2001
"Hey, Dad, I really need to talk to you," an 18-year-old Sam Winchester asked his father.
"Not now, son. Whatever it is can wait until we exorcize this spirit from the house. We're actually being paid to do this one, Sammy, we're not going to freaking screw it up," John answered, not at all pleased to be interrupted while he was working.
"But Dad, this is really-"
"Jesus, Sam, I said not now!"
Sam knew that his father meant business, so he finally backed off, but not before muttering, "If it were Dean you'd listen without hesitation…", and walking away from the situation.
John Winchester sighed, knowing full well that though his youngest may have not said that too loudly, he had meant for him to hear it. It had been this way for a long time, Sam's jealousy towards his older brother. And from the jealousy had come resentment and stubbornness to his father. Though he hated to admit it, John thought that the same stubbornness had come from him.
The truth was, though it may not have always seemed like it, John loved both his children equally. But Dean was just so much easier to get along with, not talking back or insulting him every second of the day. And he was a soldier, knew how to fight and he put his all into it. Sam knew how to fight properly as well, but his heart wasn't into it like it should be. He was always more interested in reading a book than taking down evil spirits. Though he may have John's stubbornness, everything else he had gotten from Mary. John missed her so much, and having his son be like a living memory of her, he could hardly stand it.
"Hey, Dean, come here a second," John called over his 22-year-old who had been picking out some choice weapons from the trunk of the car. "Dean, go talk to your brother, see what's up with him."
"Okay, I'll go talk," Dean said skeptically, having no idea why specifically his father wanted him to talk to his little brother, or what he was supposed to be talking about with him. But he wouldn't disobey his Dad's orders. Even at 22, he still completely respected his father, and even had the slightest bit of fear towards him.
"Hey, Sammy. Teen angst getting you down?" he found Sam sitting on the bed of their cheap motel room of the month.
"So Dad sent you to do his dirty work for him, huh? Typical," Sam scoffed.
"Uh, no, in fact I was just being a good older brother. But, you know, if you can't appreciate that…" Dean felt slightly guilty lying to Sam, but it had the desired affect as he saw the even guiltier look cross Sam's face.
"Sorry, I'm still pretty mad at Dad."
"Why?"
"I've just been trying to tell him something really important for the past couple of weeks…When I finally got enough courage to even think about telling him, that is."
"What did you want to tell him?"
Sam stayed silent for a couple of seconds, arguing with himself whether to tell his brother or not. He reached into his pocket, grasping for the worn out piece of paper folded inside. He wasn't sure how Dean would react to the news, he had been so worried about telling his father that he hadn't really even thought about Dean's reaction.
Sam finally took the paper out of his pocket and unfolded it.
"What's that, Sammy?" Dean asked nervously, having a fairly good idea what it was, judging by the big logo on the upper left corner.
"It's a letter from Stanford University. You remember how I turned them down last year because Dad said there was no way I was going? Well, I'm tired of waiting. They're still willing to give me a full scholarship, and I accepted," Sam explained, never once looking his brother in the eye, because he knew what he'd see.
Dean had taken an actual bullet a few years back, but even that blow hadn't been as big as this one. "You accepted? Are you shitting me, Sam! I mean- Jesus, you didn't even tell us that they had freaking been in touch with you!"
"If I had told you guys, what would you honestly have said? You wouldn't have let me go!" Sam said angrily.
"Damn right we wouldn't have let you go! You have priorities to this family, Sam! And, I mean, we're so close to finding out what happened to Mom! You're going to through that all away?" Dean shouted back.
"The hell we are! Dean, we're no closer to finding out what happened to Mom than we were eighteen years ago, when it freaking happened!" At the look of hurt on his brother's face, he tried to calm himself down, "Look, its not like I'm abandoning you guys. I'm just going to college! I can come along on hunting trips with you on breaks and even some weekends, if they're near Stanford-"
"Cut the bull, Sam. You're doing this 'cause you hate the hunting lifestyle. You say that you'll be able to help us with hunting trips, but when the time comes to help, you're going to make up some half-ass excuse to get out of it anyways"
"That's not true at all! Dean-"
"Look, Sammy, I've got to get back to helping Dad. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Only thing I can say is good luck telling Dad," Dean said as he turned his back on his brother. Truth was that Dean couldn't even stand looking at his brother right now. After eighteen years of comforting Sam after a nightmare, wrestling with him when they were kids, saving his ass when any creature came at him and he wasn't prepared, and even defending him in fights with Dad- Sam had stomped all over that hard work with that one single letter.
