The Kid, Part 8 -- Supernatural AU, PG

[phantisma]

Fandom: Supernatural
Title: The Kid Part 8 ( All of The Kid can be found Here)
Characters/Pairings: Dean, Sam, John
Rating: PG
Genre: GEN (did you even know I could GEN?)
Word Count: 2512
Summary: Dean is 18, Sam is 14. John is 6. Dean takes Sam and John to their open houses at school and learns that maybe he's been worried about the wrong boy...and maybe he's been holding his breath, waiting for something that isn't ever going to happen.


A/Ns & Warnings: Um. This is at least partially varkelton's fault. De-aging fic. This part is a wee angsty. *pets poor Dean*




"Mr. Winchester, a pleasure to meet you."

Dean dusted his hand on his jeans, rubbing off the crumbs from the piece of coffee cake he'd snatched from the refreshment table. "This is Mrs. Gabriel, Dad." John said as Dean reached out his hand to shake.

"Right, Johnny says you're smarter than anyone he's ever known." Dean said with a smile.

She laughed, a happy sound. "He's pretty darn smart himself."

John beamed up at Dean. "Why don't you go find Sammy and show him the thing with the fish?" Dean said, watching as John tore off toward the back of the room where the class artwork was posted. "He's excited."

"He's a good kid." Mrs. Gabriel said.

"But?" Dean could sense the word, even if she hadn't said it.

"He's a challenge."

Dean turned to watch him pulling Sam toward his drawing. "That he is. Something I should worry about?"

"I wouldn't say 'worry' exactly. I was wondering about his mother?"

Dean exhaled and nodded. "She's gone. Died about a year ago. Why?"

"He's mentioned her a few times, but he always withdraws right after."

They were a month and a half past the one year mark. John had been funny about things since he realized. Dean had caught him crying in his room at night a couple of times. "It's been a rough go of things for him."

"I was also wondering if you knew about his penchant for telling scary stories?"

Dean cocked his head to look at her. "Stories?"

"We have story time. So far he's told a story about a man who turns into a wolf on the night of the full moon and eats the hearts out of valentines and one about a woman who was so in love with her husband that she didn't leave him even after she died."

Dean opened his mouth to say something, but wasn't sure what. He closed it again and shrugged.

"He has a wonderful imagination. I just worry about what he's getting exposed to that he expresses himself like that."

"I don't know." Dean answered, inhaling deeply. Actually, he sort of had an idea. Both of them sounded like things that were in his father's journal. "He doesn't tell me stories like that. He doesn't get much television."

"I've asked him to bring us a happy story next time."

"Happy. Right. We'll work on it."

"Aside from that, your son is a great kid. He's ahead of the rest of his class in math and reading, and he participates well."

Dean glanced over his shoulder to check on John and Sam, then looked back at Mrs. Gabriel. "He's had some issues making friends his own age, I'm not sure how to help him."

She smiled. "He does seem to like older students and adults. Our janitor, Mr. Wooley is his current favorite, but you see that boy there?" She pointed with her chin. "Jeffrey Hallows. He and John spend a lot of free time together. They have a few things in common. His mother died a year or so ago too. Terrible story. Jeffrey found her body in the pool."

Dean turned and watched as John and Jeffrey whispered together, then took of running toward the play area. "That is terrible." Dean murmured. At least Johnny didn't have that this time around. "Well, thank you for your time, Mrs. Gabriel. I still need to get to Sam's school for his open house. I should go."

She shook his hand again. "I think it's pretty incredible, Mr. Winchester, the way you're raising your brother, on top of your son. It can't be easy for a man as young as you to be burdened with so much so quickly."

"Family isn't a burden, Mrs. Gabriel." Dean responded, beckoning Sam and John with the wave of a hand. "Come on boys, let's go see if Sam's school is anywhere near as cool as this one."


Of course, Sam was in high school, and being the geek boy he was, had all of his teachers eating out of the palm of his hand. All except one. His gym teacher.

Sam did his best to steer Dean away from the gym all together, but Mr. Hanson wasn't about to let that stop him from talking to Dean. He caught up with them in the cafeteria where various school organizations had booths set up in the hopes of recruiting while parents and students enjoyed tepid fruit punch and cookies.

