Chapter Eleven
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or LOST
John sucked in a deep, shuddering breath as his eyes snapped open and he shot up from the motel bed he had been asleep on. "It was just a dream. It was just a dream."
That couldn't have been real, it just couldn't have. He glanced around at his surroundings and actually took the time to study where he was. It was all painfully familiar, from the vintage furniture right down to the musty smell that he never got used to until it was time to move on to the next town, the next motel, the next hunt. His body immediately sagged in relief. Never in his life had he been more grateful to wake up in one of the dingy-ass motel rooms that translated to his normal.
I am an angel of the Lord.
My name is Castiel.
"An angel of the Lord," John skeptically spoke aloud as he placed a hand over his racing heart. He had been nothing like pop culture or even the renaissance paintings had portrayed angels to be. Castiel was gruff and matter-of-fact in his duty to relay facts in order to request assistance.
Maybe, or maybe he was just aware that those tactics were the fastest way to break through John's carefully constructed shell.
Still, an angel. He'd been hunting for decades and he'd never come across an angel, nor had he heard stories about them from any other hunters. Mind you, in the last ten years or so, he'd stuck close to only Dean and Bobby and even the latter had eventually fallen by the wayside. Maybe angels had emerged during that time.
Your two sons are trapped on that very island complete with the creature that killed your wife.
It couldn't be a demon…why would a demon warn him about that? Why would a monster do anything to save anyone in his family? He thought back to the last two months. Supernatural occurrences had been high for a few weeks there, but then they'd all diminished.
Maybe he'd been telling the truth.
As the regular itch to search his journal presented itself, John knew that even if he still had it in his possession that it would have been a pointless endeavor. He'd written every single scrap of information in that thing based on his own experiences and angels had never been something he'd ever worried about or studied.
He definitely needed help, he wasn't too proud to admit that. He reached over to the nightstand for his cell phone, opened it up and scrolled through his contacts until he got to the familiar number and clicked send.
RING RING RING "Agent Willis speaking."
John absentmindedly rubbed at the dull throb that had appeared behind his temples before he let out an aggravated sigh. "Cut the crap, Bobby. It's John."
"John! Well, damn boy, it's been a good two hours since I last spoke to you. You're gonna make me feel like you got a crush or something," Bobby sarcastically noted. John clenched his eyes shut and pressed his phone against his forehead before he held it back up to his ear. There was no use in him taking his bad mood out on Bobby, not if he expected to get any information out of him. "You manage to find anything useful, yet?"
"I'm not sure," John admitted as he sat back down on the bed with a sigh. "Hey, just out of curiosity, do you happen to have any books or lore regarding…um…angels?"
The silence that permeated into his ear extended past several seconds before John rolled his eyes in irritation. "Hello? Bobby? You there?"
"I'm sorry; you wanna run that one by me again?" Bobby requested. "Sounded like you asked about angels."
"Yeah, I did. Angels," John reiterated. "Look, I don't wanna get into a long and drawn out conversation about this, but the short version is that I think I might have just had a run in with one."
"You had a run in…with an angel," Bobby repeated back dubiously.
"Like I said…I'm not sure," John repeated as that dull throb began to grow.
"I am an angel," a voice spoke up from across the room. John jumped up from the bed and narrowed his eyes at the thing from his dream. Castiel remained oblivious to the tension that John now radiated as he examined one of the books on demonic lore that John had left out on the motel desk.
"Angels ain't real, John," Bobby's voice clarified through the phone. "You should know that fact just based on the lives that we lead…on what we do."
"Look, I can't explain what happened to me, Bobby," John barked at him as he kept his eyes solely focused on Castiel. "It came to me in a dream and it had information about the boys and the demon."
"I am not an 'it'," Castiel corrected him as he opened another one of the books and contentedly settled on a particular passage.
"You didn't stop to think that it might have just been a regular dream?" Bobby questioned. "Even if it ain't a dream…something you can't explain had information about your boys and the demon and you didn't stop to think that it might be another demon with first-hand information?"
"I'm not sure what I believe," John admitted as he slowly inched away from Castiel and towards the front door of his room.
"Look, I want you to listen carefully to me, alright?" Bobby requested. "Is there something with you right now that's making you ask these things? Cough if you're in trouble."
