Hi everyone! Long time, no talk. My last post was just before the pandemic - right before everything went crazy. I hope you are all happy and healthy and made it to the other side. While I'm so sad that the show is over, I know it is going to live on for years through re-watches and fanfiction. I've just started my like 100th re-watch from the start. I love getting to know the boys all over again and catching small details for the first time. Anyone else do this, too?

I can't promise to update regularly as I'm a working mom with 18-month-old twins, but I do know that this story isn't over yet. Kate has gotten me through some challenging times in my life - writing is my self-care - and this chapter is no exception to that. Some unacceptable and unexpected events have happened in the U.S. in recent months, and I needed to get this story on paper to help myself process it all.

With that, I want to mention a trigger warning that this chapter does mention discussions of female body autonomy rights.

A huge shout out to Emma Winchester 424. She's been my cheerleader and support system through it all. She's also incredibly talented, so you really need to check out her story ASAP. That's an order. :)

Read, Review, but most importantly, ENJOY.

Dean - 26

Kate - 18

The sun was beating down on the windshield on this Tuesday afternoon in a small midwestern town as Dean pulled away from the high school. It had been a rough few weeks to say the least, and there seemed to be some lingering tension between the two siblings that never quite disappeared. Kate shoved her backpack onto the floor between her legs with a sigh before shifting her gaze out the window. While most seniors got to drive their own car to school or walk home alone, she was stuck getting picked up by her annoying older brother these past few weeks. And if she complained, Dean would just say, "You brought this upon yourself." So it was futile. She was thoroughly grounded for who knows how long, and this was just one of the many consequences of that. There had been…an 'incident' a couple of weeks ago when Dean had caught her hanging with the wrong crowd and getting into something she shouldn't have, so she had to cut off that group of friends and she was grounded seemingly forever - but that was a story for another day.

To say the least, it had been a lot and they were both reeling from the fall out. However, today Kate's mind was focused elsewhere as Dean took off down the road. Her ears were numb to any noise around as her thoughts consumed her. Over the past week, the school counselor had been talking in homeroom about various career paths, post-graduation plans, blah blah blah. It reminded her of the impending doom that hung over her since graduation was just over three months away. She would be forced to make one of the most difficult decisions of her life so far: to stay and hunt or go to college and be normal. More like damned if you do, damned if you don't. At times, she almost felt like there wasn't a winning option, because no matter what she chose, she'd be losing something. Whether that be a chance at a normal life or losing her only family left…it wasn't a decision she took lightly or wanted to make on a whim.

"You deaf?" Dean repeated, ripping Kate from her internal dilemma.

She shifted in her seat, focusing her gaze forward now. "Oh, uh, hey," she replied softly.

Dean let out a quiet sigh. He'd become increasingly concerned about Kate, especially these last few days. After the huge blowout argument they'd had a few weeks ago, he knew it would take a while for them to recover, but enough time had passed that it was officially worrying at how she was acting. It was almost like she was retreating and distancing herself, and that sent him into a spiral that he'd never let her see. He'd been on high alert ever since he caught her up to no good, and he often wondered if she was hiding something else from him.

"You hear any of that?" he asked, a slight undercurrent of annoyance present.

Kate shook her head regretfully. "No, sorry. What'd you say?"

He took a quick breath, resetting his patience, because he knew if he wanted to get to the bottom of this, setting her off wouldn't get him there. So he launched back into his explanation of their plans for the evening, which included research followed by some prep for their archery practice this weekend. Kate listened attentively, mumbled in agreement (knowing she had no choice in the matter), and then got wrapped back up in her own thoughts.

The next day, Kate headed out of school on her walk of shame to get picked up by Dean. However, before she could get much further than the outside steps, she felt someone grip onto her arm.

"What the–," she began to exclaim but as soon as she turned around, she saw that it was Madison, a girl from the group of friends she wasn't allowed to hang out with anymore. The fear instilled in her from their fight was enough to make her go a quick glance of the perimeter to see if her brother was in view - thankfully no sightings reported.

"Kate, I need your help," Madison whispered, clearly terrified.

