Raising Sammy.

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Dean hefted Sam onto his lap, the child's eyes large and round with anticipation as he settled back against him.

X

Sam had been whiny and uncooperative all morning, turning his nose up at the food his older brother had put on the table for lunch. Dean had tried everything to make him eat, including the usually successful airplane spooning, but Sam had stubbornly pressed his lips together so tightly that it would have taken a vise to prise them apart.

Dean sighed, although only a child himself, he knew every expression and nuance of his three-year old sibling, on a par with every mother who had raised a child, and he understood that the only way Sam was gonna open that mouth was if he went with the "if you eat, I'll read you a story" line.

X

It wasn't that Dean didn't want to read to his brother; the little tyke had him wound so firmly around his finger that Dean would have happily thrown himself under a bus for him; it was just that he was running out of stories, invented or otherwise.

All he had on hand was a Batman comic he had found abandoned on a chair in the motel reception area when John had booked them in yesterday morning. He hadn't got round to reading it himself yet and it wasn't the best of stories for a little kid, but as his brain was just too tired to invent anything else, it would have to do, with some opportune modifications.

X

As he predicted, the moment the pint-sized, mop-haired manipulator heard the 'magic words', his expression went from huffed to puppy-eyed adorableness, the bangs framing his face putting him on an equal footing to any of the cute kids in the TV ads or the cartoons that Sam loved to watch!

Sam might only be coming up to his fourth birthday but he could already work the eyes like a pro, something that Dean was destined to succumb to for the rest of his natural-born days, and beyond!

Sam gobbled down the food as if he hadn't eaten for a week, causing Dean to roll his eyes at the scene. In the end however, he had gotten Sam to obey. All Dean had to do now was go with the story. Win-win for them both, he supposed.

X

"There's only a Batman comic, Sammy," Dean warned as he piled the bowls in the little sink and cleared the table.

"Doesn't matter, Dean. I like Batman," Sam chattered happily. "He's big and strong like dad, and saves people too."

"Yeah, but it's not the kinda story for little kids like you."

"I'm a big boy now, Dean, nearly four."

"How many fingers?" Dean asked as he shoved the left-over rubbish into the trash can.

Sam duly held up four fingers. "Good boy, Sammy, " Dean praised as he tousled the unruly mop of hair his little brother wouldn't let anyone touch except him; dad having learned his lesson through the mini melt-downs Sam would mount at his father's head–rubs.

X

The colourful comic-cover was illustrated with a drawing of Batman tied to a stake as his latest nemesis tried to do the impossible and take out the indestructible masked crusader.

Sammy however wasn't yet up on the fact that Batman came out on top every time; he gazed up at Dean with concern in his eyes. "Is it a good story, Dean? Will Batman be okay?"

Dean ruffled his hair, "Don't worry squirt, Batman always wins."

Sam nodded. If Dean said it, then it had to be true. His big brother knew everything.

X

"You know Sammy, it won't be long before you go to school and learn to read on your own, then you won't need me to do it for you any more," Dean said, not expecting the look of dismay in Sam's eyes as he turned to look up at him.

"Then I won't learn," he declared stubbornly, pumping his short legs, "if it means you won't read to me any more. When you tell the story you do all the different voices. You're great Dean," Sam said giving Dean a look of unadulterated hero-worship and absolute love.

Dean felt something inside him break, like a river that had burst its banks; a rush of protectiveness flooding over him for his little brother who was looking up at him as if he was the most important person in the universe.

Dean had always loved and cared for Sammy since his dad had told him to take his brother to safety the night of the fire, but in that moment he saw his destiny as clear as if it was film playing before his eyes.

Sam was his destiny.

He didn't understand how or why but he felt the whisper of something intangible passing from one to the other and he tightened his hold on Sam, a hold he understood he would never loosen.

X

He knew what Dad did, John had told him not long after he had found out about the supernatural from Missouri.

Dean had been scared at first, but when dad had explained that it would be his job to keep his little brother safe from the bad monsters that had killed his Mom, Dean's fear for himself had modified into terror that something would come and take baby Sammy away. Dean knew that if he hadn't had Sam to protect he would have been far too scared to be of any use to his dad.

"Dean," Sam's voice quivered as he sensed his brother was troubled by something. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Sammy. Everything's fine. Come on, let's go lie down and you can snuggle up, while I tell you the story of how awesome Batman is, and how he's gonna kick the bad-guys' butt," Dean cajoled, leading him towards the bed.

X

"I'm gonna be Batman when I grow up," Sam said drowsily as he burrowed into his brother's side.

"Na, you can only be Robin, Sammy. You gotta be big and tall to be Batman and you're just a little runt," Dean said, happy that Sam seemed to be dozing off and he would get out of reading the story.

"But one day I'll be all grown up, Dean," Sam replied.

"You'll always be just a little squirt to me Sammy, no matter how big you get," Dean assured him as heavy eyelids fell closed in sleep, joined before long by those of his big brother, an arm curled securely around his younger sibling.

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The enD