Kevin woke up feeling immediately like crap.

Bright.

Everything was too bright. It hurt his eyes.

"Kevin- hey-"

A hand clasped his shoulder, trying to keep him from adjusting to get comfortable in the bed. Reflexively, Kevin slurred a "Screw you," at Dean. The Winchester didn't mind the insult at all. He was pretty doped up on medication.

"The doc said you lost a lot of blood. Kevin, what the hell happened?"

Kevin squinted, and when he looked down, he saw that one of the needles plunged into his wrist was indeed transfusing blood. Oh, that gave him the willies.

"...That ass jumped me," Kevin exhaled slowly, despite the bite in his tone. Kevin vaguely remembered his hand, and he looked down at his limp hand to see that it was freshly bandaged. He couldn't feel it yet, but he was pretty sure that he had been given new stitches too. The beep of the heart monitor beside his bed nicked the seconds that passed before he continued.

"...That's it. He jumped me."

Dean looked on, befuddlement sinking into his facial expression.

"...But you knew that already. So why ask?"

"Hey, take it easy-" Dean pushed Kevin back when he tried to sit up again, but Kevin shoved his hands away.

"NO!"

Dean was on his toes, looking to the door. He hoped that no one had heard him. The monitor was beeping a little faster, and Kevin's breaths hitched and he leaned forward with a slouch in his shoulders.

"—Okay," he caved, and slowly sat back down in his chair. Kevin eyed him. Dean eyed him back. After a moment, Dean leaned forward, folding his hands. "Kevin, I'm not mad at you."

"It's my fault," the prophet's shoulders tensed, but then dropped again, and it looked like he was about to break down crying.

"It's not your fault," Dean told him firmly. That didn't really seem to helping Kevin's fragile state, so the Winchester scooted his chair closer to the bedside. "...Alright, tell you what." Dean pulled out a slip of paper out of his pocket and a pen. He wheeled a tabletop–meant for meals in bed–close to him and he hunched over it, writing on the slip.

"If you really wanna make it up to me-" he started, focusing on the paper as his pen scrawled over it, "-I want you to do me a favor."

Kevin sniffed.

"What?"

Dean finished writing, folded the slip, and handed it to Kevin.

"I want you to only worry about what is on that paper."

With a pat to the back, the older brother got up, smiled briefly, and left. He had to get the money wired for Kevin's hospital bill. Kevin watched him leave, and only after he was out of sight did he unfold the paper. It was a list of instructions. There was only one line.

Get better.

—

Dean was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He didn't want to just abandon Kevin like this in the hospital, but he had to go find Sam and bring him home. And Cas. Glory, hallelujah, this was going to be a hell of a family reunion. He was not looking forward to getting this party started. But if "family" was all peaches and thornless roses, then he had another thing coming. Dean reckoned that his family rose bush had more thorns than roses.

Dean shut his eyes for just a minute to escape from the world, but even in the shadows of his eyelids, he saw the world too vividly. He was sure that Sam hated him. And rightfully too. He shouldn't have kept something so critical from his brother, but Dean was a desperate man. That side of him didn't always show, but when it did, desperation never looked so tragically stoic and, frankly, beautiful. He couldn't live without Sam.

And Cas... Dean would've been an idiot to deny that their friendship had been stretched thin for a while now. How did that happen? Why did that happen, more importantly? He knew why, and it made his head shake in shame. It was so stupid. He should have just let it go.

"You gotta get your head out of the clouds, Cas! You can't hit the target just by willing the bullet to punch the bullseye via the Grace of God. You're not an angel anymore, Cas! You're human! You need to concentrate and aim!"

Click!

Dean's eyes were wide. He was staring at two things.

A beige hospital wall.

And the black eye of a gun.

Busy day today, but hooray for 9x03! Let's ring in the new episode with gusto!