Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter 21 Journal

The weather had taken a turn for the worse when they left the pub, the temperature had dropped the wind had picked up and it was beginning to rain heavily. Dean was quiet on the way back to the motel. Sam was getting concerned and tried to talk to him.
"Are you okay Dean?"
"Mmm, just thinking."
"Is it about the sex?"

Dean looked at Sam confused.
"I'm sorry, I am Dean. I don't know what happens, I just …"
"Whoa, Whoa. It's not about sex. I told you Sammy I don't care how many times you go. Honestly. I'm just thinking about the hunt that's all."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah, something's just out of my brains reach, it's frustrating."

They parked the car in the front of the motel room and walked in but they were barely in before Dean stopped dead and Sam walked into his back. Dean groaned and went down on one knee.
"Sorry Dean." Sam helped Dean up.
"Not your fault Sammy, totally me sorry. Hey, in any of the reports was there any hair found at the scene?"
Sam looked baffled, and then his mouth dropped open.
"Yeah there was, the guy found in the ditch." Sam grabbed his notes up. "And the woman in the forest."
"How many of the women were pregnant?" Sam's eyebrows went as high as they had ever been.
"I don't know, Dean. I'll have to look it up."

Sam went to work on his laptop while Dean grabbed clean clothes for a shower and took some 8 hour Tylenol from the first aid kit. Dean went to the bathroom and used the toilet before laying his things out for a shower. He was stripped down to his boxers and was wrapping his cast when there was a small knock at the door. Dean opened it and Sam stood there with his notebook open.
"Two of the women were confirmed as being pregnant the other two are unknown because there wasn't much left of them or it was never released."
"And, I'm guessing the women that were killed the stomach area was the main area that was attacked."
"How did you know that Dean?"
"Because I think it was a false beast that killed those people."
"A False beast? What the heck is that? I've never heard of it."
"I, luckily, have meet one once."

Dean closed his eyes in thought. "I think it goes something like –'False beasts are beings that can transform themselves to different shapes such as a woman, man, dog or whatever. They have a special craving for human fetuses' and attack pregnant women. Something about the hair as well and I think they are nomads. They dont have a den as such so it makes them hard to track. It's in the journal."
Dean opened his eyes and moved to the shower and turned it on. Sam closed the door and went to his dad's journal. He was sure he had never seen this in his dad's journal and he had looked at it backwards and forward in the last few months.

A few minutes later he opened the bathroom door and said to Dean.
"I can't see it Dean."
Sam looked up from the journal and saw Dean's bare back through the clear glass as he washed his hair one handed. Sam involuntarily stepped forward for a better look. Then realized what he was doing and a blush crept up his cheeks. Dean had his head under the water washing shampoo off with his back to him and couldn't see Sam staring at him. Sam stared at Deans lean back as he washed, he was starting to get hard just standing there.
'God what a teenager', he thought. When Dean reached for the soap it broke the spell and Sam cleared his throat and said again to Dean.
"I can't see it in here, Dean."
Dean turned his head and looked at Sam and then the journal Sam held.

He motioned Sam over. "Come here. I'm not gonna bite." Dean called when Sam stayed rooted to the spot.
Sam took a couple more steps so he was close to the shower and a very naked Dean. Dean turned around fully and stepped closer. Sam wanted to look down very badly. He hadn't seen Dean's dick since they were little kids in the bath together and Dean had seen his the day before yesterday. He kept his eyes up on the book avoiding looking at any part of Dean. It didn't help that the journal was close to Dean's smooth, wet chest. Sam could see the start of Dean stomach muscles behind the book, the muscles he had licked and sucked that very afternoon. He could even see a small bruise there, a bruise that he had made. Sam had to concentrate on his breathing but Dean didn't seem to notice or care. Dean looked at the open book for a minute.
"Oh shit."

Sam looked up at Dean's face. Dean's wet hair and face would have been extremely tempting if it weren't for the hurt look on his face.
"What Dean?"
Dean suddenly looked flustered. "Sorry Sammy wrong journal. It's in mine. I did that hunt without dad, when you were at school."
"Dad never hunted one of these?"
"Not that I know of. It's about 20 pages in if I remember." Dean was giving Sam silent permission to look in his journal, something he'd never done before.

Sam had known Dean had a journal of course. He had seen Dean write in it and refer to it from time to time but he had never even touched it before even when Dean was in hospital. Sam went to Dean's bag and burrowed down to the false bottom and pulled the journal out. It was a lot like their dads journal, the leather cover being a much darker colour and the fact it had a rubber band around it, being the obvious exterior differences. Sam opened the book with something close to awe and realized he was holding his breath and let it out. The inside cover was plain. No medals or photos like his dads, just a plain cover with a slit type pocket at the top. The inside cover did bulge a bit but Sam passed to the first page in the journal which was a plastic cover with a white sheet inside, plain white. Sam flicked it over to see a photo of himself as a six year old being held by Dean at ten years old. Dean had a big smile and Sam sat in Dean's lap smiling up at Dean. Tears sprang to Sam's eyes as he looked at the photo. It was obviously very special to Dean so front and center. It was big, much larger then a standard photo. It almost filled the plastic pocket of the journal. Sam could vaguely remember the photo being taken but not by who. Sam had very few pictures of himself as a child and none at all of Dean.

