Sleep had come easy to Annie that night. She felt safe and she felt content.

When she woke up the next morning, she was refreshed and ready to tackle the day. She was excited to get the offical tour of the bunker and check out all of those cars with Dean.

She hurriedly got out of bed to get dressed. As she was looking over her new clothing options, she got excited all over again at the prospect of putting them in drawers. For the majority of her life, she had lived out of a suitcase and sometimes even a trash bag, going one place to the next. She had longed to fill a dresser with her own clothes and had never had the chance.

But now she had a home. With her brothers.

Annie began deciding what drawers would house what. As she pulled out a couple of pair of shorts to put in her top drawer, she hesitated. The fear of having to unpack everything if they decided they didn't want her became prevalent in her mind. Suddenly the joy had been sucked out of the morning.

She tried to shake the bad thoughts out of her head, with no such luck. This time was differnt and she knew it. Sam and Dean had told her she would be safest with them. So, logically she knew she shouldn't worry about getting carted off with someone else. They were her biological brothers and had a connection with her that no one else in the world had.

Doubt crept through her mind once again. But what if they decide I'm too much? They wouldn't be the first.

Shut up. She growled angrily to herself.

The excitement of everything had quickly morphed into bitterness, as she began to stuff her clothes back into the bags they came in. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes but she willed them not to fall. This was just a precaution. She was protecting herself. She knew better.

She grabbed the clothes she picked out for the day, and quietly walked to her bathroom. She had no clue what time it was, and no way to figure it out. There were no windows in the bunker and her new phone hadn't been set up yet. For all she knew, it was five in the morning. She was often an early riser, and that wouldn't surprise her.

After pulling on her blue cotton shorts and a plain grey tee, she brushed her teeth and used the bathroom. When she was finished with her business she began walking down the hallway towards the library. She hoped one of her brothers would be up and in there and could lead her to the kitchen. Her stomach growled loudly begging her to do just that.

Unfortunately, neither Sam or Dean were in the library. She figured she would just have to find the way to the kitchen herself. It couldn't be that hard. On her way past all of the books, a giant sword hanging on the wall, caught her attention. The overwhelming urge to touch it had her walking towards it before she even realized it.

Just as she reached out to grab the handle, Annie wondered what Sam and Dean's reaction would be to her doing this. She took a quick glance of her surroundings, making sure she was in fact alone. What my brothers don't know, won't hurt them, she rationalized.

It was heavier than she thought it was going to be but at the same time, felt good in her hands. She drew it behind her like she had seen people do in movies and swung it around her body, fending off pretend attackers. She felt like a ninja, and couldn't help the giggle that escaped her lips. Suddenly her mood was back up, and her doubts and insecurities were pushed away for the moment.

Annie was having so much fun swinging the sword around, that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. She began swinging the sword around wildly letting her imagination flow.

She was a fierce warrior in a harrowing battle, defending people against an evil dragon who was destroying her village. She was a brave swordswoman, willing to die for her fellow soldier, protecting those who couldn't protect themselves. Maybe she was even a princess who was trying to escape an enemy attack on her kingdom, forced to defend herself against the intruders who were no match for her skillful-

"Hey!" Dean barked out, as the sword his sister was swinging around almost grazed his nose.

Dean had startled her so, that her weapon clanged against the floor loudly as her hands went to cover a gasp out of her mouth.

"The hell you doing, King Arthur?" Dean growled out, doing his best not to yell, thankful that he hadn't just lost a key facial feature. Sam entered the room, poised for attack because of Dean's yell. When he realized there was no active threat, Sam surveyed the room, to take in what had happened between his siblings. The sword on the floor pretty much told the story itself.

Annie glanced from Sam to Dean and felt her face flush red. "I- thought... I didn't, I mean, I-... I'm sorry." She stuttered out, embarrassed she had been caught. So much for being brave, she thought ruefully.

Dean shared a look with his brother before he crossed his arms over his broad chest and looked down at her meaningfully. "I think this would be a great time to talk about rules. I-"

Her stomach rumbled loudly, interrupting her oldest brother mid sentence. "Uh, sorry." She whispered, even more embarrassed.

