Title: Everyday life

Pairing: None, gen

Characters: Dean, OC, mentions of Sam.

Rating – PG just to be safe, probably G.

Words – about 600.

Notes/Warnings: Futurefic, AU, Hurt!Dean. No beta.

When Sam is out in one of his investigation trips, Dean and Lori have their own routine. Lori is the first to get up - Dean isn't much of a morning person. She gets dressed and makes breakfast. By the time she's done, the smell lures Dean out from his room to the kitchen.

After breakfast, Lori helps Dean choose his clothes. Dean can usually tell which cloth he holds by touching the fabric, but Lori makes sure that the green pants won't end up matched with the red shirt, and that nothing is turned upside down or has a stain that didn't come out in laundry.

Sam has good timing – he calls just about the time they're done. Dean pretends to be pissed at Sam's mother-henning, but Lori knows that Dean needs to make sure his little brother's ok, just as much as Sam needs to check up on him, and she thinks that's incredibly sweet.

Dean and his computer are one true pairing. The Virgo program's sniffing voice reads to him from the New World Weekly site – for inspiration, apparently – and whatever e-mails he gets from fans. Saving People, Hunting Things has just made it to the fifth place at the New York Times best sellers' list, and Dean is suddenly halfway famous. Lori's own copy is already worn-out of repeated readings, because Dean might have been compared to Gaiman, but he has Heinlein's gift for story telling.

That is the reason that, at least once a day, Dean gets an e-mail or a snail-mail letter from someone who's absolutely, beyond any doubt, sure that he or she has a vengeful spirit/poltergeist/vampire/zombie problem, and would Mr. Winchester please be kind enough to help them out? Lori rolls her eyes as she reads those to Dean, but he insists on hearing every letter.

Dean stays in shape by practicing at the extra room they made into a home gym, but when the day is nice, they go outside to get some fresh air and Vitamin D. Dean didn't like the idea at first, and that was the only real fight the three of them ever had, Sam and Lori teaming up against Dean till he surrendered. They walk at the less occupied streets of the suburban, Dean holding Lori's arm, to the park and back.

The afternoon has Lori trying to work on her thesis, but somehow she always finds herself wander into Dean's room, curious what his intrepid heroes are up to next. They argue a bit ('Dean, James just got dumped by the love of his life last chapter; he can't be picking up random girls at bars so soon. What do you mean, it's different for men?') , Lori makes suggestions and Dean makes wise-ass remarks, until both their stomachs let them know it's time for dinner.

Later, they watch The Tonight Show and Conan O'Brien together. Dean laughs at Leno's monologue, and Lori divides her attention between the jokes and watching him from the corner of her eye (staring is impolite, and besides, she's sure that Dean can tell when he's being stared at). There's the scar on the left cheek, and there's the one that starts from his jaw line and disappears inside his shirt's collar. Neither Dean nor Sam were very specific about the details, and Lori didn't push, but sometimes she wonders what kind of a car accident could have caused all that destruction.

Sam calls again after the end of Conan, and then it's time to get ready for bed. Lori leaves her door open, so she could hear Dean in case of another nightmare. He doesn't talk about the nightmares, either, even though he wakes up screaming about twice a week. Just another part, another piece of the big puzzle called Dean Winchester, the one Lori doubts she'd ever be able to put together.

-END-