Title: Death from Within
Author: Disasteriffic Kaz
Info: The Monster of the Week turns out to be more than the boys bargained for within an abandoned hotel in the Nevada desert. post 1x09 "Home" hurt/comfort/awesome!Sam/Dean
Author's Note: Everybody got their anti-nausea meds? Good. Good. :P read on.
Beta'd by the Always Awesome JaniceC678 - Friend and Muse's co-conspirator
**Follow me on Facebook as "Disasteriffic Kaz" for frequent fic updates or just to chat!
~Reviews are Love~
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"Great." Dean rolled his shoulders as the thing took a step toward them. "Uh-uh." He fired twice into its head and it screamed. The sound ricocheted in the dark hall while Dean fired another round into the half-man's chest and then yet another into the horse's chest. The creature roared, staggered back and then fled; thundering down the hall and out of the reach of Dean's flashlight. "Ok. Time to go."
Sam nodded and tried to stand on his own but his body wasn't cooperating. "Dean."
"I've got you." Dean pulled Sam up with one arm and once he had him weaving on his feet, he took his brother's arm and tipped him over his shoulder. "Sorry, buddy but we need to get the hell out of here."
Sam groaned but couldn't argue. Walking was nearly beyond him at that point, let alone running. As Dean carried him down the stairs in a fast, bouncing stride through the dark; Sam wondered if Dean's face had looked that way all those years ago when he'd carried an infant Sam away from his burning nursery. He'd caught a glimpse in the flashlight's beam before Dean picked him up and he wondered if his big brother's face had held that same mixture of fear and determination; if Dean's eyes had screamed then, as they had now, that death wasn't allowed to have his little brother.
Chapter 4
Dean staggered back out into the cold night air of the desert with Sam hanging limply over his shoulder. He turned to look back and up at the hotel when he heard the muffled sound of the creature's scream of anger and moved quickly away. He didn't spare a glance for the van and rolled his eyes when his little brother tugged at the back of his jacket.
"Dean…Joe…can't leave him," Sam panted out weakly.
"He left you," Dean retorted fiercely but he went to the van anyway and banged on the side door. "Hey! Asshole!" There was no response and Dean snarled. He hitched Sam higher on his shoulder and pulled the door open. "Come on, dammit!" He aimed his flashlight into the van and took a step back in shock. The interior of the van was painted in sprays of blood, and Joe lay on his back on the floor. His sightless eyes, still wide in terror, stared up at Dean. The man's chest and entire abdomen had been torn out.
"Dean?" Sam didn't understand why Dean had gone so quiet or why he couldn't hear Joe's fearful ramblings. "What is it?"
Dean slid the door shut and started down the block toward where he'd left the car. "Too late," he whispered. "Sorry, Sammy." Joe's death bothered him, and if Sam weren't doing a good impersonation of a self-warming sack of potatoes, he'd have taken the time to investigate. He couldn't figure out how the creature had enough time between when it dumped Sam and when it showed back up for Dean to shoot it. Unless the thing could teleport, it wasn't the only one in the building.
"Almost there," Dean told Sam as they reached the alley where he'd parked the Impala. He was breathing heavily under Sam's weight and kept turning back to the hotel to make sure the ugly thing wasn't following them. He lowered Sam off his shoulder once they reached the Impala and leaned him against the side. "In you go."
"No." Sam shook his head and pawed weakly at Dean's jacket. He had to struggle to get his eyes open. "No…no time." Whatever the creature had gotten into him, it was working quickly and Sam could feel his body beginning to fail. "Holy…holy water."
Dean frowned. "You sure?"
Sam nodded and only Dean's grip on his shoulders kept him from sliding to the ground. "Smelled…uh, sulfur when…when it was dragging me."
"Dammit," Dean cursed. He pulled open the passenger door and guided Sam in to sit. "Stay put." He went to the trunk with another muttered curse. Sulfur generally meant some flavor of demonic nasty, which meant the holy water was going to feel like battery acid to his brother when he poured it on him.
Sam groaned softly and found enough energy to shrug his jacket off onto the bench seat. It was all the energy he had, though, and he slumped against the back of the seat, letting his head drop forward while his head swam with dizziness and his stomach cramped painfully. The unnatural heat of the fever made his whole body feel like it was weighted down.
