The Runt of the Litter

If You Take Away the Pride, What's Left?

Note: Aight, so I did the whole finish-writing-the-chapter-ON-Saturday-which-means-posting-it-a-little-later-in-the-day-than-usual thing. But... you forgive me, right? 

Anyway, thank you to all you beautiful, incredible people who keep reading and voting and commenting on this story. I love you all soooo much

This week's chapter is for the ever-patient dee_Foster, who waited over two months for this chapter... I'm sorry to make you wait so long, and thank you so much for being completely gracious about it. You're the best-est, as Anna would say (in this chapter, because she's four). I'm not gonna write out the request because it would lowkey give away the chapter.

Also, poppyy97 wanted to see just Dean dealing with a cranky Anna, and this chapter wound up playing perfectly into that.

And KourtneyB wanted to see Anna as a toddler again, since it's been a while, which also happens to be exactly what this chapter is.

I hope you all enjoy this one  💜

Anna is four.

If You Take Away the Pride, What's Left?

"I can go with you?" Anna asked, placing her stuffed frog on the bed next to Dean's weapon-filled duffel bag. She'd been ordered repeatedly not to touch any of the weapons-- a rule she'd been hearing for as long as she could remember-- so she hadn't so much as touched the bed where they all lay for most of the morning. But most of the weapons were safely tucked away in the bag now, and Dean was putting the last few in now, so she felt like it was alright to stand closer.

Anna stuck her bottom lip out in a plea, because she knew that Dean was going to say no, and she really wanted to change his mind. She grabbed the leg of his jeans in both hands and leaned her head back so she was looking straight up at him.

"Sorry, Munchkin, but I think this is a little above your paygrade," Dean said with a little smile. He finished stuffing his last sheathed knife inside of his duffel and zipped the bag, then reached down and scooped Anna up to set her on his hip. "But I'm only gonna be gone a few hours, and you'll be asleep the whole time."

"But I don't like when you're gone," Anna pouted, her arm resting on his shoulder. Her little fingers twisted the short hairs at the back of his neck as she gave him a puppy dog look that Dean knew she'd learned from their brother. She held his eyes for a moment, and when he twitched a sort of sad smile at her, she laid her head down on his shoulder, knowing it would make him feel even worse.

"You're breakin' my heart, Rugrat." He bounced her a couple times, and she picked her head up, pout disappearing. "But you know I have to get rid of the monster. We don't want anyone else getting hurt."

"Yeah," Anna said sadly and then went quiet.

She really didn't want anyone else to get hurt. But she didn't want Dean to get hurt, either. And the only reason he was taking all these different weapons was because he didn't even know for sure what the monster was he was hunting.

Dean set her on her feet on the floor. "Go get your shoes and your jacket so we can go get lunch, okay?"

Anna scurried off across the room to the second bed where she dropped to her stomach and started wiggling her way under the bed. She was almost all the way underneath when she felt hands on her ankles and Dean tugged her back out into the open and scooped her up again, this time letting her dangle at his side with one arm around her waist. "Tell me your shoes aren't stuck way under that bed." Her shoes almost always wound up stuck under the bed, and Dean was always wondering at how she'd managed to get them there.