Feel the Pain Version B

Disclaimer: See chapter One

Chapter 4: Reunions

The light made the darkness of the back of his eyelids seem pale yellow, stripping him of unconsciousness. Sam pried his right eye open, squinting in the brightness of the white room. Hospital. Oh great. Sam closed his eye again, wanting to block out awareness for a while more. He shifted on the stereotypical uncomfortable bed, trying to relieve his chest of the pressure from the hippopotamus sitting on him.

Deciding sleep was not going to come back this time, he opened his eyes completely, allowing him to take in the scenery. Flowery wall paper…Tiny tv… Unconscious brother…Wait… A smile tugged on his lips as his eyes focused enough to make out Dean sitting in a visitor's chair, his head bent backward at an angle which would hurt like hell when he woke.

Sam's eyes shifted down to his chest, intending to have a few words with Mr. Hippo. His face filled with worry as his last memories came flooding back. Dean pushing on my chest… being lifted… flying… Dean holding my head… something wet…moving fast…pain… Sam's fingers weakly grasped the cover sheet; inching it down off his bare shoulders. A slight gasp escaped his lips as his brain registered a tube sticking out of his chest, creating a slight bump in the thin sheet as it slid down. His chest closely resembled a Frankenstein monster, filled with stitches and looking mostly like one big purplish/blue bruise. Sam gave a light groan, the effect of seeing his injuries seeming to sap the blissful numbness of morphine right out of his system.

A rustle followed by a waking cough forced Sam's eye from the horror of his chest to find his brother beginning to blink awake, his hand rubbing his cramped neck. A smile crossed his face as their eyes made contact.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty" Dean stretched his arms up, yawning off the last bit of sleep. "How you feeling?"

"Like a tree went through my chest. You?" Sam pulled his top cover sheet over his chest again, not wanting Dean to see.

Dean pulled his chair up to the side of Sam's bed, leaning his chin against the side rail. "I'm good. You kinda scared me there, kiddo. I talked to your doctor while you played with the Sandman. You should be fine. Just try not to do that again, okay?"

Sam grinned. This was the only way Dean could ever let his feelings out; by blowing them off and putting on a happy face followed by a bit of teasing. But Sam had been able to see past the macho exterior since he was 7. And Dean's shiny, worry-filled eyes were a dead give-away. "Okay big brother. I promise my chest will not explode like the movie Aliens again."

Dean winced, not expecting Sam to bring back the visual so quickly. He leaned back, watching as Sam pressed the button to make his bed sit him up. "So. Any ideas what happened to me?"

Dean shook his head. "I haven't been researching. Kinda busy, with staying next to my unconscious brother after his surgery and all."

Sam scrunched his brow in confusion. "What? I'd of thought you would have already killed the thing that did this to me and all his third cousins by now." Sam gathered his arms under him. He started to push, intending to make himself sit up a bit more. Instead, pain flashed through his body, making him gasp and pull his arms up. Dean shot up out of his chair, grabbing Sam's hand as it flailed in the air. "Aaahhh. Pain. Bad."

"Okay, hang on a second." Dean ran to the door, shouting down the hall for a doctor. He slid back to the bed, watching Sam's face grow red and start to sweat. "Easy brother. Don't try to move. You'll hurt yourself again."

Sam's jaw muscle ticked as he ground his teeth and he looked up at Dean. "I think that advice is a bit late, don't you?"

At that moment, a doctor stepped through the door. He checked the chart, took one look at Sam's face, and checked the iv bag. "Glad to see you're awake, Mr. Harris." Sam glanced at Dean, who winked and grinned back. "I'm guessing the pain is pretty bad. On a scale of 1-10."

"6"

Dean laughed out loud, making both Sam and the doctor look at him like he was crazy. "Dude, you have to be at least a 9. Don't screech like a lost cat and then claim it's nothing." He looked up at the doctor. "He tried to sit himself up." The doctor nodded and turned to readjust the iv. Sam glared at his brother, knowing he had made him look like a child.

