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agj1990 · 3 years

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Not All Cute Smiles and Hugs

Summary: Dean makes a bet with Sammy that he can take care of their little sister for one night. Sammy leaves something important out.

10:00PM

It was ten o’clock at night, and Sam had finally gotten seven month old Evy down to sleep. As he prepared to go to bed himself, Dean came in the room. Much to Sam’s dismay, he immediately flipped on the light and loudly threw his boots next to the bed.

“Dean!” Sam whispered loudly.

But it was too late. Evy was awake again. Thankfully, she wasn’t crying, just staring at Sam with a trembling lip. Sam shot death glares at Dean.

“I’m gonna kill you.” Sam said.

He said it in such a matter of fact tone that for a moment Dean was startled. Sam was normally pretty laid back and gently, but lately he seemed to be on edge. Dean looked at Evy, who was now sitting up and looking between the both of them.

“What? She’s not crying.” Dean said. He walked over and scratched underneath her chin. “Yeah, you’re not crying, are you, sweetheart?”

“She’s also not sleeping, Dean.” Sam pointed out. “And she might not be crying, but she is tired.”

“So she’ll go back to sleep in a few minutes. Stop whining about it, Sam. She’s the easiest baby ever.” Dean said, turning around to start getting into his pajamas.

This gave Sam an idea. “You really think that?”

Dean turned around and looked back at Evy, then at Sam. “Yeah.” He said, shrugging. “She hardly ever cries.”

Sam grinned. “Alright. You think that, you take her for tonight.”

“What?” Dean asked.

“You take her.” Sam said. “I go sleep in the other room. You take care of Evy tonight.”

Dean laughed. “Are you making a bet?”

“Yeah.” Sam said. “I am.”

“Alright. You’re on.” Dean said.

“Fine.” Sam checked the clock. It was 10:15. “You take care of her for eight hours starting at 10:30. 6:30 tomorrow morning. If it’s really as easy as you say, I’ll do all your chores for a month. But if it isn’t, you do all of mine. Starting tomorrow.”

“Okay. Any rules?” Dean asked.

“Yeah.” Sam said. “You can’t wake me, Dad, or Bobby up for help unless it’s an emergency. An actual life or death emergency. She starts crying, you handle it on your own. And you can’t give her anything to make her sleep.”

“Deal. This’ll be a piece of cake.” Dean said, looking down towards Evy. “We’ll have a good night, won’t we, kiddo?”

Evy gurgled at him, and Sam noticed that her bottom lip was trembling. Perfect, he thought. This’ll be a piece of cake, alright. Sam picked up Evy, who cuddled close to his chest.

“Come on. Let’s go tell Dad about this.” Sam said.

“Come on, Sam. I won’t welch.” Dean protested.

“Nope. No way. If you’re so sure you’re gonna win this, what are you afraid of?” Sam said.

Dean sighed. “Fine.” He said.

Sam carried Evy downstairs, followed close by Dean. They found John and Bobby in the study, going over details of the next hunt. Sam asked if he could talk to them both for a few minutes. When he told Dad and Bobby the details of their bet, John looked curiously at Dean.

“You sure about this, Dean?” he asked.

“Come on, Dad. I took care of Sammy, didn’t I?” Dean asked.

John nodded in agreement. “Yeah. That you did.” John regarded both the boys for a moment. “Okay. If you’re both sure. I’m okay with it.”

Sam cuddled Evy a moment before handing her over to Dean. “It’s 10:30, Dean. Have fun.” He said. “Good night, Cricket. Sammy loves you.”

Dean took Evy and cradled her in his arms, who just continued to stare at him, bottom lip trembling. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s go.”

Dean headed up the stairs, and when they heard the bedroom door shut, Sam started laughing. Slowly at first, then more and more.

“Sam?” Bobby asked. “What are you laughing at?”

“You two, um…might need these.” Sam said. He reached in his pockets and pulled out two sets of earplugs, placing them on the desk.

“For what?” John asked, curious.

“I, um, might have forgotten to mention something to Dean about keeping Evy asleep at night.” He said.

