AUTHOR'S NOTE: My apologies for taking so long to update- I went on a short vacation with my family, and then I sprained my hand and wrist when we got back. It was a mild injury but typing was painful for a few days. Then, one of my children kindly transferred their head cold to me and I've been battling that for about a week now. Make it stop!

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"Tell us what you saw, child," Missouri said. We were in her living room, and everyone was watching me.

I felt uncomfortable with all of their eyes on me and squirmed a little bit. "Well, uh, first, I saw a skinny lady with a fancy blouse and a long skirt, she had her hair up in a big bun, she looked—like she was sick, pale with dark circles under her eyes. She had a handkerchief that she'd cough into, and after she coughed, there would be blood on her mouth and the handkerchief. She needed lots of- 'coughing cloths'. I looked down and saw my hands sewing little stitches on the edge of a handkerchief. Who- who was that?"

"I'll answer all your questions when you're done," she said, "What else did you see?"

"Then I was seeing a little girl standing on a wooden box, and she was wearing a long dress, and I was kneeling down next to her, sewing the edge of the dress, and I could feel-" I gestured to my mouth, "I had pins in my mouth. The girl was being all fidgety and I told her to hold still. Then I snipped the end with the scissors."

I looked at Daddy and Uncle Sam, who were both looking at me with serious looks. "Then it- the scene switched again, and there was- there was a man laying on his tummy on a bed and he had little cuts all over his back, and they were bleeding, and I was stitching the cuts up. His name was Big Luke and he was trying to defend people," I said.

Missouri nodded. "Yes, child," she said quietly.

"Then I heard that song, first the tune, and then the words, and they just came out of my mouth," I said, "I never heard it before in my life," I took a deep breath, "What was all that?"

Missouri leaned forward slightly, "Well, those scissors you had ahold of were my great-grandmother's, Zelina Berangere, she was known as Madame Z. Her sewing supplies were passed down through the generations, to me. She was a slave for a long while, owned by a prominent family in New Orleans. She was a lady's maid to the woman of the house, Leticia Robichaud, Miss Lettie. She also did all the sewing for the family. Miss Lettie developing consumption, and they hid it for as long as they could, but she passed eventually."

"What's consumption?" I asked.

"A sickness that involves the lungs, and you end up coughing up blood. That's why she needed those coughin' cloths. They didn't have antibiotics back then, so you just had to hope and pray that things got better. When Miss Lettie passed, things went from bad to worse. The master of the house couldn't handle it and—well, he drank all his cares away. He let his underlings take over runnin' things and it got awful for the slaves. Big Luke was one of the strongest workers, and he tried to protect the others, 'specially the womenfolk and children."

"What- what happened to him?" I asked.

She got a funny look on her face. "I don't rightly know," she said.

She looked at Daddy and then at Grandpa John. "Well, I think that Charlie was channeling," she told them, "My GranGran is one of my spirit guides, and everything that Charlie told us is from her life, and that was her voice you heard comin' out of Charlie's mouth yesterday. She lived to be a hundred, and I knew her when I was a little girl. That song? That was her favorite and she used to sing it to me at bedtime."

"I'll be damned," Daddy said softly, "Well, what do we do- about it?"

"Do? Ain't nothing you can 'do'," Missouri said with a scoff, "Other than teach Charlie control, and try to keep her away from old objects. It's gonna happen no matter what. Hopefully she can learn how to control it enough that someday she can use it to help others."

"Well that's not going to happen," Daddy said in a low voice, "Charlie 's going to have a normal life and go to college and all of that."

"Dean, you may want that, but Charlie already showed you she's anything but normal," Missouri said, sitting up straight, "and it's her choice, isn't it?"

"No," Daddy said in a strong voice, and Missouri drew back like she was offended.

"Missouri, I don't want to lose her," Daddy said in that same hard voice, "and I'm not going to allow her to do anything that may put her in danger."

"Well, Dean, be that as it may, sometimes you aren't going to be able to control that," she said flatly, "Charlie's abilities aren't going to do what you say, and you're going to have to live with that. It is out of your hands."

"I know, but-"

"Dean, leave it," Grandpa John said.

Daddy sighed angrily.

"Let's concentrate on the here and now," Uncle Sam said gently, "What can we do to ensure that Charlie doesn't have any more- episodes like that?"

