Wish for a Winchester 2 - On the Road Again
Title - Wish for a Winchester
Chapter - 2: On the Road Again
Rating - T
Fandoms - Supernatural/BtVS
Words - 3,397
Disclaimer - I don't own either Supernatural or BtVS
Summary - "I can't do this without you, Dean." "I wish like hell you didn't have to..." Dean's deal is coming due, who will protect Sam in his stead? The third Winchester brother of course. Xander meet your new family.
1 - Wish You Were Here
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Chapter 2 - On The Road Again (Canned Heat) =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
"'Cause it's soon one morning
Down the road I'm going.
But I aint going down that long old lonesome road
All by myself."
Palo Alto, California
Stanford University
Present Day
Sam was gratefully sleeping off the shots he'd been good-naturedly forced into drinking by his friends in celebration of his victory on the LSATs when he was awoken by a sound from the other room. Being as quiet as possible and stepping carefully around the floorboards he knew would creak, he made his way to the hall where he saw one of the windows near the front door was open and blowing cold air. It was late October, so there was no way Jess had accidentally left it open. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a human shaped silhouette walk by the doorway into the kitchen. He circled around to Jess' studio and waited by the door for the intruder to come through.
He let the shorter man take a few steps into the dark room, looking him over quickly from behind, trying to judge his threat level. It didn't look like he was carrying any obvious weapons. Sam reached out and grabbed the back of the strangers neck, but when he moved to flip him to the ground, his hold was blocked and turned back on him locking their arms together as they spun around. Sam broke himself free and stumbled back into the living room. He kicked at his attacker, reaching for the sides of the wide doorway for support to balance himself but missed as he was shoved farther back and almost stumbled over the coffee table.
He threw a punch but it was ducked and his arm was grabbed tight, preventing him from avoiding the fist that backhanded him hard across the face. Sam reeled back for a moment, trying to shake off the disorientation. He kicked at where he could vaguely see the man's head but was dodged as the shorter man spun into a high punch, which he blocked only to be hit in the gut with the following fist. Before he could react the other man grabbed him by the collar and wrist, using them as leverage to spin him to the ground, holding both of his arms immobile. "Whoa, down boy."
That voice was familiar. Sam tried to shift to see his attacker better, but was still securely pinned to the floor by the throat, so he had to settle for peering up through his long bangs at his smug looking older brother. "What the-- Dean?"
Dean chuckled evilly, aiming his biggest self-aggrandized victory smile down at his confused sibling. God, he loved getting one up on one of the twins. They ganged up on him too much, it always felt good to prove that he could still take them on mano a mano.
Sam just lay there for a moment, trying to calm his breathing and heart-rate. He let himself mentally switch over from 'kill the intruder' mode to 'plan the unpleasant demise of annoying siblings' mode. He looked up at his cheerfully grinning older brother incredulously. "God man, you scared the crap out of me."
Dean tilted his head knowingly, "That's cause you're out of practice, you big baby."
Sam grabbed the wrist of the hand around his throat and twisted it to one side as he brought his leg up over Dean's back on the other and shifted their weight suddenly, allowing him to flip them over, switching their positions and slamming Dean back into the floorboards with Sam's leg tight around his neck. "Or not…Get off me, sasquach."
Looking down at his still smirking brother, Sam just knew that his night wasn't going to get any better. Sure enough, half an hour later saw him guilted into gearing up and packing for a trip to hunt down the man who told him never to come back and leaving the woman he loved with vague excuses about where he was going and why.
-/-/-/-\-\-\-
They were a few hours out of Palo Alto when they came upon a lone figure walking down the road in worn jeans and lugging a hefty looking dufflebag. The brunette apparently heard the rumble of the Impala's engine and stuck out a thumb hopefully. "Oh, look Sammy. A poor distressed hitchhiker. We should stop and see if they need help."
"Yeah, you're a regular hero, Dean. And it's Sam." He rolled his eyes at Dean's self-indulgent 'I'm so kind and generous' tone.
Dean pulled the Impala over and rolled down Sam's window so he could talk to the hitchhiker. "Hey. It's getting pretty late. You need any help?"
