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“On your left!”
Sam turned his fighter to the left, just in time to see the enemy fighter’s guns charging up. It was probably pointless, but he began charging his as well. As much damage as he’d already taken, one solid hit would blow him out of the stars, but he wasn’t going down without a fight. If he was lucky, his guns would fire and take out the enemy as well; if not, well, no one could say he hadn’t tried.
Still, it was something of a shock when the guns actually fired and his fighter blew up around him. He blinked hard as the lights started to come on in his training bay, and Sam stumbled out of his fighter in shock. He planned to sit there in darkness for a bit, but someone had a different idea.
Gabriel was at his side, curling into his shoulder and rubbing his chest. “You should’ve heard the gasp when we realized he was actually going to fire. Even Naomi just sat there stunned. She’s probably recovered and started cheering by now, but I took off to be here. Even Billie was shocked.”
“I… I’m fine, but…” Sam took a deep, shuddering breath. “Thanks for coming, Gabe. Why didn’t Naomi listen to everyone saying she was making a huge mistake? As shaken as I am, if… if it was a mistake, if he didn’t realize how badly damaged I was or his targeting system was fried or he was relying on visual IFF instead of the sensors… you know he’s gonna be worse off than I am.”
“And until we know that, for all we know he shot you down on purpose, in which case you’re worse off than him… and you know most of the polycule will be on your side, Samshine. Hell, when I left, Charlie was ripping Naomi a new asshole for not adjusting the random draw of the teams. This should never have happened.”
“If he did it on purpose, he did the right thing,” Sam said. “It was a training simulation. I was the enemy. Yeah it all feels real out there, but there’s no actual pain, I didn’t actually get equipment destroyed, just the fact that I was still intact to get shot down compared to what I’d been through on the mission means I’d better be getting a good evaluation. I’ve read up on reports of other training runs. The fighter in my role in the squadron nearly always goes down getting to the mission, not covering the bombers’ retreat afterward.”
“Yeah, you’re in good shape performance-wise, I hear you got the spot because Naomi was curious to see how far you would make it. Mandy even had a bet with Castiel on whether you’d die before or after the bomb went off.” There was a pause, and then Gabriel stood up and helped Sam to his feet. “Come on. I have an ugly suspicion and I want to talk to some of the others about it before I go doing anything stupid, and you need someone more comforting than me right now.”
There was some sort of drama exploding in the training room, but Dean didn’t care. All he cared about was getting to his little brother and doing whatever it took to convince him that it was a mistake and something must have gotten crossed up somewhere, because he was prepared to swear on Mary Winchester’s grave that when he took the shot, he was aiming at Benny. Shooting down a boyfriend was traumatic enough, but it was part of the job, since they were in a polycule that got randomly distributed to the opposing teams in the training exercises. Shooting down his brother? Fuck no.
Benny pointed Dean to where Castiel had taken Sam out of there. “Sam can hear all the drama later, and Gabe specifically wanted Castiel kept out of it because he’s on such thin ice with Naomi to begin with. And listen. You take care of your brother, Dean, okay? Nobody’s business how you do that. Take care of him.”
Dean rolled his eyes, but took off. He found Sam and Castiel in Sam’s quarters, sitting on the bed and meditating. He cleared his throat.
Sam’s eyes flew open, and next thing he knew, he had his little brother in his arms holding tight where he belonged. “Sammy, I…”
“It doesn’t matter, Dean. All I care about is that you’re okay. That is all that matters.” Sam’s arms tightened.
“My sensors told me it was Benny. I didn’t know it was you until I got the report with my kills after…” Dean’s voice broke there, and he buried his face in Sam’s neck. “If I’d known…”
“Dean.” Sam’s voice was soft and comforting, but Dean knew it well enough to hear the buried pain underneath. “I don’t care, okay? It’s a training sim. Shooting me down is what you were supposed to do. I’m fine. I’m right here. I’m not hurt, not… I don’t blame you at all.”
Dean pulled back, looking at Sam. Their eyes met, and all of the things Dean had suppressed for so long coursed through him. His eyes dropped to Sam’s lips. Before he could do anything, though, Sam was closing the distance, and the line of sight got broken milliseconds before those lips were on his. Fuck it. Benny was right. Charlie was even prepared with an entire series of lectures to defend them. Why shouldn’t he and Sam let themselves have this?