By the time Dean woke the next morning sunlight was already filtering through the hotel room curtains. He glanced over at Sam's bed and saw it was empty, but he could hear the shower running so it was obvious where his brother was. Relishing the fact that they didn't have to be rushing to get on the road or deal with a hunt, he stretched out – wincing as his side twinged a little – and sank back into the soft pillows with a happy sigh.
A few moments later the bathroom door opened and Sam came out in a cloud of steam. Dean opened his eyes again.
"Morning, Sam." he said and Sam turned to look at him, grinning when he saw Dean was awake.
"Hey – about time." he said dryly. "I was starting to think you were going to miss breakfast completely."
Dean's expression brightened. "I forgot about that." he said. They were so used to staying in backwater motels that a hotel where things like comfortable beds and breakfast were included was a real luxury.
As he got up he glanced briefly at Sam, noting that the bruises on his face were starting to fade already.
"How's the head?" he said, indicating the stitches that were hidden under Sam's hair.
Sam shrugged. "Fine. I haven't even got a headache anymore."
Satisfied Dean nodded and continued his way into the bathroom. Ten minutes later he was ready and they were heading for the dining room. As they walked, Dean noticed how Sam was still adjusting his own pace to match Dean's slightly slower one. He bit back the remark that was dying to come out, knowing his brother was only looking out for him.
The actual food was laid out buffet style and, despite a slightly heated argument, Dean was forced to sit and wait at their table while Sam fetched breakfast for both of them.
The whole invalid thing was definitely starting to wear thin and Dean had already decided that life would be getting back to normal in the next 24hours, whether he actually felt better or not.
It would be a shame for their first real vacation to end in bloodshed after all.
Sam was looking decidedly pleased with himself as he came back over and he put Dean's plate down with practically a flourish. Dean eyed the mountain of food, trying and failing to hide the pleased smile twitching at his lips. He did however fix Sam with an amused look.
"Nice work on the hunter/gathering there, Sammy. You want a round of applause?"
"Hey, I just don't want to spend the rest of the morning listening to you bitch about being hungry." said Sam dryly, putting his own plate on the table and sitting down.
"Well we have paid for this so it seems a shame to waste it. And I haven't forgotten by the way you still haven't told me exactly how we've paid?" said Dean, narrowing his gaze.
"Could you not just leave it alone and enjoy yourself? You were the one who wanted to play tourist, remember? I thought you'd be pleased." said Sam, trying to stop himself getting tense.
"I am pleased, I'd just like to know where the money came from. Unless you won the lottery and you've been holding out on me?"
Sam took a bite of his food and deliberately chewed slowly, wanting to avoid having to answer. He knew Dean would overreact about him selling Jess's engagement ring and he didn't want to ruin the mood when his brother was finally starting to relax for the first time in ages. As far as he was concerned it was more than worth it – he'd come too close to leaving San Francisco alone and since it was Dean he was dealing with, the best way to show his relief and affection was to do something nice for him.
Or try to, anyway.
Dean watched him, waiting for an answer. When it was clear one wasn't going to be forthcoming he gave a small sigh and took a bite of his own food. He knew Sam had to have been up to something to pay for all this and he wanted to make sure it was nothing that was going to haunt his brother later. He knew full well the hotel must be costing a lot, even though Sam wouldn't tell him how much, and their stash of money usually consisted of whatever Dean had been able to hustle in the last bar they'd visited. And since he'd been hurt he hadn't been able to do that, and there hadn't been much left in their wallets before they'd arrived in the city.
If he had to guess Dean would have said – given his brother's innate honesty – that Sam had sold something. He just really hoped it hadn't been something important.
Deciding not to spoil their first day, Dean let it drop. He'd get it out of Sam in the end and he had plenty of time over the next week to work on it.
"So we're gonna give Alcatraz a shot today then?" he said and Sam looked up, surprised to be let off the hook so easily.
"Yeah, sure. Looks like the weather's gonna be good actually." he said, not entirely trusting the subject change but taking what he could get.
"Cool. You wanna take along one of the shotguns, just in case?"
Dean's look was innocent but Sam wasn't amused.
