Chapter One
"I'm sorry, there was nothing we could do."
Billy-Jack didn't even blink. He just sat there as he had all night. He had never treated his family as he should have and now it had been ripped to shreds. His mom burst into tears. As if that would do any good at this point. Billy-Jack looked up at Athena. She'd always been such a good, careful girl. She'd taken all her cues from Autumn, now without Autumn to watch she'd curled into Sam Winchester's side. He had to give the man credit. Athena had these perfect long legs and hourglass figure, she was far more than easy on the eyes. Most guys Billy-Jack knew would kill to have the girl wrapped around them as tightly as she was now wrapped around Sam. But Sam just kept and arm around her. Something about the way he held Athena stated clearly that he could protect her from all the bad things. Movement in the direction of his slumbering daughters caught his eye. Dean Winchester was nothing like his brother. Something about that man rubbed Billy-Jack all the wrong ways. But as much as he disliked him his daughters had taken a shine to him. Instead of looking to their father for comfort they had gone to Dean.
"Miss Daemon was clinically dead for nearly two minutes but we have her stable for the moment." the doctor continued.
Billy-Jack was disappointed. Autumn was still alive. There should be some relief some weight should have just left his shoulders but none did. If anything he felt himself sink deeper in his chair. The doctor didn't stay any longer, white lab coat billowing behind him he stalked off. Billy-Jack found himself watching Dean. He had Kelly asleep on the lower part of his legs and Kendra and Kayla had their heads in his lap. A blanket had been draped over each of them. Dean's hands and arms were bandaged up now. He'd received some nasty burns trying to save Nick. The thought of his son sent a knife straight through Billy-Jack's heart. A cold voice in his head laughed. He didn't have a heart.
"Betty, you need to get a hold of yourself." his father urged taking his wife in his arms. Billy-Jack longed to do the same thing. But there was nothing left of his wife. Not even enough to put in an urn. The old man had tears welling up in his eyes. Billy-Jack remembered so clearly the day his parents had signed the guardianship papers for Autumn and Athena. There had been this pride in the way they had moved. The pair had worn happiness as cloaks, shrouding themselves. He'd never done anything to make them look that way. The girls just had to be. At least he hadn't done anything until his children, and they were all accidents.
"We should get the children home." Betty Sue said standing up and flicking away her tears. Billy-Jack knew she still hadn't forgiven Dean, but he had. He knew he'd deserved more than what Dean had done to him. "Come on Billy-Jack, you don't need to be here. There's nothing for you anymore." He so badly wanted to fight this. Tell his mother that despite all the bad that Autumn remembered he still loved her and even though she was far past loving him she was worth waiting around for. But instead of saying any of this he stood up took one of his daughters in his arms while his mother and father took one each. "Athena, if she dies call me."
"Why don't you just go to hell?" Athena asked pulling Sam still closer. Billy-Jack saw his mother bristle but didn't know how to smooth the feathers. Not without ruffling more. Dean looked about ready to hit Betty Sue. So when the woman had walked off enough not to hear he pretended to be picking something up off the floor.
"Thanks Dean." he whispered. Dean just nodded.
"You know you can't crawl inside me right?" Sam asked once the Mortons were gone.
"I can still try." Athena balled up her fists and rubbed them furiously into her eyes.
"I'm going for a cup of joe you guys want anything?" Dean asked standing up and stretching.
"Why don't we all take a walk?" Sam suggested.
"You two go I'll stay here and wait on news." Athena said grabbing for her jacket and hugging it when Sam stood up.
"You sure?" Dean asked. "You really shouldn't be alone right now."
"I'm not two Dean. I'll survive." tears were brimming in her eyes but she wiped them away and kept a steady gaze on him.
"If you say so." Dean shrugged though it caused him a good deal of pain. He let Sam lead the way towards the cafeteria. He needed something high in caffeine.
As soon as Dean and Sam were out of sight a doctor walked up to Athena.
"Miss?" Athena looked up at the man. "Would you like to go see your sister?" He asked.
"Really? Is she awake?" Athena's eyes suddenly seemed to be brighter and awake.
"No. But since you're the only one here now if you would like to go see her you may." Athena stood up and walked with the doctor to the double doors. He typed in a four-digit password and the doors opened. They walked down the hall and turned right. The doctor held his hand out to show Athena that that was the room her sister was in. She pulled the curtain and pulled it back behind her, then turned around to see her sister. So many happy memories raced through Athena's mind. The sound of Autumn's laugh sounded as she remembered the two having a pillow fight just a few weeks before now. Athena thought of when they were kids and she was afraid of storms, she'd go into her sister's room and crawl in next to Autumn who would wrap her arms around Athena and tell her she was fine and nothing was going to happen. But now Autumn was laying in her gurney, completely unconscious. A tear rolled down the younger girl's face as she walked over and sat down on the side of her sisters bed. She ran her fingers through her sisters hair and talked to her.
