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It had been going on for several weeks now in a fairly predictable pattern. Sam and Dean would fall asleep. Two hours later, Dean would be startled awake by a tiny flailing Sam-fist. The kid was only 6 but man did his bony little fingers hurt when they connected with his nose. Grousing, Dean would roll over to shake Sammy awake. Initially, it was silly things that would only concern the mind of a baby:
"Dean! Mister Moose left for Florida!" Wide-eyed and upset.
"Dean, blue crayon is gone." With a flash of anger giving way to tears.
"Dean, no bra-killy ever." Begging ardently for a promise. (Dean still wondered what broccoli ever did to the kid. As far as he knew, Sammy loved pretending to be a dinosaur eating the weird little trees. Dino noises and all.)
All to be forgotten after Dean made promises for Mister Moose to be home soon, to get a new crayon first thing tomorrow, to throw out the offending vegetable before Bobby would cook it. Several more hours of sleep didn't hurt either.
When monsters started invading Sammy's dreams, Dean wasn't sure how to handle them. He just didn't feel right lying to Sammy about them not being real but Dad made him promise not to tell Sammy anything about monsters until he was older. That should be Dad's job, anyway. Dean certainly didn't want his baby brother to be part of any of it so he readily agreed. Even singing Sammy Hey Jude, Dean and his mommy's happy song, wasn't helping Sammy fall back asleep anymore. It was getting to be too much when his teachers began noticing his (even more pronounced) lack of attention in the classroom. Mentions of calling his dad if Dean didn't start working harder were beginning to be uttered.
Dean just shrugged it off. Sammy was more important than school, they should know that. He would stay up for a month straight if it meant helping Sammy to get a few hours of decent rest. Dean knew that he could catch up with a few moments of sleep during recess if he could find a spot hidden from view. Yet even this rare moment of calm was broken one day when a girl his age wandered past his spot. Instead of moving on, she only stopped and stared at him. Growing annoyed at the attention, Dean was tempted to swat some dirt at her to make her leave.
"You look tired." She simply stated. "You should sleep."
"No duh." Dean snapped.
Nonplussed, she settled herself on the ground next to him and opened the book she was carrying. "I'll read to you until you fall asleep."
Dean just snorted, cranky from the lack of sleep but not wanting to be rude to the girl. Bobby said to be extra nice to girls even though girls were gross. Girls ranked right under monsters in grossness. Why be nice to gross things? Bobby would just smack the back of Dean's head for sticking his tongue out the thought of girls being anything but gross. The odd girl, instead of reading, started to sing the book's lines. It didn't matter to Dean. He just let himself be lulled into sleep. He thought that Sammy might like the story. The kid devoured stories.
That night, like clockwork, Dean woke up with a tiny iron-like fist wailing at his face. Dean just sighed, pulling himself into a sitting position before shaking Sammy out of his dream.
"What was it this time, kid?"
"Dean," Sammy sobbed, clinging to Dean's nightshirt. "Monster in closet wants to eat me. And," the sobs took on a whining pitch, " andandand giant meanie bird ladies with flower heads!"
Even in his groggy haze, Dean had to give Sammy some credit for his imagination. "Come on Sammy. There's nothing there."
"Check." Sammy clung hard. "Please!"
Dean sighed fulfilling Sammy's request. He flicked lamp on and staggered to the closet door. "See, Sammy, just your toys in here."
"Under bed!"
Dean rolled his eyes but obediently looked. "Nothing here either, kid."
Sammy just nodded, trusting his big brother but not trusting that the monster wasn't just hiding behind the jacket hanging on the door ready to pounce him when the light went off again. Dean just pulled Sammy close to him when he got back into bed, giving Sam's head a kiss. He started humming the song-story that the girl sang earlier while trying to think of a way to calm Sammy down enough for both of them to get some more sleep.
The next day at recess, Dean waited in his spot hoping to meet the girl again. She didn't show up that day or the next. For the rest of the week, Dean kept watch instead of trying to get his usual nap. On Friday, she walked by allowing Dean to call her over. He wanted to borrow the book she read to him so he could show Sammy. She was happy to lend it to him but didn't have it on her at the moment. It took until Monday, nearly a full week more of Sammy waking up in the middle of the night, for Dean to come into possession of the book
That night, Dean tucked his baby brother into bed. Instead of getting in next to him, Dean sat down and started reading. "The little prince's brother told him, 'Tell the monster that lives 'neath your bed, to go somewhere else instead, or you'll kick him in the head. You'll kick his butt at the count of four." Dean gestured to the bright, comical pictures of the little prince kicking a silly monster in the head.
Dean took it as a good sign that Sam giggled at the word "butt" and continued reading, "Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight. Good night my little slayer goodnight. Tell the monster that eats children, that you taste bad. And you're sure you'd be the worst that he's ever had."
Dean couldn't resist cutting in to tell Sammy the monster in the closest wouldn't want to eat him because Sammy smelled. To which Sammy replied with an indignant "Dean!" and pouted. Dean elected to skip a few pages before continuing fearing they would be too close to the truth: Demons and monsters did exist.
"If he eats you, don't fret, just cut him open with an axe. Don't regret it. He deserved it. He's a cad. He should shake in his shoes cause the mightiest, scariest, creature is you. Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight. Good night, my little slayer, good night." Dean closed the book quietly before getting under the covers as gently as possible next to his half asleep little brother.
That night, Sammy slept through the night without waking once.