Work Text:
Title: In the Blink of an Eye
Category: AU, General, Hurt/Comfort
Characters: Dean, John, and Sam
Rating: G
Summary: What if Mary left John to raise the boys by himself after a fire in Dean's nursery?
Word count: 2500+
A/N: 3/7/2014 - Story has been edited to correct some grammar mistakes that were missed prior to posting.
John was trying to finish up some paperwork before he had to leave work to pick up Sam from school, but it was November 1st and that always made him nostalgic and having Dean nearby racing Matchbox cars around the floor wasn’t helping.
It was the second anniversary of the day that a fire had broken out in Dean’s nursery, and John couldn’t believe how much his life had changed. John had fallen asleep in front of the TV and had woken to Dean crying at the top of his lungs. It wasn't until after John fully woke, that he noticed the smell of smoke and ran up the stairs to his son’s room, where the smoke was coming from. He was shocked when he found his wife standing in the room making no move to rescue Dean from his crib. John only paused for a second though before rushing and grabbing Dean and running for Sammy’s room, while yelling at his wife to get moving.
Thankfully, they all managed to get out alive, but Dean was admitted to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Mary didn’t even wait until Dean was released from the hospital before announcing that she was leaving. Irate didn’t even begin to cover how John felt. Mary had always been quirky but John had never thought that she would do anything to hurt the boys, and yet here she was leaving after standing by doing nothing while Dean’s room caught fire, which still was unexplained. John had never come so close to hitting a woman as he had that day.
The house had been a total loss, and even if it hadn’t been, John wouldn’t have been able to go back there. He and the boys moved into a three-bedroom ranch style house on the other side of town; closer to his auto shop. Dean had no memory of his mother, but he did have asthma as a lasting reminder of that night, and the fact that his mother had stood by and done nothing. Of course, John had never told Dean that it was her fault, and if he had anything to do with it, Dean would never find out. Unfortunately, Sam did remember her, and it had taken almost a year for Sam to get over the fear that John was going to leave them, too. Sam didn’t talk about Mary anymore, and John hoped that as he got older he would forget her altogether.
John and the boys had settled into a regular routine through the years. Dean went to work with John during the week while Sam was in school. Dean stayed in John’s office playing when John was in his office, or if it wasn’t safe for Dean to be in the garage area. The rest of the time Dean followed John around the garage. John tried to be done with work by the time Sam got out of school, but on the rare occasions when he wasn’t, he’d pick Sam up and bring him back to the shop, too. On those days, Sam would stay in John’s office doing homework and keeping an eye on Dean until they were able to head home. On the weekends, John and the boys spent time together playing, working around the house, or going places.
John’s time in the Marines had taught him how to take care of himself, so while he wasn’t a great cook, he didn’t have to resort to heating up frozen food or eating fast food every day. The house was kept clean thanks to that time, too, and his boys help. Dean couldn’t do much yet, but he was always willing to “help” his dad and brother. Sam was the complete opposite of his brother though. It seemed every time Sam had to help around the house, he’d state that it wasn’t fair that his friend Mikey only had to keep his room clean and he got an allowance for it, but Sam did a LOT more and didn’t get anything. John didn’t respond to the barb, but there were days that he literally had to bite his tongue to keep from getting in an argument with Sam about it.
****
John finally gave up on the paperwork before he wound up messing something up from his lack of focus.
“Hey Dean, are you ready to go get your brother,” John asked as he turned his chair to fully face Dean.
“YEAH,” Dean squealed, his toys forgotten, as he went running to John.
John picked Dean up and locked his office door before heading out into the garage to let the guys know he was leaving and would see them Monday. He got Dean loaded into his carseat in the Impala and headed to Sam’s school.
Dean always pulled himself up as tall as he could get, so he could watch for Sam, and as soon as he saw him, he started calling to him. It didn’t matter how many times John told Dean that Sam had to wait his turn to get in the car and calling didn’t make it go any faster. They finally got to the front of the line of cars and Sam climbed in the back with Dean. Dean happily told Sam about his day and asked what Sam had done.
When they got home, John let Sam and Dean get a snack and sit at the coffee table eating it while watching cartoons. Dean started coughing and knocked over his sippy cup of milk. John picked Dean up, patting his back, and carried him into the kitchen to get some water, while Sam picked Dean’s cup up and put it on the table. Sam then followed his dad into the kitchen to check on Dean. Dean had stopped coughing and John was wiping his face with a damp paper towel. John hoped that it was just from Dean not chewing his cookie well enough, and that it wasn’t Dean's asthma acting up, but he was determined to keep an eye on Dean in case it was because of his asthma.
“How are you doing, buddy,” John asked as he rested his hand on Dean’s forehead to check to see if he had a temperature.
“I’s ok now,” Dean answered as he started struggling to be put down.
John set Dean down, and Dean ran off to finish his snack. John had planned to take the boys outside to play after their snack, but now he wasn’t so sure if he should. He decided to let them watch TV for a while and see if Dean coughed anymore, if not then he’d let them play outside. It was supposed to rain over the weekend, and he really wanted Sam and Dean to burn some energy before they were stuck inside all weekend. Dean didn’t cough anymore, and he was starting to get restless watching TV, so John decided it was safe to take the boys outside to play for a while before they went to get something for supper. Fridays were the one night a week that he took his sons out to get something for supper.
