The Way Home
Chapter 9
Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Sammy was curled up in a chair on the other side of Caleb's bed, sleep finally claiming the younger boy. Mac had been unable to rest, the unexplained activity visible in the scan's of his son's brain still puzzling the Doctor, but the older man was also worried by the continued hours of Caleb's somewhat unstable condition. The young man's respiration and heart rate had stayed unnaturally high, the fever never going very high, but he continued to have a sheen of sweat across his forehead, matting his dark hair against his pale face.

In the hours of listening to the rapid beeping of the heart monitor, as well as, the rapid breaths his son was taking, Mac had gotten use to the sound. However it was the sudden deep-breath Caleb took and the immediate reaction of the monitors that had Mac on his feet, next to his son. "Caleb?" Mac heard the nurse enter the room; they had been monitoring his son closely at the nurse's station, with the sudden rapid decrease in his rhythm the doctor was quickly paged.

Within minutes Dr. McGuire entered the room, as the nurse started to record the new set of vitals, "What happened?" The doctor took in the significant change in the young man's situation, finally his vitals seemed to be coming in line with someone who is unconscious.

Mac took a hold of his son's hand, laying his other on Caleb's head, "I'm not sure, he took a deep-breath, then everything quickly started to level off."

"I'm going to order a new scan, to see if the activity in is brain has decreased as well, hopefully if we are lucky he will be waking up soon." The doctor stepped out of the room to make arrangements for another scan.

Sammy's quiet voice spoke, Mac just realizing the boy was awake, "Is Caleb okay?"

"I hope so…everything seems to be dropping to where it should be, he's going to have another scan soon, I hope that it will give us some good news." Mac tried to give the younger boy a reassuring smile, though fear still gripped him.

Oxoxoxoxox

Dean's shout from outside sent the older hunters toward the door; they hadn't realized he had left the house until they heard him yell from the yard; Bobby was the first onto the porch, followed by Jim. "Boone call an ambulance!" Bobby shouted taking off down the stairs, Jim close behind, as they raced across the yard to where the boy was on his knees in the dirt, a prone figure laid out in front of him.

Oxoxoxoxox

It seemed to take Dean forever to cross the yard as he saw a weak smile cross his father's face before the man's legs gave out and he crumbled to the ground, the teen sliding to a stop next to John just seconds after the collapse. "Dad? Oh God…" Dean's hand hovered for a second, unsure what to do. John's face was so pale it was almost translucent, but the heat the boy felt even before he touched him, told of a fever raging within the man's body. The dried blood on his forehead surrounded the massive bruise his father was sporting, but the seemingly fresh blood that was near John's lips screamed of the possibility of internal injures.

Finally reaching a shaking hand toward John's neck, Dean felt tears flow at the relief of feeling a pulse. Dean took his father's face in his hands, the heat unbelievable, "Dad, please wake up!" The teen sounded so young, the fear for his father was nearly breaking him. The young boy didn't even realize that Bobby had dropped to the ground across from him, the older hunter's hand immediately going to the unconscious man's neck.

"He's alive, but he's burning up." Bobby glanced at Dean, who's only focus was his father, then he looked up at Jim. "How the hell did he get here?"

"I don't know, but we need to try and stabilize him until the ambulance gets here, we don't know what kind of injuries he may have on the inside." Jim had also noticed the blood around John's mouth and his extremely labored breathing, indications of internal injuries.

"Dad, come… please don't give up…Dad." Dean continued to plead, not removing his hands from John's face, as he studied his lax form, looking for any movement, any sign that he was being heard.

Boone and Kevin arrived near the group with blankets, the red-haired hunter dragging a discarded tire toward John to place under his legs, the fear of shock becoming a worry as the man's body started to shake slightly. "Ambulance should be here anytime."

Jim knelt next to Dean, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, but the teen never noticed, his only focus was his Dad.

Siren's soon broke through the quiet that surrounded the injured man, Dean not noticing until Jim grabbed him by the arm, moving him back so the medics could do their job. The boy didn't hear what Bobby was telling the EMTs about what they think happened, he just watched at they started IV's, placed the neck brace on John, then, like with Caleb the night before, he watched as the medics strapped his father to a backboard, loading him onto the stretcher, that was being quickly wheeled toward the ambulance, "I'm going, I have to go with him." The teen spoke as he made his way toward the rig.

Jim stepped forward when it looked like one of the medics was going to deny the boy, "That's his father, he needs to go with him, we'll be in a vehicle right behind you." The EMT nodded as he allowed Dean to climb into the back, next to John.

Just as the doors slammed shut the Pastor saw the teen reach out and take a hold of his father's hand. Before the vehicle started to pull away, Jim and Bobby were already heading for the mechanic's truck. Boone's voice letting them know that he'd stay behind, to try and get a hold of the hunters that were due to arrive later and let them know John was on his way to the hospital.

