Fic: The Memory of Skye (2/4)

[miss_annthropic]

"Maybe I should just go take a look around town," Sam waffled as they neared the home of the Lauchlans. "I mean, I don't want to be an intrusion."

"Dude, what the hell? An intrusion?"

Sam looked pointedly at his brother. "They want to see you, not me."

Resolution settled on Dean's face hard and cold. "And where I go, you come with. They will just have to deal." The angry lines of Dean's expression softened and he lowered his voice. "I don't want you walking around by yourself here, Sammy."

That made Sam raise his eyebrows. "You really think they're that dangerous?"

Dean scowled. "No. Maybe. I just… I remember what it was like being a human hunter in this town, and knowing their secret doesn't endear you to the locals, let me tell you. It would have been worse for me, too, if Skye hadn't…" Dean stopped, swallowed, then looked around the streets fronting the Lauchlan house. "Most of them are completely decent, and I know you. You get some time to work on them, work that puppy-dog look of yours, and they'll love you."

"But?" Sam prompted.

Dean looked closely at Sam, his eyes drifting toward unreadable again. "But there are some in Eclipse River that are going to hold being a Winchester against you, and you won't have being 'one of the pack' to keep you safe."

Sam studied his brother a second. "That why you showed Lucas your throat?" he asked, because Sam had never seen Dean show submission to anyone but John Winchester. But if it had been to safeguard Sam in some small measure… that would make sense to Sam.

Dean nodded faintly.

Before either brother could say more, a voice called from the house, "You boys going to stand out there yapping all day, or are you going to come in?" Jaina was standing on the porch watching them.

Dean headed toward the house and Sam followed.

Jaina greeted Dean with a hug. To Sam, she gave a tight smile. "Come on in, you two," she ushered them inside. "You look better, Dean," she said as she closed the door behind them.

"Nothing a decent night's sleep couldn't cure," Dean answered, but the pitch in his voice made Sam look quickly at his brother. Dean was tense, like being in the house was an exercise in subtle torture.

From where he stood, Sam could see photographs on the mantel and walls, Skye's family, Skye herself… she was dutifully memorialized in her parents' home.

"Ramon!" Jaina called into the house, "Dean's here!"

"Wasn't sure we'd ever see you again, Dean," an older man said as he walked into the living room. Sam could see where Skye got her complexion (because it certainly wasn't from fair-skinned Jaina). Ramon Lauchlan had dark hair and dark eyes, like Skye.

Dean hesitated a heartbeat. "Truthfully, Ramon… I wasn't sure you ever would, either."

The two shook hands, measuring one another up. Then Ramon looked sharply at Sam. "So you're the brother. Town's talking about you."

Dean stiffened.

Sam stepped forward at once to break the newborn tension. He offered Ramon his hand. "Sam Winchester, sir."

Ramon shook Sam's hand and gave him a scrutinizing look for a second before the handshake ended. "Must be strange for you, your brother being one of us now."

Dean was ready to say something defensive, Sam could feel it, but Sam said first, "Not really. I'm just glad he found something that makes him happy."

Ramon obviously hadn't expected that answer.

"Dean… I know you won't like it," Jaina interjected, "but I invited Lucas over."

Dean, in fact, did not like that.

"He just wants to talk to you," Ramon said. "You need to let him. It's his due."

"Well, I don't have to be thrilled about it," Dean grumbled. He looked up and met Ramon's eyes squarely.

Suddenly, Jaina slipped up to Sam and gently took his arm. The physical contact surprised him, given how stand-offish she'd been with him so far. "Come on, Sam, let's give these two a few minutes to talk."

Sam looked to Dean as Jaina tried to coax him away, and when his older brother just gave a jerky nod, Sam let himself be taken out on to the porch.

There, Jaina let go of his arm and said, "I just want to give them some time. Ramon and Dean left things… on tense terms."

It was awkward being in Jaina's company without Dean as the buffer (knowing she didn't care much for him), but Sam cleared his throat to try anyway. "Mrs. Lauchlan, I know it's really after-the-fact, but I'm very sorry about your daughter."

Jaina looked at him carefully.

Sam shrugged. "I didn't know her, but I know Dean loved her. Trust me, for Dean to fall in love… she had to be pretty remarkable."

"She was," Jaina smiled to herself, then moved toward the patio furniture and sat on the bench swing. "We were terrified when Skye took Dean as her mate. He's a hunter…" Jaina frowned at him. "Of course… so are you. Maybe you can't imagine how much that scared us."

"Actually, I can," Sam offered. He ventured closer. "I grew up in this life, but I never wanted it. I hated hunting, but it was the family business. I didn't have a choice. And I…" Sam took a steeling breath, "I lost people I loved because of it. So, yes, I can imagine what that must have been like for you."

"We never even tried to tell Skye she couldn't see him." Jaina chuckled dryly. "You didn't tell Skye to do anything. She followed her heart, always did, and it led her to Dean." She looked up at Sam then, towering over her, and said, "You can sit down."

Sam did, on the rocking chair perpendicular to the swing. When he looked toward Jaina again, she was eying him closely.

"What?" Sam asked.

"He's very protective of you," Jaina commented.

"Dean?" Sam laughed. "Yeah… sometimes too protective." Sam saw an opportunity; Jaina was listening, so he talked. "Our mom died when I was a baby, and our dad… we were just on our own a lot of the time. Dean became my primary caretaker. My whole life, growing up, I was rarely out of Dean's sight. It's like he made it his personal mission in life to keep me safe."

"So why weren't you with him? When he came to hunt Trey?"

The mere mention of those dark days in the Winchester family made Sam sit back stiffly. "I'd finally had enough of living a life I didn't want. I was old enough to say no. I walked away from hunting, had a huge fight with our dad, and left for college. Dean stayed behind." Sam frowned. "Don't you already know some of this? I mean, surely Dean told you…"

Jaina shook her head. "Dean never spoke of his family… not to me. I don't know if Skye ever knew about you, but Dean didn't open up to anyone… except Skye."

"Huh," Sam mumbled, at first surprised by that until he thought about the fact no one at college knew he had a brother and father until he got close to Jessica and she made him comfortable with letting people peek into his past. By his omission, his college buddies figured him an orphan for a long time. It was just painful to bring it all up, especially to strangers. It made sense it would be hard for Dean, too.

"Well," Sam said at length, "he looks pretty close with you."

Jaina grimaced and smiled at the same time, looked down at her hands, and said, "I was the one who found him… did he ever tell you that?"

"No… found him?"

Jaina nodded. "When Skye… when the car hit her, Dean carried her home. I… I still have nightmares about opening the door and seeing him standing there holding her…" Jaina took a breath and pressed her lips together. "We took our daughter, and then Dean just bolted. Ran off." Jaina glanced up at him. "Honestly, I didn't think another thought about him that night. Jeremy came to the house, said he'd followed Dean and confronted him. Dean told Jeremy what happened to Skye, about the car.

