AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi all...I know it's been a while since I've updated anything, and I'm sorry. Doctor appointments, procedures, new diagnoses, head colds being passed around my family, anxiety, depression, nausea, GERD, insomnia, nightmares... and I just haven't been able to write. The stories are in my head, but when I sit down in front of the computer, nothing happens. And I kinda feel like I'm losing my mojo. Which is concerning to me because I've never felt this way. Please help me motivate my muse and get her back on track!

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

We were getting ready to leave. "Can I call you later?" I asked Daddy, taking his hand.

"Why do you want to call me?" he frowned slightly.

"Well...just 'cause."

"We're going to be busy, and it'll be loud there, probably," Daddy said.

"Will you call me at bedtime? Pleeease?" I wheedled.

Daddy sighed. "All right, Charlie. Give me a hug."

I hugged him, squeezing him extra tight, and then I hugged Uncle Sam.

"Enjoy your ice cream," he said with a smile.

We all walked outside together. Grandpa John lifted me up into the cab of his truck and I watched as Daddy and Uncle Sam got into the Impala and drove away.

"What's wrong, Charlie? You look upset," Grandpa John said.

"I just- it's been a while since Daddy left in the evening and went somewhere, y'know? I don't—I feel nervous," I admitted, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh. Well, it'll be okay. You'll be safe with me," he started the truck and pulled into the road.

"I know, I just...I'll miss him," I said quietly.

"They'll be home before you know it," Grandpa John reached over and ruffled my hair.

We drove to a big restaurant that I had never seen before. Grandpa John was all smiles when we walked in and sat down- the main dining room had a huge fish tank along one wall, and we got to sit in a booth that was right next to it.

"This is really cool!" I got on my knees and looked into the tank. "Look, there's a lionfish!" I pointed at one.

"I thought you might like this," he said with a grin that showed his dimples. "And look over there," he pointed across the room. There was a long salad bar on one side. "That's not salad, that's a dessert bar. It's got several different kinds of ice cream and lots of toppings to choose from."

"Ooh, can I get three scoops?"

"You can get whatever you want, darlin'."

The waitress came to the table and handed us our menus. "You lookin' at the dessert bar? You know you gotta eat all your dinner and be good," she winked at me.

"Nah, she can get whatever she wants, even if she doesn't eat everything," Grandpa John said to her, "Grandpa says."

She laughed. "And whatever Grandpa says, goes, am I right?"

He nodded, grinning, "You got that right."

"I see, we've got the 'spoil your grand-baby special' right here," she pretended to write something down on her pad, and they both laughed. "What can I get you to drink?"

He ordered coffee and I ordered a Coke, then we opened our menus to decide what to eat.

In a couple of mintues the waitress brought our drinks and we ordered our meals.

"What was Daddy like when he was a kid?" I asked, curious, "He said that when he was Ben's age he was in trouble all the time and you were always smackin' his butt." I giggled a little at that.

Grandpa John thought for a moment. "Your Dad...took care of Sam for me, a lot. Hell, he took care of me too. He was...a good kid." he sighed and as he took a sip of his coffee I could see his eyes get sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I..." he sighed again, "I asked a lot of him. Of both of them. Too much, actually."

"What does that mean?" I asked, not understanding.

He shook his head a second time. "Nothing. It's water under the bridge now anyway...Your Dad was really good with his hands, liked to take apart appliances to figure out how they worked and then put 'em back together. I started teaching him about the car's engine when he was pretty young, so he'd stop tinkering with everything. I'd want to make some toast for breakfast, and it would be lying in pieces across the kitchen counter," he chuckled.

"Did he and Uncle Sam always get along?" I asked, thinking about how Ben and I had bickered sometimes.

"Yeah, they did, your Dad was always taking care of Sam, and they watched each other's backs a lot. They had times when they fought, or were snappy with each other, but they always worked it out. Your Dad could always convince Sam to do his training or get him to back down with me."

"What do you mean?"

"Sam and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. When he was younger he'd mouth off to me and argue everything, he'd have made a damn good lawyer if he'd have stayed in college. But he and I...we fought- well, argued a lot when he got older, had our moments, and Dean...he would always get in the middle and try to keep the peace. He wanted us to work things out so that we could work as a family unit."

