Dean jumped out of his seat and ran over to Cas when he was knocked back into the table behind him. As soon as he reached the two idiots who'd knocked him out, he pushed them out of the way and leaned down to check on Cas.
"Ooh, Winchester, got a new buddy here?" They laughed as Dean scowled and looked over his shoulder.
"You really want to mess with me right now?" Dean looked behind them and smiled. "Here comes Mr. Tricker."
The two boys looked at each other and decided they'd be better off leaving. Giving Dean a final look of vehemance, they walked away. Dean rolled his eyes. It wouldn't matter if they walked away or not; they did this in the lunch room, and they'd get in trouble for it regardless.
Looking back down at Castiel, he sighed. The dude was out, cold. After feeling at the back of his head for major damage, Dean found a really large bumb. He might be concussed. He vowed to pay those two douchewads back, first chance he got.
Mr. Tricker, the vice principal, approached Dean and Cas with the school nurse behind him just as the bell rang and the cafeteria cleared out. Dean saw Lisa walking towards him with a look of concern on her face, but he waved at her to tell her to go on without him.
"Mr. Winchester. What exactly happened here?"
Dean stood up. "McLeod and Wheeler. They walked up to the table and attacked him, sir. Knocked him out."
Mr. Tricker looked down at Castiel and grimaced. "Those two again. What a surprise. Winchester, if you could assist Mrs. Jones here and help her get him into the nurse's office, that'd be great."
"No problem, sir." Dean looked at Mrs. Jones and concluded that there was no way she was going to pick him up. Silently thanking God that there was no one else in the lunch room, he knelt down and picked up Cas, bridal-style. He wasn't too heavy, and Dean picked him up easily. He followed Mrs. Jones to the clinic and set him down on one of the sketchy cots. Right before he walked away, Cas coughed and opened his eyes.
"Where am I?" Cas asked groggily while checking the condition of his nose. It wasn't broken, but it didn't look pleasant either.
"The clinic. You hit your head on the back of a table and passed out." Cas closed his eyes and nodded.
"Spectacular." He tried to sit up, and immediately layed back down. "I think I may have a concussion," he said, and Dean was pushed out of the way by Mrs. Jones, who had finished whatever she was doing in her office and was now shining a light into Castiel's eyes.
"Mr. Winchester, you're free to go back to class. I'll take it from here." Dean looked at Cas, who's eyes were closed again, and walked out of the clinic, burning with anger at the two assholes who did that to him.
The rest of the day passed without anymore excitement. There was talk in his classes of the new kid who got beat up at lunch, and Dean did his best to tell whoever mentioned it that the guy didn't deserve it. Most agreed with him.
At the end of the day, Dean walked over to his little brother Sam's locker to take him home. It had been Sam's first day of high school. He saw Sam standing next to his locker, backpack slung over one shoulder and reading a book. Dean rolled his eyes. The kid was such a nerd sometimes. "Hey, Sammy," Dean said as he reached him. Sam looked up from his book and closed it.
"Hey, Dean." They started walking towards the doors to the parking lot. Dean's car, the '67 Chevy Impala that his father had given him on his 16th birthday, sat in the third row of the lot. Dean's car was his most prized possession, his "baby." He didn't know what he'd do without it.
"How was your first day of high school?"
Sam shrugged. "Not too bad. It wasn't much different from middle school. There was a wicked fight today, though."
Dean gritted his teeth. "I know. The guy who got knocked out is a new kid." Sam looked over at him, eyebrows furrowed.
"Seriously? Why would somebody do that?"
Dean looked at his little brother. "I don't know, Sammy. But it's unacceptable. The poor guy was defenseless." They climbed into the car and Sam sighed.
"D'you think Dad is back yet?" At the mention of their father, Dean frowned. Their dad's work took him out of town often. Since their mother's disappearance a couple of years back, John Winchester wasn't home much. He became a traveling salesman, and left Dean and Sam alone at home sometimes for two weeks at a time. He always left them enough money for food before he left, and he called home every few days. This time, however, John had been gone for almost two weeks, and he hadn't called in nearly a week. Dean and Sam were beginning to worry.
"I don't know. I'm hoping he's at least called by now."
When they got home, Dean checked the voicemail, and found no new messages. "Damn it," he swore under his breath. The situation was beginning to feel all too familiar. It was starting to feel like what happened when his mother, Mary, disappeared when he was 15. It was around the time Sam started getting bad nightmares that lasted for about a month. Dean remembered thinking that was weird, all of that happening at once. Mary started to seclude herself to the rest of the family more and more and began going on more business trips that took her far from home. During her trips, she had always called home every night. But during her last known trip, she went a week without calling. And then two. John had called her work and Dean didn't know what they told him, but after that phone call, John left the house and didn't come back for a week. Sam had been 11 and didn't understand what was going on. Dean didn't know exactly what had happened, but he assumed the worst. When John returned, he sat the boys down and told them that their mother was missing, and had been missing for over a week. He said that the authorities were doing their best to find her.
That had been a little over two years ago. She was never found, and Dean had given up hope of seeing his mother ever again. Sam and John still hoped. But John coped with it much differently than the boys did. After Mary went missing and John was around less, Dean became more protective of his brother and they formed a bond that hadn't been there when their family was intact. It was the only positive outcome to the entire horrible situation. Sam coped by escaping through reading often. John, however, coped by leaving often and drinking.
The only source of affection the boys got from a family member was from their uncle Bobby. Bobby was an old army buddy of John's who had watched the boys grow up and who the boys looked up to. He lived outside of town and frequently checked in with the boys when their father was out of town for a long period of time.
When the phone rang 20 minutes after Dean and Sam got home from school, Dean ran to pick it up, thinking it was John. "Hello?" he said breathlessly, after having ran across the house to get to the corded telephone on the wall.
"Dean? What'd'ya do, run a marathon?" Bobby asked, and Dean sighed.
"No, I just ran to the phone because I thought it might have been Dad calling."
Bobby let out a long breath. "Still no word?"
"No. Nothing. It's been a week without a phone call, Bobby. Do you think something happened?"
Bobby paused for a second before answering. "I wish I could say I knew, kiddo. I'm doing my best to figure out where he is. He could just be really busy with work."
"So busy that he has literally no time to call home?"
Bobby sighed heavily. "I don't know, Dean. But I'm trying. You boys just hang in there. How was your first day of school?"
Dean talked to Bobby a little while longer, and then handed the phone to Sam and walked up the stairs to his bedroom. After he shut the door, he walked over to his bed and kicked it hard. He was worried. And, though he'd never admit it, scared. He'd already lost his mom. And, even though John was doing a piss-poor job at being a father of late, Dean didn't want to lose him, too. He especially didn't want Sam to lose both parents. The kid was already messed up about losing his mother.
Sitting down on the edge of his bed, Dean sighed and looked at the phone sitting on his desk. Please, just call. Tell us you're okay.
He sat there until it was too dark in the room to see without turning on a light, then he walked downstairs to start dinner for Sam. He had to put on a brave face for his little brother.
But the truth was: he didn't even know if John was alive.
A/N: I realize that it doesn't seem very clear as to where I'm taking this. I swear, I have a plan. :) Thanks for reading, reviews are hugely appreciated!