In which Olivia has to hear some bad news.

[jstliketherifle]

[Set in Feel the Noise. Cowritten with likely_evil. Olivia is growinup_crazy, Lisa is hisgumbygirl.]

It was dinnertime when Sam had called his daughter downstairs at least a few times with no answer. Dean of course was not going to help, out again. He sighed, heading upstairs in the three bedroom house that the Winchesters owned now, retired - mostly - from the hunting business and trying to act like civilians... as much as they could. Which meant that Sam cooked, cleaned, and basically cleaned up after his daughter and brother...

He tried to ignore the fact that their neighbors through they were a gay couple with a child. He really did.

As he got upstairs, he heard music coming from the other side of his daughter's door. He knocked hard and leaned into the crack of the door. "Olivia! Sweetie, it's dinner time."

"Not hungry!" she shouted back over the music. Olivia really wasn't in the mood to deal with her dad at the moment. Dealing with her dad always tended to result in a fight these days, and right now she had a test to study for, friends from school IMing her, and she just wasn't in the mood to have her good mood killed. "Studying. I'll get something from the fridge later.

And then the music got turned up. End of conversation.

Sam just took a deep breath and sighed. It was getting harder and harder to get his daughter to talk to him these days. He tried to take her feelings into account, but she seemed to just jump down his throat and do everything just to test him. He was trying, but raising a teenager was turning out to be the hardest job he could have ever had.

"I made your favorite though, and you know it won't reheat," he shouted, his hand on the doorknob. He wanted to just open it up and walk in but the last time he did that had been a moment that embarrassed them both and had Olivia threatening to put a chain link lock on the inside of her door. "Just come downstairs for five minutes."

Olivia's head came up from her computer, before groaning. "Then I'll make a sandwich or something. Dad, now's really not a good time." Jessica was having a total crisis, and now really wasn't the time to have her dad ask her about school when she was trying to shovel down food and bail. "I've got this huge test to study for."

"And you'll absorb and retain more of what you're studying with some protein and nutrients going through your system than some of the crap your uncle has in the fridge for quick meals." He rested his head against the edge of the door frame. "Please."

"You're not going to go away, are you?" she muttered, before typing in a quick ugh. dad's trying to be dad-like again. brb, before closing the computer and heading to the door. She opened it, giving him a bit of a dry look. "Fine. Let's eat."

"Thank you." He gave her a bit of a pout, because he was just trying to look out for her health and feed his daughter, not like he was trying to lock her a in broom closet and force her to do chores. He did manage to look past her though and notice that her room had been redecorated and tilted his head a bit. "New posters?"

She gave him a look right back at the pout, up until he mentioned the posters and she lit up with a grin. "That's Boaz Ramone. He's this new big rockstar one the radio? He's so incredible. And he has the best hair."

Sam raised an eyebrow at the green mohawk in one of the pictures. "Yeah, for a Mohegan." He tiled his head a bit because there was just something about the rockstar's face that felt familiar. "Was that the stuff you were playing when I came up?" Moving away from her room, he started to usher her downstairs. "It sounds similar to the music your uncle listens to."

"Yeah, well, apparently the eighties are back," she shrugged as she followed him. "It's great music. And he's got such a killer stage presence." And then she proceeded to gush about her newest celebrity crush, but managed to keep out the stuff that Sam didn't want to hear. She knew her dad still looked at her the way she did when she first got given to him at three years-old. And it wasn't like that of a teenager.

Sam would admit he missed the three-year-old. The little girl who hugged his leg and rode his shoulders and would wrap her arms around his stomach every night and say I love you daddy. These days he was lucky to get through a day without a screaming match. He was very aware his daughter wasn't three anymore, and wished sometimes she could remember what it was like back then too, and see why her barbs and thorns cut him deep at times.

He listened to her gush, however, sitting her down and letting her dominate the conversation as he served them dinner, leaving a plate for Dean to attend to when he joined them. "Well, is he performing in town anytime soon? If you want to go, I could get us tickets..."

