Chapter 9

"He's comin' too."

Sam felt a wave of white hot agony roll through his body - mirrored by a groan as he shifted as best he could. Sounds and sensations seemed too peaked and intense. His hearing going in and out like the world was crackling through a broken radio...heat and cold seemed to come and go leaving him trembling one moment and soaked in a feverish sweat the next.

He tried to open his eyes but clenched them shut with a hiss when the dim lights stung causing the instinctive recoil that started the rolling wave of agony all over again. Sam had just rolled to his right side, when the grease and paint thinner grated his sense of smell. He scrunched his nose as a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him back onto his back. "Hold him...he shouldn't be moving."

"You could be gentle." A weak female voice interjected.

"You got no say in this." Someone else replied immediately.

"The hell I don't. You almost sent me straight to jail...without even passing go...I think I get a say." She replied with a tremor to her voice before she broke down coughing.

"Alright - alright - just take it easy. Manny hows..."

"She alright...so long as she quits moving herself." Another male voice called out quite frustrated.

"How is he?" She asked softly a moment later when the coughing subsided.

Sam opened his eyes again - this time blinking rapidly to try and dull the pain until he could keep them open long enough to take in his surroundings. Vincent met his eyes as soon as he could hold them open long enough to see his tower of a figure - standing over him. "I think he'll make it."

Vincent's lips thinned into a terse line of disdain as he said it...his eyes betraying just how unhappy he was to lay eyes on his no conscious form. "Who are you, Buddy?"

"I already told you." Leah replied then grimaced and tried to shew the guy working on her shoulder away. He pushed her hands aside easily though.

"Hold still, Lele."

"I'm asking him, Leah." Vincent didn't look away from Sam as if he'd be able to tell if he was lying from eye contact.

"Sam." Sam's throat tightened up on him - feeling like he had been drinking sandy water for three days and the sand had finally baked onto the lining of tissue. "Is she going to be alright?"

"She'll live." Manny looked up from where he was working on he shoulder and then back to Sam. "Same as you - but you both need rest and no moving around...this place's safe...no one in or out...gonna be hard for whoever is looking to find you here." Sam nodded softly...in understanding.

Still he had so many questions.

"Weren't you calling 911?" Sam asked Vincent quietly. He gave the garage break room a once over with a sigh...taking in the fact that he was stretched out on one broken down table while Leah was occupying the other.

Vincent blanched. "How did you..."

"I guess it's true about what they say...you can hear what's going on when your that deep under." Sam replied easily. "I just...I remember you calling 911."

"Yeah, I panicked...took me a minute to realize that there had to be a valid reason for Leah not to want to go to a hospital. She's not scared of them." Vincent replied - seemingly finding comfort in the only real world answer that Sam could find to give him. "I thought better of making the call and went ahead and called a friend to help me out."

"Thanks for that." Sam said gratefully - feeling a load taken from his shoulders.

"I didn't do it for you...you just came along." Vincent debunked any attempt at making friends right then and there and Sam gave a nod of understanding.

"I need to get a hold of my brother...tell him where we are."

"Well you're going to have to wait...ain't no phone here and we got no reception for a cell...when I said you were safe...it's only because we're in the middle of no where...cut off...that's the way I like it." Manny called over Leah's grunt of pain from whatever it was that he was doing to her shoulder.

Sam closed his eyes wearily then tried to sit up...he couldn't take that for an answer...he had to find a way to get a hold of Dean. His brother was convinced that he had to dope himself up so that he could see him...God...

"Didn't you hear me...you need to rest...stop moving." Manny said to Sam, as Leah stifled another cry - clutching the sides of the table beneath her.

"You don't understand...I have to find a way..."

"Not today you don't." Vincent shoved Sam back against the table - getting a weakened groan from him.

Dean awoke with a start squinting hard against the sun light that filtered in through the windshield. "Whoa...uh..." Bobby was driving...singing along with the radio. And for the life of him the last thing that Dean could remember was laying in the hospital...everything got fuzzy after that...except for a flash of balloons...and dresses...and Hendrickson...a pharmacy... Tiny snippets of fractured memories...and the sound of his own laughter and Bobby cussing a blue streak to cinch it all together.

"Bobby?" Dean asked dryly - flicking his tongue off the roof of his mouth several times in the interim as he tried to get the cottony feeling to go away.

"Welcome back." Bobby said entirely too cheerfully for Dean to feel comfortable.

"Uh yeah...what happened?"

"Well I can tell you what didn't happen." Bobby smiled. "We didn't find Sam and Leah...you didn't see Sam when you doped yourself up again...and we didn't get picked up by the FBI or the cops...so I'd say...that today was a good day...for now."

Dean looked over at Bobby in confusion. "Well your in a good mood."

Bobby glanced at him his smile broadening then looked back to the road. "Yeah, you've been asleep for 24 hours...finally got some peace and quiet."

"24 hours?!" Dean bristled at the thought of losing so much time. "Wait - I doped up again? That stuff that helped me see Sam...And I didn't see him?"

"I'm telling you, You were hallucinating the whole time..."

"No...no...I wasn't..."

"Dean..."

"Bobby, he was here! If I didn't see him...then he must of...he...he must've woken up." Dean said it shakily and Bobby's smile melted from his face as he realized Dean's other fear...the alternative to Sam waking up. Dean opened the glove box frantically and pulled out Bobby's cell phone quickly checking it for missed calls...messages.

"He hasn't called Dean."

"That's just because he knows that they may be monitoring your cell... we need to get some place...that he would know to...some place."

Bobby made a turn off the residential street into a familiar driveway. "Some place he knows to try and contact you?" Bobby asked...Dean was nodding slowly as he looked to see the front door opening...watched thankfully as Missouri made her way out onto the front porch.

"Thanks Bobby." Dean whispered worriedly - distantly.

"No Problem." Bobby replied with a worried glance from Dean to Missouri. "If anyone can help us find Sam...it's Missouri."

"I know." Dean nodded, but the dread and fear still clung to his heart.