A/N: Hi all! I did not post yesterday. The day got away from me and I needed rest from the long holiday weekend. If you haven't already read it, I posted a new one-shot on Sunday called, Things that Go Bump In The Night. Check it out. And thanks to all the latest who have taken the time to review. It really keeps my motivation up! Enjoy.

Chapter 36

After a tense wait, for the very busy neurologist, that included Dean stepping out to call Sam to come back for support, he showed up and examined Laney. He wasn't much help other than to reiterate what he had previously told them. Laney had suffered a serious brain injury and she was bound to have some issues, some of which would get better with time, some of which might not. In other words; he really didn't have any answers for them.

Dean had still been somewhat relieved until the doctor took him aside in the hall and began questioning him more extensively about Laney's recent mood and behavior. He explained that many brain injury patients suffered changes to their personalities. They would probably be facing inexplicable mood swings and out of character behavior. The doctor warned Dean that he was going to have to throw out the playbook on Laney, because all the rules had changed. While Dean was worried, he was at least grateful to have a reason for some of his sister's confusing behavior as of late. The doctor concluded his evaluation by letting Sam and Dean know that Laney should only be slightly more difficult to deal with than your average 17 year old.

Dean scoffed, Laney had never been average in any way, shape, or form.

He also recommended psychotherapy to help her deal with what was bound to be a confusing and frustrating time. But Dean had never held much stock in shrinks – referring to them as quacks – so that was one recommendation he was going to ignore. He'd dealt with one emo and angsty sibling growing up and he could deal with another. If anything, he was going to need the shrink.

Laney hadn't been the least bit placated by the neurologist. And her mood which had been so hopeful and cheerful just days ago had grown sour and morose; which was probably not going to be helpful for her interview with the CPS shrink the next day.

Dean decided that the best medicine for her at the moment was to finish their current hunt and get the spirit the resolution it needed to move on and maybe in the process it would lighten his sister's mood.

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"I was able to find what I needed at the county historical society," said Sam. "And I think Laney is right. I think this woman might have been a patient at the asylum."

"What makes you say that?" asked Dean

"Well, the asylum was built in 1901. It burned to the ground in 1905, killing everyone inside, patients, nurses and the psychiatrist, about 45 people."

"And?" asked Laney, impatiently.

"And, the hospital that was built over it, they got rid of the debris, but they decided to cut corners by reusing the foundation of the asylum. And even though they did this huge expansion and renovations, the structure of the original hospital is still here. They just built around it."

"What about the cemetery? The bodies that didn't get moved?" asked Laney. She hadn't even bothered to reopen her laptop. What difference did it make, she'd probably only remember half of what she read anyway.

"Now, that did actually turn out to be just a legend. I didn't find any proof of that and the historian I talked to said that it was just a rumor started after the asylum burned down," answered Sam.

"So why did the nut house burn down?" asked Dean.

"Nobody really knows, since everyone was killed. The director of the asylum, a Dr. Abel Whitlock, supposedly used some unorthodox methods on his patients, but was pretty highly revered in town."

"What like lobotomy? Electroshock therapy?" asked Laney. She remembered reading a book about it when she was pretty young. Apparently her past memory was not affected, just new stuff. Hooray for me.

"Not really sure. He kept it hush-hush. We'll have to look into him more… see what he was up to before he came to town."

Laney nodded in agreement.

"Meanwhile, we're going to run an EMF sweep," said Dean, grabbing his jacket.

Laney's brow furrowed in confusion when she saw Sam get up to follow him.

"Where are you going?" she asked him.

"With Dean. Someone's gotta watch his back."

Dean snorted. "I think it's the other way around."

Sam rolled his eyes.

"But what about the research on the doctor?"

"I leave it in your capable hands," Sam answered, with a brief glance at Dean. They had talked about the best approach to deal with Laney and the news she'd received. Part of the plan, was to act like nothing had changed.

"Fine, whatever, I don't know what good it's going to do," she mumbled.

Dean placed a kiss on the top of her head. "You'll do great as always," he said.

Laney grimaced uncomfortably.

"Call us if you need anything. Bobby should be here anytime now," said Sam.

"Love you guys," she said, without looking at them.

