IT'S NOT THE FALL BUT THE LANDING
by Riama
*
*
*
A/N: I wrote this in August and posted it at LJ but completely forgot to put it here. Tell me what you think, ok?
Peace!
*
*
*
It wasn't the fall itself but the landing. He had come to that conclusion after spending too much free time alone with his thoughts, with nothing better to do except replaying in slow motion what had happened.
The fall itself wasn't such a big deal. He had to jump over a metal fence. A simply 7 feet leap. Piece of cake. Nothing he hadn't done before.
Except that, as I've mentioned, everything had gone well until he landed.
Badly.
Something had gone wrong between the time he grabbed the top of the fence for impulse to the moment his feet finally touched the ground.
The first clue was the sickening crunch of bone and the feeling of his leg giving out under his weight. He sat there, on the gravel, dumfounded for a millisecond before pain made its stellar appearance.
Suddenly he was blind and deaf, and he couldn't breathe, and had to bit his bottom lip to stop the scream escalating from his insides.
He flailed his arms desperately, reaching around for something to break or to grab to make the pain a little better. But there was nothing around. Just his luck.
He was clenching his eyes shut so hard it hurt, but it didn't dull the sharp pain coming from his leg. The pain was expanding at an alarming rate. At first, and just for a few seconds, it centered around his right knee. Now it came up to his head, and he'd swear even his hair hurt.
He was breathing hard, almost hyperventilating. He had to force himself to take deep slow breaths as his dad had taught them. Panicking was never good.
He could feel sweat dripping from his forehead into his eyes, accumulating on the nape of his neck, making its way down his back.
Letting out a shaky breath, he opened his eyes slowly and dared to look down at the injured limb.
The image of white bone sticking out through his bloody jeans shocked Dean. But not as much as the weird angle his leg had adopted after its encounter with the ground. Dean felt color draining from his face. Really, he could literally feel it. It felt like his face had gone suddenly numb and cold from shock. He looked away in a knee-jerk reaction to the gory sight.
"Oh shit!"
Keeping his eyes away from his leg and gritting his teeth, he felt around for his cell. He found it in one his leather jacket's pockets. He speed-dialed Sam's number and waited, trying to calm himself down to sound as normal as possible.
"Yeah?" was Sam's greeting thirty seconds later.
"Hey!" He replied a little too cheerfully.
"Hey yourself…"
"Where are you?" Dean cursed under his breath for the stupid question. Of course he knew were Sam was.
"In the same spot you left me 5 minutes ago? On my bed… watching tv. Where are you??"
Dean could hear Sam frowning on the other end of the line. He laughed at the thought, letting out a pained grunt when the small vibrations made his injury hurt.
"Are you okay Dean? Where are you??"
Dean closed his eyes and sighed. How could he say this without making a big deal of it?
"Alley behind the motel. I fell."
He heard noises coming from the phone. Sam was now on his feet, moving around the room.
"You what??"
"Was on my way to the 7/11 to get some M&Ms. Because, you know, somebody ate all of my stash…Then I saw something weird. Jumped over a fence. Fell and couldn't get up."
He smiled, as if it could comfort Sam through the phone. He didn't mention that the something weird was a dirty mutt that was nowhere in sight now.
"Shit! Be right there."
Dean heard a click and glanced at his phone, clearly offended. He hung up on me??
Putting his cell back in his pocket he noted his hands were shaking. Not only his hands, his whole body was shaking. That wasn't good… He clenched his fists trying to stop the tremble.
"Dean!"
He looked up at the sound of his name to see Sam approaching.
Sam was clearly smarter. Instead of following his steps he appeared on the other side of the alley. The one without a fence. Yep, really smart.
"Marco!" He called out, trying to get Sam's attention.
"Po…"
Sam's eyes opened like saucers at the sight of his older brother, sprawled on the ground, his right leg awkwardly bended to one side just below the knee. He could barely keep himself in a sitting position judging by the way his arms were shaking. Dean was white as chalk and clearly in pain, even though he was trying hard to hide it.
Dean smiled up at him and waved.
Shocked by the sight of Dean's leg, Sam felt bile rising in his throat.
"Oh shit!"
"Yep, I said the same thing."
"Okay. I better call an ambulance"
So, two days later he was lying on a hospital bed, recuperating after surgery. His leg was resting on three pillows, an external fixator keeping the bone in place. And he was bored. And angry. Angry with himself for ending up in such situation. It wasn't the fall itself but the landing. And that was all his fault. He should've been more careful. If his dad were here…
Just then Sam walked through the door.
"Hey", his brother greeted before throwing something at him.
Dean caught it mid-air and frowned at the yellow package in his hands.
"M&M's?"
Sam smiled.
"So you don't have to jump any more fences for it."
*
*
*