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Chapter Two

Eventually Dean conceded, and followed Jess and Sam through their home, he was surprised when they stopped at a door at the back of the basement.

"You don't have some kind of secret room down here where you kill your visitors, do you?" Dean joked.

Sam chuckled in response, he told Dean, "Secret room, yes. Killing visitors, no."

Jess took a key that she had hung around her neck, and opened the door as she elaborated, "Sam kept bringing home these guys who were beat to hell, they wouldn't go to the hospital, after a while I thought that it just made good sense to give you guys somewhere where you could get patched up, without involving the police. So, here we are. Hop up on the table, and I'll give you an exam."

Dean peered into the room, it was nothing like the dark, cluttered basement they stood in, it seemed to be all white, tiled and sterile, cupboards lined the walls, filled with medical supplies, a medical table was in the middle of the room, to one end of the room there was a freshly made up bed.

"It beats how Dad used to patch us up when we were kids, doesn't it?" Samuel said, giving Dean a gentle shove into the room. "On the bed, Dean."

"I'm going, I'm going," Dean said, trying to sound put upon.

Jessica was quick, but thorough in her exam. Dean had all the signs of fulminant liver failure, loss of appetite, body aches, mild fever, jaundice, and ascites.

What worried Jess even more so was that Dean was showing signs of hepatorenal syndrome, he had signs that his blood wasn't clotting properly, his blood sugar was dangerously low, he had quite severe edema in his legs and face, his lungs were partially filled with fluid, and he was hypoxic.

Jess didn't mince her words, as she told Dean, "You need to be in a hospital, Dean. I don't even know how you managed to walk in here."

"It's that bad?" Sam questioned Jess, he was starting to feel bad that he'd left Dean waiting around for him all day.

"It is," Jess confirmed, she then told Dean, "You should be in the ICU right now. If you don't get treatment, you'll go into a coma in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours, your body is already starting to decompensate."

Sam wasn't going to watch his brother die, not now. In a tone that gave no room for argument, Samuel told Dean, "You're going, Dean."

"I only came here because I need the transplant, I don't need you taking care of me, Sammy."

"And first thing in the morning I'll come up to the hospital to get tested, but you need to go now, right Jess?"

"That's right," Jess confirmed. "Please Dean, let us help you. I'll take you, get you admitted as quick as I can, and stay until you are settled in."

"...Yeah, okay," Dean agreed, albeit reluctantly.

True to her word, Jessica stayed with Dean as she worked to get him admitted to the hospital. Samuel wished them luck as he slammed the passenger door of Jessica's Renault minivan closed, and reluctantly headed back inside. Sam would have gone to the hospital with Dean, but someone needed to be home for the kids, and frankly Jess would be able to get Dean in much faster than he could.

Generally it was a quiet night in the emergency department of the medical center. Jess insisted on getting a wheelchair for Dean, fearing that he would collapse.

Jessica waved to the triage nurse as she rushed Dean towards the door that lead through to the treatment area; the nurse opened the door for Jessica, and waited for her to push Dean through.

"Thanks Terri," Jess said, putting on her ID badge. "This is Dean, he's in fulminant hepatic failure, I suspect he has hepatorenal syndrome. He is hypotensive and hypoglycaemic. I'm worried about his coagulopathy, and his pulse ox was barely holding at sixty. I need to get him a bed in the ICU, and consults from hepatology, nephrology, intensive care, infectious disease, and general surgery."

Within the hour Jessica was standing by Dean's hospital bed, watching as doctors from the various specialities assessed Dean's condition. Dean had been in such an unstable condition that on admission he had not only been taken into the ICU, but also placed on both liver dialysis and haemodialysis to filter the toxins from his body, medications to stabilize his blood pressure, reduce the edema, as well as platelets to boost his blood's ability to clot. The intensive care team had drained the fluid accumulated in his lungs, and placed Dean on a mask delivering a high concentration of oxygen, hoping that his oxygen saturations would rebound, but it was becoming clear that it wasn't working.

