#making messes

The hurt in Y/N’s eyes was too much for Dean, and it turned out to be one mess he couldn’t stop himself from making. The moment the bridesmaid parted from Rob, Dean pulled the other man back and slugged him across the jaw before tackling him to the ground.

“Dean!” Sam saw the initial punch as it was happening, but wasn’t close enough to stop it. He fought through the crowd of people to get to his brother’s side, anxious to stop the fight before it developed any further.

Rob launched a strike at Dean to return the attack, splitting Dean’s lip. Sam wasn’t quick enough to stop his brother from fighting back, and before many people caught on to what was happening, an all-out brawl was taking place.

“You son of a bitch!” Dean yelled when Sam was finally able to pull him away from Rob.

Rob growled and tried to break free from the men holding him back. “What’s your problem?”

Stacy stood between the men, looking positively green. She had no idea how the fight had started, all she knew was that her brother and her fiancé were bloody by each other’s hands.

“Does this really seem like a good time for the two of you to duke it out?” she yelled. “Dean, go with your brother and get that lip looked at, would you?”

A waitress brought out a wet rag to help Dean mop up and stop the blood flowing from his lip. He didn’t even bother saying anything else, just left with Sam.

 The decision to not drink much that night was fortunate; you were sober by the time you reached the hospital. There was no denying the place was your sanctuary, and between Rob and Dean, you certainly needed a distraction.

You had changed into your scrubs and let the doctor on duty know you were around to relieve him for some much-needed sleep for the next several hours. When your mobile rang, you frowned at the unfamiliar Lawrence number before answering it. By the time you were off the call, you were certain you had lost your mind.

John wasn’t sure what had started the fight or who it had been with, all he knew was that Dean was still mostly intoxicated and more than likely needed stitches to his lip. Not wanting to let on to anything that had happened, you told John to send him over to the hospital, you would let the front desk know to page you when Dean checked in.

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to see him right now?” Louise asked when you took a moment between patients to call and update her on everything that had happened.

You shook your head as though she could see you. “No, but he needs help, Lou. What was I supposed to do, tell his father to send him somewhere else?”

Louise sighed. “Maybe you should tell him not to marry Stacy. Isn’t that what you want, Y/N?”

“What I want,” you told her confidently, “is for my life to go back the way it was before I met Dean and ran into Rob again.”

“Fair enough,” Louise snorted. “Get back to your patients. Good luck.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

You disconnected that call and went back to the nurse’s station to take a look at the charts awaiting your review.

 “I was hoping it would be you,” Dean admitted when she came into the exam room, rolling a tray of instruments he was oddly not so worried about her using on him.

Y/N nodded. “Your dad called me ahead of time. Said he didn’t know what happened, only that you probably needed stitches.”

Her gloved hands gently but purposefully inspected his lip before she confirmed that he would need stitches. The shot to numb his lip was anything but pleasant; while Y/N gave it time to work, she went through a quick assessment, making sure he had no other injuries that needed attention.

“Maybe a little bit of a broken heart,” Dean muttered.

Y/N’s eyes quickly shot to Sam’s; the tall man gave her a kind smile. “I take it you know about all of this?”

From the corner of his eye, Dean saw Sam nod. “My brother and I are pretty close.”

“Great,” Y/N sighed. “Wanna tell me what happened? Too much celebrating tonight?”

Dean shook his head while she prepared to start the stitches. “I couldn’t take the idea of someone hurting you, I guess.”

She lowered her hands momentarily. “Rob? You and Rob got in a fight?”

“We did,” Dean confirmed. “I’ll admit, I started it. He’s a piece of shit, Y/N. Why are you holding on to him?”

As she started her work, Y/N shook her head. “I’m not anymore, I can promise you that. Which means, once the family history is completed, I’ll be out of your way completely. If I get the job in Atlanta, then that’ll be just that much distance between me, and you and your wife.”

There was silence after that, until the three stitches were complete. Y/N worked quickly and smoothly. He felt a little tug here and there, but no sort of discomfort he couldn’t handle. After she put a bandage over the stitches, she assured both Dean and Sam that a nurse would come in with aftercare instructions, and he could come back in a week or so for her to check the lip and remove the stitches.

“Or you can go to your regular doctor.” Snapping her gloves into the trash bin before washing her hands, she leaned on the counter. “I’m sorry that it landed you in this position, but thank you, Dean, for sticking up for me.”

With a quick kiss to his cheek and a little wave in Sam’s direction, Y/N took his chart and scooted out of the exam room.

