Disclaimer: If you recognize it from Supernatural I don't own it. I'm just playing with it!
Hunted
John Winchester is hunted by more then just demons.
Chapter Thirty Four
He was flat on his back. His chest was burning with pain. He tried to get up. He was held down. He fought. "You can't have them!" he yelled at it. His whole body was on fire, he was burning up. He sank back into darkness.
He was floating in an ocean of pain and fire. He couldn't move. He was tied down. They had him. How? He could hear them talking about his boys. His boys were hurt. They had them too? He tried to open his eyes so could see them but they were too heavy. He tried to stay awake he had to find a way to escape. He struggled against his bonds.
"Don't fight it, John. You can't fight us," it said.
"Watch me," he tried to shout as he struggled to break the bonds that held him.
"Damn it, get the morphine," one of them said.
"No!" he yelled and struggled harder but he couldn't fight the drugs and he floated back into oblivion.
He woke up shivering. He opened his eyes but couldn't make them focus so he closed them again. Where was he?
"John," a soft voice said. "I know its cold, but we had to get the fever down. It was topping a hundred and four."
He opened his eyes again and tried to focus on the voice. It was vaguely familiar. Damn he was cold. He blinked several times and finally he was able to focus his eyes. "Jefferson?" he said in a soft whisper.
The other man sighed, relief plain on his face. "Welcome back," he said as he held a cup of water and John took a few sips.
John tried to raise his hands, but found them tied down. He looked at Jefferson and said, "That bad?"
He nodded. "That bad," he replied as he removed the restraints from John's arms and legs. "You fought us pretty hard for a while there, but I think we can remove these now."
John knew his injuries were bad, but if Jefferson was here it was worse then he'd thought. The man was a doctor, one of the best. He shivered again and told his friend, "Its cold." There was very little pain and John figured that whatever pharmaceuticals Jefferson was slipping him were working.
"I know. It's the ice packs we have packed around you. I couldn't get the fever down. If this didn't work we were going to put you in an ice bath. And the way you were fighting us it would have taken all three to do it, so I'm glad this is working."
"Three?" John said looking around. He didn't see anyone else, but he noted the I.V. that trailed down to his arm and he could feel the thick bandages covering his chest as well as the ice packs surrounding his body.
"Yeah, that first night you showed up here on Daniel's doorstep. You were in pretty bad shape. He called Pastor Jim. I was there taking care of my other two patients. Jim told me the whole story. I flew out as quickly as I could. Bobby came over to set protection for us and once he tasted Daniels cooking he refused to leave."
It took a few minutes for what Jefferson told him to sink in and he remembered the attack and his phone call to Jim. "Dean. Sam?" John asked.
"They're both fine," Jefferson said. "Unlike you they took time to clean their wounds and apply field dressings. They're not likely to even have any scars. You on the other hand will have several, including a nice one down the side of your face."
"I deserve them," John told his friend. "I almost got my boys killed."
"Hogwash!" Jefferson said. "Someone needs to beat both you and Dean over the head with a stick. You're both blaming yourselves for this. How about you try blaming the demon that did it instead?"
John was going to reply but the sneaky bastard put a thermometer in his mouth as soon as he opened it up.
"Get this through that thick head of yours John Winchester," the man said. "This was not your fault!"
"Listen to him boy," said someone from across the room. "He's tellin' you true. You always did take too much responsibility on yourself."
John looked at Daniel Elkins. He looked older then the last time John had seen him and he was a bit thinner on top, but other than that he was the same man who had taught John most of what he knew about hunting. Daniel was giving John that look. The one that said what the hell were you thinking?
Jefferson reached down and took the thermometer from John and read it. "That's more like it, one hundred point six. Not perfect, but I can live with that. More importantly," he said to John, "You can live with it.
"How long have I been here?" John asked wearily.
"Six days," Daniel said stepping over to the bed. "You gave me one hell of a scare that first night. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep you alive until Jefferson got here."
"Six days?" John said incredulously. "That's too long," he said as he tried to sit up.
Jefferson reached over and gently pushed John back down onto the bed, "Where do you think you're going?"
"It's too dangerous," John said struggling weakly against his friends restraining hand. "You're all in danger."
