"Quit pacin'. You're makin' me feel jittery."
"Shut up, Bobby."
"You walkin' around ain't gonna make 'em appear any faster."
Jo groaned. She knew he was right. So, she stopped. She turned and faced him. "So what? We stick our thumbs up our asses while we wait for a grand entrance?" she grabbed her jacket from off of the couch.
"Where you going?"
"Out."
She walked into the kitchen and grabbed some keys from a table. She then slammed the door on the way out.
"Don't do anything too damn foolish!" Bobby shouted after her.
"Dean? Dean. Buddy, you gotta stay with me." Sam was driving the Impala as fast as he could in the direction of Bobby's house. So maybe going after a huge pack of werewolves was really dumb, but they did manage to kill most of them. You know, after one of them used Dean as a human punching bag. So here Sam was, trying to keep Dean awake until they at least got to Sioux Falls. Sam felt his phone vibrate. He answered.
"Hello?"
"Sam? About time one of you damn answered! Where the hell are you?"
"Hey, Bobby. We're on I-29, headed up to you. I think Dean may have a concussion."
"I told you idjits not to go by yourselves! Jo's out lookin' for ya."
"Jo?"
"Well I'm just assumin'. She stormed out outta my house 'bout five minutes ago."
"Okay then. So what should I do about Dean?"
"If it's a bad concussion, best bet is to take him to the hospital. I'll meet ya there."
"Alright Bobby."
Sam hung up the phone and turned his attention to Dean. His eyes were half closed and he was mumbling something incoherently. "Dude, stay awake. You have to stay awake."
"Sd..mmngrr."
"What? Singer? Yeah, we're headed to Bobby's."
"Ssdnmgr," Dean mumbled, right before his head rolled back and his eyes went shut.
"Dean. Dean? DEAN!"
Bobby Singer and Jo Harvelle sat in the emergency waiting area of Avera McKennan Hospital. As soon as he had gotten off the phone with Sam, he called Jo to pick him up and take him to the hospital. That was 20 minutes ago. Time was once again dragging as Bobby paced this time, and Jo tapped her foot hurriedly against the floor. She occupied herself by inspecting the lines on her palms.
Jo's head shot up when she heard a commotion coming from the hallway.
"Get me a bed, now! I've got a young man, 28, with possible head trauma and extending other injuries," A woman was shouting to the people behind her. She ran through the door and was quickly followed by two young guys pushing a cot on wheels. Jo shot up out of the chair and looked at Bobby. They waited.
"We need a room, now!" the same woman shouted as she now walked alongside the cot while trying to stick an IV into an unconscious Dean's arm. Sam followed behind her. She turned and stopped him. "You stay in here. I have questions for you." Her attention almost immediately was returned to Dean as they disappeared behind a giant set of doors. Sam stood frozen, leaning against the wall where the doctor had stopped him. Bobby walked over to him.
"Come sit down, Sam."
Sam stared into space as he followed Bobby over to where Jo was sitting. He was silent.
Bobby tried to get Sam to talk.
"Are you hungry?"
Silence.
"Do you want a drink?"
Silence.
"I'm sure he'll be fine."
Silence.
"All right," Bobby said as he pulled himself up out of the chair. "I'm gonna go find something to drink. Jo, you want anything?" She shook her head. He sighed and left the room.
Silence.
"You know," Jo said as she studied her fingers. "I get sibling love. But what you and Dean have? That's Romeo-and-Juliet style codependence."
Sam jerked back and averted his gaze to Jo. "W-what?"
"He speaks! Sam, since you've been here, you haven't been able to function."
"You wouldn't understand. You don't have a brother."
Jo's face shot up to meet Sams. She laughed bitterly. "I wouldn't understand? Oh alright. Okay. Because, you know, losing the kid that I grew up with in the home that I grew up in isn't the same. It's not like Ash was family to me or anything," she said harshly.
Sam felt his face grow red. "I-I'm sorry. I forgot-"
"You know what Sam? It's ok. Everyone forgets about Ash. Hell, it's like my mom forgot about him." The last part was a barely audible whisper.
Silence.
After a few minutes, Jo spoke up again. "You know, this is the worst part. Not knowing. It's been like this for me all day. You gotta keep yourself occupied, so you don't think worst case." She stared out the window at the night sky. "When I got to Bobby's and he told me you guys were going after a pack of Alpha's, well, I freaked out." She looked back at him. "That was kinda stupid of you guys."
