Side kick-Bia1007

Beta- Eggylaine

To think I might not see those eyes

"Dean...son...he's not coming...Dean...." John cried trying to pull his eldest away from the now...dead body that was Sam.

But Dean wasn't giving up, he couldn't, he had to see Sam through this so he could make it right.

"COME ON!! SAAMMMYYYY!!"

A few more punches, more sounds of Sam's chest cracking, then finally, after one last ram of a fist, Sam finally gasped, coughed, and choked out the water in his lungs.

Dean let out half a sob and half a laugh in shock as he pulled Sam up and over so he could cough better as his head was in between his knees.

"Come on Sammy, come on kiddo, please just stick with me okay? I know, I know," he cooed patting the boy on the back to clear the gunk quicker. "Sshh, ssshh, I'm sorry, god I'm so sorry, you're okay, you're okay Sammy, sshh, sshh, big brothers gotcha, I gotcha, Deanie's right here," he chanted, mostly to keep his mind occupied while he helped Sam come round. By now the boy had gone back into a deep daze of unconsciousness but at least his heart was beating, everything else they could deal with as long as Sam was alive.

"I'll go call an ambulance!" Bobby yelled running back up the hill towards his house, the climb would usually have taken him a good 5 minutes, but with the adrenalin pumping and the previous sight of his 'nephew' for the lack of a better term, lying there so still, painfully turning blue on the ground, his hike took him no longer than 2 and half minutes.

He got to his house and almost ran through the door. His dialling was off at first; he was rushing so fast he could barely make out the numbers on his phone. When the caller said 'this connection does not exist, please try again later' he took a few deep breathes, blinked, then dialled as carefully as his shaking fingers allowed him.

"Hello, emergency services, this is Linda, how may I help you?"

"Y-yeah, my nephew, he was running and he tripped and fell into a lake and he drowned and-"

"Okay sir, calm down."

'I just fucking saw my nephew...practically my own flesh and blood drown!! How the hell can I calm down?!' his mind was screaming at him.

"Is he still under the water sir?"

"No, we got him out, but it took us longer than it should have..."

Bobby cursed himself for not fencing off that damn lake, or filling it in years ago.

"And is your nephew unconscious? Is he breathing?"

"Yeah he's breathing now..."

'What the hell is with the 20 questions? Can't you just ask me where he is then send us help?!!'

"Okay sir, can you tell me your nephew's location and an ambulance will be on its way."

Bobby told her his address, told her they were a good mile from the house and that he would be waiting for them at his main gate.

"...thank you..."

"Okay sir, help is on the way, would you like me to stay on the line?"

"No we'll be fine just tell them to hurry the hell up!"

Bobby hung up then ran back out his house, he waited for what felt like hours, which actually turned out to no longer than 4 minutes when he heard the sirens. He waved them to follow him in the ambulance, trying to figure out the closest but safest place they could park. He reached the very end before the drop of the hill then waved an X telling them to stop there. He then took off knowing they wouldn't be far behind.

"How's he doing?" he asked running down the hill, careful not to fall in the lake himself as he joined the Winchesters once again. He also watched closely as the paramedics looked over the edge then nodded that they were coming before disappearing again, probably to get the gear from the back of the ambulance.

By now, Dean had Sam pulled up against him, he had his arms wrapped tight around the panting and wheezing boy. John had his hand threaded through the kid's right hand and his other on Dean's shoulder.

"Sam! Come on you gotta wake up, Sammy!!" Dean yelled as he ran his hand through Sam's hair, trying to rouse the boy.

"He's unconscious again," was all John said. Truth was, he didn't really know what to say, Dean wasn't the type to listen to quiet chants of 'it will be okay son.' So he knew not to bother, he knew just to leave Dean alone right now, all he could do was be there if he was needed, for either of his boys.

Bobby approached Dean, he shuffled on his knees so that he was kneeling closer to the older kid and tried to offer some support with a hand on his leg...but Dean didn't like that too much.

"FUCK OFF!!" he yelled. It was so cold, Bobby couldn't help but flinch and thankfully before Dean started pounding on him, he lifted his hand and scooted away.

He looked over at John, demanding answers, but the father simply shrugged. He had no clue, but the strange thing was, he was the one that still had a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Sammy, come on let me see those eyes, come on, I'll go get you Brownie, I'll never make fun of you for having a stuffed toy again, please just wake up and let me know you're okay?"

They all held their breath, waiting for something to happen, but it never did.

"I'll not make fun of your hair anymore, you can grow it as long as you like..."

John sighed, he was glad Dean was making an effort, it was better than the alternative, but it wasn't any less painful to watch as the hope fizzled from his son's eyes.

