"Dean. Please. Is this true? Are you.. I mean.. Those pills. This article.. The way you act. I - .. I guess, I don't wanna believe it. Just tell me. Is that true?" Sam insisted.

"Yes. Dammit. You happy now?" Dean stood up sharply."It's true. But that's still nothing I can't handle and I don't wanna talk about it."

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Sam jumped to his feet and grabbed his arm. Dean looked down at his arm, up at Sam and again down at his arm. Sam pulled his hand away but kept looking at Dean with his puppy dog eyes.

Dean rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of one of the beds."Sam, there's nothing to talk about."

"Nothing to talk about? Dean. This thing is serious and if it's true which you just admitted, then, it means -"

"It doesn't mean anything." Dean cut him.

Sam stared at him in silence and finally gave up."At least tell me a little more. When did you find out about it? What's the problem exactly. What should you do now? Why didn't you tell me sooner? What are the risks? How-"

"You might wanna write down those questions. Don't you think that's too many at once?"

Sam remained silent, waiting for Dean to answer.

Dean sighed."You didn't need to know. Nobody does. At least I wouldn't let anyone know if I could. It's not keeping me from hunting, I kinda have my regular life. I just need to be more careful and stay on medications."

"I don't assume you've mentioned your job when your doctor was talking about your regular life."

"Oh, you're wrong there. I told him that I'm a hunter and I hunt down all kind of evil supernatural bastards that he can or can't imagine. I admitted myself into the psych ward after that. But then I remembered I had a little bro out here, so I escaped." Dean said sarcastically.

"My point is your regular life is not that safe and normal. You can't -"

"I can't what? Or why for that matter? Is that about risks? Well, we might get killed everyday, with or without a heart disease."

At that word Sam's face lost all color."Heart disease."he repeated under his breath, sounding a little scared as if it hadn't been real before Dean had actually said it aloud.

Dean narrowed his eyes."Yeah, genius. Why else do you think I would take Digoxin? You have the article in front of you."

"Does anyone else know about your condition?"

"Like Mom and Dad?" Dean grinned."They probably do."

"Like Bobby or Lisa."

"Bobby knows. Something. But Lisa doesn't know anything. It's started after I left our house. Umm.. Uh..Her house." Dean faltered.

"What's it exactly?"

"You're not in the mood of reading. Are you?" Dean sighed. "It's called Cardiomyopathy. Heart muscle disease. Or severe myocardial disease, if I wanna be more accurate."

"Why?"

"Why what? Why it's called severe myocardial disease? Well, probably because it is the deterioration of the function of the myocardium." Dean shrugged.

"Why you?"

"Because I'm cuter when I'm sick?" Dean grinned.

"Like you're cute at all?"

"And here we go, Samuel Jealous Winchester. Ladies and Gentlemen."

"How did you find out? Why it happened to you, Dean?" Sam wasn't about to allow Dean to drag his mind away from the main subject and he was pretty sure that was what Dean was trying to do.

"Well, according to the doctor that visited me in the first place, it could have several reasons and still no specific reason."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that it could have happened just because of the massive stress. Life has never been nice to me... Or calm."Dean shrugged casually." Not weird to end up here, I guess."

"What about the symptoms?"

Sam frowned. "You really are enjoying to watch me go all walking-medical-encyclopedia, aren'tcha ?"

"Symptoms?" Sam demanded.

"Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir."Dean mocked."Chest pain. Every now and then."he replied."That's it." he added when Sam kept waiting.

"That's it?" Sam stared at him incredulously."You know what? Forget it. Why don't you go and take a shower. I'll check it myself. I won't get anything out of you."

Dean blinked in disbelief."You just made me look totally like Dr. House and you say you won't get anything out of me? Whatever." he stood up."You won't find anything else, anyway. That really is it."

"Dr. House is a nephrologist."Sam put his head on his hand and watched Dean, as he grabbed some clothes and walked toward the bathroom.

"He's a doctor." Dean pointed out before closing the bathroom's door.

...

It was around 7 pm when Dean finally got tired of Sam's searching. It wasn't really that complicated. He didn't know what was keeping Sam so busy. He had to admit, though, the whole thing wasn't really that bad. As much as he wanted to keep the whole thing to himself and Sam's digging had made him angry and uneasy first, he was glad now. It seemed like that for the first time after a long time, Sam had something else to focus on, instead of thinking about whatever the hell he had done during his soulless time. And damn if that wasn't a good thing. Dean would willingly do anything to keep Sam the way he was at that moment. To keep him away from that wall in his head. And if his heart condition was the thing, he would let Sam stay on it as long as he wanted.

"You realize we missed the lunch, right? Can you take a break, so we could at least have something for dinner?" Dean offered.

Sam turned his gaze form the screen. Looking out of the window,he felt dumbfounded when he saw the darkness outside. He really didn't understand how the time had flown.

