Title: Reader's Special: Second Edition - One Shot Reward Fic Collection
Author: Disasteriffic Kaz
Info: A collection of 1 Shot Reward Fics for Prompters of my Reader's Special: Third Edition. Features many seasons, hurt/limp/awesome/caring!Sam/Dean/John/Bobby See each chapter for specific info for each 1 shot reward fic.
Author's Note: The Reader's Special: Third Edition was a smashing success! Prompters of the story were offered a One Shot Reward story of their choice. These are they. None of the chapters contained in this collection are connected. Each one is a stand-alone one shot per the Prompters request. Thank you to all of you who prompted the Reader's Special! You were fantastic as always!
Chapter Info: For LeighAnnWallace - For my story, how about the boys being caught in a hurricane in Florida while they're hunting for a creature. They're out in the swamp so they don't know it's coming!
A/N: Oh my poor, poor boys. Heh. This is gonna be fun…shut up, Dean. Stop giving me that look. SHE asked for it! What am I supposed to do? *snicker*
Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678 :D– Friend and Muse's co-conspirator.
**Follow me on Facebook as "Disasteriffic Kaz" for frequent fic updates or just to chat!
~Reviews are Love~
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Sam slogged behind his brother through the swamp and shoved his sweat-soaked hair out of his eyes…again. "Can't believe I let you talk me into this hunt…in Florida, in a swamp, in the middle of friggin' July." Dean had found the articles about hikers and day-trippers being snacked on in this stretch of swamp. They had been torn to pieces, chewed on, and their blood drained. Whatever was killing people was vicious and Dean wanted a piece of it. If it weren't for the whole drained-of-blood thing, it might have been an alligator – which many of the locals and authorities were blaming it on anyway.
"Suck it up, Sammy!" Dean called back cheerfully. He glanced over his shoulder and snorted. "You shave all that hair off, you'd be a lot cooler."
"Bite me!" Sam shot back in irritation.
"You don't really expect me to pass up a chance to hunt Swamp Thing, do you?" Dean chuckled and hefted his shotgun.
That made Sam smirk and roll his eyes. "Dude, it's not THE Swamp Thing. That was a comic book."
"And a bad nineties series." Dean yelped when his left foot stepped into a hole under the murky water. He wind-milled his arms until he got his balance and turned a snarl to his laughing brother.
"What? I'm trudging through a swamp in hundred-degree heat and hundred-percent humidity after a blood-thirsty creature tearing up hikers." Sam shrugged. "I'm allowed to be amused."
"Yeah, and I'm allowed to beat your ass," Dean grumbled. "Still think we should have come out here at night."
Sam laughed again. "You really want to wade through here in the dark?" He smiled and closed his eyes as a sudden cool wind came through, cutting the air around him and momentarily cooling the sweat on his face. It was gone just as fast and he sighed with its loss.
Dean rolled his eyes and listened to the sounds around them instead. The swamp was humid as hell. Cypress trees rose up around them. The wide trunks formed an ever-shifting wall or maze around them as the boles of the trees spread out above them, hanging tendrils down all the way to the water to brush against them and trail in the swamp. The swamp they were currently trudging through was considered a Cypress dome, with the tallest trees in the center. From the outside, it looked like an upended, green and brown bowl. It had the added dubious benefit of holding in the day's heat like a sauna.
"You hear that?" Sam asked suddenly. He splashed up beside Dean and put a hand on his shoulder. Sounds seemed to echo off the trees around them. It made it difficult to tell where something had come from, but Sam was sure he'd heard something growl.
"Nope." Dean looked over at him and raised a brow. "What'd you hear?"
"Huh. Nothing, I guess. 'Gator maybe." Sam moved away again with his eyes on the water. That was a very real concern in the swamp. It wasn't just the supernatural they had to worry about out here. Nature had her own hungry creatures to send after them.
