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The Mermaid

Chapter five

Once Dean had Sam out of the line of fire he rolled up his brother's pants leg and examined the wound.

"How bad is it?" Sam asked as he leaned over trying to see the wound.

"It's hard to see in the dark but it doesn't look too bad. I won't be able to tell for sure till I get you back to the motel. There might be a fragment of the bullet in it but I should be able to take care of it once we're out of here." Dean said as he wiped his bloody hands on his pants.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief, he was glad it wasn't bad enough that he'd have to go to the hospital to have it removed, they didn't need the cops questioning them about how he was shot. He looked out over the lake and could see the boat getting nearer.

"Dean…" He put his hand on his brother's shoulder and nodded toward the water. "We better get out of here."

Dean quickly tied a handkerchief around Sam's ankle to slow the bleeding then put his brother's arm over his shoulder and helped him down the street and to the car. Once there, they got in the car and sped back toward the motel.

The motel

Dean had Sam sit on the edge of the bathtub with his leg dangling in the hot soapy water while he went out to the car to retrieve the first aide kit. He grabbed the kit and hurried back to his brother. First he handed Sam a bottle of whiskey then gently took his brother's leg out of the water and dried the wound with a clean gauze pad. Sam took a couple of swigs from the bottle hoping to ease the pain.

"Ouch! Take it easy!" Sam yelped when his brother began poking around the wound.

"Oh shut up and hold still." Dean said as he slowly stuck a thin metal probe into the hole in Sam's leg trying to locate the fragment.

"Damn it Dean hurry up!" Sam squeezed his eyes shut as he took another swallow of whiskey.

"I can feel it." Dean said as he took a thin, sharp tweezer and inserted it into the wound next to the probe.

Sam gritted his teeth and grimaced in pain as Dean slowly pulled the tweezers out with the small bullet fragment.

"Got it!" Dean smiled proudly as he held up the fragment for Sam to see. He hated hurting his brother but he'd never let him know that. "You're such a baby." He said when Sam took another swallow of whiskey to deaden the pain.

"Oh yeah! Well let me shoot you in the leg and then dig out the bullet and see how you feel."

"Nah…I'll pass."

The anger he had tried to suppress till he made sure his brother was okay now rushed to the surface as he helped Sam to the bed then began wrapping his ankle.

"I can't believe that son of a bitch actually shot at us. The bastard could have killed us."

"We don't even know for sure that it was him Dean. It could have just been some poacher after the deer."

"He shined the light right on us Sam, it wasn't the deer he was after." Dean finished wrapping Sam's leg then walked over and picked up his gun.

"Maybe it was just a bunch of kids." Sam looked nervously at the gun in his brother's hand. "Don't go off half cocked Dean, not when you don't know for sure it was him."

"Oh it was him, I know it."

"What are you going to do?"

"Pay our friend a little visit." Dean said as he opened the phone book lying on the desk between the beds and looked up Grady's address.

"Dean all you're going to do is get yourself in trouble."

"The bastard shot you Sam, I'm not letting it go."" Dean started to head toward the door.

"Well then I'm going with you." Sam stood up then winced in pain as he tried to put pressure on his injured leg. Dean quickly grabbed him and lowered him back to the bed.

"You're not going anywhere." Dean looked at his brother. "Don't worry, I won't kill him." He said as he hurried out of the door before Sam could follow him.

Grady's house

Dean approached the dark house cautiously. He put his hand on the hood of Grady's truck and could feel that it was still warm. It was obvious that he had only returned a short time ago. He crept over to an open window and looked inside. He then gave a quiet whistle trying to attract any dog that might be in the house. When none barked he was satisfied that there wasn't any and crawled into the window. It was a one level house and he crept from room to room till he found the bedroom. He could see Grady sleeping on his side and was relieved to see that he was alone. He crept next to the bed and put the barrel of his gun against Grady's cheek. Grady rolled over and looked up at him.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"You shot my brother you son of a bitch!"

Grady didn't deny it but glared back at Dean.

"You should have taken my word and forgot about the girl."

"I'm only going to say this once; forget about the mermaid…and if you hurt my brother again…I'll kill you." Dean raised the gun then brought it down hard across Grady's cheek.

TBC