We're Going to be Friends, for the summergen community

[summergen-mod.livejournal.com]

Title: We're Going to Be Friends
Recipient: spn_summergen (submissions whose recipients defaulted are gifted to the community)
Rating: G
Word Count: ~1600
Warnings: Brief mentions of canon compliant violence (Winchester's hunting)
Notes: The title comes from the song We're Going to  Be Friends by the White Stripes.  It is a very sweet song and well worth listening to.  Thank you to the mods who put in all the hard work to make this exchange happen. My eternal thanks to elwarre for betaing this story, and make it so much better than it would have been otherwise.  Thank you as well to two people in my real life who helped beta and improve this story immensely.

Summary: Pre-series, wee!chesters, a young Sam and Dean spend time with Ellen and Jo while their dad is out on a hunt.

“You sure about this?  They aren’t going to be too much trouble?”

Ellen can hear the doubt in John’s voice.  She knows he’s close to just taking the boys with him and William.  They’re going on a hunt together, and she’s agreed to watch Sam and Dean for a few days until they get back.  She can tell this time’s different than most hunts; this one’s important.  They have a lead on the yellow-eyed demon.  The less the boys have to do with it, the better for everyone.

“It’s not a problem - it will be good for Joanna to spend some time with kids her own age.”  She’s starting to worry about her girl.  Spending so much time around hunters, Jo is starting to idealize them.  She wants to grow up to be just like her daddy, and that is one thought that scares Ellen more than anything else.

“Joanna, this is Sam and Dean.  They’re going to be spending a few days with us.”

She smiles shyly at the boys, “Call me Jo.”

It doesn’t take long for Joanna to warm to the boys.  In no time she grabs Sam by the hand, and they disappear into the bar.  She can hear Joanna chattering away about all the fun things they can do together in the Roadhouse.  It’s after hours and everything dangerous is locked up, so Ellen isn’t too worried about what they might get into.  On the other hand…they are Winchester’s, perhaps she should go check on them, just to make sure.  They probably already know how to pick locks and likely as not already have the gun cabinet open, or something equally dangerous.  If the Winchester’s are known for one thing, it’s causing trouble wherever they go.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Just as she suspected, she finds them with several guns lying out on the floor, while Dean is educating Joanna on the finer points of each one.  Sam doesn’t seem too keen on it, but Joanna is listening with rapt attention.  Once she has all the guns and shells put back into their proper place, Ellen gives the kids a lecture on not playing with dangerous things.  Jo seems to listen, but she’s pretty sure the point is lost on the boys.  Instead she tries to distract them with something less potentially disastrous.

She helps them gather together blankets and pillows, which they lay down on the wooden floor, scraped and nicked from years of wear, fights and knives.  The Roadhouse is as scarred and worn down as the people who frequent it.  They throw the blankets over the top of the table, and soon enough they have their very own blanket fort.  The blankets rustle as the three clamber inside.  She figures that should keep them busy for a bit &mdash there isn’t too much they can do with blankets and pillows &mdash so she starts cleaning the bar and preparing for the next morning.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dean pulls his dad’s journal out from where he’d hidden it beneath his jacket.  He knows his dad wouldn’t be happy that he’d stolen it, but he’d wanted to show it to Jo.  How else would anyone believe the things they’ve seen?  He lays the book out in front of them, and both Jo and Sammy lean in to look.  He flips through the pages stopping on some of the illustrations.

Jo’s eyes widen as she looks at the twisted shapes of the monsters on the pages.

“You’ve really seen all these?” Jo asks with awe in her voice.

“Yep.  Well, some of them anyway.  Dad lets Sammy and me come along on hunts with him sometimes.  Not always though; Sammy’s still a baby so sometimes I have to stay behind and take care of him.”  His brother shows his feelings towards that by elbowing Dean in the ribs.

“Stop that, it’s true!”

Jo continues flipping through the pages stopping on a particularly nasty looking creature. “What’s that?”

“That’s a werewolf that we hunted.  It nearly scratched Dad, but we killed it in the end.  Well, Dad killed it, but Sammy and I helped.”  Dean can’t hide the pride in his voice.  It had been a terrible hunt, but they had gotten the werewolf in the end.  They always get the monster; their dad is like a super-hero that way. 

