Jaws' Revenge (Pt. 1), GEN, AU, PG-13
Fic: Jaws’ Revenge
Author: sandymg
Beta: borgmama1of5
Summary: Sam’s accidental wish with a cursed Babylonian coin throws Sam and Dean into a familiar yet strange new world
Spoilers: Up to the end of Season 4. References Wendigo 1x02, Wishful Thinking 4x08 and Jump the Shark 4x19
Wordcount: 10,600 (5 parts COMPLETE)
Genre: Gen, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, AU
Characters/Pairings: Sam, Dean, Adam, Dean/Hailey (minor)
Rating/Warning: PG-13, mature themes
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of its characters. They belong to the CW and Eric Kripke -- who'd best treat them well
[ prelude]
Part 1
Dean opened his eyes to chipmunks and deer and moose heads swarming in a circular pattern on the wall. His head felt full and mouth fuzzy. Hangover? Opening one eye he spotted Sam stretched out in the other bed. It always jolted seeing how long Sam had become. In his mind’s eye he was smaller.
A moment of disorientation hit him. This wasn’t the room he last remembered. Granted there was a certain consistency to the tackiness of their lives but this wasn’t …
“Sam?”
His brother groaned.
“Get up. I think … something’s wrong.”
Sam sat up with a start and looked around, his eyes stopping on the third empty bed in the room. Odd, Dean thought, they always got a double.
“Where’s Adam?” Sam asked.
“Who?”
“Funny. Jerk. Now where the hell …”
The bathroom door opened and a tall, skinny teenager emerged wearing blue jeans and a tee-shirt bearing a flying saucer with the phrase I Want to Believe. The kid looked from Sam to Dean questioningly.
“Why are you both staring at me? Is there toothpaste on my face?”
Sam rose and threw Dean a nasty look. “You okay?” Sam asked the kid.
“Yeah. Sure.”
Seemingly pleased with this reply Sam padded into the bathroom leaving Dean to stare open-mouthed at the young stranger in their room.
“Dean. Ya wanna tell me why you’re still staring at me?”
“Adam?” Dean said tentatively.
The kid gave him a classic Sam bitchface and said, “What the hell, Dean? What’s up?”
Dean blinked, lowering his eyes from the strange boy’s almost familiar face. His mind raced. Who was this boy and why did Sam seem to know him? What had Dean been drinking last night?
“You know I think I maybe had a bit too much to drink last night. ‘S left me woozy. Care to remind me again, kid, who you are?”
Adam’s eyes widened about as big as the saucer on his shirt. Sam came back out of the bathroom just then and caught their staring match.
“Sam … something’s wrong with Dean.”
Sam walked closer to Adam and stood slightly in front of the kid in a way that was achingly familiar.
"You okay?” Concern gleamed in Sam’s eyes.
“Yeah. Fine. Just a bit … confused is all. I can’t remember where we met our young friend here.”
Adam clutched Sam’s arm like he was struck. Dean looked at the boy, it did feel like he should know him, that much was true.
“Dean. This isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking, Sam.”
Adam spoke, voice wobbly. “You don’t know me? Dean, I’m your brother.”
Okay. That familiar he wasn’t. Dean knew a few things for certain. His name was Dean Winchester, ghosts were real, and he had a single pain-in-the-ass little brother. And now that brother was hovering over this gangly kid like, well, like Dean used to hover over Sam.
“Sam. C’mon. John Winchester had two boys. There were no children after Mom died.”
Adam answered, “My mom is Kate. But we have the same dad. I’m your half-brother. How can you …?”
At Dean’s blank look Adam backed away, shrugging Sam’s hand off his shoulder.
Sam glared at him. “Nice. Dean. What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Dean sank back on the bed. Something was really, really wrong. A glamour? A Djinn? A spell? Or … was he finally going insane?
Sam thumped on the bed next to him. Adam sulked on the other side of the room. “Look, Dad gone missing is getting to all of us. I don’t remember what time you came in. You musta been drinking. You’ve been doing that too much lately.”
Adam walked over slowly, head down, and sat on his other side.
“Dad’ll be okay. You know him. We’ll stick together, the three of us and we’ll find him.”
Dean stared at the teen now barely a foot away. Adam’s eyes - they were Sam’s, down to the slant. His hair -- same blonde as Dean’s when he was younger. Adam’s nose, straight, a perfect replica of their father’s. What the hell?! And the way the kid was looking at him like he was hurt by Dean’s behavior.
“Adam,” he tested the youngster’s name again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to … I gotta speak with Sam privately a moment.”
The boy did a half pout, half sigh. It reminded him so much of teenage Sam it unnerved him. “Big brother stuff,” Adam huffed in a long-suffering manner.
Dean rose and headed for the door, motioning Sam to follow.
“What’s going on, Dean?”
“Sam. I … I don’t remember Adam. We don’t have another brother.”
Sam stared at him. “Dude, how much did you drink?”
“It’s not … I don’t think I drank at all, man. I don’t remember being here last night. We were …” But there was nothing. “You mentioned Dad. He … he’s alive?”
