NOTE: I'm not a medical doctor, so if I get some facts wrong, I'll just say this is a fantasy show and story. Also, chapters may slow down a bit from here on out. I am planning my wedding while working and writing this so it's been a bit crazy. But I promise I will end the tale and not leave you guys hanging. Thanks for sticking by.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Supernatural. Kripke does.
THEN
"Ellie's alive?" said Bobby, sitting down next to Dean in disbelief. He had already said it twice.
Sam had been looking at his adopted father for some time now, his face worried. Finally, he said, "Bobby, you do realize ... if Ellie is the one doing this, we will have to find her and kill her."
"There is no need to kill her," said Castiel.
Taking a deep breath, Liz told the Winchesters, "You guys can't leave town. Some stuff has been happening here, and you guys are infected."
"And if you recall, I'm immune to it. Which means, I'm the cure," said Castiel calmly.
NOW
The men roped Liz in to help them find a place for blood transfusion and also to withdraw blood from Cas; a lot of blood. She was hesitant at first, pointing out that Cas could only give so much blood per day, but the men insisted, saying they had to try first.
After a few minutes arguing, she suggested they went to Dr. Karl Rutherford, the local general surgeon and practitioner for the town. He was also the doctor who tended to Cas when she and Noreen found him over a month ago.
Liz rode with Cas in Noreen's truck, while Bobby followed in his car and the boys in their Impala. They headed to Dr. Rutherford's clinic.
In town, they noticed the place seemed more deserted than usual. There were still a few people out and about, but most, obviously noticing the strange behavior among some of its residents, had decided it was safer to stay in. Either that, or they were infected themselves and were trying to get some sleep that would not come.
Liz had called ahead and was relieved to find out the doctor had not been affected by the sleep-sickness. He had, however, noticed a lot of his patients come in asking for sleeping aids and pills, and that they did not seem to work. He was just about to call the Centers for Disease Control about it when she told him not to, saying she had some information about the illness.
They were shown to the doctor's office immediately upon arriving. Dr. Rutherford took one look at Liz and the four men, and buzzed his receptionist-cum-nurse.
"Mary, you can go home now. Just put the CLOSED sign up when you leave. Thanks," he said on the intercom. He turned to the five people in the room.
"You guys wanna tell me what's going on?" he asked. His sharp eyes noted one of the men's appearance; the general exhaustion and the black scratches on his neck. This guy was sick with the same thing going through town. He was sporting some bruises, and he held his side carefully, as if it was tender. It was obvious this man had been in a fight. Whether it was illness-related, he couldn't tell.
Dr. Rutherford's eyes fell on Castiel, standing next to the sick man.
"And how are you, Cas?"
"I'm well, thank you," answered Castiel. The short bespectacled middle-aged man had a genial and no-nonsense air about him that belied his sharp intellect. He had noticed many things about Castiel when he had examined the man, including his ability to heal at a faster rate than normal. Not to say he was Wolverine, but if someone took six days to heal, Cas would take three.
He had also been puzzled by Castiel's memory loss, noting the cause was not physical, failing to find any head injuries. The only think he knew for sure was that the man had gone through a major traumatic event.
"I take it you remember now." It was a statement, not a question.
Castiel gave a small smile. "Yes."
"What's your actual name?"
"Believe it or not, it's Cas. Actually, it's Castiel, but friends -" a quick glance at the other men "- people call me Cas."
Dr. Rutherford raised his eyebrows. "Huh, just Castiel?"
Smirking, the sick man with the green eyes and the dark blond hair interjected, "Yeah, just Castiel. One name; like Madonna and Cher."
Dr. Rutherford nodded, still curious but willing to let it go. He had known there was something different about Noreen's supposed old college buddy. His eyes studied the three strange men in his surgery, looking at them enquiringly.
The huge one smiled and made the necessary introductions.
"Nice to meet you, but knowing your names doesn't explain that mysterious phone call," said the doctor gruffly.
Liz sighed. It was time to lay out the crazy. "This thing in town, doc, it's something new."
"I know, which is why I was going to call the CDC before you stopped me."
"Wouldn't have done you any good," said the older man with the trucker cap - Bobby Singer.
"Why not?"
The giant in the group, Sam Winchester, spoke, "When you ran tests on your patients, did you happen to see anything weird?"
