Summary: It's not easy living life on the road, for either hunting things and saving people or hunting people and stealing things. Trust does take time to build, after all, and sometimes, people just have to fight in order to make up.

Note: This chapter is split into sections with their own titles. Also, I don't like conflict, I find it a waste of energy, but sadly, it does occur and so I figured this would be the chapter where the conflict ball got tossed around a lot and some logistics on how the team would work … Dean's easier to write being in conflict with someone than Sam is, for some reason.

Hunting 101

Gun Safety

Jimmy was not a fan of guns, to be honest. They could kill if mishandled, and he'd read too many horror stories about people mishandling or improperly using guns to really relax around them. He was especially not a fan of guns near his little girl. He had even requested that Sam not have his guns out in the same room as Claire, wanting them to remain locked up (or hidden) unless there was danger or an emergency, and Sam had tilted his head before agreeing.

So he wasn't happy when he and Adam came back to their motel room (really a small one bedroom cabin with a small kitchen and a living area with a pulled out couch) and found all the guns laid out on the couch where Sam was cleaning them and Claire was sitting across and watching Sam.

"What are you doing?" Jimmy asked, and the two froze, Adam took a half step back.

"Maintiance. After last night's hunt, they need to be cleaned."

"I thought we agreed that you wouldn't leave them out." Jimmy glared at Sam, who, to his credit, did look slightly remorseful. What he said next though did not make Jimmy soften.

"It couldn't wait, Jimmy, and Claire needs to know how to at least identify a gun and if the safety is on."

"She's too young."

"Dad-" Claire tried, but was ignored.

"I was her age when I learned." Sam retorted. "The firing pins have been removed, and the safeties are all on, I'm not going to endanger her by teaching her something about gun safety!"

"Unlike your father, I don't endanger my child needlessly!" Jimmy snapped, and the air went out of the room.

"Leave my father out of this, you're the one that decided to tagalong!" Sam practically growled, standing up to his full height instead of the slight hunch he normally had.

"Don't you-" Jimmy began, but was interrupted.

"Daddy, stop!" Claire yelled, and the sound of tears in her voice made them all look at her. "Please, don't fight! I asked if I could watch. Sam wouldn't let me in the room until he'd gotten all the firing pins and made me promise not to touch." Seeing his daughter near tears was enough for Jimmy to reign in his temper as much as he could.

"You still should have waited or even called and asked me." Jimmy looked at Sam, before heading to the kitchen area to put away the food and calm down before he could start a fight. Claire followed, leaving Adam and Sam to talk. The door to the kitchen swung shut behind her, muffling their voices.

"Daddy, I didn't mean to cause a fight …" Claire wiped her eyes. "I just wanted to be in the same room as Sam, reading was boring and there was nothing on TV, I'm sorry!"

"I'm not angry at you, Claire-bear." Jimmy sighed, putting away the food. "I'm sorry I lost my temper in front of you, I never should have done that." He added, turning and pulling her into a hug. "You're the most precious thing I have left, I don't want you anywhere near anything remotely dangerous."

"You'd always protect me, and Sam would never let me get hurt." Claire tightened her grip. "Adam too."

"I know, sweetie." Jimmy swallowed a lump in his throat, because 'always' and 'never' were two promises that tended to be broken. "I'm sorry, I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy." Claire pulled away, and Adam stuck his head in.

"Hey, Claire, there's a show on you might like." Claire nodded, and rushed out the door with one more hug.

Jimmy turned back to the food, but saw Sam enter and felt guilt clog his throat. He hadn't meant to say those things about Sam or his father (who was also Adam's father, so he owed him an apology too) but had been looking to drive his point across in the most painful way possible.

