Bloodlines

Chapter 4

Sam was staring at the doors in the emergency room. They had taken Dean back thirty-five minutes before and no one had come out. He would sit for a minute, then stand, then pace across the room, then sit again. The cycle took about 4 minutes. He had done it nine times now.

The door opened and a doctor came out, "Mr. Iommi?"

"Uh, yeah?" Sam said wondering where that name had come from.

"Your brother has a serious concussion, several broken ribs and pretty severe internal bruising," the doctor hesitated.

"And?"

"He needs emergency surgery to repair his knee. If we get to it in time he should make a full recovery."

"What else?" Sam could still sense the hesitation.

"Well, in his state surgery is dangerous, but if we don't get to the knee it could be permanently damaged."

"You need me to make a choice?" Sam said, already struggling with the decision.

"Paperwork says you are next of kin, and there is a medical power of attorney on record. I need a decision, the longer we wait, the less chance we have…"

Paperwork? Power of attorney? Where did that come from? He took a deep breath, "Ok, do the surgery."

"Someone will bring out the permission forms, but we'll take him up and get him prepped now."

"Thanks, doc." Sam watched him walk back through the door, hoping he had made the right choice. He sat down again. A minute later a hospital clerk came out with the forms. They were essentially filled out, there was insurance on record. Sam shook his head as he signed the forms. Where did that come from? When she left, he got up and paced across the room, and looked out the window. Please let him pull through this, I have had enough of hospitals to last a lifetime.

A gentle touch on his arm, he looked down, Hilly was standing there. "How is he?"

"They are taking him up to surgery. The doctor said if they didn't get to it soon, his knee would be damaged."

She gave a little snort, "I didn't even notice anything wrong with his knee, mostly what I saw was blood. Lots of blood."

"I didn't notice the knee, either."

"When did they take him up?"

"Just this minute," Sam said, looking back at the doors.

"I am going to go down to the espresso stand and get us some coffee. I'll meet you up in the surgery waiting room, it's on four." She squeezed his arm and headed down the hallway. Sam walked in the opposite direction, towards the elevators.

He was sitting in the small waiting room when a cup of coffee was held in front of him. "I got us lattes, don't tell Dean, I'd never live it down."

Sam smiled, "Keeping up the image?"

"Always." She sat down beside him. "They didn't bug you about paperwork or anything did they?"

"No, it was pretty strange. Usually it's fill this out, fill that out. Everything they brought was already filled out for Dean Iommi."

"You don't think that's too obvious do you?" She said with a smile. "I called the information in while I was coming back. I've had Dean on my insurance for years, just in case. Of course the big idiot won't take an insurance card. I have tried to give it to him more than once." She looked at Sam, "I'll make sure you have one before you leave, how's that?"

"I don't know…"

"Or would legit insurance cards make you nervous?" She was teasing him, Sam could tell she was trying to distract him.

"Well, legit insurance could lead to legit credit cards and then what?" He smiled at her.

"Yeah, it could only lead down a scary, disreputable path." Her smiled faded, "How long has it been?"

"Since we got here or since they brought him up?" That came out a little sharper than he intended, he thought. "Sorry. It's been about fifteen minutes since the doctor spoke with me about the surgery."

"Don't apologize, I understand."

"Funny thing, though," he said.

"What's that?"

"I'm not used to having someone to wait with. Lately it has been just me, waiting to see if he's going to be ok," he sighed.

"He'd better be ok, Sam. If he's not, I'll kill him and if he dies before I kill him, I will hunt his spirit down and give it a piece of my mind, then kill him." Her voice broke on the last, Sam looked over and tears were running down her face. He put his arm around her shoulders, she leaned into him. A moment later she was crying in earnest, not quite sobbing, but something very close. After a few minutes she sniffled and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "Don't you dare tell him I was out here crying. I'll never live it down, I get enough grief about my moments."

"Me, too," Sam said.

"Oh, Sam, what if he…it would be my fault, calling him, getting the two of you involved."

"No, if something had happened to Mary and you hadn't called…"

"I know, he'd never forgive me—he's good at the grudge." She put her head on his shoulder. "I still feel like crap, you know?" She looked at him, "But you're right, he needed to know and he needed to come and he needed to be involved and being Dean, he needed to do whatever it was that got him here."

"You do know him fairly well don't you?" Sam said.

"Well enough to be glad you are with him now."

"What do you mean?"

"He needs someone to look after him, god knows he won't."

"We probably shouldn't tell him that, though," Sam said with a smile.

"Of course not, never have, never will."

Three hours later and Sam woke from a light doze, Hilly was asleep, still with her head on his shoulder. Still no word. He was sure if something bad had happened someone would have been out to talk with them. But the waiting was getting to be too much. He shifted, Hilly was instantly awake.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

"Stop with the apologies," she stretched. "How long is it going to take? Should I go get more coffee?"

"I don't think I…" he broke off, the doctor was striding down the hallway towards them. He stood up. "Doctor?"

"He came through the surgery ok. He's in recovery right now, we'll be moving him into a room in awhile. There is still a lot to contend with, but I can cautiously say I think he'll recover. You can wait in his room if you want. I think he's set to be in 214."

"Thank you," Sam said and turned to Hilly. He felt his eyes tear up, "He's going to be ok." It caught in his throat, she smiled, answering tears in her eyes and hugged him.

"He's going to be ok, or we kill him."

They walked to the elevators and then to Dean's room. It was a private room and far nicer than Sam was used to. "You must have good insurance."

"I'd better have, for what I pay." She looked at the two chairs set beside the bed. "At least these are comfortable. When we were on our trip together, I spent a night in a hospital room that only had this tiny hard chair. By the time Dean was released the next day I was in worse shape than he was."

"I know that feeling," Sam laughed in sympathy.

The door opened and Dean was wheeled in. Sam stood by Hilly. Dean looked terrible, his head was bandaged, his leg was bandaged and it looked like there might be a drain in his knee, he was still unconscious. For some reason it affected Sam more than usual, he started shaking, the coffee he had earlier threatening to come back. He swallowed hard. Hilly was rubbing his back, gentle circles.

"I'm ok," he said.

"Yeah. Ok. You look ok," she said with a grin. "I won't tell Dean about this if you don't tell him about my little breakdown, deal?"

"Deal."

They sat down in the chairs on opposite sides of the bed. Hilly took Dean's hand, she smiled at Sam. "He'll love this when he wakes up." She leaned back in the chair. "I think I'm going to sleep for a minute or two. Once he's awake he'll run us ragged."

Sam leaned back in his chair. It was fairly comfortable. He didn't really intend to fall asleep, but he hadn't had much sleep in the last fifty or so hours. Was that all it was? He wondered as he drifted off.

"Sam?" The voice pulled Sam from his sleep. "Sammy?" A little panic creeping into the voice.

"I'm here," he answered before he was even all the way awake. He got up and leaned against the bed. He saw Hilly sit up and put her other hand over Dean's. "Hey, welcome back."

"You ok?"

"Sure, Dean."

"Mary? Hilly?"

"Nice to know where I fall in the list," Hilly said with a grin. "Mary's fine, Dean. The only one who isn't is you. Surprise, surprise."

"How bad am I?" Dean looked at Sam, it looked like he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. "My leg feels weird."

"You did something to it—they had to fix it. But you're not all that bad."

"For you," Hilly said.

"Bite me," Dean said, his eyes closing.

"Not here, we're in a hospital," she said, still holding his hand. She looked up at Sam and smiled.

"Get some sleep Dean," Sam said. "We'll be here when you wake up."

TBC

A/N Thanks for reading! One more chapter to come--I haven't let Dean off this easy!