Author's Notes:Ok guys, at the request of Vanessa and JLE, here it is. The first of the last few to come. Hope it meets with your approval and sorry for the wait. it's been sitting on my computer half done for a few days now but I just couldn't get my brain fully in drive to finish it. (And for that I am very very sorry)

Chapter 25

Mark walked casually into the room, not letting his face wear the look of concern his thoughts actually made him feel. He'd planned on having the usual and customary tests run on Dean first before doing what Trent had so kindly left orders to do today and now he knew there was a snowball's chance in hell that that was going to happen. He'd been around both brothers long enough to know that Dean was not the most ideal patient. Sam had pretty much flat out told him that from the get-go but he had seen it on more than one occasion with his own two eyes as well. Now that Dean finally had what he had been begging for over the last three days, he knew the man would let his own arm fall off before saying he needed a bandaid, and that worried him.

"Morning Dean," he greeted as he strolled up to the bedside where Dean still laid sprawled out under the light blanket that had been mindlessly thrown over him with one arm resting on his chest and the other bent at the elbow with the hand attached to the end buried under his head.

"What's up doc?" He replied, trying to find something funny to at least internally amuse himself with. His breathing had finally returned to a normal rate but his face hadn't quite regained all of the healthy color it had reacquired over the last couple days and Mark could see it.

"Just checking in on my favorite patient. How are you feeling today?"

"Great, just great," he replied as he rolled his eyes, keeping his actual thoughts to himself. 'Fine now that the fire that evil nurse with the face of an angel lit when she did what she did has finally burnt itself out'

"Good, that's good. So, where's Sam? Haven't seen him around lately."

"He's out house hunting," Dean smirked, knowing full well it wouldn't be taken the way it was meant.

"Oh, are you planning on leaving us soon?" The doctor questioned and Dean nearly laughed out loud when he realized he had been right.

"Well, doesn't look like there's too much left keeping me here anymore, does there?" Dean answered the question with a question, knowing that if it was up to him, he would march right up to the counter and check himself out right now. If he could walk that far at one time, that is.

"Well, I wouldn't say that just yet, but maybe in another week or so we'll see how well you're standing on your own two feet, then maybe we'll start talking about maybe paroling you into Sam's custody."

"Gee, thanks warden, a fate worse than death. I'll be counting the days. You know, you threw in an awful lot of maybes there, don't you?"

"I don't like making promises I can't keep and I can't promise that you're totally out of the woods just yet."

"What? Why the hell not? I feel fine, no, I feel great," he informed Mark rather proudly of the fact that he had indeed felt pretty great the last couple days.

"I am very happy to hear that, I just wanted to have you thoroughly examined before pulling your plug there, that's all."

"Yeah, well, let's just not go there, ok?"

"If you insist. Since you're feeling so great this morning, I'm thinking we may take a trial run at forgoing you're meds today. Sounds like you may not need them anymore and I, for one, don't believe in unnecessarily medicating someone that doesn't need medicating."

"Thank god for that," Dean mumbled. 'Too bad some other doctors around here don't feel the same way," he thought somewhat bitterly. "Fine by me. That's just one step closer to getting the hell out of here in my book."

"That may be true, but you have got to promise that if you need something, you'll ask for it. You may feel great now but you may be singing a different tune when Julia's done with you today," he mentioned just for the sake of mentioning it. He knew his patient would never ask for them and the painkillers that would be ready and waiting for him should he just say the word would be sitting there patiently right beside to the bandaid that would never be asked for either.

"I can handle whatever she can throw at me doc, no sweat," Dean nearly laughed out loud at that, but somehow at Mark's comment he suspected today was going to be different. It didn't matter to him 

though; he would take whatever she could dish out gladly if it meant getting back to the hunt. He really wanted to be the one to put a bullet in Trent's head and the sooner he was walking, the sooner he would be rewarded with that little pleasure.

