A/N: My apologies, this is a day late! As penance, I will be posting a new one-shot tomorrow. Be on the lookout. It's called Hang In There.

Chapter 4

Dean made the drive in less than an hour, pushing the Impala to its limits the entire way. Laney occasionally jerked and cried out in her sleep. Sam held her tightly, willing her to settle. Dean's hand often drifted over to hers. He frequently grabbed her wrist to check her pulse. He watched the stuttering rise and fall of her chest with increasing concern.

He had managed to get Dr. Mason on the phone and give him the heads up they were on the way. He filled him in on Laney's current condition and past medical history. Every second they could save on the unnecessary explanations was an extra second in Laney's favor.

He heaved a great sigh of relief when the doctor's clinic came into view, even though he knew that this was just the beginning of a long and scary ride.

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"So, what's the news doc?" Dean asked, as he nervously fidgeted with a waiting room magazine.

He and Sam had been asked to wait outside while the doctor and his nurses attended to Laney. They'd made sure the clinic was warded to the max and then settled down to wait.

"It's pneumonia in both of her lungs. It's a good thing you got her here when you did. Another day and she might have been too far gone."

Dean swallowed the lump in his throat. "Is she going to be okay?" he croaked out.

"I'm cautiously optimistic. She's very sick. We're pumping her full of a broad-spectrum antibiotic and fluids. Treating her fever and she's on 100% pure oxygen to help her lungs and oxygen saturation improve. As soon as we can get her fever under control, I'll feel much better. The good news is that she's in the right place and getting everything she needs."

The doctor stood up. "I have some house calls to make. The clinic is all yours for the night. There will be two nurses here through the night. And don't worry, you can trust them."

Dean nodded. "Thank you."

Sam shook the doctor's hand. When he was gone he turned to Dean and ran a tired hand through his messy hair. "Looks like we dodged another bullet."

"Barely," Dean said softly, standing up. "Let's go see her."

Dean opened the door first. One of Laney's nurses was adjusting an IV. "Hey," she said, "Come on in. I'll be at the nurse's station if you boys need anything."

"Thank you," said Dean.

Dean walked up to his sister's bed and leaned over her. He kissed her gently on the forehead. "Hey sweetheart."

Sam pulled up a chair on one side of the bed and sat down. He studied his sister's face. She looked more relaxed and had more color in her skin. The awful blue tint of her lips due to lack of oxygen was gone now that she was getting some pure oxygen in her.

Neither Sam nor Dean could think of anything to say. They simply sat on either side of her and waited for her to get better, waited for her to open her eyes and reassure them that she was okay.

Sam especially, needed to hear it.

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Laney opened her eyes slowly to the feeling of being suffocated. She immediately panicked, pulling and scratching at her face.

"Whoa whoa, kiddo, relax. It's just an oxygen mask!"

Laney immediately stilled. She recognized that voice. Dean.

She turned her face to the sound and saw her big brother standing there. "Dean?" she asked, although she didn't think any sound came out. Her throat felt raw and painfully dry.

"None other," said Dean, reading her lips.

Laney's brow furrowed. This couldn't be right. She had to still be trapped on the bathroom floor, chained to a toilet, waiting to be rescued. She didn't remember being rescued. No, it had to be another hallucination.

"Hey, hey," said Dean, softly, turning her face to his and leaning in. "It's me. I know you're probably confused, but it's okay. You're in a clinic and you've got pneumonia, but you're going to be okay."

Laney shook her head. No, it was a trick.

She turned her head away from Dean, and found herself face to face with Sam. No, Meg.

Laney's arms started flailing as she tried to push herself away. She curled over to the other side of the bed. "No, no!" she rasped.

"Laney, calm down, baby. It's okay. You're safe now."

Dean watched his sister as she kept shaking her head. Her eyes were still fever glazed and she looked confused and completely lost, which meant reasoning with her was going to be next to impossible.

"Sammy, go get the nurse."

Sam nodded.

"M-m-meg," Laney rasped out. It was barely intelligible. But Sam stopped in his tracks. He understood. She thought he was still Meg. He didn't miss the terror etched in her face. Terror he'd put there. Not on purpose, but it had been him. He hadn't been strong enough to fight it.

Dean grabbed Laney as forcefully as he could without hurting her and put his face up to hers, almost nose to nose.

"Delaney!"

Laney, stunned by the use of her real name and the tone of Dean's voice, finally stilled.

