Summary: Father's weren't supposed to have favorites but for some reason Bobby took exception to this rule
Characters: Bobby (w/ mentions of Dean)
Spoilers: minor for You Can't Handle the Truth
Favorites
On the phone with Dean, spilling every one of his Godforsaken secrets with the inability to lie had brought out all the home truths. He was the father figure, the patriarch of their strange yet united broken family and in that role he did not choose favorites. But Bobby Singer broke that rule so many years ago the first time the Winchester boys waltzed through his front door. He loved them equally, as if they were his own blood but Dean would always be his boy. Ever since the first moment he laid eyes on that quiet yet rambunctious little boy with the hazel eyes Bobby knew the boy would never have the same love and affection as his brother. Sam would deny it, had denied it for years, but he had always been John's little boy. Not that John Winchester didn't love his boys equally but Sam had been special.
With one glance all those years ago Bobby just knew that Dean hadn't felt that protection, and never would, that every son deserved. He was always to be the protector, the strong one, John never expected him to fail. He always wondered if Dean was never born a boy at all but a soldier, bred and ready for training. For Sam he had always had other aspirations while his brother knew nothing other than the life. Bobby so desperately tried to change that, teaching and bringing Dean up into the mechanic he could always be. But John wouldn't have it, would never accept the fact any of his sons would be anything other than a hunter. A good little soldier, tried and true, something that had Bobby saddened to the core.
Look out for Sammy.
Watch out for your little brother.
Protect Sammy.
Never once did Dean have a childhood that wasn't set with tasks. Even at four years old Dean had the hardest job of all, walking in his father's footsteps. Never once had it been be careful Dean or have fun with Bobby Dean. Never once had it been just I love you Dean. No, Dean had one job and one job only: Sam. It had brought them closer though, two brother's trying to live their father's legacy while going their own unique way about it. It wasn't until Sam decided to leave the life and run off to Stanford did Bobby see Dean truly shattered. Torn by love and hate Sam parted ways with his family leaving a wake so big it could flood the state. John was angry at Sam and Dean was just trying to mediate, so much so that John's misplaced anger turned on his eldest son for taking Sam's side one too often. In the end Dean had aimed his own misplaced anger at his younger brother while saving the firestorm for the father that pushed him away.
A few weeks later Dean was on his doorstep, separated from his father after John went off on his own to finish a hunt. It wouldn't have angered Bobby so much if Dean had not been recovering from injuries at the time, wounds left over from the failed hunt John strived to finish. The whole situation to follow was the whole reason behind the infamous buckshot story. John with his infamous anger had marched up to Bobby's A few calm words later Bobby had tried to assure him that his son was currently sleeping off the concussion and broken ribs he left him with in the first place. Needless to say it didn't end well when John threatened Bobby with kidnapping his own son. Never in his life had Bobby been so angry the moment when John had the nerve to push him in his own house. Crudely waking Dean up he had a few choice words for his son after Dean went AWOL from the hunt. Dean was angry, pissed off for the matter, that his own father had the gall to blame his youngest son for all this mess. For if Sam had been there the hunt would have been finished because Dean wouldn't have been laid up in bed.
That's why Bobby was angry, so much so that he grabbed his best shotgun and aimed it squarely at John's chest. He wouldn't have really taken the shot but the look in his eye was all the threat John needed to walk off his property. Nobody, father or not, was going to talk to the boy that had been nothing but loyal to him like that on Bobby Singer's property. The subliminal message was clear; Dean was at fault for it all even after all that loyalty. For the next week Bobby had made Dean stay, took him in as if he were his own before letting him fly free once more. Every time after that when that boy got injured he went straight to him, bleeding and bruised sat on that couch and drank his whiskey. Any other hunter Bobby would have thrown on the street but never Dean, for Dean was the son he never had. His brave boy that in Bobby's eyes would still have that innocence even if the young hunter would deny it. For Dean Winchester was little once, memories or not, and Bobby prided himself that he had given that little boy the broken childhood he never received. Did the things with him John never took part in. Taught him about life as much as he taught him how to shoot. Gave him purpose, a reason for living. So if Bobby had to pick a favorite it would always be Dean, that little boy who had grown up too fast.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of Supernatural story line or its characters, they are all Eric Kripke's.