A/N: Well, I've gotten back to writing this, even if it's really not up to par with what I wanted it to be like, I just wanted to get something of this out, you know? Well anyways, seeing as I've taken forever with this, I've decided that I was going to get to the point faster than I had wanted, but, I've still got a couple of chapters to go. I'm not sure yet exactly how much, but I'll be working on finishing this.
A/N2: JRAismine and Freefall thanks for your reviews:D And to all the other reviewers, guys they mean so much, You rock:D
14
It had taken a week, but the brothers were finally settled into their new home. It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen/dining room, a living room, huge closet, and surprisingly a den.
Sam had decided that he didn't not want to share a room with Dean, and so the other bedroom was still bare. They had gone out and bought a few things from a few towns over, using the fake card to Rufus once more, and they managed to get a few needed things for the apartment. They were actually pretty lucky that they found one that wasn't so costly.
Another thing that kept Sam pleasantly quieted was that they were pretty close to the library. He would be able to walk there, once Dean decided that everything was set and realized that he wasn't a baby.
Dean had gone out the day before, met with a guy and had been able to make up phony birth certificates and even set up social security records. Today, he was gone with that same guy to set up a phony medical record, one that stated their real vitals and allergies, but gave the Wilde brothers a little less of a violent record.
Sam had also noticed that Dean went ahead and made a second persona for himself. Not only was he Zach Wilde, but he was also Martin Stevens, their guardian. Martin, Dean explained, was to be heard and never seen. Cause that would be a dead giveaway.
Sam awoke that day to find that Dean was already gone. He hated that since they had moved in, Dean had to spend so much time away.
To make matters even worse, unlike at Best Western, there was literally nothing for the young preteen to do.
Still in his pajamas, cause what was the need to change if he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon?, Sam walked over to the bathroom and then headed to the kitchen. One thing that he did have to give his brother credit for was that they now had the fridge filled with food and some of the cabinets had some too.
Eying all the contents in the fridge, Sam decided that he'd continue his previous meal choices and grabbed some Mac and Cheese from the cabinet and started up the stove.
Sam wasn't even a decent cook, Dean was the only Winchester that could handle himself in a kitchen, but he could make a mean Mac and Cheese. Just add water right?
Well, apparently you have to stir a lot too. And so Sam's Mac came out a tad bit, black? Not wanting the evidence around that he couldn't even make some decent M&C, Sam actually ate it, granted, with a lot of juice.
Sam settled into the living room in front of the sofa and started flipping through the channels. They didn't have as many as they'd had in the motel room, but they had more than they had had back home.
Sam shuddered. 'Home', what a funny thought. He thought as his thoughts mindlessly went to where his father had last bruised him.
Settling on cartoons, Tom and Jerry rule!, Sam began to eat his meal, laced with ketchup and drink his OJ.
It was going to be a long day.
Sam awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. His first thoughts were, When did I fall asleep, and his next thought was Who the hell was calling?
Slowly, he stood from the floor and walked towards the phone on the end table of the couch. All the time, he eyed it as if it were to blow up right before his eyes.
Sam's fingers trembled as they laced a grip on the handheld device. He pressed 'Ok' and brought the phone slower still to his ear.
"Ello?"
"Sa- uh, Mattie, listen I won't be able to get home for a few hours alright. I didn't want you to worry or anything. Did you eat anything yet or were you still in bed?"
Sam glanced over to the clock that they'd placed besides the TV. It read out 11:36.
"I ate," he said groggily, his voice still slightly hoarse from sleep.
"Sure, listen I don't want you doing anything okay? I promise you, tomorrow we'll go and check out that museum you keep yapping about, how's that sound?"
Sam's eyes lit up. That sounded just keen to him!
"Awesome! Thanks Dean!"
"Zach, Mattie." He heard Dean stress.
"Right, Zach. Then, it's Matt, not Mattie. Otherwise, I'm gonna start calling you Zachie." He heard Dean laugh and eased himself onto the couch, lying back down.
"Whatever you say, kiddo," Dean said. "If you want, I can order some food for you, send it your way?"
