So here we are chapter three. Thanks again to all those who have read it and probably more importantly, thank you to those who left little old me a review. It's the like food for the soul when reading reviews (especially if they're good :o)) and it helps me keep writing. I'll admit that the first couple chapters are a little slow, but I promise if you stick with this little train, the ride will begin to pick up. Think of it as a rollercoaster and you're on the climb, and you're just about nearing the top when you stare down at nothing but a 90 degree angle. Yeah that little evil drop is coming….MUHAAA !
Thanks again for reading, and if you have any questions please feel free to ask away or leave in the review section.
Now onto Bitter Truth..
Chapter Three- Bitter Truth
Dean Winchester wheeled himself silently down the corridor of the large hospital.
God hospitals were depressing places.
Dean knew they were there to make people get better, to fix them when broken, and stick a band-aid over a boo-boo when things got a little rough. Truth was though, too many people went into hospitals, and not enough of them came back out.
That one thought alone was pushing Dean on to find Sam. It was becoming a hunt all by itself. All be it, a hunt in rather different circumstances, but a hunt none the less.
Something had his brother, and Dean was going to find him.
Ok chances were, what was holding Sam was nothing more than an IV drip, and some bland coloured walls, but to Dean, turning this into a hunt was the only thing keeping him sane right now.
Every single friggin wing of this hospital looked the damn same.
It was doing Dean's head in.
The boards were too high up to read, and Dean was finding he had to wheel himself backwards a couple feet, every time he saw a board just so he could read it. He could easily see that even though this was a hospital, it was anything but disability friendly.
Cursing to himself and wishing that walking wasn't as painful as it was, he continued to roll down the endless hospital corridors.
There had to be an easier way to find the ICU, one that didn't result in Dean rolling around aimlessly, from corridor to corridor, and ward to ward. One that also didn't result in Dean getting busted by other nurses. He knew it wouldn't be long before they noticed that his room was empty and no doubt, people would start looking for him. Dean knew the first place they would look would be the ICU section.
Screw them for knowing where it was.
Dean knew he would be livid if they caught him, without him seeing Sam. So the elder brother stopped looking for the actual ward and started looking for an elevator. Surely inside there would explain to him where the ICU wing, of this god forsaken hospital was and to get there, all he had to do was press a button.
Dean remembered seeing a set of elevators, back down the corridor he'd just come from. Wheeling himself around Dean found a smile hovering on his face.
He wished Sam was here. He knew he'd be able to convince Sam to find a wheel chair of his own, so they could race each other along the corridors. Dean smiled to himself as he pressed the button and called the elevator down. He could hear Sam's voice clearly in his head. He could imagine Sam arguing with him that it was abusing hospital equipment, and that it wasn't the right thing to do.
God he missed his geeky Sam.
Dean waited as the elevator doors opened and groaned loudly.
Standing on the other side was pretty nurse Kimberly.
"Dean...!" Kimberly muttered, as she walked straight to him, as she watched as Dean tried to wheel away. Instead the young nurse grabbed the handle on the back of the chair and promptly applied the brake.
Dean grinned at her innocently, "Fancy seeing you here...?"
"Nice try Dean..." Kimberly said with a smile, "What do you think you're doing...?"
"Popping wheelies, what on earth does it look like I'm trying to do...?" Dean muttered his mood promptly darkening as he could see his hopes being dashed.
"I know you want to see your brother..." Kimberly sympathised, "But you can't just take off around the hospital Dean..."
"Well, I need to see him..." Dean said in matter of fact tone, "Now..."
"I promise that I will take you myself tomorrow morning to see him..." Kimberly promised as she knelt down beside Dean who stared glumly at his lap, "Dean just because you're conscious and you can pull yourself around in this wheelchair; it doesn't mean you're well..."
"Can't I just see him for five minutes...?" Dean whispered.
