School House Rock

a/n: there are a lot of 'de-aged' stories out there about our boys and how they get there second childhood or need protected from the demons, etc...and most have the de-aged boy as being a toddler or preschooler. But, what if the boy is de-aged to school age years? One concept that has not been covered is—School ! What happens if the 'de-aged' spell lasts for longer than a few days...what if the authorities find out there is a school aged child living at a residence that is not enrolled in school...? Guess it takes a teacher to think of this twisted way to torture the boys (esp. Dean)...

a/n: takes place early season 2 after their dad died…but before all the fall-out from the line… "if you can't save him you'll have to kill him…."

/Supernatural/

Sam woke with a start, momentarily disoriented by his surroundings—Bobby's...they were at Bobby's salvage yard. They had pulled in a little after 2 am, and looking at the clock Sam gave a quiet groan—it was only now just a little after eight.

His eyes drifted lazily around the room before settling on the bed next to his...Dean's bed; and he abruptly sat up and swung his feet to rest on the floor...remembering suddenly why they had made the nearly non-stop, six hour, mad drive to get to the older hunter's house.

Sam stared at the small bundle curled up under a mound of blankets on the bed across from his. He was faced with an unusual situation-an opportunity that terrified, and yet, on some level, fascinated him...seeing his brother in his current state. Besides the issue of size, they had no clue what other side effects might manifest because of the spell.

"That's just creepy, dude, stop starin'," a voice complained petulantly from under the mound of blankets. Gone was the deep, gravely tone of a nearly thirty year old man that normally occupied the opposite bed; replaced by the high pitched pre-pubescent tone of a child.

Giving a small sigh, Sam asked tentatively, "so, how ya' feeling Dean?"

"Short..." was the snappy reply, "how do you think I feel, Sammy—I got whammied yesterday?" The sting of the complaint somewhat lessened by the petulant tone.

Grimacing at his brother's sour tone and feeling at a total loss as to how to help his brother on any level, Sam said earnestly, "Bobby'll fix it Dean...he'll come up with something..."

"He better...and soon..." Dean continued impatiently as he slowly threw off the blankets and sat up in the bed, looking himself up and down before casting a quick glance to his 'ginormous' little brother and waving his hands up and down his body, "I mean, come on...look at me; I'm a munchkin..."

Gone were the dark, angular and rugged features of a thirty year old man...replaced by a light haired, fair skinned, freckled faced eight year old...with an attitude!

"We'll get you back, Dean...promise..." Sam replied, adding, "in the meantime we need to concentrate on more mundane things...like food and a shower..."

"Yeah, whatever..." Dean pouted, running a hand through his thick hair and then down his face, quirking an eye as he did so as his hand felt the smooth skin of a child and not the morning stubble of a grow man.

Seeing the sudden change in his brother, Sam asked, "What...?"

"Don't have to shave this morning..." Dean smirked, jumping out of bed he said, "I'm starving..."

Dean raced from the room leaving a confused and amused Sam in his wake, "Some things never change..."

/SPN/

Sam stopped at the bathroom before making his way downstairs, coming into the kitchen he noted that Dean was sitting at the table, his legs swinging back and forth as he filled Bobby in on some of the details of the hunt while the older man was at stove cooking breakfast.

Stopping in the thresh hold between the living room and kitchen, Sam leaned up against the doorway and just watched the scene. Dean's high pitched voice was going non-stop and the old hunter was nodding and commenting absently...a small smirk of amusement on his face, despite the seriousness of it all.

Catching his brother in the doorway, Dean smirked, asking flippantly, "...'bout time Samantha...did ya' have ta' do yer hair first..."

Sam just gave an irritable huff and shook his head as he made his way across the kitchen to the coffee pot, "shut up Dean..." as he turned from the counter he met the older man's gaze, "...morning Bobby."

"Mornin' Sam...Dean here was just filling me in a bit more on your last hunt..." waving the spatula towards the boy at the table, he continued, "and the little problem you seem to have come away with..."

"Hey..." Dean snapped indignantly, "that a jab at my size..."

"Dean..." Sam chastised, as he pulled out a chair and sat opposite his brother, "don't be so touchy..."

Quirking a brow at the mug in front of his brother, he asked, "What's that...?"

"Coffee...ever heard of it...?" Dean snarked, as he picked the mug up and looked at the contents, "need a refill..."

