Dean held his head in his hands, he focused on the metal pattern of the floor of the ambulance. He would steady his breathing, then looked up at Sam, his eyes were veering left and right under his pink eyelids. A deep scrape had completely covered his chin, a deep cut was interrupting the hairs on his left eyebrow. Another ran the side of his temple on the same side. He has a bruise on the right side of his cheek that ran down his jaw. A couple of cuts on his ear, one small one on the side of his nose, he saw another that ran into his hairline on the left side of his face. His lower lip had a cut deep within the purple and blue bruised lips. His eyes followed down his neck, dirt clung to it, a few cuts lined his adams apple. There were wires lining his body, the blanket covered most of his wounds on his abdomen, but he saw his bare shoulder, deep purples circled and curled around his beaten and battered body.

He arms looked smaller, paler, weaker than when he last saw him— well over 24 hours ago. He saw his left had was hanging off from the side of the gurney, dirt underneath his fingernails, dried blood splattered on his fingers. He reached for Sam's hand, placed his in it and then rested it on his stomach. He rested his forehead gingerly on his upper arm, a single tear ran down his cheek, landed silently on the blanket, he allowed for the soft beeping of Sam's heart lull his to a calamity that felt so foreign to him now. He reached out with his right hand to rest atop of Sam's left shoulder, felt the cold underneath his fingertips, felt the wire that monitored his heart rate snake around his arms, felt the meek life underneath his touch. His brother was alive, for now he embraced every second of seeing his brother alive for just these moments before they came to a halt.

"Excuse me Dean, I'll need to get through here," AJ said as he stood up just as soon as the driver of the ambulance came around and opened the back doors, climbed in and unclipped Sam's gurney so as to take him inside the hospital. Dean moved to the side, heard a whimper escape Sam's lips. His forehead creased in confusion. "I'm right here, Sammy," Dean said hanging onto the top of Sam's gurney. "I'm right here."

They raced into the hospital, other doctors met him at the door, the paramedics and doctors exchanged information, they took vitals, began to unwrap him from the blankets, cut him out from the bandages, they transferred him from gurney to gurney, Dean watched as doctors frantically called out orders, as he stood in the back watching the chaos unfold.

He then heard a beeping, loud and fast, scary. He looked over and saw a red light was beeping on the same machine that was reading Sam's vitals. "He's in VTAC, get the paddles!" One doctor called out.

"Whats happening?" Dean said, getting closer to Sam. Doctors turned to him, noticing him for the first time. "Uh. sir. You can't be in here." A nurse said, holding Dean steady as he began to sway, watching doctors cut into Sam's chest, they used a tool to spread it open, he saw blood pour out of his brother, it splashed on the linoleum floor, staining it a deep red. A doctor had managed to get her hands inside of his chest with a tube in tow. "What are they doing to him?"

"Okay, sir. It's time to leave, you can't stay in here."

"He's my brother."

"I understand you're family, but we do not allow family in here right now. You need to wait in the waiting room. Katie, would you show him to the waiting room, please? Okay, uh, sir—?"

"Dean."

