SILENT NIGHT
Summary: A Wendigo and a blizzard prove to be a bad combination for the Winchesters as they take on a hunt in the mountains of Minnesota. Hurt!Sam, Protective!Dean.
Author's note: Major writer block. Ugh. I hate it. But hopefully it'll pass over time! Until then, please forgive me for the enormous amount of time there seems to be between my stories these days.
This story is dedicated to my friend Elena who told me she wished to read a story like this.
Happy Holidays – and a Happy New Year to everyone!
-Elisa.
_ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _
"The snow was endless, a heavy blanket on the outdoors; it had a way about it. A beauty. But I knew that, like many things, beauty could be deceiving."
- Cambria Hebert, Whiteout.
_ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _
"Silent night, Holy night. All is calm, all is bright.."
Dean hummed along on the Christmas song on the radio. A feeling of nostalgic peace washed over him as the tunes of 'Silent Night' fell in to a rhythmic harmony with the sound of Sam's soft snores from the passenger seat, and the beat of the Impala's wipers whisking away the heavy snowflakes that were drumming on the windscreen of the car. The wilderness on each side of the road was covered in a thick white layer of snow, and the road in front of the car was getting more slippery and impassable by the second. Awful weather to be driving through, Dean thought with a shake of his head, but at least the snowflakes were falling down slowly and the wind was calm – for now.
A bump in the middle of the road hit the front wheel of the Impala, making the car swirl a bit to the side and making Dean curse under his breath as he expertly got the car back on track. Beside him, Sam mumbled something unintelligible and shifted a little on his seat – the jacket he'd draped over his shoulders sliding down by the motion. Dean automatically reached out a hand and pulled the jacket back up to cover Sam's shoulders, a smile playing on his lips as Sam let out a soft sigh, turned his head towards his big brother and fell still once more. As hunters – and especially as sons of John Winchester – they'd learned to sleep with one eye open; to always be alert and ready for any possible situation that might occur. That was why both brothers always slept more peacefully when the other one was awake, and since the Impala had been their only real home for almost their entire lives, it was the source of comfort and safety; a place where especially the youngest Winchester caught a great deal of shuteye. That was also why Sam was now fast asleep while Dean drove them towards the snowy mountainside in Cook County, Minnesota – towards Eagle Mountain that was the location of their next hunt.
Dean had found an interesting article in a newspaper when the brothers had been passing through a town in Wisconsin – an article about people disappearing in the Eagle Mountain area. There had been no bodies, no immediate signs of struggle or animal attacks; just people taking a trip through the wilderness and then never returning again. The local sheriff department had tried to write the disappearings off as black bear attacks, but wildlife experts had called that very unlikely since bear attacks were not only rare, but there would also have been some sort of remains left of the victims to be found if bears were involved – which in this case there weren't. The oldest Winchester brother had presented the article for Sam, and the two of them had decided that the case was worth checking out. There was only one problem: the weather. From what Dean had heard, the snow would continue to fall, and hunting in this kind of weather could be a dangerous risk to take for the brothers. They had the equipment and the surviving skills needed to make it through even the worst kind of weather, sure, but Dean wondered (and not for the first time that day) if they should lie low for a few days and check out the mountain when the weather had turned better. However, deep down, he knew they wouldn't. It wasn't the Winchesters' style to lie low when there were innocent people to save. Their father had always drilled it into them that there was no such thing as bad weather, only bad preparation. And one look at the missing persons' faces in the newspaper - including the faces of two missing children – did it for Dean; they had to do something. Weather be damned.
As Dean took a turn to the right by the T-junction with Forest Road 170, he was forced to pull over when a roadblock turned up in front of them. He slowed down the Impala and let the car roll to a stop as a police officer approached the car - his waving hand casting dancing shadows in the beams from the headlights of the car. The older Winchester reached out a hand to turn off the radio, glanced at his sleeping little brother who was curled up (as much as his gigantic frame allowed him to do) in the passenger seat, and then turned his eyes back to the forthcoming officer. When the police officer had reached the driver side of the car, Dean rolled down his window and shot the man a smile.
"Good evening, Officer." Dean said and the officer nodded his hello.
"What are you lads doing out here in this weather?" The officer asked, adjusted his hat a bit and blinked a few snowflakes out of his eyes. "Didn't you hear the blizzard warning? We're closing up the roads."
"Blizzard?" Dean huffed with a grin. "Well where we come from, that's just another day at the office. Me and my brother here are planning a hike up the mountain."
"A hike? In this weather?" The officer asked with a puzzled look. "Sorry mate, that's not gonna happen. It's too dangerous to hike up there during a blizzard."
"Ever hear of the Storm Chasers?" Dean asked. "We're like the snow-version of them."
