Hey guys! I profusely apologize for not updating sooner. This thesis has been slowly consuming my life and soul; however, I am finishing up the written part (190 pages so far!) and give my defense presentation at the end of October. Then two weeks left of grad school after that and I am home free! Woohoo!

Thank you to each and every one of you that has read, favorited, followed, and reviewed my story. You guys are seriously my motivation to keep going! Your support is amazing and I don't know what I'd do without it! I wish I could send you all some lovely Costa Rican pineapples and candies.

If you have any ideas of things you'd like to see in future chapters, please send them my way! I love working with you guys to come up with stuff. I promise I don't bite! :)

Finally, a special shout out to my peeps! Y'all know who you are. I am forever in your debt for the help you give me.

Ok, enough boring nonsense, let's get on with the show! Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY!

Dean-14
Sam-10
Katie-6

Katie sat waiting in one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table, impatiently swinging her legs back and forth. Her shoes hit the bar beneath the chair in a rhythmic pattern. Boom, Boom, Boom. "Can we leave now?" she asked for the tenth time in the last few minutes.

Dean let out a sigh at her continual persistence and scrubbed the plate in his hands even harder, taking out his frustration on it before flatly explaining, yet again, "No. Sam's not ready." His sister's inability to wait longer than thirty seconds and his brother's inefficiency to move at anything but a snail's pace proved to be the source of a larger than average level of annoyance for him lately.

It was another Tuesday afternoon in late August, which meant Sam was in the bathroom changing into his soccer practice clothes. Miraculously, Dean had managed to convince their father to let Sam play on the little league team, at least for the time that they were going to be in this town. John did not want anything to do with it, but when Dean offered to take Sam to and from all practices and games and stay with him, he eventually relented. So that meant every Tuesday and Thursday they headed to the park at 4:30p.m. for practice, as well as every Saturday morning for games. In the end it worked out perfectly for him because there was a playground right beside the field, allowing Katie to burn off all of her extra energy before bedtime, which meant his siblings didn't fight him to sleep at night. It was a win-win anyway he looked at it.

"Deeeeeeean," she whined. He didn't even acknowledge her this time, keeping his back turned away and focusing on finishing the morning dishes he'd left scattered all over the counter, as they had been running late per usual. Since she was being completely ignored, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Discretely sliding off of the chair, she went over to the bathroom door and stood on her tippy toes as she fumbled with the knob.

"Hurry up, Sammy," she pleaded, finally managing to open the door.

As it swung open, Sam was taken off guard and stood there frozen, clad in an old t-shirt that covered half of his white underwear, and in the middle of pulling up his soccer shorts. "Katie!" he screeched, his face turning crimson red with embarrassment. He hurriedly finished yanking up his shorts, not liking to feel 'exposed' in front of his sister.

Not even phased by what she had seen or thinking it was anything out of the ordinary, she complained, "You're slow!" as she crossed her arms.

"Dean!" he called out for help. When nobody came to his rescue and she didn't budge, he walked over and angrily started pushing her out of the bathroom.

"Stop it!" she fought against him, arms flailing all over, but her small size was no match for him.

Suddenly the eldest appeared, just in time to see her completely shoved out of the bathroom as the door was slammed in her face. The clicking sound of the lock rang through the air, and Dean reflexively rapped on the door twice, giving Sam a warning. An annoyed sigh came from the other side when another click sounded and the lock was taken off. Even though Dean didn't agree with it, John had implemented the rule that no one was allowed to lock the bathroom door, but everyone had to respect when it was closed. He claimed that he needed to be able to easily get in there to them if something bad should happen or show up on their door step. John was never one for leaving anything to chance.

"Katie," he scolded. "What did Dad tell you?"

