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Babysitting had never been Sam’s idea of a fun time. He’d done it a few times, until the huge fight with John when John was ready to leave town and Sam was babysitting for a school friend’s little sister. He couldn’t just leave her, she was only three, so John left him instead. All the money that Sam earned from sitting ended up being spent on a bus ticket once Dean told him where they were going, instead of toward new shoes or being put away so that when he ran for Stanford he’d have some money. That had been the end of his babysitting adventures – it wasn’t worth the risk of Dad’s wrath with nothing to show for it.
Kids were not Sam’s comfort zone. To be fair, Sam didn’t exactly have much of a comfort zone outside of books and his brother. He’d just settled into that comfort zone for the evening, him with a good book and a beer and Dean with his porn – with headphones – and beer, when there was a knock at the door.
Dean looked up. “You got that, Sammy?”
Sam sighed. Dean wouldn’t be asking unless it were really going to be awkward for him to go. He got to his feet and headed to the door. “Hello?”
It was a good thing Sam went, because if Dean was in Bonerville, that would have been too awkward for words. Their neighbor, the hot one with the blue eyes who Sam wanted to drown in, was there – with his two kids, an eight-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy. “Sam, please, this is an emergency, I need your help. Please.”
Sam would never forgive himself for his priorities as John’s training made him blurt out, “How do you know my name?”
“I am making an assumption, I suppose, but Claire said that when she and Dean were talking earlier he kept talking about his brother Sam who lived with him. Since you answered the door instead of Dean, I drew the logical conclusion. Am I wrong?”
Well. Now Sam felt even worse about his paranoia. Although he couldn’t believe Dean hadn’t mentioned talking to Claire, as much shit as Dean gave him about the hot neighbor who Sam, admittedly, got a little creepy about – watching him from the window and hiding if he looked Sam’s way, that sort of thing. “No, sorry, I’m… sorry about that. What do you need?”
“I got a call from first responders at the scene of an accident. My sister Rachel’s phone was found near a car wreck, and they need me to come down and try to identify which of the people involved, if any, were her. I don’t think Claire and Jack need to see that, but I have no one to watch them, and Claire’s not old enough to look after Jack herself…”
Sam huffed. He did manage to bite back the sarcastic comment about asking the neighbor to time travel to tell John Winchester that. “Sure. I’m so sorry to hear about your sister. Is there anything special you need me to do for them?”
“Try to get Jack to go to bed. He doesn’t like to sleep and protests as long as he can. Claire usually helps, so listen to her advice. They’ve eaten, but if Claire gets hungry before bed she can have some fruit. Keep them both distracted as much as you can.”
“All right. Let me just tell Dean where I’ll be.” Sam ducked back inside to find Dean smirking at him. “Oh, don’t start.”
Dean rubbed his hands together. “I heard enough of that. Major brownie points here, plus you’re getting the kids to like you… don’t screw this up, Sammy, even you ought to be able to turn this into an opportunity!”
“Dude!” Sam ran a hand through his hair and grabbed his book – once Jack was asleep, Claire should be able to entertain herself, and he might still be able to get some reading done.
The first thing Sam did was send Claire to change for bed and find pajamas for Jack. Claire didn’t protest a bit, although she looked a little silly in her oversized flannel pajamas in August. “Are you sure that’s what you want to wear?”
“Yes. Aunt Rachel gave me these. I’m supposed to grow into them by winter, that’s why they’re too big, but they’re comfy like this anyway.”
Sam wasn’t going to argue with her on that. She was old enough to choose her own clothes and live with the consequences – and really, if she got too hot, she was old enough to change into something cooler. “All right, then. Bedtime story?”
“Tell us about you? Dean’s told some cool stories about you but I’m sure there’s more, or you can tell us stories about him. Real stories are way cooler than made-up ones!”
Sam settled into the rocking chair beside Jack’s crib, and Claire crawled up in his lap. Okay, then. He tried to think of a childhood story that would be both true and reasonable to tell small children. “Did Dean tell you about the time I broke my arm jumping off a shed?”
“No! Why did you jump off the shed?”
“I was five, and my brother and I were dressed up as Batman and Superman. Dean jumped off the shed first. He was Superman, and Superman can fly, you know? Dean landed on his feet, did a forward roll, and came up beaming. I couldn’t let that stand, I wanted to do everything my big brother did, so I went up to the top of the shed and jumped.”
“But Batman can’t fly without his glider!” Claire said.
“I know that now,” Sam teased. “I landed on my feet, too… and then promptly fell forward. I put out my hands to brace myself, and ended up breaking my arm for my trouble. Things were different back then, Dad thought Dean was old enough to look after me when he was away, so we didn’t have an adult to drive us to the emergency room. Dean put me on the handlebars of his bike and took me. I was terrified, but I trusted Dean even after he got me hurt.”