She didn't like the idea of her brothers on a semi-hunt – although an EMF sweep was hardly worth the worry – but she figured she could use the time to mope without an audience. No, she wasn't moping. She was grieving.

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"Are we doing the right thing, leaving her alone?" asked Sam, with a worried glance back towards his sister's room.

"She's hardly alone. I put up more wards and did more protection spells in that room than you can imagine. Nothing supernatural is getting in there. And I think she needs a alone time.'

"Yeah, maybe. Is it me or does she seem to freak out anytime one of us leaves the room?"

"You noticed that too, huh," said Dean, distractedly. He could very easily see how this conversation might end up in the direction of the one topic he had zero interest in discussing. "Maybe the shrink can give us a little insight."

Sam was about to respond to that, when Dean cut him off. "So, where should we start?"

Sam frowned at the obvious change in tone and topic. With a heavy sigh he turned to his brother.

"Uh – there's a sub-level basement. It's the closest to the foundation. If we're going to get a hit, it'll be down there somewhere."

Dean nodded. "Think you remember how to do this?" he asked with a smirk.

"Three years away at school and I managed pretty well on our first hunt back together don't you think?"

"Aside from you driving my car into an abandoned house, I guess it wasn't too bad."

"Let's just get this done, so we can get back. I don't like leaving Laney by herself."

"Yeah, fine. Let's do this."

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Laney had reluctantly begun researching, but didn't get very far. Forty-five possibilities and that was only if this woman had been among them. She went down the list of names and ages Sam had gotten from the historian. And of course, because she was so lucky, more than half the list was female. And for all she knew this spirit could have absolutely nothing to do with the asylum at all. A whisper of a voice and a brief glance of her face wasn't really enough to go on. On top of that she had probably less than a week left in the hospital before her chance to help this spirit that had saved her life was gone. And she hated unfinished business.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered aloud. Her brothers were somewhere with their little EMF readers, when she was a walking talking EMF reader herself. Much better too, with more bells and whistles. They should have taken her with them.

Hmmm….

Laney reached over and pressed the nurse call button. A couple of minutes later a nurse appeared.

"Can I help you dear?"

"Yeah, I need to go to the restroom. Can you help me get into the wheelchair?"

"Sure thing honey."

It didn't go as easily as having Sam simply pick her up and put her in the chair. But it went better than expected.

The nurse waited expectantly once Laney had settled in the chair.

"Oh, I've got it from here thanks. My brothers will be back in a few minutes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Well if you need me, just hit the call button again."

"Sure thing," said Laney, brightly. "And thanks again."

"No problem."

Laney waited five minutes before opening the door to her room. Her right arm was still in its cast, but it was only slightly sore and her fingers had some decent mobility. She peeked around the corner and waited for a lull in the activity before making a break for it.

She wheeled herself out of the room and headed straight for the elevators. Her brothers were going to kill her, she knew, but what the hell. It was time for her to take some initiative – time for her to contribute where she could. Maybe she couldn't remember everything she read anymore, but she was pretty sure she still had her gifts. She was still good for something and she was going to prove it.

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When Bobby entered Laney's room, it only took a split second to realize she wasn't there like he'd been told she was supposed to be. But he didn't panic and wasn't overly concerned. For all he knew, she was having some kind of procedure or therapy or maybe one of her brothers had taken her out. She certainly hadn't gotten up and walked out on her own. Or could she…

Laney was always resourceful and bullheaded stubborn like her oldest brother. Dean had told him about what the neurologist had said and about some of the changes he'd observed in his sister – like impulsiveness.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Dean. Voicemail. He tried Sam with the same result.

If they were in the subbasement of the hospital they probably weren't getting much of a signal, if any at all. Damn.

He walked out to the nurses' station and asked them Laney's whereabouts, completely expecting a benign reason for her absence. The nurse's "she should be in her room" was not the least bit reassuring.

"She said she had to go to the restroom and I helped her get in the wheelchair."

"And you didn't wait for her?"

"She said her brothers would be right back and she'd be fine," answered the nurse defensively.

Crap. Doggone stubborn ass Winchester kids.

