Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters.
Hey, again, guys!
This is the sequel to The Black Swan, and this won't make sense until you read it first!
Chapter name borrowed from Blue Oyster Cult.
Reviews are love!
CHAPTER ONE- DON'T FEAR THE REAPER
I freaking hate hospitals.
Naturally, I was in one.
Alone.
"Sam? Odette? Dad? Anybody?"
So I marched down the stairs in a white shirt and blue hospital pants and nothing else.
(Ever heard of slippers?)
The nurse's station was in front of the hospital.
"Excuse me. Hi. I, uh, I think I was in a car accident," The girl kept on typing.
"My dad, my brother, this kid, I just need to find them."
No response.
"Hello?"
I snapped my fingers under her nose.
Zilch.
This could not be happening.
I ran back upstairs, barging into the first room I saw.
I froze.
I was staring at my own body.
My intubated, dying (still completely hot) body.
~Supernatural~
Something rustled behind me, and I turned around in relief as I saw Sam and the kid.
"Sammy!" I moved up to him. "You look good. Considering."
My eyes shifted to Odette.
She looked terrible.
I huffed.
"You look like death warmed over, kid. Get some rest."
No answer.
"Oh, no," Sam breathed out, staring at, well….. me, I guess.
The other me.
Odette looked freaked.
"Come on, Dean, wake up."
"I am up, you idiot!"
Girls.
Seriously.
Silence.
I turned to Sam.
"Man, tell me you can hear me."
Sam kept staring at the other me.
I looked between the both of them.
"How's Dad? Is he okay? Come on, you're both psychics! Give me some ghost whispering or something!"
(And I never thought I'd say that in my life.)
Sam was quiet.
Odette was looking around the room uneasily, as if she sensed I was here.
Guess the demon wasn't lying about her being stronger.
That was a bad sign.
Then the doctor entered.
"Your father's awake. You can go see him if you like."
"Thank god," The air whooshed out of my lungs.
(I mean, if I had any air, which I technically didn't. And that sucked.)
"Doc, what about my brother?"
"Well," The doctor did his whole doom-and-gloom expression.
"He sustained some serious injuries- blood loss, contusions to his liver and kidney. But it's the head trauma I'm worried about. There's early signs of cerebral edema."
Cere-bro what?
The doctor talked to Odette all prissily.
"You shouldn't be out of bed, Ms Slessor. You've lost quite a lot of blood."
I remembered what she'd said to me in the car.
She looked pale.
No, that wasn't the right word.
Odette wasn't white-as-a-sheet pale, either.
More creepy-ectoplasmic-ghostly pale.
She looked deader than me.
(Was deader even a word?)
Fine, my ass.
She ignored him.
"Well, what can we do?"
"We won't know his full condition until he wakes up. If he wakes up."
"If?" Sam looked as if he'd been socked in the gut.
"I have to be honest-"
That was it.
"Oh, screw you, Doc, I'm waking up!"
I wasn't letting some douchebag in a white coat decide whether I was gonna be around or not.
"Most people with this degree of injury wouldn't have survived this long," Dr. McDouchey continued.
"He's fighting very hard. But you need to have realistic expectations."
"Come on, Sam," I stared at them both.
"Go find some hoodoo priest to lay some mojo on me."
"Sam?"
There was no reply.
~Supernatural~
"What did the doctor say about Dean?" Dad seemed okay.
I mean, as okay as a guy who got rode by a demon could be.
Good times.
"Nothing," Sam kicked a chair leg. "The doctors won't do anything, so we'll have to, that's all. I don't know, I'll find some hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on him."
That made me feel a lot better.
"That's my boy," I grinned proudly at Sam.
"We'll look for someone," Dad nodded.
"Yeah."
"But, Sam, I don't know if we're gonna find anyone."
Sam glowered at him. "Why not? I found the faith healer before."
"Right, that was," Dad paused. "That was one in a million."
Sam gave him the royal stinkeye.
"So what? Do we just sit here with our thumbs up our ass?"
Elegantly put, if I do say so myself.
"No, I said we'd look, all right? I'll check under every stone."
He waited a beat.
"Where's the Colt?"
And there was the Dad I knew and loved.
Odette lost it.
