Missouri picked up her phone and pressed a button. "Hello, Dean, how are things... you are? You made good time then. Yes, she's right here, hold on..." she held the phone out to me.

I took it from her and took a deep breath. "H-hello?"

"Charlie?" Daddy's voice sounded uncertain.

I wasn't sure what to say. "Hi, Daddy," I said, and my eyes filled with tears.

"How are you?" he asked, and I could hear the emotion in his voice. He sounded like he was trying hard to stay calm.

"I'm okay...how are you?" I asked.

"I'm, uh...glad to hear from you," his voice shook a little, "Charlie, I'm so so sorry that I hurt you, I wasn't thinking, I was just talking. I would never, ever, give you up. You've got to believe that. Do you believe me?"

I sniffled. "Yeah. Castiel said he could see into your soul an' that-that you love me a lot."

He huffed a laugh that sounded like a scoff. "That son of a-"

"He saved me, Daddy, I went to sleep in a tree and fell out, and he was right there to catch me! I fell right into his arms!"

"Well, I'll have to thank him for that," Daddy said stiffly, "I'm actually kinda pissed at him for taking you to Missouri's."

"I—I said I didn't want to go back to you, so he asked where I wanted to go."

"He still shouldn't have done it," he sighed, "At any rate, I'm so glad you're safe and okay. You scared me, Charlie."

I remembered how his face had looked, after I'd gone outside recently, and I had realized that he was scared. And I had done it again, I had disobeyed him and scared him.

"M' sorry, Daddy," I said quietly.

"We'll talk more about it after we get there. I miss you," his voice shook slightly again.

More tears came to my eyes as I realized that I missed him too. "Daddy-" I sobbed.

"Don't cry-" he said, and it sounded like he was almost crying too, "Listen, we've got to get back on the road. We're going to stop for the night later and set up a video call on the computer when we do, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy."

"Be good for Missouri..." it seemed like he wanted to say something else.

"I will. I-I love you Daddy," I said.

"I love you too," he sounded relieved, "Bye."

"Bye," I hung up the phone and handed it back to Missouri.

She disconnected the call and put the phone in her pocket. "They should get here by early evening tomorrow, so I want to go to the store and get a roast. Come on, get your coat, and let's go."

I got out of my chair and went to the living room to put on my coat. Castiel was in the living room, looking out the window. Missouri came to the door. "We're going to the store, Mr. Angel, you want to come along?"

"Yes, I should accompany you," Castiel agreed.

He followed us to Missouri's car, and got into the back seat with me.

She turned around with a surprised look on her face. "What're you doing back there?" she asked him.

"Why?" he asked, "I sat with Charlotte Anne in the back of her father's vehicle."

"Oh. Normally, adults sit in the front, but whatever you want to do, honey," she chuckled.

I helped Castiel buckle his seat belt.

I took the angel's hand when we got out of the car. He looked down at me with a surprised frown. "Why are you taking my hand?"

"I'm s'posed to hold hands with a adult in the parking lot," I told him.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Because of cars driving real fast."

"If a car drives faster than it should, I will stop it before it causes any damage," he said with assurance.

"Well now, don't be showin' off your angel powers," Missouri said to him.

"If it is a matter of saving Charlotte Anne's life, I will do what needs to be done."

Missouri looked at him. "You really are her guardian angel?"

"I am," he nodded.

"All right then, let's go," she pulled a cart out of the kiosk next to her car.

We walked into the section of the store with fresh fruits and vegetables.

"I do not understand why people have to purchase these items. Why is food not made available to all who need it?" Castiel asked.

"Because the people who grow the food and harvest it need to get paid for their time and effort," Missouri explained.

"Can everyone just share the work load and then share the fruits of their labors when it is finished?"

"No, other people have other jobs that they do, they can't all farm. It's a full time job growing things."

"Why do people have jobs and have to make money in order to live? It seems like it adds a lot of un-necessary stress to human's lives."

"You got that right. It's just...the way it is. Ain't no such thing as a free lunch, someone's always got to pay for something," Missouri said.

"I do not understand why-"

"Mercy, you ask more questions than a 4-year-old! Go over there and bring me back a 2 pound bag of those carrots, would you?" Missouri pointed to a shelf across the room.

Castiel sorted through the bags, piling several of them on top of each other and pulling a bag out of the bottom of the pile. He walked back over to us and presented them to Missouri. "These were the freshest ones," he reported.

"Thank you," she said, taking the bag from him, "All right, I need some sweet potatoes too, five of 'em."

Castiel got them for her, taking his time sorting through the bin of sweet potatoes and picking 5.

We were walking through the bread aisle when a woman came up to us.

"Hello, Missouri!" she said with a broad smile. They hugged and kissed each other's cheeks.

"Well, who's this then?" the woman looked from Missouri, to me, then to Castiel, who was hanging back from the cart and studying the different types of bread on the shelves.

Missouri said slowly, "This is Charlie, she's the daughter of a family friend, she's stayin' with me for a couple nights, and..."

"That's my uncle, Casti—uh, Cas, he's, uh, he's not from around here!" I piped up.

