Save us 2/?
Chapter 1
A/N: Sorry about the long wait guys!! *hides under my blanket*
Sam was sitting in his and Dean’s room with the book Dean once bought him in his lap. But he wasn’t reading, he was just staring at the door, waiting for his brother to come in. This was the longest their father had ever kept one of them down there and Sam was starting to get really worried. Maybe his father had forgotten Dean. Sam sat there listening for a while longer but when he didn’t hear any noise indicating either his father nor brother was near, he got up.
Sam slowly made his way downstairs. He looked at the clock. Sally should be home by now but he hadn’t heard her come home. Sam looked in the living room and then the kitchen but couldn’t find their dad. He continued into his parent’s bedroom and that’s where he found Ron, passed out on the bed.
Dean had made it clear to Sam that he wanted him to stay in their room but now something was wrong and Sam had to save his brother. He quickly ran over to the door that lead down to the basement and turned the doorknob. It was locked.
Sam knew where Ron kept the key, in the right pocket of his pants, but even though he was knocked out right now Sam couldn’t risk waking him up. But he wouldn’t have to either. Sam had long ago mastered the art of picking locks. Dean had even told him that he could make a living out of it. Sam had just laughed him off but he couldn’t help the smile on his face, Dean was so proud of him.
Sam quickly got to work with the lock pick he always carried around. The lock made a clicking noise and Sam huffed out a relieved laugh.
He took the stairs down two at a time and when he made it to the bottom his smile quickly faltered. His big brother was hanging from the shackles that were attached on the wall above his head. Dean’s legs must have given out from under him at some point and he couldn’t stand up again. His head was down so Sam couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not.
“Oh Dean…” Sam’s bottom lip wobbled dangerously and he sucked it in between his teeth and bit down hard. He couldn’t cry now, he wouldn’t.
Dean had yet to notice Sam’s presence and he didn’t even move when Sam rushed forward and shut the water of. He just shook.
Sam wrapped an arm around his big brother’s waist and tried to hold him upright and let Dean’s wrists rest. With his other hand, Sam tilted Dean’s head back to see if he was passed out or not. Dean’s lips were a slight shade of blue and his eyes were open, half mast, but unseeing. Sam closed his eyes and tried not to break apart but it was hopeless. Dean’s shaking was making its way over to Sam and he started crying so hard he shook from the force of it. He knew Dean was still alive because he could feel his heartbeat drumming under the palm he had placed over his brother’s heart.
“Dean” Sam croaked and had to take a few deep breaths before he could continue. “Dean I have to let go of you just for a few seconds, ‘kay? Just so I can pick the locks.” He didn’t wait for the answer he knew wouldn’t come and quickly worked both shackles open. He barely had time to get a grip of Dean again before they tumbled to the floor. Sam turned Dean so he could look at him. Dean was blinking owlishly, not yet seeing anything, not yet seeing Sam.
Sam stroked Dean’s hair when his big brother started moaning in pain. He knew how bad the pain got. How you wished you could just stop shaking. “You’re okay Dean, you’re okay, shh I’ve got you, I’ve got you big brother.” Dean started coughing and his hands were restlessly moving around until they found Sam’s wrists and held on weakly.
They sat like that for a while, Sam holding Dean to his chest and rocking them both slightly. Sam was startled by Dean’s weak whispers.
“S’mm…Smmy?”
Sam looked down at his brother’s face. Dean had managed to open his eyes again but even as Sam watched, they started to droop again.
“Hey, hey Dean, you gotta stay awake okay? I know you’re tired but please Dean, stay awake just a little longer. Please. I can’t carry you up the stairs, you’re too heavy” Sam tried to lighten the mood for the both of them but knew he was failing miserably when Dean spoke up again.
“Hurr’s..”
“I know it hurts Dean, but you have to stay awake so we can make it to our room where it is safe, okay? It’s not safe down here and you want me to be safe right Dean?” Sam hated himself for saying it but he knew it was his best shot to get Dean to listen to him.
And sure enough, Sam’s words somehow made their way through Dean’s clouded mind and when Sam stood up and hooked his hands under Dean’s armpits to pull him up, Sam could feel how hard Dean was trying to help Sam. But his brother couldn’t stop the shaking, couldn’t help it and he was as strong as a newborn kitten.
It took them three tries just to get up from the floor and by then Dean was almost unconscious again.
The amount of energy and strength that comes to you when you truly need it is amazing. Sam learned this as he more or less dragged his older brother to the stairs and after some huffing and puffing somehow got them both out of the basement in one piece.
Sam had managed to stop crying when they were about halfway up the stairs. But the way Dean’s teeth kept shattering and the little moans of pain that he couldn’t help still broke Sam’s heart.
The clock on the dirty kitchen wall showed that their mom would probably be home any minute now. They needed to hurry.
“Alright Dean, you with me?” Sam asked even though he knew the answer was no. “We just have to go up the stairs to our room and then you can go to bed, ok big brother?” Sam said with confidence he didn’t feel.
The stairs that lead up to their room looked like a mountain right now. And Dean was not in a mountain climbing state right now. Bu Sam couldn’t give up now. Not when they had come this far. So he roughly stroked away the stray tear from his cheek before he once again lifted his brother up and dragged them forward.
They were only on the fourth step when Dean started to cough, rough barks that came from deep within his chest and Sam closed his eyes in sympathy and could do nothing but hold on a little tighter. “It’s ok Dean, shh…it’s ok.” Sam looked over his shoulder to make sure that the sound didn’t wake their dad. He wanted to give Dean more time to get his breath under control but they really didn’t have the time, so Sam all but pushed a still gasping Dean the rest of the way. He didn’t stop until they were in their room and he could close the door.
The first thing he did was to walk over to their small wardrobe and pulled out Dean’s only pair of sweatpants and the warmest sweater that he has. Unfortunately the sweater had more holes than not, but with a t-shirt under, it would have to do. Sam practically ran around their room to find everything Dean needed (two pair of socks, a towel from their bathroom and aspirin that Sam stole from the school nurse a couple of weeks before) and after he had gathered everything and dumped it all in a pile on their mattress, he looked up only to have his heart broken.
There on the floor, lay his larger than life big brother, and he was currently crawling forward on the floor, trying to get away from an invisible evil. He could barely hold his head up and his chin occasionally hit the floor with the force of his trembles. When Sam got closer he could hear that Dean was mumbling under his breath.
“S’mmy, we n-need to g-go, ‘s too co-cold here, not sssafe. It hurts.” Sam could only watch as Dean fumbled for his wrist and tried to pull him towards him. It didn’t hurt. Dean was still very weak and the small action seemed to tire him out. He put his head down on the floor and just looked up at Sam with pleading unfocused eyes, his hand still loosely wrapped around Sam’s wrist. “Plea-please Sammy… we need to g-go.” Sam’s throat burned from trying to hold back the tears. He lifted Dean up into a sitting positing before gently guiding him to rest against his chest. “It’s ok Dean, it’s okay. I’m gonna take care of you.”
When Dean seemed to have calmed down a bit Sam quickly peeled Dean’s soaked underwear of off him and helped his brother into the dry and warm clothes and then lied down on the mattress and pulled Dean to him. Sam’s face felt sticky and numb and was now cold from dried, once warm tears.
But he didn’t care. This wasn’t about him. After a few tries he got Dean to swallow the pills and drink some water before snuggling closer.
He tightened the grip he had around the trembling waist.
“You’re alright Dean, it’s gonna be okay.”
They lay silent for a long time and Sam thought Dean had fallen into an exhausted asleep so he started relaxing himself.
But just as he started to drift of, he heard a whispered. “Thank you Sammy, ‘s better now. It doesn’t hu-hurt anymore.”
And Sam cried himself to sleep.
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The next morning Sam woke up and immediately registered how sweaty and hot he felt and when he opened his eyes, he found out why.
Dean had turned towards Sam sometime during the night so now they lay with their foreheads touching. Dean’s previously pale face was now flushed and his cheeks were rosy.
The icy cold waist that Sam had wrapped his arm around the night before, now felt way too hot.
Dean was burning up with fever.
Sam sat up on the mattress and thought about what he should do. He looked down at his brother, who was breathing raggedly through his mouth. Dean rarely got sick, but when he did it always seemed to hit him hard.
Sam had given the last of his aspirin to Dean the night before and he doubted they owned a thermometer. Feeling very unsure of himself, Sam put a hand on Dean’s shoulder and gently shook him.
“Dean” he whispered “wake up.” The only response he got was a weak cough and a mumble that sounded a lot like Sammy.
Sam got up and walked over to the small window. When he looked out he could see the big clock on the church. The church was an abandoned one, but the clock still worked and it was telling him that he really needed to get going if he wanted to make in time to his first class.
