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On with the show!
Mary walked in through the door and found John standing in the living room surrounded by boxes.
"Boys, can you go upstairs please?" Mary asked.
Dean rolled his eyes. Sam was right behind him but stopped at his spot on the stairs and listened in. They both knew what was happening.
"I thought you'd be gone by now."
"I know I said I would be but I had a…. situation."
"A situation?"
"I had to go down to the preschool. Adam had an accident and needed clothes."
"That was nice of you."
"He's my son, Mary, whether you like it or not."
"I'm actually glad you're here. You can tell the boys what's happening instead of me."
Sam heard his dad coming towards the stairs and started to run towards his room.
"Don't bother. I know you've been listening," John said. Sam froze in his tracks. "Come on, let's go find your brother."
John led Sam down the hall to Dean's room. Dean was sitting on his bed with his knees to his chest, typing on his laptop.
"We need to talk."
"I don't want to talk," Dean mumbled.
John sat down on the bed next to Dean and pulled Sam up onto his lap. Dean sighed and closed his computer.
"I'm moving out." John explained. "As much as I want to try to make it work with your mom, I can't."
"Why not?" Sam asked.
"Because I hurt her and I have to live with that."
"And we have to live with that too?" Dean asked.
"I won't let that happen."
"It's already happening, Dad! We're either with you or with Mom and no one wants to tell us anything!"
"Sam?" John asked. Sam nodded his head in agreement.
"The kids at school know," he added quietly.
"Damn PTA moms," John muttered. "Well, I promise. I got my own apartment that has a room for you guys and Adam if he wants to come over. But I just need some time so I need to know that you two are okay staying here with Mom for however long it takes before it's ready."
"Why can't you stay with Mommy?" Sam asked, starting to get upset.
"It's complicated Sammy. Mommy and I have been fighting a long time."
"So why can't she move out?" Dean snapped.
"Dean-"
"No! She's the one that has the problem!"
"But Dean, you have to understand, I made a mistake-"
"Exactly! You made a mistake! You're trying to fix it right? Why can't she get that?"
John sighed and looked away towards his other son for a minute. Sam's lip was shaking, and John could tell he was on the verge of breaking down. He didn't like his family fighting.
Dean, on the other hand, was also very upset about the situation and John didn't know what to say to him. Sure, Dean was probably old enough to know some things that Sam couldn't, but Sam was also here and confused and hurt and John wasn't about to kick him out to favor the other.
"There are other things that happened that I'm not going to discuss with either of you-"
"Why not?"
"Because they are adult things, Dean. Things you wouldn't understand and maybe shouldn't even know. I was hoping you wouldn't even know about Kate."
Dean huffed and ran out of the room, grabbing his headphones on the way out.
"Do you have anything you want to add?"
Sam used his fists to wipe the tears from his face. John scooped him up and carried him down the hall to his bedroom. He helped Sam take off his shoes and tucked him into bed, staying with him until he cried himself to sleep.
"Yes Principal Kayla, I will talk to Sam tonight," Mary said on the phone. "Thank you for calling."
"Where are you going?" she asked when she hung up.
"On a walk," Dean replied, slamming the front door behind him.
"What was that about?" Mary asked when John came downstairs a few minutes later.
"He's upset that I'm moving out."
"Yeah, I knew he would be."
"By the way, I put Sam down early. He's exhausted."
"Yeah, I don't think he's getting much sleep at night. His principal called. Sam threw a ball at another kid's face today."
"What for?"
"That's what I'm going to ask him about."
"Would you like me to talk to him?" John offered.
"I think you've done enough."
"Mary, I'm still going to co-parent our kids with you. I'm not just going to leave them all your responsibility and I'm certainly not going to become the fun parent. If you want me here for things like this, just let me know."
"I can handle asking my son what he was thinking at recess today. I do, however, need you to take them for this weekend."
"Sure. What's up?"
"Well, Amanda and I talked today. You know, the other English teacher? She hasn't been having much luck with boyfriends and after hearing about our separation, she thought it would be nice to do a little girls' getaway. Is that okay?"
"You don't need to run your life by me, Mary. You wanna go out with the girlfriends, go out with the girlfriends! I'd be happy to take the boys."
"Thanks. And you know, the same goes for you. If you need a weekend-"
"Yeah, I know."
The room got quiet for a few minutes. Neither of them looked at each other.
"Guess this is our life now, huh?" John asked.
"We knew this was coming for a long time," Mary answered quietly.
John scoffed. He picked up his last box and carried it over to the front door.
"Tell Dean I'll call him before he goes to bed. Give him a chance to cool down."
And he left.
A couple of hours passed.
Mary went upstairs and sat on the edge of Sam's bed and gently shook his shoulder.
"Hey," she said when he finally stirred, "I thought you might be hungry for dinner."
"Mm mm," Sam said, shaking his head into his pillow.
"Then can I ask you about something?"
Sam rubbed his eyes and nodded as he sat up.
"I heard you had a bad day at school today. You wanna tell me about it?"
Sam shook his head.
"Sam I already know something happened. Your principal called. I want to hear your story."
"It's those stupid bullies Nathan and Billy. They were saying things about you and Dad."
"What were they saying?"
"Things like he was leaving us for his new wife and kid and that you cheated on him first."
"Sam, you know neither of those things are true, right?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders.
"And that's when you threw the ball at them?"
"It just jumped out of my hands!"
"Sam."
"I didn't mean to!"
"I know. But you know better than to handle the situation like that."
"Yeah I know," Sam mumbled.
"Tomorrow I want you to apologize to those boys and next time, I want you to get an adult. Understand?"
"Yeah, I understand."
"Let's get you ready for bed."
In ten minutes, Sam washed off, changed clothes, brushed his teeth, and fell asleep again.
Mary went back downstairs and sat on the couch waiting up for Dean. His curfew is 10 and it was already pushing 9:45. He wasn't like one to stay out so late, especially if he just went for a walk.
"Thank God you're home."
"I'm going to bed."
"Wait, I want to talk about Dad."
"Yeah, well, I don't want to talk about Dad! Or talk to you!"
"Dean, what are you so angry about here?"
Dean ignored her and finished running up the stairs.
"Dean."
No response.
"Dean!"
Door slam.
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