AN: I have had this in my folder of stories for a long time. I've tried to get life under control to work on Adam's Story, but nothing seems to work. When tonight's episode came on, I thought of this story, and decided I'm going to post it - warts and all. BlueRiverSteel gave me some advice a while back to post chapters, so hopefully it will work to post another chapter or so after this. If it doesn't - my fault.

DW - SW

"Dean, we're always moving. I wish we could just stay in one place."

"Staying in one place is boring Sammy. Why would you want that?" Dean turned his head to look at his little brother.

The 4 year old wiggled around, to face his older brother fully on the back seat of the Impala. "But we don't have anything that's just ours."

Dean's green eyes widened at the mop-headed boy. "Don't have anything that's ours?" He shook his head in amazement. "But Sammy," he patted the leather covered seat, "the car is ours."

"No," Sammy contradicted him after a long moment of heavy thought. "It's Dad's."

"But it's ours too," Dean informed him archly.

"No, it's not."

"It is!"

"No!"

Dean sat back, biting his lip, thinking furiously on his own. "Then let's make her ours."

Sammy drew his legs up under him, excited. Dean saw sparks of interest in Sammy's eyes. This might be something he could get behind. "How?" He demanded.

Dean pulled out the knife Dad had given him recently. It was extra sharp, since he'd not had a chance to carve any bad things up, but he could use it for an important mission like this, couldn't he? But Sammy had to use a dull knife, or he'd hurt himself, since he was a baby at 4. Dean carefully slid his knife back into the sheaf on his belt before he clamored over the seat to the front to open the glove compartment. There was a silver knife Dad had thrown in there some months before, for quick protection after an incident. It only took a careful feel inside the compartment before Dean's hand grasped the coveted item and slowly pulled it out. Dean looked it over and carefully tested the side - the one side was almost sharp, but it wasn't a double-blade, just a single, and if Sammy held it just right he wouldn't have any problems. Dean would make sure of that. He looked up to see Sammy's face peering at Dean quizzedly over Dean's shoulder.

"Whatcha doin'?"

Dean took a breath. Dad said he'd only be gone for an hour and a half for a salt and burn, and by the watch the 8 year old had that meant only a little more than an hour before he came back. The car itself was hidden as it was parked out of the way, by the old cemetery in a grove of pretty trees. The entire peaceful scene was lost on both boys. All they could see were some old trees, and somewhere off to the right Dad had headed with a shovel and a duffel. Dean knew it carried a gas can and salt, but Sammy still didn't know what was going on when it came to hunting. Dean knew to keep the family secret from Sammy, to keep him innocent, so had only told him that Dad was fixing a problem. He just had to keep Sammy safe. With what he had in mind, if he could keep Sam from cutting himself, well then, everything would be good, and definitely be fun.

"Sammy, we're gonna make this car ours!"

"How?" Sam demanded once more.

Dean dove back over the front seat, keeping the silver knife carefully tucked. Rolling over and sitting up, he carefully handed the silver knife handle first to Sam. "It's sharp on this side, Sammy, so don't touch this side. Grab the handle."

Wide-eyed, Sam carefully handled the knife the way Dean instructed. "Why?"

That kid asked more questions than anyone else Dean knew. "We're gonna carve our name in the car, and forever after, she'll be ours too."

Sam's head cocked to the side, considering Dean's words, before he gave a definitive nod. "But I can't spell Win-chest-ter." Sammy hadn't been able to pronounce Winchester right yet, even though he tried very hard with each syllable. He just hadn't been able to get the "t" correctly.

Dean was busy looking over the back seat. They had to carve them close by, so Sam would be able to see it anytime he wanted to. Plus, it would be cool to see their names in the car. After a very thorough and careful consideration, he decided on the back panel.

"Don't worry about it Sammy. Here, slide in, right here to the side of me. There? See, you can reach too. Let's start with our first letters." Dean started to confidently carve a D.

Right away Dean could tell Sammy was having problems with the curve of the letter S. With a skipping knife with sharp edges, that wouldn't do!

"No, Sam, here, don't try to curve. Just do straight lines." Dean leaned over to Sam's area to carve the three slashes for the S.

"It looks like a Z." Sam pointed out.

"No, no, it looks like a S." Dean protested, thinking it DID look a tiny bit like a Z. "OK, how about this?" Dean carved a clear definite blocky S. By the look on Sammy's face, he approved. "Why don't you work on carving that deeper so you can really see it?"

Dean was pleased when Sam put his mind to it and started working on his letter. "Don't forget to not touch the sharp part." Dean warned his little brother, as he turned back to work a bit more on his own D.

The silence held out, except for the scratching of the different knife points across the back panel for a while. It seemed Sam had a harder time scratching in his S than Dean had thought, and time was ticking away. He wanted to finish before Dad came back, just in case Dad didn't like the idea as much as they did. It came time for the next letter.

"Hey Sam, it'll be cooler if we just carved in our initials." Dean finally spoke up, sitting back to admire both of their work. He snuck a glance at the watch - they'd been working for the past 20 minutes or so.

"What's that?" Sammy slid down to sit against the seat. It was difficult for him to be at that angle to carve. After all, he was still small.

"It's the first letter of our first name, and the first letter of our last name. That way, you won't have to spell Winchester." Dean threw that last in, knowing Sam disliked not being able to do something and getting out of spelling their entire last name will have him in a better mood.

Sure enough, Sam brightened, then he looked confused. "Why isn't it the first letter of first name, and last letter of last name?"

Sammy and his questions. Ugh. "It just is. Come on, let's both work on our W's together."

Sam turned back around and stretched out to reach his area again. "Can you carve out my W first? Please Dean? It's so much easier if you do it first."

Dean had already started on his W, but moved over immediately to Sam's section. "Here?" Dean pointed next to the S, and Sam nodded eagerly. Dean did the quick four slashes for the W.

"That okay?" Dean asked, and getting Sam's bobbing head, moved over to his own section to work on his own W.

Again the silence reigned in the car, except for the knife scratchings. The sunlight dared made itself known across the back window, splashing through the overhead trees. It was warm, soft afternoon, the kind that you look back on in years to come as one of the best afternoons but at the time you were caught up in just having fun that none of that mattered. Both boys threw themselves into this project of theirs, wanting to get the letters just right. It wouldn't count otherwise. After scratching for a bit on the W, Sammy went back to scratching some more on his S. Dean thought that was a good idea, and started back to scratching on his D, before switching back to his W once more. It took forever and no time at all before the desired effect happened - their initials were good and carved into the car. Sammy gave a full-on smile to Dean, as Dean smiled back.

The car was theirs.