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“What are you doing?” Dean asked, maybe a little harshly as he walked briskly into the kitchen, following the burning smell.
Jack jumped at the voice, whirling around and guiltily facing Dean. “I’m trying to bake cookies.”
“You’re burning them.” Dean grumbled out, sniffing the air once again.
“It’s my first time baking but it’s Christmas time and Sam wanted to help me but he had to go out on that call.” Jack said and looked a little scared.
Dean didn’t know whether he felt pity or annoyance at that expression.
He moved forward nonetheless, lightly pushing Jack to the side in order to open the oven. He grabbed a hand towel to pull the tray out of the oven, the supposed cookies on it dark brown and looking too crispy. He was just glad that there wasn’t any smoke coming from the tray or the oven yet.
“Oh,” Jack said sadly from his side as he looked at the tray forlornly.
Dean put it down on the stove, careful not to burn anything before he turned back to the nephilim.
He really didn’t know why but he felt bad for the boy, call it nostalgia or holiday spirit or getting old but Dean sighed deeply.
“You’re doing this for Sam?” He asked.
“Yeah, Sam said he really wanted Christmas cookies and I thought it would be a nice thing to do.” Jack wrung his hands together, still staring at the burnt piles.
Dean thought back for a second, almost getting lost in a memory from around twenty five years ago. Him and Sam had been in a similar situation when Sam had been ten and really wanted to bake cookies for Christmas, just like all the other families did. Dean might have known how to keep them fed but baking wasn’t something he was all that good at. They had managed to save at least a dozen cookies in the end but it had been a mess up to the very end.
Though Dean remembered the mess fondly now, knowing how happy it had made his brother back in ‘93.
“Fine, I’ll help,” Dean finally said with a sigh.
Jack whooped and jumped up and down once before rushing up to Dean and hugging him.
Dean stood there stiffly, not used to the affection and glad that the hug didn’t last too long.
“But I’m just doing this for Sam, okay?” He clarified once the boy let him go, not wanting Jack to get any wrong ideas.
The boy nodded enthusiastically. “Okay, yeah for Sam. What do we do?”
“Follow a recipe.” Dean drypanned.
Dean pulled up two cookie recipes that didn’t sound too complicated and that they should have all the ingredients for already. One was a simple sugar cookie, while not Dean’s favorite, they always kind of hit the spot and Jack could go crazy on the decorations. The other one was a chewy ginger cookie that Dean knew Sam really liked.
With the help of Dean’s instructions and supervision, Jack actually managed to produce a sugar cookie dough that looked and tasted right. They put it into the fridge while they worked on the second one and Dean was actually enjoying himself a little bit, even though he would never admit that.
This was triggering more memories for him but for once they were nice ones and he didn’t mind indulging in them a little bit. He was reminded of young Sam always wanting to do everything by himself because he was a big boy now and how proud he was when he was actually able to do it. Jack maybe even sometimes reminded him of his brother at that age.
“Okay, so now you can roll out the cookie dough from the fridge while this one chills. I’ll go and see if we have anything like cookie cutters lying around.”
Dean spent a good ten minutes looking through all the cupboards and drawers until he actually found some dusty cookie cutters. They were a bit different from what they had today but then again they must be from the 50’s.
The nephilim had rolled out the dough in the time it took Dean to find them and he washed them quickly, trying to get rid of sixty years of dust
They got two and a half sheets of cookies cut out before the dough ran out and Dean smushed the last bit together in a rounded shape.
“These go in the oven now, right?” Jack asked, standing up from his seat.
Dean nodded and pointed to the heated oven. “Are you gonna burn yourself if you put them in?”
Jack shook his head and grabbed the oven gloves. “No. I can do it.”
Dean watched as Jack carefully placed the tray in the oven before pulling out the second cookie dough and another piece of parchment paper for Jack to scoop the next set of cookies on.
..
An hour later half of the bunker smelled deliciously of cookies and Dean was strangely proud of himself and Jack, they had made an unlikely but quite a good team. They weren’t the prettiest cookies but they smelled and tasted damn good, making even Dean feel a little bit of holiday cheer.
They had stored most of the cookies in some metal tins Dean had found next to the cookie cutters and the rest had been piled on two plates, ready to snack on for whoever came into the kitchen. He wiped the last bit of flour from the table, cleaning up the last of the mess.
“Holy shit, it smells amazing in here.” Dean heard a few minutes after finishing up.
Sam wandered into the kitchen a few moments later and his eyes growing larger when he spotted the plates of cookies.
“You baked?” He asked Dean.
“We baked,” Dean corrected and pointed to Jack. “Jack wanted to surprise you.”
“Well put me down as surprised.” Sam replied and smiled widely. He grinned at Jack, stepping closer and ruffling the nephilim’s hair.
Sam grabbed one of the ginger cookies and bit into it, a sound of pleasure coming from him while he chewed the treat.
“Damn,” he mumbled through crumbs. “Thank you guys.”
“You like it?” Jack asked, a blush staining his cheeks.
Sam gripped Jack’s shoulder and nodded enthusiastically. “I love them, they’re really good, Jack.”
Dean caught himself smiling fondly at the two of them. He was still wary about Jack but he had to admit that this afternoon had kind of been fun and seeing Sam smiling and happy was enough for him to maybe consider giving the boy a little more leeway.