Well, That Sucks
Fic Title: Well, That Sucks
Author: leah_elisabeth
Fandom/Genre: SPN, Hurt/Comfort
Pairing(s): Sam/Kevin, mostly platonic but could be pre-slash
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4083
Warnings: Some strong language. Very brief mention of suicidal thoughts.
Summary: All Kevin wanted was a little break from the translation of the tablet. He had no desire to take a road trip with a couple of vampires and even less interest in playing the role of snack food. Thankfully Sam is stubborn and there is no way he's letting anyone take Kevin that easily.
Author's Note: This fic was written for the spn_reversebang 2016 challenge. Many thanks to my wonderful artist, m14mouse. She did a FANTASTIC job and gave me a great idea to work with.
This was exactly what he needed. Way to go, Sam and Dean for finding exactly the extracurricular activity that would completely take his mind off of the translation of that damn tablet. He had been hoping for a decent meal out, maybe some barbecue, and a little bit of arcade time so he could use his sharp mind for something other than Enochian characters. Maybe he could get Dean to challenge him on some of the shooting games, get him to smile, even laugh. Maybe Sam would relax, let go of some of the burden his sickness was causing. All that stress had to be making it worse and he hated finding bloody Kleenex in every trash can in the bunker. A day off, that's all he was asking for.
But Dean obviously knew best. Kevin sighed and drummed his fingers in the upholstery. That was why he was sitting in a car, all alone, watching as Dean dragged his sick brother into a barn that was probably crawling with vampires to save a little girl that had been snatched earlier that day. Yup, Dean knew exactly what he needed.
Speaking of Dean, those two boys had been gone for quite a while. He knew they would at least have run out with the girl to get her out of the middle of the fight.
Kevin sighed and opened the car door. They had left a machete with him just in case a vamp or two got past them but it looks like he would now be using it to go to their rescue.
And that was the moment it all went to shit. Kevin got out of the car and began to run toward the house and, as he did, two big, strong vamps ran out of the door and straight at him. One was a tall man with a military haircut and the other was a petite blonde woman. Kevin raised his machete and got into ready stance.
The tall man looked at the woman and quirked his brow. “You want a snack for the road trip?”
“I could eat,” she snarled, fangs descending.
Kevin did his best, he really did, but almost before he knew it, he was dizzy and confused, blood dripping into his eyes from a laceration on his forehead, his hands were tied tight behind his back, and he was squished into the trunk of an old rusty Ford Escort. He really shouldn’t have gotten out of that car.
They traveled for days, or maybe it was just hours. Regardless, it was far enough that Kevin lost all sense of time and direction. He could be in the next town. He could be in the next state. How were Sam and Dean going to find him now? He was hidden from the angels and the demons for his protection but it was all going to be for nothing if he was torn apart and eaten by a couple of hungry vampires.
What had Sam and Dean been thinking anyway? He wasn’t a hunter! He had no special combat skills and he wasn’t likely to develop them while cloistered away to work on translating some damn prophecy. Heh heh, TRANslating. Oh crap, he must have hit his head harder than he though. There was no way that healthy and safe Kevin would ever make a joke that bad. Right, he’s mad at Sam and Dean. Obviously it is their fault for not being smart enough to keep him miles away from any action. He would have been fine if they had dropped him off at the nearest Starbucks, or small town coffee shop equivalent. They could go and slaughter their vampires and pick Kevin up later, all relaxed and full of pumpkin spice lattes and biscotti.
But it was too late now, way too late. Kevin was all scrunched up tight in this trunk. His nose itched and he couldn’t even scratch it, And he was hitching a ride with Vampire Ken and Barbie as road trip food.
He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even realise the car had stopped until he heard the slamming of doors. he held his breath as he heard the crunching of footsteps on gravel. He caught a glimpse of tall trees and mountains before the face of the tall vampire filled his vision.
“End of the road, kid,” he grinned, thankfully without fangs.
