(Thank you to my Guest, and it's a bit late but Happy New Year to you too. RingwraithYJLOVER thank you so much for the review. I appreciate both of you guys.
So as a short explanation this is all thanks to ZeldaIsis and GFGossiper. I am happy to serve up a continuation on Trust and a hint of hurt!John. I plan on drumming up more injured John later. ;) )
Find
The clock kept moving forward; it's ticking a constant reminder of the time Sam and his father were gone. First it was five minutes, then thirty, then looking up from Dr. Sexy (he didn't like it or anything…even if the story was compelling) it was an hour. From an hour, it went two and he finally called his sister against better judgement; and was promptly hung up on. Ok they were fine. His sister was obviously trying to send him a message for him to stop being a mother hen.
Okay he got it.
Until it was hour three and he picked up the phone and called again- and got no response. The line rang until it went straight to voicemail. Okay ready or not, he was going to check on them. The map Sam had been scrawling on, he pulled out and unfolded on the small table in the apartment. There were two circled spots and five X's. Five victims and two possible locations in the vicinity of the missing people. He didn't bother to read the wording next to the X's. It was Sam's shorthand. It labeled the victim's name and the time and day of when they had gone missing. He was more focused on the locations she predicted, but which one did he check first. Dean flipped over the map and rubbed his hand on the opposite side of the paper. When Sam was more thoughtful on a spot she tended to press on the pen more and even circle it excessively. The abandoned hotel had a deeper indent and showed signs that she had gone back and circled it again and again.
Then he'd stop by there first. Armed to the teeth and his chest securely wrapped, he headed outside. He started dialing his father's number again, then his sister; both times getting nothing. It only spurred him to move faster as he put his keys into the Impala's ignition. He tore out of the parking lot, making turns only by memory. He didn't want police on his tail so he respected the stop lights and signs. His hands never stopped moving however at the stops. He kept tapping on the wheel until he could tear back into motion.
In all it took him fourteen minutes and twenty-five seconds to get to the hotel. Three hours, forty-nine minutes, and forty-five seconds since they'd gone. If they weren't at this place- If they weren't safe and just lacking in cell service- honestly he didn't know how to finish that thought. There were too many emotions playing with his thoughts.
Now that he was there he could see all the signs of his family being there. The lock had been picked and his father's large footsteps indented the dirt at the entrance. The flashlight led inside, followed by the knife, and then himself as he slid through the open door. The streetlight outside had been out, and thankfully so because after years of being abandoned the building didn't have any power was long gone and the daylight as well.
As his flashlight swept across the walls they exposed graffiti and scratches in the very 80's wallpaper. A very interesting, and destroyed couch sat in the once lobby. And needles littered the space below the ripped up cushions. Very evidently not just the Djinn had made a home here. If he could recall from Sam yammering on and on, the place had been vacated for some very toxic mold. After expensive cleaning, repairs, and the loss of trust from its customers, the company that owned the building closed down. He hoped there wasn't any more toxic mold. Sam certainly had no business breathing that mess in.
Dean ignored the signs leading to the elevator, even if the damn thing worked he didn't want to try it out. Instead he searched for the stairs.
He paced the length of the hallway ignoring the first set of stairs. He explored the hallway pausing at the doorways long enough to search the rooms that had long since been broken into and vandalized. That or used for some interesting experimentation with drugs. The first floor thoroughly explored he headed up the stairs at the end of the hallway and went up the stairs. The second floor was clear of any signs of his family.
On the steps leading up to the third floor he found Sam's cell. The device seemed split in two. Dean imagined from a sizeable weight, like a person running over it. He found another clue to his family's location just outside the room of 305. A silver blade with the blade red with blood (lambs, Dean assumed). Despite the lack of sound coming from the room Dean crept in silently. He spun into the room the blade at the ready, and he didn't really need it.
The room had been cleared of any furniture and six chairs sat occupied in the room. Six victims in varying states sat bound to the arm rest, and legs of the chair. Not that any of them really needed it to be restrained honestly. It was probably more to keep the unconscious being inside the chairs. The buckets bore varying amounts of blood, IV's attached to their wrists and necks dripping (for the poor guy on the end Dean assumed drained; not dripping any more) into the buckets.
Dean panned his flashlight and as he finally pushed through the entrance and past the bathroom, he finally spotted the body. The tattooed body. Dean flipped the body over in time to spot the knife sticking out of the Djinn's chest.
That out of the way he focused on the people. One of which, now that the light was closer, was his father.
"Oh shit!" Dean rushed forward yanking out the IV, and putting a hand over the spot to stop what blood came bubbling up. His second hand went to his father's vein, and Dean breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the pulse. He rocked back and glanced in the bucket beneath the chair long enough to make sure he hadn't bled out too much, before he panned the flashlight across the other's. Dean wasn't sure if he was relieved or not. As he went down the line pulling out IV's and checking for life he was aware that none of the people were his sister. If she wasn't here, where was she?
