Disclaimer: Sorry everyone, I'm not Kripke so I don't own supernatural or any of its characters and plots, I know it's disappointing.

A/N: Alright, so yeah I know it took me forever to post and I won't make excuses with the whole school thing because I think I mostly just got lazy and procrastinated for way too long, I'm hoping that if I start posting what I've got so far it'll inspire me to write some more and edit some of the stuff I'm not entirely happy with. So bring on the reviews, good and bad, and by all means tell me if it's terrible so I don't waste my or anybody else's time! Thanks to the few people who actually took the time to read this :P

June 29, 2001

"If you don't take him he'll be placed in a foster home." The social worker, Evvet, answered sincerely, "He doesn't have any other family who are suitable to take him, Mr. Winchester."

Dean suppressed a snort; if only she knew just how unsuitable they were.

Dean looked over to his father who sat on his left with his face buried in a hand, looking more tired than… well, scratch that thought; he'd seen him looking that tired just a couple months ago after Sam had walked out on them, on his way to college.

Dean shook himself of the painful memory of his kid brother… his oldest kid brother (he had to differentiate now) before turning his head to the right and staring across the room at his youngest kid brother, where the ten year old was currently sitting at a large round table just like the one they were at, drawing pictures with the supplied pencil crayons that were set around the room.

The kid's dirty blonde hair flopped into his Winchester-green eyes and he tilted his head and bit his lip as he focused hard on the task at hand. Dean absently wondered what he was drawing that had him so enthralled.

With a tired sigh, Dean leaned back in the plastic chair and scrubbed his hands over his face. There was too much to think about: Should they take him or should they leave him? Where would he be better off? With a foster family, where he may never be loved or cared for properly or with them, where he would be in constant danger and may never get a normal life he deserves? A 'normal life' that Sam wanted so bad that he'd up and abandoned his family for? He supposed Adam could just go and do the same thing if that's what he wanted when the time came. And hey, at least then they'd know that they'd made the wrong decision if that's what it came to.

Dean thought his gut was just telling him to take the kid, but that could just be the empty hole in his life, screaming to have his little brother back. So he told it to shut up because nothing was about to replace Sammy, brother or not. But he figured he could to make a new place there for Adam… Yeah, he could definitely do that, he missed having someone to take care of.

"Could you give us a minute?" His father's voice snapped Dean back to the present.

He looked up in time to see the red headed social worker nod and move to a table across the room.

There was a pause between the two oldest Winchesters.

The whole time they'd been hunting the ghouls, they had avoided this conversation. The 'what are we gonna do about the runt' conversation. Hell, they'd barely even spoken about him since John had got the call from the Social Worker Offices of Research and Public Services telling him he had a son whose mother had just passed away. Only a brief and awkward explanation on the 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when' was held followed by a very quiet and tense drive to Minnesota.

"What do you think?" John asked looking his son straight in the eyes.

Dean knew he was the deciding factor, and he knew he'd have to take care of this kid almost single handedly, the same way he'd taken care of Sam all his life, but this time he had a choice; he was being asked, not ordered… but no, that wasn't right. This wasn't a choice at all; it might be for some people but not Dean. This was his brother for fuck's sake and he didn't care if he knew the kid or not, he was supposed to take care of his brothers. The world be damned if he wasn't going to take care of this one.

"We take him." Dean answered firmly, meeting John's steady gaze with just as much seriousness. "I'll do it." Dean said, answering all his father's unasked questions with three words.

John nodded, breaking eye contact before turning to wave Evvet back over.

That was that. Within the hour they were walking towards the small ten-year-old, having signed all the required legal forms for Adam's release.

Dean felt unbelievably nervous and could only imagine what his dad must be feeling, he definitely looked tense. He should be, after all he was the kid's long lost father. How was Adam gonna react?

"Hey there, Adam." Evvet's happy go lucky voice interrupted his nervous thoughts. It was clearly a voice she used only on children and Adam looked up at her, visibly unimpressed.

"So it looks like we found a place for you." Evvet continued in the same annoying voice, taking a seat next to Adam. The kid only raised his eyebrows at her and Dean had to smile slightly. Typical Winchester; give anybody who annoys you as hard a time as possible.

Evvet bit her lip, waiting a moment for a response before continuing, "This is your father, and your brother, Dean."

Dean flinched. Ouch. This woman clearly didn't have a whole lot of field experience. Dean watched as the kid's face whipped toward them.

Dean gave the kid a half smile, trying to show some sympathy for the situation he was in and apologies for it in the simple gesture.

The news had shocked the silence out of Adam as he stared wide eyed at the two of them.

"What?" he croaked weakly, through an unwilling throat that was clearly too tight to manage much at the moment.

