The security guard at the centre's gate was not surprised to see Madeline, though he raised an eyebrow at her passengers. He waved her in after a moment's hesitation. The Centre itself was glitzy, all concrete and glass, and Dean did not trust glitzy. As they neared the building, he glared at it as if that would make it less glam. Unbeknownst to him, Sam was also looking at the building suspiciously. They really were two paranoid peas in a pod.

Inside was the smallest and emptiest waiting room they had ever seen. Sam figured that it was because people came here on appointment and didn't need to wait. It was nice to be in a waiting room where no one was trying to give you an airborne disease. Also, it did not smell too much like a hospital for which all three were grateful. Emily who had insisted on walking from the car dropped bonelessly in one of the surprisingly comfortable chairs and rested her head on the wall behind her. Her brothers sat in the chairs flanking her and Sam flung an arm over her shoulder and gently drew her to him until her head was off the wall and in the crook of his arm.

Madeline was talking to the woman at the admission desk, both glancing over at the siblings every other second. Then the other woman walked away. A minute later, she returned and handed over some things to Madeline who walked back to where the Winchesters were seated. She handed Dean a packet of Tylenol and three bottles of water, and gave Sam a blue scrubs shirt. Sam self consciously peeled off his destroyed shirts and pulled the scrub shirt on. He smiled his thanks to Madeline.

Dean wouldn't let Sam take any Tylenol, not knowing what kind of effect it would have, but he let him drink the water. He allowed Emily the painkillers, but cautioned her on drinking the water very slowly.

They'd been there less than three minutes when a shockingly thin, tall man walked up to them. He looked to be about forty-five with a receding hair line and sharp blue eyes.

"Heath!" Madeline jumped up. She and the man hugged, then he turned to the Winchesters.

"I'm Dr. Heath Roth." He looked them over quickly taking in the young man with nails in his arm, the ashen boy in the blue scrubs, and the girl sleeping in his arms.

Dean introduced himself and his siblings, using Bloom as their last name. Even though this wasn't a big public hospital, he didn't want the doctor freaking out when he discovered one of his clients was a dead guy.

"Come with me Mr. Bloom," the doctor requested, already turning to move, his god-complex apparent by the way he expected no questions.

"No! They go first." Dean said of his siblings.

The doctor turned with a shocked and clearly unhappy look on his face.

"Look, doctor, I'm not trying to be difficult. I know this looks bad," Dean waved his arm, "but at least we know what is going on with it. She on the other hand took a really bad hit to the head and he wasn't breathing when I found him, and I had to perform CPR on him." He finished softly, placating the doctor. Even speaking about the event made him nearly hyperventilate.

"I'm okay!" both Sam and Emily promptly said. Sam a little indignantly and Emily softly, without opening her eyes.

The doctor's demeanor immediately changed. "I'm sure you both are, but that's what big brothers do, they worry," he said gently, making Dean think the man might be a big brother too. "Now, since I'm going to look over you later, you might as well come with me now!" the doctor added, looking at Dean wryly.

Dean looked at him appraisingly. Yes, either the man was a big brother or he was intuitive enough to know Dean was not going to let his siblings out of his sight.

He and Sam helped Emily to her feet, and they followed the doctor only a few paces through a doorway, past a group of cubicles and straight into a small operating room. It was very disconcerting.

"I know it's weird for you guys, but unlike a standard hospital, here we see clients on appointment, so unfortunately we don't have exam rooms here. That back there was our pre-operation area, the clients change there then come in here ready for their procedure," the doctor explained sensing their unease. "It's intimidating, I know, but this is the closest thing we have to an examination room."

The only seating aside from the operating table were two backless stools with wheels on them. Sam and Dean took these while Emily got up on the bed. She was glad her brothers had come along. She would have lost it being in this freaky ass operating room without them; like her liver was going to be carved out or something!

Considering the information he now had, Heath would have liked to check Sam first, but by sitting on the stools, the brothers were clearly telling him to check their sister first.

The doctor got right in her face and Emily resisted the urge to lean back. The Q & A was the usual.

