Fic: At The Root Of It All - PG, Jared/Jensen, Chad, AU, Romance, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
So, I wrote this story last year for truelyesoteric's birthday. Then I sent it off to the beta. Then the holidays happened. Then I forgot about it on my computer - /headdesk/ - where it sat for a year. But! Last week was her birthday again, so here we go. (See, I can write fic for people's birthdays and they either get it on time or a year late, depending on how you look at it).
This story is for truelyesoteric, not only because I thought it up on her birthday, and not only because she loves the J2, but also because it is all her fault I love Chad. Seriously. I was reading a lot of J2, but I never expected to fall for Chad Michael Murray in the process. I have a distinct memory of her fic somehow being involved in all this. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Nervous!Jared, Dentist!Jensen and Awesome!Chad. PG, J2, AU, Romance, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Descriptions of tooth pulling. Beta'd by the awesomesauce wolfrider89. 2,904 words.
Title: At The Root Of It All
Author: The Artful Dodger / dodger_sister
Fandom: CW RPS
Category: AU, Romance, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Characters/Pairing: Jared/Jensen, Chad
Rating: PG
Warnings: Descriptions of tooth pulling.
Spoilers: Nope.
Summary: Jared’s tooth doesn’t even hurt anyway. Chad doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Word Count: 2,904 words.
Date Written: December, 2010
Disclaimer: Jared, Jensen and Chad belong to themselves. Sadly, not to me. This story, however, is all mine. Sadly, it makes me no money.
Feedback: Bring it. dodger_sister / TheArtofDodger@comcast.net
Beta’d: Yes! By the awesomesauce wolfrider89. Thanks, bb!
Author's Notes: My LJ notified me that it was truelyesoteric’s birthday. I went to bed that night and, unbidden as I was drifting off, this story came nearly fully formed in my head. It’s possible I had something stuck in my teeth that was aggravating it but, fyi, I have never in my life had a dentist as cute as Jensen. If it being her birthday on the day I thought up this story wasn’t enough of a sign, the fact that Chad was so awesome in this fic, made it quite apparent that this story was meant for her.
Dedication: To truelyesoteric, for your birthday, darling. Because it’s all your fault I fell for Chad when all I was doing was reading J2. Yep.
It didn’t even really hurt that bad. Okay, it hurt a little. It was more like a dull, throbbing ache.
Ow. Owowow!
Okay, so it hurt a little to chew, that wasn’t any big deal.
Ow.
And to drink something cold.
But it certainly didn’t mean he had to go to…that place. Not at all.
“Dude. Oh my god.”
Jared glanced across the table at Chad, who was staring at him with a disgusted look on his face.
“Just go to the dentist,” Chad hissed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re ridiculous. And don’t say that word,” Jared replied instantly.
“You can’t chew,” Chad told him.
“No big deal.”
“Pancakes, Jared. You can’t chew pancakes.”
Jared shrugged.
“You’re an idiot and I’m taking you to the dentist.”
***
“Jared Padalecki?”
Jared looked up at the assistant, who was reading his name off of a chart.
“Wow,” Chad said, “You pronounced it right on the first try. You win a prize,” and he waggled his eyebrows at the woman.
“Sweetie, my husband and I are not into that sort of thing.”
Chad actually had the decency to blush. Then he grabbed Jared by the front of his shirt and hauled him along after the woman.
“He’s nervous,” Chad told her, when Jared hesitated next to the dental chair.
“I am not,” Jared said and put on his best pout, before dropping into the chair.
“Nothing to be nervous about,” she said and then proceeded to ask Jared a list of questions that didn’t seem to have anything to do with his teeth, like whether or not he had a heart condition. And if he was a Dodgers or a Giants fan.
Which was utterly ridiculous, because he was wearing his Rangers jersey.
She left the room then and Jared had nothing to do but watch Chad spin in circles on the swirling stool and think about letting some stranger poke around inside his mouth.
It was only like the most private, inside spot on his body.
Well, maybe not the most private, inside spot.
“Mr…?” the doctor said from behind the chart, as he came into the room. “Oh, shit. I mean…dammit. This isn’t even a real word.”
Chad nearly fell off his stool laughing.
The doctor set the chart down and turned towards them.
Jared nearly fell off his own chair.
