I am sssoooo sorry for the huge delay in updating. I thought that being on break from school would give me more free time, but as it turns out, I was oh so wrong. I cannot thank you guys enough for sticking with me! You have no idea how much that means :) Special shout out to ispiltthemilk, sweetkiwi604, and SPNxBookworm for 'reminding' me to write some more Katie!

I hope you all enjoy this chapter! I thought it was only fitting to write it based on summer. In other good news, this chapter is the longest one shot I have written so far, so I hope that helps make up for the delay! Please drop me a review and let me know what you think!

Enjoy :)

Dean-22

Sam-18

Kate-14

It was yet another hot summer afternoon in the midwest. The sun was bright as ever and it was impossible to escape the heat. The three Winchester siblings were cooped up in the latest crap motel room waiting for John to get back from his hunt so they could pack up and move to the next small town. Dean was sitting on the couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table watching tv with Kate sitting beside him, slouched down and clearly bored.

"Dude, it's summer and you already freaking graduated, so why the hell are you still reading?!" Dean asked as he threw a glance over to Sam who was sitting at the small table by the window engrossed in yet another book. He was on a mission to finish The Odyssey today so he could return it to the library before they left.

"Some of us like to keep our brain cells functioning," Sam retorted without taking his eyes off his current page.

"Well I'm pretty sure my brain cells are roasting from this heat," Kate complained as she slid further down in her seat on the couch. There was nothing good on tv and nothing interesting to do in the motel room. John had insisted that this hunt was a quick one and there was no reason to bring everyone along, so they were stuck at the motel waiting for him to come back any day now. What they didn't know was that John wasn't on any kind of hunt at all. He was actually visiting his other son, Adam, and his old lover.

"Welcome to the Midwest, moron," Dean threw back as he began to click through the channels in search of something remotely interesting to watch.

"Yeah, well I think it would be more bearable if someone hadn't felt the need to karatee kick the air conditioner!" Cue an evil glare being thrown at Dean.

"It's not my fault Sam moved out of the way!" Dean defended himself and returned Kate's glare. He was not about to be blamed for that.

"It's a good thing he did or you would have cracked HIM in half," Kate said. Just yesterday Sam and Dean had been messing around fighting and being stupid and ever since then, they'd had a broken air conditioner. Telling the hotel meant having to pay for it themselves, so suffering was their only option for now.

"Well see, you should be thanking me then," Dean began. Kate rolled her head along the couch to look over at him again. She furrowed up her eyebrows, having no idea where he was going with this. "Thank me because I kicked the air conditioner instead of your stupid brother."

Kate let out a small laugh. "First, in order to kick my stupid brother, you'd have to kick yourself. And second, air contioning trumps family. Every time," she explained. At this point she was willing to sell BOTH of her kidneys if it meant they would have enough money to fix the AC.

"Well I guess we could just go pawn you off at that store up the street," Dean joked, flashing his classic, sideways grin. He would never admit it, but he was also deeply regretting his awful attempt at a Jet Lee kick. He was just as sweldering hot now as everyone else.

"Nah, you couldn't do that. I'm freaking priceless," Kate threw back at him as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her and started changing her clothes.

"Dude, you know how I got out of the way in time?" Sam asked, referring back to his last minute dodge of Dean's kick. He finally glanced up from his book and over to Dean.

"How's that, Sammy?" he asked.

"Cuz I'm a ninja." A small smirk spread across his face, clearly proud of his own cleverness. And with that he returned his attention back at his book.

"You wish," Dean mumbled while he went back to flipping through the channels.

Kate couldn't help but smirk as she overheard everything through the door. The heat was making her go crazy, but at least her brothers made for good entertainment.

A few minutes later Kate opened the door and walked out of the bathrom wearing one of Dean's old, black Metalica shirts that was still big on her so it went down to her mid-thigh.

"What the hell? Why are you always stealing my shirts?" Dean groaned.

"It's not stealing when you gave it to me. Apparently eating too many pieces of apple pie makes ya get fat," Kate quipped. She went over to her duffle that was sitting on the bed and stuffed her clothes back in it.

