Nevermore
Author: Sakura123
Rating: T
Written: 1/19TH/09
Completed: ??/??/??
Category: Backdraft/Supernatural
Genre: Family/Supernatural
Timeline: Post- "All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 1 & 2)"
Characters: Dean & Sam Winchester, Ellen Harvelle, Bobby Singer; Stephen & Brian McCaffrey
Summary: At the behest of Bobby and Ellen, Sam and Dean go to stop a fraternity from raising Lilith, one of the oldest demons known to man and unwittingly encounter a firefighting family with connections to Azazel and Lilith. Crossover with the film "Backdraft (1991)".
Disclaimer: Backdraft and all things related are property of Ron Howard and Universal Pictures/Studios; Supernatural and all related are property of The former WB/TheCW, Warner Bros., and Eric Kripke. Storyline and Original Characters are property of the author, me. All rights Reserved.
Authors Note (1/19TH/09): My second Supernatural Fanfiction, this one I decided to try to Crossover with Backdraft (my current obsession); if only because the brothers share something a similarity in character and I'm really hopped on Backdraft. Also, I apologize if none of the details in this prelude aren't accurate to women in labor/childbirth, and I'm not even particularly sure about the rules and procedures of the NICU back in the 1950s (or 1959).
1. 1959: Red Sky Morning
Mary Elizabeth McCaffrey felt her breath hitch violently as another contraction washed over her abdomen, this one worst than the last. She doubled over in pain, leaning over to the left where her husband resided, holding her hand. It was almost time to bring their first child into the world. Patience made waiting for 25 hours bearable, but the pain was more than she could handle. Her mother said labor wouldn't be walk in the park, even for a physically fit young woman like herself, but Angela paid little heed to the warning, too overwhelmed by the life growing inside her.
Conception was no problem for her or Dennis, it was finding the right time that was the problem. She was a nurse and Dennis was a fireman; They worked different shifts, odd hours, and more often than not she'd be working later than he would. The time spent convincing this child was during her off day. She went over to the firehouse to visit him and ended up making move to him inside one of the fire trucks. Luckily no one caught them in the act, but Mary was a little ashamed of herself afterward and went to a confessional before she talked to Dennis about it. The end result of their moment of passion was the swollen belly that was housing the little boy, now trying to escape.
Mary let out a howl of pain as another contraction occurred, not two minutes after the last one. She did her best to ignore the frightened look on her husband's face and focused on bearing the pain. "Your doing great sweetheart," She heard Dennis say. Mary wanted nothing more than to tell him "shut up, your aren't the one going through labor!", but another contraction hit her.
"Okay, Mrs. McCaffrey, you can push now," Her doctor, David Berkowitz, announced in a tone too casual for her liking. Without hesitation, Mary did as she was told. Dennis held onto her hand she struggled to bring the child out of her body, he gritted against the pain tingling in his smushed fingers. When she stopped, the doctors and nurses encouraged her to continue on, monitoring her progress with mild surprise on their faces. They act like they've never seen a woman give birth, she thought wryly. Another contraction occurred during her final push, a swell of relief washed over her when she nurse revealed a small figure cradled in her hands. Mary fell back against the pillows behind her and heard herself laughing like a madwoman. It was finally over, he was here. Unconsciously she brought her arms up to receive her son, never noticing Dennis' hand clasped around hers. "Give him to me," She whispered breathlessly to the doctors.
They paid her no heed to her words. The joy Mary and Dennis felt just seconds ago was quickly smothered when they realized their child wasn't crying, not a sound came from his tiny body. They watched in horror as their child was raced over to the other side of the room. "What's wrong with my baby?" Mary asked, alarmed. doctors and nurses gathered around the tiny frame, blocking him from view. Through the gaps of space between the doctors she saw a breathing apparatus covering his face. Her resolve crumbled. "What's wrong with my Baby?! What's wrong with Stephen!?"
