AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter, and the previous one, has some dialogue from the Supernatural episode "The Kids Are Alright", Season 3, episode 2.
THANK YOU to my "regular reviewers" and also to those of you who left a review for the first time, I really appreciate that you took the time to leave me your thoughts. I love reviews! (all writers do!) I decided to make Ben a couple of years older than Charlie because I thought they would play off of each other better that way. (Thank you for your review, KyatsRani, and I'm glad you like my story, but for the record, don't tell a writer that "they messed up..."- this is my story that is an AU with some canon added in, and I thought out how old I wanted Ben to be, before I wrote about it, I didn't "mess up".)
A couple of people have mentioned Castiel, and while I agree that it would be amusing to see how he acts with Charlie, I have no plans currently to add him in. I am thinking about it/considering it though! We'll have to see where the muse takes me after this current story arc winds down...
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"Hot dogs and hamburgers are ready!" A man called, and a woman brought a huge platter over to the table with a bunch of cooked hot dogs and hamburgers. She set it down, and people started to line up at one of of the tables and grab plates and stuff.
Daddy came over to me. "You hungry? Let's get in line."
I followed him over to the line of people that had started to gather, and he looked down at me. "You okay?"
"Yeah," I said, although my voice shook. He frowned a little. "Are you sure?"
"Uh-huh," I said, and I turned to look at a bunch of kids who were running past. "This is a big party!"
"Yeah, it is," Daddy agreed. "Ben must have a lot of friends." He looked down at me again. "Did you go in the bouncy house?"
"Uh, yeah," I said. He took my chin in his hand and lifted my face so I would look at him. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, uh, why?" I lied.
"You look...funny. And you're not acting like you usually do. I thought you'd be really excited to be here, it's a chance to run around and play with other kids." He let go of my chin. "Well, if you say you're okay, then I believe you."
We had gotten to the table at that point. Lisa and a couple of other women were serving people.
"You're a new face," a woman with short red hair said to Daddy.
"I'm, uh, an old friend of Lisa's," Daddy told her.
"Oh, are you new in town? Let me give you my card, I'm with Cicero Realty, and we've got a lot of new houses going up in this neightborhood."
"Dean, this is Mrs. Wheeler, she's my realtor, and as you just heard, she sells houses in the area," Lisa said. She was trying to open a big jar of pickles. Daddy took it from her and opened it, then handed it back to her.
She smiled at him. "Thanks, Dean."
Daddy took the card the woman was holding out and stuck it in his pocket. "Well, thanks, but we're just passing through."
"Oh," said the realtor. "Well, if you decide you want to settle here, you give me a call!"
Daddy and I filled our plates with food and then started to walk over to one of the large trees.
"Oh, I'm going to go get a drink, you want one?" he asked me.
"Can I have a soda?" I looked up at him.
"Sure, be right back," he said. I walked over to the tree and stood under it. There were chairs set up all over. On the other side of the tree, two women were sitting down with plates of food.
I heard the woman with long blond hair say, "Did you hear Lisa call him 'Dean'?"
The second woman, who had short brown hair, said, "Yeah, why?"
The blonde woman leaned in to her, "You don't know about Dean? The Dean? 'Best-night-of-my-life' Dean?"
The brown-haired woman looked at her and said, "No! Tell me!" urgently.
The blonde woman leaned closer, and said, "Oh, my God, so, they had this crazy, semi-illegal -" She stopped talking and I turned.
Daddy was coming over to me. He handed me a can of soda and said, "Want to sit down under the tree?"
"Um, let's go somewhere else," I said. I wanted to get away from the two women who were talking about my Daddy, hearing them made me feel funny.
"All right," Daddy looked around. "Hey, there's a couple of seats over there." We walked over to a table. There were a few kids sitting around with their parents. We were busy eating for a few minutes.
