A/N: This story takes place in season two.

Disclaimer: The wonderful Winchesters belong to the magnificent and amazing Eric Kripke and the CW. The rest are figments of my imagination.

Just a couple of bruised ribs. Sam breathed a huge sigh of relief upon hearing that his brother only had a couple of bruised rubs, But wait, what was Dean talking about when he said he only had one kidney? Did Sam hear Dean correctly? He wanted to ask his brother to repeat what he said, but the doctor had already moved on. How in the hell could he not know his brother only has one kidney?

Sam was so lost in his owns thoughts that he didn't realize the doctor had left and Dean was ready to go. A snap of Dean's fingers in front of his face had Sam pulling to attention.

"Come on Sam, let's go," said Dean. "There's a bed at the Slumberland motel with my name on it."

Following Dean out of the hospital Sam was still puzzling over the fact that his brother was short one kidney. Was he born like that? It was a possibility. Sam knew a kid at Stanford who was born with only one kidney. But wouldn't he have known about that? Despite their nomadic and sometimes crazy childhood, Sam and Dean always had regular checkups. John saw to it that their health needs were always taken care of. So if his brother had been born without a kidney, Sam would have known. No this had to have been more recent, but when and why? Sam had so many questions and he was pretty sure that he would have a hard time getting answers from his brother. Ever since their father died a few months back Dean seemed to have folded in on himself more than usual. Lately, he was not in the mood to talk.

"Sam, are you hungry? Cause I could hit the drive-thru on the way back to the motel," suggested Dean.

Just as he was about to decline Dean's offer, Sam's stomach let out a loud growl.

"I guess that answers my question," said Dean with a chuckle.

oooooOOOOooooo

"Pass me some ketchup, Sammy," Dean said from his bed.

"Dude, if you get crumbs in your bed, I'm not letting you sleep in mine," said Sam from the small table where he sat.

"Have a heart Sammy, I got thrown into a tree by an angry spirit. The bed is much more comfortable than the chair."

Seeing an open window, Sam decided to climb through it. "Speaking of that, Dean, back at the hospital, you uh, you told the doctor you only had one kidney."

"Yeah so?"

"Since when do you only have one kidney?"

Dean gave an audible sigh. "Since three years ago."

Three years ago? Something must have happened while I was at Stanford, but what? Sam waited a few moments for his brother to elaborate, but Dean remained silent. When he couldn't take anymore, Sam spoke up. "What happened?"

"When?"

"Three years ago."

"Nothing." Nothing Dean wanted to talk about that is.

"Dean, you lost a kidney. Something must have happened," said Sam. "Did you get hurt on a hunt?"

"Sam, can you just drop it?" He hoped Sam would let it go, but he knew that would be like asking a baby to give up a their pacifier. Not gonna happen.

"That's it. Isn't it? You got hurt on some stupid hunt that Dad dragged you on and ended up losing a kidney." Sam felt he should be angry with his father for not protecting Dean, but he felt guilty. If he had been there instead of at college then maybe his brother wouldn't have gotten hurt.

"Don't you dare blame this on Dad!" growled Dean. "It wasn't his fault!"

"Then tell me what happened," pleaded Sam.

"Look Sam, it's late and I feel like crap. I don't know about you, but I'm gonna try to get some shuteye now," said Dean, ignoring Sam's plea.

"Fine Dean, but this isn't over." Not by a long shot, thought Sam.

oooooOOOOooooo

The next morning, Sam woke up to find himself alone in the room. Figuring that Dean had gone for coffee, Sam got up and headed into the bathroom. By the time he got out of the shower, his brother was back with coffee and donuts.

"Breakfast time, Sammy," said Dean as he set the bag of donuts down on the little table by the window.

"Thanks, Dean." Sam looked his brother over. In his opinion, Dean looked like crap. Of course getting thrown into a tree will leave the body worse for the wear, but there was something more to it. Dean's eyes were red and it looked like he hadn't slept a wink the previous night. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

Sam couldn't help the small snort of disbelief that escaped him at Dean's reply.

"What?"

"Dean, you are far from fine. You look like crap."

"Thanks, Sam. You know, the next time you get tossed around by an angry spirit, I'll be sure to comment on your appearance."

"So Dean, are you going to tell me what happened to your kidney?"

"No."

"Come on Dean, it's your kidney," said Sam. "What happened?"

Man, Sam really can be like a dog with a bone sometimes, thought Dean. "It's not a big deal. Why can't you drop it?"

"Because it's a major organ, Dean. It's not like you had your appendix removed or your tonsils taken out. You lost a kidney."

"I didn't lose a kidney."

"I heard the you tell the doctor yesterday that you only had one kidney. That means you lost one."

"I didn't lose one, I gave it away."

"What do you mean you gave away it away?" All Sam got was silence from his brother. "Dean..."

"Dad needed a kidney. So I gave him one of mine."

Dad needed a kidney? All the w's where running through Sam's brain, who, what, when, where and why.

Dean could tell his brother wanted answers and he guessed Sam deserved them. With an audible sigh Dean began. "Three years ago, Dad and I were in this little whole in the wall bar called Max's, just outside of South Bend, Indiana. We had just finished taking care of this poltergeist...."

Flashback

"What do you say, Dad?" asked Dean. "Darts or pool."

"Pool," replied John. "You rack em, I'll get us another round."

As John headed towards the bar, he notice a group of young men clothed in leather and denim come in the bar. From where he stood at the bar, John could smell the whiskey and cigarette smoke one their breathes. Casting a wary glance at them, John ordered two more beers. He couldn't help, but notice the dirty look crossing the bartender's face. "You know them?"

