SCREW OUR LIVES, LET'S GET SOME IHOP
Part 1.
Sam is the first to wake up. His head is throbbing, his body aching in rhythm with his heartbeat. He groans pressing his palms into the dirt and pushing himself up, he closes his eyes as the world spins and his side and chest set aflame with pain. A few labored breaths and he's slowly calming himself, telling himself he's lived through this before and fighting the shock off.
Dean is lying at his feet, still out cold and Sam shudders remembering the way his older brother had been holding his arm...it'd been broken no mistaking that. He'd seen the lines of agony in Dean's face and the dullness of his eyes. Sam sighs in relief knowing he is healed. He crawls over to his brother on his hands and knees and pulls Dean's head to rest on his thigh instead of the dirt.
God, he's tired...they'd been so close, they had almost done something right...that just wasn't good enough. And now they had lost Cas too. Not that it was too much of a shocker. Sam had sensed something off with Cas as much as Dean had, and they had both been arming themselves for something big.
Was Dean prepared for this though? Sam's insides ache along with his body at the thought of what internal agonies Dean would endure with this betrayal. Sam doesn't doubt that they can survive and grow through this, after all it had been years now and every turn for the worse had only welded the brother's closer and closer...
...but that didn't mean Sam was willing for his brother to be hurt...if it meant Dean didn't have to hurt he would have been a stranger to his sibling.
Dean smacks his lips and turns his head towards Sam, his eyes open slowly, with quick flutters of his lashes. Sam sees the exact moment reality hits him again. His eyes go sharp, the lines and wrinkles back to his face. He grunts turning and pushing himself up, glancing to the lightening sky...morning was coming.
He allows himself to slump a little across from Sam, their knees nearly touching.
"You okay?" He asks, voice deep and rough with disuse.
Sam nods, though he knows Dean catches his wince. "You?"
"I'm good," Dean says simply, his eyes going absent and faraway as he stands and slips one arm over Sam's shoulders and under one of his armpits, hoists him up with a grunt and Sam hisses with the burning in his body. "He could have at least healed you too before gallivanting off." He grumbles under his breath, ill with Sam's pain.
"Shoulda seen this coming," he says next, his voice deeper and sadder. "This is my fault, shoulda never trusted him."
"Hey." Sam stops him, even as his older brother helps him towards the impala. "It's not anyone's fault, okay...we tried our best that's what counts." He assures as Dean lowers him into the passenger seat.
"It doesn't count when our best isn't enough." Dean says, guilt and disappointment ripe in his gaze looking back over the playground, the morning stillness crawling over it. "Damnit!" He says through gritted teeth and fists clenched, "Can't believe we lost them again!"
Sam winces with the angry tones, curls an arm protectively over his stomach, his skin feeling hot and tight and his eyes burning. "Nothing we can do now," he says softly and watches as Dean shoulders slump and turns back to Sam, turning his back to the rest of the world and Sam feels bad, but he's not gonna lie. Dean's anger is gone, and the worried, big brother expression instead of livid rage is a welcome change.
He's surprised when Dean's fingers land on his forehead, brushing away hair and then turning so the back of his knuckles feels his temperature. Dean expression sharpens with worry and he leans down in front of Sam, his hand catching his little brother's jaw and pulling his head down so he can check his eyes.
"Do you have a fever?" He asks rhetorically, and Sam gets goosebumps as Dean counts his pulse at the base of his neck.
"I feel..." he starts but then stops really thinking about the way he feels. And Dean is here in front of him warm and strong and they tried, but they failed...and Sam's at his wits end, at the end of his rope, he'd been burning the candle at both ends and now here he is, his body aching, his mind and heart confused and Dean's attention is on him. And maybe this makes him a selfish bastard but suddenly he can relax with the familiar knowledge that big brother has got it.
"...I feel not good." Is what ends up coming out of his mouth, and Dean looks even more worried with that.
