Disclaimer: Not mine, Kripke's. This is just how I'm gonna deal until September….
Summary: Tag for All Hell Breaks Loose, spoilers for both parts. Dean is what keeps Sam good, and grounded, and Bobby knows it.
A/N: Pretty far-fetched, I know, considering Bobby's stance on Dean's deal, but hey. It's a plot bunny that wouldn't go away. Hope it doesn't get to corny for you and that you enjoy it!
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Dean: You have something Max didn't.
Sam: What, you mean Dad? 'Cause he's not here Dean.
Dean: No, me.
-Season 1, Nightmare
Dean: He said that he wanted me to watch out for you, take care of you.
Sam: He told you that a million times.
Dean: This time was different. He said that I had to save you.
-Season 2, Hunted
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The life of a hunter is a strange one. It's not one you wake up and choose, because hell, no one believes in demons and ghosts. Until they're lives are turned upside down by one, that is.
A person doesn't adhere to the lifestyle out of pure sport; there is usually a reason or an event that brings the scary things in the dark to light, a tragedy that sets a course for the hunter's life ahead.
The Winchester boys didn't even remember a time without demons and monsters. But Bobby did. Until his brother was taken from him at the age of 25, Bobby had lived a life of blissful ignorance of the things that lived in the dark. But his brother's violent supernatural death had rocked him hard; maybe that's another reason he empathized with the boys so much.
Unlike the Winchesters, Bobby did it now for the protection and good will of the general population; the Winchesters for vengeance and when they'd achieved it, then the common good. But the drive to keep the faith that the world remained worth it apparently depended on the fact that two brothers would stand together. If one fell, then they both did and the world was in for some trouble, because those two together were something evil had never seen before.
Now, as Sam had fallen, and Dean had looked him dead in the eye and told him to let the world end-only then had Bobby completely realized how connected they were, how they needed each other to merely survive. They were all the other had in the world, or at least, they were the ones most important to the other in the world.
But Bobby would have never thought Dean would actually make the deal; imagined it, yes. But actually follow through?
He felt like damn near throttling the boy.
He knew the moment the door opened, the moment Sam stood there, and the moment when Dean's eyes wouldn't meet his own that Dean had done something very, very stupid.
He thinks to himself, as he stares at them from the cemetery. They have just killed the demon that was responsible for everything their lives had become, yet Sam was not looking celebratory. He was berating Dean by the car, silently pleading with those puppy dog eyes and Bobby knew the exchange that was happening, saw Sam's reaction as Dean muttered "one year."
"What is going on, Bobby?" Ellen asked in the night. He shakes his head, and begins to walk in the direction of the Impala. To intervene, to avoid the questions, the answers. He just needs a change of subject.
He pats them on the shoulders, congrats for a job well done but Sam notes the lack of eye contact, and knows that Bobby knows. The guilt in the air was almost palpable.
As the pairs drive in different directions, the brothers one way and Bobby and Ellen in another, the old man wonders to himself just how things will play out in the coming year. He knows that while Dean without Sam means the end of the family, Sam without Dean could mean something much worse. Because he knows that Dean is what keeps Sam good, and grounded, and sane. Without him, coupled with Sam's mental abilities and anger over what his life was like, what it had become because of the hunters lifestyle...all the inner goodness in the world wouldn't keep Sam straight without Dean.
The months passed, and on the side of his own jobs, Bobby would make sure to keep tabs on the boys, make sure they were doing okay. Those two, they were like family to him, like nephews, and with the year's end drawing closer each and every day, he knew it must be getting hard for the pair.
It was around 6 months after the Devil's Gate opened that the boys rolled back into town. Dean had his arm in a makeshift sling, and Sam was driving. Bobby didn't even ask when they knocked on the door, just opened it up and let them in. Dean quipped away as usual; his caustic comments unnaturally comforting because it meant at least something hadn't changed. But everyone in the house knew the date was on the other's mind, and that night while he sat in his room, as the brothers thought he slept, Bobby heard the tensions hit a high note.
He could hear Sam's voice rise first, and then Dean's stern, no-nonsense voice responded, trying to get Sam to relent. But he wouldn't, and Bobby just sighed as he prepared himself for the yelling match on the rise.
"Just ask Bobby for help!"
"Sammy, just let it go. What's done is done, we can't reverse it."
"There's gotta be away, Dean, there's gotta be something..."
"Well, there isn't Sam. I do anything to get out of this, the deal is reversed and that well...that ain't happening. So shut your trap, got it?"
"So what?" Sam snapped, his younger brother petulance sneaking into his tone. "I didn't even get a choice in the matter, and now you're gonna go and die on me? You can't die on me, Dean."
"Sammy..."
"No! I can't die, and leave you alone, but it's fine if you go and I'm left? How is that even fair, Dean? It's selfish!"
It went silent then, and Bobby knew Sam immediately regretted it, but it was something he couldn't take back. But he was sure going to try.
"I'm sorry, I didn't---"
"Yes you did. And you're right. It is. Cause I couldn't..." He stopped talking, and Bobby could almost see his head shaking vigorously from side to side. "Whatever. The answer is no. We're just gonna hunt and make the most of the next 6 months, Sammy."
But Bobby could imagine the scene. Dean would've shut down, laid with his back to Sam, who would probably lie awake all night thinking of what he could do next.
But Bobby had sensed the mood in the room, and could hear the anger and desperation in Sam's voice. With a sigh as he closed his eyes for the night, he knew he'd have to pursue the last resort that had been settled in his mind since the day the deal had been made.
