Caution: spoilers for Faith

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It had never been Dean's intention to lie to his cousin. As his conscience protested he tried to convince himself that he was only doing it for her own good. For the good of everyone, really. What was the point in worrying her if there was nothing anyone could do? There was nothing to gain from telling the truth. This, of course, would come back later to bite him in the ass.

Sam was outside talking to the doctors, no doubt being offered the same discouraging news that he himself had had the pleasure of hearing moments ago. The electric shock he'd received in the basement of that house had damaged his heart beyond any hope for healing and there was nothing modern medicine could now do, giving Dean, at best, one week to live.

He wasn't looking forward to his brother joining him once he was done with the doctors. Sam would try with all his might, but ultimately he would fall apart in front of him and that was something that Dean wasn't yet ready for. He needed a slight sense of false security right now. Something that would help him forget, or ignore what was happening. What he needed right now was to hear her voice; her sparkling voice, still untouched by the news of his heart attack by electrocution.

He dialed her number from his hospital bed and waited for her to pick up.

"Dean?" Her voice reached him and he couldn't help the smile that broke over his face.

"Hello kitten" He gasped as he struggled to breathe "How are you?"

"I'm OK" She said "You sound like crap. Is everything OK?"

"I think I've come down with a cold" He said with a cringe. He hated that he was lying to her, but if the doctors were right about his heart, he wouldn't be hating himself for very long anyway.

"Oh no, you poor thing!" She said sympathetically before her tone did a turnaround and she put on her best 'scolding mother' attitude "Well, that's what you get for digging up graves and wandering around apple orchids in the middle of the night! I hope this teaches you to be a little more careful, Dean. Remember, you're only human!"

"Yeah, Bel" He said swallowing the lump in his throat. "I've learnt my lesson"

"Where are you now? And you better say you're in bed"

"I am" He said glumly looking down at the hospital bed.

"Good" She said satisfied "What are you guys up to?"

"Same old, same old" He said "Tell me what's up with you"

"Not much" She said casually "Working at the spa, making new friends"

"Still dating that guy?"

"His name is Paul" She said rolling her eyes. She'd told him a million times her boyfriend's name was Paul and he still referred to him as that guy "And yes Dean, I am"

"Wow, almost three months now!" He enjoyed getting a rise out of her, but in reality he was really happy for her. This guy sounded OK and he'd obviously been good for her.

"I know" She said excited before her tone took on an edge of seriousness as if what she was saying was of the utmost importance, a big secret she was telling him and only him "I'm really falling for him Dean. I can feel it"

"Does he know what he's getting himself into?"

"He already knows I'm a little odd"

"A little odd?" He asked with a snort "Isabel, you're a twenty-four carat fruit loop! I actually meant if he knows about… the family…us in general?"

"We're not the Corleones, Dean" She said "We're not even the Sopranos"

"You know what I'm talking about" He said sternly. Mobsters they may not be, but they were far from being the Partridge Family.

"Baby steps, Dean" She said "I'm moving slow on this"

"Yeah, probably better to ease him into it" He said. It wouldn't be easy for Paul to accept everything about Isabel, without even counting Sam and Dean in the equation. From what happened to her parents, to her ordeal in Illinois, the therapy and the foster care. It was a lot of baggage for any man to take "I'm really happy for you"

"I can't wait for you guys to meet him" She said.

"Yeah" Dean forced himself to say, knowing he would probably never get the chance to meet him now.

"Are you two going to come and visit me soon?" She whined and Dean could tell without even seeing her face that she was pouting "It's been three months since you left, I'm dying to see you guys"

"Sure, Bel" He said "As soon as we can"

"You better get well soon" She insisted "Promise me you'll visit as soon as you're feeling better"

He closed his eyes "I promise, kitten"

"You better, or else I'm gonna hunt you both down"

"God, I miss you" He breathed out as he let his head fall back on the pillow. He was surprised with himself at the amount of emotion he unconsciously put into hose four words and without thinking how odd it would sound to her.