"Hey." Dean took Sam's head in his hands and lifted it up so he could get a look at him in the light from the inside of the car. "How you doin'?" He watched Sam's eyes blink sluggishly and sighed. "Not so good. Ok, this is gonna suck. I'm sorry." Dean meant it, too. Even having no choice about it, knowing the pain he was about to inflict on his baby brother made him hate himself a little bit.
"Just do it," Sam muttered through clenched teeth, dreading what was coming, but knowing it was necessary. Dean turned Sam's head away and found deep scratches on the side of his throat. They cut through the bruising there and made him growl angrily. It looked like the creature had almost taken a bite out of him. He unscrewed the cap on the bottle of holy water and braced his free hand against Sam's head to keep him from jerking away. Dean turned the bottle and poured out a steady stream onto the wounds.
Sam's eyes shot open on a sharp cry of pain. The blessed water felt like it was boiling into his flesh, searing into him as it went. It was no comfort that he'd been right. In fact, he really wished he'd been wrong. He gritted his teeth and fought the urge to jerk away from his brother until the burning finally stopped and he sagged in relief.
"Ok, ok." Dean pulled some gauze from the medical kit he'd brought from the trunk and pressed it over the scratches now that the water was running clear without hissing and bubbling. He knelt in the door and tipped Sam's face up to his again. "I've gotta do the other ones, buddy. You good?"
Sam nodded. His vision did seem slightly clearer. "Yeah," he said hoarsely and braced himself while Dean pulled his torn shirts away from his upper chest.
"Here we go." Dean grimaced in sympathy and poured the holy water again. It killed him to have to watch Sam writhe and made him proud every time the kid bit off a scream and didn't pull away. Once the bubbling stopped, Dean went quickly to Sam's arm and repeated the process, not wanting to draw out the suffering any longer than he had to. It didn't surprise him when Sam lost consciousness before he was finished. He only wished Sam could have passed out a hell of a lot sooner. Dean put hasty bandages over the remaining wounds and wrangled Sam's legs into the car. He shut the door and went around to the driver's side.
"Ok, little brother. We are outta here for now." Dean pulled the Impala back out onto the street and stopped to look at the black outline of the hotel against the sky. He knew there were still two people in there somewhere - a cop and that Ellie chick the man at the hospital had called for, but in his mind, Sam's safety took precedence over all. He said a silent apology to them, almost sure they were already long dead, and pulled away down the road back toward Vegas.
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Dean came out of the shower and found Sam where he'd left him, curled up on his bed, looking smaller than his six-foot-four frame should allow under the ugly red and orange quilts. It had been a rough night for them both with Sam waking loudly periodically. The second time his little brother had shouted himself awake, yelling about something coming for him in the dark, Dean had turned the lights back on and Sam had slept slightly easier after that. He ran his hands through his damp hair a couple times and pulled on a clean shirt before going to his brother's bed.
"Sam." Dean shook his shoulder gently under the blanket. "Rise and shine, little brother."
Sam groaned and rolled his head up to look blearily at his brother. "Time's it?"
Dean snorted. "About ten in the morning. How do you feel?"
"Like roadkill," Sam said ruefully. He uncurled slightly and wished he hadn't rolled onto his right side. His chest and arm were protesting the movement.
"I'm gonna go grab some coffee and donuts," Dean told him and picked up his jacket. "Why don't you get showered and then see if you can find our mystery monster."
Sam nodded and started the painful process of sitting up. "I can do that." He swung his feet to the floor and slumped over his knees for a moment. "Think I even know where to look."
Dean watched him worriedly and put a hand out to his neck expecting to feel the fever still raging, but Sam was cool. He smirked and shrugged when Sam knocked his hand away. "Go shower. You stink."
"Shuddup," Sam said with irritation while Dean chuckled and left the room. He stood and swayed for a moment. "Crap." Sam walked unsteadily to the bathroom and managed to get himself in the shower and more or less clean before the first cramp doubled him over. He gasped and slapped a hand out to the tiled wall to stay standing. He hastily turned off the water and got out, moving gingerly, and bit off a short cry when the pain came again.
