Hello my gorgeous SPN Family! I'm not going to be long winded here, but I did want to update it before the weekend. So- anyone else's mind blown by this week's SPN? Holy crap.

This story is a request from xxmadddiExx- she wanted to see Natalie interacting with some other kids. Girl, I hope you like it! Thank you for being such a great reader and supporter!

Special thanks as always to Jenmm31. She has an amazing talent for story writing as well as being the best Beta EVER, y'all. Go check out her fabulous stories, and show her some love. She deserves it.

Alright wonderful people. You all have been so brilliant, reviewing, PM-ing, even just reading. You all are marked on my heart, and I thank you. So please read, review, and enjoy! You all are the best.

A/N- in this story, Natalie is 6. Please see Profile for disclaimer.

"Would you slow down?!"

"Quit side seat driving. We aren't going that fast."

"Ever heard of black ice?"

"Ever heard of shutting your pie hole?"

"Dean- we survived the Apocalypse. We BOTH came back from Hell. And you're going to wreck it all by wrapping us around a telephone pole."

Dean tapped on the brakes of the Impala. Without looking at Sam, he said, "There. You happy now?" Sam just shook his head as Dean continued to barrel down the wintry road. He looked behind him to make sure his six year old niece was okay. She, of course, was blissfully ignorant of the breakneck speed in which her father was hurtling down the snowy highway. She was curled up sideways, her knees bent, and her feet resting on the hump of the backseat, completely absorbed in her book. Sam double checked that she had her seatbelt on, which she did.

Dean had given her a book of lore to start reading as part of her hunter's training. Since they had decided to pull her out of public school and take her on the road with them full time, Sam had finally capitulated about keeping her from the hunting life. After a rather nasty incident at Bobby's house, he couldn't deny anymore that Natalie was safest with Dean and himself. And because she was going to be with them all the time now, it only made sense that she was armed with as much knowledge as the two of them were, seeing as none of them ever knew just what they might encounter. Sam had always been opposed to Natalie learning all about their hunting lifestyle, mostly because of the effect that it had had on him as a child. However, he had forgotten one very essential fact in the whole situation- Natalie was DEAN'S child.

Just like Dean did all his life, Natalie soaked up everything she could about hunting. She knew what angels were before she could form complete sentences. She knew all about the monsters that actually lurked under the bed by the time she was four. She adored her father, wanting to be just like him. Sam would often catch her watching Dean, a quizzical look on her face, as if she was studying him, trying to learn exactly how he moved, thought, talked, and any other details she could catch. At the age of six, she was already a miniature version of him, but with a penchance for princesses thrown in with the love of all things supernatural and superheroes.

Sam turned back around in the front seat, and realized a smile was spreading across his face, thinking about his niece. She was a handful, an explosive bundle of frenetic energy, but he would be lying to himself if he said he hadn't sorely missed her during the year she was in kindergarten. Between the knowledge that she was safe and the joy of having her around, Sam was starting to feel...whole. Good. Real. It was an unusual feeling, but one that he had searched for his entire life. It was thrilling to finally have a taste of it.

The joyful moment was instantly shattered by the Impala's back tires fishtailing for a second as Dean hit a patch of black ice, shaking Sam unpleasantly from his happy thoughts. Dean expertly turned into the swerve, and the car was righted almost instantly, but it was enough to set Sam off again.

"Dude- could you just slow it down a little?! Please?! For god sakes, your child is in the backseat!"

Dean looked up in the rearview mirror to find Natalie's wide green eyes staring back at him. "You okay, squirt?" he asked.

"That was fun! Do it again!" she squealed excitedly. Dean just turned to Sam, a superior smug grin on his face. Sam ignored him, turning back to his niece.

"How's the reading going?" he asked, trying to distract himself from the icy death he was sure was just moments away. Natalie looked up from her book, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"It. Is. AWESOME," she said dramatically. Sam just chuckled.

"What are you reading about now?"

"About djinns. Man, there's some messed up stuff."

"Tell me about it," Dean muttered under his breath.

"Have you guys ever found one?" Natalie asked, not hearing her father's utterance. Sam looked sideways at Dean, silently asking his permission to tell her the story. Dean gave him a short jerk of the head; his indication that he was good to go. Sam launched into the story of Dean and the Dijnn. He downplayed the gore, still not convinced that the six year old child needed to know every bloody and graphic detail. Natalie listened to the tale, her eyes wide. She occasionally gasped or asked questions if she didn't understand something, but for the most part, she was quiet, just absorbing all the knowledge she could. Sam was an excellent storyteller and teacher, and she was a six year old sponge.

Just as he was finishing the story, telling about how he had rescued her father from the dijnn's grasp, Dean pulled into a motel right in the heart of the downtown area of their next case. Natalie had her seatbelt unbuckled in a flash, and was about to throw the door open and go charging out of the car, when Sam's voice stopped her.