"That's better. I'm sorry I had to shout, but you need to understand that you are safe now. We found you at the motel that Meg left you in. She's gone now and Sammy is okay. That's our Sam. He's not going to hurt you. I know you're confused, but I swear to you that it's really us and nothing is going to hurt you. You're safe now."

A lone tear streamed down Laney's face. "Aw, geez kid, you're killing me." Dean pulled his sister into his arms, careful of the all the tubes and hugged her tightly. When she finally reacted by squeezing him back – although very lightly – he smiled.

"That's right baby, it's us. We're good now. You get some rest," he said, pulling away from her and gently laying her back down. He readjusted the oxygen mask on her face and smoothed her hair back from her face.

Laney believed him. It really was Dean. No demon was capable of faking that kind of empathy and love. She understood her brother on levels he didn't even know. When she looked into the familiar green eyes that had been with her an entire lifetime, she really saw him.

And she didn't sense any demons. If she'd been half sane, she would have put two and two together sooner.

Laney felt immediately contrite. She turned her head to look at Sam, only to find him gone.

She turned to Dean, "Sammy?"

Dean sighed. He knew his brother had been hurt by Laney's outburst. He also knew that he would get over it with a little time and a good talking to. "He's okay, sweetheart."

"Wanna' see 'm," Laney said, just above a whisper.

"I'll go get him in a minute," he promised, knowing she was about to lose her fight to stay awake.

Laney nodded, her eyes already closing.

Dean waited until he was sure she was asleep, before he walked out and asked the nurse to keep an eye on her.

He had a little brother to cheer up.

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Dean smiled when he saw that Sam hadn't strayed far. Hurt feelings or not, he wasn't going to be too far from his baby sister. He sat on a bench outside the rear door of the clinic.

Dean noticed Sam's shoulders tense up when he heard him coming. He rolled his eyes. Why were siblings such pains in the asses?

"How's she doing?" Sam asked, quietly.

"Asleep," said Dean. "Wore herself out."

Sam's head dipped forward in weary resignation. "She's afraid of me."

"No stupid, she was confused, still thought she was locked up in that motel. But I got through to her and she wants to see you. Even tried to stay awake until you came back."

"You don't have to say that."

"I don't. But it's the truth," Dean said, taking a seat next to his brother. "Listen man, she knows it wasn't really you that knocked her out and locked her up. I'm sure she sensed it right away with her mind mojo. The fact is we don't know what happened while Meg had her. I mean, unless you remember anything else."

Sam shook his head. "No."

"No, and I'm guessing that she's going to want to keep details to herself because she's not going to want to hurt your feelings."

"I want her to tell us what happened," said Sam.

"So do I," agreed Dean. "I think she needs to tell us just as much as you need to hear it."

"Dean, what Dad said about you having to kill me – "

"No, he said I have to save you and if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to save you. Do you hear me?"

Sam smiled faintly. "Yeah I hear you."

"I'm going to save yours and Laney's asses, because that's what I was put on this Earth to do." Dean shifted in his seat. "That and hot chicks," he added, with a smirk.

Sam laughed in spite of himself, which he was sure was exactly what Dean was going for.

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"The repeat chest x-ray shows a huge improvement over the initial one. Her lungs are clearing. Her fever is low grade now. She's still very weak and has some serious downtime ahead of her. But she's going to be okay."

Dean smiled and nodded. "Will she start being more awake? It's been two days. She's pretty out of it still."

The doctor nodded. "To be expected really. She was very dehydrated and malnourished when she came in. But she'll start coming around more. I want to get her on her feet as soon as we can before she starts with serious muscle atrophy."

Dean nodded. "How long before you think we can leave?"

"Dean," said Sam, incredulously. "Leave? She's still sick."

"I know. I'm not talking about getting back on the road. I'm talking about getting to a safer location. No offense doc, but this place is a bit more public than I feel comfortable with."

"None taken," he said. "I'd say at least two more days as long as she continues to improve. She'll still need bed rest for another couple of weeks afterwards though."

"Understood," said Dean.

The doctor cleared his throat.

Dean raised a questioning eyebrow. "Is there something else?"

He nervously glanced between the two young men. He'd dealt with some pretty hardened hunters in his business, but there was something about these boys that made him more tentative.

"Listen, you may not like what I have to say, but I feel like I need to say my piece."

Dean leaned back against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest in silent defiance. Sam waited impatiently, wondering where this conversation might be headed.

"Go ahead," said Dean, mildly. Although the doctor knew he was anything but mild.

