Note: Alright, babes <3

I revised this chapter today. I wanted to fix up some of the older stories in this series to read more like some of the newer ones. Anna's character has developed a lot since I wrote this, so there was a lot of editing work to do. I also added one scene and rewrote another one. So there's some fresh content in here for you <3

Anna and Kate are both fifteen.

This is How Families Fall Apart

Anna hung up the call and pulled her phone slowly away from her ear. For a minute, she just stared at it in her hand. Her eyes were drooping with exhaustion, and her stomach hurt somewhere that couldn't be reached. 

Her mind buzzed with questions about love and family and loyalty, and she couldn't come up with a single answer. She'd spent days trying.

And it didn't make sense, any of it. It was Kate's family that was splintering, not hers.

She didn't know what to do, but Anna did know that she couldn't just stay there alone in her room. She was downright sad, and a little scared, and she needed someone there. Nearby, at least. Hell, maybe... maybe someone could help her answer a few of those million questions she had swirling around in her brain.

Anna pressed her palms against the soft fabric of her bedsheets and pushed herself upright. The soles of her feet brushed repeatedly against the cold floor of the bunker as she walked down the long hallway in her socks. There was a warm light emanating from the door to the library, and she followed it. A little light, a little warmth, both sounded nice.

Sam was there, laptop open and focus evident. His shoulders were hunched as he leaned toward his computer screen. It was an instant comfort, seeing such a familiar scene. It was almost a warm enough image to make Anna smile.

But she remembered Kate's unsteady voice in her ear, and all the questions came back. All the sadness came back.

Anna inhaled deeply. This sucked, and it was going to be hard. But Sam was a total genius. He was sure to have some answers for her, and maybe he could help her find some peace of mind about this whole thing. Maybe he could tell her something that she could pass on to Kate. Slowly, she let the breath out as she walked into the library. She sat wordlessly in the chair by Sam's.

Anna stared at her brother for a minute, at his sharp nose and focused eyes that flicked her way once and then focused back on the laptop screen. She thought about just sitting there in his company without asking a thing. She felt marginally better just being near him. She felt safer, though she'd never been in danger. This whole thing was so stupid. 

"Can I help you with something, Ladybug?" Sam asked after a minute. He had a faint, amused smile on his face.

Anna decided that she was going to say no. This was Kate's family, not hers. She didn't get to feel freaked about any of this. She didn't get to be confused. She just had to be a supportive friend and fucking deal with it. But her mouth, as per usual, made its own decision, independent of her brain. She asked, "As an adult, you have, like, life knowledge and stuff, right?"

It came out so clumsily that Anna was surprised when Sam didn't start laughing. In fact, he looked pretty serious when he closed his laptop and swiveled in his seat. Anna had his full attention, and that was comforting, but it made her stomach ache too. 

"I guess so," Sam replied. "I mean, that depends what 'life knowledge' entails."

"Good, cause, like, I'm really confused, and I don't know what to do."

As her voice shook nervously, Sam looked like he was itching to reach out and comfort her. A hug or even just a pat on the arm. Physical touch was one of the Winchester comforts. But he stayed put, and Anna was glad for it. She didn't need a hug, she needed some answers. Then maybe a hug once her mind was clearer.

"What's the matter?" he said instead.

Anna shifted nervously in her seat. She looked down at her socked feet and fidgeted, her ankles curling around the legs of her chair. "Kate's parents," she started and swallowed. 

She shouldn't say anything. She knew she shouldn't. This was Kate's secret, and she'd trusted Anna with it, and it was messed up to go around telling people about it. But she was tired and frustrated and blue, and she'd spent days trying to deal with those things on her own. It was time to find her strength again. She couldn't be the best possible friend to Kate if she was busy tailspinning herself.

"Kate's parents are splitting up," she finally said. "And she's... she's not taking it well. I mean, the other day, we were on the phone, and I thought- I thought she was gonna run away or something. She was just so freaked out, and I could hear yelling in the other room. And she's dealing with this almost every night now. And last night, she said-" She cut herself off. If she told Sam about this last part, she wasn't sure what he would do with it. And she couldn't betray Kate by taking a chance that he would react badly.

But Sam, for his part, was listening without judgement, his eyes fixed seriously on Anna's face. He had an air of calm about him that helped to soothe her frayed nerves. "Anna, whatever you tell me doesn't leave this room unless it has to," he said, promising without really promising.

Anna blew out a heavy breath and held Sam's eyes for a minute. He was telling the truth, she could see it clearly in his eyes. But she wasn't sure what his definition of something that 'had to' leave the room was. "It didn't happen anyway," she justified. "But Kate said last night she thought they would start throwing punches. It just got really bad. And..."

"And?" Sam asked with impressive patience.

"She told me some of the things they've been saying," Anna said. She felt world weary and fatigued, and she wished her brain would let her rest. "And I couldn't say anything. I just sat there. And she needed me to say something, but I didn't know what I could say and I just..." she trailed off and bit the inside of her lip. 

Kate was her best friend in the world. Her only friend. And Anna was failing her every single day, because she didn't know how to help with any of this.

Sam moved his head down so he could catch his sister's eyes. "Anna," he called gently. It was as though he could sense that Anna hadn't said everything she wanted to. "What else?"

Hearing Sam's question, Anna's eyes welled with tears. The root of her sadness strolled into the front of her brain, and she sniffled. "She doesn't have anyone," Anna said. "Kate goes home at night and it's to two people who are supposed to love her more than anything, and all they do is scream at each other. She's scared, Sammy. And I think... I kinda am too."

"Hey, c'mere," Sam offered. He stood up, towering a few feet over Anna's head, and gently pulled her to her feet.

Anna gratefully wrapped her arms around her brother's waist and rested the side of her face against his chest. It made her feel warm and secure, if only for a moment. It hurt knowing that this, right here, was exactly what Kate needed. And Anna was the one getting it.

"You ok?" Sam asked and placed both hands on Anna's shoulders. He pulled gently away and used his thumb to brush a tear from under her eye. 

Anna nodded and scrunched her nose. She hated crying, especially in front of people.

"Alright, sit down," Sam requested, and sat back down himself so they were facing each other. "There are a lot of things about this that you're not gonna get," he said.

Anna made a sour face. She knew she was a kid in his eyes, but this was serious stuff, and she wasn't stupid.

"Listen to me for a minute," Sam requested and tweaked her chin to get her to look at him again. "You're not gonna understand it because there's nothing to understand. Sometimes people just can't keep making things work."

That was weak. "But- But that's so stupid! They're her parents."

"I know. And it's wrong that they're scaring her so much. I'm just saying that if you're looking for some big reason that you can pinpoint as to what's going wrong, you're not gonna find it. And spending every waking hour trying isn't gonna do anything but drive you crazy."

Anna frowned deeply, her lips thinning with frustration. "That's not right," she denied. "Families don't fall apart like that."

Sam sighed and looked sympathetic. "Anna, I know how hard this is, but I'm serious. Just like people fall in love and out of it again without ever getting married, sometimes people get married before they realize they're falling out of it."

Seeing the frustration on Anna's face, Sam squeezed her hand.

"But I can tell you something else that might be a little more comforting. This, right now, is as dark as it gets. Even if Kate's parents don't love each other the way they used to, they still know each other and they still love their daughter. Pretty soon, things will start getting better. They'll figure out what they want, and they'll stop fighting so much."

"How soon?" Anna asked urgently. She wished Sam could just tell her 'tomorrow,' but she knew he wouldn't. Nobody could pinpoint a date for this.

Sam smiled, but it was a little bit too sad to really be called a smile. "I don't know," he admitted.

Anna sighed. Her stomach still ached somewhere deep inside, but her thoughts were slowing down. "Thanks," she said quietly and gave Sam a pathetically sad and tired look. 

He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "You're welcome, Honey."

()()()

Dean arrived back home with two bags of groceries, a six pack of beer, and takeout for dinner around seven o'clock. Anna was sitting silently at the kitchen table when he walked in to start putting the groceries away.

"Hey, Rugrat."

Anna nodded a greeting to her older brother while struggling to make her mind focus on the math problem in front of her. She had a hard time with math on a good day. And this wasn't a good day. The fact that she couldn't even manage to fully concentrate on her homework made it even less likely that she would do well on it.

"You alright, kiddo? You look stressed." Stepping up behind her, Dean dropped a kiss on the top of Anna's head and leaned over her shoulder to see what she was working on. "I understand now," he quipped. "You're doing math." He moved back over toward the fridge and continued putting groceries away. "Put that away for a minute, Munchkin. I got dinner," he said and closed the fridge door.

Anna did as she was told, pushing the paper away. She got up slowly, feeling an ache in the back of her legs from having sat so tensely in her chair for so long. As Dean walked toward the library with the takeout in one hand, she ducked under his free arm. He was warm and smiling, and he dragged her into a loose headlock that made Anna wrinkle her nose. It was all so familiar and comfortable that it made the pit in her stomach retreat for a minute.

"Hey," Sam greeted as they stepped into the library. "You're late. Something happen?"

Dean and Anna exchanged a look. Sam was such a mother hen. "Yeah, it started raining," Dean explained.

Anna rolled her eyes. Dean didn't drive slowly in the rain. He was a good driver, and they all knew it, but he wasn't exactly uptight about speed limits. He had probably taken the time to flirt with the cashier at the gas station again. He was super into that lady. "What'd you get?" Anna asked and hopped up to sit on the edge of the table beside Sam's laptop.

"Long as it's not pizza again, I don't think it really matters," Sam threw in. He shut his laptop and gave Anna a look demanding that she get off the table. Unsanitary or whatever. He always hated when she sat on tables and countertops and literally anything that wasn't a chair. He always said it was impolite. But Anna didn't give a crap about being polite, and she didn't understand why Sam would either.

"Hey, I had gift cards," Dean rationalized. 

It was true. Some dude the boys had saved on their most recent case had given them $100 in gift cards to a popular pizza place with locations all over the United States. Fortunately for Dean, there was one right at home in Lebanon, Kansas. Unfortunately for his siblings, he'd made the decision to use the gift cards all in a week's time.

"That probably wouldn't have expired until next year," Anna pointed out. Really, she was just grateful that the stupid things were gone. One more night of pizza, and she would have developed a permanent aversion to the stuff.

"Whatever," Dean said and started pulling out takeout boxes. "It's Chinese." 

Anna knew he was waiting for the usual squeal, 'dibs on the orange chicken,' from her. But none came, because her heart wasn't in it. He handed her the carton with her favorite anyway and gave Sam his food as well.

They all ate in relative silence for a little while, their minds all separate. Then Billie Jean started to play, disrupting everyone's thoughts.

 "It's Kate," Anna explained immediately upon recognizing the song. She got two strange looks in response and blushed. "It's an inside joke," she said of the ringtone. She set her dinner down, only a quarter of it gone, and stood to answer the phone. "Hey," she said while stepping out of the library and into the hallway.

"Can I come over?"

The loud, shaky request caught Anna off guard despite everything that had been going on lately. Somehow, after her earlier conversation with Sam, she had entered a sort of world where everything seemed like it might be ok, like maybe things weren't as bad as they had seemed. "What happened?" she asked, not even realizing that she hadn't answered the question. Her heart was beginning to pound in her chest at the knowledge that something really, truly terrible might have happened.

Was Kate okay? Were her parents both okay? Was she going to run away?

"I can't keep listening, Anna. I went out the back door and I'm halfway to the bunker. Just please tell me I can come over."

"Of course you can," Anna blurted. She should have asked the boys first, she knew. But she wasn't taking it back now.

"Your brothers won't mind?" Kate asked, her voice quivering.

Again, Anna's mouth got away from her. "Don't worry about them. They'll be fine with it."

"Thank you," Kate said, sighing heavily. "Anna, I feel sick. My dad was yelling so loud when I left. And my mom was throwing things. I don't even want to know what they're doing back there. They could be hurting each other."

"Don't think like that, Katie. I'm sure they're not gonna go that far."

"I hope not," was all Kate said. "I'm driving. I should probably hang up."

"You can make it ok?"

"I'll be fine," Kate promised, and the line went dead.

Anna stared down at her phone and was reminded of when she was left in the same position a few hours prior. 

Kate was in serious trouble, and Anna was the only one standing between her best friend and a couple of angry parents. She didn't feel ready for any of this. She didn't feel like she understood the threat well enough to protect her friend from it. But it wouldn't be fair to Kate if she didn't try her very hardest.

She took a calming breath and headed back into the library.

"Kate's coming over," Anna said, and was disappointed when her voice didn't sound very strong.

Dean gave me a strange look. "That's kinda short notice, isn't it?"

Anna shrugged and didn't look at him, instead moving her food aside and sitting on the table. She looked at her phone again, half expecting another frantic phone call. Kate was already on her way, so there wasn't really much else that could happen. But the fear was still there.

"This have anything to do with-" 

Anna looked sharply at Sam, a silent order to shut up.

"Ladybug, her parents-"

"It doesn't matter, Sam. She needs a place and I'm not gonna tell her to go back there." She was Kate's best friend, and she wasn't about to turn her away. Anyway, Anna wasn't very pleased with Sam. He'd just finished promising her that everything would be alright, and here Katie was fleeing home because it didn't feel like home anymore.

"Can someone, maybe, fill me in here?" Dean inquired, setting down his food and looking between his siblings.

"No," Anna snapped at the same time Sam started to explain.

"Kate's parents are-"

"Sam, stop it," she said angrily, though it sounded a little more vulnerable than anger usually did.

"Hey," Dean cut in.

Anna looked up without moving her head. She didn't want to see the stern look he was almost definitely giving her. She wished she could tell him this wasn't his business. She wished she was old enough to ask them to just trust her and leave her to deal with this.

"Her parents are fighting," Sam finished explaining to Dean, though Anna could still feel his eyes on her. "Sounds like they're getting divorced."

"Not divorced, just... separated," Anna corrected, her voice trailing off at the end. She hadn't meant to even make the correction. It had just sort of slipped out. Her mouth was really screwing her over today.

"Is she ok?" Dean asked, voice softer now.

"Oh yeah, she's great," Anna answered sarcastically, though she knew he didn't deserve the aggression. "That's why she's coming over here out of the blue."

"She didn't tell her parents?" Dean asked. Something about the question, or maybe the tone he asked it in, made Anna wary.

"No," she mumbled. 

She realized quickly that she probably shouldn't have let that detail out. 

There was a pinging sound, and Anna opened her texts to see one from Kate. "She's here," she said and hopped off the table. She hurried up the stairs and pulled the door open with herculean effort.

Kate's brown hair was messy, but her brown eyes were somehow even messier. Anna hugged her friend tightly the moment she could, and Kate leaned into it.

"Kate," Anna said, her voice gentle. But she didn't have anything else to say. Nothing helpful at least. She hoped that maybe just being there and listening... Well, she hoped it was enough. It was all she had.

"I'm sorry," Kate mumbled and pulled back. "I know I kind of put you in a bad position, but I had to get out of there, and..."

"Don't worry," Anna cut her off. Kate didn't need to be concerned with anything else right now. She certainly didn't need to feel guilty for seeking a little comfort. Hell, Anna had been doing that all evening, and she wasn't the one whose family was falling apart. "You needed to be here, so you're here. Come on." 

