Sorry the update took so long. The thing just would not post. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Another should be posted soon.
Dean was getting impatient. It had been two days since the doctor had told him that Sammy had cancer, and they were just now starting chemo. He knew that time was of the essence and that his baby brother was losing it. Too much time had already been lost before he even knew what was happening.
During the night, he had fought hard against getting rid of the blanket that was making Sammy cold, but reminded himself that it was only a few more hours. Once they got the fever down, they would take it off, and he could cover him in a mountain of blankets.
Getting up from his seat, he got closer to his brother's bed. "I'll be back, Sammy." He promised him, gently brushing some of his hair back. As quietly as he could, as to not wake his father, he made his way out of the room, taking extra care with the door. There was a blanket down in the car that they used to wrap Sam up in when he was a little kid. When Dean was old enough to hunt, and they had to leave him in the car, John would put salt and cat's-eye-shells around the outside of the whole car and he would make sure his little brother was wrapped up tightly in the heavy blanket. They had originally gotten it from their grandma and so the old quilt should have reminded him of her, but it was all Sammy. He would need it now. It wouldn't make up for the chill he had to endure all night, but it would be a start, Dean's peace offering. He went to the car and grabbed it and Sam's backpack with the laptop and got back up there as quickly as he could.
John was awake when Dean came back. "How long have you been awake?" He asked him, surprised.
"I saw you leave the room. I taught you boys to sleep lightly, and I sleep lightly." He informed Dean, like he needed to. Dean clearly remembered the lectures about not letting your guard down.
"Yeah, I remember."
"It's almost six o'clock. What time did his doctor come last time?" John felt awkward asking his son for information regarding Sammy. He should be the one in charge here.
"Um, around nine or ten, I think. I didn't really look at my watch. I had other things to worry about." He gave his father an odd look. Would he have checked his watch?
"Then he should come about that time today?" John asked again, all-business.
"Yeah, dad, probably."
They sat like that, each silently waiting and watching Sam to make sure he was okay until Dr. Lambert arrived three hours later. He came in with a smile on his face, but Dean wasn't in a mood to share the expression. They needed actions, not niceties.
"Good morning. Let's see how Sam's doing this morning." Dean was surprised the doctor remembered that he preferred to be called Sam from their one conversation. 'Please let the fever be down so we can warm him up.' "Well, the fever is down to 101.2, so we can take the cooling blanket off."
Dean let go of the breath he had been holding. This was good. They would need to wait for the doctor to leave to put the well-worn quilt on him, but as long as he had a time-frame, he could wait.
"Sam, wake up." The doctor instructed and Sam opened his eyes. He looked a little confused about where he was, but it was the kind of confusion anyone would get from being woken up by a strange voice. His eyes looked much clearer than they had last night, and he seemed a little stronger.
"I'm going to start you on chemotherapy this morning. Has everything been explained to you?" The doctor continued on once he saw that Sam was alert.
"Not really." Sam admitted, a bit hesitant.
"Okay, you'll be administered the chemotherapy through an injection into your spinal canal and several drugs to control the symptoms through IV. The treatments need to be administered as quickly as possible since the disease was given time to progress, so they will be administered three times a week for a period of four weeks. After this time, we'll make a determination about how the treatment is working. Do you have any questions?" The doctor was speaking directly to Sam and this made Dean happy. He needed to feel like he was involved with this.
"Am I going to get sick?" Sam asked and Dean started to laugh and covered it up with a cough. He already was sick and the way he had phrased it just sucked.
The doctor took a deep breath. "There will also be other drugs administered to help prevent side effects, but I can't make any promises."
"Is it going to hurt?" Sam asked. He hated needles, the feel of needles, and he needed to know if they would give him something to numb the area before using needles. When they had inserted the IV in the emergency room, he had been unconscious. The chemo wasn't going through the IV. That much he got.
"No more than giving blood would." 'More like a spinal tap' Dean thought. He heard how it was described. On television, it usually showed people screaming when they got one of those, and he had always thanked his lucky stars that he never had to get one. Now, though, Sammy would get something very similar and more than once.