Dean Winchester rarely ever begged, in fact, he couldn't remember the last time he begged for anything. Usually his sweet mouth and his gift of the gab always got him what he needed. But on this occasion, short of throwing himself down on the cold floor and screaming his head off; he'd do pretty much anything to see Sam.
"I'm begging you..." Dean whispered finally looking at nurse, taking in her blue eyes. "I just need to tell him that I'm here..."
"Dean I can only imagine how you're feeling..." Kimberly admitted with a sigh.
"How I'm feeling...?" Dean said shaking his head. "I woke up thinking that my brother had gone to buy some candy or something, that my dad was talking to a doctor. I find out that my dad's gone, and my brother is barely hanging onto his life, because of a car crash I don't even remember..." Dean said feeling angry tears burning in his eyes, as he frantically blinked them away. "I am now so close to seeing Sam, and now you want me to go back to my room and wait until morning..? I can't. I need to see him..."
"Dean, I could get into a hell of a lot of trouble if I take you in there..." Kimberly admitted, "Just hang on, please. I'll get them to clear you medically and you can then see him and spend some time with him..."
"You said he's in a coma..." Dean said his hazel eyes dark and heavy as he closed them trying to control the tears that threatened to fall. He'd be damned if he was going to cry like a child in front of this beautiful woman again. "How long has he been in the coma..?"
"Since he arrived at the hospital, he never regained consciousness..." Kimberly explained, "I don't know the full story behind Sam's case. Because I'm not a trauma nurse we're not really supposed to look through the files. All I can tell you is what I've heard from other nurses. The people taking care of Sam will know everything and you can drain every ounce of information from them tomorrow..."
"I heard that sometimes coma patients can still hear people..." Dean said numbly, never acknowledging what Kimberly had said.
"It's true, some have reported on hearing conversations and noises from visitors when they come around..." Kimberly admitted.
"Maybe Sam hasn't come round yet, because he hasn't heard my voice..." Dean said hope slowly clawing its way back to the surface of his face. "I mean, he could come round tonight Kimberly if I go and see him..."
"You are stubborn..." Kimberly muttered, as she snapped the brake off Dean's chair and turned him towards the elevators. "And relentless..."
"If you think I'm bad, you wait until Sammy wakes up..." Dean said unable to hide the huge grin on his face.
"Two Turners to deal with...?" Kimberly murmured as Dean watched carefully as the nurse hit level 5 on the key pad. "How on earth will this hospital cope..?"
Dean didn't care how the hospital coped. They'd behave themselves, most of the time. As long they didn't have to be separated on different floors with a pile of restrictions heaped on top of them.
Dean grinned; he'd worry about the complications tomorrow. Right now, he was off to Sam, to break the spell the coma seemed to have his baby brother transfixed in.
Sam would wake up tonight, and everything would be ok.
Dean was sure about that. He was the big brother. That meant he was always right….
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As Dean took in the corridor he was being led down, he mentally tried to make a note of everything he could see. This way when he snuck back later tonight, to stay with his brother, he'd know exactly where to go.
The elder hunter spotted the nurse's station down the end of the corridor, and nurse Kimberly parked him on the opposite side of the corridor, and took off towards the nurse's station.
Dean drummed his fingers impatiently against the wheelchairs handle, and counted the rooms on this section of the ward. There were only five.
Dean couldn't help but find that strange, he'd expected the ICU wing to be much bigger than this. It didn't matter though, as long as he could see Sam.
On the way up to the ward, Dean had been wondering about the car accident. How had it happened..? He knew that Sam had been driving and his father had been shot in the leg, while he was bleeding behind Sam's seat in the back of the Impala.
The Impala. His beautiful 1967 black Chevy Impala.
Dean wondered if it too had survived the crash. He'd grill Sam about that later on. After all, he was the one who crashed the car, and Dean reckoned that gave him some rightful teasing ground regarding Sam's driving ability. It would be in good taste obviously, but brothers were allowed to rag one another when it came to their driving, it was just the way things were.