"When he didn't come back the next morning, I… I had to find him, for Skye's sake. So I tracked him to a clearing in the woods. He was in shock. He'd slept outside in the cold all night." A ghost of pain crossed her face. "That was the moment I understood Dean loved Skye as much as Skye loved him."

Sam was engrossed. He'd never known any of this before, and he wasn't about to interrupt Jaina.

"I coaxed him back to the house and took him in. He was so… empty. Sometimes, I wasn't sure he even knew where he was. I couldn't get a word out of him except he kept saying 'sorry'. I tried to feed him, but he barely touched anything." Jaina's eyes began watering. "One night, I went into the bedroom we'd let him use, sat down on the bed, and told him… I told Dean I didn't blame him. That I knew he would never do anything to hurt Skye. I told him I knew he loved her." Jaina smiled sadly. "Dean sat up and pulled me into the tightest hug you can imagine, and I just let him. I think, I like to think, that it helped Dean a little. After that, he let me touch him. When I talked to him, he might not answer but I could tell he listened." Jaina wiped at her eyes. "Lucas came by a few times, saw Dean… I think that really convinced him that Dean wasn't a threat to us. That's when the town voted, and we offered to bring Dean into the pack.

"Skye's funeral was a few days later, and then Dean just disappeared. We never heard from him again. Until now."

Sam hated that Dean went through such a rough time and Sam hadn't been there to help him. Dean might not have done much after Jess died, but he was there, and that had been comforting. Even if Dean had gone back to John to be with family, he hadn't told their father what happened, because John only recently learned that his oldest son was a lycanthrope. Dean had carried that weight, that grief, alone, and Sam hated that.

"Dean doesn't talk about Skye much," Sam began softly, "but when he does… I never thought my brother could be that in love."

Jaina smiled, then her eyes shifted sideways and she came to attention.

Sam looked over his shoulder and saw Lucas approaching the house. He mounted the steps and came toward the two on the porch. "Jaina…" he said with affection in his tone, then a flat, "Sam Winchester."

That aura of John Winchester that was about Lucas had Sam rising to his feet before he really thought about it. Jaina jumped to hers, and Lucas stopped and eyed Sam steadily.

"Dean's inside with Ramon," Jaina said to break the silence.

Lucas kept staring at Sam, then gave a stiff nod and turned to go into the house.

Sam started forward on reflex.

Jaina snagged him by the elbow and stayed him. "Don't…"

"But…"

"Dean's not in danger. Lucas wouldn't harm him."

It went against Sam's gut to not go in and give his brother back-up, but he knew that Dean wasn't the shunned one here… it was he. Maybe if Dean didn't have to feel like he was literally standing between Lucas and his little brother, the meeting wouldn't be so tense.

Besides which, he felt like he was getting somewhere with Jaina… like she wasn't just seeing him as a despicable hunter bent on murdering half the town.

Clenching his jaw the whole time, he gently waved off Jaina's hand and strolled to the porch rail.

"Does it really not bother you?"

Sam turned to Jaina. "Does what not bother me?"

Jaina was sizing Sam up curiously. "What your brother has become."

Sam rested his weight back against the rail and crossed his arms with a shrug. He had a feeling he was going to get tired of that question pretty quickly in Eclipse River. "Truthfully, the first time I saw his wolf… sure, I freaked out. But I was never afraid of him. Dean's my brother. I trust him with my life." Sam smirked. "It took a little while to get used to, but now… I really can't imagine my brother any other way."

Jaina looked startled.

Sam grinned. "Don't you dare tell him I said so, but when Dean's the wolf, he's beautiful."

Jaina beamed; she almost laughed.

"Sometimes," Sam confessed, "I envy Dean what he is. I see how much peace the wolf brings him, how much happiness, and I wish I was like him." Sam shook himself from his thoughts. "No… it really doesn't bother me."

"You're an unusual Barely, then," Jaina mused aloud.

Sam shrugged. "Well, I'm used to the supernatural. But even if I wasn't… I can't imagine hating something that made Dean happy… not if I loved him." A sour knot formed in his stomach as he thought of John, so narrow-minded and black-and-white, intent on killing the wolf because it was different and made Dean inhuman.

Jaina had a strange half-smile on her face and she shook her head. "For hunters, you Winchesters are remarkably open-minded."

Sam thought of John and frowned.

Just then the front door opened and Jaina and Sam both turned immediately to see who would come out. First it was Lucas, and then Dean followed. Immediately, Dean's eyes sought out Sam, checked on him, and only when he saw his little brother safe did a measure of tension leave his posture.

Lucas turned back to Dean and said simply, "Let me know when you've decided." Then, with that, he left.

Jaina went to Dean as soon as Lucas was gone. "When you've decided what?"

Dean looked down at Jaina, paused, then glanced up at Sam who was approaching at an ambling pace. "He still wants to know if I'm joining the pack."

"And?" Jaina prompted.

Dean pressed his lips together. "I still need to think about it."

That Dean might be even considering it at all made Sam's jaw drop.

Jaina nodded. "I understand." She looked up when a thought occurred to her. "The Gregories are having a barbeque tonight… most of the town's invited. Why don't you come?" Jaina glanced over her shoulder at Sam. "You and Sam."

Dean smiled crookedly. "You know me and free food."

Jaina gave him a quick hug, bid them both farewell, then went back inside.

Once they were alone, Dean turned to Sam and snorted. "What did I tell you, dude? A few minutes to work on them, those puppy eyes… instant Sammy love." Together, they began walking side by side away from the house.

"So, are you thinking about it? About joining the pack?"

Dean halted. Sam stopped and turned to watch his brother. Dean looked torn and as far as Sam was concerned, that said a hell of a lot.

"The full moon's just over a week away," Dean finally said, resuming his stride but at a slower pace. "I know there's no reason to stay, and we should probably be moving on, but…"

Sam smiled. Dean was trying to play it nonchalant, but Sam knew his brother was dying to run with the pack. "Dean… we can stay, man. As long as you want."

Dean cracked a brief, grateful smile, then nodded his thanks.

****************

Sam acted like he was completely comfortable with the idea of going to a lycan town barbeque, but as Dean pulled up in front of the house and turned off the engine, the younger Winchester felt a knot of uneasiness in his stomach.

Honestly, he wasn't sure his being there was going to do Dean any favors. The townspeople were leery of Sam; Dean was one of them. Sam didn't want to be the reason Dean didn't enjoy this thing if all his big brother ended up doing was keeping one eye and ear on Sam the entire time.

