A/N: Sorry about how long it's taken to get this chapter up. But I got a little bored with it. Writing about sitting in a hospital bored out of your gored isn't fun. But here we have chapter four all the same and the pace should pick up now.
Chapter Four
The on call doctor for third shift came and informed them that all but one member of their party was going to have to leave, and again Dean stayed. Though, tonight he actually got some sleep. He was too tired to stay awake. As soon as visiting hours started the next morning John and Sage were back. He sent Dean to get his arms taken care of then told his son to go to the motel and get some real sleep in a real bed. Dean, Sam, and Athena all slept well past noon, the past few days of little sleep and little to eat finally taking their toll. Athena called the hospital when they woke up and John told them to go out for lunch, get real food in their bellies before they came in.
Something about hospitals makes life seem very short. Death becomes this inevitable thing that you'll never be able to deceive or escape. So to keep this off your mind you begin the most pointless conversations. Sam, Athena, and Dean had already covered the personal lives of the nurses, doctors, and occasional janitors that they had frequent contact with, what they would do with any given super powers, and how horrible cartoons had gotten since the simplistic days of Bugs, Pink Panther, and Spy VS Spy. Now they'd moved on to which hospital based TV show was the best.
"General Hospital is just annoying." Athena dismissed the nomination. "I like ER better. It had everything: gross shots of blood, guts, and gore, romance, and compelling story line… and Dr. Carter certainly helped while he was on."
"Grey's Anatomy kicks ER's ass." Sam countered.
"I couldn't ever watch it." Athena admitted.
"Why?" Dean asked only pretending to care about the conversation.
"That heart transplant guy,"
"Denny?" Sam interrupted.
"Yea, I guess. He always reminded me of someone I just couldn't put a finger on who it was the guy reminded me of. Every time I saw the show I thought of the guy and it would drive me crazy the rest of the night."
"Well, that don't matter anyway," Dean told them. "Because House MD takes the cake."
"House?" Sam questioned "why is that?"
"First Cameron is one smoking babe. Second House is the best doctor on television. He's sarcastic, and ingenious." Dean explained. The other two rolled their eyes and prepared for the silence that would follow the end of this conversation. It didn't take long before Dean was drumming his fingers against the wooden arm of his chair.
"Dean, I swear if you beat out that song again I'll have to kill you." Athena said tossing a pen at him.
"Then do you have any requests?"
"Take This Job and Shove It, Johnny Paycheck." Dean started pounding out the tune. When he finished he gave a mock bow.
"Thank you. Thank you."
"That was too easy." Sam slid down in his chair trying to think of a song that would be harder finger drum.
"I'm going to die." Athena said slumping down in her chair. "I can't wait any longer. Can't we just shake her awake or take her home or something?"
"Sure, but she can't breath on her own so we'd just be killing her." Dean told her.
"We forgot Scrubs." Sam announced. Both of the rooms other conscious occupants looked at him.
"What?" they asked in usion
"Scrubs, it's another hospital show. But it's more of a comedy than the other shows."
The conversation teetered on the brink of oblivion for hours after that. Again that night John took Sage, Sam, and Athena back to the motel leaving his first born to watch over their fallen comrade. He drifted in and out of sleep shifting restlessly in his chair, feet propped up on another chair. At one point, he considered climbing into the hospital bed with Autumn, it had to be more comfortable than sleeping sitting up right. But every little noise jarred him awake so comfort wasn't a very big worry. Even if he found it he wouldn't be able to keep it long. Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning just before dawn he woke to gagging. The dim lighting of the room allowed him to see Autumn struggling to breath past the tube down her throat. It seemed to take a millennia for the meaning of this gagging to hit him. When he finally realized she was trying to breath he was out of the room like a shot.
Nurses were in the room buzzing around. Removing the respirator. Putting her on O2. One checked vitals and another stood a long phone cord wrapped around her body as she explained to the on call doctor what was going on. Dean wasn't sure how he'd gotten to the far corner of the room. He sat silent watching the activity an unnamable flutter in his chest. When the nurses finally left, leaving him with the instructions to watch her breathing, he reclaimed his seat at Autumn's bed side. He wanted to call his family and Sage but didn't want to wake them and have them come in just to watch Autumn do the same thing she'd been doing the last few days.
Dr. Morgan was in at six that morning. The moment he heard about the amazing twenty-something girl who had been caught in a fire, then encountered complications during her first few minutes of care in the hospital, had started breathing on her own, he had to go see for himself. He'd been assigned her floor for the day anyway. Dr. Morgan was delighted to talk with the girl's night time protector.
"Now that she's breathing on her own, I want to ease her out of her coma." Dr. Morgan explained watching the boy's face. He was digging at the burns on his arms.
"How long will that take?" his eyes worked worriedly over the girl.
"Sir, the medications will take most of the day to wear off. Even then she'll be tired. It might not be until tomorrow evening that she's able to carry on a conversation." The boy clenched his jaw, he was obviously trying to hold back a rush of questions and emotions. Dr. Morgan wondered briefly what his relation to Miss Daemon was.
