Chapter 14: Sisters

The night crawled toward morning. The sun was close. Dean could smell it in the air, something about how the moisture settled, bracing for daylight's heat. They had a few hours of darkness left, no more. Technically, this day had ended hours ago, but Dean had never care about technicality. This day wasn't over until one last task was complete, and he was finally able to close his eyes in sleep.

The sound of chopping filled his ears. The search and rescue team was working in the underbrush, gathering wood for a bonfire on the beach. They cast sideways glances at Dean as he walked past. They were full of questions, but didn't dare approach to ask. Dean knew he looked terrible, his clothing caked in mud and blood, an "I'll-kill-anything" look on his face. He wanted to kill something, but death had already come tonight, and he had been elsewhere.

He stopped by the corpse, a black mountain of flesh that still hissed and shifted every so often. Claire sidled away from it. "It keeps doing that."

"Yeah, dead bodies will." Dean had seen enough of them to know. They twitched, they moaned, they squished and gurgled hours after they had been killed. Sam had once researched the reason why. It worked something like a deflating balloon.

It still made Dean's skin crawl, even after all these years, but he wasn't about to tell Claire that. He glared at the corpse, wishing he could have been there for the fight. His muscled bulged with longing, his fists clenched. After all the trouble this thing had caused, after what it had done to Sam, to Jenna…

His little brother was in surgery now, and Dean knew he should be there at the hospital. Not that he could do anything more than pace the floor and terrorize innocent nurses. But he needed to see this, needed to see the corpse, needed to see the fire, needed to know that it was done.

They faced danger so often, and Dean had nearly lost his brother more times that he cared to admit. But he was usually there for the kill. This time, he'd been in a helicopter, a tube pumping blood from his arm to Sammy's, while Claire took down the biggest critter Dean had seen to date.

From the sound of it, there hadn't been much of a fight. But then, that's what happened when you had a small army on your side. A hundred guns instead of two. The search and rescue team continued to bring wood to Guster, but only he approached the corpse. Occasionally, a curious flashlight beam landed on a leg or a claw, but no one came near enough to touch it.

Claire had told them that the skin was toxic, and they had to have special training to touch it. She and Guster had put on rubber gloves and everything. She was a good liar; a skill that would serve her well in the hunting life.

Dean could just imagine the rumors that would circulate tomorrow, but right now, he didn't care.

Guster arranged the last bocks of wood on the pile he'd built and nodded. "You ready?"

"Yeah." Dean bent down to pick up the container of salt. Dean dumped the salt out over the corpse. It fizzed when it made contact with the scaly hide.

"Look, lady, you need to get out of here. We're about to make some really toxic fumes." Dean pulled his lighter out of his pocket and tossed it onto the pyre. The dry wood caught, crackling to life, and yellow flames licked their way upwards. The kelpie's skin bubbled like tar, boiling away from its flesh and bones.

There was no coming back from that.

Claire covered her mouth and nose with her hand, her face turning green. Burning whole bodies was like going to a barbecue in the middle of a sewer. You had the tasty smell of scorching flesh coupled with the overpowering stench of bone and skin slowly turning to ash. Dean watched the hungry fire consume the body, and felt something inside him loosen.

It was done.

000 Lakeport 000

Sisters! Sisters! There were never such devoted sisters.

The world was white. White ceiling filled with white lights. White walls, white sheets, white tile floors. She was in a maze, a warren of hallways and rooms. Beds, chairs, cabinets full of medicine and bright, bright lights, but no one else in sight. The hallways echoed with the emptiness, the only sound was the music, crackling slightly as if the radio were out-of-tune.

All kinds of weather, we stick together, the same in the rain or sun…

A giggle echoed down the hallway. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of two little girls twirling in blue dresses. She chased them around the corner, but there was no one there.

"Hey, sister."

Jenna turned to see Jessica standing behind her. She squealed and held out her arms, as if she'd come back from a long trip to see her sister waiting at the airport. But this wasn't the airport. It was a hospital.

Strange.

The thought was forgotten faster than it had come, and Jenna fell into her sister's arms. They hugged each other so tight they spun in a circle, giggling as they finally broke apart to avoid tripping each other.

"I missed you." Jessica gripped Jenna's elbows tight and smiled wide, her teeth white and bright. She started to hum and sway with the music.

