Untitled #20 (Gen, PG)
Title: Untitled #20
Rating: PG
Category: Gen oneshot
Word Count: 1458
Characters: Dean, Bobby, & Sam
Spoilers: None
Summary: Sam disappears to faraway places.
Author’s Notes: From here. For rivers_bend who asked for Sam finding a "secret" place and wanting to show it to Dean. (pre-series).
Disclaimer: The following characters and situations are used without permission of the creators, owners, and further affiliates of the television show, Supernatural, to whom they rightly belong. I claim only what is mine, and I make no money off what is theirs.
- - - - -
At Bobby's place, Sam always got lost.
"He's not lost," Bobby mumbled from behind his opened newspaper. "You just can't find him."
All right, scratch that previous statement. At Bobby's place, Dean could never find Sam.
"What?" Dean said, turning around in his chair to face the newspaper curtain. "How do you know he's not lost? If I can't find him, then he's got to be lost. At least that's what Dad would say."
Yup, back to square one. At Bobby's place, Sam always got lost.
"Because I know where he is." A hand appeared from behind the newspaper to grab the coffee cup on the table. "So, if push came to shove, I could tell you where he is. And, when there's at least one person in the room who knows where another person is, that second person ain't lost."
Oh.
"So, you wanna tell me where Sam's at if you're so smart?" Dean snapped back.
The newspaper shuffled, a turning of pages, and Bobby said, "Nope. If Sam wanted you to know, he'd tell you himself."
Dean sighed, annoyed, and rose to his feet to leave the kitchen.
"Oh, and Dean?" Bobby's voice called back from behind the newspaper.
"Yeah?"
The newspaper went down, and Bobby's face appeared. "You better not use that tone of voice with me again, kid. You're only fourteen, and not yet old enough to go smartin' off like that."
"Yeah, okay, Bobby." Dean turned, leaving the kitchen and heading towards the door that led outside. Dammit, where was Sam? With Dean's luck, Dad would show up, back early from the latest hunt, and wanting to know where Sammy ran off to. And then what would Dean say? Oh yeah, Dad, I haven't been able to find him since yesterday afternoon. What? Don't get mad at me. Go talk to your great friend Bobby about that one.
Yeah. Dean didn't see that going all that well for him.
He pushed open the screen door and went outside to stand on the porch. As he stood, staring, he started to wonder if maybe Sam hadn't snuck out to one of the abandoned cars in Bobby's backyard. It didn't seem likely as, hey, Dean had already wandered around there last night, calling Sam's name. Calling and calling and calling until Bobby finally told him to shut it and get inside for some dinner.
Then again, maybe Sam just hadn't heard him before. After all, there were a lot of cars out there, and if Sam had wedged himself in the back of one of the cars in the farthest corner, then it was possible he hadn't heard Dean last night.
That thought in mind, Dean headed off for that faraway corner of the junkyard to see if maybe Sam was hiding out there. Yet, half an hour later, there was no Sam to be found, and Dean was pissed.
"Shit!" he shouted, kicking the tire of an old car. "Sam!"
"Yeah?"
Dean whirled around, breath yanked right out of him at the sound of the voice, and there, standing behind him, was Sam.
"Sam?" he said. "Sam! What the hell?!"
Sam shrugged. "Bobby said you were looking for me."
Dean exhaled sharply. He wanted to scream at Sam, ask him where the hell he'd been and what was he thinking by running off and scaring the crap out of him. Instead, Dean shook his head and said, "Don't do that again, all right?"
"Yeah, okay, sure," Sam replied.
- - - - -
Year and a half later, Dean shouted, "He did it again!"
"Did what again?" Bobby asked, flipping a grilled cheese sandwich in the sizzling frying pan.
"Ran off and got himself lost!"
Bobby shook his head. "Didn't we go through this last time you two were here? He's not lost, Dean."
“Oh, yeah, right, right. 'I can't find him,'" Dean shot back mockingly.
