Chapter 6

There was no response for Dean when he walked in. The room was dark even though at this point the sun had started to come up. He could hear the machines around Janie, there was a steady beeping which was meant to indicate that her heart was beating and this was reassuring. Stepping in properly he finally saw her. Covered in bandages her leg was in some kind of brace, probably so that she couldn't move it too much or put any real pressure on it. There was a large cut on her face that had been closed with a butterfly bandage, her lips cut and bruised, but that went in conjuncture with the rest of her. It seemed that she was still asleep, yet it was no longer medically induced. Dean moved to her side, sat down and took her hand. She stirred slightly then turned to face him.

"Eric?" it sounded so muted that Dean almost missed it. He looked up and to his slight surprise she was smiling at him.

"Janie, you're okay." He had wanted to say more, to hold her or to just be slightly less stoic for once in his life. There was a strange sound that escaped from Janie's mouth, it sounded hoarse and when it happened two or three more times Dean was more than confused.

"Don't make me laugh! It hurts way too damn much." Dean gave her an apologetic look.

"And what was so funny then?"

Janie looked at him with a face that read 'How fucking stupid can you possibly be?'

"I'm okay? Really? You do know that my eyes were not affected in any way right?"

"Yes there's damage, but you'll be fine." Dean wasn't used to having to reassure people, it confused him.

"Yeah, I'm just defenceless in the meantime, what if that thing comes back? What then? We both know how well a gun works on keeping it away."

"You'll have us." It was Sam. He had walked in without the other two noticing.

"But you're just reporters. Granted you have a gun and I can't really understand why you would need one to begin with, but what good are you two going to be against something that doesn't die when you shoot at it!" It was about time that they tell her the truth and both brothers knew it.

"Janie, just give me and Paul here a minute we need to talk. We'll be right back."

"Dean. We need to tell her."

"Oh and what do you want to say? Something is trying to possibly kill you and we don't know what it is yet, oh and by the way this is what we do?!"

"She needs to understand that we can help her and keep her safer than she can. Dean she needs us. " Sam knew Dean was hesitant. Neither of them knew what they were up against and telling Janie that they had been lying to her was risky especially when one considered how good of a shot she was.

It was never easy explaining to people what it was that they did exactly, that they were hunters especially ones that they had to lie to from the beginning. Sam and Dean had spent a good twenty minutes 'talking' outside Janie's room trying to figure out what they were going to say or how they were going to explain that every monster she had ever heard of was real, not to mention that one they could not identify was after her. By the time that they were done she had fallen back asleep and neither of the boys could blame her. They instead followed her lead and fell asleep in either chair beside her bed.

Janie awoke to the two reporters asleep and a doctor checking in on her. "Excuse me, doctor? When do you think that I'll be able to go home?" The man looked up from his clipboard smiled and then replied.

"Well from the looks of things very soon. The incisions we made seem to be doing well and as long as there are no signs of infection I'm rather confident that you will be cleared for discharge by tomorrow" She gave the man a smile as he left.

The men around her began to stir and Sam was the first to wake. "Janie, how long were we out for?" She looked around the room for a clock so that she could answer him. "Well it's three o'clock so I'm guessing most of the day?" Sam slowly rose out of his chair, stretched his long limbs and cracked his neck. "Hospital chairs." He stated looking at her. "I'm going to get some coffee before sleeping beauty over there wakes up. I promise its quite the sight." With that he left. As he was walking towards the cafeteria his phone began to buzz. He looked down to check the caller i.d only to see the name 'Bobby'

"Please tell me you've got something."

"Well you didn't give me much to go on, but I do remember this family. Years ago something happened to their son Zachary-"

"Yeah we know. It was one of the things that lead us to them."

"Right, the thing is with what you did tell me it seems like you might have yourselves a ghoul." With that Bobby hung up. Sam hadn't even thought of that. It was simple yet he knew that it wasn't going to be an easy kill. You had to get in close to kill one, take its head off. Literally, that or make it explode. 'This is good' he thought 'now we know what it is we're up against. We can kill this thing' .

With the coffees in hand he returned to Janie's room. To his lack of surprise Dean was still out cold and Janie was just watching him. She hadn't heard Sam come back which caused him to make some noise so that he wouldn't scare her. "Oh, you're back." Sam moved towards Dean coffee outstretched, the smell filling the air. He looked over at her, smiled then said "Yeah, now watch this." Gently he put his coffee down, while still holding Dean's he then proceeded to move the cup back and forth under Dean's nose a few times. The room fell totally silent except for sniffing sounds coming from the older of the two brothers.

"Coffee." His eyes shot open and shortly this was followed by his hands trying to grab the cup from Sam.

"Oh my God." Janie was almost in tears from laughter. Dean looked over at her with a look of mock pain.

"I thought you said it hurt to laugh." He then cocked his eyebrow at her. "Besides you never get between a man and his morning coffee."

She was still laughing when she stated to him that at this point it was actually late afternoon. This caused Dean to shrug his shoulders and point out that it was morning somewhere.

Sam and Dean stayed with Janie until the doctors forced them to leave. They were told to come back the next day and to be prepared to bring her home where she would need to rest. They got in the impala and drove out to their motel. Sam had only just closed the door when he told Dean the new information he received from Bobby.

"It's a ghoul."

Dean looked at him and gestured to his head, then made an explosion sound with matching hand motions.

"Yep. That or-." Sam made a cutting motion across his neck, then hung his head off to the side.

"Sounds like we're in for some fun, right Sammy?"

"Yeah, now all we need to do is tell her that we're hunters. How the hell are we going to do that?"

"Very carefully Sam. Very. Carefully."