A/n. I know right? That took forever, and I am so sorry. It's a little short, but today I made time to get it finished, even put it on a to do list and everything!

thanks for your patience you guys. I promise, I will try and do better this week!

Chapter Twenty-two

"They're not going to let me in." Alice whispered to the Doctor, as they stood in line at the visitors desk in the hospital.

"Well not with that attitude." He replied, smiling as they reached the desk, and the frowning woman in front of them.

"Hello!" He said loudly. Alice winced, he was overdoing it. "We are here, my good madam, to visit a family member."

"Name?" The woman responded, the annoyance in her voice, only overdone by her expression.

"Smith." Alice replied, turning the woman's attention to her instead. "Sam Smith."

The nurse clicked a few keys on her keyboard, and then looked up at Alice with a furrowed brow. "Says here his only family is a brother, and he just left."

"Yes, well, technically that's true." Alice stammered. The woman was downright scary.

"Alice is Sam's sister in law." The Doctor jumped in again. "She is married to Sam's brother. So that makes them family, yes?"

"No." The nurse snapped back at him. "Actually, it doesn't. Immediate family only, it's right here on his chart."

"Please." Alice said, in her most pleasant tone. "My husband had to run an errand, and it's important to him that his brother not be left alone for too long."

"Guess he should have sent you on the errand instead then. No one but immediate family gets in."

Alice's anger ignited, "listen lady," she reached across the desk.

"Whoa there!" The Doctor grabbed Alice by the elbow, "sorry, we'll just be on our way." He shouted over his shoulder as he pulled her back out of the line.

"Hey! I had something else to say." Alice yelled at him, as he dragged her back out the main entrance.

"Yes, I heard that. And I had the idea for us not to get arrested. There are other ways in, Alice."

Alice nodded, of course he was right. He usually was, it was one of the most annoying things about him.

They ran back to the Tardis, and the Doctor maneuvered them quickly. When he opened the door, Alice was looking at a shelf full of cleaning supplies, that was two inches from her face.

"Oops." He turned around and went back to the console, muttering. "If I had a dollar..."

He ran back down, and this time when he opened the door, Alice was looking at the back of another door.

"Broom closet. Somewhere in the basement, if my calculations are correct." He stated, as they walked out into the small space.

He carefully opened the closet door, and peeked outside. "It's clear." They crept out of the room, into a darkened hallway.

"Well this isn't ominous at all." Alice whispered loudly.

"It's a bit dark, yes."

They made their way to a stairway, and as they climbed, it wasn't getting any brighter. "Wait, what time is it?" Alice asked, when they got to the top of the stairs, and the window above them was dark.

"I moved us forward a few hours, figured there might be less people around." The Doctor replied as he ran up the next set of stairs. "Besides, it's not like he's going to be sleeping."

"I guess that's probably true," Alice said, as she ran to keep up with his long legs.

"Psych ward is on the third floor," the Doctor said as he ran up yet another set of stairs. "If I'm correct, which I usually am." He added, an Alice couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was frighteningly like he could read her mind sometimes. And his face may have changed, but his self confidence, did not.

They got to the door, but when he tried to open it, it didn't budge. "Locked." He muttered, "like THAT'S what's going to keep me out." He took out his screwdriver, and quietly opened the door.

The hallway was empty, and as Alice looked to her left, she saw what she was guessing to be the security guard, totally asleep at his desk.

"What about the nurses, or doctors?" She whispered behind him, as they crept forward.

"No idea." He shrugged, "we'll just have to be careful, I suppose."

He looked in windows of the rooms on one side, as they walked, and Alice checked the other side.

She nearly cried out in relief, when she saw him sitting on the edge of a bed, his head in his hands.

She quietly opened the door, and he lifted his head to see who entered. His eyes were dark and sunken, and he was shaking. "Alice?" He said in confusion.

She rushed over, and knelt down in front of him, and took his face in her hands. "Oh Sam, are you okay? Oh geez I'm sorry, that was a stupid question, I can see you're not okay."

He gave her a sad smile. "I have had better days. Um, what are you doing here?" He looked over her shoulder at the Doctor.

"Dean may have found someone who can help. He'll be gone for probably another day, and he didn't want you to be here alone."

"And who's your friend?" Sam asked, looking back at the Doctor. "Or am I seeing two people who aren't really here now?"

Alice got to her feet, and pulled the Doctor closer. "My name is the Doctor, Sam, and I wish there was something I could do to help you."

"Yeah, well, the doctors here haven't really had any luck yet. Maybe an alien doctor is just what I need."

