Karate, SPN Demonic Octopus Guardian

shipper-trash-bag:

Hospital AU

“Stop messing with your IV.” Sam turned his head to see the nurse walk in, chastising him. “You’re gonna bruise.”

Sam sighed, letting go of the aforementioned tube, laying his hands onto the bed underneath him. “Sorry, just bored.”

Nurse Shirley took pity on him, swiping the tv remote from inside the bedside table. He flicked the tv on and pressed the remote into his palm. “Here. Watch some tv. It’ll numb your mind, but that’s maybe just what you need right now.” He looked over Sam’s chart, adjusting the drip on the IV with a frown. “Did Greta adjust this? She’s slowed this down a lot.”

“Huh. Explains why my head feels like a cracked open walnut.”

“Oh, baby, I think it feels like a cracked open walnut cuz some jackass hit you with their car.”

Sixteen days. Sam had been in the hospital for sixteen days after being hit from the side by an oncoming car while out on one of his jogs. The driver still hadn’t been identified and as Sam clung for his life through three surgeries, Dean’s only solace through it all was to picture himself wringing the neck of the guy responsible until it turned all the way around. With four broken ribs, a small brain bleed, a broken femur and a crushed hand, they told him he was lucky to be alive. But being stuck in the ICU didn’t exactly feel lucky.

“The TV hurts my eyes,” he complained, covering his eyes as he shut the thing off. Letting out a blessed sigh of relief, he felt the other man’s hand on his shoulder.

Looking up, he saw the warm smile and felt calmer instantly. “It’s okay, it’ll take some time. How about some music? I can grab my MP3 player from my locker if you want.”

He shook his head, completely regretting it a second later. “No thanks, nurse Shirley, I think I’m gonna just stare at the tiles until the blur.”

“Oh, well then, since you have other plans.” He cleaned up Sam’s wounds, the incisions where they’d had to cut into him to set his bones was still tender. “And I told you, call my Gabriel.”

“Kay,” Sam slurred, feeling the morphine steadily pull into his bloodstream. “Oh, that’s the ticket. Oh, fuck yeah.”

Gabriel laughed at him, gently patting his pec as he covered it back up with the gown and the blankets. “Okay there big guy, just rest now.”

“Mmmm, m’kay. See ya.”

———————-/-

Every day was much the same. Greta has the night shift in watching over Sam, keeping him mostly comfortable as he slept, giving him sponge baths, much to his humiliation. She was a good nurse, but didn’t speak much and had unintentionally lowered his pain meds twice. At least, Sam hoped that was the case.

Gabriel had the day shift, and he brought with him sunshine and jokes. On the weekends, Sam and the other patients were stuck with Demon 1 and Demon 2, which, okay. They weren’t really that bad, but compared to Greta and Gabe, they might as well have been. It also helped him cope by knowing that the two nurses were sisters whose last name was literally Damen, which dean found very amusing. When changing his IV, Demon 2 missed three times, having to call the anesthesiologist to do it, only to be chastised for it cuz nurses aren’t supposed to put in IV lines! Great for Sam who now had more bruises than he needed.

Every Friday, Sam was disappointed to see Gabriel leave, and every Monday morning, when he’d wake up to Gabriel checking his blood pressure, he felt elated. It took him exactly three weeks before he realized why.

“So you have a crush on your nurse, big deal,” Charlie waved her hand around as she sat in the chair next to him. “It’s not the end of the world.”

Sam sighed. Here he was having some gay panic he hadn’t experienced since high school and Charlie was just sweeping it under the rug. “Charlie-“

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re not me, but still. You gotta take it easy or you’re gonna hurt yourself. Just ask him out when you check out and if he says no, then what’s the big deal? You won’t have to see his face every day if he rejects you.”

“Charlie-“

“And how’s my favourite patient today?” Gabriel daunted in, ridiculous duckie scrubs on as he rolled the blood pressure machine in with him.

Sam smiled small and warm, the warmth blooming in his chest heavy. “Good. Head doesn’t feel like it’s exploding every ten seconds.”

“Hey, that’s great! Just gotta check your blood pressure and temperature and I’ll be out of you and your girlfriend’s hair.”

Charlie laughed, wiping fake tears away from her face where there weren’t any. “Oh, boy. Do you see any girlfriends in here Sam? Cuz I don’t.”

Sam frowned, his dimples of discontent more pronounced than normal. “Ha, ha. Think he was referring to you, jackass.”

“Pfft! Please, the day I date a guy is the day hell freezes over, which reminds me,” she leaned in on her chair closer, tilting her face up at Gabriel from across the bed. “That nurse with the dark brown hair and Cupid mouth… she single?”

Gabriel shook his head, a shit eating grin curling onto his own mouth. “Oh, Dorothy? Oh, yeah. But she’s a tough but to crack. Many have tried, and many have failed.”

