Hey, my beloved family. How are you?

So- I'm sure you're just as shaken/thrown/torn about the recent announcement as I am. It's hard to even think about it (for me, anyways). I want you to know that, for whatever it's worth, I'm not going anywhere. This family is too important to me. So don't expect Natalie to shut up now :) And if you need me, you know where to find me. I'm probably going through what you're feeling too.

I wrote this silly little piece after a trip to Washington. It seems fitting to have a nice, light, family-centric story right now for my girl, so here you go. I have a couple requests and case stories coming up too if you're needing the grittier saving-people type of stories. PM me if you'd like to see anything that I haven't covered. Special thanks to my Sammy- Jenmm31. Thanks for believing in us, Sammy.

I love you, SPN Family. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

A/N- in this story, Natalie is nine. Please see profile page for disclaimer.

It had been a long time since they'd been to Washington. In fact, Dean couldn't remember being back since the kid had been born in Seattle nine years ago. He looked around the incredible scenery surrounding them as best as he could, but these high-altitude mountain turns were tight, and Baby wasn't exactly built for them. He had forgotten how breathtaking the view could be, but he needed to focus on the road if he didn't want to hurl them off a cliff.

Their most recent case had brought them here, up to Husum, just on the border between Oregon and Washington. Bobby had gotten a call about yet another Sasquatch sighting, and despite the boys' protestations that it was probably a fake case, he had sent them packing, saying that it was for the good of the town that they go do their due diligence and check to make sure it was indeed a hoax. The area was renown for their Sasquatch sightings, which always ended up being some idiot kid in a gorilla suit or some crap like that. But Dean had a sneaking suspicion that Bobby had some ulterior motives for sending them away. A lovely new neighbor had just moved in a couple miles down the road from the salvage yard- single, attractive, and about Bobby's age. Dean was sarcastically sure it was, as Bobby had asserted stubbornly, 'just a coincidence' that he found the boys a case clear across the country. Suppressing a smile, Dean had thrown the Winchester clan in the car and took off. What the hell- they could use a vacation.

They had decided to take Natalie on the scenic route around Mt. Hood, the fourth highest point in the Cascades, on their way to checking out the town. They both could remember how stunningly beautiful it was out here, and wanted to show it to the kid. Even now in mid June, the majestic peak was covered with a thick layer of snow, which was blowing the mind of the nine-year-old girl in the backseat. She just couldn't make it make sense in her head that there was SNOW in June.

"I mean, how has it not melted by now?" she asked for the umpteenth time, her nose pressed against the glass of the Impala's backseat. She craned her neck to try to see down the steep mountainside. She wasn't used to these heights and outlooks, and was absolutely fascinating to her. "Do you think we can go play in the snow while we're here?" she asked excitedly, turning her face towards her father and uncle in the front seat.

Sam chuckled softly. "Probably not Bug, but we'll see. Hey- look at that," he said suddenly, pointing to what looked like a large plank of one by four sticking up by the side of the road. Another followed, maybe twenty feet behind it, sticking straight up in the air, and stuck deep into the gravel on the side of the road. As they continued winding up the mountain, Natalie noticed, to her fascination, that these sticks of lumber flanked the roadways all the way up the mountain.

"What are they?" she asked in wonder.

"They use those poles to measure the snowfall here in the winter," Sam answered. He chuckled again as he heard her gasp in astonishment.

"But those things are so TALL!"

"Yeah, they have to be. They can easily get eight to ten feet of snow in a single storm this high up the mountain," Sam said, smiling.

"Are you freaking SERIOUS?" she shrieked in delight, causing Sam to chuckle yet again at her joy. He loved it when she geeked out on stuff like he did, especially if it meant that she was learning. "Eight to ten feet?! That's like twice my size! That's even taller than YOU!"

She leaned back, completely in awe of the new information she was receiving. "How's come it snows so deep up here? Is it because the mountains are so high, and it gets colder here? Is that why there's still snow in June?" she asked in a rush, hungry to know all the answers immediately.

Sam nodded, pleased at her reasoning. "Very good Bug, that's right," he complimented. He heard her small exclamation of delight- she loved being right. She was so like her father in that way. Well, in every way, almost. "It also has to do with the amount of moisture in the air. That affects how much snow a location gets as well."

