The Runt of the Litter

Garden Variety

Note: Hey, guys! It's a bit on the short side again, and it's late-ish again.

I have exams this week and I work tomorrow and things are just weird and busy and you know. Life. But I'm trying. And I should have a lot more time to write once exams are over and I'm officially done with the semester.

In the meantime, this was requested by no one, and it's just a bunch of relatively normal, day-to-day type moments. Promise I'll be back to requests as soon as I can, and everyone who's waiting, even it's been well over a month (I know it has been for some of you), I appreciate your patience more than I can say, and I will write the chapter asap, I promise you <3

Anna is two, seven, ten, fourteen, and nineteen

Garden Variety

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The air smelled clean, like earth, and it was a welcome change from the kind of environment he was used to inhabiting.

"Sammy, look!" Anna's little, happy voice called.

Sam opened his eyes and looked to his left. Anna was standing at the edge of the front lawn, her hand in Dean's, pointing at something across the dirt road. Sam followed her finger and saw something that made his eyes shine with excitement and curiosity almost as much as Anna's. The field had been empty-nothing but grass, clover, and flowers - when they first arrived. But now there were several cows there, flicking their tails and grazing.

It was rare that they ever got to stop somewhere for something other than a job, but Sam was turning eighteen, and for once their Dad was actually hanging around for a birthday. He'd even offered to go somewhere of Sam's choosing for a day off. Sam had perused the local places, hoping t0 find a not-touristy place that they could spend a day at as a family, and he'd stumbled across the website of a farm run by a guy and his wife and two teenage kids. It had seemed like it would be a nice change of pace, and the second the Impala had pulled into the yard, Sam had known he'd made the right call. Anna had been bouncing in her carseat, and even Dean and their dad had looked excited.

Sam hurried over to stand by his siblings, watching two of the cows bump heads. Anna let out a delighted squeal and hopped up and down. "De, I see!" she begged loudly, drawing the attention of several of the cows, all of whom looked wary at the sight of the little ball of energy that was Anna. Dean let go of her hand and reached down to scoop her up and give her the vantage point she'd asked for. Anna grinned big and started to wave at the cows, many of which jumped back, startled. "Hi, cows!" she squeaked, the word coming out as 'tows' instead.

"You gotta speak the language, kid," Dean told her. Sam smiled a little watching their brother point at the cows. "They don't talk like us, remember? What's a cow say, Munchkin?"

Anna, who had listened to everything Dean said with a serious look on her face, suddenly turned back to the cows. "Moo!" she yelled at them. A couple glanced up at her, appearing bored, and a couple of others took a few steps back. "No talk...." Anna told Dean, pouting sadly.

"They'll talk back," Sam assured her. "They just need a minute."

"Yeah, Rugrat, I bet you have a hell of an accent. They're probably still processing."

Dean set Anna down when she started squirming, and she surprised both her brothers by suddenly plopping down in the grass. Sam marveled for a second at the green beneath them. It was almost stupid how energized all of this made him feel. But they weren't often surrounded by this much nature, except when they were hunting deep in the woods, and that was an entirely different experience.

Sam dropped down beside her. "What is that?" he asked her, watching her smooth the palms of her tiny hands over the blades of grass all around them.