The Kid, Part 16, Supernatural, PG
Fandom: Supernatural
Title: The Kid Part 16 ( All of The Kid can be found Here)
Characters/Pairings: Dean, Sam, John
Rating: PG
Genre: GEN (did you even know I could GEN?)
Word Count: 2383
Summary: Dean is 18, Sam is 14. John is 8. Dean works on unraveling the clues John left for them while Sam works at understanding the world through the eyes of puberty.
A/Ns & Warnings: Um. This is at least partially varkelton's fault. De-aging fic.
Pretty art provided by fallen_for_lost
Dean huffed on his hands, trying to warm his fingers enough to get the lock open on the small box. It was going to be dark soon, and he still had a long drive ahead of him.
Finally the lock gave and he opened the box, cussing when he found another note and more…well, he wasn’t sure what they were, exactly. More pieces to the puzzle and damn if that wasn’t frustrating. He put the box in the trunk with the other pieces and pulled out the note.
It was more code, but by now he’d gotten parts of the damn thing memorized so he could make out a little of it without digging out the journal. Four days he’d been on this goddamn scavenger hunt following cryptic clues left by his father.
He picked out enough to know that he wasn’t going to get through it standing in the middle of a flipping field in the middle of a snow storm and he folded the note up, sticking it back into the box and slamming the trunk shut.
He’d started at Bobby’s place, and the beat up lock box his father had left him in the wheel well of an old junked car. The box had almost two thousand dollars in it, which wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but really would be helpful, especially at the rate Sam was putting on inches these days.
There had been a note too, a little less cryptic than some of the others, more information about what it was Dean had to do, and a map. Which had brought him here. In the middle of nowhere, under a tree, in a field, freezing his ass off.
The field was between towns. A half hour away from the place they’d been staying when his father disappeared and a six year old had taken his place. If Bobby’s theory about what happened was true, this was likely where his father had run into the freaking fairy-thing that had changed him.
Dean didn’t let himself dwell on that. His father was gone and all of this running around following the clues he’d left behind was only hammering that fact into his brain. He slid in behind the wheel and brought the car to life. Four days of driving and bad coffee and all he had to show for it was a trunk full of cryptic notes and coded instructions and a half dozen pieces of some puzzle that he was supposed to put together.
He got himself on the road and headed for home. Sam was going to be angry it took so long, and angrier still when Dean had nothing more to tell him. He needed time to decipher everything. Time to put the pieces together. And figure out what it was that demon wanted with Sam.
It was nearly midnight when Dean finally pulled into the driveway. The old mustang out front told him that Sam’s friend was there. The lights were out, except for the flickering of the television and the Christmas tree lights in the living room.
Dean left the box in the trunk and let himself in the front door. Sam and Matt stood abruptly from the couch, Matt looking guilty, his face flushing. Dean raised an eyebrow. “Boys.”
“I…um…I should go.” Matt nodded. “It’s late. I…” He looked from Dean to Sam and then started reaching for his coat.
“Don’t run off on my account.” Dean said, dropping his coat on the chair. “I’m going to bed.”
He heard Sam whispering to Matt as he got to the stairs. “Oh, hey Sammy?” Sam crossed to him, looking annoyed. Dean leaned in with a wink. “Just keep the moaning down, I’m tired.”
Sam punched him in the arm and Dean chuckled as he headed upstairs. He stopped at his bedroom door and peeked over the railing just enough to catch a quick kiss before Sam was holding the door open.
The television clicked off, and Dean headed into his room, leaving the door open because he knew Sam was headed straight for him. “Well?”
Dean kicked off his boots and started pulling off his layers of shirt. “I’ve been driving for four hours Sam. I’m cold, I’m wet and I’m tired.”
"And I've been here explaining to John three times a day why you took off right after Christmas dinner." Sam crossed his arms and leaned against the door.
