Good Morning, SPN Family! Apologies for the delay. Things have been nuts. But here you go :) Special thanks to the best sis/beta/friend ever, Jenmm31.

A/N- in this story, Natalie is 5. Please see profile page for disclaimer.

Natalie Winchester was having a very, very bad day.

She'd been in hot water pretty much since the moment she woke up. It was a Friday, which was GREAT because it meant two whole days off from stupid school were coming. School was the worst thing ever. It was dumb and boring. There was so much she could be DOING- hunting down werewolves, washing Baby, learning Latin. But NO. She had to go sit in a room for hours with a bunch of stupid kids who had to be told what shapes were, and to "stop, drop and roll" if there was a fire, and not to eat glue. Who even does that?

Anyways, this Friday was way more special than other Fridays. Her daddy and her uncle had come back last night from their jobs as hunters, and they were going to be here all weekend at least. It felt like forever since they'd been home- in reality, it had been about five days, but time works differently for five year olds- and she was going to make the most of it.

Or at least, that had been the plan. She got up, earlier than everyone as usual, and made her way downstairs. She was quiet, since Bobby was sleeping on the couch. Ever since his accident, he'd had to live on the ground level, since he couldn't ascend the stairs anymore. Natalie was great about helping him to do the little chores that he couldn't do, and always tried to be as quiet as was possible for a five year old who gets up at the asscrack of dawn.

She tiptoed into the kitchen to make herself some cereal. Bobby was usually the one to make breakfast, but since he wasn't awake, it just reinforced what she was already thinking. He slept in on the weekends, or when Sam and Dean were home. And if Sam and Dean were home, in Natalie's mind, that meant she didn't have to go to school. Never mind the fact that they'd been home before during the school week and she'd had to go. Nope, today was going to be different. Mostly because she just didn't want to go to school. Therefore, she was not going.

She looked at the clock in the kitchen. It was way too early for anyone to be up and stirring, so she quietly ate a bowl of cereal, climbed onto the chair that Bobby kept near the sink so she could reach, washed out her bowl neatly, and put it away. She tiptoed back into the living room, where Bobby was snoring away. She double checked to make sure he was asleep, that she hadn't accidentally woken him up and he was just playing so he didn't hurt her feelings. She got right up into his face and stared at him for a good thirty seconds. When he continued snoring, completely oblivious, well, that was good enough for her. She turned and quietly padded back up the stairs to her room.

She was just pulling out her Legos to play with, when she heard an alarm go off. She listened for a minute. That was Uncle Sam's alarm. She wondered why in the world he'd gotten up so early, but she was excited to start playing with him. He loved Legos and he loved playing with her, so this should be a no-brainer. She dumped them on the floor, trying to decide what to build, when she saw her door creak open and Sam stick his head in. When he saw the Legos covering the floor, he grinned.

"Well. Seems like you've had a busy morning already," he teased. She giggled back in response, but held up a couple Legos to him.

"Come on! Come play with me!" she said delightedly. Sam smiled gently.

"Tell you what. Why don't you go get ready for school first, and then, if there's time, we'll play? How about that?" he said, knowing she'd try to stall getting ready for school. But he wasn't expecting her response.

"I'm not going to school today!" she pronounced brightly. "C'mon, Uncle Sam, let's build a fort of Legos." She picked up and started matching pieces together.

Sam just stood in her doorway for a moment, stunned. He finally spoke, keeping his voice calm. "Excuse me?"

"We can build a whole big fort if we start now. I bet we can use every Lego in the house!"

"No, no, I got that. I meant what did you mean that you weren't going to school today?"

Natalie looked up at him, slightly exasperated that he wasn't understanding her. "I don't have to go to school today, 'cause you and Daddy are home."

Sam blinked twice before he answered. "That's not how this works, Bug, and you know it," he said, trying to keep his voice calm and gentle, but inwardly preparing for World War Three.

She turned her puppy dog eyes on him. "But Uncle SAM, you just got home, and I want to play with you." She waved her hand carelessly, focusing on her fort instead of the conversation. "I won't miss anything in school today and I want to stay home. Do you want to try to build a fort, or should we try to make a castle? OH! I bet I can attack it with my dinosaur!" She pushed herself up off the floor and started to walk towards her closet to pull out her plastic T-Rex.

"Whoa, Natalie, hold on there," Sam said, walking quickly into the room, knowing he was going to have to put a stop to this immediately. Natalie paused and turned to him, confusion in her eyes as to why he had stopped her playtime. He carefully navigated the Lego covered floor- he'd stepped on too many of them in motel rooms to count and was not anxious to repeat the experience- and knelt down next to her so he could look her right in the eye.

