Chapter 10: Brotherly Love and Holidays
Author's Notes: I know this is sounding repetitive, but thanks for all the wonderful encouragement that I have received from all of you. This chapter is a little more laid back, but I promise, the 'shit is going to start hitting the fan' in the next one. The next post will probably be up in a couple of days since tomorrow/today is Thanksgiving.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!
000000
Sam was in the kitchen setting the turkey out to thaw. It had been six days since the exorcism and everything in the house had been quiet. The first day was a bit tense. For the rest of the day he and Dean had been walking on egg shells waiting for something to happen, but all had been quiet. Together they had cleaned the house and put everything back in its place where it belonged.
That night Sam had slept like a baby. No dreams, no visions, just a deep and restful sleep that had been invigorating. The next day he and Dean had once more removed the snow, this time with out any strange accidents, and together they had even built a snowman complete with a carrot nose and button eyes. Okay, so Sam had made the snowman while Dean "supervised". In the attic Sam had found an old scarf and a floppy hat which now adorned the snowman's head and neck. Luckily there hadn't been any more snow storms since then so they hadn't had to shovel anymore.
Dean teased him about the snowman, but later that day Sam had caught Dean staring out the window smiling at it. The next couple of days they had spent their time watching movies, playing Monopoly or Clue, and Dean had even convinced Sam to train and spar with him a little bit.
Sam had been impressed with himself. After being bested by the shape shifter he had been nervous to spar with Dean, but he had held his own pretty well, although part of him suspected that Dean had been holding back a little.
Now he was reading the recipe for the turkey and he was even going to peel the potatoes and leave them in a bowl of water to have them ready for boiling tomorrow.
"Sammy!" Dean exclaimed as he came busting into the kitchen. "Sam!"
"What?" Sam asked.
"The plow just came through," Dean announced. "We can pack up and leave now." Dean was smiling ear to ear and thought Sam would be happy too, but instead, Sam's face seemed frozen in place, like he had just been given the worst news ever.
"What? What's wrong?" Dean asked. "Did something happen?"
"No, uh, no." Sam turned and put down the potato peeler and the potato that had been in his hands. "Okay, uh, yeah. Great! I guess I'll go and start packing."
"Sam, what's wrong?" Dean asked.
"Nothing," Sam lied. He knew Dean had been anxious to leave. The last two days he had grown a bit restless. Once a job was done he was always ready to leave. The snow had been the only thing keeping him there now that the place was spook free.
"Excuse me," Sam said and walked out of the kitchen.
Dean didn't get it. He thought that after all this time Sam would be ready to go, but instead he looked like a kid who'd just lost his puppy. It was time to go, though. The house was safe now. Their job was done. They needed to get back on the road and keep looking for Dad.
Dean kicked the chair leg lightly with his toes and glanced at the kitchen counter. That's when he saw the frozen turkey sitting on the counter top, and a small pile of potatoes waiting to be peeled. Also on the counter was a frozen pumpkin pie.
Dean's brain started to put two and two together. He looked at the calendar on the wall and suddenly realized the date. It was the day before Thanksgiving and Sam had planned to go all out for the holiday, and now Dean was about to ruin it for him. He sighed and wiped his brow with his hand. Hell, they could stay one more day, he guessed. He hurried up the stairs and walked into their room. Sam was already stuffing things into his duffle.
"You know, I was thinking. We don't have to leave this very minute," Dean said with a shrug. "How about we leave Friday morning? It makes sense. This way we'll have worked two whole weeks each and we'll get paid for both. That's $600 for each of us. Add $1,200 to the left over money from the reward we got and we'll be solvent for a long time. How does that sound?"
Sam's face lit up with an enormous smile. "That sounds great," he replied. He walked out of the room and went back to the kitchen.
Dean smiled. He was feeling pretty good with himself. The truth was Dean was more than ready to get out of here, but Sam was happier than he had seen him in a long time. For the past week he hadn't mentioned Jess even once. He'd been nightmare and vision free, and he was always smiling or joking about something. For the past week Sam had been the loveable kid Dean remembered from years ago. It had been nice to have back the real Sammy as opposed to the moody and emotional one that had been riding around in the car for the past several months.
