Badass Beta/Awesome Editor- Samanatha V

Carolling

He was dozing, thinking about going back to sleep when he heard a snow plow outside, knowing it must be insanely early when Sam came crashing into his room, jumped on his mattress and started bouncing up and down joined by an insanely barking and hyper-excited Angus.

"Dean! Dean! Wake up! Wake up, it's Christmas! Come on! Come on! Come on! Dean, wake up! Dean! Dean! Dean! Get up dude it's Christmas!"

The kid had just given him a heart attack and was now shouting his ear off and practically making him seasick. Ah well, it was Christmas, the day everyone and anyone had the excuse to be as loud and hyper as they liked without being told off for it.

"Jeez kid, I'm up, I'm up," he groaned pushing himself up into a sitting position, then ran a hand through his flattened hair.

"Get up! Get up! Come on! Presents are waiting!"

"Dude... lower the volume, I get it, I'm coming already." He flipped the covers off, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then stumbled off the bed with a yawn to follow Sam and Angus who were both practically sprinting to the living room. "Whoa... when did we get a tree?"

There had been a few decorations and ornaments around the house from the attic but nothing like the explosion of bits and baubles like they had put out the last few years. He'd figured they'd all been too busy keeping tabs on him, making sure he didn't try to kill himself again.

"Steve brought it the other day, it's been in the garage. It was a surprise but I kinda saw it the other day."

"Oh... what's with the mountains of presents?" Every year it was getting bigger.

"It's Christmas," Sam said with another grin, like it was the answer to everything, which it kind of was.

"Fair enough... so when do you think mom and dad will be up so you can open 'em?"

"How about now?" a gravelly voice yawned from the stairs. John came into the living room and moved to the fire to turn it on, it was freezing.

"Where's mom?" Sam said. He knew the rules in this house: no open presents until everyone's up.

"She's coming." The flames alight, John moved away to sit in the middle of the room by his kids. It made his heart warm to see how happy the both of them are. Trying not to be obvious, he looked over his oldest. There was still, and probably always would be, shadows haunting his eyes, but there was the edges of a new peace and contentment shining through that had never been there before. The shadows were getting less thick and heavy, his shoulders looked lighter, he held himself higher these days, he wasn't as slumped and hell, he smiled and laughed at every opportunity. The kid had worked his ass off to get this far, to let himself feel able to laugh, to hold his head up at eye level with others, maybe sometimes it was forced but Dean was really trying. What more could a father ask for?

He's brought from his thoughts when Mary comes down to join them with a smile on her face too. Gently shooing a protesting Angus away to go lay still already, she sat down by them, putting an arm over Sam's shoulder and hugging him to her side for just a few seconds, John chose to ruffle Dean's messy bed head hair.

"Can we open 'em now? Can we? Can we?" Sam said bouncing on his butt until his parents laughed and nodded. He grabbed the closest gift and ripped off the paper in a flash. "Cool!" he almost squeals. Holding up a build your own airplane model kit to show Dean who tells him it's cool too, and promises to help Sam build it sometime.

Next Sam decides to open a big one, it turns out to be the PS3 he's wanted all year. He gives him mom and dad a huge hug then gets to work on opening the rest of his gifts. Ending up by the end of the half hour with several PS3 games, more model build things, P.J's, football boots to play in the back yard properly, and a lot of other kid boy stuff that will keep his occupied for the next five years.

Only after they trash Sam's unwanted wrapping paper do they note Dean has yet to even touch his pile, he just stars at it like he's afraid, like it's something he shouldn't even make direct eye contact with.

"Come on pal, your turn. It's okay."

Dean stars up at John, his eyes shining like a small unsure child.

"Go for it," John says, pushing one of the presents towards him.

After a long tense while, Dean does pick it up, and peal the tape away slowly, with much more precision and care than Sam previously had. It's a car model, a 97 Chevy Black Impala, cream interior; will definitely worth a fortune in a few years and more than just a collections item when he gets a look at the copy right date on the box.

"You didn't have to..."

"Yes we did, Christmas remember? Besides, the guy that sold it to us didn't have a clue how much that thing was worth, it definitely belongs to someone that does, someone that will take care of it."

Dean smiles, and leans into Johns leg from where he sat leant up on the couch from the floor. John runs a hand through his hair and squeezes the back of his neck in support. Mary smiles at him leans over to his him on the forehead.

"You gotta open the rest!" Sam orders, bored already, wanting to know what else his big brother had got.

Dean does as commanded, next opening up some pyjamas of his own, new socks, new sneakers, shirts, diesel jeans, Mary is definitely trying to fatten up his closet. He also gets a few more adult games for the PS3 he and Sam are meant to share and a couple of board games because he told Mary and John a long while ago he never really got to play things like Twister and Scrabble.

The last thing he's got to open is relatively small, it's a rectangular shape, wrapped up perfectly in silver paper which he tears off to reveal an antique looking box. He opens it up carefully hoping he's got it the right side up and his nose turns up in confusion.

