Chapter 6 – Nightmares

Sam approached bedtime with more trepidation than a vampire nest. At least he knew how to handle vampires. A seven year old girl with a Dean-fixation? No clue. That was supposed to be Dean's job. Still fully dressed, Rae eyed the two beds suspiciously.

"I'll even try to do voices," Sam promised, sitting on one bed. He patted the space beside him. "Come on. At least try."

Her lower lip quivered as her arms crossed over her chest. "Why can't we just sleep up at the hospital with my dad?" Rae's voice quavered and she definitely looked on the verge of tears.

Sam started to explain that she needed a good night's sleep, that just hanging out at the hospital wouldn't do any good, that they were doing Dean a favor by…

Dean would want her there. Dean would want him there. Dean would be beside himself with worry and then pissed if he woke up all alone in a hospital, assuming the worst.

Rae had already been separated from too much; she didn't need to be separated from Dean, not even for a night. Those doctors up at the hospital didn't know his family like he did. Sam grabbed the backpack with her story and activity books. "Let's go."

Rae's face lit up. "Seriously?" she squealed.

"Are you kidding?" Sam slung the backpack over his shoulder. "Do you know how ticked off Dean would be with me if I made you cry?" He grinned at her.

Rae rushed to the door and pulled it open. She waited for Sam to walk through before grabbing his hand. Sam squeezed her hand gently as the door slammed shut and they made their way to the car. He strapped her in beside him before driving to the hospital.

Visiting hours were over, but a little thing like that was not going to stop him. They walked through the emergency room entrance like they owned the place. Sam didn't even pause as he led Rae through the doors to the main part of the hospital. He hoped any hospital personnel who spotted them would assume they were supposed to be here. Sam walked purposefully through the halls towards Dean's room. When they passed the nurses' station, he heard a woman's voice call out to him. Sam ignored it, pushing open Dean's door.

The sight inside was not exactly what he expected.

"What the hell is this!" Sam roared, storming into the room.

Several doctors and nurses surrounded Dean's bed. His brother was literally tied down to the bed, wide straps across Dean's chest and legs and some kind of leather straps holding his wrists and ankles in place.

"Sir, please!" A man in a white coat held up a hand. "This looks far worse than it is."

"Daddy?" Rae's voice was full of tears and Sam watched the doctor's face shift into horror at the sight.

"Daddy?" He glanced back at Dean before addressing her. "Honey, you really shouldn't be here. We're doing everything we can for your Daddy."

"Tying him up is helping?" Sam demanded, moving closer to the bed. Now that he could get a better look, he saw Dean's face was covered in sweat and his brother's normally spiky hair was plastered to his skull. "How the hell is this helping?"

"It's for his own protection," the doctor argued. "Even sedated he was thrashing around so violently that he was…"

As the doctor spoke, Sam realized exactly what the problem was. Stupid doctors. "Rae," he interrupted the man, "go snuggle up. It's bedtime."

"No!" the doctor tried to move between his patient and the racing child, but Rae was pretty quick. Sam figured Dean would be proud of the move she used to duck around the doctor. She bounced onto the bed in a manner only children can get away with to lay her head on Dean's shoulder. The results were instantaneous. Dean's thrashing stopped. Rae curled up next to him, pressing as much of her body against his as possible.

Dean's right arm twitched.

"You see?" the doctor demanded. "This stunt of yours hasn't changed anything. You can't control someone's unconscious."

Sam frowned at the man. "No, you don't understand." He made it to Dean's side in two quick strides. With deft fingers Sam removed the restraint from his brother's right wrist. Freed, Dean's right arm flew through the air to wrap around Rae. He tried to roll on his side, his efforts hampered by the straps holding him to the bed.

"Give me a hand," Sam ordered the other people gathered in the room. "Now." As the straps were removed, Sam felt obligated to explain. "He was searching for her, that's why you couldn't get him to settle down. Dean can't sleep unless Rae is with him."

With the straps gone, Dean's larger frame curled protectively around Rae. She snuggled into his embrace. The only part of his body not to relax was his left arm which searched for something. Realizing his brother wanted his hunting knife, Sam searched for something to substitute for the knife. His eyes fell on the call button. Sam rushed to that side of Dean's bed to press the call button into his brother's hand. The hand clutching the call button disappeared under the pillow. A deep breath escaped Dean as his body finally relaxed. Sam smiled at the sight. Maybe it meant Dean would be waking up soon.

The doctor motioned Sam out into the hall. "And why is that?" the man asked, genuinely curious. "Does it have something to do with the fact she doesn't have a mother?"

Sam weighed the question, deciding how he would answer. "Yes," he finally said. "She saw both of her parents attacked and killed by a wild animal." Well, it was the closest to the truth this guy would ever hear. "My brother adopted her. They're inseparable."

The doctor's eyebrows rose. "Adopted?" He glanced back into the room before looking at Sam again. "That I wouldn't have guessed."

It was late and Sam was tired. He did not feel like discussing Dean and Rae's entire relationship right now. "Are there any of those chairs that fold out so you can sleep in them?"

The doctor started. "Oh, uh, maybe. I think there are a few in the maternity ward. I'll see if I can steal one for the night."

Sam nodded. "Thanks."

