Dawn – Chpt 11.

by: sifi.

--

The heavy thump of heavy articles landing on the floor drew John's oldest son out of his sleep. The next thing that registered was fast, hard footfalls and an agitated series of moans in his brother's voice.

His eyes opened, immediately tracking his little brother pacing the room, his good arm raised, his hand fisted into his hair. Sweat poured down his face, his t-shirt almost glistening it was so soaked through.

He forced himself upright as quickly as possible, "Sam? What's the matter?"

"I screwed up Dean," he breathed as his fist clenched tighter and he bit his lip, "I left us vulnerable and I don't know what happened..."

Dean pushed himself to his feet frowning, "Sam you're soaking wet, what happened?" he moved to the bathroom and grabbed a towel then sat his little brother down on the bed.

"I don't know, something went wrong, I forgot to seal the room, it could have found us, I stayed up, had to make sure it was okay y'know?" he looked up as Dean wrapped the towel over his head and started rubbing him dry.

"You been up all night Sam? What's the matter with you man? You need to be careful with yourself! I NEED you to be strong and healthy or you're gonna get killed!" Dean snarled.

Sam felt his jaw drop and his heart thump hard against his ribs as his face crumpled, "Oh no... No no... Oh hell Dean! I'm sorry..." he shook his head then clamped his teeth down on his trembling lower lip, "Oh God... I screwed that up too..." he half collapsed forward, his forehead landing hard on Dean's shoulder, shades of the uncertainties of youth rattling through his mind, reminding him of the moments when he'd been less than expected, when he was certain he'd let his big brother down.

His fathers' voice echoed in the back of his brain, from the depths of his memory, "I don't have the time Dean, Jim needs help, NOW. You can't do the job AND watch his backside, it'll just get one or the both of you dead. He doesn't have what it takes to survive this life, he's too soft... Look, he'll be fine on his own, but he's not the one you want at your back..."

"Easy tiger, easy, it's alright..." Dean shook his head and frowned concerned as he pat his little brother on the back, reminded of all the times he knew Sam felt he'd never quite measured up. Mist threatened his eyes as he thought of all the things between them, all the secrets they shared that John had never even known existed; from Sam's first detention for kicking a bully's ass, to the skunking in Arkansas, to the time when Sam had covered Dean's chores for almost a week when Miss McKetridge had beat him so badly for throwing up in class, that he could barely walk. "Lick it up or pay the price for making a mess..." bitch. He thought remembering Sam's horrified and completely confused expression when he'd seen the heavy black welts from her pointer-stick crisscrossing over his back.

"No... can't do anything right, screw it all up... did it again..." Sam mumbled.

"Holy crap man, you're practically on fire," Dean hissed pushing his little brother off himself and grasping him by the face, "Sam, listen to me now okay?" he searched for his brothers gaze, for comprehension in those glassy eyes, "Look at me Sam," he instructed in a firm voice and felt relief as they grasped his and held on.

"Blew it... didn't seal the room..." he shook his head.

Dean took a breath and glanced at the table where the shaft of Holy wood sat in a small bit of ash on a plate. He pressed his forehead to his little brothers, his hands on either side of his face, holding him steady, hoping to hold onto his focus for just another moment.

"Yes, yes you did Sam, you sealed the room, and you kept watch, you did good, but it's my turn now okay?" he smiled into his little brothers' hopeful face.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah you did good, but now I want you to change your shirt dude, dry off first though okay?" he lay the towel on the bed and started hiking the shirt up until Sam took over, "I'll be right back..." he moved into the bathroom and tossed all but one of the towels into the sink and ran the cold water over them.

When he turned around Sam wasn't on the bed anymore. For a split second as he leaned out the bathroom door his heart flipped into his throat until he saw the younger man on his knees, mounding the line of rock salt at the door, making sure it was solid before moving to check the window.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered turning the younger man from the window, "C'mon Sam, the lines are fine..." he maneuvered his little brother back to the bed, sat him down and pulled the dripping t-shirt over his head.

