Emily awoke slowly and languidly, then when she tried to stretch her arms like she did first thing every morning and found she couldn't, her eyes flew open. Why the hell was she restrained? And Bobby was gone, replaced by two guys who were talking quietly to each other.
"Fuck! Isn't it a little early for this counselling bullshit?" she groused. She was actually a morning person, but waking up to strangers, and bound to a bed completely impaired her disposition. Also, the fact that she had loudly used swear words meant that more drugs had been introduced in her IV overnight and hadn't fully cleared her system. Drugs always did that to her; made her flippant and mouthy and removed her swear barrier!
The one seated right by the bed laughed, and turned to face her. He had dimples in both cheeks, not fair. She had just the one in her left cheek, but she'd always wanted two, or at the very least none. That way, her face would be balanced.
"She's not a morning person, just like you!" he quipped at the other one who just rolled his eyes.
She chose not to correct him as the current evidence supported his statement. "Can you please remove these restraints?" she asked at precisely the same time the dimpled guy said, "I'm Sam and that's Dean … my brother."
"Emily. Nice to meet you, I suppose!" she said sarcastically. "Restraints please? Then maybe I can shake your hand!"
Now the dimpled guy was frowning and the other one was smiling.
"Are we allowed to do that?"
"Shake hands? I'm pretty sure it's allowed. Slit wrists are not contagious, you know!"
Sam frowned, "I meant undoing the restraints!" he said in an affronted voice.
"What do you think I'll do? Leap off the bed and tackle you?" Emily rolled her eyes. "You're like a million feet tall, wuss!"
The other guy, Dean, was now bent over laughing.
"I'm glad I can entertain you but it really sucks being held down like this!" Emily snapped at him.
"Say please, and I just might consider it." Dean was still smiling, completely unfazed by her attitude.
"Pretty please?" she fluttered her eyelashes theatrically.
"Sam, undo the restraints," he called.
"Dean!" Sam complained.
Emily decided if she was ever going to be free, she had to play nice, "Look, go ask a nurse or something, I haven't been restrained since I got here, I don't know why I was last night. I can assure you, I won't do anything stupid."
Dean waved his brother on. Sam undid the restraints reluctantly. Emily removed the now empty IV tube, leaving the cannula in place.
"Ah that's better!" she sighed as she luxuriously stretched her arms over her head.
Then she pushed herself upright and swung her legs off the bed.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Sam yelled in alarm.
"I'm singing in the rain! What does it look like I'm doing?" She placed her feet on the floor and rose carefully, holding onto the IV stand.
Dean first snorted with laughter at her decidedly snarky answer, then when he noticed what she was doing, he rushed over with a similar look of alarm on his face. "What the hell?"
Emily swatted away their hands. "Get the hell off!"
"Get back in bed, right now!" Dean ordered, in a big brother voice.
"Who died and made you the fucking boss?" Emily snapped.
Sam didn't know whether to laugh at Dean or fuss over Emily. He settled for a grimace.
"If you face plant we're not picking you up!" Dean growled dangerously, trying to hide his concern.
"I won't face plant. I'm walking like two inches to the bathroom. Gosh, Bobby didn't fuss half as much as you two! Which by the way, why are you here? You don't look, sound or act like counsellors!"
The brothers looked at each other.
"We'll talk after your bathroom break." Sam conceded.
Emily was now deathly curious and would have stayed put in order to hear them out, but keeping her bladder from bursting was the more urgent need.
"Whatever!" she still huffed on principle, as she continued shuffling to the bathroom. Wow, she needed to pee the last of these drugs out and wash her face or she was going to earn herself a slap from these guys for being obnoxious!
As she washed her hands, making sure not to wet her bandages, she looked herself over in the mirror. While she no longer looked as frightful as she had before, she wasn't going to win any beauty contests anytime soon. She really must have lost a lot of blood because she was still pale which given her usual skin tone was quite the feat. Also, her curly hair had gone on strike. It looked like a bird's nest! No, that was an insult to bird nests. This looked like something a drunk bird had put together. Nothing short of copious amounts of conditioner could salvage that mess. On the positive side, the bags that had been under her eyes last night were finally gone, and her lips weren't as cracked. She run her tongue over her teeth. They felt like they were growing their own hair, and she imagined her breath could slay dragons! Bobby had promised to bring her a few things today, and she hoped a toothbrush and hairbrush were top of his list. After a futile attempt at finger brushing, she rinsed her mouth, dug dried rheum out the side of her eyes and washed her face. She felt a lot more human, even though she didn't quite look it. At least the drugs seemed to have finally cleared her system so she wasn't going to be so mouthy.
