AUTHOR'S NOTE: It's a Very Charlie Christmas! Fluff and feels ahead...hope you all had a lovely holiday, whatever you celebrate, and a Happy New Year to all of you! XXXOOO #ALWAYS KEEP FIGHTING
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It was still dark outside when I woke up. I laid in bed for as long as I could, but I was too excited. It was Christmas! Christmas morning! Finally, as the sky was just starting to lighten up, I got out of bed and hurried down the hall to Daddy's room. I bounced onto the end of his bed.
"Merry Christmas, Daddy!" I called, crawling up towards him. He raised his head with a jerk, and blinked sleepily at me. "Oh, Charlie-" his voice sounded rough from sleep.
"It's Christmas, Daddy! C'mon, get up!" I pulled on his arm.
He lifted the covers up and then put his arm around me and pulled me into him. "How about some Christmas snuggles, huh?" he tucked my head under his chin. "Give me another couple minutes."
I curled up against his chest, and closed my eyes, but I was too excited to stay still for long. I pulled on his wrist. "Come on, Daddy!" I exclaimed, sitting up.
"All right, all right," he sat up as I got off the bed.
"I'm gonna go wake Uncle Sam up!" I said, and I ran down the hall.
"Charlie-" Daddy called after me.
I patted Uncle Sam's arm, and said, "Merry Christmas, Uncle Sam! It's time to get up!"
He slowly blinked his eyes and looked at me, and then grinned. "Oh, it is, huh? Time to get up according to who?"
"To me!" I said happily, and he laughed.
Daddy was standing in the doorway. "I tried, Sammy, but she's too excited. She was practically vibrating in bed next to me."
"I'm sure," Uncle Sam yawned as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed.
Daddy went down the stairs first, followed by me, and then Uncle Sam. About halfway down the stairs, we started to smell the most delicious smells- freshly baked pies!
"What the he-" Daddy started to say as we walked into the living room.
There were freshly baked cooling pies everywhere- on almost every flat surface there was a pie.
Uncle Sam looked around the room. "How in the world-"
"It was Castiel!" I jumped up and down and clapped my hands. "It's my present to you, Daddy! Lots and lots of pie!" I laughed happily. I had talked to Castiel about what I wanted to get for each of them, and he had said he would do what he could to help me.
"Well I'll be-" Daddy walked over and dug his finger into one of the pie crusts, scooping a little bit of the filling out. "This one's blueberry, oh my God, is it good!" he licked the filling off of his finger, and then offered me some.
"It is yummy!" I said.
"I'll go get the coffee started, why don't you go wake your Grandpa," Uncle Sam said to me, turning on the Christmas lights. I looked at the tree and noticed that there were a lot of presents piled under it. I felt excited and a little nervous- how many of them were for me?
I pulled on Daddy's hand. "C'mon, Daddy, come with me!"
He followed me down the hall, and tapped on the closed door. Then we went into Grandpa John's room. I could hear light snoring as we walked into his bedroom, and then he sat up and blinked at us. "What's-" he started, and then he rubbed his face.
"Merry Christmas, Grandpa John!" I said, going over to him and hugging him.
He chuckled. "Merry Christmas, little one," he hugged me back.
"I tried to get her to rest with me for a while, but she was having none of it," Daddy told him.
"Well I woke up a lot earlier, and I stayed in bed as long as I could. I waited until it started to get light out before I got out of bed!" I told them, and they laughed.
We walked back out to the living room together. Uncle Sam had brought out dessert plates, forks, and the pie cutter, and set them on the coffee table. He moved to the side, and I noticed something big in front of the tree, covered with a blanket. It hadn't been there before, when we first came into the room.
"What is that?" I asked, looking up at Daddy.
He glanced at Uncle Sam, and got a little smile on his face. "Take the blanket off, and see what it is, Charlie," he said.
"It—it's for me?" I asked. I had no idea what it could be.
"Go ahead," Uncle Sam said. I stepped up to it and pulled the blanket off, and gasped- it was a bicycle! The frame was a dark pink color, and the seat was sparkly, and it had a little basket on the front with Hello Kitty on it, and there were sparkly streamers hanging off of the handle bars.
