Note: Thank you for commenting, voting, reading-- all of it makes me feel better through the stress of school and life. I really appreciate it!

So, this chapter is sort of a request: 1ipod2 just wanted a happy chapter, which is a pretty rare occurrence. I know I'm posting rather late in the day compared to the usual, but I moved back home Thursday night and was pretty busy yesterday so I wrote this whole thing today while babysitting my one year old niece. It's short and sweet for that very reason. 

Also because I spent so much time with my favorite baby today, I wanted to write some fluffy baby stuff. In this chapter, Anna is thirteen months old.

Good as It Gets

With the thump of a small body on his side, Sam woke. He heard snickering and instantly knew, even half asleep, exactly what was going on. Tiny fingers dug into his shoulder and Sam groaned. "Go away," he groaned into his pillow. "Dean-"

"Rise and shine, Sammy."

Sam lifted his head from his pillow with a glare firmly in place and came face to face with a chubby-cheeked baby. Anna cooed at the sight of her brother and hit him in the face with both hands, bouncing up and down on her behind in excitement. "Sa!"

Dean grinned and ruffled her soft baby curls. "You tell him, Anklebiter. Kick his lazy ass out of bed."

Sam sighed softly but he did prop himself up on his elbows and wrap an arm around their sister as she continued to touch his face and bounce around like the little bundle of energy that she was. He looked past her bobbing head at the alarm clock on the nightstand and groaned again, dropping back down against his pillow. "Why the hell would you wake me up at seven o'clock during break?"

"Two things. One: don't swear in front of the baby." Sam rolled his eyes. What Dean really meant was 'don't swear,' and he knew that was the case because both his brother and father cursed in front of Anna all the time. "Two: Dad wants you to go get breakfast."

Sam perked up, his elbow coming underneath him again, but tried to hide it, looking skeptical instead. He looked around the room and frowned up at his brother. "Dad's here?"

"Yeah," Dean said, like it was obvious. "He said he'd be back for Thanksgiving, didn't he?"

Sam gave his brother a subtle look. Yes, John had promised to be back for the holiday, but he promised to be back every holiday and it was extremely rare that he ever actually stuck around for one.

"Da da da da!" Anna babbled beside him and started to clap her hands sloppily, her fingers spread wide. A thin string of drool hung from her chin as she grinned, her four little teeth-- two on the top, two on the bottom-- showing. She loved to repeat that same syllable over and over again as it was easy for her to say. She was awfully proud of her ability to say Sam's name, though, as that had taken her more practice than Dean's.

"Alright, come here, you," Dean laughed and scooped her up off the bed. Her head rested against his shoulder and her feet swung contentedly as she sat on his forearm with her back against his chest and his hand across her front. "Better let Sammy get dressed, or he's gonna be late comin' back with breakfast."

Anna let out a discontented squeal and began to squirm in her brother's arms, feet stretching toward the floor. She arched her back when Dean tried to readjust her, so he let her down and she started toddling across the room. "Da da da da da!" she shrieked. Sam wondered how she'd been distracted long enough for him to sleep even this long. It was possible she'd only woken up a few minutes before he had, but she usually woke by six, and Dean was usually the one to get up with her, and Sam usually followed suit within half an hour because she was a vocal baby and just couldn't stay quiet for long.

As if to prove his inner dialogue correct, Anna let out a happy squeal as their father stepped out of the bathroom with shaving cream on his face. John crouched down while running his razor over his jaw and chuckled at her. A second later, he caught her tiny wrist with his free hand just in time to stop her from playing with the shaving cream on his cheek. "You wanna help me, Peanut?" he asked sweetly and lifted her with his free arm. With the other, he helped her get a grip on the razor blade and then covered her small hand with his big one to guide the blade carefully over his face.

Anna watched with wide, interested eyes, then let out a squeaky giggle. "Aaah," she cooed and started squirming again. John put her down, wiped the shaving cream off his razor onto the towel slung over his shoulder, and smiled as he watched her toddle toward Dean again.

Sam looked away from the affectionate exchange with a little breath of disappointment at the thought of going out into the cold for breakfast. The diner was on the same street as the motel, though, so it would be fast. He never would have been sent to run the errand if it were farther than that, because even though he was sixteen, his father and brother were both determined that he was still twelve years old and couldn't be trusted to walk across town by himself. Well, mostly his brother.

