Dried Leather and Withered Flowers

Chapter 4

Dean tears his eyes from the rearview mirror to focus back on the road, clenching his fists against the wheel. The brats finally went to sleep a few miles back. He can't help glancing at them in the mirror once more, looking at the way they're curled around each other in the backseat of his car. Who are these kids?

His attention is drawn to his brother as Sam reaches forward and turns the radio down, causing Queen to fade into the background.

"Are we gonna talk about this?"

Resisting the urge to groan, he throws an annoyed look at Sammy. "What's there to talk about?" Dean forces himself to keep his eyes on the road. He can feel his brother's gaze boring into the side of his head.

"Dean!"

He shushes Sam with a hiss, glaring before tossing a look over his shoulder to make sure their extra passengers are still asleep. The kids are practically on top of each other, the girl letting out soft snores.

"Don't be so loud."

"Dean, we have to talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about. Not yet, anyway."

"You seriously don't think they're Dad's?" Sam's voice holds obvious disbelief at Dean's continuous denial.

"Look, Sammy, all we know for sure right now is that they're human and claim to be Dad's kids."

"Have you looked at Harry, Dean? He could be your twin if you were the same age! Scrap the glasses and the scar and that's Dean the second. And even you can't deny the fact that Lea's so suspicious and prickly that she could have been raised by Dad himself."

"We will discuss this when there's proof to back them up." Dean speaks through his gritted teeth, pressing down harder on the accelerator. Sam huffs and turns to face the passenger window.

Sammy can pout all he wants, but he's not going to change Dean's mind. He'd done the tests; the kids aren't demons or shifters or any other creature he can think of. But just because they're human, doesn't mean they're telling the truth. So, Dean will get them to Bobby's and they'll find a way to test their blood or whatever. If it turns out that they're Winchesters, they'll deal with it.

Several minutes later, Sam's breathing evens out. Glancing at the three kids (because Sam is always going to be his kid brother, no matter how tall he gets), he eases the volume of the radio back up. The Beatles have replaced Queen on the station for the moment, the lyrics of 'Blackbird' filling the quiet car.

Releasing a breath, Dean relaxes back into his seat. Everything is fine. They're all in the car and they're all safe. Of course, now he has to figure out how to raise two British runaways, but could that really be any harder than hunting?

Lea releases a muffled groaning, readjusting in her sleep. Dean watches in the mirror as Harry scrunches his nose and shifts, shoving his sister slightly. The twins settle after another moment.

Who is he kidding? Those two definitely look like Winchesters. If they act anything like him and Sam then Dean will be gray before he's thirty-five. But he can't exactly kick them to the curb, can he? They're just kids. Kids who look younger and smaller than they are, that were willingly given up by their aunt, who lived in a cupboard . Shit, it sounds like they almost would have been better off raised by their dad.

Dean takes a deep breath, attempting to lower his rising blood pressure.

Yeah, there's no chance that he can send them away.

-

Lea jerks awake to the slamming of a car door. Her hand is already grasping for her wand and coming up empty. The sound of her brother grunting causes her to pause, blinking blearily as she tries to wake fully.