A/N: Happy Hump Day and as a special thank you to my readers, I am posting the last chapter of this story early. Here we are, at the end of our journey. I hope you have enjoyed the ride. Dean is back to normal and doing what he does best, taking care of his brother. Please join me for another journey when I start posting a new story in a few days. It is called, I'm Your Juliet, You're My Romeo. Thank you to any guests who have left me reviews. I do like reviews/comments. NC

Chapter 22

Dean rolled over and blinked a couple of times as he woke up, flexing his muscles and wondering why his body felt different sort of not his. He lay there a moment trying to figure out where he was, staring up at the ceiling. He knew it wasn't the motel room that he went to sleep in the night before. He raised his head to glance around recognizing his surroundings and knew he was at Bobby's in their bedroom, but saw he was in Sam's bed for some unknown reason. He looked to the other bed to see Sam laying on top of the covers asleep in sweats and a T-shirt, his mouth hanging open snoring softly.

What was more confusing to Dean was when he realized he was naked under the sheet and for the life of him didn't know why. He raised the sheet to be sure and yep, no briefs on. He sat up and cleared his throat to call to his brother but only got out a croak as his throat closed and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. He saw a partly filled bottle of water on the nightstand and snagged it to drink the rest of it. Once his throat was wet, he tried again to call to his brother.

"Sa'my," he squeaked but didn't say it loud enough. He tried again, throwing the empty bottle at Sam. "Sammy!"

"Wha…" Sam cried out jerking up in bed when the bottle hit him in the face. He looked to the other bed to see Dean sitting there all grown up. "Dean," he whispered as he gazed at him for a moment before stumbling from the bed and over to Dean to throw his arms around him and hug him tightly. He couldn't hold back the sobs as the tears fell onto Dean's bare shoulder and tried to choke back the others. Sam relished in the returned hug as Dean held him in his embrace. It felt so good to feel those strong arms around him once again.

"Can't breathe," Dean gasped wondering what had gotten into his brother. "Personal space dude; I'm naked here," he grunted finally able to get a breath as Sam released him.

"Sorry," Sam's breath hitched letting go to wipe his face of the tears running down his cheeks. "You're back; it worked."

"You wanna tell me why I'm in your bed and why the hell I am buck ass naked?" Dean demanded self-consciously pulling the sheets up higher over his hips. "How did we get to Bobby's without me knowing it? Was I drugged?"

"What do you remember?" Sam asked cautiously eyeing him with warily as he kept a grip on his arm, wanting to have that connection.

Dean leaned back against the headboard and frowned as he thought about it. "We went to the storage unit that Dad had and then we headed for Bobby's. Didn't we stop at a motel along the way? And that's about all I remember, but how did we get here?" he questioned again.

"That's a long story, why don't I let you get dressed and we can talk about it," Sam told him getting up from the bed. He stopped at the dresser to retrieve the watch to take downstairs and store in the curse box. Later, he would put it with the rest in the building and hopefully they could destroy some of them before leaving Bobby's.

"Yeah, that's a start," Dean agreed. "I'll meet you downstairs."

"Alright," Sam said heading from the bedroom to go tell Bobby that it had worked.

Once Sam was gone, Dean got up and went to the dresser to get clothes. He opened the drawer and looked in shock at the clothes in there that were for a kid. With his thumb and index finger, he picked up a kid's pair of briefs with Scooby Doo on them and saw another pair with Batman emblazed on the front of them. He turned to look back at the bed he woke up in as he tried to clear what fog was in his brain so he could figure out what had happened to him. There was time missing, and he hoped Sam could shed a light on it all.

"What the hell," he muttered in confusion dropping them back into the drawer. Dean tried another drawer and found his briefs and socks and pulled them out. He looked for clean jeans and a T-shirt to slip on feeling better now that he was clothed. He padded sock footed into the hall and to the bathroom before heading downstairs to find Sam and Bobby.

"Dean, son, good to see you," Bobby greeted him with a warm hug holding on a little too long.

"Hey Bobby," Dean said hugging him back. "Is there something you two want to tell me?"

"Have a seat," Sam told him sitting a cup of coffee on the table for Dean.

