Hello! Happy New Year to all your fabulous people :) I wish everyone lots of love and happiness this year. Today this story turns FOUR! I can hardly believe that Kate has been around for four whole years. I've enjoyed every moment of writing these chapters as it has helped me in ways I can't explain. This has only been possible because of you. Your love, support, and encouragement goes a LONG way and has kept me motived to write. I can never thank you enough. So what better way to celebrate than with a Katie Birthday chapter :)

A huge thank you to Emma Winchester 424 for beta-ing this chapter and being the world's greatest cheerleader! Be sure to check out her stories as well-they'll leave you in awe!

If you have any suggestions or requests for future chapters, don't hesitate to PM me or leave it in a review. I want to honor you guys as well!

Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY!

Dean-12

Sam-8

Katie-3, almost 4

It was late September in South Dakota as the fall air was trying to push its way into the area. It was a beautiful time of year, one that kids always enjoyed spending outside, and the Winchester clan was no exception. All three siblings were all playing outside, each in their own manner on this Friday afternoon. Sam sat on the porch steps, engrossed in yet another chapter book he'd picked up at the school library. Dean was busy hunched over the open hood of a beat down car by the garage, hanging on every word Bobby said. Although John had taught him a thing or two about cars, Bobby was the real one who laid down the foundation of his knowledge and he soaked up every bit of it. And that left little Katie. She was happily running around the driveway in front of the garage and house, tossing a stick and racing Rumsfeld to chase it in her own game of fetch. When she had first met the Rottweiler puppy a handful of months ago, she was over the moon. It had been Christmas in the middle of July in her eyes. Bobby had been more than thankful for the small animal as well because it kept the little girl busy a big part of the day while the boys were at school—kept her out of his hair and let him work on some supernatural research for hunters who called in asking for help. It was a blessing in the disguise of a black, friendly puppy.

Katie once again launched the stick as far as she could, which wasn't very, and she raced along beside the puppy to get to it first, but lost by a landslide. Rumsfeld picked up the stick and shook it around in celebration. After a brief game of tug of war with the stick, Katie lost interest and began to skip over to where Bobby and Dean were discussing the mechanics of a carburetor.

The small dog was hot on her trail as she stood behind the two men who were unaware of her sudden presence. "Hey, Dean?"

Dean's shoulders fell slightly, annoyed that she was back again for another round of questions. He replied with a touch of frustration that went completely unnoticed to her, "What?"

"Is tomorrow still my birthday?"

"Yes," he answered flatly with no emotion. It would be impossible to count the number of times she'd asked about her birthday in the last twelve hours, let alone in the last week.

"And I gonna be this many old, right?" She held up four fingers.

Dean didn't even turn around. "Yes."

Bobby turned slightly to see her and Katie immediately pounced on the attention. "Uncle Bobby, is Dean telling the truth? Will I be this many years tomorrow?" She waved her hand around like crazy to emphasize the four fingers.

Bobby replied with a sarcastic, "Do you think I'd let Dean lie to you?"

However, the sarcasm was lost on the little one, who simply pushed her shoulders up, indicating she had no idea.

"The answer's no. I wouldn't let him lie to you."

Her three-year-old mind wasn't quite following his train of thought. "So does that mean I'm this many old tomorrow or not?" She took a step closer and waved her fingers again, just in case he couldn't see them properly before. "Look."

Bobby had a mountain full of patience for these three kids, which was twice the amount John had even on his best day, but the incessant questions got to him as well. However, he kept his cool and his voice steady. "Yeah, kid. You're going to be four tomorrow."

She squealed in delight as she clapped her hands together. Then without another word, she took off running in circles around the gravel, counting one, two, three, FOUR over and over as the dog barked playfully and more than happily joined her in the burst of energy.

With her out of earshot now, Bobby returned his attention to the car, but Dean didn't miss for a second the look of exhaustion on his face. He couldn't hide his smirk. "Bet you wish you hadn't told her a week ago that her birthday was coming."

"Shut it, boy," he replied with an obviously playful sneer at how right he was.

But Dean was totally loving this moment and slapped on his cocky grin. "And that's exactly why we learned not to tell her it was her birthday until the night before."

