Standing in the grungy hallway of an abandoned asylum, watching four men practically frothing at the mouth as they ran at me, I knew for a fact that I hadn't been expecting my day to turn out like this. Especially not since I was almost five months pregnant. So let's back up a bit to see how exactly I ended up in this predicament.
18 hours earlier…
I was sitting at the small round table in the run-down motel room with Sam and Dean, watching them argue over their most recent case, utterly bored out of my mind and propping my head up in my hands. We have been going over the same details for like the hundredth time, and we were still not getting anywhere. Something fishy was going on. Many of the townspeople were seemingly put under some sort of a spell, attacking others like rabid, mindless drones. It was not mass scale demonic possession, nor the Croatoan virus. That much they had known by now for certain. But beyond that, they knew jack squat.
The only reason Sam even agreed for me to join them on day three of this hunt, instead of staying behind at the Bunker in my "condition" as he likes to call it, was because all signs pointed to my expertise being needed.
I am a witch, you could say, but not in the "made a pact with a demon to gain power" sense. I have certain abilities, let's just go with that. I was born with them, I did not ask for them and only used them if there was abso-fucking-lutely no other way out of a situation. Like almost getting sucked dry by a vampire. I have no idea what it is about me, but they are attracted to me like moths to a flame. A very apt comparison given the method of their demise.
One such incident led the Winchesters to my trail, intent on hunting me down before they realized I had acted purely out of self-defense. Or more accurately Sam suspected there was more to the story and put together that all the incinerated "victims" were vampires, stopping Dean before he could have shot me with a witch killing bullet. Whether the specialty of those bullets had any effect on me or not, I didn't know, but getting a hole in my heart or brain would have most likely done me in. Most likely. See one of my abilities is… I'm not really sure how to explain it but a psychic I visited once described them as something having to do with light. Everything that I am able to do apparently. Honestly, in some cases, I don't see how it would fit into that pattern, but there you have it.
But I was glad that we didn't get to test that theory out, whether I would survive fatal wounds without outside help or not. Especially since the next thing I knew was that Sam's puppy dog eyes were all over me, making him look shy and unsure as to how to proceed, but the desire he had for me was loud and clear. I made it kind of easy for him by pulling him down to my level and claiming his mouth as my own. I thought he deserved that much, saving me and all. That was a year ago.
Given that I have been continually mistaken for a witch ever since I was a little kid, I have made it my business to know as much as possible about them. But without evidence of runes or something that was used for the spell to go on, even I couldn't figure what we were dealing with or how to negate the effects.
"De?" Sam called out to me when he noticed that I was spacing out, his brows furrowing with that oh so familiar concern he has had for me ever since he found out that I was carrying his child below my heart. "Maybe you should go to bed, baby, it's getting late."
"I'm fine," I said, but the great yawn that escaped my mouth kind of gave me away. Stupid body betraying me.
"Yeah, Delilah, I think my niece there is telling you to get some shuteye," Dean agreed with a teasing wink. "It's almost midnight, we can pick this back up tomorrow."
Oh for the love of… See, we had a great system for seven months before Sam went and knocked me up. We hunted together as a team, I went everywhere with the boys, and even though Sam protested at the beginning he quickly saw that a) I could handle myself, b) some of the things that I was able to do came pretty handy from time to time.
That changed the moment those two lines appeared on the pee-on stick. Like I was some fragile thing, suddenly needing coddling and sheltering from the world, and everything would have to be arranged around my needs. I know condoms weren't a 100% but geez give it to a Winchester to achieve everything that was almost impossible. I personally think even stopping the Apocalypse paled compared to this.
"Niece? If I recall correctly we haven't found out the gender yet, hot shot," I jested good-humoredly. Actually, that appointment would have been tomorrow, but I conveniently forgot to tell Sam about it when he called me in the morning, asking if I felt up to making the six-hour drive to them because they were utterly stumped with this case.
"Hah, Samantha here is such a girl, I'm pretty sure all his little swimmers come with X chromosomes," the older Winchester laughed, taking another swig from the beer that was in front of him. I eyed it forlornly. Five months, five freaking months without a drop of booze while having to deal with the Winchesters. Yeah, I'm a saint.