"What…" Sam waited until the pain eased and dried off. It was beginning to worry him as he went back into the room and pulled on his shorts and a pair of jeans. He was reaching for a shirt when it struck him again in earnest and Sam went to his knees on the orange carpet with a strangled cry. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and tried to breathe through it. "Crap. Holy crap." He looked around and saw his cell phone on the nightstand and it took almost more than he had to reach up and grab it. It slid off onto the floor and he fumbled it into his hand, dialing his brother. "Dean," he gasped.
"Sammy?" Dean froze in the act of climbing back in the Impala with their coffees; something in Sam's voice scared him. "What's going on?"
"Dean," Sam tried again and sucked in a harsh breath. "Something's wrong."
"Sam? Ok, I'll be there in five. You hang on!" Dean got behind the wheel and screeched back out onto the road. He made it back to the hotel in under four and threw himself from the car toward their motel room. He slammed open the door. "Sam?" Dean turned with the sound of a bitten off sob and found his brother on the floor between the beds, hunched over himself and in obvious pain. "Shit! Talk to me, buddy." He went to him and knelt next to Sam.
Sam shook his head and tried to get a breath past the pain and the fear that was now clawing at him. "S…stomach. Something's…I don't know!"
"Easy! Take it easy." Dean put an arm around his brother's bare shoulders. "Let's get you up." He pulled and his worry deepened when Sam wouldn't, or couldn't, uncurl from around his stomach. Dean managed to get him sitting on the side of the bed and tried to get a look at him. "What is it?"
"There's…" Sam's breath hitched at a fresh wave of pain and he let Dean push him down to the bed. "Stomach."
"Ok." Dean tried to keep his voice calm for his brother's sake while he frowned and tugged Sam's arms away from his stomach. "Were you hurt last night? I didn't see any blood on your stomach, dude. Knock it off." He held Sam's hands against his chest and looked down at his stomach. Dean reared back a step in surprise, letting his brother's arms go when he saw it - something moved beneath the trembling muscles of his brother's belly. "Son of a bitch!"
"Feel it…I can feel it!" Sam gasped and stared down at himself while something shifted inside him and his abdominal muscles rippled in reaction. He was frantic and terrified, and his mind started putting two and two together. He held up his left hand and looked at the puncture wound there. "Dean."
"What?" Dean shook off his paralysis and bent over his brother, frowning when he held up his hand.
"Got in here." Sam nodded to himself and then cried out, curling around his stomach. "The pain…it was moving…hand to…to shoulder and…and down. Oh, God!"
"Breathe, Sammy!" Dean's hand hovered over his brother's stomach in indecision. "I don't know what to do, man. Hospital?"
Sam shook his head furiously and grabbed hold of Dean's arm with one hand. "Knife."
It took Dean a second to process what Sam meant and recover enough to respond. "What? No way! I am NOT cutting into you!" Dean protested vehemently, but Sam held him firm.
"Have to!" Sam squeezed his eyes closed and knew he was holding Dean's arm in a painfully tight grip, but his brother said nothing. "Please, Dean!" He got his eyes open and looked up at him. "Think I…think I know what it is. There's no time for a hospital! Dean you have to."
"Dammit!" Dean watched the pained expression on Sam's face and nodded finally. "Alright. Ok. I can do this. Just hang on." He reluctantly pulled his arm free of Sam's and went to the first aid kit while Sam's strained breaths and pained grunts filled the room. "Talk to me, buddy. What is it? What'd your geek brain figure out?"
Sam wanted to smile at his brother but he couldn't. He put his hands over his stomach and yanked them away again when he felt the thing move beneath his skin. "Hy…hydrus…I think." The sensation of something squirming around his insides was sickening, and he had to ruthlessly fight the sudden need to vomit. It wouldn't do any good. "It's a…serpent…sort of a snake. Oh, God, Dean!"
The agony now filling Sam's voice made Dean's heart clench in with fear and a desperate desire to ease his suffering. He sat next to his brother and put a hand to his shoulder to try and stop him clawing at his own stomach. "Sam, keep it together!" He pulled the antiseptic and a small knife from the medical kit and scowled. "Tell me why we can't let a hospital do this?"
"Eating!" Sam gasped and clamped a hand on his brother's arm again. "No time! It's trying to eat its way out!"