"You don't have to apologize for being hungry, sweetie." Sam said sadly. "How about we do that after breakfast?" He said to Dean.

Dean nodded in agreement. "The sword, please."

Annie smiled sheepishly, the red tint to her cheeks still very apparent as she reached down and then placed the offending object to her brother's out-stretched palm.

Sam put a comforting hand on her shoulder and led her out of the library and into the kitchen. "Is toast and fruit alright?" He asked.

"That's fine." She wasn't a picky eater, but usually didn't eat much in the mornings. "Can I have coffee too?" She asked, eyeing the brewing pot on the counter.

"Aren't you a little young for that?" Dean asked with a raised brow, walking to the pot, planning on pouring himself some more anyway. "Won't it like stunt your growth or something?" He remembered someone saying that at some point but didn't know if it held much truth. He had verbalized it only because he knew Sam would have an opinion.

Annie scoffed, feeling insulted. "I'm thirteen, not three. I drink coffee all the time." Not all the time, but enough that it had become some what of a habit. There was always a little bit of coffee left in the pot at the group home, after the adults finished. She didn't even mind drinking it black anymore.

"Dean's right." Sam piped up, opening the fridge. "How about milk? Or juice?"

"Milk is disgusting." She grouched. It was only okay with cereal and even that was pushing it, in her opinion.

"Or juice?" Sam repeated, not budging, unimpressed with her pout.

She dropped her shoulders in acceptance that she would have to cut back on her morning caffeine intake around her brothers . "Juice is fine, I guess," she grumbled.

Sam got her juice and plate of the breakfast. Him and Dean had already eaten an hour before. The three Winchesters all sat at the table as she ate quickly, her hunger taking over.

When the last of her fruit had been eaten she shifted uncomfortably. "So?" She was ready to get this conversation behind her. Annie was no stranger to rules, as every place she stayed at had ten million and four. Mainly revolving around not being a nuisance.

"So," Dean started. "The most important rule in our family, is obedience. I expect you to listen to whatever Sam and I say, whether it's here, in the Impala or on a hunt. When we say jump, you jump. Doing as you're told could be the difference between life or death in our line of work. Dad never tolerated disobedience, and neither will we."

Irritation bubbled up at this proclamation, but she pushed it down. Annie knew this didn't need to be the hill she died on, if this was just the first rule. So she nodded an affirmative, even though she knew she wouldn't be jumping any time soon. She would try to do what they said... for the most part anyway.

"Another big one is respect. It-"

"Respect is earned." She spoke up before he could say anything more. She didn't know why she felt compelled to say it, but she had said it none the less. The irriation from a moment ago, fresh on the surface. How many times had an adult said this to her and then treated her like shit? She had crossed her arms and began glaring at her brothers daring them to disagree. Her posture screamed defiance. "I'm not going to respect you just because or whatever."

Sam saw the features on Dean's face become stern and he decided to speak next, hoping to give his brother a second to calm down. No one would benefit from this conversation if they were all defensive.

"Yes, it is." Sam said, shocking Annie that he was agreeing with her. "And before you made assumptions and interrupted Dean, he was about to say that respect goes both ways. We would both appreciate if you gave us a chance to finish what we are going to say before you jump to conclusions, automatically assuming the worst."

"I-" She tried to defend herself, but found she wasn't sure how to justify why she had said that without mentioning her past. So instead she dropped her arms and looked at them apologetically.

Dean continued, pretending like nothing had happened. "Respect is a two way street." He echoed Sam. "We respect you, you respect us. This includes cussing. I don't really care if you cuss, as long as you don't get too excessive and its not directed at us. Keep it PG-13. You also need to respect our decisions. I would appreciate a yes, Dean/no, Dean, instead of a 'yeah', 'sure', or 'whatever'. Lying also falls under respect. You do something you shouldn't, and you lie about it, I can promise you the consequence for whatever you did, immediately got worse. Don't lie to us, kid. We won't ever lie to you either. Trust is important in this family. Lying and not trusting one another has caused us a lot of problems in the past."

Sam had to hold himself in the present, doing his best not to allow Dean's words to take him back somewhere he wasn't too proud of. He knew that hadn't been his brother's intent, but it had been pointed none the less.