"I'm not fat!" Dean mumbled in a low voice. He patted his gut as he tried to reassure himself, but quite frankly he didn't care because there was no way he was going to start turning down pieces of pie.

Sam glanced up over the top of his book that he was holding up in front of his face. He watched as Kate disappeared into the bathroom and came back out holding a towel.

"'Kay, I'll be back later," she announced as she started walking towards the room door.

"Uh, aren't you forgetting something," Sam questioned with raised eyebrows. She turned to him with a puzzled look. Dean's head turned to the side to see what was going on and he picked up on the same thing that Sam had: Kate's bare legs were showing.

"Dear god Kate. Put some damn pants on!" he barked out.

"I don't need pants, idiot. I'm going to the pool," Kate clarified while pulling up her shirt to show the bathing suit she had on underneath.

"Put that down! I don't need to be seeing your lady stuff," Dean groaned as he held his hand out in front of him, as if to shield something 'inappropriate' from his sight. Dean had coined the term 'lady stuff' to refer to anything related to his sister...under garments, girl 'products', lip gloss, bobby pins, even a hair brush was all 'lady stuff' to him.

"It's a bathing suit, not my freaking underwear," she retorted, putting her shirt back down. "Well I'm going to the pool and try to cool off before my body self implodes from heat stroke." She opened the door and started to walk out.

"Yeah, well try not to drown this time!" Dean jokingly shouted back at her, which caused her to stop halfway in the doorway.

"Oh like that one time? That was totally your fault!" Kate accused as she turned back to face Dean again.

"My fault?! I think you must have memory problems from that day because it was clearly Sam's fault," Dean said while he pointed and accusing finger at Sam.

Sam carefully placed a bookmark in his book and sat it down on the table before turning his attention to his siblings. "Wow your stupidity has reached astronomical levels, Dean. It was most definitely Kate's fault."

Not liking that she was now being blamed, Kate felt the need to settle this battle now. She took a step back into the room and closed the door behind her. "My fault?! I was 5!"

"Okay, okay. Let's just simply go over that day's events so then I can prove to you both, once again, that I am always right," Dean suggested. Both of his younger siblings nodded in agreement, each one equally assured that they were going to win the argument.

It was a smouldering hot July day in Arizona. The three Winchester siblings were out of school for the summer, which meant they were crammed up in a motel room while their dad finished a case nearby. This motel's crap air conditioner was basically just taking outside air and blowing it inside their room and calling it "cool". Everyone was hot and antsy to just get out of the unbearable oven that was their room.

"De, I'm melting," little five year old Katie complained as she laid on the floor, finding that spot to be the 'coldest' in the entire room.

"Aaaahhhh," Sam said in relief as he felt a cold rush of air smack his face. He closed his eyes and took in the sweet feeling of happiness.

"Sammy! Shut the damn freezer door. And Katie. Enough complaining already," Dean bellowed from his spot on the bed. He didn't even need to look up from his magazine to know what they were doing. But in all of his 13 years, Dean had never been so miserable. He was just as hot and sticky as the next sibling and wanted to get out of this hell hole of a room, but John had been very strict when he said they were not to leave the room under any circumstances, other than an emergency of course. And a failing air conditioner was not an emergency in John's book.

"But Deaaaannnn," Sam whined, still taking in the cool breeze that escaped the freezer. He refused to close the door, but as Dean looked up from his magazine, Sam could already feel his glaze burn into him, ruining his short lived freezer pleasure ride. So he reluctantly closed the freezer door and hopped off the chair he had been standing on, being just 9 years old he had yet to hit his growth spurt.

"Why can't we go over there?" Katie asked. She repeatedly tapped the window with her finger as she pointed to the swimming pool that was on the other end of the motel.

"Because Dad said we had to stay in the motel room," Dean explained.

"But Dad's not even here!" Sam argued. He walked over and stood beside Katie as he also stared longingly out the window at the flowing and glistening body of water.

"So? We still have to listen to him!" Dean said, raising his voice a little. But Katie and Sam weren't ready to give in just yet.

