Losing Teeth

By Angela-Marie

Disclaimer: Major props to Kripke for creating such an awesome show with such fun to abuse characters. But these characters are his, not mine.

Sam Winchester was six and a half years old when he lost his first tooth. John was away taking care of what he thought was most likely some sort of water demon in Michigan, so the boys had been left at Pastor Jim's.

It happened halfway through Sam's first bite of Macintosh apple, a delectable reward for finishing his entire roast beef sandwich, crusts and all. He was sitting in Pastor Jim's warm kitchen, absently wondering how his older brother sitting across from him could have possibly demolished his brownie dessert so quickly, when he felt a sudden pulling sensation in his mouth. When he opened his food filled mouth to ask Dean about the source of his problem, he felt a sudden rush of air along his gum. He realized immediately that the front tooth that had once occupied that space was now missing.

He reached into his mouth and pulled out the unchewed chunk of apple, trying to locate the tooth in question.

"Geez Sammy," Dean commented, noticing his brother for the first time after finishing his dessert, "if you didn't like apples so much you should've asked for a brownie like me."

"No Dean," Sam responded, staring in wonder at the white object protruding through the red skin of the apple, "I lost a tooth!"

As Sam turned to Dean and grinned, Dean observed the gaping hole in the front of his brother's mouth.

"About time, kid. I lost my first tooth when I was five. Does it hurt or anything?"

When Sam shook his head, Dean returned his brother's grin. "Good. Congrats kid. Now you're gonna look like a gap tooth geek until a new one grows in."

"I'm not a geek!" Declared Sam. "And losing a tooth is awesome because the Tooth Fairy comes at night and puts money under your pillow."

"Sammy," Dean sighed, feeling that same sense of resigned exasperation he felt whenever he was about to say something he knew Sam didn't want to hear. "You know that the Tooth Fairy isn't real. We talked about it the night you woke up and saw me in the living room putting up a Christmas stocking for you." He remembered suddenly what John had told him when he had asked why he didn't get Christmas presents under the tree like other kids. "All of those guys, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny, they're all just stories that grown ups tell babies. And you don't wanna be a baby, do you?"

Before Sam could reply, Pastor Jim walked in. He immediately read the disappointment on Sam's face and, looking down at the chunk of apple in the boy's hand, saw the tooth sticking out of it. "Hey, Sam!" He exclaimed, trying to lighten the mood. "You lost a tooth!"

"Yeah. It fell out when I was eating my apple" Sam absently removed the tooth from the apple, getting up to throw away the half eaten piece along with the rest of the apple.

"So now you can stick it under your pillow and the Tooth Fairy will give you money for it." Jim couldn't understand why the kid was so down. Surely he'd heard about the Tooth Fairy before.

"But the Tooth Fairy's not real." As Sam spoke, Jim looked over at Dean, who refused to make eye contact.

"Of course the Tooth Fairy's real. Who else do you think goes to your room in the middle of the night to put money under your pillow?" At this, Dean looked up and frowned disapprovingly at his elder. "What?" Jim winked at Dean, before turning back to Sam. "Look, Sam. Bring your tooth with you to bed tonight, and we can stay up all night together and wait for the Tooth Fairy. Now, if you could clear your place then you may be excused and you and Dean can go play outside until it gets dark."

Sam couldn't help but smile as he stood up to bring his plate to the sink. Even though Dean knew a lot of things, Pastor Jim was a grown up. And grown ups, of course, know everything. "Do you mean it? The Tooth Fairy's real?"

Jim felt immense pleasure in having cheered up the youngest Winchester so quickly. "Yup. The Tooth Fairy is really real."

Satisfied with his guardian's response, Sam pocketed his tooth and ran excitedly to the door, but paused when he realized that Dean hadn't risen to follow him. Dean seemed to be completely ignoring him, focusing instead on Jim, who was now pouring himself a glass of milk. "Come on, Dean. Let's go." Sam tried to keep his impatience to a minimum, but he'd been waiting all day for a chance to climb the full branches of the oak tree in Pastor Jim's backyard.

"You go ahead Sammy, I'll come out with you in just a minute." As Sam turned toward the door, Dean amended "but wait for me before you try to climb that tree."

Once Sam was gone, Dean stood up and walked over to Jim, who seemed to be chuckling to himself. "What are you doing telling Sammy that the Tooth Fairy is real? Now he's gonna be waiting up all night with you and he's gonna be tired and disappointed all day tomorrow."

Jim looked at Dean incredulously. "Come on Dean. How many times has Sam tried to sit up with me all night waiting for John only to fall asleep before midnight? It'll be easy. I'll just wait with him until he falls asleep, grab the tooth, and slip a dollar under the pillow. And Sam will be none the wiser and a dollar richer."

