Hey guys! So this is set a few months after my story The Vacant Year. Just some pointless, plotless Dean taking care of Ben because I find that dynamic adorable. Anyway, this is unbetaed so all mistakes are mine and sadly I still don't own the Winchesters. And without further ado, the story, I hope you al enjoy!
Sick Day Off
Dean's whisking eggs when Ben meanders down the stairs. Dean shoots a glance over his shoulder from where he's standing by the stove. He pours the egg mixture into the awaiting skillet. The eggs sizzle and Dean leans against the counter, spatula in one hand with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Morning," Dean says. "What's on the agenda today?"
"School," Ben mumbles.
Dean rolls his eyes. 'God he's almost as bad as Sammy was at this age,' he thinks. "I know that genius." Sarcasm oozes from his voice. "What's going on at school?"
Ben shrugs and Dean turns around to stir the eggs. Dean drops the subject since it's obvious that Ben is in a mood. So, he focuses all his attention on the eggs and not on the memories threatening to bubble to the surface…Sammy would get into moods like this, seemingly all the time as he got older. Nothing stopped Dean from pestering his brother until sheepish smile fluttered across Sam's lips…
Dean blinks again the tears swelling in the corners of his eyes. He violently shoves the images of his brother down knowing that eleven-year-old Sammy will soon turn into his Sasquatch sized little brother being ripped to shreds by Lucifer and Michael.
A muffled coughs tears him away from the torment inside his mind. His brow furrows as he takes the pan off the heat and scoops a decent amount of eggs onto a plate. Dean thinks nothing of the cough until it starts up again, harsher this time. Dean sets the pan down and crosses the room.
"That doesn't sound too good," Dean states as he approaches. Ben shrugs and sniffles. Dean frowns and runs the back of his fingers against Ben's forehead. "You feelin' okay?"
Ben shakes his head slightly. Dean's frown deepens at the heart radiating off his pseudo-son's skin. "Go change back into you PJs," Dean says, brushing Ben's sweaty hair back from his forehead. "You've earned a couple days on the couch with yours truly mothering you to death."
Ben smiles and chuckles, which quickly turns into a cough, he hunches forward as the coughs rip through him. Dean digs his hand between Ben's shoulder blades until the hacking tapers off.
"Go, I'm calling you in sick." He points towards the stairs for good measure. 'This is the point where Sammy would fight with me until lost his voice.'
But, Ben doesn't fight, doesn't even utter any kind of protest against missing school and, once again, Dean is slapped in the face with the fact that Sammy is gone. Ben's shoulders slump with exhaustion as he rises stiffly and shuffles back up the stairs.
Dean snags the phone off the holder and first calls the school to inform them of Ben's absence. This is all uncharted territory for Dean. The last time he dealt with a sick kid was when Sam got a nasty case of bronchitis eons ago. He glances up the steps to unsure that Ben isn't coming down yet before punching Lisa's number in. She picks up on the second ring.
"Morning Dean!" She says cheerfully.
"Hey, Lis. How's the trip?" Dean hears Lisa's girlfriends cackling in the background.
"Going great! You holding down the fort okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, uhh, Ben's sick," Dean says. "He's staying home today, just thought I'd let you know. Nothing to worry about, I got it covered."
He hears Lisa frown through the phone. "You want me to come home? If leave now I can be there by mid-afternoon."
"No, no, no." Dean shakes his head. "Seriously, I can handle it, took care of Sam all the time this is nothing new." A lump forms in his throat at the thought of Sammy. "Just wanted to let you know. Go, have fun. Girl's shopping spree is only once a year, go back to gossiping or whatever it is women do."
Lisa laughs. "Okay, okay. I'll try not to worry. Call if he gets worse?"
"Of course."
"Thanks Dean, you're a great man. I'll be home Thursday night okay?"
Dean blushes at the compliment. "Hey, it's not a problem. I'll see you then, have fun."
"Bye Dean," Lisa says playfully.
"Bye." Dean disconnects and replaces the phone back into the holder. He tilts his head back against the cabinet and sighs. He runs a hand down his face it's going to be a long day.
Ben stumbles back into the kitchen. He's dressed in his grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt. His shoulders are drooped; he sniffles and coughs miserably into the crook of his arm. Dean smiles sympathetically and walks over to him.
"Come on." Dean drapes an arm over his shoulders and pulls him into a half-embrace. "Lets get you settled."
Dean steers Ben into the living room. He gently pushes Ben onto the sofa and hands him the remote.
"I'm gonna go get a couple things. You good here?" Ben nods and Dean pats him on the shoulder before retreating upstairs.
As Dean gathers every flu drug known to man out of the medicine cabinet, his mind wanders back to simpler times. Before Heaven and Hell and the goddamned apocalypse. Back to when he and Sam were learning how to be brothers again after those two years apart.
