"Well are you gonna be here for Valentine's Day?" Charlie asks. "You have to be here for Valentine's Day, it's our first one married."

"Yeah, I'll be here," Katherine says. Her arm is thrown over her eyes as she rests in the backseat of the Impala. "We'll be in town in, like, an hour."

"Yeah, you said that, but if I had to pick between having you now or having you for Valentine's Day—"

"Babe, we can stay for two weeks. I promise."

Charlie grunts. "Well how was Borward County?"

Katherine makes a gagging noise. "I don't ever want to talk about it. Ever."

"That bad, huh?"

"I'll tell you about it when you get home tonight." She rubs her face as Charlie laughs. "But literally only the cliffnotes. I can't even think about it without getting stressed out. All I know is Sam and I are gonna be sleeping good tonight, huh, Sam?" She raises her voice over Dean's Metallca, and Sam chuckles. "Yeah." Katherine smiles, closing her eyes. "I'll see you tonight."

"All right. I love you."

"I love you." She hangs up and drops her phone onto her chest with a sigh.

She didn't bother telling Chris and Sophia they were back in town. Sam and Dean could pop over there if they wanted to, but she'd talk to them later.

Katherine throws her bag onto the floor and collapses face-first into her bed. 

"Hey, can we stay for the Superbowl this weekend?" Dean calls into the house.

"Yes!" Katherine shouts back lifting her hips to undo her jeans. "For the love of God, yes we can stay." She shimmies out of her pants and throws them onto the floor, along with her jacket, before pulling her comforter over her body.

"We know the Patriots are going to win anyway," Sam says to his brother.

Katherine wakes up to a familiar pair of arms sliding around her middle, familiar shower smell. She leans into it, fingers curling around his ribs, and Charlie kisses her forehead with a sigh. 

"Hi, baby."

"Hi," she croaks, and sponges a kiss to wherever her mouth is. She thinks his chest, but she has no idea. 

"You look beat to hell."

"'m so tired," she whispers. Charlie's palm runs down the tense muscles of her back. In all reality, the hunters had only been gone for two days.

"Go back to sleep, then."

Katherine peels one eye open and lets it slowly close. It's dark outside, from what she can see of her yard from the sliding door. "How was work?"

Charlie's chest rumbles as he hums. "Had a pipe burst, so that was great. We had a hard freeze last night and no one prepped for it." 

Katherine grunts, gently sitting away from him. Charlie pulls himself up as she does, allows herself to orient. She starts to rub her eyes and almost immediately stops. "I didn't take my contacts out!" She stumbles for the bathroom. Charlie smiles, watching her fumble for a few minutes, before she calmly walks back into their room and rolls into him. She straddles his lap, arms loosely wound around his sides, and sighs. 

"How was work?" Charlie asks, pulling his head away to look at her. He gently pulls the hair from underneath her glasses as she stares at the headboard. Her shoudlers slouch, and she sighs again, heavily. Charlie's hands settle at her hips, bare, spare her underwear. Even without looking at him, she can tell he's trying very hard to be a gentleman.

"Sam and I relived yesterday...one hundred and eleven times." Blue eyes snap to his with a raised brow. 

Charlie grimaces, figners tightening around her hips. "Groundhog Day?"

"Exactly like Groundhog Day," Katherine hums, and kisses him. She rests her forehead against his, letting his lips chase her. "Except a lot more stressful."

"I told you the morning you left," Charlie hums, lips brushing against hers. Katherine's eyes close as Charlie's hips roll underneath her. "Nothing good in Broward County."

She chuckles. "I believe your words were 'What's in Broward County that isn't in Duval?'"

Charlie grins, pulling away to look at her. "Wasn't I right?"

"No, actually, you were very wrong," she laughs. 

Katherine's favorite place to be was home. She hated to leave it, loved coming to it. She loved her rocking chair, she loved the lake view.

Most of all, she loved Charlie. The steadfast, never-questioning, always-trusting Charlie. Her little  pocket of safety, of reprieve. 

His fingers slide into the sides of her underwear. "Are you gonna sit up, or...should I rip them off?"

Katherine laughs, sitting up on her knees, and pushes the garment down her thighs. Charlie's eyes don't move from that, drinking it in. "You can't rip 'em off," she taunts.

"Wanna bet?"

"Mhm." She leans forward to kiss him, lifting one knee then the other, and tosses her underwear onto the floor.

"Maybe we'll try it next time," Charlie murmurs. 

She smiles. "Maybe," she quietly agrees. 

And she had a horrible thought as Charlie was gazing at her, watching her, thrusting into her. Dean. She only saw his face before she slammed that door shut. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. 

Katherine slouches forward, spent. Charlie's heart hammers underneath her chest, and he kisses her cheek.

"Welcome home," he says, and Katherine quietly laughs. "Mom said she wants us to come over for dinner at six."

"Okay," Katherine pants. "Wait, what time is it?"

"Just past five."

"You got home early. And it's super dark outside."

"Should be getting lighter soon," Charlie hums, turning his gaze to the window. 

Katherine sighs and sits away from him. "Then I'll need to shower."

He smiles. "I can help with that."

"I don't know how much you'd be helping versus staring...and making us late."

"Oh, babe." Charlie scoffs. "Give me two minutes and I'll bust." Katherine throws her head back in laughter. He kisses her exposed throat and giggles. "C'mon, we're gonna be late. You get in the shower, I'll tell Sam and Dean to get dressed."

"They're coming, too?"