"Why?" Katie pried. She would often go through phases were her favorite thing was to continually ask 'why', which in turn continually put Dean's patience to the test.

"Because Dad's in charge. That's why." Annoyance was clear in Dean's voice.

"But Dad said when he's gone that you're in charge, Dean," Sam argued. He had a very valid point, but Dean being in charge meant that he had to do what John said.

"Yeah, well, I still say no," Dean said in his 'that is final' voice that Sam immediately picked up on and his shoulders fell in defeat as he continued to stare out the window.

"I say yes!" Katie shouted back at Dean as she turned around and started jumping up and down. "Yes! Yes! Yyyyyes!"

Dean eyes narrowed as he tore his gaze away from his car magazine again and over to his two siblings. The wavy, brown curls were bouncing around on top of Katie's head as she continued her chant. Sam reached out and put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to get her to stop. He had heard the warning tone in Dean's voice and he didn't need Katie making him even more grumpy than he already was. Sam's first attempt at getting her to stop failed so he placed both hands on her shoulders to try and get her to stop bouncing around. She took it as a game and giggled as she tried to escape from him. Dean watched Sam lose his grasp on Katie and she took off running around the room, suddenly full of energy. He couldn't help but feel himself soften and he ended up caving in. "Okay, fine! But nobody tells Dad," Dean said in a stern voice as he looked from Sam to Katie, especially the latter sibling because she had a tendency to just blab everything to their dad.

"Yay!" Katie and Sam both squealed as they hurried over to their bags to find something suitable to wear as a swimsuit.

Dean opened the door and Katie skipped on by him, a towel dragging behind her in one hand and the Saphire Barbie, sans clothes, that Sam had given her a few Christmases ago in the other hand. Dean left the door open for Sam as he trailed behind his little sister. When she finally got to the pool, she was in awe. "It's sssooo big!" she exclaimed. He passed by her as he went over to a nearby half broken plastic chair and threw his towel down on it. The pool was anything but big, but in her eyes it must have been like seeing the ocean.

"Let's get in!" she announced as she dropped her towel on the ground and walked over to the edge of the pool. Dean groaned as he bent down and picked up her carelessly discarded towel and tossed it on the chair. "Come on, De!" Katie pleaded. She looked back at her brother, eagerly waiting for his permission to get in.

"Woah, Katie. You're not getting in on this end," Dean explained as he pointed to the section of the pool in front of her that read '6 feet'.

"Why?" she pouted.

"Cuz you're not a good enough swimmer yet." Dean reached out for her free hand and then led her around to the other end of the pool where there were big steps that led into the shallow end.

"But you already teached me how to swim." It was true too. Earlier that summer John had agreed that it was time she learned how to swim and obviously had given the task to his older son instead of just doing it himself. But with her short attention span and rebelliousness, Dean had not been able to teach her as much as he had hoped to by this time.

"We still gotta practice more," he responded as he looked down at his sister. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when they both heard Sam's voice.

"Dean! Where's the sunscreen?" Sam yelled from the door of their room. With Katie it was always a battle for Dean to get her to put sunscreen on, but with Sam, he thought the sun would deep fry his skin without it and refused to walk outside until he had put it on.

"In my bag!" Dean yelled back. Sam disappeared inside the room in search of the bottle.

Katie kept pulling on Dean's hand as she tried to inch closer to the pool. He gave in and stepped closer with her. She put her right foot in the water on the first step and felt the coolness of the water. She looked up at her big brother and smiled giddily. "It's so cold!" she exclaimed happily as she slowly put her other foot on the step. Dean smiled down at her and was anxiously waiting to get in too.

"Dean!" Sam screamed a little too loudly. Dean groaned in annoyance as he held tighter onto Katie's hand so she couldn't go further into the water yet. He pulled his head up and looked across the motel at his brother's small figure standing in the room doorway.

"WHAT!" he yelled back, already annoyed.

"I can't find it!" Sam held up his hands, emphasizing his point that he was sunscreen-bottle-less.

"Well look harder," he responded.

"I already did! Can you just come find it?" Sam asked. He had ripped everything out of Dean's bag and didn't find anything.

