Sam woke up with a startle, struggling for air. His lungs were aching and it felt as though he hadn't been breathing for a long time. But that couldn't be true... right? The last thing he remembered was walking through the forest with Dean and Katya, and the lightheadedness that followed.
"Sam?" A familiar voice suddenly said. "You awake?"
Sam tried to open his eyes but they felt incredibly heavy.
"Sammy?" the voice insisted, clearly worried. So Sam kept fighting to open his eyes, which had never been harder. Finally he managed to do it, only to find himself blondes by a bright, cold light. Squinting against it, he could distinguish two blurry silhouettes on his left and right side.
"Dean?" he guessed, blinking the blurry out of his eyes.
"Yeah, Sammy, I'm here."
Relief filled him. Although still disoriented, he knew he was safe with his big brother around.
Sam's eyes gradually grew used to the light and he could finally recognize his big brother sitting to the left of his bed, dark circles under his eyes. He was wearing a concerned frown. "How you feeling?"
"I'm..." Sam hesitated, feeling for any pain or dizziness. He was surprised to fine neither. "I'm actually very good."
Dean shook his head slightly. "You scared me, man."
"What do you mean?" Sam frowned, confused by Dean's comment.
He started looking around the room to find out where he was, so that maybe he could figure how he'd just woken up only a minute ago and he'd already scared his brother. From the bed and white-coat-wearing-guy to his right, he deduced that he was in a hospital room.
"What happened?" he asked.
Dean opened his mouth to reply, but was beat to it by the doctor.
"I'm doctor Gardner", the doctor introduced himself. "Your brother's been telling me that you were attacked by an animal a little while ago. He said he tried to stitch you up himself, but you'd lost too much blood and so he had to bring you in."
While he was talking, Sam suddenly noticed a machine next to his bed. It was monitoring his vitals and heart rate, and with every beat it gave a low but sharp beep. Sam frowned. He recognized the sound from somewhere. Even though he couldn't remember from where, it for some reason gave him a bad feeling.
"Your breathing was very shallow and eventually, your heart stopped," dr. Gardner continued to inform him. "We were just barely able to bring you back."
Sam, surprised, looked over at Dean, who nodded grimly as confirmation. At least that explained him having difficulty breathing. Only moments ago, he'd technically died. Why didn't that scare him more? Somehow, it just felt so familiar..
"Wait", Sam said, suddenly remembering the case. If he'd had the time to die and be resuscitated... "How long have we been here?"
Dean's eyes grew weary, probably knowing how Sam would react. "Almost three hours."
Sam felt his eyes widen, suddenly feeling stressed.
"It's fine, Sam", Dean tried to calm him down.
"No, Dean, we have to go."
But his big brother just shook his head, rubbing a hand across his face. "It's too dangerous. You're not strong enough."
The words felt like a slap across his face. "Yes, I am. I'm fine", Sam said, almost defensively.
Dean gave a frustrated sigh. "You're not fine, Sam! You almost died!"
"Mr. Chester, I'm sorry, but it's out of the question", the doctor interrupted. "We've given you morphine and some blood so while you're probably feeling fine, truth is, you're not. Your heart is weak and stained from trying to pump too little blood through your body, which is why it stopped. Too much moving around, too much effort, and you'll grow tired. Eventually, your heart could give up again."
Sam was surprised by how serious it sounded. He could actually die again, from a little blood loss?
"Okay, so... I'll be on bed rest. I won't move at all. My brother here can take care of all the important stuff." He made sure to put emphasis on the last words, giving Dean a pointed look. His big brother knew the mermaid thing couldn't wait.
Dean sighed again, but must've realized that Sam was right, because he nodded and said; "It's true, Doc. I'll take care of him."
Doctor Gardner frowned, clearly not convinced.
"I just need to get home", Sam said. "Please. You can't keep me here."
Now it was the doctor's turn to sigh. "Okay, then", he surrender. "I can't keep you here against your will, but you have to understand that if I discharge you, it's against doctor's recommendations."
Sam nodded. "I understand."
XXX
About an hour later they were both in the Impala again, driving back toward the motel. Sam had brought one bottle of antibiotics and another with painkillers from the hospital, which the doctor had ordered him to take every four hours.
"I don't care that you saved my ass from Natalie, it was stupid and you never should've come!" Dean was arguing with him.
"It wasn't stupid", Sam said calmly. "I knew what I was getting into and I knew I could handle it."
"Handle it?" Dean exclaimed. "You died!"
"My heart stopped for a few minutes", Sam protested. "I didn't die."
"Yeah, well, technically, you did."
"Whatever", Sam muttered. "I'm just glad I could help you out in the forest, that's what mattered to me."
Dean sighed.
"I know. Thanks for that", he said, still sounding slightly annoyed but obviously trying to rise above. "Just... don't ever do that again."
Sam nodded, understanding more than well how his brother felt. "It won't happen again."
"And you gotta be honest with me, man", Dean said. "You repeatedly assured me that you were fine, good to go, and that you could do this, and then your freaking heart stopped."
"I know", Sam mumbled, looking down at his hands. "I'm sorry, and I will."
Dean nodded slightly, staring straight ahead. "Good. Just so we're on the same page."
After a couple of minutes in silence, they finally reached the motel and Dean parked the car outside. Sam easily got out on his own, the blood transfusion having cured his dizziness, and he enjoyed finally being able to move on his own again.
XXX
It was all very strange. How on the day she'd been planning and preparing for for months, two hunters had shown up to kill her sister.
But after spending all that time refusing to give up, searching and digging and scratching away to find something that would give her her sister back, she wouldn't let them shoot her sister dead.
So she'd used one of them against the other, and it just happened to be the one who'd been previously injured. She truly hadn't meant to hurt him, they both seemed like nice guys, but she was desperate.
And unbelievably, it had worked.
They had believed her about the cure, and even trusted her enough to let her come with to their motel room.
That is, after the long hike through the woods during which the long-haired one- she'd caught the name Sam- had struggled with his injuries. She'd felt bad for having used him the way she did since it clearly had weakened him.
Then there she was, sitting alone in a small motel room, with two beds and an unconscious sister.
Not sure about for how much longer Mona would be out, the first thing Katya had done was to shuffle through her bag and fetch a long metal wire. Then she'd tied it around her sister's body, pushing her arms and legs together.
After a while Mona had woken up, but surprisingly, she hadn't struggled to get out of the wires or bared her monster side. She'd just been sad- which was just so very human.
"Katya", she'd pleaded, her voice filled with sorrow. "Kat."
It had hurt to hear her sister call out for her like that, using her nickname, when she wasn't the same as she used to be. Even her voice wasn't the same. It sounded higher now, clearer. Not as raspy and warm as it used to.
"You know who I am?" Katya had asked, kneeling next to her sister on the floor. "You recognize me?"
"Of course", Mona had replied, tears glistening in her eyes. "You're my sister. How can I forget?"
"So you don't... you don't want to kill me?"
Mona had shaken her head and the tears had begun streaming down her face. "I don't want to kill anyone. I just... don't want to be alone. I'm so alone, Kat."
"It's okay", Katya had told her, feeling her own eyes begin to tear up. "It'll be okay, sis. I'm going to help you."
Hours later, Katya was now sitting on the edge of one of the beds. Her sister was sitting on the other, still confined, just to be safe.
The boys were bound to return any moment now, and Katya was surprised to find herself feeling nervous. She had prepared very carefully what she was going to tell them about the cure. There was no reason for them not to believe her- no reason for them to find out the truth.