Dawn – chpt 6
by: sifi.
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Recognition dawned as the marauder dreamed, its tendril of focus re-routed, drawn by the cadence and soothing familiarity of the words of its own kind, but spoken here? NOW? the tendril halted, Perhaps it's a trap? Perhaps it's the betrayer! and it was off again, racing in the direction of a warm vibration that felt like home.
No! No it can't be... do NOT stop now! it shrieked inside its own mind as the warmth turned cool and the trace of language returned to obscurity, as if it hadn't been spoken at all. But even as it lay within the ground, breathing the earth and its richness, stealing what it would need; it was not the only creature that felt the ancient words spoken, and it was not the only thing drawn toward them.
--
"Well she IS the nurse, don't you think we oughtta at least ask..." Tom hissed quietly into Sam's ear.
"Ask what Tom? 'Oh excuse me nurse, my brother over there? Yeah, he seems to be channeling the first Earthly deity and suddenly can only speak in tongues and write in cuneiform, do you think that's normal?'" Sam hissed back while pinching the bridge of his nose.
His eyes flicked to Dean's inert form in the bed, where they'd placed him after he passed out. He'd been sitting on the floor with them, starting on his second page of what Sam and Tom could only imagine might be notes; when just as a spike similar to the one he felt with a vision, slammed Sam between the eyes and made his ears pop; Dean simply fell to the side unconscious.
"What was your vision?" Tom asked quietly, glancing at the nurse who sat beside the elder hunter, intent on the task of applying a fresh cast.
Sam shook his head, "There wasn't one, just this nauseating piercing pain," he turned his attention to the nurse, "'scuse me Miss?"
"Mmm hmm?" she nodded.
"He was asking earlier, why'd you take the cast off only to put another one on right away?" he asked.
"Cause the swelling's gone down by now and to check for signs of infection," she smiled.
"Are there any?" Sam asked.
She shook her head, "Well, I'm not the doctor, but so far, it looks like the infection's clearing up nicely, no inflammation at the incision sites, and the swelling's almost completely gone."
Sam glanced at his big brothers' face, trying to figure if he was still out or playing possum, "So, do you think, I mean, does it... will he be, you know... maybe the doctor won't have to go back in?"
She smiled rubbing a blob of lotion between her gloves and smoothed it over the fiberglass, then gave the cast a cursory assessment and slid the gloves off while pushing easily against the floor and 'woosh-ing' over to Sam's bed.
"Well, like I said, I'm not the doctor, but from what we were all expecting, that he's come even this far is kind of a miracle," she looked at the open page of the tome and lifted up the cover, "So, whatever God you pray to, keep up the good work and maybe he'll walk out of here one seriously lucky man."
"So there IS hope..." Sam smiled brightly, his eyes shining through the sudden film that covered them.
She patted the top of the young man's foot, "Where there's life, there's hope."
She 'woosh-ed' back to Dean's bedside and gathered up her supplies as out in the hall, one of the hundreds of dark gray igigi that roamed the hospital; all of whom seemed to converge on this room seconds after Dean started speaking in that ancient tongue; tried to ram the barrier.
Sam winced as a mottled warty gray face mashed against the barrier snarling darkly before zipping away, "Wow there's a lot of 'em," he breathed, "Y'think they heard him?"
Tom felt his brows furrow as he followed Sam's line of sight out the door and down the hall, "Who the nurses? Nah, and even if they did..." he shrugged.
Sam huffed faintly before remembering he belonged to an extremely exclusive group. He'd become so accustomed to the sight of the igigi, always flitting here and there, almost always on the periphery of his vision and usually seeming to avoid his sight. What disturbed him, as it did the others who were able to see them, was when they fed.
After reading Alex's journals I can't help but think that they don't necessarily like that I can see them. Why do they work so hard to stay out of my sight or on the periphery of it, Laura what the hell did you do to me? And can we use this somehow?
"No man, not the nurses," he smiled softly and moved to his brother's bed.
"Dean?" he sat down.
