Disclaimer: I I don't own Supernatural or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Thank you to my lovely beta D767468 without which my chapters would not be nearly as good.
Dean stood there, he had started his day out in purgatory, fighting, bashing anything that came after him or Cas. One second he was surrounded by trees talking to Cas and the next he was in this field of rubble. Meeting his new brother (he couldn't remember his name even though Sam had told him), he didn't like that, another reminder that his Dad wasn't always with his mom. At least his new brother came from a time before his Mom instead of after. Plus there was the fact that he and his brother tended to get people killed just by knowing them.
Dean stared down at the man laying by the car, his head bleeding quite a bit like head wounds tended to do. He considered for a moment just leaving him there, but with a bleeding head wound like that, leaving him to lay there unconscious and unprotected was beyond cruel. Besides the man had helped him carry Sam to the car, even though he was obviously not up to the task. The man seemed to care about his brother a lot, and while that made him feel a little jealous it also made him glad. There was someone else in the world who cared about Sam and knew him. Especially knowing that when Dean was in purgatory he had no one, he was glad that the man had found Sam.
So in light of that he put his arms around the other man and pulled him into the passenger's seat. Dean winced as it pulled on the lacerated skin on his arms. He checked the man's pulse and found it a little quick but nothing life threatening. He looked for a first aid kit in the car, not finding one he found the keys in Sam's pocket.
Dean went around to the trunk, put the keys into the slot and popped it open. He saw 2 full duffel bags and a few empty ones, there was nothing unusual looking. Whether this was Sam's car or the man's car's, it was a hunter's car and Dean knew what that meant. Dean felt around for a latch, or seam, or something that would show the presence of something else underneath it. His fingers found a latch and found the release and the cover popped up. Yep definitely a hunter's car, he knew that by the guns and stakes and various weapons and a large first aid kit.
Dean took the first aid kit from the back of the car and made his way to the passengers side, where the other mans' head had bled quite a bit in his absence. He put on a pair of latex gloves, and mopped up the blood with some gauze. Once the blood was gone, he got a good look at the wound and took a deep breath. It was going to have to be stitched, and he was either going to have to do it himself or take him to a hospital. His first inclination was the hospital, but if he was a hunter, he'd probably also have a checkered record so driving him to a hospital could possibly put the man in jail.
Dean opened the man eyes and looked at the uneven pupil dilation, he definitely had a concussion that would need monitoring. Apparently big brothers were the same as little brothers, always getting hurt. Dean frowned at that thought, just because they were brothers didn't make them family, not yet, maybe not ever.
Dean pulled a roll of gauze out and wrapped it several times around the man's head tightly, hoping to slow the blood flow until he could get somewhere to stitch him up. He checked his pulse again which was which about the same as it had been when he had last checked it. To do so he was going to have to get them somewhere more private, somewhere they could rest too, somewhere not very far.
Dean picked up the keys which he had put down on the dashboard and shut the passenger's side door. He opened the back door and looked over at Sam who looked about the same. He leaned over and checked Sam's pulse, it was normal. He looked him over, Sam was still a little pale but that probably was just from the blood loss, his stupid stubborn brother risking his health for him. Dean felt around Sam's head looking for any injuries, finding nothing he opened Sam's eyes and saw that his pupils were even.
He shook his head, he had to the get the man to a hotel and fix him up. After that he could spend all the time he wanted looking after his brother. He closed the back door and made his way around the car and into the driver's seat, After trying a few keys he got one of the keys to turn over, the car started up smoothly. Dean missed the Impala, it always made him feel a little dirty driving all those other cars when all he wanted to do was drive his baby.
He pulled out and onto the nearest road he could find, and chose a direction at random and went that way. Dean kept doing this until he finally found an Inn. He glanced at the man and into the back seat where his brother was laid out. He had to get a room, but he didn't want to leave the car, not with his brother unconscious and no one to protect him but another unconscious man.
