Caverns Below- BROKEN ARM

(Written while listening to "White Room" by Cream, "Miss You" by the Rolling Stones and then a lot of Les Mis)

(this was based on a similar experience I had one time, except I didn't fall into a cave...and wasn't being hunted by a supernatural creature...and none of the other things happened)

Caroline was in that momentary state where she knew she was falling, but she hadn't landed yet. Like that feeling right when you slip on ice, and you know it's coming and oh boy you really don't want to hit the ground, but then you do:

"Fucking ow!"

And then you lie there staring at the sky, considering maybe just not moving ever again. What a solution that'd be!

You really start to question your decisions when you're lying sprawled out on your back, at the base of a cave...

Caroline's POV

I could feel the pain finally start to spread into my back and in the back of my head. All in all it wasn't bad. I'm the one who always slips during the winter, or who falls down hills, or ends up tumbling down flights of stairs. It's not a big deal really, sometimes I wonder why I'm not dead yet because by all means I should be.

I slowly tried to sit up but felt a pain shoot through my left arm and fell back flat. I looked up toward the hole I had fallen through originally. It had to be about fifteen feet. Not that far, but still...

This week my brothers and I had found ourselves in Arizona. A wendigo had gone on a killing spree that so far had totaled 11 people. The hunt had been going fairly normal but wasn't it a surprise to me that the woods featured underground caverns. And by the looks of the cave I was currently lying in, I had managed to stumble into our current creature's humble abode.

I began to sit up again, leaning back on my right arm and into a sitting position. I let out a sharp gasp when my left arm collapsed under the tiny bit of pressure I put on it. Ignoring that, I continued to crawl into a standing position so I could see the rest of the cave.

Pulling my phone out for some light, I saw that the entire screen was crushed from the fall.

"Why." I grumbled, shoving it back into my pocket and searching around for a lighter. My hand returned empty and I remembered why my lighter was missing. About three hours before, Dean and Sam had ended up in some pathetic wrestling match where they both declared the winner get something of mine. I wish I knew why. When they kept coming up in a tie they both had looked at me with crazy glints in their eyes as they cornered me in the motel.

"What do you want?" I had asked, "I've got some bobby pins...some...some tamp-"

"Don't say the word," Dean had said before diving at me and tickling me as I started screeching.

"Oh remember how she broke my lighter?" Sam had asked with a devilish grin as he had reached into my duffel, "I think this is good retribution." And he had taken out my lighter with little flowers on it.

Dean grinned ear to ear as he held me in a headlock. "Looks good to me brother."

I turned my head toward his bare arm and licked it as far as I could reach. He squealed and let me go, "Oh gross! Gross Caroline, ew!"

Sam had started laughing like crazy as I had wiped my tongue on my sleeve. Dean grabbed the lighter from Sam, "No you're never getting this back. You freaking weirdo."

"I can't believe I just got mugged by you two. Isn't this backwards?" I had grinned sheepishly and caught Sam's wink behind Dean's back.

Well yeah that had been fun, but now I had no lighter. Those dumb-asses. Speaking of which...

"Rory? Rors where are you?" Sam's voice came trailing in from the distance. I brushed my hair behind my ear with my right hand, trying to hear again. This time instead I saw a looming shadowed figure above the hole in the ground. There was the wendigo. And there went me yelling back to Sam.

The figure stopped near the entrance again and looked like it was sniffing the air. Crappy crap crap craps. I slowly scooted myself toward a wall of the cave and rested with my back to the wet wall. The creature kept sniffing more intensely and I continued to move myself further into the depths of the cave. I slowly reached into my back pocket for my flare gun and felt my stomach drop when I saw it lying where I had fallen.

The wendigo dropped into the cave with me, and I felt a scorching pain shoot through my left arm. I must've bruised it. The creature continued slowly following my scent and I heard my breathing stop. Were it practically any other monster I'd have no problem with trying to take it on hand to hand, but this thing is freaking huge. Still, I slipped my knife from my boot and held it tightly in my fist.

Sam's voice continued to echo outside and it seemed like it might be getting louder, then it was joined with my oldest brother's voice. We had split up over forty minutes ago with plans to regroup after twenty, they had to be starting to freak out.

