Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter 6 Wake

Bobby returned to the room just as the nurses were wheeling Dean's bed out to have him X-rayed.
"What's goin on?" he said worriedly, pushing his hat back on his head.
"Its okay, Bobby, They are just taking him for an X-ray. The Doctor thinks Dean's kidney is holding him back from recovering. They are going to have a look and see. He will be gone about an hour."
"Oh, okay then," said Bobby looking slightly more relaxed. "Here take this and go get a shower and a shave. Your bag and clean clothes are there." Sam looked down to see Bobby holding out a Motel key with a six stamped on it.
"But …" stammered Sam.
"He's just getting an X ray. I'll be here, go on you need some clean clothes on at least boy". Bobby shoved the key in Sam's hand and pushed him out the door and toward the exit to the ward. "St James Inn. It's across the road, can't miss it, room six. I will see you in an hour."
"Thanks Bobby" Sam said weakly, feeling slightly corralled into this.
"Yeah, Yeah." waved Bobby heading back to the visitor's room for some more coffee.

Sam squinted against the harsh sunlight; it was hard to believe he had been inside for more than four days. It felt so bright and foreign out here when he should be inside with Dean. He walked across the parking lot of the motel and there she was outside door number six: the Impala. For some reason seeing her down here alone, without Dean, made Sam kind of sad. He leaned against the driver's door looking into where Dean usually sat. All the memories they had in that car, it was like a family member. Sam took a deep breath and turned and walked over to the motel room, unlocked it and walked in. There were two beds and each one had a duffle bag on the end of it. He opened his bag slowly looking sadly over at Deans and pulled some clean clothes out. Sam grabbed his shaving kit and headed for the shower.

Bobby looked up in time to see Sam lopping towards him down the corridor. Except for the frown on his face the kid looked a lot better.
"Well you look better," said Bobby in way of greeting.
"Yeah, it's amazing what a shower, a shave and some fresh clothes will do for you. Thanks Bobby," said Sam. He gave Bobby a slight smile, the first one since they meet after Deans accident.
"Is Dean back yet?"
"No, not yet"
"Want a Coffee?" asked Bobby.
"No thanks, Bobby" said Sam repressing a shudder, he felt like his blood was made of coffee, he had drunk that much of it lately.

Doctor Jenkins appeared and walked towards the men.
"Okay, Sam. The IVP showed Deans kidney has a small laceration so we need to get him back into surgery now and get it repaired. I think we will find Dean will improve quickly once this is done. It's not big but it is enough to keep him in shock and with the internal bleeding, make it hard for him to recover. I need you to sign some papers so we can do this as soon as we can; he's being prepped for surgery now."
"Okay." Sam took the paperwork and read it over and signed in the appropriate place. "Is this dangerous surgery?" Sam asked.
"Normally not no, but Dean is still on ventilation so we will have to be very careful with him. We wouldn't perform the surgery if there was any way we could avoid it. We have to fix this for Dean to get better."
"Okay." Nodded Sam. "Can I see him before he goes in?"
Doctor Jenkins pursed his lips and looked at his watch. "There might just be time. Come with me." he marched off in the direction of the lift and Sam hurried behind.

After numerous small passages and 'staff entry only doors' they got to a room with two wood and stainless steel doors marked operating staff only. Doctor Jenkins asked Sam to wait and entered the door. He returned a moment later and ushered Sam into a quiet, brightly lit room. Doctor Jenkins led Sam to the corner near another door and there was Dean looking almost the same as Sam had last seen him except the covers were pulled down to Dean's waist and his chest was bare. The machines were still attached and they sat next to the bed.
"You've got a couple of minutes, "said the doctor and moved away from Sam and back the way he had come.

The left side of Dean's chest had stitches in several places and an iodine strip painted down the center of stitches that to Sam looked like the Doctors had done after Dean's last operation.
"Hey Buddy" said Sam softly gripping Dean's right hand again. "Hey big brother, you're going in for a little operation and then you're going to come out and get better for me okay?" Sam brushed his other hand over Dean's cheek, those damn tears coming back to his eyes. It was hard seeing Dean lying so still, normally so vibrant and itching for activity. "Dean, Bobby and I will be waiting for you in your room okay? Make sure you get back there as soon as you can." Sam saw the Doctor re-enter the room in scrubs with a nurse in tow and bent down and quickly kissed Deans forehead. "I'll see you soon big brother".
"Nurse Jones will take you back to Dean's room. I will come and see you when Dean's in recovery, should be 30 to 45 minutes," said Doctor Jenkins.
"Thanks Doctor." Sam let the nurse lead him out of the room but not without a glance back at his brother.

