About a boy (Part-14)
Word count: 3.8K
Warning: Feels, mentions of physical abuse, child-trafficking, kidnapping, child-violence, bullying and character death
Characters: Dean, Cas, Gabriel, Benny, Michael, Will, OCs and… Sam?
Summary: Dean Winchester has a secret. A secret that could really land him in trouble. He never expected to connect with anyone when he walked into the ‘Blue Stone Orphanage for Boys,’ but even then, the walls he has put up are slowly coming down. Now, a series of strange events are threatening to expose him. When everything starts falling apart around him, will he still be able to save the one person that matters the most?
A/N: We are almost to the end guys, hold on tight! :)
Much thanks to the awesome @thing-you-do-with-that-thing and @deanssweetheart23 for beta reading this story <3 You guys rock!
About a boy masterlist
Dean sat in the empty waiting room with his head against the wall. It had been the longest night of his life, and he had carried his little brother out of a burning house before on another night. So that was saying something. Bobby had disappeared in the early hours of the morning, mentioning something about getting Dean his stuff back from the Orphanage. He was still in the dirty, blood-crusted clothes from yesterday. In fact, he was so grimy that the hospital staff refused to let him anywhere near Will. He was reduced to waiting in the corner.
Both Benny and Gabriel had returned back to the orphanage. All the kids were being transferred to some new temp facility in the city, and his friends would have to go with them. One night had brought them all so close that Dean was shocked to realise it was all over now. He would go back to his old life, and they would go back to theirs.
The look on his face must have been something, because Benny gave him an understanding smile and Gabriel a tired wink. In fact, as they left, Benny even put his arms around him. Dean was so surprised, he barely even returned the hug.
“Thanks,” Benny had whispered, before waving his hand and walking out of the waiting room with Gabe.
Sitting by himself, Dean had wondered what the ‘thanks’ had been about. Benny had done as much as Dean when it came to the events of previous night. Without him, Dean would have probably died there along with the others. So maybe it wasn’t about that. Dean’s thoughts were muddled though. He was tired and numb from the cold, and Bobby wasn’t back with his clothes yet. Even sleep wouldn’t come to him.
“Can’t sleep, huh? Me neither.”
Cas was slowly walking towards him, his hand bent at the elbow and wrapped in a thick cast.
“Cas!” Dean made to get up, but Cas gestured to stay put, and plopped down next to him.
“Turns out it was more than just the wrist,” Cas said. He was wearing a hospital gown. The sort that ties at the back and it looked funny on him. Any other time, Dean would have laughed at him.
“Are you okay?”
Cas shrugged. “Dislocated shoulder, two concussions and yeah a broken wrist. If I forget who you are tomorrow, you’ll know why.”
“You’d be lucky if you did forget me. It would be like none of this ever happened.”
With his free arm, Cas smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t you say that, Dean. Don’t you ever say that I’d want to forget you. This is all because of you!”
“Exactly my point!” Dean threw up his hands. “If it weren’t for me, Barry would be alive.” There; he had said it. “I failed him.”
“Are you even listening to yourself?” Cas asked angrily. “If it weren’t for you, not only Barry, but even Will would be dead.” he flinched at having said that out loud. “And countless others. Don’t you see, Dean? You put a stop to all of this!”
“I didn’t do anything special. You all were there, you all helped last night,” Dean finally burst. “I had been a self centered jackass for most of my time at the orphanage. All I cared for was about finding my brother. If I had started looking into this sooner, maybe we could have saved Barry.”
“Dean, don’t you see that this could have never been possible without you?” Cas sputtered, exasperated, “If it had been just me, Benny and Gabe, we could have never managed this. You brought something with you that this place had never known.”
Dean remembered Benny’s whispered thank you again. “What?”
“Hope!” Cas exhaled. “You brought hope and life and adventure into our lives. Not only did you figure it was Michael, you actually brought the police down on the place. I overheard the nurses talking. They saved a few more kids from the holding cells, and uprooted a massive network of child trafficking.”
