Millicent Wren Winchester

"God, you are a persistent little shit." he sighed, and I giggled. Dean just looked shocked, he wanted to protect me, but he didn't want to get in the middle, since it could mean he didn't get to go shooting today. "Fine, but it's a long story. It's going to have to wait until we get back tonight, okay." He said, not angry anymore, but making it evident that this was not up for negotiation. I nod in agreement, disappointed, but not willing to argue. "Millie, you need to use your words."

"Yes, Dad." I say, annoyed and looking down at the floor.

"Good," Dad says, pulling my chin up so I'm looking him in the eyes. "Now, what are the rules while I'm gone?" He asks, Dean looks between the two of us, worried about what could happen if I get one wrong, he might not get to go, or worse, he has to watch me be disciplined, but neither are ideal.

I sigh, rolling my eyes a little. For as long as I can remember, Dad has drilled these rules into Dean and me. Still, I look at Dean, nervous. It's not the first time I've been left alone with Sammy, but it is the first time that it's going to be longer than just a few minutes. Dean nods encouragingly, even gives me a thumbs up, letting me know he believes in me. "Rule 1: Take care of Sammy. Rule 2: Nobody in. Nobody out." I take a deep breath, glancing over at Sam sitting in front of the tv. "Rule 3: Don't answer the phone, if it's you, you'll hang up after 1 rings and call right back." I say holding up a finger to count the rings. Dad looks at me as I pause. I look over at Dean, and he mimes rule 4, quiet so Dad doesn't see him helping me. "And Rule 4: no using the stove." I smile happy I got them all, but still a little confused as to why rule four exists, Dean has been using the stove since he was my age, why can't I, but I want to behave so I get my story, so I don't say anything. Dean smiles at me proudly.

Dad smiles, ruffling my hair as he says, "That's my girl." I just push his hand away. "Now, who do you call if we aren't home tonight?" He asks, his final question before he'll leave me with Sam.

"Uncle Bobby!" I say excitedly, I love Uncle Bobby. "His number is by the phone with the address." I smile pointing towards it.

"Now, Millie Wren, have I ever told you how grown up you are?" Dad looks at me smiling. I shake my head, and he just laughs picking me up. "Well, you are so grown up." I've never been as proud of myself since that moment. "Now, follow all the rules, keep your brother safe, we will be back soon." He says as he gets up and walks towards the door Dean following eagerly behind.

Once they leave, and the door closes, I go make sure it is locked, and turn towards the three year old now in my care. "Okay, Sammy," I start walking towards him. "Are you hungry? Or do you want to play?" I ask. He's been quietly watching whatever Dean put on the tv while I was begging to go with Dad. He just looks up at me for a minute.

Once he's had a moment to decide, he reaches his hands up and says, "Uppie." I smile at him, putting my hands on my hips as I do.

"I don't think that was an option, Sammy." He just continues holding his arms up, opening and closing his hands, looking at me with those puppy dog eyes. "Okay, fine, but I still need an answer." I say bending down to pick him up, granted, I have to get him to stand before I can pick him up, but it's fine. "Are you hungry, or do you want to play?" I ask again, getting situated in a way that I can hold him. He's probably within ten pounds of my weight, but I can carry him around with ease once he's settled. Instead of answering, he just shakes his head and points to the tv. He doesn't really talk much unless Dean is around, even then, he tends to be pretty quiet.

"Good, I wanted to watch Scooby-doo, too." I smile at him before setting him back on the floor. "I'll be back in a minute, you may not be hungry, but Sissy sure is." He starts to tear up, looking at me but I point to the tv, and he immediately stops.

Once I'm in the kitchen, I look at the clock on the stove. It says 12:43. Who knows how long Dad and Dean are going to be gone. We don't have much to eat, so I look at our cereal boxes, we have rice crispies, Cheerios, and Wheaties. I decide on Cheerios, and get a bowl out. I pour the Cheerios in the bowl, and go to grab the milk out of the fridge, but decide against it. It'll just be messy, and this way, it's not a big deal sharing with Sam.

I pick up the bowl with both hands, and move towards the tv space. I set the bowl down on the table next to the couch and turn towards Sam who is still sitting on the floor where I left him. "Do you wanna sit on the couch with me Sammy?" I ask, and he nods reaching his hands for me. "Okay," I say walking over to him. "Come here." I say picking him up and carrying him over to the couch. I could make him walk, but I'd have to lift him onto the couch anyway, and besides, he's my baby brother. I set him on the couch and get up after him. I grab the Cheerios, careful not to spill them, and I scootch closer to Sam. We sit like that for a long time, we end up sharing the Cheerios, which doesn't surprise me at all, and I go get another bowl. It doesn't take long for us to finish the second bowl, but I'm not hungry anymore, so I set the bowl back on the table by the couch.

