As Sam strained his eyes to catch some glimpse of Nerisa, he began to feel dizzy and light-headed. He brought a hand up to his head and decided to sit down, before he too fell into the ocean.
Bobby saw Sam sit down and wondered if Sam was also experiencing a case of light-headedness and dizziness. Bobby felt sore enough after Dean's attack and these additional symptoms weren't making him feel any better. The eldest hunter took a few deep breaths and tried to clear his head. As his head cleared, a horrible realization dawned on Bobby. He had just pushed Dean into the ocean! It felt as though Bobby's heart stopped, as he realized what he had done.
"Sam, get my hands untied now!" Bobby shouted. He had to try and help Dean; but, he couldn't do that until he was free.
Sam's stomach twisted as he realized that he had just watched Dean fall into the ocean. Bobby's order to be untied brought Sam's attention back in focus. Sam quickly turned to Bobby and untied the man's hands. Sam then stood up, looked down at the ocean and prepared himself to jump in and look for his brother.
Bobby watched Sam stand up and realized what the young man was about to do. Bobby quickly grabbed Sam's shoulder.
"Sam, don't do it. It's too far. I don't even see any signs of him down there. The way that water is churning around those boulders, the currents could have already taken him somewhere else. If you jump down there, you'll only get yourself killed." Bobby prayed that he was getting through to the young man.
Sam turned saddened, hopeless eyes towards Bobby. "I have to find him." Sam said heart-breakingly.
"I know. Come on." Bobby kept a hold of Sam's arm and began to run back down the tunnel.
"But…" Sam planted his feet down and looked back at the cave's mouth.
"Sam. We can't help Dean from here. We'll head back to where we came in and can start looking for him, from there." Bobby tried to get through to Sam.
"Rrright." Sam said reluctantly. He knew that Bobby was right. But, Sam still couldn't help feeling that the longer he delayed getting into the ocean himself to look for Dean, the less chance his brother had of surviving.
/SN/
Despite being pushed out of the cave, Dean never lost his grip on Nerisa. As the two of them hit the cold water, Dean hoped that he didn't hit any rocks. He felt the strong current pulling on him and struggled to keep his head above water. However, he also knew that he still had to take care of Nerisa. After gasping in a big breath of air, Dean pulled Nerisa to him and allowed the undertow to take him and her under. Dean could feel her violently struggling in his grasp. Her bird-like feet clawed at his legs and the salt water stung the opened wounds that were left behind. A part of him prayed that there weren't any sharks in the area, since he feared that his blood would only draw them to him. Despite Nerisa thrashing around and his injuries, Dean never loosened his grip. The undertow pulled them further and further down. At one point, the current changed and threw the two against a rock, which resulted in Dean feeling pain along the right side of his back. Dean's lungs began to burn. Despite an increasing desire to surface for more air, Dean persisted with remaining under water, until he felt certain that the siren was dead. Finally, after what felt like hours, Dean felt Nerisa go limp. His fingers deftly went to her neck and were unable to find a pulse. Confident that she was dead, Dean desperately swam towards the surface.
As Dean's head came out of the water, he took in a much needed deep breath. The cold ocean water was starting to affect him and he was finding it harder to move his arms and legs. Also, despite his lungs demand for more oxygen, he was finding it harder to breathe, due to the cold water that surrounded him. Dean looked around and tried to get his bearings. He had lost track of how long he had been under water and had lost track of where he was. He didn't know if the cold water or the blood loss was making it harder to concentrate. Once Dean's eyes saw the shore, he proceeded to swim towards it.
/SN/
With the aid of the flashlight, Sam and Bobby were quickly able to return to the cave's main entrance. To their surprise, the mouth of the cave was halfway under water. Both hunters stopped and looked at each other. No words were exchanged. They simply looked at each other and knew what had to be done. Without a word, they cautiously walked into the water and headed out of the cave. They were happily surprised to find that no strong current was present; however, as they exited the cave, the hunters realized that they would have to navigate their way around some boulders. Not only would they have to avoid being thrown against the boulders; but, they also realized that the cold ocean water was going to also be a challenge. Sam and Bobby weren't too far from shore; but, even the briefest exposure to such cold water could have detrimental affects to one's health. The water level, near the mouth of the cave, was a little above waist high on Bobby. Although the water wasn't very deep, the strength of the crashing waves against nearby boulders did make their journey to shore challenging. The two hunters stayed close together and quickly made their way to shore. As they worked on getting to dry land, they scanned the ocean for some sign of Dean. However, by the time Sam and Bobby made it to shore, neither of them had seen any sign of Dean.
/SN/
Bobby scanned the beach and ocean for any indication of where Dean was. Bobby felt weak in the legs and knew that the weakness wasn't just a result of the cold ocean water that he had just been in. He had been the one to push Dean out of the cave and into the ocean. Even though Bobby knew that he had been under the influence of the siren, it didn't change what he had done to Dean and didn't lessen the amount of guilt that Bobby felt. Over the years, as a hunter, Bobby had been forced to make some difficult decisions and had had to do things that bothered him but still had to be done. But this... this was something that would forever haunt Bobby. This wasn't something that a few shots of whiskey would take care of. Bobby felt like he had betrayed Dean's trust. Dean had turned to Bobby for help. Strong, stubborn Dean had been sidelined by an injury and had turned to Bobby to check on Sam. And Bobby had done one hell of a fine job. Bobby had landed up getting ensnared just like Sam, except Sam wasn't the one who had pushed Dean into a freezing cold ocean from a cave that was over twenty feet above the water. Oh no. That was Bobby's claim to fame on this hunt. He knew how resourceful, headstrong and resilient Dean could be. But, being pushed out of a cave, falling over twenty feet down, landing in cold ocean water, and dealing with a siren seemed like a lot for even Dean to be expected to handle on his own. Bobby just hoped that Dean would beat the odds once again and would find some way to survive this and maybe even forgive Bobby. With renewed effort, Bobby scanned the area for Dean.
/SN/
Dean kept his eyes focused on shore; but despite all his efforts, it seemed as though he wasn't getting any closer to it. From the corner of his one eye, Dean could see that he was no longer near the hillside. While he was under water waiting for Nerisa to drown, the current had swept them many yards away from the hillside. Although he knew he should appreciate the fact that he didn't need to worry about the boulders obstructing his swim to the beach, Dean just wished that the current had swept him closer to shore. Dean's arms and legs were feeling like lead and seemed to require way too much energy to move. Due to his earlier encounter with a boulder while he was under water, Dean's right side hurt and any movement of his right arm increased the pain in his back, which of course made swimming an even bigger challenge. Not only did he have pain from his side; but, he also had pain and blood loss from where Nerisa had clawed him. While the pain weakened him and made swimming a challenge, the coldness of the water seemed to be quickly draining him of whatever energy he had left. Dean knew that he had to make it to shore. He knew that he needed to make certain that Sam and Bobby were ok. But, he was finding it harder and harder to ignore how extremely difficult his swim to shore was becoming. And on top of that, Dean had a feeling that something was behind him, in the water. He didn't dare turn around. But, within the past few seconds, something had bumped into his feet a couple times. Dean wasn't sure whether or not he was still bleeding, from the wounds Nerisa had caused. He just knew that something was nearby and that he barely had enough strength to make it to shore, let alone defend himself against something in the ocean.
