Finally giving in, the young prophet put the pillow under Dean's head and tried to make him comfortable before leaving the room.
He couldn't go back to sleep anymore, so he just sat in the hall and waited for the morning to arrive.
The morning came and left and when the noon gave its place to the evening, Kevin finally decided that he'd had enough. No matter how exhausted Dean was, he needed some food and drink. It was time to wake up.
So Kevin walked back to Sam's room and found out that Sam wasn't there. He must've left when Kevin had dozed off behind the desk in the hall.
Sitting down by Dean's side, he shook the older man, only to receive no response again. Panic had started to set in when Sam came back.
"He's not waking up." Kevin looked up worriedly.
"He's tired." Sam stated matter-of-factly.
"Dammit, Sam." Kevin couldn't take it anymore and absently wondered how Dean could be so patient with Sam. "He's been sleeping for 16 hours straight. And he's not waking up. He's unconscious."
"Why would he be unconscious?" Sam rolled his eyes.
"Maybe because you punched him?" Dammit, he really wished he'd never met these two annoying, absolutely unbelievable guys.
"Who do you think I am? The incredible Hulk? I can't punch that hard."
"The bruising around his eye says differently." Kevin growled. "Look, I don't care what you think; just help me get him to the car. I'm pretty sure we should take him to a hospital, so I will, but he's too heavy for me. Help me and then you can do whatever you want."
Rolling his eyes again, Sam put his hands under Dean's armpits and pulled up. "Grab his legs. And don't say I didn't tell you when the doctors laugh at you for freaking out over him sleeping too soundly."
"Whatever."
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That night Sam stayed in his room alone and at first, he really enjoyed not having Dean around to bug the hell out of him, but soon he started to get worried. Despite what he'd said to Kevin, he was a bit concerned after moving Dean to his beloved car and getting no reaction from his brother.
Going to Dean's room, he waited for Dean and Kevin to walk in any minute and when hours passed with no sign of either of them, he got tired and fall asleep.
The next morning he felt a lot better than he'd felt in a long time and that probably was because he hadn't had any nightmares the night before. At first he wondered about the reason but when he found himself in Dean's room and bed, he realized why and although he wouldn't admit it out loud, he was pleased to see that his brother still had the same effect on him that he had when they were kids.
Back then, when he was scared of something, he'd spend the night in Dean's bed and merely Dean's scent would give him all the reassurance that he needed and he knew that he was safe, so he'd sleep soundly.
He hadn't tried that for years, ages, actually and now after so many years, he still felt the same.
Smiling at the memory, he got up and stretched his body and it was only then that he remembered why he'd been in Dean's bedroom in the first place. He left the room in hope to find Dean outside and found nobody there.
Feeling the dread grow inside him, he grabbed his cellphone and dialed Dean's number. The ringing tone came from somewhere in the room and he realized that Dean hadn't had the phone with him when Kevin had taken him to the hospital.
Oh damn, what the hell was wrong with him? Had he really let Kevin take his brother to the hospital? Why hadn't he gone with them? Why had he been so damn ignorant?
Calling Kevin's number, he heard Kevin's voice after the second ring. "I was sure you'd never call."
"Kevin? Why are you not back? Where are you? Where's Dean? What's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Kevin sounded really angry. "What's wrong is that Dean is in a partial coma with-" he stopped mid-sentence.
He couldn't talk about it behind the phone, but he could give Sam a piece of his mind, especially since Dean wasn't his responsibility. "What's wrong is that your brother, your brother, not mine, is lying unconscious in an ICU bed while you're taking your sweet time to decide to give a shit. What's wrong is that they could've prevented Dean from falling into a freaking coma if you hadn't insisted on him being just tired and asleep after punching him so hard. What's wrong is that you didn't even bother to come with me to the hospital and I had to lie" he growled in a low voice, "about Dean's identity and everything else just to get him admitted. What's wrong is that you didn't even fucking answer your phone when I tried to call and ask for your help to fill his forms. But hey, guess that shouldn't surprise me. You're clearly not too fond of answering your phone. The same thing happened when Dean disappeared and I needed your help. And strangely enough, I feel a bit better, now; because if you don't care about your own brother, then you not answering my calls two years ago suddenly doesn't sound that bad." Kevin didn't know what all those things had come from, but he didn't regret speaking his mind; so he just cut the line after coldly telling Sam the name of the hospital and Dean's alias.
Sam was astounded.
He didn't know how to react to anything that he'd just heard. Dean was in a come? He had put his brother in a coma and had left him on the floor of his bedroom? Jesus Christ, what if Kevin hadn't been there? What if Kevin hadn't insisted on taking Dean to the hospital? Would Sam leave him there just to 'rest' and would Dean slowly and quietly die?
The thought sent a shiver down his spine and his knees buckled.
Dean was in a coma, and he was responsible for that. He hadn't even heard his cellphone when Kevin had called him for Dean's information.
And damn if Kevin's last words hadn't stung. The kid had been right, though; he hadn't answered his calls two years ago, and neither had he last night.
Pushing himself up, he walked out of the bunker to go to the hospital, knowing well that Kevin had gotten any insurance or identity card needed from the Impala.
As he walked into the hospital, he found Kevin standing near the nurses' desk, apparently waiting for him.
"They don't tell me much, since I'm not family, but I told them you were coming so they're waiting for you. He's on the third floor." Kevin announced with a little bit anger tinting his voice.
