Coma

Chapter Seven

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural – much as I would dearly love to own Sam and Dean – and I'm not making any money from this fic. Any character you don't recognise from the show, I probably own.

Warning(s): Violence; possibly some scary parts.

Thanks to the people who have reviewed this fic so far . Also, thanks to all of the people who have read this, even if you haven't reviewed. I think that, as long as there's at least one person who likes this fic, it'll probably continue – so thanks to people who are reading as well as reviewing this

Brief recap of previous chapter: Sam went round to Jody's house, and talked with her about what she had seen at the hospital. He also looked at a scrapbook, which revealed that the people who had been killed in Rockford Hospital had apparently been hunters of the supernatural.
After listening to Sam's message on his answer phone, John decided to turn round and head back to Illinois to help his sons out.
Meanwhile, Dean was at the hospital, where (surprisingly) the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with him. It also occurred to Dean that, if he could make contact with Missouri, she might be able to help him get back to his own world.
Later that evening, Dean met Meg again, who made a few threats against Sam, Jessica, and Amber. When she disappeared, Jessica suddenly appeared, apparently having been wandering around late.

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He looked around as he wandered through the dark forest. How had he got there? He couldn't remember – all he knew was that he was looking for something extremely important.

"Where are you!" As soon as the words had left his mouth, though, he wished that he hadn't called. The silence was almost deafening, and it had just felt like he was shouting through cotton wool. He rolled his eyes a bit at how stupid he was. This was a forest. There was always sound – obviously, he just couldn't hear any right now.

He slowed his steps a little, trying to remember just what it was he was searching for. All he knew was that it was extremely important to him. Was it a weapon? A precious jewel? He couldn't even picture it inside his mind.

But if he didn't find this important thing, he knew that something bad would happen. Things were spinning out of control, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not without this… whatever it was. Why couldn't he remember! Argh!

"You'll never find it…" a soft voice spoke up from behind him. "It's lost forever."

He turned round to find himself face-to-face with a young woman. She was smiling at him – although it wasn't a nice or friendly smile. "You'll never find it," she said again. "So why don't you just give up?"

He squinted at her, but, for some reason, couldn't make out any details of what she looked like. It was like he was seeing her face all blurred, as if through water. There was also a dark light around her that seemed to almost sink into her skin – almost like an aura. What did black or very dark brown mean?

"I won't give up…" he said. "I'll never give up looking – so why don't you just back off and stop trying to prevent me from finding it?" It probably would have been much more convincing if he could actually remember what it was he was searching for.

The woman's lips twisted into a cruel smirk, and she put a hand out to gently scratch sharp nails down the side of his face. Despite that, though, he didn't feel any pain. It felt like water moving over his skin. He was powerless to get away from her, though. His limbs felt heavy, and he couldn't even muster the energy to move even a little as her nails trailed lower. She moved closer, and kissed him deeply, then pulled back to whisper in his ear, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Why don't you just forget about it? You're not needed anymore. Stay with me, and there'll be no pain any longer…"

The desire to push her away wasn't as strong anymore. He raised his hands to place them gently against her shoulders, ignoring the feeling that all he was holding was water. He leaned in to kiss her softly, feeling the cold wetness run over his lips. He didn't pull away. He didn't want to pull away.

As the kiss continued, soft tendrils of darkness reached into his mind, pushing all memories of what he had lost away until he had no idea what he had been doing before the woman had appeared.

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Sam stirred awake, his eyes opening as he heard the sound of someone moving around in the living room. He sat up, blinking a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes. "What are you doing?"

Jody paused in the middle of putting her shoes on and lacing them up. "Oh… Um, hi," she said, sounding a little uncertain. "You're awake? I thought you'd be sleeping for quite a while longer…"

"I'm a light sleeper." Sam glanced down at his watch – which he'd gone to sleep wearing – and frowned when he saw it was 8.30am. "I thought you weren't going to go to work?" He wasn't sure why he'd expected Jody to take his advice, though. She obviously hadn't liked his order last night, or when he had reiterated it just before they'd gone to bed.