"I'll let you have a beer? Your first beer with your big bro...come on...?"

And still nothing.

"Okay, I got it! I know you're only 14 but you're damn smart, so I'll teach you how to drive if you open those eyes? I'll even let you test run the Impala, huh? Come on what's more grown up than that kiddo?"

Dean carried on the bargaining till the voices of strangers could be heard, the building panic of those medics coming closer, ready to take Sam away from him at any moment, was the thing that made his rambles stop.

John had to pull his eldest from his youngest just so the paramedics could check the unconscious boy out. Dean screamed, raged, bit his dad and Bobby on several attempts to get free. The medics even had to cut Sam's shirt free from Dean's grasp at one point in the painful struggle.

Only when they had Sam on a stretcher, and Dean was left standing numb with hands full with his brother's cut shirt did he stop fighting.

"Dean, Dean? Come on, they have to take him to the hospital son, come on you can ride in the back."

John coached his son up the hill, and pushed the frozen teen into the back of the ambulance.

"Sir? You're bleeding, I think you should climb in the back and let me check that out," the male medic, Alphie, said pointing to the deep cut on John's shoulder, the cut he had completely forgotten about.

But that offer was crap, he knew only one extra person, usually a parent, could sit in the back with the patient. "No, if I get in the back then my eldest won't be able to, just take them to the hospital. Dean I'll see you kids there okay?"

"Sir, your eldest is bleeding too, I think the hospital wouldn't mind if we bend the rules today."

Dean gulped when he noticed the cut, the hurting like a mother gash down the side of his leg and he thanked the gods when his dad jumped in the ambulance and sat next to him.

"He's gonna be fine Dean, thanks to you."

John never flinched once when Alphie the medic was patching him up, it was a quick fix till they got to the hospital he said, then John told him to check Dean out too. But again, when it wasn't Sam or his dad's hands touching him, Dean didn't like it one bit.

"Whoa there sport...just calm down, I'll do my best to be gentle okay kid?" Alphie said holding his hands up in surrender when Dean hissed at him.

"Dean, you want me to-?"

Dean nodded when his father asked silently if he wanted him to be the one patching him up.

John took the gauze from the guy and started to dab Dean's leg, clearing some of the scabbed up blood.

"You get this from that spike thing down there?"

Dean nodded, his eyes never leaving Sam's once as the man turned up the oxygen levels his little brother was receiving through the clouded up mask.

"His SAT's are dropping that's all, it's just to give him a little more help," Alphie explained. "Trust me, most kids that have a little drowning accident walk back out of the hospital within the next day or two."

The first thing that came to Dean's mind...'Sam's not most kid's, and this wasn't like most accidents.'

Then the second...and third, and fourth...and fifth....and sixth...thought...was....

'It's all my fault! I was so mean, I was worse than Tony and Kyle! I was worse than those bullies back when I first saw him...I'm so much worse! I thought, I convinced myself I was looking out for Sam, I was trying to toughen him up for the better, but instead, I broke him! I freaking broke my little brother! He's gonna hate me! He's never gonna wanna come home with me after this, god this is all my fault! First mom, now Sam, what next? Bobby? Dad? What am I gonna end up doing to them? God...I said MY dad...like he wasn't Sam's, like he was mine only and Sam didn't deserve him, I called him a baby, I said he was the blame for all his bad luck...no, I was wrong, I'm to blame, this is all the wonderful work of the grand Dean Asshole Winchester...god Sammy I am so sorry....'

"Dean? Dean you with me son?"

Dean sat up in the bed, the very white bed, Dean didn't think it was Bobby's but maybe the old man redecorated.

"Wha....? What happened? Sammy? I had a dream he drowned, where is he? What happened?"

"Dean, you passed out in the ambulance, good thing actually cos you had an infection the size of Kansas growing in that leg. You would have probably ripped the medic's throat out if you were awake."

"Where's Sammy?" Dean rushed not giving a crap about himself, he had a god awful feeling that his 'dream' wasn't much of a dream at all.

"He's right here...told you he'd be okay," John grinned, moving out of the way revealing Sam sleeping in the bed right next to Dean. Sure, he had a cannula pushing a little extra oxygen into him, and an IV the size of a knitting needle in his hand, but overall he was doing much better than anyone could have envisioned.

"What's...is he...how...?"

"He woke up a little after your face plant, he's still got some trouble breathing but the docs are pretty optimistic he can go home tomorrow."

John could see the look in his son's eyes, ever since he opened them and took one look at his baby brother in the hospital bed. John didn't need to be a psychic to know that the look of pain was that of guilt, and how much it was ripping his son apart.

"Dean, listen to me, okay?"

Dean looked over at his father and nodded stiffly.

