Side kick-Bia1007

Beta- Eggylaine

Willing to learn

"Alright Dean, this is my office, feel free to make yourself at home. Oh, and can you do me a favour?" John asked as he set his files down on his desk and his coat on the back of his chair. Dean nodded after a few seconds. "Keep a tight lip on the mess, if Mary saw this crap hole she'd kill me, then bring me back to life just to make me clean up in here."

"Yes sir," Dean whispered, he could do that, he was good at following orders.

"And Dean kiddo?" Dean lifted his head confirming to John he was listening. "Not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, but could you call me John? I'm not saying it has to be Uncle Johnny or anything but...sir and Mr. Winchester make me sound so old."

"Yes sir," Dean flinched at the word uncle then immediately nodded when the request was laid out to him, only to realise what he had just said so he lowered his head in frustration.

John saw the look on the kid's face so he walked over, put his finger under the boy's chin and made him look up.

"You wanna talk to me buddy?" he asked with a concerned smile.

"No s-, I mean, John," he forced like it required strength to say the informal name, which it really was after all these years of referring to people as ma'am and sir and Mr. and Mrs.!

"That dick made you call him sir huh?"

Dean swallowed the panic when he thought of the man, then nodded.

"Well, he's outa the picture, so you don't have to worry about anything like that anymore okay? Just take your time. Give yourself a little credit Dean, you're doing great," John patted the boy on the back then went back to his desk to sort out a few things before the rest of his crew arrived at 9am.

Dean set his bag down when he started to feel uncomfortable standing in the middle of the room doing nothing and had a silent stroll around the room and smirked when his eyes caught some drawings.

"Sammy drew those when he was little, always made me promise to hang up them up somewhere special, I think he lost interest in making a mess with paints when he was about 8, I should get him to make me some more," John said casually making small talk, knowing all the while it was going to be one sided, didn't hurt to try though right? "You an artist Dean?"

Dean shook his head and let out a snort.

"I take it you're as good as me at drawing huh?" Dean could tell by that tone John was making a joke at how bad he was at art things so Dean nodded a yes, he couldn't draw to save his life! "So what do you think you wanna do today?"

Dean shrugged, math or science? Or history or geography? Or maybe some English and literature? Fun, fun, fun fun fun! He would much rather have gym today...where was the punching bag when he needed it?

"I tell you what, you do a couple of hours of work and then you can take break and I'll show you round my shop?"

"Okay," Dean nodded, but he really couldn't be bothered to do work today, in fact he never can but it seems Sam is always the one who motivates him and pushes him into trying again when he gets something wrong.

"Yo, the boss's back!" he heard someone yell, and they seemed rather happy about it.

"That's Jack, don't worry he's just like a really big happy annoying puppy."

"Hey, talking about me behind my back? And dude, I'm a puppy?" Jack asked sticking his head around John's office door.

"Well I've called you worse," John smirked.

"True." Jack leaned on the door frame then looked down, only then noticing Dean, "you must be the new kid?"

Dean nodded, his face blank to Jack, almost confused but John read the kid loud and clear, he knew Dean was probably about as uncomfortable as he could get right now.

"Dean Jack, Jack Dean," he introduced quickly hoping his guy would get to work and leave Dean alone.

"Well nice meeting you Dean, good to have you back sir," Jack shook both their hands and Dean looked back at John confused as Jack left.

"I'm his boss, he's meant to call me sir, it's a totally different thing."

"Okay," Dean nodded, it was weird but okay.

"Before I go, I better tell you about the fire stuff, ah....the door here is fire proof so if there does happen to be an accident then go outside and across the road to the bakery where the meeting line is, if you don't see me then my other guys will run there too look after you okay?"

"I take it that's code for, 'if I don't make it out in an accident, someone else will be there to make sure you don't do anything stupid.'?"

"The 'if I don't make it out' part yeah, the 'stupid' part no, I'm trusting you Dean, I know you'll be good if I leave you alone, fire or not," John squeezed the kid's shoulder and after a few awkward moments he spoke again, "so why don't you get seated at my desk and I'll see you in an hour or two for our coffee break?"

"Okay...thanks, John."

John nodded a 'you're welcome,' then left.

"Eeny meeny miny mo, which stupid subject should I do first?" he asked himself as he sat down in a huff. "Okay, like Sam says, being an ass about it isn't going to get it done any faster...so I might as well just get on with it."

