A/N:
Huh, what a bumpy ride … Guess we won't be done with 30 chapters though … my muse keeps yelling shit at me …
Chapter 30 ~ Come Hell Or High Water
Charlie was hysterical. She was screaming at John from the top of her lungs, kneeling beside Sam on the floor, who was on all fours. She had her arms wrapped around his ribcage, desperate to stop him from faceplanting the tiles and landing in his own puddle of bile.
Sam heaved in a shuddering breath -and retched again, angry-red blood dripping from his lips into the mixture of saliva and crimson beneath him.
"We need to do something!", she screeched at John, tightening her grip on Sam. "What do we do?!"
John Winchester may know how to sew up wounds, remove bullets. He knew how to treat concussions. How to set bones and relocate joints. He knew how to deal with dehydration and when something had to be amputated (well, may not like a surgeon would do it anyway).
But here was nothing he could possibly chop off and cauterize.
"I don't know!", he yelled back – at least as frantic as his surrogate-daughter was.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Dean doesn't know why, but he goes with it. He lets himself being led into the woods. Leviathans still hot on their heels.
Hunters spread into the winds.
He doesn't know for sure, but he thinks Garth, Ellen and Ash are short behind. And he's still dragging Jo with him. At least he prays it's not only her arm he's holding onto.
Dean doesn't look back.
This is about the survival of the fittest. And he'd be damned if some black-gooed-monster is going to eat him alive.
So, he runs. He doesn't look back. Listens to his guts – the faint ring in his ears and the pull in his chest – which tell him to take a sharp turn to his left, when he passes a rock – as tall as he is - overgrown with moss and orange mushrooms …
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Sam collapsed against Charlie and took her down, landing atop of her.
"Sam?", she asked breathlessly, tugging at the giant man, who was crushing her with his weight.
Strangled, whet breaths filled the room.
Sam's eyes were closed, his lips and chin covered in blood, his jaw slack. He was pale, blood tickling from his nose.
"Sam?", she asked again, then stared up at John, who was at least as pale as Sam.
"What the hell was that?", he asked in disbelieve, staring down at the both of them.
"You askin' me?", Charlie's breathed audibly against the weight resting on her upper body. "Are you going to help me or what?"
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Dean stopped in his tracks in front of what looked like a cave's entrance.
As soon as he had spotted it, the pull in his chest, the tickle in the back of his mind, started to drain away, and all that was left for him to feel was his rapidly hammering heart.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Harvelle's Roadhouse had burnt down to the ground when they arrived.
There was nothing left but smoldering wood, ashes and smoke.
"Jesus.", Bobby breathed devasted.
"Holy shit.", Cesar stared wide-eyed at the smoldering heap of what once was meant to be one of the hunter's most important outposts.
"Holy mother of …" Jesse cut himself short.
"I do not think that god has something to do with all of this.", Castiel stated with a deep frown. "We should get moving. The Leviathans may be still out there."
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
John wrestled Sam's long legs onto the cot.
"The infirmary would've been a better place.", Charlie murmured, obviously not satisfied with John's choice to stay where they were now. In the middle of a corridor.
"Yeah well …" John breathed heavily.
They had intended to move Sam to the infirmary, but not even half way there, John's leg had given out on him. Charlie had tried to drag Sam the rest of the way, but then he had started to convulse and retch again, so they were clear about it, that there was no way a girl and a wounded man could get him where they wanted him to be.
Heavy-hearted, John decided to get one of the cots from the storage room and put it up right where they were.
Charlie went to get everything they would need, since John's leg wouldn't even allow him to carry his own weight anymore, after manhandling Sam into a stable position on his side in case he'd have another seizure.
John tried to help as good as he could with the bodily work, but failed miserably.
So, he left the running around to Charlie, while he sat beside the cot, leaning against the wall and prepared an IV and a vein catheter.
"What do we do now?", Charlie asked, eying the tall man, hooked up on an IV, in stable side position, covered with a blanket, curiously.
"I'd call 911 …", John muttered. "If it'd be possible."
"Yeah. No. I mean: What do we do now? – Should we try get a hold of someone? How … I mean, what do we do now?" Charlie was visibly upset and overwhelmed.
"Calm down, Littlin'.", John rasped, "We'll just … watch out for him? Do what we can do?"
"You think Dean made it?", she asked after a beat of silence.
John huffed out a breath. "There's no way he won't." John smiled at her reassuringly. "If not, I'm gonna kick his ass …"
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
They kept perfectly still in the depths of the cave until the first rays of sunlight appeared on the horizon.