Dean sighed and nodded. "I don't have any answers. Not yet." He looked his brother in the eye. "I've got a box filled with more questions and notes and names and some puzzle. It's going to take some time."
Sam's face was pinched, angry. "I don't know that we have time. Missouri was here yesterday, all worked up about some crazy crap…a demon holiday or something."
Dean had pulled some books out of the storage unit, one of which dealt with demonic holy days. He shoved his feet back into his boots and headed back down the stairs, Sam hot on his ass. Sam waited on the porch as Dean went to the trunk and pulled the box out.
He dropped the box onto the coffee table as Sam turned on the lights. "Okay, so I started at Bobby's. Dad's note said he left us a lock box with some cash and information." He pulled the lock box out and held it up. "There's a couple thousand dollars, a bunch of ammo and another note."
Dean pushed the big box out of the way and opened the lock box, setting the money aside and pulling out the note. He hesitated briefly, then handed it over to Sam. He'd read it enough times that he knew each word.
Boys,
The ammo in this box is not to be used except in the most dire of emergencies. The gun that fires it is hidden, locked away. When the time comes you will know where to find it and how to use it. Until then, keep this safe.
Dad
"That's it?" Sam asked incredulously.
"Turn it over." On the back was more of the damn code. Dean sighed. "It sent me back to the lock up for books." Dean pulled the books out of the box, opening one of them. "Where I found this." He held up an envelope.
In the envelope was another note and the first flat piece of metal. He dumped it out onto his hand.
“What is it?”
Dean shrugged and held it up to the light. “The first piece. I don’t know. The note doesn’t help.”
Sam took the envelope and pulled the note out.
You will need this when the time comes. You will find the other pieces hidden in the places listed in the journal. The last pieces are under the tree in the field where we buried the last bones of Gremair.
“The what?” Sam asked, frowning up at him.
Dean sighed and rubbed his face. “Gremair, that weird warrior-wizard guy. Remember when we were in Texas and that other hunter asked Dad to help him scatter the bones? We buried a hand in Pennsylvania and a leg in that field.”
“So, you obviously knew where to go.”
“Yeah, only, I just found more of the same crap.” He reached into the box for the smaller box he’d pulled out of the earth. “Note’s totally in code this time. Two more of the metal bits. I found three more in other books.”
“So we have six flat metal pieces, a handful of books and notes in code. Not much to go on.”
Dean nodded. “I know. I’ll work on solving the codes tomorrow. I need to sleep.”
“You have to work tomorrow.” Sam reminded him as Dean put everything back into the box. “I could work on it.”
Dean didn’t like that idea. Not at all. “Don’t you and loverboy have some debate thing to work on?”
“His name is Matt and he isn’t…” Sam sighed and stood. “Why do you do that?”
Dean frowned as he lifted the box. “Do what?”
“Make it sound so…dirty.”
“Do I?”
Sam stopped at his bedroom door. “Not all relationships are about getting laid as fast as you can and walking away.”
“You really like this guy.” Dean said, starting to wonder what really had been going on when he walked in the front door.
“We’re friends.” Sam insisted.
“Who kiss goodbye?”
Sam blushed scarlet. “You saw that?”
Dean put the box down and pushed it toward his bedroom. “Small house.” He crossed his arms and leaned on the wall. “Seriously…what’s going on here?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know…not really. I mean…he’s nice and I like him and he’s into me…and I…just don’t know.”
There was something in Sam’s face, a fear Dean couldn’t quite place until Sam’s eyes lifted to his. He was afraid of what Dean would think. About him and a guy. Dean had to admit, he hadn’t been at his most supportive the last time they’d talked about it, when he’d figured out that Sam might be leaning toward the gay side of the fence. He just couldn’t think of his brother that way. “I’m not sure what you need me to say.”
Sam’s face was red as he looked away. “I don’t know either.”
“Probably not good to get civilians involved right now.” He’d cooled things down with Sarah for the same reasons. He didn’t need another person to look after while he figured this out.
