Wounds – chpt 10 – s.n. fic.

by: sifi

--

Sam was the first to awaken in the morning, it couldn't be considered unusual no matter which of the Winchester brothers woke first, sometimes it was Dean and sometimes it was Sam. The thing of it was Sam had noticed, that when Laura was with them Dean slept later. It was as if he didn't want to waken because that would mean having to let go of her. He thought Laura might feel the same way since she seemed also to sleep not just late but very heavily too.

Thinking about it as he pulled on his jeans and hoodie Sam was happy that there was someone out there for Dean, and his mind flew to Sarah and then to Jess. He wondered if he'd told Jess about what he'd grown up doing, if she could have not only handled it, but accepted that part of him. He thought of his big brothers' words that far away night as they stood on the bridge off Centennial Highway when Dean asked him if Jess knew, he could hear the desperation in his own voice even now when he thought about what he'd said, "No, and she's not ever going to…" and Dean's subsequent retort, "Well that's healthy…"

He huffed, if he'd known then what he knew now, that Dean had told Cassie after only a few weeks with her, that it was possible for a normal woman… Dude, Cassie freaked remember? Broke up with him? Actually I was talking about Laura… oh you mean the woman who remembers no less than three, count 'em three previous lives because she was under a curse? Oh yeah… forgot about that…Well she still didn't do the whole evil fighting thing and didn't know other people did… that's true… to accept what they'd been taught to do all their lives and accept them for their part in it. He wondered if his life would have been different if he'd had that hope his brother had shown.

It wasn't the first time he wondered such a thing, but with the introduction of Sarah into his life, a woman who knew what he and his family did, had stood beside them doing it and helped as much as she could have, and in the end to find she'd still wanted him, he found himself more curious about the possibilities. He began to wonder if somehow the two worlds he straddled could find a way to co-exist, all he might need is the right woman, one made just for him like Dean had found for himself, even if he never admitted it.

Stepping out of the bathroom he stood at the dresser sifting through his wallet and going over what everyone liked in their coffee as well as for breakfast. Coffee black for Dean, cream only for Laura, and cream and sugar for himself, Cinnamon apple muffin or danish for Dean, bran muffin for Laura and blueberry for himself. Got it… Good thing they don't get sick of the same stuff…he thought and scratched his head taking a look at the dresser. Wait a minute… that's not right…my bag… Dean's bag… oh that's right hers is on the…I thought it was on the floor…he looked back, then between the bed and the wall and finally back in the bathroom before bothering to look at the bed. Dean was curled on his side, the blankets up to his ear. Unceremoniously Sam grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it down finding his big brother curled around a pillow.

"Hmm? Sammy what're you doing?" he muttered grasping at the air for the blanket with one hand while the other squeezed the pillow he was curled around and his eyes cracked open.

"What's goin' on?"

"She's gone…" Sam breathed unable to believe those words were coming out of his mouth.

"Laura's gone…" he reiterated as his big brother woke fully and took in the situation.

Sam's eyes scanned the room and fell on the notepad between the beds. He lurched for it and scanned the page then handed it to Dean who was already on his feet beside him.

"Guys,

Something is very wrong, I need to find out what it is before I wind up

putting either of you in harm's way…As soon as I get a new cell phone I'll

call and let you know what I find out, I promise… I'm not running, whining

or feeling sorry for myself… but I am scared and whatever's happening

is dangerous… for the time being, you're both safer without me around…trust

me please… I'll call you later, I promise.

Love you both!

Laura."

"Oh that's a load 'o b.s.!" Dean snarled grabbing his pants and jumping into them quickly while he looked at Sam who was already packing.

"What?" Sam asked.

Dean shrugged, his face crumpled in confusion and a dire need for caffeine, he opened his mouth and shut it quickly, "I don't get it…"

"Well, maybe she thought of something, or thought of a lead or something…she said she'll call Dean, she promised… has she broken a promise to you?" Sam asked, honestly wondering.

Dean shook his head, "No…no she hasn't," he realized knowing he'd not only remember it if she had, but he wouldn't be able to trust her like he did either.

"Then she'll call… do we still go to Bobby's?" Sam asked suddenly realizing they had no idea where she was heading or what they were supposed to do while they waited.

"Hell yeah…." Dean nodded, "We treat this like any other case Sam…Besides, I wanna talk to that son of a bitch and make sure he's not the one jerking her torque!"

Sam grinned, "Dude that sounds sooo wrong…"

Dean nodded, "Yeah it does. Alright… coffee, breakfast and Bobby's in that order."

--

Laura shook her head, she couldn't get the image of her own hand pressing the blade of one of her knives into Dean's throat. She was honestly amazed that it had only left a red mark and not drawn blood, she kept her knives sharp. She chalked it up to the something deep inside that had screamed for her to 'snap out of it'… So Cher! before it was too late. Even as she thought about it her hands shook, not meager trembles but the kind of shock-shaking that usually comes when you've watched someone die horribly, like cut in half by a train or something. I almost killed him… I could have killed him… I wouldn't have, somehow I would've stopped myself… yeah I did but by how much? My God if I ever did anything to hurt him I'd kill myself…there's no way I could live with myself that's for sure…he's so gentle… people don't understand that… not even his family knows his heart…he won't let them see it… but he let me in, he showed me everything he's never been able to show anyone, his hopes, fears and dreams… as trite as the trilogy sounds… sometimes trite is right…men like that just don't come along in this day and age…heh not that I'd know…the last time I had a date was what? 1907? Except for Dean that is…he understands and he accepts…I love him so much it hurts… ahhh…she smiled and sighed as she drove due West, That's the kind of pain I'd be happy to live with until the day I die…hunting side by side by side…at least 'till Sammy decides to go be with Sarah…then it would just be side by side… until the day we died…ackh! Frakkin' romantic… She shrugged internally and knew it was true, but it was a side she didn't like others to see.