"Listen, sweetheart," he began patiently. "You need to go to school today. I know you don't want to, okay? I got that part. But you need to. It's your job, remember?" He looked at her to see if she was getting it.

All she was getting was upset. "But…but…" she began, her puppy dog eyes getting even bigger. "I don't NEED to go. The only thing they're gonna do today that is even kind of cool is computer time-"

"Right?" Sam interrupted quickly. "There you go. You love computer time." But she shook her head definitively.

"But I can do more stuff on yours and Dad's computers than I can on the school's computers. And it's been forever since you've been home."

"It's been five days."

"And that's FOREVER."

Sam sighed. He reached out and gently took his niece by the shoulders. "Listen, Bug. You need to go to school today, and when you're done, you and I will build the best Lego fort ever. Okay? We can attack it with dinosaurs and Jedis and anything else you want, okay? But for right now, you've gotta do school first."

Natalie didn't like any of that. Well, the part about playing with Sam she liked, but the part about going to school? Forget about it. No freaking way. Her eyes narrowed in response. "I don't want to," she said stubbornly, looking, for an instant, just like Dean.

Sam sighed. Here we go. "Natalie, it's not a question of if you want to or not. I'm sorry, but you're going."

"That is some dumb shit," she said calmly in response.

And part one of the really bad day begun.

Sam had an apoplectic fit upon hearing her words. Within thirty seconds of her uttering that phrase, she was sitting in the corner of her room, facing the wall. This had to be a new record- she'd only been up for about twenty minutes before she ended up in Time Out. Once she was sure Sam had left her in her room to stew, she kicked the wall stubbornly. WHY couldn't she remember not to swear around him? It only ever got her in trouble. She gritted her teeth. It was harder to remember since she wasn't always around Sam anymore. That thought made her sad for a moment, and then she remembered that Sam was the reason she was in this stupid chair. She didn't feel quite as bad after that.

When her five minutes were up, Sam walked back into her room and proceeded to lecture her on why someone of her age shouldn't be using those words. She remembered enough from previous lectures that throwing out the comment that Dean and Bobby let her swear didn't work on Sam. She sat patiently, watching his mouth go up and down as he continued to lecture, until finally he got to the end.

"So do you understand why you shouldn't swear, Bug?" he asked patiently, having no idea that he'd just been tuned out for the last couple minutes.

She nodded, like she knew he was expecting her to. "Yes, Uncle Sam," she said woodenly. The rush of his blood told him that she was lying to him, but this happened every time he delivered this lecture. He sighed. Eventually she was going to understand his point and stop swearing. He just had to hold on till that day.

"Okay," he said, knowing that calling her out on lying wasn't going to help this situation at all. "So then go ahead and get ready for school, and then come down for breakfast, okay?"

"But I don't WANNA go to school!" she yelled, launching herself out of the chair and stomping her foot.

And part two of her bad day begun.

Dean chose that exact moment to walk up to her doorway. He had heard Sam talking in his daughter's room a few moments ago, but was too sleepy to make out the words. However, that stomp of her little foot instantly snapped him wide-awake. He wouldn't tolerate any sort of disobedience or disrespect from her, no matter what. And she sure as hell knew it.

"Natalie Grace Winchester," he growled, causing Sam to whip around in surprise and Natalie's face to go pale. "You wanna tell me why you just stomped your foot at your uncle, little girl?"

Natalie had been frozen in fear the second she saw Dean. If she had known he was right there, she never in a million years would have stomped her foot. She could usually get away with that with Sam, but never Dean. She stammered for a moment, trying to figure out how to get herself out of hot water on this one, when Dean spoke again.

"Did I hear you say you didn't want to go to school?" he asked her, his eyes narrowing.

"She seems to think that just because we're home, she doesn't have to go to school," Sam said in a superior voice. Without realizing that she was doing it, her face morphed into a scowl at Sam's words. Before she could realize it, Dean saw it.

"You wipe that look off your face right now, little girl," he said sternly, pointing at her. "You do NOT disrespect your uncle like that, EVER. You got me?"

She fidgeted and looked at the floor. "Yes, sir," she mumbled miserably. She hadn't MEANT to glare at Uncle Sam, it just kinda…. happened. She shouldn't have gotten in trouble for that. But Dean never saw it that way.