"Dean," Sam shot him an angry bitch face. I always had to suppress the chuckle that threatened to bubble up every time I saw it. I know he means to be severe and unamused, but I just find it adorable and hilarious. Sue me, I'm in love.
"Yeah, Dean. I didn't know you were so well-versed in biology," I took pity on Sam and helped out with the retort, which he was always slow to come up with when Dean got him this riled up, no matter his intellect or big brain. The charm of big brothers, they can always leave you frazzled. Not that I would know, I'm an only child.
"Hey! I read!" he burst out indignantly, his eyes almost guiltily flickering to something on the bedside table between the two queen beds that were in the room.
My line of sight followed his, and on closer inspection, I spotted something there that looked awfully like the book Sam bought recently. What to expect when expecting. Awww. That was so sweet. Uncle Dean was really getting into this whole baby thing now, even if he really wasn't at the very beginning. Truthfully, I agreed, the hunter lifestyle isn't exactly the safest for infants and small children, but honestly, it beat being constantly hunted. And the Bunker was the safest place I could ever be. If only I didn't feel the need to bitch and moan every minute I was stuck there alone…
Before I could say anything else I yawned again, my jaw almost popping, and Sam leaned in close to me, placing a protective hand on my protruding belly. It wasn't HUGE huge yet, but there was no hiding the fact that I had a baby in the oven anymore that's for sure too.
"Go on, I'll join you in a minute," he whispered in my ear, placing a soft kiss on my neck that sent a wave of pleasurable shiver down my spine.
I nodded, turning to place a quick peck on his lips when I heard Dean making gagging sounds.
"Geez, get a room, you two," Dean huffed.
"We have one, why don't you go get yourself another?" I quipped back out of reflex. And I kind of wished he did too. I haven't seen Sam for over 56 hours, and my hormones have been demanding his large hands to be all over me for most of it.
"Ouch," Sam chuckled, not a shred of sympathy in him for his brother who continually got his ass handed to him on a silver platter by yours truly.
"Touché," Dean mumbled but didn't move a single muscle to comply with that request.
I giggled as I got into bed, leggings and cami dress and all, feeling a small kick from Babycakes as I tried to get comfortable on the bumpy mattress. Still, falling asleep posed no trouble at all. I was thoroughly tuckered out from the day I've had. So much for covert sexy time.
When I woke, Sam was nowhere to be seen, and the truth of the matter was I couldn't recall him slipping in beside me anytime during the night either, even though I was as light a sleeper as they would come. Especially since the pregnancy hormones coursing through my veins.
Dean was on his stomach on the other bed, his left hand dangling off the side, the time on his watch telling me that it was still early, before 6 AM. Could Sam have gone for a run? That wouldn't have been unlike him, but still, I had this nagging feeling in my gut.
I would have stayed in bed a little while longer, but my bladder was insistent on ruining the moment, so I clambered out from under the sheets and made my way to the bathroom, haphazardly twisting the hairband from my wrist around my long auburn locks. When I re-emerged, there was still no Sam.
I lied back down, though unable to sleep, and after half an hour I decided I've waited long enough, the jittery feeling that something was wrong overwhelming me. I first tried calling Sam, but there was no answer, so I went over to bother his brother instead.
"Hey, Dean, where's Sam?" I asked with a light shake of his shoulder.
"Lem'me alone," he muttered with a dismissive hand.
"Dean. Sam is gone," I repeated sharply, practically punching him in the shoulder to emphasize. Luckily one of those got him instantly wide awake. His eyes roamed the length of the room, coming to the same conclusion as I had. No note or whatsoever that would indicate where he had gone.
"Son of a bitch," Dean cursed under his breath, pushing himself to a sitting position. "Have you tried calling?"
"First thing I crossed off. When did you see him last?" I inquired with urgency.
"He went out for burgers, but I crashed before he came back…" he trailed off, realizing that Sam probably never made it back.
"Are you telling me he has been missing since last night?" my voice was laced with panic, reaching a higher pitch that Dean's still half-asleep brain surely found utterly annoying. I really didn't care at the moment.
"Alright, calm down, I'll…" Dean tried to shush me, possibly the worst thing you could do with someone as high on hormones as me.
"Don't fucking tell me to calm down," I snapped at him, my light green, almost grayish eyes probably casting bolts of lightning right about now.
