Little Things

Chapter Ten

Cas and Dean avoided each other for the most part over the weekend, although Dean couldn't resist listening outside Sam's door while Cas ran the campaign for their group. Cas barely said a word otherwise, until Mary had both him and Dean help her clean up the kitchen on Sunday night.

'So, good news,' she said brightly. 'I got you both appointments on Wednesday after school. I got Cas a therapist in the same office as yours, Dean, so if I let you borrow the car, can you take Cas with you?'

'Sure,' said Dean.

'That okay with you, Cas?' Mary asked.

Cas just shrugged and left the room after drying the last of the dishes.

'Okay, spill it, what's going on?' Mary said to Dean, once Cas was out of earshot.

'Nothing,' Dean said, but Mary raised an eyebrow as he blushed. 'Fine,' he groaned. 'It's not a big deal, he's just... embarrassed.'

'Why?'

Dean glanced at the kitchen door. 'I almost caught him - doing something.' Thankfully Mary understood without making him elaborate further. 'He'll get over it eventually.'

Mary sniggered. 'All right, well as long as he's okay.'

'Yeah, he's fine. Don't worry about it.'

Mary snorted and let Dean leave the kitchen.

The curtain was drawn across by the time Dean got upstairs, but Dean knocked on the wall anyway.

'You okay, Cas?' he called.

'Fine, thank you.'

'Good.'

When they got to school on Monday, Cas still wasn't talking to him, and Dean felt more exposed to Rhonda. It took everything he had to make it through the day, then Tuesday, and Wednesday. He was exhausted and shivery when they arrived at the practice after school and trudged inside. Dean hadn't noticed how much he'd been relying on Cas to keep Rhonda distracted, and hated himself for it.

He and Cas sat in the waiting room in silence, until the receptionist directed them to their rooms.

Dean walked in and sat down.

'Good to see you again, Dean,' Tessa smiled, sitting in the chair opposite him. 'Although, you're looking a little tired. '

Dean smiled weakly. He had always been appreciative of Tessa's honesty.

'Let's just get right to it. What's on your mind?'

Dean sighed. 'A lot,' he said. 'You - you remember Rhonda?'

'Of course.'

'She transferred into my homeroom. Things have been - tough since.'

'What do you mean by that?'

Dean started off slowly at first, but soon everything was pouring out of his mouth, all his fear, all his guilt, and he felt so much lighter by the time he was done.

'Seems like you needed that,' Tessa said.

Dean nodded. 'Yeah, I guess so. I don't wanna dump too much on my mom, you know?'

'Why not?'

'For a start, she doesn't get paid to listen to me bitch like you do,' Dean laughed. 'And - and I know that she doesn't like to think about what happened either...'

'Why do you think that is?'

Dean shrugged. 'I'm the oldest, I'm supposed to be strong for her, and she doesn't like to think about me being so weak.'