"Well, I'm sure she'll be here soon so on that note, I'll let her have at it. Remember though, if you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask," he felt the need to emphasize the instructions again, knowing it would be totally ignored anyway.

Walking out of the room shaking his head, he marched up to the counter and directly into the face of the young nurse he had nearly collided with when he had arrived and without saying a word, made a note of sorts in the chart now that the potential damage had been done. Jotting down an order or two of his own, he handed directly to her and smiled slyly as she opened it and read, her look of confusion prompting him to answer her silent question.

"Yes, you're reading that right. Nothing…and I mean nothing happens in that room without verbal ok from me first. I don't care who gives the order, it gets ok'd by me before it gets carried out, understand?" He paused and waited for her to shake her head in the affirmative before continuing. "Yes, you are reading the rest of that correctly also. I want urine samples collected every eight hours and tested for everything. The first sign of even the slightest infection, you page me, understand?"

She nodded in the affirmative again as he shoved his pen back into his pocket, the forced smile he had plastered across his face turning into a genuine one as he watched Julia approach from the elevators, dragging her heavy sack behind her like she always did. She returned the wide grin as she came towards him and Mark walked quickly in her direction to meet her. He most definitely had things to tell her that he didn't want others to hear.

"I need to talk to you before you start in on Dean today," he spoke in a rather excited tone and she was surprised at the unusual greeting.

"Well, good morning to you to sweetheart," she sarcastically commented, the forced pout on her face making him smile as his eyes rolled. "Ok, what's up?"

"Looks like you may get to have a little fun today since there's no reason for him not to be up on his feet. It seems our good friend Trent left a standing order to just go ahead and pull the plug on him today without having anyone even bother to check if everything was healing properly so…"

"Oh Mark, you've got to be kidding. Why don't you just run the tests now?"

"Because you know as well as I do that as long as he's coherent, he'll refuse. So, on to plan B instead."

"Which is?" She asked, her curiosity more than mildly peaked.

"Which is you doing what you do best," he winked at her with one, lone eyebrow cocked and she knew exactly what he meant. "Just go easy on him; he didn't look so good when I checked on him a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, fat chance of that. Go easy isn't in my vocabulary and you know it."

"One small request, if you please. Water. Load him up with lots and lots of water. I'm not waiting around watching the clock for any indication there's a problem. I pretty much want to know now before..."
"I catch you're drift. Plenty of water it is."

"I knew I could count on you. Oh, and just so you know, he says he can handle ANYTHING you can throw at him with no problem."

"Anything huh? Sounds like a challenge to me and I never lose a good challenge," she smiled as she returned his wink, stuffed her bag behind the nurse's counter and headed off in the opposite direction in search of a more useful item needed today. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for and with a crutch in each hand; she silently walked past Mark, mouthed him a kiss and strolled into Dean's room wearing her most evil grin.

"Good morning Dean," she announced her arrival as she strolled into the room, amazingly at ten o'clock on the dot like she always did. Sometimes Dean wondered if she hovered outside the door until the clock struck before coming in, she was that punctual.

In the short time since Mark's departure, he had pulled himself from the bed and dropped himself back into the chair, which essentially kept the promise he had made to Bobby to behave himself today and started rummaging through Sam's bag for a blessed pair of sweatpants. Dragging the leg wear onto his usually bare lower half, he tossed the scratchy blanket that he always covered his slightly withered legs with to hide them from the world onto the floor in a corner and hoped he would never have a reason to touch it ever again. He hadn't let Sam take it from him after bleeding on it days before, the stains being his reminder of what he had almost done to himself in his drug-induced haze helping to keep him focused on the here and now. He turned and smiled at her when she entered the room but let his face fall just a 

little when he noticed the devious little upturn in the corners of her mouth as she grinned at him and that she wasn't dragging that heavy bag behind her today. No, today she was carrying something else, something that he would have been ecstatic to be given had it not been for that smile. Somehow, that smile scared him. Really scared him. 'Shit, let this be another side effect of those damn drugs,' he couldn't help but to think when he honestly thought he'd rather be staring into the eyes of a wendigo about ready to have him as a midnight snack then what he was staring at and Julia just wanted to laugh at the look on his face. She had seen that look before, but never to that extreme.

