John swayed side-to-side slowly, hugging young Sammy close as the sleepy boy buried his face in the crook of John's neck. It had been a long day of running around in the park, a rare day off between hunts and research for John, but Sammy just didn't seem to want to fall asleep. Quite the opposite of Dean, who was currently imitating a boulder in his bed, inability to be moved and all. John wondered if Sammy's excess energy was just a side effect of him being an insatiable three-year-old. He certainly didn't remember Dean being this squirmy after he took the boy on a day-long trip to the park at this age.
"Don't wanna..." Sammy muttered petulantly into John's neck, pulling a quiet snort of amusement from the man as he began to slowly rub up and down Sammy's back.
"It's getting late, buddy. You need sleep." John whispered back. Sammy's hair tickled John's jawline as the toddler shook his head back and forth, still refusing to go to bed. John figured a little bit of bribery was in order. He'd been trying to get Sammy to go to bed for over an hour now, and it's not like he'd be lying about the bribe. Sammy, and Dean, would be getting it either way. "You wanna wake up early enough to go get pancakes with strawberry syrup in the morning, don't you?"
"No."
"Dean will be wondering why you're still asleep while we go eat."
"No." Sammy repeated. John pressed a kiss on top of Sammy's head as he let out a sigh, falling into silence once again. Sometimes he wished Sammy hadn't inherited his stubbornness. It was definitely going to cause trouble one day.
Pacing back and forth across the motel room for several more minutes, John watched with mild amusement as Sammy's eyelids became heavier and heavier as the boy started to lose his fight against unconsciousness. It really was only a matter of time until he fell asleep completely and John was patient enough to wait it out. Pausing in his pacing to look at Dean's sleeping form for a few moments, John frowned and wished once more that Mary was there. She had the magic touch with Dean to get him to go to sleep and it probably would have worked on Sammy. Realizing that there was always some way for their mother to be there for them, even if she was gone, John pressed another kiss into Sammy's hair before he began to hum.
"Hey, Jude..."