Dean hating towing cars. He hated the giant ass tow truck that was hard to drive and he hated the annoying ass people he had to deal with.
It was a Tuesday afternoon and Dean was driving the truck to go pick up a car that ran into a tree. He would much rather still be in the garage working on the Ford that need some major work done on the engine, but Benny, who would normally be working the tow truck, was sick. Tuesday's weren't very busy anyways, so it was just Dean and Bobby working, so Bobby kicked him out, saying he could use the fresh air.
Now, he was making his way to the corner of pines to pick up a car and a stranded man who would no doubt be grumpy about being late, as if it were Dean's fault he's a shitty driver. Dean hated towing.
He hated it so much, in fact, that while he was pouting, he didn't the eighteen-wheeler barreling toward him across an intersection. At the last second, he looked over, but it was too late. He felt the impact, and then nothing.
The first thing he noticed when he woke up was a steady beeping sound. Then the lights that were too bright even with his eyes closed.
He opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the light when he heard someone call his name. He looked over to where the voice came from, but everything was blurry. And something else was off too. He felt happy. He couldn't remember where he was or much of anything recent. But he was incredibly happy. And light. Like he was floating on clouds.
"Dean!" that voice called again. Wait a minute, he knew that voice.
"Sammy?" he slurred.
"Dean, are you alright?" The worry and relief almost palpable in his voice.
For whatever reason, that was really funny to him. So funny, in fact, he couldn't stop the giggles that poured from his mouth. Finally, everything stopped being so blurry and he looked over into his brother's concerned face. He stopped giggling at the look on Sam's face.
Dean quickly schooled his features into something more serious and reached toward Sam. Sam leaned forward, matching Dean's look, waiting for him to say something, feeling that it was very important. Instead, Dean touched the tip of Sam's nose with his finger and said, "boop," all while maintaining his serious demeanor. But then he couldn't hold back anymore and he started giggling again, even harder than before.
Sam leaned back with a bitch face, which only caused Dean to laugh harder, and muttered, "Stupid pain meds."
Dean stopped laughing, trying to register what his brother said. "What pain meds? I don't need pain meds," he said while slurring, then a big smile grew, "I feel great, Samoose!"
"Dean, you were in a very serious car accident, do you know how lucky you are to be alive?" Sam exclaimed. Dean just stared with a blank look. "Of course you don't," he murmured into his lap.
But then Dean's attention turned towards the other man in the room that he hadn't noticed. He had messy black and deep blue Dean had no idea who he might be and his drug addled brain couldn't think about much more than how hot he was.
He stood a few feet behind Sam, watching their interaction nervously. Or maybe uncomfortably. He was shifting from foot to foot and when he caught Dean's eyes, he quickly looked away.
Dean turned his attention back to Sam who had been talking the entire time, not realizing that Dean hadn't been listening. "-and when mom heard she absolutely flipped. She said she would come down here right away, but I convinced her to wait until-"
"Hey Sammy, who's that?" he interrupted, looking back at the man. Sam looked annoyed at Dean's now obvious inattention, but he smiled when he looked at who Dean was talking about.
"Oh yeah, Dean, this is Cas," Sam replied, looking over his shoulder at the man. At Cas. Cas took this as his queue to step forward to introduce himself.
"I'm the one who saved you," he said in a deep voice with a smile. Dean paused for a minute, wondering why those words sounded so familiar. I'm the one who saved you, I'm the one who saved you, I'm the one who-
"Holy shit! My soulmate is fucking hot," were apparently the first words his brain supplied him. Not that he cared, he was too busy giggling again over the startled look on Cas' face.
"Wait, you're- oh my God! So you're-" Sam stuttered, looking between the two.
"I guess," Cas replied, unable to look away from Dean.
Just then, the doctor walked in, interrupting the moment. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid visiting hours are over, but you are welcome to come back tomorrow," he said as he ushered Sam and Cas out of the room. They tried to protest, but the doctor didn't let them get a word in and they were forced to leave the room. After one last glance through the door, Sam and Cas walked away dejectedly.
Dean looked back towards the doctor about to say something, but the doctor shushed him. "Dean, glad to see you are awake, how are you feeling?"
Dean completely forgot about Sam and Cas and answered the doctor's questions. But obviously, his answers weren't satisfactory judging by the look on the doctor's face. Dean just finished telling the doctor about how much better his scrubs would look with pie print on them when the doctor gently said, "Alright Dean, if nothing else, at least the pain medication is working. I'm going to put you back to sleep now and see how you are in the morning, ok?"
