The Man in Black.
BLB- I'm back. This is shorter than I wanted this to be, but the chapters should get longer. Just an FYI I really I don't like Doctors, or hospitals. As I have said before I do not own Supernatural, Eric Kripke(I think I spelled that right) does. Please read and review. Peace and Love to all.
Chapter Two
Sam wasn't sure about taking Michelle into the hospital, something didn't sit right with him about this, but Dean insisted on it. He kept saying, "It's either leave her alone in a hotel room, or in the Impala, or take her into the hospital and get her checked out by a doctor. We have to check this place out anyways." When Sam and Michelle gave him wary looks Dean added after taking a ragged breath, "You act like I want to do this anymore than you guys do. We go in there together, or not at all." Dean looked at Michelle more than Sam at this point, knowing that she was the one at risk here, mostly because she was the closest thing to the spirits "target"; the thing he killed though she wasn't an actual child.
Michelle nodded, agreeing with Dean. They had to do this, it was now or later and her head was throbbing telling her that now was probably a good time. "Alright, it looks like it is two against one Sammy," Dean said taking Michelle from Sam and opening the car door and getting out. "Are you coming or not?"
"Yeah, I am right behind you two," Sam muttered, still hating the idea that was running through Dean's head. The idea that he pressured onto Michelle. Neither of them knew what Michelle saw in Tommy's house, but Sam guessed it was whatever killed the young boy. Why him and Dean didn't see it or hear anything, he didn't know but Sam understood the risk Michelle was under by doing this. The girl was vulnerable, not only in her size but in what she could do in a fight; Michelle could all out beat Dean and it would have little to no affect on him, let alone a demon or a ghost.
Sam just watched as Dean took Michelle into the E.R. and explained to the nurse what had happened and that his niece needed medical attention. "James Calloway, and this is my niece Barbie. Her name is Barbra, but she only goes by Barbie," Dean responded when the receptionist asked for his name and the reason for their visit to the E.R. "My niece hit her head on the tub and may have swallowed some water. I just figured it's better safe than sorry."
"I need a pediatric nurse, in the E.R.," the older woman sitting at the desk said over the intercom. "Someone is on the way as we speak, just take a seat while we get a room ready for your niece."
"Thank you Ma'am," Dean muttered in response as the older woman waddled away. They took a seat in the nearly empty waiting room. Michelle pressed between Dean and Sam once again, she wondered if Dean did this on purpose, always putting her in the middle of them, or if it was purely a coincidence. Sam looked just about as antsy as she felt and Dean was tense under his 'I'm not worried, it'll be fine' guise.
That was when Michelle felt someone's eyes on her, watching her every move. She saw the man from the house standing a few feet away staring at her through his thick glasses taking in every part of her, it made her nervous but if Dean and Sam saw him they didn't show it. She buried her face into Dean's shirt with a whimper, trying to get the man out of her mind. Someone stroked her back reassuringly and made a slight shushing noise trying to comfort her as best as they could.
"It's okay, you're safe. Me and Sam aren't going anywhere," Dean whispered into her ear, just as a cute nurse came up to them and spoke to Dean.
"Are you the man with a sick niece?" The nurse asked, adjusting herself on her toes seeing the two handsome men sitting with the child in the waiting area.
"Yeah, but I think I am coming down with something, can you check me out instead?" Dean asked obviously flirting with the nurse.
"Let's focus on your niece," she responded, before turning away from them to see if the room was ready. "Follow me." She lead them to a small room with the standard examination table, computer and a few chairs in it. "Put her on the table, I'll be right back." Dean did as the nurse asked, before watching her walk away, well mostly staring at her ass as she walked.
"See that is the type of nurse I want taking care of me," Dean muttered under his breath. "My kind of hospital."
Sam could see the irritation on Michelle's face so he tried to warn Dean without spelling it out for him directly, even though his brother would never listen to him. "Dean, I would stop talking about that nurse. She isn't that cute."
"Did you see her? Or are you sick too? Need a little one on one with that nurse huh?" Dean asked, not getting what his younger brother was hinting at, but he would get the message as soon as the nurse began looking over Michelle.
"So you told the receptionist that you put her in the tub and she slipped under the water bumping her head, is that right?" The nurse asked, giving Dean a shy smile.
"That's correct," Dean responded smoothly taking a step back, letting the nurse do her work.
"Well, she is going to have a nice looking bump on her head. Other than that I don't think she is going to have any problems," the nurse said, "but we will check her just to be safe." Sam shifted on his feet, before he walked out of the room wanting to see if he could see anything weird going on in this hospital, maybe even ask the receptionist a couple of questions.
When the nurse bumped Michelle's knee with her reflex hammer, she took the initiative to kick the nurse in the stomach. The young nurses cutesy 'all smiles' demeanor had vanished and she glared at Michelle, not that Dean noticed as shock and disappointment covered his face. The nurse walked out of the room once more to regain her composure, Dean got up and looked like he was about to scold her.
