Okay, last chapter is up! Tona, darlin', I hope the move went well and as always, this is for you!

Big thanks to Charis Kalos for her awesome editing for the past few chapters.

Yes, there are plans for future SR fics, but I have a couple of other stories to tie up first. (And I think my theological adviser may jump on a plane to come put the fear of God into me if I don't get back on L&D real soon!)

Chapter Twenty-five

Surprise!

"Daddy?" Rae shifted to look up at Dad, since she was sitting in his lap. "When are we going home?"

"Home?" Dad frowned down at her. "You want to know when we're going to hit the road?"

Rae nodded.

Dad shrugged and grinned. "Go ask Uncle Sam. He's the only reason we've been here this long."

Rae groaned. "You two aren't going to keep sending me back and forth, asking the same question over and over again, are you?"

Dad's grin faded. "Well, not any more." He pushed her off his lap. "Go on, go talk to Uncle Sam."

She stopped before leaving the room. Dad still looked kind of tired. "Aren't you feeling better yet? I feel fine."

Dad smiled at her again. "I'm fine, Rae. Go talk to Uncle Sam. I'm ready to hit the road when you two are."

She left, mumbling to herself about dads who always say they're fine. Dad was never fine when he claimed to be fine. Rae found Uncle Sam talking to Gary's Uncle Mark in the living room. She didn't bother to wait and listen to what they were talking about, Rae just climbed into Uncle Sam's lap.

"You just kind of decide what role you want to have, what you need to be responsible for." Uncle Sam's arm wrapped around her. Rae rested her head on his chest, enjoying the sound of his voice vibrating against her ear. "Then you do it. The important part is to always show that they can depend on you."

"Uncle Sam?" she whispered, fingering a buttonhole in his shirt.

"How do I do that?" Uncle Mark asked.

"Well, you pay attention and you listen. Sometimes you have to listen to what they don't say as much as what they do say," he said.

"Uncle Sam?" Rae whispered, just a little louder.

"I don't get it," Uncle Mark said. "How can you listen to what they don't say?"

Uncle Sam cleared his throat. "Okay, take my brother for example. He can't admit when he's sick. Last time I knew he wasn't well Rae and I had to gang up on him in order to get him to let the doctors check him out. Right, Sunshine?" he asked, looking down at her.

Rae nodded eagerly. "When are we…"

"And he won't ask for anything for himself, either, so somebody has to notice when his clothes are getting too worn, stuff like that," Uncle Sam told him.

Rae rolled her eyes. "Uncle Sam?"

"But Carol doesn't need anyone to look after her. I just want to help out with Gary," Uncle Mark insisted.

Rae tugged gently on Uncle Sam's shirt.

"Of course she needs someone to look out for her," Uncle Sam said, pulling his shirt out of her hands. "Carol's probably like Dean, wouldn't admit she needed help for herself on her deathbed, which means you have to be sneaky about it."

"Yeah?" Uncle Mark sounded interested. "How can I be sneaky about it? I mean, it's not like I can go out and buy women's clothes for her and leave them on the doorstep."

"Uncle Sam?" she whispered again.

"Okay, bad example. For Carol, I think you ought to look for signs that she's had a bad day. On the bad work days, you provide dinner." Uncle Sam spread his hands, like that was totally simple.

"You mean…cook?" Uncle Mark frowned. "I don't cook. I can do frozen pizza, but that's about it."

Uncle Sam shrugged. Rae tried tugging on his shirt again. "So heat up a frozen pizza. Order take-out. Whatever. My point is," Uncle Sam tapped a finger on the arm of his chair, "even the little things you can do will make life easier for her and Gary."

Rae knocked her head against Uncle Sam's chest, repeatedly. Finally Uncle Sam looked down at her. "What?"

She moved her mouth, not actually talking. Uncle Sam leaned down where Rae could reach his ear to talk to him. "When are we leaving? I'm homesick."

"What about Dean?" Uncle Sam asked her. "Is he ready to leave too?"

Rae nodded. Uncle Sam looked up at the ceiling, drumming his fingers. "How about the day after tomorrow," he finally said, looking down at her. "Dean still seems pretty tired. I'd feel better if he had another day to rest up."

Rae reached up for his ear again. "Should I make Daddy take his medicine now?"

Uncle Sam tickled her stomach, making her squirm all around. "I think you just like making your dad do stuff, don't you?"

