Sacrifice – chpt 3 – s.n. fic
by: sifi
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"Sam…" Dean started after taking a glance at the young boy sleeping in the second bed.
"Yeah…"
"Was I really dead?"
Sam took a moment to think about it and nodded slowly, "I… uh… yeah, I think so…I couldn't feel a pulse and your neck…man it was…" Sam sighed a shaky breath, "I can't…"
"Okay…t'sokay Sam…" Dean reached over and dropped a hand onto his little brothers' shoulder. How the hell would I feel if I saw him laying there with his neck broken… I couldn't handle it… I'd lose it man…
"So… what's the question Dean?" Sam asked softly, his arms tucked up under his head while his eyes stayed glued to the ceiling.
"How did I get… for want of a better term… un…dead?" he huffed softly and watched Sam shake his head from side to side.
"I don't know…"
"Sam… I don't know if I can live with someone else losing their life for mine… you gotta tell me the truth man… did you do something?" he asked.
Sam rolled onto his side and looked at his big brother stretched between two chairs and propped up with all the spare pillows. Sam half chuckled and shook his head, "Dean… the only thing I did was… demand… that you not be dead…" he said sincerely as something in their gazes clicked and Dean turned a little more toward the bed.
"And you were doing the rubbing when Martin called you…"
Sam nodded, "Yeah…What? Are you thinking…some kind of Djin thing cause it's supposed to be the old oil lamps, bottles, anything that can be stoppered y'know? Not a bell… I mean a bell couldn't hold anything captive…"
"Unless something was… I don't know… activated by the rubbing?" Dean grinned and chuckled, visibly straining against the joke that was pounding to get out of his mouth.
Sam smiled, shook his head thinking damn! freakin' gutterbrain! and nodded, "I get it… just remember there's a kid here…"
"Right…" Dean grinned, "We have to find out what happened Sam… what… healed me and what it wants in return…"
"Well… the bell is the tie, unless it's family related… look, Emil Fredrick worked with Uncle Hiram, who was Aunt Mildred's husband… they all went to Jerusalem together, probably so they could write off the trip… the photos we managed to get of Emil's office after his "Disappearance"…showed the bell on his desk, within arms reach…" Sam mused.
"Yeah… so he's checking it out, maybe cleaning it up a bit… and what? Gets the desire to 'demand' that he turns into glass for no reason?" Dean asked skeptically.
Sam shrugged, "Maybe it's not that literal… I mean I doubt Martin 'Demanded' his family turn into statues…"
Dean shrugged, "Maybe he was thinking about what a bunch of stiffs they are…or something like that?"
"Maybe…" Sam nodded, feeling as if they were getting a little warmer in their hypothesizing, "Hey Dean?"
"Hmm?"
"When you um… when you came back…was it…Oh jeez… was it like before?" Sam asked.
"What? When the reaper…?"
"Yeah…"
"No… this felt different, kind of warm and…" he shrugged with his mouth and nodded, "…fuzzy…"
Sam squinted at him and let the smile tilt the corners of his mouth up, "Warm and fuzzy? You didn't see Snuggle did you?"
"Aww man… screw you…" he smiled and shook his head, "Y'know we still gotta get that freaky little bitch…I'm tellin' ya something's NOT right with that teddy bear…"
"Yeah alright…" Sam sniffed smiling brightly in the dimly lit room, "…so what? We see if we can find a Synagogue and a Rabbi to talk to, or someone else who reads Hebrew to interpret what's on that bell… maybe we'll get lucky there… and then we can find out how to undo this thing and give Martin his family back," Sam summed.
"Yep, about like that…" Dean agreed and moved the wrong way sending the chair under his feet shooting across the room, "Damnit… alright that's it… move your ass over Sam," he instructed walking around to the far side of the bed and stretching out beside his brother, "Ahhh that's better…"
Sam reached over and shut off the light, "Night Dean…" I'm glad you're not dead man… I don't care how, I don't care what…I'm just glad you're not dead.
