All is Fine 5/6
Title: All is Fine 5/6
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; Minor Violence and Language
Word Count: ~2200
A/N: This was originally written for the ohsam Comment Fic Meme for cherry916 But it got such a lovely response that I decided to continue it on. Thank you beckalooby for helping me figure out how to do that!
Summary: Teen!Chesters. While Dean is away on a hunt with Caleb there is no buffer between Sam and John. To make it worse, Sam is having a hard time at school with bullies. It is getting harder and harder to hide from his dad and big brother, and Sam does not want to appear weak. But what will happen when his secret is found out? How does he cope with both his dad and his big brother finding out everything?
They all had a long way to go, but things were looking to be on the mend for now at least.
A choked sob and soft whimpering brought the oldest Winchesters back to consciousness. They each nearly toppled out of their chairs as they took in Sam lying in the bed, obviously in distress.
“Sammy?” Dean asked, leaning towards the bed. All the sleep had been shaken off as soon as his brother’s pain had filtered through his brain. “What’s wrong kiddo?” Dean took Sam’s hand in his, noting the tremors going through it.
“Hurts,” Sam breathed out around sniffles. He was doing his best to keep the tears from falling, but his whole body felt on fire.
Dean’s panicked face stared up and John, prompting him to stand from his chair. “I’ll get your doctor buddy. Just hang in there for me.” John ran his hand through Sam’s hair before rushing out of the room.
“Gah!” Sam moaned as pain coursed through his side.
“Sshhh,” Dean soothed. “I know Sammy…just hang in there a minute…ok? Dad’ll be right back.”
As if on cue, Dr. Aldridge and John walked into the room. The doctor set about checking on all of Sam’s vitals and IVs. “Hi, Sam…I’m Dr. Aldridge and I’m gonna be taking care of you. Now, sweetie can you tell me what’s wrong?”
Sam opened his mouth to answer, but he snapped it along with his eyes shut when fresh pain welled up in his body. A whimper ended up being the only response he could give.
“Ok, Sam…it’s alright. Just let me take a look at your incision.” She reached down to pull the blanket and gown aside. She then carefully pulled back the gauze covering the stitches. In doing so, she revealed hot, red skin underneath. “Aww…sweetie…” It was obvious infection had set in there as well.
Sam sucked in a shaky breath as she prodded around the stitches. Pus seeped between them, covering her gloves. Sam shook with each poke and did his best not to cry out during her examination. A couple of times he couldn’t help but let his pain become vocal.
“I know…I’m so sorry. Sam, I’m going to have to disinfect this again. Then we’ll get you a stronger antibiotic. Hopefully that will make you feel better in no time.” She reached up and moved his sweaty bangs away from his eyes. Although he was in pain and felt awful, he was comforted some by the kindly nature of the doctor. Both Dean and John were instantly impressed by the way she treated their youngest family member.
She hit the call button, quickly instructing nurses to bring in the required instruments and medications. Before long, Sam was blitzed out on painkillers and sedatives. Once Dr. Aldridge was sure that Sam was sedated enough, she and her staff set to work. They quickly drained and cleaned the pus away from the stitches, cutting away the one that were too infected. After a few minutes of that, she redid the rest of the stitches and pulled a clean gauze pad onto the area.
“He should sleep that off for awhile,” she said as she stood. “I’m sorry about that Mr. Winchester. We had been watching closely for signs and he had seemed to be doing well earlier. I’m not sure if we missed something earlier or it just snuck up on us.”
John nodded his head. “Too late to really worry about that now. But I know you all are giving Sam the best care. Sometimes things happen…”
As much as he hated it…
“Still…I’ll make sure we monitor Sam more closely from here on out. I don’t want to risk anything. His body is already dealing with enough infection as it is. Now, I want to start him on a higher dosage and stronger type of antibiotic to combat that. The only thing I’m worried is that it tends to have unfortunate side effects at times.”
“Like what?” Dean spoke up for the first time in a long time.
