**does anyone else get tried of writing the same thing over and over? I do not own Sam and Dean**
NINE
"What is it?" Dean asked impatiently when Marina stopped to clear her throat, as if unsure if she should go on with the story or not. Claire was clearly unhappy with the situation, she kept darting her eyes angrily back and forth between the Winchesters, on one side of the room, to her sisters, on the other, while she herself perched on the edge of Tana's bed.
"When Tana was little, like we explained before, she wasn't treated right," Marina finally started. It sounded like the whole story was about to come out, so the brothers braced themselves for the worst.
"The rest of us come into our powers when we were all around the age of fourteen, we weren't all the same age obviously, but Amber was the youngest at the time and she was twelve. It came around the time when we were all going through...well, natural chances too. Tana was just turning six then. Mom was so proud of us, she doted on us. She bought us gifts to celebrate and took us out places to show us off to her friends, and she brought Tana because she thought Tana had powers too. She helped us develop our gifts and in a matter of weeks we'd all learned how to control them, which was a miracle, mom said. But that was also about around the time when she figured out that Tana didn't have any powers. Tana knew it before she did. She'd whine and complain to us, but we were too busy focusing on our own powers that we didn't have time to think about her. She was so young too; we didn't want to be seen with her. You know how teenagers are."
Dean nodded and Marina continued.
"Tana practised so hard, she did whatever mom told her to do, even when Mom got rough Tana would do whatever she said. Mom practically tried to force powers on her, but – nothing. Mom was so disappointed in her. But she kept getting the four of us gifts every time we learned something new and she took us out places to practice...marine land" – Marina smiled remembering, but then became solemn again – "Tana never got anything but anger and disappointment. Our parents didn't hide those discussions about what they were going to do with her and what use she was. They'd talk about it at the dinner table and that was around when Tana started to get quieter. She tried to talk to us many times while this was happening, but we were just too busy. Too important, we thought, I guess, to deal with her. One night-"
Here she paused to take a deep breath and Rose started sobbing again, so the Winchesters guessed that the worst was coming, worse than what they'd already been told.
A girl who was openly ignored and discriminated against in her own family. She must've felt like the biggest failure in the world. Suddenly, going mute started to make much more sense.
"One night," Marina reiterated, speaking through the obvious closing of her throat as she held back tears, "I guess mom and dad had been hard on her, more than usual. They were just frustrated because Tana wasn't what they were used to, even Dad who didn't even have any powers. She came to us, hurt and crying. I don't know what they did to her but she was broken up. She'd finally cracked and when she came to talk to us, excepting us to do something about it-"
Her voice cracked and she trailed off, but Dean could guess where this was going, "You didn't do anything." The room was eerily silent then. "None of you did anything."
The three girls standing opposite Sam and Dean hung their heads in shame, but Claire stood up and pushed Marina back gently to take her place facing Dean.
"She was supposed to get over it. When things went wrong and we got yelled at, we had to deal with it too. What were we supposed to do? Use our powers on our parents? Instead, she got weaker and weaker, until-" Claire was cut off when Marina started in on the story again.
"She ran away! One night when she was eight, she ran away! No one knew where she went or why she went, but four days later we got a call from someone down the street saying that their son had taken her in and hidden her in his room. His mother had just found her, I guess, and she was sending Tana home." Marina fell silent.
Claire looked too angry to speak.
Amber stepped forward as Rose continued to sob in the background, "When she came back, she never talked again."
That was it then. The whole room felt like a void of sound. Not even a pin dropped. Rose's sobs had reduced to silence as she broke down and kneeled to the floor. Dean couldn't hear anything. He wasn't sure if it was just him or if the room was actually this silent.
After an instant, he started to hear a high-pitched ringing in his ears.
Sam broke the silence, "Whose house did she go to when she ran away nine years ago?"
"A friend of hers," Amber said quietly, when Marina couldn't respond, she too was on the verge of breaking down. Too much was happening too soon. "I didn't even know they were close, even when she spoke I never saw her speak to anyone outside the family. His name was Danny. I don't even know if he still lives at that house anymore."
Amber gave the brothers the family name and the address and they left without saying anything else.
Sam and Dean walked the distance from the Martin house over to the residence four doors down. The house was the same model as the one they'd just left, but this one had red paneling and darker red window frames. Even so, it looked much more cheery than the Martin house, or maybe that was just perspective taking its toll.
As they neared the front door, Dean thought to himself, so this is her sanctuary. He was glad that she'd had someone to run to. If it'd been him, he didn't know what he would've done. He'd had some bad experiences in his life but never had his dad actually hurt him. He wondered what her parents had really done to her that night.
Sam rang the doorbell.
This close to the window to their left, they could see that a light was on and they could hear the laughter coming from the inside. One of the voices sounded like Tana's.
A moment later, after the bell had been rung, the laughter stopped and all was silent for a moment. There were whispers, which neither Sam nor Dean could make out, and then a scuffling noise and a teenage boy opened the door slowly.
He had black hair with long side bangs that covered his left eye and his eyes were a bright blue. He was certainly peculiar looking, with his skinny jeans and a tight pink and black shirt, but the Winchesters had to assume that this was Danny, Tana's one and only friend, according to her sisters.