Dean gulped, trying to comprehend. His brain, however, was too tired to grasp the full picture.
“What about you, Cas?” Dean asked. “Where will you go?”
Cas shrugged and gave Dean an encouraging smile. “I’m just a few months short of 17. A year after that and I’ll be free. Out of the circuit for good.”
Dean wanted to complain again about how unfair it was that he got to go back to the comfort of his own bed while his friend had to deal with uncertainty.
“Don’t worry about me,” Cas reassured him. “We made the national news, apparently. They’ll have to take good care of us now. Besides, it's just one year anyway.”
“What about Michael and the others?”
A shadow fell over Cas’s face and Dean immediately regretted asking the question.
“Michael’s already in custody. He’s not 18 yet, just a few months short, so they’re holding him at the juvie. About the others, everyone suspected is being questioned. We’ll know when they’ll know, I suppose.”
“I’m so sorry about this, Cas,” Dean said sincerely. “I know he was your family, and he did save your life tonight.”
Cas just shook his head. “I don’t know how to feel about any of this yet, with time maybe I’ll understand, but don’t feel sorry for me. Especially not you, because you taught me what family really means!”
“I did?”
“Yeah,” Cas said, his eyes fierce. “Look at all that you were doing to find your brother. Hell, look at what you did for Will. He’s alive because of you. That’s what family does. Good for each other.”
Cas had just called Will his family. But was he? The thought was like a stab in Dean’s chest.
“Maybe one day, years from now, we’ll be able to look back on today and make sense of things.”
“Maybe,” Dean agreed. Everything hurt right now. It hurt to think about Barry. A small selfish part within him was thankful that Will was safe. He was angry and sad and bone tired, but also relieved and in awe of the magnanimity of the situation. Had they really managed to take down the Stynes? Cas’s words hinted at a vague future where they weren’t kids in an orphanage anymore. But they were still friends. A future where they could laugh about the past, when Dean used to kick Cas’s bunk from underneath because he just wouldn’t stop moving. Or when they used to walk back from school together and take bets about what would be served for dinner. That future seemed far away. However, the quiet confidence in Cas’s voice made Dean look forward to it.
Dean leaned against his friend. And together they sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts as the sun steadily rose higher and higher.
***********************************
“Kid? Hey, kid?”
Dean jerked awake to see a nurse standing over him looking annoyed.
Dean blinked up at him groggily. He had fallen asleep in one of those chairs after a shower and change of fresh clothes. He could see through the blinders that the sky outside was dark and the lights inside were extra bright. Had he slept here the whole day? That explained the stiff back and the horrible pain in his shoulders.
“Your name’s Dean?” The nurse asked.
“Yeah.”
“That kid in 205 is asking for you.”
Dean jumped out of the chair. “Will’s awake?”
The nurse gave him a look that seemed to question his mental ability. “Yeah. You’re going, right?”
“Yes, yes.”
Dean dashed across the waiting hall and into the room.
Will was sitting up right, looking small in the huge bed. His lashes were wet and a steady stream of tears were making their way down his cheeks. He saw Dean and broke down in huge sobs. Before Dean realised that he was doing it, he had his arms around Will.
“D-Dean…”he sniffed. “Barry.”
“I’m sorry,” Dean said, running his palm up and down Will’s side. “I’m sorry. I’m just so sorry.” Sorry that I couldn’t save Barry. Sorry that you lost your best friend. Sorry that I can’t ease your pain. Sorry for everything.
Will held on, quietly crying into Dean’s shoulder, blubbering about how Barry was dead even before they had reached the barnhouse. Dean didn’t know how to feel about that. Those bastards had cut him open even then, knowing that he was dead, out of pure greed. But that also meant that he had passed away from the head trauma. There was nothing that they could have really done to save him.
He tried to console Will to the best of his abilities. “Think about when all this is over, you’ll be at a new school, and you’ll have a family. They’ll be here by the end of the week for you.”
