Angel's Gifts

Sam and Angel joined Dean outside Lauren's room. Dean began to pace the hallway, anxious for news. Sam looked worried. He was just starting to comprehend what his brother must be going through; must have gone through during this entire ordeal. Dean had loved this girl, probably still did. Yet, through everything, he tried to protect my feelings; hide his fear for her, hide his feelings… all to protect me. He felt like crap. Dean was right before. He really was selfish.

"Dean, I'm sorry," he said.

Dean's shoulders slumped; he didn't look at him. "For what?" He sounded tired.

"For dragging you outside like that. Maybe if we'd been here, she'd be…"

"She's not going to die Sammy." Sam ignored the nickname. "She can't."

"I need to get in there," Angel said matter-of-factly. Dean and Sam both jumped, having forgotten for a minute that she was there. "I have to help her!"

Dean glanced back toward Lauren's room, his eyes catching on something shiny caught between the door and its frame. He strode over and picked it up, his face suddenly changing. It was Lauren's protection pendant, chain broken, the pendant scorched and blackened on the back side. His eyes moved from Lauren's door to the stairwell, to the pendant, searching, and trying hard to think clearly.

"Sam," Dean started. "The eyes, they were black right, not yellow?"

"Yeah," Sam said, his brow furrowed up, obviously confused. "So what?"

Dean brightened just a little. "BigBad's were yellow, when he was in Dad, remember? Maybe this wasn't him, maybe it was something else." He held Lauren's chain up for Sam to see. "Maybe she has a chance." Dean looked at Angel then. "I need to know what happened with your Mom and that doctor."

Angel looked at the necklace in Dean's hand. "Well, he came in and said that he needed to give Mommy some medicine; that she was tired and needed her rest. He put a needle in that tube that goes to her arm…"

Dean looked at Sam apprehensively, then back at Angel.

"He started to push the needle thing, then he put his hand on Mommy's chest, but then pulled back and yelled, like it hurt. Smoke came off his hand and Mommy's chest. That's when Mommy knew something was wrong and the doctor grabbed me and tried to take me away."

At that moment, all three of them turned to Lauren's room as they heard metal crash and Lauren's panicked scream, "Angel! Let go of me! Angel!"

Dean went charging into Lauren's room.

"Angel! Where is she?" Lauren yelled. "Dean, he took her!" Her eyes were wild, pleading.

"Just calm down now," the nurse said, trying to give Lauren a sedative.

"You put that needle in my arm bitch and I'll rip your throat out, so help me God!"

Dean looked at Lauren, more than a little startled at the threat she'd made. "Lauren, it's ok, she's with Sam just outside the room." He put an arm on the nurse's, moving the needle away from Lauren. "She won't need that, I'll keep her calm. Can you send her daughter in?"

The nurse looked up at him, unsure. Dean flashed her his trademark grin. "I promise you, she won't be any trouble as long as she can see her kid and make sure she's alright. Right kiddo?" he asked Lauren.

"Yes Daddy," Lauren said sarcastically, more than a little annoyed.

The nurse left the room and Dean sat on the side of the bed. "Sit up," he said curtly. He hooked the clasp to a different spot on the chain where it wasn't broken, noting the burn marks on Lauren's chest. He turned toward the door and left as Sam and Angel walked in.

"Thank God you're ok, did he hurt you honey?" Lauren asked as Angel walked in.

"No Mommy, I'm ok," she answered.

Sam looked at Angel, then up at Lauren. Their eyes met.

"I'm sorry Sam, I really am," Lauren said.

Sam managed a small smile and shook his head. "Listen, we need to talk, about Angel. She's a very special little girl."

"I know she is," Lauren smiled, beaming at Angel.

"No, I mean," Sam started.

Lauren looked at him evenly, "I know what you mean," then to Angel, "Angel, will you see if Dean's outside the room and if he is, stay with him while Sam and I talk?"

"He's here Mommy," she said, walking out of the room.

Lauren looked at Sam and exhaled deeply, blowing her bangs straight up before saying, "What do you want to know?"

"What kind of abilities does she have, how long has she had them, that kind of thing."

"Well, I don't really know when it started. I mean, I thought there was something different about her when she was just a few months old, but then, I'm her Mom and I had never had a kid before. Still, she wasn't like other babies I'd seen. I talked to her a lot, right from the beginning. Heck, I read her entire novels while I was pregnant with her. But I always tried to explain things to her, even if I didn't think she was old enough to understand. As a baby, she would cry about something, and once I figured out what was bothering her, I'd explain it, and she would just stop crying."

"What about the healing?" Sam asked.

Lauren looked a little surprised, then shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that just started a few years ago. I was slicing up veggies for dinner one night and cut my finger. Angel heard me yell and asked me what was wrong. When I told her what had happened, she took my hand in hers. She closed her eyes for a few minutes and when she let go, it wasn't bleeding anymore and felt better. It wasn't healed, but the healing had been accelerated, so to speak. It was almost like she had willed the pain to go away. It's been little stuff like that ever since then."

"What about you?" Sam asked.

"What about me?" Lauren asked.