Sam thought about it for a second. A part of him wanted to say 'Hell yeas, Pizza baby!' but the little Einstein in him reminded him that they really shouldn't be spending unnecessarily.
"Naw," he sighed, hating his inner genius. "I'll find sommen to eat here. Just get home soon okay?"
"Sure thing, Shortie. Soon as I can. Take care. And be mindful not to answer the phone again, okay. If I call again, I'll let it ring once and then call back. Let it ring four times before you pick it up. Got that?"
"Uh huh. Dean, can I have the ice cream for lunch?"
"No, Matthew. Ice cream's not lunch. Make yourself a sandwich."
"Um, Zach. Can I have some for afters?"
"No. Just leave it alone. You can't even really reach it yet. I don't need you climbing into the fridge and getting hurt before we've got this all figured out. Don't do anything stupid, you hear?"
"Me never." Dean scoffed.
"Later, Mattie."
"Bye De, uh Zachie"
When Dean finally did get home, it was nearing ten at night and Sam had piles of junk food around him. To top that off, he was asleep and the TV was showing yet another horror movie.
Having seen that one, though, Dean doubted that the little guy had even been awake to see the beginning.
He straightened out and then placed Sam onto the couch, covering him with a blanket that they'd bought a few days before and then headed to the kitchen to make himself some dinner.
A few minutes into his meal, he heard Sammy stirring and called out to him. Sam came stumbling in.
"When'd ya get 'ere?" He asked sitting besides him and starting to pick through Dean's food.
"No way, dude," Dean said quickly, grabbing Sam's hand. "I saw all you've eaten today. Just let it all sink in before you start getting sick all over the place. Already told you that we can't go to the doc's if you're sick. So go drink some water or something."
"Naw, I'm good." But he didn't take any food from Dean's plate anymore.
Sam settled down to watch Dean eat instead. Dean was devouring his food and Sammy was pretty sure that his brother hadn't eaten anything all day.
"So, how'd everything go?"
Dean glanced up eyed his brother and went back to eating before he replied.
"Super! Ben, this guy that's helping me out with all this, he's a genius. He found someone to get all those papers done and we should be getting them by Friday. Then, I can probably get you into school at latest by Wednesday. How's that?"
Dean looked up in time to see the smile spread over Sam's face. he never did quite understand what his brother's fascination for school, or learning in general, was but he was glad that he could give it back to the kid anyway.
"Really? You mean it Dean?"
Rolling his eyes, Dean smirked over to him.
"Yeah, kiddo, I mean it."
"I'd really like that." Sam gave Dean a wide smile and reached forward, nabbed some nuggets from Dean's plate.
Sam flopped down to the floor and ran back to the living room.
"Hey!" Dean yelled out in vain of his missing meal. "Clean up since you're in there!" he yelled instead to him.
Thinking back to his day, to that last week, Dean was actually really pleased with how everything was going. He had wondered if he should be worried about how quick and easy everything was going at the moment. Maybe he should worry over whether or not their father had been making head way over their whereabouts, or if he had some play out in everything so far. But Dean was still just a kid himself at seventeen, and even though he hadn't really acted like a kid most of his life, his mind wasn't yet fully developed that he could think that far ahead in their lives.
The thing that mattered most right now was that they had gotten away. John Winchester was soon to be a lost and forgotten memory. One that Zach and Matthew Wilde didn't need in their future.
"Hey, ya wanna head to the museum tomorrow? You said, remember?" Sam called from the living room.
Dean grinned into his fork.
"Would I lie to you? We'll head out early in the morning."
"Awesome! I heard there's this new exhibit coming tomorrow. It comes from Richmond and…"
Dean walked steps behind his little brother. Sam was avid in the town's museum. Apparently, he'd seen enough of the commercials to know where his favorite things were to be found.
Gotta find something else for the kid to do, thought Dean. He watched as Sam took a sharp turn and disappeared again into the African section of the museum. Dean rolled his eyes. The McKenzie Museum was a lot bigger than Dean had anticipated.
