"Dean…" Jo said cagily as she approached the couch, a steaming coffee mug in her hand. It was Thursday night and Dean had only been in the apartment for ten minutes before Jo had slunk out the kitchen like some cave dweller, though a cave dweller with coffee. "Coffee?" she asked handing him the mug. "I added an extra scoop to make it really strong. It vaguely resembles black sludge now, just how you like it."
"I'm busy." Dean retorted looking back down at the medical journal he was reading. He still took the coffee though because, heck, it was coffee. Ridiculously strong looking coffee as well which was just how he liked it.
"No you're not. You're staring at that book pretending to be busy so you don't have to talk to me." Jo said sounding annoyed. "Just drink your coffee and stop being a little bitch."
"No, I'm reading this journal in the small hope that it stays in my brain for longer than two seconds." Dean said refusing to look away from the page. Jo groaned loudly and sat down on the other end of the couch with a loud 'flumph' sound. "Jo, stop staring at me." Dean snapped.
"Stop avoiding me then." She shot back kicking Dean's leg lightly. "I know I pissed you off the other day with the whole Novak thing but I'm sorry so stop being a pissy little girl and just talk to me! Drinking at the bar is less fun when you have only Adam talking about random crap or Charlie either talking about whatever 'Larping' is or how one of the nurses on the third floor has really pretty eyes." Jo said looking thoroughly pissed off.
"Live action roleplaying." Dean said as he turned his attention back to his medical journal. He'd read the same sentence on endovascular stent grafts at least six ties and none of the information was sticking in his brain. If he fucked up helping out Novak tomorrow he was going to scream.
"Live action what?"
"That's what Larping is. It's live action roleplaying." Dean explained reading the damn sentence once again.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that. You're probably some secret Dungeons and Dragons geek or some crap like that." Jo said nudging Dean with her foot again. "At least we're talking…even if it is about Larping. Are you gonna stop being a shit about this whole thing now?" she asked.
To be honest Dean had been ignoring her over the past few days. He'd been spending nearly all his time either in ORs scrubbing in on Cas' surgeries or in the research library at the hospital. It was easier than having Jo or Charlie make jokes about him and Cas. All of this reminded him too much of those few months after his friends found out about his bisexuality when he was at Yale. They had either made jokes or treated him like he was a different person. One of the only people who hadn't treated him any differently had been Michael. Whatever was going on between him and Cas made him the support Michael had given him when he was figuring out who he was.
"Jo-" Dean said lifting his head from his book to look at Jo.
"Ok, ok I shouldn't have joked about you being friends with Cas and I shouldn't have sent the photo to Charlie. It was shitty of me and I'm sorry. Will you accept my damn apology?" Jo said looking scrupulously exasperated. "Whatever is going on with you and Cas is your business and I shouldn't have inferred or made fun of you."
"There's nothing going on between me and Cas, we're…we're friends or at least colleagues who get on." Dean said wishing that was true because even as he said he couldn't ignore the warm feeling spreading through his body as he remembered the night in the bar with Cas. Every laugh rang through his ears and he desperately convinced himself that it was only because they were becoming friends. It was nothing more than a budding friendship between two people. "Jo I mean it, we're just friends." Dean added when he saw Jo's sceptical look.
"You like guys." Jo said pointedly. Dean rolled his eyes heavily at her and fought the urge to poke Jo in the ribs.
"I also like girls. I'm friends with you and yet we have rattled the bed springs so there goes your theory." Dean said hoping that shut Jo up. She gave him a steely look but sighed heavily and flopped back in her seat. "You want a pizza or something?"
"Huh?" Jo asked looking at Dean as if he'd just asked her to elope with him to Canada and frolic naked through the woods.
"It's late and there isn't any take-out in the fridge so I'm guessing you haven't eaten. You want a pizza?"
"Meat Feast with extra spicy sausage and four kinds of cheese?" Jo asked excitedly. Dean guess that everything between them was ok now. Pizza was pretty magical in that sense. "Pizza sounds good to me…thanks Dean."
"Don't mention it. I'm clearing out the spare room this weekend though so you can move your ass out my bed." Dean said with a smug grin.
"My ass is going to mourn the loss of that bed because it's pretty damn comfy."
"Yeah well my back isn't gonna mourn the loss of this couch." Dean muttered darkly.
