Chapter Two

When Alyson opened her eyes she was back in Dean's room. Spirit Dean wasn't with her, but Sam was. She wondered if he'd been making noise and if that was why she was awake.

"Hey," she said and stood up to stretch. "Did you find anything?"

"What?"

"On the reaper. Do you know how to help Dean?"

"No," he said. "How do you know about that? You were asleep."

"Um . . . astral projection."

She explained what had happened and then tried to figure out how she'd done it. She really hoped it was just a one-time thing. Dean had been calling to her this time – maybe that was the only reason she'd responded.

"Well, people say when you're asleep your soul walks free . . ."

"Yeah," Sam said. "And it's emotion based. Like if you go to bed hungry or thirsty, you might find yourself hovering over the fridge. If you need something, it makes it easier for it to happen."

Like if she fell asleep missing someone and needing that someone with her.

"He made me promise to stay with you."

A look of realization came over Sam's face.

"He's giving up?"

"He doesn't have a choice. Sam, the reaper isn't evil. She has a job to do and she does it."

"We were just startin' to be brothers again."

Tears filled Sam's eyes and Alyson felt hers water, too. Being around sad people always made her sad too.

"But you and I . . . we'll still stick together, right? I think . . . I told Dean that the demon didn't want either of us dead, Sam, because it obviously needs us where we are right now."

"You caught that, too, huh?"

"Yeah. I didn't want to bring it up before, but –"

Dean was suddenly gasping for air and gagging around the tube in his throat. He tried to sit up.

Sam was quick to react and he held Dean down to calm him into steady breathing.

Alyson reacted, too, by running out of the room to get a doctor. Once the doctor came, Sam and Alyson weren't allowed to enter the room for a while. Dean needed tests done to see what was going on. They probably wanted to know how he'd woken up.

Alyson wanted to know that herself.

The doctors couldn't explain what had happened with Dean. The internal damage was healed and Dean's vitals were good. It was a miracle.

Now that Dean was awake, though, no one was allowed to stay with him after visiting hours. He needed his rest, the doctors said.

Sam and Alyson left the hospital to go find a motel. They found one close to the hospital, one within walking distance because they no longer had a car. Alyson was able to shower and feel really clean for the first time in what felt like forever, and Sam showered after she did.

After a long, hard emotional time, they were both ready to crash onto a bed.

"Hey, Sam? Where is all the rest of our stuff?"

"Bobby took all the weapons and things back to his place."

"Oh. Okay."

Alyson had found out that Sam's and Dean's things had been stuffed in her duffle bag, which had explained why Sam had only brought the one bag of cloths and the one bag of ingredients to the hospital earlier.

Alyson had trouble sleeping that night. She didn't know why. Everything was fine and everyone was fine. Dean was alive and safe. He wasn't dying.

Dean had made it through like she'd prayed for. For some reason, though, Alyson felt that this wasn't God's way of answering her prayer.

The next morning Alyson got up, stretched, and went about getting dressed. She tried to be quiet because Sam was still sleeping and she didn't want to risk waking him.

She left Sam a note because she didn't want him to worry too much when he woke up. Sam would've probably figured, though, that she was going to the hospital to see Dean.

She went a roundabout way so she could pick up some coffee for her and Dean – and even John. She wasn't sure if they were allowed to drink coffee or not, but she bought them some anyway.

When she got to the hospital she went to John's room first, John was lying down but not sleeping. He thanked her for the coffee when she handed him the cup.

"No problem. Anything is better than hospital coffee, right?" She took a sip from her cup before continuing to speak. "Have you gone to see Dean yet?"

"Nah." He shook his head almost sadly. "I didn't wanna take a chance on waking him up."

"Oh. Well, I'm going now. Do you wanna come with me?"

Again he shook his head. "You should go be with him, though. I'll be there shortly."

Alyson nodded, but she didn't leave. In fact, she didn't move at all. John was acting kind of strange – even for him.

"Are you okay?"

John smiled slightly. "Yeah. I'm fine. I'm tired. I'm happy Dean's okay."

He didn't seem happy, though. He seemed resigned about something.

"Oh. Well, if that's all, I guess I'm gonna go."

