I could have reminded Coyote that Sam and I had survived on our winnings from pool and poker hustling for years but why ruin the fun? She'd legitimately won a few times but I hadn't been being all that serious about it winning those games. If it came down to an actual game of strip poker where I wanted to win, everyone but Sam and I would be stark naked by the end of it. We'd worked out a system to kick serious ass in poker years ago. It very rarely failed.
About two hours later everyone had finished stuffing their faces and there was a rather large dent in pretty much everything we'd prepared. Which was good because Sam hadn't been wrong, I'd put on a pound or two since moving in with Coyote which was ironic since I was eating healthier. Course I wasn't getting into life or death situations every other day either. Everyone was sprawled out in the living room, nursing whatever drinks they had and groaning about how much they ate. Sam had been smiling and laughing the whole time, having a blast and was probably the most relaxed I'd seen him in years. I wanted to show him the car before the whole pie, cake and present thing started so he wouldn't get suspicious of me taking him to the garage. Coyote and I had quietly told the rest of the group what was happening so they didn't tag along when I took him out to look at it, that needed to be a he and I thing.
"Sam, I want to show you something I've been working on," I said when there was break in his and Dig's conversation.
"Sure."
We headed into the garage, I flicked on the light and let him get ahead of me so I could snag the keys for it off the pegboard I'd put up.
As soon as he saw her he whistled, "Damn, she's sweet. What year?"
"Sixty nine, brand new everything pretty much though. 350, V8, tricked out suspension, all that."
He lightly ran his hand along the roof and her lines as he walked around her. "Really? This for another hunter? Guess they've got some serious needs."
"Yeah, he was pretty specific," I popped open the trunk and opened the weapons box so he could see it and the Devil's trap painted on the trunk's lid. "It's kind of a shallow trunk though so I added another box under the back seats. It's got demon warding etched into the roof underneath the upholstery too."
He finished his slow walk around her, nodding the whole time. I could tell he liked what he saw. Who wouldn't?
"Whoever is getting this had better be paying you top dollar. You put a ton of work into this one. I thought the rebuild you did on Baby was the best thing I'd ever see you do. This almost tops it."
"Thanks. Actually I'm not making a penny off of her."
That got his attention off the car, "What? Why?"
"Because the guy who's getting her has saved my life more times than I can count, that's why." I tossed the keys to him, he just barely caught them before they hit the hood of the car, which was a good thing. If he'd let those keys scratch the paint I'd have had to hit him, which isn't very birthday party like.
Once he caught the keys he stepped back, probably because he'd seen the look on my face when I thought the keys were going to hit her. "She's for me?" I think this had floored him even more than the party itself.
"You're old enough to have your own wheels now. I ain't paying for any speeding tickets though."
"Dean, seriously. She's mine?"
"Yes Sam, I even had Felicity hack into the DMV and put your name on the title. At least for now. We can change it later if you want. Just wanted it to be official for a little while anyway."
"I, this whole day, now the car. Why?" He started looking worried, "I mean I'm damn grateful, really, but what's going on."
I sighed and leaned against the worktable, "It's kind of sad that our history is so screwy that a birthday party and a custom car makes us think someone's dying or in trouble."
The worry left his face, "Okay, so nothing bad brought this on?"
"No. I'm fine, so's Coyote. Promise."
Now he just looked confused.
"I remember, barely, but I do when Mom and Dad found out Mom was pregnant with you. A bunch of her friends came over for a baby shower, it was big party, everyone was having a blast. Then when they brought you home from the hospital people came over for days to congratulate them, help Mom out, all that. I remember getting some kick ass toys on my fourth birthday too. Then everything went to hell, and you never got to have any of that. Not once. Every party we had after Mom died, which wasn't that many, no matter how hard Dad or Bobby tried, Mom's death, Azazel, hunting all that got in the way."
I'd thought a lot about what I was going to say when I gave him the keys, trying to prep for all the stuff it would bring up but it still hit pretty hard. Both of us were choking up at this point.
"That Christmas before I went to Hell. I know that was the last thing you wanted to do, celebrate and try to be happy but you did it anyway. You've done that a lot over the years, try to find ways to be happy, have hope and a lot of times I shot you down for it. You never gave up though. Back then I wasn't able to really appreciate that. After I moved in here and finding out what Azazel did to me, I've been able to look at things a lot differently. I wanted to try to give you what you never got to have but kept fighting for. Give you what Dad couldn't, what I couldn't. Now I can, so I did."
He took a quick swipe at his eyes, he'd started tearing up a bit, then sniffed. "So many feels."
"What?"
He chuckled, "It's what the kids are saying these days. Since I'm all old and shit now I get to say stuff like, "it's what the kids are saying." "
"Oh, okay. Us mostly dead people are just completely lost with all that new slangy stuff."
We just stared at each other for a minute. "How about we take her out?" I suggested.
