AUTHOR'S NOTE: Did you catch the premiere of season 13 of Supernatural? It was good to see the boys again, and interesting to meet new characters. I hope this season is good!

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"Charlie," Daddy said softly, "Wake up, Charlie."

I sighed and opened my eyes. I was on the sofa, and he was leaning over me.

"It's time for dinner, come eat," he took my hand and pulled me to sit up.

"Don't wannaaaa," I whimpered. My head didn't hurt any more, but I still felt drained and tired.

"Yes," he insisted, "Grandpa John made home-made turkey soup, he's been working on it all day. You've been asleep on the sofa this whole time, come sit at the table."

I got up and shuffled over to the table. There were bowls of steaming soup already set out. Uncle Sam brought over a bowl of rice and a bowl of noodles.

Grandpa John sat across from me. "You want rice in your soup, or egg noodles?"

"Never had turkey soup before, I don't know if I like it." I said.

"It's just like chicken soup, only made with turkey. Grandpa John put potatoes and celery and carrots in it too." Daddy told me.

"At least drink the stock," Grandpa John said.

"What's stock?"

"The liquid. It's good for you."

I tried some soup, and it was good. I put a spoonful of rice from the big dish in my soup.

"How's your head?" Uncle Sam asked.

"It doesn't hurt any more. I just feel tired."

"Good, I'm glad the headache is gone." Uncle Sam smiled at me.

We ate in silence for a few minutes, then I asked, "Did you kill the demons?"

All three of them stopped what they were doing, and then glanced at each other. Then they looked at me.

"Uhh, well, we, uh, we set out what we meant to do," Daddy said uneasily. Uncle Sam looked uncomfortable.

"What does that mean?" I asked, "Are they going to come after me any more?"

"Charlie, I don't...I don't think that you should...that you need to know... about that." Daddy said.

"But if it involves me, I do! You—you guys said I needed to know so that I'd be safe!" I protested.

"Yes, you need to know some things. But I will decide what you need to know. You don't get a free pass to learn about everything we've been doing," Daddy said firmly.

"That's not fair!" I slammed my fist on the table.

"Excuse me, little girl? You want to leave the table and go straight to bed?" Daddy asked in a hard voice.

"Dean-" Uncle Sam said.

"Look, I'm not going to let her start thinking she's part of this, because she's not, and she's not gonna be!" Daddy snapped.

"I was just going to say, cut her some slack," Uncle Sam said quietly.

"Dammit, Sam! I—I hate that my little girl knows about demons, and that we even have to talk about all this crap with her!" Daddy's voice was angry but his eyes had pain in them.

"I know, Dean, but...that's part of this life. Your kids are going to end up finding out about it one way or the other. And it's better if information comes from you," Grandpa John said.

"I'm done," I pushed the bowl away from me.

"Charlie-" Daddy looked regretful.

"My tummy is full, and I wanna lay down," I said.

Daddy sighed, and rubbed a hand over his face. "All right," he said.

I got up and walked over to the sofa, laying down and pulling the covers up. I closed my eyes and listened to them chatting about other hunters that they knew and things they'd been doing.

"Hey, want to play Monopoly?" Daddy asked me. They had finished eating and had come over to the sofa. I guess I had fallen asleep.

I sat up. "Okay," I said.

Daddy and Uncle Sam set up the board, and Daddy sat next to me on the sofa. Uncle Sam and Grandpa John pulled chairs over on the other side of the coffee table.

We played for a while, and Daddy kept buying properties. Uncle Sam kept landing on them and having to pay him money, and they were laughing about it. They said that Daddy used to do the same thing to Uncle Sam when they were kids and they would play.

I rolled the dice and landed on a spot where I had to pick a card. I picked a card off of the pile, and it said I had to go to jail. I moved the little metal dog to the Jail square. Suddenly it made me think about being in the Panic Room, when I was banging and kicking on the door, realizing I was locked in, and so scared. It had made me feel like I was in jail, and I didn't know why, and that scared me too.

Uncle Sam picked up the dice. "Let's see if I can manage to avoid any of Dean's properties this turn."

