Many thanks to my reviewers: bonniebeast, Alyssa43, chase83 and Emily Rush

An excerpt from the notes of Dr. Claudia Wyatt

… Experiment H. Adjust dosage for Subject 6663. Brine at room temp to keep halite intact. Predicted tachycardia & elevated respiratory rate, weakness & severe pain. Possible seizures. Collect blood samples, 10 min intervals for red & black cell count. Cleanse within 30 min. Refer to Subjects 6661 & 6662...

Adiana had to keep her jaw muscles tensed to suppress a gasp of surprise. How long had Claudia been standing there? Adiana certainly hadn't heard anything. Claudia had just been standing there, watching silently without any attempt to make her presence known. Maybe she just hadn't wanted to interrupt. Claudia swept inside the room, evidently not thrown at all by the sudden silence.

"You must be Adiana. Doctor Claudia Wyatt," she introduced. This time Adiana shook her hand, which made Claudia's smile stretch. Apparently, that small gesture had been enough to prove that it was actually Adiana she was speaking to. "I know you heard me before, but it seems rude not to introduce myself personally."

"Nice to meet you," said Adiana politely. As she took her hand back, she tried flexing her right middle and ring fingers. She noticed that they hadn't curved at all when she shook Claudia's hand. They remained still, probably due to some nerve damage or something. Great. Well, she just had to focus on the bigger things. Like the fact she was alive. "And uh, thanks for saving my life. It was you, right?"

"Yes, it was, but it was no trouble. I am a doctor after all." Her eyes gazed at the ceiling for a moment, recalling a piece of text recited long ago. "'Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick.' I took that oath to help."

Dean let out a sound that was somewhere between a derisive snort and a dark chuckle that he immediately choked off. Adiana glanced over at him curiously, but he was looking at Claudia with a tight smile. Sam stared at him with an exasperated frown. Dean shrugged defensively when he caught Sam's eyes, crossing his arms and slouching slightly in his chair as his smile vanished completely. Sam shook his head.

"Well, we're glad you came," Sam said to Claudia, trying to make amends. What that was about, Adiana hadn't a clue but she let it slide. She couldn't really ask while the doctor was standing right there anyway.

"So am I," Claudia returned, not at all bothered. She reached into a pocket with one hand to grab her notebook. "Now, if you wouldn't mind Adiana, I have some questions I'd like to ask you before you're…" She flipped open the notebook, pausing over a page as she thought of a delicate way to word Adiana's situation with the demon.

"Back to being Leraie's life-sized puppet," Adiana finished, having no such qualms. She could have worded it less bluntly, but that's how she felt. But that's not why Claudia was giving her a strange look, she realized. "Her name's Leraie." There was a creaking sound behind Adiana as the Winchesters shifted in their chairs. She could even feel Leraie's focus move outward, drawn from her thoughts by the sound of her name. Only Claudia remained still, watching Adiana with an interested expression. "And I don't think she'll want to come out for a while."

"And why would you think that?" Claudia flipped a few more pages to where she'd tucked in her pen.

"She just-" Adiana shrugged. "-said she was done."

"Done?"

"Yeah. I'm not really sure what that meant. I tried to ask, but she just shut herself off." Adiana absentmindedly stroked a thumb over the bandages on one wrist. "I think you might have upset her somehow. Like I said though, I'm not really sure. It's just a feeling."

"Were you surprised she didn't tell you when you asked?"

"Um, I guess not. It's not like she really shares personal details."

"But you're on a first-name basis."

"Yeah. 'Hey, you' kind of gets wearisome after a while." Adiana grinned, attempting to lighten the conversation a little, but Claudia was scribbling in her notes, not amused. Adiana pressed her lips together, as her fingers spiraled around the bandages.

"You speak often?"

"Well, she is in my head."

"I mean, conversations."

"Oh, um… yeah, sort of." Adiana held up a hand to cover her mouth as she yawned. God, she wished she wasn't tired all the time. "Sorry. I mean, arguments were useless because we were stuck with each other, not to mention exhausting. And no one really talked to her that much, so we were bored. We came to a kind of mutual understanding, I guess. Or I thought we did, until she… you know…" She held up her wrists briefly. Claudia pursed her lips and underlined something a few times, but despite her bland expression, her eyes shone with excitement. It gave Adiana an uneasy feeling. "I guess that's pretty unusual, having a demon in your head that's not constantly trying to push you into a breakdown."

