The car ride had been pretty pleasant so far, Sam was holding little Bobby while Dean drove. Sam had to admit, he now fully understood why Dean had gotten so attached to the little guy. Both brothers had found it pretty funny at the beginning; Bobby had been getting squirmy, so Dean put on an AC/DC cassette. Bobby had been sitting stock still ever since, clapping his pudgy hands every now and then and laughing.

Neither Winchester saw it coming: one minute, Bobby was perfectly content, but within seconds he had started to wail. As calmly as he could, Dean pulled the Impala over to the side of the road.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong bud?" asked Sam gently, bouncing Bobby a little. Bobby continued to scream like he hadn't heard a word Sam said. Sam got out of the car, thinking it might be a diaper emergency. Dean followed suit. They needn't have worried; the minute Bobby was outside, he stopped crying and put his fist in his mouth. Sam was positively bewildered.

"Uh Dean? Was that normal?" Dean shook his head, looking just as confused. Something caught his eye.

"Shit"

Bobby's brown eyes lit up when he saw the big truck, half hidden by the trees.

"Dean, tell me that's not…"

"Bobby's? Yeah Sam, it is." Wordlessly, the boys raced back to the car and began unloading weapons from the false bottom. Bobby, laughing happily, reached over and tried to pick up one of the giant knives. Sam didn't think he'd ever seen Dean move so fast.

"No! Bad Bobby, you don't touch knives! Do you understand me?" Little Bobby put a pudgy hand on Dean's cheek and smiled complacently. Dean's stern expression faltered, a smile twitching the corners of his lips. He tucked his knife securely away, out of Bobby's reach, before slamming the trunk of the car shut and heading towards the woods, Bobby still clinging to his shoulder.

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This was not a laughing matter, Sam knew, but he couldn't help but smile at how odd this had to look; two full grown men, walking through the forest, carrying an array of guns and knives and on of them bouncing a baby on his hip, speaking softly and pointing out things like birds. Dean stopped dead and Sam's smile vanished. They had reached a clearing, the home of a rotting wooden cabin. Although the scene looked fairly innocent, the menace hung in the air. Sam pulled his own knife from his belt and gestured to Dean to follow him. Sam led them to a patch of long grass behind the cabin where they crouched down, almost completely hidden from view.

"What now?"

"One of us has to stay out here I guess." Sam looked resolutely at the cabin.

"Oh hell no, Sammy, there's no way you're going in there by yourself."

"Ok, I'll take Bobby and you go in." Dean bit his lip, at this point; he didn't know which he preferred.

"Fine," he sighed, after a minute or two of thinking. "I'll go in. You and Bobby stay right here." Hazel eyes met green. Sam could have said that if he heard Dean scream even once, he was coming in after him. He could have said that Dean was acting like an overprotective father and that Sam could more then fend for himself. But he knew that arguing with him wouldn't do an ounce of good. So all he did was nod.

Dean had been gone for about ten minutes now, and all was still quiet. Bobby reached up and grabbed a fistful of Sam's shaggy brown hair.

"Ow, no pulling." He winced, detangling the tiny fingers. Bobby smiled and made a noise of contentment.

"You wanna know something? I'm glad we found you on our doorstep. You probably don't realize it, but you've helped Dean so much. I haven't seen him so happy in a long time." Sam gave a sad smile as he remembered the almost blissful look on his big brother's face when he was playing airplane. He had looked about ten years younger, the weariness and guilt gone from his face. Sam sighed, the death of their father had weighed heavily on Dean's conscience and for a while, Sam had been afraid that it would consume him. For all Dean's macho façade, when Dean felt guilty, it hit him hard.

"I know I'm hard on him sometimes. I don't even realize it, half the time. But there's something you gotta understand." Sam lifted the baby and looked him square in the eye. "I don't hate this life for what it did to me. Well, that's part of it, I guess," He amended before continuing, "I hate this life for what it's done to him. I don't think he even remembers his life before Mom's death. He protects me as best he can, I know that, but it just kills me how he doesn't expect anybody to protect him. Never in my life has he put himself first. Everything has either been for me or for Dad. All those years, neither of us asked what he wanted for himself." Sam stopped, the reality settling in.

Real smart. He chided himself, unload all your problems on to a freaking baby. Just as he had with Dean, Bobby touched Sam's face, giving a small sigh before leaning forward and resting his little head on Sam's broad shoulder. Sam smiled again and gently stroked Bobby's hair. Not for the first time, Sam wished he still had that sort of pure innocent trust. But it wasn't too bad; there was still one person Sam still trusted with all his weary heart. A scream of agony echoed through the trees.

