17.

The next day Dean received a surprise visit from Sarah soon after he had woken up. Sam had excused himself soon after she arrived with a phone call, offering her his chair as he walked out of the room, answering with a chipper hello as entered the hallway.

'When I heard my favourite patient wasn't coming in today I knew I couldn't pass up a chance for a visit, since I was in the hospital and had a free hour, I thought I was visit the little sickie.' Sarah laughed lightly and took Dean's hand to let him know she was there; he enjoyed the warmth of her touch and squeezed her hand in return. He had woken up feeling a lot stronger than he had been feeling the past few days.

'How do you feel anyway?' Sarah asked softly.

'Bit weak.' He whispered, ashamed of the words.

'Well there's no surprise there. I don't know how you got through all our sessions like that; you sure have some stamina in there Dean.' He couldn't hide the smile that sprung to his lips; she had a habit of that, making him smile without meaning to, just with the little things. It was nice.

'I thought I was just tired from our sessions and practicing at home, but when I woke up, guess it all caught up to me.' Sam walked back in then, an apologising look on his face as he pointed to the phone.

'I have an appointment to go to, I will still be in the hospital but; so if you need me just give me a call okay? Phone is at three o'clock and cup of orange juice, which I expect finished by the time I get back is at twelve o'clock.'

Dean gave his brother bird. 'Stop being a mothering little bitch.'

'I will when you quit being a crippled jerk.' Sam retorted leaving the room, Dean would let him savour the victory of last word for now. He would just get him back when he returned. It made him happy to know Sam had listened to him and made an appointment to talk to someone.

Dean sat in silence with Sarah for a while, thinking. He had purposefully being keeping his mind busy since waking up, plagued by the same nightmare that woken him the other day still lingering in the back of his head, keeping him afraid.

Even without being told Dean knew that Sam was out talking to the counsellor. The fact that he said he was going to he in the hospital was give away enough but the tone of his voice sounded a little enlightened, like a load was about to lifted from his shoulder. It had the tone he had often held as a kid when John would tell Sam he could ask Dean for help with some of his training. Sam always sounded so hopeful.

And Dean figured he could use a little hope at the moment. They were still waiting for a call from the transplant people, saying they had found someone who matched Dean, and he was getting his cornea transplant. If he had been able to see, Dean imagined he would spend all his time watching the phone, waiting with Sam's edge of hopefulness.

'You and your brother have an odd way of communicating don't you.' Sarah mused after a while and Dean knew she was referring to their nicknames for each other; they had been using them ever since Sam had turned seventeen. Only now they were a little different to fit the circumstances.

'It's like our father, calls us Idjits. It's the little things like that, which make us a family.' Dean smiled at that, the truth behind the words. Sam and Bobby really were the only family they each had now. For what it was worth, Bobby deserved to be called their father more then John did. He was more their boot camp teacher. The way the older man would drill training sessions and survival instincts in to them.

It had started early for Dean. As soon as he was five years old, he had spent years being envious of Sam. Escaping the hardship until he was at least ten years old, well on his way to turning eleven. And that was only because he had come to close to call with the handicaps of their lives. Dean could remember that horrible day.

Pushing the memory to the back of his mind with the nightmare, to battle each other against his brain he thought instead about Bobby, where he mad mysteriously disappeared to and what he was doing.

'You know it's nearly been half an hour and your haven't touched that juice once, something tells me your brother meant business when he said he wants that drunk before he returns. I give you another half an hour or so before he gets back, so I would make it snappy.' Sarah pushed the glass towards Dean's free hands that was resting on the little table.

Snapping to attention, Dean nodded and picked the cup up obediently and sculling the bitter, tangy liquid in one mouthful. He scrunched his face up against the zing of the orange and slammed the cup down. 'He knows how much I hate orange juice, any sour thing.' Dean moaned.