"And didn't we talk about your tone last time, too?"
"Yeah, okay, yeah, sorry, Bobby." Dean sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Any clue where he might be?"
"Yup."
"You want to tell me?"
"Nope. Sam will, when he's ready."
"Well, that's just damn peachy."
Bobby glanced over his shoulder. "Tone, Dean, tone."
- - - - -
On and off for the next few years, Sam was always wandering off to places where Dean couldn't find him. After a while, Dean gave up trying to look for him. Bobby never gave him any help, and besides, Sam always turned up sooner or later. There just wasn’t any point in stressing out about it.
One year, though, after Dad had dropped them off, they were standing in Sam's bedroom when he asked Dean, "You want to see where I go?"
"Huh?"
"The place I go where you can't find me," Sam explained.
"Oh," Dean replied nonchalantly. Then, getting it, he said, "Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, I wanna see this great secret place of yours."
Sam smiled and crossed the room to his closet. He opened the doors and got down on his hands and knees to crawl inside. "You coming?" he asked, half of him inside the closet.
"Uh, yeah, sure," Dean said, hurrying after him.
Inside the closet, Sam pressed on one of the side panels that shifted and slid to reveal a small opening. He glanced over his shoulder to Dean. "Can you fit through there?"
"Look who's talking, Sasquatch," Dean said. In the last year, Sam had shot up six inches, not only catching up to Dean but growing past him.
Sam crawled forward and disappeared into the hole with Dean not far behind. It was a tight fit, but once they were through the initial entrance, it opened up into a slightly bigger space. Still, it wasn't a massive area. The floor space was maybe about as big as a bed, and the ceiling was just tall enough that Dean could kneel down and not hit his head.
"What is this?" Dean asked. There were a few slivers of light that pierced through the boards, but they weren't enough for Dean to see anything.
After a moment of listening to Sam scramble around in the dark, there was a click and a light came on, illuminating the entire area in full clarity.
Sam was at the other end of the space. He smiled and said, "It's kind of where I hide out when I come here."
Dean looked around. Pictures were plastered on the walls of the area. Brochures and pamphlets from places they'd visited, ripped photos from magazines, or just the rare Polarid of the three of them--Dad, Sam and Dean--were all here. Some of the places Dean recognized, and others he didn't, like the ones that showed large, cascading waterfalls or white castles on cliffs.
"What is this?" Dean repeated again.
Sam shrugged and crawled over to sit down next to Dean. "Bobby showed it to me a long time ago. Said he thought I might like it."
"It is pretty cool," Dean admitted, secretly wishing that he had a secret space like this. "But what's up with all the pictures?"
"I guess I like to come here and think about, I don't know, being somewhere else?"
Dean sighed and said nothing, simply staring. All those years he'd spent looking for Sam, thinking he'd run off to the farthest corner of Bobby's property, he'd been hiding right up in his room.
"Y'know, we go through so many places, but we don't actually see anything...does that make sense, Dean?"
"Kinda, yeah, I guess."
"I just...I like to come up here and think about going to all these places and just seeing them like a normal person would. Not looking for the ghost hiding in that house at the end of the street or where the nearest graveyard's at. I want...want to go traveling, Dean. I don't know if I'll ever be able to, so, maybe, I guess, maybe this is the closest I can get."
Dean didn't say anything for a long moment. He'd never really thought about wanting to go to a place "just to go." Every time they went somewhere, there was a purpose, a plan in motion, a hunt they were following. He wanted to scoff at Sam's silly dreams--all while being secretly envious of such dreams.
Instead, he said, "You're a dork, Sammy."
Sam laughed and leaned into him. "Takes one to know one," he said.
Dean sighed. He smiled and let them fall back into silence, simply staring at the pictures and thinking of faraway places. Above his head, Sam had a picture of a large canyon cutting through towering red rocks. The Grand Canyon, the caption read.
Maybe, Dean thought, maybe someday.
