Chapter 7: Mi casa es tu casa (part II)
As always, when Dean woke up, the first thing he saw was Sam, still sleeping peacefully. It was such a familiar image that it took him a moment to realize they weren't at the apartment. That was no longer their home. Now they were temporarily in another place, a foreign place.
Dean got up and exited the room quietly not to disturb Sam. Walking by the corridor he soon found Balthazar, standing in front of the bathroom door. "Morning," Dean greeted.
"Good morning," Balthazar replied, looking at Dean for a moment and then turning back facing the wood door.
Dean followed his friend's movement with puzzled eyes. There was someone in the bathroom, taking a shower, judging by the sound of water running.
"Did you sleep well?" Balthazar asked, turning his attention to Dean again.
"Huh, yeah," he replied. After a while, watching Balthazar a bit restless, he asked, "What's up?"
Balthazar suddenly knocked hard on the door. "Cas! Come on, hurry up!" he yelled. "You're in there for half an hour!" He waited for a replied, but there was none, only the continuing sound of hot water running. Balthazar sighed, frustrated, and crossed his arm. Alright, maybe he was exaggerating a bit on the time Castiel was in the shower, but it was for sure more than the necessary.
After a while, Balthazar knocked again. "Just so you know, the bathroom isn't only yours!" It was a childish argument, but he was sure Castiel was purposely messing with him. "I told you, I also have to go!" A few seconds later he called again. "Cas!"
Dean was still there, assisting to the one-sided argument, just to see how it was going to end. Of all the possible scenarios, Dean never expected what really happened: Castiel suddenly opened the door a bit, just the enough to grab Balthazar's arm and pull him inside. Dean barely saw the wet boy, but when he heard the sound of someone being pushed against the door, he thought it was better to leave.
It took another fifteen minutes until Castiel and Balthazar left the bathroom, smiling sweetly at each other. Only after, he also took a nice warm shower, the best of his life, since the other bathroom on the bottom floor was being used by Mary and John. Then he got dressed and when he left the room to go eat breakfast, Sam was still sleeping. It was almost 9:15 and Sam usually didn't sleep until this late, but Dean didn't wake him. He stepped down the stairs and went to the kitchen where the table was ready with breakfast, full of food, like a king's banquet. It didn't matter what his friends said, that house was a palace in Dean's eyes.
Dean, Castiel, Balthazar and their parents sat down at the table and started eating. The food was as delicious as it looked; it seemed forever since he had eaten such fresh food. If he thought about if, probably since his parents died in a car crash.
Soon Sam came in hurriedly, still straightening his shirt and his messy hair. "Good morning," he greeted, but didn't look at anyone. "Sorry I'm late." Blushing awkwardly, he sat on the empty chair next to Dean.
"Good morning," John replied in a deep voice that almost made Sam tremble inside. "Relax, there's no schedule here." Only by the end John's voice lighted and a little smile formed of his lips to let Sam know he was joking. Apparently John had a natural deep voice.
"But it's better when we're all together," Mary added in a soft voice and Sam smiled back at her.
After breakfast, the four boys gathered in Balthazar's room. A couple of hours later, after talking and the brothers inspecting some cool things Balthazar owned and Castiel telling the stories of how his lover got it, Dean got a little hungry again. Balthazar told him to go to the kitchen and bring some cookies from the pantry. Dean did as he was told, but when he reached the kitchen and looked around, where the hell is the pantry? he thought.
Dean searched the place, opened and closed a few doors where the pantry could possibly be, but he found nothing. Damn this giant house with thousands of doors. Then Dean saw another door, near the outside wall, expecting to see a cabinet, but when he opened the door he was surprised by a wide open space with metallic shelves and a big wood table full of tools. Dean also noticed the smell of paint, glue and attenuate, and he was sure he had reached the garage.
"Oh. Hi, Dean." John greeted him, surprised to see him at the door. He was wearing worn jeans with dark stains and a decoloured sweater also dirty.
These guys look totally out-of-place. A giant rich house owned by rich people who wear simple clothes and do dirty work? They don't even have a maid. It was a bit confusing in Dean's head.
"I was just looking for-" Suddenly Dean saw, close to the black Rolls Royce Wraith, the silhouette of a car covered by a thick gray cover. "What's that?" he asked, unable to contain his curiosity, because what was underneath the cover seemed to be a beauty.
"I show you." John grabbed the cover and pulled it away, revealing the car.
Dean unconsciously stepped closer with mouth half-open and wide bright eyes, amazed with what he was seeing. "A 67' Chevy Impala." It was black and old, not shiny and with probably some scratches, but it was still beautiful.
John looked surprised at the boy for recognizing the car. "Yes," he confirmed. "You know about cars?"
