Meet Me on the Battlefield

Chapter 10

Tired Soldiers in this War

Sam wasn't happy to leave Dean's bedside, but the ICU required all visitors to leave the unit during shift change. Not wanting to be too far away, he usually spent the time in the ICU waiting room that was just down the hall. Luckily, they usually had a good supply of coffee available, so he would log in to the hospital's wi-fi and work on his homework. He knew his grades were suffering, but there was no way he was going back to school until Dean was better.

The ICU visiting hours started at eight o'clock in the morning, so at seven fifty-eight he made his way back to the ICU and asked to be let in. Sam was almost to his brother's room when he saw a nurse walking out the door. Quickening his pace, he managed to catch up with her before she went into another patient's room.

"How is he? Is everything okay?"

"Hi, there," she said with a smile. "I'm Emma. Can I ask how you're related to Dean?"

"I'm his brother. I'm Sam Winchester," Sam answered impatiently. "Is he okay?"

"He's doing good. He actually woke up for a few minutes."

"He's awake?" Sam asked as he pushed past her into the room.

Emma followed him back into Dean's room. "Mr. Winchester, he only woke up for a few minutes. He's still sedated, so he won't stay awake for long."

"Damn it!" Sam growled. "I should have been here when he woke up."

"He'll wake up again, Mr. Winchester. In fact, we're going to turn his sedation down a little later on when Dr. Chase shows up. He wants to evaluate your brother a little better. Until then, we'll let him rest.

Sam settled into a chair next to Dean's bed, his eyes taking in the sight of his brother's slack face. He hated seeing Dean so lifeless. It was just so un-Dean like! For as long as Sam could remember, his brother had always been so full of life, always in motion, never still. In fact, he was pretty sure that Dean had some version of ADHD, undiagnosed of course.

Dean was never one to stay still for too long. He usually only slept three to four hours at a time and from the time he woke up to the time he laid back down to sleep, he was constant motion. If he was ever doing something that required him to sit down, he was usually doing something to keep his hands busy. He would clean his guns while watching TV, tap his foot while reading the paper, drum his fingers on whatever surface was nearby whenever he was deep in a conversation. Being around Dean could be exhausting in its own way and Sam could remember many a time when their dad would throw his brother out of the room when his constant activity got to be too much.

Of course, once Dean started hunting, he found ways to keep himself still and focused. Sam could often hear him humming an AC/DC or Metallica tune quietly under his breath, something that drove their dad crazy, too, but he seemed to tolerate it a little better than the constant motion.

Seeing Dean so motionless and so still was just plain unnerving to Sam. Even the rise and fall of his chest was so much less than normal. Dean's presence, once so immense and powerful, was now just a muted shadow of what once was. And Sam knew he was being dramatic, but everything around him- colors...sounds...everything…. seemed just as muted because of it.

A world without Dean's vibrancy was a world that Sam really didn't want to be a part of.

It was almost a full three hours later when the doctor finally showed up. Sam was starting to get antsy, because in that time, Dean hadn't moved a single muscle. The blips on the heart monitor stayed at a steady rate of 70, the ventilator delivered every breath without a hitch, and the IV pumps next to the bed delivered drop after drop of the milky white drug that was keeping Dean from waking up. Sam found himself tempted to reach over and turn the pump off himself, but he would never do anything that might potentially hurt his brother.

Once the doctor arrived, Emma explained to Sam that they would slowly titrate the medication down, allowing Dean to wake up in a slower, more controlled manner. Sam watched as she changed the settings on the IV pump and checked the wrist restraints that were tying Dean's hands down to the bed.

"Take those off. He won't like it if he wakes up and finds out that he's tied down."

"Mr. Winchester, Dean will more than likely wake up a little confused, so it's our policy to have these restraints on to prevent him pulling out the ET tube himself. Once he's awake and oriented to what is going on around him, we can take them off."

"I won't let him pull out the tube," Sam argued. "Take them off."

Emma looked at Dr. Chase, who gave her a small shake of his head. Turning back to Sam, she eyed him closely, not wanting to upset the young man. "Okay, Sam, I'll make you a deal. Let's leave them on for now, but I'll take them off as soon as Dean is able to open his eyes and follow some simple commands."

Sam could tell he was outnumbered, so he gave in. "The second he opens his eyes, they're coming off."

Sam watched as Dr. Chase moved around the bed, checking Dean out from head to toe. Dean still hadn't shown any signs of waking up, so Emma turned the medication down even further. Eventually, the medication was turned completely off, but Dean was still motionless.

Sam sat forward in his chair, his eyes planted firmly on his brother. "Why isn't he waking up?"

"Sometimes it just takes a little longer," Emma answered. "He just needs a little more time."