Even as he reached for the towel Sam began to shiver, his teeth chattering wildly, his skin pebbled in goose flesh and his hands shaking like an old man.

"D, D, Dean... c,c,cold..." he chattered, his brows furrowed deeply as he clasped the towel around his shoulders and gave in to the need to lay down.

"I know Sam, s'alright," he breathed pulling the covers over the young man, "We'll get you warmed up in no time," grabbing the first aid kit from the table he rooted around till he found the temperature strip then pressed it to his little brother's forehead.

--

"I don't know if we should, or if we should just figure on staying here another day," Dean sighed and shakily returned his cup of coffee to the table before turning back to Sam who lay tossing in the bed.

"Here you go," Tom returned with six zip-lock bags of ice wrapped in towels from their room, "How high was it?" he asked wedging the first bag carefully into the young hunters' right armpit while Dean reached under the covers pressing a bag under each of Sam's knees.

"A hundred and three point four," he scowled and placed the last two bags over a towel laid across his little brother's hips, "I fed him four aspirin before he finally gave out, I don't like this... if his temp doesn't start coming down the next step is a cool bath, and he'll scream bloody murder at that I promise," Dean shook his head and wiped a heavy layer of sweat from his own brow.

"Here y'go Dean, y'can't both get sick," Shep dropped a couple tablets into the elder brothers' hand then pressed the strip to his forehead.

He read the older man's scowl and asked, "How bad is it?"

"Hundred and one, six, could be plenty worse," he grunted.

"Damn."

"Still better 'n it was when we put you to bed last night, but by no means good. This is gonna kill you boys if we're not careful," Tom nodded.

"Do you remember what happened yesterday Dean?" Shep asked.

Slowly John's boy nodded, "Yeah I do. I remember it all Shep."

Green-gold eyes met cornflower blues as he and Tom shared a look, "Do you know how to stop this thing? The marauder and his army?"

Dean winced swallowing down the tablets with a slug of coffee before looking back and forth between them, "I don't know I think maybe...there has to be a way," he looked at Sam and shook his head, "I don't know. He didn't feel like he was afraid, he was confident," he huffed an ironic chuckle and felt despair clutching at his heart as his little brother whimpered beside him, his hands flailing, his body twisting in the sheets as he tried to escape the cold, and the ice bags were pushed away.

"Easy Sam, c'mon now," he tried to soothe as the young man kicked the sheets and blankets to the floor.

"Nuh... stop..." he twisted, tracks of black suture knots over his back, shoulder, and flank where one of the wolves had taken a chunk of him, all of them angry red, hot and straining with his torturous movements.

"Sam c'mon now..." Dean moved to the side of the bed, grasping at the young man as he tried to roll away, tight grunts and wheezing rattling in his chest, "S'okay Sam, it's okay I'm here, you're safe now," he looked up at their friends, "I hate seeing him like this, I'm supposed to take care of him... it's my job, I'm supposed to look after him, keep him healthy and safe... maybe even sometimes help him find something to make him happy for a little while y'know?" he sniffed through the hot buzzing in his head.

"None of this is your fault Dean,"

"It's not your fault," Tom and Shep said together.

"Dean!" Sam barked as his eyes ripped open at the same time his big brother's good arm came over his sweat slicked chest and pushed him back down onto the bed.

"I'm here Sam, I gotcha," he reached for the ice bags and returned them to the pressure points, then drew the blankets over him again.

"Cold Dean," he breathed shakily while moisture spilled from his eyes.

"Gotta get the fever down to somewhere reasonable little brother," Dean explained.

"S'bad?" he asked.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, pretty bad... if we can't get it under control we're gonna hafta put you in the tub dude."

Sam's face crumpled as he shook his head and sniffed, "No... not again please... I'll be good."

"Okay, okay, we'll try okay?" Dean swept his dripping hair back and mopped his forehead again.

"Mmmm," he nodded, "Unnh... no tub... I'll be good..."

"Shhh just rest Sammy... close your eyes and rest..."