Nurse Kimberly walked over to Dean, who looked up at her as she approached.
"Behind door 2...?" Dean guessed with a smile.
"Good guess..." Kimberly said with a grin, "Sure you're not a psychic..?"
A smile played over Dean's face. "Nah, there's only room in this family for one psychic..."
"Oh really, and who would that be...?" Kimberly said with a grin, "Because I've always wanted my palm read..."
"Well, I may not be able to read palms, but I can read other kind of signs..." Dean teased as he examined the pretty nurse close up. His playful nature trickling back to the surface, as the stress he was under begun to vanish.
"Dean Turner, are you hitting on me...?" Kimberly said a smile on her face.
"Possibly..." Dean said a wide smile on his face, "You just tell me how hard to hit..."
Kimberly never answered as her hand hovered on the door handle to room number two. She glanced nervously at Dean.
"Listen Dean..." Kimberly started, "There's gonna be a couple machines around Sam, and some tubes, they're just there to help him, ok..?"
"Oh don't be all melodramatic..." Dean muttered with a grin as he reached for the handle himself, "Chicks and their emotions..."
Dean pressed down the handle and allowed Kimberly to hold the door open as the elder hunter wheeled himself into his brother's room.
The smile that been plastered across the handsome big brother's face fell off instantly as his eyes took in his little brother.
"Oh, my, god..." Dean whispered the words barely leaving his mouth as he looked in horror at his brother.
Dean slowly wheeled himself closer to Sam's bed. He needed to get closer, only to prove to himself that what he saw was just a freaky figment of his imagination. If Dean hadn't have already been sitting down, he was pretty sure that Kimberly would have been picking him off the floor.
"Sam..." Dean said, already trying to struggle into a standing position. Kimberly grabbed his arm, steadying the elder brother, as Dean slowly sat down at his brother's side. His head moved anxiously to Kimberly.
"How long has he been like this...?" Dean whispered, his hands never touching Sam. His eyes did all the probing on their own. This was worse than anything he'd ever seen in his life so far.
"Nine days..." Kimberly said quietly as she stood at Sam's foot side, "I'll try and have Sam's doctor come and talk to you..."
"Thanks..." Dean mumbled his eyes never leaving Sam's face as Kimberly disappeared through the door, plunging the brother's into the dimly lit room.
This was far from what Dean was expecting. Far from it.
He'd expected to see Sammy lying on his side, maybe looking a little bruised and rough around the edges, but sleeping soundly. Not lying flat on his back, in another horrid looking hospital gown, with this huge tube coming out of his mouth. It was taking every ounce of common sense for Dean not to yank the interfering object away from Sam.
There were wires coming from under Sam's bed sheet, and a couple of IV bags hung to one side, that disappeared into the back of a bandage on Sam's hand. Dean had been surprised at how big the needle was that went into the vein, he also remembered how much it hurt, and unsurprisingly, how much he had cursed when it had been removed earlier that afternoon. A grey clip was also attached to the end of Sam's finger. Only one of Sam's hands lay free of intrusion, and it was that hand that Dean picked up. The elder boy was taken back by how cold it.
"Dude, you're freezing..." Dean whispered to him, "Got to get these people to crank the heating up..."
Dean studied his little brother. This person looked nothing like Sam. Nothing like his Sam at least. This person lying on this bed was fighting death. The Sam he knew loved nothing more than living.
Dean's hand gently moved to his brother's head, and he touched his hair. It was then Dean felt a small white bandage that was behind Sam's left ear, and disappeared into his hair. It's where they'd operated. It's where they'd removed that invading, son-of-a-bitch of a blood clot from his brother's brain.
"Sam..." Dean whispered leaning down very close to his brother's face, "Sam it's me, Dean. Come on dude, we got to get out of here. We have to go soon, so no more napping now..."
