DEEP BLUE SEA
Summary: The boys take a trip to the coast of California to check out a case of mysterious drownings. Set in the beginning of season two. Sick!/Hurt!Sam, Awesome/Hurt!Bigbrother!Dean.
Author's note: Ijust returned from a two-week vacation in Italy and while being there, floating around in the ocean, I came up with the idea for this fic and since I couldn't seem to get rid of it, this is the result (By the way, it's not a death-fic). I hope you're all having a great summer! -Elisa.
"Water plays an important role in many legends and myths. There are mythological water beings and gods, stories of heroes that have something to do with water, and even stories of isles and continents lost below the surface." – S.M. Enzler MSc.
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Dean parked the shiny black Chevy Impala in the parking lot in front of the motel where he and Sam were staying for this time being. He turned the engine off and patted the steering wheel in a silent thank you to the car for keeping the temperature inside the cabin relatively low despite the heat outside, before he picked up a bag of supplies from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car. As he walked across the pavement towards the motel room, Dean turned his head, squinted against the sun and let his eyes travel across the turquoise-colored ocean he could spot in the distance. Looking at the still water, sparkling by the beams of the sun reflecting in it, it was hard to believe that several people had drowned in the water during the past few weeks – tourists, to be more specific, which there were a lot of in the town of Sunnyvale.
Dean sighed and wiped some sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Sunnyvale was a neighbor town to Palo Alto and this was the first time the Winchester brothers had returned to the Californian west coast since Dean had rescued his younger brother from the fire that had cost Sam his girlfriend. Speaking of the youngest Winchester brother, Sam had been feeling under the weather from the moment they'd arrived in town. Dean wasn't sure whether it had occurred because of the significant change in weather that never did his brother any good or because of all the stress Sam was faced with by returning to a place so close to where he'd lost Jessica. Either way, Sam's nose had soon started running which had been followed by sneezes and Dean had then ordered his little brother to bed while he took the Impala out for a spin to pick up the necessary supplies needed to help get Sam better.
The older brother unlocked the motel room door, turned the doorknob and – with the keys in one hand and the bag of supplies in the other – Dean pushed the door open with his shoulder before stepping inside and.. didn't find Sam where he'd left him.
"What the hell are you doing?" Dean demanded to know with an irritated frown line between his eyes.
Sam looked up at his older brother from behind his laptop with an expression that reminded Dean of a kid being caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.
"I'm working on the case." Sam said in a voice clearly affected by his congested nose.
"Yeah, I can see that, smartass." Dean said as he put down the bag of supplies on the table. "And didn't I tell you to stay in bed?"
"Yeah, but.." Sam started when Dean cut him off.
"No buts, Sam. Bed. Now." Dean ordered. He hadn't missed the fever-flushed spots on Sam's cheeks.
Sam sighed heavily but didn't protest any further before he got up from his seat and returned to the bed farthest away from the door. He sank down under the covers and coughed a little while rubbing at his already red-rimmed eyes.
"This sucks." Sam muttered.
"I know." Dean said in a softer voice while unpacking the remedies he needed to take care of his sick little brother.
Twenty-seven minutes, some antihistamines and a half glass of apple-juice later, Sam was asleep and lightly snoring in his bed. Dean removed some used Kleenexes from Sam's covers before he placed a gentle hand underneath the younger brother's bangs.
"Let's hope some sleep will do you well, little brother." Dean mumbled before he removed his hand from the clammy forehead and tucked the blanket in a little closer around Sam's sleeping form.
The action of it was as natural for Dean as it was for a mother dealing with her sick child. Throughout almost their entire lives, Dean had been the one taking care of his brother; comforting Sam when he'd had a nightmare, patching him up when he'd hurt himself and fixing him when he got sick. Some things never changed, he realized with a little fond smile, and Dean didn't want it any other way.
Dean carded a hand through his short-spiked hair, his eyes lingering on the slight movements behind Sam's closed eyelids. He remembered the first months after Jessica's death, the endless amounts of nightmares that had plagued his brother night after night, the guilt that had come along with it. It had been hard and Dean had done everything in his power to help Sam get through the pain and sorrow – although Dean knew that nothing he could say or do could ever bring Jessica back. Eventually the nightmares reduced, however, and for that Dean was grateful. Sam had already been through so much in his young life and now with their dad gone too.. Dean shook his head and willed the thoughts about his father's last words to him away. The oldest Winchester brother would never give up on saving Sam. Never. He would rather die. Dean knew he hadn't been the greatest big brother since John Winchester had passed away but he was working on it. Sam was hurting too and Dean had never been able to watch his Sammy suffer without doing anything about it.
