John pulls into the motel driveway and Dean shoves open the door and speeds towards the motel room, he lifts his hand to knock on the door and then remembers that Sam can't fucking breathe - how the hell does he expect him to be able to get up walk across the goddamn room ? Cursing himself silently for being so stupid, he digs his keys out of his pockets and unlocks the door, calling out Sams name as he does so.
"Sammy?" he drops the keys onto the table and spots a figure sitting perched on the couch, hands on knees and shoulders heaving. Strangled, wheezing sounds are coming from Sam and Dean rushes over to perch in front of his on the floor, "Hey, hey hey Sammy, I'm here now - Jesus you need your neb."
Sam looks up from his lap and Dean see's for the first time just how rough he looks - His face is pale and beads of sweat are forming on his forehead from the effort of trying to breathe in and out.
Before Dean has a chance to set up the nebulizer for him, John is handing Sam the mouthpiece and squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. Sam nods a thank you and grabs it with a shaky hand, bringing it to his mouth and sucking in the medicine. Usually his shoulders would have relaxed now and he would be beginning to straighten up and sound a bit better, but if anything his wheeze is getting worse and his arms are shaking so much he can barely hold the mouthpiece in place.
Dean reaches forward and places his hand on Sam's thigh, running his thumb up and down slowly and says "Hey, bud? You need to try and take deep breaths okay? Try and do that for me" and Sam just nods and draws another breath - goddamn it he would do anything for Dean, even when he cant breathe he'll do anything for Dean. He loves the kid.
Tears are forming in the corner of Sam's eyes and Dean climbs up onto the sofa and positions himself so he can rub circles on Sam's back to help him relax. Sam still has one hand on his knee and is still hunches over the side off the couch, but he moves his hand back to grab at Deans jeans and tug at them until his knuckles turn white.
After 5 minutes of Dean rubbing circles on Sam's back and talking to him about nothing and Sam nodding weakly in response, John speaks up and says "Dean, he's stopped wheezing" and Dean nearly stops breathing himself when he hears that, because he and John both know that that's never good sign and that if he's stopped wheezing that means he isn't moving enough air to even make a sound. Shit.
Dean looks up into his brothers sunken eyes and noticing that his lips are a strange tint of blue, says "Okay kiddo, looks like we're going up to the hospital" Sam closes his eyes slowly and motions towards his chest with his free hand, "I know Sammy, we're going to get you oxygen real soon. Hang in there."
"M'chest is s-so.. tight" Sam tries to say, but ends up mouthing it when he runs out of air. Dean raises a finger to hush Sam and tells him to not talk, before leaning over and taking the nebulizer out of his hand and scooping him up into his arms.
And damn, Dean would do anything to not be so familiar with what it feels like to hold his limp kid brother and he would give up everything just so that he would never have to see him struggle for breath ever again, but as Winchester luck goes, they take what they get. Sam's clinging onto Deans shirt with all the strength he has left, his head resting against Deans broad chest - bobbing up and down to the rhythm of his brothers quick steps and his eyes are squeezed shut in concentration as he tries to draw in feeble breaths. Dean has grown used to Sam's perpetual wheeze, taking it as a sense of comfort in knowing that hey, at least he's breathing - albeit loud as anything, but now there's nothing but silence coming from his brother's pale, curled up form and shit, they need to get help soon.
Dean bolts to the car and places Sam in the backseat, taking care not to lie him down and leaning him against the car door. John's already in the drivers seat so Deans slides into the back next to Sam and pulls him towards him, wrapping one arm around his body and holding his chest, and using the other the stroke his forehead. Before h's even had a change to strap himself in, John's speeding down the main road towards the ER, and Dean thanks God that the roads are free of traffic.
"How's he doing? We should have never left him this long.. Should have known it was bad" John says, still shaken but clearly out of his temporary trance.
"We don't have time for his Dad, this shit just happens and we de- fuck he's loosing consciousness, hurry up!" Dean almost screams back as he continues to brush Sam's head with his thumb, noticing how cool his body feels. Sam's eyes are rolling back in his head and his chest is barely moving by the time they finally pull into the ER.
John doesn't park, just stops outside the Ambulance bay, jumps out and runs around to the back of the car, where he helps Deans get him out, "Somebody help us! My boy can't breathe, he's not breathing!" He cries out as he runs into the building, followed by Dean. A swarm of nurses comes rushing towards them with a gurney, and Deans takes over explaining things to the inquiring doctors so John can sit down in the waiting room, running his hands over his face slowly.
"He has uh, brittle asthma, we thought we had it under control but he just couldn't get enough air and then..." he trails off as his eyes run over Sam's almost lifeless body on the gurney in front of him, the nurses give him pitying looks and get to work on Sam straight away- connecting him to a oximeter and setting him up with an oxygen mask.
"Has it ever been this bad before?" they ask, and Dean would have laughed out loud if his brother wasn't as good as dying right in front of him, because, yeah it's been this bad before. Too many goddamn times. He hears the hushed remarks of 'low GCS' 'may have to intubate' between the medical staff and grips onto Sam's hand.
"I'm sorry dear, you're going to have to wait back here" he's told before being pulled away and he lets his brothers' uncurled and unmoving hand drop to his side to watch them whisk him away out of sight.
End Note: Sorry for the slightly shorter chapter this time, there was only so much i could write for such a short time span, but I'm planning on making the next chapter longer and hopefully a bit more emotional. I'm still not 100% sure where I'm going with this fic so if you have any plotline suggestions please tell me :) I really hope you're enjoying it so far and please let me know what you think.
