-1Wow….Once again I must thank all of you for your wonderful responses, I did want to take a minute to explain my reasoning for John's actions and demeanor in this story…. This story would have taken place somewhere after Devil's Trap, and they way I figured it, John would be there more for his boys than he was circa Faith and most of the first season… That's why he's there, and also it has been stated more than once in the show that John has a weak spot when it comes to his son…. That is why he is not as strong as you might see him in a normal episode…. As for the whole Mary thing all of you are just going to have to wait and see exactly what it was she meant! As always I hope that you enjoy this next part as much as you have the rest…. Please remember that I adore your reviews and critiques so let me know what you are thinking.
Rosebud
-Part 5- A Lead
Glancing back into the rearview mirror Sam studied his brothers form laying across the back seat, it was obvious he was fully awake, his head tilted back against the cool glass of the window, his body out stretched, limbs stiff, face frozen in anger and maybe even fear…
The youngest of the Winchester men rubbed the bridge of his nose before placing his hand back on the steering wheel, they had just left Great Bend and were now headed in the direction of Dodge city, Sam knew that it would only be a matter of time before she found them here as well…. If of course what his brother had said was true, and she was linked to him in some way, if she could keep her eyes on him…. But if that were the case, they would never be safe… Dean would never be safe, as long as this bitch was alive…
And that scared Sam more than anything. There had been no word from any of his fathers contacts, well what was left of them after the whole Meg incident anyway, and from the looks of things his brother was not going to last much longer, not physically and sure as hell not mentally.
Dean sighed from the back seat feeling another cold chill run down his spine and soar through his blood stream as he wrapped his arms tighter around himself popping his neck from side to side and trying to ignore the over all disturbing nature of his current situation.
He knew that something wasn't right… of course he knew… But the last thing he was going to do was make it any worse off on any of them, so per usual his only defense was to keep his walls building higher and higher every time he felt himself slipping…. And if this stupid bitch did happen to find him, then he would kill her, no matter if it killed him in the process he would kill her until there was nothing left to slaughter and she were no more than pieces and memories, for what she had done to him… But more importantly for what he knew she was capable of doing to his family, his baby brother had to be protected….
And there it was again, like clockwork, mind splitting vomit inducing, stronger than ever her voice cracked his skull… "Run…Run as fast as you can…. I'll come for you…" She purred almost like a kitten before fading away as if only to let him know that she was still there, still watching, still gripping tight to his life… controlling him.
Dean caught a whiff of something fowl and began gagging uncontrollably once he realized what it was… he had smelled it before, only never this strong…. Blood.
"Dean…." Sam turned on his blinker to alert his father as he pulled over to the side of the road and jumped from the car without even bothering to ask his brother what was wrong, already knowing he knew the answer….
Throwing open the back door he frowned deeply as he saw his brothers lips now tinted a deep shade of blue his skin so cold to the touch it almost stung when Sam touched him.
"What's going on?" John asked as he jumped from the truck and ran to where his son's were up ahead….
"I-I don't know." Sam admitted honestly as He took his jacket off and wrapped it over his still hacking brother…. "Just relax Dean…"
"Don't you smell it?…. Can't you smell it Sammy?"
"Smell what?" He asked tucking the sides of his coat around his brothers body and underneath him as best he could…. "He's freezing Dad….. His lips are blue…." Sam whispered looking at his father.
"blood…."
"No…. This is one of her tricks Dean, you need to fight it alright?" He ordered more than asked, "Just hold in there alright? We're almost to the next hotel….Then we are going to figure this whole thing out I promise you…"
Looking back at his truck there on the side of the road then back to his boys John moved Sam aside and climbed in, "I'm riding with you…" He slowly lifted Dean's head into his lap and taking his hand between his own he rubbed as fast and as hard as he could in a lame attempt to warm him as Sam closed the door and climbed back into the drivers seat.
"You just hang in there…."
"It's coming dad…."
