Chapter 2

5 Years Later

Maxine Davison smiled to herself as she saw Sam Winchester sitting in the quad 'talking' with a girl with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She hadn't told Sam she was transferring so she knew her old friend would be surprised to see her.

Walking up behind Sam, Max tapped him on the shoulder and when he turned to look at her, he beamed. 'Max! What are you doing here?'

'Mom and Dad are teaching here now,' Max replied as she sat down. 'Mom enrolled me just last week.' Looking around, she asked, 'Where's your brother?' When Sam looked down at his shoes, Max knew that something was wrong. And after a moment, she noticed the forearm crutches next to Sam. 'Sam, what happened?'

'It was a hit and run about 5 years ago,' Jessica Moore replied, putting a hand on Sam's knee before she signed her response. 'Someone idiot hit Sam and Dean. Sam's right leg got messed up pretty bad and…'

Max didn't like the way Sam looked away as Jess answered for him. Something really bad had happened to Dean—that much was clear. But how bad? "Sam…" she said aloud, putting a hand on her friend's arm and waiting until he looked at her. "Was Dean…?" She couldn't think the word 'dead'.

Sam shook his head, signing as he spoke. "I landed on my right leg—knee was a mess and I shattered my ankle. Compound leg fracture, too. Dean… had a spinal fracture."

Glancing over at the far end of the quad, where Sam was now looking, Max felt her stomach twist as she saw Dean signing and laughing with a small group of students. And while Dean seemed happy, Max's eye was drawn to the wheelchair he was sitting in. Looking at Sam, she said, "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

Sam waved her off. "It's fine," he muttered. Seeing the lights flash on the outer walls signaling that break was over, Sam slowly stood, sliding both arms through the rings of the crutches after grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

Watching Sam limp off, Max let out a deep sigh. This hadn't been the reunion she'd imagined. Looking at Jess who gave her a warm smile in return, Max said, "I'm Max. Sam and I knew each other in elementary school."

'Jessica Moore,' Jess replied. 'But everyone calls me Jess. Sam and I have been friends for 3 years now.'

"So tell me about the Winchesters," Max said, signing as she spoke.

The two girls headed towards their math class while Jess filled in the blanks in Sam's story. 'Sam had his leg in a cast for almost 4 months. And that was after having practically his whole leg in this… cage contraption for 6 weeks. It took 7 surgeries over 3 years to get everything fixed and almost a year for Sam to be able to actually use his leg. He said that the doctors don't think he'll ever be able to walk without the brace and crutches.'

Max felt her heart ache for Sam as she took that in. When she'd known him before, he was a bit of a goof but he was awesome when they played soccer in gym class. Thinking of Sam's current disability, she wished there was something she could do to help.

xxxx

When classes were over for the day, Dean headed up to the dorm room he shared with Sam to drop off his backpack before heading down to the student lounge to meet Sam and Jess.

It was weird to think that Sam was best friends with girl. Not that Sam wasn't cute or anything like that, but Dean had always seen himself as the family ladies' man.

But as he looked at himself in the full length mirror on the inside of the door to his closet, Dean let out a dejected sigh. No wonder girls liked Sammy better—his legs at least worked, even if one of them…not so much.

Waking up in the hospital after the accident, Dean couldn't remember when he'd been in more pain. Everything seemed to hurt except for his legs which felt oddly numb.

Next to the hospital bed, Dean had seen his dad crying which was alarming since John Winchester never cried.

Then Dean had found out why when the doctor told him that he was paralyzed from the waist down. Afterwards, John had told Dean that Sam's leg was in really bad shape and depending on how the kid healed and the long-term nerve and muscle damage, there was a very high chance that the youngest Winchester would end up with a permanent limp… or worse.

The 'or worse' had been the prospect of amputation which had been recommended by the doctors. And as harsh a choice as it was, after talking with the doctors and surgeons, John had been about to consent when Sam raised an unbelievable fuss.

Of course, the hospital staff had told John that since Sam was only 8 years old he had no real say in the issue. But Sam hadn't had any say when he was being dragged all over the country so John could hunt down the thing that had murdered Mary either.

And so Dean and his father had had to watch Sam struggle to deal with constant pain and physical therapy and even now his leg was barely functional.

Not that the past 5 years had been easy for Dean, either.

After the fractures had healed as much as they would, the next year and a half of Dean's life was spent in physical therapy which—thanks to anonymous donations of money and equipment—he'd been able to do at Underwood Academy after getting out of the hospital along with Sam.

Hearing a knocking at the door, Dean looked up to see Seth Brady standing in the doorway. 'Sorry… Just thinking,' Dean signed. Wheeling out the door and closing it behind him, Dean followed his friend down the hall towards the cafeteria.

"What were you thinking about?" Seth asked, curiously. Since he'd been in speech therapy since losing his hearing when he was 5, he was able to sound almost normal when he spoke out loud, even though he still couldn't hear anything.

Dean stopped and turned to face his friend before replying, 'I was thinking about the accident. Me and Sam… I just found out an old friend of Sam's started going here.'

'You need to get yourself a girlfriend,' Brady advised after a while. He grinned as he said it but when Dean didn't smile back or make a joke, he added, 'You don't think any girls are interested in you because you can hear?'

Dean shook his head and after a moment or two, he spoke as he signed. 'I'm paralyzed. I'm never going to be able to walk or… you know.'

'Have sex?' Brady supplied. When Dean nodded, he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey, some day some girl is going to surprise you." Dean scoffed but Brady was already thinking as he said, "You'll find someone, Dean. Trust me."

x

At dinner, Dean was surprised when Jess sat down with him instead of joining Sam and Max. "Three's a crowd?" he asked, signing at the same time while glancing over at his brother.

'Actually… I wanted to talk to you,' Jess replied with a smile. She blushed a bit and after a while, she said, 'Sam is my best friend. And I know it would be weird for both of you, but… I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime. On a date. With me.'

Dean was speechless as he let Jess's words sink in. And yeah, it was kind of strange given how close she and Sam were but remembering talking with Brady earlier, Dean asked, "Did Brady put you up to this?"

Jess shook her head in response. She didn't want to admit that she'd had a serious crush on Dean ever since she met. Maybe it was the way he was always looking out for Sam or when he smiled, but there was no way she could deny that she had a monumental crush on Dean Winchester.

As the clock on his wall neared midnight, Headmaster Jared Collins didn't seem the least bit surprised when a young woman suddenly appeared in front of his desk. "Something I can do for you, Hester?"

The angel just stood, frowning slightly as she looked at her old friend, Balthazar. "Why are you doing all this? Making Sam deaf and crippling him? Paralyzing Dean?"

Balthazar smirked as he leaned back in his office chair. "And just last month, I left clues for John Winchester on where to find Samuel Colt's precious little revolver along with Azazel's recent hiding place. With any luck, that demon will no longer be a problem."

But rather than approving of what was going on, Hester seemed shocked by what her fellow angel had done. "You are throwing everything out of balance!" she exclaimed. "The whole plan—why would you do this?"

"To Hell with the plan," Balthazar snapped, angrily. "What if we forget destiny and let the Winchesters have a happy life for once? What is so wrong with that?"

But Hester didn't seem convinced. She knew her brother and she knew that there was something else going on but she couldn't figure out what exactly. "I hope you know what you're doing," she said, simply, before winging out.

Author's Notes: Sorry about the shortness of the chapter. Next time around we'll see more interactions with Sam and Dean and their friends and respective girlfriends.