Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? 4
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Jess, Gabriel, Raphael, Bobby
Title: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? 4
Rating: 15 or so
Genre: AU, angst, romance, mental illness
Summary: raphael's a dick but he's family
Author's Notes: I'm not a doctor. the internet learns me things. might be triggery....like everything else in this story.
Master Post
~~~
Castiel awoke to his bedroom door bouncing off the wall as it rebounded. Gabriel was standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face. Dean groaned at the loud noise and blinked his eyes open.
"Go away, Gabriel."
"No, I don't think I will." He turned to Dean. "Have you been stealing my little brother's virtue?"
"It's too early for this crap." Dean wrapped an arm around Cas and pushed his face into the other's ribs.
Cas laughed at Gabriel's raised eyebrows. Gabriel just shook his head and went back into the living room to sleep off his hangover.
Cas pushed Dean away regrettably. "I have a shift starting soon." He said in answer to Dean's groan of protest.
Dean sighed and rolled onto his back, his eyes open. "I gotta get to work soon too actually." He watched Cas get up and move to the dresser to get out some clothes. "Weren't we suppose to have a talk?"
"We were." Cas said without turning. "But we've overslept so it will have to wait." He pulled out a bunch of scrub tops, searching for one that matched the bottoms he'd already collected. "Would you like to come over tonight and we can discuss things then?"
"Got family dinner at seven. I can come by after."
"Family dinner?" Dean heard the smirk in his voice and climbed out of the bed and strode towards him purposefully. He pulled Cas backwards by the hips and nipped at his neck making his prey moan.
"That's not what I need to be hearing, Castiel! At least close the door!"
"Get a job!" Cas pulled out of the loose embrace and slammed the door shut on his sibling.
Dean chuckled as he gathered up his jeans and reopened the door so he could go into the bathroom to change.
Castiel entered the living room dressed for work and tossed a bottle of aspirin lightly onto Gabriel's chest. Gabriel picked it up to look at it before smiling up at his brother. "I love you. Marry me."
Castiel rolled his eyes. "Do you have any plans for the day?"
Gabriel sighed. "I'm going to walk all over town applying at every place that will let me walk in the door." He quoted diligently.
Castiel ruffled his hair and ignored his feeble protests. "Good boy."
Dean came out of the bathroom then. "What time should I come over?"
"My shift ends at six but I'll probably be there until eight or so and you have plans until about then anyway. So we'll say nine to be on the safe side? I'll text you if it changes."
Dean rubbed his hands together and grinned. "Sounds like a plan." He kissed Cas chastely on the lips on his way past him to the door. "See you then."
```
"Emilio. Would you like to start us off?"
"Not really."
Dean ground his teeth together in frustration. He hated Emilio. The guy was a prick. He was always trying to undermine Dean's efforts to get the others in the group to open up. Dean was starting to think maybe Emilio was a bit too sociopathic to be here.
Bobby cleared his throat and Dean swallowed down the irritation and moved on to Amber. If he weren't in a...whatever he was in with Cas he probably would have considered dating Amber. Or at least tapping that. Amber was hot. Amber was also bat-shit crazy.
"I stabbed the man in grey with a pick axe."
Dean ignored Bobby's rapid note taking. "Where'd you get a pick axe?"
Amber studied her nails. "Did you cut my fingernails while I was sleeping again?"
"No. Is there anything else you want to talk about?"
"The colour of the sky is a lie." Amber giggled and grabbed at her stomach. "I like poetry."
"Right." Dean kept his opinions to himself while in group but he couldn't help but feel that Amber just needed someone to kick her ass.
He turned to the next person in their little group. Trent was a pretty average guy. "They keep telling me to hurt my little sister. I don't listen of course but I just get so sick of hearing it." Trent shook his head and looked down at his lap.
Bobby cut in then. "Trent, I think we should have a private session after this." He took out his cell phone and texted his secretary in the next room to contact Trent's mother to pick him up a bit late. "Your mother's been told you'll be with me an extra hour. We'll see what we can do about quieting them up a bit for you."
