Chapter Thirty-Two
Bobby and the two eldest Winchesters looked up when a voice came on over the PA system calling for a Code Blue. Seconds later the sound of running footsteps passed the room the small family was in, the hunters glancing worriedly at one another.
"I'll go see what's happening," the grizzled hunter suggested so that Dean and John could stay with Sam who was still a little loopy from the anesthesia.
Stepping out of the room, Bobby glanced down the hall and heard a commotion coming from the recovery room next to Sam's.
Moving forward stealthily, the hunter peeked into the open doorway but saw nothing except a phalanx of nurses and doctors working on the poor bastard inside.
Bobby stepped out of the way as an older woman led a young female nurse from the room. The younger nurse was crying, her words incoherent, while her matronly companion patted her arm, murmuring to her.
"Excuse me-" the hunter began but the women ignored him and headed down the hallway.
Realizing that no one was likely to talk to him, Bobby ducked back into Sam's room.
"What's wrong?" Dean asked and glanced down at his brother.
"Heart attack maybe," Bobby answered, "Or something else. Don't know who."
The old hunter saw John frown but the father said nothing about the Code. Instead he turned to his youngest and asked how Sam was feeling.
SPN
John looked up, startled when Dr. Greene stepped into the room.
"Can I speak with you privately for a moment?" the physician said, looking a little bit shell-shocked.
The father nodded and he and Bobby stepped out of the room.
"I think Sam should be moved to another hospital," Dr. Greene told them without preamble.
"What? Why?" John asked anxiously, "Is something wrong?"
The doctor shook his head, "Your son is fine. No, his donor though, is dead."
John's eyes widened in shock and he looked at Bobby; the older hunter looking just as surprised.
"I didn't have anything to do with it if that's what you-" John began defensively but Dr. Greene shook his head.
"I don't think you had anything to do with the man's death, Mr. Winchester," he said, "But I am not certain that it is completely safe for Sam here."
"I've contacted the police and they are on their way," Dr. Greene continued, "Whoever killed Mr. Gorman may still be inside the hospital."
Bobby narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "How d'you know he's been killed?"
The doctor sighed, "I really shouldn't be telling you this…"
"If Sam's in danger," John began and the doctor nodded.
"Randall Gorman was found with his neck broken."
Both hunters looked at one another.
"Did you see anything suspicious in his room, doctor?" Bobby asked, "Or smell anything?"
Although there were a great number of supernatural creatures strong enough to snap a grown man's neck, not all of them would have been able to enter the hospital undetected.
Dr. Greene looked curiously at the two men but shook his head, "No, one of the nurses was in his room but she claims to have no memory of ever going inside. She was supposed to be on the pediatric floor. Not here."
Bobby and John looked at each other. The look in the older hunter's eyes confirmed the father's suspicion. A man was dead with his neck snapped and a nurse had been found in a room where she had no business.
Demons had killed Randall Gorman.
"What hospital do you want to send Sam to?" Bobby asked.
"Mitchell is close enough and they will be able to look after Sam while he recovers," Dr. Greene explained, "As long as there are no complications your son should be alright there."
John nodded; Mitchell was about an hour and a half away and had a much smaller population then Sioux Falls.
"I have an ambulance ready," Dr. Greene told them, "If Sam's awake."
SPN
Dean looked up concernedly as John, Bobby and Dr. Greene stepped into the room, all with frowns on their faces.
"What's wrong?" he asked instantly, looking to the surgeon.
Sam, now more coherent as the anesthetic had nearly left his system, struggled to sit up but Dean turned to him.
"It's okay, Sammy," he murmured but Sam stared at him blindly, his expression nervous.
"What's wrong?" he asked, repeating his older brother's question.
"We need to send you to another hospital," Dr. Greene told the young man and Sam's expression turned from one of anxiety to fear.
"What's wrong? Did something go wrong? What happened?"
Dean reached out and gripped his sibling's shoulder, trying to calm him.
He all but glared at the three older men who were doing nothing to assuage his brother's terror.
"Tell us!" he snapped, "What's happened?"
"Sam's donor has died," Dr. Greene told them, "Murdered, it looks like and I feel that it would be safer for your brother if he was not in this hospital for very much longer."
Dean's eyes widened in shock and his grip tightened painfully on his sibling's shoulder, "WHAT?"
"That Code Blue was for Gorman," his father said, "Dean, we need to leave."
Sam looked stunned, his mouth opened as though he wanted to speak but no words came out.
Dean looked to the doorway as a male nurse pushed a wheelchair into the room.
Dr. Greene looked at the brothers apologetically, "I'm sorry this has happened. Hopefully the police will be able to catch whoever did this."
The doctor grabbed the chair and dragged it towards the bed. The male nurse stepped into the room to help.
"It's okay, Sammy," Dean assured his brother as the doctor and nurse worked to remove the monitors and IV line and turn off the machines.
Sam seemed too startled to do much of anything and just let the doctor and nurse manhandle him.
"Sammy?" Dean said, starting to feel nervous by his brother's silence, "Sammy, you okay?"
