Title: somewhere a clock is ticking [3/?]
Author: alakewood
Warnings: None.
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~1000
Summary: Sam helps Dean with a project, but isn't distracted from his condition for long.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.
A/N: I'm not completely happy with this chapter, the main elements are there, but it needs some...refining. RL is super-sucky right now and my focus is all What focus? Oooh, shiny!. Distracted would be a gross understatement. So, here's this part, for now.

oxoxo

"You sure you're up to this?" Dean asked again, wiping sweat off his forehead with the back of his wrist. They were in the process of repairing the small barn that stood a few hundred yards away from the house at the back of the property. He knew he was nagging; he couldn't help but worry about Sam, if he'd be struck with another of his incapacitating headaches.

"Yes, Dean," Sam replied with a roll of his eyes, squinting against the sunlight to see Dean's face. He was done letting the headaches get the better of him, they'd disrupted his life enough. So, now he was forcing himself out of the house to help Dean with this latest project. He'd been thankful for the distraction and the monotony of replacing the warped wooden boards of the hayloft floor surprisingly kept his mind off thinking about what was really going on with him.

They were sitting on a small patch of grass that had been just inside the shadow cast by the barn, sharing the last swallows out of the gallon of water they'd brought with them, taking a break from the heat of the afternoon. Dean stood. "So, you ready to get back to it?"

"Yeah." He noticed a slight throbbing just behind his eyes as he pushed himself up off the ground to stand beside his brother and assumed it was just the brightness of the sun. But he was struck with a sudden rush of vertigo when he stood straight and Dean was right there to steady him.

"Hey!" He couldn't keep the panic out of his voice, his heart missing a beat as Sam's eyelids fluttered and he started to fall.

But Sam caught himself, found his footing. "Sorry. Stood up too fast I think," was the quick lie, staring at his feet, unable to look Dean in the eye all the while.

"Sam?"

"I'm okay. Just stood up too fast," he repeated.

Dean moved into his brother's line of sight, feeling as though Sam wasn't quite telling the truth. "Sam."

"Really, Dean." He took off towards the barn and stalked up the stairs to the hayloft. His hammer lay abandoned beside the piles of nails and boards where he left it and he knelt down on the floor next to the edge of the hole he'd opened up. As he fitted another board into the empty space, he waited until he heard Dean start up the saw below him before he started working again. He easily fell back into his rhythm – place board, nail, nail, nail, nail, place board, nail, nail, nail, nail – and lost himself in the monotony once again.

Sam felt it before he saw it – the spatter of blood on the back of his hand. He touched the side of thumb to his nose, confirming his fear. His stomach twisted and sunk and he couldn't keep the thoughts he'd pushed into the back of his mind from slipping to the forefront, couldn't ignore them any longer. It didn't stop, the blood kept trickling from his nose in a thin rivulet. The headaches, the dizziness, the nosebleed? Sam wasn't a doctor, but he knew enough the at the symptoms he'd been experiencing pointed to something potentially serious, and it was something he wanted to face by himself before bringing Dean into it, just in case it was nothing more than dehydration or anemia, or a million other things. Still, in the back of his mind... With one hand pressed to his nose, the other gripping the banister, he carefully headed back down to the ground level of the barn.

Dean felt Sam's presence almost immediately and switched off the saw as he turned to face him. "Sam?" he asked, momentarily confused by his brother's appearance before he noticed the blood. "Shit, Sam, what happened?"

"I don't – I don't.." But the lightheadedness returned swiftly and stole his words, darkness taking him over as he fainted, Dean just barely fast enough to catch him as he fell.

oxo

Sam had come to in the front seat of the Impala. "D-dean?" he questioned weakly. The last thing he remembered was standing in the barn with Dean.

"Sam? Jesus Christ, Sammy. What the hell's going on?" He'd been kept in the dark long enough. He wanted - no, needed - answers.

But Sam wasn't quite fully lucid. "I...I don't know. Where...?"

"I'm taking you to the hospital." It was the very last resort, but if Sam couldn't give him answers...

"What? We – we can't." But Sam was too tired to argue and knew he'd lose the argument anyway.

Dean supported more than half of Sam's weight as they walked into the hospital. He slowly helped Sam into a chair in the waiting room just off the nurses station in the emergency room. "Excuse me, but my brother needs a doctor." He went on to explain what he knew of the situation, but the nurse informed him that, because Sam wasn't currently experiencing any sort of life-threatening injuries, he wasn't a top priority. He was tempted to make up a story about Sam having some sort of highly contagious disease to get him immediate help, but, instead, took the clipboard the nurse handed him without another word.

Nearly two hours passed before a nurse approached them, apologizing for the wait, and Dean held his tongue again and tried to stay calm. Sam's nosebleed had long since stopped, as had the dizziness. When Sam stood to follow her, he didn't sway on his feet, as Dean had anticipated. "I'll be back, okay?"

Dean shook his head. "I'm coming with you."

Sam offered a wry smile. "I'm not five, Dean. You can wait here."

"But-"

"Please? I'm sure it's nothing."

He didn't believe Sam for a minute. Knew it was something. And he was terrified. "Sam." But Sam turned away and followed the nurse down the hall, leaving Dean to wait.