I look over at Sam, we've watched quite a bit of cartoons, Scooby-doo, Ghostbusters, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the Smurfs.  I continue shifting between channels as a show I don't like starts, and we watch He-Man, Voltron, and She-Ra, after She-Ra, I changed channels again, before finding a different episode of Scooby-doo on. I looked over at Sammy, but he was asleep, tucked in to my side. I stay up for a little longer, but fall asleep before the episode of Scooby-Doo is over.

I wake up to the door knob being jiggled, and quickly shut off the tv, not wanting to be heard. I carefully inch towards the kitchen. Someone continues to fumble with the door knob as I grab a knife from the counter and head towards the door.

Before I get there, the door swings open, and I pick my hand up, holding the knife towards the intruders. That's when I hear Dad's voice.

"Great Job, Dean. You barely need any practice." He ruffles the hair on Dean's head, obviously proud of him. Dean is beaming proud that he made Dad proud. Once they are in the doorway, Dad turns and sees me standing in the path between the door and the kitchen. My hair a mess, knife still in hand, and on the edge of tears. He rushes over to me, and Dean closes the door.

"Millie, honey, what happened?" He asks. His voice is stern, but his hands are gentle as he takes the knife. I just start crying, and he pulls me into a hug.  "Dean, find Sam." It's an order, but Dean can hear the worry in his voice as well. He pushes me away from the hug, checking me for injuries. "What happened." His voice is more stern this time.

"Dad, Sammy is asleep on the couch," Dean takes a small breath before continuing. "He's not hurt." Dad relaxes a little, and Dean just stares at me confused.

"Millie, honey, why did you have the knife?" he's calmer when he asks it this time, now that he knows neither of us are hurt.

"Yeah, Millie, what's going on?" Dean asks, he's sincere, but it comes off snarky.

"Dean, go sit with Sam." His voice is hard as he says it. It's not a question, and Dean and I both know it. "Millie," He says, voice softer now, as he moves the hair out of my face. "What happened?" he asks.

This time, I no longer feel like I'm going to throw up if I open my mouth, so I can answer him. "Sam and I.." I'm still crying a little, but I'm trying to be a big girl, be grown up, like Dad said I was.

"Breathe, Millie." He says.

So I do. I take a deep breath and continue. "We fell asleep watching tv." A hiccup interrupts my sentence, and Dad looks at me, nodding to show he's listening. "I woke up, and it was dark, I didn't know how long we'd been asleep, and the tv was still on. I heard the door knob jiggling, I panicked a little." I say, taking another deep breath so as not to overwhelm myself. "I didn't know how long I'd been asleep, and I just-" I hiccup again.

"Hey, Hey. It's okay Millie. Breathe." He says again, demonstrating this time.

I take a couple breaths with him, letting them out slowly. "I didn't know who was coming in. I-I had to protect Sammy." I finish and he pulls me back into a hug.

"Easy, kiddo. You did a good job," he assures me. It makes me feel a bit better. We stand there for a bit, before he figures out it might be a while and stands up carrying me to the couch.

"Is she okay?" Dean asks, worried about me. Dad just nods as he continues to hold me. Before long, Dad tells Dean to bring Sam into the bedroom since he hadn't woken up. Dean sits in there with him, making sure he stays asleep. It's funny. He might love our little brother more than I do.

Once I'm calmed down, (an embarrassingly long time later.) It doesn't take me long to remember my deal with Dad.

Dean is still sitting in the bedroom with Sam, so it just leaves Dad and I in the living area. I'm sitting on his lap still, he's holding me close. That's when I remember the deal.

"Hey, Daddy?" I ask sweetly, and he looks down at me.

"What is it, Millie?" He asks, pulling me up so we can have a conversation.

"You said you'd tell me why you leave us alone, or with Uncle Bobby or Pastor Jim so much." I say confidently. Dad just shakes his head.

"Damn, you are a persistent one. I'd hoped you'd forgotten about that." He sighs.

I shake my head, "Nope!" I say excitedly.

"You're right, I did make that deal, however, I have a couple rules I need you to agree with if I'm going to tell you. Okay?" His voice is soft when he says it, and he really doesn't want to tell her, truth is, he just wanted to make sure Dean could shoot today, so he didn't even really remember making the deal until she brought it up.

I want to just nod, but I don't, knowing that he would just say that I needed to use my words, and maybe be mad enough to make me wait until another time, so instead I nod saying, "Yup, rules." I've been wondering since I was Sammy's age. Dean always told me it's important, and Dad just said he'd tell me when I was older.

"Okay, if you don't like any of the rules, I can't tell you, okay."