She paused and refused to uncross her arms, showing her defiance. "But he's taking too long, Dean! And he pushed me!" she explained, trying to throw all the blame on her brother. Dean didn't even have to ask her again to answer the question. His jaw set rigid and his narrowing eyes were all she needed to see before she fell into submission. "He said we're not allowed to open the bathroom door cuz we gots to have privacy," she repeated, emphasizing the last word as if it were a foreign concept to her. She hadn't quite discovered the differences between boys and girls, let alone how much her brothers didn't want her to see something she shouldn't. So a few weeks ago, John had had the fun task of trying to explain the concept of modesty and privacy to his six year old.

"So did you listen to what Dad said?" Dean asked, forcing her to admit it.

Knowing there was no other response, she replied simply, "No," in a soft tone. Her eyes immediately darted to the gray, worn down carpet beneath her feet.

"Then you can sit with me on the bench for 5 minutes when we get to the park," he explained calmly. He hated to do that to her, because it was really only punishing himself too in the end, having to put up with her longer, but he knew she had to learn.

"But Dean, it'll be dark by then!" she tried to reason, pointing to the window, but sadly her logic was flawed. The sun was still shinning high with no sign of dusk in the near future, but to her, 5 minutes meant an eternity.

"That's too bad," he offered unsympathetically as he walked back into the kitchen to finish rinsing the plates.

Katie was left standing there, frustrated that she'd gotten in trouble with it was Sam's fault to begin with. Just then, the door flung open so quickly, that she was smacked in the face with a sudden gust of air. "Ready!" he announced, shoving her aside to make his way toward the door.

Her anger immediately disappeared and she squealed, rushing behind Sam toward the door. They both waited, rather impatiently, as Dean took his good old time getting there to give them permission to go outside. Katie tried to maneuver around Sam, wanting to be the one to open the door when Dean came, but Sam threw his leg out to the side and blocked her path. "Let's roll," he confirmed, coming up behind them.

Sam gave her one last shove back with his arm as he triumphantly opened the door. The warm rays of the sun hit their skin as a cool breeze swished by. It was the perfect end-of-summer day to be outside. Once they had made it to the sidewalk, Katie instinctively took Dean's hand as Sam strode along on his other side, singing some Water Cycle song he'd learned at school that day.

After only a short, four block walk, they had made it to the soccer field and without another word, Sam took off excitedly running toward the other kids already out there kicking some balls around.

"Bye Sammy!" She waved, forgetting they had been enemies only moments ago. As Dean began to pull her in the opposite direction, he spotted his usual, wooden bench underneath a tree nearby. He had designated it the perfect spot and was relieved to see it was open this time. He wasn't in the mood to intimidate some little punk kids into giving the bench up. When it came to looking after his siblings, he had to have things his way. And this little bench was in the ultimate location: in front of the playground, where he could keep a watchful eye on the little one and also close enough to the soccer field that he could see Sam.

As they approached the bench, she unsuccessfully tried to pull out of his grasp and make a run for the playground, but much to her dismay, he wouldn't let up. Realizing he still remembered about her punishment, she sighed and relented, willingly going with him to the bench.

"5 minutes," he reminded as she crawled up to take a seat beside him.

Unable to cope with yet another round of boredom, she began swinging her legs back and forth once again. There were a bunch of kids running around, screaming and giggling on the playground, and she was forced to just watch.

"Hey, Dean?" she asked, wanting to fill the time with conversation.

"Yeah?" he replied unenthusiastically.

"How come Sammy gets to play soccer?"

Keeping his gaze straight forward, he answered, "Cuz Sammy listens to Dad." Well he did, most of the time anyway. However with every birthday, his rebellious streak seemed to be growing.

"If I listen to Dad can I play too?" she asked, suddenly intrigued by the idea of being rewarded.

"I don't know, maybe one day," he offered indifferently.

There was a brief pause, making Dean assume she had finished her game of 20 questions early today. But there it was again, the question that meant there were only more questions to come. "Hey, Dean?"

"Yeah?" he replied again, resting his back more comfortably on the bench.

"But I don't wanna play soccer," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Oh?" His voice still disinterested.