“But you were okay?” Jack asked, pulling his thumb out of his mouth with huge eyes.
“Aside from the broken arm. On the other hand, when we got home from the ER, Dean passed out for like an hour. The exhaustion of biking me to and from the hospital, plus he felt bad about not stopping me, and we were both really worried about what would happen when Dad got home.”
“Was he mad?”
“Yeah, he was. He yelled a lot and took away our capes, saying we could have them back when we had the sense not to go jumping off sheds. We never did get them back.”
Claire giggled. “Does that mean if I dared you to you’d go jump off our shed?”
“No, I don’t know for sure what happened to them, but Dean and I never even asked for them back because we thought Dad lost them. We moved a lot, and things got lost pretty frequently. I’ve got better sense than to go shed jumping now though.”
“Oh.” Claire looked over at the crib and blinked in surprise. “Jack’s asleep. That was quick.”
“Huh. Wow. What do you want to do now?”
Claire thought for a bit. “Can you play chess?”
“Yeah, I can, can you?”
“I’m my school’s chess club champion! Come on!” Claire pulled Sam by the hand and they got into a chess match. The first one, Sam went easy on Claire figuring she was eight and might need the help. He quickly learned better, and although he still won more than he lost, it was a genuine challenge.
Castiel got home around two and before he could tell Sam anything, he faceplanted on the couch. Sam got him a pillow and a blanket and left him to it, settling in with his book in case one of the kids woke up needing something.
He snapped out of the story when Castiel stirred and looked blearily up at him. “What time is it?”
“A little after three. You got home and passed out for, like, an hour.”
Castiel sat up, rubbing his face. “Sorry about that. You didn’t need to stay, I’m sure Jack would have been able to wake me up if he needed to. He always can.”
“Dude, you faceplanted, you needed the rest. You should probably go get some sleep in your bed.”
“Not until I’ve thanked you properly and paid you for your trouble.”
Sam gave a brief half-smile. “I know where you live now, I can come by for thanks and payment some other time. How’s Rachel?”
“Rachel is gravely injured but the doctors were able to stabilize her. Now it’s just wait and see. The other driver turned out to be our aunt Lucy, and she’s dead.”
Sam swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“I’m not. There are very few people I’m willing to speak ill of, but Aunt Lucy is one of them. It’s short for Lucinda, but we always thought it should be short for Lucifer. The world is a better place without her in it.”
“Huh. Okay. Go get some sleep, I’ll come by tomorrow or the next day and we can sort out payment then, okay?”
Castiel’s reply was cut off by a giant face-splitting yawn. “I shouldn’t agree to this, but I will. Thank you, Sam.”
Sam didn’t get over the next day – work kept him busy. The day after, Dean had just reminded him to go talk to the man even if he didn’t get paid when there was a knock at the door. Dean answered it to find Claire. “Hi! Is Sam here?”
Dean’s face lit up in a shit-eating grin. “Sammy!”
Sam came forward. “Hi, Claire, what’s up?”
“Dad wants me to invite you and Dean to come over for a barbecue. Jack keeps asking for you, and Dad thought this might be a good way to repay you for taking care of us the other night.”
Sam looked at Dean. Dean looked back skeptically. “How’s your dad with handling meat?” Sam resisted the urge to facepalm. For once, Dean probably meant that in the way that was appropriate to say to an eight-year-old.
“Dad’s hopeless, but Aunt Anna came over to do the actual meat work, and she’s good at it. Everyone’s worried about Dad after Great-Aunt Lucy died. Dad’s just making the side dishes, and those he can handle. He said to mention that he baked some pies.”
Sam grinned. “Magic words. There’s no way we won’t be there. Give us half an hour to load up a cooler. How’s your Aunt Rachel?”
“Still in the hospital, but she’s not gonna die. Dad won’t take me to see her, but I’ve talked to her on FaceTime. Bye, see you soon!” Claire sped off down the street.
As soon as Sam and Dean got to the back yard, Sam was assaulted by a two-year-old looking for a hug. Castiel came over and gently pried him off. “I’m sorry about that. He seems to have imprinted on you, for lack of a better word.”
Dean waggled his eyebrows at Sam before wandering off to find Anna. Sam ignored him. “It’s okay. Jack’s a good kid. I don’t mind him.”
“That’s good.” Castiel straightened up. “Claire says that she’ll never forgive me if I don’t ask you out on a date. I see no reason why you should have to accept, but I don’t want my daughter to be mad at me, so…”
Sam blushed and ducked his head. “Well, if the only reason you’re asking is because of Claire, then I’ll spare you the awkwardness of trying to force a date. If you want to ask and Claire’s the excuse you’re using to get over nerves or whatever, then I would love to go on a date with you. I, uh… I’ve kind of had a thing for you since you moved in.”