Mercy's behaviour with Sam was almost identical to how she treated Dean when he was a baby. Though she had learnt her lesson from the last time, now she made sure to sleep all she could. but she couldn't help but look after her cute little brother's, dedicating all her time to them and giving up any free time just to keep the two happy.
There were a few instances where Dean became jealous of Sammy. It was only expected. Mercy had spoiled the kid far too much, he didn't take kindly to the fact he didn't have all of Mercy's attention anymore.
Mercy of course took it in stride and allowed Dean to follow her everywhere, and I mean everywhere. He even followed the eight year old into the toilet. Let's just say he got a very stern talking to from their father.
But honestly, you try saying no to those eyes.
School life changed slightly for Mercy as well. Due to her being a big sister to two brothers the caring nature became the most prominent part of her personality. Her class mates didn't notice much of a change but the teacher could see. She continuously praised Mercy to the girl's parents for "Helping and caring for everyone in the class. She has become almost like a big sister to all of them."
To Mercy, it just felt like she had found her purpose in life. Not that she realised that, she was only eight at the time.
"See Dean, you have hold Sammy like this before you give him the bottle."
Mercy was sat in the living room showing Dean the intricacies of looking after a three month old baby. Her mummy had said that Sammy had to be bottle fed because there was something wrong with her and couldn't feed him like she fed Dean at that age.
She didn't really care all that much, mummy had said that it wasn't hurting her so Mercy didn't think too hard on it. She was just happy she could look after Sammy and Dean like a good big sister.
"Mercy, can I have a try?" Dean asked with wide green eyes. He was bouncing on the spot with the excess energy four year olds always have.
Mercy sadly shook her head and patted the younger on the head.
"No Deanie. Mummy said you can't until Sammy is older, but you can help change his nappy!" Mercy blurted the last part as she noticed the look on Dean's face. He was prone to crying a lot when he couldn't do something but thanks to her quick thinking, Dean's face scrunched in disgust instead.
"Eww, I don't want to! Sammy's nappies are icky!"
Mercy laughed at her little brother. To be honest she thought Dean's nappies were so much worse than Sammy's when he was that age.
"Then you will have to wait until Sammy is big enough!"
She lifted Sammy to lean against her shoulder and gently patted the small back. She made sure to put a towel there first of course. She had already had the unfortunate pleasure of Sam dribble down the back of her dress and didn't want a repeat.
She smiled gently when a soft burb exited Sammy's mouth and watched Dean play with his fireman truck. It was a present from their mummy and daddy for his fourth birthday.
"I really love Dean and Sammy!" The oldest declared to her two little brothers. Little Sam giggled slightly.
Dean smiled widely at her and yelled.
"I love Mercy and Sammy!"
They all burst into giggles and didn't stop even when their mummy showed up to see what was going on.
Mercy was rudely woken from the best sleep she had had in ages by small hands shaking her shoulder. Mercy didn't have the energy to do anything and just waited for the culprit to go away.
When the shaking didn't let up, Mercy's foggy mind cleared enough for the irritation to show. Don't let it be said that Mercy was a morning person. She loved sleep and was always grumpy in the morning before she had something to eat.
She was about to slap the arms that were still shaking her when a small voice echoed in the dark room.
"Mercy, wake up please." The voice was so weak and scared. Her big sister instincts over ruled any childish grumpiness. Mercy sat up quickly and hugged her little brother tightly.
"Dean, what's wrong?" The small boy didn't answer and just crawled into the bed with her.
She pulled her brother to lay down with her, the two curled into each other under the warm purple duvet. Dean started crying quietly into her shoulder, his little hands gripping her nighty firmly.
"I had a bad dream. You and mummy and daddy and Sammy left me all alone. I was scared, please don't leave me."
His little sobs broke her heart bit by bit. Mercy felt uncertain and useless about what to do. Her little brother was upset and she had no idea how to make it better. So she did what she always did when she was unsure, she sang.
She was never the best singer but her voice drifted over the words to 'Hey Jude' in a way that soothed Dean. Her soft voice missed some notes and she tripped over the more difficult lyrics but she put her heart in it.
She put all her feelings into the song, the need for Dean to be happy and the sadness she felt because he was upset. As she sung, one of her hands was stroking Deans head to calm him down whilst the other was keeping him as close as humanly possible to her.
It took a few verses before his crying slowed down and a few repeats of the song for him to completely relax. His grip on her slowly slacked as sleep crept up on his mind.
Mercy wasn't sure when he finally drifted off but kept singing quietly to not only help him feel better but to reassure her that everything was fine. That Dean was safe and no longer sad.
She dozed off after a while, still keeping the boy close.
Morning came with a bright glare of the sun, waking the occupants of the purple bed. Drool was wiped from faces in sleepy actions.
The two siblings were too warm and comfortable to do much. They just wanted to stay curled up for the rest of the day.
