EIGHTEEN
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
January 22nd, 2009
"So how's the leg doing?" Dean asked, watching as Reggie limped from the bathroom. She winced as she lowered herself into one of the folding chairs of the card table they had stolen earlier out of the foreman's office.
"It hurts like hell."
"At least it's not broken." He handed her a towel filled with ice as she propped the leg up on another chair. She smiled at him and shrugged.
"Where's Sam and Ruby?"
"They went to get some food. Pizza, I think. Is that okay?"
"Pizza's fine." Reggie started to yawn and quickly covered her mouth, a guilty look appearing on her face. "Sorry."
"What for? After the last two nights we've had, I can't believe you're not passed out already," Dean stated. "I can't believe that I'm not knocked out, for that matter." All the talk of sleep suddenly made his eyes very heavy. Dean yawned loudly and Reggie laughed. "See what I mean?" He plopped down onto one of the remaining two empty folding chairs and picked up the map Sam had been going over before he'd left with Ruby to get dinner. Reggie began doodling on a notepad in front of her, her slender fingers making loops in the margins.
"It doesn't look like there's much to go off of here in Philly," she stated, breaking the silence that had stretched between them.
"There wasn't much before we left, either." Dean shrugged and tossed the map back onto the table. "The only major lead we had was that demon in Walter Conroy, but it was gone by the time we got to him." Sighing heavily, Dean watched Reggie as she drew odd shapes and symbols for a few minutes, trying to think of something they could use. Suddenly, it came to him. "Wait a minute," he exclaimed, picking the map up again and spreading it out across the table.
"What is it?" she asked, dropping the pen and leaning towards him, trying to see what he was looking at. The table made it too difficult for her to see, so Dean got up and pulled the map over so that they could both look at it. He leaned in, the warmth of the shower Reggie had just taken still radiating off her body and making him hyper-aware of how close they were.
"I think there might be something." Dean tapped the map, his finger pointing at a patch of green. "There was a killing in Ridley Creek Park that we never checked out. It didn't really fit with the other murders because of the location and Sam wasn't able to pull anything up in the local papers."
"If the news didn't report it then how...?"
"Cas told me about it. I figured it just hadn't hit the presses yet, but maybe it never did. We didn't check it out because it snowed and any leads were buried underneath. Maybe we should go."
Reggie looked up at him, her eyes a sharp emerald against the pale peach of her skin, and nodded her head. "Where's Sam's laptop? We can see if there's been anything about the killing now." Dean started scanning the room, looking for the familiar brown leather bag Sam kept his computer in. He spotted it propped between one of his green duffle bags and Reggie's gray one. They had just finished setting it up when Sam and Ruby came through the front door.
"What's going on?" Sam asked as he spotted his computer on the table.
"We're looking up that Ridley Creek Park thing Castiel told us about to see if the media ever picked it up," Dean explained. Sam placed the pizza boxes on the counter in the kitchen and hurried over to them. The two brothers leaned over Reggie's shoulders, peering at the screen as she scanned through several local newspaper websites.
A few minutes passed before Ruby couldn't take the quiet any longer. "Well?"
"Reggie's been to five different sites and there's nothing," Sam answered. "No mention of the killing. No body. Nothing." Sam stood up and looked at Dean. "Are you sure Cas told you it happened in Ridley Creek Park?"
Dean glared at him. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"Okay, so maybe there are no media reports because the police haven't found out about it yet," Reggie offered. "I think you might be right, Dean. I think there may be more to that murder than it being another part of the Fool's Ritual."
Dean grinned as he stood up. "We'll check it out first thing tomorrow morning," he stated. "Now, hand over that pizza 'cause I'm starving." Sam rolled his eyes at his brother and laughed when he heard Reggie's stomach rumble in agreement. She smiled at him and closed his laptop.
"I hope you don't mind, but we got the works," Sam said as he handed a plate to Reggie.
"That's fine. I'm not picky."
They all dug in, their chewing the only sounds as they ate. They had consumed most of both pizzas when Ruby jumped down from her perch on the kitchen counter and tossed her plate onto the table.
"You want another piece?" Sam asked.
She shook her head. "No, I'm good. I'm going to head out."
"What? Why?"
"There's something I want to check out. I'll be back tomorrow." She slipped into her jacket and headed for the front door without another word. Sam stared after her as she slipped out of the apartment.
"Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm beat. I think I'm going to hit the hay," Dean said as he stretched and got to his feet.
"I'm going to head to bed, too," Reggie yawned. She winced as she tried to put weight on her injured leg. Sam began to get up to help her, but Dean beat him to it, pulling Reggie's arm over his shoulders.
