Keep a little Hope

John was lying in a hospital bed, his arm in a sling. Awkwardly one-handed, he pulls something out of his wallet.

"Here. Give them my insurance."

Sam takes the card and smiles, "Elroy McGillicutty?"

"And his two loving sons."

"You know the nurses know our real names."

"Then don't give them the card. So, what else did the doctor say about Dean?"

Hope was just about to knock on the door but stopped when she heard Sam.

"Nothing. Look. The doctors won't do anything, then we'll have to, that's all. I don't know, I'll find some hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on him."

Hope hugs the wall with her back and listens carefully.

"We'll look for someone." John tells his son. "But Sam, I don't know if we're gonna find anyone."

"Why not? I found that faith healer before."

"Right, that was, that was one in a million."

"So what? Do we just sit here with our thumbs up our ass?" Sam paces back and forth impatiently

"No, I said we'd look. All right? I'll check under every stone." John takes in a deep breath, "Where's the Colt?"

"Your son is dying, and you're worried about the Colt?"

"We're hunting this demon, and maybe it's hunting us too. That gun may be our only card."

Hope gasps, "Demon? The Colt?" She studies the ground, confused at what she was hearing, could they be hunters too? She can remember hearing rumors of a gun that could kill demons, could this Colt be the same gun? She moves closer to the door so she can hear better.

"It's in the trunk. They dragged the car to a yard off of I-83. I already called Bobby. He's like an hour out, he's gonna tow the Impala back to his place."

"All right. You, you go meet up with Bobby. You get that Colt, and you bring it back to me. And you watch out for hospital security."

Sam nods and gets up to leave; John reaches out his hand and grabs Sam by the arm, he picks up a piece of paper and begins to write. "Here, I made a list of things I need, have Bobby pick them up for me."

Sam reads the paper and wrinkles his eye brows, "Acacia? Oil of Abramelin? What's this stuff for?"

"Protection."

"Protection my ass, that's used to summon a demon." Hope whispers to herself.

Before Sam leaves he turns to face his father, "Hey, Dad? You know, the demon, he said he had plans for me, and children like me. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?"

John grinds his teeth and clenched his jaw, "No, I don't."

Hope heard Sam walking towards the door and she quickly darted into the room across the hall. She peaked out the window and watched as Sam left, "Looks like I need to have a little chat with John."

Hope walked into Johns room and pulled the chair up to Johns bed with a screech, she plopped herself down and crossed her arms, "So…demons."

John's head snapped in her direction and he waited for her eyes to turn yellow.

Hope realized quickly how she had come across, "Wait, I am not a demon, I'm a hunter. Like you."

"What's a hunter doing working in a hospital?"

"A run of bad luck ok. Listen I saw something hovering over your son while he was dying, I also swear I saw him having an out of body experience."

"That's never good, it's a reaper."

"A what?"

"A reaper, they come for the dead, help you cross over to the other side type thing."

"So they're evil?"

"Not quite, you cant stop a reaper. Whoever they are gunnin for is who they get."

"Yeah well they are gunnin for Dean."

"Then there's nothing we can do." John says with regret.

"Are you kidding me, he is your son and your just gonna let him die?"

"Hey this is none of your god damn business!" John yells

Faith hears the racket from the hall and decides she should probably investigate, to her surprise it was her sister that John was yelling at. "What the hell is going on in here?"

"There's a reaper after Dean, and John, his father, is just going to let it take him!" Hope yells.

Faith's eyes grew big, she glances at John and then takes Hope by the arm, "Will you excuse us for just a moment please, my sister is a little disturbed." She says and drags her sister out of the room. "What the hell was that?!"

"Calm down-."

"Don't tell me to calm down Hope you just blurted out something you just don't blurt out to normal people!"

"Faith listen to me-."

"No, not this time, do you have any idea what you have done."

Hope puts her hand over Faith's mouth and pushes her up against the wall, "Will you just shut up for a minute?!" She lets go of Faith.

Faith stares at her sister in shock for a second, "Ok, I'd love to hear your explanation for this one."

"He's a hunter, Sam, Dean and John. They are all hunters, I overheard Sam and John talking about demons and the colt and trying to save Dean."

"Wait, the Colt? It's real?"

"I have no idea; my main concern is trying to save Dean from the reaper."

Hope gives Faith a quick summary of what reapers are and how John can seem less interested in saving him.