Dean walked down the stairs whistling a tune. Maybe they couldn't leave the house today, but the road was open and his baby hadn't been driven in almost two weeks. He hurried back to the kitchen where Sam was once again working.
"Come on, Sammy," Dean called.
"What?"
"We're going to town."
"Dean, I have stuff to do," Sam said.
"Do it later." Dean tossed the potatoes into the bowl of water and put the pumpkin pie back in the freezer.
"Now let's go," Dean literally grabbed Sam by the arm and pulled him towards the front door.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming," Sam laughed. Actually, it would be nice to get out for a while.
The two put on their coats, hats, and gloves and headed out to the shed. Dean pulled open the double doors and ran his hands lovingly over the hood of his car. Sam smiled at Dean's predictable behavior. The two got inside and Dean made a point of revving the engine several times before finally putting it into drive.
Dean was beaming at being able to drive once more. He took the turns carefully since the roads were still slick even though they had been plowed. About forty five minutes later they pulled into town and parked in front of Clara's.
"See, you don't have to cook dinner tonight," Dean said with a smile.
"That's good since I'll be cooking up a ton of food tomorrow," Sam replied.
"I know. I figured it out that you were making Thanksgiving dinner."
"I was hoping to keep it a surprise but I should have known you would have seen me cooking and getting things ready."
They went into the diner and were glad to see that it was actually a nice place and the food smelled really good. They had a seat in a booth and took off their coats and stuff. A middle aged woman came to take their order.
"Hi, what would you like to drink?"
"Two cokes," Dean said as he accepted the menus from her.
"Coming right up."
Sam looked at the menu and was pleased with the selection. He decided to get the roast beef dinner with all the fixings.
The waitress returned and Sam placed his order. Dean, as was his custom, ordered a cheeseburger and fries. Sam just smiled without commenting.
"Hmm, grease," Dean said. "I can't wait! Don't think I haven't noticed that for the last two weeks you've been cooking nothing but healthy food."
"Someone has to get more than just greasy burgers and greasy fries into you," Sam laughed. "Besides, you've been eating everything I've been putting in front of you, without complaint I might add."
"Well, if there's one thing I've learned over the years it's not to look a gift horse in the mouth. If you're willing to cook it, I'm more than willing to eat it."
The two sat in comfortable silence and just looked out the window at the people and cars going by. People were walking around carrying big bags and large packages. They were either buying the final touches for Thanksgiving tomorrow or they were already starting their Christmas shopping.
"We should go to the store after this and get our paychecks," Sam remembered.
"Oh yeah! Wow, I don't think I've ever received one of those before…at least, not honestly."
"Well I hope it's a good experience for you. It's nice to earn money the real way instead of hustling pool and gambling."
"Ah, but you forget, I like hustling pool and gambling, not to mention I'm damn good at it."
Sam just rolled his eyes and gave up. Some things he would never change.
After dinner Sam and Dean walked across the street to the store. They picked up their checks and were surprised to see that even the checks that they were supposed to receive on Friday were already there because of Thanksgiving and the bank being closed. Bob, the manager of the store was nice enough to actually cash them for them and gave them their $1,200 in cash.
"You have to admit," Sam said, "That this is pretty good money for just two weeks work."
"It's only good because we both collected pay and because we get to live at the lighthouse almost for free," Dean said.
"When was the last time you earned $600 from hustling pool?" Sam asked.
"Sam, I've had nights where I've earned a grand after about three hours," Dean told him.
"Fine," Sam replied. "I still think it's nice to earn some honest money."
"Sam lets just agree to disagree on this one, okay."
"Okay."
"I don't see why you're making such a big deal of it anyway. I'm usually the one who gets us money when we need it. Your conscious is clean."
Sam shrugged. Actually, what Dean didn't realize it that it bothered him that Dean felt the need to provide for Sam since Sam wasn't willing to hustle or scam. It was just one more responsibility that Dean had to deal with.
"How about we split up and do a little shopping?" Dean suddenly said. "I wanted to go look at rifles."
"I'll come," Sam said.
"Uh, I may be a while. Why don't you go look at movies or something? Find us something to watch tomorrow night after we have Thanksgiving dinner."
"Okay, if that's what you want," Sam replied and walked off in a different direction.