End
Rating: PG
Category: Gen oneshot
Word Count: 1458
Characters: Dean, Bobby, & Sam
Spoilers: None
Summary: Sam disappears to faraway places.
Author’s Notes: From here. For rivers_bend who asked for Sam finding a "secret" place and wanting to show it to Dean. (pre-series).
Disclaimer: The following characters and situations are used without permission of the creators, owners, and further affiliates of the television show, Supernatural, to whom they rightly belong. I claim only what is mine, and I make no money off what is theirs.
- - - - -
At Bobby's place, Sam always got lost.
"He's not lost," Bobby mumbled from behind his opened newspaper. "You just can't find him."
All right, scratch that previous statement. At Bobby's place, Dean could never find Sam.
"What?" Dean said, turning around in his chair to face the newspaper curtain. "How do you know he's not lost? If I can't find him, then he's got to be lost. At least that's what Dad would say."
Yup, back to square one. At Bobby's place, Sam always got lost.
"Because I know where he is." A hand appeared from behind the newspaper to grab the coffee cup on the table. "So, if push came to shove, I could tell you where he is. And, when there's at least one person in the room who knows where another person is, that second person ain't lost."
Oh.
"So, you wanna tell me where Sam's at if you're so smart?" Dean snapped back.
The newspaper shuffled, a turning of pages, and Bobby said, "Nope. If Sam wanted you to know, he'd tell you himself."
Dean sighed, annoyed, and rose to his feet to leave the kitchen.
"Oh, and Dean?" Bobby's voice called back from behind the newspaper.
"Yeah?"
The newspaper went down, and Bobby's face appeared. "You better not use that tone of voice with me again, kid. You're only fourteen, and not yet old enough to go smartin' off like that."
"Yeah, okay, Bobby." Dean turned, leaving the kitchen and heading towards the door that led outside. Dammit, where was Sam? With Dean's luck, Dad would show up, back early from the latest hunt, and wanting to know where Sammy ran off to. And then what would Dean say? Oh yeah, Dad, I haven't been able to find him since yesterday afternoon. What? Don't get mad at me. Go talk to your great friend Bobby about that one.
Yeah. Dean didn't see that going all that well for him.
He pushed open the screen door and went outside to stand on the porch. As he stood, staring, he started to wonder if maybe Sam hadn't snuck out to one of the abandoned cars in Bobby's backyard. It didn't seem likely as, hey, Dean had already wandered around there last night, calling Sam's name. Calling and calling and calling until Bobby finally told him to shut it and get inside for some dinner.
Then again, maybe Sam just hadn't heard him before. After all, there were a lot of cars out there, and if Sam had wedged himself in the back of one of the cars in the farthest corner, then it was possible he hadn't heard Dean last night.
That thought in mind, Dean headed off for that faraway corner of the junkyard to see if maybe Sam was hiding out there. Yet, half an hour later, there was no Sam to be found, and Dean was pissed.
"Shit!" he shouted, kicking the tire of an old car. "Sam!"
"Yeah?"
Dean whirled around, breath yanked right out of him at the sound of the voice, and there, standing behind him, was Sam.
"Sam?" he said. "Sam! What the hell?!"
Sam shrugged. "Bobby said you were looking for me."
Dean exhaled sharply. He wanted to scream at Sam, ask him where the hell he'd been and what was he thinking by running off and scaring the crap out of him. Instead, Dean shook his head and said, "Don't do that again, all right?"
"Yeah, okay, sure," Sam replied.
- - - - -
Year and a half later, Dean shouted, "He did it again!"
"Did what again?" Bobby asked, flipping a grilled cheese sandwich in the sizzling frying pan.
"Ran off and got himself lost!"
Bobby shook his head. "Didn't we go through this last time you two were here? He's not lost, Dean."
“Oh, yeah, right, right. 'I can't find him,'" Dean shot back mockingly.
"And didn't we talk about your tone last time, too?"