"Headache?"

"Yes."

"How bad? On a scale of 1 to 10?"

"If I close my eyes, its about an eight, when they're open, it's about an eleven."

"Make that ten and fifteen!" Sam spoke up, knowing that like him, his siblings, were notorious for downplaying their pain.

Emily tried to glare at him, but the headache wouldn't allow it.

"Is that true?" the doctor asked already reaching for his flashlight which he shone in her eyes.

"Ow!" she exclaimed as her headache ratcheted up the scale.

Okay, now the doctor was worried. Emily's pupils were unequal in size and completely blown. No wonder her brother was concerned.

"Have you thrown up?"

"No, but I kind of feel nauseated."

Dean hadn't known that, and now he was getting impatient; for a surgeon, this Roth guy was extremely slow.

"For fuck's sake, I found her passed out, she's dizzy, she keeps falling asleep, and trust me, she doesn't know what you look like cos her sight's blurry and in case you missed it, she's got a goose egg on the side of her head!" Dean finally snapped.

"Dean!" Sam exclaimed.

"No, Sam. God, I shouldn't have given Madeline control of the situation. We wouldn't be in this fake ass masquerading-as-a-hospital place!"

Sam got up and physically dragged his brother out of the room before he insulted the doctor next.

"Dean, calm down. The man is doing his job." Sam pinned his brother against the wall. He knew Dean was just letting him do it, because Sam's muscles still felt like they had atrophied and Dean could have taken him, if he'd wanted to.

"He's too bloody slow!" Dean did not struggle out of Sam's grip.

"I know you're tired and you're worried, but that guy is no more slower than any other doctor who isn't seeing blood. You know how doctors are living ghouls!"

"Are you saying I should have nicked Rae with my knife to draw blood?" Dean's eyes twinkled at the thought.

Sam laughed. "You wouldn't dare, but as a strategy, it would have worked! That doctor would be working so much faster! Anyway, we're here now, so let's take advantage of this place." Sam ended more seriously. He let go of his brother and leaned against the wall next to him.

"I would have felt better in a hospital." Dean said rather petulantly. He sometimes hated how reasonable Sam could be. It made Dean look like a rash douche.

"You're a dead felon, remember?"

"Not when I'm Bloom. Besides, hospitals mean more people, less scrutiny, and making a run for it is easier. And how the hell are we going to pay for this?"

"Hey, Madeline brought us here, I say let's let her worry about that. Our current concern is getting you and Emily are looked over."

"And you!" Dean was not taking any chances even though Sam looked recovered now.

"And me." Sam was not going to start an argument he knew he would never win.

They stayed there for a while, leaning against the wall and a little into each other, until a pained cry burst from the operating room. Rae!

Emily had watched her brothers go with wide eyes. She knew her brothers enough now, to know that an outburst like that from Dean meant that he was worried. He was probably also tired and the pain in his arm had to be downright awful. The doctor had been unfazed, something Emily gave him props for. Staying calm in the face of a Winchester's rage was quite the feat! He got his stethoscope.

"Is everything he said true? About your symptoms I mean!" Dr. Roth was not ready to hear another slur against his centre.

"Yeah, mostly."

"Have you got any tingling in any part of your body?" He asked while noting her heart action was abnormally slow.

"No!"

"Ringing in your ear?"

"No."

The doctor felt for the goose egg until he found it. He pressed a little on it and her short involuntary shout of pain brought her brothers running back in the room.

"What the hell?" they looked ready to murder the doctor when they saw the unshed tears in their sister's eyes.

"I'm okay!" Emily swallowed the lump and blinked away the tears. She did not want her brothers arrested for killing the doctor.

The doctor on his part got up and walked away quickly, no explanation given. Dean looked at Sam, his eyes asking, "What now Mr. Peace and Understanding?"

Sam shrugged. He couldn't sugarcoat this. He stood in front of Emily and held his head to hers. She closed her eyes and a tear slipped out. He wiped it away.

Dean leaned against the bed and threw a hand across Emily's shoulder in a show of solidarity. He wearily watched his siblings.