Kevin grunted as he was yanked out of the trunk and stood roughly on his feet. He almost fell to the ground as his feet had fallen asleep. The blonde one came up on his other side and scented his shoulder, rubbing her face all over it.
“Mmmm, I don’t know what it is about this one. He smells so...clean.” She grinned. Her fangs descended and Kevin cringed away from her. It didn’t matter though, she just pressed up against him and breathed him in. “Yeah, this one was a good choice since we’re going to be eating the same thing for the next while.”
“Awesome,” the man grinned. “Didn’t I tell you I would take care of you. Who’s your man?”
“You are, baby.” They kissed in front of Kevin’s disgusted face.
“No offence or anything, but can you kill me before you start making out? I would rather not spend the final minutes of my life puking.”
“Oh, he’s a funny guy, is he. We’re not going to kill you, moron. Do you think we’re idiots? We just survived an encounter with the WINCHESTERS! And we stole someone from their car on the way out. They’re gonna be looking for us. If we start leaving a trail of bodies now, they’ll be after us so fast. Nope, we’re going into starvation rations. We’ll drain the occasional small animal to supplement but you’ve gotta last us awhile.” The man turned him roughly around. “Take a look at your new home.”
Kevin swallowed as he took it in. There was a ramshackle little cabin made of logs and a decrepit barn standing beside it. They had obviously been deserted for many years. Dawn was just breaking behind the mountain.
“Better enjoy the view, it’s the last one you’ll ever have,” the vampire grinned, his fangs popping out.
Kevin shivered.
“Jack,” the girl swatted her boyfriend, “You’re scarin’ the poor boy. We can make it..fun.” She nuzzled back into Kevin’s shoulder. “My name’s Wanda and if you’re really good, your blood isn’t the only thing I’ll be sucking.”
“What? No!” Kevin pulled away as much as he was able with his hands still tied.
“Fine,” Wanda turned cold all of the sudden. “We’ll see if a cold day all by your lonesome will change your mind.”
Jack grinned and shoved Kevin toward the barn. “Remember, this was your choice.”
Kevin tried to fight him, or course he did. But his day from hell could only get worse and soon he stood shivering in nothing but his boxers and socks and a thick manacle was shackling his ankle to the wall.
“I won’t be much of a meal if I FREEZE TO DEATH!” Kevin shouted as Jack turned to leave.
Jack smirked at him and threw a blanket at his face before leaving and chaining the barn door behind him.
And Kevin was alone again. “What the fuck,” he whispered. “No seriously, what the fuck.” He pulled the blanket closer to him and choked on the horrid smell. It smelled like it had been home to a wet dog for 35 years, then a dead one for fifteen more. It was stiff with dirt and Kevin wasn’t certain that if he tried to shake it out, it wouldn’t crumble away in his hands. He tried to hold out as long as could, curling up into the fetal position in a desperate attempt to preserve his body heat, but he knew he wouldn’t last the night. As much as he would love to fuck over Jack and Wanda by dying before they could drink him, he had just enough hope that Sam and Dean knew where he was and were on their way to find him right now this second. And so maybe he wasn’t ready to give up just yet. He sighed and pulled the nasty blanket around his shoulders and curled up once more.
He was rudely awakened from his fitful sleep. He wasn’t sure when he had drifted off but he had finally been able to get warm enough when Jack came crashing in with a blast of bracing air.
“Rise and shine,” he shouted. “I thought maybe I would give Wanda breakfast in bed this evening. What do you think?”
Kevin groaned and hid under his blanket.
Jack laughed and tore it from him. “Come on, sleepy head, the night’s a-wasting.” He pulled Kevin up awkwardly by his arm and detached the chain that kept him from running away. “Come, my little cow. Wanda awaits.”
Kevin bemoaned whatever it was in his life that had abandoned him to such bad luck. It was bad enough that he was the only person on the planet who could read these damn tablets, he also had to be hunted by demons and angels alike, kidnapped by vamps, and even worse, lame vamps who couldn’t even drain him with dignity.
