Sole rights to the Winchesters, Bobby, Cass, or anyone remotely recognizable belong to Eric Kripke, and not me. Yeah, I know, it sucks.
Supernatural
Sleeping in the hospital chairs were never Sam's favorite thing to do. He was too tall, could never find a comfortable position, and always woke up in pain. He was doing exactly what he hated when Bobby walked into the room. He had his legs resting on the foot of Dean's bed, deeply asleep, but when Bobby shut the door he jerked awake.
"Hey," he said putting his feet back on the floor and straightened up. Bobby crossed the room, handing Sam one of the two coffees he held. Instead of drinking the hot liquid, Sam set it on the nightstand and looked over at Dean.
"He wake up at all," Bobby asked curiously, perching on the edge of Dean's bed.
"I thought he did, but it was a false alarm."
"Well, Ruby did wake up," Bobby said after a few moments of silence. He took a sip of his coffee and said, "She wants to see you."
"She can hold her fucking horses," Sam murmured not taking his eyes off Dean. His tone softened when he continued with, "What about Cass?"
"The angel's awake, too. A pain in the ass, but awake."
Sam couldn't help smiling, but it faded when he thought about the other angel. "And Joshua…" since last seeing the angel, Sam hadn't heard anything about him. He didn't know if he had taken care of Alastair or if he had been killed. As he wasn't technically a full blooded angel, he probably could still die by a demon's hand. Sam would never admit it, but he felt a little guilty about Joshua's disappearance. If he had just taken care of Alastair when he saw him, then Joshua would be there now.
"He's still missing," Bobby replied. "And don't you blame yourself for that." Second to Dean, Bobby had always been good at reading Sam. No matter how many times he tried to mask something, the older hunter always saw right through it.
"If I just did something…" Sam let his voice trail off when he caught the glare from Bobby. To have something to do with his hands, he grabbed his coffee and took a drink.
"There was nothing you could do," Bobby said softly. "Nothing to stop what Joshua wanted. He's a grown guy; he chose what he wanted…"
"Save the 'you can't save everyone' speech, Bobby. I've heard it enough already, hell I've given it," Sam murmured bitterly. The words were barely out of his mouth when he heard an almost inaudible groan coming from Dean's bed. Sam sprang to his feet, rushing to Dean's bedside. Blurry green eyes looked back at him for a second before they took on a look of pure panic.
"Dean…" Sam started sounding worried. Dean's eyes widened and he managed to gasp out, "Get away from me." He tried to sit up, tried to spring out of bed, but weakness and the IV kept him in place. Sam tried to put a restraining, yet comforting hand on Dean's chest but his older brother just recoiled, shrinking into the bed.
"I'm going to get a doctor," Bobby said and rushed out of the room. Sam didn't watch him go, still trying to calm his clearly distraught brother down.
"Dean calm down, you're not with him anymore. You're at the hospital," Sam tried to say; trying to keep calm himself, but the panicked look in Dean's eyes was starting to scare him slightly.
"H…he's screwing with my h…head," Dean stammered out. He was shaking like crazy, which was so unlike the strong, cocky big brother Sam knew.
"No," Sam said lowering the safety rail on the bed and crawling into it. "You are at the hospital." Dean tried, halfheartedly, to shrink away some more. Sam could see the uncertainty still in Dean's eyes, but it wasn't as pronounced as before.
"A…are you…" Dean's voice trailed off as he looked around. He took in the room, his green eyes darting from one thing to another, and slowly his breathing regulated, his shaking ceased, and he looked slightly less frantic.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked still sitting on the bed.
"Yeah, I think," Dean replied then a look of pain crossed his face. The look startled Sam, but he quickly understood when he realized his brother had moved his injured leg. "Be careful of your leg," Sam started, "they had fix it up."
"Why…? Dean cut off when an image of a knife going into his leg hit him. The image sent a second one, of a hammer slamming into his wrist. He looked down at the brace around the appendage. He then noticed the cuts, all twenty-six perfect cuts-thirteen on each arm-running down his arms. That sent another image running through his brain, a smiling blond holding a knife and cutting him.
"Where's Ava?" Dean asked slightly panicking again. Sam blanched but didn't say anything. Before Dean could question his brother a man walked in, wearing blue scrubs and a lab coat, followed by Bobby. The guy was holding a syringe full of a clear liquid.
"He's okay, that's not necessary," Sam said sliding back onto the floor. Dean moved back to the middle of the bed, grimacing when he pulled on some of the stitches in his legs.
The doctor gave Sam a quick glance and said, "Let me be the judge of that." He moved toward Dean, who flinched slightly but didn't freak out, and said, "Do you know where you are?"
"Hospital," Dean replied. The doctor nodded, setting the syringe on the side table. He went to pull Dean's blankets away from his injured leg. The hunter pulled back slightly, making the doctor stop suddenly. He raised his hands and said, "Just checking your leg. Relax," he said.
Dean nodded, allowing the doctor to continue his inspection. "Your leg should heal nicely; just give it a couple weeks. The wrist is what worries me. If you ask me, demons should not be allowed to carry tools. It was a hammer that did the damage, right?"
