Wrapped in Honey 38/49
Chapter 38
"Dean, where have you been? And don't feed me crap here." Bobby asked.
Dean closed his eyes and braced himself on the work bench, facing away from his friend. Of course he would ask but Dean had hoped for a little grace period. Just a day or two to sort his mind and come up with a cleaned up version of his story.
Hell, two days ago he'd been with Sam and had just been getting used to the idea to spend some time separated to figure things out. And he needed to figure things out, he knew that.
But now Bobby was asking his questions and Dean had no idea what to say. Even the cleaned up version was pretty fucked up.
"Dean?" Bobby was at his side, one hand on his shoulder. "Breathe, boy. It's okay, in and out, easy."
Gray spots swam in his vision and Bobby's voice sounded distant.
"In and out." Bobby kept coaching him through every breath but it took a while for Dean to come back. He felt dizzy and exhausted and when Bobby manhandled him over to a chair he didn't protest. He slumped down, elbows on his knees and head hanging and just focused on his breathing, in and out.
"You good, boy?" Bobby asked after a while and offered him a bottle of water, wherever that came from. Dean drank greedily and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand afterwards.
"That bad, uh?" Bobby put the bottle aside and eyed him closely.
"I'm okay."
The older man didn't look like he believed him but he didn't repeat his question either and Dean counted that as a victory. There he had his graze period.
"I'd like to set up my workplace now." Dean finally said.
"Of course, make yourself at home." Getting the hint Bobby left him alone.
Dean stayed in the chair for a while longer until he felt steady enough to unpack his things. The other day he'd only brought in his bag with clothes, most of his tools and material were still in the car.
Happy to have something to do, Dean went to work. Around noon Bobby was back with sandwiches and beers and they had lunch in the garage. Just like when he'd been a kid and Bobby had let him tinker with a car or a radio.
"Thanks, Bobby." Dean said when he'd finished his sandwich and he didn't only mean the meal.
"You're welcome." Bobby handed him another beer. "You can stay as long as you want, you know that, right?"
"I was thinking two weeks, more or less." He took a sip of the bottle.
"Something special in two weeks?" After his little freak out earlier Bobby seemed to have tuned his questioning down a bit.
The man was curious, Dean got that, but he wasn't ready to talk just yet.
"Sam and I are taking a while off from each other." Dean answered, this part was easy.
"It's not working out between you two?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out." Bottle still in hand he made the three steps over to the workbench were everything was set up now.
"This Sam seems like a nice guy." Bobby stated. "At least what I can tell from your emails."
"He is." Dean hadn't forgotten what Bobby had said about the emails earlier. That they sounded censored.
"Dean, I know this is none of my business." He stepped closer. "But when you were a kid, I saw things, I heard things, hell, John wasn't exactly subtle, and I did nothing. I should have done something and I'm still sorry that I was such a coward."
"You're not a coward." Dean tried to say it easily but he didn't like where this conversation was heading. What Bobby was implying. On the other hand, was he that far off?
"You dropped from the face of the earth and when you came back it was with two short phone calls and you didn't tell me anything. And then there is this Sam. Dean, I'm worried."
"You don't have to be." Dean assured him. "Sam is not abusing me, if that's what you're implying."
"Okay." Bobby let it be for the moment but he would be back with his questions, that was for sure. And maybe it would be a good thing to talk about it. Not that Dean was a big talker especially when it came to his feelings or his traumatic experiences but Bobby had always been there for him. If he couldn't talk to Bobby, to whom could he talk?
For the rest of the day Dean buried himself in work and he had to say that the car he was working on came around quite nicely.
He only came in when it was time for dinner. They had leftover chili, it tasted best the second day anyway, and Bobby did most of the talking. Dean hadn't lived in Sioux Falls for years but he still knew most of the names Bobby came up with and a little town's gossip was better than talking about something else.
They ended the evening with some TV, Bobby's set wasn't as big as Sam's but Dean was grateful for everything different. He tried to think about Sam as less as possible. He had time to come to terms with his feelings and he knew at this point everything was still way too fresh to actually deal with it.
He went to bed rather early but for long hours he couldn't sleep. Lying in bed alone in the darkness with nothing but his thoughts for company, everything rushed back in. With memories circling in his mind he finally fell asleep.
He woke up in Bobby's arms, who held him tight and just whispered in his ear.
"It's okay, boy. It's okay."
Dean blinked and had to swallow against the rawness of his throat.
"Bobby?"
"You had a nightmare." Bobby let go of him. "You okay now?"
