The forgotten brother Milo "Miles" Campbell has always lived a life in the shadows, haunted by the knowledge that he was despised by their father, John Winchester, simply because he was his wife's biggest mistake. Feeling rejected and neglected, Mil...
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Ch. 8: Lost Time
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1987 - December 5th
A DRUNKEN JOHN WINCHESTER STUMBLED INTO the motel room clutching a bottle in one hand which sloshed with every unsteady step. In the other, a crinkled plastic bag swung listlessly. He wasted no time setting the bottle down not so gently on the table with enough force to make it slide off and clatter to the ground. It was unbroken, but still loud enough to wake the other occupants sleeping.
Dean was the first to react out of the startled boys, only eight years old but with a reaction time to be envied. His hand darted beneath his pillow to pull out a pistol and aim it straight at John's head in a hurry.
John, however, didn't even spare the boy a glance as he went and sat heavily down on the worn-out bed closest to him, the one Milo and Sam were sharing, only six years old and four years old respectively. He reeked of old cigarette smoke and alcohol.
The two youngest rubbed their eyes but only Milo stood to attention at the sight while Sam stayed propped up against the pillow.
Milo and Sam looked to Dean for help, for anything, but the boy just looked at Milo pointedly, urging him to speak first. None of them wanted to try poking the bear that was John Winchester.
"Sir?" Milo said after a tense moment of silence, stepping carefully out of the man's reach. Because the last time he was tasked with waking John up, he ended up with a tuft of blonde hair grabbed and promptly ripped out.
Milo cried so much that John threatened to shave his head bald if he didn't stop.
But now John didn't even offer Milo a scathing response or an angry outburst. Instead, his bleary eyes found Dean, "LittleAngel, " he muttered, his words laced with an unexpected sentimentality. "That was what she would call you. Her Little Angel."
Dean exchanged a bewildered glance with Milo, both struggling to process the sudden emotional shift. The usual drunken tirades and angry outbursts were familiar, but this display of vulnerability was entirely foreign.
John's gaze then flickered towards Milo who stood by Dean's side. "She'd always call you Milo-baby," he whispered softly, a solitary tear tracing a lonely path down his cheek. "I told her it wasn't really a nickname but she was adamant." He chuckled wetly, his eyes far away.
Milo's eyes just about bugged out of his head and Dean looked almost disturbed. An angry drunk John they were used to, but a sad one? It might as well have been April Fools.
"Wha da hell," Sam's baby voice called out, snapping them out of their stupor. Because even he, the youngest baby of the bunch who was often hidden away from John's bad side, knew that what was happening was crazy. John Winchester drunk and crying at the foot of the bed, calling Dean his little angel affectionately and Milo a nickname like Milo-baby. It was unfathomable. Something that made Dean literally shake his head from side to side to try and get rid of whatever twisted dream he seemed to be stuck in.