Kate was instantly on alert, already taking in the situation. She didn't recall seeing Madison at school today, so she must have skipped, which was odd that she'd come back at dismissal to find Kate. Madison's dirty blonde hair was haphazardly thrown up in a ponytail and her thick black eyeliner was strangely missing, giving her a different appearance today. Her bloodshot eyes even looked different as if caused by another source than her usual one. It became apparent to Kate that she had been crying–a lot. Friend or not, Kate innately knew she needed to help and wasn't about to push her away.

"What's going on?" Kate replied with clear concern.

With dodging eyes, Madison led Kate to the side of the building near a tree. Once she felt comfortable enough that nobody could hear, she dove into her story, making it clear that she didn't know who else to turn to right now. After multiple tears were shed and Kate had reassured Madison that she'd help, they'd agreed on a plan and next steps.

Off in the distance, Dean began scanning the school area, annoyed when he didn't see Kate anywhere. When the car behind him honked, apparently annoyed that he was inching slowly down the road, Dean had half a mind to flip them off, but restrained himself, not wanting to cause a scene at a freaking high school. He grunted as he took off, doing a lap around the block to please the stupid and impatient soccer mom behind him.

On his lap around the school, his hunter's instincts helped him effortlessly spot Kate talking to a girl dressed in all black, which he instantly recognized as one of those sons of bitches that he forbade her from hanging out with. Was this why she'd been acting so distant? Because she was directly disobeying him? He knew that it had been abundantly clear that she wasn't to interact with those asshats again or he would rip her apart. His blood started to boil and his teeth clenched together. That little shit. He gripped the steering wheel as he saw the two teens embrace in a quick hug while he disappeared around the corner to get back to their usual meeting spot.

The Impala pulled along the curb into a street parking area, and Dean had about thirty seconds to contemplate if he was going to lay into her right away or force a confession out of her by interrogation. Either way, she was going to be sorry.

What he hadn't been expecting was to see her wipe away some tears with the back of her hand as she jogged over to the car. She would have taken more time to compose herself, but keeping Dean waiting seemed like a riskier option. So Kate took a steading breath as her hand rested on the door handle. Once she was satisfied that no more tears would spill over, she opened the door and slid inside. Her eyes faced forward and her hair fell forward in an effort to cover her face.

Dean was speechless for a moment. This hadn't been what he'd expected - something was wrong with his little sister, so he temporarily stowed the anger, and his overprotective side immediately went into overdrive. "What's going on?" he asked, his voice laced with hints of both accusation and concern.

"Nothing. Why would something be wrong?" she replied a bit too quickly as her leg started to bounce.

The brother honestly didn't know which way to go right now - was whatever this was related to why she'd been so off lately? What did that goth bitch say to her that made her cry? He suddenly had the urge to punch something, or rather someone. Instead of violence, he chose a calm demeanor. "Kate…" he said, making it clear that he had seen her crying and knew something was wrong.

Her cheeks flushed a deep red, hating that she hadn't been able to hide the obvious. She racked her brain and decided to go with the low hanging fruit option. Something that had unfortunately happened time and time again in her childhood, so there was really no refuting its validity. "Some ass holes made fun of me today, okay? I don't want to talk about it," she spat. The lie had been so crisp, so clearcut, that Dean had no other option than to take it, even if he wasn't fully certain that it was the full truth.

His heart dropped into his stomach. He absolutely hated that this was their reality - being the easy target for jerks. Seeing her upset was his Achilles' heel and he was about to cut someone seven ways to Sunday for doing whatever the fuck they did to her, not caring if he had the full story or not. Slice up an ass hole, ask questions later was his motto. "Who was it?" The question came out more demanding than he would have liked.

"Just let it go, Dean," she instantly replied.

Before he could make it clear that he wasn't going to do that, a car honked at him from behind, clearly wanting his parking spot. And that was the last straw for Dean Winchester. He groaned deeply before whipping his head out the driver's window to stare at the bitch behind him. "Fuck off!" he roared.

