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Sam Winchester had never thought he’d end up as a hospital lawyer, but not only was the work fulfilling, it also gave him more time to spend with his wife.
One afternoon, Jess stormed into his office and slumped into a chair, sighing dramatically.
“Honey?”
She looked up.
“Fergus Crowley is going to drive me insane, and all you’ll have to remember me by will be several torn nurse’s uniforms and the soundtrack of Flashdance”.
“That sounds a little overdramatic. How did the surgery go?”
“The patient made it, and the worst part is that I am kind of annoyed by it”.
“You don’t mean that”.
Her eyes softened.
“Of course not. Robert Singer is a very sweet man, and I am glad he survived the aneurism; his wife Jody was so happy when I told her the operation was a success. I’m just fed up with the world’s most arrogant neurosurgeon being proven right again and again. What he needs is someone to teach him humility.”
“I can’t see that happening sometime soon” he conceded.
On the one hand, Fergus Crowley, MD, was a lawyer’s dream come true. He documented each case thoroughly, and he was such an excellent surgeon that no one had as of yet found any reason to sue the hospital due to his involvement.
On the other hand, he was insufferably full of himself, arrogant, impolite and bluntly honest.
Suffice to say, his bedside manner was not exactly the best.
He insisted on working with jess on a regular basis, considering her the best nurse the hospital had to offer, but even that did little to endear him to the couple.
Sam was sure he and Jess had complained more about Crowley than any of the other doctors combined.
Moreover, he didn’t think that would change anytime soon.
And then the annual Christmas party arrived.
Their joined forces had finally convinced Dean that the homework of his pupils could stay uncorrected for one more day and accompany them after years of him insisting that “a lowly teacher” had no right to hang out with surgeons and “hot-shot nurses and lawyers”.
A little bit of Fergus Crowley’s self-esteem would do him good, Sam reflected as the three took a taxi to the hospital, just like the neurosurgeon would have done well to take a lesson from Dean’s abasement.
But neither he nor Jess were in any way prepared for what was about to happen.
“Oh dear” Jess sighed. They were chatting with a few colleagues (Dean was low-key flirting with Bela Talbot, who was obviously having fun flirting back) and the door had just opened to reveal another bout of people.
“What is it?” Dean asked immediately.
“Crowley decided to grace us with his present this year”.
Bela’s face fell.
“Did I tell you he grunted at me “the details of your incompetence don’t interest me” when I asked his advice about a patient earlier this week?”
“Sounds like a real sweet guy. Sam and Jess keep complaining about him, too.”
“Just stay out of his way, I don’t think he’d be any nicer to hot teachers than dying patients” Bela advised him.
Crowley, of course, made a beeline directly for Jess and Sam.
They plastered fake smiles on their faces and hoped for the best.
And then...
After he’d greeted them and told them “Happy Holidays” in a voice that suggested he’d much rather watch anyone celebrating burning in his own pudding, Dean stepped forward. Sam decided to let him introduce himself –
Only to watch the neurosurgeon transform into a shy, blabbering, incoherent mess when Dean gave him a brilliant smile.
“Hey, Dean Winchester. You’re Doctor Crowley, right?”
“I – ahm – Crowley. Yes. That’s me”.
Dean grinned.
“So I heard. Neurosurgeon, right?”
Sam actually stood there with his mouth wide open until Jess and Bela simultaneously elbowed him.
Dean, meanwhile, was using the same techniques he’d just employed with Bela.
Of course. Shy guys in suits. And he had green eyes, too. Right now, Crowley couldn’t have been more Dean’s type if he’d tried, and he looked utterly incapable of doing that.
Bela had dived behind one of the many Christmas trees in the hall to hide her giggles, and Jess was biting her lip to keep herself from laughing out loud.
“Dear God” she whispered, “I’m so glad we finally managed to make Dean come here”.
Sam was too.
That, however, was going to change.
“Man” Dean slurred slightly in their taxi home, “After years of hearing about the guy, have to say I expected something a little different”.
“He’s usually not like this” Sam assured him.
He had little idea of what was to come.
But about two weeks into the new years, Becky arrived at his office.
“Sam, did you know your brother is having coffee with Crowley in the cafeteria?”
He almost spat his own coffee.
“What?”
She nodded.
He was normally not one to care much for his brother’s love life (aside from wishing occasionally he could find someone to make him as happy as he was with Jess) but he still made his way there as quickly as he could.
He found his brother soon enough, indeed having coffee with Crowley.
“Sam!” Jess quietly called him over to a table where several of their colleagues were eating – or rather, watching Dean and Crowley.
“He just blushed” Bela whispered, “is that even the same guy?”
“Maybe he got replaced” Ash, their IT expert, was quick to suggest. “These body snatchers, they come and they...”
“Shhh” Becky whispered. “Aw, he just made Dean smile.”
Sam shot Jess a helpless glance. She shrugged.
“I hate to say this, but it’s Dean. Even if something happens, it won’t last long”.
At least that was what they believed.
Dean didn’t come by the hospital again unless it was to see him and Jess, and he never mentioned Crowley.