When I put my napkin on my plate, Daddy looked at me. "Let's go over some rules, Charlie," he said. "I don't want you going off by yourself, and by that I mean no leaving the yard or house, and you let me know where you're going to be, got it?"
"Okay, Daddy," I said.
"You're going to be playing with other kids. What's a good rule to remember?"
"Uh, no hitting or putting my hands on another kid, and come and tell you if they're bothering or hurting me."
He reached out and ruffled my hair. "Good girl," he said with a smile. He took my plate from me. "I'll take care of this, you go play, okay? I'm going to go talk to Lisa."
I watched him walk over to a big trash can and throw away our garbage, and then he walked over to the table where Lisa was setting up a stack of gifts and the birthday cake. He leaned over to talk to her, and then he helped her pick some trash up. They walked into the house together.
I looked over at Ben. He and some of the other boys were playing with action figures. I walked over to them.
"Whatcha doin'?" I asked.
"Playing Batman versus X-Men," a blond boy said, "You can't play, you're a girl," he said dismissively.
"Why not? I love the X-Men! Hey, is that the new Wolverine action figure?" I asked Ben.
"Yeah, I already have this one," he said sheepishly, "My grandma sent this one to me, but I got one when I got all A's on my last report card at the end of school."
"I have the one from when the first movie came out," I said. "He has the old outfit on."
"Here," Ben said, holding it out to me. "You can have this one since I already have it."
"But- but it's your birthday present!" I protested.
He shook his head. "Nah, I don't like Wolverine that much anyway," he shook the action figure at me. "Go ahead, it's okay. It's my present and I can do what I want with it!"
"Okay," I said slowly. "Thanks!" I remembered that I wasn't supposed to read the X-Men comics any more, but I didn't know if that meant I couldn't play with the toys. Uncle Sam had taken the comics and my action figures and put them away, but he wasn't here right now, and I was only going to be playing with it for a little while, I told myself. I would tell Daddy later that Ben had given it to me.
We played with them for a little while, and I watched Ben. Sometimes the way he talked and moved reminded me of Daddy. I had to go talk to Daddy and tell him. I felt nervous- would he believe me? Or would he get angry like people used to when I told them things?
I put the Wolverine action figure in my pocket and went into the house to find Daddy. The kitchen was empty, but I heard voices in the dining room. I walked in, and he and Lisa were standing next to the table, close together, talking in low voices.
I walked over to Daddy and and stood there. He didn't look at me at first. I grabbed his arm. "Daddy...Dad...I need to talk to you."
He was looking into Lisa's eyes. "Daddy!" I repeated.
He turned his head. "What, Charlie?"
"I need to talk to you," I said again.
"It's okay, we can pick this up later. It's about time to open the presents," Lisa said.
Daddy turned to me as she walked away.
"What is it?" Daddy asked me. I walked into the living room and he followed me, and then I turned around and faced him. I felt nervous and uncomfortable.
"Daddy, I don't know how to say this..." I traced a line in the rug with my shoe.
"Then just say it," he said, frowning a little.
"Uh, well, did you know that, uh, Ben is, uh, your... that, uh, you're his...you're his Daddy?" I looked up at him and watched his face.
He looked stunned. "What are you...how do you know this, Charlie?" he asked.
"I saw it, Daddy," I explained.
"Is this something you...know?" his voice was uncertain.
I nodded. "We were holding hands and jumping together in the bouncy house and I felt it and I just knew...Daddy, how is that possible?"
"Well, Lisa and I were... together for a while... before," Daddy said slowly.
"You mean like boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"Kind of..." he cleared his throat. As I watched, his face went from nervous to relieved and then proud.
"Wow, I have a son," he rubbed his hand over his face. "I have a son!" he repeated, and his voice was proud too.
"Come on, let's go watch. Lisa said they're doing the cake after he opens his presents," Daddy took my hand. I walked with him, not sure what to say. I had lots of questions. What was going to happen? Would he tell Lisa what I knew and about how I knew things? Would she even believe him? How would we prove it? Would that mean that we would all have to live together? Would Daddy and Lisa get married? Would we have to move in here with them? What if Lisa and Ben didn't like me?
