Chapter Text
Prologue - The Phone Call
It was a Friday when Sam got the call that changed his, and his brother’s lives forever.
Sam was on his way home from school, with plans to tackle his huge pile of homework and start revising for next week's exam when his phone rang.
The caller ID told him it was his younger brother, who lived 5 states over. Adam had presented as a Submissive barely a year previously, and Sam had spent that time trying to convince the young lad to come to Sioux Falls to live with him and their late mother’s brother, instead of with their asshole father, who expected way too much of his children and was borderline abusive.
He hadn’t been expecting the call, as Adam tended to ring much later into the evening, but it wasn’t unusual for them to speak often. The earlier-than-normal call was probably so his brother could either complain about something trivial that had happened between him and a friend at school or to share something exciting that he just couldn’t wait to tell Sam about.
But, when Sam answered the call, he wasn’t greeted with the ranting or the happiness he expected. Adam was sobbing. He tried telling his older brother everything, but the only thing that made sense to Sam were the words ‘Dean’ and ‘hospital’ .
Sam wasn’t able to decipher in what context those words were meant, but he knew it wasn’t good. Dean was their elder brother, and the thought of him in the hospital made Sam’s heart stop.
Adam was waffling away on the other end of the line, and Sam could sense his panic. Sam made him stop and ordered him, kindly, to take some deep breaths. Although Adam was a Submissive, his body and mind were not yet mature enough to accommodate a sub-drop safely. That didn’t mean it was impossible; Submissives who went through traumatic events were known to drop before their physical and mental state was ready, which oftentimes led to complications in the future. Sam didn’t know what sort of thing his younger brother might have seen to get him in such a state, and so aired on the side of caution - spending a bit of time talking Adam down from a potential early drop.
Thankfully, Adam seemed to calm considerably, which reassured Sam that he hadn’t been as close of a drop as he might have first sounded. When he felt able to think and speak more clearly, he told Sam what he knew.
“Dean’s in the hospital.”
“What?” Sam had asked in shock. “What happened? Is he okay?”
“I don’t know. Dad said something about a seizure. I don’t know,” Adam sniffled. “He was fine this morning. He dropped me off at school with a corny joke and said we’d go for burgers tonight because he couldn’t be bothered to get groceries in. He was fine. He went to work, blaring Metallica out the car windows.”
Sam hated that running the house was Dean’s job. Sure, the guy was 21 and perfectly capable of helping out, but their father was barely ever home and when he was he was a lazy slob who relied on his eldest to do everything while he drowned himself in the alcohol he’d spent all his money on.
He’d pretty much been that way since their Mum had died when Sam had been 4 years old. He had been a little more present when they’d all been children but he would always have the stench of alcohol on him and he was harsh. He’d always done the bare minimum - leaving an 8-year-old Dean to pretty much raise his two younger brothers alone.
“But then, he never turned up to pick me up from school. I thought he might have been kept late at work or something. I tried calling him but got nowhere. I didn’t want to call Dad 'cause then he’d get pissed at Dean and it would be all my fault so I called the garage. Gordon answered,” Adam explained. Gordon was Dean’s boss. “He said that Dean had collapsed and had a seizure about 2 o’clock and that he had been rushed to the hospital. He said Dad knew about it. So then I called Dad in a panic and… shit… Sam, he won’t tell me anything. He’s angry. He’s so fucking angry. And I’m scared. Please, I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do.”
Sam’s heart hammered away in his chest and he fought to stay rational, to be the support his brother needed right now. He told Adam to make his way to the hospital and promised that he’d be there as soon as he could. He invited Adam to call or text as much as he needed.
As Sam rushed home, wishing he hadn’t skipped the bus, he called his Uncle and explained everything to him. Bobby started gathering up a couple of changes of clothes for them both and promised that they’d leave for Kansas as soon as Sam got home. Next, Sam tried his father.
The two had never really gotten along very well, their Dominant sides butting heads way before Sam presented as a Dom. When Sam had been 15, he’d gotten into one-too-many arguments with the old man and John Harrison, in a drunken stupor had slapped his son and had told him to leave; ‘leave and don’t you ever come back’ . And so, Sam had. He’d tried to convince Dean to go with him, but Dean had stubbornly refused, saying something about Adam and not wanting to uproot their younger brother’s life and how CPS would just return them here anyway. Sam knew his brother was probably right, so hadn’t fought him on it anymore, but he promised Dean they’d get away from him together one day.
