Two years. That was how long it had been since Sam went to Stanford. And like he promised, he called practically every week, either to Dean's cell or the Roadhouse.
Dean was heading to the school for one reason and one reason only. Sam had mentioned he was planning to marry his longtime girlfriend Jessica, and Dean wanted to meet her before Sam popped the question.
Well that and he needed a break from hunting or working at Bobby's salvage yard. Dean made most of his honest money helping Bobby fix cars in between hunts.
There was another reason Dean was heading to see Sam. He planned to make good on a promise he had made when they were kids, but never had the chance.
Mostly because Ellen was allergic to dogs.
(It was how she had found the two dogs Dean had tried to smuggle into the bar...she sneezed every time one came within five feet of her.)
Dean was, and always would be, an unrepentant prankster. There was one memorable moment when he unlocked his creature form (not to be confused with the animagus transformation) and he proceeded to scare the living crap out of his extended family.
He was very glad that his creature form was bullet proof. Getting bruises from being shot at was a small price to pay for the series of pranks he played his family. Particularly the fact he managed to catch his brother screaming like a little girl shortly after he mastered the transformation.
It was with unholy glee that Dean broke into his brother's apartment, saw the two of them cuddled up like a pair of love birds, and proceeded to replay Sam's shriek when he realized that the doll he had gotten Dean for his seventeenth birthday was in fact alive.
Since he didn't want the cops coming in on him, he had silenced the room beforehand.
The reaction was instant. Sam stumbled out of bed, causing a forgotten glass of water to fall on him and roll under the bed, and his girlfriend threw something at the device replaying Sam's reaction to Dean's prank.
It took Sam three seconds to realize what was going on, and another second before he started calling his brother every foul word he knew, no matter what the language.
Dean cackled.
"Dammit Dean! What the hell were you thinking?"
"I was thinking my baby brother's gotten soft and there was no way I was going to let you bring someone new into the family without meeting them properly first," snorted Dean. Left unspoken was the fact that Ellen and Jo would demand details the second he got back to the Roadhouse. Ash had already looked up Sam's girlfriend the second they had a full name, but there was nothing compared to actually meeting her.
(Ash was someone who had stumbled into the Roadhouse and had just clicked with Dean. He was a go-to guy for finding things on the internet that was behind government firewalls. They considered him a weird cousin, and he had accepted his role as a permanent research monkey without hesitation. So long as Ellen didn't kick him out, he would help the various hunters that came in for information.)
"Sam? Who is this?"
"...The cackling idiot is unfortunately my older brother Dean," said Sam finally.
"This is Dean. The man-whore. The one that for some reason is obsessed with the movie Lilo and Stitch," said Jessica deadpan.
"Hey! What lies have you been spreading?!" said Dean mock-angry.
"Dean, you've slept with more women than the number of Jo's secret Carpathian novel collection and you've seen that movie more times than you've listened to your so called music collection," said Sam flatly.
Jo, despite being raised a hunter, loved the Carpathian novels. Dean read them once for the smut, but it didn't really catch his interest. He did catch her reading the Twilight novels, and he had gleefully helped her burn them after she had finished the first book.
According to her, the one who wrote Twilight needed to learn what a good vampire-romance novel was. There was no excuse for that 'pile of hell hound-shit', to quote Jo.
"Seriously Dean, why are you here in the middle of the night? And why in god's name did you have to play that?" asked Sam with annoyance.
"Dude, I haven't pranked you for a full year and you actually have to ask that?"
Sam thought about that for a moment before his expression went into full bitch-face mode. Number four, if Dean remembered correctly.
"Damn you and damn that Trickster streak you have," said Sam in annoyance.
Sam was absolutely certain if Dean ever ran into the infamous Loki that the two would either try to out do each other or kill each other. It depended on how much the Trickster pissed Dean off before he realized his brother could give as good as he got.
After the prank involving Dean's creature form, Bobby had cursed up a blue streak in more languages than Dean had known Bobby could speak and swore to anyone in the know that Dean had to be a damn Trickster in training.
(Mort had admitted he was more than slightly impressed at the number of dead languages in Bobby's arsenal. Since Dean couldn't exactly explain why he knew Death and not some weird reaper that he happened to befriend, he just called the entity Mort. It seemed to stick, oddly enough and none of the family questioned his existence.)
"So he wasn't kidding about the obsession with that children's movie?" asked Jessica.
Dean made a face.
It was common knowledge among the family that once Dean had seen that movie he was instantly hooked, if only for the message that most of the kids and their parents in the theater seemed to miss so spectacularly.
Family was family, no matter whether you were blood related or not. Dean considered Bobby and Ellen his parents more than he ever had Mary and John, and they weren't blood related to him at all. It had gotten so bad that when Dean turned seventeen Sam had somehow managed to find a life-sized Stitch doll that was charmed to be practically indestructible from almost anything he was likely to encounter.
Dean had the doll stuck on the dashboard of the Impala, but he appreciated the sentiment.
The 'Prank', as it was known among the small family, was a result of Mort's rather twisted sense of humor and Dean's insatiable need to scare the hell out of people for a laugh.
Dean had complained about being unable to unlock his animal spirit (collectively known as the animal form in the animagus transformation) to Mort, so Death had told him about the other possibility...creature transformation. Creature transformation was much more dangerous, since if he had something like a dementor he could be trapped permanently in that form. Fortunately Mort knew how to at least see what it was without causing a transformation first.
The second Dean saw what his creature form was, he started to laugh. Rather evilly... it reminded Mort of some crossroad demons he knew.