"I gotcha, gimpy," he teased. She smiled at him and playfully smacked him on the chest as Dean helped her limp down the hallway towards the bedrooms.
Sam sat back down at the table, shredding a piece of half-eaten pizza crust on his plate as he listened to the wind pound against the windows. Where are you going, Ruby? he thought. He sighed and got up from his chair, wandering over to the windows. Sam watched as the wind swirled snow around the two cars parked below, shaking through the barren trees. Thoughts raced through his head, although none of them seemed to form an explanation for the uneasy feeling he had. A few minutes later, Sam turned and headed to the bathroom, finally ready to go to bed.
Reggie's eyes shot open and she bolted upright in bed, rubbing her eyes fiercely. The image of Frank's dead body still lingered even as the details of the dream began to fade. She shuddered and pulled the dark brown Army blanket from the end of her makeshift bed back up over her bare legs. Her hair clung to her cheeks and she realized she had been crying in her sleep.
Reggie used the neck of the old t-shirt she was wearing to wipe the moisture from her face, running her fingers through her tangled hair. She took a deep breath and plopped back against the duffle bag filled with clothes she was using as a pillow. Reggie could smell the familiar scent of her fabric softener emanating off the clothes and it helped her relax a little more. Just as she was dozing off again a sudden noise caught her attention. She raised her head from the makeshift pillow and listened, waiting to hear the noise again.
"No! No, don't!" she heard someone cry out.
Reggie scrambled up, yanking on a pair of jeans, and grabbed her .40 caliber Smith and Wesson from under her pillow. She rushed from the room she'd been sleeping in and stopped in the hallway, trying to identify where the voice was coming from. Reggie only had to wait a few seconds when the voice cried out again.
"Please! No!" This time, she recognized the voice immediately and made her way into the bedroom adjacent from hers. Dean thrashed and flailed around on the floor, the blanket he had been covered with tangled around his waist and legs. She knelt down beside him and reached out, trying to grab his arms as he swung them about, pushing at an invisible assailant.
"Dean!" Reggie called gently, finally getting a grasp on one of his arms and holding it at his side. "Dean, wake up! You're having a nightmare!" She shook him harder and his eyes flew open, a look of anger on his face.
"Hey! You were having one..." she began before the words were choked off. Dean had grabbed her around the throat with his free hand and began to squeeze. She gasped for air, dropping her gun, and her hold on his other arm, as she tried to pull his hand away. He glared at her, hate seething from his eyes and Reggie started to panic. "Sam..." she choked out, her voice barely above a whisper. "Sam..."
"I'm going to kill you," Dean growled.
Bright spots of light flashed in Reggie's eyes and her head swam, the room tilting as she began to lose consciousness. Dean's grip got tighter and she frantically beat at his arms, his chest, trying to break him out of his daze. She reached for her gun, but her fingers just lightly brushed over the mother of pearl handle, unable to grasp it.
As the room darkened, she struggled to get free. She lashed out with her fist, connecting with Dean's jaw with her last bit of strength. The punch worked. His eyes cleared and he yanked his hands off her throat, agony and shock registering on his face. Reggie pulled in ragged breaths, shoving herself out of Dean's reach, falling backward into another duffle bag, filled with guns from the sound it made as she hit it. Stars burst around her and she blinked, trying to clear her vision.
"Reggie? Oh god!" Dean cried. "I'm so sorry, I didn't..." Dean frantically began to untangled himself from his blanket. He reached out to her, but she pushed back from him, continuing to gasp for air. Dean handed her a bottle of water, carefully giving her the space she wanted and Reggie grimaced as she took a large gulp. He waited while her breathing relaxed and watched as she finished off the water. "I..."
"It's - okay," she rasped, her throat still raw. She shook her head when he offered her another bottle of water. "I'm good." She smiled weakly at Dean. "That must have been one hell…of a nightmare you were having," she choked out. Dean blanched at her comment. "I won't ask you what it was about even though I think I might be entitled to know. Seeing as it almost cost me my life."
"My time in hell," Dean said barely above a whisper. "The dream was about my time in hell." He took a deep breath and sat down on the floor in front of her. She didn't jerk away from him, but instead scooted forward, obviously trying to ease the pain in his eyes by showing that she wasn't afraid he was going to attack her again.
"I know what you went through in hell, Dean."
Dean blinked at her, stunned. "How?"
"Do I have to keep reminding you that I'm a hunter? I know what happens to a soul in hell because I have to know. It's part of the job to know everything there is about demons, including what makes them that way."
"Books only get so much of it accurate, you know," he snapped.
