AN: This one's a little out of my norm, but was told I should go for it anyway. Thanks as usual to Sammygirl1967, if not for her this would not be posted... Thanks!
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Kripke's, the CW, or Warner Bros. however should they ever like to share, I'm all ears... or eyes... whatever!
Dean couldn't believe it, he had actually done it, he had made them think he was something he wasn't and there was no going back now. Not that he had a place to go anymore anyway. He'd hashed that out with his dad weeks ago, told his little brother not to worry and walked away. Sure, his heart was breaking, but it was really for the best. Without him around, then dad would have to change, would have to be the real father that Sammy needed, not the hard ass that he'd become. Yes, this was definitely for the best. Three weeks ago he was the sixteen year old son of John Winchester; today he was the eighteen year old Private Dean Winchester, Marine.
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"Dean, DEAN! WAKE UP!" he heard someone yelling, but all he really wanted to do was sleep. They had been tracking a Rawhead for most of the night, and the night before that, and the night before… jeez, when was the last time he got a decent night's sleep? Feeling his little brother shake his shoulder, Dean cracked open one eye to look blearily at the excited face above him. "Hmmm?" he mumbled, trying to make the point that it was way too early to get up.
"Dean, hurry up! You have to open you're present before Dad wakes up." Sammy whispered, trying to get his big brother to open his present. "Deeeeannn!"
'Present?What the…?' looking up at his brother, Dean wanted to put the pieces together, but it was… 3:45 am? "Christ, Sammy! What the hell? I'm trying to sleep here…" he whispered harshly, but stopped short when he saw the look on Sammy's face and the package that was wrapped in comic book pages in his hands. 'Ok, Sammy up before Dad with a wrapped present…ah, now it makes sense.'
Sitting up and making room for his brother to sit by him, Dean listened to make sure that there was no movement from the other room. When he felt that the coast was clear, he smiled and held out his hands for his gift. He couldn't help but smile when his little brother started jumping up and down on the bed as he opened his present. He knew that he would have to be quick since he knew that their dad would be up in less than fifteen minutes. He noticed that it was Sammy's Batman comic book that had been sacrificed, and he didn't know if he was honored, or saddened by the gesture; but he knew that his Sammy would do anything to make him happy. Looking up at his brother, he had no idea what was in the box, and wondered how the other boy had pulled this off. Shaking his head, he knew he was wasting time and took a deep breath and opened the box, not fully understanding what he was seeing.
"Happy 16th Birthday, Dean!" Sammy said happily as he watched his big brother look at the cardboard shoe box full of brand new tapes of all his favorite groups.
Anything that Dean was going to say was cut short with the sound of movement in the next room. Eyes wide, they both looked at each other before Sammy jumped back to his own bed and threw the blanket over his head just as the door swung open.
"Get up! You have fifteen minutes to get ready for breakfast – move it!"
As they watched their Dad walk out of the room, Dean looked over at his eleven year old little brother and snarked, "Fifteen minutes today Sammy, see it's a great birthday already!"
Dean woke listening to the night around him, he knew that he should call Pastor Jim and check to see if he had heard from his family yet, but he knew that Jim would find a way to let him know as soon as he'd heard anything. Paranoid, that's what he was; it was just a case of extreme paranoia that had him wondering where they were and what they were hunting; or if they were even…
Shaking his head to clear his head of those disturbing images, he prepared himself for what he knew was about to happen. Not even a minute later, the lights came on and the shouting started. Yep, today was a bright new day in boot camp.
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"Are you sure you haven't heard from them Jim? What about Bobby, or Caleb… oh, Joshua should know since Dad buys ammo from him." Dean said as he was waving someone away from the phone.
Jim's voice came over the line and sounded as sad as Dean felt about the subject. "I'm sorry Dean, but as I've told you before, no one has seen them since they left here. We've all heard rumors of where they were but…" Jim's voice drifted a moment, and Dean thought that the connection had been dropped.
"Jim? Jim! Hey, you still with me?"
"Yes Dean, I'm sorry son, but I just got the morning mail and …"
Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing, he was worried that his dad and little brother were dead, and the priest was worried about mail? Unbelievable!
"Dean, Sam sent a postcard! It's here!" Jim said trying to alleviate Dean's worries. Of course getting a postcard wasn't what he had been hoping for, but then again 'Beggars can't be choosers.'
Shocked, Dean couldn't speak for a moment. "A postcard? That's it? Six months and all we get is a postcard? What the hell, Jim?"
Jim knew how Dean felt, he and others had been praying for something… anything to let them know that the rumors that they had been hearing were wrong; that Sam was safe, and that John hadn't taken a turn for the worse.
"So, what does our favorite geekboy have to say?" Dean joked, knowing that even though his little brother wasn't even a teenager yet, had a bigger vocabulary than most of his teachers in High School. When he didn't get a response, his protective instincts jumped up another notch, and he wanted to jump on the next flight and find out what was going on.