Wanda was still sleeping when they reached the room. It was cold too. Curse these vampires and their lack of heat dependance. The bed was old, and dusty. Kevin sneezed and Wanda woke with a smile and a luxurious stretch.
“Oh, my love, you have brought me breakfast. What ever could I do to deserve a wonderful man like you?”
“Think nothing of it, my little peach pit. I live to serve you.” Jack shoved Kevin onto the bed and Wanda latched onto him, dragging him down to lie in her arms. Kevin struggled but her arm was a steel band around his chest. He was going nowhere.
She sniffed him for a while again. Kevin had no idea what was so fascinating about his scent. He was nothing more than a rather unwashed kid barely out of high school. The prophet of the Lord didn’t come with a scent attractive to vampires, did it?
He wasn’t expecting it when she finally bit down into the place where neck met shoulder. It hurt nothing like anything he had felt before. It wasn’t just the razor sharp teeth biting into his flesh, it was the feeling of his blood rushing through the torn skin as she suckled. He screamed when Jack bit into the other shoulder. They drained him to the point of dizziness before handing him a water bottle and some oreo cookies and chaining him back up in the barn.
Kevin didn’t eat or drink when they left him alone. He curled up into a tiny ball of misery and let out every bit of fear and agony in desperate sobbing. No one was coming for him. No one could find him. He was all alone in the world and there was nothing he could do, nothing but lay in the filthy barn and wait for death.
“Shit,” Sam shouted. “Shit, shit, shit. We lost him? How did we lose him?”
“I dunno, man. Obviously he didn’t stay in the car. Maybe he went to take a leak,” Dean tried to calm his brother down.
“He didn’t go to take a leak, Dean, we missed two vamps and they took him from our car!” Sam has to grab on to the roof of the Impala as he’s suddenly struck by a wave of dizziness.
“Hey, hey, whoa, do you need to sit down?” Dean is at his elbow in seconds.
Sam brushes him off in frustration. “No, Dean, I don’t need to sit down. We need to find Kevin.”
“Sam, I know this sucks. I like the kid. I want him to be alright. But our priority is the trials and if we’ve lost our prophet, we need to get started on the search for the next one so they can continue the translation and you can close the gates of hell. If they’ve grabbed him, it’s not to start their new family. They’re on the run and they’ll probably toss his body like a discarded juice box the moment they get hungry,” Dean steadied his brother and tried to help him into the passenger seat of the car.
“What the hell, Dean!” Sam shoved his brother away in earnest. “Since when do you give up like this?”
“Since my one and only purpose became to make sure you lived through these trials. I gave in when you asked to hunt these vamps because I knew it would be quick and easy, in and out. And I knew their body count was climbing but we just can’t drop everything to go chasing a couple vamps across the country. Now get in the damn car,” Dean pushed him into the seat. “Look, there was a beat-up Ford Escort in the yard when we came in and it’s gone now. If I had to put my money on anything, I would guess that was the getaway car. Let’s follow up on that lead but if it’s a dead end, can we please get back to the trials?”
Sam nodded and prepared for a silent trip back to the bunker. The moment Dean parked, Sam was out the door and heading into the library. He tapped his fingers impatiently as he waited for his laptop to boot. After that, it was hours of looking for remote access security cameras so he could find a decent shot of a license plate and a direction of travel. Dean brought him a sandwich. Sam ignored it.
He could feel the hours ticking away as he called in all his contacts and gradually managed to pick up a partial trail. It went cold after crossing two state lines. Sam wanted to get on the road but Dean was being stubborn, refusing to leave until Sam had a decent night’s sleep under his belt. And of course Sam refused to do more than catnap in his chair while Kevin was still stuck out there with two vampires.
