"N-Nick?"

His nurse looked poised, ready to strike at whatever was hurting the man in the hospital bed.

"Yeah, Sam?"

Sam's head fell back against his pillow.

He was too tired to deal with this shit.

Groaning, he turned his head to look over at the blond haired man.

He wasn't dressed casually this time, since, well, that was a dream.

Back to those normal scrubs.

They were light blue, almost the color of Nick's eyes.

His were deeper, though.

"This isn't real, is it?" Sam asked, blinking slowly.

Nick raised a brow at his patient.

He waited a moment before raising a finger, dramatically pressing it against his soft stomach.

He removed it after a moment, chuckling.

"I'm pretty sure this is real, Sam. I feel pretty real."

Sam just looked back at the ceiling, feeling absolutely exhausted all over again.

Completely drained.

It was quiet for a few seconds as Sam closed his eyes.

"I'll take you off the Hydromorphone." His nurse's voice chimed in and Sam opened his eyes with a sigh, glancing over at the man as he rounded his bed.

Nick had visibly calmed down, most likely figuring it was just the drugs.

He reached up, his long arms easily taking his iv bag off its hook in an obviously practiced motion.

Sam felt relieved once Nick stopped the drip.

"Thanks."

A small smile rose to Nick's face while meddling with a bag of clear liquid.

"Hey, no problem Sammy."

"Don't call me that."

Nick paused.

"Touchy." He went back to replacing his iv, having to flush the current one still in his arm. "And not the good kind."

They stayed in silence for a while.

Nick got him off the Hydromorphone and replaced it with some simple saline, since it wasn't exactly legal for him to just take him off the drugs he'd been assigned by his doctor. (If his doctor even existed.)

And, hopefully, he wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.

Sam had a feeling his doctor didn't exactly care about his patients.

Why else wouldn't he have shown up yet?

Finally, Nick broke the silence.

"People don't have feet in dreams, y'know." He spoke casually again, that smooth tone slipping right in between his words.

"What?"

"That's how you know you're dreaming. You look down and don't have any feet. It's a proven fact."

It was quiet again after that for a long while.

Nick was busy typing away, most likely filling out some kind of report on why his patient had been, well, screaming.

"What'd you see?" Nick asked like, not bothering to even look over at him.

Sam was the one to pause this time.

"In your dream, Sam. Everyone sees different things when they have drugged up dreams. You woke up screaming for something to stop. It sometimes helps to talk about whatever 'it' was."

Sam shifted uncomfortably, resisting the urge to wince at the pain in his stomach.

He let out a sigh, reaching up and running a hand through his hair.

"Aren't you supposed to ask me the basics? How I'm feeling? If I've experienced any nauseousness?"

"How are you feeling? Have you experienced any nauseousness?"

"Asshole."

Nick smiled, simply looking amused in response, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall next to his bed.

"Obviously something crawled up your ass today. Just trying to figure out what it is." He shrugged, that cheshire smile ever insistent.

"Why are you so interested?" Sam asked him.

"Well, I walked into work to hear my patient screaming, for starters."

Sam considered this for a moment before speaking.

"Fair enough." He paused before looking away from Nick, eyes narrowing slightly. "And I wasn't dreaming."

"Sam, I know dreams can feel extremely real, especially when they're pumping you with horse tranquilizer, but-"

"I. Was not. Dreaming."

Nick sighed, scrubbing a hand down and over his face.

"Okay. Okay, fine. Then what the hell did you want to stop?"

"You."

Nick was the one speechless this time.

"And why did you want me to stop, Sam?" He finally asked, eyes fixed on the younger man.

Nick spoke quietly, hand moving up near his mouth, taking the nail of his index finger in between his teeth.

He nibbled on it while waiting for an answer.

Sam let out an almost bitter-sounding laugh.

"It's stupid." He muttered, looking back over at Nick, hazel eyes locking with that deep blue.

"Oh, I highly doubt that."

"You told me something I didn't wanna hear."

Nick tilted his head slightly to the side, squinting curiously as he watched Sam.

"And that was?"

"You told me you were an angel."

There was no point in making up something clever.

Against his better judgement, he trusted Nick.

"An angel." His nurse deadpanned, nibbling on his fingernail absently.

"An archangel, actually."

"I didn't take you for the religious type." Nick chuckled, weakly blowing the severed fingernail from his lips.

"I'm not." Sam chuckled, shaking his head and looking back up at the ceiling.

"Do you just... Dream about angels often?" Nick asked, uncrossing his arms.

"No. Never, actually. Only dreamt about you recently."

Nick looked a little bashful, a small smirk forming on his lips.

"Sam, now, I know I'm dreamy, but-"

"This has nothing to do with that, alright?"

Nick just chuckled, pushing off the wall and making his way over to Sam's bed, plopping down on the edge of it.

"Nick," At this point, the filter between Sam's brain and mouth was completely gone. "You'd tell me if you were an angel, right?"

"Mhm, yeah. Of course. Lying isn't exactly in my nature." The nurse assured him, reaching up to squeeze his hand.

Sam attempted to squeeze back, his grip still rather weak.

"Okay. Okay, good." He smiled at Nick, mind wandering to the fact that he was really dreamy.

"You should get some more rest. Dream lots of little dreams of me, alright? Taking you out of this dingy room later, you hear me? Get you some fresh air in the courtyard."

Sam practically beamed at his words.

"Really?" He asked, looking entirely too excited.

"Yeah, of course. Right after the doc comes to see you, I'll make sure he lets me. Just as soon as he clears you, I'm taking you out on the town, gonna show you to a downright lovely time." Nick promised, those gorgeous blue orbs seemingly looking right into Sam's soul.

Any nervousness or worry about the man was gone.

Nick cared about him, and Sam cared about his nurse in return.

There was no denying their connection.

He wouldn't let a stupid dream get in the way of that.