Sam stood on the sidewalk, staring at the emergency room doors, trying to scrounge up the courage to step forward and go through them. The hospital was the smallest he'd ever seen, and he'd seen a lot. A single story L-shaped building that in any other city other than this back-woods town would be considered a clinic.
He was tired; it had been a long frustrating evening. From the motel to Barbie's dream house to the best bar in town, to the freaking hospital. Good thing Dean was already at the hospital, 'cause when Sam got done with him, he was gonna need a doctor.
Taking a breath, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans, he walked forward and stepped through the automatic doors of the ER.
"Hi, can I help you?" a girl behind a desk asked cheerfully. "Nice night out, huh? Has it started to snow yet?"
"Um, no…I believe…my brother…..was brought in…"
"Name?" she chirped. "Been a crazy night, what with the weather, lot of people falling on the ice or hurting their backs shoveling. You'd think in this day, people would save up and buy a snow blower, you know? But noooo….so, his name?" she looked up expectantly and let her eyes linger in appreciation, causing Sam to blush. Now was so not the time to flirt "Hey, did you come in off the interstate or Route 24? Just wondering if the bridge is blocked."
"Dean." Sam gave her an impatient smile. "His name is Dean."
"Ooooooh, yes, Deeeeeaaaannnn." she cooed. "Yum, we all remember him….brothers, huh? Couldn't miss him, we don't get that many men as hot as he is in here. Glitter was so thrilled she was his nurse than found out it was just a hand injury and there'd be no need to get him outta his clothes." she looked him up and down, back up and down to his throat. He shifted, uncomfortable under her gaze. "So, what brings you here again?"
"My brother." just a hand injury? JUST! There was nothing, 'just' about any injury that landed either of them in the ER. "The hot one you all wanted to undress?"
"What about him?" she cleared her throat and waved her hand in front of her face. "Wow! Warm in here, don't you think?"
"I came to pick him up."
"Really?" her face fell in disappointment. "Does that mean he won't be staying? Hey!" she perked up. "Maybe with the weather you two with have to stay in town a couple of days. We could all go skiing! Wouldn't that be fun?"
"Uh…my brother…he….."
"Cookie!" a large, older woman came out of a room behind the counter and came to stand behind 'Cookie.' "Girl, what are you nattering on about? The phones are ringing off the hook, paperwork is piling up, and the patients in the waiting room aren't…" she noticed Sam lounging on the counter. "And you would be who?"
Sam blinked. "Aah, I was told…my brother…was brought in"
"Oh." she reached for a file. "Who's next Cookie?"
"So, uh, my bro….." he began only to fall silent when he realized she was ignoring him. Hell, she'd dismissed him. "I….hey, excuse me! I'm still talking to you."
"Did we call you?" she demanded. "We call family members, I don't recall calling you."
"What? How would you know…? No…but….." Sam was beginning to get irritated. "I was told he was brought in a couple of hours ago."
"We would have called you. If we didn't call you, he's not here." she sniffed. "We need to move on, can't wait around all night while Cookie ogles you, now can we? We have a lot more patients to see. Cookie, call Mrs. Jackson…"
Sam leaned across the counter and splatted one large hand, palm down, across the file Ms. Battle Axe was attempting to pick up. He was beyond his initial observation that Cookie was cute and perhaps an easy pick up. He wanted to reach across the counter, circle his hands around the closest neck and choke the living daylights out of whoever's head was attached.
"Where is he?" Sam managed to get out, still able to maintain some semblance of calm. How he was able to do so was a testament to his self-control. "Hey!"
"You're still here?" Ms. Battle Axe was surprised, not scared, to find him still there. "Where's who?"
"My brother. His name is Dean." veins throbbed in his neck. "Cookie said Glitter was his nurse."
"Humph. That one? Mr. Charm? He went and got all the girls in a dither."
"They told me at Harkens I should come pick him up….."
Cookie nodded. "Uh-huh. We don't just release people. Safety reasons, see….."
"Cookie, stifle it girl! And you! You be gone. There's no need for you to be still be here. That slimy weasel is out of this hen-house."
"He left?" he clenched his fists to keep himself from grabbing hold of her and bouncing her head off the wall. "Where did he go?" his tone finally alerted Ms. Battle Axe to the fact he was getting annoyed and she gave him an icy glare.