Just as Dean parked the car in front of the house (already busy with guests), Sam said, "Look, Dean... maybe I should go back to the house." It was so strange for a Winchester to say that; it came off the tongue like a foreign language. Sam felt more natural reciting a Latin exorcism incantation.

Dean looked over at his brother in concern. "You feeling okay? You're not coming down with that crap I had, are you?"

For a second, Sam considered lying and saying yes. "No, just... I think you'll have a better time without me making things weird."

Unexpectedly, Dean chuckled.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Dude... this is a lycanthrope barbeque party and you're worried you'll make this weird. Come on... that's funny."

Sam cracked a smile. "I just…" Sam's voice dropped, "want you to get to enjoy being with your own kind."

Dean looked seriously at Sam. "This is exactly why I want you to come." At Sam's puzzled look, Dean made a face. It was his 'bordering on a dreaded chick flick moment' face. "You remember once when I told you that you were my pack?"

"Yeah." Truthfully, that moment was seared into his memory, so poignant and powerful and something Sam would never admit to Dean.

"Well, damnit, I meant that. They," Dean thumbed over his shoulder at the party guests, "only see lycan and Barely. That's it with them. To them, you and I are entirely different species." Dean's eyes hardened. "Well, I'm not okay with that. You're my brother, Sammy, and I'm not trading you in for a new family. Period. They want to bring me back into the fold, they better learn to love you, because I'm not going anywhere without you."

Sam started to smile, an exaggerated and saccharine grin to mask how truly touched he was. "Wow, that was really sweet, Dean."

Dean scowled. "Oh, bite me."

"I'm afraid you'd bite back," Sam countered.

Dean flipped Sam the bird.

Sam laughed and trailed to look out Dean's window at the house and the guests meandering toward the back. "Honestly, Dean, I want to be part of this." Dean glanced askance at Sam, who continued, "This is you, a whole side of you that's been pretty much a mystery to me. I want to learn, I want to understand this part of you… but I don't want to ruin this for you. If my being here is making you unpopular…"

"When have I ever cared about winning any damn popularity contest?" Dean snapped indignantly. "And let me tell you, I am plenty unpopular with a lot of people in this town, and I managed that entirely on my own. Nothing to do with you, Sam."

Sam waffled, "Well…"

"Get your ass out of the car, bitch," Dean groused as he opened his own door.

Sam did as he was told, rounding the front of the car quickly to stand next to his brother. "Is that word even an insult here?"

Dean's eyes suddenly twinkled mischievously. "How about you try it out on someone and tell me how it goes?"

"Antagonize a woman who could literally tear my throat out… no thanks." Sam took a breath and said. "I'll stay if you promise me you won't spend the whole time babysitting me like I'm two."

Dean made a face and opened his mouth to speak.

"I can take care of myself," Sam interrupted. "Enjoy yourself, Dean, or seriously, I'm gone." Sam refused to be the excuse Dean used to keep himself away from the pack.

Dean studied Sam closely a moment, then shrugged. "All right, Sam… but if you get rabies, don't come crying to me. Now let's go."

Dean and Sam walked up to the house and followed the sound of voices around to the back. The Gregories' house backed up to the woods, and thanks to the absence of any kind of fence their backyard became trees. It looked like the whole neighborhood had been invited. People were walking around, standing in groups talking, children were running around laughing and tussling.

When they came to a stop just past the house to take in their surroundings, several people turned and noticed Dean and his human brother.

"Dean!"

Both Winchesters turned at the familiar voice and saw Jaina coming toward them. She embraced Dean. "I'm so glad you decided to come," she pulled away and looked toward Sam, favoring him with a smile. "Hello, Sam."

"Hi… great party," Sam answered.

Jaina's smile swept crookedly to one side. "You haven't partied 'til you've partied with lycans."

"You kidding?" Dean grumped. "Sam can barely party with Barelys. Frankly, I'm worried about the kid."

Sam whacked Dean in the arm.

Jaina pretended not to notice. "Make yourselves welcome." With that, she left them to mingle.

Immediately, the two brothers angled for an empty picnic table. Sam sat on the table top, his feet on the bench, and Dean sat on the bench itself. The 'sit back and observe' act was typical of Sam at a party, but Dean was usually in the thick of things, chasing tail as the saying went. And here, he very literally could chase tail. This time, he didn't. In fact, Sam had yet to see Dean hit on anyone in Eclipse River, and that in itself was mind-boggling to Sam, who was used to seeing Dean turn his head at just about anything with tits.

They weren't left alone for long. Out of nowhere, the same little girl from the park the day before came running up to Dean like they were long-time friends. She raced right up to Dean, barely stopping shy of vaulting into his lap, and she beamed. "Hi! Remember me?"

Dean's eyebrows rose. "Ah…"

"Whitney, right?" Sam answered.

Whitney frowned at Sam, like he'd stepped on the punch line to her joke, then turned her smile back on Dean. "Wanna see a really cool bug?"

Dean grimaced. "That, uh… that sounds…"

Whitney was not going to take no for an answer. She grabbed one of Dean's hands with both of hers and began to pull insistently. "Come on!"

Sam chuckled and pushed at his brother's shoulder. "Go on, man." When Dean grudgingly stood, Sam planted his foot in Dean's ass for an extra shove for good measure. Dean cast Sam a dirty look as Whitney dragged Dean away.

Sam settled back and just watched. Whitney led Dean across the yard, and Dean wasn't putting up much resistance despite his tortured expressions. Sam sat up straighter when he saw the pack react to Dean leaving his brother's side. They turned to look at Dean. Then they began to approach him.

For a second, Sam tensed, his training telling him to think the worst. But they didn't attack Dean. They said hi to him, gathered around him, welcomed him… brought him into their group. Whitney remained at Dean's side through all the greetings, proudly holding Dean's hand like his being coaxed into their group was entirely her doing.

At first, Dean looked uncertain about becoming the center of attention. But as Sam watched, he saw his brother relax. These were people he knew. They were like him. They were accepting him home.

They were pack.

It made Sam miss Jess, oddly enough, but he was happy for Dean. He was glad they'd come.

"You're here."

Sam startled and turned to see Selene standing next to the picnic table. Her eyes were on Dean, but when Sam looked over at her she glanced at him.

"Hey… yeah, Jaina invited me," Sam said, feeling like he had to prove he was allowed to be there.

Selene considered that a moment, seemed to come to grips with it, then she cocked her head. "I'm sorry for this morning, if I made you feel..."

"Like a two-headed circus freak?" Sam offered.

Selene smirked. "Yeah. It's a reflex. Hunters have only brought our kind suffering."

"Dean's a hunter," Sam pointed out, relieved this conversation was not as barbed as their earlier exchange.

"He's lycan," Selene countered, like that was answer enough.

"Now… but he wasn't always," Sam stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and waited for her response to that.