Dean tore his eyes away from his younger brother and sat down in front of Sam's laptop to take a look at what Sam had been doing while Dean was out buying supplies. Sam had actually been the one persuading Dean to return to California since he'd had another one of those freaky visions that scared Dean just as much as it scared Sam – maybe even more, if Dean had to be honest, but that wasn't something he intended to tell the younger brother. They had been on the road, in the middle of a discussion about whether or not Pepsi-Cola was greater than Coca-Cola, when Sam had suddenly gone rigid and had stared straight ahead with wide, blank eyes.
"Sam?" Dean had asked and had then quickly pulled over the Impala as he had recognized the signs of a vision on his brother's face. Dean had grabbed Sam's shoulders in a reassuring way and had held his breath until Sam eventually blinked his way back to the real world. The younger brother had scrunched his forehead because of the headache that always came along with the visions and had then shakily told Dean that he'd seen a man get his heart ripped out by an unknown creature. The next day, Dean had read about the multiple drownings in Sunnyvale in a newspaper and had noted – aside from the fact that all three victims were men – that they'd all been found without their hearts. There had been a picture in the newspaper of the latest victim and when Dean had shown the picture to Sam, his little brother could confirm that the person indeed had been the guy from his vision.
Sam's laptop made a sound when Dean opened the lid of it, and he quickly glanced in Sam's direction to see if the sound had woken up his sick brother. Dean smiled wryly when that wasn't the case. Sam was still oblivious to the world around him – still snoring softly through his congested nose.
"So, what did you find out, Sammy?" Dean muttered as he looked through the opened windows of documents that had appeared on the screen in front of him.
Although Sam shouldn't have done anything else than staying in bed, he had as usually been very thorough and efficient with his research – even when being sick.
"Nerd." Dean chuckled good-heartedly and clicked through the pages.
He considered for a moment whether or not to take just a tiny peek at a certain website now that he had the chance, but decided against it since he saw no reason to upset his sick little brother. And Sam had been quite bitchy the last time Dean had used his laptop. How Sam could always tell when Dean had borrowed his laptop was beyond the older brother, but there was probably some sort of geeky explanation to it that Dean couldn't care less about.
Dean once again focused on the research and read through page after page of possible water creatures they could be dealing with; Water spirits, Grindylows, Merpeople, Sirens – among other various creatures. But nothing fit with the missing hearts.
Dean sighed and went to the fridge to grab a beer. Sam had seen a short glimpse in his vision of the creature they were hunting, but he hadn't been able to pinpoint what it was besides from the fact that it had been female. Dean concluded that it would be pretty impossible to solve the case from the motel room alone so if lives were gonna be saved, then they probably had to go check out the scene of crime: the ocean coast. Dean popped the cap of his beer bottle and took a drop of it while looking at his sleeping brother. Sam was sick and therefore in no condition to leave his bed which left Dean with only one option – to leave Sam behind to go work the case on his own; an option Dean didn't like one bit.
The young hunter put down the beer bottle alongside the laptop on the table, before he crouched down next to Sam's bed and gently shook his brother's shoulder.
"Sammy." Dean called.
Sam didn't react at first which didn't surprise the older brother one bit. Sam had always been a lightweight when it came to any kind of medication. Dean called his brother's name once more and this time Sam let out a soft groan and turned his head a bit in the direction of Dean's voice.
"Sammy." Dean said again and smiled a little as Sam's green eyes slowly blinked open. "Hey dude."
"Hey." Sam said in a hoarse voice, cleared his throat and then winced when the action of doing so had hurt his sore throat.
"How are you feeling? You hungry?" Dean asked. "I bought some chicken soup I can heat up in the microwave for ya."
"No thanks." Sam said and brushed the hand with his casted wrist through his sweaty bangs. "I'm not hungry."
