NOTE: Lol, so here's the next chapter. Time skip ftw. I'll be back tomorrow with more, just at the moment I need to pass out. My endorphin high from walking twelve miles has finally left me, so off I go to dreamland. Thanks for the wonderful reviews so far! :]


Family Business

Chapter 2 - Ketchup Soup

Adam propped himself up on the cool wood floor, squinting at the clock. The glowing red numbers told him it was eight in the morning, and the angry buzzing it emanated made him fumble for the plug. Adam relaxed as the sound died instantly when he yanked the plug from the wall. It was exam day, he had to be at the lecture hall in two hours. There he would sit in a crowded room, shoved into a chair with a cramped little writing desk for an armrest and he would take a test that would determine his grades for that semester. He took a deep breath, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale-

BUZZ.

Adam opened his weary eyes and glared at his cell phone. Who could be calling him this early in the morning? Not Amy, no, he dumped her several months ago, because his brothers could show up any minute to get him and he had to be ready. It had been two years and he hadn't heard anything from them, nothing. He'd thrown everything away, and now, all he had was his classes and an apartment he could barely afford that was barren of furniture. No more friends, no more girlfriend who was probably out of his league anyways. He would graduate from college, he would be normal, Dean and Sam were just a far away memory and-

Bing.

Lazily he snatched the phone up from the floor and read the message on its tiny screen. It said, '1 new voicemail'. He dialed the number and was about to listen to the message when he got another call. Adam fumbled with answering it, but managed to not accidentally hang up on the person.

"Hey, why didn't you answer the first time, kid? Did I cock-block ya?"

Adam's chest tightened, feeling cold.

"Kid?"

How fitting, two years, just long enough for him to stop caring, to stop wanting, and to lose everything...that's when they call?

"Hey! Adam? Are you there?" Dean's voice was no longer joking, or merely concerned, it was panicking. Adam had to say something.

"Hi," he rasped. When was the last time he ate or drank anything? Whatever...he rubbed at his eyes to remove the sleep grit.

"What's going on, kid? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine...what's up?"

Adam could hear Dean laugh, "What's up? We're coming for you, that's what, though I'm wondering where you are, your dorm mates say you've disappeared."

Oh great...I can't let them see me like this, no way...so much for a normal life, I'm a hermit, all I do is study and work and do my assignments...Adam was filled with embarrassment as he looked around his empty apartment, and at himself, so different from when they'd last seen them.

"Adam? Where are you?"

"Oh, I uh, I moved into an apartment off campus."

"And? Address?"

Adam didn't hesitate, too afraid of the consequences if he did, "NW 42nd St. I'm in the, uh, grey-ish brick building, the sign says Wayside Apartments, I'm on the fifth floor, apartment 7E."

"Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes."

The dial tone could be heard after that, Dean had hung up. Adam looked around, wondering what he should do, if anything. He lived in a one room apartment. There was the main area which included a very small kitchen, and then there was a bathroom, and that was it. The floor was bare and the only things in the room were his blanket and pillow, and a basket for his dirty clothes. His backpack and school supplies were neatly arranged in a corner, and his clean clothes were folded and stacked next to his dirty laundry basket. Automatically, as he did every time he woke up he began folding his blanket and setting it against the wall, his pillow on top of it.

The kitchen was clean because he hardly ever used it. He wished he had time to go out and get a case of beer to keep in the fridge, so he had one to offer Dean when he arrived...but he'd be there soon-

Knock Knock.

Adam hurried to his feet, moving quickly to the door and unlocking it before Dean broke it down. When he opened it he saw both of his brothers looking...tired? Mostly they looked worried, and Adam felt ashamed. They wouldn't want to train him now, not with him like this.

"Adam?" Sam questioned, as if he couldn't believe that it was really him.

"C'mon in, guys," the laugh he tried to get out to ease the conversation along ended up a raspy cough. His brothers slid past him into the room and looked around, taking in the cramped apartment. Adam shut and locked the door behind him.

