Chapter Text
Caleb was in the office of his apartment attempting to work on the architectural plans for a new housing development outside of the city, and he had a headache from staring at them for too long. At thirty, Caleb considered himself pretty successful. He had graduated from college, owned his own business that was thriving, and was a hunter on the side. He heard the buzzer to his apartment go off and went out to the living room.
“Hello?”
“Let me in.”
“Deuce, is that you?”
“Please,” Dean begged.
Caleb hit the button that would let his friend into the building and walked out into the hallway where he saw Dean coming out of the elevator clutching his side.
“Deuce, are you okay?”
Dean nodded, but he was glassy-eyed and Caleb looked at his friend with a worried gaze.
“C’mon, let’s go inside.”
He grabbed Dean by the collar of his jacket and dragged him into the apartment.
“Dean, what’s wrong with your ribs?”
Dean just stared at his friend and said nothing. Caleb sighed and reached out to take Dean’s arms out of his leather jacket. Dean groaned at the movement, and once it was off Caleb saw blood along the side of Dean’s ribs.
“Jesus Christ, this needs stitches. What happened?”
Dean was staring at the floor of the kitchen, and Caleb had officially had enough.
“Dean! Answer me, that’s an order!”
Dean’s eyes flashed up to meet Caleb’s.
“Bad hunt,” Dean whispered.
Caleb sighed.
“C’mon kid, I need to get you to the bathroom so I can stitch this mess up.”
Dean followed his friend to the master bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub while Caleb grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink and sat on the lid of the toilet across from Dean. He got the first good look at the wound. It was deep, and Caleb could see bone shining through the bloody mess. Dean barely moved as Caleb stitched up the wound and covered it with a bandage.
“Did you break any ribs or anything?”
Dean shook his head.
“Okay Deuce, what’s up? I don’t like this silent boy thing you are pulling right now. Please talk to me.”
Dean took a deep breath and made eye contact with Caleb.
“He’s gone, Damien.”
“Who, Deuce? What the hell is going on?”
Dean’s eyes were wide, and he put a hand on his chest. Caleb started having flashbacks of years past. A time when Dean didn’t talk because it hurt him to. Caleb knew what he had to do. He had done it a million times, but now that they were both adults, reading Dean’s mind had gotten harder. Adults naturally put up blocks, but Caleb pushed through the layers of them.
“Okay Deuce, you don’t have to talk. It’s just like when we were kids, think at me.”
“Sam told Dad he was going to school, and Dad told him never to come back.”
“Okay, and what did Sam say?”
“Nothing, he just walked out. That was three days ago and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“I’m sorry for what happened, but you can’t actually be shocked that Sam left for college. We knew that this day was gonna come eventually.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t supposed to be like this. When Sam left he wasn’t supposed to cut all ties with his family. He is gone, Caleb.”
Caleb sighed. He had no answers for his friend. All he knew was Sam would never cut all ties unless he felt like he had to. John was an idiot. Caleb knew he didn’t mean it when he told Sam not to come back, but John was stubborn and he would never apologize, and Sam was equally as stubborn. If John told him to leave, he wouldn’t come back.
“C’mon Deuce, we’ll talk about it in the morning. Let’s get you to bed.”
Caleb helped Dean stand and brought him into the spare bedroom that was now Dean’s. Dean always had a room at Caleb’s place so he could drop by whenever he wanted. Caleb dropped him onto the bed and Dean rolled away from him, facing the wall. Caleb walked out to the living room and picked up his phone, scrolling down to Sam’s name. Caleb wasn’t shocked when it went straight to voicemail.
“Listen Sammy, I know what your Dad said to you, and I know you feel like your family has abandoned you, but I swear to God Jim, Dean, Mac and I are still here for you. You just gotta pick up the phone and call. If you don’t want to talk to us or John, fine, I accept that. You need to live your own life because I know you have never wanted this one. Just please call your brother. Please Sam, he loves you, and he still needs you. Good luck at Stanford, kid.”
Caleb hung up the phone and felt sadness building up inside of him. Everything was changing. His family was changing, and their youngest was no longer there to protect. But Caleb didn’t have time to think about that right now.
Right now, he needed to fix his friend and help him find his voice again with only half his heart intact.