"Well it woulda been nice to know that last weekend, huh?" Bobby countered. In reality the Winchester kids had arrived a month ago, exactly a week before school started up in the area. John had assured him it'd be just for a week and they'd go somewhere else to enroll the two boys in school. But that ended up being a lie, not to Bobby's surprise. A month later and the siblings were still at his place. However, he wasn't complaining—he rather enjoyed the company and change from his mundane life. It kept him young, taking care of these three. He'd never tell anyone that, though. He had a grumpy exterior to keep up with.

However, last Sunday at dinner, Bobby had made the grave error of asking Katie if she was excited for her upcoming birthday. Her eyes had nearly exploded with the news and multiple groans were heard from the two brothers. And ever since that, their days were filled with never-ending questions of how many days were left until her birthday and how old she was going to be, even though she always knew the answer to both. Bobby had definitely learned his lesson.

But before Dean could reply, he affectionately gripped the boy's shoulder. "Now quit your yakkin' and let's get back to work."

Dean grinned and was all too happy to oblige. "Yes, sir."

Meanwhile, after countless laps and loops around with Rumsfeld, Katie's short attention span ended and she stared around, trying to find her next distraction. When she spotted her other brother sitting on the steps she zoomed over to him, even though he was still fully immersed in his book.

"Hey Sammy, guess what?" she asked within seconds as she did a quick spin on her toes.

He didn't move his eyes a centimeter from his book as he extended his arm out to his side, his hand motioning for her to stay away. She tried to sidestep his hand, but his peripheral vision allowed his arm to follow along with her, keeping her at a distance. "But Sam!" she complained as she tried to get closer. Finally, she grabbed his wrist and attempted to manually get rid of the blockade. "I just wanna tell you something!"

"Go away," he replied with clear annoyance.

"But it's just one thing." The typical excuse she had. It was never just one thing when it came to the jibber jabbering little girl.

"I said go away." His hand didn't budge.

"You have to be nice!"

"Make me," was his only reply as he continued to read.

After trying to smack away his hand, she finally stopped and stomped her foot as hard as she could. Then with a sudden intake of air, she was on the verge of yelling out for Dean and Sam knew it. He instantly picked up on her movements and quickly laid his book upside down beside him, so he didn't lose his page. And before Katie could let out her screech, he spoke up without turning to her, hoping that if he didn't visually acknowledge her presence that she'd go away faster, "What do you want?" The last thing he wanted was for Dean, or worse Bobby, to tell him to 'knock it off.'

Her frustrated appearance suddenly transformed into a smile, glad that he was now at least listening. "Tomorrow I'm gonna be four."

"You said that last time you talked to me," he replied flatly.

She took a few steps closer to him now that his arm was resting at his side. "How old are you?"

He continued to stare straight ahead. "Eight."

"When will I be eight?"

Sam effortlessly did the math in milliseconds. "In four years."

"So in foooouuurrrr years, we'll be the same number." She grinned, already excited about the possibility of being as big as he was.

It only took a second for Sam to dash her dreams. "We won't be the same age. That's not how it works," he said matter-of-factly, finally looking at her.

Blank stare. That wasn't what her little mind told her. They'd both be eight in four years. That was what he'd just said. Why didn't Sam see that? She retorted with a simple, "Yes-huh."

"It could never happen."

"Yes-huh."

"I said no!"

"YES-HUH!"

Sam quickly saw Dean's head perk up and glance in their general direction, but he didn't say anything yet—it was a glare of warning. The younger brother knew he had to get this in check right now before they both got in trouble again for fighting. "It's not possible—" Katie opened her mouth to protest but Sam held up his hand to stop her. "Because I'm older than you."

Katie blinked a few times as she digested the words, but she wasn't about to accept his explanation without a fight. "But you're eight. You said in," she paused to remember his exact words, "in four years I'll be eight. That means we're gonna be the same number."

He let out a massive sigh. "No, we won't be the same age," he corrected before continuing, "because I don't stop getting older. Next year I'll be nine, then ten, and eleven and finally twelve when you're eight. We'll never be the same age. You'll always be the smallest," he finished with a slightly harsh tone.

Katie gasped like Sam had just told someone kidnapped the moon, which would clearly be the worst news ever to a three year old. She didn't waste another second of her precious time before sprinting at full speed over to Dean and Bobby. "DEEEEEEEAAANNNNNN!" she yelled the entire way before panting as she tried to catch her breath when she arrived.

Dean did a slow turn and immediately scowled at Sam from across the way. "What did he do now?"