Neither of the hunters had dared to sleep. So, practically none of them took turns in keeping watch, since they had all taken watch.
Every one of them had their weapons handy – despite that they knew they would do shit on Leviathans.
"How'd you know?", Ellen eventually asked quietly. "How'd you know they're comin'?"
Dean could only make out silhouettes in the darkness. Faint outlines of the woman's face.
"I … It's a long story.", Dean answered, keeping his voice low.
"We've time. – I guess." She told him.
So, Dean gave her a short-measured recap about what had happened those past months. No details though – only the relevant things to get the picture of what was going on right now out there.
"Tablets?", she asked curiously, "Never heard 'bout that …"
There was silence.
"I think … it's got something to do with Sam. – I think he led us here … somehow …", Dean explained. "I thought … before and … when I was at the bar … he warned me? He … led me?" Dean shrugged and blew out a heavy sigh.
"You're worried 'bout him.", Ellen sounded as if she was smiling.
"Yeah. – Yeah. Guess I am." Dean's frown was audible in his voice. "You have no idea what … - If he's done something. – That shit takes a lot out of him. I've seen it and it ain't pretty."
There was a low hum. "S'pose he likes you."
Dean was damn glad for the darkness, so no-one would see him blush. Not that Dean Winchester would ever blush.
"We're friends. Partners, Ellen.", he murmured barely audible, with a touch of regret.
A beat of silence.
"Wow.", Ellen sounded stunned. "And that out of your mouth, Winchester. – Wouldn't have thought I'd ever hear somethin' like that from you."
A long beat of silence.
"Guess we owe him a big one." Ellen chuckled softly.
Dean felt her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly. He laid his on hers and squeezed back. "Yeah, guess we do." … including kicking his ass into next week.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
When Sam crawled his way into awareness, he was hurting. All over. Like he got ran over by a bus. Hit by a truck. Gone five rounds with Ali.
His brain felt like molted lava. And he felt so damn drowsy and tired.
Sam could barely hold his eyes open and was about to drift back off into sleep – or unconsciousness. He wasn't quite sure … and it actually didn't matter either.
The main thing was, he could sleep again.
"Sam?" The voice – his name – rang like thunder in his ears and sent white dots of stabbing pain through his eyes, right into the back of his brain.
Sam opened his mouth to give at least a "yeah" back, but he decided that it wasn't worth it. He'd use his voice for important things to answer. Or ask.
"How are you doing?" There was that voice again. – Male. About fifty to sixty maybe. It sounded like gravel rubbing over sandpaper.
Sam decided to give at least a small sound in the back of his throat as response, since the man asked so nicely.
"D'n?" Sam licked his dry lips. "Dean?", he asked again – not quite sure if he's gotten it out right at the first try. "Hunters?"
Sam tried to keep his own voice as low as possible, since the vibrations of his vocal-cords seemed to be somehow connected to his brains, and his brains hurt with every sound he made.
"We don't know yet …" The man sounded worried – sad even.
That wasn't what Sam wanted to know. Actually, he wanted to ask if it worked. If the ringing in his mind had been Dean, and if he had found the cave he tried to lead him to.
Sam mustered what will he had left to go against instincts and hurt himself when he was talking.
"Did it work? Woods. Cave?" Sam's face scrunched up in deep lines of pain when he talked. "Safe?"
There was a long pause.
Either the man needed that long to figure out what he wanted to know, or … he had been imagining things – maybe a fever-dream. Or due dehydration.
Instead of an answer, there was a calloused hand against his forehead, then temple. He felt it brush over his hair and neck, then it came to rest on his shoulder.
"We don't know yet.", the man said. This time softer, as if he had picked up on how the noises hurt him.
Sam blew out a shuddering breath. "'kay."
Sam let his eyes slide shut. He'd ask again later, when he had slept some more.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Bobby, Castiel, Cesar and Jesse were pathing their way through thick undergrowth and over torn up corpses.
There was an obvious track of destruction leading their way towards the woods.
Though … at some point, there were no corpses left to trace, and they found themselves in the middle of the woods.
"Is your VHF-radio in the car workin'?", Bobby asked and turned towards Cesar.
The bulky hunter looked up and pursed his lips. "Yeah. – But we're out of reach to call the bunker."
"I know. – Though … Maybe someone picks up on our transmission. We could use some help to cover more ground." Bobby had something in mind. "See if other's are around and willing to help."