"Do you have any…abilities?" Sam asked uncomfortably.

"What, do you think they're hereditary or something?" Lauren laughed.

"Not that I know of, but I don't think anybody really knows that much about this stuff," Sam said.

"If that's the case, she must have gotten them from her dad's side of the family," Lauren said.

"What about visions, does she see things that haven't happened yet?" Dean asked from the doorway. Sam cocked a brow at Dean as Angel trailed in behind him.

"Dean," Sam started, but Lauren stopped him.

"It's ok Sam. I wouldn't call them visions, more like feelings. Sometimes she has feelings that something is going to happen. Why?"

"Has she had any recently?" Dean asked. Sam looked at him again, wondering where this line of questioning was coming from.

"I told Mommy not to go to work that day she got hurt. I told her I thought something bad was going to happen," Angel began.

"Yes, but you often try to get me to stay home with you dear," Lauren smiled.

Dean shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked him quietly. Dean just shook his head.

"We need to get you out of this hospital," Dean said to Lauren, then looked at Sam. "We can't protect her here like we can other places."

"Dean, I think she probably still needs medical attention," Sam started.

"So, we get her a private nurse or something," Dean replied. "She's not safe here, don't you get it?"

"You're afraid something's going to come back here after her, aren't you? You want to take her back to her house, so we can salt the doors and windows, do protection circles, the whole nine yards?" Sam asked.

"And we won't even have to make up a reason why we're doing it," Dean grinned slightly, for once glad that they didn't have to hide what they do. It was the closest thing to a real smile Sam had seen from Dean since they'd arrived.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked Lauren.

"Get me the hell outta here!" she said smiling.

"I'll get the car," Dean said.

"How is Metallicar, by the way?" Lauren asked, her face lighting up. "If you messed up that car, I'll kick your ass!" she said.

"Mom," Angel began.

"Sorry dear," Lauren smiled.

"Metallicar?" Sam asked, looking at Dean with one eyebrow cocked higher than the other.

"She's fine," Dean replied, looking a little uneasy at the mention of the nickname Lauren had given the car when they'd been on a trip to the lake that summer. He'd never shared that nickname with Sam. "She's been through the wringer, basically had to be completely rebuilt at one point, but she's still purring," Dean grinned then, happy to be talking about something other than demons and his own personal issues.

He walked out of the room, telling one of the nurses that Lauren was signing herself out and to get the papers ready. He strolled out through the Emergency Room entrance to where he'd left the Impala the night they'd brought Lauren in to the hospital from her office.

When he got back to Lauren's room, she was signing a stack of papers and trying to convince a nurse that she was fine and it was her right to go home if she wanted to.

"We've got a problem," Dean said.

"What?" Sam asked as Lauren and Angel looked up at him.

"The car's gone!"

A Visitor

"What do you mean the car's gone?" Sam and Lauren asked in unison.

"Am I speaking a foreign language here? The…car…is…gone" Dean said, acting like he was doing sign language while saying the last four words very slowly.

"Okay, Captain Smartass!" Lauren answered.

"Mom!" Angel started.

"Sorry!" Lauren said.

"Where did you park it Dean?" Sam asked

Dean walked them out to the parking area where he had left the Impala. "It was right here!"

Lauren looked at Sam, then at Dean, then laughed. "Don't read much, do you Dean?"

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked impatiently, not thinking this was the least bit funny.

Lauren pointed at a sign over the parking space Dean claimed the Impala should be sitting in. "Tow…away…zone," she mimicked Dean with the slow speech and implied sign language.

He was so worried when he got to the hospital that night that he'd just parked it wherever he could. They'd been taking Lauren's truck back and forth since they were hauling Angel around and he'd forgotten to move the car.

"No worries," Lauren said. "Sam said my truck is over there, we'll call to find out where they towed it after we get to my place."

"You sure you're ok to drive?" Sam asked as they climbed into her SUV. Sam sat up front with Lauren and Dean sat in the back with Angel. Sam had called shotgun based on his longer legs. Lauren took something out of her purse and plugged it into a jack coming from underneath the dashboard.

"What's that?" Dean asked from the back seat.

"An iPod," Lauren and Sam answered together. '

"What the hell's an iPod?" Dean asked.

"Dean!" Angel looked at him disapprovingly.

"Lovely, I've got the word police on my as…. butt," Dean mumbled grumpily.

The sounds of Enter Sandman began to fill the car as they drove off.

"Aw man!" Sam said, disappointed.

"Hey, driver picks the music…" Lauren started.

"Shotgun shuts his cakehole!" Dean, Angel, and Lauren all said simultaneously. Sam just shook his head, chuckling lightly. Dean looked at Angel, a little surprised.

"Language!" he feigned disapproval at the five year old sitting next to him in the car seat.

"Say your prayers little one, don't forget my son to include everyone!" Angel looked back at him and began to sing along.

Dean grinned and gave her a high five. "Cool kid you got here Lauren," he said, settling his sunglasses on his nose as he sunk down in the seat for a catnap.

