The Way Home
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Mac stepped into Caleb's room first; the sight of his son in a hospital bed was never something the Doctor could get use to. There had been a few times the boy had been hurt bad enough on a hunt that warranted a trip to the hospital, but normally the twenty-two year old tried to avoid hospitals at all cost, to many bad memories.

The father noticed the machines that were attached to his son. First was the heart monitor, that showed an increased rate that didn't match his son's unconscious state, there was also a blood pressure cuff wrapped around the young man's arm, connected to a machine that automatically took a reading every ten minutes. An oxygen canal was under his nose as the young man's respirations were far to fast for someone who wasn't awake. Stepping forward Mac laid his hand on Caleb's forehead feeling a slight dampness. "Is he running a fever?" Mac turned toward the doctor who was standing near the foot of the bed.

Dr. McGuire looked confused a moment as he picked up Caleb's chart, "He hadn't been." The doctor left the room to retrieve a thermometer.

Jim stepped up to Mac as Dean and Sammy came up on the other side of the bed, Dean reaching out and laying his hand on his best friend's arm, he could feel a little bit of heat coming off the injured man. Jim's voice brought the teens attention to Mac, "Mackland, what is it?"

"He's sweating, Jim this reminds me of when John has the boys out in the woods for training. The heart rate, his respiration, even the sweating, it's almost like he's training or something, it doesn't make sense." Mac looked up as the doctor returned to the room, Dean and Sammy stepping back so the physician could get next to Caleb. They all watched as the doctor took the young man's temperature.

"His temperature is elevated slightly, I'll have some more blood work run, he wasn't showing any signs of an infection before, but I'll double check to make sure." Dr. McGuire again left the room.

Jim watched the boy in the bed a minute, then something crossed his mind, "Mackland, is it possible that if he did have a vision about John, that what's happening to Caleb now has something to do with what he saw?"

Mac paled a little, "I don't know, it could be possible, we're still discovering how some of his abilities work."

Just then a nurse walked in and handed Mac the results of Caleb's first CT scan. All eyes were on the Doctor as he looked over the papers; Dean had returned his hand to Caleb's arm, needing the connection to know his friend was still with them. This was one of those times Dean hated the abilities Caleb had, he'd witnessed a few visions, seeing how they could drain him, it made him feel useless in helping his best friend, his brother.

"This doesn't make sense." Mac mumbled as he read the papers.

"What?" Jim asked, watching the Scholar shake his head.

"Dr. McGuire was right; these scans show the activity of a person that is fully awake, not someone who's unconscious…" Mac's comment was cut off by a sudden increase in Caleb's heart rate and breathing, the blood pressure cuff also activated.

"Mac, what's going on?" Dean's panicked voice asked as the doctor and a nurse rushed back into the room.

The doctor placed a stethoscope against Caleb's chest as he listened to the rapid heartbeat, the monitor letting the others hear it as well, then just as suddenly as it happened they all watched as Caleb drew in several deep-breaths, slowing the heart rate to were it was, but still to fast for the state he was in.

"I'm going to put a rush on your son getting that next scan." The doctor looked at Mac, who could only nod, it was terrifying him that he didn't know what was going on with Caleb, or how to stop it.

Jim watched everything that was happening, feeling powerless he help. It was killing him to think that he needed to leave and head toward Bobby's, but with Mackland here and Caleb in the hospital where he could be monitored, the Guardian felt he didn't have a choice, the Knight was missing, possible injured, he needed to pool their resources into finding him. The Pastor stepped up next to Mac, who was again next to his son, holding onto the younger man's hand. "Mackland, I hate to leave, but I need to head out to Robert's."

"I know, just make sure you bring John back with you. I'll call you if anything changes with Caleb." Mac responded as he looked into his friend's calm, but worried gaze.

Jim nodded, then looked over toward John's boys, "Sammy I want you to stay here with Mackland, help keep an eye on him and Caleb for me, okay?"

Sammy straightened a little, he had been worried and scared since this whole thing began, he knew something was wrong with Caleb, something more than what his visions normally did to him. Plus he also knew something was wrong with his Dad, it wasn't like his father to not call if he thought he was being looked for, but as the eleven year old looked at the older man, it wasn't Pastor Jim he saw asking him to stay behind, it was the Guardian giving him a job to do. "Yes, sir."

Then Jim's pale-blue eyes focused on Dean, "As you said, your father trained you and he's one of the best trackers we have, Dean I need you to come with me." The older man watched resolve cross the teens face, in that moment the boy straightened his shoulders, the same determination set in the youth's eyes that Jim had seen in John's eyes many times before the man would head out on a hunt, a determination that said he wasn't coming back until the job was finished.

"Yes, sir." Dean answered as he gave his best friend one more look, gently squeezing the man's arm, "I'll bring him home Damien." The boy whispered. Turning toward his brother, he pulled Sammy into a quick hug, then silently followed Jim from the room.

oxoxoxoxox

"Hard to pick up a trail in this, Boone you having any luck?" Bobby was getting frustrated, they'd been in the woods a couple hours and he couldn't pick up on anything that might tell him where John might be, the newly fallen leaves making it nearly impossible.