Dean, being the overprotective brother that he was, didn't look satisfied by the answer and Sam suppressed a smile. He was still trying to get used to the fact that he, little by little, was getting his big brother back. When their dad had died, Dean had become withdrawn and somewhat cold towards the younger Winchester. Sam had wanted to talk but the more he'd tried to get closer to his brother, the more Dean had pushed him away – to the point where Sam had actually started wondering if Dean had stopped caring about his little brother altogether. Then Sam had broken his wrist plus had started having visions again, and Dean had finally put aside his brooding to be there for Sam again. And the younger brother was more than grateful for it. Sam hadn't realized how much Dean's protectiveness and mother-henning had meant to him until the day he'd lost it.
"Well, you're at least gonna drink something." Dean said and pushed a bottle of water into Sam's hand before he found a couple of Tylenols. "And take these too."
Sam accepted the offered pills and swallowed them down with water.
"How's it going with the case?" He then wanted to know.
"I looked through your research but nothing fit entirely with what we know about the case so far. I think we need to check out the beach." Dean said.
"Alright, when are we leaving?" Sam asked and started moving into a sitting position on the bed when Dean pushed him back down by a hand to his chest.
"You, my brother, are staying right where you are." Dean said. "I'll check out the beach on my own."
Sam shot his older brother a glare.
"Several people have already drowned in that ocean, Dean. Their hearts were missing." Sam said.
"Which is why this case needs to be solved before more people get killed." Dean said.
"I agree." Sam said. "But you're not doing this alone."
He once more tried to get up from the bed and once again Dean pushed him back down.
"Sam, will you just.. stay put, dammit!" Dean exclaimed. "I'm going to work the case and you're gonna stay in bed. You hear me?"
"Fine." Sam mumbled.
"What was that?" Dean asked though he'd heard the word perfectly well.
"Fine." Sam said in a louder voice, bitch-face firmly in place, which made an amused smile flicker on Dean's face for a moment.
Dean then hesitated as he briefly wondered if he should ask Sam how he was holding up now that they were so pretty damn close to where Sam had once lost his girlfriend, but Dean couldn't find the right words to say and decided it was probably wiser not to bring up the issue anyway.
"You just focus on getting better, okay?" Dean instead said and gave Sam's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, before he started preparing to leave the motel room.
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Dean ducked at just the right time to avoid being hit square in the face by a beach ball. As he straightened back up, he frowned at a crowd of laughing teenagers that ran past him in the golden sand to chase the ball he'd barely managed to steer clear of. Somewhere nearby, the young hunter could hear a kid plead his mother for an ice-cream while a couple of seagulls flew by on the unclouded sky above him.
"And you're absolutely sure you didn't see anything suspicious? Anything out of the ordinary?" Dean asked the lifeguard he'd been questioning ever since arriving on the beach.
"No, not until the bodies showed up on the shore." The lifeguard said and carded a hand through his long blond hair that was being held in place by a purple and orange-dotted headband.
"He probably isn't aware of how ridiculous he looks." Dean thought with a soft snort. "Even Sam's curly mop looks stylish compared to it."
The lifeguard shot him a weird look and Dean cleared his throat to cover up the snort he hadn't managed to hold back.
"And the missing hearts?" Dean asked, forcing himself to look anywhere else than at the headband.
"The local police think some bizarre sea creatures did it." The lifeguard said.
"Yeah? And what do you think?" Dean wanted to know.
"Honestly? I've heard a lot of strange stories in my years of being a lifeguard, but as far as I know, no sea creature could have done that." The lifeguard admitted and peered across the many tourists on the beach before looking at Dean again. "Their hearts were just.. ripped out, ya know? No sea creatures I've ever heard of would be contented with only a certain piece of a person's body and nothing more than that. It's almost.. unnatural. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah." Dean said with a gloomy look and nodded. Something supernatural had definitely killed those people.. but which creature?
Dean decided to visit the local morgue to hopefully find more clues on the creature they were hunting, so he thanked the lifeguard for his help and then trotted back towards the Impala through the burning hot sand along the coastline. The oldest Winchester brother passed by a lot of sunbathing tourists, some laughing kids playing in the sand, and a whole bunch of people swimming in the ocean. He couldn't help but feeling concerned about the fact that anyone of these people could be the next victim to show up on the shore with a missing heart. The sooner Dean figured out what creature to kill and how to do it, the better. And the sooner the case was solved, the sooner he could return to his sick little brother.