"WOW," Natalie breathed in wonder. Sam was tickled pink that Natalie was getting such a kick out of this. His brother, however, couldn't contain his look of incredulity at Sam's meteorological knowledge. Sam could literally feel Dean's self-righteous smirk burning into the side of his face.

"What," Sam said with a sigh, already knowing the answer. Dean just shook his head, looking back at the road and grinning.

"Nerd," he muttered, unable to keep the smile from his lips as he teased his brother. Sam just rolled his eyes and smiled patiently at the jab.

"Well, someone's gotta have brains in this family," Sam teased back. He was too used to Dean's colorful comments on his vast array of knowledge to be much insulted by it. Dean, likewise, chuckled good-naturedly back.

Completely oblivious to all of this while she examined the snow poles, Natalie's nose was making a smudge against the windows as she pressed her face to the glass, longing to get as close as she could. The velvet purple mountains in the distance were astonishing- they didn't have mountains like this back in South Dakota. She knew that she had been born in Washington, and so she supposed she HAD seen these before, but she didn't remember them. She consoled herself for her lack of memory by drinking in absolutely everything she could now. As they continued twisting along the road, Natalie suddenly spotted something absolutely stunning. "Hey! Lookit!" she shrieked, climbing up onto her knees in order to see better.

"Hey," Dean suddenly said in a stern tone. "Butt down." She immediately plopped back down at his command. He had a hard rule about her keeping her butt planted on the seat while the car was in motion. He himself remembered sliding all over creation in this very backseat when he was a kid. It had been a blast back then, but as a father, he saw it in a completely different light, and so was adamant that she stay seated for her own safety.

Natalie knew this, so obeyed quickly, but reached up as far as she could so she could pat Sam on the shoulder to get his attention. "Lookit, Uncle Sam! Look at the flowers!"

Up ahead on the side of the road, was the loveliest bunch of large purple flowers gracing the side of the mountain road. "Whoa," Sam said, surprised at their vivid color and size.

"What are they?" Natalie asked, breathless.

"I don't know," Sam answered back, narrowing his eyes, trying to get a better view. "Hey Dean- pull over," he said, tapping his brother's arm with the back of his hand as he continued staring out of the windshield. Dean rolled his eyes, but did as Sam asked, pulling Baby right next to the secret mountainside garden.

Sam carefully unbuckled and stepped out of the car to examine the flowers. Natalie started bouncing in the backseat with excitement, being careful not to let her butt leave the seat. "Look Dad, aren't they cool?" she asked Dean enthusiastically. "Have you ever seen anything so purple-y purple in your entire life?!"

Her joy was contagious- not to mention hilarious. Dean loved how she would make up words like 'purple-y' to describe what she was seeing. His kid had to be the most clever, quick witted, smartest kid in America. He supposed all parents must feel like that. Well, they were all wrong- his kid was the best.

"Those are some seriously purple flowers, squirt," he said back. "Cool, huh?"

Natalie nodded vigorously. "Everything here is really awesome so far. I like Washington!"

"Good. Probably going to be here about two weeks. That okay with you?" Dean asked, grinning at his bouncing daughter.

"YES!" she shrieked delightedly, before turning to press her nose up against the window again to try to get a better view of the flowers. Dean hated that she left smudge marks on the windows, but he could never break her of the habit, so he didn't even try- he just kept Windex and a roll of paper towels in the trunk for this very purpose. Sam walked back towards the car, but opened Natalie's door.

"Come on out here, Bug, and take a look at them. Be careful," he said, watching her every move. There was no one else on this stretch of road, and they were pulled far off on the shoulder, but he was still taking no chances.

Natalie didn't need to be told twice. She unfastened her seat belt as fast as she could and bolted out of the car, but made sure to carefully stay by Sam. Dean watched as Sam gently guided her towards the patch of flowers, pointing out different characteristics to her as he was wont to do in their lessons, and inviting her to explore for herself, the absolute best way for her to learn. He watched as Sam instructed her to carefully pick a flower, and they bound back to the car with it. Natalie scrambled back into the backseat, laying the flower gently down before buckling back up. Sam made sure she was all the way in before closing her door, and dropping back into his own seat.