"You can't leave me. You're my sister and you're all I have left." Athena gently grabbed her sister's hand. "If you leave who's going to keep me from doing all the stupid stuff? …… Betty said to call if you…" Athena didn't want to think of her sister in any worse condition that she was already in. "…if you didn't get better. Do you believe that?" Athena took a deep breath and let go of her sister. She stood up and gently kissed her sister's forehead and walked out of the room. She began walking down the hall which she had come from and was met by the doctor that led her there.
"Is everything alright, miss?" he asked. Athena just stared at the doctor.
"You're asking me if everything is alright? My sister is unconscious and was dead for two minutes and you're asking me if everything is alright?"
"Ma'am we're doing all we can do. I'm sure your sister is going to be fine. You need to relax."
"MY SISTER IS DYING!" This caught every doctor's attention. "I can't relax. I'm tired, I haven't slept in what seems like years, my best friend died in a fire, my nephew suffocated, and from the burns, he went through hell at just six months old, and my step-mother said to call her if my sister died! Could you relax? I don't think so." Athena stormed past the doctor and back through the double doors to meet Sam and Dean at the nurses desk.
"Hey, there you are." Dean said. "We didn't know where you went."
"The damn doctor said I could go see her." Athena said. She didn't bother stopping to talk to the two, instead she went back to where she had been sitting when they left.
"…How is she?" Sam asked sitting next to her. He lifted up an arm to let Athena curl back up next to him. Dean took the other side just after.
"She's still unconscious. Nothing has improved. But they're apparently doing all they can." Athena said mocking the doctor as she curled up as close to Sam as she could. She laid her head on his chest and wiped the tears from her eyes.
"Teenie just calm down. She'll be fine." Dean coaxed. "I was in a coma once." Athena looked over at Dean. "Yeah. It's pretty cool… besides the fact no one can hear you or talk to you. Hell you could verbally bitch slap someone and they'd never know." Athena chuckled and shut her eyes.
"If she doesn't wake up; what're we going to do? Will you guys still hang around me?" Athena asked.
"Of course we will." Sam whispered petting her head. Dean slouched into his chair and folded his arms across his chest. Sam continued to hold Athena and do his best to relax her and within a few minutes she was asleep.
Even though several nurses told them not to they slept in the waiting room to the ICU. Not that they really did much sleeping. It was a long restless night and every time the double doors opened their heads popped up and they stared hopefully. But no news ever came. The doctor left the following morning and a new doctor came in. She wasn't as positive as the nightshift doctor. She kept saying things like "You need to decide what you want done with her after she passes." and "If she doesn't begin breathing on her own it could be a very long time before we can wake her up if that day ever comes." But Athena had gotten better control of herself. When she went out to her car to get clothes that didn't smell like smoke she found Autumn's phone. It's buzzer went off. Autumn had a voice mail. Athena didn't worry about her sister's privacy for more that two seconds. She dialed 86 then when the automated voice came on she punched in her sister's password, their parents anniversary.
"First unheard message," then John's voice came on. "Autty, Barbie, I'll be there as soon as I can. Looks like tomorrow around noon at the earliest. You didn't say when the attack was going to take place. Call me." the automated voice returned. "Second unheard message: Girls you're worrying me. I'll be there as soon as possible call me. Third unheard message: Hey it's Jen. John's calling here every hour. What's going on? Where are you." the messages continued on this way. In total there were fourteen messages and thirty-eight missed calls. Athena dialed John he answered on the second ring.
"Autumn! What's going on?"
"It's Athena. Autumn… Autumn's in bad shape." she explained.
"Will she be alright?" John asked. He was getting control of himself now the panic from the messages and his first sentence was gone.
"We don't know. They have her in a chemically induced coma right now. The pain would be too much or something. Then the dumb asses used a medication she was allergic to and killed her for two minutes. She's not breathing on her own. Martha and the baby are dead. Dean's all burned up too." Athena was losing her cool as John gathered his. "Billy-Jack took the dog home with him though. Not that, that would make her very happy. She hates the way he treats animals. But what choice did I have? I can't have him in the waiting room can I?"
"Barbie, slow down. Deep breath." Athena did as she was told.
"I'm just so lost, Dad."
"I know. You said Dean's burned up, when did he get there? Is Sammy with him?"