Realizing his son had said it, and not she John's lips quickly fell into a worry filled frown studying his son's face, a twenty seven year old boy… Well ok not a boy but his boy, who now looked no less than forty from the wear his body was enduring. "What's coming Dean?" He asked softly fearing he already knew what was going to be said.
"Remember what we talked about…. I-I want you to ….Sammy…." Dean found his words softer and harder to speak… it was cold….so cold….. His breath, each one hurt more than the one prior to it…. "Sa-Sammy…"
"Yeah Dean I'm here…"
"Cl-close the window…..cold….so cold….."
"Just hang in there alright?" Sam Pushed the gas down even further wishing that he had the power to push it all the way through the floorboard if it would make them get there any faster…. The speedometer reading 115.
"What's coming Dean?" His father repeated softly.
"You're going to have to kill her- I-I'm sorry….."
"Dean!" Sam felt fresh hot tears working their way down his cheeks as he dared to glance into the rearview mirror, his brother's features were now lax his chest rising and falling with so much effort he knew that this was nearly the end… "You are NOT going to go out like this, you hear me? You fight this or I'll kick your ass you prick."
"Sam…." Dean whispered his voice low and shaky…
"Don't…" The tires squealed to the Impala as he turned into the Hotel and shut the engine off… "Don't you fucking dare do you hear me?" He growled jumping out of the car and slamming the door running toward the front office.
Dean couldn't help but smirk only slightly… "I-I think…I think I pissed him off…." He managed half a chuckle before he was thrown into another fit of coughing.
"You know your brother has that sentimental side…" John swallowed back his own tears tilting his son's head up with one hand and wiping at his own eyes with the other… "Deep breaths son…. Deep breaths…."
He paused for a moment before drawing his lip into his mouth and deciding to tell his oldest son about the visit he had received …. "I-I didn't tell your brother this…. But your mother came to me Dean…."
"What…" Fighting to hold on to consciousness the shivering man swallowed hard drawing in another breath….
"She came to me … I was asleep, but I know she was there…. She said something to me, something that I think is going to help you….. She's watching over you son…. So you need to hold in there…. It's not your time yet…."
Dean's head jerked slightly, "What did she say?"
"Not everything is as it seems… under the eye of the protected." he repeated her words exactly as they had been replaying over and over in his mind for the passing hours.
"Protected…." Dean repeated weakly,…. "Sam?…. His visions?"
"I don't know….I'll figure it out okay I want you to worry about you right now…" His words trailed off as Sam opened the back door to the car and carefully lifted his brother into his arms. A feat that would normally seem impossible but right now seemed as easy as lifting an infant from his crib.
"I can walk you know?" Dean quipped with as much defiance in his voice as he could muster.
"You know… you are really starting to get on my nerves with this whole tough guy routine."
"When you stop acting like a girl I'll stop-" He began coughing again loud chest rattling coughs that seemed wrong coming from his exhausted and drained body.
"Let's save the insults until your feeling a little better….." Sam waited for his father to push the door open and stepped inside immediately going toward the bathroom…. "Hot water…. "
"Now you're going to bath me?" Dean's head lulled a little against his brothers shoulder. "Terrific"
"I'm not bathing you…" He grunted setting him down on the toilet and steadying him so he was propped against the counter.. "I'm getting you warm."
Running the bath as warm as it could go Sam knelt down and slid Dean's shoes from his feet before undressing him as quick as he could manage.
"You ever tell anyone about this…And you're Dead…." Sam shook his head and almost smiled until he watched the expression on his brother's face turn to sheer horror…
"You stay the hell away from him!" He snarled pushing Sam backward and into the wall…. "You can't have him…"
"Dean!" Sam's face was stunned as he flew back a good two feet his head smacking hard against the plaster.
"we're gonna kill you…."
Sam rose to his feet his eyes wide as he watched his brothers jaw lock in determination, "YOU'RE DEAD! I'm gonna kill you're ass!" He swatted quickly at the empty air in front of him.
