A/N; This one's for all the fathers who never once made their daughters feel ashamed to be women.

APPENDIX B

Alex age 13

Alex sat kitty corner from her father at one of the library tables. Her math homework was spread out on the immaculately finished oak surface. An ancient text with tender, yellowed pages lay spreadeagle before Dean. Sam had gone on a grocery run. Alex's leg bounced nervously.

She glanced almost imperceptibly over at the eldest Winchester, not even turning her head. She was considering speaking while at the same time considering what to say, and unsure of neither. She formed sentence after sentence in her head, doubting each one as soon as she created it. Her difficulty with language was becoming more agitating than the subject she was attempting to broach.

At last, she finally just came out with it.

"You know, Dad, if you're seeing someone, you can tell me," she blurted suddenly into the silence. She shrank a little as she heard her voice echo in the large space of the bunker.

Dean looked up at her and inspected her, appearing confused. Alex kept her eyes fixed on her papers (perceiving nothing on them), somewhat afraid of his reaction.

"I'm not seeing anyone," Dean replied.

Now she glanced over, her mouth twisting by the awkwardness she felt, "Oh."

"Why would you think I'm seeing someone?" he pressed.

"Well…," eyes back on her paper, Alex blushed deeply now. She had been upset about the first subject, but this question touched on a whole new subject with which she was even more uncomfortable. "Well, I found the pads in the bathroom and I thought… your girlfriend had brought them in or something."

Dean's face relaxed at the reconciliation of his confusion. "Oh! No, honey, I bought those for you."

This was going in all kinds of directions she was not expecting.

Alex looked over, shocked. "What?"

"Yeah – you were headed towards puberty and I thought might as well have some ready for when you need them," Dean elaborated. "Well, actually your uncle reminded me, I just grabbed a bag one time when I was in the store."

"Oh," her eyes were still rather wide as Dean returned to his book.

They sat in silence for a while. Slowly, slowly, Alex began to relax.

Then her father spoke again, "Say, those were pretty buried if I remember correctly; what were you digging for?"

Dammit.

"Um…," she began, hesitant to reveal her newly forged secret so soon after its creation, "Well… pads…."

"Oh," Dean responded. "Well hey, that worked out well, didn't it?"

Alex nodded tensely.

"Are they still working? They're pretty old; I got them like 2 years ago."

Alex couldn't stop a tiny laugh from escaping her; she had wondered why the bag was dusty. "Yeah.

"So you're not… like… grossed out by it?"

"By what?"

"By… me getting my period."

"No," Dean scoffed. "Why would I be grossed out by that?"

Alex shifted, "All the boys in my health class were grossed out by it."

"Yeah, well, they're boys," Dean brushed it aside. "It's life, baby girl. They'll learn that eventually. And just because they're uncomfortable with it, doesn't mean you have to be."

Feeling a weight she hadn't realized she'd been carrying lift off her, Alex nodded, "Okay."

They returned to their respective studies, the tension in the air dissolving. They sat for a while, Alex becoming comfortable again sitting in her chair in that room in the bunker.

After a moment's thought, she commented; "These pads are huge."

"Well, there were like ten sizes there; I thought better safe than sorry," Dean replied.

Alex laughed.