Dean watched — well, not-yet Dad — walk over to a beige VW van. The thing was ugly as hell. Especially in comparison to the black beauty he was leaning against. Oh, I gotta make sure that he doesn't buy that hunk of junk, he thought as John — calling him Dad just felt a bit weird — rubbed a hand over one of the VW's headlights. If he could do one thing while here in 1973 Lawrence, it was see that Baby ended up in Winchester possession.
"That's not the one you want," he called out in an easygoing voice. Getting his ass kicked by Dad before he was Dad wasn't high on his list of things he wanted to experience while here in this bygone era. "You can trust me on that."
Not-Dad turned to him, a suspicious frown puckering his brow. Same as Dad got when someone caught him unawares. There was so much of Dad in this pre-version of him that it caused him to ache all over.
What hurt the most, though, was seeing the man John Winchester was before Azazel came along to rip the rug right out from under him. This was the Dad he remembered in small bits and flashes. The one who laughed and joked a lot. The one who taught him to play T-Ball and spike a football. The one who built him a fort out of an old refrigerator box.
"You following me?"
"No, no," Dean assured him with an easy smile. "I was just passing by and saw you looking at that VW."
"You just happened down the same street where I'm looking at cars?" A brow quirked in that way Dad had when he smelled a bunch of bullshit. "I find that hard to believe."
"Well, I never got to thank you for that cup of coffee this morning."
"You looked like you could use it."
"Yeah." Dean grimaced. "I was a little out of it."
"More than a little." A smile — a genuine smile —tugged at Not-Dad's lips. "You were talking kinda crazy."
"Yeah, yeah I was." Not that Not-Dad had any clue about why he was talking so crazy. "Look, I want to repay the favor." He patted Baby's hood. "This is the one you want."
"Yeah?" Not-Dad gazed at Baby with the same sort of appreciation that Dean felt every time he looked at her. "You know something about cars?"
"Yeah..." Dean's swallowed back the tide of emotions that crept into his voice. "Yeah, my, uh, Dad taught me everything I know about cars. That's why I know that this?" He patted the hood of Baby. "This is a great car."
"She is a beaut," Not-Dad admitted. "I'll give you that."
Dean lifted the hood and looked inside, seeing the engine he's rebuilt more times than he can count, the hoses he replaced, and the radiator he flushed just a few days before Cas took him on his own Back to the Future adventure.
"This baby is a 327 V-8 Turbo-Fire, two-speed automatic with 275 horses, and a Rochester 4-barrel OHV carburetor." Not-Dad joined him on Baby's right side. "This is the car of a lifetime." I know, he added silently as Not-Dad ran a hand over her fender. Because you told me that when you gave me the keys on my eighteenth birthday. "Trust me, she's still gonna be badass when she's forty."
Or thirty-seven, he amends silently. But who's counting?
"You know something, man." Not-Dad smiled at him. "You're right."
Twenty minutes later, he drove her off of the lot.
Dean couldn't be happier.
A/N: Hello, all. Hope this finds you well! This is tagged to 4x03.
S/N: Dean getting Baby on his 18th birthday is recounted in John's journal so it's not something I made up.