Roads Untraveled ~ Sam Winchester

Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-One - Michael

As soon as they were back in the Bunker, Sam and Cas carried Dean to the infirmary with Eden, Jack, Rowena and Maggie in tow, laying him on the nearest bed.
"Why won't he wake up? Is he-"
"It's a head injury." Sam cut Maggie off.
"I'll get ice." She said, running out of the room.
"Cas..." Sam breathed, silently urging the Angel on.
Castiel put his fingers to Dean's forehead. His powers were clearly working, but nothing was actually happening.
"I still can't heal him. I can't even see what's going on inside his head." He huffed, taking his hand away.
"It's Michael. It's got to be." Eden sighed.
"I can help." Jack said, moving closer.
"No, Jack, I appreciate what you did for me, but you cannot afford to burn off anymore of your soul." Cas replied.
Jack looked between the Angel, Sam, Eden and Dean before walking off.
"So that's what you have him doing?" Rowena stepped forward.
"We'll talk about it later, Rowena, now's not a good time." Sam uttered.
"Maybe the Gorgon did something to him before he-"
"Smashed his face into the wall?" The Witch finished for Cas.
"Dean mentioned to me not so long ago that he wasn't sleeping much because, if he did, his guard would be let down and Michael would be able to push through. With how delicate the Human brain is, plus the war that's already going down inside his head, is it really so surprising Dean's not waking up?" Eden sighed.
Cas let out a growled mumble of something inaudible, stalking out of the room.
"What do we do?" Sam asked.
"Clean his wound, make him comfortable, then... We'll see." Rowena replied with a gentle huff of breath before also making her exit.
Eden approached Dean's bedside as Sam took out a white cloth from the drawer in the side table next to him.
Just as Sam was about to clean the head wound, Dean's body lurched forward, a loud groan escaping his lips.
"Hey!" Sam called out, pushing his brother's body back on the bed as it continued seizure-like actions.
"I can hear..." Eden uttered, kneeling down on the floor with a wince of pain from her wound. Dean's body soon turned limp again. "Michael's trying harder than ever to escape. He knows Dean is weak."
"What can we do?" Sam asked again.
"I don't think there's anything we can do. But we both know Rowena won't stop searching until she's found something." Eden gave a small smile.
"Then... What about you? How's your wound?" The Winchester pressed.
Eden lifted her tank top, seeing the formerly white gauze now red and dripping with blood.
"Crap..." She whispered to herself.
"Well, there's something I can help with, at least." Sam nodded assuredly, beckoning her over to sit on the edge of another infirmary cot.
He walked over to a metal table, grabbing a needle, thread, surgical scissors and fresh gauze before moving back over and kneeling down in front of her.
"I'm fine, Sam. I'll just bleed it out and eventually it'll stop." She gave a small, breathy chuckle, not entirely sure whether she was being serious or not.
"Just... Shut up and let me help." He huffed, pointing a finger to tell her to lay down.
Eden rolled her eyes, doing as he said. She knew as well as he did that the only reason she was letting him do this was so that it would take his mind off Dean for a little while.

As Sam cleaned and stitched the bullet wound, little winces and hisses left Eden's lips, her eyes scrunching up closed.
"I've seen you take entire magazines to the chest before. What's causing you so much pain?" He asked, not taking his eyes away from his handy work above her left hip.
"Normal bullets? No problem. Not even phased. Angel Blades and bullets tend to sting a bit." She replied, her voice strained and hushed.
"So... The stitches are fine, it's me pressing the bullet wound together that's hurting you right now?" Sam looked up at her briefly to judge her facial expressions.
"Pretty much, yeah. What's with the twenty questions?" Eden frowned, looking down at him through her lashes.
"Suppose I'm keeping myself distracted. Plus, I've always been a little curious as to how exactly you feel pain. Like I say, I've seen you go through Vampire bites and assault rifles, but it's only Archangel attacks or celestial weapons that your body responds to." Sam shrugged, cutting the excess thread from the last stitch. He then laid the gauze on top and taped it over. "There. All done."
"Thank you." She offered him a small smile as her fingers laced in the locks of hair behind his ear. "Ask away. It's not like we're busy."
Sam frowned in thought, placing the first aid tools down in a little metal bowl on the floor.
"Do you feel pain as intensely as Humans? You know, say when you took those Angel Blades from Lucifer and Anael... Did it feel as bad as when a Human gets stabbed?"
"Well, I can only guess that answer, since I've never been stabbed as a Human." Eden smirked, groaning as she went to sit up. "But, I'd imagine so. It's kind of like the feeling of being punched really hard. If it weren't for the fact that I saw the Blades and the bullet go in, I wouldn't have thought I'd been stabbed or shot at all. It took a couple of seconds for the pain to actually register. When it did, it just felt hot - like searing hot."
"Yeah, pretty much sounds like what it's like for us to-
Sam was interrupted when Dean shot up in bed, the force of his actions sending him flying off the edge.
The younger brother scrambled off the floor as Dean staggered around the room, crashing into walls, stacked shelves and various furniture items.
Castiel and Jack ran in to see what the commotion was about, not really knowing what to do when they saw it.
"Where is he?" Dean yelled, throwing his arms around frantically.
"Dean! Dean, stop it!" Sam shouted. "It's me! You're in the Bunker."
"I know where I am! That's not-" Dean cut himself off, turning to face them.
"Dean." Sam attempted to ground him somewhat.
"He's gone." The older brother breathed. "Michael. He's gone."
"How?" Jack asked.
Dean looked around in a futile search for answers, settling to put his head in his hands.
"This is my fault..." He whispered. "I let my guard down, this is my fault."
"No, Dean..."
"I told you. I told you to let me take that coffin ride to the bottom of the ocean!" He cut Castiel off, his words bellowing towards his brother with an accusing finger.
"Look, Dean, this is-"
A female scream interrupted Sam, sounding as though it were coming from the War room.