"When you guys argue, it's scary," I said.

He huffed a laugh. "I know, we're not the best at talking about things...or displaying our emotions. It's something we've all got to work on."

We turned and watched the fish swimming around in the tank. Finally the waitress brought our meals, and we started to eat.

Grandpa John walked over to the dessert bar with me and helped me fix myself a big ice cream sundae.

"This is kinda like the one that Castiel brought me!" I told him when we had sat down.

"He brought you ice cream?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, when I was at Missouri's, he said it was called a 'kitchen sink sundae', the bowl was huge!" I laughed at the memory.

"That's interesting, I've never heard of an angel bringing someone ice cream."

"I wonder where he is," I licked my spoon, "We haven't seen him in a while."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing? Since he'd said he was there to protect you. It must mean that things are pretty quiet." He took a drink of his coffee.

"Can we call Daddy when we get home?" I asked.

"Let's see if he calls you first, if he hasn't called by the time you're in bed, I'll give him a call."

Daddy did call me when I was getting ready for bed. There was loud music playing in the background and talking, so he was talking kinda loud. I told him about the fish tank and the ice cream bar, and then we said good night. Grandpa John sat with me after he tucked me into bed, and rubbed my back until I fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up and ran into Daddy's room. He was laying on his tummy with his arms under his pillow. I bounced onto the bed and crawled up to him.

"Hi, Daddy!" I leaned down to kiss his cheek.

"Oooohhh," he groaned, raising his head and opening one eye to look at me. "What's up, Charlie?"

"I wanted to come see you!" I said happily.

"Well, I'm here...lemme sleep some more, 'kay?" his voice sounded hoarse.

"Okay, Daddy," I got off of his bed and went downstairs.

Uncle Sam and Grandpa John were in the kitchen drinking coffee and looking at Uncle Sam's laptop.

"Good morning!" I said to them.

"There she is!" Grandpa John said, like always. I went over to Uncle Sam and hugged him. "Did you guys have fun?" I asked him.

"Yeah, we did. We got a little job," he looked down at me and smoothed my hair back from my face.

"What job?"

"One of Dean's co-workers has a property that he thinks is haunted, so we're going to go and check it out," Uncle Sam told me.

"Ooh, can I go too?" I asked.

"No, Charlie," Uncle Sam gave me a look, "We're going to go to the library this afternoon and look up some of the history of the house. They have local historical documents stored there."

After Daddy woke up and showered, we ate an early lunch and then went to the library with Uncle Sam.

"I'll take you to get some books, and then I need you to sit quietly while we're working," Daddy told me as we walked into the building.

In the children's section, there were a bunch of younger kids hanging around and playing. I saw Macy, and then Stella off to the side. Macy ran up to me. "Are you here for Saturday Story Time?" she asked.

"Uh, no, what is that?" we walked over to where her mom was.

"Oh, hi, what was your name again?" she asked Daddy.

"Dean," he offered his hand, and they shook.

"That's right, I'm sorry, I'm not good with names," she blushed.

"Tell her about storytime!" Macy said.

"On Saturdays they have a kid's program, where a librarian reads a couple of books to the kids, and they sing songs and the like. It's more for younger kids, though."

"Wanna come with us?" Macy asked.

I looked up at Daddy. "Can I?"

"Sure," he said, "I'll be in the main part of the library, if that's okay?"

Stella nodded. "I'll keep an eye on her. Is...is Sam with you?"

"Yeah, he is," Daddy said casually.

"Okay, it's about half an hour, 40 minutes, and then we come back to the kid's section and play for a while. So just look for us in here," Stella said.

"All right, thanks," Daddy leaned down and kissed the top of my head. "See you in a while, Charlie, be good."

"Okay, Daddy," I said.

I walked over to the climbing structure and stood there watching. It was mostly little kids and toddlers. In a few minutes, a lady came in. "All right, it's Saturday Story Time. Who wants to hear a story?"

We followed her into a room off of the lobby and kids started to sit down on the floor.

"Me sit wif Taw-ee," Cara said, and she plunked herself down in my lap. Macy sat on the floor next to us. Stella walked to the back of the room where the other moms were standing.

