Sam bolts upright in bed turning on the bedside lamp. There's that noise again. Low, broken sounds of fear, not sobs, but plaintive stuttering. Whimpering. Sounds Sam had never heard coming from his big brother before - never wanted to hear because they spoke not just of pain and fear, but of sorrow and defeat. These aren't emotions Sam wants to associate with Dean.
The light doesn't wake Dean, and Sam checks the clock before moving to sit on the edge of Dean's bed, almost 5 a.m.
"Hey, Dean." Sam rests his broad hand on his brother's narrow back, feeling the bones of his spine clearly through the fabric of his t-shirt. "You okay?" Sam's touch quiets Dean, and the boy's body shifts slightly in his sleep to rest more firmly against the warmth of Sam's palm. In half-remembered gestures of comfort, Sam makes shushing noises and rubs small circles on Dean's upper back until Dean gives a contented sigh and seems to fall deeper into sleep. Sam watches and gets lost in thought.
Is it so wrong of him to want a better life for Dean or himself? Sam considers what Charlie said the night before as he glances down at his sleeping brother. Would living this bonus time be so horrible? He knows that Dean had spent so much of his life taking care of Sam, putting Sam's needs in front of his own, obeying orders from their father… why can't his brother just enjoy the opportunity they have right now? If he still wants to be a hunter, why can't he just wait until he is older again? Yeah, Sam knows Dean was already a hunter at 14, but he shouldn't have been. He should have had a chance to be a kid.
Dean should have had the chance to be the light in someone's life; and while Sam has always loved his brother, he had been a kid himself and too selfish in his own needs to acknowledge his brother's sacrifices. He could make up for it…for so much…if only Dean will let him.
Sam shuts off the alarm and heads for the shower. Charlie has an early flight scheduled and Sam has promised her a ride to the airport.
When Dean wakes up a few hours later he is alone in the hotel. He stretches, surprised to feel how limber and pain free that motion is. After showering and throwing on new jeans and shirt, he pads softly into the kitchen to find a note from his brother.
Dean, There's a breakfast of eggs and sausage in the refrigerator for you. You can heat it in the microwave. Don't eat the pie for breakfast. Oh, and drink some milk. Take a vitamin, too. I'll be back as soon as I can. Charlie says goodbye and she'll talk to you soon. Stay here until I get back. Sam.
Getting bossy, Dean thinks, and taking his big brother status a bit too seriously instead of acknowledging it's a temporary fluke. Dean snorts to himself as he makes coffee in the two-burner pot in the room and cuts himself a slice of the apple pie. He eats it and downs a glass of milk waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. When it does, he puts it into a mug and carries it to the table with the laptop, starting his research on fairies.
Not long into the research, Dean realizes that he was probably dealing with a sylph, an air elemental, who for some reason needed whatever that thing was that was tangled in the wrought-iron fence. Since fairies burn at the touch of iron, it needed help. Then he came along, could see her, and was willing to help. All the lore he has been able to find says that fairies don't like the imbalance of owing favors. This one repaid him based on their conversation about what he wanted. Seems straightforward, not malicious, so Dean figures this sylph is part of the Seelie Court. Unseelie fairies are more likely to cause harm.
Dean misses Bobby, knowing the old hunter probably knew ways to call fairies and figuring it's not going to be easy to find a book that takes this problem seriously. He figures they will find a summoning ritual and just ask the fairy to undo her reward. Might be nice if they could hang onto the money, though. Sam's right that it does make life easier to not have to worry about how to pay for things. He wonders if Cas would come if he prayed, feeling the lurch of fear as he remembers the blood coming from the angel's eyes last time he saw him.
"Cas, If you can hear me. I, ummm, I need you, Buddy, but you take care of what you need to do for you first. I'm not in life-threatening danger or anything. Just if you can, if you hear me, please, come." Dean prays.
Glancing at the room clock, Dean is surprised to see it's almost 11. He's been researching for hours – and he's starting to wonder where Sam's gotten to. Plus, he's feeling a little hemmed in. He takes a deep breath and decides he can remedy that by moving onto the balcony. Once he moves onto the table sitting in the sunny space overlooking the bay, he opens the search engines and gets engrossed trying to find answers to the fairy problem.
When Sam comes back right around noon, he brings lunch with him. Setting the takeout boxes on the table, he catches sight of the empty pie plate, the milk glass, and the unopened vitamin bottle. He figures that Dean did half what he asked of him, and shrugs to himself. He's happy his brother stayed put when he was gone longer than he expected. He shakes a vitamin tablet out into his hand and carries it and a bottle of water over to Dean who rolls his eyes, but swallows it down.
"Where you been?" Dean demands, but accepts the excuse of errands as Sam hands him a bank card in his new name and a new cell phone. He listens as Sam explains that he has also made the Impala legal, and that it now has Texas plates. Sam doesn't tell him that he has been in touch with a local university and a home rental agent too.
The brothers move inside and open their lunch containers. Sam's is a Chicken Caesar salad, Dean notes, and then he's surprised to open his and find the same thing. "I think your lunch place made a mistake, Sam. This is salad, too."
Sam makes a noncommittal noise. "It won't kill you to eat something healthy," he says.
Dean snorts, he can tell that this wasn't a mistake on the part of the restaurant, but on his brother. He closes the salad and places it in the refrigerator, taking out his uneaten breakfast which he microwaves. He rejoins his brother at the table. "Don't even think I'm going to start eating rabbit food." Dean looks over at Sam's lunch with disdain. "And don't start trying to go all parental on me. I'm 34. I don't need a dad."
Raising his eyebrows, Sam looks at this younger version of Dean and thinking his brother needed to start accepting their new reality. Sam wonders how he can help him do that. He decides to leave that argument for later, concentrating on taking this one step at a time. "Learn anything in your research?"
Dean fills him in on his suspicions about what type of fairy they may be dealing with, and they agree to go back to the spot where Dean encountered the creature to look for clues. Sam figures that it won't hurt to get them both outside, and he doesn't want his brother to suspect that he is just going through the motions on this hunt.