AUTHOR'S NOTES: In this chapter, Sam, Dean, Corey, and Kelly face their injuries and the aftermath of the accident. Meanwhile, Ruby plans and we get our first real face-time with the one and only Abby Scuito.

Chapter 7

Walking into Abby Scuito's lab was very similar to walking into Willy Wonka's lab if the man had happened to be a forensic scientist. It was a strange and eclectic mix of artwork, goth decorations, and enough candy containers to maintain a sugar high for a very long time.

Even Abby herself was a contradiction. She was wicked smart and mostly dressed in black. There was a dog collar around her neck and she wore spiky wrist bands.

The look sometimes put people off which was always amusing to Gibbs because Abby was one of the friendliest people he had ever met.

As Gibbs entered the lab, he saw that John and Jen were already there. John looked like he'd just been punched in the gut and Gibbs could understand the feeling. Jenny Sheppard was also looking upset by the whole situation, but there was a look of determination as she looked from Gibbs to her fiancé.

"Gibbs!" Abby exclaimed as she hugged Gibbs, suddenly, barely giving the man time to prepare himself. Getting hugged by Abby Scuito was sometimes equivalent to being suddenly hugged by an octopus since the young woman could deliver a pretty strong bear hug for someone her size. "I am so so sorry, Gibbs. I can't believe someone would deliberately hurt Kelly like that." Letting go quickly, she turned around and embraced John just as quickly as she'd had Gibbs. "And Sam and Dean, too…" Pulling away, she looked at both fathers as she added, "I promise we're going to find who did this, okay?"

"You said you found something weird in the evidence from the crash?" Gibbs said, bringing the forensic scientist back to the subject at hand.

"First off…" Abby said, going to her computers and bringing up the crash trajectories. "Whoever was driving the truck kept pushing Corey's car until it slammed into the tree."

"Yeah, well, that part we know about, Abbs," John said, gruffly. He knew that Abby was just running through the case, but every time he saw the crash in his mind, he thought about his sons being hurt. "So what did you find?"

Abby grabbed a small evidence jar and held it up so that John, Jen, and Gibbs could see it. "Sulfur," she said simply. "It was found in the cab of the truck."

Immediately, warning bells started going off in John Winchester's brain. Sulfur meant demons and if it was a demon that meant that the actual driver of the car could be anyone. "Tell me you got fingerprints off of the truck," he said, hopefully.

Abby went to her computers where she was running prints from the truck and brought up the results. "Roberta Dawes," Abby said after a moment. "She's a nurse at Waterford County Hospital."

"Shit," John said to himself as he looked at the picture. He remembered the nurse from when Dean was first diagnosed with the muscle disorder. And thinking about more recently, he remembered her being unusually interested in Sam the previous day at the track meet. It had been odd to John that the young nurse would have been at the meet and the way she'd been staring fixedly at his youngest son…

Without saying another word, John headed for the door. He had to find the demon and find out what she wanted with his boys. Trying to turn the door knob, however, he found it locked for some reason.

"Going somewhere?" Abby asked, giving the hunter-turned NCIS agent a piercing look.

"To go talk to that nurse," John said, vaguely, trying the door again. "She hit the kids for a reason."

"Not good enough," Abby replied, crossing her arms and walking up to John, still giving him the same intense look.

It had always amazed John Winchester that someone like Abby Scuito could intimidate even seasoned former Marines like Gibbs or John himself. Even more than that, Abby had a dogged determination. When she wanted a piece of information from you, she would use any means necessary to extract said information. In fact sometimes, Gibbs joked that he should have Abby interrogate the more stubborn suspects.

Knowing all this, John decided to relent. "She was Dean's nurse when he was first diagnosed with the muscle disorder in his legs. And the other day I saw her at Sam and Kelly's track meet."

Now Gibbs' stare joined Abby's as the other agent said, "And when were you going to share this?" When his friend and fellow agent didn't answer, Gibbs just gave him one last look. "Fine. Jen… Go with him to talk to the nurse."

Jen just nodded and once she and her fiancé were out of the lab, Gibbs looked at Abby. The forensic scientist's expression had shifted from piercing and intense to concern. "How bad was it?" she asked, thinking of Sam, Dean, and Kelly.

