--
Sam cast his face to the sky, they hadn't made it more than a couple hundred yards from the clearing by the shack before Dean collapsed, bringing his world crashing down around them all.
Everything he knew that was good in life was dying in his lap and he couldn't bear to leave and try to run for help. He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to Dean's, his small hands on either side of big brother's cold waxy face while oceans of fear and desperation slid from his eyes into Dean's hair. No God… please! Not Dean… please not Dean… take Sandy… I don't care… just leave my brother alone… please don't take him, don't leave me alone…
Once more he turned his face to the quarter moon in the late night sky and screamed as hard as he could, till he choked with the effort and his voice felt ripped from his throat, willing someone to hear him, "SOMBODY HELP ME!... please…" he whispered the last, waiting, hoping, watching for some kind of miracle.
His throat closed and he gagged on the dryness inside while his body vibrated his heartbeat. "Dean… don't leave me… kay? I need you? Who's gonna make the pskettio's? Dad can't even make toast right!... I don't want you to go Dean… stay with me… please don't… die… don't leave me…" sobs sliced through his words leaving his pleas shredded bits of breeze in the night as he slid his arms up under his brother and tried to pull him up. Maybe if he's up he'll wake up…someone help me… God help me… Pastor Jim says God helps people who do for themselves… come on Dean get up… get up for yourself okay? he pulled and tugged, crouched low on his heels, Dean's back to his front as he locked his arms around his barely breathing but jaggedly broken chest and tried to lift him to his feet.
"Some…body… plee, hee, heese… some body help me… my brother's… he's… why isn't there anybody here? AnyBODY!…" he tried to hoist Dean just a little higher and firmer into his arms, but four years difference was a lot of height and weight.
Sam toppled backward, Dean's head smacking him in the mouth, knocking loose one of his bottom teeth and breaking his lower lip. Tears fairly flew from his eyes as he covered his face with his hands and sobbed helplessly.
--
Sam awoke with a start, his eyes dodging left and right, piercing every possible hidey hole in the darkness his body quickly bracing for the ogre's return. He grasped his knife and caught sight of Sandy's body just a few feet from Dean's.
Dean! Oh no! please… still be alive… a fresh spring of tears and sobs hitched out as he remembered just how desperate the situation was, and I fell asleep?! How could I do that?! Now if he dies it's going to be my fault! God's going to punish me 'cause I didn't help him! Please… he looked up to the night sky, "Don't take it out on him! It's not his fault… it's mine… don't take him… I need him… punish me okay? Please? God? Please? Okay?... Okay…" he nodded hoping he'd been heard.
Dean's body felt warm next to his and he was still breathing no matter how much it sounded like Sheps old dog Hannibal after a few ball tosses in the yard, but Hannibal had been old … his tail thumped hard but his eyes were clouded and he limped when he walked fast, his ears perking in the direction of the thud where the ball hit the ground. By the time he got back to Sam he was rattling something fierce and usually flopped onto the ground for a restful pet before gathering his energy for another chase. Then one day Hannibal wasn't there anymore and he remembered dad's eyes filling up while he explained to Sam that sometimes, when the time was right, it was okay to die, and when that happened the people and pets they loved were able to look after them and help keep them safe.
"I need him!" he screamed choking, "It's not right! It's not right! You can't have him! I need him!" and once more he curled around his big brothers' back, his arm over his broken ribs, trying to give him what life he could through sheer will. "I won't leave you Dean… not ever… but I don't know what to do…" he cried clutching the broader chest tight, finding comfort in his big brother's presence no matter what his state may be.
"…this way…" Sam heard from a distance and quelled his wet sniffs and sobs and sat up.
"Is someone there?!" he called hugging his brother to his chest again, "Dean someone's here, someone's coming! Be okay… just keep… keep being alive… We're over here! Help! My brother needs help real bad! He's hurt… and breathing blood and so is Sandy!... Please help us!" he called trying to remember all the important information dad and Dean had drilled into him should any kind of urgent incident arise.
--
"No! No! You let me go! I have to be with Dean! Lemme go!" he screamed squirming and elbowed the policeman in the throat, making him gag and reflexively let go, "oooh sorry…" he apologized but dashed across the parking lot to the ambulance where the adults were loading Sandy inside next to his brother.
He ducked under an arm that reached for him and climbed into the vehicle, between the carts. His arm circled Dean's head and he lay his head beside his brothers, his eyes fixed on the clear green plastic of the oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. In all the time it had taken for the ambulance to get there and for the adults to get them all back through the woods Dean hadn't woken up once and neither had Sandy.
"Sam…" a soft feminine voice said from the drivers seat as a warm hand fell onto his back, "Come on Sam… you need to let the paramedics take care of your brother and Sandy okay… you can ride to the hospital with me okay? We can call your dad and I'll stay with you till he comes for you okay?"
Sam shook his head, he couldn't look at her, his eyes were too full of tears and fear, he wasn't going to leave Dean, he just wasn't, "No!... I'm not leaving my brother and you can't make me!" he mumbled tearfully while his fingers brushed through Dean's hair and kept wiping his face.
"Sam you have to…"
"NO!... there's lots of room for them to work…I'm not leaving…!"
