AU: Brothers Saved

Timeline: Sam is 10, Dean is 14

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“What happened in there?” John demanded as he gunned the Impala, aiming for the highway.

Sam shook his head, Dean held close to his chest like an anchor. “I– I don’t know,” he blurted in shame, feeling his ears turn red. He had no idea what had happened, but he knew that if Dean hadn’t shoved him out of the way, that spell would have hit him instead.

So small. Sam brushed a finger down one of Dean’s tiny arms, marveling at how soft the normally thick jacket was. Then, he lifted his older brother up, hesitantly leaning an ear over Dean as he realized he had no idea if his brother was even alive after that attack.

“What’s the matter?” John asked, his voice lowering as the adrenaline from the fight began to wear off. It wasn’t lost to him that Dean was missing, and Sam was acting strange, but he needed to get his youngest as far from her as he could before he considered any other course of action.

Sam was silent, holding his breath as he listened carefully. There, just at the edge of hearing. A soft sound of a tiny breath. Sam pulled his hand away from his ear, and then held out his hand with reluctance so John could see what he was holding.

The car jerked to the side when John caught sight of just what was in Sam’s hand. Another car roared past, horns blaring and lights flashing. Sam clutched Dean close to his chest, paranoid that Dean might be sent flying by the car’s erratic motions.

A minute later, they were parked on the side of the road with the four ways on. John stared blankly into the distance. He hadn’t said a word since Sam held Dean out to him.

Sam busied himself making sure his older brother didn’t look uncomfortable. This mostly meant he carefully nudged Dean to the center of his palm, letting his head rest on a cushion of skin and assuring that none of his arms or legs looked like they’d twisted into an uncomfortable position.

It was painful for Sam to realize that for all he knew, Dean had broken bones from the fight. He was so small.

John took a deep breath, startling Sam from his older brother. Their eyes met.

“Sam,” John said slowly. “Is that who I think it is?”

Sam nodded, blinking rapidly. “He… he pushed me out of the way of her attack,” he mumbled, looking down at Dean. “Then…” Sam trailed off, having a hard time continuing.

John held out a hand. “Let me see.”

Sam held Dean closer. “But… he might get hurt if we move him too much,” he said.

John sighed, leaning over so he could take a better look. “Just… hold him out for me.”

Extending his hands, Sam kept them cupped as though he held the most precious gem in the world. John looked over his older son, his brown eyes intent as his brow furrowed. He reached forward and nudged Dean’s hand. The colt Dean had tried to defend himself with slid onto Sam’s palm, a small speck of silver against Sam’s palm. It might as well be a toy.

Sam wasn’t the only one who looked terrified at the realization that Dean would be helpless on his own.

“He’s breathing,” Sam said. Dean was the one who’d taught him what to check if he ever found someone passed out. Since he was too big to take Dean’s pulse, it had only left him one option. “But he hasn’t moved since that lady attacked. The room got bright, and I couldn’t see anything, and when it stopped, Dean had fallen to the ground.”

He looked down. “This size.”

John swallowed. “Right. Don’t worry, Sam. We’ll figure this out and get him back to normal. We’re just gonna take a trip to Bobby’s to get some backup.

“Keep an eye on Dean for me, will ya?”

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Asks and prompts open for this AU! More coming tomorrow!

(( Everyone wanted it, and here it is! Brothers Together has been reversed! ))

AU: Brothers Saved

Timeline: Sam is 10, Dean is 14

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“Oof!”

Sam hit the ground hard. The force of Dean slamming into him was like a linebacker tackling, and he went rolling several feet as he hit the ground, his slim ten-year-old body unable to absorb the impact like an older kid could.

An older kid like Dean.

The room was pandemonium as Sam stared up to see his older brother going for his gun.

“You’ll regret that, you bitch! ” Dean snarled as he leveled the intricately carved silver colt at the witch that had appeared in their room.

Tall and elegant, harsh and cold, the woman merely smiled, raising her hand in tandem with Dean’s. The moment they stopped moving together, Dean’s finger tightening on the trigger, the room went white.

The last Sam saw before everything was overwhelmed in brightness was Dean’s silhouette, black against the white and defiant to the end.

Then the light faded and Dean was gone.

“Dean! ” Sam screamed, flipping over and scrambling to his feet. A faint ghost of his brother’s silhouette in his eyes was all that was left of the teenager, and even that faded as Sam blinked away tears of fear and uncertainty, alone with the witch.

The woman slowly turned in place to face Sam, an unpleasant smile gracing her face as she raised her clawed hand. “You boys are a handful for such young humans,” she breathed, stepping over something that lay crumpled on the ground, like the shredded remains of Dean’s shirt…

Sam blinked, unable to believe his eyes.

It wasn’t a shirt.

No shirt they, or anyone, owned would have such precise plaid markings, and it certainly wouldn’t have the smallest arm Sam had ever seen limply stretched out, such a familiar spike of dirty blond hair resting on the arm as though asleep…

The realization of what he was looking at crashed over Sam in bare seconds, and he pushed himself to his feet before the witch had finished her first step, charging her legs.

As Sam recklessly tossed himself at the ground, the locked and latched door of the Trails West room they were staying at slammed open, the hinges in splinters from the force John Winchester hit them with. He stood there, shadowed by the bright sunlight outside, assessing the room in a flash.

“Sammy get down!” John thundered as he brought his gun to bear on the woman.

“No, Dean needs me!” Sam protested, squirming through the witch’s legs.

There was no time to explain himself as she whirled around. A hand closed around the collar of Sam’s jacket and hauled him up from the ground.

But not before his hands scooped under the doll-sized version of his older brother and brought Dean along with them.

Sam was only dangling in midair for seconds before the roar of a gun filled the room and he was falling.

He landed on his front with a grunt, unable to catch his balance with Dean precariously cradled in his hands. It took all of Sam’s effort to not tighten his grip on the slim, vulnerable body of his older brother in his care.

This was all wrong. Dean should never be vulnerable!

Then, a hand clamped around Sam’s arm. He cried out, belatedly realizing it was John and not the witch. “Let’s go!” John snapped, his gun panning around the room as he searched for the witch. During Sam’s moment of inattention as he fell, she had vanished into thin air.

Sam had no response, stumbling along behind his dad and carried by the older man’s force. All he could do was stare down at Dean’s limp body, see the tiny head loll to the side as Sam was dragged out of there by their father.

“Dean,” he whispered, a teardrop falling at last only to land on Dean’s shirt and drench him.

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Asks and prompts open for this AU! More coming tomorrow!