Jess joined the conversation with her fellow physicians briefly before moving into Dean's line of sight. "Dean," She began, Dean knew immediately that this was not going to be good news. "You aren't getting enough oxygen, we need to put you on a ventilator, that's where-"

Jessica was interrupted by Dean, who was quick to pull off the oxygen mask, and tell her, "I'm not going to be on a vent, no way, not again. I'll just take bigger breaths," Dean tried to use humour to cover his growing fear, Jess saw straight through it.

"It's alright, Dean. We'll give you a sedative, you won't feel a thing. And honestly I think that it would be good for you to get a real sleep, your body is at the end of its tether. That's what we're doing, supporting your body so that it can recoup its strength, and after you get a transplant, we'll bring you around, and you will feel much better."

"I've got to talk to Sammy, please," Dean was coming to see that he had lost control of his own body, but this was one thing that he needed before he was put on a ventilator. Dean knew all too well that he may never wake up if they put him on a ventilator now, this might be the last chance he had to set things right with Sam.

"I'll call him, just rest for now," Jess said softly, it only cemented in Dean's mind that he must be dying.

After calling Jessica's parents to mind the children, Sam headed to the hospital, he'd been to visit Jess in the emergency department when she had been on shift many times, but he had to ask for help in finding the ICU.

Eventually Sam found his way upstairs to the intensive care unit, a nurse pointed him towards Dean's room.

As Sam saw Dean, lying in that bed, hooked up to seemingly every machine known to man, he was panicked. Jess had told him back at the house that Dean's condition with critical, but for a moment Sam wanted to slap Jess for doing this to his brother, he'd trusted her to care for his brother, and it was clear to Sam, seeing Dean, that his older brother was terrified.

"Sammy," Dean noticed his brother standing in the doorway.

Sam moved forward, going to his brother's side, "Hey Dean, you doing alright bro?"

Jess put her arm around Sam's shoulders, offering him comfort as she said, "We've stabilised him as best we can, but we really need to intubate, he isn't getting enough oxygen."

Sam sighed, it seemed that he had just gotten his brother back, now he could lose him.

"I'm going to give you guys a minute, okay?" Jess said, turning to leave.

"Thanks," Sam mumbled, he sat down in a chair by the bed. "So, Jess said you needed to see me."

"...Doesn't look like I'll make it out of this, Sam."

"Don't even think like that, you're going to be fine," Samuel tried to be reassuring, but even he knew that his words were bullshit.

"I'm sorry I never came looking for you. But for what it's worth little brother, you've done good."

Sam took Dean's hand, and being careful to avoid dislodging the multiple IV lines, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm going to go see the surgeon first thing in the morning, Jess can help me get through the red tape quicker. You remember West Texas, I think we'd been hunting a black dog, I got all torn up? The hospital was running low on blood, they had you donate blood for me, that must mean that we're a pretty good match, Dean. Just wait, you'll wake up in a couple of days, good as new. Besides," Sam tried to lighten the mood, "I think you've gotten the better half of this deal, you get all the good drugs, a nice long sleep, and half of a very fine liver." Sam paused, "I'll be here when you wake up, okay Dean? And we'll get you well, then we'll sort out everything else." Sam nodded to the medical team, indicating that Dean was ready to be put under.

"...You better not do anything that puts you in any kind of danger, Sammy. There's no way I can live knowing that I let you get messed up." Dean paused, he could feel that meds starting to pull him under, "You've done so good little brother, so good."

"You know what Chris asked me when I was putting him to bed... He wanted to know if you'd take him to a ball game, I'm always at work or... busy." As Sam finished speaking, he saw Dean's eyes drift closed, the doctor and nurses stepped in, and pushed him away so that they could work.

But as Samuel stepped away, he heard Dean murmur, "Your wife's hot, Sammy," and he couldn't help but laugh.

TBC...

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