Chapter Three
The young male didn't like where he was, away from his alpha and in the midst of three females, one of which was the female his alpha had tried to drive away many times. The male curled into a corner, praying that his alpha wouldn't drive him away again when he was found with the females. The small, brown haired one had tried to get him to drink from another female but, adhering to his alpha's wishes, the male turned away from the offering. He didn't have to listen to her since she wasn't of his pack so he made himself deaf to her pleas.
The ranking female in the room, a tall blonde, wasn't happy with him either but again, too bad. None of those in the building were of his pack. Even though he was in another pack's territory, he didn't have to obey their alpha. He had been brought into their territory, it was true, but he still was subject to their alpha's punishment for trespassing. The young male just prayed that it wouldn't be too painful.
Ruby was getting very frustrated. Not only was Sam not looking at her or responding, he had flatly refused to even consider drinking the demon blood in the nurse. Lilith was impatient. She really didn't want to die but she also knew that it was her destiny to be the last seal on her master's Cage. She had loved Lucifer before his fall and was cursed never to see him again. It was part of their punishments for their actions. Lucifer had corrupted her but she still had a chance to turn away from him and she didn't. Instead, she embraced the Fallen Angel, turning away from the first man.
If Sam didn't drink, she knew, there would be no way they could inject enough of the blood into him to make him powerful enough to kill her. That was…unsettling. Lilith thought for a moment the hit on a plan. Turning away from the young hunter, she changed her appearance to that of Dean then she turned back.
"Sam," she said in Dean's voice. Sam looked up then back down to the floor. "I want you to drink the blood Ruby is offering." Sam didn't do anything. "Sam! Do it now!" Sam just sat on the floor, looking down. Lilith knew her disguise was perfect, down to the last cell but she didn't realize that since Sam was operating at an animalistic level, he could see her true form. Even if he couldn't, the scent was off on the "Dean" in front of him.
Lilith had never been accused of being patient. She stomped over to the young Hunter and picked him up. She threw him near the nurse who had been cut by Ruby. The scent of the blood wafted into Sam's nose but he still turned away. His alpha told him no, no more blood, no more powers, no more females. Screeching, the three females converged on him and began to beat him bloody. As he was beaten, Sam started to mumble under his breath.
Ruby was the first one to feel the effects of Sam's ramblings. The demon felt the powerful pull of the exorcism and tried to fight it but she couldn't hold on. She left the corpse of the girl she had inhabited and was thrown back into Hell. The nurse was the next one. She struggled harder but Sam was persistent. Finally, after a powerful fight to stay, the demon was torn from the nurse and also thrown back into Hell. Lilith didn't stop to wonder what was going on. She reached down and grabbed Sam by his throat to stop the exorcism. She had forgotten she needed to stay by the alter as she slammed Sam again and again into the wall to stop him from trying to exorcize her.
Lilith was so intent on stopping Sam that she didn't hear the fighting going on in the hallway. She didn't notice Dean and Castiel rushing into the room until it was too late. She felt a piercing pain in her back and turned around only to have the Angel put his hand on her head. She lit up with red and white lights as she died. When the body started to fall, Dean pulled the Angelic sword out of her back. Thrusting the sword into Castiel's hand, he rushed to his brother and was appalled at the damage. Sam, bleeding, bruised and battered, kept whispering the exorcism until he felt friendly hands on him. He couldn't open his eyes since they were swollen shut but he could smell his alpha's scent and he stopped his chant. "Sorry," he whispered before he let the blackness, which had been threatening him, take him away from all his pain and sorrow.
Castiel wished he could turn from the scene in front of him but he couldn't. Sam had bruises, deep cuts, contusions and broken bones from the three demons' anger. It was too much for him to even begin to heal so he knelt by both Winchesters and, putting his hand on their shoulders, transported them to a hospital. Then he went back for Dean's car and also went to get Bobby.
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Dean watched his baby brother, his reason for living, struggle to survive. The doctors told him that Sam had swelling on the brain, internal injuries, broken ribs, broken legs, a broken arm and bruising done to the kidneys, liver and lungs. He had coded twice in the emergency room and three more times in surgery. The doctors told Dean that it was a miracle that the young man was even alive but they didn't hold much hope for him ever regaining consciousness and if he did, there was still the possibility for brain damage. Every injury to Sam felt like a nail had gone into Dean. The surgeons and doctors all waived the visiting hour limitations for the older hunter so now he sat, watching as machines breathed for Sam and cleaned his blood.
Sam was hooked up to a ventilator, IVs, pulse/ox machine, dialysis machine and an EKG machine. Nurses came in every half hour to take readings and vitals from the unconscious man. Even CT scans were scheduled to see if the swelling in Sam's brain was going down. Frankly, Sam looked like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's monster with all the stuff hooked up to him.
Monster.
Freak.
