Chapter 12

Dean awoke as light was starting to fade. He could hear people talking in the other room. Sam was back from his trip to the park with Tommy. Thank Christ because Dean's need to go to the bathroom was now a priority.

"Sam!"

The younger brother's head quickly poked through the door. "Yeah?"

Dean's eyes flicked toward the bathroom.

"Okay."

Dean threw the covers off of him and shifted himself in the bed. When Sam came over to help, Dean put his hand up to stop him. "Just let me see how much I can do before you start helping," he requested.

Sam stood back and watched his brother work his way into a sitting position with his legs over the side of the bed. It had been a struggle but Dean was certainly getting better with his balance.

"Can you bring the chair a bit closer?" the injured man directed.

Sam brought the wheelchair parallel to the bed so that it was almost touching Dean's knees. Dean reached his hand over to the furtherest armrest on the chair and using that for support slid himself off the bed and easily into the wheelchair.

"Huh," Dean exclaimed. "Maybe I don't need you after all."

The younger man pushed his brother to the bathroom. When they were outside the door Sam stood behind the wheelchair unsure about his role in the next phase of this operation.

"What do you want me to do?" Sam asked.

"Just let me lean on you so I can get up."

Sam moved around to the side of Dean and held out his arm for his brother to hold onto. Dean put one hand on Sam's forearm and the other on the door handle and pulled himself upward. He was so focused on keeping his body strong that he forgot about the danger in rising too quickly. His satisfaction at getting himself out of the chair and standing disappeared when once again the sudden change in height smacked the injured man in the head with vertigo. He cursed under his breath as the room started spinning, his vision became blurred and with a small groan, he stumbled against the door. Sam quickly stepped behind his brother and threw his arms around Dean's chest.

"I got you," Sam reassured.

Dean leaned into his brother, letting Sam take his weight and keep him upright until the dizziness had passed. "Oh man, I'm going to have to work on that," he said weakly.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Passing out in the bathroom is not a good look."

Sam kept a tight grip on his brother until he felt him starting to take his own weight. When Dean had himself balanced, Sam released his hold and the older man shuffled into the bathroom while Sam waited outside the door. Soon the younger brother heard the toilet flush and Dean shuffled out leaning heavily against the wall. With a wry smile, the injured man gave a thumbs.

Sam immediately moved to his brother's side and put an arm around him, certain he was about to collapse, but Dean shoved him away. "I've got it," the older man groaned.

The injured man was determined to complete this task with as little assistance as possible. He eased himself into the chair, a little more heavily than he would have liked and Sam pushed him back to the bedside. Getting from the chair to the bed, Dean was wary this time of the dizziness waiting to strike if he wasn't careful. He had to figure out a way of pulling himself up slowly and/or not raising himself to his full height to avoid that head spin. But there was more to it than that, moving around was a logistical exercise. His left leg was a little weaker than his right so he had to lead with his right side, if he twisted a certain way that was going to cause a pain in his back, if he straightened too quickly he was going to cause a different pain. There were all these actions and reactions he had to consider before making a move. The problem was he was too impatient to think things all the way through. He usually ended up just going for it.

Dean hesitated in the chair as he considered the mental mathematics of what he wanted to do, but Sam interpreted his brother's hesitation as an indication he needed assistance. He moved around to the side of the chair and put his arm under Dean's shoulder.

"Wait a minute," the older man growled and shook his brother's arm off. "Jeez for someone determined not to help you're pretty quick to jump in."

Sam took a step backward with a sigh. He was only trying to make things easier. It was ironic that Sam had made a song and dance about not helping Dean when he left the hospital and Dean was the one trying to minimize the assistance. It was just hard standing back and watching his brother do something painful.

Using the armrests, Dean pushed himself out of the chair onto his feet, but stayed doubled over, his hands on his thighs, to avoid the change of height problem. He slowly drew himself up to his full height then shuffled the few steps to the bed, where he eased himself gently but stiffly down into a sitting position, then to a lying position. It wasn't graceful, and it wasn't without its painful twinges, but Dean was pleased that he had undertaken the whole going to the bathroom exercise with minimal assistance. He considered that next time he could do it without Sam's help.

When he was safely back on the pillows and under the covers the injured man brought a hand up to his face and closed his eyes for a moment to try and calm his too fast heartbeat and the aches that were attacking his body. He opened his eyes to find Sam watching him closely, worry written all over his face and he gave a short laugh. "Who knew going to the bathroom could be such an ordeal."

