The Hunt

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

oooOOOooo

"We need to know what happened." Dean said once the empty containers were cleared. It hadn't escaped Sam's attention that Dean had been nowhere near Kristine the entire time they ate.

The swelling in Kristine's mouth had gone down and she was able to eat the soup with relative ease. Talking was still painful, but she knew it was necessary.

"How long have you known Patrick was possessed? When did it happen?" Sam asked.

"He started acting weird about three weeks ago. I don't see him every day, but we generally talk at least once. Every Wednesday we have dinner together and three weeks ago he missed it; he just didn't show up. He called a few hours later to apologize and said he'd gotten caught up with one of the guys in his disability support group. He acted weird after that, but I didn't really put it together for a few days."

"Weird how?" Sam asked.

"He seemed happier than usual. I mean, you know him, he's usually pretty happy, but there was something off about it. Then he started making inappropriate comments – he was like an obnoxious drunk, but he wasn't drinking."

"He was possessed and the demon wasn't too concerned about keeping his cover." Dean said. "What did you do when you put it together?"

"I put together that he was acting off, not that he was possessed. He has quite a few health problems stemming from the injury that put him in the wheelchair and I thought he was sick."

"Go on." Sam urged.

"I got home early from the clinic and saw him through the front window of my house. He was pacing – walking. That's when I knew he had to be possessed. I called his cell phone and pretended I didn't know; I wanted to see if I could find out what the demon wanted."

"Did you?"

"No." she glanced at Dean, then looked back to Sam. "But it knows I know about the possession; that's why I felt like I had to leave town. I set things in motion – did you go to the house? There were four hunters at the house; I told them about the possession so they could get out of town. They'd all been through one hell of a battle and none of them were in shape to fight this."

"It looks like they left in a hurry."

"What do you mean?"

Sam told her what they'd found in the kitchen of the estate house.

"That doesn't make sense. They had time to get out." she closed her eyes for a moment. "Unless the demon went to the house – I figured Patrick being possessed had to do with me; the demon wanted information. I didn't think it had anything to do with the connection to the hunters –"

Sam laid a gentle hand on her arm. "It looks like they got out. We didn't find them. And, for what it's worth, I think you were right. The demon probably wanted to get to us through you."

She looked at him. "That's what I thought, too. That's why I didn't contact you directly. How did you find the trail?"

"I had a vision." Sam said.

"What did you see?"

He glanced away.

"Tell me, Sam. I need to know."

"Patrick chasing you through your house; fire –"

"Fire?"

"He was chasing you through the house; you weren't on a ceiling."

Dean stood up and began to pace.

"What happened in the motel room?" Sam asked. He felt Kristine stiffen and looked at her sympathetically, then glanced at Dean. He had no idea what was going on in his brother's head and he didn't understand the relationship between the two of them; but he did know that Kristine wasn't a hunter. She had a lot of the same knowledge and she'd lost a lot to the demon, but none of that prepared her for being a target. She needed someone to lean on, and of the two of them, Sam thought that should be Dean.

"I was putting the salt down. I started at the door, but Patrick –" she winced when she said his name. "It came through the window. Just dove through. I didn't have time to react. It – it hit me a few times and I was hanging from those hooks almost before I even realized what was going on."

Sam squeezed her hand gently. "I'm sorry you were brought in to this."

She smiled at him even though she had tears in her eyes. "Sam, I've been in this since that thing killed my sister. None of this is your fault."

He glanced away for a moment. "Do you know what the demon wanted? The one possessing Patrick? Did it say anything to you?"

"It said a lot, but most of it was just to eat at me. But I do know," she looked at Dean briefly. He was still pacing uncomfortably. "I do know that it didn't want me and wasn't using me to get to you, Sam."

"Then what?"

"To get to me." Dean said quietly. "The yellow-eyed demon knows it will be easier to get what it wants from you if I'm not around, so the bastard sent one of its children after Kristine as a way to keep me off balance."

Sam looked from his brother back to Kristine. She nodded. "I don't know how I know that, but I know it."

"Then we have to split up."

"What? No way." Dean said. "We're in this together."

"I can't keep letting it try to hurt you, Dean."

"We're not splitting up." Dean said firmly. "That's all there is to it."