"Maybe." Dean narrowed his eyes to peer among the twisted limbs and hanging fronds of cypress and scowled. He hadn't heard anything, but he knew better than to discount his little brother's gut. A year spent out of the life didn't appear to have dulled Sam's instincts, even if it had taken Dean a while to get his brother's neglected reflexes back up to par. Dean shivered amid the heat, unable to escape the parallels between where he stood now and a part of Purgatory he and Benny had been forced to cross. It had been a waking nightmare.
"Dean!" Sam shouted.
Dean shook himself out of the memory and spun but a second too late. He'd let himself become distracted just for a moment. It was enough. A creature dropped out of the limbs high above his head, and Dean was taken under the water with it.
"No!" Sam lifted his feet and ran toward him. The creature's back rolled up out of the swamp, and Sam raised his shotgun, firing a round of rock salt into its tough hide. It roared and lumbered to turn and face him. The creature's arm came up out of the water with Dean clasped in a massive hand. "Dean! Let him GO!" Sam fired again in the creature's face. It threw its head back in another roar, and Sam stared in shock. It had fangs, rows of them that reminded him of oversized vampire fangs.
Sam jacked another round into the gun and grunted in pain as the creature caught him up with its other hand and pulled him close. Sam cried out as claws dug into his sides. "What the hell are you?" The last thing Sam expected was for the creature to bend down and peer at him with one red eye.
"Vampirrrrrrrre." It said in a long, drawn-out hiss and Sam jerked in its grip.
"No. You're not." Sam stared at it, repulsed, curious, and drowning in fear for his brother who had yet to move or show any outward signs of life where he dangled in the clawed grip, blood dripping from several spots on his body. "You can't be! How…"
"Motherrrrrrrr." It hissed again and shook Sam as his mouth dropped open with shock.
"Oh, no," Sam groaned. What were the odds that they'd stumble on one of the Mother of All Monster's leftover science experiments over two years later? There were definite signs of alligator on the creature, but also something else, some other strain of supernatural creature that he couldn't place. The mutated vampire opened its jaws and turned, taking Dean's arm in its mouth. "NO!" Sam brought the shotgun up one handed and fired rock salt directly into its eye.
Sam gasped as he was suddenly released and splashed down into the swamp. He rolled, trying to get his legs under him and came up out of the water coughing and gasping around the pain in his sides. All of his own pain was forgotten in an instant, however, when he saw Dean, still motionless, floating face down in the fetid water. "Shit!" He surged forward and grabbed the back of Dean's shirt, rolling him and pulled his head up out of the murky water. "Dean? Dean!" Sam tugged him into his chest and brought the shotgun back up as the mutated vampire screamed its rage and lumbered off into the swamp to lick its wounds.
"Dean." Sam slipped an arm around his brother's shoulders and pulled him through the water toward the outstretched roots of a cypress tree. He pushed and pulled until he had Dean's upper body supported on the roots and bent over him. "Dean?" He found his brother's pulse beating weakly beneath his fingers, but no breath passed his lips. Sam pulled Dean off the roots in a panic and pulled his back into his chest. He wrapped his arms around Dean and pulled his clasped fists in and up. Dean jerked hard in his grip and murky swamp water spewed out of his mouth as Dean started coughing and gasped in a breath.
"Holy shit," Sam breathed and dropped his forehead to his brother's head in weak relief.
Dean blinked his eyes open and frowned. He was breathing heavily, coughing, his back burned and someone was hugging the crap out of him from behind. "S'mmy?"
"Just breathe, Dean. Ok?" Sam had his eyes closed, trying to breathe through his own pain, not to mention the terror that had gripped his gut when he realized Dean was not breathing. "It's gone for now."
"Wha' the hell was Swamp Thing?" Dean had only a blurry memory of the thing that had landed on him.
"Mutated…vampire." Sam pushed Dean back up onto the roots and ducked his head as a strong, cold wind suddenly blew his hair into his face. "One of…Mother's creations. Think she crossed it with a 'gator…and maybe something else, too."