"You're right, I should have called you to ask if it was okay." Sam started, but Jimmy couldn't look at him just yet. "I don't want Claire in danger anymore than you do, it's why I warned that you might regret tagging along, this lifestyle had killed most of my family, and it's not stable or respectable. I know that better than anyone." Sam sighed. "But Jimmy, you have to trust me, yes I grew up a little jacked, but I was raised by a marine who taught me to always be careful and to respect the weapons I used. I certainly won't let Claire or Adam misuse one on my watch. I showed you how to fire a shot gun, didn't I?" Jimmy nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't ask before hand, I won't forget to do so again."

"I'm sorry too," Jimmy turned to look at Sam, "I shouldn't have lost my temper, or said those things about your father, I don't know the man, and it was cruel for me to speak ill of the dead. I just … I don't want Claire getting used to this lifestyle."

"I know, but with that demon still gunning for you whenever she gets the chance … Claire's going to have to learn some things you'd rather she wouldn't, just in case the worst does happen." Sam ran a hand through his hair. "I'll check in with you, but I know what it's like to be the child of a hunter, especially one on the move, so you're going to have to trust me if I insist of teaching Claire something you're not comfortable with."

"I do trust you." And Jimmy really did trust Sam, but that didn't make this any easier. "I don't regret tagging along, Sam, I just … she's my little girl, I want to protect her from everything that can hurt her, I know it's unreasonable, but I still have to try."

"I know, Jimmy." Sam agreed, and the tension finally seeped away.

Expanding Knowledge

Missy Bender was a pain in the ass. Even though she minded Bela on some things- studying how people moved, how to act in order to get the reaction she wanted- there were some things that she would dig her heels in and refuse to budge.

Generally, anything to do with reading, writing and math, or proper speech.

"I ain't gunna need this!" Missy hissed. "Pa said I'd never need to know none of it!"

"Missy, you made a deal to learn from us. If I say you need to learn, you need to learn, I don't care about your Pa." Bela snapped. Missy threw the book at her head and ran into her room.

"Lessons not going well?" Meg looked amused as she entered the room. Bela had been stubbornly trying to get Missy to learn more academic subjects.

"What gave you that idea?" Bela thumped the book on the table. She noticed a newspaper in Meg's hand. "What's that?"

"Oh, just an article about how sloppy police work go the wrong men arrested, and then how the Winchesters were framed." Meg put the paper down, the old grainy picture of Sam and Dean looking out at them. "Let's try something a little underhanded, shall we?"

Missy came down for dinner, and noticed that one wall had various articles and maps pinned to it. On the table was a paper, with something highlighted on it under a photo of the two men that ruined her family. She recognized the letters, but could not put them together to form a word.

"Their last known location where they were together." The Demon popped up behind her, tapping the highlighted part.

"What's it say?" Missy asked, wondering how close they were. "Is it far from here?"

"You tell me." The demon smiled. "That's what reading and math is for." She added, stretching out in a chair. "See, people leave written trails the same way they leave physical ones, education helps us track them … I told you, it was going to be a different way of hunting than you're used to."

So, the letters were like animal tracks that combined to make a trail … Missy blinked, looking at the paper again, before looking at where Bela was standing arms crossed.

She didn't like it, her Pa had always told her what was best after all, but maybe she'd have to ignore him this once … she didn't mean to be a bad daughter.

"I'm sorry, I'll mind ya better, ma'am."

"You'd better, the quicker you learn, the quicker you prove yourself ready for the hunt." The demon calmly started to pull off some skin, changing form into someone else as she walked away.

Missy looked at Bela, who looked back at her with an odd expression. "I'll learn to read, ma'am."

"I hope so, once you get this down, the rest will be easy."

Being Useful

Claire didn't mind traveling, or her dad helping Sam save others, or even when Adam started to join them on hunts. She didn't mind not always understanding what it was the adults were worried about, because she just wanted to stay with them.

She did mind being left behind, though. The room might have been safe, one of them might stay with her, unless they had to run for food, but Claire wished she was a little bigger so she could help them hunt.