"Look, don't worry, I'll find him. How many freaking burger joints could there be in this piss hole of a town? I'll just retrace his steps and…" he hurriedly pulled some jeans on over his boxers, and a plaid flannel above his T-shirt, not bothering to shower or change out of his "sleepwear" in his hurry.
"If you think for a second that you are leaving me here, you have a big surprise along with a shiner coming to you," I threatened, knowing that he knew that I wasn't kidding. Getting violent was not below me.
"De, Sammy would kill me if I dragged you around town, putting you in danger in your…"
"I dare you to say condition. I seriously dare you. I might just have to add a swift kick in the balls along with everything else. And you are not dragging me. I'm going of my own free will," I considered this argument to be done and over with as I yanked by boots on and slipped my arms into my khaki utility jacket.
Coming along might have been a bad idea after all. I had to stay in the Impala most of the time anyway because there was no way to sell a pregnant lady as an FBI agent asking questions in the field. To say that I was pissed was putting it very mildly. I was hungry – despite having consumed like three plates of pancakes and eggs before we set out in the morning – cranky and just generally a bitch by noon, and that is when Dean agreed that taking a break to refuel in every sense of the word would probably be prudent.
"Do you think he was taken?" I tentatively asked as we waited for our food at the diner, not really wanting to know the answer. There have been at least ten disappearances in town so far, every one of whom later reemerged as a raving lunatic, joined together as a group nonetheless, twice now. Three ended up in the morgue because the police or relatives with guns had no other choice but to defend themselves. The rest escaped to wherever they had come from, yet to make another appearance.
"At this point, I don't think there's any other explanation," Dean sighed heavily, running his hand down his face like he always did when he was lost for words or was just plain strung out with worry. Nonetheless, he was not taking his eyes off the laptop screen in front of him, still trying to search for clues.
"Are there any places around here where several people could hide out without getting noticed?" I mused out loud. They had to be somewhere, and the coordination suggested that they stayed together when not terrorizing the good people of the town. "Abandoned warehouses, factories…"
"Asylums?" the older Winchester's head shot up, turning the screen to her promptly.
"Are you seriously telling me you haven't checked out the obviously haunted looking creepy place just five miles outside of town since you got here?" my eyebrows shot up in disbelief. The boys didn't usually get this sloppy. Though it was Sam who generally made connections among their data and research, and he might have been a tad preoccupied in mind with his girl back at home, barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Hah, like that was ever going to happen. Even if I liked walking around barefoot and sometimes ended up in the kitchen…
"There is no local stories or lore suggesting it's haunted, and honestly we weren't suspecting ghosts. The victims have too free range of movement to be possessed by ghosts, no cold spots or EMF readings either," Dean explained patiently.
"Have any of the victims been to the asylum before you know… they lost their minds?" I tried again, though I knew if there had been any indication of the involvement of the institution it would have been the first thing on their list to check out.
"No one even mentioned the place, plus we aren't talking about teenagers who might think it's fun to sneak into the dump at night to wreak some havoc. All of the people who disappeared are in their 30s, 40s," he reiterated last night's info that they had already shared with me.
"All male, right?" I checked just to be sure, but it all started coming back to me.
"Yup," Dean simply nodded.
"Tall and well-built by any chance?" there was probably a lot of truth to me being tired last night since none of this occurred to me at all then.
"How did you…" the older Winchester frowned at me.
"So basically the exact demo of you and Sam," I cut him off, looking at the window with trepidation. Please be okay, baby.
"Son of a bitch…" he swore under his breath when he too realized that somehow they might have been the targets all along.
"I think we need to check out that asylum," I suggested, knowing full-well his mind was veering in that direction too.
"Not without backup," Dean retorted, fishing his phone out to contact some hunters who might be in the area.
"Dean… do you really think it's a good idea to have other hunters in my close vicinity when I might need to use my powers?" I raised my concerns with the idea. Seriously, wasn't I enough for backup?
"Who said you were coming?"
I swiftly kicked him under the table, only barely missing his jewels as he quickly snapped his thighs closed to avoid my vengeance for his careless comment.
So a few hours later I found myself standing outside of the derelict building that was the former looney bin, flanked by Dean and two of his buddies who I've never seen before but were able to get here within five hours. That was the time frame the older Winchester thought was reasonable to wait, even if every second that passed without his brother by his side got him more and more antsy. I won't deny it, I shared that feeling.
