Chapter 8: In The Time of Dying

Lights flashed, sirens blared, and helicopters carried Dean, John, Mia, and Sam into the emergency ward of the nearest hospital.

Mia felt herself drifting unconscious to the sounds of the propellers spinning and Sam's frightened voice calling out for her and his family.

Soon enough, Dean awoke in the hospital. He stumbled out of bed and called out for Sam, Mia, and his father but there was no response. He walked down the hallways and felt invisible to the doctors and nurses that passed by. Even the receptionist at the front desk gave no acknowledgment of his existence. That was when he knew something was up. He sprinted back to his hospital room and realized that he hadn't awoken at all. In fact, in his bed was his own body. Bruised, bloody, and covered in all manner of tubes and bandages.

"No," he whispered to himself in shock. He was having some sort of out-of-body experience.

Suddenly, Sam walked into the room. The entire right side of his face was bruised and he was covered in scars and blood but all things considered, he looked okay.

"Please tell me you can hear me," Dean cried but his brother made no motion to acknowledge that he'd heard what his older brother had said.

The doctor came into the room next and Sam flew to him. "Is there any news? When is he going to wake up?"

The doctor sighed. "I hate to tell you this but, your brother has suffered a lot of damage… There's a chance he might not wake up at all."

Dean shook his head, "No! I'm gonna wake up! Sammy, listen to me!"

Sam looked down at the dying body of his older brother and took a deep breath before leaving the room and walking into the hallway. Dean followed his brother over to a bench at the end of the hallway where a brown-haired woman sat with her head in her hands. When she heard Sam's footsteps approaching, she stood up and walked towards him with a hopeful smile on her face.

"Jesus, Mia, you look like you got hit by a truck-oh wait," Dean laughed to himself.

He noted that her brown hair was knotted and frizzy, her eyes had dark circles under them, there was a scar across her cheek and a large bandage at the back of her neck.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" She told Sam in a convinced tone.

"Dean's gotta be okay, he's gotta wake up," Mia found herself pleading when Sam didn't reply.

Sam sighed. "The doctor said, there's a chance he might not wake up at all. He's suffered a lot of internal injuries."

Mia's hopeful smile fell and her eyes grew wide in fear. She shook her head in denial. As much as Dean drove her up the wall at times, he'd become a big part of her life, and losing him would devastate her.

Dean watched her expression change in surprise. "Wow, I didn't know you cared so much about me, Mia. I'm touched."

"Uh, Sam Winchester? Your father's awake," Came the voice of the doctor down the hallway.

Sam and Mia ran to John's room while Dean stayed in the hallway, reflecting on his circumstances.

"Dad," Sam told his father once they knew he was alright, "we gotta do something to help Dean. Maybe we can get some Hoodoo priest to put some mumbo jumbo spell on him or something."

John looked down, evasively. "Sam, we have bigger problems-"

"So we're just gonna do nothing?" Sam demanded incredulously.

John frowned angrily at the two of them. "No, we're gonna figure this out, okay? But for now, I want you both to sit tight. Where's the Colt?"

Mia was exasperated by John Winchester's order of priorities. "Your son is dying, and you want to know where some stupid gun is?"

He turned to her and snapped, "We're hunting this demon, and right now it might be after us too; we're gonna need protection."

"It's in the trunk," Sam muttered. "The Impala's in pretty bad shape but I already called Bobby to tow it to his place."

"I want you to meet up with Bobby and get it back, okay? Bring it to me, and watch out for the hospital security." John instructed his youngest son.

Sam nodded and turned to leave the room but paused in the doorway before turning back to face his father.

"The Demon told me he had plans for me and for all children like me. Do you know what he meant?"

John shook his head. "I don't know, son."

Sam nodded in understanding and left the room without another word to his father. Mia stared at John warily.

"You're up to something," She deduced. "You don't need the Colt for protection. It's not like The Demon would attack a fully operational hospital in broad daylight."

