A/N...up to this morning I had five thousand readers of this story. Only 15 reviews. Is it really annoying to ask for a quick review? Just a word or two is fine!

Dean took a sip from the Gatorade and held it in his mouth. He figured if he could taste it and not feel queasy he'd try swallowing it.

He breathed slowly, in, out.

He swallowed.

He knew Mark was watching him, but somehow it didn't bother him as much as his brother's mother hen gaze.

Maybe coz this dude was just another victim and meant nothing to him.

Maybe coz he really was sick, and it was almost nice to have someone fuss over him without going overboard or making him feel weak.

Bobby and Sam were huddled, their voices hushed and worried.

Chances are they were talking about him, conspiring a way to leave him here in the damp cave while they hunted the salty snake.

He pushed away from the wall and moved closer.

"But what does that mean?" Sam was saying.

"I don't think they're related. Not really, anyway."

"Well then how do you explain this?" Sam was holding a note pad.

"Explain what?" Dean interrupted.

Sam looked him up and down. "How're you feeling?"

Dean gave him a scowl. "What're you guys talking about?"

"The amulet that thing was wearing, it has a symbol on it that was on the Taggi alter, and in the spell." Bobby took the pad from Sam and handed it to Dean.

"Son of a bitch. I knew this job was wack from the get go"

"We don't know for sure that they're related" Sam turned and kneeled at his bag, rummaging through it.

"This area has a very large proportion of the population from the Baltic and Slavic regions of Europe, it could all be a coincidence."

"Really?" Dean scrubbed his brow with the back of a gloved hand. "You're gonna go the coincidence card? How often have we ever found anything to be a coincidence?"

Bobby pointed to the symbol on the pad. "Thing is, I aint ever seen that before the Taggi alter, and I have no idea what it's doing around the neck of the Zaltys"

Sam pulled out his rumpled wad of downloaded information on the latest hunt and started to flick through it.

Dean shrugged. "What does it matter? We gank this think like we were gonna in the first place"

"It matters because the amulet is probably protecting that thing, as well as controlling it" Bobby grabbed some of the papers from Sam. "If we don't figure out what's going on here we could end up with a butt load more trouble than we bargained for"

Dean turned to look at Mark who had inched over to find out what was happening. "Can I help? With your research bit?"

Sam handed him a couple of pages. "Yeah. You and Dean look for any connection here, there has to be something"

Dean turned to Bobby and held out his hand. Without a word Bobby pulled another book from his pack and handed it to the younger man.

Mark grinned. "It's like you guys can read each other's minds"

Sam frowned. "No way I wanna see into my brother's mind"

Dean winked. "Might learn a thing or two if yah did"

He moved to the side of the cave and with a groan lowered himself to the floor, leaning back against the moss covered wall. Mark took up a position beside him and held the papers for them both to see.

"Okay, so what am I looking for?"

"Anything that is similar, from this thing here" Dean pointed to the Zaltys description "to this thing here" and the paper that held the Taggi information.

"Is that the thing that made you sick?"

Dean groaned again as he tried to get comfortable, finally pulling his legs up and leaning his injured stomach against his knees. Mark frowned. "Dude, you sure you're okay? That thing took a fair sized swipe at you"

Dean took another sip of the Gatorade before opening the small book he'd gotten from Bobby. "I'm good. Had worse. Just stings a bit, is all"

Bobby and Sam sat opposite them, flame throwers at the ready in case the creature returned, and all started to earnestly research any connection between the two nasties.

After a few moments Sam looked up from his research. "I think I got something"

Bobby looked at the papers he held out. "Okay. What?"

"Um, I think there's something here, too" Mark called out, and Sam and Bobby looked over at him.

Dean was asleep, slumped against his shoulder.

Noticing the startled glances Mark held up a hand. "He's fine. Snoring a little. I just let him sleep for now, thought it best, you know?"

Sam looked at his brother snuggled up to a strange man. This was wrong on so many levels. Dean would never snuggle with a stranger, at least, not a male stranger, and not in the middle of a job.

He also shouldn't be asleep again. It was a given that he was injured, and still sick, but to fall asleep with a fresh cut in your stomach? Sam had received similar injuries over the years, they hurt like a bitch, there was no way you could fall asleep with a wound like that on your gut.

He turned to Bobby and saw equal amounts of concern written in the blue eyes of his surrogate father. Bobby noticed Sam looking at him.

"We can always take a picture to tease him with later"

Sam smiled at Bobby's attempt to lighten his concern. It didn't help as much as the effort was appreciated.

"All right, what do you have?" Sam asked Mark.

Mark folded the paper over, then picked up the book he had taken from Dean and placed his finger on a passage.

