Whumpee: Dean
Caretaker: Caleb

Dean is 17
Sam is 13
Caleb is 26

Full stop, this is not my favorite. I both like it and hate it. If you want some whump and sweet Caleb and Dean moments. You'll like this. If you want a well thought out and cohesive plot, this probably isn't for you. And I know that some of this is not accurate. At the moment I don't care lol.

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy.

~TH~

"What." Caleb barked into the phone, still half asleep.

"Caleb?"

The voice brought the hunter fully awake.

"Deuce? What's wrong?"

"How fast can you get here?" There was an edge of panic in the teens voice and Caleb was already up and throwing his clothes into his bag.

"Jacksonville?"

"Yeah."

"Two hours."

A shuddering breath. "Kay."

"Where are you now?" He tossed his bag into the back and started his jeep.

"School."

One word answers weren't good. "What are we looking at here, Deuce?"

A pause. A whisper. "CPS."

Caleb held back a curse. Deep breath. "Do I need papers?"

"I... I don't think so."

"Is Sam with you?"

"No."

"Do you know where he is?"

"I've got to go."

"Dean-" the call ended and Caleb released the curse he had been holding back. He slammed his hand on the steering wheel.

He made the two hour drive in a little over an hour. He was stopped outside the office.

"Mr. Winchester?"

"Yeah, what's going on?"

The man frowned, looking him up and down. "Relation?"

"Uncle." He growled, trying to keep from getting violent.

"Do you have identification?"

He pulled out his Winchester ID and the man carefully looked it over.

"Do you know where your brother is?" The man said, handing the card back.

Dean hadn't given him any information on what exactly they were dealing with. He had no clue what stories had been told. He'd have to play it carefully.

"I know he travels a lot for work."

"Some of the staff had begun to wonder if he even existed." Was said with a tight lipped smile.

"Sounds like Johnny." Caleb returned the gesture. "Is that what this is about? A debate on whether my brother exists?"

"No, we're fairly sure he exists at this point." There was utter disdain in the man's voice.

Caleb felt a coldness creeping up his spine at the anger fueled thoughts racing across the man's mind. "What happened?"

"Go see for yourself." He said handing the ID back and motioning towards the door.

Caleb didn't waste any time going into the room. Dean was curled in a chair, swamped by a hoodie. He looked small and insecure, not even close to the normally cocky seventeen year old.

"Mr. Winchester?" Caleb's eyes darted to the man at the desk. Clearly the principal.

"Yeah, you wanna tell me what's going on?"

The man looked at him incredulously. "Am I supposed to understand that you're this boy's father?"

"Uncle. Caleb Winchester." He threw the ID down. "And you are?"

"Principal." The man frowned, checking the fake drivers license. "James Davis."

"Well, Mr. Davis, you wanna tell me what's going on?"

The man sighed, taking his glass off to rub at his face. "You should know we've already contacted DCF."

Caleb let out a breath trying not to panic. "For what?"

Davis motioned to the boy. "I mean look at him."

Dean didn't look up, his eyes fixed on a spot behind Caleb. His chin rested on his knees, an impressive feat for the nearly six foot teen.

"Deuce?"

There was no answer.

Caleb took a step forward, crouching down in front of him. "Hey, man, what's going on?"

The older man could finally see the black and blue starting at Dean's left temple and moving down the side of his face and covering half of his cheek. His nose didn't look broken but it was definitely off color.

"Dean? I need you to talk to me, man."

The teen still didn't answer.

Davis sighed, "He's been like this since he got off the phone."

Concern was growing by the second. This was very not good. He tried to pick up anything he could glean without going too deep.

Dean flinched slightly before bringing his shoulders up defensively. Caleb backed off but Dean kept the defensive posture.

"What happened?" Caleb turned to the principal with clenched teeth. This wasn't like Dean. Something had happened.

The principal sighed, "I wish I could tell you. He fell asleep in class. Teacher tried to wake him and he panicked. Stood up and passed out. Took him to the school nurse and," A shudder, "you think his face is bad?"