John nodded, so she left. She made her way to Dean's room.

Dean was sitting up looking worried and bored.

"I come bearing gifts,' she said. "Well, one gift since the other one is mine."

Dean smiled softly when she set their coffee cups on the tray next to his bed.

"Is Sam with Dad?"

"No, I came alone. Sam's at the motel, sleeping."

"You came by yourself?"

"And nothing happened. I'm fine."

"Yeah." Dean looked at the door and then at her. "So . . . What happened?"

"What're you talkin' about?"

"Yesterday or whenever we got here. What happened?"

She told him pretty much everything. She told him about how the demon had attacked her and about how Sam had saved her. She told him about how she and Sam had felt Dean's spirit walking around and about how her spirit had started walking around because he'd called out to her when she'd been asleep.

She couldn't believe he didn't remember anything; she remembered everything.

"So . . . you said a reaper was after me?"

She nodded. She didn't know much about reapers so when she'd explained that part that was pretty much all she'd said.

"How'd I ditch it?"

"I don't know. I was already awake when you . . . You really don't remember anything?"

"No." He began to fidget. "Somethin's wrong. I have this pit in my stomach."

"You feel that too?" she asked and plopped onto the seat beside the bed. "Oh. I thought it was only me, that I was being paranoid."

"No. Your instincts are usually spot on. We learned that right after we met you, remember?"

She did remember, but she didn't want anything to be wrong with Dean being alive and mostly well.

A knock came from the door. Sam and John were standing there, both smiling slightly. Sam must've left the motel not long after she had.

"How ya feelin', dude?" John asked.

"Fine, I guess. I'm alive."

Dean shrugged, but then grimaced in pain. Clearly whatever had made him live hadn't taken the pain away.

"That's what matters."

"Where were you last night?" Sam asked John.

"I had some things to take care of," John answered, no longer smiling.

"Well, that's specific."

Dean looked at Sam in disapproval. "Come on, Sam."

"Did you go after the demon?"

"No."

"You know, why don't I believe you right now?"

"Sam, would you stop already?" Alyson asked, tired. "Dean just woke up. He's alive. You can fight later."

"She's right," John said. "I mean, half the time we're fightin' I don't know what we're fightin' about. We're just buttin' heads."

By that time, John's eyes were watering. Dean had been right earlier . . . Something was wrong.

"Look, Sammy, I . . . I've made some mistakes. But I've always done the best I could. I don't wanna fight anymore, okay?"

"John, are you okay?"

Alyson realized she'd already asked him that earlier, but he was really acting strange.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just a little tired." He looked at Sam. "Hey, would you mind, uh . . . would you mind getting me a cup of caffeine?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "Sure."

Sam began moving towards the door and John looked at Alyson, nodding in Sam's direction.

"Got it."

She followed Sam out because she knew John didn't need coffee because he already had coffee. He just needed some time with Dean.

Sam and Alyson walked towards the elevator because they were going to go down to the cafeteria, but Alyson stopped in front of it.

"I don't like elevators."

"What? Why?"

"Well, there're three reasons. One, it could get stuck. Two, the cord could snap and we'd all die. Three, when it goes down it feels like I've left my stomach at the top."

Sam blinked a few times and then laughed. "You're paranoid, you know that?"

"I do, but the first two could happen and the first one does happen."

Sam shook his head. "Do you want to take the stairs?"

"Yes, please."

After Sam and Alyson left the room John sat on the bed beside Dean and both were silent for a while. Dean knew something was up, though, because his dad was acting super strange.

"Dad, what is it?"

"You know, when you were a kid, I'd come home from a hunt and after what I'd seen, I'd be – I'd be wrecked. And you . . . you'd come up to me and you – you'd put your hand on my shoulder and you'd look me in the eye and you'd – you'd say 'It's okay, Dad.'"

Dean remembered many times when that had happened, but he didn't know why his dad was bringing it up.

"Dean, I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to say that to me. I should've been saying that to you. You know, I put – I put too much on your shoulders, I made you grow up too fast. You took care of Sammy; you took care of me. You did that, and you didn't complain, not once. I just want you to know that I am so proud of you."

"This really you talkin'?"