"Fine!" he grumbled back. Sam was apparently incapable of following simple instructions. Dean pulled back on Katie's hand as a signal for her to get out of the water.

"No! Susie and me wanna swim," she whined as she held up her doll for him to see, but Dean's strength was no match for her and her feet ended up back on the cement surrounding the pool.

"Come on, we gotta go help Sammy," he said and began pulling her along, but she wiggled her hand out of his grasp and crossed her arms.

"No!" she screamed as she stompt her foot. Dean knew this attitude was on the verge of a full blown tantrum and he was not in the mood for that, so he relented.

"Fine, but listen. You will sit here and wait for me to get back. Do NOT touch the water," Dean said sternly. He guided Katie over to the broken seat where their towels were resting. "This seat has your name on it. So sit and just wait," he instructed.

Katie slowly approached the seat and looked at it up and down. "But Dean, I don't see my name on it," she replied innocently.

He half laughed as he scooped her up and placed her on the chair. "I'll be right back." He gave her one last serious look before he took off quickly back towards the room.

Katie watched as Dean disappeared into the room and she started swinging her legs back and forth as she patiently waited. For her, it seemed like an eternity had already passed. She stared out at the glistening water in front of her. The way the hot sun was reflecting off of the clear blue water was just mesmerizing. Katie looked up ahead and once she saw that neither brother were in sight, she slowly slid off of the chair and made her way to the edge of the pool. She knew she was standing at the end of the pool that Dean had said was off limits, but she just wanted to look, she wasn't going to swim. But after a few seconds of standing under the blazing sun, she couldn't resist the temptation of feeling the coolness of the water on her foot again, so she inched closer and reached her foot down so her toes were under the water. Feeling the cool relief, she decided she wanted more and bent her other leg slightly so she could sumurge her entire foot in the water. She giggled as she saw the ripples in the water around her foot.

All of a sudden a door slammed shut and it startled her. She gasped as she looked where the noise had come from, but the sudden movement caused her to lose her balance and she wiggled around as she tried to gain it back, but was not able to and went tumbling head first into the pool. She found herself floating to the top of the water and began to flail her arms around in an attempt to keep her head above water. She tried to yell for help, but instead, her mouth just filled up with water as she struggled.

Seconds after Dean had closed the motel room door and started walking towards the pool with a freshly sunscreened Sam, he heard the sound of a loud splash in the water. His stomach immediately fell and he knew something was wrong, so he took off running. When he arrived at the pool area, he saw the familiar brown hair bobbing up and down in the water as she tried to stay afloat. Without even a second thought, Dean instinctively dove into the pool and grabbed onto his sister within seconds. He swam over to the edge where Sam was nerviously waiting. Dean pushed Katie up and Sam helped pull her safely out and onto the cement. He then pulled himself up out of the pool and sat beside Katie and Sam. He quickly grabbed and turned her so she was facing him. He felt the panic settle in as he searched her face for any signs that she was hurt. She coughed a few times and expelled the built up water that she had swollowed. Dean patted on her back to help her get all of the water out. He immediatenly saw the worried look in her eyes as a few tears spilled over.

"De, I didn't mean to falled in," Katie said as a few more tears fell down her face. She instantly regretted giving in to the temptation of the glistening water and when she fell in and wasn't able to breath, she had never been so scared before. And now the feeling of coughing up water freaked her out even more. Dean noticed that she was starting to shake, so he pulled her in closely to him and wrapped his arms protectively around her.

"You're okay...everything is okay now," he comforted her, but he was really trying to comfort himself too.

"So I think we can all agree that it was Dean's fault," Kate said. She held a hand out towards him.

He threw both of his hands up in defense. "Me? Did you even listen to any of the story?! I'm the one who freaking saved you!" Dean threw back.

"But if it wasnt for you leaving your adorable, little 5 year old sister alone, none of that would have happened. Aka it's your fault," she reasoned.

"Well I wouldn't have left you alone in the first place if sasquash over there had been able to find the damn sunscreen!" Dean argued. All eyes went over to Sam awaiting his response.

And without missing a beat, he said, "I would have found the sunscreen if you had told me where it actually was to begin with instead of sending me on a scavenger hunt through your bag!"

