A/N: hey my lovelies

this chapter is written for two requests and takes place right after "You've Spent One Afternoon..."

thank you so much for reading and for the love on the last couple updates! your reviews are feeding my muse :)

also this is random but for some reason ffnet removes all the italics in my writing no matter how i transfer the story over. i'm really sorry if parts of these stories are reading a little weird!

Something Simple and Safe

Anna is fourteen

"Hey," Dean whispered, shaking Anna by the shoulder.

She hadn't been sleeping, but Anna still wrinkled her nose and blinked tiredly at him. "What?" she asked in a small voice, hoping he would sense her mood and leave her alone.

No such luck. "Med time," Dean told her. It was only then that she noticed the pill bottles in his hand. Antibiotics and painkillers.

But her wound wasn't too painful anymore; she'd been out of the hospital for a week. Anna sat gingerly, one arm curled protectively around her side and belly. "Kay," she said once she was upright against the headboard.

Dean handed her two pills and went to the bathroom to get a cup of water.

Anna stared tiredly at the tablets in her palm. The curtains were closed in their hotel room– hotel, which was just so weird– but Anna could see a few thin rays of orange light peeking from between them to hit the floor. She took her pills three times a day, and it looked like this was the evening dose. Anna sighed, realizing she'd slept away an entire afternoon again.

She looked lazily over toward the other bed. But Sam wasn't there, and Dean was already coming back with her cup of water. "Here we go," he said and perched on the side of her bed. "Down the hatch, Rugrat."

Anna obediently swallowed the pills and drank the water. "How many left?" she murmured, tipping her head back to rest against the wooden bedframe.

"One more day of antibiotics. The painkillers can go a little longer if you need 'em," Dean replied. He took the empty cup from her hand and set it on the nightstand. "Seems like you're not hurtin' too much anymore, though."

"Not really," Anna agreed.

"So, what's goin' on in that head, then, huh?"

Anna shrugged, then shifted uncomfortably at the way it tugged on her still-healing wound. "I dunno," she confessed, embarrassed by the sadness that invaded her voice. "I'm still tired, I guess. Can't stay awake." Her eyelids were already drooping again as she spoke.

"It's alright," Dean promised, then stood up to help her ease back down so she could sleep. "Perfectly normal, Honey."

The sweet talk had been constant over the past week. Anna had been called sweetheart and honey and even baby more times in the last seven days than in the seven months preceding them. "I'm sick of sleeping," she complained.

"Yeah, I hear you," Dean droned but didn't otherwise fix her problem.

Anna sighed heavily again, already drifting back toward sleep. "Sammy go?" she mumbled.

"He's gettin' dinner," Dean told her. "I'll wake you up when he gets back, kiddo. You need to eat something anyway."

By the time he finished speaking, Anna was out.

()()()

It was already a little darker when Anna was shaken awake again. But a glance at the clock told her it had only been a half hour.

The smell of burgers didn't entice her much, but Anna sat up regardless. Sam's hand at her back helped a lot with taking the strain off her abdomen. "Thanks," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with one hand.

"You wanna sit at the table?" Sam offered.

Anna nodded, perking up a little at the suggestion. She had been able to get up and sit on the couch or at the table only a few times since leaving the hospital. Each time, she lay back down with an aching wound afterwards. But it felt so good not to be confined to her bed.

"Alright, let me help you."

Anna opted not to be too stubborn about it. She let Sam pull her to her feet and held onto his arm the whole way to the table even though she wasn't sure she needed the help. Her stomach stung and itched, but it was manageable. She sat gingerly in the nearest chair and rested her elbows on the table. Pleased as she was to be out of bed, Anna was still drowsy.

"What'd you get?" she asked and yawned.

"For you, chicken nuggets. For Dean, a heart attack on a bun."

Anna smiled softly at the familiar talk. She'd thought, just a week ago, that she was going to lose this. Her entire sense of security was wrapped up in what social services seemed to think was a broken excuse for a family. Anna's anxiety ratcheted at the memory of her time in the hospital.

She pushed it down as Sam handed her a little carton of chicken nuggets and some ranch. "Thanks."

"Course," he said easily and sat down across from her.

Dean came out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel. When he tossed it at his bed instead of back into the bathroom, it fell on the floor in a heap.

"Dean," Sam grumbled. "You're such a slob. She's gonna trip on that."

Dean rolled his eyes at their brother. "I'll pick it up later, Sammy."

"Dude-"

"Hey," Dean said, sitting in the last empty chair. "Martha Stewart. Shut up."

