"Sammy."

"Mmf..."

"Sammy."

Blearily, Sam cracked his eyes open to see his big brother sitting on his bed and smiling at him.

"Dean? What's goin' on?"

"Time to get up, squirt." Dean ruffled Sam's unruly, brown tresses.

"Why?"

"Jeez, don't you remember? Today's kindergarten, bro!"

"Are you gonna come to school with me?" Sam asked as he nervously nibbled on his slice of toast.

"I'll take you to class, Sam, but then I've gotta go. I have to help Dad when he gets back, remember?" Seeing the panicked look that crossed his little brother's face, Dean hastily added, "But don't worry! It's only for the morning; I'll be back to pick you up at lunchtime."

Sam miserably stuck out his bottom lip. "I don't wanna go to school, Dean! Why can't I stay here with you? I'll be really good, I promise!"

Dean sat down, pulled Sam into his lap and wrapped his arms around his little brother. "Look, Sammy, I know you're scared, but you've got nothin' to worry about. You'll like school 'cause you're smart and you'll learn loads of cool stuff."

Personally, Dean didn't think there was anything cool about learning his times tables or how to spell (it wasn't like they helped him with firing guns and sharpening knives), but no doubt Sam would find it more interesting than him.

"Hey!" Sam said suddenly. "Why don't you just teach me? You and Daddy already know everything anyway. Please?" He pulled the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Biting his lip to keep from laughing, Dean just hugged Sam tighter. "Sorry, buddy. That's not gonna work today."

Sam's pace slowed considerably as he and Dean approached the school gates.

"Dean…" he said in a very small voice that Dean knew all too well. It was the voice he used when he'd had a horrible nightmare and wanted to climb into Dean's bed, or when he didn't understand an instruction their father had given him, but didn't want to admit it.

"Dean…" The small voice became no more than a whisper.

"Hey…" Dean stopped and crouched down to Sam's level. "It's gonna be okay, I promise." He grinned. "If you're good then after school we can go to see a movie, 'kay?"

Sam nodded, offering Dean a weak smile. "'Kay."

"Right-if anybody asks, what's Daddy's job?"

"Mechanic," Sam replied automatically.

Dean nodded. "That's right. And what do you never, ever talk about?"

Sam smiled; this was an easy one. "The family business."

The kindergarten classroom was easy enough to find; all Dean had to do was follow the sets of parents dragging their children (some of which were screaming their little heads off) into a brightly coloured room, which was decorated with crayoned artwork and ABC posters.

As they entered the room, Dean glanced down at Sam and grinned a little when he saw his brother's eyes grow wide as they took in everything from the "house" corner to the enormous sandbox, from the play dough table to the building blocks.

"So…" Dean said, his grin growing wider when he saw Sam stare longingly at the book corner (typical, the little nerd was never happy unless he had something to read), "…whadd'ya think?"

Sam tore his eyes away from the miniature library long enough to mumble, "Might not be so bad."

"Hi, there!" A tinkling voice came from behind Dean. He whipped around to see a pretty young woman smiling down at them.

"Hi," said Dean, smiling back.

"Who's this?" She smiled kindly at Sam, who was blinking up at her in slight awe.

"This is Sammy, and I'm his brother, Dean."

"Hello, Sammy, I'm Miss Taylor. I'm going to be you teacher."

When Sam continued to stare at the curly haired woman, Dean nudged him a little. "Say 'hi', Sam."

"'Lo." Sam offered Miss Taylor a shy smile, blushing furiously.

"If you want to meet the other children, you can go and sit at one of the tables if you want to." Miss Taylor pointed to the low, round tables in the middle of the room, half of which were occupied by about ten children sitting and waving goodbye to their parents.

Sam quickly looked up at Dean.

"Guess it's time for me to go, kiddo," Dean said, hoping that Sam wouldn't start crying like some of the other brats in the room. When Sam remained silent, Dean added, "It's only for a few hours, I'll see you at lunchtime."

Sam nodded slowly and held out his arms expectantly. Laughing, Dean swooped down and enveloped his little brother in a tight hug.

"Knock 'em dead, Sammy," he whispered, before straightening up and exiting the classroom. He stopped in the doorway and turned to wave at Sam, who waved back fervently.

Jennifer Taylor watched the young boy leave the room and turned to look down at his even younger brother, who was staring forlornly at the door, probably hoping that his brother would return if he waited long enough.

"Sam?" She said sympathetically, hoping to distract him from his brother's absence. He looked up at her, mildly curious.
"Would you like to go and sit at the table? We have some paper and crayons if you want to draw."

Chewing his lip, the brown-haired boy nodded and wandered over to sit with the other children.

Jennifer watched Sam thoughtfully, chewing her own lip. Every other child so far had been brought by at least one parent, and while Dean was older than Sam, he couldn't have been more than nine or ten years old. Still, Sam seemed quite happy to have been brought by his brother.
Jennifer wondered where the boys' parents were. Of course, there was no way that she could know that Dean was Sam's parent as much as he was his brother…

Giving Sam one last encouraging smile, Dean sighed and started to make his way back down the corridor. He wished that there was some way for him to stay with Sam longer, but Dad was due back from his stake out in about an hour and Dean had promised that he'd be at the small appartment they were currently calling home. No doubt he'd be needed to do research on whatever it was that Dad was preparing to hunt.

As Dean turned a corner, the sight of a young blonde woman, walking in the opposite direction, greeted him. Clutching her hand was a small blonde haired boy who was about Sam's age.

Dean's chest suddenly tightened at the sight, and something inside hurt. Blurry memories flooded his mind as he froze and stared at the pair.

"Dean, come on, sweetie…aren't you excited for school…all of your friends are going to be there…have fun, baby…I love you…"