As the sun embraced her from behind on her journey she thought about what she was about to do, what she needed to do. She needed access to the veiled realms, she needed access to the threads of the universe, most importantly the threads to her patron deity and the only way she could access those threads without alerting any other beings on the same plane as him, was by utilizing the natural resources at her disposal, that meant using places called vortices, or nexuses. Geographic places where energies coalesced and swirled and could be consciously tapped by the initiated, subconsciously by the uninitiated which could and did occasionally lead to ruination. It was actually her beloved Dean who reminded her of their existence and set the seed in her mind to growing. In his arms she'd remembered his tale of the summer of '92 and all the tribulations he'd endured because his father wanted nothing more than to protect him from an ancient leech-like species.

If her patron deity wasn't helping her, perhaps it was more that he couldn't, but in some way, already had by giving her the tools she needed to discover what in her little evil hunting world had gone so horribly wrong, all she need do was to put the pieces together and use the information she had to discover the crux of the mystery at hand. Once she knew the mystery, and its origin… she could act appropriately. The sad thing was that there were so few uncorrupted vortices left in the world that she would have to use what was available, and that meant Wounded Knee, in South Dakota and the site of an historical obscenity.

--

She pulled up and parked less than three feet from the front door of the small pre-fab house and dodged around the car as the door opened.

Her face lit up as Joe Red Bird stepped down onto the first step and smiled at her.

"Joe…" she sighed stepping up and wrapping his bent body into her arms.

He patted her cheek and shook his head then pointed at a large wooden 'T' in the yard, just one end of what was once a clothesline post. "The spirits told me you were coming," he nodded.

Laura followed his finger and saw three blackbirds sitting expectantly on the wooden brace. She nodded comforted by the omen. She was in the right place.

Hugging him tight she pressed her lips to his cheek then helped him down the last two steps and into the car, "The bullets you made for the boys work… thank you… I can't imagine what a toll that must've taken on you to make them…"

He waved her off and strapped himself into the seat.

"Just doing my little part in the fight against evil," he grinned and his eyes fell onto a box of Swisher Sweets sticking out of the dash. He slid them into his pocket and looked at Laura. "You remembered…" he smiled patting his pocket, "So… The Knee huh?" he asked.

"Yeah…I need to take a Spirit Walk…" she nodded and pulled a u-turn back onto the main road that would take them to the memorial.

"The balance is at war around you… one side wants you dead, the other doesn't..." he shook his head and frowned, troubled.

"What'd you see Joe?" she asked.

"Owls and Ravens in the day… it's not the natural order…" he sighed.

Laura felt her skin prickle with gooseflesh. The Ravens, Crows and Blackbirds were messengers of the Warrior Goddess and through her Cernunnos. Owls were nocturnal and harbingers of Death.

"If you spirit walk at The Knee you will enter the realm in a place of tragedy… it could get you killed in the end," he explained.

Laura nodded, "There isn't much choice, I have to find out what's happening and stop it… this can't be allowed to continue."

"You have an idea of what's going on don't you?" he asked.

Laura nodded, "Yeah I do…and if I'm right there's one ancient Bitch who's in need of a serious smack-down… taking her petty grievances out on innocent people on MY watch! Ah nah…not happening!" she ground out through clenched teeth, "…and she put MY man in jeopardy… no way…"

Joe smiled and nodded, "Keep that fire going in your belly and you may stand a chance," he admonished as she bypassed the chain link fence that enclosed the memorial marker to those who'd been hunted off their own lands, crushed by a plague of invaders from the other side of the world, and continued on to Porcupine Butte.

Back at the memorial proper, atop that gently rolling hill a late model Cadillac with a familiar face in the drivers' seat scowling furiously came to a slow stop while above the car an owl circled and in the distance a raven watched.

She could feel the hairs on her arms stand up and had the creepy sensation that someone was watching her as she parked and went to the passenger side of the car, "Joe…" she said softly while helping him out, "If anything happens and I don't make it back, call Dean for me…I promised I'd call him as soon as I got a new cell phone but nothing was open yet and I got here first," she explained.

"I will," Joe nodded cupping her cheek in his chamois soft hand, "if you don't come back I'll tell him your thoughts were of him…" he assured as she nodded, kissed his cheek and brought out a folding chair for him and the few accoutrements she would need. Elemental magik… so simple… so powerful… she huffed and pressed her small silver tray flatly into the grass then filled it with water. Once that was done she sat on her heels and using the point of the knife she'd found herself holding at Dean's throat, sliced the tip of her finger allowing the blood to drip into the tray while her lips moved in a silent Celtic incantation. "Oh God…" she groaned inside as her consciousness slipped from its earthly house and began to pass through realms and ages.

--

Sam's hands slammed against the dashboard of the Impala startling Dean who looked at him curiously and nearly lost control of the car when he saw clear glassy black eyes staring out of his baby brothers' face at him.

"Sam!" he barked, Why when I'm driving! he worked the steering wheel as the car fishtailed before he was able to bring it to the shoulder of the two lane highway. "Sam!"

--

tbc…

Well... managed to get this up before vacation... leaving this morning so...

I hope some of you read this before I get back, I'd love to get

what you're thinking…

Please and thank you!

Means so much!

sifi