A little girl knelt at her bed, hands clasped together under her chin and eyes closed.
"Now I lay me down to sleep," she said seriously, "I pray the lord my soul to keep, thy angels watch me through the night and keep me safe till morning light. Amen."
"Amen," her father agreed from the doorway. The girl bundled herself into bed and her father knelt over her, making sure the blankets covered her completely. "Good night, monkey-puss," he said, kissing her on the forehead.
"Daddy," she asked. "Is Mommy coming home?"
Her father hesitated. His wife was at the hospital, sitting with their older daughter who'd come down with a serious case of pneumonia. "No honey, she's spending the night at the hospital with your sister. You sleep tight now," he said and left the room, turning out the light and closing the door behind him.
The little girl found it hard to sleep; instead she was sitting straight up in bed, staring ahead of her. Although it had gotten considerably darker since her father had left the room, the moon outside was bright and shined annoyingly through the still open curtains. The bare tree outside knocked against the window as the wind pushed against it. The little girl slowly turned her head towards the window and for a moment thought she saw the shadow of a hand against a part of the curtain but she blinked and it was gone. Taking a deep breath, she ran to the window and hurriedly shut the curtains before diving back into bed and hiding her head under the covers. The shadow of the hand returned to the window and, although she couldn't see it, she could hear something scraping against the outside window sill and open her window. As the wind blew through her room, making toys on the shelves shake slightly; a hand touched her shoulder and turned her around. There was an unrecognisable face beneath a hood, a lot of light and the little girl screamed as loud as she could.
OoOoOoO
Janaya frowned as she undid her seatbelt and stretched out in the back-seat of the Impala.
"What are you doing?" Dean asked, trying not to take his eyes off the road. "What happens if I crash?"
Janaya laughed. "First of all, you won't crash, this car is your baby and you love it more than me," she joked. "Secondly, even if you do crash, I'll be fine unless my head gets lopped off. It just feels weird having this seat empty so I decided to fill it."
Dean shook his head but smiled then turned to Sam. "So what were you saying?"
Sam sighed. "There's nothing there worth looking at," he said again.
Dean shrugged. "You probably just missed something."
"Dude, I ran lexus nexus, local police reports, newspapers, I couldn't find a single red flag," Sam said firmly. "Are you sure you got the coordinates right?"
"Yeah, I double checked," Dean assured him. "It's Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Look, Dad wouldn't have sent us coordinates if it wasn't important, Sammy."
"Well, I'm telling you I looked and all I could find was a big steaming pile of nothing," Sam said. "If Dad's sending us hunting for something, I don't know what."
"Well, maybe he's gonna meet us there," Dean suggested hopefully.
Sam looked incredulous. "Yeah, 'cause he's been so hard to find up to this point."
"You're a real smart ass you know that?" Dean said.
"Can I interrupt you ladies for a moment?" Janaya said from the back. "I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but there's always the chance that it wasn't your Dad," she pointed out. "I mean, sure, it came from your dad's phone but there's no guaranteeing that he was actually the one that sent the text."
Dean looked at her for a moment through the rear view mirror. "Nah, don't worry, I'm sure there's something in Fitchburg worth killing."
"Oh yeah? What makes you so sure?" Sam asked.
"'Cause I'm the oldest... which means I'm always right," Dean said.
"No it doesn't," Sam argued.
"Oh it totally does," Janaya said.
OoOoOoO
They had stopped about halfway through Fitchburg, outside a park, and Dean had run across the road to get coffees. Sam and Janaya leant against the car, frowning at the park.
"Well, the waitress thinks the local Freemasons are up to something sneaky but other than that, nobody's heard about anything weird going on," Dean said, handing them their coffees.
"Dean, you got the time?" Janaya asked, not taking her eyes off the park.
Dean glanced down at his watch. "Ten after four," he told her. "Why?"
"What's wrong with this picture?" she asked.
