Dean had "encouraged" Sam to go to bed hours ago, and Bobby had stayed up and helped Dean with his reading and math, and the older Winchester went to bed still slightly defeated. His new reader was hard for him, and he had trouble sounding out the words, and for the life of him he couldn't understand why you couldn't take 6 away from 5 because:

"Bobby all you have to do is flip the numbers and it is one." Bobby had spent a good hour explaining to him the math, quizzing him on his spelling words, which he ended up having to write 100 time each so he could memorize them, and then he went to bed. And Bobby wished more than anything that he could take that look out of the kid's eyes. That look that said he was worthless and he knew it and there was nothing anyone could do to make it better. What Bobby wouldn't give to make that kid see himself like the people who knew and loved him did, a scared boy, who was constantly trying to protect his baby brother, trying to do everything right, trying to be perfect, someone with a good heart, someone who cared deeply about others and took on their pain if it meant that they wouldn't have to be sad. But all Dean saw was his failures, his missteps and his flaws, and the older he got, the stronger the bravado, the more in place the game face, and the less talkative, the less open he became.

Bobby tried to put it out of his mind, because he most certainly wasn't the boy's father, and there was nothing he would be able to do. John would pick them up at the end of the school year and haul them somewhere else, somewhere in which he couldn't come and make Dean's days better, help him out with his brother, couldn't make him see who he really was.

Bobby sighed and went into the living room and continued with the research for the hunting team he was working with out in New York, when he heard little footsteps approach.

"Uncle Bobby?" Sam asked as he came into the living room.

Bobby turned around and saw Sam, looking worried. "Hey there squirt. What can I do for you?"

"I want to get out of the smart kids class."

"What?"

"I don't like it anymore."

"Can you do the work?" Sam hesitated. "Tell the truth son."

"Yeah I can do the work."

"Then why don't you want to be in the class anymore?"

"Kids make fun of…"

"You?"

"No."

"Then who do they make fun of?"

"The slow kids."

"The slow kids?"

"Kids like Dean." Sam said quietly and turning away from Bobby, looking up the stairs to see if his older brother was listening. He looked as if he just said that God didn't exist and that the big guy might come down and smite him.

"Oh."

"So, can I stop going?"

"Your brother would like for you to stay in that class."

"I don't know."

"I do."

"He tell you that?"

"He said that he was proud of you." Sam gave him a sad smile.

"Who is proud of Dean?" He asked and gave him big eyes. The question struck Bobby hard. Sometimes Sam was too smart for his seven and a half years. "His teacher said he was slow. I don't think she's proud of him."

"Are you proud of Dean?" Sam cocked his head to the side and pondered the question.

"Can I be proud of Dean?"

"Of course you can. Why couldn't you?"

"I thought only bigger people could be proud."

Bobby smiled. "No. Anyone can be proud of someone else." Sam seemed to think about that again. He looked up at Bobby and nodded.

"Yeah. I'm proud of Dean. He's the best big brother."

"He is."

"Can I quit the class?"

"Sam….do you really want to do that?"

Sam scrunched his face up and thought. 'They made fun of Dean. One of the girls in the class has a sister in Dean's grade and she said they all know he's the dumbest one in the class. That even the teacher calls him stupid in front of the kids."

"What? The teacher said that in front of the other kids?"

Sam shrugged. "That's what Emily said." He looked down at the floor and then back up at Bobby. "I don't like people calling my brother stupid."

"I don't either."

"Can I stop going to the class now?"

"No. No. You go to that class Sammy, you be smart. Don't you worry about Dean. I'll talk care of it." He ruffled Sam's hair and sighed. "Now, you go on back up to bed before Dean notices that you're missing." Sam nodded.

"Night Bobby."

"Night kid." Sam sighed and headed back up the stairs and Bobby heard Dean's voice asking Sam why he was up and Sam reply that he was getting a drink of water and Dean accepted the excuse and he ordered him to get to bed.

Bobby ran a hand down his face and he became determined to take that teacher down. No one hurt his boy like that and lived to tell the tale.