Selene paused. "No, but even as a Barely, he loved a lycan. He loved Skye, and that protected us."

"Do you think I just 'kinda like' my brother?" Sam asked rhetorically.

Selene looked quickly at Sam, who merely lifted his eyebrows in a 'well?' expression.

Selene looked abashed. "I guess it's not really different." She looked toward Dean, mingling with the pack, then took it upon herself to sit on the picnic table next to Sam. Sam watched her watching Dean, and when he caught her smile slightly to herself, he jumped on it. "What?"

Selene shook her head faintly. "He's so different. Maybe if he'd been more like this when he was here before… maybe we would have understood from the start what Skye saw in him." Selene glanced over at Sam speculatively. "Is this difference you?"

Sam sat back, startled at the point-blank question, then he stammered, "Well, no. I mean, not entirely, uh… last time he was here… let's just say our family was going through a rough patch." Sam didn't know exactly how rough for Dean, but he knew it must have been bad if Dean would ditch their father to hunt solo. He didn't know. For the most part, that was a dark age in the Winchester family drama no one discussed.

Eager to move the subject to something else, Sam asked, "So, ah… were you and Skye friends?"

Selene's expression fell slightly. "Not really… I knew her, but she was older. Ran with Jeremy and Trey mostly."

Sam knew how that ended and saw no reason to drag that up. "What do you remember most about her?"

Selene, watching Dean once again, smiled. "She was tough. She bossed Jeremy and Trey around, but all in good fun. She was kind. Willful, too. Damn, she had a mind of her own."

Sam chuckled. He was getting a better picture of a woman he could easily see Dean loving.

"She loved him," Selene finished softly. Her eyes were still on Dean. Sam glanced up and saw Dean sitting with his back against a tree, Whitney curled in his lap. Dean had resigned himself to his little adoring fan, and looked almost content with his arm wrapped absently around her while he watched the crowd mill and mingle.

Sam suddenly saw a Dean Winchester that might have been. One who had put down roots in Eclipse River, joined the extended family of the pack, taken a wife, become a father.

Much like the life Sam might have had, all lost in fire.

There were moments when Sam hated their lives and their work with a passion.

"He loved her," Sam said with a hitch in his throat.

Selene turned to look intently at Sam, and she smiled… it went all the way up to her green eyes and glittered in shades of jade and moss. Then her gaze shifted to the left, focused past Sam, and her expression went deadly serious. "Oh, shit."

Sam turned in the direction of Selene's eyes to see a young man marching purposefully across the yard, fuming and furious.

He stomped right past the picnic table, weaved his way through the crowd, and headed straight for Dean.

Sam was up on his feet in an instant, moving forward.

Dean had finally seen the man approaching him. Sam saw Dean's face go cold. He moved the girl out of his lap and stood to face him head-on.

The pack realized what was going on and everyone stopped talking. Everyone turned to watch.

The new arrival strode right up to Dean and stopped just outside striking distance. Then the two were moving, slowly circling each other, eyes never wavering from each other, their heads low and gazes intent. When Sam got closer, he could see their eyes were both golden.

When they came to a tense stop, a crowd having formed a half-circle around them, the young man spoke with a snarl, "You have a lot of fucking nerve showing up here, Dean."

Sam reached the ring of spectators clustered around the two men and tried to shoulder his way through. Hands came out to hold him back, and since no one had thrown any punches yet, Sam thought he might help the situation by heeding their unspoken commands to halt. For now.

Dean was glaring at the man, his eyes back to their natural color but with a withering iciness in them. "Lucas told me I was welcome here anytime. You have nothing to say about it, Jeremy."

Sam stiffened at the name. 'Oh, shit' was right.

Jeremy seethed. "I have more to say on it than anyone. I was her best friend!"

"And I was her mate," Dean returned in a low, dangerous voice.

That only infuriated Jeremy more. "A hunter for a mate… the mistake that cost Skye her life!"

Dean lunged at Jeremy without warning. A punch connected before anyone could do a thing to stop it. Sam expected intervention, but the pack just watched, the same way a pack of dogs stayed out of the fight of two dogs going at each other.

Jeremy staggered back from the strike and brought up a hand to cradle his mouth where Dean's knuckles had busted open skin.

Maybe the pack wouldn't take sides, but Sam sure as hell would. He fought off the hands holding him back. Dean was under attack, and he wasn't going to stand around and watch. He detached from the watching crowd and moved to Dean's side, ready to fight with him.

"You know you're the reason she died!" Jeremy accused hysterically, licking blood from his lip, then he took a good look at Sam standing just behind Dean's shoulder. Dean's rage ratcheted up a few notches at the attention turned on his little brother.

"And look… he brings another one among us," Jeremy sneered.

"Jeremy, stop this," Jaina barked as she moved to the front of the gathered pack members. "Stop blaming Dean for what happened."

"If it weren't for him, she would be here!" Jeremy answered piteously. "You can't say that isn't true."

Dean flinched and practically shied from Jaina.

"No one made Skye love Dean," Jaina said calmly, though her voice carried a hint of distress.

"But she did, and now she's dead. Because of him, Trey is dead," Jeremy shot a fierce look at Dean. "You shouldn't be here. You have no right to show your face in this town."

"You should go home, Jeremy, you're upset," Ramon added his deep voice to his wife's.

Jeremy looked at both of Skye's parents, seemingly bewildered at the side they took. "Really? You're going to side with him? When he's responsible for your daughter's death?"

"I would have done anything to save her, you bastard!" Dean growled, body almost shaking with anger.

Jeremy laughed sarcastically. "Sure… right. But that's not what hunters are known for, is it? They're killers. I'll give you that, Dean, you're good at what you do."

"Jeremy!" Ramon's voice boomed.

Jeremy finally backed away with a parting warning to the others. "You trust them, you're risking your life. Skye trusted him, and look what happened." Jeremy leveled a last furious look at Dean. "Hunters mean death… always have and always will." Then he turned and stormed off.

The crowd began to dissipate uneasily. Jaina turned immediately toward Dean. "I'm so sorry, Dean."

Dean was breathing heavily, muscles rigid. "Was going to happen sooner or later," he said tersely, clenching his fists at his side. "God, I wanted to fight him," Dean muttered darkly.

"Why didn't you?" Sam asked, honestly curious. Dean wasn't one to hold back when it came to flying fists.

Dean barked out a laugh. He glanced over at his younger brother, his expression taut with fury and agony all at once. "Because everything I do in this damn town is going to be about Skye. I screw up, piss everyone off, and that means Skye was wrong." 'Wrong to love me' Dean's words implied but did not explicitly say.

All Dean had left of Skye to safeguard was her memory. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was all Dean had, and he would keep her legacy in Eclipse River safe. He wouldn't become her mistake.

