"Mind if I ask what that was about?" Dean deposited the shopping on the kitchen table, ignoring a warning look from his brother; Jody had only just left.
"The Sheriff's a friend and she's going through a rough patch, s'all." Bobby paused. "In fact, now you mention it, there might be something you three can do to help."
"Uh, we didn't—"
Sam kicked his brother under the table.
"The Sheriff's daughter isn't too well at the moment and, from what Jody says, she hasn't got many friends either. Perhaps you three could pay her a visit?"
"We can do that." Sam assured.
"Dude, we don't even know her—"
Another kick cut him off.
Bobby nodded appreciatively, stepping outside to leave Jody a voice message.
~~
"What was that?" Sam snapped, following Dean up the stairs and into his room.
"What do you mean 'what was that.' You just talked us into visiting some random stranger."
"So?" Elsa stood in the doorway, her hands shoved into her jean pockets. "Why shouldn't we go?"
"Look, I mean no disrespect to this girl, but is she honestly going to appreciate some strangers going over and giving her the sympathy vote? What good will that actually do?"
"It could give her some company," Sam sighed in exasperation.
"All I'm saying is, if it were me—"
"Well it's not." Sam turned and left the room, going directly to his own and shutting the door firmly behind him.
"What's got his panties in a twist?" As usual, Dean was trying to use humour to cover the fact that he seemed to think he'd said the wrong thing.
Elsa shrugged. "I don't know. But I really think we should visit Alex."
"Yeah, yeah, I got it, you're on 'team Sammy.'"
"Don't be ridiculous." She stretched in an almost cat-like manner and moved from the doorway. "I'm on team 'I want a milkshake.' I'll be downstairs if you need me."
Dean rolled his eyes and hid a smile; as soon as he heard his sister's footsteps on the stairs, he got up and closed his door. He wandered back to his bed, removed a small knife from under his pillow and turned it slowly, methodically, in his hands. The light from the window caught the blade's edge and reflected in broken patterns across the walls.
Emergencies only.
He placed the knife back in its hidden position and cursed. This was on John, for forcing him to live in paranoia of the paranormal, which probably didn't even exist, for the majority of his life.
Quietly, he considered texting Cas.
He decided against it.
Instead, he kept thinking about Alex. He hadn't meant to be rude or insensitive but, practically, what would a visit do? Magically cure her? Of course not. If he was being honest with himself, Dean knew the real reason why he didn't want to visit.
Alex would be in a hospital.
Dean hated hospitals.
It was as simple as that. He had way too many bad memories of them; the amount of times he'd had to take his siblings in was ridiculous.
Sam had broken a leg once, after jumping from a high platform because he thought he could fly. John was furious — not at Sam, but at Dean, for allowing it to happen — then the drive to the nearest hospital was had been long and they'd had to wait two hours to be seen.
Another time, Elsa had been hit over the back of the head by someone they'd been tracking, and Dean had been convinced she'd had a concussion. She hadn't. But she had been violently sick and then had to be kept in bed for a few days afterwards.
On several occasions, John's beatings had really gotten out of hand and Dean had had to try and explain to concerned and suspicious hospital staff why he and his siblings were covered in blood and bruises.
Dean himself had had to get stitches before. He hadn't been careful enough on a hunt and had gotten his side cut deeply by a man with a knife. John had refused to take him to the hospital. Lack of professional medical treatment was supposed to serve as a lesson.
Sam and Elsa had called bullshit on that one.
Together, the two had pulled Dean out of the motel room and into the car, leaving John half drunk and yelling after them, whilst a thirteen-year-old Sam illegally drove his elder brother to the nearest hospital: Elsa in the back seat trying to stem the bleeding with a rag from an old shirt.
Absentmindedly, Dean lifted his shirt and traced the old scar with the tips of his fingers.
The whole episode felt like a life time ago.
He closed his eyes and sighed.
~~
Sam sat in his room, open textbooks surrounding him as he read out certain passages, trying to burn them into his brain. Beside him, on the floor, Elsa lay listening as he spoke, trying to pass it off as revising as she sipped her pink milkshake.
"Here," Sam handed her one of his Geography books, "Test me on this."
"Alright." She sat up, briefly scanning the pages the book was opened on. They showed several images of rivers, all complete with bold arrows and overcrowded labels.
She set her glass aside. "What's the name of a bend in a river?"
"A meander."
"What's the fast flowing part in a river called?"
"The rapids."
"What do you call waterfalls that retreats?"
Sam rolled his eyes. "A retreating waterfall."
"Sounds like a bad joke, doesn't it?" Picking up the glass, she took another sip of her milkshake as she stared at the pages thoughtfully. The colourful text boxes didn't do much to hide the fact that the information they contained was repetitive and dull. "No offence, but this is all insanely boring."
Sam laughed. "Yeah, but it's on the test, so I need to learn it."
"Do you though? When will you really going to need to know this much about rivers in real life?"
Sam shrugged. He could think of several reasons as to why other people may need to know; future geographers, for example, would definitely find it useful but, personally, he knew he was unlikely to ever use this stuff.
"I think they should teach us something new," Elsa stated, discarding the textbook, "They should teach us more about current affairs or something. Gender politics would be interesting too and, you know, actually useful. I mean, I'm pretty sure we could make time for things that actually matter or things we don't know already. Because I get that smoking is bad and I shouldn't do drugs, and I'm pretty sure I'm never actually going to need to find the side of a triangle." She sighed and downed the rest of her milkshake, placing the empty glass on the carpet beside her.
Sam watched her, smiling. "I'm proud of you, you know."
Elsa looked up, feeling both touched and confused. "Why? Because I complained about the education system again?"
He laughed. "No, well, yes actually, but I meant more of in general."
"Thank you, Sam."
There was a pause, filled with the sound of footsteps along the landing, their muffled noise grew louder and then abruptly stopped. "I sense a chick flick moment."
"Dean, what the hell?" Sam chuckled, both amused and creeped out as he opened the door to reveal his brother standing outside.
"I hate chick flick moments," he whispered, trying to sound dramatic.
"That's so untrue." Elsa moved to join her brother's at the door.
"Yeah, you're right." Dean smiled, resuming a normal volume of speech as he pulled his siblings into a hug. "You two are idiots, but I'm glad I have you."
"Dean?" Sam whispered, feigning concern.
"Yeah?"
"Are you high or something?"
"Shut up." He pushed his siblings away, rolling his eyes and trying not to laugh as he faked storming away down the stairs.
Sam and Elsa stood chuckling on the landing, both aware that this was Dean's strange way of apologising for getting annoyed at them earlier. That, or Sam was actually on to something, and he really was high.
"Idjits," Bobby called from the kitchen.
A/N
Another weird chapter, I know. But hey, I needed to fit in a rant about our flawed education system somewhere.
*Smiles innocently to hide the fact that I'm actually really annoying.*
~ Kat