Chapter 3
Dean's eyes sprang open when someone touched his arm and he sat up quickly starting to reach for a weapon.
"Easy boy, Doc should be coming around soon, thought we should be awake." Bobby told him grabbing his hand before it could find the weapon, not wanting to disturb the others in the waiting room.
"I'm fine." Dean nodded rubbing his eyes for a moment and looking around. He accepted the cup of coffee Bobby offered him and opened the tab to try a sip. The bitter liquid hit his empty stomach like acid and recoiled for a moment until Dean swallowed hard and forced it to settle. Before he could try another sip someone stepped into the room.
"Family of Sam Campbell." he asked looking around the room and stopping on Bobby and Dean.
"Yes." Dean said quickly getting up and moving toward him with Bobby at his side.
"If you'll come with me, we have a consultation room we can use for privacy." he said holding the door for them. He led them a couple of doors down and opened the door to a small room with a desk and three chairs sitting around it. Dean and Bobby took two of the seats and looked expectantly at the man as he took a seat.
"I'm Dr. Harold, Mr. Campbell's doctor."
"Dean, I'm Sam's brother and Bobby's our...adopted father." Dean introduced them and set forward in his seat as he asked the important question. "How's Sam doing doc?"
Dr. Harold let out a slow breath and straightened the file he had in front of him before looking back up to answer the question.
"Give it to me straight doc, don't sugar coat it. What's going on with my brother?" Dean stated firmly never one to beat around the bush when it came to something like this. He wanted it straight out and honest so he would know how to proceed.
"They stabilized Mr. Campbell before airlifting him here to the trauma unit. He was in very bad shape when he got here, barely clinging to life." the doctor explained, pausing for a moment to let what he said sink in before continuing. "He was rushed to surgery where we did our best to repair all his injuries. We lost him twice on the table, but was able to revive him. We set his arm and leg, removed his spleen, stopped the internal bleeding, stitched his lacerations and wrapped his chest for cracked and broken ribs. I had to put in a chest tube to keep the fluid from building in his lungs. I hope that can be removed in a few days, but we'll have to wait and see. He may have limited use of his hands, we'll have to wait until they heal, but what worries me the most is the head trauma he received. We had to relieve the pressure on his brain to stop the swelling. We really won't know what damage has been done until he wakes up...If he wakes up." Dr. Harold explained to them looking from one to the other. "I'm sorry I don't have better news for you, but it's too early to say right now. He's stable but still in critical condition. We're monitoring him closely for further swelling or bleeding on the brain. If he does wake up you could be looking at impaired motor skills such as slurred speech, or he might have to learn to do everything all over again, talking, walking, feeding himself and dressing himself. He may have memory loss, minor or major, so don't be surprised if he might not remember things. The injury to the brain may start mood swings or seizures. The brain is a tricky organ that can do miraculous things when trying to heal itself. It might rewire itself to compensate for damage. The worse case we're looking at is such severe brain damage that he might never gain consciousness. The one good sign is he's breathing on his own. I know this is a lot to throw at you at one time, but I wanted you to be prepared and if you have any questions that the nurses can't answer, you can have them page me. I will be checking back in on him this afternoon and I've scheduled another MRI for his head this afternoon to be sure that the damage has not spread further or any new problems have occurred. "
The more the doctor talked, the paler Dean became and the harder it was for him to breath. It was like the walls were closing in on him and everything seemed distance and hollow sounding. Time stood still and nothing else mattered at the moment but getting to Sam and being with him.
"What happened to his hands?" Bobby asked curious to how they were injured since the police didn't elaborate on his injuries.
"From the reports we received from the other hospital, seems he was nailed to a wooden wall and left hanging there. They don't know how long but his hands took a lot of stress and strain holding his body up. The nerve damage could be extensive and then again we need to wait for him to regain consciousness to know for sure"
"Awe hell..." Bobby muttered. He wanted to talk to the cops in Garber more than ever now. "Thank you doc, is there anything else we can do for him?" Bobby asked when he saw the devastated look on Dean's face and the paleness of his skin.
