Chapter 21

Proud Mary

"I tried to follow her into the room, I was a few paces behind when the door slammed in my face."

"Breaking your nose and knocking you to the floor." Dean sighed.

"Yeah," The witch touched her face tenderly, "Then my sight went out."

"I didn't know it'd be so literal." The older brother felt a little bad for giving such an order. He didn't think it would snatch her eyesight.

She laid back on the motel room bed as she said, "Always is."

Sam frowned deeply before looking to his mother, "How's your arm, mom?"

"It's fine." She finished wrapping the bandage before crossing to the witch with an ice-pack.

Chelsea took the pack and whined to herself as she pressed it to her nose gently. "Somebody just shoot me."

Dean cocked his pistol.

"Dean!" Sam and Mary shouted together.

He shrugged, "She asked!"

The witch more or less hit the hunter a pillow, "Not the face, it hurts enough as it is."

The muffled shot knocked her back into the bed, a small hole in her chest. Sam shook his head while Mary just stared at her body. Dean moved back to his computer.

"That's it?" Mary asked, obviously worried.

Sam looked up at her, sighing, "She'll be OK, mom. Really."

She'd been told the witch couldn't die but watching her be shot and by her son no less, it was a little jarring. She pushed forward anyway, "We should look for some information on the house."

"Already on it."

"Oh."

The brothers looked at each other then to their mom, "The internet really makes hunting easier. We'll show you how to do this stuff, don't worry."

She felt totally out of touch and a little useless, but Mary offered her boys a smile still, "Ok. Sounds good. What did you find?"

"Mylings."

"My-whats?"

"They're the spirits of dead children who use cries for help to lure victims and kill them."

"Anything about frozen hearts?"

"Nope."

Mary found that odd, "Maybe we should keep looking."

"Mom," Dean started, "All the evidence is there. The crying, the mark and the kid ghost. If we'd been a moment later..." he shook off his despair and stood, "We have the names of the children, I say we burn some bones."

"Something just isn't right. That boy was scared, I don't think he wanted to hurt me." She turned to pace a bit but the room started to spin. Flashes of the earlier attack as well as her last moments alive were blurring together, snatching her breath. She landed on the bed next to the unconscious witch who sat straight up.

"Mom!"

The brothers rushed over. But she put her hands up, "I'm fine."

"You should stay behind."

"What's going on?" Chelsea climbed off the bed.

"I'm fine. Really."

"Are you sure?" Sam pushed.

"Yes. Let's go." she stood.

"You should stay here. Chelsea will stay with you."

"Dean, I'm fine."

"Please mom." He almost begged.

She sighed and sat back down, "Fine. But I don't need a babysitter and you two might need her help."

The older brother decided not to push it. "OK, c'mon Chels."

The witch glanced sadly at Mary as she passed, taking her leather coat as it was offered, "What did I miss?"

"Just c'mon."

"Hey."

"What?"

"You're awfully quiet over there."

"Uh huh."

The brothers looked at each other. Sam cleared his throat before asking, "What's on your mind?"

Chelsea idly tapped her leg with the flashlight in her right hand, "I'm not comfortable with this."

They knew what she meant, "It's grim work." Dean agreed.

"It's wrong. I think we should have looked more into it." she looked down into the hole at the small, charred coffin as the boys prepared to burn the last one. The young boy who grabbed Mary.

"You sound like mom."

"You mean like a woman? I may not have ever been a mother, but I know fear in a child's expression."

"Chelsea..."

She shrugged, "Too late now."

"That's not all that's bothering you."

Sam looked between the two. Dean had sounded so sure of that and the witch didn't argue, "Your mother did this longer than either of you have. New technologies or no she knows what she's doing. You're treating her like a baby."

"We don't want to lose her again." the younger said.

"People die. Shit happens, life happens." she shook her head, "You're going to push her away. Here she has a second chance at life but can't get a grasp on it without her grown sons treating her like glass."

"Look. Think what you want. This will work and Mom's not going anywhere." with that Dean tossed a match into the hole.

Chelsea crossed her arms, "Whatever you say."

"Good. Sam, call mom."

He sort of shrugged at the witch before dialing his brother's cell phone. The one he'd left with the woman so they could reach her. He agreed with Dean, this case was as good as solved and they could call it and go home; have a nice family dinner.

"Mom?"

"Hey Sam."

"We're all done here, headed back."

"It didn't work."

He looked up at his brother in a slight panic, "What do you mean? Where are you?"

"At the Jefferson house. I-"

"Mom? Mom!"

"She in trouble?"

"I think so."

Dean didn't even have to say anything and Chelsea was gone. Sam halted for just a moment, "Did you..?"

His brother shook his head, "Not out loud."

"Mary!" Chelsea called out into the house as she stood. Her landing hadn't been graceful at all. Having only been in this house once before meant she didn't have a clear picture of it really. She landed a little close to the wall in the narrow hallway. Luckily not appearing as part of the wall.

She'd have to talk to Dean about his internal impulses. They weren't quite where she was with Aaron. He was going to just get her killed, not that it was too much of a big deal...

"Mary!"

"Downstairs!" came an answer.

"It didn't work." Chelsea said as she stopped on the stairs, noticing the child's spirit. He looked as sad and scared as before.

