tw: anxiety, sensory issues, neglect mention

summary: sam and dean meet their cabins.

word count: 2,028

They found the sign painted with an awestruck highland warrior, as well as the small team name Dean was getting so much amusement from, and Dean checked his paper again.

"Your counselor's name is Lawrence, Sammy," he relayed upon finding the desired information, then scoffed a little. "Fitting for a Wonder–"

"Dean!"

Still smirking, the teenager relented, jerking his head for his brother to follow him the rest of the way to the sign. It seemed the actual counselors were still occupied with harassing people at the entrance, with one of the slightly older college students in matching blue shirts proclaiming their status as "Professional Kids" supervising at each of the signs.

The one at Sam's met Dean's gaze as he approached, offering up a ready smile. "Hey! Do you have a camper for me?"

"Yeah." Dean really didn't like talking to these people, and he couldn't exactly explain why. "Uh, this is Sam. He's in Cabin 32 with Lawrence?"

"Perfect, then you're in the right place!" the guy replied easily. "Lawrence is still at Spirit Tunnel with the other counselors, but he'll be here soon, and until then, he'll be hanging out with me." His gaze turned to the boy now getting very close to hiding behind Dean, and he waved a little. "Hi, Sam. I'm Matt, I'm one of the PCs here at camp. Are you excited?"

"Yeah," Sam confirmed quietly, not yet moving from his position half-behind his big brother.

"A little nervous?" Matt asked, and once again, the boy nodded.

"I guess a little bit."

"Hey, totally understandable. Is this your first time at camp?"

This time, Sam stuck with the nod.

"You should have seen me on my first day, Man," the guy commiserated with a soft chuckle. "As camper and staff. I was terrified. But I know you are gonna have an absolute blast."

His gaze turned to the area around them, and Dean inwardly sighed. This conversation was getting real old, real fast.

"Are you the big brother?" Matt asked, his gaze back on Dean.

The teen nodded. "Yeah." He swallowed hard. "Um… I'm Dean."

"Good to meet you, Dean." He held out his hand, and the young hunter hesitantly shook it. "Are you on Crew this session?"

Unfortunately.

"Yeah," he confirmed again, shifting just as Sam had a few moments before.

"Glad to hear it. My summers on Crew were some of the most impactful of my whole life."

Fantastic. That was fantastic.

Matt hesitated a moment before asking carefully, "Do you guys–uh–have a parent with you, dropping you off?"

"No, uh–" His eyes dropped from the PC's despite his best efforts to keep them up there. "Jus–just me."

A deep breath. Pull it together.

"They cleared us at check-in and everything…"

"Hey, you're all good, Man," Matt said quickly, "Like you said, you got checked in here–I'm not gonna make you answer all those questions again. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't someone with questions for me or anything, so… do you have any questions for me?"

The way he was instantly willing to accept that Dean was the closest thing to a parent his newest camper had at the moment was unusual and made the teen's chest ache a little in a way he didn't like.

He pulled in another deep breath, trying to collect his thoughts and actually consider the question. "Yeah, I mean…" He hesitated, but at a silent prompting in Matt's gaze, he pressed forward. "This is kinda the first time he's stayed with someone that's not me or our dad or one of my uncles. You guys gonna keep him safe?"

He winced a little at the challenge in his own voice, but it didn't seem to bother the man he was talking to, who just nodded in understanding.

"Hey, that's a big step, and I'm telling you right now, the next few weeks are gonna be really good for both of you. I promise you that we'll take care of him. He's never gonna be off by himself–we function on a strict buddy system, and that's on the rare occasions when they're not within sight of a counselor. The property is secure, and us PCs are in charge of watching for and dealing with any dangerous animals. And, he'll have freetime every day, when he's free to meet-up with you and check in. Sound okay?"

Dean considered all of that, biting back a comment that the buddy system hadn't seemed to do much for the kids and counselor at the other camp, and finally nodded a little. "Yeah. Okay. Thanks."

"Course," Matt confirmed. "And if you have any other questions, your counselor, Sam's, and all of us PCs are here to help, alright?"

Again, the teenager nodded, then turned to his brother. "You good, Sammy?"

The boy affirmed it with a mix of fear and elation on his face. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

"Good," Dean inhaled carefully, let it out slowly, then gently punched the boy on the shoulder. "Then have fun, Kid. Dream come true, right?"

It was Sammy's turn to nod, nearly quivering with nervous excitement. "Yeah. I'll see you around, Dean."

"You know where you're headed?" Matt asked as he turned in that direction.

"Yeah."

To hell.

"Thanks."

With concrete seeming to weigh his shoes down, Dean made his way to the Lower D, as Dave had called it, and checked his own paper for the first time, desperately hoping they'd spared the high schoolers from the cringey team names he'd given Sam so much crap about.

Luckily, it seemed they had, with only a cabin number, 61, and a counselor name, Cade, listed on his own sheet. The moment he walked through the doors, the place was overwhelming and made him want to turn and run back the way he'd come.

Outside, the kids had been being kids, but it was a big enough area to disperse the energy and noise. Not here.