Dean turned around in his seat again and looked over at Sam and saw he was breathing okay. Though his skin was still pale, when he had opened Sam's eyes his pupils had been evenly dilated. Even if he did leave the two of them in the car there was still the issue of how he was going to get them into the room. Who would he take in first? The other man was more injured but Sam was his brother and Dean wanted to make sure Sam was okay first. However Sam was just unconscious, it was the other man who was in more danger with a concussion.
Still he wanted to get Sam inside first, even though he knew the other man was in more danger but he knew what was the right things to do. Then there was the logistics problems. He had needed the man to help him carry Sam to the car because of his injuries. He didn't think he could carry Sam in alone or the other man. He wasn't sure that if he could wake the man up or if he should.
He had to get a hotel room too but he didn't want to the leave two unconscious men alone in the car. He wished a least one of them was awake to watch over the other. As if an answer to his thoughts, he heard someone stirring in the back. He looked behind him to the backseat and saw Sam looking at him with barely opened eyes.
"Dean." he said half-asleep. Dean smiled, in that moment it didn't matter that Sam had taken him out of purgatory sans Cas he was just glad to be with Sam. Of course that didn't mean that when Sam was better he wasn't going to rip into him for leaving Cas there.
"Hey there." he said. Sam looked confused.
"Dean? What are you..?" he sat straight up suddenly and hit his head on the low ceiling in the back of the car. Dean looked at him concerned, the last thing he needed was two brothers with head injuries. He shook his head reminding himself that the man wasn't family. Speaking of that, not knowing the other man's name was kind of annoying him.
"What's his name?" Sam looked confused then seemed to understand. "Xander?" Dean looked over at the man unconscious next to him. Xander...huh.
"Are you okay?" he asked with a nod in Sam's direction. Sam rubbed his head a bit.
"My head's a little sore, but it's nothing serious." he glanced around the car.
""Where's Xander?" Dean having found the juice while looking for the first aid kit and having put it between the drivers and the passenger's seat, tossed Sam a small bottle of juice.
"Drink that." he ordered. Sam smiled as he caught the bottle, opened it and started drinking from it.
"Okay now will you tell me where Xander is?" Dean tilted his head toward the passengers seat and Sam frowned.
"He fainted like you, only he hit his head on the way down. It looks like he has a concussion. We'll have to watch him and wake him up every few hours." Sam looked worried as he opened his door and walked around the car to Xander's door and looked at him.
"Ouch." he said looking the gauze which was steadily getting redder.
"I have to get a room, watch him, will you?" Dean asked as Sam nodded not looking away from Xander.
"Make sure to get one in the back." Dean rolled his eyes.
"I was in purgatory, I didn't have a lobotomy." Sam smiled briefly before his face took on his worried expression again. Dean wasn't jealous, he wasn't jealous he told himself as he made his way out of the car and into the inn.
15 minutes later he came out with 2 key cards in a little white envelope in his hand. When he caught sight of Sam's worried face watching over the man...Xander, from the driver's seat he told himself again that he wasn't jealous.
"Move." he said to Sam who had moved into the driver's seat in his absence. Sam nodded and moved to the backseat. Dean got in and drove them around to the back of the inn and parked. The moment the car stopped, Sam was out and around the car again, he wasn't jealous he reminded himself.
"I'm sure he's fine, it just looks like a concussion, something we've had millions of times." Dean found himself reassuring Sam as he got out of the car as well. He made his way to their motel door, opened it, then made his way over to the passenger door which Sam had already gotten open. Sam nodded and bent over and started to reach for Xander.
"You okay to do this?" Sam nodded. "You just fainted." Dean pointed out.
"I'm fine." he said and grabbed Xander shoulders while Dean grabbed Xander's feet, together they lifted Xander. Dean got a little worried as they moved Xander, because Sam was looking at him and Dean could see his skin as it started paling again. Dean was glad when they put Xander down on the bed closest to the door. Especially because Sam's skin regained a little of its color. Sam went towards the door, obviously intent on getting something from the car.