"Says here, right, that the Zaltys is attracted to other creatures from its region. So, that thing that hurt Dean, here, it's from the same area, originally, as this snake thing comes from. And the fact that they were both summoned using this" he held the book open for both men, a picture of the symbol from the amulet on it "Doubly marks them as, you know, related like"

Sam raised a brow. "Yeah, I pretty much go the same thing. But like Dean said, it's too much coincidence that the same symbol turned up for both monsters. So I'm going on the symbol a bit more"

He reached his hand out. "Can you toss me that book?" Mark complied, and Sam compared it to what he had on his papers. "It's defiantly a controlling or binding symbol. If we can get it off, the thing should return back to its hibernation. Plan B if we can't kill it"

Bobby handed him the small book he'd been reading. "It's also Lithuanian. Dean's right. Too much of a coincidence, I'm thinkin'" Bobby shrugged. "I caint find anything that says the symbol will protect the thing. But I'm telling yah, soon as we gank it I'm payin' Ted a visit"

"You think it's Ted?"

"Who else could it be? Unless we find an alter or a sign that says Here's the guy summoning the big snake I'm thinking he's our best bet"

"So, can we still kill this thing?" Sam asked him. "Or do we need to find out why it's here first?"

Bobby scratched his beard. "We were never sure if we could kill it in the first place. Fire held it back, sure, and Dean's crack shot with the silver bullets put the wind up it, but an amber knife to the heart? Gonna take a bit of fancy footwork to get that done"

Bobby shrugged. "I caint find anything that says the symbol will protect the thing. So, we continue. We may have more survivors, Mark's brother included"

Sam's brow was furrowed. "Well, let's get a bite and then head off. What do we do about Dean?"

"I could say leave him here with me and I'll look after him, but I also want to help you find my brother. He could be hurt. He needs me"

Sam gave him a grim smile. "I don't know if there's any way Dean would stay here. See if you can wake him up" he pulled over the heavy bag he had been carrying and grabbed a handful of protein bars out. "I don't know if he'll eat anything, though"

Mark gently stoked Dean's cheek.

"Hey, Dean? Can you wake up?"

The injured hunter rubbed his eye, but just nestled a bit further into the soft padding of Mark's parka covered shoulder.

Sam stood and walked over to them, handing a bottle of water and a protein bar to Mark. He gave Dean a slap on the shoulder. "Dude, you awake?"

Dean sat with a start, his hands flying to his stomach with the sudden movement. He blinked, confused for a moment, then turned to Mark.

"Was I snuggling with you?" he asked, his voice an embarrassed whisper.

"Dude, I don't think you're the snuggling type" Mark gave him a reassuring smile.

Dean looked over at Bobby, and the grin there told him all he needed to know. "Not a word" he groaned.

Bobby shook his head and accepted the food Sam offered.

"So. Look. Mark found out a couple of things" Sam explained what they knew so far as Dean leaned his head back against the cave wall.

"Makin' a pretty good hunter, there Mark" Dean told him without turning his head. "Fighting monsters, doin' research. You lookin' to take my job?"

Mark's face near split in half with his grateful smile. Dean had closed his eyes and didn't notice the grins on the face of his fellow hunters.

Mark reached over and grabbed Dean's Gatorade. "You should drink a little more of this"

Dean took the bottle from him but just sat it back down.

"We gotta move, Dean. You can either stay here or come with us" Sam grabbed his things and shoved them back into his bag.

Mark and Bobby stood, made sure everything was packed and ready, then everyone turned to the injured hunter, still resting his head back on the moss, his eyes closed.

He felt everyone looking at him and inwardly moaned. They were waiting to see if he could get up, he knew it. Without a doubt.

He felt a trickle of sweat run down from his forehead and knew his brother's eagle eyes would not have missed that.

Biting his bottom lip he tried to stand, but before too much effort had been made he felt a strong hand on each arm, lifting him to his feet.

He opened his eyes to both Mark and Sam.

"You can't use those stomach muscles yet. Don't want you to bust open the bandages" Sam turned and pulled his bag over his shoulder, leaving Dean grateful that there had been no chic flick moment over his injuries.

X

X

X

X

Sherry-Anne had been coughing nonstop for at least an hour, her throat was raw and she felt sweat trickle down her spine.

Everyone was looking at her with concern, Erna had been giving her sips of water in between spasms, but there was nothing they could really do.

Her head was hot, her tongue felt swollen and she was totally miserable.

Ben walked over to her and handed her a hard candy. "Might help. May used to suck them when her mouth was dry"

A tear traced a path down his face. May had been grabbed by the Zaltys last night. Along with the boy from the camp, taken so quickly that Alec and Sherry-Anne hadn't even gotten a chance to figure out who it was.