"Good morning…I think," he finally said to her as she stood there smiling that rather wicked smile and Dean was thoroughly convinced she was witch, or a demon, or something supernatural he needed to dispatch quickly with the way her look made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "Where's your usual stuff?"

"Oh, we won't be needing any of that today," she informed him as she shoved the crutches nearly into his face and raised her eyebrows, indicating he should take them without any questions. "You and I are going for a walk today."

"We are? Where?" He tentatively asked as he grasped a pole in each hand but made no attempt to rise.

"One floor up to the rehab center. Now that you're mobile, there's no good reason why we need to hang around in here, is there? There are so many fun things we can do up there instead."

"I don't know, I kinda like it in here. It's cozy, don't you think?"

"No, I don't, so let's go. You do remember how this works, right? One foot in front of the other in rapid succession to move forward at a steady pace until you arrive at a predetermined destination.'

"Thanks for the tutorial. I think I got it though, it hasn't been that long," Yeah, like a couple hours ago long.

"Well, what are you waiting for then? Let's get moving," she cheerily stated, her words oozing with enthusiasm and Dean honestly thought she was a masochist. "Oh, I almost forgot. You're going to need these."

Frowning slightly as she tossed the hospital issue, drab blue slippers into his lap, he bit his lower lip as he bent over to slip them onto his bare feet while Julia stood cross-armed in front of him and tapped her foot lightly on the floor as she hummed some unknown tune to herself, indicating to Dean she clearly had the patience of a saint. Sucking in as big a lungful of air as he could, he grasped both crutches by the hand grips, placed both feet firmly on the floor, and rose to his feet with most, if not all of his weight solely on his good leg. She noticed it but said nothing because it was exactly what she had expected to happen. No problem, she would fix that soon enough.

"Ready?"

"Lead the way," he answered as he shook his head and as she took a position in front of him and walked slowly, he seemed to have little trouble following.

"You're pretty adept at using those already. I'm impressed."

"Yeah, well I've had plenty of practice in the past," he huffed.

The trip down the hall had been slow but steady, the ride in the elevator nearly silent, save for that unusual humming Julia insisted on doing as she smiled in Dean's direction; a smile that gave him yet another chill as he stood next to her supporting most of his weight with his armpits now that he was already spent from just walking down the hall. Standing there in the corner of the elevator that seemed to be moving at a snail's pace, he just stood there staring at Julia as he bit his chewed on his lower lip and wondered if his big mouth had bit off a little more than it could chew. 'Too late now…in for a penny…'

After another nearly exhausting trip down another relatively short hall, she stopped at a set of large, double doors and turned to Dean, still sporting what he considered to be an evil grin, and grabbed the handles, stopping only long enough to state the obvious before opening the doors. "Here we are…our predetermined destination."

Peering inside before stepping in, he felt a wave of incredible relief wash over his entire being when he saw that the room was empty. Totally empty. Holding the door open wide for him, she waved him inside and he slowly continued the daunting task of one foot in front of the other until they were both in the room with the door shut behind them. Deciding he could no longer find an acceptable spot on his lower lip to chew on anymore, he started on the upper instead as he looked around the room. He suddenly felt like he was in some sort of medieval dungeon surrounded by torture devices that would inflict all sorts of unbearable cruelties on his lower half and prayed that they wouldn't be approaching any of them. He rolled his eyes as she stood proudly next to the first piece of equipment on their left that seemed to be 

staring at him like it had a life of it's own as she patted the cushion that was obviously waiting for him to plant himself onto and grinned at him with a distinct twinkle in her eye. 'Yep, she's definitely sadistic."

"Have a seat Dean."