"I'm gonna buy up propeties on every side of the board, so that there's a higher chance of you landing on one, and I'll get allll your money," Daddy said with a grin.

Anger surged up in me out of nowhere and I stood up. "This is all so stupid!" I snapped, "Who cares about games or Monopoly of who has the most properties or money?" I flipped the board over, and all the little pieces went clattering across the floor, and the cards flew up in the air and then landed all over.

"What—the—hell, little girl? You trying to go to bed with a sore butt?" Daddy stared at me.

"I don't care!" I screamed, "There's terrible things out there—scary things that kill people and hurt people and we don't know if they're going to come after us or—or try to hurt us—and then they do things like kill your mommy, or you get kidnapped and end up in a cage-" I was sobbing by now, and the anger had changed to sadness, "The shapeshifter was there with me, Daddy, he held my hand!What if he—had taken me away—or done something else?" I started to shake.

"I know, baby, I know," Daddy held out his arms to me, "Come here."

I went to him and he pulled me into his arms and held me the way you hold a baby. I wept into his flannel shirt, feeling like I would never get rid of all the sadness I had inside of me.

"I—I don't like this," I whimpered, "Too much sadness...too much scary stuff...I don't like all the feelings...I want it to stop...I don't wanna feel this any more."

"I know, baby, I know it's rough. I wish I could help you with it, but I don't think there's anything I can do," he shifted me so that I was sitting up against his chest and hugged me. "We're here with you, and we're going to keep you safe. You've got to try and let all the things that you've seen go, and not dwell on them. They're in the past, and if you keep thinking about them it doesn't do any good," Daddy stroked my hair back from my face as he talked.

I could hear the sounds of someone cleaning up the game.

"Think she needs more medicine?" Uncle Sam asked quietly.

"No, she's slowing down," Daddy replied. He leaned over and grabbed a tissue box, and wiped my face clean and had me blow my nose. I started to doze on his lap, and I felt him stand up.

"Nooo," I whined, "Don't take me to the bedroom, wanna stay here with you."

He sighed. "All right." He sat down on the sofa again, putting my head on his lap, and arranged the blankets around me. I started to doze again.

A while later, I heard the sound of flapping wings.

"Dude, what the hell? What did I say about using the front door like a normal person?" Daddy said from across the room. He must have gotten up after I fell asleep.

"I apologize," Castiel said, "It is difficult for me to remember all the rules and strictures that humans have in their daily lives."

"Whatever...what do you want?"

"Why- do you have a bag of potato chips?" Uncle Sam asked curiously.

"These are for the child. She said she eats them when she is feeling sad, and I know she was upset when we removed her from the Panic Room," Castiel said.

"She eats them when she's feeling sad?" Daddy asked with humor in his voice, "what's that about?"

"Yes, Charlotte Anne ate them along with cereal. She said she eats them for breakfast when she feels sad and it makes her feel better," Castiel explained.

"Oh really?" Uncle Sam's voice was skeptical, "We'll have to have a discussion about her breakfast habits when she's awake."

"How is the child? Has her headache eased?" Castiel asked.

"Her headache's better, but she's not. She's still pretty freaked out by everything. It's been hard for her to get used to seeing things that have happened to people," Daddy said.

"I can heal any remaining physical discomfort she is having, and I can remove her abilities if you so wish."

"You're not touching her," Daddy said resolutely, "You didn't come here just to deliver a bag of chips to my kid, what do you want?"

"I came to tell you that I have dispatched the demon who escaped. He is...gone."

"You got him?" Daddy asked.

"Yes."

"Before he...got ahold of anyone else?"

"Yes."

"Well, thanks. You can go now," Daddy's voice was dismissive.

"If you want help in searching for Azazel, I can assist you. I can ask those that I work with-"

"Probably not a good idea, we want to keep the fact that we're after him on the down-low."

"What does searching for a demon have to do with a position?"

Daddy chuckled, "It's an expression. We don't want it to get out that we're looking, the less people—and angels- who know, the better."

"But surely he already knows," Castiel said, "One would make the assumption that he already knows that you are after him, since he killed your mother."

"All right, enough!" Daddy barked.

"I would like to speak with John Winchester," Castiel said.