Loyal to the memory of a lost love himself, Sam could understand all too well. With dignity and respect, Sam nodded his comprehension.

"Thank you, Dean," Jaina said, then to Sam she commented gravely, "Jeremy was going to be the worst; he's never gotten past what happened."

Sam was tempted to point out that no one got past a vibrant life cut short too soon, but given the present company it hardly seemed necessary.

Jaina sighed. "I better go tell Lucas what happened. He needs to know."

Before he could stop himself, Sam wondered aloud, "Does everything that goes on here get reported to him?"

Jaina just smirked. "Pretty much. He's not one of your town mayors… he's a lycan alpha. He has to know about any conflicts. He'll probably talk to Jeremy about this."

"Don't go," Dean spoke up wearily, "I hate for you to miss the barbeque because of me."

Jaina looked at Dean. "I'm not. I'm missing it because of Jeremy. And don't worry, I'll make sure he knows it." She smiled to take the edge off her warning.

"Jaina," Ramon said, approaching his wife, his hand touching her waist fondly. "I'll go talk to Lucas. You stay."

"Are you sure?"

Ramon nodded. "You know I'm not that wild about beef. Venison barbeque, sure. Beef? I won't miss it."

Jaina gave her husband a kiss on the cheek. After Ramon left, Jaina turned to the Winchester boys and said, "Try not to let this ruin your time."

Dean turned to Sam when they were relatively alone and said, "And that is why I didn't want you walking around in this town alone."

"That Jeremy guy was intense. Was he always like that?"

Dean nodded. "Skye described him as a pit bull once. Of course, she said it affectionately."

"When he's not angry about Dean," Selene said from behind Sam, "Jeremy's actually a nice guy."

Sam turned and Dean looked past Sam at the young woman. Dean's eyebrows crept toward his hairline skeptically. Before he could talk, an old man came up and clapped Dean on the shoulder like he was a dear old drinking buddy. "Ah, Jeremy ain't so bad."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Well, forgive me, Jasper, if I call that a load of bullshit."

"You're being a might harsh on the boy," Jasper chided, looking first at Dean then sliding a shrewd look at Sam. "I figure it ain't so different from the way lots of folks are going to be thinking of this tree of a brother of yours."

Dean snorted.

Seeing his chance to gain an ally in the old man, Sam offered his hand. "Sam Winchester, sir."

Jasper eyed the hand thoughtfully, then shook it. "Jasper Crandon. Now, tell me, do you keep your brother out of trouble or get him into it?"

Sam smiled. "Dean's definitely the trouble-maker, sir."

"That's right, Saint Sammy," Dean teased.

Jasper chuckled. "Well then, at the risk of taking him from your good influence, mind if I steal your brother for a sec?"

"Take him. When you get tired of him, just tie him to the bumper of the black car out front."

Dean gave Sam a look, but Jasper just chuckled and tugged Dean away.

Sam turned to Selene.

A devilish spark lighted in Selene's eyes, and she asked Sam, "Having fun yet?"

"Well," Sam answered diplomatically, "it's not boring." Sam looked back in the direction Jasper had taken Dean, leading him to a group of men who seemed to be sharing stories. Sam couldn't hear what was being said, but he didn't really care. He took a moment to study Dean's body language. He was keyed up, still fit to fight, but beyond that he looked okay. There wasn't the 'screw this, I'm outta here' carriage to his body that Sam could detect when his brother had lost all patience.

"So long as Dean's having a good time," Sam added in response to Selene's question.

Her expression softened at that and her smile became sincere instead of wicked. She, too, looked toward Dean.

Sam casually headed back to the picnic table. It was on the periphery, out of the way, and the pack seemed more comfortable with him that way. Sam figured if it was on the outskirts and unobtrusive enough, they'd get used to him being around and not being a disruptive presence. Strangely enough, Sam was using a lot of the old tricks he used to employ for befriending neighborhood strays when he was a kid. Whatever worked.

He was surprised that Selene trailed along after him, but then that was something the sulky dogs used to do when they were starting to warm up to him.

Once perched again on the empty picnic table, Sam looked around the backyard gathering. He was at the only table there, and there was not a single bag of chips in sight. There was a barbeque grill, but it was unmanned and had no fire. Sam kicked himself for not noticing that detail earlier, but the lycan socializing had preoccupied him.

"Hey, Selene?" Sam asked.

She raised her eyebrows in a 'yes?' gesture.

"If this is a barbeque, where's the food?"

That downright wolfish smile blossomed again on Selene's face, mega-watt, and Sam began to feel very, very uneasy.

As if on cue, a call went up from someone near the back of the yard.

"Here comes the beef!"

Everyone at the barbeque stopped and turned attentively to watch as figures began to emerge from the trees.

Sam's jaw dropped. He expected to see people laden with plates and grocery bags joining the party. What he saw instead were five people (Tanya the only one of whom he recognized) on foot, herding toward the backyard a cow.

A live, mooing, ambling cow.

Sam, baffled, looked over at Selene.

Her eyes were no longer green, but gold.

Tanya and her friends, using arm movements and noises, maneuvered the cow into the middle of the yard. When the herders stopped advancing, the cow stopped and looked around.

Then Sam's eyes widened as everyone started to take off their clothes. All of them, from old man Jasper to little Whitney, were stripping down and tossing their clothes aside. Their gazes were intent on the cow. Sam looked around and every pair of eyes was the same color… lycan gold.

Sam searched quickly for Dean, boggled and looking to his brother for some sense of normal. Dean was a beat behind the others, but he was taking his clothes off, too. Briefly, Dean flicked a glance at Sam where the younger brother sat on the picnic table. Dean's glance was golden.

The townsfolk, one by one, crouched naked on the grass.

Sam stared as, one after another, the human forms surrendered to wolf. Sam had seen Dean change plenty of times, but it was different watching a whole group of lycans turn together.

Sam shot another looked in Dean's direction, but Dean had already changed. Even without the glint of gold from Dean's amulet, Sam realized that he could still pick Dean out of the crowd just by how his wolf looked.

The cow, suddenly surrounded by wolves, panicked and tried to find a route of escape.

The wolves closed in on the trapped cow, heads low and eyes locked on target.

Sam didn't know who lunged first, but one wolf darted forward and snapped at flesh. Then another. The cow bellowed and tried to run.

It didn't get far. The wolves descended on the cow en masse. Some bit at flank, others clamped on to the cow's throat, others at belly.

The cow flailed and cried, but after the attack began the prey animal only stayed upright a moment before it went down. The wolves practically swarmed. Sam was grateful when the cow's piteous cries finally ceased.

Then it was a blur of gray bodies, tails, and blood as the wolves began to feed.

