Fic: "Picking Up The Pieces"
Title: Picking Up The Pieces
Rating: K+
Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester
Word count: ~1800
Warning: Contains spoilers of Supernatural - season 6 & 7.
Summary: Following immediately after the end of 7x10 - "Death's Door". The brothers are having a hard time dealing with the news about their surrogate father. Emotional/bigbrother!Dean & Emotional/broken!Sam.
The Winchester brothers watched in silent horror as the man, who had been like a father to them almost their entire lives, flat-lined in front of their eyes. They were pushed out of the way while a number of doctors and nurses rushed to the old hunter's side to try to bring him back to life.
"Clear!" A doctor shouted and pushed the defibrillator pads down on Bobby's chest. Bobby flopped lifelessly up and down and both Winchester brothers were suddenly finding it hard to breathe. This was like watching their dad die all over again, and Sam's breath quickened while Dean's jaw fell slightly opened as he stared at the scene in front of him. The defibrillator was pushed down a second time but the heart monitor still showed a flat-line. "Again!" The doctor shouted and when Bobby flopped up and down this time, the noise from the heart monitor changed into beeps. "Oh thank God.." Sam said in a soft voice from his position halfway behind his brother, and Dean suddenly felt like breathing again. "How is he? Is he gonna be okay?" Dean immediately asked when the doctor approached them.
"Well.. We managed to get Mr. Singer's heart beating again, but he's in a coma.." The doctor said.
"But that's a good thing, right?" Dean asked. "I mean, at least he's not dead. How long do you think it'll take before he wakes up?"
The doctor looked down for a minute and cleared his throat before looking into Dean's hopeful eyes again.
"I'm sorry, but.. in cases like these.. I don't think he'll wake up again." The doctor said.
"W-what..?" Dean said and stared at the doctor with wide eyes.
"I'm sorry.." The doctor repeated and that was when both brothers' worlds came crashing down.
Sam started panting and bent forward a bit while placing his hands on his knees, and Dean just kept staring at the doctor before finally snapping.
"Son of a b*tch!" Dean shouted and angrily knocked over a cart with medical instruments, before storming towards the exit.
Dean had only one thought in his head right now and that was to get out of this place as soon as possible! Luckily for the people he passed, they made sure to stay out of his way before Dean stormed out of the front doors and continued marching until he'd found an outlying bench. Dean sat down on it and then finally allowed the tears to roll down his cheeks. Bobby can't die.. He just can't.. Dean didn't know how long he'd been sitting there when he, at last, wiped the tears off his face with his sleeve and then washed a hand down his face.
"I'm not gonna allow you to do this Bobby.." Dean said. "What am I gonna do without you? What are Sam and I.." Oh God, Sammy..!
Dean suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over him when he thought about his little brother. Sam must have been just as devastated as him, and it wasn't like the kid didn't already have enough of things to deal with inside that scrambled head of his. Dean sighed and decided to get up from the bench to go find his brother.
People were still eyeing him warily when Dean returned to the hospital, but he ignored the looks and walked with determined steps in search for Sam. However, he wasn't prepared for the sight that met him when he walked into the room where he'd left Sam. There was a little bit of a commotion going on inside the room and it seemed to be circled around a corner of the room. Dean got a bad feeling and his heart hammered inside his chest as he walked closer and saw his baby brother sitting in the corner with his knees drawn up against his chest and his arms wrapped around them. His eyes were clenched shut and his forehead were touching his knees as he rocked back and forth while muttering something Dean couldn't hear. Some nurses had crouched down in front of Sam and was trying to get his attention but it didn't seem like it was working.
"What happened?" Dean demanded to know and he rushed to his brother's side. "Sammy?"
"It happened after you left.." A blond-haired nurse told him. "He just went down and scrambled into the corner. He's been like this ever since."
"Sam?" Dean asked and shot his brother a concerned look while gently shaking his shoulder a bit without getting a reaction, and he could now hear the words Sam was muttering.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up.." Sam mumbled. "Not real.. Not real.. Shut up.."
"I'll take it from here.." Dean said without taking his eyes away from Sam, and all nurses left except the blond-haired one.
"Do you know if something's wrong with him?" The nurse asked. "If we knew then maybe we could…"
"Nothing's wrong with my brother!" Dean practically shouted at the nurse who surprisingly enough looked unaffected by Dean's out-burst.
