Lara ducked into her car and turned the ignition. She switched through the radio dials until the tuner landed on a classic rock station.
"This seems good," she said to herself and set off. Another night of take out and TV, which incidentally didn't seem horrible. She spends her weekdays in a beige cubicle doing work that could only be described at monotonous. Now on Friday night, it was nice to get free time to do what she wanted to do.
Long after she brought home her food and flipped on the numerous television shows on her DVR, she settled into the couch. Still in the jeans and shirt she had worn to work, she was too tired to change or even get up to go to bed. Underneath the sound of the show she was watching she heard a soft 'whoosh'. She looked over to the window, definitely closed. She looked around the apartment where she lived alone looking for the cause of the noise. Finally, she looked behind her and saw a man with dark hair, in suit and brown trench coat.
"Hello," he said calmly, in a low gravely voice.
Her nerves were suddenly on fire as she jumped up from the couch.
"Who the hell are you? How did you get in my apartment!" she shouted. She prepped to defend herself. She didn't know a lot, but a sideways kick to the knee would pop the kneecap out and a heel of the hand to his nose would break it.
"You need to come with me. We need your help," he said. He still hadn't moved. His face was very calm, his eyes were very calm, but his head cocked to the side as though confused.
"Like hell."
He calmly reached out, but she backed away looking for something to hit him with. Finding nothing she turned back to face him only to realize he had somehow moved directly in front of her. He gripped her arm.
"What the hell do you-"
With another soft whoosh, they were no longer in her apartment. Instead they were in the entry way of a worn house. It was dark and she felt like she had been shocked, but Lara still saw the baseball bat sitting by the door. She grabbed it and swung at her kidnapper, but he whooshed away before she could hit him.
Breathing hard, nerves buzzing, and still gripping the baseball bat, she took in her surroundings. A light was coming for a room attached to the hallway. Voices were coming from the light, including the low gravel of the trench coated man. She turned, found a door and bolted out, only to be met with a giant car yard.
"Oh god, I'm going to die here." Footsteps started moving towards her from inside the house. She rushed down the stairs and weaved between cars.
"Wait!" she heard a different voice than the gravel from behind her. She ignored it and continued weaving, finally spotting a gate in the fence around the property. She just had a barn standing in her way. A second later Trench Coat whooshed directly in her path.
"Ah! Will you stop doing that?" She yelled, taking another swing with the baseball bat.
"Stop, stop!" She turned and two men ran up behind her making her back into the wall of the barn.
'Hot kidnappers, is that a thing?' she thought, instead she said, "No, this freak kidnapped me!"
"He didn't mean to," the taller one said, with his hands up protectively in case she swung at him.
"He didn't mean to?" she cried, "You don't kidnap people on accident!" Trench Coat tilted his head again. "I don't understand."
She turned toward Trench Coat with shock on her face, "What? Where are you from?"
"Heaven." He replied, calm as ever. The four froze before Lara lunged at him with the bat. "Is that some kind of line you weirdo?" He whooshed away again which made her lose her balance and stumbled onto the hood of a car. She again heard the now tell-tale sound behind her.
"Uh no," her head toward the voice which ended up being the shorter man, "He's an angel."
Lara still had her hands on the hood of the car, at this point she needed it for support.
"What?" she snapped. Behind her she felt a rise of air pressure, her nerves crackled with electricity and the hair on her arms stood on end. She turn around to see Trench Coat glowing slightly, and on the wall of a barn she saw the shadow of two giant wings extending from his shadow's back. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes went wide and she felt numb. The pressure lowered and the wings and glow disappeared, but she still gapped. She lifted her hand and pinched her opposite arm.
"You're not dreaming," she heard not knowing if it was the tall or short man. Her gaze moved to the ground, but she wasn't really seeing it, "Yeah I don't know why I did that. I mean, I don't even know if that works." She took a few deep breaths before looking over to Tall and Short.
