A/N: Finally. They're gonna being the same room...
Love Etc (Chapter 7) by frostygossamer
Dean arrived at the Tavern to find Sean manfully keeping the bar in the main room, while one waitress and the assistant from the kitchen served the early evening diners.
"Hi, Sean," he said. "Looks like you're coping OK."
Sean scoffed. "Cookie's managing alone in the kitchen. He brought his kid in to do the dishes. And I've got kitchen staff serving. If you can deal with the booking in the back room?"
Dean flashed him a reassuring grin and patted him on the shoulder.
"No problem, man," he said. "Piece of cake."
Dean went in the private bar at the back and switched on the lights. First of all, he needed to shift the spare chairs that had been stored in there since the last time the room was used. It was for some chick's birthday soirée, he remembered.
After clearing the floor, he adjusted the mood lighting and set up a couple tables, then he checked out the stock in the smaller bar in the corner of the room. With that done, he walked back out and into the kitchen.
"Hi there, Cookie," he greeted the tubby man who was stirring saucepans on the stovetop, while his skinny teen busied himself mopping the floor around him. "Hey, kid. How's it hanging?"
The kid stopped and grinned foolishly. "Kinda low, Dean," he answered.
His father tapped him on the head with a spoon. "No slacking!" he commanded, then he pointed to some trays laying on the counter beside him. They were full of snacks freshly prepared for the private drinks party. "There you go, Dean, those'll be for you."
Dean emptied the trays onto serving plates and put the plates on a trolley, then he trundled them into the back room and laid them out on the tables he had set up. He surveyed the room.
"Peachy," he thought, clapping his hands together. "Now all we need is a little background music."
Guests started to drift in in dribs and drabs. They ordered their drinks and then stood around the edges of the room in awkward twos and threes chatting quietly. After a few minutes, a small group came in together, led by a middle-aged bearded guy with a slim young blonde on his arm. The age-mismatched couple were laughing together over some shared joke. The others with them smiled respectfully.
"Hmm. Important guy," thought Dean, occupied polishing glasses with a bar towel. "The old freakin' goat," he chuckled under his breath.
"So when am I gonna meet this new beau of yours, Rachel?" he clearly heard the older guy ask.
"Oh, he'll be along soon, Bobby," she answered. "Meanwhile let's have a drink."
With that the blonde, Rachel, stalked over to the bar and caught Dean's eye with a flirty smile. Now he recognized her. She was the chick from the birthday party.
"Hi, handsome," she said. "I'd like a manhattan, please, and my friend would like a straight whiskey."
Dean served up the drinks. "There you go," he said, as he placed them on the bar.
She had just returned with their drinks to her old guy when the door opened, with an unfortunate creak. Dean made a mental note to oil that some time. And who should walk in but... Sam, looking oddly bashful.
Everyone in the room stopped talking and looked at him, but before he could say anything, Rachel prowled over to him and slapped a smooch right on his mug, resting her hands on his strong shoulders. She was all over him. Sam seemed to return the kiss pretty enthusiastically. The crowd clapped and hooted.
Eventually she pulled away from him and said, "At last. We've all been waiting for you."
Dean felt a pang, yes it was a goddamn pang, of envy shoot through his heart.
"Damn you bitch," he thought. "The only guy I EVER had the serious freakin' hots for and he's YOURS."
But, hey, if this chick was Sam's wife, fiancée, whatever, then there was going to be an awkward moment when Sam spotted Dean right there in the same room with her. So Dean decided he had better keep a low profile. He quickly finished pouring a couple dozen flutes of champagne, so the guests could help themselves, and disappeared behind the counter.
While Dean was sitting on the floor behind the bar, someone else joined the party. It was Dan the dentist, Rachel's date. The moment she spotted him, Rachel abandoned Sam and ran to his side, flinging herself into his outstretched arms.
"Oh, Dan honey, I almost thought you wouldn't make it," she gasped, after a long and passionate embrace with her guy. "You gotta meet everyone."
She grabbed his hand and dragged him over to Bobby and Sam, now sipping champagne together.
"Guys, this is Dan," she said proudly. "Dan, this is Sam, my 'boss', and Bobby, our new 'trainee'," she quipped.
Sam shook the newcomer's hand.
"Glad to meet you at last, Dan," he said. "Rachel had been bending my ear about you. I'm Rachel's senior partner, by the way, not her boss."
"And it's a deuced long time since I been a trainee," laughed Bobby, doing the same, "Pleased to meet ya."
Someone coughed above Dean's head. He glanced upward. A curly-haired young guy was leaning over the bar, looking down at him.
"Any chance of a beer?" he asked. "Not into this 'bubbly' stuff."
Dean stood up and dusted himself off. It was a little embarrassing, getting caught hiding from people.
"Stock-taking," he said by way of explanation, and poured the kid a Bud.
He looked around the room. Sam and Bobby were chatting together. Rachel was now draped around some NEW guy, and she was getting even MORE handsy with this new guy than she had been with Sam.
"That bitch is insatiable!" he thought, but he had to smirk a little.
As Dean began to replenished the supply of champagne, the guy named Bobby took a dime from his pocket and chinked it on his glass a couple times, to attract everyone's attention.
"I'd just like to take a moment to thank everyone, and especially Sam here, for welcoming me and my people at Singer & Co. into the WinchesterTech family," he said. "Ifn we'd been taken over by anyone else, woulda been a goddamn catastrophe. You've made it seem like a kick upstairs. Kids, I'm really touched. You've all been so godddamn great. Now I'd like to propose a toast to WinchesterTech and Sam, and our future working together."
Everyone raised their glasses and took a sip.
"And now," he continued, waving to Sam. "I believe Sam here would like to say a few words."
Sam moved to the centre of the room and cleared his throat. Dean stopped working so he could better hear Sam's voice, which he had only heard once before.
"When I first left Stanford to start WinchesterTech it was kinduva long shot. Back then if someone had told me we'd be quoted on the Stock Exchange I'd have said he was a liar. Never figured I'd be dealing every day in figures in the millions and being interviewed by Fortune magazine."
The crowd cheered.
"But success isn't everything. I'm a teacher at heart. Academia is my home ground. Stanford is where I belong. Now someone has asked me to go back to Stanford, and take up my old position. Some of you will know my old Head of Faculty, and incidently my ex, David Mann. And, well, I think I'm gonna take him up on the offer."
He put one hand on Rachel's shoulder and one on Bobby's.
"With my dear friend Bobby on-board, I'm confident I can hand over the reins of WinchesterTech to my business partner Rachel. I'm sure Bobby will be there for her just as she was there for me, from the start."
"I hope to be ironing out the details over the next month," he concluded.
Dean flopped his butt back down on the floor. So Sam was a millionaire? Owner of his own tech company? Quoted on the Stock Exchange? And Rachel was his business partner NOT his wife! And he WAS gay and single! Dean shook his head in disbelief.
So what the hell had the guy been waiting for? The big, adorable schmuck.
TBC
A/N: I promise I really did mean to get to the getting together part this chapter, but it got longer than I intended. So I thought I may as well post this for you to be getting on with. I'm typing the next chapter as you read this.