"Pray." the doctor said getting up. "You can use the room as long as you need. I'm sorry there's not better news."
"Doc, would it be possible for Dean to stay with his brother? If anyone can pull him out of this it's him. I've seen them both on the brink of death and bring each other back. I don't think you can keep him from his brother anyway. He won't get in the way of the nurses I promise. It might be our only hope to save the boy." Bobby pleaded with the doctor.
"It's worth a try; I'll inform the nurses and get him a pass for the door and to be there past visiting hours. It'll be at the nurse's station for you." Dr. Harold nodded his understanding their need to be with the young man. If he hadn't been for Sam's serious condition he would not have approved of it. He stepped from the room leaving the two men alone to digest what had been told to them.
spn
Bobby turned back to Dean who hadn't moved since the doctor gave them the information on Sam. It seemed Dean had gotten smaller and had shrunk in on himself as his hands lay loosely in his lap. He stared off into space, his eyes glazed and empty.
"Alright Dean, we know the worse case scenarios, but like to doc said they won't know anything until Sam wakes up; we've got to make him want to do that, ya hear me boy?" Bobby said getting down into Dean's face to get his attention.
It took several minutes before Dean was able to focus on Bobby's face. His lips parted like he was going to say something, but nothing came out. He blinked away the tears in his eyes and clenched them together instead as he drew in a ragged breath and squared his shoulders. He didn't say anything to Bobby as he pushed himself up and stood there for a moment to let the dizziness pass and headed for the ICU wanting to see his brother. He buzzed at the door and waited impatiently for a nurse to let him in.
"Visiting hours doesn't start for another thirty minutes." the nurse told him.
"I need to see my brother now so please get out of my way or I'll move you out of the way." Dean stated firmly as he stared her down showing he wasn't backing down.
"Callie its okay, the doctor approved him going in." one of the other nurses said as she walked toward them. "You need to wear this while you're here and it will let you through the door if you pass it over the pad." she instructed Dean holding out a badge attached to a lanyard.
"Thanks." Dean mumbled taking the offering and draping it around his neck before stepping past the nurses looking in each room for his brother. It looked like he had been moved from his previous room to another.
"He's in room seven." Callie called to Dean as he advanced down the row of doors.
The nurse gave Bobby a pass too and explained how it worked and let him go on in too. Bobby walked down to Sam's room and stepped inside to see Dean had pulled a chair up toward the head of Sam's bed and had the railing down so he could get closer to him. He had Sam's bandaged hand in his own and was stroking the fingers ever so gently as he studied Sam's bruised and swollen face. Dean's face was void of any emotions concerning his brother and Bobby knew that was not a good thing.
"Will you be okay for a while?" Bobby asked. "I need to make some phone calls."
"We'll be fine." Dean whispered, not taking his eyes off of Sam. He took a damp cloth and carefully wiped Sam's face as he mumbled quietly to him.
Without further words, Bobby stepped out and headed out of ICU to find a quiet place to make some calls. He knew the first time he saw Sam that he had been beaten up by someone, not some thing. Humans did this to him and he was going to find out who and why.
spn
With his head bowed, Dean began to speak quietly under his breath, "Cas if you can hear me I need your help. I'm at Tulsa Trauma Center in Okalahoma, Sam's been hurt bad..."
"Dean?" Castiel asked as a soft disturbance in the air nearby let Dean know he had heard him.
"Cas..." Dean said turning his head to look at him. "Can you help him? Please?" he begged desperation in his voice.
"What happened to him?" Cas asked as he stepped to the bed and looked Sam over. He laid a hand on Sam's forehead and cocked his head as he tried to access his injuries. "Dean, when I chose to ally with you instead of the angels, I was cut off from Heaven and some of my powers. I can still do some minor things but I can not heal like I used to. He's needs a stronger angel than me to assist him."