"The coolest," Lauren said in return, smiling at Angel through the rearview mirror, glad for her own sunglasses as she snuck a glance at Dean afterward. "The coolest."

They got back to her house and Dean began calling around to see where to go to get the Impala back. Everything they needed was in the car, but Lauren had a large box of salt in the pantry that Sam began spreading along the windows and doorways.

"Damn!" Dean mumbled as he came back in.

"What?" Sam asked.

"$200 to get the car out of impound!" he exclaimed. Lauren went into the bedroom for a few minutes, reappearing with a small handful of twenties.

"That ought to cover it," she said.

Sam looked at the cash, then said, "You just have $200 laying around your house to throw at the first person that needs it."

"Yeah, well, I'm in accounting, some of us learn to save our money," she said.

"You're an accountant?" Dean practically snorted.

"Bite me!" she said.

Dean half growled at her, snapping his teeth together playfully and grinning, then caught himself. Sam caught the shift in his expression, as did Lauren, both noticing the reserve go back up. Old habits, Sam thought, a little sad that Dean felt he had hide behind that tough exterior. He and Lauren exchanged a knowing look, then turned and walked in opposite directions.

"What?" Dean said, not sure what had just happened. He got no answer. "Cab's here, I'm going to get my baby!" he hollered as he headed out the door.

Sam watched Angel for Lauren as she took a shower, then settled in for a nap. He got her started on an episode of SpongeBob when Dean came back, asking where Lauren was. Sam motioned toward the bedroom and said she was sleeping. They finished all the protection precautions they could think of while waiting for her to wake up.

"It's ok man," Sam said to Dean as they'd finished.

"What's ok?" Dean asked, not looking up from what he was doing.

"You and Lauren, it's ok. I'm sorry I…"

"Don't say it," Dean said. "I told you, Lauren and I are done. Ancient history man."

Sam smiled at him, "No it's not. It's written all over your faces, every time you two look at each other. I can't believe I didn't see it before."

"That was a long time ago Sam. We're not picking up where we left off. Just drop it, please? I'm tired. I'm tired of talking about feelings and useless crap that doesn't get you anywhere. Just give me a gun and an evil son of a bitch to kill and I'm golden!"

But Sam persisted. "You know Dean, you and Lauren; you could have a life together once we figure this thing out."

Dean shook his head. "Does my life look like a soap opera? Geez, she's got a kid Sam! Do I look like a Daddy to you? Shut up already!" he said, shaking his head

"I think you protest too much," Sam mumbled to himself as Dean stalked out of the room.

"What's going on?" Lauren said groggily, stretching as she came out of her bedroom.

"Oh, Dean's just being Dean," Sam grinned.

"It's good to see you again Sam, really," she smiled at him, messing up his hair.

"Don't…" Sam started.

"…touch the hair! I remember!" she laughed. "Freak!"

"Bitch!" Sam called after her grinning, and she turned around and flipped him off, laughing.

"Sam!" Angel scolded from the living room.

"Sorry!" Sam laughed. "Dean was looking for you Lauren," he called.

"I see you bought more coffee," Lauren said to Dean when she found him fiddling with the coffeemaker in the kitchen.

"Yeah, that other stuff was nasty. When did you buy it?" he asked, grumpy.

"You know I don't touch the stuff Dean."

Dean harrumphed in return, willing the coffeemaker to finish.

"When are we going to talk about it?" she asked.

Dean groaned, "About what?"

"The big elephant that's sitting on your shoulder," Lauren replied.

"Not now, Lauren, please," he said, pouring the coffee.

Lauren scrunched up her nose, changing subjects. "Sam said you wanted to see me?"

"Oh yeah, where's the pendant?" he asked.

"Right here," she replied, taking it off.

"I got a new chain for it," he said after she handed it to him. He put the pendant on the new chain, discarding the old one. He motioned for her to turn around so he could put it on. She turned her back to him, lifting her hair out of the way, the smell of her shampoo wafting up to his nose. He hesitated, closing his eyes momentarily and breathing her in.

"Dean," she said, turning toward him then, reaching up to touch his face.

"I can't," he said, his voice cracking. "I can't go through this again, Lauren." He closed his eyes again, feeling the warmth of her hand on his cheek, willing himself the strength to pull away, but unable to do so.

"Hey Lauren," Sam called from the other room before walking in. "Mind if I take Angel for some ice cream?"

Dean glared at him. God, he's trying to play matchmaker. What does he think he can get the kid out of here and we'll go at it on the kitchen table? The thought was a bit enticing, but still. "Somebody's here to see you," Sam's voice intruded on the thought, as he called to Angel to get her shoes on and head outside. Sam looked very uncomfortable as he left the room.

Lauren looked at Dean, "I didn't hear the doorbell," she said curiously, walking into the living room from the kitchen.

"That's because I didn't ring it, I knocked," said a voice belonging to a handsome man standing just inside the front door after Sam had closed it.

"John," Lauren said, walking up to him and kissing him on the cheek. Dean stared in disbelief.

"I'm glad you're ok Lauren," John Winchester said, kissing her forehead as he smiled down at her, then held his hand out to Dean. "Son…"