Authors note: I first and foremost want to thank everyone who has reviewed this story. I really wasn't sure I was going to continue writing after my last fic. You have renewed my faith as a writer and I greatly appreciate it.

Secondly, I know a few of you Dean girls are waiting patiently for Dean to make an appearance in this story. I hate to tell you, but you still have to wait till the next chapter. Just a little longer I promise.

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Chapter 4: Chris's story.

"When I was 12, my family was involved in a car accident. My Mom and Dad, and my little sister Stacy, were all killed when a drunk driver hit us head on in his delivery van. Bystanders were able to pull me and my brother Jerry out, but the car was on fire and they weren't able to get to the others. Jerry's burns were so severe he only survived a few days after the accident and I guess that was a blessing. I got to spend 3 months in the hospital recovering from my injuries. Between the broken bones and the burns on my legs, I was quite a mess, or so they tell me. I really don't remember much of what happened afterwards. I guess you could say I've blocked it out." Chris grimaced involuntarily as he struggled with the few memories he did have of his stay in the hospital.

"Can't say that I blame you Chris. It must have been horrible to wake up and find your family gone like that." Sam said looking over at Chris sadly.

"I hope you never find out Sam." Chris said looking back, his blue eyes glassy with tears.

"What happened to you when you got out of the hospital?" Sam asked pretending he didn't notice.

"After I got out, I was sent to live with my Aunt and Uncle, but that only lasted a few months."

"Why only a few months?" Sam asked trying not to pry.

"They had five kids of their own and it was really hard on them financially, with my medial bills and all. My folks had life some life insurance, but my bills and therapy ate that up pretty fast. The guy that hit us had some insurance and my Aunt and Uncle thought about suing him but I told them I didn't want them to. I just didn't want to have to deal with it any more, you know. Once the money ran out my Aunt and Uncle didn't have much choice. They passed me off to another relative and another until I finally ended up living with my grandmother in Pennsylvania. Finally I had a place I could call home again. A year after she took me in she died of a sudden heart attack. Since I was only 14 at the time I was put into foster care." Chris explained.

"Jesus." Sam whispered under his breath. One of Sam's earliest and most frequent nightmares had been ending up in foster care and being separated from his brother. "Nobody wanted to take you back?"

"No, by that time I was running wild. I didn't listen to anyone except my grandmother. I was skipping school, smoking, just being a little ass, you know, angry as hell. Foster care only made it worse. I hated being the odd man out, never actually part of the family, especially when it came to holidays. Birthdays were always the worst. One of the families I was left with didn't want to celebrate a birthday for a kid that wasn't theirs. At my last foster home, there were 3 of us kids there and the parents just took us in for the money. You know the type, the kind of people that give foster parents a bad name. So many good people in the world who would kill to love and care for a child and I had to end up with the Craig's. If Mr. Craig wasn't beating up on his wife, he was beating up on us kids. I put up with it for almost a year before I decided I didn't want to be a punching bag anymore. I packed up what little I had and took off." Chris continued lost in thought.

"What you do after that?" Sam was amazed. He knew what his life was like when he was 16 but he had his older brother looking out for him when things got bad. Chris had to do it all by himself.

"First couple of months were rough. I thought about going home, but I figured who would have me at this point. I hitch hiked around for a few months until I ended up in Oklahoma City. I knew I didn't want to live on the streets so I looked around until I found this abandoned house and started crashing there. I decided I wanted to go back to school, so I called the local high school, pretended to be my father, and got myself enrolled as a student."

"So what did you do for money, I mean you had to eat and stuff." Sam asked his eyes never leaving the older man's.

"I got a job after school. Let's see my first job was at a movie theater. That was cool but I got fired for eating too much popcorn." He smiled at that memory.

"Then I tried fast food restaurants but I hated smelling like grease after work all the time. I ended up working in a grocery store which wasn't too bad. Unbelievably, I was able to pull off my junior and was half way through my senior year when one of my teachers discovered where I was living. He reported me to the school board and they tried to expel me. Once my story got around another teacher, Mr. Glade, stepped up and said I could live with him and his wife so I could stay in school long enough to graduate. I started to save money because I got this wild idea that my Mom would have wanted me to go to college. Of course I didn't have a snow balls chance in hell financially, but the Glades offered to help me out. I didn't want to take their money but they were very insistent." Chris said lost with a sad smile on his face.

"Wow, they really saved your life didn't they." Sam said glad that Chris finally had someone that helped him out though it sounded weird hearing the story come from his brother's mouth.

"Yeah, for the first couple months I expected them to have some sort of ulterior motive. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but it never did. The Glades are the best. Since they never had children of their own, they unofficially adopted me instead. I can't tell you how it feels to have people who loved me again, especially after the Craig's. I think that's why I became a teacher. It's kinda of my way of repaying them for all they did for me." Chris stopped and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

"I never had a chance to say goodbye to them either."

Sam sat stunned, unable to come up with words to console this man who had had more than his fair share of tragedy in his life. Chris looked over, saw his discomfort, and changed the subject.

"Hey listen to me sounding like a really bad episode of Oprah. I don't know about you but I'm starving. Do you think John would be okay if we went somewhere to get a bite to eat?" he asked quickly changing the subject. Sam laughed as he rubbed his own empty stomach.

