AN: So this was supposed to be a oneshot. but people wanted more, the silly gooses. LOL. jk. i'm glad this had such a positive response! so i'm not sure now how long it will go, but shouldn't be more than 4 chapters. anyway, i'll shut up. enjoy! unbetaed.

"someone call the ambulance there's gonna be an accident"

Dean lost all feeling in his fingers by the time they reached the hospital. EMT Gerry Cooper had told him to put the IV on a hook at the top of the van, but Dean stubbornly refused to let go his brother's lifeline. Sam was counting on him, no matter how small the help, Dean would do it completely. Some part of his brain told him that he was being ridiculous, but that logic was promptly met with a mental fist. Ain't no way I'm gonna let ya down, Lil' bro.

Sam gave all appearances of sleeping, of being in excellent physical condition. Alas, as Dean shot a furtive glance to his brother's lower half, the malignant piece of stone continued to wrench Sam towards the painless abyss, while Dean pulled him back to the land of the living. However, he was not alone in this grisly tug-a-war. Cooper and the female EMT worked tirelessly. She held the leg in question, while Cooper took Sam's vitals and asked Dean a series of questions involved in his health and next of kin.

"Any family to contact?"

"No."

"No one at all?"

"He's got me."

"Are you family?"

Dean stopped, staring hard at the little plastic bag in his right hand, held high above his brother's chest. He vaguely heard the driver over the radio, detailing Sam's condition to the hospital.

"Gabriel. You need to be straight with me. This could mean life or death for Dan."

Dean swallowed hard. The man was good at his work, really cared about Sam's health. As they swung into the hospital's emergency entrance, Dean haltingly stated, "His name isn't Dan, it's Sam."

"WHAT?" The first hint of extreme emotion crossed the wizened hero's face. Dean could tell that he made a big mistake of not trusting him, that that would've saved everyone a whole lot of confusion, and that Cooper would've valued the truth and accepted it. However, any argument was put on hold as the back doors of the ambulance burst open and two nurses immediately began asking questions in a rapid succession.

The next hour or so was a whirlwind of smells, hallways and vocabulary words as Sam was pushed down sterile corridors. Dean lost track of the words as they raced along, lost in his own troubled thoughts of what Cooper was going to do.

He fell back to earth with an unpleasant bump as the blonde nurse asked him, "Are you a doctor?"

"Wha-? No."

"Then Sir, you can't come this way. I'm going to have to ask to you wait in that room there." She said this all very fast as she pointed to the overcrowded waiting room.

"But-"

"Sir, if you want this man to live, you hand over that IV and do as you're told." In any other worlds, Dean would've made some sort of innuendo about her ordering him around and yesma'am, but now all he could do was numbly do what she asked and stare as his brother was wheeled through the Emergency Room's operation area. His hand felt weird, like it was missing something important. Dean looked down at it in wonderment, a foreign, detached feeling running through his body. With one last look to the swinging doors that wouldn't admit him, the lost brother walked slowly to a seat a crying woman had just vacated.

OOOOOOOO

Ten hours and two surgeries later, Sam lay silently on a hospital bed. Stark white sheets contrasted with his mop of brown hair. But Dean shivered as he found Sam's skin-tone to be a near match.

"They say he's going to be fine."

Dean whirled around at the unexpected voice. Cooper stood in the doorway, weight resting on the wall, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Oh. good. yeah, real good." He looked again at his sleeping brother, "He's tough. He'll make it through. He always does." Because I'm there.

"So you lied to me."

"Yeah, I kinda have to."

"Why?"

"Because me, and..Sam. We're not exactly model citizens by the feds' book."

"So you're criminals."

"No."

"And I'm just supposed to believe that?"

Dean looked up and noticed, not anger in Cooper's face, but a polite mixture of curiosity and distrust. As his own sad smile graced his young face, that mix changed to simply curiosity.

"If I told you 'yes', would you accept it?"

Cooper sighed and moved into the room, placing himself in one of the plastic chairs in the room. "No, you are correct. I would like an explanation. You owe me at least that."

"Yeah, thanks." Dean inwardly winced. "But this isn't a grand story of Batman and his Robin, alright? You probably will want to cart me off to the mental ward as I tell you this, and you will probably leave thinking you imagined this all. But there's these things. And we hunt them..."

Thus as Sam slept off his latest injury, Dean opened the world wide open to someone who perhaps thought they'd seen it all. When he was finished, Cooper looked nearly as white as the patient.

"So you see why I lied?"

The EMT rose quickly from his chair, toppling it. "Ye- oops! Shit! Yes, yes, i see. But- no! It can't-!"

"Cooper, the number of times you've come across a strange injury. The number of times you couldn't explain the body on the ground. Think about it." Dean likewise rose, but steadily. He grasped his would be mentor by the shoulders. "I'm sorry man, but that's what's what. You asked for an explanation. That's what ya got."

Head bobbing, Cooper agreed. "Yes. This all makes sense. But my god. All of it? Dracula? Frankenstein? Ghosts? Demons?"

Dean gave a bark of laughter. "Don't know about Dracula, but yes. Vampires exist." He peeled back his collar to expose the scar left by Gordon.

"Oh god. That?" Cooper moved in for a closer look. "That explains so much. Back in the 80s...there were a series of girls...throats torn..."

"Yeah."

"Vampires." Cooper snorted, then moved to the door. "Well..umm, what isyour name?"

"Dean."

"Well Dean, your brother is going to be fine. He may require a bit of physical therapy, but nothing was too badly damaged in the accident...was it an accident, by the way?"

"Yeah. We were just taking care of a ghost when the 'quake hit. Wait, how did you know he's my brother."

Cooper chuckled. "HA. 'Taking care of a ghost.' It still makes me laugh. I could tell you care deeply for him. C'mon kid. I've been in this business how long? You pick up a few things about relationships. Yes, Sam's tendons and bones are all still in working order. He was lucky and the marble just scraped it on the side."

Dean nodded and they shook hands, one hero to another. As he was once again left alone with his sibling, Dean couldn't help but feel a bit more hope for the world. With people like that, it can't be too bad of a place. He started as a low moan issued from the bed.

"Sammy?" He rushed to the bedside, where his brother lay, blinking slowly in the white light of the hospital ward.

"Dean? Did we- i mean, where- you left!"

Dean tried to rationalize the accusation in Sam's voice, but the stab of guilt still entered his belly. "Just to find you some help kiddo. Sorry 'bout all that. You know we can't trust the law."

Sam looked confused for a long time, trying to process all the jumbled images clouding his memory. Dean waited, knowing that Sam would only get pissed if he interrupted his thought process.

"So why can't I feel my leg?" He finally asked, with a calm air that betrayed nothing

"It's fine. Cooper, the EMT who helped you out, said that they were able to get everything fixed up for ya. Someone as huge as you just needs the horse pills. Be happy dude, you weren't lookin' too good for awhile."

The lines vanished from Sam's face, leaving behind a tired young man. "So I'll walk out of here?"

"Yeah bro. Though if ya call that tromp of yours a walk, i dunno."

"Ha ha. How long?" Dean could understand his brother's need to get out of the hospital as quick as possible. They weren't very kind to the Winchester family as of late.

"I really don't know, okay Sammy? I'll get your doctor, then we can figure it all out, alright? Just get some sleep, you look like hell. I'll be back."

As he turned to go, Dean couldn't help but flinch at the lost-puppy lost that crossed Sam's face before he settled back in to let the drugs work. He may know, on the intellectual level, that Dean would never leave. But somewhere underneath, there was doubt. Dean sighed and went to find the doctor. This is gonna be interesting.