"Yeah, there are all sorts of terrible things that could happen to a poor defenseless traveller out here all alone on a night like tonight." A smooth voice floated through the night and Sam slid back in his seat as an athletically built body draped itself over his door, leaning into the car through the open window. Mismatched eyes, one green, one brown peered curiously into the interior. A flirtatious smirk curled over pouting lips. "Maybe I should get myself a big strong pair of protecters. You boys going my way? Think I could I catch a ride? I'll make it well worth your while."
Sam pulled a disgusted face as Dean eyed the curves of the body leaning in the window with an exaggerated leer. "You do look like you know how to have a fun time. Maybe I should ditch the bookworm and we can find a way to amuse ourselves."
With the horrible images inspired by their banter floating around in his mind, Sam glared at both of them. "You two are such freaks. Alex get in the damn car."
With a laugh, the youngest Winchester brother did just that, dropping his heavy, weapon filled duffle in Sam's lap as he climbed into the backseat. Sam immediately chucked the bag back at him when he sat down. He caught it easily with a 'is that all you got' look. "It's good to see some things haven't changed, Sammy still can't take a joke. That big fancy college of yours is sucking all the fun outta you, twin of mine. What kind of greeting is that for your beloved baby brother?"
"I can't believe I'm related to you two." The much abused middle child mourned his lot in life.
"Aw, you know you love us." Alex leaned between their seats, arms wrapped around the headrests and looking at Dean curiously. "So, what's the big emergency? I had a suspicious disappearance to check out in one of those ghost towns in Arizona. Always wanted to poke around in one of those places. Even if it was probably just some idiot tourist who wandered too far and fell down a dry well."
"Dad's missing."
"Yeah, so? He tends to do that." Alex's voice was quiet as the smile slipped off his face. "It's all about the mission, screw the collateral damage or anyone who might worry about him."
"Well, call me worried then. He's been out of contact for too long and I'd rather be wrong and have you both pissed at me for wasting your time than ignore my gut feeling and be right."
Alex heaved a sigh, "Fine. Arizona's too damn dusty and dry this time of year anyways. Where are we headed and what was he working on?"
"Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago this guy-" Sam shuffled through the papers in his lap as Dean spoke and handed one to Alex. "-- they found his car but he'd vanished, completely M.I.A."
Alex glanced at the newspaper clipping briefly, "So, where's the rest of it? Dad works in patterns, and one isn't a pattern."
"See!" Dean turned to Sam with a smirk, "Lex gets it. You're rusty dude. So, then there's another one from April-" Sam went to hand him the next article, but Alex just reached over and grabbed the whole stack, flipping through them quickly. "One in December '04, '03, '98, '92. Ten of them over the past 20 years, all men, all same 5-mile stretch of road. Started happening more and more, so dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I haven't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Dean pulled out his cellphone, quickly flipping through the menus. "Then I get this voicemail yesterday."
Dean held up the phone as John Winchester's easily identified voice crackled through the speakerphone. "Dean, something is starting to happen, I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on..." The voice faded behind the static and was inaudible for a moment, "...be very careful Dean, we're all in danger."
"Cheery. So, did you run the EVP yet?"
"That's my boy." Dean shot a smug look at Sam, who rolled his eyes. "I slowed it down, and ran it through a Gold Wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got."
A woman's voice whispered out of the phone. "I can never go home."
"Never go home." Sam repeated thoughtfully.
Alex grinned and sat back in his seat, making himself comfortable. "Well, I'm convinced. Seems it's time for the three amigos to ride again."
"Three stooges is more like it." Sam grumbled.
"Yeah, whatever Shemp." Sam glared at Alex, who returned his dark look with one of wide eyed innocence. "What? Shemp was an original stooge, left the group over personality conflicts and only came back when Curly was gone."
"He's got you there." Dean chimed in chuckling "The shoe fits, dude."
Sam smirked at him, "You realize that makes you Moe."
Dean grumbled good naturedly. "Yeah, yeah. I get it, you chucklehead."
"Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk." Floated out from the backseat.
"Shut it, Porcupine!" Sam and Dean called in unison, sharing a smile.
The brothers all settled in for a long drive, each lost in thoughts of how this felt right, being together again. Despite years apart, they still fit together perfectly.
-/-/-/-\-\-\-
Alex woke up when he realized that the ever present purring rumble of the Impala was quiet. He yawned jaw poppingly and looked around to see if he could figure out where they were. It looked like they'd stopped at some middle of nowhere small-town gas station. Dean was filling the Impala's tank and Sam sat with his door open, stretching his long legs out and sorting through a shoebox of Dean's music. The quality of the harsh light filtering down through the stations awning told him that the sun had been up for quite a long time.