Kate couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped her lips without warning. Typical Dean - impatient as ever. Dean returned his attention to the inside of the car and put it into gear, starting to inch forward and then slam on the brakes, over and over again. This soccer mom deserved to get brake checked for being a righteous bitch on a day when he wasn't having it.

"You better get going before she hits you," Kate chimed in, shaking her head at his antics.

Relieved that she was enjoying the moment after appearing so down, he replied, "I'd like to see her try."

Kate wasn't able to get out a reply before the bitch laid on her horn again. Dean wanted to take the grenade launcher to her car, but his shenanigans were starting to draw the attention of others around them, which he was supposed to be avoiding. So he relented and gunned it down the street, but not before flipping her off outside his window for good measure.

There was a beat of uncomfortable silence as they continued onto the next block. Finally, Dean spoke up, "We're not done talking about this though." It wasn't said in a threatening way, but it was clear that he was going to demand more details and get to the bottom of the situation and ultimately find out why she was sneaking around with someone from the bad news crew.

"Yes, sir," she replied almost reflexively as the pieces of her cover story started assembling in her mind.

The response caused Dean to glance over at her. Yes, sir? Sure, Kate responded that way from time to time - but it was only ever in two main ways: sarcastically or respectfully because she knew she was in deep shit. He wasn't convinced that either really applied to this scenario. Her attention was clearly elsewhere as it had been for a while. It appeared as if she were on auto-pilot right now, simply going through the motions. And his bullshit radar was starting to go off the charts.

Dean had kept an awfully close eye on her the entire evening, but after much thought, he had decided against bringing the topic up again. He needed more time to gather some information, because something just wasn't right. He could feel it. If he attacked too early, she was bound to shut down and he would be out of luck with no other evidence to go on. There wasn't anything that he hated more than not being in the know, or in control rather. And if she was going to give him the runaround, then he was going to figure it out on his own.

Being grounded with Dean around was the worst. It flat out sucked. Because it meant that he dropped her off and picked her up from school, and she could literally do nothing or go anywhere that didn't involve a) going with Dean or b) hunting. Did she mention that it sucked? Well it sucked harder this time around, because she had promised Madison that she would help her. And a Winchester was many things, but when they gave their word on something, they stuck to it no matter what.

While she had had to cut all ties with Madison and the crew a few weeks ago, who had all been shockingly fine with it, it had been jarring when she'd been approached for help. Madison had made it clear that she had no one else to turn to - all her friends were too drunk or stoned to understand what was going on, and her mom was hardly ever home, and if she was, she was drunk off her ass– Kate could relate to the girl more than she had realized before. Madison literally had no one to turn to to share her problems, and Kate understood that, especially as her college decision loomed with nobody to speak to about it.

She had promised Madison that she'd get the required information for her. Her friend was already dealing with so much that this was the least Kate could do. It wasn't a hard task by any means. However, being grounded added a challenging layer. Even if she hadn't been grounded, there was no way in hell she'd be able to tell Dean where she was really going. Not only would it be infinitely awkward, it would also raise some questions from his end that she didn't care to answer. So there wasn't a winning scenario to play. Given that the only time she was alone was during the school day, the only option was to cut class today to get the information, because she and Madison had agreed to meet up the following morning before school started to discuss next steps.

Without a second thought, she cut fourth period study hall, heading into town to visit the organization, getting the brochures and information, and returning just in time for fifth period to start. However, what she didn't know was that this school took their attendance policy very seriously during the final months of a senior's school year. And a skipped class, even study hall, meant a call to the contact on file.

Dean hung up his cell phone and threw it onto the opposite bed hastily. Skipping class? What the actual fuck was going on? Sure, she'd skipped class a few times over the years, who hadn't, but she also knew that she was on the thinnest ice ever right now. So it wasn't like her to do something like this immediately after getting into a fuck ton of trouble. His sister was a lot of things, but she wasn't this stupid. None of it added up, and Dean was about to lose his shit if he didn't get some answers quickly.