He wanted to cough into the phone, he really did, but John had a feeling deep in his gut that Castiel wasn't here to harm him. Angel or not, he just wasn't getting an evil vibe from him. "Bobby, can you please cool it with the horseshit," he requested. "I don't know how to prove this to you over the phone, but…"
He stopped speaking as Castiel looked up at him and almost instantly crossed the room and stopped directly in front of him. John startled at his speed and dropped his phone onto the faded, shag carpeting as Castiel pressed two fingers gently to his forehead. His eyes instantly closed as a sense of weightlessness filled his body before he felt his feet slam down solidly onto concrete. The first thing he noticed was the humidity that suddenly surrounded him.
He slowly opened his eyes to find his motel room gone and Castiel right in front of him, surrounded by several rows of old and filthy cars. "What the hell? Where are we? What did you do?"
Castiel's features remained impassive as he stood rooted to his spot. "I mean you no harm, John Winchester. I require your help as you require mine." He pointed behind John and waited as he curiously spun around.
His eyes widened as he reached forward and brushed his fingers over the familiar black paint of the Impala. He held back tears as he quickly retrieved his own set of keys from his pocket and moved around to the back of the car to fit them into the trunk lock. They easily slipped into the mechanism and he opened it up and pulled up the false bottom to reveal the arsenal of weapons that his son had amassed over the years.
"Why'd you bring me here?" John asked as he brushed his fingers over Dean's sawed off shotgun as a knot formed in his throat.
"I want you to know that you can trust me," he answered in the same gravelly tone. "We did not have time for your attempts to communicate my existence. You and I have work to do."
"What in the hell were you two thinking?" Jack growled heatedly over his shoulder as he continued to stalk through the jungle back to the hatch. Sam could feel the doctor's rage all the way from his position at the back of the hiking trail and couldn't help but roll his eyes. For a man so staunched in self-righteousness, he couldn't see the merit of anything other than his own orders. He'd make one hell of a hunter, that is, if hunting didn't require a certain level of awareness that every situation was not always salvageable.
He jogged forward a few steps and held his hand out to Locke to assist him over a large root in the ground as the older man did his best to hobble behind their group on his crutches. "You think this might be the one hike you should have passed on attending until you were completely healed up?"
Jack shouted out another sarcastic question back to Sam that he effectively ignored as Locke shook his head around a grin. "Maybe that would have been wise," he agreed. "Or maybe I just possess the same resilience as your brother."
"Or the same lack of common sense," Sam snorted back. Locke let out a deep belly laugh at Sam's cheek and nodded his head in amused agreement at the joke.
"Are you even listening?!" Jack bellowed.
"Not to a single word," Sam quickly confirmed back. He glanced up as Jack shot him a murderous look before he shook his head and continued forward. "Jack, whether you want to admit this or not, Dean is his own person. It's not up to me to inform you of everything that happens on this island as it happens. I know you'd prefer us to all do as you say and not as you do, but that's not how I was brought up to be." Jack stopped and turned to face him as the anger on his face twisted into confrontation.
As far as Sam was concerned, he was more than welcome to try. After the few months he'd endured before his captivity on this island, Sam was more than willing to knock Jack's attitude down a few pegs. He knew that Jack hated to lose. He'd proven that by his rash decisions, and he not only took his leadership role very seriously, but he seemed to use it as a go-to excuse for when things went south. He was passionate about the survival of everybody from their crash, but his impulsive nature often escalated the danger of most of the situations that the survivors found themselves in.
"Jack, leave them alone," Kate interjected wearily from in front of him.
"No, Jack…don't leave them alone," Sawyer argued.
"Oh, shut up, Sawyer," Jack turned his ire onto him. "I find it extremely hard to believe that you were completely in the dark about Dean sending all of us on a wild goose chase while he was left alone in the hatch with Ana Lucia's attacker."
"Oh, ain't that just swell," Sawyer snarked as he held his hands out to his sides. He turned and pointed back to Sam and Locke as Jack stomped past him with a pointed glare. "Gimpy McCrutch and Baby Brother over there cover up that the Artist Formally Known as Henry Gale tried to strangle his little amiga and suddenly it's on me when he goes all vigilante."
Jack immediately spun back around to face Sawyer head on, the furious challenge back on his face as he stepped closer and closer to him. "How about you just go back to the beach?"
