Disenchanted
Sam stood in front of his brother with a look of disbelief. After years apart there seemed to be no change in his older brother at all. He didn't seem any wiser, or older, or faster, no he was just Dean, and something about that made Sam feel like he might actually have a home still. He almost felt like these last few years away were all in his head, and his father would come in soon to take them away to another hunt in another city.
"Jess can you excuse us for minute." Sam said as he led his brother out of the building. He had so many questions and so many angry thoughts going through his head he didn't know which one to start with. Should he be angry at his brother for tell him about their dad missing, or should he be worried that something might have really happened to his father? "Come on man, you don't really expect me to just hit the road with you to find Dad now?"
Dean stopped in his tracks. He couldn't believe what his little brother was saying. "Yeah Sammy, Dad's missing, what are you not getting from this?" Dean asked unsure of his brother's thoughts. The tension between the two was obvious, and there was no way around it. After Sam left, it was like Dean's world fell apart again. He felt stupid for even thinking that Sam would care there father was missing.
"He's been missing before and has been fine. Why is this time any different?" Sam stood there waiting for his brother's response.
"He's never been gone this long. Now are you coming or what?" Dean asked as he continued down the staircase hoping that Sam would still follow, giving him the chance to change his little brother's mind.
"I'm not. I swore I was done hunting." Sam told him. The tone in his voice was so confident that Dean believed him. It was going to take a lot to persuasion to convince Sam to look for their dad.
"Come on Sammy it was bad but not that bad." Dean said not even glancing at the face Sam pulled behind his back. Dean never thought that his dad was too hard, he was just being cautious.
"When I told him I was afraid of the monster in my closet he gave me a .45." Sam stated with a laugh at the attempt his father made at comforting him. His childhood was strange and best forgotten.
"What was he suppose to do Sam? You know what's out there." Dean defended his father. All of the thing that he has killed in his lifetime there was definitely a reason to be afraid of the dark.
"I was nine years old." Sam stated as if Dean was stupid. The two stared each other down, trying to see mentally who was the stronger brother.
Katie felt the breath get knocked out of her when she saw Dean emerge from the apartment building with Sam following behind him. She hadn't seen him in years and she wanted nothing more than to go back to the way they were before everything fell apart. She slowly pushed off the trunk of the car before Dean saw that she was sitting on top of his baby. Dean went straight to the trunk shooting her a glance before searching for the research his dad had given him.
"Katie, is that you?" Sam asked with more excitement than she'd heard come out of his mouth in a long time. She took a step towards him but stopped, she didn't know if she could go up to him, hug him like nothing ever happened. Thankfully she didn't have to, Sam walked right up to her, wrapping his arms around her. "You look great." He whispered through her hair. She couldn't help but smell the after shave that he must have put on that morning. Sam always smelt sweet and strong, she didn't know how or why, but it was just something that she had learned growing up with the boys.
"Yeah, so do you. Damn you're way taller than I remember. I've missed you." Katie pushed back just enough to look up into his eyes. They were still the same blue eyes that she remembered. That made her feel like it was still the same Sam she met on the swings so many years ago.
"So when did you come back?" Sam asked wanting to know why she came back to his family more than anything. Katie's reply was cut off as Dean cleared his throat. For some unknown reason it made Katie jump out of Sam's arms. She tried to keep her gaze away from both of the boys, but it was hard. She had never felt so awkward in her life.
"Are you two done with the 'I missed you's and all of that girly stuff, cause if you don't remember Dad's still missing." Dean brought their attention back to the case. He didn't like that fact that Katie hugged Sam longer than he ever got to. Sure they weren't dating, but he always felt like they were an old married couple without the perks. Somehow in the messed up life that they lived in Sam always got the perks with Katie and Dean had to live with the disagreements and fights. Sammy got all the hugs and pecks, not that Dean was jealous, he just wanted it to be fair.
"So why weren't you with Dad in the first place? I thought you two traveled together?" Sam asked glancing at both Katie and Dean. It didn't make any sense for their dad to be missing if they were with him.
"We were working a case in New Orleans. Some voodoo thing…" Dean trailed off still searching through all the weapons. Sam looked at him suspiciously
"Dad let you work a case alone?" Sam was shocked.
"I'm twenty-six years old dude." Dean sounded offended, but Sam still couldn't see him and Katie doing a job together without killing each other first. On the other hand he never thought Katie would come back in the fist place so he didn't know what to think anymore. "Here we go…" Dean said as he pulled all the papers he'd been searching for. He explained the case smoothly and Sam had to admit it sounded like something his dad would get caught in, but he still wasn't convinced his dad was in any danger.
"And then I get this voice mail yesterday." Dean said pulling out a recorder, and as he did so Katie glanced at Sam, surprised to see that he was already looking at her. She smiled slowly, then turned her attention back to Dean. That awkward feeling was only getting worse.
"Dean, something is starting to happen, I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on…" John's voice practically echoed through the still night. They were all worried, John was a father to all of them and this only proved that he was in some kind of trouble.
"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam stated, Katie smiled finding it funny that he still knew exactly what he was talking about after all of these years away from the world of hunting.
"It's just like riding a bike Sammy." Dean told his little brother jokingly, and then pressing another button. "Okay, we slowed that message down and ran it through a program and got this." Static came through the recorder and Sam put all of his attention into what ever was going to come out of it next. A part of him hoping it was nothing that big, something that he could walk away from.
"I can never go home…" A female voice barely came out through all the static that surrounded it. Sam didn't know what to think. Was this something serious, and if so did he have to guts to leave is normal life behind to help his brother? He let out a sigh knowing that he was going to cave and do whatever the two people standing with him in the cool night were going to say. It was a weakness that he was never going to grow out of.
"Your leaving?" Jess asked as she followed her boyfriend around the room. He was packing everything he could think of. He was only going to be gone a few days it's not like he needed a lot of clothes or anything.
"It's only going to be for a few days. Don't worry I'll make the interview." Sam said as he put some shirts into his duffle bag and kissed Jess. He was going to regret this later he could tell, but something about the way Dean said that he couldn't do this alone and the look Katie gave him, they seemed so desperate. How could he say no to the only family he knew?
"Do you think this is the right thing to do? I mean, Dean he hasn't been on a hunt in years and you know you're going to fight nonstop. Are you sure you still want to do this?" Katie asked Dean as they both leaned against the Impala waiting for Sam to come down with his things. She knew that Dean wouldn't be able to handle this case on his own, but involving Sam was risky. They never got along growing up, and they were different people now. She just didn't want to see either of them get hurt. She knew what that did to them and she didn't want it to happen again.
"Yeah, we have to do this together. Don't get me wrong, I could do this one all on my own if I had too, but it's our Dad. He needs to be apart of this." Dean answered glancing over to her letting her see his smile in the darkness of the ally. She smiled back hoping that what he said was true, they were going to behave and put John first. It was practically a dream in her mind. The Winchester boys were notorious for fighting over everything, and Katie was sure this wasn't going to be any different.