As Dean slid behind the wheels of the Impala, he fished up his cell phone from his jeans pocket and quickly glanced at the display to see if he'd received any messages or calls from Sam.
Nothing.
Dean hoped the lack of news from his brother meant that Sam was doing well, and not indicated that Sam was so sick that he was unable to contact his big brother even if he wanted to and - more importantly - needed to. Dean pushed the sombre thoughts away and turned the keys in the ignition of the car before heading towards the morgue.
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The visit at the morgue had turned out to be rather informative. Dean felt like he was given more and more pieces for the puzzle but couldn't exactly figure out how to put them together – that's what he usually had his geeky younger brother for. Dean bit his lower lip and turned his cell phone over a couple of times while trying to decide whether or not to call Sam. He didn't want to wake Sam up since the youngest Winchester brother needed his rest to get better but he could need some help with the case. Besides, Dean wanted to check up on Sam anyway so he could as well kill two birds with one stone.
"Hey." Sam said when he picked up the phone, and Dean winced a little when he detected the hoarseness in Sam's voice.
"Hey bro. Did I wake you up?" Dean asked.
"No, it's fine. I wasn't asleep." Sam said.
"Good. How are you feeling?" Dean wanted to know. "Better? Worse?"
"I'm alright." Sam answered but Dean wasn't gonna be brushed aside that easily.
"The truth, Sammy." Dean said in a sharp tone which made Sam sigh.
"I've been better but it's nothing to worry about Dean. Just a cold." Sam said.
"Okay." Dean said and was about to move on to the case but still had one more question for his brother. "Did you at least eat the chicken soup?"
"Eh.." Sam said in a careful way.
"Sam." Dean sighed despondently, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before letting the issue go for now. "Listen, I just came from the morgue and got some interesting information from the doctor."
"What did he say?" Sam wanted to know.
"Well, it turns out all three victims had been laid just before they were killed." Dean said.
"Seriously?" Sam asked.
"Seriously." Dean confirmed. "And get this; the good old doctor said that if he didn't know better, he would go ahead and say that it looked like someone had literally stuck their hand into the victims' chests and ripped their hearts out."
"Just like I saw in my vision." Sam said.
"Yeah, especially since the autopsy revealed that the missing hearts were the cause of death instead of drowning - and not the other way around as the police mistakenly believed." Dean said as he opened up the door to the Impala and got inside. "Look, I'm heading back towards the beach again to snoop a little around. If you figure out what we're dealing with, you let me know alright?"
"Okay." Sam said before coughing a little.
"You stay in bed with that laptop of yours." Dean ordered. "No walking around."
"And what if I need to go to the bathroom?" Sam asked. Dean could clearly hear the smirk in his voice.
"Keep it up dude and I might cut your hair while you sleep." Dean threatened. "Oh, and Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"That bowl of chicken soup better be eaten by the time I get back." Dean said before hanging up.
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Dean spent the next hour looking for anything useful on the beach which wasn't exactly easy with people all over the area. However, after talking to a few people it turned out that all three victims had drifted to shore at the exact same spot – which probably meant that they'd all been killed at the same place. Dean let his eyes travel across the ocean, a thoughtful wrinkle appearing between his brows. Had the victims been murdered in the water or on a boat maybe?
"Maybe we're looking at this whole thing wrong." Dean muttered.
Since the victims had been drifting to the shore from the ocean, the Winchester brothers had automatically assumed that they were dealing with a water creature, but what if they weren't? The murdered men had died from having their hearts ripped out before ending in the water, so theoretically they could be dealing with any kind of creature really.
"Great.. Just great." Dean sighed and picked up his phone to call Sam when a lovely scent of perfume reached his nostrils. It was almost.. seductive.
The oldest Winchester brother turned his head and came face to face with a hot lady with ice-blue eyes and a gorgeous smile.
"Fancy a drink, honey?" She asked and Dean then realized she was the waitress from the little beach-bar he was standing next to.
"Oh, ehm.." Dean said, looking from the waitress to his phone and back at the waitress again. What had he been about to do? Oh right, call Sam! "No thanks, sugar. I'm working."