"Maybe…" The other hunter's voice echoed back through the walkie-talkie.

Just then Bobby felt the small pager clipped to his belt vibrate, shining his light on it, the small device showed a message from Jim. "Boone, I've got to head for the airport, Jim's coming." Bobby needed time to make it back to his truck, then the hour and a half drive to the airport.

"Okay, if we find John I'll leave word back at your place, if not we'll met you there at daybreak." Boone's deep-voice responded as Bobby started to make his way back to the parking lot.

Oxoxoxoxox

John wasn't sure how long they had been walking, he just knew that Caleb was determined to get him to Bobby's so the hunter tried to focus on something other than the pain his body was feeling, the overwhelming exhaustion that was clawing at his mind. He felt his mind drifting toward his boys, he knew Dean had been pissed about having to stay at Jim's but John hadn't just wanted to drop Sammy off without Dean to run interference. Sammy had gotten to the point lately that he would argue with anyone about anything and it was pushing all the wrong buttons between the two. On the drive to Jim's Sammy had complained about everything from the weather, to having to leave another school, to the gas station they had stopped at not having his favorite soft drink. John had felt about ready to tie the kid up and put him in the trunk for the rest of the drive, but Dean had managed to, as always, step in at the perfect time to advert bloodshed on both sides.

John hated how he had made Sammy Dean's responsibility, even at the early age of four, after Mary's death. He was so messed up by what he had witnessed, by what he had learned that John didn't even really notice that Dean had taken over care of his baby brother. In the silence that followed that awful night, Dean had fell into a world that revolved around Sammy, and John was sorry to say it was a couple weeks before he realized his four-year old hadn't made a sound.

Soon after the fire was when Missouri Mosley had put John in contact with Pastor Jim Murphy, once he had revealed to the psychic that he was going to set out and find the thing that had killed his wife. It was that meeting with Jim and Dr. Mackland Ames that brought the kid that was currently hauling his ass out of these woods, into his life. Caleb had been a smart-mouth teenager when John first met him, but the newly widowed, single-father soon realized that his mute, then five-year old, seemed to be drawn to the teen. It was a while before Mac revealed Caleb's own brush with the supernatural as a child or his psychic abilities.

At first John had been worried about letting his young son be around someone like Caleb, John's only experience with anything unexplained had stolen his wife from him, not the he believed the teen would hurt his son, but the fact that he had abilities scared the older man. However, Mac and Jim soon calmed John's fears of the boys 'gifts' by revealing to him that Mac was also psychic. Then within a week of arriving at Jim's farm John noticed Dean whispering to Caleb, the sight of his son speaking to someone gave him hope that Dean was trying to work his way back to the real world. The two boys would have long conversations, of which John was never privy, but as the weeks passed, eventually Dean started talking to him again, and John believes, with all his being, that it was Caleb that brought his son back to him.

"Deuce just needed time to adjust, to figure out what happened, his only way of doing that was to shut down and focus on something to do, taking care of Sammy." Caleb's quiet voice filtered into John's thoughts.

"Reading me?" John whispered out as they continued to walk.

"The only time I can is when you're hurt or sick and now you're both, you're an open book right now." Caleb wasn't trying to pry, but the hurting man beside him wasn't able keep up his normal blocks and it allowed all his thoughts and emotion's to flow freely.

"I never thanked you." John whispered again, only just noticing the sky around them starting to go from pitch-black to a midnight blue, giving the hint that the sun would rise over the darkness.

"For what?" Caleb questioned, hoping to keep John's thought from his pain, but not really liking where the older man's mind was going.

"Giving me back my son." John felt a cough start, Caleb stopped, again leaning him against a tree until the spell passed.

Caleb bent to retrieve the water bottle from the duffle, trying to ignore the renewed trail of blood that seemed to flow from the corner of John's mouth. "Take a drink and spit it out." Caleb ordered as he lifted the bottle toward his mentor's mouth. Watching as his friend weakly follow the request, he then held the bottle back to the older man's mouth, "Couple drinks, slowly."

John had to admit the water going down his throat felt good, but the taste of blood in his mouth reminded him just how bad of shape he was in. It seemed that other than the continued hitch in his chest, his body had virtually gone numb to the pain it was in, whether it was the freezing temperatures, the fever he could feel burning through him or his body deciding it just going to start giving up, somewhere inside, John knew he didn't have much longer left.

"Not allowed to think that way Johnny." Caleb's voice grounded him in reality again as the younger man returned the bottle to the bag. "It's not too much further, promise." Again Caleb took the majority of the injured man's weight as they returned to their trek through the woods, the fear of leaving his boys or the boy beside him, driving John to continue putting one shaky step in front of the other, he wanted desperately to get home.