"So what the hell am I doing here?" They both looked at each other before looking at Trench Coat before looking back at her and Tall responded, "Uh actually... we don't know."
"You don't know?" The three looked over to Trench Coat.
"You said you need to know more about Megan, I brought help," Trench Coat revealed acting as though this was obvious, "I told you I brought help."
"What Megan, like my sister?" Short and Tall regarded her with just as much surprise as Lara was giving them. Short stepped forward, "YOU are Megan Grant's sister?"
"Yeah what the hell do you have to do with my sister?" Lara stepped forward as well, her nerves turning into a roller coaster.
The three men froze, exchanging looks. Short turned to Trench Coat and said, "Cas why don't you take her home and do that thing" he lowered his voice, "where she doesn't remember."
"Hey, I can hear you." Lara snapped. 'Cas' moved toward her. She pointed at him, "Hey! I don't care if you're an angel, touch me and die! What do you know about my sister?"
Tall awkwardly moved forward, "Dean maybe we should tell her what's happening. I mean, what would you do if it were me?" 'Dean' looked flustered and apprehensive as he looked from Tall over to Lara as he debated the options.
"Fine!" he shouted. Tall shook his head and widened his eyes as though this happened a lot as he turned toward Lara.
"So, let's go back in the house, and we can explain. I'm Sam, this is my brother Dean, and our... well this is Castiel."
"Your angel..." Lara finished for him, feeling as stupid as it sounded.
"Uh... yeah."
Lara paused again looking at the three men as though pausing before jumping off a cliff. "I'm Lara."
"It's called a Fruija." Sam explained.
"Is that a word?"
"It's thing," Sam continued. He was sitting at a desk near the back of the room with Dean, opposite Lara on the couch by a large window in the living room of, well if you could call it a house. "It's a creature, a monster. They are mostly docile, mostly ritualistic, but they have these pendants which are very important to them."
"And my sister has one of these things?"
"Yeah, a while ago I suppose a hunter took them, spread them over the country, ended up in thrift stores and the... Fruija is trying to get them back."
"Yeah she likes hand me down stuff. Why would they take her though? Why not just take the pendant thing?"
"To kill her," Dean interjects. Sam and Lara both turn to him in shock, "Yeah, sorry, they may be a bunch of religious freaks, but they're still monsters. They have the necklace thing, but she's the one that had it."
"So how do you know she's still alive?" Lara asked. Her hand was starting shake and her chest getting tight. Sam took that question, "Like everything they do, it's a ritual, they're waiting for a certain constellation of stars to be in the sky before they... do it."
"So the angel said you needed to know more about Megan... why?" Dean and Sam shifted.
"Uh, no," Sam revealed, "We said we didn't know a lot about this case. We don't know where they have her and there isn't a lot of records about these things. So Cas... seemed to misunderstand."
"Awesome," Lara said sarcastically.
"If you don't want to deal with this," Sam hesitated, "We can send you home. Cas can have you for-"
"No," Lara interrupted, she got up and put her hands firmly on the desk in between the brothers.. "This is my sister, I'm not going to leave her. I can't do that. But... why are you guys doing this?"
"It's what we do," Dean responded, "Saving people, hunting things." Lara's studied him for a moment, "You like saying that, don't you?" Sam suppressed laughter while Dean glared.
"OK, Lara continued, "so what do we do?"
"Oh no," Dean stood up and pushed her back, "You may not want to go home, but you are not doing anything and staying here."
"Dean..." Sam tried. Lara stepped up to face him as best she could even though the top of her head barely hit is chin and in her firmest voice she told him, "I'm not staying to sit on my ass. I'm here, you're going to let me help, or I'll just follow you. So deal, and tell me what we're going to do."
Dean stared Lara square in the eye, "Fine, but if you get hurt, that's on you."
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Fine." Sam interjected and Dean plopped back down in the wooden chair opposite his brother, "We have to find her first."
"Is she even in this town? Where are we anyway" Lara asked.
