drabble: "Lady at the bus stop"

[hells_half_acre]

Title: "Lady at the Bus Stop"
Spoilers: None
Characters: Dean and Sam
Genre: Drabble, gen, wee!chesters
Rating: PG
Author's Note: In truth, this is actually something that happened to me, when I was 14 and my little sister was 8. There's a reason I identify so much with Dean...

 

Summary: An encounter with a not-so-blind old lady at a bus stop.

 

**

Dean and Sammy were waiting for the bus outside the mall. They were living in a motel just outside of Dallas, while Dean and Sam went to school for the year. With the school year ending and oppressive heat of a Texas summer already weighing down on their shoulders, Dean know that it was only a short time until they were back on the road. He had brought Sam to the mall to stock up on the essentials of traveling gear, namely underwear.

Dean hated the bus, but Dad was off saving people again, and Dad had told Dean that he wasn't allowed to drive until he was sixteen, which meant that he still had plenty of time to wait. Dean thought that with his new low voice, he could probably pass for sixteen, but he didn't argue with Dad.

"I wanted to buy that shirt. Tim at school has a shirt just like it, it's really cool. Can't we go back and get it?" Sam suddenly spoke up from beside him. There were only a handful of people waiting for the bus: An old woman beside them, someone who looked to be either drunk or crazy sitting on a bench a little further away, a man pacing while smoking a cigarette.

"No. We got what we came for." Dean replied, rolling his eyes at yet another mention of the shirt.

"This trip to the mall was no fun. Underwear is boring. I don't even need underwear." Sam replied pouting, though Dean could tell by his tone that he was just trying to annoy him. It was only partially working. Dean grinned at him, to show that his game wouldn't work.

"Maybe not right now, but you will when -" Dean started.

"Listen to your father, dear" the old lady waiting beside them suddenly said, looking at Sam in what Dean could only assume was a grandmotherly way.

The joke that had been on Dean's lips suddenly disappeared, as his eyes widened. He watched as Sam's brow furrowed in confusion. He seemed about to speak back to the old lady, and Dean didn't know what to make of what she had said, but he knew that he didn't want to have this conversation with a strange old woman.

"Uh...yeah, and your father says that underwear is important." Dean quickly said, voice dry, while he gave Sam a look that he hoped said 'shut your cake-hole.'

Sam seemed to take the hint, and although the look of confusion didn't completely leave his face, he smiled at the lady along with Dean, and fell silent until their bus arrived.

Once they were alone again, Dean told Sam that the lady was probably mostly blind, had mistaken Dean's new manly voice for...well...a man. He joked about having a kid when he was four, about blind old crazy women. Then Dean let the subject drop and that was the end of that.

By the time Dad came back the next day, Dean knew that Sam had completely forgotten about the old lady at the bus stop. Dean hadn't, but he didn't mention it to Dad. It was a stupid blind old lady, and Dean didn't want to think about why the thought of it made him uncomfortable, why he had trouble looking his Dad in the eye. It was just a crazy old blind lady, who couldn't tell that the boy in the work boots and faded leather jacket was only fourteen.

Dean never forgot though, and he didn't know if he resented his Dad for it, or felt guilty for his feelings because he knew they implied something bad about his father - who was only not around because he was saving people, which wasn't fair to get mad at him for, no matter what Sam said.

... but he knew that whenever he saw one of Sam's plays at school, whenever Sam got a goal on his soccer team, whenever Sam's target practice was spot on, whenever Sam did anything that showed how strong, smart, and good he was, Dean always had this feeling of pride that he somehow knew wasn't something a sibling should feel. This feeling of wanting to turn to a stranger and say "That's my Sammy there - look how well he turned out, that's my work...that's my Sam. I did that."
 

Comments

[ada-c-eliana.livejournal.com]

Short but lovely. Really captured the odd position Dean is in, admiring John and yet being the person for Sam that John's supposed to be. I really loved the last line, very nice.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I had originally made it longer, but then felt that it lost the point and just got too sappy :P plus, I wanted to end on that line.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Hi, I was just surfing through some SPN comms and found this.

