How to Save a Life Chapter 14, a supernatural fanfic

Disclaimer: Winchester's, no-ot mine.

A/N: Hope everyone is still enjoying this little tale. Thank you so much for those of you who so faithfully read and review. It just makes my heart sing, knowing you care. lol. So... Happy early Valentine's Day. A little hurt Dean and Sam to the rescue. Also I apologize in advance for any stray typos. They are definitely mine, although I wouldn't mind getting rid of them. I just never seem to catch them all... so read at your own risk. ;0)

How To Save A Life - Chapter 14

Bobby took a step back, studying Sam warily. "What did you do to him Castiel?" He asked gruffly.

Castiel turned slowly to meet the older hunter's troubled gaze, before answering. "I did nothing. I was not able to connect with him or Dean." He turned back to Sam, who was still holding his head and wiping at the thin ribbon of blood that had trailed down his upper lip onto his chin. "I am not sure what has happened."

Sam looked up, hands dropping to his sides. "I'm right here guys. I don't know what happened either, but I do know where Dean is and I want to go get him right now." He paused, taking a deep breath, adding in a choked voice. "He's really hurt."

Bobby moved closer, patting his shoulder firmly. "Okay Boy. You and the angel go get 'im. We'll figure this out later."

They both turned to Castiel expectantly.

The angel stood still, his face blank, as he met their stare.

Finally Sam asked impatiently. "Well Cas. Can we go or not?"

Pursing his lips, he replied quietly. "Yes Sam, as soon as you explain where he is."

Sam closed his eyes for a moment, then spoke hoarsely. "He's, uh... he's in that warehouse, where Alastair... hurt him."

Bobby made a small sound of worry.

Castiel nodded sharply and then quickly touched Sam. They disappeared soundlessly.

"Hurry up and get to Dean, Sam" Bobby whispered, rubbing a weary hand over his face.

Dean slowly blinked open heavily lidded eyes. The first thing he noticed was the steady dripping of water somewhere nearby. It served to accentuate a surprisingly, voracious thirst. He could almost taste the sweetness of a big glass of ice-water. The continuous dripping kept drawing his attention. It sounded like a heartbeat, slow and steady. Well, like a heart should sound. His couldn't seem to find its steadiness yet. Or maybe like a drum beat. He listened a minute more and then sang in his mind. "Hi-way to Hellll." He stopped abruptly. No. Not a good song to sing in this situation. He decided with a smirk.

He really needed to know where Sammy was. Yeah, needed to find Sam. His fuzzy mind kept skipping around, causing him to lose his train of thought. Sammy. He had to figure out where his brother was. Sluggishly, he attempted to roll over. He was so tired and his head kept doing this wild spin, causing everything to revolve in a mad swirl of colors. He lay still, pondering the situation. Sighing wearily, he resolved that getting up was the next move he should make. Yeah, he decided hazily... needed to get up and... and get out of here.... After, he rested, for... just a few minutes.

Sam whirled in a tight circle, scanning the eerily empty warehouse. Turning on the silent angel, Sam demanded angrily. "Where is he?" He paused, taking a breath. His voice echoing harshly. "I saw him, right here. I saw Dean in this place. Why isn't he here?"

Castiel canted his head, eyes studying the space around them. "I believe Zachariah is moving Dean, to keep us at bay."

"So, what do we do?" Sam asked quietly.

Bringing his fierce gaze back to meet Sam's worried one, he answered firmly. "We hope that you can connect to him again and.... follow, until we find Dean."

Dean's eyes fluttered and then blinked open slowly. He squinted, trying to focus; closed his eyes and then opened them again, wider this time. Hmmm. Still pretty dark, guess his eyes were open after all. The relentless pounding in his head caused him to decide to keep his eyes closed for awhile longer, it was too dark to see much anyway. He tried to concentrate on taking stock of himself and the situation he was in. Not a good situation, he was sure of that, since he was lying flat on his back in a god-awful amount of pain.

He noticed the lack of sound. No more water dripping, in fact no sounds at all except for his own wheezing breaths. Clumsily, he raised his left arm and pressed it against his throbbing side. No warm stickiness. Good. Not bleeding. Just pain. Crashing in waves, in and out. It was constant, like a heartbeat. Well what a heart beat should be like.