Dean headed towards small electronics. He needed to get something for Sam and he knew exactly what he wanted. He found the one he was looking for and grabbed it. He hurried to pay for it and then ran out to the car and stuffed it in the trunk under his battle ax. Then he ran back in the store so Sam wouldn't know what he had done.
He saw Sam standing in the checkout lane. He walked up calmly. "So what are you getting?"
"I got The Shinning," Sam announced. He knew it was one of Dean's favorites.
"Sweet, I get to watch my man Jack," Dean responded in a rather pathetic immitation.
"Plus, somehow it seemed oddly appropriate considering where we have been living and the job we've been doing."
"Ain't that the truth," Dean smirked.
"What about you? Did you see any rifles you liked?"
"No, there was nothing there that was any better than the guns we already have."
Sam paid for the movies and they finally headed back to the car to head home.
000000
Back at the house Dean actually helped Sam do some of the prep work for the big dinner. They decided to go ahead and watch the movie after they turned on the lighthouse. That night they had so much fun watching the movie and eating junk food that Dean forgot to listen to the weather report.
Dean was in the process of stuffing a third Twinkie in his mouth when he looked over and saw Sam was asleep. He smiled at how darn cute Sam looked when he was sleeping. He was laying on top the covers hugging a pillow to his chest and his hair was hanging over his eyes.
Dean grabbed the remote and paused the movie so they could continue it tomorrow. He clicked off the light and somehow managed to get Sam under the blanket. Sam rolled on to his side and snuggled down with a sigh.
"Sleep well, Sammy," he whispered and then went to sleep him self.
000000
The next day Sam was in the kitchen cooking up a storm. The turkey was in the over with about another forty minutes to go and the mashed potatoes were done. He had cooked the box of Stove Top stuffing and it was also sitting on the back of the stove.
Somehow when Jess used to cook all this she managed to time it so that everything was finished at the same time. Sam couldn't figure out how she did that. He was basically making one thing at a time and then figured he and Dean could reheat the food in the microwave when everything was done.
He looked at the timer and saw the pumpkin pie had only ten more minutes to bake before it was done.
He grabbed a tissue and blew his nose. He wasn't feeling all that well. He had been fine last night but today his throat was raw, his head hurt, and his nose was stuffy. For the most part he was trying to ignore it, though. He didn't want anything to spoil his and Dean's first Thanksgiving.
He washed his hands and then opened the tube of crescent rolls. He rolled them up and put them on a cookie sheet. He would have to wait for the pie to finish before he could put the rolls in the over.
"Okay, bro, when is the food going to be done?" Dean asked as he walked in the kitchen. The house smelled so good it was driving him crazy. He had skipped breakfast and lunch cause he wanted to save room for the turkey dinner.
"Give me another hour," Sam answered.
"An hour! Dude, you've been cooking forever."
"Give me a break. This is my first time doing this all by myself."
"Oh all right,"
Sam let out a cough and sniffed his nose.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam replied.
Dean stuck his finger into the pot of mashed potatoes and shoved a blob of potatoes into his mouth.
"Hey! No sampling," Sam insisted.
"Sammy, I'm starving here."
"I don't care. You're just going to have to wait. Go watch the football game or something."
"Fine," Dean grumbled and left the kitchen. As he passed the window he noticed that it had started snowing lightly. He didn't think much of it, though. The sky was pretty light out and the flakes were small.
He went upstairs into the game room. He wasn't in the mood to watch football. He would sometimes watch a game if he was in a bar, but otherwise he really didn't watch sports.
He grabbed a pool stick and racked the balls. He might as well practice his hustling while he waited for dinner to finish, and now that the pool table was no longer haunted.
000000
Sam laid out the placemats and the cloth napkins; he lit the candles and poured wine into the glasses. He had to laugh, it almost looked like a romantic candle lit dinner for two, but obviously it wasn't. He started carrying food out to the table and set the bowls and serving utensils down. He had nuked some of the food in the microwave to make it nice and hot again. The rolls were a little too brown but other wise everything looked awesome.
Sam left the dinning room to call Dean and caught a glimpse outside. The snow was falling incredibly fast. Sam didn't even know it was snowing. He had been too busy and the weather was surprisingly calm considering how fast the snow was falling. There was almost no wind at all.
