ficwriterjet

Update at site

2008-07-28T05:07:23Z

Hi all,

I've just posted Relic's (hucknclem) new Supernatural story called 'Lightning Strike' up on my site. Written in response to minx999writting challenge.

http://www.ficwriter.com

Update at site

2008-07-21T06:25:43Z

Hi all,

The Firefly story is now posted on my site, and there is also a new Smallville story posted, which I wrote with my friend as an RPG. Stories can be found here:

http://www.ficwriter.com

Firefly 'drabble' fic

2008-07-20T00:24:13Z

Hi all,

I know you all probably thought I forgot about the drabble fics that I promised, but I didn't. :) Here is the fic that I wrote for suzy_queue.
Hopefully my next drabble won't take so long to write.

Author’s Note: This story takes place one month after my story ‘Daddy Will Come For Us’, and three months after the movie ‘Serenity’. This was written for ‘suzy_queue’ because of a ‘guess the movie’ challenge on my LJ page. Hope you like it, it turned into more then a drabble.

Dreamwalking

Simon put the cake down in front of River and said, "Don’t forget to make a wish."

River smiled at him and closed her eyes for a few seconds. She opened them and blew all the candles out with one blow. She heard a few congratulations from the crew, and she heard Kaylee clap, but her mind wasn’t in the now. She stared at the smoking candles without really seeing them as her mind looked at snips of the future and past. Her brother’s hand on her shoulder broke the trance, and she looked up at him.

"Happy Birthday River. Now that you’re eighteen, you’re officially an adult." He gave her a smile, but she could see the worry behind it.

"You’ll always be older." She reassured him.

Simon laughed and said, "Thanks for reminding me."

Kaylee started cutting up pieces of cake to hand out, and Inara handed River a gift. River opened the gift to find a new dress. She took it out and held it up against her. "It’s beautiful. Thank you Inara."

"You’re welcome."

Jayne handed River a crudely wrapped gift and muttered, "Happy Birthday."

Smiling, she opened it and saw a couple of bars of soap shaped like seashells. Kaylee was looking over River’s shoulder as she handed a piece of cake to Jayne and said with surprise, "Wow Jayne, that’s a mighty nice gift."

Frowning Jayne said defensively, "It ain’t like I never gave a gift to a girl before." He snatched his piece of cake, and shoved a bite in his mouth.

River walked over, stood on her tiptoes, and pulled Jayne down to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks Jayne."

Slightly embarrassed, Jayne shooed her away with, "Go open someone else’s gift why don’t ya."

Belinda, who had accepted Mal’s offer to pilot the ship about two weeks after kidnapping half the crew, handed River a small box. River opened it and saw a small beaded bracelet inside. She put it on her wrist and said, "Thank you, it’s very nice."

"Looks good on you." Belinda commented.

Mal handed River a box, which she opened with a smile. She took a small dagger out of the box, and took it out of it’s sheath. The blade caught the light and she said in a far away voice, "Shiny."

Simon choked on his cake for a second before raising his voice, "A dagger? You gave my sister a dagger for her birthday? Are you crazy?"

Mal said defensively, "It’s a solid weapon. Standard Army issue. Nothin’ fancy, but it’ll stop an enemy if you know how to use it."

Setting his cake down Simon crossed his arms, "That’s not the problem! I don’t want to encourage her to be fighting!"

Scoffing Mal said, "She can knock Jayne out without a weapon at all, I don’t think giving her a dagger is going to make her want to fight more."

"Hey, that ain’t necessarily true!" Jayne said offended.

Mal talked over him; "This will just be to help her defend herself if something happens."

River who was still staring at the dagger said, "Forty two."

Turning his attention away from Mal for a second, Simon looked at River. He didn’t like the way she was staring at the dagger and said, "Forty two what River?"

"People stabbed with this knife."

Glaring at Mal, Simon said, "Nice." He gently put his hand over River’s hand that held the dagger and tried to take it away as he said, "I think we should put this away for later."

Pulled out of the past and into the now again by her brother’s touch, River jerked her hand away from his with the dagger still in it. "No. It’s mine."

Sighing Simon said, "I don’t think you should be…."

She put the dagger back in its sheath, looked into Simon’s eyes with a serious expression and cut him off, "It’s mine. I’m keeping it."

Simon glared at Mal and said, "Great. It’s gonna be on your head when something happens."

Getting pissed Mal said; "You say that like she’s three! She’s better in combat then the best trained soldier. You can’t keep her from growing up."

The crew, having heard Mal and Simon fight over what was best for River many times over the past month, mostly tuned it out and went about their own business. River looked back and forth between the two of them a couple of times while thoughts of the immediate future flooded her head.

River suddenly stood up and gave Mal a hug as she said, "Thank you for the gift Captain. It’s very nice."

Giving Simon a smug look, Mal hugged River back and said, "You best only be using it when you need it for self defense."

"I understand."

Trying to smooth things over, Kaylee handed Simon his cake again while rubbing a hand up and down his arm. Once he took it, she walked over to River and handed her a gift. "This here’s from me and Zoe."

River opened it and saw an ornately decorated and stained wooden box. She opened it and saw a variety of colors of eye shadow, blush, and lip gloss, with a mirror built into the lid. She smiled and offered her thanks to both women while everyone finished up their cake.

******************

That night Mal and Belinda were talking about their next mission in the mess hall while the rest of the crew slept. Belinda was saying, "Should take about two days to go from…."

She trailed off as she saw River walk into the mess hall and head straight to the counter. Mal said to her, "You’re up late tonight."

River didn’t comment and picked a pear up off the counter. She pulled out her new dagger, and started to cut the pear into slices. Slightly concerned, Mal stood and said, "Somethin’ weighin’ on your mind little one?"

Without a word River turned abruptly and threw the dagger straight passed Mal’s head. The dagger imbedded itself into the metal wall a few feet away. Belinda stood and drew her gun. She leveled it at River and waited to see what was going to happen. Mal stepped back and held out a hand to Belinda in a gesture for her to stand down. He focused on River and said, "River? Tell me what’s wrong."

River snarled at the wall with the dagger in it and said in an accent that wasn’t quite her own, "That’ll teach ya not to sneak up on me."

She stalked over to the wall, yanked the dagger out of it, and carefully wiped both sides of the already clean dagger on the sleeve of her pajamas. Belinda, still holding the gun on River, asked, "Is she sleepwalking?"

"I don’t rightly know." Mal walked a little closer to River and said, "River. River can you hear me? Do you know who I am?"

River closed her eyes, and started to fall to the ground. Mal caught her before she could fall all the way, and eased her to the floor. He put a hand on the side of her face and said with a touch of command in his voice, "River it’s time to wake up."

When her eyes fluttered open a second later, River looked up at Mal and said with confusion, "Captain? Why am I in the kitchen?"

He helped her sit up and said, "You walked in here yourself. Don’t you remember?"

She gave him a wide-eyed look. "Did I hurt anyone?"

"No." He reassured her as he helped her stand up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Belinda took a deep breath and put her gun away now that it seemed to be over. "I’ll be up on the bridge if anyone needs me."

Mal nodded absently and started River walking towards the guest quarters that she shared with Simon. "Let’s go get you back in bed."

Looking close to tears River said, "Do you think something triggered me again?"

Giving her a squeeze Mal shook his head. "I doubt it. I think you were sleepwalking."

When they got to the hatch of the guest quarters, River said with a pout, "You don’t need to tell him. He’ll just worry."

"He needs to know. He’s not just your brother, he’s the only Doc we’ve got, and it’ll help me not to worry overly much if he knows too."

River went in first, and went to sit on the couch. Mal went and knocked on the door to Simon’s room. He heard Simon’s voice, "Be right there."

Then he heard Kaylee’s voice, "What’s wrong?"

Simon said, "She probably had another nightmare. Go back to sleep."

A sleepy looking Simon opened the door in his boxers and tee shirt. "What’s wr…..Mal?"

Mal said, "Sorry to wake you Simon, but something happened."

A few minutes later Simon and Kaylee were both on the couch with River between them listening to Mal’s account of what happened. Simon turned to River and said, "And you don’t remember any of this?"

With a shaky voice River said, "I don’t want to do more tests Simon. You said I was better."

Simon pulled her into a hug and said, "It’s okay River. We don’t need to do anymore tests. I’m sure you were sleepwalking. Maybe you were too young to remember, but you did a lot of sleepwalking right after you turned four." He smiled softly at the memory and said, "You called it dreamwalking. You said your dream had come to life and you were playing inside it. You did it for about two months, and then it tapered off. But you did it again one time a couple days before you were sent to the Academy. So it’s not unheard of for you to sleepwalk, and a mildly stressful event like turning eighteen could be a trigger for it."

After a tight hug back she let him go and said, "I’m tired. I want to go back to sleep."

Figuring that Simon and Mal needed a minute alone to talk, Kaylee stood and held out her hand to River. "Come on, I’ll tuck you back in."

River took her hand and they went to River’s room together. Simon stood and walked closer to Mal. Mal said, "You think she’s okay Doc?"

"I think if this is a one time incident that she’s okay. If there’s another, then we’ll have to rethink that."

Mal nodded. "Okay then. Night."

********************

The next night the cargo hold was full with crates of oranges. The crew was being paid to deliver them to a moon, which was about two days away by ship. Zoe was keeping an eye on the bridge that night while everyone else slept. She walked down to the cargo bay to check the oranges three hours after the last of the crew had headed to their quarters. Finding nothing amiss, Zoe turned to go back to her room only to find River standing directly behind her in her personal space. Zoe’s hand automatically went for her gun, but once she registered the fact that it was River, she took her hand away and smiled. "You startled me."

Her smile faded as she realized River wasn’t looking at her, but through her to some invisible point further ahead. Zoe turned to look behind her, but only saw oranges. Turning back around she said, "River?"

River lunged at an unseen foe to the side, and started kicking and punching the air while slowly advancing on one of the stacks of orange crates.

Mal had told Zoe about River’s sleepwalking, so Zoe said in a loud voice, "Wake up! Wake up right now River!"

River continued to fight the air, and soon one of her kicks knocked a crate to the floor. The crate broke on contact, and oranges spread across the floor in different directions. River got out her dagger and started stabbing the oranges as they rolled past her.

While River was busy fighting no one; Zoe walked across the room and pushed a button on the wall. She called Mal first and said, "Sir?"

She heard a tired, "What?"

"We have a problem in the cargo hold."

"Be right there."

Next she called Simon and said, "Simon?"