"Yeah, okay, yeah, sorry, Bobby." Dean sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Any clue where he might be?"
"Yup."
"You want to tell me?"
"Nope. Sam will, when he's ready."
"Well, that's just damn peachy."
Bobby glanced over his shoulder. "Tone, Dean, tone."
- - - - -
On and off for the next few years, Sam was always wandering off to places where Dean couldn't find him. After a while, Dean gave up trying to look for him. Bobby never gave him any help, and besides, Sam always turned up sooner or later. There just wasn’t any point in stressing out about it.
One year, though, after Dad had dropped them off, they were standing in Sam's bedroom when he asked Dean, "You want to see where I go?"
"Huh?"
"The place I go where you can't find me," Sam explained.
"Oh," Dean replied nonchalantly. Then, getting it, he said, "Oh yeah! Yeah, yeah, I wanna see this great secret place of yours."
Sam smiled and crossed the room to his closet. He opened the doors and got down on his hands and knees to crawl inside. "You coming?" he asked, half of him inside the closet.
"Uh, yeah, sure," Dean said, hurrying after him.
Inside the closet, Sam pressed on one of the side panels that shifted and slid to reveal a small opening. He glanced over his shoulder to Dean. "Can you fit through there?"
"Look who's talking, Sasquatch," Dean said. In the last year, Sam had shot up six inches, not only catching up to Dean but growing past him.
Sam crawled forward and disappeared into the hole with Dean not far behind. It was a tight fit, but once they were through the initial entrance, it opened up into a slightly bigger space. Still, it wasn't a massive area. The floor space was maybe about as big as a bed, and the ceiling was just tall enough that Dean could kneel down and not hit his head.
"What is this?" Dean asked. There were a few slivers of light that pierced through the boards, but they weren't enough for Dean to see anything.
After a moment of listening to Sam scramble around in the dark, there was a click and a light came on, illuminating the entire area in full clarity.
Sam was at the other end of the space. He smiled and said, "It's kind of where I hide out when I come here."
Dean looked around. Pictures were plastered on the walls of the area. Brochures and pamphlets from places they'd visited, ripped photos from magazines, or just the rare Polarid of the three of them--Dad, Sam and Dean--were all here. Some of the places Dean recognized, and others he didn't, like the ones that showed large, cascading waterfalls or white castles on cliffs.
"What is this?" Dean repeated again.
Sam shrugged and crawled over to sit down next to Dean. "Bobby showed it to me a long time ago. Said he thought I might like it."
"It is pretty cool," Dean admitted, secretly wishing that he had a secret space like this. "But what's up with all the pictures?"
"I guess I like to come here and think about, I don't know, being somewhere else?"
Dean sighed and said nothing, simply staring. All those years he'd spent looking for Sam, thinking he'd run off to the farthest corner of Bobby's property, he'd been hiding right up in his room.
"Y'know, we go through so many places, but we don't actually see anything...does that make sense, Dean?"
"Kinda, yeah, I guess."
"I just...I like to come up here and think about going to all these places and just seeing them like a normal person would. Not looking for the ghost hiding in that house at the end of the street or where the nearest graveyard's at. I want...want to go traveling, Dean. I don't know if I'll ever be able to, so, maybe, I guess, maybe this is the closest I can get."
Dean didn't say anything for a long moment. He'd never really thought about wanting to go to a place "just to go." Every time they went somewhere, there was a purpose, a plan in motion, a hunt they were following. He wanted to scoff at Sam's silly dreams--all while being secretly envious of such dreams.
Instead, he said, "You're a dork, Sammy."
Sam laughed and leaned into him. "Takes one to know one," he said.
Dean sighed. He smiled and let them fall back into silence, simply staring at the pictures and thinking of faraway places. Above his head, Sam had a picture of a large canyon cutting through towering red rocks. The Grand Canyon, the caption read.
Maybe, Dean thought, maybe someday.
End