Chapter Text
It had been three months since Sam left for Stanford, and Dean was still off his game. He just couldn't get back to where he had been before without his little brother.
Sam had been what kept their family together, and now he was gone. He had ditched them, and Dean couldn't help but feel as though Sam had not only outrun their father, but had outrun Dean as well.
"Dean!" John barked when he barged into the motel room where Dean was slumped over a newspaper. He hadn't really been reading and researching like he was supposed to.
Sam was always so much better at that.
"Dean!" John repeated himself before Dean finally turned toward him. He hadn't been all the way there in anything he did since Sam left. "Did you finish that research yet?"
"Almost; give me five minutes," Dean answered. "I think that it's just a simple salt and burn."
"You think or you know?"
"I know."
"All right, let's go."
They packed their bags and headed off to the Bridge house where their next hunt had been prepared for. Several kids had sneaked into the house and hadn't come out. According to Dean, there was a murder and the bodies were buried in the back of the house.
"Dean, where are the bodies marked?" John asked when they reached the backyard.
"Um..." Dean trailed off.
"You didn't find out where they were marked?!" John shouted. "How are we gonna do the salt and burn if we can't salt and burn the bodies, Dean?!"
"I think it was with trees!" Dean said off the top of his head. Anything to get his dad to quit yelling at him.
"Are you sure it was with trees?" John asked. "I don't think I looked around the whole yard yet, but I don't see any damn trees, Dean!"
"I'm sorry!" Dean cried out. "Look, I can't concentrate!"
"Well, you're gonna get some time to concentrate." John grabbed Dean by the ear and dragged him back to the impala. "Do you know how many more people could get hurt because we can't do this tonight?"
"No, sir..." Dean trailed off. His father never asked rhetorical questions; he always expected an answer.
"I'm gonna call Caleb and tell him to pick this up, but you're in big trouble, young man," John said. He grabbed his phone and spoke to his old friend while driving. Dean remained in silence.
When John parked in front of a store, Dean panicked. He knew exactly what he was going to be pushed through - something he hadn't gone through since he was a kid, and now he was twenty-two. Far too old to be going through his father's special punishment.
"Dad," Dean spoke up. John hushed him with a finger.
"Don't you dare object; you know what you did was wrong," John said as he hung up the phone on his friend after giving him the details. He got out of the car and nearly slammed the door. Dean knew his father would have if he didn't value the impala so much.
Dean was practically dragged out of the impala when John reached his side. Together they walked into the store. Dean was grateful that John hadn't already insisted that he be treated like a little kid. Otherwise he'd be holding his father's hand as they walked into the store.
John walked straight to the isle where the adult diapers were. One of the great things about being an adult was that the babyish styled diapers would no longer fit Dean, so John had to resort to different tactics.
Dean watched in silence as John selected items he thought were best. These items included adult diapers, - which he embarrassingly brought up to Dean's waist to measure before throwing them in a basket he picked up on the way in - a bottle, and a large teddy bear.
Dean didn't even want to know what brought John to the thought of buying a teddy bear.
Once John had found everything he looked for, he took Dean to the checkout line, where a teenage cashier with several facial piercings gave the two of them one of the oddest looks Dean had ever seen; he wasn't sure if it was an odd look because of how odd she looked or because she was going through the possibilities of what two grown men would be doing purchasing baby items.
When they returned to the motel, Dean was ordered to stand in the corner of the room. The twenty-two year old had to stand there and think about the fact that in just a few minutes, his father was going to see everything below the waist.
Dean thought to fight back. He was an adult now, and he could, but knew that he didn't have the balls to do it. He'd have to ask John if he saw any down there when he put him in diapers, because Dean didn't think they were there anymore.
John was sure taking his time getting everything set up.
There were disadvantages to this sort of punishment now that his son was a fully grown man. He learned when Sam was a teenager that he couldn't use things like playpens and high chairs anymore. The diapering choices were also less humiliating for the boys. They allowed the wearer to have more dignity with the lack of tabs and babyish designs, but that was something John used against the boys.
