That One Thanksgiving
Chapter One: Jules and Jax (The Monday before Thanksgiving)
Jax was sitting at the kitchen table feeding Abel some oatmeal as Jules fixed the rest of their breakfast, Sophie on a stool next to her. When they were finished and the table was set, Jules sat down with a grin. "Enjoy the last not take out for the next twenty-four hours."
"Yeah, yeah." He wiped a little bit of oatmeal off Abel's face with the kiddie spoon. "When are we leavin' for the airport?" He really didn't like flying but he was willing to do it for his girls.
"A couple of hours." Jules answered as she was making a list. "I'm waiting for the dryer to pack the last of the clothes for the kids." She glanced up. "Lu called and said that it's winter there now, so I had to go get some things for the kids. Sophie's old winter stuff doesn't fit her anymore and I'm pretty sure you don't want our little man in a pink snowsuit."
"Not especially." He gave her a dry look as she smirked at him. Nearly a year together and that little smirk always made him want kiss it off her face. "But it's not like he's gonna need anything like that here."
"Yeah, Lu made that point too. Said she'd get him something and we could put it on him when we get into Midway." Jules sighed with a small laugh. "I think she was pretty bummed she didn't get to go shop for him."
"Probably." He looked over to where Sophie was whispering to Abel. "What are you and your brother talking about?" He loved the fact that Sophie talked Abel's ear off, helping her little brother navigate the world.
"I was jus' tellin' him that Unca Manny and Unca Red will help us build a snowman an' Unca Red will help us throw snowballs at Unca Manny..." Sophie looked to her mother who was shaking with laughter. "What's so funny?"
Jules grinned as she kissed Sophie on the head as she was getting up. "I am pretty sure that it's you and Abel helping Uncle Red throw snowballs at Uncle Manny, not the other way around." She leaned down with a conspiratorial smile. "Uncle Red only helps with the snowman to throw stuff at Uncle Den, baby. Uncle Red really doesn't like the snow that much."
Sophie sat back in her chair and looked at Jules long and hard. He smoothed his beard to hide the smile. The look on his daughter's face usually preceded the beginnings of dissent.
"No." Sophie shook her head adamantly. "Unca Red helps 'cause he loves me." Sophie gave Jules a look that clearly said 'you are too stupid to exist'. "He says throwing things at Unca Manny is a bonus." Sophie looked at her mother with glee.
Jules just laughed and ruffled Sophie's hair. "Even though I'm not sure you know what bonus means, you win, midget. Now go pick up your room. You don't want to come home to a messy room do you?"
Sophie slid down from her chair. "Can Abel help?"
He got Abel out of his high chair and set him down. Abel immediately trundled over to Sophie. "So-So!" Sophie let Abel take her hand. While he got around pretty well, he wasn't always the steadiest. He'd been walking for a month or so now and was still working out the kinks.
As the two of them made their way to Soph's room, he turned to see his wife turning on her laptop. She looked up at him. "You want to go supervise them while I get the kitchen cleaned up and the rest of our shit packed?"
"Sure." Supervising sounded better than doing. "What are you looking at?"
"The weather in Denver." Jules shrugged. "The last time I flew home for Thanksgiving, we got stuck in the Denver airport for about twelve hours with weather delays. So I thought I'd check."
"We?" He was confused. "When did you and Soph have to fly home for Thanksgiving?"
Jules shook her head. "Not Soph." Then she flushed a little. "It was Sam. It was during my freshman year of college."
"Oh." Even though he knew this Sam dude was totally in her past, he had to admit, to himself at the very least, he felt just the tiniest bit of jealousy when Sam was mentioned. "Guess that makes sense." He winced at the hint of petulance in his voice.
Jules grabbed him by his t-shirt and pulled him into a hard kiss. She rolled her eyes a little as she let go. "Really?!" She laughed a little. It sounded a little sad to his ears. "If he didn't come home with me, he would have stayed in the dorms and had to subsist on shitty take out or go to the one dining hall that's left open on campus during the holidays." She shrugged. "Pop offered to pay for his ticket and I lovingly bullied him into coming."
Having been the subject of her 'loving' bullying, he couldn't help but grin and feel a little retroactive sympathy for Sam. "He didn't stand a chance against you, babe." Kissing her behind her ear. "I'm gonna go supervise the kids and let you get back to whatever it was you were gonna do."