"Shit…DAD!" Sam screamed taking a step forward but leaving a small amount of space between the two of them…
John appeared at the bathroom door seconds later cell phone glued to his ear eyes hopeful as he spoke with the person on the other end…. He let the phone fall to the floor and quickly rushed inside at the sight of his son's naked trembling flesh as he screamed ranting wildly in his brothers direction but obviously not at him….
"Dean!" He warned hoping that maybe his voice would penetrate into wherever his mental state was.
"What's happening to him?"
"She's got him…."
The two frightened men watched in disbelief as Dean's body hunched over with a grunt and as quickly as the fit of delusional hysteria had come on it was gone…..
Sam lunged forward just in time to catch his brother's limp form frowning deeper at the sound of his incoherent soft mumbles as he lifted him and slid him into the tub holding his body up right as he looked back at his father….
"I want her dead…." He stated coldly, "I want to use her bones as toothpicks until the day I die…" He then turned back to his nearly incoherent brother and sighed staring at his face wishing the color would return to him, even just a little, a small sign of hope that he was going to make it…. A small inkling that they really could pull through anything together, that Dean really was that strong…. "We're gonna beat here Dean… together, you and I…"
Dean showed no response his eyes blinking slowly face lax and straight ahead.
Remembering the phone call he was on John leaned down and picked up the small phone holding it to his ear. "Charles….I'm here,… Give me answers and give them to me now…." He demanded.
The man on the other end of the phone spoke briefly receiving a few affirmative responses from Mr. Winchester before their conversation finally ended….
"Tell me that was the call we were waiting for…." Sam asked hopefully brows raised in his dad's direction as he heard the flip of his closing cell phone and turned around.
"Charles Fulton down in Omaha…" John nodded, "He said that the reason we have found next to nothing is that this witch, also known as…Mal Verdadera más oscura."
"The Darkest True Evil?" Sam asked questioningly receiving a nod from his father in agreement
"Dates back to about 3000 B.C. which is older than we originally thought and older than most demons we have ever faced…. She feeds on her victims robbing them of their sanity, steeling there vision and locking them in darkness with nothing but her image and the images that she placed inside their minds for them to see…."
"Such as our murders?"
"Exactly." John whispered. "Then she sets them astray on the streets where most will eventually go insane and find a way to end their lives, or they will end up locked in a straight jacket and held in an asylum until minds lost and bodies weak,…"
"Did he say how to kill her?" Sam asked growing impatient, "Did he say anything about anything that is going to help Dean?"
"Things that have tried and failed, stake burning, rock salt. Concentrated iron rounds…..Spanish binding rituals…."
"And…."
"Rumor has it there is only one way she will die…. The swing of a blade, on the sixth night of her feeding cycle from her latest victims blood."
"Oh…." Sam swallowed.
"There's more…. "
"After all this there's more?"
"They say that the sickness that she spreads through her victims takes exactly six days to over run them….And that on the sixth night… The same night she is to be killed, they will perish into the depths of madness."
"Which would be why no one has killed her…" Sam glanced down at his brother and mumbled. "We only have 48 hours left… and there is nothing we can do but wait?" He grabbed a towel and slowly lifted his brother from the tub. Dean still wordless and motionless with fear. "There has to be another way…."
"I wish it were that simple…"
"Even if he survives to the sixth day…. He can't fight her…. Look at him Dad…."
"Sammy?…." Dean whispered clawing at his brothers arm a little sounding as though he had just woken from some sort of long sleep as he was set down on to the bed….
"I'm here…." Sam slid him under the covers not bothering or having the strength to help dress him.
"What happened?"
"You don't remember?" John asked sitting on his son's bed side feeling a small amount of strength from the fact that there was at least some hope from Charles news.
"No…."
"It's okay, you just rest, we've got a lead now, and were going to get this figured out."
"A lead?"
"Yes."
