likethegun | Around Town, Saturday Morning

Sam was heading through town, looking very high on post-prom bliss, and trying to figure out where he wanted to stop to get food for himself and Dawn.

	Maggie? Had just spotted her dad and was totally practicing her stealthiness, yup. She was so ready to be a Hunter. Or a Slayer. Or a cat burglar. Maybe a lion tamer. The curse she let out under her breath when she crunched on gravel was courtesy of her Uncle Dean. "Son of a bitch."
	The combination of sound and cursing made Sam turn around, and it took a few moments before his eyes widened in recognition. "Maggie?"
	"Dad! Hi!" She beamed up innocently at him as she straightened her shirt. "How're you?"
	There were all sorts of things Sam thought to say, but he ended up with, "I was better before I heard you swear."
	Oops. Maggie chewed on her lower lip. "Not so sneaky, huh?"
	"You're too young to be talking like that," Sam insisted. "Good girls don't swear. Or sneak up on people when they're not looking."
	"Aunt Faith does it all the time," she sulked at him.
	"Yeah, well, you're a better girl than Aunt Faith." Sam reached out and put his hand on her shoulder, like he was making sure he wasn't just hallucinating.
	"But Aunt Faith kicks serious vampire ass," she insisted, leaning into his side out of long habit. Her place didn't fit quite right, with her head leaning against his ribs instead of his tummy, and she frowned at the difference. "I wanna do that when I grow up."
	"Hey, she kicks vampire butt," Sam replied, putting his arms around her with no small amount of pleasure. "And you can do that when you grow up, but only if you let your mom and I help you."
	Maggie sighed. That was the same answer she always got. "When'm I gonna be grown up? I'm getting tired of waiting."
	"You're going to be all grown up when you're about...50. That sounds like a nice age," Sam said.
	"That's gonna take foreeeeeeeeeever," she argued. "You and mom aren't even fifty, and you're all old and stuff."
	"Hey, I'm not old," Sam said, even though he wasn't entirely sure about that. "And I'm pretty sure no matter how old you get, you'll be my little girl. You're pretty much stuck there."
	"Even if you get another little girl who's even littler and cuter?" She peeked up at him.
	"Cuter than you? That can't happen," Sam said, grinning. "Have you seen your mom yet, or were you just following me?"
	It could maybe happen, and maybe was happening back at home, but she didn't want to worry her Dad about that quite yet. "Just you. Mom's easier to sneak up on, anyway."
	"That's because she doesn't have my mad sneaker-catching skills," Sam insisted. "Do you think we should find her and try to sneak up on her?"
	"Okay!" She bounced a little in her sneakers. "And then can we have coffee?" Eight was totally old enough for coffee, in her opinion.
	"We can have hot chocolate," Sam replied. "Or maybe tea. No getting addicted to the hard stuff yet."
	Sigh. Different Daddy, same answer. At least it was worth a shot. "With whipped cream?"
	"With extra whipped cream," Sam said. Hopefully Dawn wouldn't kill him too hard for getting her on a sugar high.
	"Sold!" She held out her hand, figuring they'd be crossing the street at some point. "We should get Mommy some tea, though. The decalfinated kind, since she can't have the--oh, wait. I forgot. This is a different mommy. She can have whatever she wants, but we should get her something, because otherwise she'll pout."
	"And we can't make her pout, because that wouldn't be nice at all," Sam said, taking her hand and holding it tightly. "Why can't she have regular tea?" he asked as they started walking.
	"It's not good for the alien inside of her," she said, swinging their hands cheerfully as they walked along. "Uncle Spike said. He's my favorite babysitter." Well, next to Uncle Dean and Aunt Faith and Aunt Buffy and Uncle Xander and Aunt Grace...
	Sam wasn't sure what sounded more strange: Dawn having an alien inside her, or the idea that he'd leave his impressionable young child in the care of Spike. "She has an alien in her? Does it hurt?" Sam asked.
	"She says there's kicking sometimes, but I can't feel it when it happens and she says it won't hurt lots until later," she chattered away happily, "and Uncle Dean promised to teach me important stuff, but he can't tell me yet because I'm not in the club until it's on the outside."
	Sam stopped walking abruptly as he listened to her, and broke into a broad, bright grin. "She's pregnant," he said. "You're going to be a big sister."
	Maggie had kept walking until she was two arms' length away from Sam, since she hadn't noticed he'd stopped. When she felt the tug, she stood in place and cocked her head to the side as she studied him. "Uncle Dean says it's the most important job ever, 'specially for Winchesters, but I think I'd rather have a puppy than an alien."