Dean smiles as he recalls the first time Sam caught the flu. He's drugged him and covered him with all the blankets in their room. He pretended to be gruff, acting like caring for his baby brother was to keep from catching whatever Sammy had, but in truth, Dean loved it. It was during those times where Sam was his Sammy again.
Dean shakes the bittersweet memories from his mind and continues rummaging through the bottles of medicine. He pushes the bottles aside until he finds the cough syrup and Advil. After grabbing one of Ben's hoodies and a couple of blankets he makes his way back down. The sounds of Cartoon Network fill the room.
Ben is curled up on his side coughing. Dean winces at the sound as he walks in. He sets the bottles down on the table and hands Ben his hoodie. Ben sits up just enough to get the garment on before lying back down.
"How ya feelin' Dude?" Dean asks as he measures out murky-purple cough syrup.
"Crappy." Ben grumbles as he curls further into himself.
Dean rolls his eyes. "I figured that. Specific symptoms?"
Ben scrunches his face up as he thinks. "Throat hurts, achy, cold."
"Well," Dean says. "Lucky for you I can fix that." He hands Ben the tiny cup of cough syrup. Ben scowls into it. "Drink it and I'll make you something special."
Ben looks at him skeptically. "What'd I get?"
"Surprise." Dean smirks.
Ben takes a whiff of the liquid and turns his head away. He gazes up at Dean with the classic 'do I have to' glare. Dean crosses his arms, indicating that he will wait all day if he has to. Finally, Ben groans and tosses back the revolting grape flavored medicine in one gulp.
"Bleck."
"See? That wasn't so bad," Dean says taking the cup. He spreads one of the blankets over Ben. "Be right back."
Dean enters the kitchen and rinses the cup out. After filling a glass with water, he pulls open the freezer. He digs through frozen vegetables and smiles when he finds the vanilla ice cream. This was a trick he learned with Sammy. His brother was about as hard headed as their father, even at a young age. One whiff of the pungent cough medicine had Sam wiring his mouth shut. That was, until, Dean waved fudge pops in front of Sammy eyes. Within five minutes Sam had downed the disgusting medicine and was happily sucking on ice cream while Dean smiled triumphantly. Dean scoops ice cream into a bowl and drizzles chocolate syrup over it before grabbing the water and heading back into the living room. Ben's eyes light up when he spies the bowl.
"Really?" He questions excitedly already pushing himself up.
"Hey, I promised didn't I?" Dean says. "Best remedy for any sickness. Just take these for me" Dean places a couple Advil in his palm. "And this is all yours."
Ben swallows the pills without any complaint and holds his hands out for the bowl. Dean gives it to him and sits down on the couch arm.
"Thanks Dean," Ben says around his spoon.
Dean ruffles his hair. "No problem Kid." He stands up and starts walking towards the home office.
"Stay?" Ben asks quietly.
"I'm just gonna get the laptop, I'm coming right back."
Within two minutes Dean is seated next to Ben on the couch with the laptop perched in front of him. Ben's attention turns back to the TV, after he's finished with his ice cream he places the empty bow on the floor and lays back down, the top of his head brushing Dean's thigh.
Dean boots up the laptop and logs into the user Lisa created for him. He reopens his last browser session and sighs. There has to be a way to break into the cage. A spell, a door, something. He's not leaving Sam to burn in Hell.
Ben dozes off shortly after with his head clutching the bottom of Dean's shirt. Dean smiles softly and pauses tapping on the keyboard. He pulls the blanket up over Ben's shoulders and rakes his fingers through Ben's sweat dampened brown locks. Ben snuggles down deeper into the cushions and sighs. Dean keeps his hand between Ben's shoulder blades and gently drags his fingers across Ben's t-shirt.
Dean devotes the rest of the afternoon to research. He clicks on link after link and comes up with bupkis. There's lore all right, just too much of it and not enough concrete proof that it'll even work. Dean's eyes burn as tears gather behind them, he blinks harshly to banish them.
Ben drifts in and out of sleep. During the periods where he's semi-awake, Dean coxes him to take sips of juice and nibble on crackers. Ben flips through the channels, switching between various cartoons that Dean has never heard of.
"Hey," Dean says shaking Ben's shoulder. Ben raises his head and blinks sleepily up at Dean.
"Wha?" He coughs into Dean's leg.
"I gotta get up Dude, which means I need my leg back."
Ben scoots down and releases Dean's shirt. Dean closes the laptop and places it on the table next to the bottle of cough syrup. He rises and pulls the blanket back up over Ben's shoulders.
"You hungry?" Dean asks more out of courteously. Ben shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut. "Well, I'm gonna make something anyway. Call if you need me."