"I'm gonna run down for some coffee Sam, you want?" Tom asked stretching out his own kinks.
"Yeah," he nodded, "Bring one for Dean too okay?"
Tom nodded leaving John's boys alone for a few moments. Too much today, too much these last couple days... the scope and magnitude of what he'd seen, what these boys and that woman had wedged into his and Sheps happy little hunting ground had his heart and head bumping into each other in an effort to reconcile it all. What... how have they been dealing with this? Those poor kids, first John, then all the talk about Sammy, then the gate, then Dean's deal, how the hell did he get out of that? Bobby said he'd only got a year, did Sam do something? Did HE do something? Did he find a way? And all to wind up smack in the middle of a showdown between Gods and their demonic armies, I just don't get it, s'gotta be some kind of destiny or something, just gotta be.
Once out of the elevator he pulled his cell.
"Hey Bobby, Tom, you got any books in that library that can decipher Cuneiform?"
--
"C'mon Dean, I know you're tired man, we're all beat, but if you wake up and let me know you're back in your own head, I swear I'll let you sleep 'til morning," he spocked his eyebrow watching his big brother's chest rise and fall without missing a beat, "C'mon man, it wasn't funny the first time, and it's a helluva lot LESS funny now! You're getting into a bad habit of scaring me dude, and I gotta say I'm not likin' it," he sighed motioning to the bed across the room and all their research so far.
"This is too big for us Dean. I hesitated AGAIN and it almost got you killed, you coulda wound up dead because I waited, and look where we landed, another hospital, thank God Tom and Shep haven't been hurt, but you know as well as I do that it's only a matter of time," a shaky breath worked its way into his lungs while that damnable mist he just couldn't ever seem to get full control over, covered his eyes, "Look Dean, way I figure it man, you freakin' OWE me okay, last year, waiting for your... expiration date had me half crazy... then this whole past week, and okay so that's pretty much my fault, I shouldn't..." he shook his head.
"Mmm?" Dean grunted. His head waggled back and forth on the pillow.
"Dean? C'mon wake up," Sam urged.
Bright green eyes fluttered open and latched quickly onto the darker blue-greens of his little brother, "Sam...s'up?" he groaned weakly.
"You okay?"
"Mmm, head hurts, a lot," he frowned and attempted to push himself upright.
"Hold on," Sam pressed the button on the guard rail, elevating his big brother.
"Aaaagggod," he squeezed through clenched teeth and leaned forward, pressing his head into his hand as a stream of blood popped out of his nose flowing freely onto the sheets.
"Dean?" Sam grasped him by the shoulders.
"Hurts," he panted drawing his knees up toward his chest, "Sam..."
"Nurse..." Sam breathed with his heart in his throat as Dean's puffy casted fingers wrapped around his forearm.
"Not yet... down..." he hissed sliding down on the bed. He pressed his head back into the pillow, his fingers pinching his nose as the head of the bed started to recline.
"You shouldn't hold your head back, you'll swallow it and wind up making yourself sick," Sam got up and shut off the lights to the room, relieved when Dean's breathing started to even out.
"Oh God... ohgodohgodohgod..." he groaned sitting back up and squeezing his forehead to his knees, his breath coming in short agonized bursts.
"Dean, lemme call the nurse..." Sam reached again for the button but the elder hunter shook his head.
"No..." his back bowed and his breath seized up for a terrifying split second before he rocked back, his blood covered hand over his face and sneezed another palm full of the fluid into it. "Oooh gross!" he grimaced as Sam frowned pouring water from his pitcher onto a towel while he gathered up the sheet, rolling the blob of red in layers of material and doing his best to clean his hand at the same time.
"Here," Sam traded the towel for the tiny ball his brother made of the sheet, "Clean yourself up," from the laundry bin he turned, "Any better?"
Dean nodded scrubbing the blood from his face, "What happened?"
"What do you remember?" Sam asked returning to the bedside with a dry towel.