Trent smiled in thanks and Dean moved to the last person in this group. Good was a strange boy even without the illness. His parents had named him Good for goodness sake. "Good, do you have anything to share today?"
"You do."
Dean's reassuring smile dropped a bit. "Huh?"
Good smirked at him. "You have a hickey."
Amber perked up at that. She grabbed the collar of his shirt before he could move away from her and jerked it down. "Did they attack you?! You have to protect your neck!"
"Amber, let go of Dean's shirt." Bobby didn't even raise his eyes from his notes.
Dean watched with wide eyes as Amber sat back in her seat with a pout. "It's not my turn to share though so, Good, you got anything to share or what?"
"Dean." Bobby's voice held a hint of warning and Dean rolled his eyes.
Good laughed lightly. "It's amusing isn't it, Dean?"
Bobby raised his eyes from his paper as Emilio, Amber, and Trent stilled.
Dean's eyes stared into Good's. "What's that?"
"How Bobby thinks we're all worth his time. Like he can actually do us any good. Like we need his help." There was rage rolling in his words. "They think we're the abnormal ones. We're better than them. They're all demons. There's no voices in our heads. It's them! They're talking and telling us to do things and then saying we're broken! Sick! They're the sick ones!" He pointed at Bobby and Emilio's and Amber's gaze followed his finger. "We should get rid of them. They're vile. They're a cancer. We could be so bright. We could shine so clear." Emilio was nodding.
Dean had had enough and before Bobby could say anything he'd decked Good right in the jaw. "Shut up already." He mumbled to the crumpled form.
Amber was screaming. Bobby was yelling for her to calm down. The secretary rushed in with a syringe full of sedative. Trent was silent. Emilio was grinning and laughing to himself.
Dean shook out his fist as Bobby rounded on him. "We don't slug our patients when they piss us off."
"He's not my patient." Dean shrugged and gestured to Amber who was being lowered to the floor by Trent and the secretary, the syringe now empty. "Look how worked up he got her. I did you a favour."
Bobby just shook his head and went to call an ambulance.
Looked like Dean was going to have Saturdays off for awhile.
```
"Daddy! Alisha's hitting me!"
"Anthony! Stop hitting your sister!"
"She hit me first!"
"If you two don't stop hollering I'm gonna whip you both 'til you can't sit for a week!"
Raphael spun the dial and made a face as Katy Perry blared into the car and Alisha started singing at the top of her lungs. He glanced up at Anthony's pouting face through the review mirror and when he looked back through the windshield he thought for a moment the road looked wrong.
He came to staring at his own lap which had bits of broken glass and two hair clips sitting in it. Hadn't Alisha been wearing these? He became aware of screaming and tried to turn his head to check on his children. A stabbing pain tore through his spine as he did so and he tried to ignore it and the nausea accompanying it. Alisha was fine. There were small cuts on her cheek from the shattered window and she was probably bruised from the seatbelt. He couldn't see Anthony since he'd been sitting behind him.
"Alisha! Alisha, stop screaming honey, Daddy needs you to be a big girl."
Alisha stopped but was still sobbing. "My neck hurts, Daddy."
"I know sweetheart. We're gonna go to the doctor in a minute. I need you to look at your brother and tell me if he's okay."
Alisha turned her head and started crying harder. "His eyes are closed."
"Is he bloody? Is his skin pale?"
"No, he's not bleeding. What's 'pale', Daddy?"
"Are his lips the colour they usually are?"
"No, they're white."
Sirens blared closer and closer. They arrived a moment later and began working efficiently through the wreckage.
The paramedics were working on the passengers of another car when Officer Avery Brown looked into the back-seat to check on the children he'd seen there. "Hey sweetie, what's your name?"
"Alisha."
"Please." Officer Brown turned to the man in the front seat as he grunted out his words. "My son. Is he alright?"