"You're definitely getting better," Sam offered and noting the winces coming from his brother added, "I bought you the strongest pain killers I could find today, you want them now?

"Hell yeah," Dean answered with a vehemence that told Sam his brother was in agony. Sam had the feeling that over the counter medicine for his brother's injury was like an ant taking on an elephant, but at least it was better than nothing.

"I put them in the draw here so you can reach them when you need them." Sam went over to the draw in the bedside table and pulled out the small bottle. He handed it to Dean then went to get a glass of water. He returned with the water and while his brother was medicating himself, Sam said, "I heard that you and Lisa talked while we were out."

"Yeah, we did."

"Was there yelling?"

"Nah, it was okay."

"So you two are cool? Issues resolved?"

"Yeah. At least I remember her now." With a cheeky smile Dean continued, "She was top 3 for sex." The older brother knew the younger man wouldn't understand the private joke and he waited to see what Sam would say.

Sam gave his brother a disapproving look. "Dude don't do that."

"What?"

"Don't reduce her to a sex object. She doesn't deserve that." Sam felt a loyalty to the young woman for the part she had played in keeping him together over the last week. If not for her compassion and understanding Sam probably would have spent his time rocking in a corner overwhelmed by guilt and sorrow at the predicament he had brought upon his brother. He didn't want to hear her made fun of.

Dean tried to placate his brother. "Dude, it was a joke. A joke that Lisa made. You need to chill."

"Well it wasn't funny."

Sam looked away, not wanting to say any more because if he did Dean would jump to the conclusion that something was going on between him and Lisa.

"Is something going on between you and Lisa?" Dean asked.

The younger brother sighed and rolled his eyes at the predictability of the question. "No Dean there isn't. I've been living with Lisa for a week now and I really like her. So just be nice okay?"

"So there is something going on between you two?"

"No there isn't." Sam repeated with exasperation. "Why is there no middle ground for you? I like her as a person. As a friend. That's it." Sam was starting to feel like he was protesting too much. Maybe there was something going on between him and Lisa. He hadn't thought so. He hadn't intended it. Although he had to concede that he did enjoy her company. Ah crap, now he was going to have to think about this. But not now, there were more important things to think about now than whether he wanted to make a move on a woman who had already been with his brother. Yikes. That was an unpleasant thought. He wasn't sure he could get past that for a start.

Dean could see his brother's wheels turning and it caused a smile to spread across his face. He found it humorous that his brother was so slow when it came to women. He had no doubt that it hadn't even occurred to Sam that he might like this girl. His little brother wasn't playing coy, he really was this clueless.

Now that Dean had got him thinking, Sam found the smug amusement on his brother's face annoying and warned, "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything," Dean laughed. "Although you know my feelings on the subject. I'm all for you getting a little loving. Your choice of women makes for an interesting twist though."

Just ignore him Sam thought. The more you say the more smart ass comments you're going to hear. The hell Sam would get from his brother if something did happen with Lisa was probably enough of a reason not to go there. The younger man quickly changed the subject. "Are you going back to sleep now?"

"Nice change of subject," Dean commented. "Not at all suspicious."

Sam's jaw clenched and he gave his brother a dark look. Dean knew that he had said enough on the subject of Lisa. "Back to sleep? I don't know. Why?"

"Could you watch Tommy while I help get dinner ready?"

Dean almost said something about Sam cooking a romantic meal but he got the feeling he was close to getting thumped. "I guess I can watch Tommy for a little while."

"You feel up to it?"

Dean shrugged. "I guess." It was hard for the injured man to judge if he was up to looking after Tommy when he hadn't met the kid yet. If he was some hyper nightmare he was going to be calling for Sam pretty quick. And he wasn't sure how long he could keep a child entertained being so limited in his movement. He may have to resort to a burping competition. He shifted in the bed until he was once again sitting with his legs over the side.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

Dean looked at his brother in confusion. "I'm- coming to watch Tommy."

"No, no, I'll bring him in here. Lay down."

"How am I supposed to entertain him laying down?"

"He's got card games and stuff, you don't need to get up."

"Oh," this gig was sounding easier already. Dean should have known that Sam wouldn't ask him to do something that involved any kind of exertion. The injured man swung his legs back onto the mattress and moved himself higher in the bed so that he was sitting up, leaning against the wall. He gave his brother a nod to indicate he was ready to babysit.

"Great. I'll get him." Sam left the room and returned moments later hand in hand with the little boy.

So this is Tommy Dean thought as he finally laid eyes on the boy he'd heard so much about. Cute kid.