That got a huge smile on his face in no time flat, "Hell yeah!"
"You can plug your douchey Ipod in her too. She's got an aux jack."
"You mean I won't have to hit up thrift stores for tapes? Nice."
"Shut up."
I pulled my phone out and texted Coyote we'd be taking off for a few. She sent back "Have fun. We're too stuffed to eat dessert till tomorrow anyway. :) " I opened the garage door and got in the passenger seat, he slid into the other side, turned her on and revved the engine.
"Oh man."
"Nice, right?"
He laughed, "Oh yeah."
Her tires smoked and we shot out of there like a bat out of hell. "You fucking better not be driving Baby like this! Only I smoke her tires."
The look he gave me wasn't even a good fake innocent look, "Course not."
"Shit. Things I didn't need to know."
"Shut up and hang on."
We got some seriously jealous looks from the neighbors as we flew by on our way out of town. There's not a lot of curves on the main road out of the Reservation but I'd found one that had a few decent ones. You can't get a good feel on a car unless you put it through all it's paces. "Hey, about eight miles up, turn left." I told him, "Road with some decent curves."
"Got it."
He'd done some slight turns of the wheel left and right, she responded almost before you moved the wheel. I hadn't made it racing suspension tight but close enough.
"That's going to take a bit to get used to," he said, "She handles better than Baby."
"Yeah. I'll need to fix that, Baby's due for some upgrades.
He'd started getting over the shock of the car, I saw his brain kicking into gear. "Why'd you change your mind about not wanting her? That had to be part of this right?"
"I don't have a great answer for that. It's weird. The last time you came by and put it out there that I was done hunting I started missing her. Not the job, her. It's like as soon as I accepted I was done I wasn't so worried about her pulling me back in or something, sounds stupid I know."
"Not at all. I know she's part of the family but you're the one that's always fought to keep her together, pretty symbolic actually."
"Oh man, I can't get all sappy on your first ride in your new car," I was the one wiping my eyes now.
"Oh right, sorry. No chick flick moments."
"Exactly, two guys in a sweet ass car. No crying allowed. Turn left."
He slowed down, busted out laughing and turned.
"First two are pretty close to hairpin, the rest aren't too tight. Don't oversteer, I almost did when I first took her out."
"Got it."
He handled her like he'd been driving her for years. I knew they'd be a good fit. There's just some cars that you mesh with as soon as you get into them, there's no learning curve on the handling, nothing. You just know how they'll move. This was his. I'm sure that since he knew it was his he was a bit more relaxed. He'd always been careful with Baby, knowing what she meant to me. He'd take care of this one, but not because he was worried about hurting my feelings, but because he'd already fallen for her. I settled back in the seat and watched him really get into the curves.
"Something's wrong," he said as he got through the last corner and hit a straight away.
"What?"
"No tunes." He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Plug it into the jack."
"Okay. What do you want to listen to?"
He had this weird little grin on his face, "You'll know it when you see it."
I scrolled to his music and hit the button, it was the top list on the menu, "Good Times With Dean." I opened it up and it had just about every single song I'd played over and over for years. I didn't say a word, just dug out the aux cable from the glove box, plugged it in and hit play. Renegade by Styx kicked on and I had to laugh. "Wouldn't say that was a good time although we did pull one over on an entire FBI team."
"Exactly, good times."
"Yeah, good times."
We went a few more miles down the road, found a good place to turn around and headed back. We didn't say much, just enjoyed the drive. I had a lot of stuff going on inside my head, I'd been so focused on getting the car done and doing the party I hadn't really had a chance to think about anything else. Now that he had his own car and I had Baby back I could physcially see my life as a hunter actually ending. It wasn't just this random thought or wish. Sam was set, I was set and there wasn't anything calling me back to that life. I wasn't sure if I was happy or sad about it. Guess that's why they call shit like this bittersweet. Sam, as usual, caught the mood shift in the car. Hard not to I guess.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just.."
He was feeling the same thing it seemed, "I know. Dude, I'm happy for you, I am but I'm but not going to lie, I miss you out here sometimes."
"Same here. I don't miss the job, but it was never just about the job."
"Yeah."
We were pulling up to the house, he parked in front of Baby and I had an idea. "Hey, toss me Baby's keys real quick."
He chucked them at me, I caught them and pulled open the driver's side backseat door. It was still there, in the ashtray; the little green guy that I'd made a point to stick back in that damn ashtray every time Baby had been totaled and I'd fixed her. I was hoping he hadn't gone and glued it in or something. I reached in, pulled it out, shut the door and walked back to him.
"Here. You'll need to find a new place for him, no ashtrays in the backseat, sorry."
He took it then met my eyes and that did it. I held him as tight as I could, "Happy Birthday little brother." He didn't reply, but then he didn't need to. The strength of his hug said everything.