This is kind of a short chapter. It was either going to be a bit short or mega long, so I went with short. Hope you don't mind.

Chapter 10

While Sam was picking up his brother from the hospital Lisa made arrangements with the motel manager to rent the adjoining room. Walking across the carpark to the reception area was the first time Lisa had stepped outside the motel room in a week and it was incredibly liberating. The feel of the sun on her face and the slight breeze caressing her body filled her with joy. She held Tommy's hand in hers and they skipped the few metres to their destination. She had rejoined the world.

But ten minutes later it was all over. The manager returned with her to their room and opened the common door between theirs and the adjoining room. It meant a lack of privacy for both rooms, but it was a much easier access than having to go outside and knock on the door. And Lisa became trapped once more in the dodgy second class prison unsure of when she might break free again. With a heavy heart she salted the doors and windows in the new room in preparation for the boys arrival.

When the brothers drove up just before lunch time, they both had faces set in stone. Sam helped his brother out of the car and into a wheelchair without any show of affection and Dean thanked him by speaking sharply and batting his hand away a number of times. Obviously the brothers had fought at the hospital. Lisa shook her head. Friction between them was going to be unpleasant to live with.

Once in the wheelchair, Dean rested his elbows on the armrests and put a hand to his head. He looked like he was about to faint. Or throw up. Maybe both. He was unfeasibly pale. Lisa understood now why Sam was so concerned about him. He definitely looked like he should be in a hospital.

"Wait here Tommy," she instructed the little boy who was colouring an activity book on the floor near her feet. The little boy looked up and the mother continued, "I don't want you going into that other room. Okay? Not unless I tell you to."

"Okay," he replied good naturedly and returned to his colouring.

Lisa went into the adjoining room and opened the door for the brothers. Sam's pursed lips gave way to an appreciative smile. "Thankyou" he said in a low voice, grateful for the kind gesture. He pushed the chair into the room to the side of the bed, put on the brake and moved the footrests aside.

"You can get yourself from the chair to the bed," Sam said brusquely.

"No problem," Dean bristled.

The younger brother looked like he wanted to say more, but changed his mind and moved away from the chair. "Jerk," he added under his breath.

"Sam?" Lisa queried, not sure why the young man was leaving his brother stranded in the wheelchair.

But Sam put his hand up to stop her continuing, "No Lisa, my brother and I had a conversation this morning. Apparently Dean doesn't need to be in the hospital any more because he can do everything himself now."

"That's not what I said," Dean flared. "Man you got issues."

"No shit I got issues. I told you that if you left the hospital I wasn't going to help you and you made the decision to leave, so here's your first test. Good luck to you, hope it all goes well."

The young man strode angrily into the adjoining room and a delighted little voice cried out, "Sam!"

"Hey buddy," was the young man's kindly response.

Dean's shoulders slumped as he looked from his wheelchair to the bed, trying to figure out how to bridge the gap. It couldn't have been more than two feet he had to cover but it seemed insurmountable. He felt awful. The drive over had been a nightmare for him. Sitting upright for that period of time, trying to keep balanced against the bump and sway of the car had caused unbearable pressure on his back. He had almost asked Sam to stop and let him lie in the back seat, but his pride had refused to allow it. He thought he had been prepared for how hard it was going to be leaving the hospital, but he realized now he had underestimated. It was much much harder than he had anticipated dealing with the pain and the inability. His pain relief had pretty much worn off and the ache radiating through his spine was almost gun in the mouth material.

But he'd made this choice despite Sam's strong objection, so now he had to live with it. He couldn't tell his brother he had made a mistake, he couldn't expect any sympathy from Sam, because Sam had told him leaving the hospital was a dumb idea. And Dean could see he was right.

Lisa watched the injured man for a moment, waiting to see what he would do. She didn't know if she should offer her assistance or if she was included in this no helping policy of Sam's. She was standing behind the injured man and wasn't sure he knew she was still in the room. The young woman considered whether she should let her presence be known or just slink out and leave Dean alone.

As Lisa was deciding what to do, Dean's hands gripped tightly on the arms of the chair, pushing him up slightly, then a groan escaped him and he eased back down. He put his head in his hands trying to find the strength to get this job done. He knew he could do it, the manoeuvre wasn't difficult, up-over-down, he could have done it an hour ago, easy. But weariness made everything hurt, his body felt heavy and all he could think about was closing his eyes.

"Do you want some help?" Lisa asked, unable to stand by and watch any longer.

Dean looked around in surprise and saw Lisa standing by the door. He felt self conscious that she was seeing him at a low ebb and he wished she would go into the other room. He really wanted to answer yes to her question, but he didn't want to appear incapable of helping himself, so his stubbornness kicked in and he answered, "No," with eyes downcast.