She opened the door and found Sam hovering right outside. She didn't say a word to him but he silently moved out of her way and followed behind her. They watched her warily as she got back into bed, raising the head up so she could sit upright.
"What?" she asked after a quiet moment.
"Nothing!" Sam said.
"Just wondering if you have a double personality or something!" Dean answered. He had returned to his original position as far away from the bed as he could get without leaving the room.
"What? Why?"
"Because you're less, I don't know, obnoxious now!"
"Oh that! I'm sorry," she said earnestly, "I'm not excusing my behaviour, but I dare either of you not to be cranky when you wake up bound to a bed!"
"Depends on who did the binding!" Dean waggled his eyebrows. Emily looked at him with an amused smile while Sam's eyebrows went up disapprovingly.
"And I swear, I don't usually cuss, at least not out loud, but for some reason, drugs remove the sieve between my brain and mouth!" she added.
"Well, drugs tend to remove some people's inhibitions," Sam pardoned her. "You should see this one when he's medicated!" he pointed at Dean who glared at him.
"Not pretty?" Emily guessed.
"Nope, definitely not pretty!" Sam laughed.
"Me neither!" she giggled cheekily and the brothers found themselves smiling. "See this?" she pushed back her tangle of hair to expose a scar near her temple. "When I was six, I fell out of a tree house, and got this terrible gash that needed stitches. I didn't, and don't have a needle phobia, but a jab to a six year old's head is really asking too much, so I had to be put under. You know how anaesthesia makes some people nauseous? Not me! When I came to, I was like a tiny drunk sailor! I was awful! I liberally seasoned every sentence with swearwords ... f-bombs and s-bombs and a-bombs and ... worse! Everyone was horrified, but my poor parents ... I think they were more shocked than everyone else because they never said such things, and had no idea where I'd picked them up from! I tried to stop myself, I really did, but it was impossible! It was almost like I'd been taken over by this potty mouthed creature. My dad finally capped my mouth with his hand and run out of the hospital with me while my mom settled the bill and tried to mollify everyone I had scandalised. It was bad!"
"What did your parents do when you got home?" Dean asked. He could imagine John's reaction if Dean had pulled such a stunt as a kid. 'Laps, and don't stop until I say!'
"I'd fallen asleep. And when I woke up, the drugs had pretty much metabolised and I was all sworn out. Then they gave me my next dose of painkillers and it was bombs away again!"
The brothers chuckled.
"I'm not such a lightweight anymore. It takes pretty strong drugs to remove my swear sieve now, so I won't go crazy on a couple on Advil or anything."
"That's reassuring!" Sam smiled.
"What about you guys?"
"On certain drugs, he fancies himself an American Idol among other things!" Sam laughed at his brother.
"Well, at least I don't become soap opera weepy!" Dean retorted.
"I do not!" Sam objected immediately.
They traded interesting insults back and forth, the ugliness of the words negated by the fondness evident in their voices. Emily listened to them with a small smile on her face, and thought of her best friend Lucy, with whom she'd lost contact. When it finally became apparent that the brothers weren't going to stop anytime soon, she interrupted. "So, this is nice and everything, but you guys were going to explain why you're here."
"Oh, sorry. Yeah … umm I already told you I'm Sam and that's Dean … Winchester. We're…."
"John Winchester's sons!" Emily cut in triumphantly.
"Of course, Bobby told you," Sam looked like he was saying duh to himself in his head.
"Bobby? No, he never mentioned you guys. And I never asked him!" she was looking puzzled. It had just occurred to her that as John's friend, Bobby had to have known about the brothers, but he'd never brought it up. Well, neither had she, so that was fair.
"How did you know about us if not from Bobby?" Dean asked, his voice filled with suspicion.
Emily laughed. "No need to worry, guys. I'm not a stalker or anything. It's just that my birth mom mentioned a John Winchester in a letter she wrote me about my birth father. I figured I could hit John up for information, so I looked him up. There's not really much on him, just a few articles about ..." she trailed off and looked between them, her eyes conveying commiseration. "So umm ... yeah, that's how I found out he had sons, Dean and Sam, and when you introduced yourselves earlier, I put two and two together."
The brothers knew the articles she was talking about were the ones about the fire in which their mother had died, and they realised Emily had skirted around the subject because of empathy.
"What exactly did your mother write about our father?" Dean asked.