Sam and Bobby waited back at Dean's room for word on how the operation had gone. Sam could tell Bobby was fed up to the back teeth with waiting, he was letting out little huffs off displeasure every five minutes. After thirty minutes of this Sam started talking to Bobby about some of the hunts they had done lately and soon Bobby was telling stories of his own. Sam realized they were trying to take each others minds of the waiting around because deep down they both knew there would be more waiting to come. Sam looked at his watch again and found that had been over an hour since he had left Dean. Bobby noticed the look and found yet another story in his bag to tell Sam and take his mind off the time. After ninety minutes of waiting Doctor Jenkins appeared in the doorway. He offered the hunters a small smile and stepped in closer to talk to them.
"Well, we repaired the laceration but it was slow going with Dean in his current condition. He's in recovery and doing okay at the moment. He should be back down in thirty minutes or so. I would like to do another IVP tomorrow just to make sure everything is better but we will see how he goes overnight".
"Thanks doctor," said both men together.
Dean was brought back down forty five minutes later and both men went to the visitors lounge to stretch their legs while the nursing staff put Dean back in his room.

Sam took back his place at Dean's side holding his right hand. Bobby looked at Dean from the other side of the bed; he had the same machines and IVs as before. Somehow he looked even paler now to Bobby but he didn't want to voice his opinion to Sam as he felt the young hunter was just hanging on as it was. Sam stroked Deans face with his hand, not worried what Bobby might think. The things they had been through together made them more that just brothers. Dean had been his Father, Mother, Brother, best friend and teacher among many other things at various points in his life and Sam knew it was time he was there for Dean after all the times he was there for Sam.

Even though Dean had loved his father and was fanatically loyal, when Sam and John had fought Dean was always in between them breaking them up no matter how painful it was for Dean to see his family fight. And when the time came for Sam to go to university, Sam couldn't believe it when Dean fought for him against his own father for Sam's freedom.
"Hey Dean, you're back with us. Keep fighting big brother. I know you can. Look, Bobby's here too".
"Hey Dean, you gonna open those pretty eyes of yours and let us see ya?"
"Bobby!" said Sam surprised.
"I'm just trying to get him to open his eyes," smirked Bobby crossing his arms over his chest.

Bobby went for more coffee and Sam lowered his head to Dean's right hand and fell asleep straight away. Sam's dreams, or nightmares, certainly weren't lollypops and candy canes. It was Dean falling through the roof of the children's home from various different angles including one where he almost grabbed Dean's feet as he fell down. He woke up gasping several times but he can't have screamed as he did in the dream because Bobby was still asleep in the other chair. They spent the next two days like this Sam sleeping in short stints by Dean's hand. Bobby going off to sleep at the motel every now and again. When Sam wasn't asleep he was checking Dean for signs of improvement and Sam felt that some slight color was finally returning to Dean's face.

Dean felt darkness and pain for what seemed like the hundredth time in a few days. He felt heavy and dull and weighed down by an invisible force. At times he thought he heard Sam talking to him a couple of times Bobby and now and again voices he didn't know. But as time wore on he felt less panicked and more surreal. Had to be the drugs, he thought when he could put coherent thoughts together. He opened his heavy eyes a crack and saw the room he was in was fairly dark. There was a heaviness in his limbs that was not felt in his head and abdomen. He had a nice headache, one of the better ones he had ever felt. As the darkness backed away more he took in his surroundings he felt the pull of stitches and the pain of broken ribs on his left side. His eyes closed, tired already with the effort to stay open for those few seconds. Just before his body threatened to take him down to sleep again his brain brightened for a second and registered that he had not seen Sam when he had opened his eyes. His brain started to panic and pushed for more clarity looking for his brother.

Where was Sam? Is he okay? He could vaguely remember Sam talking to him but when had that been? His drug addled brain was not helping so he did the only thing he could. He concentrated with all his strength, or what strength he had, on opening his eyes again. At first it felt like a monumental effort, they just didn't want to cooperate. His brain was making it hard to focus on his eyes, it just wanted more sleep but he refused to obey. After what felt like hours his eyes cracked open just enough to see the darkened room again. He looked frantically for Sam but now his damn eyeballs wouldn't move fast enough. Finally to his right he saw the top of a dark brown mop of hair. Sammy! He would know that kids unruly hair anywhere. He concentrated all his effort on his right hand as it seemed to be close to Sam's slumped form somewhere. It took SO much effort to slowly curl the fingers for just a few seconds. He couldn't feel what the fingers where curling into as they felt numb and detached.

