Hey guys! New chapter! Thanks for the wonderful reviews last chapter!
"In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man..."
Dean opened his eyes slowly. The radio played softly beside him as he lifted his head from the pillow.
"Now I've reached that age, I've tried to do all those things the best I can..."
This wasn't the hospital. It wasn't Bobby's. It was... Pastor Jim's? Yes, Dean recognized the room he used to share with Sammy.
"No matter how I try, I find my way into the same old jam..."
Dean stood up, remembering the event in the elevator, and checked himself over. He seemed perfectly fine; no cuts, bruises, nothing at all. It seemed a little cold, though.
"Good times, bad times, you know I had my share-" The radio stopped abruptly, causing Dean to turn.
The overhead lamp began to flicker as the thunder cracked in the night outside. "Hello?" He called. "Jim?" Dean stooped down under the low hanging ceiling, passing through doorways and small empty rooms he remembered so vividly. It must've been years since he'd set foot in Jim's church, but here it felt like yesterday.
"Jim?" He called again. "Where's Sam?" He was rewarded with more flickering lights and an eery screeching noise in the storm outside, the kind that doesn't calm you by thinking 'it's just the wind.'
"Sam-" Dean's voice faded as he entered a room full of long empty pews, crosses, and stained glass windows.
It was large, and sadly empty of both objects and people, leaving Dean more confused and alone than ever before. Suddenly, the lights disappeared and the room grew black. Dean told himself it was the power lines in the lightning storm, but between the touchy lights and the heavy storm, Dean couldn't help but think it might be something powerful. Might be...
"Dean."
The voice spoke, and Dean turned to face the familiar being. "Fancy seeing you here!" He said sarcastically, raising his arms to point out the chapel around them.
"House of the holy, huh? Where's Jim? Sam? Bobby?"
The entity held up one hand, silencing the human. "In good time, Dean. First, let's focus on you."
Dean looked disgruntled and opened his mouth to protest, but the companion held up a hand before putting a finger to her lips.
She winked.
...
Dean had fallen completely into the elevator, surrounded by the frantic faces of innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Doctor!" One man was calling. His name was Steven, and he'd had some medical practice in the army, but nothing like the hospital had to offer.
Amidst the screams and cries, it was forgotten that the group was on an elevator until the ding sounded. And it all happened in a matter of seconds.
Some unknowing person on another floor had pressed the button, and now everyone nearing or in the elevator watched frozen as the doors slipped shut.
"Well, what're we gonna do?" A hyperventilating woman broke the silence, wide eyes transfixed on Dean's unconscious form.
There was a jolt and they began to move, upwards or downwards, as the men tried to pick up the six foot hunter.
"Got 'im!" Steven said. "Make way so we can get to the front and be ready to get the poor guy off!" With a grunt, the man opposite him watched helplessly as his hands slid from under Dean's armpits and his upper half crashed onto the floor.
Dean groaned and his eyelids fluttered, as if he'd felt the pain distantly. Steven set down his feet gently. "Again!" He instructed. A different man picked him up by the shoulders as Steven once again seized Dean's legs.
"Back away!" Steven said. They must be near the stopping floor. But the crowd of people backed away fervently, elbowing each other accidentally, until one man hit against the buttons behind him.
With a screech, the elevator came to a sudden halt.
...
"Ruby." Dean said with disgust. "Whatever you need, I'm not doin' it."
Ruby smiled knowingly and sat comfortably in the nearest pew. "Au contraire, el Deano. You need to learn your manners. What I was going to say will benefit us both."
Dean huffed, started pacing, and silently cussed as she continued. "As you might know, Sam has cancer." He rolled his eyes. "But I'm guessing you want it gone?"
She waited for confirmation like she actually didn't know Dean's answer. He glanced up from the floor to see her staring at him not-so-patiently. "Yeah. I want it gone." He agreed.
"Good?" She flipped her brown hair and leaned back, a smile growing on her lips. "Me too."
Dean didn't trust her. Not at all. She was a bad influence on Sammy, gotten him hooked on demon blood, for Christ's sake, and managed to get him on her side. Now she wanted to collaborate?
"What do you want?" He asked.
