Storm's Last Season

Chapter 6 ~ Drawing The Past

previously on BruisedBloodyBroken:

"I'll watch out for you, Sammy.", Dean whispered soothingly. "I promise I'm going to watch out for. Nothing bad's gonna happen to you as long as I'm around. Okay?"

Sam nodded into the hunter's shoulder – much to the alpha's surprise he had actually answered.

"See? - It's much better when we can communicate, isn't it?" Dean smiled genuinely. "You can tell me what you want, and what you don't want. - You can let me know what you're uncomfortable with ..."

Sam sniffed and rubbed his nose into the older man's shoulder.

Dean could picture how the slimy snot was glueing to his shirt ... he definitely needed to get another one later.

NOW:

Two weeks passed ...

The stitches of Sam's wound were removed ...

Dean had started to take notes in a book whenever he thought Sam was reacting to different words that were spoken in his presence.

And the first one on his list was a name – ALISTAIR. A name that let the omega freeze in his place every time Dean mentioned it randomly on purpose. A name the hunter had underlined twice and traced with his pen a couple of times.

He had gotten paper, pencils and crayons for Sam a couple of days ago and had laid them beside the mattress, so that he would stay occupied when he wasn't around.

To the alpha's surprise, Sam had eventually started to draw. But he hid the drawn pictures under the mattress and Dean didn't push him to show them to him. Though, the glimpses he had gotten of Sam's drawings told him, that he was an artist.

Sonny and Bobby were now mostly in the garage and were working on cars, while Dean stayed in the house with Sam, doing all the things he wouldn't have done in a million years. At least not before he had met the omega.

Jody had passed by once a week so far to check on Sam's progress. But it was going slow. - And she accepted it, despite the fact that she hungered for new hints about the omega's captive.

Sam hadn't said a single word yet and Dean started to doubt that the omega was even able to speak at all. Hell, he didn't even know if the boy was capable of writing or calculation.

A little win on his side was, that Sam had started to eat solid food a couple of days ago. - What was a damn good sign, since he have had lost weight further. So Dean was busy with cooking and ordering the most greasy food of all times. Food that'd give Sonny and Bobby a heart attack pretty soon.

Another win was, that Sam didn't wait for Dean's presence and consent to visit the bathroom anymore. As for the signs, Sam was taking showers regularly now.

Though the hunter never saw him going there, or coming out whenever he was with Sam during their meals or cuddling sessions (not that he would ever admit that there have ever been one). Further it seemed as if Sam didn't sleep a lot. - At least not during the nights when he was supposed to. It rather looked like he was sleeping when Dean was with him, on the mattresses. When he was able to snuggle up against him, or when the alpha was simply around.

THAT was a fact that actually bothered him the most at the moment. He asked himself what could've probably happened to the omega that he was acting that way. All submissive and devote and then again he thought to catch a glimpse of waywardness and self-will in those big hazel-eyes.

What wasn't that heady was the fact, that whenever Sonny or Bobby would come into the room, Sam was withdrawing into his corner on the mattress and wrapping himself up in the comforter.

Sure he didn't see the both of them as often as he saw Dean, but he should've known by now that the two men wouldn't hurt him either.

Dean sat at the small table in the kitchen, when Sonny and Bobby got back from the garage, wich lay on the other end of the yard. The cooked food stood on the stove and two plates with sandwiches sat close by.

He looked up from his tenth mug of coffee, hovering over his book with the notes he had taken so far about Sam. He played with the pen between his fingers, tracing the name Alistair along again, scribbling it on a separate side all over again.

"Who the hell is Alistair?", Dean had asked himself but looked up and fixed the both older men with a blank stare.

The hunter had dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep. He was trying to get the things he had written down to a context ever since he had started to write into the booklet.

"You should get some rest, boy.", Sonny said concerned, petting the younger man's shoulder. "You look exhausted."

Bobby huffed out a breath. "He looks like shit if you ask me ...", he corrected his friend gruffly. "Maybe you should get out a bit, huh? Go to a bar, find a girl, get laid?" IT wasn't often that Robert Singer suggested something like that to him. At least the old man had never had a reason to do so, since Dean Winchester had been a master in that kind of things.

"Sam won't even notice that you're gone probably.", Sonny added thoughtfully. "It'd just be an evening. You alone and a bottle of beer in a bar with a bunch full of nice women. - It's time you get out a bit again, Dean." He looked serious, there was no joke in his words. "It's going to ruin you, trust me. I know what I am talking about." His eyes narrowed. "Being mates doesn't mean that the two of you belong together in every single aspect of life. - It can also be a brotherly connection ..." He cleared his throat. "Just in case you feel like betraying Sam ..."