"Put your coat on; it's freezing out there," he said gently. She obeyed, pulling her bright pink parka off the seat beside her and yanking it on before barreling out of the car. She stayed by the door, knowing that Dean wouldn't be pleased if she started running around immediately, especially in a parking lot. She had gotten in trouble plenty of times for that, and wasn't anxious to repeat the experience. She was bouncing up and down, though, thrilled to be free of the confines of the Impala and work out some of her energy overflow, when she heard a sound that made her stop. It sounded like other kids' voices coming from somewhere. She looked around, but she couldn't see anybody nearby. No one was in the parking lot or walking along the sidewalks of the motel.

"Uncle Sam?" she asked as Sam was getting out of the car himself. "Do you hear that?"

Sam listened for a moment. His ears picked up on the sound of children's voices, and his head turned towards the east. "Yeah, Bug, I do. I think it's coming from behind the motel."

"Can I go look and see what it is?"

"In a second, Nat," Dean answered instead, walking around to her side of the car. "We gotta get checked in first." He watched as she bit her lip, considering what he said. Dean wondered if she was about to start whining that she wanted to go see the source of noise now, but instead, she slipped her tiny hand into his big one.

"Yes, sir," she said, no trace of whining or brattiness in her voice.

"That's my girl," he said, squeezing her hand lightly, proud of her for obeying him. She was such a damn good kid. Hard to believe she was his sometimes. Because she had behaved so well, Dean took her with him to the front desk, trying to speed through the check in process so they could go exploring together. He collected their room keys, and, with a firm grip on her hand just in case she slipped on the icy sidewalk, father and daughter walked out to Sam waiting by the Impala. All three of them made their way to the room together. She even helped by carrying her own little duffel bag in. She tried hoisting the weapons bag out of the trunk, but seeing as she could barely reach the trunk- not to mention the bag being about as heavy as she was- she was unsuccessful.

"Here- let me get that for ya, squirt," Dean said with a chuckle, lifting the bag swiftly and smoothly over her head as she struggled to even get a grip around one strap of it.

"I almost had it," she said, folding her arms, a displeased look on her face as she followed him to the room.

"Sure you did."

"I did!"

"Nun-uh."

"Yes- huh!"

"Nun-uh!"

"Yes- HUH!" Once inside the room, Dean suddenly tossed the bag to the side. He spun around at lightning speed, grabbed Natalie, and tossed her in the air. She screamed with shock, and then shrieked with delight at her father's playfulness. Dean pulled her down so her nose was touching his while she dangled in the air above him.

"Nun-uh," he said, finishing up their "argument". She giggled delightedly, and Dean tossed her onto one of the beds. She bounced for a moment, and then jumped full force off of it, landing on the floor agily. She held up her hands like she had just completed the world's best gymnastics floor exercises at the Olympics, making both Sam and Dean laugh. She then looked at them, fully expecting them to give her fake high scores.

Knowing exactly what she wanted, Sam chuckled. "I would have given you a ten, but you didn't point your toes," he said, teasing her.

"Ooooo, burned by the Russian judge," Dean joked, pretending to bite his closed fist, acting afraid of what retaliation the little gymnast would take. In true Winchester fashion, Natalie just scoffed and waved Sam off.

"You're just jealous because I'm AWESOME," she said in a cocky voice, sounding, once again, exactly like Dean, who turned to his brother with the same cocky grin his daughter was now sporting.

"Can't argue with the kid there, Sammy. So- you wanna go into town and start shaking the trees while I stay here with the ankle biter?"

"If it means I don't have to get back in the car with you going at a breakneck speed in the dead of winter, then hell yes."

Dean rolled his eyes at Sam's attitude, but turned to the still bouncing up and down six year old. "Alright you little monkey. Let's go see what that was behind the motel," he said, zipping his coat up against the cold and snow outside, and looked at Natalie to make sure her own coat was still zipped up. She squealed in excitement, and ran over to Sam quickly, hugging him around the legs.

"Bye, Uncle Sam! Good luck on your research!" Before he could even say "thanks", she was tearing towards the door, jumping up and down, waiting for Dean. "Daddy! Come on!" she said, her voice exploding with excitement.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," he said, pretending to be annoyed by the whole thing, but secretly excited too. He put his worn out leather gloves on, and watched his daughter copy his movements, pulling her own bright blue mittens with those dumb Disney princesses on them on. He walked over towards the door. Just as he was about to open it, Sam called after him.

"Make sure she keeps her gloves on."

"Thanks, Mom."

Dean took Natalie by the hand, made sure he had the room key in his pocket, and opened the door. As he expected, she darted outside, almost yanking her arm out of the socket, pulling Dean along. He just smirked and let himself be dragged by the six year old. "Hey, hey- where's the fire?" he joked. She didn't answer, but just kept pulling him. They got around to the backside of the motel. When they saw what was back there, about a block away, Natalie's face lit up in excitement. It was a fully stocked playground, complete with a handful of hyper, noisy kids, just like her. Since they were so close to the downtown area, Dean figured this must be the backside of the town's park or something. He had to wonder at the wisdom of whoever decided to build a playground so close to a motel, but his thoughts were interrupted by the constant tugging on his hand as they made their way towards the child's plastic labyrinth.