Dennis and Mary stood outside the NICU, watching their child slumbering inside the incubator, wired to machines that helped him breathe. Mary was like a statue beside him, watching with wide brown eyes as the nurses checked on Stephen. Nothing else mattered to her in that moment. It was hard to give her any sort of comfort when she flinched at the tiniest touch of his arm currently snaked around her waist. He remembered how distressed Mary became when the doctors didn't respond to her question; He and a nurse struggled to keep her on the bed while resuscitated Stephen. He prayed harder than he ever remembered before in his life.
Prayed that God would spare his child, if only for the sake of his wife. And it would seem his prayer was answered, but the Stephen wasn't out of the woods yet. For some reason his lungs weren't functioning as they should've. Their doctor supposed it was an infection, but later discovered Stephen's lungs simply weren't strong enough to sustain him yet.
And if sympathetically responding to her child's plight, Mary was slow in recovering from her ordeal. Dennis feared some complication happened during the child birthing, but Dr. Berkowitz assured him that this type of fatigue was normal with first time pregnancies. Still, Dennis worried. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. McCaffrey, how are we today?" Nurse Harper inquired, retrieving her clipboard from all the wall. Dennis looked at the nurse over his wife's head. "Okay, considering..," Dennis answered shortly, tightening his hold on his wife.
Mary leaned against him, her eyes still trained on the baby in the other room. Harper allowed herself to look away from the clipboard long enough to regard Mary with curious eyes. "Oh, yeah…!" Dennis and Mary were startled out of their reverie by the sudden outburst from the nurse. Nurse Harper jabbed a thumb toward the end of the hall on Dennis' end. "Dr. Berkowitz wants to see you," She said.
Dennis raised an eyebrow. "Did he say why?" He asked. Nurse Harper shrugged her shoulders. "I think he wants to give you a progress report on Stevie." Dennis frowned at the flippant use of Stephen's nickname but did nothing to correct the young woman. It wasn't like he could anyway, not without sounding nuts. "Alright, I'll be back. Mary?" He paused in mid step, his arm hanging loosely around her. Mary turned her head slightly, eyes shifting to meet her sleep deprived husband's gaze. "I'll be fine. Go on," She whispered, speaking for the first time in days. Dennis pressed a quick kiss to her hair and departed.
Jeannie Harper watched Dennis' retreating back until he vanished around the corner. Adjusting her cat glasses on her nose, she stepped closer to Mrs. McCaffrey. Mary paid the frumpy nurse no mind until there was nearly no space between them. Mary glanced at Jeannie with puzzlement, unsure why the woman smiling at her dared to invade her personal space. Jeannie smiled at her for another moment before placing her hand on the observation window. "How are you Mrs. McCaffrey?" She asked. "How's little Stephen doin'?" Mary's brow furrowed, she cast the woman an odd look. Why would she be asking her this question? Wasn't it her or the doctor's responsibility to maintain a log of some sort on how her child was doing? "Come with me, please," Jeannie moved away from Mary toward the NICU's entrance.
Now Mary was really confused; The nurse was going into the NICU without the proper gear and wanted her to follow. Mary cast an unsure glance around both ends of the halls; there was hardly anyone around and those present really didn't seem to be paying attention to her or the nurse, now inside the NICU. Against her better judgment, Mary found herself moving away from the observation window and venturing inside the room where Stephen slept. It felt wrong to breath the air inside, every fiber in her being was telling her to turn back, but not because of the lives she might've been contaminating with her mere presence.
She spotted Nurse Harper next to Stephen's incubator, her hand inside the small box and messaging Stephen's round stomach. Mary's maternal instincts kicked in immediately. "Don't touch him! Your not supposed to touch…" Her words faltered when the machinery began to malfunction and the lights flickered violently. Harper looked up from Stephen's incubator, yellow-green eyes flashed in the darkness descending around the two women. "In your honest opinion --- how do you think our boy is doin'?" Jeannie asked again. Mary found herself unable to respond.