Which would have been awkward.
The doctor was gorgeous. Beautiful. All pale skin and freckles and big green eyes with like mile long eyelashes and…
“Is that cool?”
Oh, he was talking to Jared. And he wanted an answer. Crap.
“Jared, Jay, Sasquatch, it’s all cool,” Chad was saying and Jared realized the man must have been asking for his name.
“Padalecki,” he blurted out and then turned a hysterically bright shade of pink. “But Jared is fine.”
“Mr. Cool here is nervous. He thinks you are going to rip out all his teeth with your bare hands and then sell them on the black market,” Chad said.
“I do not,” Jared whined. “Shut up. Stop telling people that I’m nervous. It’s just awkward and it usually hurts.”
“Well, does it hurt right now?” the doctor asked.
“What? Um, yes. My tooth hurts. Yes.”
“Then how much worse could I make it?” he asked and smiled reassuringly at Jared. “Besides, I got out of the black market gig a long time ago.”
“Um. Okay.” Jared looked at the man’s scrubs, expecting a nametag, but there was nothing. “Um, I’m sorry. Did you introduce yourself before? I was sort of spacing out,” Jared muttered the last bit and looked down at his shoes.
“He was probably thinking about spiders. He’s scared of those too.”
“Chad, you don’t have to be here, you know,” Jared told him with a whine.
“Then who will hold your hand?” Chad teased.
Jared thought about the really cute doctor holding his hand. It was nice.
“Jensen,” the doctor said.
“What?”
“It’s Dr. Ackles, but I only make the really nasty, smelly patients call me that. You can call me Jensen.”
“You have nasty, smelly patients?” Jared asked before he could stop himself.
“Duh,” Dr. Ackles - Jensen - said. “Now let’s have a look.”
He poked around in Jared’s mouth for a moment and while he was stabbing at it with an instrument that was clearly forged in the bowels of Hell, he asked, “So, you two must be really good friends that you would ask him to come with you to your dentist.”
“We live together,” Chad said. “For like ever now.”
“Really?” Jensen asked and Jared started to protest any ideas Jensen might have about him and Chad, but then the doctor poked at him hard enough to cause him to bite down.
Luckily Jensen had pulled his finger out before Jared had the chance to bite it off.
“Anyways,” Chad went on, “I only brought him because I was tired of him turning his nose up at all the meals I make for his sorry ass. If he can’t eat my food, then he has a serious tooth problem.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Jared blurted out, even though his mouth was screaming on fire from the pain. Apparently blurting things at the cute doctor was going to be a thing for him.
Chad laughed and spun on the chair. “Subtle, Jay. And also, eeeeewwww.”
Jared blushed and looked down at his feet. He really needed to clean his sneakers once in a while.
“Well, that’s an important thing for your doctor to know,” Jensen said and Jared jerked his head up. Jensen was smiling at him, the faintest blush creeping across his cheeks.
“Should I leave the room?” Chad asked with a teasing grin.
“I hate you, you know that, right?” Jared told Chad with a grumble, but Jared was smiling stupidly while he said it, so he figured the effect was probably lost.
“Okay, well, your tooth is chipped,” Jensen said and Jared was brought back to the stark reality that was his throbbing mouth. “Wanna tell me what you were eating when this happened, Jared?”
Jared resisted to the urge to sigh out loud. His name sounded nice when the cute doctor said it.
“Jared?”
“Oh. Um. Wacky Taffy?”
“Is that a question?”
“More like an embarrassed statement,” and he could feel the heat on his cheeks. Maybe having such a cute doctor was not a good idea.
Jensen flashed a smile at him, eyes crinkling up around the corners. “Dude, everyone likes Wacky Taffy.”
Jared shrugged. “I like candy.”
Jensen nodded. “Well, I hate to break it to you, Jared, but candy doesn’t like you back. And your teeth aren’t getting any younger. So watch what you eat.” Jensen patted at his shoulder before pushing away and rolling his stool over to the counter.
“I think that was watch what you put in your mouth, dude,” Chad said and waggled his eyebrows at them.
Jared would have bitten back at Chad, but he was too busy savoring the heat from where Jensen had laid his hand.
“Okay,” the doctor said, “we have good news and bad news. What do you want first?”
