Author's Note:
I am sorry if this chapter feels odd, I'm having a hard time feeling the 'writing mood' lately, don't know why. I'm not a fan of high school fics apparently o_o I really should have kept this one smaller and only a few chapters but I didn't see how I could do that and add all the details I wanted *sigh* So yeah, hope it's okay guys, sorry again because my lack of motivation results in a small chapter :P
Also, whoa whoa! No one's dying! Lmao I didn't even imagine that people would assume that ha ha ha! But I guess you never know XP
"What do you mean you can't do anything! ?" John shouted into his cell phone, he'd gotten the message as soon as he'd returned from the house visit and had charged to the hospital like a maniac. He'd gotten the description from Ellen and Jo and promptly flipped shit. He'd been on the phone with a police officer for the last hour or so and only now was he finally getting an answer to his adamant questions. "Bullshit." John spat, "Bullshit you can't do anything! Those boys chased my son into the street; they're liable and at least partially responsible!"
"I'm sorry, sir. We've questioned several witnesses and the majority of them say that your son ran into the street on his own, none of them touched him." The officer on the other line replied and the answer nearly made John turn red in the face.
"That's because they're intolerant assholes!" John shouted, part of him shocked that he was saying it. Wouldn't that have been him? Watching a homosexual man get hit by something and figure it was meant to happen? No. Not if the same thing meant Sam was stuck in a hospital bed. If standing on your own stubborn moral ground meant this, John wanted nothing to do with it. "My boy was being bullied and he had no choice but to go the way he did, plus the way I heard the story from the woman who was the first on the scene, he was being lifted up by his shirt and threatened."
"We talked to her as well, Mr. Winchester, and she and her daughter are the only ones who have explained the story in that way. The other ten or so people that were in the area said that that had never happened."
John snarled but hung up, knowing when he'd lost. He walked back into the hospital and to the sitting room his family was in, glancing at the way Dean nervously twitched and bounced his leg up and down, and Mary's solemn and tearful expression. He looked over at Jet who had finished pacing around the room and settled for leaning against the most out of the way wall, his fingers still twitching as he was clearly agitated. Castiel hunched forward, cell in hand as he texted furiously to someone, his brow furrowed in a deep creasing way that only accented his glare at the device.
"The police say that 'there were more witnesses saying Sam randomly ran into the street'." John fumed and stomped across the floor back and forth in a similar way that Jet had done earlier. "This is infuriating!" He shouted, "Who would honestly believe a bunch of stupid teenagers over an adult like Ellen?"
"People with the same mindset as the teenagers." Cas muttered, "I'm sure the teens probably explained why Sam was being approached and in this small town that's reason enough to ignore the law." He glowered angrily at the floor and fumbled the phone around in his hands. "I've been texting my family, they're looking into it themselves."
John looked over at Cas, a little surprised that a stranger to their family would take this much interest in it. "If I can ask, out of curiosity, why would you help?"
Castiel looked up and smirked a little, "I've been where Sam is, maybe I never had the guts to fight back and the bad luck to run into the street, but I've been there. I... I never went to the police but my brother tried to once for me. He basically got the same response, 'well we can't do anything'. So I'm pretty sure the police in this town aren't going to help you out of the goodness of their intolerant, closed-minded asses."
John managed a small smile, this Castiel wasn't such a bad thing for Dean, he figured. He was going to have a talk with Dean about it, the whole 'I really like this guy' right after Cas got rich and moved away stint then came back gorgeous and Dean liked him even more. But it looked like Castiel had a brain of his own and could handle himself against a possibly still-thinking-with-his-hormones Dean. Of course, John hadn't talked to Dean about that much at all so he didn't claim to know much about Dean's feelings for Cas, it'd probably be a good idea to discuss at some point.
"So then what can your family do?" Jet asked after everyone was silent and he felt someone needed to break it.
"They're calling in private investigators, for one." Cas shrugged, "We'll see how it goes from there."
"Private investigators?" Mary asked, just trying to understand the situation by repeating in general.
"Yes, they'll look into it; ask more tasking questions than 'oh he's gay? Never mind we're done here', and probably set us up with a good case and an ability to put those bullies away for a while." Castiel fired off another text as he spoke, glancing up toward the door when he heard it open.
Gabriel trudged in looking like hell had been beaten out of him. He had a pretty intense bump on his head where he'd been hit to knock him out earlier, bruises along his limbs but nothing too serious. "Where's Sam?"
"What the heck happened to you?" Dean stood up and stared down at the teen dating his brother, feeling a little concerned at the sight of him.
"I got pushed around this morning by a bunch of thugs and when I came to someone said Sam had been in an accident." Gabriel looked at the doors to the room that the Winchester gang was circled around, "He's in there?"