The two hunters looked at me warily, not hiding the fact that they had qualms about me going in with them. I tried to not see it as some male chauvinistic crap on their part, and believe that my obvious pregnancy just triggered some primate instinct deep inside them, urging them to wave their sticks in front of me protectively for the sake of the species' survival, but honestly I couldn't give a shit about what they wanted for me. They had no idea what I was capable of, nor that I was probably the safest from danger of us all.
"Hey, lady!" one of them came up to me again, trying to deter me from what I was about to do.
"Her name is Delilah," Dean growled, almost as frustrated with them as I was, just for different reasons I guess. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they weren't the top shelf variety where hunters were considered.
"Delilah, look. We get that you are a tough cookie, but maybe, just maybe, it'd be wiser… you know for your baby…" Ralph or whatshisname drawled at me with his slight southern accent.
I've finally had enough and made myself invisible. I shouldn't have, I know. I just gave myself away. Still, I couldn't care less. Blame my impulsiveness on Babycakes. Even though silence was the last thing that ensued, the fact that the two assholes couldn't pinpoint or direct their sanctimonious speeches at me anymore was so liberating I could practically fly.
"Holy fucking shit!" the hunter closer to me exclaimed, taking two steps back as if he was just scorched by the evilest thing on Earth. Geez, grow a fucking pair… I'm not the Devil.
"De! Dammit!" Dean cursed, already assuming the worst that I had gone in without them.
"Anything you might wanna explain us, Winchester?" the other – Billy, was it? – asked, suspicious and guarded.
"She is on our side, that's all you have to know," he grumbled, debating whether he should just barge in and try to find his invisible "sister-in-law" even if he knew that was probably impossible if I didn't want to be noticed.
"Are you guys coming or what?" I took pity on him, making myself visible just as I whispered into his ear.
The resulting startled jump that Dean managed to produce was priceless. Too bad I couldn't make him yelp like a little girl too. And maybe catch it on tape. Yeah, that would have been the highlight of the day.
That was how I ended up in that hallway, under attack in my "condition". We had split up to cover more ground faster, into pairs of two on Dean's insistence. He wouldn't let me explore on my own. Naturally, he was the one covering me, the dynamic duo having gone off into the other wing by themselves. I flicked my wrist, and suddenly the four lunatics ran into an invisible wall that was now separating them from us.
"That's a new one," Dean commented in awe. There were just so many facets to my abilities, the Winchesters still hadn't seen them all. Probably I haven't pushed it all the way to the limits yet either. Maybe a thorough physics lesson on the properties of light and some imagination would help with that.
"What do we do with them now though?" I asked, glancing their way as they frantically tried to break down the wall, not getting the hint that it wouldn't budge at all. They just had their eyes on the prize and wanted to get to it at all costs. Their mindless enthusiasm was almost endearing.
"Can you box them in until we can figure out how to cure them?" the older Winchester suggested with a shrug, looking hopefully at me. See? I'm the one solving all your problems, and you didn't want to bring me along initially. Tsk.
"I guess…" with another flick of my wrist they were suddenly pushed against the graying, moldy wall on their right, surrounded by my see-through constructs from the other three directions. I hoped I wouldn't have to do this too many more times because maintaining several things at once for extended periods severely drained my "magic". I wasn't really sure how that would affect Babycakes, I hadn't been exactly allowed to be in situations where I would have had to test out the durability of my abilities since getting pregnant.
That was when the guttural yells drifting our way from the other wing caught our attention. Dean was torn on what to do. He didn't want to leave me alone, but bringing me along to the place where the obvious signs of distress were coming from seemed counterintuitive to him too.
"Go, I'll be fine," I said with conviction, nodding my head towards that direction. Seemed like those morons needed the help more.
After a few seconds of thinking, he reluctantly agreed, bidding me to be careful. Back at you, Dean, back at you.
I ventured further down the hallway, thoroughly checking every room for runes, signs of magic and of course the people under this weird spell, my hands poised to act the second I saw anything threatening. Despite the many times I had done this before – putting myself in danger that is – my heart was racing, and Babycakes was definitely not too happy about that, letting its discontent known by doing flip-flops in my belly, making me slightly nauseous in the process.