"Don't let it happen again," he said forcefully. She squirmed again, still thinking it wasn't fair that she never meant it to happen in the first place. "Now, I don't know what all this nonsense is about you not going to school today, but you're going. End of discussion." She twisted her toe into the floorboards, angry and frustrated. "Now get dressed and get downstairs." Without waiting for a response, Dean turned on his heel and headed downstairs himself. He wasn't nearly awake enough for this much attitude from his little angel. He needed coffee. He stormed down the stairs towards the kitchen, Sam right behind him.

Natalie gritted her teeth together. Didn't they WANT to spend the day with her? Why were they insisting that she had to go to school, when clearly she didn't?! Why didn't they want her around? She furiously asked herself all this as she threw on clothing for the day.

*SPN SPN SPN*

After a completely pointless day at school, where she sat and fumed the majority of the time, she waited in the line for kids getting picked up after school. Usually, Bobby could come and get her, or if he wasn't feeling well, sometimes Jody would show up in her cop car. That was always a fun time. But she felt a little thrill of joy and fear both when she saw the Impala. She was excited that Dean had come to get her, but after her misbehavior this morning, she wasn't entirely sure how he was going to be with her.

However, once he pulled up to the curb and smiled at her, her fears released. It was just good ol' Daddy, and they were okay. She clambered into the car, the smile appearing on her face for the first time today.

"Hi, Daddy!" she said brightly.

"Hey, kiddo. How was school?"

It came out of her mouth before she could stop it. "Stupid," she growled, then she quickly looked at Dean to see his reaction. To her immense relief, he chuckled.

"If I had had to place money on what you were gonna say about school today, I woulda won a fortune," he said, the grin on in face and in his voice. "Well, it's all over for today, and you don't have to go for two whole days now."

"Score!"

"You in a better mood than you were this morning?" he asked lightly, but she knew what he meant. She nodded vigorously, anxious to erase the tense morning and sucky day. As usual, they pulled around the corner so she could get up into the front seat without all the judgy soccer mom eyes on them. She talked a mile a minute all the way back to the house, with Dean occasionally asking questions or chuckling in response. Things were pretty good.

Then part three of the bad day begun.

As they were getting out of the car back at the house, Bobby wheeled himself to the front door, the cordless phone in his lap. He crossed his arms and fixed father and daughter with a glare.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" Dean asked jovially.

"Oh, ha ha," Bobby shot back. He moved his glare towards Natalie. "So. Interesting day at school today?"

Natalie suddenly found a reason to look at absolutely anything other than her adopted grandfather. "It was fine," she mumbled before trying to shoot up the porch stairs and escape to the safety of the house.

"Uh uh," Bobby barked at her when he saw she was about to take flight. "I don't think so. You just freeze your little butt right there, missy," he said sternly. She did as she was told and froze, but stared at the ground intently, peeking a look out the side of her eye at Dean. Her guts turned to lead when she saw that he was looking back at her.

"What happened?" he asked, his gaze shifting back to Bobby. She hadn't mentioned anything happening at school today on the drive home, so he was completely clueless.

"Seems our little techno wizard got into trouble during computer time today," Bobby answered back. He picked up and shook the cordless. "Just got a call from her teacher. Said she caught Natalie playing around on the computer today."

"I wasn't doing anything bad!" she suddenly piped up, trying to salvage the situation. "I was just looking for stuff on Google!"

"Yeah. Know what she was looking up?" Bobby interrupted. "How to kill werewolves."

Upon hearing that, Dean turned The Eye onto his daughter. "You looked that up…at SCHOOL?" he roared, all the lightheartedness from earlier suddenly gone. "Natalie, what the hell?!"

She shrugged semi-apologetically. "I was bored! No one was looking!"

"Except for your teacher," Bobby growled. "Little Bit, you know you can't talk about hunting stuff at school."

"I wasn't talking about it!" Natalie replied hotly, throwing her attitude around again.

"Hey- what did we JUST talk about this morning? About respect?" Dean said loudly and pointedly at his daughter. She immediately shuffled her feet, angry that her temper had gotten in trouble for the second time today.

"I'm sorry, Pops," she said guiltily, kicking and glaring at the ground. "But I wasn't talking about it," she couldn't help but add carefully.

"Instead, you looked up something that a five year old shouldn't ever think about and got caught by your teacher," Bobby scolded. "Yeah. Much better."

