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It was gonna be one of those nights... Those special moments were far between and this night was one of those special nights. Or it was supposed to be…
Dad had just come back to their motel after three days on a hunt. They actually didn't expect to see him till at least the day after tomorrow. At first they'd gotten a bit sad. Not because he actually came back home. He was alive, he was safe and they were safe, the hunt went well and he saved someone’s lives; those were all good things that they were happy for.
But to see the look on Sammy’s sad face when Dad came through the door, it made Dean's heart ache. Dean knew what his baby brother was thinking. Hell, even Dean was thinking it too. It meant their plan couldn't happen and they would have to let the plan go down the drain, even though it was a rare opportunity, 'cause if Dad was home it meant that his hunt was done, if his hunt was done it meant they'd be back on the road within a few hours, and if they were on the road the plans would be canceled, ruined. It just wouldn't be the same on the road.
The brothers exchanged knowing looks and Dean's eyes said sorry without his mouth having too. Sam nodded and looked down. Dean knew how disappointed he was, he could see it like it beamed out of him like one of those light towers. And Dean was truly sorry, but it was Dad, they both knew there would be no way around this. So when Dad went to the bathroom and closed the door, Dean started packing.
He could see how Sam slowly went from sad to pissed. "Don't say it, Sam, just get packing"
"But Dean this isn't fair! He wasn't supposed to come back today anyway!"
"I know. But Dad's back and you know what he'll say."
"Why can't we just stay one more night? We're always on the road!"
"He’s protecting people who can’t do it themselves, Sammy, saving lives. Dad is trying to protect us too; those monsters don't hunt themselves and if we stay too long they might try to get to us if it isn’t the police or someone else. You know we couldn’t stay here long, anyway."
"Why are you always defending him?! He's ruining our plans and this thing doesn’t happen that often! Just this once, is that too much to ask?"
"He's doing his best Sammy! People’s life’s are more important than -“
“That isn’t good enough! He’s done this our whole life’s, why can’t we just get to be normal once in a while? Just this one night?”
“People are dying, Sam! He can help them and he does, is one night of ‘normal’ more worth to you than one life?” Sam got quiet and looked down with hurt eyes. Dean regretted his words a bit. He knew they were true, but he also knew Sam. People’s life’s wasn’t unimportant to him, his heart was in the right place, he just wanted something normal for them to enjoy sometimes. “Just let it go, okay? I’m sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you... Sam, look at me; I'll make it up to you. Okay?"
Sam looked up at him with big eyes and a pout. "How?"
"Sammy, come on" Dean put a shirt in his bag and then sat down on his bed to sit in front of Sam "I don't know how yet, but I promise you: it'll be worth it. You know as well as I how it is - us, Dad, the motels, the gigs. Dad is doing his job and go’s wherever it takes him, we go where Dad go, it's that simple. This night was gonna be special, but trust me when I say I'll make it up to you, and I’ll make it special"
Sam looked down again with crossed arms. He was obviously thinking it through. Then he looked up again, still with the pout: "You promise?"
Dean smiled back at him "I Promise"
That had seemed as the end of that, Sam even started packing his stuff and Dean got back to doing the same thing. After Dad got out of the shower and had dressed, he - as they had expected - told them to get ready and go get in the car. Lightening started shooting from Sam’s eyes as they soon began fighting. It had become a habit of theirs and Dean always stood in the middle. Not that it did much good; the tension didn't lessen much after.
But eventually they put their stuff in the trunk and got in the car. They drove over to one of Dad’s old friends to help him out with something. When they got there, Sam just sat there staring out the window. Sam and Dean didn't get to know what the thing was about. Dean had tried to ask his Dad if he could get the car keys; he said no. But they were only there for about two hours before they left again.
Dad and his friend had gotten busy with the liquid pretty quick, so he was drunk when they left. He wouldn't let Dean drive and when they stopped Dean and Sam was sent to the motel room right away while he bought more alcohol.
When he got through the door he was even more drunk and could barely stand. Luckily Sam had gone to bed; tired, bitter and disappointed, so he didn't see their Dad almost fall through the door. Dean had to help him. He grabbed his arm and put it over his shoulders so he could support him on the way to the bed; Dean had already decided he wasn't going to use it tonight, so his Dad might as well get to sleep in it instead.
Dad was already asleep when his head hit the pillow, but Dean still helped him get his boots and clothes off and then he covered him with the blanket.