Us? Oh, Sam. "Us? You want to go to a rock concert with me." The look her father was getting was very clearly skeptical as she pushed her food around her plate.

He tried to look hopeful, then just lowered his eyes to his plate as well. "Yeah, but if you'd rather go with your friends, I get it."

She took a sip of her soda, her face softening a bit. "It's nothing personal, Dad. But a concert like that isn't exactly a father-daughter bonding activity."

"Apparently, nothing is anymore," Sam said softly to himself, getting up to get himself a refill on his glass of water. "Well, if it happens around your birthday or a holiday, let me know and I'll get tickets for you and a few friends as a present, alright?"

"Thanks, Daddy," she said softly, taking a few more bites. "So what're you and Uncle Dean up to?"

"Well, apparently your uncle has gotten sucked into his backlog of Doctor Sexy episodes, and I just finished a research project for some friends out in the midwest. Nothing really big. Just the simple, boring lives." He returned to the table, taking a bite. "What test are you studying for tonight?"

"Bio," she said with a nod. "Big test on genetics."

"Really? Are you doing those little boxes where you try to find the probability of the dominate and recessive genes the two people would pass on to their children?" He perked up a bit since it had been a long time since his daughter had asked for help. She was smart, and he was proud of her for that fact. But he missed those moments sitting next to her and helping her with her lessons.

She nodded. "That stuff's easy. It's the terminology that I have to really nail down, ya know?"

"Well, I'm sure you'll do fine. After all, I've yet to see you get anything less than a B since you were seven." He gave her a small, proud smile.

She ducked her head a bit at that. Because it did mean something that her dad was proud of her somewhere. She just wouldn't admit it. "I think I've got most of it."

"If you need help, just come down and ask, alright?" Which was Sam's silent way of saying that Olivia could leave now if she wanted since she was almost done. "Save me from whatever plans your uncle has for tonight."

She smirked a bit, before pushing herself up and bringing her dishes back into the kitchen. "Now, why would I deprive Uncle Dean of your company?"

"Because you'd be doing me a favor?" Sam laughed, sitting back in his chair. "You don't know some of the stuff your uncle plans when he gets bored. It usually involves me ending up saving him from being arrested."

She laughed. "Yeah, well -- you need a little excitement in your old age."

"Don't start that old age crap with me," Sam stated. "I just turned forty. That's not old."

"It's old enough," she teased.

"I'm still younger than Dean, so he's always going to be older."

"Well, Uncle Dean needs a little excitement in his old age too."

"Your uncle Dean had enough excitement in his younger years to last him three lifetimes." Sam got up to clear his plate, then started to work on the dishes. "A lot of which he dragged me along for. We're good on that part of life."

"Uh-huh," she sighed as the door opened with a bang.

"Sammy? Liv? Anybody home?"

"Have fun," Olivia said with a smirk, dropping a kiss on the her dad's cheek before sprinting up the stairs. "Hey, Uncle Dean."

"Hey, sweetheart," Dean said with a grin as he made his way into the kitchen. "So. No broken furniture, no broken dishwear -- you two managed to make it through dinner without killing each other. You're making progress."

"Something like that," Sam said and pointed at the plate of food still waiting on the table. "You're late again. Please tell me you were at least doing something productive."

Dean paused for a moment as he went to take a seat, before giving his brother a lopsided grin. "My kind of productive, or your kind of productive."

Sam just rolled his eyes. "Forget it, I don't want to know." Finished with the dishes, Sam grabbed his laptop and took his seat again, opening it up. "You wouldn't by chance know a musician called Boaz Ramone, would you?"

"Never heard of him. Why?"

"Well, apparently he's all that Olivia can talk about tonight. I went up to get her for dinner and noticed she had put up new posters all over her room of this guy." As the desktop loaded, Sam opened up the internet to do a simple search on Olivia's new obsession. "I looked at his picture and I swear I've seen him before."

"Oh yeah?" Dean raised an eyebrow before picking up his plate and moving to sit next to his brother. "Maybe we met him on a case or something."