 After five hours, the doctor you had relieved came back on duty. You finished up with the patients you were taking care of, then packed up and headed for the parking garage. As your car came into view, your shoulders slumped and your groaned in frustration.

“What are you doing here, Rob?” you said, wondering if maybe it was better to just call security, rather than confront him.

“I wanna explain,” he replied. You could tell by how much he was still slurring that he wasn’t going to be a threat. “That girl came onto me.”

“And that somehow makes it okay to stick your tongue down his throat? Forget it. I was an idiot to believe that you had changed. Get out of my way, I’m going home.”

But Rob stood fast in front of your driver’s side door. You let out an angry breath, tossed your things onto the backseat and pointed away from your car, demanding once again that he move out of the way.

“Not until you hear me out.”

“There’s nothing to hear out!” you shouted. “You cheated on me once before, and maybe I could have handled things better. But again? After I’ve done what I can to make this work. No, that’s all on you. Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”

He started yelling then, about how you still threw your job at KU Med in his face, how you boasted about the job opportunity in Atlanta, how he would never measure up to you.

“You pushed me to this once before and now I’ve been pushed to it again!”

You were not going to take the blame again. You’d made excuses for Rob before, but it stopped now. Without thinking twice, and with a little bit of reach, you decked Rob across his already bruised and bloodied face.

Rob groaned and grabbed for his bloody nose, moving out of your way. You glared at him as you got in your car, and drove away.

 Dean’s lip was swollen and throbbing the next day, despite the ice he had been carefully applying at various time intervals. His head was pounding both from the fight and from being hungover. He wasn’t getting any sort of comfort from Stacy pacing back and forth over his living room floor, lecturing him about ruining the party the night before by picking the fight with her brother.

“What the hell made you go after him, Dean? Rob has never been anything but nice to you. I mean … What the fuck?” Stacy demanded.

Dean shook his head. “Stace, I hate to be the one to tell you, but your brother’s a dick. He was making out with one of your bridesmaids while Y/N was in the bathroom.”

Stacy looked at him. Her angry countenance faded away, and in its place was one of bewilderment. She sank down to the recliner, trying to process this new piece of information.

“So, she saw it, I get why that would make her leave,” Stacy said in a measured tone. “What I don’t understand, Dean, is why that would provoke you to start a fight with Rob? How is it that seeing him kissing another girl made you so angry, you would defend Y/N by attacking Rob?”

Dean rubbed his forehead, trying to find a way to explain to Stacy what had happened. It was the perfect time to tell her the truth; to let her down and let her move on with her life. But, every time he thought about doing that, he was caught between doing the right thing and pushing his feelings for Y/N away, and telling Stacy the truth.

“I was drunk, Stacy,” he finally sighed. “I mean – what else do you want me to say?”

Stacy opened her mouth to say something else, then shook her head as though she couldn’t even believe what had crossed her mind. “I feel like there’s something I’m missing. You’re on edge almost all the time, you were supposed to lighten your class load this semester so we could concentrate on the wedding, but the time you normally spent on higher level classes is taken up by the genealogy project you took on. Now this fight with Rob – help me to understand.”

In that moment, Dean understood that he had not in fact hid his struggle as well as he thought he had. While he fought feelings for another woman, Stacy had watched him drift further and further away.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, going over to pull her from the chair. He sat down where she had been, then lowered her gently to his lap. “Stacy, I’m so sorry. Listen, I wish – there’s nothing that I can say to fix what’s gone on the last few months. All I can tell you is that whatever it is that’s been going on with me, I think it’s over now.” He reached up and wiped away the few tears that had fallen down Stacy’s cheeks. “I do love you, and I’ll fix this. I’ll spend the rest of my life fixing this. Okay?”

Stacy nodded, trying not to cry harder. Dean leaned back in the chair, taking Stacy with him, and apologizing over and over while she worked to compose herself.

“You promise this weird time is over?” Stacy finally said, getting up from his lap.

Dean nodded. “I promise. It’s over. I’ll talk to Rob when he’s ready, I’ll apologize. I’ll talk to your parents if I have to.”

“It’s all right,” Stacy assured with a small chuckle. “When I talked to Mom this morning, Dad was in the background yelling that you shouldn’t worry about it because Rob more than likely deserved a good ass-kicking.”

Dean chuckled too, mentally agreeing that Rob had deserved the ass-kicking, and that, while Dean didn’t plan on delivering it, another one could have been waiting for the man in the future.