It had been four days since Guinevere had been found, and every day that slipped away made the possibility of waking up slimmer and slimmer. Dean hadn't left the hospital, passing out in chairs only when he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. Sam would come in to switch with him and find him, head in hand, elbow on the knee, dead asleep. Occasionally Sam would hear Dean talking to her, either standing and pacing or head in hands. On the fourth day, Sam came in and shook Dean awake.
"Dean. Hey, I've been thinking about it and I think we some help," Sam said. "I don't know how long we're going to be able to stay like this."
Dean immediately jumped in. "I'm not leaving her."
"I'm not saying you should, I'm saying that I think we need some heavenly intervention." Sam looked at Dean carefully. "I know how hard it's been on Cas lately, but I don't know if she's going to get through this. I just spoke to the doctor and he said if it was the loss of blood she would have woken up by now. I know that Cas is struggling but-"
"I've been thinking the same thing," Dean said. "We need him."
"Really?" Sam asked, surprised.
"Yeah. It's been rough on him, but he's supposed to have been resting. Maybe he can work some magic and she'll wake up. I don't know what I'm supposed to with her after that but I can't watch sit here watch this."
Sam nodded, watching Dean, eyebrows drawn together. "Cas'll be able to do something. I'm sure."
Dean nodded. "Watch her for a sec. I'm going on a walk." He made his way down the halls to the sanctuary on the third floor of the hospital. Taking a seat in the back, he leaned on the back of the pew in front of him. "Alright, Cas, time to speak up. You've had your day off, now we need you back." Dean glanced around, and bowed back down. "Come on, Cas, please. We need you. I need you. Please." There was a rustle and Dean looked up to see the angel peering down at him.
"You look terrible," Cas said, so sincerely Dean almost laughed. "What's wrong? Is it Sam?"
Dean rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. "No. No, Sam's fine. It's, uh, it's someone else. And we need help asap." They were quiet as they made their way back to the room. When Cas saw Guinevere, he stopped in the doorway.
"You have a daughter."
Dean sighed. "Yeah. Her name's Guinevere. And she's dying and I can't do anything about it. I know you're weak Cas, but I'm sorry. I can't watch her die like this."
Cas nodded. "I understand. Let me take a look." He made his way into the room, nodded to Sam, and placed his hand over her head and a white light glowed poured over her face, flickering at the end. When he stepped away she seemed the same, albeit a look of frustrated restlessness across her face. "Guinevere?" The girl's eyebrow twitched. Dean leaned over her, tentative relief on his face.
"Guinevere. Hey." He hesitated, hand reached out, before pushing her light hair away from her eyes. Slowly, she opened her eyes, a mirror of his own green ones. "Hey, Sweetheart." Guinevere lurched back, or tried to, looking around the room, taking in the three men standing next to her bed.
"Wh- who are-?" she broke into a coughing fit that took her breath away.
Sam grabbed a plastic cup, filled it with water, and placed it on the table. She nodded her thanks before sipping from the cup. Dean was looking at her with such intensity, still in her face, that Sam had to pull him back a little. "Give her space to breathe." Dean nodded idly, still watching her. "My, uh, my name's Sam. This is my brother Dean, and our friend Cas. We're the ones who picked you up on the side of the road." Guinevere glanced between the three of them, her eyes settling on Dean.
She nodded at him. "What's wrong with him?" Her voice was hoarse, scratchy like she had sandpaper in her throat. She swallowed hard before downing the water, which Cas promptly refilled. "Why's he staring at me like that?" Sam cleared his throat, looking at his brother expectantly. When Dean didn't still say anything, he intervened on his behalf.
"He was really worried about you. You've been under for the past four days. We weren't entirely sure you'd wake up." Guinevere nodded slowly, her face still showing mistrust. But before she could say anything, she broke into another coughing fit, this one a little longer. "Let me get the doctor." Sam paused before getting up. "Uh, don't worry about Dean. Cas, you'll watch her, right?" Sam waited for Cas's nod before leaving, giving Guinevere a thumbs-up as he stood in the doorway. Cas pushed Dean into a chair before sitting down himself. He cleared his throat, looking uncomfortably at Dean, then Guinevere.
"My name is Castiel. I'm an ang-"
"No!" Guinevere jumped when Dean finally spoke. "Sorry. I need to talk to Cas for a second. Cas?" He pulled Cas out the door, shutting it behind him. "I'm not ready to tell her about all that crap, Cas. Someday maybe, but I don't want her to have the life we did. I want to live a normal life."
"Dean, she lost her mother and was attacked by vampires and has you as a father. She's a part of this now."
"Cas," Dean's voice grew hard. "This is my choice. She is my daughter. I know this is out of my hands. Don't you think I realize how screwed up this is? But I refuse to raise my daughter to be a hunter. I refuse to put her in the same position Sammy and I were in. Someday she will find out, I know that, and I realize it'll be sooner rather than later. But let me choose the time." With that, he went back into the room, shutting the door behind him.
Sam jogged up the hallway, where Cas was still standing, frowning. "What was that about?"
"Dean is refusing to tell Guinevere about the nature of your work."
"I take it you disagree? I see where you're coming from, but I think we have to let Dean take this one. Give him time; he'll make the right decision, and I think he knows that the only way this is going to work is with honesty, but he gets to figure that out on his own."
"So you agree with him? You'd do the same?" Cas asked.
"I don't know what I'd do." Sam shrugged. "We just got to back him up with whatever decision he makes." With that, Sam met his brother and niece in the room, leaving Cas outside. He glanced around before disappearing with a light whoosh.
Dean glanced up when Sam came in. "Hey. Where's the doc?"
"He's on his way." Sam turned to Guinevere. "Hey Guinevere, how you doing?" Sam asked, sympathy in his voice.
