"It's been a month, Dean. Do you think you are ready to come back full time?"
"I said I would think about it." Dean mumbled, leaning back in the overly cushioned chair. He sat in front of an office desk in a small, simply decorated room. The guidance counselor of his high school was sitting opposite and stacking papers orderly. "I was just coming by today to pick up the homework I missed."
"I understand." The guidance counselor tried to smile, but was sad for Dean. She handed the papers over. "If you ever need anything or just someone to talk to about what happened with you and Sa-"
"My parents already tried the shrink, I don't need you." Dean retorted. "Thanks for the papers." He stood up and nodded as a goodbye before stepping out of the office.
Dean walked down the hall of his high school. It was in between periods so he didn't have to deal with anyone noticing that he was there. Especially Jo Harvelle, his best friend. She tried so hard to get into contact with Dean after the crash, but Dean couldn't find it in himself to talk to anyone other than Sam, and frankly, Sam wasn't talking back.
Dean signed out through the front office of the building and then walked out of the large doors. His mother was waiting by her car in the parking lot. She got out once she saw Dean, hoping that she could get him to get over his fear of driving. "Do you want to, Honey?" She asked, dangling the keys in front of Dean's face. Dean shook his head and pushed past her and opened the door to the passenger side of the car. Mary sighed and clenched the car keys in her hand. She walked over to the driver's side and got in.
"Mom?" Dean looked towards his mother once they were on their way down the road.
Mary looked over. "Yes, honey?" She kept her eyes on the road to reassure Dean that she was in control of the car. "What is it?" She asked.
"Can we go visit Sam?" Dean played with the corners of his paper. He dog-eared them, and then flattened them out, repeating the process. "I promise to do all of this crap-" Mary glared at the stack of papers. "I mean homework. You know, maybe Sam would give me some inspiration? He was always good at this school stuff." Dean ripped off the corner of the top most paper. "So, can we?"
Mary put her turn signal on, turning a road early from their street. She was on her way to the hospital. Dean gave a small smile and thanked his mother. "You have to get all of it done, Dean." She ordered. "Every paper." Mary wasn't about to have Dean fail his junior year in high school. She wanted to keep his life normal and on track. The car crash changed everything, but she wanted to at least get Dean through high school and hopefully onto College.
"I will." Dean agreed, internally feeling better that he was going to see his little brother that day.
They reached the hospital within the next fifteen minutes on the road. Driving made Dean uneasy, but it was the only choice in a town that didn't have sidewalks and everything took at least twenty minutes by car to get to. Mary pulled up into a parking spot at the hospital and turned off the car. She smiled at Dean before exiting the car. Dean followed, papers in hand.
They entered the hospital and the nurses greeted them. Mary smiled sweetly at them, saying they were there to visit Sam. "No real change since the doctors took him off." The nurse, who Dean and Mary had come to know as Meg, said, escorting Dean and his mother to Sam's hospital room. "Just hasn't woken up, yet. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything." She said, twisting her dark hair in her fingers.
"Thanks, Meg." Dean said, pulling a chair to Sam's bedside. He set his papers in his lap. He leaned forward and grabbed Sam's hand. "Heya, Sammy." He said softly, rubbing his finger over the back of Sam's hand. "Today, I went to school-" He started. "I got all of this homework and it sucks, but Mom said that I had to do it while I was here." Dean chuckled to himself. "I guess I better start working then, this pile is huge!" Dean let go of Sam's hand and gently placed it down at his brother's side. He sat back and sifted through his paper before finally deciding on Algebra to start off.
Mary stood at the doorway and watched Dean sit at Sam's side. Sam was breathing on his own, his brain function was normal; everything was okay with him, except he refused to wake up. The doctor's tried just about everything, even small doses of adrenaline to bring him to the surface, but nothing worked. Dean swore a couple times that Sam moved his fingers or sighed heavily, but the doctors regarded it as hopeful wishing on Dean's part. Mary checked the watch on her small wrist. "Dean, I need to run some errands. Will you be okay here by yourself?"
"I have Sam." Dean replied.
"Of course." Mary said sadly. She turned and left the room. She stopped at the nurse's station. Meg looked up from the computer screen with a questioning expression. "Dean is going to stay for a while. I have to run some errands."
"I'll watch the kid." Meg said, smirking. "Don't worry, Mrs. Winchester."
"Thank you."
Back in the room, Dean set down his homework and grabbed Sam's hand once more. He hunched over and tried to breath deeply, but his breathing came out as gasps of breath. "S-sam. Please come back." He begged. His grip got tighter. "Sam, I'm so sorry." Dean shook as he held onto Sam. He held up an image for his parents when they were around. He wanted to be seen as the big brother that knew he tried his best, but in reality, he felt miserable. "I didn't see it coming. I know you did. You called out my name right before."
