AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi all, I hope the new year is treating you better than the old one! Charlie's story now has 210 followers, so welcome newbies! Today is Dean Winchester's birthday, so I thought it would be appropriate to publish the chapter dealing with his birthday. It's short, and I'm sorry for that, but I wanted to publish something for him!

I've shared some of my health issues with you, and last year was a rough year for me health-wise. Besides getting diagnosed with Gastroparesis, I also had a lot of testing done as doctors tried to figure out what else is going on. For a while I thought I had cancer, and it was a very scary time for me. Good news is, the lymph node biopsy was negative for malignancies. The general consensus is that I also have Sarcoidosis. I have more specialists to see and more tests, and there are several different medications that can be used to treat it. The thing is, I don't know how my body may react to them. So updates may still be sporadic from time to time, and if things get really rough for me I will let you know. Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews and who has stuck with me through all of this!

Sometimes when I'm feeling down I will go and read the comments that people have left and it helps raise my spirits, especially during the times recently when I was stressing about my health and not able to concentrate enough to write. Hope you enjoy, and I'm working on Charlie's birthday part chapter next!

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It was finally Daddy's birthday. He hadn't wanted to do anything to celebrate, but I had begged and wheedled and gotten him to agree to go out for dinner.

We were sitting at a big table at the restaurant with the big fish tank and the ice cream bar. Uncle Bobby had joined us and Imani had come too.

Daddy leaned back and put his hand on his stomach. "That steak was awesome, I don't know if I've got room for the ice cream bar."

"Well, I hope you have room for pie!" Uncle Sam said to him, as a group of waiters and waitresses walked over to us. Our waitress was carrying a giant pie with a few birthday candles in it, and she set it down in front of Daddy.

"What's all this?" he asked, looking embarrassed.

"It's your birthday pie, Daddy! Instead of birthday cake!" I clapped my hands, and the waitress looked around and said, "Are we ready?" She started to sing the Happy Birthday song, and we all joined in. I could hear other people singing besides us.

Daddy leaned forward and covered his face with his hand, blushing.

When we finished singing, people sitting at other tables clapped, and I looked around. A lot of them were watching us and smiling. I grabbed Daddy's other hand. "You gotta blow the candles out!"

He put his hand down reluctantly. "Okay," he blew the candles out and everyone clapped again.

Daddy looked around. "All right, who's responsible for this?" He frowned, but he was just teasing.

"I am!" I said proudly. "Well, I asked Uncle Sam to help, if he could get a big pie!"

"That is huge," Daddy agreed, watching as the waitress sliced into it. "Where'd you find it?"

"That candy shop that Dad found also sells pastries, and they make extra-extra large pies, so I ordered one for you," Uncle Sam told Daddy.

"Do you like it?" I asked.

Daddy looked at me. "Well, I-" he shook his head. "I'm really not used to this kind of thing, but, yeah, Charlie, I'm pretty happy right now." He pulled on my arm, and I got up from my chair and hugged him. He kissed the side of my head. "Thanks for getting this giant pie."

I sat down as the waitress set a plate in front of Daddy and then me.

"Y'all can get a scoop of ice cream from the bar to go with your pie if you want," she told us with a smile.

"Thank you," Daddy nodded at her. The other waiters in the group said Happy Birthday to Daddy and then left.

She served everyone else, and we all got up and got ice cream from the big ice cream bar.

"The last time I was celebrating something with all of you, it was Charlie graduating from Physical Therapy at the hospital, and look at how far she's come, at how much everything has changed," Imani said when we sat back down.

Daddy got a faraway look in his eyes. "Yeah, she's done really well." He squeezed my shoulder.

"Dean, this time last year I think we were in the middle of a hunt in the West Coast, and we stopped to play some pool and grab a couple pitchers of beer," Uncle Sam said.

"And now we're all here together celebrating because of Charlie," Grandpa John smiled at me, and his dimples showed.

Daddy put his arm around me and hugged me again. "I'm glad you insisted we come here, Charlie."

I beamed up at him. "I'm glad you like it, Daddy! And it's exciting because my birthday is in a couple of days!"

Everyone laughed. Daddy ruffled my hair and put his arm on the back of my chair. "Yeah, it is, and that means another party."

I grinned. "I can't wait!"

Daddy leaned back and stretched. "Okay, now I really am stuffed. I can't eat another bite!"

"We'll have to have some of your birthday whiskey and pie later tonight," Grandpa John said. He had bought Daddy a bottle of fancy whiskey for his present.

"Sounds like a plan!" Daddy started to put his utensils on his plate. "Are we about finished with everything?"

