A/N: Alright, peoples, time to get the tissues ready. I'm not even kidding. I nearly cried while writing this chapter. It was actually kind of difficult.
Disclaimer: Nope. Iie. Nein. Non. *presses two fingers and thumb together* I don't know any other languages in which to say no. I don't own anything. I just about can't even type out this disclaimer. You see what you do to me, Disclaimer?
Sunlight streamed through the thin curtain, waking Audrey. For a split second, she wasn't too sure where she was. She knew this wasn't her bed, but it wasn't uncomfortable, and she didn't feel unsafe.
Sitting up, Audrey looked around the hospital room and found Dean asleep in the recliner. His right hand was resting on the hospital bed, Tyler's much smaller hand lying next to Dean's. With a sad smile, Audrey combed her fingers through the little boy's hair and kissed his forehead.
She walked out into the corridor get some coffee from the cafeteria, tugging the worn leather jacket she'd borrowed from Dean around her shoulders to ward off the cold of the hallway. As she waited for the elevator, Audrey heard loud, frantic beeping coming from the other end of the hall. "That's near Peter and Lindy," she realized with a start and dashed back down the hall, praying that it wasn't one of her friends that was crashing. "Please, God, don't let it be one of them."
Her heart sank steadily the closer she got to the screaming monitors, and it nearly burst when she found the source to be Peter's room. "No, Peter! Somebody help!" she shouted as she frantically pounded on the call button. "Somebody! Hold on, Peter. Someone's going to help." She started checking his vitals as a doctor and two nurses appeared by her side.
"How is he?" the doctor asked as he began examining his patient.
"BP's dropping," Audrey explained her initial findings. "I don't see any external bleeding, so it must be internal. His blood pressure's dropping too quickly. That's the only thing I've found so far."
"Get one of the operating rooms ready," the doctor ordered, and one of the nurses he'd brought with him scampered off. "Audrey, go back to Tyler's room and get some more rest. We'll take care of Peter."
Audrey nodded jerkily, the adrenaline running out of her system. "Y-yeah, I'll do that, yeah," she stammered. "I'll j-just... go do that." As she left the room, the young nurse's feet quickened their pace, and she didn't even notice she'd returned to Tyler's room until she was flinging herself on top of Dean. A shout erupted from the startled man, flailing for a weapon until he realized just what had attacked him. Once he saw that it was Audrey, he settled down. That's when he noticed her sobs.
"Audy, Audy, what's wrong?" Dean asked softly as he situated her in his arms. It was difficult to do in such a small chair, but he managed to do it. "Audy, Sweetheart, talk to me. What is it?"
"Peter's bleeding internally," Audrey whispered into his neck. She didn't trust herself to speak any louder, afraid she would break down completely if she did. "I heard his monitor going off when I was waiting for the elevator. I was the first one to get to his room, and I found his blood pressure dropping way too fast. Dean..." The tears came again, cutting Audrey off.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Dean soothed his heartbroken girlfriend. "I bet Peter's going to be alright. And Lindy's probably going to wake up soon and beat you for worrying about her so much." A tiny laugh broke through the sobs, and Audrey's lips quirked up in a smile.
"I'm just so scared I'm going to lose them, Dean. We've been friends for so long, and I don't want to see Tyler lose his parents."
"Hey, none of that," Dean cut her off. He tilted her chin up so she could look him in the eye. "Don't think like that, Baby. You gotta remember, no matter what happens, Tyler is not going to be alone. Right? We're going to be here for him." Audrey nodded, and Dean gave her a gentle kiss before she settled back down against him. It didn't take long for her to fall back asleep, her energy having drained in the excitement of the morning.
Dean felt his girlfriend fall asleep against him. He was about to follow her into slumber when he heard movement in the bed next to him. "Tyler?" he asked gently. Looking to his right, Dean saw the child stirring. Tyler's eyes fluttered open slowly, squinting in the morning light shining right onto his face. The hunter eased his girlfriend down into the chair and sat down on the edge of Tyler's bed. "Hey there, Champ."
"Mr. Dean?" the boy croaked with a sleepy voice. His eyes closed again and he settled back into his pillow, but Dean could tell his younger friend wasn't going back to sleep yet. "'s goin' on? Where're Mama n' Daddy?"
"They got banged up pretty bad, Ty," Dean told him regretfully.
The boy's eyes widened as Dean's words registered in his head. "Are the going to be okay?" he asked. He shot up in bed but had to lie back down when pain from his injuries got to be too much for him. "What's going to happen, Mr. Dean?"
