Disclaimer: Blah Blah Blah, Don't own Blah Blah Supernatural
Doctor Who-The-Fuck-Cares was saying words like massive internal bleeding, more surgeries on the leg and severe cranial damage. The words possible brain damage fell on deaf, unaccepting ears.
"We put a steel plate in her head where bits of skull were missing, any longer exposure and she'd probably be brain dead right now." He told them. This was met with silence.
"She's out of surgery right now, but its a waiting game." He said looking suitably regretful for their situation.
"You just said she needed more surgery for her leg." John said somberly.
"We'd prefer to put off doing more until we see if she makes it through the next couple of days." The doctor said. Just then another doctor walked through the waiting room doors in bloody scrubs. A familiar face to them.
"If you accuse us of anything now, I can't guarantee my son's won't kill you." John told Dr. Wilson tiredly.
"I'm sorry about that." He said taking off his surgical mask. "I spoke to her aunt a few hours ago, she told me about your car accident. I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry and good luck." With a sad look he turned to go.
"When can we see her?" Sam asked.
"I'll send a nurse as she's settled in the ICU. You should know the chances aren't good with this kind damage. You should start making arrangements." He told them. John gave him a curt nod more of a dismissal then anything else.
"Her aunt?" Sam asked.
"It wasn't Missouri, must've been that Keith woman. The social worker." John said sitting back down between his boys.
"We should call her." Dean said.
"What to thank her? And when she calls the cops on us for sneaking her out of the hospital?" John asked incredulously.
"She won't." Dean said.
"How do you know?" John asked.
"Because she cares about Jack. If she was going to do anything like that we'd have been flagged the moment we walked in here." Dean said.
"I don't know if-"
"I do." Dean interrupted, surprising John and Sam. John glanced at Sam who shrugged and nodded.
"I think if she might not make it, her friends have a right to say goodbye." Sam whispered.
"Yeah," John rubbed the stubble running across his jaw line. "Yeah call her then."
It hurt everywhere. The pain blinding under her skin and in her head. Where was she, why couldn't she see. It was like being trapped in nothing. Nothing penetrated the pain except an incessant beeping sound. And it was starting to slow.
A sharp slap across the face was how Sam was greeted at the door to the waiting room by Madeleine.
"The only reason I'm not calling the cops right now is because she wouldn't want me to." She said in a thick voice. Tears were barely held back in her eyes. Sam just nodded and moved out of her way so she could walk through.
Madeleine glared at Dean as she crossed to the other side of the waiting room to take a seat as far away from the Winchester men as she could get. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and she was still wearing a nightshirt with a hastily pulled on pair of jeans. Her foot tapped anxiously on the tiled floor. The woman looked like she was barely holding it together. It said a lot about a woman who probably saw some of the worst humanity had to offer its children in her day to day life, that she looked so thoroughly terrified at what was happening.
Sam took his seat again and waited. Dean was humming a song under his breath holding the arms of his chair tight. These were the only subtle indications that he was nervous. Sam smiled to himself remembering what Dean said once about music calming him down. John was talking covertly into his cell phone, the nurse at the desk glared at him and even got up, but another nurse pulled her aside and whispered in her ear looking sympathetically in their general direction. The first nodded after a moment and went back to her seat, sending Sam a pitying look.
"She loves that song." Madeleine said quietly taking a seat facing them against the wall. Still enough space between them but close enough to speak if they were inclined. He was not.
"What song?" Sam asked wishing she'd leave him be.
"The one your brother is humming." She answered nodding to Dean. Dean stopped humming and looked at her.
"What song was it?" Sam asked, not quite placing the tune he'd heard.
"Laugh I Nearly Died." She answered. Sam snorted at the sheer inappropriateness of Dean's choice in music. Hearing the name brought the same realization to Dean.
"Good ear." Dean said shortly and started humming something else shutting them out again.
"Seven years, give or take, of looking in on a couple of music addicts rubs off." She said and they fell back into the tense silence.
There was a ruckus behind the hospital doors and the nurse rose from her chair, casting a look in their direction before rushing through the double doors. Sam straightened in his chair and cast a worried glance at his brother. Dean nodded and rose crossing the waiting room to look through the small glass panel on the double door. He knocked on it erratically till someone finally came out.