Brown reached in through the broken window to check the pulse of the immobile little boy. He stopped an inch from Anthony's wrist and wheeled around. He grabbed the nearest EMT and wrenched him around to face the boy. "His fingers are curled up."
There was a flurry of movement as fire-fighters converged on the car with jaws-of-life. Raphael was the easiest to get to so they took him out first and worked on opening the car up enough to safely get the children.
Raphael was on a stretcher being taken away as they worked on the mangled car. He heard paramedics call for a helicopter and it was there before they finished putting him in the ambulance. "My daughter?"
"She's in the next ambulance. She'll be right behind you." The paramedic shut the doors before he could thank him.
He looked up at the young woman moving purposefully around him. "What about my son?"
"He's being med-evac'd to a different hospital. You'll have to ask a nurse when you get there which one." He started to lose consciousness and she shook him lightly. "You need to stay awake. You may have a concussion."
He fell asleep on the way to the hospital.
```
Castiel was washing his hands when Richards walked past him, slapping him on the back. "Novak! Got a chopper inbound. Up top!"
Castiel glanced at the clock as headed to the elevators with a couple nurses and a gurney, it was half after five. The nurses chatted about something inane while Cas kept his usual stoic silence. They reached the roof and had to wait a few minutes before the helicopter could be seen growing in the distance.
They kept clear as it landed until the pilot signalled them to approach. The flight medic pulled the stretcher out as they neared and the boy was transferred to the hospital gurney as the medic rattled off his status.
They had him in the elevator and halfway down to the E.R. before Castiel noticed. "Holy shit."
"Doctor?"
Cas turned to the nurse. "Go and find Richards and bring him to us." The doors opened and she ran out as they pulled the gurney towards triage.
Richards jogged up with the nurse behind him a moment later. "Novak, what-?"
"-this boy is my nephew."
For a spilt second no one said anything. Cas saw a look of pity come across the face of the nurse still standing behind Richards before the man spoke and he looked back to him. "Okay, I'll take over here. You go grab another patient." Castiel was glad he hadn't told him to go sit and wait. "I'll let you know what's going on."
Cas stepped out of the room and headed towards the admitting counter to help the next patient, trying to put the image of Anthony's prone figure from his mind. Should he call Raphael? Should he call Gabriel? Was Raphael hurt too? He wasn't sure how Anthony had been injured after all, though he figured it was a car accident.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and called Gabriel.
"What's up?"
"Call Raphael." He ordered without preamble.
"Uh, why?"
Cas picked up the next chart and looked through it. "Because Anthony is in my E.R."
"Wait, what? Is he okay?"
Cas sighed into the phone. "Obviously not since he's in the E.R. Call Raphael."
"Don't you guys call parents?"
"Yes. Just do it, Gabriel."
"Fine. I'll call you back."
Cas slipped the phone back in his pocket and headed out to the lounge. He glanced up at the clock in the waiting room, it was almost six, he'd have to call Dean for a rain-check. He pushed Anthony, Raphael, and Dean from his mind with some effort and turned back to the chart in his hand. "David Sampson!"
```
Dean finished mowing the front lawn around five o'clock. It was starting to get dark. He pulled the mower into the shed and locked the doors before heading inside for a shower. Sam should be home soon.
He'd have to rake the backyard tomorrow. Fall was rolling in and leaves had gathered in clumps throughout Jess' flower beds and across the wide, open area they'd left for a pool that had yet to be purchased.
He stripped and jumped in the shower ignoring the cold water as it slowly warmed up to a scalding temperature that Sam had always disapproved of. He lathered and rinsed and repeated until his skin was raw. He picked at the blister on his heel from his new work boots before deciding it wasn't ready to pop yet.
"I'm home!" Sam's muffled voice made it's way through the water to his ears.
He patted dry and dressed before meeting his brother in the kitchen where Sam was unloading some grocery bags.
"Hey, man, Jess asked me to pick up some stuff on the way home."
Dean picked through the bags. "What are we having?"
