"Dean, shut up." Kate said to her older brother in an attempt to get him to stop singing, badly. Dean Sam and Katie Winchester were driving down a highway in Tennessee on their way back home from Katie's high school graduation. Both her brothers had showed up, which was surprising enough without knowing that they were planning on staying in town for awhile. When her name was called she had heard the sound of a fog horn and her brothers and Bobby yelling. She couldn't help but laugh.
"What?" Dean asked, "I can't be happy for my baby sister graduating from high school." He looked over at her in the passenger seat, the seat Sam had allowed her to have just this once.
"Can you be happy without breaking my eardrums?" She asked sarcastically.
He gave her a mock hurt expression. "Fine."
He looked back to road and they sat in peaceful quite for moment. Dean sighed, "Mom and Dad would've been proud kid."
Katie looked to her hands tears pooling in her eyes. " I know." She answered in a voice thick with tears. Sam reached up and squeezed her shoulder in sympathy, John had been to his graduation.
She was the youngest in the family being only seventeen, only a month from eighteen, and her brothers twenty-three and twenty-seven. Their father the famous hunter John Winchester had died the summer before after making the deal to save Dean's life. Katie missed him the most, moreover the idea of him because she knew him the least. Dean was their dad's perfect soldier. She knew that her brothers had a relationship with their father that she never had, and that knowledge cut her to the core every time she thought about it.
Dean pulled the car up the driveway of their house, or really Katie' house, since she was the only one who lived there regularly. John had gotten the house a couple of years before so that Katie could have some kind of stable school career. Sam and Dean came back every couple of weeks to make sure she was alright, but most of the time she lived on her own. Bobby was only twenty minutes away if she needed anything and she often went by his place after school to say hello. They were a family in way, Bobby and the Winchester kids.
Katie laid her cap and gown on the back of the couch and headed towards the kitchen. "What do you guys want for dinner?" she asked over her shoulder opening the fridge and pulling out two beers. They followed her into the kitchen and she handed them the drinks.
"You aren't cooking today." Sam said to her. "We'll order takeout or something."
"Yeah, Sammy call up that chinese place down the road." Dean said and took a swig from his can. Sam nodded and pulled out his cell.
Dean looked around and shook his head. "I don't know where you find the time to keep this place so clean."
Katie just laughed.
After dinner they sat in the living room in front of the TV they weren't really watching.
"So college in the fall, you're growing up too fast kid." Dean said with a chuckle turning his face towards the TV.
Katie averted her eyes and caught Sam's knowing gaze. She gave him a pointed look and sighed, "Well boys, I think I'm off to bed. thank you for coming." She got up and kissed her brother's foreheads before heading down the hall and into her room. She changes into her pjs and grabbed a book from her desk.
She climbed into bed and began to read. She read until she heard the TV in the living room shut off and Dean's door close shut. With a sigh she threw back the covers and opened her door. She padded down the hallway and entered the living room. In one wall there was a large window with a comfortable sized window seat that overlooked their front yard. This is where she always sat late into the night when she had alot on her mind. Tonight it was Dean and his desire for her to go to college.
Unlike with Sam her father never wanted her to start right away as a hunter. He wanted her to at least go to college before going into the family business of slaying monsters. But after losing her Mother and her father at such a young age she didn't want to miss anymore of the precious time her brothers had left. She and Dean had already lost Sam once.
The memory of that night always left her feeling cold and filled with grief. When Bobby had called her to tell her Sam had been stabbed through the back and was dead she had dropped the phone and started sobbing. It had taken her a few moments to calm down enough to pick it back up. Bobby told her where they were and she jumped into her car and drove. the whole time with tears streaming down her cheeks. When Sam woke up and Dean came through the door a few minutes later she had been overjoyed until she and Sam had realized what Dean had done. As of now Dean only had seven months left and she had vowed to be there for every minute of it.
"Hey." Sam's soft voice cut through her dark thoughts.
She didn't even turn around, she didn't have to. Sam always knew what she was thinking without asking.
