Two Brothers 4/?
Chapter 4
I gave Dean a moment with his brother while I checked Sam's vitals. Dean dragged a chair to the bedside and made himself comfortable, eyes never leaving his brother. The only sounds in the room were the whoosh of the vent and the beeping of the monitors showing Sam's vitals.
When I'd made sure that everything was like it should be I had my first real look at Sam.
"Doc?" Dean asked, holding on to Sam's hand which lay lax in his. "Everything okay with Sammy?"
I nearly burst out laughing. Back in college Sam had insisted on being called Sam. Nobody had made the mistake of calling him Sammy twice and the smart ones not even once. I remembered how shocked I'd been when I'd heard Dean using that nickname. And Sam hadn't protested. But back then we had barely been older than teenagers. The man lying in front of me now had grown out of being anything remarkable Sammy-like years ago.
"Doc?" Dean repeated now with rising anxiety.
"Everything looks good." I reassured him. "It's just … I didn't recognize him earlier." I shook my head not sure how I felt about the whole situation.
"When is he going to wake up?"
"Not for a while." I answered honestly. "We are keeping him under at least until tomorrow to give his body time to heal. By then he hopefully can breathe on his own. He'll wake up in his own time."
Dean nodded as if that was exactly what he'd expected. I didn't point out that Sam wasn't out of the woods just yet or that he was a fighter and Dean seemed to appreciate that. No point in stating the obvious, I guess.
"Thanks, doc." Dean's eyes never left Sam and with his thumb he constantly stroke the back of Sam's hand. I doubted it was mainly for Sam's comfort.
"Luis, please." I insisted. "Sam's my friend."
"Thanks, Luis." Now he looked at me with a sad smile and I wondered how I could have ever thought bad of him. He had the eyes of a lost little boy. Like everything he had was lying in that bed and he would have no idea what to do if he lost his brother.
"I'll leave you two alone." I nodded at their entwined hands. "Keep doing that. Talk to him. He may not respond but it helps."
For a second he looked like he wanted to drew back, caught holding hands with his brother, but then he nodded and hold on to Sam.
"I'll check in again later." I promised and with that I left the room. Dean didn't even seem to notice.
Outside I leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.
"You okay?"
I hadn't noticed Nancy coming down the hallway.
"Yeah." I managed an eloquent answer while I tried to get my emotions under control. Seeing my old friend in bed like that, it had riled me up.
Nancy raised a questioning eyebrow.
"It's just." I scrubbed my face. "I know him … Sam … we went to college together … have been roommates … I haven't recognized him earlier …"
"Oh my." Nancy's hand was on my shoulder instantly. "I'm sorry. Are you okay? I can call Dr. Morgan in, she can take over."
"No, I'm fine." I hurried to say. "The worst part is over anyway. With any luck he's going to heal nicely without complications." I tried a smile. "But could you, you know, keep an eye on him and his brother? They are friends."
"Of course." And with that the Winchesters were in for some mother henning. Now my smile felt real.
It was getting late but I wasn't quite ready to go home just yet. Instead I retreated to my office and had a real look at Sam's file. So far I'd only been interested in the medically relevant facts, now I was reading between the lines.
There was an address but I doubted Sam really lived there. Next of kin was, not surprisingly, Dean Carter and there was no other name listed as an emergency contact.
No allergies, no current medication. A few older injuries, broken bones and a head trauma, but no farther information on when or where that had happened, nothing about treatment. The list didn't even start to cover the old and new scars I'd seen on Sam's body during the surgery. I remembered how Sam had stitched up a gash in Dean's thigh a long time ago, that had been the reason I became a doctor so of course I remembered, and I guessed for them hospitals were only a last resort.
Thinking of Dean I took out the x-rays I'd mentioned earlier and strapped them to the light screen. At first I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The spine still looked fine, two broken ribs which I'd fixed during the operation, nothing caught my eye if I didn't count the callused lines indicating older fractures. I had to actually search for something weird but when I'd found it I couldn't not see it. Just like those pictures that look like spilled coffee at first but then you see a face and you wonder how you could have missed it in the first place.
There were lines, scars, all over Sam's ribs, so many it was hard to make them out. They were old and faded out but they were there. Like somebody had taken a scalpel and had carved - What? Symbols? - into the bones. Taken aback I stepped back from the screen. That was impossible. At least to somebody still alive. To do that you'd have to lay the bones bare. No way somebody could have survived something like that. Impossible.
Yeah, just like ghosts and shapeshifters, I thought and for the first time I wondered if it really had been a bear that had attacked Sam. And if it was still out there.
I turned the screen off, this was a puzzle to solve later, grabbed my things and headed out. I stopped at the ICU to check on Sam, though. Dean was still sitting right next to his brother, holding his hand and talking in a low voice to him. I felt like an intruder so I left as quietly as possible.
continue to chapter 5
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