Love That Is Bone Deep
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of its characters. I am not making profit from this in any way. No copyright infringement is intended. This fanfiction is purely for entertainment.
A/N: I took some liberties with the timeline here, because by the time of the house fire when they were children Sam was 6 months old and he probably should've already gone through the teething process. But, when the thought came into my head, I thought it was so cute and sweet that I had to write a fic about it.
A/N 2: I am sooo sorry for the title. :p
When Dean woke up, it was still dark outside. The motel room was pitch black and his brow furrowed a bit as he tried to figure out what had woken him up.
A soft little whimper, followed by the distinct sound of Sammy's starting-to-get-fussy cry sounded in the room. He was pretty sure their dad was gone, because Sammy was over in Dad's bed and if he'd been there he would have woken up already.
Frowning, Dean sat up and fumbled to turn on the light near his own bed, bathing the room in yellow. He had to squint a bit from it as he turned to look at the other bed.
He had been right, their dad was gone but he'd left little Sammy surrounded by pillows so there was no way he could hurt himself in the darkness while Dean was asleep. It sort of irritated Dean, because he'd gone to sleep figuring their dad was going to stay in for the whole night. He'd laid down to sleep, too, after all!
Maybe he'd gotten a call or something in the middle of the night that he couldn't ignore, though. That was the most likely thing to have happened, but Dean wished he would have at least woken him up so he could make sure Sam was looked after.
A lot of stuff could happen to babies in the dark!
Sam gave another upset sound and then started to cry in earnest.
"No, Sammy, don't cry. It's okay. I'm here." Dean said, sliding off the bed, his socked feet touching the ground. He didn't stop to adjust his Spiderman pajamas, which had gotten a bit twisted around in his sleep, as he went over to Sam and picked him up carefully from the bed and held him close, balancing him on one hip.
"Shhh, it's okay." Dean murmured to his baby brother as he walked toward the tiny kitchen area. Really, it was just a small shelf with a microwave, paper plates, plastic utensils, and napkins. But whatever. He picked up Sam's teething ring from it, inspected it to make certain it was clean and then handed it to Sammy.
It took a couple of tries to get Sam to calm down enough to accept the ring and keep it in his mouth, to bite down on it and hold it for himself.
It used to be that waking up in the middle of the night meant Sammy was wet or hungry, but lately it had just been due to teething pains.
Dean went back over to the beds and began to pace in slow, wide circles. The room was small, so there weren't a lot of places he could go, but he wanted to stay away from the windows and the door. Although he did glance over to make sure it was properly locked. It was.
He held his baby brother close, rubbing his back and giving him soft little kisses to the cheek and forehead. For Dean, Sammy was heavy because even though Sam was a baby, Dean was still pretty small himself. But, he didn't care. His baby brother needed him.
Sam was quieter now, but he still gave a few little whimpers and other sounds that bordered on sobs, and it nearly broke Dean's heart. He knew Sammy was fine, he was just teething. Dean didn't remember teething himself, but their dad had explained it to him once it was clear what was causing Sam to be so upset and suddenly drool-y lately. That kind of made it worse, though, because even though it was normal and not dangerous at all, Sammy was still in pain and there was nothing Dean could do to really fix it.
He could, however, make Sammy comfortable and that was what he was going to do!
"Shh, Sammy. It's okay. I know it hurts, but it'll stop. I promise." he said, knowing that Sam probably wasn't even paying attention to what he said but he didn't really care. Even at this age, Dean understood that what he said wasn't quite so important as the tone with which he said it, and he took care to keep his voice and his tone quiet and soothing.
He knew the pain would go away for Sam once he had his teeth all in, and while Dean didn't know exactly how long that would take he hoped it wouldn't be a long wait, because poor, sweet little Sammy didn't deserve to be in pain. Ever.
It took a while for Sam to properly calm down, but once he had his eyes began to droop a bit and he had trouble keeping hold of the teething ring.
Dean smiled and stopped his circular walking so that he could go over to the bed. He was careful to adjust things before getting in with Sam so he'd be safe in the bed with Dean. He let him keep the teething ring because it was kind of a big one and there was no way he could swallow it even if he tried to.
Once he'd made sure Sam was comfortable again, as well as safe, he turned out the light and curled up with his baby brother, keeping an arm around him so that he would know if Sam started to wriggle or squirm, and closed his eyes, listening to the quiet little sleepy sounds of his baby brother as he drifted off to sleep again.