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The ocean was Sam’s retreat. Getting out on a fishing trip meant that he got away from everything but the ocean, the fish, and the weather. As much as he loved his family, they drove him nuts, too. He needed the time to get away from them.
So it was extremely aggravating when Dean told him that he was taking Cas and going on a hunting trip with the guys from work, they were taking Ben and Jack, Sam could keep an eye on the girls, right? No, as a matter of fact, he could not. He’d had a fishing trip scheduled for two months, and while he could understand Dean not being bothered to check the calendar, he’d expected better from Castiel. Why couldn’t they take the girls hunting? They’d probably love it!
Which, of course, is how Sam ended up taking three teenage girls on a fishing trip with him. Castiel having to live with the hell Sam would be to live with when he got back, he felt bad about. Castiel had tried to argue that there was no reason the girls couldn’t come hunting or look after themselves for a week, with Claire’s enthusiastic support for both options. Sam couldn’t blame Dean for hesitating to leave them alone – yes, sixteen was much better equipped than ten or six, but the issues they had with their father for leaving them alone when they were younger didn’t care. He couldn’t even blame Castiel for not overruling Dean. After all, Sam should have been the one to put his foot down. He could have just taken off and left Dean with no choice but to either leave them on their own or take them hunting. He was leaving first.
Claire had come with him before. She’d hated it, but mostly because she was still resentful about the new stepfather and stepbrother meaning her time with her dad wasn’t just her and him anymore. Later, once she’d worked through the resentment and adopted Jack so thoroughly that they never bothered with the “step” part of “stepsiblings”, she’d apologized to Sam for being such a brat about it and admitted that being out on the ocean was pretty cool. She wasn’t happy about not getting to go with Castiel and Jack, but at least she wasn’t pouting.
Krissy hadn’t been on the ocean before, but her dad had taken her fishing on the lake an hour west of town a couple times. She was a great kid, quick to catch on, eager to learn, pleasant to be around if you could handle her mouth – under normal circumstances. Right now, she was sullen and refusing to do anything. She’d been even more surprised than Sam when Lee sided with Dean and Cole on the No Girls Allowed rule.
Alex, he barely knew at all. Jody Mills had taken her in after rescuing her from an abusive family, and Alex was still very much in a protective shell. Alex was staying with the Winchesters for a couple weeks while Jody went to a sheriff’s convention, and in the three days she’d been there, she’d said ten words to anyone. Sam had no idea if she’d ever been on a boat, if she’d ever been fishing, how she’d have handled hunting, anything. She didn’t talk much. She at least listened to Sam or Claire telling her what to do to keep the boat moving, but as far as Sam could tell, this was indeed her first time. Thankfully, she at least had no problem with seasickness.
It was late. The girls were all supposed to be in their bunks while Sam kept watch for signs of bad weather or other problems. He’d been planning on using this time to enjoy the solitude and the salt air, and to get some practice with Japanese so Bobby didn’t give him that disappointed look when he came back rusty. Instead… “Claire? What are you doing up here?”
“Couldn’t sleep.” Claire leaned on the rail to watch the waves. “Do you think Dad will take it bad if I tell him I’m a lesbian?”
“Uh, Claire, you do know he and I are both men, right?” Sam teased. Claire turned around to glare at him, but Sam could see the smile trying to poke out. “I refuse to believe you think your dad’s homophobic, so why are you worried about telling him you’re a lesbian?”
“Well, you know how he is about me and Ben.” Sam rolled his eyes. While he agreed with Dean and Castiel that it would be kind of cute if Claire and Ben got together, he also could see Claire and Ben’s point that they were stepcousins now and it would just be weird. “He’s just so invested in me being normal after everything with Mom.”
“And being lesbian isn’t normal?”
“You know what I mean. There are way too many idiots out there.” Claire turned around to look at Sam, pulling her flannel shirt a little tighter around her. “Maybe normal’s not the right word. Safe.”
“Well, you’re hardly safe if you’re not allowed to be yourself.” Sam came over to the rail to lean beside her. “I don’t think Cas will have a problem with it. As long as you’re happy, he’ll be happy for you.”
Claire sighed and went back to staring out at the ocean. “I know you’re the wrong person to ask, but right now, I don’t have anyone else I can. How do you tell a girl you’re interested in her if you don’t know if her liking you back is even possible?”
“I wish I knew. Then I might have realized I had a boyfriend before the third date.” With Castiel, it had been a huge surprise to find out that Castiel wasn’t just trying to bond with his best friend’s little brother. With Jess, he had always just assumed he and Brady were together. The two of them were inseparable. It had taken him way too long to realize that Jess was into him instead. “If you don’t want to tell me, feel free not to answer, but who is she?”
