Beneath the Spotlight. A Destiel Story

Recovery

Dean sits impatiently in the front seat of the squad car as they make their way towards the hospital. He stares out the windshield and bounces his knee anxiously, rubbing his fingers along his stubbled chin.
He turns and looks over at the officer, sighing in frustration.
"Can you go any faster, Jody?" he asks helplessly.
She presses her lips together and gives him a side glance, flicking on her lights and siren as she speeds up through downtown.
"You're lucky I like you, kid," she says.
Dean doesn't say anything in response, just goes about looking out the window again.
How could he let this happen?
He should have been there for Sam, instead of leaving him to rot in that hellhole. Why did he have to push himself away? Sammy obviously needed help, but Dean was too caught up in everything else to really give a damn. And the fact that Sam went straight back to it all, after everything Dean tried to do to help, just made him feel worse about the whole thing, and he figures he was just trying to avoid all entirely. He fucked up. Now Sam is even more sick, and he's not sure he's gonna come back from it the same. Dean rubs his eyes and tries to not let it get to him. But it's no use.
"Hey," Jody says quietly. Dean looks over at her. "It's gonna be okay. He's in the best possible care."
Dean contorts his face.
"Don't-don't do that. Don't lie to me to make me feel better. We both know it's bad, so don't try to sugarcoat this mess for me."
She sighs and turns the car into the EMERGENCY care of the hospital. She puts it in park and turns off her siren, repositioning herself so that he's facing Dean.
"Dean, I know it's bad. But he is in the best possible care, alright?" She sighs. "Come on, let's get out and go see him."
Dean unbuckles his seatbelt and gets out of the car, Jody follows behind him quickly. He rushes inside the Emergency ward and immediately asks the nearest nurse where he can find his brother. When he's directed down the hall, he tries to keep his breathing in check, but when he sees his brother, a sharp pain erupts throughout his body as he approaches Sam on the bed. If the heart monitor is any indication, his brother is alive, and Dean's anxiety eases a little, hearing the repetitive beeping of his heartbeat, but seeing Sam in that state doesn't make him feel any better.
"He had a mixture of drugs in his system," a voice says behind him. Dean turns around to see a small brunette standing behind him with a clipboard. "A combination of heroin and cocaine." She holds out her hand. "I'm Doctor Tessa McKeon."
Dean takes it absentmindedly, not really present in the room. "Dean. I'm his brother."
She walks around him and and looks at Sam's charts.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Dean croaks out.
"He's stable for now, but he was severely dehydrated and underfed, and by the looks of his charts, he was starting to fight off an infection-his white blood counts are quite high." She looks up at him. "Were you aware of your brother's addiction?"
Dean closes his eyes for a moment, his guilt washing over him.
"Yes," he barely whispers out. "I tried to help him but...nothing seemed to work."
Doctor McKeon nods.
"We'll keep him here until he's well enough to be discharged, but he should really be in a full-time facility."
Dean huffs out a breath.
"And what if I told you we already tried that?"
She looks at Sam, lying nearly lifeless on the bed and shrugs her shoulders.
"Sometimes you just have to keep trying. He might need a longer program."
Dean rubs his face with the heel of his hand. He doesn't have the money to put Sam through another rehab treatment, but he nods instead. Tessa walks around the bed again, towards the door.
"I'll come back around and check on him in a couple hours."
"'Kay," he replies, unable to look her straight in the eye.
She walks away and Dean pulls up the chair from the corner of the room and sits next to his brother.
Jody pokes her head inside the room and asks if he needs anything.
"Nah, I'm good, Jode."
"You want me to stick around some? I don't mind."
"S'okay, thanks for comin' to get me."
She nods and gives him a small wave before turning around and leaving him alone with Sam.

He sits in the room for what feels like hours, his ass sore from sitting in the same position on the chair for too long. He's read the instructions on how to use the controls on the bed at least fifty times, enough to have it memorized to the point where if someone asked him to operate it, he could do it effortlessly.
After what's only an hour of listening to Sam's heart monitor, does Dean pull out his phone. There's a few missed calls and texts that he scrolls through. Some are from the band, asking him where he went and why the sheriff picked him up. He sends a quick text to Benny, the only one who'd know what he's going through, and tells him what he knows. He texts him back and forth for a while, which helps distract him a little. He goes through the rest of his messages and tells everyone that it's fine. He stops on Castiel's name and clicks open the their thread.
Castiel: I hope everything is okay. (12:16 AM)
Castiel: Please let me know if there's anything you need me to do. (12:17 AM)
Dean doesn't bother typing out a response because nothing is okay and there's nothing Castiel can do to help him. He sighs and puts his phone back into his pocket. He suddenly sees movement out of the corner of his eye and looks up so fast, he's scared he might've just given himself whiplash.
"Sammy?"
Sam's hand moves up to his face where he grasps at the cannula attached to his nose.
"Hey hey hey," Dean stands up beside him, gently taking Sam's hand in his, and pulling it away from his face. "You kinda need that."
"Dean?"
"Yeah, buddy. I'm here. I'm right here, Sammy."
Sam opens his eyes wearily and blinks up at his brother. A tiny smile creeps up at the corner of his mouth, and then his eyes roll back, and he passes out. Dean doesn't know if he should call for a nurse and tell them that Sam woke up-but he doesn't have to, because Tessa knocks on the door and enters, poking her head inside the room before opening the door completely, letting herself in.
"How's everything?" she asks.
"He uh-he just woke up, but he passed out. Is that normal?"
She nods. "With the drugs that are still passing through his system, it'll take some time for his body to readjust. We also have him on some antibiotics to try and ward off whatever infection he might be having. Did he say anything to you?"
"Just my name," Dean answers simply, not taking his eyes off of his brother.
"He'll likely be in and out of it for a while, and probably won't remember that you're here every time he wakes up. But we'll keep a close watch on him, if you feel like leaving for the night."
Dean nods, but doesn't say anything else.
She checks a few things on his charts again and leaves them be.