For Dean, the world stood still in those few moments when the Impala skidded out of control on the icy Michigan road. His last thought before he felt the car collide with a tree was Thank god Sammy's not with me.
Two Days Earlier.
Dean and Sam had just finished their latest job, stopping a vengeful spirit from haunting a college dorm in upstate New York. It had been almost four months since either one of them had had any contact with their father. That night they received a call from their father on Dean's cell.
"Dean? Are you ok? Sam called and said you were sick." John's voice was crackled with bad reception, but the fear in it was evident.
"Yeah, Dad, I'm fine. Nothing a little faith healer couldn't cure." Dean joked. He hated being reminded that he had almost died.
"Yeah, I wasn't about to let him give up and die." Sam said. Both brothers were sitting on a bed in their hotel room with the phone between them.
"Good for you Sammy. Thank you." John sighed with relief. "I would have called sooner but…" he was cut off by Dean.
"Yeah, I know, it was too dangerous." Dean was getting annoyed by the whole its-too-dangerous-for-you-to-come-find-me thing. He wondered that if he had died, would their father have even come to the funeral. The line went silent for a while; no one on either side quite knew how to respond to Dean's comment. Sam was the first to speak.
"So, is it safe now? I mean, can we come find you and get the thing that killed mom and Jess?"
"That's actually why I called, I've found it, I know where it is. I need you boys to come out to California to help me get rid of it once and for all."
"Great, we'll be there as soon as we can. Bye Dad." Sam said and hung up. "This is great! We're gonna get that thing!"
"Yeah, great" Dean muttered. "I think you should go on with out me Sammy."
"What? Why?"
"Cause, I got a call from a friend earlier and he wants my help with a job. He's nearby, but it'll still take a few days, and I know how much you want to get out there and help. Go with out me, I'll catch up with you two in a few days."
"Woah, Dean Winchester disobeying an order from his father? I never thought I'd see this day!" Sam laughed.
"No, I'm not disobeying an order, dad simply requested that we go to California, but I have something to do first. Go on, pack up your stuff, I'll drive you to the bus station or something and buy you a ticket."
"No, I'm not going to California unless you come too. I'm not gonna be the one dad yells at when I show up there alone."
"Oh he won't be mad at you, he'll be mad at me and I don't really care right now."
With that Sam quietly packed up his stuff and brought it out to the Impala. Dean drove him to the nearest bus station and bought him a ticket to California.
"Dean, he's gonna be pissed, you know that don't you?"
"Yeah, I know. Who knows, maybe we'll both get there at the same time. Bus rides take forever ya know. I'll see you in Cali, take care Sammy."
"It's Sam. And where is this job anyway?"
"Michigan. Go on, you're gonna miss your bus. Bye, Sammy."
Sam turned and glared at Dean for using that name again and then walked over to the bus and got on. Dean watched as the bus drove off, he'd never tell Sammy what this "job" was really about. No one could ever know and he wanted it to stay that way.
Dean arrived at the small house in the suburbs of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He knocked on the door and a beautiful young woman answered the door. She smiled seeing Dean there.
"Hey stranger, it's been a while." She said.
"Hey yourself. I just dropped by to see how you were." Dean said.
"C'mon in. Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"
"No thanks, I'm good." Dean looked at the picture of the woman and a small boy that sat on the table in the living room. "He's gotten big."
"Yeah, he has. He's at preschool right now, but you should see him. He's got his fathers eyes ya know."
"Yeah, I see that. I can't believe that Danny's been dead for almost four years now. He was a good man. I'm sorry about what happened to him."
"The two of you were best friends when you lived here for those few months. I know that you must have tried everything to save him. I'm ok with it Dean. He gave me a beautiful son and I am so thankful for that."
"Yeah, I'm just sorry that he never got to know him. I know that before he died he made me promise to come back here and keep and eye on you guys every once in awhile, but that's not the only reason I do it. It's my fault he died, I took him out on that hunt, I owe him my life, this is the least I can do." Dean pulled a wrapped present out of his jacket and put it on the coffee table before him. "This is for little Danny."