Sam just sat there as his older sibling slammed the door to the room. He laid down on the bed, quickly realizing how uncomfortable it was. He stood up and put the letter back into his pocket, and headed outside to help his family with their latest 'job'.
A week later, they were back in Kansas, and Sam still hadn't told his father. After Dean's reaction, which was still impending as his older brother refused to talk to him unless entirely necessary, he wasn't even sure he wanted to tell his Dad anymore. He began coming up with secret escape plans, possibly climbing out of the house in the middle of the night, and taking a cab to the airport, where he could be in California within a couple of hours. He already had a suitcase packed and everything, though he didn't exactly have too much to pack. But at least he was ready to go at any time.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. "Who is it?" Sam asked.
"Sam, we need to talk. Dean told me about the letter," his father's voice answered. Shit, I didn't think Dean would actually tell him Sam thought before telling his Dad to come in.
"Look, Dad-"
"There's no need for a big conversation, Sam. You're not going and that's final," John told him before making his way out the door, leaving a shocked son behind in the room.
"No, it's not over!" Sam shouted at his father, causing him to turn around to look up to his much taller son, "I'm eighteen, Dad, which means I am legally able to make my own decisions now. I already accepted the scholarship, I'm going."
"Goddammit, Sam! How many times are we going to have this conversation! You owe your allegiance to your family, that's what comes first! If you go to college, you're turning your back on your brother and I!"
"I 'owe my allegiance'! Dad, do you freaking hear yourself? You're not in the marines anymore, you're not talking to a soldier. You're talking to your son, do you even understand that! Oh, and by the way, if you talked to Dean thoroughly enough about this, you would realize that we had the exact same conversation. I'm not leaving you guys, I'm just going to college! I'm going to come back and help you guys, I'm not leaving you!" Sam stopped before saying, "Look, I don't get to have a normal life, I get that now. But, please, just let me have this. Please, Dad."
John Winchester could hardly stand the pleading look in his son's eyes, but he couldn't give in. Sam was right about one thing, and that was that he was still as tough as he ever was in the marines.
Downstairs, Dean sat at the kitchen table, his head in his hands, listening to the shouting match going on upstairs. He had had to tell his father about Sam, he was getting desperate, he just couldn't let his younger brother go to Stanford, Dean needed him too much. He hoped that their father would be able to finally knock some sense into him.
Dean looked up at the sound of someone quickly coming down the stairs. He soon made out the figure of Sam, a suitcase in hand, looking angry as hell. He didn't even glance at Dean as he made his way to the front door.
"Sam, what the hell are you doing!" Dean yelled, catching him before he opened the door.
"I'm leaving, Dean. I don't care if I have either of your consent or not, I'm going to Stanford. Just call me if you need me, and I'll come back at breaks, I swear," Sam told him. He was angrier at his father than he had ever been in his life, but he didn't want to leave on a bad note with Dean, the brother who had spent his life protecting him.
But their goodbye in the making was interrupted by a voice from a couple feet behind them, as their father said, "No, Sam. If you leave this house, you're never coming back."
Dean couldn't believe his ears. "But, Dad-"
"Stay out of it, Dean!" John yelled at his son.
Sam looked crestfallen at his words, but proceeded to open the door, stepping outside. "I'm sorry," he said looking back at Dean, and closed the door.
A/N: Hey, so here is the long awaited chapter that I have been procrastinating for quite awhile…Lol, okay just a quick couple of notes. First off, this chapter took me FOREVER to write because, as I've said, I got writer's block. And so I would go away from the computer after writing a couple of paragraphs, and then come back later to continue. So if for some reason it doesn't make sense, that's why. Anyways, I know Sam may not have gone to college at 18, but it seemed that at 22 he was a senior in college, and I'm guessing he went a year later than most, so that's where I came up with that he was 18 when he went to college. Also, I know that there was no present day reminisces in this one, but that is because I was actually planning on writing the next chapter on that, because there must be a lot of anger Dean feels towards Sam, and I'm sure Sam still feels pretty bad for leaving. So I thought that'd make for an interesting chapter, plus that would have been quite a few pages long, so this would be an ultra long chapter, and I'm very lazy. Lol, anyways, I hope you like this chapter!