Dean flashed her a smile along with the fake FBI-badge he'd been showing people all day.
"Oh, you're an agent?" The waitress asked. "You're here because of the people who drowned?"
"Actually, I think they might have been murdered." Dean revealed and then wondered why the hell he'd just told her that.
"Oh no, that's terrible." The waitress said with a little gasp.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure the one responsible will be caught." Dean promised and as the waitress smiled, Dean noticed once again how attractive she was. She actually reminded him of an old fling he once had.
"You know, I actually don't feel safe. You think you could protect me?" The waitress asked and let a hand slide down Dean's arm. "I'm off in ten minutes."
It was tempting. Really tempting. He could push everything else aside for a few hours with the waitress, couldn't he? The waitress smiled again and Dean barely stopped himself from groaning out loud. He wanted her. He needed her. Wanted to feel those pretty lips against his own and - no. The big brother voice inside of him tore Dean out of his thoughts. Sam was still alone at the motel, still sick, and Dean needed to make sure he was alright. No matter how hot the waitress was, she wasn't as important as Sammy.
"I'm sorry but I can't." Dean told her, and the smile on her face faded for a few seconds since the waitress clearly didn't get turned down a lot.
"Here's my number if you change your mind." The waitress said and handed over a little note with a written number. She then left and Dean felt a loss right away. What the hell was going on? There was something fishy about that waitress and Dean intended to figure out what it was.
Dean hid behind the beach bar and didn't have to wait too long for the waitress to be off work. He then frowned as he noticed that she wasn't alone but was leaving the bar with an unknown man. The young hunter discretely followed behind the couple like a shadow while making sure they wouldn't see him, and Dean soon realized that the waitress was leading the man to a big boat at the far end of the pier. As the couple went onboard, Dean reached into his jacket pocket and took out a silver knife.
"Whatever that bitch is, she's going down!" Dean thought and snuck closer to the boat.
He carefully climbed onboard and from his hidden position, Dean could see that the waitress had started to unbutton the man's shirt and was straddling the guy while kissing him. As careful and quiet as only a well-trained hunter could be, Dean closed the gap between him and the couple and just as he raised the knife that shimmered in the setting sun, the waitress spun around and thrust her hand into Dean's chest.
Dean gasped in shock, the knife dropping to the deck with a clatter as pain seeped through his chest and spread to his entire body.
"What a shame." The waitress said. "I would have loved to get my way with you before killing you, but beggars can't be choosers."
Dean's eyes widened as she then pulled her hand back – his heart no longer a part of his body. Dean immediately dropped to the deck. Dead.
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"No!" Sam shouted. "No! No! Dean!"
Sam gasped for breath – the vision of Dean dying so intense and painful that he rolled to the side and started puking up whatever small contains that had been inside his stomach. Sam coughed and gagged a little more before wiping his mouth with the back of the hand that wasn't currently covered with a cast.
Sam had been on the phone with Dean a little while ago, when his brother had informed him about what he'd found out about the case so far, and ever since then Sam had been on his laptop. The fact that the victims were men, the intercourse, the missing hearts, the woman he had seen kill a guy in his first vision - it all added up to one thing; a succubus. Sam had been about to call Dean to let him in on it when he'd suddenly dropped to the carpet of the motel room as he'd been hit by a new vision – a vision where Dean had been killed by the creature.
"No." Sam gasped and tried to think around the gigantic headache that was jack-hammering its way inside his skull. Dean had to be okay! There was still time. Oh God, please let there be time!
Sam pushed himself up from the floor, wincing a little when he accidentally used his casted wrist in the process. He swayed a little and had to hold on to the table for a few moments to steady himself before grabbing his jacket and staggering outside. Sam groaned and screwed up his eyes when the setting sun in the horizon hurt his sensitive eyes. The aftermath of one of his visions was always bad and combined with being sick, it was incredible that he could walk at all.
Sam jack-wired the nearest car, before he drove towards the beach in a rush. He wanted to make Dean a call but, to his big regret, he realized that he'd left his phone in the motel room.
"Shit." Sam cursed and let out a sob of worry for his big brother before flooring the gas pedal of the car even more.
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TBC..
Reviews? They're love, people! Love! ;)
-Elisa.