Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural, or the characters.
AN: I have no medical knowledge, just way too much time to search the internet.
Also, keep in mind that it's currently just past 1am, so please forgive any mistakes. I really wanted to get this chapter up for you all.
Enjoy!
"Are you ready?" Sam's nurse, Casey asks Dean once he's finished putting on all the protective clothing, which given the bandages on his body, was not an easy task, they quickly gave up on putting on gloves.
Dean turns to face Casey. "As I'll ever be." Meg could show up at any time, I have to be there to protect Sam.
Casey shows Dean into Sam's room, there is a curtain drawn around the bed. Casey takes a quick look at Dean, silently offering support before she steps forward, takes hold of the curtain, and pulls it back slowly. As soon as Sam's injured body comes into full view Dean feels the bile rushing into his mouth, quickly clasps his hand over his mouth, and runs into the bathroom.
Casey pulls the curtain partially back around Sam's bed, and then waits patiently outside the door, involuntarily cringing as she hears Dean violently retching, cursing in between from the combined pain of his injuries being aggravated, and of his stomach's violent protests. This isn't the first time she's seen someone react like this to seeing their relative here, and it definitely won't be the last.
A minute later Dean emerges from the bathroom, still looking ill. "Better?" Casey asks, giving Dean a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah, I just…" His skin… what the hell is that? It's so messed up. I know it is Sam, but it doesn't look anything like him. If I had just stopped him in time…
"I know, it's alright." Casey says understandingly. "Do you want to take another minute?"
"No, I'm fine." No matter what he looks like, that's still Sam lying in that bed, and I have to be there for him.
Very uneasily and slowly Dean walks past the half drawn curtain, stopping a couple of feet from the bed, fighting back the urge to run away or throw up again, unable to get used to seeing his baby brother in such bad shape.
"You can go closer, sit next to the bed if you want. Just try to avoid touching the bandages." Casey offers after placing a plastic chair beside the bed, and moving back against the wall, allowing Dean some space.
After a moment Dean steps forward, carefully reaching towards Sam, and cautiously placing his bandaged fingertips on a small unburnt area of skin under Sam's left eye, the only uncovered area on his face. "Sammy." Dean whispers brokenly, still mentally berating himself for everything.
Slowly, almost unconsciously Dean begins to move his thumb in small circles on Sam's cheek. I'm here Sam, and no matter what I'm going to get you through this.
"Can he hear me?" Dean asks, never taking his eyes off of Sam.
"Even if he can't respond, he can almost certainly hear you. I think it helps comatose patients a lot for someone to be talking to them, letting them know they're not alone." Casey looks at her watch. "I've got go check on my other patients, just press the call button if you need assistance, or have any more questions." She quickly walks out of the room.
"It's gonna be alright Sam, everything's gonna be alright." No it's not, nothing's ever going to be alright again, and it's my fault.
After several minutes of silence, except for the sounds of monitors and machines, Dean speaks again, almost begging. "You've gotta get better Sammy, please. I can't do this alone." Please, please get better. I can't lose you Sam, not after everything we've been through.
Dean steps back, and slumps down into the chair, buries his head in his hands, ignoring the searing pain this causes, and dissolves into tears.
A little over an hour later Bobby walks into the room, also dressed in the full set of protective clothing. The first thing he sees is Dean, still sitting in the hard plastic chair, sobbing harshly, blood and fluid now soaking through all of the bandages. Dean's hurt and he's crying?! If Dean's in that bad a shape, how badly hurt is Sam?
Taking another step forward Sam's injured body comes into view. "Shit."
Upon hearing Bobby's shocked response to seeing Sam, Dean looks up at him with bloodshot eyes. "Bobby."
Bobby walks to Dean's side, and squeezes his shoulder as a small measure of comfort. "How you doing kid?"
"I'm fine." Dean says weakly, wincing as he wipes the tears after from his burned face a little too harshly. He quickly forces himself to regain his composure, and turn his focus back to Sam. "They don't know if he's gonna make it through."
"Oh man. Have you heard anything more about your Daddy?"
"Nothin'… Not a single god damned word. And the demon that took him is probably going to come after me and Sam next. What're we gonna do?"
"I don't know Dean, first step would be to put as much protection in the room as we can without anyone noticing, then we'll plan our next move, okay?"
"Okay."
Dean and Bobby spend the next twenty minutes placing as many subtle protective symbols and charms around the room as possible, stopping everytime someone enters the room to check on Sam, and once when Casey insisted that Dean let her change his bloodied bandages. Once they finish, Bobby and Dean both sit down at Sam's bedside, watching everything around them, waiting for all hell to break loose.