"Maybe." He pulled up a few pictures of the kid and looked at them closer. "I swear I know this face..." He turned to look at Dean, then stopped and looked back at one of the photos of the musician with multicolored mohawks and piercings. He looked back and forth a few times, then leaned back. "No, that isn't possible..."

Dean stared back at his brother for a minute, chewing on his mouthful of food. "What?"

Sam pulled up a picture on his laptop of Dean and Olivia when both of them were a lot younger than he was now. He put the picture side to side with the picture of this Boaz Ramone and then started to laugh. "Oh, this is not good. Olivia is not going to be happy with you."

Dean glanced back and forth between the two pictures for a moment, before he raised an eyebrow. "That's so not possible. No way." A pause. "Well, I mean, it's possible, but look at him. A kid of mine would have better taste than that."

"He's a rock star. It's probably the image that his label wants him to sell." Sam opened up another screen that would access a few of those databases that he shouldn't still have access too as a civilian, but he wasn't one to give up all that access. "Let's see if we can get some background on this kid. Maybe you'll recognize a mother if you were sober enough during that time."

"Sounds good to me," Dean said with a sigh, taking a couple more bites of his food, before speaking again. "You know, this could just be a really big coincidence."

"So it's a coincidence that the kid, with a normal haircut and a pair of hazel contacts, could pass as your younger clone?" Sam looked at his brother out of the corner of his vision before going back into his researching.

"Hey. Weird shit happens all the time. We should know -- we lived it."

"And you've slept with a good sixth of the population of the United States." Sam got a hit and started to look deeper at the files he found, then let his fingers drum on the side of the table. "Dean..."

"I'm not that much of a slut," Dean grumbled, before looking over at his brother. "What?"

"Well, Boaz Ramone is apparently a stage name." Sam looked over at his brother, not sure how he was going to take this. "His real name is Benjamin Braeden."

Dean took that information, processed it for a moment, before looking back at his brother. "As in Benjamin Braedan that kid we saved in Cicero, Indiana?"

"Same one." Sam leaned back and crossed his arms. "The kid has done well for himself it seems. Had a band in college and tried out for a TV reality singing show and won, and his album has sold millions over the world in the last year. Biography talks about his mother and that he never knew who his father was." He looked at his brother. "Didn't she tell you that it wasn't you?"

"Yeah, she did," Dean said softly, looking down at his food for a second. "Told me she knew who the father was, actually." He was quiet again, considering something for a moment, before getting to his feet. "I'll be right back."

"Where you going?" Sam looked up, concerned.

"Just gotta make a phone call."

"You realize that she's probably changed her number after her son hit it big, right?"

Dean considered that for a moment, before looking back at Sam. "Yes, but not everyone has a genius hacker for a baby brother." And then came a bright smile.

Sam gave him a confused look a moment, then sighed. "This is why I don't tell Olivia what my real daytime job is..." he muttered, pulling back up the federal database to look for phone numbers. It took him a few minutes, then he was scratching numbers on a sheet of paper. "Ok, apparently the kid lives in Hollywood and Lisa's still in Cicero. Here's her number."

"Thanks, Sammy." Dean clapped his brother on the shoulder, before making his way out of the room and heading towards his own, pulling out his phone and dialing the number as he went. Once the door was closed behind him, he hit send and placed the phone to his ear, waiting for Lisa to pick up.

It wasn't the same house Dean remembered as Lisa moved out shortly after the whole kidnapping incident. They lived a few blocks away from the development in a small little farmhouse off the beaten path. Since Ben's fame started, a gate was added, and Lisa hired a maid to come in and clean the house a few times a week. Now she was curled up on the couch, a glass of wine in her hand as she flipped through the television stations to find something to watch.

When the phone rang, she reached over to pick it up and look at the caller ID. Her number was unlisted, but that didn't stop the fans and the press from calling, so she routinely changed her number every few months. She didn't recognize the incoming number but answered the phone anyway. "Hello?"