Anna snickered and took her first bite of dinner. Up until yesterday, the antibiotics had been making food really difficult. But now that she could eat without barfing again, Anna was surprised at how much of an appetite she had.

She was done eating around the same time as Dean finished his burger, which she thought was rather impressive for an injured kid. She got up to throw her trash away, but Sam waved her back down. "I'll get it," he told her. "Just sit."

Anna shrugged and did as she was told. Sounded like a good deal to her. But it took her about two seconds to get bored just sitting there. "Hey, where's my phone?" she asked.

"I got it," Dean told her and stood up. He walked over to the counter under the TV, which held only a coffee maker, an electric tea kettle, and Anna's phone, plugged into the wall.

"Sweet," Anna said as he handed it to her and sat back down.

"Dean," Sam said in exasperation, making her glance up. "You walked right by the garbage can."

"So?" Dean said and shoved a fry in his mouth.

"So why didn't you throw your wrappers away?" Sam grouched and stabbed a piece of chicken with his plastic fork.

"Because I'm not done eating," Dean retorted, mocking Sam's irritated tone.

"Whatever," Sam said. "I'm not cleaning up after you."

"You're cleaning up after Anna," Dean complained.

"Anna's fourteen and injured. And she was gonna throw her stuff away anyway. Because she has basic table manners," Sam preached.

Anna smiled in self-satisfaction. She suddenly wanted to gang up on Dean, so she stood up and grabbed both his trash and her own to throw it away.

"Aw come on, that is not fair," Dean whined, watching her toss it and head back.

"Proud of yourself?" Sam asked their brother, but he was smiling. Anna knew he was aware of her intentions, and she couldn't help but be pleased that he was amused.

"Hey, I never asked her to do that," Dean griped. He looked at Anna and pointed a finger at her, "I never asked you to do that."

Anna just smiled at him and made innocent eyes. "Just trying to help," she said sweetly.

"Okay," Dean said, finally seeming to realize he was being played. "You know what? You two are a riot."

"Thank you," Sam told him in a tone that implied agreement. "Maybe next time you'll pick up your trash."

Dean snorted. "No way, man. Wouldn't want to rob you of the fun you're havin' right now."

Anna kicked him lightly under the table, and Dean gave her an affronted look. But he was smirking when he shoved some more fries in his mouth.

The three of them were mostly quiet for the next few minutes. Anna scrolled through Instagram but got bored quickly. She set her phone down and sighed. "Wanna watch something?" she asked, chin in hand.

"You're not goin' back to bed?" Sam asked with a frown.

Anna made a face. "Do I have to?" she whined.

"Relax," Dean told her with a chuckle. "We can watch a movie or something first, Rugrat. You'll probably be fallin' asleep by the time it's over anyway."

Anna wrinkled her nose, but privately thought Dean was probably right about that. It sucked, but it was her reality for the time being.

()()()

It took even less time than she'd expected. Anna saw about twenty minutes of Lethal Weapon– Dean's choice and a total shocker (not)– and then woke up in her bed to discover it was morning. Early morning, the sun only half-risen, turning the sky purple and pink on the other side of the window.

Anna rolled her head tiredly along her pillow to see Dean snoring in the bed nearest the door, mouth open against his pillow. She craned her neck upward to see Sam's feet sticking off the end of the couch.

She had to go to the bathroom pretty urgently, and she was not about to wake the boys up just for help walking across the room. They'd been so patient and helpful lately. But Anna wasn't prepared to cost them any more sleep than she already had.

As she scooted to the edge of the bed, Anna's eyes widened. Something was wet. Very wet. She looked down in alarm. There wasn't much light to see by yet, but she could clearly see a dark patch on both the bedsheets and her sweatpants.

Anna scrambled to get her phone from the bedside table. The rapid movement irritated her wound, but she was too panicked to really react. She got her flashlight on and saw that it was blood coating the bed and her clothes. "No," she murmured, eyes losing focus as she stared at the scene. "No, no, no."

That was too much blood. She was going to have to go back to the hospital. The doctors would ask questions. They would call social services. Her family would go to jail or be forced to leave town. Anna would be alone in a hospital bed again. There would be a new psychiatrist and a new social worker, and they would take her away. They would take her from her family, and Anna would be alone.

Her panic was so intense that Anna couldn't breathe. She hyperventilated until she grew dizzy, at which point she reached out a hand to steady herself and nearly face planted into her blankets. She caught a glimpse of her clothes again in the minimal glow of her phone's flashlight, and Anna breathed out a laugh.

