Hello all!

I started writing this chapter quite awhile ago, but never really knew where to take it. But I finally got the will to finish it starting back in March! That's how long it takes me to write these days, ugh. I have one more year of college left (which will be five years total!), then I will have graduated with two degrees and can hopefully write more after that!

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Ages:

Carter: 6

Dean: 19

Sam: 15

Takes place before the show starts

Warnings: none

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or its characters

There it sat. Haphazardly tossed on the toy shelf, a $1 tag strapped to the arm. The most beautiful doll she had ever seen. Sure, the left fabric arm was ripping from its seams. And sure, the dress had a few stains in it. But to Carter, it was perfect.

It was small enough to fit in her pocket. Small enough it wouldn't take up space in her duffle. Small enough no one could complain about it being in the way. Not to mention the doll was still wearing clothes! So many thrift store dolls were naked, and the clothes cost extra. But Winchesters didn't have extra; Carter learned that early on.

Carter quickly grabbed the doll before some other kid could, and went to search out Dean. She found him amongst the rows and rows of kid's clothes. He had a stack of clothes balancing on his arm as he searched the shirts. When his eyes caught his little sister, he stopped.

"Good, you're back. You ready to go? I got you three shirts, two pairs of pants, and a jacket. Is that enough?"

It was more than enough for her. At least by Winchester standards. To them, a shirt wasn't dirty unless it was worn at least 4 times or it was covered in mud. They simply didn't have enough money to buy more clothes or to go to the laundromat more.

Carter's eyes brightened as the realization set in. This was a big shopping trip, which meant dad must've given them loads of money. And more money meant they could really afford her doll.

Carter didn't have time to respond to Dean before Sam came upon the group, a small pile of clothes hanging off his arm, too.

"I'm ready," Sam said, then looked down at Carter, who still had the doll clutched in her hands. "You told her she could get a doll?"

Confused, Dean turned to his little sister. "What? No, I didn't. Go put that back."

Carter's jaw dropped. She raised the doll higher so Dean could see it. Because surely if he could see it, he would change his mind. "But Dean, it's perfect!"

Sam laughed as he took in the arm half detached. "It's missing an arm!" he exaggerated.

Anger fumed in the little girl. She stomped her foot and lowered the doll to protect it from her harmful brother. "No, it's not!"

"Shut up, the both of you!" Dean quickly stopped the fight that was about to start. "Carter, go put that doll back, you have enough toys. Meet us at the register when you're done. We're gonna be late."

Carter didn't have time to protest that she didn't have too many toys before Dean and Sam walked away. It wasn't even that she had not enough toys. It was that at the moment, she had no toys at all. The army men Dean gave her were lost in the mud at Bobby's. The doll from her birthday was stolen at a park. And her bunny stuffed animal got tangled in bed sheets and forgotten in some motel.

Carter slumped back to the toy section. She looked down at the doll that was almost her's. To Carter, the doll was looking her in the eye, begging to be taken home and saved. Dean knew how to sew, Carter was sure of that. He sewed her Dad's arms dozens of times before. So that wasn't the problem. Maybe it was the money? Maybe Dean was spending it all on clothes. Carter looked down at her shirt. It was an inch short on the bottom, exposing her stomach to the Michigan winter air. And there were stains on the front and holes on the sleeves from the previous owner. She definitely needed new clothes.

Carter sighed.

She knew Dean like she knew herself. There was no convincing him to buy the doll.

She looked back up into the pile of dolls. All of them had hard plastic heads, broken blinking eyes, or were way too big. Her doll simply didn't fit in with the rest of them.

Her doll.

Carter had already decided to keep it before her mind could even think. She couldn't leave the doll there. She needed to protect it from all the greedy and rough kids that destroyed the other dolls. Pulling the doll closer, a plan started to form. It was pocket sized, wasn't it? And with the added coverage of a winter coat, a bulge in her pocket would go completely unnoticed.

It was perfect.

Looking around to make sure no one was there, Carter shoved the fabric doll into her pants pocket. She tugged her coat into place and the doll was invisible. She looked around.

A grin split across her pale face. She felt sneaky and rebellious, like she had just broken 20 different laws and got away with it. Dean had always said stealing was a crime, one they could take Carter away for if she did it. But Dean did it all the time himself and he never got in trouble. He just hated when she did anything he did. Something about her turning out to be just like him made him mad, or whatever. Carter didn't understand.

At the sight of a group of kids coming into the aisle, Carter turned and walked towards the checkout. She kept her hand on the edge of her jacket, making sure it didn't flip up to reveal the doll. As she searched for her brothers, she worked on dimming her smile. She was supposed to be sad; she was supposed to have given up her doll, after all. She found them at the register, Dean handing over crumbled up bills as she walked up.

Sam checked his sister over, making sure she followed orders. As he did so, Carter gave him a nasty look for insulting her doll earlier. Finding the doll gone, Sam took in her face, but misinterpreted it as anger for getting rid of the doll.

"Maybe you'll get a doll for your birthday," he tried to consol.

Carter just rolled her eyes and followed Dean out of the store.

Back at the motel, Carter was the first one in the room. Dean was closely behind her, a bag of clothes rocking in his hands. Without stopping, Carter swiped the sewing kit from the table and headed straight for the bathroom. She shut the door behind her and immediately pulled out the doll. With the trip to her pocket, the doll's arm had completely fallen off. Laying them both onto the dingy tub edge, she surveyed her patient.

