Chapter Four
Are you sure you're okay?" A concerned Matt asked Maggie as she cleared a space in one of Bobby's many book filled rooms,
"Yes I'm fine, stop asking." She replied, placing a stack of heavy books into Matt's arms,
"Okay, the devils trap is done." Lola stated, brushing the chalk dust from her hands,
"Great, I'll just move the rest of these books and…" Maggie stopped mid- sentence, a pile of thick books fell to the floor as she lost her balance, "Damn it." She cursed before taking in a deep wheezing breath as another coughing began, When she finally stopped coughing she covered her mouth and ran past Sam before racing up to the bathroom,
"She's getting worse." He observed as he walked into the room before placing their old green duffle bag onto a rickety table,
"I'll go check on her." Matt offered, then made his way up the stairs,
Sam zipped open the bag and started rummaging through its clunking contents, he looked up at Lola with a smirk then lowered his gaze back down to the bag,
"Something on your mind Sam?" She asked, filling a row of plastic bottles with holy water,
"What?" He asked innocently,
"Oh come on, I know that look."
"It's nothing…you know Dean cares about you…"
Lola leant back, her hands flat against the table top, "I know…" She began with a sigh, "…but they way he shows it sometimes, drives me crazy." She smiled,
"Yeah, I guess he's not the most articulate when it comes to sharing his feelings." Sam laughed smiling at Lola,
"Speaking of Dean, shouldn't he be back by now?"
A tinkle of a bell and wind chimes sounded as Dean pushed open the door of a small shop, Stepping in, he shut the door behind him, the glass windows rattling as he did so,
A woman dressed in a long white flowing dress appeared through a bamboo curtain leading from a room behind a glass counter, "May I help you?" She spoke softly,
"Uh yeah." Dean replied, looking around the room, its dark orange wall glowed as an evening sunset poured through the large shop windows, Decked along the walls were book shelves filled with stacks of literature, some old and leather bound, other paper back, never been read,
"I need some oil of abramalin and acacia."
"Certainly." The raven haired woman replied with a gentle nod before walking over to a tall wooden display case, containing jars filled with herbs and other strange substances,
Dean picked up three candles from a raught iron shelving unit and placed them on the counter top,
"Here we are." The shop keeper returned to her spot behind the counter and input the price of the items into an electronic till, somewhat out of place amongst the antique furniture and old world ornaments, "Will there be anything else?"
"Just these." Dean answered, pointing to the collection of red and white candles before he reached for his wallet,
"That will be $22.50."
Dean handed over two green notes and scooped up the brown bag of supplies under his arm, "Thanks." He smiled politely as he walked across the dark wooden floor to the door,
"Use it wisely." The woman called before Dean closed the door behind him.
Back at Bobby's Matt tentatively pushed open the bathroom door, pocking his head round, Maggie was sat on the beige tiles, her legs tucked up to her chest, resting her arm on the side of the bath, She looked up at Matt and gave him a weary smile,
"You okay?" He asked before holding a hand up apologetically, cringing as he asked the question, "Sorry."
"Yes…believe me, I've got through worse." Maggie smiled,
"Well I few days ago I would have found that hard to believe, but with what's happened in the last twenty four hours." He laughed, with eyebrows raised,
"The glamorous life of a hunter." Maggie joked, holding her hands out dramatically before picking herself up of the cold hard floor.
"Honey I'm home!" Dean's muffled voice called from downstairs before the front door closed loudly,
"Show time." Maggie said rubbing her hands together before both she and Matt made their way to the back room.
As the two close friends entered the room, Sam looked up from John's journal, "You ok…" He began, but was interrupted as Maggie held a finger up in the air, "Ah…don't…lets just get this done." She said with a smile and look of determination,
"Okay, we're ready to go." Dean announced, crouching before a chalk drawn summoning circle, Wiping the dust on his jeans, he lent back onto his heals and took a deep breath before running a small blade over the palm of his hand, Then squeezing it into a tight fist, he let the blood drip down his hand onto a cast iron chalice filled with a yellow granite like powder, reciting a Latin incantation as he did so, Finally he lit a match and dropped it onto the chalice and suddenly a bright spark followed by a yellow flame shot up from the powder,
Watching the flame die down, Dean rose to his feet, The five hunters and twenty two year old civilian stood in silence, looking around the room, holding their breath in anticipation,
"I've got to say, for five of America's best hunters, you sure seem to be dabbling with the devil a lot." A deep voice spoke from the corner of the room,
The six friends snapped their heads round to where the voice was coming from,
Out of the shadows emerged a tall thin figure, his white blonde hair glistened as he stepped into the light, "And what can I do for the great Dean Winchester?" The pale faced demon asked, walking up to Dean until they were a few inches away,
"Well for one thing." He began with a cough, swatting at the air in front of his face, "You can back up a bit, the OD on after shave is gunna make be hurl."
