WinchesterHaunt: Hmm, here lately I seem to be the one-shot queen. But no more! Yes, it is true that this was going to originally be a one-shot fic, but I got to writing it and the first scene got to being longer and longer, so I just decided to cut the scenes up and make chapters. So this is my first chapter fic. And for my first chapter fic, I’ve decided to bring to you this little piece of ‘pick-me-upper.’ The Shadow episode was such a tear jerker, so I thought that what we all needed right about now was a little something to laugh at. I hope I do a good job. Wish me luck!

Rating: PG-13 (Probably a bit high on the rating, but you know what they say, ‘better safe than sorry.’)

Disclaimer: Well… if I owned it, I certainly wouldn’t have time to write here, now would I.

Summery: Pneumonia, The Flu, … A Physic Cold? These days, Sam can’t have anything normal in his life, not even the common cold. What’s Dean to do when a simple cold pill doesn’t cut it?

The Common Cold

By: WinchesterHaunt

The paint cracked motel door creaked with age as it swung open to greet its’ newest occupants. The older of the two young men entered first. His younger, but taller brother dragged in behind him dripping wet from head to toe. The shivering and soggy boy quickly shut the door behind him to keep out the chilly night air.

“Well,” Dean dropped the two duffle bags he was totting and turned to his less than comfortable looking brother, “All things considered, I think we had a pretty good night.”

“You only say that because you didn’t ‘fall’ into the lake,” Sam replied trying to keep his chattering teeth abated.

Dean hide a quick smile before flipping the lamp by their beds on, “It’s your own fault, dude. I told you not to get too close.”

“Right,” Sam rubbed his reddening nose on his too long damp sleeve, “Next time I’ll just let the spirit get the kid.”

“Yeah well,” Dean just shrugged knowing that his brother was right and that the situation couldn’t have been helped.

Sam dragged his feet over to his bed and would have loved nothing more than to have fallen backwards onto it and slept for hours. But in his current state he knew that it wouldn’t be a good idea. He was sopping wet and his bones literally felt numb from sporting around his damp clothes to long in the winter weather. His sniffles, that had started on there drive back, were now becoming more frequent. He could only hope that he wasn’t coming down with anything.

Dean snatched the TV remote off the night stand and plopped down on his bed, which, not surprisingly, was the one closest to the door. The TV came to life in a crackle of electricity, but Dean was more interested with scrutinizing his brother from the corner of his eye. He shook his head. The kid looked like a mess. His too long hair was plastered all around his face and fell annoyingly in his eyes. His nose was quickly becoming agitated and would soon give Rudolph a run for his money; not to mention the visible shivers that racked his body.

“Sam, go take a shower,” Dean gave Sam a once-over before turning back to flip through the channels, “You’re messing up the carpet.”

If Sam had been feeling any better he might have informed his brother that water dripping on the carpet might actually do it some good. But he wasn’t feeling well, and the sound of a hot shower and dry clothes was enough to deter the water soaked boy from starting any farther debate. Instead, he just collected a t-shirt and sweat pants, along with a few other toiletries, from his duffle bag and disappeared behind the bathroom door.

A half an hour later when Sam remerged from the bathroom, Dean thought that his brother looked pretty much the same, only drier. His hair was still damp from the towel-off method and his nose had settled into its’ new rosy look. Not to mention the paler shade that covered the boy’s face. Dean only hoped it was just a weird kind of shock Sam was going through after being thrown into an icy river in the dead of winter, but some how, he doubted it.

Neither Winchester spoke as the younger made his way over to his bed and lay down. His hand immediately went to the bridge of his nose. Dean couldn’t ignore that.

“Hey, you okay?”

“What? Oh, yeah.” Sam removed his hand from his face and let it drop beside him, “I’m just tired.”

“You sure?” Dean poked at the subject one last time and wasn’t surprised when he received the same answer. He sighed and sat the remote down. He’d just have to count on the fact that Sam would tell him if something was really wrong.

“Alright. I’ll be out in a minute,” Dean stated as he gather up his own bathroom necessities and took his turn in the shower.

It only took Dean about half as long as it took Sam before he was back out, refreshed, relaxed, and ready to return to his mindless movie that he had found earlier on television. He was glad to see that Sam was fast asleep in the folds of his bed. With any luck, his brother wouldn’t have any of his usual freaky dreams or visions and he’d be able to just sleep his progressing illness off. If there was anything worse than dragging around a moody Sam, it was dragging around a sick one. At least when he was being an emotional chick about things, Dean could gripe at him, but when Sam was ill, all he could do was feel sorry for the little emotionless slug.

It didn’t take long for those hopes to dissolve when a puny cough escaped Sam’s sleeping form. Dean shook his head knowing that cough would probably be the start of many. It was a good thing they kept such a well stocked first aid kit. It was kind of a must when you worked in the field they did.

Dean decided to forgo his movie; it was almost over anyway. He would probably need the extra sleep when Sam woke up later in the night; which he would. He always did. So in preparation, Dean slipped the bottle of Ibuprofen and a glass of tap water on the bedside table. He couldn’t remember how many times those little pills had saved him from the persistent monster called pain. So if they could subdue the pain of Dean’s many bumps and bruises, then surely they could work miracles for Sam’s coughs and sniffles.

Slipping into his own bed, the older Winchester watched as his younger brother rolled over in his sleep and hide his head in his pillow. Dean frowned. He recognized that position from when they were both younger. It was always easy to tell when Sam was sick by just watching him sleep. A head stuffed down into a pillow meant nothing good for the seasoned hunter. Sam always crammed his head into his pillow whenever he was trying to hide his pain or discomfort. Funny, that by doing this to keep his pain a secret, he only gave himself away.

