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Dean sent the bullet flying into the witch. As soon as he confirmed her dead, he turned to his little brother. Last he’d seen, his brother had been laying in a heap on the floor. But Sam’s massive body wasn’t there anymore. In his place lay a small child in a man’s clothes.
“Sam?”
Dean crept closer, making sure his gun was still handy in case this was a trick. Dean nudged the small child onto its back and let out a gasp. The child was Sam, but he looked to be about 5 years old.
“Oh shit.”
Little Sam began to stir at that moment. He twitched his eyes open and glanced up at Dean before scrambling back, terror on his little face. Sam’s little body got tangled up in the massive clothes. Dean raised his hands up, trying to show Sam he meant no harm. Sam shrieked and Dean looked up at his hands realizing his gun was still in his hand. He quickly threw the firearm into his waistband and raised his arms up once again.
“Easy, Sammy. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“Who are you? How do you know my name?”
“Well, uh.” Dean rubbed the back of his neck. “I know this is gonna sound weird Sammy, but uh, I’m your brother, Dean.”
“You’re not Dean. You’re old, Dean is 9.”
“I know Sammy, I know it seems that way. But I really am Dean. Something happened to you, bud. You’re supposed to be an adult, like me.”
“How do I know you’re really Dean?”
Dean paused, wracking his brain for anything he could think of to prove his identity. His first thought was the amulet, but at age 5, Sam hadn’t given it to him yet. Finally, a spark of inspiration hit him.
“Your first day of kindergarten, I walked you to your classroom. You didn’t want to let go of my hand, but I told you I would be waiting for you right outside the door as soon as the bell rang in the afternoon. And I was. On the way home, you told me all about your new teacher and the friend you made who had the same name as me. You thought it was so cool you made a friend who’s name was Dean,”
Upon hearing the tale, Sam jumped up and began running towards Dean. The pants were so big that he ran right out of them and the shirt fell off one shoulder. Dean squatted down, letting Sam run into his arms.
"Hey, Sammy. I know this is scary, but we'll figure it out."
"I know you will Dean. You always protect me."
Dean felt a rush of warmth spread in his chest at Sam's words. "And I always will Sammy."
____________________________________________________________________________
Dean wished he could've called Bobby. The man would have called them idgits for getting themselves into a situation like this, but he'd help them with research and would be able to guide Dean on where he should look. But Bobby was dead now, so Dean was on his own. So instead of calling Bobby, he tried to think about where to look to find a reversal.
On the way back to the motel, Dean stopped at a local thrift store. He needed to find clothes that were designed for a 5 year old instead of a sasquatch. A few concerned glances were thrown toward the kid drowning in nothing but a t-shirt, but Dean tried to ignore them and get done with the shopping. Dean felt much better as soon as they stepped through the door of the motel and away from any prying eyes.
"Alright, Sammy. I gotta do some research. Why don't you watch some TV or something while I do that?" Dean said as handed the remote to Little Sam.
Sam looked hesitant, but took the remote from Dean anyway. "Are you sure it's ok? Daddy doesn't like when the TV is on when he's doing research."
"I'm not dad, squirt. I don't mind if the TV is on. If I did I wouldn't have suggested it."
Sam thought about it for a second, but then smiled brightly at Dean before plopping on a bed and clicking the TV on. Dean couldn't help but notice that Sammy automatically went to the furthest bed from the door.
Sam clicked through several channels before settling on the Disney Channel. Sam was mesmerized as a movie called Frozen came on. The picture was so clear compared to the cartoons he was used to. He instantly became absorbed in the storyline.
Dean focused on his research. He started with John’s journal, but when that proved unhelpful, he turned to a tome on witchcraft that the boys actually kept in the car for such times as these. He was just starting to find something that might be useful for their situation when he heard a fearful cry from his actually Little brother. Dean’s head snaps up and he finds a distraught Sam.
“What’s wrong Sammy?” He asks as he makes his way over to the bed and sits down beside Sam. Sam launches himself into Dean’s arms and begins to cry.
“That snowman was just impaled.”
Dean was confused. He knew Sam had been a sensitive child, but he doubted a kids movie on the Disney channel had shown a graphic scene such as impalement. And also, how did a 5 year old even know what that meant?
“How do you know what impalement is Sam?”
“Daddy came home bleeding one night and I heard him say he’d been impaled.”
“When did you hear that?”
“He thought I was sleeping. But I was just faking. I wanted to see daddy when he got home, but when he got home he looked really angry, so I just pretended to sleep.”
Dean thought he remembered the specific incident that Sam was talking about, but he couldn’t be 100% sure. After all, their dad had come home many times injured. Either way it was upsetting Sammy, so he had to do something. He glanced up at the screen and saw a little snowman talking to a man and woman.
“Look Sammy, the snowman is fine, see?!”
Sam looked up and saw the snowman talking to Anna and Kristoff and he felt a little better. “Isn’t he in pain though?”
“It doesn’t look like it.”
“But Daddy was. He kept making ugly faces and saying bad words.”
“Well, do normal snowmen talk Sam?”
“No”
“Why does this snowman talk?”
“He’s a magic snowman. Elsa made him with her ice powers.”
“So he probably doesn’t feel any owies because of the magic.”
“Oh, ok.”
“And even though dad did feel his owie, he got better right?”
“Right.”
“Well so did the magic snowman.”
“Ok.”
Dean moved to stand up, but Sam clung to him. Sam seemed to have accepted Dean’s magic explanation, but he was obviously still feeling somewhat distressed.
“Will you sit and finish the movie with me Dean?”
“I really need to get this research done Sammy.”
Instead of using words to argue with Dean, Sam simply looked up at him and gave him the widest, pleading eyes he could muster. Dean didn’t remember him using his puppy dog eyes that young, but clearly he could and they were lethal.
“Damn, Sammy. Those should seriously be illegal.”
“Hmm?”
“Nothing, nevermind kiddo. Fine. I will watch the rest of the movie with you. But then I need to go back to work ok?”
“Ok.” Sam said, clearly happy he got what he wanted. He snuggled further into Dean. Dean would never admit it out loud, but it felt nice having his little brother all cuddled up with him. Without even realizing he was even doing it, Dean reached down and began carding his fingers through Sam’s floppy hair. Within 20 minutes, the kid was passed out. Dean had promised he’d finish the movie with Sam, so even though Sam slept through the end, Dean sat with Sam cuddled up in his lap and ran his fingers gently over his scalp until the credits rolled.
Once the movie was over, Dean gently laid Sam down on the bed and returned to his research. It took another few hours, but Dean finally determined that there was nothing he could do to reverse the spell, they would just have to wait it out. The book said that most de-aging spells lasted 3 to 5 days, but if the witch was powerful enough it could last up to 8 or 9. The witch has been doing pretty minor level stuff when they caught onto her, so he didn’t think Sam would be stuck like this for more than 5 days.
Dean sighed and began a mental list of things he would need for Little Sam until Big Sam returned to him. For now, all Dean could do was enjoy the cuddles and hope that Big Sam didn’t remember anything when he aged up.