Dean nodded, not trusting his voice just yet. He knew this was it for the night, there was no way back to sleep for him, so he got out of bed and went downstairs in search for a drink. Bobby followed him.
"Go back to bed, Bobby." He said but the older man just opened a cabinet and came up with a bottle of Jack.
"Glasses over there."
"I know where you keep your glasses."
They sat down with their drinks. Dean downed his in one go and poured himself a second one. He felt Bobby's eyes on him but he didn't comment on Dean's drinking.
"You're still having those nightmares." Bobby gave him an opening.
"Didn't have them while I slept in Sam's bed."
Bobby nipped at his drink. "Same old stuff?"
"Partly." He remembered flashes from the Food Market and things from the bar mixed with what John had done. But it was all blurred together, Dean couldn't tell what his dream had been about, he only remembered disturbing images and an uneasy feeling.
"I got kidnapped." He'd said it before he was even sure if he wanted to say it. He was pretty sure he didn't want to say it but the words were out.
"You what?"
"That's why I was so suddenly gone, I got kidnapped." He studied the amber liquid in his glass. Kidnapped, that sounded so harmless. And it didn't even start to cover what had happened to him.
"Who?" Bobby asked, still in clear disbelief. "Why?"
Now came the tricky part.
"Pros." Dean answered and reached for the bottle. Getting drunk sounded like a good plan. "Got hit with a tranq dart, woke up in a truck with a others like me. Like cattle."
Bobby didn't say a word, clearly debating with himself if Dean was yanking his chain here.
"What did they want?" He finally asked.
"People." Dean finished his drink but when he reached for the bottle again, Bobby snagged it away and put it out of reach. So much for getting drunk. But the alcohol he already had in his system started to work. Warmth spread in his stomach.
"They sell people for … special services." Better leave out the food part, he thought to himself.
"Special services? You mean …?" Bobby didn't even dare to put his suspicion in words. It was almost adorable.
"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean."
"Did … I mean …" Bobby cleared his throat.
"Did somebody buy me?" Dean asked the question for him. "Somebody bought me." He needed another drink. He held out his glass to Bobby and now the older man didn't hesitate and poured him a stiff drink. And refilled his own glass.
"I'm not going to tell you the details." Dean said just to make that point clear. Not that he expected Bobby to ask about the details here.
"How did you get away?"
"He let me go."
There was a moment of silence while Bobby tried to wrap his head around the new information.
"How does Sam fit in?"
"Make an educated guess." Dean finished his drink and set the glass aside. He should stop now or he would regret it in the morning.
"He?"
"He." Dean thought about the emails he and Bobby had exchanged. More often than not Dean had mentioned Sam and always in a good way. Okay, Sam had been the one typing but at that point Dean didn't have much negative to say about Sam. That he liked to hog the blanket but otherwise?
"And he just let you go?"
"He's not a bad person." Dean felt the need to defend Sam here. "A little naive maybe when he thought things would just work out like that. But in the end he was right, it did work out between us."
"Why did he let you go then?" Bobby still tried to figure out what Dean was telling him. And he doubted he could make the other man understand. Sam and him, that was fucked up, he knew that.
"Because he loves me." There, that was the answer.
Bobby nodded to that as if he'd expected this response.
"Dean." Bobby cleared his throat. "Do you need to see a doctor?" He fiddled with his drink but had a steady eye on Dean.
"What? Why would I …?" Dean needed a moment to get what Bobby was implying here. "No." He hurried to say. "Sam never forced me and he for sure didn't hurt me."
Bobby studied him for a moment longer before he gave him a short nod.
"Have you been to the police?" Of course he would bring up the police. Dean chuckled to that. He had a cop on speed dial, if that helped?
"No, I haven't." He confirmed. "And I won't."
For one, he didn't want to get Sam in trouble and second, the community owned the city. If he informed the police here, they would just transfer it there and he knew how that investigation would end. No, the police wasn't an option.
"You should at least think about it."
Dean promised he would, thinking didn't hurt, and Bobby seemed satisfied with that.
The next few days Bobby let him be for the most part, just letting him know that he was there if he wanted to talk or needed anything, and Dean appreciated that.
Dean spent most of his time in the garage, working on the cars, or searching the yard for scrap he could use. He tried to not think too much about Sam.
Then one day Dean's phone rang. He carried it around in his pocket just in case Sam would call, even if he had promised he wouldn't, but when he looked at the screen, the caller ID didn't read Sam.
"Benny?" He finally answered the phone. "Is Sam alright?" That was the first reason coming to mind why the vampire would call him. Turned out there was a second one.
Chapter 39
Masterpost