"Shit!" Dean pulled himself up the roots and had to stop, panting. "Big monster mama? That's….that's not fair." He snorted softly. "Ganked her ass already. Son of a bitch." He reached a hand to his back and groaned when he found open welts from the creature's clawed hands. He didn't mind the cold wind drying the nasty water on his face and cooling him off. He grinned suddenly, despite the pain and the total mess they were in as he thought about what Sam had just told him. "It's a vampagator," he pronounced, clearly pleased with himself. "We found it, we get to name it!" He thought for a moment. "Or maybe an allavamptor?" He pondered for a few seconds more. "Nah. I like vampagator. What do you think, Sammy?"
Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head marveling once again at the way his brother's brain worked sometimes – didn't matter if they were in the middle of a crisis….he seemed to have a never ending supply of this crap that he could summon up on a moment's notice. He ignored Dean's musings, and leaned up and pushed Dean's hand away from where he was still poking at his back. "Let me look." It was a testament to how bad Dean must be hurting that he didn't argue with Sam about manhandling him. "Damn." Sam got a look under his brother's t-shirt and grimaced at the long claw marks seeping blood across his back. He looked up worriedly as the wind really picked up and a gust threatened to knock him to the side. "Hey, Dean? You didn't happen to check the weather before you dragged us out here, did you?"
"What? No." Dean rolled to his side and ducked his head from the wind. "Whoa."
"Uh…when exactly is hurricane season in Florida?" Sam had to yell as the wind became deafening and the sky above quickly darkened; taking away the day with false night.
Dean glanced around seeing the effects of the rapidly increasing storm. "Oh, man. We are so screwed," Dean groaned and pushed himself back into the water, staggered and grabbed hold of Sam's arm. "We gotta move…find shelter."
"Where? We're in a swamp!" Sam shouted but started moving anyway.
Dean grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him along when he lagged behind. "Move!" The wind was starting to make it hard to stay standing. It blew the swamp water at them like ocean spray. He looked over at Sam and growled angrily, suddenly noticing the blood on the side of his shirt. "How bad?"
"Huh?" Sam looked over at his brother's yell and then saw where he was looking; down at his side. "No time!" Sam's eyes widened and he launched into his brother; knocking them both into the frothing water and out of the path of a sizeable chunk of tree. It splashed down a few feet away as they came up sputtering. Rain started like someone had flipped a switch. It wasn't gentle. It was driving and each drop hit them like pellets.
Dean muscled Sam back to his feet with him and dragged him toward the base of the largest cypress tree he could see. The roots arced up from the waters of the swamp and it was the closest thing to shelter he could see. They reached the tree, nearly blind from the rain and the wind, and Dean shoved Sam through the roots and followed him underneath. The swampy smell was even stronger beneath the cypress and burned Dean's nose as he kept hold of Sam's arm and turned to look back out at the war zone the swamp had suddenly become.
Sam gasped for breath. He could see Dean doing the same but could hear nothing but the wind screaming around them. Even under the tree, it still tore at them. Debris and branches crashed into the roots protecting them as they stood chest-deep in the water. He had to turn to keep the wind from spraying the water into his face and drowning him. "Dean!" Sam grabbed his brother as he staggered and went under, pulling him back up.
Dean came up spitting the foul water and didn't argue when Sam pulled him in; wrapping an arm around him to steady him. The wounds on his back were stealing his strength; every breath made them pull painfully. He jumped as something brushed against his legs under the water and saw the same wide-eyed fear on Sam's face as an alligator surfaced feet away and then went under again. They were both bleeding and could only hope the predators' drive for survival would outweigh their need for lunch.
Sam jerked in surprise as the massive cypress above them suddenly swayed with a particularly violent gust of wind. "Holy shit!" His words were torn away by the hurricane.
Dean took a fistful of his brother's shirt and tugged him to the lee side of the tree, opposite the side being bombarded by everything not nailed down in a ten mile radius. He hooked an arm around a root that dropped down from the trunk above them and saw Sam do the same. They huddled together beneath the swaying tree as the hurricane's fury washed over them. The water level rose frighteningly at one point, leaving both men gasping with their faces pressed against the very bottom of the trunk and coughing when wind driven waves of swamp water washed into their mouths.