A day later, and there was still no sightings of that damn car and Sam had no idea what to try next. He had lost them in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming. They could be anywhere. Maybe they had gone farther north and crossed the border into Canada. And he was dizzy. The world spun around him every time he looked around, and he was so hot and he was shivering under his warmest sweater and Dean was doing that thing where he brought in soup or tea every twenty minutes and tried to slip a thermometer into his mouth. Sam wrapped himself up in a blanket and tried his best to ignore him, even though all he really wanted to do was crawl into bed and let Dean take care of him.
Finally, one of the feelers Sam had put out hit pay dirt. The phone rang. One of their allies in the Rockies had remembered an abandoned cabin in the area and had gone out there on a whim. Finally, they had a decent lead.
Sam threw off his blanket and stood, intending to yell for Dean to start the car, but the dizziness that had already been threatening to take over clouded his vision and sent him tumbling to the floor before he could even open his mouth to cry out.
Sam woke up to green eyes looking down at him. “This is it, Sam. We’re giving up. It’s been three days. Kevin is gone,” Dean whispered hoarsely.
Sam took in the bags under Dean’s eyes and the stubble on his chin. “How long was I out?” he whispered.
“Almost 36 hours,” Dean dragged one hand across his face.
“Shit,” Sam cursed as he tried to leap out of bed. It was embarrassingly easy for Dean to keep him trapped on his back. “I got a phonecall before I passed out. We have a lead.”
“Sam…” Dean sighed.
“Look, I know you think it’s too late. And if this lead doesn’t pan out, I promise we can come back here and keep working on the trials. But I can’t give up yet. Not this time. And if Kevin is dead, at least I can decapitate the sons of bitches that dared to snatch a friend of the Winchesters.” Sam put all the power into his puppy eyes that he could muster. He knew Dean could never resist him when he looked this pathetic.
“Fine!” Dean yelled. “Now put those things away before the furniture starts crying.
By the time Sam managed to drag himself out of the bed, Dean had them packed and the car started and they headed out on the road. Sam could only pray that they weren’t too late.
Kevin was curled up in the corner once more. A half full bottle of orange juice was slowly getting warm beside him. He really wasn’t sure how much longer he could do this. Every time he moved his head, he was overwhelmed by dizziness. His arms were littered with barely sealed bites and, as much as Jack and Wanda said they wanted him to last a long time, they were not being very careful to keep him healthy. They gave him lots of water and other fluids but they were barely feeding him. And the time between bites kept getting shorter. His blood was hardly given a chance to recover before they were feeding from him again.
And Wanda was weird. She liked to cuddle while she fed. She would hold him and tell him how beautiful he was and how good he smelled. And, because Kevin had no defenses left, sometimes he could not resist relaxing into her gentle touch. It made the moment that she turned on him all the more painful.
The door creaked open and Kevin didn’t even bother to open his eyes. Jack may have returned for him once more but he wanted to hold onto the illusion as long as possible.
“Hey, Kevin,” a voice whispered.
Kevin could have cried. He knew that voice. He opened his eyes to see Sam Winchester peering in the door. Sam ran to his side and crouched beside him. He swayed a little as he neared the ground but managed to catch himself.
“You alright?” Kevin croaked. Sam’s eyes were glassy with fever and he had two bright spots high on his cheeks.
Sam laughed and yanked Kevin up into a hug. “Am I alright? Oh my god, look at you! You look like crap.”
“Yeah, well same to you.” Kevin was acutely conscious of the fact that he was in his underwear and he was crying again.
“Dean thought you were dead but I couldn’t give up on finding you,” Sam said softly as he cradled the boy closer.
“Thanks” Kevin whispered through his tears.
Sam had to pull away to find the key to remove the chain. Kevin didn’t want to let go of him but he also really wanted to get out of this barn and back to safety in the bunker.
Sam was looking around near the door when a blonde ball of fury shot through and tackled him to the ground. “Your brother killed my man,” Wanda screeched. She pinned Sam to the ground and stared at Kevin murderously. “This is your fault. I’m going to kill this hunter and then I’m coming over there to drain you dry. I should have done it days ago. I knew it was too dangerous, taking a hunter’s pet.”
