Author's Note: And, this is the continuation of our Thanksgiving special.

Other: And, a continuing thank you to my beta for this story, vrskaandrea - any remaining errors are solely my own.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Boy in Need

Chuck stood back in the corner with his empty plate held to his chest as he watched Dean, Sam, Cas, Benny, Ben, Claire, Kaia, Jack, and Jesse take what they wanted from the different things Benny had cooked. There was gooducken, jambalaya, broccoli casserole, hash brown casserole, homemade mashed potatoes with sliced purple bell pepper mixed in, cider gravy, and sage stuffing. The apple crumb pie, peach pie, pumpkin cream pie, and rhubarb pie were all sitting on the stove for dessert.

Chuck attempted to shrink back further into the corner - which was impossible since he couldn't move any further back - when Benny looked at him after everyone else had already gotten their plates full - overfull in Dean, Cas, and Jesse's cases. 'Chuck, I'm not going to bite you. But, I didn't spend most of today cooking all this food for it to sit there and look pretty. Now, come on! Everybody else has gotten their plates…and bowls for those who wanted jambalaya on there first go through the line.' Benny explained. Sam, Kaia, and Jack having been the only ones to get jambalaya, so far.

Chuck shook his head and could feel himself start shaking. He knew he should have waited until everyone else was done! He couldn't deal with people, right now! 'Cher?' Benny asked, nudging Dean in the right side with his left elbow.

'If it would make you feel better, I can move and you can sit next to Dean?' Jesse offered.

Chuck looked at Jesse who was sitting at Dean's right but he also saw Benny sitting at Dean's left. He could see the flinch from Benny. Chuck shook his head and rushed out of the kitchen, still clinging to the plate.

'Why don't you make him up a plate and take it to him, Dean? I think anybody else would send him straight into that panic attack he's leaning toward.' Sam suggested.

Dean glanced at Benny but he could tell Benny was purposefully avoiding looking at him. Dean turned his attention back to Sam. 'I think I'll just wait until the kitchen's cleared out some and then get him to come back. You know how much he likes that plate.' He said carefully.

'What the hell is wrong with you Dean? You won't fight for your son! You won't fight for your soulmate! You won't fight for your friend! Would you even fight for me or Cas, at this point?' Sam snapped.

'You know I would, Sammy!' Dean said defensively.

Sam shook his head. 'No Dean, I don't.' He said regretfully. 'What happened to you?' He asked curiously.

'You get beat down enough Sammy, you quit giving a fuck no matter who it is you're supposed to be caring about.' Dean said hollowly. 'Maybe Chuck was better off with Becky, at least then he knew she was a monster.' Dean continued and then looked at Benny. 'Instead of having to learn about the one I'm with.' He added.

Between one second and the next, Dean had been slammed against the wall, but NOT by Benny…by Cas. 'I am so fucking sick of you, Dean! You keep calling Benny a monster but you don't consider that I'M the same thing he is!' Cas shouted angrily, pulling Dean forward only to slam him back against the wall repeatedly as he spoke.

'Cas!' Sam snapped.

'Sit down, Castiel!' Benny ordered.

Dean watched as Cas went back to his seat to the left of Sam. He looked at the kids and there was a mix of curiosity, wonder, and fear on their faces. Dean returned to his seat next to Benny. 'Yeah, happy fucking Thanksgiving!' He thought angrily to himself.

xXxXx

Everyone - not counting the absent Chuck - was sitting around with dessert when there was a knock at the door. Dean stood up, picked up his plate of half a slice of apple crumb pie and still a whole slice of rhubarb pie, and walked out of the kitchen and to the front door. Dean shifted the plate to his left hand and opened the door with his right. 'Gabriel? The fuck?' He asked confused.

'Sam invited me. Kali and I got into it. Uh…Kali isn't going the posting the photos but she has posted the video. Um…can I see Chuck?' Gabriel asked carefully.