"Whatever you say, doc. You know, you should really consider getting monkey therapy animals in here."
The doctor didn't reply, just smiled and hit a button on the computer next to Dean and Dean noticed a red bar increase in size. The doctor left the room and then suddenly Dean felt really tired and the world faded into black.
When Dean woke up he felt groggy and he groaned as he sat up. He opened his eyes and flinched at the bright lighting. He looked around the unfamiliar room and quickly deduced that he was in a hospital. He didn't remember why he was here and he didn't know how long he had been here.
When he heard a low chuckle coming from the seat next to him, he jumped a little and immediately felt pain shoot through his right leg. He looked down and saw a cast covering most of his leg. Well, that would explain it.
"Oh shit, are you alright? Do you need more pain medication?" came a concerned voice from the same place he heard the chuckle. He looked over and was met with an intense blue stare. After a few seconds of staring, he moved his eyes to take in the rest of the person.
It was a man. That was his first observation. His face was scrunched in worry, but he was still very handsome. He had dark, messy hair and he was wearing black slacks and a light blue dress shirt, as if he had just gotten off work. He was leaning forward, one hand resting on the bed and an open book lay forgotten on his lap.
"Are you the doctor?" Dean asked unsurely. He didn't look like a doctor, but Dean wasn't sure who else he would be.
The man's face fell, but he quickly hid it with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm, uh, that is," he faltered, "My name is Castiel, but you can call me Cas."
"Okay, Cas, um, not to be rude, but-" Luckily, Sam choose that moment to enter the room carrying two cups of coffee.
He looked startled to see Dean awake as he walked towards Cas. "Dean, hey. You're awake. How're feeling?" he asked as he passed one of the coffees to Cas.
"Fine, Sammy," Dean replied distractedly, still wondering about Cas.
"Great," Sam said, looking relieved. "Man, you gave us quite a scare for a little while, but it was great to see you'd be alright." Then he turned to look at Cas over his shoulder. "Hey, come on, Cas, take a seat," he said, gesturing to the empty chair next to him.
"You know what, Sam, I think I'm just going to, uh, wait out here…" he said awkwardly, pointing towards the door.
Sam's brow furrowed. "Ok. Sure, yeah," he replied sounding confused as Cas made his way out the door with one last look towards Dean before taking off.
"Who was that?" Dean asked, drawing Sam's attention back to himself, but Sam just looked even more confused.
"Cas?"
"Yeah, who was he?"
"You don't remember?" Sam asked with raised eyebrows.
"No shit, genius," Dean said, with a bit more snarkiness than was perhaps required. To be fair, he had woken up in the hospital with a strange man and no memories of how he got there.
"Oh, well, um," his brother started. "Cas is, well, he's your soulmate."
"My soulmate?" Dean asked skeptically.
"Yeah, your soulmate."
"Um. His first words weren't the ones on my arm," Dean said, raising his arm to indicate his soul tattoo.
"I guess you don't remember anything," Sam muttered, looking down.
"No, so would you mind filling me in?" Dean asked, agitated.
"Well, you were in a car accident. That's why you're here," Sam explained. "And Cas was, well, I'll let him tell that part, but anyways, we were both here when you woke up the first time. See, you crashed Tuesday and didn't wake until Thursday night, but you were hopped up on pain medication so you were kinda loopy. Well, you were really loopy. And anyways, I introduced Cas and he said the words on your arm and you said the words on his."
"Shit."
"What?"
"You're telling me that I met my soulmate, but I was too high to remember?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Sam said, looking with both pity and amusement. "You've been awake a few more times, still pretty out of it, but you remembered him, so we figured you would remember when you were lucid. But I guess not."
Dean closed his eyes and sat there a few minutes thinking. His soulmate. His fucking soulmate, and he couldn't fucking remember.
Dean had never given much thought to his soulmate before. He didn't lose himself in romantic fantasies about all the ways they could meet or spend his time day dreaming about what they would be like. He figured one day, it would just happen, and that would be that. They would get to know each other, fall in love, and live happily ever after.
But fuck, he at least wanted to remember meeting them. He remembered when he was little he was curious about the meaning behind the words. I'm the one who saved you. Saved him from what? As he grew older he became less concerned because he'd find out someday, right?
"Dean," came Sam's voice from his side. "Are you asleep?"
"No, Sammy," he replied, still not moving or opening his eyes. "Just thinking."
"Ok. Just wanted to make sure." Sam was silent for a moment. "Do you want to meet him?"