He changed into jeans and a hoodie after a quick check that no one was looking his way. He knew he shouldn't feel weird since they were his family and the only female present wasn't old enough to care or even really notice that he was changing.

He took his father's wallet off the table and found a twenty inside which he pocketed.

"Bacon, Sam!" Dean called after him as he opened the door. Sam looked back just in time to watch Anna hit Dean in the chin. When their brother looked down at her, she blew a raspberry right in his face, making him rear back with a look of disgust. Sam laughed out loud, thinking the word karma so loud Dean glared at him without hearing it spoken aloud. "Laugh all you want, Sam. Just bring back bacon. And coffee!" he added as Sam closed the door behind himself.

Anna's joyous squeal followed him out into the cool November morning, and Sam smiled even as the wind tousled his hair and made him shiver under his sweater. Their father was home and in a distinctly good mood if his interaction with their baby sister this morning was any indication. As difficult as Sam could find it to be stuck with his family 24/7/365, he did truly love them all, even John who had a way of getting under his skin with a snap of his fingers. Because he loved them and because they all were in high spirits and because it was Thanksgiving, a family holiday, Sam just had the feeling that this was going to be a really good day. 

()()()

He could hear the baby giggling even before he walked in, but Sam still grinned when he entered and actually saw his brother laying on his back on the motel bed with Anna propped on his chest laughing exuberantly. Her giggling quieted a little, and Dean picked her up and tilted her until she was vertical over his head, their foreheads touching and her feet falling so that her body made an L shape. Immediately, her giggling got much louder and she reached out to grab onto either side of Dean's head as if trying to balance herself somehow.

Dean tilted her right side up and the giggling continued. Sam eased the door shut behind him and turned the lock since he knew it had only been open for him. "Where'd Dad go?" he asked when he realized John was gone. "Car's still out front." 

"Phone call," Dean said distractedly. "Did you get-?"

"Coffee, yes. And there's bacon on the breakfast sandwiches. Was it a hunter?"

"Does Dad have any friends that aren't?" Dean asked sarcastically. An insistent little hand landed on his shoulder and he chuckled. "We can play later," he promised as he stood up and set her on the floor. Anna didn't take the opportunity to toddle far and fast, instead turning back around and stretching her arms up toward him. "What?" he asked as if he didn't know what she was asking for. He stepped around her and listened to her squeal, but she toddled after him, then got distracted when she saw Sam setting down the coffee and food on the table.

"You don't think he's gonna find a hunt, do you?" Sam asked dreadfully. "It's Thanksgiving-"

"He said he'd stay, Sam."

They both knew just how much that meant. Sam sighed and his shoulders dropped. Tiny hands fisted his pant legs though and an adorable baby grunt drew his attention. He smiled in spite of himself and leaned down to lift Anna up. "Hey," he sing-songed, and she gave him a sloppy smile and tilted her head sideways. It was cute, and his smile widened.

"Zuh zuh zuh," Anna started, the same lazy babbling she used to do when she was first learning to say his name. It was easier to make the z sound than the s sound, after all. "Zzz." She giggled. "Zzz." And again.

"You think you're so cute," Dean teased as he passed them both to pick up a cup of coffee. He checked the side of the cup to be sure it wasn't one of Sam's vanilla lattes before he took a sip. Anna wrinkled her nose at him and then blew a raspberry. Dean made a face of disgust. "I hope she grows out of that soon," he grumbled.

Sam smirked, "Long as you're her only target, I think I could get used to that habit." He ducked preemptively, but Dean's hand still thwacked the back of his head.

With a sudden discontented squeal, Anna wriggled and contorted her little body until Sam set her down on the floor. Then she crouched down, her butt almost touching the floor, and hissed, making a face when she heard her own voice. She started to giggle hitchingly again and wrinkled her nose to look up at Sam. He met her smile with one of his own, and she took off.

Keeping one eye on her even though he knew Dean was already doing the same, Sam picked up his own coffee cup and took a careful sip. "What are we even gonna do if we do stay?" he asked. "I mean, I don't think Dad's cooked a day in his life."