Dr. Chase finished his exam and asked Emma to page him once Dean was awake. As he left the room, Sam turned back to the nurse. "Are you sure he's going to wake up? What if there's something wrong that we don't know about? What if he doesn't wake up?"

"Mr. Winchester….Sam… we need to be patient."

Sam made himself sit back in his chair, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He did this for several minutes, surprised to find that it was working to a small degree. Dean's chest rose and fell in a steady fashion and Sam found himself mesmerized by the routine of it. Eventually, though, he noticed that thy rhythm of inhalation and exhalation was speeding up and Dean's chest was rising and falling faster than before.

Sitting forward in his chair again, Sam found himself holding his breath in anticipation. The heart monitor next to the bed showed Dean's heart rate speeding up slightly, too, and Sam felt anxiety creeping into him. More than anything, he wanted Dean to open his eyes, wanted to be able to peer into those rich green irises that always seemed to see everything.

After a few minutes, Sam noticed as Dean's right hand started moving slightly, the fingers twitching minutely before bending and straightening a few times. Sam grabbed his brother's hand, holding onto it tightly. He was surprised by how cold Dean's hands were.

"Dean! I'm here, Dean. You're okay." When it seemed like Dean wasn't going to do anything else at the moment, Sam turned back to Emma.

"Why are his hands so cold?" he asked the nurse.

"Are they?" Emma reached over and touched Dean's other hand. "They do seem awfully cold," she said as she moved to check the pulses in his wrists. Satisfied with what she found, she grabbed a thermometer and checked Dean's temperature.

"Well, that's odd," she said strangely. "I checked his temp an hour ago and he was normal. Now he's reading quite a bit lower."

Sam watched as Emma pulled the blanket up around Dean further before leaving to get a warmed blanket. The minute she left, Sam noticed the temperature of the room drop significantly. Pulling his jacket a little tighter around himself, he stood up and looked around. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the room at first, but just as he was about to sit back down in his chair, he noticed something on the other side of Dean's bed. There wasn't anything that he could really pinpoint as something real, but he noticed an area that seemed to be shimmering?

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed before getting up and moving around the bed. He was almost to the spot where he thought he'd seen something when the alarms on the ventilator and the heart monitor started going crazy. Sam looked over at Dean who appeared unchanged in all the chaos, much to his relief. Seconds before the door flew open and several nurses ran into the room, Sam heard a voice that chilled him to the bone.

"He can't have you. You're mine. He has to die."

Dean suddenly became aware of what he thought were voices surrounding him. He strained with all his might to listen, to make out what he thought were words being drowned out by the thudding of his own heart and the whirring and beeping noises of the various pieces of equipment that were keeping him alive. After what seemed an eternity to him, he was able to finally make out three distinct voices. The first one was a rather curt voice, telling him to wake up, to wiggle his toes, to squeeze his hands. The second voice was a much softer, much more pleasant voice that he thought he recognized. This voice was calming and reassuring, making him think that everything was going to be okay. But, it was the third voice that confused him the most. It took him several long minutes to separate that voice from the other two, but when he did he was able to hear the anxiety and fear in the deep bass sound.

It only took him a few more seconds to realize that he was hearing the sound of his little brother's voice. "Sammy!" Dean tried as hard as he could to signal to Sam that he was there, that he was trying to wake up, but all he could accomplish was to make himself breathe a little faster. With his frustration growing to a whole new level, Dean kept trying. Eventually, he was able to make his index finger twitch a little, but Sam didn't seem to notice. Not ready to give up yet, Dean kept trying, satisfied when he was finally able to bend and straighten his fingers a few times. Relief coursed through him when he felt Sam pick up his hand and squeeze it tightly.

He listened as Sam talked to him, trying to move again so Sam would know he was there. His frustration returned when he found that he couldn't seem to do anything. It was like moving his fingers had zapped all of his strength for the moment. He could hear Sam talking to the nurse again, asking her why his hands were so cold.

"Come on, Sam. What the hell does it matter if my hands are cold? There are much more important things to focus on."

Focusing on what was going on around him, Dean felt someone tuck his blanket in a little tighter. He had to admit that he was a little cold, so the blanket felt nice. Not that he would ever admit that out loud. He heard the nurse tell Sam that she was going to grab a nice warm blanket and then he realized that he and Sam were left alone again.

Dean was frantically trying to figure out how he was going to get a message to his little brother when he heard Sam get up out of his chair and move around. Sam's "what the hell?" echoed in the small room and Dean felt his 'spidey sense' tingling. Suddenly, every alarm in the room blared, causing Dean's heart to speed up in response. Not liking the fact that his brother was dealing with something potentially dangerous on his own, Dean tried with everything he had to get out of bed. He was able to lift his head off the bed slightly, but he suddenly realized that his hands were tied down to the bed. Before he even had a chance to be pissed at the thought of them restraining him in such a way, he heard that same voice that seemed to be haunting his every dream.