"Oh, no you don't..." Sam replied quickly, pulling the mug from Dean's small grasp.

"Hey...hey, hey...give me back my coffee, dude..." Dean complained loudly, reaching unsuccessfully for the mug.

"You're like, eight years old Dean...you don't need coffee..." Sam countered, rising from his seat and placing the mug on the counter before opening a cabinet to pull out a glass, "you can have milk..."

"Milk...dude, I may be short but I'm not a baby," Dean whined, "I'm still me...still older than you 'little' brother..."

"Right now you have a body of an eight year old...and it can't take what you normally put into it..." Sam explained, adding, "We don't know the full effects of the spell, Dean, we need to be careful that you don't get sick..."

"Your worry too much Sammy..." Dean grumbled as Sam set a glass of milk in front of him.

"Dean...please...at least until we have a better idea of what we're dealing with," Sam pleaded.

Seeing Sammy's pleading look, Dean gave a frustrated huff, "fine...we'll take it easy...for a little while..." Dean then turned towards Bobby, who had wisely stayed out of the little argument, demanding, "quick, where's breakfast...I'm starving...hurry up, before Sammy decides I need a hi-chair and baby food..."

"Just hold your horse's boy...I didn't take to your attitude the first time around...be no different this time," Bobby said, "or I might just consider that hi-chair..."

Dean opened his mouth as though to reply, but the raised eyebrow he got from the older man caused him to snap his mouth shut and fold his arms petulantly; as he slumped back in his seat he shot an annoyed look towards his brother.

Seeing the look, Sam raised his hands defensively, "hey, don't look at me..."

Bobby scooped out the eggs and bacon onto the plates and soon all three 'men' were sitting at the table for breakfast. After a few minutes, Bobby asked, "So what exactly was it you were hunting...?"

"I told ya' already, Bobby...it was a skanky assed ol' witch and she whammied me...ya' gotta fix this..." Dean said with an impatient whine.

"Hold yer tongue boy," Bobby chided, still having a difficult time reconciling the young kid in front of him to the dark headed young man he knew-only the attitude attested that it was truly Dean Winchester residing in a kids body.

Dean just scowled and bit angrily into his toast...his legs swinging in agitation under the table.

"I'll be needing just a few more details if you want to be getting' back to your charming self any time before the next twenty years..." Bobby told the two boys.

Giving his big, 'little' brother a pointed look, Sam turned to Bobby, "We started looking into some strange deaths in Nebraska...people that seemed to age fifty or more years seemingly overnight...their corpses totally desiccated..."

"Yeah...it was the witch...sucking out people's energy like she was sucking a milkshake through a straw..." Dean interjected indignantly.

"From what we could put together, she did it with an amulet...it seems for every ten years of life force she pulled from her victims she could restore a year to herself..." Sam said, explaining further, "by using other people's life force she could be and look any age she wanted...it didn't just add years to her life...it would actually reverse the aging process..."

"Have to drain an awful lot of people to make that spell worthwhile...ten ta' one not really good odds," Bobby commented.

'Yeah, geek boy here found the pattern...about every fifty years of so there would be about a dozen strange deaths of young people where their bodies aged overnight..." Dean said, "Found they all had one thing in common...they'd all visited a traveling carnival...specifically the palm reader..."

"Yeah, that's why we've been following a trail of corpses all over the southwest for the last three months..." Sam commented, "Turns out it wasn't a family of gypsy's but one woman...posing as a young woman and the grandmother..."

"I take it the problem was takin' care of..." Bobby asked.

"Ding dong the wicked witch is dead...yeah we ganked her..." Dean practically snarled.

"So how exactly did you end up in this mess then...?" Bobby inquired mildly.

"She had another victim...by the time we got there she was almost done with the spell...Dean stepped into the circle and tried to stop her, they fought, but he managed to take her down; but by that time the spell was already completed. As near as we can figure out, when Dean grabbed the amulet, the life force that was still in the amulet transferred to him when she died," Sam explained.

"Sounds like the amulet could store the life force and be used whenever the witch needed it..." Bobby surmised, looking at Dean he further commented, "lucky for you that amulet wasn't at full capacity...spell might have de-aged you right out o' existence..."

"Yah, me..." Dean said dryly, "so, how do we fix this...?"

