Snippets One Hundred Forty-Two: Repercussions Part Two

        Dean woke the next morning, alone.  He jumped out of bed, looking for his brother.  When John Winchester was drunk enough to hit, he was drunk enough to still be drunk in the morning.  The older Winchester boy did not want his little brother crossing John’s path when he wasn’t normal.

        Going through the motel suite, Dean finally found Sam eating a bowl of cereal and watching TV.  His eyes searched the area, remembering the night before and the unseen attack on their father. 

        “Morning, Sam,” the older boy whispered quietly.

        “Good morning, Dean,” Sam spoke around a mouth full of cereal and milk.

        “You see or hear anything unusual?” he older boy

        “Like what?”

        “I don’t know.  Something grabbed Dad last night.  I couldn’t see anything.”

        Sam set his bowl on the coffee table, “Really?  I missed it?”

        “It’s not funny, Sammy.  Dad wouldn’t let me look at his hand.”

        “It hurt his hand?  Why his hand?”  Sam saw the bruise forming on his brother’s cheek.  Dean had such pale skin and bruises formed easily.”

        The other boy turned his head.

        “You can’t lie this time, Dean.  He hit you?  How many times?”

        “Just once.  I had it coming, Sammy.”

        “No, Dean, you didn’t have him hitting you coming,” the younger brother tried to make his elder listen to reason. “If he kicked your ass, I could see that, but he hit you in the face.  Good parents don’t do that, Dean. Dad’s got problems.”

       “He misses Mom.  He loved her so much, Sam.  He drinks to forget the pain.  I get in the way too much.”

        “No Dean, you take care of him and he doesn’t deserve it.”

        “You and Dad are all I got, Man.”

        “That shouldn’t include getting beat up. Next time, I’m calling Bobby and the police and I’ll turn him in.”

        Castiel, sitting on a chair, smiled and hoped the hand was either badly sprained or broken.