"Can we go play? Please?" Natalie begged, putting on her best puppy dog eyes. Dean grinned. Damn Sam for teaching her that look, he thought to himself.

"Sure thing, squirt. Just stay where I can see you." He looked around as they trotted towards the playground, trying to locate a bench to park it on, but Natalie kept tugging on his hand.

"No- can you play with me, please?"

Dean looked down at her. "Why don't you go play with the kids over there?" he asked, nodding his head towards a group that looked like they were about her age. Suddenly, his hyperactive six year old firecracker stopped walking and got very quiet. She looked over at the kids playing, crawling in and out of the jungle gym. Dean was surprised to see that there was almost a trace of fear in her eyes. She looked the group up and down, but turned back towards him.

"I would like to play with you, please," she said quietly, taking a small step in towards him. Dean was a little thrown. He knew she didn't like her classmates at kindergarten, and hadn't really made any friends there, but wasn't the playground code universal? If you were on a playground, all bets were off, and you played with whoever was there, no questions asked. But for some reason, she was nervous. He wished Sam was there to help navigate his way through this one- he was way better with this touchy feely crap than Dean was. But since Sam was busy at their jobs, Dean bucked up and did the best he could.

"Sure thing, kiddo. We can play together. What do you want to play?"

She looked around at the piles of snow that were still on the ground. "Let's build a snowman! Like Elsa does!" she squealed excitedly. Dean had to bite back a groan. Of COURSE she would want to do something "Frozen". Between the mittens, her dolls, and that freaking soundtrack, he was so over it. He made a mental note to track down whoever it was that wrote that damned movie and kill them, preferably slowly and painfully. But it made his kid happy, so there was only one this to do. He put on his best excited face for her.

"Hell yeah, let's build a snowman! You wanna name him Owen, too?" making- what was for Dean- an extreme effort. Unfortunately for him, it was in vain.

Natalie just looked at him like he has said the dumbest thing in the world. She put her hands on her hips scornfully. "Daddy. It's OLAF, not O-WEN."

"Whatever," he grumbled, making his way towards one of the larger snow drifts.

The two of them got down to the business of building a snowman, with plenty of snowball fighting in between. He would tease her and send a snow ball flying at her hand, trying to distract her from whatever she was doing. She would immediately retaliate by nailing him in the shoulder or the back with her own little snow missile. Natalie was proving to be a really good shot. Dean wondered if it wasn't time to take her out onto the gun range-just to see what she could do- when he caught her staring at the kids playing on the jungle gym, a look of longing in her eye. He knelt down next to her, and playfully nudged her.

"You can go play with them if you want to. It's okay," he said with a grin, but eying her speculatively. She just bit her lip and turned away from the playground, essentially denying that that was what she actually wanted. "Hey," Dean said, pulling her focus back around towards him and poking her in the nose with his gloved finger. "What's up? Why don't you wanna go play with them?" Natalie just shrugged, and looked down at the ground. He put his finger under her chin and tilted it up so she would look at him. "Don't give me that," he said gently but firmly. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

Natalie took a breath, but then clamped her lips shut again. Dean raised an eye brow at her, and she tried to speak. This time, she was able to quietly stammer out the words. "What if...what if they don't like me?" she whispered, a tremor of fear in her voice.

Dean spread his hands wide in a what are you talking about gesture. "What's not to like?"

She shrugged again, but then spoke. "I don't know. Maybe they don't...like that I'm new, or they don't like what I play or something." At the end of her statement, her eyes dropped back to the ground, and she kicked a small drift of snow with the toe of her boot.

Dean really didn't know what to say. She had a point. Kids could be nasty- he remembered that all too well- and he didn't want his little girl to get hurt or rejected by some punk ass brats. However, he also knew that he couldn't let her be scared of this. He didn't want her growing up afraid to talk to new people. Otherwise, she'd end up a total loner with all the moving around that they did. He had to push her to try to talk to them.

"Well- think about it like this," he said, praying that the right words would come out of his mouth. "They're all new to you too. If you don't like them, you don't have to play with them. No harm, no foul. But maybe one of them likes Frozen, just like you do, and wants to play it with you."

Natalie looked up at him, her green eyes wide. "Don't you like playing Frozen with me?" she asked innocently.

"Oh yeah- of course. Nothing better," he said quickly, not wanting her to think that he was trying to push her off. That was the last thing he ever wanted to do. "But let's face it- I kind of suck at it," he said with a self depreciating shrug. When he said that, Natalie giggled a bit, the tension broken. He put on a mock frown and glowered playfully in her direction. "Hey. Respect your elders. Don't laugh at me, you little punk." This of course, only made her laugh harder. Dean's face broke into a grin. He reached out and took her tiny hands in his. "Listen up. You are awesome. Any kid would be lucky to play with you. If you don't like it, fine- you come right back to me and we'll keep building snowmen till we're both frozen. But you should go show them how awesome you are. They deserve to know."