She squealed and squirmed until she managed to worm her way out of those freaky long arms of his. Rae gave him the 'I'm telling' look.

"Go ahead and tell on me," Uncle Sam called after her. "Tell Dean I dare him to come in here and get me for it!"

--

Rae and Gary sat upstairs in his room, playing another video game. This one had a purple dragon in it and a glowing thing that Dad kept saying was funny. Dad and Uncle Sam had been acting kind of funny all day. They kept coming in to check on her this afternoon, like every two seconds. That wasn't the funny part. It was the way they kept whispering stuff and not telling her why. Dad and Uncle Sam always told her why. Okay, not always, but usually. Well, usually she had to pretend to be asleep and she couldn't just crash in the middle of playing a video game to find out what they were up to. If only she were eight! Then they'd tell her.

"What's wrong?" Gary asked.

Rae growled. "They're up to something."

"Who?" Gary looked around. "Your dad and uncle?"

She nodded at him, glaring out the open door at Dad and Uncle Sam pretending not to whisper to each other.

"They're probably just getting ready to leave in the morning." Gary gave her a push in the arm. "You're worrying over nothing."

"Maybe." Rae glared at the smile Dad gave Uncle Sam. "But they definitely look like they're up to something."

"Probably not anything to worry about," Gary said as he played the game.

Rae shifted to look at the boy sitting next to her. What was that supposed to mean? "Do you know something?" she demanded. How could Stupid here know more than she did about Dad and Uncle Sam?

Gary shrugged, shoving the controller into her hands. "Your turn."

He hadn't lost a game all day. "My turn? Since when?"

Gary waved at the game. "Since I died. Just play the game."

Rae paused her turn. "You're trying to distract me, aren't you?" She glared at Gary. Did they honestly think such a stupid boy would be any good at this?

"No. It's just your turn. Play the game," Gary insisted, looking a little bit panicked.

Rae stood up, hands on hips. "Oh, that does it!" She stomped out of Gary's room to where Dad and Uncle Sam were standing. "What is it?" she demanded. "What are you two up to?"

Dad and Uncle Sam exchanged a puzzled look.

"Up to?" Dad asked, looking all sweet and innocent.

"What do you mean, Sunshine?" Uncle Sam asked with a smile.

"You two have been whispering all afternoon and I want to know why!" Rae stomped her foot to make her point. Actually, if this worked, she might give up on the pretending to sleep thing.

The smiles dropped from both their faces. Uh-oh.

"Uh, you want to try that again?" Dad asked and he did not sound happy at all.

Rae stared at Dad as she tried to figure out what would get her out of this. She smiled real big, batted her eyes at Dad. "Daddy? Why are you and Uncle Sam whispering? Can you pretty please tell me the secret?"

She watched that stern look on Dad's face melt away. "Uh, Sam? Caving here."

Uncle Sam jabbed Dad with his elbow. "Now, Sunshine, there's nothing to worry about, we promise." A wide grin spread across his face.

Rae frowned at him. "That's a suspicious smile, Uncle Sam."

Dad chuckled. "She's too smart for you, Sam."

Uncle Sam jabbed Dad again. Dad rubbed his ribs with one hand as he said, "Well, we might have a little surprise for you."

"Dean!" Uncle Sam hissed.

"What? You wanted to wait all frigging day?" Dad demanded.

"Surprise?" Rae gasped. "For me?" She bounced on her toes, so excited that she couldn't stay still. "What is it? What? What'd you get me?"

Uncle Sam rolled his eyes. "That's why I didn't want to tell her yet. We promised Bobby we'd wait for him." He waved both hands at her. "How the hell are we supposed to resist that?"

"Bobby's coming?" Rae squealed. "Is that my surprise?" she asked, looking from Dad to Uncle Sam and back.

"Uh…yeah. That's it." Dad grinned at her. "Bobby's coming. He should be here in," he checked his watch, "about half an hour."

Okay, was it her, or was Dad being suspicious now? That was a cool word, suspicious. "Really suspicious," she announced.

Uncle Sam chuckled. Dad stomped on his foot. Uncle Sam said some not-nice things under his breath as he hopped in a circle.

"You can watch for Bobby through Gary's window. It looks out over the street," Dad told her, giving her a shove back into Gary's room.

Rae walked across the room to the window. She rested her elbows on the window sill as she glared outside. "I think they're trying to keep me in here."

"Oh, come on." Gary stood beside her at the window. "Why would they do that?"

