He gave her four Tylenol and a couple tablespoons of the electrolytes and she slept for almost three hours. Her head in his lap, feeling her breathing, and her heartbeat, rapid but stable, he relaxed enough to call Sam.

"Where are you?" came his brother's voice from the other end.

"Past the bridge already, if she can pull through for another 45 minutes I'll be able to stitch up the wound and get her some fluids," Dean replied, "You?"

"Ohio…somewhere…"

"Come back through Grand Rapids, Bobby and a friend of his are gonna join us – friend's an ex trauma surgeon – if anyone can fix her up…"

"It's him. Listen…Dean…I know you like her and I'm sorry. I overreacted. I got scared. And…if she doesn't pull through…"

"Sam she's gonna be fine," Dean replied. And hung up.

When Ana woke she was agitated, the pain was bad and she was starting to hit her threshold. Frankly, Dean was impressed at how well she was taking it. He pulled over when he felt her stir and helped her sit up.

"How you holding up?" he asked.

"Honestly it's not as bad as I thought. I'm kinda nauseous and it hurts, my head's starting to throb too…but…I've actually…"

"What?" Dean pressed, he needed an accurate assessment of her condition if he was going to be any help.

"With all the Tylenol it actually isn't that much worse than unmedicated PMS," she replied, a little sheepishly.

"That means absolutely nothing to me, but thanks for sharing."

Ana cracked a smile, started to laugh then whimpered when it jarred her injured side.

"We're forty-five minutes out. Want to lay back down and I'll have you somewhere warm and dry and stationary in no time?"

"Onward," Ana replied blearily, settling herself back in his lap and surrendering to unconsciousness once more.

Dean didn't start driving immediately, waiting for her to get comfortable, waiting for her breathing to settle. And then he waited a little longer, tucking his old shirt around her just a little more snugly, running a hand through her hair, realizing that – while he wasn't sure he was comfortable admitting it to Sam, or even to himself – he did like Ana – and he'd keep fighting for her and with her until one or both of them stopped breathing.

Dean parked outside a door marked reception at the Skyline Motel – one of only a few in the area with a Vacancy sign aglow. Sault Ste Marie was more built up than he remembered – but it didn't matter now – what mattered was that no one would expect them to go there – which would keep Ana safe long enough to heal. Ana woke when he shut off the engine.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do," Dean said gently, "I'm gonna go book us a room for a full week. That should be plenty of time to get you at least mostly on your feet. I've gotta give them a story so…"

"Your brother overreacted to his mispronounced Latin and stabbed me?" Ana replied dryly.

"I'm gonna smack him for that when he gets here…don't worry."

"Not if I beat you to it," Ana's eyes were glazed with pain and Dean could see that the sarcasm was a coping mechanism – he needed to get that wound clean and stitched and get her on some morphine fast.

"I'm gonna tell them we had a hiking trip planned but you're having a baby and the morning sickness has been really bad – so we might be staying in more than anticipated," Dean replied, cradling her cheek with one hand to keep her focused on him.

"Okay," Ana nodded then winced.

"Dizzy?"

"Yeah."

"Head between your knees, give me a second," Dean bent down and grabbed the bottle of electrolyte fluid, he took her head in his hands and guided her back upright then tipped it into her mouth, "Better?"

"I think so."

"Okay…one crisis at a time…we're doing good," Dean said quietly, "When we get out of the car I'm not gonna carry you – it's more built up around here than I remember and I feel like we'll get too much attention from that. You're gonna want to keep pressure on the cut – so just make sure you fake like you're cradling a pregnant belly rather than trying to keep yourself from bleeding out and we'll be fine."

"I trust you."

And with that Dean kissed her on the forehead and slipped out of the truck, glancing back as he checked in to make sure she hadn't passed out on him.