"Mr. Winchester? I'm Coach Hanson." Dean turned from Sam's groan to shake the coach's hand. "Your brother here seems to be avoiding me."

"Well, Sammy's the geek in the family. He's always tried to get out of the physical work." Sam punched him in the arm.

"It's obvious he gets his exercise." Coach Hanson crossed his arms and looked Sam up and down. "He's strong, he can do the work. I've been trying to convince him to get involved in a sports program."

"I'm not interested, Mr. Hanson." Sam said from beside Dean. "I told you. I'm busy at home."

"I think it would do him some good to get involved, learn some team work. A boy his age needs friends."

"I have friends." Sam said indignantly.

Dean turned to look at him. He'd been worried about John, not Sam. "Other than Elizabeth?"

Sam blushed and turned away. "Dean, let's go. Come on. Let's just go." He pulled on Dean's arm.

"Okay, okay. Thanks Coach. I'll talk to him." He waited until they were at the car and he was helping John buckle up in the back seat. "What was that about?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "He's a nosy bastard."

"He seemed concerned."

Sam huffed and crossed his arms. "I'm not exactly popular boy, and he seems to think that joining the basketball team would fix it."

"It might." Dean said as he started the car. "What gives?"

Sam pouted and looked away.

"Sam?"

"Dad…Dad never let us join stuff."

Dean's eyes jumped to the rearview mirror and John who was busy playing with some cars he'd left on the seat. "Well…things are different now." He pulled them out of the parking lot and headed for home. "Dad's not here."

Sam looked over the seat at John, then up at Dean. "Doesn't matter anyway. Someone needs to look out for him, and practices are after school." He sighed and shook his head. "Can we just drop it?"

"Yeah, sure. Consider it dropped."

Only, Dean wasn't sure he wanted to drop it. He'd been so wrapped up in making sure John was okay, in making enough money for them to live on, that he hadn't noticed Sam was floundering a little. He'd have to pay more attention, take some of the load off his brother.

"I got homework to finish." Sam muttered as they pulled in to the driveway, disappearing into the house and up to his room.

"Come on kiddo. Let's get you ready for bed."

"While you read me a story?" John asked as he skipped up the stairs.

"Maybe." Dean followed him into his room. When they'd first moved in the room had been a little on the feminine side, with yellow walls and floral curtains. It was beginning to look more like a boy's room now, with cowboy curtains and sheets on the bed. John's toys seemed to multiply, filling the corner with the toy box and spilling over onto the floor.

John got into his pajamas, then climbed up onto the bed. Dean sat beside him. "So Mrs. Gabriel tells me you like to tell scary stories."

John's eyes got big. "She told you that?"

Dean grinned. "Yeah, she did."

"Well, I don't think they're scary. I think they're cool."

"Thing is, I need to know where you learned them."

John wouldn't meet his eyes, his face turning red. "I just learned them."

"John. I thought we agreed to be honest about stuff."

"Oh, alright." John leaned over the side of the bed and pulled the worn leather journal out from under the bed.

Dean nodded slowly. His father's journal. "Where'd you find that?"

"In the car." He ran his hand over the cover. "It had my name on it." He opened the front cover and pointed to the "John Winchester" in his father's handwriting on the first page.

"Do you know why it has your name on it?" Dean asked, reaching for it.

"I guessed it was your Daddy's." John said.

Dean nodded. "Yes, it was."

"It has great stories in it. I can't read them all, the words are weird and sometimes the writing is all wrong." John scooted closer. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

Dean wasn't mad, but he couldn't seem to make the words come out. He could see his father's hands holding the book, writing in it, jotting notes and copying details out of books at Bobby's before a hunt.

"Dad?"

Dean took a deep breath, pushing back unexpected emotion. "No, I'm not mad."

"Sometimes, I like to pretend I'm him." John said as he laid down. "He must have been a great guy."

"Yeah, kiddo, he really was."

"Do you miss him?"

Dean cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes. Sometimes I miss him a whole lot. Get some sleep." He kissed John's forehead and got up, turning off the light as he left the room. He made it as far as his own bedroom before he started shaking. He swallowed down the lump of emotion and closed the bedroom door behind him.

A whole year had passed.

