John Winchester came back to the world of the living slowly. He heard the beeps of the hospital machines, and smelled antiseptic then he went back under into blissful darkness. The second time he was able to get his eyes open. He blinked a couple of times as the figure beside his bed became clearer and clearer.

John took a long look at his oldest son. Dean had his chin resting against his own chest, a ghost of stubble clear across his cheeks. His arms were crossed across his chest, and he was wearing his fathers worn leather jacket. John sighed sadly. His son used to look so young in his sleep, now the weight he carried seemed to not even be able to let go in his dreams. Dean blinked and opened his eyes feeling a change in the air, and his gaze came to rest on his father.

"Hey Dad. How you feeling?"

"Like a ghost took a chunk outta me."

"A couple of chunks judging by what the doctor said. Jim called to check in on you, wants a report as soon as you are able to get one to him."

"Thats what Caleb's for Ace. Privates get to do the paperwork."

Dean chuckled.

"Yeah... gotta get myself a Subordinate."

Dean frowned and John could feel the elephant in the room that was Sam. The missing Winchester was always here with them, though neither man ever spoke his name in each other's presence. John cleared his throat quickly.

"Caleb and I have a motel room on Main Street. Grab the keys from my coat and go get some sleep."

"No Dad, I'm fine here."

John frowned at the borderline panic in his son's usually calm face. Something had obviously gone on when he was unconscious. He wanted to comfort his son, but he pushed it down because he didn't have time for insubordination.

"Dean, I appreciate your driving all the way out here, but you are going to do me no good if you are burnt out. Go get some sleep. That's an order."

Dean shrunk into himself.

"Yes Sir."

Dean stood and reached for the keys in his father's coat pocket, he stopped at the doorway before exiting.

"Dad... you gonna be here when I come back?" Dean asked.

John looked up at his son one more time and saw the insecurity in his son's face. It wasn't unusual for John to leave the hospital against medical advice, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time he left town without saying goodbye. But the lost look in his son's face awakened a dormant part of the oldest Winchester, the part that wanted to comfort his little boy.

"Come back in 8 hours. I will be here. I promise."

Dean nodded and walked away. John knew he wasn't necessarily believed but this time he planned on keeping his promise. John allowed his eyes to close again, and he drifted back to sleep.

When he woke again, he didn't know how much time had passed, but he knew it couldn't have been long. Dean hadn't returned, but Caleb Reaves was sitting next to his bed reading a magazine.

"Don't you have a job to get back to, Kid."

Caleb smirked and looked at John over the magazine.

"Yeah, but I promised Deuce I would sit with you until he came back."

John groaned.

"I wasn't gonna go anywhere Caleb. I promised him."

Caleb shrugged.

"Yeah well, he wasn't going to get any sleep without some reassurances."

"When did I become unworthy of my son's trust?"

Caleb looked at the Knight, who was obviously still under the influence of pain medication. There would be Hell to pay for this later, but John had once told Caleb it was better to kick a man when he was down. Caleb didn't believe in his mentor's logic, but he wasn't above using it against him.

"Probably somewhere between running his brother out of his life and when you became incapable of returning either of their phone calls."

John glared at the younger man.

"You are out of line."

"You asked. Now I have a question for you."

"If I tell you to fuck off will that make you shut up?"

Caleb ignored the surly retort.

"I deleted the voicemails from Sam. Figured the whole trust thing with Deuce wouldn't get any better if he found out you ignored his brother's pleas for help."

John swallowed grimly.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me you ass. I didn't do it for you. I did it for Deuce. What the hell you thinking John? Ignoring Sam like that? Hell, if you didn't want to call him back you could have called me, I would have gone out and handled the hunt."

"Sam doesn't get to call me and access Brotherhood resources. He lost that right."

"Okay first, you can't strip him of his ring, only Jim can he is still a member of the Brotherhood. He is just... inactive. Second, he wasn't calling The Knight of the Brotherhood, he was calling his Dad."

"No difference."

Caleb scoffed.

"You know... the sad part is you actually believe that. You think that was about the Brotherhood? Sam could have called any of us. He could have reached out to his brother. He chose to reach out to you. Did you ever think that maybe that was some kind of an olive branch? He wanted you to help him."

John threw his arm over his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at Caleb as his eyes started to burn.

"Sam made his choice. He walked away from all of us. He is a civilian. I am not sending any of my men into a hunt based off the probably flawed intel of a college freshman. Someone could get hurt."

"That college Freshman has been researching hunts for us since he was a preteen. If he couldn't put together the research on this, then that's your failure not his. Are you so fucking stubborn that you wouldn't send the kid some help for a monster literally in his backyard? What if something happened to him? How would you be able to live with yourself?"

John sat up on the bed with a wince. Caleb was way to upset for this to be a conversation of what ifs.

"Did something happen that you aren't telling me?" John asked.

Caleb was at an impasse. He wanted to tell John about Sam's injuries, that Sam was forced to take care of the hunt himself. But he knew that if he did, he would prove to John that Sam was still a hunter. He couldn't do that to the kid.

"Nothing happened. All I am saying is that if Sam ever reaches out again. Let me know so we can handle it."

John didn't agree to the younger man's terms, but Caleb hoped the message had gotten through to him.

"So, you think we should send someone out to check on it?" John asked.

"No, it's handled."

"How?"

"Does it matter? There is nothing left to hunt, it been taken care of."

"So, Sam was right?" John asked.

Caleb looked at the older hunter unable to understand the thoughtful look on his face. He had been around the Winchesters since the boys were practically babies. He knew he had a streak of Winchester in himself. He had never understood John and Sam and their inability to find any common ground.

"You trained him well." Caleb replied.

The men sat in silence thinking about the fractures in their family. John's anger had driven Sam away while Sam's stubbornness kept him from coming back. Dean was left to flounder in the middle, his foundation cracked in a way that seemed unfixable. John had asked when he had become unworthy of his son's trust, and Caleb couldn't answer the man.

Honestly Caleb's own anger was clouding his judgement but sitting in this hospital with the Patriarch of the Winchester family, the father of two young men who were each broken in their own way, Caleb wasn't sure if John Winchester had ever been worthy of his son's trust at all.