With a smile the demon took a step back, as he did he suddenly had a sickening feeling of betrayal as he looked up to the ceiling, the white outline of a devils trap loomed above his head,
"And it's not really what you can do for me…" He continued as the demon, Ian appeared as if from nowhere, "It's more of what you can do for him."
"You sly bastard." The blonde haired demon cursed,
"Oh pipe down Reece!" Ian ordered, turning to Dean,
"I did what you asked; now undo what you did to my sister." He demanded,
The demon nodded and closed his eyes for a minute, before opening them, his gaze fixed on Maggie,
"It's done." He said with a slight nod,
Maggie walked slowly up to him, smirking with her lips pursed together, Suddenly with no warning, she spat a mouthful of holy water into the demon's face, causing his to stumble back, crying out in pain as he did so,
"Time for your Latin lesson asshole." She smiled narrowing her eyes at both demons, "Hit it boys."
With Lola and Bobby standing guard with buckets and plastic bottles full of holy water, Sam and Dean began to recite the age old chant in unison, Dean concentrating on Ian and Sam's gaze fixed on the slim built man.
"So you guys do this kind of thing everyday?" Matt spoke, rising his voice over the shouts and cries of distress coming from the two demons as the exorcism was carried out, he tried to look away from the disturbing display but could help but find it mesmerising,
"Pretty much!" Lola called back, leaning closer to Matt, but keeping her eyes on the proceedings,
"You're making a mistake Dean!" Ian yelled, doubled over on the floor,
"I don't think so." He replied sternly,
"She going to die Dean, you're going to kill your sister!"
"You said you fixed her."
"Oh please, you don't think I didn't see this coming." The demon scoffed, "She's still infected, and if you send me back, she's not going last 2 hours."
Dean whipped his head round at Maggie, who looked back at him, both scared and furious,
"Fix her." He growled,
"No." The demon replied sternly,
"FIX HER NOW!" Dean yelled, anger swelling from the pit of his stomach,
"NO!" Ian yelled back, both demon and hunter stared each other down for a few seconds; then, straitening up Dean completed the chant.
"She's going to die Dean, you killed your Dad and now your going to kill her." The demon scowled,
"Not if we've got anything to do with it." Bobby spoke up, looking at Dean with a reassuring nod, and with that, Dean continued.
Suddenly just as the last verse of the Latin script was spoken, both demons threw their heads back and a blast of black smoke exploded from their mouths, disappearing into the centre of the devils traps,
Matt jumped back, caught of guard but the disturbing noise the two men were making, startled by what he was seeing,
The two men fell forward onto their hands as they were released from the thick black fog, With a grunt, Ian lifted his head, starting to panic in his unfamiliar surroundings, "What the…how did I get here?" He asked, his gaze darting between the six strangers standing before him,
Finally the light haired thirty something looked up nervously, "What happened?"
"Tell me you have a plan Bobby and you weren't just saying it to shut that asshole up." Dean begged as he paced the room,
"I have, but it's not going to be a walk through the park." He replied, turning his gaze to Maggie, who was sat at the wooded dining tale, her eyes red with pain and fatigue,
"We can neutralise the sulphur with holy water, kind of like taking cough syrup." He explained, "It will cancel the sulphur out, but its gunna hurt like hell."
"But it will work?" Sam asked, picking himself off from the far wall that he was leaning against before walking over to the sofa and perching on the arm,
"Theoretically…yes." The unshaven man replied, "It's up to you Maggie."
Maggie sat back in the chair, silently thinking as she brushed her brunet waves from her face, "What have I got to loose." She said with a sigh, "Let's do it."
