Heartburn Chapter 14
A/Ns: Update schedule posted on my writing blog ( .com) and any updates/tardiness/ramblings other than replies will be on there for now.
YJ-Lover: I wish I could say that was exactly what my plan was with the shower, but I was actually just thinking of really expensive house stuff Dean would like. Though, now that the idea is there…
pizzapig: TBH I hadn't even thought about it, but the idea of the dungeon still existing in the bunker is growing on me at an alarming rate. It might explain the lower price on the place.
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The drive isn't as calming as it was on the way home, but that's mostly due to the traffic from everyone getting off their shifts at the hospital. A sharp twist in his stomach pulls at him when he drives by the hospital. If shit hadn't hit the fan the way it did earlier this week, he'd just be leaving himself. With the traffic, and getting stopped at what felt like every light on the way, it takes him a little over twenty five minutes to get to the bar.
It's still early enough that the lot isn't packed, but it's certainly starting to pick up. He doesn't see any cars that he can recognize, but he doesn't know what Castiel's car looks like or who all is coming. Knowing Jo, it's going to be a lot more than just a few.
He glances around the bar until his eyes finally find a recognizable face, or rather messy, brown hair. Not only that, but the poor guy looks miserable sitting at a table by himself. Dean catches Castiel looking at his watch before standing up from the table, and that's all it takes to make Dean all but rush over to the table.
The doctor turns to look at Dean when he hears the nurse apologizing behind him, "Shit, Cas, I'm sorry man. I should have told you. None of us show up on time for anything other than work." Dean frowns when Castiel doesn't say anything, "I wasn't thinking and got caught up with something and… fuck." How is Dean supposed to say the reason he was late because he was trying to find something to wear that would impress Castiel, and not to mention he's already screwing that chance up majorly.
Dean starts to feel himself begin to panic until he sees that almost invisible smile thing that Castiel does, "Hello, Dean."
"I know," Dean releases the breath he didn't realize he was holding, "I'll buy your drinks tonight to start making up for it."
"You don't have to-" but Castiel is cut off when Dean gives him a hard look and points a finger in his face.
Castiel sits back down and Dean smiles as he sits down next to him in the booth. The two men sit in silence for a minute before Dean realizes he should be getting drinks like he said he was going to. As he is sliding back out of the booth, he removes his jacket and sets it where he was sitting, "So what's your poison?"
When Dean doesn't hear an immediate response he looks back at Castiel. "Cas?"
The doctor jolts and Dean thinks he almost looks guilty for something, but before he can ask about it Castiel interrupts him, "I'm sorry?"
"Your poison? What do you want to drink, Cas?" Something tells Dean he should really ask what the hell that all was about, but pushes it to the side to focus more on the prospect of drinking. He's been wanting one since around seven this morning.
"Whatever you're getting will be fine, thank you." Castiel seems so lost, and Dean has to wonder how often the guy gets out to do stuff like this.
Dean gives Castiel one last questioning look and then heads off to the bar to order some drinks, "I'll be right back."
At the bar, Dean waves one of the two servers and grabs a menu while he's ordering drinks. Against his better judgment he orders a lot of drinks, but tells himself he's making up for it when he gets a waitress' attention and orders some food too. The waitress takes his order and Dean points at the booth he and Castiel are at.
Dean's smile, he didn't even know he was smiling up to that point, disappears when he sees Castiel surrounded by other people. At first he's bummed that he lost any chance for more one on one time with the doctor, but it's suddenly replaced with fear when he makes out two blondes and a red head already laughing and chatting away. Of course it had to be them, and the moment Dean left him alone no less.
Grabbing the first two ready drinks and asking the waitress to bring the rest over in a bit, Dean makes his way back to the booth. A bright, white flash slows him down briefly before he's aware the girls are probably taking photos. Sure enough, when Dean gets to the table, the three girls are all scrunched up against the doctor with a Charlie's camera phone stretched way out in front of them.
Another flash.