"You're such a weakling." Jo said rolling her eyes. For a moment Dean contemplating not even bothering to ordering pizza but that would have just been cruel so he threw his medical journal down onto the coffee and grabbed his cell phone. While he was ordering the pizzas Jo picked up the journal and flicked through it. "What were you reading up on?"
"Aortic dissections, Castiel's doing an arch dissection tomorrow and I want to be ready for it. I'm going to be scrubbing in on it."
"You're scrubbing in on an arch dissection?" Jo asked. "Dude, that's badass. It sucks that I'm stuck on stupid OBGYN." She grumbled with a pout.
"You shouldn't have pissed me and Cas off last week then." Dean said smugly. "Pizza should be here in fifteen."
"You had me at pizza." Jo said with a smile.
They didn't talk about the past few days of near silence for the rest of the evening. The two of them just sat there eating pizza while Jo pointed out just how many inaccuracies there were in Dr Sexy. MD and Dean carried on reading up on the arch dissection. It was probably unhealthy but this was how Dean coped with things, he watched trashy TV while eating and avoiding his feelings because that was the easiest thing to do.
The next morning Dean sat with a very smug grin as a hung over looking Ruby tried, and failed, to pull her scrub top on over her head without wincing. She was on her fourth attempt when Jo barrelled into the locker room looking scared out her mind. Her face was actually white with fear. Dean's stomach dropped because looking that scared while in a hospital was never a good thing.
"I'd watch out, your boyfriend is on the warpath." Jo complained as she regained her breath. "I saw him full on yell at a nurse just now. He looked murderous. What do you think happened?"
"No idea and he's not my boyfriend. We're just friends." Dean said for what felt like the hundredth time. Jo rolled her eyes until they landed on a still struggling Ruby who looked like she was about to throw up. "She's hung over."
"That should be amusing, maybe she'll throw up on a patient." Jo muttered with a devilish grin.
"I can hear both of you asshole, I hope you know that. Do me a favour and shut up the fuck up." Ruby grumbled from where she was stood. "And if Novak kills either one of you then it'll just be doing us all a favour." She added as she finally pulled her scrub top on over her head. She rammed her feet into a pair of sneakers, gave both Dean and Jo a scathing look and marched out the room.
"Whatever. I just want to make it through this day without him stabbing me." Jo said with a shrug of her shoulders. She was probably going overboard seeing as she wasn't the one who was going to be in the OR with Castiel and several very sharp medical instruments.
Initially Dean thought Jo was being melodramatic until he saw he furious expression on Castiel's face when they met up with him by the nurse's station. His whole body was locked with annoyance as he gripped onto the side of the desk. Dean watched Cas raise his head, his eyes almost dark with infuriation, and glare at each and every intern.
"Who the fuck was charting my post-ops last night?" Castiel practically growled. Deep purple bags hung under his eyes and it looked like he'd been awake for several days. Slowly Adam raised a hand. "I should have known. Thanks to your messy scrawl you try to pass off for handwriting the nurse nearly gave my patient in 456 an overdose." Castiel snapped hitting Adam in the chest with several more charts. "You can spend the whole day going through these, as well as the other charts you did last night and double check them for anymore fuck-ups before someone else nearly dies."
Adam looked horrified as he stammered out. "I'm on Lafitte's service today."
"No you're not. Today you're charting. Now get the fuck out of here or the only way you will see the ER anytime soon will be because I will have put you there." Castiel said. Adam practically ran off down the hallway, files clutched in his hands. "Everyone else carry on." Castiel added with dismissing wave of his hand.
"Good luck." Jo muttered as she patted Dean on the back. Dean waited with baited breath for Castiel to start shouting at him but instead he watched in amazement as the cardio surgeon sighed heavily, his shoulders sinking.
"Are you alright?" Dean asked placing a hand on Cas' shoulder apprehensively.
"No I'm not so just drop it." Castiel snapped. Dean stepped back, raising his eyebrows as he went.
"Sorry sir. I'll leave you alone if that's what you want." He said imperturbably. If that was how Cas wanted to act then Dean wasn't going to try and get the guy to grow up. It had been a while since Cas had acted like an asshole but clearly he just couldn't help himself.
"Dean…" Cas groaned rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"You have an aortic arch dissection in fifteen minutes. I didn't spend all last night reading up on the procedure to just stand around and be yelled at." Dean said not giving Cas a chance to say anything else. "I'll see you in the OR Dr Novak." He added ignoring how hurt Cas looked when Dean called him 'Dr Novak'.