"Well, your situation is pretty unusual, hmmm?"

"That's what everyone keeps telling me. At this point, I'm just glad to still be alive."

"Of course." Claudia checked her watch before slipping her pen between the pages of her notebook and looking up. "Well, I have a few things to check up on, but I do have more questions if you wouldn't mind another chat later?"

"Sure. All things considered, I kind of owe you."

"Excellent." Claudia shoved the notebook back into her pocket and went for the door.

"Doctor Wyatt." Claudia stopped just beyond the doorframe. Her fingers fluttered at her side, twisting and gripping. She turned around, a trace of annoyance in the way her small smile was stretched thin. Adiana hesitated, despite having called out. There was a question that she desperately wanted to ask, but at the same time was afraid of the answer. She took a breath, steeling her nerves. "I'm sure you've been running tests and stuff, so in your medical opinion, do you think… how long…?"

"I think that you need to get some rest, that's what I think. Don't let these boys keep you up." Her eyes flicked to the Winchesters. It was as much a suggestion to Adiana as it was a warning to them. Although it really sounded much stronger than a suggestion. "I'll drop by in an hour or so."

Adiana leaned against the headboard after she left. Claudia's avoidance of her question, for it was clear she had known what Adiana wanted to ask, meant one of two things. Either Claudia had no real guess as to what would happen or she just didn't want to say. Adiana didn't know which she thought was worse. But why would she even know? No one had seen anything like this before, or so she'd been told. Then this woman just swept in out of nowhere. She didn't think Bobby had mentioned her before. If he had, she didn't remember.

"So, who is she?" Adiana tilted her head to look over at Sam and Dean. "A friend of Bobby's?"

"Something like that," said Dean ambiguously.

"And she's also a hunter?"

"She knows her way around."

"She lives close by though?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of? I was bleeding pretty badly. She'd have to live really close, unless she gave you instructions over the phone or something." Sam and Dean gave each other a look, loaded with some kind of quick exchange that Adiana couldn't understand.

"We got lucky."

"I guess so. It's nice of her to stick around." The boys exchanged another look. Adiana frowned, biting on the corner of her lip. These answers were way too vague. And even if she had put it down to Dean to still not being sure it was her speaking, these silent, apprehensive chats of theirs were enough to make her suspicious. "Guys, is there something I should know?" She swore that if they weren't already having some sort of eye tag, they would have traded another look. As it was, Dean just paused before looking at her and smiling. Adiana was not reassured.

"Nope. You're right. It's ah… it's good of her to stick around."

"You should get some sleep, Adiana." It was the first time Sam had spoken since Claudia had first came in. His voice was quiet, and while he was trying, he didn't manage to hide his concern quite as well as his brother. "You look tired."

"Oh, I look tired?" Clearly, this was meant as a distraction, but in truth she did feel very tired. But she was sure that she was nowhere near as exhausted as the Winchesters must be. "I've been asleep for… for…"

"Bout a day," Dean reluctantly finished. "A little more."

"A day. So in the past twenty-four or so hours that I've been solidly out, how much sleep have you two gotten? You know what?" Adiana shook her head slightly. "Forget that. How much sleep have you gotten since I went missing? And I don't mean naps. Those do not count." She didn't need an answer because their silence was enough. "Uh-huh. That's what I thought. Look, I swear to you that I will still be here in twenty-four hours. So I'm going to rest, and you should too. In fact, when I wake up, I don't want to see either of you because if I do…" She cast about for something decent to bargain with and found it. "I'm taking this IV out and I'm not really sure what's in it, but it's probably important. Okay?"

"All right," Sam agreed. The response was so immediate that Adiana really felt like he was just trying to placate her, but hopefully they'd actually try to sleep. It'd be great if Bobby had at least gotten rest while the boys were awake, since he seemed to be the most sensible thus far.

"Awesome." She'd give the Winchesters at least a chance before she had to resort to drastic measures. Probably shouldn't actually rip the IV out, just in case. She shuffled down in bed and lay back against the pillow, closing her eyes.

"You should have kept pushing about that doctor."