"Sammy's saying awful things," she said matter-of-factly. Dean, however, wasn't fazed. He was used to how these things went: blah-blah-blah Sam did this, blah-blah-blah Katie is annoying. Same story, different setting with those two all day long.

But her comments did catch Bobby's attention and he wiped the grease from his hands before turning around, folding his arms and leaning against the car frame. "That doesn't sound much like Sam to me."

"Uncle Bobby, it's true! Sam's a liar liar pants on fire," she declared with an accusing point of a finger at Sam's figure by the house.

From a distance, Sam could see everyone's eyes on him for a brief moment. He grumbled how tired he was of this, but still got up and started marching over to where everyone was. It was in his blood, and best interest, to defend his honor before Dean called the Court of Winchester into session and then they'd both get sentenced to bed early.

"How about you just tell us what happened, Katie," Dean requested with irritation.

"Sammy telled me he was eight and then one day I gonna be eight too but then he won't be 'cause he's a liar and then he telled me…" She went on and on in circles, not really making any sense to either one. Bobby was attempting to wrap his head around this and put any two pieces together in his mind, but it was like trying to do a puzzle in the dark. On the other hand, Dean knew better by now—there was no making sense of her gibberish babble. He just let her talk his ear off and eventually he'd figure it out.

Finally, Sam appeared beside her and she immediately stopped talking and gasped in complete disbelief. "And now he following me!"

This wasn't anything new to Dean—it was a typical afternoon between the bickering siblings. He dealt with this crap daily and could handle this blindfolded. He nodded at Katie as if he had understood every word. "Now that we've heard your side, it's only fair Sam gets to speak, too," he explained, playing the peacemaker, not taking sides. She'd known this would come, as it always did in their face-offs. She just crossed her arms with a scowl and turned to her nemesis.

Bobby had to fight a chuckle at how annoyed Katie was trying to make herself seem. She looked more constipated than angry, but he didn't say a word. He'd let Dean handle this like the pro he knew he was. However, he was always ready to step in if anything ever got out of hand, knowing how these two younger ones could get from time to time.

Dean stared at Sam, his eyes silently pleading for him to explain whatever "disaster" Katie was claiming transpired. "What happened, Sam?" he asked with an underlying tone of strictness.

Sam huffed and spat out, "I basically just told her that no matter how old she gets, she's never going to be the same age as we are. She'll always be the youngest."

And that was why Dean had to hear Sam's side. The kid summed up Katie's entire speech in two quick, painless sentences and he could finally make heads and tails of it all.

"Katie, what Sam said is true. You'll never be the same age as we are at the same time. We're your older brothers," he tried to lead with reason.

She took a step back as if this whole conversation had been one big slap in the face. Her eyes darted over to Bobby for help, wordlessly asking him to say it wasn't so. Bobby just nodded his head and replied simply, "Sorry, kid. It's true."

"But…but…I wanna be bigger-er like you and Sammy are," she pleaded as if there were still a chance she could change their minds.

Dean sighed and knelt down in front of her. "Listen. One day you'll be twelve, like I am. But by that time I'm going to be even older because I have a birthday every year, just like you do. So we can't wait for you to catch up. We have to keep getting older, too."

Her eyes searched his before she replied, "But I don't wanna always be the littlest."

Dean stood back up. "Well it's a bit late for that. You'll always be the youngest here."

Still not liking their answers, she brought out her negotiation skills to give it a try. "What if you're the littlest and I'm the biggest. We can take turns." It wasn't a question but rather a strong suggestion.

"Nope. No switching allowed," he said simply, but then added as an afterthought. "And trust me, you don't want to be the oldest." It was a comment that didn't go unnoticed by Bobby. It was the closest he'd ever heard Dean let on to how hard it was to be the eldest in his family. Bobby had only assumed how much crap John put on that eldest boy and he'd seen some of it himself, but to hear the comment from the horse's mouth set him off his feet for a moment.

After he'd moved his own thoughts to the side, he wanted to help in some way, so Bobby stepped in, adding his own two cents to persuade her this was all normal. "Don't worry about growing up and just enjoy being little while you can 'cause once you're my age, you are going to wish you were young again."

Katie froze. It was like a power blast of ice passed through and froze every cell in her body. Her eyes went wide as tears brimmed them. Dean about rolled his eyes from the theatrics and was about to reprimand her but she screeched out at the top of her lungs, "I GONNA BE OLD SOME DAY?!"