"Beats me boy...seems this witch used it like her own fountain of youth...adding years then livin' through them normal like..." Bobby said.

"What...you're kiddin' right...I'm not gonna have to grow up again...no freakin' way..." Dean exploded.

"Now just hold on boy..." Bobby replied sternly, "didn't say we couldn't fix this...just might take a bit of time to find a counter spell is all..."

Chastised, though unrepentant for his outburst, Dean none the less looked away.

Giving his head a small frustrated shake, Bobby turned to Sam, "you boys still have the amulet...?"

"Yeah, locked in a box in the trunk," Sam replied.

"Well, finish up yer breakfast and get yourself out there and get me that trinket...let's see what we can find..." Bobby said, giving Dean a nod.

"Keys, Sammy..." Dean demanded as he hopped up from his seat.

Raising an eyebrow at his brother and lookin' at his half eaten plate of food, he asked, "You done already...?"

"I'm done...had enough...keys...?" Dean shot back impatiently.

Giving his head a small shake he said, "Upstairs in my jacket pocket..."

Both men watched the "boy" race from the room with looks of amusement, but also concern.

"Think we can really fix this...?" Sam asked the older hunter with a tired sigh.

"Don't know...but we got plenty of lore to go through to find somethin' though...just don't know if that brother of yours is gonna be real patient while we look for it..." Bobby replied, adding, "what about the amulet…I'm thinking maybe we can just reverse the spell…put the years Dean got back into the thing…"

Bobby didn't get a chance to question the pensive look that crossed Sam's face at the suggestion as both men were startled by the noise Dean made as he pounded back down the stairs and shot out the front door.

Seeing Sam's worried frown, Bobby asked, "…somethin' else on yer mind, Sam?"

"The amulet…when Dean and the witch fought…I'm not sure…we were in kind of a hurry to get outa there and all, but…Bobby I think the amulet was cracked…" Sam finally explained.

"Balls…" Bobby cursed, "that will definitely make this a hell of a lot more difficult if'n we can't use the amulet…"

Sam shrugged, "I know…"

"Something else you ain't a tellin' me boy…" Bobby questioned, as Sam just stood staring the way his brother went, an unreadable almost wistful look on the young man's face.

Shaking his head slowly, Sam said hesitantly, "I don't know...it's...does Dean seem different..."

Raising a brow, Bobby said, "he's eight...I'd say that's a big difference..."

"Not just his size...Dean, is he different..." Sam sighed and shook his head, "I know he's not my Dean right now...but is he acting like...does he seem..."

"Sam what is it you're tryin' to ask...?" Bobby prodded.

"You knew Dean when he was a kid...when he was eight...is he acting like his kid self..." Sam asked, clarifying his question, "it's just this witch...she was actually using the stolen life force of all those people to not only stop the aging process but actually reverse it to become younger...relive life through the stolen years...but from what we could dig up on her many rejuvenations, she never de-aged to younger than her mid-thirties, even when she had the years stored in the amulet..."

"You thinking that if she took too much...went back to far, it might start affecting more than just the physical body...maybe the mind too; and with it…her memories and abilities or things she already learned...?" Bobby asked with curiosity.

"Why would a woman with the ability to be any age choose her mid-thirties or later instead of a twenty something age..." Sam asked rhetorically, "we traced that fortune teller's family history to the early eighteen hundreds...and what we could piece together on the amulets history it came into the family when the witch was in her thirties..."

"So you're thinking it maybe takes the caster back to what they were, what they knew at that age..." Bobby questioned, "but yer brother seems fine...he knows you-knows me...knows it was a witch what caused this..."

"Bobby, he's known about the supernatural his whole life...and he met you when he was six..." Sam said.

"Yeah, but if it truly de-aged his mind then he wouldn't know you...least not like you are now, he'd be looking for your four year old self..." Bobby countered, adding hesitantly, "...lookin' for yer daddy..."

Sam just shrugged, "maybe...I hope you're right...we don't know the full effects of the spell or how long it takes to be totally in effect...if he goes all the way back to his eight year old self..."

"Now, we got enough on our plate without you goin' and borrowing trouble..." Bobby countered.

The front door flew open with a bang, as a high pitched voice called out loudly, "got it Bobby..."

Raising an eyebrow at the noise, Bobby asked, "...and really...with the way that brother of yours acts normally how could we tell...?"

/Supernatural/