"Welcome back," Adiana responded, actually surprised to hear Leraie's voice again. "I was under the impression we weren't talking."

"What? I never said that. But that's beside the point. Something's not right with that doctor."

"Yes, I figured that much out, thanks."

"So why didn't you keep pestering the Winchesters?"

"Because then, they wouldn't sleep. They'd just be worrying about what they were going to tell me."

"I'll just ask them then."

"I thought you said you were done?"

"It's a few questions, and then I'm out." Adiana focused her remaining energy on the wall in her mind and to her amazement, when Leraie rammed against the wall, it didn't shift. Just a quick flare of dull pain and then nothing. "You've got to be kidding me." Leraie tried again to no effect. Adiana couldn't help the smile that twitched at the corner of her lips. "Yeah, keep smiling Adiana. We'll see who is smiling when Doctor Crazy gets a hold on us." Adiana ignored her. It felt good to be in control for once, however she managed it, too much not to enjoy it. She held her concentration until they both were worn-out and then drifted off to sleep.

"But what kind of blood thinner?" Bobby's voice, low and gruff, was the first thing Adiana heard as she came out of the haze of sleep. He was trying to keep quiet, so that she wouldn't wake up.

"Robert, I am getting rather tired of your constant interrogation." It was Claudia's cool fingers that had woken Adiana, tugging her arm out from beneath the pillow. "I've been nothing but patient up until now. I've even injected myself with small amounts of everything I've given her so far just to satisfy you." The fingers lifted away, and there was a thump as Claudia opened the bedside drawer. "May I remind you that it was you who called me, not the other way around?"

"I called to ask some questions. I never expected you to fly half-way 'cross the country."

"And it's a good thing I did or else you'd be down another hunter."

"And you'd be down another guinea pig." The drawer closed loudly.

"Why don't you send one of the boys in here?" Something rough and sticky was being wrapped around Adiana's arm, right over the IV, sending it deeper into her skin. Claudia's voice was calm, but Adiana could feel the tension in her hands from how tightly the substance closed around her arm. "They may not trust me either, but at least they're not rude."

Adiana was continuing to feign sleep, in the hopes that she would learn something more, but when she heard a metal clanging on the IV, she was too unnerved by Bobby's comments not to open her eyes. She blinked a few times, squinting due to the bright light from the lamp.

"Hey, kid. How ya doing?" Adiana looked over towards Bobby's voice. He was sitting in the chair she'd last seen Dean in. She hoped that meant the Winchesters had taken her advice.

"Okay." She pulled her blanket a little tighter. Either it had gotten colder or her fever was back up. "Where's Dean and…" She yawned, moving to cover her mouth, which pinched the needle in her arm causing her to wince. It was medical tape that she'd felt Claudia using to thoroughly attach the IV needle to her arm. They took her threat seriously. Good. "Sam? I tried to get them to catch some 'Z's."

"Well, they seemed very concerned that you might pull out your IV, so they made themselves scarce," responded Claudia. She was holding the tube from the IV in one hand and had a plastic bag of clear liquid in the other, running her fingers along the side of the bag with a satisfactory look. Only the liquid wasn't quite clear, not like the other one had been. There was an element of fog, like a drop of white paint in water. She hung it up on the metal stand. "Although I doubt they're very far. Now, why don't you just shut your eyes and go back to sleep? I'm going to give you a dose of blood thinner and it can be somewhat of an… unpleasant experience."

"I thought you had some more questions?" Adiana had gotten enough sleep and didn't relish the idea of waking up in more pain than she was already in. She'd rather work through it. "That would distract me at least." But Claudia was shaking her head.

"It would be better for you not to be awake," she said firmly, not giving Adiana any room to argue, even if she had wanted to. "I'd give you medication to dull the pain or put you out for a while, but it would interfere." She hooked the tube up to the bag, tilting it to make sure the liquid began to drip. She patted Adiana gently on her shoulder, still keeping an eye on the liquid. "Just sleep."

Adiana felt a prickling in the back of her mind that warned what Leraie was about to do right before it happened. She threw her guard up and felt the demon slam into it. Adiana gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut, so she could focus. Now it just felt like she had a migraine. Leraie thrashed in irritation. She was losing strength, and it made her all the more determined to go out on her own terms.

"Just give me a minute."