It took a few seconds, but soon there was a muffled, "What’s wrong?"

"Medical issue in the cargo hold."

By the time Zoe was done calling people, River had stabbed each and every orange that had escaped from the crate. When the last one was stabbed she turned suddenly to look straight at Zoe. River was crouched in a fighting stance while holding the dagger, and she had a wild look in her eye. Zoe slowly reached for her weapon and said, "River, it’s me Zoe. You need to wake up now before one of us gets hurt."

River blinked a couple of times and slowly rose to a fully standing position. She looked around her at the floor and then down at her orange juice soaked pajamas. "What happened?"

Taking her hand off her weapon Zoe breathed a sigh of relief and said, "You were sleepwalking again. The Captain and Simon will be here in just a few seconds."

With a look of dismay, River turned the broken crate over, and started gathering the stabbed oranges and putting them back in the intact part of the crate. Mal was there first and when he saw the mess River had made he said, "Ai ya!"

River continued to pick up and said, "I’m sorry."

Mal turned to Zoe for an explanation. "Sleepwalking again."

Before he could comment, Simon and Kaylee showed up as well. Simon saw the mess and then asked River, "Are you okay?"

River nodded with tears in her eyes. Simon saw the dagger in her hands and said, "Where did you get that?"

River looked down at her hands. Mal answered, "What do you mean where did she get it? It’s the one I gave her."

Shaking his head Simon said, "No, after last night she agreed to let me keep her dagger in my bedroom for the night, just in case she ended up sleepwalking again."

Looking down at the dagger, River said, "It’s mine. I know it’s mine."

Kaylee said, "You must’a come in while we were sleepin’ and took it."

"I’m sticky. I need a shower." River said as she put the last orange in the broken crate.

Simon turned to Mal and said, "I’ll reimburse you for this."

Shaking his head Mal said, "I ain’t worried about the money so much as I’m worried about a repeat performance."

Nodding in understanding Simon said, "Me too. I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow."

River glared at her brother and said, "Don’t talk like I’m not in the room, and don’t offer to pay for it when I break things!"

A bit surprised Simon shook his head and said in a placating voice, "I’m just trying to help you River."

"I don’t need your help." She hissed at him with venom. She turned to Mal and said, "I’ll pay for the damages. Take it out of my cut, and let me know what else I owe you. And I’ll talk to you tomorrow about how we’re going to prevent a repeat performance."

Mal looked at Simon who looked hurt, and then back to River who looked angry. "I’ll talk to both of you tomorrow. It’s late, go back to bed. That’s an order."

Kaylee put her hand in Simon’s hand, knowing he was upset, and they headed for the guest quarters following River.

Once they were out of ear shot Mal turned to Zoe for her opinion. She answered the unspoken question; "Trouble’s brewing between those two."

Nodding in agreement Mal said, "Best guard the fruit tonight."

"Yes sir."

************************

The next morning after breakfast Mal told Simon and River to come with him to the infirmary. Once they were there Mal asked Simon, "You got any tests you can run to see what might be makin’ River sleepwalk?"

River immediately said, "No tests!"

Mal said somewhat gently, "I know you ain’t fond of tests, but we need to know what’s going on in that head of yours."

Simon had been thinking it over and said, "I could monitor her brain waves tonight while……"

Interrupting, River shook her head and said with more force, "No tests! I’m better now!"

With a small glare Mal said forcefully, "If the Doc and I agree that you need a test, then you’re gonna take it, like it or not."

River glared back and said, "I won’t!"

"River!" Simon said with mild disapproval.

Mal just looked at River in shock for a few seconds. She’d never given him a direct no, and it took him a few seconds to react. She told Simon no often enough, but given time Simon could usually talk her into whatever it was if it was he wanted her to do. Mal wasn’t about to take the time to talk his crew into following orders. Pointing a finger at her, Mal said, "You’d best be rememberin’ that you’re a member of my crew, and when I give an order I expect it to be obeyed. You’re taking whatever tests the Doc thinks you need."

"I don’t need any tests!"

Simon knew he could talk her into it with some time and patients. He was about to ask Mal to give him a few minutes alone with his sister but never got the chance. Time seemed to go in slow motion as he saw Mal grab his sister’s upper arm, turn her to the side, and swat her on the butt four times before letting her go again. It was over before Simon had a chance to react, but the second it was over, Simon stepped in between the two and directed a murderous look at Mal. He hissed, "How dare you!"

With a seriously annoyed expression Mal said, "You wanna be next?" Before Simon could answer that Mal looked back at River who had both her hands on her butt and a pout on her face. He said, "Are you gonna take the tests?"

Nodding River quietly said, "Yes."

Mal’s threat barely registered in Simon’s head. All he could think about was protecting his sister. "If you ever lay a hand on my sister again…"

Leaning down into Simon’s personal space Mal cut him off. "You don’t wanna finish that statement." Mal could tell that Simon was too angry to be intimidated, so he looked over at River and said, "You stay."

He pulled a still angry looking Simon out of the infirmary and shut the door behind them. Mal leaned down close to Simon’s ear and said quietly, "You need to think on this a minute. Your sister killed a whole slue of Reavers all by her lonesome because she could anticipate their moves. You really think she couldn’t anticipate mine?"

Simon backed up a step away from Mal and shook his head no, not wanting to believe that. He hissed a whisper back, "That’s insanity."

"Maybe so, but you can’t deny that it’s true. She was scared and she needed…." Mal paused and looked in the window at River who was now sitting on the exam table and staring off into the distance. "She needed someone to take control."

Looking back at Simon, Mal said, "We talked about this."

Simon was calming down, and his brain was working overtime trying to put the pieces together. He looked in at his sister who seemed much calmer for the moment, and then back at Mal. "We didn’t discuss you striking her."

"No, but we did talk over her seein’ me as a…." Mal found himself unable to say ‘father figure’. He said, "We talked about how she sees me, and we both agreed that we were fine with it."

Simon looked over at River again, and a part of him could see Mal’s point. A part of him could even see that it had worked. But another part of him was angry with both of them. Angry with Mal because his version of a father figure was not the version that Simon wanted for his sister. And angry at River because she hadn’t stopped Mal, which did indicate that Mal’s version was the version she wanted for herself. And though he wouldn’t admit it, a part of him was jealous that Mal had taken the role that Simon himself had tried, but failed, to fill. Simon crossed his arms and said, "If you’d been a little more patient, we could have talked her into the testing. There was no need for violence."

"You’re wrong. I ain’t got time to talk my crew into following orders."

"I can see that being true in some instances, in a battle for example, but for something like this I disagree."

Simon and Mal glared at each other for a few seconds. Frustrated with the whole thing Mal said, "Talkin’ is overrated, and I’m done. Get in there and explain the testing before I decide you’re in need some violence too."

Feeling his face heat up Simon hissed, "She may see you as a father figure, but let’s be clear on the fact that I don’t." Before Mal could answer, Simon opened the door to the infirmary, went in, and started talking to River.

Mal rolled his eyes and muttered to himself, "Could’a fooled me."

Fifteen minutes later they had a plan for that night, and Mal left Simon alone with River to do a few small tests. Once Mal left, Simon gave his sister a serious look and said, "River?"

"Yes?"

Finding he had to look away, Simon said, "Were you…. Did you know what Mal was going to do before he did it?"

River didn’t respond at first. After a couple of seconds, Simon looked at her and she said, "Every action or word down to the smallest twitch of a muscle or inflection of sound can produce a different outcome. Timelines branch off into limbs and then into twigs and then into leaves, both forward and backwards in time in my head. I can’t always tell if I’m on the right leaf, but I know which limb I’m on."

Trying to understand, Simon said, "So there were a few different ways Mal could have reacted to what you said, and you didn’t know exactly which one it would be?"

Cocking her head to one side and looking into the distance, River said, "By the time I told the Captain I wouldn’t take the tests, there were only a couple of leaves left."

"So then you did know?"

River gave Simon a sad smile and put a hand on the side of his face. "This isn’t a good limb. Jump with me to another."

Sighing because he could tell she didn’t want to talk about it anymore, Simon nodded his acceptance. He held up two plastic brain wave monitors for her to see. They were both white and about the size of three quarters stacked together. He said, "Okay. Lie back, and let me put these monitors on your temples so we can get a baseline."

***************************

That night after River had gotten ready for bed, Simon came into her room with the monitors. River was sitting on her bed and said, "I don’t want the monitors on. They were on half the day, and I won’t be able to sleep."

Having heard her complaints about this all day was making Simon slightly irritable; "Yes you will be able to sleep. Just let me put these on your temples, and you can climb into bed."

He headed to her with the brain wave monitors in his hands. Frowning she said, "I don’t like it."

"You’ve made that perfectly clear all day. Saying it again isn’t going to change things. Mal and I agree that you need to do this tonight so that we can see what’s going on."

She crossed her arms and sat still while Simon put the self-sticking monitors on her head. He smiled at her and said, "There, all done."

River complained, "I like it better when Kaylee’s here."

"Me too, but she went to sleep in her own bunk tonight so that I could stay up and watch the information the monitors send out. Enough stalling now, time to try and get some sleep."

Without much warning River stood up and hugged Simon tight. After a few seconds he hugged her back and said, "What’s wrong mei mei?"

"Nothing. I… I just love you." she said as she let him go.

He beamed at her and said, "I love you too. Now get some rest okay?"

"Okay."

Once River was under the covers; Simon went out to the living area of their quarters and checked his computer screen to make sure the remote monitors were working. River’s brain waves were normal for her in an awake state at this point. He pushed a button on the wall and called Mal who was on the bridge that night. "All set. She’s in bed."

"Okay. Keep me posted."

Half an hour later Simon could tell by the brain waves that River was in the first stages of sleep. He watched the screen carefully and charted all the normal stages of sleep. She cycled through all four stages during the first hour and a half. Then fifteen minutes into her second cycle, Simon noticed a change in the brain waves, and thought she must have woken up, because the brain waves matched those of her awake state. He waited for her to start the cycle over again, but a minute later he heard her door open. He saw her walking out of her room and heading to the ladder. Simon said, "Did something wake you?"

She ignored him and went towards the hatch.

"River?" Still getting no response, Simon glanced back at the brain waves that were still coming to him and shook his head thinking something was very wrong. He pushed the button and called Mal. "She’s up and unresponsive."

"I’m headed your way."

Simon glanced once more at the brain waves, and then headed up the ladder to follow River. He barely caught a glimpse of her as she turned the corner of the hall. He hurried to catch up with her, and as he turned the corner he saw her head into the infirmary. Mal had come from the other direction, and they met up in front of the infirmary door. They watched as River started digging through drawers. Mal said in a commanding voice, "River wake up!"