John sighed. "You're still so young and you have so much to learn…"

Mia rolled her eyes. It seemed that Dean got a lot more from his father than just his looks. She was tired of being told she wasn't experienced enough, or good enough to do anything when she desperately wanted to help.

John then handed her a piece of paper with a list of strange ingredients on it that he required for a protection spell.

"Give this to Sam and tell him to tell Bobby to pick them up. In the meantime, keep an eye on Dean for me," John told her and Mia obliged his wishes.

She caught up with Sam in the hallway and handed him the list.

"Does this seem strange to you at all?" Mia questioned, wondering if protection spells were at all odd within the hunting world.

Sam frowned. "My dad's acting pretty strange, but he must know what he's doing. He loves Dean, and he'd want to protect him, even if it meant losing the demon."

Dean, who had been urging his own body to breathe on its own, came over to them and watched Sam walk out of the hospital.

"Well, I guess it's just the two of us," Dean shrugged as he watched Mia walk into his hospital room.

"Geez Dean, you look awful," Mia commented as she stood over his unconscious body.

Spirit Dean rolled his eyes, "Really? I'm dying over here and that's all you have to say?"

He watched as she took a seat at his bedside and clutched his arm. To Dean's dismay, he found that he could feel her grip on his forearm.

"God, if this wasn't my life, it'd look like some sad soap opera," Dean said to himself as he continued to watch Mia interact with his lifeless form.

"Look," Mia sighed, "I know we haven't been the closest. We never really got off on the right foot, I mean you almost killed me the first time we ever met-"

"You ran in front of the damn car," Dean cut in.

"But, and don't tell anyone I said this, I've really come to see you as… a friend. You're an amazing person, and you don't really give yourself enough credit. Sure, I joke around that I can't stand you but really it's just to mask pain at the fact that I do want you to like me. I respect you so much, and I look up to you! I just… I wish I could prove myself to you," Mia finished speaking with tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

Dean was struck dumb. "I never realized you felt that way…"

Mia silently willed herself to stop crying but Dean walked over to her silent form and continued speaking.

"I do think you're a good hunter. But you don't need to prove yourself to me, or anyone else. I just pick on you because I dunno… Ha, I actually don't remember why. Probably because I didn't want you to join our little family. I didn't think you deserved it but, boy was I wrong," Dean confessed. He knew she couldn't hear him but he hoped that when he awoke, she'd get to hear those words from his lips. He'd grown to like Mia, as annoying as she was. She was just an acquired taste, like olives.

He noticed she was shaking a little bit and he put a friendly hand on her shoulder to steady her. To his surprise, after he did this, Mia sat up straight and put a hand on that shoulder as though she'd felt him touch her.

"You can feel me?" He wondered aloud in shock.

Mia glanced down at Dean's body and wiped away her tears. "I don't know if you can even hear me, but if you do die, I need to clear my conscience."

She took a deep breath to steady herself and Dean leaned in, intent on hearing what she was about to reveal.

"Remember last week when your AC/DC tape went missing and you thought they were just at the bottom of your glove compartment?" She began, anxiously twisting her necklace as she spoke.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Yeah?"

Mia gulped. "Uh, it was me who got rid of them. I'm sorry! I was looking through your tapes for any bands I liked when I dropped that tape in the parking lot and I forgot to pick it up. Then when I remembered, someone had run over it already!"

The hunter was furious, "YOU BROKE MY AC/DC TAPE? THE ONE I'VE HAD SINCE I WAS A LITTLE KID? GOD, WHEN I GET BACK INTO MY BODY, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"

Dean's heart monitor began rapidly increasing and Mia cried out for the doctor, hoping this was a positive sign. The loud beeping attracted both the doctor who raced into the room and John Winchester who snuck out of his bed and hid in the hallway outside of the room.

"Is he okay?" Mia asked impatiently, "Does this mean he's starting to wake up?"

