Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great holiday and for those outside the US, I hope you had a great weekend!

Little Katie is back in this chapter for her usual cuteness. A special thank you to Emma Winchester 424 for her help in editing this chapter and for always being my inspiration to keep writing, even if it's not as frequent as it once was.

You all are amazing for sticking with me! I hope you enjoy this chapter and don't forget to let me know what you think of it :)

ENJOY!

Katie – 3

Sam – 7

Dean – 11

Mac and cheese. It was yet another mac and cheese dinner for the Winchester children and their father. A whole shelf of it had been half price at the local supermarket and John stocked up without a second thought. He never questioned a good deal. As he forced another bite into his mouth, he regretted his thought-process. The repetitive artificial flavor of cheese was starting to take its toll on the man, but the younger ones didn't seem to mind at all. In an effort to deflect from the vile taste in his mouth, he spoke up, "So how was your day?"

The usual responses followed. Dean groaned he had math class again, Sam cheered that he learned a new vocabulary word, and then Katie typically chimed in about some game she'd played. Only today, she didn't speak up at first. She seemed lost in her own toddler thoughts.

While the older boys were at school, Katie spent her days at a local day care, playing with a handful of kids her age. John had been relieved when he'd found one close by. It was much cheaper than having to hire a babysitter for the ball of fire. All she did was play all day and for that, John was thankful because it meant she burned off a lot of energy before she was back at home.

When she didn't chime in, John prompted again, "You do anything today, Katie?"

That got her attention, ripping her from her thoughts. She slurped another bite of mac and cheese before responding, "Uh-huh. I learned-ed about innies and outies."

John could see Sam's mouth opening to correct the little girl's grammar and he held up a hand to stop him, already having had that discussion with Sam. At his dad's disapproval, Sam slouched down in his chair while John replied, "You learned," he discretely corrected for Sam's sake, "about 'innies and outies'? What's that?"

Katie sighed ever so slightly. Weren't adults supposed to know everything? Why was she having to explain this? Nevertheless, she rose to the challenge. "It's what everyone's got. Everyone's got an innie or an outie," she stated matter-of-factly.

"She's talking about belly buttons," Dean stated through a mouthful of food for his dad's sake.

But Katie ignored and talked over him, wanting to make sure everyone was in the know. "Max has an outie and I gots an innie."

John would never understand what truly went on in the mind of a toddler, but he was going with it tonight. "That sounds great. Glad you've made a friend, munchkin."

Katie beamed at his approval as she continued to eat. "Do you gots an innie or an outie?"

"I have an innie just like you." John felt his masculinity drop just from saying that sentence.

"Me too, shortie," Dean chimed in.

Taking full advantage of his opportunity to correct Katie, Sam spoke, "I have the same, too."

Katie's eyes went wide. That was so cool! Her entire family was alike, and here she thought they were different. This was a marvelous revelation and she was feeling on cloud nine. She liked being like everyone else. She'd have to tell Max tomorrow for sure.

The early afternoon sun was shining down on the playground at the day care center. Katie spotted Max over by a tree, playing in the dirt and went to join him for their usual afternoon play time.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Digging for worms. Wanna help?" he asked.

"'Course!" Katie replied without a second thought. Digging in the dirt was a favorite pastime of hers because it involved getting, well, dirty.

She squatted down beside him and started to dig for insects. After a while of working, they hadn't discovered anything too interesting, much to their disappointment. Suddenly, Katie remembered she had to tell Max her story. "Hey guess what?"

"What?"

"My dad and Dean and Sam all gots innies like me!" she exclaimed with clear joy, fully expecting him to rejoice with her.

Max continued to dig for a moment as the words processed in his mind. Just then, he stopped and stared at her. "Nuh-uh. That's not right."

Clearly, he hit a nerve with his choice of phrasing because Katie immediately stopped digging and stared right back. She hated when people told her she was wrong. "Yes, it is."

"No. They can't have innies."

"Yeah-huh. They don't lie. Daddy doesn't let us lie." Because her family sat on a pedestal in her mind, always obeying the golden rule that nobody could break, especially not in front of their father.

Seeing that she wasn't understanding his point, Max took a different approach. "Is your dad a boy?"

"Yes."

"Is Dean a boy?"

"Yes."

"Is Sam a boy?"

She hesitated for a moment because she wanted to say that he was stupid, but she refrained. "Yes."

Max waved his hand out to the side as if to say point made. "Then they have outies like me. My daddy says all boys got outies."