Sam nodded and just walked towards the elevator, knowing that Kevin was following him.
Once up, the nurse told them to wait for her to call Dean's doctor.
"Mr. Mathews?" the doctor's voice made Sam look up from where he was sitting.
"Sam." he said as he stood up and shook the other man's hand.
"Dr. Shelton."
"What can you tell me about my brother, Dr. Shelton?"
"Well, your brother is currently in a semi-comatose state, but he's already showing signs of waking up. There was minor cerebral bleeding at the back of his head where he'd hit the ground, but with the right medication we've been able to control it and it's resolving perfectly."
Sam found himself sighing with relief. Dean was going to be alright. "So, he's gonna be alright?"
"We still have to monitor him for that concussion. It's initially been a minor concussion, but sadly because it hasn't been treated right away, it's gotten a bit out of hand. But barring any unforeseen complications, he should be fine." he paused. "At least, that's not we're worried about."
"Then what is?" Sam frowned. What other problem could Dean have?
"Let me ask you something first; has your brother been in any kinds of fight in the past few months? Or has he been kidnapped and tortured?" Andrew Shelton wasn't the type to beat around the bush, he believed in straightforward approaches. That always had the best results.
Sam's frown deepened. What the heck was he supposed to say to that? Their life was a long torture session, but he couldn't remember Dean getting injured recently,... Except-... Oh, God! His eyes widened as he suddenly remembered Dean getting injured in Cas' hand and not being completely healed afterwards. Damn, how in the hell had he forgotten that? Dean had pushed his problems aside to help Sam finish the trials and at the end, instead of forcing Dean to get some medical attention for those injuries, he'd forgotten about them and had hurt Dean further.
Man, he was going to be sick.
The doctor saw the changes on Sam's face and took pity on him. "Look, your friend here," he motioned to Kevin with his head, "told me that Dean has been in the navy. Is this related to that?"
Sam's training kicked in and he found his voice. "He..." he cleared his throat. "I know that a few months back he'd been captured and hit pretty badly, but he'd been unable to get medical attention immediately and by the time that his mission was over and he was back, the wounds were healed. I can't tell you much, since I wasn't there myself and the mission is classified; so no details."
"So you know nothing about his injuries?" Shelton could say that Sam knew more than he was letting on.
"A friend of his once mentioned broken arm and cheekbone, but Dean... Dean is not the type to complain and tends to hide his injuries. He said he was fine and refused to get any help. What's it, doc? Is it bad?"
"I'm afraid it is." the other man sighed. "The two parts of his right humerus is fused in the wrong position and is putting pressure on the nerves. Honestly, I don't know how someone can tolerate that kind of pain and carry on, but we tested his blood and there were no traces of any types of drug in there."
"You thought Dean's been using drugs to get rid of pain?" Sam saw red. How dare a doctor who knew nothing about his brother accused him of such things?
"I'm sorry, Sam. But that's the first thing that comes to mind in situations such as this. Try to understand us; the kinda pain he must've been in is too much to bear or explain. And being in the war zone and possibly tortured, amplifies the chances of turning to drugs. We wouldn't have judged him even if he'd been using anything. But that's not the point. He was clean and that's why I'm so mystified."
"He has a high tolerance for pain." Dealing with some sort of pain your whole life would do that to you.
"Too high if you ask me." The doctor nodded. "If he hadn't been able to tolerate the pain, he would've sought medical attention and things wouldn't have gone this far."
"How far exactly are we talking here?"
The doctor looked Sam in the eyes for a few seconds before answering. "Once he wakes up and is in a condition to stand the surgery, we'll take him right to the operating room. We have to rebreak that bone and set it right; we're going to have to insert some plates, pins and screws into your brother's arm to fix the bone and then a neurosurgeon should work on the nerves to make sure they aren't damaged. If we postpone this surgery any longer, there might be long term damage to the muscle groups in his arm and we don't want that. But there's still no promises how much function he'll get back or if the pain will completely go away after the procedure."
Sam had paled. He should've never listened to Dean; he should've dragged his stubborn ass to the hospital the moment he'd learned about his injuries. He shouldn't have forgotten; he shouldn't have let things get this far.
"Unfortunately, that's not all. The broken cheekbone you mentioned has also caused some trouble. We can't get any reaction to light from his left eye. Once in the surgery, our ophthalmologist will work on his left eye and its nerves, but again, we can't be sure how much of his eyesight he'll get back. The fact that he'd received the recent punch to the same cheek hasn't helped the situation for sure."
Oh man, this one was totally on him. He'd hit his brother on the one cheek that had already been broken not long ago.
How could he fix this? How could he face Dean if his brother didn't regain his eyesight? Of course, he knew that Dean wouldn't blame him since it'd initially been Cas who'd caused the damage; heck, Dean probably wouldn't have blamed him even if it'd been him hurting his brother in the first place, but that knowledge didn't matter at that moment. Not only had he forgotten about Dean's injuries, he also had added to them. He was just as much to blame for this mess as were both Cas and Dean, himself. 'If not more.' He thought grimly.
"You can go and sit with him for now. We'll discuss the situation further once he's fully awake and aware of his surroundings. He's gonna need as much help and support as possible. This isn't going to be an easy road for him."
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... TBC ...
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A/N: Thanks for your comments, everyone (special thanks to anonymous reviewers for I couldn't reply to their lovely comments), and please once again let me know what you think! :)
Sorry for any mistakes.
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