She listened intently to him as he was speaking, her eyes never leaving his face. When he was done with his little speech, she looked at the kids playing, then looked back at him. Suddenly, a dazzling smile crossed her face. "Okay," she said shyly, and without so much as a how-do-you-do, she took off running for the pack of kids. Dean laughed as he watched her tear across the playground. He stood up, brushing the snow off his knees, and looked around again for a bench closer to the action where he could keep his eyes on the little monkey. He started walking towards one, when he caught sight of the little pink parka stopping. He looked back at Natalie, who was watching him curiously. He pointed to the bench where he was heading. She nodded that she understood, and waved at him before taking back off towards the kids. He plopped himself down, grinning, as Natalie cautiously approached the group on the jungle gym.

Natalie twisted her mittened hands together in nervousness. She really wanted to play with them- they looked like they were having fun. But none of the kids in her class had been fun, so she really didn't know how to play with anyone else other than Sam and Dean, or even occasionally Bobby or Cas. She really hoped these kids weren't stupid like her former classmates. She walked tentatively over, hovering on the edge of the group. One of the boys who had been walking around the lower part of the two story structure saw her, but didn't say anything. He just turned back towards the jungle gym and started climbing on the rope ladder that lead to the upper level of the plastic playground. Natalie bit her lip as she felt the rejection wash over her. She was just about to turn and bolt, when another little girl jumped out the window from the second level, landing right beside her. Natalie looked, shocked, at the new girl. She was brave enough to jump OFF the jungle gym. She instantly felt a kindred spirit with this girl. She had snapping blue eyes and curly brown hair that was pulled into two pigtails on either side of her head. Natalie knew that the girl was also older than her, but she wasn't sure by how much. However, the most important thing Natalie noticed was the bright purple scarf with Anna and Elsa on it.

"Hi!" the child said brightly. "My name's Captain Maddi. What's yours?"

Natalie gulped in nervousness, but answered bravely. "Natalie." As she didn't know what else to say, she held out her mittened hand to Maddi, showing her the Frozen emblem on it. "I like Frozen."

"Oh, cool! I have them on my scarf!" The child excitedly pulled out a corner of her scarf, showing Natalie the design. "Welcome to my pirate ship."

That made Natalie giggle. "This is your pirate ship?"

Maddi nodded importantly. "Yup! This is the USS Snow Surfer." Maddi gestured proudly to the jungle gym behind her. Natalie' mouth dropped open in delight.

"That is the coolest name for a ship, EVER," she declared, delighted that Maddi wasn't dumb like the rest of kindergarten.

"I know," said Maddi. "Wanna be on my crew?" Natalie nodded vigorously. "Awesome! You can man the wheel. Come on. I want you to meet your shipmates." Maddi made sure Natalie was following her, ran towards the backside of the jungle gym to the slick metal slide, and scurried up it. Natalie instantly knew she had found her soul mate- she loved going up slides backwards. When Maddi reached the top, she turned around to help Natalie up, but Natalie was already right behind her. "Whoa. You're a good climber. How old are you?"

"I'm six."

"That's cool. Jake is six too. He's the lookout."

"How old are you?"

"I'm eight."

"WOW."

"I know. Come on!" Maddi grabbed Natalie's hand and scrambled through the twists and turns of the playground, till she reached a part that apparently was designated as the crow's nest. "Here you go. This is Jake." Natalie took in the sight of the boy who was taking his role very seriously. The scrawny little kid with the dark hair and dark eyes was watching the playground intently, but when he heard his captain's voice, he turned and looked her up and down. Natalie felt her nerves come alive again under the boy's scrutiny.

"How old are you?" Jake demanded of Natalie without even introducing himself, which threw her for a moment.

"Um...I'm six."

"Can you do a cartwheel?"

"Yup."

Jake nodded approvingly. "That's okay then." He turned and resumed his watch. Apparently, Natalie passed his test. She let her breath go in relief. Maddi grabbed Natalie's hand again and started pulling her towards the section of the jungle gym that doubled as the main deck primarily because there was a toy steering wheel screwed to a wall underneath a big window. The boy that had given Natalie the once over before ascending the rope ladder was there, sitting up against the wall, clearly in dereliction of duty. When he saw Captain Maddi, however, he jumped to his feet.

"Yeah, don't even try it, Sailor," Maddi said, rolling her eyes and cutting the kid off before he could speak. She turned back to Natalie. "This is Kenny. He's my cousin, so I have to play with him," Maddi said, a touch of disgust in her voice, as if playing with Kenny were the plague of her life.

Kenny jumped to his feet. "Who's she? What's she doing here?" he asked rudely, pointing at Natalie, who scowled back. Maddi stepped up right in his face.

"She's my new friend Natalie. And you just became the official maid on the USS Snow Surfer."

"No fair! I'm supposed to be steering! I don't wanna be the dumb maid!"

"And I told you to be nicer to my crew. You can't even do that, lazy. Now go swab the poop deck."

From the vicinity of the crow's nest came a small chuckle. "Heh heh. Poop."

"Shut up, Jake," Kenny growled, then stomped his way over towards the rear of the jungle gym.