"We were just starting to make some heads and tails out of the guys' notes and," he shook his head frowning, "I felt a little dizzy, probably from the stretching... where's Tommy?" he asked suddenly.
"He went down to get us some coffee," Sam sighed, visibly troubled.
Aww man I know that look... what? "What?" he asked.
Sam met his deeply bloodshot eyes wondering what to tell him, wondering if he could or should try to protect him, As much as I'd like to I can't... it's to damned important. Damnit Dean, why can't I get just one chance to protect you? he bobbed his head indecisively, "You've been... kinda... down for..." he looked at the clock on the wall, "about three hours."
"What?" Dean asked.
Sam nodded, "Yeah... how do you feel now?"
"Better," Dean stammered, "Fine actually..."
"Headache?"
"Gone," he cocked his head to the side, "For the love of God Sam WHAT?" he asked feeling his belly tighten, okay maybe not so fine... what the hell's going on? What happened? Oh God... don't tell me...
"Talk to me Sam," he frowned.
"Remember what happened when you got attacked by Tiamat and Enki saved you?" he asked.
"What part of it?"
"The vision part," Sam nodded.
"Yeah?" Dean groaned, "Uh nuh... what? I remembered that vision so it can't be..." rapid fire images flashed jumbled in his minds' eye with a piercing needle of pain that slid through his head from one temple to the next. "Ahhhh son of a bitch!" he breathed rocking slightly once more, "Guess I had another one huh?"
"Sorta...What're you seeing?" Sam asked reaching for the notebook on his bed.
"Images, flashes, heat, warm stone, lots of red and... Ne...the marauder, he's the figure pictured in the book, except the sculpture's not right," sweat beaded behind his hand as he pressed his eyes closed then opened them when Sam dropped a notebook into his lap.
"Can you read that?"
Dean looked from the notebook up to his brother, "What the hell is this?" he studied the page and a half for a long moment, "Yeah right, you picked a helluva time to grow a sense of humor Sam."
"When we were kids, who possessed you and tried to kill me?" he asked.
"The king of the Anunna," Dean responded reflexively, his expression slightly surprised.
Sam felt his lips twist upward as Dean's shook his head, "Uh, Sam..."
"What was his name?"
"Anunnaki," his big brother blurted, "Sam?"
"Who were the Anunna?" Sam rocketed.
"The fifty great gods brought into being by Anu and Ki, what the HELL is going on Sam?" he half shouted.
"Who are the igigi?" Sam pushed.
"Minor gods created to maintain the universe and ruled by Anunnaki," his hand flew to the bridge of his nose as he leaned into it breathing hard and tight, "Sam so help me God if you don't stop asking me these questions I'm gonna..."
"How can we stop them?" he rocketed.
Dean's mouth opened and a series of words Sam recognized as belonging to that ancient language slipped out with a fresh trickle of blood from his nose, "Gahh Sam... stop!" he pleaded, a faint whimper of obvious pain catching in his throat as he held the towel up to his face.
"Damnit!" Sam barked, his eyes darted to the door where half a dozen igigi were throwing themselves at the barrier once again and scowling menacingly into the room. Sam swallowed hard, his breathing shallow and fast but steady as he tapped the notebook again.
"Can you read this?" he asked again.
"It says 'get off my ass Sam!' No Damnit I can't read it! Okay? Do you GET it?" he yelled, I just want my woman and son back, can't you just be a little boy again? Please? For just a little longer?
"Do you remember anything else?" Sam asked sitting back in the chair deflated.
Dean frowned, his face waxy and wet, visibly exhausted already as he shook his head, "Nothing, there's nothing more," he scooted down in the bed tossing a scowl at the little brother who covered him.
"Sorry Dean, I had to."
"I know."
The elder hunter drifted to sleep and true to his earlier promise Sam let him go, just glad to have him back in his own head, and grateful for the couple new puzzle pieces his big brother had supplied.
Now all we gotta do is figure out how they all fit.
--
tbc.
Please R&R.
Thanks.
sifi.