"What's happening?" He demanded of orderly who emerged.
"Please sir if you'll just sit down." He said trying nudge Dean out of the way so he could close the door. Dean lodged his foot in the door jamb and gave the orderly a withering look.
"What's happening?" He said coldly.
"Your sister coded. Their working on her right now, I'm sorry." He said biting his lip, looking anywhere but at the intimating man in front of him. No doubt thanking his lucky stars he wasn't a doctor and wouldn't have to deliver regular news to these people about the girl's condition.
Dean pulled away from the door so fast that the orderly nearly fell through the door way. He took his seat without bothering to relay the message. John hung up the phone and leaned close to whisper in Sam's ear.
"Missouri's reading the cards." John told him. Sam nodded in understanding, fuck modern medicine, when in doubt consult your friendly neighborhood telepath. John gave Dean the same message.
The beeping stopped and turned into one long line of sound. She wanted to shut her ears against it but had lost all concept of moving her hands. A painful jolt shot through her and her sightless eyes lit up. A crack of white and then the all encompassing dark again. Another and another then she faded deeper down.
"You're like her aren't you?" Madeleine asked Sam quietly. His internal alarms went off.
"What do you mean?" He asked looking confused.
"I-I don't know. I don't know what I mean." She rubbed her eyes and swallowed deeply.
"I-I know Jack's…different. I can't explain how, and I never listened to stupid rumors back home, but I've seen things…" She trailed off shaking her head.
"Rumors?" Sam asked.
"You know, it's the deep south, superstition's big back home. There were rumors, from the family's neighbors and such. I never paid much attention till I spent some real time with Chris and Jack." Madeleine said.
"What did people say?" Sam asked moving to take a seat next to her. She looked a little disconcerted by his nearness but kept talking in the low whispers so the few people in the waiting room besides them wouldn't hear them.
"That they were cursed, touched by evil." Madeleine said rolling her eyes at herself for even speaking the words.
"Why would they say that?" Sam asked.
"The fire, the deaths in the family and Christopher taking little Jack and high tailing it out of New Orleans didn't help the matter."
"That bad?" Sam asked, wondering at how their lives paralleled.
"There was a saying around where her grandmother, Amara, lived, 'The Fontenot family, touched by charm and tragedy, equal measures.' Foolish people. But when almost an entire family is wiped out in only a handful of years, it gets the mind working." Madeleine said looking gravely ahead.
"Yeah." Sam agreed.
"And fire just seems to follow that girl. First her parents then that thing when she was a child, now this." She continued almost to herself.
"What happened when she was a child?" Sam asked.
"Its nothing." Madeleine caught herself before saying anything more to him about the incident.
"What makes you think I'm like Jack?" Sam asked her changing the subject.
"You have that same look, like you see more than the rest of us." Madeleine said quietly. "Chris looked that way too."
Sam was silent for a long moment and when he opened his mouth to speak she beat him to the punch.
"What's she running from, what's doing this to her?" Madeleine asked with a note of desperation in her voice.
"Ask her yourself when she wakes up." Dean answered from his seat. He was playing with the pendant he always wore around his neck, reclining across two chairs, the image of nonchalance.
"Amara Fontenot was her grandmother's name?" John asked suddenly.
"Yes. Why?" Madeleine asked.
"No reason." John answered.
A nurse came out then and approached the foursome. She had a carefully blank expression as she spoke.
"We got her stable again and she'd been put on a ventilator. Looks like she's a fighter after all." She added giving them a sad smile.
"Damn straight." Dean said allowing a fleeting smile.
"You can go sit with her now. Talk to her, it helps." The nurse told them gently and led them back to through the doors to Jack's room.
"Are you all family?" She asked as they followed.
"Yes Ma'am." John answered giving his most pathetic look to her, using pity to make up for none of them looking like Jack. It worked, the nurse bit her lower lip and gestured for them to follow her into the room.
Machines beeped and whirred keeping Jack alive, an oxygen mask covered her pale face, bags of medicine and blood were being pumped into the broken body. Jack's arms were bandaged with heavy gauze and her leg had a light splint on it, keeping it together till they were sure operating wouldn't be a wasted effort. No use walking at your own funeral, Dean thought scornfully.
