Thanks to everyone for readong and to Ezraduke for her review. Also a special thanks to SciFiNutTX and laceym. Those 2 really do a good job or encourging me and correcting my screw ups.

Chapter 2

Katie woke up just as the motel room door clicked closed. Ignoring the extreme pain in her head she rose quickly, almost falling back down due to the wave of dizziness that hit her. She gripped the truck until her knuckles turned white and the dizziness passed, then she pulled one of her 9mils from the holster on her back under her shirts and charged the room. She shot out the lock on the door and then kicked it open.

John was lying in a heap next to the bathroom door, the demon moving toward him. Katie emptied her gun into the demon as she ran toward her father. The demon fell onto the floor as Katie ran past. She was nearly to John when she felt something grab her ankle. She fell to the floor and landed hard on her face, breaking her nose and hitting her head.

John came back to consciousness just as Katie landed and he started to recite an exorcism ritual. The demon was trying to stand when Katie rolled onto her back and landed a hard kick to its knee. She heard the kneecap shatter on impact and the demon fell forward again. She knew all she had to do was keep it busy until John could finish the exorcism.

Before the demon could try to stand again, Katie planted her feet under her and bounced herself into a standing position. She quickly grabbed the other gun from the holster at her back and began firing. Just as the last bullet entered the demon's body, it screamed and black smoke filled the room. It dissipated quickly. Ignoring the blood that was pouring from her nose, Katie turned to help her father up. They quickly grabbed their stuff, ran for the truck, and headed for the fastest route out of town.

"Are you alright?" John asked as they hit the highway.

Suddenly a series of gut wrenching cracking noises filled the cab of the truck as Katie straightened out her nose. John couldn't help but cringe at the sound, more out of surprise than anything else. Katie saw John looking at her from the corner of her eye as she pulled a blood stained shirt out of her bag and pressed it to her face in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I'm fine, John." Katie replied through the shirt, "What about you?"

"Just a little bump on the head."

It was the last thing Katie heard before slipping back into unconsciousness.

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John looked over at Katie again in time to see her slump against the door of the truck. Her eyes were closed and her breathing had become rather ragged in the space of a few minutes.

"Katie." John said. There was no answer.

"Katie, talk to me." Still no answer.

John pulled the truck over and then turned toward his daughter. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. He knew right then that something was very wrong because she always woke up when his hand was two inches away from touching her. He shook her lightly and called out to her again, panic rising within him.

"Katherine Mary Winchester, you wake up right this second." John barked in his drill sergeant voice.

He let his hand linger on her shoulder a moment longer and that's when he noticed her shoulder felt wrong somehow. He shoved their bags onto the floor of the truck and scooted closer to her so he could remove her coat and over shirt. He did so very carefully in case there was more damage he couldn't see. Her shoulder was red and he could see it swelling bigger every second. He carefully replaced the jacket back onto her shoulder without putting her arm back in the sleeve.

He immediately pulled back onto the highway and headed for Leslie. The town was only about 15 minutes away and he hoped that there was at least a small clinic there so he could get Katie the medical attention she needed. He began to mentally berate himself. It was obvious by the bruises forming on her face and the probably dislocated shoulder that she had been fighting that thing for quite awhile before he'd heard her hit the truck. He was playing a list of other possible injuries his daughter may have when he pulled up to the clinic. Afraid of injuring her further, he simply left her in the truck and ran in.

"Help," John called out, "My daughter's been beaten."

A rather petite woman with red hair and blue eyes came running out from behind a curtain. She wore a nametag on her lab coat that said Doctor Marsden.

"Where is she?" The doctor asked.

"Out in my truck. I was afraid to move her." John replied.

The doctor ran over to where a wheel chair sat by the front door and then followed John out to his truck. Before John could open the passenger door, the doctor stopped him.

"Wait." Doctor Marsden called out., "She's leaning against that door. I'm gonna crawl in on the driver's side and pull her away from it. I'll wave at you when it's safe to open the door, then I want you to pick her up as carefully as you can and set her into the chair."

"Alright doc." John said.

A few minutes later they had Katie in the clinic and John was carefully lifting her onto an exam table at the doctor's instruction. A nurse came in a minute later. The woman was carrying her purse so John assumed that she had been on her lunch break, given the time. The nurse gently pushed John out of the way so she could help the doctor remove Katie's jacket and over shirt, but they didn't make John leave the exam room.

"Kina, I need you to get the portable x-ray in here now." Doctor Marsden said to the nurse.

The nurse ran out of the room as the doctor placed an oxygen mask over Katie's head. She then turned to John and started to ask questions.

"Did you see exactly what happened to her?"

"Not all of it. She was waiting for me outside my apartment." John replied, "We were packing up to leave the state because her boyfriend had been beating her. I was walking to the door when I heard a loud noise. When I opened the door she was lying by the tire of my truck and there was a dent where I think her head hit the truck. I ran over to her and the guy took off. She woke up a second later and climbed into the truck all by herself. We were just outside of town when she passed out."

"Ok, Mr… I'm sorry I didn't get your name."

"Winters. John Winters."

"Alright, Mr. Winters, I need to do a full exam on your daughter so I can determine the extent of her injuries. It would be easier if you waited out in the lobby, but I'll allow you to stay with her it that's what you want to do."

"It's ok, I'll go wait outside."

John walked out of the room just as the doctor started to cut Katie's tank top off. He couldn't bring himself to sit down in the chairs so he decided to pace the small waiting area, hoping to release some of his anxiety over his daughter's condition. He began mentally beating himself up again when he saw the nurse walk into the room pushing the portable x-ray machine. He couldn't believe he had dropped the ball like that and now Katie was paying the price.

An hour later, the doctor came out of the exam room. John immediately saw her and was standing in front of her before she could take two steps away from the door.

"How's she doing doc?" John asked quietly.

"Well, there was considerable bruising to her abdomen and chest, but no internal injuries. Her left shoulder has been dislocated and she has a moderate concussion. All in all she's very lucky. I do have one question for you." the doctor said.

"What's that?"

"Her nose was obviously broken during the exchange, did you fix that before bringing her in?"

"No," John replied, "She did that herself just before she passed out. She has a degree in emergency medicine and was a paramedic in San Francisco before she came back home."

"Impressive. Anyway, we've fixed her shoulder and hopefully she'll wake up soon. You may go in and sit with her now."

John let out a huge sigh of relief. Things weren't as bad as he'd made himself believe. He could only hope that Katie would wake up before the demons caught up with them again. He went back into the exam room and sat on a stool next to his daughter. She still had the oxygen mask on, but her breathing was normal. The doctor had covered her with a light blanket, tucked under Katie's arms.

It was only the second time she'd needed to be hospitalized while working with him. When the Wendigo thing happened he hadn't even known she was hurt. She had hidden her injuries from him and Dean. It wasn't till they ran into the rescue party that had been sent to search for them that she collapsed from the blood loss. When they had lifted the back of her shirt they found four gashes on her back and you could clearly see the back of a couple of her ribs in two of them.

He knew this wasn't as bad, but it still scared him. He just couldn't handle seeing any of his children in the hospital

"I'm so sorry, Katie girl." John whispered, "I shouldn't have let myself get distracted."

John watched Katie sleep for a few minutes and then lay his head down on the bed next to her arm. A minute later John was asleep himself.