Gibbs didn't reply and he wanted to just duck out of the room but he knew better than to try it with Abby watching him. "That woman…" he began, fighting to keep the emotion out of his voice and failing miserably. Taking a deep breath, he started over. "That nurse that crashed into the others… She purposely dislocated Kelly's left arm. Wrenched it right out of the socket before cutting up her face with a knife. They couldn't save Kelly's arm."

Abby gasped, bringing her hands up to her mouth in shock. "Sam and Dean?" she asked, horrible images flashing through her mind as she thought about the sons of John Winchester.

Gibbs shook his head. "Sam was blinded in the crash. Dean's elbow was shattered and he lost both legs." Looking at the picture of the young blonde nurse whose picture was still up on the wall monitor, he felt a fresh surge of anger bubbling up. "I want to know why she was after Kelly, Corey, and the Winchesters."

Abby paused as she looked from the picture to Gibbs. She recognized the look in the agent's eyes and asked, "Your gut?"

Gibbs just nodded silently. He didn't want to say anything out loud but as he ran through the case and the crash in his mind, his gut kept telling him that whatever was going on was centered around the Winchesters. Hearing his cell phone ring, he answered it quickly. "Yeah. Gibbs."

"She's awake," Shannon's voice said, simply.

A soft groan had alerted Shannon that Kelly was regaining consciousness. Sitting on the bed next to her daughter after calling Jethro briefly, she waited until Kelly's eyes opened before she said, "How're you feeling, honey?"

"Mom?" Kelly said, confused. "What happened?" Looking around, she added, "Why am I in the hospital?"

Shannon stiffened ever so slightly before she replied, "You were in an accident the other night coming back from the track meet."

Kelly winced heavily as she tried to sit up. "My arm feels weird. What…?" She stopped as she looked at her left side and took in the bandages covering her shoulder and going across her upper chest. "Oh, God," she said, breathlessly as she stared at where her arm had been. Reaching up a hand to wipe the tears that were starting to stream down her face, she stopped as she felt the lines of stitches across her cheeks and brow. Looking at the window of her hospital room, Kelly gasped as she saw the numerous cuts on her face. "Oh, God, I look like Frankenstein!" she exclaimed, staring at her reflection in the glass.

The look on her daughter's face was heartbreaking as Shannon watched Kelly crying and alternately touching the lacerations to her face and the bandages where her arm had been. "Kelly, honey," Shannon began, even though she didn't have the slightest idea of what to say.

"I look… I look like a… a freak, or something…!" Kelly sobbed. How could this have happened to her? Turning away from the window, she closed her eyes and just cried. It wasn't fair! Why her? Was it because she'd always put too much attention on her looks? And what about her future? Her whole life, Kelly had had one goal—to become a Marine like her father. There was no way that was going to happen now.

"Sweetheart?" Shannon said as she watched Kelly turn away from her. Slowly rubbing her daughter's back, Shannon wished she knew the right thing to say.

"Dad's going to be so disappointed in me," Kelly sniffled, a note of shame in her voice.

That statement made Shannon pause. Why would Jethro be disappointed? Resuming slowly rubbing Kelly's back—something the young woman had always found soothing when she'd been sick or hurt—she asked, "Why on earth would you say that, Kelly?"

Kelly sniffed again as she gingerly rolled so she was facing her mother, trying not to look at the way she avoided staring at Kelly's face and left shoulder. "Because now I'm never going to be a Marine like him."

"Oh, baby," Shannon said, gently hugging her daughter. When Kelly hugged back, Shannon felt tears fall down her own cheeks especially as Kelly gave her a one-armed hug in return.

While most girls went through several different career aspirations during the course of their lives, Kelly had always had one clear, set goal from the time she was 4—to become a member of the United States Marine Corps. She'd never changed her mind on that and every time she spoke about it, Jethro had gotten this warm glow of pride on his face.

In an age where more girls wanted to be actresses and pop singers than doctors or lawyers, Shannon had felt lucky that her little girl had higher dreams—even though the very notion of her only little girl overseas in some war zone made her shiver.

But now, holding her daughter, Shannon wondered what would happen to Kelly's dream. "There's more than one way to be a marine," Shannon reminded Kelly as she pulled away a little to look at her daughter face to face. "You don't have to be in combat. You could teach new recruits… Or be a mechanic."

