Sam Winchester was always good at reading people, even when he was a little kid. Walking into a room, he could assess and categorize people and situations. Regardless of how bad that might sound, it has helped him survive the multitude of schools he went to over the years and it even saved his life a few times. Even if the trait didn't help find the monster, it did help with spotting when or hiding information. It came to help him more times than he could count.

Then there was Danny Fenton. He can't seem to read the other teen, no matter how hard he tried. He'd figure something out, just to have the smaller kid do something that completely threw off his assumptions, always sending him back to square one. The more he got to know him, the more confusing things got. It didn't bother him, he oddly liked the challenge, but this was something he wouldn't have expected. Sam resolutely didn't want this to be Danny's life, the too constant to be healthy changing, because the ramifications of such a fact could be harrowing and dangerous. And he was a hunter.

The youngest Winchester found himself working methodically with his older brother to patch up his friend. The two of them worked in sync, Dean doing the sewing, taping, and wound care while Sam mostly kept the area clean and gathered any soiled items such as gauze and tape from his brother's space. As they worked, Sam was able to block his emotions for the moment, focusing solely on helping his friend, and making sure Danny would be okay.

After quite some time, the patch job was finished. Sam's eyes glanced over his brother's stern stance before landing on Danny. Danny. The teen sat in one of Sam's shirts, too large for the smaller boy, but the only option for the moment seeing as Dean's wouldn't be much better. He was shrunk in on himself, shoulders hunched up to his ears, body folding in as to take up the least amount of space, and his eyes were glued to the ground. Now, without the distraction of patching up Danny's horrifically wounded back, Sam's mind could now race with all the possible things that could have happened to Danny. How did this seemingly okay teen end up with such harsh injuries? His eyes raked over the bruises visible along Danny's arms, places that were hidden with the teen's original jacket, the random collection of small scrapes on elbows and even on his shoulders, and the hint of fading bruising that the two brothers saw on the Danny's ribs gave Sam a sinking feeling in his stomach that this was deeper than he thought at first glance.

"Explain." Dean's voice broke the silence, voice gruff and to the point, the tension growing even more. Danny somehow shrunk back into himself even more, trying to hide from the stares of the Winchesters. Sam could hear Danny swallow in the still silence.

What could have happened? Did Danny get attacked? Was he in danger? Who could have done this in such a small sleepy town, where everyone knew everything?

It wasn't like Sam saw the other teen with many people, aside from himself and Dean; the smaller boy didn't seem to have friends, if anything he was excluded and bullied, the butt of the school's jokes. His mind flipped through memories to try and pinpoint the one person that could have done this. It clearly wasn't Danny's best friends, they were in other states- not that Sam could even imagine the two of them doing it, they obviously loved their best friend way too much to even do so. That leaves only really two people who could...

Then the pieces slowly fell into place. Sam's blood running cold with the realization; it was the only thing that made any sense. Small interactions that he originally ignored now coming into place; the small winces, the limping, chronic lateness, the excuses of his parents needing him for experiments yet being absent whenever they weren't 'conducting' one. His stomach drop at the full realization.

"Your parents." Sam uttered before he could stop himself, and wished he could take it back, seeing Danny tense immediately. The black haired head snapped up fast, wide eyes meeting his. Sam could very clearly read the emotions in those glassy eyes. Surprise, fear, pain. His heart stopped at the realization that he hit the nail on the head.

"Your parents did this?" Dean growled, anger dripping from his words. Sam watched Danny's panicked gaze falling on Dean. Danny's mouth flopped open and closed like a fish out of water as he tried to figure out what to say. "Don't. Lie." Dean growled, angry at the situation, but not at the struggling teen in front of him. Sam watched as all the resolve seemed to leave Danny at once, his body going limp as a deep sigh left him.

"I... yeah." He spoke, eyes falling back to the carpeted floor, the resolve, the fight going out of the teen. Sam felt his heart stop, while he knew he was right, it was different to have Danny confirm it. "I just...It's just... Don't tell anyone. Please." Danny begged, eyes flying back up to meet the brothers. Once again Sam could read the emotions in those blue eyes as clear as day.

"Danny, they are hurting you." Sam spoke, disbelief clear in his voice. He knows the challenges of having complicated family, he really does, but everything has a limit. If the people who were supposed to love was inflicting this much pain on you, it needs to stop. "It's bad, you can't stay there!"

"This is my last year here, guys please." Danny spoke, eyes burrowing into Sam's. "I only have one semester to go through, then I graduate and it's over. Just please... Don't tell anyone." Sam stared back in disbelief, he couldn't imagine leaving Danny alone to whatever his parents might do in the upcoming days.

"Danny-" Sam started, before his words were cut short by a glance from his brother. Sam might know what he wants, but he trusts Dean to know how to handle this better than he would. He might not admit it, but he knows that he'll more likely give into his anger then logically think this through seeing as he was much closer to the issue than Dean was.

"Plus," Danny cut in hurriedly, "I met some people- they are a pair of friends that live together in a house, and they are willing to take me in. My parents would absolutely freak out if they even offered to take custody of me. Charles and Pandora have been wanting to at least have one of them gain custody of me when I was fourteen, and have been willing to fight my parents for it. Trust me guys, I have some people in my corner." Since Danny wasn't exactly lying- just stretching the truth, neither Winchester sensed that the kid wasn't telling the full truth. Clockwork and Pandora were basically his parents at this point, the two Ancients of Time and Hope, respectively, staking their claim over him as his ghostly parents. And they were a damn sight better than Jack and Maddie, but that was another matter altogether.

