Definitely A Winchester {1}

CHAPTER TEN

"She left." Dakota says, it wasn't hard to piece that together. She's never seen her mother, and after hearing Dean's story, she realizes she was left behind for Dean to raise.

"I'm sorry." Dean whispers, his heart breaking at the fact that his daughter now knows exactly why she doesn't have a mother.

Dakota can hear the pain in her dad's voice, she didn't like the sound of it. She sniffles again and pulls away from Dean's chest, she gives him a watery smile before taking a deep breath.

"It's okay, daddy, we don't need her." Dakota says confidently, she places her small hand on Dean's shoulder. "We've done great without her, we save people, you save people." She corrects herself.

"Damn straight we don't need her." Dean agrees wholeheartedly, he strongly believes his daughter, and that he's done a great job raising her without help.

John helped very little with Dakota, saying if Dean was dumb enough to get a girl pregnant than he needs to take care of the consequences. Sam helped out whenever he could but when he left for Stanford it all fell to Dean which was when he struggled the most. He just lost his brother and was responsible for a baby girl.

"Goodnight, daddy." Dakota mumbles, snuggling into Dean's side and falling asleep within seconds.

"Night, baby." Dean whispers in response, he knows she's asleep but he can't help but respond. He kisses her head gently before closing his eyes to sleep as well.

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In the morning Dean wakes Dakota up early. He tells her to stay put while he goes and questions the Whitshire family about the death at the farm. He makes her recites the rules for staying in the room alone, basically the same rules he had as a kid with the exception of watching out for Sammy.

After questioning the family while dressed as a priest, he opens the front door to leave but nearly runs into Samuel.

"Father." Samuel greets awkwardly lowering her raised fist. "I see you beat me here." He recovers quickly and smiles in faux kindness.

"The Lord is funny that way." Dean responds, casting a glance at the wife who's ushering him out. "Beth Whitshire...this is my associate. Our senior senior priest, Father Cheney." Dean introduces, stepping out of the house and beside Samuel. He places heavy emphasis on the second 'senior' teasingly.

Samuel shoots Dean a glare before turning the Beth Whitshire with a kind smile, holding out the offering he brought. "Please accept our deepest condolences." He says, Dean stands beside him with a small grin.

"Thank you." Beth whispers gently, she takes the small offering and cradles it into her arms, looking at the two men standing at her door.

"Miss Whitshire was just telling me all about Tom," Dean informs Samuel, giving him a look. "And how normal and ordinary things were on the day before his death." Dean emphasizes, giving Beth a warm smile.

"I see," Samuel says. "So you didn't notice anything unusual, ma'am?" He questions, Dean nearly rolls his eyes.

"You mean like my husband's guts fertilizing the back 40?" Beth snaps in disbelief.

Samuel looks at a lost for words, trying his best to scramble for a way to fix his screw up. Dean lifts his eyebrows, almost seeming smug at the way Samuel handled the situation with disaster.

"Excuse me." Dean says, walking away from the awkward silence Samuel created, he gives Samuel a pat on the shoulder.

Dean walks across the front yawn, spotting Mary and making his way over. He spares another glance over his shoulder at the fumbling Samuel.

"Charlie, would you like to tell the father here what you just told me?" Mary asks when Dean gets close enough, the young man leaning against the tree gets wide eyes.

"Dad drank sometimes." Charlie Whitshire admits after a few moments of hesitation. "Sometimes he got rough with mom."

"And that's when the stranger came?" Mary questions gently.

"I just thought he was some bible-thumper," Charlie shrugs, dragging his eyeline to Dean and his costume. "Like you-all." Dean's head rears back slightly in shock at the young man's tone. "He showed up about a week ago."

"Saying what?" Dean butts in.

"Did I want the beatings to stop?" Charlie informs, his eyes wide and his head shaking slight from side to side. "I just thought he was crazy. I didn't think-" Charlie breaks off for a moment before continuing. "And the next thing i know, dad's dead." Dean looks lost in his thoughts for a moment. "Am I going to jail?" Charlie asks.

"You didn't do this, Charlie." Mary soothes the frantic boy gently. Her voice quiet and gentle.

"Did the stranger want something in return?" Dean asks.

"He didn't want anything." Charlie denies.

"Come on, Chuck. He wasn't just handing out freebies, now, was he?" Dean urges Charlie to say something.

"He did say something about coming a-calling 10 years from now," Charlie relents and spills, Dean's eyes turn knowing. "And maybe he'd want something then."

"Something like what?" Dean demands, his anger rising by the minute.

"I don't know, okay?" Charlie cries out, aggravated by the interrogation. "Look, I told you he was nuts." The boy nearly shouts.

Dean exchanges a look with Mary, before she grabs his arm and leads him away from Charlie.

"What do you think?" She asks quietly once they get out of Charlie's earshot.

Dean rubs his chin. "I think he just pimped his soul to a demon," He sighs. "And he doesn't even know it."

Mary looks at the ground before glancing back at Dean. She turns and walks back to Charlie, Dean following behind her.

"Charlie, do you remember what the stranger looked like?" Mary questions gently.

"Yeah." He responds quickly. "Uh...he's about 5'10...white. He was kind of normal-looking, really." He insists.

"Anything else?" Mary presses.

"There was one thing." Charlie gulps.

"What?" Dean jumps in.

"It's just, the light hit his eyes in a weird way, and...for a moment, I could have sworn--" He breaks off.

"What, that they were black? Or red, maybe?" Dean interrupts.

"No, they were yellow." Charlie answers quietly.

Dean's face falls and his eyes harden. "Pale yellow." Charlie continues.

Dean looks over at Mary, keeping his expression under control.

After that they leave the farm pretty soon, Dean races over to the motel to get Dakota before tearing off toward's the Campbell house. Dakota questions him intently on what he found out at the farm but Dean would tell her, his hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles white with the pressure. His posture didn't alert Dakota that there was something off, instead she continued to ask him questions about the case--even though she knew he wouldn't talk about cases with her.

Edited 4/19/19