If You Dare Challenge - #907 (The road to hell is paved with good intentions)
Are You Crazy Enough To Do It Challenge - #196 (angry)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Stone by stone, they had to build a relationships with the Winchester boys. Although Dean never stopped calling Sonny sir, he could now get closer to them without any drastic situations. They began to speak again; Amina and the boys often had extensive conversations solely in ASL. Dean and Castiel developed an intense relationship as well; soon, Dean soon trusted Castiel to watch over Sam. Castiel also started to teach Dean how to play the piano. He was an incredibly astute learner; Cas and Dean spent hours together playing and practicing. Dean also began teaching Castiel to sign; Cas bought a few books and practiced every single day, especially while Dean was practicing the piano.
As Sonny's Home for Boys was a group home, Sonny often received donations from the state or from families and individuals he had helped in the past; when he acquired a large donation of books from a bookstore that was going bankrupt, he set them all in the living room in a massive bookshelf. Sam immediately dove into the literature, burying himself in everything from The Boxcar Children to To Kill A Mockingbird. Both piano and reading became welcome hobbies for the Winchesters, as it distracted them both from the dark havens of their minds.
The boys started school again; they were fine as long as they stayed together and no one pressured them into doing anything they didn't want to do. A couple of Sonny's boys (Jaime and Harry) sat with Sam and Dean at lunch, making sure no one bothered them.
Castiel always met up with Sam and Dean on his way home from the private school. A couple of times, when they walked home with Castiel, Cas carried Sam on his back. Sam was much more comfortable being touched than Dean was, which evoked conflicting feelings in Sonny. He knew that much of their trauma had resulted from their environment, most likely their father, but how could Dean be so much more traumatized than Sam if they grew up in the same manner? It was obvious that Dean had been through much more than his brother; his physical and mental state said as much. But why?
Sam and Dean still had horrific nightmares and terrible post-traumatic stress disorder, but their lives had improved immensely. Dean eventually stopped checking his food for poison. He still couldn't bear being touched, but he now allowed people in a closer vicinity, particularly Castiel. However, they still had outbursts and moments… Sonny was careful not to celebrate any birthdays inside the house; he would take the boy out to dinner and celebrate at a restaurant instead. After a violent incident, he also made sure Sam and Dean missed school on some of the days leading up to and including Halloween for fear that the decorations would frighten them.
On a Wednesday in November, Sonny was pulled from lunch to some incident involving Dean at school. He grabbed his keys, composed himself, and drove to the middle school, prepared for any situation. Amina was with him, ready to translate anything the boys said in sign. She'd also begun to learn Latin and Morse code, for the boys' sake. Sonny was worried; the last time he'd been called to the school like this, he'd discovered that Dean didn't know how to read, had been physically abused by his foster parent, and had been neglecting to take his medicine. Although instead of a traumatized, frightened, or hallucinating Winchester, he found them sitting together on the bench in front of the principal's office silently. Sam was reading quietly while Dean held him closely.
It wasn't until Sonny got closer that he realized Dean's hands were...bloody. He breathed in sharply. "Dean… Are you hurt?" Amina had been teaching him ASL; he signed one of the only phrases he knew: OKAY YOU?
Dean nodded, but Sonny could tell something was wrong. He was tense, his eyes glancing around the room for an enemy. At that moment, the principal, Mr. West, opened his door. "Sonny," he said solemnly, "thank you for coming. Boys?"
They both jumped to their feet. Dean grabbed Sam's hand. "Yes, sir," said Dean.
Sonny was unnerved by how robotic Dean was. "Come with me," ordered Mr. West, and they followed.
There weren't enough chairs for the four of them, so Amina merely stood against the wall, seeming like a peacekeeper between them. "Dean, would you like to tell Sonny what happened today?" asked Mr. West.
Dean's expression was so hard it looked as though it was carved in stone. "I protected Sam," he said quietly.
Mr. West frowned. "Sonny, Dean beat up another student. Hit him until the other boy was unconscious. He's in the hospital now; Dean shattered his nose and his cheekbone. His eyes are so swollen that he can't currently see."
Sonny gulped. "Dean? Is this true?"
He could see in Dean's eyes that he had begun to creep into the back of his mind. "Yes, sir."
"Do we—" Why couldn't he get a single sentence out? "How is the boy? I'll pay for the hospital bills." Although he wasn't sure how he would acquire the money after the Winchesters' bills, he would have to find a way.
The principal shook his head, stern. "The parents aren't pressing charges as long as Dean apologizes. Apparently, their son was rather fond of antagonizing other kids."
"What brought it on?"
"What?"
"The fight," he clarified. "How did it happen?"
"Well," Mr. West began, "according to the other students—"
"I wasn't asking you, Mr. West. I was asking Dean."
Dean looked up, confused.
"Dean? Can you tell me what happened?"
"Yes, sir," he responded quickly. "James attacked Sam. I attacked him." His gaze was blank.
"James tripped Sam," Mr. West explained. "It was nothing overly violent. Nothing that deemed being knocked unconscious."
The entire meeting went back and forth like this, Dean telling them he was merely protecting Sam and Mr. West accusing him of being unnecessarily violent, until Mr. West stood up in anger. "I'm not just going to let him walk away without a single consequence, Sonny!"
At the word "consequence," Dean jumped up, startled into protecting his brother.
Mr. West, frustrated and annoyed, pointed at the two boys. "And this! This wasn't the first time, Sonny—they've been pushing other kids around here just for getting close! It's absurd!"
"Mr. West, please sit down," Sonny said, trying to stay calm for the sake of the boys. "Why don't we let the boys leave so we can have a rational—"
"Rational? You want to tell me about rational? When you're ready to let these kids do whatever the hell they want? I could expel these two with a snap of my fingers, Sonny! And you think you can just let these disobedient kids go without any punishment?"
At the last word Dean's knees buckled, and all hell broke loose.
Dean was shaking as though he was freezing, his hands laced behind his head. He was crying, tears slipping unrestrained down his cheeks. Amina bent down to soothe him, signing IS OKAY, IS OKAY, SAFE YOU! Sam dropped to his knees, whispering lightning-fast in Latin while signing as well.
Sonny snapped, angry. "Don't you ever raise your voice at my boys again, understand?" He knew, deep down, that the principal hadn't mean any true harm to the Winchesters, but as they said, the road to hell was paved with good intentions. He had caused Dean to panic and clearly had little care or concern for Dean's mental stability. He only cared about the perfect "structure" of his school and how Dean and Sam consistently refused to fit into it. The entire situation, honestly, had gone too far, and now Sonny could only view the principal as a potential aggressor towards his boys.
"I didn't—" Mr. West protested.
Sonny ignored the principal to check on Dean. He was struggling to breathe now, afraid and rocking with his arms trapping his head. He was having a full-blown panic attack. Sam, careful not to touch him, whispered to him gently: "Ego adsum, ego adsum, Dean. Et dixistis liberati sumus. Nemo vobis nocebit, Dean, et ego adsum. Hinc monstra sunt. Me solum. Non est me. Sam." When Dean didn't respond, whimpering and shivering, Sam's voice grew even softer. "Non manes, nullus daemonum, nulla lamia, non monstra, non Domine. Medicus non est hinc, autem ego adsum, Dean, et ego non relinquam te." Slowly but surely, Dean's eyes focused on his little brother. Sam signed to him. I HERE, DEAN. NO LEAVE YOU ME. I LOVE YOU.
Dean gasped as though coming out of water, and Sam dove into his arms.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Next chapter, we'll see Dean and Das' relationship develop.