Disclaimer : Supernatural and their characters belong to their respective owners. I'm merely borrowing them for a time. No profit is gained with this story.
AN: It started as a single piece but the stroke of inspiration has demanded that more details need to be provided. First chapter has been changed a bit and a couple of typos have been fixed as well. Keep in mind this is an AU story; therefore cannon will be followed very loosely.
23/09, this chapter has been reposted. It has slight differences from the first version.
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Chapter 2: Unreal Events
A good number of mortals believe in fate. It's easier for them place the responsibility on someone or something else, like higher power with a vindictive nature.
Larahel prefers the approach of cause and effect. If you know the root of a problem, then you would have more time to come up with a solution. If you have time, plans can be changed and strategies redesigned. This approach to life has been quite useful for her.
Of course, all rules do have exceptions.
There are times when even the best-laid plans fail. There are days when Lara is almost convinced that fate is a sentient entity, one with a very twisted sense of humour.
Today is one of those days.
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Lara fights down the urge to wrap Galen in her arms and run away from the park. Away from the young man who seems enthralled with Galen and her. Away from his brown eyes and the sparkle of recognition shining in them. Away, just far away.
Samuel Winchester is not a stranger. She has watched him from a far, and in more than one occasion helping the Winchester men.
The whole thing is nothing more than a travesty of justice. Lara has been unable to get a proper revenge on John Winchester. Any action against the man would have affected his child and Sam would have ended up in the foster system. Galen hadn't talked about it, but the look in his eyes was a statement on its own. Plans for revenge are temporarily forgotten. She would make sure that John Winchester pays for his sins, there's no doubt about it. She just needs to wait a little longer.
Sammy is not little anymore; if anything, it's quite the opposite. His height comes as a shock for some people as Winchester senior is not as tall as willowy Sam has become. They can only blame themselves for failing to recognize Mary's heritage. It's easy for people to forget who else is responsible for half of Sam's genes. One thing is certain; Mary Campbell has been seriously underrated in the family history.
Long limbs, shaggy hair and soulful brown eyes; Sam Winchester has become an attractive young man. Not exactly her type, but she can understand why Jessica fell head over heels for the law student.
Once upon a time Sam and Gael were brothers. They hadn't seen each other in more than seventeen years. It's almost a lifetime for humans, but the concept no longer applies to Galen. It never did. The differences between them cannot be ignored, regardless of how much one of them would like to. It's an undeniable fact.
Sam is a young man and Galen is a child. Galen would still be a child for some years to come.
She would rather leave and pretend this encounter never happened. She could do that, but Galen has wrapped her arms around himself seeking a safe haven. He didn't expect to see his brother today. Time has passed, some wounds healed. She can feel his body relaxing into the embrace as he looks at the young man with uncertainty. Sam is total stranger who once was his brother.
There are many things she could do in this situation. However, the decision is not hers but his. Her arms surround him in acceptance. She would go along with whatever he decides.
Galen is a child, her child now, but he was Sammy's older brother first.
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When he looks at the stranger Galen hardly sees the little boy he used to play with. But then he stares into his eyes and he finds him all over again. The same brown eyes that used to look up at him with fascination when he told him stories, annoyance when he reminded him that he was the older one and worry in the aftermath of a talk with John Winchester.
Sam doesn't remember the details but Galen does.
His kind is blessed and cursed with a very good memory.
Everything changed after Mary's death. John had been 'dad' until that morning, in the afternoon after he went to see Mrs. Mosley he became 'John'. John made sure that Dean knew the difference. Dean lost his remaining parent that day.
He tried; he really tried not to act like he used to, he tried anything he could come up to avoid John's ire. He stopped talking in his presence afraid to say the wrong words, but that only brought a whole set of new troubles for him. The first time John hit him it came out as a terrible surprise. It had never happened before, not when Mary was alive.
That night marked the beginning of a trend, one that went on until he ended up in the ICU and nana found him.