"This is a friend of mine, Clara," Missouri said to me.

"Nice to meet you," I said, and she nodded and said, "Nice to meet you too," she looked at Castiel, "So, where are you from?"

"He's, uh, from...from-"

Missouri stepped close to Clara and spoke quietly. "He's got a heavy accent and it's hard to understand him, so he doesn't like to talk much. He's pretty shy," she patted Clara's arm, "You make sure you call me when you get the next shipment in, all righty? We got to get a move on here."

She walked over to the cart, and gestured to us. "Come on, you two, let's go."

As we walked away, she looked down at me, "Don't ever give someone more information than they need. Because you said he's not from around here, she wanted to know where he was from. People are curious like that. You notice I side-stepped the question."

"Yeah, you're good at that!"

"Lots of practice, child, lots of practice." she chuckled, "Uncle Cas! Now I've heard everything!"

Castiel pulled a package of pita bread off of the shelves. "This is similar to what the Israelites ate," he told us.

An older man who was walking by us gave Castiel a funny look, and Missouri took the bread from Castiel.

"Don't be advertising the fact that you're an angel, remember," she said quietly.

"My apologies. I just was not expecting to see that type of bread, the recipe is centuries old," Castiel said.

Missouri looked at him. "Were you around when they were baking their bread?"

"Yes, I was," he said, "I was not permitted to interact with them, that was the job of my brethren."

"Well, you're just full of surprises!" Missouri put her hands on the handle of the cart. "Let's get this shopping done so we can get outta here and I can stop worrying about people overhearing you."

Castiel walked beside me quietly for the rest of the trip. When we got back to Missouri's, I helped her make dinner, and afterwards we prepared vegetables to go in a slow-cooker for tomorrow's dinner, and then we baked banana bread together. We chatted as we worked, and she asked me lots of questions about things that had been happening.

Finally her phone buzzed. "They're at their hotel, stopped for the night, and Sam's setting up his computer for the video call. Let's go get ready," she said, after looking at her phone.

I followed her into the living room and sat on the sofa as she set up her laptop.

There was a big black rectangle on the computer screen. There was a click and I could hear a voice, it was Uncle Sam, saying, "It should be connecting... wait a sec," and I heard the clicking of computer keys.

The rectangle flickered and then it became like a photograph, and Uncle Sam was sitting on a sofa. "There's the picture," he looked into the camera, and smiled. "Hey! Can you see me and hear me?"

Missouri leaned forward. "Yes, Sam, can you see and hear us?"'

"Yeah, I can!" Uncle Sam smiled, and looked off to the side, calling, "It's connected now, get over here!"

He looked back at us. "I tried to connect before and it didn't work, they got tired of waiting. How's it going?"

"It's okay," I said awkwardly.

Grandpa John came over and sat down on one side of Uncle Sam. The picture moved slowly, sightly jerky.

"There she is!" Grandpa John said with a big smile. I could see his dimples. "It's good to see you, sweetheart," he said to me.

Uncle Sam leaned forward and the picture moved as he adjusted the camera. He glanced to the side, and then Daddy was sitting down next to him on his other side.

Daddy looked into the camera, and his face got a little red. "Charlie," he said, and his voice sounded strangled. His eyes got shiny.

"Hi Daddy," I said, feeling tears come to my eyes. He looked so upset, scared and sad.

"Hi Charlie," he said with an exhale. He brought his hand up to his face and wiped his eyes with his fingers.

"It's great to see you, Charlie," Uncle Sam said with relief. His eyes looked shiny too.

I felt guilty, because they were all obviously upset. I squirmed and tried to think of something to say.

"Charlie has somethin' to say to you," Missouri prompted. I turned and looked up at her. She nodded at the computer. "Go on, child," she said quietly.

"Daddy, uh, I'm, I'm sorry I ran away and all that. I'm sorry. I was- that I didn't listen, and didn't, y'know, talk. To you, or anything."

Daddy shifted and cleared his throat. "Charlie, I just wanted to say—again-I'm so sorry I said what I did, I wasn't thinking when I said it, and I never want to say or do anything to hurt you.I-I wish you had come and talked to me instead of running away, or talked to any of us," Daddy said, "When we realized you weren't in the cabin—that was-" Daddy sighed heavily and rubbed a hand over his face, and I could see how tired and worried he really was.

He was worried that I was still going to act the way I had at the cabin. He was worried that I wouldn't forgive him. I had upset him, all of them, and I had scared them. I had disobeyed the rules that Daddy had made to keep me safe. I was going to be in so, so much trouble. Realizing this made me feel even more guilty, and that made me uncomfortable.

"I—I ran away 'cause of what you said, so all this is your fault, not mine, and you should be in trouble, not me!" I exclaimed hotly, trying to push my guilt away with anger.

Now Daddy looked shocked. His face got even more red, and he closed his eyes for a long moment and put his hand up to his face again.

Grandpa John got angry. He sat forward. "Hold on, little girl, you need to re-think that statement. Yes, your father said something he shouldn't have, but you made the decision to act the way you did after that, and you made the decision to run away. Nobody forced you to do any of that, so yes, you are in trouble."