Dean swiftly checked the saltlines and made sure there was a gun under his father’s pillow, he made sure the room was 100% secure. When he was sure everything was in place as it should be, he sneaked over to Sam, put a soft hand on Sam’s head and whispered to him: "Sammy. Sam? Sammy, wake up!"
Sam sleepily yawned and blinked at him as he asked: "Dean? What is it?"
Dean held a finger in front of his mouth and shushed him. "Shh. Get dressed Sammy, we're going out."
"But Dean, what about Dad?"
"He's asleep. I wrote him a note, but I don't think he'll notice. Come on, get dressed. Hurry up!"
Sam didn't hesitate. He was up and clothed in minutes and asked where they were going. Dean only answered with "Out" and opened the door. When he closed it after them, Sam looked back towards the room with a worried face.
"Don't worry Sammy, I've made sure everything is intact, Dad's safe"
The worry disappeared again but he looked suspiciously at Dean and asked again where they were going as he followed him. Dean stopped so he'd nearly run into him. Dean turned around with a bright smile and said, as he looked him in the eyes: "I told you Sammy: out!" And as he said 'out' a set of key's dropped and dangled from his fingers in his left hand.
"Dean? What are you...?" As Sam's smile got bigger, Dean chuckled and gave him a smug smile and a wink. It was their Dad's car keys to the Impala.
Soon they both sat in the Impala, Dean started the car and she purred as if even she knew, this was gonna be good. Dean smiled at the sound and drove out of the parking lot.
“So, where are we going, Dean? – And don’t say ’out’!”
He grinned. “You’ll see” Dean was looking at the road but looking intensely for something at the left side of the road as well.
“What are you looking for?”
Dean just smiled smugly without answering. Sam knew he wasn’t gonna tell him.
“Dean where are we going? Maybe we should get back to Dad?”
“Nope, not yet. Just relax, Sammy; we’ll be back before he notice”
Dean was still keeping a close eye to the side of the road. “It should be around here somewhere…” he mumbled to himself.
“What should be here, Dean? There’s only the road and trees, so what are you looking for?”
“Shut up, I know what I’m doing”
“You’re such a jerk”
“Bitch” They both chuckled a little.
Dean had seen a road between the trees that he thinks runs all the way out to a place with an almost bare hill in the middle of the forest. He’d seen it at the top of the road-hill on their way to the motel – only spotted it because some car was driving out of the place. He thought that might be a good place.
“Yes! Finally!” Dean spotted the road and slowed down a bit before turning and driving through the forest.
“Dean, what are we doing in the woods?”
“Just wait and see, Sammy.”
“No seriously, Dean! You’re starting to scare me a little“
“Don’t be scared Sammy, I’m right here with you. You’re gonna like it, I promise. Just wait and see, Sammy. Trust me”
Sam nodded and looked at the small road they were on. He trusted his brother, even though he was being weird and cryptic. At first he’d thought Dean might have found a way to make their earlier plans for the night, that had went down the drain, happen somehow. But then he’d went into the forest and he had no idea what this was or if this was one of his brothers weird ways to make it up to him.
Dean seemed a bit tense as he kept following the small forest road, but his body suddenly relaxed and he was smiling all over his face. “Yeah, haha, we’re here Sammy! Finally!” The trees stopped and a hill, bare but with only one tree and grass everywhere as the only thing there. Dean stopped the Impala on the top of the hill and turned her off. “So, what’ ya’ think Sammy?” The hill made a good view over a big round open space of grass and nothing else, the forest’s tree line surrounded them in a big circle around the bottom of the hill.
Sam was smiling with a bit of disbelieve in his face. “Dean, it - it’s … Waw”
Dean chuckled at him. “Get out of the car”
They both got out and closed the doors. Sam looked up at the sky. The sky was clear, not a single cloud on it to cast a shadow over the beautiful stars that were shining so very bright above them. Sam’s jaw was hanging wide open at the incredible sight and Dean laughed at his reaction. “Waw… Dean, this is perfect!” he said without ever taking his eyes off of the sky.
Dean casually got to the front of the Impala and sat down on her warm hood. He was also looking up at the sky. It really was beautiful. Without the streetlights or any other kind of lights anywhere near them, out in the middle of nowhere, only surrounded by nature, the sky was lit up by a cavalcade of light from the stars and planets so far away. Every light was brighter than ever.
“Dean… Do you think we were too late?” Sam asked him hesitantly, still looking up at the sky. Dean said “No” and didn’t look away either.