Oxoxoxoxox

As the doors slammed shut, Dean reached over and took a hold of his father's hand. The teen couldn't remember the last time he had touched his father, they weren't the touchy-feely type of family, a clip on the back of the head, a squeeze of a shoulder, or a reassuring hold on the neck, that was the extent of the physical contact between the Winchesters. When Sammy had been younger, the smaller boy would always want hugs from Dean, but when the youngest Winchester reached the age of eight, that had started to disappear, Sammy thinking he was too big for hugs anymore and Dean couldn't remember the last time he hugged his Dad.

The bumpy exit from Bobby's driveway went unnoticed to Dean, but the sudden tightening on his hand didn't as his father's body started to tense, "He's seizing!" the one medic shouted to the other as John started to buck against the restraints, the driver relaying the information to the hospital.

"What's happening?" Dean shouted as he watched his father's eye's flutter as the older man's body continued to move involuntarily.

"His fever's too high, it's causing a seizure." The Medic reached across and pulled chilled saline from the small cooler, quickly changing the bags, then injecting an anti-seizure medication that the hospital had radioed back for him to administer.

John's body seemed to relax, the grip on Dean's hand becoming slack, this scared the boy even more, if that was possible, "Dad!"

"He's stabilizing, what's the ETA?" The EMT asked the driver, placing a few ice packs on the unconscious man's chest and near his neck.

"About eight minutes." Was the reply from the driver as the vehicles speed increased just a little more.

Oxoxoxoxox

When Jim and Bobby arrived at the hospital, just a few minutes behind the ambulance, they rushed in expecting to see Dean, but the boy was nowhere in sight. Quickly approaching the desk the Pastor questioned the nurse, "We're here for John Winchester, he was just brought in, his son Dean came in with him, can you tell us where they are?"

Grabbing the paperwork that had just been placed on her desk, she looked up at the two men before her, "The doctor's are still in with Mr. Winchester, someone will be out just as soon as they can. As far as someone coming in with him, let me go back and check, no one has come by me since he arrived." A worried glance was exchanged between the two hunters, Bobby making his way toward the waiting room, to see if maybe Dean could have slipped past the woman unnoticed, but it was empty.

The nurse reappeared just as the Mechanic returned to the desk. "If you gentlemen could follow me, we seem to have a situation." The woman's face didn't give any indication of what was going on as she turned, the two hunters close behind.

Making there way toward the one room with all the activity Jim and Bobby stepped through the door, the mass of people around John catching their attention first. Neither had ever seen so many people working on one person before. Refocusing on the nurse as she quickly led them to the other side of the room; they noticed another nurse knelling on the floor. Finally making their way around the people desperately trying to save John's life, the Pastor and Mechanic were met by a scene that sent them both back nearly ten years.

Dean was sitting on the floor, against the wall, his legs drawn up close to his body, arm's wrapped around them. His body was shaking slightly as his unfocused eyes starred in the direction of the activity in the room. From his spot there seemed to be an unobstructed view of John's deathly-pale face. Jim could hear the woman next to the boy trying to talk to him, but it was as if she wasn't there. In that moment the older man didn't see the determined fifteen-year old boy that had braved a plane ride to try and find his father, no what Jim saw was the scared five-year old who was still reeling from the death of his mother, now terrified he was losing his father.

Jim touched the nurse's shoulder, the woman stood to allow the older man access to the boy, "Dean?" Jim's calm voice seemed out of place, as the shouted orders from the doctor's working on stabilizing John continued to be heard in the back ground. "Son, can you hear me?" The Guardian remembered clearly how difficult it had been when John and the boys had first arrived at his farm all those years ago.

During those first weeks it wouldn't be surprising to find the small boy, sitting just like this in the corner of a room or behind a piece of furniture, staring blankly at images only he was seeing. It had worried both Jim and Mac at the time, when the child wouldn't respond, even to his father. They had all been desperate to help the small child, but it wasn't until one day when they found Caleb sitting quietly next to Dean, that they noticed the slight change in the five-year old. Caleb would never speak to Dean, just sit there with him, slowly the smaller boy started to reach out to the then thirteen-year old. It started with Caleb laying his hand on the floor between them, the child laying his smaller one on top of it. Next it was the small child's hand lying on Caleb's jean-clad leg. Then finally as the weeks pasted Dean would simply crawl into Caleb's lap, curling tight again the teen, his little hand fisted in the older boy's shirt. Eventually the episodes pasted once Dean started whispering to Caleb, disappearing all together once the child started talking to his father again. But now, Jim wasn't sure what to do, the one person that had pulled the boy from his withdrawn state back then was himself in a hospital, hundreds of mile away.

Bobby and Jim turned as the activity around them suddenly stopped, watching, they saw John quickly being wheeled from the room. It emptied of everyone except the three members of John's family and the nurse who had led them back.

A/N: Okay, I'm back now, had a nice little vacation. I will be posting slower so I can rework the chapters I have written, so they flow better. Again I'll state that I know nothing about medical procedure, I don't even know if they would allow a fifteen-year olds to ride in an ambulance with a patient, but for the sake of angst I put it in. Hope you guys are still enjoying. Thanks again for all that have read, reviewed, alerted and/or favorited my story, you guys are awesome!-Montez