After much thought and deliberation, Dean decided berating her wasn't the best approach. For now. There was clearly something larger at play here, and that was his focus. Skipping school and sneaking around with the bad influence friends - he tended to always go to the worst case scenario by default, but he had a hard time believing she was idiotic enough to go down the same path twice this close together. So he decided to keep to his same plan from the night before - find a way to get his own answers and then plan his attack. Since she'd skipped school, he was convinced that it meant there was going to be some type of evidence in her backpack. Because she had to have skipped for a reason - and whatever that was - he would find it: a receipt, a wrapper, a piece of trash, no matter how small the evidence was. He was literally trained to do shit like this.

That afternoon after school, Dean sent Kate down the hall to dump their clothes in the washer, reminding her that it was her job since she was grounded. Not even protesting in the slightest, she'd scooped up their laundry bag and left, thankful to just have some alone time with her thoughts. The constant bombardment and reminders that college was around the corner had been emotionally draining on her. And now with Madison's situation, it left her completely depleted and the last thing she wanted to do was have another forced conversation with her brother.

Knowing he had to act fast, Dean quickly locked the motel door to buy himself time in case Kate came back before he'd found anything. He tossed her backpack on the table and started to rummage through it, searching for anything out of the ordinary. In the rush, his hand almost touched a few tampons resting at the bottom, and he audibly gagged. Gross. Once he'd made his way safely past them, two small folded booklets caught his eye as being out of place. He pulled them out and stared from one to the other.

What to do if I am pregnant?

The Abortion Pill: Questions and Answers

Suddenly, his face turned pale white and he couldn't feel his body. It was like he was having an out of body experience where his heart stopped beating and the blood stopped flowing. If he'd been hooked up to a monitor, he would have been pronounced dead. His mind was racing so fast that he wasn't able to make a single coherent thought or remember to breathe. His soul had without a doubt left his body. After a solid minute of not moving a single muscle, his mind snapped back into place, even if just momentarily.

He tossed the pamphlets back into her backpack, placing it all back like he'd found it on her bed. The air in the room felt like poison and it was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. He had to escape. His legs carried him out of the room and around the corner of the building as fast as they could, keeping him out of sight from all. He paced back and forth as his hand continually ran down his face and through his hair. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.

After a few minutes, his mind was still racing, but it had slowed down just enough that he was able to start forming coherent thoughts that weren't just a string of profanity.

Kate was pregnant. His baby sister was having a baby. A baby with a baby. His stomach knotted up so tightly that he had to double over from the pain. He'd seen the abortion pamphlet, so that meant she was considering it. Kate had to know that hunting was no place for a baby to raise a baby. Oh, god. If she was pregnant, that meant she had had…had had…sex. Dean was on the verge of hyperventilating as he rested a hand against the wall to steady himself. He was going to kill whoever laid their hands on his sister. Good thing he'd just sharpened the machete last week. He would cut them limb from limb, starting with their mother fucking penis.

For a moment, Dean felt himself dry heave before resting his forehead on his back of hand, leaning into the wall. He had to calm himself down, which he was normally good at in an intense panic-inducing situation. But that had never involved his sister getting knocked up, after she knew explicitly well that sex was never an option for her. Ever. Well no wonder she had been acting all types of shady and distant lately. She. Was. Pregnant.

And then the secondary consequences hit him. This was it. These were Dean Winchester's last days on Earth. Because when John came home and found out, he would murder him and hide his body skillfully and effortlessly no doubt. He was a dead man, because he'd somehow failed to make sure Kate knew how to not get pregnant. The thought at John reappearing made Dean heave a few more times.

Then his mind flung back to Kate. What if she wanted to keep the baby? Could John force her to get an abortion? Was that even legal? He shook his head. No, no - it was a woman's choice. That's how all this stuff worked, wasn't it? Yes. Yes. They had free will as it very damn well should be. And he'd kill anyone who tried to take that away from her, even if it meant standing up to their father. He was a dead man anyway, so he had nothing to lose. He'd make sure their dad couldn't force her to do anything - but Dean was sure that her toying with the idea of keeping the baby wouldn't sit well with John one bit.

Dean slid down the wall and sat on the dirty cement, staring into the wooded area beside the motel. There it was - his final resting place where he'd be murdered.

