I own nothing. There, satisfied?
.~o()o~.
It seemed like hours as Dean laboured over Sam, trying to get his heart to beat, forcing air into his lungs. In reality, it was only about three minutes. Jesse had been worried and sent the ambulance after them the moment Luke had told them where they were going.
Dean was in a world where only he and Sam existed as he willed his brother to live. He fought to stay by his side when the paramedics arrived, but Luke grabbed him in his arms and pulled him away to where he could only watch, helpless.
Dean watched in anguish as his little brother's body arched under the paddles and others worked frantically to stop the bleeding. He gagged as they forced a tube down Sam's throat, getting him the oxygen he couldn't breathe in on his own.
Dean held his breath until they brought his brother back. Then there was a flurry of motion as they loaded Sam and Bo into the ambulance and rushed them away.
Dean followed with Luke in the Impala, keeping pace with the emergency vehicle.
The only time Dean wanted to believe in God was in situations like these. He wished he could be certain a higher power was watching over Sam and that he could rely on divine intervention to pull him through.
The image of Sam's lifeless body superimposed itself on the roadway and, instead of the comforting feel of the Impala's wheel, he felt torn, blood soaked flesh slowly growing cold and stiff. With every ragged breath he took, he was still kneeling at Sam's side, breathing for him.
"Dean," Luke's voice finally broke through to his consciousness. "Do you need me to drive."
"No,"| Dean replied. "I will get us there. I have to." He forced his attention to the road. If he got into an accident, he couldn't be there for Sam.
.~o()o~.
"Why do they always paint waiting rooms the ugliest colours?" Dean thought to himself, staring at the vomit-coloured wall as he tried to get comfortable in the hard plastic chair. He was alone. Luke, Daisy and Jesse had all been there, but the doctor had brought them to Bo's room at least an hour ago.
Bo's wounds had been stitched, his leg was set and the swelling in his throat was beginning to subside. He was awake and asking for his family Dean had watched as the Duke family got the news that Bo, although facing a long recovery, would be fine. Every minute since then, when he had heard no word on Sam, he became more apprehensive Four hours was a long time, even in a small country hospital, to hear absolutely nothing. The only comfort he had was that if Sam had died, they would have already come to tell him.
Dean wanted to pray, but he wasn't quite sure how to go about it, and he didn't think he deserved having anyone listening in.
He glanced up every time a nurse or a doctor walked into the waiting room. Sometimes news was good and families rejoiced. Sometimes it was bad and families wept and wailed. It was all the same to Dean. The news was never for him.
"Family of Sam Winchester?" a nurse spoke from the doorway. Dean was instantly on his feet.
"Sam's my brother," he said, crossing the room swiftly.
"I am very sorry, sir. . ."
The bottom dropped out of the world and time stood still. "Oh God, no!" Dean's mind was screaming. The guilt and sadness poured over him like a wave and he gasped at the sheer weight of it. Dean realized that the nurse was still speaking. Reluctantly, he forced his attention back to her words.
". . .mixup. Sam has been out of the OR for at least a half hour. The attending physician was called away to another case immediately after and neglected to inform me that he had not spoken to you. Sam is in a room in the ICU. He has been stabilized and I can take you to see him now.
The relief was nearly as crushing as the grief. "He's going to be ok?" Dean asked in a small voice, hardly daring to believe it.
"He lost a lot of blood and some of the earlier cuts were infected, but they have all been stitched and cleaned. He also has a concussion, so it will be a while before he regains consciousness, but we hold out every hope for his recovery. The wound in his thigh is the most serious. It did some muscle damage and it will take him some time and physical therapy to regain full strength, but your brother is young and strong. He is a very lucky young man."
In spite of knowing that Sam would live, he still felt his stomach lurch at his first sight of Sam. He was white and still, hooked up to a heart monitor and various IV lines and an oxygen mask over his face. Dean was grateful they had already removed the ventilator. If there was one sight that cut him to the core, it was Sammy with a tube down his throat, unable to breathe on his own.
"Thank God, Sammy," he spoke as he settled himself into yet another torturous plastic chair at the head of the bed. He picked up Sam's hand and held it in his. "It was pretty touch and go there for a while. No more taking on demons by yourself for a while, you hear me?" Dean continued on talking for hours, mostly inane babbling as he couldn't stand a silence until, as they often did only when Sam was unconscious, his words took on a note of truth.