"Mhmm." I say nodding. I just want to get the show on the road.

"Okay, Rule 1: You can't tell Sammy, he's too little." I nod as he says it, that makes sense. "Rule 2: Never read my journal." That one strikes me as weird, but I ignore it, I didn't even know he had a journal, so whatever. "Rule 3: If I say to do something no questions, You can't ask any questions. Okay." he's the most serious of seen him.

I nod, "Yes, Daddy, now can you tell me?" I ask getting impatient.

"Yeah, but if at any point you get scared, or want me to stop for any reason, you need to tell me." he says, and I nod again. I'd stand on my head if it meant getting told sooner. He sighs, "Okay, when I leave you guys, I'm out hunting things." He starts seriously.

I tilt my head, "What kind of things?"

"If you'll be quiet I'll tell you." He gently pokes my nose as he answers, and I put my hand over my mouth to keep quiet. "First, there is something I need to tell you." He says, and I nod. "You know how sometimes, Sammy asks me to look for monsters under his bed?" I nod, not seeing what this has to do with anything. "Well, some monsters are real. Ghosts, ghouls, werewolves, all sorts of other things that go bump in the night. Some are more dangerous than others." He looks at me now, gauging my reaction. I must look a little scared because he continues with, "But you don't need to be scared, okay, because I hunt them. I save people from them." He says.

I think for a minute before I ask, "Are vampires real?" He looks at me surprised.

"They used to be, but people like me, Uncle Bobby, and Paster Jim took them all out." He smiles at me.

"So, you're helping people. Protecting people, that's why it's important." I say matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, that's right, Mills, that's why it's important." He looks at me, kind of in shock.

"I want to help people too." I say, determined and very serious.

Dad just chuckles at me, "Of course you do," he ruffles my hair. "But you are just a little squirt. You'll have to wait until you're older." I frown.

"Why?" I start pouting.

He lifts my head up to look at him, "Someone has to take care of Sammy."

"But-"

"No 'buts'" He interrupts me.

"What about Dean?" I ask.

"Dean is older, and I haven't brought him along have I?" He asks me, I just look at him incredulous.

"What about today?" I ask as if it was obvious.

He just laughs at me. "We didn't hunt anything today. I just took him to practice."

"I wanna practice." I say in a small voice.

He rolls his eyes, "Of course you do." He looks at me, and he was planning on saying no, but the look in my eyes changes his mind. "Soon, Millie, Soon." I smile.

"Thanks Daddy!" I lean in throwing my arms around his neck.

"Yeah, Yeah. Now it's time for bed." He says pointedly. I know he's not wrong, it's way past my bedtime, and obviously I'm not sad anymore, so I can go to bed, but I start to pout again.

"I'm not tired." I whine.

"You always say that, Millie" Dean says coming out of the bedroom from where he was obviously listening to the whole conversation. I just stick my tongue out at him.

"Enough, Both of you." Dad demands, and I see the light leave Dean's eyes, even from across the room, he stands straighter too. I don't understand why, but I don't say anything either.

"Fine, I'll go to bed, but I want a story." I look at Dad when I say it, a mischievous glint in my eye.

He sighs, "Fine, but you have to go get one of the books." He says, pointing at the bag where our three story books are, but I have all of those memorized, so I shake my head. "How am I supposed to read a story, if I don't have a book?" he asks me like I'm being silly, but I just lay back down on his chest and snuggle in.

"Tell me about the first person you saved, Daddy. Please?" I ask looking up at him sweetly. Dean shakes his head, thinking there's no way I could convince Dad to tell me monsters are real, and about his first save in the same day. Dean doesn't even know about his first save.

But Dad chuckles, "You really do have me wrapped around your little finger, and you are definitely too cute for your own good," he sighs. "Fine, but then straight to bed." I nod eagerly. Dean's mouth drops open, as he walks over to us, He comes and sits next to Dad, wanting to hear the story too; plus, it's not his bed time.

Dad looks at both of us and sighs. "Okay, so, my first save. It was summer after your mom..." he takes a shuttering breath. "after your mom died." His eyes are distant as he starts. reliving memories of Mom. So, I hug him, I hold him tightly. "I'd kind of been shuffling around with partners for hunting, but this time, I was working by myself. First time. It was simple enough, just a ghost, nothing to crazy. I left you guys with Bobby. He's always liked looking after you guys, and it was better than leaving a 1, 3, and 5 year-old alone in a motel room. He pauses looking at Dean and I. "So, I drove to a town, small town in Iowa, and started investigating. I learned about some of the people who had died, even paired up with a cop for a while trying to figure out who, or rather what was hurting these people."