"I miss you too Dean" She said frowning at Dean's uncharacteristic display of sentimentality. Sure, he'd told her he missed her before, but never like that.

"Well, tell me more" He said more steadily as he cleared his throat.

"About what?" She asked confused.

"Everything, anything, just… keep talking"

She was silent for a moment and he knew that she was beginning to think something wasn't adding up "You OK Dean?

Tell her, his mind said, tell her.

"Yeah, just bored" He said instead "I'm in bed and daytime TV sucks"

"OK then, I do have something to tell you" She said "This is pretty big I think…Paul and I are going away this weekend. Our first weekend away together! I'm so excited!"

"It's definitely getting serious" He said, making a mental note to have Sam check this guy Paul out.

"And there's more" She continued "He gave me a key to his place yesterday"

"Wow, that is serious"

"I know, right?" She said "I was going to return the gesture but before I even got around to it, Missouri came up to me and told me to not 'even think about it'. Can you believe that? Do you know what it's like to live with a psychic Dean?"

"Yeah, I do" He said thinking of Sam.

"Oh, right. But Sam isn't like Missouri, Dean" She said "I can't keep anything from her!"

'You just have to behave and be a good girl" He said with a smirk.

"I know, but its soooo hard!" She said as if it were truly an impossible feat "She won't even let him spend the night! I have to sneak around like a teenager!"

He laughed and let her talk for the next half hour. At the end of their conversation she almost had him believing he did just have a cold and would recover in a few days and he'd be driving down to Kansas to see her. Reality came crashing down the moment Sam walked into his room, and his mood, which had been lifted so easily by the phone call to his cousin, plummeted as soon as he caught a glimpse of his brother's grim expression. He knew what Sam came here to talk about, so Dean beat him to it.

"Have you ever actually watched daytime TV?" Dean said looking up at the screen "It's terrible"

Sam sighed and looked at his older brother "I talked to your doctor" He started.

"That fabric softener teddy bear. Oh, I'm gonna hunt that little bitch down" Still avoiding Sam's stare.

"Dean" Sam said, making Dean finally look up at him.

"Yeah" He said turning the TV off. Time to face facts "Alright, well, looks like you're gonna leave town without me"

"What are you talking about? I'm not going to leave you here"

Dean's plan half-worked. By making light of the situation, Sam rebelled, hardening in irritation and determination to not let Dean die. It was better this way. Better than having his little brother break down into a vortex of despair and taking him and possibly Isabel down with him. Let him believe there was something that could be done.

The next three days were spent with Dean calling Isabel every morning and Sam burying himself in cardiology research. It was only a matter of time until Sam cracked and disobeyed Dean's direct wishes that he not tell Isabel what was going on. As the situation became more desperate for Sam, he decided it was time Isabel was told and prepared himself as he rang her cell from the motel room phone.

"Hey, Sam" She squealed in excitement "A call from Dean, now you. It's not even my birthday!"

"You've spoken to Dean today?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Yeah, he's called me every day this week. He didn't' tell you?" She asked confused "Have you two had another fight? Is that what you two are like now that I'm not there? You know, if either of you need someone to yell at, I'm only a phone call away"

Her words were distorted slightly and he realized she was eating. He looked at his watch and noticed it was early in the morning in Lawrence, on a weekday. She was probably having breakfast before having to go to work. He heard another crunch on the end of the line and he smiled. Of course, Cheerios, her favorite.

"No" Sam said with a small laugh "No fights today"

"You sound like crap too" She said "Have you caught Dean's cold?"

Sam frowned "Cold?" He knew Dean didn't want to tell her the truth. But now he was just flat out lying to her.

"Yeah, he told me he was sick!" She said and he heard the clunk of metal as she put her spoon down "Said he'd come down with a cold, why? Isn't he sick?"