He realized, his own heart was in turn, jerking and racing. It was if it couldn't find it's rhythm and was confused about how it should be beating. It was also difficult to breath. Anything more than a shallow, shaky breath seemed beyond him at the moment. Dean tried to gather his thoughts, to recall what had happened to land him here, wherever here was. All he had for a memory was a big empty space, where information should be.

Turning his head very carefully, because it felt like it could fall off at any moment, he scanned the room he was in. Where was his brother? He felt his heart start to race faster as panic tried to take hold of him. Sammy should be here.

"S'mmy." He tried to shout, but all that came out was a choked whisper. Swallowing, trying to get enough air to make some noise, he tried again, getting similar results. He had to get out of here. Find his brother. He really needed to remember what was going on. He tried to sit up, bracing his left arm against the floor and pushing. The maneuver only managing to ignite a maelstrom of blazing pain. With a hoarse cry. His battered body decided that that was more than it could handle and shut down again. He slumped bonelessly back to the floor.

He opened his eyes again. He must have blacked out, although he had no way of knowing how long. There was a little more light now. Which hurt his sensitive eyes, but it was nice to be able to see what was going on. He really hated the dark, knew what tended to lurk in dark places. There was also sounds. He could hear the faint noise of city traffic. What was going on? It was like he kept waking up in a different place.

Ignoring as best he could, the fiery pain that still blanketed him, he tried to wrap his right arm around his aching side and gasped at the sharp tugging sensation. Agh! It felt like it was pinned down by something. Okay... that was different. What was going on? Why did everything keep shifting and changing? He forced himself to calm down. What else was wrong with him? He tried to take stock.

Side aching; check- head clanging; check- left arm okay, right arm caught on ... something; check, check. Progressing to his left leg, he found he could shift it a little and wiggle his toes, but when he tried to do the same with his right leg a sharp pain raced from the tip of his toes all the way up his body to shoot out of the top of his head. Stars blinked and burst in front of his eyes. Ummm. He could have sworn there wasn't sky above him.

Dean concentrated, worked on getting his breathing to slow down, as the pain finally receded, enough that he could see again. He remembered, His phone. Maybe he could get a call out. Awkwardly patting his pocket, belatedly realizing it wasn't there. Oh, yeah, broken. It had gotten busted on the last hunt fiasco.

He really needed to get out of here. Maybe he could poof himself back to Bobby's or use one of his supposed super powers. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus all of his mind on being at Bobby's. His thoughts were so fuzzy, it was difficult to line them up on a single thing. Gritting his teeth, he tried harder, tried to will himself to safety. Finally, wheezing noisily, he felt his body go lax; all the manic energy he had harnessed briefly, leaking out.

Spent, he panted wearily. Nothing. Nothing was happening. He didn't know how he had done it in the first place. He didn't know how he had done any of the weird things he had done. Anna said not to stifle the powers. Heh. He didn't even know how to access the powers let alone stifle them.

Defeated for the moment, he set his mind on Sam. Please find me little brother. He mumbled desperately.

Dean came to himself, hearing the smarmy voice from his nightmares, recognizing it before he had even opened his eyes. Zachariah. He pried his heavy lids open trying to focus on the hated angel.

"Ah, Dean. There you are. I wanted to tell you that I was going to give my superior the good news. I'm sure he'll be sending Michael back here soon."

Dean smirked. "Yeah," He whispered in a hoarse voice. " 'Bout that, he can't use me anymore. You idiot."

"Oh, Dean. I'll admit you are a little worse for wear. I always forget how very fragile you humans are. I really didn't mean to rough you up quite this badly, but... We had to keep one step away from that pesky Castiel and your sidekick brother. Who I might add, seems to have picked up a new trick." Zachariah shook his head, adding jovially. "You just stick around... get it? stick around?" He chuckled like the smart-aleck he was. "Because you seem to be stuck?" He gestured to the thing that had Dean pinned down. Dean just stared back silently. Zachariah smiled. "Ah well, As long as you're breathing, Michael can fix you right up as soon as he takes up residence."

Dean whispered. "Got your facts wrong Zacky. I got demon blood in me now. He really can't use me no more."

"Oh Dean. You can't fool me. Sam is the one with the bad blood." The angel's smile grew.