They walk back into John's room and sit down.

"First off, John you are right, it is none of our business on what is going on here. I know it's hard to trust people you don't know but trust me, we are good hunters. We have been on our own since I was 12 and she was 10. We know how to handle the monsters under the bed; we can help you fight this thing." Faith says

John shakes his head, "I have no doubt in your knowledge and skills, but I know what a reaper is, I know how they work and trust ME when I say this, he cannot be saved by anything except…."He pauses not sure if he should continue, "Just let me handle this ok."

Before either of them could say anything Sam stormed into the room, with Dean's manifestation behind him. He tries to talk to Sam, "Sammy! Tell me you can friggin' hear me, man, there's something in the hospital. Now, you've got to bring me back and we've got to hunt this thing." Dean looked around the room and noticed the two nurses who had been in the room with him when he was being attacked by that thing.

"You're quiet." John says to Sam.

Sam turns around fuming mad, and hurls the bag onto the bed with a crash. "Did you think I wouldn't find out?"

"I think we will just go for a walk." Hope says motioning at Faith to leave the room.

"No, stay." John says to them both. "What are you talking about Sam?"

Sam gives his dad a weird look, "I really don't think you want them in here for what I am about to say."

"Their hunters Sam just talk."

Sam looks down at the two sisters who looked extremely uncomfortable in this awkward situation. They both give him a crocked smile and Faith gave a little wave.

"Faith!" Hope says in a stern voice and grabs her hand.

"What?"

Sam turned his attention back to his dad, "That stuff from Bobby, you don't use it to ward off a demon, you use it to summon one. You're planning on bringing the demon here, aren't you? Having some stupid macho showdown?!"

"I have a plan, Sam."

"That's exactly my point! Dean is dying, and you have a plan! You know what; you care more about killing this demon than you do saving your own son!"

Dean tries to be heard, "No, no, no, guys, don't do this!"

"Do not tell me how I feel! I am doing this for Dean." John yells

"How? How is revenge going to help him? You're not thinking about anybody but yourself, it's the same selfish obsession!"

"Come on guys, don't do this!" Dean yells again.

Hope wrinkles her eye brows and looks at her sister, "can you hear that? I swear I can hear someone else."

"You know, it's funny, I thought it was your obsession too! This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. You begged me to be part of this hunt. Now if you'd killed that damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would have happened."

"Oh no he didn't…" Faith accidently says allowed, luckily they were too caught up in the moment to notice.

"It was possessing you, Dad, I would have killed you too!"

"Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now."

"Shut up, both of you!" Dean's voice echoed in Hopes ears.

"Go to hell dad."

"I should have never taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake, I knew I was wrong —."

Dean yells one last time, "I said SHUT UP!" he smacks a glass of water off the table and it goes flying and crashes onto the floor causing Hope and faith to jump. John and Sam give each other confused looks.

Dean smiles, "Dude, I full-on Swayze'd that mother." His smile quickly fades and he starts to hold his stomach in pain, nurses and doctors run by the hallway and Dean starts to flicker and disappears.

"That's our cue, come on Hope." They both get up and run towards the commotion. Sam takes one last look at his dad and follows the sisters into Dean's room.

The loud beeping of the monitors echo in Sam's head, he looks around the room and see's a doctor and some nurses, Faith and Hope included surrounding Dean, trying to resuscitate him.

The doctor yells, "All clear!" and shocks Dean.

With tears in his eyes Sam mumbles, "No."

"Damn it Still no pulse." Faith says

"Okay, let's go again, 360." The doctor yells out

Hope charges it up and they continue to shock Dean.

Sam begins to cry and runs his fingers through his hair.

Dean slowly walks in behind Sam; he sees the thing, the reaper floating above him. "You get the hell away from me." He runs to the bed and faces the thing down, yelling, "I said get back!"

Sam blinks and looks confused like he heard something, Hope heard it too.

Dean reaches for the thing and holds onto it for a moment before it hurls him into the hallway and floats away. The monitors calm down, "We have a pulse. We're back into sinus rhythm." Faith tells the room.

Sam sighs in relief and backs into the hallway; he decides to just watch from there. Dean comes to stand by his side

"Don't worry, Sammy. I'm not going anywhere. I'm getting that thing before it gets me. It's some kind of spirit, but I could grab it. And if I can grab it, I can kill it." Dean said with a grin.