Author's note: We don't own anything having to do with Supernatural only Danielle belongs to wandertogondor and me.

If you enjoy what you read I urge you to head on over to wandertogondor's page and check out other fics that we've written together the newest (besides this one) entitled 'Hope For Tomorrow'

Overprotected

Dean leaned against the side of the Impala seemingly lost in thought as Sam walked around the vegetable garden with me fully engrossed in conversation.

"How's school going?"

I lifted up a couple of leaves to check for green beans, seeing a couple that were full grown I plucked them off the plant and tossed them into the bucket Sam was holding. "School's…school. We have a test Friday on the periodic table of elements."

"Did you study?" Sam gave me a knowing look that I tried to ignore as I moved over to the tomato plants. He sighed and shook his head, "Danielle, you're a smart girl there's no reason not to get good grades. You want to graduate don't you?"

"Now you sound like my mother," I groaned in annoyance. "Besides, Dean didn't graduate and he does alright for himself. I mean you guys get to travel all over the place for work. Obviously he did something right."

Sam shifted on his feet a bit and an unreadable expression passed over his face, "Just try your best, okay? I want you to go to college."

"C'mon Sam," Dean called over to us as he twirled his car keys around his finger. "We're losing daylight."

Sam set the bucket of fresh vegetables on the back porch and I walked him over to the Impala. He gave me a tight hug picking me up slightly so my toes just brushed against the gravel driveway.

"Come back and see me soon, okay?" I whispered in his ear and he nodded with a smile as he set me back on my feet. I then looked over to Dean across the top of the car. "Aren't you going to say bye to dad?"

"He already gave me the location for our next job," he replied and I watched his eyes flicker over to Sam for a brief second. "See ya around, kid."

Sam leaned over and gave me one more quick hug, "Be safe."

"Yeah," I scoffed, "'cause the tomatoes are going to come alive and kill me while I sleep."

I watched Sam share yet another look with Dean before he sighed, "Just…just always keep your eyes open."

"You're so weird," I playfully shoved his shoulder.

I stood and watched until I could no longer see the car. I hated watching them go because it meant I probably wouldn't see them again for another couple of months. They were my half brothers but more times than not I felt like an only child stuck in the middle of no where on this God forsaken farm my mother grew up on and refused to leave.

After grabbing the vegetables that I picked I walked into the kitchen to wash them off. My father was sitting at the table with his leather journal and a map sprawled out in front of him.

"You're leaving again," I stated more than questioned. I couldn't understand his need to always leave.

Sure, I was in high school now and didn't need him watching over me every second of every day but the moment he walked out that door I watched as my mother's smile faded away until he appeared again. I thought that with Sam and Dean out selling auto supplies and working random jobs that it would mean he'd be home more but I guess I was wrong.

Dad sighed and ran a tired hand over his face, "Danielle, it'll just be for a few days."

"Whatever," I mumbled leaving the vegetables to dry on a paper towel as I all but stomped passed him and climbed the stairs to my room slamming the door behind me.

The moment the door was closed I cranked my music to block out any other sound in the house. I threw myself down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling wondering if the day would ever come that I would be able to leave with Sam and Dean and not be stuck here.

I stayed up in my room for awhile until the growling in my stomach forced me to go back down the stairs for something to eat. Clicking my music off I shuffled down the hallway and descended the stairs as slow as possible not wanting to start another fight with my dad.

"It's very important work and maybe when you're older you'll understand."

Older, right. I'd been hearing the same line since I was old enough to ask why he always left and I was beginning to think I'd never find out.

As I was on my way to the kitchen something caught my attention in the dinning room. At a quick glance it looked like my mom had her head down on the table. Great, he left already, I sighed thinking she was upset about my father leaving again. I was going to leave her be but she was sitting a little too still and I got an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Mom?" I called out curiously but received no answer. Walking over, I gently put my hand on her shoulder. "Mom?"

I gasped in horror and threw my hand over my mouth as shock instantly formed within my chest. She wasn't breathing and it looked like she'd been that way for some time now.

"Dad!" I screamed running from the room and desperately searching the rest of the house but came up empty.

When I glanced outside and saw his truck gone I really started to panic. We lived in the middle of nowhere and our closest neighbors were over a mile away. I ran back up to my room in search of my cell phone that was lying on my bedside table plugged into the charger. I scrolled though my contacts and when I got to Dean's name I hit call.

Straight to voicemail.

My fear intensified as the notion came crashing down on me that I was going to be left all alone. I kept scrolling further down in my phone until I reached Sam's number and hit call. Thankfully it only rang twice before he answered.

"Hello?"

"Sam," I cried into the phone in a mix of relief and terror, as tears began to sting in my eyes, and blinded my vision as I paced across the length of my room.

"Dani?" he questioned confused as to why I sounded so upset. "What's wrong?!"