He sat there for ten minutes, staring blankly ahead as his inner dialogue continued. Finally after spiraling over and over in the same circle, he realized that if he was panicking this much, then Kate surely had to be freaking the absolute fuck out. And she was carrying that burden alone.

God help him, but he knew that he had to talk to her about it. And there wasn't a minute to spare as John was expected to return in three days. So a Saturday - he would die on a Saturday.

He inhaled and exhaled deeply, regaining his outward composure before he stood up, steadied himself, smoothed out his shirt, and headed back to the room.

Once Dean had returned, Kate had already made her way to take a shower, which was for the best because it allotted him more time to figure out how he was going to bring up the topic. His knee was bouncing incessantly as he sat at the table, looking all around the room nervously.

Finally, Kate came out of the bathroom with wet hair, gym shorts, and a baggy t-shirt. Was she trying to hide a bump? Had he missed it this whole time? In reality, she was wearing those items because it was all that was left on laundry day and Dean would have remembered that if he hadn't been freaking out.

He shook his head, trying to keep himself from spiraling out and hyperventilating again. He would have plenty of time to do that tonight when he went to the bar and drank everything on their shelf.

"Hey, uh, Kate, why don't you come over here so we can talk?" he suggested with a tone that let her know it was anything but a suggestion.

Thankful that she had her bullying story ready to go, she went over and took a seat, knowing this moment would come eventually. "Yeah?"

Dean stared at his folded hands on the table for a long moment. Well, here went nothing. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" This time his voice was gentler.

That hadn't been what she was expecting him to say. She stared at him, trying to figure out what his end game was here. His complexion was paler than usual and she could see that his knee was bouncing up and down. It wasn't like Dean to be nervous for these types of conversations. Hell, it wasn't like him to be nervous ever. Something immediately felt off about what was going on. "Uh, yeah…yeah, I know," she replied truthfully. She was well aware that she could talk to him about anything…within reason.

"And, you um, you know that I'll always support you." He ran a hand through his hair. "No matter what you do." He finally forced himself to make direct eye contact. "No matter what you decide."

All blood left her face and her lunch began creeping up her throat. No matter what you decide? Oh no. Did he know about her college decisions? How the hell did he know about those? No wonder he was about to have a nervous breakdown talking about this. Sam had left him without advance warning, and Dean had found out that she might be on the same path. Of course he was going to come at it differently instead of yelling at her. He didn't want to scare her off.

But she had one card left to play to confirm her suspicions before she jumped over the edge. "What are you talking about?" she pried with an accusatory tone.

He couldn't say it out loud - pregnant. That word wasn't allowed to be in the same sentence as his sister's name. Nope. But he knew that he had to answer the question, so with a deep breath, he replied, "I know, Katie." He used her younger nickname to try and soften the blow, and it pained him to realize how young she still was. "I know what's been going on - why you've been acting so strange lately." Before Kate could reply, Dean jumped back in, "You don't have to make this decision alone, okay? I'm here for you."

Kate felt her throat close up as she sprung to her feet. For a wavering second, she wasn't sure if she was more upset that he'd clearly gone through her stuff or alarmed that he actually knew her secret. "You went through my stuff?!" was all she managed to exclaim as she pointed over to her duffle on her bed that was resting beside her backpack.

Mistaking what she was pointing to, Dean nodded regretfully. "I didn't really have any other choice, did I? You've been so distant and weird for days, almost weeks now. So sue me for being concerned," he tried to defend himself while also keeping his anger in check at the moment. The last thing he wanted was to push her away.

As her breathing picked up, it was like she was second away from hyperventilating. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to find out until she actually made a decision, and even then, he'd only ever know if she ended up going to college. She had hidden the acceptance letters in her tampon box - the one place that she had thought was safe from everyone in her family. How the hell had Dean managed to not only touch a tampon box but actually open it? The guy literally gagged anytime he saw anything remotely related to a period.

As Dean saw her on the verge of a panic attack, he walked over and gently led her to the bed where they both sat down on the edge. It took everything inside him to not give in to his own terror in that moment as well. He swallowed hard. "Breathe, kid." Dean took some audibly slow breaths to encourage her to match his, but in reality they were also to keep himself calm.