"There you go Sam. That should start working in a few seconds." Sam nodded, already feeling the edge going. Slowly, his muscles released and he relaxed back into his pillows. "Alright then." The doctor put down his chart and turn to Sam again. "I need to check your chest to make sure you didn't do any damage, okay?"

Sam nodded. He glanced at Dean, pleading him silently to look away. Dean, just as silently, defiantly said no and mentally flipped him off. Sam rolled his eyes. Fine. Be my guest. A minute later, the doctor pulled the sheet back up.

"Looks good. But I think it was mostly luck. You have a tube in your chest because your lung collapsed. We have to keep it in for a few days to make sure it doesn't collapse again. Moving too much, too soon will almost definitely do damage to your chest and could cause fluid to collect. That would be bad, so we're going to try avoiding that, okay?" Sam nodded. That seemed to be enough for the doctor, who seized his vibrating beeper in a hand. "Kate, can you come in here please?" The doctor grabbed Sam's chart and made another note before stepping to the end of the bed. He looked up and smiled. "I'm going to let your brother fill you in on the rest because I have an emergency, but what I need you to do is rest. We have you on a pretty powerful painkiller, but that doesn't mean you can start doing push-ups, ok?"

The doctor turned at the sound of a nurse's footsteps entering the room. He handed off Sam's chart and breezed out the door. The nurse looked at the chart before staring at Sam. "Hi there. I'm Kate. I'm going to be one of your nurses." Sam glanced over at his brother, who had his back to the doorway.

Something was wrong. Dean was frozen in his tracks back to his chair, his eyes had grown wide and his ears were turning red. Slowly, he turned to face Nurse Kate. As they made eye contact, both gave a short laugh. Sam glanced between the two, completely lost with what was going on.

Dean broke the silence first. "You."

Kate nodded, her cheeks now as flush as Dean's ears. "Ladies room. We meet again. At least this time it's not in the bathroom."

Dean grinned, finally breaking out of his shock. "Yeah, well. I kinda had something on my mind."

Kate glanced at Sam, who by now had attributed hearing "ladies room" describing his brother as an after-affect of the morphine. He grinned up at Kate. "Are you my nurse?" Kate nodded. "That's nice. This is my brother Dean."

"Nice to meet you, Dean." Kate held out her hand, which Dean quickly took. He pulled her close, whispering in her ear "You weren't dressed as a nurse yesterday."

"I had finished my shift. I was changing when you graced me with your presence." Kate whispered back. She motioned toward Sam. "He was why you were covered in blood, right? You brought him in?" Dean nodded. Smiling, she pulled back, turning her attention back to the patient.

"Well, Sam. You are in excellent care here. And I'm sure your brother will do anything for you, right?" Glancing sidewise, she bit her lip as Dean rolled his eyes, mouthing 'gee, thanks' in her general direction. "Then I'll see you later, okay? Get some rest." Sam nodded, the morphine still running strong. Kate turned, winking at Dean.

Dean raised his eyebrows in surprise. Wow…forward much? I likey.

"Dean?"

"Yeah Sammy?"

"Are you wearing pink scrubs?"

Dean glanced down, having completely forgotten he was now looking a lot like cotton candy. "Yeah, well. Somebody decided to bleed all over my good shirt and jeans. It's not my fault they didn't have any blue."

Sam smiled, the lure of sleep finally beginning to win. "No, they look good. They match your eyes. And your cheeks."

"Oh shut up." His objection fell on deaf ears as Sam had already fallen asleep.

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So, did you like? Too much talking and not enough action? The other way around? Oh wait, that's the next chapter. You readers better start reviewing, cause I only got 8 for the last three chapters… very disappointing. So make me inspired already! And I already have the next chapter written, but will be tempted to hold off the posting if people are getting bored with thie story... no more hurt Sammy, no more embarrissed Dean... Ok, I'm lying. But I do want reviews. R&R! Thanks!