Hi, everyone, I'm back! Okay, so I got 9 reviews for this chapter. But I also got a review for chapter three, and one for chapter four. But since that's still technically ten, I'm here with another chapter! And it's even early, since I got the tenth review today and I said I'd update the day AFTER I got my tenth review. But lucky you, you get it early! w00t. lol.
Thank you everyone who reviewed! You all are the best!
And no, I still don't own Supernatural. After all this time! Nothing has changed.
The next morning, no one seemed to notice that Dean was only going for a plain piece of toast for breakfast. The reason no one noticed his lack of appetite was because Sam, the ever-observant brother, was packing their stuff away in the Impala, and wasn't around.
Sam did come back inside, and nodded to him. "Okay, we're all set." He then turned to Missouri. "Thanks for letting us stay here."
Missouri smiled. "I don't mind, honey. Just promise to come on back."
"We will," Sam agreed.
Dean beckoned to Sam. "Come on, let's go." And without waiting for an answer, he quietly strode outside. Sam took advantage of his long legs and easily caught up with his brother, staying a step or two behind him.
The brothers were about halfway to the car when they were stopped by their father's voice.
"Wait up!" John walked over to the boys. "Good luck." He clapped a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Going to miss having you around to watch my back, Sammy."
Sam smiled. "Thanks, Dad."
John turned to Dean. "Dean, I need to talk with you."
Dean nodded. He knew what this was about. "Sam, wait for me in the car."
Before Sam could argue, John shot him a warning look. And as much as he didn't like it, Sam turned away and walked towards the car, but intending to keep an eye on the other two.
John waiting until he saw Sam get into the car and shut the door before he demanded attention from Dean. "Dean… Just tell me why you left."
"I don't know, Dad…," Dean replied carefully, shivering slightly in the cold winter air. "I guess the last hunt just left me winded, or something…" It was a response he had thought about a little—it was something that was supposed to be believed, and yet it still sounded so stupid. There were a million other answers that would have been better…
John shook his head in disbelief. "Fine, don't tell me why. Just don't ever do it again. I just don't get it. You know how important protecting Sam is. We know now that the demon is after him. If something were to happen to him…" He shook his head. "You understand?"
"Yeah, I do," Dean mumbled, looking to the ground.
"Dean, look at me!" John ordered.
Dean did as he was told, standing more firm this time.
"This is important! Sam must be protected!" John said angrily, jabbing a finger at Dean's chest. "Promise me you'll keep him safe!"
"I promise, sir. Nothing's going to happen to him while I'm there," Dean replied, evenly.
John was silent for a long time.
Dean was confused for a second. Didn't Dad believe him? "I promise," he repeated, sounding desperate. "I won't let anything hurt him! I promise!"
John's expression didn't change. "Good. You take care of him now. I'll talk to you boys soon." And with that, he turned and went back inside.
Dean rubbed the back of his neck in irritation. He really had felt like yelling just then.
"You know how important protecting Sam is. We know now that the demon is after him. If something were to happen to him… You understand?"
Of course I understand! He wanted to yell. Of course I know protecting Sam is the most important thing in the world! I know that it's my job! I know I shouldn't have run and left him unprotected! And you should know that I would die before I let something happen to him!
He was glad he hadn't yelled, though. Getting into an argument with Dad was never a smart thing. And he never wanted Sam to feel the same way he always had when Sam and Dad were fighting.
Dean exhaled, before walking over to the car, opening the door and climbing in. He sat there for a moment, thinking hard.
"What'd he tell you?" Sam asked.
Dean let out an amused breath and gave Sam a half-smile. "He, uh, said to be careful, and that he loved us," he said sarcastically.
Sam looked away. It definitely didn't look like their father was saying anything nice to Dean, and that only made him worry. "What did he really say?"
Dean raised his eyebrows. "Fine, he said he loved you." He shrugged. "Same difference, right?"
Sam shot him a look. "No, really. What did he say?"
"Nothing really," Dean muttered, starting up the car and pulling out of the driveway.
"It looked important," Sam remarked.
"It's not really anything that you need to know, Sammy."
