Two's Company, Three's A Family.
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Dean opened the door and slipped into the Impala, its leather seat welcoming his body like an old friend.
If ever there was a union between man and machine this was it, at least on Dean's part. She had existed for as long as he had, longer as the car had been his father's before him.
A dry chuckle escaped his lips. Well, in all honesty, she had always been his, for in his little trip back in time he had practically pushed his then youthful father into choosing it.
Dad had set his mind on buying a hippie Volkswagen, thinking that it might come in handy in the future, especially now that he and Mary were a thing and there would be plenty of room for an enlarged family to ride around in it one day, but Dean had opened his eyes and Dad had chosen the black beauty.
He shifted on the seat making himself even more comfortable, the lingering scent that had built up in the interior over the years washing over him. It was the perfume of their lives, Dad, Mom, Sammy and himself. Four people, a family whose whole history was wrapped up in this inanimate object; this Impala.
X
He had been only four and a half when Azazel had infected baby Sammy and Mom had died burnt to cinders on the ceiling.
Memories tend to dissipate with the passing years but Dean had deliberately kept those pivotal ones alive all through his childhood by dusting them out every night before he went to sleep; the fire, Dad putting baby Sammy in his arms and telling him to get out and keep his little brother safe and one last memory of sitting on the hood of the Impala next to his father and Sam as they watched the fire-men working to douse the blazing inferno of what had been their happy home until a few hours before.
X
That's when their Odyssey had started, made up of a distraught father, a chubby baby and a life of hardships and adversity. That had been his life; the life of Dean Winchester.
He sometimes wondered how it would have been if Mom had lived, if they had been a run of the mill family, with a suburban life, friends, school. What would have become of them?
The Djinn's spell had given him a glimpse into normal. Carmen, a wife who loved and understood him; a steady job; Sam doing what he loved studying to be a lawyer; Mom still alive. He had hugged his mother then, the wonder of it churning up his insides. He hadn't wanted to let her go ever again!
Only God knew how difficult it had been to break that spell and come back to this world where only pain and horror awaited him. Well not only, something good was there for him too!
X
The motel door slammed shut as his brother, no longer that chubby six-month old but a gigantic Sasquatch, came towards him, duffel bag in one hand, lap-top in the other.
Sam, Sammy, his other half.
He simply couldn't live without him, he knew that now. It seemed melodramatic to admit it even to himself but the consideration came from hard facts and experience.
He had tried to get along on his own the year he had spent with Lisa and although she had tried her best to understand and make allowances for his loss, it had been like existing without a piece of himself. Even after twelve months he still couldn't sleep without having nightmares, imagining Sam being tortured by Lucifer.
When he had awoken at the Campbell's hide-out and seen his brother sitting opposite him, he had been re-born, Dean Winchester had become whole again.
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He heard the trunk closing and the passenger door opening as Sam slipped in beside him..
He could feel his brother's gaze, they were so attuned to each other that at times they felt like one being.
Maybe it was all the years they had spent together living out of each other's pockets, growing up sleeping in the one bed while Dad took the other, looking out for each other, tending the other's wounds, continuously worrying that thier father would go off on one of his 'trips' and never come back leaving two scared kids alone in a dingy motel room with no-one to care for them.
Whatever it was that united them, it was real, it existed and instead of growing weaker as they had become adults it had become more binding.
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"Dean, you taken up meditation or something?" Sam asked as he tapped his brother on the shoulder amused by his seemingly hypnotic trance..
Dean turned towards him, a smile playing about his lips.
"Just thinking, Sammy. Just thinking."
His expressive eyes locked on his brother's and for a second his thoughts were openly present there for all to see, but only one living soul on this Earth could interpret them and that person was reading those thoughts now. "Dean...!" Sam eked out, his throat choking up.
X
Dean kept his eyes on his brother, wanting him to be clear on what was written in his eyes, in his soul; the caring and love he felt for Sam, the bond that linked them, the promise that he would never desert him or put others before him.
Sam read every word and allowed his own thoughts to shine through, giving back what he had just received, sealing their pact of brotherhood once more.
X
Dean broke the link without a word, turned the key and the Impala roared into life. She was a mechanical machine but she had given these two souls shelter for nearly thirty years. They were an enlarged family, two humans and a car, inhabiting a private little world that belonged to them alone.
Whatever the future had still to throw at them they were ready to face it. This is who they were, both Sam and Dean had accepted that now, were even good with it. Side by side they would face their destiny along with the Impala.
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