Bruised: A Destiel AU

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

It was only two days after Christmas that John Winchester came to pick up his boys again. Dean and Sam collected their gear and threw it in the back of the car, Dean taking the front seat and Sam the back. The two of them were quiet, as if they had just woken and were lost in their own minds. While the first part was false, the boys had been awake for a few hours, the second couldn’t be truer. Sam was more than excited to see Jessica again, who he had been texting since the minuet they left school, and Dean was running through what he was going to do when he got back into town. Dean had a plan, or the start of one, but could he pull it off? And would it work?

“So how was Christmas?” John asks, slipping into the car and giving them both a smile before starting the car. Dean couldn’t help but be impressed by the fact he wasn’t wasted or near the temper point of screaming at the boys; he could only assume the hunt was going well or at least better than it had been the past month. Dean couldn’t help but rub the cut on his arm from that mess.

“It was alright,” Sam finally spoke up from the back with a smile. Dean, snapping out of his thoughts, nodded in agreement. “Actually… good.”

“We got a lot of research done,” Dean added, glancing over at his dad. “Sammy worked hard. Did double duty with the homework he had plus the research.”

“It’s Sam.” The youngest spoke up from the back seat, narrowing his eyes.

“It’s Sam,” Dean mocked, grinning at his sibling over his shoulder. He jerked back, narrowly avoiding a flick aimed for his face. “Missed me!”

“Alright, alright, you two clearly need some time apart,” John chuckled, shaking his head at the pair of his sons. “Lets get home.” He pulled out of the driveway and the boys sat back into their seats, knowing better than to goof off.

“So how was Christmas for you?” Sam asks after a while, shocking Dean a little. He normally wanted nothing to do with their father.

“Good. We’re close on the case.” John stated. Short and sweet. Little humanly emotional contact as possible; if the boys didn’t know any better, they’d say that was his motto. “You boys up for helping out? Could get a lot further a lot quicker with the entire Winchester family.”

“Maybe,” Dean says so Sam won’t have to respond. He didn’t need to look behind him to know the disappointment that would be on his brothers face, and he didn’t need to see it inorder to feel the sadness it would bring.

The car fell into a much Winchester-like silence, but thankfully without the tension that normally lingered within it. Dean, who hadn’t gotten much sleep over the past week or so, finally shut his eyes and passed out in the front seat of the car. Sam, however, was left to his own thoughts. Thoughts about leaving Jessica, who needed anything but someone ditching out on her without an explation. It already had happened with her father, and her brother; Sam couldn’t do that too her again. As if watching his brother struggle to go against every nerve and do the exact opposite of what he’s been trained to with Castiel-follow orders, do what they ask not what you want-he now had to decide how many orders he was going to break. Sighing, the teenager dropped his head into his hands. This was too much for a freshman to handle.

Castiel  enjoyed cooking, as odd as that may sound for a teenager. He enjoyed the smell of food, the crackling echoing in the pots and pans, spreading throughout the room. Most of all, Castiel enjoyed the solitude. It was different than being alone, there was the food there to care for, to listen to. It sounded odd, maybe even crazy, but it almost always brought a smile to his face. The best part was the fact his parents allowed him to be alone. His father despised cooking and his mother refused to even enter the room when he was cooking due to his refusal to follow the recipe. He wasn’t quite sure why; going step by step and having little to no room of mistakes made plenty of sense, more than his taste and guess system, but he just had an issue following instructions.