Barely five minutes after they finished putting protection on the room, the door slams open, revealing Meg, who strides quickly into the room. Bobby is on his feet instantly, with Dean following a second later. "No more crap, okay?" Meg says as Dean makes the mistake of walking towards her, for which she flings him into a wall, and he collapses to the ground. Meg walks closer to Bobby, who backs away, keeping himself between Meg and Sam. "I want the Colt… the real Colt. Right now." Meg demands.
Bobby is quick to reply. "It's not here. We buried it."
Now fuming Meg takes another step towards Bobby, and subsequently Sam. "Didn't I say, 'No more crap'? I swear, after everything I heard about the Winchesters, I've got to tell you, I'm a little underwhelmed. First, Johnny tries to pawn off a fake gun, and then he leaves the real gun with these two chuckleheads. Lackluster, men. I mean, did you really think I wouldn't find you?"
Dean comes up behind her. "Actually, we were counting on it." Meg turns around to face him, and in turn he looks up at the ceiling. She looks up also and sees a devils trap above her. "Gotcha."
Dean and Bobby quickly barricade the door, and tie Meg to a chair. "You know, if you wanted to tie me up, all you had to do was ask." Bobby and Dean ignore her.
Dean moves closer to Meg. "Where's our father, Meg?"
"You didn't ask very nice." She replies in a sarcastic voice.
"Where's our father, bitch?" Dean questions angrily.
"Jeez, you kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh, I forgot. You don't." Meg taunts.
Dean leans in very close, mere inches from her face "Hey, you think this is a friggin' game?! Where is he?! What did you do to him?"
"He died screaming. I killed him myself." She gives him a wicked smile, and now seething with anger Dean backhands her. "That's kind of a turn on… you hitting a girl."
"You're no girl." Dean replies confidently.
"Dean." Bobby says as he pulls Dean away.
"I'll explain why later, but for now you've gotta know, don't hurt her."
"Okay." Dean answers, confused.
They walk back over to Meg, and Dean quickly gags her, whilst Bobby takes a scrap of paper from his pocket, and prepares to read.
They ignore her muffled taunts and comments as Bobby starts the exorcism ritual.
"You're gonna burn in hell, unless you tell us where our dad is." Dean says, not surprised when Meg doesn't respond. "Well, at least you'll get a nice tan."
Bobby continues the reading the Latin incantation. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus , omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio, et secta diabolica." Meg, who is already trembling, suddenly lets out a muffled scream. "Perditionis venenum propinare. Vade, satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciae, hostis humanae salutis." Things start to get blow around. "Humiliare sub potenti manu dei, contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine, quem inferi tremunt." Meg screams again, shaking uncontrollably.
"Where is he?" Dean questions, pulling away the gag.
"You just won't take 'dead' for an answer, will you?"
"Where is he?!"
"Dead!"
"No, he's not! He's not dead, he can't be!" Dean half yells, not wanting to attract the staffs' attention. Bobby looks at Dean, confused. "What are you lookin' at? Keep reading." Dean resecures the gag.
"Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, domine. Ut ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos."
Meg screams again, louder this time. After a moment she weakly says. "A building! Okay? A building in Jefferson City."
"Missouri? Where, where? An address!"
"I don't know!" Meg says, exhausted, tears running down her face, her breathing heavy.
Dean turns to Bobby. "Finish it."
Meg looks at him incredulously. "What? I told you the truth!"
"I don't care."
Bobby reluctantly continues. "Dominicos sanctae ecclesiae. Terogamus audi nos." As he continues to read, Meg's body twitches, then her eyes turn coal-black.
A moment later, she tilts her head up to the ceiling and lets out a long, loud scream. An enormous cloud of black smoke erupts from her mouth. The two men watch in awe.
When the demon has left her body, Meg's head falls forward, and she is now motionless, seemingly dead. There's a string of blood and saliva dripping from her mouth, and then suddenly, she begins to lift her head up slowly.
"She's still alive." Dean exclaims, then turns to Bobby. "Get help." Bobby walks out of the room.
Dean awkwardly unties the gag, and the ropes around Meg's wrists. "Thank you." Meg says weakly, then whispers. "A year."
"What?"
"It's been a year. I've been awake….for some of it. I couldn't move my own body. The things I did—it's a nightmare."
"Do you know anything about where my dad is?"
"By the r-river… Sunrise." Meg answers in her final breath.
"Sunrise? What does that mean?" Dean questions her, irrationally hoping she might tell him more. Dad's alive, in Missouri, now we've just gotta go find him. But first, how the hell are we gonna explain this one? Dean contemplates as he looks around the room, Meg slumped over in the chair, dead, a painted symbol directly above her.
TBC...
Thanks for reading!
Please review, I love hearing peoples thoughts/ideas on and for my stories.
And BTW I know that a lot of this chapter is closely tied in with the episode, but I thought this was one part that really had to be told more or less like it was in the show. Let me know if it worked or not.