A/N: alright, here it is, the LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!!! this story has taken me so much longer than anticipated to finish, but it is finally at an end. PHEW!! alright you know the deal. please read and review, your feedback means alot to me, and don't worry, i have a few little plot bunnies hoping around in my head so you will be hearing from me again really soon.

Disclaimor: not mine, have never been mine, don't see them being mine anytime in the near future.

Brothers in Arms

Chapter 8

They sat there for another hour, just enjoying the feeling of each other there, alive. When Dean finally drifted off to sleep, Sam didn't protest. He needed his rest, and he would make to wake up Dean in another hour or so just in case.

He shifted Dean back to the floor, and slowly stood up, but even his slow rise didn't help. Dizzy, he leaned against the wall until the world stopped doing loop-da-loops. Once he gained his balance, he slowly moved away from Dean and towards the creature. God, he hurt! And not in a pop some aspirin and sleep it off kind of hurt. This was a deep, bone-jarring, mind-numbing kind of hurt. There wasn't a single part of him that wasn't in pain, just some places that hurt more than others. His back was killing him. Not only did he have gashed running down it, but now it was bound to be an interesting assortment of blacks and blues and purples. He could feel a wetness sliding across his skin, and he knew that the wounds had reopened. His hip was radiating pain, after taking the brunt of all of his falls, and his chest was on fire. He didn't even need to look to know that it was covered in a variety of bruises and scrapes. And if the pain every time that he breathed was any indication, he had several cracked, if not broken, ribs. And his head. Oh God, that was the most fun out of them all. The lump on his head could probably be upgraded to the size of a baseball now. It hurt just to blink. And not all of the pain he was experiencing came from being tossed around by the creature.

He had managed to limp his way over to where it lay. As he stood looking at it, he thought, what the hell is happening to me now? Having visions was one thing, but this was like nothing he had ever experienced before. He had felt the creature coming, of this he was sure. He had been able to feel its emotions, but at what cost? But he didn't know if his subconscious was reaching out to the creature, or if somehow this creature had been able to reach out to him? All he knew was that it had been painful, so painful. More painful than any of his visions had ever been. Was this another facet of his powers? He dreaded to think that it was. Being able to sense when evil was near could be really helpful in their line of work, but at the cost of being incapacitated afterwards? And what if the more powerful said evil was increased what he felt from it? God this was making his head hurt. Just focus on the task at hand.

But he couldn't. His head felt like it had been violated, filled with a presence that had left him tainted after it had been removed. He never wanted to feel that level of hatred again, but in their line of work, he knew that that was a damn near impossibility. He forced himself to concentrate on something else. The body. I have to get rid of the body. Grimacing in disgust and groaning in pain, he dragged the pieces of the creature, inch by agonizing inch, out towards the dilapidated stables that stood close to the barn. To his immense relief, he found an old gas can in the corner that must have been an emergency store for the tractor or something. He didn't really care. All that he cared about was that it was half full. He dragged the creature further in and hauled it up onto a pile of relatively dried wood that he had kicked together.

Sam looked around. The stable was sort of standing upright, with one of the walls missing and a big ass hole in the roof, but for the most part the corner that he was in right now had stayed mostly dry. Thank God for small favors. He liberally poured the gas onto the creature's body and dug out the lighter that he had in his pocket. As the body burst into flames, all Sam could do was stand there and watch. After a while he made his way back to his brother, waking him up and made sure that he was okay. With Dean again asleep, he stoked the fire and added some more wood.

God he was tired. He knew that he needed sleep, but with his head injury? He wasn't sure that that was a good plan. As he situated himself down next to his brother, he knew that it was inevitable. His body craved the rest that it had been denied. He pulled out his phone and quickly set the alarm for 2 hours, on the loudest setting possible. No sooner had he done that then he felt his eyes closing, and he drifted off to sleep.

The Next Day

Sam hauled Dean's ass through the doors of the local hospital. He was tired and he was in pain, more so than he had been early yesterday morning, and he was in no mood to listen to Dean gripe about not wanting to be here. As he called for a doctor and a wheelchair, he received a death glare from Dean, and heard him say something about not being an invalid and being able to walk his damn self to the room, and that was it. He didn't care how whiney he sounded.

"Dean, shut up. Your body is a mess right now, and I almost lost you numerous times within the last couple of days. So if you have any love for me what-so-ever, please just shut up and let the doctor look at you."

Dean just looked at him, shocked that he would question the love that he had for his brother, but he didn't say another word. A nurse came then, with a wheelchair that she helped Dean into, and that was it. Sam just couldn't take it anymore. Adrenaline was the only thing that had been keeping him going for the past couple of days. Adrenaline and fear; fear for Dean, and of the creature, and finally how the hell he was going to get them out of that hell hole. But now all of those problems were no longer problems, and all that adrenaline had finally left him as he watched Dean being lowered into that wheelchair. He felt his body shutting down, and he felt himself plummeting to the floor. And he heard Dean shout his name, and then he knew nothing at all.

He woke up with Dean's name on his lips. "Sammy? I'm right here bro." He slowly turned his head to the side to see Dean sitting in a chair by his bed. Wait, bed? Why was he the one lying…….? Oh. "Sam? You still with me over there?"

"Yeah Dean. Are you alright? What happened?"

"What happened? I'll tell you what happened. You collapsed, that's what happened. And I swear to God dude, if you ever pull that shit again, I will so beat the living crap out of you, you hear me?" Dean's words were angry, but one look in his eyes and you could see all of the love and……. fear?

"I'm sorry Dean"

"And another thing. Don't lie to me again Sammy. Next time I ask you if you're okay, you damn well better tell me the truth. I already got your wonderful list of injuries from the doctor, and let me just tell you, the length of the list alone was enough to tell me that you were not okay, let alone what it actually consisted of." He fiddled with the blanket that was on Sam's bed.

"Dean, I'm sorry."

"You better be." But the remark was said with a half smirk, taking the sting out of the words. They sat there for a while in silence, again just enjoying each others company, until Dean broke it with one little word.

"Thanks."

Sam just looked at him, his brows knit in confusion. "For what?"

"For saving my ass back there. I'm not used to, you know, being the one that needs saving, and I'm not real good at this talking thing, so I'm just saying. Thanks."

"Dean. We're more than brothers. We are a team, and I know that we will always be there for each other. And I know that you would do everything in your power to save me, until your last dying breath, and even then I don't think that would stop you. That you feel like it's your job to look after me, to keep me safe." Dean made to interrupt his brother, but Sam just held up a hand. "Please Dean, let me finish. I know all that. But you have to know that I feel the same way. I will never, ever be able to just stand by and watch while you get hurt. I will always be there for you Dean. Always."

"Yeah, well, you are always going to be the younger brother, and I will never stop feeling responsible for you. Case closed." And before Sam could say anything in response to that, Dean was up and moving, albeit slowly, towards the bed next to Sam's. As he settled in, he looked over to Sam.

"Jeeze, Sammy. You had to pick the one hospital around here that has the most uncomfortable beds to I have ever had an opportunity to lie in. And the nurses, Sam. Just wait until you see the nurses. Not a single hot one in the bunch. Typical little brother mistake. Picking the wrong hospital. I'm telling you Sammy, next time we are in a life or death situation, I am totally picking the hospital."

And with that Dean closed his eyes, and Sam knew that this colossal chick flick moment was over. And they were going to be just fine.

THE END

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