AUTHOR'S NOTE: WOW I am absolutely floored and amazed at the responses I've gotten from all of you- THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the support, you are wonderful to leave me reviews and make me feel better! My eyes welled up more than once as I was reading over everything! To respond to some issues brought up be people- Lisa and Ben will be around for a bit, but will not become major characters. My AU doesn't follow the timeline of the show, and I'm planning on bringing in characters that I like, if I can fit them in somehow. I don't like when characters that I like die on a show, so fanfic is a way for me to keep them alive! Please send healing vibes to Ponygirlrunner25, she's having a procedure done to help her back pain and I'm sure she could use some happy thoughts and energy! I felt bad about leaving you all with such a cliffie, so here's the next chapter...
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I heard a knock on the door, and Daddy walked over to it and pulled it open. "Lisa, hi, how ya doin'?," he said. I turned my head so I could see them. Lisa and Ben stood in the doorway.
Daddy and Lisa hugged and he kissed her cheek. Then he looked down at Ben.
"Ben, hey," Daddy said, putting his hand on Ben's shoulder. Ben stepped forward and hugged Daddy around the waist. He looked up at Daddy and smiled at him.
"Come on, Charlie's in here," Daddy said, and they walked a couple steps forward.
Then we heard voices coming from the hallway, Uncle Sam sounding annoyed, "-you need to follow the doctor's orders and at least get half- caff, or you're going to end up back in the hospital!"
Then Uncle Sam and Grandpa John were standing in the doorway looking at Lisa and Ben.
"Oh, hey, Lisa, hey, Ben," Uncle Sam said casually.
"Hi Sam," Lisa replied with a short smile. Grandpa John had raised his eyebrows. Everyone looked at each other for a long moment. Ben stepped backward into Lisa.
"Uh, Lisa Braeden, this is John Winchester, my dad," Daddy said uncomfortably.
Lisa stepped forward, holding out her hand, and Grandpa John stepped toward her and they shook hands.
"Nice to meet you, sir," Lisa said formally.
"And, uh, this is Ben... Lisa's son," Daddy said, putting his hand on Ben's shoulder again. Ben stepped forward and held his hand out too. Grandpa John looked at Ben with a stern look on his face, and they shook hands.
"Nice to, uh, meet you," Ben said, and he sounded nervous like I had when I had met Grandpa John for the first time.
"Well, come say hi to Charlie," Daddy said, and they all walked over to the bed.
"Charlie, I brought you the Wolverine fig-" Ben started to say, but then he looked at me and his face went white. He swallowed uncomfortably, and then he started to cry. He turned and grabbed on to Lisa's waist, hiding his face.
"Ben, what's wrong?" Lisa asked, putting her hand on his back.
"It- this is all my fault, if I hadn't taken Charlie to that house, Mrs. Wheeler wouldn't have-"
"Honey, we talked about that, remember? You don't know what might have happened, she had...taken other kids in the neighborhood too, and she might have gotten to you anyway." Lisa looked down at him.
Ben glanced at me. "I just—feel-so-bad-for- Charlie-" he heaved out.
Lisa looked at Daddy. "He's been excited since I told him, he said he's always wanted a sister or brother, and he's been making plans about her coming to visit and all the stuff he wants to do. I don't think he realized the extent of this," she waved at the bed. "So it's a bit of a shock."
"Listen, Ben, we're going to figure this out, and Charlie's going to get better, okay?" Daddy leaned down and spoke to Ben. "And before you know it, the two of you are going to be running around together."
Ben looked at Daddy. "Promise?"
"Well, I can't exactly promise, but I can tell you that I'm pretty sure that Charlie is going to beat this," Daddy stood up. He looked up. "What's this?"
"Oh," Ben said, letting go of his mom and turning to me. "We got you a Wolverine balloon!" he said with a grin. He took the ribbon from his mom and pulled it down to show me the shiny mylar balloon of Wolverine crouching down with his claws out. "Isn't it cool!"
"Yeah," I said. "Thanks, Ben!"
"I brought you the action figure too, but that was dumb of me 'cause you can't play with it right now," Ben said sheepishly. He let the balloon drift up to the ceiling and then tied the ribbon onto the railing of the bed. "You have to get better so you can come to my house, and we can have an epic battle with my Batman figs, my friend Tyler has the X-Men's training lab, and we can go to his house and fight him! Or, you know, you can be on the X-men team and fight me," he said.
"So you told Ben that Dean is..." Grandpa John said.
Lisa looked at him and nodded. "I am having testing done, but I think we can all agree looking at Ben that we know who his dad is," she smiled at Daddy.
"So what's the plan?" Grandpa John asked her. There was an edge to his voice.
