A/N: Wow, this is really overdue. I'm sorry for the wait. Hope you guys like it!
Episode:In My Time of Dying
I don't remember pain. I didn't feel the bones in my body break or the air being forced out of my lungs. I just woke up.
The impala is smashed from the passenger side – the side Dad and I were seated, thinning the car by almost a foot. Next to the car is a giant eighteen wheeler truck still running with the lights on but no driver in sight. He must have fled the scene while he got the chance. Maybe a drunk driver or something.
Flashing red and white lights approach this mess on the road and I hear shuffling, metal scratching on metal, and deep grunting. I see Sam pushing his way out of the driver seat of the impala with blood running all down his face from a gash by his hair line. He's waving an ambulance over.
"Over here! Help! Please!"
"Sam!" I jog over to him, "Are you okay? Where's Dad? Dean?"
Sam runs over to the medics as if he didn't hear me. "It's my family! We were hit by this truck. No one was moving when I woke up."
"Sam, are Dad and Dean okay?" I ask louder this time but he follows the medics to the car without even looking at me. "Sam!"
"Can you tell me who is in the car?" The medic asks Sam.
"They're my family. It's my dad, brother, and sister."
"What? Sam I'm right –"
I stop moving when the second medic passes me rolling a stretcher. When he does, I feel a gust of air rush through me – literally through me. I slowly trudge towards the car too stunned to form words to describe what I'm seeing.
"I'm not finding a pulse on the female," One of the medics says to the other. He pulls a limp body from the back seat. Her long blonde hair falls in her face as she's dragged out, only giving a glimpse of blood splattered on her face. My mouth drops open and my feet glue to the ground and I can't move. That limp body is me. "Starting CPR."
By then a second ambulance and three police cars show up at the scene.
Without taking my eyes off of my body as it's wheeled away to the ambulance I squeal Sam's name, hoping he will hear me and comfort me and maybe even shake me enough to wake me up from an awful nightmare.
But I get no hug and no wake up call. Instead I'm hit by a surge of air like a brick and everything goes black.
DEAN'S POV:
I wake up in a bright white hospital room with beeping machines and a strong scent of hand sanitizer and a retirement home. My body is still, mostly my jaw and back. I stretch before getting out of bed. I unwound myself from the scratchy sheets and walk across the room with my bare feet padding against the cold tile of the floor.
I walk out of the room and into the hallway. A small breeze passes right through me as doctors and nurses walk by me. I look down at my clothes for the first time and see I'm only in a t shirt and airy blue hospital pants.
"Great," I mumble to myself feeling vulnerable and exposed. Thank god it isn't a gown. "Sam? Allie? Dad? Anybody?" I softly call out as I glance in every room down the hallway.
When I can't find anyone I walk to the nurses station in the lobby on the first floor.
"Excuse me. Hi. I, uh, I think I was in a car accident, my dad and my brother, and my sister, I just need to find them." The nurse doesn't answer me. Hell, she doesn't even look at me. "Hello?" I frustratingly snap my fingers in front of her face but she doesn't even flinch.
Now I'm worried. I run back up the stairs, feeling myself starting to panic. I burst into my hospital room and find the one thing I wasn't hoping to see. My body lying in the hospital bed with tubes connected all over my body and my eyes closed. No one can hear me because I'm an invisible spirit.
I can't tear my eyes off of my vegetable body. I try to touch it, hoping for a sense of feeling but my hand goes right through me, disappearing into my own skin.
"Oh no," Someone breaths besides me.
My head snaps to the right and I find Sam looking at my unconscious body with a frown.
"Man, tell me you can hear me," I say to him, but just like I expected, I'm ignored and unheard, yet I keep trying. "How's dad? Is he okay? Come on, you're the psychic. Give me some ghost whispering or something!"
"Sam! Dean!" I hear Allie's voice faintly from down the hall. She sounds scared and pissed at the same time. Sam and I bolt down the hallway like a reflex after our sister. Sam skids into the room and looks at Allie with the widest eyes. "Oh, Sam thank god. Tell these douche bags to stop touching me and let me breathe."
She looks relieved to see Sam and unnerved by the way the doctors, nurses, and even Sam are looking at her. They all look like they've just seen a ghost - and Sam's seen plenty of ghosts in his day.
Allie rips the IVs and oxygen tubes out of her skin and off her face. For some reason the doctors are so stunned to see her moving that they're late to react to her tearing everything off.
"What?" She glares at the hospital staff around her. "I'm fine, I don't need any of this." One of the doctors move to either try to convince her otherwise or check her over but she holds out her hands and snaps, "No. Don't touch me! Get away from me!"
"Allie," Sam rushes by her side and places a gentle hand on her back. She flinches but lets herself relax against Sam's touch. "You're okay. Look, your safe now, but the…accident," Sam coughs, "got you pretty good, okay? We just want to make sure you're not moving too fast." Sam sighs and grins apologetically to the doctors. "Sorry, she doesn't really do well with authority figures."
