Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There's also continuing themes and references to canon traumatic events (pre-season 5). Feel free to back out if need be.

Author's Note: I'm still riding this wave for a bit.

Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Post Term 16); Ministry (Pre-Open); MC4A (Summer Year 5)
Individual Challenges: Young Again; Red Lights; Red Bull; Little Tykes; Red Wave; Happy Birthday (Y); Hunter MC; Hunter MC; Hunter MC; Tiny Terror; Neurodivergent; Booger Breath; Claimed; Zed Era; Old Shoes; Above Average Natural; In a Flash; The Real MC; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift
House: Slytherin
Ministry Challenges: August Bingo [E2]("What do you want?")
Other Hogwarts Challenges: 365 [260](Folklore); 1000 Prompts Challenge [850](Calm); Days of the Year [Jul 26/All or Nothing Day](Someone taking a big risk); National Picnic Month [20](Family); Shark Awareness Day [13](Eavesdropping); National Dog Day [10](Chilly); National Indoor Plants Week [13](Rainy); Teddy Bear Day [11](Hotel);
Other MC4A Challenges: Chim [Guna] ("The Village" - Wrabel; Protection; Gnome);Hunt [Su Set (Hotel/Inn)]; Fire [x3](Young Again); Garden [Bait (Kid Dean Winchester)]; Harvest [A&B (Overhearing a Conversation; Talking); AUs (Hunter); Items (Mobile Phone); Relationships (Brothers)];
Representation(s): Sam & Dean Winchester; Team Free Will as Family; Implied Profound Bond; Chim Song Prompt; Aftermath of Hunt Battle; Background Apocalypse (Season 5)
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Lyre Liar; Muck & Slime; Rock of Ages; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Second Verse (Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Middle Name; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Younger You); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Unicorn); Demo 1 (Under the Bridge; Over the Hills); Demo 2 (Toto's Tribute; Jack's Jollies)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Tether); SN (Rail; Negate); FR (Gestation); O3 (Ox); Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe; Inchworm); War (Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY (Avasa; Enfant)
Word Count: 872 words

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Revelations of Youth
Part 02: Called
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Dean was still a child in the morning.

He was also still unconscious, despite it being over eight hours later.

Sam needed to call for reinforcements. Or at least warn Bobby about what had happened. Worse comes to worst, Bobby had some experience dealing with the kid version of Dean. Whenever they had to deal with kids, Dean was the one to handle them. Sam had no clue how he did it and made it look so easy.

Careful to keep the door from making any noise, he stepped out of the motel room and closed it behind him. He didn't dare go to far from the door, not that he really could with the chilly rain left over by the storm from last night. (Nothing like early spring in the Rockies to remind him why he had loved Palo Alto.) Some of his first memories were of evasion training. No doubt Dean would have had the same training and had it closer to the surface. If he had only the memories of his eight-year-old self, that was.

Fuck. Dean hardly sleeps since coming back from Hell. What would a child do with those memories? Sam forced that happy thought away so that he could focus on calling Bobby.

"Singer Salvage," Bobby answered in the slightly less gruff tone he used as a customer service voice. It was still gentle enough that Sam felt an overwhelming sense of relief. In a lot of ways, Bobby had been more of a father to Sam than John had, even with John's brief attempt at cutting the man out of their lives. The only person who had been more of a parent to him had been Dean, which just made this situation even more nerve-wrecking. "What do ya want?"

"Bobby," Sam managed before his voice gave out. Not that he knew what he was going to say anyway. How did he even begin to explain what had happened?

"Sam," Bobby said with a note of cautious curiosity. "Hunt took a bit longer to wrap? I expected one of you boys to call last night."

"Yeah, nah, we finished up last night." Sam rubbed a hand over his mouth. He had never really thought about it before, but Dean was usually the one who handled the details like calling Bobby to let him know that they had finished up a hunt. He had done the same thing with Dad in the few hunts they had done on their own back before Sam had left for Stanford. It hadn't even crossed his mind that Bobby might have been waiting for a call even as late as it had been.

"Not that I don't enjoy talking to ya," Bobby said, interrupting Sam's spiraling thoughts, "but is everything alright, Sam? You sound a bit off kilter."

"It's Dean." Sam straightened his shoulders and tried not to think too much about the sharp intake of breath he heard on the other end of the line. "He's alive. He doesn't seem too banged up. It's just—I don't know how it happened, but he's a kid, Bobby."

"A kid?"

"I thought whatever it was would have passed overnight," Sam explained hurriedly. "Not that the folklore suggested the creature even could have done it, but killing the thing clearly didn't end whatever it was, because I found Dean after it had been killed. I didn't know what else to do except try to wait it out. I don't know if it's just physical yet either. He hasn't woken up yet."

"You sure about that?"

"Fairly certain, yeah," Sam replied even as he blinked in confusion at Bobby's question. His confusion only grew when Bobby let out a huffing chuckle.

"I've known that boy since he was ten years old, and one of the first things I learned about him was that when he's scared, he gets sneaky." Bobby gave another huff, this one sounding fond instead of amused. "Did ya leave the room? I bet if you're careful turning 'round, you might be able to catch Dean peeping out the window at ya."

Sam made a quarter turn, just enough that the large window next to the door would be visible out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough there was a little arch in the part of the faded sienna curtain. Sam couldn't see anything in it, not even the tip of the finger that had to be holding it, but that didn't change the fact that it had to be Dean looking out. How had he not realized that his brother had been faking asleep?

"That's—How did you know?"

"He did the same thing the first time your daddy left ya both with me. Hell, the first week I think the only time he wasn't hovering over you or skulking about was when he was organizing my kitchen to suit himself."

"I don't remember that."

"Course ya don't. You weren't even six yet during that first visit." Bobby sighed in that deep way that usually indicated that he was thinking something that he knew was a bad idea to actually say. Sam had a feeling that he knew what the question was.

He dreaded it just the same.

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To Be Continued
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