"That's not funny, Dean." he said, pointing his fork at him. "We are not here to hunt, you hear me? We get even a hint of something supernatural we're ignoring it. I mean it."
"You are such a killjoy. In case you'd forgotten, hunting is what we do, remember? We see something, we can't just ignore it because it's not convenient. Dad taught us better than that."
Sam put his cutlery down, glaring at Dean now.
"Don't give me the whole 'duty' speech, Dean. It's not our job to save the world and I personally think we do more than our fair share! It's not too much to ask for one week off and in case you'd forgotten, you almost died a couple of days ago!"
"Would you please lower your voice?" hissed Dean, glaring back. "And I did not 'almost die'!"
Sam stared at him disbelief for a second.
"You're kidding, right? Do you not recall the huge metal pipe you happened to land on from a great height? Or the two hours you spent in surgery while they patched you up? Or maybe you forgot the doctor telling you to take it easy for at least a week, if not longer! Well, you know what? I remember all of it, including what it felt like dragging you out of there while I was covered in your blood! But, hey, that's not important cos hunting always comes first! Well screw hunting, Dean - you want to go find some spirits to fight with you go ahead but you can count me out." he said, shoving his chair back with some force and standing up.
Before he could get away though, Dean grabbed his arm.
"Sit down, Sam." he said and when Sam tried to pull away still, he tightened his grip.
"Please?" he said softly.
Sam swallowed, his anger leaving as quickly as it had come. He sat back down again, pulling his arm out of Dean's grip and studying the table cloth like it was the most fascinating thing he'd seen in a long time.
"Sam."
Reluctantly Sam looked up and saw Dean was looking more sad than angry, which made him feel even worse. Here he was, supposedly giving his brother the vacation he never had a chance to have, and instead he was yelling at him over breakfast.
"I'm sorry." he said quietly and Dean gave him a quick smile.
"Me too, Sammy. Look, I wasn't saying I wanted to go out hunting – especially since I was the one who suggested taking a break in the first place. I was just saying if we saw something we'd have to look into it, that's all. Hey, chances are there'll be nothing there. The number of tourists go tramping through that place? No sane spirit would want to hang around, right?"
Sam chuckled. "Yeah, I guess."
He picked up his knife and fork again, using them to gesture at Dean's plate.
"Eat your food before it gets cold." he said and Dean gave him a look that clearly said he wasn't five years old. Sam just smirked.
Fortunately the rest of breakfast passed without incident. Sam made a mental note to keep a better grip on his temper over the next few days. He knew Dean hated being sick or injured so he was bound to be crankier than usual. If Sam had a short fuse as well they were likely to end up killing each other before the week was out.
A little while later Dean sat in the lobby, waiting for Sam to come down with their coats from the room. Given the little scene over the breakfast table he wasn't going to risk suggesting fetching his own coat for fear of a total meltdown on his brother's part.
He mentally kicked himself for not realising Sam was finding it harder to deal with what had happened during than earthquake than he'd let on. Dean had had the easy part really, since he'd been unconscious for most of the escape from the ruined building and during his surgery. It was Sam who'd had to shoulder the responsibility for getting them to safety, and who'd then had to pace the hospital waiting room afterwards.
It was no wonder he was a little on edge still.
Dean had only been half joking about encountering any spirits in the old prison but now he found himself hoping they didn't see anything. Sam needed a break as much as he did.
Glancing up he saw Sam coming out of the elevator and stood up, slowly. He'd made the mistake of moving too quickly more than once since he'd left the hospital and was in no rush to repeat the experience. He held out his hand for his jacket before Sam could have a chance to offer to help him on with it. His brother looked a little reluctant, but handed it over without comment.
"You got the leaflet?" Dean said as he put it on, silently amused by the way Sam was clearly forcing himself not to reach out and give him a hand.
"Yeah, I got it. There's a boat leaves in forty five minutes so we should be able to catch that one. The harbour's only ten minutes away." said Sam, relieved when Dean finally had both his arms through the sleeves with only a small grimace.
"Let's go, then." said Dean and Sam couldn't help smiling at his brother's enthusiasm. He was definitely getting scarily into the whole tourist thing.