"He's in the bedroom," Uncle Sam told him. I heard their footsteps walking out of the room and down the hall. I wanted to creep after them and listen in, to hear what they were talking about, but I was too tired. I felt myself falling asleep again.

"Charlie, let me see your hand," Uncle Sam said.

"Leave me 'lone," I muttered, pulling my hands underneath me.

"I want to change the bandage and check out your wounds," Uncle Sam insisted.

I was laying on the sofa again, burrowed underneath blankets. I had been having more nightmares. It seemed like my brain didn't know what to do with everything that had really happened to me, plus the images of things I had seen, and things got all mixed up. I had dreamed that Aunt Michelle kidnapped me, but then she gave me to the changeling, and then she turned into a wolf and ate the changeling. I dreamed that Big Luke and Miss Lettie were in cages next to me, and Daddy and Uncle Sam came to rescue us, but the changeling killed them before they got to my cage. I dreamed that I was at the campsite with Daddy and Mommy on a camping trip, and the wolf-creature came out of the woods and began to attack all of us. And through it all the man whose eyed changed to black would pop in occasionally.

I had woken up screaming again, and Uncle Sam had given me more medicine in a spoonful of applesauce. Since then I hadn't wanted to do much of anything. I didn't want to be alone and I didn't want to sleep alone. So I stayed on the sofa all day and dozed on and off.

Daddy walked over and stood next to Uncle Sam, looking down at me. "Charlie, let Uncle Sam check your hand out."

"Noooo," I whined, "I'm tired."

"You've been on the sofa for the past couple of days doing nothing but sleeping, how can you be tired?" Daddy asked, "Come on-" he reached for me, and I pulled the blanket tighter over me.

Daddy straightened up and put his hands on his hips. "Little girl, you'd better let go of that blanket and sit up right now," he watched me for a moment, "Charlotte Anne, last chance before I turn you over my knee."

"Daddddddyyyyyy-" I whined, but I sat up and pushed the blankets away. Daddy sat next to me and held my good hand while Uncle Sam removed the bandage from the other one.

"Looks good, I think we can leave the bandage off and let some air get to it," Uncle Sam wiped my hand down with an antiseptic wipe, "I'll check it before you go to bed tonight," He picked up the bandages and trash and stood up to throw them away.

"There, see, was that bad?" Daddy asked me, brushing my hair back from my face, "We need to brush your hair, it's getting all tangled."

"Don't care," I said dully.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Daddy said.

"I can't stop thinking abut things. I dream about everything and it gets all twisted up and it's scary. I want it to stop but I don't know how to make it stop."

Daddy sighed, putting his arm around me. "I wish I could help you, I don't know what to tell you."

"I'll see if I can get in touch with Missouri, maybe she can suggest something," Uncle Sam said. "Hey, there were some puzzles in the closet, let's try and work on one together."

"Yeah, let's get you off of this sofa, come on," Daddy pulled on my arm.

"No, I don't wannaaaa," I whined.

Uncle Sam brought over a couple of boxes and set them on the table. "Come pick one out, Charlie."

Daddy stood up and pulled on my hand. "Up, let's go."

I sighed and got up. I walked over to the table with Daddy and chose a puzzle that was a drawing of a bunch of wild animals in a jungle.

Daddy opened up the box and we began to sort through the pieces together while Uncle Sam heated up water. He made hot chocolate for us and brought the mugs over to the table along with a bag of potatoe chips.

"Castiel stopped by while you were sleeping," Daddy said, "He brought these for you because he said that you said you eat chips when you're sad?" he gave me a look.

"No, he said that she said she eats chips for breakfast when she's feeling sad...is there something you want to tell us?" Uncle Sam raised his eyebrows.

I sank down in my chair a little. "Yeah, I ate some chips with breakfast!" I said defiantly, "I was feeling sad 'cause you guys left and it did make me feel better!"

Daddy chuckled. "All right, I'll give you that."

"Well, I hope you don't try and make a habit out of that, or you and I are going to have words," Uncle Sam said, but he was smiling at me.

We drank the hot chocolate and ate potato chips as we worked on the puzzle together.