"Yeah, and then I'll never get my own body back. Would you stop attacking me, please? We might as well crash, so we block out some of whatever's going to happen. Unless you're in the mood for more pain?"

"Don't tell me you're trusting her." The wheels on the IV stand squeaked as Claudia moved it back between the bed and the wall, humming 'Rock-a-bye, Baby' under her breath. "I mean, she's humming a lullaby to a demon and a grown woman, for crying out loud. That is not the sign of a stable person."

"Of course I'm not gonna fully trust her, but if Bobby's letting her hook us up, then I'm going to let it happen. And she might be our only shot."

"Your only shot. If she somehow gets us out of this, I'm worse than hellhound meat."

"Yes, you've given me an extensive list of what exactly would happen to you." Adiana felt a stinging sensation bloom in her arm and begin to travel up her veins. "So, can we please not make this experience more unpleasant than it's already going to be?" Leraie gave a huffing sound that might have been a sign of agreement. That's what Adiana was going to take it as because her attention was starting to shift as the burning sensation crept up to her chest and flared out over her body.

"Something's not right."

"What?" Adiana was clenching her jaw tightly as the pain intensified. There was a squeezing sensation in her heart and a contracting as if it were forced to work harder than it should. The tips of her fingers twitched involuntarily.

"I can't move."

"No kidding." Down in her feet, Adiana could feel it. A vibration as her feet moved. She just wanted to curl into a ball. She drew her feet up, bowed in almost the fetal position as every part of her being tensed.

"I should be able to shift in my consciousness, but I can't. And I feel a pulling, tearing. What is this?" Adiana was getting a sense of what Leraie was talking about. But it was more like a push where the pain began to center around pinpricks of flesh. The minutes ticked by, each growing more unbearable. Adiana began to breathe more heavily, taking rapid breaths. She couldn't get enough air. She didn't want to panic. The exorcism had been worse, but Leraie's anxiety was melding into her own. Her eyes flashed open.

Claudia had taken a seat next to Bobby, perched on the edge of her chair with her back perfectly straight. She was writing in her notes, between taking quick glances up at Adiana. If she read any of Adiana's distress, she was ignoring it. It was Bobby, watching Adiana closely, who read the worry in her expression.

"You all right?"

"Just hurts and… I'm having a little trouble breathing."

"Is that normal?" The question was directed to Claudia. She held up a finger next to her pen to signify that she would answer once she had finished. After writing a few more sentences, she nodded and got up, setting her notebook down on her chair.

"Her blood's thinning. It's just her heart's reaction to a reduced black cell count." Claudia checked her watch and picked up one small tube and a razor's edge that she'd set aside on the bedside table. With a clinical detachment, she took one of Adiana's arms right above the wrist. It vibrated in her hand, but she managed to make a small cut on the tip of her pointer finger. Black blood streamed out, and Adiana felt a brief release of pressure as Claudia filled the tube. However, that had barely managed to brush her awareness because she was becoming more concerned with the tremors that began to ripple through her. Claudia staunched the blood flow with her thumb and grabbed a band-aid to wrap around Adiana's finger. "Be right back."

Adiana tried to grab Claudia's wrist, to stop her from leaving the room, but she missed because suddenly Leraie was screaming. It rang in Adiana's mind so loudly that she would have clapped her hands to her ears, if only she could have. Claudia looked down at Adiana's feeble attempt to grab her, frowned, and went to make an additional note in her book before leaving. The pain had spread out, digging into Adiana's muscles and pressing at her skin. It seeped into her lungs, which were inflating desperately with each gasp. She was reminded of when she was young and had nearly drowned in a swimming pool.

"Adiana. Hey!" Bobby got to his feet, and he appeared beside Adiana in what seemed to be an impossibly fast timeframe. Or were things just blurring in and out? Leraie was still screaming. She shuddered more violently, arms and legs twitching beyond her control as her head jerked back and forth. A paralyzing fear took hold, and Adiana was losing her focus to a blurring mess of reality. Bobby asked her something, but she couldn't understand anything anymore.

"Mmmmahstop." She could only get the word stop to come out clearly and that's what she wanted. It to stop. And in a way, it did. Her mind went blank.

