Solitary Man – chpt 9
By sifi
By the time the sky lightened to gray, Dean found himself at a place called North Avenue Beach. His eyes, normally so vibrantly green were now gray to match the lake. Twenty yards… I'd be in Lake Michigan… wonder how long I could just… float…
"You can't do that Dean."
He hitched a breath and looked to the right, "Sam?" he sniffed feeling his eyes fill up again.
"Well yeah… and no, but you know that," he smiled softly.
"Yeah, I guess I do…" he breathed watching the waves break, suddenly, and for the first time in his life, frightened by what he might find in his little brothers' eyes. The fear, the hate, the loathing… he just couldn't. "What happened Sammy?" he asked hoping to make some sense of the evening's happenings.
"You're not alone Dean… I won't leave you… I promise,"
Dean looked to his right again knowing the spectre of his little brother would be gone when he did. He was right.
He huffed and returned his gaze to rolling whitecaps on the gray lake.
--
"Damn!" Sam barked wondering if his skull really was splitting in half, Almost! I almost had him! he slid off the chair, onto his knees. He was exhausted. For nearly seven hours he'd been trying to reach Dean without even a glimmer of success, then just as he thought he felt something, it was gone again.
"I'm here Dean," he sniffed resting his head on his shoulder and hoping by some miracle he was heard somewhere in his psyche, "You're not alone."
On the verge of crashing hard for his exertions, he barely moved when the cell phone broke the uncomfortable quiet of the room.
"Hello," he answered flatly.
"Sam? It's Laura… Where's Dean?"
He actually chuckled and felt pricks at the corners of his eyes as he wondered once more, where his brother was, what kind of world he was in, inside his own head.
"I really don't know…" he actually chuckled shakily.
"Sam!" she snapped sternly then moaned, "…talk to me…"
Hey brainiac… she sounds like hell… like… hurt… pull it together! his rational mind slapped his emotional one.
"He's right next to me… physically, I think he's fine…I think…" he answered shoving his fears aside.
"Is he hurt?" She was breathing hard now.
"That I really don't know… he's… I don't know… locked… in his head somewhere…"
"Tell me everything," she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Whatever had called her away from his brother, whatever hunt she'd been on had left her worse for the wear. You're someone my brother cares about… you'd best be careful!
Sam told her everything, beginning with the messages from Shep and his insistence on leaving Dean out of this one, all the way through losing the wiry man by the river. A few times, when he paused in his telling, she was so quiet he wasn't sure she was there anymore.
"Okay…" she said softly, "I'll see what I can find out and call you back… with any luck before tonight…Just… Sam? Stay with him… don't leave him… please…" her voice broke on the last word sending waves of gooseflesh through him. He knew she loved Dean but something in the weight of that single word made him wince.
"I'm not going anywhere," he assured knowing that if she said she'd call, she'd call. Whatever was wrong with her was most likely something she'd recover quickly from.
Yeah… she'll be fine…hell I shoved a dagger through her throat and she bounced right back from that… what am I worried about? he wondered. But he was worried.
--
Laura closed the cell and pushed herself to her feet, the brick wall her only stability. Her eyes slid over the unconscious body splayed precariously atop the pile of rubble that used to be the gargoyle female. His position made the world feel off kilter and turned her stomach. She quickly turned her head away feeling her visual track lag behind as she took as deep a breath as possible without causing a coughing fit or a deep cutting sting. Her eyes focused on the gold four door sedan two blocks away as she let go the security of the building.
Thankfully downtown Bentonville Arkansas was still wrapped in darkness and its residents by and large, still slumbering.
Laura's life, since she met the Winchesters had taken a turn she never could have anticipated despite her own unusual circumstances. In the end she knew it wouldn't matter that she'd bought the freedom of her brothers' soul with her own blood and indentured servitude, it didn't matter how many ways her body was to be broken; she wouldn't have traded any of it if doing so meant never having met the boys, never having met Dean. He'd become, in some ways, the moon of her life and though she'd told him frequently, and showed him at every appropriate opportunity that she loved him, if he'd ever verbalized a similar feeling she would've been terrified. It was enough she felt the things she did when they were together, he was sensitive… more than he let anyone else see anyway, and that told her all she needed to know. It was enough.
Aw hell… she thought clutching at a streetlamp as she turned around and looked behind her to the unconscious possessed man, That's just bloody freaking brilliant! the one way you have to find out… frikkin' stupid Laura! She'd gotten so accustomed to the limited resources she had when dealing with the evils in the world that she forgot about her one gift, the very method she'd used to learn the truth about the Winchester family.
She looked to the left and the sprawled possessed guy, then to the right and her car, a shining golden beacon of comfort. She was smack in the middle.
Man…she whined inside and whimpered but turned back anyway.
What're you doing Laura? You aren't really considering dipping into a demon are you? Well yeah… I kinda need to know what it did to Dean…she answered herself, Hello McFly… what happens when you dip? she had a flash of a memory of Dean's head popping up through the mashed center of Metallicar's floor after she dipped into his mind and took a slice of his consciousness into her own mind.