Dean's face was horrified at her embarrassing outburst, Sam tried to contain his laughter, and Bobby was only slightly taken aback by her comment, but it didn't show for a second on his facial expression.

Bobby exclaimed right back at her, not with anger. "Who you calling old there, kid?!"

"You did. And Daddy says you an 'old man'," she stated with pure confidence. And it was true—their dad had been known to call Bobby an old man, behind his back obviously, but he probably hadn't suspected that his youngest would pick up on everything so easily.

Bobby huffed in disbelief and shook his head at an absent John. That sounded just like him to say something like that. "Well I ain't old yet, I'll tell you that."

"But you just said that one day we'll be like you and Daddy said you're old." Dean was beyond mortified at the insult she was throwing at him without realizing it.

He grumbled under his breath, "That idjit."

Sam had been over this moment from the second he'd arrived in the huddle. He wanted to end it once and for all. "It's the circle of life, Katie. You're little, then you get bigger, and then you get old and die."

As soon as the word die left his mouth, Dean wanted to smack him upside the head, and he would have if he'd been standing beside him. But it was too late. The damage had been done. In a burst of tears, Katie rushed at Bobby's legs and wrapped her arms around them. "But I don't want Uncle Bobby to diiiiieeeee," she blubbered into his jeans.

Dean gave Sam a very annoyed death glare and pointed to the porch, instructing him to go away before he beat him up. However, Sam was more than happy to oblige—he was getting to the good part in his book after all. He silently turned and headed back to his mini-retreat after throwing Bobby a half-apologetic smile.

"Don't dieeee, please!" Katie sniffed into the stained fabric of his pants.

Bobby stared down at the mop of unruly wavy hair attached to his legs. The boys had been so much easier—he for one would never get used to all the theatrics that this little one brought to his life. He quickly glanced at his watch—7:50pm. Yup, it was almost bed time, which explained the clear mood swings and put everything into place.

Always ready to take charge when it came to his siblings, Dean started tugging on her arm. "Come on, Katie. He's not dying. Now stop crying."

His pulling only made her grip onto him tighter and suddenly Bobby's limbs were in the middle of a tug of war in which he was having trouble keeping his balance. Before he went tumbling over, he reached down and plucked Katie up, resting her on his hip. "I got something to say but you won't be able to hear me with all those tears," Bobby said with a shocking amount of calmness.

It worked like a charm and Dean was already taking mental notes on the man's tactics. The tears slowly faded as her bottom lip quivered and she tried to keep her tears at bay with a few sniffles thrown in.

"Much better," he praised. "Now listen up." Her wet green eyes were giving him their full attention. "I don't care what your dad says, I ain't old. I'm fit as a damn fiddle." She nodded vigorously. "And that means I ain't dying any time soon. You kids got lots left to do and I'm going to be here to see it all, you got me?" The words were said with an underlying determination that Bobby hadn't even expected to come out.

That was simply all the reassurance she needed. Katie wrapped her small arms around his neck with a tight squeeze. "I'm glad you're not dying." It was like he had been cured from cancer right then and there—a miracle. "But I don't wanna get old, Uncle Bobby. It doesn't seem fun." She sighed loudly.

"Well I can't stop that from happening, but you ain't old yet."

"Will I be old when I'm 30?"

He chuckled, "No."

"33?"

"No."

"47?" she continued naming off random numbers that came to mind.

"Nope."

"40?"

Bobby grinned for a moment as he placed her down on the ground. He leaned over and finished, "You won't be old till you're 100. So you got a loooong time to get there from 4."

"WOW," she said in pure awe. One hundred—it was like this magical and mythical number to children. A number so big that it was inconceivable. "That's old."

"Damn straight. Now go get inside and get ready for bed."

To Dean's surprise, she didn't put up a protest at all. "Okay," she said simply, giving him one last hug. "See you tomorrow. ON MY BIRTHDAY!" she added with the biggest smile she could muster.

Bobby chuckled. "Well you better get to bed now so tomorrow gets here faster."

It was like she'd found the path to the Holy Grail. She had to get to bed now. She wanted her birthday to be here already. Gripping onto Dean's hand, she started to tug him along like he was holding her back. "Come on, we gots to go to bed NOW."