"A little," Dean replied humbly, not to share his qualities at once. Every time he had between the job at the Harvell's bar and going out with a girl, he spent it reading car magazines. He had always liked cars, he even had some miniatures when he was young, before he lost them when he lost his parents. The only one he had left was a Chevrolet Impala his father gave it to him when he turned 8.
"I'm still finishing it."
"What?" Dean was brought back from his hypnotic state of contemplating such marvel.
John opened up the hood. Dean went closer and realised there were many pieces missing.
"When I was about your age my dream car was a 67' Impala, but I didn't have enough money to buy one. So I started buying pieces of it, pulling them together and making my own car."
"You can build a car?" Dean asked, stunned.
John chuckled. "Yes, I'm a mechanic," he explained. "Well, I started working as a mechanic. Now I own a small corporation of car-selling and repairing headquartered on the town's centre."
"So now you could just buy one," Dean suggested it. If he could buy such a beauty, he wouldn't think twice.
"I could. But when I started I promised myself I'd build this car, my own car, and that's what I'm going to do." John explained. "Besides, I don't work as a mechanic anymore, now I have to take care of the paperwork, so sometimes I miss getting my hands dirty. Working on this Impala makes me feel young again."
Dean didn't know how old John was, maybe 50, which meant he must have spent about 30 years building the Impala. "Slow progress, huh?" he commented.
"Short or long, what matters is enjoying the ride," John replied with a little confident smile. "By the way, I actually received a few new pieces on Friday. I was just about to start installing them. Would you like to help me?"
Dean froze for a second at the unexpected question. "Hum, yeah." He sounded casual, but on the inside he was excited.
So while John installed a couple of pieces on the car, Dean watched it attentively and helped carry the mildly heavy and important parts and handed John the tools he needed. Dean never again thought about the cookies he was supposed to get. He was so passionately concentrated on the task he didn't realize how delighted he was.
"Where's Dean?" Sam suddenly asked.
Castiel and Balthazar turned their gazes away from the books they were reading and looked at Sam. They shrug. Balthazar looked at his watch and confirmed they hadn't seen Dean in an hour.
They left the room and went searching for Dean in the house, but they didn't see him in the living room or other rooms. Castiel looked outside the window, perhaps Dean went to the yard, but his suspicious were wrong. At the kitchen they found Mary, preparing lunch.
"Mom, have you seen Dean?" Balthazar asked.
Mary looked at him and smiled. "Why don't you look in there?"
Balthazar didn't understand his mother's knowing and pleased smile until he opened the garage door. Inside he saw Dean and his father bent over the open hood of a car talking and working on something. He looked to his shoulder and saw Sam and Castiel staring as stunned as he was.
A few moments later, when Dean and John finished whatever they were doing, they glanced at the door and saw the three teens lined up at the entrance.
"Hey, boys," John said lightly with a subtle smile. "Do you want something?"
"No," Balthazar replied. "We were just looking for Dean."
"Who went to fetch cookies and didn't come back," Castiel added.
"I couldn't find them," Dean replied. "But I found something way better." He stepped forward. "Dude, you have a freaking Impala in the garage!" he said excited and still unbelieving to Balthazar.
Balthazar smiled. "Yeah..." he said as if it was no big deal. Which it wasn't, at least to him; all of his life he had seen the car, that junk in the garage growing up over the years. But for Dean it wasn't a piece of junk, it was a dream coming true, which was the reason why Dean was staring at him with a frustrated look like no one understood his fascination for the car. Balthazar chuckled, "I knew you'd like it."
"Boys, lunch's ready!" Mary called them.
Only then Dean remembered he was still hungry, much hungrier in fact, and the delicious smell of food was making his mouth watery.
"Let's go, then," John said passing by Dean, in direction of the door.
Sam, Castiel and Balthazar also turned around and stepped to the kitchen. Dean followed them too, but before leaving the garage he looked back at the Impala with a strange feeling in his heart. Now that he was walking away, he realized something: when he was following John's instructions and working on the most perfect car ever made, he felt happy. A happiness he hadn't felt in quite some time, and he wished he'd feel that again.
"Come, Dean. You need to gain strength to help me install the other piece," John told him, glancing at the car.
Dean stared at him for a second; he thought his job was done. But then he smiled, he closed the door and went to the table, and ate the good food eager to go back to work on the Impala. The lunch was more relaxing than the previews meals. Or at least it seemed that way for Dean.
When they were finished Dean returned to the garage with John while Sam, Castiel and Balthazar went to watch a movie in the living room. This time it was much less distracting, without Dean, and they managed to pay attention and enjoy the movie.
