Sam sat up with Dean's help. He hunched over bent knees and scooped water up to splash against his face. He let out a deep sigh, relaxing into the water and feeling considerably less compromised. He hadn't felt this uniformly warm for ages and it felt like heaven. He rested his head on his knees facing the wall, away from Dean for a moment, absorbing the heat and letting his muscles loosen and relax. The sound of the water lapping against the sides of the tub was calming. Sam idly stared at bits of light reflecting off the porcelain tiles and listened to the sound of his brother bustling around behind him. He wasn't above falling asleep right now.

Eventually he sensed Dean settle down next to him.

"You okay?"

"Mm," Sam hummed and nodded, not wanting this moment to end.

"I wanna get your hair."

Sam opened his eyes and turned to look at his brother, expression pinched.

"What? Why?" Sam asked, his tone unexpectedly whiny... which was embarrassing but whatever. He really just wanted to stay still so he could keep these small moments of comfort and peace going for as long as possible. He didn't want to be waited on or examined or cleaned. He wanted to keep just this simple thing now that he had it: curled in under hot healing waters with nothing but the bath's tinny sounds and the knowledge of his brother's presence nearby.

Sam slowly rested his head on his knees again, this time facing Dean. His eyes were fluttering shut, clearly intent to doze and Dean bit his lip to stop from laughing at him.

"You can't lift your hands all the way up," Dean explained, playfully tilting his head to match Sam's sideways vision. Dean came up closer against the rim of the tub and Sam self-consciously huddled in more. Dean snorted with amused sympathy before dipping the cup into the tub's water near Sam's feet to fill it up. "You don't have to do anything - just stay like that and it'll be two minutes tops, okay?"

The bathroom's augmenting acoustics picked up his quiet voice. "Okay."

"Okay cool," Dean replied easily, sitting up straight over Sam, ready to pour the cup's contents over the back of his head. "Cover your eyes?"

Sam nodded and put his forearms over the top of his knees, pressing his forehead against them as a slow cascade of warm water flushed through his hair. His body gave a jolt of surprise but after the initial shock he realized it felt good. A fit of nostalgia hit him that it was just like when he'd been little and Dean had given him baths.

Sam sputtered suddenly, feeling his hair turn into a wet curtain falling over his face, longer now that it was wet and so it draped over his shoulders too. Sam gave a shiver and held his breath when he felt his brother's hand land lightly against his back.

"Breathe, Sam," he said, giving his words emphasis with a fleeting back rub that Sam sheepishly realized he liked and wouldn't mind more of. "You okay?" Dean murmured, his voice low and steady.

"Yeah," Sam replied and stifled a small cough. Dean rubbed his back again, much to Sam's secret appreciation.

"Okay one more time," he whispered quickly just as he went ahead with another cup full of water. This time Sam was more prepared and he handled the flood of water well enough. Out of the corner of his eye Sam saw Dean rolling his sleeves up and inching over the rim of the tub. He listened to the sound of a cap snapping and his brother's breathy 'okay' before he felt Dean's palms working shampoo into his hair.

Okay. This was heaven.

Sam closed his eyes and couldn't help get lost in what was essentially a head and temple massage.

Dean could sense the exact moment Sam folded into loving this. It was somewhere between when Sam lost all tension in his back and shoulders, becoming a dead weight slumped over his own bent knees, and when Sam unconsciously started to lean up against the rim of the bath towards Dean.

Besides being halfway funny and halfway adorable, that latter move was a godsend because Dean was seriously bruising his ribs leaning over the tub's rim trying to make sense of his little brother's hair which had developed a woeful excess of knots and tangles.

"Dude your hair is like a... dead..." Dean messed with the tangles but only succeeded in generating more lather, "...rat..."

Dean pulled a knot to see if that would work and Sam yelped.

"Sorry sorry...I'm sorry," Dean laughed guiltily, patting down Sam's hair nicely.

"You suck," Sam moaned, leaning about two inches away from the porcelain rim. Even though Dean couldn't see Sam's expression, he knew his little brother was smiling too. This entire thing was just so ridiculous.

"You suck - do you use conditioner, dude?" Dean asked quickly, trying to slip his genuine curiosity in with the playful insult. Seriously though he hadn't even thought to find conditioner; he'd literally never used conditioner himself but it occurred to him that Sam might with longer hair.

Dean always thought it was a flowery accessory Sam liked but if it was because he constantly needed to un-knot his hair in the shower Dean realized he'd maybe just finally figured out after several years that the stuff was in fact a practical call.

Sam huffed in response, leaving Dean to interpret.