Mary didn't turn to her but agreed, "No, it didn't. Didn't think it would."

"Me either if it makes you feel better."

She smiled a touch over her shoulder, "It does. Where are the boys?"

"Behind me, more or less. What's going on?"

Chelsea got a piece of her answer when the whole house shook. She'd spotted the gear bag in the hall when she came in and both women sprinted for it.

"He killed all the children! Trapped them here!" Mary shouted behind her.

"He who?"

When the witch got thrown into the wall, opposite the room from before, Mary didn't hesitate in her stride. She dropped at the bag and pulled out the salt gun, "Him."

It was the mother's turn to get tossed, into the room this time and the door shuttered a touch before it tried to slam shut.

Chelsea threw her hand up in time, swinging the door back into the room and slamming it into the wall, breaking it off the hinges. The salt gun had skid across the floor when Mary landed and she stood to go after it.

The witch was currently more of a threat so the ghost changed his approach. It was the father of the first child, a little girl who's death was an accident. He looked hallow and angry; he'd clearly never moved past that stage after his daughter's death. His ghostly hand was stopped at Chelsea's chest when she said, low, "Praesidio."*

He snarled at her and continued trying to reach into her chest, bashing his hand into something he couldn't see. "You have to let these children go." She tried.

"They're mine! Forever!"

"Mom! Chelsea!"

"Down here!"

Mary's shout pulled his attention but with the gun back in her hand he was gone with a blast of salt.

"What happened?"

"It's the father of the first kid." Chelsea answered Sam's question.

"Him?" Dean pointed as the ghost reappeared.

After another salt blast Chelsea rolled her eyes, "Oh no, the other pissed off looking ghost in this room."

"Really funny."

Sam took a shaky breath as the whole room went still, somehow growing even colder, "He's coming back."

Everything seemed to stop for a heartbeat. "Racine!"* The witch remained in place as everyone else was thrown to every corner of the room by the ghost, again.

"Witch!"

Chelsea braced to be attacked but nothing happened. She released her own spell as Mary tried to stand, rushing over to help her. She wasn't expecting to be on her back so fast, Mary's hands around her neck, black ooze seeping from her ears.

"Mom!"

"Chelsea!"

"D-downstairs!" she managed to gasp out.

Sam went to the basement but didn't know what he was looking for, "What am I doing!" he shouted up the stairs.

Dean tried to remove his mom from the witch, "Mom stop!"

She let go to elbow him in the cheek, "Mommy's gone!"

"Mary p-please..." Chelsea's eyes started to cloud over and her eyelids began to droop. Sam shouted up fro the basement again.

Dean struggled with what to do, his mom was so strong and even still he didn't want to hurt her. Then it hit him, "Go help Sam!"

The witch vanished from beneath the other woman and with a howl of disdain she turned on Dean. "They're mine!"

In the basement Sam basically caught the witch as she appeared out of nowhere, coughing, "Behind the wall! Body is behind the wall." She pointed as Sam put her down and grabbed a shovel.

There was a lot of thumping from upstairs. Sam halted for just a second to look up, "Dean..."

"Don't stop!" Chelsea snapped.

"He needs help!" the younger brother argued.

"He sent me down here to help you! Move!" she was sprawled on the stairs and threw her hands at the wall. The blocks jiggled the first time and the second time exploded outward. Sam covered his face as she got caught in the cheek by a tiny shard. She didn't even blink.

"He buried himself alive..." Sam marveled.

"Burn it!" the thumping had subsided upstairs and that couldn't mean anything good.

"No gas." he noticed as he sparked his lighter.

"Don't need it." Chelsea threw the lighter into the hole from Sam's hand and expanded the flame. It screamed outward, sending Sam reeling back a few steps.

Upstairs Dean's heartbeat was regulating and the witch rested her head back on the stairs. "Shit."

"Are we going to talk about what happened?" Chelsea urged.

No one had said a word for the entire ride back. They'd cleared the motel in silence and driven all the way back with just the radio.

"What is there to talk about?" Dean asked, knowing full well where the conversation was headed.

"How about that being a complete mess? It shouldn't have been that messy with four of us there."

"It went fine." he brushed her off.

"Dean..." Sam frowned at his brother.

"What?"

"I think she's right." Mary chimed in. "That should have been simple."

The older brother was lost, "It wasn't that bad. We'll clean it up next time."

"I don't think I can do a next time, Dean. At least, not for a little while."

Chelsea felt like someone punched her in the gut. It was Dean she was feeling, but also the pang from knowing she'd been right. Mary was leaving and her own sons pushed her away.

Sam pouted, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I'm confused and a little frustrated. I look at the two of you and can't process that you're my boys. At least not the Sam and Dean I knew. I was with them in heaven; my little boy Dean and my baby Sam." she looked at them both sadly, "Here you're different people, men. And to you i'm this fragile thing. I need answers and understanding and I won't get that here."

"But..." Dean was still so at a loss.

"I'm sorry. I have to go." she gathered her bag and their father's journal then approached Sam, hugging him.

He was still in a daze as she approached Dean who stepped back from her. She understood, smiling softly.

Mary hugged the witch close and whispered in her ear, "Watch over them."

*Praesidio = Literal Latin translation for "protect" (force-field spell)

*Racine = Literal French translation for "root" (plants the casters feet where they stand)