Emily was in pain, it was obvious to him and Sam, but that one tear was a just rogue runaway. Emily treated her tears like a rare commodity, she held onto them fiercely, shared them privately and only under intense pressure.

Sam was exhausted, and anything could be going on inside his body, that had been starved of oxygen, for how long, Dean didn't know. He had no idea how many minutes Sam had been out before he had found him. Sam could still be in danger.

Damn, sometimes, like now, Dean wished his siblings wouldn't act so tough, and he wished he was articulate, so he could relay to this stupid doctor just how much help the three of them needed.

Heath strode to the waiting room. Madeline got up to meet him. He waved her down and walked to the desk. He rattled out a series of instructions to the woman and she raced off. He turned to Madeline.

"Maddy? Who are these kids? How do you know them? How can they all be hurt in such different ways? What really happened to them?"

"None of that matters Heath, can you help them or not?"

"I didn't say I wouldn't. The boys, yes, but they won't let me until their sister is okay, and I think I need to call Carys and Mark about her. What do I tell them?"

"That she fell out of a tree house? Say anything Heath, you're the one with the imagination! As for handling them, try firm and authoritative, they seem to respond to that."

Heath snorted, made the call and handed the phone to Madeline. He might have the imagination, but she had a golden tongue, she would get the Scotts here.

He returned to the operation room where he had left the mysterious trio. "So, listen up people, this is what is going to happen. Emily, I'm recommending a CT scan for you but it won't be for a while. I've instructed Helen to give you a gown, ask you a couple of questions and prep you for the scan. Then she's going to set you and Sam up in a recovery room where you, Sam will basically just be monitored, while you, Emily are going to have IV fluids administered for pain relief, for euvolemia maintenance, and to provide adequate cerebral perfusion pressure."

Hearing pain relief was enough to make Emily want to jump off the bed and race to find Helen. The stupid Tylenol was not working! Sam however, was not happy with the arrangements.

"But …" he began to object.

The doctor did not let him continue, "I know you're fine, but this will reassure your brother and get the three of you closer to getting out of here."

No other argument would have made Sam acquiesce. He helped Emily slide off the bed and the two left the room.

Dean looked at the doctor with new respect.

"I know you're worried that your sister might have more than a concussion, frankly I don't think so, but this is not my area of expertise, so the scan is the only way to tell. Unfortunately, both our radiographer and the radiologist aren't currently on site," the doctor explained to Dean who had not followed his siblings only for the purpose of interrogating the guy. "I asked Maddy to talk to them, she's very convincing and they live about fifteen minutes out, so they should be here soon. Until then, there's nothing that can be done for Emily. You know the drill for a concussion is rest."

Dean nodded. Yeah, the best thing for Emily was rest, though she would have to be woken up every two hours and asked questions. He knew how annoying that was. "What about Sam?" he asked.

"Sam's doing pretty good for someone who had CPR," the doctor was still skeptical about that, thinking maybe Dean had exaggerated.

"Well, he still had a pulse when I found him, at least I think I felt a pulse. I did CPR just in case I was imagining things. My dad says better safe than sorry." Dean was quick to explain, not wanting treatment to be withheld from his brother.

"Mmmm, that would certainly explain it. Well, I'm sure he's fine or as fine as someone who stopped breathing can be, but I've instructed he still be hooked up to a cardiac monitor for as long as he allows it," the doctor chuckled at this, having already noticed that Dean wasn't the only stubborn Bloom. "His blood pressure and sugar levels will be monitored closely, but truthfully, I'm not worried, since he's conscious and has been for a while, and he's certainly oriented and mobile."

"Great!" Dean could finally say that things were now looking up.

"So please, let me take care of your hand now," the doctor implored.

Dean gave in. Later, he had to admit that Dr. Roth was good at his job. He carefully cut open Dean's shirt sleeve and had him remove it, leaving him in his tee. When he suggested an ultrasound, Dean quipped that he had nails in his arm not a bun in the oven! The doctor laughed, a loud booming sound that belied his size.