"You just should have known that by 'in my bag' I really meant that it HAD been there but then rolled off and onto the floor on the side of the bed! You just didn't know how to look right!" Dean defended.

Sam couldn't stop as the side of his lip curled up in a small smile. The stuff they found to argue about never ceased to surprise him. "Oh I'm sorry I couldn't understand what you meant. Guess I've never been fluent in dipshit." Kate and Dean couldn't help but smile too; it wasn't often that Sam said a swear word, that was usually Dean's job, but when he did it always managed to crack them up. "Anyway, like I said before, it was Kate's fault and no one else's."

"And how exactly am I to blame? I was a cute, innocent, little girl."

"You were the one who couldn't sit still for 30 seconds!" Sam retorted.

"Yeah, well Dean slammed the door that startled me!"

"Sam pushed past me to get out first!"

"Kate just had to dip her foot in the water!"

"Woah, woah, hold up!" Kate annouced as she held up her hands, signaling them to stop talking. When she was sure she had their attention, she started again, "It's obviously Dean's fault because he hadn't taught me to swim!"

"Hadn't taught you to swin?!" Dean blurted out as he stood up and pushed past Kate and opened up the door, but he paused instead of walking out. Suddenly he turned around and picked Kate up and flung her over his shoulder. "Let's go test that theory then, shall we?"

Dean took off walking towards the pool nearby as Kate continually protested by banging on his back with her fists all while she couldn't stop laughing. Not wanting to miss anything, Sam got up and followed along with them.

"Well, Sammy, let's see if she sinks or floats," Dean joked. Sam came up and stood facing Dean as he reached across and grabbed on to Kate's ankles. Dean then pulled Kate off of his shoulder and grabbed on to her wrists and she was left dangling like a bridge between her brothers.

"Guys! Stoooopppp!" she begged between her constant laughter. "Dean, you don't want this Metalica shirt to get wet!" she pleaded one last time.

"That's okay, doesn't fit me anyway, remember?" Dean smirked back at her. She continued to playfully struggle against them, but it was to no avail. Dean and Sam grinned at one another and Dean gave his little brother a nod towards the pool. They began to swing her back and forth and just as they let her go, Kate latched on to Dean's arm at the last second and caused him to lose his balance and a fully clothed Dean came tumbling into the pool along with her.

When they both came above the water, they looked up at Sam who was still standing there almost hunched over from laughing so hard. He loved how Dean's plan had back fired on him.

"Take that Dean!" Kate laughed with a triumphant smile.

"Katelyn Elizabeth! You know you can't do that!" Dean barked as he swam to the ledge. Kate and Sam's smiles fell and they were very taken back by the angry tone in his voice. She hadn't known he would be pissed off enough to use her full name. Kate wasn't even sure what to respond, so she remained silent as she watched Dean pull himself up and out of the pool. He stood and looked back down at Kate with a scowl on his face. "You know you can't do that...unless we get Sam too!" He suddenly lunged at his younger brother and they both went tumbling into the pool.

Sam finally broke the surface of the water and shook his head to the side to get his hair out of his eyes and he instantly saw Kate treading water close by cracking up laughing. "You think that was funny?" he grinned at her. In 2 short strokes he was over by her and pushed down on her shoulders to dunk her under the water.

The laughter and fooling around in the pool continued all through the afternoon. The three siblings had not had such a carefree time together in months. All the problems they had had just washed away with each splash in the pool. They kept goofing around and even ending up playing a game of monkey in the middle with one of Dean's shoes. Sam couldn't help but soak it all in. He really did have two great siblings and would miss these few and far between, but great, moments. He knew that the end of summer was coming up faster than he wanted, but soon enough he would be saying goodbye to them and taking off for Stanford. But what Sam did not know was that this afternoon was going to be the last great memory he would have with his siblings because in just a mere 48 hours John would come back from his trip and would find out about Sam's college acceptance and that would lead to a fight that none of them would forget. But for now, they all had this afternoon to share and not one of them had a care in the world except for figuring out who they were going to dunk next.