"I missed you too," Jenna whispered. Her stomach clenched around the words. "You were gone." There was something else, a thought floating out of reach. Something about this didn't belong. But the thought drifted away as Jenna took up the tune. "Sisters, Sisters, Two different faces, but in tight spaces, we think and we act as one."

Jessica sang the lines with her, and then twirled them both in a wide circle. She shook her hair out of her face and laughed. "I'm so glad you're here. I've been alone for so long."

"There are so many things I've been waiting to tell you!" Jenna linked her arm around Jessica's, and they entered the hospital cafeteria. There was no line, no servers to dole out food or cashier to take their money.

Jenna frowned. There it was again, that thought intruding on her reality. A strange idea, threatening to push down the walls.

This isn't real.

Jessica filled her hands with a donut and coffee. They felt real in her hands. Her sister felt real, warm and happy and full of energy, full of life.

Life.

Jenna frowned and looked around the empty cafeteria. There was no life here. None.

She remembered water closing over her head. She couldn't breath. She couldn't breathe! The coffee cup shattered on the floor. Jenna clutched her chest. It moved up and down, just like it should. Jessica tilted her head to one side, unconcerned.

"You don't need to worry about that anymore."

Jenna stopped breathing, thoughts spilling. Empty hospital. Her sister, alive. Water closing over her head. The clock on the wall ticked the seconds away as her chest refused to move. She waited for the headache, but it didn't come. She didn't breathe, and she didn't faint. She just was, exactly as she had been.

Just as Jessica was exactly as she had been the night she died. There was even a crimson stain across her belly. Jenna frowned. No, Jessica died in a fire. She wasn't stabbed. Was she?

Jenna looked away, and gasped. A man in a black suit stood in the cafeteria doors, staring at her. A sense of otherness clung to him. He wore it like a sign, declaring, I am not part of your world. It was in his posture, in his unblinking eyes, in the strange pallor of his skin.

"Who is that?"

Lord help the mister, who comes between my and my sister. The music around them warned.

Jessica glared at the man in black. "He wants you to go with him. But you don't have to. You could stay with me. I've been alone so long."

"Jess." Jenna pulled at her sister's elbow. "Where are we?"

Jessica edged away from the man in black and pulled Jenna out the doors on the opposite side of the room. As they walked, flashes of color crept through the white walls. Figures moved through the halls, murky shadows without faces or voices. Their speech was a dull murmur, an echo lost down a long pipe. A doorway loomed ahead of them. One man napped in a chair, arms crossed over his chest. The other lay in the bed, his leg elevated and wrapped in bandages. His was the only face Jenna could see.

Sam.

Lord help the sister, who comes between me and my man.

"We're in the hospital, of course." Jessica sighed and paused in the doorway, staring longingly at the bed. "We're waiting. It's what people do here. We wait."

"Wait for what?" Jenna asked. She glanced behind them. The man in black was there again, waiting at the other end of the hallway.

Jessica shook her head, dispelling the color and motion around them. The hospital was empty again. Jessica wrapped an arm around Jenna's shoulders. "I've missed you. Come on. You have to tell me everything."

Jenna grinned at her sister. "Everything?" They had twelve years to catch up on.

Twelve years. There it was again, that feeling that something here was off. Something Jenna couldn't put her finger on. She'd known it a moment ago, but now it was gone. There was just her, and her sister, and all the time they wanted.

Those who've seen us, know that not a thing can come between us.

The halls were empty, the music swelled, and two girls in blue giggled and twirled out of the corner of her eye. Jenna took Jessica's hand and led her sister on a tour of her memory, sharing sugar and caffeine and ignoring the world around them for the moment.

The man in black watched, and waited.

000 Lakeport 000

The hospital was full of whispers. They flowed between people like an invisible force, a constant murmur in the background. They never looked at him, oh no. When Brian's eyes searched for the source of the sound, every head was turned away. But the whispers continued. Whispers of awe, rumors spreading about the giant monster that had been killed a the lake. Whispers of pity, sorrow, and sympathy for the family waiting in room 112 of ICU.

Brian couldn't stay in that room any longer. He couldn't watch his daughter's still frame any longer. He couldn't listen to Sandy's careful breathing, as she tired not to cry. He couldn't bear the silence, but as soon as he stepped into the hall, he was surrounded by the whispers.

