The first time it happened... well, he didn't even realize what had happened until later.

*

* spring, 1985 *

*

For the first time since Mommy died, since Daddy started searching and then hunting, Dean Winchester made a friend. Actually, Jimmy Durruto approached him – the new kid in town, the weird boy, the quiet one. Jimmy, the guy that was surrounded by classmates, stepped out of the popular circle, walked up to Dean and introduced himself. And Stan Gomez wasn't happy about it one bit.

Every chance he got, Stan tried to worm his way between Dean and Jimmy. He said mean things about Dean when Jimmy wasn't around, made fun of Dean and tried to get him in trouble at school. So, it wasn't much of a surprise when, on the first warm day of the year, Stan and his older brother Steve walked over to Jimmy's house and watched the blush spreading on Dean's face with interest.

"You don't have a bike?" Jimmy asked, stunned. Dean just sort of shrugged and shook his head, clearly embarrassed.

"Well, my cousin lives at a 'partment and doesn't have a g'rage, so he leaves his bike here in ours. You can ride his if you want."

The pause Dean took was enough fuel for Steve, who was apparently even better at making fun of people than his younger brother.

"I don't know, Jimmy," he called out with a laugh. "That bike don't have training wheels. I bet Dean don't know how to ride a bike with no training wheels."

When Jimmy kindly offered his little sister's bike – Barbie doll pink with hearts and sparkles, and training wheels – Stan and Steve actually fell to the ground laughing. That was it. Dean Winchester was not a baby, and he was most definitely not a girl. Without a word, he sat himself on Jimmy's cousin's bike and began to pedal.

The problem was, Dean had not ridden a bicycle since the fire. Mommy told him he 'gragerated' from his tricycle and he had gotten to ride his shiny, new, red bike (with training wheels) for a whole month until the weather got too cold. He had not ridden a bicycle in almost two years and had never ridden without training wheels.

But, Dean was sure he could manage. And he did. For about half a block.

He felt the bike leaning to his left and tried to steady himself – overcompensating and falling over on his right side. He toppled to the ground, scraping up his right forearm and knee. Then momentum turned him over and he hit the back of his head on the hard ground of Jimmy's neighbor, scary Mrs. Prader's yard.

Jimmy's mom cleaned up his 'battle wounds' with care. Jimmy asked her nervously if Dean would have a scar. The woman smiled and told her son that she doubted it very much. Then, Mrs. Durruto turned to Dean and said with a wink, But if you do, it's OK – chicks dig scars. And, when she softly blew on the scrapes after applying an antibiotic, she thought the unfallen tears in Dean's eyes were due to pain, but it wasn't the abrasions or even the bump on the head that was hurting.

That night, while Daddy was researching, Dean told him that Mrs. Prader was responsible for the missing children in town. When Daddy asked how he knew, Dean told him that he had seen bones in her yard. He didn't, however, tell Daddy that he saw them because the boys had been digging in her yard or the bones were on the surface. And, Daddy had been so relieved that the job was coming to a close that he never asked Dean how he just knew.

* * *

It wasn't until the second time – a couple of years later – it happened that Dean noticed something strange going on. It wasn't until the third time that he realized just what was happening.

He had wanted to tell his dad, but he was afraid to. Dad hunted unnatural things and learning something by having an object hit you in the head was definitely not natural. Nor, as he found out, was it controllable. Yeah, who wouldn't take the easy way out of homework and tests and studying if they could? But, when Dean smacked himself in the head with his history textbook one night – hard enough to see stars – he still could not come up with the answers to his essay assignment. Stupid Roanoke Colony – seriously, when will he ever need to know about that?

No, this gift was totally random. Apparently, he couldn't pick and choose what knowledge he wanted to acquire. That became apparent on the dumb – actually, quite smart – golem hunt. Taking a couple of advanced classes at the high school, Dean was able to sneak into the home ec classroom without much trouble. It was the best chance he would have to test his power. So, the day of the hunt, he hid his school books around the classroom, figuring that, if he happened to get knocked in to something that night, at least it would be worthwhile.

When the golem swatted him away like he was nothing more than a fly, Dean saw the kitchen station quickly coming at him and had enough time to think, Straight A's in literature, here I come. Of course, when he woke up and found himself at Bobby's, he still wasn't sure if Jane Eyre, Tom Jones, and Robinson Crusoe were authors or book titles. But, he knew that 'pumpkin pie spice' consisted of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice, that chickpeas were the same as garbanzo beans, and that head cheese was the most disgusting thing he had ever heard of.

* * *

There had been a few times over the years that Dean had wanted to tell Sam about this strange little quirk. But, there were always reasons against it – Sam was too young and wouldn't understand or would let it slip to Dad, Sam didn't need to know that his big brother was even more of a freak than he already knew, Sam wouldn't believe him and laugh at him. No, he didn't really think these things would happen, but the fear was always there.

When Sam told him about the visions he had been having, Dean wanted to tell him. He wanted to reassure his little brother and let him know that he had some kind of mutant powers, too. But, while Sam had been keeping his secret from Dean for about six months, Dean had been keeping his secret for nearly Sam's whole life.

So, in the end, when Sam finally got up enough courage to ask Dean, "I know that this is going to sound really, well, strange but are you able to learn things by getting hit in the head?"

"Sammy, if I could learn stuff through some kind of whacked-out osmosis," Dean laughed, "why didn't I get straight A's like my geeky little brother, huh?"

"Well..."

"I got an idea. Why don't I jump through Bobby's books? You know, pile'em up like leaves and dive in. We'll never have to research monsters or demons or anything again!"

"OK, OK," Sam relented with a laugh of his own. "I get it. I told you it sounded crazy. I don't think I got enough sleep last night, what with being on concussion wake-up call."

Dean felt that it was much too late to come clean with it all now. Besides, he knew his Sammy. It would be endless questions and girly talks. Nope, he'd just have to be more careful after head injuries in the future.