Simon put a hand on Mal’s shoulder to get his attention and said, "Something’s not right. Maybe she is being triggered somehow."

"What makes you say that?"

"Sleepwalking is most likely to occur during the fourth stage of sleep called delta sleep, but her brain waves don’t match that at all. Her brain waves say she is in a normal waking state. I’ve never been able to check her brain waves after she’s been triggered, but this could be an example of that."

"What would be the trigger?"

"I don’t know. She was in her room alone. I didn’t hear or see anything out of the ordinary. I thought maybe it was the dagger that you gave her, but Kaylee has it in her bunk tonight, and River didn’t go to get it."

Mal saw that River now had a scalpel in her hand, and was looking at the exam table with a glare. Mal and Simon both watched while River jammed the scalpel into the exam table’s cushion and gouged a large hole in it. Simon winced at his infirmary being wrecked and said, "Tzao gao."

After a second to think about what Simon had said, Mal had a theory. With a grim expression he walked towards River. Simon put a hand on his arm to stop him and said, "You shouldn’t confront her when she’s in this state. Especially when she’s armed. Who knows what she’ll do."

Mal put a hand on Simon’s shoulder in reassurance and said, "The state she’s in is awake. You said so yourself." With that statement in the air, Mal left Simon to think it over. River was cutting hole number twelve in the exam table when Mal walked over to her and said with calm anger, "You stop this right now River. The game is over."

She glared over at him and said, "It’s not over until this table is destroyed."

Simon just stared at them; dumbfounded that Mal had been right, and that his sister had been doing this on purpose.

Mal held out his hand and said, "I say it’s over. You’re already in for a lickin’ tonight for the fuss you’ve caused. Don’t make it any worse. Hand over the scalpel."

With a grunt River jammed the scalpel into the table and left it there, giving Mal a defiant look. Simon started shaking his head at both of them, thinking the whole situation was somehow wrong.

With a determined look on his face, Mal turned River towards the table and bent her over it long enough to give her six hard swats. He pulled her up, turned her back to face him, and said, "Hand over the scalpel nicely."

River looked at the scalpel and then at Mal’s hand, and seemed to be thinking it over.

Simon looked at the two of them facing off, and even though Mal was bigger, Simon knew that if River wanted to she could kill him with the scalpel before he had time to react. Simon said, "River please."

In unison Mal and River said, "Stay out of it."

After a couple of tense seconds, the defiance on River’s face changed. She picked up the scalpel, placed it nicely in Mal’s hand, and said with a pout, "No fair figuring out the game before I was done."

Setting the scalpel on the counter first, Mal grabbed River’s arm and headed the two of them in the direction of the guest quarters. He said, "I don’t know what you’re playin’ at little one, but it ends tonight."

Simon had backed out of their way so they could go through the door, and then followed closely behind them. The closer they got to their quarters, the more worried Simon got. He’d had two spankings from the Captain, and both of them were among his top ten worst experiences in life so far. He said, "Mal, I think you need to calm down a little bit. Maybe we should all sit down and talk about what happened. River must have some kind of explanation. She’s a good kid, she wouldn’t just…."

Before he could finish his sentence, River had yanked her arm out of Mal’s grip, jumped and done a half turn in the air, and kicked Simon hard enough in the stomach to send him stumbling backwards onto the floor. With the wind knocked out of him, Simon looked up at River with tears of pain on his face and a look of betrayal in his eyes. River leaned down and said, "I told you to stay out of it."

Mal grabbed River by both shoulders and forced her to look at him. He gave her a look that had put fear in men twice her size and age, and said, "Go to your room and stay there ‘till I get you."

River shrugged and said, "Fine." She walked away calmly, pulled the monitors off her head, and dropped them on the floor as she went.

Mal watched while she opened the hatch to the guest quarters and went in. Mal kneeled down next to Simon and said, "Let me see."

Simon was finally able to breathe and said raggedly, "I’m fine."

"Then you won’t have a problem letting me see."

Groaning Simon turned to his back and started to unbutton his shirt. Mal said, "Do you taste any blood? Feel like you’re gonna upchuck?"

Simon shook his head and finished unbuttoning his shirt. Mal looked at the area River had kicked. He said, "Good thing she wasn’t wearing shoes."

That statement was more then Simon could take, and he felt tears pooling in his eyes again, but these weren’t tears of pain. He didn’t understand why his sister would hurt him on purpose like that, especially after all the things he’d done to save her.

Mal didn’t see any immediate discoloring, and thought that Simon should be fine in a few hours. He turned to look at Simon and could tell he was crying. Mal put a hand on Simon’s shoulder and said gently, "Come on, let’s get you more comfortable."

Mal helped Simon stand up, and kept an eye on him as he went down the ladder. Once they were inside with the hatch closed, Mal could tell Simon was still crying. He put his arm around Simon’s shoulders in comfort and headed them both to the couch. Simon hated that he couldn’t stop crying, and wiped at his face in anger.

Once they were both sitting, Mal put his elbows on his knees and said, "You’re ‘bout what? Eight? Nine years older then River?"

Sniffing and trying to calm down, Simon answered, "Nine."

"And when you were little, you helped watch over her."

"Of course."

"And for the past couple of years you’ve been takin’ care of her every day."

Looking away as more tears formed Simon whispered, "Yes."

"And for a couple years before that, you were still trying to look over her by trying to get her out of the Academy against your parents wishes."

Simon nodded, not trusting his voice.

Mal paused and thought about that for a few seconds. Then he sighed and said; "The nine years between you make it hard for you to see the difference between older brother and parent. But River sees it, and she wants you to see it too. I’m sure it’s gonna be hard for you Simon, but you need to let me be the Pa tonight. For whatever reason, she wants me to fill that role, and I’m guessing she’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I do."

Shaking his head Simon said without conviction, "But I can’t just sit here and let you hit her. I’m supposed to protect her."

"I’m thinkin’ she can protect herself just fine. That’s what she was tryin’ to tell you with that kick."

Simon knew Mal was right, but just couldn’t bring himself to agree. He looked down at his lap and watched a couple of tears drip onto his pants. He felt Mal pull him into a hug, and he couldn’t talk himself into pulling out of it.

After a few minutes Mal said, "You go sleep in Kaylee’s bunk tonight, and I’ll stay here with River. Zoe can take over for me on the bridge."

"But I should be here for her in case she…."

Mal cut him off, "No. You shouldn’t." Mal pulled away so he could look Simon in the eye. "I know I’ve only got five or six years on you, and I know you said you don’t see me as a… a parental figure, but how about an older brother? Or if you can’t see that, could you at least say that you trust me?"

Simon considered this for a few seconds, "I do trust you."

Nodding Mal continued, "I’ve had you over my knee twice, and you’re no worse off for it. In fact, I’d have to say you’re better off because of it. So trust me and let me be who she needs me to be. She’s still gonna need you to be her big brother. That’s never gonna change."

Simon looked over towards River’s room, and then back at Mal. Reluctantly he agreed. "Okay."

Mal patted his shoulder and said, "Come on, let’s go get you settled with Kaylee."

Mal stood and held out his hand to help Simon up. Once Simon was up he said, "I can get to Kaylee’s by myself."

Mal followed Simon to the ladder and said, "I know you can."

Soon they were in the corridor with the crews quarters, and when Simon was in front of Kaylee’s door he turned and said quietly, "I don’t need a father or a big brother."

Mal patted his shoulder. "You’re right, but that don’t mean it wouldn’t be nice to have one."

Before Simon could answer, Mal had knocked on Kaylee’s door to warn her, and then opened it up to let Simon in. Kaylee’s voice said, "Simon?"

Mal called down to her and said, "Simon’s spending the night here. Keep an eye on his stomach; he’s been kicked. Come get me if he spews. I’ll be on the couch in the guest quarters for the night."

Simon shook his head as he started down the ladder and said, "I’ll be fine."

Kaylee started fussing over Simon the second his feet touched the floor of her quarters, and Mal was sure he would be fine. He shut the hatch and walked over to Zoe’s room. He knocked once and waited ten seconds. Zoe opened her hatch and said, "Sir?"

"I need you on the bridge tonight. I’ll be in the guest quarters."

"Give me five minutes."

He nodded and walked back towards the guest quarters, knowing that Zoe had it covered. Once he got back to the guest quarters he had to take a deep breath before going and knocking on River’s door. River quickly opened it and looked up at Mal. "Thank you for helping him understand."

Mal was seriously unhappy with River. He took her arm and pulled her to the couch. "There was better ways of getting’ him to understand then kickin’ him. It was mean, and he didn’t deserve it."

Once they got to the couch Mal sat and pulled River over his lap. He said, "Give me your hands."

She put both her hands behind her, and Mal grasped both her wrists at the small of her back with one of his hands. Her pajamas consisted of a button down top, and matching pants with an elastic waist. Mal pulled the pants down along with her underwear in one move, and started spanking her with solid swats that left pink handprints in their wake. River lay perfectly still and silent for the first twenty swats.

Mal stopped and said, "Oh no you don’t, no hiding yourself away inside that head of yours. You wanted to play this game, and you don’t get to finish early. I want you in the here and now for this. You tell me why you deserve this lickin’."

River squirmed once, but didn’t answer. Mal refused to keep spanking until he knew River was paying attention. He said, "Your brother put his life on hold for you, and you repay him by makin’ him worry for three days, and then kickin’ him in the gut?"

River could hide in her head forever if she wanted to. There was no amount of pain that could draw her out. But she hadn’t exactly been trying to hide from Mal as much as she’d been lost in thoughts of the future and lost in Simon’s thoughts and hurt feelings. She turned her head over her shoulder to look at Mal and there were silent tears running down her face. "I hurt him."

Mal nodded and started swatting again; "Yes you did, in more ways then one. Why was that wrong?"

River stayed in the now, and when Mal started spanking again River kicked her feet and yelled out, "Oooooww! I had to!"

"Why?"

"Because he wouldn’t listen!"

Mal stopped for a second and said, "What do you mean he wouldn’t listen? Wouldn’t listen to what?"

River wiped her face on her shoulder and said with a loud sniff, "Wouldn’t listen to you next time if this time hadn’t happened first."

"I don’t understand. What next time?"

"Next time he has to trust you."

"You ain’t makin’ sense River."

"Sometime soon he’s going to need to trust both me and you, and there won’t be time to talk him into it. I had to make sure it would be automatic."