Dean turned to the park and saw one small girl playing on the playground, her mother watching her. Other than those two, there was no one else at the park.
"School's out innit?" Dean asked.
Sam and Janaya nodded. "So where is everybody?" Sam asked. "This place should be crawling with kids right now."
Dean frowned and went over to the park. "Sure is quiet out here," he said to the little girl's mother.
"Yeah, it's a shame," she said, looking away from her daughter briefly to glance up at Dean.
"Why's that?"
"You know, kids getting sick," she elaborated. "It's a terrible thing."
"How many?" Dean asked.
"Just five or six, but serious," the woman said. "Hospital serious. A lot of parents are getting pretty anxious, they think it's catching."
Dean said nothing, just watched the girl playing by herself with a thoughtful look on his face.
OoOoOoO
Sam and Dean dropped Janaya off at an internet café while they went to investigate at the hospital. She logged on to the internet and found an email from Nora. It told her that both Romania and Mika were incredibly beautiful (although she didn't have any pictures of either yet) and it also said that she missed them all heaps and since ghost hunting couldn't possibly be going well without her, she'd try and be back soon.
Janaya just smiled and typed a quick reply back before getting down to the research. She didn't know what the boys may have found out but she did do a broad search about sicknesses in children caused by the supernatural and by the time the boys had picked her up, she had nothing.
"So, what've you guys got that beats my nada?" she asked, climbing into the car.
"Well, for starters, all the kids are unconscious," Dean said. "Every single one of them, they've all got some hard core pneumonia."
"And it spreads through the children in one family before moving on, one sibling after another within twenty-four hours," Sam added.
Janaya frowned. "Well, that's not normal," Janaya said. "But I suppose, it might not be anything supernatural, maybe just really fast accumulating, scary pneumonia."
Dean nodded. "Could be," he said "But we're going to check out the most recent victim's house, just to make sure, no one will be home for a while, both kids are in hospital and the parents are there waiting for news."
Janaya nodded. "They must be worried sick."
OoOoOoO
Sam searched the walls of the little girl's room with a black light while Dean wandered around the room with his EMF reader. Janaya, meanwhile, was standing still, a blank look on her face.
"You got anything over there?" Sam asked Dean.
Dean shook his head. "Nothing," he said. He looked up from the reader as he turned it off and glanced at Janaya. "You okay?"
Janaya blinked suddenly then looked at Dean questioningly. "What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she said, and turned to look at the window. She moved over to it, frowning and pushed it open. She looked down at the sill and sighed. "Well, it's not just pneumonia," she said.
"What?" Sam and Dean asked, moving over to the window. On the window sill there was a large hand print, rotted into the wood. "What the hell leaves a hand print like that?" Sam asked.
Janaya shook her head and Dean stared at the hand print, lost in thought. "I know why Dad sent us here," he said eventually. "He's faced this thing before and he wants us to finish the job."
OoOoOoO
"What the hell is a Shtriga?" Sam asked Dean as they got out of the car at a motel.
"A kind of witch I think," Dean said. "I don't know much about them."
"Well, I've never heard of it," Sam said, "and it's not in Dad's journal."
"Dad hunted one in Fort Douglas Wisconsin about 16 or 17 years ago," Dean explained. "You were there, you don't remember?"
"No."
"Well, I guess he caught one of the things in Fitchburg now and kicked us the coordinates."
"So this... Shtriga, you think it's the same one Dad hunted before," Sam asked.
"Yeah maybe," Dean said. At this point, Dean now had his and Janaya's bags out of the trunk and was walking towards the motel.
"But if Dad went after it, why's it still breathing air?"
"Because it got away," Dean said.
"Got away?"
"Yeah Sammy it happens," Dean pointed out. He was about to say more but he stopped and looked at Janaya, who hadn't said a word since they arrived. "Are you okay?" he asked again. Janaya just smiled and nodded before returning to staring into space and Dean shook his head. "I'll be right back," he said, entering the motel.