He took the five steps across the hall to room 113. He'd lived between these rooms for several hours now, keeping vigil, waiting for someone to wake. Dean was back, sleeping in the chair next to the bed, booted beet crossed on the mattress, arms crossed over his chest. He looked as comfortable as if sprawled across a memory-foam mattress. He hadn't twitched in the half-hour since Brian's last check in. Sam lay motionless in the bed, the monitors behind him slowly beeping a steady rhythm. His foot was bandaged and propped up on a molded pillow, the proof of his heroic attempt to save Brian's daughter.

He should wake soon, and learn the truth.

Awake. Such a word. Brian had never known its importance before. He sighed and turned to go, but the sound of movement halted him in the doorway.

Sam shifted in the bed, eyes blinking as he climbed slowly to consciousness. Brian moved to step forward, but Dean beat him to it. It was as if the two had a psychic link. The moment Sam twitched, Dean was fully awake. His booted feet hit the floor and his attentive face hovered in the center of Sam's vision, letting him know that he was there. That everything would be ok.

"Hey, Sammy. How you feeling?"

Sam shook his head slightly. His movements were slow and uncoordinated, a side-effect of the morphine pumping through his system. But the morphine couldn't erase the panic that had sent him into the water in the first place, the devotion, or desperation, that had pushed him to stay close enough to Jenna to keep her out of the kelpie's mouth.

"What happened?" Sam demanded. He took in the empty room, then grasped his brother's arm. "Where's Jenna, is she ok?"

"You decided to fight the kelpie with your toes, that's what happened!" Dean said. They didn't know the details, but they had piece together a good hypothesis. "What were you thinking, Sammy?"

"Jenna," Sam insisted again. He fumbled with the sheets and pulled himself to a sitting position. "Where is she?" He twisted, trying to get out of the bed, but his limbs were not cooperating.

"Whoa! Sammy! Stop!" Dean landed on Sam's chest, pinning his shoulders to the bed. "You're not going anywhere on that leg."

Sam stared at his brother dumbly for a moment, then followed his gaze down to the mountain of gauze that hid his mangled foot from sight. "Oh. Right." His head landed back on the pillows, and Dean released his hold with a knowing grin.

"That's morphine's nice, isn't it? Remember when I broke my leg? I woke up in the hospital, tried to walk away, and landed on my butt because I didn't even notice the cast." Dean laughed silently at the memory, then put the morphine pump in Sam's hand. "You use that when you need it, ok?"

Sam's brows furrowed, but he nodded. "Yeah, ok. How bad is it?"

In response, Dean held up a tooth as long as his finger. "I pulled this out of you, Sammy. You had to have surgery just to get the bleeding under control, and you're not done yet. The docs are debating the best treatment."

Brian had been present for that debate. He was still amazed that both doctors had walked away without being harmed, because Dean's fists has looked very ready to punch something. Brian did note that the standard-issue tissue box was now a mangled heap in the trash can. But he couldn't blame the hunter. One wanted to save the leg, one wanted to amputate, but they both agreed that Sam would never have full use of his limb again.

All to save his daughter.

His guts twisted at the thought.

If he wanted to miss the ugly part of this conversation, now was the time to leave. Because if Brian knew anything about Sam, Dean wasn't going to be able to deflect for long. Sam liked facts, and as good as he was at hiding things, he was just as good at dragging unhappy details out of unwilling mouths.

"What's the prognosis?"

Dean's face fell. "You attacked Jaws with your foot, Sam. Your leg is shredded."

Sam let out a breath, and nodded. "Right. It's ok, though. Jenna's ok."

"Sammy."

Brian could hear Dean's heart breaking with just that one word. All the blood drained from Sam's face.

"Sam, you're awake." Brian stepped around the curtain with a smile. His heart was shredded, as mangled as the flesh in Sam's leg, but he could be happy about this one thing. Sam, at least, was awake. He might lose a leg, but he still had his life. "It's good to see you back with us."

"Mr. Moore." Sam immediately straightened, as much as he could while propped up on pillows. "I'm sorry."

"For what, Sam? You didn't bring that monster here. You saved my daughter from being eaten. You gave her back to me."

Sam frowned. "So she's ok? She wouldn't-she wouldn't wake up."

Brian closed his eyes, the sight of Sam's hopeful face too much to bear. "She didn't. She won't. The doctors say she was without oxygen for too long. She's stopped breathing on her own." It was the first time he'd said it out loud. The truth left him in a wave. In a way, it was good to say the words. "They say its up to us, to keep her on life support or let her go."