	"It is an important job. A very important job," Sam said. "Babies need a lot of help from people who are older and smarter, and that includes you. And for the record, when your Uncle Dean was in your place, he wanted a puppy too. Lucky for him, he got me."
	She was already shaking her head in disagreement with Sam, because, well, he was wrong. Again. It happened a lot. "Uncle Dean always wanted a brother, until he wanted a little sister and got Grace. There's a handshake, and he's gonna teach me to drive the Impala and shoot demons in the head, and teach me about good music..." Some of this was true, but an awful lot was wishful thinking. "Do I get a cape?"
	Sam thought about pointing out that Uncle Dean was a lying liar who lied, but he didn't think that would be very good parenting. Or quasi-parenting. Or whatever it was he was doing while Maggie was here and not where she should be. "I don't know if you get a cape. I'm not allowed to know about all those secret older sibling things like your Uncle Dean," Sam said. "You should ask him about the cape and see what he says. And you can't drive the Impala until you're 16. Or as tall as me, whichever comes first."
	Maggie tilted her head back until she was staring way way up at her dad. "That's really tall. I'm never gonna be that tall."
	"Well, you'll just have to wait until you get old enough then, won't you," Sam said.
	"I have to wait for everything," she pouted. "Being little sucks."
	"Hey, when you're little, you totally get away with more stuff than when you're older," Sam said. "Someday, you're going to be as old as me, and you'll be wishing you could be little again."
	Maggie snorted. Yet another example of her dad being wrong. "So, this new alien? He or she'll be able to get away with even more than I do?" She realized how that sounded, and added quickly (if transparently), "Not that I ever get away with anything, because I'm a perfect angel and don't ever try to get away with stuff. You tell me that all the time." Her mom, on the other hand, had been known to call her a perfect Winchester, but only when she'd been caught doing something extra fun.
	"Oh, I'm sure you're the most perfect angel ever," Sam said, laughing. "Part of being a big sister is helping your little brother or sister get away with stuff too. You get to teach them how to do it. It's all very important."
	"Do I want to have a little brother or a little sister, do you think?" Maggie cuddled closer into her daddy's side. "I don't know which is better. Uncle Dean says having a little brother is the best, but Aunt Buffy said she doesn't know what she'd have done if Mommy had been a boy."
	Sam thought about that as he cuddled closer to Maggie. "Well, they're both great in different ways. If you get a little sister, you can teach her everything she needs to know about being an awesome girl. If you have a little brother, you'll always have someone willing to beat up anyone who tries to hurt you. If you don't beat them up first, of course," he added.
	"Do you ever wish you'd had a little brother, instead of Aunt Grace?" She peeked up at him again. Aunt Grace was all kinds of awesome, but maybe Daddy saw it differently, being a boy and all. "I only beat up Jason Regis that one time, and that was because he said I hit like a girl, and so I showed him how real girls hit and then I had to go to the principal's office, and you already know this so I don't need to be punished again and anyway three weeks of no library was really mean."
	"Oh no, I was totally happy to get Aunt Grace, because then I had a brother and a sister," Sam said. He had no doubt that that would continue to be true for his whole life. At Maggie's confession, Sam narrowed his eyes just a little, unable to hide how proud he really was of her. "Three weeks of no library seems like a perfect punishment," he said. She really was his and Dawn's daughter, apple right next to the tree and all.
	"I don't know if I want both. That seems like an awful lot of people to worry about getting hurt." "I had to watch tee vee," Maggie sulked, still unhappy about that result. "No dragons or Latin or anything. Giles wouldn't even sneak me stuff."
	"You don't have to worry about them all," Sam said, even though he knew she probably would. That was just part of being a Winchester. "And then you'd have more people looking out for you too." "Just so you know," he said, "Giles almost always takes your mom's side."
	Maggie gave Sam a look. Of course she'd have to worry about them all. They could get hurt or die and then she'd miss them a lot. She wasn't sure how she felt about having more people looking out for her--she got bossed around a lot as it was. She nodded knowingly. "Unless it's a fight between her and Aunt Willow, and then we have to go make popcorn."
	"I'm sure she's glad to know that her fighting is a source of fun for us," Sam said, laughing. "Although, I bet she enjoys watching Uncle Dean and I fight just as much."
	She stood up on her tiptoes and whispered in a very non-whispery voice, "She says I'm not s'posed to tell, 'cause it's a girl secret."
	It was probably wrong to use puppy eyes against your own child, but Sam figured he might be able to get away with it just this once. "You'd keep a secret from me?" he asked. "You should know you can tell me anything."