Natalie leaned forward, shoving the flower towards Dean so he could see. "Look, Dad!" she said excitedly, as if somehow Dean had missed the entire exchange. "We picked a flower, and Uncle Sam said we could study it and find out what it is!"

"That's great, kiddo," Dean said, watching his mirrors and pulling back out onto the road. "That gonna be your science stuff for today?"

"Can it be, Uncle Sam?" Natalie asked eagerly.

"Sure it can."

"Sweet!"

"God, you two are nerds."

*SPN SPN SPN*

A couple hours later, once they had gotten back down the mountain and checked into a tiny little motel, Natalie made it a point to grab absolutely every brochure they had in the minuscule lobby. She was studying them with great absorption at the table, waiting for Sam to get done unpacking so they could start studying the wild purple flower together.

Sam chuckled lowly as he looked over his shoulder, watching Natalie reading so hard her eyes looked like they were going to fall out. "Dude, look at her," he murmured to Dean. "I've never seen her so absorbed in an area's sights before."

Dean grinned. "Definitely takes after you in that respect- nerding out about the scenery. Hey, as long as it keeps her out of trouble, I'm all for it."

Sam thought for another moment as he pulled a stack of flannel out of his duffel, and began refolding them neatly to place in a drawer. He turned to his brother and spoke in a low voice. "So- I think we both know that this case Bobby sent us on is bogus, right?"

"Completely."

"What would you think about staying here for a while? I bet I could do some really cool nature lessons with Natalie out here, and she's obviously loving it already."

"I was thinking that same thing," Dean said, pulling his laptop out of the duffle and tossing it onto his bed. "I can teach her about some of the lore around here, and how Bigfoot is bullcrap." He tugged on his chin in thought. "We could use a break, and it's freaking gorgeous here. Not to mention- have you ever SEEN so many breweries in one place before?" Dean patted his heart with an open hand. "They're our kind of people, Sammy."

Sam laughed. "You got that right." Just then, Natalie came tearing over to them, fists full of brochures, screeching to a halt right in front of them.

"Check it out!" she said, thrusting a pamphlet at them. "They have this thing called the Fruit Loop here!"

"What's that, where they make the cereal or something?" Dean asked, taking the proffered pamphlet and opening it for himself. Natalie shook her head emphatically.

"No- it's like this thing where there are a bunch of orchards and stuff, and you go around all of them and they have fresh fruit stands and you can pick stuff too! Doesn't that sound AWESOME?" she said delightedly to Sam. "All that fresh fruit? And I can actually PICK it?!"

Sam tousled her hair. "Sure does sound awesome, Bug," he said, and then grinned when Dean made a retching noise at the mention of all that healthy food. Natalie giggled and playfully pushed Dean's arm.

"They probably sell fruit pies too," she told her father, a knowing twinkle in her eye. He pointed at her.

"NOW you're speaking my language," he said. "Tell you what. Why don't all three of us go together to check out the case tomorrow, and then we can hit your Fruit Loop thing on the way back?"

Natalie's mouth dropped open in shock. "Really?! I can go with you to research the case?!" she shrieked excitedly, losing control of her volume in her excitement.

Sam made a shushing sound and gestured down with his hands. "Take it down a notch," he admonished. She had a tendency to not realize how loud she could really be, especially in motel rooms. It didn't deter her enthusiasm though, as she waited wide-eyed for Dean's answer.

He shrugged and grinned at her. "Why not?" he said. "Lots of stuff for you to learn on this trip. One of the most important things for you to get out of this trip is that pretty much any time anyone calls in a Bigfoot sighting, it's usually a fake."

Natalie's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Then why did Pops send us out here? Doesn't he know it's a fake, too?" she asked.

"He probably just wanted some time to himself, kiddo," Sam said consolingly.

"Or time to get to know that new neighbor we have," Natalie muttered, rolling her eyes in a dramatic fashion. Both Sam and Dean pinched their lips together and turned away quickly so she wouldn't see them laughing.