Sam frowned at Janaya, concerned, but before he could say anything, she'd joined Dean inside, arranging the room.
"What'd you say?" Dean asked the boy at the counter.
"Nice car," he said, a fake smile of sincerity on his face. A woman entered the motel after Janaya.
"Checking in?" she asked them. They nodded. "Do me a favour and go and get some dinner for your brother," she told the boy, presumably her son.
"I'm helping a guest," he protested but, with a look from his mother, he went to do as he was told.
"Will that be cash or credit?" she asked.
"Do you take Master Card?" Dean asked. The woman nodded and he put the credit card down on the counter. He looked past the woman and saw the boy helping his younger brother get a drink and stared at them, lost in thought.
"Dean," Janaya said, bringing him back to reality. The woman was holding his credit card out to him with a questioning look on her face.
"Thanks," Dean said, taking his card off her and shaking his head at himself.
OoOoOoO
Janaya and Dean were sharing a room while Sam had his own adjoining one. As Janaya set up her stuff and got herself comfortable, Dean came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Are you okay? You've been kind of out of it lately," he said, turning her around to face him.
She smiled and shook her head. "I could say the same thing to you, Dean," she pointed out. "I guess it's just one of those days... or weeks as the case may be."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm fine, now will you please stop worrying about me? We have stuff to do, things to kill, you know the drill." Dean looked at her for a moment then nodded and kissed her on the forehead. "Come on, let's see what Sam's got."
"You were right," Sam said from behind his computer as they entered his room. "It wasn't easy to find but you were right, a Shtriga is a kind of witch. They're Albanian but legends about them date back as far as Ancient Rome."
Janaya moved behind Sam so she could see his computer screen. "Gee, they look mean," she said.
Sam nodded. "Yeah, and they feed off something called Spiritus Vitae."
"Spira-what?" Dean asked.
"It's Latin," Janaya said. "It means 'Breath of Life' and it refers to your life force."
Dean thought for a moment. "Didn't the doctor say the kids' bodies were wearing out?" he asked.
"It's a thought," Sam agreed. "You know, she takes your vitality, your immunity goes to hell, pneumonia takes hold... anyway, they can feed on anyone but they usually feed on –"
"Children," Dean said.
"That would make sense," Janaya said. "Children are more innocent, less tainted by the world so their life force is stronger than adults."
Sam nodded. "And get this, 'Shtrigas are invulnerable to all weapons devised by God and man.'"
"No, that's not right," Dean said. "She's vulnerable when she feeds."
"What?" Sam and Janaya asked.
"If you catch her when she's eating, you can blast her with consecrated wrought iron uh, buckshots or rounds I think," Dean explained.
"How do you know that?" Sam asked.
"Dad told me, I remember," he said.
"Oh, anything else Dad might've mentioned?"
"No, that's it," Dean said. "What?" he asked, off a look from Sam.
"Nothing," Sam said. "So assuming we can catch it when it feeds, we still gotta find the thing first which ain't gonna be a cake walk, Shtrigas take on a human disguise when they're not hunting."
"What kind of human disguise?"
"Historically, something innocuous so it could be anything but it's usually a –"
"An old crone?" Janaya asked. Sam looked at her and nodded. Janaya sighed. "Of course it is," she said.
"Hang on," Dean said, picking up a map from the table. "Check this out. I marked down all the addresses of the victims. Now, these are the houses that have been hit so far and dead centre..."
"The hospital," Sam said.
Dean nodded. "When we were there I saw a patient, an old woman."
"An old person huh?" Sam asked. Dean nodded. "In the hospital? Wow, better call the coastguard."
Janaya stifled a giggle and Dean shot a look at her. "Listen smart ass, she had an inverted cross hanging on her wall."
Janaya rolled her eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you? An inverted cross mean NOTHING at all. When will you two learn?"
Sam and Dean looked at her then shrugged. "It's worth checking out at least," Sam said. "It might just be a very stupid Shtriga."
