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You could feel the scream leave you as the kitsune slashed your left forearm with its claws. Your silver knife flies from your hand, out of reach. As you fall backwards towards the ground, you can see dust and splinters fill the air as the door blasts open. The Winchesters fill the door frame and the kitsune spins toward the boys.
Your arm is gushing blood and it’s honestly very concerning. You tried to put pressure on it through the pain and glanced up to see Dean plunge a silver knife into its heart. Sam rushes over, panic in his face.
You can tell he’s nervous about how much blood there is. He turned his head and yelled something to Dean, to which Dean took a quick glance at you and then ran out of the room. Sam took over putting pressure on your arm with his massive hand so you could use your right hand to communicate. He elevated your arm in an attempt to help slow the bleeding.
Sam made eye contact and said, “Why didn’t you wait?”
“I thought I could handle it.” you said, using PSE for Sam’s sake.
A moment passed before Dean burst back into the room with a first aid kit. Sam released your arm and ripped off the portion of sleeve below the elbow. Dean poured a bottle of water over your arm to clean the wound. He sprayed it with an aerosol antibiotic that stung like a bitch and then he started dressing the wound temporarily. It was definitely going to need stitches if we couldn’t get a hold of Castiel.
“You okay?” Dean clumsily signed when he was done. You nod, trying to play down the pain. It was extremely painful and you were honestly scared to try and move your left hand and fingers.
You draw your arm back to yourself and look towards Sam and fingerspelled, “meds?” because you didn't want to put any pressure on your left hand and you’re not exactly sure how much the sign would make sense to Sam while using only one hand to sign.
“Oh, yeah.” he said as he pulled the first aid bag towards him and pulled out a bottle of painkillers and passed a few into your hand. You took them and prayed they would kick in fast.
“Where is Cas?” you signed, hoping Cas could heal you as opposed to getting surgery from the Winchesters.
“He’s back at the Bunker. I’ll text him and let him know we’re coming back. Dean will clean up here.” Sam said, doing his best to sign. He looked over to Dean, to which Dean nodded in approval.
Sam rushed you back to the Bunker in your own car, which took a little less than an hour even though you’re pretty sure it had taken at least an hour and a half to get to there. You had bled through the bandages, but it wasn’t too bad, and the painkillers had kicked in so it didn’t hurt nearly as much. Your left hand felt a little numb and you were glad Cas would be able to heal it once you got back to the Bunker. The exhaustion crept up on you as Sam drove and you struggled to keep your eyes open as the nighttime scenery zoomed past. When you pulled into the garage, Cas was waiting to greet you.
“What happened?” Cas asked Sam over the car as he walked over to the passenger side where you were attempting to unbuckle and climb out of the car while causing yourself as little discomfort as humanly possible. People talking over you, what's new?
Sam looked a little upset as he told him that you had gone in without them and the kitsune got you just before they showed up.
Cas laid his hands on you and instantly you felt a rush, like pure light coursing through your veins, and then relief flooded you as the pain ceased and the wound sealed up. You looked down at your arm and flexed your hand and fingers. “Thank you,” you signed to Castiel and he gave you a little nod. He had this look on his face that had a hint of disappointment or maybe concern? Either way, it felt condescending.
The exhaustion that had caught up with you in the car had all but left you when you saw Castiel. The look on his face hit a nerve. After Sam had asked about why you went in alone, the look on Castiel’s face was the last straw. “Okay. Seriously? You guys get hurt on hunts all the time! I get hurt on one hunt and all of a sudden, you’re all treating me like I’m incapable of doing my job. I-”
“Woah! Slow down.” Sam said and signed, having tried to translate out loud for Cas.
You took a deep breath and continued, “I have been hunting for years on my own. That’s what I’m used to. So, when you guys look at me like that or question my abilities as a hunter, I can only assume it’s because you don’t think I’m able.”
“It’s not that, Y/N. Really. We just care about you and as far as hunting goes, to us, it just doesn’t make sense to go alone when we are right here. We are here for you and we feel bad that you got hurt because you felt you had to do this all by yourself.” Sam said, signing the words he knew as he spoke.
Cas waved and made eye contact before saying, “You’re a great hunter, Y/N. We just don’t want to lose you.”
“I’m tired,” you signed, giving the half-truth, “I’m gonna go to my room.” You pulled all your gear out of the car, and with your arms full, the conversation was over. You headed to your room to beat yourself up about what you could’ve done better. You unloaded your gear and sat on your bed, all the while replaying the kitsune fight in your head.
With your eyes closed and your head in your hands, you noticed the lights flickering. You open your eyes and turn towards the door to see Dean.
“Hey Champ,” Dean signed. He walked over and pulled up a chair so he could sit directly in front of you, near the bedside lamp. He pulled up his caption app on his phone, the one you typically used for group conversations. He clearly wanted you to be able to understand something a bit more long winded. “I know you wanted to do this hunt alone. It feels good to have a hunt to yourself every once in a while, especially when you want to protect the ones around you. I can tell you there have definitely been hunts where I wish Sammy would have stayed home so I didn’t worry about him.” He pointed towards the door with an exasperated look in his eyes. “I can’t imagine what it’s like for you. If we get hurt, we can’t exactly call out to you and you can’t exactly tell if you're going to run into us or the monster when we split up. It also doesn’t help that, as you can tell, we are a little protective of you. We really don’t mean it as an insult at all. We really just want you to be safe because we care about you. We’ve lost enough friends. We aren’t ready to lose you any time soon.”
You felt like you got most of what he said, but read through the app just to make sure you got it all. It made sense. Didn’t make you feel any better, but it made sense.
You took a deep breath before typing him a response so he could best understand. “I appreciate you coming and saving my ass from the kitsune. I just don’t want you guys to think I need to be bubble wrapped before a hunt. I haven’t taken the driver’s seat my whole life, just to stop now with you guys. I care about you guys too and it can be hard to communicate in the middle of a hunt, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hunt together or that I need to give up solo hunts. I guess I shouldn’t have gone AWOL on this case, but I do need you boys to understand that I need you to let me fight my own battles. I’ll be safer next time. I promise.”
"Come join us for some food and then we'll let you sleep til the cows come home… or until we need your help on another hunt." He smirked, stood up, replaced the chair, and led the way to the kitchen.
Sam and Cas were sitting at the table. They both looked up when you and Dean entered the room. Sam stood and immediately started signing that he was sorry. Even Cas signed that he was sorry.
It felt like it was best to just accept the apologies and move on. You made your point and it wasn't like you were going to change much moving forward. It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things as the brothers started bantering and Cas made statements that were obviously incorrect because even the boys gave him funny looks.
Life has shown that there's always growing pains when it comes to working with new people. The Winchesters are no different, but it's nice to know they have your back.