"Yeah Bel" Sam said softly as he choked up again "He's sick"

"Well…is it really that bad? Is it more than just a cold?" She asked as the first traces of concern began to enter her mind. He heard more noise and figured she had started putting dishes in the sink "Make him go see a doctor, please Sam, before it turns into something serious" There was silence on the line and she stopped all movement "Sam?"

Oh God, he couldn't do it.

"Yeah, I'm here" He said softly.

"What is it Sam? You're being really weird" She said "Are you OK? Do you want me to come over? I'm coming over, where are you?"

"No, no it's OK" Sam said quickly "I can do this"

"Do what?" She asked now agitated "Sam, you're scaring me. Where are you?"

"Don't worry, Bel' He said determined "I'll find someone"

He hung up on her before she said anymore, but more importantly before he said anymore. Now he was just as much part of the lie as Dean was. Desperation was quickly making him lose focus and as much as he had avoided turning to his dad on this, he realized now that he had run out of options. While he could possibly explain himself out of keeping something like this from Isabel, John Winchester deserved to know his son was dying.

He gathered his strength once again and dialed his father's number, not surprised to get his voicemail. He hoped against hope that his dad was checking it regularly and would before it was too late.

"This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son, Dean. 866-907-3235. He can help"

He waited for the beep and tried to hold back tears that had come out of nowhere "Hey, Dad. It's Sam. You probably won't even get this, but, uh….It's Dean. He's sick, and… the doctors say there's nothing they can do. Um….but, they don't know the things we know, right? So, don't worry, 'cause uh….I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get him better. Alright….just wanted you to know"

He hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed, as if the phone was to blame for the two calls he'd just had to make. He buried his face in his hands and was in the process of telling himself that maybe now was finally the moment to give up when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He stood up quickly and opened it, his eyes widening in surprise to see Dean standing in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked his older brother in disbelief.

"I checked myself out" Dean said casually as he walked into the room.

"What?" Sam asked, wondering how the hell the hospital had let him check himself out. He looked like death "Are you crazy?"

"Well, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot"

Sam laughed, both at Dean's joke and at his continued attempts to pretend this wasn't scaring him. He shut the door and turned back to his brother.

"You know, this whole I-laugh-in-the-face-of-death thing? It's crap. I can see right through it"

"Yeah, whatever, dude" Dean said with a shrug as he sat on the bed and pulled out his cell phone "Wanna tell me why I have three missed calls from Isabel? All in the last ten minutes?"

"I just rang her" Sam said, not feeling in the least guilty.

"I told you not tell her about this"

"I didn't. I went along with your lie about catching the sniffles" Sam said bitterly. When Isabel found out that he lied to her about something like this, a simple 'Dean told me to' wasn't going to cut it "She knows something's up though"

"Then you must have let something slip"

"Me?" Sam asked in offense "Maybe she thinks it's a little odd that you've called her three days in a row for no reason"

"Boredom is a good reason" Dean said, sighing as Sam glared at him "I don't want her to worry OK?"

"Really?" Sam said "I think you don't have the guts to tell her"

"Yeah, sure" Dean said rolling his eyes "Have you even slept? You look worse than me

And once again they were back to their bickering. Sam didn't feel like pushing the issue of Isabel, because, like he had told Dean, he wasn't going to let his brother die, and if he wasn't going to let his brother die, then perhaps Dean was right and there was no reason to worry her unnecessarily. If this guy in Nebraska who Joshua had recommended couldn't help Dean, then he would tell her, whether Dean liked it or not. Until then, they would have to screen their calls and avoid her completely. They would deal with the repercussions of ignoring Isabel later. First things first though, he had to get Dean to Nebraska.

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Thanks for reading. Please review. Soon the boys will make it down to visit Isabel in Kansas, and the story will deviate a little from the season 1 plot.

Thanks a bunch to all reviewers so far. Toodles, AT