Sam sighed softly to himself, glad to just have a moment's peace for once without anything freaky going on. Even if that moment of peace had to be found during his morning shower.
He moved under the spray of water, keeping his eyes shut as he rinsed the shampoo from his hair, running his fingers over and through it several times to make sure it was gone, before turning around slightly, opening his eyes to locate his wash cloth again when he sees he's not alone.
His blood runs cold before draining from his face completely, and for a single, heart-stopping moment his breath catches and he can't breathe at all.
Lucifer stood, staring back at him as if this were no big deal, naked as could be, just as wet from the shower as Sam, rubbing a wet, soapy sponge under his left arm.
"'Sup, Sammy?"
Dean had still been sleeping when he heard it, but the clear, distinct sound woke him as if he were doused by ice water and given an immediate shot of pure caffeine to back it up.
A loud, ear-splitting, blood curdling scream. Like a woman in a campy 1980s slasher flick. But, for Dean there was no mistaking that the sound wasn't coming from the TV. No, that was real, coming from the bathroom. From Sam.
He didn't pause to pull pants over his boxer briefs, or to think up a funny way to tease his little brother over the sissy scream. Instead, he launched himself out of bed, grabbing his gun with him, only pausing to make sure it was loaded and ready to fire, safety off.
Heedless of his bare feet, he ran at the door and kicked it in. He had no idea if it had even been locked in the first place, but he didn't have time to play around. Sam was in there, naked and probably without any weapons at hand, vulnerable. And whatever had made his baby brother shriek like that was going to die.
"Sammy!" he hollered as he entered the bathroom, gun drawn and ready, looking for an intruder, a monster, a ghost...something. But, all he saw was his brother.
Sam, huddled up against the shower wall, in a far corner, knees drawn up to his chest and arms wrapped around his legs, face buried, obvious sobs, pathetic and heartbreaking in their despair, wracking his body.
"S-Sammy...?" Dean asked, confused and scared to death for his brother. There was nothing here to hurt Sam...but Dean had never seen him in a state like this before, sitting in a fetal position and bawling like this on a wet shower floor.
"C'mon, Sam! What's the deal? When else am I supposed to shower?! It's not like I can do it when you're not around. Us having this connection we do now. Unbreakable!" Lucifer reminded with a grin.
"Just go away...please...just leave me alone..." Sam begged miserably, his voice choked and watery.
Dean swallowed around the lump in his throat. Part of him wanted to comply, give Sam his privacy and allow him time to try to salvage some of his shattered dignity.
But...this was his little brother, acting scared and alone and sounding so hopeless here...he couldn't just walk out and ignore this. Not even for just a few minutes.
So, instead he tentatively walks forward, enters the shower, heedless of his t-shirt and underwear getting soaked from the spray of the shower head and sat down next to his baby brother on the hard tile ground and put an arm around him, pulling him against his side and lifting his hand to the back of Sam's head to guide his brother's face toward his chest, like he would sometimes do for him back when they were little and Sammy had had one of his clown nightmares.
Sam slowly put his arms around his big brother and sobbed into his chest.
"I can't take this anymore..." he whispered, sniffled, breathed. "Make it stop..."
Dean was glad the water was still running. It hid the couple of tears on his own face, shed for the pain his brother was going through.
"Shhh...you'll be okay, Sammy. I promise. I'll make sure of it. Okay? Don't care what anybody else says." he murmured into his little brother's wet hair.
He noticed only vaguely how hot the shower water was.
Fin