An hour and half later John and Dean had finished the work on the Impala. They were tired, the piece was heavy and it gave them a lot of work to install it perfectly, and their clothes were stained with oil, but they were satisfied with the result. There were still missing several pieces for the Impala to be complete, Dean didn't know exactly how many, he didn't know that much about cars, but at least it was less three pieces for that beauty being on the road.
"Thank you, Mr. Campbell," Dean said, not because it was polite and appropriate to the situation, but because he was truly thankful. Dean wasn't the kind of person to express his feelings and he wasn't used to it, so it felt a bit strange afterward.
John looked at Dean, surprised for the sudden confession. "No. I'm the one who must thank you for your help. I thought one day I'd be doing this with Balthazar or Castiel, but it seems they're not much interested." John commented lightly with a smile. "But you're dedicated and you did a great job. So, thank you Dean."
Dean was awestruck and speechless; that was the best compliment he had in years.
"And please, call me John."
Dean nodded and they left the garage with the Impala carefully covered. They went to change clothes and then Dean joined his brother and friends on the couch. The movie they were watching was almost over and then they decided to play a video game on the Nintendo Wii. At first Sam was the less skilled of them at the game, but an hour later, when he and Castiel teamed up and Castiel taught him some tricks, after a few tries they managed to win their older brothers. Dean, who had been mocking Sam, since that was probably the only thing he was better than Sam, suddenly shut up, and then started complaining. After that, Sam either teamed up with Dean or there were no teams.
In the mid-afternoon, Mary brought them sandwiches of ham and cheese and orange juice. The four boys ate while playing and chatting and teasing each other during that cheerful session. Mary and John watched them with pleased smiles; the house hadn't been so lively in a long time.
At dinner they talked about school, which would end a week later, and Mary and John asked Castiel about the grades he was expecting to have in the several disciplines. Castiel told them a bit embarrassed because his grades used to be better. He usually had excellent grades but in the past three years they dropped, but he didn't have any negative test or work. Castiel promised he'd do better next period.
After dinner, when they were about to leave the table, Mary intervened with a serious tone. "Sam, Dean," she called. "John and I have been talking and we have a proposal for you. We were wondering if instead of going to John's old house, you wouldn't like to stay here."
Sam and Dean were a bit taken aback with the question. They looked at each other, but neither of them had an answer.
"You don't need to decide now," John said in his deep voice that was somehow reassuring. "Just think about it."
"You can also go to the other house and if then you decide to stay here, you can move back. It just seemed to me that you're doing well here."
The conversation ended there, but Dean couldn't think of anything else that night. In the couple of hours they were all watching television before going to sleep, his mind was elsewhere. In the bedroom he was sharing with Sam, while he changed clothes to pyjama he saw Sam sat on the bed with a thoughtful look.
"You're thinking what I'm thinking?" Dean asked him.
Sam looked up and nodded.
When Dean finished dressing himself he sat next to his brother.
"Dean, what do we do?"
"What do you wanna do?" Dean asked.
"I… I don't know." He stopped for a moment. "I think… it's good to be here." Dean smiled; Sammy was always optimistic. "But what if things go wrong?" Because every time he went to a different house, what was supposed to be a good thing, ended up to an awful experience.
The moment Dean evaded from the orphanage to get Sam, he decided that they didn't need a family, they didn't anyone else to take care of them. From there on, it'd be just he and Sam. That was the way Dean wanted. But a few months later Balthazar appeared and despite Dean's resilience at the beginning, having Balthazar to live with them hadn't been as bad as he had expected. But it was totally different from living with more three people, especially an adult couple that would run the show. It felt like they were being adopted again, and by his experience, that was a bad thing.
But on the other hand, he had to admit he felt good too in John and Mary's house. They seemed nice people although Dean still didn't trust them, and they would have Balthazar living with them again. And Castiel was a funny good-looking boy to mess with. It could work. But Sam could still have a point.
Dean looked at his brother in the eye. "If things go wrong, we leave," he said as if it was no big deal. "and find another place."
That seemed to make Sam relax as he exhaled deeply and nodded.
"So, we're staying?" Dean asked, just to make sure because, in the end, what mattered to him was what Sam wanted. Whatever was Sam's choice, Dean would follow him, like he always did.
"We're staying," Sam said confidently.
That night Sam slept much better, but the hurry to tell Mary and John of their decision before they changed their mind made him wake up early. It was 7:30, and Dean was also awake. They heard some noise and voices coming from the floor below, which meant Mary and John still hadn't left for work.
They got up, and without changing clothes, they went downstairs. On the way, they passed by Castiel's room that was right next to their's and Sam and Dean noticed the door was open and there was no one inside. Castiel was already awake; he probably had classed early. But unlike Castiel, Balthazar seemed to be still sleeping, since his door was closed.
