Hello, everyone! This prompt is from AllShallFade777:
Something in season 7, where Sam gets hurt but his hallucinations keep him from realizing it at first-like someone is shooting at them and he hallucinates that the bullets miss, or something like that-and it's not until they finish the hunt and think they won that they realize Sam is hurt, so by then the injury has gotten worse (more blood loss, or maybe he got poisoned so it had more time to spread; something like that).
Awesome prompt, thank you!
Sam regretted having taken on their most recent hunt the second that the schizophrenic farmer started to chase them across a strawberry field with his gun.
There had been missing people in New York, all disappearing right around a strawberry field on a farm. The patterns put the center of the strawberry field in the middle of all of the disappearances. It didn't take very much research to discover that the previous owner of the farm, Mr. George Fogg, had killed himself in the center of the field.
According to the lore, his blood had mixed with the red juice of the strawberries and waited in the soil to wreak his vengeance upon the descendants of the town. It didn't take a genius to realize that Fogg's ghost was now tormenting the people of the town.
Dean had found the hunt first, and he convinced Sam that they should take care of it. With their names tarnished by the Leviathan, and with Dick Roman in the wind, there was no point in sitting around waiting for something to happen.
They'd gone late at night to find the bones and burn them. Of course, the farmer's dog had woken up, and woken up the farmer with its barking. The farmer hadn't been too pleased to see two men out in his field, and he started sprinting after them with a gun and a string of curses flying out of his mouth.
"Run faster!" Dean bellowed as their feet flew across the strawberries. The farmer hadn't given up, and though Sam and Dean were faster by far, Sam was carrying the shovel and Dean was holding the heavy bag of weapons. Combined with an assortment of bruises from their last hunt, they weren't exactly running at top speed.
"Get the hell off my farm!" the farmer screamed from behind them. When they'd visited earlier in the day, the farmer hadn't seemed very stable to Sam, and now he realized that assumption was true as the farmer continued to chase them.
"That's what we're doing!" Dean yelled back over his shoulder, not slowing down in the slightest.
"And don't come back!" the farmer shouted, and his footsteps ceased. Sam thought that he must have given up until the sound of bullets echoed out into the night, ringing through the silence sharply.
"Son of a bitch!" Dean yelled, whirling his head around. They both rolled to the ground instinctively, ducking their heads.
The bullets stopped.
Sam glanced up and saw the farmer was reloading his gun, so he yanked at Dean's shoulder and they took off for the Impala.
"Damn," Dean said to the darkness of the car once they'd gotten in and slammed the doors, panting heavily. "Damn, he has anger issues."
There was a twenty second pause in which they both caught their breaths.
"You all good?" Dean asked. Sam quickly looked down.
"Yeah. You?"
"I'm fine," Dean said. "How the hell are we going to finish this now?"
Sam shrugged. "We'll have to go back out."
"He'll shoot us!"
"Not if we don't wake up the dog. We should wait a couple of hours, and just before dawn we can sneak back out."
Dean stared at him for a second. "Alright," he said finally. "But this time, if Crazy Farmer starts shooting at us, I'm shooting him first."
Sam sighed. "We're not shooting him."
Dean snorted and muttered something about "try me", and then started the car. "Might as well get some shut eye," he said. "You can sleep. I'll keep watch in case Crazy Farmer or Fogg's ghost decide to show up."
"Nah, I'm not tired," Sam lied. "You get some rest."
Dean eyed him a moment, then shrugged. "Wake me up for the next shift," he mumbled and was out quicker than Sam thought possible.
"Just you and me now," said Lucifer from the backseat. "Can I have shotgun? You always get shotgun."
Sam ignored him, choosing instead to look out the window and watch the stars. He was reminded of years previously when he and Jess had gone out stargazing together. It seemed like a century ago.
"Aw, come on, don't ignore me," Lucifer said, leaning closer to Sam and blowing into his ear. "You've got a while to just sit here. Might as well have a fun conversation."
Sam tried to see past the trees. Barely visible was the Big Dipper, almost directly ahead of him.
"Talk to me… come on, Sam," Lucifer said, reaching out and gripping Sam's chin in his hand. "Like this." He tugged at Sam, who resolutely did nothing but press his scar on his hand.
Lucifer flickered once.
"Don't send me away, man," he pleaded, finally releasing Sam's chin from his hand. Sam leaned away in relief, pressing harder on the scar. "Bunk buddy!"
Digging into the scar with his fingernail worked. He nearly drew blood, he was pressing so hard, but Lucifer vanished completely.
It was getting chilly in the car, so Sam quietly grabbed the blanket from the backseat and draped it across himself and Dean, who was now drooling onto the seat.
"That didn't work for very long," Lucifer said, popping back in. "You can't keep pressing on that scar for the rest of your life, Sam. You just gotta accept the fact that I'll always be with you. Always."
Sam stared straight ahead, feeling Lucifer take the knife out of his pocket.
Not real.
Lucifer carved into the leather seats of the Impala with interest. Sam saw only out of the corner of his eye and tried to not let it bother him.
Good thing it was a hallucination, or Dean would be pissed.