"Yea, Sam's here too. We've been traveling together since right after Halloween. Met up in a bar on that last hunt you sent us on."
"Are they okay?"
"Yea, Dean's got some nasty burns on his arms but other than that no worse for the wear." she assured the man.
"Okay, what hospital are you at?"
"Jewish down in Cincinnati."
"I'm about thirty minutes from there. What are you doing?"
"You mean to speed things up?" the silence on the other end urged her to continue. "I was waiting on you. Thinking about heading out for Sage. She fixed Will up like it was nothing and he had a bullet through his heart."
"Okay, when I get there you can go do that. Until then don't do anything." he ended the call and Athena called Jen to tell her what had happened.
Jen didn't even wait until the call was finished before she ordered a red cross made. White crosses were for close non-hunters like Caleb and Pastor Jim. Red meant a hunter was on the verge of death. Black meant an expert hunter had been slaughtered. Green was for the newbies who died in service. Then she had grey ones for hunters who passed after retiring. In the main cabin of Jen's camp was a large purple bulletin in the shape of a heart and on it were the names of all the hunters worthy of a purple heart. Athena and Autumn had spent a lot of time at that camp researching and training while waiting on a case their level.
Sam was alone in the waiting room. Dean had been taken into a little curtained off room to have his arms re-bandaged. From the swearing she'd heard when she'd passed, it wasn't exactly painless. Sam had a cup of coffee and bag of potato chips waiting for her. She hadn't gotten as far as changing she'd been distracted by the phone.
"What happened?" he asked when she sat down.
"I checked Autumn's messages. Your dad'll be here in a half hour."
"He's actually coming?"
"Yeah. I wouldn't tell Dean though. He seemed pretty upset when w called on Thanksgiving and he called back. Just let John appear." Sam shrugged and handed Athena the coffee and chips he had bought for her. "Thanks."
"Not a problem. You seem to be feeling a lot better."
"I got a little sleep. And I figure crying and getting myself all worked up isn't going to help her any. I'm really in hopes that when John goes in there to talk to her she'll wake up."
"Maybe. She looks at him like a father and not seeing him in so long will make her ecstatic."
"Yeah." Athena chuckled. "Probably. That'd be kinda funny though, she's laying there all quiet and stuff, and then John walks in and talks to her for like thirty seconds and her eyes jerk open, she sits straight up and starts talking really fast like the Gilmore girls about all the things we've done and how much we've missed him… I don't see it happening though."
"She'll be fine. No doubt, Autumn wouldn't leave you here alone." About that time Dean ran out from behind the double doors with gauze hanging from his arms. Two doctors came out moments later shouting for the man to come back, but Dean ran back to his seat next to Athena.
"Damn that shit hurts. Ripping off my gauze… and then they have to poke it and rub cream all over it… and they're not even women."
"Dean you've got to get it treated or it'll never heal." Athena pushed on Dean's back to get him to stand but only managed to get him to lean forwards.
"It'll heal. It just won't look all pretty like the rest of me."
"Do you want it to look pretty?" Dean shrugged. "Get your ass in there and get your damn arms treated right." Dean grunted.
"I don't want to."
"I don't care."
"Will you do it?" Athena glared at Dean.
"Sammy hold these I've got to go hold the baby's hand while he gets a shot."
"No one said anything about shots."
"You're not getting shots, your getting your arm treated so it will heal right and not look like a monkeys ass when it finally does heal."
Athena handed Sam back the opened bag of chips and coffee and walked off holding Dean's hand back behind the double doors. Sam slouched into his chair, leaned his head back and shut his eyes. Dean and Athena were still back getting him re-bandaged when John came in. He threw his coat on top of Sam making his son jump. Jerking back into reality Sam stared bleary eyed at the tall burly man before him.
"What no hello for your old man?" John asked holding his arms out. Sam shoved the heavy coat off himself letting it fall to the floor as he threw his arms around his father.
"Hey, old man." releasing his son he wagged a finger in his face.
"Careful there, we don't need to fight in the ICU. Where's Barbie and your brother?"
"Barbie?" Sam asked brow cocked. John smirked merciless.
"Athena. You know blond, looks like a model… You have seen her haven't you?"
"She's with Dean. He had to get his arms redressed and the male nurses were too rough or something." John nodded.
"We allowed to go back and see Autumn then?" Sam shrugged.
"Athena's the only one who's gone back so far. That was last night." John looked around and spotted the nearest nurse.