After John's visit to Mrs. Mosley Dean became used the harsh words and the silent treatment, of being left behind and held responsible of keeping his six-month brother safe and cared for. A five-year old could never be turned into a parent. It didn't matter how many times he watched Mary took care of Sam, Dean was a child not an adult. Small disasters were always waiting to happen.
Galen abhors the smell of beer and whisky. The scent is forever linked in his mind with the taste of blood and the feeling of pain, with the vivid image of bruises with the colors of the rainbow plastered on his body, with feeling sick and exhausted, with crying himself to sleep and wishing that it could end.
The smallest things set John in a path of destruction. A comment about how polite and smart was his older son, implies that Dean would have no dinner that night. A woman saying that he's such a handsome boy turns into a round of slaps and kicks.
He looses the track of time when it happens. Sometimes he's lucky and a hit delivered with too much strength provides an escape for his mind. He welcomes unconsciousness with arms wide open.
When Dean turns seven he suspects that he's indeed different. By the time he's eight he knows that this difference is going to make his life even harder.
Dean Winchester doesn't look like an eight-year old boy. He looks as if he's five, but he can pass for a very small six-year old. In the dead of the night he worries about what is wrong with him. Sammy keeps growing normally; he's almost his height now. Dean doesn't grow. That's not true, he does, but a slower rate than what could be considered normal. Maybe John is right and he's a monster. Maybe one day he would put him down.
Dean reads Peter Pan to Sammy. He wonders if there's a place for children like him, for the ones who don't grow up even if they want to.
The only good thing of his rare condition is that he's been able to take care of Sammy without rising suspicious. But now he looks old enough to go to school and John decides that's exactly what he would do.
Galen doesn't know if John was ever aware of what he was doing to him. Did he think it was all right? Lara says men like John are nothing more than ignorant fools, the most horrible example of human beings. As Dean, Galen's skin had resembled a map where every bruise had been an independent country. His map was always updated, there were weeks when the colors remained unchanged, other times they changed in rapid succession, but they never faded.
Deep down Galen knew it couldn't last forever.
Some days he had wished that a teacher or any adult would figure out what was happening to him. He would be taken away from John and no one would ever beat him again. His bruises would heal and finally fade away, Dean the human map will be no more. But then he remembered that leaving John meant leaving Sammy behind. The idea of the younger boy being exposed at the same treatment never failed to make him forget about being rescued. He couldn't be that selfish, he had to protect his little brother.
It wouldn't last forever.
At the time Galen hadn't known, but he would have died one way or another.
The morning started as usual, today was the day scheduled for his class group shot. Dean woke up feeling oddly cold and that never happened before. He had a very high tolerance for the cold temperatures to the point that he rarely wears a jacket. It happened when he went to the kitchen to fix their breakfast. He turned on the kitchen to warm Sammy's milk and froze halfway. He could have sworn he caught the glimpse of the flame, only that he saw it through his hand.
He wanted to scream, but who exactly was going to come to his aid? John has been gone for three days and he might not come back in another week. Dean highly doubts that he would offer any help. Sammy is just a child who hasn't realized yet that his older brother is starting to look younger than him.
Fading. Not even eight years old and he'd been fading.
Lara said that while his consciousness wanted to stay with Sam and keep him safe, his body had been unable to cope with all the strain of life as Dean. His spirit lost the will to keep fighting and started consuming the body that couldn't protect him anymore. She says it was a small mercy that he was mostly unconscious at the ICU; fading is the kind of experience that is better avoided. Lara has promised to tell him more when he's older. He wonders if she has been in the verge of fading as well.
The days after the group shot are blurry. He's terrified about the consistency of his body. What if he disappears in the middle of a class? What if he disappears and Sammy goes out to look for him? He makes Sammy to promise not to leave the apartment without him.
Galen thinks humans are too violent for their own good. Not even their children could be exempted of that behavior.