Sam hoped this would be a short storm with just a couple of inches. Dean would freak if they got snowed in again. There was nothing Sam could do about it now. He stepped to the bottom of the stairs and called Dean to dinner.
Dean came bounding down the stairs and joined Sam. Sam put on a happy face hoping Dean wouldn't look outside.
"God, it smells awesome," Dean said and followed Sam into the dinning room.
Sam wished he could smell more of it. His head was getting more and more congested and it was truly beginning to ache.
Sam waited to see Dean's expression when he saw the meal on the table with the decorations. Dean didn't disappoint him. His face lit up and he looked at Sam.
"You did good, Sammy."
"Thanks," Sam said. "Have a seat. Let's eat before it gets cold."
They had a seat and started loading their plates. For the first few minutes neither said anything, they just savored the good food. Finally Dean spoke up.
"That's it, I'm gonna find a way to put a stove in the Chevy."
"Good luck with that," Sam laughed, glad that he had made Dean happy.
"Pass the butter," Dean asked, and then slather a crescent in it. "More gravy, too."
"Do you remember ever doing this with mom?" Sam asked.
"I have this…vague…memory. I don't know if it was actually Thanksgiving, but I do remember sitting around the table with you and mom and dad, and then grandma and grandpa. I remember it because I was dressed up and my shoes hurt my feet something terrible."
Sam smiled. "I wish…I wish I had some memories of her. I've spent my life hunting her killer but I don't know her."
"She loved you," Dean said. "I remember when you came to the house from the hospital. I was so jealous. Mom was spending all her time with you. There was a rocking chair in your room and she would sit and rock you for hours." Dean got a far off look on his face as he continued.
"Sometimes I would come in your room and wiggle my way onto mom's lap and then I would be sitting on one side and you would be on the other. She had this song she used to sing to us. It was a lullaby of sorts but for the life of me I can't remember the way it went. It would always put you to sleep though. After she died and you would cry I remember singing it too you and just like before you would stop crying, of course mom had a better voice than I did."
"Why are we just now talking about this?" Sam asked.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"It's just that, I know there must have been good times, good memories, but we never talk about it. There's stuff I want to know, but Dad would get frustrated the minute I would start to ask questions, and until recently, I couldn't even talk about this stuff with you."
Dean felt bad for Sam. Sam had never known a mother's love, or a father's kindness. There had been no piggy back rides for Sam, no trips to the circus. Dean had had an incredibly short childhood, but still, he had had five and a half good years. Some of the memories were a blur after so much time had passed, but the ones he still had were wonderful.
"I'm sorry, Sam. You're right, you deserved to know. I guess for so long it was just hard to talk about it, especially since Dad never wanted to talk about the past. Somehow it became easier to just live in the moment, particularly when it might be your last considering our line of work."
"That was another thing I never understood," Sam said. "I know Dad loved us, and everything he did was to keep us safe, but Jesus Christ, when I think about the things he had us doing, it blows my mind. I swear, sometimes I don't know how either of us lived to see our tenth birthdays."
"Well, that one's easy. I was naturally talented and you had me watching out for you," Dean explained as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
Sam smiled. "Yeah, yeah I did. Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
They went back to eating and stopped talking about the past before either of them had the chance to become melancholy. So far it had been a wonderful Thanksgiving and neither of them wanted to spoil it. Soon both of them were stuffed.
"God, I can't believe how much I ate," Sam groaned.
"I ate twice as much as you did," Dean said, adjusting the waist of his pants slightly, which caused Sam to laugh.
"What?"
"Nothing, it's just that you looked like Al Bundy for a moment there," Sam chuckled.
"If I'm Al then that makes you Peggy," Dean teased.
"Peggy couldn't cook," Sam pointed out.
"Yeah, your right. With that shaggy hair of yours I guess you look more like the dog, Buck, anyway."
Sam picked up a crescent roll and bounced it off Dean's head.
"I'll give you that one, but if you throw any thing else at my head you'll be wearing this turkey like Monica from friends."
"Since when do you watch Friends?" Sam asked.
"Hey, Jennifer Aniston is a babe!"
"Uh!" Sam moaned as he leaned back to give his stomach more room. "I guess I should start on the dishes." Sam was tired and dreaded the clean-up work.