After a few deep breaths, Kate felt her heartbeat slowly near a semi-normal rhythm again, but she couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry I kept it from you. I just…" She steadied her voice. "I just didn't want to disappoint you."

He opened his mouth to reply before immediately snapping it shut. Her confession hit like a knife to the heart - it was a strong reminder that she still looked up to him, only god knew why, and she didn't want to let him down. He took a moment to collect his thoughts, knowing he had to say just the right thing in her fragile state of mind. "You could never do that. You know that," he explained softly. "I just want you to be okay."

His extremely supportive words and demeanor was staggering and was starting to knock Kate off her axis. She picked at the bottom of her shorts before replying, "I don't know what I'm going to do yet. So you may be worrying for nothing."

Dean's eyebrows rose so high and fast that they almost flew off his face. She was actually considering keeping the baby?! He felt his heart rate pick up as his fingers slowly began to go numb and tingle. Girls had choices. Girls had choices. He reminded himself - abortion, birth, adoption - women got to choose freely what was best. She was a legal adult, so the choice was hers and he would support her as much as he could before he was murdered in 72 hours. He slowly repeated this over and over in his mind in an attempt to make himself okay with whatever was going to happen.

Even though all he wanted to do was run, scream, and get drunk, he scooted closer to his sister and draped his arm around her shoulders. "I got your back no matter what. It's what I'm here for. Just promise me you'll make an informed decision, okay?" The question was almost a plea.

Kate nodded and for the first time in a very long while, she felt some weight of the burden lift off her shoulders. She'd been carrying this decision around for a while, and with no one to talk to about it, it was taking a toll on her. But at the realization that she really could talk to her brother about this, it gave her a sense of relief that she could make the decision with a clear head and know that she wouldn't risk losing Dean over it.

Dean removed his arm and shifted uncomfortably. He didn't want to change the tone of the discussion but he had to state what he assumed to be the obvious just in case. "I don't mean to pressure you, but I really think you should decide before Saturday."

That was a strange statement to make. By Saturday? Why would she need to decide by the time their father got back? What difference would that make since she hadn't even graduated high school yet? She turned to look at him for the first time, her brow furrowed. "Why?" she demanded.

"Kate…" he trailed off as if implying that the answer was a given. When she didn't say anything, he sighed and continued, "Dad's going to find out, no matter what you choose to do. I know it's your body, your choice type of stuff, and–"

Kate held up her hand to cut him off. Your body, your choice? That didn't fit this scenario at all. Before he could finish his sentence, Kate abruptly interrupted, "My body, my choice? What are you talking about?"

Now it was Dean's turn to be confused. Wasn't that the saying? He swore that was what this feminist he hooked up with a few towns back preached to him before he replied with where do you want it ma'm. The phrase seemed pretty damn clear on what he was trying to communicate. Why wasn't that getting through to her?

"You're the one that's…" he still couldn't say the word out loud. "That's got the thing in there," he motioned to her stomach, "so you get to decide," he explained cautiously while wanting to throw up at the same time.

Oh, god. Pregnant. He thought she was knocked up. It was clear that he had found something entirely different than what she thought he was talking about. It felt like the carpet had been ripped out from underneath her and she was continually falling into an abyss. The moment of relief she had been feeling was no longer there, and now she was both mortified that he'd found those pamphlets and terrified that she may have just let out her own secret. Taking a deep breath, she stated with confidence, "Dude, I'm not pregnant."

Dean stared blankly at her, unsure if he'd heard the words correctly. Was she lying? There would be no reason for her to lie. After spending a solid thirty minutes on this emotional rollercoaster, he wasn't sure if he could get off yet. He'd come close to losing his grip with reality, so his brain refused to accept those words. He quickly went over and pulled out the pamphlets from her backpack. He yanked them out so hard that the bag shook enough for a tampon to deposit onto the bed, causing Dean to instinctively gag at seeing it. Refusing to touch it, he hastily covered the tampon with the backpack before turning back to his sister.

Well, at least Kate had the confirmation she needed that her acceptance letters would remain untouched until the end of time.