In all there were two lacking a pulse. The ones not alive were not only drained but when their drooped heads hand been picked up and inspected Dean realized that the head had been cut into and the brain missing. And of the three still alive, one of those was just barely. None of them, not even his father, were waking up. Even when Dean stopped tapping and full on slapped his father he got nothing. He was well and truly out. Dean took the time to cut free all of the people and prop them on the wall. He didn't move his father much further though. There was no point and the pain meds he'd popped before weren't stopping the ache building up in his chest.
The Djinn was dead. And obviously someone, he would assume either his father or his sister, killed it. And based on his father's previous position it hadn't been him. He looked at the Djinn again and at the knife wound. The way the blade curved downward eluded to it being his father, no way his sister got that kind of angle. Dean's mind ran. Then how did his father end up in the chair like everyone else? Why were two of the victims missing their brains? And where, once again, was Sam?
Dean had stepped out of room 305, and picked up the abandoned blade when he heard a loud thud from one of the lower levels. The Colt tucked into his waist band was a comforting weight as he walked the length of the hallway careful not to be surprised by anything from the other rooms.
With each step, he calculated everything that was off about the hunt. Djinn hunt where Sam was out of the picture, Dad tied up and drained, and the brains. What the hell was going on. On the second level, he heard another thud, then the slam of a door. As he paced down to the first floor he finally spotted another warm body standing in front of the office door behind the half-destroyed desk. It was trying to force the door open. And from its height and weight, it wasn't his sister.
"HEY!" Dean barked loudly, and the person spun in surprise in his direction and Dean finally realized what was going on. The elongated pupil, the claws; it was a fucking kitsune. Djinn's were draining the blood, and kitsune was helping itself to the brain. Stupid creatures had a symbiotic relationship- or was it mutual? Who the fuck cared anyway?
Claws extended the woman rushed Dean. He let her get close and didn't flinch when nails bit into his arm and started to drag down. Using his other arm, he used the close proximity to stab the knife through the heart.
The body went down as soon as he ripped the blade from the chest and Dean watched as it fell, uncaring. His eyes flashed to the door it had been guarding. He rushed forward hopping over the body when he heard another loud slam, and a muffled grunt. Sam's muffled grunt.
Something was in the room with her.
"SAMM!" Dean hit the door hard and winced when it hurt his ribs, but immediately shifted to grab the knob and twist at it uselessly. Not that it was a surprise when it didn't shift, the kitsune had tried as well and if the supernaturally strong creature hadn't accomplished that how could he?
What was puzzling him was what else could possibly be involved in this case? There was already one kitsune and one djinn. What next?
Sam gave an irritated shriek and Dean flinched. There was another loud clatter from the room and he could barely hold in his panic. "SAMMMMY!" A thud and consistent pounding followed. Dean held his breath and waited for a word from- well he preferred his sister, but if it was the thing he was more than happy to discuss her safety. There was silence though and a heavy breath.
"Sam? Jesus if your-" Dean's voice broke.
There was a final hollow clatter as something (wooden- he would guess) fell. He felt the knob on the door shift, and he leapt back almost like the metal had some currency. "Sam?"
"Jesus, Dean." The lock popped as the knob twisted and Sam pulled open the door. Half of her hair had come loose from a braid, a cut sat above her eyebrow dripping down, and there were mirroring scratches on her arm. But she had never looked better. Kid was alive and breathing. Something he wasn't a hundred percent on just a second before. "You're supposed to be at home? Ribs?"
Dean pushed through Sam and glanced into the room. The head was smashed in, but the tattoo's on the hands gave away what Sam had been fighting. "There isn't anything else is there?"
Kid was still out of breath as she shook her head. "No. Just those, and they were certainly enough." She looked down at the body in disgust. "Dad started to fight with the Djinn, and we thought that was it. He stabbed it, and I went to the people tied down, but the second Djinn came up. It put its hands on dad's head and they glowed...and he was just out. Fell over unconscious." Her eyes went wide. "Dad! He's upstairs!"
Dean moved to stop her as she rushed for the stairs. "Hey, calm down kid. I got him. He's- well he's still knocked out, but he's fine. No longer being drained. Continue your story."
"Not much more to it." She glanced anxiously up at the stairs but stilled. She knew better than to push her big brother away when he started poking at the cut on her face. "I was going to kill it, and then the stupid kitsune showed up. I took off and I was- strategizing in the basement."
No wonder he hadn't run into her. "Hiding. Ok, continue."
She made a face but did so. "I got cornered in the office and the stupid djinn knocked me into the door and locked it. It kept out the kitsune, but I couldn't get out."
Dean glanced back into the room and took in a bloody piece of wood. Must have been a leg to something. "And you beat its head in? Does that even work?"
Sam shrugged. "Apparently."
Dean was tempted to kick it to check for life. He rather flipped out the blade and expertly flung the still blood soaked blade into the body. It didn't so much flinch. Dean felt a little more sure of their safety now and allowed himself to look at his sister a bit more thoroughly. "So, two Djinn and a Kitsune huh. Sounds like the intro to a bad joke."
