Title: WBY Cover For Me
Characters: Adam, Jamie and River AU Jamie and River Verse
Rating: PG for language
Summary: Jamie's in trouble with Uncle Adam. Somehow River gets caught in it too. Will the past catch up to them all?
XXX
"Cover for me!" Jamie ran into the barn at turbo speed and skidded to a stop in front of River.
"Huh?" River was cleaning out stalls, which he hated but it was a job he had to do because he was a fucking Winchester and Winchesters cleaned horse stalls.
"Adam's gonna kill, me Riv. I mean, really kill me. Just pretend you didn't see me okay?"
"And how am I supposed to do that?"
"Look he'll be here in like five minutes – when he asks, just tell him you didn't see me."
River looked uncertainly at Jamie then smiled, "And what do I get out of it?"
Jamie looked over his shoulder obviously panicking at the thought of his uncle.
"The stalls, I got them for the next month, just please…ya gotta buy me some time."
River couldn't help it. Jamie looked so stressed plus the thought of no horse poo for a month – well, he couldn't resist.
"Okay. Scram."
Jamie bounded off so fast that River really couldn't be sure where he went to in any case. He figured that would be a plus when his uncle showed up.
Less then five minutes later, Adam charged into the barn with almost the same speed as Jamie, however with more purposeful movements.
"Where's the little shit?"
River looked at his uncle, blue eyes as guileless as he could make them,
"What little shit?"
"Your cousin, that's who and you know damn well that is who I mean."
River turned his back to his uncle and scooped a pitchfork full of poop out of Mac's stall and threw it easily into the wheelbarrow.
"I'm just doing chores, Uncle Adam. You really need to work on that suspicious nature, I suppose it's all-good when hunting but you are home now. Just chill. "
"If I find out you are hiding him or know where he is…", Adam let the threat linger.
River ignored the implication of bodily harm.
"What did he do?"
"Not now, I don't have time to talk about it now. But let's just say he's in trouble, personal big trouble with Uncle Adam and when I find him. And I will find him, I'm gonna beat his ass. And then if I find out you are lying to me I'm gonna come back here and beat your ass too."
River acknowledged the imminent ass kicking with a nod – there was not much he could do about it one way or another. He supposed it was the trade off for a month of no stalls. Still, Uncle Adam had only spanked him once and it had been memorable. The only thing he could hope for was that he wore himself out on Jamie's hard ass before he got to his.
"Uh, if you're done threatening me, I've got to get back to work." River tried not to sound sassy when he said it but really it didn't matter because whatever Jamie had done to Adam had pissed him off so much that he barely noticed River.
"You do that." Uncle Adam left River quickly, walking through the barn like a man on a mission. River shuddered just a bit. His good-natured uncle was rarely this upset. Wherever Jamie went, he had better stay gone.
River finished the barn and headed up to the house. He needed a shower something fierce. Texas was hot, even in the morning and mucking stalls was dirty work. He dropped his shoes in the mud room outside of the kitchen and started to pad through it on his way to the shower. Adam was working on dinner, cutting fresh mushrooms and tons of herbs from the garden out back. Red basil, green basil, oregano, chives and the smell of garlic was so strong it overpowered the smell of horse poo.
River sniffed appreciatively. "Spaghetti?"
"Yeah, I know you don't like my chocolate chip muffins but this…"Adam waved at the pot of sauce starting to bubble, "this is going to change your mind about little old Italian ladies making spaghetti sauce."
River glanced at the clock. It was only 11am in the morning. Maybe Adam wanted to keep himself busy.
Adam seemed to catch his eye, "Nope, that's not it. The key to great spaghetti is fresh herbs, hot Italian sausage and slow and low cooking. You leave it on all day, let the sausage permeate through the sauce and let the fresh herbs do their thing. By five tonight? Freakin' awesome."
Adam stopped for a moment, "Look, I was a little hot this morning. Took it out on you. I fully intend to take it out on Jamie when I find him, believe me, he is going to remember this shit. I'm not so sure you are out of the woods but honestly, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Go ahead and hit the shower, you reek. But we have some more things to do today and since your cousin has made himself scarce, you and I will have to work on them together."
River nodded. "So what makes you think that Jamie will be home tonight?"
Adam smirked, "Jamie Winchester missing dinner? Especially if he doesn't rustle up lunch somewhere? You have a better chance on a solar eclipse. No - cook and the boy will come." Adam whistled a bit and dropped something else into the pot.
"Plus, he loves my spaghetti almost as much as my chocolate chip muffins."
"Enough to get his ass roasted?" River queried.
"Well, maybe not, but the beating is going to happen. Jamie knows that so he can either eat and get his ass whipped or starve and get his ass whipped. I'm thinking he will go for the former."
River shook his head and headed for the shower.
Good luck, Jamie.
XXX
Jamie did show up, precisely at five and peeked his way into the kitchen following his nose. River was ripping up the salad and at the moment, Adam was in the bathroom.
"Smells great." Jamie commented.
"Damn, you are an open book, Jamie." River smiled a bit.
"What do you mean?"