"No cuz I wanna be a dancer!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms up over her head in an 'O' shape like a ballerina.

Dean glanced over at the silly grin on her face before responding, "Sorry, midget, there won't ever be any ballerinas in this family."

Her arms fell back into their spot on her lap in utter defeat. She made a mental note to think of another fun thing she wanted to do when she was bigger. As they sat there in silence, she was forced to watch as one kid after another flung themselves down the curly side, making her green with envy that she wasn't here with them.

"Hey Dean?" When he didn't immediately respond, she looked over at him, her green eyes eagerly waiting for him to acknowledge her question.

"Yeah?" he sighed.

"Will you go down the side with me?" she asked, excitement hidden behind every word at the thought of doing something with her older brother.

"I think I'm a little too big for that," he explained, and it was the truth. He wasn't even sure his body would fit through the tunnel that led across the playground to the top of the slide.

Her shoulder slumped over and her bottom lip pouted in disappointment. "Oh," she paused before adding, "You never play with me anymore."

He ran his hand down his face, annoyed with himself for not making the punishment "5 minutes of sitting in silence". But she had a very valid point, he didn't play with her like he used to, but it wasn't by his choice. John had given him more responsibilities now—cleaning all the weapons, training on the weekends, more library research—and that left for less time to spend playing with his siblings. He would much rather take part in their childish games than have to do all this grown up stuff.

"You know that-," he began to explain, but he was interrupted by someone calling out his name.

In front of them, a young, blond haired girl came practically bouncing on over in her shorts and low cut top, and at the sight of her, a grin spread wide across his face.

"Hey, Madison," he greeted, forgetting all about the previous conversation he hadn't finished. "I'm glad you came," he said, pleasantly surprised to see her there. He had had his eye on her ever since they moved to this school and when he was finally able to talk to her, he couldn't help but mention that he'd be at the park today in an effort to get her to show up. With two younger siblings, it was hard for him to get to spend any time with girls as of lately, so he'd take all that he could get.

"Me too," she agreed, delighted that he'd actually been telling the truth about showing up. Her smile equally matched his as she took a seat on the other side of him. At the prospect of a much more interesting conversation, he turned to his right and put his full attention on her. Noticing the sudden change, Katie leaned up and glanced around Dean to get a better look at the girl who'd stolen her brother's attention.

"Hey," Madison waved when she saw her head peep out from behind. Katie smiled back and was instantly drawn in by her friendliness.

"Uh, this is my sister, Katie," Dean introduced, not sure how she'd react.

"Aw, she's cute!" Madison complimented as if Katie were a doll. Dean instantly relaxed, realizing she found it to be a good thing that he had a sister. "Do you come to the park with Dean a lot?" she asked, now finding Dean even more attractive since he spent time with his little sister.

Excited that she'd been directly included in the conversation, she scooted to the edge of her seat so she was in full view and answered, "Yeah, he brings me here cuz Sammy is playing soccer and I can play over there and cuz our dad is never ho-."

"Hey, you know what, you're 5 minutes are over," Dean interrupted before she could spill information that might raise suspicions or questions that he just wasn't able to answer.

Without even a second thought, she jumped down and was about to take off running to join the other kids, but Dean calling her name forced her to turn around. "What are the rules?" he asked, going through the same routine as always.

She held up her fingers and started to name them off. "No hitting, no pushing, no eating dirt, and no biting," she repeated from memory as Madison tried to stifle a laugh at hearing the last few. If only she knew just how rambunctious this one was. He wasn't sure she'd even believe the stories if he told them. At only hearing 4 rules, he raised his eyebrows, silently reminding her there was one more. "Oh! And always be in your eyes!" she finished, enthusiastically pointing to his eyes. Even if her wording was a little off, she still knew it meant she had to stay where Dean could see her, and that was all that mattered.

"Go on," he smiled, satisfied with her response. He gave her a playful shove in the right direction and she took off skipping.