"Dean, you didn't have to."
"I wanted to. I wish I could stay longer, but I have to go meet my dad in California for a hunt."
"Be careful Dean. Come back and visit soon, Danny Jr. misses his uncle Dean." She said, walking him to the door.
"I know, I will." He kissed her on the forehead before he left. "Take care."
He got into the Impala and headed off to Cali. He really wanted to get there; he wanted to get the thing that killed his mother. He wasn't paying a lot of attention to the weather, he just drove straight on. He figured when he got closer he would call Sam and find out where he was, maybe pick him up so their father didn't know they had split up. Dean never noticed how snowy it had gotten and how icy the road was. For Dean, the world stood still in those few moments when the Impala skidded out of control on the icy Michigan road. It was pitch black out and he couldn't see anything around him, this was a small town and there were no streetlights and the light from the moon and stars had been obliterated all night by the thick clouds of snow and freezing rain. His last thought before he felt the car collide with a tree was Thank god Sammy's not with me.
The icy rain fell on that forsaken road where the Impala lay overturned in a ditch, crushed on the driver's side from where it had collided with the tree. Dean's unconscious body lay inside, slumped against the roof, upside down. He never liked wearing seatbelts. The left side of his face was covered with blood from where the window had shattered in on him and there was a spider web like crack in the windshield where Dean's forehead had collided with it. Dean suddenly found himself standing on the road near the crash sight.
"This can't be good." Dean said, reaching out to touch the car, but seeing his hand go right through it. Just then a car drove by, Dean ran into the middle of the street to wave it down. The driver noticed the car on the side of the road and pulled over, calling 911 on his cell phone.
"Oh thank god! Please you gotta help." Dean yelled over the pounding rain, but the other driver didn't seem to notice at all.
"Hey!" he yelled louder, but again he got no response from the person who was trying to help him. "Now, this really isn't good."
It seemed like hours until the paramedics arrived. They got him out and on a backboard. One of them was compressing his chest as a second had on oxygen tank and was blowing air into his lungs. Dean stood there dumbfounded, watching them work on him.
"Am I dead?" He asked aloud, although he knew no one could hear him.
Sam was still on the bus to California when he got the call that his brother had been in an accident. He didn't know what to do, he wanted to meet up with their father so they could fight this thing, but at the same time, he wanted to make sure his brother was ok. He got off the bus at the next stop and tried to book a flight back to Michigan.
"What do you mean there aren't any flights going there now? Why not?"
"I'm sorry Mr. Winchester, but there is a storm there and the airports are closed because of the snow and ice. We can get you on a flight there as soon as they open back up again."
"How long will that be?"
"At least another 24 hours."
Sam took the flights that the woman at the ticket counter offered and waited. He hated waiting, especially when he didn't know what was happening with Dean. He's ok, Sam thought, we've been through some of the toughest situations and he's pulled through. He's gonna be fine. He filled his mind with scenarios that would all turn out just fine when he finally got to Michigan. The flight there felt like the longest flight ever. He took a cab to the hospital and went to find Dean. When he found the floor Dean was on he stopped at the nurse's station to ask to see his brother's doctor.
"Well, Mr. Winchester, your brother came in with serious injuries. His heart had stopped at the crash site and the paramedics were able to revive him. Unfortunately he went into cardiac arrest again here. We shocked him several times and put him on a pacemaker to keep his heart going. He's been intubated because he wasn't breathing on his own. He went in for surgery yesterday to stop some internal bleeding in his abdomen."
"Is he going to be ok? I mean, he made it right, he's not dead?"
"Well, no, his heart is still beating and he's breathing, but that's only because we have him hooked up to the machines. Your brother's brain was severely damaged not only during the crash but because of a lack of oxygen when his heart stopped. I'm sorry, but he's in a coma, and I don't think he's ever going to wake up."
Dean stood beside the window of the hospital room, watching Sam who sat at a chair by the bedside.