The older boys demand money and hear no reason. The only money Dean has is back at the apartment and is precisely counted to last until Friday. He has nothing to give them. They share the same logic John follows. When he's unable to fulfill their demands the hostile behavior begins. The fists hit with precision at his torso, new bruises join the ones that hadn't faded yet.
Three against one is unfair, it's even worst because Dean is smaller and can't really hit back. He looses his balance and falls down. At the last second his hands prevent his face to smash against the dirty street. Shards of broken glass cut the skin on his palms. He stops the scream from leaving his lips. Sam is already scared and Dean is not going to make it worst.
Sammy is crying but he's untouched. He gathers their backpacks and put everything that could be saved inside of them. He convinces Sammy to go to school; the nurse will be able to help him he tells the younger boy. Everything will be all right he promises, even when he knows it's a lie.
Galen remembers seeing John Winchester waiting for them at the end of the school day. He remembers the way the man's eyes had glinted in satisfaction. He remembers that he almost turned around and run back to Mrs. Roberts. Almost.
The coldness returns to his body with vengeance, he's freezing. He fights down the urge to flinch when John's hand keep a painful grip on his shoulder. It may look natural to the onlooker, but Dean feels like he's being lead to his doom. He can see the school building becoming smaller as John drives back to the apartment.
He knows that tomorrow he's not going back to school.
Galen has never been able to figure out how to feel about John Winchester. Hate and fear had been the constant emotions when he was under the man's care. No, not care, being under his authority is more accurate, although, command fits better. John had conditioned him to put his brother safety at the top of his priorities. If needed, he would have died for Sam without a second thought.
Dean was not a child but a caregiver and a bodyguard. His own welfare did not matter, unless it stopped him performing his tasks.
John's voice was usually grave but when he was furious it was even deeper. It was the voice of a broken man, but what bothers Dean the most is that hint of madness in his eyes. Staring at John Winchester's eyes was like looking at an abyss, like walking at the edge and being one step closer to falling.
Galen remembers that the insults and accusations always flowed effortlessly from John's lips, as if he didn't need to think about them.
It was almost ironic that the last time John used Dean as his personal human punch bag he didn't say a word. He did use him as a canvas one last time and instead of saying the words he chose to carve them on his skin. Dean was not only a map but a book as well, even if he had only two words written on him.
Dean is barely aware of his surroundings. There are no distinct colors and the objects are only distant shapes. He steps in and out of consciousness, he's in pain and then he's not there anymore.
The feeling of something sharp piercing the skin on his right forearm brings him back to the present. It hurts as the blade goes deeper and deeper twirling and twisting in a maddening slow motion. He's exhausted; there is no strength left to attempt moving away from the blade.
The metal keeps dancing and it moves to his other arm. He feels the blood pooling under him, it feels warm against his cold skin. Dean asks to whomever is listening that doesn't want this anymore. He can't keep doing this. He wants out. He doesn't want to wake up after this, so can't someone please let him die?
The last thought he has is a plea for forgiveness. "I'm sorry Sammy"
Galen presses his body against Lara's unconsciously. He rubs his arms slowly, finger lingering over the skin where the scars would be. His body healed but he can still see the words. Words carved out of hate on a child who wasn't able to fight back.
Lara's arms around him tighten their hold. It's not harming but protective, it tells him that he's not alone. The warmth of her skin is comforting, she smells of flowers and woods, of rainfall and wind. It's a smell that brings comfort; it's the smell of home.
Galen is not Dean anymore.
Dean died and Galen lives.
Dean gave up but Galen is a survivor.
He cares about Sam.
He's not his Sammy anymore as much as he's not the same Dean Sam used to know. Both have changed, and in Sam's case grown a lot.
He's not his Sam but Galen thinks he would like to know more about the man he has become. After all, he raised him up for almost five years.
Both of them have changed, but he's still the older brother, even if he doesn't plan on telling Sam that part.
"I'm Galen, is nice to meet you."
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TBC…