"Okay." Sam was getting too quiet for Dean's comfort now. "Will I lose my hair?" It was said quietly, almost as a whisper. He didn't want their dad to know that he was even thinking about that.
"You may, but it doesn't always happen." The doctor explain.
Sam nodded his head. "Okay, I understand everything."
The doctor turned around so that he was facing Dean and John. "Do you want to leave the room while we get the IV's started and administer the chemotherapy?"
Dean's heart caught in his throat. He didn't want to see his baby brother in pain, didn't want to be there for it, but he couldn't just leave him. Looking off into space, he waited for Sammy to either say he wanted them to stay or go. He would leave the decision up to him on this one.
"No, please, can they stay?" He begged. Dean felt his heart that had been in his throat break. This was too much. He was quietly humming Metallica to himself to calm his shot nerves.
"We're staying Sammy. Don't worry." Dean told him firmly by way of calming him. The doctor excused himself to go get the medicines and a nurse to help him administer everything. Dean took his spot next to Sam holding onto his hand, hoping that he would be allowed to stay this close when they were doing the treatment. Sam snickered nervously when he heard the familiar humming. So, there was something other than airplanes that made his big brother anxious.
"You don't have to stay." Sam told Dean and his father. His father was holding it together, standing back away from the scene, but he didn't think the man would want to be there for this. He wouldn't blame him. He didn't want to be here for this and he was the one it was happening to.
"No, we're gonna be here. Everything will be all right." Where the hell was the damn doctor? The anxiety from waiting would probably do more damage than if they had just gotten it over with. Dean could just see Sammy tensing up and it making the needle hurt more.
The doctor and nurse came into the room and Dean felt Sammy grip his hand as hard as he could. Encouragingly, he squeezed back just as hard. Sammy looked like he was ready to start hyperventilating and his eyes clearly said 'You know what? I changed my mind. I don't want to do this.'
'Just get it done with!'Dean yelled at them in his mind.
The nurse adjusted the other medications into the IV and the doctor moved to the back of Sam's skull. He put something in the base of his neck first to make sure the medication went to the spinal fluid, and Dean saw Sam flinch in pain. Sam tried to steel himself, but as the needle entered his skin, he started to scream loudly in agony.
John stood back, watching this, watching them hurt his baby, and for a moment he saw his baby. He wanted to grab up Sammy as he had the night Mary died and run from the room. He couldn't deal with seeing his baby in pain. He started to remind himself that this was helping, that he'd rather see a hurting Sammy than go to the funeral of another person he loved. The screaming ebbed out and stopped. Sammy was okay. It had hurt while the needle was in, but after it was taken out, his son was okay.
Dean held onto his baby brother during the whole treatment, his heart shattering into little tiny pieces until the needle was out andhe wasn't screaming anymore. Sammy was shaking within his arms now, but he was fine.
"Sam will be fine, but just in case, I will be around. Just page the nurse and I can be here immediately." The doctor told the two shaken up men before leaving the room. John followed and closed the door behind them once they were out.
"Is it always going to hurt him that much?" He asked the doctor. It had been years since he'd seen his son react that way to pain, and he needed reassurances that he'd made the right choice for his family.
"No. Quite frankly, the only reason it hurt as much as it did this time is because Sam was anxious and tense. The next time, he'll know what's coming and won't be so anxious about it." John nodded, sure of himself once again that the right decision had been made. He would just need to remind his boy that his emotions needed to be controlled.
Back in the room, Dean had thrown off the cooling blanket, into some far corner of the room, and wrapped Sammy up in his quilt. He sat there, rocking him for a moment, just holding him. Sam had calmed down but was still shaking, and Dean wanted to protect him.
"It's all right, Sammy."
A/N: Don't forget about the "Supernatural"marathon this week Also, "Devour" which has Jenson in it, is pretty good. Saw it last night...while I was freaking out that my internet would not post my chapter.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please feel free to leave any bits of constructive criticism or praise.
Happy hunting!