*SPN SPN SPN*

The next day, the three of them piled into the Impala and headed for Multnomah Falls, the area where the Sasquatch had been "seen". They were going to stick to the usual 'take your daughter to work' day excuse as the reason the kid was with them. Dean had been trying to take her on more and more of these excursions recently, owing to the fact that she was chomping at the bit to get into the field herself and expand her hunter's training. This was the perfect opportunity- there wasn't going to be anything for them to have to worry about out there, and Natalie would be content. Win-win.

They pulled off the highway into the strangest little parking lot outside of the falls and the subsequent lodge. The lot was positioned in what looked like the middle of the highway, but it was actually tucked into an area that dipped down into a hidden valley, right in front of the falls.

Natalie craned her neck, looking up as high as she could at the glorious falls. "Whoa, those are huge," she whispered, frozen at the sight of all that cascading water. Dean chuckled at her wonderment, then clapped his hands together, rubbing them to warm them up. It was surprisingly chilly out here, even for June.

"C'mon gang, let's meet this yahoo and get it over with, then you two nerds can go run amok around here, alright?"

About an hour later, after they had met the Big Foot enthusiast who swore he saw the real deal, even Natalie knew from his story that what he had probably seen was the German shepherd from the neighboring campsite. Stubbornly sticking to his story, the camper departed from the Winchesters in high dudgeon, and they got on with the rest of their surprise vacation.

They found a small exhibit near the falls that told all about the timeline of Oregon and the discovery of the falls, as well as the massive fire in 2017. Natalie carefully read the large banner describing the event and the aftermath. "Do you think that's what all those little stumps were that we passed?" she asked, looking up at Sam.

"What stumps?" he questioned, not know what she was referring to.

"The ones that were all really black and super low to the ground. I thought that maybe they were diseased or from logging or something, but now I think they're from the fire," she answered, looking at the pictures.

Sam nodded, thinking. "You're probably right. I didn't notice those coming in."

"Boy, I did," Natalie said, looking up at him. "It's really sad that someone was stupid enough to play with illegal fireworks and cause so much damage." She looked back at the giant poster detailing the fire's impact, and shook her head, pinching her lips and shaking her head like a disapproving senior citizen. Sam and Dean's eyes met briefly. They could both clearly recall the memory of a certain field from their youth around the fourth of July and a handful of ill-gotten fireworks…In tandem, they both turned back towards the nine-year-old, both speaking at the same time in an effort to get her away from the display.

She accepted the sudden hustle from the room- she was too used to it, her father and her uncle being Winchesters and all. But then, she spotted the gift shop. She seized Dean's sleeve and began tugging with all her might.

"Come on!" she shrieked excitedly, not giving a damn that her loud enthusiasm caused several heads to turn in her direction. Sam blushed to his hairline at all the people looking at them due to her sudden and loud outburst. He wanted to shush her, but Dean was grinning like a banshee. He always thought that this kind of stuff was hilarious. Sam swallowed his protestations and followed in their wake.

Upon entering the incredibly crowded gift shop, Dean's hand automatically gripped onto his kid. He felt her try to pull away from him, just a bit. She was nine and not as inclined to want to hold hands anymore, especially in public. But crowds like this made him nervous when it came to her. She was still so small that it would have been easy as pie to lose her. She tried to pull away again, a bit more forcefully this time. "Nope," he muttered to her, low, but loud enough that she could hear. He felt her sigh, give up, and continuing weaving her way through the store, resigned to holding his hand and determined to see everything.

They spent a great deal of time examining tee shirts, for no reason other than they never got to do crap like this. Dean plucked a dark blue tee shirt out of the rack and thrust it in Sam's face. When Sam actually got to look at it, it was a silhouette of a bear with deer antlers, and had the caption "Beer?" underneath it. When Sam looked back at his brother in dismay at his immaturity, Dean was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. He pointed to the shirt.

"That's funny," Dean asserted. Sam just rolled his eyes.

They made their way through the quartz jewelry, bumper stickers and refrigerator magnets, till finally Natalie found something that gave her pause. She stopped so suddenly that Dean almost ran into her, but she didn't care. When Dean saw what she was looking at, he let her hand go with a grin, knowing that this display was going to keep her fully absorbed with no chance of her taking off for a good, long while, and stood back to watch her take it in.

