The Other Brother - 4

“Dad, I can’t believe you didn’t tell us about him.” The voice was different than John’s. Adam didn’t open his eyes and move yet. He wasn’t ready to deal with another giant … normal, person yet.

“I didn’t want this life for him.” John said. “He had a chance to be normal. He had a chance to not have to be worried about whether or not he would survive the night.”

“Yeah, well how’d that work out for him?” The other voice asked. “If we had known about him, we could have protected him.”

“You think I don’t know that?!” John was starting to get loud, and Adam couldn’t help but flinch a little.

“Hey.” A smaller quieter voice spoke right next to Adam.

Adam opened his eyes and rolled over. Sitting there cross legged was a youngish looking man. He had long slightly shaggy brown hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing jeans, a flannel shirt and a leather jacket. Most importantly though he was Adam’s size.

The two normal people were still arguing about something, but Adam was ignoring them now. Adam saw that there was a small bag lying next to the guy next to him. There was also a fishhook hanging out of the bag with what looked like fishing line attached to it.

“I’m Sam.” The young guy said. He held out his hand.

Adam sat up and shook Sam’s hand.

“Apparently I’m your brother.”

“Apparently.” Adam responded.

“Here.” Sam reached into his bag and drew out what looked like part of a torn napkin. “You’ve got pizza sauce pretty much everywhere.”

“Thanks.” Adam took the napkin, and wiped the sauce off his face and hands. “I’m Adam by the way. Adam Milligan.”

“I’m glad to meet you. Sorry it’s under these circumstances.”

Adam nodded. He realized that the other two in the room weren’t arguing anymore. Sam stood up, and offered a hand to Adam. Adam took it, and Sam physically pulled him up with a strength that surprised Adam. Adam then realized that Sam was quite a bit taller than he was. At least four or five inches. Well, what used to be four or five inches anyways.

Sam looked behind Adam, and Adam suddenly felt the back his neck tingling. Sam gave Adam a knowing smile. Adam took a deep breath and turned around. John and Dean were sitting at the table watching the two tiny people standing on the table.

Sam took a step forward so that he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Adam. Adam couldn’t quite express how good it felt to have another person his size standing there with him, facing off against these two giants.

“Hey there.” Dean had dirty blonde hair, that was nearly the exact same shade as Adam’s. He had intense green eyes that made Adam just a little bit nervous when they looked at him. But there was something there that hadn’t been in John’s eyes. It wasn’t quite understanding, maybe empathy.

“I’m Dean, your brother.”

“I’m Adam.”

“I know.” Dean replied. “How you doing Squirt?” Sam sighed next to Adam, and Adam blinked in surprise at the nickname. He could tell that Dean wasn’t doing it to be mean, but it was still unexpected.

“Horrible. How about you Godzilla?” Adam stiffened a bit when he realized what he had just said. He hadn’t meant to smart-mouth a man who could crush him without a thought.

Dean smirked back at Adam, “Better than you I imagine. I’m sorry about your Mom, and about the whole curse thing.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Adam mumbled. “It wasn’t any of your faults.”

“We know.” Sam said next to him. “But we also know what it’s like to lose your mother, and I know what it’s like to lose your size. We just want you to know that we’re here to help.”

“We all are.” John said. John then looked at Dean. “I’m going to bring him to Bobby’s, have Bobby keep an eye on him.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Dean spoke up, turning to face his father.

Sam sighed. “Here we go.”

“Well that’s what going to happen.” John said. “He can’t stay with me. It’s too dangerous.”

“He can come with us.” Dean spoke up. “Right Sammy?”

“Right.” Sam said loudly enough for the normal people to hear. He also took a step forward, walking right to the edge of the table. “I can show him to survive at this size.”

“And I have a whole lot more experience than anyone else at living with someone his size.” Dean stated. “It just makes sense for him to come with us.”

“No.” John stated with finality. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Dad, everything is dangerous at this size.” Sam pointed out. “Literally everything. Bobby’s great, but I can teach Adam what he needs to know better than anyone else. And Dean can protect him better than anyone else.”

“I said no!” Adam and Sam flinched at John’s shout. John saw it and frowned. “You see, that right there. If someone even talks too loud, they get skittish.”

“Are you kidding me?” Dean was clearly trying to keep tighter control of his voice than John was. “Sam is easily the bravest person I know. He literally jumped onto that crazy golden freak to save me. He revealed himself to Bobby who was practically a complete stranger, again in order to save me. That doesn’t even count all the things he has to do on a regular basis just to survive.”

Adam looked at Sam and asked, “Did you really do those things?”

Sam looked over his shoulder and shrugged. “Dean’s my brother. I’d do anything for him. Same thing goes for you.”

Adam smiled, and said, “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Sam said. “It’s what we do. Speaking of which.” Sam turned back around. “You know that this isn’t really your decision right?”

“What do you mean it’s not my decision?!” John shouted again. He reigned his voice back and said, “I’m his father. He’s a kid. It’s my job to make these decisions.”

Adam frowned at that, and rolled his eyes. His eyes landed on Sam’s bag next to him. He looked back up. No one was paying attention to him.

“Oh? Really?” Sam asked. “You think that just because you are suddenly in his life again, that you get to make these decisions?”

“Who else is going to make them?”

“I don’t know, how about we let him make some decisions of his own.”

“Are you kidding? He’s a kid!”

“He’s a whole lot older than I was when I got shrunk.” Sam pointed out. “Just because we are small doesn’t mean we can’t make decisions about our own lives.”

“He has no idea what’s out there. He doesn’t know how to protect himself. He doesn’t know what the right decision is.”

“And you do?” Dean asked.

“Yes!”
Sam sighed, and looked around. Then he heaved a deeper sigh.

“Guys.”

“What in the world makes you think you have even the slightest idea of how to raise a four inch tall teenager?” Dean asked. “For that matter, you don’t even want to raise him. You just want to schlep him off on Bobby.”

“Guys!”

“That’s because I know that I don’t know how to do it. But Bobby’s worked with the little people before.” John stated.

“Sure, but he hasn’t ever lived with them before!” Dean pointed out.

“Guys!!!” Sam shouted at the top of his voice.

John and Dean looked down at him red faced.

“Maybe we should figure out where he went before deciding what to do with him.”

Adam heard Sam say this just as he was reaching the floor. He had snagged the fishhook and line from Sam’s bag, and set it in the table. He then immediately started climbing down it. The second that Adam hit the floor, he dashed under the bed. His goal was to make it to the hole he had seen in the wall. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do after that, but he knew he was done with this place. He needed to get out of here, and figure out what to do after that.

“Adam!” Adam glanced behind him at the voice, and felt the fear coil in his stomach. The two gigantic beings were staring down at him. Adam hadn’t been on the floor and seen a person standing yet. It was absolutely terrifying.

John took a step forward and started bending down.

“Dad, no!” Dean stepped in between John and Adam. “You can’t just grab them like that. You’ll hurt him.”

Adam turned back around and sprinted for the desk. John kept trying to get around Dean, but Dean wouldn’t let him. Adam ran under the desk, and quickly found the hole in the wall. He felt a thump. He looked back and saw that Dean had taken a step back, and was staring at John in open-mouthed amazement.

Adam didn’t stay to figure out what had happened. He just ran into the hole turned left and kept on running.