Dean's walking to his next class when someone grabs his arm, stopping him. He glares at the hand holding him back. He looks up to see that it's a teacher. "Dean Winchester?" she asks.
She lets go of his arm and moves to stand in front of him. "Yeah," he says slowly.
"Your brother was asking for you. He's in the office; he was in a fight." Her face is not unsympathetic.
"Is he hurt?" She nods. That's all the information Dean needs. He rushes to the office, not even apologizing to the people he runs into. When he reaches the office, his eyes immediately land on his brother. Sam is sitting in a chair. One of his pant legs is pulled up and he's got his leg bent so his knee is against his chest. His ankle in red and swollen. His head is down, his chin against his chest.
"Sammy." Dean walks toward him quickly.
"It's Sam," he mutters.
Dean crouches in front of him. Sam lifts his head, and when Dean sees the deep bruise surrounding his brother's left eye, his anger intensifies. "Who did this?" Dean raises his voice. Sam just looks at him tiredly. Knowing he won't get a straight answer out of him, Dean goes over to the secretary in a separate room. "Who did this to my little brother?" he growls. The secretary jumps at his tone.
"Mr. Winchester, we need to wait for your dad, but he didn't answer the phone. He's the one who –"
Their dad was on a hunt at the moment and Dean knew it could be awhile before his dad could even get there. He puts his hands on the desk and leans forward. What he says next isn't totally a lie to be fair. "My dad's on a job right now; I don't know how long it'll take him to get back to you. I'm takin' care of Sam for now, so you better tell me what the hell happened."
The secretary is flustered; students never talk to her like that. "Alright. From what I know, Dirk McGregor provoked your brother. Sam hit him first, and then a fight broke out. Dirk came in with a bloody nose. I heard that he pushed Sam down and his ankle hit the curb."
Dean holds his tongue; it wouldn't be a good idea to say aloud what he was thinking. After a minute, he speaks in a carefully controlled tone. "I'm taking my brother to the hospital."
"You have to speak to he principal first."
Dean laughs harshly. Dean closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Fine," he says through clenched teeth.
He walks back into the other room where Sam is and starts pacing. "I'm gonna kill him," Dean mutters to himself. He looks at Sam, but keeps pacing. "What'd he say to you?"
Sam shrugs lightly. "He was taunting my friend Barry. I stepped in."
"What happened?" Dean questions.
Sam starts ticking things off on his fingers. "Kneed him in the balls first. When he was bent over, I punched him in the gut a few times. When he straightened up, I punched him and his nose started bleeding."
"Good. Good job. Do you think you broke his nose?"
"Maybe."
"I hope you did. The little shit," Dean says to himself.
Sam rolls his eyes. "Then he punched me, and pushed me down."
"Think your ankle's broken?" Dean jerks his head toward the ankle.
"Almost certain."
"Don't worry; I'll take you to the hospital as soon as we get out of here." Dean thinks about how they'll get there. The bus will take too long and it's a long walk to the bus stop. A taxi costs too much money and that'd take a while to get here. "I'll have to get Amanda to drive us there." Amanda is his "girlfriend."
"How 'bout you go ahead and get her? I don't want you to do anything rash and get in trouble. Dirk and his parents should be gone by the time you get back."
"Always lookin' out for me." Dean ruffles his hair and leaves.
When he gets to Amanda's classroom, he opens the door without knocking. The teacher abruptly stops talking and glares at the door. "Amanda." She looks up, surprised. "I need you; get your stuff."
"Mr. Winchester." Dean drags his eyes toward the teacher. Amanda packs her bag and goes to stand next to him. "You can't just take your girlfriend out of class for no good reason."
"Look, sweetheart, I gotta take my brother to a hospital. I don't have a car and my dad isn't in town, so I need Amanda to drive us."
"Oh, my god. What happened?" Amanda asks. She puts a comforting hand on Dean's arm.
He speaks quietly, just to Amanda. "Dirk McGregor pushed him down. We think his ankle's broken."
"That little shit."
"Alright," the teacher says to Dean. "You can go, but I'll need a note from the office tomorrow, Amanda."
Dean and Amanda leave, heading back to the office.
"He'll be fine," she says to him.
"I know. I'm just pissed at this Dirk kid."
"I know, baby; I am too."
"You're the best." They pause to kiss, outside the office now. "You think you can go ahead and bring the car to the front of the school? This won't take long."
"Of course." She kisses him again and heads out the door.
Dean goes into the office. Not seeing his brother, he does directly to the principal's office. When he walks in, Sam is finishing up telling the principal what happened.
