Still I do not have them, and still they will not take a slightly used Hyundai for them...
An uncomfortable silence settled over the group as the doctor began to first set, and then stitch Dean's arm back together. The only sounds being the doctor mumbling his instructions to the nurse. Instructions that she didn't need. Their actions were automatic, they performed surgery like automatons. The only emotion apparent in the room was coming from Sam.
A nervous energy flitted around Sam, Dean could almost see it. The way Sam moved, sitting on the very edge of the table next to Dean, Sam looked ready to pounce on the doctor any moment. With the death grip Sam had on Dean's good arm, if Sam decided to attack the doctor he would take Dean with him. "That would be two broken arms in one night," Dean thought. Dean couldn't understand why Sam would still be nervous. Dean already took care of the fever question and the doctor was fixing his arm.
Dean thought it was kind of funny. The doctor administered him an anesthetic, but instead of taking him further into the hazy maze that he had spent the night trying to escape, he was more aware. The blinding red pain that crashed in waves up his arm receded allowing his thoughts time to surface and catch their breath. Dean found it easier to think without being buried in his thoughts. It was time to take in the situation.
The first question to answer, Dean thought, was what is making Sam so nervous. Then he could focus on solving the issue. Following the direction of Sam's bright energy, Dean glanced at the doctor and nurse.
Overall, the doctor wasn't physically imposing. He was mid to old age, balding on top, passing from stout into the territory of a real weight problem, and he was rather short. About the same height, Dean judged, as the nurse handing the doctor any tool he might need. Aside from the red tinge his eyes painted the world, giving the doctor and nurse both a slightly sadistic tinge, everything appeared superficially normal. The red was not something Sam could see, so obviously there was something else. Dean took another look at the nurse buzzing next to him and realized what set Sam off.
She glared towards Sam and Dean out of the corners of her eyes, scrutinizing them. Almost as if she expected them to bolt without paying or something. Dean stifled a snicker that arose in his mind, "so it was the nurse that had Sam so upset." Maybe Sam put her on edge, but that still didn't explain why Sam would be on edge.
Wait, Dean stopped for a moment. He had to think back on Sam's posture. Maybe he was still a bit fuzzier than originally thought. Dean turned his gaze towards his younger brother again, looking for the exact focus of Sam's attention.
Sam was on the edge of the table, clutching Dean's arm, this much Dean hadn't forgotten. However, Sam wasn't focused on the nurse, his eyes sent daggers into the doctor. Aside from the painful jabbing in an obviously wounded area and for the fact that he was a doctor, the man was not someone that Dean would label as a threat. Of course, he was under the weather, maybe Sam was picking up on some vibe that Dean wasn't.
Dean leaned his face closer to the doctor. It was awkward going, seeing as the doctor was leaning over one arm and Sam had the other in a death grip, but Dean managed to make it so they were almost nose-to-nose. He could feel Sam trying to pull him back into an upright position, but he put the insistent tugs out of his mind. Instead, he leaned every bit of his impaired focus towards the doctor, trying to pick up the same vibe as Sam.
Steely grey eyes met Dean's red fogged green. The doctor's eyes were piercing, Dean could feel them drilling into his skull. "I am almost done, sir."
The doctor pushed Dean's face away, glancing at his nurse again before leaning back over the offending appendage. That was weird, Dean had never heard a doctor be so cold before. Normally it was that sickly sweet "I'll make everything better". Was that what Sam was nervous about? A grumpy doctor?
Dean felt the way Sam's grip on his arm tightened when the doctor touched his face, a sudden jerk, as if Sam wanted to keep the doctor from touching Dean.
Still focused on the doctor, trying to ignore the dancing nerves jumping from Sam, Dean leaned over onto his brother. He cleared his mind. Hopefully this would let the information that he needed seep into his hedge maze of thought processes.
Leaned back like this he could feel the steady, if slightly elevated, rhythm of Sam's heart. His fever enflamed head was cooled by the material of Sam's shirt. Dean was letting his guard down again, comforted by Sam's presence. His brother had left him once, but now Sam was back. Dean began to drift again. He was floating away from having to deal with his problems, at least for the time being.
Dreams of red robots dressed in doctors' clothing flitted through Dean's dozing mind. The heads were shaped like some sort of animal. They were not well made. The crude faces reminding Dean of a child's depiction of a dog or a cat, maybe a poorly done Godzilla monster. The lights that served as their eyes would flash red in time with whatever they vocalized.
Suddenly the lights began flashing white, a white so piercing that it hurt Dean to look. But he was mesmerized, powerless not to.