Maybe my heightened state of alertness and overall stress caused me to react on instinct, but when in the last room to be checked there was movement coming towards me in my peripheral vision, I just made a slicing motion with my hand horizontally without thinking.
The end result? There was Sam on the floor before me with his legs cut off from mid-thigh, looking a bit Monthy Pythonesque, although I found nothing comical about it. Some black clothing and losing the hands, and he would have made a perfect Black Knight.
"Oh my God, Sam! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, baby. I'm gonna fix it…" Fuck, I cursed mentally while I blabbered on. This is why I avoided my powers. Sometimes it had a life of its own, my conscious effort barely needed to activate some aspects of it if I felt in danger.
Amidst my own panic, I didn't even realize that there was no distress whatsoever in his eyes. He just sat there on the floor examining the clean cut on both his legs with clinical disinterest. You couldn't even call it shock. He was just utterly unaffected.
"What are you doing?" Sam raised his eyes at me as I dragged over his severed limbs and aligned them along the wounds on his stumps that had been cauterized as if cut by a laser. I suppose that is exactly what had happened. Lasers were a type of light too. At least no severe blood loss to be dealt with.
"What do you mean what I'm doing… I'm going to heal you…" I glanced at him perplexedly. "Sam?" There was no recognition in his eyes, just pure blankness. Oh no. He must have been affected by whatever juju was going on in this place too.
"Why would you heal me? The moment I'm whole again, I'm just going to attack you again," he informed me with a level deadpanned voice. At least my logical and rational Sam was still in there under whatever else was layered on top. I guess healing him in his current condition was contrary to my own self-preservation, but I wasn't going to leave him like this.
"Because even though you don't remember, we need you, Sam. Me and Babycakes need you," I said simply. I licked my lips as I concentrated on directing the flow of light within me to the palms of my hands as I ran them over the incision, relief rushing through me as I saw his legs reconnect seamlessly under the gentle nudging of my power to regenerate the tissue.
My joy was momentary though because the next thing I knew was that Sam – true to his promise – pushed me backward and I landed painfully on my butt, my hands flying up protectively over my belly. He was on top of me before I could do anything, his knees on either side of me, fist drawn back, and ready to strike.
There wasn't much conscious thought put into my next move either. I made a circular motion with both of my hands in front of my chest, pushing them together, and the light around the 6'4 guy on top of me distorted, almost like under a magnifying glass. Suddenly there was a teeny tiny, maybe 5-inch tall, version of my love resting between my breasts. Sam was still swinging, trying to do me harm, but the worst he could do was maybe tickle me at this point. Or suffocate himself, given he was face down in my bosom. Death by boobs, huh. Dean would have found that hilarious. And oddly gratifying too.
I lifted tiny Sam by the back of his clothes that have shrunk along with him and looked at him apologetically as the legs of his jeans pooled around his ankles, before placing him into one of the many pockets on my jacket. Mission accomplished, I supposed. At least I had retrieved Sam, and I could return him to normal size once we figured out how to lift this crazy spell first.
I sat up, checking myself over to make sure I was okay, before continuing the sweep of the ward.
There was no other sign of activity, nor runes or anything, in the east wing, which I was currently in, so I circled back to meet up with Dean. The screams had since died down, which for some reason I didn't find comforting at all.
I passed the four men I've have trapped earlier, thankfully their invisible prison still holding them despite my lack of conscious effort at maintaining the walls earlier. They were unharmed and couldn't attack me either, no matter how viciously they glared at me as I walked past them.
The same couldn't be said for the rest of the victims though. When I walked across the atrium I found that all three were dead, along with Ralph too it seemed, the other hunter standing mournfully over him. Honestly, I didn't want to know what had happened, but Dean's rigid posture said it all. Stupid rookie mistakes and inexperience on their part probably.
"What did you not understand about incapacitating and not killing?" Dean bellowed with well-founded outrage. "Knock 'em out, tie them up, cuff them, I don't care. But none of these people deserved bullets in the noggin."
Billy had nothing in ways of a response to the older Winchester.
"Dean," I announced my presence to him, lest not startle him, 'cause I might just get a bullet in my noggin too by accident with how jumpy everyone was. His features immediately relaxed some as he saw me, seemingly without a hair out of place on me.
