Pheeeew... Long hard day at work, one guy had already asked for a free saturday... And then at 6:03 a.m. another guy texted me, and called in sick. Which left us with ONLY three people in the department I'm in... And it was a rush day... Marathon on concrete-floors I tell you...
And yeah, to top that off, yesterday I trained parkour for the first time since i hurt my own knee (back in MAY) and I knew I was sore even before I knew I was awake this morning... (Luckily there is no such remedy to soreness and stiffness after workout, as getting your heart pumping and to sweat a bit... Probly be less sore tomorrow...)

Okay, sorry for that... I just felt like complaining to someone...
And I didn't want to complain to my two flatmates... Because...
Stuff...

Anyway... Rant OVER...

Here's another chap for you! Hope you enjoy it...

Sam woke bright and early the next morning. His brother was still in an unconscious state as he tip-toed out to the street. He figured he could bring back some coffee, but all he really needed was a walk.

First there was Jess. He missed her gravely; he tried hiding it from Dean, but he knew it wouldn't work. He knew that Dean could read him like nobody's business.

Then there was his life. He missed being at Stanford. He missed his friends, he missed his schedules. He missed the daily routines…

Last but not least, there was Dean. His brother had been injured while they were apart. He had been through one surgery, knowing that he would need more… His big brother had acted like everything was fine, like nothing was wrong. Well, except their missing dad… He had hidden his pain, and Sam expected that it was because of him. He was willing to bet big bucks on Dean hiding his injury and pain to spare him the worry…

Dean was an awesome older brother, but he could be damned stupid sometimes…

He didn't entirely understand Dean's obsession with watching out for him. He understood the basics, like why he wanted him to stay safe, and not get shot, stabbed, burned and such… He felt the same way…
What he DIDN'T understand though, was why Dean tried to spare him from things like this…

What was so heinously wrong with letting his little brother know that his knee was busted? He sure wasn't any less of a man…
No one would zap out of thin air and kill either of them because of it… (It was still a possibility that they would get killed in that way, but not because of his brother's knee…)

Sam just couldn't understand it…

SPNSPNSPN

Dean woke up to a leg, throbbing in sync with his heart. It felt like for each heartbeat, for each time his heart forced blood around inside his being, each time it passed his knee… It hurt.

He hadn't opened his eyes yet, and he really didn't want to either… That would just confirm his fear of it being another day, another day with his hurting leg.

He just stayed there, lying flat on his back, eyes closed, willing his leg to stop antagonizing him. But it didn't change... If any, it only got that much worse…

After a quarter hour he decided to open his eyes. Pain and frustration was causing his eyes to sting with unshed tears. He cast a glimpse towards Sammy's bed. It was empty. His eyes traveled to the bathroom, the door was open. Then over to the place his ginormous little brother had kicked off his shoes last night, only to find that they were missing.

He let his head fall back down, turned his face away from the door… And found a note…

Two yellow post-its taped together so they would be able to stand up. Kinda like a house of cards, but with only two cards.

Dean, I'm outside getting some fresh air… I'll bring back coffee and breakfast…

Dean felt himself relax, and his tears started falling. There were no danger in crying, when no one was around to see it…
-All though he could hear his father's words loud and clear; Crying is for girls and babies. Are you a girl or a baby, Dean?

Right now, he didn't care… He could have been a newborn baby girl for all that mattered, he just needed to cry.

He laid there for a long time. Staring up at the ceiling, focused on one nasty tobacco stain… He felt each teardrop adding to the wet trails down the sides of his face. Salty streaks between the outer corner of his eyes, and right above his ears.
He shuddered a few times as stray tears every now and then made their way inside his ear.

How could this hurt so damn much. Why?

He finally decided he would have to get up at one point… Mainly because his bladder was full, way past the point that was comfortable… He put himself up on his right elbow, flung his left leg out of bed and sat up completely. He reached for the crutches leaned up against his nightstand, only to find that his left shoulder was stiff and sore… (As would be expected of a recently dislocated, and reduced shoulder…)

Just one more ache to bear… He thought as he absentmindedly rubbed at it, trying to massage the stiffness out of the surrounding muscles. Better put some Tiger Balm on it… That will probably help…

He lifted his right leg down, thankful that he still had the lockable brace on… He let a few tears trail down his cheeks as his heel rested on the old motel rug. His knee pounded fiercely.

A sob, a freaking sob, left his lips as he pushed himself up straight. His chest ached, not in a way that made him scared, but in that 'something-else-hurts-so-much-that-my-heart-and-lungs-hurt' hurt…

He forced himself to take deep and slow breaths. Pulling down a good lungful, holding it a few seconds, and letting it out through pressed lips. A method that had proved effective lots of times in the past.
Pain management 101…
Perfect for sutures, and other stuff…
Even this…

It was a long hobble to the bathroom, each step hurt both his knee and his sore shoulder. He pushed on, hopping the last five strides on pure stubbornness alone…

SPNSPNSPN

Sam came back to the motel room 20 minutes later, expecting a cranky, sulking Dean.

