Chapter 36

AN Enjoy. :)

Tony's POV

A few hours later Gibbs called and told me that everyone was going to his house after they left work, and I decided that we should probably leave soon, especially considering that Dean still needs to make his video and eat dinner.

I walked back into the library to gather Tim and Dean and all of the books, but I was met with a napping Dean and Tim, Dean admittedly more adorable than Tim, so I took pity on him and went to wake Tim first.

"Tim, wake up, it's time to go" I tell him quietly, not wanting to wake Dean.

"What?" he mumbles tiredly.

"You fell asleep man, must be all the sitting we did today" I tell him teasingly.

"Dean?" he asks, snapping his head around to make sure he was still where he was when he fell asleep, and I watched his features soften as he glimpsed Dean sleeping, in his six year old body, without a nightmare currently plaguing him, he looks like any other adorable sleeping kid. He looks like he used to, before mom died, before dad hopped the crazy train, before monsters and hunting, he looks peaceful and almost, happy.

When Tim is more coherent I send him to the front to check out our books and bring them to the car, once he walks off I walk over to Dean, shaking his shoulder and smiling when he just groans and tries to turn away from me.

A few more tries later and he still refuses to admit that he's not sleeping, a stubborn slackness to his body, no matter how many times I shake him and tell him to stop pretending to sleep.

I watch as his lips twitch as he tries to stop himself from smiling.

"You little shit" I mutter, amusement coloring my tone.

I stop trying to 'wake him up' and just look at him for a few seconds, and I realise something, he's small, six years old small.

With a wicked grin I reach down and pick him up like I used to for Sammy, and I feel his body shake with silent laughter as he still leaves his body slack, the deadweight still light enough for me to comfortably carry him.

"Asshole" I say lightly, a grin tugging onto my lips.

"Dipshit" he says back, his words muffled in my neck, where his head has come to a rest.

I hitch him up higher on my hip and start back to the car, running into Tim on my way out the door, waving at the librarian as I exit.

"I was wondering where you were" he explains as he holds the door open for me and Dean to exit.

"He still sleeping?" Tim questions as we walk to the car.

"No, he's pretending, probably didn't want to walk" I tell him when he looks like he's going to question me.

"He looks like he's asleep" Tim says, looking at me disbelievingly.

"He's not, just a good actor" I tell him, once again hitching Dean up higher so that he doesn't start to slip.

When we get to the car I wait for Tim to open the door before bending over and sliding Dean into the seat, keeping a hand on his chest to keep him from slumping over, and I reach around him for the buckle, strapping him into the seat and looking at the smile slowly tugging it's way onto his face. Shaking my head at his stubbornness I make my way around to the front of the car and slide in, starting the engine and turning the music on, looking in the mirror as Dean straightens and picks his head up, opening his eyes and grinning at me in the mirror.

I look over at Tim and he looks over at me with his eyes wide, looking between me and Dean a few times before sticking with looking at me.

"How did you know he wasn't sleeping, he looked like a sleeping kid" Tim tells me, disbelief coloring his tone.

"I'm the one that taught him how to lie, and act, i'm also the only one he had trouble lying to when we were kids" I tell him, pulling out of the parking lot and into the street.

"Books?" I ask, looking around and not seeing them.

"Trunk" he answers.

A while later and we pull up into Gibbs's driveway, me and Tim get out of the car and Tim moves to the trunk, gathering books in his arms, and I bend down by Dean's window, looking through and seeing Dean once again slumped in his seat, head lulled to the side and a peaceful slack look on his face.

I sigh, fond exasperation flooding through me as I open his door and lean over to unbuckle him, scooping him up into my side once more, his head lolled onto my shoulder with his face pressed into my neck, I kick the door closed gently and turn around to see Tim looking at me with a look a can't quite decipher, but after a moment he turns around and leads the way to the front door.

I hear the sound of voices and laughing coming from the kitchen as Tim opens the door, holding it for me to walk through with a 'sleeping' Dean in my arms.

I walk into the kitchen and roll my eyes as Abby coos at Dean and Gibbs pulls out the chair next to him.

I walk over and set Dean in the chair, standing behind him and holding him up with a hand on his chest while I wait for the inevitable to happen, and after a few second Dean straightens and opens his eyes, causing confused looks to fly around the room.

I open my mouth to explain before any of them can ask what the magical awakening trick is.

"He has been pulling this since he was 2, he started with mom and slowly but surely moved his way along to me and dad, I like to call it 'how long can Dean's feet not touch the floor' he pretends to fall asleep and refuses to 'wake up' until one of us picks him up and carries him wherever he needs to go, and he continues this until someone won't pick him up, he did it until he was 8 and he was too big for me to pick him up, and then he taught Sammy, who happened to love being carried around all the time, the only plus was the muscles I gained from carrying children around all day" I explain, shooting Dean a glare in response to the carefree grin he shoots my way.

"Oh please, you loved the attention you got, all the girls, and some guys, thought you were fucking adorable carrying around your sleepy little brother" Dean comments, and he isn't wrong, they thought it was just so sweet when I would pick up Sammy and carry him around, whether it was at the park or a diner or when I picked him up from school.

"You, might have a point, but that's not to say that my back didn't suffer from carrying around eight year old you around everywhere" I tell him, pointing my fork in his direction before twirling the spaghetti around it once more, shoving it into my mouth, and making sure Dean ate his too.

"What's his record?" Tim asks curiously as his eyes bounced between the two of us.

"2 days when he was 3, he didn't even have to pretend to be sleeping, he would just pout and make like he was gonna cry and we all caved, he was too fucking cute for his own good at 3" I tell them, directing my accusing tone at Dean.

"Yeah, a lot cuter than you" he snarks back with a smirk.

"Hey! I was a whole lot cuter than you at three" I defend

"Is that so? I've seen the pictures…" Dean trails off, amusement dancing in his eyes.

"Really? The one picture that survived the fire? The one where I have spaghetti dumped over me with the bowl on my head? I'm pretty sure no one looks cute like that" I tell him indignantly.

"No, the one in dad's wallet" Dean says, the amusement no longer as prevalent behind his eyes.

"What?" I ask, not knowing what picture he's talking about.

"It's of you and mom, you guys were going down the slide together at the park, you're grinning like a madman and mom's laughing, dad had it in his wallet" Dean tells me quietly.

"Oh" I say, pushing a forkful of noodles into my mouth while I think. I had no idea that dad kept a picture of me in his wallet, although it could just be because it was one of the only ones with mom in them that survived the fire.

"He might have been a shit dad Tony, but he did love you" Dean tells me, his eyebrows furrowing and his lips drawing down, his eyes practically begging me to believe him.

"Yeah, maybe" I mutter, putting down my plate and excusing myself with the excuse of going to the bathroom, although no one believes me.

Did dad really miss me?

AN So this chapter falls more into fluffy filler than plot driven, but, shit happens. Thoughts? Good? Bad? Meh? Lemme know what you think. :)