"Is it from what mom told you?"
Sam's eyes shot up and he looked at his father confused, "Mom?"
"Shit…" Dean cursed and swallowed fighting to sit up a little leaning against the headboard, cursing himself for slipping up.
"What's he talking about?" Sam pressed.
"Nothing- Sammy I'm just delusional."
"Bullshit." Sam's cheeks grew warm, "Are you keeping something from me? Something that could help out? Something that I should know?"
"I-I didn't think it was important…"
"Yet you told it to my sick brother and worried him with it!"
"I thought it might help him hold on is all…"
"You never trust me with anything…. You treat me like I'm still a child… Like I need to be protected all the damn time…" Sam snapped getting up from his spot next to the bed a deep look of discontent on his face.
"Sammy please…." Dean mumbled softly the sound of his brothers loud voice not easing any pain in his delicate condition as he rubbed his temples….
"This is bull and you know it Dean."
"That's Enough." John rose to his feet face stern, "We will discuss this later, now you need to realize that if I don't tell you something there is a reason for it, you and your brother are on a need to know basis alright…. No more and no less…."
"Wait!" The younger man's jaw locked as he stepped forward closing the gap between his father and he . "You receive a message from mom, from our dead mother, that might help him out, and you feel like hiding it? A need to know basis my ass…."
"Sam!" Dean warned,.
"You're never going to change are you old man, just when I finally started to think we were building on something…. That you trust me…"
"I do trust you."
"Right." Sam shook his head glaring, "We all know that there's only one son that you trust and it sure as hell isn't me…. Not now and not ever….
" SAM!" Dean repeated his voice booming so loud it bounced off the walls and echoed.
"I should never have called you, it's not like we haven't done this on our own before…. Hell He was dying and you couldn't even be bothered to show up… I took care of him, I healed him, not you… me…"
The tension was so think in the room that even a chainsaw could not penetrate it as Dean fought against the nausea in his head and rose to his feet throwing his hands up in the air unsteadily his head bowing as he swallowed biting back passing out right then and there everything inside of him shattered and weak… "SHUT UP! B-BOTH …..SHUT UP…." He growled gripping the bedside table his legs shaking, "I do-don't have enough left in me to handle the two of you at each others throats alright…. So- so Sam… I need you to trust dad on this alright…… and- and…." He gripped his head lightly flashes of her wrinkly face coming to and from his eyelids…. "Dad…."
"Easy…" Sam let his eyes finish the conversation as they tore into his fathers soul stepping forward and holding his brother up….
"Dad…. Sam's right…. You need to… You need…to trust him, he knows… what he's doing alright? We've been fighting these damn things for over a year and he's strong enough to hold his own….Man this is like the worse drunken spell I've ever experienced times two…" He mumbled the last part softly.. "Only I don't have the pleasure of waking up next to a beautiful woman…. Just some old hag…."
"You're funny…" Sam sighed, "Now get your freezing cold ass back in bed."
"Since when do you give the orders little woman…."
"Since now?"
"Well can I at least put some clothes on? This is not the most dignifying position I've ever been in standing here with my family jewels exposed for all of you to see… Might as well throw that whole privacy thing out the damn window you know?"
"Alright… Alright…."
"Thank you."
"Get him some clothes would you…please?"
John cleared his throat resisting the urge to reprimand his son for the attitude in his voice as he shifted through the duffel bag and grabbed out a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt tossing them up on to the bed.
"Thank you."
"So… Tell me more about this witch…."
"Her name is, Mal Verdadera más oscura "
"And… to those of us who speak English that would be?"
"The darkest true evil…" Sam slid the sweatshirt over his head, "Now back in bed PLEASE."
"well… That sounds promising…. How do we kill her?"
"It's not that simple…." John cleared his throat. "The legend goes that only the swing of a blade, on the sixth night of her feeding cycle from her latest victims blood, will send her back to hell."
"Okay sooo ….how long does that give us…."
