A Very Supernatural Valentine's
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to the amazing Eric Kripke and to the very fine people of Warner Brothers/The CW. I claim no right to it and am merely playing in their beautiful sandbox. No copyright infringement intended.
If there was any day of the year that John hated more than November 2nd, it was February 14th. A day that should be filled with good feelings and love, was filled with anguish and despair for him. In the weeks leading up to the cursed day, he stayed away from grocery stores, hoping to not be inundated with the sight of chocolate hearts and diapered cherubs with bows and arrows. He steered clear of watching television, knowing that every movie and commercial would be romantic and heartwarming tales of love and lust.
And he just couldn't take it.
He'd always had good memories of Valentine's Day, until Mary died, at least. When he was little, his mother would bake his favorite cookies as a Valentine's treat for him. His dad would bring home the biggest bouquet of roses for his mom and he could remember being mesmerized by the smile on her face as she filled the vase with water and arranged the flowers perfectly.
He could remember making Valentine's cards for his classmates and for his parents and grandparents. He could remember the school parties they always had, with cupcakes and candy and heart-shaped decorations.
Those were all great memories and he could look back on those with happiness. It was the memories of celebrating the day with Mary that broke him. They had celebrated eleven Valentine's Days during their relationship and John could remember every single one.
The first one was a disaster. They had only been dating a few months and John had no idea what a nineteen-year-old girl expected from a guy like him. He would never consider himself a romantic, but he tried, at least. The problem was that he didn't really have the means to do the things he wanted. He was saving up his money to buy a VW van, so he didn't have a lot to spend on her. He did try, though.
The first thing he bought her was a silver necklace with a small angel pendant. He knew that she had a thing for angels and, while he really didn't understand the appeal, he figured she would love the necklace. Unfortunately, the necklace was so cheaply made that by the end of the night, the angel pendant had fallen off and the necklace had turned Mary's neck a weird shade of green.
The second thing he bought her that night was a bouquet of Daisies. While he really wanted to buy her roses, he only had enough money for the daisies. Unfortunately, Mary was allergic to most flowers, so she spent the rest of the evening sneezing and sniffling.
The third, and probably most disastrous, gift he gave her was food poisoning. After buying the necklace and the flowers, John didn't have much money left, so he decided to cook their dinner instead of going out. Unfortunately, John wasn't much of a cook and the Chicken Marsala he made was undercooked. Almost two hours after eating dinner, both Mary and John started to feel sick. An hour later, they were both throwing up and feeling like death was coming for them.
All in all, it was an awful day, but Mary and John cherished the memory of it in the following years.
The next few Valentine's Days were much better. John finally realized that Mary really wasn't the jewelry and flowers type of girl, so he didn't waste his time or money in buying those. Instead, he took her to quaint little cafés and they had picnics in the park. They went for long rides in the sleek Chevy Impala he bought, laughing at the idea that he had almost bought a VW van, and expressing thanks to the young man who talked him out of that.
John's favorite part of those memories were of the times they spent cuddled up on the hood of the Impala, staring at the stars in the sky and talking about their future. He proposed to Mary on one of those nights and he was the happiest man on Earth when she said yes.
Valentine's Day of 1979 was the best by far, though. He and Mary had been married for three and a half years and had just brought home their firstborn son three weeks before. Dean was a beautiful baby and both John and Mary were so excited to be parents. In the exhaustion of learning to live with a newborn, they both had completely missed the fact that it was February 14th. It was almost midnight when John finally realized what day it was.
They had both been sound asleep when Dean started crying. Mary quickly climbed out of bed and stepped over to the small bassinette next to the bed. John watched as she picked Dean up and started to sway and bounce a little. When Dean didn't stop crying, Mary moved over to the chair in the corner of the room and started to feed him.
It was at that time that John realized what day it was and Mary was surprised when he suddenly jumped out of bed. After throwing his robe on, he leaned over and kissed both Mary and the baby on their cheeks.
"Come downstairs when he's done, okay?" he said as he walked to the door. "And make sure you bring him with you."
"John, what are you doing?" Mary asked. "It's almost midnight."
"Just come downstairs, Mare," he said with a smile.
Fifteen minutes later, Mary came down the stairs to find John waiting by the door. He was holding several blankets and a few pillows in his arms and was holding the door open.
"John Winchester, what are you doing? It's cold outside and it's late!"
"Do you know what day it is?" he asked her simply.
"It's Wednesday," she answered, completely confused by her husband's actions.
"It's Valentine's Day," John said as he led Mary out the door. "At least for the next fifteen minutes."
Mary's eyes widened at hearing that. "Really? I had no idea. I think this lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me," she laughed.