First she crawled up the ladder and stood on a swinging bridge, jumping up and down with the others. Eager to play with her new 'friends', she introduced herself to the boy bouncing around beside her. With their friendship now solidified and on a first name basis, they grabbed hands and went to the nearest place to jump down, before taking off running in circles around the playground, laughing uncontrollably.

Dean inwardly cringed at the sight of her holding a boy's hand, but he reminded himself that he had at least another 7 years—or 30 if he'd have a say in it—before that became something more than pure child innocence.

Kate's giggles mixed in with the rest of the kids' as Dean returned his attention to Madison…and her assets. She was quite the talker as he found out, going on and on about cheerleading tryouts and the latest gossip. He made sure to nod and interject a "yes" and "oh really?" at the right moments. And in his effort to get to know her better, his gaze would slowly drop down every now and then to peer at her low cut top, but he would then remember to pull it back to her face before he could get caught lingering. Nevertheless, at random intervals, he'd glance over at the playground, making sure his sister was still there, before he'd get sucked right back into her.

Katie was having the time of her life—the swings, teeter totters, monkey bars—she wasn't afraid of anything. "Dean!" she yelled as she bravely stood at the top of the curly slide waiting her turn. Dean's heart momentarily skipped a beat when he heard her voice call out his name, immediately assuming something was wrong. It took him a few seconds to locate her, but he finally saw her standing there waving her arms like crazy to say 'hi'. His muscles relaxed a little at seeing no imminent danger and he even offered a small wave back.

"You're so adorable with her," Madison cooed, batting her eyelashes for extra emphasis.

Knowing that was his ticket to her heart, he smoothly replied, "Oh, it's nothing. I just enjoy being with her." And just as expected, Madison let out an 'aawww' before she scooted a little more snugly beside him.

After awhile, all of Kate's new friends had gone home with their parents one-by-one and she found herself bored with her remaining potential playmates. None of them quite fit the bill for her. She looked over to the bench and saw Dean sitting cozily next to Madison, who was talking to her friend that had showed up a few minutes ago. Figuring Dean must be bored too, she made her way over to him.

Standing squarely in front of him, he had yet to acknowledge her presence, as he was still caught up in not one, but two 'babes'. Katie roughly tugged on his shirt sleeve before he finally turned to face her.

"I'm bored," she announced with a sigh.

"Well go play," he quickly suggested, wanting her to go away for just awhile longer. Sure the girls loved seeing him with his 'little sister', but he was sure she would annoy the crap out of them just like she did to him or say something stupid, and that would just ruin his game.

"But it's no fun," she complained. "I already did everything."

"Isn't it just the cutest thing that he brings her to the park?!" Madison gushed to her friend as they both erupted into a fit of giggles. Dean couldn't help but flash them his million dollar smile, and thus missing when Kate said, "Let's play hide and seek." Not receiving an answer, she prompted again, "Pleeeease?"

Realizing she was still there, forcing him to divide his attention between her and two girls complimenting him, he swiftly answered, "Ok, good, go play," motioning toward the playground and lightly pushing her that way.

What he meant and what she understood were two totally different things. She excitedly jogged off in that direction, now on the hunt for the perfect hiding spot. She really wanted to impress her brother so it had to be just right this time. Relieved to see she had finally gone back to playing, Dean smoothly placed his arm around Madison's shoulders, leaning in to join them in their conversation.

Katie's eyes scanned her surroundings, scouting out all the possibilities. The tunnel? No, the kids would make her move as they shoved by on their way up toward the slide. The sandbox? No, that wouldn't work either. Dean had gotten mad last time she tried to bury herself in sand. And then she spotted it—an old maple tree on the outer edge of the playground. It was the best hiding spot yet! She zoomed over and stealthily ducked behind it, satisfied when she realized her calculation had been correct and the deep brown trunk was wide enough to fully block her from his sight.

