A/N - Set after Dean's "five states in five days" road trip that he actually spent in Lisa Braeden's loft while John and Sam hunted a banshee in Florida.
The smell was all wrong.
Dean was telling Dad and Sam about his epic, five states in five days road trip.
He was lying his ass off.
Dean had been lying to the world since he was four years old. His tells were almost non-existant. Pastor Jim and Uncle Bobby probably wouldn't have even picked up on them. A total stranger would have never seen them.
But to Sam, who had been studying Dean longer than he could remember, they were like neon signs. Dean blinked a little too often. He licked his lips where he normally wouldn't have. He hesitated just for a fraction of a second in the middle of his story, twice.
But the biggest indicator was the fact that Dean, who supposedly spent the past five days driving by day and hustling pool in honkytonks and roadhouses by night, did not smell like sweat, beer, and stale cigarette smoke.
Pressed between Dean and the window in a booth in a Waffle House on the side of I-10 in Bumfuck, Mississippi, the smell drifted over Sam every time Dean shifted in his seat.
Girly shampoo, clean laundry, and apple cinnamon air freshener.
Dean had spent the entire five days, or at least most of it, with some girl.
Sam glared across the table at their father, who should have picked up on Dean's deception, who should have called Dean out on his bullshit by now.
Except that Dad was in his normal post-hunt alcoholic haze. He had been drinking steadily since they left Orlando, and hadn't even argued when Sam took the keys when they stopped for gas around Tallahassee.
They finished eating and checked into the motel across the street. Dad ordered them to lay the salt lines, went to the bathroom, then fell into bed with his boots on and began snoring almost immediately.
Dean sat on the other bed and turned the tv on softly. Sam made an excuse about going out to get his book from the truck. He checked the mileage on the Impala while he was out there and confirmed what he already knew.
The car hadn't travelled far enough to have seen five states. It had probably spent the whole five days in one state.
Dean was lying about the whole thing. He didn't have $700 because he won it hustling pool. He had the money because he hadn't spent it on gas and motels.
Sam went back inside, flopped down on his side of the bed, and glowered at his brother over his book every few minures.
Dean, as he frequently did when he was in a good mood, either didn't notice or chose to ignore Sam's bad mood.
When Dean asked if Sam was ready to turn out the lights, he was surprised that only an hour had passed. It had seemed much longer.
Sam laid in the dark, listening to Dad's soft snores and Dean's rhythmic, even breathing.
He wondered whose idea it had originally been for Dean not to go on the hunt in Florida. Sam had wholeheartedly agreed when Dad told him, despite the prospect of spending a week alone with Dad. They had done two hunts in Florida previously, and Dean had been hurt both times. None of the Winchesters wanted to tempt fate.
Sam wondered how long it would be before Dean sneaked off with a girl and didn't come back. Dean wouldn't be a hunter forever. He wasn't cut out for this life. Dean was the one who came home from a hunt where they couldn't save everyone and cried in the shower, where he thought no one would see him. Dean was the one who longed for a permanent home, who unpacked his and Sam's clothes and hung curtains and put pictures on the walls of this week's rental dump. Dean was the one who tried so hard to keep Sam and Dad together, who called Pastor Jim and Uncle Bobby and sometimes Caleb to check on them when he didn't need anything.
One of these days, Dean would find a girl who could offer him the home and family he always wanted. He would leave the hunting life behind and settle down and never look back.
He would leave Sam behind.
Sam bit his lip until he tasted blood to hold back the sobs threatening to erupt over the thought of Dean driving away in the Impala forever. The tears flowed, because he couldn't hold them back, and he did his best to sniff quietly and not wake Dean until he finally fell asleep.
He woke the following morning to a life changing realization.
Dean couldn't leave Sam if Sam left first.
Three days later, Dad enrolled Sam in school on the outskirts of Fort Worth. The guidance counselor looked over Sam's transcripts and suggest that he take pre-calculus and physics, because they would look good on a college application.
Sam smiled and said "Sign me up."