The officer lifted an eyebrow and Dean shrugged his shoulders.
"It's a hobby." He added.
"Nevertheless," the officer said. "we don't allow any passengers through here, you have to turn back. Oh and I suggest that you two find a place to stay for the night. This weather will get ugly pretty soon."
Knowing it was pointless to further argue with the officer, Dean reluctantly did as he was told, backed up the Impala a bit and made a U-turn before driving back in the direction they'd originally come from.
"The Storm Chasers? Really?" Sam said and Dean turned his head to see his little brother looking at him.
"I had to come up with something, alright?" Dean said. "I thought you were sleeping anyway?"
"I was." Sam said and emphasized his words with a yawn, before trying to loosen up his neck muscles by turning his head a bit from side to side. "So, what's the plan?"
"Since we can't take the road to the parking lot by the trailhead, I guess we'll just have to find another place to park the car and then hike from there." Dean said, trying to remember if they passed by any good parking spots earlier.
Sam cleared his voice, opened up the glove compartment and picked up a map and a flashlight, before closing it again. He clicked the flashlight on and let the beam scan over the map – following the road with a finger on the map while a concentrated frown showed up on his forehead.
"You see anything?" Dean asked, keeping his eyes firmly planted on the road in front of him as more and more snowflakes whirled in front of the windscreen.
"There's a little lake not far from here." Sam said, still following the road on the map with a finger. "We're gonna have to hike off-road for a while, but at least the car will be hidden from the main road."
"Good." Dean said.
Sam looked up from the map and stared at the heavy snowfall in front of them for a few moments before turning towards Dean.
"It's gonna be crazy out there, Dean." Sam remarked and watched his brother's jaw clench.
"I know." Dean said after a few seconds.
"And we're still going out there?" Sam asked.
"Yup." Dean said and Sam let out a sigh.
"Awesome." He said and washed a hand down his face.
At least he felt well rested.
_ SPN _
They parked the Impala by the lake Sam had found on the map, then put on their winter clothing –including hats, scarves and gloves. Both brothers wore backpacks on their shoulders that contained all the equipment they found necessary on the hunt, which among basic survival items also consisted of weapons, salt and their dad's journal. Sam's laptop had to stay back in the car, so they considered the journal to be at least a minor source of information should they come by an unknown creature on the snow-covered mountain. But mostly it was just a precaution, since they both agreed that they were probably dealing with a Wendigo.
The brothers set out a course leading northwest, needing to hike in a straight diagonal line to be able to reach the trailhead as soon as possible so that they didn't have to struggle through the wilderness more than necessary. With Dean leading the way in front and Sam following behind him while managing the map and compass, the Winchesters bee-lined their way through the heavy snow, all the while the wind picked up more and more and the temperature dropped significantly lower. Within a few hours, the weather had turned so bad that Sam could no longer hold on to the map long enough to take a good look on it, so from then on they only relied on the compass.
"It's getting really bad." Sam shouted at one point to be heard over the howling of the wind.
"What?" Dean shouted and turned around – the beam from the flashlight in his hand blinding Sam as he did so.
"It's getting really bad!" Sam shouted again while shielding his eyes from the sudden light.
This time Dean nodded, moved closer to his brother through the knee-high snow and pulled his scarf – that was wrapped around his face to protect him from the cold wind – a bit down to more easily communicate with Sam.
"How far from the trailhead are we?" Dean asked.
"I don't know." Sam answered and pulled out the map. "I can't see a damn thing."
With Dean's help, the brothers' combined forces made it possible to straighten out the map and take a good look at it with the beams from their flashlights. From what they could calculate, they had to be more than halfway to the trailhead from where they could more easily reach the exact area they were gonna investigate. But the snowfall and wind were getting worse and Dean and Sam both knew that the bad weather would slow them down further. And even though they were warmly dressed, the cold still managed to find places to seep in through their clothing, making it only a matter of time before the cold would fully get to them.
"Let's try to reach the trailhead before we stop." Dean said and rubbed his gloves together to try to provide his fingers with more warmth - the short break they'd taken to look at the map having already taken its toll.
"Alright, let's go then." Sam agreed, put the map away and started pacing behind his brother once more.
It took the brothers another couple of hours before they finally reached the trailhead – more specifically; the parking lot where they had originally meant to park the Impala before the police had blocked off the road leading to there. The few abandoned cars parked there were barely visible as they were covered in snow, and the trail leading further up the mountain hardly existed. The Winchester brothers were drained of energy after walking through the snow for hours and they were both in dire need of being warmed up, so they found a place sheltered a bit from the wind by a row of trees and started setting up a tent.
"I hope this tent is as good as you claim it is." Dean said while staking down the tent. "I'll not be happy if I wake up to find you curled around me to get warm, you understand?"