After a few moments of hiding, she slowly peeked around the edge to see if Dean had started searching for her yet. She watched as Madison gave him a hug and he waved when she took off with her friend to go home. When his head turned back in her direction, she instantly dodged back behind the tree.

All distractions gone now, Dean was left with nothing else to do but watch his little sister scurry around in the mulch from one place to the next. But when his eyes hit the playground, the familiar curly brown hair and purple shirt were nowhere in sight. His heart began to accelerate as he slowly scanned every inch of his view. Not seeing any sign of her, he swiftly made his way into the mulched area, looking into the tunnels and slides, just waiting to hear her giggling.

All of his hunter training about staying calm in distress flew out the window the second he realized he couldn't find her. Little sweat beads began to appear on his forehead and his palms became clammy as the panic started to settle in. His heart felt like it was now beating in his throat and he had to force himself to swallow it back down to be able to breathe properly. "Katie?" he called out, quietly the first time, but when she didn't appear or respond, each successive yell became increasing louder and more frantic.

She couldn't help but snicker as Dean called out for her a fourth time. She knew this was his strategy—try to get her to come out of her amazing hiding spot so he could find her and win the game first. It wouldn't be the first time he'd tried it. A smug smile spread across her face, proud that she had been so clever this time to stump her eldest brother.

After the fourth time, Dean's mind started racing, going over every possible scenario that could have happened from his lack of attention. In one last, distressed attempt, he screamed, "Katelyn!"

Confused and completely taken off guard at hearing her full name—something that only happened when she was in trouble—she took a few steps to her left, revealing herself from behind the tree to see why he had yelled that.

Dean instantly caught the sudden movement over to his right and quickly ran over to her. A wave of relief washed over him at seeing her safe and sound right in front of his eyes, but that moment was short lived as his worry morphed into anger for what she had put him through unnecessarily.

"Katelyn, what are you doing?!" he demanded as he approached her now frozen form. He kneeled down to her eye level and grabbed on to both of her shoulders firmly. "When I call your name, you don't go hiding from me! I told you to always play where I can see you, didn't I?" he snapped a little more harshly than intended.

Still frozen from her brother's sudden change in demeanor, she only managed to nod "yes" in answer to his question.

"You know better than to do that!" he reproached in a low, firm voice. Still blinded by the fear he'd had of her missing, he withdrew his hands from her upper arms and reached out and forcibly grabbed her right hand. Without a second though, he placed a firm smack on top of her hand to further emphasize the seriousness of what she'd just done.

Katie's eyes started brimming with tears when she received the abrupt swat. "I'mmm, I'mm sss-," she stuttered, trying to form words as her bottom lip quivered, but she still couldn't understand what she'd done wrong.

However, Dean was still not done. He interrupted her apology, not wanting to even hear it and continued, "You don't do that to me ever again, do you understand?" The final three words said as if they were each a separate sentence. Before she had a chance to respond, he placed one last slap on her hand, knowing the noise would scare her more than the actual smack. More tears started to fall down her cheeks; she hated getting into trouble, and she hated it even more when it was Dean who was mad at her.

She mumbled an almost inaudible "yes" to confirm she had understood what he'd said before he could get even more upset at her. "But, I -," she tried to explain.

However, he wasn't having any of it. "No, there's no but's," he said firmly, not wanting to hear excuses. He tightly grabbed onto her hand and pulled her in the direction of the soccer field as the tears continued to leave marks running down her face. "No more playing for you," he scolded, even though he was positive that went without being said.

She hiccupped a few times as she tried to control her tears and to unsuccessfully get his attention. Once they had arrived close to the field, he picked her up and sat her squarely down on a bench before taking a seat beside her.

At hearing her soft hiccups and sniffles, he instinctively wanted to pull her into his side and comfort her, but the panic she'd caused him was still too fresh in his mind and he needed her to know this was important. And nothing worked better for her than when she knew he was upset with her.

"Dee," she tried again. When he didn't stop her this time, she went on, "I was hiding, but it was cuz-."