"Dean, it's just a postcard of the Florida Everglades addressed to you in care of me with the message 'Love, Sammy', that's all Dean." Jim said quietly feeling the pain from the other man, knowing that he was feeling his own anguish in the knowledge that something had to be wrong, their Sam would have filled up the whole postcard with little bits of silly things that had happened along the way. This Sam was quiet, and it had both men worried.
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Joseph Miller, Taylor Woods, and Stephen Chatten watched as their friend stormed across the street. They used to tease Dean about his temper, until they actually saw it unleashed, then it quickly became an unwritten rule that no one messed with him when he was already in a bad mood. They'd been friends for three years, ever since basic training and they had always thought they knew everything about everyone in their group. However, the way Dean was acting was making the rest of them itch.
"Damnit, we just missed them by a couple of days." Dean fumed, wondering what was going on. He looked at his friends and knew they thought he was loosing his mind. Something had to give, either he explained it all and risk them report him for a psych evaluation, or they were going to end up wasting what was left of there leave. "Get in, we need to try something different." He told them as he got in the driver's seat of the rental car.
Looking at each other, the Three Musketeer's followed Dean's lead and got back in the car, waiting for him to say something else. It took a few minutes before he turned down the radio and started explaining the missing pieces of Dean Winchester.
By the time they pulled into a rectory in Blue Earth, Minnesota, the car was quiet and the occupants had no idea how they should respond. They had never known Dean to lie, and what's more they all trusted him with the lives of their families as well as their own. As they sat there, no one wanted to break the silence. They knew that Dean was thinking of his little brother, and after three years of not hearing a word from the boy, on top of what they just heard; his fears were justified. Now they understood why any shore leave and vacations had been back in the states looking for his brother.
Taylor looked up at the small house and wondered who lived there, but was cut off when three men came up the sides of the vehicle and tapped on the windows. "Bobby!" Dean exclaimed, "What are you doing here?" he asked, looking around and seeing that Caleb and Joshua were there as well.
Bobby looked at Dean and smiled, he'd only seen the boy twice since he went off and joined the Marines, and he couldn't help but admire the man that stood before him now. Looking at Caleb he realized that he was prompted to get to the point. "Uh, Dean. Look, we really need to talk, but…"
"Don't worry, they can be trusted, I already told them. Now what's got you so hot and bothered?" Dean joked, knowing that Bobby was the straight forward type, and if he was hesitating, it had to be big.
Caleb had been watching the men that Dean came with and could only see the camaraderie and loyalty that they had for each other. He knew that he couldn't see them, but that didn't mean that there weren't three guns pointed at them at the moment. Not liking how slowly the conversation was going he quickly jumped in. "Jim thinks he got a legit lead, if you really think these goons of yours can be trusted then bring them."
Dean watched Caleb walk off with Joshua close behind, and the only thing that penetrated his brain was Jim thinks he got a legit lead after all this time, and they might actually be close enough to find out what's going on. Leading his friends into the house, he bypassed the kitchen, walked through the living room and opened a door that looked suspiciously like a closet and down dark steps to another door. He didn't bother looking to see if his friends were following, he just knew they were there. Knocking on the door, he waited until Jim opened the door.
"Dean! How good to see you, I thought you were a day away. Come in." Jim pulled Dean into the room and allowed the three remaining men access as well. When Dean started to walk to the rest of the group, Jim stopped him and looked somber as he spoke. "Son, we think we have a lead, but you have to know…" Jim paused, how was he supposed to tell Dean that they had been hiding things from him, that the sporadic information that they had been getting did not show the situation in a good light. "Dean, you're about to see some things that are disturbing, but I want you to know that we've been doing everything we can to find them and bring your brother home."
Looking at his father's friend, Dean had to wonder about that statement; looking at his friends he could tell that they were wondering the same thing. "Uh, excuse me… what about his Dad? Aren't you worried about him too?" Stephen asked, more than a little confused that the close nit group that Dean had talked to them about and the reaction that these men seemed to have weren't jiving.
Joshua looked up from a stack of papers and called out. "Dean, you remember the argument you had with you're Dad before you left?"
Groaning, Dean nodded wondering what that had to do with anything. "Yeah, how can I forget? He almost got Sammy killed, then blamed him for it."
"Damn it Sammy! I taught you better than this!" John yelled at his youngest while trying hard to stop the bleeding. 'Fuck, we can't go to the hospital, Protective Services are looking for the boys as it is.'
Dean had just skidded to a stop in front of his Dad and brother with more blankets and towels. Looking down, he had to wonder how his little brother could still be conscious much less taking the brow beating that their Dad was insisting on dishing out.
"Sorry Sir, I just wasn't fast enough." Sammy said quietly trying to block the pain from not only his head wound, but the slash marks from the Rawhead. Being tossed into a wall head first was bad enough, but apparently this monster had claws and wasn't shy about using them.
John was furious, he'd told his son to duck, instead the boy moved to the left; not only blocking his shot, but putting him in reaching distance. "You should have listened and dropped, not disobey a direct order. Damn it! Dean, we need to get him back to the motel and stitch him up. What are you waiting for… MOVE!"
