2011 fic Exchange: Responsibility
Title: Responsibility (2011 Christmas fic exchange) Part 2
Author: brassband777
Characters: John, Dean (15), Sam (11)
Original Prompt: #18 Sam is spanked for the first time by Dean for running away to the library or the store or any similarly outrageous fact (Ages: Dean 15, Sam 11)
Implement: hand
Summary: Sam doesn’t respond to Dean’s authority very well and runs off to the library. The focus is mainly on Dean having to come to terms with disciplining his brother.
Word Count: 6451
Author’s Notes: I’m always terrified when fulfilling prompt fics in case the prompter doesn’t like it! I have my fingers (and toes) crossed that this doesn’t disappoint! This fic was also written really quickly due to unforeseen family circumstances, so I hope it is of the same standard as my other work.
Warnings: disciplinary spanking of a child. Disclaimer: Do not own anything to do with Supernatural.
Present Day:
Dean stood outside the gates of the Elementary School and glanced impatiently at his watch. Sam was late. The whole school seemed to have emptied of pupils and still there was no sign of his puppy-dog eyed little brother. After another five minutes, Dean impatiently made his way to Sam’s classroom. Sam’s teacher was sitting at her desk marking.
“Excuse me, Mrs Winters, have you seen my brother, Sam?” he asked politely.
Mrs Winters recognised Dean, as he picked Sam up from school most days.
“He left with his classmates as soon as the bell rang. Is something wrong, Dear?”
Dean shook his head. “No, I’m sure everything’s alright. We must have just missed each other.
Dean set off at a brisk walk back to their house. Sam hadn’t been expecting Dean to pick him up today, so he wouldn’t have looked out for his big brother. Dean was supposed to have attended an optional mechanics class after school, but the teacher had called in ill and so Dean had finished at the usual time.
Fifteen minutes later, Dean unlocked the front door and stepped into the house.
“Hey, Sammy, I’m home.”
Silence greeted him and a knot of worry curled in the pit of his stomach.
“Sammy?” his voice was louder this time, but there was still no response. A quick search of the small house quickly informed Dean that his sibling was presently unaccounted for. Dean knew that if his brother had come straight home, he would be here.
What if something’s happened to him? The small voice niggled at the back of his mind. Dean pushed it away and forced himself to remain calm. It was early still, he reasoned and maybe Sammy had a genuine reason for being late, like a friend getting ill and needing to be walked home? If Sam hadn’t returned in a couple of hours, he’d notify his Dad and go and look for him.
An hour and fifteen minutes later, Sam walked through the front door whistling, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Dean.
“Uh, hey, Dean…errr….what’re you doing here? Didn’t you have that….umm….mechanics thing?”
Sam’s sheepish expression, as well as his rambling alerted Dean immediately to the fact that his little brother obviously didn’t have a valid excuse for being late.
“It was cancelled. Where have you been?” Although Dean’s relief that Sam was safe was tangible, he was also angry. “I was worried!”
“Sorry,” mumbled Sam looking at his feet, “You didn’t need to worry though. It’s just that Jason’s got a new puppy and he invited everyone over to his house to play with it and well…..you weren’t supposed to be here.” Sam risked a glance up through his bangs at his brother’s angry expression. He honestly hadn’t meant for Dean to worry.
“In other words, I wasn’t supposed to know.”
“Exactly,” replied Sam, offering a small grin, “No harm done, hey?”
Dean didn’t grin back. “So let me get this straight, Sam, you broke the rule of always going straight home from school unless given express permission otherwise and you broke the rule of never going somewhere without telling someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back?”
“Come on, Dean, it’s not that big a deal!”
“And what if something had happened to you on your way to or from your friend’s place? I wouldn’t have known where you were.”
Sam rolled his eyes in exasperation. “And what exactly could happen, huh? It’s daylight and there are lots of people around. You really are a jerk, Dean.”
Dean didn’t reply for a moment as he considered what to do. He knew without a doubt that his Dad would spank Sam for breaking those particular rules, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Since his dad had given him permission to discipline Sam a few months earlier, Dean had never yet needed to apply any sanctions.
“Okay, Sammy, you’re grounded until the end of the weekend.”
“What?!” Sam spluttered, his eyes going wide in disbelief. “You can’t!”
“Yeah, I can,” replied Dean quietly, meeting his brother’s outraged gaze steadily “you knew the rules, but broke ‘em anyway.”
“But, it’s the special sessions at the library tonight and tomorrow with the guest authors and you said you’d take me.” Sam turned on his pleading puppy-dog expression full-force.
Dean for once withstood the deadly expression and remained firm. “You should have thought of that before, Sammy. You’re grounded and that’s final. Oh, and your conditions of grounding…..no leaving the house, no games and no reading.”
“No reading?! You’re supposed to ban me from TV, not reading! Reading’s educational.”
“Maybe,” Dean conceded, “but I happen to know that you like reading a hell of a lot more than you like TV and this is a punishment.”
“You can’t do this! I hate you!” Sam turned on his heel and fled to their bedroom, slamming the door behind him.
Dean ran a tired hand through his hair. He knew how disappointed the kid would be at missing out on the library sessions, but their Dad was right - Sammy needed to learn.
An hour and a half later, Dean opened the bedroom door after knocking gently to tell Sam that supper was ready. He really hoped that Sam had calmed down in the meanwhile. On entering their shared bedroom, Dean found it empty and the bedroom window wide open. His brother had flown the nest.
“Sam?” Dean called urgently through the window, quickly surveying the area with a hunter’s eye. As he suspected, there was no sign of the child, he was obviously long gone.
Dean experienced a moment of utter panic. What should he do now? It was dark out and had been for a while and whereas Sam’s argument that it was safe walking the streets during daylight did hold merit, the same could not be said after nightfall. Dean knew that it wasn’t only supernatural entities that were a threat then, there were also more than enough human fiends to go around.
Dean took a deep breath and forced himself to think logically. Where might the kid go? A possible answer came almost instantaneously: the library! Dean set of immediately, praying that his baby brother was unharmed.