"I know. Why do you think I've never asked you to tell me what it was like?" Reggie replied. "Because I know that it was unimaginable and there is no way that I would want to go through the memory of my time in the pit if the situation were reversed." She rubbed at the spot where Dean had grabbed her, a dark bruise in the shape of Dean's hand already forming. He looked away from her, gazing out the dark window.
"You have no idea what I went through; being tortured for almost thirty years down there, subjected to every horrible thing you can imagine and then even some you can't. But that isn't what makes a demon what it is, not completely. The torture is only part of it." He took a deep breath and faced Reggie again.
She had dropped her hands from her neck and was staring at him with a pained expression. "You don't need to tell me this, Dean. I know what happened a moment ago was just an accident. It's alright." She reached out and placed a hand gently on his arm.
Dean stared at her hand for a moment, trying to push back against the lump in his throat. He pulled his arm away from her and stood up. "I think you need to hear this. I think you need to know who you've gotten yourself mixed up with." He took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing.
"A person can only take so much before they break, before they move off the line, so to speak. For me it was three decades. Three decades I took whatever pain and punishment, whatever torture and agony, they could dish at me. But even the most strong willed souls can't last forever. I didn't know some angel was going to pull me from the pit - save me from perdition - so I did what I needed to survive. I got off the line and started torturing souls in my place."
Dean turned to face Reggie again, watching the words sink in, waiting for her to show the disgust for him he knew he deserved. Reggie continued to look at Dean with nothing but sadness, no trace of hatred or repulsion apparent in her green eyes. He rushed to finish before those feelings finally showed on her soft features.
"I tortured soul after soul until I lost count. Until I could no longer see the faces of the people they put in front of me. I started to become the vile, disgusting things that I've hunted my entire life, that destroyed my entire family. Like the damn demons that killed Frank." This declaration finally got a reaction out of Reggie, just not the one Dean was expecting. She shot up, crossing the distance between them in a heartbeat despite her injured leg, anger radiating from her.
"You are nothing like the bastards that killed Frank or your parents, Dean! I don't ever want to hear you say that again! For every soul you tortured in hell, you've saved just as many, if not more, here on Earth. If you succeed in stopping Lilith from raising Lucifer, you will save six billion souls! Don't you realize that?" She grabbed his shoulders and shook him roughly. "What you did in the pit and what you endured for as long as you did? I guarantee you there isn't another soul on earth that could have done that. Three decades in hell, Dean, is a very long time and you shouldn't punish yourself because you didn't last longer!"
Dean gaped at her, watching as the anger colored her cheeks a deep red, trying to think of something to say. He was completely overwhelmed by her argument against his humanity. They stared at each other for what seemed like hours, both of them breathing heavily, before Dean grabbed the back of Reggie's head, grasping her hair tightly in his fingers, and kissed her. She immediately responded, pulling herself tighter against him, twining her fingers in his short hair. She pulled his shirt, still damp with the sweat from his nightmare, off his stomach. He stepped back, helping her by yanking it over his head, and tossed it aside.
He wrapped his arms around her slender waist, lifting her feet off the floor as he hugged her tighter to his chest. She placed her hands gently against his shoulders and started to push herself away from him, her lips still on his. He let go and stepped back, finally breaking their kiss. They were both panting with smiles on their faces.
"That was..." Dean began.
"Interesting?" Reggie finished. He chuckled and nodded, taking her hand and pulling her close to him. He hugged her and buried his face in her hair, breathing in the scents emanating off her. Reggie's fingers lightly traced Castiel's handprint, which had been burned onto his skin when the angel raised him from hell. The touch sent goose bumps over Dean's skin and he shivered involuntarily. Reggie pulled her head back and looked up at him, her eyes bright in the dark room. Just as she opened her mouth to speak there was a loud crash from the direction of the living room.
Reggie and Dean rushed from the room and down the narrow hallway. Dean grabbed Reggie's wrist just as they reached the end and pulled her behind him, taking the Smith and Wesson handgun she offered and cocking it. He peered around the edge of the wall and looked for Sam. Dean spotted the pile of stuff his brother had been sleeping on, but no Sam.
"Sammy?" he called, his voice barely above a whisper. He felt Reggie's hand on his bare shoulder as she leaned around him, trying to see into the room, too. There was another crash, this time from the kitchen and both of them immediately moved around the wall and into the open living room area. Dean's stomach dropped as he took in the sight before him.
Sam was being slammed against the cabinets by a heavy-set black man dressed in a black suit. Dean pointed the gun at the man's back, but was too afraid of hitting Sam to fire. "Let him go," Dean yelled. The man glanced back at Dean with onyx eyes, a look of deranged glee on his face as he registered the two hunters behind him.
"I'll be with you in a minute, Dean," he said as he bashed Sam's slack head against the cabinets again.
