Note: Thank you to everyone who read, commented, and voted on the last chapter. I know it was ridiculously long, but it got a good response, so thank you!

As hard as it is to believe, I'm starting college this week, so I'm hoping to write some chapters ahead of time and be ready in case I don't have time to write much during orientation. As I said last week, though, I am hoping to keep up weekly updates throughout my time at college.

The last few chapters have been based when Anna was a teenager. So, in this chapter, Anna is four years old.

Socks & Lullabies

"How come you can't go?"

Dean dropped the flannel he was holding and turned around to look down at his baby sister. At four years old, she was tiny, only as tall as his knee. He had wrangled her curly blonde hair into pigtails that morning when John announced he would be there to get her by mid afternoon and wanted her to look presentable. The pigtails were now rather messy thanks to a very rambunctious little girl deciding to play 'Spies' while Dean started packing their duffels earlier in the day. Of course, Dean wound up roped into the game, and he was now worried that he wouldn't have their duffels packed by the time John arrived, which would indeed bode very badly for everyone concerned. As he looked into wide green eyes, Dean sighed and ran a hand through his spiky hair. He knew he wasn't going to be able to ignore her when she looked like that.

He crouched down and took her by the shoulders very carefully. "Because I have to go hunting, Munchkin."

"How come?"

"Because Dad found a hunt, and he told me to take care of it."

"How come?"

"I didn't ask."

"How come?"

Dean sighed heavily and stood back up, turning around to go back to his task of packing his duffel. Anna's was already ready. Dean could leave a few minutes after the other two did if he had to, but if Anna wasn't packed when their father arrived, there would likely be hell to pay. He finished packing and turned to his sister again. She was still pouting at him, and he wondered if she had moved an inch in the last five minutes while he finished packing.

"C'mere, Rugrat. I gotta fix your hair."

Anna wrinkled her nose at the request. "But I like it like this."

"Yeah, well, it's messy," Dean told her and sat on the edge of the bed. He reached out for her, and Anna walked over to stand in front of him so he could redo the braids. He made quick work of it as Anna babbled about how excited she was to see their dad and how she wished Dean could go with them, only he couldn't because he had to hunt. It was ridiculous, really, considering that Dean had been the one explaining such things not ten minutes ago.

All ready for when John arrived, the siblings were left to wait. Anna, of course, couldn't spend much time without something to do. She had Halloween still sitting on the floor a few feet away from the bed, and went to pick him up, then she scurried over to Dean again. "Now what's we gonna do?" she asked him as he lifted her to sit on his lap.

"What are we gonna do?"

"I dunno," Anna answered with a shrug.

"No, I was- Nevermind. Where are your shoes, Anna?"

"I dunno," Anna said and shrugged again, obviously ready to move on without resolving the issue. She tried to fit her stuffed frog in the pocket of her turquoise overalls, but he didn't fit, so she shoved him at her brother, who was trying his best to look for her red rubber boots while she sat on his lap. "C'you hold Halloween?"

Dean sighed, "You hold him. I have to find your shoes."

Anna nodded in agreement and let Dean set her on the bed by the duffel bags. "Hey, Dean," she called as he bent to look under the beds.

"What?" he reached an arm underneath the first one and pulled out one little rubber boot. Another glance under told him there was a tiny sock past where the boot had been. He forced himself lower to the ground to reach for it, wondering how the hell she even got her sock so far under the bed without crawling under herself-- which he knew she hadn't done because they had only been at this motel for one night, and all the playing she had done that morning had involved climbing on top of her brother and the table, not under the bed.

"When's Daddy gonna get here?"

"When he gets here."

Anna laughed and hopped off the bed, skipping over to her brother. "I know that," she giggled. "I mean, how long?"

"Soon."

Anna sat down on the floor beside her brother, who was still struggling to reach her sock without having to lay down on the dirty carpet. "I don't like that word."

Dean finally latched onto the sock and pulled it out from under the bed. So victorious he felt from this feat, he didn't feel remotely irritated by the seemingly pointless conversation Anna was forcing him to carry out. "What word?"

"Soon," Anna repeated. "Cause sometimes you say that and then he gets here really quick but sometimes you say it and he don't even get here 'til tomorrow."