"When they wheeled you two off in different directions, his screaming...well let's just say he could have given you a good run for your money."

And that was all John had to say for Dean to know his baby brother still wanted...still needed him.

"S-so...he's okay? He's really...he's not..."

"He's gonna be just fine Ace."

"No thanks to me..." Dean mumbled as his father rubbed a comforting well done hand on his shoulder.

"Every thanks to you actually. Dean you saved him, if you hadn't have pounded on his chest, we would be at his funeral right now, so don't be so hard on yourself."

"How is his chest anyway? I mean I...I practically shattered it...with my..." Dean looked at the side of his own fist and winced at the yellowing bruise there.

"He's fine," was all John said once again.

"But?"

"But nothing, he's fine."

"Dad in our family, 'fine' doesn't mean fine, what aren't you telling me?"

"He...his chest...it's a little bruised is all."

Dean's eyes filled with tears, a bit of bruising probably meant he smashed Sam's chest bone into pieces.

"But everyone, all the staff here are all saying how amazing you are for acting so fast, it's a small price to pay for having Sam breathing Dean, Sam knows that."

"He wouldn't even be here if I hadn't said what I did."

"You mean about telling Sam it was his fault and we had to save him again back at the diner?"

Dean got another flash of guilt and pain on his face then.

"When Bobby got back home the other day, he told me he found something left on his computer, what you kids were fighting about."

"I-I didn't mean to...I just snapped, I was just...I-"

John could see Dean was having trouble with his words, he knew just with one look at his posture, his eldest was feeling responsible for too damn much in this world. Everyone knew it wasn't anyone's fault, things just got out of hand once again, but trying to get that through to two hormonal teenage boys was easier said than done.

"What happened kiddo?" he asked standing over his eldest a bit more giving Dean his full attention.

"I just want to make sure he's okay you know? I mean we won't always be here to protect him. I just wanted him to get mad at me, like throw a punch or something, but he didn't get mad...he just got really upset. I should have known better...Sam doesn't react like I do, when something upsets him, he runs, and this time...he ran too far and...god I nearly killed him cos I was so damn selfish."

"Dean stop this crap, right now and listen to me. No matter how many arguments, fights, punches or slammed doors you kids are gonna throw, I guarantee you two will stick together like glue. You're best friends, and more importantly, you're brothers, always will be. He doesn't blame you kid, so stop blaming yourself, got it?" John ran a hand through his son's hair affectionately, then got back on his chair thinking that was the end of it...not for Dean, he would never forgive himself, no matter if Sam did or not.

"What day is it?" he swallowed his tears and hoped moving onto another subject would help pass the time.

"Friday, it was Wednesday when you kids got in here."

"I've been asleep for that long?"

"Yeah, you were awake the last day but kind of out of it, good to see you lucid actually, you were starting to freak me out," and in John world that meant 'I was shit scared for you kiddo.'

"How come I was...out of it?"

"Shock, infection, and one hell of a fever, next time the paramedics wanna check you over, you're going to comply, you got that?"

"Infection? I had that cut for 45 minutes at most."

"It was a fast infection, what can I say?"

"Why didn't you get it? You got cut too."

"I'm just awesome I guess."

"Funny..." he snapped then brought his hand up and reached up to grip his... "Oh no...oh shit! Where's my...oh no no no this can't be happening."

John knew what he was looking for, so he stood once again and took it out of his pocket.

"Dean, breathe, here, I take it you're looking for this."

"Oh...thank you, thank you!" Dean yelled kissing the amulet as he looked over at his sleeping brother again.

"Bobby found it on the side of the lake yesterday."

"He went back to that death trap? Why?"

"He feels almost as bad as you, said he should have filled that lake in years ago, the first time you almost drowned in that thing."

"Yeah..." Dean remembered that day all too well, his father was just starting to be more like his dad again. But after that day when John came home from the hunt, tired, angry and shit pissed at Bobby, the dad left, and the angry, revenge driven psychotic drill sergeant returned. "When's Sammy gonna wake up?" Dean asked moving from one painful subject back to another. It hurt to talk about Sam in the same way right now, but he had to know everything that was going on with his little brother.

"They had to sedate him because he was trying to get into your bed every time the nurses left the room, he should be out for another 2 hours at least, just long enough for you to get some more sleep, cos I gotta say, you look like crap."

"Nice, thanks."

"Welcome, now go to sleep, I'll be here."

"And Sammy?" Dean asked, his voice suddenly changing to the scared little 5 year old from all those years ago.

"Sammy's not going anywhere. Night kiddo."

"Night dad...night Sammy."

TBC...

I've sid this a million times today, I know I should stop soon but I wanna say it just one more time...I can't help it...

PUDDING!!!!!