Sins of the Father. A Supernatural Fan Fic
Author: Steffykaye
Setting: two years after the pilot
Rating: PG-13/R
Disclaimer: The characters of John, Dean, and Sam Winchester are not my creations.
Chapter 1 - "Family Concern , Winchester Style"
The Next Morning
"Some nightmare last night, huh Sammy, what happened, you finally realize that you'll always be the ugly duckling?" Dean threw a cocky grin over his shoulder at his brother. "I mean, dude, if I looked like you I would wake up screaming too!" Sam, having learned long ago the best way to deal with his overbearing older brother shot him an annoyed look.
"Keep your eyes on the road, or my prayers will be answered and we'll finally be able to replace this heap." Sam quickly ducked to avoid the slap he knew was coming, and laughed as he turned his head to look out the window, relieved at the thought that he had avoided talking about the dreams again.
"Seriously man, the whole brooding, Heathcliff on the moors thing, it's getting old. It's been, what, two years since Jess died? It's time to move on." As he caught Sam's amazed look, Dean grinned. "Yeah, I can read and everything, didn't even have to go to Stanford."
Sam sighed, annoyed that he couldn't avoid this discussion after all. "The dream wasn't about Jess, Dean. It was something else. The worst I have ever had." He closed his eyes in an attempt to block out the images that he hadn't been able to forget. "Hell, who knows if it was even a true vision. Probably just my way of dealing with all the stuff we've seen since we've been on this hunt."
Dean scoffed, "and joining us today, pop psychologist and self-help guru, Dr. Phil. Seriously man, where do you come up with this stuff?" Dean repeated Sam's words mockingly, "Probably just my way of dealing with all the stuff we've seen since we've been on this hunt. Is that the kind of stuff you learned while you were away finding yourself? It's no wonder Dad made me…" He suddenly stopped talking, aware that he was about to say too much.
"Dad made you do what?" Sam looked at his brother hoping that he will finally get Dean to open up and talk about what had happened in those years he was away.
"It was nothing, just some more of that 'knowing who you really are' crap." Casting a sidelong glance at his brother, Dean quickly changed the subject. "So, tell me about this dream. Any chance it involved me and some hot girl expressing her gratitude for being saved from the big bad whatever?"
He just grinned and shrugged when Sam cast him an exasperated look. His expression quickly turned to one of concern, however, when Sam related to him the details of the dream. "That is one sick, twisted mind you got there, Sammy."
"Look, I know how it sounds, OK, but I can't get those images out my head, or shake the belief that somehow they are real. This one has a different feeling than all the others. Those things I saw, they happened as I was watching them. I'm not talking about the precognition here, Dean, there's something else."
Stopping at a red light, Dean turned to look at his brother, the gleam of the hunt in his eye. "All right then, lets find out what it is, and kill the son of a bitch."
Later the brothers stopped for the night at one more in the endless line of nameless, pay by the hour, hotels. "I'm going after food, man, it'll be a while before I get back. What, with me needing to special order your grilled chicken sandwich."
Sam just grinned and thought about how nice it was that his brother knew him well enough now to not even ask what he wanted. Made it one less thing he had to think about.
"I'm going to take a shower, if the hot water in this place works." Dean glanced up at his brother as Sam left the room and decided it was a good time to make the call. He yelled through the bathroom door, "I'm leaving, save me some shampoo, hair boy." He pulled his cell phone from his coat pocket and quickly dialed a number. As he waited for his call to connect, he did not hear the bathroom door open. "Hey, Dad, about Sam," his voice faded as the door closed behind him.
Hurriedly Sam moved to the window and saw that Dean was already climbing into the car. He knew that a direct confrontation would do little, if any, good, so he resorted to a tactic that had worked well in the past, snooping.
Reaching over, he pulled Dean's laptop towards him and opened the files containing the information on the years that he was away at college. He had just recently cracked the password for those files, but it was here that he learned most of what he knew about the creatures that his father and brother had fought while he was gone. Dean still wouldn't talk much about it. He always changed the subject like he was afraid to trust Sam with this information, even though it had been two years since Sam had returned to hunting. There was one file he had been avoiding, fearful of what he would find when he opened it. With great reluctance he opened the file titled, "Sammy."
At first, the things he saw there were what he would have expected, pictures of him as he was leaving for Stanford, and copies of the e-mails and letters that he had sent back home. Sam winced as he realized how much those contacts with his family had decreased over the years, but was nevertheless touched at the thought that everything he had sent to both his Dad and Dean was in that file. Hearing a sound outside the door, Sam glanced up guiltily, and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the door to the room next door slam shut. He quickly got up and threw the chain lock on the door, at least that way if Dean got back before he was done, he would have time to hide the evidence.
A look of pain crossed Sam's face as he saw the next picture in the file. It was one taken of him and Jessica right after they started dating. The pain quickly changed to disbelief, however. He pulled up hundreds of pictures of himself at Stanford. They showed him on campus, out with his friends, and even at home with Jess. The pictures spanned the whole time he had been at school. It became clear to him that either his father or brother had been watching him all while he was away. There was no other explanation. Sam knew there was no way that a confrontation could be avoided now. He needed answers. He felt an inexplicable rage well up in him. As he sat waiting for Dean to return, the darkness overpowered him and he slumped to the floor.
Dean grimaced as he finished his call and tossed the cell phone on the seat beside him. Sometimes the weight of the burden his father had thrust on him was hard to bear. He was getting tired of lying to Sam about where their father was, and of avoiding the subject of the years that Sam was away. Dean wanted everything out in the open. That was the best way to deal with things. He understood his father's reasoning for keeping things from Sam, he just didn't agree with it.
He muttered under his breath, "this is Dad's deal, there is nothing you can do about it." The line had become like a mantra to him. But he knew that it would not be long before Sam insisted on knowing the whole truth. He dreaded the confrontation. Revealing the secrets would do one of two things. It would either drive Sam away forever, or turn him into a hardened, bitter man. Neither option was one that Dean wanted. He needed things to stay the way they were. The past two years had been the best he had seen in a while. Even with the lying and ceaseless hunting. He thought for a moment on what that revealed about the life he had led.
"I'll just leave that 'journey of self discovery' crap to Sam," he thought as he reached over and turned up the stereo. There was nothing better than a blast of Metallica to drive away those thoughts.
Dean pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, and grabbed the food. He paused and looked towards their room. He expected to see Sam watching for him as he had been gone longer than even he had anticipated. It had taken Dad more time than usual to convince him to keep quiet. He saw no movement through the window and noticed that there were no lights on. His senses immediately went on alert. That was not like Sam, who still had problems with being alone in a dark room.
As Dean hurried to the door, he tried to convince himself that Sam had just fallen asleep. But when he tried the door and found it locked and chained, panic wormed its way through his gut. He shouted at Sam to open the door. The only response was a low moan from inside the room. Dean pounded on the door and threw himself against it, desperate to get to his brother. He barely felt the sharp explosion of pain as his shoulder socket yielded to the force being applied to it. Just then the door gave way and he rushed inside to find Sam sprawled on the floor.