About a boy (Part-9)
Word count: 2.8K
Warning: Suspense, feels, physical abuse, child-trafficking and bullying
Characters: Dean, Cas, Gabriel, Benny, Michael, 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: I’m incredibly sorry that this took so long, guys! That too after a cliffhanger. Really, really sorry. Hope you like it nonetheless :)
Thanks to my lovelies @thing-you-do-with-that-thing and @deanssweetheart23 for beta reading this story <3
About a boy masterlist
Dean stood there stunned, as if someone had slapped the sense out of him.
“Don’t try to deny it,” Benny warned, his expression wary and almost threatening. “You’re not an orphan, so what the hell are you even doing here?”
“I-I am an orphan,” Dean said, surprised that his voice sounded steady when his insides were in a twist.
This was it. This was as far as Dean would go. Any moment now, Benny would go running to Andy and spill his guts about what he’d heard and there was nothing Dean could do about it.
Benny was still looking down at him with blatant distrust, hands crossed over his chest, waiting for an answer.
Maybe he saw the raw panic in Dean’s eyes, or realised that Dean was paralysed and wouldn’t answer because Benny eventually sighed and dropped his hands.
“Look,” he said, raising his chin slightly so Dean could see his eyes clearly under the hood of his cap. They were a startling dark blue. “I am not going to rat you out. I knew there was something up with you since the day you walked into our room.”
“H-How?” Dean asked, mostly to keep Benny talking. He wasn’t surprised that Benny had noticed all the unusual stuff.
“You disappear into the night, every night. You look like you have an agenda,” Benny shrugged. “I’ve spent most of my life in an orphanage, I know homelessness when I see it. You’ve never looked homeless. And then there’s that pager in your bag.”
Dean scowled. “You went through my stuff? You spied on me?”
“Like you aren’t spying on this place, yourself,” Benny shot back. “I knew you were sneaky. Finding out all I could about you was self preservation instinct.”
This was the most that Dean had ever heard Benny talk. His voice had a roughness that sounded out of place for a teenager and over that there was an odd graveness.
“I’ve had my reservations about you, especially since you and Castiel have gotten so close,” Benny paused, and Dean realised that all this while Benny had also been curious for Cas’s sake. Cas was a frigging saint when it came to looking out for people and it was natural to take a liking to him, to want to keep him out of harm’s way. It was why Gaberiel- who never bothered about anyone but himself- had gone out of his way to help Cas on that night of Dean’s initiation. Apparently, Benny wasn’t immune to Cas’s weird power over people. He had been worried about Cas getting mixed up with a bad person.
“Now, are you going to tell me what’s up?” Benny asked impatiently. “You’re involved with the police somehow so I can guess where this is going. Spill, Winchester!”
Dean started talking, his eyes trained on the second button of Benny’s coat. He talked and talked and talked till his throat felt dry, about his past, Bobby, Jody and… the Stynes. At that Benny drew in a sharp breath.
“What about the Stynes?” He asked.
Dean knew a bit about Benny’s past. How he used to be a friendly boy before his best friend was shifted, or to put it more correctly, before his best friend disappeared. This was why Dean had been completely honest with his story.
“We think that the Stynes are involved in child trafficking. That all these kids who suddenly get transferred or whatever, are being shipped off to God knows where and forced into begging rackets or maybe even prostitution.” Dean had never said the last part out loud. It disgusted him to his core, scared him that he might be actually right. And the last thing he wanted was to be right on that count.
Under his cap, Benny had gone completely white. His hands clenched and unclenched. Then, he looked hard at Dean and said, “You really think that’s the case, too, then? That whatever is happening here is not normal?”
“Look around!” Dean gestured, so relieved that Benny wasn’t going to turn him in, that his voice sounded exasperated. “Does any of this horse crap feel normal to you? Of course something is wrong!”
On an impulse Dean added, “But I am not doing this completely out of the goodness of my heart either. I have my own interest.”
Benny raised an eyebrow.
“My brother,” Dean said, “The one I told you about, who I was separated from…” Dean paused, checking his voice. Why was it always so hard to talk about Sam? He’d had years to accept the truth, then why was this still so hard? Would it always be like this?
Dean cleared his throat, then said, “I have reason to believe that he’s actually here. Jody figured that I could continue looking for my brother as long as I found real dirt on the Stynes. Two birds with one stone. I know you must think I’m selfish,” Dean added, “To do this just for my brother, but-”
“I get it,” Benny said, “If I could, I would do it all to get Jaime back.”
“Jaime?” Dean asked but he had an inkling of who he might actually be.