"Not much." Came her reply. "Just some information."
...
There was dead silence in the compartment until Dean's moan rang and clear. It seemed to jolt his companions with a new sense of energy. A few women began banging on the doors and screaming until finally they heard a muffled answer.
"What did he say?"
"I can't hear him!"
One man shushed the others. "He said they called the fire department. They're on the way. One of you must've hit the emergency button."
The guilty man's face turned crimson with embarrassment, but the group seems too preoccupied to care.
"What's the matter with him?" Someone asked as Steven began amateurly checking on Dean.
"Dunno." He wiped the sweat off his forehead from the heat of the halted elevator. "But it's not good."
...
Dean sat down across from Ruby, making no motion to hide the demon knife he was casually toying with.
"What information do you need to help Sam?"
She stared fixedly at the knife, seemingly offended. "Point that thing elsewhere. Might I mention it's supposed to be in my possession?" Dean shrugged. He'd found it in his boot but honestly didn't remember putting it there.
"Tell me what you need."
"I need to get rid of the cancer, so Sam can be healthy enough to kill Lillith."
Dean stood up like it would give him power in his argument. "He is not about to join you and die trying to-"
"Uh-Uh, let me finish." She held up a hand. "Would you rather him stay like this? Up and down between remission and deathbed like a yoyo? Didn't think so." Dean shook his head.
"That's what I thought. Anyway, I need to know what kind of cancer, how long, and and the doctor's name. I'll need his DNA... Oh, do you have any baby bones on you?"
"Leukemia, a few weeks, I think, Bennett, and gross." He shook his head as she stood up.
"Anything else that could get in his way?"
Dean thought for a split second. "A man. A thief. Named-"
"Consider it done."
Dean's eyes widened. Just like that she'd kill a man? She was a demon, and he wasn't about to complain. "Well, I'll be going then." She spoke.
"But what about the curse? I can't go near Sam or something bad will happen to me. We just don't know what!"
She stopped at the doorway. "Are you sure you didn't find out? Besides,
that idiotic spell is none of my business."
"Wait! How did I get here?"
She turned to face him one more time. "You do understand this is in your head?" Then she was gone, Dean felt the room spin, and he fainted.
...
"He's awake!"
"Shhhhh..."
"Help him!"
Dean squinted his eyes and was taken aback to find himself completely surrounded by people. Talk about claustrophobia.
He closed his eyes and his head rolled, escaping from the hectic moving around him in the stuffy elevator. Steven glanced up as the elevator doors cracked open, revealing a crouching fireman. He stuck his head in the couple feet between the top of the elevator and the hospital floor.
"Everyone okay?"
"No! This man's hurt!" Steven yelled up. Between a group of men and firefighters, they managed to lift Dean out, followed by the women and men.
Dean woke up as he was being rolled into a white room, a buzzing noise ringing in his ears. He groggily thought of Ruby as he drifted in and out if consciousness. He looked over at the nurse as she injected something into an IV that traveled down his arm. "No." He protested, but not loud enough, and soon his eyes were closing once again...
...
"...Miracle. They say he was coughing blood and now he seems fine." Dean sat up slowly, but laid back down before the nurses with their backs to him noticed. He was feeling rejuvenated and perfectly fine, though he vaguely remembered semi-consciously spluttering blood and passing out.
"They're going to release him today once he wakes up."
"Good."
"They can't explain it. Poor guy. First his brother gets cancer, then this freak accident."
"Life sucks. And his brother? Did he visit him after the freak accident or is he really sick?"
"Dunno. Samuel left yesterday."
"He checked out?"
"I don't know... I didn't see any forms. Might've been transferred to a serious hospital. Look, I have to cover Tricia in the lobby. Take over?"
"Sure."
Dean stared at the ceiling with wide eyes. Sam wasn't here. And Dean was better. It couldn't be a coincidence. Sam had sacrificed himself for his brother- and he'd learned from the best.
Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I tried to update yesterday, I really did, but either the computer or the website was being funky... Anyway, please review if you have a minute to spare and I'll try to update next week. I'm going out of state and won't be back by Tuesday, but I'll try to update as soon as possible. :)