Sam turned slowly in the chair and positioned his back against the back rest, the assistant placed the paper bib and sunglasses on him like she'd done before and the chair was repositioned. The dentist turned the overhead light back on, and Dean stood back behind the chair as he'd been earlier - they were all set.
All set, except for Sam...
"Alright, Sam. I just need you to open your mouth for me." Dr. Williams said as he stood to the right of the chair. He held a cotton tip applicator with some numbing cream on it. "This will help numb you up a bit."
Sam shook his head 'no' and kept his mouth firmly shut.
"C'mon, Sammy. You can do this." Dean soothed, placing his hand to his kid brothers head and brushed the mop of hair back. "Look, it's just a cotton bud with cream... it won't hurt, kiddo. Open up."
Sam considered Dean's words for a moment, before reluctently opening his mouth.
"Can you open a little bit wider for me, Sam?"
Sam did as the dentist asked, widening his mouth. The dentist swabbed the areas of his gums that surrounded the top left tooth. Sam closed his mouth once the cotton bud was removed.
"Margaret, is that lidocaine ready?"
The assistant turned from the white wall lined bench, "It's ready, Dr. Williams." She said handing the ready filled syringe to the dentist.
"Okay, just open your mouth again for me."
Sam shook his head again but with more force than before, as he stared wide eyed at the large injection in the dentists hand. No way was he getting that shoved in his mouth.
"Sammy."
He ignored Dean's call, not taking his eyes from the syringe. He could feel all his nerves from before building up at full speed.
"Sammy, look at me." Dean called again, trying to get his brother to focus on him rather than on what was about to happen.
Sam shook his head.
"Samuel, look at me right now." Dean ordered, knowing his brother would follow an order but hating it just the same. He hated sounding like his father, throwing out orders left, right, and centre for every damn thing they did. But he knew the kid was scared and wouldn't listen otherwise. He immediately had those brown puppy dog eyes set up at him; the kid was damn scared.
"Just look at me, Sammy. Don't look at that. Look at me." He said trying to reassure the kid, he brushed the bangs from his eyes again. "It'll be over in a minute, okay?" He reached forward taking both of his little brothers hands in his, resting them down on the kids chest.
"You right, now?" Dean asked, getting a nod in return. "Okay, we're ready." He told the dentist; speaking in plural as he often did when it was something that concerned Sam, cause anything that affected his little brother affected him too.
"Okay, just open your mouth, and I'll try and do this quickly."
Sam kept his eyes focused on his brothers, as he slowly opened his mouth.
"Okay, that's good. Just a little bit more, and lean your head back a bit."
Dean was the one that responded to that. He swept his hand under his brothers bangs and tilted his head back; his palm holding his little brothers forehead - it not only comforted the kid, but it also halted any unwanted movement, keeping him firmly in place.
"Alright, you're going to feel just a little bit of a prick."
Sam whimpered feeling the needle go into his top gum, then drew back out.
"Alright, this one will hurt a little more." The dentist warned.
The needle entered his gum under the tooth.
"Ahh, ahh..." Sam cried out, and whimpered.
Dean could feel his brothers heart pumping a mile an hour in his chest, as the kid completely tensed up and arched his back at the pain.
"Ssh... just breathe though it, Sammy." He soothed, finding it hard to just stand there and take in those brown puppy eyes - that he'd seen everyday since the kid was born - that now showed nothing but pain behind them. "It's ok, little brother. Just take some deep breaths."
Sam took another shallow breath before taking in a really deep breath feeling the air fill his lungs, before breathing out again. His eyes never leaving Dean's as he took another deep breath just as the needle entered under his gum again, to the left of the last.
Sam whimpered again, as he tightened his grip on his older brothers hand.
"Shh... it's alright, Sammy."
The dentist removed the needle, "Okay, we'll just wait a few minutes for that to work."
On Sam's left the assistant filled a white plastic cup with water from the small sink. "Sweety, you can rinse if you'd like to get the taste out." Sam nodded, as she moved the chair up for him. She handed him the cup and waited for him to swish and rinse his mouth before moving the chair back.
"Alright, I'm just going to make sure your mouth's numb. Can you open for me."
Sam opened his mouth again.
The dentist used the dental probe again, moving it in different areas of Sam's upper back left gums. "Can you feel this?"
Sam shook his head.
Dr. Williams nodded, "Can you feel this?"
Sam shook his head again.
The dentist moved it around prodding all around the gum, waiting for any reaction from Sam.
"Ah-ah, ah-ah..." Sam winced, feeling the tool pushing into his gum.
"Okay, can I get some more lidocaine, Margaret."
The assistant handed over another syringe. Dr. Williams nodded his thanks before immediately injecting it into the area that needed numbing.