All danger had passed, they were certain.
And then the neurosurgeon began to change in front of their eyes.
It was Bela who first noticed.
One day, she burst into his office – Jess had just joined him for a cup of coffee – and proclaimed “This is it. Ash is right. The body snatchers are among us, the Apocalypse is about to begin, everyone get in the bunker right now”.
“What happened?”
“Crowley complimented me on my handling of my newest case. Without prompting, I might add”.
“He did what?”
“You can ask Becky. She was there”.
“Wait, he didn’t just compliment you, he did it in front of witnesses?”
“I know. Like I said, Ash was right”.
They thought it was a fluke, just Crowley forgetting himself for a moment, but the changes continued.
Not only did he call Jess his “favourite” nurse, he also bought her a snack after a particular gruelling case.
He also suddenly began dropping by Sam’s office for a friendly chat now and then, as many other employees were wont to do.
Jess reported also that he was treating patients differently than before, so much so that Robert Singer came away from a check-up visit baffled and confused, asking her if his “aneurism had made Dr. Crowley look like a bastard before”.
“I have no idea what is happening” she said one evening as they were watching TV.
Sam looked at her.
“At least he’s being nice. It’s a good change”.
“Yes, if I only knew why though”.
They learned why soon enough.
One night, after a long operation, Jess was simply too tired to drive home; even Crowley looked exhausted. She didn’t want to bother her husband, so she was contemplating calling an Uber when Dean rang her.
“Hey, you want me to come pick you up?”
Only after she’d gratefully accepted did she wonder how he had known she was still in the hospital in the first place.
The answer was one she would never have expected.
She and Crowley waited for the rides together.
She didn’t imagine they were one and the same, but Dean, looking a bit tired but alert, soon showed up, smiling brightly.
“Am I the best boyfriend and brother-in-law ever or what?”
“Yeah, yeah, Squirrel” Crowley mumbled, “You are. Just get us home, will you? Jess looks ready to drop”.
She was, so much so that even with the information she had to pass on, she couldn’t tell Sam better than through a confused mumbled before collapsing into bed.
“You didn’t have to do that” she said the next morning, finding her husband in the kitchen making breakfast.
“Of course I had. You were absolutely exhausted. You tried to convince me Dean and Crowley are dating before you passed out”.
“Sam” she said slowly, “They are”.
“What are you – “
“Dean took both of us home last night. I’m pretty sure he kissed Crowley hello, but I can’t be certain, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open”.
Sam let his spoon drop.
“But that – then – Dean – “
She nodded.
“And you think it’s serious?”
“I think you don’t just randomly pick up your fuckbuddy at their job in the middle of the night”.
After a pause, Sam asked, “Now what?”
The answer to that question turned out to be rather simple, since Dean continued to be silent on the subject for another few weeks.
Then he came to see Sam in his office.
“Hey, Sam. Crowley forgot his keys at my place, but he’s in surgery now – can you give them to him?”
“Sure” he replied carefully.
After Dean had given him the keys, he said, “Dean, I...”
He waved a hand in the air.
“Oh, I know. You all think he’s a pretty big bastard”.
“Exactly. I’m not telling you who to date, but based on our experiences...”
“I know how cliché it sounds, but he’s really not like you think he is. He can be pretty sweet, as a matter of fact”.
“Dean” he pleaded, “I want to believe you, but I’ve known him for ten years, and – “
“I know” his brother interrupted him, “and I also know that he’s been a pretty big dick to... more or less everyone, but the guy hasn’t had it easy. His mother is a real piece of work, shows up regularly just to dress him down. You wouldn’t believe the insecurities he hides under all that arrogance. On our first date, he accidentally spilled red wine on my pants and freaked, thinking it was a deal breaker. Turns out the guy has never been in a serious relationship ever”.
“Dean” Sam said carefully. “That sounds like he’s more of a project for you than anything else”.
“Oh, trust me, he’s much more”. Dean smirked. “Much more”.
“Ew, I didn’t need to know that”.
“Well, can’t blame a guy for bragging about what he has, Sammy”.
“Jess” he told his wife that night, “I think they might actually be in for the long haul”.
She didn’t even bat an eye.
“He better bring Crowley to our Sunday lunch, then”.
He did, and at first it was rather awkward. What were they even supposed to talk about?
Then, Dean said, “By the way, Crowley’s all over Robert Frost too”.
“He was one of the greatest poets of the English language – “
“Please, what’s wrong with Longfellow?”
Jess chimed in, and Sam watched his wife, brother and his brother’s boyfriend discuss poetry.
To say he was taken aback would have put it mildly.
“Sam” Jess told him after lunch, “You said they might be in for the long haul. I am starting to think Crowley might actually be the one”.
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“When have you ever heard Dean discuss books he likes? Despite him teaching history”.
He had to concede she had a point.
“He seems happy though” she said, “I actually think they both are”.
Contemplating Crowley being happy was almost disconcerting.
But, two years later, as he watched him put a ring on the finger of his beaming brother, he decided that having him as a brother-in-law wasn’t so bad after all.