Begin Again Winchester

Chapter 4

"Daddy vroom vroom!" Dean clapped his hands when he and his Daddy walked into his new room.

"Do you like your new room De? I have a surprise for you hidden somewhere in here. Do you want to try to find it?" Sam asked the boy whose head was going in every direction to see everything all at once.

As soon as Dean was out of Sam's arms he wobbled over to his crib, hoping his surprise was there. Nope.

"You know De, you don't have to walk if you don't want to or it's too hard. Daddy can carry you or you can crawl." Sam pointed out. Dean then took that as an invitation to jump into Sam's arms.

"Alright buddy, where to next?" Sam was glad he wasn't the lanky, scrawny kid he used to be.

When Dean pointed to the shelves, Sam started bouncing him on his hip and making horse noises.

"D-Daddy!" Dean full on giggled, which of course made Sam laugh out loud.

When Dean didn't see the surprise on the shelf he pouted.

"Suwpwise?" That's when Sam realized that Dean had no idea what he was looking for in the slightest, everything looked like a surprise to him. Sam's plan turned out to be a bust.

"Winnie, come!" Sam called, hoping she didn't ruin Dean's surprise.

Seconds later Winnie came bounding up the stairs with a stuffed toy dangling from her mouth. A medium sized scruffy stuffed bear with a silly expression on its face. The bear was a dull mustard yellow, much darker than the newer versions that were being sold today. Sam suddenly chuckled, causing Dean to look at him with the cutest confused expression he had ever seen.

When Sam looked at the teddy bear's mouth he felt kind of stupid. When he was a kid, he thought it was just a witty expression used toward said bear; but when he thought about it, 'silly old bear' really did piece Winnie the Pooh together quite nicely.

"Surprise!" Sam smiled down at the boy in his arms. Though Dean was still confused, he followed his Daddy's gaze to Winnie's mouth.

"Daddy, bear!" Sam's heart smiled when his boy gasped excitedly.

As soon as Winnie heard Dean's sudden gasp though, she dropped said bear and yelped, shaking like a leaf. Poor Winnie must have gotten scared at Dean's outburst. Sam now knew that he needed to look into Winnie's past, see if any abuse was involved. Sam just looked down at her with sympathetic, apologetic look on his face.

"Can you tell me what kind of bear it is De?" Sam asked letting him down so he could go collect the stuffed friend.

Toddling back to Sam, Dean started to cry. "Momma Winnie!"

Seeing Dean's big, child like tears had Sam second guessing his bear decision.

"Oh no, De. No tears. What's with all the emotions today buddy?" He just knew he had brought pain back into Dean's life without even trying.

"Momma Winnie." Dean repeated. Sam could already tell, without fully formed sentences that Dean knew exactly what the toy in his arms meant to both boys in the room.

The musty old bear that Dean clutched to his chest belonged to their mother, Mary Winchester. The bear was taken out every year at Christmas because the bear reminded Mary of her father, who had given it to her when she was three years old for a Christmas present.

When Mary had died and the Winchester boys had sold the house, John had gone through a box of Mary's things in the basement and sold the bear at an antique shop in town. Needless to say, it took Sam some time to just track the thing down, let alone buy it from the self proclaimed 'Winnie the Pooh connoisseur' who became oddly attached to the item.