Disclaimer: I own none of the mentioned characters.
Notes:
-My first crossover and I may be totally out of my mind for it, but I realized in writing it that by crossing these folks over, did I really want to suggest that all the scariness of the Winchester's world exists in Forrest's world also? No, not really. Want I did like was that maybe all the goodness of Forrest could exist in the Winchester's world. So, that's that.
-Told from Forrest's POV, if you've read the book, you'll get it, otherwise it might be hard to read/annoying.
-Thanks to Mandy over on lj for betaing and helping loads with the dialect. You know I picked at it though so mistakes are mine.
-And now, for something completely different...
How Little We Does Know
It warren't gonna be no normal night. I could tell that from the start. First things, I could not sleep a wink for nothin'. It were the middle of May and already hot as the jungle in August and quiet, too. I never knew how quiet it could get when there weren't no people around. Musta been goin' on midnight when I went out on the porch - and wouldn't you know it, the fresh air woke me up even more. So then I think, maybe I will go for a walk and I has just come back with my shoes on, when I see somebody walkin' up the drive, nearly give me a heart attack.
An' let me tell you, this is only the beginning.
As far as I know, Mama ain't taken no borders while I been gone, so I think maybe somebody is jus' confused and I will have to tell them sorry, we is closed for business.
I run right out to meet them. When I get close though, I see it ain't no one but a boy and he ain't got no suitcase or nothin'. In fact, there ain't even no shoes on his feet. And what had been makin' him look so big was another boy on his back, jus' a little kid with scraggly hair and holes in his jeans where his knees is pokin' out. He is sleeping and he ain't got no shoes on neither.
"Hello," I says to the older boy.
"Hello," he says.
"Where is your shoes?" I ask him.
He look down at his feet and up at me like he is confused by the question, so I say to him, "My name is Forrest. Forrest Gump. Where is your shoes?"
He smirk a little, and shift the boy on his back. "Hello Forrest. I'm Dean. Maybe you could do me a favor?"
Oh Lord, I thinks, here we go.
Dean explain that he been out walking home with his brother when someone had jumped out of the ditch and taken their watches and fine jewelry. I figured this is how they lost they shoes.
"Is you okay?" I ask.
"Fine," he says. "'Cept we need to get home 'cause my Dad'll be worrying."
I squint at him. He don't look too fine, kinda sweaty or nervous or something. I hope I am not making no one nervous.
"M-maybe I could use your phone?"
"Sure," I tell him. "As long as it's a local call, you know? My Mama used to take borders here and they was one man always makin' calls to places like California and New York. Then he just up and lef' one day and Mama had to pay out the horse's ass just to cover the charges."
"Huh," Dean says and nods - and I am thinking we will get along just fine.
It is even hotter inside the house than outside and the air itself feels huge and hot and empty.
Dean is looking more'n a little shaky on his feet, so's I tell him to put his brother on the couch and then we can have some limeade and crackers and he can call they Dad after and he don't complain none 'bout that.
"Wha's his name?" I ask.
"Sammy," Dean says.
I try and fix the pillows but Sammy slides from Dean's back to the couch like butter from a warm spoon and he don't barely move.
"He is a deep sleeper," Dean says, like it is a bad thing. "Can I use the phone, now?"
I showed him where it is on the table in the hallway and let him alone to make the call. It is still real quiet though, and I can tell there ain't no words exchanged before he hang up.
He come into the kitchen like I ain't supposed to know he's there, which is kinda silly I think, 'cause of course I know they is here.
"Not home?"
He shake his head.
"How 'bout a sandw'ich?" I ask.
"As long as it don't take too long," he say.
I tell him it gonna depend on how hungry he is.
Turns out he is pretty hungry and kind of slow 'bout it, too - pickin' around the crust and eating all the lettuce and tomatoes and stuff separate from each other.
"How old is your brother?"
"Nine."
Suddenly, it occur'd to me that mebbe most people is home at one' o'clock in the morning. So, I ask him, "Where do you think your Dad is?"
Dean shrugs. "Working."
"What kind of work do he do?"
Dean is looking me right in the eye when he say, "International espionage...mostly."
"Is that somethin' to do with sheep?" I ask, but I guess Dean ain't too sure either 'cause he just grin.
I brushed the crumbs off my shirt and refill our glasses. "What about your Mama?"
"She doesn't do much."
"Well, where she at?"
He shrugs. "She died a long time ago, when I was a kid."
"My Mama died last week," I tell him. It sound kind of funny when it is out loud like that and Dean is starin' at me and the moths is buzzing around the light. I mean, I knew it, but I never really thought about it yet, you know? "My Mama died last week. Jus' upstairs." I point, so he knows.