"I don't get it," he says, taking out the set of keys and jingling them.

"You know what keys those are too don't you?" John asks, hinting, but Dean is still lost.

"The Impala?"

"Yup."

"I still don't follow, I know what they keys to the car look like."

"Well do you know what the view from the Impala driver's seat looks like? Cause you're going to need those if you plan to."

Calculating the words, Dean takes a moment, then his eyes shoot out of his sockets in shock when it sinks in.

"Holy shit! I-I mean shoot!" he corrects himself in a stammer.

John chuckles and Mary snorts, "We'll let that one slip sweetie."

But Dean is a little too shocked to be thankful he doesn't owe anything to the swear jar. "You're gonna let me drive the Impala?"

"Not just that, we're giving it to you, permanently, once you've got your driver's licence at least."

"Holy..." he doesn't have the capacity to finish his sentence off this time. "But...what are you gonna drive?"

John shrugs, "I don't know, guess I'll need yours and Sammy's advice on that when we go car shopping after the holidays, but I am liking the look of those big trucks, like a 1986 step-side."

"Hm..." Dean says, "They're cool, just not as cool as my car..." Dean grins cockily to his family, though it's still a bit of a shock.

After the boys give their hand written gifts to their parents and receiving hugs and kisses –much to their embarrassment- from both John and Mary, they clear up the living room, and take their gifts into Dean's room, moving out of the way while their mom cooks dinner.

Dean challenges Sam to a game of monopoly, of which he loses because he has no idea how to play and Sam is totally making up the rules, a get out of jail free card? Talk about cheating!

Once he's good and defeated, best out of three, Sam tells him he's got to go get something. He comes back not a minute later with a slim flat box in his hand and hands it to his brother.

"I can't wrap, I know," he says, turning a healthy shade of pink as Dean takes in the screwed up and ripped snow men paper.

"Neither can I dude, but what is this? I thought we were gonna write letters to each other, which we totally did."

"Yeah, I know..." Sam says recalling the time barely an hour ago when he received Dean's and vice versa. "I saw these months ago and I bought them with the money I saved up when I could. Before we were on house lock down."

Sam says we, because he knows Dean isn't the only one not allowed out of the house just yet.

Dean is still a little unconvinced but opens the 'wrapping' anyway. Another box, another one Dean hopes he's opening up not upside down so the thing inside falls out and breaks. Though when he gets a look at it, the right way up, lucky him, it's nothing something that can break.

"Sammy...jeez how much did the spend on these?" he asks, looking at the three leather bracelets.

"Not much, I swear, and I don't care, I thought they were cool. See, I wear one, and you wear two 'cause you're older." Sam takes out one for himself, and puts it on his wrist easily without untying it because his wrists were so skinny. He helps Dean put on his, having to un-do them for him, putting them on so both bracelets are looped into each other. "They're supposed to be this brother bonding bracelet things and they have some sort of magical binding protection power. Usually I wouldn't believe any kind of crap like that but...weirder things have happened, and it can't hurt."

"Guess not...thanks little brother, these are...these are awesome." Dean smiles at Sam, really enjoying how much he's doing that today. He seriously needed to start learning that Christmas's aren't as bad as they used to be, as bad as he always imagines them being. So far this day was pretty awesome.

Once they show John their new bling, and he compliments them on it, they play another game of monopoly, Dean doesn't win this time either but he makes more money than John at least. Who ends up in jail more times than he can count on his fingers and toes.

"You're not a very good influence," Mary comments with a witty grin when she comes in every so often from the kitchen.

Steve comes over later for dinner when it's ready, it's a little awkward at first, but soon the adults fall into their natural friendly rhythm.

After it goes dark, and Steve announces he's heading off, Sam grabs his hand and pulls him back to the living room, saying he had to stay, because it just wasn't Christmas without he and John falling asleep on the couch together with beers in their hands and some old western on the TV.

They find Dean's twister from his pile on his bed, and they all have a go after setting it up the kitchen. Mary is the one turning the dial, and Dean, Sam and John are the ones trying not to break their necks are they twist around each other.

John is the one that collapses them all after a good half hour, luckily though as he falls, he pulls his boys to land on top of him rather than under. They share a bundle of laughs and make fun of the old man when he complains about his bad knee.

As Dean lays on the floor, panting and chuckling, he feels the laughter and warmth of the people in the room behind and allowed himself to dive headfirst into the love that he felt. The love he never thought he could possibly deserve, and forget for the moment that there were other forces out there that lived for the possibility to take that from him. He didn't know that as he looked out, something was looking back at him. Luckily though, he had the most amazing family to be there for him if ever those things come to attack.

The End.

Okay, I've never had such almost physical pain in trying to write something than this in my entire life, but alas, it's done, and I hope the ending isn't too much of an anticlimax and a letdown as you've waited so long. Thank you so much for all the support throughout this! Especially Samantha V who has stuck by my side and been so much more than a beta to me! I love you all, and I solemnly swear I will NEVER write and post another story again without finishing it first. Hugs! Becka.