17 Years Later
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"Natalie! For God's sake, get out here!" Dean called as he leaned against the doorframe, the keys to his beloved impala hanging from his pointer finger.
"Two seconds!" The teenager's voice rang back, and Dean groaned.
"You've had two hours, how much longer could you possibly need?"
"It has not been two hours, old man!"
Dean sighed, rubbing a hand across his forehead. "Keep giving me gray hairs and I will be an old man."
Sam chuckled at his older brother as he walked into the room, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Oh, come on, Dean. This is her last first day of high school, let her be excited."
"I don't mind her being excited, Sammy, what I mind is when she takes forever and a half to pile on a bunch of makeup that she doesn't need." Dean said, throwing a hand into the air.
"Actually, my dear father, you have grown out of the zit face. I haven't." Natalie said as she finally stepped out of the bathroom, her blonde locks whisking behind her as she threw her arms around her father's neck from behind and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
"Hey, I had zits in high school too. You never saw me piling on makeup." Dean said, arching an eyebrow.
"Oh, I don't know, Dean. I might've seen it once or twice." Sam joked, making Natalie snort out a laugh and earning a glare from his big brother.
"Get in the freaking car." Dean grumbled, shaking his head as he made his way out the front door.
Sam rolled his eyes and smiled over at his niece as she scooped up her messenger bag and slung it over her shoulder. "You excited?"
"Excited, anxious, kind of sad."
"What? Why sad?"
"It's my last year of high school," Natalie shrugged. "I guess I'm just kind of sad that it's already coming to an end, you know?"
Sam smiled softly. "How do you think your dad and I feel?" he joked, slinging an arm around the younger's shoulders. "I still remember when you were four and were begging me to play Go Fish with you."
Natalie grinned up at her uncle. "And I kicked your ass every time."
Sam rolled his hazel eyes and ruffled his niece's hair, making her laugh and swat at his hands. "Come on. Let's go."
The two younger Winchesters made their way out to the car and Natalie hopped into the backseat, leaning forward so she could rest her chin on her father's shoulder.
"Can we listen to Bohemian Rhapsody?" she asked, and Dean wrinkled his freckled nose.
"You want to listen to Queen on the way to your first day of senior year?"
"Unless you'd rather play the Panic at the Disco version than yes."
Dean rolled his eyes, but popped in the cassette tape nonetheless. "You're impossible."
The blonde grinned, pecking her father's cheek before settling into the back seat and grabbing her book out of her bag. "I get it from you."
"Touché."
"Where's Cas? I thought he wanted to say bye before I left?" Natalie questioned as her uncle climbed into the passenger seat.
"I don't know. We've been calling him since two days ago. No answer."
"That sucks. Should I try to call him?"
"You can. I don't think it would do any good though."
Natalie pouted slightly. "Oh well. I'll see him when I see him."
Before Natalie was 12, she never had any concept of the supernatural aspect of life. Dean had done everything he possibly could to keep her away from hunting. Even when John passed away at the hands of a demon, he told her that it was a heart attack that caused his death. He made the mistake of telling Denise about the hunting portion of his life and her life ended the same way his mother's did. Not to mention Jess, Sam's girlfriend from his time at Stanford, who didn't know anything about the Supernatural and still ended up dead at the hands of yellow eyes.
When he and Sam were out on "business," Natalie spent her time with Bobby and the occasional day with Jody when Sam and Dean needed some backup. As far as Natalie knew, her father and uncle were detectives for the local police department. She was completely in the dark. At least until Dean's lies caught up to him.
When Natalie first leaned about the supernatural, she was being held hostage in the basement of an old warehouse by a Djinn, causing mass hallucinations as the life was sucked from her. But she'd be lying if she said the world she was transported to wasn't incredible; she had her entire family. Her mother, her father, her grandparents, and her uncle. Everything was perfect. That is, until people started dying in her imaginary world.
People from her school, people from the local diner; everybody was dropping like flies. If it wasn't for her father rescuing her, she would have been next. Of course, at that point, it was pretty difficult for Dean to bullshit his way through this one. And out came the truth.
Not four months later, Dean was sent to hell. The first time.
After that, she demanded her uncle teach her how to hunt. She wanted to kill every last demon she could find for sentencing her father to such torture. She wanted to help find a way to get him back; she figured if she could talk about demons and hell in front of her family and not be considering a complete psycho, anything was possible.
Considering she was 12 when all of this was going down, she of course was just put on research duty. She didn't go on her first hunt until she was 15.
Dean knew that there was no way he was going to talk his daughter out of wanting to hunt, but he could encourage her to do more. He wanted her to graduate high school. He wanted her to go to college, to find someone and settle down; he wanted het to have the "apple pie" life that he never had. That Sam almost had until Dean pulled him back in. He didn't want to make the same mistake again.
"What are you reading this time?" Sam asked, meeting his niece's eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Clockwork Prince."
"Again?" Dean questioned as he started down the road, raising his eyebrows.
"I'm using a different book mark this time?"
"Wow. Ambitious."
"You're so mean to me."
Dean chuckled, shaking his head. "You love me."
"Sure, old man. Whatever helps you sleep at night." Natalie joked, propping her feet up in between her father and her uncle's seat.
"You have five seconds to get your filthy shoes off my Baby's seats."
"Okay, mean. I bet if I just had socks on you wouldn't be saying that. You're so prejudice against shoes, gosh, Dad."
Sam laughed. "And you wonder where she gets her attitude."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Feet off. Now."
Natalie groaned, putting her feet back down and crossing her legs underneath herself. "Fine. Happy?"
"Ecstatic."
"You're so mean to me."
"So I've heard." Dean pulled the impala up to the curb of the brick building, putting the car in park before looking back at his daughter. "Okay. You got everything?"
"Yep."
"Your bag? Pencils? Books?"
"Got it all."
"What about your phone? Do you need a charger?"
"Dad," Natalie sighed, leaning on the middle of the bench seat. "We go through this every year. I'm good. I have everything, I swear."
Dean nodded, sighing gently. "Yeah, okay."
"Hey, let me get a picture of you guys." Sam said, tugging his phone out of his pocket.
Dean groaned but obliged as Natalie draped her arm's around her father's neck, leaning her head on his.
"Try not to look too much like grumpy cat." she teased, laughing when her father elbowed her playfully.
Sam grinned, pointing his camera at the two. "Smile!"
The two flashed bright smiles at the younger Winchester brother, pulling away when the camera clicked.
"Okay, I have to run." Natalie said, slinging the strap of her bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you guys later." she said, pressing a kiss to her uncle's cheek and then her father's before opening the back door.
"Hey!" Dean called, making the girl turn her head to look at him. "Be safe, okay?"
"Aren't I always?" Natalie grinned. "I love you!"
Dean smiled softly, watching after his daughter as she shut the door and walked up the steps of the high school. "I love you too, baby girl."
A/N- THAT'S RIGHT. IT HAPPENED. CHAPTER ONE IS FINALLY HERE.
Thank you so much for being so patient with me!! I finally, FINALLY, after months of brain storming, have an actual idea for this story AND the inspiration to write it.
I have some drafts in for imagines and I'll probably be working on this more today as well, so stay tuned! Thank you again for sticking with me! I love you all so much...no, really. Like I want to hug all of you, THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU BEAUTIFUL HUMANS.
Much love <3 ~Hayden