Dean sighed and lifted Anna to a standing position on the floor, handing her stuffed frog to her when she accidentally dropped him. "Trust me, Munchkin, this time I mean very soon." It was getting on to 3:00, so if John didn't arrive sometime in the next five minutes, Dean would be very surprised.

Anna squinted suspiciously at Dean. She used him to balance as she stepped into her boots, and he tossed the sock he'd fished out into his duffel. Finally she smiled. "Know what?"

Dean smirked at her changed attitude. "What?"

"I b'lieve you," Anna announced and wrapped her arms around Dean's neck. It was kind of a hug, but mostly a sign that she wanted him to pick her up, which Dean did.

"Good." Dean glanced at his watch as he stood holding his little sister. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and he realized that she hadn't had a nap today. He was lucky that she hadn't gotten cranky and started acting like a total brat-- which she sometimes did if she missed her nap. Fortunately, she almost always fell asleep in the car, and Dean knew she and John would be driving about three states away over the course of the next couple of days, so she would probably get plenty of rest.

The sound of a car in the parking lot made Dean cross swiftly to the window. He eased the curtain back just enough that he could see who had just pulled in. It was indeed their father. Still, Dean waited for John to knock the correct way, then watched him step over the salt line unaffected before releasing his squirming little sister.

"Daddy!" Anna cried, practically leaping from Dean's arms to John's.

Her father's strong arms held her tightly, and Anna melted contentedly against him. His leather jacket was cool from what must have been a brisk September afternoon, but she didn't mind. She giggled happily and kissed her father on the cheek. "Hey, Peanut." John returned the kiss and leaned his forehead against Anna's. "You been behavin' yourself?" he asked, voice gruff but affectionate. Anna nodded and laid down against his shoulder, small arms winding around his neck. "Dean," John greeted his oldest and patted him on the shoulder with a small smile. "Was she ok?"

"She was awesome, Dad," he said, returning the shoulder pat. It was a useless question considering that Dean looked after Anna more often than their father, but John always asked anyway. "Everything's packed, whenever you're ready."

"That's good, son," was John's reply, the closest thing to praise he usually gave his children. "What do you say, Anna? You ready to go?" He felt her nod against his neck and smiled. Maybe he seemed coldhearted to a lot of the people he met, but he loved his children. This little girl had even managed to thaw his heart once his boys had grown too old to really hold. He had always wanted a daughter. But after Mary, he never thought he would have one. While it was still hard for him to think about his time with Chloe, it was easy for him to love this little girl. She was sweet and smart and cute and funny and she was just such a good and lovable kid. He wondered how much of that he could take credit for and how much of it he owed to his son. "We'll head out in two. I gotta take a piss. Here," he said bluntly and handed Anna off to her brother. "Get her jacket on her. It's cold out there."

"Yes, sir." Dean gracefully accepted his little sister and walked her to the bed while John headed for the small bathroom across the room. He set her down and took her stuffed frog away for a moment. "Here, Rugrat." He held out Anna's purple denim jacket for her to thread her arms through. She reached out for Halloween, and Dean handed the frog to her.

"You still ain't comin' with us?" Anna checked, looking sad at the idea of leaving her brother behind.

"Sorry, Anna. I'll see you in about a week, though, ok?" Anna looked down at the floor and mumbled something. Dean crouched down and lifted her chin so he could see her face. "What?"

"You ain't gonna be able ta sing ta me at nap time if you're gone."

Dean chuckled and brushed his sister's bangs off her forehead. "No, but you can spend some time with Dad, Anna. All you talk about when he's gone is how much you miss him."

Anna gave a little half smile, but then she put her arms around Dean's neck, Halloween dangling from one hand and resting on Dean's back. "Know what?"

Dean smiled at the familiar question. "What?"

"I love you." The little girl leaned forward and planted a kiss on her older brother's cheek.

Dean's smile faded into a more serious look, a melancholy one. For an hour or two, it might feel nice not having to keep an eye on a four year old, but after that, he knew he'd start missing Anna as much as she'd miss him. "Right back at ya, kiddo." He lifted her back up and let her rest her head on his shoulder. He wondered what was taking his dad so long in the bathroom, but figured he likely didn't want to know. Unsure what else to do, Dean sang Anna Paradise City, and prayed that the week would go by quickly.