Their blood still coated the small alcove, the smell of the ruined bodies and the creature had been overwhelming at first, but the burning line of rags the professor had set at the mouth of their little 'room' had taken that away. The breeze that wound its way through the cavern carried off the smoke, and they had not heard anything from the monster since its brief but terrifying attack.

"We have to figure out the best thing to do here, guys" the professor stretched and yawned before continuing.

"We can't stay here for that thing to pick us off one by one. Also, I'm worried Sherry-Anne will get too sick to move if we wait too long"

Ben and Alec looked at him without speaking. Erna seemed to find the tips of her gloves very interesting.

"Professors right" Jack stood up. "I vote we try walking out of here. I know it's scary, but sitting here waiting for that thing to get us is worse."

Erna looked up, tears starting to spill from her eyes. "I don't want to get eaten by that thing. I agree. I think we have more chance walking out than waiting for it to come back and raid the pantry"

Sherry-Anne tried to suck on the hard candy in between coughs, and raised her hand, nodding.

Alec shrugged. "I'm all for it. Let's roll!"

The professor looked at Ben. "What about you? Are you okay with this? I mean, we can always shore up the fires and leave some supplies"

Ben looked like a frightened rabbit. "Oh, my, um…gosh"

Alec frowned. "Dude, you stay here, you die. You know that, right?"

Ben nodded, his head jerking up and down as his eyes grew even wider. "But, um, you guys said that you lost a couple of your companions while you were moving"

The professor grabbed the camp-boy's backpack and threw it over his shoulder. He picked up one of the torches they had made the night before and lit it, then handed it to Alec before he lit another.

Jack stepped forward and helped Sherry-Anne to her feet, his strong arm around her to half carry her with them. He looked at Ben.

"So, man, what's it gonna be?"

Ben actually started to cry. He nodded, and pulled his parka closer around himself.

"All right then. Let's get a move on" the professor turned and cleared the burning rags out of the way. He leaned forward to peer down the passage.

"All agree on left?"

"Lead on, proff" Alec said. "I'll bring up the rear"

Ben hurried forward to make sure he was near the professor.

The group had walked for near an hour when Sherry-Anne started to cough again.

"Do you need a break?" Jack asked her. She shook her head, unable to reply.

He handed her another hard candy. "Ben filled my pocket" he told her.

She sucked on the candy, it helped stop the tickling in her throat.

"We can keep going" Jack called to the professor, who raised his hand to silence the group.

"I hear something" he hissed back to them. "Alec, be ready!"

"Where? In front or back?" Alec called to him.

Sherry-Anne started to cough again, this time it was so bad she collapsed. Jack swung the girl up easily into his arms, there was not much of her, and his adrenaline was pumping.

"Oh God, it's behind me, RUN!" screamed Alec, and the group took off ahead into the dimly lit passage.

They ran, lungs bursting, sweat pooling under their heavy clothes, turning one bend after another, until the professor skidded to a halt.

"There's someone ahead" he called as a group of men rounded the bend, flame throwers and flashlights illuminating the four large hunters.

"GET DOWN!" the man in the front yelled.

The professor turned and grabbed Erna, throwing her to the floor as the men pushed passed him, the flamethrowers at the ready.

They fired them up just as Alec screamed, the creature catching up to him and reaching out two of its arms to grab him.

The tallest man sent flames over the face of the snake, one other fired at its chest, the third at its underbelly. One of the men stopped at the professor, his face familiar.

"Dean? My God, you're alive!"

Before the professor could answer him, he ran off to help the three men fighting the monster. He took one of the flamethrowers off the tallest man and fired it straight into the creatures head.

"Give me space" the tall man yelled, a hand sized dagger at the ready.

He lunged forward to the chest of the creature as one of the other men pulled out a pistol and started to fill the creature's face with bullets.

The tall man almost succeeded in stabbing the monster just as its tail whipped around and smashed him across the chest, sending him flying into, and through, the side of the passage, the thin wall collapsing and breaking into a mound of rubble.

"SAM!" screamed the one with the gun as the tail hit him and the other man, sending them crashing through the other wall, leaving only a bearded man with the flamethrower.

The creature roared in anger and pain, the bearded man taking this opportunity to focus the flame on its gaping mouth, the smell of burnt monster flesh filling the passage.

The man moved forward, intensifying the flame into a narrower assault at the monster's mouth.

The professor, Jack, Ben and Alec stood, shock and awe leaving them immobile.

Erna struggled back against the wall. "Look out!" she screamed as the tail came crashing around again, this time it scooped the bearded man and threw him back into the group of survivors, the broken wall falling over them, then through the floor of the cave as it collapsed, taking all of them with it…

A/N...Okay, Hurt! starts now... next update in maybe a week, unless things change around here...