"Hey, that is enough," Kate cut in as she pushed in between both men and leveled them each with a disappointed look. She scoffed at their behavior as they continued to stare each other down before Jack shook his head and moved to take the lead for the group.
Sam had to admit, this entire hike could have turned out much worse. Yes, it had been in vain, but with Jack's shaky leadership status, Locke's desire for leadership, Kate's inability to follow any type of instructions and Sawyer's disdain for everything, they had all managed to get back to the hatch without any bloodshed. Despite Jack's current irritation at his brother, he could definitely count this as a win.
The proud smirk faded from Sam's face as the hatch door, not even fifteen yards in front of them, burst open and Michael stumbled out and collapsed onto the jungle floor. He had a tight grip on his shoulder as blood poured through his fingers and onto his shirt. Damnit…spoke too soon.
"Michael?!" Jack shouted as he ran the few yards between them. He slid down next to him and leaned forward to help support his weight as he inspected the source of Michael's bleeding.
"He shot me," Michael moaned in pain as his features twisted into a grimace.
"Who?" Jack asked.
"No, he's gone," Michael shook his head. "He, uh…he ran out."
Jack frantically glanced up at Kate, Sawyer and Sam and nodded over to the open door. "Go. I got him."
Kate nodded back to him before they all ran through the open door and down the stairway into the hatch with Locke slowly bringing up the rear behind them.
"I…I was sleeping and I heard gunshots," Michael panted out in obvious pain. Jack placed his flashlight in his mouth and directed it at Michael's wound as he used a cloth to clean up the excess blood while he listened. "I came out of the bedroom and there was this guy. He had a gun and…" He stopped his explanation as a strangled moan escaped his lips.
Jack nodded his head. "Okay, come on…we've got to get you up," he instructed.
"Let me help you," an accented voice offered from behind Jack. He stood up and turned as Eko stepped forward and stared down at Michael sympathetically. Jack smiled appreciatively at him before he leaned down and they both carefully lifted Michael up and helped him descend the staircase back down into the hatch.
The air felt wrong and tense as Sam and Sawyer entered the hatch first in front of the others. Where Sam had become accustomed to the mechanical noises that the hatch produced, they were usually interspersed with the other people that milled around during the day. This was complete silence. "Dean?"
"Oh my God," Sawyer muttered from beside him. Sam followed his line of vision as the blood drained from his face. Dean was unconscious and slumped on the ground as a trail of blood ran the length of the wall behind him.
Both men ran full speed to Dean's motionless form and crouched down on either side of him in order to assess the damage. "Jesus Christ. Is he dead?" Sawyer hoarsely asked as Sam timidly placed two fingers at the pulse point on his neck before he visible relaxed.
"He's alive…strong pulse," he shared before he indicated the mangled hole in the front of his shirt. "I think Henry shot him, too."
"Oh God…is he…?" Kate cried out from behind them.
"There ain't no blood coming from there," Sawyer pointed out as they both ignored Kate. Sam gently lifted up his shirt and nearly laughed out loud in relief. A bullet was imbedded into the charm on the necklace that Sam had given to him when they were kids. The woman that Bobby'd gotten it from had been right, it was a protective charm. "Okay, so…where's he bleeding from?"
Jack suddenly pushed past Sawyer in order to get a closer look at Dean. He leaned down and closely inspected his chest where Dean's mangled necklace was laid out. "I think the impact might have broken a rib. Maybe two," he informed them as he pointed out the bruising on his torso. "We need to get him to the back so I can check him out better."
"Jack!" Kate called out to him. "It's Libby. She's been shot, too."
"What in the hell happened down here?" Jack cursed under his breath as he moved to stand, only to be stopped by Sawyer. "Doc, there's blood behind him." Jack looked up at the wall in shock and just now noticed the deep red trail of blood before he knelt back down next to Dean. He gently moved his head forward with a grimace and probed at the matte of skin and hair at the base of his crown. "Ok, I need you two to be very careful when you move him," Jack instructed as he stood back up. "He struck his head against the wall and gashed it open. Should be an easy fix, but I don't want to push his luck any further than he already has today."
Jack crossed the room in front of Locke as he stared at the empty armory in shock. Just as Jack knelt down next to Libby to examine her, she let out a deep cough around a howl as blood sprayed from her mouth. Kate barely managed to hold in a sob as Libby cried out in pain.
