Old Woman

That night, we snuck into the hospital, ducking as we saw doctors and nurses. Only then did we venture out. This continued on until Dean directed us into the old woman's room he had saw. I pulled out my gun, seeing Sam and Dean do the same. The old woman was sitting in her wheelchair, looking slumped over like she was sleeping. Dean was in front of her with Sam behind and I stuck to looking from her side. I nodded as Dean leaned over her, making sure she was still alive. The old croon was frightening still. The woman's head snapped up. "Who the hell are you?!" She snarled.

I yanked back, trying not to shriek and alert the nurses or our presence. Dean fell back against the cabinet, raising his gun by instinct. "Whose there?" The woman kept wailing. She was clearly blind, knowing we were there but not knowing who we were. "You trying to steal my stuff?" She started grumbling to herself. "They're always stealing around here."

I gave the boys a frantic look that said, 'do something'' Sam cautiously turned the lights on. "Ma'am, were maintenance." He lied on the spot. "We're sorry. We thought you were sleeping."

"Nonsense! I was sleeping with my peepers open." The old woman said with a proud laugh, pointing at the wall. "And fix that crucifix, I've asked four damn times already!"

"...Of course, ma'am." I said awkwardly as Dean swung the crucifix back the right way. Well this was a bust, I thought as we left as quick as we could

While we were gone, back at the motel, the owner's two sons were sleeping when the window silently started to open.

Back at the motel, we were just climbing out of the impala and a lot more relaxed than we had been. I was actually laughing as Sam said, "I was sleeping with my peepers open." He mocked before laughing.

"I almost smoked that old girl, I swear!" Dean said loudly. "It's not funny!"

"You weren't standing on our side of things." I giggled as we made our way for the door.

Sam laughed again. "You should've seen your face!" Damn, wish I caught that one on camera.

"Yeah, laugh it off." Dean got back to the point. "Now we're back to square one." I almost ran into Dean's back when he suddenly stopped in front of the eldest son of the owner standing behind the counter, looking like he was about to cry. I shifted awkwardly, not sure how to deal with children.

"My brother's sick." The boy named Michael explained tearfully.

My insides froze up. "Pneumonia?" I guessed shakily. This thing had struck again while we were dealing with a crazy old lady.

The boy shakily nodded again. "He's in the hospital, it's my fault."

"How?" Dean asked in a surprisingly soft voice. It struck me that Dean would probably make a good dad, so different than our own. I doubted Dean would try to force his children into the life and there was no doubt in my mind he'd willingly abandon them.

"I shoulda made sure the window was latched." Michael explained, looking like he was taking all the guilt upon his small shoulders. "He wouldn't got pneumonia if the window was latched."

"It's not even that window out." I muttered to Sam who nodded in agreement. It was surprisingly warm out for this time of night during this time of year in this area of the country.

Then Dean got serious. "Listen to me." He talked as if he was talking to an adult which was what the kid needed so he would understand. "I can promise you that this is not your fault."

But the boy seemed so much like Dean, taking on so much responsibility. "It's my job to look after him." He really did remind me of Dean, being the eldest both considered it they're responsibility alone to protect they're little siblings, AKA: the little boy, Sam, and myself.

His mother came rushing to her car, juggling her purse and keys. "Michael, I want you to turn on the no vacancy sign while I'm gone." She said frantically. "I've got Denise covering room service so don't bother with any of the room."

"Lady, are you sure you're okay to drive?" I asked worriedly. She looked like she'd get into a wreck the minute she started up the car from the way she was jittery, understandable of course with the recent news.

"I wanna see Asher too!" Michael protested loudly.

"Not right now." She said desperately, frantically searching through her purse for her car keys.

Dean put a hand on Michael's shoulder. "Hey, I know how you feel, I'm a big brother too but you gotta go easy on your mom right now."

"Miss, I'm really sure you shouldn't be driving right now." I repeated as she dropped her purse and Sam quickly bent down to retrieve it.

"Why don't you let me give you a life to the hospital." Dean suggested.

"No, I couldn't possible," the woman stuttered.

"I insist." He said, taking the keys and taking off while leave Sam, Michael, and I behind.

"Maybe we should go back to the library." I muttered to Sam. "Find out if anything like this ever happened before."

Several hours later found us looking through old newspapers through those machines when the papers themselves were way to fragile. The phone rung and Sam answered it, holding it between us so we could both hear without being kicked out for being to loud. "How's the kid?" Sam asked.

"He's not good." Dean answered in a whisper, probably still in the kid ward then. "Where you at?"

"We're at the library looking for as much as we can about this Shtriga."

"And let me till ya, it ain't good." I cut in, finally prying myself away from my machine.

"I started with Fort Douglas around the time you sId dad was there" Sam started to explain and I leaned back in my chair. This was going to be a very long, annoying, and revealing conversation.