Dean's "Fight or Flight" instincts are kicking in, he knows this may be his one and only chance to get away from what is bound to be a very embarrassing confrontation but that would leave Castiel at the mercy of three very scary women. He doesn't know what's wrong with him, but in the end he decides to do what he can to rescue the doctor from the overly excited girls… again, and this time without a scapegoat. There's no doubt in his mind that he's going to question his sanity over this later.
When Dean approaches the booth, he places the tray of drinks down on the table, mentally cringing when all eyes are suddenly on him. Castiel looks slightly relieved when he first sees Dean, but fear is still the most prominent feature on his face. As for the girls, there's an eerie twinkle in the girl's eyes and he's not sure what to make of that. Not until he spots a couple of books sitting on the table in front of them.
"Oh, no. No no no." Dean shakes his head and then reaches for Castiel in an attempt to pull him over Charlie sitting on his left, "You are not dragging Cas into your weird-ass book cult."
All three girls look offended by Dean's comment, which brings a short lived satisfaction until Charlie pulls Castiel back down in his seat and sending Dean a glare, "It's not a weird-ass book cult." Castiel sits back down in his seat, albeit stiffly, as Charlie puffs up and raises her chin at Dean. "And for your information we haven't said a word about it to Castiel."
Jo smirks and reaches for one of the shots from the tray Dean brought over, "But now that you bring it up, that's not a bad idea, Dean."
Dean frowns and points angrily at the blond, "No."
To which Jo nods her head with a large, mocking grin as she lifts the glass to her mouth, "Yes."
Charlie seems to get the same idea as Jo and her eyes fall on the tray of drinks, "Ooo!" She reaches for what looks like a cocktail, but pulls it back quickly as if she was burned when Dean smacks her hand away. Even though it was a light tap, she stares wide-eyed at Dean and her mouth drops open.
Dean reaches over the table to grab the drink from Jo, "Those aren't for you."
He's not quick enough though, and Jo downs the shot and gives Dean the empty glass with the same large grin she gave him before. "Well then, better hop to getting us some more before we drink them all."
"Like hell I'm going to leave Cas with you crazy girls another second." Dean drops the shot glass on the table and gestures towards Castiel. "Poor guy looks terrified for his life."
Jo wraps an arm around Castiel's shoulder as the doctor looks at the girls around him through the corner of his eyes. "He'll be fine, Dean. We'll take good care of him."
Dean doesn't want to think about the feelings bubbling up inside him about Jo hanging all over the doctor and pushes past it for now. Instead, he starts pulling at Charlie again who immediately clings around Castiel and tries kicking one of her legs at him. Unfortunately for Charlie, Dean gets a good hold on the leg flailing itself in Dean's direction and starts pulling her from the booth, "Oh, no you don't. I don't trust any of you for a second. If anyone is going to take care of Cas, it's me."
Everyone suddenly freezes and Dean drops Charlie's leg against the booth seat with a soft thump. Warning bells start blaring in Dean's mind, and with the pause from the others, he can only imagine what's going through their heads. He should have ran when he had the chance.
"Awwww!" All three girls coo in that disgusting way Dean hates. He would be relieved to see both Jo and Charlie disentangling themselves from Castiel if he saw it, but he's already running back to the bar for more drinks.
Stupid girls.
Dean's been over at the bar for at least ten minutes before someone pats him on the shoulder twice before joining him to sit at the bar. When he turns around he sees Benny already in his casuals.
"How's it going, brotha?" Benny taps his hat in Dean's direction. "Somethin' you want to share with me?"
Closing his eyes and frowning, Dean takes a deep breath to steel himself for what's going to be a long conversation. There are very few people he planned on telling, but he trusts Benny like family and it already sounds like he knows something is up. He takes a swig of his beer and then rubs his hands over his face. "Man, to be honest, I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you." There's a pause as Dean stares down at the remainder of his drink through the thick glass. "Can I at least ask how much you know and who told you?"
