s/13455608/1/One-Thing-Right

As promised, there's the link for OTR. Pretty please leave me some reviews! : )

"Ellie?"

Sam walked through the doorway of the library, his eyes scanning the room. He sighed and placed his hands on his hips, pursing his lips. He continued calling her name as he walked towards the war room, searching in there as well.

"Eleanor," his tone changed from normal to low and gravely. Just as he was about to yell again, a lanky twelve year old jumped out from the hallway.

"Boo!"

Sam just raised an eyebrow at his daughter and tilted his head, not scared in the slightest. She pouted her bottom lip out and jogged over to him, her long wavy hair bouncing into her face.

"You know, you could at least pretend to be afraid," she mumbled, crossing her arms.

Sam leaned forward, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, "I'm a hunter, El. I'm not afraid of anything."

"Liar," she scoffed, swatting his hand away as he continued to try and fix her hair, "Clowns."

"Shut it," he gently pushed her shoulder, making her smile. "Aren't you supposed to be studying?"

"I already did," she mumbled, walking past him into the library. She meandered up to one of the bookshelves and skimmed it with her finger, landing on a book about Sirens. Just as she crooked her finger into the binding to pull it out, Sam grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"You know the rules," he lowered her hand, "No hunting until your school work is done."

"It's just a stupid math test," she groaned, yanking her hand out of his grasp. "I won't even need math in real life."

Sam took a deep breath, watching his preteen walk to the library table and prop her feet up on it. As much as he had tried over the last four years to avoid it, she had developed more of Dean's traits than Sam would have liked. Between the attitude and thirst for sweets, she seemed more like a Mini Dean than his own child. As she looked up at him, though, he couldn't help but chuckle. More often than not, it was like looking into a mirror. The older she got, the more and more she looked like him. Her hair was the same color as his, albeit much longer now. The almost-curls that were present when she was younger had developed into loose waves as her hair grew out. Then there were the eyes, those beautiful hazel orbs that she still used to try to get the men to do something for her, or most often to try and get out of trouble. While Sam and mostly Dean had grown immune, Cass still had a hard time saying no to her when she frowned at him and fluttered her long eyelashes.

"Hello," Ellie waving her hand in front of his face brought Sam out of his daydream. He shook his head and leaned over her in the chair, resting a hand on each armrest as he came close to her face.

"Go study," he whispered, his eyes narrowed, "Now."

She cocked an eyebrow and stared at him for a brief moment before rolling her eyes dramatically, sighing. "Fine."

He smirked and leaned forward, kissing her nose. Ellie quickly wiped it off with a disgusted look on her face before sliding off the chair and heading towards her bedroom. Sam heard Dean chuckling from the doorway to the garage and turned towards the noise.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Dean smiled, "Just makes me laugh when you go all 'big bad dad' on her."

"Shut up," Sam shook his head, sitting in the chair and leaning back. "How was the hunt? The vamp nest?"

Dean shrugged, pulling his gun out from his waist band and clearing the chamber, "Fine, Claire got a little machete crazy but that's just Claire."

Sam chuckled as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. He swiveled the chair back and forth as he continued laying back in it, sighing.

"How were things here?" Dean was almost afraid to ask. He knew that he had left Sam and Ellie alone for over four days, and while it's not like they were going to literally kill each other, the preteen had become much more rambunctious the last few weeks.

"Oh, you know," Sam inhaled deeply, "Ellie has a math test tomorrow that she's been refusing to study for, and I found her messing with one of my knives in her room the other day."

"Maybe she just doesn't need to study," Dean shrugged. "You were always good at math."

Sam dropped his arms and turned his head to look at his brother, "I've gone over her homework. She needs to study. She keeps using the excuse that 'hunters don't need math'."

"That is true," Dean muttered, ignoring the glare he received from his brother. "What? I can't do algebra."

"But the whole point here is to make sure that she's educated so that if she decides she doesn't want to hunt she has the background to be able to go to college," Sam stood up, rubbing his hand down his face.

"I know," Dean replied, holding his hands up in a defensive manner, "I just don't think she's going to change her mind about hunting."

"We'll see," Sam mumbled, biting his lip. "I need to go get some groceries, can you keep an eye on her?"

"Why don't you take her with you?"