“I believe in getting the bad news out of the way,” Jared told him and twisted his hands in his lap. He really didn’t want anything that involved getting the gas, it always made him throw-up.
Oh god, he couldn’t throw-up in front of Dr. Ackles. No, no way.
“Bad news is, we have to pull it,” Jensen told him. “Good news, your teeth are close enough together in that area that I think they will shift right where we need them to afterwards. You shouldn’t have a horrendous gap or anything.”
Jared nodded and twisted his hands some more. He really wanted to bite on his fingernails, but his mouth hurt too much and he stopped his hand halfway to his lips.
“It’s going to be fine, Jared,” Jensen told him and he must have scooted closer at some point because he was right next to him, breath whispering across Jared’s face. “And all you’ll have to remember after is to floss regularly.”
“Oh, I do. I totally do,” Jared told him and looked up to meet the doctor’s eyes. It was very important for some reason that Jensen know how seriously he takes his dental hygiene.
Even though it was mostly so that he’d never have to come to the dentist.
“That’s good,” Jensen told him. “You still look like I kicked your puppy.”
Jared blushed and looked away, towards the door, like maybe he was thinking about bolting.
“I think he’s worried about having to get the gas,” Chad said quietly, stepping a little closer. “He always has a weird reaction to it.”
Jared had never been so grateful that Chad hadn’t use the word vomit in his life.
“Then we’ll skip it. It’ll hurt mildly more, but we can do it with just the numbing shot,” Jensen said and gave Jared what he was sure was suppose to be a reassuring smile, except Jared felt like throwing up already, so it didn’t really help.
“I’ll be gentle, I promise” Jensen told him and rested his hand on Jared’s shoulder again. “I’ll even give you two numbing shots, okay?”
Jared met Jensen’s eyes and nodded. “Okay,” he said in a whisper.
Jensen rolled back over to the counter and started arranging his equipment on the tray.
“So, did Anne ask you about your baseball preferences?” he asked casually.
“Um. Yes. That was weird,” Jared said and tried to relax back into the chair. Jensen would take good care of him, he had promised.
“Apparently every morning she insists that today is the day she will get more people to say The Giants than The Dodgers,” Jensen told him and rolled back over again with a needle in his hand. “It kind of offended me though.”
“Well, I wasn’t offended,” Jared said and opened his mouth cautiously.
“Oh, I was,” Jensen said in all seriousness as he leaned over.
It hurt like someone was trying to push their way into the core of his mouth with a spork.
But Jensen just kept talking. “I was totally offended that the Texas Rangers were not even an option. Just because we are in California or some such shit.”
Jared held back the tears pricking at the corner of his eyes.
“You swear a lot for a doctor,” Chad said and rolled his seat over so he was sitting directly next to Jared.
“Dude,” Jensen said and retrieved the next syringe, “that is not swearing. Come watch a ballgame with me and then you’ll know what swearing is.”
The second needle slid in easier than the first, the sharp pain lessened by the sight of Jensen’s long curved eyelashes up close.
At least, that was Jared’s theory on the whole thing.
“Us Texas boys got to stick together,” Jensen said and rolled back over to gather the rest of his instruments.
“You’re from Texas?” Jared asked, but it came out sounding all weird, like his vowels were dragging on for a really long time. “How’d you know I was?”
“Nobody wears a Rangers jersey unless they are Texas born and raised, man.”
“You don’t have an accent,” Chad told him.
“Neither does Jared,” Jensen replied and pulled his chair as close to Jared as he could.
Jared’s eyes were drawn to the tray of dental tools.
“He’s been out here since he was eighteen,” Chad said and reached over to take Jared’s hand in his own.
Jared grabbed a hold of Chad and squeezed harder than was probably necessary, since Jensen hadn’t actually done anything yet.
“I lost mine on purpose,” Jensen said and nodded his head at Jared, “when I thought I was going to be an actor.”
Jared opened his mouth slowly, pressed his head as far into the headrest as he could.
“If I’d known I was going to become a dentist in the end, I would have kept it. The boys swoon like madmen for the accent.”
Jared only had a moment to process the fact that Jensen had just admitted he was gay, before something cold and metal gripped his tooth and started pulling.
Chad took his free hand and covered it over the one of Jared’s that was already squeezing, crushing his fingers.
