Dean Ambrose opened the front gate to his driveway, relieved to see that his step father's car was not yet parked outside.

"Mom, I'm home." He yelled as he opened the front door.

"Hi sweetie. I'm in the kitchen." She called back.

Dean walked through the living room and into the kitchen where his mother was currently making dinner. She looked up and held out her arms expecting a hug which Dean accepted.

"How was your first day back at school?"

"It was alright. For school."

His mother shook her head. "I know you don't like school sweetie but only 2 years to go and then you're off to college."

"Mom. We both know I'm not gonna get into college."

"Dean honey. I know you're smart enough to get into college, if you just took school a little more seriously then you'd get in no problem at all."

Dean rolled his eyes as they had this conversation yet again. "Whatever. I don't want to talk about it right now. What's for dinner?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs. It won't be long. Hopefully your father will be home by the time it's ready."

"He's not my dad." Dean said annoyed. "He might be your husband but he sure as hell ain't my dad. I don't understand why you put up with his crap."

It was his mom's turn to roll her eyes. "He's my husband Dean."

"So? That doesn't mean he gets to treat you the way he does. He's a scumbag."

"You know how much he's done for us Dean."

"I know, I know. You've told me all that a million times but it doesn't mean he isn't a scumbag. Why can't you just divorce him and get rid of him?"

"And then what?" She turned around to face her son. "We end up homeless, penniless, on the streets with nowhere to go? At least with him we have money, we have a home, we have clothes on our back. Without him we have nothing." Tears started forming in her eyes. "Do you want to go through that again Dean?"

Dean didn't answer, his mom taking that as a no.

"Exactly. And I don't want to either." She turned back to the stove, trying to keep the tears from falling.

The sound of a car pulling up in the driveway grabbed both their attentions. "I'm gonna sit outside for a bit."

Dean brushed past his mother and walked out the back door, slamming it shut. He took a seat on one of the chairs overlooking the back garden and closed his eyes. He could hear his scumbag of a step father raising his voice through the door but couldn't make out what he was saying, all he knew was that as per usual he seemed pretty mad.

Suddenly the door burst open and out stepped Dean's step father. He spotted Dean to his left and turned to him. "Do you want to explain to me why your mother was crying when I got home?"

"I think you just answered your own question. It's probably because you're home." Dean said trying to remain as calm as possible.

"You think you're funny smartass?"

"Yeah I do actually." He rose up to face him. "I think I'm hilarious John."

"Is that so? After everything I've done for you and your mom, you think it's okay to insult me? You're walking on a dangerous path Dean."

"Really? And what exactly are you gonna do to me? Hit me? You don't have the balls."

John laughed. "You think I don't have the balls to hit you? If I wanted to I could knock you out with one punch. But you're lucky I'm not that kind of person."

"Yeah. I'm so fucking lucky to have you in my life instead of someone who would treat me and my mom with respect." He said sarcastically.

"Don't think you're not old enough to be kicked out of this house Ambrose. I could kick you out and then you'd have nowhere to go. If you don't start treating me with some respect then that's exactly what's gonna happen. And then you'd never see your poor mother again." He taunted.

Dean clenched his fist in anger causing John to laugh again. "Are you gonna hit me? You know what? Fine, go for it. I'll give you a free hit. But just know that if you do then you're out on your ass."

It took everything Dean had to refrain from punching this son of a bitch right on the mouth but he somehow managed to hold back.

"Looks like you do have some sense." He said with a smirk before walking back into the house.

Dean tried to calm himself down to no avail. He jumped the back gate to the driveway and walked away from the house, there was no way he was going back in there after that without losing his shit.

He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his mom.

Dean: 'Going back to Seth's'

He put his phone back into his pocket and continued his walk, not even checking for a reply. He was still furious and kept imagining what would've happened if he had punched John, only making his anger grow.

As he passed a lamppost, he pulled his arm back and punched it full force to relieve some of the rage within him, the adrenaline running through him masking the pain.

'Out of all the fucking people in the world mom could have chosen it had to be that dick.' He thought.

As he continued his walk, the pain in his hand started to become worse and worse. He held it up and saw that his knuckles had turned red and found that the pain would get even more severe when he made a fist. "Fuck." He muttered. 'That's probably broken.'

Dean tried to ignore the pain as Seth's house finally came into view causing him to let out a small sigh of relief. He rung the doorbell and after a short wait, Seth's mother opened the door.

"Dean? What are you doing back here?" She asked surprised.

Dean just looked back at her, his expression changing from anger to sadness. Sharon immediately realised what was going on and invited him in.

"What happened to your hand hon?" She asked noticing that it had become slightly swollen. "You didn't hit him, did you?"

Dean just shook his head no. Realising that she wasn't going to get anything out of him, she led him into the dining room. Everyone looked up at Dean as he entered the dining room. Seth, Michael and...

'Shit. I forgot that Jason kid was here.'

"Sit down hon." Sharon said softly and sympathetically.

Dean took the spare seat at the table while Sharon looked around in the freezer before pulling out a bag of peas. "Here. Hold this against your hand." She handed it over and sat back down at the table.