Sam watched mutely, not sure what he was supposed to think, much less do. He tried to wrap his head around the fact that this Discovery Channel scene had been a relatively normal neighborhood barbeque party only a couple of minutes ago.

The feeding carried on until the wolves' hunger was satiated. As individual wolves began to move away from the kill, Sam could finally see that there wasn't much left of the poor thing.

He was still sitting on the picnic table, unmoved from his spot since the attack began, when he saw one wolf break from the pack and head in Sam's direction. It only took Sam a second to recognize Dean, the gold amulet peeking through the coat at the wolf's throat. Dean was trotting toward Sam, a bounce in his stride and his muzzle stained with blood.

Dean went up to Sam and looked up at him, eyes bright as he licked his lips.

Sam looked down at his brother a second, then did the only thing he could think to do. He dug into his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and scooted down to the table's bench seat as he took Dean's face gently in hand and started to wipe off the blood. "You're a mess, dude," Sam chided.

Dean stood still, unusually compliant, and let Sam clean him up. As he did, Sam had a brief moment when he remembered Dean doing the same to him when Sam was little, only the culprit had been sauce instead of blood.

When Dean was relatively clean, Sam drew away and studied his brother. What caught his attention instead was a heavy silence in the air. Sam looked up and froze. The entire yard full of wolves was motionless, watching him and Dean.

The full brunt of next to two dozen wolves staring straight at him was overpowering, and Sam felt that one of them had to break first. Sam had learned better than to try to stare down a dog he didn't know and trust, and he wasn't about to wait and see how far that went with wolves.

Sam swallowed and looked back down at Dean. "Hey… you ready to get out of here?"

Dean cocked his head at Sam a second, then whirled and bounded back to his pile of scattered clothes.

Sam stood and headed toward the car ahead of Dean, more than ready to escape the intense collective scrutiny of the pack. Before leaving the yard entirely, however, he turned and addressed the group (lest they think he was fleeing in disgust), "Thanks for having me."

Without waiting for any answer, he turned and went back to the car to wait for Dean.

**************

Whatever discomfort Sam felt after witnessing the lycan idea of a barbeque, he really could not fault the effect it had on Dean. One would be hard-pressed to suspect he'd been ill only a day ago to look at him now. Spending any time as the wolf always put a spring in Dean's step and a quick smile on his face. That had been missing since they arrived in Eclipse River, and Sam knew it wasn't all due to the flu. Dean had been edgy from the minute they got there, and after watching the show-down with Jeremy, Sam understood why. Sam knew, too (even if Dean would never confess it), that a lot of it was heartache. They were in Skye's hometown, after all.

But the barbeque had been just what Dean needed. It combined all the things that improved his mood immeasurably. He got to be the wolf, got to kill something, and got to eat. The Dean Winchester triple recipe for happy.

After they went back to the house, Dean, suddenly full of go-get-'em and high spirits, decided he wanted to take a look around and see what the condition of the place really was. He'd been less interested when the tail-end of the flu had been making him drag ass. Now Dean was ready to take on the world. Starting with the house.

Dean didn't make it past the carport/garage. Skye's Jeep was still there, seemingly untouched since the last time she drove it. Sam hung back and watched for a little while, honestly kind of touched by the way Dean slowed down on approaching it, as if in reverence, and reached out to touch the hood like an old friend. It was the kind of treatment a car had to be a muscle car to get from Dean, but because it had been Skye's he cared.

Sam decided Dean might prefer some time alone and went back in the house.

Watching the cow get slaughtered in front of him had killed Sam's appetite at the time, but he was starting to get hungry. He hadn't had dinner, after all.

He knew Dean wouldn't like it, but Sam figured he would be fine going into town on his own for dinner. With that, he set about searching for Dean's keys to the Impala.

It proved to be harder than he expected. Dean's duffle had seemingly exploded. Tossed across the unmade bed, pillow still holding the imprint of Dean's head, was the shirt Dean had worn yesterday. On the nightstand, Dean's wallet and a half-used pack of Sudafed. But no keys. In the bathroom, a used towel hung from the towel rack. Dean's razor, a can of shaving cream, toothbrush, and tube of toothpaste cluttered the counter. Inexplicably, a pair of dirty socks were on the back of the couch as Sam passed the living room. He spotted Dean's leather jacket hanging on a coat hook near the front door and made a bee line. Fishing through the pockets, he finally found the car keys. Palming them, Sam looked back around the interior of the house and smirked to himself. For someone who decried the atrocity of settling down and making a home, Dean's stuff sure had sprawled quickly.

Just as Sam turned toward the front door, there was a knock.

Startled, Sam opened the door to find Tanya and Jaina on the other side. Tanya was toting a large brown sack in one hand.

"Oh, hello, Jaina, Tanya," Sam greeted a tad awkwardly. "Umm… Dean's out in the carport."

"Nice to know," Tanya replied, deadpan.

Both women just stood there looking at him.

Sam frowned. "So, ah… what brings you two here, then?"

Tanya held up the paper sack. "King-sized meal for you." At Sam's suddenly wary look, Tanya laughed. "It's just roasted chicken and some sides."

Sam's stomach growled at the mention. "You didn't have to do that."

"Course I did," Tanya replied airily, a downright wicked light glinting in her eye, "you didn't eat a bite at the barbeque."

"Uh, yeah… about that," Sam slid a look at Jaina, one eyebrow rising. "That was very… deliberate."

Jaina had the good graces to blush in embarrassment. "I'm sorry for springing that on you like that, but the way you talked about your brother's lycanthropy, you came off as completely accepting of it."

"And you wanted to see if I could walk the walk," Sam finished as he stepped aside to let both women enter.

Tanya headed straight for the kitchen while Jaina hung back with Sam. "You have to admit," Jaina said as the two of them moved toward the kitchen in the back, "being a guest at a lycan barbeque was a good test of just how okay you are with what we are."

Sam chuckled. "Well, I may never look at steaks the same way again, but if you're expecting me to freak out and bolt, you'll have to do better than that."

Tanya snorted as the two walked into the kitchen. Skye's home was small enough she could hear them the entire time. "The way you handled yourself today, I don't imagine there's anything could make you prove to be a lycanphobe. And if you have anything else to say about it, say it over dinner. This chicken's getting colder by the second. Come on," Tanya gestured for Sam to sit at the table, where she'd set out a plate and started pulling out containers of food from the bag.

It smelled delicious, but Sam still protested, "Really, you didn't have to go to the trouble."

"I should warn you, Sam Winchester," Tanya snarled teasingly, a touch of gold coloring her eyes, "I'm not used to having to force my cooking on people. This could get out of hand very quickly."

Sam chuckled. "Wouldn't want that. Sitting down, ma'am." Sam plunked himself in the chair.

While Tanya dished out her small banquet on to Sam's plate, Jaina asked, "What's Dean doing out there?"

