Running Interference

Note: hey my lovelies

i hath returned for another update, on time this week ;)

my chronic pain is like nonstop now, which is a fun development. but i feel weirdly optimistic today, so we're going with it. any excuse to smile for a minute, right?

anyway, i'm still working on about a million partly written fics for these characters, and i still haven't finished any of those. instead i wrote this today, completely from scratch. 

it's rather sibling-y, and idk what prompted it except maybe the fact that i have eight siblings and all of them are the most sibling people on the planet and i can't put that any other way. plus i love it when sam and dean act like brothers and annoy the crap out of each other. one of my favorite things ngl. right up there with "sammy" and "my 'people skills' are 'rusty'"

anna is two, sam is seventeen, and dean is twenty-one

Running Interference

Sam felt a wad of wet paper hit him in the back of the head for the fifth time in a minute, and he slammed his pencil down. He'd reached his limit.

"Dean!" he snapped and turned in his chair until he could glare at Dean's stupid, grinning face. "Quit it. Seriously."

Dean smirked, "I don't know what you're riled about, Sammy." He was loading another wad of paper into the little tube he'd made for himself as he spoke, though. He brought it to his mouth, and Sam jumped out of his chair and made for the bed. Dean laughed, "Come on, man. Lighten up."

Sam did not lighten up. He said, "How about you grow up? I'm trying to do my homework."

"Yeah, exactly. You're being a stick in the mud. We could be out watchin' a movie or shootin' pool. And instead, you're boring me out of my mind." Dean swung his legs over the side of the bed, abandoning his spit balls in favor of leveling with his little brother. "Come on, man. This is our day without the Rugrat, and without Dad."

"Dean," Sam sighed. "It doesn't matter if Dad's not here, because if I don't do my homework while he's gone, then I won't get it done at all. Cause the minute he gets back, he's gonna act like he gave us a three week vacation and make us work twelve times as hard for the next month."

Dean couldn't deny the truth of that, but he still gave Sam a sour look. He reached toward his project, but Sam was quick to smack his hand away.

"Just knock it off," the kid demanded.

Dean snorted. There was something so timelessly amusing about pissing Sammy off. He bit his lip to dampen his shit-eating grin as Sam glared at him. "No way, Sammy. I'm not gonna sit here and watch you give yourself an ulcer all night. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you got laid?"

"Dean!" Sam reprimanded, cheeks flushing. He moved purposefully back to his seat at the table, then thought better of it and moved to the adjacent seat. At least he'd be able to see Dean in his peripherals now.

Dean chuckled and ran a hand over his short hair, mussing it unintentionally. "Dude, it's like two weeks til Summer vacation, and we're probably leaving town in the next few days. Give it a rest with the school crap." The room was stuffy and humid, making him sweat despite the fact he'd been sitting in bed half the day. He could feel his annoyance growing, which only made him want to get to Sam even more. "Look, your virtue can stay in tact, alright? We'll just go catch a flick."

"Dad's gonna be back soon," Sam reminded his brother. He had the tip of his pencil resting against his homework sheet.

"Doesn't matter," Dean insisted. "It's all the more reason to go out and have some fun for once. He said we could have the night off."

Sam paused. In truth, he wanted to go hang out with Dean. It had been far too long since they'd been able to just hang out as brothers. He missed being Dean's little brother and nobody else sometimes. But... Well, he couldn't in good conscience leave Anna alone with their dad the whole night.

Dean could see the hesitation, though, and pounced on it. "Come on, Sammy. I'll be the designated driver and get you totally wasted. Dad'll never know."

"That's completely irresponsible, Dean."

Dean made a face and mocked his brother, "That's completely irresponsible, Dean. Dude, that's the fucking point. Get your jacket, come on. I can feel the awesomeness leaving my body just looking at you over there."

Sam sighed again and finally looked right at Dean. "You really think it's a good idea to let Dad watch the baby by himself?"

Dean's expression changed completely in the space of a single second. And Sam couldn't read what the new emotions were that landed there. Some level of anger, maybe some defensiveness– Dean usually was defensive about their father– and most likely a generous dose of regret and self-loathing.

"He's her father, Sam."

Defensive, Sam concluded. "Yeah, he's my father too, Dean. You think I want to spend a night alone with the man?"

"Sam, I'm not having this argument with you," Dean said with finality. "Dad is in a good mood for once. Alright? So don't ruin it with this angsty bullshit. Anna's fine. For tonight, she's not our responsibility. Not yours, anyway."

"And if she's not?"

"She will be. What the hell do you think he's gonna do to her?" Dean demanded.