“No more candy for you,” Chad said quietly and then, “This is ridiculously painful to watch.”
Jared would have pointed out that it was probably more painful for him at the moment, but he was a little busy having his tooth pulled. He could feel the tooth grating against the ones next to it, feel the still-attached pieces tearing away, feel the super-ton of drool and spit running down his own chin.
And he could feel the soft whispering ‘ssshhh’ noises Dr. Ackles was breathing across his face.
“Boo-yay,” Chad whispered when Jensen held up the tooth, completely free from Jared’s mouth.
Jared went to let out a sob of relief, but instead he choked on the excessive spit and blood in his mouth.
Jensen stuck the mini-sink under Jared’s mouth and said, “Spit.”
“I could so make a dirty joke about that,” Chad told them, but his voice was still soft, almost relieved.
Jared spit and rinsed and spit some more, before letting Jensen stuff gauze in his mouth. Jensen set the tooth down on the tray and Chad took his hands back from Jared.
“Can I…can we keep that?” Chad asked Jensen.
“The tooth?” Jensen asked him with one raised eyebrow.
Chad smirked. “The Tooth Fairy leaves good stuff sometimes. Hate for Jay to miss out.”
Jared wanted to say something witty like, ‘Tooth Fairy doesn’t leave sweaty socks, Chad,’ - because knowing Chad, that was where he was going with this - but there was still a wad of gauze stuffed in his mouth.
Jensen just slid the tooth into a tiny envelope that had a picture of a pink ballerina in a purple tutu and wings, and handed it to Chad.
It was clearly meant for children to put under their pillows.
Jared thought about Jensen being sweet with some small child while pulling their tooth and distracting them and then totally giving them one of those envelopes to take their tooth home.
Honestly, Dr. Ackles was just the best, cutest dentist ever and Jared was sticking by that.
“So,” Chad said rather loudly, “Jared wants to know if you are allowed to date your patients.”
Jared felt his eyes go wide, but he refrained from making any noises or movements that could be interpreted as objection. He did want to know after all, he just would have asked a little more tactfully than Chad.
“Well,” Jensen said, sliding the wastebasket over with his foot, “if Jared were to ask me that, I would probably point out that I don’t actually work here, that I am just filling in for Dr. Morgan.”
Jensen met Jared’s eyes then. “His honeymoon, you know, marriage number three,” and Jensen was leaning in slightly conspiratorially. “I think this one might actually stick.” Jensen winked at him and suddenly Jared was moaning out loud.
Thankfully, Jensen mistook it as Jared choking to death and removed the gauze pads, dropping them in the waste-can. He stuck the mini-sink under Jared’s chin again and ordered him to spit. After another rinse-and-spit round, Jared managed a quick, “So, if someone were to ask you out…” before Jensen was stuffing fresh gauze in his mouth.
“Not today,” Jensen said and Jared actually felt horrendously crushed, despite having just met this man.
“Today, I work here. But say, on Friday, when that band is playing down at the Beaumont on the river, like around eight - then anyone that wanted could ask me out.”
Jared wondered how ridiculous he looked smiling with all that gauze in his mouth.
Jensen scribbled some things down on various papers and then looked at Chad. “You driving him home?”
Chad nodded, his own big stupid grin firmly in place.
Jensen shoved a piece of paper at him. “Prescription for pain meds. It’ll get him through the night.”
Then Jensen looked down at Jared and smiled, soft and sweet and dazzling. “And you, nothing solid for twenty-four hours and nothing overly hard for three days or so. You’ll know when you feel up to it.”
Then Jensen was sliding a piece of paper into Jared’s hand, and he didn’t even have to look to know it was Jensen’s phone number.
“It’s like a bad Sunday night movie of gay love,” Chad said wistfully and then tugged on Jared’s arm. “Come on, big fella, let’s go get you some drugs and ice cream and porn. That’ll make you feel better, right, buddy?”
Jensen laughed, low and throaty and held out his hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you,” he told Jared.
Jared reached out, shook Jensen’s hand, felt the grip that was both hard and soft at the same time.
Then Jensen looked over at Chad and made a little hand-wave motion. “Chad, it’s been…interesting,” he said and then Dr. Ackles was leaving the room with a quick, “See you around, Jared.”