Focusing back in the moment, Sam took a deep breath and zeroed in on his little sister. "We also want you to understand that we have your best interests in mind and that will be the reason behind our decisions. We make the decisions because you're the kid and we're the adults. I know you've had to grow up quick and I hate that for you, Annie. We both want to take some of that responsibility off of your shoulders. This is your chance to be a kid again. You get all the perks that come with that, but the cost is following the rules, or facing the consequences."

After Sam's reprimand earlier, and this conversation as a whole, Annie was feeling chided and small. No one had ever laid out rules like this, with the reason of caring about her. The rules had always been to the benefit of the adult that was saying them. She pushed away her irritation at rules in general to take a moment to understand what her brothers were offering. They hadn't imposed truly stupid rules. They were rules to keep her safe.

She was at war with herself between wanting to be the kid Sam promised she would get to be, and wanting to be the adult she had always had to be. The only person she had ever been able to count on was herself, and it was daunting to let someone else take control over that.

Both brothers waited patiently as they watched Annie's wheels turning. It was obvious she was struggling with accepting what they had said, and they wanted to give her a chance to really process. Finally acceptance won, as the desire to let someone take care of her became too tempting. "Yes, Sam. Yes, Dean."

The Winchester brothers mentally breathed a sigh of relief at her response. They had both thought they were about to have a fight on their hands and were glad she had come to the right decision herself.

Her compliance was rewarded with a smile of approval from both Sam and Dean. "The third big one, has to do with putting yourself in dangerous situations. Now, we basically live in a constant state of danger. A hunter's life is always dangerous- that's the job. However, being reckless is not something we can afford to do. You take precautions in this life, or you die young. That's our reality. So, you better not do anything that would purposefully put your life in danger."

"Yes, Dean." Annie whispered, a little more fearful than she had felt earlier. Other than a demon possession, that she didn't really remember, she hadn't had any experiences with the supernatural yet and that unknown element frightened her. She couldn't imagine putting herself in danger on purpose, and figured that this rule was more a precaution than anything else.

"We don't say that to scare you, Annie." Sam said. "But we just want you to understand that's how it is. A hunters life is dangerous. Your big brothers are dangerous too, though. And we will always do whatever it takes to protect you."

Through her fear and irritation, warmth spread through her chest. "I am scared... but I trust you."

"That's all we ask."

She nodded. "Just those?" She couldn't fathom that was all the rules.

"I'll help you set up your phone in a little while, but you are always to answer when we call, is that clear?"

Annie smiled. The prospect of having her own phone, far outweighed anything else. "Crystal." She would have no problem answering them.

"We also need to talk about you going back to school. Now-"

"What? No!" She shrieked. The conversation quickly took a turn for the worst. "Absolutely not! School is outta the question!"

The middle Winchester seemed shocked by her outrage. He hadn't expected such a harsh reaction out of her. He briefly remembered her mentioning not wanting to back to school but he didn't think there was going to be this much resistance . "Annie, you're barely a teenager. Not going to school, is not an option."

"No, Sam!" She shook her head frantically. "No way! I've been out way too long- and I was never any good anyway and... and you can't make me. I won't go!"

"Julianna Winchester, calm down." Dean barked, his limit for the shrieking was very short. This time, the use of her first name didn't give her as much of a warm feeling as it had the first time. She squirmed in her seat at Dean's intense gaze. "Let Sam speak."

"School is non-negotiable. You're thirteen and still have a lot left to learn. I understand that you haven't been in a while and that's why I was going to suggest homeschooling. That way I can help teach you. It would be much easier to do it that way since we travel so much, anyway." Sam wanted to make it as appealing as possible. "You'd have a lot more freedom than you would in regular school and I will be with you the whole time for when you need help. Does that really sound so bad?"

She opened her mouth to retort but shut it. It didn't sound that bad. But what if Sam thought she was stupid like all her other teachers had? School had always been so hard for her, and it was embarrassing to think of her brothers knowing how dumb she was. "No. But I still don't want to." Her lip wobbled. "Do I really have to?"