Bobby stepped up beside Daniel and took Jefferson's place as he moved back. "John, I've taken care of it," Bobby said. "This cabin is now just as safe as my place."
John sighed. He looked at the men standing at his bedside and for the first time in a long time he felt truly safe. But it worried him that his safety might come at a very high cost. These men were family to him and he didn't want any of them hurt or killed because of him. John also knew that in his current condition he was powerless to do anything about it.
"John," Jefferson said. "I'm giving you something that's going to help you rest. Now that we've got the fever down, all you're going to need is rest and time to heal."
John looked at Jefferson, Bobby and Daniel and he told them the same thing he told his son's the last time he'd seen them. "Be careful boys." He heard Daniel's snort of derision as he drifted off peacefully into a dreamless healing sleep.
For the next week John spent his time sleeping and healing. Jefferson left the second day after John woke up. He left strict orders regarding John's recovery and informed them he'd be back in a week.
Pastor Jim called the day the boys left his place. He told John they were, for the most part, healed. And while they worried about their dad they now understood the need for the separation. At least Dean did, Sammy, not so much. But they also understood that they had become targets themselves and that they needed to keep moving.
John healed physically it took time, more time than he liked, but that was his own fault. Jefferson was right he should have field dressed his wounds. It was the nightmare that was the worst of it. It started after he stopped using the morphine. John would wake up in a cold sweat screaming. It was the same nightmare time after time.
Dean was on the floor curled into a fetal position. Pain filled screams ripped from his throat as an unseen force tore him apart while John was forced to watch. And then he'd see Sammy, but his eyes, his eyes were a sickly shade of yellow grey and he laughed at the treatment of his brother. And when Dean's screams finally stopped; when he was gone forever; then Sammy would turn to him and say, "This one I'm going to keep. He is mine now." And John knew it wasn't his Sammy, not anymore. And he knew he had failed them both horribly and as soon as that realization sank in. Then Sammy would reach out and push his hand into John's chest and rip out his already broken heart.
The third time he woke up screaming both Bobby and Daniel sat with him and coaxed the details of the dream from him. Bobby looked at Daniel when John had finished speaking and he nodded.
"John," Daniel said. "We've been wanting to talk to you about something. I want you to listen for a few minutes, don't interrupt just let me finish. I know you're not really going to like it, but we feel like you need to hear it."
"What?" John asked skeptically.
"We think you're making a mistake. We think it would be better, safer for all of you, if you teamed back up with your boys." Daniel saw John was about to comment and held his hand up and said, "John, just listen. You don't have to take our advice, but it won't hurt to listen to it."
It was Bobby who continued, "You three are strongest when you work together. Those diva's that attacked you, no one has ever gotten away from them. Everything I have been able to find says that once they are released nothing can stop them from destroying their prey. But you and your boys, you did. You got away because you worked together as a team."
"John," Daniel said. "We know you are worried about your boys, but you have trained them well and we think you give them less credit then they deserve. You were a Marine John, what did they teach you about trying to do things by yourself in the Marines? You know better to work as a team. It's time you stopped trying to be Rambo and started acting like a Marine again."
John listened silently as his friends spoke and when they were done he told them the same thing he'd been telling himself since Jericho. "I know my boys are good, but I can not… I will not watch them die. Don't you understand? That would kill me."
"And what are your boys going to do if you die, John?" Bobby asked.
"There is a possibility that will happen," John said. "I am willing to accept that risk, in fact I don't expect to come out of this fight in one piece. But that demon is going to be destroyed if it is the last thing I do on this earth."
"Just think about what we said John," Daniel told him. "Everyone needs help sometimes and knowing who to accept it from is sometimes harder then actually accepting it."
A/N Okay, I know it took a tad bit longer then usual but I was slightly distracted by the other story I'm working on called Twister. I'm trying to post a chapter for each story every day, but sometimes I don't quite get done on time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll post another as soon as it's done. Thanks again and please review!
p.s. I'm sure some of you noticed but I took a bit of liberty with one the characters from the show. I made Jefferson a doctor. In the show it never says what his profession actually is but since I needed a doctor and Jefferson was available for the part.