We walked outside again and watched as Ben opened all his presents. I looked at Daddy and he was watching Ben with his eyes shining and a big smile on his face. It made me feel funny inside. I don't think Daddy had ever looked at me like that. What if Daddy decided that he didn't want me? I had been so bad with him, misbehaving and being sassy all the time, stealing, and I tried to do a spell! What if Ben was a really really good kid and Daddy decided that he wanted to stay here and be with Ben and his Mommy for the rest of his life? And he didn't want me any more? Where would I go then?
I turned my attention back to Ben. He was excitedly tearing into the wrapping paper of yet another present. He tossed the paper on the ground and turned the package over in his hand. It was an action figure of Batman with some little accessories.
"Wow, cool!" Ben said, and a couple of the boys that were grouped around him chimed in with their comments.
Ben put the package on the table and grabbed another present and started tearing the paper.
"Hold it, Ben," Lisa said with a laugh. "Let's figure out who this is from, you're getting ahead of me here!"
Ben turned the gift over. "Says it's from...Tyler." He glanced around and caught a boy's eye. "Thanks dude!" he said, and then began to tear the paper off.
I looked at the pile of toys on the table that was rapidly growing. I tried not to feel jealous but I couldn't help it. My birthday had always been pretty quiet, I'd had a couple of big parties when I was little, but we didn't have a lot of relatives and I never seemed to have that many friends either. The apartment building we lived in was mostly adults or older people, or families with little kids, so there wasn't anyone to really invite to a party.
And, for the last two years my mom had been sick or having treatments or recovering, so we hadn't done much for my birthday. This past year we hadn't done anything, my mom had been throwing up a lot that whole week and could barely get out of bed. I did a lot of laundry and ate a lot of microwave soup. On the day of my birthday I felt mad in the morning when I got up and saw that there was nothing there for me...and then I saw my mommy laying on the sofa and she was ghostly pale with huge dark circles under her eyes and her lips were dry and cracked. Then I felt guilty for getting angry. She hadn't even known it was my birthday and I didn't say anything. A couple of weeks after that when she had started to feel a little better she had said something about realizing she had missed it, but then she had another treatment, and it was hard on her again, and we went through the same thing as before. And I just pushed down my want of having any sort of celebration of my birthday that year.
I gulped against the sob that was rising in my throat and blinked my eyes rapidly so that I wouldn't start to cry. I felt like a big baby- here I was at someone else's birthday party and I was getting all upset because I wanted a party. I took a deep breath and clenched my fists to try and distract myself.
"Hey," Daddy said, "what's going on, Charlie?"
I glanced at him and he was looking down at me. When he saw my face he got concerned. He squatted down next to me. "Are you okay, kiddo?" His eyes searched mine.
I felt like bursting into tears, but I took another deep breath. "It just reminds me that—I didn't, uh, I didn't get to have a, a party or anything the last two years... 'cause my mom was so sick."
"What, you mean you didn't celebrate your birthday?" he asked.
I shook my head, afraid to speak again. I didn't want to start crying!
"At all?" He raised his eyebrows. I shook my head again and bit my lip.
"Not even a cake?" he asked. For the third time, I shook my head.
He stood up, put his hand on top of my head, and said, "I'm so sorry that happened, I'm sure it was rough for you. We'll have to make sure we do something really fun for you this year, okay sweetheart?"
"Okay, Daddy," I said, and my voice cracked. I cleared my throat and put my arms around his waist and hugged him. He put his arm around my shoulders.
"Thanks," I said softly, but I don't think he heard me, because at that point Ben had opened up a big present and it was a big remote-controlled helicopter. All of the kids were "ooh-ing and aah-ing" over it.