"Well..." she said, and Daddy stepped over and said, "The plan is to get Charlie better and then see where we are," he looked at Lisa and then at Grandpa John. "Everything is kinda in upheaval right now, so we're not going to do anything concrete as of yet."
"Hmph," Grandpa John said, tucking his arm into his broken arm so that they were crossed. He looked disapproving.
"So... how's Charlie doing?" Lisa asked brightly.
"She's doing okay," Daddy said. "She had an MRI this morning. They also took some blood, and the doctor said that the level of toxins is slightly lower."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Lisa smiled.
"Yeah, it is. We're just waiting to see what the other tests show."
Lisa looked at me, and said, "Charlie, your hair looks cute like that."
"I didn't know that they cut it," I said sourly, "They said they had to 'cause it got messed up in the hurt part on my neck."
"Oh," Lisa glanced at Dean. "That must have been a surprise!"
"It was, I hate it!" I said, and tears came to my eyes.
"Have you seen it yet?" Lisa asked. "It does look cute, sweetie."
"No, I haven't," I said, sniffling.
She opened her purse and went through it, then pulled out a little makeup mirror. "Look," she leaned over the bed and moved it so I could look into it. My hair was all one length, just below my chin. "See? It doesn't look bad."
"Short hair is for boys," I said glumly.
"Oh, it's not that short," she said. "And hair always grows back, so in no time at all I bet you'll have long hair again. You can still wear barrettes and stuff too."
"Oh, that's right," Uncle Sam said. He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out my Hello Kitty barrettes.
"You like Hello Kitty?" Lisa asked, smiling at me again, "So do I." She took the barrettes from Uncle Sam. "You want me to put these in?"
"Okay," I agreed. I looked at Daddy. "She knows who Hello Kitty is!"
Lisa scoffed, "Well, yeah, everyone knows Hello Kitty."
"They couldn't tell that she's a cat! None of them could!" I told her.
"Well, hey, it is kinda hard to tell!" Daddy protested.
Lisa shook her head and looked at me. "Men," she said, and rolled her eyes.
She fiddled with my hair for a few moments, and then showed me what it looked like in the little mirror. She had pulled the front of my hair back a little bit on each side and secured it with the barrettes.
"That looks adorable," she said, "I'll have to remember that you like Hello Kitty."
"Thanks," I said gratefully.
"Thanks Lisa," Daddy said. "It does look cute, Charlie," he smiled at me.
"Dean, will you take me for a ride in your car sometime?" Ben looked up at Daddy.
"Uh, yeah, eventually, I don't want to leave Charlie right now though," Daddy said.
"It's a V-8, right?" Ben asked. "How many horses?"
"Yeah, right," Daddy said proudly. "550 horses!"
"Awesome!" Ben grinned at Daddy, and Daddy grinned back at him. Daddy looked over at Grandpa John. "You know, she was my old man's car at first, so he knows plenty about her as well."
"Ben here loves cars and is very knowledgeable about them," Daddy said to Grandpa John.
"I can see that," Grandpa John said.
"So you had Dean's car first?" Ben asked.
"Yeah, I bought her off the lot in '73 and she was the boy's home away from home all throughout their childhood," Grandpa John said.
"1973?" Ben asked in disbelief. "Wow, that's a long time ago! You must be pretty old!"
"Uh, well-" Grandpa John said, and Lisa, Daddy, and Uncle Sam all started laughing.
"What?" Ben looked back and forth at all of them. "What'd I say?"
"Don't tell your Gramps he's old," Daddy said, wiping his eyes. "He doesn't really like that."
Then they all looked at each other, because Daddy had just called Grandpa John Ben's Grandpa!
Ben looked nervous, and mumbled, "Sorry," his face getting red.
Grandpa John stepped forward and put his hand on Ben's shoulder. "It's okay, kiddo," he said, and he smiled at Ben.
I didn't feel jealous that he called Ben that, because it just seemed right all of a sudden.
"Uh, what grade are you going into, Charlie?" Ben asked me.
"Third," I said. "What about you?"
"Fifth," he said proudly, "and next year I'll be a middle schooler!"
"Oh, please don't start talking about that, I'm not ready for that!" Lisa said, pretending to be upset.
"Are you gonna go here?" Ben asked. "Maybe we'll be in the same school!"
"Well, we're not sure what we're going to do," Daddy told him. "And for right now, Uncle Sam is going to home-school her."
"Oh," Ben looked disappointed.
"We'll see what happens," Uncle Sam said, "Charlie may decide she doesn't like home-schooling and want to go to regular school."
"First priority is getting her better," Daddy took my hand and smiled at me.
Grandpa John's phone rang and he answered it, and then left the room.
Daddy looked at Lisa and then at Uncle Sam. "I think he's taking this easier than he took the news of Charlie," he said quietly.