"I hear ya, kid. Really I do." Dean said, empathizing. "Sam was always the brains outta the two of us. I didn't enjoy school much myself, when I even showed up... But well, Sammy got to go to college. A full ride to Stanford. Hell, if it wasn't for that bastard demon, he'd be some fancy high priced lawyer by now. Don't you want those same opporturnites? Don't you want a chance at a better life? Because that's what I want for you." He said sincerely. "It's what we both want for you."

Annie bit her lip, thinking. Dean had made a good point. But college had never been something that she had even thought about. It never seemed like an option, and wasn't worth entertaining. The idea that it could be now, stirred some long forgotten hope in Annie. "...I think I do. Sorry for uh... yelling I guess. I'd like to do the homeschool thing." She mumbled.

Sam smiled at her apology. "You're forgiven. I'm glad you'd like to do it. We don't have to start immediately. I still need to do some research on the programs and things, to make sure I find one that's the best fit for you. Besides, it's still summer."

Annie nodded, though she was still uncomfortable with the idea of school. She had to continue to remind herself that Sam was different. Sam would help her.

"We'll also be adding in some hunter training as well." Annie's face lit up at that. That sounded intersting. "You'll do latin and lore with Sam and I'll teach you how to shoot and fight. I expect your ass in the gym at six every morning, unless I say different." He had expected more resistance from this but her face had a wide grin spreading across it.

"Cool." She said smiling. She was looking forward to all of that. Even learning a different language didn't seem so bad.

"That's all for right now, but we remain with the authority to add or change things as we see fit. Kapeesh?"

"Yes, Dean."

"Alright," Sam said, slapping the tops of his knees, glad this conversation was over. Truthfully, he had expected a lot more arguing with their rules, and figured the only reason it went smoothly was becuase they were still basically in the honeymoon phase of the relationship. Not wanting to dwell on that now though, he smiled at his little sister. "You have any questions?"

She didn't want to ask but she knew it would be a lot better to know what was coming when she inevitably broke some rules. "What happens, when, uh, I... like break your rules or something?"

"It depends on what rule you break. The small things could earn you a grounding or maybe writing lines or something. Our dad always favored making us run or doing extra workouts if we got mouthy. Cleaning weapons, and other chores like that as well." Sam answered.

Those don't sound too bad.

"And the big things?" She asked, biting her lip, feeling her anxiety build.

Dean folded his arms. "The big things will earn you a spanking."

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "You're joking."

"Serious as a heart attack." Dean responded, face unmoving. She waited for either brother to crack a smile but it never happened.

"I'm too- you, you can't do that!" She protested, heat once again filling her cheeks and an uncomfortable sensation spreading in her stomach.

"Can and will. That's how it's always worked in this family and that's how it will continue to work. If you're so worried about it, don't break the rules," was Dean's stern reply.

She cut her eyes to Sam, so far her softer brother, to tell her this wasn't true. "Sorry, kid." Sam said, not looking very sorry. "It's an effective deterrent to not repeat bad behavior."

Indignation coursed through her body as she crossed her arms feeling betrayed. "Well, I won't let you."

Dean lowered his eyebrows in determination, as he made to stand. "I can give you a preview to show you that you're dead wrong."

"No, Dean." Sam's hand pushed his brother back down and shook his head. "Annie, what did we just talk about? We're the adults. You're the kid. We make the rules and you follow them. If you don't, then there are consequences. Spanking is one of the consequences in this family, and that isn't changing. We make these rules for your benefit. And we'll only enforce them for your benefit too. You agreed to that earlier."

Annie remembered what she had agreed too... but that was before they mentioned... that. She tried to think of any other excuse to sway them. "But I'm too old..." She protested pitifully.

Dean chuckled. "Not even close. And not in this family. I don't care if you're thirteen or twenty three. That's not changing."

She sighed feeling disgruntled by this turn of events. The thirteen year old had never been spanked before but she knew people that had and it sounded awful and embarrassing... But she supposed it was better than some of the other punishments she had gotten before. She still didn't like it though.

"Fine." She grumbled, swearing to herself she was going to do whatever possible to not earn that punishment.

