Dean and Sam arrive in a small college town where coeds are mysteriously disappearing, but the aftermath of the hunt leaves the boys struggling with something they never dreamed could happen. Will they be able to deal with the consequences or will the boys finally have to give up the hunt?
I do not own Dean and Sam, just the story.
Hey guys! Thanks again for all your encouraging reviews. I've gotten so used to just writing for myself that I forgot how good it feels to get positive feedback. I figured the only thing I could do in return was to hammer out yet another chapter for you guys. Ajali - thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I've never really experienced a dislocated shoulder, so I have no idea what it's really like, but I see Dean as a hardass who never shows his pain. Hopefully the additional pain in the next chapter will suffice. I can't promise to include more dialogue (I've always been more of a narrator than a dialoguer - yeah yeah, not really a word - and old habits die hard) but I'll do my best to incorporate more dialogue. And don't worry about me taking anything the wrong way, my biggest pet peeve in college was getting papers back without any feedback. If you can dish it I can take it. Thanks guys! Enjoy!
Sam's breathing was getting shallower and he sucked in a raspy breath before he was able to speak. "You can't move me," he insisted. "Dean, I can't feel my legs."
"You what?" Dean glared at Sam, holding back the urge to smack him upside the head. "Sam, this is absolutely no time to be joking. People are dead here, and you're about to join them if we don't get you to a hospital."
"It's not a joke," Sam rasped, his eyes beginning to glaze over. "They're numb. And I've been trying to move them for several minutes. I don't think they're doing anything. Are they?"
Dean looked over at his brother's motionless legs, Sam's pitiful voice resounding loudly in his ears. This was no time to lose hope. Dean put on his best convincing smile and reappeared in his brother's line of sight. "Of course they are Sammy," he assured the youngest Winchester. "Everything's fine. But we're gonna call 911 just to be on the safe side, OK little brother?" Dean eyed Laura, and the look alone was enough to tell her what she needed to do. Find a phone and get the paramedics to his brother immediately. Yesterday would be too late in Dean's opinion.
He hated the idea of having to leave his little brother alone, but the place was going to be swarming with cops any minute now and he had to get rid of the creature before anyone else saw it. Hunter's etiquette 101 had taught them that it was necessary to keep as many innocents in the dark as possible. It was bad enough that Laura had seen everything, and he still hadn't talked to her about keeping her mouth shut. The last thing they needed was for brain boy's picture to be splashed all over the morning newspaper. There would be far too many questions to be answered and Dean had more important things to worry about. Namely, Sam.
Dean's shoulder screamed in agony as he dragged the creature out of sight, but he pushed himself harder knowing that the sooner he got rid of the evidence the sooner he could return to Sam's side. He could hear sirens in the distance as he returned to his little brother's side.
"They're almost here, Sammy," Dean said as he dropped to his brother's side again noticing Sam's eye's were closed. "Come on, bro. You just gotta hang on a little bit longer. We're gonna get you to the hospital." When Sam failed to respond Dean cried out desperately. "I'm not losing you, Sammy! You hang on, hear me? Hang On."
Seconds later Laura was at Dean's side again, gently prying him away from Sam's side so the paramedics could get in and do their job. Despite the fact that she'd just lost a friend, she was still whispering soothing words into Dean's ear. Within minutes Sam had been immobilized and strapped onto a stretcher and they were passing him hand over hand through the opening in the wall.
A massive crowd had gathered out in front of Weston House and they watched with morbid curiosity as Sam was wheeled out the front doors and placed into the waiting ambulance. Questions about what had happened to him and whether it had been another attack sounded through Dean's mind as he blindly pushed his way through the crowd behind his brother. He jumped into the waiting ambulance and vaguely remembered Laura's voice telling him she'd meet him at the hospital before the doors closed and the ambulance roared away. Sam had been unresponsive since Dean had returned to him and nothing changed on the ride to the hospital.
The paramedics worked fervently on Sam's lifeless body, starting IV lines and feeding him oxygen among other things Dean didn't understand, but nothing brought Sam around. Despite their best efforts his vitals had been steadily dropping, and a there was an obvious note of urgency in the voices as the ambulance doors opened at the ER and Sam's statistics were announced to the waiting doctors and nurses. Dean chased Sam and the team down the hall to the waiting room, squirming out of the arms of several nurses and orderlies who tried to stop him. "He's my brother!" Dean insisted. "I have to stay with him. He needs me."
Dean made it all the way through the swinging double doors of ER 2 before he was finally stopped by an imposing male orderly. "Son, you can't be in here. We need to let them do their job."
"I have to be with him," Dean repeated. "I can't leave my bother."
"You're not going to be doing anything but getting in the way. Come on, lets go out and wait. I promise the doctors will come talk to you as soon as they know anything."
Exhausted and deflated Dean gave in to the orderlies request far more easily than he would have had he been in perfect health, and followed him back through the doors and down the hall to the waiting room. They were just far enough out of ear shot for Dean to miss the monitors shrieking frantically as Sam's heart monitor flat-lined.
The orderly had finally managed to convince Dean to sit when Laura burst through the ER entrance. Dean popped back up to his feet and met Laura half way. "How is he?" she pressed.
"I don't know," Dean answered. "They wouldn't let me stay with him."
"He's gonna be fine. I don't even know you guys that well and I can already tell your brother's a fighter." Laura scrutinized Dean critically. He was covered in mud from head to toe and there were rips and tears all over his clothing. Bruises covered Dean's throat in the shape of a giant hand print. His knuckles were scraped raw and blood had clotted all over the back of his hands and down his arms from pounding his fists on the concrete. Blood poured from an open gash on his temple. His left arm still hung limply at his side, and although Dean tried to hide it Laura could tell he was in serious pain. "You, on the other hand, look like you've been through both world wars and the apocalypse. Have you seen a doctor?"
"I'm fine," Dean lied, easing himself into one of the hard plastic chairs in the waiting area. "I need to focus on my brother right now."
"You're not fine," Laura protested. "You've got a dislocated shoulder and you're bleeding. You have to get that taken care of."
"I will," Dean insisted. "Just as soon as I know Sam's gonna be OK."
"We could be waiting a long time," Laura told him logically. "You'd be better off taking care of yourself now. That way you can be with him when he–"
"I said I'm fine!" Dean snapped, interrupting her. "Back off, will ya?"
Laura backed away physically, but her mind was still working over time trying to figure out a way to get Dean checked out. "Fine. I'm getting us something to drink. I'll be back in a minute."
"I'm not thirsty!" Dean yelled after her, but his protests went unheard. He flopped back against the back of the seat, closing his eyes and biting his lip against the pain that flowed like hot lava through his body. I have to push through this. I can't be hurt right now; not when Sammy's going through hell down the hall.
Meanwhile, Laura had doubled back once she was positive Dean wasn't watching her and made a beeline to the nurses station. She leaned over the counter and whispered to the sympathetic looking nurse on the other side. "Hi, I hope you can give me a hand with something. You see that guy sitting over there in the chairs?" She nudged her head in Dean's direction. Only a few people inhabited the ER at this hour of the night and the nurse spotted him easily. Accepting the nurses nod as confirmation that she had, indeed, spotted Dean, Laura continued. "He came in with his brother a little while ago; his brother's in pretty rough shape; but he's in bad shape too. And he's refusing to see a doctor until he know's his brother's OK. Do you think you could get someone to come out and look at him out here?"
The young nurse contemplated Laura's request for a minute. "I suppose that would be OK," she said finally, hesitantly. "Normally we like to give out patients privacy, but–"
"That would be great," Laura interrupted her before she could change her mind. "We'll just be waiting over there." Flashing her biggest smile of appreciation at the nurse, Laura turned and returned to Dean.
"Where are the drinks?" Dean asked suspiciously, noticing their blatant lack of existence.
"I didn't get anything," Laura replied bluntly. "I went to get you a doctor."
"You did what?" Dean growled. "I told you I was fine! I don't need to see a doctor."
"I'm not arguing with you. I can be just as stubborn as you can, and I'm a woman. Women always get their way." Laura winked.