"Oh my god," she whispered to herself. It was just on her pants. Not her shirt. Anna giggled, near hysterical as she shifted from panic to near-glee. "It's just my period," she murmured, feeling at her shirt just to make sure. But her hand came back dry, and she flicked her flashlight off.

Taking a deep breath, Anna realized there was actually still something to panic about here. She'd bled all over her bed. Her brothers were going to freak out if they saw that. And she didn't want to have to explain to them the real source of the blood, because that felt somehow worse.

Disgust curled in Anna's gut. She had period blood all over herself, and she was most likely going to have to throw away these sweatpants– one of her favorite pairs.

Not to mention she needed to get the sheets changed without alerting the boys. She had no idea what she would do if the mattress was stained– and it probably was. For all she knew the hotel would kick them out or make them pay for it. Oh god, they could not afford to pay for a mattress.

Anna took a deep breath and tried to come up with a plan. But she felt so… gross, with her sweatpants soaked and sticking to her legs. She stood up, struggling not to groan in pain as she moved. She threw the blankets over the blood, hoping nobody would think to look twice at least until she had figured out what to do about it.

Then she crouched to get clothes out of her duffel. She had no tampons or pads. But this hotel was nicer than the places they usually stayed, so she dared to believe there would be some feminine products in the bathroom. Anna had to stay hunched for a second once she'd finished digging out some clothes. Her wound was burning, and there was a different kind of pain underneath it. She nearly groaned at the realization that she was having period cramps.

She used the bedpost to pull herself upright, clothes pinned under one arm.

Anna hurried to the bathroom, checking over her shoulder in the dimly lit room to make sure she wasn't leaving a trail of blood.

After a warm shower, Anna searched the bathroom cupboard desperately for even just one pad or tampon. She couldn't find anything, and it made her want to cry. Her body was aching and exhausted from standing long enough to take a real shower. Her determination was wavering. There was no way she would have the energy or strength to change the sheets on her bed or hide her bloody sweatpants and underwear. She was going to end up needing help.

The question was: should she keep moving until she dropped or just ask for help now?

Anna knew she shouldn't push herself too hard. But she was a Winchester, and Winchesters didn't ask for help. Besides, the boys were weird about stuff like menstruation, and she didn't want to put that on their shoulders. They'd already been so good to her while she was recovering from her injuries. She couldn't ask them to be cool about this too.

In a moment of determination, Anna decided she had to start with getting herself some pads. She made a makeshift pad out of toilet paper and mentally prepared herself for disposing of it later when it would inevitably be at least partly mushy, bloody, and disgusting.

Dean's wallet was in his jacket, which hung from one of the chairs at the table. So Anna stole a twenty and slid on her sneakers and a zip-up hoodie of Sam's. She'd had to put on jeans as she'd officially ruined her last pair of clean sweatpants, and it hurt like hell since all her jeans were high-waisted. But the hoodie was cozy, and the jeans made her feel almost put together for the first time in over a week.

She'd just opened the hotel room door when she heard a groan from behind her and froze. For a second, she stood there silently, thinking that if she didn't move Dean would go back to sleep without noticing her. But she was shit out of luck.

"Hey," he called sternly. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Anna cringed. She'd been so close. But she turned around and made a pitiful face at Dean, hoping he would go easy on her for trying to leave on her own without telling anyone and while she was still recovering.

He was already out of bed, heading right for her. He closed the door with one hand and tugged her gently away from it with the other. "The hell, Anna?" he demanded, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Sam.

Anna grunted in pain as he sat her down on the nearest chair. She curled an arm around her stomach as her jeans rubbed against her wound. "I just… needed something," she told her brother cryptically.

"You needed something?" Dean repeated, unimpressed. He crossed his arms over his chest. He was officially in his dad pose, and Anna knew she would end up confessing. "What the hell did you need so bad that you were gonna take off on your own when you can barely walk across this room?"

Anna wrinkled her nose and looked down at her lap. Her wet curls were dripping onto the shoulders of her sweatshirt, and her eyes were stinging with fatigue. She wanted to just lay back down and go to sleep. But she couldn't. Because her bed was soaked and she didn't have any more comfortable clothes to wear, not to mention she would only bleed through her clothes again if she didn't get a pad first.

"It's… personal," she told Dean in frustration.

Dean glared at her for a second, then crouched suddenly beside her. He'd uncrossed his arms, which was a sign that he had a little sympathy for her. But Anna knew better than to push her luck by insisting she be allowed to leave on her own. Instead she tried another route. As Dean opened his mouth, no doubt to continue interrogating her, she spoke before he could.

