Chapter 14
Dean walked into the living area of the tower and straight into the avengers and Sam sat watching TV.
Steve looked up when he heard the ding of the elevator and relaxed his tense shoulders when he saw Dean walk into the room.
“Where have you been?” He questioned, taking in Dean’s happy and relaxed face.
“Letting off some steam,” Dean replied with a shrug.
“Doing what?” Tony asked.
“Stuff,” Dean said, sitting next to Sam on the couch.
The team continued to look at him but soon dropped it, seeing that it really had helped Dean.
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Dean seemed completely relaxed throughout the day, and the team felt glad getting to see this happy, normal teenager side to Dean.
Dean joked and laughed with everyone, and they were all having fun until Thor slapped Dean on the shoulder good-naturedly.
Dean tensed up, standing still as a statue. The room went silent, all turning to look at Dean.
Steve walked forward slowly, approaching Dean.
“Dean?” He asked softly, still walking slowly forward.
He stopped when he was in front of him, looking into his glazed eyes, then something snapped in Dean’s eyes.
Dean surged forward quickly and pushed Steve, Steve was shocked and didn’t have time to prepare himself, so ended up falling down. Dean jumped onto him and started punching and didn’t look like he was going to stop.
The team unfroze from where they were staring and started to go forwards to Dean and Steve, before Sam shouted stop them.
“No!” He shouted.
“We have to stop him!” Tony responded.
“I know, but if you go in there and grab him, he’ll just freak out more,” Sam reasoned, “You haven’t dealt with this before.”
The team said nothing, just gestured for Sam to get on with it.
Dean was still punching when Sam slowly walked up to him.
“Dean,” Sam began gently, “Dean, you’re safe, ok?”
Dean stopped punching at the sound of Sammy’s voice.
Sam continued, “I’m safe. Dad’s gone. I promise ok?”
Dean eyes cleared and he shot up, looking scared and ashamed.
Dean looked down at Steve, “I’m so sorry,” he began quietly, “I didn’t mean to, I’m so sorry.”
Steve stood up, not even looking hurt, “It’s fine,” he replied, “No harm done, really.”
Dean still stood looking ashamed, and then he ran.
He ran straight to the stairs leading to the lobby of the tower, and outside, running for a few blocks before he slowed down to speed walk.
He walked for what felt like hours, but in reality, was only about an hour, before he saw a glowing sign and made his way his over, not really thinking about where he was going.
He walked in through the door and was immediately met with loud music and glowing bright colours.
‘A club,’ he thought to himself.
He kind of stood out against the colourful, happy crowd with his black hoodie, sweatpants and the haunted look in his eyes.
Dean made his way to the bar, where he proceeded to order a couple shots of tequila.
He downed them in quick secession. Then he orders a few more. And downed them.
This ritual carried on for 6 more rounds, until Dean stood up, swaying slightly, vision blurry and made his way into the
crowd.
He bumped into a girl dressed in a bikini top and short shorts, with glowing body paint all over her body.
The girl turned around, her head coming up to the top of Dean’s chest. She smiled at him and then pulled him closer and started dancing with him.
Dean started dancing with her, letting the alcohol take full effect.
The girl stopped dancing after a few minutes and pulled Dean with her to a back wall in the club. She then pulled two little white pills from her pocket and handed one to Dean while swallowing the other.
Dean took the other pill from her, ‘fuck it’ he thought, and swallowed it.
They went back to dancing and about ten minutes later Dean started to feel the effects of the drug.
He felt like he was floating. Every bad feeling, he had disappeared, and he smiled.
He felt free.
He danced with the random girl, floating on air. And then he and the girl were kissing. Her hands were everywhere on him, and his on hers.
The girl broke the kiss and dragged Dean by the hand into the bathroom.
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About forty minutes later, they left the bathroom, dopey smiles on their faces, hair messy and clothes skewed.
Dean kissed her one last time and left for the door.
He left the club and started walking back to the tower, alcohol and drugs still coursing through his blood.
He stumbled down the street, the tequila making him forget the way home.
Then suddenly strong arms wrapped around him and he could hear a deep voice trying to speak to him, but it sounded slurred and far away from him.
Normally he would have flinched from the contact, but for some reason he felt safe, he thought it might have just been the tequila and drugs, ‘What did I take anyway?’, but he knew, deep down that he was safe with whoever was holding him now.
So, he let the strong arms lead him down the street, his feet slightly dragging.
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The team and Sam watched as Dean ran out the door.
They stood for a minute in silence before they registered what happened and ran out after Dean.
By the time everyone was outside, they couldn’t see Dean.
“Ok, we should all split up and look, except Thor and Sam, Thor, Sam’s too young and someone needs to look after him,” Steve said, taking charge.
Thor only nodded, he still felt bad about setting Dean off, even if everyone did know it was an accident.
“What? No, he’s my brother!” Sam shouted angrily.
“Sam, Steve’s right, you’re too young to be out here at this time,” Clint said.
Sam was about to respond but he felt himself being led back to the tower by Thor’s strong grip, so he just let out a frustrated sigh.
“Ok so let’s all connect to the comms and split up to search,” Steve said.
Everyone nodded, turned on the comms and left in separate directions.
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“We’ve been searching for three hours and we still haven’t found him,” Tony complained, half angry, half panicked.
“I know, but we have to keep looking,” Nat said matter of factly.
“I know,” everyone responded at the same time.
Just then, Steve saw someone stumbling down the street.
“Guys!” Steve said urgently, “I found him!”
“Where?” Was everyone’s reply.
“On the corner of first and second,” Steve replied, while running over to the stumbling teenager.
Steve reached him and wrapped his arms around him when Dean looked like he was about to fall over.
“Dean are you okay?” Steve asked as the he saw the rest of the team quickly coming closer.
Dean didn’t respond, but he turned his head to look at Steve and that’s when he smelled it. The tequila on Dean’s breath.
Steve moved to hold Dean just by his arm and took in his appearance. Dean had a glazed look in his eyes, his hair and clothes were messed up and he had what looked like glowing body paint in splotches and lip prints all over his face and down his neck.
“He’s drunk,” Steve stated, as the team came within ear shot.
“What?” Bucky asked, also taking in Dean’s appearance.
It seemed that the whole team was looking at Dean as well, because Tony spoke up.
“He’s not only drunk. Look at his eyes, he’s high,” Tony said solemnly.
“Are you sure?” Clint asked looking Dean up and down,
“Hello? I’m Tony Stark, I know what high looks like,” Tony retorted.
Nobody said anything.
Steve looked at Dean sadly, “Come on, let’s get him to the tower.”
The team began walking back, Steve leading Dean with a steady grip on the out-of-it teenager’s arm.