athazagoraphobia, supernatural

back in business

"-mie"

"Jamie! Hey, wake up!"

"Dude, you're drooling in my car!"

Jamie jolted awake when Dean hit him on the head. He wiped the drool from the side of his face and hit Dean back on the arm.

"We're here." Dean informed, taking his keys out of the ignition and getting out of the '67 Impala, not bothering to wait for his groggy brother.

As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, Jamie asked, "Stanford?" following Dean out of the car.

"No, Oz." Dean answered, sarcastically.

"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." Jamie recited in a high pitched voice as he caught up with Dean, scoping out the apartment building that his other brother resided in.

Jamie's happy that Sam has a life, college... friends. But he was always jealous of that since he never got to experience it himself, it was always life on the road in crappy motel rooms with Dean and John.

"This is a felony." Jamie commented as the pair climbed up the fire escape.

"What?" Dean inquired.

"Breaking and entering."

"No. This doesn't count 'cause it's Sam. Plus, we always 'break and enter', why is this any different?" Dean picked the lock and slid open the window.

"True. I'm gonna see if he has any good snacks."

Dean was the first to climb through the window, searching for a beer as he entered. Jamie followed, but with less finesse than Dean, nearly tripping and falling flat on his face.

As Dean entered the next room, someone grabbed him in the dark, Dean shoves him aside and they begin fighting.

During the fight, Jamie was accidentally kicked in the gut by the figure, and he doubled over in pain. He wasn't even involved and chose to stay to the side, but still managed to get kicked.

Jamie groaned and cursed as he knelt on the hardwood floor, holding his stomach.

"Whoa, easy, tiger." Dean said through the darkness.

"Dean?" Sam looked to the side from his spot under Dean, "Jamie?" Jamie gave Sam a quick wave, still kneeling and holding his abdomen. "You guys scared the crap out of me."

"That's 'cause you're out of practice." Dean retorts.
Sam maneuvers and slams Dean on the floor, "Or not." Dean chuckles, "Get off of me."

Sam gets up and helps Dean and Jamie off the floor.

"What the hell are you guys doing here." Sam asked.

"Well, I was looking for a beer." Dean answered. "And snacks." He adds, pointing to Jamie.

"You don't have anything good in this place, Sammy." Jamie complained.

"Sam?" A voice called out as the light switched on.

All three Winchester's turn to look at Jess, Sam's girlfriend. Jamie immediately looks down out of respect when he sees Jess's revealing pajamas.

"Jess, hey. Dean, Jamie, this is my girlfriend, Jessica." Sam introduced, Jamie gave her a little wave.

"Wait, your brothers, Dean and Jamie?" Jess appealed, waving back to Jamie.

Sam nods as Dean moves closer to Jess, "I love Smurfs." pointing at her cropped shirt. "You know, I gotta tell you, you are completely out of my brother's league."

"Just let me put something on." Jess offers, turning to go back to the bedroom.

"No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously."

"Really?" Jamie asked with a deadpan expression, glaring at Dean.

Dean turns to Sam then back to Jess, "Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business. But nice meeting you."

"No." Sam goes over to Jess and puts an arm around her, "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her."

"Okay." Jamie shrugs, "Um, Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So he's working overtime on a 'Miller Time' shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later."

"Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days." Dean clarified.

Sam's expression slightly hardens as he realizes what Dean said.

"Jess, excuse us."

Jess walks back to the bedroom and Sam ushers Dean and Jamie outside.

"I mean— come on, you can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you." Sam argues as they walk down the stairs.

"You're not hearing us, Sammy. Dad's missing. We need you to help us find him." Dean declared.

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine."

"Not for this long." Jamie argued.

"Now are you gonna come with us or not?" Dean asked.

"I'm not." Sam insisted.

"Why not?"

"I swore I was done hunting. For good."

"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad."

Jamie internally cringed at Dean's words. It was that bad. The things he faces everyday is something that kids his age have nightmares about. Sometimes Jamie dreamt of a normal life, with a mom and loving dad. But one can only dream so much.

"Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45."

"Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark."

"Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there."

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her. But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find."

Jamie felt an overwhelming feeling of alienation, he couldn't relate to the bond that Sam and Dean shared when bringing up their mother.

Sam and Dean never talked about their mother to Jamie and always shut him down whenever he brought her up. They sometimes talked about how great his mother was, but all he could do was smile and nod because he never knew her.

"We save a lot of people doing it, too."

"You think Mom would have wanted this for us? You think Jamie's mom would want this for him... Dean, she never knew about any of it." The three brothers cross the parking lot to the Impala, "The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Guys, we were raised like warriors." Sam continued ranting.

"So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?"

"No. Not normal. Safe."

"And that's why you ran away."

"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it."

"We can't do this alone."

"Yes you can."

"Yeah, well, we don't want to." Jamie spoke, hoping that Sam would join them.

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