John's youngest nodded his head and did as he was told, closing his eyes, trying to rest, trying to forget the fire he'd felt once before, more than half a lifetime ago.

"Again?" Tom asked.

"Yeah," Dean nodded solemnly, "We were up in a cabin in Colorado, not too far from Dan Elkins' place come to think of it... Dad was off hunting something... if we were that close to Elkins it was probably vampires...heh..." he chuckled shaking his head, "Sam was about eleven. We knew he'd been coming down with something for a few days, we figured it was a cold or something, maybe the flu, no big deal y'know?"

They nodded.

"Well sure enough the flu hit, then came the measles."

"Measles?" they questioned.

"Yep," Dean shook his head, "Don't ask me how, we always made sure Sam's vaccinations were up to date, but you know Sam, he can't do anything half assed so when he went down, he went down hard... I don't remember how high his fever spiked, but it scared the crap out of me, I was terrified," he held up his finger as they opened their mouths to ask, "And before you ask, typical Winchester luck, freak mountain storm, dad had the impala, and the phone went out. I mean we were set to hunker in just in case y'know? We had everything we should have needed, if it'd been just the flu we would've been fine, but out pops the measles."

"What'd you do?" Shep asked.

"What could I do? I filled up the tub with luke warm water when the packs wouldn't do the job, stripped the kid down to his tightie whities and put him in the tub," he shook his head, "I never wanna hear him scream like that again, and I know it hurt like a son of a bitch, the steam just kept rolling off his skin...looked like he'd been cooking from the inside," he shuddered a breath and felt his brother's forehead with the back of his hand, "I don't wanna do that to him again."

"Beats the possibility of brain damage Dean," Tom patted his knee.

"If it gets up to a hundred and four he's going back to a hospital," he nodded.

Shep placed the strip to Sam's forehead and watched the color bar slide upward until it stopped.

"Hmm one oh three point one... it's coming down," he smiled shakily.

"Good," Dean nodded, "If we can get it to hold at about one oh two five I won't worry about us hitting the road this afternoon, we can drive through the night, he can sleep," he motioned to Sam. Not to mention that if he didn't finish the seal until late last night we could be definitely be in some real danger.

"So soon?"

"That thing can find us if we're in one place too long. For every hour we stay in one place to recuperate, the marauder gets an hour to recover as well. I honestly don't know how or why it hasn't commandeered someone else yet... unless it's biding its time."

"We need to get you boys somewhere safe that's for sure," Shep nodded.

--

"I don't know!" Bobby barked, his anxiety boiling slowly just below the surface, "She's probably out of range of a tower or something... why don't you guys go see if you can home in on her huh?" he challenged the sidhe warrior who pointed to all the others who'd clustered around and were bound to the location until the emissary showed up to perform the last bit of ritual to lock the protective Cone of Power into place.

"I know I know, you can't leave until she gets here..." he threw his hands up in the air and knelt down before the small worried warrior, "Look cell phones go out all the time, I'm sure she'll call, I'm sure there's no reason to be worried..." he looked around at the doubtful faces, "Do you think there's reason to be worried?" he asked.

The looks that passed among the sidhe were easily read, they didn't know. She should have checked in, they all knew it, and given what they were planning for the upcoming weekend the only way they were certain that she wouldn't, was if she couldn't. But they also knew that 'couldn't' could mean a lot of things.

Finally the one called Mustard Seed shrugged, but the concern never left his face as his eyes held onto Bobby's blues.

"It could be anything from car trouble, to cell phone trouble, or even no trouble... it was her idea to get hold of a demon and bring it to show the others... maybe she's on the trail of one..." he rattled off the possibilities to the warrior, "Or maybe..." he started and stopped, "Maybe I oughtta just shut up... When the guys call tonight I'll ask if they've heard anything."

--

Laura looked out at a world skewed sideways, unable to even lift her arm, her fingers crawled across the floor between them, reaching out to try and feel for a pulse as red dripped down her face and into her eye, clouding her vision.

--

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.