Hey, guys, I'm really sorry it took me so long to post this. I won't make any excuses about school or work; I just had an unbelievably bad case of writer's block. Hope this chapter is worth the wait, and don't worry, the next one will be posted really soon. I'm writing up a storm now, to make up for that incredibly long wait.
Dean kept a hand on Izzie's arm and steered her through the bustling crowds of hospital workers and patients.
"Dean, where are we going?" She asked, exasperated.
"Just wait" He turned to face her, a slight smile on his lips. Izzie attempted to smile back but somehow, it wouldn't appear on her face. Dean had finally gotten Izzie off of the hallway floor and back on her feet, but her ever present grief was more prominently displayed in her eyes.
"Look, Dean, I apologize for before, in the hallway. I'm your doctor and I had no right to fall apart like that" Dean stopped walking and stared at her.
"You don't need to apologize for being human" Dean began examining the room numbers on the wall and reading them under his breath.
"11290 . . . . 11291 . . . . . Aha, 11292" He pushed the door open, revealing a young man, almost completely white with gauze, lying on a bed. Dean rushed forwards and pulled Izzie with him.
"Sammy? Sam, it's me, Dean" For a moment it looked like Sam was unconscious and wouldn't be answering his brother, but then his eyelids fluttered open.
"Dean, you pain in the ass, what took you so long?" Dean laughed and nudged Izzie closer to his brother's bedside.
"I've been acquainting with some of the staff" Sam gazed over at Izzie and nodded knowingly.
"Aha, I should've known. I'm Sam Matthews." He said, picking one of their aliases out of thin air.
"Matthews?" Izzie said, turning to Dean with a frown.
"Matthew is his middle name, he's just confused from all the knocking around his brain's been getting" Sam strove to catch his brother's eye, but Dean suavely avoided his gaze
"Oh, nice to meet you Sam. I'm Dr. . . . . I'm Izzie."
"Good to meet you, Dr. Izzie" Sam said, smiling.
"Is there something else wrong with me? Cause I already feel like I got run over by a truck" He winced. "Bad metaphor to use right now"
"Actually no, Sammy, Izzie's . . . . Izzie's been going through a hard time lately, and I thought that maybe you guys could chat. I know you haven't been having the easiest time since . . . . ."
"Since Jessica" Sam finished his brother's sentence.
"Jessica?" Izzie asked, her curiosity overpowering her.
"My girlfriend, she, um, she died, about a year ago" Izzie nodded, seeing her pain mirrored in Sam's eyes.
"Yeah, my fiancé, Denny died about 3 months ago. Actually 3 months, 17 days and 16 hours ago, to be exact." She exhaled quickly and Sam nodded his sympathy before turning to face his brother.
"Dean, this has got to be the worst set up you've ever attempted" Shock registered on the elder Winchester boy's face.
"A set up? Come on, I'm just trying to be nice, figured you both needed someone to talk to. Besides, dude, I wouldn't waste this one you." Sam laughed and turned back to Izzie.
"So, what do you want to talk about?"
George, Meredith and Cristina crowded around the door of room 11292, jockeying for position.
"Ow, George, get your elbow out of my ribcage" Cristina cried
"If you'll take your foot off of mine" he replied
"What's going on?" Meredith asked, craning her neck
"I think they're talking" George replied.
"Talking? We've been trying to talk to her for months and in one day, she opens up to a couple of patients?" Meredith asked, resentment bubbling to the surface.
"Maybe it's because they're patients, you know Izzie, she likes her men fatally ill" Cristina remarked with her patented bluntness. Both Meredith and George turned to face her and she gazed at their faces.
"Too soon?"
"Too soon" They both said at the same time.
"What is going on here?" Came Bailey's voice from behind the three interns and they all whirled around to face their resident.
"Nothing" Cristina said quickly, "Nothing at all, just . . . ." She looked at Meredith for help.
"We're just checking in on the two new patients that were brought in this morning. The older one wanted to check up on his brother, and we're staying out here to give them some space." They all three joined to form a wall quickly as Bailey tried to look past them into the room.
"It's a very private moment" George said.
"Well, I assume with the combined efforts of all three of you, you've figured out the identities of our newest patients."