Maddi watched him go, and rolled her eyes, exasperated by him. She turned to Natalie and said confidentially, "I would totally strand him on a desert island if my mom would let me." Natalie giggled, which made Maddi grin. She headed over towards the window above the plastic steering wheel. Natalie trailed behind her excitedly, not wanting to miss a moment of the adventure. Maddi stuck her head out and looked over at the twisting plastic tube slide coming out of the left side of the "deck". Natalie was even more excited- this jungle gym had TWO slides! She stood on her tiptoes, trying to see what Maddi was looking at. On top of the large blue tube, a girl around Maddi's age was straddling the slide, pretending to make adjustments to the bolts holding it together.

"How's it going, Megs?" Maddi called out. She turned back and looked at Natalie. She jerked her thumb in Megs' direction. "That's Megs. She's my best friend in the whole world."

"Almost got the main valve adjusted. We should be sailing in no time, Captain," Megs said, scrambling down the outside of the tube slide. Natalie watched as Megs hauled herself up the exterior of the tube slide and into the main cabin. She stuck out her hand towards Natalie, who took it. Megs shook her hand so hard it almost rattled her little teeth. "Welcome aboard, Rookie. Name's Megs. I'm the ship's mechanic."

Natalie's forehead wrinkled. "I didn't think pirate's ships needed a mechanic."

Megs just smiled indulgently. "THIS ship does." Without warning, Megs suddenly began making very loud alarm noises. It scared Natalie for a second until she realized that Megs was just playing.

"Captain! We've got a leaky exterior! If we can't hold the steam in the girders, then this whole place will BLOW!" Megs yelled dramatically. Natalie had no idea what any of Megs' words meant, but Maddi instantly sprang into action.

"Megs! Adjust the thermometer- that'll buy us some time. Kenny! Make yourself useful and plug the holes in the exterior."

"What do I use, Captain?"

"Anything you can find! Except the lost treasure of Rangoon! You touch that, and I'll keelhaul you!"

"Aye, Aye, Captain!"

"What's keelhaul mean?"

"Pirate term. You'll learn. Natalie- you go see if you can help Megs regulate the dials and the switches!" Maddi ran over to the plastic wheel on the wall and lashed herself to it, as if she was fighting the rudder against a gigantic tidal wave. Natalie hurriedly ran over to Megs, not sure what to do, and desperate not to mess it up when it seemed like the fate of the entire endeavor hung in the balance.

"Alright, Rookie, you do whatever it takes to keep these pipes from blowing, you understand?" Megs yelled, gesturing to the wall of imaginary pipes in front of her. Natalie's own imagination switched into high gear, and she suddenly felt like she was in the boiler room of the Titanic. In her mind, she could see the sweating, nearly bursting pipes covering every inch of the wall. She realized immediately how precarious their situation was.

"I'm on it!" she shrieked, and starting twisting imaginary valves and levers and dials right alongside Megs. Maddi occasionally looked out the window and yelled random pirate terms to Kenny and Jake, who were both scrambling to save their sinking ship. Megs and Natalie worked side by side, shouting about what was now going wrong with the system, which pipe was now on the verge of blowing, and how the ship just couldn't take much more of this. Suddenly, Megs pointed to a section of fake pipe right in front of Natalie's face.

"Look out! The steam from the pipe is going to blow up your face and kill us all!" she screamed.

"Not on my watch!" Natalie yelled back, and slammed her little forehead into the spot where Megs had been pointing, effectively "blocking" the bursting pipe. A horrified gasp came out of the mouths of both Maddi and Megs.

"What are you doing?! You'll be killed!" Maddi shrieked hopelessly, thinking that it had been a good while since one of them died, and excited that the new kid went there. She liked how this Natalie played. Natalie kept her forehead pressed to the wall, and turned her face towards the girls, playing like she was in horrible pain.

"Then it's a good day to die," she said in an agonized voice, just as Jake and Kenny tumbled into the small playroom. She didn't really know what that line meant- she had just heard one of the cowboys in those movies that Dean loved say it, and she thought it was a good line. Finally Megs declared that the ship had been saved due to Natalie's brave sacrifice. Natalie sprang up, pleased as punch with herself for saving the ship and the crew. Just as Maddi, Megs, and Jake started cheering, Kenny made a face at her.

"You just died. You can't just jump around like that didn't happen," he said with superior seven year old scorn. But what he didn't know what he was challenging a Winchester and her imagination.

"I have on a super invisible helmet that can absorb anything and bring me back to life, so there," she said without missing a beat, hands on her hips, and her head cocked to one side, daring him to come at her again.

All of the other kids' mouths dropped open. Natalie dropped her hands and stepped back, afraid that she had crossed some invisible line. Finally, Maddi stepped forward.

"That," she said breathlessly, "was the most AWESOME thing ever." Natalie grinned at her new Captain.

For the next twenty minutes, the little band of kids fiercely played pirates, encountering life sized star fish (regular star fish were deemed "not creepy enough") , several more system failures that were completely insurmountable (but they somehow made it through, often by the skin of their teeth) and even a trip to space (because what kind of pirate ship would it be if it didn't turn into a rocket?). They were having so much fun that Natalie forgot all about being nervous. She seemed to fit in just as well as any of the others. Finally, upon Captain's orders, she looked out the starboard window onto the raging sea. She took a gamble, not knowing which was starboard was, but it was okay- neither did the captain. However, when she looked out, she saw something that made the pretend world that she had been absorbed in disappear.