"Mornin'." Alex draped himself over the back of Sam's chair, still half asleep.
"Finally. If you slept any longer I was going to check your pulse. You sleep like the dead, man."
"Mmm." Alex yawned again, scrubbing at his face. "Maybe I just feel safe and comfortable with the family all back together again."
"Mostly." Sam corrected.
"Yeah, mostly." He agreed, "But it was much more common that it would be just the three of us together, than that Dad would ever be around."
"Which is exactly why I don't understand why Dean is so worried. It's practically Dad's way of life to disappear and not tell anyone about where he is or what he's hunting. He could kill this ghost, whoever she is, easily. So, why is Dean so worried?" Sam chucked the cassette he was holding back into the box in disgust. Alex wasn't sure if the distaste was for the tape itself or the thought of their Dad. The last time John and Sam had been in a room together the entire family had fallen apart.
"Maybe he just missed us?" Alex suggested, "I don't really know. I haven't seen either of them in a few years. Just a phone call here or there. That's why you had to come and pick me up. Dean called and said he was heading your way and I should meet him there. I was running late because I figured it would take him longer to convince you."
"You've been hunting on your own? Why?" Sam turned to him with shocked eyes.
"You went your way, they went theirs, I went mine. Are you really going to blame me for leaving, Sam?" When his brother wilted away from his look, he knew that Sam still felt guilty for leaving them. A hint of vindictive pleasure ran through him at the thought.
"Hey." They both turned to look at Dean, grateful for the distraction. They were twins and they had shared a bond that went deeper than any other relationships, they had been closer to each other than John and Dean could ever hope to be. Alex was just now realizing how much resentment he really felt for Sam leaving him behind. They might have slid easily back into their old relationships, but even being together again didn't heal the issues that had split them apart in the first place. Dean waved his bag of chips and soda at them as he spoke around a half eaten candy bar, "You want breakfast?"
Sam made a face at Dean's chosen breakfast of champions. "No thanks. So how'd you pay for that stuff, anyway? You and dad still running credit card scams?"
Dean tossed a drink to Alex and hung up the nozzle on the pump. "Yeah well…hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career. Besides, all we do is apply, it's not our fault they send us the cards."
"Yeah and what names did you write on the application this time?" As Dean walked back to the drivers side, Sam pulled his legs back into the car and closed the door. Alex sat back in his seat, sipping at his drink and quietly observing his older brothers. He knew Dean had to have felt the same abandonment and hurt that he had, but Dean was always emotionally stonewalling and it was doubtful he'd ever even admitted to himself how much Sam had hurt him. He'd certainly never brought it up, but Alex probably would have been more concerned if he had. Dean wasn't exactly a lovey-dovey, feeling sharing type. He shivered a little at the thought. That'd just be unnatural and wrong, a sure sign of the apocalypse.
"Uh…Bert Aframian and his son, Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal." Dean grinned cheekily and Sam shook his head disprovingly even as he smiled, despite himself.
"Hector Aframian?" Alex scoffed, "That's the best you could come up with? We're supposed to blend in not stick out. If I were a cashier and I saw a twenty something year old guy with the name Hector, I'd remember him well enough to point him out in a line-up."
"Oh really. I suppose you think you could do better?"
"The last card I had was made out to Nicholas Brendan. A nice normal name for a nice normal guy that no one is going to remember half an hour after I've left."
"And while you two are thinking up fake names and new hustling schemes, meanwhile the rest of us are earning an honest living." Sam protested. "I MUST have been adopted."
"You wish." Alex and Dean both said simultaneously.
Sam sorted through the cassettes for a few more seconds before giving up."I swear man, you gotta update your cassette-tape collection."
Dean looked worried, he didn't think any of them were damaged, "Why?"
"Well, for one they are cassette tapes, and two-" He pulled out a few of the cassettes to use as examples, holding them up, "Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."
Dean grabbed a tape from Sam defensively and stuffed it straight into the tape deck. "House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole."
"You know, Sammy is a chubby 12 year old. It's Sam, okay?"
The Impala roared to life and Dean cranked up the music. 'Back in Black' blasted out of the speakers as he taunted, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. The music's too loud."