"Yes, we have actually" Cristina jumped in, eager to impress as always. "Dean, Sam and John Winchester"
"Okay, good work. Yang, you and O'Malley go check up on Papa Winchester, Grey, give the youngest Winchester his post-op check-up." She turned to leave but came back quickly.
"And if I hear anything about you three stooges listening at doors rather then doing what I asked again, I will see to it that you are all assigned to rectal examinations" The interns smiled and nodded until Bailey rounded the corner then turned back to the scene inside the room.
"So, how did Jessica die?" Izzie asked, already feeling the beginning of an easy camaraderie between the brothers and herself. As she thought this though, the boys shot each other looks, and she felt excluded immediately.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to" she amended quickly.
"No, no, it's fine." Sam answered, looking at her once again. "She was killed, in a fire, it was arson, I guess you could say and we've kinda been trying to find the guy who did it for the past year"
"You shouldn't be doing that, you could get hurt, why don't you just leave it to the police?" Izzie asked in concern and the brothers shot each other looks once again, this time, in bemusement.
"I don't think the police can help us with this" Dean said finally, his mischievous smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. Izzie nodded and let the subject go. Meredith chose that moment to walk into the room, chart in hand.
"Hi Mr. Winchester, I'm Dr. Grey"
"Hey" Both brothers answered at the same time and Meredith smiled.
"I just came in to check in on Sam, see how he was feeling."
"Sammy's feeling fine" Dean said quickly,
"It's Sam" the brother in question said to his brother before turning back to Meredith.
"And he's right, I feel fine."
"No nausea? No headaches?" Meredith asked, marking something on her clipboard. Sam shook his head to both.
"Alright, well, I'm gonna bail on all this before Dr. Grey here starts asking about Sam's recent bowel movements" Dean stood from his chair slowly and Izzie stepped forwards quickly, willing to help if necessary.
"I'm not that fragile, Dr. Stevens, I think I can stand up by myself" A curious look flashed across Dean's face, and he grinned suddenly.
"You know what, Dr. Stevens? There's someone else I'd like you to meet. If you don't have any other patients to check up on, that is" Izzie shook her head, a hint of curiosity taking hold in her eyes, who was Dean's next mystery date for her?
"I'm free" Dean grinned even wider
"Great" he offered Izzie his arm. She took it with mild hesitance and they walked out of the room together, Dean mouthing to his brother over his shoulder
'Be good' before smirking.
Izzie waited outside the room Dean had led her to, he had parked her outside after explaining that he needed some alone time with his father, to 'settle all the details'. Settling the details had so far taken about half an hour and Izzie would've seriously started considering leaving if it wasn't for the fact that she had no where better to go and the nagging suspicion that she had heard the father's voice somewhere before. For the majority of the last half hour, Dean had been receiving a serious talking-to from his father. The father was upset about something Dean had told Izzie apparently and seemed determined to chastise him for it.
"Dean, I don't understand how you could just tell her like that. I mean, you don't even know the girl and you're suddenly telling her your life story?"
"I didn't tell her my life story, dad, just my name"
"Which is bad enough. Dean, what were you thinking? You realize your name is still connected to what happened in St. Louis?"
"Not anymore"
"What?"
"Sam managed to hack into the cops' database, changed the name on the write-up. Set up all the evidence necessary to prove that there had been an error in the police report, that Dean Winchester wasn't responsible for the deaths."
"Can that be done?"
"I guess so, College boy finally turned out to be good for something"
"Don't talk about your brother like that, Dean"
"Right, sorry." There was a momentary lapse in conversation and Izzie began to puzzle out what was being exchanged between the two men. Deaths? St. Louis? Hacking into a police database? Maybe her first impression of the Winchester boys wasn't as clear as she'd thought. Something at the back of her mind irritated her though, taking her mind off of what was being said. That voice, it was so unbearably familiar, but for some reason she couldn't remember where she had heard it.
"Look, dad, she's outside"
"Dr. Stevens?"
"Yeah, I brought her to take a look at you"
"Why would you do that, Dean?"
"I want to make sure you're okay, dad, you know, get a second opinion" Dean's father, John, Izzie though his name was, sighed before answering.
"And we can trust this girl?"
"Dad, she's a doctor, what's not to trust?" Izzie could almost hear the smile in Dean's voice but his words sent a painful spear through her heart. Look at what had happened to the last man that had trusted her. Footsteps neared the door and Izzie straightened up immediately, afraid Dean would catch her listening at the door like a five year old child. The door cracked open and Dean poked his head out.