In fact, Mercy was going to do just that. She felt like she was lying in a cloud on a nice warm day. The perfect temperature of the bed just called the girl to go back into sleep land.
But of course her bladder disagreed. The eight year old groaned and rolled out of the bed in an ungraceful heap.
She wobbly walked down to the bathroom to do her business. Waking up fully as she exited the bathroom she heard Sammy making a fuss.
She knew that her parents wouldn't notice the baby unless he started screaming (her daddy was a very loud snorer, and her mummy wasn't too far behind), so she went to tend to him herself.
She was greeted with an unhappy Sammy. He was such a grumpy baby, he didn't like a lot of things and made sure everyone knew.
Mercy childishly scrunched her nose at the smell of Sammy's present. It had somehow managed to escape its container and spread up his back and into his hair. No wonder he was so grumpy, she wouldn't be happy if that happened to her, and now she had to clean it all up.
The little girl just smiled and dragged the stool to the cot. She didn't show any discomfort at the poo covered baby, even when she accidently got her hand covered in the stuff.
She just went about cleaning her baby brother up. What she hadn't realised was that during the clean-up, her parents had woken up and found Dean, in her bed. They carried the still sleepy boy to the door of Sam's nursery and watched the little girl.
"Mercy," She jumped and spun around, only to calm down at the sight of her parents.
"Mercy, come here." her mummy continued, opening her arms wide waiting for a hug.
She ran with a giggle to hug her family. She loved her family very much.
It had been a normal November Tuesday. Mercy had gone to school, Mary and John to work and Sam and Dean staying at the old lady next door whilst everyone was busy.
There was laughter and joy. A few tears here and there, but generally a good day for the family. They went on with life as normal.
Mercy played with her class, many fighting over who got to play with who first, running about and making things slightly difficult for their teacher.
It was during lunch that Mercy got a surprise. She was simply finishing off the packed lunch her mummy had made that morning, laughing with her best friend Lucy, when Michael asked her to come with him.
His face was red, he was fidgeting and he kept avoiding eye contact. It made everyone very curious, including Mercy.
She nodded at the boy and let him drag her out into the empty hallway. She tried not to focus on his sweaty hands and waited for him to get on with what he needed to say.
Seconds passed as he calmed himself down. It was strange watching him all nervous; Mercy was used to Michael being loud and brash. He spoke his mind all the time and didn't care what others thought.
Sometimes he was really mean but she couldn't fault him. It was better than thinking he was always hiding things from you.
"I like," He took a deep breath to finish his sentence, "I like Lucy, can you tell her?"
Mercy stared at him, mind blank as she tried to compute what was just said to her.
She placed a hand on the poor boys shoulder and gave a bright smile. The smile that made Sammy laugh and Dean giddy because it meant she was planning something.
"I'm not going to tell her," the look of betrayal flashed across Michael's face, "Because you're going to tell her."
Without waiting for his reply she walked back into the classroom and yelled as she spotted her best friend.
"Lucy, Michael wants to tell you something!"
She pushed her unfortunate friend out of the room and shut the door behind Lucy, leaving the two alone.
She sat down once again, feeling smug.
Tuesday turned to Wednesday. The first turned into the second of November. 1983. The tenth anniversary of Mary's parent's death.
Mercy was woken by her mother's desperate calls for Sammy. The frantic tone pushing Mercy into panic, she ran quickly towards her littlest brother's room as she heard her mummy scream.
She sped into the nursery to see a shadow of a man disappear. She rubbed her eyes and looked again at the corner of the room to see nothing. Her breaths came out in pants, she was frozen; she swore she saw something. Something like the yellow eyes of a monster, but her daddy had said monsters didn't exist.
She was shocked out of her thoughts when her daddy picked her up into his arms.
"Mercy, was that you screaming?"
She couldn't speak. There was a bad feeling in her stomach that stopped her from making a noise, but she managed to shake her head.
At least she didn't think she screamed.
The two walked to Sammy's cot to reassure them that nothing was wrong. She was put onto her stool and looked over to see Sammy smiling.
But even as she smiled back at the gummy baby, she couldn't get rid of the bad feeling in her belly.
Something dripped onto the baby's face, Mercy froze instantly. She recognised the colour, but she didn't want to think about it. The bad feeling became almost crushing as her daddy wiped the drops off Sammy's face.
Mercy quickly picked up her little brother for comfort. She held onto the baby like a life line.
More red drops fell onto Sammy's pillow.
The father and daughter slowly raised their heads at the same time. It looked almost practiced apart from the fact both were taught with tension.
Two pairs of eyes widened at the sight on the ceiling. Mercy's brain shut down then and there, she couldn't process the scene she was seeing. All rational thought left her head, leaving her fight or flight instincts.
She bolted from the room with Sammy in her arms as flames burst to life in the room. She vaguely heard her daddy yelling something, but she paid no attention to it.
She had to get Dean and get out the house.