"Alright," Castiel began, "let's get this sweatshirt off."
Sam sat up a little on the gurney in the ER, and Cas helped him get his good arm out of its sleeve.
Cas noticed Sam's hesitance about having to move his other arm.
"Don't worry, I'm really good at this," Cas told the boy as he pulled the sweatshirt up over Sam's head and very slowly down the twisted arm.
"You know, we're going to need to take an x-ray of your arm to see what we can do to make you feel better," Cas said to him softly. Sammy just eyed the entrance to the ER as if he was expecting Dean to come marching in at any time to rescue him. "No," Sam whispered, "I want Dean."
Castiel could see that the boy was starting to tremble; he didn't want to move the kid away from where he could see the door.
"Look, Sam." Cas grabbed a small penlight from his coat pocket and held it up for Sam to examine. "It's a little flashlight, see?"
Sammy's attention was brought back over to Cas and he nodded upon checking out the light. Cas quickly flashed it at Sam's eyes, noticing for the first time just how sunken they were. Cas added dehydration to his mental list of notes.
"Can you open up your mouth?" Cas asked gently. Sam looked confused, but complied. Sammy crossed his eyes down when he saw Cas' hand move toward him again to keep his chin still. The light didn't bother him too much.
"Does your throat hurt?" Cas asked. He watched as the boy shook his head back and forth.
Sam optimistically thought Cas was done examining him when he saw Cas put the pen light back in his coat pocket, but the man reached back out to him and started pressing on Sam's neck and up under his jaw.
Sammy instinctively withdrew and tried to tuck his chin down to his chest.
"It's ok, it's ok," Cas repeated softly, stopping his movement. "Umm, can you tell me how many stars are on the ceiling Sam?"
The boy scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion before glancing up to where Cas was pointing. There were a few neon stars painted on the ceiling of the small exam room.
Cas smiled when Sam relaxed his muscles and tilted his head back to count the stars. "Count 'em out loud for me, ok?" Cas requested.
Sammy mumbled as he counted from one to seven, trying his hardest to keep himself calm. Dean had said that when something touched your neck, it wanted to strangle you, but Sammy didn't think that was what Cas was trying to do. He exhaled when he felt Cas' hands finally pull away and he eyed the man, watching him grab something new off of the wall.
"This is just another flashlight, Sam," Cas said, holding the object up for the boy to inspect. "It's got a funny shape because it lets me see in your ears. Would that be ok?" Sam nodded yes, but Cas wound up having to place his free hand on the side of the boy's head to stop him from turning away.
"When was the last time you cleaned in your ears, Sam?" Cas asked him lightly.
Sam shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno," he whispered.
Cas chuckled, "Well I guess you'll have to get your brother to help you with that from now on..."
Sam looked up at Cas with wide eyes, a frown spreading down his face. "Where's Dean?" he mumbled. Cas put the otoscope back and sighed.
When Cas didn't have an answer, Sam started to fidget on the bed, scooting down slightly from where he had been placed.
Noticing the change, Cas squatted down and blocked off Sam's range of vision. "Hey, hey, we are doing everything we can to find him. Ok? We need to care about you right now... How about you lie down?"
"I'm not tired," Sammy said defensively.
"I know, Sam," Cas explained, "but it will help me make you better."
Before Sam could process what was happening, Cas had placed one hand under Sam's knees and his other hand gently behind the boy's head. Sammy didn't have the strength to fight him, so he focused his attention on keeping his twisted arm still as Cas turned him sideways on the bed and laid him back until his head softly hit the gurney. Cas stood over him protectively and very carefully helped Sam place his bad arm next to him on the bed.
Sammy didn't like lying down. He couldn't see the door anymore and he couldn't see what Cas was doing behind him, and it hurt too bad to twist around to look. Sammy also thought it would hurt his belly and his arm too much to try and sit up. He was stuck.
He felt something being slipped underneath his good arm. "This is going to hug your arm for a minute, ok Sam?"
Sam looked down at the wrap around his upper arm and then shot a look back up to Cas. He found comfort in the fact that Cas was calm and smiling. "Here," Cas said, holding out his free hand for Sam to grab, "if it gets too tight, squeeze my hand and I'll take it off, ok?"
Cas' heart melted when he felt the little fingers attempt to wrap around his hand. He started the blood pressure cuff and eagerly awaited the results to try and start putting a treatment plan together for the kid. Cas noticed that as the cuff got tighter, Sam shut his eyes, but he never squeezed his hand.
"You did such a great job," Cas said to him, relieving the pressure from the cuff and ripping the velcro strap off of Sam's arm. "Are you ok?"
Sam nodded and slid his hand out from around Cas' palm.
"Hey, can I see that hand again for a second?" Cas asked him. Sam didn't have a reason not to comply and reached out to take hold of Cas' hand once more. Sam watched curiously as Cas put some a cold lotion on top of his hand.
"I have to put some medicine in your hand later, and this is cream will make sure it doesn't hurt your skin..."
Cas put a square patch over the top of Sammy's hand to keep the cream there and then gently lowered Sam's arm back down onto the bed.
Sam watched Cas as he stepped away from the bed and started going through the drawers in one of the carts in the room. He wished he knew what the man was going to do next. He wanted his arm to be better, but nobody could touch it without it hurting...
Sam's eyes widened when Cas finally turned around; he was holding a pair of scissors.
"Sam," he said cautiously, seeing the boy start to squirm a bit more, "I need to check out your heart, and your chest, and your belly, and I don't want your t-shrit to pull on your arm." Cas ran his hand across Sam's forehead to try and get him to still a bit. He fought for eye contact. "It's going to help if I cut the shirt off..."
"B-bu-but, but, but it's" Sam stuttered.
"It's what, Sam?" Cas asked encouragingly, trying to assess the boy's fear. He ran his hand across Sam's forehead once more and bent down to the boy's level.
"It was a ac-acci-accident."
Cas could see the tears starting to pool in the kid's eyes. "Hey, hey, hey," he repeated softly. "I know it was an accident. I know. It's ok, buddy. Nobody here is going to hurt you..." Cas pretended to know what the kid was talking about. He figured it was better to just go along with whatever Sam's story was.
Cas repeated the reassuring phrases as he very carefully cut down the center of Sam's shirt from the neckline through to the bottom seam. He then cut across each sleeve so that the top of the shirt completely opened up off of Sam.
Cas tried to hide his grimace when he saw what Sam must have been trying to hide. His chest and stomach were covered in blue, purple, green, and yellow bruises. The pattern was an enigma to Cas, but one thing was certain, it was no accident. He immediately wondered who Sam was covering for.
Before Cas could decide what he wanted to say to Sam, who had now tightly shut his eyes, he was interrupted by the screams of a kid in the entranceway of the ER.
"WHERE IS HE?!"
There was a crashing sound and screeching of sneakers on the tile floor.
"WHERE IS SAMMY?!"
Cas snapped his head over to get a look at the boy, who was being pulled across the space by a police officer and two doctors. He was kicking his feet up and trying to swing out of their hold on him.
Sam had tried to sit up on the bed as soon as he heard his brother's voice, but Cas had one hand on Sam's knees and the other on his forehead to keep him gently pinned down.
Before Cas could stop him, the little body in front of him gasped for breath to be able to scream a drawn-out "DEAN!" that filled the entirety of the ER.