Alex quietly watched his older, 'wiser' siblings bicker from the backseat. Wise-ass was more like it. "I think I like the rules." He mused, "Less noise over the classics."
"You better be careful Sammy. He just might become my favorite and I'll make a new rule about only letting people with good taste in music ride up front."
"It's SAM!" He retorted futiley over the engine and music, then muttered. "--and my taste in music is fine."
-/-/-/-\-\-\-
"Hey. Check it out." Dean caught their attention to the collection of police cars and cops milling around on the bridge into town as he pulled the Impala onto the dirt shoulder of the road. After a moment's consideration he reached over Sam to the glovebox and pulled out a cigar case. Flipping it open he started sorting through a pile of fake IDs.
Sam looked to the backseat and found Alex rustling around in his duffle and pulling a similar box. "Looks like a party, good thing I brought my invite. Marshalls?"
"Marshalls." Dean agreed as he grabbed an ID wallet. They shared a grin at Sam's bemusement. Dean peered over his shoulder at his youngest brother. "Lemme see those. I'd hate to get nabbed cause you have some shoddy photocopied ID."
"Why do you even have those?" Sam was horrified. He'd always hoped that his twin had shared his desire for a normal life. After he had left, he had assuaged his guilt by telling himself that Alex would have been able to find an opportunity to escape the hunting lifestyle and get himself a regular, safe life. Instead, it looked like his younger brother had embraced the illegal side of hunting wholeheartedly in his absense.
Alex didn't have any idea he was the subject of Sam's internal turmoil and just smiled confidently as he handed over his collection of IDs to Dean, who flipped through them for a moment before whistling. "Very nice. These could stand up to a legit version in any side by side comparision, you'd probably have to run the numbers to figure out they're fakes. You have become a true master at your art, young grasshopper, I have nothing left to teach you. I may just have to get you to redo some of mine. Well, let's go... partner."
"You can't be serious." Sam glared at Dean with his patented 'bitch face.' He couldn't believe Dean was not only proud of Alex for making his own fake IDs but was encouraging him to pretend to be a Federal agent.
"Relax. I taught Lex everything I know about making IDs and it looks like he even found a way to improve on it. There's no way we'll get caught." The eldest of the present Winchesters just smiled in his patented 'devil may care' way and stepped out of the car, ignoring Sam's eyes on his back.
"Dean..."
"Well, seeing as you are too much of an upstanding law abiding citizen to even have a fake credit card, I couldn't possibly ask you to pose as a fraudulent officer of that law you love so very, very much." Apparently, Dean had no problems letting their younger brother commit a felony, and he relished rubbing that fact in Sam's face.
"Don't worry, Sammy. We left you the most important job. You can guard the car." Alex smiled comfortingly at him with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"It's Sam." He told the empty car as he crossed his arms and scowled. He had always hated it when Dad had left them behind to go investigate his newest hunt, it stung even more when he was left behind by his brothers. He tried to ignore a small voice in the back of his head that asked what he had really expected. He was the one who had left. He didn't have the right to be upset that his brothers had gotten so close in his absense. He couldn't complain about being left behind, not when he was the one who left them first.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= TBC =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=A/N:
I left off the obnoxious *Canon Dialogue* stars. If you recognize it, it's not mine.
I feel like I'm doing horrible things to Sam's character. I really don't mean to turn him into such a sissy-girly-man, it just kinda happened. Although, I think it's more that Alex and Dean's teasing blows it way out of proportion than he's really that pathetic. Hopefully I'll be able to toughen him up as the story continues. There'll probably be a drastic change after Jess dies and he gets into 'whatever it takes' mode.
I have never been more thankful for my method of writing in my life. I write out dialogue first, then go back and re-read and write out actions, then go back and re-read and write out thought process. Then I'll go back several more times re-reading it dozens of times and fleshing it out farther by adding a sentence here and there. I finished this chapter and started the next, but accidentally saved Ch. 3 over what I had, I almost cried. 2995 words, GONE. Luckily, I went back and was able to re-write it all from memory. I think it's actually pretty close- very, very close... in an 'I'm scared of my brainpower now' way. When I was finished re-writing the bits I remembered, I was only about 400 words under what I originally had. I'd say it's about 97% word for word of the original.
Distribution: FFN (Lightning_Skies), Twisting the Hellmouth (LightningSkies), LiveJournal (Lightning_Skies)
Author has given no other permissions. Message if you want it.
