Chapter 28: Take that shot
Dean stopped the car immediately. Jimmy and Sam got out of the Impala and ran to car crash, hoping Castiel and Balthazar were ok.
Sam opened the passenger's door of the car and found Castiel unconscious. "Cas." Sam called and turned his boyfriend's head to him gently. Sam saw blood coming of Castiel's head. "Cas." He called again, more softly.
Castiel opened his eyes unfocused. "Sam…" He whispered in a weak voice.
"Hey. Do you have anything broken?" Sam asked to know if it was safe to move Castiel.
Castiel just shook slightly his head and he fainted again. Sam put Castiel's arm around his neck and took him in his arms and went to the Impala.
Jimmy had been trying to open the jammed and dented door of Balthazar's side. "Balthazar, you ok?" Jimmy called for him. He had cuts on his face and in the arm, which was bleeding. "Not really." He answered.
Jimmy noticed fuel coming under the car, so they had to move quickly before the car exploded. When he finally opened the door, Balthazar let out a groan. Jimmy noticed why when he looked at Balthazar's bloody leg.
"Come on. We have to go." Balthazar tried to move but his left leg hurt him a lot, although he didn't think it was broken. With several soft groans of pain, but with Jimmy's help, he got out of the car. Balthazar held himself on Jimmy, and Dean came to help them.
They heard shots coming in their direction. In the distance Jimmy recognized Zack. Dean started to shoot back, but he was too far to hit him. Jimmy and Balthazar hid behind the car. The shots were passing close to them and one bullet hit Balthazar on the right shoulder.
Jimmy, like a fearless hero, stepped away from the car, pulled his gun and fired. After three shots he hit Zach, but he kept shooting. When he released his anger he got back to help Dean taking Balthazar to the car. They lied him down on the backseat and Dean drove away.
Jimmy was knelled on the floor of the car, next to Balthazar, pressing his wounded shoulder with his sweater. "How's Cas?" He asked Sam.
Sam shook his head and sent him a scared look that meant 'I don't know'. He had unconscious Castiel sitting on his lap turned to the side and he was holding him tight. Sam cleaned the blood on his lover's face with his sleeve as he caressed his dark hair.
"We have to take them to a hospital." Jimmy said.
"And where is the hospital? I don't even know where we are." Dean shouted.
"Don't worry, I know this area. Just turn left in the next exit."
Jimmy kept guiding Dean as he took care of Balthazar. He was still in pain but he was better by staying still.
After some time Castiel got conscious again and opened his eyes slightly. "Sam..." He whispered, feeling Sam's embrace.
"Cas." Sam turned his attention to him. "How are you feeling?"
"My head hurts." He answered and Sam kissed his head.
Castiel noticed what was happening around him, where he was and he remembered the crash. "How's Balthazar?" He asked suddenly. Then he looked behind Sam's shoulder. "Oh my god." He said as he saw Balthazar lied down, pale and covered with blood.
"You were right, it was a bad idea." Balthazar managed to say and forced a smile at Castiel. "But it was the only way of stopping them." Behind Balthazar's words Jimmy could sense his pain.
"So can you tell how you're alive?" Castiel asked his brother to dissipate the silence in the car.
"Ok." Jimmy took a deep breath before he started. "Well, I don't know what happened exactly. I was hidden in the car and when the crash happened and the car falling, I screamed. Only then mom realized I was there." Jimmy told mainly to Castiel. "I remember water coming from everywhere. Mom tried to get out but she couldn't, so she pulled me out of the car by the window. The current dragged me, I hit on a rock and I blacked out. When I woke up I was in a warehouse, some guys had take me there and decided to keep me. Only then I knew they were thieves. I tried to get out of there, get back home, but they didn't let me. They trained me and inserted me in the gang." Jimmy explained, ashamed for the things he had done. "The gang was rival of Zack's. Some months ago we had a fight; that was when I met Balthazar."
"I was very surprised. I thought he was you." Balthazar said to Castiel.
"Since Balthazar told me about his deal with Zack we worked on a way of getting you out of it. Of getting us all free."
Of Jimmy's emotional story all Castiel was able to say "Thanks…"
Jimmy smiled at him. It's good to have you back. Castiel sent the message mentally to his brother.
He felt a stronger pain in his head and he took a hand to his head as he groaned.
"Cas…" Jimmy and Sam said concerned at the same time.
The peak of pain faded and Sam noticed Castiel relaxing a bit. "You feel better?" Sam asked as he rubbed his boyfriend's arm.
"Yeah…" He said, although his head still hurt him, in a way to thank him for trying to make him feel better.
But Sam didn't believe in him, so he unexpectedly kissed Castiel. Castiel wasn't sure what Sam's kiss meant; it wasn't essentially passionate but there was love, like in all Sam's kisses. Castiel moved gently his body to adjust into a new comfortable position where he could better Sam's affection, he unconsciously put a firm hand on Sam's face and the kiss became deeper and more passionate.
"Hey, hey. Guys… stop." Dean protested.
Sam ignored and put a hand between Castiel's legs seductively.
"Sam, what the hell?" Dean shouted.
Sam broke the kiss. Castiel saw a quick smirk on Sam's lips, he enjoyed to piss off his brother. "I was just experimenting something." Sam said innocently.
"You don't do that kind of experiments in my car." Dean put the eyes back on the road. "And much less in my presence."
"I just wanted to make Cas feel better…" Sam tried to explain but immediately thought he had picked the wrong word.
"Oh, I'm sure you did."
In that moment Castiel noticed he didn't feel the headache while Sam was kissing him. Unfortunately the pain was coming back. "What Sam meant was that he wanted to take my pain away."
"How?" Dean asked like 'how a kiss would help?'.
"Tricking my brain. The brain is like a machine and it can do several things at the same time. But if there's only one information to process, like pain, it will do only that at full capacity; but if there's other stimulus, the brain will have multiples tasks and it will reduce the pain." Sam explained a kind like a doctor.
"So that's why parents caress kids' wounds when they're hurt?" Dean asked. Castiel nodded. "Hum, I always thought that was just to calm down the kids, that it had only psychological effect."
"Nope, there's scientific proves."
"But as the caresses didn't work, I thought it was best something more… vigorous." Sam said. "Did it work?" He asked Castiel.
"Momentarily, yes." He answered with the pain coming back again.
In the meanwhile Jimmy was getting worried about Balthazar. The sweater he was pressing against the wound was already soaked in blood. He noticed the fast breathing of Balthazar and he could tell he was in pain by the expressions of his face. With the free hand Jimmy hold Balthazar's cold hand.
"Thank you… for helping me to get my brother back." Jimmy said.
"I promised I'd help you." Balthazar coughed.
"I know… But I didn't trust you at the time…now, I do. You risked your life… I just wanted you to know I appreciate what you did."
Balthazar squeezed Jimmy's hand right before faint. He checked Balthazar's pulse, he was still alive but his pulse was weak. "Hang on. We're almost there." Jimmy said, not only to Balthazar but also to himself.
Castiel was looking out the window. "I know this place. I know where we are. We're…"
"Home." Jimmy finished his brother's sentence.
In 5 minutes they got to the hospital where they were immediately assisted.