Katie's eyes narrowed. This didn't sound right because then that meant her family had lied to her and that they weren't really alike as she thought. Her tiny heart was broken for a brief moment, but she wouldn't settle. She was a fighter. "Then prove it."

And like it was nothing, Max stood up and slipped down his pants just a little to reveal proof of the male "outie."

Katie squinted, noticing it was clearly different from hers, and looked back up at Max. "That don't prove all boys got that."

From a distance, a teaching assistant, Anne, saw the boy pull down his pants and gasped in horror as she rushed over, yelling, "Max! Max!…please…pull up your pants right now!"

Max did as he was told but there wasn't a trace of embarrassment or remorse on either child's face. To them, there wasn't anything private about those parts yet. But they both had to listen as the assistant rambled on about how inappropriate it apparently was. Katie wasn't listening for a moment. Her mind was too busy thinking about her family and if they really had lied to her.

Later that afternoon, Katie was sitting by the door coloring as she waited for her dad to pick her up like always. Finally, he burst through the door to her rescue like a knight in shining armor, ready to take her out of that place.

"Hi, Daddy!" she squealed, wrapping her arms around his legs.

He ruffled her hair affectionately. "Hey, kid. Let's get going." He reached down to pick her up, already knowing that it was the most efficient way to get her from point A to point B when he was in a hurry. He still had to get his two boys from school, who were most likely waiting impatiently for him to show up.

As he turned for the door, Anne quickly rushed after him before he could leave. "Mr. Winchester! Do you have a minute?"

John stopped at hearing his name and ground his teeth together in annoyance before turning around. "I'm in a bit of a hurry today."

Anne tried to sound as empathetic as possible. "I understand, but I know Mrs. Carson wanted to have a word with you."

Mrs. Carson was the head of the daycare center and he knew it. And when the head of daycare wanted to speak with a parent, it was usually because your kid had acted out. He gave Katie a quick glance, but she just stared innocently back at him, showing no signs of guilt. "Did Katie get in trouble?"

Katie shook her head fervently as Anne responded, "Well no, but Mrs. Carson just—"

"Did someone hurt Katie?"

"Well, no again, but-"

John shifted Katie on his hip and stated matter-of-factly, "Well, then I don't have time to stick around. Tell Mrs. Carson I'm happy to talk another day."

And with that, John Winchester was out.

Mac and cheese. God save him, but he made mac and cheese again. There hadn't been enough time to pick anything else up, so he bit the bullet and did it again. At least this time, he added cut up hot dogs so his kids would get some…protein or whatever for the day. He promised himself over and over that he'd do better next week.

Before falling into the same routine questions as always, Katie spoke up at the dinner table first. "Max said you lied to me," she stated with traces of sadness.

Dean's brow furrowed and he shook his head. "This Max kid sounds like a real—"

John cut in, "What did he say we lied about?" He was curious more than anything. A snot nosed kid putting idea into his little girl's head made his blood boil, but she was also three…so this was probably just one of those silly toddler things.

Katie took a deep breath. "Max said that you guys has to have outies cause you're boys."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Your friend doesn't sound very smart."

"Well he showed me his and it was an outie." She took another bite of hog dog mac and cheese.

Dean sighed, wanting to end this stupid conversation once and for all. He pulled up his shirt halfway, all skin and bones. "Look." He pointed to his belly button. "It's an innie. And I'm a boy. Your stupid friend doesn't know what he's talking about."

Katie shook her head fervently and got up, heading over to Dean. "No, no. Not this." She pointed at his belly button. "You gots to take off your pants."

Dean looked at her like she had just sprouted another head. "I'm not taking off my pants, you crazy kid."

She wasn't fazed. "You have to, 'cuz your innie or outie is there." She pointed to his private area.

John audibly about choked on his food and had to cough it back up. Oh, for the love of all things good and evil, please let him have misunderstood what was going on.

Katie looked at Dean again and pointed. "Do you have a innie or outie in there?"

Nope. John hadn't misunderstood and quite frankly he would rather be back in Vietnam than in this kitchen right now. Dean's eyes grew wide and quickly darted over to his father, silently begging for assistance. Although every instinct in John said to run away, he knew he had to face this…and it was only the beginning of what it was going to be like raising a daughter amongst men. He only prayed that he didn't screw it up.

With a huge intake of air, John stated, "Katie, leave Dean alone. He's not going to," he couldn't believe he was about to say this, "take off his pants."