I burst into tears.
"What is it, Charlie?" Daddy asked, leaning down and picking me up. He put his hand on my back, and I buried my face in his neck and just cried for a few minutes.
"Do you like it?" he asked quietly.
"Y-yeah, I do... I never got anything big like this before...I could never have a bike or anything like that at the 'partment, 'cause we lived on the second floor an' there wasn't any place to store it...an' I wasn't sure what was going to h-happen this year..." I didn't know how to explain how unsure I had felt about Christmas, because of how it had been the past two years, and how I didn't want to get my hopes up.
"Well, we wanted to make it special for you this year, Charlie," Daddy said, hugging me, and that made me get more tears in my eyes.
He sat down with me in his lap, and Uncle Sam came over. "Do you want some pie?" he asked.
"I'd like a slice of cherry," Daddy said.
"No thanks," I said, leaning against Daddy. Uncle Sam served Daddy a slice of pie, and he shifted me a little on his lap so he could eat. Grandpa John brought a mug of coffee in for Daddy and sat down with another mug in his other hand.
"Well, should we get started opening presents?" Uncle Sam asked, "How do we do this?"
"Start handing them out, Sammy," Daddy said.
Uncle Sam pulled a box out from under the tree, and looked at the front. "It says, 'To John Winchester'- who is this from?"
He handed it to Grandpa John, and he removed the wrapping paper. It was a cardboard box with a photo of a bottle on the front.
He turned the box, and read, "Talisker Scotch Whisky 25 year, Made by the Sea," he looked at me, and then at Daddy, "It says it's made on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. How did you-"
"That's from me, Grandpa John!" I smiled at him, "I asked Castiel to get you something good from another country!"
All three of them laughed. "I can't believe you sent an angel out to get things like pie and whiskey!" Daddy said.
"He said he'd help me get presents for all of you, 'cause he's my guardian angel!" I told them.
"I don't know if that's what a guardian angel is supposed to do, but I'll go with it," Grandpa John chuckled.
Uncle Sam picked up another present and looked at it. "Charlie," he leaned over and handed it to me. I took it, and looked at it. The tag said, 'To: Charlie, From: Daddy'. I looked up at him, and he smiled, and said, "Open it."
I tore the paper off and opened the box. It was a fleece shirt with Hello Kitty's head on it, but she was made with silver sequins.
"Wow, it's so pretty! Thank you!" I exclaimed, and Daddy chuckled and squeezed my shoulder.
There was the sound of flapping wings, and then Castiel appeared next to the tree. He was holding a large box under one arm and a basket in the other.
"Castiel!" I jumped up and went over to him.
He looked over at Daddy. "My apologies for not using the door, my hands are full and I would not be able to knock."
"Is this it?" I stood on my tiptoes and looked into the basket.
"Yes, Charlie, I have just traveled to the Southern Hemisphere to get the last of them," Castiel handed me the basket, and I turned and walked over to Uncle Sam, who stood up.
"This is for you!" I said to him, and he took the basket. It had all different kinds of fruit from all over the world- each piece of fruit had a string wrapped around it with a written label. Uncle Sam looked through the basket. "Kiwi fruit, Persimmon, Star Fruit, Chayote, Jackfruit, Lychee, Mangosteen- I can't wait to try these! This is great, thank you!" he ruffled my hair and then looked at Castiel. "You- went all over the world and got these?"
Castiel nodded, "Yes, I either picked them in the wild or got them from a street vendor. I made sure they are all fresh."
"Thank you," Uncle Sam walked over to Castiel and extended his hand. Castiel looked down at Uncle Sam's hand with a confused frown.
"Some people shake hands instead of hugging," I explained to the angel.
"I see," Castiel took Uncle Sam's hand and shook it.
"Thanks for the pies, it was awesome to come downstairs and smell all of them," Daddy said.
"You are welcome, Dean Winchester."
"Can I get you a piece?" Daddy stood up.
"I do not need to eat or drink," Castiel said, setting the box down on the floor.