The doctor inspected Dean's body and shook his head sadly. "It was a fluke, some sort of chain reaction within the body. Probably a defensive neurological response to a violent dream of some sort."

Dean, who had calmed down, laughed bitterly, "I wish this was just some dream."

The doctor left soon after, which allowed John to sneak into the room using a crutch to support his unsteady legs.

"What happened?" John questioned.

"I have no freaking idea, I was just talking to him and then his heart monitor went berserk," Mia told him out of confusion.

Suddenly her cell phone, which had remarkably survived the crash, began to ring with Sam's caller ID display.

"Hey? Did you get what you needed?" Mia answered, glancing over at John to gauge his reaction.

"Not exactly… are you with my dad right now?" Sam asked her.

"Yes, why?"

"Walk over to the hospital lobby, I'll meet you there in two minutes and explain everything."

Mia excused herself from the room to continue Sam's call in private.

John, gazed sullenly at his eldest son lying as though, dead on his hospital bed.

"Dad?" Dean called out, as he walked over to his father. "Dad, please. I need your help. You gotta get me back out there."

John remained stoic.

"You haven't even called anyone for help," Dean exclaimed in disbelief. "Look, I've always done everything you ever asked of me. I looked up to you! I wanted to be just like you, and you're just gonna stand there and watch me die? What the hell kind of father are you?!"

Dean fought back tears of desperation as he watched his father watch him.

All of a sudden, he heard an unearthly noise coming from the hallway, although John didn't seem to hear anything. He ran out in search of its source and was run through by some strange-looking wisp of grey smoke that continued down the hallway. He followed the creature until he reached a hospital room at the end of the hallway where he found a young nurse on the floor choking to death. He helplessly tried and failed to get her some medical help but it was no use, nobody could see or hear him.

Meanwhile, in the hospital lobby, Mia was listening to Sam explain what had happened when he met up with Bobby to get what John needed.

"Summoning demons!" Mia exclaimed, "Bobby said your dad's ingredients are to summon a demon?"

Sam replied, "Oh not just any demon, Mia. I think he plans to catch The Demon to end things once and for all."

Mia was infuriated by this and spoke through clenched teeth. "His oldest son is dying in a hospital and he's off sending you and Bobby on errands to help him track down The Demon? Sam, your dad is a fucking revenge-a-holic. I knew he was up to something…"

"Dean is on his deathbed and all Dad cares about is that demon, well I've had enough," Sam muttered as the two of them began walking quickly back to the hospital room of John who had returned from checking on Dean.

Sam dumped the bag on his father's bed and confronted him. "Do you even care? Doesn't it bother you that your son is dying?"

Dean, who had returned from following the specter, began begging his father and brother not to fight.

"Don't tell me how I feel," John snapped back, "You have no idea what I've been going through."

"Guys, stop!" Dean pleaded.

"Look, I'm doing this for your brother," John explained.

"How?" Mia demanded. "How the hell is your revenge going to help him? You just think when that demon is dead, all of your problems are magically gonna solve themselves. Well, you know what? Killing that demon isn't going to do anything!"

"You're not thinking about anyone but yourself," Sam added angrily. "It's the same selfish obsession that's been going on for twenty-three years!"

"Guys, please-" Dean sighed.

"My obsession?! I thought you were part of this too. That monster murdered your mom and your girlfriend. And you-"

He turned to glare at Mia. "I made you part of this hunt because I thought you could understand the importance of killing this demon."

"Yes, I get it! You want revenge but right now that dish shouldn't even be on the table yet! As we speak, Dean is getting closer and closer to death and you haven't done a single thing to help! You know spells! Can't you voodoo him better, or call someone that can?" Mia shot back furiously.

"You know, we wouldn't even be in this mess right now if Sam had just taken the shot," John yelled angrily.

"If I had, it would've killed you!"

"BUT YOUR BROTHER WOULD BE AWAKE!"