Dean stepped to his left. 'He's in the music studio.' He admitted. 'If you want some of Benny's pumpkin cream pie…there's still over half a pie left.' He added as Gabriel walked past him. It did not surprise him in the slightest that instead of heading toward the basement that Gabriel headed toward the kitchen and a couple minutes later came out with the rest of the pumpkin cream pie - pie tin and all - and then headed toward the basement.

xXxXx

Gabriel walked into the music studio and noticed Chuck sitting back in the far corner, a plate - he figured there was SOME point to that that he just wasn't going to be getting - held tightly to his chest, and his knees pulled up to his chest. 'Hey, Chuck.' Gabriel said easily.

Chuck's head snapped up to look at Gabriel. Chuck narrowed his eyes. 'Wha-what?' That wasn't the entire question he wanted to ask but it was as much as he could get figured out in his head so he could ask it.

'Sam invited me. I think he's tired of the issues between you, Dean-o, and Benjy.' Gabriel explained.

Chuck lowered his head. 'Not. Don't mean. Don't want. Trouble.' He tried to explain.

Gabriel tilted his head curiously. He was pretty sure that what Chuck was meaning was 'That's not my intent' or intention. 'I don't mean - I don't want trouble', that one…he's not to sure on.

'Kali and I decided to call it quits, again.' Gabriel admitted reluctantly.

Chuck kept his head down and stayed quiet. He knew what Gabriel said was important, but he figured that the part of him that's supposed to care just wasn't working, because he didn't care.

'She decided not to share the pictures of you and me…apparently, she's not actually wanting to hurt MY career, but she did post the video of you.' Gabriel admitted reluctantly.

Chuck looked at Gabriel confused. 'Vie, beg, veggie.' Chuck shook his head, KNOWING those weren't the right words and he could tell that Gabriel was confused. 'Video?' He asked confused. 'THAT'S it!' He thought to himself.

'Yeah. Kali has a video of you that she got from Becky. It's…of you on the breeding bench.' Gabriel admitted hesitantly.

Chuck shook his head. 'No!' He said scared.

'I'm sorry. I was staying away because of pictures Kali was threatening to release and the last time we fought…she admitted to also having a video and I knew enough from what you told me - which admittedly wasn't much - about the breeding bench that -' Gabriel began to explain carefully.

'No!' Chuck repeated, shaking his head before standing up. Gabriel went to stand up to but Chuck was already running out of the room - with that oddball plate - yelling for Dean like the name itself had become his mantra. And, according to what Cas had told him when Chuck was relearning some things…Dean was one of the first words he could consistently get right.

xXxXx

Everybody looked at each other, Dean and Benny looked curiously at each other as they all heard Chuck yell repeatedly for Dean. Dean turned around in his seat - for the island table, he found barstool like seats to be more sensible, and he certainly liked the rotating seats, since it kept down floor scraping - just in time to end up in a collision on Westwood Boulevard…or as the technical case was, just in time to get knocked back against the side of the island when Chuck all but tackled him. 'Video. Me. Ga - video.' Chuck tried to explain as he clung tightly Dean, his face buried against Dean's chest.

'Chuck, relax. I'm not understanding you. You're not still upset about that damn video of us during your music therapy, are you?' Dean asked soothingly.

Chuck shook his head. 'No! Video! Bee key! Video! Cali! Be-be-bench!' He tried to explain.

Dean nudged Chuck back enough so he could hop off the stool and then wrapped his arms around the smaller man, he'd worry about the growl from Benny later. 'Video, I got that. Becky, I understood that part. He's not the first person who's called Kali, Cali but I will need to correct him on that…eventually. What's a BENCH got to do with it?' He thought curiously to himself. 'Shit! THAT bench!' He realized. 'Kali released the video?' He asked carefully.

Chuck nodded quickly, his breaths coming much to quickly.

'Have you seen it?' Benny asked carefully.

Dean's head snapped back to glare at Benny. 'Fuck you! What kind of question is that?' He snapped.