Jody looked down, and shrugged slightly. "I can't not go to work," she said. "If I stay here with nothing to do, I'll go mad. Besides, wouldn't it draw more attention to me if I were to stay here? Even if I just call in sick – well, there are plenty of people who know that I was friends with Melissa…"

Sam could understand Jody's fear – really, he could. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that, if Jody went to the hospital, something bad would happen. After what had happened at his old house in Kansas, and with Jessica's death, he knew that he had to put a lot more faith in these feelings. As well as that, he was pretty certain that Jody moving around hadn't been the only thing that had woken him up. There were images floating around inside his head that he couldn't catch hold of long enough to look at properly.

Whatever happens… I won't let anyone else die while I can do something to prevent it.

Sam stood up, and walked over to Jody. "It's really not a good idea to go there right now," he stated. His clothes felt a little uncomfortable on him – he didn't usually spend twenty-four hours in one set of clothes. He'd only kept them on because he'd been too tired to head out to the car for a change of clothes.

Jody looked up at him, and frowned. "Don't tell me what to do!" For a moment, fear flashed through her eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had come, and she set her jaw in determination. "Please get out of my way."

"No." Sam reached out to take hold of Jody's shoulders, gently but firmly. "I know you're scared, and I understand – but you can't go back to the hospital right now. It's too dangerous." He was keeping his tone calm, trying not to panic the woman.

"I don't care!" Jody struggled to free herself. "I don't want to just sit around here doing nothing! Melissa was killed – couldn't I have prevented it somehow!"

"No, I don't think you could have," Sam replied as reassuringly as possible, tightening his hold a little on Jody's shoulders – not enough to hurt, but enough to stop her from breaking free. "You shouldn't blame yourself. There wasn't anything you could have done." In his opinion, Melissa had likely known that digging around in the business of the hospital would get her killed.

But it wouldn't help Jody at all to hear that.

"Yes, there was." Jody blinked furiously in an obvious attempt to get rid of the tears. "There must have been a way!" she insisted.

In a way, Sam was able to empathise with Jody's feelings. The helplessness of knowing that a person she cared about was dead, and feeling that maybe she could have done something about it. Underneath the anger that was there due to feeling helpless, Sam was pretty sure that she was hurting. Hell, it had to be difficult for her. As far as he knew, she hadn't grown up as a hunter at all. She probably hadn't realised anything of the existence of the supernatural until the whole deal with the hospital.

"Let's sit down, have some coffee or something," Sam suggested, still talking calmly so as not to alarm Jody. "We can talk about the best way of preventing the deaths of anyone else, ok?" He still kept his hands on her shoulders, even though Jody's head was now lowered, and she'd stopped struggling to get away. "All right?"

Jody slowly nodded, keeping her head down. "I need to ring the hospital…" she mumbled. She sounded near tears, and Sam was reminded of how tired she had seemed the previous night.

I bet she still didn't get much sleep last night, if any, Sam thought as he helped Jody over to the couch and sat down with her. "If you give me the number, I'll call them for you," he offered, not entirely certain that Jody wouldn't call someone to come and pick her up. "Besides, it'll probably sound more credible if your, er, roommate called you in sick."

"It's written on the pad next to the phone in the hall," Jody answered, resting her elbows on her knees and putting her head in her hands.

"Are you going to be all right waiting here for a few minutes while I make the call?" Sam asked quietly. What he really wanted to ask was if he could trust her to stay where she was while he made the call – but he didn't want to put ideas into her head.

Jody nodded, keeping her head down, and curled up a little on the couch, burrowing into the seat. She didn't look up to even getting on her feet, let alone sneaking out of the house while Sam's back was turned.