Sam turned slowly back to look at Dean, his head tilted forward as he glared at his brother, "You know why."

Dean tried to stop the smile that creeped up on his face before he shook his head and threw his arms forward, "Yeah, okay, I'll watch her."

The last few times that Sam had taken Ellie with him on a grocery run, she spent the entire time sneaking junk food into the cart. Most of the time he was able to catch it and throw it back onto the shelves, but eventually Ellie developed a plan where she would put it under her coat in the cart so Sam wouldn't notice until it was being placed on the belt to check out, where it was far too late to put it back. When they would arrive home, and Dean would help take the items out of the bags, he would always high five Ellie when she was able to get things like Oreos or bags of gummy bears.

Dean watched as Sam went to the garage, then made his way down the hall. He needed a shower, bad, but he had to let Ellie know what was going on first. As he came to her doorway, he knocked on the wall to let her know that he was there.

"Hold on," she squeaked, trying to throw the door shut. Once Dean quickly realized that she was fully clothed and not in danger, he threw his hand out to stop the door from shutting. He looked at her and dropped his shoulders dramatically, his eyebrows raising.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Ellie shoved her hands behind her back, but it wasn't quick enough. Dean had already noticed the shiny glint of metal as he walked in the room.

"Nothing," she smiled sweetly, backing up as he slowly walked towards her.

Dean held out his hand, sighing. "Give it to me."

"Give what to you?" she challenged, shrugging her shoulders just before her back hit the wall.

"Eleanor," Dean hissed, placing one hand on his hip and the other out in front of him as he stood close to her, their toes just barely touching. Ellie knew she was in trouble, because while her father used her full name often lately, her uncle never used it. She moaned before pulling her hands out from behind her back, pushing the closed switch blade into Dean's open hand.

"There," she grunted, crossing her arms and looking anywhere but his face.

"Ellie, you can't be messing around with stuff like this," Dean sighed, backing away from her. He hated being the bad guy.

"It's just a knife," she muttered, shrugging her shoulders. "Not like I'm playing with guns."

Dean pointed a finger in her face, "You'd better not touch my guns."

"I said I wasn't, god," she shoved his finger away before walking over and plopping down onto her bed.

"You're supposed to be studying for some test, anyway," Dean shoved the blade into his pocket and leaned against the wall.

"I hate math," Ellie whispered, grabbing her laptop and placing it on her legs.

"Too bad," Dean walked over and rubbed the top of her head, knowing how much it aggravated her when he messed with her hair. She immediately wiggled away from his reach and tried to smooth her hair, glaring at him. "Your dad ran to the store, and I need a shower, so be good."

"Whatever," she mumbled, waving a hand as he left the room.

Dean walked into the hallway and stopped, leaning against the wall outside her bedroom. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breathes, shaking his head. They had known early on that Ellie would be a handful as she got older, but damn, the kid wasn't even a teenager yet and she was already a run for their money. Jody had been texting both Sam and Dean frequently lately, warning them that Ellie was getting to the age of hormones and, ugh, puberty, but Dean kept ignoring the texts. He didn't want to think of his cute little niece as becoming a woman any time soon.

"I'm not going to make it to her next birthday," Dean whispered as he walked down the hallway to the bathroom, running his hands through his hair.

As Dean walked out of the bathroom rubbing a towel on his hair he saw Sam stalking down the hallway towards him. He had texted him about Ellie having yet another knife in her room, and Sam was obviously pissed about it.

"Hold up," Dean held his hands out, pressing against his brother's chest.

"Stop Dean, let me go talk to her," Sam tried to move around him to no avail.

"No, you're going to go yell at her," Dean put his hands out to the side, effectively stopping Sam from moving further.

"And?"

Dean tilted his head and sighed, "She's never going to tell us anything if we keep yelling at her every time she does anything wrong."

Sam scoffed, crossing his arms, "So what do you suggest, we just let her do whatever she wants?"

"No, dick," Dean glared, "I already laid into her about it, she doesn't need to hear it from you too."

Sam let his shoulders relax as he looked at his brother with pursed lips. After a moment, he sighed and shook his head. He knew Dean was right. She would be a teenager in less than a month, and they needed to work on building a more trusting relationship with her. Sam reached out and patted Dean's shoulder before turning around and heading back for the library.