"I saw your face earlier, when Dean mentioned college." Sam said to her in the dark. She turned her face away and looked outside, catching her reflection out of the corner of her eye.
"You're not going are you?" he asked her quietly.
"No, I'm not" she replied in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
"Dean would understand, if you expl-" Sam began.
"No he wouldn't, Sam. you know he wouldn't." She looked at him then tears pooling in her eyes. "He'll say, just because I'm going to Hell doesn't mean you shouldn't go to school. Besides, Sam, it's what Dad wanted." She said in a bitter voice.
Sam sighed and motioned for her to sit up so she could lean back on him. He wrapped his arms around her and spoke. "He'd rather you tell him, then you just not go."
"It'll be a fight either way Sam." She replied in an even tone.
Sam sighed, she was right of course there would be a fight either way and it was no use arguing with her.
Neither of them moved and Katie slowly felt her eyes grow heavy. Both her brothers had the gift of helping her fall asleep when she was angry, scared or sad. She never went to her Dad when she had nightmares she always went to Dean, and he'd let her crawl into his bed and she would fall asleep with her head on his chest. Tonight it was Sam who helped her fall asleep and she helped him fall asleep.
Dean found them there in the morning when he came down the hall for something to drink. He chuckled to himself and opened the fridge.
When he came back into the living room Katie was blinking awake. She gave him a confused look before realizing where she was. She pulled herself up and shook Sam awake. "Get up." She said in a groggy voice.
She didn't wait to see if he listened to her she pushed past Dean grabbing his water at the same time. "Hey!" he called after her. She half smiled and went into her room. It was too early to be waking up, she thought as she crawled under the covers of her bed. In a few seconds she was asleep again.
The three siblings sat with Bobby in his cramped kitchen later that afternoon talking and laughing. Katie and Sam had come to an understanding not to mention the college issue to Dean.
"How long you boys staying in town?" Bobby asked after a good laugh.
"Ah, a week or two, then I was thinking Kate here could spend the summer hunting with us." Dean said casually.
Katie looked at Dean in surprise, "you're going to let me go hunting with you?" She asked in a voice high with excitement.
"Yeah. Sam and I think you're ready." Dean said looking at her proudly, "We'll work with you on your shooting this week too."
"You didn't tell me!" She said with an accusing look at Sam.
"It was a surprise." Sam said in explanation. She jumped up and hugged Dean tight. "thank you." She said lightly. Bobby watched them with a smile.
Dean looked a bit uncomfortable, "Don't mention it, Sam will need your help when I'm gone."
All the happiness in the room was sucked out and Katie felt the icy terror grip her heart. With tears in her eyes she frowned at Dean, "Don't talk like that. We'll find a way to save you, we have to." we will save you Dean no matter what it takes Katie thought, no matter what it takes.
"You're gripping it too tight, here." Dean said, helping his sister grasp the gun she was learning to fire.
"Like this?" Katie asked him.
"Yeah." Dean pointed ahead to the targets they had pinned to the cars in Bobby's yard. "Now give it a go."
She looked at him for a second and he nodded encouragingly. Sam and Bobby were watching silently a couple of feet behind her. Dean stepped back to give her some room. Alright, here it goes, she thought grimly as she aimed for the head on her target. She was expecting to be at least a foot off her mark.
Bang. She pulled the trigger. She dropped her arm in astonishment. Sam and Bobby cheered laughing. Dean stared at her target in shock. The bullet had hit dead center on the target's head. "Holy shit." She breathed, a grin slowly spreading across her face.
"Lucky shot." Dean said. She turned on him, "Was not!"
"Then do it again." he retorted.
She snorted at him, "Fine, I will." She turned back, aimed and fired.
Satisfied she looked at her brother, "See."
He grumbled for a moment before stalking over to the target and pulling it down. Sam chuckled and walked over to her.
"What's his problem?" Katie grumbled to her brother.
"He's just pissed that it took him three months to hit a bulls eye." Sam laughed.