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Five Reasons
Dean Ran
and Didn't Look Back
by Kikkimax
…Because Dad told him to.
When Dean was four his father shoved his baby brother into his arms and
yelled for him to run. "Now, Dean!" He vividly remembers the smoke and the
flames and the fear in his dad’s voice. He doesn’t remember getting down
the stairs, only the slap of cooler air when he finally got the front door
open, his lungs still burning with sulfur and ash. By the time they got
outside Sammy was screaming his head off. Then the memory becomes a blur
of red and blue lights, sirens and fire trucks and faceless men in sooty
yellow suits. Of course Sam remembered none of it. He didn’t remember
their mother because he was too young and they never saw her alive again.
But Dean remembers her. At least he tells himself he does.
…Because those damned hornets were fast.
Just after his sixth birthday Dean discovered, not quite by accident, that
a swinging stick and a hornets’ nest make for a bad combination. He
couldn’t have run faster if the devil himself had been on his heels. He
flew down the dusty road to the lake and recklessly dove off the pier head
first. Even if he almost drowned he got out of the ordeal with only a few
painful welts and a newfound respect for angry insects.
A couple years later he passed this hard
earned information on to Sammy. Unfortunately it was during one of Sam’s
stubborn phases. There wasn’t a large body of water handy and Sam’s extra
weight slowed Dean down considerably. Dean might have smirked as he helped
with the Calamine later but since Sam minded a little better, for a while
anyway, it was worth it. For a few days they looked like they had a normal
childhood disease. They didn’t tell Dad any different. As far as he
knew, his kids had chicken pox twice.
…Because Sammy needed him.
At twelve Dean trailed his father into a dark cornfield to find Sam who
had taken off on his own to track a spectral light. One pain filled cry
split the night and sent Dean running in the opposite direction, never
heeding his father’s shouted warning. He found Sam where he’d fallen;
luckily his ankle was only sprained. They both got the strap later for not
following orders, a rare but memorable event, but Dean knew even then he
would never respond any differently if Sam was in trouble.
…Because the rabbit died.
When he was almost seventeen Dean spotted a tearful Katie McAllister
waddling up the sidewalk with her rifle-toting daddy. A cool May of
oversized sweatshirts had given way to a June of record highs and a belly
too round to hide under a tank top. Speculation turned with the calendar
into rampant gossip and finger pointing, some of it in Dean’s direction.
And at the moment, Daddy looked like he believed those fingers. What Papa
McAllister didn’t look was ready to listen to Dean’s declaration of
innocence, which oddly enough, he was. He’d never even made it to first
base with Katie. Dean chalked that up to the rumor of a
super-secret college boyfriend who Katie was probably now trying to
protect at all costs.
He took off out the back door and headed
to the tree line yelling to Sam to lock the door and stay inside until Dad
got home. Predictably, McAllister chased after him but Dean was younger
and quicker and had way more experience running through the dark woods
without killing himself. But the old man was persistent and Dean ran until
he no longer heard the thrashing footfalls behind him or the occasional
pot shot into the top of the trees. When Dean finally got home it was
after midnight and the Impala was packed and ready to roll.
Dad was sitting behind the wheel studying
a map with a flashlight, thrumming with the buzz of a new hunt. He started
the car and spared a moment to give Dean the "I’m very disappointed in
you" look. Dean slumped into the back seat and accepted the jug of water
Sam passed over the seat to him. While leaving town in the middle of the
night was nothing new for them, it certainly made Dean look responsible
for Katie’s delicate condition. It hurt that Dad didn’t ask for the truth
before they raced off to save the day in another town. Dean still wonders
if his name appears on some poor kid’s birth certificate.
…Because he wasn’t that trusting.
Sam was in college and Dad hadn’t quite turned Dean loose to hunt on his
own. But sometimes he did leave his eldest to his own devices. Dean was
twenty-three, she was… somewhere in her mid-to-upper thirties but man, she
looked good. He was ramped up right until she slid the leather hood over
his head then something in him snapped. She only left the room for a
minute but that was all it took. She probably had to replace the whole
bedpost. Dean kept the cuffs.
(And the one reason he always will look
back, even when he has to run)
…Because on occasion he can still outrun
his long legged brother. Not that
Dean is ever afraid or anything, but in their line of work sometimes a
rapid retreat means coming back to fight another day. Sometimes they have
to haul ass. But as long as Sam is in front Dean never looks back.
The End
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