This one's a bit shorter, but Sam starts to get a clue and makes a plan.
Feeling entirely too warm and with haunting dreams echoing in his head, Sam's eyes fluttered open, and heart still pumping hard, his arm stretching out to find Dean beside him. Instead he encountered cooling sheets and the sound of the shower running behind the closed bathroom door. Sam sat up and dragged his hands down his face, the sheet pooling at his waist. Fuck. Sam dropped his head into his palms and let the memories from his dreams come.
"But how, Dad?" Sam heard whispered through the dark. "How am I supposed to-"
"Be confident Dean!" Their father's gruff voice was much louder in the still night. Sam tried to keep his breathing even so neither of them would notice he was awake. He stayed still under the covers and slit his eyes open. 10 year old Dean was seated on their father's bed, John standing in front of him, intimidating with his hands on his hips and scowl on his face.
"I don't know how to do that! Dad, I hate lying-"
"You better get used to it, Dean. I don't have the patience for this. If you don't learn how to come across to people, how to tell people what they want to hear, you'll put us all at risk, especially Sammy, and I know you don't want that."
Dean dropped his head. "No sir."
Sam was in the bathroom and just about to pull the door open when he heard Dean's tentative voice break the silence in the other room. "Hey Dad? I need your help."
John cleared his throat. "What's going on Dean?"
"I well, I um…" Sam knew his brother's fingers would be twisting together, a nervous gesture from childhood he hadn't yet stopped.
"Spit it out Dean."
"I – there's this girl at school–"
"Oh yeah? Well good for you son!" Their father chuckled and Sam could imagine him ruffling his fingers through Dean's hair.
"I guess. But Dad, I don't – she wants…she wants me to kiss her. I heard one of her friends talkin' and now I don't know what to do! Dad, I've never…" he trailed off again.
"Never what?" Sam heard Dean mumble something but couldn't make out the words. "Never kissed anyone? Dean, so what? You're 14. I'm sure you can figure it out."
"But-but I," Dean stammered. "Dad, please!"
"Dean, what have I been telling you for years now? Be confident! And if you can't, fake it! If she can't tell you're nervous, it won't matter how you're actually feeling."
"But I–" Sam could hear the tears of frustration in Dean's voice, the tears he was desperately trying to stop from falling. His brother rarely cried, and even now, he was trying to be strong and hold them back.
"Dean Winchester!"
"Yes sir," Dean hiccupped.
"You stand up tall boy and you stop those tears. We hunters can't afford that. Now you buck up and you pretend you've got the confidence you need until you really feel it and you'll do just fine. Do you understand me?"
"Yessir."
A giggle sounded from behind the door of their bedroom. Their dad had rented a small place temporarily and Dean and he had to share a room. Problem was, Sam needed a textbook he'd left in there earlier to do his homework, but Dean clearly had someone with him. At 17, his brother was really into the whole dating scene and as awkward as Sam felt about it, he really needed that book.
Thinking maybe he could slip in and out unnoticed, Sam cracked the door. What he found was his brother and the girl sprawled across Dean's bed, the fingers of one hand in the girl's hair and his other hand pushing her shirt up. As the girl's tank top flew onto the floor and Dean's hands ventured towards her breasts, she moved to grab the hem of his shirt.
Sam watched as his brother tensed and pulled back. "No-no sweetheart," he crooned, "this is all about you." While the girl's face showed a bit of confusion, she accepted the statement when Dean's thumbs swept over her nipples under her bra. Dean's body immediately relaxed.
Coming back to the motel room after a quick run to the drugstore down the street, Sam found the typical sight of Dean and one of his bar-hussies pressed against each other on the bed. Before Sam could react or back out, the girl groaned out a "fuck me" and Dean rose to his knees and flipped the girl over. Even as he knew he had to leave, Sam couldn't make himself stop watching.
Dean helped the girl undress, working the fingers of one hand inside her, and unbuttoned his jeans with the other. Sam stared in fascinated horror as Dean dropped his pants barely below his hips, rolled on a condom, and surged forward.
Sam groaned at the grainy images flashing through his thoughts like short videos. While separately each of the memories had faded, put all together in his head like that, Sam knew what he was dealing with. Each of those memories were the reason Dean was acting this way, and at least Sam could reassure himself with the fact that Dean's discomfort didn't stem from the relationship they had started.
Standing up, Sam donned his jeans and a fresh t-shirt from his duffle, pulling out the computer to start researching the haunting Bobby had sent them to look into. When this case was finished, Sam would deal with Dean.