"Everything alright over on that side?" he asked, his voice bone-weary. It had been a long day for sure, and now the guilt had begun taking its toll on him too.
"Yeah, those four are still trapped, and I found Sam," I informed him, trying to sound casual.
"Really?" the way Dean's face lighted up at the good news was priceless. I know I was important and cherished in this family, especially since the baby, but it would always be the brothers first in each other's lives, that much I knew for certain too. "Where is he?"
"Here," I reached into my pocket, lifting the figurine sized younger Winchester out by the back of his collar. He kept growling at me and trying to turn his head back to bite into my finger, without much success, fortunately.
"Is he…?" Dean wondered out loud if Sam was under this spell too, but got quickly distracted by his clothing, his face going whimsical. "Why is he in shorts?"
"Eh, long story," yeah, might not be a great idea to reveal that I almost crippled his little brother, self-defense or no self-defense, as per the first rule of the Winchesters mentioned earlier. "But yeah, he is bewitched. Hence the precautionary measures."
"Well, not exactly. It's not a witch we are dealing with. Look at what I've found," the older Winchester pulled a square jar out of his pocket, in it was a tiny little naked lady with wings on her back, circling around angrily, spewing glitter and golden glow in her wake.
"I still see nothing," Billy threw a pointed glare at Dean, skeptical about whatever the culprit actually was. Dean didn't give a rat's ass about his opinion though.
"Is that a… fairy?" I tentatively asked, stepping closer and examining our prisoner. I've never actually seen one before, I was merely going off my Disney knowledge, but that would explain the utter lack of runes. Fairy magic worked entirely differently than witch magic.
"Release me you filthy mutt!" the little being screeched at the top of her lungs, buzzing back and forth between the different side of the jar, tiny fists banging on the glass.
"Yes. Wait… how do you… you can see her?" Dean inquired incredulously as if I was missing some crucial piece of information.
"Yeah, I see the screeching winged primadonna, why wouldn't I?" I asked back, not understanding what he was getting at. The irony of both of us holding minuscule human looking creatures was not lost on me though. Sam was pretty fairy sized at the moment too.
"Ah, Your Majesty!" the tiny woman address me this time as she noticed me, bowing so low I was wondering how she didn't end up in a somersault mid-air. "Please pardon my rudeness."
"Your Majesty?" Dean doubled back looking between me and the fairy. I could practically see a light bulb suddenly flicker on in his head as if he had just solved the biggest mystery of the universe.
"My Majesty?" I exclaimed simultaneously. "You must be mistaken."
"I am not. Your Majesty is the daughter of Oberon, King of the Fairies. The bloodline is as clear as day to any fairy," 'Tinkerbell' insisted in her shrill voice, nodding vigorously at me.
This must be a joke, right? Where were the hidden cameras? I mean… my mom was a single mother, and I never knew my father… but being half-fairy? Come on… What is this? True Blood? Then I had another idea. It didn't really matter if it was true or not, I could use her reverence to our advantage.
"Listen to me…" I started seriously, coming to eye level with the fairy.
"Ayana, Your Majesty. My name is Ayana," she bowed again, throwing in even a little curtsy, lifting her non-existent skirt up.
"Listen to me, Ayana. Whatever you are doing here, it is unwelcome. Lift the spell off of these people at once," I ordered her with all the sovereignty I could muster. I actually wondered why Dean wasn't snickering at my performance, but maybe he was too preoccupied with whatever revelation he just had.
"As your Majesty wishes," the fairy twirled around, and with a wave of her little hands suddenly Sam went still in my grasp, no longer trying to fight me.
"What the…?" regaining consciousness the next moment he cried out in a high-pitched voice – ultimately making Dean burst out in laughter and even I had to smile at how his vocal cords were affected – jerking in my hand, looking around in alarm as he noticed how huge everything around him seemed.
"Just wait a sec, okay?" I tried to sound calming as I placed him down on the floor, but the perspective change must have made everything even more frightening based on how his frown deepened. Honestly, I wasn't surprised. Usually, he was the tallest guy in the room. This was no doubt a novel experience for him.
I performed the reverse of the circular motion with my hands of what I did earlier, this time pulling them apart. The light distorted again, and there stood Sam in all of his freakish moose glory before me once again.
