With a Chance of Severe Weather
Chapter 14
Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Jim was honestly surprised when Bobby was able to actually pull into his driveway and make it all the way to the house. His truck and John's Impala were parked near the house, as were many other vehicles and there were several people working around the yard and where the barn use to be. The crowd came up to Bobby's car as it came to a stop and Jim got out. Jim looked around at the collection of people that were standing before him; Harland and Joshua Sawyer, Silas Fox, Griffin Porter, Jarrett Mathews, Ian Hastings and Boone, along with several local men from the Pastor's congregation. Jim found it ironic people from both the worlds he worked within were here together, helping cleaning up his farm.

Griffin Porter was the first hunter to step forward, "James, my dear friend, I'm so relieved to see you unharmed. When Ms. Missouri called to inform us of what had happened, we had feared the worst, even though she had assured us that you were all right." Griffin pulled Jim into a friendly hug, then released him. "How are the boys doing? John's sons Dean and Sammy as well as Mackland's boy, Caleb?"

"Dean and Sammy are doing better; Dean woke up more coherent just before we left. Caleb is still in the ICU, he hasn't regained consciousness yet." Jim noticed a few strange looks that passed among some of the hunters before him, but decided not to call attention to it. Looking around at the clean up project that his farm had seemed to become, the Pastor again turned his attention to the group before him. "Thank you all so much for all you are doing here. It would be hard to believe a tornado passed through here a little over a day ago."

Jim's attention turned to his porch as a newly installed screen door squeaked, "James Murphy, I am relieved to finally see you with my own two eyes." Missouri Mosley came down the stairs followed by Boone's girlfriend, Kathleen. Pulling the Pastor into a near bone-crushing hug, she took a step back, "Are you sure you weren't injured in any way?" She gave the Preacher a critical gaze.

"I'm fine Missouri, just been worried about the boys." Jim's expression took on a concerned look as his thoughts returned to the family he left behind in Louisville. "I've just had Bobby bring home to get a few things for the boys; I didn't know I'd have so many visitors."

Missouri grabbed Jim by the elbow and started leading him toward the house, Bobby stopping to talk with several of the hunters, while many of the other men from Jim's church returned to the job of cleaning up the farm. As Jim neared the house he noticed several of the windows had already been replaced and that a couple of men were making there way back up ladders to work on the roof. Kathleen followed the Psychic and the Pastor into the house as Missouri pushed Jim down into one of the kitchen chairs. "Let us get you something to eat; if I know you, you probably haven't eaten anything of substance for nearly two days now." Kathleen and Missouri moved about the kitchen pulling things from the refrigerator.

"Missouri, did you call all these people?" Jim ran a tired hand over his face, not realizing until he sat down, just how exhausted he was.

The younger woman sat a cup of coffee down in front of Jim. "I called Griffin and Boone, I suppose word spread from there, just before dawn I heard chainsaws out on the drive and went to investigate, I met that nice fire chief you have here, David, I believe. Anyway, he had contacted several of the men from your church and by day break I had a small army out here all ready, then a few hours after that hunters started showing up as well."

Resting his elbows on the table, his head in his hands, Jim spoke quietly. "Did you see the barn?"

Missouri could pick up on what Jim was feeling; guilt, worry, fear. "Yes I did."

For the first time since the tornado passed through, Jim finally let himself feel what had happened and just how close they had come to losing all three of the boys. Missouri watched as tears filled the Pastor's eyes, "The boys were in there, trapped for hours before we could get to them. Missouri I wasn't here to protect them, they had to go through that on there own. My God Missouri we could have lost all three of them in that one moment and there wouldn't have been anything I nor the Brotherhood could have done to stop it." Tears slipped from the pale-blue eyes of the Pastor.

Kathleen sat a plate on the table and slipped out the door as Missouri laid a gentle hand on Jim's shoulder. "James Murphy, last time I checked you weren't all powerful. You may be the Guardian, but you are not God. What happened here was not sinister; it was an act of nature. Those boys just happened to be in the path of something that was completely out of your control and there isn't anything you could have done different. Even if you had been here, it still would have happened. Those boys made it to the pit in the barn, which means they must have been closer to it than the house. They were able to keep there wits about them and know that was the safest place they could get to in a hurry. I'm sure they tried to protect each other as best they could, that's why they are all still alive. Yes they may be in the hospital, but at least they are alive, don't dwell on what you think you could have done, because much worse things could have happened. You are always one to say God's watching out for us, well I would say He was definitely watching over those boys and that is why they are still with us." Missouri quickly ran her hand over her own tear-streaked face as she stood, "Now you start eating and I want you to go upstairs and try to get some rest. I'll gather some of the boy's things for you to take back to them and I'll put together some real food for you to take to Mackland and John, they are both probably living on coffee." She turned patting Jim's shoulder as she went to walk toward the living room.