"Then how do you explain these?" He placed the two brochures beside her on the bed. Kate didn't need to even look at them.

She met Dean's eyes and noticed for the first time in their conversation that there was true panic behind them. "Those aren't for me. I swear! I'm not pregnant. Unless God's looking for another Virgin Mary, I'm not pregnant. So relax," she replied truthfully.

Upon hearing she wasn't pregnant and in fact was still a virgin, Dean felt his soul re-enter his body. It felt like he'd finally woken up from a nightmare, and he started to feel his extremities again. Hallelujah to whatever god was out there. Nobody had laid their paws on his baby sister. And his funeral wasn't going to be this weekend. He grabbed a chair from the nearby table and pulled it up in front of Kate. Standing a second longer was too risky, because his legs were going to give out any second now. "You're…you're not...then who are those for?" He pointed to the papers.

She ran her tongue along her front teeth as she weighed her options. Knowing that her brother had probably just been through mental hell thinking she was the one that was pregnant, she wanted to tread lightly because anything could set him off, seeing as he was emotionally unstable at this point. Dean Winchester didn't panic much, but when he did, the right combination of things could make him explode in the worst of ways. She didn't want to lie to him, but she also wanted to protect Madison's privacy.

"They are for a friend. She asked me to get them for her yesterday after school," she explained, hoping it would be enough.

Yesterday's events suddenly made sense - Kate hadn't been disobeying him by talking to that girl. She really was smarter than that. The girl must have come to Kate for help, and his kid stepped up to the plate in a pretty scary real-world situation, even going as far as skipping school to get the information. He was reminded of how big her heart truly was, always wanting to help others no matter what.

He didn't want to pry for more details, but as the adult, he felt the need to at least get one confirmation. "And…your friend. She's not in any trouble?"

The younger sibling shook her head. "No, she's safe, but she's going through a lot right now. She just wanted me to get the info so she could make the choice that's best for her."

Dean nodded, satisfied that everyone was being responsible. "Good." Without another word, he took off to the fridge, twisted open a beer, and didn't stop chugging until it was gone.

While he was drowning in alcohol, Kate returned the brochures to their rightful place and stared at her duffle bag for a moment. The guilt of keeping a secret and the burden of making a decision once again crashed down on her shoulders, putting her temporary relief to an end. However, the thought did cross her mind - if Dean would have been that supportive if she'd been pregnant…maybe he would support her going to college. She quickly shook her head. History had a tendency to repeat itself, and even if he did support her, she was certain that they'd be cut off from one another at some point just like they were with Sam.

Dean cracked open another beer and after a long swig, he finally came up for air. Damn, what a day. He now felt a staggering sense of happiness that he wasn't going to have to go through with whatever the hell that was going to be, and it felt like he could breathe again. He made his way back over to Kate and asked as casually as he could, "So if you aren't knocked up, what the hell did you think I was talking about? What decision do you have to make?" Internally, he was filled with concern that she was truly hiding something else from him.

Kate's entire body froze for a second as she scanned her brain for literally any excuse that she could come up with. Think, damnit. Anything! After a few seconds, her brain had managed to pull something together that she prayed would work.

"Promise not to make fun of me?"

That seemed strange to Dean, but she knew him well and almost anything was fair game for mockery. "Promise," he replied with crossed fingers by his side.

She took a deep breath, committing to the deceiving role. "I got a part in the senior play, but I haven't decided if I'm going to take it."

Well that had been far from what he'd expected. Was she even into theater? The girl was a literal introvert who kept to herself, so even trying out for the play seemed out of character for her, but he honestly didn't question it. Sam had done the same thing when he was younger than she was, and boy oh boy, did it give Dean a lot of content to make fun of. If Kate wanted to do one last normal thing before she graduated and stepped into hunting full time, then so be it.

Dean took a long swig of his beer. He was pretty caught up in the moment after the intense rush of emotions from one side of the spectrum to the other. So he replied without giving it much thought. But that didn't make any of the words less true. "Well, like I said, kid, you got my support." He flashed her his classic cheeky grin, "Come hell or high school musical."