The Great Gumball Affair

By: Maygin

Summary: Dean and Sam head south to deal with a thousand year old legend that no one will touch… perhaps because they're too busy laughing at it?

The Blah-Blah Section: Alright ya'll – I am deeply apologetic that you guys had to wait like THREE WEEKS for this final chapter; but I REFUSE to update stories while the FFN alerts are down. Because you never know if your alerts will just back up and send when they come back up or what. And I know a LOT of you are like me and don't even check the updates section very often, you just wait for the alerts and yeah I'm totally whining but I can do that because it was my birthday yesterday therefore I have every right to be a little unreasonable…… just remember you used to love me. Anywho, this may not have been worth the wait, but it's the finale all the same. Thank you kindly guys for all the reviews and for reading it! I hope you got as much a kick outta it as I did!

Epilogue

"We're gonna stay on this road until we hit Interstate thirty-seven."

"Going?"

"West," Sam answered, folding back a piece of the map to better situate it on his lap. The sun was still shining brightly around the vast highway before them; the quiet sound of the radio filling their silences. "Any reason why you wanted to see the Alamo?" he asked without taking his eyes off the map.

Dean shrugged. "It's a historical landmark, why the hell not?"

"Okay," Sam conceded, lifting the other tourist brochures his brother had grabbed from the last gas station they'd stopped at. He started leafing through them, "What about these other places?"

"What about em?"

Sam turned his wrist to make the brochure visible to his brother with a flat look, "You do realize the Forbidden Gardens is a not a strip joint right?"

Dean glanced at the brochure his brother was holding; just now seeing the picture of a boring courtyard littered with Chinese statues. His eyes bounced to his brother and back to the road. "I like plants," he murmured awkwardly.

Sam snorted and held up another brochure. Dean glanced at it and then broke into a smile.

"Oh yeah," he chuckled, "We gotta go there."

"Uncertain?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Come on," Dean's smirk bounced back and forth between the road and his sibling, "You gotta wonder."

"Not really," Sam objected good naturedly flipping open the brochure, "I mean – who names a town Uncertain? What the hell were they uncertain about?"

Dean grinned, knowing his little brother was hooked despite his will as he buried his face in the leaflet; no doubt sucking it dry of any and all details and facts it offered. "And you know there's this house in Houston we gotta see… it's made entirely out of beer cans." He glanced at his brother to see if he was paying attention; he wasn't. "Hey, Sam – I'm talking to you here-"

"Shut-up for a second," Sam reached forward, turning up the volume on the radio.

"-right Diane. All across the nation, citizens are reporting fires outside their homes, their schools, their workplaces… it seems the fires are localized however to, and this is the strange part – the Liquidambar Styraciflua's… more commonly known as – the Gumball Tree."

Dean slowed the car to a stop in the middle of the barren road, both boys attention fixed solely on the radio.

"The first sighting was reported at nine-fifteen this morning by a young, stay at home mom in Columbus, Ohio. 'I thought I smelled smoke so I looked outside and our tree was completely covered in flames. So I called the fire department and got the kids outta the house.' Now, amazingly enough, none of the reported fires have spread beyond the trees themselves. Local Fire Chief, Ben Cowlings, stated he is 'as clueless as the next'. Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, assured the press earlier today that despite public fears, this is not a terrorist attack. Chertoff went on to explain the tree fires were too numerous and random across the nation to have any significance. Not to mention no real damage, other than the loss of the tree's themselves have been reported. We'll hopefully have more to report for you in the next hour including the latest conspiracy theories on what is now being referred to as, The Great Gumball Affair. Back to you Diane."

Dean and Sam silently continued to sit staring at the radio as some clever radio jockey started playing 'We Didn't Start The Fire'. They both slowly turned to look at each other with varying degrees of shock and guilt… one simple message clearly being conveyed between them – oh shit.

Sam slowly reached forward to switch off the radio; as if fearful it would bite him. He swallowed a lump in his throat and then joined Dean in stupidly staring out the windshield at the empty road before them.

"Didn't see that one coming," Dean awkwardly commented.

"We just decimated half the Gumball Tree population," Sam said with quiet awe, his eyes never leaving the long stretch of barren road. "We're like… whale killers."

Dean tilted his head in consideration, "Could be worse."

Sam's head whipped around with an incredulous look. "How could it be worse Dean? Every gumball tree across America that spawned from the Chale seed-line in the last thousand years just went up in flames."

"At least it's just the trees… the fires aren't spreading."

Sam blinked at his brother, a look of numb shock still on his face. "We're going to hell."

"No one will get blowed up anymore," Dean added with a nervous smirk.

Sam turned his dumbfounded gaze back toward the endless road. "We caused a national disturbance," he said softly.

Dean silently nodded in agreement. A moment later he tilted his head with a smirk. "I can't wait to see the look on Bobby's face when we tell him."

Sam again turned toward his brother, his dazed expression slowly morphing into a grin, followed shortly there after by a soft laugh. Dean found himself chuckling along with him before he let his foot off the brake and started them on their way again. Feeling much lighter, he reached forward and flipped the radio back on, catching the tail end of the same song which only made them laugh more.

"Hey Dean?"

"Yeah?"

Sam glanced down at his bandaged hands with a curious grin. "You think Grannie Bee would've been pissed at us… like, for real?"

"Nah," Dean said after a moment of consideration, "I think she would've laughed her head off and then made a feast of it."

"Yeah," Sam snorted, turning a soft smile to the passing scenery.

"Hey Sam?" Dean said a few seconds later.

"Yeah?"

"Next time… I'm picking the case."

Sam laughed. "Deal."

THE END

(Short and Sweet. Well, I hope it was sweet anyways. Thank you again guys and sorry for the long wait!! This case is closed! MWA : )