"Dean wait." Castiel called as Dean walked off. Dean ignored him and carried on walking until he reached the elevator. He threw himself into the empty elevator as soon as the doors opened and punched in the number for the operating room floor.
Maybe being friends with his resident was a bad idea. It blurred the lines whenever they were in the hospital and Dean spent more time defending his friendship with Castiel than actually being friends with the man. He wanted to be friends with Cas, he really did. Once he'd chipped away at the cold exterior Dean had found that Castiel was funny and even smarter than he'd originally believed. He wanted to be friends with Cas but clearly he couldn't be friends with Dr Castiel Novak.
He made his way to the operating room to scrub in and waited. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, maybe for Castiel to barge into the room and say that Dean couldn't scrub in on the surgery but all he knew was that he was waiting. The scrub nurse raised her eyebrows when she noticed Dean just stood there waiting. She handed him a surgical gown and scrub cap without saying a word but those raised eyebrows said everything. Dean noticed Cas' personal scrub cap, that damn cap covered in bumblebees of all things, in with the other caps and wondered how on earth that cap could belong to the same person who'd just yelled at Adam. Dean was having his scrub cap placed onto his head when the doors opened.
"Dean-" Speak of the devil.
"Look I've gotten a lot of shit from Jo and the others because we're sort of friends." Dean said turing to glare at Castiel once he'd been gowned up. "I've been spending the last month or so calling you a dick and nearly every other name under the sun because, to be honest, most of the time you are a huge asshole. I've been telling Jo that you're actually not a bad guy once I got to know you a bit better and then you just go and snap at me after yelling at Adam. Sure he fucked up but I did fuck all to piss you off but you still snapped at me." Dean ranted as the scrub nurse moved on to fixing Castiel's scrub cap. Stupid bumblebee scrub cap…
"Dean-"
"I want us to be friends but not if that means that I have to put up with shit like you being a decent guy one second then an asshole the next."
"Could you give us a moment please?" Castiel asked the scrub nurse.
"Of course Dr Novak." She said giving Dean a small, but very telling, look as she nodded her head.
"Thank you Kate." Castiel said. The scrub nurse nodded once again and walked out the room as Dean looked away from Castiel. He focused on the operating room in front of them even though he knew Castiel was trying to get his attention.
"Dean I'm sorry about how I spoke to you. I had a long night and this morning just took it out on me. You'll understand this once you're a resident with a large amount of pressure on your shoulders." Castiel said.
"Fine but don't be a dick towards me unless I've done something to warrant it." Dean said.
"I am sorry Dean, let me make it up to you tonight by buying you a drink." Cas said. As he glanced over to his resident Dean knew he should have said 'no' because it would be easier in the end to not form a friendship with his superior; it would only end in more people assuming he was getting perks, whether they be professional or personal, and he didn't want that at all. However, once he saw the open expression on Cas' face he found it impossible to reject the offer. Cas was after all a good person, even if he had his moments of sharpness, and Dean was growing used to the tentative friendship they were establishing.
"Sure" he said not even caring about the tiny, and rather Sam-like, voice in his head telling him that it was a stupid idea. "A drink sounds good." After all, as he reminded that damn voice in his head, they'd already gone for drinks and everything had been ok.
"I promise you that I won't end up passing out on your couch this time though." Castiel said reassuringly. Dean tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach over that declaration. "I am sorry for snapping at you, it was not my intention at all to upset you."
"It's ok…you might want to apologise to Adam before you drive the poor guy to an early grave though." Dean said and when the room filled with Castiel's laughter Dean felt lighter and he didn't realise how much pressure had been in his chest since he'd walked away from Castiel.
"I can try but I think that would be a lost cause Dean." Cas replied, his mood visibly lighter than it was when he walked into the scrub room.
The arch dissection went without any problems. It had been a long surgery and Dean's legs were protesting from being made to stand for so long so sitting in a bar with a beer in his hand sounded like a great idea. Like the last time he and Castiel grabbed a booth away from the bar though they both agreed on drinking far less than the first time they'd gone to the bar together. They were hallway through the first round when Benny Lafitte came walking through the door and gave Castiel a curt nod.