She cut her eyes at him. "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that you do."

Gary looked shocked, but it was pretty fakey. "Me? What would I know?"

She scowled out the window. Okay, what did Uncle Sam always say to do when you wanted to figure something out? She needed to make a list. "You're losing video games I know you can win so I get a turn. You're keeping me busy. Dad and Uncle Sam are standing watch outside your door to make sure I don't go downstairs. Bobby is coming."

A glimmer of an idea sprang up, then faded away. "I got nothing. So, do you want to tell me or do I have to beat it out of you?"

"Wh-what?" Gary asked, his eyes really round.

Rae shrugged. "When Dad says that it works for him. Thought I'd give it a shot."

Gary laughed at her. "Well, you're not nearly as scary as your dad," he said under his breath.

"Seriously?" Rae asked. "You're scared of Dad? My dad?"

Gary glanced around to make sure no one was watching them before nodding.

"Dad!" Rae spun around. "Gary's scared of you!"

Dad didn't bother to look at them. "Good," he called out, his attention still on Uncle Sam. Dad nodded to something Uncle Sam said.

Rae thought about that while she watched cars passing on the street below. "You're not scared of your uncle, are you?"

"Uncle Mark?" Gary chuckled. "Nah. Uncle Mark is great. He's moving into the room next to me." He rubbed his hands together. "We're going to be able to play video games and football, all the time. He said so."

"You know you gotta look after uncles too, right?" Rae asked, figuring that Gary didn't have a clue.

"Look after uncles?" Gary asked. He leaned on the windowsill next to her. "How do you look after your uncle?"

Rae rolled her eyes. That figured. She dropped her voice so Dad and Uncle Sam couldn't listen in. "Sometimes Uncle Sam starts feeling left out, like he's not part of the family. Then I have to tickle him, or challenge him to a joke contest, or do something so he knows we need him."

"Yeah?" Gary moved closer. "What kind of things work best?"

Rae shrugged. "Dad says Uncle Sam is weird, so what works with him might not work with Uncle Mark."

Gary nudged her in the shoulder. "Come on. Give."

Rae eyed him thoughtfully. "I tell you something, you tell me something. Deal?"

"What kind of something?" Gary asked, glancing over at the doorway.

"In a minute. First, when Uncle Sam seems to be feeling left out, I ask him for help on my schoolwork," Rae explained, using easy words so he could keep up.

"Schoolwork?" Gary chewed on his lower lip. "So I should ask Uncle Mark to help me with my homework, huh? That'll make him feel better?"

Rae nodded. "So what's my real surprise?" she asked.

Gary's whole body tensed. Yeah, she figured it wasn't Bobby coming.

"Never mind," Rae said, waving a hand like it wasn't a big deal that he didn't tell her. "Okay, the next thing I like to do is find ways to play with Uncle Sam. Sometimes he tries to play with me, like coloring in my activity books or watching cartoons with me. But I like to find things Uncle Sam likes to do, too. He likes math games." Rae rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I actually suggest we play those. You should see his whole face light up."

Gary chuckled at her. "Seriously? Math games? Well, Uncle Mark likes football and watching sports on tv. I don't know what his favorite sport is, though."

"You should find out. Is Bobby bringing my surprise?" she asked, hoping to slip that question in fast enough that Gary would answer without noticing.

"What surprise?" he asked, acting innocent. "So how should I find out which sports he likes? Just ask him?"

"Asking works." Rae rolled her eyes, muttering, "sometimes."

"Can I ask you something?" Gary asked, turning to really look at her. Rae shrugged. "Mom said your dad adopted you. Is that true?"

She nodded.

"So you've really already done all this, with your dad and uncle, right?" Gary leaned real close now, like if he got closer he could tell if she was lying. If she wanted to lie to him, he'd never know it.

"Yeah. So?" Rae glared at him. What was that supposed to mean?

"Just wanted to know I was getting advice from an expert, that's all." Gary smiled at her. "Relax. You'll get your surprise when Mister Singer gets here," he whispered.

"Is it a good one?" she whispered back.

Gary winked. Hot dog! Oh! Was it a puppy? Or a kitty? Rae didn't think she'd be able to wait until Bobby got here. Maybe it would be a good book for storytime or one of those awesome huge crayon sets! What was keeping that man?

--

Bobby pulled up to the small inner city house. It looked like a lower to mid income neighborhood. The street had too much traffic for kids to play in it, but there were plenty playing in the yards. Decent neighborhood to raise kids in, Bobby thought.