Dean was rewarded with Sam sitting up quickly and looking into Dean's face with a huge grin.
"Hey Dean, you're awake. About time you had us all worried there, buddy".
Dean felt his right hand squeezed and returned it with as much strength as he could. It felt slightly easier because he had Sam's squeezing fingers to focus on. Sam's smile couldn't have been bigger as he squeezed Dean's hand in return; he put his hand on Dean's face patting him gently.
"Hey big brother it's great to see you awake. Bobby's here. We've been waiting for you to wake up, dude".

Dean focused as hard as he could as Bobby appeared over Sam's shoulder.
"Hey Dean, great to see you awake boy". Bobby's voice was surprisingly gentle and Sam's eyes he noticed were brimming over with tears.
He thought he might have felt a couple fall on his arm and he gave Sam's hand another light squeeze falling back into sleep. There was no stopping it this time. He was exhausted from the small effort, which felt huge to him. He nodded off feeling happier that he had seen Sam and he was okay.
"Wow" said Sam enthusiastically. "Dean was awake".
Sam felt like he had been holding his breath for the last few days and was finally able to let it out. Bobby too looked like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
"That's great, Sam" said Bobby and threw his arms around Sam in an unexpected hug. Both men pulled away at the same time tears welling in their eyes and smiles on their faces.

At that moment a nurse entered the room giving the men a quick glance before looking back with a small confused smile at the smiles on their faces. Sam noticed the look.
"Oh, ah ...Dean was awake."
"Oh," said the nurse looking less confused now and going over to check the machines at Dean's bedside.
"Yeah, he looked at us and squeezed my hand," said Sam happily.
The nurse smiled at Sam and headed toward the door. "That's great news. I will page Doctor Jenkins and let him know."
"Thanks," said Sam.

Doctor Jenkins entered the room ten minutes later and checked the machines and then gave Dean a once over. He went out to the hallway where the hunters were waiting expectantly while the doctor did his examination.
"Well, there is definite improvement; he is using the ventilator a lot less and his starting to show some response. This is very good news. Just be warned, Sam, that it is a slow road to recovery. It will take a while before Dean's up on his feet".
Sam knew the doctor was telling Sam he was going to have to have more patience in regards to Deans recovery.
"It's okay, doctor. We will be here for Dean as long as it takes." Sam assured him.

Over the next three days Dean had small periods of consciousness where he opened his eyes and squeezed Sam's hand but apart from that he didn't move at all just the squeezing and eye opening seemed to take all Dean's strength. Late one night Bobby had gone back to the hotel to have a sleep and change of clothes after unsuccessfully trying to get Sam to go have a shower and change. Sam hadn't left Deans side since his kidney operation and was starting to get some serious stubble. Even Dean had less stubble than Sam because the nurses were shaving Dean every couple of days with an electric shaver to keep his face clean because of the ventilator.

Bobby was starting to make noises about Sam smelling but he could care less at this stage. He had nodded off against Dean's arm again when he felt his hand being squeezed. He raised his head and looked into Dean's eyes and could have sworn Dean was trying to tell him something with the look he was giving him. Dean's eyes seem much more animated than they had been over the last couple of days. Even though they were still only half open they had brightness to them that had been missing since he had woken up.
"Hey Dean, what is it? Are you okay?" Sam felt inclined to ask the questions even though Dean couldn't answer them.
Dean proceeded to blink rather slowly at Sam.

Sam hadn't seen Dean blink like this since had woken up. It was normally such a fight for him to keep his eyes open, but this looked more deliberate, like Dean was trying to say something through his eyes to Sam.
"Hey it's okay, Dean. I'm here for you, its okay." Sam soothed.
Dean squeezed Sam's hand with all the strength he had which still wasn't much but Sam appreciated the gesture and squeezed Deans hand back.
"Its okay buddy just take your time, I will wait for you." Sam petted Dean's face as he tried to reassure Dean. Dean's eyes fluttered closed again but before his eyes closed completely Sam caught a flash of emotion in Dean's eyes. He could have sworn Dean looked ….pissed off?

TBC

Hi There- I just wanted to say thanks to those who took the time to review this story. It means alot as its my first story.