He returned to his brother's room to glare at the people still in there. The last person to leave was a nurse staring at Dean with misty eyes. Sam took her by the elbow to usher her out.

"That is just so sweet," she said as Sam shoved her out the door. Silently, Sam disagreed with her. It wasn't sweet, it was necessary. Without Dean, Rae would be plagued by nightmares she wouldn't be able to wake from and without Rae, well, Dean would go back to thinking he wasn't as worthwhile. He took a seat in a hard plastic visitor's chair, glad for Rae coming into their lives.

Dean searched for his family through the woods. He couldn't even find a broken twig to indicate which way they would have gone. Some bubbles in the lake caught his attention. Fearing the worst, Dean ran to the lake, plunging into the water. He shed his jacket in the shallow part, stripping quickly down to his t-shirt. Ice cold water surrounded him as he dove in. Churning water in front of him drew him closer.

Sam's arms flailed in the water. Dean tried to help, to drag him up for air, but his brother was held fast in the water. He swam down to free his brother, but as he reached Sam's legs he found something that made his heart stop. Rae's head bobbed bonelessly, her body strapped to one of Sam's legs. Dean grabbed at the straps holding her to his brother, but he couldn't break the bonds. His best plan was to get Sam, and Rae with him, out of the water.

Dean swam further down, searching for the thing holding his brother underwater. A dark shadow hovered below Sam's feet. Dean swam toward it when he heard a wonderful sound – Rae screaming. He looked up at her lifeless body. She still did not move but that sound had to be Rae, it couldn't be anything else. The image of Rae and Sam drowning could be a distraction, an illusion to fool him and draw him away.

"Dean." A familiar voice drifted through the water, past the horrible image in front of him.

"Wake up there, boy," another voice he knew pierced the water. Dean squinted through the water. There had to be a reason he could hear them.

"Come on, big brother." Sam stopped thrashing in the water, his lips turning blue as his arms floated to hover near his head. "You can do it, open your eyes."

Dean squeezed his eyes shut, the images of Sam and Rae turning blue in the water burned into his mind. How could he hear Sam when he was under water?

"Daddy!" The urgency rocketing through that word threw his eyelids open.

Rae, alive and breathing, stared down at him with wet brown eyes. Soft white light filtered from behind her head, giving her a kind of halo. "Rae? You okay?"

A whoosh of air from his left drew his attention. Sam and Bobby stood over his bed. "Bobby?" He cast his eyes down at Bobby's hospital gown. "Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital?"

Bobby smiled at him. "We are in the hospital."

Dean tried to sit up, but Rae threw herself on his neck and he sunk back down into the bed. He was in a bed. A quick glance around assured Dean they were in a hospital room and not at the bottom of the lake. He relaxed back into the bed.

"Good to see you up," he said to Bobby. "So did Sam figure out what happened?"

Sam, standing right behind Bobby, shook his head. "He woke up when he heard you yelling."

Dean frowned at his brother. "Yeah, okay. That doesn't help."

A small goofy grin erupted on Sam's face. "Nope, but that's okay. We'll figure it out."

Two nurses and a doctor burst into the room at that moment. The doctor's eyes flashed between Dean and Bobby.

"You," he pointed out Bobby, "back in bed." He turned to the nurse. "Get him into bed and take his vitals."

"Yes, doctor." She rushed over to take one of Bobby's arms. Bobby scowled at her, but he went along peacefully.

He approached Dean with a penlight in hand. Dean sat still while the doctor shined the light in his eyes and the nurse took his temperature. "Sit up, I want to check your lungs," the doctor ordered.

Dean cradled Rae against his chest as he sat up. Her arms tightened around his neck and he rubbed her back in tight circles, trying to calm her.

"Here." Sam's hands appeared in front of his face. "I'll take her."

"Good luck," Dean replied as her arms tightened again, threatening to cut off his air supply.

"Come on, Sunshine," Sam crooned gently. "The doctor needs to check Dean out, make sure he's okay. You can snuggle again in a minute."

Amazingly, Rae released him and allowed Sam to pick her up. How the hell long had he been out? He stared at them while the doctor pressed an ice cold stethoscope against his back.

"Well, everything seems fine," the doctor finally said. He nodded at Sam who handed Rae back over. She snuggled so close Dean wondered just how scared she had been. "I still don't understand why you and Mister Singer wouldn't wake up. What's the last thing you remember?"

Dean shrugged. "Just being out by the lake."

"You were out by the lake?" Bobby snapped. "What the hell were you doing out there?"

"It's a big lake, Bobby," Dean said, rolling his head to the side so he could see their old friend, "it's kind of hard to avoid."

"You were found in the same area as Mister Singer," the doctor announced. Bobby scowled, glaring at Dean. Dean decided to leave that argument for later. "Can you think of anything that would cause you to pass out? We didn't find any signs of trauma."

Dean shook his head. He assumed Bobby did the same by the doctor's disappointed face.

"So when do we get out of here?" Dean demanded.

The doctor sighed. "I'd really like to keep both of you for a day or two, for observation. But that's not going to happen, is it?" He shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try. I'll write up release papers for after lunch. I'd like to see you both eat breakfast and lunch before we let you go."

"Sounds good," Sam said. Dean rolled his eyes. Sam was probably the only person in the room who might actually like that idea.