I took a deep breath trying to get my racking sobs under control long enough to be able to get any words out. "M-m-mom…she's…she's…oh, Sam I'm so scared!"

"Where's dad?" he questioned his voice full of concern and seriousness. I heard him talking to Dean and telling him to turn around before he came back to our conversation. "Dani, where is dad?"

"I…I don't know! Sam his truck is gone. He said he was going on another job for a few days but I didn't think he was leaving right away. Sam, what do I do?"

There was a shuffling noise on the other end of the phone before I heard Dean's voice, "Was there any cold spots in the house?"

"What?"

"What about flickering lights?" he continued with his questioning like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Why are you asking me this?" I slapped my cold hand across my forehead, trying to cool the heat that had rose into my face and lingered as agitation and fear pounded inside of me. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question, Danielle!" He harshly insisted, and I could just imagine the deep line that had formed between his eyes as he darkly sat behind the wheel of the Impala, holding the phone to his ear. "Dani?"

"Look," I started as calm as I could but it was no use and my voice cracked. "I know I'm not your most favorite person in the world but this isn't the time to be messing with my head."

There was a deep sigh on the other line, "Listen to me, kid. I wish I could say this was some big joke but I need to know. Was there any cold spots in the house?"

I sniffed, trying to clear away the pulsating headache which was accompanying the tension before I weakly managed to say, "I don't remember."

"Any flickering lights?"

Blanching in disbelief, I'd had enough, "No! This is crazy, Dean!"

"Dani," His voice was less urgent but more authoritative. "Dani, this is what I want you to do, okay? You can't ask me why but I need you to just do it. I want you to move your bed against the door. And no matter what you hear, no matter who you hear, I don't want you to open that door unless it's us. Okay?"

Tears of confusion and grief started pouring out of my eyes. "Do…do you want me to do it now?"

"Yeah, kid. Put the phone down and go do it. I'll stay on the line."

Taking a deep breath, hoping it'd help ease the burning feeling in my throat, I set my phone down on my desk and ran to strip the bed sheets off my bed before slowly dragging the entire bedpost toward the door. I pulled the mattresses over next, placing it down horizontally and throwing the bed sheets in a pile over it.

I stared at my bed for a minute making sure that it was pressed right up against the door before I grabbed my phone again. "Dean?"

"You got the bed against the door?"

"Uh-huh," I nodded as if he could see me.

"Dani, what I'm going to say next is going to sound extremely screwed up, but you gotta just bare with me. Can you do that for me?"

"What?" I braced myself for the worst, continuing the fall back into the steady pace across my room as I waited.

Dean took a deep breath on the other end. "There's a canister of salt and a loaded shotgun in your closet."

"What?!"

"Dani?" Sam's voice came back on the phone.

"Sam, what the hell does he mean there is a gun in my closet? Why the hell is there a gun in my closet?!" I screeched my breathing quickening at the nightmare I had fallen into.

"Squirt, take a deep breath. Dani, do you trust us? Do you trust me?"

Of course I trusted him and Dean too even though we didn't always get along but this was almost pushing it too far. "Yes."

"Put a line of salt on the window sills then I want you to make a circle in the middle of your room with the salt too, hear me?"

I laughed despite myself, rummaging through my closet until I found a rusted can of salt and a heavy shotgun propped against the dark corner. How'd I never see this before? "Do you want me to sit in the salt circle or something?"

"Yeah, actually," My brother seriously said. "That's exactly what I want you to do."

"Do you know how crazy you sound, Sam?"

"I can only imagine," was his soft reply, a smirk in his words.

I did as I was told and created a circle on the soft carpet, large enough to sit in the middle of and emptied a thick line on the window sill. Plopping down in the very middle of the circle, the shotgun in the crook of my arm, I started paying attention to what Sam was explaining about shotgun safety.

"I got it, Sam," I absently threw in so he would think that I had been listening. "Are you guys almost here?"

"Almost. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?"

I shook my head, feeling pressure start to pound against my chest as I struggled with all my might to keep my voice steady just until I could get off the phone with him. "No, it's okay. I think I'll be okay. Can you call me when you're close though?"

"I promise I will. Dani, remember don't come out of your room for anyone."

"Yeah, sure. Bye, Sam," I managed to say before slamming my thumb against the disconnect button and bursting into racking sobs, bringing my knees up against my chest, still holding the shotgun close. "What is happening?"

It was hard to imagine that I would never be able to see my mother again. It was heartbreaking to think that she wouldn't be around anymore. What was I supposed to do? She was the only constant thing in my life and just like that she was gone forever and I had no idea why. No one could fill the void that left a bitter sting in my heart. It was hard enough living with my dad gone most of the time but now…

I jumped at the sound of banging on my door. My hands fumbled to cling to the shotgun, cocking my finger against the trigger. As furious as the pounding from the hall was, the sound of the shotgun in my hand going off was significantly louder and took me off guard as I was thrown back from the powerful recoil. My shoulder ached on the impact as I picked myself up, staring wide-eyed at the large hole in the door when my father's face peered through.