Jared still very much liked the way his name sounded on the doctor’s lips, and he figured he would have lots more opportunities to hear it too - come Friday night and hopefully, Saturday morning.
The End
This story is for truelyesoteric, not only because I thought it up on her birthday, and not only because she loves the J2, but also because it is all her fault I love Chad. Seriously. I was reading a lot of J2, but I never expected to fall for Chad Michael Murray in the process. I have a distinct memory of her fic somehow being involved in all this. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Nervous!Jared, Dentist!Jensen and Awesome!Chad. PG, J2, AU, Romance, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Descriptions of tooth pulling. Beta'd by the awesomesauce wolfrider89. 2,904 words.
Title: At The Root Of It All
Author: The Artful Dodger / dodger_sister
Fandom: CW RPS
Category: AU, Romance, Humor, Hurt/Comfort
Characters/Pairing: Jared/Jensen, Chad
Rating: PG
Warnings: Descriptions of tooth pulling.
Spoilers: Nope.
Summary: Jared’s tooth doesn’t even hurt anyway. Chad doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Word Count: 2,904 words.
Date Written: December, 2010
Disclaimer: Jared, Jensen and Chad belong to themselves. Sadly, not to me. This story, however, is all mine. Sadly, it makes me no money.
Feedback: Bring it. dodger_sister / TheArtofDodger@comcast.net
Beta’d: Yes! By the awesomesauce wolfrider89. Thanks, bb!
Author's Notes: My LJ notified me that it was truelyesoteric’s birthday. I went to bed that night and, unbidden as I was drifting off, this story came nearly fully formed in my head. It’s possible I had something stuck in my teeth that was aggravating it but, fyi, I have never in my life had a dentist as cute as Jensen. If it being her birthday on the day I thought up this story wasn’t enough of a sign, the fact that Chad was so awesome in this fic, made it quite apparent that this story was meant for her.
Dedication: To truelyesoteric, for your birthday, darling. Because it’s all your fault I fell for Chad when all I was doing was reading J2. Yep.
It didn’t even really hurt that bad. Okay, it hurt a little. It was more like a dull, throbbing ache.
Ow. Owowow!
Okay, so it hurt a little to chew, that wasn’t any big deal.
Ow.
And to drink something cold.
But it certainly didn’t mean he had to go to…that place. Not at all.
“Dude. Oh my god.”
Jared glanced across the table at Chad, who was staring at him with a disgusted look on his face.
“Just go to the dentist,” Chad hissed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“You’re ridiculous. And don’t say that word,” Jared replied instantly.
“You can’t chew,” Chad told him.
“No big deal.”
“Pancakes, Jared. You can’t chew pancakes.”
Jared shrugged.
“You’re an idiot and I’m taking you to the dentist.”
***
“Jared Padalecki?”
Jared looked up at the assistant, who was reading his name off of a chart.
“Wow,” Chad said, “You pronounced it right on the first try. You win a prize,” and he waggled his eyebrows at the woman.
“Sweetie, my husband and I are not into that sort of thing.”
Chad actually had the decency to blush. Then he grabbed Jared by the front of his shirt and hauled him along after the woman.
“He’s nervous,” Chad told her, when Jared hesitated next to the dental chair.
“I am not,” Jared said and put on his best pout, before dropping into the chair.
“Nothing to be nervous about,” she said and then proceeded to ask Jared a list of questions that didn’t seem to have anything to do with his teeth, like whether or not he had a heart condition. And if he was a Dodgers or a Giants fan.
Which was utterly ridiculous, because he was wearing his Rangers jersey.
She left the room then and Jared had nothing to do but watch Chad spin in circles on the swirling stool and think about letting some stranger poke around inside his mouth.
It was only like the most private, inside spot on his body.
Well, maybe not the most private, inside spot.
“Mr…?” the doctor said from behind the chart, as he came into the room. “Oh, shit. I mean…dammit. This isn’t even a real word.”
Chad nearly fell off his stool laughing.
The doctor set the chart down and turned towards them.
Jared nearly fell off his own chair.
Which would have been awkward.
The doctor was gorgeous. Beautiful. All pale skin and freckles and big green eyes with like mile long eyelashes and…
“Is that cool?”