Sam snorted and pushed his door open. “Right. Because I can explain that to him.” He sighed and looked at Dean. “You know, maybe that’s what’s wrong with us Dean. Maybe if Dad had found someone after Mom died, things would have been more normal for us. Maybe we can have normal too.”
“You’re the one who wanted to go back to training, to hunting.”
Sam nodded. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to have friends and maybe more.”
Dean rubbed a hand over his face. He was exhausted and this conversation was rambling to places he wasn’t sure he could follow. “Get some sleep Sam.”
He pushed the box into his room and under the bed. Part of him wanted to pull out all of the notes, including the one he’d found in the demon book, the one that told him about the demon that killed their mother, and what their father thought he wanted with Sam. He hadn’t shown that to his brother.
Sam had enough on his plate without that burden. At least for now. He needed to sleep though, he had to work in the morning and he needed a fresh head when he started working on the codes.
Dean knew he’d come home and find Sam working on the box. Even though he’d told him not to. That was why he’d taken the two notes with him. Sure enough, he found Sam in the kitchen with paper and books and bits of metal spread out on the table.
“Any progress?”
“Some.” Sam said without looking up. He pointed to a notepad.
Dean lifted it, squinting to make out the words in Sam’s sloppy handwriting. “Great, more scavenger hunts.”
The list of instructions included a trip to yet another storage locker, this one a two day drive away.
“I called. The lease is due to run out. We need to get there in the next few days.” Sam said, his fingers tracing a line of code on one of the notes.
“I can’t take time off right now.” Dean sighed. He could probably get Bobby to do it. Ask him to clean the locker out. They could sort through everything and maybe stash some of it at the locker in Lazlo. “Okay, I’ll call Bobby.”
Sam nodded, then snapped his fingers, gesturing at the paper under his hand. “I think I know what the metal pieces are.” He looked up at Dean, his eyes bright. “They’re the key to opening the box…the curse box.”
Dean frowned and leaned over him. “They don’t look like a key.”
“There’s a reference here to some ritual…and another book…but see here?” He pointed, then grabbed the notepad out of Dean’s hands, scribbling the translation. “Assemble the key and place the curse box on top. This opens the first lock.” He made a face, “…or something like that. Dad’s handwriting sucks.”
Dean chuckled. “Says you.” He pulled in a deep breath. “Where’s this book?”
“Don’t know yet. Give me a few more minutes.”
Dean shook his head. “Enough for today, Sam. I’ll send Bobby after the other locker. Why don’t you get dinner ready? I’ll go check on John.”
“Dean-“
“Sam, I don’t want you getting all obsessive about this. We’ve got time.”
“You don’t know that.”
Dean sighed, pulling the notepad away. “No, I don’t. But I’m serious. You need to put it away for now.”
Sam looked like he was going to argue, then John’s feet were pounding down the stairs and he was throwing himself at Dean. “Dad!”
“Hey buddy.”
“I missed you.” John hugged Dean as hard as he could, his little arms around Dean’s neck. “Sam said you were on an adventure, looking for treasure.”
“He did, did he?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at Sam who was starting to clear the table.
“Is that the treasure?” John asked, pointing at the box.
“Sort of.”
“It’s more like the map that will lead us to the treasure, Johnny.” Sam said.
“Like in that movie?”
Sam smiled and nodded. “Yeah. We watched Goonies while you were gone,” he explained to Dean.
“Matt brought it over and we made popcorn and watched these kids follow a map and there was a boat and treasure and kissing.” John said. His eyes got big and he looked at Sam, then back at Dean. “In the movie. There was kissing in the movie.”
“In the movie, eh?”
John nodded earnestly as Dean put him down. “In the movie.”
Sam left the room quickly with the box. Dean chuckled and ruffled John’s hair. “Well, I’m home now and things can get back to normal.”
As normal as they could be in a house with a father who had become his son, and demons were hunting for them anyway.
