{SPN RBB} Entwined: Epilogue
Epilogue
The air is chilly around him as Sam slowly blinks his eyes open. He quickly shuts them as maddening pain shoots up his skull. He groans, clutching his head and then frowns as he feels stitches on the side of his temple.
When it comes to head injuries, they never mess around. Which means he was probably in a hospital at some point. But then why doesn’t he remember any of it?
Sam looks around him and realizes he’s sitting in the Impala. He curls in onto himself as a gust of wind blows through the windows. He looks out to see Dean sitting on the hood of the Impala.
It’s night time. Sam forgets his injuries for a few seconds as he looks at the clear starry night sky, the moon looking larger than ever, bathing the Impala and the surrounding in pleasant light.
His memory is hazy. He scrunches up his forehead as he tries to remember what happened. He opens the door to step out and is halfway onto his feet when it all comes back to him.
The wall with the pictures, the basement, Lucifer.
Sam gasps as pain shoots up his body and his hand tightens over the door to stop himself from falling.
“Sam?!”
Dean is immediately at his side. Sam holds onto Dean as he helps him stand. Hating how he’s dependent but knowing he needs it, he lets Dean walk him over to the front of the car and lean him against the hood so he can sit.
“Jeez, dude, you could have yelled out for me or something,” Dean remarks, opening a beer bottle and handing it to Sam and then picking up one for himself from the cooler Sam now sees near the left front wheel of the car.
“Sorry.”
“You doing ok?” Dean asks.
Sam hesitates. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
He takes a shaky breath. “For a while there, I…I thought I was back. I thought I never got out. I mean, that shifter definitely played it well.”
“You’re out, Sam. I promise you that.”
Sam nods, clearing his throat against the emotion he can feel building up inside him. He tries to change the subject. “I don’t remember anything after shooting him. What happened? You okay?”
Sam knows Dean sees right through him but is grateful when he doesn’t push.
“Well, I woke up from being electrocuted.”
Sam looks at Dean in bewilderment. “What?”
“Yeah. The bastard had the door handle of the basement booby trapped. I kind of got conked on the head the minute we made it to Gary’s place. The real Gary was dead in the bathtub, had been dead for a while too. The shifter tied me up in the bathroom, locked the door. Said he’d decided to take your skin and get to me but he accessed your thoughts and….”
Sam huffs a laugh humorlessly. “And saw Lucifer and decided that would be easier.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I got the ropes off with the help of a rusty pipe edge in the bathroom. Broke down the door. Saw my gun near the basement door and heard you. So I picked up the gun and held the door handle only to get electrocuted and fall down the goddamn stairs. Think I hit my head on the way down.
“I woke up to see a dead Lucifer and you passed out. I took care of the body of the shifter and drove you to the hospital. It…fuck,” Dean curses, rubbing a hand over his face.
“They, uh, they said you had four broken ribs, two bruised. Severe blows to the head and face, so you’re gonna have those bruises for a while buddy. And other cuts across your body. We were there a couple of hours until you were stable.”
“Until I was stable?” Sam asks in confusion.
Dean takes a few minutes to answer. “You had internal bleeding. They said it could have been caused by a sharp trauma or kick to your stomach. You nearly clocked out on me, man.”
“Wow. Fuck, I…shit. I’m…I’m sorry,” Sam stammers, not knowing how to respond. If anything, he knows how screwed up it feels to be on the receiving end of such news.
“No, don’t. It’s not your fault. Either way, I busted us out of there once I was sure you were okay. We’re gonna take it easy for the next couple of weeks okay?”
Sam nods. “How long have you been parked here?”
Dean shrugs. “Probably about thirty minutes. You fell asleep about an hour before we got here. You…you kept saying I wasn’t real, though I’m guessing you probably don’t remember that. They had you on some heavy stuff.”
Sam bites his lip. “Yeah well, for a minute there I couldn’t really tell what was real.”
“Then how did you know to shoot him?”
Sam shrugs. “I…don’t really know. The…real, or well, the Lucifer in my…hallucinations appeared. And at that point it felt like I was seeing two of them. I did the scar thing I always do and he disappeared, but the one near you didn’t. So I figured I’d give it a shot. Either way, he was going to kill you and make me watch. Whether I believed that you were real or not, I couldn’t watch you die.”
Dean purses his lips and nods. “Well, I’m as real as you’re going to get so I guess you’re stuck with me now.”
Sam chuckles. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
They sit in silence and sip on their beers a while. Sam looks at Dean and apart from a few bruises he sees, Dean doesn’t seem too worse for the wear. Sam doesn’t miss the tired look on Dean’s face however and he hates that he’s the reason for it.
He switches his gaze to watching the moon, taking another sip from his bottle.
“Hey, Sam?”
“Hmm?” Sam asks, looking towards Dean.
“Please don’t do that again. Don’t clock out on me. If we go down, we go down together. I just…I can’t. Not after everyone we’ve already lost. Not after Bobby.”
Sam gulps as he blinks back the sudden tears. He clears his throat again. “I won’t.”
“Thanks.”
Dean sighs as he sits up straighter. He clinks his beer bottle to Sam’s, a look of understanding passing between them.
Sam smiles to himself. Lucifer isn’t around. Dean is right here, next to him. His stone number one. And he counts that as a win.
END
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