January 24
January 24
By: Holy Tax Accountant
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, but I do have about a thousand desktops of Jensen Ackles on my hard-drive. Does that count for anything?
Rating: PG
Characters: Dean, John, some Sam, reference to Adam
Spoilers: Not really, I guess.
Setting: Pre-series.
Summary: What did Dad do with you on your birthday?
--
What did Dad do with you on your birthday?
-"Jump the Shark"
--
January 24, 1984. Dean turned five. Dad forgot. Dean didn't say anything. Not for another eight months.
The year Dean turned seven, Dad was gone for the first time. They'd been on the road a long time now, it seemed to him, but he still held vague memories of chocolate cake and four blue candles flaming. Dean and Sammy were ensconced with Pastor Jim, and Dad was off on a job in Wyoming. Dad called, but the "Happy Birthday, bud," on his tongue was flat, and it didn't feel very happy to Dean.
When Dean turned ten, they were shacked up in a trailer park on the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas. At school, Dean got in a fight. He laid out a kid three years older with a sturdy punch to the jaw. When Dad came to pick him up from the principal's office, he was imposing and gruff in front of the school officials, harsh and demanding in the car on the way home. Dad didn't ask what had started the fight, and Dean never told him that the older boy had called Mom a whore who'd left her family behind.
Dean was with Bobby when he turned eleven, recovering from pneumonia (it was a long story) while Dad retrieved Sam from Pastor Jim's. Had Bobby known, he probably would have rustled up a cake and maybe a present. But Dad had neglected to tell him, and Dean sure as Hell wasn't going to do it.
Surprisingly, Dad was around when Dean turned fourteen. Dean hadn't expected him back from the job for another three days. But Dad didn't tell Dean Happy Birthday after he pulled into the drive at 6 am. He just stumbled from the car, dripping blood behind him. Dean set his body next to his father's and Dad leaned heavily against him, mumbled something Dean couldn't make out. Dean spent the day carefully stitching up the long, gruesome wound on Dad's back and worrying.
When Dean turned sixteen, Dad procured for him a new (slightly less inaccurate but probably equally illegal) license, even though Dean had been carrying around a fake one since he was 14 in case of emergencies. He handed it to Dean with no ceremony and no congratulations. Then Sam and Dad got in a fight. It was a bad one. Sam spent the day sullen and angry. Dad was quiet and annoyed and - Dean could tell - scared. Dean had cold, leftover pizza for dinner and drank one of Dad's beers without permission. Dad was too distracted by his fight with Sam to even notice.
The day Dean turned eighteen, Dad threw him the keys to the Impala and said nothing. It was the best birthday Dean could remember since he'd turned four.
Dean was in Washington when he turned twenty-three. He spent the day alone, the night in a bar where he picked up a redhead with a tight ass and legs that went on forever. Sam was in California. Dad was in Indiana. No calls.
When Dean turned twenty-seven, he didn’t even know where Dad was.
--
Years later, when Dean saw a photo of his half-brother and his father at a baseball game, he almost punched that kid in the face. The only reason he didn't was that it wasn't really the kid he was angry at, it was Dad.
Suddenly, he thought he understood Sam's beef with Dad a lot better.
-end-
Now with a sequel! Read May 2.