Sam felt Dean weakening beside him and wished he could have had the chance to at least wrap the wounds on his back. He wasn't doing much better with his own. They sapped his endurance as he tread water with his face against the base of the tree just to get enough air and Dean's shoulder bumping his. The wind seemed to reach a fever pitch. Their cypress shelter swayed and settled, pushing them both into the water. Sam shoved the panic down and grabbed his brother, pulling him toward the roots. He shoved Dean through and followed to come up gasping for air beside the tree.
"Shit!" Dean shouted and gripped the nearest root, ducking his head against it to escape the wind driven rain. "Sammy?"
"Here!" Sam bumped into his brother and shamelessly hid his head in Dean's back as more rain lashed into his face.
It was more than an hour later that the wind finally began to subside and the storm's fury to blow itself past them. Sam had himself and his brother wedged into a cluster of roots that had kept them from being swept away. He raised his head and blinked, realizing that the sky was lightening as the heavy storm clouds moved on. "Dean." Sam pulled his brother around in the water and groaned. Dean had lost consciousness some time ago, but with the storm raging around them, Sam had been helpless to try to do anything about it beyond keeping his brother's head above water. He was unconscious still, and it had been more than long enough to make Sam nervous.
"Ok." Sam wrapped an arm across Dean's shoulders and kicked away from the side of the cypress. The water level had yet to fall, and Sam pulled Dean toward a cluster of trees yards away whose roots twined together and offered the closest thing he was going to find to dry land. The heat the hurricane had broken began to settle back over them in a stifling blanket as Sam climbed up onto the roots and dragged his brother with him. He laid Dean out on his side and flopped down next to him in exhaustion.
The wounds in his sides ached like they were on fire from spending hours in the murky water. Sam glanced at his senseless brother and figured his had to be just as bad. He groaned, know that infection was almost inevitable for both of them at this point. "Dean." Sam made himself sit up and leaned over him. "Dude, you gotta wake up." Sam's head fell tiredly to thump onto Dean's shoulder. "Can't carry you out of here."
Sam jerked his head up and around at a growling sound from behind them. "Shit. Shit!" He'd lost his shotgun during the hurricane, as had Dean. Worse, his belt, along with the machete that had hung from it was gone as well. He fumbled at Dean's waist and smiled gratefully when he found the machete sheathe still there. Sam pulled it free and put Dean at his back.
"Come on, you bastard!" Sam shouted. He got to his feet and tried to push away the weariness threatening to take him back to his knees. There was no time for it if the mutated vampire was coming back to finish the job, and it sounded like he was. The growl sounded again, louder and closer, and drew Sam's eyes up into the canopy above. The wind still blew, though nowhere near as strong, shifting the limbs and branches and obscuring everything. He rubbed a hand over his face to wipe sweat out of his eyes as the humidity returned in force and made it hard to breathe…or maybe that was the burning from the wounds in his sides, but he couldn't be sure.
Sam hefted the machete, hoping that the creature would be as exhausted as he was from the ordeal of surviving the hurricane. He staggered a step in surprise as Eve's twisted creation suddenly dropped from above and landed in front of him in a hail of leaves. Sam felt a smile tug at his mouth. "Get a little beat up, did you?" The creature's left leg hung from its hip, clearly wounded and unmoving. "Bet that hurts."
It snarled at Sam, infuriated with its own pain, and charged him.
Sam gasped. He couldn't allow the monster to get past him to Dean who still lay unconscious. He threw himself forward, ducking under the creature's reaching arms and used his momentum to crash into it and topple them both off into the water. He held his breath and stabbed the machete into the creature's side and tried to push off from it, lungs burning for air. He kicked for the surface, sliding the machete free. Sam's head broke into the air, and he sucked in a breath, then released it in a strangled cry as the newly named Vampgator bit down on his left arm. He could feel dozens of sharp teeth slide into his flesh as his head was pulled back beneath the water.
He resisted the intense need to suck in an agonized breath and twisted instead, bringing the machete around to bite into the creature's neck. It released its hold on his arm and Sam kicked furiously for the surface again. He came up coughing and gasping. He tossed the machete up on top of the roots and grabbed hold with his good arm. He pulled and kicked to get out of the water; crawling up and listening to the sounds of the creature somewhere close behind as it splashed and screamed its anger.