Dean don't barely blink. "How old are you?"
It is a good question so even tho' math is not my specialty, I tole him.
When we is done eatin', Dean go to check on Sammy, but he is still sleepin'. So then he try callin' his dad again, but that ain't no good neither. So then he say, "Maybe it will not be too much trouble, if you could give us a ride?"
But I tell him how I ain't got no car but my two feet and the lawn mower, maybe, but that ain't gonna get us nowhere fast.
"We'll just walk then," he says and go in to get Sammy up.
"Well, hang on," I says. "You is gonna need some shoes."
"No, I'm fine," he say, but it is becoming clear to me that sometime Dean don't say what he mean and sometimes he outright lie.
I gone upstairs to look for some spare shoes and maybe I is gone five or ten minutes before I find an old pair of running shoes and come back down and already Dean is fallen asleep in the armchair next to the couch.
I figure I will go clean up the kitchen a little and at first I am tryin' to be real quiet and stuff, but then I realize they is only Sammy and Dean in the house and they ain't light sleepers like Mama was. So, then I really set into it. 'Bout an hour later, I am in the middle of scrubbing out the stove when I think I heard somethin' so I pulls my head out of the oven and there is Sammy standin' in the doorway, lookin' like he's had a little too much coffee or somethin'.
"Who are you?" he say.
"I am Forrest. Forrest Gump."
"Where are we?"
"This is my Mama's house."
He come over real slow and curious and look like he is inspectin' everythin' on the way.
"Is your brother still sleeping?"
"Yes'r," he says. "DW is sleepin'."
"DW?"
"Dean," he says and sighs. "That's my brother. Have you ever seen Arthur?"
"Arthur?"
"It's a cartoon," he says. "About aardvarks, 'cept they are smart aardvarks."
To say I's confused is 'bout right. "What is an aardvark?"
Sammy shrug. "I think it is a big mouse. I ain't never seen a real one. Have you?"
Now, I think this is a silly question, 'cause how is I supposed to know if I have seen an aardvark, if I ain't even too clear on what one is, but Sammy seem pretty in'erested so I tell him why, no, I have not.
"Oh."
"But I has seen a monkey."
He stan' up straight and grin. "A real one?"
"Yep." I nod. "In Vietnam, they has got a whole island that is jus' monkeys."
"Wow," he says. Then, he come on a little closer and point at the stove. "Can I help?"
"Sure," I says and hand him a washrag.
Sammy sits down on the floor next to me and starts a wipin' down the cupboards. "Have you ever been there?" he ask'd me. "To the island with the monkeys? In Vietnam?"
"Yes," I says. "But it is a long story."
He sits up real straight and smile so big like maybe this is the best news he has ever heard or somethin', I don't know. I is havin' a hard time believin' he and Dean is brothers 'cause even tho' I have not known them too long I can tell they is real different. But, I guess it is like Mama says, they is like apes and orangutans, come from the same family, but is different species entir'ly.
"Tell it," Sammy say. "Please? Tell me."
So I does.
Little bit later, right when I's in the middle of sayin' somethin', they is a knock at the door. I think maybe I's hearin; things, but Sammy look too and then after a second they knock again.
"Hang on," I says to Sammy and get up to go to the door.
I'd lef' the door open before to let some air in and as I come through the hall I can see a man standin' on the other side of the screen door under the porch light. He is wearin' a big, dark coat which is the first odd thing, 'cause it musta been 'bout ninety degrees outside, or somethin'. He look like he has been to the war and back a coupla times and I would know it, too.
"Hello," I say to him.
"Hello," he says back. He is looking like he want to shake my hand but the screen is in his way. "My name is John Winchester. I am looking for my sons. I think they may have come this way."
"Is you Sammy and Dean's dad?" I ask.
He nod like he's got a twitch. "Yes'r."
"They is lookin' for you, too," I tell him and reach'd over to unlatch the screen and let him come on inside.
"It is good to see you. Dean try'd callin' you but I guess you waren't home. They was mugged, but just for they shoes. I guess you musta been workin' huh? They is okay, though. You don' need to worry none."
John Winchester ain't hardly listen'. He is looking all over the house like it is the most interestin' place he's ever seen.
"Dean was sleepin', but Sammy's jus' in here." I point him toward the kitchen and start walking. "Can I ask you somethin', sir?"
He nods.
"Does you like workin' with sheep?"
John Winchester blink'd a coupla times.