"Sioux Falls. Yeah I guess they have a home base here."
"Handy," Dean joked.
"OK well can't Cas just zap to her like he did with me? Where'd he go?"
"He's uh looking for God. That's another story. And we tried, but they have some ritual block on her." Sam said.
"Well you didn't know her before. What if he tried zapping there with me? He'd have some kind of stronger connection."
"No," Dean said.
"That's interesting," Sam said at the same time.
"No," Dean said again, more toward Sam, "She's not a hunter she doesn't know what's she's doing."
"Thanks." Lara jabbed, dripping with sarcasm.
"We don't know a lot about these things, where they like to hide out, do you want to spend a week searching through all the abandoned places in town?" Sam defended.
"Sure, cause we'd know what do when we found it."
"I know how to take care of myself." Lara rebutted.
"When you have a bat! I'm not dealing with this! Forget what I said, you're not doing anything. You're not going anywhere. It's late, I'm going to bed, and we can figure out what to do with this," gesturing towards Lara, "tomorrow." Dean then pushed out of the chair and stomped up the stairs.
It was 2 am and Dean jolted out of a nightmare of Hell. He rarely had them anymore, but when he did he knew he wouldn't get back to sleep. He decided a beer sounded good and headed down to the kitchen. What he found was Lara sitting on the couch reading a book on monsters with a pillow and blanket untouched beside her.
"Can't sleep?" he asked. Then winced when Lara jumped at the sound of his voice.
"Sorry, just the last time someone was behind me, I got kidnapped," she tried to joke while calming her heart.
"Sorry."
"No it's fine. I'm reading your books, I hope that's OK."
"Naw it's fine their Bobby's. It's his house, but he's off hunting something."
"Ah. Fun. Actually, as I've been reading I've realized how much I didn't know about." Dean pulled a chair across from her as she continued, "I don't like admitting when I'm wrong, but you're right. I don't know what I'm doing, but I just can't leave her by herself. I want her to know that somebody's going to help her beside some guys she doesn't know."
"Are you guys close?" he asked.
"That's the funny thing, we're not. We are two almost completely different people. In fact we always say, if we weren't sisters, we wouldn't even know each other. She is the most trusting person ever. She can make friends with anyone and she'll go anywhere with people, halfway around the world. And sometimes I wish I had that sort of trust in people and that spontaneity, but you can't always live like that. I knew one day that something bad was going to happen and now it has and... I just don't want to see her get hurt. And I've been screwed over by people enough times to know how much it sucks and I don't want her having that outlook on people. As much as I criticize her blind trust in people, I don't want her to lose that either. And I can't do anything about it."
After this speech Dean was quiet for a minute, thinking about all the times he's tried to protect Sam and the people they've trusted who didn't deserve it. The fire their mom died in... the demon deal to bring Sam back to life... Ruby. "I completely understand. I'm not exactly one to trust either. Demons aren't the most truthful bastards."
"Can you tell me about it? I mean more about what you guys do?"
"Sure, you want a beer?" Dean asked getting up towards the kitchen.
"That actually sounds really good."
For the rest of the night, Dean and Lara sat on the couch as he told her about ghosts, wendigos, vampires, demons, Lilith and even Lucifer out there waiting for them.
"You guys are in the middle of preventing the apocalypse and you're trying to rescue my sister?"
"Think of it as Spring Break." She laughed.
Just past 5 am, the windows filled with a soft blue light. Dean was in the middle of telling the story of the shapeshifter who was too obsessed with old movies when he looked over to see Lara asleep with her head on the back of the couch. Not entirely sure what he do next, he stayed on the couch, wondering when was the last time he told some all those stories. Or whether he had even told those stories to ANYONE. Bobby, Cas, and Sam had lived through various ones. If he told the story to any one of the others who hadn't been there, they had background knowledge about what he was talking about. He didn't think he had ever told that much to someone who was brand new to all of this crap. She didn't even freak out, she just fell asleep, like it was a bedtime story. A really screwed up bedtime story.