'It will help with the low iron in your system. Oranges are packed full of it.' Sarah offered helpfully. 'Did you want to move your leg around a bit in the bed? Stop it from seizing up too much? I can give you some helpful tips to stop that from happening if you like?'

'Yeah I'd like that, thanks.' Dean pushed the table away from the bed, hoping there was nothing in its path. 'Hope you don't mind me being in boxers, they haven't really let me get up much apart from the toilet.'

'No that's fine, plus it lets me see how everything moves.' Dean nodded and let Sarah move her delicate hands down his leg and move it in the joint and get the blood flowing properly, he sighed at how good it felt to move the cramping limb.

Sam could feel his leg cramping from the position he had been sitting in for the past half an hour, the small space between the only vacant seat in the room and the coffee table was too small for Sam to sit comfortably so he had crossed his legs instead. He was regretting it now though, ass the conversation moved on with sense of stopping anytime soon, his foot was starting to get pins and needles from lack of blood though.

Sometimes he hated being so tall, and wished he could pass it all on to Dean and resume being the short little brother like when he was a kid. Dean was always hanging on him for being so short when he was younger, now he got called giraffe and sasquatch. He just couldn't win with Dean.

Apart from when he left the room before, he had gotten the last word in. Smiling he pushed a lock of his too long hair (or mop Dean would call it) out of his face. It wasn't until the woman across from him spoke that Sam realised he had zoned out. All over again it felt like primary school, put on the spot for an answer to the question he hadn't even heard.

'Is something funny Sam? I didn't expect you to laugh when I asked that question, not when you were so upset before about it.' Kerry was a nice woman, a little to plump and expressive with her wild fashion sense and bright red hair that stood out like a lions mane, but Sam wasn't a hundred per cent on her yet.

'Sorry what question was that again?' Dean would have a field day with this woman he thought, the insults and retorts he would have in response to some of her questions she had already asked, working up her profile on him.

'I asked what started the fight that caused you and your brother to go off on his own without you there.' Kerry asked in a too deliberate and slow manner that made Sam squirm suddenly under her gaze.

But he simply laughed again, making her frowns in response. 'It was so stupid that we can't remember anymore, which I suppose makes it worse if anything.' Sam dragged a hand down his face and jiggled the leg he was slowly losing feeling, but hey at least it wasn't cramping painfully anymore.

'Our dad died recently, from a car accident we were all involved in. The doctors thought he was okay, just a puncture wound, few cracked ribs broken shoulder. The usual, but Dean was worse. They didn't know if he was going to be okay, he was sitting on the side of the car the truck hit the hardest. It hit dad really hard I think, me and him were fighting a lot and trying to be there for Dean at the same time, but shortly after Dean woke up; dad died. If anything we would have been fighting over something to do with dad, these days that's all we fight over, and Dean's health now.' Sam had needed to be careful with how he worded those events. One slip could mean trouble for him and Dean.

'So you don't recall anything about the fight, at all?' Kerry asked again, making Sam think for a moment.

'I think I yelled at Dean to stop acting like Dad, being so pig headed and gung-ho. Dad was always controlling, very much in to keeping fit and martial arts. He trained as kids and all through our teenage years, Dean will always be like dad in many ways; but that day I just snapped and we went our separate ways in the end.' Sam would never forgive himself for the things he would have said or for leaving Dean on his own but at least he would have it out of his system.

'So you and your brother have a tense relationship then do you?' Sam shook his head quickly.

'The opposite. We have one of the best relationships brothers could have. We can joke around and have fun with each other even now and still take it lightly. We fight, always but I think that's what helps us stay the way we are, it's kind of a healthy thing for us. We just don't normally fight to the extent we did whilst on the job that's all.' Sam's face collapsed when he realised what he had just said. On the job. How was he going to explain that one?

'And what job was that?' It was like being under a microscope the way she was probing him with her eyes, her words. Sam shrunk back in to the chair and looked down at his hands, twiddling his fingers. 'Sam, is there something you are not telling me? I can't form a proper profile to help you with, if you aren't telling me the truth.'