Dean strolled out of the bathroom ten minutes later fully dressed, rubbing a towel over his still-wet hair. "What've we got, Sammy?"
Sparing a brief glance to his brother, Sam stared back at the screen and then his notes. "It's looking like a typical vengeful spirit. People have been reporting strange noises and moving objects at a department store in town for the last few months. In the last three weeks, two people have turned up dead on site and one is in the hospital with severe injuries. All three had the same kinds of wounds – blunt force to the head and a couple broken bones." Sam finally looked up and swallowed hard. Dean was bent over picking something up off the floor, his jeans stretched tight and outlining the rounded swell of his ass perfectly.
Sam cleared his throat, watching as Dean stood back up and turned around, brows furrowed in thought. "So I guess we're headed to the hospital then. See if we can get any information from the last victim?"
"That would be ideal, but I don't think he's awake Dean. From what I gathered, he's in the ICU in a coma. At this point, heading to the department store is going to be a better bet."
Dean nodded and thirty minutes later, they were talking to the manager.
"It's a real shame. I never expected anything like this to happen around here, at least not again." The man said, shaking his head.
Sam watched Dean's eyebrows lift high on his forehead. "Again? Something like this has happened before?"
Nodding, the man answered. "Yeah. It was, oh about a year ago I'd say. Young guy, I think he was new in town – he was found dead out back behind the store. Same kind of injuries, but nobody ever figured out who did it…or why."
Sam shared a glance with Dean, "Do you remember the young man's name by any chance?"
He started to shake his head, then seemed to think. "Now you mention it, I think – hmmm, I think his name might'a been Jake, no J-Jerry? That sounds right. Jerry something."
"Well thank-you for your time sir. You've been a big help." Dean flashed his winning smile and they turned away. Sam fought back the arousal threatening to take over his body. Now was really not the time. Tomorrow. They'd take care of this spirit tonight, and then tomorrow he'd plan how to attack the problem with Dean.
Trudging through the cemetery with shovels hanging from tired hands, Sam and Dean reached the Impala. They loaded their gear into the trunk and dropped into the front, letting out matching bone-weary sighs. "I could sleep for a week," Dean groaned, turning the key in the ignition.
Sam grinned, typical remark after this kind of night. "I call first shower," he said, knowing it would rankle his brother.
Dean shot him a nasty look from the driver's seat. "Fine, bitch."
Sam's grin just widened, watching the few short miles to the motel roll by out the window.
Inside, they took turns showering, Sam waiting for his brother to climb into one of the beds before lifting the covers and getting in after him. As Dean laid flat on his back, Sam pushed himself closer, moving Dean's arm so he could lie against his brother's side. With a small smile, Dean wrapped his left arm under Sam's body and curled him against his chest, letting out a deep sigh when Sam's head landed on top of his heart.
A few minutes later and Sam listened to Dean's breaths even out, enjoying the thump of his brother's heart under his ear. He listened to make sure Dean was actually sleeping and then slipped the fingers of his left hand under the hem of his lover's shirt. Sam stroked the silky skin until he fell asleep.
It had been two full days, three nights since the "shower incident", as Sam was calling it. Three nights since Dean rejected him and tension started raging between them. Sam could barely stand it, knew Dean was pretending none of it happened. That wouldn't be the case for long though.
After the tiring night in the cemetery and no new cases on their radar, Sam and Dean had agreed to stay in town for another few days and Sam planned to take full advantage of the few free days. Sam had left Dean in the room after having lunch at the local diner. Who knew what his brother would do while he was gone, but Sam was on a mission.
He borrowed the car and traveled to the next town, making sure Dean couldn't follow him or find out what he was doing, and parked in front of a craft store. Not a place they typically went to, a place Dean would laugh at for sure, but Sam knew it would have what he needed. Ten minutes after walking inside, Sam returned to the car, one small bag dangling from his fingers, a grin, almost a smirk, on his lips. Dean wouldn't know what hit him.
One stop at a home-improvement warehouse and Sam would be good to go. This trip took a little longer, the item he needed just a tad more specific. If it was wrong, his plan wouldn't work and Sam ran the risk of alienating his brother further. Truthfully, the entire plan could fall apart and send his brother running, but Sam refused to think like that. He was determined to help Dean, to make this better between them.
This would work. Sam knew it would. Anything less was unacceptable.
Of course a job had to make an appearance, but the boys will get there, I promise! More coming soon!