When they reached the kitchen, the table was ready for breakfast like in the previews day. First they found Mary, well dressed in warm clothes.
"Oh, good morning, boys" she said in her usual nice voice.
"Good morning," Sam and Dean replied in unison.
"Sit," Mary offered.
"Actually, we wanted to talk to you first," Dean said.
"Yes…"
Dean cleared his throat before speaking. "The offer from yesterday still stands?"
"Of course," Mary replied.
John came in and place the hot coffee pot on the table. Mary kept looking at them, giving them full attention.
"Then, we stay" Sam informed. "If that's alright."
"Yes. Sure." Mary smiled widely. "I'm glad for having you here."
"We both are," John added, joining the conversation with a simple smile. "Make yourself comfortable while we're gone. This is also your house now."
It was a strange feeling to have that kind of freedom and possession so suddenly. Never in other foster homes they were told that.
"Now, sit and eat," Mary told them.
Sam and Dean sat and started eating breakfast while Mary and John drank a mug of coffee. Dean started looking around; he still hadn't seen Castiel.
"Looking for something?" Mary asked.
"Eh, yeah. Cas."
"He's still sleeping."
Dean frowned, confused. "It's just, when we passed by his room he wasn't there."
"Oh, he must be sleeping with Balthazar," she said lightly.
Dean stared at her for couple of seconds, considering whether to ask or not. "And you're okay with that?" He was curious. And he didn't mean just the fact Castiel and Balthazar were sleeping together but also their whole relationship.
Mary chuckled. "Dean, Castiel has been sneaking into Balthazar's bed since he was four." The lightness of the reply surprised both Dean and Sam. "It was when Balthazar started having agitated dreams and he often talked during the night. Castiel sometimes heard him and went to sleep to Balthazar's bed. I don't know how or why, but it worked; the moment Castiel snuggled on the covers, Balthazar calmed down and didn't sleep-talked that night."
Sam and Dean nodded slightly, understating.
Still going through past moments, Mary chucked, remembering something. "There was one time when Balthazar was 10, one night he-"
"Mom!" Balthazar exclaimed upset from the bottom of the stairs. Castiel was right behind him.
"What?" Mary said innocently.
Balthazar and Castiel quickly went closer. "Don't tell them that," Balthazar almost ordered.
"Why not? It's a funny story."
"No, it isn't!" he complained again.
"Actually it is," Castiel said.
Balthazar glared at him and Castiel grinned.
"What? What happened?" Sam asked, curious.
"Nothing interesting," Balthazar replied.
"Balthazar started singing Britney Spears one night," Castiel shared.
"Cassie!"
Sam and Dean started laughing. Castiel also joined them while Balthazar looked at them with arms crossed and an upset look.
"Now, that's something I'd like to see," Dean commented, still grinning.
"Wait a second, I'm going to get the tape," Castiel said to Dean.
"You recorded it?" Dean asked, bewildered.
"You said you had lost the tape," Balthazar said to Castiel.
"Well, I found it," he replied. "I go get it." Castiel turned around and walked toward the stairs.
"The hell you are!" Balthazar when after him. Castiel started running and Balthazar followed him. At the top of the stairs Balthazar caught him. Castiel tried to get away, pushed him away, but they ended up on the floor, laughing.
"We must go, dear," John said, holding Mary's long and warm coat.
"Yes." She turned her attention away from her sons and put on the coat. Then she turned to Sam and Dean. "Be careful with those two. They may seem like two little angel, but when they're together, all hell breaks loose."
In that moment they heard something breakable falling on the ground in the top floor. "See," Mary pointed. Then Castiel said "Everything's fine. Nothing's broken." They heard more noise, the two boys yelling at each other imperceptibly, and then a door slammed shut.
Both Mary and John shook their heads with an amused smile and then left the house.
When Sam and Dean found the troublemakers, they were in Castiel's bed, Castiel laid on top of Balthazar, kissing him sweetly and promising not to show the tape.
Dean cleared his throat and the lovebirds detached from each other. But after lunch, before Castiel went to school he discreetly gave Dean the tape who watched it with Sam while Balthazar drove Castiel to the school.
When Balthazar returned, they were still laughing at the 2 minutes video of young Balthy singing while sleeping. "Give me that!" Balthazar ordered to Dean.
Dean continued laughing and hid the tape behind his back, while Balthazar cornered him against a wall. "Hit me baby one more time," Dean teased, before throwing the tape to Sam.
"Sammy!" Balthazar turned around to the young grinning boy.
For the next 15 minutes Balthazar tried to steal the tape from the brothers. As always, without success.
Sam and Dean had been through many changed during the past few weeks, but it was good to know some things hadn't changed that much. And maybe, their staying in the Campbell's house, could really work.
