Open Secrets
Chapter 1
Four days earlier…
A loud knock reverberated around the small apartment. Sam looked at the door with a groan. He was so close to finishing his homework, and then he could finally get some sleep. He didn't need a distraction. He glanced at his watch. "Three o'clock?" he said out loud with a groan. "In the morning?" He'd been working even later than he thought.
He rose stiffly, rolling his neck, trying to get the kink out of it. He made a feeble attempt to force some order into his messy mop of hair, on the off chance it was a girl, and then pulled the door open.
But it wasn't a girl. Instead, a man in a leather jacket and stained, ripped jeans lounged against the doorway, clearly about to let loose another round of booming knocks. Sam simply stood and stared for several seconds before recovering enough to say, "Dean?"
"Aw, you still recognize me. I'm touched."
Sam didn't move. He cocked his head in confusion. "Dean, what are you doing here?"
"Sammy, where are your manners?" Dean pushed past his brother to check out the inside of the small apartment. "Not a bad place you got here." He left Sam standing, bewildered, in the doorway while he wandered into the kitchen, where Sam's calculus homework was spread all over the table, and then to the small entertainment room where a large portion of the floor space was taken over by a big screen TV. "Dude!" Dean whistled as he examined the behemoth admiringly. "Where'd you get the money for this?"
Sam shut the door he was still holding open. "It's not mine. It's one of my roommates'," he answered automatically. Then he realized he should be upset. "And what are you doing here?"
Dean ignored the question. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the dark hallway behind him. "Roomies down there?" Sam noticed he didn't bother to keep his voice down.
"Yes, and they're asleep, and they probably want to stay that way." Sam grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him back into the kitchen. He had finally gotten over the shock of seeing Dean, and now he was ready to start asking his own questions. "For the last time, Dean, what are you doing here? I haven't heard from you in weeks. And the last time we talked, you were somewhere in Indiana. What's going on? Where's Dad?"
Dean flashed his trademark devil-may-care smile and opened the fridge, not even offering the benefit of eye contact. "Are you at least going to offer me a drink or something? Man, you're no fun anymore, Sammy."
"It's Sam," he said for the thousandth time, "and if you want a drink, get it yourself. Now tell me why you're here. I'm not coming back, Dean, so if that's why you're here you can forget it."
"Maybe," Dean said from inside the fridge, "I'm here to say hi to my geeky little brother. Why is there no beer in this fridge? You're in college, right?"
Sam sat heavily into one of the kitchen chairs. "This may shock you, but not everyone drinks. And besides that, I'm only twenty years old." Based on Dean's blank expression, Sam realized that a little more explanation was necessary. "And it's illegal to drink 'til you're twenty-one."
"No excuse." Dean pulled out a can of Coke and gazed at it with a look of mild disgust. He put the unopened can on the table and sat down in the chair across from Sam's homework. "You miss hunting, Sam?"
"No," Sam said defiantly.
Possibly Dean saw through the lie. He opened the can loudly and waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, whatever. Listen, I need your help. You can take a few days off school, right?"
"Um, no. I have a life now, Dean. I have classes and a job, and friends here. I can't just drop everything."
Dean didn't respond for a moment, just watched as the younger Winchester pulled his pencil out of the textbook and started spinning it between his fingers.
"I've been thinking lately," Dean said.
Under his breath, Sam muttered, "I'll notify the President. I'm sure he'll want to institute a national holiday."
Dean covered a small smile by taking a mouthful of the Coke. It was good to know he could still predict all of Sam's comebacks. "I'm going on a hunting trip."
Sam didn't bother trying to disguise a scornful chuckle. "Alone? Yeah, 'cuz Dad'll go for that."
Dean didn't respond, toying with the top of the can. Sam closed his eyes as realization hit. He shook his head ruefully. "And that's why you're here. You want me to go with you."
"Look, I know Dad's not going to like it. But I've got a plan that'll prove to him that I can handle it. There's a job near Lake Tahoe. Caleb told me about it. I was supposed to tell Dad so we could go check it out, but I didn't. I'm going to take care of it myself."
Sam sat in silence for several minutes, trying to gather his thoughts. "Ok, great plan, genius. But how are you going to get there? How are you going to ditch Dad for that long? How are you going to get at the weapons without him knowing?"
"I'm not an idiot, you know."
Sam just stared at his brother, clearly ready to debate the point. As if he could read Sam's thoughts, Dean scowled. "Don't worry about it. I've got it all planned out, and," he paused for effect, "a new set of wheels."
Despite himself, Sam's curiosity was peaked. He swallowed a retort and motioned for Dean to continue.