"Dear God, they're both alive," Jack muttered in stunned amazement. "Okay, we've got to get her up. We've got to get her to the back room, okay?" Kate and Jack both positioned themselves around her and very carefully lifted her in unison. As Libby let out a deep and painful moan, Kate's panicked eyes darted to Jack and he could only nod his head back at her before they both moved in tandem to carry her into the bedroom.
They passed quickly by Locke as he gently sat himself down at the small booth table with a sigh and did his best to keep his gaze away from the multiple bloodstains inside the hatch. He could hear the frantic voices from the bedroom and considered whether he should attempt to help them as Eko and Michael entered the hatch from the stairway. "They're in the bedroom," Locke announced as Eko placed Michael down in the seat across from Locke before he nodded his understanding and moved to follow the voices.
Michael's face visibly paled as he tore his gaze away from the puddle of blood on the floor where Libby has been. He let out a deep sigh as he reached for a sheet of gauze and painfully placed it at the wound in his shoulder. "They'll be alright, Michael. Jack is gonna fix them both up," Locke informed him as he misinterpreted his silence and expression as concern.
"Fix them up?" Michael asked in shock. "But, they're…"
"Both alive," Locke confirmed with a relieved smile. "It looked like Libby was worse off than Dean, but if anyone can get them better, it's Jack."
Michael nodded his head before he swallowed thickly and glanced over at the small hallway that led to his two victims.
Jack smiled gratefully at Sam and Sawyer for leaving the bunk empty for Libby. They had stripped all of the blankets from the cot-style bed and padded the ground enough to place Dean down on that so Jack could deal with the more injured of the two at a higher level. "How is he?" Jack asked as they both placed Libby gently on the bed. She continued to breathe erratically as she yelled out in pain.
"Worry about him after you've handled Libby," Sam told him as Sawyer stood up and stared down at his friend with clenched fists.
"He ain't waking up, Jack," Sawyer announced. Jack nodded over at Sawyer that he'd heard him before Sawyer glanced up as Eko stopped in the doorway to take in the scene before them. He didn't even scoff as the larger man crossed himself and closed his eyes to pray.
"She's in shock," Jack announced to Kate as he pulled a thick sheet of gauze from a first aid kit and placed it over her bleeding wound. "Alright, we've got to keep pressure on this."
"Doc?" Sawyer snapped.
"Sawyer, I promise, I will look him over after I'm done here, alright?" Jack hissed. He glanced back at Sawyer as a muscle in his jaw ticked before he stalked out of the bedroom. Sam looked down at Dean one last time before he nodded over at Jack and followed after his brother's friend.
Kate pushed down hard on the gauze as she looked down at Libby's tortured features. "Can you do anything?" Jack remained quiet behind her before she turned her head towards him. "Jack?"
"I heard you," Jack told her with a regretful tone. "Keep pressure on her, okay?"
Kate nodded through the tears in her eyes as Jack walked over to Dean and knelt down to check him out. He felt for the wound on his head and was relieved that it wasn't too deep and had already begun to clot. The bruising, though. He gently probed around at the area and could only confirm, through touch, one broken rib. He glanced back at Kate as she did her best to stay stoic in front of Libby's panicked and struggled breathing before he stood up and walked out towards the kitchen.
"…look, I just wanna know how in the hell that son of a bitch even got out of the armory in the first place," Sawyer spit out to Michael while Sam did his best to keep him calm. "How'd he manage to get through not only Dean, but you and Libby?"
Jack wiped the blood from his hands and threw his towel down on the table as Sam turned around from his position in front of Sawyer. "Well?" Sawyer asked.
Jack's face pinched in aggravation as Sam approached him more cautiously and let out a deep breath. "Jack, how are they?"
Jack knelt down to help Michael dress his wound as he shook his head slightly. "Without an X-Ray, I'm not sure about the extent of Dean's injuries, but I was right…broken rib…at least one," he informed them. "The good news is that his breathing seems fine and he hasn't coughed up any blood, so I don't think that his lungs were nicked."
"And the bad news?" Sawyer asked.