"Well, he's already used to having a grand-daughter, what's one more grand-kid?" Uncle Sam asked, and Daddy smacked his shoulder.
"I'm glad," Lisa said with relief, "From what you told me about him before, I was kinda expecting a fight."
"He seems a little, uh-" Ben said slowly.
"He's a little scary at first, but he's really nice," I told him. "He is scary when he gets mad though."
"Well, being able to be scary is what got him through Vietnam and a whole bunch of dangerous hunts," Daddy said. "But he's a good guy."
"And family is important to him," Uncle Sam said.
The door opened and a nurse walked in pushing the machine that did blood pressure. "Time to check your vitals!" she said. "We've got the whole family here today? That's nice." She put the blood pressure cuff on my arm and the thermometer in my ear. After a couple minutes, everything was done.
"Everything looks good, I'll let the doctor know." she smiled at Daddy, and left.
"Well, we'd better go," Lisa said. "I've got to take Ben shopping for all of his back-to-school supplies and clothes."
Ben rolled his eyes. "I haaaaaate shopping!" he groaned.
"I told you, we'll stop for ice cream afterwards, as long as you co-operate with me, buddy," Lisa ruffled his hair.
"Bribery always works," Daddy said. "Thanks for stopping by, Lis." They hugged each other, and he kissed her cheek again. She turned to me and leaned down to kiss my forehead.
"Bye, Charlie, we'll see you again," she said with a smile.
Ben gave Daddy a quick hug and waved at Uncle Sam. "Bye!" he said, and then they left the room.
"I'm tired now," I told them, and Daddy lowered the head of my bed. He pulled up the covers and tucked MaryBear in more securely next to me. Then he and Uncle Sam walked over near the door and started to talk in quiet voices. I tried to hear what they were saying but I fell asleep.
"Charlie," Daddy said quietly. "Wake up, baby, the doctor is here to talk to us."
I opened my eyes and turned my head. Daddy made the head of the bed raise up so that I was sitting up.
"Well, the results from the MRI are in," Dr. Miriam said to me. "Everything appears normal, there is nothing to indicate the cause of the paralysis. So we're going to keep checking the bloodwork daily, to make sure that the toxin levels are lowering, and see if Charlie starts to gain any movement back as the toxins leave her system. I'm going to do some more testing tomorrow if the levels are down, all right?"
"Another MRI?" I asked.
"No, I'll check your muscles and nerves again like I did the other day," She looked back and forth at all of us. "Any questions?"
Daddy looked at her, and then at me. "Charlie, the doctor wants to do a special study on you," he said. "This is the first chance that a doctor has had to actually test a survivor of a changeling, and she wants to keep track of your progress and health."
"What do you mean?" I asked, looking at him and then at the doctor.
"I've managed to isolate the toxin from your blood, and it has some qualities that we've never seen before, so this is important for research. I'd like to keep testing your blood, and your body as it heals from the toxins, and write an article about it. It will be important to share with all the hunters out there in the future, so that they know how to treat any potential future victims. And I can begin to work on an antidote as well." Dr. Miriam said.
"So you have to keep testing me? Am I gonna have to get lots of MRIs?" I asked, getting nervous.
"Most of it will be drawing your blood, and testing anything else that comes up. Once you begin to regain the function of your muscles we'll work with you and also do testing if needed."
Daddy glanced at Uncle Sam and then looked at me. "So what that means, Charlie, is that we're going to be staying here for now."
"You mean living here? In the hospital?"
"No, we'll find an apartment or something near here. This is a teaching hospital in a university, it's a little bit different than a regular hospital, they couldn't have us stay for a long time any way. Uncle Sam and I are looking into finding a place to live right now." Daddy looked at Uncle Sam again.
"And you and I can work on your home-schooling while you're getting better," Uncle Sam said to me with a smile.
"So we're going to be near Ben and Lisa?" I asked.
"Yeah, for now," Daddy nodded.
"What do you think of all that, Charlie?" Dr. Miriam asked. "Are you willing to do the testing and everything?"
"I...guess," I said. "Will it be a lot?"
"At first, yes, we'll probably want to see you once a week, but that will change as you get better." Her phone made a chiming noise and she glanced at it. "I've got to go. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, and Charlie, thank you for agreeing to do this." She smiled at me and walked out of the room.
Daddy leaned over and took my hand. "What do you think, kiddo?"
"It's okay, I guess," I said. "Are we gonna live in Ben's neighborhood?"
Daddy chuckled. "No, the houses there are...out of our range."
"We'll have to find somewhere that will fit all of us, too." Uncle Sam said. "Dad's going to need to stay with us until he gets his cast off." His phone beeped and he looked at it. "He needs help in the cafeteria, I'll be back."