Shocked didn't even begin to cover how Dean felt. Sammy was bleeding all over the place and all their Dad could do was bark out orders and demand action. Shaking his head, he did as he was told until he heard the next remark.
"… kid could have gotten us all killed. Should have let CPS take him a long time ago."
"Wait a minute! It was your plan that brought us here in the first place, your plan to use Sammy as bait, your stupid move to tell your eleven year old son to drop when he was in a puddle of water so you could play hero and kill the Rawhead with a stun gun. I'm seeing a pattern here Dad… YOU! You knew that other hunters had been trying to get this thing but it broke pattern, you're the one who didn't want backup. Now you're blaming SAMMY? You have got to be kidding! Do you even realize that if he obeyed that order, he'd be dead? Do you even care?" he was yelling, he had never even raised his voice to his Dad before, but this was serious.
John looked at his oldest and for the moment forgot all about the boy lying on the floor in pain and bleeding from his multiple wounds. "You have no right to judge my decisions. NONE! I kept the two of you with me, so our family didn't get more screwed up than it already had, I didn't have to do that; there were plenty of people willing to take you both in and raise you, but I kept you safe. So don't stand there and tell me I screwed up! You have no say so in this"
"So I can hustle pool, play poker, lie, cheat and steal for you, but I can't have a say in how things are done? That's bullshit Dad, and you know it!" he was going to say more, but reason took over, and he remembered why they were fighting in the first place. "Damn, Sammy! I'm sorry!" he said, quickly picking his brother up in his arms and racing to the Impala not caring if he was being followed or not. He may not have the keys, but he could hotwire a car as well as anyone.
Caleb stood there and nodded his head, "Yeah, I can't say that I blamed you for that. When I found out what he did I wanted to string him up myself. Some sixteenth birthday, huh kid?"
Cringing slightly, he glanced back at the three guys that he'd considered friends and knew that they had caught on, but for whatever reason didn't call him on it… yet. "So, what does that have to do with anything?" he asked, hoping to get the subject back on track and not on his lying about his age.
"After you left, I ran into your Dad and Sam. I didn't think too much about it at first to be honest, it's not the first time that our paths have crossed on the way to a hunt. It was the first time however that I knew that he left you're brother alone while he went out and got wasted." Joshua said as he motioned for the others to join him. "Dean, he was furious about you leaving, but he promised that he wouldn't abandon Sam. In fact his exact words were 'I won't make the same mistake that I made with Dean', so I thought that maybe your idea worked. Damn, Dean… I could have stopped this sooner. I'm so sorry." Joshua said as he turned and uncovered a portion of the wall that had a map of North America with colored pins attached, notes to the sides, pictures of what looked to be a child from various agencies as well as notes, emails and postcards.
Dean looked at everything before he realized something; the pictures were of Sammy. "Oh my God! Sammy! What the hell? How did this happen?" he asked looking at each men in turn. What he saw didn't help, what he saw was despair. "Somebody better talk to me! Did Dad do this? WELL? DID HE?"
Bobby knew that Dean was reaching critical mass and by the look of the men behind him they knew it too. Trying to defuse the situation, he quickly interceded. "No, not all of it anyway. Most of their trail we've been able to pick up on because of medical, police, and even some CPS records. Otherwise, they've been staying off the radar. We can usually match one of the appearances with a hunt in the general area, but there have been a few…"
Dean was shaking at this point, his whole reason for leaving had blown up in his face, and he hadn't been told about any of it. Looking at one of the latest pictures on the wall, a picture taken almost a year ago of a kid with hair cropped too close to the scalp. Not a single spot was free from either a bruise or a cut, or both. Looking at the note beside it, he saw that there had been a Wendigo in the area, that Sammy had been in critical condition when he was brought in and as soon as Protective Services were called, he disappeared in the night. "So, this was the last time anyone saw him?" he asked, worried more now than he had been before. He was also angry that his 'friends' hadn't told him what had really been going on, letting him investigate 'possible sightings' whenever he had time off from the Corps. He wouldn't let his anger get the better of him, he'd wait until he got his hands on his father, then he'd unleash it; let John know what it felt like to be a punching bag.
"Yeah, that's the latest one until now. A waitress I know called; said that she saw a Chevy Impala with a big guy and a scrawny kid drive through town and stop at a motel. We were about to head over there to see if we can catch them. We haven't seen any signs of a hunt, so they probably won't be there long." Caleb said calmly as he loaded his bag with weapons and hoisted it on his shoulder.
Nodding, Dean lead the way out and back to the car, as soon as he reached the rental he stopped and turned back to his buddies. "Look, I appreciate you guys taking this time to come with me this far, but you already had plans so why don't you take the car back and…"
Taylor stopped Dean in mid sentence "No way bro… we're here together, and that's how we'll leave. We've never left each other no matter what, we won't start now." The rest of the guys looked at Dean like he was crazy then got in the car. Stephen rolled down the window, "Well Winchester… Mush!"
AN: Well, what did you think? Let me know!