Chapter Three

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Sam had always known his father tended to consider him differently to Dean, but he'd put it down to his big brother's love for the hunt which matched John's own, and for his hero-worship and readiness to follow dad's orders.

He, on the other hand, had never made any secret of his longing for the life his school-mates had, a chance to study, a stable home and not having to face monsters every alternate day.
But since John had returned a few days ago from his latest hunt, Sam had felt himself being studied like a bug under a microscope, his father quickly averting his eyes whenever Sam turned around.

Even stranger was that Sam had discovered a hunt in the local paper, and the fact that John hadn't taken off pronto like he usually did, made Sam very uneasy.
His father ignoring a hunt was unheard of, especially one in the near vicinity.

Sam chewed nervously on his lower lip.
John Winchester didn't take kindly to having his actions questioned but Sam's innate curiosity finally got the upper hand.
Well here goes nothing he thought to himself as he blurted out. "'Bout that hunt I found, dad. You not going to follow it up?"

John was sitting at the table cleaning his weapons and to Sam's surprise, he just smiled and replied calmly. "Na, Sam. I called in another hunter to take care of it. I thought we might spend some family time together, You, me and Dean. Have a little holiday."

A chill snaked its way through Sam's body.
Dad, when he was mad could scare the skin off a crocodile with a simple glare, but a happy, accommodating John was even scarier, because Dad hadn't been that kind of dad for a long time now.

Sam had no idea why, but he was almost certain that HE was the reason Dad was still here.
He threw a glance at John from under his eyelashes, and sure enough John was staring at him again.
Suddenly he couldn't take the weight of those intense eyes on him any longer and he closed his book and pushed back the chair. He had to get out of the room; the walls seemed to be closing in on him like some enormous Venus fly trap.

"Where are you going, Sam?" his dad asked continuing to clean his gun.
"I... um.. ….have to ask Dean something," he stuttered trying to keep his voice from quivering. He'd never been as afraid of his father as he was in that instant. He had to find Dean NOW.

:
Dean was exactly where he always was when not hunting, training, chatting up some girl or baiting his little brother, fiddling under the Impala's hood.

Sam made bee-line for him; just setting eyes on Dean made him feel safer.
Dean poked his head to the side at Sam's approach.
"Come to give me a hand, bro, " he smirked, already knowing the answer.
Sam had never shown any interest in learning the car mechanics, something that gave Dean plenty of ammo to tease him about.

He'd left Sam wading happily through his home-work, so either his little brother had finished in record time or he and dad had butted heads again.
Dean fervently hoped it was the former for he was so tired of playing buffer between the two stubborn mules.

Sam's face was tense; his skin pale as if he had gotten a bad fright.
"Dean..."
He came to stand in front of his little brother, the car forgotten.

"Sammy..? Something wrong?"
The elder Winchester lay a hand on the boy's skinny shoulder. A tremor was running through it; Sam was upset and scared...dad...?
Dean glanced back at the motel just in time to notice John pull back from the window.
Just what was going on?

Sam came forward into Dean's personal space, seeking comfort; something he did only when he was really shaken up but dad had been in the room with him and if the oldest Winchester was by your side, there was very little that could scare you.
Unless it was dad himself who did the scaring!

"Sammy? What's going on?" Dean asked again, running an expert eye over his younger sibling. "I left you doing your home-work and now you'd think a were-wolf had been running around inside your pants!"

Now that he was away from Dad and 'safe' in Dean's hold, Sam wondered if he'd overreacted. Maybe he was just stupid, imagining stuff.
"Uh, nothing." He squirmed uncomfortably.

"I just wanted to give you a hand with the car, " he said, blurting out the first excuse that came to mind, but he wasn't fooling Dean.
"Now I know you're lying, Sam, " Dean snorted. " You ran out here like some big-eyed hairy Bambi; so now you're gonna spill what's going through that geeky brain of yours."
He wiped his oily hands on a rag and grasped Sam's arm.

"There's a picnic table over there. C'mon!" But before he yanked his recalcitrant sibling towards it, he took another glance at the window.
John was framed in it again, watching; just what the jeez was going on, Dean wondered as he pushed Sam down onto the bench.

He stretched across the table and tugged on a lock of Sam's tousled hair, the warm humid weather making it curl even more than usual.

"Ow! Dean! What the heck!" Sam grouched as he swiped Dean's hand away.
"I'm the one who's asking, squirt, so don't try to squirrel out of it. Tell me what happened. Is it to do with dad?" Dean said, remembering his father's stance at the window.
Sam's shrug told him it was.

"Look Dean, it's nothing ...really. I don't understand what came over me. I was sitting doing my home-work and I felt dad's eyes on me. That's all. He didn't do anything, honest, he was cleaning his guns," he continued quickly, as he saw Dean's eyes darken with suspicion.
"I just felt the room closing in on me and I had to get out..."

"So...let me get this straight, Sam. You felt dad watching you, you panicked and ran out," Dean summarized.
"You don't really expect me to believe that, do you? I've seen dad yell at you while you stand there with a defiant look in your eyes, and now you want me to believe he did nothing, yet he scared you. Have I got it right?"

When Dean put it like that, Sam felt like a perfect idiot, but the feeling of uneasiness he'd experienced in the room was still present. He had no logical explanation to give his brother, so he shrugged again.
Dean pulled himself up. "I'll go and have a word with Dad, maybe there's some kind of presence in the motel, though we warded the room against just about everything, and dad would have picked up on it anyway."

Sam looked at him alarmed.
"No, Dean just leave it alone. Dad'll think I'm imagining things and he's got a bad enough opinion of me as it is," Sam pleaded, working the eyes to the fullest.

Dean put up a middling defence but it was soon breached as he folded to the canine powers of Sam's soulful eyes.
"Okay," he agreed tilting his head, studying his little brother. " I won't mention you. I gotta wash up anyway and my stomach's telling me it's time to tend to its needs. Wait here for me squirt, when I get back we'll go for pizza."
Sam nodded. He was quite happy to remain outside, he wasn't eager to go back in anytime soon.

:
John was sitting on the bed, still cleaning his guns when Dean strolled in.
The older boy noticed Sam's books lying haphazardly on the table. The kid was prissy about his stuff, he must have quit the room in a big hurry.

"Those are gonna be the cleanest guns around," Dean joked, moving to stand beside his father. "You've been at them all day."
"Can't be too clean, son, 'specially when you life depends on a clear shot."
John paused for a moment. "How's Sam? He seemed upset when he ran out."

Dean studied him curiously as he lied. "Na, he's okay. Just needed some air. Did you and he have a head-butting match or something?"
"You would have heard us from outside if we had," John answered; expertly mounting the gun.

Dean, " I need to talk to you..." John ventured, as if he was uncertain how to proceed.
"About?"
"About Sam, " John replied getting to his feet.

Dean began to understand what Sam had been trying to tell him; dad was giving off a weird vibe.
He felt a chill coursing through him. Whatever dad wanted to say, he knew he wasn't going to like it.

He backed away from John, pointing a finger at the bathroom.
"Gotta take a shower, dad, and go on a food run," he said, trying to put it off.

"Yeah, we can talk tonight when Sam's asleep," John agreed.

Dean walked into the shower and let the hot water comfort him. "Sammy whatever it is, Don't worry, I'm here!" he whispered.

TBC