Sam just ignored Dean's remark and instead focused on his task at hand. He was digging through the piles of snow around the tent and, after clearing a few spots, Sam started cutting protective Anasazi symbols into the hard ground with a knife. The symbols would do nothing to let them know if a Wendigo snuck around outside their tent, but they would at least keep it from trespassing. Sam knew that the symbols would soon be covered up by snow but it didn't matter – as long as they stayed unbroken, then he and Dean would stay protected.
With the symbols in place and the tent set up, the Winchester brothers climbed inside their shelter and quickly zipped up the tent to shield them from the cold wind and the heavy snowfall. The blizzard had not full on hit them yet, but they both knew it would only be a matter of time before it did.
"You still think we made the right choice by not waiting for the blizzard to pass?" Sam asked, taking off his gloves and blowing on his cold fingers.
"There are kids out there, Sammy. Kids who could still be alive." Dean said. "You really think we should have waited?"
"No." Sam said before climbing into his sleeping bag.
"You wouldn't be a Winchester if you did." Dean said in a soft voice and climbed into his own sleeping bag. "Hey Sammy, you wanna hear my homemade version of Jingle Bells?"
"I'd rather not." Sam said, making himself comfortable in a sitting position, as he was the one to take the first watch.
"Oh come on! You know it ain't Christmas before I've sung it." Dean grinned.
"You know what? You should sing it." Sam said which made Dean raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"Really? I thought you hated that song?" Dean asked.
"I do." Sam said. "But I think it'll be a good way to scare off the Wendigo."
"Oh, shut up." Dean said and buried fully down in his sleeping bag.
A smile tucked at Sam's lips as he listened to Dean's mutterings about impudent, pain-in-the-ass little brothers.
_ SPN _
When Dean woke up a few hours later, he sensed a change in the atmosphere. The wind had picked up dramatically and was howling and tearing at the tent. But that was not the only change Dean felt. He snapped his head to the side and felt his breath catching in his throat as he looked at Sam's empty sleeping bag beside him.
"Sam!" Dean shouted, practically flying out of his sleeping bag and quickly putting on his boots before grabbing a flaregun and unzipping the tent. "Sam!"
The massive snowfall hit Dean like a wall of coldness and made him gasp as he crawled out of the tent and started searching for his brother. It was almost impossible to see anything from the twirling snowflakes and the cold immediately seeped through his coatless clothing.
"Sam!" Dean shouted, then coughed as the cold air tickled his throat. "Sammy!"
Dean desperately scouted the parking lot from side to side but, even though the moon lit up the area, he couldn't see a damn thing in the terrible weather. His teeth soon started chattering and his whole body started shivering, but Dean refused to let a little coldness beat him down – not when Sam was out there somewhere, not when his brother was missing.
"Sam!" Dean shouted once more, then suddenly spun around with raised gun as he heard a noise behind him.
"Whoa! Dean! What the hell?" Sam exclaimed, lifting both hands in defense – in one hand holding a flaregun matching Dean's gun, and in the other one grasping a notebook.
"What the hell?" Dean sneered and shot Sam an incredulous look before lowering his gun with an angry motion. "What are you doing out here, you moron? You scared the hell out of me!"
"I just went outside to take a piss. No big deal." Sam said and Dean's anger flared.
"No big deal? You should have woken me up and at least told me that you were going outside!" Dean shouted. "You know better than that, Sam!"
"Alright, I'm sorry." Sam apologized. "But I was right behind the tent and I did bring a gun with me!"
Sam waved the flaregun in the air to prove his point and Dean rolled his eyes.
"Unbelievable." Dean grumbled and shook his head.
"You're the moron here though!" Sam insisted. "What the hell are you thinking walking around in a frigging blizzard without as much as a jacket?"
"Well I was trying to find my incredibly annoying little brother that had gone missing, so excuse me for forgetting the damn jacket!" Dean mocked – even though he could no longer feel his fingers and had an unnerving feeling that his lips was turning a fine shade of blue.
"Come on, let's get back to the tent before you catch pneumonia." Sam sighed and the brothers then found their way back to their tent, walking through the twirling snowflakes side by side.
When they were back inside the tent – and Dean was being warmed up again inside his sleeping bag – Sam showed Dean the notebook he'd found.
"It's from the trail registration box." Sam said. "The one visitors use as a sort of safety tool where they sign in and out – just in case they go missing on a hike, so that rescuers may be able to find them faster."
"Yeah I know what a register box is, Sam." Dean said and waved his hand for Sam to continue.
"Anyway, this could give us a clear picture of when and where our missing people disappeared." Sam said. "For all we know, these people could have been spread out all over the mountain.."
".. or have disappeared from a certain part of the trail." Dean said.
