Disclaimer: If I actually owned Supernatural, I would SOOOO not be writing this... I'd kinda be doing it for real.
Chapter 2 – Email and Departure
"Dean, what are you doing?" whispered Nacha frowning at the sight of her husband sitting uncomfortably on a chair facing Andrew's closet two hours and a half later, while the boy slept peacefully in his bed. "I just woke up and realized you still hadn't come."
"He said he heard something in the closet, I just wanna make sure…"
Nacha smiled, sitting on Dean's lap and laying a hand on his forehead.
"Look, I know what's out there as much as you do, but from time to time there really is nothing there, Dean… and when I said you were burning up I meant it, now get back to bed."
"If nothing happens in two hours, I'll go back. You go without me – you need to rest 'cause you've got about a million pages to translate tomorrow."
"Hey, how did you know about that?"
"You said your deadline was on the 27 of May and you always do all the work a day before the due date-"
"I do not!" she defended raising her voice out of pure surprise at having been found out.
"Shhh!" hissed Dean laughing lightly, "You're gonna wake him up. Go back to bed I'll be there soon, I swear."
Nacha sighed shaking her head.
"At least let me get you a Panadol…"
Thirty minutes passed and Dean still sat motionless waiting for a sign. His eyelids burned and they became heavier by the second. He was about to give up when he heard it.
It sounded like laughter. Evil, unusual and otherworldly laughter.
Checking out the EMF meter, he realized he was still getting absolutely no readings. His brow crinkled in confusion as he stood up cautiously, taking one step towards the closet.
And as he discovered the source of the noise, Dean wanted to cry.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
It was one of Andrew's toys. A dysfunctional little plastic man that was supposed to laugh when you pressed its belly, but that now did it on its own from time to time. Dean supposed something must have been pulled loose inside the toy, which explained its strange behavior and the mysterious, but no so supernatural noises coming from the closet.
Three hours he had wasted fighting urges to throw up and trying not to think of the warm bed that awaited him and all he got was a toy.
But at least he was sure Andrew would be safe.
Dean walked slowly towards his room and saw Nacha sitting on the bed covered up to her waist in the bed sheets and reading a book. He held the toy high for her to see.
"Our ghost," he said simply.
"Nice one, hunter, now get in here before I have to tie you up until you're healthy again."
Dean gladly obeyed and before his head touched the pillow he was already fast asleep.
"Daddy! Fi-day!"
Dean woke up to a major headache as little Andrew shoved his shoulder from side to side.
"What?" he asked sleepily. He glanced at his watch. 7.15am. He groaned and turned to the other side of the bed for salvation from his son, but Nacha wasn't there.
"Fi-day! Uncle Sammy write today!"
"It's Friday already?"
His brother Sam had made it a habit to email Dean every Friday morning before he left to the office. He had been working in one of the best firms in New York for a couple of years now and seemed to be enjoying life with a young woman named Kirsten Ryan, whom he had met shortly after moving to the city.
Dean had made the mistake of deciding to read Sam's first email out loud to his boy and Andrew had liked the new activity so much that now the little blessing woke Dean up every Friday at 7.30 at the latest to go together to read Sam's news.
At that moment Nacha entered the room still in her nightgown holding a tray. Dean could smell eggs, bacon and coffee, but it only made him want to throw up again.
"Thanks, Nacha, but I really don't think my stomach can deal with that right now-"
"Oh this ain't for you," she said with a smirk, "the nice stuff is for me. All you get is this," she said passing him a plate with a couple of toasts covered in some sort of jam. Although not as attractive, he found the food didn't make him sick and he could actually eat it. "By the way, I called the garage, told them you wouldn't go for about a week."
"You're such a secretary!" teased Dean unexpectedly. She raised her eyebrows at him.
"That's it, I'm not doing you any favors ever again."
"Sure…" he said kissing her cheek as she sat next to him on their bed.
"I'm serious – Andrew, come here, honey, I've got you breakfast too."
"But Uncle Sammy write!" he repeated starting to lose his patience.
"I know, but we're all gonna have breakfast first, okay?" Andrew frowned and comically crossed his arms over his chest.
"I've got your favorite today… it's peach!" she said showing him the little flask containing the baby food.
The boy's eyes widened and he cuddled up in his mother's arms to let her feed him, email and Uncle Sammy forgotten for the moment.
A few minutes later the three of them walked downstairs and into the study where Nacha usually spent hours translating one text or another. The room was basically a small library with hundreds of books in different languages, but Spanish and English texts being the most common. A small, very out of the way section of the room contained a few books about the paranormal, including John Winchester's old journal and another Dean had started writing himself after his father died.
At the far end of the room there was a small desk illuminated by the sunlight that filtered through the large window it faced. There were a few dictionaries on it neatly lined up next to a computer.
Dean sat in front of it and accessed his email account. Five new emails. Three, he quickly deleted, noticing they were junk mail and the other two were from a couple of customers at the garage. Nothing from Sammy.