For a second there, Dean almost chickened out. He didn't want anything from Ben, and he didn't want Lisa thinking he did. It was more just the fact that he needed to know. Besides, he was relatively certain that Ben wanted nothing to do with him anyway. He hadn't been around for so long that the kid didn't need father anymore. But he still wanted to know if it was a really freaky coincidence or this kid actually had his DNA. "Hey, Lisa. It's, uh. It's Dean."

"Dean?" It had been over sixteen years since she had last talked to Dean Winchester, but she knew the voice and knew it was him. She took a deep breath and put her wine down. "I was wondering when you would call." Ever since Ben had gone on television two years ago, she had wondered if Dean was still alive and if so, what his reaction was going to be if he ever saw Ben's fame.

"Yeah, well -- my niece falls in love with the latest rock craze, and my brother happened to notice that he looked like me. Figured I might as well call and either confirm or deny, ya know?" There was a brief pause, and he ran a hand over his eyes. "Look, I don't want you think I'm calling to cash in on a piece of the pie or whatever, I just -- I asked you once, and I guess I'm asking you again."

"Hello to you too," Lisa said with a sigh. She stood up and walked over to the fireplace where there were pictures of her and her son growing up. "When you asked, I thought I was telling the truth. But when Ben got older I noticed he started to look more like you and I had the tests redone quietly without him knowing, and it came back as a negative match. By then I wasn't sure where you were, and Ben wasn't asking anymore so I just let it be."

Dean took a breath before nodding. "I don't blame you. And I'm not really sure I'd have much to offer anyway." Nothing that would be worth anything to a teenager at least. He saved the world once, but that was about it. When Olivia was growing up he was the mediator, and he still was. But Sam and another generation going head to head weren't anything new, and Olivia was just as much of a drama queen as Sam was so that Dean already knew how to handle, but Dean having to be an actual father? That would have been something else entirely. "With my life though, I just had to make sure that it wasn't something else. You never know, ya know?"

"Yeah, I know. And Ben's not looking for a father, Dean, so you're off the hook. I barely see my own son anymore now that he's got his plush life out in Hollywood. So don't feel you need to step in and make things up to him."

Dean wasn't sure how to respond to that at first. It wasn't as though he didn't want to see Ben. He was more curious than he'd care to admit about the person his son turned out to be, but he didn't want to force himself in there if Ben didn't want him. Especially given the high profile life that Ben was leading. That was attention that he really didn't need, given his status as dead, legally speaking. But he could at least joke about it. "Olivia might not agree with you on that one. According to Sam, she's a pretty big fan."

"She and about ten million others in the country," Lisa chuckled. "I'm not sure how I would even go telling him about your reappearance. He barely remembers you."

"Yeah, exactly. I'm not worth all the trouble." He was quiet for a minute, before rubbing the back of his neck lightly. "But if you know, you figured it out. If he wants to see me." His voice trailed off again, and he hoped that she got the idea.

"This a good number to reach you at then?" Leaving the fireplace, she made her way to the kitchen to get some paper to write down the number on the caller ID. "He's actually promised to come home in the next few weeks for my birthday, so there's a fifty percent chance he'll actually show. I'll see if he's interested in the subject and his thoughts on it then." If he's sober and thinking straight she thought silently.

"Yeah, this is a good number," Dean said with a nod. "We're actually pretty settled down, nowadays. Livin' out in Iowa."

"That's nice. Wife and kids now?" She tried not to think about Dean having a separate family somewhere. She had been serious long ago when she asked him to stay for awhile. She had hoped he might have turned around and come back. But that was years ago.

"No, actually. I mean, Sammy's got his kid, but her mom passed in a car accident when she was three, so it's just been the three of us for a while now." He paused. "That thing never really worked for my kind of life, and well -- Olivia's enough of a handful for anybody."

"She's a teenage girl living with two men and no mother. I don't pity you at all. Boys are easier at that age."

"Tell me about it. She and Sam go head to head and it's like Clash of the friggin' Titans. But she's a lot like Sam though. Big smartass, real smart." This was all pride, and if she was there, she could probably see the big glowing smile on his face. "Plus she's only fifteen. Considering what me and Dad went through with Sam, the worst is still yet to come."

