Chapter Text
Dean Winchester was a firefighter. Always had been. He hadn’t known anything else. His brother, Sam, was a lawyer. His dad was a mechanic, and his mom…
She died when he was four.
Sammy’s baby monitor had a defect battery, exploding and setting his room on fire. His mom had died saving Sam.
His dad always blamed Sam for it. Dean never found a reason to. He knew it wasn’t Sam’s fault. But his dad needed something to hold onto.
Dean spent his childhood taking care of Sam. His dad always was working, drinking, or going on hunting trips. So Dean acted as Sam’s mother and father.
He protected Sammy from their father.
The scars from protection stayed hidden, with long sleeve shirts and sunglasses and bandages. He kept Sam unaware for as long as he could.
Dean’s dad made him learn to shoot a gun. How to handle a blade. Even taught him how to use a bow. He always said it was for “protection” against what he hunted. Dean never quite understood why he needed protection from a squirrel or a deer, but he obliged.
His dad always wanted Sam and Dean to be mechanics and hunters, and Dean tried. He really did. But he couldn’t do it. Neither could Sammy. Their dad resented them for it. Once Dean was 18, he told Sammy to pack up, that they were leaving. Sam agreed, and they left while their dad was out. Dean drove them in his car, a 67 impala he had been gifted from his father, and drove them over to their family friend Bobby, who was more of a father than John ever was.
John never looked for them.
Dean forged John’s signature and got Sam enrolled in highschool in Sioux Falls. He kept him studying, and Sam was top of his class.
Dean had no interest in college. He never really thought he was good enough. So Bobby gave him a personal recommendation to the firehouse he used to work at.
He started off as with a desk job, because a freshly 18 year old guy can’t immediately become a firefighter. He was simultaneously enrolled in training, and started as a firefighter a year later, the youngest on the team.
By 22, he was considered one of the best firefighters on the unit.
By 18, Sam got accepted into Stanford, full ride.
Dean was overjoyed.
He and Bobby threw Sam a “Congrats!” party, and Dean bought him a slightly newer car then the one Bobby had given him.
Sam thanked him, promised to call every week, and left for the first semester.
Sam did call him every week. Got himself a girlfriend, Jess. Became top of his class there too.
Dean just loved to hear about it.
He saved enough money for a small house on the outskirts of town, but still visited Bobby all the time.
He had family everywhere. Sam and Bobby, but also his unit at the firehouse. He had Ketch, Ash, Benny, Adam, Bela, Charlie, and Meg.
Ketch was this British guy, a fair bit older than Dean, who had recently moved to America, and joined the unit.
Ash and Charlie were the brains of unit. Both amazing with tech, mainly handled the truck operations, calls, locations, and logistics.
Meg was the newest addition, starting off with the same job Dean did. Sassy, but amusing.
Adam had been on the unit for about the same amount of time Dean had been, but he had still had been on the team a bit longer. Adam was younger than Dean, but had been working desk jobs for them for so long he was upgraded early.
Benny was the captain of the unit, working there for almost 10 years, and Dean really looked up to him. He was respectable, a guy of his word.
They all got along really well.
He knew (both) of the sheriffs of Sioux Falls. Jody Mills and Donna Handscum. Obviously, only one of them was the actual sheriff, but no but really knew who. Dean never cared enough to ask. They were like the mother he never got to have, times two.
Despite all of this family, all of these people he loved and depended on, something always felt missing. He could never figure out what.
At first, he thought it was sex. He hooked up with plenty of girls, but it didn’t help at all. In all honesty, he felt worse.
He tried education, enrolling in an online community college, but he felt no interest.
He tried everything. Nothing seemed to help.
So he began to live with it.