"I guess," Kelly nodded. Wiping her eyes again, she said, "I'm really tired, Mom."

"Get some rest," Shannon replied, gently, before tucking Kelly in like when she'd been a little girl. When Kelly had fallen asleep, Shannon offered a silent prayer that this would all work out somehow.

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Blaine had been a doctor for almost 30 years and if there was one thing he always found fascinating, it was the interactions of siblings who were patients. He'd seen almost every dynamic possible… Or so he'd thought before meeting Sam and Dean Winchester.

Sam's first actual question after waking up after the accident had been about his older brother and according to the nurses, Sam had insisted on being in the same room as Dean once his older brother came out of surgery. "He'll worry if I'm not there," Sam had insisted.

Standing in the doorway, watching as Sam Winchester sat next to his older brother's bed, Blaine Jeffries shook his head silently in wonder and amazement. For a moment, Dean's heart rate had started to rise higher than it should have been for someone unconscious, but as soon as Sam had started talking to him, the numbers had quickly returned to normal. The two boys had a connection usually only seen in twins, even though Dean was 4 years older than his brother.

"S'mmy?"

Blaine hurried over to Dean who slowly opened his eyes and looked around. "Dean, can you tell me where you are?" Blaine asked as he did a quick neuro check on the older Winchester.

"Sammy, you okay?" Dean asked again, looking at his brother, his eyes full of worry as he noticed Sam's unfocused gaze. He didn't bother to tell the doctor that the more important question was 'who' rather than 'where'. Glancing at the doc, Dean kinda got the feeling like the older man already knew this which explained why he didn't repeat the question and instead answered Dean's.

"Sam experienced some head trauma in the car accident you were in," Blaine explained to Dean whose attention was fixed on Sam. "It caused severe damage to his optic nerves. Right now it's very unclear whether or not the blindness will be permanent."

Dean looked at his little brother—well, not so little, he reminded himself—and ruffled Sam's hair with his good hand. "We'll deal with it, Sammy," Dean promised. When Sam looked unsure of that, Dean asked the doctor, "How soon can I get out of here, Doc?"

Blaine suppressed the desire to roll his eyes at the young man and instead replied, "Not for at least 8 weeks, son. In case you may or may not have noticed, you literally don't have a leg to stand on. And you can't start physical therapy until your arm comes out of the cast."

Dean's expression darkened. "Yeah, I noticed," he snapped, angrily, as he managed to sit up some despite his left arm being in a full cast. He wanted to say something else, but seeing Sam's look, he sighed, forcing his anger down. "I just want to get out of here."

Sam didn't say anything, but he knew his brother only too well and the attitude was common when Dean was feeling guilty about something. Dean tended to lash out at anyone when he really just wanted to berate himself for whatever had happened. Sam had seen it all the time when they were kids and something had happened that Dean blamed himself for—even if it wasn't his fault.

The worst part was that Sam knew what Dean felt guilty about—the accident. Dean probably thought that if he hadn't been driving, Sam would still be able to see. Never mind the fact that it could have been Corey, Kelly, or Sam in Dean's place. And despite the fact that the crash had obviously NOT been an accident, Sam knew that his older brother would never forgive himself for what had happened.

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Cordelia Monica Adler was no stranger to pain. Because of her lupus, joint and muscle pain was incredibly common and the chest pain that accompanied the inflammation of the sacs around her heart and lungs sometimes made her feel like she wanted to die.

Given all that, the pain from her broken leg was manageable.

But the pain in her back was excruciating.

Corey had woken up feeling like there were golf ball sized knots in her back and even the slightest movements made her back feel like she was being stabbed.

The worst part was that the doctors weren't sure whether or not she'd be able to walk again. They kept saying that it was likely that she'd recover…that the odds were good…that the spinal fractures were incomplete which meant a greater chance at recovery.

But no one was certain and Corey wondered if maybe the doctors were just trying to be optimistic instead of just being honest.

It wasn't fair. 48 hours ago, she'd been happy. She was engaged to Dean and she was looking forward to as wonderful a life as someone with lupus could hope for. Now she was in the hospital with her leg broken, in a back and neck brace because her back was broken in two places, and wondering if she would end up in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

"I remember sitting with you after your first bad lupus flare," Casey said as she entered her sister's room and sat carefully on the bed so her twin could see her without moving her head. "I was really scared cause you were having trouble breathing and the ER docs had to intubate you." Putting a hand on her sister's arm, she smiled warmly. "I was scared I was gonna lose you."

