Plot Bunny Share Circle!
Pesky rabbits keep sneaking into the office. Not to worry. We called the exterminator.
#SPNFamily
#SupernaturaI pic.twitter.com/GzXDLDPbGL
- Jason Fischer (@JasonFischer77) March 12, 2015
Hi everyone! :) (For half of the world), spring is in the air, or soon-to-be! And if you're in the southern hemisphere, well... A changing season is a changing ( Read more... )
out cold. The nurse calls for Dad and he grabs Sam's arm. “Come on.”
One of the scrub-wearing people stops them at the end of the hall while the rest of them prepare to take Dean away in the special elevator. “Come with me,”
he says, pointing down the opposite hall. “I can take you upstairs; the CT might take a while.”
They go upstairs to a small waiting area with a couple of couches and chairs and a big TV in the corner. Dad nudges Sam toward the TV. “Go watch cartoons
while I talk to the doctor.”
“No.” Sam crosses his arms and plants his feet. “I wanna know what's wrong with Dean.”
Dad's face screws up like he's going to yell, but the doctor smiles at Sam. “Have a seat and we'll talk.”
Sam sits down on the couch next to his dad, who still looks like he wants to yell at him. The doctor nods at Dad. “It's a good thing you got him here so
quickly,” he says. “The faster we get him into surgery, the better chance there is of avoiding irreversible brain damage.”
Sam's eyes widen. “Brain damage?” He looks over at Dad and swallows hard. Dad looks like he just got punched in the gut. “What's wrong with Dean's
brain?”
“How much do you know about your brother's condition?” asks the doctor.
“Well, I know that his spinal cord's messed up and that's why he can't walk or go to the bathroom right,” says Sam. “It's called spina bifida, and he was born
like that so there's no way to fix it. And he gets sick all the freaking time.”
“Sam!” snaps Dad. “Watch your language.”
The doctor nods. “That's right, Sam. Now, there's a special type of fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It's called cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF.
Because your brother's spine is 'messed up', it doesn't drain the CSF the way it should. He has to have a small tube called a shunt in his head to drain the
extra CSF so it doesn't build up in his head and hurt his brain. Sometimes, a shunt gets blocked or broken, and then a neurosurgeon-someone like me-has
to perform an operation to fix the problem. Right now, the technicians are taking special pictures of Dean's brain to see where the problem is. Once they
figure it out, my team and I will go in and fix it.”
“Okay,” says Sam. It makes sense, although he's a little mad that Dean never told him he has a tube in his head. He knows just about everything else about
Dean's stupid messed-up body, like how he has to sleep on his stomach and have a special cushion on his wheelchair so he doesn't get those really disgusting
sores on his butt and legs again, and how he has to drink that yucky fiber stuff every morning at breakfast and every night before bed so Dad doesn't have to
stick his finger up Dean's butt to get the poop out. Sam still remembers the black eye Dean gave Dad the last time he tried that. He also remembers Dean
crying in the nurse's office because his stomach hurt so bad, and how he held Dean's hand till Dad could come get them. That was three years ago. Sam
hasn't seen him cry since.
“How long will the surgery take?” asks Dad.
“It depends on the nature of the malfunction,” says the doctor. “Based on the symptoms he's shown so far, the problem is more likely located in the brain
itself, which is the more challenging area to operate on, of course.”
“Right, right.” Dad rubs a hand over his beard. “You'll let us know when you find something?”
The doctor stands up and shakes John's hand. “Of course, Mr. Winchester.” He smiles down at Sam. “There's a VCR in the cabinet under the TV. I could
bring in some movies while you're waiting. Would you like that?”
“Do you have Ghostbusters?” Dean had let him watch the real version with the swearing when he was sick last week and the neighbor assigned to
check on them let them borrow it.
The doctor chuckles. “I'll see.”
Dad nudges Sam with his elbow, not gently. “Thank you,” he tells the doctor, and adds, “sir.” The doctor smiles and leaves the room.
Reply
“The carnival,” Sam fills in. “It's okay. There'll be another one in the summer.” He moves close and ducks his head, speaking only to Dean. “I'm glad you're okay.”
They stay in the waiting room until Dean gets out of recovery and the nurse moves him to a regular room in the kids' ward. Dean falls asleep after five minutes and the nurse tells them that he'll probably be out for the rest of the night, so they might as well go home and get some sleep.
It always feels weird to be in bed without Dean beside him. Sam leaves the door open a little ways so he can hear Dad snoring in the other room and he won't feel so alone.
That's how he hears the phone ring at 2:24 in the morning. He crawls out of bed, careful not to make the mattress squeak, and creeps over to the door to
listen.
“Yes, this is John Winchester.” There's a long pause. “Third floor, Neuro ICU. Yeah, I'll be right there.” Sam hears the phone click and runs back to bed, silently throwing himself back under the covers.
A second later, the light turns on. “Sam, wake up.”
Sam rolls over and sits up. “What's going on?”
“Get dressed. We're going back to the hospital.”
“Why? Did something happen to Dean?”
“I'll explain on the way. Clothes, now.”
Sam throws on his clothes from yesterday, but Dad grabs his hand and drags him out to the car before he can even finish tying his shoes. Dad grips the wheel so hard his knuckles turn white. “What's wrong?”
“Dean won't wake up,” says Dad, not taking his eyes off the road.
“Why?”
“They don't know yet.” Dad speeds up to get through a yellow light. “They need to do more tests.”
“But he's gonna be okay, right?”
Dad bites his lip. The tense silence is all the answer Sam needs. He thinks about all the times he's wished for a normal brother, or no brother at all, because Dean's “special needs” got in the way. Like when they had to buy coats that don't really fit from the Salvation Army because Dad had to spend all their extra money on a bigger wheelchair for Dean, or when Sam didn't get to go on the class field trip to the amusement park because Dean got sick and Dad had to take back the money for the ticket to buy medicine. But sometimes it's cool having Dean for a brother, because he gets to go on special trips and stuff with other kids who use wheelchairs and he'll always bring something back for Sam. He has a football autographed by three Dallas Cowboys players, a baseball cap autographed by Cal Ripken Jr., a t-shirt from the National Aquarium with glow-in-the-dark frogs, a keychain shaped like a sailboat, and a piggy bank that looks like a Hershey kiss.
Things would be a lot different without Dean.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Especially these bits:
Dad pushes Dean out the door and Dean doesn't even say anything. Sam frowns. Dean always yells at Dad when he tries to push him, because Dean thinks that pushing is for babies and he can wheel himself much faster than Dad can push him anyway. Something must be really wrong.
It's just a nice detail that shows Dean's personality pretty quickly, and also the seriousness of the situation.
It always feels weird to be in bed without Dean beside him. Sam leaves the door open a little ways so he can hear Dad snoring in the other room and he won't feel so alone.
And this is just very sweet.
Reply
Leave a comment