"Eeer ... well, she seemed to think he was the same person as Gale Cursor, my birth father. I must admit I entertained the idea for a moment but I was wrong. If you guys are here because of that, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cast aspersions on your father. I was thinking emotionally not logically."
"Ummm …" Sam began then stopped and looked at his brother. Emily had given them a perfect opening to tell her the truth, but Sam didn't know how to proceed.
"That's alright, no harm, no foul." Dean said casually, ignoring Sam who was looking at him askance. "So your father, why do you need to find him so bad anyway?"
"He's my father. I want to know him. What is it to you anyway?" Emily sounded defensive. Her feathers rufffled.
"We need to know if there's a specific reason you're looking for him. Are you in trouble or something?"
The inflection in his voice, and the specificity of his question gave her pause. It hit her right then that she was alone with two male strangers, who loomed large, and the way they were acting was beginning to freak her out. "I think you guys need to leave!" she spoke, as her heart began to beat faster. Shit how could she be so trusting. So what if these guys had not set off alarms in her head, she still shouldn't have been so relaxed.
The brothers looked at each other briefly, exchanging 'oh shit' looks.
Emily had her own 'oh shit' moment and reached for the nurse call button. She knew her reaction was adverse and unfounded, since she had not felt any weird vibes from these guys and they seemed to know Bobby, but their caginess was concerning.
"Whoa, wait, don't press that!" Sam said holding his hands out in a placating way.
Dean being the proactive big brother he was, just strode over and took the button out of her hands and that completely warped her reality and made her mild anxiety mutate rapidly into panic.
"Why are you here? What do you want from me?" her voice was getting high pitched with hysteria and she was beginning to hyperventilate.
"Great, scare her to death, why don't you?" Sam could not help snapping at his brother.
Dean grabbed her hand, she snatched it back. He spoke in a calming voice, "Hey, look at me. Relax! In, out, in, out..." he followed his words with actions.
That only served to remind her of Bobby.
"Bobby! I want Bobby! Where is Bobby?" she wailed. She was vaguely aware that she was sounding like a clingy child, but Bobby was the one constant she had had in the past days, and she desperately needed him right now.
"He went to talk to your doctor, to ask him if you could leave today." Dean placated.
"Bobby hadn't said anything to her. He would have; she was sure he would have. The panic increased. She was beginning to see black spots. She clutched her chest with her right hand.
"We're your brothers! We're here to help, we won't hurt you!" Sam said nearly desperately. He looked as distressed as she felt.
"What?" Emily's voice hitched on a half drawn breath.
"Real smooth!" Dean snarked.
Sam took a moment to glare at him then went round to the other side of her bed. She followed him with her eyes. When he took her hand, she did not snatch it back. He rubbed his thumb along it and she found herself calming down. The spots began to move back to the edges of her eyes until they were gone. The pressure in her chest reduced until she could take a full breath; she breathed greedily. She was drenched with sweat and unbelievably tired. She closed her eyes, then snapped them open again and looked at Sam questioningly.
He knew what she wanted even though she hadn't voiced it out. "Well, that DNA sample you gave was compared with samples from us not our dad, and the test proved you were our half sister." he answered.
"What?" But Bobby said…"
"I asked Bobby to lie to you." Dean said.
She turned her head tiredly to look at him, "What? Why? Why would you do that? Why would Bobby do that?"
"We ... I ..." he trailed off as the door opened and a hospital caterer walked in with a breakfast tray, followed by Ali.
She frowned when she noticed the sweat, and quickly placed a hand to Emily's forehead, worried that she was still running a fever. She sighed with relief, "Hah, over-exertion! Brothers will do that to yah! I'll give you a quick sponge down before you get to your meal and hopefully before your uncle gets here!"
"I don't need one!" Emily protested weakly.
"Can't have you all sweaty first thing in the morning, it won't look good on my resume!" Ali said easily.
"Geez did the woman ever say a sentence that didn't end with a cheery exclamation?" Emily groused internally. She loved her nurse but she was currently feeling uncharitable because of the news she had just received and was yet to digest. She needed the nurse to leave now so she and these Winchester guys could talk.
The nurse, oblivious to her patient's ill thoughts efficiently went ahead with her duties. "You won't be needing this now!" she said cheerily as she removed the cannula, wiped and rubbed some ointment on the spot and placed a Band-Aid in place.
She then unwrapped the bandages on Emily's arms, checked the wounds, beamed her approval at their healing progress and wrapped them up again in fresh bandages.