"Uh, Dean. This nurse will show you to the family waiting room where we will update you as soon as possible," she then gestured with her hand to where the nurse was and then to where they were heading.

~~~~Scene 10~~~~

A nurse had escorted Dean to a private waiting room just outside the emergency room of the hospital. There the nurse asked if he needed anything- water, coffee, something to eat. He said nothing, but veered his eyes to the water fountain across from him. The nurse took notice of this and went over to the water dispenser, took out a little foam cup, filled it up, and steadily walked back to Dean and handed him the cool, refreshing water.

"Thanks," he said quietly taking the cup and gulping it down.

"Do you need anything else?" She said with a smile. Dean once again did not say anything. He shook his head "no" and rested his elbows on his knees. The nurse contemplated going back to Sam, but knew someone needed to stay and watch over Dean, he was beginning to look frail and unstable. It would be irresponsible if she left him by himself. So she sat two seats over to Dean's left. She rubbed at her sore joints from working over a six hour shift, this being the first time she really sat down.

Dean watched her as she sighed in relief of being off her feet. She looked at Dean, "oh, sorry. Do you mind?" She said pointing down at her chair, asking if it was alright that she stayed in the room with him.

Dean opened his mouth to say something, but closed it and settled for a small subtle smile and a head nod. She smiled back, "good," she said and grabbed for a magazine lazily placed on a coffee table across from her.

— — — — —

More than two hours had gone by when a doctor came walking out, slowly. He placed his bloodied gloves in a blue waste bin with a toxic symbol written on all sides. He rubbed the back of his neck, and readjusted his glasses.

"Dean?" He said placing his hand on his waist. Dean stood up.

"Well we're taking Sam into immediate emergency surgery. We need to fix a ruptured spleen, kidney, and perforated lung from the broken ribs. What this means is that this surgery is obviously very dangerous and life threatening. But we have some of the best doctors here at this hospital, so you don't need to worry about that. You just need to pray to God that he will make it through within the next 5 or so hours." He said placing a ginger hand on Dean's shoulder. Dean looked down at it.

"He's in good hands, Dean. Please don't feel like you've lost hope for him. He is very strong."

"I know." Dean said hoarsely.

The doctor— Dr. Olea said a sympathetic smile appeared on his face for a second, "yeah. I'm sure you do."

"I'll come back for you when the surgery is over." He said. He took a last look at Dean then looked at the nurse, smiled at her, nodded his head as a way of thanking her for keeping Dean company during this time. He left and Dean sat back down. His head once again in his hands that now rested on his knees, his back arching back into its common place that had grown accustomed to these past two hours.

— — — — —

Dean opened his eyes when he heard someone clear their throat. He immediately straightened up when he saw that it was the surgeon— Sam's surgeon. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and placed his hands on either end of the arm rests on his chair, gearing himself to stand up. "No, no, don't get up." The doctor said as he sat next to Dean with a heavy sigh.

"So, how's Sam doing?" Dean asked as he settled back into his chair.

"Sam went through surgery well, but he has a long way to go. He suffered a lot of internal damage, some broken bones that needed some correcting, many wounds that went infected that I had to clean and fix. He is not near the edge of the woods— never mind out of them anytime soon… so we're looking at a very long road to recovery. But he is strong, Dean. Sam's a fighter, surprised he lasted through the surgery… one lucky kid." He said as he patted Dean's knee, "go see your brother." He said before standing up and escorting Dean to Sam's ICU room. "Thank you," Dean said with a smile.

They were walking in the hall when the doctor had stopped them.

"Dean, listen Sam is going to be hooked up to all sorts of wires and tubes and machines. It's gonna look a bit scary, he'll look weak, fragile, but he's your same brother. Just be prepared before you go in there and see him in that state." The doctor said as he took the scrub cap off from his head and was wringing it in his hands. He used his cap to lightly bat at Dean's shoulder, "take care, Dean." He said before smiling at him, comfortingly, and then he left. He left Dean there to prepare for what he was about to see. And it was true.

He walked into the room, two nurses were in there— one was writing something down on a clipboard, most likely taking down his vitals, another nurse was hooking up IV lines to the hooks of the IV stand. The one with the clipboard had looked up and smiled at him.

"Hi, can I help you?" She said gingerly to Dean who was cautiously walking into the room. He was taking in the scent of cleanliness, the foot of the bed had been lit from the light coming from the window across from the door. The curtains had been drawn closed, but a peak of sunlight had made its way into the room. He saw Sam lying there in the bed, his arms to his sides, dried blood still on his arms and neck. Now he had been wearing a hospital gown, a cannula tube was stuck in his nose, wires came from all over his body. There was a cast on his left hand, another wrap around his shoulder, securing his arm on his stomach because of his dislocated shoulder. He has a bandage around his forehead, another one on his chin. He had a lightly wrapped right ankle that was elevated with a pillow.

"Sir?" She said again.

"Uh, yeah sorry. This— this is my brother." He said tiredly.

"Oh, yeah I actually figured that," Dean looked at her puzzled. "You both have the same nose," she said using her pen to point to her own nose.

Dean nodded, in his mind he said, "right." But felt himself too tired to say anything to anyone.

"Okay well I'm finished here, I'll just leave you two alone. Press this button for anything, okay?" She said placing the clipboard on the end of the bed.

"Yeah. Thank you." He said sitting down on the chair beside Sam's bed, taking his good hand into his own.

"I'm here, buddy." He said squeezing his fingers.

— — — — —

It wasn't until the next morning when Dean had seen the nurse again. She had just put the clipboard back on the foot of the bed when Dean tried straightening his hair and jacket up. He was a bit embarrassed that this pretty nurse had been watching him sleep, looking like a mess. He quickly stood, and walked over to the sink in Sam's room taking the little paper cup from the side and pouring some water before sloshing it around in his mouth then spitting it out and turned around. He placed his hands on the end of the counter top, resting his back on it as well.

"Didn't mean to disturb you sleep, just needed to take Sam's vitals." She said shyly smiling at him.

Dean grinned back and nodded to her, "Oh yeah, no. Don't mind me, I'll… just… be- be over here." He said awkwardly.

The nurse smiled at him and scrunched her nose. "Right, well I've got rounds to do. I will see you later this afternoon?" she asked walking towards the door slowly. Dean looked at her and smirked, he nodded excitedly.

"Yeah, I'll see you later," he said cooly, seductively smiling at the floor and giving her a grin.

"I mean I'll come back to change his IV lines, and I- I just assumed you would…" she bumped into a chair and laughs it off, "just assumed you would be here still." She finished.

"Oh, yeah… right…" Dean said embarrassed. He rubbed his face and walked over to Sam's bed as the nurse exited.

"Yeah, okay, bye." She said as she hurried out into the hall.

Dean huffed, closed his eyes and placed his hand over his eyes. "So stupid," he said resting his head on a clenched fist that rested on the arm rest of his chair.

"Classic Dean, always trying to pick up chicks," Sam said so softly that if it were in any other place you wouldn't even hear it. Dean quickly shot up, "Sam?" He said as he grabbed at Sam's right bicep. Sam furrowed his eyebrows. "So loud, that hurts," he said hoarsely again.

Dean laughed at tears welted his eyes, "hey buddy, how you holding up?" He said softly.

Sam moaned, "tired," he whispered before his face rested again, his nose twitched a little as he became aware of the cannula that rested just below his nose.

"Yeah, yeah its okay rest, you've been through a lot, Sammy." Dean said as he gently rubbed Sam's shoulder.

Sam was already back asleep before Dean could rest all the way back into seat again. He had a small smile on his face as he watched Sam sleep. He was always fascinated with the way Sam slept. He sometimes sings in his sleep, he talks mostly, but on rare occasions he can see the ends of his eyebrows lift as he enters a dream state. Other times he sees his lips move as if he is having a silent conversation with someone in his dreams. He could sometimes see his arms move, as if he was running. But all these things were not evident at this moment. He laid so still, almost as if he was far too tired and fragile to move too much. This was a foreign concept to Dean to watch his brother peacefully sleep, not a single sound or movement come from his body. It was all too calm for him, he missed watching him twitch and snort in his sleep.