Blood, Tears & Alcohol
Prologue
Dean Winchester had long ago resigned himself to the fact that he was screwed in life. He wasn't a definitively smart kid; he had few qualifications and those he did have weren't received first time round. He got those grades with his brother Sam's help, because the kid insisted on not letting Dean drink himself to death after their dad disappeared the last time. At first Dean fought it and gave Sam such a hard time just for sticking around. But then Dean remembered those feelings he'd always repressed, feelings of wanting more for himself...and for the first time began believing it was possible. With a lot of effort he got himself back into college and got his GCSEs and A Levels. And apparently he had good enough grades to get him into nursing school. Thank the lord for small miracles. When he was younger and had thought about what he wanted to do with his life, he'd never have come up with nursing. Not in a million years. But here he was, about to start his nursing degree. At first, it just seemed like a decent career to have in the current economic climate...no matter where in the world you went, there would always be a demand for nurses. Plus the pay was better than for most of the other jobs Dean was qualified to do, and it sounded more interesting than those anyway. Add on the bonus of not having to repay that many student loans, and his mind was made up. Nursing it was.
Castiel Novak couldn't pinpoint exactly when he'd decided that nursing was for him. He just came across it one day and decided it was something he thought he'd enjoy. He felt the need to help people, to try to right the wrong things in life. His foster mother wasn't all that supportive...he had wanted him to do something more, well, "masculine". He was prejudiced like that. But Castiel had persevered. With the aid of his brother he sent off applications and managed to get himself a job in a nursing home to learn about basic care and gain some work experience. And he'd loved every minute of it. So when he managed to fudge and slur his way through the most nerve-wracking interviews he'd ever had in his life, he was extraordinarily pleased to find that he had gotten into both of his top choices. That was it. He was going to university. God willing, for the next three years he was going to be a student nurse. The thought kept him going through the next few months. Not even his mother's scepticism could rain on his parade.