A little fact that Sammy had conveniently kept to himself.
Brat.
"Come on Dean! You're taking forever." Dean heard the whine before he even turned the corner.
Dean walked up behind him and then looked over Sam's shoulder to what he was looking at.
"What's that?"
Sam looked up at him and waited until Dean tilted his head down and they had eye contact to answer him.
"That is an African mask. It's used for rituals and holidays and all kinds of things."
Dean rolled his eyes at his kid brother's enthusiasm. Ever since Sam had turned twelve almost a year ago, everything needed emphasis. Like it was the most important thing in the world.
Could he really want it any other way?
"That's pretty neat, kiddo. Wanna keep on looking?"
Sam stayed for a second looking down at the mask in awe. He nodded his head and before he could run off again, Dean wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
"Enjoy the scenery, Shortstuff. Not every day that I'm gonna bring ya here, ya know."
"I know, I know. But I wanna see it all. I don't wanna miss out on anything."
"You'll miss out on more if you don't slow down. Might bump into something and then get us thrown out or something. And without an insurance to cover for the kind of money needed if something like these things were to break."
Dean whistled as he looked over to some little drums that looked mighty ancient and fragile. Sam eyed them too. They looked pretty damn cool. He wondered if they made a low-pitched sound.
Dean grabbed at the slow easing hand by the wrist.
"Don't touch kiddo. Come on, let's walk away from temptation."
Sam rolled his eyes and followed his brother throughout the museum. Two hours later they had hit every room, Dean not allowing Sam to stop to read every little thing.
"Don't you wanna save some of this for another time?"
"Will there be a next time?" Sam asked looking up to his brother skeptically.
"Why ruin the element of surprise?" Sam groaned but at the offer of a meal was suddenly rushing ahead of Dean to the car.
They drove over to Bob's Bar B Que on the Highway. After a very good meal filled with tons of calorie killing, they headed back to their apartment, no matter how much Sammy didn't feel like returning home.
On the way to the car, Dean stopped by a newsstand and bought a paper.
"Looking for something?" Sam asked, eyeing the paper with disdain.
Sam had seen his father look up cases from newspapers and any memory of his father right now was unnecessary.
"Just trying to keep up with the Times," Dean replied with a wink; seeing the double meaning of current events and the name of the paper.
"If we want to know what's going on, keep away from where Dad might be headed. Don't you think? I mean, we can't just ignore everything and hope that he'll go away."
They were back home and talking over the paper.
"So, you think that he's really out there? Looking for us?"
"Sammy, Dad's real possessive. If he didn't want us around, he would've given us up for adoption or something. I don't know why man, but he wants us around."
Sammy scoffed. Yeah, John Winchester wanting his two kids around. Yeah, since he really like their presence around him.
"To what…beat us some more?"
Dean sighed and closed the paper.
"I don't know Sammy. At first, he liked us around, I wish he was that way again."
"But he's not! Dean, you…you're not thinking about going back are you?"
Dean sighed and looked over to his little brother. Sammy's pleading eyes nearing their breaking point.
"Maybe, he can get help or something. Maybe he can change. I mean, he was good before. Maybe he can again."
"No! No way, Dean. Come on, he's been this way for like ever. He's not gonna change. You know that! He always said that he was but he never did. Dean, we can't go back. We Can't!"
"Sammy! Yo! Sam!" Dean grabbed Sam by the arms and shaked him. Sam took a deep breath and calmed down.
"Dude, I never said that. Okay?" Sam nodded. He had just let his mind go way off base there.
"What made you think that?" Sam asked instead.
Dean opened his mouth to reply, but then just as soon closed it.
"Dean?"
Sam watched his brother walk over to the fridge and grab to Pepsi cans. Walking back over, he handed one over to Sam and toyed around with his for a second.
"What happened?"
"I saw this thing in the paper…"
Oooo, what could he have read?? Hmmm, suspicious! Anyways, hope someone out there is still willing to read this:D Have an awesome Day! And, yeah, no really cute brother moment, but next time, promise...