Her belly flipped over, Oh yeah… I forgot about that…You wanna go running around with a piece of Demon in you? You could do more harm than good!... it'll take a while for the piece to coalesce… I'd have enough time to call Sam, tell him how to help… Yeah, then beat down the door and kill them both… A slice of somebody else never changed my personality…Yeah but this is a DEMON! I have to take this chance, I'll do whatever it takes… it's Dean! Sheesh… hero complex much? I'll have a couple hours before it manifests… if need be…
She lowered herself to her knees beside the demon-man and touched his temple with her forefinger, "Show me," she instructed softly.
Her breath stopped a moment and tears sprang to her eyes. In the span of a few heartbeats she saw everything it wove through Dean's consciousness. Every way it was going to beat down his defenses until nothing remained.
In Dean's mind he would be forever one step behind this demon, following a trail of corpses, each a person he cared about, and each murdered in increasingly brutal and horrific ways until the heart that gave the Winchester family the strength of its convictions, simply broke.
The ferocious cruelty of the demons full plan seemed to freeze her to the core. It wasn't enough the creature had woven these atrocities into the subdued consciousness but the knowledge that it also planned to carry out its evil in this plan as well stymied her. Its rationale was simple. Should the eldest child miraculously shake off his induced state and come up from what he thought was merely a nightmare, he would find himself not only mistaken, but horribly so. He would awaken to a carnival of death dedicated solely to him. There would be no escape from this nightmare in waking, there would be no escape from it by any living means if this demon had its way.
Having seen from its own sinister perspective what it intended to do, what lengths it was prepared to go to, Laura could barely fish her phone out of her pocket. The poison of this beings' life energy coursed through her. It was no more or less than a malicious fire that was quickly spreading, trying to melt her very nature and forge it as its own.
Her vision began to cloud as she stumbled back toward her car, fell to her knees and watched the cell skitter out of reach. She felt the asphalt in her hands and skittered after it. The fog over her vision began to brighten with the morning sky as sweat poured out and she reached the door handle.
Just get into the car… just get inside…she pushed and felt her body give a giant squeeze as blood and bile erupted onto the street before her. Okay… that's bad…a small and far too human voice within her pointed out but the best part of her replied simply, resignedly, and most important, willingly, Doesn't matter… rest later… just get in the car and make the call… Laura would never figure out how it happened but the car door closed and she found herself inside, pressing the phone to the steering wheel with one hand while she forced enough focus on the screen to highlight Dean's cell number and press send.
--
"Laura?" Sam answered, his voice thick with fatigue.
"Wake him up… doesn't matter how… wake him up before they all die…" she breathed.
Sam felt his blood run cold, her voice was not her own, behind the words, only emptiness existed It's not her… it can't be her… her voice doesn't sound like that…he thought wondering if this was all part of the demon bastards' sick game.
"How?" he asked then amended, "How do I know you're you?"
She whimpered something unintelligible on her end of the line and Sam closed his eyes, focused and envisioned himself reaching out to her, to feel the woman he knew and hope to discern the difference between her and some possible pretender.
"Okay…. I love him… Sam… feel it… I love him…" she forced through the airwaves and gasped quietly in the background as he felt himself wrapped in a feeling some deep visceral part of him recognized.
"Okay… how do I wake him?" he nodded swallowing hard and remembering somewhere, some…when, when he'd felt love like that.
She cried out on her end and he heard the unmistakable sound of not-so-dry heaving. "God… please…" she gasped in the background.
Oh man… this is bad… I knew she was hurt… why isn't she recovering? Why isn't she better already? She's a freakin' emissary of a deity! She's a hunter in her own right! Please… whatever might be out there…just… please… "Laura… where are you? You sound…"
"Nothing else matters…just…" 'Dean' she thought, "…Please Sam… please… wake him…"
Sam barely heard the last. If he hadn't had the majority of his being focused on her fading voice he might not have heard it at all. If anything happens to you it'll kill him, I don't know if he's said it, I don't know if he even knows it… but God help me if I don't do this… I'd rather face your wrath than his for not doing anything, not when I could have... He thought as he closed his eyes and gasped a breath before dialing a number he knew all too well.
--
I have to get there… I have to be there for him… I have to…I have to find a way to wake him up before this happens, before this nightmare becomes a reality… It doesn't matter Laura, come on! she looked across the street, to the pile of marble chunks and debris and closed her eyes sighing as she leaned back for a moment before another wave of evil induced nausea rushed through her. He's gone… you let him go… he's going to go back and watch Dean lose it… he's going to go back and finish the job… make sure it's done right… He's thorough, I'll give him that… she slid the key into the ignition slot, turned it longer than necessary but her faithful Hunny turned over and held even as her hand slid from the ignition and consciousness slipped away.
--
tbc… you know what I need… sorry so… meh…
sifi