3,397 Words - 03/19/10
Chapter - 2: On the Road Again
Rating - T
Fandoms - Supernatural/BtVS
Words - 3,397
Disclaimer - I don't own either Supernatural or BtVS
Summary - "I can't do this without you, Dean." "I wish like hell you didn't have to..." Dean's deal is coming due, who will protect Sam in his stead? The third Winchester brother of course. Xander meet your new family.
1 - Wish You Were Here
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Chapter 2 - On The Road Again (Canned Heat) =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
"'Cause it's soon one morning
Down the road I'm going.
But I aint going down that long old lonesome road
All by myself."
Palo Alto, California
Stanford University
Present Day
Sam was gratefully sleeping off the shots he'd been good-naturedly forced into drinking by his friends in celebration of his victory on the LSATs when he was awoken by a sound from the other room. Being as quiet as possible and stepping carefully around the floorboards he knew would creak, he made his way to the hall where he saw one of the windows near the front door was open and blowing cold air. It was late October, so there was no way Jess had accidentally left it open. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a human shaped silhouette walk by the doorway into the kitchen. He circled around to Jess' studio and waited by the door for the intruder to come through.
He let the shorter man take a few steps into the dark room, looking him over quickly from behind, trying to judge his threat level. It didn't look like he was carrying any obvious weapons. Sam reached out and grabbed the back of the strangers neck, but when he moved to flip him to the ground, his hold was blocked and turned back on him locking their arms together as they spun around. Sam broke himself free and stumbled back into the living room. He kicked at his attacker, reaching for the sides of the wide doorway for support to balance himself but missed as he was shoved farther back and almost stumbled over the coffee table.
He threw a punch but it was ducked and his arm was grabbed tight, preventing him from avoiding the fist that backhanded him hard across the face. Sam reeled back for a moment, trying to shake off the disorientation. He kicked at where he could vaguely see the man's head but was dodged as the shorter man spun into a high punch, which he blocked only to be hit in the gut with the following fist. Before he could react the other man grabbed him by the collar and wrist, using them as leverage to spin him to the ground, holding both of his arms immobile. "Whoa, down boy."
That voice was familiar. Sam tried to shift to see his attacker better, but was still securely pinned to the floor by the throat, so he had to settle for peering up through his long bangs at his smug looking older brother. "What the-- Dean?"
Dean chuckled evilly, aiming his biggest self-aggrandized victory smile down at his confused sibling. God, he loved getting one up on one of the twins. They ganged up on him too much, it always felt good to prove that he could still take them on mano a mano.
Sam just lay there for a moment, trying to calm his breathing and heart-rate. He let himself mentally switch over from 'kill the intruder' mode to 'plan the unpleasant demise of annoying siblings' mode. He looked up at his cheerfully grinning older brother incredulously. "God man, you scared the crap out of me."
Dean tilted his head knowingly, "That's cause you're out of practice, you big baby."
Sam grabbed the wrist of the hand around his throat and twisted it to one side as he brought his leg up over Dean's back on the other and shifted their weight suddenly, allowing him to flip them over, switching their positions and slamming Dean back into the floorboards with Sam's leg tight around his neck. "Or not…Get off me, sasquach."
Looking down at his still smirking brother, Sam just knew that his night wasn't going to get any better. Sure enough, half an hour later saw him guilted into gearing up and packing for a trip to hunt down the man who told him never to come back and leaving the woman he loved with vague excuses about where he was going and why.
-/-/-/-\-\-\-
They were a few hours out of Palo Alto when they came upon a lone figure walking down the road in worn jeans and lugging a hefty looking dufflebag. The brunette apparently heard the rumble of the Impala's engine and stuck out a thumb hopefully. "Oh, look Sammy. A poor distressed hitchhiker. We should stop and see if they need help."
"Yeah, you're a regular hero, Dean. And it's Sam." He rolled his eyes at Dean's self-indulgent 'I'm so kind and generous' tone.
Dean pulled the Impala over and rolled down Sam's window so he could talk to the hitchhiker. "Hey. It's getting pretty late. You need any help?"