She couldn't cook or clean, and even though she now had a squirt gun of holy water and salt, she couldn't really help … even the research wasn't something she wasn't always allowed to do, and it was a little frustrating to have so little she could help with.

The frustration built up until one day she just burst into tears when Adam suggested she go watch some TV show while he went through some notes.

"I don't wanna watch TV, I want to help!" She had shouted, not able to see his startled face through her tears. "I don't want to be left behind all the time!"

"Uh, ok … maybe we should talk when Sam and your dad get back." Adam had suggested, giving her some tissues. "They might have something you can do."

Claire had buried her face into his chest, forcing him to wrap his arms around her as she cried.

"Adam- what's wrong with Claire?"

"She wants to do something to help out with the hunts, I think." Adam passed her to her Dad, and Claire promptly buried her face into his chest as well. "She's really upset."

"Shh, Shh, I've got you, Claire-bear."

"I don't wanna be alone, I wanna help." Claire mumbled.

"I know sweetie, I'm sorry, but there are some things you're not ready to know just yet." Claire heard more talking, but she'd cried herself to sleep before she could comprehend what they were talking about.

The next morning, Claire woke up and promptly felt embarrassed for the outburst the previous night. Her plan to apologize was slightly ruined by her Dad and Adam being gone, and Sam looked up from the table where he was studying something.

"Hey, feeling better?"

"Um, yes, sorry, I didn't mean to-" Claire started, only for Sam to chuckle.

"It's ok, growing up is kinda rough." Sam picked up what looked like a tool box, only it was made of purple plastic. "I was thinking, some creatures are repelled by amulets, the strength varies according to the materials used, of course, but even thread and the plastic lanyards are enough to stall for time." He opened it to reveal a craft box, with a couple small books on making jewelry and different amulets from around the world. "It would help keep us safe." He offered, and Claire looked up, happy that she could do something.

"Daddy say it was ok?" Claire pulled out the booklet on making woven bracelets.

"Your Dad put it together, I helped him." Sam smiled. "It's gonna take some practice."

"S'better than just waiting around." Claire hugged Sam, and when her dad and Adam came back with breakfast and cinnamon rolls, she waited until they put it down before tackling them each with a hug, an apology for crying, and several thank you's for the craft box.

Back-up Plans

Bela always had a back up plan, it was necessary, and she knew one always needed a place to regroup when things hit the fan.

This time, Bela making sure to plan for two. Missy was too misguided to understand how dangerous working with a demon was, how deals would be changed to suit their whims and there was no way out once it was signed. If shit hit the fan, Bela would take Missy with her, the girl was starting to warm up to her, if only because Bela had told her stories of her exploits stealing from people.

She didn't trust the demon as far as she could throw her, she was constantly working on something, searching the internet or typing notes into her phone.

"You know, I don't really care that you're making backup plans." The demon said, looking amused as Bela whirled. "I've already got a few in place for if I lose one of you, I'm glad you've got some sense in your head."

"Would be easier if I knew what you were planning." Bela turned back to her own notes. "You know a lot, it's like you know things that should be happening."

"Spying on me too, oh, I am so glad I picked you up." The demon smirked. "It's always nice to have people remember that I might be helping them now, but betrayal is still a possibility. The naïve idiots that believe I truly care tend to be annoying."

"Why did you pick two humans, then?" Bela clicked her pen closed, and turned back to the demon.

"That's a question … See, Heaven and Hell are gearing up for quite the confrontation, but I don't care about that, I just want to mess up everyone's plans. All the other demons, though, they're gearing up for the battle royal, and because my plan targets some major players, they'd sell me out in a heart beat. You two won't, because humans are rather loyal to something that will further their own interests until it can't." The demon chuckled. "Don't worry, you're not anywhere on that list."

Bela highly doubted that she couldn't be added on later.

Ignorance is Bliss, Not Safety

Adam hit the dirt as Sam put him into the ground. The training spar was not really going well, given how inactive Adam had been while his chest (still tender) had been stitched.