He lay quiet next to his brother for a while, his mind traveling back to all the 'moments' that meant so much as they accumulated through the years. The birthdays Dean never forgot, the holiday's he'd tried so hard to make something out of, just so Sam could have some semblance of normalcy; the time Dean took Sam to pick up his tux for the Junior Prom he'd been invited to while they were in West Virginia. Dean had ducked into a drug store to emerge a few minutes later with a paper bag he tossed into Sam's lap. Sometimes when he thought about that moment he still blushed violently and he never failed to hear Dean's voice utter with preternatural calm, "There are directions on the box… but I'd suggest you practice a couple times first."
He smiled to himself, "Dean?" he said softly.
"Hmm?" his big brother grunted, his breathing already deepening.
I love you… I'm glad you're not dead…I don't know what I'd do without you? Yeah that just sounds …Why can't I say it? Maybe it's not that he's not ready… maybe it's me? "I'm glad you're not dead dude…" he spit it out and let it lay between them wondering if Dean had heard him, or if he was genuinely asleep. A moment later he got his sleepy reply.
"Mmm me too man… glad you're so damned stubborn," he muttered and rolled onto his side, "Now get some sleep Sammy," I'd say 'thanks' but until we find out what exactly healed me and what the price is gonna be… I don't want to jump the gun little brother, but just for the record… Thanks Sammy…love you man.
Yeah, dyin' must take it outta ya… Sam thought wondering exactly what they were going to find when all was said and done, and what part in all this the boy in the other bed was really slated to play. It wasn't that Sammy didn't trust the young boy, he just… well yeah, that's pretty much it… Sam acknowledged to himself.
--
The room finally filled with darkness, the easy camaraderie of the Winchester brothers filling the empty spaces, Martin closed his eyes, a faint smile touching his lips as sleep crept up and took him.
--
Sam's eyes fluttered open, his heart was pounding so hard in his chest he wondered that it hadn't woken Dean up, and his head was filled with a constant thrumming unease. Something wasn't right. From the moment they received the text messaged coordinates from their dad and run across the story of an amateur archeologist who seemed to have disappeared from his office leaving behind only a couple hundred pounds of broken glass in his place, Sam hadn't liked this case, and it wasn't just because of his relatively recent experience with Austrian Crystal. There had been no windows broken, no glass near the desk or the office at all as a matter of fact, aside from a couple drinking glasses that is, and there was no explanation for over two hundred pounds of glass pieces that seemed to have been simply dumped over the chair, and said owner of the chair missing.
He and Dean had done their digging quickly and efficiently, it helped that the subject of their inquiries was a prominent man in academic circles, and that Dean's natural charm had once more worked its magic on both Emil Fredrick's secretary, who divulged quite easily that several of the artifacts they'd brought back, ostensibly for donation to a local museum, had been packed up and shipped to the Turnbull Estate, just in time for young Turnbull's 9th birthday party.
Infiltrating the premises under the pretense of being wait-staff had been relatively easy. Apparently Emma and Stephens were the only servants required for that day thanks to the catering crew and valets that had been hired.
The day had been an exercise in discomfort for the eldest Winchester brother, Sam oddly enough fell easily into the role of waiter while Dean found it a little more difficult to contain his…consternation. The saving grace for the eldest son had been making Martin's acquaintance, and though he liked the boy, he had to admit there was something unsettling about him. He'd been sitting on one of the cement walls alongside the patio stairs playing with some new kind of robo-raptor but Dean could see his attention was split between the toy and watching the young children and families present.
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"Hey, that's pretty cool…" Dean smiled pointing to the toy as the boy was programming his personal commands into its memory.
"Yeah…" he'd nodded tilting his face up until his eyes met Deans and held them, unafraid, unflinching even.
"So… you're the birthday boy huh?"
Martin nodded and motioned to a spot next to him. Dean nodded and sat down, "So happy birthday then…"
"Thanks,"
"Y'know… not that it's any of my business dude but, this is a rockin' party… how come you're not hanging with your friends?" he asked motioning to all the children that were enjoying the day and the extremes that the Turnbull's had gone to for their young son.
Martin shrugged, "Most of those kids… they're just kids from my school… the party with my friends is gonna be on Saturday… this is just for show… for the papers…"
Dean nodded a bit, the picture coming more clearly now, "So… what? The folks get to show this great hookup in the society pages and the real fun happens over the weekend huh?"
Martin looked at him and nodded smiling, "Pretty much…"
"So what's the plan then?"
"My folks got us tickets to see Def Leppard… we're gonna have a party at Jeepers first, pizza, video games… all the good stuff then the concert, and then back home… the guys get to spend the night and if the weather holds maybe we'll go swimming in the morning… you know…" he shrugged easily and let a winsome smile play on his features.
Dean found the smile just a bit contagious, "So you're turning it into a guy's weekend?"
"Yeah… it's gonna be great…not this kind of fake 'it's all for you Damien', Omen crap… just me and my five closest friends…"
"Good times…" Dean smirked.
"So how come you're sitting here yapping with a nine year old kid instead of 'hob nobbing' with the doctoral elite?" the boy asked in a mocking snob voice.
Dean shrugged, "I can't stand doctors… they freak me out… all those tests and needles and stuff…" he shook his head and held his eyebrow cocked.
Martin turned toward him and faced him full on, he put a hand onto Dean's forearm and looked deep into his eyes, "These aren't those kinds of doctors… these are academic doctors not physicians…"
Dean grinned and Martin ducked his head with a chuckle, "…you knew that…"
"Yeah…" Dean chuckled and couldn't resist the urge to tussle the kid's hair.
When he did Martin looked at him with a curious expression and Dean apologized.
"Don't be sorry… people are so sorry to be just who they are…I hate it," he said softly and extended his right hand, "I'm Martin Turnbull…"
"Dean Winchester," he introduced taking and shaking the young mans' hand with a nod and smile that said he was impressed with the boy's decorum.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Winchester… is that as in the gun?" he asked.
"Yep… just like… but it's just Dean 'kay? Mister Winchester is my dad."
Martin nodded, "'Kay…"
Sam's lanky shadow joined the two sitting on the cement rail, "You must be Martin?" he asked.
The boy nodded.
"Happy birthday…"
"Thanks," he nodded and smiled.
"Martin this is my brother Sam… Sam, Martin Turnbull… either soon to be, or recently turned nine years old…" Dean introduced with a smile.
The two shook hands and the boy looked at Dean, "No, it's today."
--
A slant of gold pierced Sam's eyelids and the faint sound of cartoon voices drifted into his ears as he stretched out his kinks and accidentally elbowed Dean in the side.
"Nugh…dude…" Dean groaned and rolled over right off the bed and onto the floor, "Whoa!" then the 'Thdunk' followed quickly by another, "Ungh…" and finally, "Damnit!" before the sound of Sam's deep chuckles and Martin's stifled snickers came to his ears.
Wonder if he did that on purpose… Sam thought sleepily as the scent of fresh brewed coffee came wafting across the motel room.
Sam got his answer when Dean sat up, leaned his arm on the bed and scratched his head comically before lurching to his feet and moving directly to the small table, and the coffee maker.
"Mmmm… coffee…" he yawned and looked at the boy who sat on the floor at the foot of the bed and had his eyes glued to the set, "You made it?" he asked filling both cups and fixing Sam's first then his own.
"Mm hmm, yeah… Emma showed me how much to use but these packets were pre-measured," he watched Dean take a tester sip then a long draught, "So… there's a Synagogue over on Marine Way… Rabbi Roseman might be able to translate the writing on the bell… or at least he might know who can…" he offered.
"Good to know…thanks…hey… it's Friday isn't it… dude you got school…don't cha?" Dean muttered.
Martin nodded, "I've got homeroom first period so if I'm a little late it's okay, long as I get there by 8:50… that's when history starts."
Dean looked at the clock and sighed, 7:20, "We can do that…but we gotta go back to your house first right? Get your stuff?"
Martin nodded.
"Sam… get a move on…" Dean called firmly and stepped into his jeans before taking another slug off the coffee.
"They have continental breakfast… you want me to go get you guys some danish's or something?" Martin offered.
Dean cocked an eyebrow and Martin was off like a shot grinning as he turned at the door, "Be right back…Oh hey Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you're not dead too…" he said shyly and bolted through the door.
"Me too…" he nodded after the boy then sat drawing on his socks and shoes as Sam emerged from the bathroom with a faint ring of drying blue around his mouth.
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tbc, if y'all still think it's worth it, please let me know.
Thank You.
:D
sifi
