Not completely edited yet. Finish it tomorrow.
Reviews greatly welcomed.
Ben wasn't surprised that nightmares had overtaken his dreams. As soon as they had gotten his mom to the hospital, he collapsed in one of the chairs in across the hall from his mother's room. Flashes of the day races behind his eyelids every time he closed them: calling Dean when the demons first came after him and his mom, watching his mom being knocked unconscious and then the sharp pain of being hit in the head himself and then the world fading into darkness, waking up to find his hands tied behind his back around a pole in a room full of demons, and Dean rushing down those old rusty stairs to free them.
But slowly the memories were becoming twisted, images of his mother with black eyes telling him how much of a burden he was, how much his mother didn't love him. He woke up with a start, panting and shivering. Ben got up and wanted to find Dean. Ben found Dean and his brother guarding the entrance to his mother's no empty room.
"Hey Bud, how ya holding up?"
His tongue was heavy in his mouth and anxiety that something bad had happened to his mom was starting to enclose him. "Dean, where's my mom?"
"As soon as they got her stable enough, they took her straight to surgery to stop the bleeding and assess the damage done. She's alright. Don't worry."
The boy felt tired again and before he could stop himself, Ben took a step forward and wrapped his hands around the older man's waist. Dean leaned back against the door frame and slowly smoothed down his tangled hair.
"Sammy, do you mind grabbing us a few cups of coffee? And Ben do you want anything." Dean asked the other two. Ben shook his head still laying against Dean.
Sam gave a quick nod and started off to the elevator. Looking behind him at Ben and Dean he added "I'll be right back."
Ben was trying to hold back the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
"Thanks Dean, for everything."
"For you, or your mom, I'd do anything" He patted Ben softly on the back. "While you were sleeping I asked the nurse if we could borrow one of the empty rooms. She said yes as long as they didn't need it later. I didn't know if you wanted to sleep again but the bed in there would be better than one of those chairs in the hallway."
Dean's voice was quiet but strong and he never loosened his grip on the younger boy. He could feel Ben crack a small smile against his stomach.
"Anything is better than those chairs."
After walking the short distance across the hall to the empty room, Ben allowed Dean to halfway tuck him into the bed. As Dean started off to leave the room Ben called out.
"Don't leave me. I'm scared something will happen if you go."
A small almost sad smile spread across Dean's face. "No problem, Bud. I think I could use some shut eye too." Dean walked back over to sit in the overstuffed chair that was pushed up against the side of the bed. By now it was well past two a.m. and both Ben and Dean could feel themselves beginning to nod off.
"Goodnight, Dean." Almost immediately after shutting his eyes did he shift into the layer of sleep between dreams and reality. Minutes passed by and the sounds of people talking softly in the hallway and various noises from machines in other rooms lulled the boy completely to sleep, but instead of dreaming of demons all Ben saw was blood. His hands and clothes stained from when he held the compression close against his mother's abdomen, then everywhere he look blood oozed, making his visions swim with red. And all of a sudden he could hear men shouting and many more other frantic voices that blended together. He couldn't take anymore.
When he sat up the first thing he noticed was Dean missing from his place in the chair. The feeling something horrible pushed on him like a ton of bricks. The door was closed but he could see a part of Dean through the slit of a window on the door. It looked like he was arguing with someone that was hidden from his line of sight. He could partially hear the heated, but muffled conversation, catching snippets like 'too late', 'I tried', and 'I'm sorry'. The feeling was pressing even harder on him now. He threw open the wooden to find two shocked and sadden faces staring at him and one was unfamiliar, but Ben had a strange feeling that he knew who that was.
"Again, I'm sorry Dean, but this is not my place anymore. I'll be back." And with that the stranger, who was wearing a suit and a trench coat, disappeared with a sound that was close to a soft flutter.
He wasn't paying attention anymore when he noticed all the doctors and nurses rushing in and out of his mother's room and they pitying glances from the ones leaving. A solemn look on their faces. Ben heard alarms going off and a voice speaking over the intercom, but it was all turning into white noise in the back of his mind. The feeling was almost unbearable by now.
Ben swallowed and cleared his throat. Sam had appeared by his brother's side "Dean, what happened?"
Dean couldn't look the boy in front of him in the eyes, but somehow he found the strength to do so. " Sometime during the surgery the was a complication. The doctors couldn't..."
Ben burst into tears and lost control of his body, luckily Sam was close enough to catch him and he was vaguely aware of strong arms holding close and of Dean crying and repeating "I'm sorry, I thought I could save her, I'm sorry" over and over again. He didn't need Dean to keep talking, he knew what it meant; his mom died, she wasn't coming back, nothing was ever going to be the same again.
This is more of a prologue than a chapter. Hopefully it gets a little bit happier.
