We'll do it all,

Everything,

On our own,

Sam watched the large fields of swaying, knee-high grass seem to sparkle in their own unique way over the sun heavy in the late afternoon skin. The light was thick and butter-colour, sweeping over the landscape and tickling a light heat-wave up from the tarmac ahead of them. The flat, taught wire of horizon was broken by a train pulling a seemingly endless line of carriages behind it, moving lethargically as if time could wait. He looked across at his brother, blinking through strands of hair that slashed across his face as the two front open windows lashed warm air into the car. His brother looked determined. He looked pointed, centred, focused. When was there was a time he ever looked different? Sure his brother could relax as good as anyone else, but Sam could see it in his eyes. A driving focus behind the sheen of cocky, confident exterior thrust forward everytime he went for a drink, or delved into a packet of peanut M&Ms, or sat to watch the television in one of their cheap motel rooms. That look of concentrated thought…sometimes it worried Sam. Underneath everything his brother was always switched on. Thanks to their line of work, he probably always would be.

"Hey Dean, wanna pull over for a while?"
Dean glanced across at his brother spread out on the passenger seat, arm crooked with his elbow on the top of the car door, one leg bent and the other stretched out in front of him, the open window whipping his bangs into his eyes as he watched him.

"What? Why? Hey I told you Sammy, if you needed the bathroom after that break we had an hour ago, you were on your own,"
"I don't need the bathroom, Dean, I just thought we could have a break from driving," he paused, and made something up on the spot, "My head's beginning to drum,"
Dean thought about it, taking in the scenery, "Not much to do around here though, is there?"
"That's fine. I just wanna get out of the car for a bit,"

Dean shrugged, "If you want. Let me just get ten minutes on the clock then I'll pull over,"

Sam went back to staring out of the expanse where there was no glass only driving, comforting air. Sam couldn't understand why Dean was always 'on', he was different to his brother. Although he always watched his brother's back, it had been Dean who had always watched over him, Sam being his baby brother and all. He'd always been the older brother and protected him through everything a big brother was supposed to, and beyond.

We don't need anything,

Or anyone,

Dean pulled the Impala over to the side of the road, the wheels crunching on the gravely substance of a natural lay-by. Sam immediately stepped out, letting himself bask in the warm glow. Dean got out, a little unsure of exactly what his brother wanted to do here. He leant against the side of the car and gave the area a sweep with his eyes. Quiet, lifeless apart from a fox bounding across the lower-cut grass a little further down the road and the train smoothing its way across the horizon. He looked back towards the passenger side, and realised with a start that Sam was gone.
"Sam?"

The grass was quiet and stiff. He frowned and walked around the edge of the car, "Sammy!"
He moved down to the line where the grass started to grow and peered over the bristling tops, "Sammy! Where are you!" he paused, "Don't make me come find you!" another, longer pause, and everything was quiet apart from the train horn blown to him on the wind.

"Bitch," he tried, tossing the familiar insult towards the grass where he guessed his brother was hiding.

"Jerk," came an amused voice from a few feet away. Dean, shoving his hands in his pocket, following where his brother had cut a swathe through the long grass, moved towards the voice.

He found his brother laid out on his back on a patch of flattened grass, hands tucked behind his head, staring up at the sky slowly turning auburn above their heads. Dean blew air out from his cheeks, "Sammy, what are you doing?"
"It's Sam," he corrected lazily. He peered up at his brother.

If I lay here, if I just lay here,

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

"What are you doing Sam?" Dean said, throwing his hands out.
"What? I'm just lying down,"
"Yeah, exactly. Why?"
"I just wanted to get out of the car for a while,"
Sam opened his mouth to say more but he couldn't quite get it out. He wanted to let his brother know he can relax, he can forget just for ten minutes that they were chasing a cold trail for their father. That he didn't have to worry that something was going to devour Sam the minute his eyes left him. He wanted to tell him to lie back and not worry. And just forget the world.

I don't quite know,

How to say,

How I feel,

Those three words

Are said too much

They're not enough

"Come on Dean just relax. We don't have to be anywhere,"
"Well I'd kinda like to be in a motel before it gets dark-"
"Dean, come on, it'll be alright. Just sit down for God's sake,"
Dean cocked an eyebrow, "Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"
"Not funny Dean,"

Dean rolled his eyes and sat down next to Sam.

"You haven't got some motive have you?"
"What? No! I just…" Sam shook his head and propped himself up on his elbows, "Sometimes Dean, I'm just a bit…worried about you,"
"What? Why?"
"Because. Because you're so concentrated, and you're so focused on this one point, right at the very end of the tunnel-"
"Finding Dad-"
"Right-"
"And that's a bad thing?"
"No! Dean…Dean I'm just saying, it's really starting to do something to you. You are constantly on guard, you are just…so driven, that's it's scary,"

"Well don't you wanna find Dad too!"
"Of course I do Dean! You know I do! But…you can't forget, just for ten minutes, that Dad is out there can't you? You are driving yourself too hard. Not every stretch of road you gun down is gonna bring you closer to Dad, Dean, we could be heading in exactly the opposite direction,"
"I've got no idea what you're talking about Sammy,"
"No….no, I know,"
Sam put his hands over his eyes and thought for a moment. All he wanted Dean to do was…relax. To forget. To stop thinking about everything just for ten minutes. Just so Sam could see every last inch of his elder brother's personality out there in his gleaming eyes. To see everything his older brother had to offer, not just a soldier with a shell of Dean layered over the top.