"Yes, you were hiding from me on purpose, Katie," he quipped. "And you knew it was wrong." Another hiccup escaped her lips as a new set of silent tears fell over. She hated hearing that she'd done something wrong because it meant she let someone down.

There was a beat of silence as Dean tried to calm himself down worry and anger slowly faded away as he kept reminding himself that everything was okay now because he had his two siblings within his direct line of vision. He intently focused on Sam, who was rushing down the field after the ball, but he could hear Katie sniffle a few times as she willed the tears to stop, knowing her dad and brother hated it when people cried.

She took a deep breath before saying, "I didn't mean to be bad, Dean. Honest." He tore his gaze away from his brother and over to her. Her wet, green eyes stared right back at him, silently begging for forgiveness. She continued, "I was just trying to be a good hider because you said you'd play with me."

His brow furrowed in confusion. "Play with you?"

"Yeah cuz you said we could play hide and seek and you was the finder cuz I hided," she reminded him.

And then it made sense to him. That little explanation made all the pieces come crashing together and now the puzzle was complete. She hadn't willingly gone off to hide from him in some form of rebellion. This must have been what she blabbed on about when he was slightly preoccupied with the two girls.

"'M sorry, Dean. I just wanted you to have fun too so you'd play with me again, so I picked a new hiding spot," she offered apologetically.

Dean's shoulders fell at the sudden realization that he'd completely overreacted and, as it turned out, this entire fiasco was actually his own damn fault for not listening to her properly. The guilt immediately rushed in when he recalled how he'd treated her moments earlier. He had to make it right.

"No, Katie, you weren't bad. It was my fault. I forgot we were playing hid and seek," he began. She looked up at him, confused by his sudden change in tone. "I didn't like it when I couldn't find you, so I got really upset when you came out from behind that tree," he confessed, hoping she'd somehow understand. Wanting no more than to comfort her and make up for the pain he'd caused, he swiftly reached over and picked her up, placing her sideways on his lap and locking his arms around her. "I'm sorry I got mad at you," he apologized sincerely.

"So I wasn't bad?" she tried to confirm, still unsure about this sudden change.

"Nope, you weren't," he confirmed, but also added, "However, no more hide and seek in the park, okay?" He searched her face, waiting for it to register.

She let out a heavy sigh at having her favorite game banned from yet another location—restaurants, stores, school, and now the park. That only left one place to play—in the motel room—and that was never too exciting. "'Kay," she reluctantly agreed, knowing that was her only option. "But you're not mad at me no more, right?" she asked, her green eyes wide as she waited for an answer.

Dean couldn't help but let a small laugh escape. She was always worried about one of them being mad at her. "If I was mad, would I do this?!" he asked rhetorically. With his left arm placed firmly behind her back, he began tickling her stomach with the other. Her giggles filled the air, enticing Dean to laugh along with her.

After several failed attempts to swat his hand away and begging him to stop, he finally let in and rested his arms around her again as she leaned into his chest, still laughing. She quieted down and rested her head against him, clearly getting worn out.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before she pulled her head back out and asked, "De, can I tell you a secret?" He nodded and she motioned for him to come closer so she could say it in his ear. "I love you," she whispered in such a soft tone that he almost missed it. And Dean knew why it was said that way. Because those three words just weren't said out loud in the Winchester household, so she had to make sure it was a secret.

He couldn't help but feel so much pride and gratification at hearing it. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, pulling her in close. "Me too," he whispered back, before placing a quick kiss on the top of her head. At hearing her secret reciprocated, she began to relax into his chest and felt her eyes slowly droop, exhausted from all of the commotion today. It was only a matter of time before she fell asleep and he'd have to carry her home again. Looking down at her, a small grin tugged at the side of his lips. Sure he had royally messed up and she would probably give him many other heart attacks in his lifetime, but he wouldn't trade these moments for anything, because right here and right now, he knew she was safe with him, and that was all that mattered.