So I decided to finish up another chapter this weekend after all.
-Kelsie
Sam kicked the gravel around with his boots. John had gone around the compound to check the place out while Mary and Sam waited for him to give the all clear.
John poked his head around the corner and signaled for Mary and Sam to proceed, and they entered the barn through one of the windows. The bales of hay beneath their feet crunched slightly with each step. Sam squinted in the dim interior of the barn, which was only illuminated by the occasional ray of sunlight which filtered through the cracks in the wooden planks.
His eyes adjusted to the dark environment after a while, and he could make out six vampires sleeping on slightly swaying hammocks. Sam followed behind Mary as the both of them made their way past the sleeping creatures quietly.
Sam spotted the glass bottles littered on the ground after he knocked them down with his feet.
Oh crap.
Sam held his breath as the nearest vampire shifted in his hammock, but fortunately for them, he did not wake.
Thank god.
Mary waved to Sam when she found a bloodied girl tied to a post in the middle of the barn.
"Sam," Mary whispered.
Sam stood guard over them as Mary worked to free the girl.
"Shhh…I'm here to help," Mary whispered as the girl opened her eyes.
Sam flinched when a shrill scream filled the air, followed by a loud thump.
What the...
The head of the girl rested beside her slumped body, and bright red blood dripped from Mary's machete. Sam took a second to realize what was going on.
The girl. They had turned her.
Sam fervently hoped that none of the vampires were awakened by the commotion, but apparently that was too much to ask.
One by one, they climbed off their hammocks and slowly stalked Sam and Mary, who were backing up against a wall. From the corner of his eye, he saw Mary nod.
There was only one way out of here, and that was to fight their way out.
The next time Dean woke, he was no longer in Bobby's room. The brown, wallpapered walls were replaced by cream white ones, and all the homely furniture and clutter were replaced by what seemed like hospital equipment.
He looked down onto himself. In place of his T-shirt and jeans were a set of plain white scrubs. His cast was still there, but hey, for once he was not hooked up to anything.
A dream? Dean was actually unsure if he was referring to all that had happened before he woke up here or if he was referring to the present moment.
No, no. Everything was way too vivid to be a dream.
A familiar voice wafted into the room through the opened door. Dean got out of the bed, and was pleasantly surprised that nothing else in the room moved with him. In fact, he felt normal, and healthy. Still a little washed out, but he felt more human than he did for days.
"Yea Sam," there was the voice again.
Wasn't that Bobby? He was talking to Sam?
"I don't know."
His voice got louder as Dean approached the man. Bobby was talking on his phone with his back facing Dean.
"No. The doctors don't know squat!"
"Yea okay. Come quickly you lot," Bobby hung up.
"Bobby? What's wrong?" Dean went up to the man.
Bobby sat down heavily onto one of the plastic chairs along the hallway and continued to fiddle with his phone.
"Hey, Bobby? What the hell happened? Why am I here?" Dean sat down across the old hunter.
Was Bobby ignoring him?
"Bobby! Hey!" Dean snapped his fingers right in front of Bobby's face.
Dean sensed that something was wrong when Bobby still did not acknowledge him.
"What the hell?" Dean rose from his chair.
He waved his hand at a passing nurse.
"Oh my god."
Nobody could see him.
He felt the wind being knocked out of his lungs when the vampire threw him against the wooden crates. His machete flew out of his hands as he landed onto the, thankfully, hay-covered ground.
"Sam!" He heard his mother shout.
Damn it. The machete was just a little out of Sam's reach. The vamp snarled and stepped towards him. Sam moved back and cussed when his back met the resistance of a wall. But the wall seemed to budge a little when he pushed against it.
Hang on. It's a damn door!
Sam pushed open the heavy door and sunlight rained down onto the approaching vamp, causing it to bury its face behind its hands. Sam knocked the distracted vampire down onto the ground and beheaded it with a swing of his machete.
That was close.
Ow. Sam rubbed his sore back. He stood up just in time to see his mother take down the last vampire. Its head dropped soundlessly, followed by its kneeling body.
Sam yelled when he saw his dad emerge from one of the rooms,"Dad! You okay?"
"I got it, let's go," John yelled back.
"Wait! There are still people trapped in there. We have to get them out," Mary pointed to a fenced corner of the barn.
Dean was staring down at his own body. There were no words to describe how freaking weird it was. Huh. The first time in days that he felt normal, and turns out, he was not even…
And the part about how he was not hooked up to anything? Damn. They must have connected him with every life-sustaining machine in existence. Dean bent down to read his medical chart hanging at the foot of his bed.
"Gosh," Dean shook his head.
Basically nothing was working right inside him.
"How am I even alive," Dean chuckled.
"Not for long, Dean."
Dean whirled around and came to face with Azazel.
"You again. What do you want? Sorry, I don't think I'm up to helping you get anyone now. So will you just go away and let me die in peace?" Dean flicked his thumb towards his body.
"I already told you what I want. But don't worry, Dean. You aren't too far gone to help me. Just give me a ring whenever you change your mind. It'll work even if you're well, not in you anymore," Azazel tapped a finger against his temple.
"And I've already told you to go to hell," Dean retorted.
"C'mon Dean! Why are you still protecting them, huh? You're dying over here, and where are they? Not here."
"They're going to kill you, you son of a bitch."
