Disclaimer: Supernatural and all its characters belong to Kripke and the CW. I own nothing.
Previously on Supernatural- After a glance back at his passenger, Dean gunned the engine and peeled off down the driveway ready for their first big adventure.
Dean drove into the Wal-Mart parking lot and cruised through row after row of parking searching for a spot close to the store entrance. After two complete circuits of the lot, he finally conceded defeat. He drove down the middle row and parked in the first open parking space he saw. Cutting off the engine he climbed out of the classic Chevy and opened the back door smiling as Sammy reached out for him. Dean swiftly unfastened the car seat straps and scooped up his little brother. "Ready to go shopping, Sammy?" he asked as he shut the back door and settled the toddler on his hip.
"Yea! Doggie!" Sammy hollered clapping his hands.
"Yep, we're getting you a doggie." Dean agreed. Walking through the sliding door of the store he went over to the buggies and pulled one loose. He fixed the child seat and sat Sammy in the buggy making sure to fasten the safety belt. Pushing the shopping cart Dean strolled through the store glancing at all the hanging signs as he walked. Deciding to save the toys for last the young man headed for the baby/toddler section at the back of the store. He passed by the high chairs, car seats, and other furniture making a beeline for the clothes. Finding a sale rack Dean checked the tag on the back of Sammy's shirt and started his search. He held up shirts for his brother's approval laughing as the little boy made a face at the Barney and Teletubbies shirts. Placing those back on the rack he dropped the others in the buggy before going to a nearby shelf full of pants. Remembering Sam's obsession with overalls when he was a little boy the first time Dean grabbed several pair and then moved on to the jeans. Feeling a tug on his shirt sleeve he glanced down at Sammy. "What's a matter, kiddo?" he asked.
"Daddy, I gotta go!" Sammy loudly whispered as he squirmed in his seat.
"Hang on Sammy, we're going" Dean replied. He grabbed the buggy and hurried out of the clothing department. Looking down the aisle he spotted the sign for layaway and headed toward it quickening his pace as Sammy's wiggling intensified. "Crap, I knew I should've have let him drink all that juice!" Dean thought as he raced down the aisles to the restrooms. Turning the corner at layaway he stopped the buggy in front of the men's bathroom door, unfastened the safety strap, and picked up his little brother. Dean pushed open the door and ran into the first empty stall. Setting Sammy on his feet he fumbled with the overall straps for a moment before getting them undone and then helped the toddler get his pants down and sit on the toilet. Seeing the already wet pull up, Dean shook his head. They hadn't made it in time. And to make things worse he'd left all the pull ups at Bobby's along with all the other supplies. Adding a few more items to his list the oldest Winchester was glad he'd played poker and pools the nights before Sam had gotten hurt. Not knowing how long Sammy would be little he couldn't risk using a fake credit card and it was starting to look like he'd need all that money and then some. Hearing Sammy say he was through Dean helped the little boy off the toilet and cleaned him up the best he could before scooping him up and walking out the bathroom door. He sat Sam in the child seat once more and hurried back to the toddler section stopping at the diaper aisle. After throwing a bag of pull ups, wet wipes, and baby powder into the shopping cart, Dean pushed the buggy back to the bathrooms. Parking the cart in front of the men's restroom he ripped open the bag of pull ups. Grabbing one out of the bag he snatched up the wet wipes and powder before picking up Sammy and heading back into the restroom.
Coming out minutes later with a clean and dry little brother Dean steered them back to the toddler department. He tossed a few pairs of jeans into the buggy and then went down another short aisle. There was one more thing he needed to pick up. He trudged up and down the aisles of full of baby formula and mobiles eyes widening at the huge assortment of devices for babies. He and his dad hadn't needed all that crap to take care of Sammy when he was a baby. Course some of it would have been nice to have; like those baby monitors. Those could have saved them from some major headaches. The teething rings would have been a wonderful addition, too. Sammy could have chewed on those instead of his big brother's fingers. Shaking his head at that painful memory Dean turned the corner and walked onto another aisle mentally cheering as a shelf full of diaper bags met his eyes. Strolling down the aisle he looked over every one looking for one that wasn't too babyish. He stopped, mouth dropping open, in front of one particular bag. "No way" he whispered as he reached for the pale colored bag. Picking it up he shakily turned it over in his hands and smiled. The pale green bag with the original Pooh characters looked exactly like the bag his mom had bought before Sam was born. His mom had said she liked that one because it had the book drawn characters and not the Disney version. Dean remembered carrying it whenever they took Sammy to the store or anywhere else. Wiping his eyes he carefully placed the bag inside their buggy and walked out of the aisle.
Content that they now had everything they needed from that department the young man pushed the buggy towards the food section of the store. He swiftly grabbed more juice for his brother along with some snacks for all three of them. Then taking a deep breath Dean walked across the store to the toy department. Spotting a rack of books he picked up a handful of Dr. Seuss books for Sam before moving on to the stuffed animal aisle. He pushed the buggy into the middle of the aisle and stopped. "Okay, Sammy, which one do you want?" Dean asked pointing to the shelves full of animals. Seeing a huge stuffed Scooby Doo he held it up to show his little brother. "How about this one?"