Sam went to open the book a few pages in to look for the entry about false beasts when his fingers brushed back over the inside front cover. He looked back where his fingers were and noticed a piece of clear plastic sticking out from under the slit in the cover. Sam pulled the plastic out and found himself looking at a small book of plastic covered photos. The first photo in the book was clearly him at around five months old being held by Dean. He flipped it over to see himself at around two years old. In the next one at around four holding a soccer ball, then one at six or seven sitting on the Impala, then another at ten in a soccer uniform running with the ball. In the next one he was with Dean, the Impalas front window behind them. Clearly Dean was holding the camera at arms length to take the photo. Sam remembered that one being taken. Sam's first day of high school. Sam didn't want to have the photo taken and Dean had tried to bribe him but the only way Sam would permit the photo being taken was if Dean was in the photo too. Then Sam was in school uniform at about 15 (the only school they had been to with a uniform) and then with a girl, high school prom, that was it.

Then his high school graduation photo and yet another photo of him this time sitting behind the wheel of the Impala, the first time he drove legally. Sam remembered Dean taking the photo but had never seen the photo itself before. The next photo brought another tear to Sam's eye, Dean and Sam sitting on the hood of the Impala with smiles on their faces. Dean had his arm around Sam and Stanford was in the background. Dean had sent him a copy of this photo and he still had it. He remembered Dean hassling a girl who was passing to take the photo. She thought he was trying to make a pass at her but he just wanted her to take a photo. The second last photo was not taken by Dean either, it was his second year Stanford ID photo and how Dean had it he would never know. The last photo was taken about a year ago when Dean had been playing with his new toy, a cell phone with a camera. Sam had thought the photo was a joke at the time but it actually came out pretty well, he was dressed in his 'FBI' suit. It surprised Sam that Dean had cared enough to have the photo printed at a photo shop so it would last.

Sam was surprised by the book of photos. He always knew Dean cared about him and he was finding new things to love about his brother all the time but he was finding things that Dean had been doing since he was younger, proving to Sam that Dean was more than a brother to him. Dean suddenly having a loving attitude toward his brother was not true, it had been there all along just carefully hidden. Sam hadn't known about the money or the fights he had with dad and now these photos. How much more was there that Dean had hidden away? Sam thought as his hand flicked through the photos again drinking them in feeling warm inside, feeling loved.

Sam walked back into the bathroom with Dean's journal; he had decided to say nothing about the photos, yet. Dean was dressed in boxers and T shirt and was packing his toothbrush and things away and hanging his towel up.
"Well you were right, but twenty five pages in." Sam grinned." And it says, it kills victims and sometimes eats part of them after smothering them with its shaggy hair and tearing them with its fangs, tucks or horns. They are difficult to track because of thier rarity and the hunting grounds being wide and varied. The only known way to kill the beast is by waiting or forcing it to turn into a dog and cutting the tail off with a silver knife. Yuk. I take it you did this?"
"Yeah, and it was yuk."
"So you up for it again?"
"Guess I'll have to be."
"Why did dad let you do this hunt alone? They look pretty dangerous."
"There was no information about them at the time just some mysterious deaths. I wanted to check it out and had a feeling it was the False beast legend. Dad thought I was nuts, so he left me to it."
"Why does it have to be a dog anyway?"
"Something about it being close to its natural form, I think."
"What's its natural form look like?"
"Don't know. Something dog like I guess."

Dean put his things away and looked over to Sam who had followed behind. He still had the journal open, he noticed.
"It's going to be a bitch to track though; they tend to cover up pretty well, you kinda have to catch them in the act."
"Damn."
"I know."
Sam went back to the laptop, to look up more information on the false beast, but there was less than what Dean had. By the time he got into bed with Dean he was almost asleep and had the bed well and truly warmed up, prompting Sam to check Dean's temperature again, this time with the thermometer, 103 degrees Fahrenheit flat. Damn.

Sam shook Dean fully awake "When did you last have Tylenol Dean?"
"Before my shower."
"Do you feel hot?"
"No cold. Why?"
"I think you're got a fever."
"That would explain the sweating and the shivering."
Sam could feel Dean shivering slightly.
"Have you had plenty to drink today?"
"Yeah lots. I was pretty thirsty."
"Okay. Well try to get some sleep, it might help."

Sam kissed Dean goodnight. He wanted to do a lot more with Dean after seeing him naked, at least from the back in the shower but didn't want to make Dean sicker so he wrapped him in his arms and went to sleep. He laced his hands in Dean's and his nose on the back of Dean's neck.

TBC

Thanks to all who have taken the time to review - we finally made to to the journal!