Chapter 3

Dean groggily opened his eyes. He could barely recall ever feeling this shitty in his life, and he had felt pretty bad in the past. His head throbbed with a dull ache and his stomach felt like he had done a million sit ups. His body ached as though he had fought a dozen monsters. And his nose and throat. What the-?

He saw that he was in some sort of hospital room. He was in the hospital bed and to his right he could see and IV pole and a bag of fluids dripping into the chamber through the IV line that was hooked into his right arm. He looked down at his chest and saw a mess of wires connected to stickers on various locations of his chest. He also saw a clear, thick plastic tube with some sort of nasty green liquid in it. When he reached up he realized that the tube went into his nose and was being held in place by tape.

Feeling slightly panicked, he looked around the room and was relieved to see Sam sleeping in a chair nearby.

"Sam," Dean croaked. He couldn't believe how dry his mouth felt. "Sammy!"

Sam stirred and opened his eyes. When he saw Dean looking back at him he bolted up and rushed over to Dean's bed.

"Dean!" Sam said, his voice sounding obviously relieved. "Thank god you're awake! Are you OK?"

"Where the hell am I?" Dean asked frowning. "What the hell happened?"

Sam swallowed hard, his eyes narrowing. "You're in the hospital."

"Did I get attacked or something? I don't remember-"

"You were drinking, Dean. A lot. You drank almost three bottles worth of alcohol."

Dean frowned, trying to remember. "The Jack Daniels I bought?"

Sam nodded.

"Really? I drank that much?"

"Yeah. You did. And when I found you, you were on the floor unconscious and barely breathing."

Dean stared at him, stunned. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. And thank god I called the ambulance. After they got you here you completely stopped breathing and your heart started going crazy. They almost used the paddles on you!"

Dean swallowed hard. "Oh," was all he could say.

"And then when you did finally come back you freaked right out. Started attacking everyone."

Dean shifted uncomfortably in the bed. "Did I hurt anyone?"

Sam sighed. "No. But it worried everyone."

Dean nodded. He finally let out a sigh. "Well, everything's fine now. Go tell the nurse I'm awake so we can get the hell out of here."

He settled back in bed and looked at Sam expectantly. Sam stared at Dean incredulously.

"You can't be serious," Sam said.

"What?"

"Dean, you almost died last night! You almost drank yourself to death!"

"Almost, Sam. But I didn't die so I'm fine. So let's get out of here. We have work to do."

Sam's face filled with a rage that startled Dean. Sam folded his arms and shook his head.

"No."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"You are going to stay right here. There's something wrong with you, Dean, and we're not leaving here until it gets fixed."

Dean stared at him for a moment and then chuckled.

"Something wrong with me? What, cuz I over did it a little one time? Look, I didn't eat last night and got distracted watching TV. I wasn't paying attention so I over did it a little. That's it. I'll be more carefully next time. Problem solved."

Sam shook his head furiously. "No! NO! That's not it! Dean, I've been watching you and your drinking has gotten way out of hand. I haven't said anything before and it's probably my fault things got this bad. But it's over now. We're going to fix all this!"

"Sam! Dude, come on! I can't believe you're making such a big deal out of this! It was just a onetime thing, that's all! I don't have to drink! I can stop anytime I want to."

"Oh yeah?" Sam arched an eyebrow at him. "Good, cuz we're going to find out. The doctor said you need to stay here for a couple days. They want to watch your heart and they also found some ulcers in your stomach."

"Ulcers? How the hell did they find ulcers in my stomach?"

"They did some kind of scope-thing down your throat and saw them."

Dean glared at Sam. "Dude! What the hell did you let them do to me?"

Sam glared back. "Whatever they said you needed!"

Dean touched the tube in his nose. "And this?"

"It's some kind of tube that sucks the stuff out of your stomach. They said it'll help it to heal."

Dean made a face. "Dude, that is nasty!"

Sam shrugged. "Would you rather have bleeding ulcers? You'd feel real good then!"

Dean rolled his eyes and lay back in the bed. "Whatever."

Sam sat down in the chair. "Seriously, Dean. I just want to make sure everything is OK."

Dean sighed. "I know you do. But I'm fine! I feel crappy today, but I'll be fine tomorrow. Then you'll see and then we can get out of here and do our job."