Behind him Sarah sighed and looked over her shoulder at Sheriff Ozeman.
A solid, black haired woman with ice blue eyes sat at the rear entrance to the ambulance and met the young Winchester's gaze, "Sam… I need to ask you some questions," she said firmly and patted the ledge beside her, letting him know she wasn't going to try and get him out of the vehicle.
She smiled noting the distrust in his eyes and the skeptical look on his face, "Just sit beside me… you'll still be inside the van okay… but there's stuff we need to know…"
He drew his arm under his nose and palmed the tears from his eyes and cheeks before he kissed his brothers' temple and inched his way toward the paramedic then finally sat as far from her as he could on the step.
He cringed when the Sheriff came around and joined them but since neither adult made a move to grab him, he held his position, "I don't know everything he did…"
"That's alright… we just need to know as much as you can tell us okay?" the Sheriff smiled.
Sam nodded and started with Dean telling him that some people hit their kids.
--
"…I have to do it… I know the design…" Sam snapped angrily at the nurse who shrugged, shook her head and thought, Where's the world heading if the kids today are like this? but handed him the phone anyway. He glanced down at the key pad and his fingers flew over the buttons while his eyes returned to the closed curtain of the trauma room where they had his brother and Sandy, and were doing God only knew what to them.
"Hello?" came the rich gentle voice he knew so well.
The instant he heard that voice Sam's heart leaped into his throat and his belly started to dance and everything that had been so surreal, so very this-can't-be-happening snapped into sharp relief and Sam's fear for his brother's well being grew to Jurassic proportions.
"No…" he gasped realizing that he could still lose Dean.
"Hello?" the voice was concerned now, "Sam? Sammy is that you?" he asked.
Sam nodded and swallowed hard, "…it's Dean… he… it was bad…" his feet started shifting beneath him while his heart pounded. His palms grew sweaty and the receiver started to slip, "You gotta get dad…"
"Sam? Sam… is there an adult around?" Jim asked but Sam was already handing the phone to the nurse who fumbled for it as he sprinted across the hallway and behind the trauma curtain.
Sarah barely caught a glimpse of him dashing behind the curtain but she rose quickly as a series of sharp barks came from the room where they were working on stabilizing the older Winchester. She peered around the curtain in time to see Sam stop short, his eyes bulging practically out of his head as he saw one of the medical team members cut deep into Dean's side. Blood slapped and splattered out of him onto the floor and Sam swallowed hard while watching the same person in a yellow gown start to feed a tube into a hole that shouldn't be there.
"Somebody get that kid out of here NOW!" one of the doctors called furiously. Sarah took that cue and stepped into the room. She wrapped her arms around Sam and carried him unresisting out of the bay, back into the waiting area.
"It's okay kiddo… it's okay… Dean's gonna be okay…" she soothed holding him tightly to her. His body was quaking hard enough to vibrate the chair she'd returned to while she rocked him gently and smoothed his hair. She took a look at his pale and shiny face and knew he was in shock, he was breathing normally but the tears were soaking his shirt and the little kid she knew to be a ball of fire, was otherwise unresponsive. "T'sokay sweetheart, I gotcha… it's okay…" she continued to soothe, the depth of his need drawing on every nurturing instinct she had.
A nurse came from behind the curtain and knelt in front of Sarah, she opened a warmed white blanket and helped the teen wrap the little boy into it.
"He's just in shock…" she said then turned Sam's face so she was looking into his eyes, "Your brother's going to be okay… the doctors and nurses are just trying to make it easier for him to breathe…he's going to be okay…what's his name?" she asked.
"Sam," Sarah smiled tightly.
"He's going to be okay Sam… but we need to help him right now…" she looked up at the young girl, "Are you family?"
"No… just a friend," she smiled rocking the boy in her arms, "…how bad is he?" she asked softly.
"Bad enough, second degree burns, probable concussion, multiple contusions… the worst is that he's got three broken ribs and a collapsed right lung, dozens of bites all over him… and his appendix was ruptured… as soon as he's stable… they're prepping an operating room as we speak…"
"…rats…" Sam whispered with his eyes half mast, he yawned hugely, "…it put rats in the box with him… I saw them…" he mumbled and finished his retreat into the safe oblivion of sleep.
"How about Sandy?" Sarah asked.
The nurse sighed, "Fractured pelvis, broken ribs and a collapsed lung for her too… fractured cervical vertebrae… the son of a bitch that did this to these kids deserves the chair…they're still looking for him aren't they?" she asked.
"Far as I know, Sheriff Ozeman's putting out an alert…how long till we hear something?" she asked.
"I'll let you know as soon as we know… have their parents been called?" she asked.
Sarah nodded, "He called their pastor to get in touch with the dad, he had to drive a load to Nebraska over the weekend…" she shook her head surprised that she remembered that detail, "Don't worry I'll stay with him."
The nurse smiled broadly at her, "You're very kind…"
Sarah blushed and shrugged and continued to rock Sam close to her while he tried to recover from his own exhaustion and trauma through sleep.
--
tbc Please R&R… a little slow I know… sorry… Thanks sifi
