A/N: Christmas Day Eleven (Can you believe it?)

Snowflakes and Icicles

Chapter Thirty-Five

Helium, It's Not Just For Balloons

Dean would never have thought of himself as claustrophobic, but those minutes in the elevators were almost enough to have him trying to crawl out of his skin. Every small sound and he was sure something was trying to get in, and he was pretty sure the walls on Sam's side were moving towards him. He took a breath and focused on the throbbing pain in his side. Sometimes pain could be a friend, it allowed him to focus on something other than freaking out. He wondered if his brother knew how many times he'd...

"Dean?"

"Yeah?" He looked over, Sam was squinching at him. Busted.

"You okay?"

"Yep. You?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not, if anyone cares," Joshua said.

"Oh, sorry." Dean smiled at him.

"We're not either, if it makes you feel better." Sam offered.

"Yeah, that doesn't really help," the doctor said. "What is going to be out there? You can tell me, I'll believe anything now. If you told me it would be killer skating mice with pie, I'd believe it."

"No mice," Dean said. "Sam?"

"I'm not sure. The DNMRs, a Colly Bird, other creatures that serve the gods." Sam stared at the ceiling.

"See that, Joshua?"

"What?" The doctor looked up, then back at Dean.

"Sam, that look. That's the 'we are in deep shit' look. Out with it, Sammy."

"Some of the gods might be there," his brother said, looking from ceiling to wall, then to the axe in his hands.

"Oh. Gods." Joshua looked like he was going to barf.

"Yeah."

"Which ones?" the doctor asked.

Dean smirked. "All of them."

"Oh god... gods..." Joshua whispered.

"Any idea about the myrrh?" Dean asked his brother. Damn this elevator is slow.

"No."

"If we don't find it, they eat us, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Wait. What?" Joshua said, focusing on the two of them. "I thought we were after amber."

"We are. That is almost all of the nine-fold offering, all that's left after that is myrrh," Sam answered.

"Myrrh, hmm." The doctor looked thoughtful.

The elevator dinged and the doors started to open. Dean's stomach clenched, pulling the wound in his side. He looked over at Sam and his brother nodded. It was as close to a suicide run as they had come in a long time. Dean swallowed and gripped the axe. The doors slid open.

Shit.

The demonic naked mole rats were swarming around the edges of the far side of the lobby. Something huge, four-legged and shaggy paced along the windows. Outside in the fountain, Dean could see things moving in the water. A fluttering noise made him look up, and he could see dark winged creatures, hundreds of them, wheeling around the light fixtures. Towards the front of the lobby, by three large Christmas trees, several almost human things were standing with a huge wolf-like creature. There was a huge bloody pool in front of them, a smooth-skinned animal of some kind was rolling in the blood with what could only be described as a blissful growl.

"I'm an idiot," Joshua whispered. He did something with his badge and the doors stayed open. "Duh."

The doctor shrugged, then pushed Dean out into the lobby. They were trying to move as silently as possible. The gift shop was right next door and if they got lucky, they might be able to get in and out without anything noticing them. Yeah, right. They slipped along the wall and into the gift shop. Sam headed immediately to the glass case by the cash register. He grabbed several items and looked up at Dean with a smile.

"What we need?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it's the real thing, even has little authentication cards with it," Sam replied.

"Good." Dean looked around the shop, searching for anything else they might need. He doubted they could fend off many DNMRs with Beanie Babies or Mylar balloons. Huh. He spotted the tank of helium they used for the balloons and rolled over to it. It was a good sized tank.

"Give me a hand with this, Joshua."

"What do you need that for?" the doctor asked, grabbing the tank.

"I don't know, it just might be handy."

"Did you want me to phone MacGyver while I'm at it?"

"A doctor and a comedian. Great." Dean grinned at him. "Sam, are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's get out of here," Sam said, he was on his way towards the door when a roar rattled the items on the shelf.

"What the hell is that?" Joshua peeked into the lobby and looked back at them his face white. "Oh, we are toast."

Dean gripped the axe and moved towards the door, glancing out. "Sam? What the hell is that?" He really tried to keep his voice calm, but he had no idea if it was, he heard a squeak of pure panic at the massively huge monster that was now sitting in the middle of the lobby.

His brother joined him. "Something really bad?"

"Good guess."

"I thought so."

"See, I would have guessed it was the tooth fairy," Joshua said.

"That was my second guess," Dean said. "We have to get the amber upstairs." The wound in his side was throbbing and he would blame what he was about to do on the pain and fever. He smiled at his brother, grabbed the helium tank and tipped it onto his lap and, before his brother or Joshua could react, launched himself into the lobby. "Get out of here!" he shouted to his brother.

Everything focused on him as he rolled towards the Christmas trees. A group of DNMRs started yipping and growling and some of the small flying things fluttered down from the ceiling to swirl around him. He heard a shriek and out of the corner of his eye saw one of the Colly Birds swoop into the lobby, heading straight for him, its talons extended and hooked beak wet with gore. He could smell blood-wet fur and waited until the first of the DNMRs were close enough that he could see their strange flat ears, then he opened the valve on the helium tank all the way, letting the gas flow out. One of the creatures coughed, backing off immediately and several of the small flying things dropped to the floor. The Colly Bird was not dissuaded and Dean lifted his axe, knowing it wouldn't matter. He felt one claw catch him, and braced himself for the end.

The flash of steel coming down on the creature's leg was followed by the yank of Dean's chair moving, he was spun around and pushed, hard, towards the elevators. The wheelchair was careening almost out of control before Joshua caught up with him and steered him into one of the elevators. Sam rolled in right behind them and the doors closed.

"What?" Dean mumbled, suddenly aware of pain. "The amber!"

"We put it in the other elevator and sent it up. It will be there waiting when we get there," Joshua said, bending over and checking the wound the Colly Bird had made.

"You okay?" Dean asked, looking at Sam, there was blood on his brother's face.

"Yeah, Dean, I'm okay," Sam huffed at him.

"Why?"

"Why did we come back for you? Instead of letting you die?" Joshua snapped.

"Yeah."

"Joshua had an idea about the myrrh."

"About..." Dean blinked, there were two Sams and they were both blurry. "Sammy?"

"Hang on, Dean, we're almost back."

"Sammy?" Dean reached for his brother, Sam took his hand, holding tight.

"Hang on, please."

"Sa..." Everything started to fade, he heard his brother's desperate plea and the ding of the elevator. There was movement, but it all passed like it was a dream. Somewhere a long way away from himself he heard the flurry of activity that indicated something really bad was happening.

His last conscious thought was the bad thing that was happening was him.

To Be Continued