"Shut up!" Dean shouted.

"You know what, go to hell," Sam barked at his father.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Dean screamed as he slammed his hand on his father's bedside table, sending the glass of water hurtling to the ground where it shattered.

John, Sam, and Mia stared at the broken glass in shock.

"Dude, I full-on Swayzed that mother," Dean gasped in disbelief of his powers.

Mia turned to Sam. "Do you think-"

Suddenly, a large group of doctors and nurses were running down the hallway. John sent them to check it out. Dean found his form to be weakening, but he followed his brother and Mia back to his hospital room where the doctors were frantically trying to resuscitate his lifeless body.

"No," Sam gasped when he and Mia reached the doorway.

"He can't, he just can't," Mia exclaimed in denial as she clutched Sam for support.

Dean, however, noticed that hovering above his dying body was the spectre he'd followed earlier. It seemed to be trying to suck his life away as it did to the nurse.

"Get the hell away from me!" Dean shouted at the transparent being as he ran to shoo it from his bedside.

The creature glared at him as he continued to yell at it to disappear.

"I SAID GET OUT!" He shouted loud enough to break the veil between life and death and pierce the eardrums of both Mia and Sam who exchanged odd looks at the sound.

Dean reached over and grabbed at the wisp, which then wrenched him away and sent him flying into a wall. But then, to his surprise, it left his body and the doctors relaxed their effort.

"His breathing patterns are returning to normal," One of the doctors stated to both Sam's and Mia's relief. They exhaled huge breaths and took in what had just happened.

"Don't worry guys," Dean said as he walked over to them, "I'm not gonna let that thing beat me. I can grab it, which means I can still fight."

Mia turned to Sam. "Am I going crazy, or do you think we're not alone right now?"

Sam nodded at her. "You heard him before too, didn't you?"

Dean sighed and shook his head. "Well, it's about time you two noticed."

"HELP! DON'T YOU SEE ME?" A female voice shouted in the distance.

Dean groaned. "Great, now what?" He then headed to the source of the voice and was relieved to find that like him, there was a girl who was also out of her body and invisible to the people around her.

"Can you see me?" He asked and she nodded at him in relief.

"I'm Dean,"

"I'm Tessa," the young woman with short brown hair replied. "I don't understand. Am I dead?"

"Well, that kinda depends…" Dean took her to her body where she told him that she'd only come in for an appendectomy that apparently went wrong.

"This is just a dream," Tessa attempted to convince herself. "A very strange, vivid, dream."

"I hate to break it to you, Tessa but this ain't no dream. It's an out-of-body experience."

He went on to explain to her what they were and that the people who had them were typically close to death like they were.

"So, we're gonna die?" Tessa asked sadly.

Dean answered determinedly, "No. Not if we hold on."

Back in John's room, Sam and Mia were discussing their findings.

"It felt like Dean was there," Mia explained to John. "And I felt it before too when I was talking to his unconscious body."

"Do you think it's possible that he's having an out-of-body experience?" Sam asked his father who replied that he did believe it was possible but unlikely.

"Then there's only one way to be sure," Mia stated as she headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" John asked in a concerned voice.

The ghost of a smile appeared on Mia's lips as she told them that she would be back soon. Sam moved to leave as well but his father called to him.

"I promise, I won't hunt this demon until we know Dean's okay."

Sam nodded appreciatively at his father before disappearing into his brother's room to wait for Mia.

"I'm surprised you're dealing well with this," Dean remarked to Tessa as they walked through the hospital.

Tessa shrugged. "Well I'm not okay with dying, but I figure whatever's gonna happen will happen. It's fate, and there's nothing I can really do to change that."

Dean frowned at her logic. "That's crap. We aren't destined to do anything, there's always free will."

A code blue was announced on the speakers and Dean left Tessa knowing that the spirit of death was striking again, but this time he was too late and it claimed the life of a little girl to his disappointment.

Within ten minutes, