Dean was dreaming . . . it had to be a dream; though in his line of work, you could never be too sure. He looked around the room, taking in the stark white of the walls, the sickening aroma of too much industrial cleaner mixed with the un-disguisable stench of sickness and death.
He looked down at the bed with its bleached white sheets with their rough, over starched texture. Then he braced himself for what came next. He was in a hospital . . . Dean hated hospitals. The only reason he would be in one, was if someone he cared about was hurt. So he braced himself for the shock as he forced himself to look at the face of the person tucked under the sheets.
Dean: His eyes grew wide with bewilderment and fear as he took recognition of who he was looking down at. "Oh my God . . ."
Thought after thought raced through his mind . . . I'm dead . . . no . . . no I can't be dead . . . why would I be dead? I don't remember being shot. I didn't get stabbed. There's absolutely no reason why I should be dead 'Is there ever a reason?' The tiny voice in the back of his head challenged. Well . . . no . . . but . . . this is me! I . . . I always thought that when I went, I'd go down fighting . . . 'But aren't you fighting? If you're dead, why are you still here?' the voice queried. Because . . . because . . . I'm not dead? But then . . . if I'm not dead . . . then how is this happening! There's no way in hellI that I should be floating here staring down at my own body!
And with his words, realization hit him.
Dean: "Oh shit! Why the fuck am I FLOATING!"
He looks around, slightly panicked. He was trying to see if there was anything around that would clue him in. No such luck. The only thing he saw was that the other bed was also occupied, but he couldn't see who it was.
Dean: "Uh-oh . . . "
That couldn't possibly be a good thing. He knew that if there was some reason he needed to be put in a hospital, that Sam would sure as hell be careful enough not to have him put in a room with a stranger. There were too many risks involved with that. There was no way to tell if the stranger was really a sorceress or demon of some sort out to try and kill one of them. But even if the stranger was just a normal human, there was too much risk. What if a demon attacked Dean and the civilian got hurt? No, if it was at all possible . . . he knew Sam would have made sure Dean wasn't with a stranger . . . which meant that this was someone he knew.
He took a shaky breath and tried to calm himself down a little. He tried not to think about whom it could be . . . Sam? Sarah? John? . . . He shoved all thoughts from his head and prayed that there'd been some mistake, and this really was a stranger.
After a few more seconds and another shaky breath, he began to walk –no . . . he began to float–over to the other bed so he could see who was. His breath caught in his throat and he felt his heart sink with the weight of failure as he looked down at Sam. He had failed. All those years ago when he'd promised his father that he would always and forever protect Sam . . . and now he'd failed him.
Dean: "I'm so sorry Sam . . ." At his back, he felt someone enter the room, but he didn't bother turning around; well, not until hear heard the person talking.
"For what?" The person inquired.
Dean whirled around to find Sam leaning casually against the doorframe.
Dean: "Sam! But . . ." His brow knitted with confusion. "But you're . . . " He glanced over his shoulder at Sam's sleeping form, then back at the Sam standing in the doorframe. "You're there." points to the sleeping Sam. "So how are you . . . how am I . . . how the hell are we here!"
Sam: "You still don't get it? Dean . . . we were switched . . . you remember that don't you?"
Dean: "No Sam, I'm a total moron who can't be bothered to remember something as life-changing as having part of my soul switched with my brother."
Sam: "Ok, ok!" holds up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way . . . I'm just trying to figure out how much you remember. We've never been in this kinda situation before . . . and let's face it, we may remember different things."
Dean: "Why in the hell would that be?"
Sam: "Because, I passed out first. Well, you passed out first I mean . . . but because of the switch, it was me . . . is this making any sense?"
Dean: "Not really . . . but keep going . . . "
Sam: "Ok. Let me put it this way. My soul was in your body. Your body passed out first. Therefore, my soul has less memories of the past than yours does. Because your soul was in my body, and I didn't pass out till later . . ."
Dean: "Yeah, right after the spell . . ."
Sam: "Whoa . . . spell? What spell . . . "
Dean: "Oh, me and Sarah . . . well . . . Your body and Sarah did this spell to try and switch us back. All this creepy voodoo magic spell ingredient stuff . . . by the way Sam, you really owe that chick if we make it through this. She put her life on the line for you . . ."
Sam: "What! Why did you let her do that! What if something had gone wrong!"
Dean: Shrugs "I can't control Sarah, no one can . . . you know that . . ."
Sam: Pauses for a moment "Yeah, ok . . . true . . ."
Dean: "Yeah, but I'm just warning you . . . you owe her big time . . . so do I, but I don't think she cared about me in quite the same way." laughs.
Suddenly both Sam and Dean felt themselves being tugged away . . . it felt like something was trying to rip their hearts out . . . Dean was trying his best to fight against it.
Sam struggled for a moment before he remembered Dean's words. Spell to try and switch us back. He stops fighting against the painful tug and he blacks out.
Dean watched in horror as Sam's soul disappeared from sight. He tried to yell after Sam . . . to do anything . . . but he couldn't . . . he was putting everything he had into fighting the force that had latched onto him.
Dean is suddenly startled when he sees the body of sleeping Sam jerk awake and gasp for breath . . . he almost forgets to fight.
Sam: Dean! Dean if you can hear me LET GO! Don't fight it Dean!