“Alex is the one who hit me with the ‘oh shit I’m gay’ moment, but now that that’s happened, I’m seeing a lot of things with Krissy too. Which is annoying, because how am I supposed to pick one?”
Sam shrugged. “Well, if they’re not both into girls, that makes it easy. If they are, maybe you don’t have to. Who says you’re not allowed to have two girlfriends?”
Claire frowned at the water. “Isn’t that cheating? Why would I do that?”
“That’s why I said maybe. Not everyone can be in a poly relationship. I know I couldn’t handle sharing Cas, but you’ve got a lot more self-confidence than I do, maybe you could handle a poly relationship.” Sam reached out and pulled Claire into a one-armed hug. “As long as everyone knows what’s going on and is happy with it, why wouldn’t you do that?”
“Good question. Thanks, Sam.” Claire slipped out and headed back down below, leaving Sam to get back to his happy solitude and Japanese practice.
The night had been productive, and shortly before sunrise, Sam put away his laptop and got to work setting up the fishing lines. He was so focused, he didn’t notice Krissy’s help until everything was set up much more quickly than it should have been. “Krissy?”
“Heya, captain.” She saluted sarcastically. “Fish biting?”
“Wouldn’t know yet, would I?” Krissy’s smirk made Sam smile. He’d missed that the day before. “What’s up?”
“I realized you and Claire and Alex don’t deserve me being a brat, I should save that for when I’m home and can make Dad explain himself. He’s taken me hunting before, he knows I can handle a gun and dealing with the carcasses.” Krissy’s smile faded. “Besides, if I’m being rude to you, you won’t help me out.”
“Heh, should’ve figured you wanted something. What is it?”
“You turned your best friend into your husband. I’m not shooting for wife, not yet, but I wanna turn my best friend into my girlfriend. I’m pretty sure she likes girls, and I think she likes me, so what do I do?”
Sam huffed a soft laugh. “Yeah, you wanna talk to Castiel about that, not me. You don’t need someone to smack your head and tell you she’s in love with you, and that’s what it took for me. More than once. Dean was not happy that it took him four tries to get through to me.”
“I can’t talk to him about this! He’s her dad!”
Oh, boy. Well, Krissy already thought Claire liked her, so at least Sam wasn’t betraying any confidences if he encouraged Krissy. “You don’t think her dad would want to see her happy with a cool girlfriend who he knew and trusted to treat her right?”
“Huh. Good point. I’m just nervous, I guess. And then there’s Alex.”
“What about her?”
“I think she likes Claire, too. She’s a lot better about opening up and being a fun person when Claire’s around. I don’t really know Alex all that well, but she seems nice, and I don’t wanna steal her friend.”
“So don’t. There’s nothing that says Claire can’t still be Alex’s friend if she’s your girlfriend, and Claire would kick you to the curb if you tried to say there was.” Sam hesitated, watching Krissy digest that. “What would happen if Claire got with Alex? Would you stop being Claire’s friend?”
“No! I’d be disappointed, but she’s my best friend, I’m not losing her over stupid girl drama.” Krissy relaxed, grinning at Sam. “So you think I should go for it?”
“Yeah, I do.” Sam hadn’t meant right this minute, but he couldn’t bring himself to be surprised when Krissy took off. He honestly hadn’t meant on this fishing trip. New couple awkwardness was not going to be fun.
As it turned out, new couple awkwardness wasn’t the problem. Claire had taken his words to heart, and she was coming home with two girlfriends who were quickly becoming good friends themselves.
Lee was not pleased when he saw Krissy kiss Claire goodbye. Krissy stuck her tongue out at him. “You could’ve had the chance to object, if you hadn’t dumped me on Sam so you could have your boys-only club.”
“Sam? What the hell?”
Sam shrugged. “Krissy and Claire are sixteen, Alex is seventeen, why shouldn’t they date? They’re good kids with common sense.”
“How do you know they weren’t…” Lee trailed off, but Sam just stared at him. If he wanted to ask the stupid question, he could use his words. “Did you do anything to make sure they weren’t moving too fast?”
“Not my relationship, not my business to say what’s too fast. I did make sure they understood that we didn’t have any kind of protection on board and that yes, even though pregnancy’s not a concern, protection is still a good idea.”
“They’re sixteen!”
Sam raised an eyebrow. “And how old were you the first time you had sex?”
“Fif… not old enough,” Lee grumbled. “Fine. Not under my roof, Krissy, got that?”
Krissy rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, Dad. We kinda want to find our balance without complicating things with sex before we go doing anything.”
Claire crossed her arms, staring at Castiel. “What about you? Anything stupid to say?”
“We’re reviewing proper dating etiquette and safety when we get home, but no, if Sam doesn’t think there’s a problem here, I’ll take his word for it.” Castiel hugged Claire. “Let’s go home.”