Anna snatched Kate's hand and led her down the stairs and through the library, ignoring the looks Sam and Dean were giving her. 

She had sprung this on them exactly the way Kate had sprung it on her-- with a 'please' and a 'but I need this'. 

But she knew they'd understand. They had to.

()()()

"Anna, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm freaking out."

"I know," Anna said softly. She looked over at Kate and grabbed her friend's hand where it rested on the mattress between them. "I get it. I would freak out too."

"Yeah," Kate murmured, and Anna wondered if she'd said something wrong. "I'm just... I can't believe them," Kate said and suddenly pushed off the bed. She was restless with anger as she shook her head and flipped her hair out of her face. "They fight like kids. I swear, sometimes it feels like I'm the only adult in the house."

"That's shitty," Anna said quietly. "Just cause you're mature doesn't mean they should be toddlers."

"Exactly," Kate snapped. Then she sighed miserably and sat back down on Anna's bed again. "They're scaring me, A," she admitted. "I mean, I never know what's gonna happen next. One minute, everyone's pretending we're fine. The next, my mom is throwing my dad's shit at him, and he's calling her all these awful things. It's... it's scaring me."

"I know," Anna told her softly. 

She could feel her fingers getting cold, and her heart was beating fast. She couldn't pin down why she felt so fucking nervous, but she really did. She forced herself to focus on Kate. That was the whole point, right? She was trying to be a decent friend, and she knew she wasn't very good at it. But she loved Kate, she really did. So she had to help somehow. 

She waited for Kate to keep talking, but it seemed like maybe she was finished for now. "Do you wanna keep talking, or do you wanna distract yourself?" she asked.

"I don't know," Kate whispered and buried her face in her hands. "I'm so confused."

That Anna did understand. She gently put her arm around Kate and laid her hand against her friend's shoulder.

Kate tilted her way, and Anna lay back. They wound up both lying on the bed, Kate's head resting on Anna's arm as she started to cry. The sadness seemed to build and build until it reached a crescendo. 

When Kate's tears finally stopped, Anna felt like she needed to let out some of her own. But she would wait. She had to wait.

()()()

It only took half an hour before Dean knocked on her bedroom door. "Hey, Rugrat," he said and nodded toward the hallway. "I need to talk to you." He waved amicably at Kate and gave her a kind smile.

Anna was overcome with dread. She'd known this was coming. She closed her bedroom door behind herself and let Dean lead her down the hallway a little ways.

He took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes. His face was soft with sympathy, but his eyes held a note of sternness. He had made a decision already, and Anna was afraid she knew what it was.

"Rugrat, I know this is hard," Dean said, "but she can't stay here without letting her parents know."

Anna immediately protested. This night was going to go berserk if Kate's parents found out what had happened. "What? No, Dean. You can't. They'll come take her home and she'll have to keep listening to them, and-" She broke off. She didn't know if there was anything she could say that Dean didn't already know. She thought that should have been enough anyway. He should be able to accept that Kate needed to crash here.

"They might let her stay here," Dean suggested.

"They won't," Anna said with certainty. 

Kate's father, especially, was almost certain to want her home tonight. And he was probably going to be pissed off. And hate Anna even more than he already did.

"Even if they don't, Anna, they have to know where she is."

"Dean-!"

"No," he cut her off firmly but not unkindly. He took his hands off her shoulders. "You might not understand this, Sweetheart, but they're gonna be worried to death when they realize she's not there."

"If they notice she's not there."

"That's not fair."

Wasn't it? Anna understood, to an extent, where Dean was coming from. Probably more than he thought she did. If not from an experiential standpoint, then from a logical one, she got it. Parents worry about their kids. Dean would have worried if Anna had run off without telling him where she was going-- as would Sam. But what he didn't seem to understand was how ignored Kate felt through this whole ordeal on top of the stress of realizing her parents hated each other. 