If I lay here, if I just lay here,

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told,

Before we get too old,

Show me a garden that's bursting into life,

"Just lay back Dean. And don't do anything for ten minutes,"
Dean lay down next to Sam, "Look Sam, I am all for chilling back a bit. We've taken at least one vacation on this whole trip. But-"
"It's not enough Dean. Just…you just need to make sure that everything you have been trained in doesn't wash over you. Or it's going to become you Dean. And there won't be any of you left,"
Dean gave his younger brother a long, sideways glance, "You talk some crap college boy,"
"I talk some sense too,"

They lay in the long grass, staring up the sky, watching light fluffy trails of clouds sit still in a pool of bright blue and orange.

Lets waste time,

Chasing cars,
Around our heads,

I need your grace,

To remind me,

To find my own,

"And when did you take this little break Sammy?"
"When I went to college. I…I got to switch off for a while, be off the ball. I didn't have to train, I didn't have to…stress myself with worry over the dark side of the world,"

"I thought Dad told us to always stay sharp-"

"God Dean this is exactly what I'm talking about. I am now devoting these ten minutes of your life, Dean Winchester, to lying there and doing nothing,"
Dean looked amused. He shook his head and tucked his hands behind his head, "Fine. Whatever you say Sammy,"
"Don't think about Dad. Don't think about the best way of getting rid of a Skin-crawler. Don't even think about mentally cleaning your car. Just…enjoy being out here,"

For five minutes the silence was left to ride itself out. The sky above turned a deep gold, the grass moved steadily with a cool breeze and a hare dashed by a metre or so away. Then Sam smiled and said slowly, "Remember when I was six, and you are in ten, and you took me out and we tried to see shapes in the clouds? And you fell in the stream?"
"Hey, I was looking up, Ok, trying to make sure you could see all those damn shapes you wanted to see. I kept saying something like: 'hey, Sammy, it's a rocket,' and you'd just sit there and stare and not see anything. It was quite pathetic,"
"Thanks,"

"You're welcome," Dean chuckled. Sam's smile broadened.
"And the day you got the Impala, and you were looking under her hood and it fell down on you?"
"Hey that wasn't funny I think I had concussion!"
"Liar, you just pretended to be injured because that girl was walking past,"
"Well she was doting on me like she thought I had a serious head injury. Who was I to stop her?"
Sam shook his head. Then his eyes lit up, "And the time Dad told us we might be flying down to California from New York and you nearly cried-"
"No, hey, hey, hey, no! I did not nearly cry,"
"You so did!" Sam cried, throwing his head back and laughing so much tears nearly came to his eyes, "I remember now, you spent ages trying to subtly drop in lists about why the car was more beneficial for people,"
Dean burned slightly with embarrassment then retorted, "Well at least I didn't get stuck under the porch and wet myself,"
"Dean I was four!"
"You were still stupid enough to get yourself stuck under there!" amusement danced over Dean's face, "I remember having to get you to grab onto a broom handle and have to pull you out-"
"Shut up!"
"And then you got all upset cos you'd made friends with a mouse-"
"Dean!"

"And the time when you were thirteen and tried to get that dollar you had dropped out from under a parked car, and your teacher thought you'd been knocked down?"

"Oh God! Dean that wasn't funny, she nearly called an ambulance!"
"Oh come on Dean it was amazing! You stand up, all pleased with yourself for getting your dollar, and there's your entire year stood there thinking you'd been run down!"
"How is that funny!" Sam cried, although he was laughing himself. He let his laughter die a little and watched his brother chuckle and snort to himself.

If I lay here,

If I just lay here,

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

"So…remind me again Sammy?"
"Yeah?"
"What are we doing here?"
Sam shifted a little, taking in a breath of clean, cool air. He felt the heat of his brother next to him, the worn feel of his leather jacket, his smell, everything Dean.

"I don't know. Just thought we'd be brothers and be a bit more like guys on a road-trip, rather than be demon-hunters or whatever,"
Dean paused and turned his head to look at Sam, "Since when are we not brothers?"

Sam turned too. He smirked, "Nevermind. Just a few more minutes then we'd better get to that motel you're gagging for,"

All that I am,

All that I ever was,

Is here in your perfect eyes,

They're all I can see,

I don't know where,

Confused about how as well,

Just know that these things will never change for us at all,

Dean was about to retort but didn't. He looked back up at the sky and steadily reflected everything good stored at the back of his mind. Something chattered in the thick bushy grass around them and his senses felt heightened and growing impossibly. Sam smiled with the thought that maybe he'd accomplished a little of Dean's persona-strip. He felt his brother's breaths began to even, and he had to check to make sure he hadn't dozed off.

"Get off," Dean flapped, giving Sam a little shove away, "I'm not asleep, I'm just relaxing, its what you wanted,"
Sam grinned and lay back down again. His brother had done something he'd ask for him to do for a change.

If I lay here,

If I just lay here,

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?