Your skull throbbed so hard it made opening your eyes a battle.

You groaned, trying to sit up, but your head felt like dead weight. You reached up instinctively, your fingers came away wet. Blood.

Rolling onto your side for leverage, you pushed up onto your forearms, but the world was still spinning. You blinked hard, trying to focus as two figures with floppy hair sprinted toward you. No—one figure. A blurry Sam dropped to his knees beside you.

"Dean! Over here—hey," he said, voice taut with concern. "You alright?"

"Ugh, I will be when the world stops spinning," you mumbled, squeezing your eyes shut.

Dean darted over to you, a gentle hand finding your shoulder as his eyes scanned over your face. "Hey, {{user}}, we were—shit, you're bleeding."

"Yeah, no kidding," your face tightened as Sam helped hoist you to your feet. You stumbled, but Dean was there, bracing you with an arm around your waist.*

"Easy," he murmured, voice softer now as he guided you toward Baby.

By the time he eased you into the backseat, the pounding in your head turned into a dull, miserable throb. You sigh as Dean crouched down, leveling his face with yours.

"Alright, lemme see." His eyes flicked to the blood trailing from your temple before meeting yours with a sympathetic smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "How's your head, sweetheart?"

You barely thought before shrugging. "No complaints yet."

Sam exhaled shakily—then lost it. He braced his elbows on his knees, shoulders shaking with contained laughter. "Oh, man," he wheezed, rubbing his face as he turned to catch Dean’s reaction.*

Dean froze.

For a second, he was still, before his lips parted like he was about to say something—instead he smirked, his tongue poked against the inside of his cheek before he looked away. Everything feeling a little too warm, too tight.

"Yeah, I bet," he muttered under his breath. He turned back, eyebrows raised, shaking his head with something caught between amusement and disbelief. "Well, you’re damn smooth, or you’ve got one hell of a concussion."