Her little brow constricted in confusion as she examined the items, and she reached out to pick up a snow globe with a small, hairy, humanoid figurine in the center of it. "Bigfoot?" she said in disbelief. "Seriously? A whole section of Bigfoot tourist crap?" Her eyes scanned the rest of the display, growing bigger and bigger in their incredulity at the sheer amount of touristy junk with Sasquatch on it. She picked up a stuffed version of the famed mythical creature, who for some reason was wearing a pink "I Love Washington" sweatshirt, and examined it carefully before putting it and the snow globe down with derision.

She turned to Sam and Dean, putting her hands on her hips, and doing that thing where she suddenly looked like she was a sixty-year-old schoolteacher ready for retirement. "How the crap can they get away with selling this garbage?" she asked. Upon overhearing that, a very thin and tall young man laden with backpacking gear who had been looking at the display as well focused on the little girl.

"Oh no, this isn't garbage," the young man said enthusiastically. "Bigfoot is real!" Natalie just stared at the man for a moment. He looked as if he'd been camping recently- and unsuccessfully. His thin facial hair was clearly trying hard, but looked more as if a preschooler had doused this guy's face with glue and randomly stuck patches of hair on wherever they saw fit. Natalie turned to Dean, silently asking if she was allowed to talk to this guy. Dean just leaned back, crossed his arms, grinned at his daughter, and nodded. They had just had a lesson on "Bigfoot" last night. Oh, this was gonna be good.

Natalie turned back to the young man. She put a pleasant smile on her face. "So. Bigfoot is real, huh?" she said in a perfectly sincere, sweet voice. At that tone, Sam couldn't help but cross his arms and smile too. He knew what was coming. And as much as Sam knew he should be the mature one here, he couldn't wait to see this. Boy, had this guy stepped in it.

The man nodded enthusiastically at Natalie. "Oh, he's definitely real."

"So…you've seen him?"

"Well...I mean…not exactly…but…"

"Then how do you know he's real?"

"Because there's so much evidence!"

"Really? Like what?"

"Like the hairs found that came right from his back!"

"Oh, you mean the ones that were studied in the samples by Northwestern University?"

The young man did a double take. It was clear he hadn't expected that to come out of a child's mouth. "Yes!" he said excitedly. "You DO know about Bigfoot, then?"

"Yeah. Enough to know that they were carpet fibers."

"Yeah! They- what?"

"The hairs. They weren't real. Turns out they were carpet fibers." Natalie tilted her head to the side and smiled. "What else you got?" she said impishly.

Dean didn't think he'd ever forget the look on the dude's face as long as he lived.

"Well," the young man stuttered, turning beet red. "I suppose you know about the footprints outside the factory in 1935?" His color returned to normal and he looked triumphant. "They were HUGE footprints- not made by ANY mammal known to man." The smugness radiated off of him as he dropped his facts on Natalie, not expecting her to be able to counteract this one.

She simply shrugged instead. "It was a prank."

The young man shook his head vehemently. It was clear that he didn't appreciate being told he was wrong by a child. "No it wasn't! It was from a Bigfoot!"

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was!"

"Nope. In 2012, after the factory owner's death, they found the giant wooden footprint stamp amongst his things," Natalie said calmly, tilting her head in that way that she did when she knew she had gotten the answer right. The man's face drained of color. Sam actually had to bite his knuckle to keep from laughing out loud. But Natalie wasn't done yet. "The guy was a real big practical joker- he planted tons of stuff for people to find. That was actually the FIRST time anyone ever heard of Sasquatch, and it was proven wrong."

"Yeah, but-"

"I mean, if you think about it, if Bigfoot REALLY existed, there would be lots of evidence before it, right?"

"There's been Bigfoot sightings in nearly every state-"

"Well, that's what I mean. If it was real, and one has been seen in nearly every state, then they would have to be breeding all the time. There's no possible way that a creature like that could ACTUALLY stay hidden."

"But-"

"AND there's no fossils or bones, ever. Nothing's been found, nothing at all."