()()()

"Daddy," Anna called in a sing-song voice from the backseat. "Daaaddy. Daddy!"

John snapped out of his thoughts and looked in the rearview mirror at his daughter. "What is it, Anna?"

"I'm hungry. Are we gonna eat?"

John sighed in frustration. They were making such good time. But he should really eat something, too, since they hadn't stopped except for gas and bathroom breaks all night. "Next exit," he promised gruffly. "What do you want?"

Anna made an exaggerated thoughtful face, stroking her chin like she'd seen John do sometimes when his beard started to grow beyond stubble. "Pizza!"

"How about something we can get a drive through?"

"Why doesn't they give you pizza at a drive through?"

"Just pick something else, Anna."

"Um, a bacon cheeseburger!" Anna chirped excitedly, bouncing in her carseat. "That's what Dean likes."

John turned onto the exit ramp and grimaced at the thought of Anna taking two bites out of a giant burger and then giving up on it. Just like Sam at that age, she was already beginning to copy everything Dean did. Just last week, he'd come home to find her following him around wearing a blue flannel that dragged across the dirty motel floor as she walked. Once, she'd stood on a crate and mimicked Dean's position as he worked on fixing something under the Impala's hood. Sometimes it was adorable. Other times, like now, it was mildly frustrating. "You gonna eat the whole thing?" he asked pointlessly.

"Yep. 'Cause Dean ain't here but I can eat a burger for him."

"You're not as big as Dean is, Peanut," John tried, hoping to persuade her with reason. Of course, logic doesn't always work when you're speaking to a four year old.

Anna didn't even bother to answer him. She just said, "Know what?"

"What?" John humored her.

"I miss Dean."

John cleared his throat awkwardly and turned into a drive-thru. "You sure you want a whole cheeseburger?"

"Yes, Daddy," Anna answered softly and melted into her carseat. Normally she would ask for onion rings, but that was with Dean. Her father was more likely to remind her that money didn't grow on trees, whatever that meant. The thought made her miss her brother even more.

It was weird going on long drives without him. It was even weirder riding long distances in John's truck instead of the Impala and without Dean. Most of her favorite stuff for long car rides was still resting in the Impala's back seat. Her coloring book and crayons, her matchbox cars, and her picture books among other things had all been left behind. The truck also didn't ride as smoothly as the Impala. Every bump could be felt. It made it more difficult to fall asleep.

The entire setup was a formula for misery.

Anna managed half the burger before she felt decidedly like she might explode if she took another bite. She didn't want to tell John she hadn't finished because she knew what he would say-- We don't waste food-- and she knew she couldn't possibly eat the rest of it. So, instead, she tucked the remains of the burger inside of the cupholder that folded out of the middle of the backseat, and closed it into the seat, effectively hiding her leftovers.

When John looked back not thirty seconds later and his eyes nearly popped out of his head as he asked, "Did you eat that whole thing already?" Anna just grinned sweetly at him. If she nodded, she would be lying.

Anna dozed on and off through the rest of their trip, holding Halloween tightly against her chest and jolting awake now and again when they hit a bump in the road. Her mood slowly turned sour as she failed to get any real rest. John, unlike Dean, didn't know the signs. Nor did he know how to pull her out of her darkening mood like Dean did. He wasn't one for conversation as they cruised down the interstate. Rather, he sat quietly, thinking, thinking, and thinking some more.

As she started to descend into a bottomless pit of crankiness, Anna began absentmindedly kicking the back of the seat in front of her. That might have been okay if she were seated on the passenger side instead of sitting behind her father. John lost patience for the tic quickly, though.

"Stop kicking the seat," he demanded.

Anna stopped immediately. John was intimidating that way. But as soon as she noticed he was looking at the road again, she made a face at him in the rearview mirror. She felt pretty satisfied with herself for a minute, but then she got bored again and her feet started swinging and-

"Anna Grace."

"It's boring," she snapped without thinking.

