Dawn – 3
by: sifi
--
"Dean..." she whispered harshly and snapped awake, her skin crawling in time with something more, something sinister.
Her eyes fell to the two hunters in the bed across from her as she sat up, "Shep! Tom! C'mon we gotta go!" she urged pushing to her feet and moving to the jacket Tom had worn the night before.
She crouched digging into the pockets and found her car keys, "Guys!" she barked as they started to rouse, Tom blinking sleep from his eyes and Shep scowling though his most fearsome couldn't compare to Dean's on a bad morning.
"Meet us at the hospital," she mumbled stepping carefully out of the room and into the early morning sunshine.
Some time within the forty five minutes or so since she'd fallen asleep in Shep's bed something had grown to feel steadily more wrong. As she followed the energy she knew all too well toward the hospital and her men, she shook her head wondering how she'd let herself fall asleep when the Marauder was recharging itself. NOW is when we should be acting to find out how to send it back or kill it... God what'm I doing?
Smiling faintly as she strode confidently past the reception desk where a security guard was explaining to a harried looking business woman that visiting hours didn't start for another forty five minutes, she wondered if it was the paramedic's jacket that got her in, or her demeanor.
Not that it matters... she stepped into the elevator, her hand open, hovering over the buttons as the door closed, until she felt compelled to press 5.
Stepping from the elevator the draw came from her left, it pulled on something deep like the sound of a baby's cry in the middle of the night. Her heart pounded and sweat broke beneath her clothes. Blood oozed from the slash across her torso, blisters from the burns broke and water slid erotically down her flesh. Dean was in pain, stabbing discomfort shortened her breath, he was alone inside. The world outside pressed on her chest, Sam hurt inside, guilt squeezed tight around them both. Rods of fire shot up her leg from her damaged ankle and twisted her back; nurses, CNA's, and residents moved aside as she limped toward the room at the end of the hall.
Through the open door she could see Sam's long legs stretched out, he was sitting in the chair, and though she couldn't yet see Dean his pain called to her clanging against her nerves with the clarity of a harbor buoy's bell.
A grateful smile drew the corners of her mouth just a little further with every step she took. The door of the bathroom opened and Dean emerged slowly, pushing the IV pole in front of himself, his left arm was in a cast covering half his hand and ending half way up his upper arm. A sigh of relief slid from her slightly parted lips, his pain was still there, fear gnawing on his innards like the rats he once thought had gotten inside, but he had a grip on it. He wasn't letting it run away with him.
His gaze turned to the left, drawn by her movement down the hall.
To warm her heart, the worrisome half-frown that was tugging at the corners of his mouth released. Those corners moved upward spreading light through his face.
"Hey," his smile greeted as Sam leaned forward, peering around his big brother who'd suddenly started moving toward the door.
Laura stepped up her limping pace, "Stay there sweetie..." she waved her hand and smiled when he stepped backward from the doorframe.
To her surprise Sam rose behind Dean, a gentle smile on his face, his hand loosely on his brother's shoulder, whether to hold him back or for some other reason she couldn't figure.
Crossing the threshold opened a floodgate in the woman as she lurched forward and wrapped one arm around Dean and the other around Sam. Her lips finding purchase on the younger brother's cheek before seeking the elder hunters, where they came to rest and lingered for long warm moments that could never be lifetimes enough.
"I've missed you so much..." she choked letting tears wet her lips before she pressed them to his.
John's eldest boy leaned forward, tasting her salt as the corners of his mouth turned up with the barest hint of happiness, "Me too," he sighed into her.
--
Deep in the forest, earth trembled.
It turned in pain, its particles drawing together, burning in the re-building of its host body.
Insects called, smoke rose, small mammals squealed and cried, and young plants and grasses turned brown to die.
Slender fingers burrowed upward from the ground wiping away granules of soil that had once been rich and moist with life. Those granules, with the touch of those fingers burst apart, a high sweet scent of decay that puffed gently on the air.
Its dreams were filled with visions of tarnished gold flavored with desperation though just whose, it could not tell. It thought about the champion, the taste of his fear just before its grip on the Chosen one slipped, then the human had dared to feel relief!
I must bring them each under my power, but they're stronger together than I believed. I must make them helpless, I must separate them from their guardians and each other when they are each isolated then they'll forfeit what I need. But how?
Slowly the particles of the ancient creature separated once more, content to reside for a time within the mantle of the earth, plotting carefully toward its sinister ends.
--
"Thanks Bobby, we'll be there as soon as we can... yeah, every hunter you know that we can trust...let 'em know to be there in 5 days time," Sam nodded then frowned, "Leave that between her and Ellen. For the record, Dean and I both agree, you should ask her," he listened some more, "She dealt with it. None of it was easy, it scared the crap out of her but she held her own, she has a right to be part of it if she wants to," he nodded meeting eyes with Dean who also nodded firmly affixed to the idea of Ellen's daughter being summoned to Bobby's, "If she's been hunting on her own for the last year and a half, absolutely...Alright, we'll see you in a couple days," he smiled at his older brother, "We will... thanks."
Dean grinned and leaned back into Laura who sat in the bed behind him, her fingers stroking absently through his hair, her chin resting on his shoulder, "Alright then, I'll head out this afternoon to Bobby's and make sure the wards are still in place, and see if I can get in touch with Mustard seed."
"Mustard seed?" Sam asked smiling wryly, "There's really a sidhe named Mustard seed?"
