Coming to you on September 29
Written by @golby-moon with art by @valdelion & @onowey
Characters: Cas, Dean, Sam, Eileen, Bobby, Jimmy, Amelia, Claire, Charlie
Ships: Castiel/Dean, Sam/Eileen, Jimmy/Amelia
Tags: No archive warnings apply, hurt dean, hurt cas, slice of life, getting older, permanent injury/condition, medical issues, cas works at the gas n sip, mechanic dean, healing together :0, they're both 50ish, cas has aphasia and partial paralysis, dean has early-onset dementia (no magical cures here)
Summary:
After Dean is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, it feels like his whole world is taken out from under him as he struggles to accept the idea that his own brain is slowly turning against him. Determined to maintain as much function as he can for as long as possible, he takes up the doctor's advice and attends cognitive stimulation therapy. There, he reunites with his childhood best friend, Cas, who had a stroke and suffers from speech and movement difficulties. Life has dealt out some pretty crappy hands to both of them, but having some company through all of the ups and downs certainly does make things easier.
Excerpt:
The provided lunch is as bad as ever, making Dean long for a burger like never before, but he doesn't say anything about it, instead watching Cas eat and rambling on about the latest episode of Doctor Sexy, M.D. that just came out.
It's then that he discovers Cas goes to these sessions twice a week instead of just once, so Dean signs up for a second session immediately, even if his condition isn't bad enough to warrant that yet.
So now he goes to the retirement home on Mondays and Saturdays, something his coworkers had raised some eyebrows over when he told them that he wouldn't be in on Mondays for the foreseeable future. Dean has a tendency to work overtime late into the evenings anyway when he has a project he likes, so it's not like he's not working forty hours a week.
One thing he's noticed lately is that he's starting getting a little jealous of or bitter towards some of the old people in his life, like Bobby or his neighbor Mrs. Butters. They're both way older than Dean, but they don't have dementia or anything and still live normal lives. It just doesn't seem fair.
Not that he's saying he wants them to have some condition like that, he just… It'd just be nice not to feel so alone, that's all.
That must be how Cas feels, he realizes during the next cognitive stimulation therapy session, watching his friend limp towards the selection of board games after Dean told him to choose this week. Cas comes back with chess and a sheepish smile, and Dean can't help but smile back fondly.
"You really wanna kick my ass that badly, huh?"
"Yes," Cas replies simply, tilting his head a bit as if to challenge him. "You, um… Um, will l-lose."
Dean does, in fact, lose. Repeatedly, actually, but he couldn't care less, not when Cas keeps making this cute squinty face every time it's his turn and methodically moving each piece around the board. A few times, Cas even uses his bad arm to move a piece, either too concentrated on the game to notice or just finally getting comfortable enough with Dean being there to show some weakness.
It gives Dean an idea: if Dean picks an activity that he's terrible at and fails miserably, Cas might be more willing to give it a shot too, which will help them both out in the long run.
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