"Uncle Adam said you'd be here, ass kickin' or no and he was right."
Jamie huffed at his obvious transparency. "I'm a growing boy, I need to eat. Besides, I just wanted him to cool off." Jamie cocked a head in River's direction, "Did it work?"
River shrugged noncommittally, "Dunno, he's talking to me just fine but he's still pretty hot when he mentions your name. Truthfully, Jamie – I don't know what you did, but if it were me, I'd eat berries and onion weed for dinner before I stepped back in this house."
Jamie grinned, "Yeah, well I considered it but it's not going to stop the inevitable smack down. He's gonna kill me, Riv and I deserve it so why not go down with a full belly?"
"What did you do?"
It was then that Uncle Adam entered the kitchen, scowling. "Tell him, Jamie. What did you do?"
"It wasn't intentional Uncle Adam."
"Bullshit."
"Okay, it was intentional but I didn't mean for it to turn out the way it did."
"Yeah, you didn't mean to get caught."
"Well, that too – but I was just curious."
"So instead of coming to me and asking me about them, you just figured you would steal them from me and put them on the internet!"
River tilted his head from Jamie to Adam and back again. It was hard to follow the conversation, especially since he had no idea what they were talking about. They completely ignored him.
"I'm sorry! I can't help it, they were there and I just had to figure it out."
"They were under my mattress, under my porn, they weren't sitting out in the middle of my room. Which, by the way, is my fucking room, not your room. So you don't have permission to go in there and snoop around. I didn't think I had to start locking my shit up. Not that it matters to Winchesters – y'all could fuckin' pick a lock faster than most folks can open the damn door!"
That was the first hint that something was really off with Adam.
Not that it matters to Winchesters.
Adam was a Winchester and had been for years.
"I'm sorry, Adam." Jamie really did look sorry.
"Yeah, me too. But it's fucked now so thank you very much. Thanks for fucking up something so personal and so private and sharing it with the fucking world."
River looked at his uncle than back at his cousin. They both looked ready to cry which was stupid and dumb because Winchesters don't cry…not really.
Then Jamie rallied a moment. "Well, you really don't live here anymore Uncle Adam. What if I was just scoping out your room to make it my room? Let River have his own and I'll take the attic!"
That seemed to be the determining factor with his uncle. He reached over, grabbed Jamie so fast that it was a blur and hooked his foot under the kitchen chair in a way that was supernaturally freaky really. Then Jamie was over his uncle's lap bare assed and Adam was scorching his white rump with fiery red handprints.
River was right there. Right in front of them and he didn't see how it could happen so fast. One second Jamie was arguing for a room for himself and the next he was face down over Adam's lap.
It seemed to happen like that in this household. When someone was going to get their ass beat it was a swift and painful affair.
Jamie yelped, whether from pain or from the undignified position he found himself in but the yelp quickly turned into a howl as Uncle Adam roasted his ass.
Over and over and over.
Handprint over handprint over handprint till there was no more white, just a blazing red that had to hurt like hell. Then Adam peppered the bottom of his butt, right at the crease where ass meets thigh. River knew from personal experience how badly that hurt. That particular part of your body was never meant to be lit on fire. Then the tops of Jamie's thighs.
Damn.
And River watched the whole thing. He was rooted in the kitchen, first following the back and forth of verbal sparring and finally ending with the beat down. He didn't mean to stay but everything happened so quickly and it was kind of like watching an accident. He couldn't turn away and neither Jamie nor Adam seemed to even be aware that he was in the room.
Finally Adam stopped, shook his hand hard and hoisted his nephew up by the collar. Jamie fumbled for his boxers and jeans gasping as the material slid over his ruby red ass. Jamie reached for some paper towels and blew his nose, Adam turned on the faucet and ran his apparently stinging right hand under the cool water.
"Get your ass in a corner."
Jamie complied quickly, sticking his nose in the closest corner he could find.
River just watched.
It was hard to see his tough cousin crying, but he had seen it before. It was odder to see his uncle crying, and Adam was. He stuck his head under the faucet, allowing the cool water to sluice over his head and neck but he was crying, River could see that. Adam didn't seem particularly embarrassed but was obviously trying to pull himself together. Jamie was doing the same thing in the corner, taking deep halting breaths and trying to regain some of his normal composure.
River had been there. Post spanking by a Winchester was almost as notable as the spanking itself. It took a while to calm down, to reorient yourself and get your breathing to a normal level. In the past, sometimes River felt so mad after a spanking that he couldn't calm down at all, but usually he understood why it happened and what he had done to deserve it. There was a learning curve in Winchester smack downs and River, while the newest Winchesters wasn't dumb and he figured it out pretty quickly.
But this?
This was totally new. The spanker didn't cry – at least not in River's experience so why was Adam crying. River was totally sure he wasn't sympathizing with Jamie – hell no, he was the one who lit him up like the fourth of July. No there was something missing in the equation that he wasn't privy too.
Finally, Adam stopped with the water and turned to the spaghetti, giving it a gentle swirl with the old wooden spoon that sat in the pot.
"Jamie."