Janaya shrugged. "Whatever, you guys go, I'll stay here and... look at stuff."
OoOoOoO
Sam and Dean snuck into the hospital and up to the old woman's room without being spotted. Before opening the door, Dean pulled out his gun and readied himself. The old woman was sitting in her wheel chair, facing away from them, her long white hair spilling over the back of the chair. She didn't react to either of them, despite the noise they were making. Sam pulled out a gun and pointed it at the back of her head as Dean moved out in front of her. Realising she wasn't moving, Dean leant down closer to her and jumped back suddenly when she turned towards him.
"Who the hell are you?" She yelled, clearly unable to see. "Who's there? You trying to steal my stuff?"
"No, uh, ma'am, we're maintenance," Sam said. "We thought you were sleeping."
"Ah nonsense," she spat. "I was sleeping with my peepers open. And fix that crucifix would ya? I've asked four damn times already." Dean turned to the inverted cross and tapped the top of it, it fell back into a crucifix position and Sam and Dean just looked at each other.
OoOoOoO
When Sam and Dean pulled back up at the motel, they found Janaya sitting out on a bench comforting Michael, the motel woman's son. The boys went over to them, looking concerned.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Dean asked.
"My brother's sick," Michael explained, his eyes red from crying.
"The little guy?"
Michael nodded. "Pneumonia," he said. "He's in the hospital... It's my fault."
"Hey," Janaya said firmly. "I've told you, it's not your fault... these things just happen." She looked meaningfully at Dean and Sam.
"I should have made sure the window was latched," Michael argued. "He wouldn't have gotten pneumonia if the window was latched."
Dean looked from Janaya to Sam then to Michael and swallowed. "Listen to me," he said. "I can promise you that this is not your fault."
"It's my job to look after him," he said firmly, looking hard at Dean who simply nodded.
The motel door opened and Michael's mother came out. "Michael," she said. "I want you to turn on the no vacancy sign while I'm gone. I've got Denise covering room service, so don't bother with any of the rooms."
"I'm coming with you," Michael told her.
"Not now."
"But I gotta see Asher!" he pleaded.
"Michael, hey, I know how you feel, I'm a big brother too, but you gotta go easy on your Mom right now," Dean suggested.
Sam, seeing Michael's mother's shaky hands, stepped forward and took her keys. "You're in no condition to drive, why don't you let me give you a lift to the hospital."
"No, I couldn't," she protested.
"I insist," he said and she nodded. Before Sam got in the car, Dean grabbed his arm and whispered to him:
"I wanna kill this thing, I want it dead, you hear me?"
Sam nodded and got into the car.
Dean followed Janaya into their motel room and frowned at the photos spread all over the floor.
"Where did all these come from?" He asked, picking one up and examining it. It was not one of the ones of Seth, it was of Janaya and a younger boy and girl.
"My Mom gave them to me," she said, snatching it away. "When I was with the pack and she came to tell me..."
When you were with Ranec, you mean, Dean wanted to say but he caught the tears in her eyes and stopped himself. He moved over to her and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Is this why you've been so out of it lately?"
Janaya nodded. "That little girl's room reminded me so much of my sister... and... Michael's situation with his brother... I know exactly how he feels."
"How could what happened to your family possibly be your fault?"
Janaya shrugged. "I know it's not but I feel responsible... like, If I'd been there, I could have protected them. I could still kick ass with magic when they died. If I'd been home maybe I could have fought off the thing that killed them."
Dean wrapped Janaya in a hug and let her bury her face in his chest. "I promise you, I will help you kill the thing that did it, I know it won't bring them back but it'll make you feel better."
Janaya allowed herself a smile and looked up at him. "Come on, we have a witch to hunt."
OoOoOoO
Later on, Dean had swapped places with Sam at the hospital and Sam and Janaya had headed to the library to do some research.