The brothers knew Emily had slit wrists but they had figured that the cuts were across the wrist, the way Hollywood suicides did it, and they had thought the wrist to elbow bandages round Emily's arms were just overkill on the hospital's part. Then the nurse unwrapped the bandages and they saw their little sister's arms. The stitched cut on the left arm run from the wrist to the inside of the elbow while that on the right arm went from the wrist to half way up the arm. Shit, this had been deadly serious. Emily could have died, no scratch that, she should have died! Should have bled out. Whatever had done this had meant to kill her, no doubt about it. Both brothers were shaken.
Emily looked at Sam and Dean like she was seeing them for the first time. Her eyes were wide with shock, betrayal and a measure of incredulous joy. She noticed their eyes widen, and they both winced when they caught sight of the wounds on her arms, and now there was a tic in Dean's jaw. He looked as angry as hell and Sam looked stricken. Sweet Pythagorus, she had big brothers! And John Winchester was her father! She was elated and terrified at the same time.
"We're gonna need privacy for the next part!" the nurse finally kicked the brothers out to give Emily the dreaded wipe down.
As she endured her sponge bath, Emily thought about Sam and Dean and her encounter with them.
She had known immediately that they were brothers. At first glance it was easy to miss as they did not look anything alike, but their kinship was there in their chiseled jaws, aquiline noses and their body language. They were both good looking guys and gosh they were tall! Even with her nearly 5'9" frame, she appeared tiny next to them. The taller one, what was he seven feet … had wavy chestnut hair, almond shaped hazel eyes and dimples to die for. He seemed shy and sweet and for some reason brought to mind puppies and rainbows, and he was obviously the younger of the two. The other one, only shorter by a couple of inches, had short sandy hair, almond shaped green eyes and a scattering of light freckles that did nothing to soften his hard masculinity. He had that brand of swagger that made her think of smooth talking playboys and fast cars. She'd not been attracted to them, not even remotely, but she had felt an affinity for them, like she had woken up to find her best friends in the room with her. She had barely questioned their presence.
They had not given off any worrisome vibes when she had woken up and found them teasing each other. Actually, she would have chuckled at the sleeping beauty and princess remarks if she hadn't been disgruntled by the restraints, and out of sorts from knowing that strangers had watched her sleep. She hated anyone, with the possible exception of her parents, watching her sleep. Sleep stripped people of control, took away their defenses, and made them vulnerable, and she hated feeling vulnerable, hated people thinking she was vulnerable. It was no wonder she hated hospitals. At some point or another, someone, and most likely a stranger, watched you sleep. It was very unsettling.
Anyway, even when Sam and Dean had run to her as she got off the bed to go to the bathroom, she had not been alarmed, seeing their concern as for what it was, even though it was pesky and unwarranted. She had even enjoyed making them laugh with that childhood story, in fact, she had even felt a weird sense of accomplishment at eliciting their laughter. They had great laughs, happy laughs. Dean threw his head back when he laughed, a deep heartfelt belly laugh, while Sam leaned forward, his hair flopping over his face as he slapped his hand against his thigh in amusement. His laugh was more of a cackle and it was hysterical to hear. Their banter had even been amusing and entertaining.
Even when she had grabbed the call button to summon the nurse, she hadn't felt any real danger, just mild concern and a touch of irritation at their caginess, and a need to have another female there with her. It probably would have gone down differently, if Dean hadn't stalked across the room, so quickly, so quietly, his gait controlled and sure. It was the gait of a dangerous man. And she wouldn't have panicked as much as she had if she hadn't noticed Sam react to his brother's movement, with a slight nearly imperceptible change in posture as if readying himself to provide back up for Dean, and she had realised that gentle as he seemed, he was just as dangerous as his older brother. It was suddenly evident that she was alone in the company of two very dangerous men. Even though her instincts said they were not there to hurt her, her emotional side was not entirely certain. She'd reacted like an animal in the presence of a predator regardless of whether the predator was hunting or not; she'd panicked. Her heart raced, preparing for flight, and she'd began to sweat. Dean's forceful grabbing of the call button had effectively removed what little was left of her rationality, and turned her into a hyperventilating, whiny, crybaby. Damn, that had been cringeworthy. Being a drama queen in front of strangers was embarrassing, but being hysterical in front of strangers who then turn out to be your brothers was downright mortifying!
Well, in retrospect and with her brain back on line, she realised her new brothers were indeed dangerous, she had definitely read that quality right, but it was because they were hunters, like Bobby, not crazy killers out to get her. As with Bobby, she was probably safer with them than anyone else. But whether they were safe with her presence in their lives was another question entirely.