Remembering something Jim turned, "Missouri, you haven't happened to have run across Sammy's little WooBee have you? Jonathon found it in the yard when we first reached the farm and we don't remember what happened to it after that."

Reaching around the corner to the table that was in the hallway leading to the stairs Missouri held up a newly cleaned and slightly fluffier WooBee. "I figured young Sammy would want this, so I cleaned him up a little." She handed the one-eyed bear to Jim, who just held it for a minute.

"Thank you Missouri, for everything." Jim looked up at her; a smile was all the response he got as she left the room.

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It was late afternoon when the child psychologist came into the room containing the Winchester boys. "Mr. Winchester?" John stood as the woman came toward the bed. "My name is Dr. Jessie Owen, I'm the psychologist here and have been asked by your son's doctor to evaluate…" She looked at the chart in her hand, "Sammy."

The doctor had glanced at the bed that both boys were occupying, smiling as Dean glared at her and Sammy peeked toward her through his veil of messy brown hair. John spoke, also looking at his boys, "I think Sammy's going to be okay now that his brother's awake. They have been through a lot, plus their cousin is upstairs in the ICU."

Dr. Owen looked at John, "I understand Mr. Winchester, but it's our policy that when children have been through a traumatic experience that we not only deal with any physical injuries, but those we don't see as well." She had learned over the years to be careful how you word things with parents, especially if you start talking about the emotional or mental traumas that involve children. She was also making mental notes to the father's reactions to not only her being in the room, but how he would interact with his children in her presence. That usually gave an indication if the child would have the proper support system to get past such events.

Giving a nod, John conceded, he just wanted his son's out of the hospital so he would go along with procedure, even if he didn't like it. "Do I have to leave the room or can I stay with my boys?" John asked, with a tone that dared her to tell him to leave.

The doctor actually took that as a good sign that the man cared for his children. "No, you are more than welcome to stay. I just ask you not prompt the children in there responses to me, the way they answer is sometimes a bigger indicator in how they are doing, rather than what they actually say."

John stepped up to the bed looking at Dean and Sammy, his eldest watching his father closely. "Okay Ace, this doctor is going to talk with you and Sammy," John ran his hand over Sammy's head. "You answer the best you can, okay? I'll be right over here if you need me." John motioned to the wall across from the bed.

Glancing at the woman, John stepped back as the doctor took the chair next to the bed. Looking at the smaller child she smiled, speaking softly, "Hello Sammy, I'm Dr. Owen. I just wanted to talk with you for a few minutes to see how you are doing. Is that okay?" The doctor noticed how Sammy snuggled closer to the older boy, who she glanced up and made eye contact with.

"He's scared of strangers." Dean watched his little brother, felling the tiny tremor that ran through the smaller child's body.

"Well," Dr. Owen started again, "Most times that's a good thing, but I'm a doctor and your dad is right there, so it's okay to talk to me. Sammy, can you tell me who this is?" She pointed to Dean.

She watched as the small child whispered into the older boy's ear. "I can't, she wants you to talk to her, I can't do it for you this time. Come Buddy, I'm right here and like she said, dad's over there, nobody's gonna hurt you." Dr. Owen was a little surprised at the amount of patience the older boy had with his little brother, but she had seen in instances of shared traumas that the overprotective streak that runs in most older siblings is thrown into overdrive, even so much as to try and protect their younger siblings from those trying to help.

"He's Dean." Sammy whispered out.

"Is Dean your big brother?" The doctor encouraged more. Sammy nodded his head. "Sammy, did Dean help take care of you yesterday?"

Sammy looked up at Dean, then his father, who was quietly standing nearby, then his gaze fell on the dark-haired woman next to the bed. "He helped Caleb to, even though Caleb wouldn't wake up." The doctor picked up on the note of worry in the small child's voice.

"Caleb, is that your cousin?" Sammy just looked at her, Dean or his father usually explained who Caleb was to other people, all Sammy knew was Caleb was his family.

