Disclaimer: Yeah... if wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak XD

Sam is 10, Dean is 15

I am OVERWHELMED by the support i'm getting for this story! Thank you all so much!

Things are a little slow at the moment, but I'm trying to make this fic realistic, so please try and be patient XD

I just want to let you guys know, that Sam's behavior might seem a bit strange because he's slightly autistic in this fic. Also, I'm not completely clear on how they might act, so if some of you know autistic kids and think "Sam shouldn't be acting like that," please just let me know and I'll try and improve :)

Enjoy chapter four!

John and Mary carried the bags of clothing upstairs to the boys' room. John softly knocked on their door. "Boys? Mary's back, and she has some clothes for you."

For a moment there was silence. Then there was a soft 'alright.'

John opened the door and he and Mary entered. Dean was in his usual spot in front of his brother while Sam was awake and huddled behind Dean. John and Mary sat the clothes down on the floor in front of them.

"I wasn't sure what would fit you or what you wanted," Mary said, "So I just bought everything. You can look through them and choose what you want."

Dean stared at the bags, face devoid of expression. "Okay," he said. "I'll look through them."

Mary smiled. Nothing happened until Mary realized that Dean meant for them to leave. Mary sighed and said, "Just call me if you two need anything."

"We won't," Dean said.

Mary nodded, clearly disappointed. She turned and left the room. John turned to follow but stopped at the doorway. "We're probably going to do something tomorrow."

Dean nodded. "We'll be fine."

"No…" John turned back around. "I mean 'we' as in Mary and I and you two."

Dean frowned suspiciously. "And what exactly are you going to do?" he asked carefully.

"I dunno... go to a movie, go the park... do you or Sam want to do anything in particular?"

Dean shook his head. "We have no problem staying right here."

John sighed. "You know, it's not healthy for you guys to stay cooped up in this room all the time."

"And sometimes it's not healthy to leave," Dean shot back.

John kept his stoic expression steady. "If we decide to go out, you will come with us."

"Says who?" Dean challenged.

"You're only fourteen, and your brother's only ten. It would be irresponsible of us to let you two stay here alone."

"I'm almost fifteen and perfectly capable of looking after my brother and myself."

"I don't doubt it." Leaving the argument there, John left the room, closing the door behind him.

---

Dean continued to glare at the closed door, silently fuming. He couldn't believe this! Go out? Go out and do what? Pretend to be a family? Be shown off as their new kids? Look at us! We're so charitable to take in these poor kids! Dean shook his head angrily. He refused to be used or shown off as props, so matter how innocent or harmless it seemed...!

A small, shaky tug on his shirt broke Dean out of his silent rant. He turned himself around towards his brother, who was staring into space with large, fearful eyes. His body was shaking, and he was starting to break out in a sweat. He suddenly reached out and grasped one of Dean's hands. He flipped it faced-up and slowly pressed its palm to his forehead, leaning heavily into it and starting to rock back and forth.

Dean watched his brother sadly. He could feel Sam's hands shaking against his and the wetness of tears falling down onto his fingers. He placed a hand on the back of Sam's head and gently ran his fingers through Sam's dirty, matted hair. "It's alright, Sam," Dean whispered. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, placing his forehead against the top of Sam's head. How am I supposed to help you? There's a lot of things I don't want to do, especially with these Winchesters, but I'd gladly do all of them to just hear you speak again...

---

"What was that about?" Mary asked.

"What was what about?" John said distractedly.

Mary was leaning against the hood of the Impala while John was rolled underneath, doing more repairs. Mary loved the Impala almost as much as John, but the constant repairs were so annoying and just a tad expensive.

"You know what I mean," Mary said. "After we gave them their clothes. You stayed for a moment longer. I heard you and Dean talking. What did you guys say?"

John sighed. "I suggested we all go out tomorrow and do something. Dean said if we do, they're gonna stay behind in the house. I told them I couldn't allow that because it's kinda not allowed."