Dean took a deep breath, trying to get his own temper back down. He squatted next to her. "Listen up, kid. When you're at school, you do the work they tell you to, alright? No more freelancing. And especially no talking about hunting. Got it?" There was a tone in his voice, harsher than normal, that made her insides quake. She wondered again, just for a frightful moment, if he was mad enough at her to leave. He had never done that before, but there was a first time for everything. She nodded her head in response to his question to show she understood.

"Yes, sir," she whispered nervously. She was almost scared to look at him- what if she saw that he was too mad at her? But she also knew that he wanted her to look him in the eye, so she did. He sighed heavily and stood up.

"Come on," he said, putting his hand on her back and giving her a gentle little nudge towards the house. As she trotted inside, Dean couldn't help but shake his head.

*SPN SPN SPN*

Later that night, part four of the bad day happened.

They were all sitting at the table, eating spaghetti for dinner. Natalie had been careful to be on her best behavior, considering she'd already gotten into trouble three times today. She was sitting up nicely, and was trying to use her fork, but spaghetti was hard, no matter how old you are. She was getting increasingly frustrated at trying to get the stupid noodles to stay on the fork, when Bobby casually mentioned her indiscretion at school today to Sam.

Sam, then, of course, had to have his say. She was still a little mad at him from putting her in Time Out this morning, and this wasn't helping her temper. She twisted and stabbed her fork into her spaghetti while Sam scolded her AGAIN, finally dropping the fork with a loud clatter and an equally loud expletive. All of which resulted in Sam yelling again, Bobby joining in this time, and causing her to mouth off, which sent Dean over the edge. Before she knew it, she had been sent to bed early- a fate worse than death.

She laid there under her covers in the darkened room, fuming. She really wanted to kick the mattress and throw the sheets around the room, but God only knows what hell THAT would rain down on her. Everyone was being so mean to her! Why were they all picking on her? All she wanted was to spend the day with her dad and her uncle, and it was like they didn't even want her around!

Well, fine. If they didn't want her around, she wasn't going to be around.

*SPN SPN SPN*

Way before the sun rose the next day, when she was one hundred percent sure they were all asleep, Natalie crept down the stairs, her overstuffed backpack on her shoulders. She had packed it carefully- her toys, her favorite books, her small container of salt and silver. She was so ready.

She carefully moved a chair next to the front door so she could climb up on to it and undo the locks. She knew that Bobby would jump up wide-awake if he heard even one of the locks click, so she was agonizingly careful about doing it silently- quite the accomplishment for a five year old. She shut the door carefully behind her, and set off into the pre-dawn, determined.

They were going to be so sorry they'd been mean to her. They were going to miss her so much when she wasn't around anymore. No one at school liked her- and she didn't like them back, so who cared- so she didn't have to worry about that. The idea that she didn't have to go to school anymore gave her enough courage to keep walking. She didn't know where she was going, but she had to get far enough away from the house, and then, she had a plan.

After she'd been walking for about three minutes, which clearly was an eternity, she stopped and looked behind her. She could still see the house, which was disappointing. She felt like she must be in another state at least by now. Well, this was as good a time as any. Besides, they probably couldn't hear the incoming 'whoosh' from here. She plopped down onto the dirt road, crossing her legs underneath her. She took her backpack off and set it next to her.

"Castiel," she said quietly into the night sky.

A slight rush of wind-the anticipated 'whoosh'- and a moment later, a dark haired figure in a trench coat appeared in front of her. "Hello, Natalie," Cas said simply.

"Hi."

It took him a moment to realize what a strange set of circumstances he had just found himself in. "What are you doing?" he asked the child curiously.

"I'm running away."

"Nothing appears to be chasing you and you are seated."

"No, not like that. I'm running away from home."

"Was Dean chasing you?"

"No, Cas. Running away means that I'm leaving home."

"I am given to understand that humans are usually much older than you are when they leave home. Some of them also just move into their parents' basements instead."

"Well, I'M leaving home. Forever."

"Ah." Not knowing what else to say or do, he sat down next to her on the road, bringing his knees up and wrapping his arms around them. For a while they just sat in silence. Finally, Natalie spoke up.

"So can you take me somewhere please?"

"Where would you like to go?"

"I don't know."

"Then how am I supposed to take you there?"

"I just wanna go somewhere where Dad and Uncle Sam and Pops can't find me."

"Well, Natalie, that may be difficult."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when they discover that you're missing, they will turn the world upside down to find you."

Natalie heaved a big sigh. "Not the way they were acting yesterday, they won't."

"How were they acting?"

"Like they didn't want me around. They were being mean to me."

"I find that hard to believe."