"Your son is dying, and you're worried about the Colt?"
There was shocked silence for a minute.
I snorted.
Who knew?
Beauty Queen had claws.
Dad gave her his signature 'Don't mess with me, young lady' look.
"We're hunting this demon, and maybe it's hunting us too. That gun may be our only card."
Odette shut up.
"It's in the trunk," Sam added, shifting the focus from Odette to him. "They dragged the car to a yard off of I-83."
"All right," Dad attempted to sit up. "You've gotta clean out that trunk before some junk man sees what's inside."
The kid huffed.
Sam eyed her worriedly.
"I already called Bobby. He's like an hour out, he's gonna tow the Impala back to his place."
Sam caught hold of her arm.
"Come on, let's get you to bed. You look like hell."
Once a mother hen, always a mother hen.
But the kid was worrying me too.
She looked about ready to drop.
Literally.
They were about to leave when Dad stopped them.
"Hey. Here." He picked up a sheet of paper. "I made a list of things I need, have Bobby pick them up for me."
Sam looked back at him.
"Hey, Dad? You know, the demon, he said he had plans for me, and children like me. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?"
"No, I don't."
I took one look at his face, and I knew he was lying through his teeth.
"Well, you sure know something."
~Supernatural~
Dad was sitting by my bed.
"Come on, Dad. You've gotta help me. I've gotta get better, I've gotta get back in there. I mean, you haven't called a soul for help. You haven't even tried. Aren't you gonna do anything? Aren't you even gonna say anything?"
That hurt.
I'd put my life on the line for him.
Followed his every order.
I walked around the bed.
"I've done everything you've ever asked me. Everything. I have given everything I've ever had. And you're just going to sit there and watch me die?"
I kicked the bedpost.
Maybe the demon was right.
"I mean, what the hell kind of father are you?"
I paused, something scraped over the hallway.
"What is that?"
I went out, and some spirit whooshed past me.
I jumped back with a curse.
I looked at Dad.
"I take it you didn't see that."
I stalked it down the hallway, and it turned back to a woman lying on the floor.
She was choking.
"Help! Help!"
"Hey!" I yelled. "I need some help in here!"
Nobody heard me.
"I can't….. breathe!"
She panted loudly, and then went silent.
I leaned over her helplessly.
~Supernatural~
Sam banged the door open, Odette close on his heels.
I resisted the urge to shake them, hard.
"Sammy! Odette! Tell me you can friggin' hear me; there's something in the hospital. You've got to bring me back now and we've got to hunt this thing!"
"You're quiet," Dad said.
Sam turned, fuming, hurling his duffle bag on the bed with a crash.
"Did you think I wouldn't find out?"
"What are you talking about?"
"That stuff from Bobby," Sam scowled.
"You don't use it to ward off a demon, you use it to summon one! You're planning on bringing the demon here, aren't you? Having some stupid macho showdown!"
Dad flexed his jaw. "I have a plan, Sam."
That set him off properly.
"That's exactly my point!" He exploded. "Dean is dying, and you have a plan! You know what, you care more about killing this demon than you do saving your own son!"
Was this the time?
"No, no, no, guys, don't do this!"
As always, no response.
"Do not tell me how I feel! I am doing this for Dean!"
"How?" Sam flared his nostrils (biggest sign he was really, really pissed).
"How is revenge going to help him? You're not thinking about anybody but yourself, it's the same selfish obsession!"
This was just peachy.
"Come on guys, don't do this!"
Dad was getting angry too.
"You know, it's funny, I thought it was your obsession too! This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. You begged me to be a part of this hunt. If you'd killed the damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would have happened!"
Odette was trying to pull Sam away.
It didn't work.
"It was possessing you, Dad, I would have killed you too!"
"Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now!"
"Shut up, both of you!"
"Go to hell," Sam spat.
"I should have never taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake, I knew I was wrong-"
I'd had enough.
"I said SHUT UP!"
I smacked the glass of water off the table.
It went flying, crashing to the floor.
They looked at each other, confused.
I was stunned.
"Dude, I full-on Swayze'd that mother."
I crumpled in pain, suddenly.
(Did I just start flickering?)
Nurses and doctors were running by in the hallway.
"What is it?"