"What’s gonna happen?"

"I don’t know."

"But you just said…"

"I don’t know for sure yet, I just know he needs to trust you."

Glaring Mal said, "Of all the… So somethin’ you ain’t even able to see yet made you to do all of this? Pretendin’ to sleepwalk, wreckin’ things, hurtin’ your brother… it’s all part of getting’ Simon to trust me, but you don’t even know why?"

River looked back over her shoulder and said with irritation, "None of the other options went to the right leaf."

Not quite sure what River was talking about, Mal said, "You can’t make sound decisions about things that may or may not happen later!"

"I can’t feel a bad future and not try to fix it!"

Shaking his head Mal said, "You can’t fix somethin’ by manipulating us, and lyin’ to us!"

River shook her head. "I never said I was sleepwalking. Belinda’s the one who said that first."

Mal almost started swatting again, but realized before his hand came down that those swats would be given because he was angry and frustrated, and not because they would be helpful to River. Instead he quickly pulled up her underwear and pajama bottoms, picked her up off his lap, and sat her next to him on the couch.

With confusion and surprise clearly written on her face, River looked to Mal for some kind of explanation. Mal said, "I won’t give you a lickin’ if you don’t think what you done was wrong."

River wiped some stray tears off her face and scrutinized Mal for a few seconds. "But you think it was wrong."

"Oh I know it was wrong. I just haven’t found a way to convince you yet." Mal paused to think about it and then asked, "When did you first conjure up this plan?"

"During my birthday party."

"The sleepwalking was never real?"

River gave him a conspiratory smirk and said, "Not even when I was four." Her smile faded and she looked away. "But that was because I was bored. This time was for Simon."

"You think you made him worry and kicked him for his own good?"

River nodded.

"There are times when I can agree with hurtin’ someone for their own good. This ain’t one of them. You didn’t just hurt Simon either, you had all of us worried with your lies."

River shook her head, "But I didn’t…."

Mal held a hand up to stop her. "First thing you said to me after pretendin’ to wake up was ‘What happened?’, but you already knew the answer. That there is a manipulative lie. You lied every time you were pretendin’ to sleepwalk and ignored the questions that I know you heard. I already gave you a lickin’ for lyin’ once. Do you remember why lyin’ is wrong?"

River felt her face heating up a little, and she squirmed for a second on the couch before she whispered, "Because if I lie, you won’t trust me."

Mal could see the slight change in her demeanor, and thought that was a step in the right direction. "After three days of lyin’, Simon’s gonna have a hard time trustin’ you for a while. I know I am."

A couple of tears went down her face and she said, "But I did it for Simon."

"Don’t matter. He ain’t gonna trust someone who lies to him."

River looked away and muttered, "He trusts me." And then connected with Simon’s current thoughts and feelings, and could tell his feelings of betrayal were building. After a few seconds she turned back to Mal and said with worry, "But… but he has to trust me too!"

"You’re gonna have to work at getting’ that trust back." Mal sighed and said, "You should’a come to me River. You should’a told me that somethin’ bad was gonna happen. You should’a told me that we needed to work on Simon’s trust. Even if just talking to him wasn’t enough, we could’a worked together to come up with somethin’ that wouldn’t have been as hurtful to him. You say you did this to get Simon to trust me, but if you’d trusted me enough to tell me about it in the first place, we could’a avoided a lot of pain for both of you."

River closed her eyes as more tears came out, and she shook her head while crawling back through time and creating different pasts that could have occurred to produce roughly the same present. She was unhappy to find a number of pasts that would have hurt Simon less and still ended with him trusting Mal.

Mal wasn’t sure what River was doing, but let her be for a couple of minutes. Eventually she opened her eyes and looked at Mal pleadingly. "Three days ago I couldn’t see those options. I picked the only option I could see."

"And now I have to pick the only option I can see."

Looking down River said, "A spanking was inevitable. It’s proof that he trusts you."

Exasperated Mal said, "If you knew this was gonna happen, and it didn’t make you change your mind, then I doubt it will be of any use!"

"But you have to!"

"You want me to?"

Exasperated herself River said, "I don’t want you to. I need you to."

"For Simon or for yourself?"

"Both."

"Do you think you deserve it?" Mal looked at River closely waiting for an answer. If she said no, he wouldn’t be able to do it.

River blushed in shame. "I didn’t before. But now…. Now I know it was wrong."

Mal took her hand and pulled her back over his lap. He pulled the underpants and pajama pants back down, and started swatting just as hard as before, thinking it would be plenty painful since her bottom was already a solid pink. He said, "Okay let’s try this again. Tell me why you deserve this lickin’."

River’s mindset was very much in the present this time. She regretted what she had done now that she could see that there had been other options, which would have hurt Simon less. The pain was immediate and made her cry out, "Ow! Ow! I deserve it for.. Ow!.. for lying! Ow Captain!"

Mal nodded and kept spanking. "And what else?"

She kicked her feet as the smacks kept raining down. Her voice was more desperate as she said, "Ooow! For.. Ow! For hurting Simoooon!! Aaaaah!!"

"And?"

River put both hands on Mal’s thigh and tried to push herself forward, further away from his hand. Putting one arm around her waist, Mal hauled her back into place and kept swatting. River kicked harder and yelled, "I don’t knooooooow!!" while reaching a hand back to cover her bottom.

Mal paused long enough to grab her wrist and pull it to the center of her lower back. He said, "For not trustin’ me, especially since this whole thing started because you thought Simon needed to trust me."

He started swatting her again, and she called out, "I’m soooooorry!"

Nodding to himself, because he was sure she was sorry, Mal continued to swat her. He wanted to make sure she had a physical reminder of this for a few days to come, so that the lesson wouldn’t get lost somewhere in her busy and jumbled mind.

Reading Mal’s thoughts unintentionally, River called out, "I’ll remember! Owwww! I wiiiiiiill! Captain I said I wiiiiiiill!"

When the swats didn’t stop she hung her head and gave in to crying. She didn’t have the air to yell anymore, but between sobs and gasps of air she said, "I’m sorry… Daddy I‘m sorry."

Mal had only planned on giving her a few more swats once he heard the crying start, but was surprised into stopping when he heard her call him Daddy. Or at least he thought that’s what he’d heard. She’d said it pretty quietly so he couldn’t be completely sure. He let go of her hand and rubbed her back for a few minutes while she cried and he thought about it. In the end he decided it didn’t matter if she’d said it or not, because that was the roll he was trying to fill right now.

"Okay let’s get you upright."

Mal helped her stand up, and when she didn’t make a move to fix her pants, he leaned down and pulled them up for her. He pulled her down to sit next to him on the couch and pulled her into a hug. He rubbed one hand up and down her back and said quietly, "Okay. It’s all over now, and I know you’re sorry for what you done."

Wrapping her arms around Mal’s shoulders, River hugged him back tightly and let herself cry. After quite a few minutes she said, "I want Simon."

"Simon’s sleepin’ in Kaylee’s bunk tonight, and he’s already settled in. You can see him in the mornin’. I’m gonna stay here with you tonight."

Her crying was slowing down and she pulled out of Mal’s embrace to see his face. "You’re staying here to watch over me?"

"I am."

"Oh."

He gave her a smile and wiped some tears off her face with his thumbs. He said, "Go wash up, and then I’ll tuck you in so you can get back to sleep."

She got up and both hands immediately went to her rear and rubbed. "Ow." She said with a pout, "It hurts a lot more then last time."

"You misbehaved a lot more then last time. Go on now, get ready for bed."

River went to wash up, and a few minutes later when she came out of the bathroom Mal got up and followed her to her bedroom. She got in under the covers, and Mal sat on the edge of her bed after she was settled. He said, "Next time you see something worrisome in the future you to tell me about it, even if you don’t think that’s the best solution to the problem. Dong ma?"

"Yes Captain."

"And first thing tomorrow, you’re going to tell your brother that you’re sorry for kickin’ him, and makin’ him worry."

"Okay."

He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Sleep tight. No more sleepwalkin’."

"I know."

He got up and turned the lights off on the way. Before he shut her door she said, "Captain?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Smiling softly he said, "You’re welcome."

***************************

The next morning Simon woke up and looked around confused for a second. He saw Kaylee, who was already awake, and said, "Morning."

She gave him a kiss and then said, "Mornin’. How’s your innards?"

He pulled the covers down and looked at his stomach. There was no discoloration where he’d been kicked. Sitting up and wincing slightly, Simon said, "It’s a little sore, but it will be fine. No internal damage."

"I can’t believe she kicked you."

Simon didn’t respond. The pain of her betrayal was too fresh in his mind. "I.. I need to go talk to her."

Kaylee sat up and gave Simon a quick hug. "I don’t know what was goin’ through her mind. Maybe she don’t know either. But I do know she loves you."

Letting him go so she could look into his eyes, she said, "I know it in my heart, and I can see it in her eyes every time she tells me stories about you."

Leaning in, Simon gave her a quick kiss and whispered, "Thank you," before getting up to get dressed.

A few minutes later he was climbing down the ladder into his quarters, and saw that Mal was already awake and sitting on the couch. Before he even got off the ladder Simon asked, "How is she?"

Mal stood and said, "Ain’t talked to her yet this mornin’, but she was fine last night. We had a long talk and came to an understanding. How’s your gut?"

"It’s fine. What kind of understanding?"

Mal walked towards River’s door and said, "She thought she was doin’ the right thing, and I convinced her she wasn’t."

He knocked on her door and called out, "River. Time to wake up. Simon’s here."

Simon crossed his arms, hating the helpless feeling that came over him. Knowing what Mal had done, and hating him for doing it, but not exactly thinking he’d been wrong to do it all at the same time.

Mal saw Simon’s look and walked over to him. He put a hand on Simon’s shoulder and said, "I know you hate it, but it’s what she needed. She even thanked me when it was done."

Shaking his head, and not quite believing that one, Simon was about to protest when a sleepy looking River came out of her room. She saw Simon and immediately went to him, giving him a fierce hug. "I’m so sorry I kicked you Simon."

Mal decided it was time to make himself scarce. "I need to go… check on Zoe." He climbed up the latter and shut the hatch behind himself.

Simon ignored Mal’s exit and hugged River back tightly. He was never able to stay angry with her for any significant length of time, and after hearing her apologize, he honestly meant it when he said, "It’s okay."

River let him go, and had tears in her eyes when she said, "No. It’s not. You always take care of me, and… and it was mean of me to kick you."