He decided his best course of action would be to head down to the boys, scanning the area for Laney as he made his way to them. Young girl in a wheelchair with a broken arm and leg shouldn't be too hard to spot.

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Laney made her way towards the operating rooms where she'd first encountered her Good Samaritan spirit. If anyone thought her presence unusual, nobody mentioned it. In fact, they barely glanced her way.

Unfortunately for her, this hospital was huge and apparently there was more than one surgical unit. Since she'd been totally out of it during her last visit, she couldn't be sure which one she'd been in. She rolled her way up to the young woman at the unit desk.

"Excuse me," said Laney.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah – uh – I had a procedure in the OR a few days ago. I just don't know which unit. I was wondering if you could tell me where it might have been."

The woman gave her a suspicious look.

"I wanted to thank some of the staff that took care of me and wanted to know where to send a token of my appreciation that's all," added Laney. She laid the sincerity on pretty thick.

The woman studied her for a second before she apparently decided that Laney was harmless.

"What's your name? I can take a look at your records."

"Delaney Winchester."

The woman's eyebrows went up several notched disappearing under her messy bangs.

Great, apparently she's heard of me.

"Uh – yeah – uh, that was on the 1st floor outpatient unit. Sometimes it's the overflow for the general unit and since we were super busy that day they kind had to use whatever space was available."

"First floor? How do I get there?" asked Laney. She could probably figure it out on her own. But the hospital was like a maze and she didn't have time to waste before her brothers figured out what she was up to. Or Bobby showed up. Crap, she'd forgotten all about that.

She listened to the woman's instructions intently, relieved when she handed her a yellow sticky memo with the directions written on it.

"I appreciate it. Thanks."

"No problem, take care," said the woman.

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"Picking up anything?"

"Besides a really nasty smell and hand cramps? Not a damn thing," said Dean.

"Me neither, but we've still got a lot of ground to cover."

"Hooray for us," muttered Dean. He was getting more aggravated by the moment. He thought it was a good idea for his sister to have some alone time, but this was pushing it. This was taking too damn long. He pulled out his phone and noticed that he had a missed call from Bobby with voicemail. Crap, reception was spotty in the basement.

"What?" asked Sam, noticing his brother's frown.

"Missed call from Bobby," answered Dean. He waited until he got a bar on his cell phone before he pressed the voicemail button.

Sam had his back turned to his brother and was scanning the farthest corner of the level, near some piping when his EMF started twitching.

"Hey Dean," he said, attempting to get his attention.

"Son of a bitch," snapped Dean.

"What is it?" asked Sam, noticing his brother's panicked and pissed expression.

"Bobby got to the room, Laney's not there."

"What? Where is she?"

"Says nurse helped her into her wheelchair and that's the last they've seen of her. He's on his way down to us."

"You don't think she would be that stupid?" asked Sam, totally unaware that his EMF meter was going wild.

By Dean's expression he could see that he did indeed think she would do something so stupid.

"Let's go," he said.

Before Sam completely turned all the way around to follow his brother he was propelled by an invisible force against the wall.

"Sam!" exclaimed Dean, going immediately on alert and pulling out his gun, rock salt filled bullets, of course.

Sam groaned as he pushed himself up to a sitting position. Really, what was with getting thrown into walls all the time? He would have thought ghosts could be a little more creative.

Dean reached a hand out for him, when he was hit from behind, this time the force, not so invisible.

Shit, thought Sam. It was the spirit of the asylum doctor, Abe Whitlock.

Dean flew sideways against the opposite wall, his gun clattering to the ground. Sam scooted forward quickly, picking it up and quickly firing a few rounds at the doctor's spirit before it screamed and vanished.

Sam slowly got up from the floor, doing a mental check for injuries. Bumps and bruises – nothing to write home about.

Dean took a few more seconds to come around, quickly sitting up and groaning with the sudden movement. "Son of a bitch," he spit out.

"You alright?"

"Just peachy. You?"

"I'm okay," Sam answered, reaching a hand out to help his brother up to his feet. Where he swayed for a few seconds before the room stopped spinning.

"We need to get the hell out of here," said Dean. "If Laney's out there roaming the hospital unprotected, she could be in trouble."