"You up for meeting another one of the Winchester boys?" he grinned at her devilishly and Izzie nodded, somewhat hesitantly.
"Sure" she said. Dean opened the door wider and made room for Izzie to pass by him. She plastered a wide grin on her face and approached the bed with her eyes on the floor. You can do this, Stevens; you met Sam with no problem.
"Hi, Dr. Stevens, I'm John Winchester, Sam and Dean's father" the man introduced himself, creating an opening for Izzie to speak
"Hi, Mr. Winchester, I'm . . ." Her eyes drifted up from the floor into the face of the man she loved, a man long since dead, and Izzie's heart stopped. This is a joke, right? Some sick twisted joke. But it wasn't, even now, Izzie could see John looking at her with Denny's eyes, smiling at her with Denny's lips. This is impossible, she thought. Her heart had restarted and was now thumping heavily in her throat, cutting off her oxygen.
"Denny?" she whispered before collapsing into Dean's arms.
"Dean, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything, dad, she just fainted" The words were drifting into Izzie's subconscious, not really leaving a mark, just floating by. She tuned them out to better focus on her own thoughts. At least now she knew why that voice was so familiar.
"Hi, Dr. Stevens"
"What I choose is you"
"I'm John Winchester"
"You're the one I want to wake up with and go to bed with and do everything in between with"
"Sam and Dean's dad"
"I get a choice now, I get to choose. I choose you Izzie Stevens" The room was suddenly flooded with several new voices. Cristina's, Meredith's and Bailey's, yanking Izzie out of her thoughts
"What happened here?" Meredith asked, and her footsteps approached Izzie's still body.
"You showed her? What are you, insane?" Cristina barked at Dean and Izzie twitched at the malice in her voice.
"Showed her what? What's going on here?" Dean asked, confusion clearly evident in his voice.
"Yang, shut up, Grey, try and wake Stevens up" Bailey's voice, as demanding as ever rang out.
"I'm up" Izzie mumbled, opening her eyes with difficulty and attempted to stand up. Dean kept a tight hold on her though and as soon as she stood up, Izzie fell into his chest.
"What's going on here? Why is everyone yelling?" Her memories flooded back and Izzie whirled to face John, or Denny or whoever the hell he was.
"Denny?" she asked, fear tinting every syllable. What if it was Denny? What if it wasn't? The man with Denny's face shook his head in confusion.
"No, John" he turned to face his son, "Dean, what's going on?"
"I dunno, dad, I'm just as lost as you are" Izzie pushed herself away from Dean and towards the door, mind dizzying her with thoughts.
"I have to get out of here" she said, unsure if anyone had heard her, not really caring if they didn't and walked away from her newest bombshell.
As John Winchester began to slide into consciousness, he was suddenly, unbelievably aware of someone in his room. He sat bolt upright, cursing the painkillers coursing through his body for dulling his senses. His keen, trained eyes quickly made out the shape of someone standing in his doorway and he clenched his fists, realizing too soon that he was in a hospital and didn't have his usual arsenal of weapons at his disposal.
"I'm sorry" the figure said, looking obviously uncomfortable, unsure of whether or not they should trespass into his room. He squinted, eyes gradually adjusting to the light and finally the semi-familiar face of the pretty blonde doctor he had met before, registered in his mind.
"Dr. Stevens?" he guessed, his voice was husky with sleep and for an instant, it looked as though the doctor had been electrocuted, she recovered quickly though and nodded.
"Yeah, I just came . . . to see how you were doing"
"The nurse stopped by about an hour ago"
"Oh, right, well, you know, you can never be too sure" John cocked his head to the side, scrutinizing the pretty young doctor, trying to find any trace of demon possession. The last thing he needed right now was a visit from the yellow eyed demon.
"There's something else, isn't there?" Dr. Stevens shifted her weight uncomfortably, eyes roaming the room, refusing to land on John.
"Why would there be anything else?"
"I'm just a good judge of character" Dr. Stevens hesitated for a moment, looking to the ground and John felt his impatience rising. He was not used to hesitation and time wasting, when he wanted something, it was done quickly, and efficiently, with no room for hesitation. There was something about this doctor, something that hinted at great pain, something that hid in the smallest of her movements, or in her eyes, something that reminded of himself.