"Hello?" The boy sounded a bit frightened of the tall men filling up his doorway, but the brothers tried to stay calm and appear easy and friendly so he wouldn't freak out and close the doors on them. It was late after all.
"Are you Danny Waldorf?"
"Um, yeah..., what do you want?"
"Hi, I'm Dean and this is my brother Sam. We're looking for someone, someone we were told we might find here. Tana Martin. You know her?"
Danny waited a moment, looked as if he was about to glance over his shoulder, but stopped at the last second, as if he knew that once he did, there'd be no hiding it from them.
"I don't know who you're talking about."
Dean was about to get authoritative on the boy when suddenly there came a voice from the living room.
"Danny? Who is it? You're missing Charmed,"
The older Winchester paused in disbelief, then pushed past Danny, who yelped in alarm, and strode into the living room. Sam followed and there they found Tana, sitting with her feet up on the coffee table, lounging on a mint green couch in front of a small television. She looked startled to see them there and quickly swung her legs off the table.
"What are you doi-" She clapped a hand over her mouth and her eyes widened.
Dean stared at her a moment longer, admittedly feeling a little betrayed, and then turned to Sam, "Well, I guess mute isn't all it's made out to be anymore."
Tana let her pale hand drop to her lap limply, "I can explain."
"You sure as hell better explain this," Dean turned back to her, angry but trying to remain indifferent, she was just a kid after all, who'd been through a hard time. There must be a good explanation for all this, Dean thought to himself. He sat down in a mint chair opposite the couch. Sam sat on the arm.
Tana sighed. Danny had already closed the door behind their unwanted visitors and walked into the living room to sit next to Tana. He took her hand. She barely even noticed, looking at the floor. Her cheeks glowed red.
"When I was eight I ran away-"
"We know that," Dean interrupted, "Why did you?"
"Because, I was sick of being told that I wasn't what my parents wanted and why couldn't I be like my sisters. I couldn't help it. I couldn't help that I wasn't born with powers."
Both Sam and Dean glanced to Danny when she said it, but he didn't flinch or anything so they figured that he already knew everything. From the way he looked at her sympathetically, they guessed they were probably right in thinking that.
Tana continued, "If you had any idea how many times they tried to force powers on me or out of me until it actually hurt to try, you'd understand why I had to get away. No one could help me there, no one loved me there, but Danny's family-" She turned to smile at him, and placed one of her hands on his, "They were always nice to me. They treated me like family. A real family. They let me stay here for a while, they didn't even tell my parents until they felt it was time for me to go home."
"And then you stopped talking," Dean said. Tana nodded. "Why?"
"You explained it yourself," Tana smiled at him, "You were the first outsider to speak to me, to see me as a person since Danny. To be heard and to be listened to are two completely different things, you understand that. No one ever listened to what I had to say at my house. It was always elements this and powers that. Good job Claire, you moved the salt shaker one inch to the left. Excellent Rose, now could you just grow another pink tulip right there, that'd be great, thanks." The sarcasm dripped from her voice as she said it. She laughed bitterly.
It was the first time that Dean saw any negative emotion in her and it shocked him.
"When I got home I thought things would be different, but they were worse. Not only did no one listen even now that I was mute, no one cared. No one saw me anymore. I just...faded into the background," Now her voice got softer, more sad than angry. Just as it came however her mood changed again, "Then, as we grew older and our parents went away to the nursing home, it was just me and them. They still thought they were superior, but little by little as they grew more mature I could see it in their eyes every time I came into the room."
Tana smiled, "They were guilty."
Dean narrowed his eyes a little, but continued to listen without a word.
"You have no idea how good that felt. Suddenly, I was making an impact on them! Suddenly every time I entered the room they would feel lower than me, instead of the other way around. I didn't plan to stop talking to them for so long, but when they started to care because they felt bad, I felt so much better. Now I have something over them," She grinned with glee. Danny grinned with her.
Sam shook his head, "You have to know that's wrong."
"I do, I know it was wrong and I know that you guys must be pretty mad at me, but I never meant to hurt you, Dean. I like you guys; I've got nothing against you."
Dean's anger softened, but then took a deep breath and told her what she didn't want to hear, "You know you have to go back and apologize to them for nine years of silence, right?"
Tana narrowed her eyes, "I will when they apologize for many years of pure torture when I was growing up."
"They want to," Sam said earnestly.
Tana looked sceptical and puzzled, "They want to." She repeated.
"Well, Marina, Rose and Amber do..." Sam added sheepishly.
Tana huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, "Claire," She said with a scowl, "She was the worst. Always trying to bully me with her powers, but it never worked."
Dean saw Sam pause. He had light-bulb face on, "Wait. Her powers didn't work on you?"
"Nope. They always worked on mom and dad, or if she was angry at Rina, Rose or Amber, but never on me. She tried though. Oh, she tried." Tana smiled defiantly.
Suddenly Sam stood and turned to Dean and then Tana in turn, "We have to get you home. I just thought of something."
"I don't want to go home," Tana stood, her arms still crossed over her chest.
"Please, Tana, I think I might have the solution to all your problems,"
When Tana looked interested, she was about to step forward, but Danny grabbed her arm and stared daggers at the Winchester brothers. They were surprised, but even worse was when his eyes turned black.
"Tana's not going anywhere."