"Family meeting! Now!"
Sam pushed his textbook off his lap and onto the floor next to him. Did he hear that correctly?
Dean came in from outside, probably playing with the cars again. He was wondering the same thing.
The two made their way into the den and sat on opposite ends of the couch.
"Alright listen because I'm only gonna say this once: you two are the most stubborn, arrogant, overdramatic, emotional pain in the ass kids I have ever met and I love the both of you so much that for weeks I have been trying to get you to talk to him and him to talk to you and I got nada. And I can't take the closed doors locking each other out or the sneaking around the house to avoid the other one or the silence because God knows one word will have the two of ya tearing each other limb from limb. And I promised John that I would fix this mess before returning you two to him, so no one is gonna leave this room until we are all better. Kapishe?"
The two boys sat on the couch stunned.
"Well damn Bobby don't hold back," Dean said. Sam nodded in agreement.
"So, what's it gonna be?"
"I'm not talking to him," Sam said suddenly.
"Why not?"
"Cause."
"Cause why?"
"Cause… I hate him."
Dean was taken aback by the comment. He opened his mouth to say something but Bobby stopped him.
"You and I both know that's not true," Bobby clarified. "So why are you saying it?"
Sam crossed his arms and stared at the ground.
"Alrighty then. Dean?"
"Oh I'm not the one at fault here." Dean smirked. Sam scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, is that so?" Bobby sneered. Dean raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Tell me then, since you're so confidently cocky, do you honestly think that everything you have done lately has been the right thing?"
"What are you talking about? Everything I have done here has been in response to how the princess here acts."
"It is not!" Sam screamed.
"It is too!" Dean screamed back. "You start most of it with your snappy attitude!"
"I'm only snappy because you keep pissing me off!"
"Well I keep pissing you off because you keep pissing me off!"
Sam stood up ready to run out of the house screaming.
"Uh uh! Sit down." Bobby demanded, snapping his fingers and pointing to the spot where Sam was just sitting. "What part of no one is leaving this room went right over your head?"
Sam sat back down and twirled the strings on his hoodie.
"See?" Dean said. "We can't talk about this. Not when he wants to run out every five minutes when we're getting somewhere."
"You can talk too, ya know?"
Dean sighed and ran his hands over his face. Sam slouched further down the couch. He was so mad his jaw was clenched and his eyes kept watering up. Bobby leaned back in the chair he was sitting in and crossed his arms. This was going to be a long day.
"Can we talk?" Kelly asked nervously. She had found Dean lying on a bench behind the school during lunch. On one of the rare days Dean actually went to school nowadays.
"Sure," he said sitting up.
"I am so fucking sorry. And I know that that doesn't mean anything to you right now. I should have told you sooner about the pregnancy and I should have told you that I was going through with ending it. I didn't realize how much it would affect you; I thought it was just my problem."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your, um… bandages?"
Dean looked down at the gauze still wrapped around his wrists.
"Oh? OH! No Kelly, it was not at all like that!"
"It wasn't?"
"God no! I went out of town with my dad and we got into a car accident. I had a concussion and cuts everywhere and had to be in the hospital."
"Oh my god," Kelly said quietly trying to process everything.
"Hey, I'm all okay now," Dean said, taking her hands. "I have to wear the gauze until I can get the stitches out."
"So you didn't try to…"
"I promise."
Dean's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing. At this point, they had been sitting on that couch for an hour now.
"Hello?" Bobby asked answering the phone. "Sorry Kelly, Dean can't come to the phone right now… Yeah, he's grounded at the moment… Well that depends on how soon he and Sam can talk to each other… Okay I'll tell him. Bye bye now."
"Tell me what?" Dean asked.
"Nope. You talk to Sam, then you can call your girlfriend back and she can tell you herself."
Sam's head popped up.
"Wait, you two are back together?" he asked.
"It's complicated."
Sam bit his lip and smiled. He regretted it instantly and tried to hide it.
Dean saw the smile anyway.
"Yo shortcake!"
Sam stopped in his tracks. The one day he decides to cut through the quad to get to the library instead of going around the campus.
He turned around to see Shane and his friends.
"Time to cash in."
