AUTHOR'S NOTE: If this is your first time reading one of my fics and you want to read more about Alyson, please check my page for other stories about Alyson Winchester. Beta-ed by edge_of_clairvoyance and CrzedPanda.

Sam is 8 years old and Aly is a couple of months old.

~ ~ spn ~ ~ spn ~ ~

Babies were dumb, Sam had decided. Everyone had been so excited about his baby sister, but it turned out that all she did was sleep, cry, and poop. And she was small and wrinkly and got all red-faced when she cried.

People asked him what he thought about having a sister, about not being the youngest anymore. When he told them that it didn't bother him, or he didn't mind, they would chuckle and say, "You'll change your mind once the baby gets older."

Once he had said he didn't really care about becoming a big brother, and Mom and Dad had both frowned at him, so he didn't say it again.

The baby started to get fussy after she was a couple of months old. She'd cry and cry at night-time, and he'd wake up hearing her wailing. Mom would be trying to make dinner, and the baby would cry and want to be held. Dean was either at baseball practice or doing his paper route and Dad was at work, so it would fall to Sam to help out. He was annoyed at first and didn't want to hold her- he'd gotten in trouble a couple weeks back because of the baby, and it still rankled him.

Everyone had been in the living room after dinner one evening, and the baby was in her little bouncy chair.

Dad was rubbing Mom's shoulders and neck, she had slept wrong and had to use the heating pad all day.

Dean was hogging the remote as usual, watching a re-run of Scooby-Doo, and Sam was bored, so he had started tossing his soccer ball in the air. Both Mom and Dad had told him to be careful because of the baby, so he had set it down and tried to dribble it- not really kicking it, just pushing it back and forth with his feet.

And then he had accidentally kicked it too hard, and it had flown across the room and hit the lower edge of the bouncy chair, and ricocheted off into a corner.

Mom had yelled, "OH!" in a scared voice, and gotten up to grab the baby out of the seat, even though the baby hadn't noticed. It wasn't even like it had hurt the baby, she wasn't even crying, and Sam said as much when Mom started scolding him.

Which made Dad take over, and Dad yelled. Sam hated it when Dad scolded, and he hated it even more when Dad yelled at him. He loved both his parents equally, but when Dad got upset or angry with him, and he knew he'd disappointed Dad, it was a huge deal.

Dad had stormed over to Sam, yelling about being careful with the baby because she was tiny and fragile, and that Sam needed to listen to them and do what they said, and that Sam needed to step up to the plate and start acting like a big brother and taking care of his baby sister, and then Dad had grabbed Sam and spanked him right there in front of everyone.

It hurt Sam's butt, and his pride, and after Dad let him go, he ran to his room and threw himself on his bed. He was embarrassed too, not only did he get spanked in front of the whole family, he had hollered and cried, and Dean was probably gonna make fun of him for that.

He had fallen asleep crying, and woken up when Dad was changing him into pajamas. Dad apologized for yelling and spanking Sam when he was angry, but he reminded Sam that he meant what he said. Sam sniffled and nodded and agreed to listen better and be a good big brother.

So now here he was, holding his baby sister and jouncing her in his arms as she fussed. She was stiff, arching her back and leaning her head back. She let out a piercing cry that hurt Sam's ears.

Sam grabbed the little quilt that a neighbor had made and spread it on the floor, and then laid the baby down on her back.

The car seat handle had a couple of toys attached to it, little plush animals that rattled. He detached a couple of them and then sat next to the baby, holding the puppy rattle over her head and shaking it. She looked up and waved her arms, huffing excitedly.

"You like that one?" He asked her, shaking the toy again. She waved her arms again and kicked her feet.

She looked at Sam, and he looked at her, and their eyes connected. And then she smiled at him.

Just like that, everything changed. All the resentment he had held, over the extra attention that the baby had been getting, over being woken up at night hearing the baby cry as Mom or Dad walked the hall with her, over being scolded for being too loud while the baby was sleeping, and getting spanked in front of everyone—it all melted away.

The baby reached for the toy, and her eyes caught his again and she gave him another huge open-mouthed smile as she waved her hands.

"Look at that, she loves her big brother," Mom said.

Sam turned his head- she was standing in the doorway, a kitchen towel in her hands.

"You think she likes me?" Sam asked.

Mom nodded. "She does, she loves us. She gets excited to see all of you!"

"She does?"

"She talks to Daddy when he gives her a bath, and she laughs at Dean when he dances with her, and she waves her arms when she sees you." A timer started beeping, and Mom turned and went into the kitchen.

Sam looked back at his sister, and the place in his chest that had held the resentment filled with something else, something warm. He lowered the toy and she grabbed it and pulled it towards her face, shoving it, and his hand, into her mouth. It felt warm and slimy but he didn't feel grossed out.

He paid attention to how the baby reacted when his brother and dad came home. Dean always picked her up and swung her up in the air a little bit, and then danced around holding her out, which made her laugh and screech. Sam had felt a little jealous that Dean was the first one to get her to laugh, but then, he hadn't exactly gone out of his way to get her attention like that.

The baby gurgled and babbled at Dad, her whole face lighting up when he talked to her, and Sam hung around while Dad bathed her after dinner. Dad talked to her the whole time, and the baby did talk back, even if it was all nonsense syllables.

Dad had dressed her in pajamas, and then wrapped her in a blanket. "All right, snug as a bug in a rug."

Sam laughed at that.

"You ready to go see Mommy, baby Aly?" Dad asked her, then he looked at Sam. "Want to take her?"

"Okay," Sam leaned over and picked the baby up. "Snug as a bug in a rug." He chuckled. "Aly-bug."

Aly grinned up at him. Sam grinned back at her. "She's an Aly-bug, Dad!"

Dad chuckled too. "Yeah, I guess she is!" He ruffled Sam's hair.

Sam turned to leave the bathroom, Aly snuggled in his arms. "C'mon, Alybug, let's go find Mom."