"Why did you do that Michelle?" When the slight hurt crossed her face, Dean realized that she was taking his flirting with the nurse personally. "What I said was nothing, it doesn't matter we are going to leave once we crack this case and she won't matter, me and you are rock solid Michelle. But I promise that if you can't straighten up I will bust that little ass of yours." Michelle nodded not meeting Dean's harsh glare, he hated talking to her the way he did, but she needed to understand what was okay and what wasn't.
"So should I call C.P.S. before, or after you leave? You just said you were going to bust that little brat's ass, I kinda want to see that. That's one way to turn me on." At first the nurses sounded like a nurse should, but towards the end she sounded like Ursula trying to convince the Prince that she was a beautiful woman instead of a sea hag by using Ariel's stolen pipes.
"Don't call her that," Dean responded defending Michelle. "I take back what I said, I would rather have my brother be my nurse than you. Now finish the check up, and we will be on our way."
"She is fine, no concussion. Your niece, besides the bump on her head looks like a normal one year old should." The nurse's tone was sour as she went over Michelle's condition with Dean. "The only thing she needs bedsides sleep, is a huge attitude adjustment."
"She isn't the only one," Dean retorted, giving the nurse a pointed stare. That was when he picked Michelle up off of examination table and found Sam talking to the receptionist in the waiting room.
"How is she?" Sam asked seeing Dean approach with Michelle.
"Okay, the kids a pretty good judge of character, that nurse turned out to be a witch, when Michelle kicked her in the stomach," Dean stated, and the receptionist laughed.
"Told you to stop flirting," Sam muttered.
"That girl is something else," the receptionist said. "The girl hates children, but devoted her career to pediatrics. I told her when she interned here that she was doing the wrong job. Girl is just looking for single men with children, or even sometimes I think children themselves."
"Does she have anything to do with the missing children? Was she the nurse that saw them?" Sam asked.
"Young man, she saw Tommy Hicks, but the others were all saw by different nurses and doctors throughout the hospital. Although the doctor that she shadowed died in a fire not to long after she started. He was a really good doctor, and a devoted father." The receptionist sighed loudly. "That man had a hard life, died in a fire a few months before these murders began."
"Can I have his name please?" Sam asked, giving the receptionist his trademark puppy dog eyes. The receptionist nodded, before writing down the name on sticky note and giving it to Sam. Her petite handwriting read 'Arthur Wedsworthe'.
"There you go. I'm gonna forget y'all came in here. First patient we had in awhile, at least as far as visitors go that is. This place has a bad reputation now, one day it'll blow over. I hope," she paused staring at Dean and Sam, "Have a good evening boys, stay out of trouble."
"Why does everyone tell us to stay out of trouble?" Dean asked as they exited the hospital.
"Because we look like the type that gets into trouble," Sam answered. "But we look for the trouble more often than it finds us."
"So did you get anything back there? See anything out of the ordinary?" Dean asked Sam, but Sam had just shook his head. Michelle saw the ghost, and couldn't believe that Dean and Sam didn't see or even sense anything off about that place.
Michelle sat with Sam as Dean drove towards the local hotel, but before they made it there he had to stop and pick up dinner. That didn't shock Sam or Michelle at all, because Dean was ready for food just about anytime you brought it up; it was one thing the man truely loved and wasn't ashamed to show it.
After Dean had ordered and paid for the food through the local fast food joints drive-thru, they sped towards the hotel that they would be calling their temporary home. From what Michelle could tell the boys rarely had a place to call home, a place where they stayed for long periods of time like she had. Michelle's father was rarely around, but they had a place to live, her father hadn't dragged his family cross-country the way John Winchester had, but Uncle John didn't have much choice after his wife was killed, Michelle remembered her brother vaguely explaining Dean and Sam's family situation to her when she was younger. Their home was each other and this car, and on some level she felt foreign among the brothers, like she was the piece of the puzzle that would never quite fall into place.
Michelle didn't let that thought bother her as they finally came to a stop in the hotel's parking lot. Dean got out of the Impala and walked into the front door of the place to see if they had a room that they could rent for a few days. When Dean returned, Sam took the bags of clothing that Officer Jacobs had bought her and carried them and her up to the room, before Dean came up with the bags of food, leaving Sam to go back down to the car to retrieve the duffle bag that had their stuff in it.
Dean gave Michelle a couple of french fries and an order of chicken nuggets. "Eat up. It's been a long day." Dean took a seat on the bed not to far away from where Sam had sat her down on the couch. Michelle had just begun to eat when Sam had returned with the duffle bag and what Michelle had left in the back of the car; Dean's t-shirt and the two notebooks that she prized like her mothers golden broach. Since she left the inn, that was her home for most of her life she had pinned the broach into the journal that her father had kept on his various hunting trips. It was like the parts of her parents she had were coming together again, it just seemed right.
Sam gave her back both the notebooks and Dean's shirt. Once she finished up all she could eat, Michelle held out the shirt to Dean. She felt the need to give it back, because it wasn't hers to keep. Dean took it for a second, before handing it back to her. "Keep it, you will use it more than I will," Dean said and Michelle nodded a thank you to him, while he continued to eat his dinner. She focused on remembering what she had saw earlier. The memory of the man with his hand on the boy's shoulder was plastered to the inside of her eyelids, so that is what she focused on as she drew the sight as best as she could on the paper.