"I don't know all the details of how your sister got this sick. I don't really need to know. But it's important that you two are more proactive in preserving her health."

"Who says we're not?" interjected Sam.

Dean tried not to smile. Sam was usually respectful of authority figures. He was supposed to be the calm one. It surprised him, but then again, Sam's nerves had been frayed since Meg and taken him for a ride. And he was feeling a crapload of guilt about what happened to Laney.

The doc continued, "Look, it's hasn't quite been a year since the car accident and despite how well your sister has been doing she still has a lot healing to do. With having lost her spleen, I'm sure you know how much more susceptible she is to infection. I'm sure it's why she ended up with such a bad case of pneumonia. No one this young should have gotten so sick. What I'm saying is that you have to be on top of these things, a sniffle, a cough, an itchy sore throat...you have to take them very seriously."

Dean swallowed hard. The doctor had a point, even if he didn't like hearing it. Despite the fact that Laney had been hunting and holding her own, he and Sam hadn't failed to notice how exhausted she was by the end of a hunt or how she still had a tendency to favor her bad leg and even the arm she'd broken. She never complained and it never slowed her down, but it was there. And that was just the purely physical stuff. She was still dealing with the emotional and cognitive changes that came from her brain injury. The only small victory had been the fact that she'd stopped breaking down in tears and hiding all the time. She'd been working hard to be more open with her brothers about her feelings. But still, as capable as she seemed, maybe he'd been wrong about letting her hunt so soon.

Sam saw the doubt and uncertainty crossing his brother's face. It wasn't an expression he was particularly fond of, nor one that he saw often.

"We get it," Sam said, simply.

The doctor nodded and excused himself. He normally wouldn't have poked his nose in their business like that. But he'd read through Laney's medical records. He'd seen the multitude of scars all over her body. She was young, beautiful and apparently extremely intelligent. Hunting was not the life he'd have wished for her. He hoped his comments might give the Winchester boys some pause before they let her continue on.

Dean watched the doctor leave, but remained silent and glued to his spot.

"You didn't do anything wrong," said Sam.

Dean looked at his brother, guilt in his eyes. "I let her hunt."

"It's what she wanted," Sam said. "And aside from that, she probably wouldn't have had much choice even if she didn't."

"But I thought you didn't want this life for her."

"I don't. Not really. But it's what she's got. It's what we've got. We just gotta do the best we can. Besides, this particular conversation is getting old. Enough with the back and forth already."

"Wow Sammy. Just when I think you can't surprise me."

"That doesn't mean I think it's a good idea to leave here so soon. What's the rush anyway?" asked Sam.

"It feels like we're sitting ducks here. I don't feel comfortable with Meg out there somewhere."

"Where exactly are we going to go?"

"Back to Bobby's. He'll have that place locked down tighter than a steel drum."

"I don't know man."

"Sam, we need a place to lay low. We can't keep moving her around. And it's familiar to her. It'll do her good. Plus, it's Thanksgiving in a couple of days and then Christmas. It'll be good for her – good for all of us – if we take a little break."

Sam sighed. Dean was right. Holidays were coming. Laney's favorite time of year. It would be nice to treat her with a home style holiday and she needed a safe place to recover. No better place than Bobby's.

"Yeah, okay," he finally agreed.

"Good," smiled Dean, triumphantly.

They walked back into Laney's room, surprised to see her eyes open and looking fairly alert for a change.

"Well hey there sunshine," said Dean.

Laney smiled, but only had eyes for her other taller brother.

Dean smiled knowingly and patted his stomach. "Well, I'm hungry as always. I think I'll go hit up the vending machines."

Dean excused himself and walked out of the room, whistling.

"Subtle as always," said Laney.

Sam chuckled softly.

Laney reached out a hand for her brother. He hesitated for a moment before walking over and grabbing it.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey yourself."

"You okay?" she asked, eyes bright with concern.

Sam snorted. "Me?"

"Yeah, you," she said. "What happened to your arm?" she asked, noticing the bandage.

"Nothing. Just a burn."

Laney furrowed her brows at him. "Wasn't you."

"So everyone keeps saying."

"Really Sammy, I knew it was a demon all along."

"Tell me what happened."

"We should probably wait for Dean. I honestly don't want to have to tell this story twice."

Sam sighed. "Yeah, I get it."

She reached up and touched his face. "I'm glad you're back."

"I'm glad you're back," he said.

"I'm sorry."

