Happy Sunday! I've officially completed my first two weeks of college, that's why this chapter is so late, oops, things have been a bit crazy recently, and I'm just now starting to get a handle on things. But seriously, thanks so much for all your patience, it means a lot! I hope you guys like the chapter! And sorry about the never-ending cliffhangers, it's just naturally where my ideas stop.
Special massive thanks to ImpalaLove, ThornsHaveRoses, VegasGranny, TXKimsonFan, mak2018, Guest, and Celtic Knot for their reviews! Each one helps keep this story moving :)
I still don't own Supernatural, but we're about a month away from the season 14 premiere, oh boy. I put up a short little tag to the season 13 finale yesterday, called Deliverance, so if anybody's looking for some Jody and Sam hurt/comfort, head on over ;)
Monica led Cas to another section of the hospital where the ICU was located, and stopped in front of a door that was partially open. "I know, you probably saw this before when he was like this, but remember, it's all just wires and tubing that's helping keep him alive," Monica reminded kindly.
Cas had seen it all before, but that didn't make it any easier the second time around, and being by himself in the room this time wasn't helping anything. Still, just helpful bits of wires and tubing served to put things into a more manageable perspective, and he nodded his thanks before he stepped in.
The room was much like the one in New York, with the same types of equipment if he had to guess as to their function. IV, monitors, electrodes…yes, lots of wires and tubing. Cas didn't take the chair off to the side, and instead stepped closer to the bed, being mindful of all the machinery.
Dean's arms were visibly wrapped lighter than Sam's, but the bandages went up further, since he had decided to take his jacket off back at the graveyard. His head was lightly wrapped as well, in a similar fashion to how it had been before. No matter how he looked, Dean was still breathing, and Cas knew that counted for a lot.
Cas then became mindful of the fact that he was just standing in the room staring at Dean, and not doing anything else. He recalled being told that coma patients could possibly hear, and Sam had been talking to him the month prior when he was in this state. Sam would probably be talking to him now, saying whatever he could to ensure Dean that he wasn't alone and that everything was alright.
"Hello, Dean," he greeted, and was not met by any sort of reply. "Sam is…doing fine, I thought I should tell you. He is receiving care in a separate room, and wanted to come see you but was not allowed, so I am here instead. He will make a full recovery." Dean would of course be asking about Sam and his little brother's state, so Cas made sure to get it out of the way as soon as possible. It was much like the conversation he had shared with Sam, assuring one brother, even while unconscious, that the other was safe was the best way Cas knew to currently help the situation.
"There were no casualties at the police station, we were successful," he also mentioned, though the feeling of victory was definitely squashed. "We are all just…waiting, watching, hoping you return again. The doctors say your scans are looking more worrisome, but I believe that you are still fighting. Something along the lines of…as you would say, 'it takes more than two comatose states in a month to kill a Winchester'. Would I be correct in your argument?"
Again, there was nothing. Cas let out a sigh, unsure of what to say next, and after a moment he reached up his fingers and gently pressed them to the other man's forehead. There were no outlying injuries that he needed to heal that wouldn't be able to heal by themselves, and he couldn't sense anything else amiss. It was a bit strange, but not worrisome, and so he chalked it up to his powers not being able to heal something as complex as the trillions of neural pathways that made up the human brain.
A few minutes passed while he was waiting for some sort of a sign from Dean before he remembered that the hunter needed to be taken for a scan and he should be getting back to Sam. "I'll be sitting with Sam, someone will notify me when you wake up, I'm sure, I just hope for all of our sakes that is it soon." He knew the probability of patients surviving with all their mental faculties intact drastically decreased as the days went on, he had read all the reports last time. If there was any light of hope during the second time, it was the fact that Dean had gotten through it once before.
He cast the older Winchester one more glance before he stepped back outside the room. Monica was in the hallway, talking in quiet tones to another woman, the paramedic Cas has met a few days ago, Masie. They spotted him coming out of the room, halted their conversation, and greeted him with similar smiles.
"Cas, this is Masie, my sister, I'm pretty sure you guys met, she helped bring the brothers in," Monica re-introduced more formally.
"Of course. It is good to see you again, Masie," Cas replied genuinely, to which she nodded.
"Likewise. Monica was just catching me up on how they were doing, it's not every day you get two mysterious brothers out of a fire, after all."
Cas, of course, understood the implications. "And you two are sisters, both in the same field in the same hospital?" he clarified, to which Masie nodded and nudged Monica a little with her elbow.
"In all fairness I was here first, she was just following in her big sister's footsteps-"
"Technically we have different jobs…"
"Same field, same hospital, you heard the man," Masie retorted jokingly and it had both women smiling. "What can I say, it's the family business, no matter how cheesy that sounds, you know?"