"Again." Sam ordered, and Adam … well, he'd had enough.

"No, I'm done for the day."

"Adam, you asked me to help you, that means you need to listen to me." Sam looked annoyed. "You need to try it again."

"No." Adam glared up at Sam. "I'm done for the day."

"What's gotten into you? Earlier you wanted to learn."

"Earlier I hadn't gotten pounded into the dirt half a dozen times." Adam struggled up. "I'm done."

"You're not going to get any better if you don't push yourself." Sam pointed out, before studying Adam. "What's the real problem?"

"The real problem?" Adam snorted, "I hate to tell you this, but it's not singular." Now if his brother would just drop it. (He knew full well he wasn't angry at Sam, but his brother was the only available target.)

"You can tell me what's bothering you, you know." Sam frowned. "We're family."

"Are we?"

"What?" Adam just barely registered the hurt in Sam's expression before the thoughts he'd been having finally turned into words.

"I started thinking about it, reading those books, see, Dad never, ever, mentions me. There's never a 'hey, head here and make sure the kid I had with a nurse is still alright' or 'by the way, I have another son, who you should probably check on to make sure yellow eyes doesn't find'. There's nothing." Adam wiped his mouth. "It's like all he cared about was killing that thing, and he just pretended to care when he was around mw and mom." Adam met Sam's eyes. "Sam, we're practically strangers, I'm not even sure why I followed you, it felt right, then, but reading those books … It's like he only cared about Dean and you."

"… Those books exaggerate, you know, they have me brooding about Dad way more than I actually do." Sam pointed out.

That wasn't what Adam wanted Sam to say right then. "Never mind, I need to get some water." Sam watched him go, and Adam pulled out his phone, hesitating only briefly before hitting the speed dial.

"Adam?" His mom answered, and he focused on a nearby sapling, if he closed his eyes, he knew he'd go back to the demon attacking him.

"Hey mom, how are you?"

"I'm doing fine, had an emergency C-section last night, both mother and child made it, the drunk driver that plowed into them coded this morning." She paused. "Are you okay?"

"No. The more I learn about Dad … the more painful it gets."

"Oh, Adam, no one is perfect …"

"I know, but he … he never even mentioned me to them, didn't leave me with anything except an older brother who is practically falling apart because Dad's last words to our oldest brother were to either save him or kill him."

"What? Oh, that poor boy." Mom was horrified, Adam suddenly had a feeling that if John had been alive, his mother would have hunted him down and beat some sense into him, or just plain beat him.

"Mom, that's not exactly helping me." Adam rubbed his eyes.

"Adam," His mom paused, and then chuckled. "Adam, you had me there to push you to make friends and socialize outside of our house. Sam and Dean were fairly socially isolated, to the point where they really only trusted one another. You've just found out you have more family than just me, you've also got someone with all the answers. Sam's been promoted from younger brother to older brother, he must be struggling too, because he only knows how his older brother and his father acted towards him- and we know how secretive John was. You're both smart, and you'll figure out the right balance as you go."

"Easier said than done." Adam muttered, turning to see Sam playing with the necklace again. "I've got to go, Mom, I love you."

"I love you too, Adam. Be careful, and tell Sam he's welcome to call me if he needs help putting up with you." Mom teased, and Adam smiled as he hung up, before squaring his shoulders and going back to Sam.

"Alright, I'm ready to go again." Adam looked at Sam's slightly surprised face, and shrugged. "Just needed a moment to get my head on straight, you jarred something loose on that last throw."

"You sure? You don't have to." Sam offered, and Adam could practically hear the underlying suggestion of 'you could go back home to school and forget all this'.

Sometimes, Adam wished he could go back home and pretend he was just a kid with an absent dad again. But he knew he'd passed that stage a while back.

"Yeah, I'm sure, as unpleasant as it is … pretty sure it's going to be worth it." Adam smiled as his answer surprised a small smile out of Sam.