"Ms. McGillicutty, how are you feeling?" The doctor asks her.
"Fine," She glares at him and looks right back at Sam. "Where's Dad and Dean? Are they okay?" Sam licks his lips anxiously and looks down to avoid eye contact. "Sam?"
Another doctor appears in the room and motions towards Sam, "Your father's awake. You can go see him if you like."
"Thank god," I say to myself.
"Wait," Allie calls out to the doctor as he leaves. "What about Dean? What about my brother?"
The other doctor and nurses excuse themselves after checking Allie's vitals, leaving Sam and Allie for some privacy.
The other doctor sighs and takes a couple steps closer. "Well, he sustained serious injury: blood loss, contusions to his liver and kidney. But it's the head trauma I'm worried about. There's early signs of cerebral edema."
"Well, what can we do?" Sam asks.
"Well, we won't know his full condition until he wakes up. If he wakes up."
"If?" Allie asks, but it comes out more like a challenge, almost daring the doctor to tell her that I'm not going to make it.
The doctor sighs, "I have to be honest –"
"Oh screw you, Doc, I'm waking up!" I say loudly but of course no one reacts.
"Most people with this degree of injury wouldn't have survived this long. He's fighting very hard. But you need to have realistic expectations."
"Come on, Sam. Go find some hoodoo priest to lay some mojo on me. Sam?"
Like before, I'm left unanswered.
ALLIE'S POV:
"Allie, at least use a wheel chair or something," Sam pleads with me as I ignore all medical advice to stay in bed. As far as I know, Dad's awake and Dean's rotting in a hospital bed as we speak.
"Sam, I'm fine. I'm not walking around these halls like a freaking grandma." I press because for some reason, Sam doesn't believe me no matter how many time I say it.
"Yeah and that's what scares me!" Sam snaps. "You were just unconscious ten minutes ago. You needed a breathing tube, feeding tube, and even a catheter! Please, all I'm asking is for you just to take it slow. I just got you back, I don't want to lose you again."
I let the words sink in and I have no choice but to swallow my pride. How could I not after looking into Sam's puppy dog eyes.
"Fine," I reluctantly agree. "But no wheelchair. Let me at least just hang on to your arm or something."
"Wheel chair for an hour," Sam compromises with me, "Then we'll try walking."
I clench my teeth and narrow my eyes in a threatening glare, but if I'm being honestly, I am really tired and I don't know if I'd be able to make the trek down to Dad and Dean's hospital room without support.
"Fine."
Sam grins and helps me into a wheelchair and pushes me down the hallway slowly.
We walk into Dad's room and I'm happy to see him sitting up with only a sling holding his right arm and a bandage above his eyebrow. His eyes look up when he senses Sam and I walk into is room – well, me being wheeled but you know what I mean.
'Sam, Allie," Dad grins, "I'm glad you're alright."
"You too," Sam breathes out a sigh of relief. "How are you feeling?"
"Stiff, but I'll be just fine," Dad slowly reaches for his wallet on the stand next to his bed and hands Sam a business like card. "Here. Give them my insurance."
Sam takes the card and smiles as he reads it. "Elroy McGillicutty?"
"And his three loving children."
"So that's why they called me that weird name," I say more to myself.
"So, what else did the doctor say about Dean?"
"Nothing. Look. The Doctors won't do anything, then we'll have to, that's all. I don't know, I'll find some hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on him." Sam says sternly.
"We'll look for someone," Dad says.
"Yeah," Sam says quietly.
Yeah, how many times can we get away with doing that? I bite my tongue.
"But Sam, I don't know if we're gonna find anyone," Dad says like he read my mind.
"Why not?" Sam says, "I found that faith healer before."
"Right, that was…that was one in a million," Dad sighs.
"So what? Do we just sit here with our thumbs up our ass?" I say, feeling myself grow anxious and angry.
"No, I said we'd look. All right? I'll check under every stone," Dad says coldly. There's a pregnant pause between us as we think about Dean and what's to come for him. "Where's the Colt?" Dad eventually asks. Can't say I'm surprised.
"Your son is dying, and you're worried about the Colt?" Sam glares.
"Sam," I saw warningly.
"We're hunting this demon, and maybe it's hunting us too. That gun may be our only card." Dad says.
Sam huffs, "It's in the trunk. They dragged the car to a yard off of I-83."
"All right. You've gotta clean out that trunk before some junk man sees what's inside."
"I already called Bobby. He's like an hour out, he's gonna tow the Impala back to his place."
"All right. You, you go meet up with Bobby. You get that Colt, and you bring it back to me. And you watch out for hospital security."
"I think I've got it covered," Sam says.