Dean growled and threw himself at the man. All three of them hit the refrigerator as they fell, sending it sliding back into the wall with a bang. Dean wrestled the demon off of Sam and shoved him across the floor, pointing the gun as he scrambled up.
A movement behind the man caught Dean's eye just as he was about to fire and he saw, with horror, that Reggie was being dragged by her hair through the living room by a small blonde woman. He fired into the man's chest, a cloud of salt billowing as it impacted and the man's head rocked back in a howl of pain. Behind him, Sam moaned as he came to.
"You alright?" Dean yelled, getting to his feet.
"I…I think so, yeah." Sam groaned as he tried to get up.
Reggie screamed and both men looked up to see the demon waving a large bowie knife at her. Blood ran down from a large cut across Reggie's left bicep. Reggie dodged another swipe at her and stumbled backward, losing her balance because of her injured leg. She knocked over the card table and fell into one of the folding chairs, which tipped backwards from her momentum.
Dean helped Sam to his feet before jumping over the demon as he started to come to, running to Reggie's aid. Sam was already using his powers to expel the demon from its host, wincing slightly from the effort because of the beating he'd just taken. Dean was only a foot away from Reggie and the blonde when she swung with the knife again. Reggie tried to roll out of the way, but the knife caught her across the back, opening a long gash just below her shoulder blades.
Reggie screamed again and the woman laughed, her voice high and shrill. Dean hit the woman like a linebacker, pining her arms at her sides with his own. She tried to jerk the knife, trying to use it on him, and he twisted her wrist, causing her to cry out in pain. The demon dropped the knife as the bones in her host's wrist broke. She pushed herself backward, making them fall to the floor with a crash, and twisted out of Dean's grasp. He was trying to scramble up when she sent him flying into the wall, pinning him to it.
"I have no business with you Winchesters," the demon growled. She turned to Reggie and flung her into the windows. They cracked under the impact, but did not break. The force knocked the wind out of Reggie with a whoosh and the commotion broke Sam's concentration. The demon he'd had pinned took advantage of the reprieve, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Sam took a step toward the blonde and she attempted to send him flying back into the kitchen, shock registering on her face when she saw her powers didn't work. The blonde looked around at the three hunters, realizing that she was in much bigger trouble than she would like, and disappeared just like the first one. A few seconds passed before Dean was released from the wall and he slumped to the floor.
"Sammy, you okay?" Dean called, rubbing his shoulder which was throbbing from the tackle. He could see Sam standing in the kitchen, rubbing his head where the demon had slammed it against the wood cabinets.
"Yeah, I'm good." They heard a moan from the living room and Reggie pulled herself into a sitting position. Sam beat Dean to her side, gently helping her into a chair. "Let me take a look at you." Reggie hissed as he tried to lift the sleeve of her shirt over the long gash on her arm. The wound was deep and still pumping blood.
Reggie shifted in the chair so that Sam could look at the wound on her back, which looked just as bad as the first. Sam glanced at Dean and grimaced. "I think we need to get you to a hospital," Sam stated, taking off his shirt and placing it against Reggie's bleeding arm.
Dean went back to his bedroom, pulled on his t-shirt, and hurriedly yanked on his boots. Grabbing his coat and the Impala's keys, Dean headed into Reggie's room. He started grabbing clothes, not really looking at what he was shoving into her duffle bag, and picked up her boots, before hurrying back out into the living room.
Sam had torn and wrapped a piece of his shirt as a tourniquet, tying off the gash on her arm to help slow the blood loss. Reggie's face was pale and she looked like she was about to pass out. As Dean got closer, he saw that she was shivering.
"Let's go," he said. Sam scooped Reggie up into his arms, expecting her to jerk from the pain of the movement, but she hardly seemed to acknowledged it. Sam glanced at Dean again, worry etched across his face. They rushed from the building and stumbled across the frozen ground, slipping in the snow as they made their way to the Impala.
Sam lowered Reggie onto the back seat and climbed in on the passenger side, barely getting the door closed as Dean peeled out of the parking lot. Dean already knew where the hospital was, something their father had ingrained in them from an early age.
"It helps to know where emergency medical help is for when you may not be able to fix it up yourself," John's voice echoed in their heads. Dean sped around a corner, just missing a large Toyota truck that blasted it's horn at them as the driver was forced to slam on his brakes.
"We gotta hurry, Dean. I couldn't get the bleeding to stop. I think the cut on her arm severed the artery," Sam hissed. Dean pressed harder on the gas pedal and the Impala's engine growled in response. He sped into the open ambulance bay and jammed the car into park. Sam was already scrambling out of the passenger side and easing Reggie into his arms.
"We need a doctor! NOW!" Dean yelled as they raced into the emergency room.