Team Tactics

Meg had, at one point, been a very good team player, even a good team leader. Once. Then the failed apocalypse had her running for her life and pretty much an outcast with occasional team-ups with the damned Winchesters.

Bela had a job offer, a million dollars to steal a cursed watch that supposedly drove people mad. It was an ideal test run to see how well they could all work in the field together- get a cursed watch, kill the owner, and get back out. Simple, up until that man's damned skin-walker pal caught her scent and attacked. Their fight was cut short by Meg landing on a rug with a devil's trap woven into it in one room, and Meg was now stuck in one spot. The owner came (with a troop of body guards) into question her, sending away the guards once he was comfortably seated.

"Now, you will explain just why you're here." The man had intoned, going for the dramatic, and utterly failing. (He should've kept the guards, it would've worked better.) "What do demons gain by breaking and entering my home?"

"It's fun." Meg shrugged, and wondered if Bela had taken Missy and left. It would be par for the course with her choice in allies, really.

"You expect me to believe that 3 demons break into my house and- Ahh!" The man yelped as a bullet entered his leg.

"Wondered where you got to." Bela commented, unscrewing the silencer. "Found a small armory, bunch of illegal weapons, we could use them."

"How could demons escape my traps?" The man spoke, before realizing he should run, instead.

Missy met him at the door, looking very perplexed as the man threw himself backwards in fear. "I found the box you were looking for."

"Thank you, Missy." Bela cut the rug, ruining the pattern so Meg could step free.

"I'm afraid you've got your information wrong." Meg stepped out of the trap, while Bela picked up the curse box holding the watch, and felt slightly bemused by the situation. That was another bonus to having someone that wasn't a demon after all, but one she hadn't really thought of that much. "Missy, we can't leave witnesses, would you mind killing him?" Meg asked, and Bela didn't even blink, though Meg was sure she was shooting a glare when they left.

Missy obeyed, the man went down with hysterical begging.

"Bit messy, Missy, and you let him make too much noise." Meg chided, before smiling. "I'm thinking about how we introduce our line up to Sammy, before we start the next level of our game." Missy looked at Meg, before glancing at Bela.

"I thought I wasn't hunting them yet."

"You're not, this is what one calls 'first contact', letting the opponent know you're ready to start the game while you get a chance to observe their moves." Meg smiled. "See, Sammy expects me to be alone, or with other demons. This will throw him off balance, and you can observe his little pack."

Give and Take

Things seemed to go through patches of good and bad luck for the Winchesters and their allies. With the start of getting people aware of the danger they were in had gone smoothly, it promptly hit a rough patch when Sam had gone to personally talk to Lisa Braedan.

She had not taken it well, to say the least, demanded that he leave her and her son alone and never come back.

Sam couldn't blame her, but then it was followed by the report form Cassie that some of the people they'd saved had gone on to die in car crashes, a few apparent suicides with their behavior changing in the months after being saved, and in one case a drug overdose.

It wasn't their fault, they weren't there to help them deal, but he thought the worst cases were the ones where they had clearly died trying to encounter the supernatural. The conversation he'd had with Cat in particular had stood out after being told her former boyfriend had died in a car crash, "It didn't even seem real to me anymore, I thought we were fine and then he got obsessed with ghosts and death and that's … that's when he started trying more dangerous stuff to find and contact them. He crashed into a pole at a hundred mph, I don't even know why he was going so fast, it was like he was trying to outpace something."

Either people weren't dealing, or they were trying desperately to do something stupid regarding ghosts and whatever monsters they'd been saved from.

And somewhere in the mess that was trying to deal with the knowledge that maybe he should have kept in better contact with those they helped, Sam had come to a revelation.

He didn't like being in charge of other people. He much preferred following someone else and helping than actually being the one in charge. It scared him that people trusted him to the right answers when he wasn't even sure of what he was doing.

