A/N: Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing. We're getting close now! Thanks to TraSan.
Edge
Chapter Thirty-Eight
You Have To Stop Her!
The emergency room was full of movement. Sam watched the nurses bustle back and forth, the bulk of their energy seemed to be focused on Dean. The doctor was worried about his brother, Sam could tell from the man's smiling calm. The more they smiled, the more Sam panicked. The doctor had said they were having a surgeon flown in, which ramped up his panic even further. Sam tried to get out of bed and check on Dean, but each time a nurse would push him down with a stern order to relax. He couldn't relax—not until he could see Dean, so he was biding his time. He smiled at the nurse as she left, then slid out of bed, steadying himself with a hand on the wall as dizziness washed over him.
Sam walked to the other bed, dragging his IV with him. "Dean?" he asked, putting his hand down on his brother's arm. Oh god. It was the worst Dean had ever looked. Pain marred his face, he was sheet-white. There was an IV bag full of blood, and another full of something else.
"Sam?" Dean said, his voice muffled by the oxygen mask. "You okay?"
"You asked that," Sam huffed. "Three times, the answer is still the same. I'm okay."
"Oh." Dean's eyes fluttered open. They were glazed with pain and hazy from the medication he was getting. "You sure you're okay?"
"What? Yes!"
"No, that's a bad idea," Dean said, turning towards the door.
"Dean?" Sam gave his arm a squeeze. "Hey!" His brother ignored him. What's going on?
"No nurses."
"They just left, they'll be back."
"NO!" Dean shouted, trying to force himself up. Sam held him down. "No, you can't!"
"Dean! Calm down!" Sam said, trying to keep his brother from hurting himself. He managed to hit the call button. "Dean!"
"I told you no!" Dean said to the open doorway. "Sam, you have to stop her. You have to!" Dean finally focused on Sam.
"What are you talking about?"
"What's going on?" a woman in scrubs said as she ran into the room.
"I don't know," Sam said.
"You have to stop her, Sammy!"
"You have to calm down," the nurse said firmly.
"No shit," Sam muttered, surprising himself. Sometimes he sounded a lot like his brother.
"I'll be right back," she said.
"Stop her!" Dean shouted.
The nurse bustled out, and was back a few moments later. She screwed a syringe into one of the ports on the IV and within seconds Dean started to relax, the fight dropping slowly away. "He needs to stay calm. And you need to be in bed." She pointed at the other bed.
"No, Sammy..."
"Let me stay here. He'll stay calm." Sam turned the full puppy-dog eyes on her. Please?
"I'm not..." she began, then blushed. Dean looked from the nurse to Sam and back, blinking hazy eyes. "I guess it's okay, but not for long," she said with a smile.
"Thank you," Sam said, smiling back.
"That's not fair, doing that to her," Dean mumbled. "Have to stop her."
"What?" Sam asked, putting enough pressure on the hand on Dean's shoulder to keep him still.
"Stop her." Dean looked desperate, the drug was working through his system and even his feeble efforts to move were dissipating.
"The nurse won't be gone long, Dean."
"No, Sammy. Arf, you have to stop her."
"Arf?" It took Sam a moment to realize what his brother was talking about. "We're in a hospital, Dean, not the cave. The wolverine isn't here."
"Heard her."
"We're in a hospital," Sam said patiently.
"She was at the door, you have to stop her. I heard her." Dean looked so upset, Sam stood and walked to the door. He glanced out, there was a nurses' station in the center of the ER, some of the rooms had doors and others had curtains. Most of the doors were open. There was a set of double doors on the wall across from him.
"There's nothing out there," Sam said, dropping back into the chair by the bed.
"She's here, I heard her at the door."
"Dean..."
"If you say we're in the hospital again," Dean trailed off. He turned towards the door again.
"But we are, and you'd think they'd notice a wolverine." The panic that had been pulsing through his chest had increased until it was screaming though his head. Sam shifted his hand to feel his brother's forehead. He's burning up. He always get this way with a fever. He wasn't sure he should be glad of that or not, at least it explained the delusions.
"She's here, Sammy," Dean said desperately. "You have to stop her."
"It's okay, Dean, they are going to take care of you, you'll be fine," Sam said soothingly. Please let him be okay. His brother was fading. "We're safe."
"We are, for right now, but she told me she..."
Dean stopped when a shout of "Is that a dog?" came from outside the room. "Get it out of here!"
Sam got up again and walked to the door, he thought he saw the back end of a dog disappear through the double doors. It must be a service dog, and a big one. Maybe a shepherd mix of some kind. He watched as the security guard ran through the doors in pursuit of the animal. As he stood there, dizziness washed over him. He held onto the door frame until it passed, then headed back to Dean's bed.
"Told you," Dean said with a smirk.
"Told me what?"
"Arf's here."
"It's someone's dog," Sam said wearily.
"It's Arf, Sam, you have to stop her." Dean tried to reach for his hand. Sam grabbed it in his own and gave it a squeeze. "Please."
"Okay, Dean, I'll check it out, as soon as they take you to surgery."
"Promise?"
"Yeah." Sam swallowed. What he really wanted to do was close his eyes and let everything fade away for a few hours.
"Sammy, how bad are you?" Dean asked, his concern suddenly focused completely on Sam.
"I'm okay." Sam smiled. He looked up when Dr. Ford came through the door. "Doc?"
"The surgeon is on his way," he said. "It won't be too long now. You need to be in bed."
"I want to sit with him," Sam said. "Doc, I..."