Sam set two cans of Manwich on the counter in reply.*
"Cool. Sloppy Joe's sound great right now. I'm starving."
The front door opened and shut again and Jess came in a moment later. She kissed Sam hello and smiled at Dean. "You have to help me cook. I always burn the ground beef."
"Well you came to the right guy. I make orgasmic Sloppy Joe's."
"Gross, dude."
```
Gabriel called Raphael immediately after talking to Castiel. He ignored the faint tremor in his hand as he held the phone to his ear. He listened to the Chuck Berry ring-back tone for about twenty seconds before it went to voice-mail.
"Dammit." He bit his lip. He tried the house number but there was no answer their either. Sandra had probably already been called and was heading to the hospital. Gabriel debated calling his father. He didn't want to get anyone else riled up. He texted Cas that he hadn't been able to get a hold of Raphael and to let him know what more he found out about Anthony. He set his phone on the coffee table in front of him and stared at it, willing it to ring.
```
"Dean!"
"I'll clean it up. Keep your panties on." Dean went into the kitchen to find a rag. He grabbed the already dirty one hanging from the fridge handle and went to clean up the mess he'd made in the dining room. He heard his phone ringing from his room as he wiped the loose sandwich meat off the edge of the table into his hand. He went back into the kitchen, threw the meat in the trash, threw the rag back towards the laundry room down the hall, and washed his hands at the sink before making his way to his room to see who'd called.
"Dean! We're suppose to be having family dinner!"
"Quit being such a bitch, Sam!" Dean looked at the tiny screen, he had a missed call from Cas and a text message. He opened the text which just said 'rain check'. He pursed his lips in mild irritation. At this rate he was beginning to doubt they'd ever really get started.
He hit reply and typed 'k'.
Dean smirked at the phone as it lit up with a newly received text. 'one of my siblings was in an accident. I'm awaiting news.' He raised his eyebrows. That had been surprisingly forthcoming.
Dean tried to think of a sympathetic, yet breezy reply. Something manly, yet sexy. Something intelligent but not condescending. He settled for 'k'. And felt like a dick as the message flew off into the world.
```
Castiel frowned at the phone. 'I'm sorry.' He hit send and hoped it would suffice. The waiting room had filled up a bit and though he didn't feel like having that heart-to-heart with Dean at the moment he really wanted to go home and chug the Four Loko Gabriel had stashed in his fridge. Anything would be better than the slow climb towards full panic he seemed to be doing. His nephew was in his ER and he'd handed him off to his colleague like the boy were a fast food order he'd gotten back wrong. He shouldn't have said anything to Richards. He should have handled it himself. Now he had no idea what was going on.
Cas slammed the patient chart onto the counter top, making the nurse standing behind it jump. "I need you to check on the status of a patient. Anthony Strong."
The nurse sat hurriedly at the computer terminal and pulled him up. "He's in the OR."
"For?"
"Emergency procedure to release ICP."
Cas picked up the next chart and walked towards the waiting area without thanking her.
"Novak!" Richards grabbed him by the elbow and steered him towards the staff room. He closed the door behind him. "Anthony's just been sent up."
"Yeah, I heard."
"We just got word from St. Crispin's that they're sending a patient to us. A Raphael Strong."
Cas nodded. "Of course he'd want to be in the same hospital." He said this mostly to himself.
Two hours later Castiel found himself off his shift and standing awkwardly outside the waiting room of the O.R. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Gabriel coming towards him. "Hey, any news?"
Castiel shook his head.
Gabriel rolled his eyes and pushed the door open before shoving Cas through it. Sandra was the only one inside. Gabriel pushed around Cas' side and went to sit with her.
Castiel debating joining them but then decided against it. Gabriel had always been better at the emotional stuff. He stood near the door to the O.R. and waited with them for news.
~~~
TBC
* do NOT go to wikipedia to look up manwich and sloppy joe's and somehow get sidetracked into reading about the donner party. it's very disconcerting.