That didn't stop him from collecting diapers from the diaper isle and bottles. He thought of pacifiers, but that was more of something that Sam used. It was something John liked to use to keep the boys quiet, but Dean never needed to be asked to be quiet - not since his first course with this punishment when he was five. It was always Sam with his stubbornness.
John already had the diaper paraphernalia on Dean's bed when he sat down on his own.
"Come here," he ordered. Dean turned from the corner and walked to his father. "You could have gotten us hurt. People could die before Caleb gets here to fix everything."
"I'm so-"
"I don't want to hear it," John interrupted. "Pants and underwear off; over my lap."
Dean didn't waste any time. He was quick to drop his clothing and bend over his father's lap - feeling like a small child all the while.
John didn't waste any time either. As soon as Dean was in position, John was delivering swats to his bottom, alternating areas accordingly.
"Tell me why you're being punished, son," John said, not slowing in his spanking pace.
"B-Because..." Dean trailed off in a whine from the pain. A particularly rough swat brought him back to answering. "Because I didn't research that hunt better!"
"And?"
"And people can get hurt because I didn't!"
"Very good," John said. He continued spanking, waiting until Dean was crying in soft whimpers. Of course the Winchester boy would refuse to cry out any louder due to embarrassment. He was a grown man now who had been shot at, stabbed, and received stitches with no other anesthetic besides some painkillers and whiskey, yet here he was, sobbing over his father's lap like a small child.
John finished spanking his son, lifting him up like he did when the boys were really kids. He wrapped his arms around Dean in a hug.
"It's okay, buddy," John soothed. "It's gonna be okay. Daddy's gonna take care of it."
"Dad, please..." Dean whimpered out.
"Should I have bought a pacifier too, son?" John asked. Dean shook his head against his father's shoulder. "All right; let's get this thing over with."
John lead Dean to his bed, where John had left the diaper paraphernalia, and laid him on the bed. He was quick to diaper his son, giving a small laugh as he did so.
"What?" Dean asked defensively.
"I never thought I'd be diapering my grown son," John commented as he powdered his son's genitalia and pulled this diaper up. He wished that there were diapers with tabs in Dean's size instead of the adult incontinent briefs he had been forced to purchase and deal with.
Maybe if you didn't do this stupid punishment, you wouldn't be, Dean thought to himself.
"Now, while you're going to be a baby in the motel room, Caleb's coming over in the morning to take care of the hunt. Him and I are going to work on the research you should have been doing together," John explained.
"B-But..." Dean trailed off. "Won't he see...me...?"
"I won't treat you like a baby in front of him," John said. "But you'll still be in diapers. Fortunately for you, the store really didn't have diapers for adults; they're more like incontinent briefs."
"What if Caleb happens to see them?" Dean asked.
"Don't let him and you won't have to deal with it," John answered. "But I'm not going to lie to him if he happens to find out and ask about it."
Dean nodded weakly.
"Now, you're going to have a bottle and go to bed. Caleb will be here before you wake up in the morning," John said, walking to the kitchen where he left the bottle he had purchased, filling it up with milk.
John walked back to Dean, sitting on the boy's bed beside him.
"Do we have to do the...?" Dean didn't finish.
"Yes, I'm going to cradle you," John said, knowing full well what his son meant to ask.
John pulled Dean close to him, cradling his son the best he could with the eldest Winchester brother's fully grown body. Sitting on the bed made this easier, and he was suddenly glad he didn't need to punish Dean like this when he had been a teenager. Dean was always such a big kid after he hit puberty - unlike his brother who was tiny until he turned sixteen and was six feet by the time he was seventeen.
After Dean finished the bottle, he did feel much fuller than before. He relaxed in John's arms, actually quite thankful for the comfort he was receiving by being held by his father in this way. It was something he barely experienced after becoming a teenager, and even before that it was scarce.
"That's it, Dean, fall asleep," John said. He continued to cradle Dean even after the kid had fallen asleep.
John laughed a little.
He couldn't get up with Dean sleeping on him.