"It's not my fault," I insisted stubbornly.

"All right then, let's list everything that you did wrong. You yelled at your father and uncle, and later ignored your father, which is disrespectful. You refused to eat, come out of the bedroom, or talk to any of us, which is disobedience, you put pillows under your covers so that we'd think you were in bed, which is lying. You went outside after you'd been told not to and already been punished for it, and you ran away. You put yourself in danger, a lot of danger, by doing that." Grandpa John was looking straight into the camera by now, and I felt like he could see right into me. I squirmed in discomfort.

"What do you have to say for yourself, young lady?" he asked sternly.

"Dad, it's okay," Daddy wiped his eyes, "It's my fault-"

"No, Dean, you can't let her off the hook for any of this. He's out there, Dean, he's active, what if he'd gotten ahold of her? You explained to her how dangerous demons are. Charlie's got to face up to the consequences of her actions," Grandpa John looked over at Daddy.

Daddy sighed heavily. "You're right," he said. He looked at the camera. "You are in trouble, Charlie, but we'll deal with that after we get there."

I gulped. "Yes, Daddy," I said meekly, "M' sorry."

I noticed Daddy had a cut on the corner of his lip and Uncle Sam had a bruise on his cheekbone.

"What—what happened?" I asked, "Why do you have a cut on your lip, Daddy?"

"Oh, uh," Daddy looked sheepish and glanced at Uncle Sam, "We, uh, things got a little physical when we were arguing about... you running away and all."

I felt shocked. "You-you mean you—you hit each other?"

Daddy nodded. "Sometimes things end up that way, it's the way brothers are."

"But—but you hurt each other!"

"No lasting damage was done," Daddy shrugged.

It worried me that they had argued and then hit each other because of me. It made me feel even more guilty. I looked down at my lap.

"How much more travelin' do y'all have to do?" Missouri asked.

"I'd say about another 8 to 10 hours, we should be there tomorrow evening," Grandpa John replied.

We all sat there for a moment, not sure of what else to say. Daddy shifted and cleared his throat.

"We made banana bread after dinner tonight!" I told him, smiling at him. He smiled back at me.

"That sounds good...save me a piece, okay?" he said easily, and for a moment it was like the old Daddy was there, before all of this had happened.

"We made two loaves, so there will be some for all of you!" I said.

"Sounds good," Uncle Sam said.

"Well, it's getting late, shouldn't you be getting to bed, Charlie?" Daddy asked.

"Uh, yeah...good night," I said, "I love you. All of you."

"I love you too," Daddy replied, and Grandpa John and Uncle Sam chimed in, "Love you."

"Go on and brush your teeth and all, and I'll be in to say good night in a few," Missouri told me.

I went upstairs and changed into my pajamas. I had forgotten to pack my toothbrush in my back pack, but Missouri had gotten out an extra one for me and set it on the edge of the sink. I did my night-time routine, and then grabbed my brush to take it downstairs and have Missouri brush my hair.

I could hear Missouri talking as I came into the hallway outside the living room. "-gonna have to harden your heart, Dean. You can't be lettin' her get away with all a' that, what if Azazel or one of his minions had gotten ahold of her? They'd tear her limb from limb just to get back at you, and you wouldn't be able to live with yourself."

"I know, Missouri, I still feel so damn bad though."

"Let go of the guilt, boy, you got to. Your Daddy can talk to you about feelin' bad and still knowing that you got to punish your child, I'm sure. Y'all can talk more with her when you get here. I'm still not sure she's getting it."

"Well, we're going to make sure that her butt gets it," Uncle Sam said dryly.

"We got to talk about the angel too, he's been tellin' Charlie more than he should have," Missouri said.

"Dammit," Daddy sighed.

Castiel appeared behind me just then, and I stumbled into the room in surprise.

"What are you doing, Charlotte Anne?" he asked.

"Oh, I was just, uh, I need to have my hair brushed," I walked over to Missouri and handed her the brush.

"All right," she said, and then looked at the computer, "We'll talk more later, y'all. Have a good night."
I leaned over. "Bye, Daddy, good night," I said again. They said good night to me again, and then Missouri shut off the laptop.

"Sit down, here, child," she said briskly.

I sat next to her and turned, and she began to brush through my hair. I felt tears come to my eyes suddenly. "I miss them," I whispered, "Uncle Sam brushes my hair before bed every night."

"I know you do, honey," she said, "Let this be a lesson to you about thinkin' before you act. I know your Daddy did the wrong thing, he shouldn't have said what he did, but your actions made this situation a whole lot worse."

"I'm in a lot of trouble," I said hoarsely.

"I think you are, child," she agreed quietly, "This is gonna be a hard lesson for you to learn. But you got to remember that they all love you a lot and want to keep you safe, and that's why they do the things they do."

She handed me the brush. "Let's go on upstairs and I'll tuck you in."

I was in the same guest room I had slept in before, but Missouri had removed all of the old objects that had been on display. She hugged me and and pulled the covers up, leaving the door open partway. It took me a long time to fall asleep, but eventually I did.