The ultrasound determined that one of the nails had nicked a bone but the damage would repair itself without intervention. Dr. Roth was quick to get the nails out, he let the wounds bleed for a minute then quickly but thoroughly irrigated them, making Dean hiss. After he was sure the wounds were clean, he applied a local anesthetic before he put in the approximation sutures. He applied antibiotic ointment and bandaged the arm. He then gave Dean a tetanus booster shot and wrote a prescription for him. Throughout the process, the two of them kept up an animated discussion about motocross, a topic the doctor was surprisingly well informed about.

Dean interrupted the doctor's final instructions, "I know the drill doctor, monitor the wound, keep it clean, dry it quickly, blah, blah, blah!"

"Fine!" the doctor laughed. He was beginning to like this cocky young man. "Let's go find your siblings."

As they walked to the radiology room, Dean asked the man whether he had any siblings. "I did. Her name was Rosie. She was twelve years younger than I was, so you can imagine our relationship! I could never see her as more than a child no matter how old she got. She and Madeline were best friends, and Maddy became my honorary baby sister. Rosie died two years back. She was in a car accident."

"I'm sorry." Dean said quietly. He couldn't imagine a world without Sam, and Emily had wormed her way into his universe and if she left it, he would be devastated.

"Yeah, me too," the doctor said softly. "Your siblings will be okay, Mr. Bloom. I'll make sure of it."

"Call me Dean."

"She won't remove her ring!" Helen reported the minute she saw the doctor. She and Sam were standing outside the radiology room, Sam had his arms crossed in front of him and was leaning against the door to the room, as if guarding it.

"She can't!" both Sam and Dean exclaimed, Sam in an exasperated tone that told Dean he had already told the woman this.

"All yours, doctor!" the woman threw up her hands and walked away to set up the room. These kids whoever they were, sure were pigheaded.

"She absolutely can't take off that ring!" Dean turned to the doctor, their earlier rapport forgotten as the implications of Emily taking off the ring assailed his mind.

"She doesn't need to anyway. I'm afraid, Helen is a little zealous. This is a cranial CT scan after all. As long as Emily has no earrings, tongue piercings, and the like, it should be fine. Besides, the ring can always be taped."

Sam finally moved away from the door and the three of them walked in. Emily of course had fallen asleep, curled up on her right side. Helen had managed to place the cannula and had even re-braided Emily's hair.

"Before the ring came up, the two of them were bonding!" Sam explained the neat braid.

Dean shook Emily awake.

"Hey Mimi, wake up!" She groaned and opened her eyes. "Who am I?" he asked.

"A pain in my ass!" she snarked. She knew the importance of the questions but just couldn't help being mouthy.

Sam snickered.

"I think you got me confused with Sammy!" Dean shot back.

"The name's Sam!" both Sam and Emily said, Sam indignantly and Emily in a perfect tonal mimic of Sam.

"As the eldest, I have the right to call you anything I want!" Dean decreed.

Both Sam and Emily knew being eldest had nothing to do with it this time, and that it would be a while before he'd stop calling them Sammy and Mimi.

"Robert Plant!" she said.

"What?"

"The lead singer for Led Zeppelin! I know you were going to ask that next."

"Smart-ass!"

Dr. Roth laughed. Again he wondered where Madeline had found these three. He made no comment about the scars on Emily's arms, now visible in the gown.

Helen finally returned. As she hooked and connected his siblings to various machines and IVs, Dean flirted outrageously with her and even though his corny lines were making his siblings cringe with embarrassment, they seemed to be working on Helen. It was good though because it made her forgive Sam and Emily's intractability about the ring. When everything was set up, Dean situated himself in what was possibly the word's most comfortable reclining chair. He would take this chair with him if he could. He would adopt it! Marry it even!

With an amused gleam in his eyes, Dr. Roth got up to leave. Helen did not even attempt to leave her perch on Dean's chair despite Sam's exaggerated yawns, Emily's real ones and Dr. Roth's theatrical foot tapping.