"He can't have you. You're mine. He has to die."

Seconds later, Dean felt himself falling back into unconsciousness.

Once the nurses decided that everything was okay and that it seemed that all the equipment in the room decided to malfunction at the same time, they all left, leaving Sam alone with Dean.

Sam was still pretty shaken by what he had seen and heard, but he couldn't do anything about it. He longed to talk to Dean about what had happened. Dean would know what to do. He always knew what to do. Sam found himself so freaked out by the experience that he even contemplated calling his dad.

Instead, he waited by Dean's bed and watched his brother closely. His eyes swept from the still form in the bed to the corners of the room, looking for anything unusual. After spending almost half an hour of doing that, he sat back in his chair and stared at his brother.

"Come on, Dean. Wake up!"

The sound of his tired voice echoed in the stillness of the room, surprising him a little. He hadn't realized how quiet the room had become, once everyone had disappeared. And with no one to talk to, Sam returned his weary gaze to the one person he needed the most in the world.

"Come on, big brother. I need you."

Dean had no idea how much time had passed since the last time he was awake, but he could feel his brother's presence still in the room. He heard the sound of his brother talking with another person, a voice that he though he'd heard before, and he strained to hear what they were saying. He was startled to hear the sound of defeat in his brother's voice.

"Are you sure he's going to wake up, Dr. Chase?"

"I can't say for sure, Sam, but in my professional opinion, he will. Every patient is different, so I can't give you a time frame, but your brother is a strong young man. He'll pull through."

"And he'll be okay? He'll still be….Dean?"

"I'm going to be honest with you, Sam. Your brother was underwater and without oxygen for a long time. He could definitely have some neurological deficits from the anoxic injury, but we won't know for sure until he wakes up. We need to take this one day at a time, okay? In fact, we need to take this one minute at a time."

"I'm trying," Sam said.

"I know you are. I also know that you aren't taking very good care of yourself. The nurses tell me that you hardly ever leave his bedside. When was the last time you slept or ate a good meal?"

"I'll eat and sleep once we know he's okay."

"You have to take care of yourself, Sam. Dean's going to need you to be strong and healthy once he's awake."

Dean listened as Sam agreed to take better care of himself, knowing that his brother was lying to the doctor. Sam didn't take the best care of himself on a good day. This had always been a subject of contention between the two brothers, with Dean always harping on Sam to eat and to sleep more than he did. Sam was stubborn, but Dean was even more so.

Once the doctor left, Dean heard Sam settle into the chair next to his bed. He could practically feel his brother's gaze burning into him, making him want to slap Sam on the back of the head. Dean hated being gawked at. He hated it even more when someone saw him being so weak and helpless. Determined to get Sam to stop staring at him, Dean started working again to prove to his brother that he was there.

It took every last bit of strength he had, but Dean was finally able to open his eyes. They burned in the brightness of the lights of the room, causing tears to fill his eyes. Dean moved his gaze over to where his brother was and was relieved to see Sam's hazel eyes looking back at him.

"Dean?" Sam cried out as he jumped up from his chair. "Dean, I'm here. You're okay."

Dean held his brother's gaze, not wanting to look away for even a single second. He wanted so badly to be able to talk to his brother, but he couldn't. All he could do at the moment was try to stay awake and alert for as long as he could, something that was proving harder by the second.

"Are you hurting, Dean? Can you blink your answer? Once for yes, twice for no?"

Dean was hurting, but the last thing he wanted was for the nurse to give him anymore medication. He wanted to try to keep his head as clear as he could, so he'd just suffer through the pain. Blinking his eyes twice for no, Dean waited for Sam to ask him something else.

"Dude, you've been out of it for almost four days. Do you have any idea how much I've missed you?."

This time Dean only blinked once.

"It's so good to have you back, big brother."

Dean's eyes were getting heavier and heavier, and eventually he wasn't able to keep them open any longer. The last thing he was aware of was the sound of his brother's voice offering him reassurance.

"It's okay, Dean. Go back to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up again."

Author's note: Yay! Dean's starting to wake up. I wasn't really sure if that was ever going to happen ;)

Thanks so much for reading. I hope that you're all enjoying the story and that the characters are all staying true to themselves. Let me know what you think. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Want more? Ready for it to be over?

And I just wanted to say thanks to those of you who are reviewing. Rosegirl94, reader82, monesbitt2010, freetobescary, redlite, dragonfox123, grishma239, zendog, femkesmedinga, Scarlett Banderson, Kathy, and guest- you are all greatly appreciated.