A nurse in need…Chapter 2
18 hours earlier…Wildwood, New Jersey
"Dean—this is too easy."
Dean stopped in his tracks in the dank, dark, muddy tunnel and made his best attempt to stare down his brother. "Really, Sam? Can't we take advantage of an easy kill just once? This—thing is getting women pregnant without kissing them first. Don't you think that's sort of rapey?"
The being (actually, beings) that had appeared on Winchester Radar established their reputation almost a year ago. Women began discovering they were pregnant and swore to their doctors they had no memory of partaking in the conception. Day-after pills were useless because they had no memory of the act. Abortions were not an option, as each woman, despite having no knowledge of or affection for the father, reported a strange desire to see the child to birth and adulthood. The tabloids were full of stories of babies being born without the benefit of natural human reproduction; of course and aside from networks dedicated to the unexplained and creepy, no reputable television station or newspaper would touch it. Dean had declared after reading a column in the Weekly World News that it was investigation-worthy, and the two set off, interviewing each pregnant woman intently and searching for a pattern or clue as to what or who was responsible for the "single parent babies." Healthy, young men were turning up naked and stunned on beaches and under boardwalks, claiming that they were seduced by gorgeous women the night before and reported feeling "rufied and horny." Sam Winchester, in his unyielding curiosity and penchant for research, had connected that all these victims had vacationed close to the same place at relatively the same time. More interestingly, each child that had been born to date bore a small "birthmark" resembling a triton on their ankle; to their mothers, it was a skin anomaly—to Sam and Dean it was the sign they were looking for…
They learned, in their research, that faeries (or Landfolk) had a companion species in the sea—mer people—and they, like their counterparts, attempted to breed with human beings, sometimes against their will or under heavy supernatural sedation. Each child born of a union between a human and mer would bear a mark that was easily identified by the Sea People and would eventually lead the child back to the water. Because the mer-people had such a fascination with dry land, these offspring were held in high regard. The only way to kill one, in addition to preventing it from returning to water, was to behead it with a bronze knife.
"It follows a pattern," Sam informed his brother, studying from a website dedicated to the Fae and their kin. "They breed every 100 years. It almost seems like they go into a feeding frenzy."
"Sex-crazed fish leg-humpers. Nice."
The mermaid they found (yes—they procreate with human males) was heavily pregnant and much to Dean's delight, as easy kill. Or so they thought. Sam held her down from behind (actually, he fell on her after being tail-lashed—kills aren't always as easy as Dean makes them out to be) and as the elder Winchester raised his weapon over her, she began to cry out in an unfamiliar, eardrum-busting, LOUD chirp. It was nothing like Latin, nor did it sound like Enochian. "It sounded, like, Shamu…" Sam stated to his brother, rubbing his now-sore inner ear. Recalling the hunt later on that night, Dean recalled something peculiar. Instead of trying to shield herself from the knife—it seemed she almost accepted that she would die—she reached around and grabbed Sam around his torso and held on while her belly flattened out…
SPN SPN SPN SPN SPN SPN SPN
She drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the man's abdomen. It was swollen and grossly distended and devoid of any musculature, which she guessed probably, in it's normal state, was pretty impressive.
If Marla was anything, she was a brilliant nurse. Burnt-out and questioning her career, but brilliant nonetheless. The incident that lead her to Wildwood, New Jersey, left her questioning whether she'd even step into a hospital again. Ever. She'd been accused of being a "street nurse," by doctors in the ER, because of her ability to engage with patients, even the belligerent ones, and get them to submit to treatment even if they didn't want to. All of that didn't matter now. Difficult days made Wal-Mart greeting look like an viable career choice. Slowly, that started being the heavier percentage of her work day. Then…tragedy struck. And it was her fault.
Able to contain the majority of her reaction, she spread her hand over her mouth again and began to triage in her head, carefully monitoring her outward appearance. This guy was scared shitless, and she didn't need to add to it.
"This man needs a hospital. Now." She stood up and reached around to her back pocket, pulled out her cellphone and began to dial 911.
She was interrupted, very suddenly, by the man who was called Cas, who swiftly appeared at her side and snapped it in half. "That's not possible."
Her eyes widened and she sucked in a quick, shocked breath. First, at this guy's ability to move as fast as he did, then, more importantly, that there was a young man whose gut looked like it was ready to explode and his "friends" were preventing him from emergency medical treatment.
She stood, glaring at them, then the other guy spoke.
"Listen. My name is Dean Winchester. He's my brother-."
Sam issued a pained squeak and Dean stopped short.
"Fuck you, Dean."
"Hey, I didn't do this!"
"Fuck you anyway."
"Shut up, man. I've taken bigger shits that this-."
Still panting, Sam looked up at Marla. "No hospital. And yes, he's my brother. And I hate him right now."
Marla again knelt beside the bed and felt Sam's forehead.
Her fingers were wondrously cool…
"He doesn't have a fever. What did he eat?" Moving her fingers from his head to his wrist to count his heart rate, she searched for answers from the two healthier looking men in the group.
"Nothing. I didn't eat anything," Sam offered. He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his stomach.