The librarian read a picture book, and then she she had everyone sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" a couple times. Then she read a book about a kangaroo with two babies in its pouch, and afterwards everyone had to stand up and she sang a song about different kinds of jumping. A lot of the kids were singing the song, too, and doing all the jumps, which was funny. Everyone sat down again and she read two more picture books, and then sang another couple of songs. Most of the little kids that were there sang along.

"We come here every week for Story Time, so we know all the songs," Macy told me.

When Story Time was finished, went back out to the kid's area, and Macy led me over to a huge dollhouse. It made me think of the dollhouse that I had had when I lived with my mom, and I felt a little sad. This house was almost as tall as me, and had two sides open, with lots of rooms on each side. There were a few kids on each side playing with stuff.

Macy and I picked up a couple of the kid dolls and played with the other kids that were there. One of the kids kept saying they wanted it to be the night before Christmas, and trying to get everyone to put their dolls to bed. Another boy kept talking about there being a scary monster guy with claws for hands that was coming to get everyone. A girl that was sitting next to him kept saying, "That's just a dumb movie, it's not real!"

Stella came over to us. "It's about time for us to go," she said, "Cara's getting hungry."

"We get lunch at McDonald's afterwards, wanna go?" Macy asked me.

"Um, I have to ask my Daddy," I told her as we walked out to the main part of the library.

Uncle Sam was walking away from the Reference Desk with a notebook in his hand.

He walked up to us. "How's it going?" he asked.

"We're going to go to McDonald's for lunch, would you like to join us?" Stella asked him. Her face got a little red. "You and Charlie, I mean."

"Uh, sure, let me check with Dean," Sam smiled at her, "C'mon, Charlie, come with me, and we'lll ask him if he wants to come too. We'll meet you over there," he said to Stella.

I followed Uncle Sam downstairs to a big room that had lots of dark wooden shelves and rows of old looking, big books. Daddy was sitting at a table with a couple of books opened in front of him.

"We got invited to go to McDonald's with Stella and her girls," Uncle Sam told him, "Want to go?"

"Nah, you go, I want to keep working, make sure I find out everything I can about this house. I'll finish up here, you can come pick me up on the way back," Daddy said.

I leaned over and hugged him, and he kissed the top of my head. "Behave yourself," he said to me.

Macy and Cara were in the kid's play area with their mom when we got to the McDonald's. There were a few kids running around when Uncle Sam and I joined them. Macy was just finishing up her food when we sat down.

"I wanna go play," she said.

"Me too!" Cara exclaimed as Macy got down from her seat.

"No, Cara, I want you to eat two more nuggets, and then you can go play," Stella said.

"No, Mommy, me go pay wif May-May!" Cara folded her arms over her chest and pouted. When we sat down, she stared at Uncle Sam.

After a moment, Uncle Sam noticed. "Uh, hi," he said to her.

Cara grabbed at her mom's hand. Stella chuckled. "It's okay, honey," she said.

Uncle Sam opened a couple of ketchup packets for me and squirted them onto my burger wrapper, for my french fries. Then he opened his salad container and gave me the cucumbers from his salad.

Cara was watching us. She pointed at Uncle Sam and said to me, "Daddy?"

"No, he's not my Daddy, he's my Uncle," I told her.

Cara watched us as we began to eat, and she ate one of her nuggets.

Macy came running over to the table. "Charlie, are you done yet? Come an' play!"

I looked over at uncle Sam. "Can I go and play with Macy? I'll eat the rest of my food later, I promise!"

"Go ahead," he said.

I got off the chair and took my shoes off. As I walked away I heard Stella ask, "So, what were you doing at the library?"

Macy and I climbed up to the top of the play area and went down the slide a couple of times, and then Cara joined us. We had to help her climb up to the top because she was scared. She was okay while we were in the top part, and then a couple of boys came in with us. They were being loud and jumping around, and kept bumping into us.

"Let's go down the slide, away from them," I said to Macy.

"C'mon, Cara, let's go," Macy took Cara's hand and led her over to the slide.

"Where go?" Cara asked.

"We're gonna go down the slide."

