Fic: Hedgehog Play and Hedgehog Hide-n-Seek
Hedgehog Play
By PaBurke
Summary/Challenge: Dean went to Hell and was hauled out of Perdition only to be turned into a 4/5-year-old version of himself
Disclaimer: So not mine
Rating: teen-ish
Life went on.
Bobby and Dean returned to the junkyard. They returned to their schedule and habits. Bobby taught and Dean learned. Dean also joined Miss Smith’s boyfriend’s dojo and quickly moved up the ranks. He made friends within the dojo and his seriousness and aptitude spurred the other children into putting more work into their martial arts.
Dean’s two friends from the dojo were names Charli and Joel. Each was slightly broken in their own way. Joel’s father had beaten the rest of his family. Joel’s mother had endured it long enough to build a nest egg to escape cleanly. A restraining order was worthless on the man and he was still searching for his victims. Joel, his mother and his little sister had moved four times in the last two years to keep out of his clutches. Joel made friends with Dean even knowing that they might move again at any time.
Sammy used to be that friendly.
Charli’s family was originally from Sudan. Her village had been pillaged during the civil wars. Charli’s older sister had managed to save Charli and two younger brothers during the raid. Three other siblings and their parents perished. They had been close enough to the destruction to hear the cries and screams of the dying and tortured. After the raiders had left, the children had had to return to the decimated village to gather supplies for the four day walk to an uncle’s village. That uncle had been in the middle of migrating to America. He had been honorable, instantly including his nieces and nephews in the one-way trip that ended in South Dakota.
The three children spent numerous hours together, including sleepovers. All of them had nightmares but they didn’t fell shame among their friends. It was accepted and never, ever mentioned. Also not mentioned were the stuffed animals that each child used as a nighttime protector. The hedgehog was in good company with a lion (Charli’s) and a giraffe (Joel’s).
Bobby encouraged the friendships as much as he dared. He was hoping Dean would have something resembling a happy, safe childhood this time around.
Dean was too stubborn and remembered too much of his old life. It wasn’t too many specifics, but a lot of generalities. One, he remembered Hunting. Two, he remembered that there were a lot of different kinds of monsters to hunt. He couldn’t remember the exact kinds he had destroyed, just knew that he had. So Dean started training himself to be a hunter. He researched monsters in Bobby’s library and made 3 note cards for each fugly. The first note card had a picture/drawing and its known names. The second card had more names, preferred prey/indicators and known locations. The third card detailed ways to kill it. Dean quickly had a thick stack of cards. He would mix them up and place them face down on the floor. Then he would play a warped game of Memory with them. He’d play against himself, trying to beat his record for fastest time. Or he would challenge Bobby to a game. Dean and Bobby were pretty evenly matched for Memory: Bobby knew all of the information that Dean was trying to learn, but Dean had an easier time remembering where he had seen the card ‘swamp-thing that eats three-year old little girls minus their feet.’ Dean added three new monsters to his card deck every night. At this point, Bobby was memorizing all of the pertinent information as well.
And life went on.
spnspnawesomebobbyspnspn
Hedgehog Hide-n-Seek
By PaBurke
Summary/Challenge: Dean went to Hell and was hauled out of Perdition only to be turned into a 4/5-year-old version of himself
Disclaimer: So not mine
Rating: teen-ish
The knock on the door was a bit of a surprise. Dean looked to Bobby for direction. Bobby shook his head. No one had called asking for parts (from his legitimate business) or for help/research (from his other business). Hunters knew better than to show up unannounced and mechanics didn’t bother going to a junk yard without calling to see if their part was there first. Bobby’s itchy trigger finger had gotten even itchier since de-aged Dean had permanently moved in. Bobby had sent more than one hunter away with an ass full of buckshot.
Who hadn’t heard the rumor? Or who hadn’t learned the lesson ‘Call First’?
Dean waited with his hand on the doorknob as Bobby cocked the shotgun. He would swing it open and hid behind the door, ready to be back-up or to slam the door shut if that was needed. Bobby nodded at Dean and he yanked. Bobby aimed the gun in the face of…
Sam Winchester.
Sam, for his part, looked rather bemused at the greeting. “That’s rather unfriendly.”
“It’s the greeting that idjots that don’t call first get. Where’s the demon?”
Sam shrugged, not bothering to lie. “I left her in town. I figured that you’d rather not see her.”
Hopefully, all the improvements Bobby, Dean and Castiel had added to the property would make it impossible for the she-bitch to walk to the house, but there was always the possibility that they had missed a trick. “She’s lying to you,” Bobby stated.
Sam rolled his eyes. “We’ve been over this. I know that demons lie, but she’s helping me get to Dean. No one else will even try.”
“She’s lying about Dean,” Bobby told him again. Maybe if he said it enough times it might beat itself into Sam’s hard head.
“So you said.” Now Sam’s face tightened. “But you won’t explain how you know. Or what you know.”
“Like I’m going to tell you something that you’re going to turn around and tell the demon.” Bobby tilted his head. “Actually. I bet that the demon knows the information about Dean. She’s just not sharing it. My sources say that Hell is all up in an uproar.”
“What information?” Sam challenged. “What could be important enough that Ruby would know and not tell me?”
“Dean’s not in Hell. Hasn’t been for almost six months. Yet, she’s been leading your around by the nose, telling you that she can get Dean out?”
“That’s a lie.”
Bobby huffed a laugh and slammed the door in the idjot’s face. Life was too short. He would not have this conversation where Dean could overhear it. Let Sam go and stew and go confront the demon-bitch and let her lie to him some more.
Bobby had an adoptive son to comfort.