"This thing has been all through Wisconsin since way before Fort Douglas, when Dad was there," Sam said after calling Dean to fill him in. "Every fifteen to twenty years it hits a new town." He paused and stared at the screen he was looking at. "Dean, this thing is just getting started in Fitchburg. In all these other places, it goes on for months, dozens of kids before the Shtriga finally moves on. Kids just languish in comas and then they die."
"How far back's this thing go?" Dean asked.
Sam repeated the question to Janaya who flicked through the microfiche until she found the earliest one and showed Sam the date. "Not sure exactly, but the earliest one we can find is this place called Black River Falls back in the 1890's. Talk about a horror show." He paused as Janaya flicked to the next slide, revealing a picture of doctors surrounding a child's bed.
"Whoa" they said together.
"Sam?" Dean asked, when they didn't elaborate.
"We're looking at a photograph right now of a bunch of doctors standing around a kids bed. One of the doctors is Heidecker."
"And?" Dean asked, glancing at Doctor Heidecker who was now examining Asher.
"And this picture was taken in 1893," Sam said.
"You're sure?" Dean asked
"Yeah absolutely."
Dean hung up and turned to face Heidecker then slowly left the paediatrics ward, trying to keep as calm as possible.
OoOoOoO
"We should have thought of this before," Sam said. "Doctors are trusted, they can control the whole thing."
"That son of a bitch," Dean said simply, throwing his jacket on the bed.
"I'm surprised you didn't draw on him right there," Janaya said, looking at him closely.
"Well, first of all, I'm not gonna open fire in a freaking paediatrics ward," Dean said. "Second, it wouldn't have done any good 'cause the bastards bullet proof unless he's chowing down on something. And third, I wasn't packing which is probably a really good thing 'cause I probably would've burned a clip in him on principle alone."
"Getting wise in your old age, Dean," Sam said.
"Damn right I am," Dean agreed. "'cause now I know how we're gonna get it."
"How?" Janaya asked, already not liking where this conversation was heading.
"The Shtriga, it works through siblings right?" Dean asked. Sam and Janaya nodded. "Well, last night..."
"It went after Asher," Sam said.
"So I'm thinking tonight it's probably gonna come after Michael."
"Then we gotta get him outta here," Sam said.
Dean frowned. "No, that'll blow the whole deal."
"What?"
"You want to use a child as bait?" Janaya asked, giving Dean an appalled look. "Are you nuts? No, that's out of the question!"
"It's not out of the question, it's the only way!" Dean argued. "If this thing disappears, it'll be years before we get another chance."
"Michael is a child!" Janaya said. "You can't dangle him in front of that thing like a worm on a hook!"
"Dad didn't send me here to walk away."
"Send you here?" Sam asked, stepping forward. "He didn't send you here, he sent us here."
"This isn't about you," Dean said, turning away from them both. "Alright, I'm the one that screwed up. It's my fault, there's no telling how many kids have gotten hurt because of me."
"What are you saying Dean? How is it your fault?" Sam asked. Dean didn't answer. "Dean, you've been hiding something from the get-go. Since when does Dad bail on a hunt. Since when does he let something get away?"
"Since I nearly got you killed," Dean said quietly, sitting down.
"What?" Sam and Janaya asked.
"It was the third night in this crappy room and I needed to get some air," Dean explained. "I checked on you before I left, I locked the door behind me and I went across the street to play some video games. I got back and there was something in your room... it was the Shtriga... I... I picked up the gun and I was gonna shoot but Dad came in. He yelled at me then shot at it but it got away... Dad just grabbed us and booked. Dad never spoke about it again but he, uh, he looked at me different, you know? Which was worse. Not that I blamed him. He gave me an order, I didn't listen and I almost got you killed."
"You were just a kid," Sam pointed out.
"Don't," Dean said, not looking at him. "Don't. Dad knew this was unfinished business for me, and he sent me here to finish it."
Janaya smiled sadly at him and stroked his face. "Dean, I understand, I really do but using Michael? It's just..."
