Home- Part 1

I'm sorry. It's been a while. Things have gotten hectic and finals just finished up today and ugh. Either way, this chapter picks up a few months after Danny moved in with the Winchesters. This is part one of a ? part arc. Hope you enjoy and thank you very much to everyone who reads, reviews, faves and follows.

"Dean, I think I'm dying."

"No, Danny. You're not dying."

"I can't feel my legs."

"So get rid of them, Spooky."

Danny glared at Dean from the backseat of the Impala, Sam in the passenger's seat, barely stifling his laughter. Dean glared at the road ahead of him, white knuckling the steering wheel. He drew his lips into a thin line and huffed.

"Fine. We'll stop. The next gas station for ten minutes, then we're done."

"FINALLY!"

Dean rolled his eyes and stared back at the road, Sam still holding back laughter, Danny bouncing excitedly in his seat.

Sam watched Danny and smiled. He decided he liked Danny during the first week he'd been living with them. He was a great kid. Sam's smile turned into a frown as he thought about why Danny was living with them.

His parents had disowned him and he couldn't stay in his hometown because of that. He had friends he could've stayed with, but they lived back in Amity Park. His sister was in college and could barely provide for herself, let alone a teenage boy. Apparently there was a millionare or someone in Wisconsin that would have taken him in, but Danny hated the man and didn't talk much about why he wouldn't go there. He only said something about 'Him' and got really quiet.

Sam couldn't blame the kid for wanting to hide his ghost half from his parents. His parents were the Fentons. The Fentons are the most well known and effective poltergeist hunters out there. The brothers hadn't personally been to Amity, but according to Danny and a few newspapers, there was a couple attacks a day. Although Danny did most of the hunting, the Fentons had also done quite a bit. They created the best ghost hunting equipment, if not just general creepy-thing hunting equipment. Dean had been wanting to get his hands on one of their ecto-guns for years now. They cost an arm and a leg, but they were very effective.

The Fentons had loyal customers in hunters, and they knew it. They didn't even bother with advertising, they just raised the price and half of their stock would be gone in the next month.

The Fentons were great ghost hunters, so it makes sense why someone even remotely ghostly would want to avoid them. Danny was half ghost, and when he told them he got shot in the stomach with an ecto-gun he'd helped his Dad assemble.

Danny had been hurt, badly. Both physically and emotionally. The physical wounds healed almost too quickly, but Sam knew that the emotional wounds of abandonment ran too deep to heal all the way.

The Impala bounced into the lot of a small gas station and Danny almost flew out of the car and into the store. Dean and Sam walked calmly in after him, Dean rolling his eyes at Danny's behavior.

They'd been on the road for hours, and this was their first bathroom break. Sam walked through the aisles, picking snacks and drinks for himself, Dean and Danny.

The station's dingy yellow lights flickered every few seconds, casting irregular shadows on the chilled tile floor. The attendant was a middle aged obese man with piercings and tattoos. His nametag read Dale and he smelled like moldy cheese. The windows rattled a little in their panes every time a car went by.

Sam sat down outside of the store, plastic bags resting on the ground between his feet. He sighed quickly and looked up at the night sky. A jangling noise echoed from phone in his jacket pocket. Sam jumped and grabbed the phone. He answered the call and held the phone up to his ears expectantly.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, Sam?"

"Garth? What do you want?"

"What, I can't call just to say hi?"

"No."

"Fine, whatever. Anyway, I know you're just getting back from a thing with your new little brother and all, but I've got another one for you."

"What is it?"

" The Fenton's son went missing a while ago. Amity Park is overrun with ghosts. They'd like a little help with either one."

"No. We can't do that one."

"Why not? It's the Fentons! If they like you they might give you some of their stuff for free. That's too good to pass up."

"No, Garth. Do you have anything else?" Papers rustled in the background, Garth mumbled something to himself about 'ungrateful idjits', flipping through papers.

"Series of murders in Sac city, Iowa. 7 victims, 7 days. Each one was stabbed, surrounded by sulfur."

"Demon? We're in Kansas right now, but we'll turn around. Probably be there in a day or two."

"Alright, Sam. Say hi to the new one and Dean for me, m'kay?"

"Alright, Garth, see you."
"What's the new one's name anyway?"

"Danny."
"Is that it? Just 'Danny'?"

"Bye, Garth."

"No, wait!"

"What, Garth?" Sam sighed

"Did you actually adopt the kid?"

"Where did you hear that?"

"I've got a few contacts. But seriously, adoption?"

"Yes, Garth. Dean and I adopted him."
"Why?"

"Because we didn't want to have to lie to the cops when they ask us why we have a teenage boy in the backseat. He's legally ours now. Well, mine, but whatever."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Dean thought it would be harder to adopt him if it was both of us, so the more responsible one, me, borrowed another hunter's apartment for a while and filled out the forms."

"Why did you need to borrow an apartment?"

"Garth is this really-" Sam sighed again, exasperated.

"Sorry, sorry. Just wondering."
"Adopting a kid takes time and money. Lee Fitz let me borrow his for all of the inspections and interviews. Any other questions?"

"I was just wondering, gosh. When am I gonna meet 'im?"

"I don't know, Garth. The next time we see you, probably."

"That was specific, thanks."

"Bye, Garth." Sam hung up and stuffed his phone back in his pocket, sighing. Danny and Dean came walking out of the station, their arms heavily laden with potato chips, candy, pop and doughnuts. Sam stared at them and held up his bags of food, raised an eyebrow. Danny smiled and nodded. Dean trudged up to the Impala and opened the door, throwing the food in the back seat. Danny did the same. Sam rolled his eyes and put his bags gently in the back seat.