Sam wished that he had a better way of helping her, but all he could do was his best. He couldn't tell Jody that everything was going to be all right – because it probably wouldn't be. He just put a hand on Jody's shoulder and squeezed gently, before straightening up and heading out into the hall.

I'll ask Jody about possibly contacting Melissa's family… But I'd better do that later, so that she doesn't freak out again, Sam decided.

The number was right where Jody had said. Sam picked up the phone and dialled, then put it to his ear, tapping his fingers impatiently against his leg as he listened to the ringing on the other end.

Finally, there was a click as the phone was picked up, and a receptionist answered: "Good morning, Rockford Hospital, how can I help?"

"Hello, this is Sam Winchester," Sam replied. "I'm staying with Jody at the moment – she works as a volunteer at the hospital?" He suddenly remembered that he had no idea what Jody's last name actually was, but hopefully there was only one Jody volunteering at the hospital.

For a moment, there was the sound of typing, and then the receptionist asked, "You mean Jody Rider?"

"Yeah, Doctor Nelson's niece," Sam responded. "See, she was taken ill this morning – a bug or something, I guess. It's probably a good idea for her to stay here and rest for a while."

"I'll let her superior know," the receptionist said. "Would you like to talk to Doctor Nelson now?"

"No, that's all right." Sam thought that was rather a strange question to ask. Why would he want to talk to Jody's uncle? Well, maybe to let him know that his niece wasn't going to be in – but surely the receptionist would let the man know that? "I've gotta go now," he continued. "Have things to do. 'Bye." He put the phone down before the receptionist could make any kind of reply.

Heading back into the living room, Sam was rather relieved to see that Jody was still curled up on the couch, although the fact that her face was stained with tears was rather worrying. "Hey…" he moved to crouch down in front of her, unsure of what comfort he could offer. "Don't cry."

"How can I not?" Jody wiped the back of her hand across her eyes, trembling. "I'm going to die, aren't I? Just like Melissa…"

"You're not going to die," Sam replied. "Now, I need you to tell me how to get in contact with Melissa's family. Can you do that?"

"I only know how to contact her younger sister, Amber…" Jody whispered, not looking at Sam. "She goes to Stanford University – I have the number of her apartment there, also her cell phone number…"

"Good." Sam straightened up again, glancing towards the door. "I'm gonna need to use your computer. The office's upstairs, right?"

Jody nodded, picking a little at the material of the couch, making a clear effort to stop crying. "I think I'm going to need to take a shower, and then get changed…" She moved past Sam, heading out of the living room door.

"Get some sleep after you've done that, then," Sam told her. "It's safe, at least for the time being. And you'll just end up wearing yourself out if you don't sleep enough." He was confident that, for now, he'd been able to stave off whatever was going to happen to Jody. However, if he was going to continue doing so, he needed to pay attention to his feelings.

In any case, Missouri should be calling soon… Sam thought.

"Whatever," Jody mumbled. As she stepped into the hallway, though, she turned round to look at Sam. "How's your brother doing?"

Sam looked blankly at Jody. "Who?"

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Dean's eyes flew open, and he jerked upright on the bed, looking wildly around the room, his heart beating violently in his chest.

It had been quite a while since he had been woken up like this. Last time, he'd nearly got his head torn off by a werewolf, having fallen asleep while supposed to be watching Sammy. So it was understandable that jerking awake like that caused a sensation very close to real panic.

Not that I ever have panicked…

Amber was no longer lying on the bed next to him. For a moment, Dean was worried, but he relaxed a little when he saw her standing next to the window, looking out. The older Winchester stood up, and headed over to her. "Hey."

"Hey." Amber didn't look at Dean. The left strap of her nightgown had slipped down off her shoulder, revealing a pale scar that stood out starkly against her skin. It didn't look like it had healed properly – Dean could tell because he had plenty of scars like that. Hey, even his handsome body wasn't completely unscathed from all of the fighting he had done against the supernatural.