Title: The Kid Part 16 ( All of The Kid can be found Here)
Characters/Pairings: Dean, Sam, John
Rating: PG
Genre: GEN (did you even know I could GEN?)
Word Count: 2383
Summary: Dean is 18, Sam is 14. John is 8. Dean works on unraveling the clues John left for them while Sam works at understanding the world through the eyes of puberty.
A/Ns & Warnings: Um. This is at least partially varkelton's fault. De-aging fic.
Pretty art provided by fallen_for_lost
Dean huffed on his hands, trying to warm his fingers enough to get the lock open on the small box. It was going to be dark soon, and he still had a long drive ahead of him.
Finally the lock gave and he opened the box, cussing when he found another note and more…well, he wasn’t sure what they were, exactly. More pieces to the puzzle and damn if that wasn’t frustrating. He put the box in the trunk with the other pieces and pulled out the note.
It was more code, but by now he’d gotten parts of the damn thing memorized so he could make out a little of it without digging out the journal. Four days he’d been on this goddamn scavenger hunt following cryptic clues left by his father.
He picked out enough to know that he wasn’t going to get through it standing in the middle of a flipping field in the middle of a snow storm and he folded the note up, sticking it back into the box and slamming the trunk shut.
He’d started at Bobby’s place, and the beat up lock box his father had left him in the wheel well of an old junked car. The box had almost two thousand dollars in it, which wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but really would be helpful, especially at the rate Sam was putting on inches these days.
There had been a note too, a little less cryptic than some of the others, more information about what it was Dean had to do, and a map. Which had brought him here. In the middle of nowhere, under a tree, in a field, freezing his ass off.
The field was between towns. A half hour away from the place they’d been staying when his father disappeared and a six year old had taken his place. If Bobby’s theory about what happened was true, this was likely where his father had run into the freaking fairy-thing that had changed him.
Dean didn’t let himself dwell on that. His father was gone and all of this running around following the clues he’d left behind was only hammering that fact into his brain. He slid in behind the wheel and brought the car to life. Four days of driving and bad coffee and all he had to show for it was a trunk full of cryptic notes and coded instructions and a half dozen pieces of some puzzle that he was supposed to put together.
He got himself on the road and headed for home. Sam was going to be angry it took so long, and angrier still when Dean had nothing more to tell him. He needed time to decipher everything. Time to put the pieces together. And figure out what it was that demon wanted with Sam.
It was nearly midnight when Dean finally pulled into the driveway. The old mustang out front told him that Sam’s friend was there. The lights were out, except for the flickering of the television and the Christmas tree lights in the living room.
Dean left the box in the trunk and let himself in the front door. Sam and Matt stood abruptly from the couch, Matt looking guilty, his face flushing. Dean raised an eyebrow. “Boys.”
“I…um…I should go.” Matt nodded. “It’s late. I…” He looked from Dean to Sam and then started reaching for his coat.
“Don’t run off on my account.” Dean said, dropping his coat on the chair. “I’m going to bed.”
He heard Sam whispering to Matt as he got to the stairs. “Oh, hey Sammy?” Sam crossed to him, looking annoyed. Dean leaned in with a wink. “Just keep the moaning down, I’m tired.”
Sam punched him in the arm and Dean chuckled as he headed upstairs. He stopped at his bedroom door and peeked over the railing just enough to catch a quick kiss before Sam was holding the door open.
The television clicked off, and Dean headed into his room, leaving the door open because he knew Sam was headed straight for him. “Well?”
Dean kicked off his boots and started pulling off his layers of shirt. “I’ve been driving for four hours Sam. I’m cold, I’m wet and I’m tired.”
"And I've been here explaining to John three times a day why you took off right after Christmas dinner." Sam crossed his arms and leaned against the door.
Dean sighed and nodded. "I don't have any answers. Not yet." He looked his brother in the eye. "I've got a box filled with more questions and notes and names and some puzzle. It's going to take some time."