Dr. Rutherford looked levelly at Sam as if wondering who the hell the guy was. "There's a higher amount of adenosine but that's typical for people who can't sleep. The problem is there's no reason for it," he answered finally.
"Anything else?"
"Some people have some strange hormone imbalance."
Sam pushed Dean towards the doctor. "Can you test him?"
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Dr. Rutherford looked at the results of the blood test twice, as if hoping the results would change on second viewing. In the end, he pinched the bridge of his nose and set down the test results. Sam and Dean Winchester sat in the chairs in front of his desk, while Cas sat on the bed where the doctor did his examinations. He was inspecting the stirrups, looking at them curiously. Dr. Rutherford wondered if the man had ever seen or even knew what they were for. Liz sat in a corner and the older guy stood by the door.
"Well, what is it, doc? Don't spare the details," drawled Dean.
"Congratulations," said Dr. Rutherford. "You're pregnant."
Dean's eyes widened, while Sam stifled a laugh. Liz and Bobby grinned. Cas looked puzzled.
"Or you hit menopause. Your test results are all over the place," continued the doctor. Dean relaxed, punching Sam in the shoulder for laughing.
"What do you mean, Karl?" asked Liz.
"His estrogen and progesterone levels are elevated, which explains the insomnia. There are a few like you in town by the way, young man, so don't feel bad about going through the Big Change," he said. Liz laughed.
"What about Cas's blood?" she asked.
Dr. Rutherford frowned. "Abnormally normal."
"Erm, what do you mean?" asked Sam.
"He has no antibodies to anything. But at the same time, he's got incredible white blood cell reaction," said Dr. Rutherford. "I introduced a virus for the hell of it and the white blood cells were just vicious. Ripped it apart in seconds. With that kind of aggression, we usually see the cells turning against the body, but nope. It's really fascinating."
The four men and Liz looked blankly at the doctor. He coughed uncomfortably, realizing he had geeked out over Cas's blood.
"Anyway, I introduced Cas's blood to your sample," he told Dean.
"And?"
"And I think it worked."
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Dean lay down on the examination bed, while Dr. Rutherford inserted the IV into Dean's arm. He had already withdrawn almost 2 liters of Cas's blood. He wanted to withdraw less, saying anything more would cause the man to go into shock, but the blue-eyed man insisted. Nevertheless, Dr. Rutherford drew the line at 1.84 liters, and made sure Liz watched Cas and gave him chocolates and juice while he recovered.
"I don't have time to separate the plasma and platelets, but I don't think you should get a reaction - Cas is O negative. I'll just try 5cc first and see how it works," he told Dean.
"Whatever floats your boat, doc. I'm just weirded out getting a little angel in me," answered the young man. Dr. Rutherford stared at Dean.
Sam slapped his hand over his brother's mouth. "Erm, he's a bit delirious."
The doctor looked at Sam and Dean suspiciously. "Uh - huh," he said noncommittally. He had noticed how the others had tensed up when Dean said those words. Dismissing the mystery from his mind - for now at least - he injected Cas's blood into the IV line and told the green-eyed man to rest.
While the Liz and Dr. Rutherford fussed over Dean and Cas, Sam inclined his head to Bobby, motioning towards the hallway. The older hunter followed Sam out of surgery.
"What's wrong?"
"It's going to take time before we can treat everyone infected," said Sam.
"Can't be helped unless you want to bleed Cas dry," said Bobby.
"I know. But maybe we can find Ellie in the meantime."
Bobby frowned. "I thought we agreed there was no need?"
Sam gave a small smile. "Yeah, because the first priority was to find a cure. But we have that now and we can't just sit around until we get enough blood to give everyone."
Bobby snuck a look at the former angel lying on the gurney next to Dean. Cas had his eyes closed. He looked tired, his face drawn. Turning back to Sam, Bobby said, "I don't exactly trust Cas now after what's happened, but Sam, I did some research on the aeglaeca. There is no record of anything that can kill them."
"Well, they're monsters. That usually means iron, right?"
"Or silver. Or fire. Or anything out there. Face it, Sam, we're facing a new type of monster here. Like it or not, we're gonna have to trust Cas. He doesn't have a reason to lie. His girlfriend is sick too."
"And missing. We haven't found her yet." Sam paused. "You said you talked to the psychic earlier. Did she tell you anything else?"
