Chapter 2:
When Dean and I finally arrived at Stanford University, it was four in the afternoon. I was reading a teen magazine that Dean got me at a gas station a few towns over when we stopped for gas. I had been doing the quizzes in the back when Dean put the car in park and turned it off. I looked up to see where we were, and my mouth opened wide at the amount of people walking around. It wasn't just the fact that there was a lot of people, but it was more of the fact that they were all dressed up in costumes.
"Dean!" I said, turning to him. "It's Halloween!"
I had completely forgotten about Halloween, what with worrying about Dad. Dean had brought me trick-or-treating every year since I was seven. I think it was because once Sam had left for school in September, I had become really bummed out, and I didn't want to do anything. Since we didn't really celebrate most holidays because of being on the move and such, Dean figured it would be something I enjoyed.
I loved it. Dean got me a princess costume and drove us to a fancy neighborhood somewhere, where we parked the car and walked around. I got so much candy that night. I think even Dean had fun. I made him wear a kings crown so that he would be dressed up too. The next year we did the same thing, and the year after that, and the year after that.
"I guess it is." Dean said. Suddenly, all the thoughts about finding Sam had gone out of my head. I turned to look at Dean, giving him the best puppy dog look I could come up with.
"Dean? Can we please go trick-or-treating?" I clasped my hands together and knelt on the seat next to him. "Please?"
Dean looked out the window at all the college kids walking around. Before he looked back or said anything, his expression suddenly changed and he leaned closer to the window, focusing on something outside. I turned my attention to the direction he was looking, and my eyes widened when I saw Sam. It was kind of hard to miss him. He was so tall and had dark hair. I guess it was because he was my brother, but I could pick him out of any crowd.
He was with a girl with long blond hair, and boy was she dressed pretty-well. . .
"Sam, you dog." Dean muttered under his breath, and I knew he was impressed. They talked to some boy dressed up in a creepy costume, then turned and headed off down the street. Dean and I stared in silence after them. When they were out of sight, I turned to Dean.
"So. . . trick-or-treating?" I asked hopefully.
~ . ~
Dean agreed to bring me trick-or-treating for a few hours, figuring Sam was going out, and he wanted to talk to him alone. Dean drove me to the nearest Walmart, where I bought a pair of cowboy boots from the shoe section, a pair of jeans, and a plaid button down shirt. Then I found a cowboy hat in the costume section. Dean put my hair in braided pigtails for me when we got back to the car.
We walked around the neighborhood getting candy until most people started to turn their lights off. By then, it was getting to be around ten at night. I had collected a full pillowcase of candy as well as the plastic Walmart bag.
"Alright, let's head back to Sam." Dean said as I walked down the driveway of one of the last houses with their light on.
"Okay." I replied happily. I was going to have so much candy to eat in the car rides the next few days. This was going to be awesome.
I sat in the backseat of the car as we drove back to Stanford, dumping my candy out onto the seat so I could check it for rips or tears in any of the packaging. Dean told me that I had to check all my candy before I ate any, in case someone opened it and put something in it. He said you never know what crazy people might poison someone's candy, or worse, put a razor blade in it. When he said that, I almost threw away all my candy the first year I went trick-or-treating.
"Hey Dean," I said as I unwrapped a snickers bar and took a bite.
"What's up, sweetheart?"
"What if Sam won't talk to you? Or, what if he won't come out to see me?"
Dean told me that he wanted me to wait in the car while he went in to talk to Sam, and that he would bring him out to the car. I don't know why I wasn't allowed inside, but I didn't see the point in arguing.
"I'm sure he'll come out to see you. I bet he's missed you like crazy."
"Then why hasn't he called?" I asked, hurt.
"I don't know. I guess you'll have to ask him that."
I slumped against the seat and chewed thoughtfully on my candy bar. Sam looked happy when he was with his friends today. Really happy. For some reason, it made me sad to see him so happy. I didn't know why, but it was like I didn't want to see him happy here. I would rather see him miserable, and missing us.
"Hey," Dean caught my attention, and I looked up from my hands where I had been folding the empty candy wrapper over and over in my hand, realizing that he was parked on the side of the road outside the student housing once again. "Don't look so sad. You have to show Sam we've had the time of our lives and make him wish he was with us." Dean joked.
"It looks more like he's having the time of his life, though." I sighed, tossing the wrapper back into the pillow case of candy. "Why did he have to leave, Dean? Why weren't we good enough for him?"
Tears started to form in my eyes, and I wiped them angrily with the back of my wrist. Dean reached over the seat and put his hand on my knee.
"Don't blame yourself for this, Anna. None of this had anything to do with you. This was all Sam. Okay?"
I sniffled and focused on a spot on the back of his seat.
"I'm gonna go get him. Keep your phone on you."
I nodded wordlessly as Dean turned back around and opened his door. For a while, I couldn't think what would be worse-Dean coming back without Sam, or coming back with him. I was so confused as whether or not I wanted to see him. It hurt when Sam left to go to college. It was a huge fight between him and Dad. They were yelling loudly back and forth at each other. I was so scared. I was hiding in the corner, covering my ears and crying. Dean had to take me out of the room and brought me to a diner down the road where he got me a hot chocolate and himself a coffee.
When we got back a few hours later, Sam was gone. He left a note saying goodbye, but that was it. Dad left when we got back, too angry to talk to either of us. I cried myself to sleep in Dean's arms that night. I didn't quite know exactly what was going on at the time, but all I knew was that Sam was gone, and Dad was angry. I didn't know how long Sam would be gone, or what was going to happen.