Dean shook his head, feeling himself caught. "Food's on the stove.", he said out loud, rising from the chair. "I'm upstairs." he went for the plates and headed towards the door then, stopping in his tracks for a short moment and looking back over his shoulder. "Thanks ... I'll think about it ..."

Sonny and Bobby gave him a short nod and warm smiles.

The two of them were right. He was working it like a case, in the muddiest mud he had ever been before to the elbows. Maybe they were right and he needed a break. Just one evening. Just a couple of hours.

Though he doubted that Sam wouldn't notice. He sure would do. - But the question was how he'd take it. Maybe if he'd tell him, if he'd prepare him that he wouldn't be around for an evening it wouldn't be that bad for the omega.

THAT sounded like a good plan. Because he sure as hell would feel like betraying Sam, if he wouldn't at least try to explain why he wouldn't be around. It felt like a no-go to just heading out into the nightlife without telling the omega.

When Dean entered the omega's room, the man was busy with drawing again. He sat on the floor beside the mattress, a sheet of paper before him and the pencil in his left hand, completely sunken in what he was doing. From the distance, Dean could see the sketch of a face. A female face. A face that looked familiar and though not.

And then it hit him. It had similarity with one of the female corpses he had seen in the files the sheriff had shown them.

"Hey Sammy.", he greeted him, not wanting to sneak in on him.

Sam looked up at the alpha, like a deer caught in the headlights for a long moment.

Dean stopped in his tracks, so that the omega would have time to store the drawing away like he always used to do when he came into the room.

And like always, Sam grabbed the papers and the pencil and stored them under the mattress hastily. Just when he was done, Dean came over to the mattress and sat down on it with the plates, handing one to Sam.

Though – tonight the omega seemed to hesitate and instead of eating, he just stared troubled at the full plate in his lap.

"You want something else?", Dean asked with his mouth full of sandwich, licking the mayo from the left corner of his lip.

Sam shook his head eagerly.

The alpha frowned and hurried up to get the bite down his throat. "What is it?", he asked then, sucking a crumb from the hollow of his cheek.

Sam looked up at him intently. The first time ever. And just stared at him with big sad hazel-eyes. His lips quivering as if he was going to say something, but decided otherwise then.

"You know you can tell me everything, right?", Dean asked, his frown deepening in concern. "I'm not gonna tell anyone ..."

Sam sucked in his lower lip and cast his look down for a long moment before he sat the plate aside and reached for the drawings in between the mattress and the wall. He pulled the stack of papers out and laid it into his lap, his flat palm covering the most of the portrait on the uppermost sheet. The omega stared at his hand for a pretty long time before he took the papers in his hands again and laid them into Dean's lap.

The hunter stared stunned at the younger man and then at the sketch that was first up on the thin stack. Dean licked his fingers and wiped them off on his jeans before he spoke.

"Are you sure, Sammy?" He needed to have the reassurance that it was okay to look at them. "I know you don't like to show them to me ..."

Sam stole a fast glance at the alpha before he nodded and inched a bit closer towards him.

The alpha felt proud that Sam was going to let him have a look at the pictures he had drawn the past couple of days. Hell, he felt like a Jedi right now. Like obi-wan and Yoda at once to be honest.

Just now Dean dared to look at the portrait of a man. A pretty awesome and detailed portrait to be more specific. Under the portrait was a bar-code just like the one Sam had tattooed on the back of his neck, and a number below it.

He could tell it had to be one of the other men they had found in the grave.

"You knew him?", Dean asked seriously, as his eyebrows furrowed and he looked at Sam.

Sam, who had tears in his eyes, whose hands were trembling. He who nodded.

The omega had to have him known better ... maybe they had even lived together ... Dean concluded.

Sam pulled the portrait from Dean's lap and revealed another one. Another male portrait of a dark-skinned man. Again there was a bar-code and a number.

The next one wasn't quite different except for the person it was showing. It was a girl. Maybe as old as Sam was, with real big eyes and smooth looking pouty lips.

The omega reached for Dean's hand tentatively and grasped it – ever so gently as if he could hurt him – and pulled it towards his own chest, pressing it against it.

"You liked her very much, huh?" Dean's voice was low. He could see the hurt and loss in the man's eyes as he blinked fresh tears away.

Sam squeezed the hunter's hand once, twice.