"Yeah, but no one's allowed to see him." Cas went to Gabriel's side and helped to a chair, "You're okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine, just a little lumpy in the head right now." Gabriel shooed him away agitatedly, "Just... I need to see if he's okay. What happened? Someone said he ran into the street but that's not like him."
"He was chased there," John muttered angrily, "Probably by the same bullies you were dealing with."
"Fantastic..." Gabriel sighed and rubbed his head, looking exhausted. "Not that I wanted anyone to waste their time helping me or anything but it's nice to know nobody was worried where I was."
"We didn't know you were involved," Dean said quietly, "Anyone who could have told us that isn't doing so well." They all looked at the doors solemnly, Mary blowing her nose and trying to stay composed even though she was terrified for her baby's life and health.
John sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as the time slowly ticked by in silence. "We're going to have to move or something." John muttered, glancing at Mary who didn't look like she wanted to deal with it at that moment.
The nurse came out and looked at them, "He's stable and we're allowing visitors now," She urged them all to be soft-spoken as they didn't want to startle him but he was pumped pretty full of morphine and other pain killers that he might barely even notice they were being loud.
Dean pushed in ahead of the rest, moving straight to Sam's side and taking his hand, only once he'd done that did he dare look at the rest of his little brother. Tubes and needles sticking into him, the doctors distantly explaining to John and Mary what kind of bone fractures and internal damage had been caused. "Sammy?" Dean whispered, tears in his eyes read to fall.
Sam's green eyes fluttered open tiredly and he looked over at them, barely focusing and seeming to look past everyone he tried to see. But he recognized enough, "Dean?" He asked weakly and that was enough to cause Dean's tears to spill over.
"Hey," Dean said in a hoarse voice, not sure why it sounded that way, "Hey Sammy. Yeah it's me, I'm here."
Sam smiled a little and closed his eyes again, silent tears slipping down his cheeks, his fingers wrapping delicately around Dean's. "I was scared..." he mumbled.
"I know," Dean rubbed his hand gently, scared to touch anything else for fear of broken bones, "I know you were and I'm so sorry I wasn't there with you, Sam. I am so sorry." He gingerly reached up and brushed some of the matted hair from his brother's face, "You're going to be okay, alright?"
Sam nodded, barely but it was recognizable. He looked around again and spotted Gabriel smiling sadly at him, "Gabe?" He whispered, "You're okay?"
"Yeah," Gabriel reached over and touched him gently, "I was just bumped on the noggin that's all, nothing big."
Sam sighed relieved, then looked at Castiel with a quivering lip, "Cas..." he reached over and Castiel promptly took it, not wanting Sam to exert himself in anyway.
"Yeah, sweetie?" He leaned closer so Sam wouldn't have to speak any louder, either. His eyes were a calming blue, a caring smile on his lips as he watched the little Winchester struggle.
"I'm sorry." Sam gasped as his chest tightened and a pained sob made him wince.
"Oh Sam, no, what on earth are you sorry for?" Cas moved a bit closer to wipe the tears away, "You never did anything wrong, sweetheart, don't cry okay?"
Sam sniffled a bit and nodded stubbornly, "I'm sorry you didn't have anyone there to help you when you needed them." He inhaled shakily and tried to stay strong though it was clearly difficult for him at that moment, "I have Gabriel right now but you didn't have Dean then, I don't know how you did it alone." He hiccupped another sob and Cas let Gabriel do the gentle task of wiping Sam's tears away. He looked at Dean for a second and then back to Sam, giving the boy's hand a soft but determined squeeze.
"Don't you worry about me, Sam. I've taken that journey but I wasn't alone, I had my family behind me and my two best friends at all times. When I moved away I'd met someone else to help me through the rest of it so don't feel bad for me, you don't have to apologize, but I do appreciate your concern. You're an amazing person, Sam, and I know you'll be fine." Cas hoped Sam would be fine but he didn't want to weaken his statements with a 'maybe' so he left it out.
After that Castiel stepped out and let the people closer to Sam see him, his parents, brother, boyfriend, and pseudo-brother. Cas was just his brother's boyfriend, not nearly as important. Instead he stood back and handled the messages from his parents, telling them how Sam was doing and what the boy had said to him. It was agreed among the Novak's that they'd have to visit the Winchester residence when Sam was brought home, bring that poor family a great meal to spare Mary from cooking and offer their sympathies.
Of course, Cas didn't know when Sam would be let out so he asked his dad to focus on getting those private investigators. Jimmy only responded with 'lol Balthazar's got his hands all over that, no worries'. And Castiel had to chuckle softly, was there something his English friend couldn't do? If there was he didn't know of it.