A/N: Yay, the boys are back together! And Dean's doing better. I hope you like this next chapter!

If You Dare Challenge - #127 (Several Deep Breaths)

Disclaimer: Supernatural is owned by the writers.

Each following day, Sam stayed at the hospital with Dean. Dr. Gilmore and Jimmy convinced Child Protective Services to allow special circumstances for the two boys. They sent a tutor to the hospital so that Sam could still participate in his schoolwork while seeing Dean. At first, they refused to let Sam sleep in the hospital with Dean, but after a few incidents of extreme distress in both the older and the younger Winchester, they set up a bed in the corner of Dean's new hospital room where Sam could sleep. Sam rarely utilized the bed; in fact, he nearly always slept in the same bed as Dean. The boys were quite obviously inseparable.

Dean eventually regained the use of his voice, but Dr. Gilmore sometimes caught them speaking in different languages when they didn't want to be heard. Latin, usually, but a lot of times it was Morse code when Dean was too tired to speak. She'd even caught glimpses of sign language between the two, although most of it came from Sam because Dean's hands were both incapacitated. Dr. Gilmore had never seen anything like the Winchester boys in her life. Dean's fatal malnutrition was soon gone, although he never ate as much as she wanted him to, and had a strangely violent reaction whenever faced with a needle, he was getting better. They were worried about his fingers; a couple of them had severe frostbite, but soon he regained feeling in all of them. His pneumonia faded as well; he still had a painful, wheezing cough, but it only arrived when Dean was stressed (which always occurred when Sam was gone) or scared (which was when he thought he was being threatened). As his illness and infection went away, his body started to heal faster; his broken arm was now only in a brace, and he was strong enough to stand. Now, the doctors were only worried about Dean's head trauma and the resulting symptoms, as well as his back wound. The cut in his leg was healing nicely, too, and Dr. Gilmore was proud to say that Dean was out of death's range now. She loved spending time with Sam and Dean; making them feel safe became her first priority.

So when CPS arrived while she was making her daily rounds, Dr. Gilmore was a little more than upset. She turned the corner into the hallway where Dean's room was and heard screaming. "No! No! No!"

She knew who that voice belonged to: Dean. She dropped her clipboard and ran to find a man gripping Dean and a woman prying Sam from Dean's arms while both of them cried and screeched in protest. "No! Dean!" Sam's foot collided with the woman's face.

Dean yanked violently at his handcuffs, thrashing wildly. "Sammy! Sammy!"

Dr. Gilmore stopped in the doorway, shocked. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Finally, a nurse," sighed the woman, relieved. Dr. Gilmore was satisfied to see that her nose was swelling. "We've been trying to get these two apart, and we need some help—"

"First of all, you'd better get your hands off of these boys before I have them call security."

"We have jurisdiction to be here! We—"

"Second of all, I am a doctor. Their doctor, in fact. So you put Sam down right now and tell me what the hell is going on before I drag you out of here myself!"

Both of them released the children. Sam scrambled into the bed to hug Dean tightly, sobbing into his older brother's shoulder. Dean pressed his lips to Sam's head, whispering shakily to him. "We're here from Child Protective Services, Doctor," the woman said, smoothing her hair. "We've come to take Sam to a foster home and Dean to… well, Dean is to be arrested."

"Are you insane?" she snarled, and she saw Dean visibly startle. "Have you seen the state these boys are in?"

"Doctor, Dean is well enough now that we can—"

"I will determine whether or not he is fit to leave this hospital, not you!"

"Dr. Gilmore?" Jimmy stood in the hallway, his eyes wandering over the two terrified boys and the three other visitors. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," she said sharply, pushing herself between them and the Winchesters. "They were just leaving."

At first, the woman opened her mouth to protest, but was faced with a piercing Gilmore glare. She nodded and guided her companion out of the hospital room. Dr. Gilmore and Jimmy followed them, closing the door behind them.

Jimmy looked to her. "What…"

"They were here to take them away," she said softly, glancing at Sam and Dean through the doorway. "They were going to separate them."

The color drained from the man's face. "But—but Dean's not well enough yet."

Dr. Gilmore bowed her head. "According to the police, as long as he's well enough to leave the hospital just on medication, he can go."

"But he's still weak—if they separate them, Dean's health—"

"Will plummet, I know."

"What do we do?"

The doctor gave one final glance over at the Winchesters. "Find an alternative."

Sam and Dean spent most of the rest of the day in the hospital room by themselves. No tutors, no nurses, and as little of Dr. Gilmore as she could manage. Finally, it was time to go inside to check on them, but when she attempted to open the door, she found it to be barricaded. They had shoved Dean's bed up against the door so she could not enter. "Dean?" She jiggled the doorknob. "Dean!"

She heard frantic whispering from the other side of the door.

"Dean, open this door!"

The whispering intensified to a low whine, and then Dr. Gilmore recognized with horror the sound of Dean coughing. There were only two reasons he would be coughing again: Sam wasn't there or he felt like he was in danger. "Dean!"

"Dean!" His father yanked on the doorknob. "Dean, open this door!" The doorknob jerked back and forth, and Dean clutched Sam even closer to him. "Dean!"

Dr. Gilmore burst into the room with the help of Jimmy and another nurse, and she found Dean struggling for air. "N-n-n—" His lips were blue.

Sam was beside him, red-faced and crying. When Jimmy reached for him, he screamed, backing into the wall and calling for Dean. The doctor pried open Dean's eyes to check for seizure activity, but found nothing but evidence of hyperventilation and leftover breathing problems. "Dean! You need to calm down!" At the sound of her voice, he cringed. "Dean, listen to me. Just take some deep breaths. Deep breaths!"

The lock on the door broke to John Winchester's strength after a full minute of his wrath. Dean cried out in fear and curled his arms around his brother protectively. "Dean!"

A/N: Thanks for reading!