A/N: This is it! I figured I would make this short and sweet, get to the point and get it out. Thank you all for sticking through this with me. You definitely made my first time with the Winchesters amazing! Thank you to Irish Anor for being my beta. Again have faith, I've got something in the works.
See first chapter for disclaimer.
My Brother's Keeper
Epilogue
Dean lay on the motel bed beside Sam. He lazily tossed a ball up in the air, as Sam flipped through channels on the television. It had been about two weeks since he had woken up with a headache to an injured brother and a crazy chick in his living room. They had left the house soon after that, his father mumbling something about being there too long. They were staying in motel rooms for now, continuing to travel across the southern states.
Sam was nearly healed and everything that had happened was quickly becoming just a memory. Neither Dean's father nor his little brother offered up any more detail about what had happened, and Dean didn't ask. The Winchesters just didn't talk about some things. If both John and Sam were fine with that, so was Dean.
What Dean did question was his brother's subtle character changes. While the quirks were small, they were quite noticeable to Dean's watchful eye. The younger boy was very alert now, always examining his surrounding carefully. He made sure he could not be snuck up on anymore.
Another thing to consider was his brother's recurring nightmares. Sam had always had nightmares, starting the day they had lost their mother. It was just a fact of life. At first Dean had tried to ignore them. That was, after all, what Sam had asked him to do some time ago. The youngest Winchester was tired of being babied for something so embarrassing. This time was different though. Sam had all but begged Dean to stay with him through these latest string of night terrors. Dean could only guess that Sam just wanted to know his brother was there for him.
These things made Dean wonder about what had happened. It obviously had quite an effect on their small family. While he would have felt a lot more comfortable knowing everything that had happened, he wasn't quite willing to bring it up. Not talking about things had worked out well for Dean so far, and who was he to mess that up?
Dean turned his attention back to the tv. Daytime television sucked. Sam's moping didn't help the situation. The teenager was not happy about the moving, which meant no school. He had grumbled before they left about how he had done an essay for nothing. Dean had told him it was his own fault for doing the work in the first place.
Dean watched his brother for a moment before saying, "You ever notice how there's a lot of action and adventure stories centered around brothers. You know, like one evil brother oppressing the other. And the good brother is always fighting the evil one, whether protecting the world from him or trying to save him from himself. If one of us were evil who do you think it would be?"
Sam was silent for a moment and then, "Did you just use the word 'oppressing'?"
"Dude, I'm being serious! Which one of us would be evil?'
The younger boy smiled at his brother, "Not you."
"What! Why not? I could be evil."
Sam shook his head, "But you'd never hurt me." He never lost the soft smile.
The words and expression were lost on Dean and the moment quickly passed. "Well there are definitely days I wanna hurt you."
"Oh yeah? And when is that?"
"When you're being an annoying little bitch. So basically, every day."
John stood in the bathroom doorway, watching the exchange. He felt a swell of pain and pride when he caught his youngest son's eyes. The boy just smiled at him and continued the banter with his brother.
The End