"Yeah, there are all sorts of terrible things that could happen to a poor defenseless traveller out here all alone on a night like tonight." A smooth voice floated through the night and Sam slid back in his seat as an athletically built body draped itself over his door, leaning into the car through the open window. Mismatched eyes, one green, one brown peered curiously into the interior. A flirtatious smirk curled over pouting lips. "Maybe I should get myself a big strong pair of protecters. You boys going my way? Think I could I catch a ride? I'll make it well worth your while."
Sam pulled a disgusted face as Dean eyed the curves of the body leaning in the window with an exaggerated leer. "You do look like you know how to have a fun time. Maybe I should ditch the bookworm and we can find a way to amuse ourselves."
With the horrible images inspired by their banter floating around in his mind, Sam glared at both of them. "You two are such freaks. Alex get in the damn car."
With a laugh, the youngest Winchester brother did just that, dropping his heavy, weapon filled duffle in Sam's lap as he climbed into the backseat. Sam immediately chucked the bag back at him when he sat down. He caught it easily with a 'is that all you got' look. "It's good to see some things haven't changed, Sammy still can't take a joke. That big fancy college of yours is sucking all the fun outta you, twin of mine. What kind of greeting is that for your beloved baby brother?"
"I can't believe I'm related to you two." The much abused middle child mourned his lot in life.
"Aw, you know you love us." Alex leaned between their seats, arms wrapped around the headrests and looking at Dean curiously. "So, what's the big emergency? I had a suspicious disappearance to check out in one of those ghost towns in Arizona. Always wanted to poke around in one of those places. Even if it was probably just some idiot tourist who wandered too far and fell down a dry well."
"Dad's missing."
"Yeah, so? He tends to do that." Alex's voice was quiet as the smile slipped off his face. "It's all about the mission, screw the collateral damage or anyone who might worry about him."
"Well, call me worried then. He's been out of contact for too long and I'd rather be wrong and have you both pissed at me for wasting your time than ignore my gut feeling and be right."
Alex heaved a sigh, "Fine. Arizona's too damn dusty and dry this time of year anyways. Where are we headed and what was he working on?"
"Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago this guy-" Sam shuffled through the papers in his lap as Dean spoke and handed one to Alex. "-- they found his car but he'd vanished, completely M.I.A."
Alex glanced at the newspaper clipping briefly, "So, where's the rest of it? Dad works in patterns, and one isn't a pattern."
"See!" Dean turned to Sam with a smirk, "Lex gets it. You're rusty dude. So, then there's another one from April-" Sam went to hand him the next article, but Alex just reached over and grabbed the whole stack, flipping through them quickly. "One in December '04, '03, '98, '92. Ten of them over the past 20 years, all men, all same 5-mile stretch of road. Started happening more and more, so dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I haven't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Dean pulled out his cellphone, quickly flipping through the menus. "Then I get this voicemail yesterday."
Dean held up the phone as John Winchester's easily identified voice crackled through the speakerphone. "Dean, something is starting to happen, I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on..." The voice faded behind the static and was inaudible for a moment, "...be very careful Dean, we're all in danger."
"Cheery. So, did you run the EVP yet?"
"That's my boy." Dean shot a smug look at Sam, who rolled his eyes. "I slowed it down, and ran it through a Gold Wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got."
A woman's voice whispered out of the phone. "I can never go home."
"Never go home." Sam repeated thoughtfully.
Alex grinned and sat back in his seat, making himself comfortable. "Well, I'm convinced. Seems it's time for the three amigos to ride again."
"Three stooges is more like it." Sam grumbled.
"Yeah, whatever Shemp." Sam glared at Alex, who returned his dark look with one of wide eyed innocence. "What? Shemp was an original stooge, left the group over personality conflicts and only came back when Curly was gone."
"He's got you there." Dean chimed in chuckling "The shoe fits, dude."
Sam smirked at him, "You realize that makes you Moe."
Dean grumbled good naturedly. "Yeah, yeah. I get it, you chucklehead."
"Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk." Floated out from the backseat.
"Shut it, Porcupine!" Sam and Dean called in unison, sharing a smile.
The brothers all settled in for a long drive, each lost in thoughts of how this felt right, being together again. Despite years apart, they still fit together perfectly.
-/-/-/-\-\-\-
Alex woke up when he realized that the ever present purring rumble of the Impala was quiet. He yawned jaw poppingly and looked around to see if he could figure out where they were. It looked like they'd stopped at some middle of nowhere small-town gas station. Dean was filling the Impala's tank and Sam sat with his door open, stretching his long legs out and sorting through a shoebox of Dean's music. The quality of the harsh light filtering down through the stations awning told him that the sun had been up for quite a long time.