Bobby had seen only a few full-on seizures in his lifetime, and that's what it looked like Adiana was going through now. Her body twisted and convulsed, constantly reverberating against the bed and tangling her in the sheets. Her eyelids flickered, eyes rolling up in her head. Breaths came in short, sharp gasps that made her tremble all over. And the strangest part was her veins. While most were fading in color, some in her face and around her hands especially were turning dark as pitch and pushing out against her skin. He would bet anything it had to do with whatever Claudia was injecting her with.

"Claudia!" He had half a mind to call the boys too, but they didn't need to see this. And it would do no good to have them in this small room, panicking. "Blood thinner, my ass." His first instinct was to pull the IV right out, but seeing as he had no idea what the substance was he didn't know if that would just make things worse. All right, think Bobby. Adiana was already lying on her side so there wasn't much more he could do that would stop her from hurting herself. Then what the hell was in that damn medical bag? He grabbed it and looked on both sides, but there wasn't a label, so he cast about the room for something else and saw her notebook. As the pages turned in his hands, he cursed himself silently for ever having called Claudia.

"I heard you call-" Dean couldn't even finish the sentence when he saw Adiana. He was around the bed and crouching down next to her before Bobby even found the most recent page. "Adiana." He reached out and cupped her face in his hands, hard as it was. "Look at me." But her eyes weren't going to meet his. "What's going on, Bobby?" But Bobby was skimming Claudia's latest entry.

"Take that IV out!" Bobby snapped. Dean didn't question it. He snatched Adiana's arm, but the IV was bound with medical tape. He grabbed a jackknife out of his pocket and managed to cut off the tape by using one arm to hold hers in place, though her chest was nearly pressed right up against the blade. He tore the needle out, tossing it aside as blood welled up.

Claudia finally reappeared, spurred by Sam who had been downstairs with her when Bobby called, disgruntled at having been unable to attend to the blood sample she was working with. She took in Dean smoothing a medical patch onto Adiana's arm and Bobby reading her notebook and she drew herself up in indignation.

"What are you doing?" Dean gave her such a hateful look that a lesser woman would have faltered in her steps, but Claudia swept over next to him and attempted to grab the IV. Dean shot up and shoved it hard into the wall so the metal stand tilted and swayed. "Oh, you ruined-" She snatched a tube off of the nightstand, intent on getting another blood sample, but Dean blocked her way, his hands clenched into fists.

"What'd you do to her?" Dean growled. Claudia crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Nothing she couldn't survive. She still has-" She consulted her watch. "-approximately ten minutes. So if you'd let me get- She stepped forward and Dean moved to match her, nearly tripping over Sam, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, one hand pressed to Adiana's back as if it was the only thing he could think of to do. Dean didn't hit women as a rule, but he was really close to making an exception.

"Fix her and then get out," he snarled.

"Let me get my blood sample or she dies. It makes no difference to me." A smile darted across Claudia's face, certain she'd won. Dean hesitated, and the room was filled with only the sound of Adiana's labored breathing. "Tick tock. Ten minutes is only my best guess, you know."

"Just fix her up, Claudia." Bobby snapped the notebook shut. "Unless you want to lose your favorite new test subject." Claudia glared at him and was on the verge of arguing, but instead she snatched the notebook out of Bobby's hand and stalked out of the room. Once she left, Dean's hardened gaze dropped back down to Adiana and some of his strength seemed to leave him then.

"What happened?" Dean asked as he hovered over her, watching as she clawed at the empty air.

"Claudia said she was using a blood thinner, and I was an idjit and believed her. I warned you two something like this might happen, but I didn't think she'd try anything right under our noses. That right there…" Bobby nodded to the bag still attached to the IV. The liquid was still dripping out the needle and onto the floor. "Halite, rock salt in water. We know demons can't cross it. Guess this is what happens when it gets stuck inside one." Adiana's head gave an extra hard shake and blood vessels burst in one of her eyes. It filled with gleaming black right up to the iris, looking almost like a regular demon's eyes. The other eye followed seconds later, taking over the swirling smoke in a sea of black. "This one's on me, boys. I shouldn'ta let it happen."

"You didn't know, Bobby," said Sam. Bobby sighed and sat down.