A couple of tears went down her face as she was talking. Simon pulled her back into a hug and said, "It wasn’t nice, but I’m not mad about it anymore." After a pause he added, "It’s not the first time you’ve kicked me you know."

She thought about it and said with confusion, "It’s not?"

He let her go and said with a smile, "You kicked me a bunch of times when you were two. You understood everything, but you couldn’t speak very well yet, and you’d get so frustrated when someone didn’t understand what you were trying to say, you’d kick them."

She looked down, "Don’t try to make me feel better."

Simon put a knuckle under her chin and made her look at him. "Well you did tell me to stay out of it last night. I just didn’t want to listen."

"I’m sorry about the past three days too."

Simon found that a little less easy to forgive, and needed to know her reasoning. "Can you tell me why you did it?"

"We were on the wrong tree. All the branches turned into rotten leaves, so I had to find a new tree… But then after the Captain talked to me, I could see branches that were hidden before."

Shaking his head Simon said, "I don’t understand."

"I knew things were going to go wrong in the future, and I needed to make sure that you had more trust in the Captain."

Simon shook his head even more, "So you’re saying you did this for me?"

River nodded. Simon said with anger, "Instead of telling me things were going to go wrong, you lied to me? Lied to everyone? Made it all up like some kind of… elaborate game?"

Looking at him with pleading eyes she said, "I wanted to make you trust Mal the way you used to trust Daddy before he turned on us."

His anger went away, and left in it’s place was just sadness. He said tiredly, "River, it’s impossible for me to feel that way about anyone ever again."

River put a hand on his face and looked into his past with him. "Because Gabriel hurt you so much. You think if you trust someone again, they’ll hurt you too, and that will kill you inside."

Uncomfortable with her reading him he took a few steps away and said, "I just… I just can’t."

"Yes you can. You’ve already started; you just haven’t accepted it yet. It’s easier for me, because I’ve always had you to trust. Mal’s a good Daddy… his name’s a contradiction."

Cringing Simon said, "Don’t say Mal and Daddy in the same sentence."

After a pause River said, "I am sorry for lying. And for making you worry."

Simon didn’t necessarily agree with her methods, but knowing she had done it all to try and help him made it easier for him to forgive her. And he believed she was sorry. He knew he’d been sorry after both of the ‘talks’ he’d had with Mal. Instead of telling her he accepted her apology he raised an eyebrow and said, "Are you sorry for wrecking my exam table."

Looking away River mumbled, "I hate that table."

"I know you do, so you used this as an excuse to wreck it, didn’t you?"

She crossed her arms defensively; "I don’t see why that matters."

"I’m telling."

River gave him a confused look and watched as a smile formed on Simon’s face. "Telling?"

"I’m going to go find dear old ‘Captain Dad’ and tell him you wrecked it on purpose just because you hated it."

River started to smile as well. It had been a long time, but this was familiar, and she remembered how to play. "Noooo, don’t tell!"

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t tell."

"Because you love me."

He gave her an exaggerated sigh, pleased that she had remembered and given him her standard answer. "You’re a brat."

"I’ll make it up to you. I promise."

"Yeah? How?"

River thought about that one. The last time they’d played this out she’d been ten, and somehow the offer of letting Simon have the last popsicle didn’t seem right anymore. But then even at ten she knew that Simon didn’t actually want the last popsicle, he just wanted an excuse to forgive her. "I’ll give you the chocolate I bought at our last stop."

Simon laughed at that and then said his usual line. "Okay, but only if you’re really sorry about it."

"I am," she said with sincerity.

"Then I forgive you mei mei."

She hugged him one more time and whispered, "Thank you for understanding."

"The part I don’t understand is what’s going to happen in the future? Why do you think I need to trust Mal?"

"I can’t see that yet," she said as she pulled away from him.

Frowning with worry Simon said, "But you’ll tell me when you do?"

"I’m hungry. Let’s get ready for breakfast."

Simon didn’t like that answer. He said, "River I…"

Ignoring him, River headed to the bathroom to take a shower. She wasn’t sure if she would tell Simon about it once she was able to see what had been worrying her. That would depend on what that future was. But even if she didn’t think she should, she knew would tell Mal about it.

Update at site

2008-06-28T05:57:01Z

Hi all,

I have a new story posted at my site by Relic aka hucknclem

It's a yummy Dean/Jo Supernatural story which can be found here:
http://www.ficwriter.com

Update at site

2008-06-16T04:57:30Z

Hi all,

I've added three new RPG stories up on my site. You may have already read them at spankingfemmesite or nocturnal08 site, because they are stories we wrote together. There is a Supernatural story, a Psych story, and a Numb3rs story.

You can see them all here:
http://www.ficwriter.com

Update at site

2008-05-21T04:31:36Z

I updated my site a couple of weeks ago, but forgot to put a note about it here. Oops! There are four Queer As Folk stories up in a new section I'm calling RPG stories. These four stories were written by myself and my friend spankingfemme

Also I've been very lame about writting the blurbs in a timely manner. But I haven't forgotten, and they will get written.

You can see the stories on my site here:
http://www.ficwriter.com

Update at my site

2008-04-06T19:47:19Z

I've updated my site with a new Charmed story in my 'Home Again' series. You can read all four chapters here:

http://www.ficwriter.com

SN Drabble Story

2008-03-10T04:10:49Z

Well it took me forever (Not to write it, that only took part of today, but to find the time to be alone at the computer and concentrate) but here is the next drabble. This one is for minx999 for guessing a couple of the movies on my list.
I'm making no money from it, and don't own the characters.

Author's note - This story is a ‘drabble’ written for a friend on LJ. The prompt for the story was ‘mishap’ and the request was for a Supernatural story with no angst. Don’t know if I succeeded in the no angst department, but I gave it a shot. Dean is 18 and Sam is 14.

Dean's Bad Day

Dean put a bowl of cereal on the table and yelled again, "Sam! We’re gonna be late if you don’t hurry up!"

Dean heard a noise and turned around. He was surprised to see Sam standing there already dressed and looking wide awake. Getting the milk out of the refrigerator Dean said, "You’re up early."

Sam didn’t comment, and sat down in front of his cereal. Dean set the milk in front of him and sat down in his own chair. Sam used the milk, and handed it to Dean before taking a bite of his cereal. Dean poured the milk, but it came out much faster then he was expecting, and the milk sloshed over the side of the bowl, and over the side of the table to land on Dean’s jeans. Standing abruptly and scooting his chair back in the process Dean said, "Son of a Bitch!"

Looking at him with mild amusement Sam said, "Good thing we did laundry yesterday."

"Shut up."

Shrugging Sam went back to eating, while Dean put the milk away and got out some paper towels to clean up the mess. Dean left his cereal there and went to change pants. A few minutes later he came back with new pants and sat down to eat. When the cereal was gone, Dean picked up the bowl and held it up to his mouth to drink the rest of the milk in the bottom, but tilted it too far and milk dribbled out of his mouth and onto his shirt.

Sam broke down into laughter while Dean just sat and stared at the milk on his shirt with disbelief for a few seconds with milk dripping of his chin. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, and put his bowl in the sink. He glared over at Sam and said, "Yuck it up Samantha, if I’m late for school you are too."

His laughter died down slightly, but didn’t go away as he watched Dean stalk into the bedroom to change his shirt. Sam got his backpack and went into the garage and stood next to the Impala to wait.

On the ride to the high school Dean relaxed and started singing along with one of his AC/DC tapes. As they were pulling into the school parking lot, the song suddenly stopped. Dean looked down and pushed the button to stop the tape and then hit play again. Nothing happened, so he pushed the button to eject the tape, but nothing happened again. Frowning in irritation he found a spot and parked. He pushed the eject button again, and the tape popped out. He pulled the tape out of the player, but found that there was a string of ribbon trailing from the tape to the inside of the Impala’s player. Sam said, "Dude, it’s not your day is it?"

Dean glared. "Shut up Sam."

Pulling gently Dean tried to get the ribbon out of the player. The ribbon snapped in half immediately. "Damn it!"

Dean tossed the cassette on the seat between himself and Sam. Sam got out of the car and said, "See you later."

Grabbing his backpack Dean got out of the car and headed into school thinking he would be spending the late afternoon pulling the player out of the Impala and working on it. He was quickly distracted by a group of three cheerleaders who were standing by the stairs that lead up to the school doors. He gave them what he considered a dashing smile and said, "Hello ladies."

Two of the girls giggled, and the other said, "Hi Dean."

He was kind of surprised that any of them would know his name, since he had only been at this school for three weeks. He knew their names, but then he usually made a point to know the names of all the cheerleaders within the first day of any new school. He stopped and turned to the one who had used his name and said, "Hi Ann, are you ready for the football game tonight? Got any new cheers for us out in the audience?"

She smiled and said, "We’ve been working on a new one all week. Are you coming to the game tonight?"

"Of course."

"Then maybe I’ll see you there."

He winked at her and said, "Count on it."

The school bell rang, so Dean gestured towards the stairs and said, "Ladies first."

The girls smiled and went ahead of him up the stairs. Dean waited a few seconds to head up, so that he could be eye level with the backs of their tiny skirts. He went two steps and fell. Everyone around him turned to look, and quite a few laughed. Ann turned and went back down a couple of steps as she held out her hand to help him and asked, "Are you okay?"

Dean turned red with embarrassment and got up on his own. He muttered, "I’m fine." And hurried into the school.

***************

Sam put another French-fry in his mouth and tried not to roll his eyes as his friend Kathy said, "I’ll bet Dean would make an awesome football player."

Shaking his head Sam said, "No way. He’s much too scrawny. Have you seen the other guys on the team? That guy Aaron has arms that are bigger then my neck."

Frowning Kathy said, "Why are you always so down on your brother?"

Sam put a bite of chili dog in his mouth and shrugged, but thought to himself, ‘Why are you always so enamoured with him?’

The argument had started when Kathy brought up the fact that she had seen Dean fall on the stairs that morning. Sam had said Dean was always clumsy, but Kathy had defended him. Before their conversation could go any further, Dean was in front of them. Sam thought this was odd since Dean normally wouldn’t be caught dead around his ‘dork’ brother during school hours. Dean grabbed Sam’s arm and hauled him up out of his seat. Sam complained, "Hey!"

Dean looked at Kathy and said, "Sam will be back in a sec."

Keeping a hand on Sam, Dean headed them out of the cafeteria and into the closest boy’s bathroom. On the way Sam said, "What the hell Dean?"

"I need to talk to you. Alone."