By the time Lara woke up sunlight was streaming through the window into the living. In this light you could see how worn it was. It wasn't dirty, or shabby, but lived in, worked in. It was a comfortable room... That needed a good dusting.
She bent her neck from side to side trying to work out the stiffness that had resulted from it leaning on the back of the couch for a few hours. Dean walked in to the room and saw her moving, "Ah it's alive."
"Morning, what time is it?"
"About 9 am, here," he tossed her a cereal bar.
"Nutritious AND filling," she joked, "Thanks."
"No time for a five-star breakfast. Sam and I think we worked out a plan."
"Ah how convent that I was asleep, let me guess. I sit on my ass here where you guys go be heroes."
"I prefer knights in shining armor," he joked, taking a seat at the desk, "but no, we're going to try your stronger connection idea."
"Seriously? You're taking my advice?"
"We're going to track the GPS on your phone. You and Cas are going to pop in and out. You're not going to do anything. I don't care if the are tying your sister to the train tracks. You do nothing. Sam and I will trace the signal and go take care of it while you sit here. On your ass."
Lara didn't answer right away, biting her lip, trying to decide if she should argue, but she figured this was the best she was going to get. "Fine."
"OK, Sam's getting supplies, he'll be back soon. Then we'll get Cas down here and get it done."
"What supplies?" she asked.
"Mainly gasoline,"
"Ah, to 'take care of it'." She implied, Dean just raised his eyebrows in response.
"Thanks for letting me help," she muttered, not exactly comfortable thanking someone for 'letting' her do something.
"If it were Sam I would do the same thing." Dean also muttered looking at the desk. After a moment of awkward silence, Lara remembered the cereal bar, tore open the package and took a bite.
"Cas! Get your feathery ass down here!" Dean called. Nothing happened for a minute. He, Lara, and Sam stood in the living room looking around.
"Maybe he found god," Lara suggested.
"I didn't," came the gravel from behind her. Lara jumped about a foot in the air and moved to face the trench coated angel.
"Stop appearing behind me! God!"
"What does my fa-"
"OK! We don't have time for angel logic," Dean interrupted. Sam stepped in, "Cas we need you to try take Lara to her sister. We think because they are sisters you might be able to pass the ritual blocks. We are going to track her phone to see where you guys end up."
"But once you are there, you come right back here. Don't let her do anything. We'll take it from there, got it?"
"I understand."
"O...K," Sam clicked a few buttons on his laptop, "I got the GPS up." Cas reached out and gripped Lara's arm. Again for a minute nothing happened.
"Uh are we going?" Lara asked, trying to keep the 'snark' out of her voice.
"I'm still blocked, but it's wavering. Concentrate on the girl," Cas explained. Lara closed her eyes, and piece by piece assembled her sister in her mind, not just what she looked like, but all her characteristics. She made the all-encompassing picture you could only make in your mind. They still didn't 'pop', instead Lara's skin started to feel tight. Goosebumps raised on her arms. Her chest squeezed and made it hard to breathe. Her whole body felt like it was being sucked into a tunnel that was far too small for her. She felt something trickle down her nose.
"Shit, she's bleeding, Cas stop!" She heard someone say, but she couldn't tell who it was. It sounded like someone talking underwater. Before Cas could do what the voice said he and Lara were thrown backwards into the too small tunnel. They were moving fast now, their bodies hurtling though a dimension of space that Lara couldn't even explain. She felt like her head was going to explode. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. The only thing that reassured her she was still alive was Cas still gripping her arm.
They sped up again. She definitely couldn't breathe now. Just as she was going to pass out for the lack of oxygen she and Cas were thrown out of the tunnel. It felt like breaking through glass. Cas's hand ripped away from her. She landed hard and rolled on a concrete floor. She lay where she stopped for a second gasping for air then looked for her phone to make sure it wasn't breaking. If the brothers couldn't even find her after almost dying in what she could only describe as a wormhole, well, she'd be pissed.