Two very nasty words that Dean had used sometimes in the past year to describe his brother's actions, but never his brother. Sam had always been the best thing in his life, something to cherish, to love and to protect but it wasn't enough. Looking at his brother suffering, Dean wondered if he had done the right thing in Cold Oak. He wondered if he should have left Sam dead instead of making the deal to save his life. At those thoughts, Dean felt dirty, guilty and ashamed of himself. He started to cry.
Sam was the one always accused of being soft but, inside Dean there was a core of sentiment that he rarely brought out. His father trained him that feelings, especially for people, were something less than desirable in Hunters, made them weak. Dean took those teachings to heart but Sam, ever the rebellious one, wore his heart on his sleeve and was stronger than Dean would ever be, as far as he was concerned. Sure, Sam's heart was broken many times and by his own family, but the wealth of love in the young man put Dean to shame in so many ways. Especially now, with Sam broken as badly as he was.
Dean stiffened his shoulders, it was time to repair what he had broken. While the doctors worked on Sam's physical health, Dean went to work on his mental health. Dean started to talk to Sam, first apologizing for everything he had ever done to his brother, including the time he put Nair in Sam's shampoo. He told Sam about his own feelings and hurts while remembering not to blame his brother. Dean told Sam that he deeply and violently wanted Sam by his side, as equals not as one superior and one inferior. Together, they were very strong while apart, they were vulnerable. Dean praised his brother for his quick thinking in the chapel and told him that he didn't know if he would have even thought of doing an exorcism while being in so much pain. Dean said that he would have surrendered and drank the blood just to stop the pain, just like he had done in Hell to get off of Alastair's rack.
Dean also talked about what happened to Castiel. While they were in the waiting room, waiting (of course) for one of the doctors to come out and tell them about Sam, the Angel let Dean know what had occurred. Zachariah, knowing how the Guardian felt about his charges, had laid a trap for him. It took him a while to be able to climb out and go straight to the Salvage Yard where he met up with Bobby. The older hunter had been spitting mad when he found out he had been sent on a wild goose chase. After Castiel found out that neither Winchester was on the property, he did some Angel mojo (Castiel didn't go into it and Dean really couldn't describe the ritual if he tried anyway) and found out that Zachariah was behind the disappearances. Sam, he knew, had been delivered to Ruby while the Angel had taken Dean to what he called the "green room" so he would have to wait out Sam's breaking of the last seal by killing Lilith.
Zachariah had forgotten about the bond that was between Dean and Castiel. The Guardian had used the beacon that the bond created to find one of his charges. He was extremely angry when he finally got there and he killed Zachariah with one stroke. He brought Dean to the Impala which he then transported to the Prophet's house. When they found out where Sam was being kept, Castiel once again transported the car and man to Sam's location where they found a convent full of demons. Castiel went on what Dean could only describe as a rampage, once again showing why it was not a good idea to get between a Guardian and his charge. Between the enraged Angel and the furious brother, they painted a bloody swath down the hall leading to the chapel.
Of course, the door was barred against the rescuers. It didn't take much for Castiel to knock down the door and they had gained entry to the room. They were astounded to find two vessels on the floor, one alive but unconscious and the other decomposing. What really shocked them was the fact that Sam was struggling against Lilith, whispering an exorcism while she was killing him. The Angel and brother flew towards the pair where Dean stabbed Lilith in the back with Castiel's sword. When she turned around, dying and ready to kill the upstart human, Castiel killed her using his Angel mojo by putting his hand on her head and burning her out of her vessel.
Dean told the comatose Sam how Castiel was frantic when he saw the condition the young man was in. He couldn't heal Sam but was able to stabilize him enough to get him to the hospital. The Angel had been coming to see Sam ever since, Dean reported.
"I wish you could see yourself the way we see you. You are the most important person in our lives, didn't you know that? No matter what you did or what was done to you, you are the most pure thing in this crazy world and I don't want to give that up or have it sullied. I admit that I've been overprotective of you, trying to wrap you in cotton but Cas says it's because I raised you from a very young age. I was your big brother, your mother and your father from the age of four so you'll need to forgive me if I act like a grizzly bear with cubs," Dean said with a self-deprecating chuckle. The slight chuckle morphed into a laugh which increased until Dean was crying his own hurt out. Tears poured down his face as he clenched his brother's unresponsive hand.
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When Sam had been in the coma for a month, the doctors tried to talk Dean into turning the machines off and letting his brother go peacefully but Dean couldn't do it. His heart hurt badly every time a doctor brought the subject up. Finally, Dean had enough and, with Bobby's help and Castiel's ability to "acquire" the needed machines, he moved his brother from the Maryland hospital to Bobby's house. Bobby had a friend who was a doctor that knew about the supernatural world. This man came out to set Sam up and train the others in how to take care of him down to physical therapy to keep his muscles from atrophying.