~~~
Pairing: Dean/Castiel, Sam/Jess, Gabriel, Raphael, Bobby
Title: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? 4
Rating: 15 or so
Genre: AU, angst, romance, mental illness
Summary: raphael's a dick but he's family
Author's Notes: I'm not a doctor. the internet learns me things. might be triggery....like everything else in this story.
Master Post
~~~
Castiel awoke to his bedroom door bouncing off the wall as it rebounded. Gabriel was standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face. Dean groaned at the loud noise and blinked his eyes open.
"Go away, Gabriel."
"No, I don't think I will." He turned to Dean. "Have you been stealing my little brother's virtue?"
"It's too early for this crap." Dean wrapped an arm around Cas and pushed his face into the other's ribs.
Cas laughed at Gabriel's raised eyebrows. Gabriel just shook his head and went back into the living room to sleep off his hangover.
Cas pushed Dean away regrettably. "I have a shift starting soon." He said in answer to Dean's groan of protest.
Dean sighed and rolled onto his back, his eyes open. "I gotta get to work soon too actually." He watched Cas get up and move to the dresser to get out some clothes. "Weren't we suppose to have a talk?"
"We were." Cas said without turning. "But we've overslept so it will have to wait." He pulled out a bunch of scrub tops, searching for one that matched the bottoms he'd already collected. "Would you like to come over tonight and we can discuss things then?"
"Got family dinner at seven. I can come by after."
"Family dinner?" Dean heard the smirk in his voice and climbed out of the bed and strode towards him purposefully. He pulled Cas backwards by the hips and nipped at his neck making his prey moan.
"That's not what I need to be hearing, Castiel! At least close the door!"
"Get a job!" Cas pulled out of the loose embrace and slammed the door shut on his sibling.
Dean chuckled as he gathered up his jeans and reopened the door so he could go into the bathroom to change.
Castiel entered the living room dressed for work and tossed a bottle of aspirin lightly onto Gabriel's chest. Gabriel picked it up to look at it before smiling up at his brother. "I love you. Marry me."
Castiel rolled his eyes. "Do you have any plans for the day?"
Gabriel sighed. "I'm going to walk all over town applying at every place that will let me walk in the door." He quoted diligently.
Castiel ruffled his hair and ignored his feeble protests. "Good boy."
Dean came out of the bathroom then. "What time should I come over?"
"My shift ends at six but I'll probably be there until eight or so and you have plans until about then anyway. So we'll say nine to be on the safe side? I'll text you if it changes."
Dean rubbed his hands together and grinned. "Sounds like a plan." He kissed Cas chastely on the lips on his way past him to the door. "See you then."
```
"Emilio. Would you like to start us off?"
"Not really."
Dean ground his teeth together in frustration. He hated Emilio. The guy was a prick. He was always trying to undermine Dean's efforts to get the others in the group to open up. Dean was starting to think maybe Emilio was a bit too sociopathic to be here.
Bobby cleared his throat and Dean swallowed down the irritation and moved on to Amber. If he weren't in a...whatever he was in with Cas he probably would have considered dating Amber. Or at least tapping that. Amber was hot. Amber was also bat-shit crazy.
"I stabbed the man in grey with a pick axe."
Dean ignored Bobby's rapid note taking. "Where'd you get a pick axe?"
Amber studied her nails. "Did you cut my fingernails while I was sleeping again?"
"No. Is there anything else you want to talk about?"
"The colour of the sky is a lie." Amber giggled and grabbed at her stomach. "I like poetry."
"Right." Dean kept his opinions to himself while in group but he couldn't help but feel that Amber just needed someone to kick her ass.
He turned to the next person in their little group. Trent was a pretty average guy. "They keep telling me to hurt my little sister. I don't listen of course but I just get so sick of hearing it." Trent shook his head and looked down at his lap.
Bobby cut in then. "Trent, I think we should have a private session after this." He took out his cell phone and texted his secretary in the next room to contact Trent's mother to pick him up a bit late. "Your mother's been told you'll be with me an extra hour. We'll see what we can do about quieting them up a bit for you."
