Jake Brake (Supernatural, Dean)

[sierraplaid]

Brief foray into sick!Dean territory! Regularly scheduled sick!Sam programming will resume after this interlude.

Title: Jake Brake

Fandom: Supernatural

Characters: Sam, Dean (gen)

Summary: Dean is predictable when he’s sick.

Warnings: None

Jake Brake

A big-rig jake brakes on the highway just outside their motel room and Sam jerks awake with a start. The stuttering of the truck fades quickly into the distance and Sam pants out a breath, takes a deep, wavering one in, wild-eyed, jittery, and scared. The kind of dream he was having, he doesn’t mind a semi blasting through it.

Sam takes a calmer breath and melts back into his pillow, his heart still pounding in his ears. He rolls his head to the side to check the time. 5:52. Almost time to be getting up anyway. Then he glances past the clock to the other bed and sees it’s completely empty: no brother, no pillows, no blankets—stripped down to the fitted sheet. He’s not surprised, really, not too worried, especially when he hears a soft muffled sneeze from the bathroom that confirms his hunch.

It’s hardly the first time this has happened. As soon as Dean thinks him being sick is going to cost Sam any sleep when Sam’s already not sleeping too well he’ll decamp and burrow in the bathtub. He started doing it when they were young, and it’s a habit neither John nor Sam could ever get him to break.

Sam throws off the covers, pads across to the bathroom door, and nudges it open. Sure enough, there’s Dean: nestled into the corner of the tub, leaned back against two pillows and cocooned in a mound of blankets, quietly blowing his nose.

“Dean?”

Dean looks up blinking at his brother. “Sam. You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Jake brake?” Dean guesses.

Sam nods, sags into the doorway.

“Me, too. Freakin’ truckers, man,” Dean carps, annoyed for the both of them, pulling his arms back in under the covers and sniffling. “Just because they never get to sleep they gotta take it out on the rest of us. Might as well blow the light like they mean it instead of half-assing it to a California stop.”

With this pronouncement he ducks his head and buries a sneeze into the blanket.

“hTCHSHHhh!”

It takes Sam two or three days to work up to a good head cold, but Dean tends to get slammed with them, usually in the middle of the night. He’ll be mostly fine when he goes to bed, and then the next thing Sam knows he’s walking in on him propped up like this, working his way through his second or third box of tissues.

“What are you lookin’ at?” Dean demands, untucking his arms again to reach for the tissues at his side.

Sam shakes his head and gestures vaguely at the bathtub. “Dude, that’s really pathetic.”

“Surprisingly comfortable, actually.”

“You always say that and I never believe you.”

“Well, don’t knock it ‘til you try it.”

“Fine. Tonight you sleep in a bed and I’ll take the… friggin’... bathtub. Seriously?”

“It’s fine, Sam,” Dean insists, swiping a tissue at his nose. “I’m not a martyr to your beauty rest. Go on back to sleep.”

“Not a happening thing," Sam sighs.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, it’s just it’s 6:00, we gotta get going. You wanted to hit the road by seven, remember?” Dean stares him down until Sam rolls his eyes and says, “Nightmare, okay? It’s not a big deal. Just means you didn’t need to hole up in here to buy me some ‘undisturbed sleep’ or whatever. I’m fine. How are you?”

“Don’t change the subject,” Dean grumps before twisting away to sneeze into his elbow. “hTXCHHuh!”

Sam huffs out a short laugh. “All right. Well. You getting up, or what? If we’re gonna clear out in an hour we gotta get a move on.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” Dean’s snuffling into another tissue.

“You’re holding up the show,” Sam rags him. “I need to take a shower.”

***

End

[telltale]

Thank-you for veering briefly into Dean territory, hee. I've yet to find a fandom where I can go for sneezy stuff for more than one character no matter how much I like the other characters, which is unfortunate for me. Your way is much better! Anyway, Dean is my guy as you may guess from my icon. And the image of Dean sleeping in the bathtub when he's sick to keep Sam from waking up is SO Dean, and sweet but kind of sad too. In short, perfect!

[AngelEyes]

Awww. Dean curled up in the bathtub is super cute! And the thought of Sam trying it is super funny, he'd be bent up like a pretzel to fit! LOL

[HPG]

It takes Sam two or three days to work up to a good head cold, but Dean tends to get slammed with them

I especially liked this part. This story was really nice to read :-)

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

Very nice! Well written and detailed.

Short and simple, gotta love'em.

[sierraplaid]

Thank-you for veering briefly into Dean territory, hee. I've yet to find a fandom where I can go for sneezy stuff for more than one character no matter how much I like the other characters, which is unfortunate for me. Your way is much better! Anyway, Dean is my guy as you may guess from my icon. And the image of Dean sleeping in the bathtub when he's sick to keep Sam from waking up is SO Dean, and sweet but kind of sad too. In short, perfect!

Thank you! For whatever reason it's harder for me to headcanon sick!Dean, and this was a preliminary experiment, but I'm willing to keep thinking about it. Your icon is awesome, btw.

Awww. Dean curled up in the bathtub is super cute! And the thought of Sam trying it is super funny, he'd be bent up like a pretzel to fit! LOL

Too true. Thanks for reading!

It takes Sam two or three days to work up to a good head cold, but Dean tends to get slammed with them

I especially liked this part. This story was really nice to read :-)

Thanks!!! I'm glad you liked that part.

Very nice! Well written and detailed.

Short and simple, gotta love'em.

Thank you! Glad you liked.