"Remember I carved you like this once?" Lucifer said, gesturing to the seat. "It wasn't quite as clean, though. You had more guts spilling out."
Sam remembered.
"You should finish the hunt, Sammy," Lucifer said. "I'm bored. I could use a little action."
Sam stiffened his jaw but said nothing.
"We should wake up Dean and do the hunt," Lucifer suggested. "I can wake him up, if you want."
Sam didn't answer, and Lucifer shrugged. "Alrighty. I'll just do it the hard way."
He lunged forward, grabbing Sam's throat in his hands and pressing his fingers deeply into his trachea.
Not real. Not. Real.
Sam coughed, wheezing for breath. He fought against Lucifer's fingers, desperately trying to peel them away.
"Big Brother will wake up any moment…" Lucifer said, casually checking his watch while keeping his hands securely around Sam's neck. Sam flailed, struggling to get Lucifer off, and finally his fingers found the door of the Impala. He opened it and tumbled out onto the grass, Lucifer's fingers vanishing from his neck.
"What the hell?" came Dean's sleepy voice from inside the Impala. Sam quickly got to his feet, struggling for breath, and pulled himself back inside the dark Impala.
"Dude, you okay?" Dean said, watching him warily. "Did you just fall out?"
"I'm fine," Sam said shortly. Lucifer was gone now, but the feeling of fingers crushing his throat was not.
"You hallucinating?" Dean asked. Sam didn't answer, glad that it was dark enough in the car so that Dean couldn't see his expression.
"What about the scar? I thought it made him go away?" Dean said after a moment, his voice quiet.
"It does. He just came back," Sam said, rubbing at his neck.
He couldn't see Dean, but was sure that his brother was looking at him with concern.
"Might as well finish the hunt," Dean said after a few moments. "Now that we're both up."
Sam silently agreed, even though it was bothering him slightly that it had been Lucifer's idea in the first place to get up and finish the hunt.
Well, his hallucination's idea.
They walked back out to the strawberry field, this time taking care to do so quietly to not wake the dog. Once the coast was clear and the farmer was nowhere in sight, Dean began digging while Sam kept guard.
"Don't you want a turn?" Dean said after a half an hour of digging, wiping sweat from his brow.
"You're quicker than me," Sam said automatically. "And it's almost dawn. We need to hurry."
It was an excuse, but it was also true, so Dean set to work again, grumbling about how difficult it was being the stronger one.
They managed to get to the bones and light them on fire without any more debacles. The dog didn't wake up, nor did the first streaks of dawn begin to paint the trees until they were safely on their way back to the car.
After hours of squinting in the inky black night, Sam was relieved to finally be able to see as they made their way back to the Impala. Dean started the car while Sam threw the shovel into the backseat and then the weapons into the trunk.
"Sam, what the hell is that?" Dean said when Sam opened the passenger door. He was pointing to Sam's seat.
"What's what?" Sam asked, quickly glancing at the backseat that Lucifer had torn up with his knife. To his relief, it wasn't still torn up.
It's a hallucination, remember? he reminded himself.
"There's nothing there," Sam said blankly when Dean continued to look at Sam's seat with a mixture of confusion, concern, and anger.
"There's nothing there-? God, Sam, you're bleeding!" Dean said suddenly, and within an instant he was out of the car. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Sam glanced down at himself, and all he saw was his old plaid shirt and no blood.
"What are you talking about?" he said, frowning. He was a bit light-headed and cold, maybe a bit nauseous, but fine otherwise. Come to think of it, he had a headache. But nothing more.
"That!" Dean said, pulling Sam's jacket away. Sam slapped his hand.
"I'm fine," he said. "Not bleeding. Are you okay? Did you hit your head?"
"Shut up, I'm fine. Let me just look for a moment," Dean said. "Take off your jacket."
Sam scowled but obliged, and turned around. "See? I'm fine."
But Dean was looking at Sam's lower back with extreme concern. "That's going to need stitches," he said, kneeling and gingerly touching the edge of Sam's shirt. "Why didn't you say anything? You know better than that, dumbass."
Dean's words were a mix of worry and anger. Sam blinked, confused. "Either I'm missing something, or something supernatural is toying with us, because I'm not hurt, Dean," he said as seriously as possible.
"You sure?" Lucifer said suddenly, coming out from behind Dean. "I think you missed something, Sammy."
There was a sudden blinding flash of heat in Sam's lower back, and he yelped, confused. The heat was followed by pain and he promptly crashed to the ground, Dean catching him barely in time.
Blood was covering Sam's side of the Impala. Sticky, dried blood. One quick brush to the back of his shirt and Sam could feel the familiar warmth of blood on his lower back.
"Dean… I'm bleeding," he said, bewildered. "But I wasn't bleeding seconds ago."
"Yeah, you were," Dean said, looking at him with concern. "Let's get you back to the motel. It looks shallow, but if you've already been bleeding for this long…" He shook his head.
Sam struggled to get up from the ground, wincing as the pain in his back spiked. "The farmer got me," he realized. "But I swear, Dean, I didn't notice until now - Lucifer, he must've - I mean, I was hallucinating… or something, because I couldn't… didn't…" he was talking incessantly now, he knew, but the pain was almost making him delirious and the coldness that he'd been feeling earlier felt much stronger.
