Hey guys, how've you been? Sorry you had to wait so long for this chapter, but I've been really busy lately. Anyways, reviews make a girl feel appreciated.
"Her pulse is weak," Missouri said as she took her fingers off Tyler's throat and wiped Tyler's sweaty brow with a cold and wet cloth. Dean, Sam and Bobby straightened, brows furrowed in worry. Sam glanced at his older brother, whose concern was plainly written on his face. After Tyler had cried out in her comatose state, both Winchesters had freaked out considerably and it took Bobby stomping upstairs to ask them to turn it down for them to calm down.
He'd taken one quick look at the still form of Tyler and rushed downstairs again, to get Missouri. Missouri had said nothing as she looked over Tyler, until now. "At least she still has a pulse," Bobby mumbled to himself. Missouri shot him an angry look and he cowered under the heat of it.
"Might I remind you that it was Tyler's idea and her choice to go dream walking into Purgatory? She came to me with this proposition, Bobby. I just complied with her wishes," Missouri said. Bobby sighed. "I know. I just...how long has she been in there by now?" Missouri looked pensive for a moment, then she replied, "Three days."
"Do you think she's found him?" Sam asked, glancing once again at Dean, who focused all of his attention on the comatose form of Tyler. "No clue," Missouri said. She wiped some wayward hairs out of Tyler's face, when suddenly she physically recoiled as if burned.
"What? What is it?" Dean asked. Missouri cradled her left hand in her right and was breathing heavily. "This is bad," she said. "Tyler's soul is supposed to be tethered to her body, so she can return to us here and bring Castiel with her. But the tether is growing weaker as we speak."
"What does that mean?" asked Bobby. "It means her soul is in danger of manifesting itself permanently in Purgatory. The looser the connection to her body gets, the more 'real' she'll become in there. Which means that if she takes too long, she'll become trapped in Purgatory. And because she'll no longer be there just in spirit, it means she can actually die there."
The three men bombarded her with questions, but Missouri waved them away and told them she needed to do some more research before she could even begin to understand all of the ramifications. Sam and Bobby accompanied her downstairs, claiming they too would help with the research. Dean stayed upstairs, watching over Tyler.
Dean awoke with a start, sitting up in his chair, looking around. His eye briefly fell on the plate Sam had brought up before he apparently fell asleep, then swept the room. Nothing. He didn't know what woke him, but he figured it was a good time as any to check on Tyler again. She was still lying on her back, though her arm had moved off the bed, her large watch seemingly pulling it towards the ground.
Dean swept up her arm, noticed the weight of the watch and made up his mind. He unclipped the watch and moved to take it off her arm, when he detected a small puncture on the inside of her wrist. He caressed it with his finger, frowned, then looked back at the watch. A small metal tack was sticking out of it, but it didn't look like the watch was broken in any way. The tack was built in. "What the...?"
Dean touched the tack and almost yelped as a tiny electric current zapped him. He threw down the watch on the bed and looked hard at Tyler. "What the hell are you into?" he whispered, more to himself than to her.