Sam heard the strength in his brother's tone, but saw the fear in his eyes and the pallor of his skin. He knew what John told Dean; that he had to look out for Sam and if he couldn't protect him, Dean might have to kill him. They had no information other than that and with John's death, none would be forthcoming any time soon. Another hunter, Gordon, had an informant at the Harvelle Roadhouse and since they had no idea who they could trust, both had agreed not to share the secret with anyone there. They were on their own.

"We have to find Patrick and get the demon out of him." Dean said after a moment.

"How do we find it?" Kristine asked.

"We don't. We're going to get you somewhere safe and take care of this."

Kristine knew better than to argue, but she had no intention of backing out gracefully. "So how do you find the demon?"

"I'm not sure." Dean ran a hand over his face. "But I'd be willing to guess we didn't outrun it. It probably has ways to find us."

"So there is nowhere safe to take me."

"Bobby." Sam said. "We'll take you to Bobby."

Kristine had never met Bobby Singer, but knew of him through the brothers. He was one of John's contacts; someone else he'd had a falling out with, but who was immediately available when his sons needed help. He showed them how to make the Devil's Trap they'd used to capture and exorcise Meg and he helped Dean with the Impala after the possessed truck driver all but totaled it.

"Okay." Dean nodded. "You two get some sleep. I'll take the first watch."

Kristine didn't understand the look that passed between the brothers, but she knew enough not to get between them.

oooOOOooo

Dean had moved a chair near the window and sat facing outward with a gun nearby. He tried not to think about his feelings, instead concentrating on what had to be done. He knew he'd been somewhat cold to Kristine since Sam got back earlier, but he had to do something to survive until they'd managed to get her somewhere safe. He'd gotten dangerously close to not holding it together and that was something he could not allow.

But his resolve nearly shattered when he heard Kristine cry out in her sleep and it was only because Sam was closer that he got to her first. Sam sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into his arms; she fought for a moment until hearing his voice as he tried to convince her she'd been dreaming. She sobbed into his shoulder and held fast to his shirt.

Dean watched, afraid to move closer than the foot of the bed. Sam looked at him curiously, but kept most of his attention on Kristine. He realized this situation must be hard on his brother, but he hated to see Dean shutting down again like he did right after John died.

Sam helped Kristine get out of bed after she'd calmed down and watched as she walked stiffly to the bathroom. She glanced at Dean as she moved past him, but said nothing.

"Dean."

"Sam, don't."

"What's going on, man?"

Dean rubbed his face. "It's just –"

"What?"

"It's hard, okay?"

Sam looked at him quietly for a moment. Even after everything he'd seen his brother go through in the last few months, Sam still tended to think of him as invincible and able to handle anything. "Yeah. Look, I'm up so why don't you try to get some sleep?"

Dean hesitated and then nodded. "Thanks."

"And maybe try saying something nice to Kristine before you go to sleep."

Dean sighed. "Yeah."

Sam traded places with Kristine when she opened the bathroom door. Dean saw how red and puffy her eyes were and how difficult it still was for her to walk. He stood up and got another dose of ibuprofen and a bottle of water.

"You okay?" he asked handing her the pills as he sat down next to her.

She looked at him a little surprised. "Yeah. Thanks."

Dean glanced at the bathroom door. "Kristine, I'm sorry. For a lot of things."

She took the water from him and nodded. "I understand."

"God, I hope you do." he whispered and took her empty hand to examine the wound. "It might be a good idea to change the bandage again; get some fresh antiseptic on there."

She said nothing as he reached for her other hand and examined the wrist. A moment later he got the first aid kit from the table.

"You were walking pretty stiff."

"My back is bothering me a little."

"You'd tell me if it was something worse?"

She nodded. "I got slammed into the wall a couple of times."

He looked at her. "I'm sorry."

"You won't be able to save Patrick. If you exorcise the demon out of him, he'll die. That thing has been inside him, making him walk – his body can't withstand that. And once Patrick is gone, the demon will have taken the last of my family. You'd think it would be happy having killed three of them, but it wants them all I guess."

"You don't know that he'll die." Dean said as he finished bandaging the first wrist and moved on to the second. She looked at Dean sadly.

"We'll do everything we can." he promised quietly.

"Don't let him suffer." she whispered as tears threatened to fall.

Dean put his arm around her and she leaned against him.

oooOOOooo

They headed out the next day, stopping only briefly until the evening when the snack food Sam bought wore off. Except for the music coming from the Impala's radio, the ride had been quiet and that continued into the diner. They placed their orders and then slipped back into silence.