"I'll leave you alone now." The nurse said quietly after checking the readouts on the machines. All anyone could was stare awkwardly after she left them alone, strangers with one person in common.
"I need a moment alone with Jacqueline." Madeleine said facing them. Her expression told them she wasn't asking.
"Alright we'll be right outside." John said hustling his sons out of the room.
Dean leaned against the far wall watching the door. Sam and John stood side by side next to her door. A beat of silence and Sam slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
"They're gonna want to look at us sooner or later, we're all kinds fucked up here." He said trying to break the silence.
"Maybe later." John said patting the hasty bandage job on his hurt arm. He'd faired worse before.
Madeleine walked tentatively closer to the hospital bed. She couldn't shake the image of Jack as a young girl, sarcastic, arrogant as all get out and a shameless flirt. And that was at eleven. She laughed a little to herself at the short memories of knowing the two survivors of the family.
"I never knew quite what to make of you." She told Jack. She reached out and touched a hand that was too cold. It didn't look like her lying in the bed. An immobile Jack was frightening to Madeleine. Jack's life lay in her eyes, the way they lit up when she slang a taunting answer in someone's direction. In her smile and that restlessness that defined her character.
"You and your damned Uncle, two peas in a pod." Madeleine said laughing despite the tears trying to escape her eyes. She blinked once and they left a wet trail down her cheeks.
That man was hopeless, he never took anything seriously, except his little niece. The two moved constantly, meeting once a month for awhile in Baton Rouge with her. As far as she knew the only times they ventured back into their hometown after Momma Fonty died was on the anniversaries of the family deaths. Chris would flirt with her and hedge her questions about how he was making a living. The ever unanswered question of why they never stayed anywhere for more than a few weeks hung over every conversation. She gave up asking after awhile, she never got a serious answer out of either of them.
"Please hold on, Jack." Madeleine pleaded with Jack squeezing her hand as much as she dared with all the damage and needles in her.
"Those guys seem to really care about you, you know. And I think Dean may just kill whoever has to deliver the news if you die. And he's way to pretty for jail, so you have to wake up." Madeleine said thinking of something Jack might see as a reason to pull through.
Madeleine let go of her hand, stepped back and took a deep breath. She wiped the tears from her cheeks then opened the hospital room door. They were standing still as statues, these people who seemed to care so much about her young friend, she wondered what they were to her, how she came to know them. Knowing Jack it could be anything, she attracted oddities.
"I-" Madeleine started then stopped not knowing what to say.
"Okay." Dean told her pushing off the wall walking past her into the room. She followed them back in and stayed when they didn't ask her to leave.
This room was private, probably because of all the machines taking up space. There were two chairs, Dean took one, John gestured towards the other for Madeleine. Chivalry isn't dead, she thought sitting down. Sam sat on the floor by his brother's leg. John stood against the door, standing guard.
Guarded, she thought watching them, like her wayward charge. Chris was like that too in his own way. Against what though, she had no clue. She was out of her depth here.
Silence prevailed for hours. No one spoke save the nurses and doctors checking frequently on their patient. Missouri came and had a whispered conversation with John. It was unclear she told him. She checked and rechecked but couldn't get an accurate reading. She sat by Jack's bedside alone for a few minutes and come out shaking her head.
"I'll try again later but the thoughts are too fractured right now." She explained to him.
"But there are thoughts." John stated.
"Yes but…" Missouri trailed off at a loss for words for once.
"Thanks." John said.
"Lets get a cup of coffee, John, you look exhausted." Missouri said. He nodded and followed her through the hall s to the cafeteria. John saw sunlight filtering through the windows and realized for the first time that it was daylight outside. People gawked as he passed by, still wearing the same clothes from the night before.
"You just lazy or are you trying to scare the staff?" Missouri asked as they filled Styrofoam cups with coffee.
"Can't I do both?" John asked. She gave him a weak smile and directed them to a small table far from everyone else.
"The boys okay?" Missouri asked as soon as they sat down.
"They're strong, they'll be alright." John said.
"I didn't ask how they would be I asked how they are." Missouri told him. He let out a deep sigh and drank deeply from his cup. The bitter liquid burned his throat.
"They got attached." He said putting down his cup.
"People do that occasionally." Missouri said slowly like he was an idiot. He glared at her and she returned the dirty look.