"What about me?" I say looking between the two men who write me off pretty quickly because I'm the only one sitting uselessly in a wheelchair.
"You just rest up," Dad says, "I hear you had quite a scare. You need to heal so that you'll be ready to fight."
Sam walks behind me to start wheeling me out of there before I can mouth off.
"Hey. Here," Dad stops up to hand a piece of paper to Sam. "I made a list of things I need, have Bobby pick them up for me."
Sam reads off the list, "Acacia? Oil of Abramelin? What's this stuff for?"
"Protection," Dad answers bluntly.
Sam nods and turns to leave but stops when something in his head holds him back, "Hey, Dad? You know, the demon, he said he had plans for me, and children like me. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?"
"No, I don't," Dad says, but I don't believe him.
DEAN'S POV:
Sam left Allie in her room since she wasn't healthy enough to leave the hospital while he met up with Bobby. I was surprised she didn't put up a fight. Usually she would have followed Sam kicking and screaming because she has too much pride. Then I find her later in my room, still in her wheelchair, staring at my unmoving body. I watch as silent tears fall down her pale cheeks and quiet mumbles slip past her lips, begging for me to wake up.
My heart twists painfully inside my chest as I watch Allie aching because of me.
I walk over to my unconscious body, "Okay, listen to me you son of a bitch. You need to wake up. Now."
"Hey sweetheart," Dad's groggy voice speaks out from the doorway. Allie whips around and quickly wipes the tear steaks on her cheeks, pretending as if they were never there. "How's he doing?"
"He's the same," She says weakly. "How are you feeling?"
"Stiff," Dad says bluntly. "You?"
"I don't know," Allie answers honestly. "I feel fine but all my nurses and doctors keep looking at me like I'm a ghost every time I see them. It's like they're looking – like they're hoping for something to be wrong with me."
Dad pauses, "You got pretty torn up back there in that accident. They're probably just surprised that you're healing so quickly."
"Yeah, I don't know…" Allie says unsure. "What are we going to do about Dean?"
Dad sighs, "I don't know, Al."
"Come on, Dad. You've gotta help me. I've gotta get better, I've gotta get back in there. I mean, you haven't called a soul for help. You haven't even tried. Aren't you going to do anything? Aren't you even going to say anything?" I scream at my Dad, staring down at him from the other side of my hospital bed. Dad doesn't say anything, he just stares at my sleeping body, looking right through me. "I've done everything you've ever asked me. Everything. I have given everything I've ever had. And you're just going to sit there and you're going to watch me die? I mean, what the hell kind of father are you?"
Once again, Dad doesn't say anything, but I do hear something else. Right outside the door. I leave Dad and Allie and follow the noise into the hallway. A gush of air whooshes past me like a sprinting track star. I jump back out of surprise and look behind me at my dad and sister.
"I take it you didn't see that." I say breathlessly at them, but like I expect, they don't hear me.
I leave them there and follow after what I assume to be another spirit down the hallway. That's when I find a woman on the floor, hollering and choking.
"Help! Help!" She screams.
I run to her. Forgetting about not being able to be seen, I scream, "Hey! I need some help in here!"
"I can't…breathe," She continues to choke.
She pants loudly, gasping for breath. Her eyes are wide as she tries her hardest to gather air, and then…nothing. She falls silent. I can't do anything but watch her helplessly.
When I sense Sam is back, I follow him into Dad's room holding a heavy looking duffel bag.
"Sammy! Tell me you can friggin' hear me, man, there's something in the hospital. Now, you've got to bring me back and we've got to hunt this thing." I desperately plead with him as if he could hear me. If I'm being honest, I'm scared and alone and I don't know what to do and how to come out of this alive.
"You're quiet," Dad comments on Sam's brooding frame. Sam's still and his lips quiver into a snarl. He's fuming angry and I bet whatever the reason is will be in that duffel bag.
Sam hurls the bag onto the bed with a crash.
"Did you think I wouldn't find out?"
"What are you talking about?" Dad plays dumb.
"That stuff from Bobby, you don't use it to ward off a demon, you use it to summon one. You're planning on bringing the demon here, aren't you? Having some stupid macho showdown?!"
"I have a plan Sam!"
"That's exactly my point! Dean is dying, and you have a plan! You know what, you care more about killing this demon than you do saving your own son!"
"No, no, no, guys don't do this," I say. At least when they did this, I was there to stop them and keep the glue together that held onto their relationship. But now I'm just a fly on the wall, and there's nothing I can do but watch.
"Do not tell me how I feel! I am doing this for Dean."
"How? How is revenge going to help him? You're not thinking about anybody but yourself, it's the same selfish obsession!" Sam yells.
"Come on guys, don't do this!" I say louder.
"You know, it's funny, I thought it was your obsession too! This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. You begged me to be part of this hunt. Now if you'd killed that damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would have happened."
"It was possessing you, Dad, I would have killed you too!"
"Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now."
"Shut up, both of you!" I'm now screaming and growing agitated at the fact that I'm wasting breath.
"Go to hell!"
"I should have never taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake, I knew I was wrong —"
"I said SHUT UP!" I angrily swing my arms forward, and I smack a glass of water off the table and into the wall, shattering it on the floor.
Sam and Dad stare at the flying cup that is now in pieces on the floor. They look surprised and confused. I just stand there not believing that actually worked.
"Dude, I full-on Swayze'd that mother." I say.
"Look whatever you do, you can't tell your sister. Okay?" Dad softly asks of Sam.
Sam scoffs, "Don't worry, I think I got her to be distracted for a while, but it's not for your benefit. If she starts asking questions I'm not going to lie to her."
Suddenly I feel my chest closing in on me with a stabbing pain in my lungs. Seconds later, doctors and nurses run down the hall towards my room.
"Something's going on out there," Dad says, no longer thinking about his fight with Sam.
"What's going on? Somebody tell me something! Sam!" I hear my sister scream from my room.
Dad jerks his head at Sam to go find out, leaving him alone in his room.
Sam and I sprint down the hallway into my room where doctors and nurses surround my bed next to the machines that are beeping loud and fast. One of the male nurses tries holding Allie back as she fights to get closer to my body.
"No," Sam whispers to himself with tears pooling in his eyes. He pulls Allie back from the nurse and lets her cry into his shoulder. "Don't look," Sam whispers into her hair and kisses the top of her head.
"Still no pulse," The nurse tells the doctors.
They don't stop performing CPR on my dead body. They pull out of the electric paddles to shock me back to life.
"Okay, let's go again. 360."
"Charging," the nurse says.
When one of the nurses move out of the way, I see a flowy, spirit like figure hovering over my body in the hospital bed.
"You get the hell away from me!" I point at the spirit, putting two and two together and figuring the spirit is the reason I'm dying right now. I run towards the spirit. "I said get back!"
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sam flinch. I didn't know if it was because he heard me or because I was being electrocuted by a bunch of doctors.
I throw myself at the spirit, and I feel myself being physically thrown out of the room like a rocket. Then the machines by my bed beep more slowly and steadily.
"We have a pulse. We're back into sinus rhythm." One of the nurses says.
I look frantically for the spirit but its nowhere to be found. Sam and Allie back up into the hallway, relief passing through them with a strong exhale. Allie doesn't release her grip from Sam's side.
"Don't worry, Sammy. Allie. I'm not going anywhere. I'm getting that thing before it gets me. It's some kind of spirit, but I could grab it. And if I can grab it, I can kill it."
I walk away, having more motivation to find that spirit and get the hell out of invisible land.
As I walk down the halls, I hear another woman desperately calling out for someone to help her. I find the screaming girl at the nurse's stand where I was earlier frantically trying to get someone's attention. But just like I was, she's ignored.
"Can't you see me? Why won't you look at me?" She pounds her fists against the counter.
"Now what?"
The girl whips around and looks at me with her big brown eyes. Her dark hair falls below her shoulders and her skin is pale.
"Can you see me?" I ask when I notice she's been staring for a couple seconds too long.
"Yeah," She says with a bit of relief. I feel that relief too like I'm finally not alone anymore.
"All right, just, uh, calm down. What's your name?"
"Tessa."
"Okay, good, Tessa, I'm Dean," I introduce myself.
"What's happening to me? Am – am I dead?"
I shrug, "That sort of depends."
Tessa takes me to her hospital room where I learn the similar state we're in. The human version of Tessa is hooked up to a bunch of machines through feeding and breathing tubes. Next to her, a woman holds her hand tightly and silently cries into Tessa's arm.
"I don't understand. I just came in for an appendectomy," She says in awe as she stares at her unconscious body.
"Well, I hate to bear bad news, but I think there were some complications," I tell her.
Tessa shakes her head in denial, "It's just a dream, that's all. It's just a very weird, unbelievably vivid dream."
"Tessa. It's not a dream."
"Then what else could it be?"
"You ever heard of an out of body experience?" I ask her.
"What are you, some new agey guy?"
"You see me messing with crystals or listening to Yanni? It's actually a very old idea. Got a lot of different names: Bilocation, crisis apparition, fetches... I think it's happening to us. And if it is, it means that we're spirits of people close to death."
"So we're going to die?" Tessa looks at me with those big brown eyes.
"No. Not if we hold on. Our bodies can get better, we can snap right back in there and wake up."
Tessa and I walk aimlessly down the hospital hallways trying to mentally feel better about this whole thing. Although it probably won't ever be possible to feel the slightest bit positive about dying, the goal will be easier achieved if we're not staring down at our deteriorating bodies.
"I gotta say, I'm impressed," I tell her.
"With what?" She asks.