Seconds later, they were at the Impala and John took Dean from Mary so she could get settled on the hood. Once she was settled, she took the baby back and waited for John to settle in next to her. Although they were both cold, they cuddled up together, keeping Dean firmly in-between them. Mary made sure that Dean was completely covered except for his eyes, nose, and mouth.
As they sat on the hood of the car, they talked about their future. They talked about Dean and about what kind of man he would grow up to be. Mary thought that he would probably grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer, but John just laughed at that.
"No way," he said adamantly. "He's going to grow up to be a man of action, Mare. He's going to save the world one day."
Mary laughed at her husband's declaration. "Well, he can save the world as a doctor, John. Maybe he'll be the one to find the cure for cancer."
After they talked about Dean a bit longer, they started to talk about the possibility of having more kids. Neither Mary nor John had any siblings, so they both wanted to have more children. Mary thought it would be great to have a daughter, but John wanted another son."
"Dean's gonna need someone to play football with, Mary. He'll need someone he can wrestle with."
This only led to the two of them jovially arguing about how girls could wrestle and play football as easily as a boy could. Mary won that argument, of course.
Eventually, it was getting too cold to stay outside, so John slid off the hood and then helped Mary down. He gathered up the pillows and blankets and started toward the house. But before he made it to the door, Mary grabbed his arm and stopped him. Standing up on her tip-toes, she kissed him deeply. They pulled apart only when Dean started to wriggle in protest of being trapped between them. As John opened the door, Mary leaned into his side and John suddenly noticed that she had tears streaking her face.
"Mary? What's wrong?" he asked anxiously.
Mary wiped her face on Dean's blanket and pulled him closer to her. "Nothing's wrong, John. I'm just…. I'm just so happy. This has been the best Valentine's Day ever and I know we're going to have so many more."
John leaned down and kissed his wife again. Once they were settled back in bed, with Dean sleeping soundly in his bassinette next to them, John held on tightly to his wife as he prayed that she was right.
She wasn't right, though. In fact, they only had four more Valentine's Days before Mary was taken from them. John hated that Sam never got to experience one with Mary. Not that he would have remembered it anyway, but still…
And now, John just hated the day completely. He did everything he could to ignore it. He knew he wasn't being fair to his sons, but he couldn't help it. He didn't have the strength to face the day, so he usually dove into a hunt or hid away in some dive bar where the women were ugly and the beer was warm. He would usually drink himself into a stupor, completely ignoring (or sometimes forgetting) that he had two young boys waiting for him in some crappy motel room.
Yes, he hated Valentine's Day. And he hated himself.
If there was any day of the year that Dean Winchester hated more than November 2nd, it was February 14th. In his experience, nothing good ever came out of that day and he wished that he could just wipe it off the calendar.
Dean was fifteen-years-old and a freshman in high school. They were currently living in the small town of Belle Plaine, Minnesota, and had been there for almost three months. Sam, who was ten-years-old and in the fifth grade, loved his school and he loved the fact that they had been there long enough for him to make friends and even join a few clubs and after-school activities. He was well-liked by all of his teachers and most of the students, too.
Dean, on the other hand, hated it there, but to be fair, he didn't hate it completely. He, too, had made a few friends, but the only after-school activity he took part in on a regular basis was detention. And he definitely wasn't well-liked among the teaching staff of the high school. Or the other students, either, unless you just counted the girls.
Dean had learned early on that most girls usually liked him and most boys usually didn't. He knew that the two were related. It wasn't hard to figure out that the boys didn't like him because all the girls did.
Dean didn't really care if he was liked or not. They were never in one place long enough for it to really matter, so he didn't let it bother him. He was usually able to make one or two good friends, and that was enough to get him through. That and the attention of the girls, of course.
To Dean's chagrin, the girls of this particular school particularly liked him. He usually couldn't go two steps without one of them saying hi to him or grabbing his arm and giggling. He would stop long enough to turn on the charm for a few seconds, but then would be on his way, taking in the flirtatious smiles from the girls and the heated glares from the boys.
The worst part of it all was that it was almost Valentine's Day. While Dean had no intention of asking anyone to be his Valentine, he was prepared for whatever was going to happen. What he wasn't prepared for, though, was the avalanche of chocolate roses that kept finding their way onto his desk.
Belle Plaine High had a traditional fundraiser on Valentine's Day where you could buy a chocolate rose for your Valentine. It was a competition, of sorts, too, because at the end of the day, whoever had the most chocolate roses won a prize.
Dean, of course, easily won. By the end of the day, he had amassed fifty-three chocolate roses. He had so many that he couldn't even fit them all in his backpack. He was a little embarrassed by all the attention, but it didn't stop him from claiming his prize, which happened to be a giant chocolate heart. He couldn't help but smile when he pictured Sam's reaction to all the chocolate he would be bringing home.
