This story started out as one of the drabbles from From me to you, but as it grew I decided to make it a stand-alone. I just want to say that I was AMAZED at the response that story gathered, and humbled by all your reviews and favourites.

Originally I wanted to put off posting this until I had sorted through all of the messages I got - I always do that, I check out every single profile and sometimes when the stories are good I even go and check out the favourites - but I just got the Internet back, after being six days without, of course during the week of the year I probably need it most (I have to choose a text for my translation thesis), and I decided it warranted a celebration!

This is dedicated to all the extraordianry people who read, reviewed, favorited From me to you and basically made my inbox explode!

The first time they get investigated by social services, it's because of Sam.

Sam has just started kindergarten, and he's learning a lot of new things, but when he gets to family, he gets stuck.

"But Miss Jones, I don't have a Mom."

"Of course you do, stupid." Kevin says before Miss Jones can reply. "Everybody has a Mom."

Sam shakes his head.

"No I don't. I have a Dad and a Dean, but I don't have a Mom."

A Dad and a Dean? Miss Jones frowns. That can't be. Unless... Oh. Oh. She looks at Sam again with a whole new perspective. His parents must be one of those couples. Her theory seems to confirm itself as Sam babbles about this Dean, who apparently is the best Dean ever, because he reads Sam stories and plays with him and makes him mac n'cheese when it's just the two of them.

She sniffs, and decides to keep a close eye on young Sam. After all, it can't be healthy to be raised by one of those... Unnatural couples. At the first opportunity, she's calling social services on them.

She looks for either of Sam's... Dads as the bell rings, but she gets distracted by little Sophie who's lost her coat, and when she looks up again, Sam has slipped his hand into the grip of an older boy and is chattering away about his day as they walk out the door.

The next day, she's not the one teaching in the morning, but when she comes in at two, she takes Sam aside and tells him he can't leave without a grown-up. Sam looks up at her in confusion.

"But my brother's big! He's in fourth grade! That's grown up, right?"

She has to stifle a chuckle.

"Beside, when he dropped me off yesterday, Mr Wrathall said he was allowed to pick me up on his own! Dad even gave him a paper to say so!"

Well, there's not much she can do then. But it certainly doesn't improve her impression of Sam's Dad or his Dean.

Over the next couple of weeks, she realizes that Sam's brother is the only other Winchester she ever sees. Maybe Mr Wrathall sees either of Sam's dads in the morning, but Sam's brother is always the one to pick him up in the afternoon. She never speaks to him - he just walks into the classroom and extends his hand, as if expecting Sam to come over immediately, and God help her, but Sam does, like a ship zeroing onto a beacon - she can tell that for Sam, the sun sets and rises on his older brother. Whenever the older boy steps into the classroom, Sam's face lights up like a Christmas tree.

Grudgingly, she also warms up to this Dean person. Not to Dad, because Sam never speaks about him. But Sam's sentences always start with Dean did this and Dean says and Dean told me and it's hard to hate someone who makes little Sam look so happy, no matter what his preferences. And when Sam goes on about Dean hanging every drawing on the fridge and treating him to ice-cream for a gold star and playing soccer with him in the park - well, let's just say Miss Jones is a tiny bit curious about meeting this Dean.

Just a tiny bit, mind you.

She gets her chance on a Thursday, three weeks after the beginning of term. For once, Sam's brother is running late and Sam's the last one in the classroom, obediently drawing on a piece of paper. It's close to half past when the older boy runs into the classroom, panting, and before Miss Jones can say anything, chide him for being late or running in the corridors, Sam's head snaps up and his eyes find his brother and light up. He jumps to his feet and barrels into his brother's arms, exclaiming:

"Dean!"

Miss Jones goes very, very still.

"I'm sorry, squirt," she hears Dean say, squeezing his arms around his little brother and ruffling his hair. "The teacher held me up because of my test. Were you worried?"

Sam shakes his head.

"I knew you wouldn't forget me," he says, and dimples, and Dean smiles and Miss Jones just sits as her whole world seems to shift and rearrange.

"You're Dean?" she hears herself say, and doesn't miss the way Dean snaps to attention, subtly ushering his little brother behind him.

"Yes Ma'am," he says, and his green eyes are hard as stone and just about as friendly.

"You're Dean? His brother?" she says again, and the image she had of Dean, a tall man crouched on the carpet playing toy cars with Sam, shatters, and all that's left is this odd little boy, standing in front of a stove cooking mac n'cheese for his little brother when they are alone, and taking Sam with him grocery shopping and hauling the bags back or walking - walking! - ten blocks to take Sam to the park.

He must be all of nine years old.

Jesus Christ.

She's so agitated she misses Dean's narrowed eyes, and Sam clutching at the back of his brother's shirt, and distractedly waves them out the door. As soon as they're out of earshot, she reaches for the phone.

The next day, Sam doesn't come to class.

On Monday, she learns that they have skipped town, and social services are unable to find a trail.

She reads the report, about the dirty motel and the absent father, the washed-out jeans and faded shirts. She cries a little, thinking of those little boys alone in another empty apartment, and wondering what she could have done better.

She thinks that in the end, she never did meet Sam's father.

She doesn't know she already has.

I am a total sucker for Dean as a parent for Sam. I love, LOVE it when he refers to Sam as his kid. It may not be totally accurate - especially at this point in the show - but God help me, I just want to hug them both when it happens.