She looked took in her surroundings. The room was giant, and all concrete. The ceiling towered dark above her. One wall had square paned windows covering in, dirty so the room seemed dark though a few panes were broken or missing and sunlight streamed down to certain parts of the floor. It seemed to be an old warehouse or factory. The place seemed empty except for Cas on the opposite side of the room, standing and brushing off the trench coat.
Lara stood up as well and examined the room again. It seemed wrong that it was empty. Looking into the shadows again she saw someone tied to a chair facing the wall.
Megan
Ignoring everything Dean had said she ran across the room and untied the knots keeping a cloth in her mouth and the ropes around her wrists and ankles. She looked unconscious. Lara didn't know where he came from, but one of the monsters was suddenly right next to her.
The Fruija looked mostly human, but his skin had a green tinge like he was sick. His irises glowed yellow and his nails grew black, long and sharp. He swiped, she ducked, but he scratched her neck. Now practically sitting on the ground she aimed quickly and kicked out. Her heel connected with the side of his knee and she felt the knee cap pop out.
The monster screeched and hopped away before collapsing. Lara looked over to Cas and saw he was preoccupied with his own monster. He touched two fingers to its head and it collapsed, asleep. There were 3 others on the ground at various points around the room. Another entered the room and rushed toward Lara.
"Castiel! Let's get the hell out of here!" She called. A second later Cas was beside her. He put a hand on each of Lara's and Meagan's shoulder and a second after that they were on the floor in the living room of Bobby's house. Sam and Dean were nowhere to be seen, already on their way to the factory, warehouse, whatever. She looked over to her unconscious sister. Cas helped lift Megan on the couch and said he was going to meet Sam and Dean. He popped out of the room with much more ease than the last time he tried. Lara collapsed into a chair at the desk and stared into space. She barely spent five minutes away from this room, but she was exhausted. She folded her arms on the desk, laid her head on them and fell asleep.
Lara felt someone shaking her awake, but she could barely open her eyes. Her consciousness felt like it was swimming through mud trying to reach to surface.
"Hey, you in there?" Dean's voice broke through the mud. She opened her eyes and saw the man crouched next to her at eye level with his hand on her shoulder.
"You've been out for hours." He told her. "Little too much adventure for you?" She didn't answer, still groggy, just looked over the couch for her sister, but found it empty.
"She's awake, just upstairs cleaning up," Dean answered her unasked question. He rose to his feet before asking, "Are you OK? You look a little sick."
"Yeah, I'm OK," she finally answered. She made to stand up, but her height of 5' 2" suddenly seemed far too high and the room began spinning. Her stomach rolled. It felt like she had 10 tequila shots.
"Whoa." Dean caught her because, she realized then, she was falling backwards. He placed her back into the chair and her hair fell back to reveal the scratch on her neck. What Dean saw wasn't a scratch though, in its place was a green and yellow infected looking line on her throat.
"Shit. Sam!" He called before he turned back to Lara, dropping to his knees. He pulled back her hair, careful to not touch her neck. "Did one of those things get you?"
"Yeah," she nodded, or so she thought because her body had started to shake all over. "It was just a scratch, it wasn't anything."
"We'll it is now. SAM!" He called again and his "little" brother's heavy footsteps came down the stairs.
"Dean, what? I was helping- oh shit," he saw Lara, "What happened?"
"One of those things scratched her. Help me, we got to get her upstairs to the bathroom." Dean took one of Lara's arms and slung it around his shoulder. He grabbed her wrist with one hand and wrapped his other arm around her waist. "Get behind me," he instructed Sam, "Push her up the stairs. You know it would have helped to know these things are poisonous Sammy." Sam did as he was told getting behind them as Dean helped Lara walk over to the stairs. She could barely hold herself up, let alone move her feet, but she wasn't one to ever admit how bad she felt. It took most of her strength just to get over to the stairs.
