Chapter 22
Kathleen's horrified eyes darted to where John Winchester was barely moving on the ground. Then she looked at the man who had been tackled. The person in question sat up and cast eager, pale green eyes to where Kathleen sat with her little girl. Kaylee was sobbing wildly and burying herself in her mother's embrace.
"Liam, are you all right?" Kathleen asked through tears. The green-eyed man nodded and pushed himself from the ground. He returned to where Kaylee knelt and ran a hand over her hair. The girl screamed again and shrunk deeper into Kathleen's arms.
Sam hurried into action. Ignoring the pain beating steadily in his head, he sprung to his feet and pulled the man known as Liam away from Kaylee. The girl's screams stopped, but she still cried in agony. Her parents held her to offer a comfort that she clearly wasn't feeling. Sam felt a solid punch to his cheek and his head snapped to the side as stars danced across his line of sight. The demon bastard had hit him! Sam retaliated with a punch of his own, but it never landed as the demon in Liam's form expertly dodged out of the way. Within seconds, Sam found himself pinned to the ground with the heel of a shoe pressed firmly against his neck. He choked around the obstacle trying to draw a breath that would not come.
Nearby, The Winchester father had managed to pull himself to his knees by grabbing the headstone to lever himself up. However, he was unable to find the strength to go any further as the world tilted and spun around him, causing him to tightly close his eyes and block out the view of his youngest boy being choked by the demon.
This was insane! His father hadn't really expected him to remain behind while he and Sam gallivanted off to send some demon back to hell, did he? If so, than his father was crazier than a pack of hyenas. He wasn't going to lay around in a hospital bed, being lazy and watching the atrocity that was daytime TV, while the only family he had was out laying their asses on the line to make the world a better place. No freakin' way!
Dean smiled smugly to himself as he successfully checked himself out of the hospital by flirting with the cute nurse at the patient desk. He fished his wallet from his pocket and frowned. How was he going to get to the cemetery? The Impala was at the motel and his father and brother had taken the only other means of transportation in the parking lot. He quickly counted his money and made a decision. He'd take a cab to the cemetery and leave his baby in her parking spot at the motel until he could get back to her. Right now, however, his family came first and he figured he'd get there quicker by cab.
Flagging one down wasn't hard and soon he was on his way to the cemetery, hoping that the driver of the cab would be a speedy Simon and he'd get to his family before he could bat an eye. He leaned ahead in the back seat and tapped the driver's shoulder. The man eyed Dean in the rearview mirror with a questioning glance on his face.
"Step on it, will ya? I'm on a deadline." The oldest Winchester brother asked.
"You're on a deadline to get to a cemetery?" The driver questioned in surprise.
"Oh you better believe it. My grandma passed away and she was a stickler for being on time. I don't want to give her a reason to come back and haunt me. She'd whack me with a magazine and repeat what she always said to me about being on a schedule: 'A man on schedule is a man worthy of the ladies.' I can't let all the lovely ladies of the world down because I forgot to listen to my grandma, now can I?" Dean replied with a look that said he was serious.
"Guess not. I wouldn't want to be responsible for a haunting. You got it." The driver smiled and pressed the gas down further.
The vehicle pulled up in front of the cemetery less than ten minutes later, only to be greeted with the flashing lights of an ambulance and a flurry of activity behind the gates of the graveyard. The driver gawked at the scene and Dean practically threw himself out the door, tossed the taxi fare in the passenger seat and raced over the ground to where a group was gathered.
The ambulance sirens blared in Sam's ears and took the demon's attention for just a moment, but that moment was more than what Sam needed to trip the creature up and roll coughing out of stomping range. The demon snapped his head up to see the youngest brother climbing to his feet with a hand clutching his throat. Sam's eyes didn't leave the demon, yet when the paramedics began hurrying across the grounds, the creature in human disguise rushed off into the far corners of the cemetery. Sam followed.
Dean searched the group with anxious eyes and saw his father sitting against a tombstone looking dazed, but perfectly healthy. He hurried to John's side and dropped to his knees. His gaze drilled into his father's expression and then he tossed a look over his shoulder to where body bags were being wheeled away and Kaylee was being carefully strapped to a stretcher and pushed away with her parents in tow.
A paramedic came to John's side and knelt. She was young, maybe twenty-seven, and she searched John's face for any signs of deeper problems than what showed on the surface. From the dazed look in his eyes, she finalized that this man had hit his head and she began carefully feeling around the skull until she hit a tender spot and John hissed.
"Sir, you might have a concussion, I strongly suggest you come to the hospital and get checked out." She spoke in a kind tone.
John shook his head. "No, I'm fine."
"But, sir."
"I'm fine. I'll just get my son here to take me home."
The paramedic cast fleeting eyes to where Dean was kneeling, still looking rather pale and she sighed stiffly.
"If you start to experience any odd symptoms like dizziness, or nausea you get your son to take you to the hospital right away."
"Don't worry, I'll get him there if something goes funky." Dean replied and flashed a smile at the woman, who nodded and got back up.
"Watch him closely." The paramedic stated.
"Like a hawk." Dean assured her. She turned and jogged over to where Kaylee was just being loaded into the ambulance.
The alarmed funeral party filed out of the cemetery, some with more tears in their eyes than when they had come and Dean watched them go before turning on his father.
"What the hell, dad? Where's Sammy?" Dean asked anxiously looking around.
"He went after the demon when it ran." John replied.
"You didn't banish that freakshow?" Dean shot.
"I didn't get the chance to finish the incantation," John sighed. Then his eyes blazed as they critically stared at Dean.
"What are you doing here? I told you to stay behind." John hissed.
"It looks like I'm saving your sorry asses. You didn't really expect me to stay in that bed while you two got bested by a demon, did you?"
"I had expected you to listen to me for once in your life." John replied.
"For once in my life? Dad, I listen to you on a daily basis, every time you send a pair of coordinates, I do what a good little hunter should do and follow them! Don't tell me that I never listen to you!" Dean snapped.
"Do you know how much danger you've just put yourself in? I told you that Sam and I could take care of the demon, you're still recovering." John said.
"How much danger I've put myself in? You're the one who got his head slammed into a rock by that thing you said you could take care of. Maybe I'm missing something here, but it doesn't exactly look like you gained the upper hand." Dean replied, hauling his father to his feet.
John was stormily silent, but it didn't stop him from glaring at his oldest boy. There was a startled shout from the far end of the graveyard and Dean's eyes widened as he recognized the voice as belonging to Sam.
"Sammy?" Dean shouted.
He released his father, who had by now regained his balance, and took off in the direction that Sam had called out from. John followed behind and recited the incantation over and over again in his head. He was going to finish the job this time; he had to, before the demon killed his sons and every other occupant of Serenity.
The Winchester men's feet pounded against the ground as they rushed to aid the youngest of the three. They reached the back gates of the cemetery and looked beyond them to where Sam was on his knees near a large tree and the demon, still in Liam's form had his hands planted firmly on either side of Sam's face. The creature looked preoccupied and didn't even notice the two men rushing out the nearest opening toward the ailing man.