Dean opened his mouth to say something (wasn't entirely sure what, but he hoped it would get there by the time it had opened) and then closed it again when nothing came out, before wetting his lips and looking to his shoes. Not sure what to do Dean leaned forward, hooked his hands on the edge of the table, and looked up at the kid after another moment, giving him a weak grin and answering him as sincerely as he could, "You're tellin' me."

It didn't help much but he looked a little less terrified, knowing that he wasn't the only one surprised by this information. Dean chanced a quick glance at his dad and found him openly staring at his youngest son, seemingly trying to gauge everything about his character by simply looking at him. Dean felt the strong urge to stomp on his foot and tell him to quit it but knew that wouldn't go over well so he kept to himself.

"Well, I think I might be making things awkward so I'll leave you three to get to know each other. Feel free to head home whenever you're ready." Evvet announced, clearly wanting to get away from the uncomfortable situation.

Dean watched her go and when she was out of sight he turned back to Adam who was looking right back at him clearly trying to steer clear of John's intimidating gaze.

Dean gave an exaggerated eye role, "Annoying one, hey?"

Adam huffed out a bite of nervous laughter.

"You're telling me," Adam said imitating Dean's earlier remark, "You're not the one she had drawing feeling charts earlier."

Dean's face broke into a real grin this time and he laughed, "Feeling charts? Seriously?"

Adam just gave him a small nervous smile in return and shrugged.

There was a small uncomfortable moment of silence that was only really uncomfortable because their dad had yet to say anything. Dean finally turned his head and looked at him, forcing him to make eye contact before he sat down in the chair in front of him pointedly. John paused before following suit.

Clearing his throat, John finally spoke, "I'm sorry about your mother, she was a good person."

Dean looked back to Adam in time to see him duck his head to hide under his bangs and shrug, clearly trying to act like it wasn't bothering him.

Dean and his dad exchanged glances, silently agreeing to leave the subject alone for now.

John paused another moment, thinking out his words.

"I didn't know about you."

Adam glanced up through his bangs.

"If I had, I would have been around. I'm sorry."

Adam searched John's expression for a moment before giving a little smile and turning his gaze back to the crayon whose wrapper he'd been picking at.

"It's okay," Adam replied with another little shrug, "Wasn't your fault; mum didn't want to bother you with me. I'd been asking about you for a while now."

John watched the kid for another moment before giving a reluctant nod and looking to his own folded hands. Dean almost smiled at the childish gesture but didn't think that would earn him any cookies.

"So, whatcha drawing there, kiddo?" Dean asked, trying to ease some of the tension.

Adam glanced up at him and blushed before ducking his head again, "Nothing much, just stupid stuff."

Dean grinned. "I'll be the judge of that." he stated before pushing away from the table and noisily scooting his chair around it, not leaving his seat to do so. At least it made Adam laugh and Dean didn't care that it was directed at him, because it was the first real laugh he'd heard from the kid.

Pushing a chair away, Dean settled himself next to his kid brother, only now realizing just how small the kid actually was.

"Alright, now let's see those pictures," Dean said, nudging Adam's arm who was smiling timidly, causing Dean to smile right back.

Adam shifted a small stack of papers towards his brother. Dean's eyebrows rose as he sifted through them, "Wow, these are really good, kid." And he wasn't kidding, he was definitely better than any other ten-year-old he'd met. The drawings were just random things you'd see on a daily basis; a swing set, a cat, a favorite cartoon character, ect.

Adam grinned widely at the praise, feeling proud to have impressed his new brother.

"Thanks, my mum always says-" Adam stopped short, swallowing before correcting himself, "My mum used to say I should be an artist when I grow up."

Dean paused in his page turning to look at Adam only to find that awesome smile completely lost. He frowned, feeling the urge to pull the kid into a hug or something but not entirely sure how that would work; they barely knew each other.

He was saved from having to make a decision as his dad suddenly got up from the chair across the table and walked over to sit down on Adam's other side, holding out a hand towards Dean, gesturing for the drawings.

After flipping through them for a minute, he put them down and looked at Adam.

"These are really good, son," John paused at the last word, as Adam's head turned up to look at him. "You could be an artist some day," John finished, looking Adam straight in the eye like he always did when he was trying to get a point across. They didn't break eye contact for a long moment and Dean had to give the kid kudos for that.

After another moment, John looked back at the drawings in his hands, fiddling with the edge of one paper.

"Wanna get out of here?"

When Adam nodded, they all pulled themselves to their feet and Dean pushed the kid lightly ahead of him and ruffled his hair, "Alright, let's get your stuff."

John gestured for Adam to lead the way; not knowing exactly where his youngest was staying.

Dean didn't even want to think about the million new challenges they'd just brought on themselves, that came along with their new addition. The list went on and on, but that was okay because this was the kinda shit you did for family.