"Mornin'." Alex draped himself over the back of Sam's chair, still half asleep.
"Finally. If you slept any longer I was going to check your pulse. You sleep like the dead, man."
"Mmm." Alex yawned again, scrubbing at his face. "Maybe I just feel safe and comfortable with the family all back together again."
"Mostly." Sam corrected.
"Yeah, mostly." He agreed, "But it was much more common that it would be just the three of us together, than that Dad would ever be around."
"Which is exactly why I don't understand why Dean is so worried. It's practically Dad's way of life to disappear and not tell anyone about where he is or what he's hunting. He could kill this ghost, whoever she is, easily. So, why is Dean so worried?" Sam chucked the cassette he was holding back into the box in disgust. Alex wasn't sure if the distaste was for the tape itself or the thought of their Dad. The last time John and Sam had been in a room together the entire family had fallen apart.
"Maybe he just missed us?" Alex suggested, "I don't really know. I haven't seen either of them in a few years. Just a phone call here or there. That's why you had to come and pick me up. Dean called and said he was heading your way and I should meet him there. I was running late because I figured it would take him longer to convince you."
"You've been hunting on your own? Why?" Sam turned to him with shocked eyes.
"You went your way, they went theirs, I went mine. Are you really going to blame me for leaving, Sam?" When his brother wilted away from his look, he knew that Sam still felt guilty for leaving them. A hint of vindictive pleasure ran through him at the thought.
"Hey." They both turned to look at Dean, grateful for the distraction. They were twins and they had shared a bond that went deeper than any other relationships, they had been closer to each other than John and Dean could ever hope to be. Alex was just now realizing how much resentment he really felt for Sam leaving him behind. They might have slid easily back into their old relationships, but even being together again didn't heal the issues that had split them apart in the first place. Dean waved his bag of chips and soda at them as he spoke around a half eaten candy bar, "You want breakfast?"
Sam made a face at Dean's chosen breakfast of champions. "No thanks. So how'd you pay for that stuff, anyway? You and dad still running credit card scams?"
Dean tossed a drink to Alex and hung up the nozzle on the pump. "Yeah well…hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career. Besides, all we do is apply, it's not our fault they send us the cards."
"Yeah and what names did you write on the application this time?" As Dean walked back to the drivers side, Sam pulled his legs back into the car and closed the door. Alex sat back in his seat, sipping at his drink and quietly observing his older brothers. He knew Dean had to have felt the same abandonment and hurt that he had, but Dean was always emotionally stonewalling and it was doubtful he'd ever even admitted to himself how much Sam had hurt him. He'd certainly never brought it up, but Alex probably would have been more concerned if he had. Dean wasn't exactly a lovey-dovey, feeling sharing type. He shivered a little at the thought. That'd just be unnatural and wrong, a sure sign of the apocalypse.
"Uh…Bert Aframian and his son, Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal." Dean grinned cheekily and Sam shook his head disprovingly even as he smiled, despite himself.
"Hector Aframian?" Alex scoffed, "That's the best you could come up with? We're supposed to blend in not stick out. If I were a cashier and I saw a twenty something year old guy with the name Hector, I'd remember him well enough to point him out in a line-up."
"Oh really. I suppose you think you could do better?"
"The last card I had was made out to Nicholas Brendan. A nice normal name for a nice normal guy that no one is going to remember half an hour after I've left."
"And while you two are thinking up fake names and new hustling schemes, meanwhile the rest of us are earning an honest living." Sam protested. "I MUST have been adopted."
"You wish." Alex and Dean both said simultaneously.
Sam sorted through the cassettes for a few more seconds before giving up."I swear man, you gotta update your cassette-tape collection."
Dean looked worried, he didn't think any of them were damaged, "Why?"
"Well, for one they are cassette tapes, and two-" He pulled out a few of the cassettes to use as examples, holding them up, "Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock."
Dean grabbed a tape from Sam defensively and stuffed it straight into the tape deck. "House rules, Sammy. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole."
"You know, Sammy is a chubby 12 year old. It's Sam, okay?"
The Impala roared to life and Dean cranked up the music. 'Back in Black' blasted out of the speakers as he taunted, "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. The music's too loud."