What he found on the other hand, was his brother crying on the floor. Not weeping, not silently shedding some tears, but horrifyingly close to bawling.

His six-foot-two frame was sitting on the floor. His left leg was tucked up underneath his chin, his left arm hung uselessly down his side and his right hand was placed a few inches above his knee.

It didn't take him much imagination to figure out what had happened… His brother had probably been on his way back to the bed, when his unstable shoulder had come apart and sent him on a trip to the top of the floor…

Sam was about sure that some days, some days you could blow some air towards Dean's shoulder and it would dislocate… But he could never really remember that they had gotten it fixed. Not really fixed anyway…
Sure, rest and rehabilitation had been tried a few times, but never surgery… Sam was positive the tendons around the joint was stretched two inches too long… Offering no real support…

He could feel his heart rip as he scrambled to his knees beside his brother.

"Hey, Dean… Easy… What happened?" he was on his way to placing a hand on his brother's back when Dean decided to snap at him.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T YOU F-ING TOUCH ME!" he yelled through tears and snot.

"Did you get hurt?" Sam would have smacked himself if it hadn't looked weird. Of course his brother had hurt himself, he wouldn't have been sitting on the floor if else…

Dean's retort was simple as he levered his right hand, and flipped him off.

Sam understood him. He couldn't remember seeing his brother in this much pain. Ever. At least not while still conscious…

"Your shoulder out?"

A few heartfelt sobs answered him, along with a minimalistic nod.

"You know I've got to touch you to re-set it…?"

Dean nodded again.

"Are you going to punch or shoot me if I try to pop it back in?" Sam felt slightly nervous as he asked. He had never seen Dean like this, this fragile…

Dean shook his head, trying to get some air in between hiccups of discomfort.

"Good." Sam rose to his feet, skipped over to the freezer where the not-so-frozen-peas had been refrozen time over time…

He grabbed two out of the bags, and jogged back over to his poor older brother.

He lifted his brother's chin, making sure Dean saw the cold bag, knowing where Sam intended to place it.

Dean nodded. Sam broke up the ice-clumps that had formed inside as it had re-frozen, and molded it over Dean's bad knee.

He felt a sting of guilt as his brother instantly twitched. Heck, he shouldn't have left in the first place… He should have stayed and looked after his big brother, and his dumb tough-ass-luck…

Sam winced as Dean drew a long, shaky breath. He knew how badly his brother was trying to get his act together and put on a mask.

He moved over to Dean's other side, getting himself ready to rip the joint back in for about the thousandth time in his life.

"On three…" he informed, "Ready?"

Dean nodded.

"Okay…"

.One.

.Two.

BAM!

Dean growled, and curled even more in on himself. He continued sobbing.

Sam felt like the worst brother on planet earth… He knew the joint had to be put back in, he knew it might as well be him doing it as any professional… But seeing his brother so weak and vulnerable hurt him deep down in his soul, and all he could think was that it was his fault.
Because he left…
And not just this morning…

SPNSPNSPN

It took Dean almost an hour after his shoulder had been set, before he stopped crying. By that time his head felt all weird and his eyes stung like if he had gotten mace in his eyes.

His knee was just one big ball of unbearable pain, and his shoulder stated that it wanted to join in on the same party…

Once again he was thankful for his sasquatch brother, and his sasquatch strength. After his shoulder had been set, he had been picked up off the ground. Bridal-style… And carried gently back to his bed.

Sammy had propped him up, better than any nurse he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Then he had handed him two pills and a box of soda.

"I think that surgery of yours steps further and further up the line…" Sammy said in a monotonous voice, "It's not really like you have a choice… Your leg is hurting you too much…"

"I know."

"And really, your health should be higher on our list of priorities than a few months of hunting should… There are other hunters too… I mean Bobby could probably find a few that seem to be on a bit of a dry spell…"

"I know."

"I say we stay here in town for a few more days, until your leg will allow you a few hours in a car each day. Then we head up to New York… Because you really need that surgery, Dean…"

"I SAID I KNOW!" Dean practically yelled back at his little brother, as tears started stinging his eyes once again.

I always feel like a nutjob when I write something along the lines of 'hope you enjoy it' and the chapter is full of pain in multiple forms...

But hey, I live in the great belief that no one I know personally will ever be able to find me on this site. And if they just happen to find me, they'll likely never know it's me...

And well, yeah...
I kinda have to ask, because I feel like our good pal Lucifer while writing this much agony...
-Too much pain?

I think there will be more fluff and caring in the next chap... Don't know if I'll make a chapter about them staying there for a few more days, or if I should just fast forward to them heading towards NY...
Guess I'll have to think about that...