Dean had never heard these words from his dad even though he'd always longed to. He guessed his recent almost-death had really hit his dad hard.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's really me." John smiled slightly as he reached up, grabbed underneath his own shirt at the chain here and brought it out and up over his head. Dean noticed the gold ring hanging from the chain.

"This belonged to your mom," John said. "It was her engagement ring. We'd always planned on giving you – our first born son – this ring so you could give it to whoever you ended up wanting to marry."

"Marry? Dad –"

"You know who I'm talking about. It's yours whenever you guys are ready."

"Why're you sayin' this stuff?"

John put his hand on Dean's shoulder.

"You just be good to her, okay? She's . . ."

"Young?" Dean supplied.

"Well, that too. But she's not one you should let get away."

John placed the chain and the ring on Dean's lap.

"I want you to watch out for Sammy, okay?"

"Yeah, Dad. You know I will." That was his job, right? "Dad, you're scarin' me."

"Don't be scared, Dean."

"He cares about you, ya know," Sam said softly. "He probably won't admit it to himself, but he does."

Sam had his dad's coffee in his hand. They were walking back upstairs now. If Sam hadn't been in a good mood because of Dean's sudden return to health, he probably wouldn't have agreed to take the stairs. Alyson hadn't had a problem taking the elevator while Dean was near death; she probably hadn't even thought of it as a problem – small as it was when you thought about someone you loved dying.

"You're the second person to tell me that," Alyson said and looked at him. "John told me Dean would push me away."

"Probably. Just . . . don't let him."

"Stubborn love, huh?"

Alyson bit her lip, considering whether she should continue speaking, and then she figured Sam might be able to help her.

"Sam . . . Dean told me that . . . that he wouldn't push me away much."

"When did he say that?"

"When I went to him, when he was calling me."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And Sam, I also told him that I don't think the demon wanted me dead in the first place, but he doesn't remember anything. The reaper . . . his words to me . . . what I said about the demon. None of it. And don't tell him, okay? I mean, the personal stuff – he just woke up and he doesn't need to worry about that right now."

"I won't," Sam said seriously. "But I think you'll be good for him."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, for one, you don't put up with any of his crap or mine. You call us on it." Sam smiled crookedly. "Every guy needs that every once in a while."

That much was true, Alyson could admit. She was usually a no nonsense kind of person and she wouldn't just let people get by with things they shouldn't be doing.

"You support him. You were there for him when I wasn't these last few days." He looked at the floor. "I can be pretty stubborn sometimes and I'm not there for him the way I should be. It's good to know that at least someone will be."

Sam and Alyson finally reached the floor on which Dean and John were being held. Alyson got the chills almost as soon as she went through the door that led out of the stairs. It surprised her so much that she would feel a demon there that she stopped walking, period.

"Something's here," she said and began walking again. She knew Sam would follow her. They went to Dean's room first for the simple reason that Dean's room was closest.

Dean was okay. He was still in bed but otherwise seemed fine, physically. Something was different, though. He seemed to be in shock.

"Stay here," Sam said and made his way down the hall, probably to his father's room.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sure. I felt something."

"Somethin' bad?"

She nodded just as someone shouted for help. She knew it was Sam so she turned to go out of the room.

"Don't you dare leave without me!" Dean said angrily.

When she turned back around Dean was trying to get out of bed. He was still pretty weak, Alyson knew, so she rushed over to him and put one arm around his waist while he put one arm around her shoulders. He leaned on her – which was not easy on her because compared to her he weighed a ton.

They moved as fast as Dean could towards John's room, where Sam was waiting outside. A whole mess of doctors were in John's room and John was hooked up to machines and the doctors were trying to restart John's heart.

Dean began squeezing her shoulder almost painfully, but Alyson didn't say anything. After a while she barely even felt it.

Sam was in tears; Dean was in shock; Alyson was just confused. John had been fine, up walking around and everything. She'd had a conversation with him not even twenty minutes ago and now he was dead? How did that make sense?

The doctors eventually gave up trying to bring John back.

"Time of death . . . 10:41."

Okay, so I've had this typed out for a while, but I just now proofread it and uploaded. Sometimes I forget I've typed something out and not put it on here, so I'm so sorry for the wait, you guys!