"I know you don't need to, but you should have some pie anyway, it's a holiday," Daddy said. He cut a slice of apple pie and plated it, and handed it to Castiel. We watched as he dug the fork into the pie and put a small piece into his mouth.
He chewed slowly, looking uncomfortable. "Tastes like...molecules," he said, "I know that this vessel had to eat all the time, I have his memories of food but this is—overwhelming."
"Sorry to hear that," Daddy clapped Castiel on the back and took the plate out of his hands. "More for me, then."
Castiel leaned down and picked up the box, and held it out to Sam.
"What's this?" Uncle Sam asked.
"Charlie also asked me to get some books for all of you, books that pertain to hunting and lore."
Uncle Sam set the box on the coffee table and opened it, and began to pull books out. He handed a couple to Grandpa John, who looked at the spines. "The Conjurer's Handbook of 1902," he read off of one, "Arcanum and Philosophy," he looked up at Castiel. "Where did you find these?" he asked, sounding awed.
"Many of them were sitting in dark corners of bookshops, you just have to know where to look," Castiel said.
"This is a first edition of the Encyclopedia of Creatures and Spirits," Uncle Sam had opened a book and was looking at the title page. He looked up at Grandpa John. "Remember when we visited Madame Solange- she had a copy of this book, and I remember being really impressed by it. It was one of the ones that got lost in the fire, too."
Grandpa John put the books on the sofa and reached into the box to get more out. He pulled out a big book with a thick black cover that was crumbling on the edges, and read the title in another language. "This should be interesting," he said, chuckling. He set it down on top of the other books.
Daddy walked over to the coffee table and set the plate and fork down, and began to look through the box of books too.
I wandered over to stand next to him, and looked down at the big book that Grandpa John had just taken out of the box. All of a sudden, I felt drawn to it, and then-
-I was seeing a heavyset man wearing a dark robe, standing in front of a table. There were lit candles, bowls of herbs and bunches of flowers, pieces of paper with drawings on them, and small bottles full of powders and liquids scattered across the surface of the table. There was a wide flat metal bowl in front of the man, and he began to read something out loud from the big book that was open next to his elbow, and the words were in a different language. He picked up a small knife and sliced open his palm, holding his hand over the bowl and letting the blood drip into it-
"CHARLIE!" Daddy yelled, and I felt him pulling something out of my hands.
I looked up at Daddy, and I said something, but it was in another language. It scared me, and then it felt like I was being stabbed in the head by something, and then everything started to go dark-
I woke up slowly, feeling like I was laying down. I opened my eyes and turned my head—I was laying on the sofa with my head in Daddy's lap.
He looked down at me. "Hey, sweetheart," he said softly, "How are you feeling?"
I started to sit up and whimpered—my head hurt, but not as bad as it had in the past.
"My head hurts, but only a little bit," I told him.
"I grabbed the book as soon as you picked it up, maybe that's why. You didn't really have much chance to get anything from it," Daddy helped me sit up all the way. He leaned over and picked up a small medicine cup that already had pink liquid in it. "Here," he said, handing it to me, "take this."
I drank the medicine, and then he handed me a glass of water and I drank some of that.
Grandpa John came into the room from the kitchen, holding a mug. "There she is!" he said, coming over to us. He sat down at the end of the sofa and asked, "How are you feeling, darlin'?"
"My head hurts some, but it's not too bad," I told him. I looked around. The box and the books were nowhere in sight, and Castiel wasn't around either.
"Where'd Castiel go?" I asked.
"He, uh, left, to find something to put the books in, so that you won't be—bothered by them," Daddy told me, "Are you hungry, or would you like to open some more presents? We barely got started, there's a lot more under the tree!"
"Can I have some coffee?" I asked shyly, "It's s'posed to help with headaches, ya know!"
Daddy and Grandpa John looked at each other and laughed. Grandpa John stood up. "All right, little one, I'll get you some coffee, because it's Christmas," he said, grinning at me. He went back into the kitchen, and I heard him talking to Uncle Sam.
"You scared me, Charlie," Daddy put his hand on my back, "I guess I...forgot about your, you know, reading things like that. We're going to have to be more careful."