One thing I'll say for myself is I am never late. When it's hunt time I try my hardest to make minimal mistakes. My dad trained me well and as long as I can remember it has been my solemn oath to do the job as well as possible. I won't deny there's plenty of pressure being the youngest and the only girl; there's a lot to prove. But I had managed to become the fastest, most resourceful and most patient. That had to count for something.

But now I'd been missing for twenty minutes, and no way in Hell was I going to try and get back out of this cave with this monster looming ten feet from me. It's nose continued to turn toward my direction and I slowly found my way further and further into the pitch black tunnels of the cave.

I had no idea where I was stepping, and swallowed hard at the thought of who I might be stepping on. There was the definite crunching sound of rotted bones underneath my boots and I felt a wave of nausea flood through my stomach. There's another thing about me as a hunter. I don't think my family has ever seen me scared or upset on or after a hunt, they probably think I'm a psychopath or just that well trained of a hunter, but holy hell is that as far from the truth. Every hunt hurts, and every hunt takes something out of me. I love saving people, but those that we are too late for continue to stack up in my brain. My brothers don't know, but I've kept a mental tally of people we were too late to save after starting hunts. 382. And I remember each one of them.

My boot snapped something underneath me in half and the wendigo snapped his neck toward my direction. Wasting no time, I picked up the nearest anything (I'm 99% sure it was a femur bone) and threw it toward the opposite direction. It landed with a clatter and the wendigo bounded off after the noise. I let out a shaky breath and felt another piercing pain in my arm. I tried to move it and almost cried out as it felt like a poker was slicing through my arm. As carefully as possible, I brushed my left arm with my right hand and felt a gooey substance and another sharp pain. Maybe I did break something, and maybe I cut my arm on the ground. Probably. Probably...I felt my focus wavering in and out as the pain amplified in my arm. I slid down onto the ground and cradled my arm to my chest, glancing wearily at the cave opening.

"Rory?" Dean's voice had moved a lot closer to the cave and my chest eased up with relief. However the wendigo also heard and popped his head back up from his investigation of the femur bone. "Caroline Winchester! I swear to God pick up your damn phone!"

"Dean she has to be around here somewhere," Sam called out wearily. His voice was even closer. Come on Sam, see the hole in the ground. See the large, massive, gaping hole in the ground that I failed to notice. Use your mammoth sized brain and find the hole. Well that's a sentence I've probably never thought before. I found myself stifling a jaded laugh. The pain in my arm was making me loopy...

"Dean look!" Sam had found the entrance and shone his flashlight in. The beam of light landed right where my fucking flare gun was, "I think she's in here!"

I couldn't see his face but by the sound of his voice, Sam thought the wendigo had possibly killed me. I wanted to yell out to my brother and warn him that the creature was currently lurking just out of the light, waiting to pounce, but then I definitely would be eaten. At least Sam had Dean and weapons.

Dean and Sam appeared at the hole and peered down. I couldn't stand it, so I started picking up sticks and bones around me. Sam was slowly lowering Dean into the cave, and the wendigo was moving further and further into predatory stance. I began chucking my collected items in its direction, managing a few times to hit it's head. I heard Dean drop to the ground and him mutter a What the hell? As he suddenly saw a wendigo start lashing out at flying objects. The creature let out a disgusting growl and began to leap toward me. Dean pulled his gun out and shot the wendigo four times with flashes of light.

The nose of the wendigo was nearest me when it crashed to the ground, three feet away. I let out an awkward laugh and tossed my leftover sticks to the ground.

"Caroline?" Dean called out toward my dark tunnel. I cradled my left arm again and slowly made my way back to my brothers. Sam had let himself down and lit some emergency flares around the main part of the cave. Their figures were flickering in orange and red lights and I was reminded how scary my brothers can be when they're in hunt mode.

The shadows on Dean's face only enhanced his intense and angry expression, but I could still see the hint of fear in his eyes.

I finally made it to the lit area and sluggishly smiled, "Ta-da I found the monster." My brothers' shoulders visibly relaxed but Dean only frowned further.

"You idiot, what are you doing in here? Why didn't you come meet us?" Dean's angry questions almost immediately turned into big brother questions, "Did it take you? Are you hurt? Why are you holding your arm? What happened?"

Sam at least had the sense to notice that my flushed face was starting to drain. I felt my previous adrenaline rush leave and I suddenly felt myself heating up.