John, surprising both of them, didn't immediately tear into her for being disrespectful. Instead he asked, "Don't you have a book or something?"

"They're in the 'pala," Anna pouted.

"The Impala."

"Yeah th'Impala."

"Well, find something else to do then?"

Anna pouted further and crossed her arms around her stuffed frog, because that suggestion was just about the furthest thing from helpful. But she didn't say anything. Her mouth was the only thing known to get her into trouble with John from time to time because she just didn't see the problem with saying it aloud when a situation was boring or stupid. If it was the truth, it should be spoken, right? John didn't think so, though.

"I gotta go to the bathroom," Anna announced five minutes later.

"We stopped half an hour ago. There's no way you have to go again."

"I gotta."

"Anna, you just went."

"Please, Daddy, please," Anna begged, making big dewy eyes at him until he finally sighed in resignation.

"There's a rest stop up ahead," he finally said, sounding disappointed in himself for giving in. He should have known the eyes would get him if he looked in the rearview. "We'll take five minutes."

Anna cheered in the backseat, erasing any doubt there might have been in John's mind that she was asking to stop because she wanted to get out of the car, not because she needed to use the bathroom.

At the rest stop, Anna dutifully left Halloween in the car and held tightly to John's hand until they got to the bathroom. When he asked if she needed help, Anna put her hands on her hips and positively glared at him until John raised his hands in surrender. He smiled, a little amused and a little proud that she was courageous enough to stand him down-- not to mention the sight was adorable. "I'll wait right here then," he promised and leaned against the wall outside the bathroom. As soon as Anna disappeared behind the door, John pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Dean.

"Hey, Dad."

"Your sister is driving me crazy and we've got at least another twenty four hours of driving left to do." He was dead serious, but he could have sworn her heard Dean laugh, however muffled, on the other end of the line. "She's kickin' the seat and snapping at me and she just made me stop so she could go to the bathroom for the fifth time today." There was that laugh again. "Dean."

"Sorry, sir. Uh, yeah, she- she gets like that, especially when she's tired. Do you have any tapes with you? Music helps her sleep or at least keeps her in a good mood."

"Music. I can do that," John assured himself into the phone. He was already beginning to calm down just having steps to take in improving Anna's attitude. "What else?"

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. I guess I usually talk to her. Just don't let her get bored."

"Is that Dean?" Anna's bright voice beside him made John, seasoned hunter that he was, jump out of his skin.

"Make her happy for me, will you, Ace?" John requested, then he passed the phone off.

"Dean!"

"Hey, Rugrat. Whatcha up to?"

"I'm super bored," Anna stage whispered into the phone. "Daddy's truck is very dumb."

John purposefully looked away, pretending he couldn't hear her even though her version of whispering was really just talking breathily.

"That's 'cause you left your stuff with me. But that's not Dad's fault, so be nice to him, okay?"

"Okay, Dean-o. It's been a whole day, I think. Are you comin' back?"

"I'm gonna meet you in six more days, Kiddo. Remember?"

"That's a lot."

"Not too bad. Give me back to Dad so you can get back on the road."

Anna looked down at the ground in misery. The last thing she wanted was to stop talking to her brother and go back to a boring ride in the car with their father. "Are you gonna call again?"

Instead of correcting her assumption, Dean answered, "Maybe tomorrow."

Anna twisted her mouth to the side to keep from expressing that tomorrow wasn't soon enough. Instead she handed the phone up to her father and traced the tile of the rest stop floor with the toe of her shoe, the one Dean had crawled on the floor for.

She didn't like traveling with just John. He was grumpy.

()()()

"Fifteen in the last year. That's not enough to be cause for concern?"

"I don't speak for the department, Agent Blythe," the kind but assertive woman behind the desk said. She smiled down at Anna who stood beside her father and then looked back at John as if the discussion were over.

"Of course," John said through grit teeth, unable to completely veil his frustration. "But you're the one who can provide me with the reports I need to do my job."

"I'm happy to provide you with those materials," the worker answered. "However, in order to ensure that I'm doing my job correctly, I'm going to need you to provide the proper documentation. As a federal agent, I'm sure paperwork is not quite as unfamiliar a concept as you make it out to be."

