Chapter 17

It didn't turn out to be swimming so much as it turned out to be desperately attempting to avoid drowning. Casey wasn't counting it as a win yet, merely a momentary forestalling of the inevitable. Because she was the angel in the relationship and yet she was the one sinking like a stone. Her head dipped under the swollen waves and at least she was still aware enough to hold her breath when the water swept over her. Kicking frantically, Casey could feel her strength flagging.

Her power was dangerously depleted.

Sure she was one of the most powerful creatures in the entire known universe, and maybe all the unknown universes as well. But even the most powerful creatures in the world needed their batteries charged now and then in between fantastic displays of incredible power. Holding back an army of vengeful spirits while also teleporting herself aboard a flaming ghost ship probably had not been her best decision. And coming back onto the ship and fighting the Captain single-handedly certainly wasn't going to make it on her best hits list. None of which Dean ever needed to know, of course.

Casey coughed, fighting the urge to take a breath, to swallow the ice cold water that was pressing against her lips in an evil facsimile of a tender kiss from Dean. Kicking desperately, she felt Dean's iron-clad grip on her left wrist and then she felt herself being pulled, towed upwards. Just as she started to fade, started to allow herself to drift into the blackness, her face broke free of the water.

Only to be smacked with the coldest air she thought she'd ever felt.

Breathing in the sweet yet frigid oxygen, Casey felt the salt water sting her eyes. She felt hot breath on her left ear, hands tight around her shoulders, holding her close. A gasping, choking cough oriented her more fully to the fact that she wasn't the only one struggling. And then she heard Dean's voice as he gasped out, "Swim, Echo."

She didn't have the breath or the strength to shout out what she was thinking. What the hell do you think I'm trying to do! Casey just coughed as a splash of ocean water filled her mouth. She kicked with what remained of her waning strength, wishing desperately she had enough angelic power to just pouf them out instead of having to swim all the way to the shore she couldn't even see. But she didn't have that kind of power. She barely had the strength to keep kicking and maintain her head above water at least once every few seconds.

Casey thought briefly of Sam and Bennett and her heart felt as cold as the water over her head and the air biting her skin. Obviously they had completed the spell because if they hadn't, Dean would never have been able to send the Flaming Ship back to its watery grave. But she had no way of knowing how they were doing now and her failure to heal Bennett and Dean earlier tore through her, almost stilling her movements. Except to give up would be to give up on her family and she couldn't do that. Not after everything they'd been through.

So Casey plumbed the depths of her resolve and kicked even harder, searching desperately through the black desperation of the night for the promise of the shore. She was swimming, barely able to feel her numb limbs, her ice cold fingers as a nagging worry started to hum at the back of her mind.

In one startling moment of terrible clarity, Casey's nagging worry turned into a klaxon blaring through her overwrought brain and she turned around in the rising and falling waves; the search for the shoreline forgotten.

Because Dean wasn't holding on to her arm anymore.

"Shouldn't the storm be over?" Bennett asked, huddled under a blanket next to Sam. Her teeth were chattering and she had revised her belief that she would never feel cold again. Because she was pretty sure she would never feel warm again. Sam had already assured her at least five times that the heat was up all the way.

"I don't know." Sam said, face a mask of concentration as he squinted ahead, staring through the windshield.

Bennett pulled her legs up on the seat, trying to contain whatever heat she might have left and remained silent. The rain wasn't letting up and the night was black as the pit and she really didn't want Sam to accidentally drive them off the road. Despite her insistence earlier, she actually was regretting her decision to come on this trip. The numbness that had settled over her a long time ago was incredibly helpful in dulling the throb in her side from where the tree had struck her.

No amount of ice cold rain soaking into her body, though, was enough to even remotely touch the driving pain in her head. The blood wasn't flowing anymore, but she hadn't even bothered to clean the mess on her face up, so she surely looked like a survivor of a slasher flick.

Or the victim, Bennett mused, closing her eyes and sliding to the left until she was laying down on her side on the seat.

"Bennett?"

She couldn't answer. Trying to keep her stomach from climbing up her throat was taking all of her concentration and she hoped Sam would just ignore her and keep his attention on the road. He didn't say anything else, but she felt a hand that was no warmer than her own skin brush gently against her neck. I'm still alive, she whispered in her own head, finding that even that was too much noise for her head to handle. The world slipped out of focus, not that it ever had really even been in focus in the first place. It was no warmer in the darkness, but at least it didn't hurt so much.