"With you. Most people in your spot would be jello right now, but uh, you're taking this pretty well. Maybe a little better than me."
"Don't get me wrong. I was pretty freaked at first. But now, I don't know. Maybe I'm dealing."
"So you're okay with dying?" I look at her incredulously.
She shakes her head, "No, of course not. I just think, whatever's gonna happen's gonna happen. It's out of my control, it's fate."
I think about her words, but I strongly disagree, "Huh. Well, that's crap. You always have a choice. You can either roll over and die or you can keep fighting, no matter what —"
I'm cut off by an overhead announcement from the PA system about a code blue in 237. Immediately I start sprinting after the doctors and nurses, thinking it might be my dad or my sister. I probably should have memorized their room numbers.
"Where are you going?" Tessa calls after me.
"Just wait here," I yell back to her.
Luckily, the patient is neither my dad or my sister. However, the same spirit that hovered over my coding body is now over this little girl's body. Slowly, it reaches it's cloudy hand onto her face.
"Get away from her!" I scream.
The girl could be no older than ten, I can't really tell with all the hospital personnel surrounding her. But what I do know is that she is way too young to die. She's barely experienced the world yet. It's not fair!
I lunge at the spirit, but the only good it does is making it disappear. The crowd around the small child stop resuscitating and the machines stop beeping. The only sound that can be heard is the chilling flat line from the heart monitor.
"All right, let's call it," One of the doctors says glumly.
"Time of death, five eleven p.m." Another doctor says.
"At least she's not suffering anymore," A distant nurse in the room comments.
I scoff and walk out of the room.
I walk down the hall, cursing softly and trying to convince myself that I can actually make it out alive, but now I'm not so sure since the spirit taking people's lives doesn't seem to have a care in the world for anyone no matter what age they are.
There's no way I could leave Allie and Sam behind, not when they would get stuck with Dad without me. It would only cause chaos. Sam would leave Allie, maybe go back to school, and Dad would go insane with another family member dead and the demon walking free.
Around the corner I hear sniffling and a soft cry come from a woman. Let me tell you, this hospital is filled with crying women and frustrated men. It's quite the downer and not good for my mood.
However, I'm shocked to see that the woman tearing up is Allie. She's sitting on a bench, and she's not alone. She's cuddled into Chris Hanson's side. While he sits upright on the bench, Allie sits with her back against his side, his arms draped over her front, and her legs spread across the remaining length of the bench.
This is what Sam must have meant by making sure Allie was distracted. He must've called Chris. That is a stupid big brother move.
Tears continue to fall from Allie's eyes silently. She stares across the hall into my open room emotionlessly.
"Dean was more like my Dad than my Dad was. He basically raised me and Sam since he was old enough to stay alone with us in the motel room. He's cared more about me than my father ever could…and don't get me wrong, my dad did his best, but his best just wasn't enough for two little kids. Hell, if he knew you were here with me, he'd kill you on the spot."
"Damn straight," I growl at the bastard that broke my sister's heart. I'm tempted to throw my fists at his face, but I know all it will do is go right through him.
"Can I ask you something?" Chris asks softly.
"What?" Allie sniffles.
"Why was my friendship with Dean so important to you? I mean, friends come and go, especially for hunters."
Allie shakes her head and quietly scoffs, "Like you said, hunters don't have many friends. But your friendship with Dean was like the one real thing he had of a normal life. A friend. For hunters, that's rare. I wanted to make sure he always had some sense of a normal life, even if it was just for a little bit."
"Sometimes you can't even protect the ones you love from normal things," Chris sighs.
"I'd be damned if I didn't try my hardest," Allie glares into the open doorway into my room.
"He's going to make it out alive, Als, I know it."
"No you don't."
Chris huffs, "You're right, I don't know, but I do believe it, and deep down I know you do too."
"Believing just isn't enough anymore," Allie says glumly.
I observe Chris looking down at the top of Allie's head with a solemn expression like he can feel Allie's hurt. He's empathetic towards her, a trait I have never seen someone like Chris to possess. I never knew Chris to be a sensitive guy so it kinda of hit me when I see that Allie changed this about him.
Their moment is interrupted when Sam hurriedly walks down the hall and stops in front of my room with a brown paper bag.
"Oh hey," He says.
"Hey," Allie says sullenly.
Sam coughs awkwardly and looks back at Chris, "Hey do you mind grabbing Allie and I a cup of coffee from the cafeteria?" Sam pulls out a wrinkled twenty dollar bill and hands it over to him.
Allie looks at Sam confused, but Chris seems to get the hint and agrees to leave them alone.
Allie watches Chris disappear down the hall way then looks at Sam for him to explain.
Sam motions for her to follow him into my room. "I think maybe Dean's around. And don't make fun of me for this, but um, well, there's one way we can talk."