"What about memory loss? How much damage was done to her brain while she was dead?" the young man had a good question.
"I don't know. We'll have to wait on her tell that. There could be nothing at all or when she wakes up she might have no memory at all or worse." Dr. Morgan said.
"What do I do?"
"Just sit here and wait. When she starts coming around talk to her. Let her know she's not alone. If you have any further questions just ask for me at the nurses desk. Now, I have other patients to see."
"Thank you." Dr. Morgan went on his way to see to the rest of his patients.
"Why didn't you call?" Athena asked. She was going through a bag she'd packed for Autumn.
"There was nothing for you to do. I thought, you'd like to sleep." Dean yawned.
"Son, go back to the motel and get some shut eye. I'll call if she wakes up and wants you." John instructed his first born.
"Yes, sir." Sam tossed Dean the keys to his car. "If anything changes"
"We'll call you boy. Now go. Rest, before you fall down." Sage scolded. Athena offered him a weak smile.
"You want someone to drive you? You look like you're about to collapse." the younger Daemon asked.
"Naw, I'll make it alright." Dean said with a shake of his head before staggering out.
"That boy of yours, John, both of them, they're just like you." Sage said setting to work.
When she first applied her salve Autumn's skin soaked it in hungrily, the way dry earth soaks in a summer shower. Now, Sage was proud to say, Autumn's skin didn't need it as much. She was amazed with how quickly the younger woman heeled. It meant the girl had fight in her. That was invaluable for people in Autumn's line of work. Sage generously smeared on the cream, careful not to goop too much in any one area. Too much and the skin would be overwhelmed not enough and it would scar the way doctors were leaving it to do. No, Sage was much better at what she was doing than any doctor. She had studied ways of heeling that led to minimal scarring. Autumn would be scarred but not half as badly as she would have been had Sage not come to her aid.
"Is that a good thing?" John asked merely for conversation's sake.
"I don't know. It is one of the few things I'll admit to not knowing. You are stubborn. You are obsessive. You don't consider others feelings. But your heart is always in the right place. Every mistake you've ever made has been in the name of a good cause." Sage humored him.
"I think the world would be better off with more Winchesters." Athena spoke up.
"You're just smitten and don't want to admit it. Even to yourself." Sage dismissed her remark.
"That's kind of you, Barbie." John smiled at her.
"The nurses think they're married." Sage announced not looking up from her work.
"Who?" Sam asked interest spiking his voice. There had been far too little to talk since Autumn was admitted.
"Knot head and Extra Crispy." Sage told him. "He wears that stupid ring, has to be ordered to leave to get rest. They assume he has her ring somewhere, that it was removed when she came in."
"Dean knows better." John moved to the window over looking the Ohio river. Dean may have known better and so did Autumn but neither had ever let knowing better stop them from doing anything.
"Just what the nurses are saying. They're all finding it very romantic. Poor things are starved for a good romance. But you try and find something attractive about a man after you've changed diapers and bed pans and done a few dozen sponge bathes all day. You can only take so much before you fall into living in fantasies like a teenage girl." Sage said wiping the back of her gloved hand across her forehead. "Shouldn't be too long 'till Mouth here is up and at 'em again."
"I don't know that she'll want to keep hunting after this." John said leaning into the window's frame.
"Don't worry, John. She'll be fighting the good fight until there's nothing left to fight or nothing left of her." Athena assured the man.
"Stubborn. Everyone you spend half a day with, John, gets twice as stubborn as they were to start with." Sage mumbled.
"She hates hospitals. Autumn won't be happy waking up here." Athena hugged herself, in effort to fight off all the bad memories of her mother's sickness.
"She'll understand, Teenie. Wouldn't she rather be alive and in the hospital then dead?" Sam asked. Athena shook her head.
"I seriously doubt it."
When dinner rolled around John stayed to watch over Autumn while the others went to get Dean and a bite to eat. When they 'd get back Dean would take over the night shift and everyone else would go back to the motel for another night's fitful sleep. Promise that she'd soon awake would keep them all on edge. When the nurse came in to clean Autumn up, and give her medications John left to get a cup of the brown water that passed for coffee. If it wasn't for the fact that he'd been standing in Autumn's room all day he wouldn't have gone at all, but a short walk would, if nothing else, get him out of the room.
Autumn felt like she'd been hit by a bus. Everything hurt, and her brain felt like it had been wrapped up in a warm, fuzzy blanket. Her eyelids weighed a ton and seemed to take years to open. At first she had no idea where she was, the entire world was blurred and out of proportion. But the steady beeping made her heart skip a beat, she mustn't have gotten out of the fire alright. A short brunet woman in sunshine yellow scrubs leaned over her with a smile that belonged on toys.
"Good Evening sleeping beauty." the nurse said reaching for her chart. "How do you feel?"
"Like I've been to hell and back." Autumn answered trying to sit up but the nurse clucked her tongue and her body shook with pain. "Oh and would you believe my arm is going to kill me?" the nurses smile never faded.
"Do you know who you are?" Autumn almost laughed.