Bobby dragged one of the dining chairs up to the far wall and pushed it up against the paint chipped plaster, "Now you're going to want to spit it out, so you're going to have to be held down." He said, ushering for Maggie to sit, looking at Sam and Dean to help,
Matt jumped up from his seat, gently grabbing onto Maggie's arm as she walked across the room, "Are you sure about this?" He asked softly,
"Yes, Bobby says this will work and I trust him." She replied placing a reassuring hand on Matt's shoulder,
Maggie sat down on the seat, watching as Lola filled a glass with holy water before handing it to Bobby, "Ready." He asked, crouching down beside Maggie,
"As I'll ever be." She answered with a heavy sigh, sitting back in the chair, Sam and Dean looked down at her with worried looks,
Bobby put the glass to Maggie's lips and poured the holy water down her throat,
Gagging slightly she wrenched forward in an attempt to spit out the liquid that was burning her throat, Bobby quickly whipped his hand up to Maggie's mouth and held it tightly over her, holy water spilling through his fingers as she coughed and spluttered, "Maggie you have to swallow or this is not going to work." Bobby said calmly, looking her in the eyes,
Reluctantly Maggie swallowed, tears welling in her eyes, Satisfied that she had done what was asked, Bobby removed his hand, Maggie lent forward, coughing and fighting for breath,
"Okay, next cup."
"No." Maggie sobbed, "I cant."
"Yes you can." Dean soothed, kneeling down by her side,
"It hurts." She pleaded,
"You have to or that stuff is going to kill you." He looked into Maggie's terrified eyes, trying desperately to console her,
Slowly nodding her head, Maggie finally agreed for them to continue, tightly holding onto Dean's hand, he stood one side of her and Sam on the other, Matt looked on, biting his nails nervously, "Its okay, they know what they're doing." Lola said reassuringly,
Bobby tipped another glass of holy water and emptied the contents into Maggie's mouth, Once again she kicked out, screaming in pain, Dean and Sam held her back as she thrashed around, stamping her feet as she fought through the pain, they could barely look at their sister, tears streaming down her cheeks her face red as a cold sweat collected on her forehead,
Matt moved forward to put a stop to the proceedings, unable to watch his girlfriend writhing in agony anymore, but he was held back by Lola, although she too hated seeing her friend in this state, she knew that it had to be done,
"Okay, that should do it." Bobby said as Maggie forced back the last glass full, But this time the burning had subsided, and was replaced by a tingling sensation as she swallowed,
"How do you feel?" Sam asked mopping her brow wit ha concerned frown,
"Okay…" She croaked, catching her breath, "…I think it worked."
Matt bent down before Maggie and pulled her into his arms, "Are you sure you're okay?" He asked holding her tightly,
"Yes Matt I'm fine." Maggie smiled wearily,
"I'm sorry Maggie." Dean said quietly before storming out of the room, slamming the front door shut behind him,
With a sigh, Sam chased after Dean, who was pacing the path outside, kicking up dirt and gravel as he did so, seeing the expression on his brother's face, Sam knew that he was beating himself up over what had just happened,
"Don't do this to yourself Dean." He called as he approached him,
"Do what? Blame myself for putting Lola and Matt in danger?" He yelled holding his arms out dramatically, "Or how about the fact that Maggie almost died because of me!"
"But she didn't." Sam replied, "She's fine, we're all fine, you sent those bastards back to hell, its over."
"Yeah, until the next time he claws his way out of there."
A few weeks later Sam, Lola and Dean were packing up their things, ready to leave for a hunt,
"God I'll be so glad to get back in my truck." Lola beamed, throwing her keys up in the air then catching them as they fell back down into her hand,
"Why, something wrong with my driving?" Dean asked, slightly offended, Lola simply rolled her eyes in response, Sam stifled a laugh as he threw his laptop bag over his shoulder, "Maggie you ready?" He called, knocking on the bathroom door,
"Maggie?" He repeated when she didn't answer,
Just when he was about to knock again, the door slowly opened, Maggie emerged, clutching onto a small white stick in her hands,
"Oh don't tell me you're…?" Lola began with a knowing smile, noticing the pregnancy test that her friend was holding; Maggie looked up at Lola, her face pale with shock,
"I'm pregnant."