"Every Rainbow is a promise kept by GOD."
Chapter 2.
~0~
Sam waits for another hour, just to be on the safe side, before he is finally convinced that Dean is himself enough again, to safely release from the chains.
Dean just seems so defeated as the chains come off. His older brother is shaking and jerking like a junkie that already needs his next fix despite having just taken a hit the drug he's jonesing for and there are shadows of guilt clouding Dean's eyes as the realization that everything he did as a demon, that demon or not, it was still him doing all of it...
Sam gets it, he really does. He's been where Dean is right now. With something evil, something demonic tainting his blood and just enough humanity to make him feel guilty over the things that taint did to him, over the things he did because of it.
Sam just hopes that Dean will let him help with this transition, because this transition is something Sam can relate to..
He gets Dean to his own room, because he hadn't thought much on cleaning, too caught up in his frantic search for Dean, so Dean's bed is still a mess and he doesn't want Dean to have to see that. He plans on cleaning in there and getting the bloody bed linens stripped off and thrown out so that Dean will never have to see any evidence of his own death.
Sam doesn't know why, but keeping Dean from having to see that is important to him.
Sam goes to the kitchen and raids the fridge and the cabinets. He hasn't thought much about shopping or eating either, so there's not a lot of food that hasn't expired or molded over, to choose from.
He goes with the safest options.
A heated up can of chunky chicken noodle soup that has carrots and peas in it as well, is poured into a bowl and a quarter of a package of, most likely stale, crackers are arranged in a circle around the edge of a plate with the bowl of soup sitting in the middle. An unopened set of plastic silverware, complete with a straw and a package of salt, a package of pepper and a packet of sugar, is set onto the tray alongside the plate and a Styrofoam glass of, probably, slightly watered down, tea is set just to the corner of the tray where it can better be braced against the upturned sides of the tray as Sam hasn't got the best balance at the moment..
His shoulder aches an twinges at the thought of trying to take his arm out of its sling to try to take the weight of even just half of the tray. So he has to try to carry the filled tray one handed without spilling anything.
"Should be lots of fun." He thinks to himself.
Dealing with an injured or weakened limb, especially a weakened or injured arm, SUCKS. And what's worse is, it's his right arm that's injured and he just happens to have the awesome luck of being right handed.
He manages, barely, miraculously, to carry the tray with just his left hand without spilling anything.
Dean is lying on his side, facing away from the door, he seems to be trying to feign sleep, but Sam knows that he's awake and simply trying to avoid talking about this newest, load of a craptastic situation that's been heaped on them.
Dean hasn't got anything to worry about, Sam doesn't feel much like talking either.
Sam sets the tray on a small folding table he had set up early beside Dean's bed, then he taps Dean on the shoulder, waiting for Dean to peak open an eye, then he points to the food, letting Dean know it's there, Dean grunts in response and starts sitting up. When Sam sees that Dean has started eating he leaves the room, closing and locking the door from the outside.
Dean might be human enough, again, to have let out of the demon proof chains, but Sam knows better than to trust him completely just yet... Dean was still fully human and without The Mark when he enabled and encouraged an angel neither of them knew, to possess him, after all and Dean had still been fully and completely human and himself when he had let Cain pass The Mark on to him.. And Dean had still been.. Mostly, human when he had knocked him unconscious to go after Metatron alone..
Yeah.. Sam wasn't letting Dean free from this "hunter's version' of House Arrest until he knew for sure Dean was at least free from the influence of The Mark.. Everything else (all of the other 'trust issues' between him and Dean) would have to be worked out some other time...
For now.. Sam needs to rest, not sleep, he doubts he could sleep anyway and he needs to rehydrate and get some kind of nutrients into his body.. He has less than twenty-four hours before he's going to have to give Dean nearly another half a pint of his blood after all...
TBC...
A/N: Okay.. The Chapters are about to start getting longer, by a fair amount of words..