"Seriously dude, I can't..." Dean tried to thread his fingers through Sam's hair like a brush and Sam cried out again.

"Stop!" Sam laughed plaintively and Dean laughed too as he pulled his hands from his little brother's hair, placed his palms up in front of him.

"I can't fix your hair right now, man!" Dean said helplessly. "Where's your stupid conditioner? I know you have some!" He accused, comically fed up with continuing without the product.

"S'in the other bathroom," Sam answered, smiling.

"Okay be back in a sec."

In the period following Dean's departure, Sam wiped his face free of suds and languished in the bath, exhausted. He idly noticed the waterline against the porcelain was leaving small layers of grime; he'd have to get out soon before he'd just be soaking in dirty water. Sam weakly reached up to touch his frothy hair and breathed heavily, knowing he still had a long way to go before Dean could rinse everything out, apply the conditioner, and finally rinse that out too.

He felt his heart skip a beat. A streak of fear slipped through him and he waited on tenterhooks to see if it happened again, each new steady beat reassuring him it was a one-off.

Then a slow wave of heat rolled over him. It wasn't the result of the water's comfortable temperature but again Sam suspected it was a one-off. Still, he focused until he was confident he wasn't overheating.

Sam leaned down and laid his temple against the rounded, cool surface of the tub's rim. He sank deeper into the water, his muscles loosening to a greater extent than normal. At some point he opened his eyes and realized how close his face was to the water's surface. Slightly concerned about lapsing into some kind of heavy physical fatigue, he trying to move his hand around in the water. It took a lot of effort - his body now definitely overheating with the exertion - but he managed to do it before tucking it back against his stomach.

Okay.

This still felt wrong. Something was wrong.

He was getting worse, weaker, and if he lost much more strength he'd easily be able to slide under the surface.

Sam needed Dean. Now.

Sam gathered all his energy and channeled it into extending both arms out and over the rim. If he lost all strength, the weight of his arms would hopefully counterbalance his body so he wouldn't slip below. At the same time, Sam called out to his brother.

"Dean!" He yelled but it wasn't a yell, more like a strangled rasp. Sam coughed between huffs of breath, his own panic messing up his system's reserves. "Dean!" Sam shouted again, his voice stronger this time. His head dangled down over the rim, cheek pressed up against the cold outside porcelain of the tub, his chest heaving as it pressed uncomfortably over the bath's rim.

"Dean!"

"Coming!" Dean shouted and Sam heard his brother running in the hallway. All strength gone, Sam hung over the rim staring at the floor when the door banged open and Dean's authoritative voice filled the empty humid air.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Dean asked and Sam heard what was probably the bottle of conditioner drop to the floor near him before Dean's hands got under his arms and lifted him up off the rim. "Sam?" Dean said gruffly, pitching Sam backwards with an arm around his shoulders. Sam was shivering so Dean put him in a controlled sink back into the warm water. Sam's head flopped back against his brother's elbow and he grimaced in pain as Dean's hand wiped leftover bangs and suds off his face.

"I-I don't know. I couldn't..." Sam whispered, trying to look anywhere but at Dean's worried expression. He would've been self-conscious too, totally spread out nude in the tub with Dean hovering over him keeping his head above water but after a drowning scare Sam didn't really have the energy to care.

"Okay but you're okay? No pain?" Dean gripped him securely, keeping Sam's body steady, his head braced. Sam shook his head and swallowed.

"Yeah no, I'm okay. I just..."

"What?"

Sam closed his eyes, frustrated.

"Didn't want to slip. I got really weak," he explained sadly. Dean pursed his lips with sympathy as he held Sam.

"Yeah, okay," Dean replied, "Well I got you now," Dean smiled and Sam nodded slightly, resigned to the relief that washed over him. Dean sighed and stared at the wall across from him to come up with a plan.

"Okay, so..." he started, bringing his gaze back to the little brother in his arms, "I think what we're gonna do is rinse you off and just get you out, all right? We can make your hair pretty later."

Sam gave a wan smile and nodded.

"Sure."

"I'm gonna get you up and you can hang over my arm here, you ready?"

Sam grunted assent and Dean gently pulled him up. His arm braced Sam along his ribs just below his chest.

"Just hold on - just let me brace or... balance you, whatever," Dean instructed distractedly. Sam nodded. "You good? Feel secure?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Dean pulled Sam closer to the rim of the tub. Sam found himself able to lean his head against Dean's shoulder.

"Okay, that's cute but you can't do that, dude," Dean laughed kindly, pushing Sam's head off. Sam let out a comically incoherent whine. "Sorry man," Dean laughed before grabbing the rinsing cup. Careful not to jostle Sam too much, he started pouring water over Sam's head until the suds were gone. The knots and tangles were still very much in place but Dean just wanted Sam out of the tub now with the drowning scare he'd just had. They could get Sam's hair detangled later. When he was done Dean sighed and tilted his head at Sam, evaluating.