Oh, he was talking to Jared. And he wanted an answer. Crap.
“Jared, Jay, Sasquatch, it’s all cool,” Chad was saying and Jared realized the man must have been asking for his name.
“Padalecki,” he blurted out and then turned a hysterically bright shade of pink. “But Jared is fine.”
“Mr. Cool here is nervous. He thinks you are going to rip out all his teeth with your bare hands and then sell them on the black market,” Chad said.
“I do not,” Jared whined. “Shut up. Stop telling people that I’m nervous. It’s just awkward and it usually hurts.”
“Well, does it hurt right now?” the doctor asked.
“What? Um, yes. My tooth hurts. Yes.”
“Then how much worse could I make it?” he asked and smiled reassuringly at Jared. “Besides, I got out of the black market gig a long time ago.”
“Um. Okay.” Jared looked at the man’s scrubs, expecting a nametag, but there was nothing. “Um, I’m sorry. Did you introduce yourself before? I was sort of spacing out,” Jared muttered the last bit and looked down at his shoes.
“He was probably thinking about spiders. He’s scared of those too.”
“Chad, you don’t have to be here, you know,” Jared told him with a whine.
“Then who will hold your hand?” Chad teased.
Jared thought about the really cute doctor holding his hand. It was nice.
“Jensen,” the doctor said.
“What?”
“It’s Dr. Ackles, but I only make the really nasty, smelly patients call me that. You can call me Jensen.”
“You have nasty, smelly patients?” Jared asked before he could stop himself.
“Duh,” Dr. Ackles - Jensen - said. “Now let’s have a look.”
He poked around in Jared’s mouth for a moment and while he was stabbing at it with an instrument that was clearly forged in the bowels of Hell, he asked, “So, you two must be really good friends that you would ask him to come with you to your dentist.”
“We live together,” Chad said. “For like ever now.”
“Really?” Jensen asked and Jared started to protest any ideas Jensen might have about him and Chad, but then the doctor poked at him hard enough to cause him to bite down.
Luckily Jensen had pulled his finger out before Jared had the chance to bite it off.
“Anyways,” Chad went on, “I only brought him because I was tired of him turning his nose up at all the meals I make for his sorry ass. If he can’t eat my food, then he has a serious tooth problem.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Jared blurted out, even though his mouth was screaming on fire from the pain. Apparently blurting things at the cute doctor was going to be a thing for him.
Chad laughed and spun on the chair. “Subtle, Jay. And also, eeeeewwww.”
Jared blushed and looked down at his feet. He really needed to clean his sneakers once in a while.
“Well, that’s an important thing for your doctor to know,” Jensen said and Jared jerked his head up. Jensen was smiling at him, the faintest blush creeping across his cheeks.
“Should I leave the room?” Chad asked with a teasing grin.
“I hate you, you know that, right?” Jared told Chad with a grumble, but Jared was smiling stupidly while he said it, so he figured the effect was probably lost.
“Okay, well, your tooth is chipped,” Jensen said and Jared was brought back to the stark reality that was his throbbing mouth. “Wanna tell me what you were eating when this happened, Jared?”
Jared resisted to the urge to sigh out loud. His name sounded nice when the cute doctor said it.
“Jared?”
“Oh. Um. Wacky Taffy?”
“Is that a question?”
“More like an embarrassed statement,” and he could feel the heat on his cheeks. Maybe having such a cute doctor was not a good idea.
Jensen flashed a smile at him, eyes crinkling up around the corners. “Dude, everyone likes Wacky Taffy.”
Jared shrugged. “I like candy.”
Jensen nodded. “Well, I hate to break it to you, Jared, but candy doesn’t like you back. And your teeth aren’t getting any younger. So watch what you eat.” Jensen patted at his shoulder before pushing away and rolling his stool over to the counter.
“I think that was watch what you put in your mouth, dude,” Chad said and waggled his eyebrows at them.
Jared would have bitten back at Chad, but he was too busy savoring the heat from where Jensen had laid his hand.
“Okay,” the doctor said, “we have good news and bad news. What do you want first?”
“I believe in getting the bad news out of the way,” Jared told him and twisted his hands in his lap. He really didn’t want anything that involved getting the gas, it always made him throw-up.
Oh god, he couldn’t throw-up in front of Dr. Ackles. No, no way.