John sat at the picnic table in the backyard watching his sons run around and play. Since John was an only child, he had wanted to have several children close in age to each other. That way they’d always have somebody to play with, but Mary had bonded with Sam and didn’t want any more children right away. By the time Mary was willing to have another child, John was worried that the age difference would cause Sam to resent Dean and not want to have anything to do with him. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Dean had Sam wrapped around his little finger from day one, and they grew even closer after the fire. When he bought the house, John had planned on giving the boys separate bedrooms like they had in the other house, but Sam had insisted that Dean sleep in his room, so John turned the other bedroom into a playroom for them.
****
Dean fell asleep on the couch watching TV after supper, and John carried him to the boys’ bedroom and started getting him ready for bed. John wished that he could skip Dean’s nightly nebulizer treatment because he knew there was a good chance it would wake Dean back up, but he wasn’t willing to risk skipping it. Sure enough as soon as John put the mask on Dean, he woke up. Thankfully, Dean accepted the treatments as part of the routine so didn’t fight them like he did as a baby. When the treatment was finished, John carried Dean around humming to him while Sam got ready for bed, and Dean fell back asleep. John told both boys goodnight and went back to watch TV for a while before going to bed himself. He didn’t stay up very late though since he knew his sons wouldn’t let him sleep too late in the morning. He checked on the boys and then headed to his room. He debated getting a pair of pajama pants out to sleep in since it was getting a little cold. He had stored them in his closet with his winter clothes though, and he didn’t feel up to hunting for them, so just slept in his boxers and a t-shirt like he did when it was warm out. He thought this weekend would be a good time to take the winter clothes out and put all of their summer clothes up.
John woke up to Sam screaming his name. He thought Sam must have been having a nightmare. It wasn’t that unusual for Sam to wake up from nightmares since the house fire. John got up and ran to the boys’ room prepared to calm Sam down, but when he got there, he found Sam on Dean’s bed holding Dean in his arms. Dean looked pitiful with an odd coughing, wheezing, and crying sound coming from him. John scooped Dean up and could feel the heat coming from him.
“Sammy hurry up and get changed. We need to take Dean to the doctor,” John said as he grabbed a blanket from Dean’s bed.
John rushed to his room and sat Dean on his bed while he put jeans and shoes on and grabbed his wallet and keys from his nightstand. He picked Dean and the blanket back up and went to grab Sam and their coats just as Sam went racing down the hall headed toward the garage. Sam put on his coat as he climbed into the backseat of the Impala, and John buckled Dean into his carseat tucking the blanket around him.
When John finally parked at the hospital he could see that Dean’s lips know had a bluish tint. He hurried up, got the boys out of the car, and ran toward the Emergency Room entrance as fast as he could with Sam running along beside him.
“My son needs help,” John hollered as soon as they went through the doors.
A nurse went running around the desk, took Dean from John’s arms, and rushed to the back, where John and Sam followed. When they got to a room, it looked like chaos to John as a doctor and nurses hovered around the bed they had laid Dean on. Somebody handed John a clipboard with forms for him to fill out, while the doctor asked about Dean’s medical history and if he was allergic to anything. Sam was tucked into John’s side with one eye on Dean. Sam didn’t like seeing Dean sick, but he couldn’t turn away completely. The doctor and nurses quickly got Dean hooked up to an IV and gave him medication and a breathing treatment before the doctor started ordering a bunch of tests. John tried to catch everything the doctor was saying, but he couldn’t keep track of all of it. They finally got Dean stabilized and on oxygen and took him to get a chest x-ray. John and Sam were left sitting in the exam room waiting for Dean to get back.
“Dad is Dean going to be okay,” Sam asked as he sat on John’s lap watching the doorway.
“Of course he is,” John answered, hoping he sounded confident to Sam.
About 20 minutes later, Dean was brought back to the room. John could tell he was tired, but he was too wired from the medication they had given him to sleep. He was crying again but sounded like he was breathing better. John stood up with Sam and moved the chair closer to Dean’s bed, so he could rest his hand on Dean’s head to try to comfort him. He would have liked to hold Dean in his arms but with all the things Dean was hooked up to, that wasn’t an option right now.
The nurse came in a few times to check on Dean, but it was over an hour before the doctor came back in to talk to John.
“Mr. Winchester, I’ve just taken a look at Dean’s test results, and they show that Dean’s got pneumonia. Has he been sick recently,” the doctor asked.
“He had a cold about a week ago but has been fine since then. Is he going to be okay,” John asked.
“Most likely the cold led to this, but it can come on quickly. The pneumonia is more dangerous with his history of asthma, so I want to admit him for a few days to be able to closely monitor him and allow the medicine time to get him over the worst of it. But you got him here soon enough that I don’t expect any complications. We’ll be moving him to a room upstairs shortly, and you can stay with him, if you’d like,” the doctor said.
About 30 minutes later, they transferred Dean to a room on the Pediatric floor. Sam had fallen asleep with his head resting on Dean’s bed, so John carried Sam when they moved Dean. John was happy to see that there was a recliner next to the bed, so he could lay Sam down on it. When they got Dean adjusted on the new bed, John asked if it was okay to hold Dean, and one of the nurses showed John how to pick Dean up without disturbing anything he was hooked up to. She then put Dean in John’s lap after he sat on the bed. It wasn’t long before Dean was asleep, which was what John had been hoping for but holding Dean helped comfort him, too. He wished Dean didn’t have to deal with the asthma treatments, flare-ups, all the colds, and other illnesses that he always seemed to catch because of it, not to mention times like this when it turned into something worse. Dean didn’t let it slow him down though. John dreaded the day that Dean started school and was exposed to even more germs, instead of just the ones that Sam managed to bring home, or Dean caught from who knew where. As John sat there holding Dean and watching Sam sleep, he was once again reminded of how close he came to losing them and how thankful he was to have both of them.