Sam struggled to buck her off but she was too strong. She bit into Sam’s neck and began sucking furiously.
Sam shouted and fought harder but he didn’t need to,
Kevin watched in fascination as Sam’s arms started glowing. Sam writhed on the ground in pain as it traveled up his arms into his neck. Wanda drew back sharply, mouth smoking. Glowing blood dripped to the ground.
Wanda tried to stand up, to run, but it was already too late. The glow spread down her neck and into her abdomen. She collapsed to the ground screaming but the process could not be stopped. The light was burning through her from the inside out. Bright tendrils were already escaping her throat and stomach.
“What are you?” she whispered as the light overwhelmed her and she crumbled to dust. By the time Dean burst through the door, dripping machete in hand, it was all over.
Almost before Kevin could blink, he and Sam were under a blanket in the backseat of the Impala, huddled together to bring up Kevin’s core body temperature. Any other time Kevin might have felt ashamed that he was snuggling into Sam’s side with the bigger man’s arm pulling him in close but the heat from Sam’s fevered body felt absolutely glorious. Sam was also doing his best to feed him orange juice and sugared donuts. Kevin thought of refusing but Sam just looked at him and his eyes were soft and warm, and worried, and maybe a little teary, and Kevin felt himself giving in.
Finally, they let him be and he started to drift off, his stomach full, the dizziness being replaced by warmth and safety as he leaned on Sam.
“I’m sorry, Kevin,” Dean said softly when it looked like Kevin was asleep. “I shouldn’t’ve given up.”
Kevin slowly pulled one arm out of the blanket and firmly extended his middle finger at Dean. “I expect BBQ, fresh cooked, no takeout. And new music, something from this decade. And a TV in my room. And how about a blanket and pillow that weren’t used by guys long dead? You owe me big.” And he pulled his arm back under the blanket and shamelessly threw it across Sam’s waist before snuggling his face into Sam’s chest.
Dean chuckled. “You got it, kid.”
“Hey, Kev, can I come in?” Sam stands at the door of Kevin’s room in the bunker.
Kevin looks around quickly to see that there is nothing too embarrassing lying around. He kicks a couple pairs of boxers under the bed before inviting Sam in.
“What’s up?” Kevin asked.
“I just wanted to make sure you are ok,” Sam said.
“Yeah sure. They didn’t do anything too permanent. My blood volume is almost back to normal now.” Kevin grinned
“That’s not exactly what I meant.” Sam looked down.
“What do you mean?”
“I was there. I know how scared you were because I know how scared I would have been. And you didn’t have what I always did, a big brother who would walk through fire to pull me out. You didn’t even know if anyone was coming for you at all,” Sam looked at Kevin earnestly.
“That’s where you are wrong, Sam. I knew you would come for me, you and Dean. If anything, this has proved that I do have a brother I can count on. I could have given up. I could have found any number of ways to die. I could have frozen to death in that barn, torn my wrist open on the manacles, pushed Jack too far so he would drain me dry, but I didn’t. Because I know that you and Dean wouldn’t stop looking and I couldn’t let you find my corpse,” Kevin reached out and impulsively grabbed Sam’s big hand.
Sam held on hard, muscle working in his jaw as he tried to control himself. “ I just couldn’t let you down again,” he whispered. “I’m sorry that I didn’t answer any of your calls while Dean was in purgatory.”
“It’s forgotten,” Kevin said softly.
Sam smiled before standing and pulling Kevin up into a big bearhug. “You can count on me.”
“I know,” Kevin gladly returned the hug. “Now let me get back to this angel tablet so we can shut the gates of hell and get you back to fighting fit.”
Sam released Kevin and nodded. “Yell if you need me. I’m going to go and nap for a day or five.”
Kevin nodded and watched as Sam made his way out of his room and down the hallway, only wavering slightly. And then he turned back to his work. This damn angel tablet wasn’t about to translate itself.