Her expression is like glass when she comes home and he instantly knows something is wrong. It's like this sixth sense. His Sammy sense is tingling.
Her face is blank as she opens the screen door and shuts it with the most dainty clicks. She doesn't see Dean right away, allowing herself to lean against the doorframe. Her eyes shut and for a moment her shoulders just shake, as if they're holding back a hurricane.
"Sammy?" Dean probes when he can stand it no longer. "Are you okay?"
She straightens instantly, like a bolt of electricity smashes into her and he can practically see the walls fly up. Green eyes refuse to meet their twins. Guarded. He can practically see her raising walls of brick.
"I'm fine." She answers, taking on a patented bitchface that usually he finds adorable. But he can't find it in himself to pinch her cheeks and pretend everything is okay. He saw past that mask.
He closes the distance between them. Eyes search her. There's a hurt here. He just can't quite decide how to address it just yet. "How was school?"
"It was okay." Her answer is short and she's still not looking him in the eye.
Dean doesn't like letting her go to school alone. But he also knows he can't hang in her shadow. She's seventeen. She's almost a grown woman. A grown woman that's been known to kick his ass. But she's also that little girl in pigtails begging for the last bowl of Lucky Charms. She's the kid that looked at him with shining eyes and believed him when he said everything is going to be all right.
She's only starting to question that now. "Can I go now? I have tons of homework. I need to study in peace, Dean."
Dean frowns. "Dad said he found a job in Ocala."
Fury slinks into her eye. "Screw what Dad says. I don't do this project I don't pass this class."
"Sammy…"
"Don't Sammy me. Sammy is a prissy little girl. It's Sam." Her tone is malicious and Dean has to hold back the wince.
"Alright Princess. Are we in the time of the month?" He knows she hates it when he blames stuff on her period. But it doesn't quite get the reaction he expects. She slaps him. Flat handed and hard.
"All fucking men really are pigs." She screams and storms away to the bathroom of their motel room. He swears he can see twin trails rolling down her cheeks. The door slams with enough force to rattle the hinges and leave the tacky hanging lights rocking. A framed photo falls from the wall, landing with a clatter on the cheap carpeting.
He can break down the door, but it's totally against their code. Privacy is a thing in the Winchester family; Sam deals with enough living on the road with two men. The bathroom is practically sacred.
So he just waits patiently for her to come out, rapping on the door once and calling to her. "Sammy…"
It might be just his imagination, but he thinks he hears sobs from the other side of the door. Screw it. He isn't waiting. He pulls out a lock pick and it takes seconds to jimmy the door open. She's sunk onto the floor by the tub, using the tacky duck shower curtain as a shroud, a teddy bear, and a handkerchief all at the same time. Her face is torn, broken. Something inside him clenches, seeing her.
She fights him initially, but he closes the gap regardless with patient hands. He pulls her into his arms. She's initially stiff as a corpse, resisting his embrace. "Sam…its okay. I'm here I'm here. I will take care of everything."
Then she melts. In the folds of his jacket she weeps and eventually, when her voice returns, she finally tells him what's wrong. Between great sobs she huffs out her first heartbreak.
And Dean privately swears to castrate the man that did this. Anyone who has the balls to mess with Dean Winchester's little sister won't have them for much longer.