A routine had been established while at Bobby's since "the day Cass went nuts with power". The boys got up together, Sam took a shower first, Dean sat outside of the bathroom and listened for any disturbances, and then Dean took a shower while Sam stayed in the bathroom, and dressed, shaved, and brushed his hair. Dean would get out of the shower, wrap a towel around his waist, shave, go into the bedroom, dress, and then the two of them would stand side by side and brush their teeth.

Sam took advantage of their routine that day to corner Dean and talk to him about Andrew Winchester. "When he comes today we need to invite him in and actually talk to the guy Dean."

Dean sighed, pulled the toothbrush from his mouth, spit, and gave his brother a withering look. "Why? What is the point of talking with this guy? He wanted to know where Dad was, we told him, end of story." Dean said and went back to vigorously brushing his front teeth.

Sam removed the toothbrush from his mouth, spit, and returned, "Because he's Dad's dad."

Spit, "Yeah, and that whole "because I'm family" thing has always worked out so well for us in the past."

Sam spit and turned the water on and rinsed his toothbrush. "Dean. I've never met any of Dad's family…I'd like to see where we come from. I'm not suggesting we trust this guy. I just want to get to know him. Just a little bit." Dean looked up at his brother, Sam had turned on the full wattage of his puppy dog eyes, and then said, "You always said family is the most important thing." Sam didn't' have to pull out the big guns, the puppy dog eyes already had him conceding to his little brother.

"Fine. If he shows up today, and that's a big IF, then I won't push him out the door again. But I'm only doing this for you Sammy. I don't want him anywhere near either of us. But.." Dean licked his lips and threw his hands up and let them slap against his legs when they came down. "You win." Dean said and grabbed his over shirt and exited the bathroom.

Dean turned to his brother and asked, "How do you even know he will come back today."

Sam shrugged. "Winchester men seem to come by their stubbornness honestly Dean." Dean shook head and sighed.

"Whatever dude."

SNSNSNSNSNSN

Bobby smiled to himself as he heard Sam and Dean clomping down the stairs to the kitchen. Sam had slept mostly through the night last night, and Dean had indicated this morning, when Bobby had checked in on the two of them that it looked like today would be one of Sam's good days, which had been a relief. Sam didn't deserve to live like this, in a daze, or so exhausted that he could barely focus on anything. The boy had saved the world, had sacrificed himself so everyone could go on with their lives as if nothing had changed, and he was rewarded with night terrors and space out sessions that he wouldn't talk about. So when he heard the brother's bickering about something he knew not what, it felt like the good old days when the boys were teenagers and nothing could get in between them.

Dean grabbed coffee for himself and Sam sat down at the table and poured the cereal. Dean watched his every move very carefully, from pouring the cereal to putting the first bite in his mouth. It truly was going to be a good day today, and Dean thanked the real God for this little miracle.

"You sitting out in the garage with your brother?" Bobby asked as he took a seat next to Sam.

"No. I had an okay night. I'm feeling pretty good today, and I need to finish off Holbrook's stuff, and call him back." Dean snickered and put a cup of coffee in front of his brother and surrogate father.

"You sure you don't want to call in sick for that one boy?" Bobby asked with a hint of humor.

"Yeah, the dude thinks mustard can be used as a weapon against demons. We might consider letting natural selection take its course and allow a monster to eat him." Dean said with a laugh.

"Dean. That's not nice."

Dean smiled. "I love that you worry about that." Sam closed his eyes tightly and tried desperately not to roll them.

"And I think it is creepy that you keep saying that." He said with irritation. Dean muffled his humor behind the coffee cup.

SNSNSNSNSNSN

The cap to the uneventful day was Andrew Winchester pulling into Singer Salvage. Dean was walking from the garage to the house wiping his hands on a rag when he saw Andrew's tall figure step out of the car. Sam was right, stubbornness was most certainly a Winchester trait. He let out a frustrated breath and stopped short allowing the older man to walk to him.

"I want answers." Andrew said by way of greeting.

"And the only reason that you're going to get any is because my brother wants to get to know you." Dean said in a huff and simply walked towards Bobby's front door, and Andrew took that as a cue to follow.

"Sam!" Dean called when he stepped into the living room. "He's here!"

Sam emerged from the kitchen where he had spent most of his day answering phones and trying desperately to get Holbrook off of the phone. "Mr. Winchester." Sam said politely and walked forward and shook the older man's hand. "We met yesterday."

"Yeah, you're the one who isn't a son of a bitch." Dean growled and strode quickly to the kitchen.

"My brother is just being cautious."