"Even I can see it. They don't need you, Dean. Not like you need them. Seen how happy your dad is when he's around Mary and Sam? Happier than he ever was when he was stuck with you. They hunt together, they have each other's backs. But you? They think that you're a liability."
"Oh, this isn't going to work on me," Dean smirked and shook his head.
No, it wasn't. Azazel was going to have to try harder than that.
"You really don't think that they're planning on saving you, do you? Okay, maybe they are, but that would just be icing on the cake. Saving you is not the main mission. You said it yourself, they want to kill me, Dean. To save little Sammy and Mary. And if they succeed, you're going to die too."
"I don't mind really, as long as you die," Dean shrugged.
"You know, you could be walking out of here by tomorrow, parts all oiled and working the way they should. Just tell me where they are."
"Nah, think I'm just getting comfortable in that bed you know," Dean patted the bed, but his hand went all the way through.
"Think about what I said, Dean. And I guess I don't need to remind you about your ticking clock. You know where to find me if you changed your mind," Azazel leered at him before he vanished.
Dean swallowed thickly glanced back at his own body. Dean always thought that he would be able to embrace his own death, but now that he was staring at death right in the face, he was utterly terrified.
"I don't want to die," Dean breathed.
"That was Bobby," Sam leaned forward and rested his hands on the front seat, in between his parents.
"Dean's at the hospital. Bobby brought him there when his heart stopped," Sam announced somberly.
"What?!" His parents exclaimed.
"Is he..." John looked at Sam briefly before returning his gaze to the road.
"He's in a coma now. The doctors don't know why, but Dean's body is failing. He's not even breathing on his own," Sam sighed.
Sam tried hard not to think about what that meant. They were running out of time.
"But he's going to be okay, right? Did the doctors say that he's gonna be okay?" His mom looked shell-shocked.
"They're not…" Sam paused, "it's the third time his heart had stopped today."
"How long more?" Mary asked John.
"We're almost there. Almost there," John said as he floored the accelerator.
"Hey Bobby," Dean sat down warily beside a sleeping Bobby, and was relieved when he did not just fall through the chair.
That got Dean thinking though. Why was he unable to grab anything when he could stay solid on whatever surface he was on? Anyway…back to the situation at hand.
"I'm scared, Bobby. I'm really scared. Never thought I'd say this out loud. Man, I sound like a freaking baby," Dean sighed.
"You think I'm still going to go to hell if Azazel dies? I don't want to go to hell Bobby."
"I don't deserve to go to hell. I tried so hard to do good my whole life..."
Dean felt a sharp pang in his chest.
What was happening to him?
"Nggh," Dean gasped as the pain got worse.
He looked down onto himself. He was freaking flickering for god's sake.
Oh crap. He was dying.
Bobby was jerked awake by the loud announcement.
"Code Blue, Room 3751. Code Blue, Room 3751."
A group of medical personnel sprinted past him into the room Dean was in.
"That can't be good," Bobby muttered and followed behind them.
Bobby caught a glimpse of the doctor doing chest compressions on Dean before a nurse pushed Bobby out of the room and slammed the door in his face.
"Please sir, you have to stay outside," an orderly standing by beside him said.
Bobby wanted to tell him to go screw himself.
"What's happening?" Bobby asked instead.
"Cardiac arrest," the orderly stated monotonously.
There had to be a limit on how many times one's heart could stopped and restarted before it gives out for good. Bobby watched as his watch ticked, as minutes passed without any news from inside the room.
After what seemed like eternity, a doctor opened the door. The annoying beeping of the heart machine had to be one of the sweetest sounds that Bobby had ever heard.
Oh Jesus. Thank god. Dean was still alive.
"Is he okay?" Bobby let the doctor lead him back to the plastic chairs.
"Mr Singer, I hate to break it to you but your nephew's far from okay. This is his fourth cardiac arrest in a day. His heart is going to continue arresting as his organs continue to shut down. The arrests have taken a toll on his body, and honestly, the prognosis is…"
"I know. He's a dead man unless we find what is causing this," Bobby cut the doctor off.
He did not need to be reminded about Dean's grim condition once every damn hour.
"I assure you that we are still working on finding the cause of his organ failure. So far there had been nothing. Perhaps…"
Bobby saw the piece of form that the doctor was holding in his hand.
DNR Order Form
"You're not giving up on him," Bobby stated as calmly as he could.
There was no way in hell that he was going to sign on that damn paper. No way. Not to mention what Mary and John would do to him if he did.
Dean just had to hang on a little longer. The rest of the Winchesters were on their way back with Samuel Colt's gun. They were so close.
"The machines are the only thing that's keeping him alive at the moment. The rate that his organs are failing, there is no way that he is going to…"
"The answer's still no, doctor. Now, go away before your nose and my fist become fast friends," Bobby stared daggers at the doctor.
"Mr Singer, you are just going to prolong his…"
"I said NO! Goddamnit!" Bobby snapped.
The doctor glared back at Bobby before leaving him alone.
Just a little longer Dean.
Just a little longer.
"Thanks, Bobby," Dean shoulder-bumped the oblivious hunter, "for not giving up on me."
"I'm so screwed."
DNR= 'Do Not Resuscitate'
Ooh..I don't want to think what Mary and John would do if Bobby signed that form.
-Kelsie