She shoved him out of the kitchen. "You do that." He could hear the sound of the dishwasher being opened as he headed back towards Sophie's room.
As he walked down the hall, he stopped and looked at one of the pictures that Jules had hung on the hallway wall. It was a picture of her and Sam and Jessica. He knows it was taken after Jules had left Stanford and had gone back to visit, so Sam and Jessica were a couple by that time.
He hopes wherever Sam is now, he's not having to survive on shitty take out this week.
Chapter Two: Sam and Dean (A couple of days later)
Sam looked up as Dean came into the motel room holding two pizza boxes and a bag that obviously held a six pack. He raised an eyebrow. "No whiskey?" It had been an awful couple of weeks and they were tired, beat down, and needed a night.
"Already a bottle in my bag." Dean's words sounded as tired as his brother looked. "By the way, Happy Thanksgiving." Setting the pizza boxes on the table. "It's tomorrow."
"Oh, yeah." He looked at the calendar on his phone. "Guess it is." He tossed the phone aside. "Like it even matters."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Dean grabbed his pizza and a couple of beers and flopped down onto his bed. "At least the diner will have pumpkin pie. It's gonna be the only place open here tomorrow."
"Yeah." Sam got up and grabbed his own pizza and a beer. "Usually the way it goes." He arranged himself on his bed and dug into the veggie pizza Dean had been nice enough to get him. "Man, find something mindless on the TV. We need to just take a freaking breath, you know?"
Dean flipped the TV on and surfed around until he landed on Monty Python. "This work for you, dude?" As he took a bite of his pizza.
"Perfect." He sat back against the pillows and tucked into his pizza.
Later, after the pizza and beer were gone and they had started in on the whiskey, Dean turned to him. "You have any 'normal' Thanksgivings when you were being college guy?"
He must have been pretty well on his way to drunk because he didn't flinch when Dean brought up Stanford. He rolled his head towards Dean, who was starfished out on his own bed, staring at ceiling.
"A couple." Dean's head turned towards him. He rolled his head back and went back to looking at the ceiling himself. "The Thanksgiving before you came, I went home with Jess. Met her parents." He sighed. "It was okay. It was all traditional stuff."
"The other time?" Dean must have been pretty drunk himself to want to talk about his time at Stanford.
He couldn't help but laugh a little. "My freshman year." Dean groaned. "Yeah, remember I was supposed to meet you in Reno and then you got hurt and couldn't come?"
"That's right." Dean sat up enough to take another swig of whiskey, then held the bottle out to him. "Fuckin' poltergeist. Couldn't do shit with that ankle for over a week."
He took a drink from the bottle and passed it back to his brother. "Mm-hmm." He licked his lips. "I told you about the first girlfriend I had there, Jules?"
"Oh, yeah." The leer in his brother's voice made him smile just a little. "She's fuckin' hot, Sammy." Dean propped himself up on his elbow. "Don't get me wrong Sam, Jess was pretty, but this girl…"
"Smokin' hot." He chuckled at Dean's nod, then shrugged some. "When she found out that I was planning on staying at the dorms, she talked her dad into buying me a ticket there too."
"Chicago, right?" Dean's voice closer. "Gotta hit the head." Disappearing into the bathroom.
"Yeah." Pitching his voice a little louder. "Logan Park area." He waited as he heard the toilet flush and the sink go on.
When Dean came out he turned the TV and the light between the beds out, so the only light in the room was from the red neon light coming through where Dean hadn't closed the curtains all the way. His brother laid back down on his bed. "Lotta people there?"
He closed his eyes. "God yeah. She's got three older brothers, plus her dad and step-mom..."
"Where's her mom?" He could hear Dean roll towards him. "Or did you get two Thanksgivings that year, you lucky dog."
"Her mom died of cancer when she was eight." His voice quiet in the room.
"That sucks." His brother still managing to sound sympathetic after all they had been through and were going through and will probably still be going through a decade from now. He knows that everyone thinks that he's the caring one and Dean is this callous jerk but those people don't know Dean at all. As hard as he pretends to be, it doesn't take much to see Dean's heart right out on his sleeve. "Hopefully she got the Carol Brady kind of step-mom and not the evil step-mom from Cinderella."