Sam paled. “Yes. I mean … You know something about Dad you haven’t said?”
“When … what year is this?”
“What year? 2005. God, Dean. What is the last thing you remember?”
“We were on a case, I think. There were strange things.” He flashed on a giant talking teddy bear. Okay. Maybe he really had been drinking.
He shook his head to clear it. Felt like the only thing he could be sure of right now was his name. Dad was alive. Why did this not sound right?
Sam was looking at him with a worried expression. “Sam? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, sure, I’m not the one who doesn’t remember our brother.” Sam’s lips pursed in that I-need-to-figure-this-out look. That felt reassuringly good. It felt like his kid brother. Well, one of them.
As if reading his mind Sam said, “We should go back in. You’ve gotta tell Adam it’s okay. Kid worships you, man. More than Dad, more than me … whatever you remember … you should know that.”
Dean nodded. He had a little brother who’d worshipped him once. But he didn’t remember it being Adam … He looked into his brother’s eyes.
“Can you do this right now, Dean? I need to research what’s happened to your memory … we can put looking for Dad on hold a day if you need us to, I just hate to let the trail get cold … But whatever you need, man. Just tell me.”
“Nah, I’ll be okay. I remember you just fine, whatever’s missing is centered around Adam …” That wasn’t completely true, Dean realized. He knew Sam, yet something was registering as different, like he knew a different Sam, but how could that be possible?
Adam approached them the instant they entered the room. “We okay?” he asked his brothers.
The kid’s face held a naked plea. Despite the confusion his heart softened. Meeting the teenager’s eyes he said, “Yeah. We’re fine. Now why don’t you and the Jolly Green Giant go out and scrounge me up some coffee.”
The request made Adam light up. “Sure Dean. I can go alone, Sam doesn’t …”
Dean and Sam shared a look and Sam accompanied Adam out the door.
Alone, Dean showered and dressed, studying himself in the mirror as he shaved. Did he look … younger? He told himself it wasn’t possible. Time travel was sci-fi movie fantasy stuff. Worked for James Cameron but not in the real world. And truth be told it didn’t work all that well in The Terminator given the paradoxes you could ride a truck through. Although the truck scene with Arnold was wicked good.
His brothers were back when he emerged from the bathroom. Brothers. Didn’t sound right and it bothered him that he thought this. Memory loss like this … what could have caused it? Taking a sip he appreciated the warm jolt. Black and sweet. Kid knew how Dean took his coffee, all right.
“Hey … guys … where are we exactly?” Dean asked.
Concern flickered on Sam’s face again. “Blackwater, Colorado. Dad’s coordinates.”
“The Wendigo?”
“Dad didn’t … how do you … what makes you think this is about a Wendigo?”
“A Wendigo. Really? Cool,” Adam chimed in.
Both his older brothers gave him a stern look.
“Wendigos are dangerous, kid. Not cool. It could tear you apart and eat you before your heart stops beating.”
“Dean. Ease up.”
He sighed. Why was this so familiar? Like they’d done this before. Something stuttered through his brain.
“Sam? How long has it been since … Jessica’s funeral?”
“Who?”
“Jess. Your girlfriend. Stanford … The fire.”
Sam looked at him blankly.
“You didn’t just watch your girlfriend burn on the ceiling like … like Mom … in your apartment in Palo Alto?”
“Dean, we’ve never lived in Palo Alto. I don’t know a Jessica. Now you’re remembering things that never happened?”
“Stanford. Prelaw. You were in school until I came to get you to tell you about Dad.”
“Dean.” Sam was talking very slow and matter-of-fact like he was explaining to a senile old man … and trying to not show how much Dean was unnerving him. That was Adam, not me, we went to get. Kate is furious. And I’m not totally convinced she’s not right.”
“Yeah. Adam doesn’t belong here.”
“What? No. No way. We’re going to find Dad together. You promised. He’s my dad, too,” Adam whined.
Dean sat on the bed and put a hand to his head. It was insane. He had entire events, days, people, floating around his brain. But not this … boy … who was supposed to be his brother. Except … it also felt … true.
“You didn’t go to college?” he asked Sam.
“No, man … how could I … you and Dad needed me.”
He looked hard at Sam. “But you wanted to.” Not a question.
Sam looked away. “Adam will go. We’ll help him out. He’s the smart one, anyway.”
Dean knew Sam was lying. Sam was the one who’d made good grades, who’d worked his ass off to get into college. And Dean had taken him away from it, happy selfish to have his brother back with him, riding shotgun. Except the picture of Sam in the passenger seat made him anxious, worried. No time for this. There was a job to do. And he knew what it was.
“There’s a kid missing in the woods. His sister is gonna start a search for him.” Dean couldn’t sit a moment longer. “Can’t let her go alone. Maybe this time we can stop her idiot guide from becoming Wendigo chow.” His hands were packing his duffel without the need for conscious thought.
“Civilians? That’s never a good idea. Besides how do you know--?” Even as he questioned, Sam was starting to gather his own things.
