"This one?"
"No, gramma."
"This one?" Leslie asked hopefully.
"Nope."
"This one?" Leslie asked.
"Nuh-uh."
Leslie Moore was a kind, loving woman who had a heart for her family. She'd been a wife and mother for over thirty years. While she worked the occasional part time job to help out, she had always thought herself fortunate to be able to focus on her husband, child, and now her grandchild.
But damn if Kayla wasn't making her reconsider her priorities.
"Kayla, you need a Halloween costume, honey."
"Can I help?"
Kayla's stubborn face melted and lit up immediately. "Unca Beanie!"
"Hey, kiddo!"
Leslie loved Dean, but had never been so glad to see him before. She gladly stepped aside to let Dean pull Kayla from the cart. She smiled as Kayla wrapped two long arms around her uncle's neck, then wrapped both legs around his waist in what Leslie knew from experience was a tight, suffocating hug.
"You gotta let me go, kiddo." Dean said after almost half a minute of Kayla hanging onto him.
"No. I wet you go, you go 'way."
"I won't go away. I promise." Dean said, rubbing a hand in small circles against Kayla's back.
Kayla loosened her grip just enough to look at Dean's face. Dean stopped himself from laughing at how similar to Sam Kayla looked. At only three, she could bore holes into anyone with her big, brown eyes, and make you feel as if she was looking straight into your soul.
"You 'tay? Pwomise?"
"I'll be here, with you, at least until you go to bed."
"'Kay." Kayla said, loosening her grip on his neck.
"Now why are you giving grandma a hard time?"
"I not." Kayla insisted.
Leslie's eyebrow arched up in a clear are you kidding me? look, but she calmly explained to Dean, "We're on a mission for a Halloween costume, and someone refuses every choice I show her."
"But Gramma, I told you what I wanted to be."
When Leslie's lips went thin in frustration, Dean came to the rescue. "You want me to take over?"
"That would be amazing." Leslie said. "Thank you, Dean. Really."
"Gramma go bye-bye?"
Kayla's question was asked with the beginnings of a wobbling lip, which Dean had become expert at stopping; as he talked his fingers travelled up and down Kayla's stomach, making her shriek with delight. "You mean you don't want to hang out with your uncle Beanie?"
"I'll leave you two to it. Thank you again, Dean."
"Gramma!" Kayla said.
Leslie bit her tongue, immensely annoyed, but that annoyance immediately melted away when she found Kayla with two outstretched arms.
"Got have huggies." she declared simply. "No leave without huggies."
Leslie hugged the energetic toddler still wrapped in Dean's arms, and resisted the urge to take her back. "Gramma's gonna go now, okay?"
"'Kay, Gramma. Wuvs you."
"Oh, grandma loves you too, my sweet." Leslie kissed Kayla's cheek and informed Dean, "Jess wanted me to find her a dress for her birthday party too. Can you handle that?"
"I think we can manage." Dean said.
"Sam and Jess are both working, so I'm making dinner for them. You want to join us?"
Dean grinned and said, "I was kinda counting on it."
"Dean, you can come anytime. You don't have to ask. If I'm not home, you know where the key is. Okay? My home is your home."
Dean smiled. "Thanks."
Leslie left, and Dean turned back to Kayla. "Okay, kiddo. How about we take a break from Halloween costumes and look for a dress?"
"Yay!" Kayla cheered, clapping her hands.
The search for a dress was easy enough. After vetoing one choice for being too small, one for being too big, one for being 'too icky', and one for being, according to Dean, 'so purple you'd be a mini Barney', Kayla found a dress that was light blue with pink and purple polka dots that she fell in love with. Before heading back to the costume section, Dean rested his arms on the bar of the cart and came down to Kayla's eye level.
"Alright, kiddo. What do you want to be for Halloween?"
"A waryer." Kayla said with no hesitation.
Dean, who had expected a shrug or an 'I not know, unca Beanie', was surprised. Then he remembered that Kayla had said to Leslie that she'd already told her what she wanted to be. But Dean was stumped. It usually wasn't too hard to figure out what Kayla was saying if you were listening, so he tried again.
"A what?"
"A waryer." Kayla said again.
"I'm sorry, kiddo. I'm not sure what you're saying."