"So we're not gonna do anything?"

"I didn't say that." John rolled back out and gave a small grunt as he scrunched his abs and pulled himself into sitting position. He wiped his hands off as he said, "I think we should all go out to dinner and a movie."

Mary smiled but quickly tried to hide it. She was so excited at the prospect of going out with the boys and doing things and interacting with them, but at the same time, she was pensive at the boy's reactions. "Are you sure we should be taking them out so soon?"

"If they insist on staying in their room, isolated and alone, then there isn't going to be any progress. But we nudge them in the real world, we'll be able to see their reactions, and maybe start to help them."

Mary didn't really understand the logic, but she trusted her husband and his experience.

---

Dean was looking through the clothing, a little appalled by some (Punk-Spongebob? Seriously?) and finding others adequate. As Dean chose what clothing they were going to keep, Sam was neatly folding them and sorting them by color, size, and shape.

"We really need a shower," Dean murmured. He sighed as he stuffed the remaining clothing back into their respective bags, only to have Sam dump them out and start folding and sorting them. After Sam was done, he put the clothing neatly back in the bags.

Dean smiled and wrapped an arm around Sam's shoulders. "Neat freak."

Sam smiled as he curled up in his brother's lap. Dean placed an arm over Sam's body, taking Sam's small hand in his and gently rubbing it.

The clothes that they had decided to keep turned out to be a small pile of jeans, plain t-shirts and plaid button-ups. There was only a couple sets worth of clothing for each of them, but it would certainly do for now.

"Boys?" The door opened and Mary's head popped in. She looked a little surprised to find all the clothes folded and neat, but she quickly shook it off. "We're gonna have lunch soon. Do you have any preferences for sandwiches?"

Dean shook his head. "Can we use the shower?"

"Sure!" Mary opened the door all the way and pointed down the hallway. "The bathrooms just down the hallway next to the linen closet. There should be towels and shampoo for you in there already."

Dean gave a halfhearted smile. "Thanks."

Mary's heart practically soared. "Anytime, sweetie!" Mary turned and felt like skipping down the stairs.

Once he was sure Mary was gone, Dean got up, took Sam's hand, and led him to the bathroom she indicated. Once he was inside, he closed the door behind him and locked it. Then he turned on the water, pointing the arrow towards 'hot'.

While the water was warming up, Dean started to strip and told Sam to do the same. Once the water was warm, they stepped into the shower together.

Wanting to make the shower as short as possible, he mainly focused on making sure Sam cleaned himself. Dean figured the water would be able to rinse off a good amount of grime on him just by being under the spray.

As he helped Sam clean his back, he tried to be as gentle and careful as possible, trying not to irritate Sam's still-sensitive skin. He ran a hand over Sam's bumpy back, memories coming back to haunt him. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. No. He couldn't dwell on it. Sam's fine, and now they're here, with problems here.

---

The rest of the day past uneventfully. When they had lunch, it was the same routine as before. Dean eating a little and Sam mimicking him.

Mary spent the afternoon and early evening returning the clothes the Dean said they didn't want and bought more t-shirts and plaid button-ups. John contented himself with watching football while Sam and Dean stayed in their room.

That evening, when they were all at the dinner table, John paused in his eating and said, "We're going out to dinner and a movie tomorrow. As a family."

Dean stopped in his eating and glared at John. "What if we don't want to?"

"Too bad. You're part of this family now and you will do things like movies and going out with us." John sighed. "Now we can see the new Batman movie, or maybe that dinosaur movie... what's it called... oh yeah! Jurassic Park!"

Dean continued to glare at the man. As John continued to discuss possible movies to see with his wife, Dean closed his eyes and clenched his fist hard, angry that that he had no control over the situation.

"What about it, guys?" John asked the brothers. "What do you want to see?"

Dean sagged in his chair and sighed. "Batman," he murmured reluctantly.

John smiled. "Alright. Batman it is!"