Pocketing the leaflet he quickened his step to make sure he reached the door first and held it open for Dean, ignoring the glare he got in return.
"Hey, before we go I just want to check on the car." said Dean as he walked past and Sam gave a long suffering sigh.
They'd nearly not checked into the hotel at all the previous day thanks to Dean's obsession with his 'baby'. He could still recall the scene vividly as they'd pulled up outside and the guy from the valet parking had stepped up to Sam's open window.
"Welcome to the Grand Hotel, gentleman." he'd said as they both opened their doors and got out. Sam had smiled in return, not even needing to look at Dean to know his brother was regarding the guy suspiciously.
As the guy held his hand out for the keys Dean had frowned.
"Uh, excuse me? What do you think you're doing?"
The guy had frozen, shifting his gaze to Dean and blinking in confusion. Sam had closed his eyes briefly, as if praying for divine intervention, before turning round to face Dean.
"He's going to park the car for us, Dean." he said with exaggerated patience, inclining his head towards the Valet Parking sign.
"Well, how about he just shows us where to park and we can do it ourselves, Sam." said Dean with equal patience.
"Dean." said Sam through gritted teeth and his brother just raised an eyebrow at him.
Turning to the valet guy briefly and shooting him an apologetic look, Sam walked round the car till he was next to Dean, dropping his voice to a whisper.
"He's just going to take the car and park it in the garage - could you possibly draw more attention to us?" he hissed and Dean raised the other eyebrow.
"I don't know, do you think ripping the guy's arm off and beating him over the head with it would do the trick?" he said innocently.
Out of the corner of his eye Sam saw the valet guy take a step back and just knew he'd heard.
He wondered if it was too late to start telling people he was an only child.
Recognising the fact he was going to get nowhere with his stubborn idiot of a brother, Sam fixed a fake smile to his face and walked back round the car to the now extremely nervous looking valet guy.
"Listen, our car's a bit old and it can be temperamental sometimes – how about you show us where we can park and we'll take it there ourselves?"
The guy agreed with the eagerness of someone who has recognised his day could be about to get very bad and gestured towards the entrance of the underground parking lot on the left hand side.
Getting back in Sam started the engine and turned to see Dean glaring at him.
"Temperamental?" he said in a deadly tone of voice and Sam gave him a glare of his own.
"Don't push it, Dean. If you were a normal person we'd already be checking out our room by now."
Having steered into the space he'd been directed to Sam turned off the engine and got out. He opened the trunk before Dean could get a chance and grabbed their bags, noticing the valet guy hovering behind them.
"We, um, I mean that is – the hotel has a policy of keeping guest's keys at reception." said the hapless guy, his gaze darting from Sam to Dean and back again like a rabbit in headlights.
"Why?" demanded Dean and Sam found himself seriously beginning to regret the whole idea.
"It's just policy, Dean, they're not going to drive it." he said, using the same tone of voice he might reserve for a stubborn five year old.
"Then why do they need the keys?" he replied and Sam ground his teeth together in a way that had to be bad for his jaw.
"Because it's policy, in case they need to.." he tailed off as he realised his mistake and Dean got a triumphant look on his face.
"In case they need to drive it?" he offered innocently and Sam stepped closer to him.
"Look, if you keep this up they're not going to even let us book in – I thought you wanted to enjoy this vacation?" he said, injecting the same note of pleading into his voice that had worked when he was seven.
Dean knew he was being manipulated but he also knew Sam was right, he did want to enjoy their first real vacation.
Glaring at the guy with enough force to make it clear what would happen should harm befall his car he nodded, and Sam gratefully handed the valet guy the keys.
He wasn't sure which one of them had been more relieved.
He was pulled from the memory of the whole parking incident by Dean's impatient voice.
"Sam! Are you gonna stand there daydreaming all day or are you gonna come check on her with me? If we don't get a move on we'll miss the boat."
Shaking his head slightly Sam followed Dean outside and as they stepped into the sunshine, he felt himself relax. Maybe for once their luck would hold. It couldn't be that hard avoiding trouble for just one week.
Could it?
