Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural in any way, shape, or form

"Anger blows out the lamp of the mind." - Robert Green Ingersoll

As soon as the three men – the two Winchesters and Caleb – had saddled their way into the house, Joshua's antenna perked up.

Something was up.

Caleb was stiff; unresponsive. He smelled like smoke, and his greeting was even kinder than usual - a quick flick of his middle finger, enough for Josh to get the message but not long enough for Jim to notice and chastise. John headed straight for a bottle of vodka. Dean flopped down on the couch and handed his brother a few boxes of meager presents, forcing a smile onto his face before he flopped down onto the couch.

Joshua didn't wait long before he escorted his younger brother outside towards the old barn. There hadn't been animals in it in nearly fifty years – Jim wasn't much of a livestock man, and his only pets were the stray dogs that followed him home looking for scraps of food and eventually wormed their way in as permanent pets. But the barn was still out back, with peeling paint and plenty of hay bales.

Caleb sat down on one of the hay bales. He could barely make out his brother's face in the darkness. He held out his own hand in front of his face, and was scarcely able to trace where his fingers began and ended.

"So," Joshua said after a few long minutes of silence, "you going to talk or should I start asking questions?"

Caleb put his hand down and sighed. "Bring on the interrogation lamps, my friend."

Joshua laughed hollowly. "It happened to you, didn't it?"

"What?"

"John."

Caleb jumped up and grabbed his brother's sweatshirt, pulling the older man's face closer to his. "Just stop talking right now, just shut the fuck up while you're ahead."

He let go of his brother and stomped only a few paces before Joshua let out a chuckle. "You aren't Johnny's little golden boy anymore, are you?" Caleb tipped his face skyward, moonbeams lighting up the gentle features on his face.

"Suddenly John isn't so in love with you anymore. He pushed you out just like he pushed me out." Joshua whistled. "Wow. I never thought I'd see the day."

Caleb spun around. "See the day…?"

"See the day when cheapskate Johnny, who will barely buy his kids even the shittiest of Christmas gifts, would give up on free babysitting from little Caleb."

Caleb punched his brother so fast Josh barely saw it coming. His eyes seared as he brought his hands to his jaw, groaned as he tried to shift it back into place. "Yup," he mumbled, "I had that one coming."

Caleb sighed and looked down at the ground. "Sorry," he mumbled. "You want ice?"

Josh shook his head, and moved towards the side of the barn where he picked up two ice cold bottles of beer he had brought out, one of which he cracked open and handed to his brother. "I'm good," he said as he pressed the other bottle to his jaw.

They sat down together, Caleb taking a swig of the drink.

"So," Josh said, "I'm guessing this means you aren't going to be sticking around here much longer."

Caleb shook his head. "Either I go or John goes."

Josh laughed. "You'll kiss and make up."

Caleb gave him a scowl. "Not this time."

Josh brought the bottle away from his face, where he poked his tender skin before he cracked open his own beer. "So I've got to pry, because I'm guessing it wasn't just that you crashed the Impala."

Caleb shook his head. "No," he mumbled, "it wasn't. Started everything, though." He sighed. "It was just…Dean got angry because the two of us were just sitting around too stubborn to do anything. Kid kinda started running his mouth, you know? And then John goes in to smack him and I don't know, it all kind of started to hit me. He's always all, 'protect them, Caleb!' and 'look after him, Caleb!' so what am I supposed to do, stand around and watch John beat the crap out of him, like Dad?"

Joshua rolled his eyes, gazing up at the stars. "Caleb, John is a lot of things, but he isn't Dad." His younger brother shot him an incredulous look before he quickly added, "Not that I'm defending him or anything, because he definitely isn't a great parent…"

"He isn't a parent period!" Caleb jumped up from the hay bale and threw down his bottle.

Joshua shook his head. "You can't try to interfere with him, Caleb. John's going to do whatever he wants to do, and no one is going to convince him otherwise. I tried to step in, tried to do what I thought was helpful and look what happened."

"So I'm just supposed to kick back and watch the show, enjoy the free popcorn, emergency exits to the left?"

"Yes."

Caleb fumbled words for a minute before he choked out, "Then you're an idiot."

Joshua shook his head before he pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "You'd better make up with John soon, or being here is going to be really uncomfortable for you."