Pandora offered rooms in her Grecian kingdom of a lair and Clockwork offered a room in his Clocktower. Hell, even Frostbite offered him a place within his tribe to stay. Now it was just a waiting game until he could get the hell out of dodge and into the Ghost Zone. "Seriously, please don't do anything. I'm just fine right now."

"Fine." Dean spoke, making sure to make eye contact with Danny. "But if you need somewhere to go, your first choice better be getting your ass here. And you'd better let us as long as we're in town." The reminder of leaving hit Sam hard. He forgot for a split second that their stay here was never guaranteed.

"Yeah okay... I promise." Danny responded with a nod, eyes flipping between the brothers before he offered a small smile. "Thanks for the help."

"Danny-" Sam was once more interrupted but this time from a loud ringtone cutting through the tension. Sam watched Danny jump before frantically scrambling to answer his phone.

"Hey mom... That was today? No sorry, I forgot..." Danny's eyebrows furrowed, but Sam couldn't help the heaviness he felt as Danny spoke, just knowing that Danny would be facing his parents when he got home. "No no, I can head back home... Yeah we got most of it done... Okay yea, I'll be home soon... Love you, bye." Danny sighed once he hung up and turned to the brothers.

"Promise that you will." Dean spoke, eyes trained on the nervous teen.

"I forgot I promised I'll help my dad clean out the Lab closet." Danny answered, nervously rubbing the back of his neck, the Winchester brothers catching it and sharing a saddened look. "I promised you guys, and I'll hold up to it." Danny said, gathering his things. Sam watched in shock as the teen just packed up as if nothing had happened.

"You better. We won't stay quiet if you don't." Dean threatened. Danny nodded vigorously in response, still pale at the thought of someone finding out.

"I'll see you at school Sam?" Danny offered, a nervous, shaky smile on his lips. Sam held back his feelings, offering his own smile, if only to comfort his friend.

"Yeah, Danny..." Sam paused, before added. "Stay safe." Danny grinned and nodded, tossing a 'bye!' to Dean before rushing out the door. Sam sighed, taking a seat on his bed.

"You okay?" Dean asked, settling next to his little brother, bumping their shoulders together.

"This is bullshit." Sam growled, shaking his head. "He's in danger and we're just letting him go back there. He says that his parents have him help with 'experiments!' We're supposed to save people Dean!" Dean froze before forcefully relaxing; he hadn't thought of the implications of having scientists for parents, much less Danny supposedly having to help his parents in their work. The elder Winchester brother hated thinking about what he allowed Danny to go back to- possibly being tested on his actual joke of parents, who just so happened to be the absolute craziest, most utterly inept people in town. Having immoral and frankly awful scientists who couldn't do the smallest of things right for parents only meant worse treatment for Danny, no matter how much the kid excused them.

"We can't save everyone, I'm not saying we don't try our damned best, but it is statistically impossible to save everyone." Dean said, glancing towards the door, already world weary with his much longer experience with hunting than his younger brother had. "Especially those that don't want to be saved. It's not our place to try if he doesn't want us to. Sometimes helping will just hurt a person more."

"I know..." Sam said, the anger and worry bubbling inside him. It had been so long since he felt this helpless, it felt like he was letting his friend walk towards his death sentence "It's just... Fuck." Sam dropped his head into his hands, mind racing to try and figure out how to word his thoughts and feelings.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened with Danny the other day?" Dean asked, eyebrow raised at his little brother. Sam sighed, turning to look at his brother. He knew Dean wasn't stupid- he knew that Dean was going to bring this up sooner or later.

"Yeah." Sam confirmed, shaking his head. "I just... I don't know how to explain it."

"How bout this." Dean turned facing his brother. "Just say the first thing that comes to mind."

"Dean, I don't think that'll help." Sam said, raising his own brow.

"Come on, humor me." Dean lightly shoved his brother's side. Sam shook his head, but he couldn't help but smile.

"Okay, okay. Fine." Sam paused, taking a breath before blurting out the first thing that came to mind when he thought about Danny. "I like him." Sam felt his face heat up, dropping his gaze to his hands.

"Like... Like like?" Dean asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah..." Sam shrugged, turning to look at his brother to try and figure out what the older was thinking, nervous fingers twisting each other together.

"Does he know?" Dean asked.

"No..." Sam sighed. "I don't even know if he's gay." Sam spoke the words before he realized what he was saying.

"Are you?"

"No... I don't know." Sam swallowed, he hadn't thought of his own sexuality; this was all so new to him. "Danny's the first guy I've liked... If I was though, would that be a problem?" Sam added as an afterthought.

"Dude!" Dean spoke, looking shocked, as if he was insulted that Sam thought that he would even care about romantic or sexual orientation. He shoved his brother again, before continuing. "I don't care who you're into, besides Danny's a cool kid... But you know how you feel right?"

"Yeah, I know Dean." Sam sighed, before giving his brother a small smile. "Thanks."

"Okay, enough of the chick-flick moment." Dean shook his head, quickly ruffling Sam's hair before grabbing the long forgotten food he brought back. "Let's eat." Sam laughed, shaking his head while following his brother to the kitchen area.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

AN: So uh, its been a hot minute. I'm sorry for how long y'all had to sit on that cliff-hanger set up.

First, shout-out and thanks to my beta RangerHorseTug

I'm hoping to get a little more active in the sense of updating this fic (and my other SuperPhantom piece) I'm on break from school for quite a bit of time, so hopefully I'll set my time to be able to update. My goal is atleast two new chapters before I back, so hope with me I get that done lol

Well let me know in reviews what you thought, and if there's any questions that need answering. Hope you enjoyed! Hasta Luego!