Bobby looked lost, but John picked up on Sam’s meaning, laughing almost as hard as Sam had a few seconds earlier. Rarely did John and Sam agree on anything, but John just nodded and winked at Sam, impressed with his youngest’s cleverness. Normally, he wouldn’t have liked Sam deceiving his brother, but he let it go this time. He knew that Sam did almost everything for Evy, including staying up all night with her most nights so that John and Dean could get some sleep. He had never admitted it to his father, but John knew Dean resented the fact that he now allowed Sammy to sleep in most mornings. Dean would now find out why. John wished Sam a good night, then turned back to help Bobby plan for the hunt.

12:00AM

Dean changed into his PJs and started to climb into bed. He was grinning, feeling sure that he’d just suckered Sam into an easy bet. He had placed Evy into her playpen, and she’d laid down and closed her eyes. Dean had stayed up and read a comic book for the last hour, then started to get ready for bed himself. Just as Dean was about to go to sleep, a small whine woke him up. Dean looked over towards the playpen, and saw Evy sitting up staring at him.

“What’s wrong, kiddo?” Dean asked. Her whine steadily increased in speed and tempo, and Dean walked over to pick her up. “Come on. You wanna sleep with me?”

When Dean picked Evy up, she stopped whining, so he carried her over to the recliner in the room. He laid down on the chair, putting Evy up close to his chest, like he’d done with Sam when Sam was a baby. It worked, and Dean smiled. He closed his eyes again.....only to be woken up exactly two minutes later. Not by a small whine this time, but instead a high pitched, shrill cry.

“What the…?”

Dean stood up and flipped on the light. Evy was in full blown tantrum mode. Dean had never, ever seen her like this. And it seemed to come from out of nowhere. Dean checked the clock. It was 11:23. It was going to be a long night.

3:20AM

“Kiddo, please. I’m begging you. Stop crying!”

Dean bit his bottom lip when he realized that he was whining now too. Evy had kept him up now for three and a half hours, screaming over seemingly nothing. Dean had held her, rocked her, sang to her, fed her, bathed her, changed her, sang to her again, and tried anything else he could think of. But Evy still cried, still wailed as if she was being murdered. Dean wondered briefly how the rest of the house was still asleep.

Dean was man enough to admit that he’d lost this bet. He thought briefly about waking up Sammy and begging him to help. But, he thought, if Dean was having this hard of a time keeping Evy for one night, what did Sam go through with her? Dean realized that he admired Sam now. And he also realized why his dad let Sam sleep in most mornings. Damn it. The kid deserved it. So Dean turned back to Evy, and kept trying to comfort her. Evy was still crying, but there were no tears coming; she just wailed until her face seemed to turn an alarming shade of red.

6:10AM

Sam rolled over in bed, feeling better than he had in weeks. He smiled; it was the first night since Evy had developed colic last month he’d slept longer than two hours without being woken up by her. Sam had gone to bed feeling slightly guilty. He didn’t want Evy feeling miserable for the whole night, crying and looking for him to comfort her. But he had decided after a few minutes that she would live. It was more important right now that he get some sleep. If Dad and Dean suddenly had to leave on a job, as had happened twice already in the seven months since Evy had been born, and he ended up being the one to take care of her, he needed his sleep. And it wouldn’t hurt Dean to remember that taking care of a tiny baby wasn’t all cute smiles and hugs.

Sam stood up and took his earplugs out, only to be immediately assaulted by the sound of Evy whining in the next room. He laughed when he realized that not only was Evy whining, Dean was too. Sam quickly got dressed and headed down to the kitchen, where Bobby had made them all pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Both John and Bobby greeted him with a high five, and all of them waited with barely suppressed chuckles to see what Dean looked like when he came downstairs.

Dean came dragging in a few minutes later. His eyelids drooped, and he carried a still tired and distraught Evy in his arms. She wasn’t outright crying, but was sniffling and whining, squirming in Dean’s arms. Dean walked over to the table and sat down, keeping one arm around Evy and using his other to hold his head up.

“Sam, you win.” He said. “You win, just please make it stop.”