"They're not," Sam defended, "Or at least the records didn't say they were. I'll call Bobby when we get her upstairs." It was slow work, making their way up the stairs, halfway up Lara was barely conscious and Dean shifted to take more of her weight. Sam's hands were on her back, trying to keep her balanced and pushing her forward. They were almost at the top when Megan came out of a room on the left side of the hallway looking far more cleaned up and conscious than she had before.
"Oh my God, what happened?" She asked.
"She got hurt," Dean snarled, not in the mood to explain. As small as Lara was, carrying practically dead weight up stairs isn't easy. "Open that door." Dean gestured with his head to the door on the right side of the hallway. Megan did and held it open for the awkward group.
"Over to the bathtub," Dean directed. They lifted Lara into the bathtub and Sam went and got her a pillow and then left the call this 'Bobby' person. Dean told Megan to go down to the kitchen to get an ice pack and a glass of water, explaining where she could find everything and then sat on the floor next to the tub, back opposite Lara's, facing her. She was incredibly pale, almost white with dark circles under her eyes. Now she was visibly shaking with labored breathing.
"Damn it, I told you not to go," Dean said to no one in particular.
"Oh will you shut up about that?" Lara said which surprised Dean. She hadn't moved, couldn't, but that didn't stop the annoyance, "I knew I might get hurt, I'm not stupid." That was it. She exhausted her voice, it was all she could get out.
"So you just ran in anyway," Dean responded. He didn't really ask because he already knew the answer. He did it all the time. Lara had done it for her sister, but Dean constantly did it people he barely knew. He just did, for Megan. He had a moment of thinking, 'that seems crazy', but then it went away. If you've done something practically your entire life, it doesn't really seem that crazy. Just normal; why look at and examine it from the outside? It's not like that would change anything.
He got help derailing this train of thought by Megan coming back in with the water and ice pack. Dean helped Lara sit up and take a drink though it wasn't much. Then stretched his right arm across the tub and careful touched the ice pack on the far side of her neck. She seemed to calm slightly. There was no way to keep it there he would have to hold it.
Sam walked back in with news from Bobby. It was pretty much the normal. Bobby would call some other hunters to see what they knew and they should check some of Bobby's the old texts he had photocopied from his friends. In the meantime he was on his way back and they just needed to wait and research. Dean was sure there was also an 'idjit' thrown in there somewhere. Rarely was there a conversation where Bobby didn't say it and Dean felt this was very much an 'idjit' sort of situation.
Immediately Dean felt restless. He was an action man. He needed marching orders. He was not one to simply sit and wait. He chuckled inwardly at the realization that Bobby had just told him to do the same thing he had said to Lara hours earlier. 'Sit on your ass and wait.' His attitude toward her 'get out of my way' attitude softened a little.
Sam moved to leave for the basement where Bobby kept all the photocopied books when Megan asked, "What should I do?"
'Geez she's just like her sister,' Dean thought. Out load he said, "You can help Sam," he offered.
"Yeah she's smart, good at school," a slurred, sleepy voice came from the tub. The three outside of the tub were silent, and unmoving for a moment. The air suddenly became heavy with the grave reality of the situation. Sam broke first gesturing toward Megan, "Come on." Dean heard Sam continue as they went down the stairs, "You're in college?" He presumed she nodded. "It'll be nice for change. Dean's not real big on the researching part." Sam's voice faded and Dean leaned sideways into the bathtub, holding up the ice pack, settling in for what he figured would be a long wait.
A few hours past, Lara fell into a restless doze. Dean watched her thinking of all the moments in the past day where he realized they weren't so different. Trust issues, protective of their siblings, Now there's Sammy and Megan. Sammy was the smart one, like Megan, went off to college to learn things that Dean could barely understood even if he tried. He didn't know if Lara had been to college. He'd ask sometime.
A few times when the ice melted Dean went downstairs to fill the pack up and check on Sam's and Megan's progress though every time there was nothing. Bobby would be back soon and hopefully he would have the answers.