"I say we dump them in the sink and worry about them in the morning. We can get them done before we leave."
"I think I'll take you up on that idea. I'm beat."
"You're coming down sick, aren't you?" Dean asked. "I can hear it in your voice."
"It's just a little cold," Sam said. "Stuffy nose, nothing more."
Sam stood up and began to collect the dishes and bowls of food. Dean helped to carry items to the kitchen. Sam wrapped the bowls with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge while Dean rinsed off plates.
"I forgot the candles," Sam remembered. He went back in the dinning room and blew them out. He was about to return to the kitchen when he felt someone lightly touch his shoulder. He turned, expecting to see Dean, but he was alone. Quickly he looked around. He waited to see if something else happened but the room was quiet. Had he imagined it? The room wasn't cold. He didn't smell any ozone. He must have imagined it. He shook his head and laughed at himself.
000000
Several hours later Sam was stretched out across his bed. He was having a hard time getting comfortable. One minute he would be cold so he would pull the blanket over him, the next minute he was burning up so he'd kick the blanket off of him. He had been doing this little wax on wax off pattern for about an hour now.
He wondered where Dean was but he didn't feel like going to find him. He was flipping through the tv channels and stopped when he saw It's a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was just coming on. His attention was drawn to the window when the wind howled and caused it to rattle. Sam had noticed that the weather was getting progressively worse as the hours ticked by.
He started coughing from the slime that was running from his nasal passages down the back of his throat. He coughed so hard that he actually gagged. He wished he had some type of decongestant to take for his head. Unfortunately the house was void of any medicines. Even their first aid kit only had Tylenol for pain. Dean had some left over Vicadin pills in there from a previous injury that had required a doctor's help, but that wouldn't help him.
He focused his attention back on the tv and listened to Charlie Brown complain about Peppermint Patty to Linus.
000000
Dean was in the lighthouse turning on the lantern. He had listened to the weather report and was dumbfounded by the ironies of life. He had wanted to leave on Wednesday. He had been totally stoked that they were free again. The road was finally clear after being stuck for almost two weeks, but he had agreed to stay till Friday because Sam had wanted to celebrate the holiday.
Now, a brand new blizzard was hitting them. He estimated that about six inches of snow was already on the ground and the weatherman was reporting that another fourteen to eighteen inches were due to fall by morning.
They had had a window of opportunity and they missed it. Now they would probably be stuck here for another week, possibly even two! There would be no way the car could drive through twenty or more inches of snow. Dean wasn't just frustrated, he was actually angry. Sometimes life just really sucked and this was one of those moments.
He stood at the window watching the snow fall, swearing under his breath. Finally he turned and went back down the stairs. Looking out the window was depressing him.
In the kitchen he grabbed a piece of pumpkin pie and put a spoonful of Cool Whip on top of it. He headed up to his room.
'I hope Sammy enjoyed his freaking meal,' Dean thought. 'Now we're trapped once more because Sam had wanted to pretend to be normal for another day!' Dean entered the bedroom and saw Sam lying on his bed.
"I just got the weather report," Dean announced.
"And?"
"And…we are now stuck here…again! Another fucking blizzard is pouring down on us. They're predicting almost two feet of snow by morning. There's no way we can get out of here without getting the car stuck somewhere."
"I'm sorry, Dean," Sam said sincerely. "I never dreamed that staying two more days would have led to this."
"Oh come on, Sam. You love this," Dean bitched. "You probably wouldn't care if we did stay here until spring."
"Dean, I swear, I never meant for us to get stuck here again. I promise, as soon as the plow comes through again we're out of here."
"Damn straight we are," Dean stated.
Sam broke into a coughing fit. He really wasn't feeling well but he didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Dean was no longer in a good mood.
Dean sized up his brother. You didn't have to be a doctor or a rocket scientist to figure out that Sam was coming down sick, really sick. His color was off, his eyes were grayish, and his nose was red. Add in the nasally voice and the coughing and yeah, Sam was officially sick. 'Great, not only are we stuck here again, but now I'm going to have to play nurse maid for a sick little brother.'
Dean was genuinely frustrated by the circumstances, which was why he didn't even realize that he was probably a little angrier than he should be.