Maggie's POV

I wanted to stay wrapped in the comfort of the blankets around me, but flashes of my parents being sliced up and the thing with the red, glowing eyes brought me to consciousness. When my eyes opened, I was staring at a popcorn ceiling with a water stain off to the left.

Aches pulsed through my body and nausea churned in my stomach.

Great.

Just what I needed.

On top of everything else, now a stupid stomach bug was going to plague me.

I pulled myself up to sit against the headboard when I realized 3 sets of eyes were staring at me. I ran a hand down my face and grimaced.

"Who is that?!" I asked, suddenly feeling very exposed and vulnerable.

Sam, who was sitting closest on the bed next to mine, spoke up.

"Maggie….That's Castiel. He's an angel. We had to call him because you got very sick."

I glared hard into Castiel's face, registering lines of concern wrinkling across his forehead.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded, still not understanding.

Dean stood from where he was seated on a couch across the room.

"You wouldn't wake up, Maggie. If we hadn't called Cas, you probably would've died. He healed you. Well, some of you. Your shoulder should be just fine now. You won't need that sling."

He walked a little closer to my bed, gesturing to the sling on my shoulder.

Experimentally, I rolled my shoulder and was surprised to not feel any pain. I reached around and unclipped the sling, dropping it hastily to the floor and stretching out my arm.

"Thank you?" I said, hesitantly. Something still didn't feel right.

"Maggie." The voice came from the supposed angel who wore a trench coat. His voice was surprisingly low and gravelly. He took his place next to Dean, more worried wrinkles carved on his face.

"You were extremely ill. Cancer had spread throughout your body. I healed as much of it as I could and I will finish healing you. I'm afraid I need time for my grace to fully regenerate… It may take a few weeks."

"Wait a second," I shook my head, interrupting him, "when the hell did I get cancer? The last thing I remember is coming here after you all picked me up from the hospital. I didn't have cancer when I left the hospital yesterday!" I was practically panicking now, feeling like I had missed an awful lot of important information.

Sam took his turn to try to explain things, "You're spot on. You didn't have cancer yesterday. We think whatever you saw that killed your parents, most likely a demon, is doing this to you. We think you're being targeted, Maggie."

I scoffed, unbelieving.

"Why?! What the hell did I do?!" Tears pricked at my face. Normally, I tried to keep my emotions in check, but honestly, the past 48 hours were doing nothing for my emotional stability.

"That's what we were hoping to find out." Dean cut in. "We think a human, someone who knows you, made a deal with a crossroads demon to make you and your family suffer. Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt you? Or your family?"

"No! Jeez… I don't know anyone who would do that! I don't even know anyone who believes in any of this crap!" I shouted.

An awkward silence filled the air. Castiel shifted on his feet, uncomfortable. Sam cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry." I amended, immediately. The nausea I was feeling earlier seemed to intensify dramatically. "I-I didn't mean it like that. This is just a lot to take in." My voice was lower, softer now.

Dean began again, his voice calmer and softer, too. "Look, I know this is difficult. But, since you're already sick, we don't have a whole lot of time to find the son of a bitch that's doing this and end it."

I nodded, clearing my own voice now.

"I'm sorry. I don't feel well, to be honest. I actually think I might…" My voice trailed off and I slapped my hand to my mouth as whatever contents left in my stomach rolled.

I somehow managed to push past Dean and Castiel to the bathroom, not even having enough time to shut the door before my stomach expelled everything into the toilet. I was on my knees, paralyzed as I heaved over and over.

I didn't realize Sam had followed me, gently pushing my hair out of my face. In between heaves, I handed him a hair tie I had kept on my wrist and he wordlessly put my hair into a loose ponytail. I couldn't trust myself to move.

After an embarrassingly long stretch of time, my stomach seemed to settle, I flushed the toilet and rested my head on the cool porcelain seat of the toilet for a few moments.

"Here." Sam said. A bottle of water was being pushed into my hands.

"Swish and spit. Don't try to drink right now. Give your stomach time to settle." He explained.

I swished, spit, and flushed the toilet again before leaning back against the tub.

"Sorry…" I whispered.

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault." Sam said. He situated himself next to me so his long legs had room to stretch out.

"Dean's right. We don't have a lot of time. I didn't get to talk to him about this yet. But, I was doing some research about some of your friends, or people you've known throughout your life."

I let out a chuckle. "So you Facebook-stalked me?"

His cheeks and ears turned a fresh shade of pink.