Both Seth and Michael gave him sympathetic looks while Jason seemed, understandably pretty confused as to what was going on. 'Why does he have to be here? He's gonna ask a bunch of questions and I'm gonna end up punching him in the mouth and then I'm the bad guy.'

For now though, Jason just continued eating but the questions would likely come tomorrow.

"Let me have a look at your hand Dean." Asked Sharon. "Well I'm no doctor but I'm about 90% sure this is broken. Come on, I better take you to the hospital." She said standing again.

As they walked towards the front door, Sharon turned back to him. "And then you can tell me what happened."

Back in the dining room, Jason, Seth and Michael sat in awkward silence. "Well, it's getting late. I think it's about time you got home Jason. I'll give you a ride." Said Michael.

"See ya tomorrow Jason." Said Seth.

"See you later."

Michael pulled up outside Jason's home. "Thanks for the lift."

"No problem. Jason, before you go I want to talk to you about something."

"Is it about Dean?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I know what happened at dinner probably seemed pretty odd but..." He paused trying to find the right words.

"It's fine, I'm not going to ask any personal or uncomfortable questions. If I'm supposed to find out then Dean will tell me himself. Everybody's got something that they don't like to talk about and don't want people to know, I understand."

"Good. You know, I may have only met you about 20 minutes ago but I can tell you're a good kid."

"Thanks. And thanks again for the ride." He said opening the door.

"No problem."

In the hospital, Dean was currently having his hand looked at. "It's definitely broken. How did this happen?"

"I, uh, I punched a lamppost." He admitted now feeling a little embarrassed at his lapse in judgement. "I was angry at someone so I punched a post instead of them."

The doctor chuckled. "Well as long as you don't punch any more lampposts you should be fine. I'm going to give you a splint to wear for a few weeks until it heals. I assume your right handed?"

"Uh huh."

"I hope you can write with your left hand. Either that or you'll have to get notes from your classmates. Also, no P.E. for a while."

Dean sighed. "Alright."

"Let me just get your splint."

Sharon and Dean sat in silence as she drove them home. Dean looked down at his injured hand wishing that he could've just held back. At least he now had an excuse to sit back in school.

"I take it you don't want to go back to your own place?"

"Not really."

"That's fine. You can sleep at ours tonight."

"Thanks." He said quietly.

"You wanna explain what happened this time?"

"Same as usual. We argued, he threatened to kick me out and I did nothing about it. The only difference is this time I punched something and broke my hand."

At this point I should probably explain why this was all going on. When Dean was born his mom and dad, Michelle and Frank, were still happily married however a few months prior, Frank was diagnosed with young onset dementia at 34. At first everything was okay, they raised their son well enough and were doing alright but his condition became more and more severe as time went on. He had to retire early at 38 meaning Michelle had to work longer hours and by the time Dean was 7 he could only remember close family members. Dean, his wife and his parents. Unfortunately about a week after Dean's 9th birthday he passed away at the young age of 43 years old, but it would get worse. Frank's parents had never approved of their son marrying Michelle and somehow pinned the blame on her and Dean for everything that had happened so, not long before his death, they took advantage of Frank's condition and had him write his wife and son out of his will.

The two of them were devastated and left with almost nothing. They had to move in with Michelle's mom and times were tough for the first year, that's when Michelle met John. John Brown was a man who Michelle met on a Christmas night out and at first he seemed like a pretty good guy. He was sympathetic to what Michelle and Dean were going through and had genuine feelings towards Michelle, so much so that after a year of dating he invited them to move in with him. Another year passed and he proposed which Michelle happily accepted. The wedding took place 6 months later and everything was good, after tough times things were finally going Michelle and Dean's way. But.

At some point after that something changed. Dean didn't know exactly when it was or why it happened but John's personality became different. Gradually he became more and more angry to the point where about half the time he spoke he was shouting at someone or something. He went from drinking only on special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving to whenever he could get his hands on a bottle. His attitude towards Dean changed from sympathetic and helpful to irrational rage about 75% of the time, something that coincided with Dean's dropping grades in school. Every argument he was involved in would end with "After everything I've done for you, you're gonna treat me this way?" While that would work on Michelle it didn't fly with Dean who would always challenge him.

The one thing John hadn't done though was get physical, as far as Dean knew anyway but he swore to himself that if he ever found out John had hit his mom then he would kill the son of a bitch.

This is all why Dean spent so much time either in detention or his room which is why what Roman said earlier at lunch kind of pissed him off. He couldn't blame him though, while it was common knowledge what happened with Dean's birth father, Seth was the only person in school who knew about everything after the wedding and that's only because Sharon and Michael probed him until they found out what was going on. Since then they had been so supportive and helpful to him, even offering him a place to stay if he ever did get kicked out or just got tired of dealing with John's shit. Dean had thought about accepting their offer multiple times but had so far not taken them up on it, the only thing keeping him at home being his mom. But Dean knew it was only a matter of time before either John did kick him out or he would have to move out himself and he would have no other choice but to leave his mother behind.