Sam swallowed nervously, and didn’t fight as Dean pulled him along. Once they were in the bathroom, Dean quickly scared off the two sophomores that were already there, and turned to Sam. Sam backed up against one of the bathroom sinks getting out of reach and said, "What’s wrong?"

Dean ran a hand through is hair and said with tired frustration, and a little fear, "I don’t know, but we need to find out. Maybe we should call Bobby or Dad."

Sam breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Let’s not jump the gun, tell me what happened."

Dean paced around like a caged animal and said, "What happened? What didn’t happen? I think I’m cursed or something. You saw what happened this morning, and it’s only gotten worse. First I fell on the steps on the way into school. In first period I dropped my pencil three times, the lead broke twice, and then my paper ripped while I was writing. In the middle of the class my book fell and made a huge noise while the teacher was talking. On my way to second period I dropped my notebook and my papers scattered all over the hallway so I was late to class. And don’t even get me started on third period gym. Let’s just say I have more bruises then the time I took down that werewolf in Arkansas."

Sam said, "Wow."

Dean stopped and looked at Sam. "I think we should go home and find out what’s going on."

Shaking his head Sam said, "I don’t know Dean, it sounds to me like you’re just having a bad day. Do you really want to call Dad away from a hunt to tell him you’ve been clumsy today? I don’t think that would go over very well."

Gritting his teeth Dean said, "I’m never clumsy. Something’s wrong."

Sam thought about it for a second. "Okay, maybe you’re right, but just because something’s wrong doesn’t mean it’s something supernatural. Maybe you’re getting a cold or an ear infection. Liquid could be building up in your ear and affecting your equilibrium without it hurting too much yet."

Dean wasn’t sure if this was true or not, but Sam was generally right about that sort of thing, and he was researcher in the family. "Maybe."

Nodding encouragingly Sam said, "Why don’t you go get some lunch, sit down, and relax for a few minutes. Eat some protein and see if that helps."

Thinking for a second, Dean slowly nodded, "Okay. Thanks Sam."

"No problem. You want to come sit with me and Kathy?"

Feeling a little better about the day Dean smirked, "And be seen with the geek squad? Not likely."

Glaring Sam said, "Just because Kathy and I like school doesn’t make us geeks."

"Riiiiiight. And when did it become Kathy and I? Are you into her? Guess it makes sense since you’re the same species and all."

Wishing he hadn’t made Dean feel better, Sam stalked out of the bathroom and called over his shoulder, "Jerk!"

Dean smiled and said, "Bitch." More to himself then to Sam since he was already gone. Dean said, "Just a bad day Dean, stop making a big deal out of it, and get your act together."

He went to the cafeteria, waited in line, and soon had a tray with chili and cornbread in front of him. He headed towards his usual table where a couple of guys he had recently made friends with were sitting. As he walked his shoelace came undone, and he tripped on his own laces. He fell forward, and let go of the tray to catch himself as he fell. He found himself on his chest on the floor with hot chili seeping through his shirt. Some people clapped while others laughed. Dean turned red for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

He quickly got himself up, and picked up as much of the mess as he could. He threw his food and napkins away and stalked over towards Sam who was obviously amused. Grabbing his brother again he said to Kathy, "Sam will see you tomorrow."

Sam let himself be manhandled out of his seat and said, "Tomorrow? What do you mean?"

Dean started them walking towards the exit. Sam said, "Dean? Dean, at least let me get my backpack, I have homework."

Dean didn’t say anything until they were outside near the parking lot. "Something’s wrong Sammy, and it’s not some liquid in my ear crap. You need to help me figure it out before something really bad happens."

Soon they were at the car, and Sam got in without much prompting. He sighed as Dean pulled out of the spot and headed for home. Dean pulled out his cell phone and started to dial. Sam pulled it out of Dean’s hand. "What the hell Sam?"

"Let’s at least try to figure it out ourselves before you drag Dad or Bobby into it. So you fell a few times. So what? Don’t be such a baby."

Dean reached over and smacked the back of Sam’s head. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Talking." Dean said irritably.

Two blocks from home, the Impala started driving unevenly. Dean slammed his hand on the steering wheel and pulled to the side. Sam said, "What’s wrong?"

"Flat tire."

Dean opened his door, but Sam put a hand on his arm before he could get out. "Maybe you should let me change it."

Dean thought about it for a few seconds, and then closed his door again. He nodded in acceptance and leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.

Ten minutes later they were parking at home. As they went through the front door Dean tripped and fell onto the carpet. Sam reached a hand down to help him up, and Dean took it. Sam said, "Why don’t you go lie down? You take a nap, and I’ll look into your problem. Let me see what I can find before you call someone okay?"

Thinking about it for a few seconds, Dean finally nodded. "Okay Sam. See what you can find. I’m going to go change my shirt again, and lay down. At least I can’t hurt myself on my bed."

Patting Dean’s shoulder in a comforting gesture, Sam said, "Good idea. I’m sure things will be better when you get up."

Looking at Sam closely, Dean said, "What do you mean things will be better?"

Sam looked away and said, "I mean that should give me enough time to come up with some theory on what’s going on."

Sam missed the glare that Dean sent his way. Dean turned towards his room and said, "Okay. Come get me if you find something out."

"Sure. You bet Dean."

Dean made it to his room and shut the door behind him. He took off his shirt, and put a new one on. He took off his shoes, lay down on his bed, closed his eyes, leveled out his breathing, and waited. Fifteen minutes later his ears picked up the sound of his door creaking open and then closing again. He waited another ten minutes, and then got up as silently as possible. He patiently made his way to the living room without making a sound.

He heard Sam before he saw him. Sam was chanting in Latin. It wasn’t one of the spells or phrases that Dean knew, but he knew enough of the words to get the general drift. His mouth took a grim line as he quietly headed towards his brother.

Sam finished the undoing spell and took a minute to look it over; making sure he did it all correct before blowing out the candle that he had sitting on the coffee table. He bit his fingernail nervously and tried to come up with a reasonable explanation that Dean would buy, when he felt himself being yanked up by the collar of his shirt. Sam let out a girlish squeak of surprise as he was pulled to his feet and turned towards his brother.

Sam knew he was dead as soon as he saw Dean’s face. In that moment Dean looked a lot bigger and more muscular then Sam remembered him looking yesterday. He stammered out, "I can explain…"

Dean sat down on the couch and yanked Sam over his lap. Dean’s hand came down in rapid succession, while Sam yelled and tried to squirm out of position. Once Dean was sure he had Sam’s undivided attention, he paused and said, "Okay explain, and the jeans are coming off."

Close to tears Sam sniffed and said, "Don’t you mean explain or the jeans are coming off?"

Swatting him hard Dean said, "No."

Squirming unhappily, Sam said, "It was just a harmless little bad luck spell."

Dean reached down under Sam to undo his jeans, and Sam quickly yelled out, "No!" and put some real effort into getting off Dean’s lap.

Unfortunately for Sam, Dean was bigger, stronger, and just plain pissed off. Dean had the jeans off and was spanking Sam over his underwear in short order. Sam yelled out in pain, and after a few seconds of solid swats he said, "Please Dean! Please let me explain!"

Dean kept swatting and said, "Go ahead and explain. This should be good."

Kicking his legs, Sam said, "I did it because Kathy likes you!"

That stopped Dean’s hand in mid swing. He turned to look at the back of his brother’s head and said with genuine confusion, "What?"

A few tears went down Sam’s face. "All she ever talks about it how great you are, and I guess… I wanted her to see that you aren’t perfect."

Dean rested hand on Sam’s back. "So you’re telling me that you did this because you like a girl?"

Nodding his head Sam felt a few more tears go down his face, and he was sure Dean could tell he was crying as he said, "I really like her, and we have a lot in common, but she doesn’t even see me. She just sees you."

This was the first time Dean had heard Sam say he really liked a girl, and found that he couldn’t stay angry. "Well that was a pretty shitty thing to do to me, but I’ve done plenty of stupid stuff to get a girl myself."

Dean started spanking Sam again and said, "But you know better then to meddle with spells. Even if they seem harmless they can backfire."

Sam yelled, "Ow! I’m sorry! Ow Dean! I won’t do any more spells!"

Believing that Sam wouldn’t do it again, Dean stopped and helped Sam to stand up. Sam got his jeans back up first, wiped at his face a couple of times, and then rubbed at his butt once. It hadn’t been a particularly bad spanking compared to others he had gotten. Sam wasn’t sure why Dean had gone so easy on him, but he was sure that if his father had been around he would have gotten it much worse. And that made him wonder if Dean had gone easy on him because he planned to tell.

Once Dean saw Sam was done rubbing, he pulled him down to sit next to him on the couch. Draping an arm around Sam’s shoulders in comfort, Dean sat with him and waited for him to calm down.

A few minutes later Sam asked, "Are you gonna tell Dad?"

"Of course not, are you crazy?"

"Thanks…. But why are you being so nice to me after I was awful to you?"

"Hey, I’m sure it’s hard enough to be the little brother of someone as awesome as me. Why make it harder on you?"

Sam snorted a laugh at that. Dean went on, "I mean let’s face it, I am the better looking brother, the more skilled hunter, I’m much better with women, and I’m basically an all around great guy."

Sam gave Dean a good-natured push.

Dean squeezed Sam’s shoulder once and continued, "That’s got to be hard to live with even when you can sit down, and trust me if I told Dad, you wouldn’t be sitting for a while."

"Yeah."

Dean let go of him and said, "So no more spells?"

"No more spells."

"And you’re going to save up money and get me a new AC/DC tape and a new tire."

Standing up and rubbing his butt one more time Sam said, "You know you could install a CD player in the Impala instead."

Dean stood up as well and said, "That’s not funny. Don’t joke about that."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Okay a new tape and a replacement tire, though I don’t know where I’m supposed to get the money."

"Get an after school job. Dad said we’re gonna stay here until I graduate, because if we move again I’ll have to repeat senior year, so you can keep a job long enough to make the money."

"Okay I will."

Dean said, "Come on, we need to go back to school."

"Aww come on Dean, have a heart. It may not have been the worst spanking ever, but sitting down isn’t gonna be fun for the next couple of hours."

"Paybacks a bitch."

Figuring he did deserve it, and remembering he did have homework in his locker, Sam nodded and headed for the door. Dean headed out after him and said, "And then tonight when we get home…"

Sam groaned wondering what other unpleasantness Dean had up his sleeve. Dean continued, "….I’ll tell you how to get Kathy to notice you."

"Really?" Sam asked hopefully.