Trent smiled in thanks and Dean moved to the last person in this group. Good was a strange boy even without the illness. His parents had named him Good for goodness sake. "Good, do you have anything to share today?"
"You do."
Dean's reassuring smile dropped a bit. "Huh?"
Good smirked at him. "You have a hickey."
Amber perked up at that. She grabbed the collar of his shirt before he could move away from her and jerked it down. "Did they attack you?! You have to protect your neck!"
"Amber, let go of Dean's shirt." Bobby didn't even raise his eyes from his notes.
Dean watched with wide eyes as Amber sat back in her seat with a pout. "It's not my turn to share though so, Good, you got anything to share or what?"
"Dean." Bobby's voice held a hint of warning and Dean rolled his eyes.
Good laughed lightly. "It's amusing isn't it, Dean?"
Bobby raised his eyes from his paper as Emilio, Amber, and Trent stilled.
Dean's eyes stared into Good's. "What's that?"
"How Bobby thinks we're all worth his time. Like he can actually do us any good. Like we need his help." There was rage rolling in his words. "They think we're the abnormal ones. We're better than them. They're all demons. There's no voices in our heads. It's them! They're talking and telling us to do things and then saying we're broken! Sick! They're the sick ones!" He pointed at Bobby and Emilio's and Amber's gaze followed his finger. "We should get rid of them. They're vile. They're a cancer. We could be so bright. We could shine so clear." Emilio was nodding.
Dean had had enough and before Bobby could say anything he'd decked Good right in the jaw. "Shut up already." He mumbled to the crumpled form.
Amber was screaming. Bobby was yelling for her to calm down. The secretary rushed in with a syringe full of sedative. Trent was silent. Emilio was grinning and laughing to himself.
Dean shook out his fist as Bobby rounded on him. "We don't slug our patients when they piss us off."
"He's not my patient." Dean shrugged and gestured to Amber who was being lowered to the floor by Trent and the secretary, the syringe now empty. "Look how worked up he got her. I did you a favour."
Bobby just shook his head and went to call an ambulance.
Looked like Dean was going to have Saturdays off for awhile.
```
"Daddy! Alisha's hitting me!"
"Anthony! Stop hitting your sister!"
"She hit me first!"
"If you two don't stop hollering I'm gonna whip you both 'til you can't sit for a week!"
Raphael spun the dial and made a face as Katy Perry blared into the car and Alisha started singing at the top of her lungs. He glanced up at Anthony's pouting face through the review mirror and when he looked back through the windshield he thought for a moment the road looked wrong.
He came to staring at his own lap which had bits of broken glass and two hair clips sitting in it. Hadn't Alisha been wearing these? He became aware of screaming and tried to turn his head to check on his children. A stabbing pain tore through his spine as he did so and he tried to ignore it and the nausea accompanying it. Alisha was fine. There were small cuts on her cheek from the shattered window and she was probably bruised from the seatbelt. He couldn't see Anthony since he'd been sitting behind him.
"Alisha! Alisha, stop screaming honey, Daddy needs you to be a big girl."
Alisha stopped but was still sobbing. "My neck hurts, Daddy."
"I know sweetheart. We're gonna go to the doctor in a minute. I need you to look at your brother and tell me if he's okay."
Alisha turned her head and started crying harder. "His eyes are closed."
"Is he bloody? Is his skin pale?"
"No, he's not bleeding. What's 'pale', Daddy?"
"Are his lips the colour they usually are?"
"No, they're white."
Sirens blared closer and closer. They arrived a moment later and began working efficiently through the wreckage.
The paramedics were working on the passengers of another car when Officer Avery Brown looked into the back-seat to check on the children he'd seen there. "Hey sweetie, what's your name?"
"Alisha."
"Please." Officer Brown turned to the man in the front seat as he grunted out his words. "My son. Is he alright?"