"Be gentle with me, I'm a virgin," he tried to joke as he sat and she just let her mouth smile wide again as her eyes met his.

"Not for long," she said in what Dean could only describe as a sound of sheer pleasure at his absolute horror.

Nearly three hours, a gallon of sweat and tears and about a gallon of water later, he had most definitely had enough and actually cried 'uncle' on more than one anguished occasion. She had twisted him, pushed him, pulled him, stretched him and weighted him down only to force him back up again until his entire body screamed out in some sort of agony. Muscles ached, joints ached, bones ached and she knew it. She had been relentless in her medically sanctioned torture of the poor man that now lay totally spent and breathing heavily on a mat on the floor, but then again she had to be. She had somehow figured out his limits over the last couple days and had no problem pushing him right to them, stopping just before he could fall over the edge and plummet into nothingness. The smile of determination she had been displaying for the majority of the morning as they began their session had been replaced by a smile of satisfaction at not only having the gumption to work Dean like a dog through each and every curse word he threw at her, and there had been plenty of those tossed angrily in her direction over the last couple hours, but at the fact that, even through his pain, sweat, and frustration, he had done everything she had asked. Everything.

"Dean?" She questioned when he made no effort to get up off the floor as he lay there totally still with an arm thrown over his face.

"Dean has left the building…" he tried to joke, not really finding himself very funny at the moment. Julia found some mild amusement in it though and he snorted slightly to himself when he heard her chuckle.

"You ready to go back to your room?"

"Oh god, I thought you'd never ask.

He heard her feet on the floor directly in front of him and dropped his arm back onto the mat with a heavy thump before looking at her through exhausted eyes. Now that they were done for the day, her smile didn't look so bad anymore.

"Need some help up?" She asked with her hands extended out to him, hands that he would have readily taken had he been able to bring himself up into a seated position, but he didn't even have the energy for that at the moment. He just extended both his arms up into the air in a final act of surrender and she took hold of them and firmly pulled until he was actually sitting at a right angle. He knew there was no way in hell he was walking back to his room, but she had somehow known that too because, much to his surprise, she had a chair ready and waiting for him to be planted into for the return trip.

With the wheels locked into place, Julia wrapped a strong arm around Dean's bicep and without saying a word just pulled him up as he got his good leg underneath him and tried to stand in order to move the very short distance between the floor and the chair. He was shocked when he realized that he could barely support any of his own weight and that Julia had pretty much been lifting him off the floor almost entirely by herself. He decided right then and there that he didn't want to run into her in a dark alley if she was pissed off any time soon.

With his worn out body now gently deposited into the seat, Julia unlocked the wheels and pushed him out the door and back down the hall to the elevators. Once again, the ride had been silent, only this time it wasn't an uncomfortable one. When the doors opened wide, she pushed him back out and into more familiar surroundings, his eye catching something out the window that had gone totally unnoticed by him when he passed it the first time. Had he had the energy to do it, he would have jumped from the chair when the bright sunlight that had been reflecting off the shiny black hit him in the eye and he put a hand out to stop their forward progress. The excitement the sight had given him did at least offer him enough energy to wheel himself to the window and for the briefest of moments he forgot he was sore, tired, and aching.

"There you are baby…god, I've missed you," he crooned and Julia couldn't help but frown as she looked out the window herself, trying to figure out who he could possibly be talking about when he saw that nobody was down there. She was starting to think that maybe she had worked him just a little too hard.

"Who are you talking to Dean? There's no one there," she had to ask when he refused to leave the window for the longest time.

"That's my girl, right down there," he stated what he thought to be obvious as he pointed down to the 

human-bare lot.

"There's nobody down there Dean," she informed him bluntly and he just shook his head, seemingly mesmerized by what he was staring at.

"No, right there. See it, the way the sun reflects off her long, black body…" he started, then seemed to let a frown somewhat replace his ardor. "Damn it Sam, when was the last time you had her waxed? He knows it needs she needs a fresh coat every few weeks. I'm gonna have to have a little talk with that brother of mine about the finer points of…"

"You're talking about a car? All that mushiness is over a car?"