Kayla huffed and crossed her arms, something that Dean had thought she was at least ten years too young for. But all he felt for Kayla was sympathy. Her problem wasn't a bad attitude, as the huffing and crossing her arms would have said to their father. Just the opposite-Kayla was the happiest child he'd seen in years, a mirror reflection of Sam at the same age. But, Dean realized, it had to be hard to try and talk and have no one understand you.
"I'm sorry, kiddo." Dean said again. "Help me out here. Give me a clue."
"What a cue?" Kayla asked.
"Something to help me understand what you want to want to be for Halloween."
"A waryer." Kayla said again. "Wike Daddy."
"Like Dad…" Dean started to say, before it hit him what she was saying. "A lawyer?"
"Yeah." Kayla said, smile returning quickly.
The week before, due to a miscommunication between her parents and grandmother, Kayla had ended up spending the day with her Daddy where he worked. She'd had fun, but the best part had been going to court with him. Daddy had told her before they went in that they wouldn't be there very long, but she had to be very, very quiet and not say anything. She didn't understand a lot of what was going on, but she liked watching her Daddy talk to the judge. The judge, a man that reminded Kayla of her grandfather, had even complimented her on her 'very ladylike behavior in a boring, grownup place', and, with her daddy's permission, had given her a lollipop before they left.
On the way home, Kayla had asked Daddy about what was going on. He'd explained that the lady at the table with him had gotten the man at the other table to do some work for her on her house. The man hadn't done the work the way he should have, and now the lady's house was falling apart and she couldn't live in it without maybe getting hurt. Daddy was trying to help her get money from the man so she could fix her house the right way and make it safe. It was on that day, sitting in her car seat listening to her Daddy tell her what he'd done, that one thing became clear.
To two-year-old Kayla Winchester, her daddy was a hero. He helped people who needed it, people who'd been hurt and bullied. And she wanted to be just like him.
"Are you sure, kiddo?" Dean asked.
"A waryer." Kayla insisted. "Unca Beanie, you hep me, pease?"
"Okay." Dean said. "I guess we need to find you a suit."
Sam walked into the house, tired and ready to go to bed already. He was almost two hours later than he'd thought he would be, and he wanted nothing more than to cuddle Kayla for a few minutes then lay down for the rest of the weekend.
"Hey, you."
"Hey." Sam quickly kissed Jess, surprised that Kayla hadn't run out to meet him already. "Where's Kayla?"
"In the kitchen with mom and Dean."
"Okay." Sam said, as Kayla giggled from the kitchen. "What's going on?"
"She finally decided on her Halloween costume, and she wants to surprise you."
"Hang on, let me pull my coat off."
"NO!" Jess said, making Sam jump. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, just keep it on. Trust me, okay?"
"Okay."
"Kayla? You ready?" Jess asked.
"Tell Daddy to cose his eyes." Kayla said.
"Daddy, close your eyes." Jess said with a grin.
Sam rolled his eyes before closing them, having learned long ago it was easier to just do what Kayla asked.
"Otay, Daddy. Surpwise!"
When Sam opened his eyes, his mouth dropped open. Kayla was dressed in a boy's suit, navy blue in color with a light blue shirt and a navy blue tie. The sleeves were too big for her, so they were folded to her wrists. But Kayla held her grandma's hand, beaming as if she was the proudest little girl in all the land.
"What is this?"
"I'm you, Daddy!" Kayla said proudly. "You wike it?"
"You're…you're me?"
"It seems you made a very big impression on her last week." Jess explained.
"You mean, when I took you to court?" Sam asked Kayla.
"She's been talking about it all afternoon." Dean said.
"We try find a back suit wike yours. But we not find it. So we gots bue." Kayla said. "You wikes it, Daddy?"
"I love it, baby. Come here."
A delighted Kayla ran from her grandmother to her Daddy, who scooped her up and hugged her so tight she couldn't breathe for a minute. When she let Daddy go, she noticed he was still smiling. Jess, who had already bathed Kayla, told her it was time for bed. Kayla insisted on Sam putting her to bed, and after he did, she dreamed. Her grandma was the judge, and she and her uncle Dean were arguing against her parents. The case: whether or not Kayla could have ice cream and pie for dinner.