"Don't worry," Carter whispered as quietly as she could, "I'll make you all better."

Opening up the kit, she pulled out a needle and surveyed the rest of the contents. Inside, there were several different sized needles along with colored spools of thread. The black spool was almost all used up, along with the white. Several more brightly colored spools lined the container, but a particular neon green caught her eye. Fishing it out, she began working out her method. She had never sewn before, but it couldn't be that hard, could it?

Apparently it was. Five minutes later, she was beyond frustrated. It took several tries to just get the needle threaded, then she had to figure out how to keep the thread inside the doll. It seemed every time she pulled the needle through the fabric, the thread came off or the fabric ripped or she stabbed herself. She figured she had a million pricks in her skin by now, because her fingers throbbed. She was fighting tears of pain and anger and the only thing that relieved it was letting out a loud groan of frustration.

She hadn't realized the consequences of her groan until a loud banging sounded on the bathroom door. "Carter? What're you doing in there? C'mon, hurry up!" Sam's voice echoed behind the door.

"Go away, I'm busy!" Carter called back before pricking herself yet again.

Sam groaned, turning around and giving a bitch face to Dean.

Seeing the conflict starting, Dean sighed and tossed the bag of clothes he was sorting back onto the bed. He strolled over to the bathroom door. "C'mon kid, let's go."

Trying to ignore them, Carter focused on her stitching. She had managed to get the thread to stay in the doll, but now the problem was attaching the arm. An endless strip of fuzz filed out of the arm and loose threads stripped off the fabric. The bathtub's edge looked like a crime scene of the stuffed animal kind.

The door handle jiggled, and Carter had barely enough time to stash the doll behind her back before the door opened. Dean stood there glancing curiously around the room. His eyes landed on Carter, a guilty look on her face, and clearly hiding something behind her back. Sam stepped behind Dean in the doorway and noticed the sewing kit sprawled across the floor.

"Are you sewing something?" Sam asked and pushed his way into the room. Carter stood up, trying desperately to hide the doll behind her back, but in her haste the needle pricked her finger. She jerked her hands to her face, the doll still clutched in her left hand, and she let out an "ow" as she examined the blood dot.

As soon as Sam saw what was in her hand, he stepped forwards and grabbed it from her. The thread was knotted into a ball on one side of the doll and linked to the arm after an inch long gap. The needle hung several inches past the arm, twisting in a circle before slipping off the thread and falling to the floor.

"Hey! Give her back, you're going to ruin her!" Carter shouted, her needle prick completely forgotten about.

Sam held the doll high enough that Carter couldn't reach, as her short arms started helicoptering the air. "Is this that doll from the store? I thought you told her she couldn't get it?" Sam glanced over at Dean.

Dean furrowed his brow and snatched the doll out of Sam's hand. He looked down on his little sister as she switched her efforts to a higher target. "Carter, did you steal this?" His tone was of shock, but also slight anger.

"Just give me my doll, you're going to hurt her!" Her voice grew with frustration as she had taken to jumping to try to reach her doll.

"Carter, stop!" Dean called, freezing Carter. "Did you steal this?"

She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling her eyes. "Well, duh! You guys do it all the time so why can't I?"

"It's illegal, that's why!" Sam threw his arms up in exasperation.

Dean gave Sam a look to tell him to chill before he made the situation worse. "We steal food so we can survive, not toys."

Dean had lowered the doll enough that Carter could snatch it out of his hands. As she did so, the arm ripped back off and fell to the floor. "Well, I was trying to help my doll survive. She looked at me on the shelf and begged me to save her. You're the one that told me that when people need our help, we do everything we can to help them. So I had no choice but to steal her and help her get better." She bent down and picked the arm up off the floor. She sighed when she saw how mangled it had become.

Running a hand over his face, Dean inwardly groaned. "Look, I'm glad you're trying to help, but it's just a doll. It's not alive, it's not in pain, it's not suffering, it's just a toy. If you really want to help someone, Sam and I will teach you, alright?"

Carter looked down at her doll and sighed. "Okay," she said in a defeated tone.

"And no more stealing, alright? If the police catch you, they could take you away from us. And you don't want that to happen, right?" Carter shook her head as she watched her broken doll. "Good, now get ready, the both of you, Dad's waiting for us." Dean turned around and went back to getting himself ready.

As Carter stood with her doll, Sam took in her upset face. He knew she was just trying to help, like Winchesters do, but she was too young. He didn't want someone so young to be sucked into that life. But, he knew that would eventually be her life. Until she was eighteen at least, and could move out on her own or go to college or live a normal life. In the meantime, it would be useful to have her trained as backup.

"I can help you sew the arm back on," he offered softly, "that way you know what to do in the future."

Carter looked up with the spark returning to her eye. "Really?" She wrapped her arms around him in a hug, squeezing his insides tightly. "Thank you!"

Sam returned the hug with one arm, "Yeah, no problem. Now come on, we have to get going, dad's waiting." Carter let go of him and Sam left the room, leaving her to gaze at her doll.

A smile split across her face, happy everything had worked out. In fact, it was even better than what she had expected. Not only was she not in trouble and she got to keep her doll, but Sam was even going to teach her to sew! It was a small gesture, but it meant she was on the road to being just like her big brothers. And that was the best she could hope for.

Thanks for reading! Reviews, favorites, and follows are greatly appreciated!