He stepped out of his truck with a package in one hand. His package had pink and purple curled ribbons hanging off of it and was wrapped with some disgustingly cute unicorn wrapping paper. He hoped Rae would like it, especially considering the way the salesclerk kept giving him funny looks when he picked it out. Not that he really cared, one way or the other, because it was for Rae.

"Bobby!" he heard a girl scream. He looked up to see Rae waving at him from an upstairs window. Bobby grinned and waved back.

"He's here! He's here!" He could hear Rae's shouts from the front yard.

Bobby waited at the front door, not bothering to knock. If the racket behind the door was anything to go by, he wouldn't have to knock. The front door was yanked open by both kids, wrestling with each other over who got to open it. Bobby grinned at the sight. Gary and Rae reminded him a little of Dean and Sam when they were kids. It was nice to see her acting more like an average kid.

Rae bounced inside the doorway, glancing repeatedly over her shoulder at Dean as he approached the door.

"You gonna give him a hug or what?" Dean asked, grinning.

Rae shrugged as she bounced, like she didn't know what to do.

"Go on. He won't bite." Dean gave her a shove in the back.

Bobby stood perfectly still as Rae gently put her arms around him, like he might break. He patted her back gently, amazed she was even standing this close much less almost-hugging him.

"I didn't miss the party, did I?" he asked as Rae pulled away.

"Party?" Rae asked. She spun around. "Party?" she asked again, this time in a high pitched squeal that made Dean wince.

Dean waved him inside. "Hey, Bobby. We, uh, hadn't mentioned the party yet."

Bobby beamed at Rae. "Guess that means I didn't miss it."

Rae stared at the package he held. Bobby waved it slowly in front of her. "So, Dean, when do we do presents?" Her eyes followed it.

"God, you just don't change, do you?" Sam said with a laugh. "Rae, Bobby used to do that to us when we were kids too." Sam stood watching as Rae's gaze was riveted to the gently swaying box. "I guess kids don't change either."

Dean laughed at him. "I remember when you used to do that, Sam."

Dean swept Rae up into his arms with a "Come on, you." She started squirming, reaching for her present. Dean threw the girl over his shoulder, heading out of the room. Stomach bouncing gently on Dean's shoulder, Rae kept reaching for the present Bobby held. With a chuckle, Bobby put it in her hands. Her whole face lit up as her hands grasped the package.

He followed them into the dining room, which was decorated for a kid's birthday party. Brightly colored paper covered the table and a 'Happy Birthday' banner hung from the wall. A cake rested in the middle of the table with pink frosting that said 'Sammie Rae.' Carol, Gary and some man with dark hair followed them.

"Here we go, kiddo," Dean announced as he swung her off his shoulder and into a chair at the table closest to the cake.

Rae frowned at the cake. "It's not my birthday," she whispered.

A pained look came over Dean's face. He knelt down beside her. "Yeah, I know. We had plans for a big party to celebrate your adoption in a couple of weeks, but since we were here and you had a friend to invite…" He shrugged at her.

Her face lit up again. She threw her arms around Dean's neck, hugging him tight. "I knew you wouldn't forget!" Then she pulled back, looking at him suspiciously. "Uncle Sam reminded you, didn't he?"

Dean's mouth dropped open. "No!"

Rae rolled her eyes, holding out her arms towards Sam. Sam got his hug, turning a smug look on his brother which earned him a pop in the arm. Yep, Bobby didn't blame Dean a bit for that one.

There was cake and ice cream. Rae really liked his present, the biggest damn box of crayons he could find. She said it was the second biggest box she'd ever seen in her life. He wondered where she saw the biggest box. If the kid insisted on decorating those boring hospital walls, she was going to need more crayons while traveling with the Winchesters.

Sam gave her a book that he promised to read to her in the car, something about a house in the woods, and Dean gave her some sparkly pink shirt which she rushed to the bathroom to change into.

"I can't believe you bought that," Bobby told Dean. "I mean, it doesn't have a rock band on it or a car."

"When did you buy that?" Sam demanded. "You haven't exactly had time lately."

Dean shrugged, turning to look out the doorway like Rae might appear and save him from having to answer these embarrassing questions.

"Let me guess," Bobby said in a low voice. "You bought it weeks ago for her birthday, before you realized that you missed it."

Dean's face took on a pained expression.