"We've got a case." Sam started, sitting in his seat. Dean paused and stared at Sam

"What? Right now?"

"Yeah. I just got a call from Garth. It's in Sac city, Iowa. Multiple victims all stabbed, surrounded by sulfur."

"Demons, probably. Sac city, right? Have we been there before?"

"I don't think so, but it's a really small town. only a couple hundred people."
"Alright," Dean said, nodding. "Let's go." He revved the engine and pulled out of the station. He looked back at Danny. "Hey, this'll be your first case with us, won't it?"

"Yeah." Danny said, nodding. Sam frowned. "You know, you don't have to come with us. You can go back to the bunker and stay with Kevin."
"Are you kidding me? I've been wanting to go with you guys on a hunt for, like, weeks."
"If you're sure. But you're gonna hang back while we do all of the fighting, okay. We don't want you getting hurt."

Danny stilled and gave Sam a withering stare. "You do realize that I fought ghosts on my own for a year, right? I can handle fighting. I'm half ghost, for god's sake! If anything I can fight weird things better than you can!"

"You're fifteen years old, Danny. I don't care if you can fight or not. You're not fighting." Dean said strictly.

"I can do things!"

"No."

"Dean, I-"

"If you even think about fighting, you will be locked in your room with a salt barrier, eating salty, iron-rich foods. Okay?"

Danny glared at Dean, the temperature in the car dropped a few degrees and Danny slouched back in his seat, pouting. "Fine." he mumbled. "But if you two are like, about to die, I'm gonna save you. Whether you like it or not." He stared out the window and Sam sighed.

"Only as a last resort?"

"Only as a last resort." Danny huffed.

Dean nodded. The Impala roared along the empty two- lane highway, classic rock leaking out of the speakers quietly, trees and fields streaking by. The moon shone high in the sky, and stars dotted the horizon.

-X-

The Impala pulled into the parking lot of the Sac City Motel. It was a small place, it smelled like prunes and the rooms looked like they belonged in an old person's house. The blankets were heavy quilts, the white sheets yellowed with sweat and time. The dull orange shag carpet crunched in some places and the television was straight out of the 70' kitchenette in the corner was aqua blue with a bright red formica table sat in the center of the plastic tiled floor. The bathroom was a light yellow in color, the tub had rust stains streaming down the walls and the shower head was only about 4 and a half feet off of the bottom of the tub. The light flickered every once in a while.

Dean quickly paid for the room at the front desk- the clerk was a sweaty lady named Sue- Dean flirted mercilessly with her- and got some take out from a local diner. The three sat at the table with their meals, Sam on his laptop, researching the victims.

"So what're we gonna do for cover? We could be FBI, but what about Danny. Kids don't get jobs at the FBI."

"I could be your intern."

"What?"
"Well, I don't know if the FBI actually does it, but sometimes places offer high school kids intern positions. People are too lazy to actually look into it unless they know something about FBI internships already, and in a town like this, it's not very likely."

The brothers stared at Danny, surprise etched into their features. "I never even thought of that." Dean mumbled.

"Okay, so, Danny is our intern, we're agents-" Sam reached into his back and rummaged around. He pulled out two fake FBI badges and read off the names, "-Machiavelli and Homer. Really? Philosophers, Dean?"

"I don't know, I couldn't get them out of my head."
"This is the last time I let you pick the aliases." Dean grunted and took a swig of beer.

"What's my alias?" Danny asked with a grin.

"Danny." Dean replied gruffly. Danny's shoulders drooped and his face fell into a pout.

"Why don't I get one?"

"Because you don't need one."

"But I want one." he whined some more.

"You're not getting one. Don't tell anyone your last name." Danny made a groaning noise and looked over at Sam pleadingly.

"Nope, sorry Danny." Sam shook his head and glanced back at his computer. Danny huffed and crossed his arms.

"Whatever. I'm goin' to bed. Night." Danny slid his chair away from the table and trudged over to the bed closest to the back wall. He kicked off his shoes and took his pajamas out of his bag. He walked into the bathroom and put them on, then came back out and collapsed on the bed, hardly even bothering to slide out from underneath the covers.

-X-

Danny woke up to someone shaking his ankle. He kicked out at whoever it was and gave a satisfied smile when he heard a grunt. "You little shit. C'mon. Get up!" Dean ripped the covers away from the bed, exposing Danny's salmon colored jim-jams and making him groan.

"There's been a change of plans, we need to go."

"What?"

"You can't be here."

"Why not? What's happening?"

"Your parents are here. Someone invited them to come hunt something a few towns over."
"How do you know?" Danny sat up straight in his bed

"Sam saw 'em in the grocery store. They recognized him and told him about their next hunt."

"So we're giving this one up?" Danny's eyebrows creased in worry and he slowly slid off the bed.

"Nope, Sam's gonna drive you back to Garth's and then come back."
"Why not just drop me at the bunker with Kevin?"

"Garth wants to meet you, and Kevin's busy. Get dressed"

"Okay." Danny grabbed his bag and made his way to the bathroom. A few minutes later, he came out, fully dressed and ready to tackle the day. He stuffed his things back into his duffel and slung it over his shoulder. "Ready to go?"

Sam was sitting at the kitchen table, his knee bouncing up and down rhythmically. He smiled sympathetically up at Danny. "I am if you are." He stood up, jingling the keys in his hand, and headed for the door.

"See you, Dean. Don't die on me, alright?" Dean laughed and nodded.

"See you, Danny. I'll try to make this one quick so you're not stuck with Garth for too long."

"Thanks." Danny chuckled and walked after Sam.

"Don't do anything stupid, Dean." and with that, Sam walked out the door.