"Let him know that around twenty two, there's a big turnaround and she'll go back to being daddy's little girl again once she finishes college and hits the real world." Lisa chuckled as she went back to the couch and picked up her wine. "Until then, he should invest in Kevlar. I remember how much trouble I gave my father when I got to that age." She took a sip, then leaned back in her seat. "I'm sorry to hear you never found anyone. That's a shame."

"Eh, it was never really the right time for me. Things got pretty complicated not long after I ran into you, and I wasn't about to drag anyone into that mess." And he wasn't. Back then, it would have just been another person for him to lose. "And then after that -- it just didn't work out." There was a bit of a pause and he licked his lips a bit, trying to figure out how to ask the next question. He wasn't sure if he had the right to be curious. She'd asked him to stick around, and he bailed. Even though he didn't know the truth, he still left and it wasn't entirely fair to her to ask about Ben. Not yet. No matter how many dreams he'd had wishing he could. Baby steps first. "So how've you been?"

Lisa took a sip of her wine. "I've been good. We moved a few months after you left because it was hard to stay in that complex. I've had a few boyfriends, but no one sticks around. There aren't many men who look for ready made families, and after awhile I realized that a permanent fixture wasn't really what I needed anyway. But I have my business to run - I bought the yoga studio I taught at, by the way - and with Ben gone now, it's nice to just be able to sit back and relax at night."

"That's good," he nodded. "That you're happy, I mean, and that you're doing well." He was quiet again, for a moment before asking softly. "And how is Ben doing?"

"Ben is your typical rockstar of the moment," Lisa rolled her eyes. "Overindulging on alcohol and women and who knows what else, sleeping in all day on the bus to do an overpriced sold out show and then partying all night. He calls now and then when he has a few days off and sounds like death warmed over, but what young man wouldn't want that kind of life at his age, right?"

"Yeah, but it'll probably come back to bite him in the ass when he's older though." He was just starting to feel the effects of that now. Not that he would actually admit it. "Then again, he might as well enjoy it now."

"Oh, it will for sure. And he is still smart enough to be responsible even in his indulging. So I'm not too worried about certain things that he could let happen." She smirked a bit around the rim of her glass.

"Well, that's good at least." He was quiet for a minute before swallowing. "Well, I should let you go. You probably have better things to do than talk to me anyway."

"Just a little wine and a little bit of Dr. Sexy," she told him. "My dinner plans with the other rock star mothers got canceled."

Dean managed to put a curb on his all too eager comment about Doctor Sexy, before nodding. "Is there a rock star mothers union or something?"

"Of course. We have a secret handshake and everything." Lisa laughed. "No, I'm not part of the club since most of the mom's move to California with their rich children. I'm too attached to the memories here, plus I don't want Ben to feel too smothered."

"I'm sure he appreciates that, Plus, LA isn't all it's cracked up to be anyway."

"I would live in Santa Monica anyway. Right on the beach."

"You know, I've never really been to the beach."

"Iowa isn't really a seaside town, is it?" Lisa chuckled softly.

He laughed. "Nah, it really isn't. But even with all the traveling I've done -- never taken a trip down the shore."

"Well, that's just your own damn fault then, Dean. You will get no pity from me."

"Did it seem like I was asking for it?"

"Depends on it you were inadvertently giving me a pouty puppy eye look over the phone." Lisa smiled.

"That's Sam's gig, not mine. I was just stating a fact."

"Well, then my apologies."

"Nothing to apologize for."

She took another sip of her wine. "Well, it was nice talking to you again, Dean. I will let you know what happens with Ben when I can find a good time to talk to him."

"Yeah, thanks, Lisa." He took a deep breath. "Good hearing from you too."

"To you too. And... don't feel like you have to be a stranger. You've got my number, so if you want to talk, feel free to call."

"I'll keep that in mind," he nodded. "Have a good night."

"You too, Dean. Tell Sam I said hello."

