Deangirl1996 - I know! I thought Jess being Sam's first love was too sweet to pass up. I had to do it! I know canon has alluded to Sam having short term girlfriends as a teenager but my personal headcanon is Jess was his first serious love soooo... (Also, early seasons Sam is totally boyfriend goals so I definitely feel ya there lol)

Long Live BRUCAS - Haha yeah I thought Dean would try to bail his brother out and stand up for him.

Kathy - I'm having so much fun writing their relationship. I figured Sam would be a little dramatic when he's a little drunk lol.


"911. What is your emergency?"

"Someone broke into my apartment!"

"Okay, honey, where are you at?"

Jess crouched down further in the tub behind the shower curtain. "I'm at the off-campus apartments across from Stanford. Apartment 2. I'm hiding in the bathroom."

"That's good, honey, just stay as quiet as you can on the line with me."

Jess slowed her breathing down as much as she could. She looked for anything she could use as a defense. Her razor might work if he got close enough and she got a good swipe at him. Or she could throw a shampoo bottle at his groin.

There was a thud on the bathroom door and Jess had to muffle her screams and cries.

Sam woke up in another panic on the couch. Throwing his hand over his mouth, he ran into the bedroom, opened the bathroom door, and violently threw up in the toilet. When he was finished, he closed the lid and flushed, allowing himself to rest his forehead on the lid and close his eyes. As he sat there gathering his breath, he was suddenly very much aware of his surroundings and remembered where he was.

"Morning," Dean said on the other side of the shower curtain, allowing Sam to finally notice all the steam that had filled the tiny apartment bathroom.

"Sorry," Sam muttered, embarrassed.

Dean didn't seem to care too much. "I can see now why you don't drink."

Sam continued to sit on the floor. The steam comforted him and started to help soothe the pounding that had started in his head. He knew he was going to have to do something soon for his hangover unless he wanted to be miserable all day.

Dean turned off the shower. "Don't look," he threatened, opening the shower curtain and reaching for his towel.

"Why would I? I thought the goal was to stop hurling," Sam poorly joked. Dean kicked him in the thigh, causing Sam to cry out in pain.

"Shut up, I didn't kick you that hard."

Sam groaned, rubbing his forehead and now his thigh. "Everything hurts."

Dean wrapped the towel around his waist and exited the bathroom. He opened the linen closet right outside and grabbed a fresh set of clean towels. Then he dug through the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Tylenol. "Here," he said, balancing everything on the small bathroom sink counter. "This apartment has, like, a magical unlimited supply of hot water. Might feel good."

"Thanks," Sam mumbled.

Dean shut off the lights and closed the bathroom door, very much in Sam's favor. He was content to spend all day on Dean's bathroom floor if it would help.

Dean got dressed quickly and went out to the kitchen to make breakfast. He also had a slight hangover so microwaving frozen waffles it is. While his waffles heated up and his coffee brewed, Dean checked his phone for the first time. There was a call from the house, likely their mom just calling to check in after their first night out. Dean wrote a note to himself to call her back when he and Sam were more human and less zombie. There was also a text from Lisa.

Call me. Need 2 talk about Ben.

Shit.

Fearing something might have happened, Dean immediately called his ex.

"Hey!" she greeted when she answered. "I didn't expect to hear back from you so soon."

That caught Dean off-guard. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that last night was Friday and I know you like to go out with the guys on Fridays. I thought I might get a call back on Monday, honestly."

Dean rolled his eyes. "You said it was about Ben. What happened? Is he okay?"

"Ben's great. He brought a flyer home from school yesterday and wants to try softball next semester."

Dean sighed in relief. "Softball, huh?"

"Yeah, it's a lot but I was thinking maybe you and I could split it and go half?"

"I might be able to do that. How much are we talking? 50? 100?"

"250."

"250 dollars!?" Dean's mind started racing just trying to do the math on how he would be able to come up with that.

"That's for the whole season, including travel expenses," Lisa explained. Dean could hear in her voice she was trying to be reasonable. "My parents said they'll cover his uniform so really, it's not as bad as it could be."

Now Dean was pissed. Why couldn't Lisa's upper-class family just cover everything? They dictate what his son can and can't do anyway. "I'll see what I can do."

"Is that Dad?" he heard a little voice say on the line. "Can I talk to him?"

"Not right now, honey, he's busy."

"Come on, Mom!"

"Maybe next time. Go help Grandma clean up breakfast."

"You never let me talk to him!"

"Benjamin Matthew Braeden."

Dean couldn't listen to this any longer. "Come on, Lis, let him say hi."

There was a childish scream, followed by a loud bang and Lisa groaning. "He just slammed his door. I have to go. Let me know. Bye."

Dean threw his phone against the wall, the battery cover flying off.

"Fuck, who were you on the phone with?" Sam asked, looking a little more alive after his own shower and coming into the main room of the apartment.

"Lisa," Dean snapped. He ran his hands down his face and started pacing around the room. "Ben wants to play softball."

"That's good, right?" Sam asked, pouring himself some of the coffee that just finished brewing.

"Lisa wants me to chip in for half. It's $250."

Sam sat down at the table and shrugged. "That's not so bad."

"NOT SO-" Dean felt his eyes actually pop out of his head. "Sam, I can't help with that! I can barely cover rent and child support already as it is."

Sam felt awful. He knew Dean had some financial troubles. Running a small family business is tight enough as it is. Hell, Dean has been on his own since he was eighteen technically. But it never occurred to him that it could be this bad. It explains why he was over almost every night after work for family dinner and why he didn't have much stuff at the apartment.

"Why don't you ask Mom and Dad?" Sam suggested. "I'm sure they'd love to help their grandson."

Dean scoffed, sitting at the table across from Sam. "Yeah, 'cause that will go over well."

Sam fiddled with the coffee mug. "Are you talking about Dad?"

"Of course, I'm talking about Dad!" Dean angrily stood up and walked over to the microwave, pulling his now cold waffles out. "You've seen the way he treats me. I don't need another reason for him to think I'm a failure."

"You're not a failure, Dean!" Sam argued, hoping to cheer his brother up. "You're doing the best you can!"

"Which obviously still isn't good enough," Dean responded bitterly.

"Well, then I'll ask."

Dean snorted. "What? Like they're just gonna hand you $250."

"I'll tell them I want my own car so you don't have to drive me everywhere anymore."

"And when you suddenly don't have a car?" Dean challenged.

Fuck. "I didn't think that far."

Dean almost threw the syrup bottle at Sam's face. Fucking idiot.

"Come on, Dean, let us help!" Sam all but begged. "Ben's not just your responsibility, you know? No matter what our dad or Lisa's parents think."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Shocker. Sam dropped the conversation.

"Do you have sugar?" he asked instead. "Your coffee's gross."

Dean grabbed a small tupperware of sugar down from one of the cabinets. That he actually did aim at Sam's face.


coffeeaddict13