A/N: I attempted fluff again, and angst snuck in anyway. I have mostly given up by this point.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. If I did, Sam would get a ton more screen time, meaningful relationships with other characters, and Jess. Jess would come back.
But that is neither here nor there, so please, sit back and enjoy!
In another world, Sam's powers appear much, much earlier, when the world hasn't ground out everything good in John, when Dean still dreams of four walls and a roof as home, when there's still hope on the horizon and an end in sight for their little family.
In another world and another time, when Sam still thinks his father hung the stars in the sky, and John hasn't yet discovered that monsters can hide inside children, too, the first thing John thinks of is not 'what's wrong with Sammy?' but 'how do I help my son?'
He asks around obliquely, ignoring the side-eyes and insisting it's for a case, and gets the address of someone in Lawrence, Kansas.
Of course.
All roads lead home. Dean and Sam are playing with toy soldiers in the back seat, carefree and bright. John doesn't remember when he was last like that.
Missouri Moseley, they say her name is, a powerful psychic, but one of the "good ones." Someone trustworthy.
He shouldn't have brought the boys with him, it's not safe. He should have left them with a sitter, but that's even less safe.
The door opens, and a dark-skinned woman sticks her head out, calling, "John Winchester, do you plan on coming in, or sitting in my driveway all day? I've got cookies for the boys and they're getting cold!"
Sam and Dean brighten in the backseat, turning on John eagerly. "Dad, can we?!"
"Boys," John warns, and their expressions fall. There's a pang in John's heart, there always is when they do that, but he squashes it down. It's for their own safety.
Sam and Dean latch on to his hands obediently, and John steels himself as he steps into the unknown once more.
Finding out Sam is the "most powerful psychic Missouri's ever seen" is unexpected.
So is how quickly Sam and Missouri take to each other.
Sam starts off the evening nibbling on a cookie and watching Missouri through his bangs, and ends the evening sitting on her lap, playing with the beads on her chain.
Missouri just shoos John away when he tries to get Sam to behave. "Let the boy be, John. He's not doing any harm."
By the end of the week, Sam's trailing after Missouri with a torrent of questions even John and Dean hadn't been able to keep up with.
"Why does the cake look all runny? Are you sure it's cake?"
"It will be when it comes out of the oven, sugar."
"Why does the fridge make funny noises?"
"Because it's working hard to keep our food cold."
"How come the back door has two doors?"
"One's to keep the bugs out while letting the breeze in, sweetie."
"How come fireflies' butts light up?"
"Well, now, you'll have to ask someone cleverer than me, but I think they look real pretty after sunset, don't you?"
"Why do you have so much salt? Mrs. Morrison says it's bad for you."
"Oh, the salt's not all for me, sugar. Why don't you go help your brother set the table."
"Miss-souri, why don't you have any kids?"
"Well, maybe I was just waiting for you and your brother to come along."
"And Dad?"
Missouri glances at John, who's sitting on her couch, flipping through one of her books and scribbling something down in his journal. "And your father."
It's Missouri who calms Sam down after a vision hits him in the middle of the night and he wakes up screaming. All John can do is hold Dean close, and watch, white-faced and confused and scared, always scared, because something's got its hooks in his boy and he doesn't know what he's meant to do -
It's Missouri who sings Sam lullabies to send him back to sleep, and Missouri who talks him out of hiding in a corner in his room, and Missouri who makes him a charm to help him sleep easier, and Missouri who convinces him to go back to sleep in the first place.
John's still scared. John doesn't know what to do, because he can't see anyway out of this besides leaving Sam in Missouri's care, but how can he do that, how can he leave his boy without protection -
Missouri yells at him six ways from Sunday because Sam and Dean need a home, they don't need to be out on the road surrounded by darkness and danger, and her house is warded against everything he knows about and several things he doesn't, does he really think he can do better?
She's not surprised when he eventually leaves to follow a lead on the monster that killed his wife. She's not surprised that Dean refuses to talk to her for weeks until John comes back.
But Sam?
Sam clings to her even tighter. Sam sits on her lap when she reads, demanding she help him sound out the words, too. Sam sits on the counter beside her, helping her shell peas for dinner. Sam sets the table and makes her a flower crown out of the daisies in her back yard.
She laughs and makes one for Sam, and he wears it with pride.
Sam looks at her with wide eyes and an open face, absorbing everything she tells him about her powers. Sam grins the first time he makes something move with his telekinesis, laughing gleefully, "Miss-souri, come look!"
He still hasn't quite gotten the hang of her name yet, but really, when his smile shames the sun, that's quite alright.
She'd been joking about it earlier, but when she sees Sam and Dean running around in her backyard, laughing and carefree, and sees the drawings pinned up on her fridge, she thinks maybe she was waiting for the universe to bring her the Winchester boys, after all.
A/N: Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? Please, let me know!
If anything in here stirs the need for discussion in you, shoot me a message. You can also find more of my thoughts on Sam Winchester on my tumblr (linked on my profile) under my Sam Winchester tag.