Dean's jaw dropped in horror and it steeled his resolve. There was no other choice – it truly was all on him, and he'd be damned if he'd let Sam die because of his own fear of hurting his brother further. He nodded and poured the antiseptic liberally over his brother's stomach. He set it aside and flattened a hand on Sam's chest to try and still him. "Try not to move." He could see the thing moving under Sam's skin and Dean put the point of the blade above it. "You want something to bite down on? This is gonna hurt like hell."
Sam shook his head and kept his grip on Dean's arm. "Hurry. Dean, please!" He looked down at his stomach and then dropped his head back to the pillow, swallowing another pained cry. "Don't let it bite you."
"Right." Dean took a deep breath to try to steady himself, gritted his teeth, and pushed the knife into Sam's flesh. He didn't know how deep to cut or where not to cut, and it was an effort to keep his hand from shaking as he pushed the blade in and then dragged it slowly down an inch.
Sam sobbed in ragged breaths. He knew Dean was going to have an imprint of his hand on his arm, but it was the only thing keeping him anchored when he felt the knife cutting into him. His body wanted to buck, and Sam's head thrashed on the pillow as he fought the urge. Tears escaped to trail from his eyes over his temples and he couldn't find it in himself to care.
"Almost, Sammy. Almost." Dean's voice was a tight whisper of control. He tossed the knife to the bed and used his hands to try and 'trap' the creature between them. He pushed while blood bubbled up from the wound he'd made and warmed his fingers. Sam's hold on his left arm was hampering his movement, but he didn't have the heart to tell the kid to let go. He grimaced in sympathy when Sam shouted his agony as the thing…the hydrus…thrashed inside him, trying to escape.
"Come on you son of a bitch," Dean growled and pushed harder on Sam's stomach, squeezing the thing between his hands. He could feel it moving and then a dark head, glistening with Sam's blood, emerged from the wound. He snapped a hand out and grabbed it, digging his nails in to hold the slick body in his bloody grip.
Sam howled as the serpent's body rolled wildly inside him and when Dean began to pull on it, he lost his fight with consciousness and escaped into the dark.
"Sammy?" Dean yelled fearfully when his brother suddenly went limp and his hand fell away to the bed with a thump. With the creature still thrashing around inside Sam, it was impossible for Dean to see whether or not he was still breathing, and he couldn't risk letting go of the thing with one hand to check for a pulse. "Shit!" Dean used both hands to hold the serpent and pulled, slowly but inexorably dragging it from his brother's body. The tail came out and whipped up, splattering blood over him and Sam both before it wrapped itself around Dean's forearm. "No, you don't, you little bastard!" He held tightly to the head while it hissed and snapped rows of tiny, sharp teeth at him. It looked more like the mouth of an alligator than a snake, missing the customary fangs. He reached over Sam for the knife and then took the thing into the bathroom.
Dean slapped the serpent's body onto the counter and winced when it coiled more tightly around his arm, sensing its impending death. He slid the knife between the hydrus' neck and his hand and sliced cleanly through into the formica of the counter. The tail pulsed once around his arm in reaction and then fell away into the sink. Dean gasped out a breath and slumped, still keeping his grip on it.
"Shit," he groaned and dropped the head into the sink with the body. Dean went quickly out to the duffel and grabbed the salt and the tin of lighter fluid. He spared a worried glance for Sam, but he wanted the damn thing dead first. Dean's jaw fell open when he looked into the sink and saw that the hydrus' head was slowly shifting closer to its disconnected body.
"Oh, HELL no," Dean growled. He picked up the knife again and speared it through the snake's head and into the porcelain of the sink. He dumped salt over both pieces of the creature and then doused it with lighter fluid while the head wriggled. Dean pulled his Zippo from his pocket and lit it with a satisfied smile as he set it ablaze and then left it to burn. He pulled the bathroom door closed and went to his brother.
"Sammy." Dean sat beside him and palmed the side of Sam's face. He was chilled and covered in sweat under Dean's hand, but he could see his brother's pulse beating too fast in his bruised and scratched throat. "Ok, buddy. No bullshit. We're going to a hospital." Dean turned and used some gauze to wipe some of the blood away from the wound in Sam's upper abdomen. He taped a hasty bandage over the cut he'd made and then turned back to his face. "Sam." Dean rubbed his knuckles into his sternum with a grimace for the spatters of blood and smiled with reassurance when Sam's eyes fluttered open. They were glassy and unfocused but slowly tracked to him.