"Well - I - I didn't mean - I was just trying - "

I chuckled even harder as he fumbled over his words, which triggered a violent coughing fit that led to me dry heaving into the toilet again. He moved to sit behind me, rubbing my back.

I leaned back, expecting to be met with the hard tile of the grungy bathroom wall, but instead was met with Sam's chest. He let out a deep chuckle.

"I hope this doesn't bother you." I mumbled.

"What?" he asked.

"Me leaning against you when I'm sick." I explained.

I heard another chuckle rumble from deep in his chest.

"Someone's got to take care of you." He said as he shrugged. "And Dean hates puke."

I smirked. "Well, thanks."

"You're welcome."

"So, what did you find while you were Facebook-stalking me?" I said, letting my eyes droop shut as I listened.

"Honestly, not much. Except for this guy named Randy. What can you tell me about him?"

I sighed and shifted momentarily, wrapping my arms around myself, feeling cold. He seemed to sense this and rubbed his hands up and down my arms to generate heat.

"Randy was my high-school sweetheart. We even dated well into my sophomore year of college. But things started to change. I felt like we were growing in different directions. It felt like I was growing up and he wasn't. Randy had a bit of a rough upbringing. Both of his parents died when he was young and his grandmother raised him. He managed a grocery store in town and was perfectly content staying there and doing that. My family had decided they were going to move closer to my grandfather to care for him and Randy proposed to me. He wanted me to stay with him. And I just couldn't do it. It didn't feel right. I know he was hurt. But I had to do the right thing for me."

Sam's fingers were tracing patterns on my arms now. I don't think he was aware he was doing it. It just seemed like something he did when he was thinking.

"Did Randy ever mention anything about his family being cursed?"

"No… but it doesn't surprise me. Randy would sometimes become…obsessed with things. Like, this one time, he got really into trains. At first, it was really cool to see him become passionate about something. But then, it was like, every waking moment of his time became engrossed in trains. He bought model trains, had a whole track set up in his grandma's basement. They'd get into these big arguments over the stuff he'd collect. He always would end up losing interest in things and then they'd take up space in her house." I cleared my throat and took a small, experimental sip from the water bottle Sam had given to me earlier.

"Anyway, he would figure out when certain trains were going to be at certain railroad crossings and he'd go take pictures of them. None of that is inherently weird or bad, but it started to affect everything else. It affected our relationship, for sure. He got angry at me because I wasn't as into it as he was. It was like that with everything. He almost got fired over it. He skipped a shift at work because he was out chasing this train. He didn't tell anybody where he was and so when his work called me looking for him…" I shook my head and my voice trailed off. "I ended up going to his grandma's place. He'd had this crazy map hanging on the wall with tacks and string connecting things. It was like something you'd see out of some true crime show, or something." I shook my head at the memory.

"Maggie….I know this is a really personal question, and I'm sorry to even ask but…. when Randy got angry at you, like the time with the trains, did he ever become violent?"

I set my jaw and found a tile to focus my eyes on. I hadn't ever told anyone about what happened that night. The things Randy had said to me. It was so unlike him. It had never happened again but… what if….

"I know it's going to sound like I'm making excuses for him or something." I started, taking a steadying breath. "It was a really stressful time for both of us. His grandmother had just gotten diagnosed with cancer. Our relationship was already on the rocks over another one of his strange obsessions. He'd always been particularly possessive over me - he didn't like when I hung out with other guys if he wasn't with me. I guess he was a little insecure, but I'd never cheat. He found out that a mutual friend ended up going out to dinner with me and a few other friends when he couldn't be there. It came up when we were arguing over the trains and…things just got out of hand. He just felt like he was destined to lose me from the beginning. He'd apologized. And it never happened again. But, I don't know. After that night, I couldn't look at him the same way. He broke something in our relationship and honestly, I should've broken it off sooner but I was young and thought we could fix it. When he proposed, I just… left."

"Hmm." Sam hummed to himself, seemingly lost in thought.

"What is it?" I asked, leaning forward and turning to study Sam's face. I leaned forward off of Sam's chest. A chill ran up my spine and I shuddered at the lack of contact.

"You said it seemed like he was destined to lose you…" Sam said.

"Yeah. All of the couple's in Randy's family seemed to split up. Even his parents, before they died, had filed for divorce."

"Where does Randy live now?" Sam asked as his strong arms wrapped around me and supported me as I stood shakily and rinsed my mouth out with the mouthwash on the sink. His hands stayed nearby as I made my way back into my bed.

"Probably back in Maryland, still."

I sunk back into bed and quickly fell asleep.