Dean jumped when he heard the door reopen and he saw pretty nurse Kimberly and a man, who was in his early forties, stand beside her.
"So you're Dean..." The doctor said with a bright grin, "I've heard a lot about you today..."
"None of its good I suppose..." Dean murmured quietly. He was still having a hard time digesting Sam's appearance.
"I think they're just not used to having such a firecracker in these wards..." The doctor said moving towards Dean, "This hospital is usually pretty quiet..."
"I'm not leaving this room, not until he wakes up..." Dean suddenly blurted out at the doctor.
"Oh, Dean, I'm not going to ask you to leave…" The doctor said warmly, "I think Sam here could do with some company. I think the kid's feeling a bit lonely..."
"No one as come to see him..?" Dean asked half heartedly, "No one at all..?"
"No one has come to see Sam in over nine days..." Doctor said with a smile as he sat down beside Dean. "He's a tough kid that brother of yours..."
"Yeah, he was born stubborn..." Dean said with a wistful smile, "He never gives up anything without a fight…"
"Sounds a bit like his older brother..." The doctor teased, as Dean smiled warmly at the doctor.
Sam had a nice doctor; Dean liked him a heck of a lot more than the crabby, grumpy man he had been saddled with. Geeze, discharge day couldn't come any faster right now.
"I'm Dr. Kessin..." The man explained, "I've been looking after Sam since he was admitted..."
"Looks like he's in good hands..." Dean admitted, "What I don't get is why he hasn't woken up yet. Nine days..? Man, that's really long..."
"It's not too bad..." Dr Kessin replied with a light smile, "He's a tough cookie this kid, considering everything he's been through..."
"Any idea what actually hit us..?" Dean asked glumly as he stared at Sam's still face.
"According to the cop report, a semi hit you guys..." Dr Kessin explained, "I don't know if anyone would have found the three of you, if Sam here hadn't made that call…"
"What..?" Dean whispered looking up suddenly at the doctor, "Sam called for help...?"
"Dean he got out the car, and called for help..." Dr Kessin said, "Paramedics found him lying in the road…"
"Way to go Sam..." Dean said patting his brother's hand, "I'll have to buy you that strange blue looking snow cone you seem to like as a reward..." Dean teased.
"Way to go indeed..." Dr Kessin said standing up, "If Sam hadn't had made that call you and your father would have died on that stretch of road..."
"It's just a shame that the movement caused this situation…" Dr Kessin muttered, "Sods law always did enjoy biting people in the ass..."
"Movement, what kind of movement...?" Dean demanded, "What did Sam do to himself..?"
"Because he got out the car, he was moving around..." Dr Kessin explained, "It set the blood clot off from his chest and it started to move towards his brain…"
Dean stared numbly at Sam, "So if he'd just woken up and stayed still, like you're supposed to. None of this would have happened..? He'd be fine, instead of hooked up like Robocop...?"
"Probably..." Dr Kessin said with a shrug, "But just bare in mind, if he had done so, you and your father would have died from your injuries, which in hindsight, at the time, were worse than Sam's..."
Dean no longer heard what the doctor was explaining to him. The realisation of the situation was beginning to hit home.
Little brothers were not meant to save their big brother's life. It was meant to be the other way around. Dean was meant to have saved Sam.
Instead Sam had saved Dean.
Sam had saved Dean's life, not even stopping to consider his own injuries for a second when he'd got out of the car to get help.
Now he was hooked up to these machines, these strange machines keeping Sam alive.
It made Dean angry. Angry that he hadn't been able to stop Sam.
The elder Winchester picked up Sam's hand in his and squeezed it warmly, and held it against his face. A new respect had grown for his younger sibling, the bond he shared with him running even deeper now.
It was now Dean's turn to save Sam.
And by God, Dean Winchester had no intentions of failing...
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Poor old Dean, putting himself under all this pressure. Hope it doesn't come back to bite him in the ass…..Until next update guys xxxx