He smiles at the way her face lights up, and nods. "Yeah, they can come." He gives her a light smack on the rear. "Ready, break." She pulls away from him, that full feeling leaving her belly as Charlie slides out of her, and he winces, tensing up everywhere. 

Sam and Dean are debating the Superbowl game this week when Charlie emerges from the bedroom. "Hey," he chirps, and the brothers turn from the kitchen faucet. 

"Patriots or Giants?" Sam asks.

Charlie grins. "Giants by a fieldgoal, low-scoring game," he says. "Total points don't cross forty."

Dean's eyes pop. "The Patriots, man!"

"Yeah, but somethin' about the Giants this year..." Charlie shrugs. "You guys plan on being around?"

"If we're welcome," Sam says.

Charlie smiles again and claps Sam on the shoulder. "You're always welcome here. Speaking of welcome—my mom invited us over for dinner. They're doing Indian."

"Oh, I love Indian," Sam enthuses. "Yeah, we're in. Thanks, man."

"Sure thing. We're leaving in twenty." Charlie turns on his heel and makes for the bedroom.

It was never a chore, being around Charlie's parents. It shocked Katherine, really, that they never pried into her life. They didn't ask about her work, if she even worked, or what excuse Charlie had to come up with when she was gone for so many weeks at a time. 

Indian food is their thing, though. Charlie had it a lot growing up, and Grace said she ate it a lot in college because her boyfriend of the time was a foreign exchange student from India. He taught her how to make all of the essentials, and she never stopped. 

Which made George a pretty cool dude. Katherine realized then how similar Charlie and his father are. 

"I got the girl, so that's all that matters," George said.

Dean really liked Charlie's sister Phoebe. She's tall, pretty, funny, sweet. She adores Charlie, and Katherine even more, probably, by the way she stayed glued to Katherine's elbow all night and they kept giggling to themselves. 

Phoebe was hammered by the end of the night. Katherine turned her on peanut butter whiskey, and all was lost. Katherine had to help her up the stairs to get her in bed. 

Dean went through a cycle with Katherine, alternating happiness and sadness. Happy when she is, when she's close. Sad when she's close. Happy when she's with Charlie. Sad when she's with Charlie. Happy she has a family. Sad she has a family. Sad she chooses to leave that family to spend the last few months of his life on the road with him.

Happy she chooses to leave that family to spend the last few months of his life with him. Kind of like til death do us part.

"Indian nights are fun," Sam says, sitting in the back of Charlie's truck with a drunk grin. He needed tonight after the last one hundred days he'd had. 

"So fun," Katherine sighs, sitting up front. Charlie starts to drive away from his parents' house.

"Drunk charades was my favorite," Sam says, and Dean laughs. 

"I concur!" He shouts in unison with everyone in the car. 

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to spend the rest of his life here, with all of them.

Katherine wakes up to Charlie's alarm clock with a raging headache.

"Oh," she sighs, sitting up with him.

"Sorry," he croaks, rubbing his eyes. "I tried to get it before it woke you up."

"We should've left earlier last night," Katherine murmurs. "You have a long day."

"Yeah, well...I'm off Monday, so I can sleep then." He kisses her and pulls her close. "Last night was good."

"Yeah," Katherine quietly agrees. "I expected Dean to get all quiet and broody, 'cause he normally does when the subject of families come up, but...he did good."

"How come he gets all quiet and broody?"

Katherine sits away from him with a frown. "Didn't I ever tell you what happened to his family?" Charlie shakes his head. "Sam was a baby when their mom died in a house fire. A demon killed her—that's how they all got into hunting."

"So how did you guys meet?"

Katherine purses her lips. "You know...that's the weird thing." She turns onto her knees and crosses her legs. Charlie's fingers wrap around her calf. "We all met at Bobby's house when I was little, and..." Her eyebrows knit together. "And then I saw Dean again in Philly at my Aunt Louise's house when I was sixteen, and...and he just vanished." Katherine shrugs and shakes her head. "And then I didn't see him again until a few years ago."

"What's weird about that?" Charlie asks.

"Well...when I saw him in Philly, he was older. Like, a little older than he is now."

Charlie's eyebrows knit together. "How is that even possible?"

"I don't know," Katherine sighs. "I don't know. I try not to think about it because it hurts my head so much." She rubs her temples and sighs. "How come your parents never ask about how my work day went?" She suspiciously asks. "Did you tell them?"

"What? No." Charlie shakes his head with a frown. "No...I don't know why. Mom always asks how you're doing, but never what you're doing."

Katherine purses her lips, staring at the comforter beneath her, then sighs. "You want coffee, or...you wanna grab that cheap ass stuff from your favorite gas station?"

Charlie grins, putting his hands behind his head. "Wife's coffee, please." She leans forward to kiss him before rolling out of bed, and pads into the kitchen.

Sam and Dean are already awake, watching the local news in the living room of volume of four. "No rest for the wicked, huh?" She asks. Sam and Dean whirl around to look at her.

"Morning," they chorus.

"Mornin'. Want coffee?"

"Yes, please."

It was an entirely foreign perspective of Katherine Louise, watching her make everyone coffee and breakfast in her Snoopy pajama set. Charlie's eggs and sausage were thrown onto a tortilla and wrapped up so he could eat in his truck on the way to whatever worksite they're at this week. 

Katherine sits on the sofa with a sigh, a burrito of her own, and looks between the brothers. "I think we deserve a couple days off, no?" She asks Sam, who lifts his coffee mug to her.

"To a vacation," he chirps.