"Meet who?" Dean asked, not thinking.
"Cas," said Sam pointedly. Oh right. Soulmate.
Dean opened his eyes and looked over at Sam. He was unable to stop the grin spreading across his face because, no matter how crappy the circumstances of them meeting, he had met his soulmate. Kind of. "Yeah, tell him to come in."
"Sure," Sam said and smiled. He stood up and left the room, leaving Dean to his thoughts. Only now was it hitting him that he was about to meet the man that would probably become the most important person in his life. He was suddenly growing very anxious.
"Hello." A deep, gravelly voice broke him from his musings. He looked up to see Cas standing awkwardly by the door.
"Hey, come in, take a seat," Dean said, gesturing to the recently vacated chair. After a second's hesitation, Cas walked further into the room and sat down. There was an awkward silence between them, neither quite sure what to say. So Dean started. "So, soulmates, huh?"
Cas chuckled, "Apparently." Which was enough to break the tense atmosphere. They both smiled at each other.
"So, sorry about not remembering, I was kind of…" Dean trailed off.
"Yeah, I remember. It's fine though. It will make for an amusing story, at least," Cas joked. Dean was glad he wasn't upset by it. Suddenly a thought struck Dean, causing him to still.
"Cas?"
"Yes, Dean?"
"Um, what exactly were my first words?" Dean asked, grimacing when he noticed Cas trying to hold back a grin. Instead of answering he rolled back his sleeve to show Dean the words written there.
Holy shit! My soulmate is fucking hot.
Dean groaned when he read the words and brought his hand up to cover his face. He could feel himself blushing. Not that the words weren't true, but not quite as eloquent as he always imagined he'd be. "I'm sorry. I promise, had I been lucid, I would've said something much better."
Cas laughed as he rolled his sleeve back down. "If it helps, I was quite flattered. Though it was a bit hard for my parents to explain these words to a child."
Dean looked up and smiled at him. It could've been worse, he supposes. "So, uh, my words, I'm the one who saved you, what does that mean?"
Cas blushed suddenly and looked down. "Well, I'm a cop, and I was on duty at the intersection when you crashed. I have basic first aid training, so I got you out of the wreckage and tried to stop the bleeding from where some glass had been imbedded in your chest until the paramedics got there," he explained. And now that he mentioned it, Dean felt a dull ache in his chest when breathed, and noticed many other cuts and bruises along his body.
"So, I didn't technically save you, but the paramedics said that if I hadn't done what I did, you might've lost too much blood, so…" he trailed off awkwardly, looking down at his lap.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," Cas replied, giving Dean a shy smile, which Dean returned.
"So, Sam said that I've been awake a few times, but I don't really remember. I hope I didn't embarrass myself too much," Dean said, changing topics.
"Well, you did tell Sam that you were going to adopt a moose so that he wouldn't feel quite so lonely when he came to visit. You said you would name him Mr. Fizzles after your friend Garth," Cas said with a smirk. "You also said that when your car has babies you hope she names one after you."
Dean grimaced. It could've been worse, and he could use the pains meds as an excuse. "Well, I mean-"
"You also asked me to marry you." Dean froze. He could feel the blush resurfacing. But Cas continued before he could feel too embarrassed. "But don't worry, I turned you down gently. I thought we should get to know each other before I accepted your drug-induced proposal," he said with a smile, showing that it hadn't made him uncomfortable.
"Well, normally, at this point, I'd invite you out for coffee or something, but I'm not sure when I'll get out of here," Dean joked, hoping Cas understood the question in his sentence.
He did. "Well, it's Sunday, so you've been in here a while. I'm not sure when you'll be discharged, but since your finally off the pain medication, it'll probably be tomorrow."
"Well good, I'm sick of this hospital already," Dean replied with a grin.
"Yeah, well, even if you're discharged tomorrow, I doubt you'd be in any condition to take me anywhere," Cas teased.
"Well, I guess you'll just have to come to my apartment. It's nothing fancy, but I can whip up a mean pot of coffee," Dean bragged, really hoping Cas would take him up on his offer.
"I guess so," Cas said with a smile. They were both looking forward to getting to know each other, but they were both very sure that they would get along just fine. Better than fine.
Notes: Thank you so much for reading, comments are much appreciated.
Disclaimer: I have no idea how pain medication works at a hospital, so sorry if that was horribly inaccurate.
This story is technically complete, but I will be adding another chapter that is the same story from Castiel's POV. I will also probably add a short Sabriel chapter.
