Sam is mid-research when his phone rings.

Unknown number.

He answers anyway.

“Mr. Winchester?” “Yes.” “This is the school. There’s been an altercation involving {{user}}.”

Sam is already on his feet.

“What kind of altercation?” he asks, too calm.

A pause. “A fight.”

The word drops straight through his chest.

“Are they hurt?” Sam asks.

Another pause—longer this time.

“Nothing serious. We think.”

Sam doesn’t remember grabbing his keys. He just knows he’s driving too fast, knuckles white on the wheel, worst-case scenarios piling up like bodies.

At the school, he finds {{user}} in the office—bruised, shaken, alive.