"48 hours…."
"I can hold out that long…" He tried to sound confident.
"I'm afraid it might be out of your control…"
"what the hell are you talking about…. This is not the time for your coded speeches dad?"
"The way it works…" John sighed setting himself down on the foot of the bed… "She's not going to kill you….. At least that's not her usual agenda… She's going to drive you mad"
"well that's good to know, seeing as how she's already making a go of it…. Did you find any first hands accounts anything we can go off of? Anything to help me out here."
"No…" Sam exhaled, "Your not listening… She's going to basically devour your…sanity until theres nothing left…. Your already losing touch with reality Dean weather you chose to accept it or not, she's not going to stop until your completely gone…. You won't be able to hold on she's to strong…. There will be nothing left of you by the sixth night…."
"Once again with the comfort." Dean shook his head rolling his neck from side to side, "This honesty thing is buckets o' fun."
"We're just trying to prepare you…"
"I know…."
"The only good news about this whole thing is that she's only coming for you in the mental sense, she's never taken physical form with her victims after there initial capture, so physically your safe…."
"Well it's good to know I'll be in perfect shape when you deliver me to the looney bin then ."
"We would never take you to one of those places…. I wouldn't allow it…."
"You will if it gets bad enough-"
"No!"
"YES DAMNIT! You will because I say you will, if it comes down to it your not going to be watching over me feeding me and changing my diapers…. In fact… if you won't…. I'll take care of it myself…"
"It's not going to come to that!" John growled growing angrier and angrier as the conversation progressed, "I won't allow it, I vowed to protect boys and I'm going to do it… Do you hear me? Until my last breath I will fight to save you…."
"How far is he willing to go to keep that promise?" She was back in full force the conversation in the room dulling to background noise as her voice enveloped his ears…
"I'm not listening to you anymore…." Dean thought to himself without uttering a word, "I told you before, you can't have me…."
And without a moments hesitation the visions were back carved into his eyelids…
his brothers blue lips as she strangled the life from his body, his eyes begging and pleading for help as they tore down deep into his brothers soul… Then Limp he fell to the floor his head resting on his brothers foot eyes staring up at him.
Dean's heart skipped a beat in his chest his hand gripping tight enough to his brothers arm to make the young man wince. "Sam…" He choked through gritted teeth as sweat found it's way down his forehead his entire body tense.
"It's not real… whatever she's showing you it's not real… I'm here….I'm not going anywhere… She's not going to get me…." He used his free hand to whip the sweat from his brothers brow in a soothing motion,
"I know…. I know…." Dean mumbled to himself not even sure at this point if his words were loud enough to be heard, or if they were only in his head.
"Dean…." His mothers face came back to him now, just as it had the first day in that cave, so soft so soothing as she touched his forehead wiping a few stray hairs from the sweat. "It's okay baby… Let go… they don't need you now, you don't need to be strong…. You're weak… It's not your fault…" She smiled softly, so kindly, her face filled with the love only a mother can give… "Let go Dean." He could feel her lips on his forehead and tears… those pesky tears had returned to his eyes.
"Mom…." His voice dropped… "Mommy…"
"I'm here son, I won't leave you, just please do what's right, let go, you know they are going to be happier without you…. You're holding them back…."
"I'm sorry…."
"Damn-it…." Sam growled shaking his brother gently watching his face contort a mirror to his inner struggle. "Dean… Fight her…. She's not mom…."
"She's here Sam, don't you see her?"
"No Dean…. She's not…. She's not here, she's not mom…" He repeated, "You have to trust me on this alright? She's not our mother… And whatever she's saying to you its not true… it's all lies…."
"She's going to take care of me now…."
"Dean… NO!"
"Son… Don't you give into that thing she's not your mother…."
"I'm sorry…."
I don't like this chapter in the least, but I had no idea how to get up to the conclusion of the story which will be the next ½ chapters so please let me know your opinions on the matter and let me know what you're thinking.