Jack let out a deep sigh as he shook his head. "The bad news is that because of our circumstances and lack of medical equipment, I can't take the chance that movement could cause one of them to puncture," he explained. "So, as much as we all know that he's gonna hate this, he'll need to stay immobile until he heals completely. The only thing I can do is wrap the ribs up tightly."
"But, he ain't even woken up yet, doc," Sawyer pointed out. "How come?"
"His head injury," Jack shrugged. "He impacted hard with the wall…his head probably hit before his back and took on the brunt of the force. It's already started to clot, so he won't need stitches, but again, because of our circumstances, it's just a waiting game until his body tells him it's ok for him to regain consciousness."
A tense silence extended over the group as Jack placed another sheet of gauze at the hole in the back of Michael's shoulder and began to wrap both pieces together. "What about Libby?" Sam spoke up. "How's she?"
Jack deflated at the question and took the empty seat across from Michael before he scrubbed his hands over his face. "I'm not sure there's anything I can do for her," he admitted before he shook his head and did his best to regain his control. He glanced over at Michael as rage overtook his features. "How long ago?"
"What?" Michael asked.
"When did this happen?" He reiterated. "How long ago did he leave?"
"I don't know…uh…twenty minutes," Michael stuttered out. "Maybe a half hour."
"Ok, we can pick up the trail, catch up to him," Jack announced as he stood back up and paced across the room.
"We?" Sawyer asked. "Need I remind you that the man's got a head-start, a gun, and he clearly ain't afraid to…"
"He shot three of our people!" Jack shouted as he spun back around to face him. "One of them might not…"
"Ok, I get that and I want a piece of that son of a bitch as much as you do. But, who's gonna take care of Libby while you're off playing Daniel Boone?" Sawyer snapped. "What if Dean wakes up and there is something wrong with him, but you're not here, huh? What then?"
Jack deflated as he begrudgingly nodded his head at the logic behind Sawyer's inquiries. His anger faded to worry just as Eko walked back towards them from the bedroom. "I will go." Sawyer nodded over at Eko's statement as Jack looked pained that he couldn't join him. "John? You have tracking experience, yes?"
Both men turned and saw Locke at the other end of the room, ensconced in their conversation without actually having joined in. "Yeah."
"Then, we will find his trail together," Eko announced.
"Hang on, Locke barely made it back to the hatch without my help," Sam spoke up. "No offense, John, but you're hardly in any shape to hike with those crutches."
Jack nodded his head as John glanced down at the aforementioned crutches before he shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "Alright, if you find anything…anything…you come right back here," Jack instructed. "We figure out what we're going to do next, together."
Locke shared a long look with Eko as Sam slapped his hands down at his sides incredulously before he turned to head back to the bedroom to check on his brother. "Let's go, John."
"He's still hasn't woken up," Sam announced as Sawyer glanced up at him eagerly. He let out a deep sigh and sagged in disappointment as he took the empty seat across from Michael and leaned back wearily.
In this situation, Sam assumed that no news was good news as Libby and Dean remained in the very same condition as when they'd been found. Libby was still in massive amounts of pain and Dean still showed no sign of regaining consciousness. He didn't want to admit it to anyone else, but it was frightening for Sam to have to see his usually animated brother so quiet and immobile.
"Where in the hell are they?" Jack questioned as he threw the towel in his hands onto the counter.
Sam furrowed his brow at Kate as she shook her head around a sigh. "Jack, just calm down. Finding his trail in the dark is not going to be easy," she gently reminded him. "They'll be back."
"What about Libby?" Michael asked to Jack and Sam. "She say anything?"
Sam shook his head ruefully along with Jack. "She's still unconscious. The bleeding stopped."
"Well, that's good, right?" Kate asked hopefully.
Jack leaned against the counter across from her before he shook his head mournfully. "No, it's not good."
Jack's tone of voice startled Sam down to his very core. He wasn't a doctor and while he had more first aid training under his belt than most average people, he'd been wholly unaware that Libby was past the point of saving. He had been more than optimistic that she could be saved. If he'd been wrong about her, maybe he was wrong about Dean. "And there's nothing you can..." Michael began.
"I can make her comfortable," he pointedly glanced at Sawyer. "But I don't have what I need."
