Chapter 10
Dean woke up, and a searing pain flared in his back when he tried to move. It hurt so much that he cried out in pain.
He heard a beeping that he didn’t hear before getting faster and then he felt calm wash over him, and he was drifting back to sleep.
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The team watched as Dean stirred, trying to move, and then they heard a choked cry of pain.
Bruce stood quickly and injected morphine into the IV line in Dean’s arm and he slowly drifted back to sleep.
“Will he be ok?” Sam asked quietly.
“Yes,” Bruce nodded, “He’ll just be quite sore for a while.”
Sam nodded, deciding to stay quiet.
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Dean woke again and noticed a pain in his back but didn’t cry out this time.
He blinked his eyes open and saw Sam sat in the middle of the avengers and thought he was dreaming. He realised he wasn’t when Bruce stood up and walked towards him.
“Hey Dean,” Bruce began softly, “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Dean somewhat slurred, hiding his pain and emotions as always.
Sam looked at him, knowing he was lying but decided to not say anything on the subject.
“Good,” Bruce said, “You’re going to have to stay in the bed for a little while, we don’t want you to reopen your wounds and start bleeding again.”
Dean gave an affirming nod but remained silent, his pain was starting to come back a little more and he didn’t trust himself to speak.
When Dean tried to move a little to get a better view of everyone in the room, he accidently moved his back and white-hot pain shot through his entire body.
Dean bit his lip to hold in the strangled noise he wanted to make.
“Are you ok Dean?” Sam asked concerned.
Dean smiled as best he could and choked out, “Yep Sammy, nothing to worry about.”
Sam just continued to stare at Dean, and Dean stared back.
Sam called Bruce over and whispered something to him.
Bruce turned around with a sad smile, “We’re going to give you some more pain killers and you’re going to sleep for a while.”
Dean nodded minutely and looked at Sam thankfully.
Sam understood and nodded back.
Before Dean knew it, he was drifting off to sleep once again.
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It was the next day when Dean woke up properly and could move around, albeit slowly and in pain.
When he woke up and tried to get up Bruce tried to get him to lay back down, but Dean was determined. He swung his legs over the bed, a pained grimace on his face.
He stood slowly and walked a little.
Pain shot through his back at every step, but Dean hid it.
Dean looked down and realised he was shirtless only wearing a pair of grey joggers. He suddenly felt self-conscious that everyone could see his scars and looked around for something to cover himself.
He saw a black hoodie slung over the back of a chair and reached for it, ignoring the searing in his back as he stretched. He grabbed it off of the chair and towards him.
“Maybe you shouldn’t do that just yet,” Steve suggested.
Dean just gave his cheeky smile and pulled it over his head, once again ignoring the pain shooting through his back as he moved his arms and pulled the hoodie down over himself.
He looked up and smiled again, “See, fine.”
The whole team looked at him disbelievingly but decided to stay silent.
Dean looked down and scratched the back of his neck, wincing when the pain started again, “Hey so, um, where’s uh, what’s happening to Dad?” He asked, almost as if he was ashamed.
Steve looked at him sadly and began, “He’s in a cell at the police station right now and he’ll be going to prison for a long time.”
Dean nodded, he didn’t want to admit it, but he felt relieved.
Sam stood up and walked next to Dean, then turned to look at the avengers.
“So,’ he began, “What’ll happen to me and Dean?”
The team shared a look, the brothers would’ve described it as excited, yet anxious.
“Well,” Tony began, “During the last few weeks me and Steve, and the rest of the team, worked something out.”
The boys looked at him in confusion and remained silent, but Dean nodded his head as a sign to carry on.
Steve started to speak this time, “We have been put onto the foster carer system and if we speak to a few people, we’ll definitely be able to have you move in with us.”
“You know, because of our influence and money and shit,” Tony added on.
“Tony,” Steve chastised.
Tony rolled his eyes but remained silent.
“So,” Steve asked, “What do ya think?”
Sam broke out into a smile, but Dean face remained unreadable.
“That would be amazing! Thank you so mu…” Sam was interrupted.
“Why would you do that?” Dean questioned.
“Because even though we don’t really know you, we still care about you, and we didn’t get you out of that house to throw you into another abusive one,” Tony said as if it was the truest fact he’s ever known.
Sam looked at his brother, as if saying ‘you don’t have to be suspicious of everything Dean’. Then turned back to the team and smiled even bigger than before and said, “We’d love to. Thank you so much!”
Dean didn’t let his emotionless façade fall away and instead gave a small nod, saying, “Yeah ok. Thank you.”
The whole team broke into big grins.
“Great, we’ll show you to your rooms, they’re right next to each other,” Tony stated happily.
The boys followed, Sam cheerily and Dean going more slowly because of his injuries.