Dean dropped into a chair and waited for Bobby and Sam to do the same. He picked up the cup and sipped on the coffee and grimaced wondering why it tasted funny and why was he craving chocolate milk.

"Do you remember when we were in the storage unit, and you fell into that shelf that had curse boxes on it?"

"Vaguely. I tripped one of Dad's traps but luckily it didn't go off."

"Well, it seems you picked up a cursed object without knowing what it was. It was a pocket watch. Do remember it?" Sam questioned.

"A pocket watch…" Dean mumbled as his brow creased. "I'm getting a few images but not much."

Sam grabbed a napkin, coughed into it, and rubbed his forehead feeling an ache behind his eyes. He didn't see Bobby give him a curious look realizing what was happening to him.

"Sorry," he grunted wiping his mouth.

"Wait, what happened to me?" Dean asked looking from Bobby to Sam and back, waiting for one of them to answer.

"When I woke up the next morning in the motel room," Sam started but had to stop to clear his throat and cough again. "I found you in the bathtub with the knife you keep under your pillow…"

"Why was I in the bathtub? Was something attacking us?"

"You were hiding there because you were five years old and scared."

"I was what? Five. I was a kid? A five year old kid," Dean asked trying to fathom the concept. "And how long was I five?"

"Over two weeks…" Sam started when suddenly he sneezed loudly twice, covering his hand in snot and the table in front of him.

"Now that's disgusting dude," Dean cringed looking at his brother to see if he was going to do it again as he leaned away from him.

"I got it from you," Sam sniffed getting up to grab some sanitizing wipes to clean the table. He looked to Bobby and got a grateful nod of thanks. He moved to the sink to wash his hands really good. Sam wasn't feeling good and decided to give Dean his gift before going upstairs to rest. Everything was catching up to him and his body was telling him it needed it.

He got his laptop and set it up in front of Dean and pulled up the album he had made. Sam pulled a shoe box from a bookcase and sat it by the laptop. "Here, watch this, I'm going to bed. And these are some things you wanted to keep. I thought you might like to see them," Sam spoke hoarsely and then walked away as he sneezed several more times.

Bobby watched the younger brother leave and rolled his eyes thinking, here we go again, another sick Winchester. He watched Dean open the box and look inside at the collection of all kinds and colors of rocks, bits of shiny metal, couple odd shaped sticks, button, toy car, few stray coins, and a dice. After pushing the box aside, he hit enter on the laptop and heard music start to play as Dean's eyes widened in surprise when the photos slowly began to scroll across the screen. He was mesmerized with each one seeing himself as a five-year-old with an adult Sam, Bobby, and Jody. Dean's face softened the more he watched and paused on one of Sam and him outside. He was holding him and kissing his forehead and there was so much love on his face it made Dean tear up.

He found the one of Bobby reading to him in the recliner and glanced at Bobby, seeing the love in his eyes. He started the slide show again and let it play all the way to the end before starting it again to watch one more time, amazed at the photos that had been taken of him doing all sorts of kiddie things that he never got to do growing up. He smiled warmly as the ones of him chasing bubbles and fireflies scrolled by. He couldn't help but chuckle at a few of the pics of him and Rufus and when it stopped he looked up at Bobby not sure what to say. There were so many emotions rolling around in Dean's head right now as he tried to grasp any memories of this happening.

"Do you remember any of it?" Bobby asked.

"No, not really," Dean mumbled sadly. "I wonder why not? It's like I had a second childhood these past few weeks and I can't remember a damn one of those memories."

"I don't know, and I hate that you can't. The only thing you remembered at five was your name. You did accept Sam as your brother without any fuss which we were glad of. Maybe it has to do with the spell on the watch."

"What's with Sammy? How did I get him sick?"

"You two went on a picnic and you fell into the river. The dunking gave you a bad cold and Sam took care of you. He stayed up with you every night watching over you. Guess he wore himself out and looks like he did get it from you."

"Bummer. Well, guess I better go see how he's doing and take care of him," Dean sighed getting up from the table. "I need to thank him for what he did for me. I'm going to look at these photos again later. I can't believe he took so many."

"He wanted to document the time for you son and Jody took some of them. She kept you so we could go clean out the storage unit and find what turned you into a kid. You had a crush on her."