“I know.” He looked at Adam. Slight, bouncy. Eyes that couldn’t hide a thing. So like Sammy it made his heart ache.
Adam disappeared into the bathroom and Dean took a moment to find out more that he should already have known.
“How old is he?”
“Fifteen. You really don’t remember?”
“Not a thing. Fill me in quick.”
“Dad met his mother, Kate, in Minnesota. She’s an ER nurse, patched him up. He didn’t know when he left that she was pregnant. Anyway, he passed back that way a year later and learned about Adam. That’s when he told us. I was only eight. You were, what, twelve? After that we’d get together when we could. Birthdays, holidays, you remember, whenever Dad got banged up he’d go back … Dad and Kate never really … but they tried to make us a family in their own way. You and I taught the kid the ropes when he got old enough.”
“He hunt with us?” Dean asked.
“A little. Last summer for the first time for real. Kate isn’t that cool with it. She’s livid now. She was a hair away from calling the police when Adam left with us. But he wouldn’t budge. Had to come with us. She finally caved. Can’t really blame him, it’s … Dad.”
“His mother’s right, Sam. I don’t mean about the cops but he shouldn’t be here. Kid’s gonna get hurt.”
“I can take care of myself!”
They hadn’t noticed Adam standing there. Dean wondered how much he’d heard.
“Adam ….”
“No. Dean. You claim to not even know me. So … it’s not up to you. Sam, you said you understood that I need to help find Dad.”
Kid wasn’t crying but his voice broke. Fifteen. Should be home with his mommy, not about to traipse into a monster’s lair.
Sam approached Adam. “Dean’s confused. When we find Dad he’ll know what to do about that.” He threw his arm around his younger sibling. “Till then we stick together. We’re family. That’s what family does.”
Dean gazed at both his younger brothers. Family. Why did it feel like a hole in him was filled by Sam’s certainty?
He approached Adam from the other side and put his hand on the boy’s other shoulder. “Even if some of the details are fuzzy, I know you’re my brother.”
Sam met his eyes above the shorter boy’s head. It felt so right it hurt. He didn’t remember the last time he’d felt this close to Sammy. Bah. He shook it off.
“Okay ladies, enough of this chick flick nonsense or I’ll start growing breasts.”
Adam laughed, high and squeaky, so like Sam. “You already have man boobs,” he teased.
Dean laughed, but looked down at his lean torso for a second just to be sure.
* * *
“Tell me again Dean, what are we doing here? What’s our cover? This isn’t the way Dad-“
“Dad’s not here,” Dean said more harshly to Sam than he’d intended. “Hailey’s cool. Trust me.”
An attractive young woman opened the door. Huge blue eyes and wild dark hair. Impossible to say how he’d known exactly what she’d look like. It was a memory coming to life.
“Can I help you?” she asked warily.
“My name is Dean Winchester. These are my brothers, Sam and Adam. We understand you have a brother gone missing up on Black Water Ridge.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything. Her already huge eyes grew even bigger.
“Our Dad is missing, too. We believe he’s in the same area. Ranger Wilkinson told us that they couldn’t help us for another forty-eight hours. Seems like too long to wait, don’t you think?”
Hailey looked him up and down appraisingly. She nodded toward the Impala. “That yours?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice car.”
And just like that he remembered why he liked this girl. She measured them all with her eyes for another second and then invited them in.
“So if Tommy’s not due back for a while, how do you know something’s wrong?” Sam said.
“He checks in every day by cell. He emails photos, stupid little videos … but we haven’t heard anything in over three days now.”
“Could he have forgotten?” Adam asked.
“No. He wouldn’t do that,” Hailey’s little brother Ben snapped.
Hailey put a reassuring hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Our parents are gone; it’s just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other.”
She played Tommy’s last message for them.
Sam leaned toward Dean and whispered. “How do you know he’s just not lost … I mean …”
“Hailey … Do you mind forwarding that message to Sam? He might find something that could help with the search.”
“Sure. Look, I can’t sit around here anymore, so I hired a guide. I’m heading out in the morning and I’m gonna find Tommy myself. Do you want to join us and look for your father?”
Sam started to protest but before he got more than half a syllable out Dean said yes.
* * *
They settled in at a back table at Harvey’s Diner. Sam and Adam, both with a laptops, each tackled part of the problem - Sam manipulating the video from Tommy, Adam researching the history of the area. Dean had to admit his brothers made an efficient team. Frankly, he wasn’t sure how needed he was.
“There’s definitely a pattern,” Adam said. “In 1982, eight people vanished. They chalked it up to a grizzly attack. And again in 1959, and again before that in 1936. Every twenty-three years. Like clockwork, as Dad would say.”
“Nice work,” Sam said to Adam who smiled.
“Yeah, good job,” Dean agreed quickly and watched Adam practically glow.
“I found something,” Sam announced.
“A shadow pass by the tent?”
Sam started. “How in hell did you know that?”
“It’s a Wendigo, Sam. A mean mother so we have to be extra careful.”
“Then why did you agree to let that Hailey girl and her little brother, no less, come along?!”