"Why are you looking at me?" Sawyer asked. "Not only have I given you all the damn meds that I had, but if I had anything else that could help out Libby or Dean I woulda…"
"The heroin, Sawyer," Jack reminded him. Sawyer closed his eyes and mentally kicked himself at his own stupidity. "Yeah, I know Dean gave the statues to you when we cleared out the armory to put Henry in there, not that he had any right to."
Sam cocked an eyebrow at Jack's attitude as Sawyer bestowed the doctor with a murderous look. "It ain't martial law on this island, Jack. Dean was pissed that you kept the drugs that were confiscated from Charlie in an easily accessible place," Sawyer explained to him. "He told me that he knew I'd found a good place to keep my stash and wanted me to put the rest of the statues with my stuff."
Jack sucked in a deep breath at Sawyer's explanation. "I don't care why he did it," Jack begrudgingly admitted from behind clenched teeth. "We need one of them now."
Sawyer shared an annoyed look with Sam before he took a deep breath and nodded resolutely at the doctor. "Give me twenty minutes."
"I'm going with you," Sam spoke up.
"That's nice and all, Boy Scout, but it don't take two people to..." Sawyer began.
"I'm not," Sam interrupted him before he glanced back over at Jack and Kate. "Someone needs to tell Ana Lucia what happened down here."
Jack thought it over for a few seconds before he nodded his head in agreement. "Just try to hurry back," he requested before he made his way back to his two patients in the bedroom.
"Well, that thank you of his just gets sweeter and sweeter each time," Sawyer snarked. Sam rolled his eyes while Kate managed a small smile for them both before she moved to follow after Jack.
"Let's make this quick," Sawyer told Sam as they both sprinted up the hatch stairs and into the jungle.
Ana Lucia woke with a jolt as she heard noises from outside of Dean's tent. She felt safe in here, but she also hadn't been raised to be a cautious person, so she patiently waited and watched as two shadows moved around the entire perimeter before they stopped at the entrance. "Dean? Is that you?"
She sagged in relief as Sam walked through the opening and graced her with a small, tight smile. He looked exhausted…and worried. "Hey, Ana." He could barely choke out the words as his voice broke halfway through.
"Sam, I thought you were Dean for a moment," she admitted with shaky laugh. Her grin vanished as she narrowed her eyes at his expression and behavior before she stood up from her pallet, her hackles already raised. "What's going on?"
Sam stumbled forward as an arm from outside of the tent pushed him forward before Sawyer stuck his head in through the opening. "Wanna hurry this along?"
"Sawyer?" Ana Lucia asked as he scowled over at her. "What's he doing here? Where's Dean?"
Sam held up his hands as Ana Lucia regressed very quickly from calm to panic before he moved closer to her. "Ana, you need to calm down. Dean's fine, alright?"
"He ain't fine and you know it," Sawyer spoke up from behind him.
Sam's jaw clenched so tightly in aggravation that he thought me might chip a tooth as Ana's panicked eyes darted from Sawyer and back to Sam. "He got hurt, but he's being taken care of."
"You have to take me to him," she demanded as she threw her hair up in a loose ponytail and pulled her backpack on over her shoulders. "Now."
"There's that please that's been missing from my life," Sawyer spoke up as she and Sam both exited the tent into the sunshine. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him as he scoffed at her posture. "Calm down, firecracker. We're gonna head back up there, but we gotta pick something up first."
Ana Lucia narrowed her eyes at Sawyer's nickname for her before she turned to Sam and softened her features. "You wouldn't lie to me about this, Sam. He's your brother, so you wouldn't lie to me."
"You know I wouldn't do that to you," Sam reiterated. "Come with us and you can see for yourself."
She nodded up at him as they both moved to follow behind Sawyer who could only shake his head at the two of them. "We about done playing Dream Date, now? Can we finish this up so we can head back to the hatch?"
"The hatch?" Ana Lucia asked. "He got hurt at the hatch?" Sawyer rolled his eyes at her question and continued forward to his tent. "What happened to him?"
"He got shot by the same asshole that attacked you," Sawyer shouted back to her.
Ana Lucia stopped walking and let out a deep gasp as she covered her open mouth with her hands in shock. "Way to be sensitive there, Sawyer," Sam snapped at him.
"Are you kidding me?" Sawyer snapped back as he stopped and turned back around towards them. "This is hardly the time for sensitivity. Dean's hurt and it's all because he went into red mode and wanted revenge for her attack."