"Did you ... was she your girlfriend?", the alpha asked tentatively.

Sam shook his head, tilting it to the side.

"Huh ..." He bit down on his lower lip. "Was she a friend?"

Again, Sam waggled with his head to the left and right side pensively, as if to think if the description of their connection could possibly fit.

Well, there weren't a lot possibilities left then. "Was she family?"

Sam nodded and a broken sob spilled over his lips.

Dean wrapped his left arm around Sam and pulled him a bit closer. "It's okay, Sammy. - I know it hurts. I lost a lot of people too, you know? Even family. All of my family except for Sonny and Bobby." Sam pulled away, obviously eager to show him the rest of the sketches, since he was pulling the sheet with the girl's portrait aside, revealing another one.

Dean actually didn't want to ask any other things. - But he was too nosy and a part of him needed to know. "They were all family? All those kids?"

Sam nodded again.

"Sisters and brothers?", Dean continued, picking up on a fresh lead.

The omega gave him another nod.

Dean shook his head in confusion and blew out a huff. He knew that these kids weren't relatives. He knew that it was impossible for them to be siblings, since the blood-tests in the files discounted it.

Dean watched the pictures Sam showed him. There were a couple more of those portraits, wich were unmistakably those kids.

The sketches soon became darker. Sam had started to use more and more from the black crayon to darken the drawings further.

Among the sketches was a picture, where seven bodies were lying on something that looked like mattresses on the floor. They all were slotted closely together. A tangle of arms and legs and small blue eyes watching them from the left upper corner of the drawing.

The next picture revealed nothing but black crayon and a curled up shape in the darkness. A shape that seemed to have pretty much in common with Sam's form.

Dean pointed at the picture and thought for a long moment. "Is that you?", he asked hesitantly and looked up at Sam, who pressed tighter up against his side.

Sam nodded.

Dean suppressed a disapproving groan.

They went on and Dean let himself being shown another eleven sketches. One darker than the other one. Most had those blue eye-shaped forms somewhere on them. Some of those drawings were beyond disturbing (not just because of the detailed work Sam had made).

Those sketches showed the alpha glimpses of how Sam had lived. That those blue eyes meant nothing good. That those blue eyes represented someone who Sam was obviously afraid of – of whom they all had been afraid of.

Though he was never drawing the person with the blue eyes. There were nothing more than vague shapes of him on them.

Dean had a vague suspicion, that those eyes belonged to someone called Alistair. Though he refused to ask Sam about it, since he just had gained enough trust so that he showed him his drawings.

When they were done, Dean handed them back to Sam, who stared at the hunter as if he was surprised that he was allowed to keep them.

Hastily he grabbed the stack of papers and stored them back in between mattress and wall.

"You know ... you're a real talented drawer." Dean smiled warmly at him. "And thanks for showing me."

Sam gave him something that was the beginning of a slight smile, a small movement of the corners of his lips that wouldn't have been noticed if Dean wouldn't have looked out for just that.

The omega reached for his plate and started to eat slowly.

Dean did follow the omega's example, though after what he had just been showed, he wasn't very hungry anymore. In fact he felt nauseous and sick. But for Sam's sake he'd stuff the – now tasteless – sandwich into his mouth and swallow it down.

Wich by the way came right back as soon as he left the room to get the plates and their glasses back into the kitchen.

Dean then went into his own bedroom and got a set of pyjamas (wich, he by the way had bought on his last run for errands, since he badly could visit Sam in just boxers). He went into the bathroom down the corridor, since the only bedroom with a washing facility was Sam's. There he brushed his teeth to get the foul taste out of his mouth and took a fast shower, so that he could get back to the omega as usual.

Sam hadn't bothered to get the papers and pencil out again. Instead he sat on the mattress, the comforter loosely wrapped around his shoulders, his gaze fixing the door.

Maybe he was stupid to think that he could trust the alpha. Maybe he was a fool. But what had he to lose? Maybe the man wasn't as bad as Alistair had described the outside-world. At least he hadn't been mean to him ever since he was locked down in that room. Hell, the man hadn't even tried to touch him, without Sam making the first move.

The alpha hadn't taken away the crayons, pencils and papers from him too. Something they had never been allowed to possess. Hell, he and his siblings had never been allowed to own anything.

The alpha – DEAN – had even brought them to him, had coaxed him into using them. Sam hadn't been able to remember how to draw. He hadn't drawn ever since he had been punished for the first time his father had caught him doing that.

The man had even said that his sketches were pretty good and that he was a natural. He hadn't been mad at him about what he had been drawing as it seemed ...