“Because there was no way short of handcuffing her to her … “ He didn’t like where that mental image was taking him. “There was no way she wouldn’t go. It’s her brother out there.”
“Hunting the Wendigo’s not enough? Now we gotta babysit, too?”
“Look if it were up to me I’d be doing this by myself.” Both Sam and Adam shot him a nasty look. “But that’s not an option either. So stop bitching and help me keep these people safe. It’s what we do.”
* * *
Despite Sam’s disapproval, Dean let Adam have a beer when they returned to the motel.
“Quit being such a mother hen,” Dean scowled.
“I promised Kate …”
“Yeah, yeah … except Kate’s not here and the kid’s gotta grow up sometime.”
Adam looked at him with adoration. After a second even Sam smiled at him and lightened up, grabbing a beer of his own. Dean took over the remote as was his due as eldest and flipped channels madly. Glancing over at Sam, he expected a sullen stare and silent chastise. Instead, his brother smiled at him again and raised up one knee to lean the bottle against.
Why should being relaxed feel so odd? Dean kept expecting to have to walk on eggshells, but why? This was Sammy. Pain in the ass, sure, but you’re my brother, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.
The beer and the stress must have worn out Adam because Dean heard a soft snore from the room’s third bed. He and Sam shared a soft look as they glanced over at Adam. Odd, having another baby brother. He and Sam now shared the burden of protecting someone. Felt lighter somehow. Made no sense because he still had to take care of Sammy, that was his job, his responsibility always. And he didn’t mind. Never did, not really. Even when he told himself he did … part of him knew he wouldn’t trade what he had for anything. Is that what Sam felt toward Adam? Was this the difference he sensed in Sam? Difference from what?
Head spinning, he couldn’t really concentrate on the television. “Want the remote?” he asked Sam.
Sam stared at him like he’d grown a second head. Dean turned the TV off.
“We gonna talk about your memory loss?” Sam asked.
“Nope.”
“Dean,” Sam whined.
Yawning as loud and obnoxiously as he could he turned away from his brother and scrunched into his pillow. “Maybe when I wake up tomorrow I’ll forget you, too, and be able to finally get some rest.”
“Jerk.”
“Bitch.”
They were quiet a moment. “Dean?”
Sighing he turned back, feeling Sam’s eyes burning into him from behind.
“When we find Dad, he’ll know what … I mean, you might need a doctor.”
And there it was again, shining out of his brother’s eyes. Swallowing hard Dean replied, “Sammy. I’m fine. Got too close to some red kryptonite and it fried my brain. All will revert to normal. Always does.”
His brother seemed mildly placated. “You know, I’m … here for you, man.”
“Yeah.”
Despite the millions of reasons he should be worried, Dean dozed off feeling more content than he’d remembered in years. Decades, even. And that really made no sense.
The teddy bear is huge and very sad. Poor sod’s drinking heavily and turning to skin magazines to find the meaning of life. Not that one couldn’t find the meaning of life in Busty Asian Beauties, but it’s harder if you’re a giant stuffed animal. Now the invisible boy - he has the right idea - why settle for ink when you could have the real thing right in front of you in the ladies locker room? He and Sam older, somber, serious, Sam, who keeps secrets that are bad are walking through a town gone mad and they don’t laugh. Laughing isn’t something Dean does because he doesn’t deserve … Evil, unadulterated and fiery rises up to meet him in vicious lashes, tearing his skin off his body until his bones crack under the whip and it doesn’t stop, will never stop … just say yes.
A pretty girl sits with a homely geek and she pours herself over him like syrup on pancakes and Dean thinks for just a second maybe she sees beyond the ugly beyond the scars that aren’t there anymore but it hurts, it hurts so much and Castiel help me … make it stop. His mother is there only she’s young hot and so like him. A hunter. Broken before she can … No…
There’s a magic coin in a wishing well where a little girl wanted a bear playmate because she was lonely and the bear shot himself in the head and he and Sam liar are lying to this little girl that they can make it better when no one can make him better because no one can understand what he saw, what he feels, what he did. Freak. I’d hunt you Sam, I’d want to hunt you. Monster hunting monster because he isn’t any better … You don’t think you deserved to be saved? Sam. Holding him, because it’s the only good thing his mind can latch onto. But no matter how hard he holds on a dark-haired woman with pitch black eyes is laughing at him taking away Sammy his brother and he watches and can’t do anything can’t move.
Sam holds the coin and says I have to take the wish back and Dean thinks what wish? Except now he’s running and invisible evil is after him and he trips and razor teeth tear at his flesh and it hurts so much he needs he needs … Sam, SAM …
“Whoa, Dean, you okay?”
Two sets of eyes -- one hazel, one blue - hover above him, clearly concerned -- Dean doesn’t think he can look into them any longer without losing it.
“Yeah. I’m … fine. It was a … dream. Sorry I woke you.”
“You were yelling, Dean, calling for Sam.”
“It’s okay, really. Relax ladies.” Dean looked at the bedside clock. “Might as well get started. We got us some monster to mash.”