"Case, what if…?" Corey didn't want to say what she was thinking, especially when she looked at the engagement ring on her finger. Would Dean still marry her if she couldn't walk? But the strangest part was, her own voice answered her. "Of course Dean will still marry you. Because you still wanted to be with him even when his legs started to go." "What if…?"

Casey didn't need to hear the end of the sentence. She knew what Corey was thinking and she'd be lying if she wasn't worried about the exact same thing. "Corey, you're my sister and I love you. And I don't care if you can walk or not. Neither does Dean. I mean… the guy loves you so much."

"Yeah, I know," Corey replied, thinking of how much Dean had been there for her—especially even when he found out about her illness. Changing the subject, she asked, "What about you?"

Casey shrugged. "Well, I'm on leave for a couple weeks. And my CO is going to try and get me stationed closer to home while you're recovering." After a while, she added, "And listen, Cor… I know I've been gone a lot. But we're gonna deal with this together, okay? No matter what happens."

Since her neck was immobilized, Corey couldn't nod, so she gave her twin a half-hearted smile and put her hand on her sister's.

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While Jenny Sheppard interviewed a couple of the other nurses about Ruby Dawes, John Winchester went to see his sons. As he'd expected, Dean was eager to leave the hospital, despite the fact that he was missing both legs. The doctors were saying it would be 8 weeks to 2 months before Dean could be fitted for prosthetics so he could start physical therapy and that was only because of the shattered elbow.

Sam was practically glue to his brother's side and had seemed oddly accepting of the loss of his vision. But the more John thought about it, the less strange it seemed. The boys had always been like that. Even if both Sam and Dean were injured, whoever had the less severe injury would look after the more badly hurt brother. In this situation, that meant that even though Sam was blind, he still had to look out for his big brother.

After a couple hours, John started to head back down to the ER where Jen was talking to the nurses and doctors when he heard a lilting voice behind him.

"Looking for me, Johnnie?"

Turning, John saw Ruby standing there looking surprisingly nonchalant. Without saying a word, he pulled back his sports jacket just enough so that the demon could see the Colt in his shoulder holster. Nodding in the direction of an empty room, John waited until Ruby went in first and then followed, closing the door and locking it and closing the blinds before withdrawing the Colt and aiming it at the demon's head. "You've got 10 seconds to tell me why you did this to my sons before I blow your pretty blonde brains out," John said, coldly.

But Ruby wasn't about to be intimidated. On the contrary, she seemed pissed that John was even attempting to threaten her. "Believe it or not, I saved your boys—and their girlfriends."

John cocked the gun and glared at the demon. "You cost Dean both his legs, blinded my son, broke Corey's leg and back, and made Kelly lose her whole arm. You call that saving?" He wanted to pull the trigger so bad. He wanted to kill this demonic bitch who had hurt his sons. But there was something in the young woman's eyes that made him pause, even though his first instinct was to pull the trigger.

Ruby sighed, having some sympathy for John. "You think the demons stopped being interested in you because you snuffed out old Yellow Eyes? Wrong. There's another demon out there—even more powerful than Azazel. Her name is Lilith. And trust me—she would have just killed Dean and the girls without a second thought. She wants Sam and she'll do whatever it takes to get him."

John took that in and slowly lowered his gun. What he was about to do went against every fiber of his being, but if this other demon was as bad as Ruby was saying, he'd do anything to keep his boys safe. "I'll make you a deal—You keep Sam and Dean and their girlfriends safe and in 10 years you get me."

Ruby mentally winced at the offer. 10 years would be cutting things extremely close and she didn't trust that Alastair would have enough time to work on the senior Winchester. Knowing what she did about the man, she figured John would need at least 3 years in the pit. "5 years," she countered. "Not exactly standard, but then again, I'm not a crossroads demon." There—that should be enough time down in the pit for John Winchester to give in to the tortures of Hell.

John hesitated for only a moment as he considered the deal. 10 years was the norm for demonic deals and the fact that this demon wanted him in 5 should have raised warning flags. But the desire to save his sons took over and before his common sense could kick in, he said, "Deal."