Chapter 21: Tessa
"Honey, honey wake up."
Lily heard a voice in the darkness that she thought she recognized.
"Mom?" She asked as she slowly opened her eyes.
She took in the sight of her mother leaning over her bed, shaking her awake.
"Wake up sweetie, it's your birthday!" She beamed at her.
"My birthday?" Lily processed her surroundings to be the bedroom she had before she left for college, "We haven't celebrated that since…"
"Hey, there Lily pad! I made your favorite, banana pancakes with peanut m'n'ms!"
"Dad!" She got up in a bolt and ran to hug her dad.
"Whoa!" He laughed when she hugged him tight, "Everything alright sweetheart?"
"It is now." She smiled up at him.
"SAM GET THE DOOR!" Dean yelled as he carried Lily's limp body to his impala.
Sam rushed and opened the door. They set her in the back, Sam's face tear stained looking at his brother.
"Don't, go there Sammy, she's gonna be fine. Now get in. Chuck you coming?" Dean shouted as he got in the driver's seat.
When Dean looked around for Chuck he was nowhere to be found. He shook his head and sped off to the nearest hospital.
"Want to open some presents, lovebug?" Her dad asked her.
"Breakfast first!" Her mom scolded lightly, putting the fresh pancakes in front of her.
"Of course! Then presents. We don't have much time…" Her dad mumbled.
"Why don't we have much time?" Lily asked them.
"Oh, your dad just means because you're growing up so fast! Eat your pancakes, dear."
As they drove to the hospital, Dean silently prayed to Castiel.
"Cas…come on man, I know you can hear me. Lily's hurt bad and we're headed to Mount Saint Mary's Hospital. Get your feathered ass down there now."
The same time Dean was silently praying to Castiel, Sam was praying to Jack.
"Jack, if you can hear this, we need you. Lily's not looking too good, please hurry."
Sam leaned over the seat and began applying more pressure to Lily's bullet wound.
"Dean, what happened back there?"
"Lily was shot, get your head out of your ass, Sam."
"I mean…what happened after that."
"Presents?" Her mom asked her after she took her plate to the sink.
"You guys didn't have to get me anything, you know that. I'm just really happy we're all together again."
"When were we not?" Her dad asked, picking something up from under the table, "Here we go!"
He handed her a small wrapped box. It had the most beautiful wrapping she had ever seen. It was a shiny red with gold stars on it with a gold silk ribbon. She glided her fingers along the ribbon, savoring this moment with them for all she could. She never wanted to let this go.
"Well, go on, sweetie, open it!" Her mom giggled.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Dean asked him, eyeing Lily in the mirror and speeding up. The hospital was still five to ten minutes away.
"Dean, that wasn't right."
"She shot her! Lily is bleeding out in my backseat, none of this is 'right'."
"What you did to mom…"
"She wasn't our mom, you know that."
"She was confused and scared."
"Dammit, Sammy, she wasn't real!" Dean shouted and Sam closed his mouth before he said what he was thinking.
There was a few minutes of silence and they were pulling into the hospital when Sam added,
"We could've helped her."
They got out of the car and brought Lily in yelling for a doctor. They took her on a gurney and left the boys in the hallway.
She undid the ribbon slowly and pulled off the top of the box, setting it to the side. She peered into the box to find a doll that had long brown wavy hair, like her own. The doll was wearing black skinny jeans, red converse, and a gray rolling stones tee shirt. She peered at the doll and noticed the eyes were shut.
"She's beautiful, thank you!" She told them, putting the doll face down on the table to hug her parents.
She sat back down and picked up the doll, turning her over. She gasped and through the doll onto the table when she saw it started bleeding from the abdomen.
"What's going on?!" She yelled and looked around to see her parents had vanished.
A doctor headed towards the brothers a few moments later.
"How is she doing?" Dean asked her.
"She's in critical condition."
"Is she gonna make it?" Sam asked.
"Of course, she is, she's the toughest person we know." Dean told him and the doctor looked down.
