Disclaimer: I wish, then I wouldn't need to find a damn job to pay for my addictions, er I mean stuff.
"Hurry up." Dean hissed as Jack quickly slipped into the hospital scrubs he'd handed her.
"I'm trying, quit nagging at me." Jack said from behind the bathroom door.
"I don't know how long dad can keep her busy." Dean said.
The plan was easy. When Madeleine had gone to use the bathroom Jack had quickly written down Maddy's cell phone number and told Sam to intercept John on his way in and have him call it pretending to be Mr. Baker, her boss in saving the world, one orphan at a time. Meanwhile Dean would grab a couple of pairs of scrubs and they'd walk right out the front door. The call had come ten minutes ago.
"You know that chick's not so bad." Dean said leaning against the door listening as Jack struggled into the disguise without hurting her arm.
"Nope, she just worries to much." Jack said opening the door too fast making Dean slip back.
"Stealthy." She said putting on her doctors mask.
"Shut up. Lets go." Dean said following suit with his own mask.
"Lead the way Spy Hard." Jack said pointing out the door.
"By the way that little girl's mother was asking about you earlier. They brought her to the same hospital." Dean told her as they walked out into the hallway leaving the door locked firmly behind them. They left a window open in the room to make it look like they'd pulled a Rapunzel escape on Madeleine.
"Lets hurry then. I don't want her to recognize me on accident." Jack said stepping up her pace.
"Why?" Dean asked catching up to her without looking suspicious to any of the actual staff. The last thing they needed was to be tagged as a couple of extra pairs of hands in some surgery there.
"Because then she'd going to get all grateful and happy and I don't wanna get any on me." Jack quipped. They passed the nurses station and made it past without attracting any unwanted attention. Two more feet an they'd be at the elevators.
Dean pressed the button three times in a row before the doors opened with a high pitched 'ding'. And Jack nearly kicked him for no other reason than that he was there to take her frustration out on. Standing in the elevator was none other than grateful mommy herself with a hospital gown clothed daughter in tow. Jack kept her head down as they stepped into the elevator, she was hoping they would get off right there, considering that was where her room was, but they didn't. The mother smiled pleasantly at the two 'Doctors' and Jack was infinitely grateful Dean had remembered the caps to go along with their scrubs. Somehow she doubted the lady would have been able to look past the distinctive hair color of her baby's savior with out noticing.
Jack watched as the numbers went slowly down to the ground floor. She chanced a look at the little girl and locked eyes with her. Recognition bloomed in the girl's eyes and her mouth dropped open. Jack hastily put her finger to her masked lips and silently begged the little girl not to alert her mother. The girl bit her lip and looked at her mother then back at Jack. She smiled and made locking motion with her fingers on her lips and threw away the 'key'. Jack smiled through her mask and gave the little girl a silent thumbs up. The hospital doors opened and the mother and daughter walked out ahead of Jack and Dean. At the last second the little girl turned back around and waved at Jack.
"You big softy." Dean teased as they left the elevator.
"Bite me." Jack said back. The made their way to the automatic door, almost home free.
"But sir I submitted my request with Human resources. Ask Jaime, she's the one I handed them to." Madeleine was saying into the cell phone. She had her back to the doors and sounded distressed. Jack had a split second to feel sorry for her before she and Dean rounded the corner of the building to meet up with John and Sam.
"Dean as a doctor, now that's a frightening thought." Sam said as they spotted the twosome.
"Umhm." Missouri agreed as the two undercover idiots approached.
"John." Missouri hissed at the elder Winchester. He was having a little too much fun pretending to ream out that poor woman on the other end of the line.
"What?" He asked covering the mouthpiece. Missouri pointed to Jack and Dean. And damn it if he didn't look disappointed that playtime was over. That man needed a hobby.
"I'll see you back here in my office first thing tomorrow morning." He said sternly into the mouthpiece before he killed the line.
"Lets jet." Jack said when they made it across the parking lot to where the pickup and the Impala were waiting.