Caleb shook his head. "I told you already, Josh, I'm not staying here, I'm leaving."

Josh shook his head, draining the last few droplets from his beer before he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "You aren't going nowhere."

Caleb shook his head. "I'm out of here first thing tomorrow morning."

Josh sighed and scratched his head, starting to feel his temper rise. "You aren't leaving, Caleb."

"Says who?"

"Says me!"

"You don't get to tell me whatever you want, you don't get to control me!" Caleb started to storm off before his brother threw the empty beer bottle against the side of the bar so that it shattered before he grabbed his brother, whipped him around, and took hold of him by the collar of his shirt, pulling his face closer to his own.

"You listen to me," he whispered ferociously, "and you listen good. You. Aren't. Leaving."

Caleb pulled away, mumbling, "Get off me, man." He brushed off his shoulders before he shot back, "I can do whatever the hell I want!"

Joshua shook his head. "That's not how it works! You're sixteen, you have a good thing going here. Where are you going to go, back to the streets? Back to those bums who you called your friends?"

"Hey, you know what, you don't get to pretend to care about me, alright? You didn't give a crap the first time I ended up out there."

"Yeah, well things were different then."

"How?"

Joshua roared in exasperation. "I was sixteen, I was stupid, I was ready to live my own life!"

"Exactly! You took off and you didn't care that you were leaving me with Dad who didn't give a shit to what I did as long as I didn't drink any of his beers."

"Yeah, well it's time for me to start caring!"

"Well you weren't caring when it counted! You weren't caring when I needed you there!" Caleb shouted. "You don't get to care now!"

"You aren't leaving and that's final! I don't even want to hear it anymore!"

"You won't have to hear anymore. In fact, you won't have to hear any more of me for a while, because I'm leaving!"

Dean, who was lurking with his younger brother near the back door, felt as if his stomach was going to fall out his ass at this statement. Sam looked up at him with a terrified face as the argument raged outside in the frigid December chill. "Is Caleb really going to leave?" Sam whispered.

Dean shook his head. "I don't know," he whispered. "I think so."

"First Josh and now Caleb too?" Sam asked, tears glistening in his eyes.

Dean shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips as the two of them peered back outside, where the older set of brothers were in full-fledged raging mode.

The fear in Dean's stomach was replaced by a wild animal of rage as he watched Josh grab his younger brother by the shoulders and start pushing him into the barn and even punch him across the face. Before the word, "No!" parted from Sam's lips to stop his brother Dean threw the back door open and was out like a bullet, racing against the wet grass before he launched himself at Joshua's back, catching the older and heavier man by surprise and pulling him to the ground.

Sam was caught for a moment between obeying his father's rules of not leaving the house after dark and helping Dean break up the fight. The choice was obvious, however, when Joshua pulled away from Dean's grasp and punched the young teenager across the face and went back to attacking his younger brother.

"Dean!" he screamed as he charged outside, slipping in the grass. He got up, panting, and barely noticing before he knelt down by his brother. "Dean?" he whispered, grabbing his brother's shoulder.

Dean pushed Sam off him and charged at Joshua again. "Stop hurting him!" he shouted.

Josh turned around and Dean instinctively put his hands up to block another blow. "Will you get the hell out of here?"

Caleb took the opportunity to deck his brother across the face. Joshua stumbled backwards, reeling from the strength of the blow.

His words were spoken quietly and practically drowned out by Bobby yelling for everyone to, 'get yourselves the hell out here 'cause we're all beatin' the crap out of each other!' but Dean heard every word clearly,

"You leave them alone."

Jim was outside first, followed closely by a limping John. "What happened?" he cried, his eyes taking Joshua who was shaking with anger as blood gushed from his nose, Caleb who looked as if he'd just been hit by a Mack truck, Dean who was pale with a fat lip, and little Sammy who looked utterly terrified, tears clinging to his dark lashes.

"What happened?"

"John," Jim murmured, grabbing his friend's arm, "calm down."

"Josh was beating up Caleb!"

Josh turned to the seven year old. "How about you shut up or I'll beat you up too!"

Just as John shouted, "Don't even think about trying anything!"', Caleb screamed, "You touch him and I pry your balls off with a paperclip!"

And as Jim quickly ushered the boys inside, John and Caleb couldn't help but stare at each other.