"Dani?" My dad looked at me through the hole I just shot in my bedroom door. "Dani, honey, let me in."

I scrambled to my feet, forgetting the promise I'd made to my brothers, and left the shotgun on the floor with the broken line of salt. I pushed the bed haphazardly to the side and opened my now broken door.

"Daddy, I-" The tears came again but I was cut off as I was thrown against my bedroom wall with such force that it took the breath right out of me.

My dad walked into the room with an evil smile that looked so out of place on his face. He blinked and his warm, loving brown eyes turned jet black. "Daddy's not home right now, princess."

"Oh my God," I breathed out. First my mom and now my dad.

He glanced around my room like he was taking it in for the first time. I pushed hard against the invisible force that was keeping me pinned to the wall but it was no use. When a sob escaped he brought his attention back to me.

"Oh don't cry, princess today is a good day," he said enthusiastically. "See, I've been looking for some time now how to hurt your father the way he hurt me." He strolled around my room causally talking. "First, I thought I'd kill him." When I cried again he smiled and shook his head. "Nah, killing him wouldn't do much good. I want him to feel the pain. Now, Sam and Dean, they are some smart brothers you have there. Daddy raised them right but little Danielle was too innocent so he kept you in the dark."

My chest heaved with each breath I tried to draw into my lungs, my heartbeat pounded in my ears, and tears rolled down my cheeks in waves. If I hadn't felt so disconnected from my body I would have heard the roar of the Impala pulling up the gravel driveway. Luckily, my dad, or whatever this thing was in front of me, hadn't heard it either.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, his voice music to my ears, as he splashed something on my father making him scream out in pain.

The force that had been holding me up disappeared and I crumbled to the floor. Sam read out of a book in another language while Dean continued to douse my father in whatever was in his flask until an unimaginable amount of black smoke poured out of my father's mouth.

"Dani," Sam spoke soft and crouched down next to me. "Hey, are you okay?" I pushed myself off the floor enough to throw my arms around Sam's middle, clinging to him as if he was my lifeline. "Are you hurt?"

"Mom's…I thought…and he…" I couldn't even comprehend what had just happened. "Sam, what the hell is going on?!"

My whole body shook and it felt like my heart would beat out of my chest. Sam pulled me into his lap, wrapped his arms around me and calmed me down as much as he could.

"She alright?" Dean questioned motioning to me with a nod of his head.

"Physically." Sam let out a long breath in relief, his eyes shifting over to our father. "Dad?"

Dean managed to pick our dad off the ground and leaned him against the side of my bed. "He'll be fine just passed out."

I shivered slightly where I was situated still in Sam's arms and watched Dean walk around the room patiently. "Sam?" I finally managed to whisper, craning my neck up to see his face.

"Hey, squirt." He smiled down at me with sad eyes. "How're you feeling?"

Before I knew what I was doing, I slapped him across the face obviously taking him by surprise as new tears welled up in my eyes. "What the hell are you smiling at?!" I violently turned on Dean as soon as I caught sight of the shadow of a smile on his lips. "What was that, Sam? Why was dad," I threw one arm out to the side to where our father was still propped up against my bed, "not dad?"

My brothers shared a mutual look, resolving their decision before they finally told me everything. I stared blankly at them as they explained the 'family business' and what was really hiding out in the shadows of your worst nightmares.

***SUPERNATURAL***

I stood against the Impala with my back to the flames which overtook and destroyed my childhood home with my mother still inside, dead. The heat waves pounded against my bare arms, which were tightly crossed against my chest, and made me tremble slightly in shock when a cool night breeze floated by. The tears that once easily filled up in my ears were dried, leaving behind only the tense sting across my cheekbones.

"Danielle!" My father called over the sound of the house falling into itself. When I turned I saw him loading a large canister of fluid oil into the bed of his truck, motioning me over to him and my brothers. "Come on, honey, we're getting out of here."

I looked between Sam and Dean briefly before fixing my concentration on our father. "We? Do you mean all of us?"

"Just you and me. Sam and Dean are going elsewhere." He rested his forearms on the side of the truck, watching my face earnestly to see how well I held up after having been bogged down with all the family secrets at once.

I cowered closer to my brother, "I want to stay with Sam."

My dad stood up straight, looking at me then at Sam, who had wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "You two want to take her?" The question was addressed to both of them but he looked mainly at Dean who silently nodded. "Alright, then. That's settled. You two better take care of Dani, you hear?"

Sam smiled down at me. "We will, dad."

I'd always wanted to be leaving with my brothers one day but I never thought of everything I'd be leaving behind. I watched out the back window of the Impala until I could no longer see the flames dancing around my home. The carpet had been ripped out from beneath my feet and now I needed to learn to walk all over again.