Sam frowned. It seemed to him that he didn't need to know anything. "If he said something bad to you…"
Dean forced a smile for him. "Nah, it's not like that. He's only worried about you."
Sam froze for a moment. "So he said—wait, no, he ordered—you to keep me safe, didn't he? You know, I get him wanting me to be safe and all, but he doesn't have to yell at you to make sure I don't get hurt."
Dean shrugged again. "Yeah, well, it's nothing new. I know I have to protect you… I've known for twenty-three years."
Sam glanced at him for a moment, looking hurt.
Dean's eyes widened in confusion. How could Sam give him that face when he only said that he'd protect him? What was so wrong with that?
Sam looked down. "Dean… You spend so much time looking after me or hunting, you barely have time for yourself." Sam paused when he saw his brother's that's a load of crap look. "I guess I'm just saying that I kind of feel guilty. If it wasn't for me, you'd… I mean, you wouldn't be hunting, you wouldn't be looking after me. You'd have a life."
"Is that your nice way of saying, 'get a life, Dean'?" Dean questioned with a smirk.
Sam shook his head. "No, man. It's my way of saying that I can protect myself. Don't worry about me."
Dean's smirk disappeared, and he suddenly found that he definitely should be watching the road and not the changes on his brother's face. "Sorry, I forgot," he said, easily faking his 'normal' tone of voice. "I know you don't need me to protect you anymore." He gave a half-smile. "Sam, man, I must be getting old. I'm already beginning to lose my memory."
Sam eyebrows creased, picking up on what Dean was thinking about. "There's just no hope for you, is there?"
Dean gave him a quick, vague look before staring back at the road.
"'Cause I must have told you a million times—the demon was lying when it said that we didn't need you. Would you really believe it over me?"
"Do you even have to ask?"
Sam smiled in relief.
"Of course I would believe it over you."
Sam's mouth fell open as he gaped at his brother, his heart tearing out as he realized how much this had—
Dean frowned at Sam's expression. "Sam, dude, I'm joking. You weren't supposed to believe that."
Sam glared and punched his brother in the arm, hard. "You're a real jerk, you know that?!"
Dean mirrored Sam's glare. "Sam, you idiot! Don't hit me when I'm driving! That hurt, y'know? I was only kidding…!"
"Don't joke about things like that!" Sam reprimanded. "That's really sick!"
Dean rubbed his arm. "Fine, fine, I won't! Jesus, Sammy, you're so sensitive!"
Sam folded his arms across his chest and kept an angry silence. "Friggin' jerk."
Dean shook his head to himself and popped in a cassette tape, hoping that the music would at least drown out the angry aura that Sam was shooting out. He cranked up the volume and closed his eyes for a moment when the notes began to sound from the speakers. Unfortunately for him, he could only listen to his music for a minute or two in peace before Sam irritably cut in.
"Do you have to listen to it so loud?" he asked. "I'm surprised your ears don't bleed. Or that you haven't been arrested for disturbing the peace."
"Dude, you're the only one disturbing the peace right now," Dean muttered. He almost forgot that now that Sam was with him, there was a volume limit again. He turned it down to 'Sammy level' without another word, and went back to driving.
"Did you find anything that needs to be killed?" Dean asked tightly as the song ended. The moment Sam had learned that they would be leaving, he had been glued to the laptop.
Sam shook his head. "No, nothing recent. I searched for the internet for hours, but I couldn't find anything that sounded like our kind of job."
"Fine. Then the next stop is a motel."
That night, Sam lay in the motel bed, arms cradling his head. He stared at the ceiling blankly. It was late, he knew he should be sleeping. He could hear Dean's restless movements in the other bed, and knew his brother was having trouble as well. Which was strange, since Dean usually just fell into bed and grabbed what sleep he could, not budging until the next morning—or afternoon.
He also got the feeling that things between him and his brother weren't…weren't quite right. Sam wasn't sure what was wrong—Dean like to hide things, that Sam knew for sure—but he was sure he would figure it out soon enough.
When Sam awoke the next morning, he wasn't surprised to find Dean still sleeping. He yawned, and stretched to relieve his body of its tired aches.
