Deuce and Damien
Chapter 6
Disclaimer: See chapter one
Once Mac returned to Caleb's side the teen continued to shiver, his skin still cold to the touch though his temperature was coming up slowly. It was now in the wee-hours of the morning, dawn still promising hope that a break came in the storm. Besides keeping the fire going strong, Bobby had continuously been in touch over the hours with search and rescue. He had been assured that as soon as it was safely possible units would be dispatched to pick up the boys and get them the medical attention they needed.
Jim had taken on the responsibility of keeping watch over Sammy, who was now sleeping in the playpen. The toddler had remained unusually quiet throughout the hours since everyone had returned to the house. John, still holding Dean close to him had leaned his head back on the couch and dozed off from sheer exhaustion.
Mac was leaning against the recliner near the fireplace, his hand resting on Caleb's blanket covered chest. The warmth of the fire was causing him to reluctantly doze, jerking awake occasionally when a more violent shiver would pass though his son. However it was the sudden sharp inhaling of breath from the teen that had Mac fully awake, on his knees next to Caleb as one of the things the doctor feared the most happened, a seizure.
"Caleb!" Mac called as the boy's body continued to jerk. Bobby ran back into the room, pulling the recliner back along with the small end table next to it, opening up space so the teen didn't hit anything. Mac frantically pulled at the blankets that constricted his son's movements, not wanting him to become tangled in them.
After what seemed like forever to those in the room who watched helplessly, Caleb's body stilled. Mac pulled the stethoscope from the chair behind him, placing it to his son's chest as the rest of the room seemed to hold their breath. "Caleb…" Mac whispered as he moved the device, desperately listening for any sound. "No, no, no" Mac mumbled again as he pulled the object from his ears, dropping them to his side as he tilted his son's head back and blew two breaths quickly into a now still chest.
"Mac?" Jim questioned as he neared the Doctor, who was bent to check his son's breath, his shaking hand against Caleb's neck.
"God, Son don't do this to me…" Mac pleaded as he blew in two more breaths then rose to his knees, to start compressions.
Without a word Jim moved to Caleb's head and waited to hear the count of fifteen, then he blew in two quick breaths as Mac felt the older boy's neck again, then returned to compressions. After a second set Caleb's body arched under the men's hands as he pulled in a ragged breath. Mac nearly collapsed onto the teen at the relief of hearing his son breathing again. When the Scholar's eyes looked up to meet Jim's, there were tears streaming down the younger man's face as he reached down and pulled his son into his arms.
Jim sat back on his heels, running his hand through his hair as he glanced at John. Fear showed in the Knight's face, fear at not only what he had just witnessed, but as he looked down at the small bundle in his arms, fear of what could happen to his own son.
Bobby patted Mac's shoulder, who didn't look up, his face buried in his son's hair as he silently rocked him. The Mechanic looked at the Guardian, "I'm gonna call it in and let them know what's going on here." Jim nodded as Bobby left the room.
Oxoxoxoxoxo
"Caleb?" Dean made a grab for the teen's arm as the color drained from the older boys face and his knees gave out. Surprisingly the five-year old was able to keep Caleb from falling completely down as he sat heavily against the corral fence, one hand holding his head, the other on his chest as he drew in a few deep breaths. "Caleb, what's wrong?"
With a few more breaths, the dark spots that had just been swimming in his vision seemed to clear as Caleb looked into the scared eyes of the little boy in front of him. It was then and there the teen made a promise to himself that he would try his best to never have to see that frightened look again in the moss-green eye's looking at him. "Don't know Deuce, just got a bit dizzy there a minute."
"Was it my fault? I'm sorry…" Dean started getting upset that maybe he had done something wrong. This was a side of the small boy Caleb had never seen. Anytime they were at the farm together the preschooler never really showed any emotion, usually walking around with a solemn expression or withdrawn into his own world.
Laying a hand on the child's shoulder Caleb squeezed gently, "No, man it wasn't you."
"Promise?" Dean pleaded.
"Promise, it wasn't anything you did." Caleb still felt out of sorts, something telling him this was almost like one of his vision things but not. He knew it wasn't normal reality with the way the scenes changed, that possibly with him and Dean being in the cold so long, they were both unconscious and he had somehow been pulled into Dean's mind. And it was also possible the little episode he just experienced was because something was happening to his body and that thought scared him, because if something happened to him, who would take care of the kid.
Then Caleb looked up at he five-year old, who was looking at him as if he would disappear, and Caleb began to worry that if something was happening to his body in the real world, what did that mean for the child he had been trying to protect, he couldn't imagine losing Dean now. Not after realizing his importance to him.
"Are you sure you're okay? You look like Sammy just before he throws up." Dean tilted his head as he watched the teen slowly get to his feet.
"I'm fine, and I'm not gonna hurl." Caleb ground out, not liking being compared to a fussy, stinky eighteen-month old.
Caleb made his way over to the picnic table that sat a few yard from the corral and sat down, Dean following him a few minutes later.
After a minute of silence the little boy looked at Caleb, seriousness in his large eyes. "Why were your daddy and that other man arguing?" It had been the first time the Winchesters had visited Bobby's so Dean didn't know the Mechanics name just yet.
"It's complicated, Kid." Caleb really didn't want to have to explain his families rumored shadowy past to the younger boy.
Undeterred, Dean continued, "I heard the other man say the word demon, that's bad. Daddy and that nice lady said that's what killed mommy and it was evil. Are you evil?"
"They shouldn't talk about that stuff in front of you, it could scare you." Caleb snapped. He was a little scared at how sharp Dean was, for a kid so young.
"They didn't, I was in the hallway. Daddy would be mad if he knew I heard him talking about mommy. It makes him sad when he does. That's the only time I see daddy cry, but he doesn't know I see." Dean looked at the ground as tears filled his eyes.
Caleb looked at the broken child, realizing something. "I bet you hear a lot of stuff you shouldn't don't you?" The teen knew that Jim, Mac and apparently John sometimes seemed to forget when the normally quiet five-year old was around. There had been many times, come to think of it, that Caleb had walked in on a conversation the older men were having and they would stop talking when he came in the room, but they never seemed to notice that Dean was sometimes sitting in the same room, just off in the corner staring off. Apparently the little boy wasn't as 'out of it' as the older men thought.
Something inside Caleb helped him decide that he was going to try and explain a couple things to the younger boy. He couldn't have the preschooler thinking he was evil, or that he could hurt him or his family. "Hey," Caleb waited until the younger boy looked up at him. The older boy remembered how shortly after they had meet the Winchesters and Mac had been trying to get Dean to talk, that his father had moved a cup across the table in front of the child, so Caleb thought he'd start there. "You remember how my dad moved that cup at Pastor Jim's?' The older boy waited for the nod he knew was coming, when it did he continued, "Well, I can do something even cooler than that."