The twenty-two year old approached the bed and put his hands on either side of his brother's face, "Hey, its okay. We're gonna get out of here and everything will be fine. You'll be fine."
Sam blinked and swallowed, "Y-Yeah… Okay."
Once Sam was seated in the wheelchair Dean insisted on taking it himself, gripping the handles tightly.
"Where to?" he asked and looked up at Dr. Greene.
"Ambulance bay," the doctor said, "There's one waiting for you."
Dean nodded and pushed his brother out the door, John and Bobby following close behind.
He didn't blame Sam for his reaction- or lack of one- at the news that his kidney donor was dead and that he himself might be in danger. The kid had just woken up from surgery for Pete's sake!
Dean peered down at his brother. Sam was shaking his head as though trying to clear it and decided that he might not have been completely free of the fog the anesthesia had caused.
"You with me?" he asked and Sam sighed, "Yeah."
"It's gonna be okay," Dean assured him, "It will be."
He peered over his shoulder at John and Bobby and hoped that he wasn't lying to his brother. He knew there was more to the story then what the doctor had told them and he wanted to know what had the two older men looking so uneasy but that would have to wait. Dean didn't really want Sam involved in anything supernatural. Not now. Not ever again, if he was telling the truth.
He just hoped that it would be enough to change hospitals and whoever- whatever- had killed Sam's donor wouldn't come for his brother.
SPN
Sam felt very vulnerable sitting in a wheelchair, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts and a hospital gown, and heading towards the area where the ambulances parked.
Dean was with him though, and John and Bobby, though so that made him feel slightly better.
He didn't know what was happening. He had heard Dr. Greene say that he thought his donor had been killed but the words seemed to have lost their meaning to him. Sam wasn't concerned with a would-be murderer on the loose in Sioux Falls General.
No, he was more concerned with the fact that he was seeing something very, very strange.
He had grown used to the white, foggy cloud that obscured his vision altogether ever since Dr. Bates had fucked his eyes up but this… this wasn't right. This wasn't normal. At least it didn't feel right or normal.
From what the optometrist, Dr. Monticello had told them, his eyes were not going to get better. Even if he did have surgery, there were scars left by Bates' butchery that would leave him blind permanently.
Sam wasn't sure what was happening, if what he was seeing- yes, seeing- was some strange affect of the anesthetic he'd been given or if it signaled something more sinister but it frightened him.
Sam stared at newly imagined hospital around him. It looked to the young man as though someone- an artist perhaps- had sketched the interior of the building in pencil. He could see the outlines of doorways, gurneys, signs overhead. All appeared to have been rendered in dark pencil on a piece of stark white paper. The sight was very disorienting. Sam could see objects- their outlines- and was thrilled at the sight, despite their lack of colour; simply being able to see them again heartened him.
What was the strangest however, was the colour. Although the inanimate objects of the hospital were only white and black, people- medical personnel and patients- they passed seemed to have rings of colour surrounding them. As Dean wheeled Sam down the hall the eighteen-year old stared at the people they passed, all white and blank as paper dolls, except for the circle of colour surrounding them.
Blue, green, purple, red… all the colours Sam recognized appeared as a nimbus around doctors and nurses and patients.
Like auras, Sam thought to himself.
His eyes started watering and within moments he had tears leaking down his cheeks.
"Sam! Sammy! What's wrong?" Dean's voice called out from behind him and suddenly Dean was there, in front of him.
Sam gaped at his brother, just like the others, his sibling was devoid of features but the aura that surrounded him was bright gold, pulsing quickly.
The sight was both terrifying and extraordinary.
"D'n," Sam muttered and reached out, startling when he noticed that his own hand, which was drawing closer to his brother, was invisible. He could not see himself- his own aura- but he could see others around him.
"Hey," Dean said and gripped his hand, fingers edged in golden light holding his own trembling ones.
"Are you hurting? We're almost there," Dean's voice said and Sam shook his head despite the fact that his side was now starting to protest his posture.
"I… I…" Sam stammered, unsure of how on earth he could explain what he was seeing to Dean.
"Dean," his father's voice spoke up, "We have to go."
Dean, nodded and stood, moving around to the back of the wheelchair and began pushing it forwards again.
Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes, relishing the darkness behind his eyelids.
SPN
Dean frowned. Sam was acting very strangely.
He could have sworn his brother was staring at people they passed in the hallway but that was impossible, Sam was blind!
Maybe he's just in shock, Dean thought, after hearing about his donor and everything.
The twenty-two year old breathed a sigh of relief when they exited the hospital through the sliding doors and saw an ambulance parked at the curb, waiting for them.
Dean hit the brakes on the chair and gripped his brother's arm, "C'mon Sammy, we're here."
Sam stood shakily, his eyes closed and Dean frowned.
He hoped that his brother wasn't about to pass out or anything.
The paramedics came forwards and helped Sam into the back of the waiting ambulance, carefully strapping him onto the gurney so that he wouldn't be jostled.
"Are you coming with him?" the male paramedic asked and Dean nodded instantly.
He sat down on the low bench built into the side of the vehicle and peered out at his father and Bobby.
