Catch A Flame

Chapter 7

Castiel's eyes fluttered open to the soft whoosh from beside him. He was leaned over in the chair, and near half on the bed beside him. A smile curled his lips that his head was next to Dean's. Cas left his eyelids drift shut at the thought that the night before was some out-of-hand nightmare his own mind conjured up. But the beeping was there to remind him that the night before had not been a dream, or the many that had been before that. It's nearly been a week. A few more days and Cas would have to go back to work. Sam and Jess already have, though their afternoon visits haven't yet faltered. Just like nearly every firefighter that worked with Dean. There were others that came from the dubbed shift he's heard Dean call "hell's court".

Cas let out a sigh as he opened his eyes once more. Dean's face had more color to it than the first night he had spent here. The doctor had wanted to take a CT scan, possibly an MRI after. Questions still floating around without answers.

The day mulled along. Cas watching behind a thick layer of glass as Dean was pulled into the tight-spaced machine.

"Will this answer why he hasn't woken up yet?"

"At the least, it will point us in the right direction." The doctor glanced at the computer screens.

Castiel felt the anxiety surge. All those wires hooked to Dean as he was fully inside the giant metal contraption. Dean never really liked tight spaces, even though Cas has seen him do it countless times during a call. Suddenly there was a tapping noise. It then graduated to a banging.

"Get him out of there!" The doctor ordered, rushing out of the room. Cas and nurses on his tail. The fear built inside his chest. Of all places for Dean to wake up.

He was gasping. Those vibrant green eyes dulled with pain wildly flashing about. He thrashed as the table pulled back, though it was viably draining him.

The doctor and nurses voices were frantic. What they were saying didn't exactly reach Cas's ears. He was frozen in place at the way they had to hold Dean down to assess what was wrong. The entire time Dean was fighting them, having had tried to take the tube from his throat. His attempts at anything were weakening too quickly.

"That damn rib," the doctor growled.

"Dean?" Cas spoke as they rolled the man out of the room and down the hall. Cas struggled to keep with him. "Dean!" Then the green looked right to him. "Everything's gonna be fine. It'll be okay." They held Cas in their gaze as they floated shut once more.

Cas merely blinked before he found himself being pushed back into the waiting room. A sullen look at the clock, Castiel noted Sam would be here soon anyway. He sat in a chair heavily. Now all he could do was wait. Wait for all this bad to pass, and Dean to come back; just as he always promised.

...

When Sam had first arrived he had tried to get Cas to tell him at least something about what happened. On why his brother had been wheeled into emergency surgery. Again. All he received was silence. Not even the utterance of a sound. Sam was in a position where he didn't know who he was worried for more. His brother, or his brother-in-law. Charlie had come in at some point, talking with Sam. She was the one who ended up making the call to the others to update them on Dean. Jody had come in before Bobby, pulling Sam to her as she took some time from work to just sit with at least two of her boys.

The waiting didn't quite last as long this time. When the doctor came in, he motioned for the small group to follow him.

"Dean had a panic attack during the last few moments of the CT scan. Him choking on the tracheal tube would be at least one, or the only source of his panic. The adrenaline boost would have given him more strength than what he has currently. With all the thrashing and even our administrations and moving him around had caused one of his fractured ribs to break. That along with the former led to a reopening of his internal wounds, and a few external."

They were standing outside of an ICU room once again. Castiel swallowed thickly. His stomach sank in anticipation since here came the bad news.

"Your husband," the doctor eyes moved from Cas to Sam and Charlie. "Your brother," so Charlie had told a white lie, sue her. "Has fallen into a coma."

There it was. The air in the room, hell the freaking world, was gone. If there was ever an ability to breathe, Castiel had no damned clue. He nearly felt jealous as Sam let out ragged breaths.

How did this happen? He said he'd be back. Cas clutched onto whatever was within reach, the feeling of the texture beneath his fingers nearly grounded him for a moment. Surely the wall would crumble under his weight. How could anything be sturdy at this moment? The world was becoming blurry. He said he'd come back.

It was Sam's voice that broke through the haze of Cas's mind. "A-and?"

The doctor sighed. "We wait. We had theorized he was in one before he woke up during the CT scan. I believe that had only happened due to all the moving around, and when his rib broke. Along with that, his lung has collapsed once again. Though this time it was easier to fix. It sounds much worse than it is."

"It looks worse than it actually is, promise."

"We - the other doctors and I- believe that he can hear us. Dean, it's as if he's just sleeping. There have been cases of such. Of course, such a thing is still bleak. We are still unsure when he will wake up. I'm not one to feed false hope, but Dean has a better chance than most."

"See you tomorrow."

"Though, he's still not quite breathing on his own. His lungs need more time to heal. He's proven he's a fighter, I'll give that to him. Sometimes the body just needs to shut down before it can start up again. Give itself time to heal."

"And the head injury?" Charlie looked to the white-coated man with sad eyes.

"That had been the cause of his seizures. The CT was able to bring in a few results. On the right side of Dean's head, there is a skull fracture. Accompanying that is a concussion, both most likely having happened at the same time. Thankfully it wasn't as severe as I originally thought. Whatever he hit his head on was also the cause of the wounds along the area of where the fracture is." The doctor sighed as he shook his head.

"He was missing his helmet." Charlie's eyes widened.

"Pardon?"

"Alfie had come down with Dean's helmet. That would have left the side of his head wide open."

"That helps explain a lot, thank you." The doc gave them all another glance. "I'll be back later, there are a few things that I'd like to look into with the tests that we've done. The healing process will take a long time, but, there is a very bright chance that he'll make it there. Dean is a strong man."

Sam and Charlie were the first through the door, but Cas lingered in the hallway. A heavy weight settled on his shoulders and inside his chest. He hated himself in that moment, because for the love of everything he did not want to go in that room. He would trade anything, his soul even, to be able to have everything back to normal. Castiel wanted to walk in and see those green eyes once more. Though the man that lay on the bed was probably far from such a simple activity. Cas trembled in his boots. Why, for the love of God, did this happen?

His own thoughts rolled in his head.

Dean promised he'd come back. He'd come home. Cas peered through the open door as Sam spoke softly to his brother, Jess resting a hand on his shoulder.

He's coming back.

Right?