Dean had felt her hand slip out of his and the fact that it didn't bother him the way it should have told him exactly how far gone he was. His mind was slowed, dulled by the numbness that seemed to be slipping through even his veins at this point. Fingers that felt like ice cubes refused to close in a fist as he tried to cling to Casey's hand. Slipping under the water yet again, Dean floundered. He couldn't kick, couldn't even really find it in himself to keep moving his arms. The ice cold water was probably freezing his blood so solid that he wasn't bleeding out from the hole in his leg, but it didn't do him much good considering how much blood he had already lost.

A mouthful of cold water filled his mouth and he didn't have the strength to choke it back out. It grew darker and he realized he didn't know which way was up anymore. The darkness, the numbness, the growing despair pulled him deeper even as his mind actually registered the fact that Casey wasn't holding onto his hand anymore. The thought had been there earlier, of course, but now, as he found himself actually, literally drowning, the panic swelled like the waves and he couldn't have taken a breath even if he had wanted to.

Casey!

Dean's chest felt like it was about to explode, same as his head and he just wanted to die in the next second or two rather than feeling the pain of losing Casey again.

A hand closed around his wrist and he felt himself being tugged upwards in a frantic, disorienting flight. And then, as quickly as it started, Dean found himself being unceremoniously dumped on the wet sand. Coughing as if his life depended on it, and at this point it did, he looked over and saw Casey doing the same.

"Echo," he choked out, reaching for her.

Casey looked at him and spit out a mouthful of salty sea water, panting, "Here's your beach."

"Not exactly what I had in mind babe," Dean chuckled, then threw up another mouthful of seawater. This wasn't exactly the From Here to Eternity moment he'd always fantasized about. He waited for Casey to say something else but all she did was smile briefly and then pass out face first in the gritty sand.

"Great. This is just fantastic," Dean grumbled, even though it made him cough two dozen times to mutter those few words. Pulling himself halfway into a sitting position, he awkwardly dragged himself over to where Casey was lying and pulled her into his arms. Feeling her heart beating under his hand, he slumped back into the sand, her head coming to rest just under his chin.

Shivering and still coughing, he stared up at the black sky and the still falling rain and whispered into the dark stormy night, "Where the hell are you Sammy?"

Sam saw the roadblock ahead and slowed the car to a near stop. He'd barely been creeping along at a crawl already given the driving rain making driving conditions nearly impossible. There were no cops around, but the orange pylons provided a blockade that would not allow him to go any further. He pulled off to the side of the road but only slightly; not daring to pull off very far because he wasn't sure he'd be able to get the car out of the mud if he did. Staring out into the rain, Sam had a moment of despair.

How was he ever going to be able to find Dean and Casey in this mess?

"Sam?" Bennett's soft voice drew his attention from the monsoon outside the car. She had shifted slightly, peering up at him worriedly.

"There's a road block ahead. Had to pull over." Sam explained, eyes instantly back on the road ahead, and the beach to their right. Or what was left of the beach, anyway. The waves were pounding up almost to the road at this point.

"We have to find them."

"We're going to." Sam assured her, digging in the glove compartment for a flashlight. "I'm going to go look for them."

Her hand came up to grasp his and she asked, "How are you going to find them?"

"I don't know. I'm going to look till I find them." He really didn't have a better plan than that. Pulling up his collar, Sam said, "Stay here…"

"Quit saying that. Everyone's always saying that to me." Bennett argued, pushing herself upright and adding, "Don't leave me here."

And he really didn't want to. Studying her for a second, Sam shook his head and said, "You're not going out there again. It's not going to do them any good if you fall over and I have to carry you out before we even find them." He hated himself for saying it, hated the flash of hurt in her eyes, but knew there really was no other option. Squeezing her hand as she slumped down against the seat, he said, "I'm going to find them, ok?"

"I know." Bennett offered him a small smile.

"Alright. I'll be back soon." He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.

Since had less than no idea of where to start, Sam decided getting out of the car and heading straight for the beach was as good a plan as any other. The rain still fell in sheets, but somehow it seemed less angry. Less hostile. Less otherworldly. Even so, walking through the waterlogged sand was worse than walking through snow because every step he took sank into the wet sand. His boots were as wet as the rest of him and he didn't want to think about how Casey and Dean were doing.

He'd tried calling them several times on the drive, but there had been no signal which didn't surprise him considering the weather and the high level magic that had been utilized to bring up the ghost ships. Sam slogged through a low spot in the sand, stumbling slightly as the water nearly to his knees. He stared out into the darkness, thankful he had a high powered flashlight at any rate. There was no way to know if they had made it off the ship, let alone where they were now. A small part of him had honestly hoped that Casey and Dean would just appear at the museum. But after waiting there for almost fifteen minutes after he'd completed the spell, Sam had known better.

They would have been back by then if they had been able.