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A few days later, just as Dean's shoulder was feeling better, Bobby awoke before either man did. He sat at a desk in the cluttered living room as he breathed in the morning sunrise, more appreciative of it this morning than most others in his near 60 years of living.
He scrawled quick notes, making them mostly business like and to the point, and swallowed whatever apprehension he was feeling. This decision was not one he was taking lightly; it had taken over 6 months to decide this, to work up the courage to go through with it.
A life for two lives that could help the world more than he could; it seemed fair, maybe even a little self-righteous. But he knew it was the only thing left that anyone could do.
He acted no different than he usually would throughout the day. They'd had some steaks for lunch, barbecued all into the night. When it rolled around 10 later that night, he urged the two to hit the bars for the night, pick up some pretty girls and have a good time. Neither boy objected, although Bobby knew Sam's manners urged him to and they were quickly out the door, but not without a quick, tight hug for each. Dean scanned Bobby warily, but left with no questions. He watched the lights of the old Impala fade down the street, and then quickly stuck the notes he'd written that morning into his coat pocket and headed to his old truck.
"God protect me." He whispered to himself.
He drove quietly until he reached the crossroads of some back roads and quickly grabbed the box he'd compiled earlier and exited his car. With a deep breath, he buried it and stayed crouched in the spot, until the wind kicked up something violent and he closed his eyes, the smell of sulfur permeating his nostrils.
"Hello Bobby. Fancy meeting you here."
The voice was cajoling and he would've given anything to pull a shotgun out and load her full of salt buck shot. As if she'd heard his thoughts, she was upon him, her face stretched in a fake pout.
"Oh, now," She purred. "That wouldn't be very nice. Considering you're the one calling."
He turned to her, his face frowning and for what seemed like millionth time that day, thought to himself how unbelievable it was that he was doing this.
"I want to make a deal." He whispered. She laughed hoarsely, her eyes dancing in anticipation.
"Really, Singer? I thought you'd called me here to have tea." She snarled at first, then straightened her face. "What would someone like you want? You should know better than this...must be pretty important."
Bobby sighed, prepared for an abrupt denial of his offer. "Dean. You get me, for Dean."
She laughed. "You really are out of your mind. You're not worth a Winchester."
Without so much of another second, she spun to leave, still chuckling at the idea she would exchange an old, worn out man for the youthful and strong hunter. He expected the rejection, hell, even thought the same thing to himself for a moment. But he wasn't going to go down with out some hard haggling.
"You get me now, tonight. And you should definitely consider it." He pushed.
She spun again, her eyes dark. "Why? Yeah, let's allow Dean to live. So he can come kill me. That's a swell thought."
"Come on," He roused. "I've done 4 times the amount of damage Dean's done thus far and I've only been at it twice as long. Didn't I take care of your sister a ways back?"
The demon appeared to flinch at that. When she turned and stalked over to him, he knew he'd made a hit. "Still. While it would be," She sighed. "Sweet, that revenge still wouldn't appease me nearly as much as getting rid of the threat of the Winchesters."
"Do you think the threat goes away cause Dean would? You know what Sam can do, the abilities he hasn't even tapped yet. Do you think he'll just lie down and take his brother's death? Cause Dean's the only one keeping that boy sane, and that sure ain't a line."
For the first time since he summoned her, her intimidating attitude faltered and her face fell slightly as Bobby would swear her face paled in the moonlight. Bingo. He pushed on, seizing the opportunity.
"So you take Dean, and Sam, well. He'll come for you first, then he'll raise hell and what else to save his brother, and that's a fact. Those boys aren't safe without the other, and I don't just mean for themselves."
"Who's to say Sam just wouldn't be taken care of? We all know Dean's the protector. Sam would probably be dead within weeks."
"Sammy's a lot stronger than you all seem to think."
They stared at each other, the wind picking up as clouds rolled in, blocking out the shine of the moon. "You gotta give me more." She budged. "I won't just set the brothers loose, with only you as the prize. It's not an even trade."
"I can get you immunity. I know Sammy'd make sure you'd never be touched if you could make this happen."
She stared at him, calculating and wary. "What is with you human beings? And this drive to throw yourself into the fire? They're not even your family, Singer."
"Why do you care?" He snapped. "Just make the damn deal."
She circled him, thinking long and hard. "You do care about them. Like family."
He almost growled at her, growing impatient and weary of her long, drawn out games. He just wanted this over with, before he had a chance to change his mind. "Of course I do. Would I be here if I didn't?"
"You know, I'm only going to agree to this cause I have an old soft spot for ol' Dean-o." She mocked with a sigh. "Fine. But I have to get you tonight and immunity. Or no deal, and Dean will drop dead at one year, on the dot."
He patted his coat pocket. "That will be taken care of."
She drew in close to him though, and he felt fear of the unknown snake through his belly. But he fought it, because he knew this wasn't just for the boys; it was for everyone. Sam without Dean would be a ticking time bomb, his anger soon driving him out of control and possibly to a place that he couldn't be saved. And having to take care of it himself, having to lose Sammy too, another of the boys who had been like nephews to him--well, his old heart wouldn't be able to take it, and he could admit that to himself.
"So we have a deal?" He whispered. She smiled and leaned in, and for Bobby Singer, the world went black.
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Months, years after, Dean and Sam would continue to fight, continue what Bobby had left them, so that Bobby's sacrifice would mean something. Unbeknownst to them, strangely enough, they and the demon shared an opinion of Bobby, though the idea behind it was very different.
The brothers would maintain, until the day they died, that no, Bobby Singer wasn't worth a Winchester.
He was worth two.
fin