"Can you drive me to the pharmacy?" she asked quietly, not moving her eyes from her lap.

Dean's head tilted back for a second in surprise. Then a look of understanding crossed his face. "Oh," he said. "You need lady stuff, huh?"

Anna bit her lip, wrinkled her nose, and nodded regretfully.

"That's bad timing, huh, kiddo?" he acknowledged.

At the real empathy in his voice, Anna looked up tearfully to meet his eyes. She nodded miserably.

"I'll get it for you," Dean promised, already standing to grab his jacket from the back of the chair Anna was sitting in. "You wanna come?" he offered as he shrugged it on.

Anna nodded again. She was surprised at how badly she wanted to get out of this room. She was so, so tired. But she also hadn't been in the car in a while, and she wanted the familiarity of it more than she wanted to stay here and stare longingly at her messy bed.

"Okay," Dean said and ruffled Anna's wet hair. "I gotta leave a leak. Don't you take off on me."

Anna sniffled and wiped discreetly at her eyes. "I won't," she vowed. As Dean disappeared into the bathroom, she hunched over and made a sound of pain and frustration.

Her cramps were getting more intense, and the claw marks in her skin burned as well. She thought about trying to find her pain medication, but she trusted that Dean would give it to her once they got back. And she didn't feel like standing up to search for it.

()()()

Outside of Walmart, Anna leaned her temple against the cool car window and tried to summon the energy to walk inside. She'd merely asked for a pharmacy, but their hotel was just down the road from Walmart, and Dean had taken it upon himself to drive them here instead.

"Alright, Rugrat," Dean said and left the key in the ignition as he cracked his door open. "What kind of stuff do you want?"

Anna shrugged. "I can come in," she offered, unbuckling her seatbelt in preparation.

"Hey, what am I, some kind of asshole? Just tell me what kind of… things you use, and I'll get 'em."

"Pads, I guess," Anna replied, looking away from her brother in embarrassment.

"Okay, are there, like, different kinds?"

Anna nodded shyly. "It says Always on the package, and they're green."

"Got it," Dean told her quickly, clearly ready to move on already. "You want, uh, what's it called? Cramp pills?"

"Midol?" Anna asked through a little smile. "It's okay."

Dean nodded, looking resolutely out the windshield. "Okay," he said like he was hyping himself up. "Okay, we got this." He got out of the car in one motion and closed his door behind him.

Anna cranked the heat and hugged her stomach while she waited for him to come back.

It was almost a half hour later that Dean came out of the store. Anna was beginning to think she needed to go in and rescue him from the feminine hygiene aisle when she saw him come out into the parking lot. Her eyes widened when she saw that he had three full bags of stuff with him.

"Okay," Dean huffed as he settled into the driver's seat. He dropped one bag into Anna's lap. "We got gummy bears, cosmic brownies, and three kinds of potato chips."

Anna looked into the bag in her lap in awe. Sure enough, it was full of her ideal period snacks. "How did you even know…?"

"Please," Dean scoffed. "I live with you, kid. I found a gummy bear in my ear once when you were little."

Anna made a disturbed face at that information. She certainly didn't remember such an incident.

"Anyway," Dean said and cleared his throat awkwardly. He handed her the second bag. "Pads," he recited with remarkable ease. "This sales lady told me they make specific ones for night. So, I got the ones you said and then those ones too."

"Wow," Anna breathed. "Thanks, Dean."

Dean shrugged off her gratitude and instead opened the third bag. "Saw your sweatpants in the bathroom garbage," he said and didn't give Anna time to get too embarrassed before he showed her the contents of the third bag. "So I got you a couple new pairs. Plus underwear. Don't make it weird."

Anna stared at Dean for the longest moment before tears started to fill her eyes. She'd been expecting one package of pads. That was it. And Dean had gone well out of his way to make her feel better. She smiled wetly at him and said, "You're pretty awesome."

Dean rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too. "That's what they tell me."

()()()

Back at the hotel, they found Sam waiting for them at the table, laptop open in front of him.

"Hey, where'd you guys go?" he asked as they walked in.

Anna was limping and exhausted.

"Okay, you should lie down," he instructed and stood up to help her toward her bed.

"Uh, bathroom first?" Dean asked her and handed her the bag with the pads in it.

Anna nodded, ducking her head down and shrugging Sam off so she could go to the bathroom. She heard muffled voices through the door and figured Dean was probably telling Sam what was going on. Embarrassing, but she could hardly be mad at Dean after this morning's impromptu trip.