Sam had then packed a change of clothes in a rucksack and used the money he’d earned mowing lawns the other weekend to get a bus ticket to Sioux Falls, where he just turned up, unannounced on his Uncle’s doorstep. The man had accepted him into his home with no questions asked and happily accepted custody of him when his father signed him over the following week. Bobby would have taken both Dean and Adam on too, but their father refused to give them up.
Even though they hadn’t spoken properly since then, he hoped that John would have enough decency to answer his call, that he would understand why he was worried about Dean and maybe even give Sam an update on his brother’s condition.
The phone rang for ages, and just when Sam thought the man wasn’t going to pick up, the call went through and the voice of John Harrison greeted him.
Just like Adam had said, the man was angry.
He was angry at Dean for falling ill as if the eldest Harrison had inconveniently chosen to have a seizure on purpose. He was angry that he’d been taken to the hospital when “all he needs is to sleep this off, for fucks sake. He’s a fucking man, not a fucking pussy.”
He was angry because the hospital refused to tell him much. He was angry because they refused to let him self-discharge Dean because he was not the 21-year-old's Guardian. Dean, as a Neutral, didn’t even need a Guardian and he was old enough to make his own choices regarding his medical care.
And he was now angry at Adam for even daring to call Sam, and he was angry at Sam because it was apparently “none of your fucking business what’s happening to your brother. You’re the one who pissed off to live with Bobby. You’re the one that abandoned this family without a second fucking thought. So fuck off, and don’t fucking ring again.”
Sam ran the rest of the way home. Bobby had been ready to leave like he said he would and they’d sped off down the highway towards their home state.
Adam messaged frequently, but the updates didn’t really change until Sam received a frantic call about 2 hours into the drive to tell them;
“I don’t have long Sam. Dad’s been arrested.”
Adam was on speakerphone, so Bobby could hear him too. Although Adam was clearly riled, he wasn’t near the panic he had been in earlier. Still, Bobby softly ordered him to take some deep breaths.
“Why have they arrested Dad?” Sam asked, biting his nails.
“Because… Because Dean…” Adam stumbled over the words for a minute before he took a shuddery breath and uttered the words; “Because Dean’s a Little.”
Sam had pictured his father assaulting a member of staff, or purposely breaking hospital property. He’d expected the arrest to be for something petty, which was his father’s style. But he had absolutely not been expecting such a huge accusation; one that wasn’t even true. Dean was a Neutral; they had to be confused.
Bobby hadn’t been expecting that accusation either, as he suddenly slammed on the breaks and brought them to a screeching halt. Luckily, they were on an open, empty road and the abrupt stop affected no one but themselves.
“What do you mean ‘Dean’s a Little’?” Bobby asked gruffly after a second or two.
Sam couldn’t find his voice, instead just blinking dumbly at his Uncle as they listened to Adam’s next words.
“I don’t know much. They’re treating me like I’m an imbecile. All they’ll officially tell me is that Dean’s stable now and that Dad’s been arrested on suspicion of abusing Dean. But I heard them when they were arresting him. They were leading me to a different room, but I heard them. They said that Dad was being arrested on suspicion of abusing ‘the Little’ Dean Harrison. And the woman with me is wearing a POLASS lanyard.”
“The Protection of Little’s and Submissive’s Society?” Sam repeated back dumbly.
“Yeah. She’s gone to get me a drink. I used it as an excuse to phone you. She obviously doesn’t want me on my phone. Something about not panicking anyone until we know exactly what’s going on, but I had to tell you. She’s asked me a lot of questions.”
Bobby started the car again, but as he did he asked;
“What kind of questions?”
“She’s just asking about Dad and Dean and what things are like at home. Do I tell her the truth?”
“Yes,” Sam told him, without missing a beat. “Answer anything they ask you.”
“But what if they incriminate Dad because of something I said? He’ll go to jail.”
“Son,” Bobby reassured his youngest nephew. “If Dean really is a Little, and your sorry excuse of a father really has been abusing him - which probably includes forcing him to hide his Little side - then jail is the least he deserves.”
“But he’s not a Little… is he?”
Sam took a deep breath.
“I don’t know, Adam… I don’t know.”