"Well, she and I can keep working on control," Missouri said, "and part of it is just her learning how to handle things. Her abilities are going to grow and change too, they may fluctuate sometimes as she gets older."

"What do you mean?" Daddy asked.

"With the advent of puberty, some abilities may go a little...haywire."

"Oh great, so we'll have to deal with hormones as well as wonky abilities?" Daddy shook his head.

"What do you mean? What's hormones?" I asked.

Everyone looked at each other nervously. Missouri held her hands up. "She's your daughter, this is on you, Dean Winchester," she said with a grin.

"It's when, you, uh, become a teenager," Uncle Sam said, "and your body goes through...changes."

"Oh, you mean when you grow boobs and get your period and all that? I know all about that!" I shook my head at them, "Mommy already told me all about that a long time ago!"

Daddy and Uncle Sam blushed and shifted in their seats, and Missouri and Grandpa John laughed loudly for a few minutes.

"Oh, child, you are a caution," Missouri shook her head and wiped her eyes. She stood up. "Let's take a break now, and I'll get something figured out for lunch," she said.

"Can I go out back and swing?" I asked.

"Sure, honey," Missouri smiled at me. "After lunch we can do some work, all right?"

"Okay," I agreed, and went into her back yard. I wandered around looking at the flowers for a while, and then I sat on the swing.

"Charlie," I heard Uncle Sam calling me, "Come here."

I opened my eyes. Uncle Sam and Grandpa John were on the other side of the fence, in the front yard. I got off the swing and ran up to them.

"We're going to go into town and get pizzas for lunch," Uncle Sam told me, "do you want to come with?"

"No, I'll stay here," I told him.

He and Grandpa John leaned down and kissed me good-bye, and said they'd be back soon. I walked back over to the swing and got on, swinging high into the air for a while. I started to feel thirsty, so I walked back to the house and went into the kitchen to ask for a drink. I could hear Daddy talking in the living room.

"How am I supposed to deal with this?" Daddy asked.

"Well, it ain't you dealin' with it, Dean, it's her. You just gotta be there supporting her," Missouri said.

"Yeah, but, I wanted her...I wanted things to be different for her."

"What, did you think that you'd bring her to me and I'd show her how to make it all go away, or control it completely so that nothing ever happened again? That ain't how it works. And you can't expect her to be in control all the time."

"Well, I know that-"

"Do you? You're gonna have to deal with this, you've got to find a balance between having her have a 'normal childhood' and also being the daughter of a hunter, and a child who has psychic abilites. And striking that balance is going to be hard for all 'a you sometimes, you're all gonna have to step it up with her. I know you don't want her in this life but she's already there. You can protect her some but you can't stop things from happening with her abilities."

Daddy sighed heavily. "I just don't- when she was- gone, it was one of the worst things I'd ever gone through, and I never want to go through that again. I want to keep her safe as much as I can."

"I know, honey, all parents want that for their children. But there are some things in this equation that are outta your hands, and you gotta let go of the illusion that you're in control of everything."

"It's not an illusion," Daddy said stubbornly.

Missouri huffed a laugh, "The great Dean Winchester is not as in control of things as he thinks," she chuckled, "and the sooner he realizes that the easier it'll be for him."

I walked into the living room. "Can I have some water, please?" I asked.

"Sure, sweetie," Missouri said. She came into the kitchen and got me a glass of ice water.

Uncle Sam and Grandpa John came in with the pizzas, and we sat down in the kitchen to eat. Then Grandpa John got a phone call. He walked into the living room and was in there for a while.

"Boys," he stood at the doorway and jerked his head, and Daddy and Uncle Sam got up and walked into the living room to talk to him.

When they came back in, Grandpa John said, "We're going to go back to the motel, I got a call from Singer, and we need to do some research."

"I'll come back to pick you up in a while, Charlie, if that's okay," Daddy said to me. "We're going to be at the library."

"Okay, Daddy." I agreed.

Missouri stodd up and walked over to Grandpa John. "Is it-" she said quietly.

He nodded. "Possibly. We'll figure it out."

Missouri sighed and clasped her hands together. "I'll pray for you. Be safe."

They hugged and kissed me and then left.

After we ate, we went into the living room.

We practiced me blocking Missouri, and then she asked me about the day before.