Dean was torn. He was beyond thrilled that the kid wanted to go to bed and it would be easy, but he hated leaving now just when Bobby had been getting to the good parts. With another hour left of daylight, he'd hoped they'd finish going over the carburetor lesson. Bobby noticed his internal struggle as he stared longingly at the open hood. The elder man nudged him along and reassured quietly, "I'll be here, kid."

Dean gave him a thankful smile and let himself be dragged across the drive way.

"Hey Dean?" No response. "Tomorrow I turn four." No comment. "Did you know that?"

In a flat tone that dripped of scorn, he replied, "No, I had no idea."

Katie paused for only a moment from tugging his arm and turned to reply, "Oh, well that makes you a bad brother." And she was back to pulling him to the porch. He just shook his head and chuckled at her antics and went along with it.

After a few more steps, there was another pause in her stride as Rumsfeld caught up to her and was jumping around her feet, enticing her to come play. She let go of Dean's hand and crouched down beside the puppy. "I can't play no more. It's bed time, Rummy. Now go sleep so we can play on my birthday." The only reply was a bark from the dog as his tongue hung out. She patted him on the head before standing back up. "Good puppy."

Dean just sighed, wishing every day could be the easy to get her inside and to bed. Finally, they'd reached the steps where Sam was sitting. She marched up them first, sure to shove her hip into Sam's sitting body as she passed by. Sam instantly reached up to grab her arm in protest and complain to Dean, but she was already past him. Instead, he was met with Dean smacking him up the side of the head, the one he'd been itching to give him after the stunt he pulled. "That's for the crap you started," he said with a shit eating grin on his face. Sam just grumbled and turned away, completely aggravated as he rubbed his head.

A hop and a skip later, they were upstairs in the room that Katie shared with Sam. She'd selected her purple butterfly pajamas and brushed her teeth. As part of their routine, she listened to a quick book from Dean, where he may have skipped some pages to speed up the process as he was wanting to get outside now. Shortly after, little Katie was under the covers and ready to sleep. Once he was sure no one was looking, he'd quickly given her a kiss on her temple and was about to turn off the lamp when she spoke up. Her voice was quiet as if she'd debated asking the question, but decided to anyway. "Deanie?"

He inwardly cringed. "What now, Katie?"

She hesitated for another second as she fidgeted with the comforter resting on her chest. "Do you think Daddy will be here when I wake up for my birthday?"

Dean froze, not having expected that to be her last minute question. All week he had been thankful that this precise question hadn't come up—not once. It had seemed like a miracle because it was not something he wanted to deal with—the trail of disappointment that his dad left behind everywhere he went. He took a step back toward her, but he didn't sit on the bed because that would only invite her to keep asking questions and he'd be here all night.

"No, Katie, I don't think he'll be able to come tomorrow," he replied truthfully with as gentle of a voice as he could muster for a pre-teen.

"Does he know it's my birthday?"

He sighed. "Yes, he does."

"But maybe he forgot it like you did."

"I didn't forget."

"Yeah-huh. You said so outside."

He took a deep breath. It was exhausting reasoning with this kid at times. "I was just joking."

"Oh." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "It wasn't funny."

With an eye roll, he replied, "I know. I'm sorry. Now it's time to sleep." He made his way over to the lamp again.

"Maybe you should call and remind him, De," she suggested.

He wasn't in the mood to keep going back and forth with her. All he wanted to do was get back outside to help Bobby and not deal with this kind of conversation. He knew what she wanted and he couldn't get it for her—and it killed him, so he wanted to do what he always did and just shove it aside and ignore it. He responded a little hastily, "Okay, I'll remind him. Good night." And with that he shut off the light before closing the door halfway.

Katie laid there in her bed smiling. Dean was going to remind their dad. He'd make sure Daddy was there in the morning—Dean knew how to fix everything. With those happy thoughts, she gladly fell asleep, dreaming of puppies and cake.

The sun started peeking through the blinds in her room, bothering her eyes enough to wake her up. Katie sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes, looking around to see Sam starting to turn in the twin bed on the other side of the small room as well. She yawned and then it hit her—it was tomorrow. It was finally September 24th.

"It's my birthday!" she whispered loudly with enthusiasm as she jumped out of bed and took off down the hall like a bat out of hell. Within seconds she was downstairs in the kitchen where Bobby was hovering over the stove.

"IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air.

Bobby had expected the outburst after he'd heard her small feet racing across the house, so he was far from shocked. He turned and commented, "Why do you think I'm making pancakes, kiddo?"