'Yeah, I can see this was mistake. I can see where I stand with you.' Benny said regretfully.

'You selfish son of a bitch! My life doesn't and WILL NEVER revolve around you! I'm sorry that I actually CARE about Chuck but I'm NOT going to change that about myself! I'd prefer caring about the people closest to me and being able to sleep at night then to become whatever the hell it is that YOU apparently want me to become and not being able to LIVE with myself!' Dean snapped.

Chuck took a couple steps back from Dean. He looked back and forth at Dean and Benny several times. 'I - I - didn't mean. I - I'm sorry.' He said regretfully through his frantic breathing before turning and running out the front door.

'Fuck!' Dean said frustrated. 'You -' Dean pointed angrily at Benny 'shouldn't have come. And, you -' Dean moved his finger to point at Sam 'WHAT THE HELL were you thinking?' Dean asked angrily before taking off after Chuck.

'What the hell, Benny?' Sam snapped.

Benny dropped his head. 'I think he's right, I shouldn't have come.' He admitted regretfully. He looked at Sam. 'Why did you invite me here if you knew that Dean and Chuck were -' He began.

'For the love of - dammit, Benny! He's not sleeping with Chuck! But, with the way you keep acting around them…I can't honestly I'd blame him if he did. Chuck wouldn't be as nearly toxic for him as you are!' Sam said angrily.

'And, what the hell would YOU know about getting out of toxic relationships? It took you how long to get out of yours with Lucifer? And, the only reason you got out of it then was because his own baby brother - CASTIEL - put a bullet through his fucking head.' Benny snapped and immediately regretted his words. If he were being honest, he was surprised that Cas didn't punch him and by the curious look on Sam's face who'd turned his attention to Cas…so was he.

xXxXx

If Dean were being honest, he'd gotten used to chasing Chuck around his property over the past week - he still wasn't to sure what possessed Chuck to start wanting to run from him, but he'd went along with it so far - but typically that involved Chuck running out the back door, off the deck, and towards the more wooded area of the backyard NOT out the front door, around past the lavender shrubs - Dean kept the shrubs as sort of dividers between the front and back yard - and through the backyard heading toward the wooded area.

Dean realized when he started getting stuck going past the shrubs - for some reason the area directly around or between his shrubs didn't really allow grass to grow so it stayed primarily dirt so sock feet tended to stick in the mud after it had rained more than shoes - that unlike Chuck who'd apparently bothered to stop and put on shoes, DEAN had not taken those extra seconds to put on some shoes.

When Dean got within arms reach of Chuck, he grabbed the back of Chuck's shirt with his right hand to either stop him or pull him back or something, but when Chuck instead tried to spin away from Dean it caused Dean to lose his footing and took not only himself down to the still damp ground but also Chuck…Dean using the moment before hitting the ground to wrap his right arm around Chuck's stomach.

'So, we've established that six out of seven times that I can catch your ass before we hit trees. My next question should be easy, then…is it safe to let you up or are you going to start running, again?' Dean asked carefully, purposefully avoiding the fact that they were probably both going to have to change their clothes too since he was pretty sure he was muddy…or just plain wet on his left side.

'Scared. Video.' Chuck admitted whispering.

'I know.' Dean whispered as he sat up. 'Do you want me to find out just what it is and see if it's as bad as Gabriel's implying?' He asked carefully.

Chuck looked at Dean before sitting up. He hesitantly nodded his head.

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Author's Note: Now, here's the thing about Overachiever, Louden Swain's second album…there is a song after Boy in Need entitled Cast Off, BUT…if you paid attention to the chapter titles of this story you can go back several chapters to what was the FIRST title used from Overachiever which is also Cast Off. Put simply, we are obviously skipping the tenth song off of the album because it's the same thing as the first…a demo version but still essentially the same damn thing.

Reviews/Comments/Constructive Criticism welcome!

Flames will be used to roast marshmallows and then promptly deleted!