Dean had forgotten how to breathe. He had forgotten how to think straight- all from the sight of his little brother.
There, right in front of his eyes was his greatest fear.
A hundred crushing thoughts rushed through his head, as he stood helplessly staring at his brother's unmoving figure. Flashing through his mind, were all the times this had happened, starting from Cold Oak, all the way to the Cage and now.
Snapping out of his dreadful, all-consuming thoughts, he quickly made his way to Sam, uncaring of Toni using this to her advantage and speeding up the steps and out the room, not bothering to close the door behind her. Sam was his only priority right now.
His eyes were closed, and Dean began to fear the worst.
Pressing two shaking fingers against Sam's neck, he waited in fearful apprehension. After what felt like too long for the older Winchester, he felt the soft drum of beats, as he let out a wavering, deep breath he didn't realise he had been holding.
This was painfully, incredibly similar when Sam was shot by those werewolves a few weeks back. In that moment, where Dean was hovering over his brother, his heart had shattered into god knows how many pieces, as realisation dawned on him that his brother wasn't breathing.
The resemblance between that time, and this time did not pass Dean, as he tried to shake away those distressing scenarios.
Focusing now solely on his brother, he forcefully bottled his threatening emotions, and aimed on finding the location of the bullet. He had to act fast.
"Okay- Okay.." Dean muttered, trying to calm his agitation.
Bracing himself, he grabbed hold of Sam's shredded shirt and lifted it up, his heartbeat quickening tenfold at what he saw. Too much blood.
"Sam, you with me?" Dean asked, willing for a reply, his voice slightly higher than he had expected.
No response. Just the sound of his own shaky breaths.
"Hey!" He said, louder and with increasing alarm, patting the sides of Sam's cheek with careful force.
At this, Sam jerked awake, his breathing heavy.
"De-?" Sam began, but was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit. The relief that reached Dean upon seeing his brother conscious, was overcome when his brother began coughing out blood.
Blood trickled down the sides of Sam's mouth, as Dean struggled to find his words at what he had witnessed.
"I- Oh god- Sammy stay with me you hear? Stay with me."
Sam weakly nodded, but didn't have the strength to say anything.
Sam struggled between the pull towards unconsciousness, and the strength of the pull of his brother's pleas, as Dean hastily looked for the location of the bullet.
He had to get Sam out of here- fast, so Cas could fix him up, but first he had to get the bullet out.
Finally, Dean found it.
"I got it Sammy, I found it- you'll be outta here in no time- I promise you little brother." Dean said, his throat dry.
The bullet was to the right of his abdomen, which terrified Dean as he had noticed that was where the most blood and harm was done by the Brits before Sam had been shot.
Dean averted his eyes away from his brother, as he surveyed the basement for anything to help him get the bullet out.
He stopped as he saw a table, half of what was on there coated in blood. Dean didn't want to think what had happened as he knew whose blood that was.
Looking back with determination at Sam, he attempted a weak smiled.
"I'll be back, I'm not leaving you" he finished, trying to comfort Sam whose eyes were beginning to water with pain.
Dean kept his promise and wasn't gone for more than ten seconds.
He could only find a pair of decent sized tweezers. It was pathetic really, but it was all he had.
Carefully placing them above where the bullet was, Dean grabbed Sam's hand and squeezed it tight in his effort to show Sam to essentially 'hold on'.
Sam understood the silent words, and prepared himself for the wave of intense ache he knew that would follow.
Not prolonging the wait any further, Dean moved the tweezers into the blood which coated the spot of the bullet. Sam moved violently in response to the abrupt pain that overwhelmed him, causing Dean to curse.
"You gotta stay still man, I'll do more harm than good otherwise…" Dean whispered, fighting the tears that threatened to fall.
Sam looked at Dean with an expression of utter helplessness and pain, but also understanding.
Dean didn't bother to hide the single tear that had fallen at seeing Sam's hurt expression of vulnerability.
"Atta-boy," Dean said, smiling fondly at his brother.
Dean, with little difficulty after Sam was able to remain as still as possible, was able to remove the bullet. It wasn't all easy, Sam had once or twice shook uncontrollably, but with the soft caressing Dean gave him in the palm of his hand, Sam had relaxed.
"Let's get that bandaged up now yeah?" Dean said, looking for anything that could act as a bandage for the free flowing blood. When nothing appeared to be even remotely useful, Dean decided his thin jacket was best in this case.
Taking it off, so that he was now only in his shirt, he balled the jacket up and pressed it against where the bullet previously was. Already soaking in blood, Sam grimaced against the added pressure.
"Think you can get up?" Dean asked, hoping to quickly get them both out of here and to where Cas and Mary were.
In all honesty, Sam felt terrible, and didn't think he would be able to stand, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try. He'd do it for Dean.
Sam looked at his brother and gave him an imitation of a warm smile.