Sam was facing the door and saw Patrick as soon as he opened the door.

"What?" Dean asked, seeing the expression on his brother's face. He turned to look over his shoulder and put his hand on Kristine's arm. She didn't see Patrick until he slipped into the booth next to Sam.

"Hi, kids." Patrick grinned. "How is everyone? Kristine, bruises become you."

She glared at him.

"What do you want?" Dean demanded, his voice low.

"Oh come on!" he smiled. "We're all friends here –"

"No one here is your friend." Kristine hissed.

The demon pulled Patrick's wallet from his back pocket and pulled out a small picture of him and Kristine taken at a concert last summer. "This makes it look like we're friends."

She grabbed the picture from his hand. "You're not Patrick. Why don't you just let him go?"

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked again.

"Wow." Patrick sat back. "You guys really are no fun."

"I'm warning you –"

Patrick looked at Dean, amused. "Yeah, right. I could kill the three of you before anyone could make a move, so don't warn me. You boys think you know a lot of things, but what you don't know could fill a library. Your daddy didn't share a lot of information with you, did he?"

"Don't you dare bring our father into this." Sam said.

"Okay, fine. I'll cut to the chase." Patrick leaned forward. "We can strike any time we want. Dean, old boy, you think you can protect your baby brother here? Think again. He belongs to us."

Sam grabbed Patrick's collar and pulled him close. "I don't belong to you. Now why don't you and I walk outside so you can get out of Patrick's body and we can take care of him?"

He laughed. "You want me out of his body? Sure. But not just yet."

Dean felt Kristine shaking next to him and he put his hand on her leg under the table.

"I have a few things to do before I vacate the body." Patrick continued. "Hey, but I can be nice and leave it somewhere for you. I'll give you a call to let you know where."

He slipped out of the booth, but Sam was right on his heels as he walked out of the diner. Dean was right behind them.

"There's nothing you can do to me." the demon smiled as he turned to face the brothers outside, his eyes black. "I'll give up the body when I'm done with it."

Before they could react, the demon jumped onto a motorcycle and roared away.

oooOOOooo

Bobby met them at the door when they arrived. He greeted the Winchesters warmly and did what he could to make Kristine feel at home. Sam had called him earlier and let him know what was going on so he went through extra precautions to make sure the house was safe.

"Do you have any idea how to find this thing?" Bobby asked as they sat around the table later. He glanced at Kristine; she was staring into the cup of steaming coffee that her hands were wrapped around.

"I get the feeling it will find us." Dean said. He glanced at Kristine, too. "The plan had to change when it found us at the diner."

"You said the demon told you it had some things to do before it left the body." Bobby said thoughtfully. "Any idea what?"

No one answered.

"What about Sam's vision?" Kristine asked quietly. All eyes turned to her and she looked up, a little uncomfortably.

"What about it?" Dean asked. "We changed the outcome."

"Did you?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

She shrugged. "Maybe I need to go back there. Maybe what it has to finish is – is me."

"That isn't going to happen." Dean said. "Like I said, we changed the outcome."

"Wait, Kristine might be right." Sam said thoughtfully.

"Come again?" Dean asked.

"We were always at the place where my visions happened before. We changed the endings, but we were always there. Maybe Kristine is right that we have to go back there to really change what happens."

"I –" Dean stopped. He didn't have an argument.

"It makes sense, Dean." Sam said.

"Maybe, but I'm not so sure I want Kristine to go back there until we get rid of that demon."

"And what makes you think you get to make that call?" Kristine asked. Sam and Bobby exchanged a look.

"Kristine –"

"I appreciate your concern, but I can't just sit on the sidelines now. I'm a part of this."

Dean rubbed his face.

"I'm not saying I necessarily need a front row seat, but I have to be in the theater."

"I think we should hang out here for a day or two and make a plan." Kristine was about to protest, but Dean continued. "You're still in a lot of pain; don't deny it."

Kristine couldn't deny that she still felt bad and was dependant on the pain killers. She'd found something stronger in the first aid kit after the nightmare, but didn't mention taking it to either of the brothers.

oooOOOooo

"How are you doing?" Bobby asked Kristine the next day when he found her in the living room.

She turned away from the window where she'd been watching Dean working on the Impala. "I'm okay."

"You're lookin' a little antsy."

"I guess I am. I can't help but wonder what the demon is making Patrick do – if he's aware of what's going on, he's probably really suffering. Especially if he knows what happened to me." she looked at him. "You know a lot about demon possession, don't you?"