"I understand, but we need to take care of you too. Just rest for a minute or two."
"But..."
"Sammy?" Dean said softly.
"What is it, Dean?"
"Go to bed."
"Dean..."
"Sammy..." He tightened his grip on Sam's hand.
"I'll be right here, Dean."
"I know. Sam..."
"Yeah, Dean, I know."
The doctor pulled Sam gently to his feet and guided him back to the bed. "If you don't stay put, I'll make sure you do."
"How's my brother?" Sam asked quietly.
"He's..."
"Don't lie to me, please."
The doctor frowned. "Okay. It's not good, son. The longer we have to wait, the worse his chances get." He patted Sam's arm. "We're going to do our best for him—and you too, but you have to stay put."
"Okay," Sam said, closing his eyes. I'll just close them until he leaves, then go back to Dean. The movement of the bed caused him to open his eyes. He looked up at the ceiling tiles, they were moving. "What's going on?"
"We're taking you to your room."
"Dean?" Sam tried to sit up.
"Don't worry, we're taking good care of him," the guy pushing the bed said with a saccharin smile.
"Where is he?"
"We have a few tests to run, then the surgeon should be here."
Sam leaned back in the bed, trying to stay calm. As they went through the double doors he noticed activity down the other branch of the hallway. He pushed himself up on his elbow to get a better look. The security guard and a police officer were standing by what looked like a closet door. One of the ER nurses was talking to them, tears on her face. Shifting a little, he noticed a dark stain coming out from under the door.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"Uh, nothing," the man said, glancing down the hallway.
A sudden sense of foreboding gripped Sam. "What happened?" he asked again. Oh god, what if Dean wasn't delusional?
"Nothing."
"Yeah." Sam watched what was going on as long as he could, then leaned back, watching the ceiling go by. They pushed him into a room a few minutes later. He glanced around, it was a double but he was the only one there. A nurse came in and checked his vitals, adjusted the IV and left. He waited for her to leave, then picked up the phone.
"What?" Bobby answered on the second ring.
"Hey, Bobby."
"How bad is it?"
"What?" Sam asked, feeling slow.
"Caller ID says this is a hospital number. What happened?"
"Long story." Sam sighed. "Look, I need to know..." God, how to explain it?
"Sam?"
"We ran into a wolverine in the woods."
"There aren't any out there."
"Yeah, well there was. I'm pretty sure it was supernatural, and there is a chance it's here."
"Here? Where?" Bobby paused. "In the hospital?"
"Yeah, Dean said he saw it."
"Okay. Where's Dean?" Bobby said. In the background Sam could hear the sound of pages turning.
"He, they're..."
"That bad?"
"Yeah," Sam said, grateful Bobby understood.
"I need to make a call, where can I reach you?" Bobby's voice was gruff, demanding, Sam knew it was covering concern. He read the number of the room's phone. "Okay, give me five." Bobby broke the connection.
Sam hung up the receiver and stared at the phone. The pain medication they were giving him was making him groggy. He closed his eyes, waiting for the phone to ring, listening to the sounds of the ward. There was a TV on in one of the rooms, he could hear Judge Judy berating someone.
"They found Mort," a female voice said. Sam concentrated on the voice, trying to shut out all the other noises. Something about the way she said it, he knew Mort was dead.
"Where?" another voice asked.
"In a storage room outside of X-ray. He'd gone on break after his last patient, and when he didn't come back Regina went to see where he was so she could take her break. She saw the blood..."
"Like Mary?"
"Yeah, torn to bits, according to Kevin from security."
"What do they think..."
The phone rang, startling Sam, he knocked the receiver off the cradle, then dragged the earpiece up by the cord. "Hello?"
"You said it was a wolverine?" Bobby asked without preamble.
"Yeah."
"Was there a fire?"
"Our truck exploded," Sam said, wondering what that had to do with anything. Dean? Be okay.
"Your truck WHAT?" Bobby shouted. Sam heard the older hunter draw a breath and let it out slowly. "Okay. Did the creature appear before or after the fire?"
"After."
"Was there a stream or river there?"
"Not when we got there."
"What does that mean?"
"There wasn't one, but then..."
"One appeared? Out of nowhere?"
"Sort of, the hillside blasted out."
"The hillside..." Another slow breath on Bobby's end of the phone. "Did the creature attack you?"
"Yeah, it seemed to be more focused on Dean, though," Sam said, running over the events in his head.
"Okay, I think I know what we're dealing with."
"Bobby?"
"It's a spirit animal, like a guardian, summoned by magic. There was a time when the summoning was mutual. The creature and a human would—I guess mate is the word. The human having an almost were-existence, sharing his life with the animal, then after death he joins the creature and they roam together. Problem is it requires big mojo to do, blood sacrifices and things like that. But it should be fine."
"Fine?" Sam choked out.
"Yeah. We can stop it."
"I think it's killing people here, Bobby."
"Who?"
"A nurse and an X-ray tech."
"Were they with Dean?" Bobby asked.
"Maybe, I'm not sure."
"Huh. Well, I still think it will be okay, Sam."
"How?" How can this possibly be okay?
"The magic needs to be completed, Sam."
"How do you know it wasn't?"
"I know Dean wouldn't go and bite a wolverine." Bobby chuckled. Sam was silent. "Sam?"
"Uh..."
"He bit it?!? Tell me he didn't bite it!"
"Right in the ass," Sam said, repeating Dean's words. Bobby was silent. "Bobby?"
"We got a problem."
"That bad?" Sam asked.
"Worse."
To Be Continued