Chapter 2
Sam watched from the doorway as Dean unpacked his things. It was a good job Dean only had a small rucksack of stuff because Daddy had given him the smallest room in the house and there wasn't room for much. Sam thought that was a little weird because there was a bigger room that Pastor Jim and Uncle Bobby sometimes slept in when they visited just down the hall but Daddy had said that if they put Dean in there, where would Jim and Bobby stay and Sam hadn't wanted Daddy to get the idea of putting Dean in his room so he'd shut up about it.
"You got anything cool in there?" he asked as he watched Dean take out another crumpled tee shirt.
"Uhm...I got some comic books," Dean smiled, reaching into the bag again and pulling out a couple of faded comics. Sam turned his nose up as Dean passed them to him; the paper was old and dusty, some of the edges were torn and curled over and, as he flicked through, he was shocked to see that there were pages missing. On top of all that;
"These are old," he pouted, throwing them onto the floor in disgust and smirking at his new brother's hurt expression – Dean might be older by a whole four years but no one was gonna boss him around! ...Well, apart from Daddy sometimes.
"Hey!" Dean yelled, bending down and picking the comics and the lose pages that had scattered around Sam's feet. "Don't throw them!"
"What?" Sam pouted as Dean glared at him, "They're all ripped anyway! You don't even take proper care of them!"
"I do!" Dean shot back, clutching the pages tightly to his chest. "They're mine anyway, I can do what I want with them! Get lost!"
Sam could feel his bottom lip quivering as he tried to figure out what just happened; no one had ever told him to 'get lost' before, not even Daddy.
"I'm not gonna get lost!" he yelled back, blinking away his tears because crying was for babies and he was four years old now. "You're the one who's gonna get lost cos...cos you don't know your way round the house cos it's not your house, it's mine!"
"Sam? What are you yelling about?"
Sam could feel his eyes welling with tears as he heard Daddy thumping up the stairs and across the landing.
"Dean was mean to me!" Sam wailed as Daddy came and stood next to him, pointing accusingly at the older boy. "He yelled at me cos I accidentally dropped his stupid comic books!"
"Go downstairs, Sammy, I'll deal with this."
Daddy sounded cross now and Sam grinned, that would teach Dean to be mean to him. Dean would probably be too scared to even tell on him that he hadn't really 'dropped' the comics. Sam stopped grinning as he reached the bottom of the stairs...maybe it had been kinda bad to lie like that. Daddy always said it was wrong to tell lies...but Dean deserved it, Dean shouldn't have been so nasty to him!
"You think you got the right to come into my home and act like a jerk to my son?"
Wow, Daddy was being really loud. Sam was glad Daddy wasn't shouting at him like that.
"N-no Sir, I didn't- " Dean sounded scared, real scared.
"You calling my boy a liar now?" John yelled and Sam bit down on his lower lip. Dean hadn't really called him a liar, had he? Maybe he had whispered it just now. Yeah, he probably whispered it cos he was too much of a scaredy-cat to say it to Sam's face.
"You've been here and hour and already you start screaming at my family, accusing them of lying!"
Sammy wondered if maybe he should say that Dean hadn't really 'screamed' and that he hadn't called him a liar even though Sam had told a bad lie that had got Dean in big trouble. But Daddy knew what he was doing, Daddy was always right.
"I-"
"Is it these? You think you deserve these after you treat me and my family like trash?"
Sam could hear Daddy moving in the room and he was scared because Daddy was stomping even louder than usual. This was all stupid Dean's fault, now Daddy was in a bad mood and Sam probably wouldn't be allowed to go buy an ice cream when the ice cream truck came round.
"No! No those are mine! Get off!"
Dean was yelling again and Sam really wanted to go upstairs and see what was happening but at the same time, he didn't want to see his Daddy so cross. Anyway, Daddy had told him to stay downstairs and Sam was a good boy who did what Daddy said, not like Dean who was in trouble already.
"Don't you dare tell me what to do! Give me those right now or you'll regret it!"
Sam clamped his hands over his ears as Daddy yelled even louder.
"Ow, no! Get off me!"
He could hear a thumping noise that sounded kinda like someone falling over and then his Daddy stomping out of the room and back down the stairs.
"Hey, Sammy-boy..."
And then Daddy was back to normal and Sammy was so happy he almost (almost) started crying again as he threw his arms round his Dad.
"He's not going to be mean to you about those comic books again," Daddy promised and Sam stopped smiling because he'd told a lie and he felt bad hugging Daddy cos he knew Daddy would be mad at him if he knew.
"Now look Sammy, Dean is a bad boy, that's why his Mummy and Daddy didn't want to look after him," Daddy told Sam in his serious voice and Sam nodded to show he was listening."If he does something bad again, you must tell me so I can teach him a lesson."
Sam nodded earnestly; Daddy was trusting him, Sam wouldn't let him down.
"I will, Daddy," he promised solemnly – he'd tell Daddy every little thing; no way was Sam Winchester gonna let Dean screw up his family.
Dean dusted off his clothes as he pulled himself to his feet and tried to think about what had just happened. He could already tell, as he craned his neck and stared at the red mark blossoming on his arm, that this was going to be one of those families. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised any more – the only type of families that wanted to sponsor a kid as old as him were these kinds of families. Families that fought and yelled and...hurt. Dean sometimes wondered if these types of families were as uncommon as Miss Wright tried to convince him they were.
"We'll find you the right place," she had promised him but Dean knew better than to trust promises from adults anymore. The boy wasn't even sure there was a right place for him. Mr. Morton had always told him he was a freak and it was true, why else would John be so nice to Sam and Miss Wright and everyone else and just be mean to Dean?
Maybe he'd got it wrong, maybe Mr. Winchester was right and he had just tripped. After all, why would a man who seemed so nice to everyone shove him over? Then again, why would a man who seemed so nice rip up Dean's comics in front of his face and throw them at him?
Dean sighed as he looked at the tattered pieces of paper all around him. He'd read them all cover to cover at least a hundred times before, he already knew all the pictures and the speech bubbles off by heart but still...they were his. The only things he had that were fun.
He was obviously going to have to just stop arguing with Sam and then maybe John wouldn't have a reason to yell at him.
As Dean knelt down and gathered up the torn papers from the floor, he couldn't help but wish that someone could just love him all the time instead of only when he was good.
Why did Sammy get a Daddy that loved him and hugged him even though he was a total brat and Dean got shoved around when he hadn't even done anything?
At eight years old and unfortunately wise or his age, Dean already knew the answer – 'Life's not fair' and, for him, it never would be, he was sure of it.
