Chapter Sixteen

Dean's In Charge

A/N: This is one of the good things about insomnia. Hope you guys enjoy this story more than I'm enjoying my night right now. :(

There is an injury described in this story. I know it sounds a bit farfetched, but long story short, I was writing straight from experience.

I promised both a fluffy chapter and a Dean/Evy chapter. This is both. Enjoy!

"Daddy, you can go now!"

Sam laughed. "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"YES!" Dean and Evy said together.

Sam was packed up to leave for a weekend with some friends from Stanford. He was nervous; it was the first time since Evy's arrival at the bunker that he was leaving her voluntarily with someone else. He'd expected her to be nervous, but it was the opposite. She was excited about Dean being in charge for the weekend. Sam wondered what Dean had promised her they'd do, but had learned long ago not to ask unless he really, really wanted to know. Sam placed his bag by the door and turned back to Evy.

"Can I at least have a hug before I go?"

As eager as she was to start her weekend with Dean, Evy happily gave Sam the hug he asked for. Sam could hardly believe that Evy's ninth birthday was the next weekend. The sweet little six year old who had practically fallen into his lap almost three years earlier was growing up. She was a little taller, but still basically the same little girl.

"Alright. I've only got one rule for this weekend, okay?"

Evy groaned.

"Just listen to me, okay? I want you in bed at the time you're supposed to be." Sam said. "School's gonna start soon and you need to be getting enough sleep."
"9:30?" Evy asked hopefully.

"9:00."

"But you said…" Evy started.

"Your birthday hasn't happened yet." Sam said. "9:00."

"9:15. Please…." Evy begged.

Sam sighed. The 'bedtime battle' had been going on all summer. Evy thought that if she wasn't in school, she should be able to have a later bedtime. Sam disagreed; he wanted her to stay in the habit of going to bed at the same time, so it wouldn't be hard to get back into the habit when school did start again. Evy had given him a bit of a harder time than she normally did about it, but had listened to him. Sam had eventually reached a compromise. On her ninth birthday, he agreed to move up her bedtime by a half hour if she followed her 9:00 bedtime every night until then. If she refused to go to bed on time, even once, her bedtime would be a half hour earlier until Sam decided she'd earned the thirty minutes back, and she'd have to wait another year before she had the chance to get a later bedtime.

"Remember our deal." Sam said patiently. "9:00."

"Okay, daddy." Evy said, shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Good girl." Sam said.

He hated making her so disappointed, but bedtime was one of the few rules he wasn't willing to be flexible with. He hadn't told her this, but he'd been planning on increasing her bedtime every other birthday anyway. He'd changed it to 9:00 from 8:30 when she'd turned seven; he'd planned on 9:30 at age nine, 9:45 at age eleven, 10:00 at age 13, and so on. When she'd started advocating for a later bedtime earlier that summer, he'd pretended to put up a fight for a few days, then 'gave in' and agreed that she could have a later bedtime on her ninth birthday. Evy had thought she'd won some great victory, but it would have happened anyway.

"Cheer up, kiddo." Dean said. "We'll still have plenty of fun."

"That worries me a bit." Sam said. "On that note, I'm gone. Behave."

"I will." Evy promise.

"I know you will. I wasn't talking to you."

Evy gave Sam another hug before he went out the door, although this one was much less enthusiastic than the first one. She was growing up, and just wanted a little more freedom than she'd been getting. She knew Sam wasn't trying to be unfair, but she had really wanted her new bedtime to start this weekend so she could spend as much time with Dean as possible. As Sam walked out the door, she wondered if telling Sam that would have made a difference. Maybe if he'd known it wasn't just because she wanted to stay up later…

"Hey, kiddo. You okay?" Dean asked, interrupting Evy's thoughts.

"Yeah."

"You don't sound okay. What's up?" Dean asked, gently taking her arm and pulling her over to the couch with him.

"I don't ever get to spend time with just you." Evy explained. "I just wanted a little more time. You have to work until 7:00. If I have to go to bed at nine, then by the time I get a bath and get ready for bed…"

"We'll spend time together at work tomorrow." Dean said, trying to cheer her up. "You'll have fun, I promise. Remember how you used to help uncle Bobby? It'll be just like that."

"I know. But…"

"But it's not the same?" Dean guessed.

Evy nodded.

"Well, think about this. Your dad said you had to be in bed at nine, right?"

Evy looked up, wondering where Dean was going with this. "Yeah…"

"Did he say you had to be in your bed?" Dean asked, pointing at the couch.