"Dean, I'm sorry. I should have ignored your advice to find dad and stayed with you." Sam said, resting his head in his hands.
"Sammy, if you had stayed with me, you'd probably be in the same position that I am now." Dean said, motioning towards his still body lying in the hospital bed. He knew it was no use trying to talk to Sam. He'd been like this for almost three days; no one ever heard a word he said. "And, if you weren't like me, you'd be dead. C'mon Sammy, let me go. You know that I don't want this!"
Sam sat there silently listening to the monitors, the steady beeping of the EKG, the click and whoosh of the ventilator. He'd been sitting in that same chair day and night for the last day and a half. When he got word of the accident he got there as fast as he could, barring airport closures from the storm. The doctors had said Dean was pretty much brain dead, and that he'd never wake up. The only things that were keeping him alive, so to speak, were the machines.
"You've survived worse than this. Heck, four months ago you almost died from that heart problem, but we saved you then. There has to be a way to save you from this too. I won't give up on you; I won't loose you, not now, not like this." Sam picked Deans hand up off the bed and held it between his own.
"Save me? Save me from what? I'm not in there anymore! There isn't anything left to save. This isn't something we can just cure by killing some evil spirit or something. This is permanent, this is forever. I'm gone Sammy, gone!" Dean was frustrated. There had to be a way to get the message across to his brother, to let him know that he had to let go.
A nurse came in to check on Dean and Sam. Everyone at the hospital was very kind to Sam; they all knew him well because he refused to lave his older brother's side.
"Hello Mr. Winchester, how are you today?" She said, checking Dean's vitals and IV bags.
"I'm ok. I just wish there was something I could do, ya know, to help him." Sam sighed, sitting back in the chair.
"This must be very hard for you, to see your brother like this. Is there anything I can get you? Food, a magazine? Anyone I can call for you?"
"No thanks, I'm fine." Sam hesitated. "There's only one person I know of to call, but he wouldn't come anyway." Sam had picked up his cell phone so many times in the last day and a half to call their father, but he never could bring himself to call. What's the use, he thought, Dad wouldn't get here until it was too late anyway. It took him four months to call back when I told him Dean was sick.He
Dean sighed in frustration again and walked back to the window. He knew Sam needed someone else to be here with him.
"Just call dad, Sam! Call him non stop until he picks up that goddamned phone of his!" He yelled.
"Well, Sam, you never know if he'll come here if you don't call and tell him what's going on. Ok, if you need anything, the nurse's station is right down the hall." The nurse said walking out of the room.
"Now, see Sammy. This is a hospital I could die in. Did you see that nurse, she was hot!" He said, leaning close to Sam's ear. Still no reaction.
Sam picked up the phone again, looking at it. He dialed in their father's number and sat there for a while. It must have been almost fifteen minutes until he pressed the send button. He held the phone to his ear and listened as it dialed. He nearly jumped out of his skin when his father picked up on the other end.
"Sam? What's going on? I thought you and Dean were joining me in California?"
"Dad, there's um…..there's been an……there's been an accident." Was all Sam managed to get out through the tears that had a chokehold in his throat.
"An accident? What? Are you and Dean ok?"
"I'm fine; I wasn't there, but Dean. Dean's in a coma, the doctors say he won't wake up. I should have stayed with him Dad; I never should have left him. He didn't want to go to California before he did this other job he found, but I wanted to get there right away." Sam started to ramble off everything he was feeling, along with letting go of all the tears he had been holding in since he got that call that Dean was in the hospital. "It's my fault dad, it's all my fault. I never should have left him."
"Sam, listen to me, this is not your fault. Your brother is as stubborn as you are, you wouldn't have been able to convince him to do anything else and if you had stayed with him it might be you in this situation too."
Sam was a bit shocked about his fathers tone. He'd never heard his voice so stern and yet filled with love before in his life. He grabbed tissues off the bedside table and wiped the tears that were soaking his face.