“Charlie’s not the average person, though.” Sam chuckled, remembering her list of conquests in college. “Call her the nut cracker.”

“Ew,” Charlie scrunched up her face is disgust. “You made it sound gross.”

He rolled his eyes, lifting his arm to be wrapped in the blood pressure cuff. “Oh, uh, huh. Sure I did. You’re the one whose mind went into the gutter, but whatever.”

They jabbed at one another, Gabriel being dragged into the drama as he checked over Sam’s vitals for a few more minutes. When Gabriel left to check on another patient, Sam couldn’t stop staring at the guy’s ass, something that Charlie picked up on immediately.

“Oh Winchester,” she drawled, his eyes snapping to hers in embarrassment. “You’ve got it bad. Never mind what I said before, this isn’t run of the mill stuff. Whatever you need, I got you, Kay?”

He nodded, letting his head settle down into the pillow, wanting the bed to swallow him home.

—————————

Gabriel wasn’t at work the day Sam was checked out of the hospital, or the three days before, either. Sam hoped it was maybe a few vacation days, or maybe a family emergency that kept him away, and not Sam himself. No, that wasn’t right. He didn’t actually want the guy’s family to be in an emergent situation, he just… Sam wanted to ask the guy out. He wanted to take him to dinner and the movies and to hold his hand and kiss him good morning and, and – and he was being ridiculous. Gabriel was probably already in a relationship or wasn’t interested in him like that. Either way, Sam felt like he was being an idiot.

He stood at the nurses’ station leaning half on the counter, half on Dean has he signed his release forms when Demon 1 came up to him. “Sam?”

Sam nodded, turning to look at her. He prayed that she wasn’t going to ask him to fill out anymore damned forms cuz his hand freakin hurt, okay? “Uh, yes?”

“Nurse Gabriel would like to see you.”

He looked at her in confusion. If he wanted to see Sam, why didn’t he just come to see him? The man was being ridiculous, but whatever. If Gabriel wanted Sam to play along, Sam would play along – just this once. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be right back Dean.” And he followed the nurse while on his crutches to a patient room. There, laid up in bed with a litany of bruises and a broken arm was Gabriel. Sam felt his mouth drop open in shock, unaware of what the hell to do. “Ga-Gabriel? What the hell happened?”

Gabriel turned his head from where he’d been watching the news to look at Sam. Instantly, his face lightened up and looked ten years younger. “Sam! Heard you were being discharged today and it felt wrong not saying bye to you.”

Sam lowered himself into the chair next to the bed. “What happened to you?”

“Tell me: the car that hit you? Blue Toyota Corolla?”

Sam blinked back confusion, head reeling back a bit in shock. “Uh… Yeah, why?”

“Good news is, they caught the guy,” Gabriel scratched at his nose, the bruises leaving him recoiling his hand on pain. “Bad news is he was a drunk driver.”

“How do you know that?”

“He hit my car Monday night as I was driving home from the hospital.”

Sam thought back as realization settled deep in his gut. “Oh! That’s why you haven’t been he- Gabriel, you were in a car accident! What did the doctors say? Did you have surgery? How long are you going to be here? Do you need anything?” Sam knew he was rambling, but he couldn’t stop. “Want me to get some magazines for you? Do you need more pillows? How long do you need the cast? Can I sign it? Do you have a lawyer? Cuz the firm I work for has-“

“Woah, woah, woah, babe. Chill!” His hand landed on top of Sam’s, a little clammy but still warm and comforting, even through the plaster. “I didn’t ask nurse Damen to bring you here for all that. I just wanted you to know they caught the guy and the I haven’t been around to see you cuz I’ve been loopy on meds. But I’ll be fine. The doctors here are great.”

“So are the nurses,” he blurted out, face turning pink.

Gabriel’s mouth curved into a mischievous smile, fingers curling around Sam’s. “Oh really? My, my, you do flatter me, sir. And yes, you can sign my cast, so long as you leave your number so I can text you when I get bored,” he winked.

Sam’s responding smile blotted our the sun. “How about I come see you for lunch tomorrow instead?”

He never thought he’d render Gabriel speechless, but here he was, mouth gaping in the wind. “You- really? You’re not sick of me yet?”

Sam curled his fingers around so that he could intertwine his fingers with Gabe’s. “Nope. Been working up the courage to ask you out for a month, now.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Well, then. Um, you really want our first date to be with me littered in bruises?”

Sam pulled the hand closer to his mouth to kiss the back of it sweetly. “I’m still bruises from the IV incident, so we match, at least. How’s 12:30 sound?”

Gabriel hummed, a light blush filling his face. “Sounds perfect.”

And it was. Even when Gabriel sneezed while trying to kiss Sam goodbye on the cheek after.