Dean looked almost unseeingly at his brothers body.
The sterile white of the hospital room irked him, but still, it was Sam.
-stupid, stupid boy. Can't listen to me just the one time I really need him to. And now…-
He didn't want to finish that thought.
"I told you to drop it Sam…you know, you are way too stubborn for your own good. Or for my good. As soon as you wake up I'm going to kick your ass for not listening to me. And you will wake up. It's my turn to be the one not letting go. I don't care what it takes, I'm getting you out of this."
Dean knew he might as well have been speaking to the wall behind his brother, for all the response he got. But it was somehow comforting that there was no one to tell him not to. Sam would be the first one to tell Dean to back off, let him go, just like Dean had told Sam.
But he hadn't. And Sam was alive after getting Dean freed. Barely.
Sam's comatose state had lasted a month already. He could see it in the doctors eyes as they talked to him; Sam wasn't going to get out of this without a miracle. Just so happens miracles seemed to run in the Winchester family, especially where hospitals and dying were concerned.
Man, this never ending game of musical chairs with the Winchester souls had to end.
Heavily, feeling like a great weight was on his shoulders, Dean stood to leave, casting one more almost forlorn glance over his shoulder at his little brother.
He almost crashed into her as he shut the door behind him.
"Bela? What are you doing here?" Her blue eyes were different than the ones he remembered. They were softer, more welcoming.
"I…I came to see if it was true." She admitted quietly, breaking eye contact with him to look at the floor.
"What? How do you know about Sam?" Dean's voice had that slightly crazed protective tone that came hand in hand with anyone prying about Sam. Bela simply blinked up at him.
"You mean you have no idea?"
"No idea about what?" Seeming to think twice about telling him whatever he had no idea about, she wrapped slender fingers around his arm and pulled him gently into the vacant room adjacent to Sam's. Once in, she closed the door behind him and pushed blonde waves behind her ear.
"It's all over the place. Everybody's talking about how Sam managed to get you out of a deal, get rid of the cross roads demon and now he's in a coma."
"What do you mean everybody?" The fact that enough people knew so that Bela found out made him uneasy.
"Other hunters." Her voice had taken on that slightly exasperated tone that appeared so often around Dean.
"Thought you made a concerted effort to avoid hunters."
"Not all of them are as annoyingly patriotic as you are. They can be helpful…And so good to chat with."
Bela watched Dean run a hand raggedly through his short hair. He seemed different than she remembered, more tired, somehow more grown up.
"Just what I need, every friggin hunter in the continental US knowing about Sam." She sidled over to settle on the neatly made bed next to him.
"Well, in your defense, they knew about Sam before this happened." Her voice softened, losing the edge it had before. He smirked humorlessly at her.
"So what are you doing here? Come to rub my face in how screwed to hell we are?" Bela shrugged, not entirely denying it, but at the same time she wasn't admitting it either.
"I thought, maybe…Maybe you could use my help." She watched as his eyes grew wide in front of her.
"You? Help me and Sam? You shot him."
"Neither of you are ever going to get over that, are you?" The exasperated tone was back in full force.
Dean considered her offer. What did he have to lose except Sam? Well, the Impala, but Sam meant more to him than his car, not that he'd ever say that out loud.
"How are you going to help?" Bela shrugged.
"However I can. I do still kind of owe you two for the whole saving my life thing…"
"Fine. But no tricky shit or I will beat the crap out of you."