Go to Part 2
Author: sandymg
Beta: borgmama1of5
Summary: Sam’s accidental wish with a cursed Babylonian coin throws Sam and Dean into a familiar yet strange new world
Spoilers: Up to the end of Season 4. References Wendigo 1x02, Wishful Thinking 4x08 and Jump the Shark 4x19
Wordcount: 10,600 (5 parts COMPLETE)
Genre: Gen, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, AU
Characters/Pairings: Sam, Dean, Adam, Dean/Hailey (minor)
Rating/Warning: PG-13, mature themes
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of its characters. They belong to the CW and Eric Kripke -- who'd best treat them well
[ prelude]
Part 1
Dean opened his eyes to chipmunks and deer and moose heads swarming in a circular pattern on the wall. His head felt full and mouth fuzzy. Hangover? Opening one eye he spotted Sam stretched out in the other bed. It always jolted seeing how long Sam had become. In his mind’s eye he was smaller.
A moment of disorientation hit him. This wasn’t the room he last remembered. Granted there was a certain consistency to the tackiness of their lives but this wasn’t …
“Sam?”
His brother groaned.
“Get up. I think … something’s wrong.”
Sam sat up with a start and looked around, his eyes stopping on the third empty bed in the room. Odd, Dean thought, they always got a double.
“Where’s Adam?” Sam asked.
“Who?”
“Funny. Jerk. Now where the hell …”
The bathroom door opened and a tall, skinny teenager emerged wearing blue jeans and a tee-shirt bearing a flying saucer with the phrase I Want to Believe. The kid looked from Sam to Dean questioningly.
“Why are you both staring at me? Is there toothpaste on my face?”
Sam rose and threw Dean a nasty look. “You okay?” Sam asked the kid.
“Yeah. Sure.”
Seemingly pleased with this reply Sam padded into the bathroom leaving Dean to stare open-mouthed at the young stranger in their room.
“Dean. Ya wanna tell me why you’re still staring at me?”
“Adam?” Dean said tentatively.
The kid gave him a classic Sam bitchface and said, “What the hell, Dean? What’s up?”
Dean blinked, lowering his eyes from the strange boy’s almost familiar face. His mind raced. Who was this boy and why did Sam seem to know him? What had Dean been drinking last night?
“You know I think I maybe had a bit too much to drink last night. ‘S left me woozy. Care to remind me again, kid, who you are?”
Adam’s eyes widened about as big as the saucer on his shirt. Sam came back out of the bathroom just then and caught their staring match.
“Sam … something’s wrong with Dean.”
Sam walked closer to Adam and stood slightly in front of the kid in a way that was achingly familiar.
"You okay?” Concern gleamed in Sam’s eyes.
“Yeah. Fine. Just a bit … confused is all. I can’t remember where we met our young friend here.”
Adam clutched Sam’s arm like he was struck. Dean looked at the boy, it did feel like he should know him, that much was true.
“Dean. This isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking, Sam.”
Adam spoke, voice wobbly. “You don’t know me? Dean, I’m your brother.”
Okay. That familiar he wasn’t. Dean knew a few things for certain. His name was Dean Winchester, ghosts were real, and he had a single pain-in-the-ass little brother. And now that brother was hovering over this gangly kid like, well, like Dean used to hover over Sam.
“Sam. C’mon. John Winchester had two boys. There were no children after Mom died.”
Adam answered, “My mom is Kate. But we have the same dad. I’m your half-brother. How can you …?”
At Dean’s blank look Adam backed away, shrugging Sam’s hand off his shoulder.
Sam glared at him. “Nice. Dean. What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Dean sank back on the bed. Something was really, really wrong. A glamour? A Djinn? A spell? Or … was he finally going insane?
Sam thumped on the bed next to him. Adam sulked on the other side of the room. “Look, Dad gone missing is getting to all of us. I don’t remember what time you came in. You musta been drinking. You’ve been doing that too much lately.”
Adam walked over slowly, head down, and sat on his other side.
“Dad’ll be okay. You know him. We’ll stick together, the three of us and we’ll find him.”
Dean stared at the teen now barely a foot away. Adam’s eyes - they were Sam’s, down to the slant. His hair -- same blonde as Dean’s when he was younger. Adam’s nose, straight, a perfect replica of their father’s. What the hell?! And the way the kid was looking at him like he was hurt by Dean’s behavior.
“Adam,” he tested the youngster’s name again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to … I gotta speak with Sam privately a moment.”
The boy did a half pout, half sigh. It reminded him so much of teenage Sam it unnerved him. “Big brother stuff,” Adam huffed in a long-suffering manner.
Dean rose and headed for the door, motioning Sam to follow.
“What’s going on, Dean?”
“Sam. I … I don’t remember Adam. We don’t have another brother.”
Sam stared at him. “Dude, how much did you drink?”
“It’s not … I don’t think I drank at all, man. I don’t remember being here last night. We were …” But there was nothing. “You mentioned Dad. He … he’s alive?”
Sam paled. “Yes. I mean … You know something about Dad you haven’t said?”