Jamie turned away from the corner and shuffled quietly to his uncle.
Adam opened his arms and Jamie folded himself into his uncle's embrace. He cried again, this time not in pain but shame and relief and a multitude of feelings that kids feel when they have hurt someone they love. Adam murmured quietly to his nephew, words too low for River to hear and then he dropped a kiss on Jamie's head.
River let it go for a while but finally he just had to say something.
"Ahem." River thought it was a quiet yet gentle reminder that he was still in the room.
Both Adam and Jamie turned to River a little surprised that he was there.
"I don't get it " River stated quietly, "I mean, you guys don't have to tell me,
'cause it's obviously your business but, I don't understand what happened here."
Uncle Adam pulled Jamie in closer and then looped an arm around River.
"You should know Riv, because it does concern you."
River quirked an eyebrow…maybe this was where he got his ass roasted for covering for Jamie earlier in the day. He hoped not, but there wasn't much he could do in any case.
"Okay." River agreed. To what he wasn't sure about.
"Look Riv, I joined this family when I was 12, just a little younger than you. I know you know the story but I left my home and the life I had with my mom with nothing more than the clothes on my back and a back pack. Mom's picture, the one on my nightstand and my baseball cards. I collected them back then. Mom and I would go to a local store that sold them. Some vintage, some not. Some worth money, some just 'cause I liked the players. I kept them all, have kept them all. They are in plastic sheets with individual slots, you know like pokeman cards or something. It's hokey and weird, but it's all I have to remember me of my mom. Of being Adam Milligan, before I was Adam Winchester. They are under my bed, between the mattresses, under my porn. It's a little creepy I guess and I suppose my mom would kick my ass if she knew I kept porn on top of our baseball cards but then again, she might just laugh."
Adam stopped and took a deep breath. He centered himself and looked at Jamie.
"Jamie here found them. Do you want to tell the rest of the story Jamie?"
Jamie hung his head, "Not really, but I expect you want me too, huh?"
Uncle Adam nodded.
"Well, I was snooping around Adam's room. Invasion of privacy. Dumb move and wrong okay? I got it, it was wrong but I was curious. I never thought anyone would be so dumb as to hide something under the damn bed. Totally lame. " He cut his eyes to Adam and there was a touch of reproach there.
Adam shifted his shoulders back, "Well, I didn't think I really had to hide something that was in my room."
Jamie nodded, "Point taken."
"So I found the porn. No big deal, I mean, I could surf the internet and come up with something a lot more racy than Ms. October. But then I found the baseball cards. They were neat, Ads." Jamie turned to his uncle. "I mean, in perfect condition and in those individual plastic sleeves so I thought, well, maybe they might be worth something. I wouldn't have sold them Uncle Adam, I was just curious, so I took some pictures and tried to get some offers on the internet. You know Ebay or whatever. Not going to sell, just getting an idea of what they were worth."
"Anyhow, Adam caught me and I dropped the cards like they were on fire and headed for the barn. That's when you showed up in the picture."
"So all this was over baseball cards?" River sounded a bit incredulous.
Adam smiled then. "Yup, baseball cards. But they are all I have of my mom, that and my memories. They are important to me. Just like my room is important to me and my privacy." Uncle Adam glared at Jamie and Jamie appeared to take the glare to heart, dropping his head under his uncle's fierce gaze.
Uncle Adam turned to River then. "You of all people should know what it is like. I'm proud of my family, of the name Winchester. I love each and everyone one of you but I was born a Milligan and a part of me will always be that. I lost my mom that day but not our memories and not the damn baseball cards. I wouldn't trade my life with you guys for anything but I would love to see my mom again, to let her see the man I've become but that isn't going to happen, so I hold onto those cards and sometimes I let myself think about what if you know?"
River did know. Sunshine was the anti-mother. He had no love lost for her but there were a few good days he could remember and the transition from wild child to Winchester had been rough in more ways than one. He didn't have any fond memories of baseball cards but there were some good times. Honestly, he hadn't even had a last name; he was just River then. So being a Winchester? That was pretty impressive as far as he was concerned. He had a great dad, someone who loved him, enough to call him on his shit sometimes. He had two awesome uncles who doted on him and a grandfather who set him straight almost as soon as he joined this family.
And a cousin who was more of a brother than he could ever imagine.
Enough of a brother for River to take a possible ass whipping to give Jamie time to run.
But he got where Uncle Adam was coming from. Obviously so did Jamie.
Uncle Adam pushed both boys away from him gently in the direction of kitchen chairs.
"Sit, dinner's done."
Jamie grimaced but did as he was told and Adam dumped a pile of pasta on each boy's plate with the most aromatic spaghetti sauce imaginable piled on top. River sniffed appreciatively and Jamie's mouth all but watered. A moment later freshly made garlic bread and then, because they weren't ingrates, a huge tossed salad.
They dug in quickly, all three too hungry to talk.
Finally Jamie stopped shoveling food in his mouth long enough to catch Adam's eyes.
"You know…some of those baseball cards are really worth a lot."
Adam reached over and ruffled Jamie's hair.
"I know."
End.