“Normally patients experience loss of appetite and an upset stomach. Given that Sam had to have abdominal surgery, I’m a little worried what this could do to him. Sometimes patients will experience nausea and actually become sick off of it. The last thing we want is Sam’s abdomen to become strained because of vomiting. But I don’t think we have any other option. We’ll just have to keep a close eye on his once he wakes to prevent it as much as possible.”
“I understand,” John said somberly. Dean only nodded before looking down at his sleeping brother.
“I have to go check on a couple of my other patients, but I’ll be back by on and off throughout the day. I’ll make sure to have some of the nurses to come in as well.”
“Thank you,” John muttered.
With that, the Winchesters were left alone to wait out the illness plaguing Sam.
After sitting there for a few hours, John couldn’t help but notice the haggard look on Dean’s face. “Why don’t you get some rest Dean? You could find a local mo-”
“I’m fine, Dad…”
“Son-“
“Am I interrupting anything?” Dr. Aldridge said as she pushed open the door.
“No,” Dean quickly answered.
“I was just trying to convince Dean to go get some rest at a motel.”
“You do look like you could use some sleep Dean.” He sent her a glare. “But I can tell you don’t want to leaver your brother…so why don’t you use the doctor’s lounge? There is a bigger bathroom with a shower stall you could use. And the couch is huge.”
“I don’t want to be too far from Sam.”
“You wouldn’t be sweetie. The lounge is at the end of this floor. You’d just be down the hall from him. Besides, those meds are still working for you brother. He’ll probably end up sleeping ‘til this evening.”
“But-“
“Dean, you know Sam will be upset if he sees you’ve worn yourself thin.”
Although he really didn’t want to, he ended up nodding in agreement and following the doctor out of the room.
SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN
“Yeah, thanks Bobby,” John said into the phone. “The boys and I would really appreciate that. No, not sure yet when he’ll be able to leave. Just depends on his infection at this point. But at least we aren’t too far from you.”
The slight rustling of bed sheets had John nearly dropping his phone. “Hey, I’m gonna have to get off here. Yeah I will. Thanks again.” He hung up quickly so that he could give his injured son his full attention. “Sammy?”
“D’d?”
“Hey buddy…good to see you awake.” John stood from the chair so he could lean over Sam better. He brushed his hand along Sam’s still fevered forehead. “How ya feelin’?”
Sam blinked up at his dad, trying to clear away the last bit of sleep that remained. “Sore.”
“Are you still hurting like earlier kiddo?”
“Not as bad…just sore.”
“That’s good Sam,” John smiled.
Sam glanced around the room. “Where’s Dean?”
“Doctor’s lounge,” John sighed. “He was about to drop so your doctor let him in there so he could catch up on some sleep.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Dad. I should-“
“Nothing to be sorry ‘bout. You’re sick and hurt; we are just worried about you buddy.”
“Shouldn’t have to be. I-“
“Sam, is that why you didn’t show us your knee?”
Sam nodded and turned his head away from his dad.
“Hey,” John said gently. He carefully took Sam’s chin and turned his face back towards his. “You can always come to us kiddo. We aren’t going to get mad or anything.”
“I know…but you’ve had to worry about me enough. I know you tried to give me space, but I could tell. I don’t want you to have to worry about me so much.”
“Sam, whether you want us to or not, Dean and I will always worry about you. That’s what family does for one another.”
“I know. It’s just…feels like you guys have to worry about me a lot more than you should.”
“Sam, don’t think like that.” John cupped Sam’s cheek. “I worry about you so much because I care so much. Same goes for Dean. Don’t think about it any other way.”
Sam blinked away a few tears and leaned in closer to his dad’s touch. “I’ll try.”
“That’s my boy.” John wiped away the few tears that had slipped through Sam’s closed lids. “What do you say I go get your brother? How about I grab you something to eat too huh? You slept through the food cart rounds earlier.”
“Yeah…I wanna see Dean. Don’t think I can eat though,” Sam replied with a grimace.