Will’s fingers just clutched at his shirt. “I’m just glad you’re here right now, I didn’t know if you were going to be; but you are!”
“Of course I’m there!” Dean said. He silenced the small voice in the back of his head that seemed to ask, ‘for how long?’
It seemed to Dean that he held on to Will for a long time, till the wracks subsided into soft snores. He gently laid down Will’s head onto the pillow, then slowly backed out of the room. When he turned, he saw Bobby standing by the door, a peculiar look in his eyes.
“Got you dinner,” he said.
Once outside, Dean took the food from him gratefully. Now that he was paying attention to it, his stomach seemed shrunk because of hunger. Bobby had never been the sort to monitor Dean’s meals, or rush after him with cookies and milk in the morning. Food was just food. There was always some of it at the house. If Dean was hungry, he knew enough to look for it in the kitchen.
He pulled out the burger from the paper bag and dove into it. He hadn’t eaten a damn thing in over twenty four hours, unless the glucose that they put into him after the blood donation counted.
“How’re you doing, kid?” Bobby asked, eyes slightly narrowed.
Dean shrugged, trying to lick the remnants of the burger from his fingers. Good thing there was another one in the bag.
Bobby cleared his throat. “You know, Jody and I are really proud of you. We were worried out of our minds, but proud.”
Why did Bobby have to do that? He knew that both of them sucked at all this heart to heart stuff, and now Dean felt like something was stuck in his throat. But Bobby was clearly leading somewhere with this. So he waited.
Strangely, Bobby completely changed the track, “You’re really close to that kid in there, aren’t you?”
Dean wanted to roll his eyes. Sometimes Bobby really had a knack for stating the obvious. Dean had thrown a fit when Bobby had asked him to come back to the motel with him, absolutely refusing to leave. Even the police had to take his statement there.
“Yeah, we’re close,” Dean said, then realised that his knack was probably ‘understatements.’ The feeling of something being stuck in his throat wasn’t going away. And now the corners of his eyes were beginning to sting.
“Bobby,” Dean said thickly. “I’ve never really asked for anything from you.”
Bobby grinned. “Yeah, you’ve been a good kid.”
Dean didn’t return the smile. He looked down at his feet, then said, “What I’m going to ask now is much, much bigger than what you signed up for when you took me in. It is impulsive and crazy on so many levels. And I know if I didn’t ask… didn’t beg, the ‘what if’ would kill me.”
He felt Bobby’s hand land on his shoulder, and Dean looked up into his blue eyes. “You know you only have to ask, son.”
**********************************
“Look, what I have for you!” Dean announced stepping into room no. 205.
Will was sitting propped up against the bed, nibbling at a piece of apple, staring absently out of the window. He jerked upright at Dean’s voice, eyes expectant. One side of his mouth quirked up a little.
It was a small thing, but this was the first time something even resembling a smile had crossed his face.
It had been three days now since Will had regained his consciousness. He had been fully made aware of everything that had happened. In return, Will had told the police his side of the story, and while doing so, he had steadfastly held on to Dean’s hand under the rug, like he was drawing his strength from it. That had only reinforced Dean’s resolve regarding what he was about to do… about to ask.
“Here,” he said, pulling out the packed bowl. “Chicken soup. You love that stuff, don’t you?”
They used to make a disgusting, watered down version of it at the Orphanage every once in a while. Will's mood was always exceptional on those days. He would whistle and smile more.
Dean could use that smile today.
Will’s eyes widened. “You remembered!” he said, staring at the steaming bowl with wide eyes.
Dean ruffled Will’s hair, then settled the bowl before him on the tiny table. “Course I did.”
He watched as Will scarfed down the soup. The past days had been hard for him. The incision was deep, and though the doctor never actually cut the kidney out, there were complications that required complete bed rest. Will had suspected that something was wrong the moment Andy had dragged him out of the Orphanage. He had yelled and called out but there was no one to listen to him, help him. The image kept Dean awake at night… he had woken up in cold sweat imagining Will crying out for him.