Dean would have hugged his brother at his efforts if it weren't for the fact that he was currently bleeding out. He was proud of him, to say the least.
"Alright," Dean began, helping Sam up.
Dean kept the jacket balled up and pressed against the wound, and asked Sam to hold it against him instead so that Dean could bring his shoulder around his neck and help him stand.
Sam took it, and the very effort of simply standing seemed to exhaust him. Having noticed this, Dean's desire to get out of here increased dramatically.
Sam was practically leaning on Dean, and would probably have fallen down the steps if it weren't for the strong hands keeping him upright.
Dean could tell Sam was having an increasingly difficult time staying upright, and closed his eyes briefly when another wave of guilt and worry washed over him.
This shouldn't have happened, not to Sam. Not when everything was going to be okay.
"D-dean, I'm okay." Sam weakly said. Dean wanted so badly to believe him, but knew the crushing truth. Sam was only saying that to take a load of the weight on Dean's shoulders, and Dean was touched at that, but it wasn't Sam's job to do that. Especially not now, no, Sam shouldn't be worried about him, he should only be worried about himself. But Sam always was a stubborn ass and Dean knew his brother would never feel that way, he'd always put others first.
Climbing up the steps had been a real bitch for them both. Sam was exhausted after the first couple steps and had asked for a break, in which Dean had heatedly denied.
"Sam- it'll just be worse afterwards. The longer we stay here, the worse you'll get and the harder it'll become." Dean urged.
Sam didn't have the strength nor heart to argue, and so nodded in surrender.
Dean had felt bad immediately after the words had left his mouth, but he couldn't risk it. Sam needed to get to Cas as soon as possible.
Sam was walking slower and slower, and the grip he had on the jacket was getting tighter as he clenched it to ride out the constant stabs of pain penetrating his body.
The jacket was soaked now, and Dean knew Sam was losing blood faster. Hold on Sammy.
Light warmed their faces as they made it out the house and into the front where they could see the Impala parked.
Sam was struggling to hold on. And knew he wasn't going to be able to fight it any longer. Wanting the ceaseless torment to stop, he let his head limply fall forward, and his mind travel into the welcoming sea of darkness.
"Sam?" Dean spoke out, his voice wet with emotion.
Dean watched in horror as the only response he got from his brother was the jacket falling from Sam's grasp onto the gravel ground beneath them.
"Oh god- Sam!" Dean shouted, moving his brother so that he was facing him on his knees. Dean's hands were cupped around Sam's neck, which horribly flashbacked Dean to Cold Oak.
"Sam!" Dean shook, willing his brother to wake up.
Dean didn't notice the hurried footsteps that were growing louder, and soon had stopped mere feet away from him and Sam.
"Dean!" A distant but near voice called out. Dean grounded himself back to reality and glanced behind Sam, seeing Cas and Mary, mouths half open.
"Oh god-" Mary whispered, seeing her youngest for the first time, but in this case covered in blood.
"Cas! Help him- help him-" Dean pleased, his words getting stuck in his throat.
Cas didn't need telling twice, and rushed over to the youngest Winchester.
Pressing his fingers against the forehead of Sam, Cas let his power rush through his angel self and into Sam through his contact.
Dean watched in heavy relief as Sam's slashes began to heal themselves. However, Cas didn't look too happy. In fact, he looked between a mixture of stricken, angry and dismal.
"Cas, what's wrong?" Dean asked, worry evident.
The angel faced Dean, and the look in his piercing blue eyes sent alarming, apprehensive shivers through Dean.
"It's Sam, his bullet wound isn't healing, it's as if something is blocking my grace to reach it." Cas confided, unsure if even what he was saying was the real reason Sam wasn't fully healing.
Dean took the weight of his words, and stared dumbly at his brother, taking in the paleness of how he looked. Dean was about to speak, before Sam startled awake and began coughing up something terrifying.
It wasn't blood. It was something far worse. Something that sent all three of them into a shock they didn't think they'd ever feel.
...
Well... another cliffy. I honestly don't think you guys are surprised anymore, it seems to be a regular thing ;)
So, be prepared for regular updates now, cos I've done a whole week of exams, and only got one maths and art one left next week, so I have a lot less on my plate :)
One other vital message i need to get out to you lovely readers:
I am grateful for the follows, favs and reviews you give me. I've responded to each of you, apart from hellohurtcomfort which I can't personally pm due to some settings, but thank you for your awesome review :)
Oh yeah! If you guys like my story, please please check out Meemzz's profile and her stories! She's just finished a heart-warming story called Bits and Fits, and another one of her awesome stories is in the making! So please please, show her some love.
PS: Hey Meemzz, I love how we are doing back to back shoutouts for each other, it's literally awesome. iA, we'll see each other :)
Hope everyone else enjoyed and has a great day, thank you for reading!