"I will," he nodded, before finally hanging up the phone. He stared at it for a moment, and took a breath that he hadn't seriously screwed things up, before making his way back into the dining room where Sam was sitting. "Lisa says hi."

Sam looked up from the project he was working on for another hunter now, closing the file folder by habit. "I was wondering if you have gotten her on the phone. Good conversation?"

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "She sounds like she's doing pretty well." He settled down into the seat before giving Sam a smirk. "When're you gonna break the news to Olivia?"

"Is it a confirmation then and not a freaky coincidence?" Sam leaned back and watched his brother carefully.

Dean nodded. "Apparently so." He looked back up at Sam as he picked up his food again. "What?"

"Your son then. You get to break the news to her." He raised an eyebrow. "It's not my fault her heart's going to be broken."

Dean looked at him. "Not mine either. I didn't make him be a rock star."

"But... you did make him." There was a small smirk growing. "I seem to recall a series of jokes aimed at me when Olivia showed up on our doorstep, you know."

"Yeah, but -- I'm not the one who figured it out."

Sam just pointed at the stairs, because he wasn't going to do this. Ben was Dean's son, and it was his responsibility to make sure his niece didn't crush after her newly discovered cousin.

Dean sighed, shaking his head as he headed towards the stairs. "I'm just sayin' -- this is gonna come back to you anyway."

"I'll provide support, but you're still doing the telling." Sam stood up and reluctantly followed behind his brother. In the back of his mind, he was curious if Olivia was attracted to Ben unconciously due to the resemblance to Dean and the close bond she and her uncle shared.

Dean reached the top of the door, and moved over to knock lightly, before glancing back at Sam. "Hey, 'Livia? Got a sec?"

"Studying!"

"It's important."

"How important?"

"You should know this now important."

She sighed heavily, before opening the door and looking at them. "What is so incredibly important?"

Sam leaned against the wall, watching his brother. "There's something your uncle needs to tell you about Boaz Ramone that you really should know."

Olivia gave Dean a bit of a skeptical look. "Someone you wanted to be in a past life, Uncle Dean?"

"No, actually. His, uh -- " Dean glanced back at Sam, before turning to focus on his niece. "His real name is Ben Braedan."

She watched them expectantly for a moment. "And this name is supposed to mean something to me because -- "

"Because me and his mom used to fool around," Dean said, looking up slightly as he did the math. "About twenty-five years ago."

Rolling his eyes, Sam turned to look at his daughter with a sympathetic look. "When I saw your posters, his face looked familiar. Dean called his mother and well... he's apparently your cousin."

Olivia looked back and forth between the two of them for a minute, before taking a step backwards toward her bed. "No. You guys are just screwing with me, right?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie. If you don't believe it, let your uncle stand next to one of the posters where his hair is a normal color and you'll see it."

"Oh come on," she glared. "This is ridiculous! Why of all the people in the world that you had to father, it had to be him!"

"Hey!" Dean said with a look. "It's not like I made him be a rock star!"

"Fighting isn't going to change anything," Sam stated. He looked at his daughter and sighed. "You deserved to know."

Olivia felt like she was going to cry. It was like finding out the hot guy in school was your brother. Not that she ever thought she would meet him but ...

... Wait a second. "So. What now? Just a new fact of life or something? Are we a big happy family now?"

Sam looked over at his brother. "That's going to depend on his mother and Dean, I guess." Because Sam wasn't privy to his brother's phone call conversation.

Dean blinked for a minute before swallowing. "Well, Lisa said she was gonna try and talk to Ben, but it's actually more up to him, and whether or not he wants to see me."

"So, great," she sighed. "You father one of the biggest rock stars ever, and we don't even get to reap any of the benefits?"

"Hey!" Dean said, giving her a bit of a look. "Just because I gave him half his DNA doesn't mean he owes me anything. I'm not gonna just shove myself into his life because my niece is fan."

"What benefits would you want to 'reap'?" Sam asked, curious.

"Um, meeting him maybe?" she said with her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Family or not he's still a rock star. Do you know what this would do for my social life?"