And then there was the problem of his returned and sporadic powers that caused him to kill a shifter before it killed Adam- because he'd seen it in a vision and in the middle of it, he'd telekinetically threw a knife into the creature's skull. That had freaked him out, so much so that upon the return to the room, his panic attack he'd been trying to suppress had caused five books to go flying.

So he ended up running to the nearest park to get his head back on straight but he really couldn't focus enough to do so.

"Dean, I know you can't hear me, or well, maybe you can … I'm in way over my head and I don't know what to do." Sam felt a surge of frustration. "I'm terrified to sleep because I might have another vision of you in hell, and the sick thing is I so desperately want to see you that I half hope that I do. That shining came back, and it scares me because you didn't want me to use it, and now it's acting up more than before and I don't want it to because despite what Jimmy and Adam say, it freaks me out!" Sam whirled and almost ran into Adam. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you didn't leave us behind. Claire's decided to camp out in the Impala just in case." Adam held out a tissue. "Your nose is bleeding again, and I need to check your eyes, so sit on the bench over there."

"Adam, I'm not safe."

"No, but you're the safest." Adam tugged Sam over to the bench. "I know you're uncomfortable with the shinning stuff, but really, you kinda need to trust us when we say it's okay and let us take care of you once in a while."

Sam opened his mouth, but the words he meant to say were swapped with another question. "Is this want you want to do, follow the family business?"

"Nope. I've got little interest in actively seeking out monsters- helping people hurt by them, however, is more my speed." Adam met Sam's eyes. "I've figured out what I'm going to do. Right now, I've got two classes online with a slightly more relaxed schedule, I'll complete those and then I'll go back to school in January, up my course load so I can graduate as quickly as possible and get into medical school, probably log as much hours in a hospital as I can, though I've been volunteering at them since I turned 16, so I've got a lot of hours already. If I do nothing else, I might even graduate medical school in three years instead of the normal four, and then I've got the residency. I'm not interested in surgery, so maybe a small medical clinic, or an urgent care for my residency which I might be able to cut down to a year or two instead of three. Then if I can get a legitimate source of money, I can start my own clinic where I can treat hunters without them having to answer awkward questions. No idea how that part will work, but I'll figure it out eventually." Adam smiled at his look. "It's just a rough sketch of an idea, but I'm pretty sure I took more after my mom than I did of our Dad."

"Fair enough." Sam smiled and looked down. "My powers don't freak you out?"

"I'd have run for the hills after the iron hit the door if they did."

Jimmy was waiting for them outside the room when they came back, looking mildly annoyed.

"S-" Sam's apology was cut off by Jimmy passing him his phone.

"Missouri Mosley. I'm going to go talk Claire out of sleeping in the Impala." Jimmy softened the rather brusque words with a pat on Sam's shoulder.

"Missouri."

"Boy, if you didn't know how to control that gift of yours you shoulda told me!" Missouri scolded, and Sam felt like he should be ducking to avoid a wooden spoon. "Telekinesis, Samuel Winchester! I thought it was just vibes and visions, those are easy enough to deal with meditation of any kind, but Telekinesis! Especially if you can't control it?! I thought you had more sense than that."

"Sorry, I, I didn't know who to go to … you have telekinesis?" Sam blinked.

"Boy, do I look like a spoonbender? Don't mistake me, I can help you sure enough, but you get yourself and your fancy car to my place before I change my mind." Missouri hung up with another huff.

Adam took a picture of Sam's face, which had remained frozen in confusion and the terror one finds in a child being called out by his mother, before smiling at him. "Jimmy thought she might have a clue on how to help you."

Sam was hit by a slightly ineffective tackle by Claire.

"You run, we follow, that's just how this works." Claire informed him, and Sam smiled.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Note: As I said before, I suck at writing conflict, especially as I try to avoid it, so this was my attempt. Any ideas on how to make it better?