Benny’s eyes were far away as he said, “My buddy. They took him, too.” Then, he looked right at Dean. “Look, if you’re really going to find out what’s happening around here, then I want in. I’ve been here for a long time, not as long as others, but I’ve been suspicious for a longer time than most of these buffoons.”
Benny put a hand in his over large coat and drew out a bunch of keys. “This is the master key set,” he said. “I’ve had this for a while now; stole it off Garth once when he was distracted. It opens most of the doors in this place. I’m not sure Garth even tries going into the west wing, but if you’re gonna go scouting the place, this might be of help.”
Dean frowned. This was too good to be true. “If you’ve had the master key all this while, why didn’t you try to sneak out and use it yourself?”
“Use it and do what?” Benny hissed, “I see the look you’re giving me, Winchester, but I didn’t have the Police backing me. I shouted till my throat was sore when they took Jaime. But no one listened. Not a single soul came out to help me. And the punishment I got for it… Oh, the punishment.” Benny moved up the sleeve of his arm to show welts on the back of his wrist. They looked like thin vertical burn marks.
Dean’s eyes went wide.
“His name was Jacob. Jacob Styne. Didn’t even blink as he put the rod to my skin,” Benny murmured.
Dean suddenly felt too cold under his clothes. This was terrible. The Stynes were monsters… And Andy was a sick son of a bitch. He was supposed to be in-charge, he was supposed to protect the kids. Instead he just watched and let this happen. Dean wanted to punch him where it would hurt seven shades of Sunday. And boy, did he wanna put the Stynes behind the bars for they did. To Jaime and countless others.
“Why didn’t you run?” Dean asked, eyes cast down and away from Benny now.
“We don’t all have a father of sorts waiting for us,” Benny said, but not unkindly. “It was either this or another round of foster homes. Known evil is better than the unknown one, I suppose.” He jingled the keys in the space before them
Dean nodded, grabbed the masterkey and then limped back towards the dorms after Benny disappeared out back.
“Dean!” Cas exhaled, jumping out of his top bunk. “What took so long? I was worried about you.”
Cas looked harried. His black hair was plastered to the side of his face with sweat and the backs of his thumbs had nail marks in them. Cas did that when he was anxious.
“And you look… weird,” Cas said, giving Dean a once over. “Have you been crying?”
Yes he had been crying, but he wasn’t gonna admit to that. Instead, he pulled Cas outside and towards the far end of the corridor, away from the crowded area, then told him everything. From seeing Jody to Bobby and finally Benny.
“Whoa!” Cas looked dazed. “This means we don’t have to wait for Andy to sneak out to his weird dates. We can go to the record room whenever we want. We can have access to all those files.”
“Tonight,” Dean nodded, “After the lights out, we sneak into the west wing.”
-------------------------------------------------
Dean lay on his side, facing the wall that night. Waiting for the time to be right. Over him, Cas was very still in his bed, which was how Dean knew he was up, too. Usually Cas tossed and turned quite a lot and the old rickety frame of their twin bed shook with him. It was past 11 when Gabriel came to bed. He rolled over and fell asleep immediately. Dean gave it 15 more minutes, then quietly stepped out of bed, Cas following in a few seconds. Dean nodded to Benny on his way out. Whether or not Benny wanted anything to do with Dean’s epic nightly adventures, he was unfortunately at least a silent accomplice and audience now.
As sneakily as they could, he and Cas made their way towards the end of the corridor and the west wing door.
“Okay, here goes,” Dean huffed and inserted the most promising key into the lock. Did not work.
“Damn it!” he swore, then tired another one.
“Dean, I hear footsteps,” said Cas, edging closer. “Hurry.”
The third key clicked and Dean pushed the door open. He and Cas slipped inside and pushed the door shut, hoping against hope that the clang wasn’t a give away. They waited with their ears pressed against the cold metal till the faint footsteps faded and Cas breathed out in relief.
“I thought we were done for,” he said.
“Not yet,” Dean replied grimly, peering ahead of them.
The west wing was darker than it was possible to imagine and it smelled strongly of rust, damp salt… and like something had died and rotted here for ages.
Behind him, Cas gagged.
They moved cautiously in the general direction of where the staircase would be, reaching out with their hands, trying to feel the space around them.
There was a distant muted thud from ahead.
“Did you hear that?” Dean whispered.
“Hear what?”
“The noise… from the corridor ahead!” he said.
“There can’t be,” replied Cas. “This side is abandoned, remember?”
But Dean was almost sure he’d heard something from up ahead, like metal being scraped against something. However, Cas was right. Maybe it was Dean’s head getting creative in the dark.
“Here’s the staircase!” Cas exclaimed. “Right here.”
