Song Remains the Same

Chapter 12: After School Special

"Those years oh, they haunt me still."
- Alter Bridge

A Month and a Half Later

"Nothing but Christmas crap on," Dean grumbled, throwing down the TV remote.

Alex walked by where he sat, her arms overloaded with their duffel bags, backpacks, and a sleeping bag. She dumped the stuff in the corner of the motel room as Sam entered with a couple of plastic grocery bags and a twelve-pack of beer. He plopped the goods down on one of the twin beds and began pulling things out, naming them as he laid them down: "Beef jerky, granola bars, pop tarts, canned chicken, some cracker... things, M&Ms, hot dogs with no buns, and the very last box of..." he grimaced, "Whoops. Squished cupcakes."

"Ooh, gimme!" Alex grabbed the box from him in excitement, examining the red-frosted, green-sprinkled cupcakes with a huge grin.

Dean, however, looked heartbroken. "No pie?"

"Sorry, this is pretty much all the convenience store had left."

"I wanted pie," Dean muttered sulkily. He grabbed a beer instead with grumpy gusto, earning a sympathetic if amused smile from Sam.

"Why would you want dry pastry filled with gooey fruit crap when you could have these?" Alex held out her prized possession. "It's mini cakes. With frosting. And sprinkles!"

Dean grumbled, eyeing the cupcakes with disinterest. "It's not Christmas without pie."

"None of this stuff says Christmas, Dean." Sam chuckled.

"Yeah well merry friggin' Christmas to us." Dean plunked down on the bed with his beer and a foul expression. Sam and Alex exchanged a glance and simultaneous little shrugs behind their brother's back.

Alex was pretty sure Dean was so grumpy for a few reasons... one, he was hungry. Two, he was tired. Three, he was Dean. But more than those reasons, she had a hunch that he was a little more sullen than usual because he had forgotten today was Christmas day—they all had forgotten. The past month they had been hunting nonstop, too busy to even keep track of what day it was. So when they realized today was Christmas (they discovered after pulling up to a closed drive-thru), Dean had turned surly. Her oldest brother had never personally been too into stuff like holidays or birthdays but when it came to Alex and Sam, he had always tried to give them something dependable. He'd made a point to always at least remember their birthday, and he always tried to do something special for Christmas. Even Dad hadn't always managed that.

The sound of singing and shouting on the TV caught Alex's attention. A little girl beamed on the screen. "Look, Daddy! Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings!" Grinning ear to ear, her father joined in: "That's right, that's right!" Frowning, Alex picked up the remote and changed the channel. "Coming up next on Lifetime—it's Christmas Angel, the new Della Reese movie that's sure to—" She switched channels again, this time to a local news station, where a man was being interviewed standing in front of a bunch of Christmas trees. "I'm so thankful for the Salvation Army, those people are angels! Just angels! If they hadn't got my kids all these great gifts—" Alex switched off the TV entirely, perturbed at all the angel references. Dean and Sam had begun opening their food items and hadn't noticed. Alex glanced back at the TV somberly. Angels. Her eyes darted toward her duffel bag, where one of the angel hex bags Ruby had given them remained. Alex had kept it without telling either of her brothers and wasn't sure what they'd think if they found out. She was in the process of figuring out how to make more of the bags... however, some of the elements were still a mystery and she needed more time to research.