Dean glances over his shoulder, "That stupid bench just had to be there..." he grumbles heatedly and before Sam can stop him he's pulling his plaid and t-shirt up and exposing his midriff to the cool morning air, his belly sucks in with the surprise of the chill but Dean's eyes are glued onto the bruises there.
"Pretty sure it's not the bench's fault, Dean." He says with a nervously laugh as Dean reaches out to touch, "It's an inanimate object, incapable of thought or fee...oh...shitthathurts..." Rushes out in a breath and Dean scowls at him.
'Shut up you idiot! You're really hurt. But I guess you're right..." he picks up in their banter as with gentle fingers he checks Sam for broken ribs, "...it wasn't really the bench's fault, but THAT bitch Dagon's."
Dean breaks off, and doesn't finish as Sam clenches his hand into a fist in Dean's coat sleeve when the older brother touches a particularly sensitive spot. "Can we please just leave it at I've got some broken ribs?" He asks, because frankly it feels like even the brush of the morning breeze is causing Sam pure agony.
"I'm going to kill her." Dean says simply not even looking at Sam as his little brother shivers with the darkness of it, just simply says it, it's not a threat or even really a promise just a statement...a statement they both knew he'd live up to.
He grabs the first aide kit and grimaces for Sam, "C'mon get up, there's no way in hell you're gonna be able to ride back like that."
Sam bites his bottom lip so hard he tastes the copper of his own blood as he takes Dean's hand and he stands. He sways and Dean eyes him carefully while helping him strip off his coat and plaid button up. His eyes are smarting with hot tears by the time it's done and when Dean reaches for the hem of his t-shirt he grabs his hand.
"Please Dean," he says and then clears his throat, looking to him through his hair fallen back into his eyes, "I can't, please don't make me take it off."
Dean's eyes soften and he nods, gently rucking the material up and Sam holds it down that way with his chin as Dean starts to wrap his stomach and lower chest as carefully as he can. The bandage is tight but Sam knows that's the way it's got to be if it's going to help him any. And he explicitly trusts Dean, knows his older brother will unerringly do what's best for him.
"Crap I forgot," he says while gritting his teeth, watching Dean's hands work so quickly and deftly. "She broke the colt." God, Dean was going to be heart broken.
"Screw the colt." Dean growls as he tears off some medical tape and begins to secure his wrapping job. "She better hope for her shitty life's sake she ain't broke you."
Sam chest warms and he looks down at Dean with a small, tired happy grin. "Jeez, you're grumpy this morning."
Sam can hear Dean trying to hide his smile as he rummages through the meds looking for some pain killers for him, "Yeah well, sleeping in the dirt will do that to a man."
"Yeah, you're gonna be stiff as a board old man." He says, giving Dean a saucy grin as his older brother places three pills in his palm. Dean gives him his middle finger as he puts everything away and hands him a bottle of water.
Sam laughs, but winces with the way it makes him ache.
"You hungry for some breakfast?" Dean asks.
"Hell yes," Sam says breathlessly as he eases back into the impala, Dean holding his elbow.
Dean closes his door and cranks Baby, as they drive away Sam looks back to the play ground, thinks about what went down there last night...the colt, Dagon, Kelly and...Cas.
"What are we gonna do, Dean?" He asks softly, feeling doubt and hopelessness descending on him and Dean glances back to the playground as well as the sun rises casting a little more light on it.
"I don't know Sam but we did our best and that's what counts..." Sam smiles brightly at him as his own words are repeated back to him. "You know our lives," Dean goes on, "We worry and we stress and we don't sleep until this is all over but you know what?"
"What?" Sam asks, has no idea where this is going.
"Screw our lives, let's get some IHOP."
Sam honest to God throws his head back and laughs, and no, he doesn't care that it hurts like hell.
...tbc
Loved this episode a lot! REVIEW!? ;);)
((A little something else coming taking place at the bunker.)):)