“Bad news is, we have to pull it,” Jensen told him. “Good news, your teeth are close enough together in that area that I think they will shift right where we need them to afterwards. You shouldn’t have a horrendous gap or anything.”
Jared nodded and twisted his hands some more. He really wanted to bite on his fingernails, but his mouth hurt too much and he stopped his hand halfway to his lips.
“It’s going to be fine, Jared,” Jensen told him and he must have scooted closer at some point because he was right next to him, breath whispering across Jared’s face. “And all you’ll have to remember after is to floss regularly.”
“Oh, I do. I totally do,” Jared told him and looked up to meet the doctor’s eyes. It was very important for some reason that Jensen know how seriously he takes his dental hygiene.
Even though it was mostly so that he’d never have to come to the dentist.
“That’s good,” Jensen told him. “You still look like I kicked your puppy.”
Jared blushed and looked away, towards the door, like maybe he was thinking about bolting.
“I think he’s worried about having to get the gas,” Chad said quietly, stepping a little closer. “He always has a weird reaction to it.”
Jared had never been so grateful that Chad hadn’t use the word vomit in his life.
“Then we’ll skip it. It’ll hurt mildly more, but we can do it with just the numbing shot,” Jensen said and gave Jared what he was sure was suppose to be a reassuring smile, except Jared felt like throwing up already, so it didn’t really help.
“I’ll be gentle, I promise” Jensen told him and rested his hand on Jared’s shoulder again. “I’ll even give you two numbing shots, okay?”
Jared met Jensen’s eyes and nodded. “Okay,” he said in a whisper.
Jensen rolled back over to the counter and started arranging his equipment on the tray.
“So, did Anne ask you about your baseball preferences?” he asked casually.
“Um. Yes. That was weird,” Jared said and tried to relax back into the chair. Jensen would take good care of him, he had promised.
“Apparently every morning she insists that today is the day she will get more people to say The Giants than The Dodgers,” Jensen told him and rolled back over again with a needle in his hand. “It kind of offended me though.”
“Well, I wasn’t offended,” Jared said and opened his mouth cautiously.
“Oh, I was,” Jensen said in all seriousness as he leaned over.
It hurt like someone was trying to push their way into the core of his mouth with a spork.
But Jensen just kept talking. “I was totally offended that the Texas Rangers were not even an option. Just because we are in California or some such shit.”
Jared held back the tears pricking at the corner of his eyes.
“You swear a lot for a doctor,” Chad said and rolled his seat over so he was sitting directly next to Jared.
“Dude,” Jensen said and retrieved the next syringe, “that is not swearing. Come watch a ballgame with me and then you’ll know what swearing is.”
The second needle slid in easier than the first, the sharp pain lessened by the sight of Jensen’s long curved eyelashes up close.
At least, that was Jared’s theory on the whole thing.
“Us Texas boys got to stick together,” Jensen said and rolled back over to gather the rest of his instruments.
“You’re from Texas?” Jared asked, but it came out sounding all weird, like his vowels were dragging on for a really long time. “How’d you know I was?”
“Nobody wears a Rangers jersey unless they are Texas born and raised, man.”
“You don’t have an accent,” Chad told him.
“Neither does Jared,” Jensen replied and pulled his chair as close to Jared as he could.
Jared’s eyes were drawn to the tray of dental tools.
“He’s been out here since he was eighteen,” Chad said and reached over to take Jared’s hand in his own.
Jared grabbed a hold of Chad and squeezed harder than was probably necessary, since Jensen hadn’t actually done anything yet.
“I lost mine on purpose,” Jensen said and nodded his head at Jared, “when I thought I was going to be an actor.”
Jared opened his mouth slowly, pressed his head as far into the headrest as he could.
“If I’d known I was going to become a dentist in the end, I would have kept it. The boys swoon like madmen for the accent.”
Jared only had a moment to process the fact that Jensen had just admitted he was gay, before something cold and metal gripped his tooth and started pulling.
Chad took his free hand and covered it over the one of Jared’s that was already squeezing, crushing his fingers.
“No more candy for you,” Chad said quietly and then, “This is ridiculously painful to watch.”
