Fandom Supernatural
Character(s)/Pairing(s)Dean, Sam; no pairing intended take it as you will
Genre Drama/Episode/Family/General/Supposition
Rating PG
Word Count 1290
Disclaimer Supernatural c. Kripke, WB, CW
Summary It took Sam three months before he could bring himself to clean out the impala after Dean's death. Most things present were expected except three.
Warning(s) spoilers for seasons three and four, spoilers for season four episode eighteen
Notes This is really kind of based on an exchange in season 4 episode 18 that left me wondering something about Dean. I always get weird titles when I have trouble thinking up titles.

Assumptions and Company on Long Stake Outs

It took Sam three months before he finally brought himself to start cleaning out the impala. If it was going to be his car now, it was not doubling as a dumpster. Sam found the things he expected to find – take out, salt rounds, a few bottles of holy water that had rolled away. However, what Sam was not expecting to find were books. There were three of them. One was stuffed under the driver's seat, another under all the crap in the glove box, and a third was under a pile of guns in the trunk.

The first book Sam found was the newest book and looked to be a point of research. Battle Creek Public Library IA was stamped against the bottom edges of the pages and it had jumped out at him from under the driver's seat when he pulled out a migrating box of Chinese food. The slip said to turn the book back in by January 18, 2008, which had been seven months ago. The book was a collection of Grimm's fairytales with some vague notes on the back of the check out slip detailing how to kill witches and singing horse heads. Dean seemed to have only gotten three stories in before he must have forgotten the book existed. Sam set it aside where he could remember to air it out and ship it back to the proper library.

The second book Sam found was wedged into the back of the glove box. It was old enough that there was a check out card in the back flap bearing the last date stamped as July 2, 1997. In arching print, the book professed to be Slaughter House Five. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. acted as large text to support the arch of the main title and in between was a subtitle in much smaller print in an ugly blue square. It was hard backed and the protective covering was ripped in several places. A faded but still legible big sticker on the front proclaimed the book a "famous Indiana authors" book, probably from a temporary display. The book stamps smeared in some places but Sam thought they told him to send the book back to Carmel Clay Public Library. As long as he had the Internet, he could find the right address. Sam set this book with the other for airing out.

The last book was even older and looked like it had seen better days. Sam was amazed the number the trunk had done on the book and how dog-eared it was. The card slip on the back of the book said it was from the Windom Public Library and the poor thing was already missing its cover with a due date way back on February 4, 1990. After flipping through the legal pages at the front, Sam found the book to be Call of the Wild by Jack London. It had gun shot residue on some pages and a rather large coffee stain running half the book. Sam figured once the book had been stained it had been chucked in the trunk and forgotten. He put this book with the stuff he was throwing away without a second thought.

Sam sent the first two books back to their rightful owners anonymously and he sent twenty dollars to the Window Public Library anonymously to make up for hogging the book all these years. Then Sam promptly forgot about it.

Dean came back to life about a month later. He was distant and tense, but managed to do what he thought needed to be done in any given situation. One night near Halloween, the two brothers found themselves on a stake out in a graveyard. Sam decided to catch some sleep to get his mind of the gnawing demon blood craving in his stomach. He was just beginning to drift off to sleep when he realized Dean had the trunk open and was rummaging around looking for something. Sam rubbed his face and got out of the car.

"Did they show up already?" He thought they had until three in the morning.

"No, just go back to sleep." Dean had the guns carefully leaning on him while he searched with his hand around in the bottom of the trunk.

"If anyone needs sleep, Dean, it's you." Sam could hear Dean curse lightly under his breath and watched Dean put the guns back where they belonged.

"I'll sleep," Dean mumbled and shut the trunk before sitting up on top of it. "Just go back to sleep, Sammy."

Sam could tell Dean was put off by something but hell if Sam knew what it was. Instead of going back to sleep, Sam sat up on the trunk with Dean and waited for the promised witches.

That incident was near forgotten when Dean and Sam met a man named Chuck prophesying about their lives. Somehow, in all of that conversation it came out that Dean knew the works of Vonnegut. That had Sam's mind processing and he remembered pulling Slaughter House Five out of the glove box. Sam also remembered Dean poking about the trunk on more than one occasion especially if they were on a wait it out night hunt with nothing to do and Sam was planning to sleep to get his mind off the demon blood. Now that the brothers were away from Chuck and in the motel, Sam had to ask. "So did you replace it yet?" It was a way to get out of the circular conversation they had about Lilith for the past several hours.

"Replace what?" Dean was checking out the window, considering what to do to avoid the prophecy in Chuck's manuscript.

"The book in the trunk." Sam stretched a little and watched Dean's face for reaction. "You know, Call of the Wild."

Dean's eyes shifted. Sam felt a small pang of guilt knowing how fast he had chucked the beat up novel at the time. "Don't know what you're talking about," Dean muttered. "You know me and books." It was true in a way. The last time Sam really saw Dean read a proper book Sam was only five-years-old. Dean had been reading so slow and stumbling over some words that Sam started whining at him. That turned into Dean snapping at him, Sam hollering, and John waking up and growling at both of them to quiet down so he could sleep. Dean had gone off to clean the guns after that and Sam worked on reading the book to himself. From then on, Sam never saw Dean read anything outside of something pertaining to survival or hunting.

Sam decided to ignore the play for a different line of conversation. "So what do you do with them? Check them out and forget about them? It's not like we stay more than a few days anywhere."

Dean's weight shifted in debate about actually answering the question. He continued to watch the parking lot out the window. "I just drop them in another library's chute. Let them deal with it." Dean cleared his throat. The twitch to his shoulders showed Dean had enough standing around doing nothing to try and counter act the prophecy. Dean checked the hex bags. "I'm going out."

Sam sighed and listened to Dean slam the door. Flopping back on his bed, Sam stared at the ceiling. He wanted to ask Dean about the two books that had been checked out and hung onto for over a decade, but Sam knew he probably would not get an answer for either book. With a stubborn noise, Sam sat back up and then stood up.

There was a knock at the door.

The End