"I'm okay. I'm alive at least." She dragged a hand through her ragged hair before adding, "I actually go by my middle name… Ashton."
Sam nodded. "Oh okay. Ashton. Pretty." After a short pause, Ashton spoke.
"So… why you guys? I mean, I know you found me, but why not just leave? Why do you all care?"
Dean glanced up at Sam. "Um, well that's actually kind of funny. Because… I'm your father. I don't know how this happened, how I found you like this but-" He broke off when he saw Ashton's face. Her eyes were wide and glistened, making the green stand out even more prominently.
"...What?" Her voice broke. "I… you… You never called. Mom never said anything. Not even a name. I thought you were dead. I thought you didn't care" She tried to keep from crying.
"I didn't know." Dean spoke quietly. That was all he needed to say. Suddenly the door burst open and there was the doctor. Quickly, Ashton wiped her eyes.
"Sorry 'bout that folks. How's she doing?" He turned to the battered and bruised girl, with a smile.
Ashton flashed him a quick and empty smile before responding. "I'm okay.".
The doctor was already moving, washing his hands and pulling on purple, latex gloves. "Let's just make sure everything's in order." He gently touched her bandaged foot, and she winced in pain. "Okay, seems to be healing well. I'll get you some pain medicine for that. You'll need the soft cast on for another two weeks." Next he held out his hands for her own, unwrapping her wrists to reveal ugly purple and green bruises and oozing wounds. "I'm going to have to get some ointment for these, and you'll have to change the bandages once a day." He moved up to her neck, pulling away a large square of gauze taped to the right side of her neck. Underneath one could see dozens of little scabs, swollen and red, oozing blood and pus. He shook his head. "Looks like that got infected. What happened to you anyway?"
Ashton shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. I don't remember anything."
With that, he pulled off his gloves and through them in the nearby trash, before pulling out a flashlight and shining it through her eyes. When he was done he turned to the two brothers, sitting anxiously by the bed. "Everything looks good. She's a tough kid she'll bounce back just fine. The only thing is her memory. I'm going to assume mild amnesia." He turned to the girl. "Whatever happened to you led to a concussion, a serious one. You may or may not get your memory from that time back. We'll see. Let me grab some medicine for that infection and write up a prescription. You should be good to take her home tomorrow," he said as he scribbled his in a notepad. He ripped off the note and handed it to Dean. "I'll send a nurse in with ointment and they can show you how to wrap her wrists and neck." With a nod to each of them, he was gone. After a minute, Ashton broke the silence.
"So…" she said, eyes looking back and forth between Dean and Sam. "Home. Where's that?"
Dean glanced at Sam, who met his gaze with apprehension. "That's a, uh, more complicated question than you'd think." Ashton's eyebrow quirked up, a frown wrinkling her forehead, a mirror of Dean's own look of doubt.
"How is that complicated?"
"Can Dean and I talk for a second?" Sam pulled Dean to the hallway, Ashton watching them go, her frustration evident. "Dean, how the heck are we supposed to take her back to the bunker?" Dean shook his head.
"I don't know man. For now, let's just crash at a motel and work it out from there."
"I know you don't like the idea of telling her, but she's going to find out if she's going to live with us. If we're going to keep her." Sam spoke carefully; he knew he was in dangerous waters.
Dean glared at him. "She's not a stray dog we can send to the pound, Sam. She's my daughter. I'm not abandoning her. We'll just have to figure something out."
Sam nodded. "Okay. I'm with you, whatever you choose to do. And hey, I found us a job." He held up a newspaper, flipped to the obituary section. "Some guy ripped his door off its hinges to get into a house then proceeded to claw a woman's heart out. Sound like demon possession to you?"
Dean looked at his brother, aghast. "You want to work a case with her right there? You've got to be kidding me Sam."
"Think about it, Dean. It'd be the perfect excuse for not going directly home. We can figure out what to do with her in the meantime. We'll be careful, leave her at a motel while we do our work."
Dean frowned at him for a moment before, nodding slowly. "Fine. I'll talk to Cas, see if he can stop in a keep an eye on her while we're away. I'm going to tell her, Sam. I know I have to. But I need time. I need to do this the right way."
"I hear you, Dean. I get it." Dean nodded before heading back into the room.
The next day Sam wheeled Ashton into the parking lot while Dean pulled Baby to the front. Ashton smirked at him as he opened the back door for her. "This is your car?" At his nod, she said, admiration in her voice, "It's awesome."
After a few minutes of driving, Sam broke the silence. "Listen, Ashton, we're going to crash at a motel for a bit, just until we can figure out how this is going to work."
"What do you mean?"
"We were on our way to a job when we found you. We've got to take care of some business nearby, and then we'll talk about going home," Dean interjected.
"Ok-ay. That's fine, I guess. So what do you guys do?" Ashton didn't understand this. She knew she was a burden, that was nothing new, but she didn't understand the secrecy involved. They could've just left her at the hospital, authorities would have found her another foster home and she'd figure out where to go from there. She strained to remember what had led to her ending up on the side of the road, but the strenuous exercise sent pain coursing through her head.
"We're exterminators." Sam interrupted her thoughts. "We have a job we've got to take care of first."
"Really?" Ashton asked, her voice a touch disappointed.
"I know. Not the sexiest job in the world but it's what our family's always done." Dean glanced at Sam. He looked at Ashton through the rearview mirror, taking note of the dark, sleepless circles under her eyes. "Why don't you get some sleep kiddo? I'll wake you up when we're close."
Ashton nodded and was just about to lay down when Dean handed back a plaid shirt.
"You can use it as a pillow. If you want," he offered. She took it thankfully, a small smile forming on her lips. After stuffing it under her head she leaned back and promptly fell into a nightmare-ridden sleep.