"Yeah really." Dean smiled and headed for the car while thinking about trying to get some of his dignity back over the last two hours of school.

Psych Drabble fic

2008-02-25T07:04:53Z

This one is for nocturnal08for guessing a couple of the quotes from my movie list. Hope you like it. :)
Don't own the characters, and am making no money.
We haven't heard much about Shawn's mom on the show, so this could be way out of character.

1985

Shawn sat down to breakfast Saturday morning with a smile. His mom set a plate of pancakes down in front of him and said, "Here you go."

"Thanks mom."

Shawn ate quickly, wanting to go out and play with Gus. Gus had some new walkie talkies that they were going to try out. "Don’t eat so fast sweetie."

Shawn took two slow bites, and then continued to stuff them in his face. Once he was done he got up from the table and said, "I’m gonna go play with Gus. I’ll be home for lunch."

"Don’t you remember Shawn? I promised your Aunt Ruth that we would go visit her today."

Shawn had forgotten, "But Mom, Gus has new walkie talkies, and his mom said we could take them to the park."

"Maybe you’ll have time to do that this afternoon when we get home."

Shawn frowned and thought about it for a few minutes. "Why should I have to go when Dad doesn’t?"

"Because Dad’s at work and you know it."

"I don’t WANT to go visit her. She smells like old person, and her dog always tries to bite me."

Shawn could tell his mom wasn’t happy. She put her hands on her hips and said, "Your Great Aunt Ruth is a very nice person. She has always been kind to you, and when you were born she made you…."

Shawn cut her off and said with annoyance, "…the blanket I slept with for three years, and I wouldn’t go to sleep without it. I know."

"Don’t you take a tone with me. You’re going and that’s final."

Shawn crossed his arms and glared at the table while thinking ‘Great. The whole morning spent with smelly Aunt Ruth, and her awful dog. Can this day get any worse?’

"Go put on some nice clothes."

"Moooooom." Shawn whined.

She gave him a look and waited. Shawn rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs. He muttered, "Worst Saturday ever."

Once upstairs he went into his parent’s bedroom and picked up the phone. "Gus?"

"Hey Shawn, are you headed over?"

"Sorry, I can’t. I have to go to my stupid aunt’s house."

"Dang, I really wanted to try these out."

Shawn thought about it for a second. "Maybe we still can. I’ll call you back in a little bit."

Shawn hung up before Gus could answer. He ran to his room, put on his hated ‘nice clothes’, and looked under his bed for his baseball glove. He found it and put it in the middle of his floor. He picked up his desk chair with some effort, and tossed it to the floor with a loud Crash! He immediately yelled, "Owww!"

He heard his mom moving downstairs and yelling, "Shawn?! Shawn are you okay?"

He quickly picked up the chair, set it upright, and then sat down on the floor where the chair had been and held his ankle. A few seconds later his mom was there, crouching down next to him with an arm around his shoulders. "Shawn honey, are you okay? What happened?"

Adding strain to his voice, and hoping he sounded close to tears, Shawn said, "I tripped on my baseball glove. My ankle really hurts Mom."

She gave him a quick hug and a kiss to the top of his head, before she said, "Let me see."

He let go of the ankle and held it out for her. He let her move it around a little before making his body jump as he said, "Ow!"

"I think you sprained it. Come on, let’s get you up on the bed, and I’ll get you some ice for it."

She helped him stand up, and limp over to the bed. He looked at her and almost got out some real tears as he said, "I’m really sorry mom. I know you were looking forward to going to see Aunt Ruth."

"It’s not your fault Shawn. Accidents happen. I’m just really glad that you’re okay. You sit tight, and I’ll get you some ice after I call Aunt Ruth and let her know we can’t come."

He nodded and put on an ‘I’m gonna be brave and not cry’ face for her. The second he heard her on the stairs, he got up and peeked out his door. He listened gleefully while she called her Aunt and apologized for not being able to come. Then when Shawn heard her in the kitchen getting some ice, he ran into her bedroom and dialed Gus who answered, "Hello?"

"Gus, come to my house in ten minutes with the walkie talkies and ask to play."

"But Shawn I thought….."

Shawn hung up and tiptoed back to his own room. A few seconds after he was sitting down again she appeared in the doorway holding a bag of ice in a dishtowel. She walked over to him and helped him take off his nice shoes. Then she gently put the bag on his ankle and said, "Okay, you hold that there until I tell you not to. It will help it not to swell up."

Giving her a genuine smile, Shawn said, "Thanks Mom."

***********

Exactly ten minutes later Gus knocked on the front door. Shawn’s mom answered. "Hello Mrs. Spencer. I was wondering if Shawn could play."

"I’m sorry Gus, but Shawn hurt his ankle. I don’t think he’s going to be up for playing today."

Gus looked confused for a second and then said, "I could keep him company for a while if you don’t mind."

"That’s very nice of you Gus. I’m sure Shawn would like that very much."

She opened the door wide, and Gus who was at her house fairly often, went up to Shawn’s room. Gus went and sat on the bed next to Shawn. "What happened?"

"I sprained my ankle." Shawn held up his fingers and did quotes in the air as he said ‘sprained’.

Gus frowned, "Why would you do that? Now you’ll be stuck inside all day."

Shawn took one of the walkie talkies out of Gus’ hands and said, "Beats visiting Aunt Ruth and Poopsie. You go out back, and I’ll stay up here. We can be secret FBI spies."

Gus smiled, "What’s our mission?"

***************

Gus and Shawn played happily most of the morning. Then at lunch Shawn’s mother asked him to try and walk on his ankle to see how it was doing. Shawn knew there would still be time to go see his aunt if his ankle was feeling better, so he took one step and then fell to the floor groaning in pain. "It still hurts."

Shawn could tell his mom was worried and said, "Okay honey, why don’t you just get back in bed, and I’ll bring some lunch up to you."

"Okay." He felt a little bad at seeing how worried she was, but then reminded himself that it was her fault in the first place for wanting him to go visiting with her. As soon as he heard her down in the kitchen, he got the walkie talkie and said, "Gus do you read me?"

"Loud and clear."

"Did you have lunch yet."

"Yeah. I’m headed back to your place right now."

Shawn got up and went to the window. He could see Gus walking down the street. Shawn said, "You’re being followed by a suspicious looking man wearing a green hat."

Shawn snickered as he saw Gus turn and look behind him. "Not really Gus, just in the game."

Gus looked up towards Shawn’s window and said in the walkie talkie, "Not funny Shawn."

Gus kept walking and Shawn leaned on his windowsill bouncing on the balls of his feet while watching Gus turn the corner to go to the front of the house. Once Gus was out of sight, Shawn turned, and he was about to jump onto his bed when he saw his father standing in the doorway with his arms crossed wearing his uniform. Shawn gulped and quickly picked up the foot attached to his ‘injured ankle’, and limped over to the bed. "Um… Hi Dad. What are you doing home so early?"

Gus’ voice came through on the walkie talkie and said, "Shawn, did you know your dad’s home? Shawn?"

Shawn turned it off and looked up at his dad. Henry held out his hand, and without a word, Shawn handed him the walkie talkie. Henry went out and down the stairs. Shawn got out of bed to his doorway to listen in. He heard the front door open, and heard his father say, "Hi Gus, here’s your walkie talkie. Shawn can’t play for the rest of the day."

Gus could tell things had gone wrong, as they often did when Shawn was trying to pull some stunt. He was just happy not to be part of it today. "Okay Mr. Spencer. Thanks."

Shawn ran back and jumped in his bed when he heard the front door close. He could hear his parent’s voices talking softly in the kitchen, but it was too low for him to make any of it out. A few minutes later Henry was back in Shawn’s doorway looking disappointed and kind of angry.

Shawn looked down at his bed and waited. Henry walked in and sat on Shawn’s bed. He said, "Let me see the ankle."

Shawn put his foot in his dad’s hand. His dad rotated the foot while watching Shawn. Shawn said, "Ow?" but it didn’t sound convincing even to his own ears.

Henry put the foot down and sighed. "Why Shawn?"

Shawn looked at his dad hoping he would understand since he wasn’t overly fond of Aunt Ruth either. "Mom wanted to ruin a perfectly good Saturday morning by visiting Smelly Aunt Ruth. She didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go. And you know Aunt Ruth would want to kiss me, and then I’d have to pet Poopsie while he tried to bite me. Then she’d offer me something nasty like warm milk or week old cookies with dog hair on them, and mom would want me to be polite and have some. And I.. I just didn’t want to."

Sighing because he did understand, Henry said, "Sometimes in life we all have to do things we don’t want to do. I know visiting Ruth isn’t fun, but it’s important to your mom, so you should be willing to do it for her. Your mom does lots of nice things for you all the time, and she doesn’t ask for much in return."

Feeling a little bad about it Shawn had to agree, and looked down at his bed, "Yeah."

Henry continued, "Your mom was really worried about you today. She thought maybe you’d broken your ankle, but she didn’t want to worry you, so she called me so I could come home at lunch to look at it to decide if we needed to take you to the doctors."

"Oh."

"Shawn?"

Shawn looked up, "Yeah?"

"It was wrong of you to worry your mom like that, and to lie to her about your ankle just to get out of visiting. You made her cry."

Shawn shook his head once and looked out towards the hallway thinking about that. "She cried?"

Henry nodded. Shawn looked back at his dad with real tears in his eyes and whispered, "I’m sorry."

Henry squeezed Shawn’s shoulder once and said, "You can tell her that when we’re done."

Shawn looked up at his dad with panic and shook his head no. Henry picked Shawn up and put him over his lap. Shawn yelled out, "No Dad!"

Henry started swatting. Shawn yelled through it, "Ow! I’m already sorry! Ow! Dad!! I won’t do it again! Owwww! Honest I won’t! Owwww! Dad pleeeeease stoooop!!"

Henry didn’t spank Shawn all that often, so when he thought Shawn had messed up badly enough to deserve it, he made sure to do a thorough job of it. He kept swatting until Shawn’s pleas turned into crying, and then gave him a couple more swats before picking him up and putting him on his feet.

Once he was standing, Shawn’s hands went back to cover his butt. Henry pulled him into a hug, and waited for Shawn’s crying to slow down. Once it had, Henry pulled Shawn away and held him at arm’s length. "I have to go back to work. You be good for your mom."

Shawn nodded and then felt another hand on his shoulder. He looked up and saw his mom standing behind him, and saw that she had red eyes too. He turned and hugged her as he started to cry again. "I’m sorry Mom."