"W…what?" Dean said completely taken off guard.
"Doc Palmer is a friend of mine," Bobby said quickly. "He's been in the loop for about twenty-two years. He's the one that patched us up if we needed it…"
"You're being too modest, Bobby. I can think of a few times that I needed patching up myself," Palmer said finishing up his inspection of Dean. He moved away from the young hunter, allowing him to pull the blankets back around his legs.
"How long have I been out," Dean asked breaking up the light conversation. He was still slightly freaked, recent events kept replaying in his head making his stomach clench just thinking about it.
"A day," Palmer responded his eyes snapping back to Dean. "We had to repair several blood vessels in your leg from where the knife stabbed you… It was a knife, right? It looked like a knife." Dean answered him by nodding. "Then we had to repair your wrist bone. The hammer practically crushed it which took a lot of work. As long as you don't strain the bone too much in the next couple of weeks I can say it'll be okay. Not to its usual standards by a long shot but useable.
"Other than that, you're fine." There was something in the doctor's eyes that caught Sam's attention. He was concealing something from them. So, as he walked out of the room Sam excused himself, getting a slightly disappointed look from Dean, and hurriedly followed Palmer out of the room.
"Dr. Palmer," Sam called causing the doctor to turn around. He closed Dean's door and caught up to the doctor.
"Yeah, Sam."
"You're hiding something," Sam said expecting the doctor to start lying. To say that there was nothing to hide, that Dean was fine. Instead, Palmer muttered, "Physically your brother is going to be fine. I'm more worried about his mental and emotional state."
"What?"
"Look," Palmer continued lowering his voice more, "Bobby told me what Dean went through. How he spent his summer. And that had to be bad enough." Sam knew for a fact it was bad, Dean had taken to drinking himself to sleep half the time and the other half he ended up waking up, after two hours of sleep, from nightmares. It was enough to scare Sam slightly, even making him push Dean to talk about it. When Dean finally did, it was like Sam was talking to another person. Not the strong-willed, waterworks are kryptonite brother but someone who felt so bad about what he did that he couldn't help the emotional breakdown.
"But," Palmer said breaking into Sam's thoughts, "recent events probably stirred up even more memories that he has tried to suppress."
"So, what, are you afraid he's going to have some psychotic breakdown?" Sam couldn't take seeing his brother like that again. Dean didn't deserve to have all these memories that he couldn't escape all because Sam was an idiot and turned his back on an enemy. Cold Oak should never have happened, if Sam had just killed Jake the first chance he had…
"Just keep an eye on him," Palmer said bringing Sam back to reality again. "Don't push him to talk about it either. He'll come to you when he's ready. Okay, Sam?"
"Yeah," Sam mumbled. He turned his back on Palmer and walked back into Dean's room, the doctor's words reeling around in his head.
SUPERNATURAL
Ruby hadn't been happy to be blown off by Sam. She wanted to ask him a couple questions, see why he was so reluctant to use his powers, find out what happened to Ava. Problem was she was unable to make it out to the hallway of Bobby's house without almost collapsing let alone get to the hospital where Sam was. So, she was stuck at the old guy's house until Sam came to see her.
It wasn't until Dean was released from the hospital and brought back to Bobby's that Sam even stepped foot into the room she was in.
Ruby was lying back on the bed, staring at the ceiling and counting the tiles again, when there was a knock. She sat up in time to see Sam walk into the room. He looked tired, more like he did when Dean had first died.
"Dean back?" Ruby asked curiously as Sam sat down in a chair, away from her bed.
"Yeah, he's asleep right now. The pain pills they gave him knocked him out," Sam replied averting his eyes from Ruby. She could tell he knew what she wanted to talk about, he always knew. It was like he could read her mind.
"Look…" she started.
"At first I didn't use my powers because there was no point," Sam interrupted seemingly trying to get the worst over. "I mean, I know the exorcism ritual like the back of my hand, so I decided to just use that. Then Anna used her power to extract the other demons…"
"What do you mean 'at first,'" Ruby asked curiously.
"Ava, well she said something that kinda made me snap," Sam said his words tumbling out of his mouth. "She told me Dean was dead, you know. I mean, I couldn't accept that, he couldn't be dead. I'd know if he was. But she kept insisting he was dead, so I…"
"…used your powers," Ruby finished for him. Sam nodded his eyes glued to the floor. "Well, it was the right thing to do. Ava was a crazy bitch anyway; there was no point in letting her live. Plus, you need to hone your skills. Doing away with Ava was one way…"
"Is that all you care about? Me honing my skills?" Sam exclaimed jumping to his feet. "I mean, come on Ruby, Dean almost died. Joshua could be dead. And all you can say is 'you need to hone your skills.' Maybe I don't give a damn about these fucking powers anymore. They've just brought bad luck for me…"
"But you've saved so many lives. I mean, it beats the alternative. That exorcism just ends up killing the victim half the time. With your powers…"
"Save your breath, Ruby. I don't care right now." And with that Sam stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Ruby lay back, knowing for a fact that Sam would be back, he needed her and those powers. As much as he wouldn't admit it, even to himself, he did. With a small smile on her face, she swung her legs back onto the bed and closed her eyes. One more hour of rest and I'll be good as new, she thought and drifted off to sleep.