"'Cause I always thought they was nice animals, but I ain't never worked none with them, so maybe not and I just thought that you would know, bein' an expert and all."
"It is fine," he say shortly.
"Huh." I pushed open the kitchen door and let John Winchester go first. "Hey Sammy, look who's here." The washrag Sammy was usin' is lying on the floor right where we was sitting, but he ain't there no more.
"Sam?" John Winchester call. When they's no response he turn to me with real big eyes. "Where's Dean?"
"Right in here," I say. I turn around and show him back through to the living room, but soon as we get there I see that the chair is empty. Dean ain't there neither. The shoes I had picked out for him is still sitting on the coffee table. I know they ain't been touched 'cause I tied the laces together in a big bow and they is still that way.
John Winchester looked mad enough to bite, but when he open his mouth he sound kinda scared. "Where are they?"
"They was right here jus' a minute ago."
"Well, they ain't no more."
I take a step back from him. "I-I don't know."
"Where's the bathroom?" he snap.
"In the hall," I tell him. "But, I don't think..."
He is already stomping back that way though, but sure enough, they ain't in the bathroom neither.
"M-maybe they went outside?"
"Why in the hell would they go outside?" he ask, but he take off for the back door anyway. I follow him but it is all very confusing to me 'cause they was here and now they ain't. The air outside hit us like a whoosh and John stop short right there by the door. I stan' on my tiptoes to see around him.
He don't say nothin' and then I can see out by the willow tree they is a cloud a' some kind hangin' real low in the sky, 'cept it ain't really a cloud 'cause it look blue and black and silvery yellow like the night sky is all swirled up together. It move a little, up and down like magic, bigger and smaller and I ain't never seen nothin' like that.
John Winchester start out toward the tree.
The blob get lower and lower and I just say "What is that?" when it pops. I don't know how else to say that 'cause it jus' sorta was there and then it waren't no more and somethin' was fallin' from the sky outta where it was.
John Winchester start runnin' and I followed him and I ain't tryin' to say nothin', but I got there first and layin' there in the grass was two pairs of shoes, one of gym shoes that was real worn and had a hole in one side and the other a pair of boots, a little bigger all scuffed up like maybe whoever was wearin' them did a lot of kickin'.
I knowed right away these is Dean and Sammy's shoes and I'd bent down to pick them up.
John Winchester was standin' next to me then, and he jus' look at me sort of funny when I start wipin' the shoes on my shirt.
"They's all wet," I tell him. "From the grass."
He shake his head and get all serious and say, "Dean told you they were mugged. Did he say where they were?"
I nod. "Jus' up the road."
"Can you show me?"
"This sure is a nice car."
John Winchester look at me sideways and like he is tryin' not to smile or yell or somethin'. He is a very confusing person.
I straighten Dean and Sammy's shoes in my lap.
"You sure this is the way?"
"Yes, sir."
John nod and step harder on the gas and just when I is starting to get worried there they is up ahead the out lines of two people in the moonlight. John stomp on the brake and I can see they is standing by the side of the road, waving now to be sure John see them.
John Winchester is near out of the car before we is stopped all the way and grabbing at both of them like they is dolls. "Where were you?" he ask. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?" All at once and I can't wrap my head around none of it so I jus' han' them they shoes.
Dean nod thank you and Sammy smile a little and he kneels to put his on.
John Winchester and Dean is havin' a very intense conversation and it seem sort of private, so I stan' back by the car - but I can still hear what they's saying and it is somethin' 'bout souls and shoes and spirits and the supernatural.
Now, it take me a minute to catch up, but then I think I know wha's goin' on. "Is you talkin' about ghosts an' spirits an' stuff?"
John Winchester look a little startled and then he nod real slow and say, "Yes, sir."
"They is real?"
"They are real."
"Huh," I say.
It is sort of a funny thing to think of now that I know 'bout it, cept next time somebody say 'you look like you has seen a ghost' I will say 'mebbe I has.' I got lots of questions for John Winchester, 'cause I would like to know if everyone is ghosts and if this is true, mebbe my Mama's one and mebbe I would like to talk to her, 'cept I think I liked the idea of her up in heaven even better. It is a lot to wrap my head around.
I invite them in for coffee 'cause it is mornin' now and we ain't har'ly slept and John say okay, so I am glad 'cause I can ask all my questions then.
Right now, I don't want much to innerupt 'cause they seem awfully content jus' to be together 'gain. Sometime, it seem to me like people spend half they lives just tryin' to keep track of the ones they love. Leavin' them and comin' back again and gettin' lost and befo'e you know it, they is gone for good.
It jus' don't make no sense sometime, you know?
end