Sammy was panicking. He didn't like all of this attention. The sirens were blaring, which was pretty cool, but he just wanted to get back to his big brother. Dean said they weren't supposed to go to the hospital or find the police, and now that was exactly what had happened!
He stayed still in the back of the ambulance, afraid of who this Dr. Cas-person was. What if he was a demon too? Sammy tried to think of his options. Maybe he could run away once he got inside…
The ambulance stopped again.
Except this time, the driver got out of the truck and came around to open the back doors. "We're here," Carol said to him, standing up off the bed. Sammy followed her and jumped off too, before she could try to lift him. He didn't want anybody to touch him; his arm and his body hurt too bad.
"Not many patients walk out of an ambulance you know," she said with a small laugh. He shrugged his shoulders at her remark, but his body stiffened as the doors opened. He saw a new person standing next to the driver. The man was a little bit shorter than the driver. He had brown hair and he was wearing an open white coat.
"This is my friend Dr. Castiel," Carol said sweetly to Sam as she got out of the ambulance, "the one I told you was going to be here."
Sam nodded, but slowly backed up away from the high ledge. "I-I don't want to," Sam said. He shuffled back away from them, starting to get upset.
Before Carol could try to convince him to get out of the ambulance, her radio went off. "We have to go," she said to her partner.
"Come on, Sam," she said to the boy, "You need to come out of the ambulance now. We're not going to hurt you. We need to go help other people who are sick." Sammy could hear her radio call back in again. He didn't move a muscle; he was frozen deep into the back of the ambulance.
"I got him…take the other rig," Sam heard the doctor say. Sammy didn't want the nice lady to leave, but when he looked back out of the ambulance, she was gone.
"Come here, Sam," the doctor said gently.
"No," Sam whimpered, "it's gonna hurt."
To Sam's surprise, the doctor jumped up into the back of the rig. He stayed back by the doors though, and he crouched down to Sam's eye level. His eyes were soft and Sam liked that the doctor was staying calm.
"I know my name is kind of tricky…" the doctor said softly, "so you can call me 'Cas' if you'd like." Cas tilted his head at Sam, trying to gauge a reaction. "Can you say, 'Hi, Cas'?"
It took a few seconds, but Sam found himself repeating the phrase. "Hi, Cas," he whispered to the man.
"Hi, Sam." Cas smiled at him for reassurance. He knew the boy was injured and malnourished, and he didn't want to force him out of the ambulance. Castiel looked down at his feet, trying to think of how to phrase Sam's options to him.
"If you want," Castiel said, looking back up at the shivering boy, "you can get back onto the bed and we can lift the bed out of here." Castiel quickly realized that his words made Sam more nervous. "Or, if you would like, I can lift you off of here however you want me to."
Castiel couldn't figure out what was making this child so scared. "It's warm inside," he reminded Sam, "and we're not going to hurt you, buddy."
Sam nodded and slowly walked toward him. Castiel hopped out of the truck and held out his arms as Sam got closer to him. "Wherever I won't hurt you," he said to the boy. Sam took one of Castiel's hands and put it on his lower back. Then, still using his good hand, Sam put the doctor's other arm under his knees. Sam hesitantly sat back as Cas lifted him sideways out of the back of the ambulance., holding Sam up against his chest.
Castiel didn't know exactly where Sam was hurt, so he didn't want to move too quickly with the boy in his arms. The wind picked up as they made their way towards the building entrance, and Castiel grinned when he realized that Sam's face was buried into his neck to shield himself from the cold.
Sam immediately noticed the change in the air when they walked into the hospital. He kept his head down on Cas' shoulder, but he was peeking at his new surroundings. There were people everywhere, but Sam was happy that nobody else was bothering them or asking him questions.
Castiel brought him over to a bed that had a curtain around it. He carefully placed the boy down onto the bed and then sat on a stool that he wheeled over next to Sam. Castiel tried to make eye contact with him, but Sam had lowered his head to the ground, looking only at his swinging feet that were now dangling off the bed.
"How old are you Sam?" Cas asked.
"Five," he said, barely above a whisper.
"Sam, where are your parents?"
Sammy raised his head and looked straight into Cas' eyes, a tear slowly falling down little boy's cheek.
As Sam began to cry, Cas reached out to comfort him on instinct, but Sam gasped and pulled away sharply. Castiel pushed himself backwards a bit on the rolling stool, realizing that Sam wanted the man nowhere near him.
Cas paused for a moment, visually assessing the boy's body language. He needed to gain trust more quickly.
He reached over to his cart with some basic medical supplies and picked up a damp cloth. "I'm just going to clean up your face a little, ok buddy?"
Sam didn't respond, but Cas gently held his chin still and started to softly wipe the dirt of off Sam's face.
Castiel wanted to just jump into setting the boy's twisted arm and examining him for other major injuries, but he knew that would involve some trauma for the kid, and Cas just couldn't bring himself to cause the poor thing any more fright. Cas had so many questions about why Sam was alone in that alley, but he couldn't ask the boy yet. This was going to be a long night...