"I can't pronounce half their names properly," she mused, "He was just really feisty and wanted to stay behind with me when their world was collapsing...anyway, I'll see if they're willing to keep an eye out for any mischief even anything they sense coming from any of the other hunters... how many did Bobby say there might be?" she asked.
"Well we've got Shep and Tom with us so I'm guessing Ellen, Jo, Tamara, maybe three or four more... he's sure as hell not gonna call Greely, Greedy... whatever his name is... I don't know..." Sam shrugged.
Dean leaned his head back, his eyes closed while he smiled loosely and rubbed his temple against her neck, "We're not much of an army... but at least we can put the word out about what's really going on..." he nudged Laura, "Do you really think it's a good idea to bring a demon into the mix? I mean what if the Igigi can't get through the wards and we just invite them in? What if we can't get rid of them? The marauder needed Hendrickson to break the salt line... maybe that's something that can keep them out too..."
Sam looked up from Shep's notebook, his lips stretched in a knowing smile that seemed to radiate warmth, God, he's almost... at peace... we're about to... he shook his head, And he looks like he could be lounging on a beach, that is so...weird...
"Hey Laura, did you get yourself fixed up or do you still need some tending?" Sam asked.
"Oh hell..." Dean tried to sit up but she wouldn't have it, and wrapped her arm over his chest pulling him back into her.
"Don't... you feel good against me," she smiled into his ear, "I'll get tidied up when Shep and Tom get here," she took a deep breath, her lips drawing wind across the elder hunter's ear so that he shivered and chuckled warmly, wrapped in goose bumps.
"I have someone else I think should come. He's not a hunter..." she started.
"He?" Dean questioned.
"Yeah he. He's not a hunter, but he is psychic, he was born one," she stopped wondering if it was such a good idea after all.
"What?" Sam asked noting her frown, his tone causing Dean to tilt his head back to examine her expression.
"Nah, nevermind... it's probably a bad idea on second thought," she shook her head with a small smile.
"So, who's this he?" Dean asked turning to face her more fully now.
"He's someone I look after once in a while. His fiancée disappeared from their home a few weeks ago,"
"He has a fiancée, good," Dean muttered then nodded again, "That's good."
"Goof," Laura grinned pressing her lips to his temple while Sam tried to hold back a smile of his own, "...he has visions he thinks are guiding him to her," she explained.
"Are they?"
"Are they?" the brothers asked together.
"Yeah I think so," she nodded.
"But?" Dean asked recognizing the look of her holding something back.
She sighed, "Asmodeus has 72 legions of demons that he commands, this isn't the ONLY front this war is going to have if we can't stop it."
Dean shuddered in her arms as the implication sank in. Across the room Shep's notebook dropped to the floor and slid a few feet as Sam leaned forward, his jaw open in disbelief.
"Wha...well...how...you're not..." Dean stammered trying to pull from her arms, trying to turn around and face her, to read in her eyes just what exactly she might know that they didn't.
Her warm hands stroked his face, her lips grasped his and her arms drew him close once more, "Shhh, just let me hold you," she rubbed her cheek against his silky short shorn hair, "On a positive note, so far as yet it's only been the two gates we know of that have been opened, these are the advance forces, if we can turn them back we stand a chance of making sure this war never goes any further," she explained.
"Hey Laura?" Sam asked.
"Yeah?"
"When did The King of Hell come into the mix?" he asked quietly, his eyes focused on Dean's.
"Ex...excuse me the what?" Dean asked looking between them.
Laura smoothed his hair then spiked it up again, "He's not."
"You never paid attention! Never! All that time Jim spent with us and all you could do was read Batman comics..." Sam shook his head in disbelief.
"What's wrong with Batman?"
"Guys..."
"He's a Comic Book Character Dean!"
"Guys!"
Dean leaned forward, "He's a freakin superhero who just happens to be a mortal man kinda like us! Kinda like Dad taught us to be!"
Laura licked her fingers, wedged them under her tongue and took a deep breath.
"Dad? Dean, even DAD wanted us as prepared as possible, why do you think he sent us to Jim half of our summers?"
Shaking her head she blew a shard of an ear piercing whistle that drew looks from all the staff members down the hall, and managed to silence John's children.
Both of them cocked their heads expectantly, it wasn't the first time she'd broken up an impending tension argument between them.
"Batman rocks," she said and felt Dean snuggle smugly against her, "And your dad KNEW that knowledge is POWER," she said into his ear and watched Sam nod smugly from his chair across the room.
"Now, just so we're clear, opening ANY gate runs the risk of a major player coming through and frakking everything aaaaalllll the way up okay? I'm just saying... for the record, there are seventy two legions of demons at hellside's beck and call. The couple hundred ancients that yellow eyes had following him, ready to follow Sam when Wyoming opened, it's a strike team in comparison, nothing more in the scheme of things," she sighed.
Dean watched his little brother nod his head in agreement from across the room then leaned back with a heavy sigh, "We're so screwed..."
"No sweetie, those legions have been on call for millennia. With luck, and some fast decisive action, we might be able to stop this ripple before any of the top dogs even know what happened," she explained.
"What about the marauder?" Sam asked.
Her chest shook beneath Dean's back, warm air puffed against his neck and she sniffed, "Even if we lose, I don't think hell is gonna just hand over the world IT wants."
"So if we, if humanity fails... it's gonna be up to hell's own top dogs... or bottom dogs... to save the earth?" Dean asked, seeking confirmation deep in his little brother's eyes.
Leaving his eyes say what he couldn't bring his mouth to, Sam nodded.
--
tbc.
Please R&R.
thanks
sifi.