Sam recognized that this was as good as they were going to get on the subject. And hey, he understood. It sucked. It wasn't going to be his go-to punishment like it had been their fathers. But he could see where it could be necessary. "Why don't we go get started on that tour, hmm?"

"I'm going to the garage to change Baby's oil. Bring 'er in there when you're done, so I can see how much she knows about cars."

They all three stood up, and Dean left. The two siblings stood their awkwardly for a moment before Sam cleared his throat. "Whenever you're hungry, you can eat anything in here that you want. If it's the last of something or you think of something you want to eat, just let me know before the next grocery run and I'll put it on the list."

"I can really get anything in here?" She asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. No one had ever said that to her before. Usually homes would keep their fridge locked and not allow the foster kids to be in the kitchen other than meal times. And those were the better homes.

Sam nodded, not understanding her surprise. "Only thing that's off limits is the alcohol."

"Damn, and here I was thirsty." She smirked, trying to lighten the mood, and forget the embarrassment of the previous conversation.

Sam smiled at her joke, before ruffling her hair. "Water for you, miss." He gestured her to follow him back out the kitchen door. "Come on."

"I've already seen the library?" She asked, confused why they were back in there.

"I know, I just wanted to show you a few things in here. First, you can look at whatever book you'd like, as long as you put it back in the right place so we can find it again when we need it." He pointed to the card catalogue on the small table. "There's books in here about pretty much everything. Tons of information, thanks to the Men of Letters. There's a book on just about every monster in existence."

She looked around, a little overwhelmed not even knowing where she would start if she wanted to learn something. "And I can read anything?"

"Sure. And if you'd like something a little more fun to read, there's this book store down town that I really enjoy going to. We could go sometime."

Though she had protested school, reading wasn't the reason. She loved reading and getting sucked into a different world, a world better than her own. "I'd like that."

Sam gave her a quick smile. "Since you've already had an experience with the sword," he said smiling at her blush, "let's tack on the rule, that you don't need to pick up any weapons without mine or Dean's permission."

Annie's face colored at the reminder from this morning's incident. "Yeah, sorry about that again. I kinda got carried away."

"Hey, don't sweat it." Sam then smirked conspiratorially to her. "Between you and me, Dean did the same thing when he first saw it. Keep that to yourself though."

She giggled at the thought of her more stern brother, swinging around the sword in play.

Sam showed her the laundry room, and explained how to work the old valves and such, before showing her the closet with their cleaning supplies. He pointed out where his and Dean's rooms were again and then the other rooms that were empty guest rooms. She loved the Dean cave her brother had made as well. It was nice to see a different side of him represented in there.

He then led her into a large storage room full of boxes. And what seemed like knickknacks lining the shelves.

"What are all these?"

"Files and stuff from the Men of Letters. A few magical items we don't want hanging around in the open. Don't open any of them." He said, watching her hand jerk back from doing just that.

"Sorry."

"I know, it's tempting." He laughed. "But a lot of this is dangerous and some of it we don't even know what's in there. It's better to assume that it's all dangerous though and to leave it alone."

Then he walked to the back wall of the room and opened doors she hadn't even seen at first.

Her mouth dropped open at what was inside. "You guys have a dungeon?"

"Yep."

Chains hung from the wall and a large symbol was painted on the floor. A singular chair sat in the middle, with cuffs hanging off the side. Her eyes caught sight of blood splattered on the floor as well, as she took an unconscious step back.

Sam saw what she was staring at and rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Dean was supposed to clean that up. Sorry about that."

"Who's blood?" She whispered.

"A demon."

"Did you guys, like torture him in here?" She asked horrified. She knew demons were bad but that sounded gruesome and it was hard for her to imagine Sam and Dean doing something so violent.

Sam suddenly wished he hadn't brought her in here, but figured she might have come in here to discover it herself and that would have been worse. "He had information that we needed. We didn't have much of a choice."

Annie filed the information that her brothers could torture demons to the back of her mind, to revist at a later date. She also wondered if trusting them so easily may have been a mistake. Sure they had been nice and bought her clothes and said they cared about her but who were they really? She hadn't even known them a week yet.

Not like you have anyone else, she reminded herself.

