A Mountain Odyssey Ch. 10
Disclaimer: Kripke and the CW own the Winchesters. I am just playing in their sandbox. I am not making a profit from this story.
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Previously:"I-I got the w-wendigo" Joshua panted out in pain as John helped him to a standing position. "The s-son of a b-bitch is dead, it w-won't be s-scaring the b-boys anymore."
"Glad to hear that" John said as he pulled Joshua's uninjured arms around his neck, while he wrapped a supporting arm around the injured hunter's waist. "Let's get you back to camp."
As John got Joshua back to the camp, he gently lowered the injured hunter down onto the log that they had been using as a chair over the past few days. He knew the first thing he needed to do was assess Joshua's injuries so he could take care of the most critical wounds first. He helped his injured friend remove his jacket and shirt.
"Damn" John swore in sympathy as he saw the myriad of bruises that encompassed most of Joshua's back. He could only imagine how much pain Joshua was in. "Your back looks like you went over Niagara falls a few times over man, what the hell happened to you?"
"That son of a bitch threw me against a wall" Joshua hissed as John prodded for swelling or broken bones."
"You'll have to get checked out for internal bleeding from the looks of these bruises when we make it back to civilization" John stated oblivious to the fact of how much Joshua hated hospitals.
"Hell no, I ain't going to no freaking hospital. I'll be just fine" Joshua retorted as he arched his back when he was hit by a painful spasm.
"Whatever you say" John said as he moved on to check the claw wound in Joshua's arm that was still bleeding. "I'm going to have to clean this out" John stated as he reached over to get the first aid kit from Joshua's duffle bag that lay nearby. He opened the kit and pulled out a bottle of peroxide and some holy water. He poured a liberal amount of holy water onto Joshua's arm and winced in sympathy when he saw the steam rising from the wound.
"Shit" Joshua swore through clenched teeth as John poured more holy water over the area. He could tolerate a lot of pain since he used to be a bad assed marine, but damned if that holy water didn't burn like a bitch.
After he had thoroughly washed out the wound, John poured peroxide over Joshua's arm and watched as it bubbled up which indicated that it was fighting the germs that had invaded the claw marks.
John was just about to wrap the wound when he heard the high pitched screams of his youngest son.
Joshua quickly clamped his hand over his injured arm as he nodded towards the sound for John to go check on Sammy,
Reaching his son in just seconds, John quickly picked Sammy up and held him close. "What is it, what's wrong tiger?" He asked as he ran his hand through Sammy's curly brown locks. He could hear the hitch in Sammy's breath as his child started sobbing in his arms. When he glanced over to see Sammy's face, he saw his child staring at Joshua and the blood on his arm.
"Damn it John, how could you be so freaking stupid after that nightmare last night" he muttered to himself just as he saw Dean scampering out of the tent after hearing Sammy's wails.
"Daddy, what's wrong with Sammy?" Dean asked as he quickly run over to check on his baby brother.
"I think Sammy's a little scared right now Dean" John said as he turned his body to shield Sammy from seeing Joshua.
"But why?" Dean asked needing to know what was scaring Sammy so he could try to make it better.
John nodded his head to the right as he bounced Sammy in his arms trying to comfort his baby.
Dean looked to where his dad nodded to see Joshua sitting on the tree log. He immediately saw the blood on Joshua's arm and the shirt laying next to him and knew exactly what was wrong. Sammy had to have seen the blood and related it to the nightmare that he had had last night.
"Oh" Dean whispered, feeling sad for his little brother at having to see Joshua hurt like he was.
"Dean, I need you to take Sammy back to the tent for me and watch out for him while I take care of Joshua. Can you do that for me Sport?" John asked knowing very well what his son's answer would be.
"Sure dad, you can count on me" Dean said as he reached out to take Sammy in his arms.
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John stood and watched as Dean carried Sammy back into the tent. He could tell that Sammy was still crying into Dean's shoulder even though he couldn't see his baby's face. As soon as the boys were out of sight, John walked back over to focus on taking care of Joshua once again.
As he picked up the gauze to wrap Joshua's arm, he heard the injured hunter ask "How's the little one doing?"
"He'll be okay, he had a nightmare last night that the wendigo had gotten you. He woke up screaming and crying that you were hurt and had blood on you. It just hit him hard waking up to find you looking the way he had seen you in his dream I guess" John said as finished wrapping the wound and taping it off.
"Damn, I wish I could have kept him from seeing me like this" Joshua said as he grimaced at how tight the bandage felt on his arm.
"Okay, I gotta take a look at your leg man, you either got to drop the jeans or I'm going to have to cut your pant leg with scissors John said as he waited to see what Joshua would choose to do.
"Hey, we haven't even been out on a first date yet and you're already trying to get me out of my pants" Joshua smirked as he watched the pink tinge emerge on John's cheeks.
"Hah hah" John said as pulled out the scissors to cut the pant leg on Joshua's right leg. After cutting the material, John started prodding around the knee area trying to determine the extent of the injury.
"Shit dude, be careful" Joshua grunted as John touched his knee in a particularly painful spot.
"Well I don't think it's dislocated, but I would say you've got one hell of a sprain. I wouldn't be surprised if you tore the ligament in your knee" John said as he wrapped Joshua.s knee with an ace bandage.
After John finished wrapping the knee, he said "Okay, lets get you inside the tent and get that leg elevated to help with the swelling" John helped Joshua to a standing position and then provided support as he helped Joshua walk over to their tent.
Upon walking inside, the hunters found a calm Sammy sitting in Dean's lap as Dean was telling his baby brother a story.
"And you know what happened to that big bad wolf Sammy?"
Sammy shook his head no as he eagerly sucked on his thumb.
"He climbed right up on top of the brick house where Dean Pig, Sammy pig, and John pig lived and he slid down that chimney right into the pot of soup that John pig had cooking on the fire."
Sammy's eyes got huge as he snuggled closer into Dean. "Den what 'appened Dean?" he asked eagerly wanting to hear the rest of the story.
"Well, that wolf landed in the boiling water and shot straight back up that chimney with his tail on fire where Farmer Joshua was waiting on him and blasted his ass with the salt gun and killed 'em"
"Yay" Sammy said as he clapped his little hands knowing the family of pigs was safe once again.
By the time that Dean had finished his story, John had helped Joshua to lay down on his sleeping bag and had propped his leg in the air to help with the swelling.
Just realizing that his daddy was in the tent, Sammy looked over to see him lifting Joshua's leg up and putting it on his duffle bag. He let out a small gasp as he saw the bandage on Joshua's arm.
"It's okay tiger" Joshua said immediately upon hearing Sammy's gasp. "Your daddy took care of my boo-boo's so you don't have to be afraid now. Joshua watched as Sammy shyly slid in behind Dean. He couldn't blame Sammy for still being scared after everything that had happened. He would just have to work on becoming the toddlers friend once again, but that would have to wait until he was feeling up to it. For now, he just wanted to sleep.
Seeing that the injured hunter had fallen asleep, John picked up Sammy and then ushered Dean out of the tent so that Joshua could sleep without interruption. He knew how noisy the boys could sometimes get in their playfulness and didn't want them disturbing Joshua accidentally.
"Hey boys, I forgot to tell you that Joshua killed the wendigo. It can't hurt us anymore, so what do you say we go down to the lake and do some fishing" John said as he playfully flew Sammy through the air like he was an airplane.
"Is it really gone daddy, it ain't gonna come back" Dean asked as he stared at his father with piercing green eyes.
"It's really gone son" John said as he tousled Dean's hair before grabbing some poles and walking down to the lake with Sammy on his hip and Dean following him.
TBC The next chapter will be the last.