Ana Lucia sucked in a deep breath as Sam stepped toward Sawyer. "Hey, don't put this on her," he snapped at Sawyer. "You know how Dean is. If Henry had attacked anyone in our group, he'd have done the same thing. This isn't her fault."
Sawyer glanced back at Ana Lucia's ashen face and felt his features soften before he nodded his head and turned back around to continue back up the beach. "Thanks, Sam."
"You don't deserve that," Sam honestly told her as they both moved to follow after him. "Tensions are just high right now and Sawyer and Dean have become close friends since the crash. I think he'd rather be angry than admit he's concerned."
Ana Lucia nodded her head with a grin at Sam's explanation. Dean seemed to inspire that kind of loyalty from the people around him. He, himself, was fiercely protective of the people he actually allowed himself to care about and they all couldn't help but to return the favor. Sawyer cleared his throat as they turned a corner and both glanced up at him as he nodded towards the opening of his tent.
"They're in there?" Sam asked. "All of them?"
"Safest place to keep track of my stuff is with me," Sawyer reasoned with a shrug as he went inside.
"What are we doing here?" Ana Lucia asked. "I thought you were taking me to go see Dean."
Sam sheepishly stared down at the sand outside of Sawyer's tent before he let out a deep breath and looked back up at Ana Lucia miserably. "Look, there's something we haven't told you yet," he admitted. "It wasn't just Dean that got shot."
She swallowed thickly and closed her eyes as guilt washed across her face. "Who else?" Ana Lucia asked as Sawyer emerged from his tent with a clay Virgin Mary statue in his hand.
"Hey guys," Hurley interrupted them. They all three turned towards him as he awkwardly stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Any of you seen Libby around?"
There had been no change in Libby or Dean upon their arrival back at the hatch, Dean was still unconscious and Libby was still writhing in pain. Ana Lucia had promptly retreated to the bedroom where she had quickly grasped Dean's hand in hers and refused to leave his side.
"Is Dean gonna be ok?" Hurley asked Sam in a shaky voice.
"We think so, yes," Sam confirmed as Jack broke open the Virgin Mary statue. Kate and Sawyer each shared a worried look while Michael watched the entire thing.
"And Libby?" Hurley asked Jack. Jack glanced up from the drugs in his hand and let out a deep breath as he bestowed a mournful look on Hurley. His features crumpled instantly as he took a seat near Michael and hung his head in anguish. "We were gonna have our first date."
"Date?" Michael asked guiltily.
"Yeah, a picnic on the beach," Hurley confirmed before he looked up and turned his attention completely onto Michael. "I'm so glad that you're okay, man."
Michael gave Hurley a tight smile as Jack came around from the kitchen with a filled needle in his hand and held it up for them to see. "It's ready."
Hurley stood up and followed Jack and Sam back into the bedroom area where Kate, Sawyer and Ana Lucia were already gathered. They each bestowed him with sympathetic glances as he stood tall and watched Jack inject Libby with the drugs.
"Can…can I talk to her?" Hurley asked.
Jack gave him a tight smile and patted him on the shoulder as he nodded his head. "Sure," he confirmed before he turned and walked to the other side of the room to give them some privacy.
Hurley's careful façade deteriorated as he stared down at the woman he'd become so familiar with over the past few weeks. She had coached him through tough times, accepted all of his faults and happily befriended him. If he'd never suggested that stupid picnic, she might still be alive. "Hey, it's Hurley...Hugo," he told her as he tried as hard as he could to slow down the onslaught of tears down his face. "I'm sorry I forgot the blankets. I'm so sorry I forgot the blankets," he told her.
He let out a startled gasp as she opened her eyes wide. There was a mixture of fear and apprehension behind them as she gasped out and struggled to speak. "Libby?"
Jack ran back over to her side and knelt down next to her as she opened and closed her mouth several times. "M….M…Michael."
"Michael, he's okay," Jack told her. "He made it, Libby. It's okay. It's alright."
The fear on her face grew as she struggled to draw air into her lungs. She let out one final broken breath before her rigid body slumped and her wheezing breaths ceased. Jack sucked in a deep breath as he reached up and gently closed her eyelids in respect. She wasn't the first person they'd lost since the crash, but her death was different. Boone hadn't been murdered and neither had Shannon, despite what some people thought.