What came out of her efforts was a bad picture of a faceless man standing next to a little boy. She added the thick glasses to the man's face to make him look less like a faceless alien. The only thing she felt she had captured in the picture was the man's long black coat. Michelle tried to write out the word ghost, but she had problems remembering and forming the letters on the page. What she ended up with were the letters "gst", which wouldn't help them identify what she meant.
Sam watched her, before sitting next to her on the couch and asking her, "What did you draw Michelle?" Sam took in the creepy looking picture that reminded him of Slenderman, an urban legend that he doubted Michelle had ever heard of. He took the notebook and showed Dean the drawing. Dean paused taking in what Michelle had drawn, before asking the question Sam should've opened with.
"Is this what you saw?" Michelle nodded in response. "Is that Tommy Hicks?" Again Michelle nodded. He hadn't noticed her attempt at writing ghost yet, trying to communicate what she saw would be a lot easier if she could just tell them.
"So you saw that man with Tommy in his house? Is that what you were trying to show me?" Sam asked and Michelle nodded answering both of those questions. Sam could tell that Michelle wished she could answer the questions, like there was a lot she wanted to say, he couldn't imagine what that was like for her; knowing something they needed to know but not being able to just say it.
The boys let it drop, when they were running out of 'yes or no' questions, that and Michelle was tired; her little eyelids were drooping so they left her alone, Dean turning on the T.V. Michelle while laid on the couch covered with Dean's shirt, Sam kissed Michelle's forehead Mother Henning the girl before he went to take a quick shower before bed.
When Sam emerged from the shower the room was dark except for the minimal light flowing from the T.V.. Dean had fallen asleep watching the news, and Michelle had probably fallen asleep shortly before Dean had. His brother had kicked off his boots, but was still dressed which was so unlike Dean to fall asleep fully dressed like that, he usually slept in just his boxers, but Sam didn't want to even try to wake him. He knew that his brother would get mad at him for trying to mother him, so Sam left Dean sleep knowing that if he got uncomfortable that he would get up and adjust himself without Sam's interference.
Sam shut his eyes and actually let sleep take him, it was the first time he was able to sleep soundly without a nightmare since Jessica had died.
Michelle was face to face with her demon once again. She was used to this by now, these nightmare visits to her deceased stalker, who was taking the unlimited time he had to teach Michelle the trade that she had chosen over him in the end. She admitted that what the demon had told her was fact, she checked in her father's journal and everything had checked out. The demon was trying to help her, which was a foreign thought to her; but she accepted it none the less. Whatever creepy possessive feeling he had for her was still there, and was probably his main motivation for doing what he did. The demon had especially enjoyed her most recent visits, because she had lost her voice even in her dreams and in his mind it made her perfect, because she couldn't argue with him.
Michelle felt herself returning to the waking world sooner than she thought, but didn't fight it. Whatever was pulling her back was probably more important than her demon coach in hell. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but she could feel someone watching her, like she was prey, something that was being hunted.
"Come play with me," a girl's voice whispered in her ear this time, and that snapped her eyes open, but when she looked into the darkness around her there was nothing, but darkness and the soft sounds of the boys steady breathing. She tried to close her eyes and go back to sleep, but she couldn't relax, someone was watching her and she couldn't relax while she was being stared at like this.
Michelle slowly sat up and lowered herself onto the floor from the couch, taking tentative steps away from the couch and towards the isle between the hotel beds dragging the t-shirt behind her. Both Sam and Dean were sound asleep, and she hated to wake either of them, but in the end she chose Dean, because lately it had been a miracle for Sam to sleep at all, let alone soundly.
Michelle patted Dean's shoulder gently trying to wake him, she touched him three times before he shot up looking around the room for a threat or his own impending doom. When he saw nothing that went bump in the night, his sleep-filled eyes rested on Michelle.
"Michelle? What's wrong?" Dean whispered when he saw the worry and discomfort on her face. Tears beaded in her eyes, because she was frightened of whatever had attached itself to her, especially since neither Dean or Sam could see it.
After they had just stared at each other for about five minutes, Dean had remembered that Michelle couldn't answer him. "Can't sleep?" She nodded. "Want to sleep in the bed with me?" Michelle nodded again in response, relieved that he asked that. Dean put the knife he kept under his pillow on the nightstand that stood between the two beds, before picking up Michelle, laying her on the bed next to him and wrapping an arm around her protectively. "If there is anything out there that is after you Michelle, they will have to go through me before they can get to you. Get some sleep, we have work to do in the morning."
She still felt like she was being watched, but the presence was a lot less intimidating with Dean holding onto her. In his arms she was able to got to sleep, and for once her dreams weren't a passage to the demon that held a claim on her soul and the presence didn't urge the usual nightmares of things she could only dream of changing. It didn't bother her, because Dean was there even though he hated looking soft, he cared enough to let her in even if it was only a little bit.