Dean sits down in the seat next to Sam. Amanda had managed to calm him down enough so he didn't flip a lid in front of the principal. When Sam is done, the principal, Mrs. Salazar, according to the nameplate, leans forward and rests her chin on her clasped hands. "You're a good student, Sam, and your heart was in the right place, but what you did was wrong. Considering what happened and your track record, I'm giving you detention for a week."
Dean sighs; he expected the sentence to be a lot harsher. "What about the other kid?"
"He's suspended for the rest of the week and he'll have detention for two weeks; this isn't the first time he's done something like this."
"Can I take Sam to the hospital now?" Dean's eager to get out of there.
"Of course, and, Sam, if you need to take a few days off, I understand. I'll just need a note from the doctor at the ER."
"Thanks, Mrs. Salazar," Sam says. She nods.
Dean gets up first then helps Sam up. Dean picks up Sam's backpack and swings it over one shoulder. "You good?" Dean asks.
"I'll live."
Dean opens the door for him. Sam puts as little weight as possible on his ankle as they walk out. "You head out. Amanda's got the car out front. I gotta get notes for the three of us."
"'Kay."
He goes up to the secretary's desk. "I need notes for me, Sam, and Amanda Heckerling."
"You need to work on your attitude, young man."
"So I've been told." He flashes a sarcastic smile. She begins getting the notes. "Don't you have icepacks or somethin'?"
"Yes, I'll get you one."
"Two," he corrects her. "One for his eye and one for his ankle."
"Alright." After a minute, she hands him the three notes and two icepacks.
"Thanks, sugar." He winks and leaves.
• • •
Amanda drops them off at the hospital . Thankfully, there aren't many people there since it's the middle of the week, just after lunch. Dean checks them in then they sit down in the waiting room. Dean makes sure they sit as far away from sick-looking people as possible. Dean's filling out the forms when he feels Sam lean his head against Dean's arm. Something occurs to Dean as he's looking at the paperwork. "Did you hit your head when you fell?"
"I dunno. Maybe," he says tiredly.
"Well, then, you can't go to sleep." Dean moves to the side so Sam's head isn't resting on his arm.
Sam looks at him with half-closed eyes. "Why not?"
"Because you aren't supposed to sleep when you might or do have a concussion."
"Yeah, but why?"
"I don't know," Dean replies, slightly exasperated. "Here." Dean fishes his brick of a cellphone out of his jacket and hands it to Sam. "Try calling Dad."
Dean goes back to the forms while Sam dials the number and hits send.
John actually answers. Sam explains the situation to him. John asks to speak to Dean.
"Hey. You got this handled?" is all he says to Dean.
"Yeah, I got it."
"Good, because I don't think I can get there for a few days." There's a tinge of guilt in his voice.
"It's fine, Dad. We'll see you when we see you. I gotta go." There was someone, probably a nurse, approaching them with a cart.
"Call me when you're done there. Take care of Sammy."
"Sure." Dean hangs up.
"Name?" the nurse asks, getting right to business.
Sam tells him the fake name. They always go by their real names except when it comes to doctors since they don't have any insurance.
"Okay, Sam. I'm here to check your vitals and get you admitted." Sam nods.
Done with the vitals, the nurse puts a hospital band around Sam's wrist. "Everything is normal except your BP is pretty low. That'll get you bumped up the list a bit."
"How much longer till we get taken back?"
"Maybe an hour. Things are moving fairly quickly today." The nurse leaves.
Sam sighs and lays his head back on the chair. "I don't think I can stay awake that long."
"Yes, you can. Tell me about your day; maybe that'll keep you awake."
Sam starts complaining about having a headache soon. He lays his head against the back of the chair and closes his eyes. Dean makes sure to keep Sam talking until they finally get called back. He loses his train of thought often. Dean stays with Sam the whole time except when they take him back for x-rays. Eventually, it's confirmed that Sam does have a concussion and his ankle is broken.
While Sam is getting the cast put on, the doctor talks to Dean. "I'd like to keep your brother here overnight for observation."
Dean interrupts. "No can do, Doc. We don't have the money."
Sensing the finality in Dean's tone, the doctor finds a pamphlet and hands it to Dean. "In that case, here's a comprehensive list of what you need to look out for and do for Sam. Look it over and see if you have any questions."
• • •
That night is a long one since Dean has to wake Sam up every two hours to make sure he's fine. Dean doesn't mind. Taking care of Sam is his job, and he wouldn't have it any other way.
A/N: Still haven't finished the paper ayyyyy