Sam agreed and they broke into a run back towards the stairway and out back into the main hospital.

When they were back in the main lobby, they saw Bobby hurrying towards them.

"Looks like you boys saw a little action."

"You could say that," said Dean. "Laney?"

"I did a brief sweep, nothing."

"I swear when I see that kid, I'm going to put her over my knee," grumbled Dean.

Sam smiled, hearing the poorly hidden fear under the threat. His brother had never raised a hand to Laney in her entire life. But if threatening her with bodily harm made him feel better, he could get behind that.

"Where do we start looking?" asked Sam.

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The outpatient surgical unit was easy enough to find. Laney stayed on alert. She knew her brothers were out in the hospital somewhere and the last thing she wanted to do was run into them. She knew Dean wasn't above a public ass chewing when it was called for and this situation certainly called for it. She put whatever future punishment she might meet out of her mind and continued to her destination.

When she got there she was surprised to find it deserted. She noticed a sign at the desk that the unit closed at 5pm. A quick glance at the clock showed it was half past. There wasn't a soul around - perfect for a little reconnaissance.

She wasn't more than halfway into the unit when she felt the tingling in her spine. She was close to something. She continued to roll slowly down the hallway past the surgical suites, noticing belatedly how tired her arms were getting and how tired she'd gotten in general.

She reached surgical room 8, when she felt the tingling overpowering her and she knew she'd hit the jackpot. She pushed through the door slowly, gritting her teeth against the intense sensation that was becoming a burn at the base of her neck. Once completely in the room, she parked herself in the middle.

"Now what," she whispered aloud. It wasn't like she had that much experience with her abilities. She didn't really know what to do. Pamela had told her it would become instinctual. But she had her doubts.

Although she felt ridiculous, she knew she had to get the show on the road. So she began to talk, hoping to draw the spirit out.

"Uh – I don't know how to do this – but if you can hear me, I'm the one whose life you saved and I want to help you, but I need more information. So if you're here, can you…uh….come out?"

Laney shook her head in embarrassment. Talking to ghosts, well that was a new one in her book.

The tingling in her head went up another notch, until she was seeing black spots in her vision. Then all of a sudden there was an explosion of cold air around her and through her, cold all the way down to her bones, so cold she thought she was going to freeze and her bones would break into splinters. It was her last thought before total darkness.

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"Think boys, where would she go?" asked Bobby

Sam thought hard for a moment. "My guess is she'd go looking for the spirit that saved her."

Dean nodded his head. "So what? The operating room?"

"Sounds like the most logical place," said Bobby.

"Yeah, well Laney hasn't exactly been acting too logical lately," grumbled Dean.

Sam shook his head at his brother. "Dean, she probably can't help herself. You know what the doctor said."

"Yeah, well it's still stupid and reckless," said Dean.

"I'm not arguing with you."

"Boys," snapped Bobby. "Focus. Where's the surgical unit?"

Dean looked around and headed for the information desk.

"Excuse me? Can you tell me where the surgical unit is?" he asked, the senior volunteer.

"Which one dear?"

Dean frowned. "There's more than one?"

"Yes sir, there are two."

"Terrific," muttered Dean.

"We're not sure," said Sam, from over his brother's shoulder.

"If you have a name, I can check for you where they might be."

"Well our friend is already up in a room. We just wanted to thank the staff that helped her out," said Dean.

"Well it was either the outpatient surgical unit or the general surgical unit," said the woman.

"Can you tell us where they are?" asked Sam.

"The general unit is up on the 5th floor and the outpatient is here on the first floor, at the North end of the hospital."

"That's freaking great," muttered Dean, under his breath.

"Thanks a lot," said Sam, with a smile.

They walked away from the desk.

"Split up?" asked Sam

"I'll take the 5th floor," offered Bobby.

Dean nodded. The old man was more perceptive than he liked sometimes. He knew Dean wouldn't want to split up with his brother.

"Alright, we'll take the 1st," said Sam.

He and his brother headed off quickly for the opposite end of the hospital, Dean with his hand on the gun in his pocket, ready for anything.

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Laney's first thought upon consciousness was that she was not alone in her head. Something was there – someone.