"Hey, Maddi? I mean, Captain Maddi?"

"What is it, First Mate Natalie?"

"What's that kid doing down there?" Maddi ran over to the window and looked at where Natalie was pointing. When she saw what was going on down in the far corner of the playground, her face turned hard.

"That," she said, disgusted, "is a big, mean jerk."

Natalie knew the term "jerk" all too well- she lived with Sam and Dean Winchester. However, she had never heard it used like this before. She looked back down at the older boy who was on the edge of the playground, his hand twisted in the shirt of a much younger and smaller boy. The big boy was in a dark blue, expensive looking winter coat. His jeans and boots appeared to be brand new. But despite the fact that the kid obviously came from a family that was financially well off, Natalie watched at the boy demanded money from the younger boy he had cornered up against the monkey bars, with a firm grip on his collar. Her mouth dropped open, and she whipped around to look at Maddi and Megs.

"That boy is being super mean and taking that kid's money!" she said, outraged. Maddi looked pissed, too.

"I know. He's from that snobby neighborhood around the corner. He doesn't talk to anyone at school because he's so mean. His mom brings him here to make friends, but all he does is make money."

"Why doesn't somebody stop him?" Natalie said, completely astounded that a kid could treat another kid like that.

Megs stepped forward. "Man, we've tried. He's way bigger and stronger than like, anybody. He could beat you to a pulp in a minute. And he never does it when the teachers are around, so no one notices."

"Doesn't his mom see him doing this? Since she brings him here and stuff?"

"Naw, she's got her fake nose buried in her phone. She doesn't ever look up from it."

Natalie looked at the boy again from her vantage point at the window. The Winchester sense of justice was sending up red flags in her six year old brain. And she wasn't going to just sit around and not do anything about it.

"I'm gonna stop him," she declared passionately, and made her way to the tube slide. Maddi and Megs once again gasped in tandem.

"You can't!"

"He'll kill you!"

"He's ten!"

"He'll KILL you!"

Natalie paid neither of them any attention. She jumped into the tube and slid to the bottom, ignoring the gasps and calls of the two other girls. She stomped her way across the snowy playground to the boy. As she got closer, she saw how big he really was. Much taller than her, much bulkier, and much scarier. But Natalie was determined to make him stop. She was going to be a hero, just like her dad.

"HEY!" she yelled, throwing all of her guts and bravado into that one word. The boy stopped, and turned around, curious as to what stupid kid could have possibly yelled at him like that. He looked the pint-sized Winchester up and down.

"What?" he asked gruffly, his hand still twisted in the collar of the younger boy he had been picking on.

"That's not nice. Leave him alone," Natalie said declaratively. She could hear Maddi and Megs running up behind her, and was secretly glad they were there. Because no matter what her exterior looked like, she was scared to death confronting this kid who was just so much bigger than her. The boy sneered at her.

"What? A little baby girl is going to stop me? Go run and play with your dolls, you diaper baby before I beat you up." The bully turned his attention back to the boy, but Natalie wasn't done yet.

"No! You let that kid go...or else!" she said, stomping her foot. She wished that she could have come up with something more threatening than "or else", but her brain seemed to be failing her. Fortunately for the boy being picked on, the bully opened his fist, letting him go. He scrambled away as quick as he could. Unfortunately for Natalie, the bully slowly turned towards her instead. Natalie's pulse raced as the boy focused his glare solely on her.

"Or. Else. What," he said, advancing on her.

"Or else- I'll tell my dad," she said, convinced that this would make the bully stop. It didn't.

"You tell anyone about this, and I'll knock you in the head," he growled at the tiny six year old. Who had a temper. Which was suddenly flaring. Natalie's brain suddenly kicked back into high gear, Dean's DNA winning out over her sense of self preservation.

"You stop being mean to kids and taking their money, or I'll kick you so hard you won't know your ass from your elbow."

"Oooooo, Rookie's got SKILLS..." Natalie heard Jake hiss behind her. Apparently, he had joined the girls to watch Natalie confront the boy. That got the bully's attention. He didn't like that this little brat had linguistically gotten the better of him. He leaned down, and picked up a rock that was on the ground. Without any warning, he turned and hurled it at Megs. Luckily she saw it coming, and dodged it with a shriek. Natalie whipped back around to look the bully in the face. He was snarling a grin at her.

"There's more where that came from, you little bitch," the bully spat at Natalie. A red veil of fury slipped over her eyes. As the bully picked up another rock to throw at the other girls, Natalie quickly scooped up a handful of snow, packed it into a hard snowball, and let it fly, right at the bully's face. It exploded upon contact, sending shards of ice and snow flying around him like a firework. The bully froze, remnants of the snowball dripping off of his face and shoulders. No one had ever stood up to him before. Nor had he ever been hit by a snowball, and especially right in the face. All of his bravado and swagger a few moments earlier disappeared. He opened his mouth and began to wail.

