Guys, I'm soooooo sorry for the long wait! I've kind of been facing some health problems lately among other things, but I'm good to go now.

Thanks for waiting, and sticking with me. You all rock!

I know this isn't a long chapter, but I wanted to update as soon as I could.

Now back to the show!

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The darkness lifted like a blanket, and Sam latched on to the sound of sirens around him. Confused, he struggled in vain to get his eyes open through the thick haze of unconsciousness. Even before he managed to pry his heavy eyelids open, a wave of pain hit him like a brick wall. Sam felt the pain move from his chest into his lungs and down into his stomach. He tried in vain to take a deep breath. What the hell… Sam tried to breathe as slowly as he could, looking with blurred eyes around him. There was something hard and solid that wound itself behind his neck and across the front of his chest up to his chin, which successfully kept him from moving his neck or head at all. Beginning to panic, Sam tried to move his arms and legs, which felt like some sort of straps was holding them back. A clear plastic thing was around his nose and mouth, and he heard the whoosh of gas moving though the tubes. Focusing on that noise, and those of the sirens, Sam guessed that he was in an ambulance.

"…that we aren't supposed to."

"I know."

"…when he… I said not to… don't drop…"

"What are you… nope… can't be an idiot now."

Huh? Sam's groggy mind tried to pick up who was talking and what about, but the few words that he managed to make out were blurry and confusing. He had trouble putting a sentence together that made any sense to him at all.

"…Hey…"Sam looked up to see a figure standing over him, but his eyes wouldn't take in the face. Everything was just a giant blur. "…Well look who finally decided… princess woke up, did she? I thought you'd never… Can you hear me?"

Sam frowned, partially because of the pain and partially because he couldn't comprehend what was happening. If he was in an ambulance… Which was a big if… Than why weren't they helping him? He tried to talk, but nothing came out but a small wheezing noise. "H…"Do something! " H…"Help me…Dammit!

"What's that?" One of the men was laughing, and Sam could see a blurred outline of a face a few feet away from his. "You… wana … speak up…little bit."

"…alone." Someone else was talking now, out of Sam's range of vision. "…not… dog… Wait, we're here…"

Oh thank God! Sam felt his spirits lift a little bit, relieved that they were finally at the hospital. Soon it would be done. Soon they could just make the pain go away!

A heavy jolt and some clapping sounds moved Sam back and forth in his restraints as the gurney shifted underneath him. The ambulance workers rounded some sort of corner and his torso slid to the side roughly. Even though a he heard a soft moaning sound, but wasn't aware of making one.

Sam's vision cleared for a few seconds, and he caught a glimpse of a dark wooden ceiling. Even though he was supposed to be in a hospital, everything seemed dismal. There were no blinding lights or violent noises, only a foreboding sense of unease and a smell that caught his nostrils and wouldn't leave.

Blood.

Dean… Sam tried to turn his head, but the neck brace they had on him wouldn't allow it. Where had then taken his brother? Had Dean caught the demons? Was he okay?

"…ean…"

Dean didn't reply. Dean wasn't there calling him "bitch" or patting his arm. Dean wasn't there ruffling his hair and telling him that everything was okay, that big brother was going to take care of him. No one called him Sammy. There was just a hollow laugh coming from somewhere behind his head, a sound that didn't belong to Dean in any way.

Sam's head was suddenly below his feet, and he got a sickly sense of vertigo as they began what he assumed was a downward slope. It continued for a while, as the lights continued to dim above Sam's head. They turned two more corners before coming to a stop in an area with a lower ceiling that the corridors.

Somebody was removing the restraints quickly, and Sam felt himself being lifted onto another hard surface. As his weight shifted, the pressure on his sternum intensified and a moan of pain escaped his lips before he was set down again. For a few seconds he just laid there, waiting for the soft words of a doctor. The prick of a needle in his arm and the familiar sense of anesthetics and pain medication. Soon, he told himself, the promised comforts of the hospital would start to sink in. He opened his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of something that could reassure him through the thick haze of pain and adrenaline that something or someone was about to help him.

But as something cold and hard was fastened around his wrists with a muffled clicking that restrained him once again to the bed, that thing never came. Before he blacked out again, there was only a foggy awareness of a dark room, the smell of blood, and bars on the windows.

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The first thing Dean was aware of was a deep ache in his left side, and a soft moan escaped his lips. He opened his eyes to find that he was sitting in a chair, and that his chin had fallen to his chest in his unconscious state. As he raised his head to look around him it began to pound also, and the movement made him aware of the blinding pain in his left shoulder. He sat there for a minute, trying to remember what had happened. Despite the pain, Dean could already tell the extent of his injuries. They were all familiar. His shoulder, he could already tell, was dislocated. And he had a mild concussion, which probably explained how he got here without being aware of anything. He must have it something in the truck, knocking himself out.

Dean tilted his neck slowly to the left, then the right, trying to remove the kinks from being slouched over unconscious. He pulled at his wrists instinctively, only briefly surprised that they were tied behind his back. In all seriousness, he was more annoyed and worried. Where the hell was he? Where was Sam?

Dean closed his eyes, blinking slowly a few times to will his eyes to adjust to the dark. He began to make out something a few feet away that was a little higher than level with his knees (a cot?), and after squinting out a few times his eyes caught sight of a form that made his heart fall to the floor. Somebody was lying in front of him, somebody who's legs were too long to fit the whole cot, with messy uncut hair and a bloody over-shirt. Somebody who looked either dead or close to it.

Sam!