Chapter 5. Calling in Backup
Sam was fuming. He couldn't win. When he didn't want to go on a hunt his father argued with him and now that he had been willing to go on a hunt, despite his motivations, his father had argued with him.
As soon as he had heard the name Lawrence his interest had piqued. If it wasn't for the few pictures that actually remained of Mary, Sam wouldn't even know what his mother looked like and he had been just a baby when their small family had fled the Kansas town that he didn't have any memories of his home town either. He had every right to want to go back there and he couldn't understand why his father didn't understand that.
When he had first entered the small bathroom and slammed the door behind him he had spent the first five minutes pacing, trying to get his anger under control. Pacing hadn't made him feel any better and that found him sitting on the closed toilet lid still sulking.
After his display he was surprised that his father hadn't barged right on in after him. John didn't tolerate being spoken to that way especially from his sons and Sam knew that he had been pushing it. Dean had obviously stopped the intrusion and Sam knew that he had come to rely on his brother being the buffer between him and their father.
Sam sighed and leaned back against the toilet, bringing his hands up and running his fingers through his unruly brown hair. His father was so frustrating. Was it to much to want to know about where he came from? Sam didn't even know if they had any relatives left and he realized that if it was up to John then he would probably never find out.
Sam leaned forward putting his hands on his knees and began to wonder how long he had been brooding alone in the bathroom. He glanced down at his watch and raised his eyebrows in shock. He had been in the bathroom for half an hour. It was hard to believe that he hadn't even realized how long he had been cooped up. It was even harder to believe that he had been allowed to sulk for this long by himself.
Sam stood up and took the couple of steps it took to reach the other side of the room and slowly turned the doorknob. The teen cautiously opened the door and poked his head around it and searched the room. Just like he suspected, his father was nowhere in sight. The man had obviously left after Sam had stormed off to the bathroom.
Now that he knew the room was clear of an angry father Sam opened the door completely and stepped into the room. The youngest Winchester scanned the room for his older brother and found him immediately. The older boy was lying on his back, his hands behind his head and his legs dangling over the end of his bed. Dean was sound asleep.
Sam walked quickly over to his slumbering brother and peered down at him. He became alarmed when he remembered that Dean had re-injured his head that day at school and would definitely have a concussion with the amount of hard hits he had taken the last few days.
Thinking back to what he had been taught he was positive that going to sleep when you had a concussion was bad thing. If you did fall asleep then you were supposed to be woken up at regular intervals just to make sure you were alright.
He knew that Dean couldn't have been asleep for more than half an hour because he had only been in the bathroom for that long. The fact that the older teen had managed to fall asleep after the argument that preceded John leaving was worrying enough because normally Sam wouldn't be able to brood alone for that amount of time without his brother eventually knocking on the door.
Sam couldn't believe that Dean's head injury had slipped his mind as soon as he walked in the door. His brother had hit his head again just before going home and he remembered cataloging Dean's headache in his mind on the drive back to the motel, but as soon as he had seen his father everything had fled his mind.
"Damn it Dean!" Sam leaned in closer to Dean and shook his shoulder. "It's time to wake up!"
"Dean!" Sam said louder when Dean didn't respond. Dean frowned in his sleep and mumbled something that Sam couldn't understand before going still again.
Sam rolled his eyes and slapped his brother lightly in the face and called his name eliciting a grunt of displeasure for his effort, followed by the green of Dean's eyes squinting up at him. "Sam?"
"Dean you need to get up." Sam pulled on Dean's jacket to get him sitting.
"Dude, you did not just slap me." Dean muttered as he let Sam pull him up, since he was still half asleep.
"Well if I wasn't afraid you would fall into a concussion induced coma then I wouldn't have had to." Sam continued trying to pull his brother off of the bed. "Dude, I'm awake. Get off me." Dean shrugged out of his brother's grasp.
"Dean you shouldn't sleep when you have a concussion."
Dean looked up at his brother who was still standing over him, hovering. The kid could be a mother hen sometimes and he was only thirteen. "Sammy I can sleep I just have to be careful, besides I only just closed my eyes."
"Dean I've been in that bathroom for half an hour."
Dean looked down at his own watched and sure enough over half an hour had passed by. "Oh."
"Well I guess that your awake now and obviously as lucid as you'll ever be, you can go back to sleep." Sam told him, walking over to his own bed and sat down cross legged on it.
"Well gee Sammy. That's so generous of you."
"You're welcome." Sam answered with the same sarcastic tone Dean had just used on him. The kid was picking up on a lot of Dean's habits and sometimes Dean wasn't so sure that was a good thing.
Dean scrubbed his tired eyes with the palm of his hand and then stood up. He was glad when the room didn't automatically spin but Sam was right he needed to be able to go a couple of days without cracking his head open. It couldn't be healthy.
The young hunter dry swallowed a couple of aspirin to kill the small nagging headache and then walked over to the small fridge grabbing the two remaining soda's. Dean turned and saw that Sam had his bag in front of him and was in the process of taking some books out of it, obviously about to get stuck into his homework. Did the boy ever stop?
"So Sammy …" Dean began as he made his way over to his brother. He handed Sam the can of Soda and then sat back down on is own bed across from Sam. "What was that hissy fit you chucked at Dad all about?"
Sam rolled is eyes. He should have known that Dean wouldn't let that go. "Dean is it so shocking that I want to help?"
"Honestly?" Dean asked. "Lately yeah and I know that's not the reason you wanted to go with Dad."
Sam sighed. "Is it so wrong to want to know about our past?"
Dean lowered his eyes to the floor before looking back up at Sam. "No Sam. There's nothing wrong with that but you have to remember that Lawrence doesn't exactly hold the greatest of memories for us."