Henry shared a look with his wife and she gave him a quick kiss before he left to go back to work. She sat down and picked Shawn up so he could sit in her lap. She wrapped her arms around him in a hug and said, "I forgive you sweetie."

SN Drabble fic

2008-02-25T01:19:33Z

Hey Cam, here is your drabble for apples, I hope you like it. :)
This story is for astrangerfate for guessing two of the movies on my list.
All mistakes are mine, and I don't own the characters.
I guess this is a wee!chester story.

The summer sun beat down on both boys. It was hot, but they had been banished from the small rental house while John was doing research, so they couldn’t escape from the heat inside the house. Not that it was much cooler in the house, but at least they had a TV in there to distract them.

They were both sitting in the small amount of shade that the apple tree in the back yard provided when Dean had an idea. "Hey Sammy?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna play William Tell?"

"No."

"You don’t even know what it is."

"Do too!" protested the six year old.

Dean who was much wiser then his brother at ten, smirked and said, "Fine then tell me how to play."

"No, because it’s stupid and I don’t wanna anyway."

Dean picked up one of the apples that was on the ground and put it on his head. He said, "One of us has the apple on their head, and the other person tries to knock it off with an arrow."

"Oh." Sam thought about it for a few minutes. "Like with real arrows?"

"No dummy, like with your plastic arrows with the suction cups on the ends." Dean shook his head wondering when Sam was going to get some kind of common sense.

"Oh." Sam thought for a few minutes and picked up one of the apples off the ground. "Okay."

Sam got up and ran to the porch where they had left some of their toys, including a small bow and arrow set which had three arrows. He brought it back and saw Dean standing up straight against the tree with an apple on his head. "Go ahead Sammy. You get three shots, and then it’s my turn."

Sam walked up and stood about six feet away. He took careful aim, and shot. The arrow hit Dean in the chest. Dean smiled and said, "That’s one. Point the arrow higher."

Sam aimed higher and shot again. The arrow hit the tree above Dean’s head. Dean was pleased with himself for coming up with this idea. Not only did it keep them busy, but it also was good weapons training for Sam. Dean said encouragingly, "Good try. Now try aiming somewhere in the middle of those two shots."

Sam aimed again, and the arrow hit Dean in the chest again. Dean took the apple off his head and gathered up the arrows. He walked to Sam and handed the apple to him. He said, "Okay my turn. Go stand by the tree."

Sam ran over and stood by the tree. It took him a few tries to balance the apple on his head. Once he did, Dean took aim and shot the first arrow, thinking that since he’d had some training with a real arrow he would be a better shot then his brother. The arrow went low and hit Sam in the eye. Dean was horrified and dropped the bow. He ran over to Sam who had let out a high pitched scream and was now holding his eye and crying.

Dean looked back towards the house hoping his father hadn’t heard and kneeled down next to Sam. He said with urgency, "Don’t cry Sammy. Let me see. It can’t be that bad."

Sam continued to cry, and Dean started to panic, thinking maybe his father wouldn’t see the whole William Tell thing as a good game to play. He patted Sam’s shoulder and said, "Come on Sammy, please don’t cry."

Dean heard the front door open and jumped away from Sam guiltily. John rushed over, kneeled down next to Sam and asked, "What happened?"

Dean gulped and stammered out, "Um.. Well…"

John had gently pulled Sam’s hand away from his eye and said, "Let me see son."

Not seeing any blood, or anything obviously wrong, John forced Sam’s eyelids open with his thumbs just long enough to see that there was no obvious damage. He picked Sam up and rubbed his back. He gave Dean an impatient look and said, "Dean!"

"It was an accident!"

John gave Dean a look that clearly said he wasn’t happy and headed for the house as he said to Sam, "Let’s get you a cold washcloth to put on your eye."

Dean felt kind of queasy and followed John in, hoping that Sam was okay, and that he wasn’t in as much trouble as he thought he might be.

John got a washcloth out and got it wet while still holding Sam in one arm. Sam had stopped all out crying and was now sniffling. He said with hurt feelings, "Dean shot me with an arrow."

John shouted, "What?!"

Dean jumped to his own defense. "It was an accident, and you shot me first!"

John set Sam down in a chair and put the washcloth over Sam’s eye. He said, "Hold it right there for a few minutes."

Once Sam was settled John turned to Dean and had to take a deep and calming breath before he said, "Tell me what happened."

Dean looked down at the floor. He did feel bad that Sam got hurt, when he was supposed to be watching out for him, and he knew that he was already in for it, so no need to drag Sam down with him. He muttered, "I talked Sam into playing William Tell with his toy arrow set. I was trying to shoot an apple off his head and missed. I think I need more target practice."

John just stood there for a second, not quite understanding how Dean could think this was a good game to play. "You… Why would you play that?"

Dean shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time?"

John reached Dean with two steps. Dean held his hands up in front of him to ward his father off, knowing what was coming, but really wanting to somehow avoid it. John grabbed Dean’s left wrist with his left hand and pulled him up so that Dean was mostly standing on his toes. John swatted Dean’s butt with his free hand ten times in quick succession, and then let Dean go.

Dean yelled out, "Ow! Dad! Ow! Ow!"

Dean backed away a few steps and rubbed at his butt. He could feel the prick of tears in his eyes, but took a deep breath and didn’t let them fall. John said, "I can’t believe I have to actually tell you this Dean, but don’t shoot arrows at your brother, fake or not."

Dean felt his face heat up in embarrassment at his father’s obvious disappointment. "Yes Sir. I’m sorry."

John sighed and pulled Dean into a quick hug. He said, "Go get the bow and arrow set. Neither one of you get to play with it for a week."

Sam who had stopped crying all together said, "No fair!"

John let go of Dean and turned to his youngest. "Did you shoot arrows at Dean too?"

Sam’s one eye got bigger at that, and his chin started to quiver as he nodded yes. John said, "Then it is fair, unless you’d rather have a spanking too."

Sam quickly shook his head. Then when his father looked back at Dean, Sam pouted, but didn’t protest again.

Dean went to go get the arrow set and stomped a couple of the apples into mush on the lawn along the way muttering, "Stupid apples."

Movie Quote Meme

2008-02-24T20:49:29Z

MOVIE QUOTE MEME - stolen from astrangerfate, and others.

1. Pick fifteen of your favourite movies.
2. Go to IMDB and find a favourite quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the film title once it's guessed.

Because it looks like so much fun, I decided to do it too. Here’s my list of quotes from movies I enjoy, not in any particular order - and just to give you a hint, most of them are either action movies or comedies - nothing all that serious. If you get one right I’ll write you a short drabble from any fandom I write for – or a new one that you might like to see as long as I’ve seen the show or movie.

1. 'I love you.'
[slaps him twice] 'Snap out of it!'
Moonstruck - by minx999

2. 'Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash.'
Con Air - by kara_winchester

3. 'They all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they've all made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. What am I gonna say? "I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How've you been?" '
Gross Point Blank - by kara_winchester

4. 'Now your dad's actually going for it in your room.'
'Shut up, Ted.'
'Your step-mom is cute, though.'
'Shut up, Ted!'
'Remember when I asked her to the prom?'
[shouts] 'Shut up, Ted!'
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - by astrangerfate

5. 'They're mutations caused by radiation. No, wait; the government made 'em. *Big* surprise for the Russians.'
'Well, there's nothing like them in the fossil record... Okay, so they predate the fossil record.'
'That'd make them a couple of billion years old... and we've just never seen one until now. Right.'
'I vote for outer space. No way these are local boys.'
Tremors - by hucknclem

6. 'Walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead.'
'How often do you see them?'
'All the time. They're everywhere.'
The Sixth Sense - by suzy_queue

7. 'It's not going to happen again. This is the last time. Right Arnie?'
'It's the last time.'
'Okay. Let's go.'
'But I want to go back up there again.'
What's Eating Gilbert Grape - by nocturnal08

8. 'Why do you cut yourself, Lee?'
'I don't know.'
'Is it that sometimes the pain inside has to come to the surface, and when you see evidence of the pain inside you finally know you're really here? Then, when you watch the wound heal, it's comforting... isn't it?'
'I... That's a way to put it.'
Secretary - by minx999

9. 'All right, pop quiz. Airport, gunman with one hostage. He's using her for cover; he's almost to a plane. You're a hundred feet away... Jack?'
'Shoot the hostage.'
Speed - by annemiek81

10. 'God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...'
'Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...'
Jurassic Park - by nocturnal08

11. 'We're from The Church of Jesus Christ.'
'Oh, the Mormons?'
'That's right. I'm elder Young and this is elder White.'
'Well, you two boys can just fuck right off.'
'Ma'am?'
'You heard me. Take that book of Mormons and shove it so far up your righteous asses that you choke, you soul soliciting pigfuckers.'
Orgazmo - by cldyalwys

12. 'It's K-K-K-Ken c-c-c-coming to k-k-k-kill me.'
A Fish Called Wanda - by eloise_bright

13. 'Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?'
'Precisely.'
'Whoa, this is heavy.'
'There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?'
Back to the Future #1 - by astrangerfate

14. 'We're not gonna make it, are we? People, I mean.'
'It's in your nature to destroy yourselves.'
'Yeah. Major drag, huh?'
Terminator II - by lori_leaf

15. 'Elliot? You're gonna name the kid Elliot? No, you can't name the kid Elliot. Elliot is a fat kid with glasses who eats paste. You're not gonna name the kid Elliot. You gotta give him a real name. Give him a name. Like Nick.'
'Nick?'
'Yeah, Nick. Nick's a real name. Nick's your buddy. Nick's the kind of guy you can trust, the kind of guy you can drink a beer with, the kind of guy who doesn't mind if you puke in his car, Nick.'
The Sure Thing - by eloise_bright

Update at site

2008-02-17T17:24:54Z

Hi all,

Letting you know I've updated my site with a little Queer as Folk story that I wrote. I've also added a couple of links.

http://www.ficwriter.com

Queer as Folk

2008-02-03T19:35:45Z

Hi all,

If any of you are interested in playing or just lurking, my friend Jenna has started a spanking roll playing game for Queer as Folk. The link is here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QasFSpankingRPG/

I've been playing - so if you've been missing my writing (because I'm slow, slow, slow), you can see a little of it there.

And if you like slash, but havn't seen Queer as Folk - you should rent season one right away! It's awesome. :)

New Fic

2008-01-26T14:35:34Z

Hi all,

A couple of days ago I posted a new Smallville story that I wrote, and I posted the first half of a Supernatural story from Snow White in the 50 prompt's section.

Jet's Fics