Sammy sat up a little, seemingly ready to talk. "Dean ran out into the rain and the wind to help Caleb. I thinks he got hurt, when he came into the barn he had blood on his face. Dean pushed me under daddy's bench." tears formed in the small child's eyes as he looked at his big brother, who gave him a reassuring hug and a slight smile. "After the barn fell down and Caleb wouldn't wake up Dean took care of him too. He tried to tell me Caleb wouldn't wake up cause he was sleeping like daddy did when he got hit in the head at Uncle Bobby's…" The doctor glanced over her shoulder at John who just shrugged his shoulders. "Then he said it was like the Lizard of Oz that knocked the barn down on us."

"Lizard of Oz?" Dr. Owen looked at Dean this time.

"Sammy, I said Wizard of Oz." He met the doctors stare. "I tried to explain the tornado, that it was like what we saw when we watched the Wizard of Oz a while back on TV."

Dr. Owen smiled at Dean, "That was a good reference, something you had just seen on television."

Sammy piped up encouraged that Dean was also talking to the lady, "But Dean said there wasn't a witch waiting for Pastor Jim or Mac or Dad and that we couldn't blame the barn falling down on Caleb." John couldn't contain the quiet chuckle that escaped at the idea that Sammy wanted to blame the teen for the barn, he remembered the flour incident a few months back that the boys tried to blame on Caleb, because the older boy had caught Sammy trying to make pancakes.

Dr. Owen smiled, "Well it's a good thing there wasn't a witch and that they were able to get you boys out."

Sammy's express became solemn, surprising the doctor since the child had been more talkative than she was expecting. "The barn fell on Dean too." the small boys lower lip started to tremble as big tears welled up in his eyes as he turned to bury his face in his brother's chest.

Dean ran a hand over his little brother's head, "It's okay now Sammy, I'm right here, I'm fine."

Big tear-filled eyes looked up at the older boy, "But you…you wouldn't wake up neither…" hiccupped breaths were escaping the preschooler's mouth, "Like Caleb, you wouldn't wake up." He returned his head to Dean's chest as the older boy looked at the doctor, then to his father, who was stepping forward.

"I think that's enough." John reached down, running a hand through Sammy's shaggy hair, kissing the top of his small son's head, then kissing Dean's. John turned and looked at the doctor. "Can I talk to you outside?"

Closing her file she stood, nodding. "Sammy it was nice meeting you." When the child no longer responded to her, she left behind John.

In the hallway John ran his hand through his hair and leaned against the wall. "Look I know this is just a formality for you, but those are my boys. I know it's going to take time for Sammy to feel comfortable without his brother right next to him. Believe me I have lived through this before. The boy's mother died when Dean was four and Sammy was just a baby, Dean didn't talk for months and he wouldn't let his little brother out of his sight. So believe it or not I know how to deal with this, plus their Uncle is a Doctor, he, along with my nephew are the ones that helped pull Dean out of his silence and now I believe Dean will be the key to helping Sammy. That and when Caleb is better, all the boys are close. That's what helped last time and I believe that is what will help this time. Now do you see anything different, I know Sammy's traumatized by this, hell all the boys are, but they will pull each other through it and they know that I'm right here if they need me, along with several more adult that care a great deal about them."

Dr. Owen wasn't aware of the family's past, but listening to the father before her, she could tell this was a man who would be there for his children and if he couldn't he would make sure someone who cared was. She too agreed that, with the shared trauma, the boys would be key to helping each other through what happened. "You do understand that for a long time all the boys, not just Sammy may react differently when storms come up. They may become fearful and that could cause them to act out or even withdrawal."

John nodded, "Dean was afraid of fire for a long time, even just campfires or fireplaces. It was a fire that killed their mother. My nephew has a fear of water because his parents died near water, Mac's his adoptive father. So I think we have a little experience dealing with trigger issues."

"I would say so. Anyway…" She reached in her pocket pulling out a business card. "If you need any help, even once the boys have left the hospital, please feel free to contact me."

The hunter accepted the card, "So do you think Sammy will get discharged today?"

Dr. Owen nodded, "I don't see why not, but I don't see you being able to get him to leave his brother at the moment."

John smiled, "He barely leaves Dean alone on a normal day." The doctor chuckled at that as she turned to leave; John reentered the boy's room.