Dreading the Dawn

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

DREADING THE DAWN

Rating: T
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Angst
Word Count: 1,100

Dean is afflicted with a dreadful supernatural illness. Sam's there to help him through it - whatever the outcome.

xxxxx

For one sun and moon the body burns

At breaking dawn the fever turns

One way to bring life to an end

Or else withdraw and slowly mend ...

xxxxx

Sam wearily scraped a hand over his face; his crushing fatigue pressed like the weight of the world upon him, but sleep wasn't even an option tonight.

He wasn't a fool. The incantation didn't take a lot of deciphering, and the 'witch-blight' that Dean had been infected with as an act of pure spite by their latest quarry meant that this could be the brothers' last day together.

The whole horrible business was out of Sam's hands. There wasn't a thing he could do about it; all he could do was wait it out across today and tonight and hope against hope that the dawn brought the outcome he desperately wanted; the outcome he needed.

xxxxx

The hand he grasped was cold but clammy; it's grip weak, but at the same time, desperately tight.

Sitting on the side of the bed, Sam stroked the back of the hand with his thumb, trying to provide Dean with a trace of comfort through the fog of fevered pain.

The tremors that racked Dean's body were strong enough to shake the entire bed. Throughout it all Dean fidgeted and fretted weakly, repeatedly kicking off the bedclothes that Sam patiently pulled back over him, teeth chattering painfully and bloodlessly grey lips working soundlessly as his delirious mind tried to voice his distress through the agonising chills and burning torment that the fever wrought.

Sam gently pushed away strands of damp hair which clung to his brother's sweat-soaked forehead, and ruffled Dean's hot scalp; "hey dude" he smiled unconvincingly, "you're gonna be alright, you ain't gonna let that skanky witch get the last laugh, uh?"

He swallowed heavily, and took a deep breath to compose himself; "when we're back on the hunt, you've got to kick her ass into next week man, okay?"

Dean shifted slightly, taking in a deep shuddering breath, and Sam didn't try to hide his smile as glassy, fever-glazed green eyes fluttered open, staring sightlessly up toward Sam out of deeply sunken, charcoal grey smudges.

A solitary tear slid down the side of Dean's pallid face, and Sam gently thumbed it away, trying to hide his own distress. He would never get used to seeing Dean like this; stripped of his fearless hunter's disguise. Without his aggressively spiked hair, bulky over-shirt, heavy hunters' boots, cowboy swagger and hardass smirk, he looked exactly what he was; desperately sick, scared and in intolerable pain.

If this was to be the end of everything, Sam didn't want to remember his brother this way. The very thought tore him apart.

xxxxx

He pressed a cold, damp facecloth against Dean's flushed face; "shhh, take it easy dude…" he whispered, squeezing a clammy shoulder that felt at once both deathly cold and burning hot.

A painfully strong shudder tore through Dean's body as the cool facecloth guided by Sam's skilful hand travelled down his sweat-soaked throat to his burning chest, and an involuntary gasp of pain escaped between his pale, dry lips; but his glassy eyes remained latched, unblinking, onto Sam.

Looking down, Sam wiped a haze of tears from sore eyes, burning with fatigue, and studied his brother's face; his neat, dark eyebrows, his high cheekbones, the faint cleft in his chin, the splash of his freckles, pale and grey across the bridge of his nose and lost beneath the burning flash of fever across his cheeks. All things that had been there plain as day in front of Sam every single time he looked at his brother; all the things that he had never seen before.

Dean had such long eyelashes. Sam had never noticed them; why in hell would he? It's not the kind of thing brothers noticed about each other.

But now he couldn't stop looking at them. He made a mental note to tease Dean about them if … Sam corrected himself angrily … when he recovered.

xxxxx

Through the night Sam sat; never leaving Dean's side, maintaining a cooling, reassuring touch, freshening Dean's bonelessly weak body, soothing him through delirious fever-fuelled nightmares, monitoring his blazing temperature and coaxing him to drink when he appeared lucid enough to be able to do so.

He had no idea how long he had been sitting there when he noticed the first creeping light of dawn casting a ghostly highlight across Dean's glistening cheekbones.

Trying to bury a creeping sense of dread, Sam's cool hand found the back of Dean's neck and began to gently knead the bony prominence of his nape, as much for his own reassurance as for Dean's. His heart sank when his brother's silent, pain-tightened face registered no reaction.

The eyes remained closed, those long lashes remained pressed against damp cheeks, still flushed with the heat of the fever; stuttering breaths carried the occasional harsh murmur.

Dean's fretting and squiming had stilled. Was that a good thing? Sam didn't know.

Sam's head bowed, and the strength he had forced himself to show throughout the last twenty-four hours began to wane; he felt the tears starting to sting

… At breaking dawn the fever turns …

Please, this can't be the end; don't let me lose Dean. Not this way; not ever.

Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath,

And another …

Then another …

... One way to bring life to an end ...

The very thought choked him.

xxxxx

When it happened it was sudden and completely unexpected.

"S'mmy?"

The voice was hoarse and broken; a barely audible whisper carried on a pained sigh.

Sam's eyes snapped open with a joy he didn't dare to feel.

"Dude?"

"S'mmy?"

"Hey dude," Sam's grin broadened, he couldn't bring himself to hope this was the end of their ordeal; "what's up?"

Dean blinked, swallowing harshly and grimacing as his dry throat burned.

"I'm famished."

xxxxx

... Or else withdraw and slowly mend ...

end

Comments

[jennytork.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love this....

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it :)