"All right," Lisa said, picking up a trash bag filled with used wrapping paper. "Get ready to sing, it's time for cake!"
Ben looked around. "Where's Charlie?" He saw me standing next to Daddy. "Charlie, come sit here!" he called to me, patting the table next to him.
I walked over as Ben was saying to the kid sitting there, "Hey, let her sit there."
Ben smiled at me as I sat down. We heard the door slide open, and then his mom was walking over slowly holding a big flat cake with lit candles on it. Everyone started to sing, and she put the cake in front of Ben. When the song was finished he leaned forward and blew out the candles, and everyone clapped.
"Oh, can someone bring me those dessert plates? They're over on the table," Lisa said. She leaned over and started to take the candles out of the cake.
Ben picked one up and looked at me. "I like to lick the icing off the candles," he said with a grin. He handed me a candle. "Try it!"
He and I licked the icing off of all of the candles and put them on a napkin. I looked over at Daddy and he was watching us and smiling.
"Becky, can you bring out the ice cream? There's two tubs in the freezer, thanks," she said to a woman standing on the other side of the table. She picked up a cake server and started to cut into the cake.
"All right, birthday boy, do you want a corner or a middle piece?" she asked Ben.
"I want a corner!" he said. He looked at me. "Do you like the icing? I love it!"
"It's okay," I said.
"Then you probably want the piece next to it," Lisa said to me. She handed me a piece next. The other woman walked over with the ice cream and opened the tubs and started scooping it out. The cake was chocolate and I got a scoop of chocolate ice cream too.
"Thank you," I said, when my plate was handed to me.
Ben looked at me. "You like chocolate?" he asked me.
"Yeah," I said.
"Me too, it's the best!" he agreed, taking a huge bite of cake.
After the cake and ice cream had been served and eaten, Lisa said loudly, "All right, I have a surprise! We're going to have a water gun battle!"
She walked over to a shed and pulled out a couple of big plastic bins. There were lots of those huge water guns that shoot long streams of water in the bins, and there were buckets of water to refill the guns. All the kids crowded around to grab a gun, and I stood off to the side and waited for the crowd to go away.
As I stepped up to the bin, a tall boy stepped up at the same time. He and I leaned down to the bin at the same time and reached for a gun. He pushed my hand away.
"I want that one," he said, and he grabbed it, then pushed me again when he straightened up. I didn't say anything, just picked up one of the other water guns and then stood up. I looked over at Daddy again and he had been watching. He smiled at me- I guess he was happy that I didn't push the boy back. Maybe I was learning how to behave better.
Everyone started running around, hiding and trying to shoot people and spray them with the water guns. It got very noisy and chaotic for a while. A couple of the men that were there, including Daddy, picked up the leftover water guns and joined in with us. Then one of the Dads turned the hose on that was on the side of the house and kept squirting kids with that when they would run by. Everyone got wet and there was lots of screaming and laughing. It was a lot of fun.
When kids finally got tired of that, it was time for the party to be over, and kids started to leave. I found Daddy sitting in a chair underneath a tree.
"Are we gonna go soon?" I asked. I was tired and getting hungry again and my clothes were damp.
"Well, I wanted to talk to Lisa about... things, so no."
"But Daddy, I'm tired of being here," I complained. "Can't we call Uncle Sam to come and get me?"
"No, he's not going to want to drive here just to pick you up and then come back for me later. Lisa's got to say good-bye to all the people leaving, and I can talk to her after that. Just wait for a while. Go play in the bouncy house again."
"But Daddyyy-"
"Stop whining, or I'll put you in time out," Daddy said sternly. "I don't want to hear it."
"Fine!" I scowled at him and stomped away.
"Charlie!" he called. "Charlie, come back here!"
I stopped and turned around. He crooked his finger at me.
I walked over slowly. He leaned forward, and said quietly, "You want to nip that attitude in the bud right now, or else."