"I should've. I told you both that Claudia's been known for doing experiments on her patients, so you'd be on alert, but there's something I didn't tell you two because I didn't want ya worrying more than you already are. Claudia was a doctor at a women's prison, and then one day she quits her job and disappears. She turns up a year later in our area, offering to try to treat creatures medically. Then she gets funding somehow, so she is able to pay hunters for some of these creatures to be brought to her. And well, for some other…equipment, I suppose.

Well, one time this hunter Rex Parry fetches her a ghoul, and she has him bring it down to one of these special rooms she's got set up. While he's waiting for her to come back, he sees this one door at the end of the hall that looks heavier than all the others and he gets curious. So he goes to check it. Inside is this werewolf strapped to a table and hooked up to all these machines and tubes. Parry told me it had this weird look in its eyes, kind of helpless, not like any werewolf he'd ever seen. And he said it looked at him like it wanted him to save it, or maybe even to just kill it to put it out of its misery. It gave him a creepy feeling and he left, and that's when he noticed what was really wrong." Bobby paused and looked at the boys. "There wasn't even a full moon." Bobby wiped his hands on his pants, like he wanted to just forget this had ever happened.

"He was curious now, so he went and did some research and he found out who that werewolf was. It was Claudia's own husband. Last trace of him was around the time she quit her job. Maybe she was just trying to save him at first, but well in my opinion, you can't do that to someone you love. Not…for that long."

"You'll be pleased to know then that my husband is no longer with us," Claudia informed them as she moved into the room. Her face was impassive, and she had a large needle in her hand filled with a yellow solution. Her husband was a thing of the past. She had someone, something new to focus on now. "Please hold down one of her arms. This will dissolve the halite." Dean held one of Adiana's arms, having no choice, but to trust a woman that he no longer had any respect for. She ignored the disgust on his face and squirted some of the liquid out of the needle before pressing it under Adiana's skin. "There." With all the solution gone, she withdrew the needle. "No harm done. The subconjuncitval hemorrhaging isn't painful and will go down within ten to fifteen days. As for any other damage, it will be minor due to the short timeframe. So if you'll excuse me, I have to work with the one blood sample I was granted." With that, Claudia turned on her heel and walked out.

"I'll go talk to her," Bobby offered, getting up because he was fairly certain that having Claudia around was no longer going to be an option. The Winchesters were focused on Adiana, who was slowly breaking out of her seizure, so they just nodded and Bobby left them. Adiana's limbs relaxed and her breathing, while rapid even now, was deeper. Her eyes flickered and became less distant.

"Dean?" she murmured in a soft, rasping voice. She gave him a lost look, her hands curling up protectively in front of her chest. She gave her head a little shake, swallowing hard. Somehow, Dean knew it was her.

"Hey, baby." He forced a smile for her. Adiana flexed her trembling fingers, eyes dashing around the room, taking in the tilted IV stand and Sam sitting on the bed next to her.

"What happened? I just remember everything… hurt, and Leraie was screaming." She shook her head again. "Still screaming. I don't know why-" Her eyes widened suddenly and her breathing, which had been calming, increased. "I don't want to see her again." The Winchesters didn't need to ask to whom she was referring. The seizure might have left Adiana's thoughts muddled, but her intentions were clear enough. "Please, Dean."

"You don't have to see her," Dean promised her, and Adiana relaxed. He was more than happy to throw her right out the door. "Hell, I'll get rid of her right now." He touched Adiana's shoulder lightly to reassure her and she jerked back. She pressed her lips together, opening and closing her mouth a few times before she could speak again.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I just-"

"It's okay." Dean withdrew his hand. Probably wasn't the best idea to do anything that might startle her at this point. He looked to Sam, who still managed to keep a comforting hand on her back. Behind the rage that was roiling in his skull, something else wavered and then was gone. "You're gonna…"

"Yeah," Sam answered. "I'll stay."

Dean nodded and then went to follow Claudia and Bobby down to the study. Although it looked less like a study now and more like a laboratory. Claudia had set up equipment everywhere. Machines and tubes and vials and microscopes and lights, all of them scattered over Bobby's desk and taking up at least half of the floor space. There was a constant buzz of electricity over which Claudia was currently explaining the fluid in a short beaker in her hand.

"It was blood thinner." She thrust the beaker out towards him. "You asked, and I told you. You-"

"Alright, party's over," Dean announced. "Get out." Claudia looked at him and set the beaker on the desk.