Cas nodded. He knew, probably better than most, what the 'family business' could entail, though his experience with it had been more dangerous, but probably just about as bloody in a different sense as the sister's. He vaguely wondered if to some degree, Masie had a similar connection to Monica as did the brothers. It would certainly justify her worry over the situation, and heighten her ability to empathize.
"I do know, yes," he answered, and after a few seconds, figured he could elaborate ever so slightly to maybe dispel some of the 'mystery' for the women that had done so much to help. "Sam and Dean followed in their father's footsteps, continuing their own family business, picking up odd jobs, it made them very close. They're good men, they've helped many people."
More than you'll ever be able to comprehend, he thought but didn't say out loud.
"Sam saved Sheriff Matthews, that definitely counts for something," Masie nodded to herself.
"These jobs…if you don't mind me asking, they're not all that safe?" Monica asked slowly, as if she already knew the answer. Cas inclined his head for her to continue. "The scars on both of them, I mean. Sam's are barely healed, Dean's got his fair share too. They can't all be from these 'odd jobs', right?"
Cas sighed. "They are, and as you said, they aren't safe. But they help people that need helping, and fix things that need fixing, and some people unfortunately find problems with that," he figured was a good way to leave it. At least most of the injuries had been patched up so they hadn't left scars, or angelic healing or rebuilding over the years had washed a few of the older ones away. Still, he was glad the injuries hadn't raised more questions than those posed by a nurse that obviously cared for their well-beings.
"Dean's definitely the older brother," Masie mentioned, almost to herself, and then it was Monica's turn to look her way for answers, since Dean had yet to regain consciousness and act as a normal older brother would. "The way he was covering Sam when the team found them, it was obvious, super protective. You don't just happen to fall like that over someone else when a building is coming down."
"They are very close," Cas nodded in affirmation. "Dean is often the 'mother hen', as Sam says," he said with a slight smile, after adding air quotes to the phrase.
"What would you do if a building collapsed on me?" Monica asked, but there wasn't much seriousness in her tone. It was more jokingly probing, Cas had heard the brothers use such a tone on many occasions.
"Depends on what you did to get into said collapsing building and if you dragged me in with you or followed Mark in or something," Masie answered and shrugged.
Monica looked offended, though Cas soon realized it was just facial expressions she was using to continue the banter. "I wouldn't follow Mark into a collapsing building-"
"You would, trying to pull his sorry ass out of the fire while he went in with the camera trying to interview the walls."
Monica was silent for another moment before she laughed and shook her head. "Fine, fine, whatever."
"Should the situation ever arise with a collapsing building, we'll find out," Masie amended, and Monica seemed to approve.
The slight banter was so reminiscent of the Winchester brothers, the Nixon sisters had to be close in their own rights as well. Cas watched them fondly, wondering how their relationship had developed, since he knew not all siblings got along quite so well later in life, let alone following in adjacent professions.
Monica looked down at her watch and excused herself to take Dean down for his scan, and Masie led Cas away from the room, offering to walk him back to Sam's.
"You two are also very close," he observed when they had turned down another hallway.
Masie was still smiling a little as she nodded. "Small town, not many other kids to play with and all that, we're lucky to have each other. Don't get me wrong, she can be a pain, and I'm probably one to her," she jerked her head over her shoulder a little in the direction they had just come from, "but I don't want to share this job, this hospital, with anyone else. I'm happy she joined me here."
It was clear just by her tone that she was genuinely pleased with how things has turned out.
"I'm glad things worked out this way for the two of you," he offered with a slight smile of his own, and they stopped a few doors down from Sam's room.
"It'll work out for them, too, somehow, it'll just take time," Masie assured, even though she had no real way of knowing, and Cas appreciated the reassurance.
"I hope so," Cas sighed.
Masie smiled back, and then went to go 'prep some things'. Cas took a moment in the hallway and then walked into Sam's room. The younger Winchester was asleep against the pillows, apparently having lost his fight against the medication and his remaining injuries. Cas was glad Sam had done so, he needed his rest, especially if they were to try and deal with whatever was coming up ahead.
Cas reinstated his vigil by the Winchester's bedside, ready to fill him in on Dean and the Nixon sisters when he woke up, and hoping that they would be met with some good news in the coming hours.
"Is there something you can do?"
Billie sure took her time in answering, and it was starting to get on Dean's nerves. Apparently she needed him alive, but not bad enough to avoid toying with him ever so slightly. Every second he wasted stuck in his own head was a second his body was deteriorating and Cas and Sam's worry was growing. She must have already had some sort of plan in mind, or there would have been more urgency to the situation.