Dean wanted to crawl in a hole and die as well, but he was beyond thankful when Katie walked over to their dad's side now. John said slowly, "You can't go around asking people to take off their pants, Katie. That's wrong."

She stared at him for a moment, seeming to process his statement. But like any three year old in their prime, she responded, "How come?"

John squeezed his eyes shut, quietly asking all deities to give him the patience everyone knew he'd long lost. "Because those are private parts. That means they are only for that person to see."

"But Max showed me his," she countered innocently.

John both wanted to scream and hit this Max kid for showing his little girl something she was never supposed to see, but neither were the appropriate choice…this time. "Well he clearly doesn't know better. But now you do. So don't ask to see…private parts again." It rolled off his tongue like a foreign concept. He'd never imagined having this kind of conversation. "So don't do it again, okay? And if someone tries to show those parts to you…you need to…" Telling her to punch the person wasn't a viable option at this point. He wasn't that bad at parenting. "Need to run away and go find an adult to tell. We clear?"

She nodded her head in clear understanding, engraving the new rule into her mind. But after a brief pause, another question plagued her and she just had to know. "Did you lie?" she asked.

John's brow furrowed. "Lie about what?"

"Cause you said you all have innies, but I don't think you do."

John tried to approach this matter with an unusual amount of carefulness. "Yesterday, we thought you were talking about belly buttons." He pressed his finger against her shirt to her belly button. "But turns out you were talking about…something else. So, we didn't lie, we just misunderstood you."

Katie nodded, fully accepting that explanation. "So, all boys gots outies like Max said?"

Sam and Dean both averted their gazes with flushed cheeks, not wanting to have any part in this conversation that was beyond their level of comfort. Once John realized nobody was going to help him, he went in alone. "Yes, Katie, boys and girls have different…parts…down there. Boys have what you called an…outie and girls have…an innie." He tried to make this as simple as possible, but his daughter only understood one concept.

"So, we not the same?"

John was internally grateful that she wasn't asking for more details about anatomical differences, but he could see she was hurting with this, so he tried to keep his voice light. "No, honey, we're not the same in that way."

And all the joy she had felt for having something in common with her family quickly faded. She threw herself down on the ground in a heap, crossing her legs and resting her head in her hands. With a loud sigh, she whispered, "But I wanna be like you."

John felt his heart both grow three sizes and crush at the same time. Proud that she wanted to be like them but he knew that she shouldn't want to be like him—he wasn't worthy of that kind of admiration. It was moments like these that John yearned for his wife, for his wife to be here and say "don't worry, sweetheart, you and I are just alike, you don't have to be like your dad." But Katie would never have that. He wanted to drown his pain in a bottle of Jack, which he'd surely do later, but right now he had to deal with his sad toddler. He hoisted her up and placed her on his lap, letting her small body lean into him.

"How come I can't be an outie, too?" Because she had a deep desire to be like the ones she admired most, which didn't include Sam, of course. They'd only realize how much alike they were and loved each other years later, but right now they were enemies.

"You can't have…that…because you're a girl and it's just how you're born." He knew he had to come up with something, anything, to make her feel better. So, he said the first thing that came to mind. "But…we're all the same in other ways, Katie." He paused, not knowing where to go with it. He was grasping for straws at this whole parenting moment and was drowning.

Dean saw his dad fading fast, so he jumped in, comfortable with the new subject. "What color is your hair, Katie?" he asked, bobbing his eyebrows.

John gave him both a confused and thankful look for helping out. Katie quickly abided to his random question, pulling on a clump of her hair and staring at it. "Brown," she responded confidently.

"And Dad's?" Dean prompted again.

Katie stood up on John's lap and poked around at his hair, liking the new game, even though she could have said the answer without investigating up close and personal. Once she sat back down, she replied, "Brown."

"And mine?" He tilted his head forward to she could see the top of it.

"Brown!" She smiled.

"Good job! And Sam's?"

Although she didn't care for him, she still knew the color of his shaggy hair. "Brown, too!"

"See, shortie? We all have brown hair. So, we're the same." At that very moment, there was a slight pang in his gut that…we're all the same, but Mom. Because she'd had beautiful blonde hair. But he quickly shoved that down into the vault and didn't even let the thoughts appear in his demeanor.

"Yeah, the same 'cuz of brown hair, right Daddy?" She perked up, shuffling around so she was facing her father now. Her saddened mood quickly uplifted.

"Right, kiddo. We're the same." He pulled her in tight. "And you know what else makes us all the same?" Katie shook her head.

"We're all Winchesters. And nobody can change that."