"I hope you don't mind but I invited Benny Lafitte, he wanted to congratulate me on today's successful procedure." Castiel said.
"No man that's fine." Dean said with a smile because Lafitte was actually a pretty cool guy.
"Evenin'" Benny said sitting dwon in the booth next to Castiel. "I'm gonna get a drink so what are you two drinkin'?"
"I can get these." Dean said going to stand up but Benny waved him away.
"No you don't. Novak here says you were good today and you've been on your feet most of the damn day so just sit there and let me buy you a drink."
"Thanks Dr Lafitte."
"It's Benny, we ain't at the hospital now kid." Benny said chuckling. "Now what you drinkin'?"
"Just beers, I don't want to spend my day off tomorrow nursing a hangover." Castiel said nodding at his bottle.
"What 'bout you Winchester?" Benny asked.
"Same. I'm getting off my ass and clearing out my spare room tomorrow. I'm not gonna do that hung over." Dean said. Benny snorted but went up to the bar to get the drinks anyway.
"I know I said I didn't get on well with the other doctors but Benny Lafitte I find myself enjoying Benny's company." Cas said.
"He's a kickass surgeon and he doesn't scare the shit outta Adam, unlike some people." Dean said with a mock accusatory tone.
"Are you questioning my competence as a surgeon or my lack of compassion for Adam Milligan?" Castiel asked with raised eyebrows.
"I watched you do an arch dissection so I was definitely questioning your 'lack of compassion'." Dean said with a grin.
Benny returned with their drinks and the three men fell into easy conversations. While talk of the hospital dominated most of the conversation Dean found he wasn't even remotely bored. Both Benny and Castiel were incredibly passionate about their specialties and had endless stories of complex procedures that had pushed them into being better surgeons. Castiel had just finished telling them about the first time he performed a Fontan procedure when Benny spoke up.
"I've been meanin' to ask. You ain't the son of John Winchester by any chance?" Benny asked. Dean felt his face redden but nodded anyway. "Damn, that man is one hell of a trauma surgeon. Half the techniques I use are his." Benny said shaking his head in what looked like disbelief.
"He'd be pretty thrilled to hear that." Dean said.
"What's he up to nowadays?" Benny asked.
"He's still working but he settled down in Kanas with my mom. He's a trauma consultant." Dean said willing his face to cool down. He was proud of his father sure, heck his dad was one of the most important people in his life along with Sam and Mary, but he never wanted to live in the shadow of his father. "He'd probably jump at the chance to get back into surgery full time but I think my mom would have his kneecaps removed." Dean said. Benny's had dropped back and the bar filled with his deep, booming laugh.
"Your mama sounds like a real badass."
"Oh yeah she is. You'd need to be a badass raising me and my brother. If there was a bone to break we'd probably break it from falling outta trees or some shit like that." Dean said with a smirk as he finished his beer.
"You ever think about going into trauma like him?" Benny asked. "I've told you that you've got skills in trauma."
"I've thought about it, my dad would get a real kick outta it but…but I really like cardio." Dean said hoping that the lighting in the bar was dark enough to hide the blush creeping up his neck.
"Doesn't surprise me, Novak never stops singin' your praises." Benny said which did nothing to help Dean's swiftly reddening neck. Dean really hoped that it was do with both Castiel and Benny praising his skills and not because it was Castiel praising him. Jo could not be proven right. "Now not that this hasn't been fun but I've left interns running my service. I'm gonna go and sleep at the hospital in case one of them tries to kill someone. Wouldn't put it past Ruby to try somethin' like that." Benny said draining his own beer.
"You're worse than I am for staying late at that place." Cas said shaking his head. "I actually see my own bed at least twice a week."
"Yeah but at least I don't make my interns piss their pants just by going 'boo'" Benny shot back with a smirk.
"Hey I've never piss my pants, I'll leave that to Adam." Dean interjected.
"I don't know what you've done to that guy but he all but jumps out his skin whenever someone mentions your name Novak. Talk about striking fear into the heart of your interns. I thought I was gonna be the badass but my interns love me." Benny said.
"My interns…well they like me." Castiel said though from the waver in his voice Dean could tell he didn't believe what he was saying.
"Hate to break it to you brother but they're just scared of you. Well apart from Winchester here but that's only 'cause you're buying him beer."
"I like him for more reasons than that." Dean said and Castiel's beaming smile could have lit up the whole damn bar.