"Sit." Dean ordered. Sam looked like he wanted to argue. "Sit!" Dean commanded sharply, and Sam sat down in the one of the chairs next to the bed. Dean went to the open car door and he grabbed the first aid kit and juice and shut the doors. He went back into the room and closed the door after him. Sam looked like he was going to get up.
"Stay down in that seat or I'm going to glue your ass to it, got it?" Dean said and threw Sam another bottle of juice which he caught.
"Since I am not the one who apparently lost half of their blood volume doing a spell, I will be the one to fix him up." he said while putting the first aid kit on the table. He took out another pair of gloves and put them on. He unwrapped Xander's head and mopped up the blood again. He smiled as he found a numbing agent, this guy was more well stocked then a lot of hunters who got through stitches with alcohol. Dean filled a syringe with the numbing agent and injected it around the gash in Xander's head. Then he opened a new needle package and threaded the surgical thread. Dean stitched up the wound and then put a gauze pad on the wound and taped the edges down with medical tape.
Dean cleaned up then and sat down across from Sam who was still looking at Xander. He wasn't jealous.
"How long...how long have you two known each other?" Dean asked trying to sound nonchalant.
"About 3 weeks." Sam answered not looking away from Xander.
"And you trust him?" Dean asked, this time Sam looked at him.
"I know I don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to people I associate with when you're away, but Xander, he's different." Sam laughed and then closed his eyes. "I was a mess, trying to find you any way I could, except demons or freaking powers." he laughed self-deprecatingly. "At least I learned my lesson in that department. I was an ass to Xander, a really big ass to Xander especially at first." another self-deprecatingly laugh "The first time we met I held a gun on him. Or at least I think I did, it's all a little fuzzy because I was drunk off my ass at the time." Dean eyes opened a little wider, a drunk Sam had held his gun on this guy and he hadn't run the other way
"He gave me a way to get you out, without him you'd still be there." Like Cas was, only he didn't feel like this was the time to beat Sam up about it, maybe after a got back a little more color in his cheeks.
"And you trust him?" Dean asked again, because he didn't, he didn't trust easily. Especially when it came to people who were interested in his brother, since so many of them had only been interested in him to try to manipulate him in some way. Sam's face turned pensive.
"I'm not sure, but I think so. He had so many opportunities to kill me, if he wanted me dead." Dean decided not to mention that most people who manipulated Sam hadn't wanted him dead either. "He honestly seemed concerned about my well-being." People lie.
"And you're sure about the DNA test?" Sam nodded. "And you're sure that he's not a monster?" Sam nodded again.
"Does it raise any red flags with you that he's a hunter and he supposedly became one before we even met. Doesn't that seem a little too neat for you?" Sam shrugged and said.
"He lived on the hellmouth." Dean frowned.
"The place where the rules are different?"
"Yeah apparently he grew up around demons and monsters but had no idea until he was 15." Lucky bastard.
"And you have proof of this?" Dean asked and Sam looked over at him looking offended. Maybe he should back off on this unless he wanted a fight. Dean held his hands up defensively.
"Look I'm a suspicious person by nature and life has done nothing but prove to me, you have to be suspicious of everyone until they prove they're trustworthy and even then you can still get hurt." Dean cursed inwardly as he saw Sam's face. He hadn't meant to bring that up.
"I'm just trying to be careful is all." Sam looked at him and after a long moment smiled.
"Always trying to protect me aren't you?" Sam said so softly that Dean barely heard him.
"I've missed you Dean, overprotective tendencies and all." Dean smiled at that as well. Sam got up from his chair and Dean watched him looking for any unsteadiness, but found none. Dean got up from his chair as well, knowing that it was time, the only time they allowed this. Sam came at him and wrapped his arms around him and Dean hugged him back.
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