The Runt of the Litter

The Ace Up Your Sleeve

Note: After I posted last week's chapter, this story flew past 100 votes within a few days! Thank you to everyone who reads, votes, and comments. Your support is invaluable. It means the world.

So, this is another of those chapters where you get little snapshots of Anna at all different ages and they're connected by a theme. In order by section, Anna is two, five, seven, nine, twelve, and then seventeen.

I did some quick edits on this today, so if you got an update notification, that's why <3

The Ace Up Your Sleeve

"She's very cute," Sean Rant remarked when John and Dean Winchester showed up at his front door in cheap suits with a two year old Anna sucking her thumb in John's arms. "Who knew a fed could be a family man?"

John cleared his throat and bounced Anna on his hip once. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to bring his little girl with them to speak to a family grieving the loss of their three year old daughter. But Anna made a happy sound, pulling her thumb out of her mouth and reaching for her brother, standing beside them. "De!" she chirped in a sweet voice, and the man holding the door open smiled very sadly as he stepped aside to let them in.

"Yeah, she's a sweetheart, alright," John allowed and bounced the toddler again, distracting her from reaching for her brother. Once they were all inside, Sean closed the door and seemed to be waiting for them to speak first. "About your wife, Mr Rant..."

"Well, she..." The young man's face had gone somber, and he seemed to be gathering himself. He met John's serious gaze and said, "Look, she wouldn't talk to the police. I guess they just couldn't get through to her. She's beside herself. I mean, so am I... I just can't believe..." he trailed off and stared absently at Anna's little blonde curls. "She was just a baby."

"I am very very sorry for your loss, Mr Rant. I can't imagine," John said honestly. Subconsciously, he held Anna just a little bit tighter. "If we could ask you and your wife a few questions?"

"I wasn't here. I worked late that night," Sean explained shortly and gestured toward a short hallway. "She's in Laura's room. Has been since... You can talk to her, but I doubt she'll say anything to you."

"Thank you," Dean piped up from beside his father. "We'll find whoever did this, Sir. They won't get away with it."

Sean turned around, looking close to tears as his face crumpled a little. He didn't speak, probably because he refused to cry in front of two FBI agents. He just walked away down another hallway and a door could be heard creaking shut.

"Take your sister and talk to the mother. I'm goin' upstairs with the EMF reader," John said distinctly, no room for argument. He handed Anna to Dean, and she went willingly, babbling about nothing they could understand as Dean answered with a succinct yes, sir.

Anna's little hands patted her brother's clean-shaven face as they entered the deceased child's bedroom. It was like something out of a nightmare, entering a room full of zoo animal bed sheets, dolls, games, and soft, pastel colored everything to see a woman in her mid-twenties clutching a little stuffed rabbit in both hands and staring dead-eyed at its furry yellow ears. "Mrs Rant?" Dean called gently. He wished his geek brother hadn't had to go to school that morning, because Sam was really a hundred times better at having heart to hearts with grieving witnesses. "Your name is Adriannah?" The woman looked vaguely over her shoulder, but she said nothing, not even turning her head far enough to actually see Dean or the toddler he was holding.

Dean was actually really nervous about how this grieving mother would respond to seeing a toddler right now anyway, so he was grateful she had yet to lay eyes on Anna. That gratitude went right out the window when Anna suddenly started to hiccup and then sob where she was resting on Dean's hip.