“When … what year is this?”
“What year? 2005. God, Dean. What is the last thing you remember?”
“We were on a case, I think. There were strange things.” He flashed on a giant talking teddy bear. Okay. Maybe he really had been drinking.
He shook his head to clear it. Felt like the only thing he could be sure of right now was his name. Dad was alive. Why did this not sound right?
Sam was looking at him with a worried expression. “Sam? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, sure, I’m not the one who doesn’t remember our brother.” Sam’s lips pursed in that I-need-to-figure-this-out look. That felt reassuringly good. It felt like his kid brother. Well, one of them.
As if reading his mind Sam said, “We should go back in. You’ve gotta tell Adam it’s okay. Kid worships you, man. More than Dad, more than me … whatever you remember … you should know that.”
Dean nodded. He had a little brother who’d worshipped him once. But he didn’t remember it being Adam … He looked into his brother’s eyes.
“Can you do this right now, Dean? I need to research what’s happened to your memory … we can put looking for Dad on hold a day if you need us to, I just hate to let the trail get cold … But whatever you need, man. Just tell me.”
“Nah, I’ll be okay. I remember you just fine, whatever’s missing is centered around Adam …” That wasn’t completely true, Dean realized. He knew Sam, yet something was registering as different, like he knew a different Sam, but how could that be possible?
Adam approached them the instant they entered the room. “We okay?” he asked his brothers.
The kid’s face held a naked plea. Despite the confusion his heart softened. Meeting the teenager’s eyes he said, “Yeah. We’re fine. Now why don’t you and the Jolly Green Giant go out and scrounge me up some coffee.”
The request made Adam light up. “Sure Dean. I can go alone, Sam doesn’t …”
Dean and Sam shared a look and Sam accompanied Adam out the door.
Alone, Dean showered and dressed, studying himself in the mirror as he shaved. Did he look … younger? He told himself it wasn’t possible. Time travel was sci-fi movie fantasy stuff. Worked for James Cameron but not in the real world. And truth be told it didn’t work all that well in The Terminator given the paradoxes you could ride a truck through. Although the truck scene with Arnold was wicked good.
His brothers were back when he emerged from the bathroom. Brothers. Didn’t sound right and it bothered him that he thought this. Memory loss like this … what could have caused it? Taking a sip he appreciated the warm jolt. Black and sweet. Kid knew how Dean took his coffee, all right.
“Hey … guys … where are we exactly?” Dean asked.
Concern flickered on Sam’s face again. “Blackwater, Colorado. Dad’s coordinates.”
“The Wendigo?”
“Dad didn’t … how do you … what makes you think this is about a Wendigo?”
“A Wendigo. Really? Cool,” Adam chimed in.
Both his older brothers gave him a stern look.
“Wendigos are dangerous, kid. Not cool. It could tear you apart and eat you before your heart stops beating.”
“Dean. Ease up.”
He sighed. Why was this so familiar? Like they’d done this before. Something stuttered through his brain.
“Sam? How long has it been since … Jessica’s funeral?”
“Who?”
“Jess. Your girlfriend. Stanford … The fire.”
Sam looked at him blankly.
“You didn’t just watch your girlfriend burn on the ceiling like … like Mom … in your apartment in Palo Alto?”
“Dean, we’ve never lived in Palo Alto. I don’t know a Jessica. Now you’re remembering things that never happened?”
“Stanford. Prelaw. You were in school until I came to get you to tell you about Dad.”
“Dean.” Sam was talking very slow and matter-of-fact like he was explaining to a senile old man … and trying to not show how much Dean was unnerving him. That was Adam, not me, we went to get. Kate is furious. And I’m not totally convinced she’s not right.”
“Yeah. Adam doesn’t belong here.”
“What? No. No way. We’re going to find Dad together. You promised. He’s my dad, too,” Adam whined.
Dean sat on the bed and put a hand to his head. It was insane. He had entire events, days, people, floating around his brain. But not this … boy … who was supposed to be his brother. Except … it also felt … true.
“You didn’t go to college?” he asked Sam.
“No, man … how could I … you and Dad needed me.”
He looked hard at Sam. “But you wanted to.” Not a question.
Sam looked away. “Adam will go. We’ll help him out. He’s the smart one, anyway.”
Dean knew Sam was lying. Sam was the one who’d made good grades, who’d worked his ass off to get into college. And Dean had taken him away from it, happy selfish to have his brother back with him, riding shotgun. Except the picture of Sam in the passenger seat made him anxious, worried. No time for this. There was a job to do. And he knew what it was.
“There’s a kid missing in the woods. His sister is gonna start a search for him.” Dean couldn’t sit a moment longer. “Can’t let her go alone. Maybe this time we can stop her idiot guide from becoming Wendigo chow.” His hands were packing his duffel without the need for conscious thought.
“Civilians? That’s never a good idea. Besides how do you know--?” Even as he questioned, Sam was starting to gather his own things.
“I know.” He looked at Adam. Slight, bouncy. Eyes that couldn’t hide a thing. So like Sammy it made his heart ache.
