Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural, or the characters.

AN: I have no medical knowledge, just way too much time to search the internet.

Back at school now, so again, sorry for the delay.

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Enjoy!

It is almost noon by the time Dean and Bobby arrive at the hospital, and make their way towards the burn ICU. As they are donning the protective clothing, Bobby knows he can't avoid telling Dean that he called John any longer. "Dean."

"Yeah, Bobby?"

He's going to hate me, I know he didn't want John here, and I called him anyway. Might as well do this fast. "Your Dad's here."

Dean whips around instantly, and shouts. "What?!"

Yep, he hates me. "I had to Dean. If it makes you feel any better, he knows he screwed up royally, and according to Casey, he's spent last night and all of this morning sitting beside Sam's bed… crying."

Dean looks at Bobby disbelievingly. "Dad crying, no way, you're lying."

Now both of them are finished getting ready, and Bobby silently leads Dean over to Sam's room. When they reach the doorway, Dean sees his father sitting beside Sam's bed, tear tracks staining his face. "Dad?"

Hearing his eldest son's voice, John turns around in his seat. "Dean… Listen, I'm-"

Dean steps forward, and interrupts his father. "Don't say it! If you even so much as think about saying you're sorry again, I swear I'll kick your ass."

John stands up, and closes the distance between them. "How dare you?! I'm your father, and you will not talk to me like that."

Dean snorts. "Father?! Don't call yourself that, you don't have the right! I raised Sam, and I've been here for him ever since he was admitted, where were you?!"

Practically feeling the waves of anger surging off of the pair, Bobby takes a step back, knowing better than to get in their way.

Knowing he can never tell Dean the complete truth about where he was, John stays silent.

When he doesn't answer, Dean yells. "Drinking or hunting?!" Still no reply. "Were you drinking, or were you hunting?!"

Still staying back, Bobby says. "Dean, son. Calm down or you're gonna get us all kicked out."

Dean turns to Bobby. "Stay the hell outta this!"

Trying a different approach, Bobby says. "What about Sam? You think if he can hear you, he wants to hear you screaming at your dad?"

Almost instantly, Dean deflates, he turns back to John. "Just tell me where you were? What was more important than being here?"

"I can't tell you, Dean. Trust me, you don't want to know." John almost begs, trying desperately to avoid telling Dean the truth.

Before Dean can say anything else, Casey hurries into the room, looking less than happy. She looks at all of them in turn, then says. "What's all the yelling about?! Have you completely forgotten where you are?"

Bobby answers. "We're sorry. Surely you understand that things are pretty tense right now, with everything." Bobby looks pointedly at John and Dean. "We'll try harder to keep it outta here."

Casey still looks unimpressed, but turns to leave anyway. "If I have to come in here again because you're screaming at each other, I won't hesitate to have you all thrown out, and barred from visiting. Understood?"

Again Bobby glares at John and Dean, and then still looking at them, he answers. "Yeah, Casey. It won't happen again."

"Okay. Just call if you need anything." Casey replies, and then walking out of the room.

Bobby closes the door behind her, and then turns back to John and Dean. "Dean, John is here now, and you two are going to get along, or you'll both be kicked out. John, same thing."

"Least 'til he finds another hunt." Dean mumbles under his breath, but still loudly enough for both men to hear him.

"What was that?!" John says, his voice rising again.

Bobby steps between the two, he's facing John. "Let it go. You can't expect that after your last appearance, Dean'll trust you to stick around." He turns around, now facing Dean. "And you Dean, give him a break, yeah he stuffed up, and yeah you don't trust him not to leave again, but there's too much going on right now for you two to be at each others throats." He takes a step back, and turns slightly, so that he is looking at both men. Now, how 'bout you both stop acting like children, and remember why you're here?"

With that statement, John and Dean both settle down quickly, and guiltily look down at their feet like children who've just been told off.

Several hours later, John and Bobby are at the motel, after having left Dean sitting with Sam. They've only been talking for a matter of minutes, and things are already getting tense. "You left, John. Sam could've died, he still might, you weren't here, and neither of us reckons you'll hang around for long."

"What?! You think I'm gonna leave again?!"

"Of course, merely looking at Sam had you running for the fucking hills, you're not going to stick around while Sam recovers.-"

"Wh-" John tries to interrupt, but Bobby just speaks over him.

"He's gonna be here for months, John! Not days, not weeks, but months. You haven't stayed anywhere that long, unless it's a hunt, and neither of us think you can start now."

"I'm here now, and I'm gonna stay until Sam's ready to get back on the road."