"You're upset with me." She tilted her head up in indignation. "But it was just one little experiment that I was perfectly in control of."

"Out."

"You need me. You don't want her to die, do you?"

"Okay, you listen to me, bitch." Dean strode across the room until he was standing right in front of Claudia, staring fiercely down at her. "You're not going to touch Adiana ever again. She's not some kind of monster you can use in your sick experiments. So get the fuck out of this house and don't you ever come near her again." Claudia's mouth twisted into an unpleasant frown, her body trembling as if she was resisting the urge to slap him. But then she dropped her gaze.

"Fine." She wheeled around and began collecting her instruments together. "You don't want my help, then that's just fine." She opened a trunk and stacked plastic containers of samples. "She'll just end up like the others, but you enjoy your last few weeks with her." Bobby furrowed his brow and glanced at Dean, who was looking back at him. Bobby shrugged a shoulder to indicate that he had no idea what she was talking about.

"What others?" he questioned. Claudia was checking tubes with drops of blood and then placing them neatly in a case. She didn't answer. "Claudia, what others?" She pointedly ignored him, snapping the container closed. Bobby rolled his eyes. "C'mon Claudia, we need yer help."

"I've seen two cases like this before. Six-six-six-one and six-six-six-two." Dean crossed his arms with a feeling of incredulity.

"And you didn't think to mention that?" Claudia ignored him, running a cloth over a beaker. Bobby shook his head, knowing that they were going to have to be polite from now on. Which was going to be a problem for Dean.

"What happened to them?" Bobby asked instead.

"They died," she said shortly.

"Because of what happened or because of what you did to them?" Bobby grabbed Dean's arm.

"I need to talk to you." Dean let himself be led into the kitchen where Bobby lowered his voice. "I know yer angry with her Dean, and you have every right to be, but yer gonna need to let that go right now."

"Let that go? You gotta be kidding me, Bobby."

"I ain't kidding with you, boy. Now if she's seen this before, then she might know something that could save Adiana. She'll know a hell of a lot more than we do at any rate. I don't like this any more than you do, but right now Claudia's the only person that can help Adiana."

"No way. Not after what she did. I'm not gonna let the woman treat Adiana like she's some rat in a lab."

"I'm not talking about letting her do more of her experiments. I'm talking about getting all the information from her that we can." Dean was stolidly silent. Bobby threw his hands up in frustration. "Dammit Dean. I'm not going to let you watch Adiana die. I won't do it. Been through that when my wife died, and I don't ever want that fer you. Not ever, you understand me?" Dean was tempted to argue, but Bobby didn't bring up his wife. Ever. It had to hurt him something awful to talk about her, bringing up old memories like that, so Dean didn't push him.

"All right. Just info, then she goes."

"Fine by me." They returned to the study where Claudia was busy twisting an extension cord from one of the lights with her back to them. Bobby took a deep breath. "Claudia, we'd really appreciate it if you told us what you can about what's happening to Adiana." When she didn't answer, Bobby nudged Dean with his elbow. Dean's tongue darted across his bottom lip as he refrained from making a spiteful comment.

"Please?" Dean added from between clenched teeth.

"I want a week more with her and freedom to take whatever blood samples I need," Claudia demanded.

"No."

"Her funeral."

"Five days," Bobby amended. Dean threw him an exasperated look, but kept his mouth shut. For Adiana. He had to keep repeating to himself that this was for her. "And not too much blood." Claudia hung the cord around the top of the light and moved onto the next one.

"You're really not in a position to bargain with me." Dean closed his eyes.

"Fine. But you tell us everything we need to know." Claudia glanced over her shoulder, and Dean opened his eyes to hold her gaze. She thought it over and then nodded.

"It's a deal then. Come here, both of you." Claudia opened the trunk she had packed behind Bobby's desk. She pulled out two microscopes and put them under the still-working lamp. "Whatever happens during a standard possession, I'm still working on because medically there are nearly no signs of it. However, in this new kind of hybrid creature-"

"She's not a creature," Dean hissed. Bobby gave him a warning look. Claudia wasn't pleased, but she continued with the air one used when speaking to a petulant child.