"Sometimes it's better not to know." he said quietly.

"Yeah, maybe so." she paced for a moment then lowered herself onto the couch. She was beginning to think she might actually end up having to see a doctor for her back. "Patrick is my only remaining family. The only one I really know, anyway. I have a couple of aunts and uncles, cousins here and there, but I don't know them. I know I've lost Patrick already, but I don't want him to suffer and I think he is."

"You talk to Dean about this?"

Kristine laughed. "You're kidding, right? Talk to Dean? That's not all that easy under normal circumstances and it's almost impossible right now."

"What about Sam?"

"I'm asking you, Bobby."

Bobby sighed to himself. In their own way, each of the Winchester boys was like their father. In some ways that was good, but in other ways, far from it. Bobby knew even less about Dean and Kristine's relationship than Sam did and he'd been a bachelor for a long time, but he knew the look he saw pass between them earlier and he knew what that look meant.

"Do you really want to know?" he asked gently.

Kristine nodded and Bobby sat on the coffee table across from her. "Patrick is still in his body, along with the demon. But he's not awake all the time, so he's only aware of some of what the demon is doing."

She nodded again.

"What makes you think he's not going to survive this?" Bobby asked.

Kristine leaned forward, trying to get comfortable. "Patrick should be in a wheelchair. He has health issues that aren't being treated like they should be. And I guess I'm just preparing myself."

"That can be a good strategy."

"Bobby." Sam said as he walked into the room. "Uh, Dean needs some help with the Impala."

The older man nodded. He patted Kristine on the knee before joining Dean outside.

"You okay?" Sam asked as he took the spot Bobby vacated.

Kristine nodded.

Sam hesitated, then put his arm around her shoulders. When he felt her relax a little, he pulled her closer. "Are you okay?"

He felt her shake her head and he held her more securely.

oooOOOooo

After dinner, Dean went back outside to finish the work he'd started on the Impala. There was nothing in particular wrong with it, but Bobby's junk yard had the tools and the facilities to make working on the car easier. He was just finishing up when Sam joined him.

"Everything okay with the car?"

"She's purring like a kitten again."

"I thought she was purring like a kitten before."

"Well, now it's a healthier purr. Get off my back." Dean feigned irritation. "It's late. If we're leaving in the morning, we should get to sleep."

"I want to talk to you first."

"What's up?" Dean tossed a dirty rag onto a pile of other dirty rags.

"Kristine."

Dean looked at him.

"She's not doing well and you ignoring her isn't helping."

"I'm not ignoring her." Dean paused. "What do you mean she isn't doing well?"

"She talked to Bobby about demon possession and he told her that Patrick is aware of some of what's going on."

"He told her what?"

"Well, basically, he told her the truth. She asked him and –" Sam shrugged. "She cried herself to sleep. I just got her to bed."

Dean turned away.

"And –" Sam hesitated. "She's into the Vicadin."

"What!?" Dean looked at Sam. "Did she tell you that?"

"No. But I was checking the first aid kit to see if we needed to stock up on anything and –" Sam slipped his hands into his pants pockets and shrugged.

"It's probably her back. Once we get her home, she can see a doctor."

Sam nodded. He started to turn away, then paused and looked at Dean. "I know you have a lot on your shoulders, but she needs you. And I think maybe you need her, too."

Dean leaned against his car and watched Sam walk to the house. He crossed his arms over his chest and took a deep breath. Kristine was the only person outside of him and Sam who knew about John's secret. She was the only person he could really talk to about how much pressure he felt; that wasn't something he could tell Sam, although he was sure his brother knew. But Kristine was dealing with her own pain right now and Dean didn't see how she could have anything left she could use to help him with.

He looked at the window of the room he and Sam were sharing. He could see Sam moving behind the thin curtain and a few minutes later the light went out. Dean pushed himself off the car and headed inside. He quietly opened Kristine's door and saw her sleeping, covered with just a thin sheet. She was still wearing the clothes she'd been in all day and he assumed Sam had carried her to bed. He rubbed his face before forcing himself to walk inside the room and close the door. He stood quietly at the foot of the bed, watching her.

"Kristine?" he sat on the edge of the bed and caressed her cheek. Her eyes opened slowly and it took her a moment to focus on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Dean shook his head and climbed into bed next to her.

TBC