There had to be four of them at least starting to circle around Sam. Sam, who recently may have had a growth spurt but was still very much smaller than these guys.
"So… Who wants to go first?" Sam asked.
It all happened so fast. Sam was able to hold his own for a while until Shane took him out with two blows, one right after the other. Luckily students started crowding, which meant teachers started rushing. All of Shane and his groupies were hauled to the principal's office. Other students said Sam never touched any of them (they all hated Shane anyway) so he didn't get in trouble. He did however land in the nurse's office with a split lip and a black eye that was coming in.
"If you keep picking at that, it'll never heal." Dean said.
Sam blinked rapidly and snapped back to reality. He didn't realize that he had been touching the scab on his lip.
"I know."
Two hours had passed now. Dean was now leaning against one of Bobby's bookshelves flipping through ones he thought were decently interesting. Sam was lying on the floor with his feet against the wall.
After a couple of minutes, Sam got up and started to leave the room.
"Where ya going?" Bobby asked, running into him.
"I have to pee."
"Nope. No leaving this room."
Both boys shot Bobby a horrifying look.
"That seems like a bit much, Bobby, don't you think?" Dean asked.
"That's why it's an effective torture technique. You talk, then you can pee."
Both boys stood there confused.
"Alright then," Dean said, closing the book he was reading. "Simply because I'm not that cruel… Sam. I'm sorry I've been such a hardass lately. I know how upset you were about Brooke and I shouldn't have left you when you needed me. And I should have been helping you out with these bullies at school before they got the chance to jump you. And I definitely should have been more understanding about everything and I just wasn't. And I was trying to do Dad's tough love thing and it obviously didn't work and I am so sorry."
The boys stared at each other. Sam broke eye contact and looked out the window.
"That's it?" Dean asked. "You're just not going to say anything back?"
Sam went back to his spot on the floor.
"Fine!" Dean said, opening the book he had back up.
Four hours had passed.
Dean was lying on his back on the floor with his eyes closed. Sam was sitting in a chair bouncing his leg up and down quickly.
"Just apologize already." Dean begged.
"No."
"Sammy if I have to hear you squirm in that chair any longer because of how much you have to go I'm going to blow my brains out."
"I'm fine."
"Fine. You know, I think I heard on the weather forecast that it's supposed to rain this week. Like thunder, lightning, total downpour for like three days straight. I wonder if Bobby still has that drain outside our window. You know, the one where you can totally hear, like, every little rain drop-"
"OKAY I'M SORRY!" Sam said suddenly, jumping up from the chair. "I'M SORRY THAT I SAID YOU WERE LIKE DAD AND I'M SORRY THAT I TOOK ALL MY FEELINGS ABOUT BROOKE OUT ON YOU AND I'M SORRY I DIDN'T TELL YOU ABOUT SHANE SOONER AND I'M SORRY FOR LOCKING YOU OUT AND PUSHING YOU WHILE YOU WERE INJURED AND BEING A SHITTY BROTHER I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!"
Dean would normally be amazed at how fast all of that came pouring out of his mouth, but was too busy rolling around on the floor laughing. Sam jumped over him and ran out of the room down the hall and slammed the bathroom door shut.
"What the hell happened in here?" Bobby asked, coming in the room from the kitchen.
"Your stupid plan worked," Dean said, trying to regain control of himself. "I think we're all good now."
Bobby couldn't believe any of that worked. He had completely pulled that plan out of his ass.
Dean stood up and went down the hall to the bathroom. He stood outside the door waiting for Sam.
"That's not pervy," Sam said when he came out.
"Did you make it?" Dean teased.
Sam's face turned red from embarrassment.
"Hey, you know I don't think of you as a shitty brother, right?" Dean asked, changing the subject.
"When did I say that?"
"Um when you were trying not to piss your pants two minutes ago."
"Oh. I didn't mean that. I was just saying whatever I could to get out of there, you know?"
"I know. And you know?"
"I know."
"Come here."
Dean pulled Sam in for a hug. The first hug in months. Dean could no longer rest his chin on the top of Sam's head and Sam could no longer bury his face into Dean's chest. It was awkward but it felt good.
And it felt like the beginning of a new era.
someones-big-sister