"Nah, little brother shared his with me." Zachariah's smile seemed to dim as Dean continued. "Besides I keep hearing about Michael, but no one has actually seen him. I mean, Lucifer is around. Sam and I have even seen him, but Mike, Hmm... I'm startin' to wonder if he's a figment of your imagination there Zachy." He started laughing softly at the bewildered look on the usually cocky angel's face.

The laugh turned into a harsh cough, stealing his breath and causing his vision to go sparkly around the edges. Finally, when his body calmed down enough that he was able to focus again, the angel was gone. Huh. He wasn't sure if that boded well for him or not. Where are you Sammy? He moaned. He would even settle for Cas showing up about now.

Someone was gently tapping his face and calling his name rather urgently. Dean blinked, opened his eyes, his vision blurry, a familiar wavering face was peering down at him. "S'mmy?" he asked in wonder. "Dr'mn'?"

"No Dean you're not dreaming. It's me and Cas." He gestured to a silent shadowed figure nearby.

"We're going to get you out of here, but , uh, it's going to hurt. You've got your arm kind of skewered and we have to get you loose so Cas can, uh.... well whatever he does." Sam shrugged, then asked gently. "Why didn't you just "poof" yourself Dean?"

Dean answered hoarsely. "Tried. Couldn't get it to work. Nothing worked."

Sam frowned. "Okay bro., well let's just concentrate on getting you outta here. Huh?" Carefully , he began trying to un-pin his brother's arm.

", please. Stop Sammy.!" Dean couldn't hold back the gasp of pain as his whole arm felt like it caught fire. He choked and coughed, strove to calm himself.

Sam had paused and was patting him again, softly reassuring him. "Hey. It's okay. I've gotcha bro."

Dean tried to clear his throat and choked again. He tasted copper and felt something oozing down his chin, hoped it was just drool, not blood. The way Sam's face had gone pale, he knew his hope was probably in vain. Sam looked to the angel in alarm.

Dean spoke breathlessly. "Jus' do it S'mmy, do.. fast. ...want t' go home."

Castiel shared a solemn look with Sam and then touched Dean's forehead. Dean sighed and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Sam thanked Cas softly and then quickly got his brother free of the beam's metal bracket that had him pinned. Crimson, began to run steadily from the now freed arm.

Castiel's voice was somber as he asked Sam. "Hospital?"

Sam studied his unconscious brother. Dean was bruised, bleeding and hurt again. Two days. It had taken them two freakin' days to find him. Sam felt completely wrung out, his head ached and he was just so sick of him and his brother always seeming to come up on the short end of the stick time and time again. With a tired grimace he answered. "Yeah, I think that would be best."

This time when Dean opened his eyes, he was in a bright room and he felt like he was floating. He was starting to feel like one of those toys Sam had had as a kid; a view master. Every time he opened his eyes: Click, new scene; click, new scene- with nothing to bridge the disjointed pictures together. At least the overpowering pain from earlier was now regulated to the background. Disoriented, panic started to grip his senses, when suddenly his favorite face appeared leaning over him.

"Hey Dean. You with me? Hmm?" Sam rubbed his shoulder gently, deep voice offering a litany of comfort and reassurances. "You're okay now. Sorry, we had to take you back to the hospital, but you're going to be all right."

Dean smiled woozily. "s'kay, S'mmy. You 'kay?"

Before Sam could respond his brother had drifted back to sleep. A heartfelt sigh of relief whooshed out of him as he collapsed back into the uncomfortable chair he had been occupying, on and off, for the last 25 hours. Dean was going to be fine. He just had to start the stupid recovering process all over again. He was going to be so angry when he was coherent again. He hadn't even been totally recovered from the last time, no matter how much he had insisted that he was.

Sam rested his head on the side of Dean's bed and closed his eyes wearily. He didn't know where Cas had gotten to and he really didn't care at this point. He had Dean back and that's all he needed right now. One of these days he and his brother were going to take a vacation where no-one and no-thing would be able to find them.

Yeah, if there was any world left after this was over. If he and Dean were still here on this planet. Lot's of variables, but one thing was non-negotiable. Whatever happened they would be together; alive or dead; hurt or broken. Together. And maybe they really would take a vacation. Relaxed for the first time in three days, Sam smiled sleepily letting himself dream about how that might play out.

TBC~ Thanks so much for reading and thanks in advance for reviewing too. ;0)