"Do you know what would happen if the press got a hold of this information?" Not to mention that Sam and Dean were technically legally dead and Olivia didn't really know that much on their past and Sam liked it that way. "You won't have a social life after that happens."

"Oh, who cares, I'm related to a friggin' rock star!"

Sam exchanged a look with his brother. "Well, I think you might want to wait for Ben to make his decision before you go out and announce it to the world. And be prepared to know that if the paparazzi start coming around, we might have to move to keep our privacy."

Dean nodded. "Yup. Sorry, kiddo, but I'm not dealing with the paparazzi. And if we do, we might wind up with a situation you're not gonna like."

"But if Ben's anything like his parents, I think he'll be curious enough to want to at least meet us. Just give him time, alright?" Sam squeezed her shoulder gently. "So don't plan on him performing for your sweet sixteen just yet." Sam is still a bit psychic at times, and had a pretty good feeling where his daughter's mind was going in the very back of her head.

She sulked a bit, though her sweet sixteen was the last thing she was worried about. At least she had found out before she got too attached. Not that she wasn't very attached already. And it was more her curiosity than anything else. "Yeah, fine. You guys still suck." She paused. "Am I gonna have to check to make sure that Uncle Dean didn't father every hot guy I meet?"

"Just the ones that look like him," Sam nodded, trying his best not to roll his eyes at her over-dramatics.

She rolled her eyes back at him, before crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Are we done now? Or are there more intense family secrets that you need to dump on me?"

"Not today," Sam stated, which was an honest answer.

"Something to look forward to then," she grumbled. "Can I really study now?"

"If you can." Sam pushed away from her door. "We'll try not to disturb you again. Unless I win the lotto tonight, then I might have to."

"Don't tease, I might get my hopes up," she sighed, placing her hands on her uncle's shoulders and pushing him out the door. "And if you do, you're buying me a car."

"Gotta get your license first, Liv," Dean pointed out.

"Gonna teach me on the Impala?"

"Hell no."

"Well guess you're gonna just have to buy me a car, then."

"When you get your permit, your Uncle will visit Grandpa Bobby and fix up something from the junkyard that will be safe and good for you to learn in." Sam chuckled at Dean's protectiveness of the Impala. The thing was still in mint condition.

"It better be awesome."

"Don't worry. I can handle picking you out a car."

"And he can teach you to take care of it too so you don't have to worry about it breaking down on you," Sam added.

"Okay," she sighed, before pausing in the doorway and giving them a half-smile. "Night!" And then the door closed.

Sam sighed, then looked at his brother. "That could have gone worse."

Dean nodded. "There could have been screaming. And tears."

"Things thrown, including fists." Sam started down the stairs back to the kitchen. "You're going too have to get her a really good car now to make up for this."

"I think I can manage that."

Taking his seat back at his computer, he looked up at Dean. "You going to be ok?"

"Me?" Dean gave a shrug. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Because I know you. You had a chance to have a son and get to know him and see him grow up, and now you don't get to see that. You're the one who stresses the importance of family, so I want to know if you're ok with this change?"

"Shit happens, Sammy," Dean sighed, trying his best to blow it off. "I mean -- you remember what things were like back then. Do you really think I was in a position to be a dad?" He sighed, running a hand over his face. "He would have just been another thing for Lucifer or Zachariah to use against us. I couldn't have done that to them. He was better off this way."

"No. But there's twelve years afterward you could have had. That's still a lot."

He raised an eyebrow. "You really think I would have done that well as a father, Sam? I mean, look at who I've got for an example." He was referring to John.

"Yeah, and you raised me. Your point?"

"That's different," Dean replied, waving a hand. "You were my brother. And you sorta raised yourself after a while."

"And you sure helped me a lot with Olivia." Sam gave his brother a small smile. "You'd have been a great father."

"Yeah, well," Dean shrugged again. "Not what happened. No use getting upset over it now."

Sam watched Dean a moment, then nodded his head. "Go catch up on your soap opera."

Dean smirked before turning and heading back towards his room. "Have fun, Sammy."