"Well, I would assume jail." Ms. Battle Axe narrowed her eyes and gave him a look as though she thought him not quite right. "Where else would you expect the deputy to take him?"
"Jail?" Sam repeated startled. "Did you say jail?"
"You should have been called." Ms. Battle Axe shot daggers at him. "It is no longer our concern. NEXT!"
"Weeble took him out of here. Jail is where he would be taken." Cookies explained eagerly. "Isn't that just sexy?" she said dreamily. "Mmmmmmmm."
"Girl, knock that off." a file rapped her over the head. "You get yourself into more trouble with those fantasies of yours. I said NEXT!"
"He was arrested? Why?" Sam gurgled with rage. He was going to hit someone or break a wall with his fist but something was going to get punched.
"He started the fight." Cookie leaned closer to him, voice a mere whisper, as if she was telling him a secret and didn't want Ms. Battle Axe to overhear. "Heard he won it too."
"What fight?"
"Theeee baaaaar fiiiiiight." drawing the words out, she sat back, perplexed. "Bummer, too bad you aren't as smart as you are cute." she huffed. "Guess your brother got the brains and the brawn."
"I don't know anything about a fight, in a bar or anywhere else." deep breaths, he coached himself, in through your nose, out through your mouth. "They told me at Harkens he came in because he broke up a fight and cut his hand on a broken beer bottle. I assume he was conscious when he got here for treatment?"
"Well, of course he was." Ms. Battle Axe rejoined the conversation. "We are a decent hospital sir; we treat all patients with the best care possible. We do not discriminate."
"Then why wouldn't he have called me himself?"
She gave him a look that clearly told him somewhere along the conversation, it had been decided he was stupid and her tone became patronizing. "How would you expect him to do that with his hands cuffed to the bed?"
"WHAT?!" he needed a mirror because he was quite sure his face was red and steam was smoking from his ears.
"Hey now, see here, no need to raise your voice. I'll have to call security." she chided. "I said NEXT! Mrs. Jackson that would be you!"
"Didn't he come in here on his own?"
"Well, of course he did. Weeble just gave him a ride, brought him because his hand was bleeding all over the place. Bled through the towel he had it wrapped up in. The Sheriff called and said Mooch was pressing charges. That's when Weeble cuffed him to the bed. Once the doctor stitched him up and declared him fit to leave, off they went." Cookie was all smiles and suggestive looks again. "How hot is a man in restraints?"
Weeble? Mooch? What the hell kind of hick town was he in? Not to mention Glitter and Cookie and who could forget Pin Cushion, Cupcake Barbie and Midget, the 6'8, 350 pound bar tender at Harkens, the best damn 'dive' in town.
"Sir, you need to leave now." Ms. Battle Axe said firmly. "You are causing havoc here in my ER. Mrs. Jackson can't pick her jaw up off the floor or remove her eyes from your person. Now, out with you." she waved her hands in a shooing motion, as if she were flapping an apron to move along a recalcitrant pig. If she clapped her hands, Sam was going to blow. "Be on your way. Your brother is no longer here so there is no need for you to remain."
"Where would they take him?" his voice was strangled, god he was choking.
The two women exchanged a glance. Sam saw pity and sorrow cross their features, then Ms. Battle Axe turned to him and spoke like he was mentally slow.
"The. Police. Arrested. him." she enunciated each word, clearly and slowly. "They-would-have-taken-him-to-jail." she drew an imaginary picture in the air of a square room and mimed opening a door, closing it and turning a key in a lock. "Jail is where people who are under arrest go. They are held in a cell until bailed out or have a trial."
"Where in this town is the jail?" great, he'd bitten through his tongue and now it was bleeding, the coppery taste making his stomach heave. He wondered if either woman knew how close they were to seeing a full-blown Sam Winchester meltdown.
"Cookie, give him directions, no need to waste your time drawing him a map." Ms. Battle Axe rolled her eyes. "If he can't find the jail on Main Street in a five street town, I doubt he'll be able to follow it."
"Don't mind her." Cookie whispered to Sam once the older woman had gone off to drag poor Mrs. Jackson back to the examine room. "We were kinda hoping the doctor would have said he'd have to stay, you know? Glitter wanted to keep him, least for a few days…what we wouldn't have given to keep him in bed." she ended on a breathless sigh.