"You mean killing them, don't you?" Dean asked, interrupting. I glanced between the two, sensing the tension that was starting to grow, and watching as Dean tensed up a little.

Dad sighs, "Yeah, at first I was hoping it might be the same thing that killed your mom, but it wasn't. It was a vengeful spirit. Some of his friends accidently got him killed. One of them being that police officer I paired with. I didn't save all of them, but I did figure out what happened, and got the name of the guy they got killed as teenagers, and I saved the officer." He finished.

"Really?" I asked not sure I believed it.

"Yeah, really." he said, poking me.

"What was his name?" I asked, curiously.

"His name is Ralph Peterson. He's still a cop in that little town, last I checked. No longer riddled with guilt about the ghost's death. He has a good life, nice wife, and a couple of rug-rats like you two." Dad smiled, I liked seeing him happy. "He got to live happily ever after." Dad looked between the two of us, still smiling. He didn't smile often. He was usually mad, and ended up yelling over little things, or he was just tired. Either way, not much smiling.

I moved to get up, "Where are you going Millie?" Dad asked, as if he wasn't ready for me to leave. Dean looked confused too.

I pointed to the bedroom, "To bed." I glance between the two as if it was obvious. They must have been in shock because they just stared at me, I shrugged, "I made a promise." Dad just nods before pulling me in for a hug.

"Good job, kiddo." I leave the living room, Dean follows behind me. It may not have been his bedtime before, but it is now, and he's not about to disobey, and risk Dad's wrath.

Dad always shared the bigger bed with Sammy, so Dean and I shared the smaller one. We laid down after changing into our pajamas. Changing in front of each other is normal for us (Dean usually had to help me when I got stuck in my shirt. Which happened more than I'd like to admit.) Besides we are siblings, and were children. We had more pressing things to worry about, like the safety of our brother, and ghosts, goblins, and werewolves.

"Hey, Dean?" I ask rolling to face him.

"Yeah, Millie?" He asks quietly, eyes still closed from trying to sleep.

"Are witches real?" his eyes shot open after I asked.

"Yeah, I think so. Why, Millie?" He wanted to be honest with me, but didn't want to scare me.

"I don't know, just curious I guess." I said looking up at the ceiling.

"Okay, well, go to bed. Dad's going to yell at us if we're talking when he comes in here." Dean said rolling over so his back is towards me.

I continue staring at the ceiling, still thinking. "Hey, Dean?" I asked.

"What, Millie?" he questioned, slightly annoyed this time.

"What happens if Dad's out hunting and something gets him?" Dean rolled back to face me, starting to open his mouth. "Or, what if Dad's out hunting, and before he finds it, the thing finds us? How are we going to protect Sammy?" I asked, finally looking at him.

"Well, Mills, first of all, nothing is going to get Dad before he gets it. Second of all, if something finds us, Dad will be right on it's tail, and if he's not, well there's a reason Dad is training me. Okay?" he finished, and I nodded, having felt a little better. "Can we go to sleep now?" he asked. I nodded again, and Dean rolled back over, but something else is still bothering me.

"Hey Dean?" I said, again. he turns back to me, not annoyed, but tired, and not understanding why I'm not.

"What is it Mills?" he asked, again.

"Well, what if something gets through you, and Dad's not right behind it. I need to be able to protect Sammy." I say, and something shifts in Dean's eyes.

"Well, you did pull a knife on Dad and I today, I think you'll be okay." He says looking at me. I just looked down towards my feet. Dean sighed, rolling back over to face me. "Look, if you go to bed now, I'll start helping you practice. That way you are really good with knives. Okay?" He says putting his hand on my arm. I nod and he rolls back over.

I turned towards him, and I knew he meant it, so I scootched over and hugged him from behind. "Thanks, Dee." I say and roll over, so we were facing opposite directions, as a way of having each other's back.

"You're welcome, Millie. Now please go to sleep." Dean's voice started to drift off as he started to fall asleep, in the middle of his sentence. I close my eyes.

I've never had a good relationship with sleep, so even though I closed my eyes, and tried to get myself  to fall asleep, it doesn't work well. For a while I tried just staring at the ceiling until I fell asleep, but that didn't work either. None of my usual methods of getting to sleep worked either.

Eventually, Dad stumbled into the room, practically falling onto the bed, luckily, he was with it enough to not fall on Sammy. His snores quickly joined Dean's. Dean, who hadn't moved since he fell asleep, so my last resort of snuggling with my brother is off the table. Then I got an idea.

Quietly, I got out of the bed, and tiptoed to the kitchen area. I grabbed a knife, and tiptoed back to the room. I crawl into bed with the knife still in hand, I decide to lay on my stomach and hold the knife in my hand under the pillow. Within minutes, I finally fall asleep.