Maybe ... if he'd draw something beautiful for the man, the horrified expression on his face when he had looked at those he had already made, would disappear. Though ... he didn't quite knew what the man would like.

He smelled like gun-oil and leather and metal. - Like a car. So maybe that man liked cars ... or weapons ... or both?

Other than all his doubts, Sam THOUGHT that he could at least partly trust the man ... then again, there was still the unused bed.

A bed he didn't know what usage it had – or would have in the future ... It just stood there, in the middle of the room, in between the windows. No one of the men that entered his room seemed to bother about it – at least until now.

Sam's look traveled back at the hunter, who wore now something different and carried a book in his left hand and a bottle with a red-white label and black liquid in his right one.

Dean walked over to the mattresses and slumped down on them yawning. He then unscrewed the bottle and took a zip, before he held it towards Sam.

The omega eyed the offered thing curiously and looked at Dean, who stared at him invitingly, with this small move of his head and lips that told him that he should take a zip too.

Sam just hesitantly took it from the alpha's hand and thought a moment before setting it on his lips tentatively and nipped on it. Rather surprised about the sweet, though strong taste he took a bigger one and nearly choked when the tiny bubbles tingled on the back of his throat.

Dean burst out laughing, when Sam swallowed down the bubbling liquid and coughed and sucked in one hasty breath after another.

"That's coke, kiddo." The alpha laughed loudly. "Go slow ..."

Sam sniffed up the bit of coke that had found its way into his nostrils and wiped over his watering eyes. Though, the juice (or whatever this was) tasted rather interesting, so he took another nib from it – this time more carefully.

"You ever read in a book?", Dean asked curiously, wiping tears of joy from his cheeks.

Sam eyed the book in the hunters hands and frowned. Sure he knew what a book was, and sure he was capable of reading. Though, after a specific age, they hadn't been allowed to read things except those Alistair gave to them.

And the books that his father had given to them were hand-written and more of the form of booklets. It's been quite some time since he had seen a printed book like this one.

Sam nodded carefully, not quite sure what the alpha wanted him to answer.

"So you can read?" Yeah, Dean couldn't hide the surprise in his voice.

Sam nodded. Again not sure if the alpha would be happy about his answer.

"That's good, Sammy.", he said then with a broad grin.

Maybe this brother-thing with the omega wasn't a bad idea after all. Dean had always thought how it would've been with a little brother anyways (okay, he also had thought about a big-brother too, but he rather liked to be the bigger one). On top of everything else it made it easier for him to think of the omega as his mate.

Dean hadn't even started to read the tale "Puss in Boots", when a knock was heard on the door and it opened slightly.

The alpha instantly stopped to read, and Sam who had sat curled up beside him, staring at the beautiful drawn pictures, was back in his corner and hidden under the comforter.

With a heavy sigh, Dean looked up and spotted Bobby's head lurking inside.

"Sorry, boys. - But I gotta borrow Dean for a couple of hours.", he said, his voice thick with concern.

The hunter was instantly alert. "What is it, Bobby?"

"Caleb. - He's in trouble.", Bobby opened the door a bit wider and stepped inside.

Sam pressed himself tight into the corner, hiding his face.

"He's got a black-eyes in his trunk and's stuck a couple of miles away from here in a ditch. - Can't afford to call anyone else. Besides if the cops ... you know ..." The grizzled hunter seemed to try to hold his voice as light as possible, but couldn't hide all of his concern though.

Dean instantly knew in what kind of trouble Caleb (one of his old hunter-friends) was. If the police would spot his car and notice that there was something living in human form locked down in his trunk he'd be in giant troubles.

Dean also knew that he couldn't ask Sonny to help him getting a car out of the ditch. The man was an ex-con, AND ex-marine. Shrapnell-splitters in his spine, head and god knew where else too. Sure he helped in the garage with the easier works, but something like that was definitely nothing for the man.

Dean gave him a sort not. "I'm down in five.", he said to Bobby, before he turned back towards Sam. "Sammy? - Sammy."

Tentatively, Sam lowered the comforter to steal a glimpse at the hunter.

"I'll leave the book with you, 'kay?.", he said quietly. "I'll check on you when I come back."

Sam blinked at the alpha and gave him a short nod.

Dean smiled at him. "See you later, kiddo.", and with that the alpha was up and out of the room, following the bearded man god knew where.

... to be continued

SOOOO ~ WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK SO FAR?

I'd love to get some bacon :P extra chrispy ^^