Disclaimer: Supernatural, its plotlines, and its characters are all property of the CW and the show's writers. I probably wouldn't be worth only $7 and a bottle of pop if I was actually involved with the show, so it's really not worth the effort to sue me, even if I would love to actually meet Misha Collins.

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I Need You

Chapter 2

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It had been hours, and there was still no word from Sam, which most likely meant that the doctors hadn't said anything. Sam must have flashed a badge when he followed the nurses to get himself in with the doctors, because Cas had seen enough medical dramas on Netflix to know that Sam would have been booted into the waiting room before they had even made it to the operation room doors if he hadn't.

Cas had pulled out his phone as soon as he sat down in the waiting room to do research on seizures and what caused them. He was still really freaked out, so even though he wasn't really paying attention to what he was reading, doing something with his hands was helping him relax, if only slightly.

But it had been hours, and Cas was getting antsy. He was starting to get annoyed that Sam hadn't come out to the waiting room and told him what was going on. He was also ignoring the constant stream of texts the angel was sending him, though he could have been forced to shut his phone off if he was in an operating room or anything of that nature.

Just as Cas was about to stand and force his way in to see Dean, and man in a lab coat came through the doors dividing the waiting room from the rest of the emergency calling out a name.

"Cas? Cas Singer?" Cas remembered that Sam and Dean had started using the last name Singer in their fake IDs (not fake badges, but the ones they used for their bank account and car insurance and things like that) and stood.

"What's going on with Dean?" Cas demanded, striding up to the man and staring him down.

"Are you Cas Singer? Sam and Dean's third brother?" Cas felt a twinge in chest at the thought of Sam saying that Cas was their brother, even though it was probably just to make sure he could get information about Dean, since usually only family could receive medical information.

"Yes, now what's going on with Dean?" Cas snapped.

"He's awake and stable. You can see him now. Follow me." The man turned and strode toward the doors he had come through.

Cas hesitated for just a moment, nervous to see Dean so vulnerable, before racing after the man.

As they walked past door after door on their way to Dean's room, the doctor started talking to Cas. "Cas is a funny sort of name, isn't it? Is it short for anything?"

"Yes." Cas was in no mood to make small talk with this man while his was so worried about Dean. The man may have said he was awake and stable, but he was still worried.

"What's it short for?"

Cas groaned. "Cast-Casey." He answered. He remembered Dean telling him one time that, to blend in with most humans, he really shouldn't go around telling people that his name was Castiel. Instead, if anyone asked what Cas was short for, he should say Casey, which was a common enough name that nobody would think anything of it.

"Nice name. My name is Tom." The man paused. "And here we are, Casey. Try not to increase his heartrate too much, or we'll have to remove you from the room, family or not." Tom walked away, leaving Cas to take a deep breath and walk into the room in front of him.

When he rounded the corner of the curtain to see Dean, he was surprised by how good he looked. There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked more exhausted than Cas had ever seen him, but he was awake and breathing on his own, and he looked like he was in good spirits.

"Hey, Cas." Dean whispered hoarsely. Cas just then noticed that Sam was sitting in a chair pulled up next to Dean. He was slumped over with his head resting on the bed next to Dean's leg, snoring lightly.

Cas caught himself smiling slightly at Sam as he inched a little further into the room. There were no more chairs, so Cas resigned himself to standing on Dean's other side when Dean spoke up again.

"You can sit." He whispered.

"Where?" Cas was confused, was he supposed to move Sam so he could sit in the chair?

"Here." Dean shifted his legs closer to Sam's head with a grunt, making room for Cas to sit on the bed next to his hip.

"Dean, you don't have to –" Cas started to protest.

"C'mon, man." Dean patted the open spot on the bed, wincing.

"I don't need to sit, really." Cas argued.

"Cas, we're family. Please sit." Dean asked quietly.

Cas sighed and perched himself on the bed where Dean had made room for him. He cleared his throat. "So…are you alright?" Cas muttered. Dean almost couldn't hear the angel, but he just barely made out what he said.

"I'm okay, man, really." Dean reassured him.

"Do they know what happened?" Cas asked.

Dean sighed. "I was stupid, Cas. So stupid. I had been drinking, go figure. I was upset because of the outcome of the last case Sam and I worked. I was so drunk that I ended up tripping and slamming my bad knee into one of the chairs in the war room, and I could feel something in it tear, and it hurt like a motherfucker. The only thought in my head at that point was to somehow make the pain stop, at least until I was sober enough to drive myself to the hospital. So I did the only thing my drunk mind could think to do – I hobbled to the bathroom and downed a handful of prescription pain meds. Not enough to kill me by themselves, but mixed with the copious amounts of whiskey I'd been drinking…" Dean closed his eyes. "I was heading into the library to find the heating pad we keep in there when I blacked out." Now is was Cas's turn to close his eyes.

"Sam was in the basement looking through old files, and he wouldn't have been upstairs for a few more hours when I seized. If you hadn't shown up when you did, Cas…" Dean swallowed. "The doctors said I would have died if you hadn't found me when you did. Sam told me that he was freaking out, and you took control and took care of me and made sure to get me here." Dean paused again. Cas was so relieved that Dean was okay, but so mortified by his story, that he was fighting back tears. He closed his eyes. "Thank you, Cas. You saved my life." Dean reached out and grabbed Cas's hand, and the two sat there for a long moment, silently holding hands and thinking.

Then Cas said something rather unexpected. "I thought I was going to lose you for good." His voice shook a little, betraying the tears that were clogging his throat and clouding his vision.

"But you didn't." Dean replied, squeezing his hand.

"I was so scared, Dean." A tear slipped out of Cas's eye, which didn't go unnoticed my Dean.

Dean squeezed his hand again, unsure what to say. So they sat in silence again.

After a few minutes, Sam woke with a start, wiping at the drool that had collected at the corner of his mouth and stretching out his back. Cas slowly pulled his hand out of Dean's grasp before Sam noticed.

"Right, well, I'm not sleeping in that damn chair all night, so I'm heading back to the bunker to get some shut eye. You gonna be alright by yourself, Dean?" Sam asked, standing from the chair.

"They're not gonna let me out, are they?" Dean asked grumpily.

"They said they want to keep you overnight for observation, even though it should be an isolated incident. And I'm forbidding you from arguing or making a fuss over this. I'll be back in the morning to check you out and bring you back home. Okay?" Sam answered.

"Fine." Dean growled.

"Good. Cas, you coming?" Sam looked at the angel, who was still seated at the edge of Dean's hospital bed.

Cas hesitated. Before he could say anything though, Dean answered for him.

"He has to. They don't let visitors stay they night, do they?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that rule. It's been a long time since something serious enough to send us to the hospital has happened." Sam shuddered and leaned over the bed to give Dean a hug before heading out the door and toward the waiting room, not realizing that he didn't have the keys to the Impala, nor did he know where it was parked.

Cas mimicked Sam and bent over the bed, giving Dean a hug. "Thank you for not leaving me, Dean." Cas whispered almost imperceptibly.

"I wouldn't dream of it." Dean patted Cas on the back and pulled away. With one last smile, Cas turned and walked away, out of the building and into the parking lot, to find a confused Sam staring at the spot where he'd stopped the car earlier.

"I parked it, Sam." Sam turned at the sound of Cas's voice, and the angel tossed him the keys and headed toward where he parked the car, sliding into the passenger seat in silence. Even though his stolen grace was depleting and he needed sleep, he didn't think he would be able to rest tonight.