Sam's face was pinched, angry. "I don't know that we have time. Missouri was here yesterday, all worked up about some crazy crap…a demon holiday or something."
Dean had pulled some books out of the storage unit, one of which dealt with demonic holy days. He shoved his feet back into his boots and headed back down the stairs, Sam hot on his ass. Sam waited on the porch as Dean went to the trunk and pulled the box out.
He dropped the box onto the coffee table as Sam turned on the lights. "Okay, so I started at Bobby's. Dad's note said he left us a lock box with some cash and information." He pulled the lock box out and held it up. "There's a couple thousand dollars, a bunch of ammo and another note."
Dean pushed the big box out of the way and opened the lock box, setting the money aside and pulling out the note. He hesitated briefly, then handed it over to Sam. He'd read it enough times that he knew each word.
Boys,
The ammo in this box is not to be used except in the most dire of emergencies. The gun that fires it is hidden, locked away. When the time comes you will know where to find it and how to use it. Until then, keep this safe.
Dad
"That's it?" Sam asked incredulously.
"Turn it over." On the back was more of the damn code. Dean sighed. "It sent me back to the lock up for books." Dean pulled the books out of the box, opening one of them. "Where I found this." He held up an envelope.
In the envelope was another note and the first flat piece of metal. He dumped it out onto his hand.
“What is it?”
Dean shrugged and held it up to the light. “The first piece. I don’t know. The note doesn’t help.”
Sam took the envelope and pulled the note out.
You will need this when the time comes. You will find the other pieces hidden in the places listed in the journal. The last pieces are under the tree in the field where we buried the last bones of Gremair.
“The what?” Sam asked, frowning up at him.
Dean sighed and rubbed his face. “Gremair, that weird warrior-wizard guy. Remember when we were in Texas and that other hunter asked Dad to help him scatter the bones? We buried a hand in Pennsylvania and a leg in that field.”
“So, you obviously knew where to go.”
“Yeah, only, I just found more of the same crap.” He reached into the box for the smaller box he’d pulled out of the earth. “Note’s totally in code this time. Two more of the metal bits. I found three more in other books.”
“So we have six flat metal pieces, a handful of books and notes in code. Not much to go on.”
Dean nodded. “I know. I’ll work on solving the codes tomorrow. I need to sleep.”
“You have to work tomorrow.” Sam reminded him as Dean put everything back into the box. “I could work on it.”
Dean didn’t like that idea. Not at all. “Don’t you and loverboy have some debate thing to work on?”
“His name is Matt and he isn’t…” Sam sighed and stood. “Why do you do that?”
Dean frowned as he lifted the box. “Do what?”
“Make it sound so…dirty.”
“Do I?”
Sam stopped at his bedroom door. “Not all relationships are about getting laid as fast as you can and walking away.”
“You really like this guy.” Dean said, starting to wonder what really had been going on when he walked in the front door.
“We’re friends.” Sam insisted.
“Who kiss goodbye?”
Sam blushed scarlet. “You saw that?”
Dean put the box down and pushed it toward his bedroom. “Small house.” He crossed his arms and leaned on the wall. “Seriously…what’s going on here?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know…not really. I mean…he’s nice and I like him and he’s into me…and I…just don’t know.”
There was something in Sam’s face, a fear Dean couldn’t quite place until Sam’s eyes lifted to his. He was afraid of what Dean would think. About him and a guy. Dean had to admit, he hadn’t been at his most supportive the last time they’d talked about it, when he’d figured out that Sam might be leaning toward the gay side of the fence. He just couldn’t think of his brother that way. “I’m not sure what you need me to say.”
Sam’s face was red as he looked away. “I don’t know either.”
“Probably not good to get civilians involved right now.” He’d cooled things down with Sarah for the same reasons. He didn’t need another person to look after while he figured this out.