Dean was going to point out that there was no ‘right here’ in this doomed dead hellscape, but he let it go and followed Cas down the spiraling steps, all the way to the ground floor. The dim lights from the front driveway made it easier to find the way to the eastern side here, and within minutes they found themselves in the record room, the door safely shut behind them.
“We did it!” Cas grinned. Dean was about to fist bump him to celebrate the small victory when the shadow at the far end of the room moved and Will came into view.
“Will! What are you doing here?” Dean hissed, outraged. What in the name of holy mother!
Will gave no expression. “I could ask you the same,” he retaliated.
“God damn it, kid!”
“Hey don’t go swearing on me like you’re on some high horse here, okay?” Will pointed a finger at Dean. “You broke the rule, just like me, so stop acting all prissy.”
Dean was flummoxed. “How did you even get down here?”
“You two chuckleheads might have forgotten the incident of great fire, but I got you down here,” Will said angrily, pointing at Cas. “By picking the locks.”
Oh.
“And now,” he said, “You, Dean, are going to tell me exactly what’s going on. Don’t make some bullshit reason or excuse because I’ll know. I’m not stupid. You two act like you’re planning to overthrow a government with all your secret talk and you have me looking for some Sam, and never bothered to explain why!”
Boy, he really was angry, Dean thought to himself.
“Listen, Will…” Dean tried, “What we are doing here… it’s dangerous. Really dangerous. You don’t want to get involved in this.”
“The hell I don’t want to involve myself with this,” Will shot back. “I’ve been going out of my head trying to find your Sam for you. I don’t even know who he is. I almost committed arson for you, so don’t you ‘listen, Will…’ me, Dean. I deserve to know.”
Dean was taken aback with Will’s outburst. He didn’t know the boy was so invested, but he had to agree we Will.
He sighed. “You’re right, Will. You deserve the truth.”
It was like a recap of the morning, having to go through with the story again, but Dean did it just the same. Only, while Benny’s face had been impassive throughout, Will’s expression broke at the mention of the fire and how Sam was taken away. His hazel eyes looked watery and his brow furrowed with each word, to the point where Dean had to look away to be able to continue the story.
“So your brother, he’s here?” Will asked in a strangled voice.
“That’s right,” Dean said. “And Cas here has been helping me with the records, trying to find Sam’s file. Ain’t that right, Cas?”
Cas who had been standing silent all this while nodded his head, and Dean noticed him furtively rubbing his eyes against his sleeve. Dean’s heart gave a lurch.
“Alright,” he said hurriedly, trying to spare both Cas and Will the moment, “If you want to jump on to this train, pick a rack and start pulling out files.”
Will nodded vehemently, but the look in his eyes still had Dean’s stomach in a knot. It was tender and just so innocent. That kid deserved the world, and it sucked that he had grown up in a hell hole like this.
Cas had taken up a rack and was pointing to Will, showing him which of the shelves they had completed looking into. Will was as attentive as ever and quickly dove into the files. Dean watched them work. Cas squinting into the racks, the Torch they had left here last time balanced between his shoulder and neck, while Will flipped through the papers at an inhuman speed, his brown hair falling into his eyes.
Cas finally yawned, hours into the search “Hey check this out, I found Michael's file!”
Will scooted closer to Cas, peered over his elbow and read out loud. “It says he was found on the steps of the orphanage when he was about 3 weeks old. That’s horrible.”
Dean couldn’t fathom where Will got all his empathy from. He had been in the orphanage since as long as he could remember. Maybe his story was something like this, too. Dean was lucky in this regard, in the sense that he knew that his parents had loved him, and not left him on the steps like this.
“Well, that’s the 5th Angel-names Orphanage kid we’ve found,” Cas sighed.
Will laughed. “You know I always thought it was hilarious the names you guys got. I mean you got lucky, Cas. But the kids who got stuck with Balthazar and Uriel? I don’t envy them.”
“Yeah, right, William.” Cas made a face, but he did purse his lips like he was trying not to laugh.
“Don’t you think, Dean?” Will asked, looking up with his wide eyes. “Dean… Dean, are you okay?”
Dean had gone still. “How old does it say the others were when they got into that Angel-names Orphanage?” Dean asked, barely controlling his voice.
“It says that Raphael was 3 months old, Uriel was 8 months and Michael-”
“No… no no no no…” Dean chanted slowly getting up. “This can’t be happening. Fuck!”
“What happened?” Cas asked
But Dean was already backing into the wall, his heart sinking and spirits breaking. “Sam,” he whispered, breath leaving his lungs. “Sam was only 6 months. What if… what if they changed his name when they took him in?”
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A/N 2: Once again sorry for the delay. But I will post the next part asap cause it is already written! Please do tell me what you thought of the chapter? I live for comments!
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