Cara peered at the entrance to the slide. It was high off the ground, and went in a curlicue shape, so you couldn't see the bottom. "Downa side?" Cara looked at the slide, then she shook her head and tried to pull away. "Uh-uh."

"It's just like the noodle slide at the playground, Cara, it's okay!" Macy said.

One of the boys bounded over and knocked into me.

"Cut it out!" I said loudly, pushing at him.

"Hey, don't push me!" he shouted.

"Quit bumping into us!" I shouted back.

"You gonna go down the slide or what?" another, bigger boy came over to us.

"Go 'way!" Cara snapped at him.

"Aw, shut up, ya baby!" the boy sneered at her, "What, are you scared?"

"Leave us alone!" Macy shouted, stepping towards him with her fists clenched.

"Or what?" he stepped closer to us. Cara grabbed ahold of Macy's and my arms. She looked scared.

"We were here first, stop bein' mean! You go over there an' play over there!" I said to the bigger boy.

"We wanna go down the slide an' you're in the way! Now either go down, or move it!" the boy snapped.

"You're not the boss of us!" Macy said, and Cara chimed in, "Yeah, you not a boss!"

The boy got an angry look on his face, and he shoved Macy and Cara backwards. Cara lost her balance and fell onto her back with a loud yelp, pulling me and Macy over with her. Macy bumped into me as she fell and I fell forward, and all three of us started to go down the slide, tumbling over each other. Cara screamed in fear and burst into tears. One of the boys was right behind us, and his feet swung out and kicked the side of my head.

All of us landed in a heap at the bottom of the slide. Cara's face was red and shiny with tears. Macy's lip was bleeding and she was crying. The side of my head was throbbing.

We sat up, and Stella hurried over to us. "What happened?" she asked.

One of the other boys came down the slide just then.

I stood up and pointed. "They came in after us and were jumping around an' kept bothering us and banging into us an' then they were bein' mean, and he—he pushed Cara and she fell, and bumped into us so we all fell!" I pointed at the taller boy.

Another woman had come over to stand next to Stella.

"He—his foot kicked-ded my mouth, Mommy!" Macy wailed, pointing at the boy who had come down the slide behind us.

"And he kicked my head!" I exclaimed.

"How many times have I told you boys not to rough-house up there?" the other woman said to the boys. "Apologize for hurting these little girls!"

The boys muttered, "Sorry," and trudged away from us.

Uncle Sam came over and leaned down to me. "Let me check your head," he said, looking at it and feeling my scalp. "No bump, that's good. Does it still hurt?"

I nodded, and threw my arms around his waist. "It was scary!" I said, "We were all falling together!"

Uncle Sam put his arm around my shoulders and patted me. "I bet it was."

Stella picked Cara up and then leaned over and picked Macy up. They were both crying. We all walked back to the table, and Uncle Sam handed Stella some napkins for Macy since her lip was still bleeding slightly.

"It looks like her lip banged against one of her teeth, that's all, there's nothing loose," Stella said after she checked Macy's mouth.

Uncle Sam sat down and I got into his lap.

Cara was leaning on Stella's chest and sniffling. Then she looked up and said, "Mommy, poopy."

"Oh, do you have to go?" Stella asked.

"Gotta go!" Cara said urgently.

"All right, Macy, get down, do you want to come with us?" Stella asked as she set the girls on the floor.

"No, I wanna stay here," Macy said shyly, "Charlie, can I sit with you?"

I looked up at Uncle Sam. "Oh, uh, sure," he said, looking down at us. He shifted me onto one leg and held his arm out, and Macy climbed up onto his other leg.

"Boys is mean," she said.

"Sometimes. Sometimes girls are mean too," I said.

"Let me check your lip," Uncle Sam said to Macy. She let him remove the napkin and he looked at her face. "The bleeding has stopped."

When Stella came back to the table, Cara was all cuddled into her shoulder, looking sleepy.

"I think we've had enough excitement for one day," Stella said, "How's the lip?"

"It stopped bleeding," Uncle Sam told her.

"Let's clean up, and then go home and rest," Stella looked at Macy.

"Go ahead and go, we'll take care of this," Uncle Sam told her with a smile.