He took a quick shower, dressed, and then realized there wasn't anything for breakfast. Sam had noticed earlier that there was a small convenience store just down the street, so he decided to go there and pick some up.
He scribbled Dean a note, knowing his brother wouldn't like it if he just disappeared—especially after the Bender incident.
Be back soon, he promised to his sleeping brother, before slipping out the door.
Dean cracked open his eyes, ignoring the urge to close them again. The sunlight that was streaming through the window seemed to burn at his eyes, and he put a hand up to block it out. He slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes. Last night really sucked. He didn't know how long he stayed up, wide awake. All he wanted to do was sleep, and even something as simple as that wouldn't be granted to him.
"So you finally decided to get up, huh?"
Dean turned to Sam's voice, and saw his brother chewing on what appeared to be a bagel.
Sam saw him eyeing his food, and took another bagel out of a bag. "Want one? They're good."
Dean shook his head.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Of course not. That's not unhealthy enough for you." Sam dug out something else, and tossed it in his brother's direction.
Dean snatched it from the air. It was a familiar yellow bag of Peanut M&Ms. As much as he loved them, he really didn't feel like eating them at the moment. He had eaten them so much over the past few months. Why? Because all he needed to do was pick them up and eat them in the car. He didn't have to waste his time sitting down at a diner or something. But right now, just looking at them made him feel like he was wasting time. Maybe it was because he had been on overdrive those five months. He definitely had a lot less patience…
He threw the bag back at his brother. "I'm not hungry."
Sam frowned. "Yeah, right. You barely ate yesterday. You always eat a lot."
"I told you, I had a big breakfast yesterday," Dean told him. "I'm just not hungry right now. I just woke up, man."
"Fine… But don't you come whining to me when you start getting hungry."
"Dude, I don't do whining," Dean protested.
Sam shrugged and flipped open the laptop. "Right…"
Dean shook his head, standing up and trudging into the bathroom. Sam soon heard the shower water running.
It was only a half an hour later when Dean's cell phone began to ring. Dean came out of the bathroom, fully clothed, to Sam's relief, and picked up the phone, flipping it open and pressing it to his ear.
"Hello?" After a minute, Dean nodded. "Yeah, sure, how could I forget?" There was a long pause, where Dean just listened carefully. He then nodded again. "Okay, okay, don't worry about it. My brother and I…" He trailed off for a second. "Yeah, my brother. We'll be there tomorrow, okay? ……Uh-huh, no problem. Bye." And he hung up.
"Who was that?" Sam asked.
Dean shoved some of his things into his duffel bag. "Switchburg, Virginia. A few weeks ago, a girl was murdered. Apparently, the girl looked like he had been literally ripped to shreds." He motioned for Sam to get up. "Well, come on, I said we'd be there by tomorrow, didn't I? We gotta move it."
Sam began to pack up as well. "Yeah, okay, but who was it that called?"
"Patricia Wilson. I helped her out with something two or three months ago," Dean replied, not sounding like he wanted to go into the details.
Sam ignored Dean's tone. "So…a woman?"
Dean glared. "It's not like that, Sam. She was married before the thing I hunted there killed her husband." He slung his bag over his shoulder. "Check us out, will yah?" Before waiting for a response, Dean stepped out.
Yeah, just to make this clear, this lady that they're going to be meeting... well, for once, Dean tells the truth and it's NOT anything lovey dovey or anything. lol. no way in hell. lol. no pairings for the boys in this story. whooo
How about we do the same thing as last time? ten reviews, and an update the next day? twenty gets you two updates. WAIT WAIT WAIT, I'm getting way ahead of myself. Lol. Ten gets you an update the following day. Otherwise, I'll just update sometime within a week.
Ah, but I'm eternally happy. 59 people have this story on story alert! (that's a record for me, haha) I think it's amazing that 59 people get an email every time I update. And this story is even in a C2 archive. (when did that happen??) It's joined my other Supernatural story, which is in the same archive... cool. lol
Sooo, wannanother chappie? there's a really cute purplish button down there, and his name is Popo. (I don't know why, but his name is Popo now. He's the leave a review button, and he lives to be clicked on)