Authors Note: I know that I said that Sam and Dean would be worked into this chapter, and I'm sorry, but I felt like it wasn't right for them to come into the story yet. There are a few things I have to clear up and set up between John and Nikki before the boys make their appearance. This chapter is going to be a bit shorter than the last two, but just as good.

Thank you to Rayne91, nichole23, Mary Izzy Dakota, melrose5553, DeanWinchesterluvr91, Lady OD, and MoonlitPrincez314. I hope that you all enjoy this new chapter.

Also, I know that I loaded the wrong save on the last chapter, and have gone back and fixed it. For those of you who read the last chapter and read the name of her BF was Wade at the start of the chapter and then it became Aaron. I'm so sorry if it confused any of you and I hope not to have a mistake that big again. His name is Aaron, and there is a picture on my profile of him. (We haven't seen the last of him!)

Family Is Just a Word

Chapter THREE: Patch Up

Chapter Rating: PG-13

Only having a few minutes to gather a few things in her pack she tried to say good bye to her mother only to have her father roughly pull her out of her mother's arms and tossed out of the house.

"Daddy please, it wasn't my fault!" She tried to reason with him.

Before slamming the door closed behind her, her father looked her in the eye with hate and anger. "Don't call me that. You're dead to me."

Forcing herself to push away the nightmare that had been haunting her the last few weeks, Nikki reached out and turned off the shower, not wanting to use up all the relaxing hot water. Wiping her hands over her face to make sure all the soap was away from her eyes, she pulled the shower curtain open and grabbed one of the rough white towels.

She could still remember the intense fear that washed through her when her father closed the door and said those hateful words. It took her a few minutes to process that it hadn't been a joke or a moment of anger on her father's part. He had gone even further and had called the police telling them that there was a strange woman on his front lawn. It was clear to her at that point that he had been one hundred percent honest about cutting her out of his life, and their family.

Hot tears feel from her eyes as she began to dry off. 'Please God; give me the strength to get through this.' She prayed.

Dried and dressed she opened the door and the steam bellowed out of the room, fogging up the mirror that was over the sink right outside the shower room. Hand resting at her waistband she tried to walk without the shorts falling down. She could see John seating at the table and it looked like he had gone out to get something to eat, two brown paper bags sat on top unopened.

"Don't just stand there, come eat." His rough voice called out to her.

Doing as he told her, she made her way over and took a seat in the open chair on the other side of the table. Once she was seated, John pushed one of the bags closer to her. Reaching up to take it and take out the items in the bag she couldn't help the small smile that formed on her lips.

A bottle of ginger ale and a box of crackers where the first that she saw, pulling them out she looked into the bottom of the bag to see a dark brown bottle. Pulling it out she saw that it was full of some kind of pills, turning it around, she read the label.

Prenatal Nutrients

240 Tablets

Prenatal Multivitamins

Gratefulness washed over her whole being as she got up and walked over to give John a hug. One of her many fears had been making sure that her unborn child was getting everything that he or she needed to be a healthy and strong baby.

She knew how important it was to take the vitamins and to make sure that she ate the right things, but it had proven difficult with limited funds. Her last bottle had been stolen, along with most her other stuff, at a shelter that she had stayed at when she had first been put out on her own. She was left with what she had on her person and it only consisted of fifty dollars in her back pocket. As much as she had wanted to use the money to get more pills she knew she had to stretch it out to buy food for herself.

John didn't make a move to return the hug and just let the young girl embrace him around his thick neck. He noted that she was being soft and minding his injury, something that he was thankful for.

He had gone to the small drug store right down the street while she had been in the shower to restock on some first aid supplies when he had seen the vitamins. Remembering when Mary had been pregnant that she had been told by her doctor to make sure that if she couldn't keep anything down, to make sure that she got the vitamins in her system.

"Take two in the morning and two at night, I'll be counting them so don't think I won't know if you're not taking them." He told her as she pulled away from him.

"You would have to be around in order to count them." She said in a soft voice. She knew that he wasn't about to take on a young pregnant girl, he was just being nice to her because of what happened in the alley. Tomorrow would come and he would drop her off at a shelter and be on his way.

"You think I'm just going to let you go back and take up in another alley?" He asked her. Getting up he walked over to the mirror and looked to see the damage done to his face. It had been stinking and throbbing the past hour, but he had other things to deal with before he could patch himself back up. "As long as you don't get in the way, and don't ask too many questions, you'll have a roof over your head and food in your tummy." He said turning back around and getting the items he would need to stitch his check.

Not knowing what to say to his kind offer, she made her way over to him and took the needle out of his hand and looked up to him. "You need to clean it out first or it'll get infected. Go set down." She told him. The nurse in her was coming out, and she had to admit that it felt good to help someone.

Too tired to fight her on it, he sat back down at the table and waited for her to walk back over to him. He watched as her turned on the sink and washed her hands with soap and hot water. Once she was done, she took the water bottle and dumped out the remaining water. Picking up the alcohol she poured some into the bottle and then added more water shacking it to make sure it was mixed.