Tears burned the corners of his eyes. A year, and Dean was still just holding on. Holding it together. Waiting. Like his father was just on an extended hunting trip, and he'd come back some day.

But he wasn't coming back, and this was what life was going to be like. It was him and Sam and John. And Sam deserved to have the things he wanted. He deserved friends and sports and stupid school shit. The things they'd never been able to have because Dad didn't want them getting too attached, too close to people. He deserved girlfriends and dating and all the shit that went with being in high school.

Dean shoved the journal into the closet, up on the shelf behind some boxes. This was their life now. And Dean was going to make sure that it was good.


The first step in this new plan was that Dean needed to take some of the load off of Sam, give Sam some free time that wasn't all about taking care of the kid. He remembered Margaret Answeld telling him about some after-school program that might be good for John, with swimming lessons and other things to keep kids busy until working parents could pick them up.

Sarah worked for the center that sponsored it, so he'd at least have someone around he kind of knew. So Dean arranged to take Monday afternoon off of work and headed down to the center.

"Well, well, look what the wind blew in." Sarah said with a grin as Dean stopped in the lobby.

"Hey."

"I'm guessing you aren't here just to see me."

Dean smiled and winked at her. "I don't know, you're awful nice to look at."

"Flattery will win you brownie points, but not much else, Mr. Winchester." She handed off some paperwork she had in her hands to the receptionist. "You finally coming around to enroll John?"

"I'm thinking it would do him some good, more time with other kids…give Sam a break."

"Come on back, I'll get you started on the paperwork."

An hour later, Dean was starting to see cross-eyed, but he finished filling out all the forms she'd given him. The price was a little daunting at first and Dean hesitated. Sarah saw the look on his face and touched his hand. "Don't worry. First two weeks are free. We'll process your paperwork, and you'll probably qualify for a discount, seeing as you're a single father."

"Really?" Dean didn't like the idea of charity. He'd always worked for what he needed.

"Really. We get state funding to help. We want the kids who need this kind of program to get it." She sorted through his papers and pointed out one that needed his signature. "So, the bus picks the kids up at the school, you'll need to give this to the office so that they'll release him to our driver."

Sarah handed him back one of the forms after she signed it. "They get a snack, and play time. Then they get time to do any homework. We have volunteers from the high school that help out. Tuesdays and Thursdays are swim lessons. Fridays we have story time, with community volunteers coming in to read to the kids."

"Is it okay if I bring him by after school today, show him around?" Dean asked as he stood.

"Sure." She smiled and stood too, leading him back to the lobby. "We'll see you then."

Now all he had to do was convince Sam that this was the right thing to do. John would love it, Dean was fairly sure.

John was surprised to see Dean waiting for him when his class came out of the school, his smile huge as he ran up to him. "What are you doing here, Dad?"

Dean waved at Mrs. Gabriel and ruffled John's hair. "Well, I took the afternoon off of work so I could spend some time with you."

"Dean?"

He looked up as Sam stopped beside them. "Hey."

Sam frowned at him. "Why aren't you at work?"

"He took the afternoon off." John said, squinting up at Sam in the late afternoon sun.

"Really? Why?"

"I have a surprise for you. Come on."

John chattered excitedly about his day and his friend Jeffrey while Sam sat quietly beside Dean in the front seat. Dean pulled into the parking lot at the center and got out of the car. John clambered out beside him. "This is where you'll be coming after school from now on." Dean said, picking John up.

There was small bus just pulling up as Dean headed for the door.

"Jeffrey!" John called, wiggling until Dean put him down. He ran to his friend who was getting off the bus.

"What is this Dean?" Sam asked quietly beside him.

"It's an afterschool program." Dean responded, following the line of kids inside. "I figure it'll be good for him."

"We can't afford this."

"Let me worry about the money." Dean said.

"Dean." Sam's hand was on his arm.

Dean turned to face him. "Look. Sam. You're in high school. You don't need a six year old kid hanging off of you all the time. I'll make this work. Besides, look at him."

John was laughing with Jeffrey and another boy. "Normal kids do stuff like this. They take swimming lessons and play sports and have friends."

"Since when are we normal kids?" Sam asked, his voice bitter.

"Since now, Sam. Since right now."