Title: Everything Changes
Author: keb1991
Rating: T for Teen (I always wanted to say that…you know, like a video game…yeah…)
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, the CW does. Darn them! (all this means that I'm not making any money, just having good ol' fun)
Summary: Pre-series. John and Dean receive an unwelcome wake-up call when Sam is injured on a hunt. Sam is 9, Dean is 13 Sammy angst!
AN: Well, y'all convinced me to continue this story from the massive response I got from the first chapter. Definitely wasn't what I expected, so thank you all for reviewing. I have made up one or two location names, so sorry 'bout that. I hope that I can make this story the best it can be. Not much action yet, but trust me it'll be coming up soon! This one's a bit longer, thank that to my stupid internet for cutting out on me, forcing me to keep writing. Enjoy! (still no beta...so any mistakes are all mine)
Everything Changes
Chapter Two
After dinner that night John left the boys alone to relax and watch television, with a firm warning to stay out of trouble. He went back to his study to do some more research.
Earlier that day he had received a phone call from a friend of his telling him about a strange string of disappearances stirring up in Thomas County, Georgia, which was only one county over from their current residency in Brooks.
It appeared that four people under the age of twenty-five, three females and one male, had gone missing in the area over the past two days. All four were last seen in or around Redding Park.
The first person to go missing, Lauryn Manners, was a junior on her school's track team. Her parents told the cops that she had been headed to the park to go on her daily two mile jog. When she still hadn't come home four hours later, they called the police.
The second, third, and fourth persons all went missing the day after Lauryn. Two girls, Allison Johnson and Beth Rumsey, and one boy, Tucker Michaels, were all between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. They had been out at a local bar, drinking, with another friend, John Nudders. John told the police that at around midnight his friends had decided they wanted to go for a stroll in the nearby park. They wanted him to go with them, but since John had class in the morning he turned them down and went home. That morning when his friends never showed up after class to meet up with him, and he couldn't reach them from their homes, he called the police to report them missing.
There were so many possibilities hovering over this case that John was hesitant to take his boys with him. Without knowing the cause behind the disappearances, the risk factor was raised to a burning red.
They would have to research the case more when they got to Thomas County. If it turned out to be more than the boys could handle, John would perform the hunt on his own, leaving Sam and Dean at the motel for the duration.
Now that he had reached his verdict, all that was left was telling the boys they would be leaving early in the morning.
xxxxxx
Sam and Dean were lounging in the living room, watching their favorite television program, Scooby Doo. However, it seemed that only Sam was truly focused on the screen.
Dean still couldn't fully wrap his hands around the idea of his little brother going on a hunt. Things could appear to be under control one moment, and then the next it could get exceedingly dangerous.
It's not that Dean didn't trust Sam's abilities when it came to hunting, it was his internal fear that something would happen and it would be his own fault. But if their father believed it was the right thing to do…
"Hey Dean?" Sam asked from his position on the armchair.
"Yeah?" Dean, who was lying down on the couch, replied.
"Do you think I'm ready to go hunting?" The question seemed innocent enough, but Dean knew there was an underlying reason hidden there somewhere.
"Of course you are. Are you forgetting who's been training you? With all my big brother knowledge I have bestowed upon your munchkin brain, you'll do just fine. And I'll be there to back you up, so nothing bad'll happen," Dean said encouragingly, trying to keep the hidden fear from creeping out of him through his tone of voice. Somewhere deep down behind his emotional walls he kept up to hide his feelings from his brother, he was afraid.
And Dean Winchester did not get scared easily.
No, Dean Winchester, even at the ripe age of thirteen, was not fearful of many things. But there was one thing, one person, that he would be worried about for the rest of his life.
Sam.
xxxxxx
"Hey boys I need to talk to you for a minute," John said upon entering the living room later that night, close to his boys' bedtime.
Dean immediately switched off the television set and, along with Sam, turned his attention towards their father.
