Story Name: Pivot Point

Pen Name: ElenaRoan

Disclaimer: Don't own any of them, written purely for enjoyment.

Warnings:

Summary: What if Anna decided to derail the apocalypse by intervening to help rather than trying to make the brothers never having existed.

Timeline: Season 5

Note: I'm Australian and I can't bring myself to use USA spelling, sorry.

Chapter 91: Computer Problems

They didn't go straight back to Bobby's after Sam confirmed the next morning that the computer was indeed toast. Even Dean could tell that when his little brother opened it up, and the insides were pretty thoroughly melted. They managed to scrape together enough cash to get a basic laptop, tech purchases being one of the things that people got remembered for, but Dean didn't delude himself that it was anywhere near what Sam needed. Even if his brother had managed to joke about being obsessive about backing up.

He bit his lip as Sam swore at the device for the umpteenth time as it failed to run his custom programs in any sort of reasonable timeframe. He decided right then that it wasn't going to remain the case. But he needed some help.

"Sammy, going to go grab us some food and coffee."

Sam gave him a distracted wave in acknowledgement and Dean headed out towards the nearby diner. Once the orders were placed, and he was waiting for them he went into his contact list and called the one person he was sure would be able to give him the information he needed, outside of Sam anyway.

"Dean?" Adam answered, "what's wrong?"

Of course, his kid brother hadn't been expecting him to call after updating the three of them earlier that day.

"Nothing's wrong, don't worry." Dean reassured him, "or rather… not any more wrong than earlier today."

"You got the laptop okay?"

Dean snorted, "yeah… barely adequate… if that's even the correct term. I think Sam has taught ME some colourful expressions trying to get it to do what he wants."

Adam chuckled, "I'll bet."

"Was hoping you could tell me what I should look for in a laptop… a good one, I mean."

"Sure… but… why didn't you ask Sam?"

"I… kinda want to surprise him with it."

Adam chuckled again, "I don't know why you pretend you don't care about people. How about I take a look at the ones available in the shops and let you know which one I think would be best? Short of a custom-built rig that'll be the best you can get, won't be cheap though."

"Money I can do, going to have to take us wandering to get it though."

"Pool sharking?"

Dean wasn't sure if his kid brother sounded more disapproving or worried, "it works. Don't fret… we can handle ourselves."

"Don't get caught."

Adam rang off, just in time for him to collect his order and return to the motel room.

"I was thinking…" He said almost hesitantly as he handed his little brother's over to him, "that we could try to replenish our funds a bit before moving on."

Sam sighed and threw a dirty look at the laptop, "sorry. And this piece of shit wasn't worth blowing our emergency money on."

"Not your fault, it was Raphael, remember. And if anything it shows that we need a bigger reserve."

"If I hadn't plugged it in Raphael's tantrum wouldn't have melted it."

"You couldn't have known he would do that, and you had to have had a reason for plugging it in."

"Battery was getting low. Usually, charge it while we're sleeping, but monitoring the webcams all day had drained it more than usual."

"There you go. Neither of us thought he would do that, neither of us even knew he could do that, or we wouldn't have bothered with the webcams."

"True." Sam sighed and sipped at his coffee, "just hate how much of a wrench in the works it has been. That damn thing was expensive… and it's not much more than a glorified typewriter. Hell… some of the searches I automate I could do faster manually on that thing."

"We'll figure something out."

"Before or after I have to reengineer the damn thing?"

"Is that geek-speak for take a hammer to it?"

"Don't tempt me."

Dean chuckled, he knew his little brother wouldn't no matter how frustrated he got with the device. Not when he felt so guilty over it needing to be bought in the first place.

"Eat up. Then we'll go check out the local pool action."

There was actually a pool shark already ruling over the pool table when the brothers arrived, and unlike them was actually taking gleeful enjoyment in cleaning out his opponents. He was quick to fasten on an apparently drunk Sam as his next target when they decided to teach him a lesson at the same time as replenishing their funds. Sure, they pool sharked. But they didn't completely clean people out and would actually pull out of a game if they could see their opponent was going beyond what they could afford.

With an apparently drunk Sam trying to bet again after a loss. And Dean apparently trying to talk him out of it got him to 'sweeten the pot' by dropping some of his own winnings in the pot. He evidently didn't think he could lose to the taller brother, but while he might have been the best player in this backwater town he was nowhere near the skill of either brother and Sam didn't need any telekinetic help to win handily.

The other customers at the bar actually cheered when they won, and Dean didn't need to intercept the arsehole when he went to throw a punch at Sam. A bouncer blocking him in an almost scripted manner and dragging him outside.

When they looked through the money they'd won, they were surprised to see that it was more than they'd seen the man win. After a glance at Sam, Dean peeled off $500 from the pile and handed it to the lady behind the bar with instructions to help out the people who'd been taken for more than they could afford.

