Happened before

Once the doctor had checked Dean over, and had made him comfortable, they ran some tests. 2 hours after Dean woke up, the doctor came into Dean's room. Sam and Dean were waiting to hear about the results. Sam, of course, had gone to get John but he was sleeping. A nurse said not to wake him because he needed the rest.

"I can't explain it," The doctor said, bewildered, "The edema's vanished. The internal contusions are healed. Your vitals are good. You have some kind of angel watching over you."

"Thanks, doc," Dean said, offering a small smile.

The doctor nodded and turned to leave. As soon as he was out of the room, Dean's smile faded and he turned to Sam.

"So...what happened?" He asked.

"You got me," Sam replied, "Do you, ah remember anything? Could you hear anything?"

Dean thought for a moment.

"I think...there was some singing," Dean said, with a confused look on his face, "You didn't sing did you?"

"Um, no," Sam replied, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. I just feel..."

"What?"

"I don't know. Strange but at the same time, I just have this familiar feeling," Dean replied. "I don't know, man," He added, shaking his head.

There was a knock on the door and Sam and Dean both looked up to see John, standing in the doorway.

"How you feeling, dude?" John asked.

"Fine, I guess. I'm alive."

"That's what matters," said John

"Yeah, we just don't know how" said Sam

"How?" John asked.

"Look, I don't want to put a damper on you being alive but...I mean, how did this happen?" Sam asked. He turned to John and added, "Did you do something?"

"Why would you think I did anything?" John asked.

"I don't know, because you were the one who wanted to summon the demon," Sam pointed out, "Did you go after the demon? Did you do something..."

"No," John answered quickly.

"You know, why don't I believe you right now?" Sam asked.

"Can we not fight? You know, half the time we're fighting, I don't know what we're fighting about," said John sadly "We're just butting heads. Sammy, I, I've made some mistakes. But I've always done the best I could. I just don't want to fight anymore, okay?"

"So, you didn't go after the demon?" Sam asked, this time not so sure of himself.

John sighed.

"I won’t lie to you. I was thinking about it. I was going to summon it when I woke up. I was gonna end this," said John.

"Were you going to make some kind of deal? For me?" Dean asked.

"If I had to," John replied boldly, "But I didn't get the chance. I don't know what happened to you, Dean. And honestly I don't care."

Dean looked down and swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Well then what happened?" He asked, "How can I have been so close to death one minute and then completely healthy the next?"

"We'll find out, okay?" said Sam "We'll figure this out."

"That's a promise," John added quietly.

"Dad, are you all right?" Sam asked, concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just a little tired," John replied, offering his sons a small smile, "I'm just going to go lay down for a while."

"You sure you're okay?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, I just wanted to see with my own eyes that you were okay."

Sam and Dean nodded. John offered them one last smile before he left and headed back to his own room. After he left, Sam turned back to Dean.

"Do you believe that he didn't do anything?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I do. Whatever happened has nothing to do with the demon."

"How can you be so sure? You said you don't remember anything."

"I don't but, there’s just something about this...Look, Sam, I really don't know what to say," said Dean

"Like I said, we will figure this out."

"I hope so. I hate not knowing what's going on."

---

John was in his room, tossing all of the things that he would have needed for summoning the demon, back into the duffle bag. He hadn't lied when he had told Sam and Dean that he had been planning to make a deal with the demon. And he had been ready to grab what he needed and find a secluded area where he could work, when a nurse came in and told him that Dean had woken up while John was sleeping. John had been stunned; so stunned that he nearly ran down the hall to Dean's room.

Now he had no need to summon the demon. Unless he thought that the demon had something to do with this which was highly unlikely. It was a huge relief to see Dean sitting up having a conversation with Sammy. The pain that had twisted inside John's guts when Sam had told him how bad Dean's symptoms were, had disappeared almost completely. The small twinge that was left was because he had no clue what had happened.

Though now that he thought about it, this wasn’t the first time this sort of thing had happened to Dean. That disturbed John more than anything.

John sat down on his bed and tried to remember other events in which his eldest son's life had come close to death and then had suddenly been fine.

---

"How's my baby look?" Dean asked.

30 minutes had passed and Dean and Sam had started talking about other things. Dean was beginning to wonder about the Impala and if she had survived the accident.

"Ah, well she's a bit worse for wear at the moment," Sam replied, "Bobby towed it back to his place. We thought...well I thought that you'd wanna start fixing it up once you got out of here."

"What would you have done if I hadn't?" Dean asked, "If I hadn't got better?"

"Don't. We don't have to think about that"

"Sam."

"Dean, I just knew that you'd be okay."

"How?"

"Because you're my brother and I wasn't going to give up on you"

"You're not going to start a chick flick moment are you?" Dean asked.

Sam laughed and shook his head. After seeing his brother's body so lifeless, it was good to see him making jokes.

"Hey boys," John said from the doorway.

"Dad? I thought you were going to rest," said Dean with a slight frown.

"I was," John replied.

John walked into the room and stood beside Dean's bed.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked him.

John paused before he looked at his sons, straight in the eyes.

"I've been thinking about what happened. What might have happened to save you, Dean," John replied

"Have you come up with anything?" Dean asked.

"No," John said, shaking his head, "But..."

"But what?" Sam asked.

"Look, I don't know how to tell you this," John began, "But this, whatever it is. I think that it's happened before."

"You think that whatever's saved Dean, has saved others?" Sam asked.

"No. I think it's saved Dean before," replied John.

TBC

Next Chapter - The First Time It Happened