The third time he came back upstairs with new ice he found Lara awake in the tub. He again sat down and put the ice pack on her neck. Despite the ice the scratch remained the same colors and even started to swell a little.
"How you feeling?"
"Useless," she replied. Her voice came out soft and scratchy, but she continued, "Different from rescuing Megan. Now I can't even help myself" She took a breath to regain the strength from just those few words.
Dean shrugged, "You're gonna be OK. Bobby's going to figure it out." Though he wasn't entirely sure he believed the words he said.
Lara studied at Dean, frowning, then asked, "You already saved my sister and now you're trying to save me. Why are you doing this? Those things are already dead. You don't know me. I know I asked before, but... really this time. Why?"
Dean looked at her, "Do you not think you're worth being saved?"
Lara gave a little smile, "Of course I do. I'm asking if YOU think I'm worth saving."
Dean smiled back, "Yeah, most people are. So we're going to save you. Now shut up and go back to sleep." Lara smiled again and closed her eyes.
Lara didn't sleep very well again. Her neck was throbbing and her head was throbbing along with it. The ice pack helped a little, but the rest of her body was radiating heat. After what felt like only 5 minutes, jolted awake to the bathroom door banging open. If you could call it awake as she didn't have enough strength to open her eyes. She could hear though, a gruff voice snapping at Dean, "Move."
She felt the ice pack leave her neck and a calloused hand grab her chin and her eyelid being pulled open.
"Stop," she mumbled at the same time Dean said, "Hey Bobby! What are you doing?" She had a second to see an old man with a beard and a trucker cap say, "Shit," before he dropped her.
"Look at her eyes," she heard Bobby say. A second later she felt her eyelid being pulled back again and saw Dean, Sam and Megan leaning over her.
"What the hell?" Sam asked and her eyelid dropped.
"What is it?" she asked forcing her eyes open to look at the group. They all stared back at her for longer than necessary before Megan said, "Your eyes are yellow."
"You idjits, what the hell were you boys thinking?" Bobby asked Sam and Dean who didn't answer. Lara let her head away from the group and looked down to her hands.
"My nails," she whispered. The four leaned over the tub to look. The cuticle was tinged black.
"Shit, I got a hold of Gordon. When these things really cut you, you die in about 3 hours, painfully, but if it's just a little thing like you got, you start turning into on of em." Bobby said again.
"Well did Gordon know how to fix it?" Dean asked. Bobby sighed, "Maybe. I guess where you're hit this type of hard tissue grows, it looks like an egg or something and it pumps the poison through that. If you cut it out it will stop pumping the poison. Though... that probably won't reverse what's already happened."
"You're gonna cut my neck open?" Lara asked still fighting to keep her eyes open.
"Yup, only way to keep you... to stop this," Bobby finished awkwardly.
"But you can't fix the rest of me," Lara prompted. Bobby just sighed heavily.
"Oh come on there's got to be something out there," Dean demanded.
"Gordon didn't know it," Bobby said. Everyone stayed quiet. Lara closed her eyes again, not being able to fight it anymore.
Then she heard Megan ask, "What do you do with the poison egg thing?"
"Burn it, I guess," Bobby said.
"Well could burning it fix her?" Megan suggested.
Sam's voice surfaced, "Yeah Bobby what if we did a cleansing ritual while burning it?" The room was so quiet you could practically hear Bobby thinking.
"Bobby!" Dean snapped, "Well?"
"Magic's always dumb idea... let's try it. Sam you get my stuff for it."
"I'll get the egg," Dean finished for him.
Lara heard Sam and Dean leave the room and a few minutes later come back in. She heard an empty metal sound hit the floor and cracked her eyes open. There was a large curved bronze dish sitting on the floor of the bathroom with Bobby beside it sorting through different jars with different powders in them. Megan was behind them studying every movement.
Dean came into her view holding a very sharp giant knife, "Are you ready? Not gonna lie, this is gonna suck."