Dean seemed to read his mind and put his hand briefly on Sam's forehead. "Damn. That's a fever," he said, helping Sam into the passenger side. He took the driver's seat and wildly backed the Impala out of where they'd parked it.
"I'm fine," Sam insisted as Dean drove at least sixty down the narrow dirt road. "Dean, slow down-"
Dean's face was stony. "Sam, this can't happen again," he said, not easing up on the gas.
Sam felt a flash of annoyance accompany the fog that was beginning to creep into his senses. "I didn't intend to hallucinate and not notice a damn bullet in my back-"
"I know that. I'm not pissed at you, I'm pissed at everything that's happened to us, and I'm pissed that it's gotten this bad. And don't tell me that your back is fine, either, because that's a bullet in your back and we can't go to a damn hospital because of the Leviathans."
Yeah, Dean was pissed, Sam gathered. He tried to ignore the stabbing sensation and instead focused on staying lucid as Dean sped back to the motel, breaking every speed limit by at least twenty.
"This is gonna sting," Dean warned as he poured antiseptic solution over the bullet wound. Sam had been pressing a towel against the flow of the wound while Dean grabbed the first aid kit, and while most of the flow was staunched, Sam could feel the effects of the blood loss. He felt dizzy, and had almost blacked out walking into the motel room.
Needless to say, if Dean hadn't noticed the blood, Sam probably still wouldn't have. The bullet wasn't very deep; after all, it had only grazed his back.
"I'm going in," Dean said. "Want some whiskey?"
Sam took the bottle from Dean without speaking and downed the last of the bottle. He closed his eyes, hoping it would numb the pain that was about to come.
"I'm going in now," Dean narrated as he carefully stuck the tweezers into the wound. "I can see it. Not too much longer."
Sam clutched the edge of the bed tightly, grunting as Dean dug into the torn skin.
"Almost got it," Dean said, his voice more gentle than usual. "Almost out, Sammy."
With a clink, the bullet was suddenly dropped onto the nightstand. Sam opened his eyes, his breathing slowing down slightly.
"Is it out?" he said, his voice a bit strained.
"Yeah. I'm putting in more solution," Dean said, and poured it over the wound. Sam bit his lip, trying to keep from making a sound.
"Alright. Let me just wrap it up, and you're good to go," Dean said. He gingerly took the bandages and helped to cover up the clotted blood.
"So, what are we going to do about this? This whole, 'the hallucination is so vivid that I don't notice a bullet in my back' thing?" Dean asked, his face dark.
Sam shrugged, and winced when it made his back throb. "Nothing," he said. "There's nothing to do."
"Sam, you could've bled out, all because the damn devil in your head-"
"What am I supposed to do?" Sam snapped. "It's like everyone's saying. My eggs are scrambled and there's absolutely nothing I can do. I'm a liability; I can't trust myself. What if on the next hunt I hallucinate and you get hurt?"
"You're not a liability," Dean started to say, but Sam interrupted him.
"Yeah? Then tell me, honestly, that there's no way that this could go wrong again, and you end up getting hurt, or worse." Sam turned away, the corners of his mouth pulling downwards. "Next time, I should stay at the motel. Do the research. You can do the hunting."
"Oh, stop the melodramatic crap," Dean said angrily. "We don't stop hunting, because that's all we do - hunt. Even when the world was ending in the damn apocalypse, we were still hunting. These hallucinations? I'm not going to let them stop you from saving good, innocent people with me."
"I could hurt them, Dean," Sam said sourly.
Lucifer was suddenly sitting across from Sam on the bed. "I'll make sure you accidentally hurt a good person next time," he promised. "It'll be fun."
Sam made eye contact with Lucifer and trembled inside at the thought. Dean followed his gaze.
"He still there?" he asked. Sam nodded.
"Okay. Listen to me. I don't care that your gourd is cracked. What I care about is us working through this shit, just like we always have. I won't let you hurt anyone, Sam."
"You can't promise that - what if I hurt you-?"
"I won't let you," Dean repeated. "And until we can find Dick and rip his friggin' lungs out, we're going to keep hunting. Hell, the monsters should all be afraid of us, because we're going to kill as many sons of bitches as possible. Just like old times."
Sam pressed his scar tightly, and Lucifer vanished. "Thanks, Dean," he finally said.
"Alright. Girly moment over. How about we go get pancakes? It's still early," Dean said, standing up. "And you can get your gross fruit parfait," he added to Sam.
"It's healthy-"
"It's gross." Dean shook his head at the inevitable fruit that Sam would order, and together they left the motel room to enjoy the early morning air.
So, for some reason this ended up being short. I contemplated adding on to it but it didn't want to lengthen, so I guess here it is.
Thanks SO MUCH for all of the activity lately! So many people have been favoriting and following and it really makes my day, love you guys!
Don't forget to leave any prompt ideas in a review! I've got several lined up but eventually I'll get to yours :) Again, thank you AllShallFade777 for the fun prompt!