West Coast

Chapter Twenty-seven

'Gonna take an awful lot to straighten me out,' Dean joked.

'I'm sorry about him,' Sam said to the doctor.

'Don't worry, everyone reacts to morphine differently,' the doctor reassured him. He glanced at Sam, then down at his clipboard. 'Maybe you want to go get a coffee, or something? These are kind of personal.'

Sam waved a hand. 'It's fine.'

'I'll get started then.' The doctor flipped through his paperwork. 'Now, these records are all very helpful, but there's just a couple things missing, especially from the last year or so, it looks like. So, Dean, before this event, have you been experiencing any light-headedness, dizziness, anything like that?'

Dean thought about it. 'I think so. I thought it was just because of other stuff though.'

'Like what?'

'Uh, well, I got these anxiety pills, and, you know, he really wears me out,' Dean said pointing at Cas.

'Come on, Dean, be serious,' Sam complained.

'I am serious. He's a firecracker.'

'Cas, help me out here.'

Cas just pressed his lips together, not meeting Sam's eyes.

'I did say it would be personal,' the doctor said, doing his best to keep a straight face. 'Any chest pains, or palpitations?'

'A few, but like I said, I thought that was just the anxiety stuff.'

'How about you, you notice anything out of the ordinary?' the doctor asked Cas.

'No, I don't think so,' Cas frowned. 'He's been kind of breathless, but only after strenuous activity.'

The doctor made a note on his clipboard. 'Have you been more stressed than normal, recently?'

Dean snorted. 'You could say that.'

'He's been stressed by work, and by me,' Cas told him.

'By you?'

'Yes, I have some neurological issues, and he worries a lot.'

'I see.'

Dean tugged on Cas's sleeve.

'Yes, Dean?'

Dean giggled. 'Did it - did it hurt when you fell from heaven?'

'Oh my God,' Sam complained. 'That's really lame, even for you.'

Dean laughed again.

The doctor flipped over the page. 'Okay, so it says here you're in a recovery program, is that right?'

Dean nodded.

'How long have you been sober?'

Dean glanced at Cas. 'I had a slip up a while ago, but nearly thirteen years before that.'

'How much did you drink the last time?'

'It was a bottle of whiskey.'

The doctor nodded thoughtfully. 'All right, and how much on average were you drinking before you were sober?'

'I don't really remember.'

Sam cleared his throat. 'It was usually a whole one of those big bottles every couple days. More if it was a bad week.'

'And this went on for...?'

'Five - six years?' Sam said.

Cas bit his lip. If they had discussed the extent of Dean's drinking, he couldn't remember it.