"You're pool sharks yourselves. But I can live with ones who don't try to hurt people." She told him, "especially when they take care of an arsehole one that's messing with our clientele."

"Only when we need money, darling." Dean told her, "and we'll absorb a game rather than let someone bet more than they can afford. We'll be travelling on tomorrow unless you want us to stick around and chase off that bastard again."

She chuckled, "think it'll be a while before he shows up again, don't feel bad about cleaning him out though. He definitely had it coming, and if he hadn't thought he could fleece you, he wouldn't have put that much in the pot. And without him dropping several hundred dollars to the owner all the time maybe we'll be able to actually ban the bastard."

"Good luck with that."

"Have a good night." She told him then gave him a couple of beers, "here, on the house."

He returned to Sam with the beers, though he figured they'd have to leave soon to avoid getting pestered by people thinking they were a soft touch. They didn't clean people out to raise money, but that didn't mean they didn't need the money they won.

They saw one person hesitantly enter the bar, but they got waved over by the bartender before they could locate them. The poor fellow actually broke down in tears when several notes were pushed into his hand. They left not long after and were almost surprised the pool shark wasn't hanging around outside waiting for them. Given the smug grins of the bouncers, they could guess why though.

Dean's impulse to buy the laptop before leaving town was quashed when none of the stores available had the ones that Adam had sent through to him as being the best possible. In fact, it was two days later when they got back to Sioux Falls before he even got within spitting distance of one of them.

Mindful of the last time he'd gone on an apparent shopping trip he'd been slipping off to Hunt without Sam, Dean made a point of letting his little brother know that he was going shopping, though he didn't specify precisely what he was shopping for.

"Not a usual place for you to shop." Sam commented when he returned.

Dean rolled his eyes, of course, his little brother had watched the GPS just in case.

"I'm not going to slip off… I only left you behind because of the danger to you."

"You should have at least talked to me about it." Sam replied, but the heat was missing from the statement. And he looked away.

Dean dumped the shopping bag on the table and slid into the chair next to his little brother, "Sammy? What's going through that head of yours?"

Sam sighed, "if I hadn't gone, Raphael wouldn't have fried the laptop."

"Coulda woulda shoulda. And maybe I should have tried harder to talk Cas out of it, not like we even got the information we wanted. Can't change the past, Sammy. Well… not without involving Anna or Cas anyway. The laptop was overdue for an upgrade anyway, it was… what… 5 years old?"

"Closer to 8 or 9 years. Got it at Stanford." Sam replied, before gesturing at the basic laptop they'd bought, "and that thing isn't even close to an upgrade."

"Wasn't talking about that thing." Dean grabbed the shopping bag and slid it in front of his little brother, "wanted to surprise you."

Sam gave him a curious look then slid the contents of the bag out. His eyes widened as he took in the top of the line laptop in its box, "Dean! There's no way we can afford this!"

Dean snorted, "did you forget how much we got off that pool shark? We even still have more than enough for the emergency funds."

Sam glanced into the bag again, then pulled out the surge protecting power board that his big brother had bought as well. Also top of the line, with a lifetime warranty and a several thousand dollars connected devices guarantee.

"I… uh… mentioned I was replacing a laptop that had got literally melted by a power surge. The salesperson recommended that to prevent a repeat."

"Always smart." Sam agreed softly, "had one at Stanford… just… the fire and then… just never replaced it… stupid of me…"

"Not stupid… not like we'd ever actually needed one before now."

"Surge protection isn't something you get because you need it… you get it hoping you don't need it."

"You've had other things to do. Maybe I should have asked if there was anything else you needed to replace."

"Not your fault."

"Sure… no more than it's your fault."

Sam graced him with a look.

Dean gestured towards the laptop, "how about you stop beating yourself up and have a play with your new toy."

His little brother did open up the box then, though with a hesitancy that suggested he thought it would be empty. He'd never do that to him though, not with something like this. That would just be cruel, and pranks, even during a prank war, weren't.

Dean actually smiled as Sam relaxed and became more sure of himself as he plugged it into the surge protector, and it into the wall, and started setting it up. His little brother working on a computer was pure artistry, but he didn't delude himself that he understood half of what Sam could do. How he'd learnt that with how they grew up he didn't know, sure didn't come from their father. Their dad had been a physical copy, manual arrangement type of man and Hunter. And, Dean admitted to himself, he tended towards that also. Preferring physical newspapers even though it was easier to get them online, being actually able to feel and hold what he was dealing with just… helped. Sam, he was sure, would happily switch to digital copies of any of the books he regularly had his nose stuck in. Not that Dean thought there was an easy way to achieve that, or if it was even practical if it was only able to be accessed on a computer.

Shelving the thought, he watched his little brother for a moment more before leaving him to it.