"Exactly." Sam agreed and started flipping through pages in the notebook. "Hopefully, most of them will have written down where they were going."
"You're such a nerd, dude." Dean said with a shake of his head. "But a smart one, I'll give you that."
_ SPN _
The blizzard ravaged full on when Dean and Sam started making their way through the snow-covered trail leading further up the mountain. Before leaving, Sam had narrowed down the area, where people had gone missing, to be near Whale Lake – which was located about halfway along the trail and offered no less than two campsites for hikers. Furthermore, the area around Whale Lake also offered a mountainside where a Wendigo could easily be having its lair.
The snowstorm made the trail difficult to follow, and more than once did one brother have to stop up to pull the other one free of a pile of snow. In addition to their struggles, the snow now reached their thighs, and the ground underneath the snow was filled with roots and clods that unfortunately were easily caught by their boots. It was terrible conditions for a hunt but even though the Winchester brothers were starting to feel cold and exhausted, they knew they couldn't afford taking more breaks; time was everything.
However, the cold was starting to get to them, which became evident when Dean looked over his shoulder to find his brother several feet behind him, on his hands and knees in the snow. The older Winchester brother quickly closed the distance between them and bent down to grab Sam's arm.
"Come on, Sammy. Back on your feet." Dean shouted over the howling of the blizzard, and started pulling his younger brother up. "It's not the time or place to be resting now. Come on."
"I'm tired, Dean." Sam admitted in a miserably tone and Dean almost laughed at the comically sad expression on Sam's face that reminded him of a much younger Sam uttering the same words.
"I know, buddy. We're almost there." Dean said and gave Sam's back a couple of pats before they started bee-lining for their destination again.
It took them another hour and a half after that to finally reach the campsites by Whale Lake. By then, they could barely take another step and desperately needed a break, so they started searching for a great spot to set up their tent. After finding such a place, Dean once again started staking down the tent while Sam put his backpack down to get started on the symbols.
It was while trying to clear a path on the snow-covered ground that Sam was caught off guard as a giant creature suddenly shot towards him – flying out of the twirling white faster than Sam was able to comprehend. The younger brother gasped in a mix of surprise and pain as the creature made impact with the side of his body with such a force that it sent Sam flying several feet. He hit the ground with a painful grunt and then frantically tried to kick off the Wendigo that had knocked him off his feet and was now straddling his body. Before the sneering creature above him could tear Sam apart with its claws though, Dean caught its attention with a desperate amount of shouting. The Wendigo moved off Sam to go after the older brother, so Sam grabbed the opportunity to get back on his feet and pull out his flaregun. Unfortunately, the Wendigo sensed the movement from Sam's side and lashed out at the younger brother; its long sharp claws tearing into Sam's hip with a sickening sound.
"Sammy!" Dean shouted as Sam screamed out in pain.
The Wendigo turned back around to face the older Winchester brother, but was not prepared when Dean fired his flaregun and hit the creature right in the chest. The Wendigo screamed in pure agony as a fire started spreading within its body, and after a few moments the creature was transformed to a burning pile on the ground.
Dean didn't spend as much as a second celebrating it though. Instead he hurried to his fallen brother's side and kneeled down next to him in the snow.
"Sam!" Dean shouted, slipped a hand underneath Sam's head while the other one clenched the fabric of the younger man's jacket. "Oh God, Sammy."
"D-Dean." Sam gasped out, looking up at his brother with wide, pain-filled eyes.
"Shit, dude." Dean muttered as he took in the sight of the long, bleeding wounds stretching from right above Sam's hip to halfway down his thigh.
"Dean." Sam repeated and closed a hand around Dean's wrist.
"Shh, I've got you." Dean soothed, put pressure on Sam's bleeding gashes and then shushed his brother as Sam cried out in pain by the action. "It's okay, I've got. I've got you, Sammy. You just stay with me, alright? I'll fix you up."
Sam's wide eyes just continued to stare back at him, and Dean knew the younger hunter was going into shock. He knew he had to get Sam some place warm but for that to happen, Dean was forced to leave Sam's side. And although that was not an option Dean liked one bit, it was unfortunately the only option he could think of. He took off his scarf and used it to cover the bleeding gashes, wincing as Sam made a painful sound by the action.
"Sam, I'll be right back, okay? Keep pressure on this." Dean told him, moved Sam's hand to the scarf and then quickly pulled off his jacket to make a soft support for Sam's head to rest on. "Stay awake, you hear me? Stay with me, Sammy."
Whether Sam fully understood what was happening or not, Dean gave his brother's hand a quick squeeze and then left in a hurry – leaving behind a little brother who was slowly bleeding out in the middle of a blizzard, right next to the dead Wendigo that had injured him.
_ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _ SPN _
TBC..