Lisa moved forward as if she hadn't heard him, as if he'd said no when he meant yes, and took his elbow.

"No," he said harshly and shook his elbow out of her grasp. "I need to do this stuff myself." But he made no move to get himself out of the chair and onto the bed. He couldn't do it, he didn't have anything left, the bravado of an hour ago had left him and now he felt like an idiot for fighting his brother so hard on this.

Lisa tried to think of a way that she could offer her help without offending his ego. "Listen, you've had a long drive, you look exhausted. Let me help you just this once."

The injured man dropped his head onto his chest and closed his eyes in defeat. He had to say yes. He had no choice but to say yes. He really needed to lie down. "Okay," he muttered. "But can you get Sam?" If he was going to accept help, he wanted it to be from Sam.

Lisa hurried into the next room and after a hushed conversation, she returned with Sam. The hard glint in the younger brother's eye softened when he saw how dejected Dean looked. He felt despair for his older brother and the choices he made.

"Can you turn down the covers?" Sam directed Lisa. While she was doing that Sam removed his brother's shoes and jacket. With both tasks complete, Sam stood in front of Dean, put his hands under his shoulders, counted 1..2..3 and hauled him up. The older brother groaned loudly and straightened his legs so that he wasn't a dead weight. The sudden change in height went straight to Dean's head, hitting him with an intense dizziness that made his vision swim. The older man wanted to tell his brother to wait a minute for the head rush to pass, but he hadn't caught his breath before Sam swung him around toward the bed. The further motion was too much for Dean, his eyes rolled back, his head fell onto Sam's shoulder and he went limp in his brother's arms.

Sam was startled when he felt his brother pass out. He knew Dean was tired, it had been a long morning, but he hadn't expected him to collapse. For all the moaning Sam had done about his brother leaving the hospital, Dean had seemed a lot stronger today and he didn't think taking the few steps from the wheelchair to the bed would be that big a deal. Sam wouldn't have been quite so callous if he had known his brother was feeling this bad.

There was a quick scramble as Sam redistributed the increased weight trying to find balance. Then the young hunter gently deposited the injured man on the bed and pressed a hand to his forehead to make sure there wasn't more going on here than Dean being exhausted. He was relieved to find his older brother's temperature wasn't raised.

Sam patted the unconscious man's cheek lightly. "Hey."

Dean's eyelids fluttered and opened but closed again quickly. "Just let me sleep," he mumbled.

Lisa had watched the proceedings with her hand over her mouth in horror. Sam pulled the covers up over his brother and then motioned for Lisa to follow him into the other room.

When they were out of ear shot Lisa cried, "Oh Sam. You've got to take him back to the hospital."

Sam gave a sad laugh. "He won't go Lisa."

"Just pick him up and take him. He looks terrible."

"Weren't you the one telling me last night that he would be fine?"

She blushed. "I'm sorry Sam, I didn't know."

It had been a cheap shot Sam knew and he waved off her apology. She hadn't seen Dean in the hospital so it had all been hypothetical to her. Sam looked toward the room where his brother lay and Lisa wondered if he was considering taking him back. "He'll be okay now that he's lying down. He just needs to take it easy. It was too much for him today."

Sam thought about calling Doctor Freemont, but then decided that Dean was just worn out, there was nothing to get alarmed about. If he started getting feverish or experiencing some new kind of pain then Sam would call the doctor, but being tired and weak was just par for the course at this stage.

Tommy jumped up from where he had been colouring on the floor and asked Sam hopefully, "Can we go to the park now?"

Sam looked undecidedly toward the other room. It probably wouldn't hurt to get Tommy out of the motel and let his brother sleep in peace. "Yeah, okay, for a little while."

"Yay!" the little boy exclaimed and ran to get his shoes.

Lisa looked nervously toward where Dean slept. "Are you sure you should go?"

"He's fine," Sam assured with more confidence than he felt. "He'll probably sleep until we get back."

"Okay," she replied, wishing that Sam would change his mind. Dean was five minutes out of the hospital, in terrible shape and Sam was leaving her alone with him. She was not good in a crisis and she really hoped she wasn't going to face one when Sam was out.

"I've got my phone," Sam continued. "If you're worried just call me and we won't be far away." Lisa nodded and gave him a half hearted smile.

When Tommy had his shoes on and was ready to go Sam paused at the door and looked once again toward the room where Dean slept. He hated when his brother wasn't well, he hated this change in dynamic which forced him to be the decision maker. He didn't know if he was doing the right thing leaving Dean.

"Come on Sam," Tommy implored and tugged at his arm.

We won't be gone long, Dean will be fine Sam assured himself and he let the little boy pull him to the car.