"What happened?" Sam asked, his eyes darting between Dean and me, but before I could answer I felt my vision blacking out at the edges, and the last thing I could remember were strong hands catching me before I passed out.
"De? Baby, wake up…" Sam's urgent voice pulled me back from the endless void, his worried hands stroking my face gently but insistently.
"Mhm…" I groaned, feeling utterly lightheaded and disoriented.
"Oh, thank fuck," I heard his relieved voice as he leaned over me, pulling me into an awkward hug. He smelled nice. God, I missed his scent. "Do you want something to drink?"
"Yeah, that might be a good idea… and maybe some chocolate too," I muttered as I cracked my eyes open, recalling what my OBGYN said about low blood sugar and stuff.
"Uhm…" Sam frantically looked around for a second, seemingly utterly lost as to where he would find what I needed at the moment. I noticed that I have been moved to the back of the Impala, the black leather cushions under my side, which was actually perfect.
"There should be some in my bag," I guided him, sitting up so he could get inside with me too, instead of crouching down by my head from the outside. I leaned into his shoulder as he slipped in, taking a few tentative sips from the bottle he gave me as he rummaged through my purse that had been thrown on the floor.
"You scared me," he said in a quiet voice as he pulled me closer, his arm thrown over my shoulder.
"I could say the same," I replied with equal solemnity. This whole day I've been scared. Terrified. Of something happening to him. Of losing him. Of our child growing up without a father like I did.
"I know, I'm sorry," Sam kissed me on the forehead, nudging me to eat the candy bar already, his hand instinctively going to my stomach as soon as I took the chocolate from him. "Is she alright?"
"Now you think it's a girl too?" I chuckled with my mouth full.
"When are we finding out?" he asked instead of answering me. I guess Dean had just been rubbing off on him.
"Well, it should have been today, but you know we can reschedule. I'd want you to be there." Yeah, maybe that's why I hadn't been so eager to go, with Sam off on a hunt. I've gone to most of my appointments alone, but this was different.
"I'll be there," Sam vowed, his large hand stroking comforting circles on my belly.
"Good," I nodded with a small smile.
"Good," the younger Winchester reiterated before his face went serious again, and almost reluctant at bringing up the next topic. "So… princess of the fairies, huh?"
"Dean told you? Where is he by the way? How long was I out?" my head shriveled around, trying to locate the other brother.
"Just a few minutes. He is dealing with the four victims we managed to keep alive, thanks to you. Your barrier came down when you passed out," he informed me, not at all bothered by my quick change of topic. We had all the time in the world to explore this new piece of information, especially with the fairy we now had as a prisoner.
"Yeah, I might have had used a bit too much magic today…" I admitted sheepishly. I definitely did not have the stamina I had before.
"Speaking of which. Why was I tiny, and why do I have shorts all of a sudden?" Sam asked with an amused smirk, his hands pulling at the edge of his jeans, marveling at the new fashion "choice". I was sort of glad he remembered nothing of the time he was under the spell.
"You… uhm… tried to attack me… I didn't realize it was you at first and accidentally cut off your legs…" I revealed with a sigh because honestly, I had a hard time keeping anything from Sam, especially if he used those eyes. I tried to avoid situations where he resorted to the puppy dog eyes.
"WHAT?" he cut in with dismay, but I wasn't sure what the source of his distress was, he attacking me or my brutal self-defense in reaction to it.
"Then reattached and healed them quickly, but you kept coming, so I shrunk you…" I rattled off quickly so he could have the full picture before freaking out.
"Baby, I'm so sorry. I hope you know that I would never hurt you. Not on purpose," Sam pulled me closer to his chest, his head resting on top of mine.
"I know. You weren't yourself…" I mumbled into his shirt. Sam was the sweetest, most compassionate being I have ever met.
"Why did even Dean agree to bring you here? You could have gotten hurt, the baby could have gotten hurt…"
"I think you know me well enough by now to know that I didn't really give him a choice in the matter. I'm not some stay-at-home-mom type, content with being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen," I explained, hiding further in his shirt. I didn't really want to have this conversation now. I didn't want to fight. His response was not what I was expecting though.
"That you are sure as hell not," Sam agreed, kissing me hard because honestly, he wasn't the apple-pie life kinda guy either. He hasn't been for a long time.