Dean wouldn't leave his siblings, not even for a girl, and getting Helen to leave the room was like tearing a superglue bandaid from skin. She left slowly and grudgingly and only after Dr. Roth had doused her with a cold reality check called the possibility of getting fired. He left with her. The siblings needed their space, and he needed to talk to Maddy, find out about the Cohen's ETA.

Fifteen minutes later, Sam was still awake and from their breathing, he could tell Emily was asleep but Dean was still awake. Sam shifted uncomfortably.

"You okay?" Dean finally asked him.

"Yeah!" he answered. Silence filled the room. When Sam had asked Emily to talk to Dean, she had done it the moment she got a chance. She did not wait for a perfect location, or a beautiful sunset, or any of that crap. He had to take the plunge too.

"Hey Dean?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Yeah? For what exactly?"

"For shooting you."

"That wasn't you."

"But you said …"

Dean knew what he had said and he quickly realised that Sam had misunderstood him, and had probably been nursing copious amounts of guilt about the wrong thing. So he interrupted, "Sam, the shooting wasn't really you. I know Ellicott amped up your emotions to levels that weren't normal. However, the anger you felt towards me, that was there to begin with."

"Yeah, it was," Sam admitted after a beat, "but it was more exasperation than anger really! I've always hated that you never question dad. I've never hidden that, from you."

"I know," Dean sighed. "Yet you've never asked me why!" the hint of hurt was still audible in his voice. "And people think you're the emphatic one!" he muttered in addition.

"So tell me."

There was such a long silence, that Sam thought Dean had fallen asleep and was never going to answer. Then out of the dark, his brother's voice deep and low said, "So you can have a choice."

Sam was stunned. He had never thought about that. Damn, he really was a selfish bastard to have never tried to see things from Dean's point of view. Now, he was beginning to understand Dean more. He had always thought Dean was unambitious, but now he knew Dean had sacrificed his grander dreams for his family. He'd held himself back so his family could pursue their ambitions; revenge in John's case and normality, then revenge in Sam's case. Dean had retained only one dream for himself, and that was keeping his family together. And it was a hard, thankless job.

For years, Sam had thought Dean was their father's puppet, but now he realised Dean obediently followed orders because one of them had to and by following them, he gave Sam a chance to question them, to explore a world beyond hunting, a world beyond their father's quest.

He'd thought Dean reckless, but now he realised every time Dean put himself in danger, it was out of a fierce need to keep his family safe.

It was never about Dean. Everything Dean did was for Sam and John and now Emily, so having Sam take his sacrifices for granted and call him a mindless soldier had hurt Dean more than the rock salt in that gun had.

He had probably understood more about Dean in this one night than he had in a lifetime.

"Dean?"

"Mmmm?"

"Thanks!" There were so many things Sam wanted to say, but for now, he could only utter that one word. He hoped Dean would understand that it was a thank you for many things, but mostly a thanks for Dean being his brother.

"Go to sleep Sammy!" Dean said fondly. Talking to Sam hadn't been the chore he'd thought it to be. And he felt much better for it.

Carys and Marc Scott did not make it to the hospital until an hour later, by which time all three Winchesters were asleep. When Heath came to get Emily, they all woke up. All three were out of sorts from the interrupted sleep, with Dean swearing like a sailor, Sam grumbling like a rabid dog and Emily whinging like a child. She didn't care what anyone said, she wanted to sleep. Fortunately the procedure didn't take long.

Once in the scan room, Mark Scott the radiographer, connected and started the contrast medium IV in Emily's arm, after which she lay on the platform. He disappeared to his room which was more crammed than usual, with the brothers, and Dr. Heath. Emily followed the given instructions precisely and the pictures were taken. The three Winchesters returned to their room, Emily was reconnected to the machines and IV, while Sam was deemed okay and didn't need to be reconnected. All three fell asleep almost immediately.

Carys Scott, the radiologist and wife to Mark Scott read the developed images and discussed the implications with Dr. Roth. An hour after their arrival at the centre, the Scotts were gone, their job complete, no questions asked.