"They were! Uncle Sam yelled at me for swearing and Dad yelled at me for something that I didn't mean to do and Pops yelled at me for looking up how to kill werewolves at school and Dad yelled at me again for that too and…"

Cas held up his hand. "I understand. You were misbehaving and they called you on it."

Natalie's mouth dropped open. "I was NOT! It wasn't like that!"

"Oh?" he said, turning towards her. There was no trace of admonishment in his voice- he was simply asking.

"No! I…well…okay, I'm not supposed to swear around Uncle Sam, but I forgot!"

"Natalie, even I know that you're not supposed to swear around Sam."

She looked down at the ground and picked up a stray rock. "Well, it's hard to remember 'cause…" her voice dropped off as she tossed the rock back and forth between her hands.

"Because what?" Castiel asked gently.

She took her time answering. "'Cause… I'm not with them a lot anymore," she mumbled, watching her hands as they played with the rock.

Cas nodded knowingly. "Yes. You've been at Bobby's for a while now, haven't you?"

She nodded back. "Since dumb ol' school started."

"And it's hard for you. Being away from Dean and Sam."

Her voice dropped in volume, but Cas could still hear her plainly. "Yeah."

"So now you want to be away from them more by running away?"

Natalie's head popped up. She hadn't thought of it like that before. "Well…I don't want to, but… but I don't think they want me around anymore."

"And why do you think that?"

"Because they leave all the time and when they do come home, they yell at me."

"Natalie, they yell at you because they're correcting your behavior."

"But I didn't mean to do anything bad! It just happened!"

"Let me tell you something about you Winchesters," Cas said gently, leaning in towards the child. "That is going to happen to you your entire life. Your father and your uncle do it all the time. They think they're doing good and right, but sometimes other things happen as a result thereof. Take, for example, their lives a couple years before you were born. I know they certainly didn't intend to start the apocalypse, but yet, they did."

"So?"

"So them correcting you is their way of trying to make sure that you don't make the same mistakes that they did. So that you don't have to suffer the consequences of bad choices. They are actually doing that because they care very deeply about you."

Natalie's hands stopped fidgeting with the rock. "Really?" she asked in a hushed voice. "That's why they yell at me?"

Cas nodded, then tilted his head, thinking. "Yes. But I don't know that you can really call what they do 'yelling'. Not compared to how their father used to yell at them."

"Grandpa John used to yell at them bad?"

"Very much so."

"But Dad always said that Grandpa was looking out for them because he loved them."

"That is exactly the point I am making."

"Huh."

For a while, angel and child sat side by side, staring into the purple dawn of the sunrise, each thinking their own thoughts, finding consolation simply in sitting next to each other. After a minute, Natalie quietly leaned against Castiel's arm, finding solace in simply touching him. Knowing this, Cas leaned into her as well, as he was given to understand this was a way to show the affection he felt for her. Finally, Natalie turned her face towards Cas.

"Hey, Cas?"

He turned his face towards her. "Yes, Natalie?"

"I think I wanna go home."

"I think that is an excellent choice."

Before she could say another word, she found herself back in her bedroom, her backpack in her hand. Cas looked down at her.

"I didn't figure you wanted to try to break back into the house."

"Darn right," she said. She put her backpack down and climbed up onto her bed to reach Cas better. She threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled into his shoulder.

"Thanks," she said softly.

"You are welcome."

"Are you gonna tell Dad or Uncle Sam or Pops that I tried to run away?"

"No. I do not have a death wish." And he was gone.

An instant later, Dean opened her bedroom door. He was a little surprised to see Natalie standing on her bed fully dressed, but what the hell. She was a little weird and he liked her that way.

"Hey, Baby Girl," he said, looking at her cautiously. It had been a sleepless night for him. He hated punishing her, but he knew he had no choice when she misbehaved. He also knew how hard she'd honestly been trying last night, and he knew also what it was like to fight against the Winchester rage that they all inherited. He wasn't sure she was going to be talking to him.

But she instantly allayed those fears. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Hi, Daddy," she said, capturing his heart all over again. He walked into her room and she held her arms out to him. He picked her up in his strong embrace, and she nuzzled into his neck just like she had with Cas a moment before.

"Wanna have a better day today?" Dean asked her, resting his cheek on top of her dark shiny hair.

"Yup," she said, cuddling in closer. "I love you an awful lot."

He couldn't speak for a moment. "I love you an awful lot too." After another moment, he picked up his head and looked at her.

"What do you say? Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast?"

"YES! With BACON!"

"That's my girl."