"Something's going on out there," Odette dragged Sam out of the room.
~Supernatural~
"Okay, let's go again, 360," Dr. McDouchey said.
"Charging," The nurse replied.
I moved up slowly behind them.
Sam and Odette were huddled by the doorway.
Odette had her arm around Sam.
Both of them were crying.
No.
This wasn't going to happen.
I wasn't leaving them.
There was a translucent figure floating over my body.
"You get the hell away from me!"
I ran to the bed.
"I said get back!" I yelled.
Odette blinked, looking confused, almost as if she heard me.
I grabbed the spirit, latching on momentarily before it hurled me back, soaring out of the room.
The monitors slowed.
"We have a pulse," The nurse said. "We're back in sinus rhythm."
I raced outside, looking for the spirit.
It had vanished.
They sighed in relief.
I came back to stand next to them.
"Listen to me, both of you," I said, even though I knew they couldn't hear me.
"I'm not going anywhere, don't worry. I'm getting that thing before it gets me."
Odette looked over to where I was, puzzled.
Maybe I could get through to her.
I wandered the halls, then I heard another girl yelling.
"Can't you see me? Why won't you look at me?"
"Now what?"
I ran on ahead, searching for the voice.
"Somebody talk to me! Say something, please!"
I finally found her.
She was pretty, for an about-to-be-dead girl.
Glossy black hair, pale skin, the works.
(What, can't a guy notice?)
"Can you see me?" I asked her.
"Yeah."
"Alright, just, uh," I swore silently. How was I supposed to deal with a hysterical girl?
"Just calm down. What's your name?"
"Tessa."
"Okay, good, Tessa, I'm Dean."
"What's happening to me?" She whirled around, trying to get somebody's attention.
"Am- am I dead?"
I shifted uncomfortably.
"That sort of depends."
~Supernatural~
Watching yourself dying was odd.
After I'd explained everything to Tessa, I'd come back here.
I didn't see Odette until I walked straight in.
She still looked weak.
"Come on, kid, get some rest. Hanging around here's not gonna do me or you any good."
I didn't actually want her to go.
At least she and Sam actually gave a damn that I was dying.
I felt this funny tingling sensation in my hand, and I realized Odette was holding it.
The other me's hand, I mean.
I rolled my eyes instantly.
What happened to no chick-flick moments?
Guess she hadn't gotten the memo.
I could've pushed it off if I'd wanted to, but I didn't.
(So sue me.)
And then she started speaking.
"Dean, you've got to wake up. Please."
I didn't like where this was going.
"It'll kill Sam, if you don't, Dean."
Oh, didn't I know it.
"I'm trying, kid."
"It'll kill me, too."
That was unexpected.
She held on to my hand tighter.
"I know you don't like me, but please. For Sam's sake."
I felt like a jerk.
I'd been nothing but a douche to her, and here the kid was, jeopardizing her own recovery to sit with me.
"That's not true, Odette."
Again, she didn't hear me.
"We'll fall apart if you're not here, Dean. The demon was wrong. They do need you, Dean. Sam needs you. I need you."
The tears were brimming over in her ridiculous doe eyes, and I felt worse than ever.
Nobody else could guilt trip me this much.
Correction: Nobody else guilt tripped me at all.
Damn that kid.
Then she got my attention again.
"This is probably stupid, but it's like I can sense you here, Dean. Like you're just out of eyeshot. I don't know if it's my psychic thing or what…. just…please."
Odette promptly passed out right after that.
I sighed, picking her up gently and placing her on the bed next to other me, brushing the hair away from her face.
Her hand curled around mine, almost as if she knew I was there.
She looked about five right about then, with her nose wrinkled up, lips pursed, and her hair in a mess.
~Supernatural~
I was walking down the hallway with Tessa when I heard them.
"Room 237, code blue. Dr. Kripke to room 237, code blue."
I raced down to the room.
The same goddamn thing was hovering over a little girl.
The nurses were trying to resuscitate her.
It reached a hand into her face.
"Get away from her!"
I lunged at it, but it had already vanished.
But it was too late.
The girl was dead.
I finally put two and two together.
I knew what was after me now.
A reaper.
A frigging reaper.
Great.
Just great.