Ana Lucia and Sam both hung their heads in grief while Sawyer scooped Kate into his arms and Hurley broke down into new tears. Sam felt completely useless as the hatch alarm sounded loudly over the grief in the room. He stood up to go input the numbers and turn off the blaring noise just as Dean let out a painful moan and his eyes snapped open.
He immediately shut them against the harsh light in the bedroom as another painful moan escaped his mouth. "Dean? Dean?" Sam muttered as he turned back around. "Jack, he's awake!"
Jack jumped up from his position next to Libby's body and knelt down on the floor in between Ana Lucia and Dean as he struggled to sit up. He forced his eyes open again, only to groan as his vision blurred and the world tilted. He breathed in deeply and almost threw up from the intense and immediate pain. He took category of all of the sensations that he could while his memories tried to sync together. "Ribs and head," he muttered to himself in a dry voice.
"Dean, it's Jack," Jack spoke up as he gently pushed Dean back onto the pile of blankets. "You need to lie still, you've been seriously injured."
"Son of a bitch...shot me," he wheezed out as he tried to struggle against Jack's hands. "He shot me."
"Dean, stop moving," Sam ordered as Dean calmed down and glanced up at him before he focused his gaze on Ana Lucia. Sam stood and ran out of the room to turn off the alarm as Dean winced at the pain in his chest. It felt like a broken rib. He knew from experience that while they hurt like a bitch, they hurt a lot less than being shot.
"It doesn't feel like I've been shot," he weakly remarked to Jack as the alarm stopped blaring. He chuckled at his observation as Sam walked back into the bedroom and smiled down at his brother.
"You were extremely lucky," Jack spoke up from beside him. "The bullet imbedded into your necklace and was stopped before it could penetrate your skin. Mind you, you aren't completely in the clear…you broke a rib and you hit your head pretty hard." He paused his explanation as an involuntary look of remorse crossed his face.
"Oh God, what?" Dean rasped. "What else happened?"
"Libby was shot, too," Jack informed him. "She died just before you woke up."
Dean sucked in a deep, painful breath as he digested what Jack had just told him. Libby was dead? He glanced over Jack's hunched shoulders to see Kate sobbing into Sawyer's shirt as Hurley remained huddled against one of the concrete walls. He looked over at his brother's sad features who could only nod back at him before he shook his head. "I'm gonna kill him," Dean seethed as black spots danced across his vision and he closed his eyes in an effort to balance out his equilibrium.
"Dean, he's gone," Jack told him with a shake of his head. "He escaped right after he shot Michael in the arm."
Dean's eyes shot back open as he fought like hell against the unconsciousness that was trying to reclaim him. "Shot Michael in the arm?"
Jack and Ana Lucia each tried to calm him down as he attempted to sit up once again. Pain blossomed across his features and Sawyer gently extracted himself from Kate and knelt down with Sam so they could both help to steady him. "Dean, you have to calm down."
"But, Michael…"
"He's fine," Sam assured him. "We don't even think Henry was trying to kill you three so much as slow you down so he could escape."
"No, not Henry," Dean rasped out as his body slumped against the blankets in exhaustion. "Michael's the one that shot me. He tried to..." His head rolled to the side as he blacked out again and Sam, Sawyer and Jack stood up from their positions on the floor.
"Did he just say…" Sawyer asked.
"Michael shot him," Jack finished.
"Oh God, Libby wasn't concerned about Michael," Sam told them. "She was warning us." They all three shared a look of disbelief before they ran out of the bedroom and into the empty hatch.
"Michael?!"
They all split up and headed into different directions inside the hatch to look around for him before they all migrated back into the main room, each with a furious expression on their faces. They'd just been betrayed by one of their own.
"He's gone."
Author's Note: While this took longer than a month to post from the previous update, it took a lot less time than normal. For that, I am quite pleased with myself. If I'm just estimating, there should be two more chapters of this story before the next one gets posted, for which I am stoked. The ending for this story is gonna be so good…I can't wait. Special thank you to Shining Sunny thedarkpokemaster, Endgame65, Point Mann, acsgrlie, The Archivist613, Guest, Zgirl101 and Guest for your kind words and suggestions after and for Chapter 10. I hope this chapter lives up to expectations!