John smiled at the kid talking to himself, it was good to hear Sam was making a positive influence on Dean, and hopefully visa versa.

SPN

"Have a good day honey."

"Yeah, I will..." Sam mumbled sarcastically as he stepped out of the car with his heavy bag.

Mary shook her head and watched her son drag himself up the steps, she smiled when he got a few waves but was sadly let down when she saw Sam didn't wave back.

She pulled away and onto work, wishing her son a good day to herself once again, and tonight he was going to bed at a reasonable time whether he liked it or not.

"Hey Sam, you're back! Hey we got this new teacher and man he's awesome!" Jordon cheered as he walked alongside his friend.

"Yeah, awesome."

"What's Dean doing now?" the hyper little kid asked, not picking up on Sam's mood.

"He went to work with my dad, he can't come to school yet."

"How come?"

"I don't know...something about paper work from his other school hasn't come in yet."

"Oh, well when he does, you think he'll sit with us at lunch?"

"I don't know...he'll be at the high school, so I doubt it."

"Hey have you heard about that guy on the news? That uncle freak who beat up his nephew?"

"No," Sam answered quickly, not in the mood for any news today.

"Really? Isn't your dad like best friends with the guy who shot him dead?"

"Yeah but they don't tell me much, I'm just a kid."

"Yeah, so am I, but I still watch the news."

"Well then you're just lame."

"Hey, that's mean..."

"Hey! Winchester!!" somebody called and Sam hoped he could skip past the older kid calling his name but when he was stopped by 3 huge dudes in his path he stopped. "I wondered where you'd gotten to these last few weeks. Where's your freak of a body guard?"

"Dean's not a freak! Just leave me alone."

"Or what? Dean gonna come and teach me a lesson?"

"If you don't leave me alone, yeah...expect your ass to be royally kicked," Sam snapped having enough of the jerks in his path. He grunted when he was pushed into the dirt but recovered quickly and pushed past them running fast enough that they couldn't follow but slow enough that it didn't look like he was running from them.

He ran to his desk and sat his bag down with a thump, other kids looked at him then laughed a little and scurried away after having a good giggle at his expense and his dirt coated knees.

'I hate school...'

SPN

"Probabilities, well these sound fun," Dean mumbled to himself then started to read, "the probability of an outcome equals the number of ways the outcome can happen divided by the total number of possible outcomes. Oh my god kill me now..." he groaned sinking his head to the desk in misery, "where's Sam when you need him?"

"Sorry kid I was just coming back for-, hey you're Dean right?" someone covered in grease asked. "Man, John has talked a lot about you kid. I mean that in a good way, he's always talking about Sam and Mary," he said without thinking, Dean seemed to have a look on his face that was a combination of embarrassment and annoyance and he really didn't want to screw up his first meeting with the new son. "So what are you working on there? Ooh math, looks fun. John still keeping you on lock down then?" he asked thinking the reason for Dean being alone in the back office was for punishment.

"Cal what the hell is taking you so long?" John asked with his boss voice on as he entered the room.

"Oh, sorry boss I was just talking to Dean, I'll get back to work."

"Dean you okay kid?" John asked when he saw the look of unease on the kid's face when Cal left.

Dean pulled a face at his work telling John he needed help.

"You stuck or you wanna go home?"

'Now would be a really good time to talk Dean, you know...that thing where your lips move and words come out...' Dean snapped at himself.

"Dean?"

"Stuck....Sam....Sam usually helps me but he's not here."

"Oh, well then maybe I can help, it's my break time anyway. So what are you working on here?" John pulled up his spare chair and set himself down next to Dean leaning over the work covered in papers. "Probability, oh that's easy."

Dean's face went south and he felt like someone kicked him in the stomach, just when he thought John was a nice guy willing to help him.

John got out a coin from his pocket and set it on the desk."I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, I just mean when you understand it, it's easy...look, if I take this coin and flip it in the air 100 times, in percentages how likely is it gonna be heads?"

"...7?" Dean asked not understanding.

"Not quite, okay a coin has how many sides?"

"2."

"So, you need to work out how many 2's are in your 100 flips."

"Uh...2....4....uhh...."

"Okay, hang on, if you count up from 2 to 100 you're gonna be here forever...right, what is half of 100?"

"....50?"

"Awesome!"

"That's it?" Dean asked surprised it was so fast.