'We are mechanics, we've been looking for somewhere to settle down for some time now, a place to call home but we want to work in the same garage. But a lot of people have fired us or sent us on our way because of the way we act from now to now.' Sam thought on his feet with that, hoping it sounded truthful even a little.

If he'd been on the receiving end of those words he would have scoffed and pointed it out at a lie straight away. But thankfully this woman wasn't as bright as her hair colour and nodded in response, a knowing look on her face as she jotted more stuff down.

'Well Mr Singer I think it is time we changed that attitude of yours. It sounds like your brother and you have a good relationship and would do anything for the other. So let us say we start there. I want you to go home and think about things you could do differently for Dean, show that you are there for him from now on, and that there is no chance of you leaving again. It sounds like your brother is very insecure about that.' Sam scoffed, she had no idea.

'That attitude is what needs to change.' Kerry tutted, shaking a chubby finger in Sam's face, many bangles jangling on her wrist. He wanted to shove them down her throat for all the trouble she was going through to make things better. If Sam went home and followed her advice, he thought Dean would probably grab the nearest object and slam it through Sam's skull.

With or without his sight.

Things were bad enough with his overbearing mothering without making it clear he was never going to leave him again.

By the time he was able to leave, Sam was let down. The doctor down in emergency had sounded so assuring that Kerry would be able to help him. But after sitting there for an hour and listening to the animated woman talk about making things better with Dean, he knew his hope had been misplaced. His and Dean's relationship wasn't like normal brothers with normal jobs and normal attitudes. Not even close.

This was something he would, in the end; have to fix himself. Maybe it wouldn't even be so bad if he spoke to Bobby now and again about everything, or even tried to get Dean to open up by opening up a little himself. Give a little receive a little, that kind of thing.

Shaking the pins and needles that were rapidly spreading with the return of blood flow from his leg, Sam limped back to Dean's room.

'Carl Ratchet?' The post man called, climbing from the cab of his truck before heading around the back to retrieve the two large packages. Pulling them out he carried them up the pathway. Bobby nodded at the man, assuming his fake name for the moment as he stood up from the rocking chair he had been seated in, and signed for the packages.

Thanking the man he placed them carefully beside the rickety old chair and sat back down until the van was well out of sight. Standing up he picked up both packages and got in to his own pick up truck and headed back to the Roadhouse. Keen to be back on the road as soon as possible, but first he wanted to thank Ash and tell him to come visit Dean and Sam sometime soon, that it would do the boys some good to have a change of person around them. Not just some crotchety old man with a drinking problem.

On the road he called Sam and let him know he was on his way home and to check in on things, see how Dean was doing since he had been admitted to hospital. He was to be let out the next day after one more transfusion, and filling in another prescription to keep the iron and blood count where it should be, and vitamins to try and restore his immune system.

He couldn't help but tap along to the music playing on the radio as he drove. This was what they all needed, a break. And a big one too. This was like a holiday in the Bahamas for them. As soon as he got home he would be setting up for the summoning, then he would let Dean and Sam in on his plans, or maybe even just Sam in case Dean protested.

Ever since the ordeal with the reaper and faith healer Dean had become redundant against all forms of healing that weren't performed by a human being, not that he respected doctors any more then he did, which was very little; but no demon or reaper should be placed in that role. It was never a fair deal to him, there was always trickery and someone else suffering for their benefit behind the curtain.

Bobby didn't see the problem though, he felt a little cold at the though, but what was one person's suffering for the sake of someone who has worked hard to keep them safe for so longs sight to come back? He found himself not caring in the least if someone else lost their sight for Dean.

Turning the music up further he drove past a motel and considered stopping for the night but his nerves were too awake to allow him sleep now. He would just make the trek home without a break, if he got too tired he would pull over for a quick nap. Otherwise it was the home straight for him.

Pretty please review, and let me know whether Dean should open up or not! :3