Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.
Characters: Sam
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
A/N: This one feels like it's nothing more than... okay, but hopefully that's just due to lack of sleep, overdose of caffeine and a headache.
Glimpses
Sam vividly remembers the first time he and Dean had ended up at Bobby's. He remembers how wary he had been around Bobby.
At first, he thought the man was just like Dad – tough and strict, if maybe a bit rounder around the middle; and he definitely cursed some more and drunk less, if only barely.
But, as the Winchester brothers found out early on, Bobby made an effort. Dad was great at explaining things, but mostly he considered the hunt after whatever had killed their mom to be the most important part of their education. When asked about more mundane things, he'd often not answer, or quickly come back to the next hunt, the next monster, the next town to go to.
Though Bobby appeared taciturn when they first met, he quickly warmed to them and became less aloof. He liked talking to them, making sure they really understood what he explained, and he wouldn't talk only about hunting.
He also shared other things with them, things of value they only much later learned to appreciate.
Bobby taught them stuff they wouldn't ever have dared to ask their Dad about, and he did so of his own volition.
When they were with Bobby, they were allowed to do things they liked, and more often than not Bobby joined in their ridiculous childrens' play-pretend.
He allowed them glimpses at what a normal life might feel like.
When their Dad came back to get them, it was always hard to leave and get back under Dad's strict tutelage.
"I'll always be here when you need me", Bobby promised the boys time and time again, and they had learned to believe in his promises.
He meant them.
It wasn't that Bobby appeared to be the loneliest of hunters: Many came to him for help or advise, but he lived alone and no one shared the normal chores of a day with him.
There was no one for him to care for, and it showed sometimes by his gruff demeanour.
The Winchesters learned to see past his defences and see him for what he was, just like he did when it came to them.
Sam figures that maybe he and Dean must have been like little versions of Dad – maybe Dean a bit more than he was... But they certainly weren't easy. Apart from hunting, there was little else that Dad allowed their minds to be occupied with, and for a long time, they were too afraid to rebel against him. The thought alone was like blasphemy, especially to Dean.
Maybe even Sam wouldn't have plucked up his courage to scrutinize Dad's actions if it hadn't been for Bobby Singer.
Sam had come back to hunting eventually, but he'd had done so knowing the consequences and accepting the risks, and that was because Bobby helped him to think other than what Dad taught him... – And Sam owed Bobby the world for that.