"Yeah, not so complicated when you take a few short cuts and explain it in English, not mumbo jumbo, I tell ya, some kids understand this?" John asked sceptically looking at the wording of the supposed 'kid' book.

Once they were done with that, Dean was told he needed to work it out into fractions then round it down, which was something he found relatively easy because Sam helped him just the other week with fractions, John was amazed at Dean and Sam because with the lack of teaching Dean had and the level Sam was meant to be at in his class, neither of them should technically know about fractions and be able to do them so easily.

"1/2," Dean said confidently.

"Wow, Sam taught you well, I'm impressed kiddo."

Dean smiled a little and turned red.

John knew he was meant to be working but he really didn't care, besides its not like he could teach Dean the simplest example then take off when the numbers got complicated.

"See, you get it now?"

"Yeah...thanks."

"Right...what's the first question?"

"Ah...if you have a bag of 35 balls, 10 of them are red, 5 of them are blue and 5 of them are yellow and all the others are green, what is the probability you pick out a green ball."

Dean turned three sheets whiter at the insane question and looked like he wanted to stick the pencil in his eye.

"Okay, okay don't panic..." John soothed knowing even he was confused by that...that was a long way from heads or tails. "Right, let's go find some balls huh?" John said standing from his chair and motioning for Dean to follow him. "Ladies listen up, anyone got any....green, blue, red and yellow balls?"

"Huh?" all of them asked.

"Stickers? Straws? Anything in those colors?"

"Why don't you try a bag of peanut M&M's from the kitchen? There's a giant party bag I think."

"Alright, thanks guys, good work," he praised then motioned Dean to follow him to the kitchen.

"I know this isn't much of a kitchen but it has a kettle and tap, and...ahah! Peanut M&M's," he cheered when he found them in the top cabinet. "Let's just hope there's 35 of the right colors we need in here."

SPN

"Ah, you in the blue hooded sweatshirt, what's your name?"

"Sam, ppsst!" Jordon hissed getting his friend's attention.

"Huh...wha?" Sam asked half asleep at his desk.

"I asked what your name was."

"Oh...Sam, I'm Sam Winchester."

"Well Sam, next time I call out your name I expect you to be paying attention."

"Yes sir," Sam grumbled with his chin resting on his arms.

"Okay, so anybody else, looking at the story can you tell me how many hobbies it says Randie has?"

"5."

"No, it's 6, he swims as well."

'God this is so boring....I've already done this work sheet and the other 5 last week...why am I even sitting here just so I can do it all again? I should have stayed home!'

"Sam? Sam I'm talking to you," the teacher said with his hands on his hips waiting for the dazed boy to respond.

"I don't know okay! Just leave me the hell alone!"

"Young man I think you better step outside."

"Whatever," Sam mumbled standing from his desk to leave the room as other kids were 'oohing' at him.

SPN

"Alright...now we've eaten all the M&M's...this all your math questions for the day?"

"Uh yeah, but I got science and English and history and literature and-"

"Okay, I think 2 subjects is enough for one day son."

"Why?"

"Sam only does 3 subjects at most in a day, that's all you do in school, you don't have to do all this work in one day kiddo, this is enough for a week's worth of lessons," John told the kid looking at all the books, he thought Dean brought them all because he couldn't choose which subject to have a go at, not because he was doing them all today.

"Oh..." Dean mumbled, he didn't know...he thought this is just what kids do at school now.

"Let's go for lunch huh? I'm sure you need a break, I know I do."

"Okay...thanks for the help...I get probabilities now, thanks to the M&M's."

"We'll get more of those in then," John smirked, happy the kid seemed to be loosening up now. "Oh, you mind doing me a favour in the shop before we go?"

"...what?" Dean asked walking with the man into the front of the shop that was littered with car scraps.

They walked into the shop and casually listened in on the conversation the workers were having...but John immediately regretted it when he heard the topic of the day...

"Hey have you been watching the news, about that guy that beat up his kid? Or his nephew but...same thing if you ask me."

"Jeez that guy sounds like such an tool."

"I would never lay a hand on my kid, how the hell could he do it? And where were the kid's parents?"

"Oh come on, my son got out of hand a few times when he was growing up, the news always makes it sound worse for ratings, I bet the kid was just a real trouble maker. If he's not right now he will be..."

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!"

"Oh shit...."

TBC...