"What did you expect, I was five," Dean surmised with a shrug. "I can't believe Sammy did all this for me. I'm at a loss for words…"

"He was trying to give you a little taste of a childhood that you didn't have. We were not sure you would remember any of it or not."

"That sounds like Sammy. I'll be upstairs. Here, you wanna look through them?" Dean asked moving the laptop so Bobby could watch the slide show.

"Thanks, haven't seen all of them yet. Might want to take a Gatorade up to him so he can stay hydrated."

"Good idea." Dean detoured to the fridge and looked in moving things to grab one. He noticed the juice boxes in the door and grabbed one to take with him. He headed upstairs and into their bedroom. "How are you doing, bro?" Dean asked Sam who was snuggled under the covers in his bed. He placed a hand on his forehead and thought he felt warm.

"Feel lousy," Sam mumbled sniffing and clearing his throat only to cough again. "Don't like being sick."

"I brought you a Gatorade, Bobby said you should hydrate." Dean could hear the wheezing as Sam drew in a shaky breath. "You were never a good patient, even when you were little."

"Thanks," Sam coughed bringing up mucus he spit into a tissue to throw away.

"We got any drugs in the bathroom?" Dean questioned heading across the hall to look. He found the ear thermometer and bottles of other kid's medicine in the medicine cabinet. He looked at each one thinking it wouldn't hurt, he'd just give Sam a double dose. "Okay Sammy let's check your temperature," Dean told him looking at the thermometer, trying to figure out how it worked. Once it was turned on, he stuck it in Sam's ear and waited for the beep. "Okay, you've got a low-grade fever. Here, take this," he told Sam holding out the small cup for him.

"What's that?" Sam asked eyeing the cup suspiciously.

"Medicine, take it," Dean ordered in his big brother voice.

"Fine," Sam pouted taking it and downing the liquid. "Damn, that's nasty," he coughed and reached for the Gatorade.

"And you gave it to me; aren't you ashamed of yourself?" Dean accused. "Is there anything you need?"

"No, I just want to rest." Sam sneezed and groaned when his ears popped.

"Here, keep these in bed with you," Dean said, handing him a box of tissue. "Sammy…"

"What?"

"Thanks for taking care of me while I was…You know…A kid."

"It was my job, just like it was your job all those years to care of me."

"Yeah, well, I think you were good at it, and I like all the photos. Even if I don't remember it, they let me see how happy I was. Thanks for all that."

"You're welcome." Sam coughed and grabbed a tissue to spit out the mucus and drew in a shallow breath as he closed his eyes. He was going to have Dean set up the vaporizer for tonight and if it felt like it was going into his chest, he would use the vapor rub.

"Get some rest bro. I'll come check on you in a bit." Dean tucked the covers around Sam's body and ran a hand over his head before heading back downstairs to talk to Bobby.

"How's your brother?" Bobby asked him.

"He's running a low-grade fever and he says he feels lousy. He sounds congested."

"Yep, just like you. You weren't the easiest to get along with when you were sick."

"Do you blame me? What kid likes being sick. I'm going to run into town to get him some adult meds. Anything we need while I'm there?"

"Better get some more Gatorades for your brother and some soup. I think Sam fixed what he bought for you."

"Okay. I'll be back."

"Oh, you might wanna go by and see Jody, so she knows things went well. You two bonded over pie making and you asked her to be your girlfriend. You even gave her roses," Bobby teased.

"Yeah, well, what do you expect?" Dean complained as he blushed slightly. "I was five after all and to a five-year-old she was hot. Besides, we bonded making pies together. Is there any left of them or do I need to grab one while I'm out?"

"On the counter. Sam made sure to save some for you today."

"He was a good big brother," Dean commented cutting a slice of pie to take with him. "Not bad at all," he mumbled around the bite of pie.

"I've already called Missouri to let her know. She helped with the reverse ritual but couldn't be here when we did it."

"I'll have to call her and thank her. Will you check on Sammy while I'm gone?"

"I will son." Bobby watched Dean head out the door and sighed glad things were back the way they should be, the older brother, taking care of the young brother. He was going to miss young Dean and so was Rufus, but at least things worked out how they should, and all was back to normal.

The End