"Ahh..." Sam whimpered again, squeezing his brothers hand.
"Just relax, Sammy." Dean soothed his brother. "His gonna make it nice and numb for you, an' you won't be feeling anything."
"That should be good now, tell me if you feel anything." Dr. Williams said, prodding the dental probe on different areas of Sam's gums again.
"Uh-uh..."
"Okay, good. This?" The dentist asked, moving to the area he'd just numbed.
Sam shook his head slightly, "Uh-uh..."
The dentist nodded. "That's good, Sam. We should be okay to start."
Dr. Williams turned to his right to retrieve the elevator instrument from the side trolly that had all his tools already laid out side by side on a freshly laundered maroon towel. He quickly grasped the tool in his right hand before turning back to the boy layed out on the black chair.
He carefully guided the tool into the boys mouth and manoeuvred it towards the upper section of his back jaw. Then with careful, but precise skill - after many long years of experience in this industry - he wedged the elevator (a screwdriver like instrument) in between the jaw bone and tooth, and carefully twisted the tool side to side to rock the tooth.
Sam whimpered, his whole body tensing at the incredible amount of pressure he felt in the top left area, but on top of that he could feel a slight pain, every time the pressure came it brought pain with it. But when there was a loud crunch sound he lost it.
"Ahh, ahh... ahh..." He whimpered again, his back arching. "...op... op" He cried out, praying the dentist understood 'stop' and tried wiggling to free his head from the hold his brother had on him.
Dean could feel his brothers heart racing, as well as the kids chest rising and falling rapidly as the kid panted to catch his breath. Not to mention the kid had a death grip on his hand; the top of his little brothers knuckles turning white.
"Sam... Sammy," He called, "Listen, you need to calm down little brother. Take some deep breaths, Sammy." He said, rubbing his thumb back and forth in his little brothers hair as he continued to hold his forehead. The kid started to calm, but Dean could still feel him trembling. "Take a deep breath, Sammy."
Sam focused his eyes on Dean, taking a slow deep breath in through his nose.
"That's it, Sammy. Hold it." Dean counted to five slowly in his head. "And out. That's it, and in." He counted to five again; he had to get the kids breathing back to regular, or he knew what the consequences were - either his brother would pass out or start hyperventilating. And he wanted neither action to occur. "And out."
He had Sam's breathing as close to normal as the current situation would aloud, seeing as his brother was still as tense as all hell.
"That's my boy, Sammy." Dean praised.
He may have the breathing under control, but the pained look never left his eyes.
Dr. Williams was next to speak up. "Sam, you will feel a bit of pressure, and you'll hear some noises... but you'll hear them louder because they're close to your ear." He reassured the boy, "If I could do this procedure without noise, I would." He said lightly.
The dentist applied pressure to the tooth again, carefully rocking the tooth from left to right.
"urts... urts..." Sam cried out, feeling some pain again.
"You need to bear with me, Sam. You will fell some pressure." He said, rocking the tooth again.
"urts..."
"Okay, Sam. Does it hurt?" He asked seriously, getting a vigorous nod from the boy. "Or is it just pressure your feeling?"
"...urts"
"Look. He said it hurts, alright." Dean said, shooting the dentist a 'you'd better do something about it, before I do' look. He was about ready to take over if this dentist didn't get his shit together. His brother was in pain, it didn't take a damn expert to figure that out.
"Margaret, could I grab another lidocaine?"
The assistant passed over another syringe topped with local anaesthetic. Sam winced again, feeling the needle prick in a un-numb spot in his upper gum, and then move to the gum under the tooth. He hated this, like truly hated it. He hurt, half his face felt numb, even the left side of his nostril was blocked because it was numb. He wanted to go home... he sighed lightly to himself, thinking "if you could call the run down motel they were currently staying in 'home'" and curl up under the warm covers in bed.
"It'll be over soon, Sammy. Then we can go straight home, alright?" Dean reassured, like he knew exactly what Sam was thinking; but when it came to Dean and his little brother he kind of had a six sence about the kid. And more times than not, he knew his younger brother better than the kid knew himself. "And who knows, I might even let you watch one of those chick flick movies that you like so much."
"Okay, you should be well and truly numb now. Like I said you'll feel a little pressure, but it shouldn't hurt now." Dr. Williams said, taking ahold of the elevator again. "If you can bear with me, Sam. I can have it done in tens minutes."
"What do you say, kiddo. We get this done?"
Sam gave his brother a small uncertain nod; he wanted this to be over more than anything. He also had second thoughts about getting the second one removed, there was no way he wanted that done today. One was enough to last a lifetime.
Sam focused back on his older brother, his hazel puppy dog eyes cutting right into Dean's green ones; hoping he can find some strength in them to pull through this. He didn't think even the raw stitches they constantly received were this bad, and they were almost always done without so much as even a lick of anaesthetic.