"Nightmare?" Dean asked, remembering what Meg had said about giving the others nightmares. I am going to kill that bitch first chance I get!

"Yeah…" Amber sighed. "It's not that big a deal. I've had nightmares before. I've been awake for a while." She was holding the dog – Brownie – in her arms, and resting her chin on the animal's head. Brownie looked as though he wasn't especially happy with the treatment, but seemed to be putting up with it for a while.

"Oh, I must have been sleeping quite deeply," Dean commented. Usually, he would have woken up – especially if a woman he was lying next to got up.

"Yeah, you must have been," Amber agreed. "Usually, you're a really light sleeper. Not that I wake up during the night that much."

Ok… Another thing that clearly hasn't changed.

Dean rested his arms on the windowsill and leaned forward a little, looking out of the glass. "So… Were we happy?" He blinked, the question taking him by surprise even as the words left his mouth. Yeah… Real smooth. Then again, he was curious about just why the Dean of this world had tried to kill himself. And it wasn't like he really had anything better to do.

Amber directed a confused glance at Dean. "Huh? What do you mean by that?"

Dean shrugged a little. "You know… our relationship," he explained. "What was it like? Were we happy?"

Amber looked away, scratching Brownie behind the ears. "Well… I thought we were," she replied. "But… I don't know. Just before you hit your head – or whatever it was you did – you were acting really strangely. Like you weren't happy. We got into a lot of arguments."

Not so much a happy, idyllic life at all, then, Dean thought. I suppose I should talk to Sam – in my world, he is the person who knows me best. Why was Dean suddenly getting the feeling that his life was becoming even worse than a soap opera? At least he could turn them over if they got too annoying.

"Did you think I was seeing someone else?" Dean asked, that being the only question he could think of. It felt strange to be giving someone the third-degree about himself.

Well… another version of myself.

Amber stared at him. "What kind of a question is that?" she asked. "This feels like a police officer is interrogating me. So who are you accusing me of killing?"

"Whoa, I'm not accusing you of anything," Dean answered, raising his hands. "Think of it from my point of view. I've forgotten quite a lot about my life here. I'm merely being curious, that's all."

"Still sounds like you're accusing me of something," Amber mumbled, her arms tightening around the dog. Brownie gave a little whine in protest, and the young woman loosened her grip a little. "Sorry, Brownie." Then, she sighed. "No, I didn't think you were seeing someone else. It was never something that occurred to me."

Maybe I am accusing her of something, Dean thought. After all, there had to be a reason the other Dean had wanted to kill himself. A jealous girlfriend could always drive someone to suicide, he supposed.

Then again, so could just about anything else… But I wouldn't try to kill myself for just anything. Maybe Sammy knows more?

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Amber asked. "Cause if not, I'm just gonna go back to bed."

"No, there's nothing else at the moment," Dean replied. "I'll come back to bed soon… I just don't feel that tired at the moment." He made a slight grimace at the window. Great… I'm already sounding like a married man, and I'm not even dating Amber.

Amber paused, opening her mouth as if to say something, and then closed it again. She nodded a little, and let Brownie down onto the bed before getting under the blankets and closing her eyes.

After a few moments, Dean turned from the window. "Hey, Amber, do you believe in parallel universes?" he asked, keeping his voice low – just in case the woman had fallen asleep. He didn't think she had, but he didn't want her to accuse him of waking her up. In a way, it was just to cover all of his bases.

Amber opened an eye to look at him. "Parallel universes?" she repeated. "You mean like different worlds which open up every time a choice is made or something like that?"

"Something like that," Dean agreed. "So… What do you think?"

"Ask me again in the morning," Amber mumbled, rolling over onto her side. "I'm too tired to concentrate now."

"Ok." Dean watched her for a few moments, and then turned to look out of the window again, feeling quite troubled. What's going on with you, Sam? Are you looking up at the night sky back in our world?

Dean just stayed where he was for quite a while.