When she came back out, she had eyes only for her bed. But halfway there, she remembered something. "Shit," she grumbled.

"Hey, language," Sam scolded.

"Sorry," Anna mumbled and stood staring at her bed for a minute.

"What's up?" Dean asked her as he started making himself a cup of coffee with the keurig machine on the counter. "You gotta be wiped. Lay down."

"I… can't," Anna admitted, feeling shame color her cheeks again. "I kinda… ruined the bed a little."

Dean looked confused, but Sam seemed to understand. "Oh," he said. "Don't worry about it, Ladybug. Take the other one."

"How did you-?" Dean cut himself off as he seemed to catch up to what was being implied. "Oh, shit. Yeah, okay. I'll clean it up, Munchkin."

"No, I can do it," Anna said in a rush. "You already got me a bunch of stuff." She gestured to the new comfy sweatpants she'd just changed into.

"Hey, easy," Sam told her. "You need to rest, Anna. Don't worry about the bed, okay? It's not a big deal."

"But I messed it up," Anna argued, and realized with horror that she was on the verge of tears yet again. "Ugh," she groaned and wiped at her face in frustration. "I'm so gross."

Sam took her arm and pulled her over to sit her down on Dean's bed. "You're not gross," he promised. "It just feels that way because you're tired and hurt and… you know, hormones probably aren't helping."

Anna pushed him weakly for that remark, but she didn't think he'd intended to discount her feelings. Seemed more like he was genuinely trying to help her understand why she was reacting so intensely.

"Hey, it's not a bad thing," he told her carefully. "It's just, you know, it's good. To have emotions… Dean, help me out here?" he asked in mounting panic.

"Seems like you got a good handle on this conversation," Dean quipped and sipped his fresh cup of coffee. He made a face and set it down then, sticking his tongue out like he'd burned it.

"That's instant karma," Anna said and chuckled wetly, giving Sam a smile. "I know you're trying to help," she said. "Thank you. I just feel bad. I'm kinda useless lately. And I totally panicked this morning at all the blood, cause I thought I was gonna have to go back to the hospital. And then I didn't have any pads. And now I have cramps, and my whole body hurts, and I'm tired."

Sam smiled sadly at her. "Forget about the hospital, Honey. No one is bringing you back there."

"I know, I just…" Anna sniffled. "I was so scared there. I thought they were going to keep us apart forever."

"No one ever could," Dean told her, sitting down on the edge of the other bed. He shot up like a rocket after a second, though, feeling his ass as if there would be blood on it.

Anna laughed at him and wiped at her eyes again. "Dude, there's a comforter over it."

"Right," he said casually, as if he could play that off. "Right. Point is, you're back with us now. We're not gonna let anyone take you away, Rugrat."

"Yeah," Anna murmured, sniffling again as she got her emotions back under control. "I know," she told her brother. "It's just hard not to think about it."

"Yeah," Sam said in understanding. "It's been hard for me too," he admitted.

Anna looked at him in shock. "Wait, really?"

"Of course it has," Sam told her. "You were hurt, and we couldn't be there, Anna. It was… it was really hard on us too."

"Damn hard," Dean added, resting a hand on Anna's head. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You know, I don't think you've ever been hurt or sick before when I couldn't be there."

Anna nodded, feeling so much safer just by virtue of having her family so close to her. It was news to her that this incident had been so hard for her brothers. But it made sense, the more she thought about it. Even when she'd had appendicitis and woken up alone, she'd been able to call Dean and have him rush to her side. This time had been so much different. So much more lonely.

"We knew you had to be scared and confused," Sam explained. "I'm sorry we couldn't be there, Ladybug. We wanted to."

"It's okay," Anna forgave instantly. "It wasn't your fault. It was those CPS people. They did this weird interview, you know. They kept asking me stuff about dad."

"Yeah?" Sam asked her.

"Yeah," Anna said and sniffled.

"You feel better?"

"Yeah," she said again.

Dean ruffled her hair and went back to the counter for his abandoned coffee. Sam waited for Anna to lay down and covered her snugly with the comforter. "You want your candy?" he asked her.

Anna nodded eagerly, mouth watering at the thought of that bag of gummy bears. Dean gave her the TV remote and candy while Sam got started cleaning the other bed.

She thought back to the questions she'd been asked at the hospital. About the worry she'd had that maybe her family wasn't the safe place she'd always believed it to be. The worry felt silly now.

Looking at her older brothers, Anna felt completely certain that there was no safer place to be.

La Fin