"Novak you've found an intern that ain't scared of you, I'd keep hold of him for as long as possible." Benny said with a grin of his own. "Have a good night folks." He added giving both Dean and Castiel a friendly nod.
"I didn't know about your father." Castiel said after a few moments.
"I guess I don't talk about it that much, it's not that much of a big deal." Dean said shrugging his shoulders.
"Is he the reason you got into medicine?" Castiel asked. Dean sucked in a breath. He'd been waiting for a question like this for a long time. One of the main questions to ask any surgeon was why they got into practicing medicine. He scratched at his neck and looked away from Castiel. Yes they were friends but did he really want to talk about this with Cas. "I'm sorry, was that too personal of a question?" Castiel asked looking nervous. It was then that Dean realised that this was Cas, not just some random person he was just getting to know.
"My brother was really sick when he was a baby, he was born with a defect that affected his whole system." Dean heard himself say. "Most of my childhood and Sammy's was spent in hospital while they carried out endless tests. He'd had more surgeries by the time he was ten than more people have in their lifetime. He's still on daily medication. That added to my dad always working in the ER meant I grew up in the hospital. I guess that made me want to be a surgeon from a really young age."
"I can understand that Dean." Castiel said sagely. "I think your reasons are very admirable."
"Thanks…you're not going to tell people about this are you? I mean it's just that it's a family thing I don't really talk about family things with people."
"Dean you have a high enough opinion of me to trust me with this so I wouldn't disregard it by telling other people about your private matters." Castiel said looking serious. "So are close to your parents as well as your brother? I think that it's nice that you have a strong relationship with some your family."
"Yeah my parents and I are pretty close...I mean we drifted when I was at Yale, the distance you know." Plus his parents finding out their eldest was bisexual caused some of that drifting but Cas didn't have to know that. "But yeah, we're pretty close."
"That's nice."
"What about you?" Dean asked because for all that Castiel now knew about Dean there was little Dean knew about Castiel.
"Me?" Castiel asked with surprise. It was as if no one ever bothered to ask him questions before.
"Yeah, with family and all. You never mention them."
"There really isn't anything worth mentioning. I have a brother and a sister, both older than me, who I see at Christmas and my parents died when I was in medical school." Castiel said almost casually.
"Shit. I'm sorry Cas."
"There's no need for you to be. We were never that close and they weren't as supportive of my career choice as I wanted them to be. My brother is married and lives in New York with his wife and Anna, my sister, lives in Italy at the moment but she travels all over the world." Cas said. Dean felt a pang of something he couldn't really describe. Here was this incredible surgeon who was able to perform complex cardiothoracic procedures at the drop of a hat and yet he seemed…well, he seemed alone. Cas had told Dean he never really spent time with others from the hospital, both his parents were dead and he only saw his siblings during the holidays. Dean couldn't imagine what it was like having so very few people in his life. Sure he didn't have that many friends but the ones he had he knew would be there for him no matter what and his family, no matter what their flaws were, would follow him to the ends of the earth. He hadn't really thought about it much but know Dean was realising that his friendship with Cas was probably just as important to the other man as it was to him.
He'd only mentioned it once on Friday night but Cas must have remembered that Dean was meaning to clear out the spare room. On Saturday morning he opened the door to see Cas, wearing a tatty looking hooded sweater and jeans instead of scrubs, smiling at him.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Dean asked.
"You mentioned that you were clearing out your spare room and I have the day off so I thought I would come and help you. I brought breakfast and coffee but if you've already eaten then we could call it brunch." Castiel said holding up a bag from the café down the street. "You don't mind do you?"
"No…no as long as you don't mind helping me clear out a shitload of junk. There's medical journals from even before I went to Yale in there." Dean said letting Cas into the apartment. "You really don't have to help me."
"Like I said, I have the day off and I want to help. It's a crime that you're ruining the muscles in your back from sleeping on that couch." Cas said shrugging his shoulders casually as he placed the paper bag on the nearest table. He pulled out two cups of coffee and handed one to Dean. "I remembered that you take it black with no sugar." Castel added offhandedly but the gesture and the fact that Cas remember how he took his coffee made Dean smile.
"Thanks man." Dean said. He took a sip and nearly groaned with pleasure because damn was that good coffee. There was just the right hint of bitterness to the deep brown liquid. "You're probably gonna regret this once we start moving crap because there's a shitload of junk in there from my time at Yale."