Dean would have continued to protest, but they were joined by a doctor and the nurse from behind the counter before he was able to open his mouth again. He glared stubbornly at all three of them, feeling as though he was about to be the victim of an intervention. But he couldn't deny the intensity of the pain encompassing his body. At the very least they would be able to give him some pain killers to dull the pain. It might even help him to focus better on Sam, providing the pain killers weren't too strong. "Alright, you can look at me. But do it quickly."
"Any chance we might be able to get you to come with us to an exam room?" asked the doctor. "You may want some privacy when we set that shoulder. It's not exactly a day at the beach."
Dean shook his head emphatically. "I can't leave my brother."
"Please go with them," Laura pleaded. "I'll stay right here. I promise you'll know when there's any news on Sam."
The pain was worsening by the second. Dean wasn't in the mood to argue anymore. "Fine," he snapped, jumping to his feet a little too fast and swaying a little before he found a firm footing. "Let's just get this over with." As he followed the doctor down the hall Dean turned to Laura. "Don't even think about keeping me in the dark for my own good! The second you know something about Sam, I better know it too!"
"AAARRRGGGHHH!" Dean's scream cut through the ER as the doctor pulled his arm, resetting the shoulder back in it's socket. 'There was no time for local anesthetics,' Dean had informed the doctor, annoyed that he would even consider making Dean wait any longer than was absolutely necessary. Spots danced in front of Dean's eyes as he tried to recover from the pain. His breathing came out in ragged gasps, only aggravated by the bruised trachea from being strangled.
"Give him a sedative," the doctor ordered his nurse calmly. "This is too much for him."
Dean forced himself to pull it together at the mention of the sedative. "NO," he snapped as forcefully as he could muster considering he hadn't sucked in a full breath of air in several minutes. "Just finish stitching me up so I can get back to my brother."
Deciding he would get more cooperation out of the young man by doing as Dean asked than by insisting on his way the doctor yielded. The plan of action would be to multi-task, and as the nurse fitted Dean with a sling for his arm and cleaned and bandaged his knuckles while the doctor stitched up the gash on Dean's forehead.
They'd worked quickly, having Dean ready to leave in a fraction of the time it would normally take, but he barely issued a thank you before he was sprinting back down the hall to Laura and the waiting room. "Any news?" he asked impatiently.
"Nothing. I haven't even seen anyone come out of the ER since you left."
"What the hell is taking them so long? This is a bad sign, a really bad sign!"
"I'm sure they're just being thorough," Laura insisted, guiding Dean back into a chair.
Dean wasn't so sure, and as they sat in silence for the next half hour his mind played terrible tricks on him, flashing every possible scenario at him. He'd been so deep in thoughts about Sam that he barely heard Laura's hesitant voice break through his nightmare.
"That thing...it wasn't human, was it?" Laura asked quietly, her eyes darting nervously around the waiting room to be sure no one was listening to their conversation.
Dean shook his head slowly, rhythmically. "Not even close. But I don't know for sure what it was exactly. That's Sam's area of expertise. He does most of the research."
"Sooo I take it that wasn't the first non-human thing you guys have encountered?"
"You got it," Dean monotoned.
"And I guess you guys aren't really private detectives, either."
Dean chose his words carefully. "Not in the traditional sense of the word. People don't really hire us. We're more like freelancers. Most of the time you people have no idea what's really out there, so you can't exactly hire us to get rid of it."
"How did you guys get into this kind of work?" Laura asked, scooting closer to Dean with curiosity.
"It's a long story. One I really don't want to get into right now." His voice alone told Laura to quit with the third degree, but even if she hadn't gotten the hint the image of a doctor emerging from Sam's ER stopped the line of questioning dead. Dean and Laura both stood anxiously, trying to read the doctor's stoic expression.
"Are you with Sam Winchester?" the doctor asked unnecessarily.
"He's my brother. I'm Dean."
"Dean, I'm Dr. Reynolds. Let's have a seat."
"Quit stalling," Dean spat, ignoring the order to sit. "Just tell me. My brother– how is he? Is he OK?"
The doctor sighed and looked at Dean sympathetically. "I'm sorry son."