"Sometimes I think about what's coming, about how much we don't know about your visions and the demon's purpose, and it frightens me. But you should know that you never frighten me, Sammy. You are still my little brother and I. . ." he glanced quickly into the hallway to see that no one was listening in and, bending close to Sam's ear, he whispered. ". . .love you."
About thirty seconds later, Sam moaned quietly and his eyelids opened up just enough to see Dean hovering over him.
"You're awake," Dean grinned.
"How could anyone sleep with all the chatter going on?" Sam grumbled slowly.
Dean instantly pulled back. "How much did you hear?"
"Not much," Sam smiled. "I did hear a certain interesting L-word. I thought it would take a little more than my near death to pull that one out of your lockbox of feelings."
"Shut up Sam," Dean growled, but he couldn't keep the grin from his face.
.~o()o~.
When Sam was finally released a week later, it was to the news that the richest man in town, Boss Hogg, had taken care of all their hospital bills as well as the bill for repairs to the Impala. Cooter met them in the hospital parking lot with his tow truck. Dean smiled as he saw his baby sparkle in the sunshine. His grin grew wider when he got behind the wheel and started her up. Dean normally didn't like anyone else working on his car, but this Cooter sure knew his stuff.
"Uncle Jesse wanted me to tell y'all that he wants to have a little get together at the farm for lunch as a thank you and farewell. He's expecting ya in about twenty minutes so you should probably just git on over there."
There were a few extra cars parked in the yard, most noticeably a police car and a big white convertible with horns on the front.
"Looks like we aren't their only guests," Sam commented as he pulled his crutches out of the car and balanced himself.
They walked in the door to find the Dukes, Boss, his wife Lulu and Rosco all waiting for them. Before long they were all settled down with bowls of Jesse's famous crawdad bisque and plates of Daisy's steaming apple pie. Dean was in heaven.
An hour later, with pleasantly full stomachs, the Winchester boys were ready to pull out and leave Hazzard behind.
"I wanted to thank you boys for what you did," Boss stood and spoke to the boys as they were getting ready to leave. "I don't remember everything, but I remember enough to know that you saved me from something awful." He shook both the boys hands and prepared to turn away. Lulu elbowed him in his side. "I also wanted to give you this as a token of my appreciation," he sighed and reluctantly handed over a thick envelope. Dean whistled as he opened it to find several hundred dollar bills.
Jesse hugged both boys and thanked them profusely for what they had done. Luke too shook their hands with barely concealed emotion. Bo nearly knocked Sam over with his enthusiastic hug, their crutches colliding tangling. He also shook Dean's hand.
Dean leered when Daisy came up to say goodbye. "You sure you don't want to come with us. You could bake me more pie," he winked at her.
"I wouldn't be coming for you, sugar." She shoved him playfully on the shoulder, then turned to Sam, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him down for a smouldering kiss. Sam blushed to the roots of his hair and pulled away, clearing his throat awkwardly. "If you come back this way, you look me up, y'hear?" she whispered for his ears only.
Then, goodbyes all said, the Winchesters got into the Impala and drove away.
"Hazzard isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," Dean said as they left the town in their dust. "But the big city life is calling my name. What do you think Sammy? Should we take alittle time off, do some bar hopping, hustle some easy pool and easier women?"
"Stop it Dean, we need to talk," Sam scowled.
"what could be more important than me getting laid?" Dean asked with a laugh.
"I am serious. There is something the demon told me that I didn't mention before."
Dean was instantly serious. "Sam, you had better not be holding out on me."
"Look, the demon said that, with my powers, there were many demons who wanted to own me, to control me, but he said it couldn't be done because of my natural defences. This whole big scheme was in an effort to gain control of me without losing my powers."
"Yeah, but so what? He failed."
"He said that my death would bring down those defences. Dean, my heart stopped beating for three minutes. I was dead. What if that was enough to short circuit my built in protections?"
"Look Sam, you defeated the demon. We won this round. You are not going to become a demon Halloween costume. I will not let it happen. You need to trust me."
Sam nodded, but doubts still assailed him. They lapsed into silence for the rest of the trip.
It wasn't even a day later that Sam went out to get some supper and never came back.
THE END
A/N And that brings us to the end of my little AU tangent and right to the beginning of Born Under a Bad Sign. Thank you all for reading, especially those of you who reviewed. I would love to hear what you think of this. Also, if you have any ideas you would like to see me write, send them to me, I promise to at least consider them. See you all soon!