At least, it was short lived. Andy had sedated him before they had reached the warehouse. Even the thought of Andy made Dean want to punch something. Jody told him that they were doing everything to indict him in as many cases as they could. He was spending the rest of his life in prison just like Stynes and everyone involved. Dean hoped it was in the worst prison in Texas.
“Dean?”
He looked up to see Will staring at him with those big hazel eyes.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.” It was quiet, heartfelt.
Dean shrugged. “It’s nothing. The diner is right around the corner.”
“Dean.” Will said again, with more gravity to his voice. “Thank you for saving my life. The doctor told me what you did. He said, if it hadn’t been for you, I’d have died thrice over.”
“He didn’t say that!” Dean gasped.
Will smirked, “No, he didn’t say that last part, but you get the gist.” Will wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Hey!” Dean said. “You weren’t going to die. I would have never let that happen. Besides, you aren’t getting rid of me that easily.”
“It’s just till the end of the week. You’ll get rid of me then,” Will muttered, looking at his lap. “The Kensingtons will be here by Sunday.”
“Will,” Dean said. His heart was pounding against his ribcage, or in his throat. He didn’t know which of the two it was. In fact, his whole body felt out of sync.
“Will,” he said again. “Do you… do you want to come live with me?”
Will visibly caught his breath. “What?”
“I-I know it won’t be anything like living with the Kesingtons in New York. The house in Sioux Falls is old and the floorboards creak like zombies are walking around at night, but the backyard is huge, and there’s so many cars there. I could teach you how to jack them. The summers are the worst, but when it rains, the mud smells so good...” Dean knew he was rambling, but now that he was talking, he just couldn’t stop.
“... The school is just your usual rundown place. It’s not anything special, like that Fancy school for gifted children in Manhattan, but it is much, much better than the last one. They have an advanced program there-”
“How?” Will cut him short. “How’s that possible?”
“I’ve talked to Bobby. He is okay with adopting you, too. You’re almost twelve, so legally you can choose to terminate the Kensingtons adoption since it isn’t completely through yet. It’ll be tricky, but Jody said it was possible…”
Bobby had been weirdly okay with it. Dean had been sure that he’d have to argue with Bobby over this, but Bobby had listened to him and agreed without a condition. The only question he had asked: “What about Sam?”
Dean gulped. “What about him?”
“You know what I think about your hunt for Sam,” Bobby said. “And you’ve never listened to me. So are you going to stop looking for him now?”
“Yes,” Dean said slowly. “I am going to stop looking for him, but I’m not giving up on him. Now that all the files from the orphanage have been seized as evidence, the PD will look at them with a fresh set of eyes. And even if they don’t find Sam’s file, we can always file a fresh missing complaint or even ask them to reopen the old one. Maybe all the trails haven’t gone cold.”
He let out a deep breath. “You were right all along, Bobby. I was using Sam as an excuse, as a mirage, something to hold on to when things got rough. But in reality, he is just a kid I don’t know anything about. Everything that’s happened made me realise one thing. I was so hung up on Sam that I ignored everything else. Any of these kids could have been someone’s Sam. It doesn’t mean that they are less important. There’s just no one looking out for them.”
Bobby’s eyes crinkled at the edges and he unexpectedly smiled. “You grew up too soon, Dean. I was just worried that you were somehow replacing Sam with Will. That you were in denial and overcompensating. Because that wouldn’t have been fair to him. Now I know that’s clearly not the case.” Bobby cleared his throat, then said, “Does he know?”
Dean shook his head. “I had to know if you were up for it first. I know it’s a lot to ask…”
“Oh don’t go showing gratitude now, you idjit!” Bobby scoffed. “If you’re that grateful, pitch into the housework, and clean that damn room of yours. I ain’t shoving this poor kid in there with your clothes hanging off the rack.”
Dean was so relieved that his laugh came out as a gurgled cough.