Spotting a more or less clean shirt on the floor, Sam picked it up and got dressed before flopping down next to his brother again. Sam worried at his bottom lip. He didn’t want to leave Dean with their dad (their mom worked as a cleaner at the hospital but their dad was unemployed for obvious reasons) but what choice did he have?
Sam touched his brother’s forehead again and his eyes widened when it felt even hotter than it had just a few moments ago.
“Dean!” Sam said, louder this time.
“Whaa…wha’s goin on, Sammy?” Dean slowly blinked his eyes over and Sam could see that, yes, his brother definitely had a fever. His usually bright green eyes were now slightly glazed over.
“Um, Dean, I have to go to school now bu- no Dean you have to stay in bed, just listen to me, okay?” Sam waited until Dean slowly nodded his head, eyes swimming with confusion.
“You’re sick Dean, you have a fever and I think it’s pretty high so you need to stay in bed today, okay big brother? Could you to that for me please?” Dean’s only reasons was a coughing fit that left him gasping and even more red in the face than he had been. Sam refilled the glass of water and lifted Dean’s head up to help him drink. Dean gratefully gulped down the water before settling down on the mattress again.
Sam ran his fingers through Dean’s hair when Dean finally croaked out a weak and unsure “Ok Sammy” and then Sam stood up to leave. Before he left though, Sam looked up from the floor to look at his shivering brother. “I’m sorry, Dean.” and then left the room in a hurry.
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When Dean had woken up that morning, the first thing he felt was the cold. He thought he would be warm by now but he still felt this bone-deep chill and he was still shaking. Then he realized that part of the shaking came from the hand that was on his shoulder.
Dean had blinked his brother into focus and when he heard him saying something about going to school he had tried to get up but Sam wouldn’t let him. He had been beyond confused but then Sam had explained that he was sick and - yeah ok that was pretty obvious when he thought about it.
But then the confusion came back in full force when Sam had left him with the words “I’m sorry” hanging heavy in the air. What would Sam be sorry for? He hadn’t done anything wrong.
Dean gripped the sheets closer to himself. He could feel that a cough was on its way and thought about getting up and drinking some more water, when the bedroom door opened.
His dad walked in.
Dean immediately sat up straighter. Unfortunately that triggered a coughing fit. Dean coughed and coughed and just when he thought that he would pass out, he managed to draw in a shaky breath. He tried to blink everything back into focus when he felt rough hands grabbing his sweater.
“What are you still doing in bed, you little shit?”
Deans fevered brain couldn’t seem to form a coherent thought fast enough for his father’s liking and soon he felt the familiar burn that always came from a slap on the cheek. On the exact same place his mother had slapped him the day before.
When Dean opened his eyes again (when had they closed?) he looked into the furious storms that was his father’s eyes and realized with horror that his father was sober. That meant better aim and more focus.
Not good for Dean.
His father gripped his jaw firmly and Dean couldn’t help the whimper.
“What did I tell you last night, boy? Huh? I told you to not-try-anything.” The last of his father’s words were punctuated with hard pokes at Dean’s chest.
“You boys left the basement in a mess last night” his father continued “and that floor sure could use some scrubbing.”
They stared at each other and when Dean failed to answer, it earned him another slap across the cheek. His eyes were watering, both from the pain and also from trying to stifle the coughs.
He looked up at his father. “Please dad…”Usually Dean would just nod, take the punishment and trying not to make it worse. But right now he felt too weak and confused and he knew what going back down to the cold basement would do to his fever. He didn’t want to be weak when Sam came home. He needed to be able to take care of him.
Dean had never begged his father to stop before, he had always been scared of the man and the fright always seemed to choke him. But now it was like the fear was fueling him, rooting on him to defend himself.
“Please…I-I’m sick and I can’t go down there right now.”
Begging, as it turned out, didn’t work anymore than obedience did. His dad just snorted and hastily pulled Dean to his feet by gripping his arms hard. “And whose fault is it that you’re sick right now, boy? It’s your own fault that you got yourself in that mess yesterday, making me lock you down there. If you would just stop being such a little bitch maybe I wouldn’t have to punish you so much.”
“But what did I do? I didn’t even d-“Dean didn’t have time to finish before a meaty fist slammed into his temple. But instead of slamming into the floor, Dean felt himself being lifted. The motion together with the hit to his head made him dizzy and he didn’t realize he was being carried on his father’s shoulder until they were halfway down the basement stairs.
Dean started to struggle. The fear gave way to panic and he couldn’t control his own body. He thrashed and kicked out but the movement just made him cough again and the dull pain he had felt in his head since he woke up, suddenly got much worse.