Allie stares at him unconvinced. Sam pulls out a box labeled Mystical Talking Board and immediately she scoffs.
"A Ouija board?" Allie scoffs. "You think Dean's a ghost before he's even dead?"
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," I say, equally as unimpressed as Allie.
Sam ignores Allie and sits on the tile floor in front of my bed cross legged. Allie quirks an eyebrow up, surprised that he's actually going to try and talk to me through a freaking Ouija board.
"Dean? Dean, are you here?" Sam asks out loud.
"God, I feel like I'm at a slumber party," I roll my eyes and sit down across from him. "All right, Sam. This isn't going to work," I say, knowing that everything I try to touch just goes right through me.
I place my fingers on the triangular pointer and slowly slide it to yes after much concentration. At first I think my eyes deceit me when the object moves, but then I get really excited when I realize it worked.
"I'll be damned," Dean breathes.
"Holy crap," Allie says and eagerly sits besides Sam. "How do you know it's Dean?"
Sam shrugs, "I guess we can't know for sure, but…" Sam lets out a small laugh of relief, "It's good to hear from you, man. It hasn't been the same without you, Dean."
"I see that," I grumble, thinking back to Allie and Chris cuddled up on the hospital bench. Aint no way in hell I would have let that happen.
I try spelling out the word 'hunting' so Sam and Allie could know about the spirit trying to take me.
Sam looks confused, "Dean, what? H? U? Hunt? Hunting? What, are you hunting?"
"Huh, guess it really is Dean," Allie mutters to herself.
I pull the slider back to "YES."
"It's in the hospital, what are you hunting? Do you know what it is?"
"One question at a time, dude," I say but I know he can't hear me.
"What is it?" Allie asks, never taking her eyes off the board.
I point the slider over the letters to spell "REAP." "I don't think it's killing people. I think it's taking them. You know, when their time's just up." I explain as if these two could hear me.
"A reaper. Dean, is it after you?" Sam asks. I can tell he's growing nervous.
I slide the pointer to "YES."
"If it's here naturally, there's no way to stop it," Allie says.
"Yeah, you can't kill death," I say disappointedly. "I'm screwed you guys."
"No. No, no, no, uum, there's gotta be a way." Sam stands up and paces the room. "There's gotta be a way." Sam pauses and looks out the doorway. "Dad'll know what to do."
Allie stays in my room and continues to watch over my half dead body like a lost puppy. I feel myself getting ramped up just watching her look so sad. It's so out of character for Allie and it makes me want to punch the hell out of whoever is making her feel this way. Only in this case, that would be me.
Sam comes back with Dad's journal and immediately begins thumbing through it.
"So Dad wasn't in his room," Sam says to Allie.
"Where is he?" Allie asks.
"I don't know," Sam says. I think Allie can tell Sam's not telling her something. "But I got Dad's journal, so who knows? Maybe there's something here."
"On reapers?" Allie asks.
"Thanks for not giving up on me, Sammy," If I could, I would slap him on the back for the support. But instead, I lean behind him and read over his shoulder.
"Here we go," Sam says to Allie who comes to join our small huddle.
I read over Dad's notes about Reapers – where he learned so much about them, I have no idea, but he has a lot of information written down that I would have never known had it not been for Sammy. But as I read his notes, the more I come to terms on what's been happening to me ever since I "woke up" in this hospital room.
"Son of a bitch," I run out of the room and stalk down the hallway, glancing in every room, looking for the one friend I thought I had in this journey.
Then I find her. She's sitting on the edge of a bed of an empty room. She's no longer wearing her hospital patient apparel, but in jeans and a jacket.
"Hi Dean," Tessa grins at me, knowing that I finally understand who she really is. The Reaper I've been running from.
"You know, you read the most interesting things. For example, did you know that reapers can alter human perception? I sure didn't. Basically they can make themselves appear however they want. Like, say, a pretty girl. You're much prettier than the last reaper I met."
"I was wondering when you would figure it out," She says impressed.
I glare, "I should have known. That whole "accepting fate" rap of yours is far too laid back for a dead chick. But the mother, and the body, I'm still trying to figure that one out."
"It's my sandbox, I can make you see whatever I want." Tessa says out of enjoyment from what she's putting me through.
"What, is this like a turn-on for you?" I scoff, "What, toying with me?"
"You didn't give me much choice. You saw my true form and you flipped out. Kinda hurts a girl's feelings. This was the only way I could get you to talk to me."
"Okay, fine. We're talking." I say calmly. "What the hell do you want to talk about?"
"How death is nothing to fear." Tessa walks towards me and lifts her hand to touch my cheek. "Its your time to go, Dean. And you're living on borrowed time already."
I shake my head and walk away from her touch. I stand by the window. "Look, I'm sure you've heard this before, but... you've gotta make an exception, you've gotta cut me a break."
"Stage three: bargaining." Tessa says like she's heard this plenty times before.