Spots were starting to crawl across his vision, and Sam stumbled, sliding back toward the water as his head fell forward. He grunted in pain as something heavy hit his back and pushed his chest into the roots. He dragged his head up, feeling the creature's hot breath on the back of his neck and stared in shock at two booted feet in front of his nose. "Dean?"
"Head down, Sam!" Dean shouted. He'd woken with his brother's pained cry, that sound trumping every pain that permeated his entire body, and giving him the strength he needed to act. He crawled over and found his machete. Dean hefted it now, waiting until Sam's head fell. He swung hard and wide, groaning with effort as it bit into the neck of the creature and then through the other side. The mutated head dropped back into the murky waters with a splash as its body slid down Sam's back and below the surface.
"Shit." Dean dropped to his knees and took his brother's arm. "Come on. Up." He pulled, lying back as Sam came up with him and rolled to land next to him.
"Thanks," Sam said breathlessly and decided he didn't have the energy to get off his face.
Dean nodded wordlessly and raised his head to look at his brother. Sam's left arm lay across him. Dean took it and lifted it up, grimacing at the blood flowing from the double row of fang marks from wrist to shoulder. "Damn, Sammy." He sat up, groaning with his own pain and tugged his wet t-shirt off. Dean wrapped it around his brother's arm and gave him a push. "Roll over already."
"No." Sam grunted, glared up at him sideways, and finally let Dean shove him over onto his back.
"Quit yer bitchin'." Dean rolled his eyes and tugged his brother's shirt up, getting his first look at the claw marks dug into his sides. He shook his head and dug in his pocket for his cell. Dean snorted and tossed it into the water. "Toast. Yours?"
Sam closed his eyes. "Washed away. We gotta….we hafta swim out."
Dean groaned and hunched over, wishing the wounds on his back didn't hurt so damn much more now he'd taken his shirt off. That just wasn't fair. He put a hand on his brother's chest and pushed when he started to sit up. "It can wait, Sammy. Just…take a minute…or twenty."
Sam smirked and let his head drop back. It was spinning, his vision was a mess; spending those hours keeping himself and his brother from being washed away and drowned followed by the fight with – he felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth – …Vampgator…had left him nothing. He was done and he knew it. "'Kay."
Dean snorted for the child-like response. His brother must be damn close to out of gas. He looked up through the tree tops and shook his head in wonder. The hurricane had blown its way past them and pockets of blue sky were starting to appear here and there in the heavy clouds. "Must have just been the edge of the damn thing," Dean muttered.
Sam rolled his head wearily and looked up at his brother's bare back. Their extended stay in the water had done awful things to the gashes. "Dude…back looks like…like burger meat."
"Feels like it, too," Dean groaned. "Yours don't look much better. Gonna be a pain in the ass stitching those up." He patted Sam's side under his shirt, making him moan in pain and Dean grinned.
"Jerk," Sam gasped and let his head fall back with a thump.
Dean chuckled and wiped a hand over his face, feeling exhaustion in every muscle of his body. "Bitch." He bumped his brother's knee. "Come on. I can drag your ass if I have to."
Sam snorted and raised his good arm, a silent plea for help sitting up. He sucked in a breath as moving made his arm and sides hurt more and let his head bump into the back of his brother's shoulder.
"Breathe through it, Sammy." Dean let him lean against his shoulder. He smirked; at least the flood water would make it easy to float Sam out of there. He didn't think it'd be long before exhaustion and blood loss took Sam down for the count.
"Hey." Sam raised his head and eased toward the slope of the roots, preparing to jump back in however much he just wanted to stay there and sleep. "You park on high ground?"
"Huh?" Dean asked as he dropped into the water and looked back up at Sam. Panic swept through him and he twisted in the water to look out as if he could see the Impala through miles of swampland and his jaw dropped open in horror. "Son of a bitch!"
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
The End.
Next Up: Frenzied Warrior