SUPERNATURAL
Blood: that was the first thing he saw. He couldn't understand why he was standing in a room full of blood. Then he tried to move, but couldn't, his wrists were chained to a wall.
"No, no, no, not a good time to try and get away," a familiar voice said and Alastair appeared right in front of him.
"I…I'm dreaming," Dean croaked out. Sam had told him he had escaped Alastair that he wasn't in danger anymore. If that was even Sam, it could have been a figment of Dean's imagination. A way to cope with the stress of being in Alastair's clutches.
"Oh, you are far from dreaming, Dean," Alastair murmured smirking. He had a hatchet in his hand, the blade already stained with blood. Dean felt his heart speed up, his body start to shake.
"So, you want to hear my offer again? It hasn't changed much since our time in hell together. Remember the fun?"
"Get away from me with that," Dean snapped, ignoring Alastair's plan at bringing up old memories, trying to pull away.
"Do you want to torture souls again? Hell, it won't even be souls anymore. It'll be actual people, a lot more fun right?"
"Get away from me," Dean repeated angrily.
"I'll take that as a no," Alastair said softly and brought the hatchet down…
Before it hit Dean, he jerked awake. Sitting up too quickly made his stomach roll over. He was out of bed quickly, racing to the bathroom.
He threw up in the toilet, something he hadn't been resorted to since before he told Sam about hell. When the contents of his stomach were floating around the porcelain puke bucket, Dean painfully pushed himself to his feet and flushed the toilet. He walked over to the sink, gripping both sides with his hands. Pain went through his left arm, making him let go of the sink.
Instead of looking at his reflection, seeing the pale, freckly, green eyed face staring back at him, he turned the water on and rinsed his mouth out. He spit the water back into the sink and turned the faucet off.
"Are you okay?" a voice said from behind him. He spun around, grimacing in pain as the sudden movement pulled on his injured leg. Sam was standing in the doorway, arms crossed, looking worried.
"Yeah," Dean replied shakily. He closed the lid on the toilet and sat down. Putting his elbows on his knees, resting his chin in his palms, he mumbled, "No."
"I kinda figured," Sam replied pulling a knife out of the pocket of his sweats. He tossed it on the sink counter and crossed the bathroom. He sat down on the edge of the tub, silently waiting for Dean to continue.
"You ever feel like we need a vacation," Dean asked suddenly. "You know, just escaping the demons, the angels, everything and just relaxing."
"That would be great, but you know we can't do that," Sam responded softly.
"Yeah, so much for wishful thinking," Dean muttered. "So, Cass have any luck finding Joshua?" Dean had to sit through endless talk about what happened when he was gone. He wasn't surprised, nor was he happy, about hearing how helpful the angels were. He didn't exactly like Joshua-just like Sam predicted-but had a little respect for him and his attempted rule breaking. Both brothers marveled on how Alastair's son teamed up with the angels, but they were about as clueless as anyone could get.
"Nope, no one seems to be able to find him," Sam said quietly. He was staring at the ground, trying to hide his guilt ridden eyes.
"And Alastair and his demented offspring…"
"I don't know about Alastair, but Ava won't be able to hurt anyone, including you, anymore." Sam looked up, wearing a look so serious he reminded Dean of their dad for a moment.
"What do you mean," Dean asked totally confused. Then he caught on, "You used your powers, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Sam mumbled.
"Well, that's just super. That's all we need is Uriel coming to get you. It's not a secret that he doesn't like you. Hell, if he had free reign he'd probably…"
"Yeah, Dean, I got it. It's just, she was telling me you were dead and I sorta…"
"…snapped," Dean finished for him. Sam nodded looking down at the floor. "Look, slip up or not you can't use your powers…"
"I don't plan to, it's too much hassle," Sam replied quietly, looking up at his brother again.
"You tell Ruby this?" Sam nodded. "I bet she had a field day with that."
"I guess," Sam muttered. They sat in silence for a few seconds. Then Sam laughed suddenly causing Dean to look up.
"What?"
"Nothing," Sam said trying not to smile.
"Seriously, come on," Dean pressed now really wanting to know what made their "heart-felt moment" funny.
"It's just… You and Ruby in the same room, for three days. I'm surprised you didn't kill each other," Sam said getting a small smile from Dean.
"Hey, I was unconscious for half of that. I would have killed her if I could have." Sam smiled and shook his head. "But seriously, she helped me when no one else would. I gotta say, I hate the bitch but she's useful when you need her." Dean looked up in time to see his brother's face shift from an expression he couldn't determine to a blank mask. Instead of questioning his brother on it he just got to his feet, groaning in pain when the sudden movement pulled his stitches.
"I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Wanna go raid Bobby's fridge." And with those words ringing in the air Dean limped out of the bathroom. It wasn't a huge emotional breakdown like on the side of the road, but Sam had a feeling that Dean had opened up again and was going to be okay. For the time being, Sam thought as he rolled his eyes, got to his feet, and followed his brother out of the room.