"There's no chance she'll wake up?"

"No."

"No," Sam echoed. His chest heaved, and tears spilled from his eyes. His fist clenched and pounded the mattress. Dean placed a hand on his knee to keep the injured leg from moving as Sam writhed. "I should have-"

"No," Brian cut in firmly. "Sam, you did everything you could. You saved her from being eaten. You brought her back to me. At least this way, we have some time with her."

Time to say good-bye. It was the one thing he had always wished for, with Jessica.

He wasn't sure if this was better, this slow waiting, but Sam did not need to hear that.

"I want to see her." Sam started struggling against his blankets again, and once again Dean held him still. One hand on Sam's chest was enough to keep him down.

"Sam, you can't get out of this bed." Dean's tone made it clear he would win any fight over this. "You did everything you could, Sammy. It took an army to take that thing down. It took Lake County's entire search and rescue armed with iron, and an angel blade. But they got it, Sam. It's dead, and it's done."

Sam closed his eyes and turned away from his brother, turned away from Brian, turned away from the world. He shut them out without saying a word.

Dean ran his hands over his face, suddenly looking ten years older. "I need a cup of coffee. You want one?"

Sam didn't respond.

"One coffee, coming up." Dean rose from his chair, took Brian by the elbow, and led him out the door.

000 Lakeport 000

"Abbi never stops talking, and Tyler tries to keep up even though he can't say many real words yet."

Jessica laughed and gave her sister a pointed look. "I wonder where she got that?"

She had been talking non-stop for hours. Jenna looked up at the clock. The minute hand hadn't budged, even though the second hand kept ticking round and round the face.

Odd.

"I wish you could meet them."

"I have," Jessica said. "I've been here."

No you haven't.

Because you died.

It was a simple fact, on that had been part of her life for twelve years. But Jenna felt as if she'd just learned it for the first time. Images flickered in the empty cafeteria, figures moving though the cashier's line. People sitting at tables. They were alone, but they weren't. One world over lapped another.

Jessica took her hand. "I'm so happy you're here now. I've been alone for so long. I've been waiting for so long."

Jenna frowned. She didn't know much about death, she wasn't even sure what she really believed about it all. But all the stories seemed to agree on one thing. "Jessica, this can't be right. You shouldn't be here. We shouldn't be here. Shouldn't we move on? Go somewhere else?"

Jessica frowned, and pointed to the man in black. He still watched them from across the room. "He thinks so. We talked once before. I wanted me to go with him, but I couldn't."

"Why?" Jenna asked.

Jessica turned away, and then she was gone, like a light bulb winking out. Jenna was alone with a cafeteria full of ghosts.

No. She was the ghost. They were real.

A pair of figures swam into view, clearer than the others who filtered through the edges of her vision. "Dad!" Jenna waved, but he didn't respond. He looked right through her, face taut, eyes red. Another man was beside him, talking, but his words were lost to her, a jumble of sound with no sensible shape.

"Dad." Jenna's voice was small as she walked past her. Was she dead? Was this it? Was she doomed to wander the hospital forever? She turned to watch her father move across the room, and found herself face to face with the man in black.

"Jenna Moore." His tone was cordial and professional, like a salesman or a lawyer. "It is time we talked."

"Who are you?" Jenna demanded.

"No need to be rude, my dear. I'm hiding nothing from you. In fact, that's why I'm here. The veil has been lifted, at least for you. It is time to move on, and I am the one to take you to the next step. I am your reaper."

"My reaper?" Jenna repeated. "As in, Death?"

"May I join you?" The reaper gestured to the empty space Jessica had left at the table. "We need to talk."

To Be Continued...

NOTE: The song "Sisters" is from the movie White Christmas. Two sisters have a song-and-dance routine wearing fluffy blue dressed and dancing with giant blue feathered fans. Later in the movie, two male characters who are also song-and-dance performers lip-sync to the song while dancing with the giant blue feathered fans and wearing blue headbands and sashes. It's hilarious, and I now have a mental image of Jared and Jensen re-creating that performance. I would love nothing more than to see them do it on the convention stage. Because 1. I would laugh harder than I have ever laughed before in my life and 2. if you substitute 'brothers' for 'sisters', the song says it all.

And of course, my sisters and I know the song by heart, because we would dance to it when we were little girls.