Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Supernatural. They are all Kripke's creation.

Thanks to my beta, Shannon! A special thanks to blue peanut m and m for helping me to flesh out my story more and for all your suggestions!

Chapter 8

A WEEK LATER

Sammy would be proud of me. I actually flew down to Lauderdale-by-the Sea, Florida. Granted I had to do a lot of deep breathing, hummed Metallica in my head the whole time and kept my eyes glued to the front of the airplane but I made it.

It has been years since we were last in Florida. Tampa to be exact. I had a fling with a waitress there. The thought of her makes me shudder. What a big mistake that was?

Dr. Spencer has arranged for Sam to stay at Summit Hospital, which is close to the Ocean Hyperbaric Neurologic Center and the Cascade Motel where I am staying. Tomorrow Sam will be evaluated to see whether the therapy will do him any good. I can't sleep. I part the orange curtains covering the motel windows. The light from the full moon is shining down on the few cars in the parking lot. A Subaru Impreza, a Ford Escort, a newer version of the Chevy Impala and my rental car, a green Toyota Echo. I close the drapes and pace around the room for several minutes before hopping onto the bed and flicking on the television. Nothing really catches my interest. The room just feels so empty without Sammy. I miss his laugh. His insistence that I talk about how I'm feeling. Sam huddled over his laptop doing research for our next case. The pranks we would play on each other. I hope that this treatment will help you, Sammy.

I turn off the television and try to get some shuteye.


The alarm rings.

9:30 a.m.

Two hours until Sam's appointment.

I swing my legs to the side of the bed, do an overhead stretch and drag myself into the bathroom.


The ambulance ride to the Ocean Hyperbaric Neurologic Center takes fifteen minutes. The facility is a three-story tan and red brick building with large rectangular windows on all sides. It looks more like an office building than a medical center.

The paramedics wheel the gurney through two sliding doors. A short Indian doctor with glasses meets us. Most of his hair is black but there are a few streaks of gray.

The doctor extends his hand. "I'm Dr. Marcus Spencer. You must be Dean. Bobby told me all about you."

We shake hands. "Nice to meet you, Doctor."

Dr. Spencer's gaze shifts to the paramedics. "Follow me, gentlemen."

We walk down a corridor, make a right and go straight down the hallway until we reach two wide wooden doors. The doctor presses a circular metallic button to the right of them and the doors fly open. The emergency medical technicians push Sam to the middle of the room.

"Thanks, gentlemen. Have a good day."

"You, too." The medics head in the direction from which we had just come.

"So what's next, Doc?"

"I am going to perform a single photo emission computed tomography scan or SPECT for short. This test will help me to see if the hyperbaric oxygen therapy will be beneficial to Sam by showing how much living or dead tissue is in his brain."

The doctor wheels an IV stand over to Sam's stretcher and inserts the needle. "First I will do a baseline to see how Sam's brain looks now. This IV contains a radioactive tracer."

"Sam's not going to glow in the dark after this test. Is he?"

Dr. Spencer laughs. "No, I promise you this procedure is completely safe. The tracer will break down in his system within a few hours."

After starting the IV, he aims a strange looking device at Sam's head.

"What's that?"

"A special gamma camera. It will allow me to pinpoint the position of the tracer and see the energy released by it. If you like I can show you to the waiting area."

"Is there any way I could stay with my brother?"

"I guess you could observe in the control room." I follow him into a room half the size of the room we just came from.

Dr. Spencer sits in front of computer screen, presses a couple of buttons and the test begins.

"Bobby really didn't go into specifics. I am curious how you two met. It's not like you run in the same circles."

The doctor smiles briefly then becomes serious again. "It was through Ian, one of my closest friends and colleagues. Being a man of science, I never really put much stock in poltergeists but that all changed when my family and I moved down here from Pittsburgh. I started seeing a young woman in our new house. She would only appear at night. Her nightgown was bloodied. Her throat was slit. At first, I thought I was going crazy. Until my wife and son said, they had seen her too. Then my wife was attacked. Luckily, she walked away with only some minor cuts and bruises. I thought the female specter was responsible for her injuries but then a male ghost began to appear. He told us to get out of his house. I didn't want anything else to happen to my family so I moved them into a nearby motel. I was afraid to tell anyone at work. Ian kept asking me about what was going on and I finally told him. I was expecting him to start laughing but instead he shuffled me into his office and told me he had a similar problem in the past. That's when he told me about Bobby."

"So what was the deal with the ghosts?"

"The husband had killed his wife and then killed himself. They had been haunting that house ever since."

"I guess the realtor forgot to mention that."

"Yes, I guess she did or maybe she didn't know about. The testing is complete." Dr. Spencer points to Sam's brain scans on the computer monitor. "See these yellow and red areas. All of these areas are healthy tissue. The red areas indicate brain activity."

"What does all that mean? Can you help, Sam?"

"Yes, I believe we can."

"How does this hyperbaric stuff work and how long will it take to see any improvement?

"The air we normally breathe contains only 19 to 21% oxygen. During his treatment, Sam will be breathing 100% oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure. All of Sam's blood and bodily fluids will be exposed to the healing benefits of this type of oxygen known as molecular oxygen. Molecular oxygen enhances white blood cell function and promotes the formation of new capillary and peripheral blood vessels. This results in infection control and a faster healing for conditions like Sam's. As far as how long it will take to see improvement that depends. Each patient is different, Dean. I wish I could give you an exact time frame but I can't."

"So let me get this straight? Sam is going to be dosed with some supercharged oxygen and that's going to help heal the tissue in his brain."

"Precisely."

"When can we get started?"

"Today if you like?"

"Yeah the sooner the better."

Dr. Spencer picks up the phone and dials. "Could you send two orderlies down? I need a patient wheeled to one of the HBOT rooms. Thanks."

A few minutes later, two burly men enter the examination room and take Sam two rooms down the hallway.

The hyperbaric chamber resembles one of those pods that space travelers sleep in so they can travel to another galaxy. I can thank Sam for actually knowing that. He would give me that puppy dog look which I have never been able to resist. Then we would watch all his favorite science fiction movies for hours.

The two men gingerly lift Sam off the gurney and onto the table and slide him inside the cylindrical tube.

The doctor's gaze rests on me. "Sam's treatment is going to take one to two hours. You are welcome to stay here or you could sit in the waiting room across the hall."

"I'll stay right here."

Author's Notes: There really is a facility located in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea called the Ocean Hyperbaric Neurologic Center. I hope my explanation of the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy wasn't too technical. Dr. Marcus Spencer came from my imagination. All the information that I found on hyperbaric oxygen therapy is from .com.

I am going to try to finish this story before Season 5 begins. I'm thinking one or two more chapters to finish it up.