A/N This story is settled between the last chapter and the epilog of Wrapped in Honey. This first chapter is basically a recap of that story from Bobby's POV. So yes, you have to read Wrapped in Honey to understand this one.
Warnings: mention of past kidnapping, past dub-con, thoughts/talk about abuse and rape
Honey-Trapped
Bobby wasn't worried when Dean didn't show up when he'd said he would show up. Not that Dean had set an exact date to begin with. As far as Bobby knew Dean had to travel through half the country to get to Sioux Falls and the last time they spoke on the phone Dean hadn't said anything indicating that he was in trouble or in any rush to get anywhere.
So Bobby made sure to stock up on Dean's favorite food and beer, not that he didn't have that in stock anyway, and didn't think twice about it when Dean didn't show up.
The times when Dean stood on his doorstep in the middle of the night without food and sleep for days and only enough gas in the tank to get himself to Bobby, those where the times Bobby worried.
Or the times Dean when called from a holding cell. Those were rare but it happened. Dean had never served time but he had his fair share of holding cells.
He did try to call Dean the next day, though. A computer voice informed him that the number he'd called was invalid. He tried again, making sure he had the right number, and then once more with the same result.
Now he did start to worry. He tried Dean's email next but didn't get an answer. And with that he was out of options to contact Dean.
Bobby had a rough idea where Dean had been over a week ago, when he'd called to tell him that he would swing by for a visit, but that didn't tell him where Dean was now. Or even when he'd fallen off the grid.
After two days of worry he was close to calling Sheriff Mills even if he didn't know what she could do to help him finding Dean but her chances were better than his, he guessed.
He thought about filing a missing person report, painfully aware of the fact that he was the only person who would even notice if Dean went missing.
But before he could do that, Dean called.
"Dean, boy, where are you?" He asked, trying to not show his relief when he heard Dean's voice. "I'm waiting for you to show up for two days now. No call, no nothing." He didn't mention the dead phone, waiting for Dean to give him an explanation.
"Yeah, Bobby, I'm sorry about that." Dean said and Bobby couldn't make sense out of his tone. Something was wrong. "Listen, something came up. I won't make it to you any time soon."
When Dean asked him to bring his car home, Bobby knew that Dean was in trouble, he would never leave his car behind willingly, but Dean refused to give him any details and hung up before Bobby could coax some answers out of him.
"Balls." He sat back in his chair, not sure what to do next.
Of course he went to get the Impala. He found her exactly where Dean had said he would and as far as he could tell she was fine, parked and locked with care, nothing indicating that Dean had been in a hurry or that anybody had tempered with her.
Bobby asked around in the bar and the diner nearby but nobody had seen Dean. He tried a few motels not too far away but it looked like Dean had been on his way through without stopping for the night. So Bobby just hooked up the Impala and towed her home.
Dean may forget to call or visit Bobby for months but he would never leave his baby for long so Bobby was pretty sure that Dean would show up rather sooner than later. Except that he didn't.
One short phone call to make sure that his baby was safe and then Bobby didn't hear anything from Dean for months. Dean had told him that might be the case so Bobby wasn't too worried but he couldn't help but think about all the different kinds of trouble Dean could be in.
Bobby wrote a few emails in the faint hope that Dean would answer, which he didn't for a long time.
When the answer finally came, it was nothing like what Bobby had expected.
Apparently Dean had met somebody, Sam, who he was living with now. And he'd started to build toy cars out of scrap. At first Dean made fun of the people who wanted to give him money for the scrap on wheels as he called it but it didn't take long to take a serious turn.
One day Dean sent him a link to a website called Scrap on Wheels.
"I'll be damned." Bobby had to lean back in his chair and take a minute to let the news sink in. He was on Dean's website, a professional one not some slap-it-together-yourself crap, and it was not what he'd expected. At all.
It did, however, remind him of that car Dean had built one summer. He remembered it clearly because he had been close to chasing John off his property with a shotgun when he'd made Dean destroy the car with a crowbar. Looking back he should have done just that, chase John off and take Dean in, but he'd been a coward.
He had refused to see the things right in front of his nose, the bruises, the haunted look in Dean's eyes. He had told himself that if he didn't say anything John would at least allow Dean to spend some time at the salvage yard. That this way Bobby could still offer Dean a safe haven, give him a breather from time to time.
If he'd known that John would finally snap and kill Dean's boyfriend, nearly killing Dean as well, he wouldn't have hesitated one second. But he hadn't known.
Bobby didn't want to go back to the three months he'd stayed at Dean's hospital bed, not knowing if the boy would wake up and if he did which state he would be in.
Instead Bobby focused on the cars on the website. He knew that Dean was handy but this was more than just some toy cars. This was art. He could clearly tell that the cars were built out of scrap but they had an aesthetic to them, he didn't even know where to start to describe it.
"Way to go, boy." Bobby said to himself and wiped his suddenly misty eyes. The cars and this Sam, looked like Dean had finally found his place in life.
After that Bobby and Dean exchanged emails almost daily. Dean still couldn't quite believe that people were willing to spend money on his cars but more and more orders were coming in, keeping him busy.
Then Dean called to let him know that John would get out of prison soon. Bobby didn't want to believe it at first, he'd dealt with Dean's paranoia when it came to John for years now, but apparently the source was a cop and the info was legit.
Bobby made sure to have his shotgun within reach at all times after that.
He didn't know where exactly Dean was and in this case it worked in their favor. If Bobby didn't know, John wouldn't know either. That was one piece of information Dean wasn't willing to share, one among many which made Bobby suspicious about a lot of things regarding Dean's situation but so far he had no reason to believe that Dean wasn't happy with whatever situation he was in so Bobby didn't push.
Then Dean told him that he would swing by for a visit and Bobby was looking forward to seeing Dean with a mixture of relief and anxiety.
There were too many things not adding up, too many things Dean didn't want to talk about. The reason why he'd disappeared in the first place for example.
Bobby hoped that he could get some answers out of him if he talked to Dean face to face without Sam hovering in the background. Dean had never said anything in that direction, but Bobby couldn't shake off the feeling that Sam was constantly reading over Dean's shoulder when they exchanged emails. It would explain why Dean never used to phone, too.
Maybe he was just paranoid after how things had gone down with John, but Bobby would rather be paranoid than to let Dean down again.
When Dean finally arrived, Bobby had to blink against suddenly misty eyes. Dean was home.
His first attempt to have a real talk with Dean, however, drove him right into a panic attack.
Way to go, idjit, Bobby thought to himself and backed off. Dean wanted to stay for about two weeks, they had plenty of time to talk.
Dean was still suffering from nightmares, Bobby found out. If it was about the same old stuff or something new he couldn't tell but Dean's broken cries in the middle of the night woke him up more than once. He'd never figured out how to comfort Dean during these nights so he didn't mention it and just had breakfast ready when Dean came downstairs in the morning.
When Dean finally did talk it was worse than everything Bobby had come up with on his own.
It turned out that Dean had been abducted and sold as some kind of sex slave.
Bobby was still busy wrapping his mind around that information that he didn't make the obvious connection to Sam right away. Instead he asked the stupid question of where Sam fit in this scenario.
Dean hadn't been living with Sam, he'd been held prisoner by him.
The fact that Sam had Dean on a long leash like a glorified pet just made it more horrible. Bobby didn't want to think about the things Dean had to do so Sam would let him build his cars. Or for basic things like food and clothes for that matter.
Bobby didn't throw up right away but it was a close call. He needed another drink.
It at least explained the nightmares.
"Why did he let you go, then?" Bobby asked because that was the one thing in this whole mess he couldn't make sense out of.
"Because he loves me." Was Dean's answer and Bobby just wanted to punch Sam in the face for that. That sick bastard had twisted Dean into believing that abuse and rape was love. It felt eerily familiar, not the rape part, John had never gone there, thank God, but the rest.
After Dean went to bed that night, Bobby couldn't help but check on him while he was sleeping.
Dean looked good, better than in a long time if he was honest. At least Sam had fed him and had supplied him with the daily necessaries. Bobby hadn't noticed any bruises before and didn't find any when he was looking for them now. He even lifted the blanket to have a look at Dean's ankles, almost expecting to find marks from shackles but didn't find any.
Dean hadn't gone into detail so Bobby didn't know how Sam had kept Dean from escaping in the beginning because Bobby was pretty sure that Dean had fought tooth and nail to get away from him.
Later, after Sam had twisted Dean into believing that it was love and that Dean deserved it and all that bullshit, it probably hadn't been necessary anymore to lock Dean up. That was the other reason why Bobby was itching for his shotgun. This was John all over again. Only worse.
Bobby spent the next two nights searching the internet for anything that would help him helping Dean because he didn't have a clue how to support a survivor of sexual abuse. It hurt to think of Dean in that term.
When Sam sent Bobby an email to tell him that John was free, and Sam even had the nerve to tell him to watch out for Dean, Bobby told him in clear terms to stay away from Dean. He wasn't stupid enough to give Sam an opening to get his cop friend involved by writing down the things he wanted to say but he promised himself that if Sam showed his face around Dean ever again, he would get a welcome with a shotgun.
Of course Sam didn't get the warning and used his chance while Bobby was fighting for his life after John had shot him to get close to Dean again.
When Bobby woke up in the hospital Sam was right there at Dean's side and didn't show any intention to leave ever again.
And then he wasn't even there when John came for Dean the second time. Oh, Sam was there afterwards, shielding Dean from the Sheriff and even Bobby with flimsy excuses. But he hadn't been there when Dean had needed him.
"Sleeping my ass." Bobby muttered after another fruitless call which only got him Sam. Dean had just shot his own father. He'd been suffering from nightmares before, no way was he just sleeping for days afterwards.
By now Bobby was close to discharging himself from the hospital but then the doctor gave him the good news that he could leave the next day. Reluctantly he agreed to stay that long but in another call he made it clear to Sam that he did expect Dean to pick him up. Which he did.
Dean looked tired and exhausted with dark smudges under his eyes but that was expected given the circumstances. Otherwise he looked fine.
Back home Bobby just wanted to throw Sam out but Dean made it perfectly clear that they were an item now. Bobby didn't want to make Dean choose between him and Sam, he doubted that he would like the result, so he grit his teeth and didn't say a word.
But he did make a point of telling Dean that his door would always be open for him and that he would have his shotgun ready just in case.
With mixed feelings Bobby let Dean leave with Sam a few days later but there was nothing he could do about it. He did, however, take Dean up on the offer to visit him.
tbc