"Someone they don't have to lie to about everything. Someone like them, who could understand the way they were brought up." Missouri said.
"She was raised to run before trouble hit." John argued. He'd pieced that much together from what they already knew about her.
"Just because he didn't mount a crusade doesn't discount that her uncle taught her to fight and use her gifts." Missouri lectured. John thought about that then grudgingly nodded.
"What time is it?" John asked, wanting to change the subject.
"Nearly noon." Missouri said with amusement when he yawned deeply.
"Shit I'm getting old." John said finishing off his coffee in one gulp.
"I could've told you that." Missouri told him.
"Go to hell." He replied taking her coffee and finishing it for himself.
Madeleine gave John a withering look when he returned to the room.
"Hey boss." She said. His son's snickered quietly and one of them whispered 'busted' under his breath. So much solidarity.
"Just don't ask for a raise." John said rolling his eyes. He was on his third cup of coffee by then, silently reminding his tired body that it had gone for days without sleep on a hunt before.
"Any change?" He asked knowing the answer already.
"Nope." Dean said.
"Maybe someone should get some clothes or something from the house." Sam suggested. He was scraping dried blood off his hands wishing for a bath.
"I'll go, see if you guys can wrangle a shower while you wait here, I could smell you from down the hall." John said ruffling his youngest's hair.
"Glad someone said it." Madeleine mumbled.
"You said it a few minutes before he did." Dean told her.
"Well majority rules then." She said dryly.
An hour later they were all in fresh gear. The nurses were more than happy to give them use of the staff showers. And after an embarrassing twenty minutes in backless hospital gowns John arrived with their clothes. The day passed slowly with little talk and no change in Jack's condition.
"She's stable which is good for now but still in critical condition." The doctor said when he checked in that night. Trays of untouched food covered the limited table space.
"You know its a bit crowded in here maybe-"
"Unless this sentence ends in you offering a bigger room don't bother finishing it." Sam told the doctor.
Two days passed, they operated more thoroughly on Jacks leg, putting screws in her knee to reconnect it to the severe break. They said if she woke up they were confident she'd be able to walk again. The "if" was part of every conversation.
The men had to leave on the fourth day of their vigil to get some semblance of rest. John insisted on it. Even Madeleine gave up her fight against exhaustion and retreated to her hotel after giving Dean her the phone number for her hotel room and telling him to call her immediately if any news came in.
They fell into their beds sleeping deeply through the day. After eating dinner with Missouri and John the boys made their way back to the hospital refreshed.
When they came to the I.C.U. they were waylaid by Jack's doctor. They braced themselves for the worst.
"She's slipped into a coma, I'm sorry." He told them, sympathetically.
"Is she in pain?" Sam asked.
"No." He assured him.
"What's the difference between the way she was before and what she's in now?" Dean asked.
"She was responsive to pain before." The doctor explained.
"So what now?" Dean asked.
"We've done all we can, from our tests she seemed to be doing alright, stable. But she's fading now, I can't explain why." The doctor said looking perplexed.
"What like she's giving up or something?" Dean demanded.
"I don't know sir, really I don't. You have my deepest sympathies. We'll do everything that we can to help, should you choose to take her off life support." The doctor told them. Sam's head snapped up fast in disbelief.
"What the hell is it with this hospital? I thought you people were supposed to save lives." Dean snapped.
"We're not making that kind of decision any time soon Doctor." Sam said pulling his brother away from the doctor. He kept his arm around Dean's shoulder till they were down the hall and in Jack's room.
"Why would she do that?" Dean asked.
"Its not like she has a choice, its not that simple Dean." Sam tried to explain. But Dean was having none of that.
"It is, she's tougher than this. She shouldn't giving up." Dean said shrugging Sam off him.
"Maybe it hurts too much." Sam said quietly looking at Jack. Dean didn't answer he just took his usual seat and stared at the ceiling.
"I wonder what she's thinking, if she is at all." Sam said sitting down.
"I don't know but if she dies after all his shit I swear I'll kick her ghostly ass all over the place." Dean said making Sam snort with laughter.
TBC………
AN: A nice long chapter hot of the presses. Hopefully it makes up for me putting Jack in this horrible state. The next chapter is going to be underway immediately.