At the subtle dig, John shifted and gave in. He would just have to break in later and steal the files. It wasn't like he hadn't done anything similar before.

"Thanks anyway," he said briskly and swung Anna up to rest on his hip so they could go. Over his shoulder, the little girl waved at the woman behind the desk who offered a smile and waved back.

"Why are you mad at the lady?"

"I'm not mad at anybody," John declared, setting Anna down on the sidewalk outside and taking her hand.

On her other side, her stuffed frog dangled close to the ground, and she looked at his little yellow spots with interest even though she'd had the frog for a long time and was well-acquainted with his full appearance. John sighed above her and Anna looked up at him curiously, craning her neck so she could see her father's face. He was doing that thing where he stared intently ahead as if he had a million important things on his mind. Because he was distracted, he was walking fast and not paying attention to her aside from the hand gripping hers. Anna struggled to keep up, running a few steps now and then so as not to fall behind and irritate her father.

"I have to come back here later tonight," John said decidedly. "But I can't take you with me, so, uh, behave yourself while I'm gone alright. You'll probably be asleep the whole time anyway. Won't even notice I'm gone."

His words were directly addressing Anna, yet, somehow, it seemed almost like he was talking to himself. He certainly didn't seem to be consulting her on this decision. He said it like he said everything-- clearly demonstrating through tone and body language that he'd made a choice and expected that choice to be complied with by everyone concerned.

"Yes, sir," she said mutedly anyway, just in case he expected it.

John barely glanced down at her, but he looked satisfied when she caught a glimpse of his expression. Then they were at the truck, and he gave her a boost to the seat. Dean never let her sit up front. Her carseat didn't belong in the front, he said, so neither did she. But John didn't seem to mind. He hadn't even made her buckle her seatbelt since they'd gotten to town and he'd started working the case. He hadn't made her nap consistently either. He was stricter than Dean in some ways, but he completely disregarded the rules in others. Anna kinda liked it, but she kinda hated it. The only reason he let her get away with things was because he was too distracted to say anything about seat belts or naps. He didn't really pay attention to her until he was trying to get her to eat something or he was telling her to come with him to talk to somebody about important hunting stuff.

"How much longer til Dean's here?" she asked into the quiet of the car. It took nearly half a minute before John even acknowledged that she'd spoken, and when he did, he seemed to be snapping out of a trance.

"What did you say?"

"How much longer til Dean is here?" Anna repeated. He'd only called once since they got to town and she was pretty sure that it had been longer than two days since then.

"Few more days."

"How many?" Anna asked.

John didn't answer, gazing out the windshield as they drove through the cloudy afternoon toward the motel room. He had that thinking face on, same as always. Anna pouted at her lap, clutching Halloween tightly in her fists. She heard a tiny pinging sound and looked up interestedly. Little droplets of water spilled a few at a time to decorate the truck's windshield. Slowly, the rain began to fall more quickly, and the raindrops got larger. Anna smiled, bouncing a little in her seat with excitement. She loved rain. It was fun to splash in puddles and feel the rain hit her in the face and get her hair so wet that it got heavy and her curls flattened temporarily and she could wring water out of it. Dean called her crazy for liking the rain so much, but he sometimes let her play in it for a while as long as she would take a bath when she got back inside so she didn't get sick.

They stopped outside their motel room and John swung his door open, then reached across the seat to pull Anna out his door. He ran the few steps to their room door and dug the key out of his pocket, setting Anna on the step momentarily as he fumbled to get the key in the lock. "Can we please play in da rain, Daddy?" she requested in the most polite voice she could muster.

"Don't be ridiculous, Anna. It's freezing out here, and you're not wearing a rain jacket."

Anna thought it was funny that there was a jacket made just for the rain, but she didn't say that out loud. "So?" she asked innocently.

John shot her a look that made Anna cower a little, holding Halloween tightly to her chest. The eaves dripped behind her, and she longed to run around in the rain. But it didn't look like she would be winning this battle, and it wasn't fair, because she'd done everything John wanted her to do. She'd been quiet and good for forever without Dean and without the Impala and without most of her favorite toys. She'd watched TV even though she didn't feel like it, eaten mac n' cheese that didn't taste like Dean's, and stayed out of the way, quiet as a mouse. Yet, every time she asked for anything, she got shut down.