Alex quietly watched his older, 'wiser' siblings bicker from the backseat. Wise-ass was more like it. "I think I like the rules." He mused, "Less noise over the classics."
"You better be careful Sammy. He just might become my favorite and I'll make a new rule about only letting people with good taste in music ride up front."
"It's SAM!" He retorted futiley over the engine and music, then muttered. "--and my taste in music is fine."
-/-/-/-\-\-\-
"Hey. Check it out." Dean caught their attention to the collection of police cars and cops milling around on the bridge into town as he pulled the Impala onto the dirt shoulder of the road. After a moment's consideration he reached over Sam to the glovebox and pulled out a cigar case. Flipping it open he started sorting through a pile of fake IDs.
Sam looked to the backseat and found Alex rustling around in his duffle and pulling a similar box. "Looks like a party, good thing I brought my invite. Marshalls?"
"Marshalls." Dean agreed as he grabbed an ID wallet. They shared a grin at Sam's bemusement. Dean peered over his shoulder at his youngest brother. "Lemme see those. I'd hate to get nabbed cause you have some shoddy photocopied ID."
"Why do you even have those?" Sam was horrified. He'd always hoped that his twin had shared his desire for a normal life. After he had left, he had assuaged his guilt by telling himself that Alex would have been able to find an opportunity to escape the hunting lifestyle and get himself a regular, safe life. Instead, it looked like his younger brother had embraced the illegal side of hunting wholeheartedly in his absense.
Alex didn't have any idea he was the subject of Sam's internal turmoil and just smiled confidently as he handed over his collection of IDs to Dean, who flipped through them for a moment before whistling. "Very nice. These could stand up to a legit version in any side by side comparision, you'd probably have to run the numbers to figure out they're fakes. You have become a true master at your art, young grasshopper, I have nothing left to teach you. I may just have to get you to redo some of mine. Well, let's go... partner."
"You can't be serious." Sam glared at Dean with his patented 'bitch face.' He couldn't believe Dean was not only proud of Alex for making his own fake IDs but was encouraging him to pretend to be a Federal agent.
"Relax. I taught Lex everything I know about making IDs and it looks like he even found a way to improve on it. There's no way we'll get caught." The eldest of the present Winchesters just smiled in his patented 'devil may care' way and stepped out of the car, ignoring Sam's eyes on his back.
"Dean..."
"Well, seeing as you are too much of an upstanding law abiding citizen to even have a fake credit card, I couldn't possibly ask you to pose as a fraudulent officer of that law you love so very, very much." Apparently, Dean had no problems letting their younger brother commit a felony, and he relished rubbing that fact in Sam's face.
"Don't worry, Sammy. We left you the most important job. You can guard the car." Alex smiled comfortingly at him with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"It's Sam." He told the empty car as he crossed his arms and scowled. He had always hated it when Dad had left them behind to go investigate his newest hunt, it stung even more when he was left behind by his brothers. He tried to ignore a small voice in the back of his head that asked what he had really expected. He was the one who had left. He didn't have the right to be upset that his brothers had gotten so close in his absense. He couldn't complain about being left behind, not when he was the one who left them first.
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= TBC =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=A/N:
I left off the obnoxious *Canon Dialogue* stars. If you recognize it, it's not mine.
I feel like I'm doing horrible things to Sam's character. I really don't mean to turn him into such a sissy-girly-man, it just kinda happened. Although, I think it's more that Alex and Dean's teasing blows it way out of proportion than he's really that pathetic. Hopefully I'll be able to toughen him up as the story continues. There'll probably be a drastic change after Jess dies and he gets into 'whatever it takes' mode.
I have never been more thankful for my method of writing in my life. I write out dialogue first, then go back and re-read and write out actions, then go back and re-read and write out thought process. Then I'll go back several more times re-reading it dozens of times and fleshing it out farther by adding a sentence here and there. I finished this chapter and started the next, but accidentally saved Ch. 3 over what I had, I almost cried. 2995 words, GONE. Luckily, I went back and was able to re-write it all from memory. I think it's actually pretty close- very, very close... in an 'I'm scared of my brainpower now' way. When I was finished re-writing the bits I remembered, I was only about 400 words under what I originally had. I'd say it's about 97% word for word of the original.
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3,397 Words - 03/19/10