He shook his head while laughing. "Certainly not Carol Brady, but Lu was pretty cool. Her family was nice too." He rolled onto his side to look at his brother. "Jules' grandparents lived next door, and her aunt and her wife lived down the street with the son they adopted." He propped a pillow under his head. "And her aunt, uncle and cousin came up from Nashville." Then he grinned. "Plus, all the guys in her dad's MC and their families. Thanksgiving day was at their clubhouse." He sighed at the memory. "There was so much food." Rubbing his belly at the memory. "Food for days, man."
"How many different kinds of meat?" Dean was laying with his eyes closed, a trace of a smile on his face.
"They had a deep fried turkey and a couple of smoked turkeys. Someone from the MC smoked a turducken." Sitting up, he took a quick drink of water. "There was a big, honey-glazed ham. And oh Dean, the brisket..." He trailed off for a minute. That had been some damn good brisket, he's not sure he's had better since. He shook his head. "And that's not even counting all the different salami that Lu's mom had on the antipasto trays she brought."
"And so many sides, Dean. From the traditional mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole to homemade mac and cheese with broccoli. There were a half dozen different kinds of salads, and probably as many kinds of rolls, biscuits and bread."
"I bet they had a lot of pie." He smirked at the longing in Dean's voice. He'd have to make sure Dean got at least one slice of pie tomorrow.
"Pumpkin, apple, cherry, pecan." He got up from the bed and stumbled to the table where he had a piece of pizza left. This was making him hungry. "There was also cheesecake and cookies and brownies. Ice cream too." He finished after swallowing a bite.
"Good idea, Sammy." Dean reached over to the table between the beds and grabbed his own leftover slice. "So, they were friendly to you?"
"Oh, yeah. I met her parents and oldest brother when she moved into the dorms." Smiling as he finished his slice. It had hit the spot. "And her other two brothers were pretty cool. The one that was home from Annapolis was gone hanging out with his friends and girlfriend most the time. And Dennis, the one that was at MIT, he was really cool to talk to." His smile was genuine. Dennis had been a cool guy to talk with, had definitely picked up most of his hacking skills from him.
He suddenly laughed. Dean sat up. "What's so funny?"
He shook his head. "Man… I don't even know where to start." He sat back down on his bed, feet flat on the floor. The room was starting to spin a little. "That whole five days." He laid back slowly to keep the spinning to a minimum. "She had basically bullied me into going, so I was pretty pissy about it..."
"You bein' pissy about somethin'?!" Dean interrupted. "That's so hard to imagine."
"Suck eggs, Dean." He managed to pull his sock off and throw it at his brother. "As I was saying, I was pretty pissy about it until we landed. Jules was in the middle of a lot of family when her dad came up to me and asked me if she had threatened or blackmailed me to get me on that plane. That pulled me out of my pissy mood."
"I'm starting to like these people." Dean's voice muffled by the shirt over his head.
He thought of Dean with the Lyons family and all others they gathered in their orbit. His brother would fit right in. Loud and brash. Quick with a smart-mouthed comment as with a laugh. Always ready to help someone who needs it. And never afraid to dole out a little tough love. They always lived like there was no tomorrow because they already knew old age wasn't a guarantee.
"Her brother, Butch, the one that was at Annapolis?" Sliding out of his jeans, he threw them towards the chair his bag was on and climbed under the covers of his bed. "He kind of reminded me of you."
"What, he was a hot badass too?" Dean yawned, tossing his own jeans on the floor between the beds.
He fluffed his pillow before laying his head down. "He was at Annapolis, that's pretty badass." Then he laughed. "No, mostly because he ate nearly a whole apple pie." He didn't tell Dean that he'd nearly done a double take when he'd met Butch, he looked that much like Dean, only his hair was blonder and eyes more blue than green. He was also a little stockier than his brother.
Dean laughed softly. "Good man." His brother yawned louder. "Thanks for the bedtime story, Sammy." Dean got up and closed the curtains the rest of the way. For once the motel had decent ones and the room was nearly pitch black. He could barely make out his brother getting into bed. "Night, Sammy."
"Goodnight, Dean." Closing his eyes.
Falling asleep, for the first night in a very long time, there were no nightmares, no premonitions of death and destruction. Just dreams of a girl with black curls and blue eyes who had once made him feel like he belonged.
A last night of peace before they're back in the thick of it.