"Now, tell me what hospital you're at. I'll be there as soon as I can. We can get this demon later, after your brother gets better."
"But dad, this is…"
"No buts, Sammy. Now where are you?"
"We're at….um…we're at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor."
"Ok, I'll be there in a day or so. Stay strong Sammy, we'll get your brother through this."
Dean stood there glaring at Sam. He'd heard the entire conversation. He couldn't believe that they both believed they could save him.
"What is with you two? Give up for once! I'm not coming out of this, it'll never happen. Go get that bastard that killed mom and Jess. Give it hell for me. Do something, anything, but sit in this dumb hospital room and wait for a miracle to happen. We had our miracle, four months ago. We may get second chances, but not third."
John Winchester arrived at the hospital a few days after Sam's phone call. He couldn't believe his eyes when he got to his son's room. It barely even looked like Dean lying there in that bed, with all the IV lines and machines. Just then the doctor came in to explain Dean's condition to him.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Winchester, but there is nothing we can do for your son. We've run tests and determined that he is completely brain dead. The only thing that is keeping alive are the machines we have hooked up to him. I need to know if this is what you want us to do. Do you want us to continue to keep your son alive via machines?"
John Winchester looked over at his sons still body, lying on the hospital bed. He looked over at Sam who sat in the same chair he had been sitting in since well before he had arrived. He say the pleading look on Sam's face, he didn't want his brother to die. This is going to break Sam's heart, he thought, it's already breaking mine.
"Take him off the machines."
"Dad, what? What about saving him? Can't we do anything?"
"I'm sorry Sam, but your brother wouldn't want this. Do it, turn off the machines."
Sam sat watching as the doctors went to the machines and turned them off. He didn't hear the click and whoosh of the ventilator anymore. The intermittent beeping of the heart monitor was quickly replaced by a loud constant beep which was soon cut off by silence. He didn't even hear the doctor pronounce his brother dead, he was crying so hard.
How could this happen, he thought, Dean was supposed to be the strong one. Dean was the one who always protected him, from everything.
Sam looked up through his tears at his brother lying dead before him. On the other side of the bed he saw something; it was like a transparent blur that slowly took shape into his brother. He looked exactly the same as the day they parted ways about a week ago. The ghostly figure of Dean looked at his body lying in the bed and then over at Sam. He smiled and mouthed the words "Thank you" before shimmering away into nothingness again. Sam was the only one to see Dean there; John had gone over to the window and was staring blankly out of it.
Dean's body was brought to Lawrence where he was buried in a plot not far from Mary's. The funeral was supposed to be small, but people from almost everywhere showed up to pay their respects for the man who had saved their lives from supernatural occurrences. Layla was there with her mother, the girl from the town with the scarecrow and even Andrea Barr and her son Lucas were there. There were even some that Sam didn't recognize from the years Dean had spent hunting with their dad. Especially one woman with a four year old son who John seemed to recognize, but Sam didn't. John spent a lot of time talking to her but Sam didn't care, he'd just lost his brother. After the funeral, Sam didn't ask any question and his father and him picked the search back up for the thing that killed Mary and Jess. John had suggested that Sam return to college after Dean's death, but Sam wouldn't go until this thing was gone for good and would never hurt anyone again. They found it together and hunted it down together, trapping it in a small town in California. As Sam aimed the silver tipped arrow at the demon he yelled out "This if for my mother, my girlfriend…" he fired the arrow "and most of all this is for my brother!" He stood there next to his father and watched it die; making sure it was gone for good. The he turned to his father.
"So what's our next job?"
"Sam, don't you want to go back to college? Have that normal life you always wanted?"
"No dad, if this was a good enough life for Dean, then it's a good enough life for me. Anyway, I wanna kill every evil thing out there, we may have gotten the thing that killed mom and Jess, but it doesn't stop other things from hurting people. I don't want anyone else to go through what we did."
This story was definately not something i would usually write. First i killed Dean, my most favorite character. And i destroyed the Impala and i love that car. Please R&R thanks.