"Not much and who else?" Benny smirks as he waves over one of the servers.
"Jo." Dean huffs a laugh at the thought of already knowing who was responsible. She was probably the one who invited Benny in the first place. "Well, can you give me a little more to go on. I mean other than Jo."
"Jo actually didn't say much," Benny waits to finish his thought to order a beer. "I knew something was up when I saw you and a doctor playing gardener in the courtyard. That kind of thing sets all sorts of warnings."
Dean hadn't realized that people saw him and Castiel out in the courtyard, but with all of the windows it would be amazing if everyone didn't know something was going on. Fuck. What if the EDONs saw? Sure they were helping Joshua, and now knowing who he is makes this whole thing even weirder, but Dean's pretty certain there were a number of times where their behavior, or at least Dean's, went way beyond professional.
"I can't go into the details obviously, but at the very least I can tell you that there's a few of us that won't be around the hospital until things get sorted out." Dean doesn't miss how Benny's posture straightens or how the small smile from before thins. "I'm not worried about it though," he's lying but hopes that his friend won't catch it, "Sammy's on it and I'm sure everything will be back to normal in no time."
The look on Benny's face tells Dean that he wants to push it further, but to Dean's relief Benny drops the conversation. His relief is short lived when Benny smirks and decides to discuss another subject Dean doesn't wish to talk about at the moment. "Speaking of you and the doc frolicking in the courtyard…"
Dean chokes a little on the last gulp of his beer, "What? Dude, there was no frolicking."
"Oh, really? Me, several other nurses, and a photo on Ms. Rosen's phone would beg to differ on that one."
"I don't frolic!" A couple of people turn to stare at Dean's almost yelling and odd choice in conversation. One of them is unfortunate to catch Dean's eye, "What are you looking at?" Benny starts laughing and Dean's decided he's had enough teasing from this end of the bar and makes his way back over to the other nuisances in the room.
He catches Castiel mumbling something followed by laughter from the girls and he remembers the reason he walked away from them in the first place. Ignoring the new attention from the people sitting at the booth, Dean sticks his hand out in Becky's direction.
Jo completely disregards Dean's demanding attitude, "Finished sulking, Winchester?"
He's still not going to acknowledge any of them until he gets what he came over here for. Dean opens and closes his hand at Becky indicating her to give him something. "Hand it over."
Becky stares wide eyed at Dean and then over to the girls who only look back confused. Rather then giving Dean what he wants, she fumbles with her phone in her hands for a few seconds before Dean heard two different beeps. The beeps made both Jo and Charlie jump in their seats and scramble to look at their phones.
This time Dean's eyes widen, "You didn't."
Becky smiles nervously and judging by the squeals from the two other girls he knows that exactly what she did. Castiel looks uncomfortable again and glances at Dean hoping to share what's going on.
However, Dean is more focused on retrieving any and all evidence, "All right, hand em' over."
Jo holds up her free hand and holds her index finger in the air towards the ceiling while she types away on her phone.
The action catches Dean unprepared and he stares confused at her while she continues to type away. Her phone makes another beep and she happily sets it down in front of her with a smug look. Dean continues to stare at her, now in disbelief. "What did you-"
Another beep is heard across the bar, and when Dean glances over he sees Benny reach for his coat pocket pulling out his phone. He can hear Benny laughing from here. His anger is beginning to outweigh his embarrassment, but he's not even sure what to say. But embarrassment takes the forefront of his emotions when he sees Castiel squirm in his seat and pull out his own cell phone.
He wasn't even gone twenty minutes and they've already managed to get Castiel's phone number and embarrass Dean for the rest of the evening if not week. He hasn't even seen the photo, but it must be something judging by Castiel's face. Dean can pinpoint the moment Castiel goes from confusion to understanding, and then a slightly sheepish face which can only mean the same embarrassment Dean is feeling right now.
Dean reaches over and snatches the phone from Castiel's hand to look at the image and is dumbfounded by what he sees, "Oh my God, I'm frolicking."
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