"I don't mind at all Dean, I really mean it." Castiel said. Dean took another gulp of coffee, damn it really was good, before he pulled out the breakfast Cas had brought. Oh Jesus Christ, they were English muffins with bacon, sausage and egg and swimming in sauce. "I wasn't sure what kind of food to get you but I've found that you can never go wrong with the breakfast muffin."
"Fuck no, these are great." Dean said handing on muffin over to Cas and swiftly digging into the breakfast muffin. Holy shit it was good. Coffee, muffins and help with manual labour? Being friends with Cas had its benefits.
The spare room was mainly full of the stuff Dean hadn't gotten round to unpacking when he'd first moved into the apartment during the summer. A lot of the boxes were full of photos and stuff from Yale, college and photos from back home. There were countless textbooks and journals from both college and medical school, with the spare bed serving as a makeshift bookshelf. Both Dean and Castiel surveyed the room as they ate their breakfast muffins (and Dean could really get used to those damn muffins because they were fucking amazing).
"Told you it was full of stuff." Dean said
"You should see my apartment, it's no worse than this." Castiel said casually and Dean wasn't sure if that was an invitation or not. "Do you want to start with the boxes or the books?"
"Uh…boxes. They're just full of photos and junk from when I was at med school. They can go in the closest in my room."
"Ok, set me to work. You're in charge today." Castiel said shooting a small smile in Dean's direction. God, Dean to get used to that smile because it really was a damn good smile. "It feels very strange relinquishing my power."
"I promise not to abuse this tiny amount of power I've been given."
"You better not, I could refuse to ever buy you a breakfast muffin again."
"You wouldn't dare break my heart like that." Dean said giving Cas a smile before he even realised just how flirtatious the smile probably looked. He couldn't flirt with a resident. He couldn't flirt with Cas more importantly because Cas wasn't just a resident, he was Dean's friend. Hoping desperately that Cas hadn't noticed the flirtatious tinge in the air Dean set about lifting endless boxes and shifting through junk. Occasionally Castiel would comment on maybe a book or
"Are these your parents?" Castiel asked after several minutes of near silence. Dean glanced over his shoulder to see Castiel holding a photo taken at Dean's graduation from Yale.
"Yeah, my brother took that at my graduation." Dean said absentmindedly.
"You look a lot like your mother." Castiel remarked as he handed the photo over to Dean. "It must be hard being away from them. You said they lived in Kanas, correct?"
"Yeah…yeah it's pretty hard but I got used to it when I moved to New Haven. I was at college in Kanas before that so I just went home most weekends if I didn't have too much work on." Dean said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "I'll probably get to see them at Christmas so it's ok. My mom does get pissed though if I go too long without calling her." Dean added. It was strange how easy he found it to talk about his parents with Cas. Normally he never mentioned them because people would tend to ask him never-ending questions about his father. Plus he never really felt comfortable talking about family. With Cas however it just felt right. It was strange. It made the several hours they spent clearing out the room almost fly by. Dean was tempted to ask Cas if he wanted to stay for dinner but Cas mentioned how he needed to be up early as he had research that needed to be done at the hospital. Dean was determined to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach as Castiel left because it would just add to the long list of things that confused him about their friendship. Jo would never hear about any of this because she'd probably have a freaking field day.
To: dwinchester
From:
Subject: Still alive?
Hey asshole.
Remember that thing call a phone? You use it to call and text people, you might want to use it sometime jackass. Anyway, I've got a free weekend next week and haven't seen your ugly in a while so how about I fly to Chicago to see you? You can bore me senseless over whatever you're doing at the moment while I tell you all about this girl in my PoliSci class.
To:
From: dwinchester
Subject: RE: Still alive? You're the asshole here Sammy
Hey you dick, I have this thing called a live saving job. Next time you choke on Grandma Campbell's lumpy yams at Thanksgiving I won't bother saving your huge ungrateful ass.
Get your ass over here to Chicago and tell me all about this girl you're mooning over. You're sleeping on the couch though, Jo stole your room.
To: dwinchester
From:
Subject: Your couch sucks
My back is already in mourning. You seriously need a better couch.
To:
From: dwinchester
Subject: RE: Your couch sucks
Yeah you ain't the first person to say that and you ain't gonna be the last one either.