"Trying to get the Jeep running." Sam cocked his head thoughtfully. "In almost four years, no one in town ever had a use for it?"

Jaina smiled frailly. "I couldn't quite bring myself to loan it out. Skye was kind of… possessive of her Jeep. She was pretty strict about who she let drive it."

That made Sam laugh. Sure sounded familiar. "I know how that is."

Tanya finished serving Sam and made her way to the cupboard to survey the contents. Jaina joined Sam at the table while Sam dug into dinner.

"Wow… this is fantastic, Tanya," he said around a mouthful of potatoes and gravy."

"Damn right it is," Tanya muttered, but Sam could see the tick of a smile at the corner of her mouth while she peered into the pantry.

"Sam…" Jaina began softly, drawing the younger Winchester's attention. "Do you think Dean will choose to stay?"

For a second, Sam found swallowing very difficult. He washed it down with a drink of water before stammering, "Uh… well… truthfully, any other town I would say not a chance in hell. Settling down, staying in one place, that's just not Dean."

Jaina looked downcast.

"But… I don't know, Eclipse River," Sam recalled the way Dean's things had found themselves all over the house so quickly. "This town is different. I really don't know what he'll decide." And that was the truth.

Jaina nodded grimly. "Must seem strange to you that I care so much about him staying."

Sam shrugged sheepishly.

"Skye may be gone, but it doesn't change the fact that Dean's her mate. He's part of her, in a way. I don't want to lose any more of her than I already have."

Sam frowned sympathetically, saved from having to come up with something to say by returning to his meal with an understanding nod.

"This is deplorable," Tanya announced with disgust as she closed the last cupboard. "There isn't a scrap of decent food in here for you boys."

Sam looked up. "That's fine, really. We're used to living on fast food."

Tanya looked aghast at him. "Fine anywhere else, maybe. I won't have it. I'm going to the grocery store and stocking you boys up."

"No, really, that's not -" Sam tried to protest.

Jaina touched his arm as Tanya brushed past, heading for the door. "Just let her go, Sam. You won't win."

Sam didn't have much chance to decline further, because Tanya was gone. When he looked back miserably at Jaina, she only smiled. "She likes you, you know. Tanya doesn't try to feed up just any Barely that comes through town."

"Well, good to finally have a few people here in my corner," Sam confessed.

Jaina's smile faltered (she knew she had been obviously wary of him at first), and she said, "You made a good showing of yourself at the barbeque… gave a lot of us a lot to think about."

Sam smiled then all but scarfed down the rest of his dinner. When he was done, he pushed back from the table. "I better go see how Dean's doing out there. He can lose track of time when he's under a hood. Care to come?"

"I'll be out in a moment," Jaina stood, reaching for Sam's dirty dishes, "let me take care of these first."

"Oh, come on! Don't bother, I'll do it later."

"Please, I…" Jaina swallowed. "Honestly, it's good to be in this house again and having it be lived in. Feels alive again. I'd like a moment."

Sam backed off. "Right… take all the time you like." Beating a hasty retreat, Sam went out the front door and rounded the house to the small attached carport where the brown and tan 1985 CJ7 Jeep was idling smoothly with Dean behind the wheel, one leg hanging out the door-less side.

"Check it out, Sammy," Dean said proudly when he caught sight of his brother, looking actually kind of silly to Sam (who was used to seeing Dean in hot rods, and a Jeep did not fit that mold).

Dean turned the Jeep off and swung out of the empty door space, keys in hand. "Tires need some air, and probably wouldn't hurt to change the oil, but I think she's in pretty good shape."

"That's great," Sam agreed, choosing not to point out they had little need or use for the Jeep.

Dean nodded thoughtfully to himself, looked down at the keys, then on impulse tossed them to Sam. Sam caught them and gave Dean a quizzical look.

Dean played it off. "Your own wheels, at least while we're here. Don't say I never gave you anything."

Sam gaped. "Are you sure?"

"Sure that I want to or sure that I can?"

Sam smirked. "Well… both."

"You heard Jaina, if it was Skye's, it's mine now. So, it's my car."

Sam really looked at the Jeep for the first time. He'd never had a car of his own before. Even at Stanford, he got by on public transport or Jess's Acura.

"It's a stick," Dean added, "you remember how to work a standard?"

Sam remembered well, learning to drive a standard transmission in an old Ford truck from Bobby's salvage yard when he was fourteen, driving in circles and figure eights around the back acreage. Dad had been on a hunt; he dropped his sons off with Bobby and Dean was the one who decreed it time that Sam learn to drive a stick shift. So many of Sam's life lessons came not at the hands of his father, but of his older brother.

"Yeah, I remember," Sam muttered, fingering the keys in his hand. Giving Sam his own car, as if they wouldn't be tethered together 24/7… it seemed like a step toward permanence. He wondered… could they make it work? A lot of hunters they knew had homes. Like Bobby. A base of operations. Sam had never liked the life of a nomad, but he'd been born into a family that didn't give him another option. A lycan town wasn't exactly the apple pie normal life he'd always craved, but if Dean could find himself setting up shop… well, Sam could make Eclipse River home. It would be nice to have one. And a home where they didn't have to hide what they did. Sam couldn't really imagine that kind of unburdened existence.

"Dude," Dean threw a shop rag at Sam when he got lost in his thoughts, "it's a car, not a marriage proposal."

But it kind of was… 'I take you, Eclipse River, to be my semi-permanent home, for better or worse…'

"This could work, you know," Sam blurted out before he really thought about it.

Dean raised his eyebrows. "Uh huh, sure. Care to clue me in, college boy?"

Sam looked up with a sigh. "Bobby has a home." Dean's expression became unreadable. Sam pressed on, "We could, too."

Dean scowled and looked away, scratching at the back of his head. "Sam…"

"Just… people care about you here."

"You know what? Everywhere I go, someone cares about me," Dean countered and looked pointedly at Sam.

Sam flinched. "Dean… I don't want to hunt forever."

"And after, you'd live here?" Dean asked pointedly.

Sam knew what Dean was doing. No small secret that the center of Dean's solar system was Sam, and everything else in his life orbited around him. Sam didn't always like it, but that was how Dean had been forged. Forged by their father through years of drilling 'watch out for Sammy' into his head until that was Dean. Dean would always come back to Sam, like a stone thrown into the air would always return to earth. What Dean was asking was if Dean did consider making Eclipse River home, even after Sam gave up hunting, if there would still be a damn good reason for Dean to ever come back to it.

Sam realized something very clearly in that moment. He could make Dean turn Eclipse River into home just by making it his home. Sam could pitch a tent in Egypt, and Dean would let that be home if it was where he'd always find Sam.

In a salient way he never really understood before, Sam knew he was Dean's home.