Sam didn't call until Thanksgiving after he left. When he called though, I talked to him for hours, until Dean told me that it was getting late and I had school in the morning. I made Sam promise to call me at least three times a week. He did for a while. Then it went down to twice a week, then once a week, then about three times a month. Soon, he called every few weeks, until he stopped calling completely. He didn't answer any of our calls when we called him back.
Now I was starting to wonder if it was because he found that girl, or if he just got tired of talking to us, and realized that there was more out there for him than what we could offer. We would never be enough for him. Sam didn't want this life.
My phone buzzed, and I picked it up. Dean had texted me, saying that he was coming out with Sam now. My heart started to pump faster, and I thought for a moment if I should run or not. It was a stupid idea, I realized after a few seconds, but I was so anxious. Instead, I opened the car door and got out, going to the back of the car to sit on the trunk.
I heard them before I saw them. Once they got close enough for Sam to notice me, he stopped walking. He stood there looking at me, and I sat there, looking at him. After a moment of silence between the both of us, I slid off the trunk and began walking slowly towards them.
"Wow." Sam said as I got closer. "Anna, you've grown so much." he stammered.
"It's been four years, Sam." I said, my tone apprehensive. I could see the expression in his eyes change slightly, as he nodded his head.
"Yeah, it has." He agreed, and then after another pause, he spread his arms out and asked, "Can I have a hug?"
I hesitated for a moment, then as tears began to pour from my eyes, I nodded my head, running forward into his arms.
"I missed you so much, Sam!" I cried as he stroked my hair.
"I missed you too, Shrimp." He used the nickname he called me ever since we met. I was always a pretty small kid, so was Sam, but he hit a growth spurt once he left and now was huge.
"Then why did you stop calling?" I demanded. "We're family, you don't just leave family!"
"I know, I'm sorry." he said, avoiding answering me.
"Sorry doesn't cut the cheese." I mumbled, a phrase that I once heard Dad say to me when I broke his EMF reader when I wasn't even supposed to be playing with it.
"What?" Sam asked, pulling away, confused.
"It's something Dad said to me once." I shrugged, wiping my eyes.
"Oh," Sam said.
"And speaking of Dad," Dean jumped in, motioning for Sam to go over to where he was at the trunk, which was now open. He had his recorder out.
"I got this voice mail yesterday."
He played it for Sam, who listened.
"Dean . . . Something big is starting to happen . . . I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may . . . Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger." That was Dad. That must have been the voice mail he left. I stared in shock.
"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam pointed out. Dean gave him a half-smile.
"Not bad, Sammy. Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?"
Sam's response was just to shake his head.
"All right. I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got."
Dean played it again, and this time, we heard a woman's voice coming through.
"I can never go home." it said in a sad voice. It gave me chills down my back, and I shuffled closer to Dean's side, lacing my arm through his.
"You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing." Dean said, his voice low. I leaned my head against his arm, looking at Sam with puppy dog eyes. He had to say yes. He had to come with us.
"Alright. I'll go. I'll help you find him." He said after a moments hesitation.
"Really?" I asked, letting go of Dean and wrapping my arms around Sam's stomach, resting my chin on his stomach, looking up at him. Wow, he really was tall. He placed his hand on my head and nodded.
"Yes. But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." he disentangled himself from me and headed back to his apartment.
"What's first thing Monday?" Dean called after him. Sam paused, looking over his shoulder to answer.
"I have this . . . I have an interview."
"What, a job interview? Skip it."
"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate." Sam said back, venom in his voice, as thought Dean and I should have known this already.
"Law school?" Dean smirked at him. Sam glared.
"So do we have a deal or not?"
Dean didn't respond, and Sam turned and continued into his apartment. I turned to Dean who looked about just as thrilled as I looked-which wasn't very. I wasn't sure how I felt about this. It felt weird, strange almost. Like we were three people who didn't really belong together anymore. It was awkward.
"Come on, let's get ready to roll." Dean said, putting his hand on my back an opening the backseat door for me. I climbed in, trying to avoid all my candy I had on the seat. "Hey, get that candy off my seats."
"Okay." I said, hurriedly trying to scoop all the candy back into the pillowcase. I didn't mention that they were all in wrappers still, but the thought of chocolate melting onto Dean's seats accidentally was enough to scare me into putting them all away. Dean would kill me if I got chocolate on his seats.
Dean slid into the front seat and soon my blanket and pillow were being tossed back to me.
"Bedtime for you, kiddo." he said.
"Aww, come on!" I whined. "I want to stay up and talk to Sam."
"I need to talk to Sam. You need some sleep, cause we all know how you get when you don't get enough sleep." Well, he was right. I was a real grump if I started to feel any lack of sleep. "We'll be where we need to be by morning. We'll stop and get some breakfast and you can talk then."
"Alright." I sighed, positioning my pillow where I wanted it to be. I covered myself with my blanket and laid down. This was the nice part about having the backseat to myself. It was a pretty large backseat too.
"Sweet dreams, Anna Lee."
"Goodnight, Dean."
I snuggled my head deeper into my pillow, feeling pretty content, for the first time in a few days. I knew things weren't exactly the way I wanted them to be, but they were changing. Sam coming with us was a huge change. A few days ago, I honestly thought I would never see Sam again. I thought he was going to go on and live his own life and forget about us, that we were ever even a family.
But now that we had Sam, what would it be like when we found Dad? How would they react when they saw each other? Would they start yelling again, fighting before anyone could say anything? Would Dad or Sam take off again?
I pulled my blanket up closer to my face, forcing myself to stop thinking.
No, things would be better. They had to be.
Authors Note:
Thank you everyone for the reviews and adds so far! I just wanted to let you all know that I have a survey on my page now, and I was hoping you would all take it... It's just 5 questions on my profile :) Be honest and truthful, I would love to hear what you all have to say!
GEW