The Way Home
Chapter 6
Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Mac stood, followed by the others, "I'm Dr. Mackland Ames, Caleb's father."

The doctor held his hand out for Mac, "I'm Dr. McGuire, I've been treating Caleb."

"Please, how is my son? Is he awake?" Mac watched a strange look cross the doctor's face, sending his concern through the roof.

"If you'll follow me I can tell you about your son." Dr. McGuire wasn't sure how he was going to explain the young man's condition to his father, he was actually a little baffled himself.

Mac looked from Jim to the Winchester boys, torn between hearing what the doctor had to say in private, in case it was bad news, or letting them all hear Caleb's condition at the same time. "Please, whatever you need to tell me, they can hear. Just tell me my son is all right."

"Have a seat…" Dr. McGuire motioned for them to sit, reluctantly the group returned to their seats, the doctor taking one next to Mac.

"Caleb has a moderate concussion and a couple of cracked ribs, I'd assume from the car accident the EMT mentioned. He also has several cuts and bruises, but I'm concerned that he hasn't regained consciousness yet. None of his injures seem to be warranting his continued unconscious state. However, when we ran a CT scan, we found some unusual activity within his brain." The doctor watched as worry continued on the father's face, as well as those around him.

"What kind of activity?" The Neurosurgeon in him wanted access to his son's scans, to see if he could figure out what was going on, but the father in him was scared to death that he wouldn't like what he saw.

"Honestly, it's heard to explain, I've never seen anything like it in someone who's unconscious. But the scans indicate areas of activity that would normally show up in a person that is fully conscious." As the doctor's words faded, Mac tried to understand what the man was saying.

It was Jim's voice that asked the next question, "What do you mean?"

Clearing his throat the doctor did his best to try and explain something that he, himself, had never seen. "The scan we ran, normally would show less brain activity in someone who is unconscious, almost like when a person is sleeping, but Caleb's scan has areas of the brain lit up that are only active when a person us fully awake, even his vitals are responding as if he's awake, his respiration is unsteady, his heart rate is fluctuating like someone who is up moving around, I've honestly never seen anything like it before."

Mac finally found his voice, "What are you doing for him now?"

Dr. McGuire straighten a little, "Right now the only thing we can do is monitor him, to make sure whatever is happening inside his brain doesn't start to cause any more problems with his breathing or heart and hope that he does wake up soon. I'm sorry I wish I could tell you better news, but this is a first for me. I'm going to make a few phone calls and see if anyone has ever seen anything like this. However, by the look on your face Dr. Ames I'd assume you've never heard of anything like this before either?"

"No I haven't," Mac answered, "would it be possible for me to look over my son's scan? Neurology is my specialty; maybe I can try and make some sense of it."

The doctor stood, as did the rest of the group, "I'll have them brought to you. Like I said we'll monitor him closely and take whatever measures are needed if any other problems arise."

"Can I see my son?" Mac desperately wanted to see Caleb, something was going on with his son and if it was connected to his abilities then the older man needed to figure it out and hopefully be able to help pull his son from the unconscious state he'd slipped into.

"You all can come and see him for a few minutes, then we will be moving him to a room, I've scheduled another scan, it will be a couple hours before we're able to perform it, that should give you time to look over the first one, then you can watch as the other one is performed." Dr. McGuire turned, the other's silently following behind.

oxoxoxoxox

John was never one to show weakness, especially in front of the boys, but his body was screaming at him that they needed to stop for a minute, the pounding of his head, the painful pull in his chest with each breath he tried to take was causing spots to dance in his vision, "Hold up…Junior…" John could feel the cough coming, knowing the pain it would send through him, he needed to stop, if only for a minute.

They had been walking for nearly an hour, but Caleb could pick up on the minute John needed to stop. He could feel the older man trying to contain the round of coughing that soon overtook him. Caleb managed to get John leaning against a tree before the worst of the spell took hold, then did his best to keep his injured friend upright. This time the coughing was so hard the older man started to gag. "Easy, just try to take small breaths." The Psychic was standing right in front of John when he felt his mentor lean forward, resting his head against Caleb's shoulder. The young man felt fear settle in his stomach at how weak John seemed to be getting. Holding the man up while John tried to catch his breath, it was then that Caleb felt the heat radiating off the other hunter.

Once the older man seemed to be getting his breath back, Caleb pushed him back against the tree, "Think you can stand here a second, I need to get you some water, you're burning up."

When John didn't answer Caleb looked up from the duffle he'd just dropped. Even in the near pitch blackness of the forest, the young man could see the paleness of his mentor, his hair sticking to his sweaty forehead, his breath coming even more labored than before. But as he started to return his gaze to the duffle, something caught his eyes, which caused his own heart rate to increase. Slowly he reached his hand up toward John's face, with his thumb he smeared the dark line that was coming from the corner of John's mouth, "Shit…" He whispered as he pulled his hand back, blood covering his thumb. Trying to calm his own panic he grabbed the bottle of water from the bag. "You still with me old man?"

It took a moment for John to respond, his head lulling against the tree, his eye's barely open, "This old man…can still kick your ass if you…don't watch that mouth."

"Sure you can," Caleb tried to keep his voice light, relieved a little that John's confident cockiness was still in there, despite the dire situation they both knew he was in. "Here, take a drink, then we need to get moving again." The twenty-two year old placed the bottle against John's lips and tilted, the older man taking a small drink, then weakly pushing Caleb's hand away. Between the cold of the night and the fever that was taking hold of him, John's hands were starting to shake.

"You go find help, I'll stay right here." John whispered.

Dropping the bottle back into the bag, bringing it back to his shoulder, Caleb reached for John's arm again, "Like hell I'm leaving you, then have you bitch at me for leaving you, no thanks. You're stuck with me until I get you back to Bobby's."

Reluctantly John let Caleb take some of his weight, "I could taste it kid, it's just gonna get worse, besides…we're too far from Bobby's, don't know if I can make it that far."

"You know you're really starting to piss me off Johnny, I thought you said you trusted me." Caleb tried to sound hurt, tried to mask the fear and worry he was felling.

"Do…just don't know about me." John's voice faded, he was never one to give up, but even a good soldier knew when it was time to raise the white flag.

Caleb was starting to feel anger now, how could John just want to give up. "You know, I never took you for a quitter. All that shit you've drilled into my head about pushing on; ignoring injuries until the job was done, licking your wounds after the fight, what happened to that?"

Again the weaknesses in John's voice twisted Caleb's gut, "Tired…"

"I'm tired too old man, but somebody's got to watch your back. Besides I've got to have someone on my ass to hound me to keep my focus on the job; you know how easily I get distracted. Plus I'm not ready to put up with Deuce's and Sammy's whole teenage attitudes, I remember what I was like, ain't no way I want to deal with that shit by myself." Caleb was doing his best to distract John, keep his mind off the pain, and the long trek through the woods.

"They're good boys…" John tried to take another deep-breath, but his ribs reminded him why he couldn't, "you too…"

"Because of you, now shut up and let's get you out of these fucking woods." Caleb chocked slightly, it was rare for John to say how he really felt, he knew John was trying to make some sort of peace, but Caleb wasn't going to let him give up, he needed to get him back to the boys, back home.

A/N: Okay I have no medical knowledge, so I'm just messing with Caleb and his unconscious state to add more angst and worry for those who are with him at the hospital. Forgive me and I hope you are still enjoying, more to come soon!-Montez