Prompt 16 :Earth
Working it Out
Sam was out the front of the house when Eliot arrived, washing the Pastor's truck with a grin while the Pastor watched over him affectionately from the porch as he laughed as the water splashed back at him again. Eliot gave a wide berth to the area as he made his way to the steps to greet the Pastor. "Good Morning, Pastor Jim."
"Eliot, it's good to see you. How's the holiday going?" the Pastor laughed at Eliot's grin. The question needed no answer as Eliot had spent every day for the last two weeks with the Winchester boys. "Dean's out back, if you want to see him," the Pastor smiled, waving Eliot round the side of the house.
With a wave and a shout of warning, Eliot started to jog along the side of the house as if to head round the back, suddenly veering left and behind Sam, giving the water hose a tug so that it slipped free from the younger boy's grip and Eliot was able to douse him with the water. The Pastor laughed as Sam shrieked and tried to get the hose back, chasing after Eliot who was laughing as well and trying to hold Sam at bay with the spray of water. Eliot paused long enough to turn the spray of water over the top of the truck to rinse off the areas Sam couldn't reach before throwing the hose back and running round the corner of the house in an attempt to dodge any retaliation.
Dean looked up as Eliot appeared running. He'd heard the shouts and laughter from the front of the house and knew that it meant Eliot had arrived. He grinned at his friend as he asked, "You winding up my lil' brother again, dude?"
Eliot smirked, "Helped him rinse off the top of the truck with the hose . . . not my fault if he got a little wet in the process, is it?"
Dean laughed before pressing the shovel back into the ground where he was digging. "He'll get his own back later, never lets anything go!" he warned.
"You need a hand?" Eliot asked.
Dean raised his eyebrows as if to indicate that it was a stupid question. "There's another shovel, beside the shed."
The boys worked side by side for an hour before the Pastor appeared with glasses of homemade lemonade for them both. "You'll both be glad to get back to school at this rate."
Both boys laughed but he could see the shadows lurking in both expressions. Another reason the boys had hit it off so well, they had no friends to go back to at school. Jim realized he hadn't even asked if Dean knew where they were going to school when the new year started. Yet again, he wished that John Winchester would listen and actually settle down in one place enough for the boys to get a decent education. It was the one thing he'd managed to convince Jordan's dad of, but so far he'd had no luck with John.
Alone again, their attention back on the ground they were digging out. "Seriously, if we class this as job experience, I don't wanna be a gardener when I leave school," Eliot said.
Dean grinned in return, "Me neither. Don't wanna work in an office though. That'd just be boring."
"What then?"
"Dunno. Guess I probably won't get to choose, I'll just be like Dad." Eliot looked at his friend sadly as if that wasn't the right answer. Dean backtracked nervously, adding, "Not like that, I mean, I'd like to grow up and be like my Dad, he's really good at his job, he saves people. It's important."
Eliot realized that his reaction had been taken as criticism and quickly interjected, "Hey, that's cool. If it's what you want, but what if everything's done. If there's nothing to hunt, what would you do then?"
Dean shrugged, not answering, instead turning away and forcing his shovel harder into the ground. Eliot had watched for a moment or two before turning back to his own patch of ground. As soon as he heard Eliot's shovel hit the earth, Dean paused and asked, "What about you? What do you want to be?"
"A chef. I love cooking, feeding people. . . It's not gonna happen though, I'll never get that chance. Best I can do is get this done with you now and then maybe we'll have something to eat when the Pastor's veg has all grown."
The boys let the conversation drop and turned their attention back to the vegetable garden.