Dean was watching him intently, waiting for his answer.

He wasn't ready to say definitely either way after only two days in the town, so Sam shrugged. "You know, man… there's something nice about not having to lie about what I am. Everyone knows here that I'm a hunter… I don't have to pretend or make up stories. I could get used to that." Too damn fast, truthfully.

Dean studied Sam shrewdly, then gave a very tiny, thoughtful nod.

No telling what he might have said, if anything, but for the fact at that moment Jaina came around the side of the house. "Hi, Dean."

"Jaina," Dean returned, expression shifting to kind and genuinely pleased to see her.

"Were you able to get Skye's Jeep running again?"

"Yep. Didn't take much and she started right up."

"Good," Jaina nodded. "I hated it just sitting here, but I could never bring myself to loan it out to anyone in town."

Dean smiled. "Yeah… Skye was kind of picky about her wheels."

"Pot, kettle," Sam coughed dramatically into his hand, punctuating his taunt by throwing the shop rag earlier thrown at him back at Dean.

Jaina chuckled. "You should expect Tanya later with armloads of groceries."

Dean looked at Sam, questioning.

"She came by a while ago, brought me dinner, and had a stroke when she saw the empty pantry."

"I distinctly remember a can of baked beans in there," Dean argued.

Sam looked down at Jaina and shrugged, "We eat like royalty."

Jaina snorted.

"I'm going to go wait up front for her, at least not make her put up groceries alone," Sam said as he started walking backward toward the front of the house, ostentatiously giving Dean and Jaina time alone.

Dean watched his brother leave, then asked Jaina half-teasingly, "You think he's okay alone with Tanya?"

Jaina smiled faintly. "Tanya doesn't bullshit, Dean. If she says Sam's all right by her, she means it."

"Yeah," Dean muttered, then he frowned, "of course, she never actually said she was all right with Sam."

Jaina laughed. "She did to me. Don't worry. That brother of yours has a real likeable quality to him. Even Jasper said he made a good impression."

"Sam tends to. I suppose one of the Winchester men had to be charming." Dean hesitated uneasily, then said bluntly, "I gave the Jeep to Sam." When Jaina looked up at him, he amended, "not permanently or anything, but for as long as we're here, I figured he might like his own transportation."

"It's yours to give to him, temporarily or otherwise. Really, Dean, don't worry about stuff like that." Jaina looked disappointed. "So you've decided you won't stay?"

Dean flinched. "No, I haven't decided… sorry. I'm just so used to talking about leaving places."

"I can't imagine a life like that," Jaina mused sadly.

Dean shrugged. "I don't really know any other way."

"You could… here."

Dean frowned.

"I don't want to make you uncomfortable, I'm really not trying to force you, just promise me you'll call me before you leave town this time, if you do decide to go?"

"Yeah, sure… let me put your number in my phone." Dean patted down his pockets, checking the usual places only to find it was nowhere to be found. "Must be in the house," he finally said.

Dean and Jaina went back into the house, where Dean found a pen and pad of paper and wrote down Jaina's phone number. They talked a while about this and that, only aware of the passage of time when Sam came in with an arm full of grocery bags and Tanya behind him with another.

They all pitched in putting away the supplies, and what struck the vagabond Winchesters most was how domestic the whole thing was. It was the kind of openness and comfort usually only found when it was only Dean and Sam in the room. But the four of them chatted, and when ghosts or demons came into the conversation, they were just another topic to touch on. No one gasped in shock or thought the boys were buckets of crazy. Fact of that matter was, Sam thought it was great. It was so much of what he'd been looking for at Stanford and (outside of Jessica) had not found.

Eventually, the two women deigned to call it a night and bid the boys farewell. Dean saw them to the door then began searching the house.

"What are you looking for?" Sam asked.

"My phone," Dean answered.

"Oh," Sam dug into his pocket and fished out Dean's cell. "I took it this morning."

Dean looked up sharply. "Why?"

"Because you needed sleep," Sam replied and tossed the phone to Dean over the living room couch.

Dean caught it and scoffed, "Please, you're the one who needs his beauty sleep to look halfway decent."

"Whatever, jerk."

Dean smirked and opened his phone to add in Jaina's number. Out of habit, he checked his recent calls.

Sam watched Dean's face go rigid and his hands freeze. He looked up at Sam. "Dad called?"

"Yeah, this morning. Needed something out of his journal."

A knot of unease was tying itself slowly in Sam's stomach at the look of dread on Dean's face. "What else did you two talk about?" Dean's jaw clenched. "Did you tell him where we were?" The look in Dean's eyes made Sam's blood run cold.

Shit, meet fan. "Uh…"

"Sam?!"

"Yeah… I did."

The color drained from Dean's face immediately. A cold, hard fury sparked in his eyes. "What the hell, Sam? You told him the name of the town? You told him Eclipse River??"

"Yes…" Sam swallowed. "You… you never told Dad what town you visited?"

"No!"

Oh, hell. Not good. So not good. "Damn… I'm sorry, Dean… I didn't know. I thought you already told him." Dean usually told their father all the gory details about his hunts. Sam had assumed Dean told their father most of the details of the hunt that took him to Eclipse River, merely leaving out the part where he became a lycanthrope.

"Shit," Dean hissed, fidgeting with sudden nervous, angry energy. Sam didn't want to compare him to a caged wild animal, but the analogy fit too well.

"Look… why would he come here?" Sam reasoned, but even to his own ears it sounded flimsy. "If you never told him about Eclipse River, he wouldn't have any reason to think -"

"Dad's going to figure it out pretty damn fast," Dean growled. "He knows the last hunt I did solo was in Oregon, and I flat-out refused to discuss it with him. He'll put it together, and you know Dad."

Yeah, he knew John. John Winchester on a hunt was an unstoppable force.

And Sam had likely just sicced him on Eclipse River. 'I'm an idiot,' Sam thought shamefully. He saw any hope they had of making this town home go up in smoke. Just like every other good thing in Sam's whole damn life. "Dean… I'm so sorry."

Dean silenced him with a look and dialed John's number. He waited tensely. Sam could see tension radiating off Dean as he snarled into the phone, "Dad. Answer your goddamn phone. I know you talked to Sam. I don't know what you're thinking of doing, but don't. I mean it. Call me back as soon as you get this." With a scowl, Dean hung up the phone.

"What now?" Sam asked.

Dean paced anxiously. "We can't leave now. If Dad shows up, we have to stop him before he hurts anyone." Dean winced. "We need to tell Lucas."

Sam's eyes widened. "What… really?"

"Yes, really," Dean retorted. "Look, I don't like involving the pack leader in this, but people in town need to know a hunter could show up in town any day, and this one is a danger to them." Dean started toward the door, grabbing his jacket off the hook as he passed. "Let's go."

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