Dean let out a long breath, moving to the doorway of his room and tossing the towel inside. He then walked down the hall to Ellie's room, smiling as he saw her laying on her stomach on her bed, a math book open next to her.

"How's it going?" he slowly walked in, resting his hands in his pockets.

Ellie's eyes glanced up quickly before looking back to her book. "Fine, I guess."

"You know," Dean cleared his throat, "Your dad was always really good at math."

"I know," she muttered, reaching up and running her fingers in her hair to push it back out of her face. "I don't think he'd be a good teacher though."

Dean chuckled, moving to sit on the edge of her bed. "Can I tell you a secret?"

Ellie nodded, not really paying attention to her uncle. Dean sensed this and pulled her math book towards him, forcing her gaze to meet his.

"Your dad didn't always want to be a hunter."

"I know," Ellie moaned, rolling over onto her back, "He was going to be a lawyer."

Dean reached over and flicked her forehead, "But before that, he wanted to be a teacher."

Ellie raised an eyebrow, turning on her side and leaning on her elbow. "Really?"

"Yup," Dean nodded, handing her book back to her before standing up. "And can you guess what subject he wanted to teach?"

Ellie looked down at the book in her hands, then back to Dean's eyes. She raised her eyebrows in question and Dean merely nodded, shrugging. Ellie chuckled softly to herself before rolling off the side of her bed onto her feet. Dean watched as she carried her book to the hallway, presumably to go find Sam. He waited in her room for a moment, sighing as he looked around. The doll house from her seventh birthday was long gone, donated to a family in need, and replaced with magazines and the few pieces of make up that Alex had bought her. There were pictures all over her walls, of her with their extended family. A few snapshots from her sleepovers at Jody's, even several images of her with Crowley and Rowena.

Dean's favorites, however, would always be the row of photos above her bed from her first few weeks at the bunker. The picture of her and Cass mowing down on their bowls of ice cream, flanked by a photo of her sick and laying on top of Dean. The middle pictures were a bunch of her with her dad in different moments, between eating a spaghetti noodle or dancing to AC/DC. Despite her growing older and developing such a strong personality, she always kept one frame on her bedside table. It was the very first picture of Ellie and her father together, with him holding her in his arms tightly, one hand on her head and the other on her back.

Dean smiled as he turned and walked out of the room. As he neared the library, he chuckled to himself listening to the conversation taking place.

"But why does it cancel out?"

"Because it does."

"But why?"

"Because that's how math works."

Dean came around the corner, smirking as he watched Sam leaned over the table where Ellie sat with her head in her hands. He leaned against the doorway, his arms crossed as he listened to Sam explain the problem to her. At first, Ellie was whining and moaning every time she got an answer wrong, but after Sam used some real world examples she seemed to finally be understanding. When she got her first problem correct without help from Sam, her eyes lit up as she looked up at him.

"I did it?"

Sam smiled down at her, nodding. "You sure did. Good job."

Ellie lunged off of her chair, wrapping her arms around Sam's neck. He froze for a moment before closing his eyes and squeezing her tightly. It had been so long since she initiated a hug, so you could bet your sweet ass he was savoring this moment. When he opened his eyes and met his brother's gaze, he simply smiled and tucked his chin into Ellie's neck, rubbing his beard on it like he always did when he wanted to tickle her. Ellie squealed and tried to pull away, but Sam's grip only tightened. He continued his assault on her neck as her legs flailed and her arms tried to push against his chest, her sharp breathing only coming in spurts in between laughter.

"Dad stop," she screeched, trying to hide her smile as she managed to slide down out of his grasp.

Sam grinned down at her as she scrambled to her feet, holding her hands out in front of her in a defensive manner. He raised his eyebrows and slowly lifted his hands, a dangerous sparkle in his eyes.

"I'm serious Dad, don't," Ellie whined, her smile deceiving her fake bravado. She tucked her elbows down into her sides, knowing that her father was well aware of her most ticklish spot.

Sam waited just a few seconds before launching forward, chasing her when she ran away from him. Ellie screamed as she ran towards Dean, looking into his eyes with a smile as she prepared to run past him. He instead moved to block her in, looking down at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes as he grabbed her upper arms, holding her still.

"Sorry squirt," he chuckled before turning her around and shoving her directly into Sam's waiting hands.