Be Made of Salt And... chp 6

Tommy pushed his rain-soaked hair off his face and glared from where he knelt in the direction of his oldest brother.

Dean could feel himself being watched and turned towards his middle brother, who was closest to him in th e clearing. He met his brother's angry stare and shrugged.

"What?"

"If Sam or I get sick because of this, you get to take care of us."

Sam snorted from his position across the clearing, trying not to laugh out loud at his brothers, especially at the look he knew Dean was giving Tommy.

Dean just shook his head, but before he could say anything the creature they were waiting for made its appearance.

All of them had seen Black Dogs before, but this one topped them all in size. It could easily have been mistaken for a large wolf or even a small bear. It paused in the clearing, sniffing the air around it before letting out a mournful howl. Without warning, it launched itself towards Sam's hiding spot.

Sam watched the thing come towards him and waited just an extra second before rolling out of the way of its razor sharp claws. He didn't even get a chance to fire at it before a shot rang out from across the clearing, felling the animal as it prepared to leap once again towards him, claws outstretched. After doing a quick check to make sure he was okay, Sam got to his feet and finally noticed that neither of his brothers had come over to check on him. Frowning, he made his way across the clearing only to pull up short at what he saw.

For all of his abilities, Tommy had forgotten one thing: neither one of his brothers had been on a hunt with him in over eight years. So when he suddenly found himself looking up at a worried looking Dean, it took him a moment to figure out why. He wiped at the blood coming from his nose and shook his head as Sam rejoined them. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he'd managed to kill t he beast, especially considering that Dean had been next to him almost as quick as he'd heard the report of the gun that he still held in his hand.

"I'm okay Dean. This is almost normal for me now."

"Yeah well, it still requires some explaining on your part." Dean handed him a handkerchief.

"I'll explain back at the hotel, after we finish salting and burning this thing."

"He's right Dean, and the quicker we get it done, the sooner we all can get out of here." This came from Sam, who was just as worried as Dean about the blood that flowed from their brother's nose.

Dean rolled his eyes, but walked over to the creature. He nudged it with his foot before salting it heavily, adding some lighter fluid and setting it ablaze.

While Dean did that, Sam knelt next to Tommy.

"You can tell what they're going to do, can't you?"

Tommy sighed a bit before nodding. "Yeah, I can. It's part of the reason that I get the nosebleeds and headaches. Sometimes they're worse than others, especially if the fight is long or it takes me several tries to get a clean shot. Poltergeists are easier because I can't really read them. I can still sense what they're going to do, however, before they actually do it. Well, at least most of the time. Still working on that one a bit."

Sam frowned as he helped him slowly to his feet, steadying Tommy as he swayed a bit before finding his balance again. "What headaches?" He suffered from migraines himself, but mostly only after a particularly bad vision.

Dean came up to them as Sam was asking his question and sighed.

"Yeah, kinda forget to tell you that one Sam. Bryan let me know that our brother here gets migraines along with the asthma. Told me that the other day on the phone."

"Figures." Sam shook his head as they made their way back to the Impala. Once there, he swatted Dean in the back of the head.

Dean frowned and glared at his youngest brother. "What the hell was that for?"

"Because you forgot to tell me something important about our brother."

"So you hit me?"

"Better than some other things I could have done."

"Oh yeah?"

Tommy watched them for a moment, feeling like a spectator at a tennis match, then busted out laughing. His brothers turned to look at him.

"Something funny?" Dean asked, wondering what had gotten into his younger siblings recently.

"Considering that you're supposed to be the oldest, it's kinda funny to watch you act like a 2 year old with our youngest brother."

Sam smirked at the remark, then started laughing as well.

Dean just shook his head and climbed behind the wheel, muttering to himself about not remembering having dropped either one of them on their heads growing up. Or did he?