The Runt of the Litter

Nobody's Daughter

Note: Happy Saturday! This makes chapter thirty. That's pretty cool. Thank you to everyone who's read, voted, and commented. Your support of this story is motivating on my worse days and heart-warming on my better ones. Thank you!

This chapter is quite bittersweet, so I hope you're ready for it. Quick warnings: There's not much Dean in it, and it has a lot to do with John (though he's not in it either). In this chapter, Anna is fourteen years old.




Nobody's Daughter

"You gonna go?" Kate asked, stuffing the little flyer a student council member had handed her into Anna's hand.

Anna glanced up at her in surprise and then looked down at the flyer in her hands. It took her all of three seconds to scan the flyer and make up her mind. "Nope," she answered grumpily and crumpled the flyer up in both hands.

"Oh, come on, Anna. I know you don't... Look, I don't want to, like, overstep or anything," Kate said delicately, and without her even finishing the sentence, Anna knew where this was going. "Because I don't know what it's like to not have parents but... You need to have some fun, and I guarantee you that Dean would take you to this."

"It's a father, daughter dance, Kate," Anna pointed out distinctly. She opened her locker to pull out her backpack and stuff the books she'd used for last period inside her bag. "I don't have a father. I'm disqualified. It's that simple."

The look that appeared on Kate's face was crushingly sad and sympathetic, but it morphed into careful frustration after the air had time to clear. "No, it isn't," Kate argued. When Anna glared sharply at her for debating something so personal, she raised her hands in surrender and took a physical step backward to indicate that she was backing off. "I'm not trying to push you into anything. I'm just saying that I don't think you should write it off like that, because it could be really fun and, again, I guarantee that Dean would take you."

Anna wanted to continue making the same argument-- without a father, she could hardly attend a father daughter dance. Instead, she tried another angle. "Dean is... Dean's not home right now. He won't be back by Saturday."

"Well, then ask Sam." Anna didn't answer, because she had no answer. "Unless he's gone too?" Kate challenged, looking like she thought she'd won the argument.

Instead, Anna grew irritated at her friend's suggestion. "What is this, a lost puppy ad? Somebody please adopt me," she mimicked pitifully. Anna hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but there was a sharp pain that appeared deep inside of her whenever she was confronted with the fact that she was an orphan. It was even worse when she was directly confronted with the fact that her father was dead. But Kate hadn't meant to hurt her, and anyway, Anna knew she should be over that pain by now. It had been almost seven years since her father was killed. She blew out a heavy breath. "Kate, I'm sorry. It's just, I don't... I don't know how to ask either one of them about something like this. I mean, we don't talk about our Dad. It's been... It's been years and we don't talk about him. We just don't."

"You don't have to talk about him," Kate said gently. "This is about you and them. Not your Dad. It's a chance for you to do something normal and fun. I mean, I don't do hunting and stuff, but I can see how stressed you get sometimes because of it and I really want you to feel good. This could be positive for you and Sam. Don't pretend he doesn't mother hen you all the time anyway."

Anna actually laughed at that as she closed her locker and slung her backpack over her shoulder. "Come on. If I miss the bus again, I'll probably get my ass kicked."

()()()

"Hey," Anna greeted and dropped her backpack by the island in the kitchen.

"Hey," Sam said, glancing over his shoulder at her.