A week later Sam's plane got into Chicago during the Friday afternoon. Dean was busy working at the hospital so he couldn't meet Sam at the airport like he wanted so Sam got a taxi to Dean's apartment. Dean felt bad about making his little brother get a taxi so he promised to come home with dinner and beer to make it up to Sam. There was the added stress that Jo was going to be there, though hopefully asleep as she'd been on call all night, so she could tell Sam any number of things. Dean tried not to think of the embarrassing tales either one of them could tell them other. He really did try.
By the time he made it back to the apartment, Chinese food in hand, he was tired and in desperate need trashy TV to take his mind of a long day at the hospital. He'd barely made it into the kitchen before Sam came bounding into the room with the huge grin on his face. Dean threw the Chinese food down onto the counter and swiftly returned his brother's smile.
"Hey Sammy!" Dean said pulling his brother into a huge hug. He stepped back to look over at his brother. If it was possible Sam had grown even taller and was rocking a serious tan. "Damn that Californian sun is strong, you know you're supposed to be training to be a lawyer, not going to the beach at every chance you get."
"Very funny Dean." Sam said punching Dean on the arm. "You look like shit though, have you been sleeping at all?"
"Yeah…I slept on Thursday."
"Very funny." Sam said giving Dean a very Sam-like bitch face.
"Shut up bitch and help me with this food. Jo still here?" Dean asked.
"Nah, she went to some bar with Charlie and Sarah I think." Sam replied. "She seems pretty cool. Not a bad roommate by the looks of it."
"Yeah when she's not eating all the cereal and leaving wet towels all over the place." Dean shot back.
"So you're basically living with the female version of yourself?" Sam had a point, most of the wet towels in the bathroom were Dean's but his brother didn't have to know that.
"Bite me, I have much better taste in music than she does. REO Speedwagon fan." Dean said with a shudder. Sam's eye roll was definitely on the heavy side as he helped Dean plate up their food and grab two beers from the refrigerator. While Dean quickly cleared away some of the trash Sam carried their food and drinks into the living room.
"Hey Dean there's a message on your machine" Sam called from the other room. "Want me to play it for you?" he asked as Dean walked out of the kitchen. He grabbed the nearest hooded jumper hanging off the back of the couch and threw it on over his head.
"It's probably just mom or a message for Jo, play it if you want." Dean said shrugging. Ellen Harvelle's message to Jo were always hilarious as she pretty much ranted through the whole thing, even if Jo hadn't done anything wrong, called Jo by her full name but then always ended it with a promise of a care package coming in the mail. Man those care packages were a blessing just for the cookies alone.
Sam hit the play button on the machine and Dean stopped in his tracks as the apartment was filled with a very familiar smooth voice.
"Hello Dean…its Michael. I've tried texting you a few times over the past few week but I know how busy intern year is so I don't blame you for not getting back to me. I saw Bela here in London a few weeks ago for her father's funeral. She mentioned seeing you in Illinois and how well you seem to be doing over there which is great. It would be good to hear from you and to catch up but I understand if you're busy, I barely get any time of over here myself. Friday and Saturday nights in the A&E are ridiculously packed thanks to drunken students, you wouldn't believe it! Anyway, it would be good to hear from you. Bye Dean." The message cut out and Dean was filled with guilt. He had meant to return Michael's messages but it had never felt like the right time or he just felt odd trying to act like they were nothing more than friends now. Between work and spending time with his fellow interns and Cas he had found that there just hadn't been time to try and work out a friendship with Michael. Yes he felt like a complete asshole over it, after all they'd been together for three years, but he guessed that avoidance was just one of his flaws.
"Do…do you want to delete it?" Sam asked warily. Dean shook his head and hit the 'Save' button instead. He'd listen to the message again when Sam wasn't there and try to work up the courage to ring Michael. "So…Michael's been texting you?"
"Sam we really don't have to talk about this right now ok?" Dean said. He couldn't get into this with Sam. He loved Sam and he was probably the one person he could always rely on but there were some things they just didn't talk about. His relationship with Michael was one of those things.
"Ok then…you want to talk about where you saw Bela?" Sam asked.