"Or else what?" I snapped, crossing my arms.
He got mad. "Or else I will take you inside and give you a spanking. Is that what you want?" He gave me a stern look.
"No," I gulped. I did not want to be spanked where other people might hear it!
"Then stow it, and behave. Now go play," he turned me and gave my bottom a gentle swat, and I walked away from him.
I went into the bouncy house again. Ben and a couple of other kids were in there too.
"If you jump lots and lots it will dry your clothes off!" said a little girl. We all tried to hold hands and jump together but one of us would jump at the wrong time and we kept all falling down. It was funny and we were laughing a lot.
Finally the rest of the moms came and got their kids, and Ben and I went into the kitchen.
"We've got some leftover hot dogs and hamburgers if you want," Lisa said to us. "It's just about dinner time."
"Could I have a hot dog, please?" I asked her. She served me and I sat at the counter and ate. She offered me some potato chips too, and got me a juice box.
"So, you're Dean's daughter?" she asked. She was putting leftovers into plastic bowls with lids.
"Yeah, but I only just met him," I said.
She stopped. "Oh?"
"Yeah, uh, my mommy, she, uh, she, passed...away recently," I explained, looking down at my plate.
"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry," she leaned over and put her hand on my arm. "I'm sure it's been quite a change for you, huh?"
"Yeah," I agreed.
"Dean's a good guy, though," she said, "I'm sure he wants only the best for you." She smiled at me and went back to the food.
I didn't know what else to say, so I ate quietly. She asked what grade I was going into and the kinds of things I like to do, and I told her. I finished eating and threw my trash away, and then went to find Daddy. I went out onto the back deck.
Daddy and Ben were in the yard, throwing a football back and forth.
"You've got an amazing arm, Ben," Daddy said to him. "Do you play any sports?"
"I've been playing baseball since I was 5," Ben said proudly.
"That's awesome! I'd love to come and watch one of your games," Daddy held his arm back. "Go long and try and catch this."
Ben backed up and Daddy threw the ball high into the air, and Ben ran after it and caught it.
Daddy laughed. "You've got an incredible eye too!" he said admiringly. "You're great, kiddo!"
A wave of jealousy overtook me. 'Kiddo' is what my Daddy called me! And Daddy had never done anything like this with me, he did take me to play miniature golf and he pushed me on the swings, but he had never thrown a ball around with me or even asked if I wanted to. And he had never complimented me like that or looked at me the way he was looking at Ben right now.
The sliding glass door opened. "Ben, your grandma is on the phone," Lisa called. " And you need to eat something, want a hot dog or hamburger?"
Ben ran over and came up on the deck, and Daddy followed him.
"Dean, you want something?" Lisa asked.
"Sure, just heat me up whatever's left," Daddy said. Ben went inside and Lisa shut the door. Daddy looked at me. "What's up, Charlie?" he asked.
I glared at him. He looked at me questioningly. I turned and stomped away.
He followed me, and took my arm. "Hey, talk to me, kiddo," he said.
I spun around to face him. "I thought Ben was your kiddo!" I spat.
"What- what are you talking about?" Daddy's face was confused.
"You're out here playing ball with him, and the way you're talking-" I couldn't help it, my voice was nasty.
Daddy stepped back as if I'd hit him, and then his face changed to mad.
"So we threw the ball around a little. Just what is your problem?" he hissed at me.
"You are!" I snapped. "You're my problem!"
"And what the hel- what is that supposed to mean?" He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"You- you're acting like- he-he's-" I stumbled over my words in my anger.
"Oh, is this really about Ben? Are you jealous? How can you be jealous of a kid you just met?"
"Because of how you're acting! You're acting like he's soooo great, and you're just thrilled to find out that you have another kid, a boy, and I- " I stopped and took a deep breath because I could feel tears coming and I didn't want to cry, because I was still too angry.
"You are behaving very immaturely and selfishly!" Daddy said. "I am not happy with you at all!"