"How about one of us hides under the cover, we'll be the bait," Sam suggested.
Dean shook his head. "It won't work," he said. "It's gotta get close enough to feed, it'll see us." There was a small silence as both Sam and Janaya raked their brains for another option. "Believe me, I don't like it," Dean admitted. "But it's gotta be the kid."
OoOoOoO
"You're crazy!" was Michael's response to Dean's request. "Go away or I'm calling the cops," he said, brandishing the phone at them.
"Hang on a second," Dean said. "Just listen to me. You have to believe me, Okay? This thing came through the window and it attacked your brother. I've seen it, I know what it looks like, 'cause it attacked my brother once too."
Asher slowly put the phone down. "This thing is it like... it's got this long, black robe?"
"You saw it last night, didn't you?" Janaya asked.
"I thought I was having a nightmare," he said.
Dean sighed. "I'd give anything not to tell you this, but sometimes nightmares are real."
Asher looked at him suspiciously. "So, why are you telling me this?"
"Because we need your help."
"My help?"
"We can kill it," Dean said. "It's what we do. But we can't do it without you."
"What? No!"
"Michael, listen to me," Dean said. "This thing hurt Asher and it's gonna keep hurting kids unless we stop it, do you understand me?"
OoOoOoO
"Well, that went crappy," Dean said, pacing his room. "Now what?"
"What'd you expect?" Sam asked. "You can't ask an adult to do something much less a kid." Just as he said this, someone knocked on the door.
Janaya opened it and was slightly surprised to find Michael standing there. "Hey," she said, smiling kindly.
"If you kill it, will Asher get better?" He asked.
"Honestly?" Dean said. "We don't know."
Michael nodded slightly, then looked straight at Dean. "You said you were a big brother?"
Dean nodded. "Yeah."
"You take care of your little brother?" He asked. "You'd do anything for him?"
"Yeah I would," Dean said quietly.
"Me too," Michael said. "I'll help."
OoOoOoO
Dean was setting up a camera in Michael's room that would link back to Sam's computer. They would then be able to see the Shtriga attacking and know when to come in.
"This camera has night vision, so we should be able to see as clear as day," Dean said. "Are we good?"
"Hair to the right!" Sam called back and Dean adjusted the camera slightly.
"What do I do?" Michael asked.
"Just, stay under the covers," Dean told him.
"And if it shows up?"
"We'll be right in the next room," Dean said. "We're gonna come in with guns. So, as soon as we do, you roll off this bed and crawl under it."
Michael thought for a moment. "What if you shoot me?"
Dean laughed slightly. "We won't shoot you, we're good shots," Dean assured him. "We're not gonna fire until you're clear, Okay?" Michael nodded. "Have you heard a gunshot before?" Dean asked.
"Like in the movies?"
"It's gonna be a lot louder than in the movies," Dean said. "So, I want you to stay under the bed, cover your ears and do not come out until we say so, understand?" Michael just nodded again. "Michael, are you sure you want to do this? You don't have to, it's okay, I won't get mad."
"No, I'm okay," he said. "Just don't shoot me."
"We're not gonna let anything happen to you," Dean said. "I promise."
OoOoOoO
Back in Michael's living room, they were all crowded around Sam's computer, staring hard at the screen.
"What time is it?" Dean asked.
Sam checked his watch. "Three," he said.
"Are you sure these iron rounds are gonna work?" Janaya asked, glancing at the gun in Dean's lap.
"Consecrated iron rounds," he corrected. "And, yeah, it's what Dad use last time."
Janaya nodded and resumed looking at the screen.
"Hey, Dean, I'm sorry," Sam said suddenly.
Dean gave him a confused look. "For what?"
"You know," Sam said. "I've always given you a lot of crap for always following Dad's orders. But I know why you do it."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Oh, God, kill me now."