Dean was relieved when the final bell rang and he realized he had made it through the day without getting a detention. He quickly made his way to his locker to grab the chocolate roses he had stuffed in there. He had to empty his books out of his backpack to make room for all the roses, thinking the whole time about the detention he would be getting for not taking his homework home and finishing it. Oh well, a guy has to have priorities, right?
Just as he finished stuffing the last rose in his bag, his locker door was suddenly slammed shut, nearly missing his hand. Turning around, Dean noticed three guys surrounding him and he couldn't keep from rolling his eyes. He knew exactly why they were there.
"Hey, guys…. If you're here to give me another rose, I'm going to have to refuse," Dean said with a smirk. "I don't think I can fit another single one in my bag."
The words had barely left his mouth when he suddenly found himself pushed up against his locker. The boy doing the pushing was two years older than him and at least fifty pounds heavier. The other two were two years older, too, but not nearly as big. Dean recognized them as all being on the hockey team.
"You think you're something special, don't you, Winchester?" one of the boys asked. Dean thought his name was Robby or something like that.
"Not really," Dean answered. His chest was beginning to hurt where the guy's arm was pushing him into the locker.
"Really? Because you seem awfully cocky for someone who doesn't think he's special."
When he didn't answer, the kid continued. "What makes you think you can take a rose from my girlfriend, Winchester?"
Dean nearly laughed at that. "Hey, I didn't take a rose from anyone, dude! They all just gave them to me. And I don't even know who your girlfriend is."
"Rachel Winslow," the kid said.
"Rachel? Oh wait….. is she that blond with the big….um, eyes?"
Dean knew the minute the words left his mouth that he shouldn't have said them, so in a way he was prepared for the punch that landed on his mouth. The jarring of the punch pushing him even harder into the locker caused the bigger kid to lose his grip and seconds later, Dean found himself on the floor. Knowing he was at a disadvantage in more ways than one, Dean immediately jumped up and squared himself, bringing his fists up to protect his face.
The three boys started laughing at that giving Dean just the slightest window of opportunity. Without hesitation, he jabbed his fist forward, landing a punch squarely on Robby's nose. Blood immediately gushed out and Robby fell to the floor, letting out a cry that sounded like a little girl. The two other boys stared at their friend, leaving Dean with another opportunity to attack. Without hesitation, he kicked his leg out, sweeping the legs of the big guy out from under him. The kid teetered for several long seconds and then fell over, joining Robby on the floor.
Dean turned his attention to the last remaining guy, but he was too late. Just as he stepped forward, the kid punched him in the stomach hard. Dean felt a rush of nausea shoot through him as he tried to stand up straight again. Just as he stood up, another punch was thrown. But this time, Dean was able to move away from it and it only landed on his shoulder. Without thinking, Dean reacted to the thrown punch by throwing one of his own. The kid was able to move out of the way at the last second, but he couldn't dodge the kick that Dean sent towards him. Dean immediately followed the kick with another punch, landing it solidly on the guy's chin. Without a sound, the guy fell to the floor.
By this time, they were surrounded by other students, who were all staring in awe at him. He had no desire to continue fighting, but before he could walk away, he heard the dreaded sound of a teacher.
"What is going on here?!" the man said. Dean looked up to see that it was his Algebra teacher, Mr. Brooks. Dean actually liked the man. "Winchester? Did you do this?" Mr. Brooks asked incredulously.
Dean didn't answer. Mr. Brooks stared at him a little bit longer before turning back to the three kids on the floor. "Mr. Harlow, are you okay? Do you need the nurse?" When the boy only moaned in response, Mr. Brooks knelt down at his side. "You're okay, Robby. Although, it looks like you may have a broken nose. Let's get you to the nurse."
Dean watched as Mr. Brooks helped Robby up off the floor. Seconds later, he had also helped the other two off the floor. Turning back to the crowd of students, he quickly sent them on their way. Dean still stood there, not knowing exactly what he should be doing. He knew he was in trouble, even if it was self-defense.
Finally, Mr. Brooks turned back to him. "Follow me, Mr. Winchester."
Dean followed the man, who was still supporting Robby with one arm, down the hall. He started to feel a little panicky when he realized that the principal was more than likely going to call his dad. And that his dad was not going to be happy that he had been in a fight. In fact, his dad was going to be downright pissed.
Suddenly, Dean was cursing the fact that it was February 14th. It seemed that nothing good ever happened on Valentine's Day.
Author's note: Believe it or not, I was intending for this to be a somewhat happy little story, but the characters took over and took it in a whole new direction. Interesting how that happens sometimes, isn't it?
I also intended it to be a one-shot, but that didn't happen either, lol. So, I guess there will be another chapter exploring how John reacts to the current events and also to see how Sam's Valentine's Day went. Hopefully, he had a better day than Dean and John.
Thanks so much for reading. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story.