Chapter 5

His eyes were shut, he didn't even know if he could open them, and if he could he wasn't sure that he wanted to. Nothing around him seemed to move. Nothing seemed alive or real. It took him a few minutes before he could hear all the sounds around him, the sirens, the people. Everyone seemed in awe of what was before them, he heard one person ask; "Are they ok?". That was when he remembered what had happened. The chase, the thing in the bushes. Janie. He could feel something in his arms, someone. He had to open his eyes. He had to see if she was ok, if he had succeeded in stopping her from getting killed by that car. Just as Dean had made up his mind about looking out on the world he heard the rush of paramedics and felt her be taken away from him, from the one place he could say that she was safe in.

They put her on a gurney, then one of the three paramedics came rushing to Dean. He wasn't really paying attention to what was happening to him. He felt a lot of tugging and some pain, but he was primarily looking at her. He had no idea what they were doing, yet he could figure that from the amount of people surrounding her it couldn't be good. While the paramedic was fussing over Dean he kept trying to convince the guy that he was fine.

"Is she going to be ok?" he was staring at the ambulance trying to see if she was alright. The paramedic just ignored him. He had some minor scratches, nothing serious. He should still keep his bandages away from water for a few days and change them as need be, or at least that's what the paramedic had managed to tell him in the short period of time that he had Dean's attention.

They were getting ready to close up the ambulance doors when Dean had gotten to them, he had insisted on going to the hospital with her. He could finally see her. She had some cuts on her face much like those he had on his arm, he could see some heavy bruising was already starting to show. Everything seemed superficial to him, yet there were a few things that he just couldn't ignore, like the fact that she was unconscious, or that they had an oxygen mask strapped to her face with some tube coming out of her arms. That really couldn't be a good sign and he was more than aware of that. Dean took hold of her hand. He had only known her for a few hours, yet he has already risked his life for her, trying to protect her. Holding her hand seemed like the only thing that he could do, and maybe it would help her, maybe she would feel the warmth from his large calloused hand gripping onto her smaller and far more delicate hand and perhaps she would wake up before they could reach the hospital. He looked over to one of the other first responders for any sign of hope that he could get. The man just looked over at Dean, it wasn't the look he was hoping for. He couldn't really explain it but the man just looked at him as if he were saying 'well at this point that's about all you can do'. After that Dean placed his other hand on top as well.

They rode the whole way in silence, except for the sounds of the equipment in the background. When they had finally arrived Janie was taken away despite Dean's protests to follow. They just couldn't allow him to. Shortly after he was taken aside to be asked some questions about the accident. Dean had to lie so that it would make any kind of sense.

"Well, we were walking the dog and something spooked the poor little guy and Janie took after him, see he's all she got since her sister left so he means a lot to her. And when she took off so did I it was late and I didn't want her to be alone if she couldn't catch up to Gus. When we got to the intersection we still had time on the light, so we kept going. The next thing I know there was a car headed straight for us." It wasn't all lies. At least they would believe Dean's altered version of the story. The officer who was writing all of this down looked over at Dean and gave a sincerely sad look. "Thank you for your statement Mr. Carravello. We'll be looking into the speeding vehicle from the intersection and I hope that everything turns alright for Ms. Morrison " with that the officer left.

"Oh Mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the law. Law man has put an end to my running and I'm, so far from my home. Oh Mama I can hear you a cryin' you're so scared and all alone. Hangman is comin' down from the gallows and I don't have very long. The Jig is up, the noose is out. They finally found me. The renegade who had it made, retrieved for a bounty. Never more to go astray. This will be the end today of a wanted man…."(Renegade, Pieces of Eight, Styx)

It took to the end of the chorus before Dean had finally realized that his phone was ringing.

"Yeah?"

"Dean are you okay? I saw the news what happened?"

It was Sam.

"Well, we found it." He was remembering the real reason that they had started running.

"What is it?"

"Sammie, if I knew it would be dead already. Trust me. That thing was freaky, it had these creepy green eyes, they change colour too. So naturally we shot at it and that son of a bitch just ran at us."

"Did you get a look at the body?"

"Sort of, it seemed blackened, like it was burnt."