"Ok, what the fuck happened?" Dean asked, blunt as ever.

Sam shook his head, "Adam, please don't tell me you pay more than three hundred dollars a month for this place..."

Adam ignored Sam's plea, because he couldn't tell Sam what he wanted to hear. He paid five hundred, and that was just rent and electricity and water. He didn't pay for heating, and he always carried his garbage with him on his way to school and snuck it into a local coffee shop's dumpster so he didn't have to pay for the garbage man to come through and take it. He was even considering stopping the electricity payment because he hardly kept the lights on and he showered in the mornings, and it would cut down on his bills...

"Um...well, I dunno, I guess-"

"You 'dunno'?" Dean interjected, making little 'quote' marks with his fingers.

"I got really into my studies last year, ok? I guess I turned into a bit of a hermit, and I started drifting away from my friends...so to make my scholarship last longer and get more peace and quiet I stopped living on campus and moved over here," Adam explained. So it isn't a bald faced lie, just a little one...

Dean's eyebrows lifted up briefly in a show of mock-surprise, and there was a flash of that familiar, dangerous smirk. He shrugged his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

"That sounds like a load of crap."

Adam found himself wringing his hands and staring at the floor. This was not how he'd expected it to go. Hell, he'd thought he'd see them a lot sooner, and that everything would be great and he'd be ready to go. But they'd taken so long, and now he wasn't ready, and Dean was probably going to-

CRACK.

Adam reeled back from the force of the punch Dean delivered to his jaw. He held up his hands in front of his face and backed up. When his brother didn't try to hit him again, he tried telling the truth. The whole truth. Leaving Amy, drawing away from his friends, trying to prepare himself for when his brothers would come to get him. When they never did, he focused on school to get away from it, and then, somehow he end up here. He was 5'10" and barely 130 pounds, when last his professor saw him, he told him to get some help, see a doctor. The money he saved by eating less often was just enough to put into savings, and that was a good thing, he could use it later, and he was so focused on his studies anyways, most of the time he forgot to eat.

"Adam, I am so sorry we took so long, but it's over now, we're here, and if you want to, you can come with us-"

"No, hold it Sam," Dean snapped, "don't go apologizing for his breakdown. We didn't tell him to alienate himself, to turn into this, we told him to live a normal life while he waited for us, that it was going to be a while."

"Dean-"

"No, this isn't our fault, and we sure as hell ain't fixing it."

Adam watched, not really listening as his brothers argued. He wasn't offended, or hurt by anything Dean was saying. He didn't even feel sorry for himself, or feel pathetic. Mostly he was confused. So was he going with them, or not? The fight went back and forth, and as it did, Adam started looking in his cupboards to try and see if he had any food he could offer his brothers. There were a few cups of ramen, and a fudgesicle bar that was covered in a thick layer of freezer burn. A sad , flexible carrot and an expired carton of orange juice was in the fridge. He sighed. When he closed the fridge and turned back around to continue being a spectator to the bickering he noticed it had stopped. They were staring at him now, Sam looking sympathetic, but aggravated at Dean, and Dean just looked mad. Adam was starting to believe that Dean never looked anything but mad.

"I was...just seeing if there was anything I could make you but...unless you want to eat ramen and drink tap water from the faucet I don't have anything."

"Shit, kid, don't you eat?" Dean barked.

Adam shrugged, "Sometimes, so...um, am I-"

"Sometimes?"

"Uh, yes?"

"When was the last time you ate? And not ramen or ketchup soup or saltines."

"I dunno, um, Dean-"

"You don't know?"

"Dean-"

"What's wrong with you?! Ok, we're getting you a burger, c'mon."

Adam managed to snatch a t-shirt from his clean clothes stack and pull it on, and yank on his tennis shoes. His keys were in his pocket only seconds before Dean jerked him out of the room by the arm. Sam was quick to follow.