"I'm serious. My family's in danger. See, we're kind of in the middle of this, um, war, and they need me."
"The fight's over."
"No, it isn't," I argue with her.
"It is for you. Dean. You're not the first soldier I've plucked from the field. They all feel the same. They can't leave. Victory hangs in the balance. But they're wrong. The battle goes on without them."
"My brother and my sister could die without me."
Tessa scoffs, "Apparently your sister knows the system on how to cheat death. But for Sam? Maybe he will, maybe he won't."
"Wait, wait, wait, what did you say about Allie?"
Tessa crosses her arms and frowns as if the topic is as annoying to her as death is to me. "Your sister was right under my touch when something swept her away. Next thing I know, she's waking up in her hospital room hours after the doctors had given up on her. Allison Winchester was dead. The car accident broke her neck. It was her time, and somehow she's breathing this stale hospital air."
"Allie died?" I whispered to myself, turning away to process it.
Is that why the doctors were so surprised to see her kicking and screaming? Why they just stood there with their jaws to the floor as she choked on her breathing tubes?
"Yes. But don't ask me how she got out of it because I have no idea, but my boss isn't going to be thrilled to hear about it."
I can't imagine a life without Allie in it. She may be a big pain in the ass, but she's the little sister that keeps this family glued together. She's always there to help Sam and I out when we're yelling each other's heads off. She's the only one who can calm down Dad when he's in one of his moods. She was my best friend during the four years Sam was away at school.
"Anyway, nothing you can do about it. It's an honorable death. A warrior's death."
"I think I'll pass on the seventy two virgins, thanks. I'm not that into prude chicks anyway."
"That's funny. You're very cute."
"There's no such thing as an honorable death. My corpse is going to rot in the ground and my family is going to die! No. I'm not going with you, I don't care what you do."
"Well, like you said. There's always a choice. I can't make you come with me. But you're not getting back in your body. And that's just facts. So yes, you can stay. You'll stay here for years. Disembodied, scared, and over the decades it'll probably drive you mad. Maybe you'll even get violent."
"What are you saying?"
"Dean. How do you think angry spirits are born? They can't let go and they can't move on. And you're about to become one. The same thing you hunt. "
I run my hands down on my face, trying to wrap my head around the idea that I might not get out of this alive. Tessa comes up behind me and places her hand on my shoulder comfortingly. It's hard to be mad at her because I know she's just doing her job and that she's actually empathetic towards me.
"It's time to put the pain behind you."
"And go where?" I laugh pathetically.
"Sorry. I can't give away the big punchline. Moment of truth. No changing your mind later. So what's it going to be?"
I slowly turn to look at her, opening my mouth to answer the question I don't know the answer to. But the lights around us flicker in the already dark room and I hear the familiar buzzing/static sound that sends chills down my body every time I hear it.
"What are you doing that for?" I yell at her, hoping deep down that she's the one controlling it.
"I'm not doing it," She says, equally as confused.
We both turn towards the air vent when thick dark black smoke slowly oozes out of it.
"What the hell…" I mutter to myself.
"You can't do this! Get away!" Tessa screams at the smoke that inches closer to us.
"What's happening?!" I scream. I know the smoke is from a demon, but what I don't understand is why it's here or how it can see us.
The smoke plunges in to Tessa's open mouth. She screams as the demon takes over her body and settles into it's new meat suit. She calms and turns towards me, blinking her eyes that are now bright yellow.
"Today's your lucky day, kid." The demon smiles wickedly at me.
Before I can fight him, he places a hand on my forehead, and I fall down shaking.
ALLIE'S POV:
Sam, Chris, and I were just sitting in Dean's room watching his chest go up and down evenly due to all the machines he was hooked up to when he snaps upright, his eyes opened wide, and choking on all the tubes.
"Dean!" I scream and jump to my feet, instantly running to his side.
Sam runs to the hall, screaming for doctors and nurses – pretty much anyone who will help him.
The doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff come flooding into the room and surround Dean – apparently the miracle case as I heard some of them say. Chris stands close to me while the doctors help my brother and reevaluate his condition. By the look on all of their faces, their stunned by his recovery – surprised that he's even breathing on his own.
When they're done, everyone leaves but the main doctor who goes over all his notes. "I can't explain it. The edema's vanished. The internal contusions are healed. Your vitals are good. You have some kind of angel watching over you."
"Thanks, doc," Dean says as the doctor excuses himself.
When the doctor is out of sight, we ask Dean about the reaper but he looks confused. Apparently, alive-Dean can't remember anything spirit-Dean went through in the spirit world or whatever you want to call it, so Sam fills him in on what Dean tried to tell us while he floated away in a different universe.
I can't help but notice the glances Dean's giving Chris, but luckily neither he nor Chris address each other. It's just awkward.
