The Impala pulled up in front of the Roadhouse for the first time in months, the first time since the brothers had learned that Jo's father's death was their fathers fault. Sam jumped out of the driver's seat and ran in with out even closing the door. Jo and Ellen stared at him coldly and shocked from behind the bar. It was around 2:30 in the morning and there were few poeple still at the Roadhouse.
"I know we're probably the last people you wanna see right now," Sam said, "but my brother needs help and I don't know where else to go." There were almost tears in Sam's eyes as he said the last part.
The silence seemed like it lasted a lifetime before both the girls started for the door, Sam leading the way explaining what was wrong.
"He's been sick for a while; he took all the antibiotics we had. I thought he was getting better." Sam rattled off the story as fast as he could, opening the door to the backseat where his brother lay unconscious. He heard Jo gasp behind him at the sight of Dean drenched in sweat and as pale as the moon that shone above them. Ellen told him to get Dean inside as fast as he could while she ran ahead to get a room in the back ready. Sam gathered Dean in his arms and brought him in, with Jo walking with him and holding the door open. He laid Dean on the bed Ellen had made up for him.
"What did you say his latest temperature was?" She asked.
"Um, 102.6, right before we left the motel about an hour and a half ago." Sam responded, not looking away from his brother. When Dean moaned and his head lolled to one side Sam sped to his side, sitting on the bed, holding his hand and telling him that he was ok, that everything would be ok.
"Jo, go get some ice, we need to bring his temperature down." Ellen said, grabbing the thermometer she had and sticking it in Dean's mouth. After a few minutes she took it out and read it. She cursed under her breath.
"What? What is it?" Sam asked, panicked.
"It's 103.1, it's going up. If we don't get his temp down…" She didn't need to finish the sentence, Sam knew what would happen.
"He'll die."
"No!" Both of them spun around to look at the door, where Jo stood with 2 buckets of ice. "No, he won't die, we can't let him die." She said, her eyes pleading with them.
"We'll do what we can, honey." Ellen said, "Go dump those in the bathtub and fill it with cold water, we'll bring him in."
Ellen helped Sam get Deans sweat drenched t-shirt off and his boots, socks and jeans, leaving him in only his boxers. Sam lifted Dean into his arms again and followed Ellen to the bathroom. As he placed Dean in the tub, Dean moaned in protest. His hands reached out for the sides of the tub to pull himself out, but Sam just placed a hand on his chest and gently pushed him back into the water.
"Its ok, Dean. This is gonna help, I promise." Sam said soothingly to Dean. Although he still didn't open his eyes or show any sign that he was waking up, he at least acknowledged Sam's words and calmed down.
Sam cupped his hand into he water and poured it over his brother's face and hair. After even a few minutes in the tub, Dean's temperature had gone down. When his temperature was down to about 100, they got him out of the tub and dried him off. Sam went and got new clothes from his duffel bag in the trunk and they laid him back in bed. Dean was semi coherent by that point, awake enough to drink some water at least.
"Sam" Dean's hoarse voice said "Where are we?"
"We're at the Roadhouse don't worry." Sam said, lifting the glass of water to Dean's lips and lifting his head enough so he could drink with out choking. He took a few sips before he started coughing.
"We can't be here." Dean said, feebly trying to sit up and get out of bed.
Sam put his hands on Dean's shoulders and Dean gave up his fight to get up and fell back on the bed.
"It's ok. They said we can stay as long as we need to for you to get better. So just rest, I'm right here." Sam said calmly, wiping a damp, cool cloth across his brother's forehead. Dean closed his eyes and was asleep again.
"How is he?" Sam heard a voice ask from the door. He turned to see Jo standing against the doorframe, and he could swear that he saw tears in her eyes.
"He was awake a minute ago, had a few sips of water." Sam answered, watching as Jo walked over to the bed and sat on the opposite side as Sam. She reached a hand out to stroke Dean's forehead. She smiled when he sighed and turned his head towards her touch.
"He'll be fine, Jo, he's Dean." Sam said softly.
"I know." She whispered, still gently stroking his face. Sam handed her the cloth and said he needed to get some air. It took all night, one more ice water baths and several trash bags filled with ice packed around Dean's body in bed to keep his temperature under control. He had halfway woken up a few times and was given a few sips of cool water before he fell back asleep. Every time he awoke, he didn't remember where he was and tried to get out of bed to leave. By 6 am they had all fallen asleep, Sam in a chair by his brother's side, Jo in a chair at the other side of the room and Ellen sitting on the floor next to Jo.
Hope you enjoyed it, Please r&r, thanks. Next chapter probly up tommorrow. Hooray for weekends off for a change.
