2. Bloody Hands
"It hurts," Jack said miserably, his face scrunched up in pain.
"I know." Castiel gave him a sympathetic look as he took in the sight of the boy's hands. Jack was still getting used to being mortal and it was not an easy ride—Castiel knew that better than anyone. He had been just as shocked as Jack just how bad things hurt when you were human. He honestly didn't know how Sam and Dean could stand being injured so frequently.
"Why does it feel so bad?" Jack asked, wincing as Castiel dabbed a warm, damp cloth over the raw flesh of his palms.
"Hands are very sensitive. There are many nerves that help you feel things," Castiel told him. "That also means they hurt very badly when they are injured."
They had been hunting out in the woods, and Jack had taken a dive to tackle the monster they were chasing, but instead, he had fallen into a patch of rocky soil, scraping his hands bloody, and causing pine needles to drive into his flesh like slivers. Castiel was currently trying to get them out. The warm cloth was helping draw them to the surface a little, but it was still a long and painful process.
He took the cloth away and held one of Jack's hands on his knee as he painstakingly took the tweezers and began to pull each sliver of pine needle out of his palm. Jack flinched and soon started to whimper a bit too, the sound going straight to Castiel's heart. These may not be life-threatening injuries, but they were still painful, and having to cause the boy pain even in the process of helping him hurt Castiel nearly as much as it hurt Jack.
"There we go, just one more now," he coxed as he finished getting the slivers out of one hand and reached for the other, cradling it firmly in one of his hands as he worked on the needles with the other.
Jack curled into himself, gritting his teeth, though sounds of pain still escaped. This hand thankfully didn't have as many pine needles, but Castiel still wasn't finished after he had gotten them out.
"Okay, this will hurt again, I'm afraid, but we're almost through," Castiel said kindly.
He reached for the bowl of warm water and set that on a towel in his lap before he took both of Jack's wrists and settled his hands in the water. Jack hissed at the feeling of the hot water on his wounds but Castiel had him leave them in for a few seconds before he took up the cloth again, and turned one palm over to start the painful process of scrubbing the dirt and the small pieces of gravel from the wounds.
Jack whimpered again, and Castiel could feel him instinctively jerking away, but he held firm, shushing the young nephillim as he continued. Blood tinged the water by the time Castiel had finished and Jack was sniffling, his eyes wet with tears of pain.
"Now we really are almost done," Castiel assured him as he took Jack's hands out of the water and set the bowl back on the table before he took the towel in his lap and used it to gently dab the water from Jack's palms.
He then took up some gauze and anti-biotic ointment and spread it liberally over the raw wounds before wrapping the gauze around Jack's hands until it looked like he was wearing fingerless gloves.
After he had finished and set the things aside, he gave Jack a kind smile and reached out to stroke the hair gently from his eyes. "There. They should be better within a few days."
"It still hurts a lot," Jack sniffed, cradling his hands awkwardly in his lap.
"I know," Castiel said and pulled him forward until Jack rested his head on the angel's shoulder. "But that's just part of being mortal."
"I don't like it," Jack whispered. "I wish pain wasn't part of it."
"We all do," Castiel said softly and simply held the boy with the bandaged hands, wishing that Jack didn't even have to endure the small pains that came with being human.
But as long as he was mortal, Castiel vowed he would protect him and take care of him still.
Nothing would ever change that.