This happened to me too, at the DMV, also in TX. I'm only 2 years older than my brother, sheesh! It did give me a bit of a complex for awhile, so given Dean's already conflicted feelings for his father, I can see why it would deeply affect him.

This is the first SPN fic I've read, and it's definitely made me want to find more. Thanks so much for posting!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's been mistaken for the parent of my little sibling :P

I'm glad you liked my fic! And I'm honoured that I was your "first" ;) There are some great authors writing SPN fic, so I can only recommend that you check out more!

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

If you're willing to rec some authors, I'd really appreciate it. And I read from a comment below that you're the only one you know into SPN. well, if you don't mind, perhaps we can do the friend thing? :)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ok, my latest post is a rec (had more time today than I thought). Another thing you could do is go to the brotherly_love community and look in their memories. They have a bunch of great gen stuff.

A lot of people in the fandom do Sam/Dean (wincest) stuff. Occasionally those can be alright, but personally I prefer non-incestuous fics...so, I'll most likely only be reccing non-slash stories.

[mizzykitty.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the rec, actually! Loved going through that author's archive today.

I don't mind slash in general, but I prefer non-incest, heh. I think some really good authors can make it work for me, but I definitely don't go looking for it.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yes, same here...slash=good, wincest=squick. It has to be a very good author to get me to see past the incestuousness of it all.

Plus, I think the boys are damaged enough :P

[mara-snh.livejournal.com]

Hope you don't mind a comment from a total stranger, but that's the Interwebs for you ;-) This was a sweet interlude. Like ada_c_eliana, I especially loved the last line; it sounded exactly like Dean. That was a perfect place to put the pretty story down and step away from the keyboard :-)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

All my comments are from strangers, I'm the only one of my friends into SPN sadly. But hey, anyone who likes my fic is a friend of mine ;)

[mara-snh.livejournal.com]

Well then, howdy from my half acre to yours. :-)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Now my acre is a little less lonely! :-)

[mara-snh.livejournal.com]

That's the spirit. The good, non-vengeful spirit, that is ;-)

[messengerhatta.livejournal.com]

Oh yay! :D

[theslashbunny.livejournal.com]

I found this through a search and I just wanted to leave you a comment, since I love this story so much. The last two paragraphs especially did it for me. Dean's in a really odd position in his family and you really hit the nail on the head, so to speak. He has to walk the line between brother and father-figure and that's got to be difficult and, at times, confusing - especially for the people around them, and Sam as well.

You brought out and elaborated one of my favorite parts about the show: all of the moments when Dean gets all protective and paternal, and all full of pride about what Sam's has accomplished (it's a sign of how good of an actor Jensen Ackles is that he can convey some of that emotion with his facial expressions).

Thanks for sharing this with us, especially since it's based on a past experience! It's such a lovely fic - I'm going to have to check out more of your stuff!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks! This is actually the second story I ever wrote for Supernatural - and yeah, I was trying to elaborate on all those moments of parental-pride that Jensen conveys so well...so I'm really glad that that's what you came away with! Also, yes, there was part of me that wanted to explain why it was that I identified with Dean so much...

I hope you enjoy the fic that I've written since! My grammar gets better at least ;)

Thanks again!

Kinda off-topic...

[theslashbunny.livejournal.com]

all those moments of parental-pride that Jensen conveys so well

I'm so glad that kid got married. I think he'll make a great father some day.

Re: Kinda off-topic...

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Me too. Jared as well. They both seem to be very loving family men. :)

Re: Kinda off-topic...

[theslashbunny.livejournal.com]

Very true. There aren't enough men like that in the world.

[et-tu-lj.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing this. Dean's role as parent/sibling is complicated, and you express the mixed emotions over that very well. His paternal instincts for Sam are such a huge part of him, and you've addressed it head on.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading this! It's not one of my favourites (being only the second fanfic I ever wrote), but I still think it's about important issues in the show - as well as an aspect of Dean that I've always liked to explore. :)

[shinybiancachu.livejournal.com]

Very interesting the situation Dean got into being both brother and father.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks! This was pretty much ripped from my own life, so yeah... kind of a weird mix of roles.

[shinybiancachu.livejournal.com]

Yeah.. I get what you mean. My mom and dad always asked to take care of my little brother.