SPN Befores & Afters: Part 7. An After

[tarotgal]

Summary: Scenes of hurt/comfort from before
Sam figures about about Dean's care-giving kink...
and scenes set afterward.
Pairing: Dean/Sam | Rating: Various (G through NC-17)

7. An After

Sam sucks in a sharp breath when Dean sits beside him on the bed and lays a hand on his forehead. “Is your fever really that high?”

“Mmm,” Sam replies, tears in his eyes. He’d forbidden Dean to take his temperature, worried about Dean overreacting. But he is fatigued and hypersensitive with fever now. “Want you to hold me… just not touch me.”

Dean smiles and gets up. There are four wash cloths and four hand towels the motel set out. Dean helps himself to them all and fills the ice bucket with cold tap water.

“Sit up for me, kiddo.”

With great effort, Sam pushes himself off the bed, landing on the stack of pillows Dean quickly slides behind him. He eyes the water and the rough motel-quality washcloths. He seems wary and flinches when Dean places a folded, cool washcloth across Sam’s forehead. They give it a moment for Sam to get used to the sensation, the feel of something other than the bed and pillows against his skin.

“Ready?”

Sam gives a resigned nod.

Dean still hesitates. He wrings the washcloth out over the bucket and whispers, “I’ll try to be gentle.”

Sam can’t seem to help it; he snorts with laughter. “Do you know how that sounds?”

Dean cracks a smile. “Right. You’re not a sponge bath virgin.”

“Not with you around, I’m not. Bet you always got a kick out of this.”

“Hardly.”

Sam raises his eyebrows. “Hardly?”

Dean selects a spot, Sam’s right shoulder, and touches the wash cloth to it. Sam flinches a moment. Dean slides the wash cloth slowly across the flushed, hot skin. “You’re so hot,” he murmurs.

“I try,” Sam replies, closing his eyes and acclimating to the touch. He feels the washcloth leave and then return. Each drip of water against his skin is a small agony, each touch of the wash cloth a minuscule misery. Yet when Dean’s dripping fingers brush against him, Sam only wants more. “You’re wet.”

It is Dean’s turn to laugh. “Pretty soon I hope to be… in all the best ways,” he says.

Comments

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

Haha, great sense of humor in the face of illness, go Sam!
Loved the banter, and also the descriptions of the water on his skin.

[tarotgal]

Thanks. I hope the banter wasn't too out of character; I worried about that... but not enough to cut it.

Mmmmm. Sponge baths. I couldn't let 30 fics go by without one of those!