Anger, Sam deduced. "I don't know, Dean. That's the problem."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, I don't want him to yell at her until she cries herself to sleep. And I don't want him to- to-"

"To what?" Dean pushed.

Sam shook his head. "Nevermind. You wanna trust Dad at all costs, go for it. But, like you said, it's not my responsibility when the shit hits the fan." He felt awful just saying the words. It wasn't true. It would be his responsibility. Because he would know he hadn't done enough. But pretending not to care was less painful than letting his heart bleed all over the place.

"Exactly," Dean snapped. He squeezed the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. The heat was making him itch for a fight. But he didn't want that fight to be with Sammy. "You really think I'd leave Anna alone with him if I thought..." He trailed off. Neither one of them could seem to say the words they were both thinking. "He promised he wouldn't drink tonight. And whatever else you wanna say about him, he doesn't go back on his word."

"Yes, he does," Sam argued vehemently. "He said he'd be here for my birthday too, Dean, remember that?"

"Come on, Sam, he apologized for that."

"No, you apologized for him."

The hurt in Sam's voice was undeniable. Dean would have preferred more anger.

"You really think they'll be okay?" Sam asked after a brief silence. He was looking at his older brother with full puppy dog eyes and a miserable hope buried in the lines of his face.

"I know they will," Dean said with his usual confidence. "And I'm older, which means I'm right."

"You're not even that much older than me," Sam complained. The door opened, and they both spared only a glance in that direction as Dad appeared and set Anna loose.

"Five years," Dean gloated.

"It's four," Sam corrected dryly.

"Exactly what I said, Sammy. Five years."

"It's four," Sam repeated. "And you're an idiot."

"Missed you too, boys," John said in his gravelly, calm voice. It was a rare one. He really was in a good mood.

"Hi, Dad," Sam muttered and then turned back to Dean. "And you so can't use that argument anymore. You're not right just cause you're older. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard?"

"The dumbest thing? That's a bit of an exaggeration," Dean said coolly. "Unless you're sayin' you can't hear yourself talk?"

"You're the worst," Sam griped and looked down when Anna hugged his leg with both her arms.

"That's right, Sammy. I'm the best. Part of the job description. Cause I'm older."

"It's four years!" Sam complained and glared more pointedly.

"Come on, Peanut," John called. "Don't let 'em rub off on you."

Anna skipped after John, though she watched him with caution as always. It was hard to trust his good moods, especially since she was only a toddler.

"It's five," Dean smirked.

Sam could tell Dean didn't even truly believe he was right– He was just saying it to get Sam's goat. But hell if it wasn't working. "It's basic math, Dean!"

"Then you should be able to get it right. Maybe you should stay here and do your homework."

"Better than spending hours in the car with an impossible, moronic-"

"Dop!"

Sam looked down and over to meet the face behind the commanding little voice. "What?"

Anna was frowning deliberately at him, curls falling in every direction. She still had her little backwards baseball hat on, the one Dean had gotten her to make her look like 'the coolest toddler on the block.' Her hands were on her hips, one strap of her purple overalls falling off her shoulder. "Do not fi' wif Dean," she ordered. "It not nide."

"Well, he's not nice," Sam remarked, then realized he was explaining himself to a two-year-old. He face-palmed and glared sideways at Dean when his older brother dared to laugh.

"Be nide too!" Anna told Dean, ignoring the way he was chortling at her stern expression.

"You're hired," John said from behind her and swung her up off the floor. "From now on, you play interference. Two less heads to knock together."

Anna smiled cheerfully as John gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Fay you," she chirped, delighted at the positive attention. "I pay inna-fence."

John's smile was softer but still affectionate. "That's my girl. You boys turning down that night off?" he asked, looking more at Sam than Dean. "Cause I got wind of a our next case, and I could use a hand on the preliminary research." He was poking fun, and they both knew it. But it had the desired effect. Both boys were suddenly in a serious hurry to get out the door and away from any potential work.

"I day bye?" Anna asked sadly as the door closed behind them.

"They're comin' right back," John promised and bounced her once before setting her down. "Probably won't be more than a couple hours." After all, it wasn't like he was clueless. He knew he wasn't good at parenting a toddler, not like he had been when he was twenty years younger. And he knew Sam didn't trust him, suspected Dean didn't either. He'd never lay a finger on the baby, but he'd been known to shout at her. He lost his patience sometimes.

And if they were all honest with themselves, Anna wasn't the one running interference. It was Dean most of the time, Sam the rest of it. And it was torture, knowing that he could ever be seen as a threat to his own little girl.

"Dey tum bat?"

"Yeah, they're comin' right back," John repeated soothingly. And he would be a good father in the meantime. Lord knew he had a lot to make up for. Past and future.

La Fin

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