"My name is Callie," said a raspy voice, only it was inside her head. Not outside, or was it? She was confused, brain foggy, every nerve on fire, and the deep seated cold, not letting up.

"How c-can I h-help y-you?" stammered Laney, through her chattering teeth.

"I can make you see," answered Callie.

Before Laney could ask what she meant, she saw an explosion of light, and suddenly she could see. It was like a dream, but more crisp.

Callie strapped to a bed.

She's struggling against the leather restraints tying her to the bed. Her arms, legs and even her head are tied into place. Her eyes are wide with fear and terror. She knows what's coming. There is another woman in the room, a nurse. Her eyes are hard and uncaring. In her hands she holds a tray with several sharp instruments. Callie is trembling at the sight. She knows what's coming.

Through the door enters a man, dressed in a doctors' overcoat. Callie's trembling grows harsher at his presence and the sounds of screaming and crying from the hallway and into her room. He offers her a smile with no warmth.

"Hello, my dearest. How is my favorite patient today?"

Callie's terror is so overwhelming she cannot form a coherent word or thought, instead she begins to wail, a high pitched keening. She knows what's coming.

"Oh don't fret my dear, we'll have you all better in no time. I don't know where my research would be without you," says the doctor.

Callie's eyes wildly follow him as he walks towards the tray of instruments. Her body tenses and she finally begins to shout.

"Please, let me go home. I don't belong here. Let me go back to my family."

The doctor clucks his tongue. "That's what they all say," he says, laughing. "All in due time."

He reaches for a long and pointed steel instrument, with a smile, he edges towards Callie's bed. She's starts to wail again and struggle uselessly against the rigid restraints. He puts a hand to her head and offers her another smile. He positions the instrument near the corner of her eye.

Callie abruptly stops struggling; there is resignation in her eyes. One last time she whispers, "I want to go home."

The doctor ignores her, motioning for the nurse to help hold Callie steady. And he pushes the instrument into the eye socket and Callie sees no more.

Blinding, harrowing pain, worse than could possibly be imagined shot through Laney's body. She jerked painfully. Just as suddenly as she felt it, it disappeared, all she felt was a gentle, but urgent tapping on her face and body. It felt like hands, familiar hands, and through the haze she heard two familiar and frantic voices. Her eyes finally regained focus and she could see again, although fuzzily. The tingling and burning sensations in her head totally dissipated. All that was left in its wake was in incredible sharp cold.

"Laney? Are you okay? Are you with me? Talk to me kiddo."

It was Dean. His face hovered in front of hers. And Laney felt immediately sorry. The worry and fear etched in his face was all her doing. But before she could offer an apology to her brother, she promptly leaned over and vomited all over his boots.

She heaved a couple more times before straightening up.

"D-d-dean," she said, through chattering teeth. She still felt impossibly cold.

"Yeah, baby, it's me. Are you alright?"

"S-sorry about your b- b- boots," she answered, apologetically.

Dean touched a hand to her face. "Jesus, she's ice cold." He pulled off his leather jacket and quickly wrapped it around her and began rubbing her arms.

Sam pulled of his jacket too and placed it over her as well. Laney closed her eyes, immediately soothed by the warmth and the comforting smell of her brothers.

"You okay baby?" asked Sammy. He knelt down next to her, happy to see that she was already regaining some color.

"I'm okay," she said, softly. She was unable to make eye contact with her brothers, instead staring at the remnants of her earlier meal, puddling at her brother's boots.

"Look at me," said Dean, sternly but gently.

Laney raised her eyes to meet her brother's gaze. He didn't look angry. She saw fear, worry, relief, and love. But not anger.

"That's a good girl. Tell us what happened," he said.

"We should get out of here," said Laney. She wasn't looking for a repeat of her experience.

Sam and Dean looked at each other and nodded.

"Alright, we'll get back to your room and then you're going to spill it," said Dean.

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The walk back to Laney's room had been tense and quiet. Her brothers frequently reached out to touch her, checking that she was warming up. Dean's hand drifted a couple of times towards her neck to check her pulse. He seemed satisfied that she was okay. Even if she was wearing dinner on her gown and stinking up her brothers' jackets with vomit.

