Work Text:
Title: Just the Three of Us (Close to Normal 'verse)
Category: AU, General, Hurt/Comfort
Characters: John, Dean, Sam, mentions of Mary
Rating: G
Summary: John learns his first lesson as a single dad.
Word Count: 1414
Disclaimer Unfortunately, I don't own John, Dean, Sam or Mary.
During the first week after John and his sons moved into their new home, John had taken Sam into the nursery in the afternoon to change his diaper and put him down for a nap, while Dean had stayed in the living room putting together one of his puzzles. After Sam had fallen asleep, John went back into the living room only to find Dean gone and the front door open. It was then that John remembered that he hadn’t put an extra lock at the top of the door as he had done at their old house to keep Dean from being able to wander outside on his own.
John was use to Mary and him reminding each other when one of them forgot to do something such as locking the door so Dean couldn’t get out. When he and the boys were staying with Mike and his wife, Dean had spent most of his time wherever Sam or John were, and on the rare occasions that he wasn’t in the same room as them, Mike’s wife was with Dean. John had been so upset about Mary that he didn’t even think about Dean wandering out of the house during that time. If Dean had wandered away then it probably would have been John’s undoing because he didn’t think he could have gone on if something had happened to one of his sons, too.
John rushed to the door as soon as he saw that it was open, but he didn’t see Dean in the yard. John couldn’t go any further while Sam was alone in the house, so he ran back to Sam’s room to get him before heading outside to search for Dean. Sam was crying from being woken up from his nap, and John was trying to bounce him in his arms, while looking for some trace of where Dean had gone. John decided to check the backyard first, hoping that Dean had just gone to the swing set that the previous owners had put up, but he didn’t find any sign of Dean back there. John figured that if Dean had been in the front yard he would have noticed Dean right away. There wasn’t much else besides grass in the front yard, but John walked around the house again to make sure Dean wasn’t huddled up against one of the sides of the house. John was getting ready to call the police when he decided to check around the Impala real quick first. When John was standing back up from squatting down to look under the car, he saw Dean huddled down in the floorboard of the backseat rocking himself. John wasn’t sure how Dean had gotten the door opened and closed by himself, but Mary and him had learned early on never to underestimate Dean when it came to his wandering.
The day before Dean’s second birthday, Mary had called John at work frantic because Dean had disappeared when she had turned her back on him for a few minutes while she was making Dean’s birthday cake. Mary had searched everywhere she could think of, but she hadn’t found Dean anywhere. John had rushed home to help search for Dean, while Mary called the police in case Dean had managed to get outside. John had finally found Dean sitting happily in a corner of the basement behind boxes of John’s marine gear playing with some blocks. That was the day John had gone out and bought locks for the top of the doors leading outside and to the basement.
John opened the car door, sat down sideways on the backseat, and sat Sam in his lap. Dean’s only reaction to this was increasing his rocking. John had to take a deep breath and count to ten since his first reaction was anger at Dean for worrying him so much, especially when John was still missing Mary so much. However, John knew deep down that Dean didn’t understand any of that, and if John wasn’t careful about how he handled him then Dean could wind up becoming even more difficult to manage. When John had his temper under control, he was able to realize that as hard as everything had been on him it was probably ten times worse for Dean, who wasn’t able to understand why his world had been turned upside down, and everything he had taken comfort in was suddenly gone. John decided that Dean probably didn’t know where he and Sam had gone when they left the room, and Dean had headed to the one place he had left that was familiar to him, and that brought tears to John’s eyes. John had forgotten how much changes affected Dean and that he needed a set routine to feel safe.
When Mary and he had first been told that Dean was autistic and needed a set routine to function at his best John had taken to it immediately. A set routine was one of the first things the Marines had taught him, and he realized that there could be some comfort in always knowing what was going to happen. Mary had always been more spontaneous and had hated having to keep to a set routine, but once she saw the effect that having a schedule had on Dean, she tried twice as hard to keep it.
John was hoping Dean would corporate with him because otherwise John wasn’t sure how he was going to manage to get both Dean and Sam back into the house by himself. Handling Dean during one of his tantrums was even difficult with two-hands, and it would be impossible to do it while carrying Sam. It looked like luck just wasn’t going to be on John’s side today since as soon as John touched Dean he started screaming and jerked to the other side of the car. John knew that Dean’s tantrums could continue for a while and more than likely would get Sam even more upset than he already was. They were already in the car, so John decided to try an old solution that he had found worked well when Dean was upset. He placed Sam in his car seat, before going around to the other side and opening the door so he could reach Dean. John picked Dean up, and climbed in the front seat as Dean continued to throw himself around. John sat Dean down in the passenger seat, and placed the seatbelt around him. Once John had the seatbelt buckled, he started the car and backed out of the driveway. After driving for a few minutes Dean started to settle down from all out tantrum to just rocking himself again, and John continued to drive around town with no destination in mind. Twenty minutes later Sam was asleep in the backseat, and Dean had calmed down and was looking out the passenger window, so John decided it was safe to head back toward the house without either of his sons getting upset.
Upon arriving home, John went around to the passenger’s side of the car and carefully got Sam out hoping that if he was careful enough that Sam would continue his nap inside. Once he was holding Sam, John opened up the front passenger door to get Dean out of the car.
“Come on Dean, let’s go inside and put Sammy in his bed then you and me can have some hot chocolate.” John said as he reached out his hand to take hold of Dean’s hand.
Dean allowed John to lead him inside of the house, and John went to Sam’s room to put Sam in his crib, while still holding onto Dean’s hand. He then led Dean into the kitchen and sat him at the table. John fixed the hot chocolate and let Dean put the marshmallows in, which was Dean’s favorite part. It was the reason John drank hot chocolate with Dean instead of fixing himself a cup of coffee. It was times like this that John felt a real connection with Dean.
After they finished drinking the hot chocolate, John and Dean went into the living room where Dean started playing with his toys while John sat down to read the newspaper, but the whole time he kept one eye on Dean. John still missed Mary, but this was the first time since her death that he thought he might be able to manage raising his sons on his own.