Anna couldn't get past that. To her, Kate feeling safe and being away from that bullshit for the night was way more important than her parents' peace of mind. Especially since neither of them had called yet, which meant no one had noticed she was gone yet.

"Listen to me for a minute," Dean said patiently. His patience was almost as aggravating as his insistence that Kate's parents gave a shit about her. "Sam told me what's been going on. I know this hasn't been easy on her-- or on you. But as bad as things seem right now between her parents, that's gonna change absolutely nothing about how they feel about her."

Anna just stared miserably at her brother. He wasn't going to change his mind, and she knew it. But she couldn't send Kate back there, even against her will. 

"Dean, please." The break in her voice did nothing to convince him of anything other than the fact that she was too close to this. She didn't fight him when he wrapped both arms around her instead of giving in the way she wanted.

He didn't say anything for a minute, and neither did Anna. She'd lost. And Kate was going to hate her when she found out. 

After a silent pause during which Anna hid in her brother's arms, Dean spoke. "I know you don't like this, Rugrat. I don't expect you to. But I'm not askin' your permission. Her parents have to know. I'll tell Kate if you want me to."

Anna sighed and looked down at the floor as they pulled apart. "No, I'll do it," she insisted.

She didn't look at him again, but hurried back to her room where things ended ugly. 

Kate was angry that Anna had told Sam how things were to begin with, let alone that she'd let on about Kate running away tonight. Her anger was pretty obviously more fear than anger, but when Anna followed Kate, begging her to talk to her, Kate didn't even slow down. She just told Anna they could talk when her dad ungrounded her on her thirtieth birthday.

When the bunker door squealed shut, Anna let out one big breath, and with it went her composure. She turned around at the bottom of the stairs and slunk onto the lowest one. Elbows on her knees and head in her hands, she just breathed for a minute.

Her stomach was all twisted in knots. That was her best friend, and she'd just betrayed her in a bout a dozen ways. Kate was mad at her, the boys didn't understand her side of things, and the world was totally fucked that any of this was happening at all. 

Anna got up, threw on a pair of Converse, and went outside.

()()()

It was just after dark. The sky still held a hint of blue in its inky complexion, and Anna marveled at the beauty of the fast appearing stars. There were birds chatting amongst themselves on the telephone line, cars engines rumbling on the road just out of sight, and the air smelled like exhaust and thyme. 

It was where she needed to be, covering herself up with the blanket of the stars. It was place where she could fall apart, because everything else was just so calm and in control. 

Life was crazy. And it seemed to make less sense instead of more as she got older.

Kate's parents were at each other's throats, and Kate was angry at Anna, but all Anna had tried to do was help.

Everything was so fucked. Especially love. Love was the most fucked thing of them all.

Anna had never been in a relationship before, but she knew something about love. She knew it was complicated. She knew that familial love could rip a person apart from the inside out. She remembered losing family members, watching her brothers fight so badly a couple of times that things almost turned violent, and, at times, having no blood relatives within a fifty mile radius. She'd felt betrayed and pissed and safe. Family was complicated.

But she didn't understand this one. She didn't understand how Kate's parents could just ignore her like that. She didn't understand how they could put their anger over their daughter's safety. Hell, they hadn't even noticed when Kate left tonight.

Frustrated tears itched at the backs of Anna's eyelids. 

Maybe the not knowing just made her lucky. 

But Kate's pain was her pain too. And Anna wasn't interested in comfort and warmth if Kate was going to be left in a cold house full of hate.

She remembered Kate's voice in her ear and the angry shouting in the background. She remembered Kate's tearful brown eyes when she'd arrived at the bunker earlier. She remembered Sam's assurance that things would get better soon, and she had a hard time believing it.

"This is it," she said to the stars. "This is how families fall apart."

She hoped there was a way for them to come back together, and she hoped it could happen as suddenly as this had.

La Fin