"Yeah, I know that's an interesting topic. But you really need to feed your body, too." Dean leaned against the wall.

Sam took a deep breath and looked at Dean. He wanted to say something. To talk about his brother's problem. He felt abashed that Dean was still trying to make things better and easier for him, when he, himself, obviously was in a bad shape. He had read a lot, and he had reread and reviewed everything. He knew almost everything about Dean's new condition. He just couldn't digest it easily."Yeah. OK. Where to?"

"Just the diner we went last night?" Dean suggested.

...

"You wanna talk about it?" Dean asked as they sat at the table in the diner waiting for the waitress to come. The short journey was passed in silence and Dean was getting tired of it.

"Me? Shouldn't that be you who needs to talk?"

"Sam, I've been dealing with this thing for a long time now. I'm used to it. You on the other hand look a little unsettled."

Sam dropped his gaze."That's why you don't drink that much anymore?"

"Hmm. Yeah. Kinda."

"I thought you had changed because of spending a long time around Ben and Lisa."

"Well, that made it easier. I mean, I had to reduce the amount of my drinks when I was living with them. So it wasn't that hard when the doctor announced that I shouldn't drink or my condition will deteriorate."

"But you still drink."

"I don't know when I'll die. Will that be because of a heart attack or a hunt will go wrong. I'm not gonna drop all interesting part of life completely."

"Good evening boys. What can I bring for you tonight?" The young waitress smiled at them.

"Chicken for me." Dean smiled back.

"The same." Sam ordered and for the first time he realized that Dean hadn't ordered burgers or pizza a lot recently. The sure sign of someone on a strict diet. He wondered how he hadn't seen it before. He knew most of the times his mind had been busy with his lost year and what he had done during that time. Although Dean had warned him, he couldn't keep his mind away and suddenly he felt kind of ashamed. Dean had been struggling with his heart condition. He was suffering. Stress probably was the last thing his heart needed, and though their life was full of pressure ,the added stress could be avoided. And here he was making Dean more worried over him scratching the wall that he had been warned about.

"Earth to Sam."

"Hmm."

"Noway. I'm not gonna repeat everything again."

"Repeat what?"

"The monologue that I was giving you and I'm telling you, it was supposed to be a dialogue."

Sam scratched his head and looked at Dean sheepishly.

Dean rolled his eyes."Forget it. The Readers Digest version is we gotta find another job. I'll call Bobby when we get back. "

Sam nodded but then stopped."You sure that's wise? I mean with your condition and all."

Dean leaned back."Sam, do you have any idea how many cases we have solved since my heart decided to stop working properly?"

Sam waited for the waitress, who had just arrived, to put their orders on the table and go."If you needed anything else-"

Sam cut her."Yeah, OK, thanks."

She nodded and left.

"It's not her fault that I'm sick, you know." Dean grabbed his fork.

"You forgot to mention a few things about your disease, you know." Sam imitated his tone.

"Why don't you tell me. Maybe you feel better after that." Dean said casually, like he was a psychologist who was letting a patient talk, so, he would feel better after that.

Sam didn't care, though. "I don't know. Like the fact that the risk of a sudden death is not that low?"

"I've died many times before. It's nothing new."Dean grinned."The risk is not that high, either."

"I think for someone like you it's pretty high." Sam huffed."Oh, and you forgot to tell me that as a treatment you eventually may need a cardiac transplantation."He used the exact words.

"What kind of medical article did you read?" Dean frowned."There are different types of cardiomyopathy, as I'm sure you know by now. Yes, heart transplant might eventually be an option for patients with DCM, but just for those who are in advanced levels. Right now I just need to take my medications, stay on my stupid diet, have enough exercises and don't smoke. I like the last two, they're so easy."He stopped for a few seconds and then his face cracked with a grin."Dude, I almost sounded like you. I think I can give a lecture about cardiomyopathy."

Sam couldn't help but smile at that."You even used the abbreviation."

"I know, I'm awesome."Dean's grin grew wider."Now would you do that chicken a favor and eat it? It's getting cold."

...

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... TBC ...

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A/N: Yep. Heart condition! I kinda think you haven't seen this one coming! I hope you're not disappointed! But the thing is I've seen people with less stress ending in hospitals for the same reason. So, I thought with everything Dean has been through, especially recently, it wouldn't be that weird and unbelievable to see him struggling with a heart disease!
When I saw the pills he had offered Sam, I thought I could came up with some story about them! (Gotta admit, I thought about him being depressed, but well, I'm better in writing about a heart disease than describing all psychological issues! - Not like that I'm good in talking about heart disease. But well!- )
Anyway, I changed a few things in order to write this one. Like the way he's drinking less or following a strict diet. (He really IS drinking less, though. Just watch season 5 again and you can see he's not drinking that much, anymore! And well, they don't show much about his diet. So, I happily changed it to what I needed here!)

All in all, I hope you still like this and wait for the rest to come..

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