I know it's been a long time and i'm sorry, i've tried to find a few extra minutes here and there between shifts and overtime because we are short staffed at the moment. Ahh if only I could be a writer for real but then I do love my job! Thanks for the reviews so far and please let me know if you like it ! Also thanks to my beta reader who kicked my butt to get this chapter up!

Part 3

Exhaling heavily, Dean Winchester, paced slowly around the room he and Sam used to share when they'd been kids. When everything was so much simpler, before Sam and been thinking of getting away from the life they'd been born into, away from him.

He was too hot, too cold, too exhausted, too...everything all at the same time, he expected for Sam to be gone when or if he wanted to return to the main room of Bobby's house.

If he just stood here and closed his eyes he could imagine the easy laughter he used to be able to get from his younger brother, sure they would fight as boys do but then it didn't really mean much, and they would always depend on each other whenever their father was off on a hunt.

Slamming his hands on the cabinet they used to share, scattering the only toys they'd really had as children, Dean's body screamed its pain in his mind, telling him to let go and rest but he never could if he'd fought with Sam, or if he knew Sam wanted to leave.

His lungs were gurgling with the water that was still trapped there from the dip in the lake, he could hear it in every breath, he was roasting from the inside out due to the bullet wound probably being infected by the same water. It all felt wrong though, he thought Sam had looked shocked by what he'd said that maybe Sam wasn't going to leave because that hadn't been what he'd meant.

But experience had taught its cruel lesson years ago, many times he'd been guilty of hoping that his brother wouldn't actually leave and he had anyway. What sort of messed up family were they if he was guilty of hoping his brother wasn't leaving them...leaving him...why in the world was he fighting for that?

His thoughts were interrupted when the door came crashing open.

Unfortunately, the cabinet holding Dean up was next to the door and even though the door only clipped Dean in the shoulder briefly, his fading strength and the fact it was his bad shoulder all accumulated in him being sent unceremoniously to the hard, unforgiving ground. Leaving the wounded brother gasping for breath.

Sam could have kicked himself, he should have knocked and waited for an answer.

"Crap, Dean!" He knelt down next to his brother, the struggle to breathe worrying him.

Dean was curled up on his left side, his right hand clutching his left shoulder, breaths were stuttering out at irregular intervals that Sam knew weren't good.

"Dean?" Sam tried to get his brothers attention and attempted to move Dean on to his back by gripping Dean's right arm, not knowing it would cause his brother more pain.

So when Dean felt his arm being grabbed, he flinched away violently as if he'd been burned, that was when Bobby walked in the room having heard the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the ground.

"What in the hell is going on in here?" Bobby moved towards the boys, Dean now having stood, albeit shakily and moved to lean heavily against the back wall; clutching is right arm with a weakened left arm. The boy was a state; eyes looking accusingly but glassily at Sam, blood seeping from underneath trembling hands, breaths shallow and ragged as they stuttered out .

"Bobby?" Sam voice was anguished and looked completely confused, each time he tried to moved closer to his brother, his brother's breathing would hitch as if in action to flinch away from him.

"Sam, get some hot water, towels and all of the medical supplies I own and meet me back up here? "

"But I..."

"Sam!" Bobby didn't have time to be tending to Sam's feelings right now, they could be sorted out later. Right now he was seriously considering getting Dean to the hospital in the state he was in, even though he knew the kid would fight it with all he had left.

But all he had wasn't much at all, his eyes drooped when Sam had left, knowing that Bobby wouldn't let anything happen to him. Bobby was two steps away when Dean's body sent him to the ground, fast.

"Balls!" He barely caught the younger man in time and knew immediately once he had hold of Dean that he needed more than he was equipped for. He could feel the heat radiating off him in waves and thought he felt a shudder run through the unconscious form of Dean.

But then the shudder continued.

And became more violent, arms and legs were moving feebly. This was bad, if Dean's body didn't even have the energy to convulse properly from the fever.

"Bobby? What happened to him?"

Bobby spun around to the door towards Sam, Sam's expression that of someone who honestly didn't remember inflicting the damage, but then he could tell that Sam must remember something as the guilt was also written all over his face.

He realised what had caught Sam's attention and almost lost his breakfast, no wonder Sam looked pale and Dean hadn't wanted either of them to touch him.

The seizure caused by the fever had ruffled Dean clothing, one of the sleeves on his jacket had rolled up, exposing the raw, leaking burn on his right arm.

Deciding what needed to be done, Bobby quickly and efficiently did what he could for Dean with the kit Sam had brought him and started lifting Dean.

"Are ya gonna help me?" He grunted to Sam.

Sam, shocked by the state of his older brother and how fast the situation had deteriorated took a minute to move but did what he was told and together they got Dean to their car.

Dean was settled in the back, leant upright against Sam's chest because any other position seemed to labour his breathing. Sam could feel the heat of his brothers skin, it was as if he was burning up, but at the same time his body shivering.

Burning...Sizzling flesh...green eyes conveying agony...the strain of holding back screams...DEAN!... his own unheard screams...

Sam jumped in the backseat of the racing Impala, the night sky clear but so dark that it seems like it was enveloping the car completely, apart from the high beams leading the way to the nearest hospital. A stuttering word shook away the images in his mind and broke his heart at all the things the man in his arms shouldn't have to feel because of him.

"S'mmy."

Even though it was only one broken, stuttered word, its sounded almost hopeful but lost at the same time, almost as if the person speaking it didn't really believe what was in front of him.

Years worth of 'are you really there this time' and Sam had to look away and hated that he'd put that doubt in his brother, a good man who would willing protect him from everything he could, no matter the cost to himself.

Sam caught Bobby's look in the rear view mirror and it made him wonder just how many times Bobby had seen this while he'd been living it up in Stanford. The Breath he blew out had to force its way past the lump in his throat as he returned his eyes to his brother, who was still looking up at him through fever ridden eyes waiting for an answer to unspoken questions that Sam found difficult to answer right away.

In a move that would embarrass Dean on any other normal day, Sam took hold of Dean's face gently in his hands and hoped this would still work as it had when they were kids.

"I'm right here Dean, I'm not going anywhere."

Bobby sighed, even as a kid Dean had had nightmares about Sam being missing or just gone, their Dad had never known, too distracted by the mission he was on, Sam had only been privy to a few of them and Dean, well he never spoke about them as he didn't want to worry anyone with anything that wasn't that important. And boy could Bobby write a book on all the things Dean deemed not to be important which mostly included anything Dean had wanted and damn well deserved.

They were only a few miles away from the hospital, Bobby looking back at the boys as often as he could while still keeping them on the road and out of danger, Sam holding on to his brother as if all their lives depended on it. Dean's breathing was loud even over the hum of the Impala's beast of an engine, but it told them that he was still fighting and if that's what they would remember for days to come and in nightmares then so be it.

So when, close enough to see the hospital lights, the only sound they could hear was the hum of the car's engine, Bobby's blood ran cold and he didn't need to hear Sam's pleas with his brother and equally shouting Bobby's name to know that Dean had stopped breathing and the world around the surrogate family became a blur of desperation, bright lights, rushed actions attempting to stave off death.

TBC

I know that this is a really mean cliff hanger...but it's what the muse wanted to do...naughty muse she is a little evil but i do hope to have the next chapter out next week because this is just cruel to you poor readers !