"Yeah," replied bartender. "Bunch of good for nothing punks. Call themselves the Stingers. Walk in here acting like they own the place. Nothing, but trouble if you ask me."

After ten minutes of of playing pool, Dean was ready to crack. Holding court near the pool table, the Stingers were glaring daggers at the Winchesters. They didn't like these outsiders coming in and using what they considered their table. Dean was just itching for one of them to say something to him. He'd let his fist do all the talking.

"Hey Angel, get your pretty little ass over here with another pitcher," bellowed one of the Stingers, a tall man with broad shoulders named Paul.

With a scowl plastered on her face, the waitress headed over to the Stingers table. She hated when they were at the bar. They treated all the of Max's girls like their own property. She knew by the time her shift was over that her butt would be grabbed more times she would care to admit. Right as rain, as soon as she placed the pitcher on the table, Paul's hand found it's way to Angel's backside.

"Get your hand off me now before I break it," hissed Angel.

"You hear that, Paul," said a Stinger named Eddie. "Sweet, little Angel thinks she can break your hand."

That got a laugh out all the Stingers.

"Dad..." said Dean gesturing with his pool cue at the Stingers.

"I know, son," replied John. He had noticed the waitress when they first walked through the door. With her charming smile and long, wavy, blonde hair, she had reminded him a little of his beloved Mary. The way she was being treated right now didn't sit well with him.

The sight of Paul putting his hand around Angel's waist and pulling the struggling waitress closer had Dean dropping his cue stick. He was about to head over, but John's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"I got this," whispered John. He would always place himself between Dean and danger.

As John headed over to the Stinger's table he could hear the waitress begging Paul to let her go. If there's one thing he couldn't stand, it was violence against women. Reaching the table, he tapped Paul on the shoulder to get his attention. "I believe the lady told you to let her go."

"Stay out of this, pops," growled Paul. Just to show the elder Winchester he wasn't intimidated by him in the least, he planted a big sloppy kiss on Angel.

Remembering the time that he caught Mary's lab partner trying to force himself on her in the chemistry lab, John didn't think twice about grabbing Paul and pulling him away from the waitress.

"Hey man, what the hell do you think you're doing?" yelled Eddie.

"Teaching your friend some manners," answered John as he shoved Paul up against the wall.

It happened so quickly, yet for Dean, it was as if time had stopped. His dad had Paul up against the wall, his back to the rest of the Stingers, when suddenly the Stinger named Eddie pulled out a nasty looking switchblade and shoved it in John's side. There was a look of shock on John's face just before he collapsed on the dirty floor.

"Dad!" screamed Dean. Racing to his father's side he reached the older man just as he hit the floor.

End Flashback

"Dad was stabbed?" asked Sam, his voice barely above a whisper

"Yeah, just a flesh wound. Nothing deep."

"But his kidney?" If it was just a flesh wound, how did Dad lose a kidney?

"Dad's wound became severely infected. He didn't want to go to the hospital, so I stitched him up. But I had to take him in to the hospital two days later when he came down with a fever of one hundred and four degrees. The doctor thought the infection came from a dirty knife. He wasn't a hundred percent certain because the bastard who stabbed Dad had run off still holding the knife and I was too busy helping Dad to give chase. The infection spread to Dad's kidneys. Apparently, when he was a kid, Dad had had a bad infection in his left kidney. It worked, but didn't function as well at it should. This time it failed completely and the right one wasn't doing so good."

"Wait, Dad had kidney failure?" Dean nodded. "Why didn't you call me?"

"Dad didn't want me to."

"He didn't want you to call me?" Was Dad still so mad at me for going to Stanford that he didn't want to speak to me when he was dying. That thought crushed Sam to his soul.

"Sam, it wasn't that he didn't want you there, it's just, you had finals and Dad wanted you to be able to focus on them instead of worrying about him."

How on earth would he know I had finals? wondered Sam. Dean's words flowed through his mind. But even when you two weren't talkin'…he used to swing by Stanford whenever he could. But Dean could have called anyways. "You still should have called me. I had a right to know."

"I'm sorry, Sam, but I was a little pre-occupied with Dad and the fact that his kidneys were failing." Dean closed his eyes. This was not a pleasant trip down memory lane for him.

Sam's anger began to melt away when he realized how hard this must have been on his brother. As close as his dad and brother were, Sam knew it must have it must have been heart-wrenching for Dean watch his dad get stabbed and nearly die as a result. "So you gave Dad your kidney?"

"I could live with only one, Dad couldn't." To Dean it couldn't get any simpler than that.

Sam didn't know what to say, his mind was still digesting everything he had just learned. Rushing to the defense of a woman was something he could see his father doing. One of the many things his dad had drilled into his boys when they were growing up was respect for the opposite sex. You never put a hand on a woman, ever. To think his dad had nearly died and he was not there caused Sam to shudder. Of course in the end he was there when his dad died and it wasn't any easier on him.

Something Dean had asked Sam a while back popped into Sam's head, If I'd'a called, would you have picked up? What would I have done if Dean had called and told me dad was dying? What if Dean hadn't been match and he called asking me to get tested? Sam knew in his heart of hearts that he would have been there. As mad as he was at his dad when he left, he still loved the guy and he would have been there in a heartbeat. Did Dean know that? Had his been brother afraid to call for fear that Sam wouldn't want to be there? Had his dad been afraid of the same thing as well? That thought caused his heart to ache. It was too late to tell his dad, but at least he could let Dean know. "You know, if you had called, I would have come."

"I know you would, Sammy." Dean reached over and gave Sam's shoulder a squeeze. "Dad knew too."

The End

Thank you so much for reading! Reviews are always greatly appreciated. Please let me know what you think.