"You still super weak?"

"Um," Sam moved around to test, holding onto Dean's arm still for leverage, "yeah..." He answered, a little out of breath.

"Okay uh..." Dean trailed off, thinking. "If I try pulling you out with the tub filled like it is, there's gonna be a suction effect so let's have the water drain first, okay?"

Sam blinked and Dean wasn't sure if he got all that. "Okay."

"Okay," repeated. He'd take it. He leaned over and batted Sam's feet away underwater to pull the plug.

Sam's huffed with humor, limply having moved his feet to help Dean. When Dean resumed his position, Sam laid his head on Dean's shoulder like he'd been waiting for it. This time Dean let him. A few beats of silence passed, the drain gurgling as it downed water, the two of them in an awkward embrace over the bathtub's rim but neither of them cared.

Sam sighed. "This is so miserable Dean," Sam shared, voice dull. Dean exhaled loudly, nodding his head. He moved his free hand to rub his brother's curved back. His skin was getting goosebumps.

"Yeah it does," Dean agreed gently. "It's gonna be okay though," he added resolutely, moving his hand up to Sam's wet head and leaving it there. Sam leaned in more, ducking his head further against Dean's chest, willing to accept the gesture because he was really starting to need it.

Dean felt lame as hell over the deep wave of affection washing over him for Sam. They'd grown up so fast but if there was one thing that brought the two of them back to the shards of innocence they had experienced during their childhoods, it was this most basic dynamic between them. Dean messed with Sam's wet and knotted hair.

When the water was drained enough Sam pulled away slightly and Dean straightened.

"Okay, you about ready?"

Sam nodded weakly and rubbed his eyes with pruny fingers. Dean swivelled around and grabbed a towel. He draped it over Sam's shoulders and started rubbing water off when Sam spoke up.

"Dean?"

"Yeah?" Dean replied distractedly, drying Sam as much as he could.

"What if these trials weren't meant to be done slowly?"

"What do you mean?" The water level was down so low that Dean could drop the towel into Sam's lap now for modesty. Sam breathed an absentminded 'thanks' to his brother and resumed his question. "I mean, like, what if - how sick I'm getting - what if it doesn't get better because the trials are supposed to be done faster?"

Dean had gotten another towel and was just about to wrap it around Sam's back when the significance of Sam's question hit him. He met Sam's eyes and saw real distress there. Dean bit his tongue at the thought of trying to lighten the mood. Sam needed a serious answer.

Dean winced and went ahead covering Sam with the towel. He started ruffling the terry cloth over Sam's hair, his other arm pressing Sam's chest, signaling to Sam he could lean forward more and Dean would brace him. Sam slumped against his brother's arm with a sigh.

"We can't go faster, Sammy," he said.

"Yeah I know. But what if this is what happens when you don't complete them in time? What if this isn't part of the trials and instead a self-destruct mechanism to all those who start but don't finish them?"

Dean looked at Sam. Sam's worried gaze was fixed on Dean, depending on him. Dean pulled his mental arguments together as he shifted to dismissive judgment.

"No, man. That doesn't make any sense."

"Why?"

"First, because if there was a self-destruct mechanism, you'd just destruct. And we're not even close to that. No," Dean added as he saw Sam open his mouth to reply. "Let me finish. Second reason: the tablets were written eons ago. Back when it took weeks to travel two towns over. Everything took forever back then so unless God wanted the trials completed only in the twenty-first century, he would've given the hero's quest a hell of a lot more time than this."

Sam's eyes brightened as Dean spoke. So far so good, Dean figured, refusing to acknowledge the glow he still felt when he could tell he was making Sam feel good with his arguments.

"Well," Sam shrugged, "what if God did only want it to be possible now?"

Dean raised his eyebrow. Sam narrowed his eyes, trying to keep face before he let out a snicker.

"Okay, okay."

"Clutching at straws. Stop it," Sam huffed a laugh and shook his head. Dean pulled a third towel out to add to the bundle already surrounding Sam in the tub. He wrapped Sam up and hugged him, his head against Sam's.

"Don't be scared. You were meant for these trials, Sam."

Sam's head hung low as he listened and shivered under his brother's faith in him. He sniffed and nodded.

"Jerk," Sam gave him the escape from the unintentionally intimate and meaningful moment.

"Bitch." Dean grinned, pulling away.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading & please comment/review if you can spare the time! ~ Alex