He felt he may have been getting a little ahead of himself... the stitches HURT. They weren't exactly a walk in the park, but neither was this.
He felt the intense pressure again, but this time there was no pain, his whole side of his mouth was completely numbed up... which he figured was the whole idea from the beginning, it just took awhile getting there.
"Do you need suction?" The assistant asked, holding the saliva ejector near Sam's mouth.
Sam didn't hear the spoken answer but rather felt something sucking around the inside of his mouth. Then felt more pressure.
"Your doing good, Sammy." Dean praised his little brother, as the kid continued to grip his hand with both of his smaller ones.
Dr. Williams rocked the tooth a few more times, it was almost lose enough in the socket now to pull, he exchanged his tools, placing the elevator down and retrieving the forceps. He grasped hold of the tooth in the plier-like instrument and deliberately rocked it back and forth as much as it could, then rotated it to help rip and tear the tooth from the ligament that held it in place. After a few more rocks the tooth came free. He placed a suture to the area to help aid the healing.
Dr. Williams sighed some relief, "Okay, we got the tooth out. You can rinse if you'd like."
Sam nodded, feeling the chair shifting into a seated position and slid the glasses from his eyes to the top of his head. Then took the offered water to rinse his mouth, he swished and spit until the cup was empty before setting it to the side of the little sink.
"Okay, I'm just going to place some gauze in to help with the bleeding." Dr. Williams said, as he rolled up a gauze pad. "Open for me." He placed the gauze to the back left of Sam's mouth. "Okay, bite down as hard as you can. You'll need to leave that in there for thirty minutes."
Dean took a step from behind the chair to the front of his brother. "How do you feel, kiddo?"
"Numb." Sam answered around a numbed jaw and the gauze.
Dean smirked, "Bet you do, think they gave you enough anaesthetic to knock out a small elephant."
Sam grinned at his brother.
Margaret came around the other side and handed Sam a set of instructions and an extra packet of gauze pads. "If it's still bleeding when you remove that gauze you can replace it with a new one, and remember to only eat soft foods, and nothing hot for the first 24 hours. And also no spitting or drinking with a straw."
Sam passed the small sheet of instructions and extra gauze to his brother, which Dean folded and pocketed.
"Alright, I'm not going to do the other tooth today, as I've already given you a lot of lidocaine, and the other tooth will need a lot too. So you can make an appointment at the front for us to do it then."
Dean looked at the dentist with a raised brow and a smug look; that's right, don't wanna be overdosing my kid brother, or you'll have me to answer to... which might involve a little 'check up' in your own dentist chair, if you catch my drift.
He turned back to his little brother. "Ready, Sammy?"
Sam looked up at his brother giving a nod.
The assistant stepped closer. "I'll just remove these, then your right to go." She said unpegging the paper bib that now had dribbled blood down it, and removed the glasses from his head.
Sam stood up feeling a little woozy, but in the next moment he felt Dean's arm cross behind his back and tuck underneath his left arm, pulling him into his side. He really did love his brother, he was so grateful to have someone as caring, and supportive as he was.
Dean guided his brother as the kid continued to lean into him - Sammy didn't look like he was paying too much attention of where they were going, just content with letting his brother steer him - down though the corridor and back to the reception. But unfortunately for Dean the old woman was back, rather than the young brunette that had been there not even an hour ago. Dean guessed the young girl... he shook his head, he never even thought to get her name - was the temporally release for the elderly woman for breaks or whatnot.
So much for getting her number...
"Hi, we need to make another booking with Dr. Williams."
"Okay, I'll have a look to see what dates his free." The elderly woman said, using her wrinkled fingers to clack at the keyboard keys. "I have two weeks from now at 1:30?" She said, looking from the computer screen to Dean.
"Okay, that's fine."
"Dean..." Sam whined, not wanting to come back.
"It's fine, Sammy." He reassured the kid, knowing he didn't want the other side done, but it was nessesary.
"Okay, so I've got you booked for the 18th of August at 1:30." She said, writing on a business card and handing it to Dean. "I've wrote the date on there for you."
Dean thanked her taking the card, and pocketed it in the inside of his leather jacket.
They left the stark brown building and headed down the mostly empty sidewalk to the 2 hour parking spot they'd left the Impala. The sleek black car was right as they'd left it, parallel parked by the curb. Dean unlocked the passenger door, letting Sam in first before making his way around the front of the car to the drivers side and unlocking it, he climbed in behind the wheel closing the door behind him.
...
Bella Lilac
A/N - Thank you anyone who added this story to their 'favourites and/or follows', and thank you for all your lovely reviews - they truly mean a lot. Bella.