"What is it?" Sam asked.
"She's lost a lot of blood and the bullet has yet to be retrieved. If we manage to remove the bullet…the bleeding is what we're worried about the most."
She handed them a plastic bag containing Lily's jeans, gray tee shirt, red shoes, phone, and money clip. Everything was stained with blood.
"What the hell are you saying?" Dean demanded, taking the bag.
"Mr. Winchester, your sister is in critical condition but we're doing our best. I must prep for surgery because that's how we're going to remove the bullet. Take these, if the police get a hold of them, you'll both be arrested for questioning and you need to be here for her. You didn't get them from me though. A nurse will come out with some forms for you to fill out. Know we're doing what we can." She gave him a weak smile and Sam thanked her before she turned to leave.
"You told them she's our sister?" Sam asked him after she walked away.
"Hello, Lily." A voice came from behind her and she spun around.
"Who the hell are you?"
"My name is Tessa, I'm here to help you." She approached her.
"Stay back! What are you?" She shouted and backed away quickly, looking for the nearest weapon.
She grabbed for the cake knife, but she went through it like a ghost.
"I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help." She told her in a soothing tone.
"Where am I? Is this a djinn dream? No…it would go on until I died and the djinn would never appear in it."
Lily thought for a moment and then opened the door. Her surroundings were being eaten up by a darkness. Her once backyard was now grass just barely lining the house. It was turning into nothing. She slammed the door shut and walked up to Tessa.
"Everything alright?" Tessa asked her.
"You're a reaper."
"Yes, I am. Lily, it's time to go, come with me." She held out her hand and Lily smacked it away.
"Screw you."
"If you stay here…"
"I become a ghost?"
"Yes, a spirit trapped. It will be torturous after a certain amount of time and then you'll change. You don't want that. Come with me, you belong on the other side."
"What if I'm not ready to die?"
After about two hours after Lily went into surgery, the hospital doors flew open and two men ran in.
"WHERE IS SHE?" Jack yelled at reception.
"We're looking for Lily, Lily Clarke." Castiel put his arm up to Jack's chest to calm him down.
"I'm sorry, sir, there's no Lily Clarke here." The receptionist shook her head.
Cas opened his mouth to say something and then shut it. He closed his eyes slowly, not moving.
"We're too late…" Jack backed up in disbelief.
His back hit the wall and he slid down to the floor, legs spread. Castiel looked at him, not knowing how to respond.
"Cas? Jack? Finally!" Dean shouted to them and gave Castiel a hug.
"Dean, what happened? They said there's no Lily Clarke. She's not…" Castiel couldn't finish.
"She's in surgery." Sam answered, not much happier than if he was saying she's dead.
"She's alive?" Jack asked, smiling as he got off the floor.
"For now." Sam answered, getting a look from Dean.
Jack pushed past them and through the doors marked 'restricted access', he had a look of determination on his face.
They chased after him, but they were stopped by security. Every time someone approached him to kick him out, he would touch their foreheads and they would fall to the ground sleeping.
They watched him through the doors going down the hall, leaving a trail of people on the floor until he turned the corner marked 'surgery'.
"I know it's hard to accept, but it's time. You fought a good fight, had a wonderful life and now it's time to rest."
"What the hell are you talking about? Up until about a year ago my life was hell! To be honest it hasn't been all peaches and sunshine in the past year either."
"You had a loving family."
"My dad died and that left my mom a wreck. The last good memory I have is my tenth birthday when we were all together. After he died, we didn't celebrate one occasion. I had to get a job mopping floors in a nursing home when I was twelve to pay for my mom's 'habits'. I worked my ass off to go to college and provide a better life for myself and her. I wanted to put her in rehab and buy us a house, but then she…"
"She died, but I wasn't talking about that family."
"She was murdered. Any idea who might've done that?" She spat in an accusatory tone.
"I reaped her."
"What?"
"She told me to tell you something."
"What did she say?"
Everything went black.
"NO!" Lily yelled as she sat up in the hospital's operating room on the table.