Her little temper flared inside of her as her father swung the door open. "Why tan't we play?" she asked with a deep frown.

"Watch the lip, little girl. Because I said so, that's why." He pointed firmly at the open door and waited for Anna to give in and step inside. She did, but she wasn't happy about it. "It's almost three," John said to himself. "Time for a nap, Crankypants."

Anna glared at the floor in front of her and went to sit on the bed where she was supposed to nap. She had no intention of falling asleep, though. "I am not cranky," she announced as John walked by her. She watched his eyebrows pop up in surprise at the tone she'd taken with him. "I'm mad. It's diff'ent," she informed him with attitude.

John's eyebrows raised even further, but he nearly smiled instead of growing angry. "Are you four, or fourteen?" he joked, thinking of a teenage Sam. Just because I'm a teenager doesn't mean everything I do is because of hormones. I still have feelings. It hurt thinking of Sam, though it shouldn't have. John's smile faded, and Anna didn't smile at all. She set her frog down beside her and crossed her arms stubbornly over her chest. "Take your nap and lose the attitude," he said tersely, then continued on his way to the bathroom.

Anna huffed and flopped onto her side on the bed. She wanted Dean. He wouldn't get mad at her for wanting to play in the rain. He would ask her why she was mad. He would sing her to sleep. He would listen to her and notice her beyond the occasional remark that she hadn't said in the right tone. Her frown became a pout which became a wobbling chin and watery eyes. She didn't care about playing in the rain anymore. She just wanted her brother.

As it were, Anna felt like that sock under the bed. Only Dean bothered to waste time giving it attention.

()()()

She woke to the phone ringing. The numbers on the clock said 00:09. Anna had never seen those numbers on the clock before. She looked around and realized the room was empty aside from herself, and for a moment, she panicked. She'd very nearly started to cry out of fear when she realized that John had told her he would be gone when she was sleeping tonight. Focusing on the phone, still ringing nearby, Anna crawled out of bed and shivered in the cold of the room. It took her a minute to find her father's cellphone, but it was lying on the table in the center of the room.

She could read well enough to recognize her brother's name on the caller ID, and Anna grinned past her tiredness as she flipped the phone open and pressed it to her ear. "Dean!"

"Y-" There was a pause. "Anna? Why did you answer Dad's phone? Wait, why are you up at midnight?"

Anna was undeterred by the questions and kept right on grinning, so happy she was to hear her brother's voice. "Daddy went back to the tennis house for hunting papers."

"The tennis- You mean a... courthouse?"

"Yeah-huh. That sounds right."

"He left you by yourself?"

"I'm a'posed to sleep," she admitted somewhat sheepishly.

"Why don't you go back to bed then, Rugrat. I'll call Dad in the morning. Remind him how to put his phone on silent mode so he doesn't have to leave it at the motel all the time," Dean said, seeming to talk to himself at the end.

"But I wan' talk to you!" Anna exclaimed sadly.

"I just finished up here. I'll be back middle of tomorrow. Right about the time you wake up from your nap. Okay?"

"That's not that long."

"Exactly. Be good for Dad."

"Daddy is grumpy a lot."

"He's not grumpy, kiddo. He's just focused. That's not because of you. It's just because he takes hunting really seriously."

"He don't even like the rain."

"You're the only one on the planet Earth that likes running around in the rain," Dean teased fondly. "Go back to bed now, kiddo. You get grouchy when you don't sleep enough." And John couldn't handle a cranky toddler the way that Dean could. He just got annoyed and strict.

"Will you sing ta me in the phone?" Anna requested shyly. She ran back over to her bed with the phone still in her hand, grabbing a handful of bedsheets to heave herself up onto the bed.

"Yeah, alright," Dean agreed.

Not, Don't be ridiculous, Anna. She smiled. "Thanks, Dean," she said warmly. She hugged Halloween against her chest and fell asleep to Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.

()()()

"Get the lead out," John ordered from the driver's side door of the truck. The door handle was covered in little beads of water as he grabbed it and wrenched the door open.