"What does Dean have to say about it?"

"That he got in a fight."

Okay yeah that was weak but there really wasn't a single good reason for looking like that. There really wasn't. Hunting caused bruises but the image he was getting from the principal's mind weren't clear, but he could tell that they were not normal hunting wounds.

"And is there a reason you don't believe him?"

Davis gave him an incredulous look. "Well beside the fact that he's been out of school for two days, it looks like he was shot."

"Shot?!"

"I don't know what it was." He sighed, "It's not like a bullet wound, it's like… little pieces of something. Rocks? Salt? I don't know."

Why would Dean have been shot with rock salt? John was a better shot than that and Sam didn't usually shoot the shotgun but even if he did he'd never take a shot that would hurt Dean. Wait, Sam.

"Where's Sam?"

"That's a fantastic question." The principal threw up his hands.

"You don't know?!"

"He was at school then he just… wasn't. We have people looking for him but… I have a feeling that if the kid doesn't want to be found he won't be."

Caleb sighed, "Yeah." He looked back at Dean. Can I have a minute with him?"

"I guess," Davis stood, "I'll be right outside if you need anything."

Caleb waited for the door to shut before turning his attention towards Dean.

"Deuce?" He said quietly, pulling up a chair. "Hey man, you're scaring me. You wanna tell me what's going on here?"

Dean didn't seem to hear him. Caleb hesitantly touched the teens knee. That got a reaction. His eyes snapped to Caleb, jerking back.

"Hey, hey, you're fine. It's me."

Dean blinked. His mouth opened. Closed. Then he let out a sob burying his face in his knees.

Caleb felt out of his depth. "Deuce, look at me man. What's happening? I need you to talk to me."

The response was Dean vehemently shaking his head.

"Please?"

Another shake.

Caleb ran a hand through his hair. Fallback.. Regroup. "Can you show me the, uh, the bruises? I need to know what we're dealing with. We need a plan before DCF shows up."

Dean looked away but then slowly, painfully, pulled off his sweatshirt. Then a flannel. Then a t-shirt.

Caleb remained silent, watching the boy struggle with pressed lips. He could help but that would likely cause more problems. Especially in whatever messed up place Dean's head seemed to be residing.

When the last layer was pulled off Caleb's eyes widened and he reached forward before stopping.

"Wha- what happened?!"

It was definitely rock salt. It probably wouldn't cause any long term side effects. Had to hurt like crazy though.

Dean shrugged away reaching to put his shirt back on.

"No!" Caleb snapped, grabbing his wrist. Dean froze, his eyes finally locking with his friend's. The teen relented, dropping the shirt to the ground.

Caleb took the small bit of ground that was given to him. He examined the arm he was holding, noticing bruises and what looked suspiciously like a rope burn. Moving down the hand he frowned, the concern and anger being momentarily overcome by confusion. A brotherhood ring sat on the first finger of his right hand.

"You get invited to the club and not tell me?" Something felt very off about this.

Dean jerked his hand back. "It's Dad's." he murmured quietly and Caleb was so relieved to hear his voice he almost didn't catch the words.

"Does the fact that you're wearing it have something to do with what happened?"

Another shrug. "It's for protection." Barely audible as he reached for his shirt and began to slide it back over his head.

Caleb wanted to stop him, better examine what had happened, but he was almost relieved not to look at the battered chest. It looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to him. He hated to admit it, but he couldn't exactly blame them for calling in the protective service. Something had clearly happened and if they couldn't find John… then at the very least they had neglect. Leaving a seventeen year old alone was fine. Leaving him alone when he looked like that with no reported hospital visit… something sketchy was going on.

"Protection from what, Deuce? What happened?"

Caleb was really getting tired of the shrug.

"You need to tell me what's going on because those bozos are convinced that your dad did this and lookin' at ya I'm trying and failing to come up with a better answer."

"It wasn't his fault." Dean snapped, voice coming out a bitter louder than before.

"Are you saying he did do this?!" He was going to kill him.