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder as another tipped her chin up to look Sam in the eyes. "He wasn't human. He had killed a lot of people and was planning on killing more. This is part of the job."

She nodded, understanding where he was coming from, but was still subdued. A shiver ran down her spine as she thought of the horrible things that had probably happened in here.

"Like I said earlier, I know all the stuff in here is tempting, but don't come in here alone. This room is off limits without one of us."

She had no desire to be back in this room. "No problem."

Sam led her out of the room and down another hallway. She felt a little turned around and knew she was going to have trouble navigating this place. "Down here is the gun range." He said holding the door open for her to look in.

"That's so cool!" She said, glad to be on a better part of the tour.

"This is another room you don't come in, without Dean or I, okay?"

Annie rolled her eyes. "Chill. I'm not going to shoot myself or something."

His own eyes narrowed, Sam crossed his arms, giving his sister a hard stare. "I didn't say that. Gun safety is very important and until we can trust that you have the knowledge and skillset to handle a weapon, you aren't allowed to be around one on your own. Are we going to have a problem with this rule, Julianna?"

Sam's usually warm dispostion made it easy to forget how large and intimidating he really was. Annie quickly shook her head, not wanting them to impose a new consequence so early in their relationship. "No, Sam. I won't come in here."

He stared at her a moment longer before, nodding and jutting his chin further down the hall. She followed him over to a bigger door at the end. "Here's the gym."

"I wasn't expecting it to be this big." Annie stated impressed, picking up one of the dumbells.

Earlier brattiness, already forgotten, Sam chuckled. "Yeah, this place is way bigger than you would think. There's a med wing on the other side, but we don't have to go check that out right now."

"What doesn't this place have?" She asked laughing. Who needed their own private medical wing?

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a second. "A fro-yo machine would have been nice," he responded smiling.

Annie laughed. "How could they forget something so important!"

"That's pretty much it." He grinned. "You ready to head to the garage?"

Remembering how many cool cars awaited her in the garage, she nodded eagerly. She followed behind her tallest brother, but as they got closer to the garage she felt herself hesitating a bit. Dean had been so stern earlier and she wasn't too keen to experience that side of him again. She continued to walk behind Sam, but with less of a pep in her step.

When they walked in, Dean was under the hood of Baby, doing some much needed maintenance.

Sam left his two siblings alone in the garage, to go do some research and then make the group lunch. He hoped this time would allow Annie and Dean to bond a bit after the tenseness this morning.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked pointing.

Annie looked at him like he was stupid. "...The engine."

Dean laughed. "Hey, don't give me that look. I'm just trying to see whatcha know."

She eased up at his laugh and took this opportunity to show off a bit. "That's where you check the oil. That's the battery for when you need to jump off a car. Red goes on positive, and black goes on negative. That's the alternator. That's the coolant reservoir, where you put the freon for the air conditioning. And that's the radiator."

"Well, I'm thoroughly impressed. Where'd you learn all this?"

Annie allowed herself to reminisce for a moment. "The dad at one of the nicer homes I stayed at owned a mechanic shop. He let me sit in there with him that summer I was there and work the front desk. All the guys there were really nice when they explained stuff to me."

Dean felt anger rise in his chest at the mention of 'one of the nicer homes', trying not to allow himself to think about what the other homes were like. He also refrained from asking her why she hadn't stayed there past that summer. He wrapped his arms around her shoulder in a quick hug. "Well, he taught you well. You're officially my new mechanic and Sam is so fired." He laughed, holding his fist out for a fist bump.

Annie obliged enthusiastically, liking how affectionate Dean was being with her.

The pair spent the next hour looking under the hoods of every car in there, Dean continually being impressed with his little sisters knowledge, and Annie learning even more.

When Sam came to get them for lunch a while later, he could barely keep up with her excitement. The entirety of lunch was spent with Annie telling Sam all about what she had learned, barely taking time to breathe or eat in between. Dean's grin never dropped from his face.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you for the reviews! I really appreciate them!!

Annie had a few close calls in this chapter and I suspect the honeymoon phase won't last much longer!

Feel free to comment criticism or ideas as well! I love to hear from you guys!!