The next morning…
John walked across the barnyard towards Anna's house. He had been out for nearly an hour on a walk in the hazy sunshine of dawn, checking on the fences both visible and invisible on Anna's land. Years ago, when Anna had bought this place after she finished her doctorate and starting teaching at the local college, Pastor Jim and John had laid every kind of protective spells and symbols both in the house and around on the land. Anna knew about the house's protection, but neither Jim nor John told her about the extra spells on the property. It was just as well she hadn't depended on them, since John had found gaps in the protection that hadn't been there the last time he had come to see Anna, nearly three years ago. I'll have to get the boys to come out with me to shore up those gaps. They can both read the incantations as well as I can. John knew that if Anna was protected, then his boys always had a home to come to. The home I never had a chance to give them with Mary.
As he reached the porch steps, the sounds of the ruckus in the kitchen filtered through the open door. When John reached the screen door, he saw Sam and Dean trying to pry something from Anna that she was almost hunched over in a protective stance. Probably their breakfast.
"Hey, what are you doing?" John barked at his sons.
Dean and Sam both put their arms down, and looked almost comical with the guilty looks on their faces.
"They were trying to get into the cookie jar." Anna straightened up and gave a disgusted look to the younger men.
"Well, you shouldn't have told them about your grandpa having dessert after breakfast," John gently scolded as he made his way into the house and helped himself to a large mug of steaming hot coffee.
"That was over half a century ago."
"Your grandpa died when you were thirteen, and he was still having cookies after breakfast."
Anna sighed dramatically and put the ceramic cookie jar on the table. "Fine! If the three of you want to rot the teeth out of your heads, it's fine with me!" She turned away and started to grab eggs and sausage out of the refrigerator for their real breakfast.
"So, how did the place look to you, John?" Anna asked as she starting cracking eggs into a large red bowl.
"Pretty good. I think your renter should think about letting that one field go to pasture for a year or two."
"You mean the one that's been invaded by something in the last year?" Anna beat on the eggs as she turned toward the table. "I know you and Uncle Jim had fun with the perimeter of this place."
"Hm?" Dean's mouth was full of cookie as he looked between his father and friend.
"When Annie bought this place, her uncle and I put a few protective spells around it."
"A few? At one point when they were fresh, nothing could get in if it was the slightest bit supernatural." Anna looked sternly at John.
"Jim was just looking out for you," John stated quietly. "Why did you let that gap get so bad?"
Anna took a deep breath before answering. "I didn't have anyone else to read the incantations."
"You could have called us," Dean said as he looked back and forth between the older adults.
"I tried. But Sam wasn't at school any more, and I kept getting you and your dad's voice mail. I don't like to leave messages." Anna turned her back toward the men.
"That's bullshit!" John was getting angry at Anna's evasiveness.
"And I'm tired of being treated like a helpless CHILD who could break at the slightest touch!" Anna screamed back at John.
John scowled at her. "Then stop acting like a CHILD!" He roared back at her.
Anna put the bowl down and calmly walked out the door and slammed the screen door behind her.
Meanwhile, as John and Anna were screaming at each other, Dean looked at his younger brother. Sam had that look on his face that he got when he could 'hear' something on the psychic channel. After a few minutes, Dean got his brother's attention and they both left the room quietly, leaving their dad to his coffee and Anna to the porch.
After going up to Sam's room, Dean gently closed the door. "So you think they're fighting about something else?"
Sam grinned. "Oh, yeah. There is a lot more there than they're saying. I could hear Annie scream a few things at Dad psychically that he should be glad he can't hear."
Dean looked up. "Like what?"
Sam got a sheepish look on his face. "It was rather personal."
"How personal?"
"Like I think Dad and Annie have had a thing going on for a while."
Dean looked stunned. "He's never gotten involved with anyone after Mom died."
Sam sat down on the bed next to his brother. "Yeah, I don't think he wanted to put anyone in danger like that."
"But Annie?" Dean was still confused on that point.
"You think of her like a big sister, right?"
"Yes."
Sam let out a deep breath. "I was so young when we met Annie that she is almost like a mom to me."
Dean shifted so that he could look at his brother. "Really?"
"Yeah. Annie was there when we were little to fix up our cuts and bruises, she helped us with our homework, and she has always been here for us."
Dean made a little sound of agreement. "I suppose you're right."
Sam looked hard at Dean. "Do you think I am betraying Mom by thinking that way?"
Dean cuffed his brother upside his head. "Don't ever think that. I'm just mad that I didn't think of that first. By the way, how long have they had this thing?"
Sam thought for a minute, going over the psychic energy that still connected him to Anna. "I think they first started about ten years ago."
Dean looked over at Sam. "That would have been about the time Dad nearly got killed by that werewolf in Indiana."
"Yeah, he was pretty torn up from that thing, so we came back here so he could heal. You had just gotten out of high school, and Annie enrolled me at Gebhardt High."
"Yeah, you were a runty little freshman," Dean laughed as be punched Sam in the shoulder.
Meanwhile, downstairs at the kitchen table, Anna heard the young men laughing in her mind. She looked down at her coffee cup and smiled.
"What's that for?" John asked as he reached over to lay his hand on Anna's.
"They put it all together."
"What did they put together?"
Anna smiled at John. "Sam caught on to a few of the things I was shouting at you psychically during our little tiff. He told Dean that we've been involved since you were nearly butchered in Indiana. And, more importantly, they're okay with it."
John pulled Anna's hand to his lips. "I don't need my sons' permission or approval."
"But it means the world to you that they do approve of us." Anna got up from her chair and sat in John's lap.
John tightened his arms around this woman that he had grown to love. "I am worried that you are going to get hurt since that demon is still out there."
Anna kissed John lightly and then pulled away slightly. "I am very careful, and I live in one of the safest houses in the world. And I have you and the boys to watch my back."
"And what a great back it is to watch." John waggled his eyebrows and leered at Anna.
Just then, they both heard Dean and Sam rattle down the stair.
"When's breakfast going to be ready?" Sam asked as they entered the kitchen.
Anna, who was still being held captive by their father, looked over her shoulder at the younger men. "When you dad decided to let me lose."
Dean barked out a laugh. "Well, that'll never happen."