"Yeah Dad?" the boy asked curiously. From the look on the elder's face Dean knew something important was up.
"Well, I think I've got a job for us to do," John started, gauging his boys reactions before continuing, "it's not too far from here, maybe a forty minutes drive to the next county over. I got a call earlier today and it seems that four people have gone missing. The police are baffled; leaving me to believe it could be something supernatural. So…if you both are up to it we'll be leaving early tomorrow morning."
"I'm up to it!" Sam said, pushing himself up from the armchair.
"Dean?" John turned to his eldest.
"Yeah Dad, let's do it," Dean said, a small smile forming on his face.
"All right, then. Off to bed you two, I'll be waking you up really early tomorrow so we can get ready and leave. Make sure you get a lot of sleep, we have a long next few days."
xxxxxx
The next morning John kept true to his promise of waking the boys up early.
Really early.
"Dad?" Dean asked groggily. Glancing over at the nightstand in between his and Sam's bed he was met with the flashing red numbers: 5:03. "Oh man," he groaned loudly.
"Get up, get ready. You have until 5:30 to have your stuff packed, and don't forget to eat breakfast," John ordered, "That means you, Sam." And with that John left the boys alone.
Sam stirred awake, looking sleepily around the room. When all he saw was his brother in the bed next to him, he decided to lie back down. Just five more minutes…
"Sam! Get your scrawny butt out of that bed now!" came their father's voice from downstairs.
"Man! How does he know?" Sam asked incredulously, "It's like he can read our minds."
"He's Dad," was all Dean offered as clarification for the younger boy. "Now get up and start getting your stuff together."
xxxxxx
Fifteen minutes later both boys were down in the kitchen. Dean was pouring him and Sam each a bowl of cereal for breakfast when their father walked in.
"Good job, guys. Now hurry up and eat that, we'll leave in ten minutes," John announced, grabbing the boys' bags and walking out the front door to put them in the trunk.
"Sam do you want some juice?"
No answer.
Sam, who had yet to fully wake up, was sitting down at the kitchen table, staring lazily off into space.
Dean walked up to his brother and waved his hand in front of the younger boy's face. "Anyone in there?" he joked, moving his hand to smack Sam on the back of the head, causing the boy to jerk.
"I asked you a question," Dean said, moving around the table to sit across from his brother. "Do you want any juice?"
"What? Uh…no thanks Dean, I think I'll just settle with the cereal," was Sam's distracted reply.
"Hey, are you okay?" Dean asked worriedly, searching his brother's face, trying to find some sort of clue as to what his problem could be. Poor kid's probably freaking out.
"Yeah…so what do you think we're going to be hunting?" the little boy wondered, putting on a false smile for his brother's sake.
"I don't know, but I'm sure it's nothing too dangerous if Dad's letting us come along," Dean explained, trying to reassure his brother.
A moment later their father came back into the kitchen and told them to head out to the car before running back up the stairs, apparently having forgotten something.
Dean pulled himself up from the table, grabbing his and Sam's dirty bowls. He rinsed them off in the sink and placed them in the dishwasher.
"You good Sam?" Dean questioned of the boy as he walked into the living room to grab their coats.
"Yeah, let's go," Sam responded, with what appeared to be a genuine smile spreading on his face, as Dean walked back into the kitchen. Getting up from the kitchen table, Sam grabbed his jacket from Dean and ran out the still open front door to the car.
Right then John came back down the stairs with a bag slung over his should. "Let's go Dean. You sure you and Sam packed everything?"
"Yes sir," Dean answered before shrugging on his own jacket and walking out the door to join his brother by the car.
John looked around their small home briefly before crossing the threshold and locking the front door behind him.
He silently prayed that this hunt would go without fault…
TBC…
xxxxxx
So, did ya like it? Don't think just because I'm updating you don't have to review (wink,wink). Review and tell me your thoughts, concerns, whatever.