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There were days when Sam needed to remind himself that he really did love his job. Today was one of them. He’d worked his way through pretty much every job on or behind the stage, which meant that he had some idea how things ought to be done, which meant that he got into a lot of fights.
His actors, he tried not to fight with, but sometimes, his vision for the play conflicted with their vision of their character. Jo was usually one of his favorite actresses to work with, but today, they’d been butting heads every ten minutes because Jo wanted to “update” the play to be more modern. He had no problem with her and Anna putting some subtext into their scenes together, but Jo still had to wear the dress.
Eileen’s addition to the stress was not her fault. She ran the lights, she did so very well, and Sam was always thrilled to see her on the crew list. She also wasn’t careless or negligent, so Sam was willing to believe the fact that there were four lights burned out – all blue – and the spotlight was jammed and wouldn’t move was not Eileen’s doing. She was just the bearer of the bad news.
Ruby, on the other hand, if anything went wrong in the sound department, it was probably her fault anyway. She loved to troll everyone by playing random noises at the first sign of trouble in rehearsal, guaranteeing that a scene would be derailed. For some reason she absolutely hated Anna, and would “accidentally” cut her microphone feed or make it way louder than it should be. She’d been in high form today, making the new guy, Kevin, cry when he started moving props and she started playing dinosaur noises. If she weren’t sleeping with the producer, Sam would have fired her the second he saw she was working, but he couldn’t.
Even the lunch guys had screwed up. Sandwich platters and chips weren’t supposed to be hard, but somehow, they were. They ran out of food before half the people had been fed, which only made tensions higher while Sam placed an emergency Jimmy John’s order. Naturally, Sam’s sandwich was the one that got screwed up, which meant he was starving when he got home to flop on his bed and refuse to move.
His roommates came in and flopped beside him. “Ruby told me how your day went. Say the word and I’ll ruin her night,” Meg offered as she rubbed his back. “I’d say arrange her grisly death, but you keep spoiling my fun and saying no.”
Sam groaned. “Lilith would find a way to blame me for it, I’d get fired, and she’d put Crowley in charge of running the show. Half the cast and all the crew would walk out, and Crowley would make whatever was left so tedious no one would watch it. Not worth it, Meg, but thanks for the offer.”
“If you ever change your mind, let me know.” Meg kissed the top of Sam’s head.
Castiel pulled Sam’s head into his lap to pet his hair. “What do you want for supper? Are you willing to trust takeout, or would you rather wait while I cook something?”
Sam closed his eyes and relaxed into Castiel and Meg’s touches. “Already taken care of. I called my very special takeout place, and he promised to have a big dish of mac ‘n’ cheese here at 7. If I can find the energy, I’m gonna make a salad to go with it, but days like this, screw the cholesterol. I need comfort food and nothing’s as comforting as Dean’s signature dish.”
“Wow. I wish my brother was that awesome. Bringing you food is way better than calling from jail looking for cigarette money and a lawyer,” Meg said, and Sam snorted. Meg’s brother Tom was currently serving a life sentence for murder. “Did Dean happen to mention if he’d bring some pie, too?”
“He didn’t say anything, but it’s Dean. There’ll be pie. Might be storebought if he didn’t have any homemade lying around, but I have never known him not to bring pie when he’s planning to stay and help us eat.”
“Okay.” Meg kissed Sam’s head again. “I’m gonna go start chopping stuff for salad. You need cuddles and Cas is way better at that. Anything in particular you want in your salad?”
“Lettuce,” Castiel said.
Meg stuck out her tongue. “I wasn’t asking you, angel. Tonight’s all about spoiling Sam.”
“Nothing special, do whatever you want.” Sam leaned back against Cas, and then something occurred to him. “Wait. You’d do it just to mess with Cas. I want lettuce in the salad.”
“I would never… okay, you’re right, I totally would.” Meg waved. “One salad with lettuce coming up!”
Sam scooted a little closer to Castiel, who wrapped him up. “Your girlfriend is awesome.”
Castiel shook his head and squeezed Sam’s shoulder. “She’s your girlfriend, too, you know.”
“I know. It’s just weird getting used to the idea. Days like this, there’s a voice in the back of my mind trying to tell me you guys are gonna tell me that while it’s been fun, the experiment’s not working, and you guys want me out of your relationship after all. It’s hard to shut up when I’m already exhausted from fighting so many other battles on no food.”
“Well, let me shut it up for you. We love you, and this experiment has worked very well. Meg and I were just talking last night about how much happier we are individually and how much stronger our relationship is for having you as part of it. When was the last time you had to break up a real fight between us?”
Sam thought back. “Not since you guys invited me to be part of your relationship. Wow. I hadn’t even noticed. That’s kind of… wow. Thanks. That really does help a lot.”
"Good. Now just relax and let us love your bad day away." Castiel started petting Sam's hair again, and Sam let himself drift off into a nice doze.