Goodbye
Dean stared at the house, taking a deep breath as he looked over the empty rooms. It’d been six months since they’d moved in, four months since John’s death. The ache was still there, the loss of his father, but it was distant now. He didn’t have the time to let it fill him up, not with Sam to take care of, his little brother just 14 and needing him more than ever.
“Dean?”
He looked up and found Sam walking out of the bedroom and smiled. “Hey Sammy. You got everything?”
“Last box,” Sam said, indicating the small pack in his arms. “Just junk really,” but when Dean looked it was the last of the stuff from John’s room, a couple newspaper articles that had been clipped out, an old book with writing on the edges, and a pack of playing cards that John had taught them to cheat by.
“Give the new place some character,” Dean said with a grin.
Sam nodded as he moved past Dean and out to the Impala, loading the box with the rest of it. They’d still have to come back over the weekend and paint the place, but tonight they were going to be moving into a bigger place, someplace they could actually grow a little. Someplace he could see them staying until Sam graduated from high school.
It was scary and thrilling. He’d never lived anywhere that long. Not even Lawrence had been his home for as long as this town was gonna be. It was good though. They had plans, they had goals for what would happen to them in the coming years and he knew they’d manage it, together.
“Bobby said the Operation Room in the basement is done,” Sam said as he walked up beside Dean, standing in the doorway with his shoulder brushing Dean’s. “Said he’ll be back in a few weeks with a stack of books for us too.”
Dean nodded his head at that. “Yeah, he mentioned something about that to me too.”
“Yeah. I was thinking we could get started with Dad’s journal though. Find a way to organize the information with his first since we know it so well.”
Dean nodded. “I was thinking about it too. You know how they have those brackets… the um … taxonomy you learned about in biology?”
“You mean like family and genus and species?”
“Yeah, that. It works for the natural world, right? So why not the supernatural?”
Sam stared at him for a minute before shaking his head. “Wow, that would be…”
“I mean, maybe it wouldn’t work. But hey, if we know all shifters hate silver and you categorize something as a shifter but we don’t know anything about it, then at least you have a good chance, right?”
“That’s awesome. I was just gonna say it’s a lot of work.”
“Years worth. We’ve got the time though Sam.”
Sam smiled at Dean. “Yeah, we do.” He looked around the place one last time and leaned into Dean. “Come on Dean. Let’s go see our new home.”
He was so damn proud of Sam, of the man he was becoming and he wasn’t sure what made him do it, but he reached an arm out and pulled Sam to him, pressing a kiss to his brother’s temple. He felt Sam tense under him but then he relaxed completely.
Things weren’t the same as they had been. Their lives were different and their relationship was shifting and changing with the new roles they had, the way they had come to lean on each other and depend on each other to keep going after their father’s death. They were still Sam and Dean though, still brothers through and through.
As Sam walked down to the Impala, Dean took one last look, saying good-bye to the last place they lived with their Dad, feeling his heart sink slightly at the thought.
He turned away though, looking back to the car and Sam standing by the passenger door waiting for him. It wasn’t the future he’d always imagined, but maybe it was better for all the surprises it had already thrown at them. Only thing he needed now was Sam at his side and he had that.
No one could ever change that.
On to
Safe