Macy and I got off of Uncle Sam's lap and he stood up. Macy put her shoes on and picked up Cara's shoes, and Stella grabbed the tote bag she had.

"Bye," Macy said to me.

"Bye Taw-ee, bye Unca!" Cara waved over Stella's shoulder as they left.

Uncle Sam chuckled as he cleaned up the trash. I sat down to finish my hamburger.

"You doing okay?" Uncle sam asked after he came back from the trash can.

"Yeah, I'm done now." I gathered up my trash and threw it away. Uncle Sam texted Daddy to let him know that we were coming back to the library.

Daddy met us on the front steps.

"Guess what, Daddy, I got kicked in the head!" I told him as he got into the car.

He turned to face me. "What?"

I told him what had happened and he shook his head. "Sounds like those kids were too big to be in that play area."

"Macy ended up sitting with me while Stella took Cara to the bathroom," Uncle Sam told him.

"And then Cara said good-bye to Uncle Sam! I guess she's not scared of him any more!" I laughed.

"Aw, Sam, you're winning all the ladies over," Daddy teased him.

"Well, I'm glad, it was weird that Cara was so scared of me, I'm not used to that." Uncle Sam said.

I told them about the reading program and playing with the doll house in the library as we drove home.

When we got home, Daddy and Uncle Sam got onto the laptop and looked at their notes, and then Daddy brought one of his duffles in from the car. I watched him fill shotgun shells with salt for a while, and then I went to play in my room.

The next day was Sunday. Daddy and Uncle Sam left before lunch, to go to the house that they thought was haunted. They were going to be there all day long and possibly into the evening.

Grandpa John sat down on the sofa and turned on the t.v. to a baseball game. I sat down with him and tried to watch, but I got bored. I could never get the hang of all the rules of baseball.

"Can I go ride my bike outside?" I asked him. The weather had gotten warmer and all the snow from New Year's Even had melted.

"Sure, just stay on the sidewalk and don't go too far away," he said. He got up and we went to where my bike was stored in the laundry room. There was a door on the side that opened into the back yard, and I had to walk my bike out to the front.

He handed me my helmet and pads and walked the bike up the driveway for me.

"All right, be careful," he said, and went into the house.

I saw some of the older boys riding their skateboards in the road. After Grandpa John went inside, I dropped the helmet and pads on the ground by the porch steps, and climbed onto my bike to ride it.

Several minutes later Grandpa John came out onto the porch. "I just wanted to check on you, make sure you're doing okay," he said, "How come you're not wearing your safety gear?"

I pedaled up the sidewalk and stopped. "Oh, uh, Uncle Sam said if I'm just riding back and forth like this I didn't have to wear it," I tried to look innocent.

"Huh," he said after a moment, "Well, I think you should at least put your helmet on."

"Okay," I agreed. He turned and went back inside, and I turned my bike around and pedaled it back up the sidewalk.

I saw Addison and her mom getting out of their car, and rode over to say hi.

"I got a haircut today, and we got manicures after!" Addi held her hand out and showed me her nails. They were a bright pink with little yellow and white flowers painted on them.

"That's pretty," I said.

"Yeah, and we got some more nail polish. You wanna come in and I'll paint your nails?"

"Oh, I can't, I have to go ask," I said.

"You need to finish your reading project before you do anything else," Addison's mom said to her.

Addison rolled her eyes. "I got the whole rest of the day to do that, Mom, gosh," she said in a snotty voice.

"Well, I'm telling you I want it done now," her mom said sternly, "Let's go inside, now."

Addison rolled her eyes again. "Fine!" she turned and stomped into the house.

I turned my bike around and started to pedal back to our house just as Grandpa John was calling to me.

He was standing on the edge of the steps. "Charlie, your Dad's on the phone, wants to talk to you," he said abruptly.

I pulled my bike up close to the porch and then climbed off of it and went inside.

"-all right, here she is, I'll put it on speaker," Grandpa John held the phone up as I walked over to him.

"Hi Daddy, did you find a ghost?" I asked.

"We stopped to get a late lunch," he said, "Charlotte Anne Winchester, why are you riding your bike without your helmet and safety pads?"