Which meant they were out here on the beach somewhere. He absolutely refused to believe that they had not been able to get off the ship. It was just a matter of finding them. Not exactly an easy task given the circumstances. Sam had long ago given up believing in anything like luck, but after ten minutes of struggling across the dark, flooded beach, he decided maybe he should reconsider.

Because apparently there was still such a thing as luck.

"Dean!" Sam shouted, immediately kneeling down next to his brother.

He'd nearly tripped over him in the darkness. Heart thudding, he propped the flashlight in the sand and tugged at his brother until he was laying on his back in the sand, his arms still wrapped securely around Casey's shivering form. Sam took a steadying breath as a degree of his panic ebbed at the sight of them.

Alive. Breathing.

"Dean!" He shouted again, shaking Dean and finally being rewarded with the sight of his brother's eyes cracking open. "Trying to recreate From Here to Eternity? Bit cold for that don't you think?"

"Sammy?" Dean's voice was a hoarse whisper, but a weary smile lit his face as he lifted a shaking hand to wipe the rain from his face, "Found us."

Sam grinned, "You always were crap at hide and seek. Wanna get off this beach?"

Dean groaned, letting his head thump back into the sand as he nodded. He coughed, then said, "I hate sand."

"Me too." Sam said in complete agreement.

"Take Casey first." Dean said, his teeth chattering as he blinked through the raindrops.

Sam hesitated only for a mere second. Because there really wasn't any better option. Dean wasn't going to be able to walk far considering how bad off he'd been earlier and Casey hadn't yet stirred. Sam eased Casey from Dean's grasp and, leaving the flashlight where it was, said, "Stay put."

Dean gave him a thumbs up and Sam saw him rolling onto his side, curling up as best he could against the rain. Casey was dead weight in his arms, but despite that and the sand, Sam practically jogged the entire way back to the Impala. Even if she was breathing, Casey felt like ice in his arms and he knew Dean had been bleeding badly before they'd headed off for the ship. There wasn't a lot of time left for either of them. If they weren't already, it wouldn't be long before they were both suffering from hypothermia.

The return trip seemed to take forever, and he was breathless and sweating by the time he saw the Impala. Struggling up the slight hill of sand that led to the car, Sam was surprised to see the back door opening. Bennett was waving at him and when he reached the car, he saw she had dug out a blanket from somewhere.

"Sam!" She shouted and he could see the tears on her cheeks in the pale light of the flashlight she was waving.

Reaching the car, he eased Casey into the backseat, into Bennett's waiting arms.

"Sam? Is she…"

"She's ok."

"Dean?" Bennett asked, wrapping the blanket around Casey and looking up at him.

"I'm going back for him." Sam said, making sure Casey was tucked into the car. "Be right back."

"Hurry." Bennett said, tightening her grip around Casey's shoulders.

Sam nodded, not liking the way she was looking about ten seconds from passing out. As he slammed the door, he saw her lowering her head to rest against Casey's shoulder and he decided running would be the best thing to do.

It took him half the time to get back to Dean. The flashlight in the sand provided enough of a beacon that he had no trouble finding him. Reaching his side, Sam saw that his eyes were closed and he quickly gave him a shake and called out his name.

Not waiting for a response, Sam just started pulling him into a sitting position; catching sight of the blood soaking into the wet sand under Dean's leg. Dean started rousing and by the time Sam had him upright, Dean was blinking at him blearily.

"Bout time."

"Everyone's a critic." Sam snorted, rolling his eyes and pulling Dean's arm over his shoulder. Ignoring Dean's gasp of pain as best he could, Sam dragged him to his feet and said, "You were right."

"What?" Dean mumbled, head hanging low.

Sam grinned at the disbelief in his brother's voice. Dean was exhausted and in obvious pain, but the irony that Sam was admitting that big brother was right about something was not lost on either of them. Sam took more of Dean's weight as he sagged and said, "You were right about this trip being a bad idea."

"Course I was." Dean snorted and said, "I told you so. No one ever listens to me."

"I listen to you."

Another snort. Apparently Dean was too weary to bother commenting this time.

As Dean stumbled again, Sam slowed his pace and said, "I always listen to you."

This time Dean's head lifted slightly and he cast Sam a sideways glance and asked, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Sam smiled genuinely, then had to add, "Gotta listen for those rare occasions when you say stuff that makes sense."

"Haha." Dean huffed, his breathing harsh. After a few minutes, he asked, "Casey?"

"In the backseat under a blanket with Bennett."

"How's B doing?"

"Fading fast." Sam answered, relieved to see the Impala coming into view as the rain eased off even more with every step they took. He said, "I'm pretty sure they're both going to be out by the time we get there."

"Awesome. That's just super," Dean mumbled, his head drooping lower. Sam braced himself and found himself, not surprisingly, holding all of his brother's weight.

Sam decided the Impala was not at all close enough.