"It seems like today's your lucky day, Winchester, someone's pulling you out of the fire, just so happens I'm slated to do it here."
Dean was ready to go, immediately. He was ready to get out of the house that had been in the back of his mind for the past month, he was ready to get back to normal. But she didn't seem to be in any sort of immediate rush, which somewhat contradicted her reasoning for the whole thing. "Well, let's get to it then. Fix me up, I'll be out of here and kicking werewolves back where they belong in no time." He would've clapped his hands, but it seemed like just a bit too much emphasis.
"It won't be an immediate process, Dean," was all the said, and damnit, that took some of the excitement out of the situation.
"What do you mean? Reapers are some sort of degree of angel, right? Can't you just fix whatever's wrong up here," he pointed to his head, "and I can get a move on? Or hell, just give me my memories back?"
Billie let out a breathy chuckle. "You expected it to be that simple? I'd just snap my fingers and you'd be back?" She crossed her arms in front of her and looked at him in mock amusement.
Dean shrugged ever so slightly. "Something like that," he admitted, and his shoulders fell when she shook her head.
"Reapers don't heal, Dean, not really, and we certainly don't deal directly in memories. We take life or we resurrect it. Today, you fall into the latter category." When she saw that he still wasn't completely following, (he hadn't dealt with many reapers in what he remembered, alright? let alone this one who seemed to have some sort of personal annoyance with him) she tried to elaborate.
"Instead of a magic, instantaneous action, think of what we do as a way of giving and taking life by fixing a problem or allowing one to complete its course. In this sense I'm fixing a problem."
"Fixing a problem…but the problem doesn't go away the second your mojo does its thing?" Dean raised an eyebrow.
"In a sense, yes," she nodded. "What I do will fix some of the damage, which should prompt your neurons to begin firing in the areas they haven't been, which should gradually give you back your memories."
Dean didn't like all the 'should's' in that sentence, not one bit. It still sounded like there was a lot of space where something could go wrong.
"What I'm giving you is a way to get back to your normal life, no matter how many memories return with it. You need to continue on the path you and your family were set on, Dean, no matter how this ends."
"You don't know how well this will work," Dean surmised. He was liking this less and less, but he didn't exactly have much of a choice in the matter. It was either this or…what? Sit around in an empty house he had almost called a home and wait for something else to do him in?
"This isn't exactly a common occurrence, Dean, in the majority of cases people are left to their own devices, whatever that may be. You just happen to have the privilege of being needed by the better part of the universe."
Dean scoffed at that. Yeah, like the universe had done much for him in return.
"So you 'fix' the damage, my brain rebuilds itself, I may or may not remember everything, and then it's back to me and Sam and Cas on the road jamming out to Seger?"
"In simple terms, yes," Billie nodded, and her arms uncrossed from in front of her. She took a few steps closer, not making any sound on the floor underneath her, and came to a stop right in front of Dean.
Dean would've taken a minute to think it over, but again, there wasn't much of a choice here. "Let's do it," he eventually said, and stood up straighter. His eyes went from Billie's face to the cork board on the kitchen wall behind her, where the altered photographs were.
"In order for this to work, for everyone's sake, you need to let them go, all of them," she reminded. He couldn't detect any annoyance in her tone, which was definitely a shift. Maybe, in some strange way, she felt for him? No, that couldn't be it. Him hanging onto this was getting in the way of hers and the universe's plan, that was it, it was just another hurdle he had to cross to get back on track.
It was the way she said 'all of them' that got him though. It wasn't just Lisa and Ben then, it was Bobby and Charlie and everyone else they had lost that he couldn't even remember yet. In order to keep moving, he had to get back to normal, which meant dealing with what had happened, and accepting it. He had been functioning with the memories, which meant he'd be fine once he got them back. Yeah, Dean Winchester was a pro at accepting things, he figured whatever he remembered, it would be dealt with without a hitch. Yeah, right.
"They're alive, right? Lisa and Ben?" he had to check, even though Sam had told him as much, and there was no being better to ask than a reaper.
"They are," Billie said simply, and Dean let out a breath, if he was even breathing while stuck inside his own head. He nodded slightly, looking back to her before he closed his eyes.
He didn't ask if it would hurt, he had imagined it would probably feel unpleasant, not like when Cas had healed him in the past, but probably not much worse. He was wrong, very, very wrong.
Her fingers were light as they touched to his forehead, and under their slight pressure, he was pretty sure his head began to crack open. He didn't know what was happening to his outside, physical body, but trapped inside his own exploding head, he was screaming.