Jared would have pointed out that it was probably more painful for him at the moment, but he was a little busy having his tooth pulled. He could feel the tooth grating against the ones next to it, feel the still-attached pieces tearing away, feel the super-ton of drool and spit running down his own chin.
And he could feel the soft whispering ‘ssshhh’ noises Dr. Ackles was breathing across his face.
“Boo-yay,” Chad whispered when Jensen held up the tooth, completely free from Jared’s mouth.
Jared went to let out a sob of relief, but instead he choked on the excessive spit and blood in his mouth.
Jensen stuck the mini-sink under Jared’s mouth and said, “Spit.”
“I could so make a dirty joke about that,” Chad told them, but his voice was still soft, almost relieved.
Jared spit and rinsed and spit some more, before letting Jensen stuff gauze in his mouth. Jensen set the tooth down on the tray and Chad took his hands back from Jared.
“Can I…can we keep that?” Chad asked Jensen.
“The tooth?” Jensen asked him with one raised eyebrow.
Chad smirked. “The Tooth Fairy leaves good stuff sometimes. Hate for Jay to miss out.”
Jared wanted to say something witty like, ‘Tooth Fairy doesn’t leave sweaty socks, Chad,’ - because knowing Chad, that was where he was going with this - but there was still a wad of gauze stuffed in his mouth.
Jensen just slid the tooth into a tiny envelope that had a picture of a pink ballerina in a purple tutu and wings, and handed it to Chad.
It was clearly meant for children to put under their pillows.
Jared thought about Jensen being sweet with some small child while pulling their tooth and distracting them and then totally giving them one of those envelopes to take their tooth home.
Honestly, Dr. Ackles was just the best, cutest dentist ever and Jared was sticking by that.
“So,” Chad said rather loudly, “Jared wants to know if you are allowed to date your patients.”
Jared felt his eyes go wide, but he refrained from making any noises or movements that could be interpreted as objection. He did want to know after all, he just would have asked a little more tactfully than Chad.
“Well,” Jensen said, sliding the wastebasket over with his foot, “if Jared were to ask me that, I would probably point out that I don’t actually work here, that I am just filling in for Dr. Morgan.”
Jensen met Jared’s eyes then. “His honeymoon, you know, marriage number three,” and Jensen was leaning in slightly conspiratorially. “I think this one might actually stick.” Jensen winked at him and suddenly Jared was moaning out loud.
Thankfully, Jensen mistook it as Jared choking to death and removed the gauze pads, dropping them in the waste-can. He stuck the mini-sink under Jared’s chin again and ordered him to spit. After another rinse-and-spit round, Jared managed a quick, “So, if someone were to ask you out…” before Jensen was stuffing fresh gauze in his mouth.
“Not today,” Jensen said and Jared actually felt horrendously crushed, despite having just met this man.
“Today, I work here. But say, on Friday, when that band is playing down at the Beaumont on the river, like around eight - then anyone that wanted could ask me out.”
Jared wondered how ridiculous he looked smiling with all that gauze in his mouth.
Jensen scribbled some things down on various papers and then looked at Chad. “You driving him home?”
Chad nodded, his own big stupid grin firmly in place.
Jensen shoved a piece of paper at him. “Prescription for pain meds. It’ll get him through the night.”
Then Jensen looked down at Jared and smiled, soft and sweet and dazzling. “And you, nothing solid for twenty-four hours and nothing overly hard for three days or so. You’ll know when you feel up to it.”
Then Jensen was sliding a piece of paper into Jared’s hand, and he didn’t even have to look to know it was Jensen’s phone number.
“It’s like a bad Sunday night movie of gay love,” Chad said wistfully and then tugged on Jared’s arm. “Come on, big fella, let’s go get you some drugs and ice cream and porn. That’ll make you feel better, right, buddy?”
Jensen laughed, low and throaty and held out his hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you,” he told Jared.
Jared reached out, shook Jensen’s hand, felt the grip that was both hard and soft at the same time.
Then Jensen looked over at Chad and made a little hand-wave motion. “Chad, it’s been…interesting,” he said and then Dr. Ackles was leaving the room with a quick, “See you around, Jared.”
Jared still very much liked the way his name sounded on the doctor’s lips, and he figured he would have lots more opportunities to hear it too - come Friday night and hopefully, Saturday morning.
The End