"No." Evy answered.

"Did he say you had to be asleep?" Dean asked.

Evy grinned. "No."

"And he didn't say I had to be in my bed either." Dean said. "So think of what you want to do, and as long as we can do it on the sofa bed, we'll do it."

"Won't daddy be mad if he finds out I wasn't asleep?" Evy asked.

Not at you, Dean thought. "I won't tell if you don't."

"Deal."

They spent that Friday night together, Dean teaching her how to play poker with M and M's and Skittles. She turned out to be a more than capable player, and Dean left the table owing her two bags of M and M's. The next morning, he was surprised to find her up and waiting for him at 8:00am, ready to leave for the garage. She had already dressed herself in sneakers, a white tshirt, and overalls. Dean smirked as he poured a cup of coffee.

"Are you laughing at me?" Evy asked as she dramatically threw her hands on her hips.

"No." Dean said, although he was laughing as he said it. He kissed her forehead and said, "You'll fit right in today."

Evy grinned and made her own breakfast. Dean knew Sam would have frowned at it, or insisted she at least eat a piece of fruit with it. But Dean said nothing except "Pass it here" as she poured the Froot Loops into her bowl and added chocolate milk to it. Dean, who had spent his entire childhood taking care of Sam, found it fun to be the "good cop", and let Evy do pretty much whatever she wanted when she was with him. Once breakfast was finished, Dean packed Evy into the car and drove over to the garage.

Dean had been afraid that the guys at the garage would treat Evy either like a fragile little kid or a burden, but neither was true. All day he heard them asking for help, and she brought tools, cleaning supplies, coffee, and even told them some third grade level jokes she'd learned at school. As Dean prepared to leave that night, Scott told her,

"If you're ever looking for a job, kiddo, come find me."

"Okay!" Evy said, delighted at the praise.

"You ready, kiddo?" Dean asked.

"I'm ready."

They made it home a little earlier than expected, so Dean let Evy help make dinner instead of getting her shower like normal. By nine, they were sitting on the sofabed, watching Finding Nemo together. Dean would never admit it to Evy, but he actually liked this movie. It made him think of the way she'd been gone from them for so long then come back. When the credits rolled, he checked on Evy. It was 9:52, and she was fast asleep.

"Good night, kiddo. Deanie loves you."

"Uncle Deanie. Wake up."

Dean groaned. He'd just fallen asleep. He didn't want to wake up yet.

"Uncle Deanie. Please wake up."

She's crying, Dean thought, which made him jerk wide awake. He checked the clock on his nightstand. It was 2:25am. Dean switched on the lamp and looked. Sure enough, she had tears running down her cheeks.

"What's wrong, kiddo? You have a bad dream?"

Evy nodded sadly, wiping her eyes with her fist, looking more like a four-year-old than an eight-year-old.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"No." Evy said. "Can I sleep with you? Please? Daddy's not here."

Dean didn't answer, just pulled the cover back on the bed and patted the empty space beside him. She was asleep again in five minutes. They slept peacefully until 9:00 the next morning, when Dean woke to find Evy watching Netflix on his TV.

"Hey, kiddo. What you watching?"

"Finding Dory." Evy said.

"Did they find her yet?"

Dean had been planning to take Evy out to the local park to play that day, but the weather was miserable. It was rainy, hot, and humid, so they spend the day inside. They finally left the bed at 11:00, made a late breakfast, and played some more poker. Dean owed Evy five bags of M and M's now. He joked that he'd let her win, but he really hadn't; it worried him a bit how expert of a bluffer she seemed to be. Towards the middle of the day, they were both lost as to what to do. The rain had stopped, so Dean suggested going to Lily's.

"They're out of town this weekend too." Evy said. "Besides, I like staying with you."

"Aww. I like staying with you too, baby girl." Dean said. "But I'm kind of bored. What else do you want to do?"

"Let's make something we've never made before." Evy suggested.

"Like what?"

Evy thought about it for close to a full minute. "Pizza." She finally said. "Let's make our own pizza."

Dean shrugged. He didn't really like to cook, but decided that it might be fun with Evy. Even if it turned out terrible, it would be worth the quality time with her. He looked up the ingredients and was surprised that they had everything they needed. As they sat at the table patting out the dough together, Evy suddenly asked,

"Uncle Deanie? Do you ever miss it?"

"Miss what, baby girl?" Dean asked.

"Hunting."
Dean stopped patting out the pizza and looked at her in surprise at the sudden, unexpected question. "What made you ask that, baby girl?"

