Sam Says Goodbye
Author Note: Here's a little on to this story to give it a bit happier ending.
Chapter Two
"Dean! How the hell drunk were you that this happened?"
"I was gone less than four hours, Kevin. Do I look drunk to you?"
"Fine! How drunk have you been that it burned your brain up to allow this to happen?"
"Just quit bitching and grab that thing before it gets away again."
"It's bigger than I am! You grab it! Hey, weren't there two of them a minute ago?"
The one drawback in Sam Winchester's tired and echoing mind to the old Men of Letters bunker was at certain times and in certain places the damn thing echoed and made sounds seem five times louder than normal.
So when he woke up with a pounding headache and not feeling so well the echoing voices of his older brother and their Prophet wanted to make him bury his head under a mountain of pillows that seemed to have accumulated on his bed after Dean decided he didn't have enough.
Ever since he didn't finish the third trial, Sam had his good days and bad days and this looked to be one of his not so good days. He was torn between crawling out of bed to see what was going on or just letting Dean deal with whatever he'd done to upset Kevin when something cold and wet touched the hand that he'd tossed out of bed.
It had been a week since he'd gotten back from Arizona and the final goodbye of what Sam will always consider his dog and it wasn't always easy to cope with that on top of what was facing them now.
The cold and wet thing hit his hand again and since Sam was well aware of everything that was in the bunker he was scrunching his face up in confusion when a small but high little bark came and he groaned at the noise a second before his hazel eyes snapped open.
"What the…" looking down, Sam blinked several times before his bed was then jumped on by a small fluffy dog with multi colored fur, short pointed ears and a tongue that was now hanging out as it looked at the younger Winchester. "Uh-huh," he muttered, fairly certain he was dreaming or fevered since there should be no way a dog would be on his bed.
Looking more carefully, he noticed it had on a collar that he swore had sigils on it. "Hey," he held a hand out slowly but the small dog that as he looked again was clearly a puppy that hadn't started growing yet. "You're a cute little guy."
Sam laughed as the dog took that as an invitation to lick his face happily and finally he scooped it up under one arm to climb out of bed at the sound of something crashing and his brother snarling. "I think we better go see what the hell Dean's been up to," he told the dog who yipped as if in agreement.
"Kevin, you need to shape up if you're going to be kept on as my unofficial…" Dean groaned as he looked up when he heard his name being called. "Shit! I wanted to surprise him."
"You really thought you could keep this thing a surprise?" Kevin groused, grunting while waving his arms as he laid on the floor in the main library. "It's squishing me!"
"It is not…or maybe only a little bit," Dean sighed, beginning to doubt the idea that had hit him suddenly this morning while at the store when he looked around. "Hey…aren't we missing…"
Sam stepped in to take in the scene of Kevin sprawled on the floor with something rather large and furry laying over him while Dean held the leash in his hand. "Did you misplace something?" he asked with his tongue in his cheek while sitting the smaller dog on the floor and eyeing his brother. "I thought you were going to the store?"
"That's what I said…oh, c'mon!" Kevin groaned as the smaller dog began licking his face.
"I did go to the store," Dean defended firmly when the larger all black with little spots of white on its ears and paws dog got up from Kevin to amble over to gaze at Sam with huge eyes before plopping down and lifting a paw. "I got health food, not so healthy food and junk…and them."
Lifting a brow as he eased to his knees, Sam smiled a little more as a large furry head nudged him until he was sitting. "The store have a buy one get one sale on puppies, Dean?" he asked, voice oddly soft as he began to pet the black dog only to laugh when the smaller one ran over to get some attention. "Where'd you find them?"
"I heard some people at the store talking about a couple dogs found behind the store last week that was in a shelter down town. They'd been dumped off and the smaller one was protecting the big one from a bunch of kids abusing them in the alley," Dean didn't sound pleased with that as he crouched down to watch his brother's reaction to the dogs. "So I…stopped by just to check it out and…the place was full and the manager said by end of the week they'd have to…"
Bright eyes shot up to his as Sam understood that meant the crowded shelter would have put the dogs to sleep if no one claimed them and he swallowed but instinctively moved closer as both dogs seemed to guess which of them was the softer mark.
"You…they…whose dogs are they, Dean?" Sam asked warily, laughing suddenly when he was almost knocked over by the larger of the two who looked to be nowhere close to growing into his huge feet and he recalled how clumsy he'd been as a boy. "Dean?"
Holding out two folders, Dean noticed that Kevin had vanished to give them some privacy and he sat down fully on the floor to watch as his brother tried to pat both animals when the little one decided to come over to get on his lap.
"That depends on how you look at it. They're yours, ours…Kevin's the unofficial puppy sitter when we're on a case," Dean shrugged, seeing the surprise and more slowly the joy hit Sam's face as he looked between the dogs to him. "They've got files, shots, hell, they're even lojacked in case Kevin loses them."
Still a little shocked by this move, Sam took the folders with shaking fingers and then lunged forward to hug his brother. "Thank you!" he smiled but fought back the tears that wanted to come.
It had never been a secret that he'd always wanted a pet of some kind but their lives made that hard, it still did and Sam wasn't sure it was fair on the puppies but he'd find some way to make it work since he'd already come attached to both animals even though he suspected his brother had no idea what he'd really brought home.
"What kind are they?" he asked while the black dog vanished to come back with an old boot that he knew was Dean's. "Ummm?"
"We've already had a talk about snatching my shoes so my next trip to town will be for dog toys," Dean decided, eyeing the shoe snatcher with a rare open smile as Sam tossed the item just to see the bigger dog scramble to get his big paws under him to get it. "The people at the shelter told me but it's all in the files but I know this little guy is a Borg so…"
Reaching for the folders again, Sam's smile turned up another notch at the name and realized why his brother would have latched onto that. "A Borg is on Star Trek…this is actually a Borgi according to the file," he bit his cheek at the blank look. "It's part Border Collie and part Welsh Corgi and from the looks of its paws I'd say it'll be in between the size when it's finished growing."
"Growing?" Dean blinked, trying to grab his boot but ended up in a tug of war match with the bigger black fluff ball with even larger paws and suddenly wondering on something. "Sam? How old do those papers say these guys are?" he asked warily and knew by his little brother's smile that he hadn't gotten dogs so much as puppies.
"They're both between ten and twelve weeks and this fella," Sam's face buried into the black fur while wrapping his arms around its neck. "He's a Great Dane mixed with…Saint Bernard so he's going to get bigger."
"Bigger?" Dean decided not to tell Kevin that bit of news yet since he was enjoying just seeing his brother smile and happy for the first time in a long time. "Well, we've got the room and…if Bobby could train Rumsfeld to sense out the weird…I suppose you can train these guys."
Both dogs had pounced on Sam who took it happily when he suddenly looked over their heads. "I can train them?" he figured his brother wouldn't have the patience but wasn't sure Dean understood just how much this meant to him…until he felt the gentle squeeze on the back of his neck.
"Well they are mostly your puppies so yeah, you get to train them right from wrong, where to go, where not to go, especially that your awesome big brother's room is off limits to puppies and whatever else," Dean smiled and didn't mention the unshed tears he could see shining in Sam's eyes as he went to stand up to go find Kevin and check on things down below. "You okay with this, Sammy?" he asked when he got to the door.
Sam's bright and open face gave him the answer he wanted and Dean stepped out but stayed close by for just a moment longer to listen to the pure joy of pleasure reflected in Sam's voice as he laughed when both puppies began running around the room and around him.
"He got me puppies," he whispered to himself, no longer feeling bad as he scooted to the center of the floor to play with the new additions to their little family. "You're my puppies and I'll make sure you guys like it here with us but…" he snatched the boot to toss it again. "We need some general rules about not using Dean's stuff as toys…unless I can sneak you that one damn cassette tape he's had since I was little and…"
"Touch my tapes and I'll get another puppy to replace the little brother I'll be losing," Dean called from the other room, laughing at the reply he heard to that. "Shut up, bitch."
"Jerk," Sam smirked, lifting his eyes to meet his brother's green eyes in the door as the unspoken easily passed between them since it was known and accepted why Dean did this. "Thank you," he said again, not surprised at the little smirk he got in return.
"That's what awesome big brothers do, Sammy," Dean smiled, biting his lip when he caught sight of something else. "Um, you also better name them so you know which one to yell at because the little one has your shoe."
Sam's head whirled and dove only to realize too late that was an invitation to play by the bigger black Saint Bernard/Great Dane puppy and was soon laughing as his face and neck was licked by a big wet tongue and he finally had to call time out.
An hour later after making certain where their Prophet now puppy sitter was and checking things out in the dungeon, Dean stepped back in to check on things when he stopped to allow a gentle smile to come as he took in the scene before him.
After playing hard, which would explain the knocked over chair with puppy teeth marks on the leg, all three combatants had become worn out and took naps wherever they were which is how Dean found them.
Not making any noise as he took a blanket to lie over Sam where he laid with his head pillowed on the side of the huge black puppy's side while the smaller dog was curled against Sam's chest and all three were sleeping peacefully.
"You're welcome," Dean murmured, smoothing a hand back through Sam's hair while also giving each puppy a touch. "Watch after him, guys."
The choice to get Sam a dog had been with him since the return from Arizona and while getting two had been spur of the moment and he hadn't quite planned on getting puppies that may grow bigger than Kevin but the picture of his little brother sleeping with the two pups assured him that following his heart had been the right choice.
"I don't think demons like dogs," Kevin spoke softly from beside him, accepting the puppies now and couldn't deny they were cute little guys.
"Really?" Dean smiled, dropping his eyes to the floor as if seeing the dungeon. "They might come in handy for hunting after all," he clapped Kevin the arm. "Watch them. We need more food and dog stuff so I'll be right back."
Kevin nodded and then spun. "Dean, don't come back with anything but what you're going for," he called, sighing at the wave he got in return and took another look in and going back to work while hoping the elder Winchester didn't come back with anything worse than junk food or toys for the puppies. "It's Dean. He can come back with anything."
The End
A/NII: So it went from one puppy to two but I have a thing about even numbers, lol. Plus one puppy would be lonely. Thanks for read and I hope everyone enjoyed this little piece.