"Fix it," Lara told him. She closed her eyes bent her head to the side to give him a clear view of her neck and Dean moved her hair back.
"K, ready back there?" Dean asked the other three people behind him.
"Ready," Sam answered.
Lara heard him bend over her and then felt the cool metal of the knife on her neck. Then sharp edge cut through her skin. Even with her body feeling weak, her nerves exploded. She tried not to move so Dean could concentrate. She felt the knife cut an arc around the throbbing area of her neck and the blood run down to her chest.
Then, the metal was gone and Dean's hands were on her neck. She could feel him gently trying to coax something out of the cut he made. Her hands were shaking, it was the only outlet of pain she would allow at the moment.
Then she felt the thing in her neck release and it slid out of her neck. She let out a breath she didn't realize that she was holding. She opened her eyes in time to see Dean drop a little round green-yellow... thing into the bronze dish. He wiped his hands on his pants then grabbed a towel and pressed it to Lara's neck.
Lara kept her eyes though on Bobby and Sam who started to work. Sam threw some powder in the dish and then lit a match. When the little flame hit the powder it immediately ignited. Bobby started reciting out of an old book. Lara could only guess it was Latin. It sounded like Latin. Sam started throwing more powder in the bowl.
Lara suddenly felt a jolt of heat through her body and she sat straight up while a gasp.
"Whoa what is it?" Dean asked, as Bobby and Sam continued in the background. Lara felt heat rising through her body, "Oh my god, oh my god."
"What? What's wrong?" she heard Dean say though she couldn't concentrate on him. She could answer though.
"I'm on fire! I'm on fire!" she yelled.
"No no you're OK," Dean reassured, "Keep going!" he yelled at Sam and Bobby. Then he moved her legs closer to her chest and kneeled into the tub. He grabbed her shoulders and said, "Hold on to my arms." She grabbed his forearms and closed her eyes. Every nerve burned and she couldn't breathe. Bobby's voice grew louder and with the last syllable the flames jumped. Lara screamed. She felt as though her entire body was engulfed in flames. She dug her nails into Dean's arm and squeezed her eyes shut waiting for it to stop or to die; for something to happen. Then it stopped.
Breathing heavily she opened her eyes and looked down at herself. Definitely not on fire, and never was, but her body still felt warm. She was still gripping Dean's arms and he, her shoulders.
"Look at me," Dean told her. She looked up to him and he searched her face then smirked, "Your eyes are green."
"Really?" Lara smiled up at him and breathed a sigh of relief.
"How do you feel?"
"Really warm, and tired, but OK," she nodded. Dean climbed out of the tub and then helped out Lara out and set her on the ledge. He handed her a bloody towel which she pressed against her neck. She'd almost forgotten about that. Bobby came over and did his own inspection looking at her eyes and nails.
"Well I'll be damned" he said, which Lara figured meant she passed. She breathed for a minute and then just said, "Thank you."
"CAS, DAMMIT, GET DOWN HERE!" Dean yelled and Cas appeared in Bobby's living room.
"You don't have to yell every time, Dean," Cas said in his monotone.
"Cas we need you take these guys home... please," Dean gestured to Lara and Megan across the room. Freshly showered and slept, it was Sunday afternoon and time to go home before anyone noticed the sisters were gone. Megan was looking at Cas slightly surprised, though after everything in the past few days she wasn't as shocked as you would think.
"Very well," the angel said, but didn't seem entirely happy about it. Cas held out his arm and Megan touched his elbow. Dean walked over to Lara and handed her a slip of paper.
"If you are ever in trouble, call that number. I always have that one," Dean told her as she looked down at the 10 digits.
"I will," Lara slipped the paper in her pocket then leaned over the old desk. She grabbed a pen and wrote her number on an old newspaper and pushed it towards Dean, "If you're ever not in trouble, call that number."
"I will," he said. They smiled at each other before Lara walked over to Cas and touched his other arm. The three disappeared with a soft whoosh.