Jesse headed back to the Pick Up, while the three of them checked out the closer surroundings in hope for any leads on more than a dozen hunters they knew had joined the gathering and were not found under the dead.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Meanwhile at the bunker …
Sam drifted in and out of consciousness. Each time he tried to reach the surface of awareness, he got sucked back into the comforting calm of sleep and peace.
They had eventually managed to drag Sam into the infirmary with one of the stretchers Charlie had found.
John lay on the bed next to Sam's, his aching leg propped up on pillows.
"You tried to reach someone out there?", he asked, when Charlie came in to change Sam's IV and check on his vitals.
"Nope. – Not yet." She sighed. "Most of them were at the gathering … so …" She shrugged, sighed again, and rubbed over her face.
"I know … - but …" … but John had his instincts, and his instincts were yelling at him right now, to try and get a connection to someone – anyone – out there. He couldn't forget about Sam telling him about woods, and a cave and if it had worked.
His subconscious was telling him – that whatever had happened to Sam – it had been the kid doing something, to save his son – and the others.
"Bobby's gonna kick my ass …", he muttered and propped up on his elbows gazing at the bed beside his. "Any change?"
Charlie shook her head. "Nope.", she answered. "At least he's not puking blood anymore …"
John made a disapproving sound in the back of throat. After a short fight with the covers and pillows to get into a sitting position and wrestling his legs out of the bed, he was about to reach for his cane.
"What do you think you are doing?", Charlie asked with a cocked eyebrow and a warning glare in his direction.
"I'll go have a watch on the radio transmitters. – In case something comes through someone should be there." John Winchester would not allow any protests.
He needed to do something. Try to get a hold of someone. Get the word out, that Leviathans were now obviously going after hunters.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
They waited inside the cave for a couple of hours after sunrise.
Eventually the tension among the small group drained away and there were occasional murmurs heard every now and then.
They weren't a lot. Around half a dozen had followed Dean to the cave. Mostly people he called members of his pack, even though they didn't live at the bunker.
There were Ellen, her daughter Jo, Ash (always all business in the front and party in the back), Garth (Actually a werewolf, but cool as fuck), Jim (a former pastor, now a bad-ass-hunter), Caleb (one of dad's hunting-buddies), and five others.
He knew them – of course – but they were none he would trust his life with. – Specially not with Thomas and Marcus. The both of them hadn't gotten around the fact yet, that there wasn't only black and white – but a whole lot of grey goop. And that not everything that was a monster – or looked like one – had to be killed.
That may be the reason, why Garth volunteered to leave and check on the narrow surroundings, before anyone else was supposed to leave the cave.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
"Running Sushi calling. Come in Please. Over.", Jesse spoke into the radio device. He's been on it since god knew for how long now. "Running Sushi here. Come in Please. Over."
[Fuzzy Bear here. I hear you, buddy. Over.] Jesse sighed a breath of relieve when he heard the line crack and bristle with interferences and finally someone answering his calls.
"Good to hear you, Fuzzy Bear. We have a bit of a situation over at Harvelle's.", He sighed, closed his eyes for a moment. "Over."
[I know. – The Bunker's been callin' in since the early mornin'. Lookin' for news about survivors. And information to pass on. Over.] Fuzzy Bear answered.
"Information? Over." Jesse perked up.
[Yes. There seems to be valid info about hunters holing up in the woods in a cave. Over.]
"Copy that. Over.", Jesse confirmed.
[Any survivors so far? Over.]
Jesse pressed his lips together. "Not so far. – Thanks for the info, Fuzzy Bear. Over and Out."
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
Jesse went to pass the news on to Bobby and the rest.
They found a lone werewolf strolling through the woods – which turned out to be Garth.
He led the small group to the cave.
Meanwhile, other hunters had arrived, when they returned to the ruins of the Roadhouse, willing to help sweep the woods and look for their folks.
Dean breathed a sigh of relieve, when he spotted his car. Unharmed. And intact.
"Oh Baby.", he murmured and kissed the car's hood. "Thought I'd never see you ever again.", he patted her gently when he moved to the driver's side.
Bobby was right behind him, and without asking if Dean was taking him with, he took a seat on the passenger's side – eager to return to the bunker and foremost to his son.
The atmosphere in the car was tense. Neither of them said a word. Not even small-talk. Dean wouldn't even turn on the cassette-player.
Both men knew they were so screwed. – Now that the Leviathans were probably after them because of the tablet and without a clue on how to kill them.