"DEAN!"

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"I swear to God, you come near me with that thing one more time and I'm going to-" He was cut off when Becky Thomas backhanded him in the face.

"Shut your mouth," she hissed, tossing her long blond hair. "All my friends and I were doing was making our lives better. We just pulled a few strings. Do we deserve to die for that?"

"You and your little friends murdered someone. Not exactly what I'd call 'making your life better by pulling some strings.'" Dean retorted. Becky gave a cruel smile.

"Well," she said, smiling, "the opinion of a dead man doesn't matter much does it?" With that, she jabbed the red hot poker into his shoulder again.

Dean clenched his teeth, trying to stop himself from crying out again. In the distance, he heard the faint sound of a baby crying. The colour drained from his face as he watched Becky break into an evil grin.

"Well, we can't have this can we?" She started towards the door.

"You hurt them, and I'll kill you, I swear." Becky's smile became crueler, if possible.

"As I said before, your opinion doesn't matter much, does it?" She turned her back and strode away; leaving Dean still bound to the chair.

Dean thrashed in his chair, desperately trying to free himself. He was positively furious with himself. He had been walking as carefully as he possibly could, but the witch had been one step ahead. She had been hiding behind the stairs and the minute she saw his foot on the stair, she had tazed him; which in turn had lead to him falling down the stairs and banging his head, knocking him out for a short amount of time.

How could I have been so stupid?! He raged at himself. With one final burst of energy, he managed to tip the chair over, gasping in pain as he landed on his injured shoulder. He heard a small coo from the door.

Bobby crawled over to him, an expression of concern etched on his chubby face. Sam stood a little ways away.

"Dean? You ok?" he asked urgently, bending down to untie his big brother.

"Peachy," Dean rasped, "The witch see you?" Sam shook his head. Bobby made a frustrated sound. Dean forced himself to sit up and watched as Bobby crawled on to his lap, looking determined. Dean smiled, but it was short-lived. He gasped as blood began to seep through his shirt. Becky stood in the doorway, her expression livid. Bobby began to cry, waving his arms frantically.

Becky could have laughed out loud at the sight before her. But just as she was about to make Dean's pain just that much worse, she felt something plunge into her back. Becky Thomas fell to the ground, leaving Sam standing behind her, holding a bloody knife. Dean had no idea how Sam had managed to get behind her without being noticed, but he didn't really care. All he really cared about was what had happened to the baby.

It wasn't a very manly thing to do, but Sam couldn't really help it. He had seen some funny things today, but this by far had to be the funniest; a stunned Dean with a fully grown, equally stunned Bobby sitting on his lap. Still wearing the t-shirt and pants that the brothers had dressed him in, but thankfully fitting him. Nothing could quite beat the sight of tough, stern Bobby singer wearing a Batman t shirt. Hand shaking, Sam took out his cell phone and snapped as many pictures as he could, appreciating the fact that both Bobby and Dean were still too shocked to move. Dean came to his senses eventually, however.

"Would you get off me??"

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"A time regression spell?" asked Sam, accepting the beer Bobby had offered him.

"Yup, you wouldn't have noticed its full effect, since you only saw me for one day, but I was actually getting younger as the day went on. I think I was nearing a year old when I finally found your hotel." Sam nodded, offering a silent thank you to the heavens. Dean took a sip of his own beer.

"So uh, Bobby," asked Dean uncomfortably, "how much do you remember?" Bobby thought for a minute,

"Gets hazier, the younger I got. I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember how much of a pain it was trying to track you boys down." Dean nodded, taking another swig of beer.

Once they were confident that Bobby's curse was indeed broken, they went back to the cabin to recover anything that the witch had stolen. After recovering his cell and a few weapons, Bobby thanked them once more and went on his way. After tidying up their hotel room, the brothers went on their way too. The car ride was silent, apart from the blaring Metallica tape. After about half an hour, Sam looked over at Dean, his eyes still fixed resolutely on the road.

"Dean?" his brother grunted in acknowledgement, "Have you ever wanted to be a father?" Dean fixed Sam with a look. Pausing a moment, he said coolly,

"Doesn't matter does it? This job isn't really ideal for raising kids, if you haven't noticed." He turned his attention back to the road. Sam pulled out his laptop and began uploading the pictures from his cell phone. One picture in particular caught his attention. The one he had taken when he had come home to find both Dean and
Bobby asleep. Sam smiled, setting it as his background. Moments like that just didn't come around often enough, so Sam was going to cherish this one.

FIN