Title: C is for Convalescence

Rating: G
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean or Gen, depends how you want to read it

Sam woke at the buzzing sound of a card slid into the door’s card reader. On a normal day, the sound wouldn’t have even registered. After the mental hospital, he’d slept straight through two days and spent the next week sleeping on and off for eight hour stretches. He was starting to feel more like himself now, which meant it was getting harder and harder to stay asleep. The littlest sounds woke him, so Dean spent as much time out of the room as possible. Every time Sam woke he expected to see Lucifer sitting next to him in Dean’s absence.  He was jumpy, not relaxed.

But he was also still sleepy. So when Dean quietly walked through the door, Sam opened his eyes and blinked at him, blearily, not lifting his head from the pillow. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Dean nodded back. “Sorry to wake you.”

“S’okay.” Sam yawned and considered sitting up, then decided that was far too much effort. “It’s your room too. At least, until we leave. When are we planning to hit the road?”

“Did you find us a case, Sammy?”

Sam blinked, gazed over at the laptop on the table, and blinked again. “What?”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought. C’mon sleepyhead, let’s get you sitting up. I’ve got something for you.”

With Dean’s help, Sam managed to sort of sit up against the pillows. But the second Dean stepped back, Sam slid down, bent at the waist but on his side now.

“Weak as a kitten.”

“Am not,” Sam insisted, not intending it to come out in such a pouty way.

“Are so.” Sam knew he was deadweight in Dean’s arms, but he couldn’t help it. Dean propped him back up and then quickly sat down on the bed so Sam could flop against him and stay somewhat upright. Dean held up a smoothie, angled the bendy straw, and put it to Sam’s lips. “This one’s got protein powder in it.”

Sam sipped, swallowed, and coughed as the sudden rush of cold seized his throat and head. “Yeah. I can taste it.”

Dean lowered the smoothie. “Sorry. I—”

“No, it’s good. It’s nice to be able to taste again. For a while there, everything I ate was sawdust.” He bent his head, lips catching the straw, sucking. Dean lifted the drink again.

Dean turned on the television, keeping the volume down low, flipping through stations with no care for what they showed. Sam kept his gaze on the smoothie; the bright flashes and quick movements on the screen were a bit overwhelming still.

“Oh shit.”

Sam stiffened. “Leviathan?”

“No… looks like vampires.”

“The sparkley douchebag kind?” Sam closed his eyes as he sipped the cool smoothie.

“The suck you dry kind. In Tulsa.”

“That’s not good.”

“Not good.” Dean reached down and picked up Sam’s hand. “Can you hold this? I’m going to go make some calls. If this is big enough to hit national news, someone’s got to be on it.”

Wondering what someones were left, Sam concentrated on holding the smoothie and drinking without falling asleep in the middle of the task. But by the time Dean returned, having reached out to everyone he could think of, Sam was asleep again, stretched across the bed the wrong way, the fallen smoothie cup leaking the little bit that was left upon the bedspread.

*

“Sam.” Sam heard his name, recognized Dean’s voice, and decided his brother wouldn’t mind if he ignored it. “Sam? Sammy?” Dean nudged, then shook Sam’s shoulder.

Reluctantly, Sam opened his eyes. He didn’t really feel so tired. It just felt good to be able to sleep. He checked the back seat and the visor mirror, making sure Lucifer wasn’t there.

“We’re here. You wanna sleep in the car while I interview this victim’s sister?”

Sam did. But more than that, he wanted to show Dean he could handle an interview now. He wasn’t up for a fight, but he could handle talking to someone. Then he realized his eyes were closed again and he was leaning comfortably against the door. “Just one more day,” he murmured. “One more nap. Then I’ll be back to normal.”

Sam jumped and woke when the driver’s side door opened and closed. He looked over, expecting to see Dean leaving the car, but instead he found Dean getting in. “Forget something?”

“No, I’m done. She wasn’t seeing anyone and didn’t have many friends, but I got the name of the bar she worked at.” He looked at Sam, head slightly cocked. “Are you ever going to do anything but sleep?”

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Let’s go get… those… vamps…” He broke off, yawning. He lifted his hand, scrubbing at his eyes, then his whole face. Then his body tensed and he pitched forward, held back only by his seatbelt. “hehhhCHISHHHHH!” Sam froze afterward, hunched over, hand at his nose.

“Oh shit. That’s not good.”

Sam nodded. “Not guh-good-heh-SHUHHH!”