"Don't you worry, Tyler," Dean said as he helped Tyler settle into a more comfortable position. "The doctors are taking care of your mom and dad, alright? You just focus on resting and letting yourself get better. Audy and I are here to take care of you until your parents are able to."
"I don't want anything to happen to Mama and Daddy," Tyler sobbed. "They have to be okay!" Being careful of his injuries, Dean gathered the little boy into his arms, rocking him gently.
"It's alright, buddy," Dean said as he held Tyler, just letting him cry. He understood where Tyler was coming from. How many times had he sat up late at night, waiting for his dad to come back from a hunt? Hoping and praying he would come home safe and sound? Dean knew Tyler's fear, and he wished with all his heart that he could take that away from him.
Just then, a soft knock sounded from the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Winchester?" a man in a white coat asked. Dean looked up at him, giving him his attention. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Out in the hall?"
With a nod, the hunter loosened his hold on Tyler. "I have to go talk to the doctor for a minute, Champ. If you need anything, just call out, and I'll be right here." Tyler nodded sadly, and Dean ruffled his hair before following the doctor out to the hallway. "Okay, what's going on?" he asked impatiently.
"Under normal circumstances," the doctor began, "I would be talking to the next of kin. But considering this family's situation, you and Miss Dawson are the closest the McKauley's have to kin here. I'm so sorry to tell you, Mr. Winchester, but Peter didn't make it."
Dean felt as though he'd been punched in the stomach. All the air left his body in an instant, and he couldn't make himself move. 'Peter's dead?' he thought in shock. Though he'd only been in Woodnor for a few months, Dean had been friends with Peter and Lindy since the day he met Tyler. He and Peter had quickly bonded over cars and mechanics, and he had spent hours talking pop culture and classic rock with Lindy while they swapped cooking tips. And they all doted on Tyler.
"Wh- uh, h-how, how did it happen?" Dean stuttered sadly.
"Miss Dawson found him bleeding internally, and we weren't able to stop it," the doctor explained. "It took too long to locate where he was bleeding, and by the time we did, it was too late. There was nothing we could do."
"What about Lindy?" asked Dean.
The older man sighed regretfully and looked Dean straight in the eye. "There's very little brain activity, just enough that she's not brain dead. Her condition hasn't really changed, but there aren't any signs of improvement," he said. "We're all praying for a miracle, but none of us are expecting her to recover."
"Thanks, Doc," muttered Dean. He brought a hand down over his eyes and let it rest over his mouth, trying to reign in his emotions so he could give Tyler and Audrey the awful news.
"Would you like me to tell them?" the doctor asked gently. "They might be able to take it better from a doctor."
Dean shook his head. "No. Thank you, Doc, but I need to do it," he said. "I'm Tyler's guardian now, unless Lindy wakes up, so I need to be the one to tell him." The doctor nodded in understanding, giving Dean a sad smile and putting a hand on his shoulder before turning to leave.
Several minutes passed before Dean gathered enough of himself to go back into Tyler's room. "How do I tell Tyler that he's never gonna see his dad again?" he asked himself in a choked whisper as tears threatened to spill.
'You can do it, Dean,' Sam's voice said softly in Dean's head. 'You're strong, Dean. You've been strong for me my whole life. Now, it's time for you to be strong for Tyler. You can do it.'
Dean nodded to himself, squaring his shoulders and removing any trace of tears from his face. "I can do it," he tried to assure himself, but he still felt the heavy weight of loss.
When he went back inside, the hunter found his girlfriend awake and talking to Tyler. 'Our child,' he thought sullenly. For that's what Tyler was now, unless a miracle occurred and his mom woke up. As much as he loved Tyler, Dean didn't want him to lose his mother. He knew that pain all too well, and wouldn't wish it on such a sweet child.
"Hey, Dean," Audrey said with a smile. Then she saw her boyfriend's face, and the smile dropped, replaced with a strong feeling of dread. "Dean, what did the doctor say?"
Before he said anything, Dean sat down on the bed, pulling Tyler into his side and reaching out to Audrey with his other hand. "That was your dad's doctor, Ty," he began sadly. Tyler could tell by Dean's tone that his news wasn't good, and his body started trembling. "I'm so sorry, Tyler, but your dad got worse sometime before we woke up this morning. See, he started bleeding inside his body, which is much more dangerous than bleeding outside. The doctors and nurses tried to save him, but they couldn't stop the bleeding in time."