"Does it have something to do with you fainting before?"
"Yeah, it's just . . . you remind me of someone. Someone I used to know, someone I . . . haven't seen in a long time"
"Denny?" Dr. Stevens straightened and stared at him, eyes trained on him for the first time since she had entered the room.
"You knew him?"
"Nah, you called me Denny right after you woke up."
"Oh," The blonde doctor slumped a little. She walked over to the foot of his bed, picking up his chart, obviously just looking for an excuse to stick around. John felt the beginning of annoyance, he needed to find a way out of the hospital, and more importantly, he needed to find the Demon, and kill it. He didn't have time to waste around a hospital, but something attracted him to the doctor. He didn't know what it was, but he knew better then to snub his gut reactions.
"So, who's this guy, Denny?"
"He's . . . He was my fiancé. He . . . He died"
"I'm sorry, what happened?" He could feel his inner demon hunter clamoring to the surface. A mysterious death could be hiding something big, bad and demonic.
"It was a stroke. He had just had a . . . It was a stroke." She laughed, a short, harsh sound.
"What is it?"
"The thing is, he looked exactly like you" John straightened slightly, attention completely focused on Dr. Stevens now.
"He what?"
"He looked exactly like you. Well, not exactly, his hair was different, and he had this smile . . . But basically, it was exactly you" John was torn two ways, stay with the doctor, learn the most he could about this Denny, or inform the boys about the new case. He decided to inform the boys first, the doctor seemed to have taken a shining to Dean and vice versa, Dean would be able to get more information from her, than the living replica of her dead fiancé. He would have warned Dean about putting the job before romance, especially with someone as good looking as this Dr. Stevens, but something in her eyes convinced him that she was still in love with her fiancé, and wouldn't be the type to be easily swayed by his eldest son's propositions.
"I'm sorry" He said, and to his surprise, he was. This woman was clearly in pain and still deeply in love with her fiancé. It reminded him of the daily pain and love he still felt for his late wife, even more then 20 years after her death.
"I believe you." She said, smiling thinly. "You know it's funny, my room mates and everyone keeps telling me how sorry they are, and I just keep having the feeling they're just saying it to make me less sad, but you, who's never even met Denny, say you're sorry and I believe you"
"It's probably because I've been through this before" Dr. Stevens cocked her head slightly, interest flickering on her face.
"What happened?"
"My wife died, a while ago, and I never managed to get over it"
"I'm sorry" John nodded, surprised at himself for divulging so much to this woman he barely even knew. I'm just paving the way to get more information out of her if Dean doesn't manage to get anything he told himself.
"I believe you"
"What happened?"
"She was killed, in a fire" Confusion flickered across Dr. Steven's face
"Like Sam's girlfriend?" John leaned forward slightly, attention completely focused on the doctor.
"Sam told you about that?"
"Well, yeah, Dean, set up this kind of encounter session between me and Sam, figured it might be good for us, with the talking and the getting past . . . Everything. Why?"
"Nothing, I'm just surprised, Sam's just usually good at keeping things to himself, I didn't expect him to open up to someone he just met." Dr. Stevens shrugged slightly, tucking a stray lock of blonde hair behind her ear.
"It wasn't him really, Dean introduced us, and the subject just came up. Common experiences and all that.
"Huh" John leaned back into his pillows, mind working at full speed, despite the thought numbing painkillers. There was definitely something odd going on here, this fiancé of Dr. Stevens who seemed to be his long lost twin, or something profoundly more demonic, and for some reason, all the Winchester boys seemed attracted to this doctor, let their guards down around her. Maybe that was further evidence of something supernatural.
"Alright, well, I better let you sleep. You've had a very trying day, Mr. Winchester, I shouldn't be here, talking your ear off" She turned to leave, placing the chart back at the foot of John's bed
"It's John" he said, and she turned slightly to face him
"Call me John" A shadow of a smile appeared at the corner of her lips.
"I'm Izzie" John inclined his head slightly towards her, accepting her greeting
"It was nice speaking with you, Izzie"
"You too, John" The smile actually appeared on her face this time and Izzie left the room, leaving John to puzzle out his new discoveries.