My Sammy
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Dean munched on the apple as he sauntered lazily towards the Impala.
Sam was always bitching at him to eat more wholesome food and what could be healthier than a juicy red apple. He had left Sam in the car while he had gone to stock up with provisions, but as he approached the Impala, he saw that there was no sign of his overgrown brother inside.
Where had he gotten to now?
Dean's heart had already begun to race, as he remembered the time he had exited a bar only to find Sammy gone and in the hands of cannibal hillbillies. He turned a three hundred and sixty degree circle as he searched for him, his anxiety stilling only when he saw Sam's tousled head in front of a shop-window, religiously intent on whatever was on show.
He quickened his step, the lingering anxiety still circulating in his veins.
X
"Sam, I nearly thought you had disappeared on me again, like that time with the Benders!" Dean's tone was teasing but Sam didn't miss the underlying concern in his voice.
"Don't you think you're exaggerating a little bit, Dean," Sam smiled." A kidnapping in broad day-light, in the middle of a busy street? It doesn't seem very likely."
Dean tilted his head ironically as he replied.
"Sam, nothing would surprise me any more where you're concerned. You're walking bait for everything that's nasty, be it natural or supernatural. It must be that mop on your head that attracts them. Good job I'm here to look out for you," he smirked.
"Yeah, good job you are Dean," Sam answered, his tone no longer easy but deathly serious.
Dean just nodded. No words were necessary, each understanding how important one was to the other.
X
They stood for a moment in awkward silence until Sam broke it.
"You're eating an apple, Dean. I can' believe it!"
"Whaat!... ...I decided to take your advice. You know I always listen to you Sammy!"
Sam lifted his eyes to the heavens at Dean's words.
"Right! You always listen to me. Ha! Ha! That's a new one!" Sam replied, a laugh animating his face.
Sam's smile was infectious and Dean found his mouth curving up in answer to it, before sinking his teeth into the apple again. He fumbled noisily in a brown paper bag, pulling out another fruit for his brother.
X
"Whotttcha lookinn'at?" Dean mumbled inclining his head towards the glass, his mouth full of the white pulp, hand outstretched as he offered the apple to his brother.
"Nothing," Sam answered, putting a hand on Dean's shoulder to turn him back towards the car.
"Nothing? You looked pretty engrossed when I came along, man," Dean declared as he took a good look through the shop window.
He felt a chill come over him as he became aware of what his little brother had been studying so intently.
[ Going back to university. Opportunities for older students. Information inside.]
X
Suddenly his apple didn't seem so tasty any more.
Was this what Sam pined for all the times he sat silently in the Impala? His brother had never spoken of going back to school again, but maybe that dream had never left him and his heart still yearned for it.
"Sam, I…You... " Dean didn't quite know what to say.
He lifted his eyes to his brother. "Do you want to go back to College, Sammy?" he asked unhappily.
X
Sam's hand on his shoulder squeezed tighter.
"If you'd asked me a couple of years ago, I might have said yes, but no, Dean I don't want to go back to College. I'm just not that person any more; too much water has passed under the bridge. I've accepted this life, and I'm okay with it," Sam assured.
"Sammy, you're sure maybe we coul…."
"No, Dean," Sam replied his voice earnest. "My place is by your side and that's the only place I want to be. We're the Winchesters, we kill evil and save people's lives. I think that's more important than the white picket fence and the yuppie car.
Then I already left you once Dean, but know this, I'm never gonna leave you again. I'm always gonna watch your back and bitch to you about eating healthier food and I'm gonna keep on being gassy in the Impala. You're never gonna get rid of me, and when we do go out, we go out together."
X
Dean felt his eyes welling with unshed tears as Sam said the words he had always wanted to hear from his brother; because for the elder Winchester whose greatest fear had always been that of being abandoned on his own, Sam's words were a soothing nectar for his soul.
"Sammy, I..."
"Come on Dean," Sam continued as he dragged his brother away from the shop window "Let's get back to the car before we get a ticket.
Of course, Dude; if YOU wanted to go back to College too, we could always go together," he joked,but when Dean answered him his tone was sincere.
"You know, Sam. Anything is possible, even me going back to school," and he meant it.
X
No-one could predict the future and maybe it was written that one day two Winchesters would graduate from University.
The brothers settled themselves in the Impala, the only sound being the scrunch of the apples as two very happy brothers sunk their teeth into the juicy pulp.
X
XXX The enD XXX