"Damn straight sister," he confirmed her suspicions for her and she just rolled her eyes, grasped the handles of the chair and started pushing.

"Ok, that's enough of that. I think you seriously need a shower now and maybe it needs to be a cold one," She informed him wryly as she pushed him back into his room, leaving him right in front of the open bathroom door. Turning a little more serious, she looked at him with a slight hint of concern and posed her question. "Seriously, do you need any help getting cleaned up?"

"Why? You offering?" He joked and all she could do was kick the wheel of his chair as she turned to leave.

"I'll take that as a no. If you don't need anything, I'm gonna go. I seem to have fallen a little behind schedule today."

"Nah, I'm good."

"Ok. Get some rest because we get to do that all over again tomorrow," she teased and before he could say or do anything, she snuck out.

Gratefully alone, he wheeled himself slowly into the bathroom and stripped without bothering to stand. Grasping hold of the shower bar, he dragged his weary bones into the stall and just turned on the water, letting it flow over him. He washed his body totally half-assed, shut off the water and dragged himself back out and into the chair before grabbing a towel to dry himself. Slowly wheeling himself to the closet that held most of his and Sam's stuff, he didn't even bother making an attempt at identifying which bag was his as he dug through the one on the top for boxers and a t-shirt, easily finding the former and giving them a quick sniff to make sure they were clean before painstakingly pulling them on, totally giving up on his search for a shirt. Back to the bed he went and with what little energy he still had, he stood and plopped himself back onto it, pulled up a blanket, and promptly fell fast asleep, ignoring that slight twinge of pain he was starting to get in the lower part of his stomach. That wasn't just sore muscles, but right now he didn't care. As far as he was concerned, his day was done and he would worry about that later.

Julia had been pretty pleased with the way things had gone today. Dean was obviously a very stubborn man, but also a very determined one. The heated swearing and vulgar name-calling had been nothing more than a front for him to keep some sort of manly image he felt the need to show intact but underneath all that defiant machismo, he had busted his ass and she knew if he continued to do exactly what he had done today, he'd be nearly 100 in no time. That would be enough for her to put up with the 'sick, twisted bitch', or 'evil spawn of hell' cracks, just to name the milder few. She walked through the empty hospital parking garage at nearly two in the afternoon, anxious to take a little break for the day after the grueling morning she had just had, totally unaware that she wasn't walking through it alone.

He brazenly approached her as she made her way to the darkest possible corner of the dimly lit staff parking area where her car was sitting nearly alone, his footsteps falling silently on the ground mere strides behind her. She had been shocked when she finally pulled her wandering thoughts together enough to realize someone was pressed firmly against her back as an arm suddenly wrapped itself tight around her throat, the strong stench coming from the quite obviously saturated rag now covering her mouth and nose gagging her. She struggled against the arm clamped around her neck but succeeded only in cutting off her own air, and as she slowly slumped to the ground as her vision faded into nothing, she looked into the eyes that stared down at her with both love and hate gleaming at her.

"Oh, you really are the perfect choice, aren't you," he told himself out loud as he scooped her limp body up off the ground and held it against his own. She didn't smell like his Trish, not yet, but her own natural scent seemed to excite him and instead of dropping her into his already open and awaiting trunk, he pulled open the passenger side door and gently placed her loose body on the seat inside instead. Quietly closing the door closed behind her and slamming the trunk lid closed, he slid behind the wheel of the car 

he was driving, pulled Julia's upper body down into his lap to shield her from view of anyone that may care to look, and left with his prize confident that not one person had seen or heard a thing.

End Notes: Ok, the downward slide has begun...not just for Julia but Dean as well. As we come to the home stretch, I hope you all keep reading!! Thanks so much for reading so far and for all the great comments you have left. You have no idea what that means to me!!