"That's what my bad dream was about last night." Evy said. "You and daddy got in a big fight and you left us to start hunting again."

The pieces clicked in Dean's brain like a puzzle. He had chalked up Evy coming into his room because of her nightmare to the simple fact that Sam wasn't in the house, but he knew there was more to it. She knew she could call Sam, even in the middle of the night. And she hadn't wanted to talk about her dream when he'd asked. He'd chalked that up to just being tired and wanting to go back to sleep. But maybe she'd been afraid that he would tell her that her dream would come true.

"Are you afraid I'm gonna leave?" Dean asked.

"You seem really unhappy sometimes. I didn't know if it was because you had to stay here with me and daddy." Evy said.

Guilt hit Dean like a stabbing knife. He had felt restless lately, and had been considering leaving his job at the garage to go back to hunting. The only thing that had stopped him was Sam's threat after Evy had been taken by the Genai. If he went back to hunting, he'd be restricted to basically birthdays and holidays with Evy. Had Evy somehow picked up on his feelings?

"I do miss it sometimes." Dean admitted, and Evy slowed down patting out the pizza. "But do you know what I do when I start to miss hunting?"

Evy looked up at him. "What?"

Dean swallowed. "I think about how much I missed you. Baby girl, I thought about you every single day. The best day of my life was the day you came back into it. And now that you're back, there's nothing that's going to keep me away from you. Okay?"

Evy smiled. "Okay."
"Okay?" Dean asked with a grin.

Evy giggled. "Okay."

Dean attacked her with tickles, making Evy double over in laughter. What they had been planning to make into pizza became fuel for an impromptu food fight. They were disrupted when Dean's cell phone rang. Evy looked at the screen and gasped.

"What is it?" Dean asked, surprised at how quickly she had stopped.

"It's daddy!" Evy said. "He's gonna ask what we were doing!"

"Give it here." Dean said, taking the phone from her.

Dean handed the call like a pro. At least he thought he did. Sam didn't buy for a second that Evy was getting ready for bed at 5pm, and that Dean was making salad for dinner, but the house seemed to still be standing, so he didn't complain. He told them both he'd call back before Evy went to bed, and Dean hung up to a furiously giggling Evy.

"You'd make a terrible accomplice!" Dean said as he placed the phone on the table.

"I can't help it!" Evy said. "He's my daddy!"

"Yeah, it's a good thing he can't see you right now." Dean said. "How exactly did you get pizza sauce in your ear?"

They worked together to clean the kitchen, and Dean ended up ordering a pizza rather than trying to make another one. It was close to seven, and Dean told Evy to go get her shower so the sauce wouldn't dry in her hair. Just as he was about to go to the living room to wait for the pizza, he heard a loud banging crash from the bathroom, followed by a wail and a cry. He ran to the bathroom and his heart stopped at what he found. Evy was on the floor. Her pajamas were on the back of the toilet, where she kept them until she got out. She had laid a towel on the floor, which was scrunched under her; she had tripped and fallen hard on the floor. Dean saw under Evy what he at first thought was more pizza sauce. But when he saw the glass kept on the bathroom sink in pieces, one of which was directly under Evy's cheek, he realized it wasn't sauce. It was blood.

"Hey, kiddo. Sit up, look at me." He helped her sit up and lean against the bathtub. She held a hand to her cheek. "Come on. Let me see."

Evy reluctantly moved her hand away. Dean couldn't help it; he drew a sharp breath at the site of her cheek. There was a gash in the middle of it. He was surprised it wasn't bleeding more, but it was enough to worry about. Dean picked up another towel from the rack on the wall and ran a cold water over it. He held it to her cheek as gently as he could, trying to stop the bleeding.

"What happened, baby girl?" Dean asked gently.

"I got a drink of water before I turned the shower on." Evy said, her breath hitching. "When I turned around to put the glass back I tripped and dropped it."
"And fell on top of it?" Dean asked.

"Yeah." As Dean pulled the towel away to check, Evy asked, "Is it bad?"

"Nah." Dean said dismissively, trying to make her feel better. "You are gonna need stitches though."

"Can you fix it?" Evy asked.

"You want me to?" Dean asked. "Your dad would want me to take you to the hospital."

"I want you to do it." Evy said. "Please. I'm not scared when you do it."

"Of course I'll do it, baby girl." Dean was relieved when he took the towel away; the bleeding had finally stopped. "Can you get up? Did you hurt anything other than your cheek? Your leg? Your arm? Your feet?"

"No." Evy said. "Just my cheek."

"Come on."