"PANCAKES!" she shouted with the same fire. "I love them!"

It didn't take long for the two other Winchester siblings to appear in the kitchen after the noise woke them. "What's all the racket in here?" Dean grumbled as he threw himself down in a chair at the table.

"I'm FOUR today, De!" She spun around a few times in the middle of the kitchen from all the energy.

"You're going to make yourself dizzy," Sam commented nonchalantly.

To prove him wrong, she stopped spinning and after a second of regaining her balance, she replied, "No I won't."

Sam rolled his eyes and was about to make a snide remark, but he felt Dean's foot kick the back of his leg, pushing him forward. Forced into it, he went up and gave Katie a quick hug. "Happy Birthday, Katie."

She soaked up the hug and when he let go, she did a quick spin on her socks. Before she slid into Bobby or fell over (whichever'd come first), Dean reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into his side. "It's your birthday, huh?" She grinned as bright as the sun and nodded. "Guess it's time for your birthday spanking," he joked.

Katie started giggling at his playfulness and tried to wiggle away from him. "Nooooooo!" she laughed.

"Ah, you're right. It's not a spanking, it's birthday tickling!" he exclaimed as he dug his fingers into her sides, eliciting a round of high pitched giggles from her as she squirmed onto the floor, which in the end just made it easier for him. "You're four, right?" he asked with all the patience in the world as he continued to tickle her.

Through the screeching laugher, Katie managed to let out a resounding "YES!"

"Oh, okay. Well then…one….two…." He continued without mercy. "…three….four!" He suddenly stopped and picked her up on her feet again as she still laughed. "Happy Birthday, midget," he said as he ruffled her already messy hair.

She was still trying to come down from all the laughter she'd felt. "Thank you!" Once she was able to regain her breath and stance, the birthday girl quickly did another take of the kitchen, taking in everything—her brothers and Bobby, the only ones in sight. But there was someone missing.

Dean watched as she seemed to search the room for something and he wasn't able to speak up before she took off running for the front door, opening the screen and stepping out onto the porch as it slammed shut behind her.

"Katie!" Bobby scolded. She knew better than to go outside without someone else and she definitely knew better than to let doors slam.

The eldest brother wasn't going to make anyone else deal with the fall out of whatever she was up to, so he stood up. "Don't worry, Bobby. I'll get her." She was his ultimate responsibility after all.

For his only twelve years, the boy had an unparalleled maturity level compared to others in his class. He'd made himself accountable for those two and was well aware that he had to deal with everything that came along to it. He slowly dragged his feet out onto the porch and instantly spotted his barefoot sister standing in the middle of the gravel driveway, staring at all the junk cars and open air around the house.

"Whatcha doing, Katie?" he asked gently as he cautiously walked toward her. The kid could be a flight risk if he came on too strong and he wasn't about to chase her down—he learned from his mistakes.

She didn't respond but instead sat down right where she was standing, crossing her legs Indian style and resting her chin in the palms of her hands with a frown.

Dean grumbled something about being dramatic, but he still shuffled his way over and squatted down beside her. "You going to tell me what's going on, birthday kid?"

Her gaze was still directed straight ahead. "The 'pala's not here."

It was on the tip of his tongue to correct her to say Impala (it was almost a mortal sin not to), but he inwardly reminded himself not to make this any more difficult than it was already going to be. "I know," was the only thing he could manage to say as he took a seat in the gravel beside her.

She let out a sigh so long that Dean thought it'd never end. "That means Daddy didn't come." And before Dean could respond, she quickly added as she turned to him, "Did you call him like I asked?"

"I did call, Katie," he lied effortlessly. The fib rolled off his tongue as smooth as honey. In reality, he hadn't tried to call because he had no way of even knowing what number to use. Their dad wasn't one to leave his direct motel line, so they'd just wait for him to do the calling and talked whenever he felt it necessary to call and check in. Dean regretted the lie at first, but he had to go with his first instinct and that was to keep the peace in his family. "He said to tell you how sorry he was, but he couldn't make it back to Bobby's today."

"So he's not coming to my birthday?" she asked as genuine sadness filled her eyes.

"I'm sorry, midget, but he's not coming today." His tone was apologetic; he really did feel for the little one. She still held out hope that their dad would pull through at times, something he'd long given up on after years of experience.