"Come here first child." Missouri said concern lacing her tone. Jack looked at Dean questioningly, but he just shrugged. Jack walked up to the older woman and was smacked hard upside the head.
"Ow! I was just shot! What the hell did you do that for!" Jack demanded pulling off her mask.
"That's for worrying that poor woman the way you are. And all she did was care about you." Missouri scolded her. She turned and got into the driver's side of John's truck.
"Didn't have to hit me." Jack grumbled rubbing her sore head.
"It means she likes you." Sam said opening the car door for Jack.
"Couldn't she just say it?" Jack asked.
"Dad why are you getting in?" Dean asked his father as John walked around to the driver's side of the Impala.
"Missouri's driving my car back. Leaving you three alone always ends in drinking or fighting." John said giving them a sour look and stepping into the front seat.
"Shotgun." Sam said before Dean could.
"Its my car!" Dean protested.
"Dean get in the car before they notice us kidnapping a minor." John ordered.
"Yes sir." Dean said after a beat punching Sam in the shoulder as he ducked into the backseat to sit next to Jack. John started the car as soon Sam sat down barely giving him a chance to close the door. They beat a hasty retreat trying to put as much distance between them and the hospital as possible.
"Gimme that." Dean told Sam indicating to Jack's backpack, which she'd handed Sam before sending him out minutes before.
"Why?" Jack asked eyeing him as he grabbed greedily for her backpack.
"Treats." Dean answered smiling. He opened the main compartment and pulled out two large bottles of pills.
"You said you didn't steal from the pharmacy!" Sam exclaimed gaping at the prescription pain killers.
"No I said that's not why I was laughing, Felony." Dean said popping open a bottle of Vicoden and shaking out two pills.
"What are you doing?" John asked in shock as they watched Dean.
"Relax, I didn't steal these to get high. Their for when we get hurt hunting." Dean said holing the pills out for Jack.
"Take em." He ordered her as she took the pills from his hand.
"How did you even-You know what I don't want to know." Sam said shaking his head in defeat. Dean popped a pill into his own mouth.
"Dean!" John said.
"What? Sammy's hating gave me a headache." Dean said holding his hands up innocently. He replaced the cap and put the two bottles back in the bag.
"Got any water?" Jack asked rattling the pills in her palm like they were dice.
"Here." Sam said handing her Coke he'd gotten from the machine back at the hospital.
Once they were back at the house the clothes issue came up again. Everything Jack owned was incinerated at the motel. All she had at Missouri's was the jacket and jeans she was wearing when she met them. The sweater was demolished, another casualty in the war on darkness. She had to make due with one of Dean's t-shirts and was given a warning that if she walked even a foot out her bedroom door without those jeans on she'd be begging for a hospital room to hide in.
There wasn't far to walk. It was late when they got back and after dinner all there was left to do was go to bed. Jack waited until after midnight to write the note.
'Guys,
Thanks for everything, but I think you know now why I can't stay here. Or anywhere actually. Everyone who gets too close dies. I can't let that happen again. This fight will never stop for me. I'll miss you guys. If you ever need me call me. Just don't ask to help me.
Jack.
She wrote her phone number on the bottom of the page. She tried to ignore the hollow feeling she felt as she pulled on her jacket and left the note on the pillow with one of the medication bottles Dean stole next to it. She'd already decided and nothing could stop her from leaving. She wouldn't stop in Birmingham either, in case she'd mentioned it to them at the bar as where she went for some down time every once in awhile.
'You've only known them a few days. It doesn't mean anything. You'll get over it.' She thought to herself as she sneaked carefully through the sleeping house. She almost convinced herself of it by the time she got the back door. Then her hand hesitated on the doorknob and her façade crumbled. For the first time in a long time she'd felt like she belonged somewhere, not the house itself necessarily, but with them. They understood the way she lived and thought. People she didn't have to lie to about what a mess her life was.
'And you'll repay them by endangering their lives.' A cruel voice inside her said. She shook her head and opened the door silently, crossing over the line of salt into the cold, unforgiving night.
