Deanna/Caleb

18 – "He didn't even care."

Caleb Bailey took little Deanna Winchester out into the field. They played their own version of Marco Polo for two hours until it got too dark to be safe. They sat up on the porch with corn from the field. They laughed at each other when corn silk got stuck between their teeth. Maybe she wasn't so little anymore. Sam sneered at them from behind his book. They lay on the grass and stared up at the sky.

Deanna breathed and whacked him with the back of her hand. "How long you back this time?"

"Couple weeks. I'm shipping out again."

"When you done?"

"A year?" He turned his head to look at her.

"A whole year." She sighed and rolled on her side to look at him. Yeah. She wasn't a little girl anymore. "Will you write me?"

"Where would I address the letters?" He pointed out.

"Maybe I'll write you."

"I'd like that."

"When you get back for good..." She started and trailed off. He breathed deeply while she found her words. "Maybe."

"Maybe what?"

"You'll stop calling me Little Deanna."

"Maybe." He smiled at her. He flicked her nose. "Little Deanna."

"Shut up." She growled and swatted his hand away. "And I'm not little. I'm nearly 5'9"."

"I know. You're almost as tall as me."

"Where all you been?"

"Not much of anywhere, really. Though, I might get to go to Kosovo."

"Where's that?"

"Europe."

"Why?"

"Something going on over there, I guess. I just shoot where they point me but they don't point me much of anywhere these days. Some of the guys say it'll be over with before I get over there." He shrugged. "Come on, let's get the house closed up for the night."

Caleb got dinner scraps cleaned up and the first floor locked up while Deanna rounded up her brother and got him to bed, surly little punk he was. 15, maybe. Which made Deanna… "You're 19?"

"Duh. I've only been begging you to stop calling me Little Deanna forever." She laughed at him while she wiped down the table. "How old did you think I was?"

"I don't know… 12."

She laughed and tossed the rag at him. "I think your brain shrunk when you went and got all those muscles." She sobered and hopped up on the table. "Really, you thought I was 12… all day long? Do I look 12?"

"No." He shook his head and shut off the light before heading up to his room.

In the morning, Caleb was on his way down when he heard Sam and Deanna talking in the kitchen. "She's got bigger boobs than me, huh."

"Everyone's got bigger boobs than you. I have bigger boobs than you."

"Shut up, you little bitch."

"Make me, jerk… Ow, you freak."

Caleb stomped down the stairs and made for the coffee maker. Deanna set a plate in front of Sam. "You want an egg, too?"

"Uh, sure, if you're offering." Caleb nodded into his mug.

"You bet she is." Sam sneered at his sister and earned himself a potholder to the face.

Caleb kept his back to the room. He could hear them hissing at each other but not what was being said. Then he heard a plate hit the table then the back door slap shut. He sat at the table and ate his breakfast alongside Sam. Sam picked at his plate and picked cotton threads off his tongue. "She's got a disgusting crush on you."

"I know." Caleb nodded to his coffee.

"She's also a huge slut."

"That's mean." Caleb looked to the kid.

"Maybe but she's gross. I think she's gross."

Caleb finished up and got the dishes done. Deanna was still kicking around in the field. Caleb took a six pack out there and settled in the tall grass. She took one and popped it open. "I'm really embarrassed."

"Don't be. Teenagers are jerks."

"Is it cause I don't have boobs?"

"Is what what?" He frowned at her.

She pulled on the beer. "Dad says its good that my tits are small. I'm small everywhere. Says I can fit places most hunters can't. Means I can still do all those stunts we used to do when we were kids."

"Probably." He nodded and motioned with his hands. He held his arms out and stood. After a moment, she set her beer down and turned around and backed between his arms. She held onto his biceps and pulled her legs up until she was a human ball hanging from his arms. She hung her legs on his arms and shifted her hands to his, then swung her body up until she was standing in the air and then he lifted his arms until they were a straight line. Then her arms started to wobble. She twisted and let go, Caleb caught her in his arms and set her down. "See. Perfect."

"It's cause now your arms are big around as me now." She sank into the ground and pulled on her beer.

"Maybe." He sat beside her and opened a beer for himself. "Don't worry about your boobs, Deanna."

"I'm 19, I think it's all I'm gonna get unless I spring for some fake ones."

"Don't do that. The ones you got are fine." He made a face and tilted his head back to feel the sun on his face.

"You ever have sex with a girl with fake tits?"

"Once. It was weird." He pulled on his beer and remembered that particular night. "Rich girl from my high school. First time I came back on leave, I saw her out. Her tits looked great when she was dressed but when she took off her clothes, they stayed right where they were. They were… kind of hard. Boobs are supposed to be soft… pliable. Hers were too big for her body and way too high up. When I touched her… nipples, she couldn't really feel it."

"How do you mean?"

Caleb shut his eyes for a long moment then finished his beer. "You know… how when someone plays with your nipples, they get hard… hers didn't."

"Weird." Deanna agreed and finished her beer. Caleb opened them both new ones. "So… mine are really okay?"

"Yeah. Plenty of women got all sizes and there are men who like all sizes."

"And you?"

"I'm just grateful for any attention I get." He shrugged and lay back in the grass with his eyes closed.

Sam had a book open and dinner going when Deanna made it inside the house. She rolled her eyes and left a trail of grass in her wake. Caleb walked in a bit later with a bunch of bottles for the trash can. He drank directly from the faucet, dog tags tinkling against the sink. "Thanks for getting dinner started, what we having?"

"Chili dogs. Frozen fries."

"Sounds good. Too hot for the oven, though." Caleb's shirt was already stuck with sweat and grass.

"Tumbling?" Sam narrowed his eyes at the older man.

"Yeah. I can still toss her in the air a ways." He nodded and disappeared into the basement.

Sam listened to the fighting in the next room and leaned his head on the wall. Deanna stormed passed the open door shouting at the top of her lungs about love and happiness and babies. His father rushed passed a moment later issuing threats and demanding she get an abortion. Then the world was silent and he felt really sorry for his sister. Hours later, his father stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, booze coming out of his pores. "Your sister's going to live with Pastor Jim. Seems… we're going to have an addition to the family."

"It's Caleb's… huh." Sam fiddled with the end of his notebook.

John shut his eyes and shook his head. "You knew about this?"

"I guessed." Sam drew his legs up onto the bed. "She's really going to have a baby."

"Says I can't stop her and I guess I can't, really."

Her belly was big. Sam put his hands on it. The baby kicked him. Deanna groaned. She sniffed and shifted on the bed. "He hasn't answered any of my letters and I told him that I would be here."

"Maybe he didn't get them. I mean… you said they were sending him out." Sam offered lamely.

"When's Dad coming back?"

"He didn't say."

Deanna pouted and played with Sam and her son who was swimming circles in her belly. "I want to name him after Dad but I think Dad is still mad."

"Deanna! The telephone is for you. Some soldier." The Pastor's voice called up the stairs.

Sam had to help Deanna off the bed so she could race to the phone. She shut the door to the Pastor's office and Sam had to occupy himself with helping with dinner until she came out. It was nearly an hour before Deanna walked out and joined them at the table. She said her prayers and dried her eyes and piled food on her plate. Sam set his fork down. "What did he say?"

She opened her mouth to say something scathing but took a breath and spoke. "He didn't even care."

"Surely—" Pastor Jim opened his mouth.

"I'm going to raise my baby on my own. I'll get a job. I'll hunt. I'll raise him right. Caleb can go to hell."

"But…" Sam stared at his sister.

"It's decided."