“What’s wrong?”
“My stomach is a little upset. That’s all Dad.”
“Yeah, the doc said your antibiotics would do that. Let us know if it gets worse buddy. I’ll go get Dean for ya.”
With that, John slipped out of the room and rushed off towards Dean, not wanting to leave Sam alone for long. He easily found the doctor’s lounge. Dean still lay asleep on the large couch; John really hated to wake him. But he also knew what would happen if he didn’t. He crept over and gently shook his son awake. “Dean? Wake up bud.”
“Wha? D’d?” Dean reached up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Dad?!? Is something wrong? Why aren’t you with Sam?” Dean started to scramble up from the couch, tangling his legs in the blanket he had been using.
“Slow down, Dean!” John caught his son’s arm and pushed him back towards the couch. He then untangled the blanket. “Sam just woke up and I figured you’d want me to come get you. Think he wants to see you too.”
Dean glanced at the clock on the wall. “Thought he’d be out of it for a while still?”
“When has Sam ever followed what a doctor said?”
“True,” Dean huffed. He pushed off the couch and began to walk out of the room, eliciting a huff from John this time who was left with little choice other than to follow him.
Dean made the trek back to Sam’s room in seconds. Upon entering, he saw Sam wide-awake and trying to curl in on himself as best as his injured side will allow.
“Hey…how ya doin’ kid?” Dean took up his place at Sam’s side once again.
“I’m fine, Dean,” Sam said in a voice that implied he was anything but that.
“I call BS. How you really feelin’?”
“My stomach just hurts some.” Dean’s eyes grew wide at what those words could mean. “No, it’s nothing like earlier.”
The doctor’s words from earlier about the side effects of the medication Sam had to be on floated back through his mind. “Oh, I’m sorry buddy.”
Sam nodded, really wishing that he could curl into a ball like he so wanted to.
“Hey, stop that,” Dean gently warned. “You’re gonna pop stitches. You’ve already seen what that can do to you.”
Guilt washed over Sam. “I’m so-“
“Shh,” Dean mumbled. He pulled Sam’s legs carefully away from his body so that he would no longer lie in the ball. Sam started to protest, but Dean easily squashed he weak attempts. “You’ll thank me later bitch.” When the normal reply never came, Dean began to worry more. “Dad, think you should see if the doc can give him something for it.”
At the sweaty and pained look on his youngest’s face, John easily agreed. “I think so too. I’ll be right back.”
“I’m fine Dean, really.”
“Sure ya are.” Dean stretched out next to his brother on the bed and pulled him towards him.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked, although he appreciated the comfort having Dean near brought.
“You’ll see.” With that carefully put his hand on Sam’s abused and aching abdomen. Although confused, Sam put his faith in his brother. Dean began to slowly rub and massage at the tight muscles, avoiding the area near the incision. It wasn’t long before Sam started to relax under the touch and lean his head on Dean’s shoulder. He didn’t care if it made him look like a baby at this point.
“Helping?”
Dean felt Sam’s head nod against his shoulder.
“Used to do this when you were little.” Dean never stopped with the soothingly motion of his hand. “You would always have the worst luck with diner food. And meds always made you feel worse for some reason. This would be the only thing that would work.”
“Thank you,” Sam sighed with relief. He began to settle, letting his body sink further into the hospital bed. By the time that John and Dr. Aldridge returned, Sam had drifted off to sleep. Dean was still on the bed next to him and rubbing his palm across Sam’s stomach, not wanting the pain to return and wake his brother from his much needed rest.
“Doesn’t look like you need me,” Dr. Aldridge smiled at John. Dean hadn’t even noticed that they had returned.
“Guess not. Thank you though,” John replied with a smile of his own.
He shouldn’t have been all that surprised. As long as his boys had each other, they never seemed to really need anyone else.
Next Chapter --->
Masterpost
A/N: Since everyone seemed to be on board with the idea, I will be writing a J2 AU fic in the near future :).