"Excuse me ma'am. Can I get back in the ICU? My daughter came in last night, she was in the fire out on McMicken street." he ran his fingers through his hair and put on a face of pure worry. Sam watched his dad with nothing but admiration for the man. For a moment he was proud to share genes with this bear. But leave it to John Winchester to prove that even in one of his proudest moments he was Dean's father too. John's eyes slid up and down the nurse's body when she looked over his shoulder to the double doors.
"The fire? So you're Autumn Daemon's father?" John nodded.
"Well, her parents died when she was small I looked after her after that." the nurse's eyes softened.
"I'm so sorry to hear that. The poor girl, she's lucky to have someone like you in her life." she started for the doors. "I should probably check with the doctor first but as long as you don't cause a scene it'll be fine."
The nurse punched in the code and then led John back to Autumn's room. She looked like hell. Her arms were bandaged and her hair was considerably thinner, shorter, and darker than it had ever been before. There was nothing about her frail form to suggest life existed of its own free will within. John took a deep shattering breath and the nurse put her hand on his arm.
"If you need anything just push this button," she pointed to the red call light button, "and I'll be back in a flash."
"Thank you." John was sincere she may not have known it but she had just made his day.
"I'll leave you alone." she dismissed herself and John watched her go. The moment she was out of sight he turned back to Autumn.
"What the hell were you thinking this time, Red?" he asked sitting down next to her. He didn't bother trying to stop his fingers from delicately touching the tube that went into her mouth and down her throat pumping air to her lungs. "I should never have taught you anything. Even when you wanted to learn to shoot a bow as a kid I should have turned you down. Look what it's done to you." The acute beeping of the heart monitor was his only response. John sat silent for a long moment watching the slow steady rising and falling of her chest and listening to the heart monitor. "You're one hell of a piece of work you know it kid? Hard to believe you're not mine. Act just like my boys." he shook his head. "First you run out in the woods when you'd been told to stay out of them. Of course then you at least went with Dean. Then you look me up and have me teach you little things. I could have sworn it was just self defense then. But the werewolf. That was it wasn't it? You knew this is what you wanted when he showed up didn't you?" John stood up. He wanted to shake her, make her wake up. Instead he walked out.
Dean and Athena were back now. Athena was talking quickly her hands flying every which way as she told Sam a story. No doubt, from the way Dean kept interjecting, it was about what had happened while the nurses had taken care of his arms. John stood just out of sight watching the three. He wondered not for the first time if he'd done the right thing. Athena's eyes were red rimmed and none of the three looked like they'd slept well but they were together. It wasn't just the physical togetherness either. John could actually see them bound to one another. Had he done the right thing keeping them a part for so long?
"John." Athena breathed his name as if it were the most delicate word in all the world. He smiled.
"Hey Barbie." she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck squeezing him tight before kissing his cheek and releasing. "Easy there kiddo. You three look like you've been beat to hell." Athena still grinned from ear to ear as she sat back down beckoning him to sit also.
"We have but that's all part of the job." she didn't mention her sister in fact she didn't even glance in that direction. But Dean and Sam did. This was why John had kept them apart. Now all five of them were in one place. All five of them were just sitting around and waiting for one person to get back on their feet. That was five too many out of the game.
"How was she?" Sam asked. Dean was still didn't seem to have processed the fact that he was here.
"For the first time, son, since I've known her she didn't have a thing to say." the four of them gave off a short burst of laughter. It wasn't the happy kind of laughing it was the kind that said if they didn't laugh they'd all lose their minds.
"I talked to the doctor." Dean announced. "He said if she isn't breathing on her own in the next 48 hours chances are she'll stay in that coma." Athena bent her head closing herself off from the world behind a curtain of golden locks.
"Teenie, you said you wanted to go get Sage. You think she can really do something?" Dean watched his father carefully.
"Yea, she's done more with less. You've seen her in action." She didn't look up.
"Then I'll stay here. You go get Sage." John instructed gently.
"What if she wakes up? I should be here." Athena's body went rigid and John who was sitting between his son's on the couch leaned forward taking her hands in his.
"If she wakes up and your not here I'll just tell her you went to get real help. She'll understand."
"No she won't." she barely raised her head to look John in the eye. "She would never leave my side and she won't understand me leaving hers."
"Athena, she would leave your side in this case. She would know that I wouldn't let anything happen to you and would watch over you until she got back. She wouldn't hesitate before going to get you anything you needed." Athena pulled away.
"Fine, I'll go. Just make sure she knows I'll be back." the young woman that John could still see as an eight year old little girl stood up. "I'm leaving now, I should be able to get to Sage's by nightfall maybe a little later at this point."
"I'll keep you company." Sam offered. Athena didn't protest she just threw the double doors a pointed look and started down the hall pulling on her coat as she went with Sam at her heels.