"Anything Cas...He's got to have a chance. I can't lose him, not this way, we have..." he started but couldn't finish.
Castiel looked down at the young man that was like a brother to him, lying lifeless in the bed. He could feel the sadness, stress and grief coming off Dean and knew he had to do something to help Sam.
"There might be a something..."
"Anything Cas, the doctors...they're not holding out much hope for Sammy...What do you need?"
"A syringe." Cas said taking off his trench coat and suit jacket.
Dean got up and started looking in the cabinets and drawers for a syringe. He finally found one and pulled a couple out in case he needed more.
"Found one, what now?"
"I need you to extract some of my grace into the syringe." Castiel stated leaning his head back for access to the front of his neck and holding his angel weapon out for Dean to use.
"Say what?" Dean asked in surprise that stopped him in his tracks in shock looking from the angel blade to Cas and back. "Are you kidding me?"
"No, my grace can help heal his body and it should not harm him since it will be a low dose, but it might not be able to completely heal Sam, but maybe help enough that his own body can take over then."
"I don't know about this Cas...What if I like...Injure you or something?"
"You won't, I trust you Dean. You can do this for your brother."
Dean went to the door and checked the nurses before closing it and pulling the curtain for privacy. He didn't want anyone walking in on him while he was doing this. He stepped to Cas after removing the syringe from its wrapping and opening an alcohol wipe.
"Alright how do I do this?" he asked steadying his hands as best he could.
"You have to find the small indention right above the bone." Cas instructed holding his finger on the spot so Dean could see.
"Got it, now what?" he asked placing a finger on either side of the spot Cas showed him and swiped the wipe over the area to clean it.
"Very carefully nick my skin and insert the needle in until it stops, but don't force it and then draw out some of my grace. I'd say a couple of CC's will do to begin with. Sam is weak and we don't want to stress his body out."
"You're sure about this Cas?" he asked readying the blade right above Cas's neck.
"Yes, go ahead, just the amount I said. We will start slow and see how he tolerates it and next time increase it a CC."
"And you're sure this will help?"
"I don't know, but I have no other answers." Cas told him honestly.
"Alright Cas, let's do this." Dean huffed not knowing any other options to help Sam.
Dean took his blade and focused on the area he needed to nick so he could insert the needle. Once he had a small wound, he tossed the blade to the bed and pushed the needle into Cas's skin feeling a little resistance so he pushed a little hard and then stopped. Carefully holding the syringe in place, he pulled on the plunder and drew out the pure white/silver, glowing, swirling grace. He stopped when the syringe had a couple of CC's in the tube and slowly removed the needle. Castiel ran a finger over the area, sealing the skin to stop further grace from escaping. He accepted his angel blade back from Dean and slid it in place. Dean looked down at the grace and swore it seemed to be alive as it moved around in the syringe tube.
"Now you need to inject it into Sam in the same spot as where you took my from." Castiel told him.
Dean opened another wipe and wiped Sam's neck in the same spot before placing a finger on either side of it, pressing the skin tight. After taking in a deep breath, Dean pushed the needle into Sam's neck and injected the grace into him. Once he was done, he discarded the needle, wiped the spot of a small speck of blood and then went to the door, opening it just as a nurse started to come in. He quickly stepped back allowing her entrance and tried not to look guilty of doing anything.
A/N: So we know the extend of Sam's injuries now. Dean has his work cut out for him, but he's not giving up hope. What's Sam going to do when and if he does come to? Thank you to any guests who left me reviews and to all the silent readers. I do like to know your thoughts, please review. NC
Side Note: I have co-authored a story with another writer, DSCWin called A Hunter's Vacation about two female hunters who end up in the same place and find a hunt. One is my creation Lark and the other is her creation, Christina who is also the sister to Dean and Sam. Check it out and see what you think. I am letting her post the story and know she would love to have you read it. NC