Sam snorted and pushed his door open. “Right. Because I can explain that to him.” He sighed and looked at Dean. “You know, maybe that’s what’s wrong with us Dean. Maybe if Dad had found someone after Mom died, things would have been more normal for us. Maybe we can have normal too.”
“You’re the one who wanted to go back to training, to hunting.”
Sam nodded. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to have friends and maybe more.”
Dean rubbed a hand over his face. He was exhausted and this conversation was rambling to places he wasn’t sure he could follow. “Get some sleep Sam.”
He pushed the box into his room and under the bed. Part of him wanted to pull out all of the notes, including the one he’d found in the demon book, the one that told him about the demon that killed their mother, and what their father thought he wanted with Sam. He hadn’t shown that to his brother.
Sam had enough on his plate without that burden. At least for now. He needed to sleep though, he had to work in the morning and he needed a fresh head when he started working on the codes.
Dean knew he’d come home and find Sam working on the box. Even though he’d told him not to. That was why he’d taken the two notes with him. Sure enough, he found Sam in the kitchen with paper and books and bits of metal spread out on the table.
“Any progress?”
“Some.” Sam said without looking up. He pointed to a notepad.
Dean lifted it, squinting to make out the words in Sam’s sloppy handwriting. “Great, more scavenger hunts.”
The list of instructions included a trip to yet another storage locker, this one a two day drive away.
“I called. The lease is due to run out. We need to get there in the next few days.” Sam said, his fingers tracing a line of code on one of the notes.
“I can’t take time off right now.” Dean sighed. He could probably get Bobby to do it. Ask him to clean the locker out. They could sort through everything and maybe stash some of it at the locker in Lazlo. “Okay, I’ll call Bobby.”
Sam nodded, then snapped his fingers, gesturing at the paper under his hand. “I think I know what the metal pieces are.” He looked up at Dean, his eyes bright. “They’re the key to opening the box…the curse box.”
Dean frowned and leaned over him. “They don’t look like a key.”
“There’s a reference here to some ritual…and another book…but see here?” He pointed, then grabbed the notepad out of Dean’s hands, scribbling the translation. “Assemble the key and place the curse box on top. This opens the first lock.” He made a face, “…or something like that. Dad’s handwriting sucks.”
Dean chuckled. “Says you.” He pulled in a deep breath. “Where’s this book?”
“Don’t know yet. Give me a few more minutes.”
Dean shook his head. “Enough for today, Sam. I’ll send Bobby after the other locker. Why don’t you get dinner ready? I’ll go check on John.”
“Dean-“
“Sam, I don’t want you getting all obsessive about this. We’ve got time.”
“You don’t know that.”
Dean sighed, pulling the notepad away. “No, I don’t. But I’m serious. You need to put it away for now.”
Sam looked like he was going to argue, then John’s feet were pounding down the stairs and he was throwing himself at Dean. “Dad!”
“Hey buddy.”
“I missed you.” John hugged Dean as hard as he could, his little arms around Dean’s neck. “Sam said you were on an adventure, looking for treasure.”
“He did, did he?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at Sam who was starting to clear the table.
“Is that the treasure?” John asked, pointing at the box.
“Sort of.”
“It’s more like the map that will lead us to the treasure, Johnny.” Sam said.
“Like in that movie?”
Sam smiled and nodded. “Yeah. We watched Goonies while you were gone,” he explained to Dean.
“Matt brought it over and we made popcorn and watched these kids follow a map and there was a boat and treasure and kissing.” John said. His eyes got big and he looked at Sam, then back at Dean. “In the movie. There was kissing in the movie.”
“In the movie, eh?”
John nodded earnestly as Dean put him down. “In the movie.”
Sam left the room quickly with the box. Dean chuckled and ruffled John’s hair. “Well, I’m home now and things can get back to normal.”
As normal as they could be in a house with a father who had become his son, and demons were hunting for them anyway.