Then one single shooting star shot over the sky.
“Oh, Waw! Dean! Did you see that?! Did you see it?!” Sam exclaimed jumping about in excitement, beaming of joy at the sight, his face was one big smiley to look at. Their eyes met and Sam went over to sit beside his big brother on the warm hoot of the car.
Dean just chuckled and smiled at him. “Yeah, Sammy, I saw it – I told you we weren’t too late!” Dean put an arm around his baby brother’s shoulders and gave it a small squeeze. “I guess I don’t have to make it up to you after all?”
Sam grinned up at him and agreed. “No, you don’t… Dean this is great!”
“Yeah? Well it gets better”
Sam looked a bit confused. “How is it going to get better than this?” Dean removed his arm from Sam’s shoulders.
“I come prepared!” he says, winking at Sam. Then he went to the back of the Impala and popped the trunk. The sound of his bag’s zipper filled the air for a second, followed by the rustling sound of a plastic bag. He then closed the trunk and came back with a white see-through bag filled with little colorful things in his left hand, and a folded carpet in his right hand that he threw at Sam, smiling.
“It’s gonna get cold, so I brought something to keep us warm. And – to make this even better –“ His hand dived down in the bag, grabbed something, threw the little bag to Sam and continued, “I brought candy!”
Sam laughed back to his brother. “Only you would think of making this in to something like a night in the movie theater”
“What can I say? – It’s a gift!” he sent Sam one of his smug smiles.
They lay down and got comfy on the still warm hood of the Impala and looked up at the overwhelming sky and the few shooting stars, popping up and disappearing again, here and there. The shooting stars began to rain down over the sky and Sam’s face was so happy and excited, there was not a trace of fear, anger, tenseness or anything else like that, to be found there.
Dean looked at him and wished he could be like this more often, that Sammy could just be this happy all the time. He knew this was a very important thing to Sam, and it was a thing that momentarily made him forget – made them both forget – that there were anything dangerous out there in the world like monsters at all, it momentarily made them feel ‘normal’, and that he knew meant the world to Sammy. He looked at him and all he could see was that his brother was happy. All he saw was one big smiley face. This beautiful shower of stars across the night-sky, this moment of being together, doing something together - that wasn’t staying at the motel - just the two of them, and just sharing this ‘normal’-bubble of theirs, was exactly what was making his little brother this happy.
The two of them didn’t go back to the motel room right away after the star shower. They saw them all fly across the sky like flaming arrows, popping up and disappearing again. When there were no more left, when the last shooting star had run across the star-lit sky, they stayed for a couple of hours, just laying at the hood of the Impala - which felt like she was as big a part of all this as anything around them, as the stars that had showered the sky -, talking, looking up at the sky, sharing both the carpet, the candy and a couple of soda’s from the bag. The Impala was like their base, their home and was making them feel safe while lying on her hood and looking at the stars. She was part of their momentary freedom and both she, the two of them and the stars was all making this thing so very special.
Some hours later, though, they agreed it would be vise to get back to their Dad at the motel and got up. They gathered their stuff and put it back into the trunk. When Dean had closed it Sam gave him a big hug. The hug was so tight it almost squeezed the air out of Dean at first, but Sam loosened his grip a little, still tight though, as he buried his face into Dean’s chest and said: “Thanks Dean! You’re the best!”
“Well, I try…” Dean smiled down at him and put a warm, caring palm onto his head.
Sam looked up at him. “No, Dean, really. I mean it! Dad would never have had let us do this. This really meant a lot to me, so thank you! This was amazing! It was just perfect”
Dean had no idea of what to say to that. So he just smiled back at his brother’s serious but smiling face, said: “You’re welcome. This was really awesome for me too Sammy.” and hugged him back. The hug was short but warm and heartfelt. Then they untangled from each other and Dean shuffled Sam’s hair into a mess. “We should get back now Sammy” Dean told him.
They both stepped around the car and got in. Soon they were back on the road and soon after that, they were back at the motel where their Dad was still asleep. Dean checked all the saltlines again, curled the note for his Farther into a little ball and threw it out. Then he said goodnight to Sam and lay down on the sofa, pulling the carpet from the trunk up over his shoulders and just before he, with a smile on his lips, lets himself fall asleep, he thinks to himself: “This was awesome. Sammy was so happy, it was totally worth the risk of getting in trouble for sneaking off and taking Dads keys. Just the perfect night... Yeah. This was one of those special nights.”
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