Adam disappeared into the bathroom and Dean took a moment to find out more that he should already have known.
“How old is he?”
“Fifteen. You really don’t remember?”
“Not a thing. Fill me in quick.”
“Dad met his mother, Kate, in Minnesota. She’s an ER nurse, patched him up. He didn’t know when he left that she was pregnant. Anyway, he passed back that way a year later and learned about Adam. That’s when he told us. I was only eight. You were, what, twelve? After that we’d get together when we could. Birthdays, holidays, you remember, whenever Dad got banged up he’d go back … Dad and Kate never really … but they tried to make us a family in their own way. You and I taught the kid the ropes when he got old enough.”
“He hunt with us?” Dean asked.
“A little. Last summer for the first time for real. Kate isn’t that cool with it. She’s livid now. She was a hair away from calling the police when Adam left with us. But he wouldn’t budge. Had to come with us. She finally caved. Can’t really blame him, it’s … Dad.”
“His mother’s right, Sam. I don’t mean about the cops but he shouldn’t be here. Kid’s gonna get hurt.”
“I can take care of myself!”
They hadn’t noticed Adam standing there. Dean wondered how much he’d heard.
“Adam ….”
“No. Dean. You claim to not even know me. So … it’s not up to you. Sam, you said you understood that I need to help find Dad.”
Kid wasn’t crying but his voice broke. Fifteen. Should be home with his mommy, not about to traipse into a monster’s lair.
Sam approached Adam. “Dean’s confused. When we find Dad he’ll know what to do about that.” He threw his arm around his younger sibling. “Till then we stick together. We’re family. That’s what family does.”
Dean gazed at both his younger brothers. Family. Why did it feel like a hole in him was filled by Sam’s certainty?
He approached Adam from the other side and put his hand on the boy’s other shoulder. “Even if some of the details are fuzzy, I know you’re my brother.”
Sam met his eyes above the shorter boy’s head. It felt so right it hurt. He didn’t remember the last time he’d felt this close to Sammy. Bah. He shook it off.
“Okay ladies, enough of this chick flick nonsense or I’ll start growing breasts.”
Adam laughed, high and squeaky, so like Sam. “You already have man boobs,” he teased.
Dean laughed, but looked down at his lean torso for a second just to be sure.
* * *
“Tell me again Dean, what are we doing here? What’s our cover? This isn’t the way Dad-“
“Dad’s not here,” Dean said more harshly to Sam than he’d intended. “Hailey’s cool. Trust me.”
An attractive young woman opened the door. Huge blue eyes and wild dark hair. Impossible to say how he’d known exactly what she’d look like. It was a memory coming to life.
“Can I help you?” she asked warily.
“My name is Dean Winchester. These are my brothers, Sam and Adam. We understand you have a brother gone missing up on Black Water Ridge.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything. Her already huge eyes grew even bigger.
“Our Dad is missing, too. We believe he’s in the same area. Ranger Wilkinson told us that they couldn’t help us for another forty-eight hours. Seems like too long to wait, don’t you think?”
Hailey looked him up and down appraisingly. She nodded toward the Impala. “That yours?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice car.”
And just like that he remembered why he liked this girl. She measured them all with her eyes for another second and then invited them in.
“So if Tommy’s not due back for a while, how do you know something’s wrong?” Sam said.
“He checks in every day by cell. He emails photos, stupid little videos … but we haven’t heard anything in over three days now.”
“Could he have forgotten?” Adam asked.
“No. He wouldn’t do that,” Hailey’s little brother Ben snapped.
Hailey put a reassuring hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Our parents are gone; it’s just my two brothers and me. We all keep pretty close tabs on each other.”
She played Tommy’s last message for them.
Sam leaned toward Dean and whispered. “How do you know he’s just not lost … I mean …”
“Hailey … Do you mind forwarding that message to Sam? He might find something that could help with the search.”
“Sure. Look, I can’t sit around here anymore, so I hired a guide. I’m heading out in the morning and I’m gonna find Tommy myself. Do you want to join us and look for your father?”
Sam started to protest but before he got more than half a syllable out Dean said yes.
* * *
They settled in at a back table at Harvey’s Diner. Sam and Adam, both with a laptops, each tackled part of the problem - Sam manipulating the video from Tommy, Adam researching the history of the area. Dean had to admit his brothers made an efficient team. Frankly, he wasn’t sure how needed he was.
“There’s definitely a pattern,” Adam said. “In 1982, eight people vanished. They chalked it up to a grizzly attack. And again in 1959, and again before that in 1936. Every twenty-three years. Like clockwork, as Dad would say.”
“Nice work,” Sam said to Adam who smiled.
“Yeah, good job,” Dean agreed quickly and watched Adam practically glow.
“I found something,” Sam announced.
“A shadow pass by the tent?”
Sam started. “How in hell did you know that?”
“It’s a Wendigo, Sam. A mean mother so we have to be extra careful.”
“Then why did you agree to let that Hailey girl and her little brother, no less, come along?!”