Walking back over to him she held out the cap to him. "Can you poke a hole in it?" She asked.

Trusting that she knew what she was doing, he pulled out his silver butterfly knife and did as she asked. Once he handed it back to her she twisted it on the bottle and set it down on the table. Walking back to the bathroom she gathered more towels and the rest of the items that she would need.

"Ok, it's going to sting, but I'm going to flush out the cut and then stitch you back up." She said, telling him what she was about to do.

"Sounds like you know what you're talking about."John said as he watched her lay everything out.

With a smile she picked up the small towel and held it under his chin to catch the run off. "Close your eyes, I don't think you want to get this in them." She said and began to squeeze the wash over his wound. She knew, when he didn't flinch, that this wasn't the worse he had had in the past.

"I was a nurse at a clinic for about two years and was working on getting into medical school." She said to him to answer his question. She never took her eyes off her work and watched as the water/alcohol mixture washed away the blood and began to clean out the gash.

"Little young to be a nurse." He stated.

"I graduated early, when I was sixteen, and went right into nursing school. I worked at the clinic part time until I was done with school and was waiting to hear back if I was accepted into Baylor." She said with a hint of sadness in her voice. It had been a long term dream of hers to become a doctor and then go on mission trips and helping those who really needed her aid.

"Did you ever find out?" John asked.

Shaking her head even if he couldn't see her, she told him she didn't know. "I was kicked out before I found out. Guess I'll never know. It would have been too hard to focus on school and a child at the same time anyway. I guess it was God's way of saying that it wasn't what he wanted me to do." She told him. "Ok, you can open your eyes now; I'm done cleaning it out."

"Why didn't you just put it on a rag and wipe it out?" He asked her. It worked for him in the past.

"There is a greater risk of getting a piece of the cotton in the wound and then it could cause a bigger problem latter down the line." She answered him.

'Never thought about that.' He thought to himself.

Watching her tread the needle with the suture he saw that she did so with experience. Once she was done she looked at him to make sure he was ready. Giving her a nod, she began to stitch his skin back together. It didn't take long, only taking five stitches, and she was done.

Standing up and walking back over to the mirror he inspected her work. He had to admit that she had done a great job, better then he would have done. He wouldn't have a scare when it was healed.

Seeing that her back was turned to him, he pulled off his worn shirt and tossed it onto the floor. He had enough left in him to take a shower and then hit that sack.

Picking up all the used towels and bloody needle Nikki turned around just in time to see John walk into the bathroom, shirtless. In less than five seconds she took note of a few things.

First was that his right side was already bruised and swollen and she knew that he was in a great amount of pain. She couldn't help but be surprised that he wasn't complaining about it, any other person would be begging for something to take the pain away.

The second had been that for an older man, he was in great shape. Recalling what he had done in the alley and how he had moved with a grace that only a highly experienced fighter would hold, she knew that he must do this kind of thing often. The scares that covered his back was all she needed to know that he had indeed been though worse.

She knew that he had told her not to ask a lot of questions, but he hadn't told her that she couldn't ask any questions. She would just have to pick them wisely and make sure that they where worded right.

Washing off what she had used she was surprised when she heard the water turn off and a few moments later he opened the door. She fought back the blush and fear at seeing him only in a towel and stood out of his way as he made his way over to his bag. Getting what he needed he returned to the steamy room to get dressed.

He had forgotten for a minute that she had been out there, and hadn't meant to make her feel uncomfortable, but he wasn't used to having someone else in his room, and even then it was his two sons. Not an eighteen year old pregnant girl.

Fully dressed he walked out again to see that she had sat back down in her chair and was resting her head on her folded arms.

"Take the bed." He told her.

"No, you're the one who has broken ribs and just fought, whatever those things where."

"Vampires." He said without fault. "And I'm not going to bed, to many things to do." He said. He didn't want to tell her that as soon as she was asleep he would lay out on the floor.

Not wanting to fight with the man who took on vampires like they where nothing, she walked over to the bed and got under the covers. She couldn't deny how great it felt to be back in a bed, and not curled up between a rock and a hard place. She could only hope that her nightmares wouldn't come back due to her staying in a hotel room. It had been the first one since that day.

"Good night Mr. John." She said as sleep took over.

Looking down at her sleeping peacefully in the bed, he knew that it would be too hard, and stupid, to keep her with him. There were too many things that could go wrong and he would never forgive himself if anything happened to her on his watch. Looking down and seeing that it wasn't to terribly late yet, he picked up his phone and walked outside to make a call.

"Bobby it's me John."

Authors Note: Another one down! I hope that you all liked it and are beginning to see the growing trust between both John and Nikki. It a big part of the story and it plays a big role. Like I said before, this is NOT a John/Nikki story. Sam and Dean WILL be in the next chapter, along with Bobby. I would love to hear what you all think about it so far so please let me know!