Jack walked stiffly to where her bike was still parked and brought up the kick stand. She fastened her helmet then struggled with her hurt shoulder to walk the bike a safe distance away from the house before swinging her legs over the side and starting the engine. She had no doubt that they would know she was gone long before morning so she broke all manner of speed limits to get a head start on them.
The darkness she'd grown to hate whizzed past her as she left the city limits and came to a heavily wooded stretch that would carry her out of Kansas.
Only the sound of her engine could be heard for miles, it lulled her into a distracted state she was so fucking grateful for she could cry. It was just her and the road again. Just another night like most of the others she'd experienced in the past two years alone.
So distracted was she that she didn't notice the near invisible shadow come at her from the trees. Not until something slammed into the front wheel of her bike, but by then it was too late. As her bike flipped and she flew forward.
'This is going to hurt.' She only had a moment to brace herself before slamming head first into the pavement. A blinding light and everything went dark. The smell of smoke followed her into the black.
"No!" Sam shot up in his bed bathed in sweat, his heart racing. He tumbled out of his bed and ran to the door, fumbling with the knob before throwing it open. He ran across the hall to Jack's room and burst through the door. His eyes confirmed what his mind already knew. She was gone and if he didn't hurry to where ever she was she was going to die.
"Sam! What happened!" Dean said running after him into the room. He saw the empty made bed and the note lying on the pillow next to a pill bottle. He read it and swore up and down.
"She's hurt. We have to find her." Sam said running back to their room. He pulled his clothes on quickly and grabbed the keys to Dean's car.
"What did you see?" Dean asked as they ran down the stairs and out the front door. Neither boy acknowledged John or Missouri calling after them as they tramped through the house in the middle of the night.
"It was like my dream only I could really see it this time. They've got her surrounded and she's hurt bad." Sam said heatedly. He opened the trunk and pulled out Dean's crossbow tossing it to him before grabbing damn near every gun they owned.
"Easy Sammy." Dean replacing the selections and keeping the more practical weapons.
"Get in." Sam said jerking open the driver's side door. Dean bit his lip and slammed the trunk closed following Sam's order. He didn't argue with Sam driving because Sam was the only who knew where they might find their friend.
Jack came to minutes later. She felt fire and opened her eyes painfully to see her beloved motorcycle burning thirty yards from where she was lying on the ground. She tried to lift her head to see more but it hurt to much to manage. She was lying on her stomach in the middle if the road. Her helmet cracked and in splinters of glass and plastic on the pavement around her. She tried to move her legs and panicked when she couldn't feel her right leg.
She summoned all her strength to lift her self up on her arms. A scream of pain tore from her lips. It took her a dizzying second to look down at her left arm that she'd rolled on after connecting with the pavement and realize that the sleeve of her jacket was gone and the black was blood and tar from the road. She dragged herself in agony closer to the fire. Shapes moved everywhere, whispers filled the air. They were toying with her and she wouldn't have the strength when they chose to come and finish her off. She couldn't go any further then, not with her leg was dragging behind her the way it was. Jack used her right arm to feel the back of her head and brought it back to try to focus with her fading vision. Her hand was covered with blood from her head. It was a miracle she wasn't dead yet, a miracle or a torturous nightmare.
Jack found the energy to sit up with her 'good' leg in front of her. She had to drag her other leg in front of her, choking on a sob as she saw the ruin of her leg. The denim was soaked in blood and torn to pieces with strips sticking to the bone sticking out of the front of her calve. Jack's mouth was filled with blood and bile, she'd never felt so alone. She wanted to die but some self-preservation instinct made her react when they finally came out the shadows to gather around her beaten form. Five of them in all, more than enough to destroy one broken girl. Still a ring of fire burst up around her, protecting her from the darkness and everything that lived in it. Jack forced her arms around her legs to try and hold herself together as she waited for her fire to give out as her strength did, waiting to finally die.
She laid her head in her arms and allowed herself for the first time since she was a child, to cry.
TBC……
AN: I hope I managed to make this as dramatic as the scenes played out in my head. I always worry over if I capture angst and drama right in a story. Tell me what you think. I had to listen to the saddest music to get in the mood for this part.