"Well, he could be dealing with the shock after the news about your uncle.." The nurse said. "We have some very professional therapists here that would be gladly to help."
"Sam doesn't need a therapist - he's fine!" Dean snapped.
"But I just think that.." The nurse started when Dean cut her off.
"Back off lady! Now!" Dean growled and the nurse finally seemed to be able to take a hint.
Dean then turned to look at the other people in the room who were staring shamelessly at the two of them. "What are you looking at? There's no freak show here! Walk away!"
The people drew their attentions elsewhere and Dean was finally able to focus entirely on Sam.
"Sammy?" Dean asked and put a hand on the back of Sam's neck and the other one on his brother's shoulder. "Sam, come on man.."
Sam kept his eyes shut and continued to mumble under his breath as if he hadn't heard Dean at all.
"Sam, it's Dean." Dean said and placed both his hands on Sam's cheeks. "Come on little brother.. Open your eyes and see for yourself.. I'm here, it's gonna be okay. Big brother always fixes everything, right? Sammy! Look at me!"
Sam finally stopped mumbling and slowly opened his eyes to look at Dean.
"That's it, that's it.. Hi Sammy.." Dean said with a small smile as he saw recognition in his brother's eyes.
"De..?" Sam said in a small voice, sounding all six years old which pulled at Dean's heartstrings.
"Yeah, it's me.. I'm right here.." Dean said in a soft voice.
Sam let go of his knee to reach a hand out for Dean's shirt when Dean noticed the blood on his hand.
"Jesus Sammy!" Dean exclaimed and grabbed Sam's wrist.
He located the bleeding to the healing wound on Sam's left hand from when he'd had a piece of glass stuck in it. Dean's heart sank when he realized exactly why Sam had been pushing down so hard on the wound that it had started bleeding.
"Sam.." Dean began.
"How's Bobby?" Sam asked with big dewy eyes.
When Dean didn't answer but just continued to look into his brother's eyes with a sad look, Sam's breathing hitched.
"So it's real then?" Sam asked as tears formed in his eyes and started rolling down his cheeks. "He's gonna die? This is real..?"
Dean could only look helplessly at his little brother as Sam then started sobbing. Dean bit his lower lip and decided to drop his no-chick-flick-rule for the moment before he wrapped his arms around Sam's shaky form and hugged him tight.
"Shh, don't cry Sammy.. Please don't cry.." Dean said and had to fight hard against his own tears as Sam continued to sob uncontrollably into his neck.
Dean rested his chin on the top of Sam's head and swore that he would kick the crap out of anyone who dared to comment on this scene or about his brother.
"Hey.. Look at me.." Dean said as he pulled back and once again placed his hands on Sam's cheeks, forcing his baby brother to look into his eyes. "I won't let him die, okay? Not now. Not like this. We'll find a way.. Together.."
Sam sniffled and looked at Dean with trustful, puffy eyes before nodding.
"Okay?" Dean asked and wiped the tears off Sam's face with his thumbs.
"Okay.." Sam said in a raspy voice before nodding his head a bit.
Dean smiled and patted Sam's shoulder before getting up from his crouching position and then helped his giant little brother to his feet. Dean held on to his brother's arm as he led him into the room where Bobby was sleeping (or whatever it was called when someone had slipped into a frigging coma!) Dean pushed Sam down in a chair next to Bobby's bed and plopped down in one too before giving Bobby's hand a squeeze.
"We won't give up on you old man.." Dean said to him. "So you just keep fighting, okay? You keep fighting and then we'll find a way to bring you back to us.."
Sam nodded in agreement and then looked at the numbers Bobby had written on his hand. He didn't yet know how to help his surrogate father, but Sam decided he would make it his mission to find out what these numbers meant. The first thing he did though was to memorize the numbers and he then glanced at his big brother who was still talking to Bobby as if he could hear every word Dean spoke. And maybe he did hear every word, Sam couldn't know for sure. But there was one thing he was certain of, and that was the fact that he would continue to take on the world as long as Dean was around. Dean kept him grounded - he was Sam's stone number one - and if Sam believed in anyone to pick up the pieces and fix this situation, it would be his big brother.
"What are you smiling at, b*tch?" Dean suddenly asked.
"Nothing.." Sam muttered.
"…"
"Jerk."
THE END