"That's odd…"
"What is?" asked Nacha approaching a chair to sit down with Andrew on her lap.
"Looks like he didn't write today."
"That is odd."
"Read, daddy!" cried Andrew suddenly.
"Sorry, midget, Uncle Sammy didn't write today."
"But Fi-day! Uncle Sammy 'alwayz' write Fi-day."
"Yeah, maybe he'll write later, don't worry."
But Dean checked again after showering and taking a much needed hour-long nap and still nothing. He wouldn't have worried, but it was true that Sam always wrote on Fridays. No matter where he was or what he was doing, even when he was seriously busy he always managed to send at least a short message saying, "I'll write to you later today, everything's fine. Sam." But Dean got nothing today. He checked his inbox capacity, but it shouldn't have been a problem since he had about 200MB of free space.
Knowing he was being overprotective, he went back to his room and pressed the second speed-dial button on the list, which was Sam's mobile phone. He waited for him to answer but no one ever did and all he got was his voice mail. He tried a few more times but still nothing.
His second option was his office number.
"This is Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz(1) law firm, how can I help you?"
"Hey, Miranda, it's Dean Winchester, can I talk to my brother or is he busy?" he asked recognizing Sam's secretary's voice.
"Oh, good day, Mr. Winchester. Sorry, he didn't come in this morning. We've tried to call him all day but he's not picking up."
"What? You've tried his home number?"
"Home number, cell phone number, pager, fax and email, sir."
"What about his girlfriend? A uh… Kirsten Ryan, did you try her?"
"Yes, sir, but we can't localize her either."
"Right. Thanks, Miranda. Call me if you hear from him, okay? You have my number."
"Yes, sir, I will. Have a good day, Mr. Winchester."
But Dean was already running down the stairs at top speed. Nacha saw him as she walked out of the study putting on his brown leather jacket, which he usually saved for hunts only.
"Dean? What do you think you're-" but she stopped at seeing the anxiety in her husband's feverish eyes.
"I gotta go to New York, Nacha, something's happened to Sam," he explained hurriedly as he threw whatever weapon he found into a duffle bag.
"Okay, Dean, just stop for a second, okay? Just stop," she said grabbing his arm. "Why are you so sure, what happened?"
"He didn't turn up to work today and they've tried every way to localize him but still can't find him. Something's happened to him, I know it," he finished and resumed packing up.
Nacha stared at him bewildered, lost for words. As much as she understood how much Dean cared for his brother, naturally, for her Dean's life was much more important and at her present state she just couldn't understand how her husband could just leave her because his all-grown-up brother wasn't answering his phone.
Dean suddenly stopped what he was doing and finally paid attention to Nacha. Reading her eyes, he did his best to smile confidently.
"Hey, it will be fine, I promise. I'll be back in a couple of days, okay?" she didn't even flinch. "Look, I'm sorry… I know I've been a pain in the ass lately, but this is my brother… you know I've protected him since-"
"Oh, alright! I hate it when you play that card on me, you know? At least say good bye to your son before you go."
He walked up to Andrew's room and she followed him, her head low hiding her fear. As Dean entered the room, she stopped at the doorframe and watched them.
"Hey, midget, what are you doing?" he asked watching his son looking at the pictures in a wordless rubber book.
"Reading," he answered without looking at him, imitating Dean's concentrated frown he unconsciously adopted when reading the newspaper. Dean smiled recognizing the expression and kneeled next to him.
"Look, I don't mean to interrupt your reading, sir, but daddy's gotta go."
Andrew looked up from the toy mirroring Dean's hazel green eyes at him.
"Where?"
"To help Uncle Sammy."
"I go too!"
"No, not this time, midget. You stay with mommy and take care of her, okay?"
"Okay!" he said happily liking the new responsibility given to him.
"That's ma boy. I'll see ya soon, okay?"
He pulled his son towards him and kissed his forehead. Reluctantly, he stood up and turned to go.
"Daddy?" the voice stopped him. "Don't wear that jacket."
Dean laughed wondering where that had come from.
"Why not, midget?"
"When you wear that jacket you get hurt and you can't play with me ''cauze' you're 'alwayz' 'zleeping.'"
A/N: Sad little chapter ending there... thank you so much for all those reviews! And thanks for telling me about how fluent kids are at two, apparently I got it just about right lol... I had also asked my mom and she said my older brother wasn't just fluent at two, but also he could actually read small words (he had a lisp though, just like little Andrew lol!), which is why I decided to teach my little brother too and it worked... it's amazing how much little kids can learn.
Random Note: What ever happened to that hard core home-made EMF meter Dean had in the plane episode? And also, what about that seriously cool gadget he had when he was dressed as a priest? You know the one with the green laser things?
(1)This is an actual law firm in New York, one of the best, in fact... just in case you didn't/wanted to know.