As Dean opened his mouth to argue, Jim continued. "Look, I know you don't like lying to Sam, but sometimes you just need to let him be a little kid. So let me do this one thing for him, okay?"

Dean thought for a moment before nodding reluctantly. "Okay. Just promise you won't tell Dad about it. He'll think you're babying Sammy too much and he'll just get mad."

"Of course not," Jim promised, as he watched Dean step outside to join his brother.

That night, as expected, Sam drifted off promptly at 11:45, only twenty minutes after his older brother had gotten bored with waiting and gone to his own room to sleep. At 11:48, after triple checking that Sam was fully asleep, Pastor Jim placed a crisp dollar bill under Sam's pillow. At 11:50, he stopped into Dean's room to affirm that the older brother was also sleeping. And by midnight, Jim had climbed into his own bed, wrapped himself in his covers, and congratulated himself on a job well done.

It wasn't until five in the morning that Jim woke and realized that he'd forgotten to take Sam's tooth. He figured that it was likely that Sam was still asleep, so he hurried into the smallest Winchester's room, relieved to find the child lying totally still in the bed. He reached carefully under the pillow and found the dollar easily. But further probing revealed no tooth. After a few moments, he gave up searching out of fear that any more time spent feeling under Sam's head would wake him. He decided that, if Sam asked why the tooth was still there, he'd tell him that the Tooth Fairy had too many teeth as it is and probably thought that the tooth would mean more to Sam than to her.

When Sam came into the kitchen the next morning, he had bags under his eyes, but his smile was victorious. Dean looked up from his cereal to find his little brother standing directly beside him, his broad grin emphasizing the glaring gap where his missing tooth had been the day before. "Guess what, Dean? Pastor Jim was right! The Tooth Fairy IS real!" Dean noticed that Sam had extended an open hand toward him, revealing two dollar bills. "Now I'm rich and I can buy all the ice cream I want!"

Dean laughed in spite of himself. "Sure Sammy. I bet if you show Pastor Jim the money you got he'll drive us downtown this afternoon and you can buy yourself some ice cream. And while you're at it, you can buy ME some ice cream too." As he spoke, Dean stuck out his own hand in an attempt to grab the money that Sam had acquired the night before. But in the final moment before he reached his prize, Sam's reflexes kicked in and the money returned safely to Sam's pocket.

"You wish!" Sam exclaimed, sticking his tongue out at his big brother and dashing out of the room before Dean had the chance to regroup and move in for another attack.

As it turned out, both of the boys ended up with ice creams and Sam didn't have to pay a cent. Sam informed Jim that he had been visited by the Tooth Fairy and had received two whole dollars. Smiling enthusiastically, Jim told the boy congratulations and waited for Sam to tell him that the Tooth Fairy hadn't taken the tooth. But Sam was less forthcoming about that particular piece of information, so Jim figured he'd let the kid keep the tooth, concluding that the Sam most likely wanted to save the tooth and could enjoy it as a keepsake. Then he told Sam that, after such a long night sitting up for the Tooth Fairy, he should be able to save his money. So Jim opened his own wallet and generously paid for each boy's sundae, even spending an extra thirty five cents so that Dean could have extra whipped cream.

Sam went to bed early that night because, despite his best efforts, he kept yawning and Dean insisted that he was way too overtired from having stayed up so late the night before. Dean came up to tuck his little brother in, grinning as he noticed one of Sammy's hands was curled up in a tight fist, with two dollar bills sticking out of it. As he pulled the covers up, Sam swatted him away with his free hand. "'m too big for you to tuck me in," he slurred, snuggling unconsciously into the cocoon that Dean had created for him.

Dean returned the gaze of his younger brother. "I'm not tucking you in, moron. I'm securing the bed to make sure that nothing evil comes in while you're sleeping." Despite his drowsiness, Sam sensed his brother's obvious discomfort at having been caught. He grinned.

"Whatever you say, Dean."

Dean turned to leave and was halfway through the door when he heard his brother's voice again. "Hey Dean?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

"Welcome, Sammy." Finally satisfied that Sam was too tired to continue the conversation, Dean left the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Later that night, Pastor Jim woke with a start. Unsure as to why he had woken so abruptly, he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. As he was sorting through his thoughts, he realized with confusion that had only given Sam one dollar, not two. He wondered whether he should wake Sam, confess the truth, and ask if he had any idea where the second bill had come from. After debating with himself for a few moments, however, he decided to let the child sleep, figuring that that an extra bill must have been stuck to the first one, so he'd given Sam two dollars without realizing it. It was several hours later that Jim finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

Down the hall, Sam's own placid dreams turned to disturbing nightmares as the dark figure that hovered menacingly above his bed stroked his bangs back with mock affection before reaching hungrily toward his mouth, which was slightly open to allow for the soft breaths of sleep.