Dean helped her up and led her into the kitchen, gently seating her at the kitchen table. He saw the cut wasn't as bad as it had looked when it was bleeding. It was deep and did need stiches, but the blood had made it look longer than it actually was. Dean told her he'd be right back and got something out of the Impala he hadn't used for a long time. His first aid kit. The pizza guy pulled up just as Dean headed back inside. Dean placed the pizza on the table, and asked if she wanted to eat first or fix her cheek.

"Fix my cheek." Evy said. "It hurts."

Dean quickly checked her mouth to make sure she hadn't knocked out any teeth or bitten her tongue. He figured that if she had done any of that she would have complained about it, but it was better to be safe than sorry. When her mouth checked out, Dean got to work. Evy had stopped crying, but looked nervous. She whimpered when Dean pulled out a needle.

"I know it looks scary, but this'll numb your cheek so I can stitch it up."

Evy said nothing, she just watched as he came closer with the needle. Dean held her hand with one of his as he numbed her cheek with the other. She didn't cry again, just closed her eyes tight when she felt the needle go in. Dean tried to keep her distracted, and fifteen minutes later, poked her hard right next to the cut.

"Does that hurt?" he asked.

"Does what hurt?"

Dean smiled and knew it was time to start. She ended up getting twelve stitches, and Dean wondered how many he was going to need when Sam saw that Evy had been hurt under his watch. Ever since the car accident and their run in with social services, Sam had been ultra-protective of Evy. It had taken weeks to convince him to go see his friends from Stanford. Dean wasn't too worried about him finding out Evy had stayed up late, learn how to play poker, gone to the garage with him, ate junk for breakfast, and started a food fight in the kitchen. But there was no way to hide Evy's cheek from him. Her stitches needed to stay in for around a week. When he finally cut the last one, he asked,

"How's that feel, kiddo?"

"Weird." Evy said.

"Weird? What do you mean?"

"I can't feel it." Evy said, touching her cheek lightly.

"Don't do that." Dean said, pulling her finger away. "That's the medicine I gave you to numb your cheek. It'll wear off. Does it hurt?"

"No."
"You think you can eat?" Dean asked.

"I'll try."

She struggled a bit with the pizza slices, as a whole half of her mouth was numb, so Dean ended up cutting it into small pieces. He was surprised she didn't complain, as she didn't like to be treated "like a baby", but Dean figured she just wanted a little babying after what had happened.

"You want to watch a movie?" Dean asked.
"Shouldn't we clean up the bathroom?" Evy said.

Dean had completely forgotten about that. He wanted to tell her to forget it, but if Evy was asleep when Sam got home and Sam found the mess in the bathroom, particularly the blood on the floor, Dean was sure he would end up needing a body bag rather than just stitches.

"I'll take care of that. Why don't you lay down and start another movie?" Dean suggested. "I'll join you when I get done."
"Okay." Evy said, taking her place on the sofa bed, which they hadn't bothered to put back that morning.
Dean went and cleaned the mess up in the bathroom, throwing the bloody towel in the laundry and starting it. When he came back to the living room, he took his seat on the sofa bed. Evy curled up to him, laying her head down in his lap as they watched Finding Nemo for the second time. Dean heard a yawn underneath him.

"Uncle Deanie?"

"Yeah, kiddo?" Dean asked, looking down into her face.

"Thank you." She said. "I had fun this weekend."

Dean smiled and pointed at her cheek. "Even with this?"

"Even with this." Evy said, before another loud yawn and returning to the movie.

Sam had never been so glad to return home. It was 2:00 in the morning, and he was so tired he could physically feel it. He turned the car off and decided to leave his bags there until the following morning. He walked up and unlocked the front door, then walked inside.

What he found made him smile, despite how tired he was. All the lights were off, except for the dim glow of the television. Dean leaned against the back of the couch, and Evy slept peacefully with her head in his lap. Sam turned off the television, where the menu to Finding Nemo was playing on a loop. He decided to leave the two of them sleeping where they were. It would be easier than waking Evy and forcing her to move to her bed. But he couldn't go to bed and not tell her good night, so he walked over to where she was sleeping. Everything in the hose seemed to be okay, so Sam, for a moment, felt guilty for doubting that everything would be okay under Dean's watch. Sam gently kissed the top of Evy's head and started to stroke her cheek. Which is when he found it. What the hell? Sam thought. When he saw the stiches, Sam's plan to not wake anyone was suddenly thrown out the window.
"Dean!"

Next Chapter: I'm not quite sure yet. Sorry :)