Dean sighed and closed his eyes. He figured he could get at least a few hours of sleep before his human alarm went off.

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It took Sam a bit longer than Dean had expected, but never the less, Sam had woken up just as Dean had foreseen.

Dean was startled awake, and not just by his brother’s large sneeze, but by the loud crack that followed it.

“Sammy?” Dean’s voice was sleepy but it definitely held awareness to it.

A soft sniffle replied and then Sam’s nasally sounding voice, “Yeah?”

The springs on Dean’s bed moaned as he pulled himself up against the headboard and reached for the lamp. By the time his fingers managed to find the switch and click it on, Sam let out another thick sneeze, followed by a pop, and then all was dark again.

“What the…?” Dean growled and mumbled something about cheap motels and burned out bulbs. “Hang on a minute.”

Dean stumbled out of bed and over to his duffle bag where he rummaged around until his hands brushed against the cold metal of his flashlight. Using the flashlight, he was able to make it across the room to the light switch and dispel the darkness from the room.

“Whoa,” Dean observed the pale skin and the dark circles under his brother’s eyes when they made contact, “You look like crap.”

“’Feel worse,” was his sniffled reply.

Dean frowned and pointed to the preset pills on the night stand.

“I doubt they’ll completely heal ya, Kiddo, but something’s better than nothing.”

Sam mumbled a thanks before swallowing the suggested amount.

Dean scanned the room while Sam was following the ‘doctor’s’ orders.

“What are you doing?” Sam tried to clear his throat so his voice didn’t sound so raspy.

“After you sneezed the first time, I heard a loud cracking noise.” Dean continued to inspect the room until his eyes landed on a tipped over wooden chair.

“That must’ve been the noise,” Dean confirmed to himself before turning a furrowed brow at Sam, “Did you knock that over?”

His brother shook his head negatively, “How could I have?”

“Well,” Dean nudged the chair with his foot, “It either tipped over by itself or that’s one helluva sneeze you’ve got there pal. You’ll make the Big Bad Wolf jealous.”

Sam rolled his eyes. He seriously doubted that he, or any other human, had a powerful enough lung capacity to blow a wooden chair over from across the room.

“It probably just tipped over or something.”

“Yeah,” Dean gave the chair a suspicious look before righting it again, “Or something.”

“It’s probably nothing…” Sam barely finished before dissolving into another set of coughs.

“But whatever crap that you’ve contracted is something.”

Sam rubbed the side of his head as if it would remove the cotton that felt like it was stuffed in his head. He squeezed his eyes shut; maybe that would have a better effect. When he opened his eyes back up he found Dean picking through one of the few cabinets that the room had to offer.

“What are you doing?”

His big brother continued to rummage through the shelf for a bit longer before pulling away and flashing a soft glow replacement light bulb.

“’Didn’t think I’d actually find one, but there’s no way that I’m sleeping with the over head light on and I’m not going to sleep in the dark where I can’t keep my eye on you.”

“Dean.” Sam’s face was blank but you could hear the sound of annoyance in his voice, “I’m not going to be able to go to sleep if you’re staring at me the whole time.”

Dean unboxed the fresh bulb and reached his hand down into the shade to unscrew the burnt out one. “You’ll get use to it. I’m not gonna have you croak on me in the middle…, Argh!”

Sam perked up and immediately asked what had happened. Dean himself looked confused and was even more so when he pulled back a bloody hand. A small gash had appeared across the upper and lower part of his palm. He peered over the lampshade to find out what had given his hand such an injury. His eyebrow creased at what he found. Dean’s eyes shot to Sam’s for a moment before he reached his hand back in the lampshade, a bit more carefully this time, and withdrew a completely broken light bulb.

“I’d say that ‘burnt out’ is an understatement.”

Sam sniffed and nodded his agreement as Dean tossed the shattered bulb into the trash and made sure that the excess glass had landed on the table and not on the floor. He picked up what he could find but still cautioned his little brother about not getting out of bed on the night stand’s side.

Sam just pretended to listen. He knew how to handle glass. Contrary to what Dean thought sometimes, Sam was twenty-three not three.

“You need to clean that,” Sam nodded towards his brother’s hand and then scrubbed at his nose to ward off another sneeze he felt rising to the surface.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dean grumbled and successfully managed to screw the now lit light bulb in the lamp.

Dean grinned at his handy work and crossed the room to turn the room light off with a flip of his wrist, “There. Now maybe we can get thirty minutes of sleep instead of our usual three minutes.”

Sam’s only reply was another forceful sneeze, followed by another dreaded pop, and the same darkness as before.

Dean stood stock still. He could have easily turned the room lights back on since he was right next to the switch, but at the moment, he wasn’t sure if his mind could handle the simple movement. An eerie silence filled the room.

‘This can’t be,’ Dean thought, ‘his first time was just a fluke. This is not supposed to be happening.’

“Sam?” Dean finally got his vocal cords to work.

“Holy Crap…” was his only reply.

TBC...

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WinchesterHaunt: Haha, wow. That was actually pretty fun to write. The humor will, should, start kicking in gear in the next chapter. This first chapter, I just pretty much needed it to set the scene for me; pave the way. I hope you guys all liked it. Drop me a line or two and tell me what you think. Should I keep going or should I forever leave the boys in the darkness?? See you later fanficers!