"What did you feel, what made you want to go upstairs and pick up the scissors?" she asked.

"I just felt—pulled to them, like my feet were moving by themselves. That's how I felt with the glove too."

She nodded. "With some old objects, they have a lot of stored energy in them. Something that's been wore a lot, like a ring, or used a lot, like the scissors, will have the owner's energies all over them, and that's what you're getting. You're sensitive to that energy field. So what you need to do is imagine that there's a wall up between you and the object. When you get good at that you can change it to imagine that you got gloves on your hands and that'll help too. But for now, a wall is the best thing to visualize."

She got up and walked over to the table in the corner, and brought back a couple of things.

"This shawl has been in my family for a while, see if you can block the energy," she placed the shawl on the sofa between us.

The shawl was heavy and soft, knitted with a cream-colored yarn. I picked it up and held it in my hands.

I saw a small kitchen, and felt like I was sitting down. A door opened and a little African-American girl with braids came into the room with a satchel. "Come an' see me, Lil' Miss," I heard.

Missouri pulled the shawl out of my hands. "What did you see?"

"I was sitting in the corner of a kitchen, and a little girl came in, she had a school bag in her hand," I looked up at Missouri, and I knew, "The shawl was your Grandma's, and that was you! She called you Lil' Miss!"

She smiled at me. "Yes, the shawl was my Grand-Mere's, and yes, that was her name for me. She lived with us for a long while."

She turned towards me on the sofa. "Now, imagine that there's a wall between us, and then when you tell me I'll give you the shawl again."

I tried to imagine a wall, made of red bricks, and then I touched the shawl. It didn't work, I kept getting images and feelings.

I started to get frustrated.

"All right, let's take a break," she said, getting up. She walked over to the desk in the corner and opened a drawer. Then she brought something over to me. It was a necklace with different colored round beads on it.

"This is a necklace I want you to wear," she said, "It has stones that are used to protection."

"Protection? From what?"

She sat down. "Well, when you're sensitive to energies and feelings, you may sometimes pick up things that are...not good. Unfortunately there are bad people out there and you may see them doing bad things or get a sense of how they are inside."

"When I was at PT there was a new worker there and I saw that her boyfriend was hitting her," I told Missouri, "It was really upsetting, and I couldn't get the feelings out of my head. The doctor had to give me medicine to help me calm down."

She put her hand on mine. "So you've already experienced that a little. Well, these stones will help you from feeling those influences too much, and keep you safe," she smiled at me.

The doorbell rang, and Missouri let Daddy in. He smiled at me, but he seemed distracted. "How are things going?" he asked.

"Well, I was going to ask Charlie how she was feeling," Missouri looked at me, "We did some good work earlier."

"I am kinda tired," I said, "Can we take a break?"

"I think that sounds good," she smiled, "How are things going, Dean?"

"Well, it's...what we thought, so Dad's...going to go help Bobby. It's not too far away, so hopefully it will be dealt with in a day or so."

I looked at Daddy and then at Missouri. It seemed like they were doing the same kind of 'talking without words' thing that Daddy and Uncle Sam did.

"What?" I asked, "Is it a ghost hunt?"

Daddy looked down at me. "No, Charlie, it's nothing you need to concern yourself about," he said.

"I've got some clients to see tonight, so you bring Charlie back tomorrow," Missouri said, "And call me if you need any help."

"All right, will do," Daddy took my hand. "Let's go, Charlie."

Instead of driving back to the motel, we drove into town, to the library.

"Why are we going here?" I asked.

"Dad and Sam are still here, and we're still working," Daddy said, "Come in, find some books, and sit down for a little bit."

Uncle Sam had his laptop on a table next to a computer that was in the corner, and Grandpa John was on the computer. They were looking at weather maps. Grandpa John had his journal out and was writing in it.

Daddy walked me over to the kids' section and hurried me through getting a couple of books to look at. Once I had picked a couple, I followed him back over to where Uncle Sam was sitting. Daddy had a stack of newspapers he was looking through.

"Can I help you look?" I leaned on his arm, "What are you doing?"

"No, Charlie, you can't," he said abruptly, "Sit down and read. We've got to concentrate on this right now."

I sighed heavily and sat down, opening one of the books. I hoped that we weren't going to be here for a long time.