In front of the truck's bumper, Anna was stepping delicately through a massive puddle created by a dip in the pavement and the drip of the eaves. She swished the water a little with her booted foot, made little splashes by stepping slightly harder into the water.

"Anna. Get in the truck. Now. We don't have time for this."

Anna didn't want to push her father's patience, but she loved splashing in puddles. She heard him start to walk over and knew her time was up. So, as one final hoorah, she jumped up and splashed down fully with both feet, creating a wave of water droplets from all sides that splashed the front of the truck, the step to their motel room, and... John.

"Dammit, Anna!"

"Sorry, Daddy," she said sheepishly, shrinking at his loud, angry curse. "I didden' mean to."

John took a deep breath as if collecting himself, then he plucked her off the ground and set her in the passenger side of the truck. Again, he didn't insist on her carseat or a seat belt. Anna reminded herself that Dean would be back, and she tucked her feet up onto the seat so her knees were against her chest. She set Halloween on the seat beside her and stared out the window as they drove through town.

"Stay here and don't talk to anybody," John said tersely, parked outside the police station a few minutes later. He got out and locked the truck behind him.

Anna sat dejectedly for a few minutes, then got bored of being upset. She picked up Halloween and pretended to play Spies, but there wasn't very much room in the truck cab. She crawled back and forth across the front seat, talking like the characters in Mission Impossible about heists and cameras and climbing up buildings. At one point, while pretending to narrowly miss being blown to smithereens, she accidentally launched Halloween into the backseat. So she did the only natural thing and designed an extraction plan to get him out of the clutches of his 'kidnappers' who didn't exist.

"I'm comin, Halloween," she declared and tried to flip over the seatback. There was a terrifying moment as she went over and realized that she wasn't in control of her landing. She hit her face against the hard plastic of her carseat and then hit the back of her head on the cooler in the footwell before landing on her back. Instantly, she started wailing as a reaction to the startling fall and the pain in her head and chin. "D-Dean," she whimpered in want before starting to wail once more. She hiccupped and sniffled and didn't even try to get up before she heard the driver's door open a few minutes later.

"Anna," her father's voice called. John circled around to the back passenger's side where he flung the door open. His face wrinkled in sympathy when he saw her, face red, bawling and hiccupping. "Hey, hey," he said gently and scooped her out of the footwell gently. "What's the matter? Why're you on the floor back here, huh?" He eased her to rest against his shoulder and let her cry for a minute, patting her back. He smiled awkwardly at a young man passing by who frowned at the crying little girl. "It's alright, Peanut," he promised. "Where's it hurt?"

Anna sniffled and breath hitched several times as she prepared to speak, unburying her face from her father's shoulder. "M-my head," she said. Just seeing her face showed John a red mark on her chin, and he ran a gentle thumb over that mark before moving his hand to the back of her head to feel for any bumps. When he felt nothing, he was relieved. It was just a little bruise, more than likely. She would be fine.

He hushed her quietly and let her cry, and, predictably, Anna calmed just a few minutes later. John bundled her into her carseat and climbed into the front to get them back to the motel. Perhaps it was the exhaustion from having cried so hard, but Anna fell asleep on the way to the motel even though it was only a little after 11am.

()()()

"You talked to the coroner?"

"Only over the phone. Didn't think it seemed appropriate takin' a four year old to a place full of dead bodies."

Dean snorted. "Yeah, that woulda gone over great," he said sarcastically, then grinned when he heard the familiar rustle of sheets that meant Anna was waking up. He glanced that way and watched as a little bolt of lightning shot from the bed and started on a path straight for him. The four year old's movements were slightly uncoordinated seeing as she'd only just woken up, but the thousand watt grin on her face was more noticeable as Dean swung her off the ground and into his arms for a big bear hug. Her giggle filled the air and John smiled, eyes affectionately distant as he watched his children.

Anna without Dean could be annoying, cranky, vulnerable, withdrawn. But Anna with Dean was giggly, bright-eyed, agreeable, and vibrant. Maybe he was doing something terribly wrong leaving the two of them without him all the time, or maybe he was doing something very right.

La Fin