"Bite your tongue, Sammy. I think he made you a grilled cheese sandwich once when you were four."

He tried not to let it, but a laugh escaped his mouth. Dean smirked around his coffee cup at having stolen the smile, but it fell away abruptly as he stood up and set down his cup. He crossed the room in a jog and snatched the baby up off the floor before she could pull a lamp down onto herself by its cord. Sam shook his head in fond exasperation. He was glad not to be on baby duty by himself. A lot of the time, he was left to babysit while doing homework because the rest of the family was out hunting, and it was downright exhausting trying to chase Anna back and forth across their (not baby-proofed) motel room and finish a calculus worksheet or write an English paper at the same time.

The door swung open, and John walked in while stuffing his phone back into the pocket of his jacket. "Josh says Happy Thanksgiving," he announced and took the remaining coffee cup from the table before pausing beside Sam and draping an arm over his shoulders. "He's got wind of something in Mass, says he'll let us know if it's anything." 

The arm around his shoulders was warm, but the tone of the room was warmer now. John was staying for the holiday, and he wasn't doing it begrudgingly. Sam didn't even grouch about it when his father tousled his hair before moving over to the armchair in the room. He just looked across the room at his brother, locked eyes with him, and smiled.

()()()

Normally, Sam spent Thanksgiving watching old movies with his brother. It was never particularly bad, but it was never stuck out from any other day either. Last year, John had been around, but only because Anna was just over a month old and he'd stayed pretty close to his kids for the first few months of her life. This year, Sam had figured, would be the real test as to whether things were going to go back to the way they used to be, or whether John was really changing. He'd broken his promise to be home for Sam's birthday, and that had sucked but at sixteen, Sam hadn't let it show. John had also made sure to be far away on Father's Day as always. Thanksgiving had looked grim right up until the time Sam went to bed last night to a room empty of their father despite his age old promise to be home for the holidays.

But today... Sam looked around the room at 2pm and felt warmth spread through his stomach, the very warm feeling that had been missing from every other Thanksgiving he could remember. Beside him, Dean was watching football more intently than he had any right to considering he'd never watched a full game in his life. In the chair situated near the TV, John was holding Anna in his lap and feeding her pumpkin pie with a baby spoon. And Sam wasn't really invested in the book he'd been holding open for the last half hour, because he couldn't stop looking between each of his family members and letting that warm feeling take him over.

He wanted to be angry that this wasn't what Thanksgiving felt like every year. But instead he felt grateful.

He smiled at himself when he realized that was the point of the holiday, or at least that was how it was advertised. How many people, when asked, used the line, 'I'm thankful for family'? Surely not half of them felt the way Sam did about their family. 

As he watched, John placed a little spoonful of pie against Anna's mouth, but she pursed her lips and shook her head to instead push the spoon at him. She took it by the handle, grinning and cooing as she fed the pie to John. Sam's heart melted at the sight of John smiling-- really, truly smiling-- and he realized how sad he often felt for his father. Beside him, Dean cheered for a touchdown made by a player whose name he probably didn't know and elbowed Sam to try and get him to cheer along.

Dinner had been fried chicken, but there'd been pie for dessert. And more importantly than the food, there'd been all the right people. John had been present not only physically but emotionally and mentally. He'd paid real attention to all of his children and he'd been happy all day, at least outwardly. Sam could hardly remember a time he'd seen his father look so genuinely happy for so long. Dean had been more relaxed today than Sam had seen him in years, and it was break he more than deserved. Getting off the bed to go grab a slice of pie, Sam laughed when he heard a baby squeal his name-- or something like it.

John let her down, and Anna toddled fast in his direction. Sam crouched and opened his arms, and Anna's arms reached up to his shoulders. His eyes stung embarrassingly as he realized there'd been no giggly baby to make their father smile at any of their previous Thanksgivings. Sam's own infancy had followed closely on the heels of Mary's death, and John had certainly never been up to feeding him Thanksgiving dinner on a baby spoon, at least not with a smile on his face. Sam knew Anna wanted him to pick her up, but he just hugged her against his chest instead. Her little body was warm, his heart was warm, and the room was warm despite the cold wind roaring against the window.

"Thanks, Anna."

"Sa."

La Fin