"See, what you don't know is that last week Dad gave me an awesome birthday present."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Ok, A) Dad has never given you a birthday gift, and B) your birthday was what, three months ago?"
"Doesn't matter, because I am now the proud owner of a shiny black '67 Chevy Impala, complete with an arsenal hidden in the trunk."
"You're lying. Dad would never give up his car."
Dean shook his head. "Telling the truth, I swear. Dad bought this big ol' truck. Got tired of trying to keep the Impala in good repair. He was going to just sell it, but I convinced him to keep it."
Sam sighed. "Okay, so you have a way to get out of there. But I'm just not getting the why. I know you, Dean, and you never break Dad's rules, no matter how asinine they are."
"Asinine? Wow, good to see the college education is paying off."
Sam closed his eyes slowly, shaking his head. "So that's what this is about?" He paused, giving Dean a chance to retort, or offer an alternative, but he didn't. Sam stood angrily and tossed his pencil against the wall. "You're pissed because I left, is that it? Just tell me why you're doing this. You're breaking Dad's biggest rules, Dean. Not to mention the fact that you're talking to me, the family freak, the traitor. Dad's going to just love that," he added bitterly.
"Sam…" Dean started, sounding very much like an exasperated parent. "This isn't about you, Sam! Don't you get it? This is about me. This is my big chance." He paused and rubbed the back of his neck, allowing the burst of anger to dissipate. He took a breath and let it out slowly, turning back to face his brother. "I've got a window of opportunity here. Dad busted his leg on our last job, so he's holed up for awhile. I'm not an idiot. I'm not going without backup. All you gotta do is come with me, make sure I don't get killed, and Dad can find out the hard way that I'm old enough for this kind of stuff."
Sam gave his brother a tired look. "Dean, look around. I have a life now. A real life. With school and a job. You can just pick up and go wherever you want, whenever you want. But I have responsibilities. You know? Responsibilities?"
Dean's eyes deadened, and Sam knew he'd hit a nerve. Any trace of a grin was gone from his brother's face, his lips forming a hard line. "You're going to talk to me about responsibilities?" Dean waited just long enough for Sam's face to reflect guilt instead of anger. "You owe me this."
And Sam knew it was true. His lips thinned as he realized that all things considered, Dean's request was actually pretty conservative. "You know, if Dad found out, he'd be furious. If he even found out you were here he'd be furious. And you know he's eventually going to find out."
Dean shrugged. "You never cared too much about that before."
Sam bristled, but didn't say anything. You couldn't argue with the truth. He started collecting his calculus homework. "Look, I've got a test tomorrow morning and a class at three. I can't miss them."
Dean tried to hide a flash of disappointment, but failed. "Sure, yeah, I understand." He made a brave attempt at his usual charming smile. "School's, uh, important."
"No, Dean…" Sam sighed, thinking, I can't believe I'm doing this. "I'll go with you, but we have to wait to leave till after my class tomorrow. It's a long weekend, so there are no classes Monday or Tuesday, but we have to be back in time for classes Wednesday."
"Fine. Tomorrow afternoon." And to Sam's surprise, Dean didn't offer a smart aleck remark or even a victorious grin. Instead, he stared off into space for a moment with a strange, sad look on his face that Sam could rarely remember seeing there before. It looked like…resignation. But the look was gone so quickly that Sam wondered if he'd imagined it.
Dean shook himself out of his reverie and glanced up at Sam. "Listen, can I crash on the couch or the floor or something?"
"Yeah, sure." Sam stood, shouldered his backpack and headed down the narrow hallway. At the last second he remembered something and turned back. "Just don't go spreading salt everywhere and carving symbols into the doors, okay? People…well, normal people, anyway, give you strange looks when you do that. I've already set up enough wards. We're safe."
Dean shrugged noncommittally. Knowing his brother's penchant for over-protectiveness, Sam glared. "I mean it, Dean."
"Yeah, whatever." Dean turned his back, and Sam knew that was the end of the conversation. With a sigh, Sam gave up, knowing full well that when he woke up the next morning he'd have to explain the piles of salt to his roommates.
A/N: Hey y'all! I'm so glad you made it to the end of this first chapter. This is my first attempt at a multichapter fic, so any feedback you can give me (good or bad) will help so much as I continue to write. Thanks!!
Also, I really owe a big thanks to all my awesome friends who spent way too much time helping me perfect this, especially to spinners0end, who should be given a trophy for the freakishly large amount of fiction I've forced her to read, and to her awesome little sister, whose encouragement is always useful and entertaining. :)
