2,213A/N 1: I could not let the day pass.
"Hey, it's National Cheeseburger Day," I said, signing it to Sam. A food truck parked in the Farmer's Market lot had a sign on it announcing the day. We were done shopping and headed to my truck but Sam stopped walking and stared at me like it was a horrible thing to say.
"What?" I finally had to ask when he didn't say anything. I had to ask it again, signing it, too, to get an answer. "Sam? What?"
He shook his head like his thoughts were coming back from someplace very far away. "I – uh – it's – it's – I – I forgot that today's the eighteenth. I just – it's – I forgot."
He started walking again, staring at the ground. I caught up with him.
"Hey," I said, touching his arm. "Hey – " I almost asked, 'It's Dean, isn't it?' because it'd been less than a year since he died and moments like this were always Dean. Instead of asking that, though, I smiled and signed, 'It's OK' because it was. Sam always seemed to want to hide it from me, his grief, his anger, his bewilderment, but I saw it, I felt it, and it was OK.
"Yeah, no, no," Sam answered, fast, too fast. Sometimes trying to hide it just made it more obvious. "It's – no, it's – it's nothing."
We were at my truck and he put the bag of food into the bed and opened the passenger door for me but he didn't move even after I got in. He stood there staring at something a million miles away.
"Dean liked cheeseburgers, didn't he?" I asked, taking a chance.
Sam nodded, still looking at that thing that was so very far away. Then he breathed in a deep breath and smiled at me and blinked at the tears filling his eyes. "Extra onions," he said and swallowed something large and painful. "Always extra onions."
"This must've been his favorite day."
"Yeah, it was." He took another deep breath that was more of a sigh. "It was mine, too."
He shut my door and got in the driver's side and we headed home. I didn't ask but I had the feeling that cheeseburgers had nothing to do with this being Sam's favorite day.
A/N 2: when Dean came back from hell, the newspaper he picked up in the gas station had the date September 18, 2008.