"That's just it Dean. I don't have any memories and I don't see the harm in going. You wanted to go too and don't tell me that you wanted to go just to help dad either. You were curious too."
"Even if that's true Sammy, Dad has his reasons for what he does and if he doesn't want us to come then he must have a good reason." Dean reasoned, leaning forward so that his elbows were resting on his knees.
"I guess." Sam conceded finally.
"Good, I'm glad we're over that." Dean said sitting back on the bed.
"What about Saturday?" Sam asked as Dean scooted back on the bed until he was leaning against the headboard. He opened his can of drink and took a long drink out of it before placing it on the bed side table.
Dean smirked. "What about it? We'll probably have more fun by ourselves anyways."
Sam looked hard at Dean trying to work out whether he was telling the truth or just upset and wasn't willing to let anyone know. Sam decided he would leave it for now. "Yeah I guess."
Dean inwardly sighed in relief that Sam had decided to stop asking questions. Of course he was a little bit disappointed that his father was going to miss another one of his birthdays but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't important. His father had obviously felt that this job was urgent enough and it wasn't as if the older hunter hadn't broken a promise before. "Good. Now get your homework done, slacker."
Sam raised his eyebrows.
"You heard Dad. No slacking off with school."
"I think he was saying that to you more than me."
"The nurse told me to take it easy." Dean replied with a smile.
"It's amazing that you listen to medical advice when it suits you." The thirteen year old shook his head at his older brother.
"I'm smart Sammy; Mac says it all the time." Dean said referring to Caleb's adoptive father.
"Yeah well he's just trying to make you feel better about yourself."
"Says you," Dean replied closing his eyes and relaxing back into the pillows. "Wake me in an hour if you have to."
Sam gave a small laugh as he looked at his brother. It was amazing how well he adjusted to things. Sam was still pissed as hell but Dean just took it in his stride. Sam vowed that he wouldn't let his father's absence ruin his brother's birthday. He was going to make the most of it. A thought suddenly occurred to him and his smile widened. As soon as he knew Dean was asleep he had a phone call to make.
Just short of an hour later and English homework completed Sam looked up and was glad to see that his brother was still asleep. It was almost time to wake Dean up but before he did that he had a phone call to make that he didn't want his brother to know about.
Sam climbed off the bed and walked over to the motel room's phone and dialed the familiar cell phone number, quietly waiting for the other person to pick up while watching Dean to make sure that he was still asleep.
"Hello?"
"Hey Caleb, what's up?"
"Sammy? Is something wrong?"
Sam rolled his eyes. "Nothing's wrong Mr. Pessimist."
"Not Pessimist Runt, just prepared. So what's up?"
"Well I was actually wondering where you are at the moment?"
"Standing in a kitchen." Caleb supplied.
"Less specific smart ass," Sam replied smiling.
Sam heard Caleb sigh over the line. "Picky … okay I'm at Mac's. I thought Dad would appreciate a visit."
"Poor him," Sam laughed.
"Funny."
"I thought so."
Caleb ignored the teen. "So how's that annoying big brother of yours?"
"Well that's actually what I was calling you about."
"He's okay isn't he?"
"Yeah, nothing his hard head can't take but it's his birthday on Saturday and Dad said we were going to do something but then he left on a hunt and won't be back … I was wondering if you would come out this way … coz you know he might have more fun with someone with the same maturity level." Sam laughed a bit at his own joke.
"I'm going to ignore your attempt at humor … where are you guys?"
"We're in Devils Lake, North Dakota, its 1001 Highway 2 east," Sam explained, looking quickly in his brother's direction when he moved. Thankfully the older boy stayed asleep.
"That's a bit of a distance from here …"
"Cant you get a flight out from New York instead of driving? Caleb it's his 18th, he shouldn't have to be stuck in a crappy motel room with his little brother."
"I agree, that would be torture,"
"Now who's failing to be funny? Are you gonna come out or what?"
"Sure Sammy, I'll spend the night with Dad and head out sometime tomorrow. Deuce might have a nice surprise waiting for him when he gets back from school."
Sam's eyes lit up in curiosity. "What?"
"Me." Caleb said simply and Sam could just picture the smartass grin.
"I'm sure he'll be delighted." Sam joked.
"Yeah I'm sure he will be too."
"Thanks Caleb." Sam said sincerely.
Sam could hear Caleb sigh again but he knew that he was only putting it on. "The things I have to do …"
"Say hi to Mac for us please."
"Well since you asked so nicely … no problem Sammy. I'll see you soon."
"Seeya Caleb." Sam hung up the phone and smiled. Dean would probably be annoyed with him for calling Caleb behind his back but he would appreciate it eventually.
He walked over to his brother and shook his shoulder. "Dean, you need to wake up."
Dean jumped up, still half asleep. "What?"
"You told me to wake you up." Sam waited a few minutes as Dean woke himself up.
"How's your head?" Sam asked as Dean scrubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his hand.
"It's okay." Dean replied standing up and making his way to the bathroom.
Sam sat down on his bed intending on starting his science homework. Dean walked out a moment later looking a lot more alert than when he first woke up. He glanced down at his watch and then realized that he was feeling kind of hungry. "I'm going out to get dinner, what do you want?"
Sam thought for a minute and then looked back at Dean. "Pizza?" Dean smiled. "Sounds good to me, I'll be back soon." Dean pocketed his car keys and wallet and spared one more glance at Sam before leaving the motel room.
Sam heard the familiar rumble of the Impala's engine as Dean took off and smiled because Dean seemed better after his sleep. He searched through his bag for his science book and began his homework, his stomach grumbling in anticipation of their Pizza dinner.
TBC ...
So there it is ... Sammy's still on the birthday warpath and i couldnt resist not bringing Caleb back coz i love him lol We'll be getting back to John next chapter ... see you soon :-)