"Your brother is an ass."

"That is my brother you are talking about. You are only here because I wanted to talk to you, you say one more derogatory thing about my brother, and you'll be lucky if all I do is kick you out on your ass."

Andrew stood up straight and when he did so, he and Sam were eye to eye. "You have some balls boy I'll give you that." Sam led the older man to the kitchen.

"You want a beer?" Sam asked.

"That would be nice." Sam glanced at Dean, and he went to the refrigerator and grabbed a holy water beer and practically threw it across the table at Andrew. Andrew and Dean glared at one another.

Sam ignored the open hostility and asked. "You asked yesterday how our dad died."

Andrew swallowed hard and took a swig from the bottle, Dean waited for smoke, and was disappointed when he saw none, he was itching for a reason to put Ruby's knife into the man's chest. "Yeah. How did my boy die?"

"Car accident. I was driving both Dean and Dad to the hospital, they'd had been a little accident while doing some work for some people, and a semi-truck came out of nowhere and plowed into Dad's side of the car. He reached out to protect Dean who was the more injured of the two of them, and he died because of it." Dean looked down at his boots, scuffed them against the dingy tile floor. He couldn't look up, couldn't face anyone when they found out that their dad died to save him. It was like an angry infected wound, that people poked at every now and then, but they only managed to make it worse.

Andrew nodded, blinked back tears, and took another swig. "Did he go quick?"

"Very quickly." Sam said.

"7 years ago you said?"

"Yes sir."

There was pause in the information sharing session, Sam wanted the older man to get ahold of his feelings, wanted him to be able to process what was going on. Sam understood what it felt like to lose the one person in the world who you loved above all others. But Dean, who didn't have patience for people who didn't hold their family tight and close, and who didn't have the patience of a saint when it came to other people exploded, "Why are you just now coming around sniffing for information, huh?" Dean asked harshly. Sam turned to find his brother in his defensive stance leaning against the counter his arms and legs crossed. Sam gave his brother a look that said 'not now' and Dean ignored it.

"I've been looking for your dad for 23 years."

"That's bull shit if I've ever heard it." Dean dismissed.

"I have. I've been looking for him ever since you were 9 years old. That's when he cut contact with me and his mother."

"Right, whatever. I was 9 years old. I knew what was going on, I would have noticed if there had been phone calls to an absent grandfather."

"Believe what you want kid…"

Dean stalked to the table, leaned in and in a lethal whisper said, "Don't you ever call me kid."

Sam put a hand on Dean's chest and pushed him back a little and looked Andrew in the eyes and asked, "Why did you lose Dad?"

He looked up into the angry face of Dean Winchester, and then back and the friendly curious face of Sam and said, "He quit calling once I threatened to call child services. He was dragging you boys all over the country, and for no damn good reason. He kept prattling on and on about having to find Mary's killer. Had to find Mary's killer. I told him that was what police were for, but my son was stubborn…"

"Family trait." Bobby said from the entrance of the kitchen. Dean jumped little at Bobby's sudden presence. He'd been so angry he hadn't heard Bobby come in. Bobby put a hand on Dean's shoulder, felt the tension radiating off of the younger man and gave a gentle nudge to pull him away from his position leaning over the table. Dean acquiesced and took a step back.

"I guess it is." Andrew said slowly. "John wouldn't listen. Said that he would find Mary's killer, swore up and down that she'd been killed by someone. It was just a simple house fire. Faulty wiring. Just an accident. And he had you boys running all over creation on his little insanity tour, and it wasn't right for you boys. Sam was five, Sam needed to be in school, regular school, and I told him so, and we exchanged some hateful words, and then I said I'd call Child Protective Services on him, get you two into my care, so you guys could have a stable life, and that was the last time I heard from him. Been looking for him ever since."

"Dad was right." Dean said softly with an edge of danger. "That son of a bitch who killed our mom was caught. He found him.

Andrew had a come back, wanted to throw it at Dean, but he remembered Sam's threat, and sensed that Sam wouldn't joke on the matter, so he continued. "My wife, she's real sick, been sick for a year now. I had to put her in a home. She wanted to see her boy again. So, I hired a PI and he led me here to you boys."

"I'm sorry." Sam said softly. "I'm sorry for all you have lost." And that melted Dean just a little, Sam had lost John too. Sam hadn't had time to grieve properly for their father, he'd been so busy taking care of a less than altogether Dean, and Dean knew it still hurt him to think of Dad, yet, Sam was able to feel bad for a man who hadn't seen his son in 28 years. His little brother, his soulful little brother, always amazed him.