"This isn't on him, okay?"

"If he did, it is!" And the fact that Dean would disagree was a concern of its own.

"Look, it was my fault okay? He didn't want to, he had to."

"Deuce, you better start explaining. Fast." Because Caleb was about to help the cops track down one John Winchester and let him get what's coming to him.

Dean looked uncomfortable pulling into himself. "It wasn't like- it wasn't like that, okay? He didn't- it wasn't on him."

"So you've said."

"It was- it was my fault. I dunno how it happened but it wasn't- he did what he had to do."

He wasn't making any sense and it was stressing Caleb out. "Dean, what are you saying?"

Finally, a whisper "I got possesed,okay?"

Caleb felt ice fill his entire body. "What? How?"

"I dunno, man I don't really remember it. We were on a hunt, thought it was just a ghost. Guess it wasn't. Dad did what he head to do." There was a haunted look in Dean's eyes and Caleb didn't want to know what all that entailed. They didn't deal with demons on a regular basis but the few encounters he'd had… they were never pleasant for the Hunter, much less the person possessed.

"Wh-when did this happen?"

"Couple days ago? I think? It's all kinda blurred together."

"Do you- do you know what it wanted?"Caleb was seeing his father murdering his mother and brother before turning the gun on himself. He still wasn't sure what the demon had wanted.

Dean folded in on himself a little, "I don't know, Damian. I don't know anything. I think it wanted to tell Dad something. It didn't really let me… let me know what was going on."

And Dean just looked so young and hurt and traumatized and Caleb wasn't thinking he was just wrapping his arms around the kid and holding on for dear life.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. You should have called me, you should have called."

Dean let out a choked sob, not returning the hug, but melting into the older man. "I didn't want to come back but the school called and said if I didn't they'd make a home visit and I couldn't let them do that. I didn't know when Dad would be back and I just-"

"It's okay, it's okay, it's not your fault, okay? None of it is. We'll figure this out. We will. You're going to be okay."

"Dad will be ticked." He said, still pressed into Caleb. "He didn't want anyone to know."

"Yeah, Jim will love that."

Dean pulled back, "You can't- you can't tell. Dad would kill both of us."

Caleb frowned. "Looks like Johnny already got pretty close with you."

"It's not as bad as it looks." He pulled away. "Better than most people get." John had probably held back in an attempt not to kill him. Especially if the demon was specifically after John.

"So what happened earlier? You were completely zoned out."

"I- "Dean turned away then spun back, looking at Caleb with frightened and traumatized eyes. "I don't know. It's like- it's like I'm fine then my brain just- just shuts off and I'm running on autopilot and- I don't know. I know it's not… it's not still in me but sometimes… it's like I'm still not me."

Caleb was running everything he knew about possession through his mind. It could be an after effect. Or it could be the human mind not being able to properly cope. Very few people survived possession. Most demons burnt out the body or waited until a hunter was about to deliver the final blow before smoking out. He'd have to ask Mac about it.

"It's okay. We'll figure it out."

A humorless laugh. "Sure." He straightened, the traumatized look not leaving his eyes but his posture retuning at least mostly back to normal. "But the real question, what about them?" He nodded towards the door. "They're not going to let me just leave."

"Do you know where Sam is?"

"Safe."

"I figured."

A small smile. "Yeah."

He ran his eyes over Dean. The kid was clearly in pain, but they had to get out of here. "Bathroom have a window?"

And Dean actually let out a small laugh. "Yeah."

"I'll have the car running."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, see you in five." His smile dropped and a chill ran through him, his eyes momentarily going dark. Not… not possessed dark. Just… dead.

"Hey, we'll figure it out. I promise. It'll be okay."

"Yeah, I know. I'm always okay, remember?"

Caleb smiled a sad smile. "Let's just escape our current captors and deal with rest later, yeah?"

"Yeah."

~TH~

Like I said that was just an angst fest more than a thought out plot.

Have something else I'm going to post tomorrow.

Lemme know what you think - I need comments like I need oxygen.

God bless,

Jamie