Revelations

Honesty

"Ten gifts ain't so bad," Sam said on Christmas morning, sitting with his long legs folded near the tree. He threw a glance at his yawning brother devouring coffee by the map table and laughed. "Bet you only got one and the rest are all mine."

"Five each," Dean's voice was hoarse from sleep and crying into his pillow the night before. "I've counted already."

"Cheater."

"Bitch," the older Winchester jerked his chin at the gifts. "Go on and open yours before I claim all as mine."

"Jerk," Sam mumbled, reaching for the first one wrapped in shiny red gift paper. His eyes lit up after reading the tag. "Not bad for a first choice. This one's from Jody and Donna." Giving it a little shake, his eyes sparkled. "Man, I hope it ain't one of those ugly sweaters like last year."

"Yours had a badly embroidered moose on the front," Dean remembered. Resting down his coffee, he swallowed and tried to savor the bitter taste. "Mine had a squirrel munching on nuts and Ca—" quickly his eyes filled with tears.

Sam stopped unwrapping his gift and immediately turned to gaze at his brother with a saddened expression. After all this time, Dean was still holding on to the sound of the door opening. Every time his brother's phone rang, Sam literally watched Dean's green eyes light up from really hoping. From expecting something more. Anything.

"Hey, I love you, okay?" Sam tucked his gift under his right arm, untangled himself, stood up and slowly approached his brother. Wrapping his arms around Dean's form, Sam hugged him tightly. "You're the best big bro. Merry Christmas."

"Thanks, Sammy," the other man croaked, his eyes filling with tears. "Merry Christmas to you too. I love you, man."

"I'll always keep remembering how when we were kids, how you used to make Christmas day a special one for me. Always bringing in a tree of any size, and we would stay up making paper decorations. Then you would give me a gift every single Christmas morning for as long as I can remember."

"Sammy, don't," Dean teared up, reaching up to brush away the tears. "Come on, man. I'm already a mess."

"You're loved. By Jody, Donna, Alex, Claire, all the people whose lives you've saved. Don't ever feel like you're not worth it. Here," Sam handed over the half-unwrapped gift with a huge grin. "This is actually yours."

"You are unbelievable!" snatching the gift from his brother, Dean checked the tag and read his name as clear as day.

"Man, I was so close," Sam collected another gift and after reading 'To: Dean, From: Cas" on it, he swallowed hard. Then choosing to rest that one back under the small tree decorated with red and green shiny balls, he moved onto the other one from Alex to him.

Dean, however, was now holding up a handsome looking green and black plaid shirt, with short sleeves that perfectly matched his eyes that sparkled.

"At least it's better than the sweater from last year," Sam commented with a shrug. He tore open his gift from Alex and marveled over a Harry Potter themed scarf. "Perfect! Gryffindor all the way."

Rolling his eyes at the reference, Dean got up from sitting next to the table and lowered himself by his brother upon the floor. Then reaching for the same gift Sam had picked up earlier, he read the tag whilst his brother held his breath.

Silence at first. Dean gazed at the words for a long time before he decided to rest it gently by his side. And pulling another gift towards him, this time one that was wrapped in green, he discovered it was from Claire and decided to open it. When he pulled out a white teddy bear with blue eyes wearing a trench coat, Dean smiled warmly at Claire's gift. He loved it, absolutely adored it and after discovering that the bear had a small card attached to it, he pried it open: