A/N Onto the recovery. Mary x

Sam tried to ignore the two angels that were almost fighting each other outside the bedroom that his brother was lying in.

Sure he would have liked an all singing, all dancing version of his brother back from Hell but he was never going to get that, even if Cas had been the one to raise him. He knew that. Dean would still have needed help to get back on his feet. Help that Sam hadn't been able to give him the last time, his head too hell bent on killing Lillith and Dean to stubborn to admit that he needed it.

He tuned them out and just sat there, waiting for Dean to open his eyes.

----

"You cannot leave him like this." Cas was flapping more than he would be if his wings were unfurled.

Gabriel tried to hide the smile of amusement brought on by the knowledge that Dean had gotten under the skin of every angel whose path he has crossed. Even the great and all knowing Michael had been equally impressed and annoyed by him.

He brought his attention back to the conversation. "I did what I set out to do Castiel, he's free. That was what you wanted wasn't it, what he wanted? He is no worse off than he would have been if you had been the one to rescue him. What happens next is, for the first time, up to them. And don't preach to me about doing my job either, because this is a favour not a task I was set. I seem to remember that you left him his memory when you pulled him free last time, you could easily have erased that too, not let him remember but you didn't."

Castiel bristled at the accusation. "I had orders and that was different, that was thoughts and feelings, you have left him with the physical effects as well. It could take months for him to get over them."

"Then that's what it'll take Castiel. I have other things to attend to."

Castiel slapped his arms down against his side as the other angel vanished, dropping his head down and sighing.

---

"How is he?" Castiel asked as he walked through, taking the seat opposite Sam.

"Still sleeping." Sam looked up. "You know I just realised something. I never thanked you for saving him the first time. I don't think either of us did, not properly." Sam smiled. "So, thank you."

"You are welcome, but I was just doing my job, following orders."

"Sometimes that is the hardest thing of all to do. You didn't just follow orders though Cas, you threw you towel into the ring with him." He looked down at his brother. "You were there for him when I wasn't."

They sat quietly after that, the angel not sure the right way to respond to Sam's words and Sam with nothing else to say.

---

Dean woke with a raging thirst, feeling as if his inside were on fire. He moaned softly, tried to ride out the feeling but it refused to go away. What now?, his mind asked as he dredged up the courage to open his eyes and face another round of this game that they were playing. Instead of bright white light though, they opened to reveal a room that he knew as well as he did the workings of the Impala. Confusion filled him.

"Dean?" Sam's voice drew his head round, his neck protesting at the movement. His brother was sitting on a chair next to where he was lying, looking tired and strung out.

Sam saw the pain in Dean's eyes when he finally opened them that had him doubting his ability to heal it. It was so far down that he felt that he'd never reach it and pull it from his brother. And then Dean blinked and it was gone, brought under control by the master of deception.

Sam didn't ask how Dean was feeling, not wanting to hear the statutory, 'I'm fine' when he knew that his brother was far from that. Instead he hid the pain that was his own and smiled at Dean. "Welcome back."

" 's real?" Dean licked at his lips but his tongue felt thick and desert dry.

"It's real. Gabriel got you out. Do you remember?" Sam wet his brother lips with some ice chips before he let a few slip inside.

To Dean the cool, wet feeling was almost a euphoric one. It all slid back into place, Alastair, Gabriel, everything. Dean closed his eyes. "Yeah." He lay for a second or two and then opened them again, still fighting not to show how badly he was hurting inside, but knowing that Sam could see in anyway. "Long?"

"Two days in, two days out. Think you could eat something? Bobby keeps making a broth, hoping that you'd smell it and wake up. Be a shame to waste it?"

Dean took one look at his brother's face and knew that no wasn't going to be allowed as an option. "Try."

Sam's smile split his face. "I'll be back in a second." He disappeared out the room and Dean went to close his eyes when Castiel spoke.

"I'm sorry."

Dean slowly rolled his head round to face him every single, little movement causing a screaming sound that he hoped was only in his head. "S'ok."

Sam was back before the angel could say anything further, a cup in his hands and a Bobby in tow. The older hunter took one look at the angel and Castiel stood and got out his road.

"How you doing kid?" He ran a quick assessment over the hunter in the bed and wasn't sure that he liked what he saw.

Dean just flicked an eye and hoped Bobby would take that as an answer.

"That good? Think you can sit up?" Dean's look said it all. "Ok, I hear you." Moving in he gently slide his arm under Dean and then reached across and did the same at the other side. "I'll lift him," he said to Sam, "then you slide that other pillow under his head, then we'll slide him up a bit so that he can drink some of that broth."

It took a moment or two of maneuvering to get Dean up and into position at the end of which he was sweating and obviously in pain.

"You want something for that?" Bobby questioned getting straight to the point.

"No." Dean didn't know if he was going to be able to swallow the broth, never mind pills.

Sam pulled his chair in closer. "You need a minute?"

"Yeah." Dean's voice was so quiet that his brother had to strain to hear it. They all sat, stood or lay in silence until Dean spoke again. "Ok."

Sam brought the cup over and then hesitated, not sure what to do next. He watched as Dean struggled to lift his arm and then gave up. "Can't."

"It's ok, I'll do it." Slipping his hand behind Dean's head, Sam held the cup up to his lips and let him take small sips, pausing after each one to make sure that Dean was able to swallow the broth before he administered some more. The older brother managed four or five sips before he signalled that he'd had enough, wishing that he could wave off the concerned looks that passed between Sam and Bobby. "Later." He didn't think that his mastery of one word sentences was helping ease their worries any either but it was all that he could manage at the moment.

"We'll make some more in an hour and see how you manage ok?"

" 'k." Dean relaxed back into the pillow and closed his eyes again, hearing the others talking quietly but not really registering anything that they were saying. Sleep overtook him in moments.

Chapter End Notes:

Sorry I haven't update my review replies, running off to work, will update when I come home. Mary xx