The basement felt colder than it ever had and Dean’s panic turned up a notch when he saw the buckets of ice water lined up in a neat line on the floor.
His dad set him down on the floor but Dean felt like he still was moving. He was shaking with chills and he closed his eyes to try and get rid of the dizziness. His eyes snapped open when something fell into his lap. It was a dirty cloth and Dean knew this was going to be bad when he looked up at his father and saw that the man was smiling.
“Like I said boy, the floor needs cleaning and maybe-” his father walked over to the buckets and lifted the first one up before walking back to Dean “-you do too.” And with that, Dean was drenched with the contents of the bucket.
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Meanwhile in school, Sam was having a hard time concentrating. It was his last class of the day and it was a wonder he had even been able to stumble from classroom to classroom without giving in to the temptation to just run home and check on his brother. Even though he had apologized to Dean that morning he still felt extremely guilty. Dean had taken the punishment for him and Sam had just let him. He was such a useless coward. He needed to get back home and make it up to Dean.
Sam looked at the clock for the fifth time in just a few minutes. The class ended in five minutes and Sam was more than ready to get back to his brother. At lunch he had sneaked into the school nurse’s office when she wasn’t there and taken a thermometer and some aspirin. He knew that Dean probably needed much more but he had only dared to stay for a short while before going straight to his locker with the stolen items. Getting caught would get him in so much trouble.
Suddenly the bell rang and Sam barely had time to hear his history teacher saying what their homework was before he was out of the room.
He was so determined to just get out of there that he almost crashed right into Mrs. Winchester, Dean’s new teacher. He skidded to a stop just before her but unfortunately the unplanned stop caught him off balance and he dropped the death grip he had on his backpack. To Sam’s horror he saw that his old traitor of a backpack (that didn’t have a single working zipper) spit the thermometer out, which landed right next to the teacher’s feet.
Sam looked up at her with big frightened eyes and she looked back, looking confused and concerned. But before she had time to ask any questions Sam had snatched the thing up and stuffed it in his jeans pocket before looking up at her again, trying and failing to give her a reassuring smile. “I’m sorry Mrs. Winchester I didn’t see you, I’m kinda in a hurry to get home.”
She smiled at him but she still looked worried and when she spoke, Sam froze.
“Your brother wasn’t in class today, is he alright Sam?”
“Umm..yeah he’s sick, but it’s just a cold I think. I’m sure he’ll be here tomorrow.” Sam lied badly. He tried to back away from her slowly, wanting to show her that he really was in a hurry. He knew she didn’t believe him, he could see it in her eyes.
“Alright” she said slowly, looking like she was trying to decide was she was going to say, before finally going with “Sam is everything alright at home?” and Sam wanted to scream. Or cry. He had heard the question many times before and he and Dean had always been able to joke it off.”
“Well, not if you count having too sleep in the same room as stinky feet here”
Or if it was a girl who asked Dean, the answer would be something like
“Absolutely! Although it sure would be better with you there…the couch is awfully big for just one person, and besides you really would be doing me a favor. If I make myself popcorn I just can’t help myself and I end up eating the whole bag on my own. I mean I have to watch my figure! You’ll help me right? Although maybe we could do the popcorn eating at the cinema, my treat!
But this time Sam felt himself falter. She was looking at him with such genuine concern he just wanted to tell her everything. Ask for help. But he knew he couldn’t. The risk wasn’t worth taking. So in the end he just nodded.
“Yeah it’s good, sorry I really need to go home now” and with that, Sam dashed down the corridor, leaving a worried teacher behind.
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Dean gasped and spluttered. He hadn’t been prepared for the ice water and some of it had found its way through his open mouth.
His head hurt beyond believe and he just wanted to pass out.
But he didn’t get the luxury.
He could hear his father speaking somewhere in the distance but the sounds where muffled by the sound of blood rushing in his ears. A kick to his side made him fall to his side and suddenly he could both hear and see his father clearly.
“You better start scrubbing boy, or I’ll make the little one join you when he comes home. Where the fuck is he? He should be back by now!”
Dean shuddered at the thought of Sam having to go through what he was going through right now. He spotted the cloth and somehow managed to clasp it in his numb fingers. He whimpered when he got up to his hand and knees and the change of position sent a spike of pain straight to his head. Dean blinked the water out of his eyes and slowly stated to drag the cloth back and forth over the floor. He heard a sound coming from upstairs and closed his eyes in dread.
Sammy was home.
chapter 3