"As I was saying, there are many signs. Most notably in their blood stream. Since you're interested in Subje – Adiana, I'll speak in terms of her specifically. For reasons that elude me, when Adiana was possessed, the matter that makes up the demon fused with the red blood cells giving her blood a dark color. They still absorb oxygen, though at a slightly decreased rate, which keeps her alive, but makes her feel sore and weary. It starts in her brain and once this hits her heart, it spreads out through her bloodstream. Unfortunately, since I came at such a late stage, I don't have enough of her normal blood or I could show you this process. However, I can show you this." Claudia carefully set up two slides for the microscopes. "Look. The one on the left is Adiana's from early this morning, and the one on the right is from the blood I used for her transfusion. If you look at the blood from the transfusion, you'll see plenty of red and white blood cells. In Adiana's, the red blood cells have changed, so the white blood cells don't recognize them anymore and are in fact treating them like a virus."

"So, what's the problem?" Dean asked, looking up from the microscope. He felt like he was back in school, and he never really did well with all this science stuff.

"They're losing." Claudia tapped the microscope with Adiana's blood with one long fingernail. "If you looked more carefully, you'd notice that she doesn't have nearly as many. That's where her constant fever is coming from, among other things. The muscle weakness coupled with a low blood count has made her more susceptible to infection. If she has one now, which I believe is very likely, her body can't fight it off. There are treatments for a low white cell count, but I've tried them on the others. They don't work. And if she doesn't die from that, the black cells take in less and less oxygen, which will eventually force her body to shut down completely."

"Is there anything we can do?" Bobby questioned, though the odds weren't looking too good. Claudia tilted her head down, giving him a disbelieving look over the top of her glasses.

"You, no. But me… I have a theory. I haven't tested it because I wanted to find out as much as possible about this condition, so by the time I might have used it…" She shrugged. The subjects had died, but in her eyes, it was for the good of science. She wasn't too bothered. "Well, it is what it is." Bobby and Dean stared at her, but Claudia wasn't forthcoming with her theory.

"And…" Dean pressured her to continue.

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you," Claudia relented. "It's not like you could do it yourselves. So the demon has been fused into the bloodstream, yes? Then to get rid of the demon, you have to get rid of the blood. I'm sure that sounds simple to you, but complete blood transfusions are exceptionally difficult, in fact nearly impossible in adults. Not only that, but you have to get rid of all of the infected blood or risk unknown side effects. How to do it then? Here's my theory." Claudia took out a beaker. She poured a tube of Adiana's blood into the bottom of the beaker. In another larger beaker, she added a cloudy solution. She held that one up.

"This is what I injected Adiana with. Now if I put it in with her blood..." She poured it into the smaller one. The cloudy solution covered the blood, but it did not mix with it. "It's rather like putting oil in water at first look; only if you compressed the two, the oil would be forced, in small bubbles, into the water. The rock salt, however…" Claudia had to dig into the bottom of the trunk in order to pull out a cylindrical rubber disk that had been fused with a small metal rod. It fit snuggly into the top of the beaker. She pushed it down, and it slid until it was just above the layer of rock salt and water and then she pushed hard. There was a creaking sound and hairline fractures appeared in the bottom of the glass.

"See. It won't mix. The rock salt forces the blood away from itself like two magnets with the same poles." Claudia let go of the beaker, one hand red with the effort. "My potential cure is that you inject the subject with enough rock salt that it forces the blood to collect in certain areas. Then, perform a complete blood transfusion by injecting normal blood while draining the infected blood. Of course that makes it exceedingly difficult for the person to breathe for long periods of time."

Dean's head was swimming. The idea made sense, in a really fucked up way, but Claudia had never actually tried it. And he didn't trust her with so much as a band-aid, forget a few needles that would take all of Adiana's blood out of her system. But it could be her one and only chance. Bobby was thinking along similar lines.

"You really think this could work?"

"Potentially. At least, I know the rock salt works and the theory is sound enough." There was a flicker of uncertainty behind Claudia's eyes though, there for only a second and then gone. But it did not bode well for a woman who had been nothing but confident up until now.

"Then, what's the catch?" Dean voiced. Claudia cleared her throat and looked down at the beaker.

"I said it would be difficult to breathe, and well… a standard complete blood transfusion, it… it takes about ten hours."