Castiel, Cesar and Jesse decided to stay and help with the search and said they would make sure that the word gets passed on as fast as possible, so everyone would know about the attack at the Roadhouse.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
It took them four hours to return to the bunker, since Dean had taken hidden paths and avoided most roads which wiggled in plain sight through the country.
Once there, Dean went straight for the map's room.
"Dad! – Charlie!", he hollered, since they were nowhere to be seen. "We're back!"
He and Bobby shared a look. Bobby telling him that he'd check out the library and the transmitting room.
The old man was about to take off, when Charlie came running their way, and before Dean could say something, the girl slammed into him with the entire weight of her body and wrapped her arms around him. Squeezing him tight.
"Shit. – We've been so damn worried.", she blurted out, muffled by Dean's shirt.
Dean returned the hug, then practically pried her off. "Where's Sam?", he asked, staring down at her.
"We … He's … Infirmary.", she answered, with a sad smile.
That and the eerily devasted expression in her eyes was all Dean needed to know and took off towards the infirmary, with Bobby and Charlie in tow.
Dean rushed into the room and towards the bed he spotted Sam on. Beside him, John was sitting in a chair, jumping to his feet when the door had flung open.
"Wait.", John shoved the chair aside with his battered leg, hiding most of Dean's few. "Dean."
Dean tugged his dad aside and shoved past him, only to freeze a moment later, when he got a full view on his partner.
Chalky-white mixed with ashen skin.
Eyes closed.
Jaw slack.
Two days' worth of scruff covering his face.
Reddish tainted lips, where dried blood still lingered in their soft folds.
If it wasn't for the rhythmical up and downs beneath his touch, he'd thought Sam was dead.
"What happened?", Dean asked, not yet able to tear his look away from the man on the bed.
"We did everything we could, son.", John answered, knowing, that this wasn't exactly what Dean demanded to know. "I'm sorry.", he added devasted.
"What? – No. – He … You …", Dean stammered, his hand coming down on Sam's sternum above the covers. "What did he do?" He cast his father a reproachful look. "Did you let him?" He searched his father's face.
Saw the deep lines of sorrow written all over his face. Dark circles around his eyes.
Bobby – who got the message instantly – swayed and gripped the bed's end, his knuckles turning white, breath catching in his lungs.
"Dean.", Bobby breathed. "I'm sure it's not John's fault." The grizzled hunter swallowed a sob, obviously fighting tears, a shiver wrecking his body.
"He's dying, Dean.", Charlie added, her look cast at the tiled floor.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~
This was it?
Sam was going to die? – And for what?
Dean knew the answer. Though he kept asking himself the very question over and over again.
Sam had – somehow, miraculously – managed to show him – them – the way to a sheltered place. Had shared with him, what he had seen in his visions.
Sam had saved their asses from getting torn up to shreds.
Dean pulled the covers down, exposing Sam's chest and ribcage, and laid his flat palm on his solar-plexus.
Calloused skin against scarred one.
The blue of Dean's angelic powers mingled with forest-green until they represented a completely new color. A soft gleam surrounding the outer ring of his irises.
"Dean.", John spoke up and gripped his bicep to stop him from what he was about to do. "Don't."
He blinked and looked back over his shoulder. "I won't let him die."
"It's going to drain you. – Leave you vulnerable.", his father told him, as if Dean could ever forget what healing someone meant to him. Depending on how much juice he was harboring, and how hurt the person was.
In this case – healing Sam – would leave him exhausted and all too human for weeks.
"I'll be careful. – Don't worry." He gave him a reassuring smile. "I won't go too far. Promise." Not, that Dean would care at all. But he knew, leaving himself vulnerable and without any powers could mean the death for all of them – not only his own.
In case they'd get attacked – no matter by whom – he'd need some of his juice.
John nodded and pulled his hand back. "Fine.", he grumbled, well knowing that Dean would do it anyway, no matter what he'd say.
Dean sat down at the edge of the mattress, and spread his fingers over Sam's solar-plexus. Feeling soft skin stretch over bones, silvery shining scar-tissue more sleek than smooth.
He let fragments of himself penetrate Sam's body, like energetic messengers, meant to assess the damage.
Eternal bleedings wherever he reached out to, bust alveoli, damages to every single organ in the man's body.
Dean came to the bitter realization, that all he could do was to decide if he'd try to heal him enough so he MIGHT survive. Or to let Sam go.
~*Apple Pie & Bacon*~