"There were no bodies that had been dumped yet- I'm sure I would have pieced that together if-" Sam gave an irritated breath. She sure hated to be wrong. "I should have been prepared for anything."
"Hey, nobody expects three monsters to group up, and you just took down a djinn without a blade. I'd say you did good." He glanced up at the stairs and his shoulders lowered. "I'll need your help though getting dad downstairs. He's not exactly waking up, and I'd like to know why."
xxxOOOxxx
It took a while to drag their father down the stairs. Partially because Sam refused her brother's help. She'd trained plenty of times for situations like these. Dean would go limp and nine-year-old Samantha would have to drag Dean as far as she could. The older she got she had to drag her father. It was a necessary lesson that helped when the hunt went wrong- like today's hunt. She knew her brother was anguishing as he watched her grunt and groan dragging her father's heavy weight, and finally when she was halfway down the second flight of stairs he was pushing her away insisting.
"You shouldn't even be here right now. I appreciate the help with the kitsune, but what happens when you really puncture a lung." Sam snapped harshly. She saw Dean open his mouth and try again. "Dean I swear to God your just such a-"
Whatever Dean was he would never know because it was then his father chose to stir. Sam shifted her father to the side and propped him up on a step and against the wall. She crouched down and lightly hit her father's cheek. "Dad. Hey, dad." She scowled and brushed a strand from her sweaty forehead. "Look, your heavy- if you're going to wake up; just wake up, already. Your freaking me out."
"I could carry him out." Dean supplied unhelpfully.
"You, shush." Sam's tone rose. Her father groaned and swatted at her. He was okay, he just needed to wake up. She glanced over at Dean and grinned wide. "Dean broke your rule, he showed up at the hunt when he was supposed to stay at the motel."
Dean's eyes grew wide. "Sam!"
Their father stirred more. "Wha?"
"I mean what happens when he hurts himself more?" Sam continued despite Dean's unpleasant hand motions.
Their father opened his eyes and Sam took an unsure step back. His eyes were full of unshed tears, and as they popped open they released. There was no sound to follow the emotion. He simply squeezed his eyes shut. Sam hadn't seen her father cry before. She'd heard Dean say once on an anniversary of that night he'd drank so much that he couldn't hold them back anymore, but even that she hadn't believed. Her marine father just didn't seem capable of such a feat.
He finally spoke, but his tone was gravely. "I'm okay, it was just so tempting. I had to leave though." Sam leaned down to check on her father's temperature, when his firm arms whipped her into a hug. Sam squealed in surprise when she was pressed into her father's chest. "I'm sorry, I almost stayed."
Sam glanced up at Dean in confusion. "It's okay. You came back."
"You hurt?" Dean asked softly his hand on his father's shoulder.
John released one arm from around his daughter to put it on top of his son's hand. "No, I'm fine." John cleared his throat and released his girl. He wiped at his face seeming a little mad at his weakness. "You- uh- you shouldn't be here, Dean. I told you we would be fine."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he's okay."
When John held up a hand Dean reached out, only to have Sam smack it away. She instead grabbed it and pulled her father up. He swayed and would have fallen if Sam hadn't ducked under his arm and kept him up.
John was too weak to have any bite in his tone. "You really should have-"
"Left you guys." Dean scoffed. "Your damn lucky I got up to go find you. You'd die from blood donation, and Sam would have been singing If I only had a Brain."
"They get a lot?" John slightly slurred.
Dean was soft and comforting as he put a hand on his father's shoulder. "No, sir. Some juice, crackers, and sleep and you'll be fine."
"The others-"
"Are okay. We've taken care of the-" Sam stalled. He could find out about the kitsune tomorrow. "Djinn's bodies, and we'll call the PD once we clear the place."
"Good." John ducked his head down for a second, seeming to draw up strength, then started putting his feet one after another in front of each other. "I missed you both."
"You didn't go anywhere." Dean glanced at his father concerned. They were taking a break after this, as soon as he could convince his dad, they'd stop off at Jim's or Bobby's and take a breather. They all sure as hell deserved it.
(You liked it?! Good, why not leave a review. Tell me how I'm doing. Do you have an idea?! I love hearing your ideas, and maybe they just work out in this little universe of mine. Was there anything that you saw that was wrong? Language, punctuation, spelling, or continuity? Well it's just me, and I don't have anyone to reread through my work so tell me please. Nothing more annoying than reading through this thing multiple times and posting it only to find some stupid mistake that could have been prevented.
And apologies for the late post. I had a very clear idea of having Sam trapped, and I wanted to incorporate HER getting herself out of trouble and still have Dean needed. I originally wrote one Djinn and had it killed, John tied up and being drained, and Sam trapped in a closet, and I thought what was I on? How on earth would that ever work out? Hence, the trio was formed. The kitsune was more curiosity than anything else. Maybe it was too much, but why wouldn't they pair up? They want the brains and the Djinn want the blood. It works in my book.
Totally rambling now. I apologize.)