---

The next evening, they left at five to go to have dinner at a place called Fuddruckers. Dean gave the building a look of disbelief when he saw the sign, and unconsciously held Sam closer.

Mary noticed Dean's reaction and smiled. "I know. Weird place. Weird name, too. They even label their mustard 'Mother Fuddrucker.' But they have great bacon cheese burgers!"

John parked and they all got out. Sam looked around, noticed all the people, and immediately buried his face into Dean's chest, his thin body trembling with fear. Dean placed and hand on Sam's back and on the back of his head, holding Sam close.

John and Mary were standing a couple yards away, watching the scene carefully. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Mary asked her husband.

"They're going to have to learn how to be in the real world somehow."

"But they're just children, John!"

"And what about when we need to go out for clothing? Or food? Or someone comes over? They need to learn how to deal with new situations like this."

Mary sighed and looked back at the boys. Dean was whispering something in Sam's ear, rubbing small circles into his back. A few moments later, Sam pulled himself away from Dean's chest, but still stayed glued to his side as they made their way to the restaurant.

---

To all of their relief, dinner passed without much incident. Dean kept Sam right in front of him the entire time, making sure everyone stayed a good three feet away with a good glare. As Mary watched them, she could almost imagine Dean with wings. She could almost perfectly imagine them folded around Sam for further protection against the world.

When they sat down to eat, Sam was practically in Dean's lap, his eyes getting worriedly glassier and more unfocused as time went on.

It was a sigh of relief when they all came out of Fuddruckers. Sam had his brother's shirt in such a death grip, that Dean just picked him up and carried him to the car. It looked a bit strange watching a fourteen-year-old carrying a ten-year-old, but Mary and John didn't dare question it or try to help Dean with the load.

They went to a six-thirty showing of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. During the movie, Mary constantly shifted her eyes to the boys. Dean was sitting next to her, while Sam was sitting on the same seat between Dean's legs. Dean had his arms protectively wrapped around his brother, his chin resting on Sam's head.

During some of the more scary parts, Mary expected Sam to get scared. But he didn't. He watched the entire movie with a never-changing look of curiosity.

As the credits started to roll and the lights came back on in the theater, John stood and stretched, his back feeling stiff from sitting so long. "That wasn't that bad for a kid's movie," he commented. The turned to Sam and Dean, who were standing up and also stretching. "What did you guys think?"

Dean looked at John for a moment, clearly surprised by the question. Then he smiled, actually smiled. "I thought it pretty good, too," he said quietly.

John smiled back. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." John looked down at Sam and said, "What about you, buddy? What did you think?"

Sam was looking around the theater, showing no sign of hearing John's question. John sighed. I need to do some research on autism. "Alright, let's go."

John led they way, followed closely by Mary and the boys. Mary wasn't showing it, but she was thrilled with John and Dean's exchange. They seemed to be definitely making progress as far as getting him settled. But it also made it more evident that Sam was going to be a greater challenge.

On the way out the theater, there was some spilled soda. Not seeing the puddle, Sam mis-stepped, slipped and fell to the ground. When he landed on his hands on knees, tears welled in his eyes and he started to tremble again. Dean knelt beside him and tried to help Sam stand, but Sam seemed to have gone stiff with fear.

John frowned as he watched Dean try to get Sam to stand. Sam's eyes were wide and fearful, as if he was expected something awful to happen. Dean was muttering reassurances, pulling Sam up with some form of fearful haste, but nothing was breaking through Sam's sudden catatonia. Dean himself seemed fearful of the situation and tried harder to get Sam to stand.

John rushed up to the brothers. Neither boy noticed his arrival, both seemingly too frightened. Without thinking John said, "Sam, are you alright?" and instinctively placed a hand on his shoulder for comfort.

That's when all hell broke loose.

Well...? Whaddya think? Is it what you expected? Better? Worse? Serious, review and let me know EXACTLY what you think.

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