"No!" Tyler screamed and slammed himself into Dean's arms, ignoring the pain in his own body. "He can't be dead, Mr. Dean! Please say he's not dead!"
Dean struggled to hold his own tears in as he hugged Tyler tightly to his chest. "I'm so sorry, Buddy," he repeated in a choked whisper. "I wish I could tell you different, but he's not here anymore." As Tyler sobbed into his neck, Dean turned to look at Audrey. It shattered his already broken heart to see the tears on her face, and he drew her into his other side, holding his two most precious people as close as he could. 'I wish you were here, Sammy,' he thought as his own tears finally fell.
It took less time for Audrey to overcome her grief than Tyler, and she pulled away from Dean to see him crying as well. She knew he had found a good friend in Peter McKauley, just as she had all those years ago, and she hated seeing her boyfriend in such pain. "I'm going to go find Peter's doctor," she whispered. "I want to know just what happened." Dean nodded and shifted his weight so he was lying against the raised bed, Tyler still cradled against him.
When Audrey stepped out into the hall, she felt the full weight of their situation fall on her shoulders. 'I need to see about Lindy, too,' she thought. It took a while to find the doctor that had treated her friend. "Dr. Garrison," she called when she found him. The man turned when he heard his name.
"Hey, Audrey," he said sadly. The redness of her eyes and the tear stains on her cheeks told the older man that she'd heard the news. "I'm so sorry about Peter."
"Thanks," the younger woman said with a shaky nod. "Do you know what happened? He wasn't bleeding last night."
Garrison shrugged helplessly. "We missed something in our initial examination. There was an injury on his small intestine that didn't show up on any of his scans. It took too long for us to find the injury, and by the time we did, he'd bled out too much. We gave him a transfusion and tried to repair the damage to his intestine, but we just weren't quick enough."
Hearing it from Dean was hard enough, but hearing the exact diagnosis from Dr. Garrison was enough to send Audrey over the edge again. However, she was able to control herself enough to ask about her other friend. "And what about Lindy? What's her condition."
"It's not any better," said Garrison. "Her brain activity is almost nonexistent. There's just enough that she isn't brain dead. But if just one brain function ceases, she won't be with us anymore. I would suggest contacting any family they have and letting them know what's happened."
Audrey shook her head. "They don't have any family besides me and Dean," she said. "Lindy's mama died when she was little, and she never had a father. Her grandmother raised her, but she passed away shortly before she and Peter moved here. Peter's father died of cancer when Peter was in college, and his mother died of pneumonia a few years ago. Neither of them had any siblings." She breathed a shaky sigh and brought her hands up to cover her eyes. "Dean and I are going to have to arrange Peter's funeral."
"Don't worry about that right now," Garrison said soothingly. "That can be taken care of later. Right now, the most important thing is taking care of that little boy." Audrey nodded in agreement.
"Thank you, Dr. Garrison," she said. "Please let me know if Lindy's condition changes." The older man nodded, and Audrey went back to Tyler's room. She found the occupants of the room still in the same position as when she'd left them. Tyler had calmed down enough to stop crying, having dozed off in Dean's warm embrace. Dean, she saw, was resting with his head leaned back against the bed, but Audrey could tell he wasn't asleep. She didn't say a word as she crossed the room and seated herself in the recliner and stroked Tyler's light hair.
The morning passed in silence, with neither adult saying anything and the child resting fitfully. At noon, a nurse brought in a tray full of food, enough for all three, but none of them moved to touch it. All Dean and Audrey could do was sit and wait for information about their other friend.
Suppertime rolled around, and still, no one had said anything. Audrey had gotten up and made Tyler eat some of the food the nurse had brought for lunch, but neither she nor Dean had any desire to eat. As they watched the sky darken, the door opened, revealing Dr. Garrison. The couple looked up at him, their eyes asking the question their voices could not. Garrison just shook his head morosely, telling them all they needed to know.
Tears sprang back in Audrey's eyes, and she gave the doctor a nod that said she would talk to him later. The older man left the young couple to grieve and tell Tyler that his mom was also gone.
Dean's eyes met Audrey's, and he beckoned her to him. As she settled into his arm, he could only look sadly between his girlfriend and the boy they both loved so dearly. They were Tyler's parents now.
A/N: So... yeah, this chapter's kinda tragic. Did I make you cry? I'm not completely satisfied with the ending, but I didn't like anything else I tried, so it is what it is. Don't forget to review! Thanks for reading, guys!