However, contrary to her normal reactions, she quickly reached up and brushed away the few tears that escaped, not wanting Dean to see them. She turned and once again stared off into the distance as she wrapped her mind around the fact that her father wasn't coming today and it was her birthday. After wiping her nose on her sleeve, she asked in a quiet voice, "Are you sure?"

Dean's heart broke, it really did. More than he was willing to ever admit. He'd do anything for his siblings to be happy—anything. But of course she wanted the one thing he couldn't give her—a present father. Forever being harder on himself than he should ever be, he knew he was a lousy substitute to even try to be anything close to father for her.

Draping his arm over her shoulder, he tried to lighten the mood so she wouldn't dwell on this like he knew she was capable of doing. "Well Dad may not be here, but me, Sammy, and Uncle Bobby are. So what? Are we not good enough?" There was a clear light playfulness in his voice.

She leaned her body into his side. "No, you guys are good. I just like Daddy, too."

"How about we try calling him tonight before you go to bed?" he compromised. Dean inwardly prayed that it wouldn't come to that—that John would call during the day and remember her birthday on his own, but he couldn't guarantee a single thing when it came to that man. If it came to it, they'd call a fake number and he'd let Katie leave him a "voicemail" so she wouldn't go to bed upset tonight.

"I like that, De. Thanks." She rested her head against him.

He gave her one last tight squeeze before pulling back, already maxed out on chick-flick moments for the month. "Well if we sit our here any longer, I think you're going to fall asleep again and then you'll miss your entire birthday."

The threat of missing any part of her special day was enough to reel her emotions back in and the normal, bubbly Katie started to re-appear. "I'm not sleeping!" she laughed as she jumped up. "See?"

Dean got up himself. "Well look at that, guess I was wrong. Good thing, too, because I hear there's chocolate chip pancakes inside."

"They're chocolate chip pancakes?!" Her eyes grew as wide as saucers at hearing she was not only getting pancakes, but they were her favorite kind.

"You bet. And after that, I've been hearing rumors that there might be a gift or two for someone around the house."

She took a few steps closer to Dean, right at his toes. "Could they be for me?" Her golden smile was back and Dean felt a sigh of relief. Sure, he hadn't fixed the actual issue, but his band-aid way of solving it was enough to stop a meltdown and it distracted the kid enough so she could enjoy the only day a year that was all about her.

Dean leaned down and they were nose-to-nose. "Maaaaybe."

Katie started squirming from the thrill of realizing she had a gift inside. "What is it?!" Her impatient side shone through.

He stood back up and shrugged nonchalantly. "No idea."

Well, that was a lie. He had helped Bobby pick out the marine life coloring book, filled with fish, dolphins, the whole nine yards, just like she was obsessed with. Then they'd found these crayons that had freaking glitter in them. Dean had wanted to use one to stab his eyes out, but he knew that Katie would love it, especially because their dad had never let her have anything remotely close to glitter because of the disaster he knew she'd make with it. So a glitter crayon was as close as she was going to get. She'd totally love it, that he was sure of.

"I think you DO know." She jumped up and down.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." He grinned as he turned and squatted down in front of her with his back to her. "Hop on, we got some food to eat."

She didn't need to be asked twice. Absolutely loving piggy back rides, she wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped onto his back as he effortless gripped her legs around him and got up. As he started back for the house, Katie spoke up, "Can you give me a clue?"

"Hhhmm…." he thought out loud. "Let's see….one hint. The gifts are for you." He chuckled at his own nonsense.

Katie giggled with delight as she wrapped her arms around him tighter. "Of course they are 'cuz it's my birthday! Deanie, you're so silly." And the last words slipped past her tongue with such ease, "I love you."

Unnoticed to her, Dean paused for a moment, mid-step, when she said those unexpected three words. It was something that was never openly said in their family, but when it came to his now four-year-old sister, there was no filter or concept yet of what was and wasn't an approved Winchester phrase. The sheer innocence she still had was enough make Dean vow to keep it around for as long as he could, even if his dad seemed to try and chip away at it with every turn.

With a grin and in a quiet voice just for her to hear, he replied, "Me too, kiddo. Happy Birthday." Not wasting another second, he took off gallivanting toward the house like a crazy horse, bouncing Katie around. Her latest round of squealing delight was enough to make her forget all about her dad not showing up on her special day. She had Dean, Sammy, and Uncle Bobby—and that was more than enough for her.