“I don’t know if I’m being selfish here,” Dean admitted. “I mean he has a shot at a great life with those uber rich people from upstate NY. What if I’m ruining his life because I want him with me?”
“First of all,” Bobby said, “You’re not gonna be forcing him. It’s Will’s choice where he wants to go. Second of all, money can’t make someone’s life! It can bring him opportunities, but that’s about that. What he makes out of them is his own doing. He was doing plenty well at school even in that dastardly boy’s home. And lastly, you’ll love him enough to last him more than one lifetime. I don’t think the pretty rich folks can give him that. It’s all that he needs right now. Love and family.”
Dean nodded, glad that he had Bobby in his life.
“Don’t worry about it, Dean. He’ll be just fine. And if Sam shows up,” he said, that peculiar look back in his eyes. “We’ll have a place for him, too.”
Now, Will asked the same question. “What about your brother? What happens if you get Sam back?” His voice was quivering.
“Nothing happens,” Dean said, placing a hand over Will’s. “The police will keep looking for him, just like they’d keep looking for any other missing person, and I’ll stay with you.”
“I-I don’t understand.” Will had gone completely still. “You had been so obsessed with finding him all this time, and now suddenly you’re all okay? And what? You want Bobby to adopt me? I- I can’t fill in for your brother.”
Dean tightened his grip. “Don’t you see it, Will? You aren’t filling my expectations of Sam. In fact, if I actually ever find him, he’ll have a tough time living up to you. No kid can be as smart and kind as you are. I’m scared that I won’t even think of him as a brother the way I think of you!”
“Brother?” Will’s eyes that had gone round were starting to fill up now.
Seriously, for an olympiad winning kid, Will could be really dense sometimes.
Dean lowered himself slightly so he was at Will’s level. “When I saw them put you on that gurney back at the warehouse and load you into that ambulance, I realised I would rather have you than an idea of Sam. You’ve been more of a brother to me than Sam ever has been. So, what do you say, bud?”
Will just stared mutely.
Dean stared back resolutely. “It’s not a huge house like the Kensingtons but Bobby and Jody are good people. They’ll look after you well and there’s always going to be me. I promise I’ll never let anything bad happen to you ever again. With the wedding in the fall, there’ll be even less room and you’ll probably have to share the bedroom with me-”
“Yes!” Will exhaled, like he had broken free of something invisible that was strangling him. “Yes, I want to come with you. God, yes.”
“Really?” Dean couldn’t believe his ears.
Will did not reassure him again. He dove right at Dean. “I can’t believe this is really happening,” he whispered. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
Dean held on to Will, who was shivering in his arms.
“Then that’s all I need to know,” Dean said. Maybe it was wrong to feel this way after everything they had been through, all that they had lost, but Dean felt complete. Whole. Like things were going to end well after all. He tried not to dream of all the little scenarios. How they could work on the cars together or play games on the crappy console he had stashed in his room. But try as he may, each scene just spread itself out in his mind. Will smiling, eating a proper breakfast on a proper dining table and aceing classes in school. Dean was already proud.
“Will,” he said, heart full of joy. “You’re stuck with me.”
*******************************
A/N 2: ONE more chapter to go! (Plus epilogue) What do you guys think is going to happen? I am excited!!!
Please do tell me what you thought of the chapter? I live for comments!
If you wanna be tagged, please send me an ask
About a Boy taglist:
@sdavid09 @deanssweetheart23 @blacktithe7 @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @cosicas-cuquis @chalicia @anathewierdo @mrswhozeewhatsis @protectteamfreewill @firefly124-writing @spnbaby-67 @hoboal87 @rizlow1 @donnaintx @starmission @gh0stgurl @tftumblin @emily-a-c11 @ericaprice2008 @jotink78 @charliebradbury1104 @ohgodwhybloggg @i-dont-get-cold @bobbie3939 @samsexualdeancurious @dancing-the-hellfire-rumba @cookiechipdough @wildfirewinchester