Dennis spent he better part of his time searching for Dr. Berkowitz in the hallways of the hospital, wondering where the man could've vanished. Better yet, why didn't ask Nurse Harper where he was before he walked off? Such an idiot, he thought to himself. According to Harper, the good doctor wanted to give him an update on Stephen's condition. But then it got him to thinking; Why would Dr. Berkowitz call him away from his family when he could've easily came to them instead?
Wouldn't the man actually have to come visit Stephen to give a proper status check up? As these thoughts ran through his head, Dennis was starting to turn back. No sooner than he did though, he spotted Berkowitz approaching him with a rather perplexed look on his face. Dennis felt the tension in his body alleviate some. "Mr. McCaffrey, this is a---"
"One of the nurses said you had something to tell me?" Dennis sighed, his brow furrowing. The Doctor blinked. "What?" Dennis reframed from rolling his eyes at the man. "Nurse Harper said -- she said you wanted to talk to me about my son. About Stephen," He clarified, a little annoyed. Where was this doctor's head?
"No, I understood that part, Mr. McCaffrey," Dr. Berkowitz started, "but why would she tell you that? I haven't seen Stephen since last night and---" Berkowitz words faltered, his gaze shifted upward as the lights began to flicker throughout the hallway. Dennis' twisted about in a circle, wincing at the sudden loss and gain of illuminated provided by the fluorescent lights. Everyone that stood in the hallway stopped whatever they were doing, shocked by the spectacle going on around them. However, they were snapped out of their daze when the alarms started to go off in various rooms. The doctors scrambled to attend to the flat lining patients.
Quicker than Dr. Berkowitz could pull himself together, Dennis took off down the hall, back to the NICU Unit. The doctor followed suit. When Dennis and Berkowitz arrived, the NICU was swarming with nurses and screaming babies, what few were able to do so. "What in Gods name happened?" David murmured, panicked. The entire hallway was alive with the sound of panicked doctors and failing equipment. Dennis looked about the hall for Mary, unaware Dr. Berkowitz had left his side and ran down the hall. He focused on the observation window and spotted her standing in the middle of the floor with a bundle in her arms. Disregarding the rules, Dennis bolted away from the window and rushed inside the NICU.
He ignored the looks he got from the nurses, focusing only his wife as a realization hit him. Stephen laid in his mother's arms, red faced and wailing at the top of his lungs, just like he was supposed to. Tripping over his feet, Dennis made his way over to Mary. Mary looked up from trying to calm her baby down, smiling unconsciously at her husband as she adjusted Stephen in her arms.
Dennis was at a loss for words, he looked to his son then to his wife, trying to understand what was happening. His son had been in the neonatal unit for week, machines aiding his breathing; His wife was a shell of her former self, not one sign of life outside of basic functions like eating. She was sobbing mess because she believed that she did something to harm their child. Now she was beaming at him, their child was more alive than he'd been when he arrived. "What happened?" Dennis managed to ask. An nervous-giddy laughter escaped Mary, she adjusted the boy in her arms again, no longer trying to calm him down. "I-- I don't know! I was talking to -- I was, uh--" She looked around the room, confused. "I think I fell asleep--"
"What?!"
"---I woke up on the floor and I found him next me crying. Crying, Dennis! He's okay," Mary finished. Dennis didn't believe it for a second, but he was so overwhelmed by the kicking and screaming child that he was willing to over look it for the moment. Shakily he started to reach for Stephen, Mary noticed his hesitance and smiled. "He's not gonna bite," And with that she handed the boy over to Dennis before he could recoil. Almost immediately Stephen stopped crying. Amidst the chaos around them, Dennis marveled at the crystal blue eyes that stared up at him through half closed eye-lids. "Hi, Stevie," He whispered, his finger brushing the boy's cheek.
(TBC)