It was an open room with tables lining each wall, signs announcing the cabin each one was serving as the meeting place for. Bright green carpet was bad enough, but between it and the banners on the walls, brightly painted like medieval colors, were enough to overstimulate a person on their own–and that was one thing they most certainly were not.

Teenagers were sitting on the benches, on the tables, leaning against the walls, playing carpet ball using the tracks in one corner, talking and laughing and shouting to be heard over each other. The piano in the opposite corner as the carpet ball was being played by two students at once, each one playing a completely different song and laughing like it was the funniest thing on earth.

Fluorescent lights and the smell of food cooking upstairs and too much Ax Body Spray in one room and hot air born of too many bodies in one place and not enough air conditioning were just the icing on the cake to make every single one of Dean's senses scream at him to get out of there now.

He stood there in the doorway for a long moment, once again having to remind himself to breathe, once again wondering if it was too late to call Caleb, or maybe just turn and run and disappear to work on his case, but before he could act on either option, a college-age girl was in front of him, waving and offering up a welcoming smile.

"Hey there! Are you looking for your cabin?"

Dean swallowed hard and desperately tried to regain control of his racing mind. "Uh–yeah. Yeah, I–uh–I'm in…" He checked his paper again. "Cabin 61 with–uh–with Cade?"

"Perfect, 61's right over here!" He forced his feet to follow her as she turned that way. "Cade's the best. You're gonna have so much fun."

He spotted the sign she was taking him to and caught himself the moment before he swore out loud. Why did it have to be right next to the piano?

"Cade!" the woman he was following called as they got closer. "I've got a camper for ya!"

The counselor who'd been perched on the table with their sign on it lit up, sliding to his feet to greet them.

"No way! Thanks, Allie!"

"Anytime," she replied easily. "I'll see y'all around."

As she walked away, the guy offered Dean his hand to shake. "Hey, Man, I'm Cade, I'm gonna be your counselor."

He was just taller than Dean with brown hair and a closely-shaven beard, dark eyes, and a deep tan. His grip as Dean accepted the handshake was firm without being overbearing.

"Hey," Dean managed from a dry throat. "Uh… I'm Dean."

"Dean Winchester, right? Awesome last name, by the way."

"Thanks." He forced a bit of a smirk. "I–uh–got it from my dad."

Cade's laugh was surprised and genuine. "I can tell we're gonna get along well, Dean Winchester."

He looked around at the chaos which was the rest of the room. "I think you're the last of our cabin, but I couldn't tell you where the rest of them are…" Dark eyes continued to search the room for a moment, then he seemed to find what he was looking for. "Peter! Ryan!" A jerk of his head asked the boys he was speaking to to come over, and Dean inwardly groaned.

They were both probably incoming juniors like Dean, one around his height and the other just shorter, both clad in the same shorts and t-shirts that seemed to be the unofficial dress code for the camp and were making Dean and his jeans and flannel feel more and more out of place.

"Boys, this is Dean, he's our last cabinmate," Cade told them as they approached. "Dean, this is Peter and Ryan. They were in my cabin last session, too."

Dean felt both his eyebrows shoot up. "So you'll be here for eight weeks?"

"Yes, Sir," one affirmed with an easy grin. "Don't know if that makes us committed or just means we have no lives." He held out his hand, and Dean shook it as well. "I'm Peter. It's good to meet you, Dean."

Dean forced a smile his way, then turned to do the same with the other as he echoed, "Ryan. Nice to meet you."

"They're your men if you have any questions and you don't wanna ask your lame old counselor," Cade said. "Commitment or no social lives to blame, they certainly know the ropes."

They each affirmed it with sloppy salutes in his direction, which he returned before turning his attention back to Dean. "So, how was the drive up? A little birdie tells me you did it in a pretty rad car."

So that was why he hadn't popped the parent question yet. No doubt, Dave had warned him what he was getting while he was checking Sammy in.

"Uh, yeah, it was okay," Dean replied, shifting nervously. "Kinda felt bad for making her do it, but she handled it well."

"Does she have a name?" Cade asked, smiling.

"Uh… I just call her Baby." He swallowed hard. "She's my dad's so…"

"Right on, a classic name for a classic car," the counselor affirmed.

Dean just nodded. The meet-and-greet had momentarily distracted him, but now the room was once again way too loud, too hot, too much…

"Hey…" Cade's voice cut through the spiral his mind had just begun, and he looked up at him with a small start. "I've essentially got two little cos with the repeat campers, so… you wanna introduce us?"

"You mean, you and Baby?" Dean asked uncertainly.

"Right on. You didn't hear the way Dave hyped her up, Man."

"Oh."

It was obvious his overstimulated anxiety had been written all over his face, and it had been far from lost on the older man.

He hated that he'd seen right through him, hated how freaking charismatic he could tell he was already, but he hated being in there even more, and couldn't find it in himself to pass up an opportunity to go back outside.

"Sure." He tried and epically failed to fabricate a smile. "She's a beauty."

Once again, whatever feedback you have for me will do wonders as I try to finish this long fic without burning out. Thanks so much for reading. Love ya.

- Line