Sam seemed immune to the glare. He was yanking on Dean's arm, trying to pull him from the robots. Dean wanted to go with his brother, but he felt that he might die if he didn't look at the white light. The robots were trying to separate the two brothers. "It really is for the best," the doctor robot squawked. "You'll just end up hurting each other if you stay like this." This was right, Dean did not want to hurt Sam. He should go with the doctors.
Dean felt Sam's grip on his arm tighten before slipping off. The next thing he knew the robots were dragging him down a long corridor with rooms laid out to either side. Sam was nowhere in view, neither was the hospital room he had just been in, just this damp and dark hallway that lead on to infinity. It would have been a relief after the blinding heat of the doctor's office except Dean realized with some horror that there were people locked in the rooms with monsters. He could hear their screams echoing around down the hallway, bouncing off the walls and meshing in his head. Some were pleas for help, while others were just the insane screams of the damned.
The little group stopped near a door. Dean could see a number etched into the cold metal, but he couldn't read it. There was another animal faced doctor standing outside the door, this one was, if not real, at least not a robot. The flesh he could see was not red and it tapped its foot impatiently. The barely heard clacking sounds the shoe made on the metal floor sounded like a gavel finalizing a sentence. The animal face was just a mask.
The real doctor reached over and pulled the door open. The cell was ready to receive its second occupant. The current inhabitant had its back to Dean, a back that was covered in thick, course and matted fur, the tail and legs as well.
The "arms" drug almost to the ground, each appendage being tipped with thick and deadly looking claws, claws that were cracked and broken from gouging deep grooves into the walls of the crude prison.
Dean did not want to be placed in a locked room with a creature that could tear metal. Finally, he was able to struggle, the spell of the white light having been broken for the time being.
Snarling low in its throat, the creature turned. The robots holding Dean's arms thrust him forward into the cell. Dean expected to be caught up in the snarling jaws that would surely kill him, but when he looked up into the face of the creature all he could see was the moon.
Dean started from his doze. He'd never had a dream so vivid before, especially one that happened during a doze instead of a deeper sleep. Sam was still there, mumbling soothing sounds to Dean as he slept. He must have been making some sort of noise in his sleep. It must not have been too bad though, the doctor was able to set his arm in a sling. Speaking of the doctor, he and the nurse were nowhere to be found. Dean rolled his eyes trying to see where they went. When he couldn't see them he tried to get up. Sam was more than willing to oblige, taking most of Dean's weight and supporting him away from the bed.
Now Dean understood why Sam was so nervous. The looks the nurse and doctor kept sending the brothers' way first appeared in Dean's mind. They were both acting like Sam and he planned to skip out without paying or something similar. Dean couldn't think of a reason why they would believe this. Unless they didn't believe the story he told them about food poisoning and possibly the part about where Dean acquired the bites.
There was also the way that the type of trauma on Dean's arm had been routine to them. Dean remembered thinking how much like automatons they acted. The instructions the doctor mumbled to the nurse seeming more like they were done out of habit rather than anything else.
----------------------
They were halfway to the front desk. Relief still flooded Sam's system now that Dean had awoke from what sounded like a nightmare, eager to leave.
The brisk footsteps clicked up behind Sam. The urge to spin and flail out with any available weapon was strong and Sam felt that if it weren't for the fact that he was basically carrying Dean he probably would have done just that. Instead, Sam settled for turning slowly.
The doctor stood slightly in front and to the left of the nurse. He still wasn't smiling but she was. A simpering smile that was completely false, it did not reach her eyes at all. The only reassuring thing about the two was that she was holding what appeared to be a few prescriptions in her hands.
"Mr. …" The doctor glanced down at the clipboard in his hand. "Wade. I have these prescriptions that you may give to your brother if you wish to take him home, but I would really like to keep him for a few days. Just to keep an eye on that fever and make sure that his arm does not get an infection. Dog bites can be pretty nasty things if they are not taken care of properly."
Sam heard the stress the doctor put on dog bites and involuntarily backed up a step. "I think we'll take our chances and leave."
Unconsciously Sam placed himself between Dean and them.
"Are you sure?" The doctor and nurse began moving towards the brothers again. Unfortunately, Sam had backed himself and Dean up against the front desk and there was nowhere else he could move. "You don't know if that dog had rabies or not, your brother needs to be observed."
There was the stress on the dog again.
They were getting closer. Sam could feel the fingers of panic begin to pick at his defenses again. "Then why don't you give him the shot now? If something comes up I can stop at another hospital." One that is bigger and not so creepy, Sam added to himself.
By now, the nurse and doctor surrounded them, one side smiling blankly while the other pleaded. "I really must insist that your brother stay. It's really for the best."