Brown reached in through the broken window to check the pulse of the immobile little boy. He stopped an inch from Anthony's wrist and wheeled around. He grabbed the nearest EMT and wrenched him around to face the boy. "His fingers are curled up."
There was a flurry of movement as fire-fighters converged on the car with jaws-of-life. Raphael was the easiest to get to so they took him out first and worked on opening the car up enough to safely get the children.
Raphael was on a stretcher being taken away as they worked on the mangled car. He heard paramedics call for a helicopter and it was there before they finished putting him in the ambulance. "My daughter?"
"She's in the next ambulance. She'll be right behind you." The paramedic shut the doors before he could thank him.
He looked up at the young woman moving purposefully around him. "What about my son?"
"He's being med-evac'd to a different hospital. You'll have to ask a nurse when you get there which one." He started to lose consciousness and she shook him lightly. "You need to stay awake. You may have a concussion."
He fell asleep on the way to the hospital.
```
Castiel was washing his hands when Richards walked past him, slapping him on the back. "Novak! Got a chopper inbound. Up top!"
Castiel glanced at the clock as headed to the elevators with a couple nurses and a gurney, it was half after five. The nurses chatted about something inane while Cas kept his usual stoic silence. They reached the roof and had to wait a few minutes before the helicopter could be seen growing in the distance.
They kept clear as it landed until the pilot signalled them to approach. The flight medic pulled the stretcher out as they neared and the boy was transferred to the hospital gurney as the medic rattled off his status.
They had him in the elevator and halfway down to the E.R. before Castiel noticed. "Holy shit."
"Doctor?"
Cas turned to the nurse. "Go and find Richards and bring him to us." The doors opened and she ran out as they pulled the gurney towards triage.
Richards jogged up with the nurse behind him a moment later. "Novak, what-?"
"-this boy is my nephew."
For a spilt second no one said anything. Cas saw a look of pity come across the face of the nurse still standing behind Richards before the man spoke and he looked back to him. "Okay, I'll take over here. You go grab another patient." Castiel was glad he hadn't told him to go sit and wait. "I'll let you know what's going on."
Cas stepped out of the room and headed towards the admitting counter to help the next patient, trying to put the image of Anthony's prone figure from his mind. Should he call Raphael? Should he call Gabriel? Was Raphael hurt too? He wasn't sure how Anthony had been injured after all, though he figured it was a car accident.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and called Gabriel.
"What's up?"
"Call Raphael." He ordered without preamble.
"Uh, why?"
Cas picked up the next chart and looked through it. "Because Anthony is in my E.R."
"Wait, what? Is he okay?"
Cas sighed into the phone. "Obviously not since he's in the E.R. Call Raphael."
"Don't you guys call parents?"
"Yes. Just do it, Gabriel."
"Fine. I'll call you back."
Cas slipped the phone back in his pocket and headed out to the lounge. He glanced up at the clock in the waiting room, it was almost six, he'd have to call Dean for a rain-check. He pushed Anthony, Raphael, and Dean from his mind with some effort and turned back to the chart in his hand. "David Sampson!"
```
Dean finished mowing the front lawn around five o'clock. It was starting to get dark. He pulled the mower into the shed and locked the doors before heading inside for a shower. Sam should be home soon.
He'd have to rake the backyard tomorrow. Fall was rolling in and leaves had gathered in clumps throughout Jess' flower beds and across the wide, open area they'd left for a pool that had yet to be purchased.
He stripped and jumped in the shower ignoring the cold water as it slowly warmed up to a scalding temperature that Sam had always disapproved of. He lathered and rinsed and repeated until his skin was raw. He picked at the blister on his heel from his new work boots before deciding it wasn't ready to pop yet.
"I'm home!" Sam's muffled voice made it's way through the water to his ears.
He patted dry and dressed before meeting his brother in the kitchen where Sam was unloading some grocery bags.
"Hey, man, Jess asked me to pick up some stuff on the way home."
Dean picked through the bags. "What are we having?"