"So you said a Reaper was after me?" Dean asks.
"Yeah." Sam says.
"How'd I ditch it?"
"You got me. Dean, you really don't remember anything?"
"No. Except this pin in my stomach. Sam, something's wrong." Dean looks between Sam and I worriedly.
Someone knocks on the door and we all turn to see Dad hovering by the doorway. He looks pale and exhausted, maybe even emotionally drained.
"How you feeling, dude?" He asks. He doesn't look surprised to see Dean up and at it.
"Fine, I guess. I'm alive," Dean says.
"That's what matters." Dad grins.
However, Sam doesn't share the happy mood. "Where were you last night?"
"I had some things to take care of." Dad says bluntly, which is never good.
"Well, that's specific," Sam glares.
"Come on, Sam," I grab Sam's arm by his elbow. Dean just woke up a couple of minutes ago and even Dad is up and walking around. These things were supposed to be good news and meant we could finally smile.
"Did you go after the demon?" Sam continues to yell.
"No," Dad answers.
"You know, why don't I believe you right now?"
Dad sighs like he's given up on fighting with Sam. "Can we not fight? You know, half the time we're fighting, I don't know what we're fighting about. We're just butting heads. Sammy, I, I've made some mistakes. But I've always done the best I could. I just don't want to fight anymore, okay?"
This grabs Sam's attention as well as mine and Dean's. Chris kinda just stands there silently, unsure of what was really going on, but luckily he doesn't say anything.
"Dad, are you alright?" I ask, narrowing my eyes in his direction as if I'd be able to read his mind.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just a little tired. Hey, son, would you, uh, would you mind getting me a cup of caffeine?"
"Yeah. Yeah, sure," Sam says, hurrying out of the room to get Dad whatever he needed now that he's showing his sensitive side.
However, I get the feeling that the only reason Dad sent Sam out to get coffee was so he could have some alone time with Dean. So I grab Chris by the hand and lead him out of the room. Dad watches us as we leave – more directly, he watches Chris, eyeing him up and down and shaking his head.
We walk down the hall to the vending machine where Chris treats me to a Snickers bar and a soda.
"This is a good thing right? Your entire family is going to be okay." Chris looks at me slightly confused.
He's right. We should all be smiles and hugging each other rightly, but something's not sitting well in the pit of my stomach.
"Something's not right," I say.
DEAN'S POV:
"You know, when you were a kid, I'd come home from a hunt, and after what I'd seen, I'd be, I'd be wrecked. And you, you'd come up to me and you, you'd put your hand on my shoulder and you'd look me in the eye and you'd... You'd say 'It's okay, Dad.'" Dad pulls up a chair and sits by my bed. He grins as he walks down memory lane. I wish I could enjoy this side of my dad finally poking through after so many years, but something doesn't feel right still.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"You shouldn't have had to say that to me, I should have been saying that to you. You know, I put, I put too much on your shoulders, I made you grow up too fast. You took care of Sammy, you took care of me. You did that, and you didn't complain, not once. I just want you to know that I am so proud of you."
"This really you talking?" I ask apprehensively.
"Yeah. Yeah, it's really me," Dad chuckles.
"Why are you saying this stuff?"
Dad stands and walks closer to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I want you to watch out of Sammy and Allie, okay?"
"Yeah, dad, you know I will. You're scaring me," I admit.
"Don't be scared, Dean." Dad leans over and whispers something in my ear – something I will never learn how to express and comprehend. It leaves me speechless.
Dad leaves and all I can do is just stare at him as he goes.
ALLIE'S POV:
I watch as Sam comes back to our floor with a cup of stale black coffee. He peeks in Dad's room and instantly drops the coffee on the floor, spilling it everywhere.
"Dad!" Sam screams.
Doctors and nurses follow Sam's screams as he holds Dad's limp body on his hospital room floor.
"No, no, no, no!" I screech as doctors and nurses shove me out of the way. Chris holds me back as they take Dad's pale body out of Sam's arms and carry him to his bed where they immediately start trying to resuscitate him.
Dean must've heard my screams and comes running to us as fast as his weak body can take him.
A nurse tries making my brothers and I leave the room but we stay in the doorway despite her efforts and stare over her shoulder at the failed attempts the doctors are trying to make.
I can feel my heart being ripped into shreds as I come to terms with what's happening. This is why I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, this is why Dad was acting so weird. He knew this was coming.
"Come on," Dean mutters through clenched teeth as he watches the doctors and nurses slowly pull away from Dad and share solemn looks.
"No!" I wale and try to push past everyone to get to my father who lays permanently dead on a rock hard hospital bed. Sam and Chris stop me from moving.
"Okay, stop compressions," A doctor says.
"Come on, come on," Dean grits.
"Still no pulse," A nurse says.
"Okay, that's it everybody," The doctor says. "I'll call it. Time of death: 10:41 am."