“Because there was no way short of handcuffing her to her … “ He didn’t like where that mental image was taking him. “There was no way she wouldn’t go. It’s her brother out there.”
“Hunting the Wendigo’s not enough? Now we gotta babysit, too?”
“Look if it were up to me I’d be doing this by myself.” Both Sam and Adam shot him a nasty look. “But that’s not an option either. So stop bitching and help me keep these people safe. It’s what we do.”
* * *
Despite Sam’s disapproval, Dean let Adam have a beer when they returned to the motel.
“Quit being such a mother hen,” Dean scowled.
“I promised Kate …”
“Yeah, yeah … except Kate’s not here and the kid’s gotta grow up sometime.”
Adam looked at him with adoration. After a second even Sam smiled at him and lightened up, grabbing a beer of his own. Dean took over the remote as was his due as eldest and flipped channels madly. Glancing over at Sam, he expected a sullen stare and silent chastise. Instead, his brother smiled at him again and raised up one knee to lean the bottle against.
Why should being relaxed feel so odd? Dean kept expecting to have to walk on eggshells, but why? This was Sammy. Pain in the ass, sure, but you’re my brother, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.
The beer and the stress must have worn out Adam because Dean heard a soft snore from the room’s third bed. He and Sam shared a soft look as they glanced over at Adam. Odd, having another baby brother. He and Sam now shared the burden of protecting someone. Felt lighter somehow. Made no sense because he still had to take care of Sammy, that was his job, his responsibility always. And he didn’t mind. Never did, not really. Even when he told himself he did … part of him knew he wouldn’t trade what he had for anything. Is that what Sam felt toward Adam? Was this the difference he sensed in Sam? Difference from what?
Head spinning, he couldn’t really concentrate on the television. “Want the remote?” he asked Sam.
Sam stared at him like he’d grown a second head. Dean turned the TV off.
“We gonna talk about your memory loss?” Sam asked.
“Nope.”
“Dean,” Sam whined.
Yawning as loud and obnoxiously as he could he turned away from his brother and scrunched into his pillow. “Maybe when I wake up tomorrow I’ll forget you, too, and be able to finally get some rest.”
“Jerk.”
“Bitch.”
They were quiet a moment. “Dean?”
Sighing he turned back, feeling Sam’s eyes burning into him from behind.
“When we find Dad, he’ll know what … I mean, you might need a doctor.”
And there it was again, shining out of his brother’s eyes. Swallowing hard Dean replied, “Sammy. I’m fine. Got too close to some red kryptonite and it fried my brain. All will revert to normal. Always does.”
His brother seemed mildly placated. “You know, I’m … here for you, man.”
“Yeah.”
Despite the millions of reasons he should be worried, Dean dozed off feeling more content than he’d remembered in years. Decades, even. And that really made no sense.
The teddy bear is huge and very sad. Poor sod’s drinking heavily and turning to skin magazines to find the meaning of life. Not that one couldn’t find the meaning of life in Busty Asian Beauties, but it’s harder if you’re a giant stuffed animal. Now the invisible boy - he has the right idea - why settle for ink when you could have the real thing right in front of you in the ladies locker room? He and Sam older, somber, serious, Sam, who keeps secrets that are bad are walking through a town gone mad and they don’t laugh. Laughing isn’t something Dean does because he doesn’t deserve … Evil, unadulterated and fiery rises up to meet him in vicious lashes, tearing his skin off his body until his bones crack under the whip and it doesn’t stop, will never stop … just say yes.
A pretty girl sits with a homely geek and she pours herself over him like syrup on pancakes and Dean thinks for just a second maybe she sees beyond the ugly beyond the scars that aren’t there anymore but it hurts, it hurts so much and Castiel help me … make it stop. His mother is there only she’s young hot and so like him. A hunter. Broken before she can … No…
There’s a magic coin in a wishing well where a little girl wanted a bear playmate because she was lonely and the bear shot himself in the head and he and Sam liar are lying to this little girl that they can make it better when no one can make him better because no one can understand what he saw, what he feels, what he did. Freak. I’d hunt you Sam, I’d want to hunt you. Monster hunting monster because he isn’t any better … You don’t think you deserved to be saved? Sam. Holding him, because it’s the only good thing his mind can latch onto. But no matter how hard he holds on a dark-haired woman with pitch black eyes is laughing at him taking away Sammy his brother and he watches and can’t do anything can’t move.
Sam holds the coin and says I have to take the wish back and Dean thinks what wish? Except now he’s running and invisible evil is after him and he trips and razor teeth tear at his flesh and it hurts so much he needs he needs … Sam, SAM …
“Whoa, Dean, you okay?”
Two sets of eyes -- one hazel, one blue - hover above him, clearly concerned -- Dean doesn’t think he can look into them any longer without losing it.
“Yeah. I’m … fine. It was a … dream. Sorry I woke you.”
“You were yelling, Dean, calling for Sam.”
“It’s okay, really. Relax ladies.” Dean looked at the bedside clock. “Might as well get started. We got us some monster to mash.”
Go to Part 2