Sam, who was sitting across the table from Dean with a big goofy smile on his face, “Do you give up?”

“Yes. Yes, I give, just please make her stop crying!” Dean begged.

“Alright.” Sam said, walking around the table towards Dean. “Give her here.”

Dean gladly handed Evy off to Sam, who immediately cuddled up into his chest. Dean, Bobby, and John watched in fascination as Sam worked to calm her down. Sam reached one hand under the back of her shirt and gently started to scratch her back. Her sniffles and whines lessened, and she started to breathe more normally. Sam kept scratching her back, rocking her gently back and forth as he started to sing to her. “Don't you feel it growin', day by day, people gettin' ready for the news, some are happy, some are sad. Oh, we got to let the music play…”

Evy continued to get less and less fussy as Sam sang to her. Her eyes got heavier and heavier, though she seemed to be hanging on for Sam to finish his song. “What the people need, is a way to make 'em smile. Ain't so hard to do if you know how. Gotta get a message, get it on through. Oh, now Sammy’s going to after a while…”

At his improvised lyric, Sam smiled and Evy cooed. As Sam continued his song, John felt his heart twinge a bit. That had been Missy’s favorite song. She’d sung it to Evy all the time when she was pregnant. Over the course of the next two minutes, Evy’s eyes kept opening and closing, but Sam continued to sing. No one said a word, just watched Sam work his magic. “Like a lazy flowing river, surrounding castles in the sky. And the crowd is growing bigger Listening for the happy sounds, and I got to let them fly.”

When he said fly, Sam spun around gently, making Evy giggle a bit. She yawned, and finally closed her eyes and kept them closed. As Sam sung the final chorus, his voice got lower and lower, and he laid Evy into her carseat gently. He buckled her in, and reached under the seat to flip a button. The carseat started vibrating gently. Sam wrapped her up and kissed her forehead.

“Good night, Cricket.” He whispered.

Sam turned back towards his family. John was smiling appreciatively, Bobby was looking impressed, and Dean was standing at the stove with his mouth hanging open. Sam put a finger to his mouth and pointed to the library. Sam set the baby monitor next to the carseat, then walked out towards the library. The three older men followed behind, virtually silent. When they reached the library, Dean was the first to speak.

“That’s all it took?” he asked. “I was up all night!”

“Usually, yeah. It doesn’t work all night though, just makes her sleep for two or three hours.” Sam said. He couldn’t resist adding, “It also helps when you don’t make noise to wake her up.”

“How do you get any sleep?” Dean asked.

“I sleep when she does.” Sam said simply.

For almost a full minute, no one in the room said anything. Dean was amazed that his little baby brother had become so nurturing. John was amazed, and more than a little guilty, when he realized that his ten-year-old son was a better father to his daughter than he was. Bobby was grinning looking at the dumbfounded faces of both John and Dean. He was not surprised at all. John and Dean routinely took advantage of Sam, and maybe now they would do it a little less.

“Sam, I think me and your brother both owe you an apology.” John said. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without you taking care of your sister like you do. Thank you, buddy.”

“Yeah. Thank you, Sammy.” Dean said.

Sam moved his mouth up and down, but was unable to say anything. He was stunned. He loved Evy, loved her more than anything else in the world, but he resented never being told he was doing a good job. He often wondered if his dad or Dean noticed how he took care of her. Maybe now they did. Before he could respond, though, Dean couldn’t resist breaking the tension with a joke.

“So, now that I’ve thanked you, do I still have to do your chores?”

“Absolutely.” Sam said. “And since Evy’s sleeping, I think I’m going to…” Sam looked to his father for direction.

John shrugged. “You don’t have any chores and your sister’s asleep. It’s summer break, so school’s out. Go have fun, Sammy.”

Sam immediately went upstairs to get dressed. John allowed Dean to sleep for a couple of hours before waking him up to finish the chores of the day. Evy slept peacefully until lunchtime, when Sam gladly took over again. He’d missed her, and when she opened her eyes and gave him a smile, Sam picked her up.

“Did you miss me, Cricket?” he asked. “Don’t worry, Sammy’s here.”

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