"We'll meet you there," the grizzled hunter said and although John didn't look too happy to be separated from his sons, nodded.
The female paramedic leaned over Sam, asking him questions and her male counterpart closed the back doors tightly.
Dean reached out and gripped Sam's hand as the ambulance began moving, hoping that they were doing the right thing.
SPN
"Why would demons kill Sam's donor?" John asked, gripping the Impala's steering wheel tightly, keeping the white ambulance in sight ahead of them.
"Why do demons do anything?" Bobby commented, "They must not have liked the man for something."
John just frowned.
"Look, you said he was some kind of psychic, that's how he found Sam," the grizzled hunter said, thinking aloud, "Maybe it had something to do with that."
John glanced at his friend for a moment before returning his gaze to the road, "You don't think he made some sort of crossroads deal, do you?"
Bobby shook his head, "If he had, the man'd be Hellhound chow."
John nodded; that made sense. Gorman had his neck broken, not been torn to shreds.
"From what I know," Bobby told him, "Demons don't usually go out of their way to off psychic folks either."
The two hunters fell silent for a long moment, John thinking about what he knew of Randall Gorman when an unpleasant idea occurred to him.
"What if it wasn't about Gorman at all," he suggested, "What if it's Sam."
Bobby looked at him, grey eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"What if it's about Sam and that son of a bitch who killed Mary?" John continued.
"I don't know, Johnny," Bobby answered quietly, "I just don't know."
SPN
Sam opened his eyes slowly, telling himself that what he'd seen before had been a fluke- that it was just the anesthetic messing with his brain- and drew in a sharp breath as the interior of the ambulance and its tree occupants appeared before him.
"Sam!" Dean said, his gold-outlined form drawing nearer, "Sammy, what's wrong?"
The female paramedic- her aura a lilac colour- appeared in Sam's line of vision, "Are you in pain? On a scale of one to te-"
Sam however, wasn't listening to her.
"I… I… can see," he stammered, "I can see…. I can-"
This time it was Dean who interrupted, "What?"
"Sam? What? You… can see?"
The eighteen-year old nodded and licked his lips nervously, "Yeah… S-Sort of… anyway…"
Although Sam could not see his brother's face, he was certain Dean was giving him an incredulous look.
"Okay, okay," he said, "Calm down… just… calm down…"
"Dean," Sam said, "Look!"
The younger man reached up and put his hand against his brother's face, causing Dean to draw back.
"I can see you," Sam insisted.
"But… but that's not possible," Dean argued, "The doctor said you wouldn't be able to see again."
Sam narrowed his eyes, "I know! I know that, Dean! But this… this is something else!"
"Alright," the male paramedic- his aura a deep blue- "You'll need to calm down."
"How?" Dean asked, "How is that possible? Your eyes-"
"Sir, you're going to have to wait to ask questions," the female paramedic's voice spoke up, "and calm down."
Sam didn't see it but he was certain Dean had opened his mouth to begin arguing again but then closed it. He saw his brother lean back, crossing his arms over his chest.
Believe me, Dean; Sam thought, I'm just as shocked as you.
SPN
John grumbled as he grabbed the pen from the nurse at the front desk and began filling out a large stack of forms.
He wanted to be with his sons, not doing paperwork.
"I'm sorry sir," the nurse apologized, not sounding sorry at all, "But it's procedure."
Bobby stood with him, staring in the direction Sam and Dean had gone, deeper into Mitchell's rather tiny hospital.
"Relax Johnny," Bobby said, "Sam's alright. He's just here to get back on his feet before going home."
John stared at his friend. He wasn't worried about Sam in that way, he was concerned the demon that had killed Gorman had followed them.
Bobby looked over his shoulder at him and John knew that the grizzled hunter feared the same thing but of course couldn't say so in front of the nurse.
"Here," John said and shoved the filled-out forms at the nurse, taking off down the hallway as soon as he was finished with them.
As a result of the hospital's small size, it didn't take the father long to locate his sons. He opened the door to Sam's room to find his youngest sitting up in bed while a nurse checked his vital signs and Dean sat beside him on a chair left for visitors.
Both his sons looked up at him as John stepped into the room and from the expression on their faces something big had happened from the time he had left them in the ambulance to now.
"Sam has something to tell you," Dean said seriously and John's heart began to pound in his chest.
Author's Note:
Thanks to KatyMVT, Ghostwriter, Jenjoremy, mandancie, L.A.H.H, Dancerline, TheCartwrightKid, BranchSuper, babyreaper, kasey, MysteryMadchen, KlainebowsHallowsRumbleroar, SPN Mum, jkf34, SamDeanLover28, ncsupnatfan, mara-isamoose and Guests for reviewing.
Thanks to everyone who alerted, followed and favourited.
I tried to describe what Sam was seeing as best I could. It was difficult because I could picture it in my head but translating that into writing was harder than I thought it would be. Although Sam does not have his full vision back- and his eyes remain milky white- he does have some semblance of sight. I couldn't leave him blind- I'm not that cruel!
Please leave a review and I'll update as soon as possible.