"I think we'll be able to talk him into it. It's either we go get something to eat or we're forced to go outside and eat the Impala and I don't think Dean would appreciate that." Sam stopped as he suddenly realized that for the first time he was acknowledging the man across from him wasn't his brother. He and Chris looked at each other for a moment before he spoke again.

"Let me give Dad a call and let him know what we're doing." Sam said as he stood up and pulled out his cell phone.

"I'm gonna go wash up then." Chris said as he headed to the bathroom. As Chris looked in the mirror he swore he saw something standing behind him in the bathroom. Spinning around, he shook his head as he failed to find anything there. Minutes later he came out to find Sam standing by the door waiting for him.

"I take it your father said it was okay." He said trying not to sound annoyed for having to ask permission to go out to eat. Sam caught the tone in the other man's voice but chose to ignore it considering the circumstances.

"Yeah just as long as we don't take too long and we bring him back a burger and fries." Sam said as he realized he didn't have the keys to the car.

"What are you looking for?" Chris asked as he watched Sam searching the room for Dean's keys.

"The keys to the car…Ummmm… Dean would have had them in is pocket." stricken Sam realized Dean's keys would be in the pocket of his bloodied jacket that he and his father had pulled off Chris when they laid him down on the bed. He walked over to the bed and picked the jacket off the floor holding it gingerly before reaching inside and pulling out the keys. Sam stood for a moment and looked down at the keys, his hands shaking slightly before he got them under control. Chris turned the other way to give Sam some privacy incase the younger man wanted to have a moment to mourn his brother.

"Let's go." Sam said with a lump in his throat. Chris nodded and followed Sam out to the car. So lost in thought they both walked over to the passenger side and stood there looking at each other as they realized what they had done.

"I'm sorry Sam, I just assumed you'd be driving." Chris said as he saw the look on Sam's face.

"Old habit I guess. Dean always hated to let me drive his baby." Sam said sadly as he turned around and walked over to the driver's side.

"So this was Dean's car? I have to credit him with good taste then because this one is a beauty. My first car was a 1970 Chevelle, V8, deep forest green." Chris said as he sat down admiring the interior of the car. "He really kept this baby up."

Sam smiled when he saw Chris's eyes light up as he admired the car. Once again he felt weird that the person next to him would look so much like his brother, at times behave like him, and not be him. Sam started the car and headed to the diner down the street where they had eaten when they first got into town.

Without bothering to look at the menu, Sam ordered a cheeseburger with the works for his father and a chili burger for himself when they got to the counter. Not knowing what they served, Chris reached over to flip the menu open and looked up and down until he found something he could eat.

"I'll take the tuna sandwich, and a side salad, thousand island dressing please." He said to the waitress who wrote it down on the same slip as Sam's order. Suddenly Sam started to laugh. Giving Sam a 'wtf' look, Chris quickly realized he was ordering something that Dean probably never would.

"Umm I hate to tell you this but I'm a vegetarian." He said to an astonished Sam.

"Holy crap." Sam said as he started to laugh even harder. "Dean wouldn't eat a salad if it was the last food on earth. But you eat fish, isn't that against the rules too."

"I never said I was a good vegetarian. Mostly I just stayed away from red meat." Chris explained unable to stop himself from joining Sam in laughing at the situation. "It's something Marybeth got us into a few years ago. She said we would live longer…..."

Suddenly he stopped.

"I guess it doesn't really matter now does it." he said as he looked over at the now solemn Sam. Sam gave him a sad nod and they stood there silently until their food was brought over to them. Back at the motel, Sam knocked on his father's door, before heading back into their room. Within minutes John joined them and sat at the table giving Sam a look when he saw what Chris was eating.

"Dad, Chris is a vegetarian." Sam explained laughing as John almost choked on his burger.

"Oh god don't tell me you're a tree hugger too." He said shooting Chris a glare as he swallowed his food.

"Guilty as charged. Tree hugger, vegetarian, democrat, pro choice, lets see, what else can I tell you about myself that will piss you off." Chris said his voice challenging John once again.

"I don't care about any of that other crap, tell me how you feel about hunting." John challenged back.

"You mean hunting animals for sport. I would have to say I'm totally against that, John. Now hunting animals for food, well that's something else." Chris answered truthfully knowing how John would respond to his answer.

"Pretty hypocritical view for someone who claims to be a vegetarian." John retorted.

"Like I told Sam earlier, I'm not a very good vegetarian. Besides my father used to take my brother and I hunting every deer season when we were younger. I always looked forward to spending that time with my dad and my brother, you know us guys just hangin out. I really missed it after they died."

"So he taught you how to shoot a rifle then eh?" he said satisfied with Chris's answer. Briefly John remembered the few times he had taken his own sons deer hunting when money got really tight.

"Yeah why?" Chris asked confused by John's question.

"Cuz we're short a hunter and you might have to fill his shoes." John said looking at Chris and a very shocked Sam.

Tbc

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Authors note: I couldn't resist…..my first car was also a 1970 Chevelle that my parents bought brand new and my sister and I drove into the ground once we got old enough to drive. 15 yrs and 200,000 miles later we finally left it at the junk yard, dented, rusted, with torn up upholstery and very much loved. Ahh the memories. It's still my favorite car. Thanks for reading.