After he finished, Uncle Bobby stood up. "Y'all do the clean up, would ya? I'm gonna go search for John."
I helped Daddy rinse and stack the dishes in the dishwasher when we were finished eating. Then Daddy went upstairs to get ready for one of his dates.
I followed him upstairs and stood at the bathroom door watching as he shaved his face with an electric razor.
"Does that hurt?" I asked him.
"Nope," he said. "Want to feel it?" He leaned down and pressed it to my cheek for a moment.
"It tickles!" I said, giggling.
He straightened up and kept running it over his chin.
"Who are you going out with tonight?" I asked him.
"Um, her name is Kayla, she had two kids, a girl your age and a younger boy. I can't remember their names."
"I hope they don't like you," I muttered.
Daddy chuckled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
I looked at him. "You're my Daddy, no one else's!" I exclaimed, feeling scared all of a sudden.
He turned off the razor, and then bent down to me. "Of course I'm your Daddy. Even if I ended up being someone else's too, I'll always be yours, first and foremost. Okay?"
"Okay," I said doubtfully.
I tried not to cry when he left. I still felt nervous and a little jealous. What if he liked those kids better than me? What if he fell in love with this Kayla lady and she didn't want any more kids other than her own? Would she make him get rid of me? Where would I go? Would I have to stay here at Uncle Bobby's forever?