"Not really, no. Stick my food in the fridge." Dean said pulling off the hoodie he'd just thrown on and chucking it onto the nearest chair. Without saying another word he took off in the general direction of his bathroom for a shower. He was glad Sam was here, heck he hadn't seen the giant doofus in months and they needed a proper catch up, but he really needed space right now to think things through and Sam had a tendency to not let things go even when he knew they were pissing Dean off.
Dean exited the shower nearly an hour later feeling slightly calmer and Sam left him alone for about an hour. That was until they were sat down in front of the TV watching a rerun of some reality show. He could tell that Sam wanted to talk about the message Michael had left, it was almost as if he were hovering over the subject and Dean was just waiting for him to swoop down. It was only a few minutes before Sam was turning towards him with a serious look on his face.
"So we're still not talking about Michael or Bela?" he asked muting the TV as he did so. Dean bit back a frustrated groan.
"Sam I'm warning you." Dean said warningly.
"But her father died." Sam said. "You were friends with her right? I mean you talked about her a few times and she's in photos of you and Michael. You've gotta feel something about it man."
"I know her father died Sam, I was there when he died. I was the one that told her that her father was dead!" Dean heard himself snapping before he could stop himself.
"What?"
"He was admitted to the hospital with a heart condition. It turned out to be an aneurysm actually. Cas operated on him and he died on the table after the aneurysm burst. I was the intern assigned to the case so I was the one to tell Bela that her father died. It was sort of a sucky reunion."
"Shit…I'm really sorry. Why didn't you call me and tell me about it?" Sam asked. "We tell each other everything…well we did." He added almost bitterly. Damn, Dean couldn't get into this because if Sam brought up all the things that happened at Yale then there was going to be a problem. "I know you hate me talking about it but come on Dean! You shut us all out once you were at Yale! You had friends you never told us about and daily phone calls turned into vague messages left on the machine maybe once a week if we were lucky!"
"Sam I was trying to get some independence. I was at a damn good school and I'd worked hard to get there."
"I do know that Dean, I know how hard you worked to get there but I'm at a good school now and I'm not cutting people out. I'm not making friends I never tell my family about. I'm not getting into a relationship that no one knows about."
"Sammy-"
"Don't 'Sammy' me, I'm not a kid anymore Dean. You were with Michael for six months before you even mentioned you'd met someone let alone been dating them. You didn't tell any of us then you dropped this huge bomb on us out of nowhere."
"Because I was dating a guy?"
"No, I never cared about that." Sam said carefully avoiding to mention how John hadn't spoken to Dean for nearly a month as he came round to the idea of his eldest son dating a man. "I mean yeah…I was kind of surprised when you told us and it took some time to get used to it. What I really cared about was that you'd been dating him for months and were planning on getting a place off campus with him. You had this whole new life you were living and you told none of us. I don't want that to happen again now that you're here."
"What are you getting at?" Dean snapped growing defensive.
"Having Jo move in with you and shit like that. I mean you don't really tell us anything anymore." Sam said giving Dean a weird look that made it clear there was more to his words than Dean was hearing.
"What's Jo been saying?" he questioned because Jo had to have been saying something.
"That you're spending a lot of time with your resident, the resident you told me was a giant asshole who you couldn't stand. What's going on? Do you like him or something?" Sam asked. Dammit Jo, she was worse than Charlie. Dean groaned and ran his fingers through his short hair angrily. It was one thing for Jo and the others to think Dean felt something for Cas but once Sam started to think it then there was a problem. Mainly that Sam would mention something to Mary and she'd ring him yelling about how he never told her anything anymore.
"We're friends Sam, Bela's dad was the first patient he'd lost in a long time and that kind of…I don't know, bonded us or some shit like that. We became friends."
Moving clear across the country had been a big decision but one that needed to be made. His time at Yale had given Dean some freedom to learn things about himself and the kind of person he wanted to be. Now that he was here in Chicago he was growing as a surgeon and not just a person. He knew that Sam was just interested in the life he had here but if it meant that he was passing judgement or listening to whatever Jo had been saying then Dean felt like he didn't need that in his life. He loved Sam more than anyone else in the world and Jo was easily becoming one of his closest friends here in Chicago but Dean had to figure out his friendship with Cas on his own.
Medical Notes:
Aortic Arch Dissection is a heart procedure done on the arch of the aorta. More information can be found here
A Fontan Procedure is a surgical procedure used in children with complex congenital heart defects and is named after Dr Fontan who originally described in 1971 along with Dr Kreutzer.