"Hell if I know."
"What do you mean?"
"You know how psychics are. Can never get a straight answer out of them."
"What did she say?"
"Same thing as before, pretty much. Shadows and fire. Just a bunch of crap in a whole pile of don't-mean-shit," drawled Bobby.
"Well, we have her name. Maybe we can use it to find Noreen. And try to find Ellie at the same time."
"Ellie is wearing that guy's mom's meatsuit. It's not her real name, so the spell won't work."
"Eleanor isn't her real name, but maybe Visyak is."
Bobby looked unconvinced.
Sam continued, "Look, I'm just saying we can try locating her. We won't go after her until we figure out her weak points."
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Dr. Rutherford wanted to keep Dean and Cas for observation for a few hours. Sam was relieved to see Dean sleeping soundly after an hour of receiving the injection. Dr. Rutherford was talking about writing a paper about the disease and Cas's blood, until Liz managed to drag him away and convince him not to. The selling point was that the medical community would laugh him out of a license and a practice if he did it, since neither Cas nor any of them would collaborate or sign a waiver.
The doctor looked so disheartened that Liz had to put a comforting hand around him.
"I know, Karl. But trust me, this isn't something that you'd ever see again if these men succeed," she said. He frowned in confusion.
Sighing, she added, "These guys, they're like the CDC of weird stuff. Don't ask. You don't wanna know."
He looked her in the eye and saw she meant every word. "OK, Liz. You're lucky I've known you since you were a kid, or I'd call the men in white jackets about now."
She laughed. "I know."
Mollified, Dr. Rutherford went back to his patients. Dean was sleeping, dead to the world. The scratches on his neck were already turning into the more normal red. His complexion was improving too, looking less pale under the bruises. Dr. Rutherford applied ice packs to Dean's bruised ribs, to reduce the swelling. He had earlier given the young man some ibuprofen to help the healing process.
Drawing the curtains separating the beds, he saw Cas drinking the juice Liz had given him. The man had not fainted or gone into shock as Dr. Rutherford had feared when he withdrew that much blood, but Cas still got a bit dizzy right after the procedure. Typically for this odd man, he was recovering fast.
Stepping back out, he saw Liz talking with the giant and Bobby in a low voice. She was mostly doing the listening, nodding occasionally. Then she gave them a key from her key set. Thanking her, they left.
"Am I missing anything?" he asked her when she rejoined him.
"Nothing you can help with. Not yet anyway."
He narrowed his eyes at her, curious.
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It was dark by the time Sam and Dean got to the barn Liz had told them about. The ranch was largely deserted; Liz had told them many of her men were spooked by the goings on in town and had left. They were glad; it meant there would be few witnesses to what they were about to do.
Using spray cans, they drew sigils and arcane symbols on the walls and floor. Bobby was reminded of another time when he did this; it was with Dean and the rite was to summon Castiel, the being who pulled Dean out of Hell. A lot of water had passed under the bridge since then.
Once they finished redecorating the barn, Sam lit candles, took out a silver bowl and cut into his hand, clenching his fist to let the blood drip into the bowl. Bobby gave him a crystal attached to a leather thong and laid out a detailed map of the area on the floor.
"Who first?" he asked.
Sam shrugged. "Noreen, I guess. We know her name for sure."
Bobby nodded and stepped back. Sam opened the book on incantations and read out the spell, letting the crystal lie in the bowl of blood. Then, he took the crystal and let it hang over the map. The crystal started swinging like a pendulum, making smaller circles until finally, it latched onto a spot on the map. The crystal stood upright, on its own accord.
"You got it, Bobby?"
"Yeah," said the older hunter, writing down the coordinates.
Sam nodded and stopped channeling the spell. The crystal plopped down, the leather thong going slack.
"Try finding Ellie now?" asked Bobby.
"Yeah. Might as well."
They got fresh ingredients and repeated the spell. The crystal did its pendulum act and landed on a spot on the map. Sam frowned, looking at Bobby in puzzlement. Bobby shrugged.
"Try again," he suggested.
Sam repeated the spell and again, the crystal went to the same spot.
"Is it confused?" asked Sam, meaning the crystal.
"It's just a crystal. It's not Google maps."
"So what does this mean?"
"Either the spell fizzled or Cas has been holding out on us," said Bobby. "Again."