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Sam was no stranger migraines, he’d been getting them for as long as he could remember, and definitely knew how to deal with them- but, God, this one was kicking his ass- everything was way too bright and way too loud, even the slightest shift of movement made him want to hurl.
He dragged a hand through his long, ruffled hair with quick frustration. Normally his migraines would last a few hours, but he could work through them, sure they hurt like hell, but he had been through worse, a simple headache wouldn’t be the thing to end it all, he was strong, he could make it- but apparently, the universe had other plans for the younger Winchester.
Apparently Dean noticed his brother's discomfort because he spoke up about it. “Sam, you okay over there?”. Sam set his book down quickly, flinching with pain at the sudden movement and sound.
“Yeah- Yeah I’m fine, just a bit tired.” He lied quickly, almost out of habit- yes, Sam was trying to be more honest with Dean, but he didn’t want to worry his brother anymore than he had already over the past few years, and besides, things were calm now, why stir up something else whenever he could just let Dean relax a bit? Even if they were researching for a case, this was the first time in a while that Sam could visually notice the tension not being present in Dean’s shoulders, so again, why ruin that?
“Well, things seem to be a bit quiet so why don’t you go take a nap or something? It’s weird to say out loud, but for the first time in forever we actually have time for stuff like that.” His brother replied, a bit too loudly for Sam’s liking, and as much as he tried to repress it, Sam let out another flinch at the sudden noise.
Dean paused for a moment, looking at his brother before opening his mouth, which Sam assumed he was about to ask ‘Hey, what the hell is going on?’. “Okay- that’s the second time you’ve flinched, you sure you’re okay?”.
Sam let out a soft groan of annoyance, and maybe pain as well. “Yes, Dean. I’m fine.” He tried to reassure his brother softly, not wanting to sound rude and accidentally start something. “I’m gonna take you up on that offer, and go lay down- I’ll see you later.”
Dean simply nodded in acknowledgement to his brother leaving, not looking up from his laptop screen.
Sam fell down on his bed with a soft thud, slightly regretting not gently sitting down on his bed since the impact made his head throb even worse. He sighed into his pillow, frankly one-hundred percent done with his migraine, head throbbing with bitter, hot pain, and accompanied by random, sharp and extremely painful shots. He reached out blindly to his nightstand, searching for the pills he had been taking since his very first migraine. He didn’t know what the hell they were or what they were called, since Dean was the one who always supplied him with the seemingly magical painkillers.
His sweaty hands finally gripped the bottle, which felt oddly light. The hunter sat up slowly, squinting at the soft light of his lamp- how long had that been on for? The light burned his eyes, causing the red-hot pain in his head to flare up even more. His heart sank when he opened the small pill bottle, and found it empty. Great. When did he even run out? He had loads left last time he checked- maybe he had a mad headache at some point and couldn’t remember, or maybe Kevin had stolen a few, he couldn’t really get mad at the young man, since he knew what it was like to have a painful headache, but still need to get work done. Setting the bottle down with a heavy sigh, he settled back down onto his stomach. Naps normally helped, sometimes the pain wouldn’t be gone whenever he woke up, but it gave him a nice break. Letting out a final moan of pain, Sam allowed himself to sleep.
The hunter slowly woke up, highly disappointed with the fact that a nap had not helped in the slightest. He buried his face into his pillow with a groan, before lifting his head, squinting. Lord- what time is it?
“Geez, you were out for a while-” The soft, yet rough voice of his brother commented, which caused him to flinch again, but more out of shock.
“Dean- what’re you doin’ in my room?” He mumbled in confusion, voice heavy with sleep.
“Well, you’ve been out since around three-ish and it’s now-” His brother glanced at his watch. “Eight, next day by the way. So, yeah I came in here to make sure you were alright. Sue me.” He scoffed.
Normally, Sam would clap back, but he didn’t have the energy or the willpower to do so- he just wanted to sleep. “So, how are you? And don’t say fine, we both know that’s bull.”
“Head hurts. Migraine.” He would’ve said more, but noise in general hurt his head and he was already falling back asleep. His brother let out a simple “ Oh”, before sighing softly. It was silent for a moment, before Sam felt his bed dip slightly as Dean sat down at the foot of it. “Anything I can get ya, or do?” The older hunter asked with gentle care, the volume of his voice lowered significantly.
“Mm-mm..” Sam replied with a small shake of his head, wrapping his arms around his torso in an attempt to try and provide some level of comfort to himself, which it helped a bit. “ ‘Less you got any more of those pills, then..”
“I don’t, little brother, I’m sorry.” He gently patted Sam’s leg. “How about I get you some water and some regular, way lamer medicine, huh?”. Sam didn’t have the chance to reply as Dean quickly and quietly left his room. The younger hunter smiled softly, and rolled over onto his back, despite the pounding in his skull telling him to stay still. His eyes remained close since every time he opened them, the world would spin and nausea would rise from his stomach and creep into his throat.
“I’m back. I grabbed everything I could find, hopefully this mess of pills will do something about that nasty headache of yours.” Dean’s voice entered the room, still soft and quiet. Sam sat up slowly, blinking open his eyes with immediate regret- it was too bright. “Can you.. Turn off that lamp, please?” He muttered slowly.
“Yeah, yeah, no problem.” The room darkened with a soft click, the light from the hallway keeping things very dim in Sam’s room. “Thanks..”
Dean nodded slightly before dumping the cluster of pills into his brother's hand. “This should do the job- if not I can make a quick run or something.” He spoke gently, holding out the glass of whatever. Sam took each pill individually, the sensation of swallowing worsening his nausea, but hey, hopefully this would work and it’d all be worth it. Sam laid back down on his back after consuming the last of the pills, practically praying that it would all kick in soon.
“ ‘m sorry, Dean..” Sam confessed quietly, burrowing his head into a pillow.
“No need to apologize, this is what family is for. Plus, I don’t wanna hear your sorry-ass complainin’, so I might as well help, right?” He joked lightly.
“... Can I ask you one more favor..?”
“Anything.”
“Stay with me for a while, please?”
Sam felt absolutely pathetic, but trying to act tough was useless, he needed his older brother to be there for him. Dean’s presence itself was soothing, and God knows that any sense of peace was welcomed.
Dean cleared his throat quietly. “Yeah, ‘course Sammy.” He slowly made his way over to the other side of the bed, gently taking a seat beside his brother. Sure, the bed was a little small, but Sam didn’t mind, not in the slightest. The relaxing silence took his mind off of the hellfire in his head, and his body finally allowed him to drift off, but not before he noticed a hand softly running through his hair.
Whenever Sam awoke again, he noticed two things, one his head felt better, huzzah, and two, Dean was still lying next to him, one of his hands still tangled in his younger brother’s hair as he snored softly. It was surprisingly nice- and his hand was warm which brought relief to his head in an odd way, so that was the third thing he noticed.
His eyes naturally closed again, but he didn’t fall back asleep- no, he just thought. He thought about the clusterfuck that he called life, and everything about it. Every aspect. From his very first hunt to what he had for dinner, he just thought. There really was no reason why, it was just nice to think about something besides hunting for a change.
Hours sped by like minutes before Dean finally woke up with a groan, and a loud yawn- a bit too loud. “You awake, Sammy?” His brother croaked, voice groggy with sleep.
“Mhm, yeah..” Sam croaked back, his voice a little more awake sounding but not by a lot.
Dean took a deep breath, before starting to run his fingers through Sam’s hair again- he hadn’t really shown Sam any physical affection since they were kids, so it was a tad bit odd at first, but greatly appreciated. “Feelin’ any better?”.
Sam nodded, practically melting into his brother’s touch. Dean let out a small, soft sigh of relief. “Good. Glad to hear it…” He trailed off, still waking up. “Want anything to eat?”
“ ‘m okay, promise…” Sam breathed softly, started to shiver as he slowly inched over to Dean. He was so warm and Sam was so cold- his brother quickly took notice and pulled a blanket over Sam, closing the gap between them so they were practically laying on each other.
“Alright, let me know if you need anything.” And with that, Sam dozed off yet again.
The next time Sam woke up wasn’t pleasant in the slightest, his brother was gone, whatever the hell Dean had given him had worn off, and to top it all off, he felt like he was about to hurl big time- not your run of the mill ‘Oh I kinda feel sick, so I’m gonna take it easy’ kind of nausea, no, more like ‘I have five seconds before I start to vomit’ kind of nausea.
The bile continuously rising in Sam’s throat caused him to sit up quickly, and blindly stumble around in search of something- a trash can, an old bowl or cup, anything.
“Dean-!” The younger Winchester managed to cry out before he accidentally gagged himself, clutching his sides as he let out a dry choke. “Dean!”
“I’m here, Sammy, I’m here, what is it?” The older hunter had returned quickly, immediately rushing to his brother’s side when he heard Sam’s cries.
He feebly pointed to his trash can, one hand clamped over his mouth in case he started to hurl before he was able to reach a trash can or anything like that.
“Here, I gotcha. Let’s get you onto the floor, might make this process easier.” Dean softly murmured as he guided Sam onto the floor of his bedroom. The younger hunter managed to steal a breath before he lunged over the trash can, vomit flowing out of his mouth. He weakly gripped the sides of the trash can, trembling terribly. Dean kept his distance, vomit kind of freaked him out which was odd since his job was one of the most gruesome jobs ever, but he did manage to get his brother’s long hair out of his face, so hey, that’s development itself.
Sam retched again, and again, before another wave of vomit finally hit. Normally, whenever he got sick, 90% of the process was him feeling shitty and trying to throw up, while the other 10% was him actually throwing up- it wasn’t enjoyable at all. It was a gamble, sometimes he would feel nauseous for days before he finally coughed something up. He sat back, panting, damp strings of hair practically glued to his forehead and neck. He still felt somewhat nauseous, but his back and hands ached greatly, so sitting up was the best thing he felt he could do.
The younger hunter took in a sharp, painful breath, careful to not accidentally trigger his nausea again. His body continued to shake as the cold air grasped him- but on the brightside, his head did feel way better, so there was that. Resting his head on his bed, he closed his eyes, his breathing slowing. The worst had hopefully passed, and he would be back to normal by tomorrow or the day after. A shiver rolled up his spine as he weakly climbed back onto his bed.
“Sorry..” He weakly let out, his throat still burning from retching, pulling a blanket on top of himself. “Don’t worry about it.” Dean whispered. “Still want me to stay? Need anything?”
“Stay, please..” The bed dipped slightly as Dean returned to his previous position next to his brother, slowly scratching his scalp and messing with his hair gingerly, careful to not tug at any knots or snarls. The throbbing in his head had died down a ton, but it still hurt- plus, the nausea still clawing at his throat didn't help the situation at all. By the time Sam drifted off to sleep, his head was resting on Dean’s chest- he wasn’t sure how he got in this situation, but the warmth radiating from the living heater he called a brother was very soothing, and they remained that way, pressed up against each other, in peaceful silence.
The two of them would probably never speak of this, since moments like these, although they were nice, had an undercoat of embarrassment from one of them, this time Sam, and Dean wasn’t going to pry, he knew his brother hated the fact that he had to rely on his older brother right now, but sometimes you just need someone to take care of you. Sometimes the best medicine truly is love.