Chapter Text
“Dean, what are you doing? You’ll get us both in trouble,” Sam hissed sitting up in his cot as his brother slipped into his room.
“Dude, fuck ‘em. What’re they gonna do, kill me? They want us for somethin’ or we’d already be dead. So if I wanna see my brother I’m gonna and they can kill me or shut the fuck up about it,” Dean grumbled, making his way slowly across the room to sit beside Sam on his cot.
“You know there are worse things they can do than kill you.”
“Yeah, know that first hand. I can handle it.” Dean frowned, turning toward his brother gingerly, one leg coming up to rest on the cot. He was always sore, bruised, and/or cut somewhere.
Sam knew they’d been giving Alastair free reign to perform his ‘experiments’, which were little more than studies in the limits of human endurance, on Dean. He felt guilty over it because, though he was a guinea pig too, it was for very different types of experiments. Sure, some were a little painful, but nothing like what Dean had to bear, and the demon scientists were forbidden from touching Sam sexually. The head of the research institute, Azazel, didn’t allow it, insisting Sam was only to be ‘fed’ from a cup. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing though; it meant he was being kept ‘virginal’ for some reason and Sam feared what that might be.
“So why would you risk making it worse?” Sam countered.
Dean shrugged. “Maybe if I piss them off enough they will kill me?”
“You don’t mean that.”
“The hell I don’t. What’s the point? Who wants to live life at the mercy of demons? Or worse, angels when the demons get tired of their experiments and sell me off?”
“But you don’t want to die. If you did, you’d do something worse than sneak in to see me. You’d fight back against Alastair or try to escape. Seriously, why don’t you escape? You already know how to pick the locks.”
“It’s been forbidden,” Dean replied, tapping his head behind the right ear where his chip was implanted.
“Of course it has.” Sam sighed. “Dean, please tell me you didn’t risk a beating just to shoot the shit with me. What’s going on?”
“What’s wrong with just wanting to spend time with you?” Dean asked, crossing his arms over his chest without thinking and almost managing to hide the slight wince at the movement.
“Come on, Dean, spill. What’s going on?”
Sighing, Dean let his arms relax. “I heard the techs talking about you.”
“What did they say?” Sam asked, licking his lips and swallowing against a suddenly dry throat. He and Dean weren’t the only new experiments going on in the facility. There were dozens of others, though Sam had only interacted with a few; Max, Andy, Ava, Lily, and Jake. Even so, he and Dean, as far as Sam knew, were the only ones in the EBP. As such, their names came up fairly regularly, Sam more than his brother, since the experiment had apparently been unsuccessful with Dean. Neither knew exactly what the experiments were though. But because Sam was mentioned so often, if Dean was feeling the need to risk himself to pass on something he’d overheard, then it must be significant.
“They said there were only a few more tests to run and then Lucifer would be taking you for the trial stage in two weeks. Sam, we gotta get you outta here. Alastair’s sunshine and roses compared to Lucifer.”
“Great plan, Dean. Except for two things: one, I’ve got the same programmed instruction as you; no running away, no disobeying demons or angels unless ordered by my ‘master’, which is currently Azazel, and no harming myself, and two, I won’t last more than three days without being ‘fed’,” Sam pointed out.
“But you can’t let Lucifer get his hands on you. I don’t know what he wants you for, but whatever it is, it’s evil.”
“That’s a given. But what choice do I have? Crap. I knew them not being allowed to use me was bad news. I don’t want my first… Fuck. This sucks.”
Dean put a hand on Sam’s knee. “We’ll think of something. We’ve got two weeks. No need to panic just yet, but you’re smarter than me. I figured you should be thinking up solutions too.”
“You’re smart too, Dean,” Sam replied, running a hand through his hair nervously. “But you’re right, I should. Two heads are better than one, right? Thanks for the warning, Dean, but you need to get back to your room before they notice you’re gone.”
“Are you gonna be okay?”
“Depends on what we come up with, right? But yeah, I’ll be okay for now. Just need some time to think.”
“You sure? I could stay the night, like I used to when you had bad dreams when you were young.” Dean obviously stopped himself from saying little, because Sam was never really little. It had something to do with the genetic tampering the demon scientists did when he was in utero. It was also the reason he and Dean grew up without a mom. Baby Sam had just been too big for her and she hadn’t survived the delivery.
“Dean, I’m twenty years old. I don’t need you to hold my hand through nightmares anymore. Besides, Alastair will beat the shit out of you if he finds you here in the morning,” Sam replied, shaking his head.
“He’s gonna beat the shit outta me anyway when he skims through the security tapes from tonight. If it’s gonna happen either way, may as well spend the night. Besides, not to be a downer or anything, but one way or another, we’re gonna be split up soon.”
Sam made no reply, just shifted to the back of his already-too-small cot, wedging himself in the crack between it and the wall to make room for Dean to slip under the covers in front of him. He knew Dean was really the one in need of comforting. After having raised Sam as best he could when they were kept together through their childhood, the thought of being separated would be painful for him. Not that Sam was looking forward to it either, but Dean would feel like he’s letting Sam down, though Sam was the one who had been the cause of at least half the pain in his life. Not only did their mom die giving birth to him, but once it became clear that whatever they were trying to do had worked with Sam, Dean had been cast aside and suffered horribly for it. The very least Sam could do was indulge him while there was still time.