"Then why don't you get rid of me?" I sneered. "Since perfect Ben is your perfect Goddamn son!"
Daddy's eyes got big and he stepped forward and grabbed my arm, pulling me close to him. He bent down so that his face was in my face.
"First of all," he said in a deep, stern voice, "you do not speak to me like that, ever." His green eyes were flashing angrily at me.
"Second of all, you do not swear at me." His eyes flicked back and forth between mine, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. "When we get to the hotel tonight, you have an appointment with the paddle and a bar of soap."
He straightened up, and then turned me and swatted my butt. "Go stand in the corner while I talk to Lisa. I'm going to call Uncle Sam to come pick us up."
Tears filled my eyes. He landed another, harder swat on my rear end. "Go!"
I opened the sliding glass door and he followed me in and pointed to a corner of the dining room.
I walked to the corner and stood there, looking down at my feet. I heard him leave the room. This was terrible. I wanted to run around screaming and breaking things. I had just gotten a Daddy and and a Uncle and a Grandfather, and here it could all get taken away by this boy. Just watching how Daddy was with Ben had hurt me deeply. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to say what was in my heart. I felt like I had no family now. My mommy was dead and my daddy was about to get taken away by this new boy and his mommy. And I was probably going to get thrown out just like that bag of used wrapping paper.
I heard footsteps walk by in the kitchen and then the sliding door open and close.
I stood there for a few minutes, tears pouring down my face and dripping off of my chin. I made my decision, and I knew what I had to do. I turned and walked out of the room, wiping my face off, and walked quickly through the kitchen and slipped out the back door.
Ben was on the back deck, tossing the football in the air and catching it.
"Hey," he said when I came near. "Whatcha doin'? Wanna play?" He caught the ball and held it out to me.
"N-no," I mumbled.
He looked at me closely. "Are you okay? Are you- are you crying?"
I shook my head and turned away. "I'm leaving," I said, "My Daddy doesn't want me any more, he wants you, so congratulations."
Ben looked confused. "What do you mean, he wants me? We just met, and I don't even know him!"
I shook my head. "Nothing," I said. I walked down the steps.
"Hey," he said, "Where are you gonna go?"
"I don't know," I said, "Somewhere far away from here."
"Okay, well, I'll help you," he said, "There's an empty house down the street that you can stay in, it's still being built but they stopped working on it because the buyer fell through. That's what Mrs. Wheeler told my mom. No one goes there at all. And there's a bus that runs during the week and stops on that corner."
"Okay," I said.
"C'mon, I'll show you the house. It's really cool!"
I followed him as we made our way walking through people's back and side yards. Ben would tell me something about each house we walked by. "This is Mrs. Murray's house, she has three little yorkies that bark all the time, it's really annoying when she walks them...this is Dr. Evans' house, he's retired and he travels a lot...this is my friend Seth's house but they're on vacation right now..."
We got to the empty house. It was at the very end of the road, and the outside frame was built and some of the walls but the inside was very open and there was only pink foam stuffing in the walls.
Both of us gasped when Mrs. Wheeler came walking in.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. I got a weird feeling from her.
"Uh, I was just, uh, showing her around," Ben said.
"Oh," Mrs. Wheeler said. "I thought you were here to see the puppies."
"Puppies?" Ben asked, and glanced at me.
"Yes, a stray dog came into the house and gave birth to a litter of puppies, they're so small and cute! Would you each like to hold one? They're in the next room," she told us.
"Yeah! I love puppies!" Ben said, his eyes shining.
We followed her, but the room was empty. She turned towards me and grabbed my hand, pulling me to her. I looked up and her face had changed, I saw her true self, her face and skin were gray and blotchy and her eyes were weird and dark, and she had a round mouth that had sharp teeth sticking out. She was a monster! I started to scream and that's when she did something to my neck, a hard pinch, and then everything started to go black.