Alice, smiled but jumped as Sam winced, and rocked forward quickly, his head back in his hands.

"Sam?" Alice rushed to his side, kneeling next to him on the bed, and pulling him into her arms. She rested her head on his shoulder. "Don't listen to him Sam. Whatever he's saying, it's not real."

Sam wished he could believe her. But Lucifer had been having a hay day ever since she walked into the room.


"So... This is her then." He said sitting on the table in Sam's room, his legs crossed in front of him.

"The new 'girlfriend'." He used air quotes as he said it. "You know, I didn't really get a good look at her last time, but she is quite a cute little thing isn't she?"

Sam did his best to just tune him out, to pay attention to Alice, and what she was saying. But it was getting more and more difficult as he got louder.

"SAM?" He screamed in Sam's face, and he winced and startled Alice. She sat next to him, trying to comfort him, but it wasn't working, it was just giving his hallucination more ammo.

"I think she likes you Sammy. Does she know that you really do remember trying to pick her up that night, so long ago? That you had every intention of taking her back to your shabby hotel and doing all sorts of inappropriate things to her? I wonder what Dean would say if he knew. What do you think he might say Sam?"

"Shut up!" Sam shouted and jumped to his feet.

Alice fell over backwards, trying to get away from him.

"I'm sorry Alice. Not you, it's just..." He didn't finish, he didn't know what to say.

"It's okay Sam, I understand." She said, and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well, I'm trying to, anyway." She smiled at him again.

Sam looked over Alice's shoulder to see Marin hovering in the doorway. "Marin." He said out loud, recognizing her presence.

"Sorry Sam..." She stuttered. "I was just bringing you another candy bar. I'm guessing you haven't eaten since the last one." She crept into the room slowly, like she was even more afraid than usual.

Suddenly Sam had the fear that maybe Alice and the Doctor really weren't here, and he was even crazier than he thought. But she glanced at them, "who are your friends?"

Sam breathed a sigh of relief, "this is Alice, and her friend the Doctor."

Marin nodded at them, "Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor, that's all." He responded reaching a hand out, to shake her hand.

"So should I ask what your weirdly named friends are doing here in the middle of the night?" She glanced at Sam.

"Just came to check on Sam, make sure he was safe and okay." Alice responded, smiling at Marin, trying to put her at ease. Sam could see it wasn't working.

"And how did you get in here?" She folded her arms across her chest, her voice thick with suspicion.

"Would you believe, magic?" The Doctor asked, and Marin shook her head.

"Whatever." She responded, raising her hands in the air, and using the tone most people use when you say words like that. "See you tomorrow Sam."

Sam nodded at her, "thanks for the food Marin."

"No problem." She said, and left quickly.

"Well she was nice." The Doctor said, Alice rolled her eyes, and Sam couldn't help but smile.

"I think she wants to talk about why she's here, but I can't quite get it out of her yet." Sam said, opening the candy bar and taking a bite.

"Like she's going to tell you." Lucifer chimed in, "you're crazier than she is."

Sam closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the look on Alice's face frustrated him. He was so tired of people feeling sorry for him.

"So do you have anything to pass the time? I'm assuming you're not going to be sleeping." She smiled at him, and he appreciated that she didn't express her pity for him out loud.

"Not anytime soon, it seems." He responded simply, as Lucifer began whistling the Mexican hat dance, as loudly as he could.


Alice was exhausted, but she fought it, she didn't want Sam to be alone. The sun started peeking through the windows as they played yet another hand of cards. She could have won the game three rounds ago, but neither of them cared, so she didn't. She looked jealously at the snoring Doctor, one of his long legs thrown over the arm of the chair in the corner, his head lolled back.

"What time will they come and check on you?" She asked, standing to look through the window in his door.

He shrugged, "no idea actually. You should probably go."

She looked back at him, she hated leaving, but she knew she couldn't realistically hide from hospital employees all day long.

She walked over and nudged the Doctor's foot.

"Hm? What?" He sat up suddenly, as if he had been awake the whole time.

"The sun is up, we need to get out of here." She whispered.

"Yes, right." He jumped to his feet, and pulled on his coat.

"I'll be back as soon as the sun sets." She promised.

Sam nodded at her. She quietly opened the door, letting the Doctor exit in front of her.

"Hey, Alice?" Sam said quietly.

She looked back at him.

"Thanks."

She gave him an encouraging smile. "It's all going to be okay Sam. I promise."

She left quickly, hoping she hadn't just lied through her teeth.