"Okay well that's a start, I'll see if that can't help narrow down the search. How is she?"

"Well I'm just peachy Sam thanks so much for your concern. And as for Janie she was out cold in the ambulance and they won't let me see her."

"Oh, shit. Dean I'm sorry-"

"She's not dead Sam." 'not yet'

" I know, but still. Listen I'll come down and we can try to figure this whole creature thing out together." And with that they both hung up the phone.

Every doctor that came out, every nurse who walked by the waiting area made Dean a little bit more nervous. All he wanted to know was if she was alive. Could no one at least tell him that? By the time that Sam had got there it was well into the early hours of the morning and Dean was flipping through some magazine not even paying attention to it, no doubt some nurse had given it to him out of pity to try and help him pass the time until someone would be able to give him any useful news.

"Hey"

Dean looked up at his younger and yet much taller brother, Sam looked at him while waving a take-out bag. "I brought some pie." He said with a sheepish smile.

He got more worried when Dean didn't practically rip the bag out of his hands, but he also understood. Instead he put the bag down and sat next to his brother placing an awkward hand on his shoulder he said "She'll be okay Dean."

When Dean didn't say anything Sam took his hand away, pulled out his laptop and started to do some research with the new information Dean gave him earlier. There wasn't much to be found on what the creature could possibly be, and when Sam started hitting walls he decided to look further into Janie's family history. There really wasn't much on the Morrison's before the death of their oldest son. There was the usual things like family announcements in the local paper. Her father has been on the city council until Zachary died. Her mother won some awards in county cook offs. They were normal, for the most part. Her mother had died seven years ago from liver failure and her father had passed about two years ago of natural causes. He couldn't find anything to point him a direction that was even remotely helpful. Frustration was beginning to rear its ugly head. He had already called a few other hunters to see if they could help and they all seemed not to have any clue as to what it might be that the two brothers were on the hunt for. Feeling like there was something that he had missed or even overlooked made him feel even worse yet he knew there was the possibility that there was still something for them to discover, the elusive detail that would lead them to finding whatever that thing was. He wasn't ready to give up and he knew that Dean wasn't either. Sam closed his laptop deciding that there was nothing else he could do at the moment but wait.

It has been a long time before anyone came to talk to them. Well into the early hours of the morning from the look of things. A doctor approached Dean.

"Excuse me sir? Mr. Carravello is that right?" She had a southern accent and Dean found that it made him think of some stereotypical lady with big hair, yet when he looked up it wasn't even close. So much so that it caught him off guard. He fumbled over his words.

"Oh, uhm, uh, yeah, that's me."

She looked at him with quite the confused look on her face. "Yes, well. We have some news for you regarding Ms. Morrison. " She paused, unsure as to whether or not she should continue. "She has made it through."

Dean closed his eyes and let out a long loud breath, it felt like this was the first breath of air that he had taken since they got there. The doctor continued. "She suffered some major injuries, and will be in quite some pain for the next few days. The majority of the damage is on the right side of her body, so I would say she was quite lucky. There are a few cracked ribs, some deep tissue bruises that caused some heave internal bleeding, luckily we were able to get her into surgery to contain and minimize the damage. She is also suffering from a bruised femur, which comes with some bruising on the muscle as well. I would suggest that someone stay with her for the next few weeks she may have a hard time doing things on her own. She should also stay off her feet for a few days to help with the bruising, then onto crutches for about two weeks or until the pain subsides." All that information came at Dean and shocked him causing him to lose his grip on the English language for a few moments. In doing so he chose to remain quiet and simply stare at the doctor just as intensely as he had been when the explanation was being given if not just a little bit more. In consequence this had made the poor woman feel rather disturbed. The doctor coughed to attempt to relieve some of the tension, before leaving she had turned to Dean .

"You may see Janie now, but do be aware she is still rather sedated. Don't be surprised if she don't say much" with that she was gone.

A nurse the pointed Dean in the direction of Janie's room while Sam insisted on staying back for the moment to give him a good chance to be alone with her. Barely mid-way through his sentence Dean had already reached the end of the hall in front of them. When he got to his destination he pushed open the door, and finally got his first good look at her since they had started running towards that intersection.

"Janie?"