Natalie suddenly came out of her rage induced state, not believing what had just happened, and certainly not believing she was the one who did it. She had to look down at her gloved hand and see the remains of the crystals from the snow ball to believe she had just done that. Just as the girls and Jake ran up to her, the boy took a breath and screamed, "MOMMY!"

Uh-oh.

In a matter of moments, a short blonde woman with a weird, spiky haircut came racing over to the boy. "Sweetpea? Sweetpea! What happened? Oh, what happened to my precious baby?" she screamed in a loud, super annoying voice. All three girls exchanged incredulous looks. Not only was the bully calling for him mommy, but this was her? This nipped and tucked, over-tanned woman? Before the girls could retreat to safety however, the bully pointed in Natalie's direction. In between his loud, pathetic sobbing, he managed to stammer out.

"Sh-she hit me with a snow ball!" The mother immediately turned her evil glare on Natalie. She stormed right up to the little girl, shaking a finger at her.

"You naughty little brat! Look what you've done to my sweet boy!"

"But, ma'am, I..." Natalie tried to explain, but she was rudely interrupted by the socialite.

"You are a horrible little girl, do you know that?"

"Excuse me," came a voice from behind them. Natalie had never been so relieved and terrified to hear Dean's voice in her life. "Is there a problem here?" he asked the mother calmly. She looked at Dean- at his worn out jacket, his road-tested boots, and she sneered at him with the same look her son had given his daughter.

"None that concerns the likes of you," she sniped at him. Dean's eyebrows shot into his hairline, his own temper instantly ignited. This bitch wanted to tangle? Fine by him.

"Well, seeing as that's my kid you're yelling at, yeah, I'd say that it does concern the likes of me," Dean said, keeping his voice even, but watching her every move with his hunter's eyes. There was clearly a tone of authority in his voice. The woman straightened up.

"That little brat is yours?" she asked condescendingly.

"I strongly advise you to watch your mouth, lady," Dean growled, stepping right up next to Natalie. The woman paled a bit, reacting to the power behind Dean's statement, but quickly recovered herself in a frantic, nervous way.

"She threw a snowball, and hit my son in the face!" she said, a snarky attitude in her voice. Dean turned his attention down to Natalie, who suddenly squirmed under his gaze.

"Did you do that?" he asked quietly, not having seen the whole exchange.

"Yes, sir," she responded honestly, twisting one foot into the ground. Just then, Maddi and Megs ran over to them, determined to get the truth out. Jake was right behind them.

"She was saving us, mister!" Maddi insisted.

"Yeah! That...guy..." Megs said, pointing at the still-sobbing bully, "was taking kids' money. He does it all the time!"

"Really?" Dean said, turning his attention back to the mother, who suddenly flushed and became very absorbed in wiping her son's snotty face, ignoring the accusation. He rolled his eyes, and then looked back at the other little girls. "Tell me what else happened," he said calmly to the two of them.

"Natalie asked him to stop..."

"And then he threatened to beat her up..."

"He threatened to beat Natalie up?" Dean said, his tone a little louder, his hackles raising. A tug on his hand made him look down. Jake was standing there, a deathly serious look on his little face.

"Bro. He totally threatened to beat Natalie up," Jake said, making sure that Dean heard him. Dean nodded that he understood.

"Then HE threw a rock at ME!" Megs declared loudly. At hearing that, Dean turned back towards the bully, who was now cowering in his mother's coat.

"Did you throw rocks at these girls?" Dean growled at the boy, who whimpered and hid behind his mother. That wasn't going to fly with Dean. "I asked you a question, kid." The bully wouldn't answer- he just kept cowering behind his mommy. Dean looked down at Natalie, who looked up at him and nodded that he was right- the boy threw rocks at them first.

"Yes, he did," Maddi said, answering out loud, wanting the words to be said. She directed it right at the boy's mother.

"Rock thrower," Jake muttered under his breath at the bully.

"Well, that doesn't matter," the mother said dismissively.

"Doesn't MATTER?" Dean roared, losing his temper at the horrible woman who was clearly in denial about what a little twat her son was. Both the other little girls jumped at the sound of his voice, and Dean suddenly remembered that he was on a playground full of kids, so his demon exorcising voice probably wasn't the best choice here. He took a deep breath before going on. "It seems to matter a lot. Sounds like your kid was bullying the other kids, and mine was just defending her friends. And I can tell you from personal experience, snowballs don't hurt nearly as bad as rocks do."

The mother gasped, and opened and closed her mouth several times, looking for a retort that would stick, but there was absolutely no defense she could make. Finally, she stammered out, "Well, you should teach your daughter not to throw."

Before Dean could even take a breath, Natalie piped up. "Maybe you should teach your son the same thing," she said evenly. The mother's mouth dropped open again, her eyes swinging to Dean. He merely grinned and shrugged as if to say Well, the kid's got a point. She snapped her stupid mouth shut, wrapped her arm around the still wailing boy, and haughtily stormed away.

"Come, Malachi," Natalie and Dean heard her say as she departed in high dudgeon, her plastic nose in the air. Both Natalie and Dean's faces contorted in identical masks of disgust.

"Malachi? That's a stupid name," they both growled under their breaths at the same time. They then looked in surprise at each other, just like every other time they spoke in tandem. Dean's face morphed into a grin, and he knelt down again in front of Natalie.

"Alright squirt- time to go," he said to her.

"Am I in trouble?" she asked nervously, her foot still twisting a bit. Dean thought for a moment, then smiled at her again.

"Naw, you're not in trouble. We just need to have a little talk."

"That sounds like I'm in trouble."

Dean chuckled. "Go say good bye to your friends. You can come back and play with them tomorrow." At that, Natalie's heart lifted a bit. If she was going to get to come back tomorrow, that meant she wasn't in a lot of trouble. She skipped over to her new friends, who were falling over themselves, congratulating her on taking down the bully that had been plaguing the playground for so long, thanking her for standing up for them, and talking about how awesome she was. Natalie just blushed. Megs leaned in.

"Are you gonna get in trouble with your dad?" she asked anxiously. Natalie shrugged, trying to play casual.

"Probably not. He said I could come back and play tomorrow."

Jake nodded approvingly. "Yeah. He's cool like that. I can tell."

"Can I...can I still play pirates with you guys tomorrow?" Natalie asked, suddenly nervous again.

"You can TOTALLY play pirates with us, any time," Maddi said enthusiastically. Natalie jumped up and down with excitement. "But just a heads up," Maddi said, causing Natalie to stop bouncing immediately and look at Maddi anxiously. "We may be astronauts tomorrow. Or cowboys."

"Cool!" Natalie squealed. She hugged her new friends good bye, and ran over to Dean, who reached down and took her hand, leading her back towards the motel.

*SPN SPN SPN*

About half an hour later, father and daughter were sitting in a diner in town, pieces of warm blueberry pie in front of them. Natalie was happily digging away into her slice, smacking her lips at its deliciousness. Clearly, she wasn't in all that much trouble. Dean shoved in another forkful of his own pie before setting his utensil down, folding his arms, and leaning forward on the table, resting his elbows on the top.

"So...about that talk we need to have," he started, jumping right in. Natalie's eyes went wide, and her heart dropped through her feet. Before any more of her vital organs could fall out of her shoes, Dean continued. "I want you to know- I'm really, really proud of you for standing up for your friends and those other kids today." Natalie's heart immediately found its home back in her chest, and began to glow.

"Really?" she said in a whisper, still not entirely convinced that she wasn't going to be spending the rest of her day in Time Out.

"Hell yeah. It takes a lot of guts to do what you did. Nobody else did it, did they?" Natalie thought for a moment, then shook her head. "There you go," Dean said, a delighted grin spreading across his face. "I doubt that Malachi kid will be coming back anytime soon," he said with a chuckle.

"You really thought I did good?" Natalie said again, wanting to hear Dean say it.

"Yup. You're one tough cookie, kiddo."

Upon hearing Dean's praise, she squealed excitedly. "I can't wait for my next fight!"

Dean held up one hand. "Hang on a second there, Al Capone." Natalie stopped, and looked Dean right in the eye, giving him her full attention. "I wanna make sure we're clear on this. Being brave and being a hero doesn't mean you go LOOKING for a fight. You with me?" Natalie nodded vigorously, wanting to agree with whatever he said. "Good girl."

"But you and Uncle Sam go looking for cases and stuff," Natalie asked quietly and tentatively, not understanding the difference. "And then you go and fight the monsters."

"We go looking for the monsters that are hurting people, and we hunt them down. But we don't start fights with random people, just to prove that we're bigger or stronger. You know what that would make us?"

"What?"

"A bully. Just like that jerk ass kid."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And we're better than that. We're heroes. And now, you are too."

At hearing that, Natalie's face became like the sun. "I'm a hero, too?"

"Hell yeah. You saved that kid from getting beaten up, and you saved your friends when that little jerk was throwing rocks at them."

"Does that mean I can go on cases with you?!" she said, bouncing excitedly in her seat.

Dean chuckled at her enthusiasm. "You're working up to it. When you can see over the steering wheel, we'll talk."

"Deal!" she said, shoveling her pie into her mouth. Dean laughed outright at her.

*SPN SPN SPN*

Much later that night, when Natalie was tucked into bed, she was in that magical place between sleep and awake when she overheard bits of a conversation her father was having with her uncle. He sounded more excited than she had ever heard him sound before, which was probably what was waking her up. Dean's voice broke through the fog she was half asleep in, but it couldn't keep her awake. She was too sleepy to make out the full story, but she overheard a few words. She didn't fully understand what they were or what they meant. But from his tone, Dean was clearly happy, so she snuggled back under her blankets, falling asleep, catching snatches of the story as she drifted off to dream land.

"...jumped right in with the other kids..."

"...nailed that little asshat right in the kisser..."

"...never been more proud in my entire damn life."