We stood up and put our coats on. Grandpa John leaned down to zip me up. "Put your hat on, it's cold out there tonight!" I pulled my Hello Kitty hat down over my head.

Imani had come over and hugged Daddy. "Happy Birthday, Dean!" she smiled at him. Then she leaned down and hugged me. "I'll be at your party as well, Charlie, if that's okay with you?"

She let me go and straightened. Uncle Sam put his arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah, that'll be fun!" I said.

"Sammy," Daddy tossed his keys to Uncle Sam, and Uncle Sam caught them out of the air. "I'll be home later," he said, as he and Imani turned to go.

We went with Grandpa John. I was relieved to be in the quiet truck, all the noise of the restaurant was getting to be too much. My head had started to hurt, and then being in the cold truck made it worse. By the time we got home, my head was pounding.

Daddy brought the leftover pie into the kitchen and set it on the counter.

I pulled the step-stool over to the cabinet where the medicines were kept and opened the door.

"What are you up to, Charlie?" Daddy asked.

"I got a headache, I was gonna get some medicine," I rubbed my forehead.

Daddy came over to me and put his palm on my forehead. "You don't have a fever, why didn't you say anything?"

"I dunno, it just hurts, an' m'tired."

Daddy took my chin in his hand and raised my head so that I was looking at him. "Well, listen kiddo, it's not a good idea for you to be getting your own medicine. You tell one of us and we'll get it for you."

"But...I always got my own before, when I was taking care of my mom."

Daddy picked me up and looked me in the eyes. "Yeah, but it's not like that anymore, Charlie. Have we ever let you get your own medicine? We're always going to take care of you, all right? Remember that, no matter how bad you're feeling." He smoothed my hair back from my face and kissed my forehead, then he sat me on the counter and got out the bottle of liquid ibuprofen.

Grandpa John had come in while Daddy was talking. "You have a headache? Where does it hurt?"

"Um, around my head feels all tight."

He nodded. "Did you start feeling bad at the restaurant? I could see you kind of shut down a little right before we left."

"Yeah, it was just too much noise and all."

Daddy handed me the tiny plastic cup and and I drank the medicine and then drank a glass of water.

"Well, I guess you don't want to listen to one of my Led Zeppelin CDs with me then, huh?" Daddy teased. "Let's get you to bed, and hopefully a good night's sleep will make you feel better."

He picked me up off the counter and set me on the floor.

Grandpa John leaned down to hug me. "Good night, little one."

"Good night, Grandpa John," I hugged him back, and he kissed the top of my head. He let me go, and turned to get a glass out of the cabinet.

"Go on and get ready, I'll be up in a few," Daddy patted my bottom, and I went upstairs.

When I came in to my bedroom, Daddy was sitting on the edge of my bed. "You want to read tonight, or are you feeling too bad?"

"Still feel yucky. Will you just sit with me?" I climbed in next to him.

He moved over so that he was leaning against the headboard, and put his arm around me. "I think I can do that." I snuggled into his side and slid my arm around him. "I can't think of a better way to end my birthday, than to snuggle with my girl."

I looked up at him. "Did you really have a good birthday?"

He looked down at me and nodded. "I really did. We were never big on celebrating birthdays or holidays, I know I mentioned that, and we didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up, so if we did do something it was maybe pizza and a movie."

"Did you have parties?"

He shook his head. "We moved around so much, I didn't really have the chance to make a lot of friends."

"Oh. That's...that doesn't sound very...happy."

Daddy shrugged. "Well, it was how my life was back then, and it's what I knew."

"But didn't you see other kids having parties and stuff? And get jealous?"

He shrugged again. "I dunno, maybe I did at one time, when I was younger. But I knew I wanted to help Dad, and to do that I had to train and learn from him how to hunt."

I felt guilty then, that I had gotten upset for a couple of years, because I hadn't been able to have birthday parties, and my Daddy had grown up not ever celebrating much of anything. I looked down at my lap and sighed.

"Hey," Daddy nudged me, "Don't feel bad for me, okay? It was rough sometimes, but everything worked out, and here I am in a house with my dad and my brother and my daughter, and that's just the best that life can be right now." He dropped a kiss on top of my head. "Thank you for wanting to make something of my birthday, kiddo, it means a lot."

I tightened my arms around him. "I'm glad...I never, I mean I never...well, I just didn't think I'd ever meet my dad, y'know? And I'm really glad I did."

He pulled me close and hugged me to his chest. "Me too, honey, I'm so glad that you're here...in my life..." He pulled me onto his lap.

I curled up. "I love you, Daddy. Happy Birthday."

"I love you too, Charlie. Try and get some sleep."

I fell asleep like that, my head resting on his flannel chest, and when I woke up in the morning, my headache was gone.