Dean kept vigil next to Sam's bed unless Bobby or Castiel managed to pull him away for a few minutes of much needed rest. It was very hard to do since Sam was responding a bit to the sound of his voice and the touch of his hand. The doctor explained that coma patients would sometimes do that but the big tell to Sam's emerging out of it would be when he responded to stimuli such as pain or cold. The doctor said it could be something as simple as goosebumps or even a slight change in his expression. Sam's eyes were also opening and closing, something that at first gave everyone hope he was coming out of it until the doctor, doing some tests, found that Sam's eyes stayed fixed on one spot no matter where the doctor moved his head. Dean thought that his brother could use some stimulation came up with the idea to put a mobile on the ceiling along with other brightly colored pictures. Castiel also came up with some visual stimuli for Sam to focus on when he came out of it.
At the three month mark, Dean's hope began to flag but, like all Winchesters, he was stubborn and said that Sam was strong, he would wake up. Dean began to play music that his brother had liked, even though he said that it was too girly for his own tastes. Bobby also tried to stimulate Sam's senses with incense and other fragrant scents. For the first time since his wife had died, Bobby was bringing in bouquets of roses, lilacs, lilies of the valley and other sweet smelling flowers. Seeing what his charges were doing, Castiel also got in on the act. He began to give Sam physical stimuli such as letting his wing feathers caress the comatose man. He also found some oils that had unique tastes which he would put on Sam's lips and on his tongue. One time, when the others were out of the house, Castiel manifested his lute and played some songs while singing in Enochian.
The other thing he had done, which actually got him in trouble, was to apologize to Sam for the way the Host had treated him. Castiel said that a man as devout as Sam should never have been shunned by the Angels. His faith, he was told, was greater than many of the Angels. Michael was upset that Castiel had apologized to a mere human and was very close to grounding the young Angel when Gabriel showed up for the first time in centuries. Gabriel backed Castiel up saying that he too had something to apologize to Sam about though he had only been trying to help the young Hunter. It was his tricks on Dean that helped to break Sam and, for that, he felt a deep sorrow and shame. Michael was taken aback by what his brother said. He thought about what had happened to Sam from the start, knowing that he was never at fault for what had gone on in his life.
Shame spread throughout the Host and gifts of contrition started to appear in Bobby's Yard. Because Anna had been a friend of the Winchesters, Michael spread the word that she was forgiven and then assigned, with Castiel, to protect the three Hunters. Raphael had been upset that his brother, Lucifer, wasn't set free. He argued that the two Vessels were supposed to play their parts but because they didn't they should be punished. Michael told Raphael to leave it be, Sam had made his choice to send the demons back to Hell using an exorcism instead of his demon powers. Even broken, Michael said, Sam still had free will. He could have drank the blood and killed Lilith but he didn't and that was to be respected. Raphael grudgingly accepted his brother's explanation though he refused to help the young man. Michael bowed to his brother's free will and sent another Angel, Balthazar, to help out.
When Sam started to show signs of responding to negative stimuli, it was so slight that Dean had almost missed it. Dean had been cleaning the room and accidently knocked over one of the many vases that now graced their room. The cold water landed on the bed and seeped into the covers that were over his brother. By the time Dean had started to get the covers off Sam, the cold water had soaked him. A slight widening of the eyes was all the sign that the comatose man gave to show his distress. Dean, taking the covers off his brother almost missed it but he looked at his brother's face at the right time and smiled. A tiny bitchface now graced his brother. "Atta boy, Sammy, I knew you could do it," Dean said with a grin as he changed the bedding and his brother's wet clothes.
Sam continued to respond to stimuli after that in small ways: goosebumps when he was cold, a flinch from pain, sweat when too hot. Dean hardly left his brother's side as Sam continued to improve. After two weeks of this, Sam finally woke up. It was very early in the morning and Dean was asleep at the time, having spent most of the night up watching Sam. At first, he didn't know where he was. Nothing seemed familiar except for the paint on the walls and ceiling. Even the bed was softer than he remembered. Hearing the familiar sound of his brother breathing next to him, Sam turned his head and a very small smile graced his face as he watched his brother sleep. After a few minutes of this, he felt the tug of sleep himself. He wasn't strong enough to struggle against the tug so he closed his eyes and slept.
When Dean woke up, his eyes automatically went to his brother and he frowned. Sam was facing him, a position he knew neither he nor anyone else had put his brother in. Then he noticed the small smile still on Sam's face and he jumped up in excitement. Quietly, he left the room and after he closed the door, he ran to Bobby's room with the news.
"Bobby! Wake up! Sammy was awake this morning!" Dean whisper-shouted.
After a couple of minutes, with many grumblings and one crash, Bobby opened the door and asked, "What?"
Yep, I made Cas a Guardian Angel. It really makes sense if you think about it. Why would Heaven assign a Warrior to protect a human when a Guardian would be even more protective of his charges? Hmmmm. All of the medical information was gotten off the Internet. It was very interesting to read the information about the eyes and how, if a person was comatose, the eyes would stay fixed on one point, even if the head was moved. I used the medical information for the story, probably a bit inaccurately though. More than likely...