"I'm sorry," I leaned on his chest.
"No, you don't have to apologize, it's not your fault," Daddy said, "We need to remember about your abilities and make sure we're keeping you safe."
Grandpa John and Uncle Sam came into the room, and Uncle Sam set a mug down in front of me.
"Have some coffee, and then let's get these presents opened," he said, smiling at me. I drank some of the coffee as Uncle Sam handed presents to Daddy and Grandpa John.
An hour later, all the presents had been unwrapped. I was looking through one of the new books I had gotten.
"It's going to take another couple of hours before the ham is ready, do you want to try and ride your bike, Charlie?" Uncle Sam asked.
"O-okay," I said uncertainly.
"It's got training wheels, so that will help your balance," Daddy said, "Go get dressed and I'll help you."
I ran upstairs to get dressed, and when I came back down, Daddy had taken the bike out to the sidewalk. Uncle Sam handed me the helmet that I had also gotten, and I put it on. He had to tighten the chin strap for me, and that took a couple of minutes. Grandpa John came out onto the porch to watch.
"Do I have to wear the pads too?" I asked. I had also gotten elbow and knee pads, and they seemed bulky.
"Until you've learned how to ride, yes, I want you to wear them," Daddy said.
I sighed, and pulled the knee pads on. "Look, they feel weird," I complained.
"Loosen the strap a little, so they're not so tight," Uncle Sam said, pulling on the strap that went behind my knee.
I sighed again as he helped me pull the elbow pads on. "I want to see you always wearing these, too, until you're confident in your ability to ride," Uncle Sam said firmly.
"And the helmet is non-negotiable," Daddy chimed in, "You always wear it, no matter what."
"Okaay," I huffed.
"Excuse me?" Daddy raised his eyebrows at me.
"Yes, Daddy," I got on the bike and put my feet on the pedals.
"Have you ever ridden a bike before?" Daddy asked me.
"A couple times, when we visited some friends, when I was real little, it was a bike that had big extra wheels on the back so it wouldn't fall over."
"Well, the training wheels will prevent you from falling, but you have to try and balance, too," Daddy explained, "Push the pedals forward."
I pushed my feet on the pedals, watching what I was doing.
"Steer!" Daddy said behind me, "Don't forget to steer the bike too, and look where you're going!"
"Oh!" I looked up and pulled the handle bars over- I had been so busy looking at the pedals I hadn't paid attention to the direction the bike was going. The bike veered over into the grass, and Daddy grabbed the back of the seat.
"I can't do it!" I grumped.
"Give yourself another chance, it takes a while," Daddy said, steering the bike over onto the sidewalk. "Try it again."
It took me a couple of times, but eventually I was able to ride a short distance. The training wheels made the bike lean slightly to one side or the other, and it would start to feel like I was falling, which made me nervous.
A couple of kids came down the middle of the road, a boy on a bike, another boy on a skate board, and two girls using roller skates. They all looked at me as they went by. I felt embarrassed, because they all looked older, and none of them had training wheels or pads on.
"Let's go inside now," I said quickly.
"Why?" Daddy asked.
"Well, those kids...they were staring," I felt my face get red.
"Who cares?" Daddy shrugged, "You're learning how to ride a bike, that's nothing to be embarrassed about."
"Okay," I got onto the seat again, "I'll try it one more time." I put my feet on the pedals and pushed hard. All of a sudden, I was balancing upright and going fast.
"Good job, Charlie!" I heard Daddy call out behind me.
I went past the neighbor's house, and then past Macy's house, and then past the house on the other side of hers.
"I—I don't know how to stop!" I turned my head back to call out, and that made the bike turn to the side. I started to go down the little ramp in someone's driveway, that went out into the street. I panicked, because I knew I probably wasn't supposed to go into the street at all, and then the handlebars jerked to the side, and I felt myself falling over, and I screamed. I landed on my hip and side, throwing my arm out to try and catch myself. My legs were tangled in the bike.
I heard footsteps running, and then Daddy and Uncle Sam were there in front of me.
"Are you okay, Charlie?" Daddy asked anxiously.
I looked up at him and burst into tears.