Bobby lets out an exasperated sigh. "You don't get it John! Sam almost died, his body is broken, he'll never be able to go back to hunting. And you're too damn obsessed to see that! Do you even care that your son almost got himself killed by killing the thing you've been obsessed with for years?! That he almost died, killing the demon?!"

"Of course I care! But there's still a whole lot more evil sons of bitches out there, and people are gonna die if we don't hunt them!"

"Your sons should be more important to you than anyone else! Why can't you see that? See how damn badly you've screwed up when your kids come second to strangers?!"

"Leave!" John screams at Bobby, pointing to the door.

"What?!"

"They're not your kids, they're mine, and I know what's best for them. So, leave!"

Bobby stands his ground. "No way, John! I'm not going anywhere, forget it." Bobby pauses for a moment, and then tries a different approach. "John, I'm just trying to look out for the boys, same as I know you are. They need us to focus on them, so can we just call a truce, for now?"

John bites back whatever he was about to say, and thinks for a moment before, instead answering. "Yeah, okay, truce. I reckon I might head out for a bit, clear my head, okay?"

They both know that, that means 'I'm going to go out, and get drunk', but Bobby still replies. "Sure, John. Have a good time."

John walks to the doorway, and then turns around. "Oh, and Bobby… I know you were just trying to do what's best for the boys, and I know that I screwed up pretty badly… I'll try harder."

Two days later, Dean is in a small conference room, with Dr Chan and Dr Lake. "Just tell me why he isn't awake yet."

"As I explained to you, Sam has been fully weaned off of the sedatives, and has no physical cause for his unconscious state. It's now a matter of waiting for Sam to be ready to wake up."

Having heard the same line for the past day, Dean isn't satisfied. "But, why isn't he ready to wake up?"

This time, Dr Lake answers. "Your brother suffered massive injuries, it truly is a miracle of modern medicine that he has survived; you understand that, don't you?"

Recognising the patronising tone, Dean sarcastically replies. "Actually I had no idea, just thought he was taking a nice long nap."

Dr Chan can't help but laugh slightly, whilst Dr Lake quickly hides his surprised look, this is the first time someone has actually called him out on his behaviour. "Sorry. As I was saying, Sam is lucky to be alive. His body has been through so much, and now it just needs to be given time to recover, heal."

Dean still isn't happy. "But how long will it be? You said a few days, that's today, nothing's changed."

"I said it would take a few days for the medications to be cleared, then it would be a matter of waiting." Dr Chan clarifies.

"But how long do you wait before someone usually wakes up after this?"

"There's no specific time frame, Dean. If there's no change in the next week, we would conduct some tests, but until then just be patient."

The meeting continues for another twenty minutes before Dean says. "Listen, I've gotta go. I've got an appointment at the burn clinic, get rid of these damn dressings."

"Okay, if you need anything else, just have one of us paged." Dr Lake offers as he stands up, and moves towards the door, Dean and Dr Chan following.

"Yeah, will do. And um, thanks for going through all this again, I just… he's my brother… you know?"

Both doctors nod in understanding, both having seen their share of worried relatives.

Several minutes later, Dean follows Dr Michaels into a consulting room. Liz turns around as they enter the room. "How've you been going Dean? Any problems?"

"…Not really, not with me at least." Dean offers vaguely, taking a seat on the examination bed.

Understanding immediately what he saying, Liz says. "How is Sam doing?"

"He still isn't awake, his docs' say that we've just gotta wait."

"Okay. So, you about ready to get rid of all these dressings?"

Been ready since I got them. "Yeah."

Without further pause, Liz carefully begins unravelling the numerous gauze bandages, exposing each of the newly healed burns. When she's done, Liz says. "All done. They're looking good, shouldn't be much scarring at all."

I'm going to get out of this easily, while Sammy's gonna be hurting for a long time, and even then there's gonna be so many scars. "Uh… good." Dean replies simply, his thoughts elsewhere.

"I'll refer you to one of the physical therapists here, and they'll give you exercises to restore full movement, and prevent the skin from contracting."

"Thanks doc." Dean says honestly as he gets down, and moves towards the door.

"No problem, Dean." Liz replies, then showing him out to the reception desk.

Early afternoon, the next day, Dean and John are sitting in tense silence beside Sam's bed, when Dean notices Sam's finger wrap loosely around his hand. He leans closer to Sam. "Sam? Sammy?"

John looks up from where he's flicking through a magazine in the corner. "What's going on, Dean?"

Dean doesn't even turn around as he answers. "I think he's starting to wake up."

Upon hearing that, John quickly stands up. "I'll go get someone."

"'Kay." Dean replies as John hurries out of the room.

A minute later, Dean is about to give up, and return to his seat, when a pair of glassy, but aware green eyes, look up at him. "Sammy?"

TBC...

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