“My mom won’t let me go on hunts with Dad.  She says it’s too dangerous and she doesn’t want me ending up like that.  There are always hunters in the bar, but she doesn’t want me to be like them.  She won’t even let Dad teach me to shoot or anything!  I don’t get to have any fun!”

Jo’s pouting and Dean can’t blame her; he can’t imagine what it would be like to not be able to hunt.  He hates to think what it would be like to know about all the evil things in the world and not be able to do anything about it.

“That’s okay, she’ll let you go on hunts eventually.  Until then we can tell you all about it, can’t we Sammy?”

“Yeah we can, we’ve got lots of stories!”

Dean tells the story of the werewolf they killed, Sammy interjecting from time to time to add things Dean forgot.  Jo keeps asking questions and can’t seem to get enough of their adventure.  She likes it so much that when they’re done with the story about the werewolf, Sammy flips to a new page and shows her a picture of a ghoul their dad went up against.  They weren’t there for that one, but Dean knows the story all the same.  He overheard their dad telling Bobby all about it, and what he doesn’t know he makes up.  Jo won’t know the difference anyway, and she deserves a good story, since she can’t go out herself and have these kinds of adventures.

After that Jo starts looking through the journal herself finding things she wants to know more about.  She runs her fingers across the image of a man who had been possessed by a demon. “I’m gonna see all these one day!”

“Kids, dinner!”  Ellen’s voice cuts through, and it’s enough to make all three scramble out from their fort.

They sit at the bar, and Ellen sets down plates with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  She even cuts the crusts off.  Chipped plates clink against the bar, worn down and bleached out in places from years of use and cleaning.  Little legs swing against barstools far too tall for them, built for much bigger patrons.  Ellen is happy to see Jo getting along so well with the Winchester boys &mdash they all need a little normalcy in their lives.  She worries about Sam and Dean; they have already been through so much at such a young age.  She’s tried to protect Joanna from the life of hunters.  She doesn’t want that kind of life for her girl.  Sam and Dean are already so deeply immersed in it, she worries it may be too late for them to have any semblance of a normal life.  Too young to have seen what they have seen and she can’t help worrying what will come of them when they’re older.

After dinner the kids sit at the bar drawing pictures, completely lost in the activity in a way that only kids can be.  Joanna presents her picture to her mother, proud of what she has drawn.  “It’s you, me and Dad.”  The three of them stand smiling in what she could guess was the Roadhouse, a perfect happy family, nothing to show that they’re different from any other “normal” family.  Dean is next, showing her the protection symbol he has drawn.  Even though it is clearly drawn by a child, it was intricate and accurate.  She guesses it must have taken a lot of practice to be able to make it that well.

When she asks Sam what he had drawn he presents her with his picture.  “It’s Daddy killing a vampire!”  The vampire’s head is missing, and liberal use of red crayon gives a clear idea of what had happened.  Her smile is genuine, if a little sad, but she doubts Sam can tell.  “That’s very nice, Sam.  They are all very good!”  She hangs them in a place of honor, above the bar.  All three are proud to have their work so prominently displayed.

After that the three of them play hide and seek.  Joanna has the advantage; she knows every hidden place in that old building.  But Dean knows his brother too well to not know where Sam would hide, and he is good at finding hidden things.  It isn’t long before Dean wins the round, and then it’s his time to hide. 

Once they tire of their game they disappear back into their blanket fort.  The normal sounds of the Roadhouse, the sounds of glasses clinking, scuffing boots and rough voices are replaced with giggling and soft voices. 

The night wears on, and soon even those noises fade into silence.  When Ellen pulls back the blanket to check on them she finds them all fast asleep.  Dean has one arm curled protectively around his brother.  And Joanna is lying close, her golden hair spread out around her.  She watches them sleeping and thinks about waking them so they can sleep in a proper bed.  But she decides to let them rest.  In the morning the Roadhouse will once more open its doors and become a haven for weary hunters looking for rest or escape.  It will once more be filled with the stories of those who have done and seen too much.  But for now the bar is silent, and the three children can rest in their own little world.