"Whoa kid," Sam said catching me as I started to pant from the quickly rising temperature, "come sit down. I gotchya." He sat down with me resting against his chest. I was rapidly getting hotter and the nausea from earlier came back full force.

I started to moan and swallow repeatedly, I did not like this feeling one bit. Pleas God don't let me throw up, not now. Dean anxiously knelt in front of me, "Rory what happened? What's wrong?"

I felt Sam's hand snake around and onto my forehead. His hand was cold and felt amazing.

"Dean she's burning up. Caroline stay awake ok? Caroline?"

I gasped out nervous breaths, "I-I think I'm gonna throw up. It hurts-"

"What?" Dean repeated getting aggressive again, "What hurts?"

"My arm," I gagged out, using my right arm to pull Sam's other hand onto my sweating neck. His cold hands were the only thing keeping me calm right now.

The next second a searing pain tore through my arm as Dean picked it up, I nearly screamed at him but I thought I might vomit.

"Holy shit Caroline, the bone broke through the skin," is what I heard Dean say, and then my vision started fading. My brothers' voices continued to talk but now my hearing was going away as well. I've never lost my hearing before and I felt my heart begin beating even faster in absolute panic. What was happening to me? I had just broken my arm, that's it.

Their voices sounded distant, like I had cotton stuffed in my ears. Balls.

Continuing to impulsively gulp back being sick, I pushed out of Sam's touch and lay flat on my back, gasping like a fish while staring open eyed at the ceiling. Dean's voice was getting more frantic, that much I could tell, but it was more and more of a dull drone in the distance. I couldn't focus on him, and then his face was right above mine, eyebrows twisted in panic and he gently slapped my face. Then I lost consciousness.

Next thing I knew I was opening my eyes to piercing bright hospital lights and the aggressive sterilized smell hospitals always bring.

My eyelids were sagging heavily and I smacked my dry lips experimentally. A look at my arm and I saw it currently bandaged and in a sling. My right arm was hooked up to an IV which was standing next to my seated middle brother.

I knew I was still slightly sedated from whatever painkillers the nurse had probably stuck in me, so I felt entitled to do whatever immature shit popped into my head first. So I started blowing air in Sam's direction, making his hair swing. I'm not sorry that some spit was projected also. He looked over at me and rubbed his face with his hand, trying to hide a relieved smile.

"Your breath stinks you creep." He said leaning in toward me. Dean had heard my obnoxious noisemaking and sighed in relief. He quickly stood up next to me and lay his hand on my head.

"You really freaked us out this time Miss Missy," he stroked my hair, "we thought something worse had happened."

I shrugged sheepishly, "I don't really remember much of it. Just that I couldn't hear anything."

"Yeah that was you going into shock from the pain. You're losing your hunting mojo." Sam smiled slightly. I scoffed quietly, "My bone broke through skin. That's pretty flippin awesome. I think I threw a leg bone at the wendigo."

Sam wrinkled his nose, "What?"

"Never mind."

Dean sighed, "Well you're alive, can we leave now?"

"God Dean," I said as I moved from under his hand, "I just woke up, give a girl a second."

Sam's mammoth hands helped me sit on the edge of the bed, "Yeah we weren't even going to bring you here in the first place. But then we realized you'd need surgery."

"I had surgery?" I asked groggily.

"Yeah nutjob, and you got a bunch of gnarly stitches. You can tell people it was a vicious bear attack." Sam said looking at me nervously. I was swaying from exhaustion again. He looked at Dean who frowned and pulled me back under the covers.

"Why don't we stay a little longer? You can take a nap and I'll get your discharge papers."

I smiled faintly and was back asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Sam scoffed as I started drool/snoring all over the pillow, and watched as Dean quickly bent over my face and held it in his hands.

"You're gonna be the death of me kid." He whispered in my ear and kissed my forehead. Before he left the room he looked at Sam, "Watch her Sammy." He said it lightly, but his eyes were dead serious. Sam would've joked about Dean just being around the corner, but knew better. Because if something happened to me under Sam's watch he'd have hell to pay. Sam was Dean's, but I'd heard Dean refer to me as his 'kid' more times than I can count.

And nothing made me feel happier than when he said that.