"I'm Autumn Aura Daemon, my parents are deceased. My only living blood relative is Athena Rhea Daemon, my baby sister." The nurse nodded.
"Do you know what year this is?"
"Depends on how long I've been out. But I'm going to go with 2006."
"Good. Good, how about why you're here?" Autumn took a deep breath her throat ached from talking.
"There was a fire. OH God! Martha! Are they okay? The kids and Martha? What about Athena and Sam? Dean got Nick out alright didn't he?" the nurse laid her hand gently on Autumn's arm.
"Sam, Dean, and Athena will be back in a little while. They'll tell you what happened." Autumn knew what that meant. Martha and the kids were all dead. It was astonishing how quickly the fog in her head cleared. She no longer felt any pain. She reached for her IV she had to get out of here. She had to go call John, he'd know what to do. She had to apologize. This was all her fault. "Miss, you need to calm down. It's not your fault." Autumn came to a halt.
"What do you mean it's not my fault!?" panic was taking grip. How did the nurse know what she thought?
"Because you're yelling it." The nurse soothed. Autumn swallowed hard trying to force her emotions down. She had to calm down.
"They're all gone! How could I have left them!? I should never have left. None of this would have happened! I've got to get out of here!" She ripped out her IV and started for the other cords, wires, and tubes running to her body. She was done. Nurse Sunshine tried to stop her and she found some stored up strength to push her back. "You don't understand, Nursey I can't be here."
The room flooded with nurses and a couple of doctors when the heart monitor flat lined. Autumn kept up her fight. Unsure and uncaring where the strength came from. She just kept going. At the first sight of weakness they'd have her down and she knew it. Doctors were bad. They killed people then billed them for it. A needle was produced from somewhere and she smacked it away. Going against all of the state laws and guidelines the medical staff tried to manhandle Autumn back into her bed.
"Autumn, that's enough." he didn't have to yell it. He didn't have to put a huge force behind his words. All John had to do was simply speak and Autumn stopped moving. She just went completely limp in the staff's arms. "Let them hook you back up and stop fighting them."
"Yes, sir." Autumn didn't move at all while the nurses reattached the heart monitor and found a new vein to insert the IV. "Did everyone make it out alive?" she asked once the nurses had finally cleared out.
"No." John stated it as if stating that the capital of the US was Washington DC. He put no emotion in it. Did nothing to betray his disappointment in her.
"Who didn't make it out?" her voice shook and tears threatened to fall.
"Martha and the baby." again no emotion. No nothing. Autumn broke down. Salty tears stung against her burnt flesh. "Autumn, don't cry." he moved to sit in her bed and she quickly collapsed into his chest. "It's okay. They're… Everyone… Things will be okay." he didn't know how to ease her pain. None of it sounded right. Everyone wasn't fine. There was no way of telling the Martha and the baby had made it to a better place. The baby could easily come back. He had a violent death. Martha, there was nothing left of her but John knew that there were still other ways that she could be around. Other ways that would keep her from moving on to anything, better or worse.
"John, it's not fair. They didn't do anything." Autumn sobbed into his chest and he ran a hand in circles on her back, fearful of causing more pain or damage to her charred flesh.
"I know. I know." He at least knew better than to say that nothing in life was fair. Or that a no one the demon has targeted thus far has done anything.
"I should never have left Billy-Jack. Then Martha would still be alive." Autumn pulled away from him and looked into his eyes with a grim determination. She was dead sure of herself.
"But you wouldn't be." she pressed the meaty part of her palm into her eyes. "If the demon didn't get you Billy-Jack would have killed you by now." he watched as she took shattering breathes.
"Are the girls okay? Did they make it out?"
"Yea, Athena said they're pretty shaken up."
"Of course they are. Billy-Jack, he made it out right? They weren't orphaned were they?" John shook his head.
"No, he made it out."
"Why couldn't he have been pinned to the ceiling? He don't deserve to be alive." John was shocked. She'd spoken about Billy-Jack several times but never once wished ill intent to him. "What about Athena and your boys? Dean wouldn't leave, God tell me he got out of there."
"They're no worse for the wear." Autumn slumped down in her bed.
"I'm so tired. How long have I been out?"
"A few days."
"Will I be okay?" she really didn't seem to care. It was more like she just wanted all the facts before she wrote herself off.
"Yea, Athena and Sam went and got Sage. She's put you back together."
"I'm sorry." she yawned. "I shouldn't have acted like that. I shouldn't have tried to leave without someone." her eyes closed and he knew he had lost her to sleep.
Athena was upset to have missed her sister's return to reality. It took a lot of convincing and finally Dean took her out in the hall and the pair shared a few words before she'd go back to the motel. Sage didn't say anything to Autumn, that night before John turned in she handed him her jar of salve and instructions on how Autumn should go about using it. The next morning she and all her things were gone. Sam and Athena were both gone by the time John woke up the next morning. A box of donuts and a cold cup of coffee sat with a note.
"Gone to see Autumn. Dean just called and she's awake. Enjoy your breakfast. Much love Athena" John shook his head grabbing a donut and flipping on the morning news.