A few months later Sam went into the Impala, not paying any mind to the worn Stitch doll on the dashboard...until it slowly did a full-on Exorcist move and then said in perfect English 'I am come for your soul Sam Winchester...'
Sam would deny it when Dean innocently asked later (despite the tape recorder under the seat recording the whole thing) but he screamed. Like a girl. Loudly at that.
It took Sam fifteen long minutes to get his heart rate down and another thirty to stop cursing Dean who was busy laughing his ass off for scaring the living hell out of him.
They then proceeded to pull the same prank on Ellen, Jo, and Bobby. Two of which shot Dean in his creature form for scaring them so bad. Jo had laughed her ass off when Dean replayed Sam's reaction, once she had calmed down.
Dean's creature form? The bizarrely cuddly-yet-freaky Stitch from his favorite movie.
Mort would admit to anyone who asked that he had a good laugh insuring Dean had that particular form. Dean certainly didn't care if he was a fictional character.
"Oh, and I came to make good on a promise that Ellen wouldn't let me complete," said Dean.
"Which... Oh no. No, no, no... Dean they don't allow pets here!" said Sam.
"Just meet him before you say no. We both know a few words in Latin and you could walk circles around anybody who might be able to see him... otherwise I might have to leave him at Bobby's and you know Baxter doesn't like new ones," said Dean.
Sam reluctantly followed Dean downstairs to where the Impala was parked.
Inside was a massive Saint Bernard, one that looked like it had several wounds that were recently healing.
"Where did you get such a huge dog?"
"Poor guy was part of this damn dog fighting rink I found by accident. I called the cops and they were fully planning to put him down just because he needed more healing than the pound was willing to pay for. I saw something in his eyes and I knew I was heading here anyway, so I figured I could give a paw up. Besides, I knew you were always a sucker for big dogs."
The dog whined, and Dean put his leash on him before he let him out. Sam winced when he saw clear evidence of scarring, but other than a few really nasty looking wounds the dog was still in relatively good health.
"What's his name?"
"Bear."
Bear the dog barked and Dean gently scratched his ears. The dog sat down without prompting.
"Dean, I really can't afford such a huge dog."
"I figured as much, but I figured you'd love to meet my new partner," joked Dean.
Sam bent down and said "Hey there Bear, I'm Sam."
Bear barked and wagged his tail.
"By the way, I think he's one-quarter hell hound. Not too sure though..."
Sam blinked.
"Are you being serious or just screwing with me?"
"Actually for once I'm not. Goblins said Bear had some sort of magical grandparent in his history, possibly hell hound and pretty recent too. He won't be able to use the full extent of his ancestor's powers, but he might be able to turn invisible if he has that ability."
"How are you planning to sneak him into the motels you stay in though?"
Dean smirked.
"I had the goblins give me an enchanted collar. It'll let me sneak Bear in anywhere so long as I can keep the magic up, and he's already house broken. Bear, left paw," said Dean.
The dog lifted it's left front paw and Sam shook it. This dog was definitely well trained if it could understand that trick. Which begged the question as to why it had been in a dog-fighting rink.
Dean was about to leave the area when he got a call.
It was from John's number, and he bit back a scowl. Bear picked up on his anger and started growling.
"Easy boy. If we run into him I might let you have a bite out of him," said Dean scratching the dog's massive ear.
Dean had learned by din of experience that Bear was a total bed-hog if he could get away with it. On the other hand, it was clear the massive hound was very protective of his new owner. Dean wondered who had trained him, and why he had ended up in that awful place when he was so loveable.
Dean listened to the message, and already he knew something was up.
Why the hell had John called him when they barely acknowledged their previous relationship as father and son after Dean had 'paid' John for the car and told him to get lost? Listening to the EVP, Dean realized he had a decision to make.
He could either finish the hunt and try to figure out what the hell caused his estranged birth father to call him when John knew for a fact he hated his guts, or he could go back to Bobby's and hope Baxter didn't try to pick a fight with Bear.
He flipped a coin and it landed on heads. Sighing, he debated on whether to bring Sam in...then realized he might have to anyway because if this really was a ghost he would need back up. Besides, it would keep Sam in shape as a hunter.
"I don't like this," said Sam flatly.
"And you think I do?" said Dean.
"I mean it Dean. We haven't spoken to John in all these years and suddenly he thinks calling you is worth the trouble of dealing with the fact we pretty much cut him out of our lives for a reason? And there's the fact I have that interview on Monday," bitched Sam.
"Look at it this way. If he's still there and just asking for some help, then we can scare the shit out of the bastard good by having Stitch show up," said Dean brightly.
Suddenly Sam's bitch fest turned evil. 'Stitch', which was the name Dean had unimaginatively called his creature form, had scared everyone who was close to the brothers the first time they found out Dean could change his form and a few times after when Dean started crawling on the ceiling and doing a full-on exorcist prank, despite the crick in his neck he always got from that move.
Bobby damn near had a heart attack when Stitch had lifted up a car with one 'arm' and didn't break a sweat.
So the idea of scaring the shit out of John Winchester just to get a small taste of revenge for all the crap he put them through as children appealed to them greatly. Especially when there wasn't a chance in hell he could actually kill Dean when he was in creature mode.
"What about Bear?"
"I would let him bite John in the ass for a laugh, but I don't think we want to deal with him somehow acquiring a taste for human blood," deadpanned Dean.
"So...lock him up in the car?"
"Damn straight!"