Dean trembled while trying to keep his tears back. He wanted to cry, not only for himself, but also for his brother. Sam couldn't do anything stuck in a forever-sleep. He was a thirteen-year-old kid, soon to be fourteen. He had just gotten his first kiss from a girl he had been talking about constantly. "I'm a terrible big brother." Dean confessed. "I should be teaching you all the ways, Sam. Instead I am sitting here, waiting for you to wake up from something I caused." A single tear fell down Dean's cheek. He wiped it away quickly and let go of Sam's hand. He picked his homework back up and bit the end of his pencil. Algebra was the least of his worries.
Two hours later, Mary showed up at the hospital to pick up her son. She entered the room and saw Dean sprawled over Sam's stomach, snoring softly. His papers scattered across the floor. She quietly picked up the papers and examined them. Dean made attempts on all of them, but it looked like he gave up half way. Mary sighed and gently placed the papers on the bed next to Dean and then tapped him on the shoulder. "Dean, honey. Wake up."
Dean stirred, crunched his eyes and then blinking them open. Mary smiled and ran her hand over Dean's dirty-blonde hair. "Are we leaving?" Dean asked.
"Yes. Your father is going to be home from work soon. We can come back tomorrow." Dean frowned and stood up. He didn't want to get back to his house just yet, and when he saw the papers stacked on the bed he sighed. Mary picked them up and handed then to Dean. "And you need to finish these. I can get you a tutor if you need it."
"I don't need a tutor, mom! I just need Sam!" Dean yelled. His eyes widened and his lips formed a thin line. His mother frowned and watched as Dean left the room without saying goodbye to his brother. She leaned over Sam and kissed him on the forehead. She placed a hand on his.
"Goodnight, Sam." Mary left the room after Dean. She shut the door softly. When she passed the nurse's station Meg pointed down towards the exit. Mary saw Dean standing there ready to leave. He would have walked home, but it was too far and it was going to be dinner soon. Frankly, Dean was starving. His mother joined them and they got into the car to go home.
The ride home from the hospital was quiet and awkward. Mary wanted to say something to her son, and Dean wanted to apologize, but they stayed silent. When Mary pulled into their driveway and turned the car off, she gave Dean one last look then exited the car. She waited outside the car for Dean for a couple minutes, but he stayed inside and stared at the papers in his hands, so she walked to the front door and disappeared inside. All he wanted to do was tear them up into a million pieces.
"Son of a bitch!" Dean yelled, punching the side panel of the car door. "Why?" He crumbled the papers and shoved them into his backpack. He roughly opened the car door and slammed it shut once he was outside. He dragged himself to the front door and stepped inside the house. Inside his mother and father were standing there. "What is this, some sort of intervention?" He asked, no hint of humor in his voice. He was done with the attempts on making his life better.
"Dean, your father and I-" Mary wrapped an arm around John. "We thought it would be a good idea to go on a vacation."
Dean dropped his bag on the table by the door. He kicked off his shoes. "And what, leave Sam?" Dean wasn't going to have it. Anywhere they would go would be too far from his brother. "I'm not going." Dean stood his ground. "I'm not leaving Sam."
"Dean." John stepped forward. Dean flinched and stood back against the front door. "Dean, we need to get away from all of this."
"No."
"And we are going to ask the doctors if we can take him with us." Mary reached forward, taking Dean into her arms. "Honey, I talked with Meg, Sam's nurse, and your father and I are going to hire her." She pulled back and smiled. "We want to go to the beach house, you know the one we used to rent when you and Sam were younger?" Dean's eyes lit up. He remembered the breeze and sand, the sound of the waves hitting shore. He remembered his little brother smiling and making sand castles in the sun. "So Sam can come with us under her care." Dean tried to smile, he felt happy to remember the good times with his brother, but to know that Sam wouldn't exactly enjoy the vacation made him sad. But maybe, Dean hoped, just maybe, the trip would trigger something in Sam and wake him up.
"What about school?" Dean asked. He had been in and out of high school for the past month, since the accident. He was behind on his schoolwork and the threat of repeating his junior year was close. If he missed any more schoolwork, he would need to repeat and that was something he didn't think he could do.
"I talked with your guidance counselor on the phone, and you can make it up with some summer classes." Mary wasn't giving him the option. She was telling him that summer classes were what he was going to do. "The school year ends soon, but when we come back from the beach house you can start new." She smiled and Dean felt relieved to know that not everything was going to shit.
"You will make it to senior year, Dean." John cleared his throat. "So go pack, we're leaving in two days." Dean nodded and ran past his parents, up the stairs and to his room, so that he could pack. When he was done, he went into Sam's room and grabbed some of his brother's things for when, if by chance, Sam woke up he would have some things to make him feel at home.