"It's possible that the acid in the soil has eaten the bones away!" the man said, his blood pressure clearly rising, throwing in a scientific fact to try to make himself feel smart.

"Then how's come dinosaur bones and stuff are still around? Doesn't make any sense that one type of bone would deteriorate while another one wouldn't."

It was clear the dude had no other options, no other rebuttals, and no other facts. He looked down at Natalie, haughtily.

"Well, I still believe they're real, so there," he said, then looked slightly taken aback, as if he couldn't believe he himself had just used the 'so there' argument against a nine-year-old.

Natalie just smirked- exactly like Dean. "Cool. And I believe that unicorns could fly out of your ass. Don't mean it's gonna happen, though." And with that, she turned back to Sam and Dean, who were shaking from trying to hold their laughter in. "Pops is right. Some people are just idjits."

Upon hearing that, the young man stomped away, furiously embarrassed. Dean couldn't contain himself any longer. He let out a roar of mirth. Sam wasn't far behind. Seeing their laughter made Natalie laugh, too. It was a good solid minute before any of them were able to speak.

"Kid, come on," Dean said, in between chuckles while wiping his streaming eyes. "I'm buying you the biggest ice cream cone I can find for that fantastic display of nerdom."

*SPN SPN SPN*

Later that night, after the sugar rush from the ice cream finally wore off, Natalie and Sam had spent about a hour continuing to dissect and inspect the purple flower from the mountain pass the other day. Natalie excitedly looked up from Sam's laptop where she was working at Dean, who was checking his Impala67 profile on his own laptop.

"Hey Dad!" she said excitedly. "Guess what! The flower's called a Lupine!" The way she pronounced it was similar to the Latin for 'wolf'.

Dean nodded, trying to feign enthusiasm again. "Nice. Have anything to do with the werewolf?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Kinda, but not really."

"Kinda, but not really, eh?" he said in a teasing tone, causing her to giggle. "Good deducing, kid."

"What I MEAN is that they were named that 'cause they are like wolves- they are determined to live, even in an environment that's not good for plants."

"Ah. Well, I hate to tell you this kid, but your nerd is showing again."

"It is NOT!"

"Totally is. Now go take your shower and try to wash some of the nerd off." With a laugh and a playful swipe at her father, Natalie hopped off the chair and trotted towards the bathroom. On her way there, Sam called out to her from the couch where he'd been mindlessly flipping channels.

"Hey Bug, there's a documentary on the Cascades on tonight. Wanna watch?"

"YES!" she said, jumping up and down. Dean groaned loudly and theatrically in response to the both of them. She put her hands on her hips again and swiveled over to look at him, but still laughing, unable to tell him off. Before she could contain her giggles, he interjected.

"Okay, seriously, go shower. I don't need BOTH of your nerdinesses stinking up the joint. Some of it might get on me. I gotta reputation to maintain." Still cracking up, Natalie went into the bathroom and closed the door.

About ten minutes later, Sam and Natalie were plopped down together on the sofa, watching the National Geographic bio. She was dried off and dressed in a pair of Batman pajama pants and a tank top, dragging a brush through her long, wet hair as Sam tried to avoid the droplets as they sat in tandem on the sofa. He finally reached over and plucked the brush from her hand.

"C'mere, you're getting me soaked doing that," he commented, gesturing her closer. She scooted over, her back to him, and turned her head, letting him continue to comb out her tangles carefully as the documentary continued. Occasionally, they would trade a comment or a question would be asked as they both soaked up the knowledge.

About half an hour later, Dean realized as he worked on his laptop, that the only sound he was hearing anymore was the TV. He looked up to find both Natalie and Sam, dead asleep on the couch. She was curled up, her head resting on Sam's leg, cuddled as close as she could get to him. Sam had fallen asleep, one hand still resting gently on her head from where he had been stroking her hair. He had slumped a bit to the side, his head resting on a cushion. He was relaxed-and happy. Something Dean didn't often see on his little brother's face.

Grinning, Dean quietly made his way over to them. He pulled a blanket over his sleeping daughter and slid a pillow under his brother's head before turning off the TV.

"Nerds," he whispered affectionately.