Um.

Just found this drabble from, like, season 3 or 4. Reminded me of the good days.

Obligatory Sentient Vehicle

I wasn't always like I am now.

A long time ago, before I can remember, I was cold and dead.

After that, came some fuzzy periods of warmth, like a tiny hot water bottle that sporadically warmed some small part of me over a long time.

The day I 'woke up', I think, was the day I became Dean's Impala.

All the little snatches of warmth and life – of love – over the years had built. Slowly, unceasingly.

And the day I became his, he became mine. My Dean.

I'm not alive, of course. I don't have those sleeping-realities that Sammy has and Dean worries about. I don't have wishes for the future – aside from the knowledge that I want my Dean to keep me. I certainly don't think like humans.. I can go for weeks operating on a simple, barely-there haze of awareness and emotion. My life is simple and so am I.

I enjoy what I am.

I've gotten stronger, over the years. When I do think, it's.. wiser, somehow. From concepts and impressions, to logical thought construction and the ability to follow human mouth-speech instead of only human heart-speech.

Because, as I later realized, it was human heart-speech that woke me up. It had been human heart-speech that had warmed me, so very slowly, over the many years. Heart-speech is incoherent, but powerful.

It was from heart-speech that I first learnt emotions. Anger, grief, fear, joy, comfort, hope.. All these and more.

But the best one, the most special, was love. All of them have given me love, always. So, always I have loved them back.

Dean gave me the most love and so I loved him the most.

Sammy loves me too, but his love is quieter and sometimes hidden even from himself. Dean loves me loudly and proudly. Sammy loves me as family, something he takes for granted, but in a good way. Something he can depend on, rely on, trust. Sammy loves me like home and I love that about him.

And then the day came that I loved Sammy exactly as much as I loved Dean, no longer 'almost' as much.

"Look, Sam…this just ain't worth a tow. I say we empty the trunk and sell the rest for scrap"

I'd felt fear then. The crash had been horrible. It hadn't hurt, but I'd felt so wrong. Bent and twisted.

And my family were so cold, their hearts so quiet.

This man, Bobby, had taken me away. I'd waited, afraid for My Dean and Sammy, afraid for myself.

"No. Dean would kill me if we did that. When he gets better, he's gonna wanna fix this."

Sammy had sliced through that fear, his heart aching so badly, but still whispering warmth at me. His rejection of throwing me away had been total. Not only for Dean, but for him too.

He didn't want to loose me either.

Fear was gone and Hope had replaced it. My Dean would fix me. Sammy was right, if anyone could make me correct again, it would be My Dean.

"There's nothin' to fix. The frame's a pretzel, the engine's ruined –- barely any parts worth salvagin'."

That had made me indignant. Maybe I was damaged, but I was still there! I was worth salvaging!

I hadn't been worried, though. Sammy was there. He'd take care of me.

"Listen to me, Bobby. If there's only one working part, that's enough. We're not just gonna give up on.."

Sammy had choked up, pain and fear and grief making his heart shudder, but it stayed strong because Sammy was strong. Bobby backed down before his will, just as I knew he would.

After that day, I loved them both the same.

But most of all, My Dean and Sammy love eachother.

Their heart-speech will sometimes talk to me. Raging rivers from Dean and whispering tides from Sammy. But their hearts always talk to eachother, a constant back-and-forth flow of love and trust and devotion.

So I love them both, My Dean and My Dean's Sammy. They're special.
I do what I can to keep them safe, to find a way to talk back with my own love for them, to give them my own warmth, to support them.

Because that's what families do.