Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter 10 Out

That afternoon Dean had another therapy session then another shower. Sam could see a pattern developing. The next day he walked back to his room from the session and had a shower and stayed out of bed till lunchtime. After lunch, another session, another shower then bed for the rest of the day. The next day Dean walked to and from his sessions and didn't get back into bed all day. He was starting to drive Sam crazy. The next morning Dean suggested they pack up their stuff and leave as the insurance they were using would have to max out fairly soon. Unfortunately Sam agreed with Dean on that score. Also Dean was up and around, but still not putting any weight back on.

Sam felt he might have more luck with the weight if they left the hospital because as much as Dean was trying to pacify Sam, Sam knew Dean hated to be here and he hated the food even more. And why was Dean trying to keep Sam happy? Sam had thought long and hard about it and then asked Dean flat out but Dean just did his normal grunt.
"cause I was a pain in the ass getting hurt like that."
Sam realised that Dean never even asked Sam if he blew the Harpies nest up. In fact he didn't talk about the job at all and for the first time since he could remember hadn't asked after the Impala. Doctor Jenkins came and said goodbye to the boys and wished them all the best.

Dean's eyes stung as he walked out of the hospital and followed Sam to the motel to get their things. Dean walked along the side of the black beast letting his hand run down the warm metal. He stood at the drivers door and waited for Sam to unlock the door for him. Dean got gingerly into the seat and ran his hand over the dash.
"I'm okay, baby. I'll be back behind the wheel in no time."
Sam crouched down in the open door. "You okay?"
"Just letting her know I'm okay. She knew something was up when Bobby drove her."
"How do you know that?"
"She told me. Good girl." Dean patted the dash and climbed out slowly using Sam shoulder to lever himself up.
"I thought you were going to try to drive."
"A man must know his limitations... and I dont want to mess up baby."
Sam grinned as Dean went around to the passenger seat and sat down stiffly. Sam went into the motel room and grabbed the bags off the beds, checked the room then locked the door behind him. He put the bags on the back seat of the car and went off to settle the account before they left. By the time Sam returned to the Impala Dean had relaxed into the seat and had a big smile on his face.
"You look happy," said Sam.
"Oh yeah."
Dean pulled his shades from the glove box and managed to slip them on one handed and look cool at the same time. His left arm was uncomfortable on his thigh. There just didn't seem to be anywhere to put the thing without it going to sleep on him.

They had no destination in mind only wanting to put the hospital miles behind them before the day was out. Sam stopped at a diner for lunch and pushed as much food onto Dean as he could without being obvious he was doing it. Dean was quiet most of the morning and at lunch. Sam drove all afternoon with Dean asleep in the passenger side, his head lolling onto his chest and his left arm cradled with his right. Sam put on crappy music as loud as it would go in attempt to wake Dean and keep him company but Dean slept on. Soon Sam got worried and pulled over and checked Deans pulse but he was okay and just kept sleeping through the impromptu stop. Dean woke just as it was getting dark and Sam was looking for a motel.
"Hey sleepy head. How you feeling?"
"My back is fuckin killing me." Dean groaned trying to stretch his back. "Please tell me we are stopping soon."
"Yeah, I'm just looking for a motel with a laundry. Ah, here we go." Sam pulled into the motel and parked and went in to pay for a room.
Dean looked at the parking lot and noticed only two other cars in the lot so it looked like they would be in luck getting a room.

Sam returned to the car and drove to the very end of the row of rooms and backed up to room fifteen right next to the laundry which was well lit and importantly, empty.
"Well done Sammy. Away from the civvies and next to the laundry."
Sam got out of the car and opened the door to the room then went back for the bags from the back seat. Dean unfolded himself from the car and nearly fell over. His legs, back and left side were extremely stiff and sore from the drive. In fact Dean was pretty sure his legs and back had never been this stiff before, even after driving for four days straight. He used the side of the Impala for a few steps and limped painfully toward the room. When he was entering the room he felt his legs were a little better. Maybe they just needed to be walked out to unstiffen. Sam was already going through the duffel bags of clothes to see what needed washing.