Sam laughed. Janaya leaned forward. "Uh, Guys, I hate to interrupt this touching little brotherly moment of yours but, um, look." She pointed to Michael's window and they all leaned closer. What looked like the shadow of an arm was trying to open Michael's window. They watched as a hooded figure entered Michael's room and slowly inches closer to him.
"Now," Sam said.
"Not yet," Dean argued, staring wide-eyed at the screen, gun in hand.
The Shtriga reached the foot of Michael's bed and the picture started breaking up. When it had cleared, he was at Michael's head and bending down. "Dean," Janaya urged and Dean and Sam jumped up and burst through the door, just as the Shtriga had opened its mouth to feed.
"Michael, get down!" Dean yelled and, as soon as Michael was under the bed, he and Sam opened fire on the Shtriga. It shook with the force of the bullets and fell to the ground. Sam and Dean stopped shooting. "Michael, are you alright?"
"Yeah," Michael said, his voice slightly shaky.
"Just sit tight," Dean told him as he and Sam edged around the bed towards the Shtriga. Dean moved to stand over it and pointed his gun at it, it looked dead and Dean lowered his gun. He turned to Sam and shrugged but he hadn't seen the Shtriga's chest rising and falling ever so slightly and when he turned away, the Shtriga jumped up and grabbed him around the throat, throwing him to the ground. Janaya, who at this point had been watching from the living room, ran into Michael's room. The Shtriga moved over to Sam and threw him to the ground, crouching over him. Janaya was gunless and knew that even being a werewolf was useless in this situation and could only watch. The Shtriga opened its mouth and began to feed on Sam.
"Hey," came Dean's voice from behind Michael's bed. The Shtriga turned to look at him and Dean sent a bullet straight through its head.
"You okay little brother?" Dean asked. Sam merely raised his thumbs in answer and rolled to his feet. Janaya slowly entered the room and gestured for Michael to stand behind her as Sam and Dean went over to the Shtriga again. Dean emptied the clip into the Shtriga and it seemed to deflate then turned to ash, now definitely dead. Michael and Janaya went over to the Shtriga to look at its remains and Dean put a hand on Michael's shoulder, smiling at him.
OoOoOoO
The next day, as they were packing their stuff into the car, Michael's mother pulled up the front.
"Hey, Joanna, how's Asher doing?" Dean asked as she walked over to them.
"Have you seen Michael?" she asked.
"Mom!" Michael cried, running over to her. "How's Ash?"
"You're brother's going to be fine," she said, beaming.
"Really?"
"Really," she told him. "No one can explain it... it's a miracle. They're gonna keep him over night for observation but after that he's coming home."
"That's great," Dean said.
"How are the other kids doing?" Janaya asked.
"Good, real good," Joanna said. "A bunch of them should be checking out in a few days. Doctor Travis says the wards going to be like a ghost town."
"Doctor Travis," Sam repeated. "What about Doctor Heidecker?"
"He wasn't in today," Joanna said. "Must've been sick or something."
"Yeah, must have," Dean said, looking at the ground.
Joanna turned to Michael. "So, did anything interesting happen while I was gone?"
Michael glanced at Dean then back to his mother. "No, same ol' stuff," he told her.
"Okay, well, we can go and see Asher."
"Now?" he asked.
"Only if you want to." Michael grinned and ran to the car.
Joanna laughed. "I better get going before he hot wires the car and drives himself," she said and left. Dean closed the boot and they all went to get into the car.
"That's too bad," Sam said.
"They'll be fine," Dean said.
"That not what I meant," Sam told him. "I meant Michael. I mean, he'll always know there are things out there in the dark. He'll never be the same, you know." Dean just nodded. "Sometimes I wish I could have that kind of innocence," Sam said.
Dean looked at the ground. "If it means anything, sometimes I wish you could to."
Janaya looked between the two of them and sighed. "I miss Nora," she said sadly before getting into the car. Sam and Dean followed suit and soon they were speeding out of Fitchburg, Wisconsin.