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Sam pushed down his rising panic and fuck was it rising fast. His breathing was picking up as he shook Dean’s shoulder.
“C’mon, Dean.” He coaxed his brother but there was no response.
This was making Sam have awful flashbacks to a similar situation years and years ago where Dean had gotten pulled into a lake during a hunt. Back then Dean had gotten out of it quicker though and they had their ex-military dad that had done most of the work in making sure Dean stayed alive.
Now Sam was on his own as he dragged his brother out of the woods. They had been chasing a werewolf and even if the moon was bright in the sky, there was too little light reaching deep into the woods.
By the time Sam had finally put a silver bullet in the goddamn creature he had lost Dean and his way. He had stumbled around the dark underbrush for a while before he found the trail again.
It took Sam another few minutes to find Dean and his brother was barely shivering by the time he found him at the bank of the river that bisected the forest. Dean had blinked up at him for a moment before his eyes slipped close and didn’t open again.
His brother was basically a huge ice cube when Sam picked him up fireman style and started carrying him towards the car.
Sam knew the risks of hypothermia, he had had them both drilled into his head by his dad and had also lived this once before. The dread was worse now since he fully understood what the consequences could be and he had never been so glad to see the Impala.
He carefully manhandled Dean into the backseat, pulling his shoes and jacket off, the rest of the clothes would have to wait the ten minute drive to the motel. He knew the soaked clothes were leeching any remaining heat from his brother but he had to get them back as soon as possible.
Sam had turned the heater on high but the car didn’t warm up quickly and Sam kept looking back, checking if he could see Dean still breathing.
The drive back was one of the most stressful ones of Sam’s life and he was glad once he had parked in front of their room.
He threw the door to the motel room open, quickly running back to carefully pull Dean out of the backseat and into his arms. Sam walked with Dean into the room, laying his brother down on one bed before dashing back to lock the car and then the motel room.
He was panting by the time he stood next to Dean but he knew this was only the beginning.
Getting Dean out of the wet clothes was a challenge with his brother not helping and the damp fabric clinging to everything, but it was the first essential step and Sam had to hurry.
Two minutes later Sam finally had stripped Dean down, Dean’s skin cold and clammy and way too pale. His brother’s lips had taken on a blue hue and he still wasn’t shivering.
Sam knew that skin to skin would be best but he took the few extra seconds to pull a dry pair of boxers up his brother’s legs. They had seen each other naked plenty of times and usually weren’t very shy with each other but it didn’t feel right to do this fully naked.
Sam stripped down to his own boxers and grabbed the blankets from both beds before getting into the bed with Dean.
He was just thinking about turning Dean and spooning him from behind when he remembered another lesson from John. You should always heat up the core first, make sure the extremities didn’t heat up too fast in order to not bring cold blood to the heart.
Sam looked at Dean who laid on his back and decided to basically smother his brother. He fitted himself to Dean’s side, as close as he could get and then threw an arm and a leg over him, scooting even closer so he was blanketing as much of Dean as possible. Lastly he pulled the actual blankets up to their chins, tucking his head in the crook of Dean’s neck.
Dean was ice cold against Sam and it sent shivers down Sam’s spine. He hugged Dean close to himself anyway and breathed out a sigh of relief when Dean started shivering just a few minutes later. It meant that his brother was warming up again, taking all of Sam’s warmth for himself.
A low moan escaped Dean’s throat as he woke up again, his muscles shaking with the effort of warming him up.
“Sam?” He asked in a horse voice.
“Right here you idiot,” Sam responded into Dean’s neck. His warm breath ghosted over Dean’s flesh, pebbling it in those places.
After the silence reigned again for some time Dean moved a little under Sam, throwing his arms around the younger one and pulling him even closer.
“What happened?” Dean mumbled into Sam’s ear where it was pressed close to Dean’s mouth.
“You fell into the river while chasing the werewolf away from me,” Sam began to explain. “I killed it when I got behind it. Then dragged your dead weight to the motel to warm you up and here we are.”
Sam tried to keep his voice level but he knew by the way Dean’s arms were squeezing him that his voice had given away how affected Sam was. They probably were both remembering the last time this had happened and also how quickly hypothermia could be the end of a hunter.
“How are you feeling?” Sam asked a few minutes later, hoping that Dean would be able to stay awake now.
It seemed so when Dean made another grunt before replying. “Like I got run over and I’m getting clammy but I’ll be fine.”
Sam nodded slightly. “Want me to move? I mean I should stay under the covers but I can-”
“Nah, Sammy, it's fine.” Dean interrupted him. “Thank you.” His brother added quietly and Sam felt himself flush at the gratitude.
“Just don’t ever do that again, Dean. I can’t go through that a third time.” Sam mumbled against Dean’s shoulder.
“Hey, I’ll try my best, okay?” Dean agreed and Sam was pretty sure he felt lips press against the side of his head.
Sam readjusted himself slightly, scooting down a little so he could place his head on Dean’s chest properly.
He sighed deeply but nodded, he would always warm Dean up, no matter how often.