Dean decided to be a good big brother and see if he could start on cleaning the trunk of the car out. He snaked the keys off the table without alerting Sam and walked out to the car. He opened the trunk and got a shock by what he saw.
"Holy Fuck," he said loudly.
"What Dean? What?" Yelled a panicked Sam as he ran up to Dean and looked in the trunk.
The weapons bags were lying open and there were bandages and blood everywhere. Sam looked at Dean's face, He had gone pale and was leaning against the back of the Impala. Damn, he had forgotten to even bother looking in there. He had assumed Bobby had taken care of this stuff but both hunters had forgotten about it because of Dean's condition.
"Dean are you okay? I'm sorry I should have cleaned this up before."
"Its okay, Sammy. I just didn't expect …..all the blood." Dean rubbed his hand over his face a sure sign he was trying to deal with this in his own way.
"Look," said Sam. "I'll do this okay? You go have a lie down."
"No its allright. I should be used to this stuff by now, hey." Dean pulled a painful smile and moved to gather the spilled things and put them in the bags.
"Do you want to do the laundry instead?"
"Its okay Sammy. I need to get through this it's just a bit raw still, you know?"
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
To Sam's amazement Dean nodded his head slowly.
"Yep, but not now. After this is cleaned up maybe?"
Sam was surprised but tried not to show it."Okay. Dean if you need help let me know okay?" he patted Dean on the shoulder and moved back to the room to sort the washing.
Dean grabbed a plastic shopping bag from the back of the Impala and put all the used bandages in it. He also threw in the plastic mask and used tubing from the oxygen. One of the blankets was pretty well covered in blood so he threw that in too. The leaning into the trunk made his back and side sore so he went slowly.

He took the bags inside the room and unloaded the weapons onto an old newspaper between Sam's bed and the wall (just in case someone came to the door). He took the bags and the blanket with not to much blood on it to the laundry. Sam was feeding coins into one of the machines when Dean started to throw the bags in to one of the machines. Sam held up a pump pack of stain remover and handed it to Dean.
"Hey, we scored free stain remover."
Dean gave Sam a small smile and took the pack off Sam and sprayed the bags and the blanket liberally with the stuff. Dean used some of the coins Sam had dumped on the machine for him to get some laundry powder from the dispenser on the wall. Dean dumped the powder in and got the machine going. Dean walked slowly back to the Impala and grabbed the bag of dirty bandages and a small can of lighter fluid and a book of matches. He walked around the back of the motel with his load and found a barrel with smoke stains and ash all over it near an old dumpster. He dropped all his rubbish in, sprayed them with lighter fluid and set it alight.

Once the fire died down to a few lumps of glowing ash Dean limped back around the building. His legs were hurting and his back had gone back to feeling stiff and sore. Even his head was starting to hurt. Sam was coming out of the room as he came in with rags and cleaning fluid from the Impala.
"I'm going for Chinese down the road. What do you feel like?"
"Um rice and sweet and sour whatever."
"That's it?"
"Yep, that's it."
"What do you want to drink?"
For a minute Sam thought Dean might say beer. He wasn't sure Dean should be drinking yet.
"Ah... waters fine," said Dean surprising Sam who thought Dean would at least go for a cola or some kind of soda after all the water he had drunk at the hospital.
"Okay. I'll be back soon ".
"Sam."
"Yeah?"
"Take the car." He tossed Sam the car keys.
"You'll be okay?"
"Yeah, I can't drive can I?" Dean waved his broken arm in Sam's general direction.
"Okay thanks."

Dean walked over and snatched up the TV remote before sitting down against the wall next to Sam's bed. He began the methodical job of cleaning weapons while channel flicking, slowed down only a little by his left hand. Dean could move his fingers on that hand a bit so he tried to use them as much as possible to get used to operating the weapons at least partially with the fingers of his left hand. Half an hour into weapons detail, his back and legs started to cramp up. He unfolded himself and walked slowly to the laundry where he transferred the washed clothes from Sam's load into the dryer and then the bags and blanket onto another dryer. It took a few trips because of his one arm and not wanting to get the cast wet.

He was tired when he got back to the room and went back to work on the weapons.
"Hey," said Sam as he entered the room a few minutes later.
"Hey."
"How are they coming along?"
Sam placed the take away on the table and saw that Dean was mostly done cleaning the weapons, the pile of clean ones stacked neatly on the floor. He knew he shouldn't have been surprised. Cleaning weapons was something Dean had learned from as young as seven years old. He could do it as easily as other kids could ride bikes or play hide and seek. But he was worried about his brother over doing it.
"Looks good. I'll just check the laundry and we can eat." Sam moved toward the door.

"Its okay. I just put them in the dryer …ten minutes ago" said Dean pulling his watch out of his sweat pants pocket to check.

TBC