Tommy looked nervous about coming into the room, he'd obviously be worded up on not bothering Dean. Sam brought Tommy to the side of the bed and stood behind him with his hands on his shoulders.

"Tommy, this is my brother Dean."

"Hi Tommy." Dean shot him a smile.

"Hi Dean," was the shy response. "Are you sick?"

"Nah, just a bit sore," the injured man replied. The differentiation was important to Dean, he wasn't sick he was injured, sickness was wimpy, injury was macho.

"Do you need medicine?" the little boy asked.

"Sometimes."

"Medicine is gross," Tommy announced. "I had medicine when I was sick and it tasted like cherries." The boy made a distasteful face, like cherries were the worst thing in the world.

"Some people like cherries," Dean said with amusement. "Some people would think that medicine is delicious."

Tommy howled with laughter. "No they wouldn't."

Dean smiled and raised an eyebrow at his brother as if to say easy audience. "I'll come and get you when dinner's ready," Sam told Tommy.

"Okay," the little boy replied without looking at the dark haired man. He was fumbling in his pocket for something as Sam left.

"What have you got?" Dean asked.

"Go Fish. Do you know how to play?"

"Sure, it's one of my personal favourites," Dean responded. "Why don't you walk around the bed and come and sit over here." Dean patted the bed next to him and was impressed when the kid didn't try and take the short cut over him. Tommy did as Dean suggested, walked around the bed then climbed up and sat cross legged next to the man. Dean took the cards out of the boy's hands and started to shuffle them.

"So are we playing for money?" Dean enquired. The little boy looked at him blankly. "That's okay, we'll keep it friendly today, but next time I'm not dealing until I see coinage."

The two of them played Go Fish for about half an hour, then Sam came back in to collect Tommy for dinner. When Dean and Tommy looked up at Sam as he came in the door, side by side on the bed, the young man saw the same eyes twice and it took his breath away. All of a sudden a shocking realization dawned on him and he tried to do some quick mental arithmetic, but he didn't know exactly when Tommy was born and he didn't know exactly when Dean and Lisa had been together so he could only speculate on his theory, but it was possible that Dean could be Tommy's father. Wouldn't Lisa have said something though? Sam almost turned around to go and speak with Lisa about it.

"What's wrong with you?" Dean asked.

"D-Dinner's ready," Sam stuttered.

"Dinner must be awful to warrant that face." The injured man turned to the little boy conspiratorily and said in a low voice, "What do you think Tommy, broccoli burgers?"

"No," the little boy laughed.

"Fish milkshake?" Dean persisted.

"No!" Tommy cried.

"Its got to be something gross, look at Sammy's face."

"It's pasta," Sam interjected. "Very nice pasta," he added before Dean gave it some disgusting slant.

"Yay pasta," the little boy cheered and jumped off the bed, running into the other room.

"Yay pasta?" Dean gave his brother an enquiring look. "Who yays at pasta? Has that kid ever tasted McDonalds?"

Sam gave a half hearted smile.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Dean asked his brother with a frown. Sam looked pale and he had an expression on his face that Dean couldn't read. The last thing they needed was for Sam to be coming down with something.

"Yeah." Sam looked away, uncomfortable under his brother's gaze. He didn't want to tell Dean what he was thinking in case he was way off base. "You want to come eat with us?"

"Nah, I can't," Dean replied tiredly. He barely had the energy to slide down in the bed, there was no way he could go into the other room and sit at the table.

"What if we were to eat in here?" Sam offered.

"Not tonight," Dean said. He appreciated that Sam wanted him to be a part of this little family he'd created for himself but it was getting near the end of a trying day and he couldn't see himself holding up.

"Okay. Do you want me to bring you some dinner?"

Dean exhaled loudly. All he wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep but if he didn't eat something now he'd wake up starving in the night. "Yeah thanks Sammy."

Sam went to fetch his brother some dinner and could barely look at Tommy and Lisa sitting at the table. He wasn't sure he could sit with them tonight pretending that everything was normal when he suspected something huge was going on here. He stole some glances at Tommy and was stunned that it hadn't occurred to him earlier how physically similar to Dean the child was. Seeing them next to each other it had been immediately apparent. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that Dean was Tommy's father.

The young hunter looked at Lisa nervously. He had to ask her the question but it was not going to be an easy conversation. And he had to very careful about how he went about it, she could be insulted if his suspicions were wrong. Now that the possibility of Dean being Tommy's father had occurred to him it was going to play on his mind until he knew whether it was true or not. He was going to have to talk to Lisa about it tonight.