Dean walking into the kitchen and runs a hand through his hair. He forgot how exhausting sick kids are. Either that or he's just emotionally drained from his sleepless nights. Dean opens the top cabinet and pulls down one of his whiskey bottles. He pours a generous amount into a glass and knocks it back in two swallows. He refills the glass and sets about getting dinner ready. Dean searches through the pantry, he pushes boxes of pasta and a variety of canned vegetables until he finds the soup.
There's only two cans left, both of which are chicken noodle. Dean sets one of the cans on the counter before reorganizing the items he moved. He places the last can of soup in front of the pasta boxes for easy access later. He pops the can and dumps it into a pot. Dean turns on the front burner on and stands back, sipping his whiskey watching a ring of red light up under the pot.
He downs another glass and a half of alcohol while the soup heats up. Dean occasionally stirs the liquid while trying to ignore the probing thoughts of Hell from leaking into his mind. When the soup is bubbling and steaming, Dean turns the heat off and covers the pot to keep the heat in. He tosses back the last of his drink before two bowls and spoons out.
He ladles less soup into Ben's bowl than his own knowing the kid won't have much of an appetite. But, Dean is at least hoping entice Ben to choke down half a bowl. He carefully carries their dinner into the living room. Dean slides the bowls onto the coffee table and shakes Ben's shoulder to rouse him. Ben groans and rolls away from Dean.
Dean crouches down next to him. "Ben, come on sit up for me." He continues to shake Ben's shoulder. "Just need you to eat something."
Bleary, watery chocolate brown eyes blink heavily up at Dean. Ben pushes himself up on shaking arms until he's sitting halfway up. Dean grabs the bowls off the table as he sits down next to him. He passes one over to Ben and makes sure he's got a good grip on his before letting go. Ben turns his attention back to the TV.
"What are we even watching?" Dean asks as a blue platypus in a fedora gets caught up a tall guy in a lab coat.
Ben smirks. "Phineas and Ferb." He coughs a few times into his chest.
Dean raises his eyebrows and cautiously slurps the hot broth. "And what's the purpose…"
"They build awesome things during summer vacation and Perry is a secret agent."
Dean's head spins as he tries to follow along. He thought those cartoons Sam used to watch were weird, but those have nothing on this acid trip of a show. Secret agent platypus, really? Dean eats slower than normal. Another trick he learned from taking care of Sam. As long as his big brother was doing it too, then it had to be cool.
Ben finishes eating and places his bowl on the table. He sits back, pulling the blanket tight around his shoulders. As Dean sets his empty bowl on the table he peers into Ben's pleased to find that he consumed the majority of it. Dean leans back against the cushions and puts his feet up on the table, his boots bully thunking on the wood. Dean tips his head back and closes his eyes. An instant later there's a pressure against his side, his muscles tense, eyes flying open ready to jump into action. Relief washes over him…
'It's Ben, just Ben…' he tells himself.
Ben slumps into him, his face buried in Dean's ribs. Dean hitches the blanket higher up Ben's shoulders and slings an arm over him, pulling Ben closer. Ben nestles deeper into Dean's flannel over shirt and breathes in deeply, inhaling Dean's scent. He lets the breath out as a sigh. Dean smiles sadly and for a second he sees Sammy's mop of dirty brown hair snuggled into his chest as he sleeps through the worst of the flu. A single tear escapes Dean's eye and slips down his cheek.
Dean quickly flips the channel before more memories can assault him. He changes it from creepy cartoons to the news. He allows Ben to snooze until nine when he wakes himself up coughing. Dean gently thumps his palm between Ben's shoulders until the coughs subside.
"Hey," Dean says still rubbing his hand along Ben's spine. "I think it's time for another dose of meds and bed."
"Okay," Ben mumbles. He sniffles and coughs again.
Dean gently pushes Ben off of him and lays him back on the couch. He heads into the kitchen and retrieves half a glass of water and the cough syrup cup before returning to the living room. Dean pours the proper dosage and hands it to Ben. While Ben gulps down the vile liquid, Dean shakes out the Advil and exchanges the pills for the empty cup.
Ben trudges up the stairs with Dean following him. After making sure Ben is settled for the night Dean heads into Lisa's room and gets ready for bed himself. Although Lisa isn't here, Dean still sleeps in her bed. Over the last few months he's found her scent comforting when he wakes screaming form his night terrors.
Even though he's not feeling tired he knows his body is exhausted from the nightmares. He can easily lay in the dark and stare at the ceiling. Dean also wants to remain on the same floor incase Ben needs him. As soon as Dean lies down, exhaustion crashes into him and his eyes close on their own accord. He falls asleep imaging he's in some motel room with Sammy snoring over in the other bed.
So…what did you think, should I write a sequel with Dean catching the flu from Ben? Leave a review, let me know how I'm doing, I love to hear for you guys. Have an amazing day readers :)