Sam looked at her confused. "Why would you be sorry?"

"I spit in your face."

"What?"

"When Meg was wearing you, I spit in your face. Sorry – she pissed me off."

Sam laughed loudly and then quickly sobered. "Yeah, well I deserved more."

"No, she did," insisted Laney. "Wasn't you."

Sam reached up and touched the almost completely faded bruises on her face. Laney grabbed his hand and pushed it away.

"I could really use a hug right now, Sasquatch."

Sam smiled and reached out for her pulling her in, holding her tightly, breathing her in. The baby, his little sister, alive and mostly whole. Right then, he knew they'd get through this crisis like they had gotten through every other one and be stronger for it.

"Aw, isn't that a Kodak moment," quipped Dean, from the door.

Sam rolled his eyes and pulled away. He helped Laney settle back against the pillows.

"Bring me anything?" she asked, voice still raspy.

"Sorry, no solids yet," said Dean. "But I got you a cherry popsicle."

Laney smiled and reached for it as she stifled a yawn. She wasn't quite ready to go back to sleep yet.

Dean noticed, but didn't pester her. He could tell she wanted to talk first. Damn stubborn kid.

"Okay," he said, not wanting to stand on ceremony. "Let's talk. The whole story from the top."

Laney sucked on the popsicle for a moment before she cleared her throat and began. "At the restaurant, I sensed a demon. Sammy was in the bathroom and I ran to get him. He came running out and said we had leave. We were halfway to the parking lot when I realized that something wasn't right. When I opened my mouth to say something he – Meg – punched me and it was lights out."

Sam's jaw clenched tightly. Laney reached for his hand and pulled it onto the bed where she squeezed it tightly.

"What happened next?" asked Dean, noticing the gesture but not commenting. His brother and sister had some healing to do, in more ways than one.

"I woke up in that motel room, tied to a chair. Meg doing her usual song and dance. You know, 'I'm evil and I'm going to hurt you blah, blah, blah."

Dean bit back a smile and leaned forward. "Did she say anything about why she wanted you or Sam?"

"She wanted revenge for you sending her back to Hell. She said she had some kind of plan for Sam, but she was a little light on the details," Laney paused. "She said she was saving me for yellow-eyes – that I was some kind of prize."

Laney swallowed hard, her throat thick.

Sam squeezed her hand. Dean leaned forward and stroked her forehead with his thumb.

"It's okay," he said. "Did she say anything else?"

"No…she locked me up in that bathroom," she said with a shiver. "How long was I in there?"

"A week," said Sam, his voice shaking.

"A week?" whispered Laney. Her eyes shifted towards the ceiling and for a few moments she looked very far away. It was just a blur of time and emotion to her. It had been a true nightmare and she wasn't ready to talk about that part.

"Laney – "

"What about you Sam?" she asked, quickly changing the line of questioning. "How'd they finally find you?"

"Meg called Dean told him I was in trouble. Pulled off a big charade. Long story short, I ended up at Bobby's and they got her to leave."

"Got her to leave?"

"Yeah, the burn on my arm. She'd branded a binding link to keep herself locked in my body."

"They burned it to break it," she finished, thoughtfully.

"Yeah."

"What do you remember?" she asked.

"Very little," he said. Except for the fact that he'd killed an innocent man. He didn't know how was he going to explain that to her.

"Wait, how did you guys find me?" asked Laney, interrupting his thoughts.

"Got a call with your location. Untraceable. Don't know who it was, but it was good information obviously," said Dean.

Laney's brow furrowed in thought. "Weird."

"Yeah, well what part of all of this isn't?" asked Dean.

"True," she said with a yawn. She was feeling exhausted.

"Why don't you go to sleep," said Dean. "Doc says in a couple more days we can leave."

"Really?" she asked, yawning again.

"Don't get too excited. You're on bed rest for another couple of weeks and taking it easy for longer than that."

Laney frowned. "But it's almost Thanksgiving."

"You let Sammy and I worry about that this year."

Laney nodded, too tired to even put up an argument, although she really wanted to. Holidays were supposed to be her thing.

She curled onto her side, taking Sam's hand with her, much to his amusement. Guess he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Dean smiled and got up and kissed her on the top of the head.

Laney was half asleep when she felt an intense heat and burning at the base of her skull. 'Oh no, not again', rang through her head.

She opened her eyes and looked at Sam, wide-eyed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, urgently, ready to yell for the doctor.

"Demon," she breathed out.