Sam chuckled. "Yeah, well I can see that now. You know, that hunt was my idea? Dean even said it was stupid, and that we should take a break because we finally killed Yellow Eyes. But I insisted. And now, he's in there, and they said it's worse than just a concussion, and I-I can't..."
Sam lost it. He began to cry. He put his head in his hands. Maybe it was just the pressure, or the fear, or the anger. But he finally lost it. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey," Jo said softly. "It's ok. I'm sorry I was real hard on you. It's just that, these past few months have been really hard. And I guess I needed something familiar, and that was you guys."
"Did I just walk in to an episode of Days of Our Lives? Quit fussin', you idjits. Dean'll be fine," Bobby interrupted. Jo coughed as Sam wiped his eyes. He sat down and stirred the black coffee in his hand.
"This could be awhile."
"Family of Dean Singer?" a nurse called out about an hour later. They all stood up and walked over to the nurse.
"Now which one of you bright him in?"
"That would be me," Sam said.
"Okay. You two can follow me," she indicated to Bobby and Jo, "But you'll have to wait here. Come on, this way." Bobby shrugged at Sam while Jo offered him an apologetic smile. Sam groaned. The doctor from earlier came out from the hallway Bobby and Jo had gone.
"Hi. I'm Dr. Grace Johnson, trauma services." She held her hand out to Sam to shake. "How are you related to my patient?"
"Uh-I'm his brother."
"Name?"
"Sam."
She lifted an eyebrow. "Sam Singer? Your parents must've hated you."
"It's-a... short for Samuel."
"What happened to your brother?"
"Well," Sam sighed, "We were at some bar about an hour from here. As we were leaving, about 2 or 3 dudes jumped us. They had bats and knives and crap."
"Bats and knives and... crap. Got it." She said as she wrote. "What next?"
"I can't really remember. All I know is that we got back to the car, and Dean couldn't keep his head up. Can I see him now?"
"Do you want me to tell you what is wrong before you just go in there?"
Sam nodded his head impatiently.
"From what I can tell, your brother did sustain a major head trauma. He has basilar blood clotting, and at this point I can't tell if it was caused by or did cause a cerebral aneurysm."
"Is that bad?"
"It can be, but if we keep him here under observation for a few weeks, he would be good."
"Great. Can I see him now?" He tried to walk past her.
"Slow down," she said flatly. "I'm not done. It seems that one of those thugs also stabbed your brother in the side of the hip with some 'knives and crap,' Luckily, the entry missed all vital organs."
"I'm sensing another 'but,'" Sam said.
She sighed. "But we had to do a blood transfusion, it cut an artery. He's fine now, I promise. But he needs to recover."
"Can I just see him now?"
"Follow me."
Jo felt like she had to tiptoe into Dean's room. Here he was, covered in tubes and machines and a gown and his skin so pale he looked like a ghost. It was too quiet. The rest of the ICU was so loud, with beeping machines and nurses running and doctors shouting and patients dying. ICU is where people come to die. But Dean's room, was somehow detached from the buzz outside. Besides the constant beep of his heart monitor, there was just silence.
"He's pumpin' blood all on his own, so that's a good thing," the nurse broke in. "He wasn't there for a minute. But he's good now. Well, except for the fact that this machine is breathing for him. But it has to right now. He's in an induced coma, so we can keep his temp down and speed up brain healing. We'll start trying to wake him up in about four days or so." She walked out of the room.
Bobby started murmuring. Jo tried to make out what he was saying. "Damn fool... tryin' ta scare me, ain't ya? Ain't gonna work... concussion my ass." She noticed his eyes were watery as he excused himself from the room. Jo walked over to the head of the bed.
"Bobby's right, you are a damn fool. You knew it was dangerous, yet you let yourself and Sam get in harm's way. And for what? For this?" She looked over her shoulder at the door. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't be yelling at you." She laughed. "Am I going crazy?" She pulled one of the chairs over to the bed and picked Dean's hand up gingerly, as though not to wake him. She stroked it gently. "Don't make me fall for you again, Winchester. I already got you outta my head once, and this whole damsel-in-distress thing'a yours isn't helping me do it again."
Silence.
She put her lips on his hand delicately.
"Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty."
Should I continue? Just putting this out there because I have a current case of writer's block on my other story Abandon All Hope. This one actually has a place in my heart because I was in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) two years ago for trauma. Please review!