Sam set two cans of Manwich on the counter in reply.*
"Cool. Sloppy Joe's sound great right now. I'm starving."
The front door opened and shut again and Jess came in a moment later. She kissed Sam hello and smiled at Dean. "You have to help me cook. I always burn the ground beef."
"Well you came to the right guy. I make orgasmic Sloppy Joe's."
"Gross, dude."
```
Gabriel called Raphael immediately after talking to Castiel. He ignored the faint tremor in his hand as he held the phone to his ear. He listened to the Chuck Berry ring-back tone for about twenty seconds before it went to voice-mail.
"Dammit." He bit his lip. He tried the house number but there was no answer their either. Sandra had probably already been called and was heading to the hospital. Gabriel debated calling his father. He didn't want to get anyone else riled up. He texted Cas that he hadn't been able to get a hold of Raphael and to let him know what more he found out about Anthony. He set his phone on the coffee table in front of him and stared at it, willing it to ring.
```
"Dean!"
"I'll clean it up. Keep your panties on." Dean went into the kitchen to find a rag. He grabbed the already dirty one hanging from the fridge handle and went to clean up the mess he'd made in the dining room. He heard his phone ringing from his room as he wiped the loose sandwich meat off the edge of the table into his hand. He went back into the kitchen, threw the meat in the trash, threw the rag back towards the laundry room down the hall, and washed his hands at the sink before making his way to his room to see who'd called.
"Dean! We're suppose to be having family dinner!"
"Quit being such a bitch, Sam!" Dean looked at the tiny screen, he had a missed call from Cas and a text message. He opened the text which just said 'rain check'. He pursed his lips in mild irritation. At this rate he was beginning to doubt they'd ever really get started.
He hit reply and typed 'k'.
Dean smirked at the phone as it lit up with a newly received text. 'one of my siblings was in an accident. I'm awaiting news.' He raised his eyebrows. That had been surprisingly forthcoming.
Dean tried to think of a sympathetic, yet breezy reply. Something manly, yet sexy. Something intelligent but not condescending. He settled for 'k'. And felt like a dick as the message flew off into the world.
```
Castiel frowned at the phone. 'I'm sorry.' He hit send and hoped it would suffice. The waiting room had filled up a bit and though he didn't feel like having that heart-to-heart with Dean at the moment he really wanted to go home and chug the Four Loko Gabriel had stashed in his fridge. Anything would be better than the slow climb towards full panic he seemed to be doing. His nephew was in his ER and he'd handed him off to his colleague like the boy were a fast food order he'd gotten back wrong. He shouldn't have said anything to Richards. He should have handled it himself. Now he had no idea what was going on.
Cas slammed the patient chart onto the counter top, making the nurse standing behind it jump. "I need you to check on the status of a patient. Anthony Strong."
The nurse sat hurriedly at the computer terminal and pulled him up. "He's in the OR."
"For?"
"Emergency procedure to release ICP."
Cas picked up the next chart and walked towards the waiting area without thanking her.
"Novak!" Richards grabbed him by the elbow and steered him towards the staff room. He closed the door behind him. "Anthony's just been sent up."
"Yeah, I heard."
"We just got word from St. Crispin's that they're sending a patient to us. A Raphael Strong."
Cas nodded. "Of course he'd want to be in the same hospital." He said this mostly to himself.
Two hours later Castiel found himself off his shift and standing awkwardly outside the waiting room of the O.R. He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Gabriel coming towards him. "Hey, any news?"
Castiel shook his head.
Gabriel rolled his eyes and pushed the door open before shoving Cas through it. Sandra was the only one inside. Gabriel pushed around Cas' side and went to sit with her.
Castiel debating joining them but then decided against it. Gabriel had always been better at the emotional stuff. He stood near the door to the O.R. and waited with them for news.
~~~
TBC
* do NOT go to wikipedia to look up manwich and sloppy joe's and somehow get sidetracked into reading about the donner party. it's very disconcerting.
~~~