CHAPTER TWELVE

Sam POV

I had noticed the little signs between Cass and Isabelle that they were more than just friends, but chose not to comment on it. Of course, Dean being Dean, the second his daughter was out of earshot, he had confronted the angel about it. When Cass had returned from Isabelle's room, he had been flustered and was blushing slightly. He muttered something about swings before leaving the Bunker.

And of course the next morning when an exhausted looking Isabelle had trudged into the kitchen, Dean went into automatic teasing mode. Isabelle's cheeks turned redder and redder as her father continued to make comments which I tried to get him to stop doing. It didn't help when Cass returned from wherever he had been all night. His cheeks had taken on a slight pink tint of their own as Isabelle's turned a shade darker, if that was even possible. And then she slipped out to get ready for the day, leaving the three of us alone in the kitchen.

"So," Dean said, "what did you do last night after you left?"

"I went to the park to think. It was quite peaceful."

"The park?"

"Yes."

"Why the park?"

"I wanted to sit on the swings," came Cass's matter of fact reply.

"Sit on the.." Dean trailed off, barely containing his laughter.

"Honestly, Dean. Can't you give the guy a break?" I muttered.

Candy apple green eyes met brown across the table.

"But Sam, he-"

"I heard him, Dean."

"Belle likes the swings," Cass said.

"B-Belle? You call her Belle?"

"Her mother called her Belle, too."

"Ok," Dean nodded his head.

"You probably shouldn't call her Belle."

"Oh? Why not?"

"I don't think she'd like that."

"I'm her father."

"Who she only met a week ago."

Silence fell over the room as Dean's eyes darkened, now glaring at the angel. I looked between the two, swallowing hard.

"Alright, let's just calm down a minute."

"I am calm, Sam," Dean spat, eyes never leaving Cass's.

Of course, the girl in question chose that moment to walk back in. She stopped abruptly, looking between the hard gaze of her father and the equally hard gaze of the angel who'd barely moved since he arrived. Her brows furrowed in concern as she then turned to look at me.

"What's going on?"

"Dean found out about Cass's nickname for you... Cass told him he couldn't use it."

"Cass told him..." she turned to fully face the angel. "Cass? Look at me."

He did as he was told.

"They can call me Belle if they want to, Cass. I don't care."

"But-"

"But nothing. They're family. They're allowed to call me whatever they want to call me."

Cass's eyes never left hers as she spoke to him. Her head was slightly cocked to one side and as she spoke he had slowly tilted his as well to mirror her. I smirked slightly at the sight. It made sense she would pick up some of his odd quirks given the fact that they'd spent so much time together. There was a tense moment before he nodded once in understanding. It was an interesting thing to watch. She obviously knew exactly what to say to him to get him to listen and understand and I could only imagine the amount of talks and practice that had taken.

"So what's the plan? Take a few days to recover before heading out on another case?"

Isabelle sat back down in the seat next to me, directing the question at Dean.

"Essentially, yeah," he responded.

His gaze wasn't so hard any more, but it still hadn't regained the same twinkle they had just had while he had been teasing his daughter and Cass.

"Okie dokie."

XxX

It had been nearly a month and a half since Cass had brought Isabelle to the Bunker. We had gone on a few more hunts, even including her for one of the more tamer ones. Of course, Cass had insisted he also tag along, even though it wasn't really a four person job. He never left her side the entire time. Dean was the one to bring up the topic of her senior year again.

"You should go, Belle."

"What if I don't want to?"

"At least finish out high school. You don't have to continue on to college if you don't want to."

"I don't want to be the weird new kid my senior year. No thank you."

"Dean's right, Belle," Cass chimed in.

"Oh, don't you start, too," she snapped at him.

"Enrollment starts in two weeks. She doesn't have to make a decision right this second," I piped up.

"But she's running out of time to make the decision, Sammy. That's the whole point."

"Just stop trying to pressure her, Dean."

Belle cast a grateful glance in my direction which didn't go unnoticed by her father or the angel in the room. They both sighed, sharing a look before dropping the subject temporarily. Honestly, I was on the same side as Cass and Dean on the matter. She really should at least finish out high school, even if she didn't want to continue on to some university or something. A week later, Cass was the one to bring it up again.

"I don't suppose you've made a decision about school?"

"No, Cass, I haven't," her voice was sickly sweet.

"There isn't much time left."

"I'm perfectly aware."

The matter was dropped once more, only to be revisited three days before Enrollment was scheduled to begin.

"Alright, I'll bite since you obviously aren't going to listen to the other two. You should really finish out high school, Belle. We won't pressure you to go to college, but this is something that we're going to have to insist on."

Blue-green eyes met mine as the other two occupants of the Bunker held their breath, awaiting her response.

"Fine. I'll go."