	Mommy had warned her about this. She had. It was her job to be strong. "I can tell you everything, Daddy," Maggie told him woefully, breaking out her own version of puppy eyes, "'cept this, because I promised Mommy, and promises are sac--they're important."
	"But your mommy and I don't keep secrets from each other," Sam said, certain he was lying like a lying thing that lied. "So there's no reason you shouldn't tell me."
	She sniffled a woeful sniffle. "I promised Mommy I wouldn't."
	That was all it took for Sam to realize that there was a force in the world that was greater than his puppy eyes. "Oh, all right," he said, admitting defeat. "I don't want to make you break your promise."
	"Yay, thank you, Daddy, I knew you'd understand," she said, hugging him tightly around the waist. "You're a good daddy that way."
	The idea that he could be a good dad in any way was enough to make Sam grin and hug her back. "It's easy to be a good dad when you're such a good girl."
	Maggie as a good girl was a little weird, even to Maggie, as it turned out, and now she felt bad for lying to her daddy. "I'm not always a good girl," she admitted reluctantly. "You're still a good daddy, though."
	"Hey, you're being good now," Sam pointed out. "You're keeping promises, and holding my hand, and not getting lost, and not punching any boys. That's all I'm asking for right now."
	"That's right, I am!" She bounced a little as they walked. "Except for how I got lost through a portal again. I'm gonna get tagged this time for sure."
	"You say that like it's a bad thing, which it probably isn't," Sam said. "It would keep you at least a little bit out of trouble."
	"It's bad for me!" There was some very definite pouting. "How'm I supposed to be sneaky if everybody knows where I am all the time?"
	"That's the point," Sam said. "You shouldn't go around being sneaky."
	She blew out a frustrated breath, "But then I'm never gonna get better at it!"
	"Why do you want to be sneaky? Girls who grow up to be safe librarians don't need to be sneaky," Sam said.
	"I don't want to grow up to be a librarian. I want to be a Hunter when I grow up. Like you and Grandpa and Uncle Dean."
	"What if I said I don't want you to be a Hunter? Not because you're a girl," Sam said quickly. "But because it's really, really dangerous."
	"But you save people. Like superheroes," she argued. "I wanna do that."
	"There's lots of ways to save people that are safer," Sam said. "You could do a dozen different things that would all be amazing and superhero-like."
	"But Hunting is what Winchesters do. At least until I'm older and find out if I'm a Slayer. Then I'd do that."
	Sam thought about arguing with her for a moment, before realizing what a waste of time it would be. He didn't know how long Maggie would be here before another portal opened to take her home, and with his and Dawn's combined stubbornness in her genes, he knew arguing would be pointless anyway. Her Sam could deal with that, when she got older. "Are you hoping you're a Slayer?" he finally asked.
	She shrugged. "Dunno. Most of them are nice, and I'd like to get better faster if I get hurt, so it's better than Hunting that way, but.." She trailed off, shrugging again. "I wouldn't hate it."
	"But if you're not a Slayer...if you're just normal, awesome Maggie, you'll be okay with that too?"
	"Uh huh." She nodded. "I'm not normal, though. Being able to use a bow and arrow and read in Latin is weird."
	"Hey," Sam said, stopping them for a moment so he could give Maggie a serious look. "Don't ever think you're weird, okay? You're special. There's a difference."
	Maggie blinked up at him, returning his serious look with a smaller version of her own. "But I like being weird."
	"You do?" Sam asked. He sounded surprised, but that might have been his own issues seeping through.
	"Uh huh." There was a flurry of nodding, then. "Being weird means I can do what I want."
	"You know, I didn't think about it like that," Sam said. "I guess as long as you don't mind...and you don't punch anyone for calling you weird," he added with a smirk, "then it's okay."
	"No punching," she sighed and rolled her eyes. Besides, Grandpa had told her that punching people meant she wasn't being sneaky and creative enough.
	"Good girl," Sam said, reaching over to give her hair a playful tug.
	Maggie swatted his hand away, giggling. "Daddy! No pulling."
	Sam laughed. "All right, I'll let your mommy do all the pulling."
	"Mommy doesn't pull. She says that's for boys."
	"Well, Mommy is very silly sometimes," Sam said. Somewhere, a Dawn was going to want to kill him, but he was kind of okay with that.
	"Uh huh." Maggie wasn't going to argue about that. Her mommy was silly sometimes.
	"And just think, you're going to grow up to be just like her," Sam teased. "Come on, let's see what kind of hot chocolate we can find."