Bobby met them about halfway there. He offered her a wan smile and muttered something about having some work to do and that he'd stop by later. Laney looked worn out and something had obviously happened, but he knew it was best to let three of them work it out before he made his reappearance.

Once in the room, one of the nurses came in and helped Laney get cleaned up in the bathroom, while her brothers waited outside. When she came back in clean and with a fresh gown, she noticed that Dean had shed the boots and was walking around in his socks.

I'm so going to get it.

When they were left alone again and Laney was resettled in the bed, Dean shut the door and pulled up a chair. Sam followed suit on the opposite side of her.

"What happened?" asked Dean. Despite his neutral tone, Laney could see that he was struggling not to explode.

"I – uh – I decided to see if I could get a hit on the spirit. You know – using my – mind mojo."

"Why would you go without backup?" asked Sam

"I wasn't thinking."

"No, you weren't," snapped Dean, more harshly than he intended. But he couldn't get the picture of how they'd found her out of his mind. Her eyes had been wide open, but unfocused. She had been panting as though she'd run a race, and when they touched her, it was like touching a block of ice. And no matter how much they'd shaken her and yelled at her to wake up, she didn't. She just sat there in the wheelchair, frozen and dead to the outside world.

"I'm sorry Dean. I – uh – I was feeling kind of useless. I didn't think I could research effectively, with what the doctor said and all. And I have these abilities that are useful and I just wanted to see what I could find out."

"Baby, we understand that," said Sam. "But you can't go off like that without one of us."

"I know. I won't do it again. I just…I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to do something…." Her voice trailed off.

Dean sighed heavily and reached for her hand.

"You scared the living crap out of us," he said, gruffly. "Don't ever do that again."

Laney nodded agreement.

"And you're not useless," he added.

At that Laney began to cry.

"I'm really sorry," she said, sniffling.

"We know," said Sam.

Laney cried a bit harder. Her brothers were letting her off pretty damn easy. She hated that it was probably because they felt sorry for her. Because she was damaged.

Sam reached over and wiped her tears away.

"You owe me some new boots," said Dean, trying to lighten the mood.

Laney chuckled through her tears. Her brothers allowed her a couple minutes to collect herself before they started with the questions again.

"Tell us exactly what happened," said Dean.

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When Laney finished telling her brothers everything, the mood in the room had grown a little gloomy. Dean wasn't happy with this manifestation of her gifts. Mind melding with ghosts? Pamela had told them Laney's gifts were probably pretty broad, but still. Un-freaking-believable. The ghost had shared a memory with her and as Laney had described it, in complete Technicolor detail.

"So, now we have name and we know she was a patient, and some doctor was performing torture on the poor woman. And I don't even think she belonged in that asylum. She didn't seem the slightest bit crazy," said Laney.

Dean got up from his seat and ran a weary hand through his hair.

"What happened to you?" asked Laney when she noticed her brother's painful grimace upon standing.

"Uh, well, we had a little run in of our own down in the basement. Met up with the ghost of the good old Doc Whitlock," said Dean.

Laney's eyes widened. Suddenly her brothers fear made even more sense. "Are you guys okay?"

"Little banged up," answered Sam. "Nothing special."

"What happened?" she asked.

"You should get some sleep," said Dean.

"When you tell me what happened."

"You have the interview with the CPS shrink in the morning," he reminded.

Laney sighed heavily. With all the day's excitement, she'd forgotten all about it.

"Listen we have a lot to go on now. I'm going to bet that the doctor you saw with Callie is the same guy we ran into and it's all related. Let me work on it. We'll figure it out. But you need to rest. Tomorrow is important," said Sam. He placed a hand on her back and began rubbing circles.

Laney immediately felt relaxed and incredibly tired.

"Okay, okay. I'll go to sleep," she said.

"Good," said Dean. "Sammy and I will take turns getting cleaned up, but you won't be alone."

Laney nodded and sunk down into her bed with a yawn.

"I'm worried about tomorrow," she whispered.

Dean walked over to the bed and leaned down to kiss his sister's forehead.

"You'll be fine, kiddo. Trust me."

"I do, Dean. I do."

She closed her eyes and before he could pull the covers up around her neck, she was sound asleep.