"Dean?" Sam asked hoarsely. He moaned and looked down at himself, eyes widening when he took in the blood and the bandage.
"Hey, it's ok. It's gone." Dean wanted to let him sleep, but a trip to a clinic was more important. He had no way of knowing what damage the creature had already done inside his brother. "It's burning in the sink as we speak."
"In the…" Sam frowned and looked at the closed bathroom door. "The sink?"
Dean chuckled softly. "I was kind of in a hurry. Speaking of, come on. Up."
"N…no," Sam protested when his brother took his arms and hauled him up so he was sitting.
"Yes." Dean grabbed his towel from his shower earlier and wet it with a bottle of water. "You've got a date with a clinic. Hold still."
Sam shook his head and shivered while Dean began wiping blood from his chest and stomach. "Don't need it."
"Shut up, Sam," Dean said forcefully. "I just had to cut a hole in you to keep a hungry snake from eating its way out of you. You're going. Don't fight me on this."
Sam wanted to argue that he would be fine, that he just wanted to sleep, but it was his father's voice that won out in the end. 'Don't screw with gut injuries', John had drilled into them and had related more than one horror story from his time in the marines of guys who had suffered and died days later from the smallest seeming wound in their stomachs. "Ok."
"Good," Dean smiled again and swiped a few spots of blood from Sam's too-pale face. He got up and dug a flannel from Sam's bag and brought it over. "You get this on yourself?"
Sam nodded wearily and took the shirt. "T-shirt?"
Dean shook his head. "They're just gonna make you take it off. This is easier," he said, gesturing to the button down shirt. He started packing the room up quickly while Sam argued with his fingers to make them work with the buttons.
"That's…this is why it let me go," Sam said softly while he buttoned his shirt. "The thing in the motel. It must have…I dunno…sensed it, or maybe smelled it. The hydrus eats its way out of its victims' guts." He let his arms drop with the most of the buttons done and slumped. "It didn't want to die like that."
"Hey." Dean went to him and squeezed the side of his neck comfortingly. "You're gonna be fine. It's dead. Come on. Up."
Sam stood shakily with Dean holding on to him. "Laptop. I can research while they're poking at me." He frowned. "The hydrus narrows it down. I think I can figure out what it is with that."
Dean left him standing on his own and went to the table. He shoved the laptop into its bag and grabbed up their duffels along with it. "I think maybe that's what happened to Joe. The guy in the van?" He shook his head as he went to the door. "It looked like he exploded from the inside or something."
Sam shuddered and wondered how close he'd come to the same fate. He pressed a hand lightly over his stomach. It hit him suddenly, the memory of that thing worming around inside him, feeling Dean pulling it out of his stomach and the sensation of it rubbing parts of him that should never be touched…Sam gagged and dropped to his knees.
"Shit," Dean said with feeling when he came back into the room and found Sam puking his guts up on the carpet. "You're ok. Just take a breath." He put a hand to the back of his neck and steadied Sam when the gagging finally eased and he slumped back against the side of the bed.
"Sorry," Sam said breathlessly and wiped a hand over his mouth. "Just caught up with me all of a sudden."
"Don't worry about it," Dean slid his arm under his brother's shoulder and pulled him back up to his feet with a smirk. "Definitely not getting the deposit back on this place. They're gonna be damn irritated with Calvin Wrightstaff."
Sam chuckled weakly and started for the door. "Let's go, Calvin, before I change my mind about the hospital."
Dean walked him out to the Impala with a snort. "You say that like you actually have a choice."
Sam shot a bitch-face at his brother and slid into the passenger seat with a groan. His stomach and chest burned with pain, but Dean didn't need to know that just yet. They were going to a hospital anyway; he'd find out soon enough. Sam watched his brother walk in front of the car and a part of him suffered wondering if Ellie had been abandoned to some horrible death because of him…because he'd allowed himself to be infected with the hydrus.
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To Be Continued…