"You missed her birthday?" Carol asked, breaking into the conversation. "How could you miss her birthday?"

Sam cleared his throat nervously. "We, uh, confused it with her adoption." His cheeks flushed pink, nearly matching Rae's new shirt. "But I'm still trying to imagine Dean walking into a store and buying that thing."

Carol laughed. "Oh, thank God! And here I've been, thinking what a lousy parent I was in comparison with two men!" She laughed again, leaning back in her chair.

Bobby watched as Sam and Dean exchanged a confused and embarrassed look.

"Do we need to worry about that?" Dean asked Sam.

Sam shook his head. "I won't if you won't."

Dean nodded. "Deal." He cleared his throat, addressing the table again. "Well, we're planning to head out in the morning. Need anything before we go?"

Carol looked at Mark, jerked her head in the boys' direction.

Mark shrugged. "Only if you're volunteering to help me move some of my stuff."

Sam's eyes lit up. "You're moving in? About time."

Mark shrugged again. "Hey, we can't all be super-uncles like you."

"He's the mom," Dean said quickly, which was followed instantly by a whoosh of expelled air. Bobby chuckled to himself, knowing that Sam must have delivered a whale of a kick under the table.

"So," Sam said loudly, shifting to cover Dean's pained expression with his body, "have you contacted an attorney yet? For the restraining order?"

"Mark has." Carol stood, started to clear away the paper plates from the party. "The lawyer says I have a good case and we might be able to get one by the end of next week."

Sam stood too, picking up the cake. "If you don't want this, throw it out. It's not like we can take it on the road." He kicked Dean's chair. Dean grumbled a little, but he helped clean up the party stuff.

Bobby felt a tug on his jeans pocket. He turned around to look into Rae's deep brown eyes. "Yeah?"

She grinned, twirling around to show off her new sparkly pink shirt.

Bobby chuckled at her delighted face. "Looks like your daddy knows you pretty good, don't it?"

--

Dean sat in a lawn chair in the back yard beside Bobby. Sam was doing some crap in the kitchen with Carol. He wondered if little brother had a little crush going on there. The kids played tag around the huge tree in the middle of Carol's yard.

"What's the news?" he asked now that they were safely out of earshot of the kids.

Bobby grunted. "Not good." He let out a long sigh. "The state has 'em all in the hospital still, psychiatric evaluation and the like. Some of 'em still have a parent out there somewhere, but the social workers are scrambling to find relatives to place 'em with." He shook his head sadly. "The whole time I was there, I just kept wondering what woulda happened to Rae if you hadn't taken her."

Dean shrugged, eyes darting across the yard to follow the kids. Rae was damned fast, Gary didn't have a prayer of catching her. "She would've been fine," he insisted, not wanting to consider any possible alternative.

He caught Bobby staring at him. "What?"

Bobby continued to stare as he spoke. "You just don't like to give yourself any credit, do you?"

"What do you mean?" Dean took a long pull on his beer. Now that he had finally finished up his antibiotics, Sam had graciously allowed beer in the house.

Bobby leaned forward, his eyes intense. "Do you honestly think that child would be speaking now if it weren't for you? I mean, she actually gave me a hug!" Bobby threw his hands up. "I'd call that a freaking miracle."

"Kids are tougher than we give them credit for, Bobby," Dean argued. "I don't think I've done all that much for her."

"In general?" Bobby asked. "Or you don't think you've done more for her than she's done for you?"

Dean shrugged again, unsure how to respond to that. "Does it matter?"

Bobby scratched his jaw, eyes shifting back to the kids racing through the yard. "Nah. Probably not."

Sam came out with a few fresh beers and another lawn chair. He set up on Dean's other side.

"So where are we headed tomorrow?" he asked his brother.

"I've been thinking about that. How about Florida?" Sam suggested.

Dean peered suspiciously at his brother. "Florida? What's happening in Florida?"

"Nothing," Sam and Bobby replied together.

"So why are we going?" Dean popped the top off his fresh beer.

"Well, I've been thinking," Sam began. That usually spelled trouble. "We've been really busy lately, and this last hunt was pretty intense. I think we deserve a vacation. Sun. Beach."

Dean's eyes lit up. "Girls in skimpy bikinis. Sometimes I like the way you think, Sammy."

Sam rewarded him with a broad grin. Rae's laughter reached him, allowed that part of him that constantly worried to relax some. She was happy. Sam was happy. That was what really mattered.