Sammy glanced at the dog in his daddy's hands and shook his head no. He looked over the animals for several minutes before excitedly pointing to one on the top shelf. "Bear! Sammy want bear!" he cried.
Dean stared at the shelf full of stuffed bears. "Which bear, Sammy?" he asked as he walked over to the shelf. "This one?...no, what about this one?...not that one either, huh? Okay then, is it this one?"
"No" Sammy answered shaking his head. Pointing again he hollered, "Bear!"
Dean sighed. They'd be here all day at this rate. Deciding he needed to change his tactics he went back to the buggy and hauled Sammy into his arms. Going over to the bear shelf he put his brother on his shoulders as he slowly walked beside the shelf. "Get the bear you want, Sammy" he instructed. He almost made it to the end of the aisle before his little brother reached out and pulled the stuffed toy he wanted off the shelf. Going over to the buggy Dean carefully lifted Sam off his shoulders and settled him back in the buggy smirking at the small stuffed animal in the boy's hands. "Eeyore, huh? Good choice, kiddo. But I think maybe we should get this one, too." Dean said holding up the enormous Scooby Doo. "You know just in case Eeyore there gets lonely." Seeing the toddler's eyes light up he added the stuffed dog to their buggy before pushing it out of the aisle. Ready to get back to Bobby's Dean headed for the front of the store. He made it three rows before stopping again as a display caught his eye. He gazed at the space ship for a moment and then turned his attention to his little brother who was happily playing with his stuffed Eeyore. When they were little, the two things Sammy had loved most were playing in the dirt and building with Bobby's books or soup cans or anything else he could get his hands on. Dean had gotten him some alphabet blocks at a yard sale once but there weren't enough to really build with. He'd always wished he had the money to get Sammy a block set like the ones they had at school but he'd been too little himself to make the money needed to buy them. 'But not this time' he thought as he picked up a couple of building block sets and tossed them in the buggy. Scanning the shelf Dean grabbed a wooden train set and space ship set he'd seen in the display before moving to another aisle. After adding several big, plastic trucks, a farm set, and a pail and shovel to the buggy, Dean strolled up a couple more aisles. Finding the educational toys he scrutinized each one reading the boxes carefully. Selecting an alphabet train and a phonics set that told the letters and numbers when pushed, he went over to put them in his buggy. Unable to find a free spot to set them in the oldest Winchester set them on the floor. Picking up Sammy he settled the little boy on his hip and pushed the child seat in. He then placed the extra items in the buggy and headed for the check-out counters. Making it to the front of the store he found a register just opening up and hurried to get in line behind a lady holding a nearly empty shopping basket. Going around to the front of his buggy Dean pulled items out of his shopping cart and set them on the rolling counter while he waited his turn. By the time he had emptied the buggy the woman had checked out and the cashier had already begun to ring up his purchases. He rolled his cart up to where the cashier was bagging his supplies and started tossing them back in the buggy as she rang the rest of the items up.
"Looks like somebody's a very lucky little boy" the middle aged cashier stated as she placed the last of the toys in a plastic bag.
Thinking fast Dean gave the woman a sad smile and said, "Not really, ma'am. We lost everything in a house fire a couple of months back and I've been trying to replace things little by little. Finally got enough saved to buy the little guy some toys."
"Oh, you poor things!" the cashier, Mrs. Easton, exclaimed. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No ma'am" Dean replied handing her the money for his purchases. "Thank you for the offer but his grandfather and I have it under control."
"Okay, but if you change your mind, I'll be happy to lend a hand." Mrs. Easton told the younger man.
"Thank you ma'am" Dean said as he pushed the buggy toward the front door. "Have a nice day."
Dean pushed the shopping cart out the sliding doors stopping as Sammy began to squirm in his arms as he chanted 'down'. Holding the buggy with one hand he bent down and set Sam on his feet. "Okay, Sammy here's the deal. You can walk but you have to hold onto me the whole time." Dean instructed placing the boy's hand on the small pocket on his pants' leg. "Can you do that for daddy?"
"Uh huh, Sammy howd daddy." Sam proudly stated clamping his fingers onto the pocket flap.
Ruffling the toddler's mop of dark hair Dean stood and slowly shuffled toward the crosswalk in front of the parking lot. Seeing Nurse Vonnie walking through the parking lot toward them he waved at her. "Hey Vonnie!" he hollered.
Sammy's head snapped up at his father's shout. He glanced up at his daddy before turning to see what he was staring at. Seeing the familiar figure coming their way Sammy dropped his hold on Dean's pants' leg and ran to greet her. "Aunt Vonnie! Aunt Vonnie!" he hollered as he ran down the sidewalk and into the crosswalk right in front of a SUV!