Dean just held on to Sydney as she continued to hug him tightly. He could feel her whole body trembling as she buried her face in his chest. He soothingly rubbed her back as he picked her up, telling her everything was all right now. Sam stroked her arm, offering her comfort too. Dean tried to lift her head up to get a look at her but her grip on him was strong. She didn't want to let go of him.
"Hey. Hey, Syd," Dean tenderly whispered to her, trying to get her to look at him. He continued to gently rubbed her back. "It's all right. Everything's okay now. Can you look at me, sweetie?"
"Syd?" Sam added, trying to get her to look up too.
Dean felt her trembling body finally calm down. She slowly picked her head up off of his chest and looked at him, her arms still around his neck. He smiled at her.
"Hey there, pretty girl." She offered a smile back without saying a word but quickly looked back down again and began playing with his necklace. "How you doing? You alright?" She nodded, biting her lip. "We missed you," he continued as he tried to get her to look at him again.
She did. "I missed you, too," she said in barely a whisper. During the whole time, she didn't even realize that someone else was standing there with Dean. But when she looked up a little, she finally saw Sam standing there. As soon as she did, her eyes grew wide.
Sam smiled. "Hi, kiddo. Don't I get a hug, too?"
Syd let go of Dean's neck and reached for Sam. Dean gladly passed her off to him.
"Sam!" she cried as she hugged him tightly.
"Hey," Sam said, rocking her back and forth, "I missed you."
"Miss you too." She looked at him with a smile.
"Where's your brother?" Immediately she began to look down and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck again, lying her head on his shoulders. "What is it, Sydney?" But she didn't say a word. She just hugged him tighter. "Okay. It's all right. You don't have to tell me now if you don't want to," he said, gently stroking her back.
Sam and Dean looked at each other with concern knowing what that look on Sydney's face meant. Something was wrong. Something had happened. But as much as they wanted to know what that something was, they knew they had other things to take care of at the moment too. Right now, they had one dead body in the place with them along with three other kids who weren't doing so well either. They knew they needed to get them help.
So far, they were only able to check two rooms so they weren't sure if any other kids were hurt. They didn't have many more rooms to check since it was a small orphanage; actually, it looked more like a house. But if there were more kids in the house, they assumed that there must be at least two kids in each room since the other room they had been in had two beds. The boys decided to check out the rest of the place. They were leaving Sydney's room when she asked them to stop.
Sydney lifted her head off of Sam's shoulders. "Wait," she told them before they walked out of the room. "My friend."
"Don't worry, Sydney," Sam said, looking her in the eye. "we'll take them to the hospital. We'll get them help all right?"
"No, no. My friend." Her eyes seemed to be pleading.
Sam and Dean didn't understand. "What?"
She pointed to the closet where she had been hiding in a second ago. "In there."
Sam and Dean gave each other a glance before Dean went to look inside again. Inside, next to the pile of clothes Syd had been hiding under, was another girl. She was pale and unconscious just as the other kids.
"Aw crap, man," Dean said picking up the other little girl.
"Is she okay? Is she breathing?" Sam asked.
Dean felt for a pulse. "Barely. Come on, we gotta get these kids help."
Sam nodded and they walked out of the room, each brother carrying the girls downstairs.
Dean gently laid the girl he was carrying down on the couch near the little boy they found earlier, trying to make her as comfortable as he could despite her condition. Sam seemed to have forgotten that Sydney was watching them the whole time and didn't realize the fear in her eyes until they heard her gasp loudly. She was in tears from what she saw.
"Sam!" Dean yelled at him for not paying more attention to their little cousin and shielding her eyes from the awful scene in the living room.
Immediately, Sam turned Sydney away, gently turning her head away from the sight. Sam's face was filled with complete regret and guilt for not thinking ahead. Dean, too, felt guilty for not thinking about it earlier. But neither of them had time at the moment to dwell on the past and the situation was too serious for Dean to be upset.
"Alright look, we gotta call for help before these guys get worse. Uh, Sam, why don't you put her in the car, while I go ch—"
Sam gently laid his hand over Syd's ear to prevent her from hearing what he and Dean were saying.
"No way, man. I'm not leaving her in the car," Sam interrupted, "what if the shtriga's still out there?"
"Ok, then. Leave her in the kitchen."
"I can't leave her alone, Dean."
"Sam, we can't take her with us to check out the rest of the place. She's seen too much already."
Sam saw Dean's point. "All right."
Sam headed to the kitchen with Sydney. He turned on the light and was ready to sit her down on a chair, but she kept clutching onto him tighter. She began to softly squeal. "No…don't leave me," she softly cried.
"Shh, Sydney. It's okay," Sam said, as he stroked her forearm, still wrapped around his neck. He squatted down to meet the height of the chair as he sat her down on it, but she still refused to let go. "Hey, Sydney. Hey. Kiddo, look at me," he gently demanded. She softened her grip on him and faced him. "We are not leaving you okay? But you want us to go help your friends right?"
She nodded, letting go of Sam, as she wiped the tears on her face with her forearm.
"Okay," he smiled at her, wiping away the tears on her cheek with his thumb.
"Hey," Dean added, squatting down near Sydney as well, "we're not gonna let anything happen to you okay? We'll be right back, all right?" She nodded again. "Okay. Give me a hug," he said with a smile.
She smiled back and give Dean a hug, as Dean and Sam exchanged concerned, worried looks.
After promising Sydney one more time that they'd be right back, they left her in the kitchen and went back upstairs to check the rest of the orphanage. Thankfully, the rest of the rooms were empty so no other kids were hurt. They thought it was a bit strange for an orphanage to be so empty despite its small capacity but then they remember that lately, a lot of kids had been adopted. When they didn't find any other kids, Sam and Dean wiped any prints that they may have made while they were there and cleaned up any other evidence of their presence as best as they could before looking in at the other two kids in the other room and bringing them downstairs.
Sydney watched as she saw both brothers reach the end of the stairs carrying two of her unconscious friends and headed to the living room. She followed behind them, stopping near the entrance to the living room. She watched them as she leaned her head against the door panel, her eyes filled with sadness for her friends.
Once they finished laying the kids down, they turned around and saw Sydney standing there watching them.
"Aw, Sydney," Dean said softly, walking over to her and picking her up. She reached out at him and he picked her up. "You're not supposed to be in here, kiddo."
She stared down at his necklace and began playing with it again. Dean and Sam couldn't help just staring at their little cousin.
"Hey, why don't you two head to the car, now. I'll call for an ambulance and meet you out there," Sam offered.
"'Kay," Dean nodded and headed out the door with Syd in his arms.
Sam called for help, but left himself anonymous. He felt bad for not being able to take the kids to the hospital themselves and make sure they were taken care of. But they couldn't help it. They couldn't risk being recognized and thrown into jail, especially with Sydney with them. Once he was done calling for help, he went back to the car with Dean and Syd, who sitting in the back with her seatbelt fastened, already asleep. The brothers anxiously waited for the ambulances to arrive. When it finally came, they drove off, heading back to their motel room.
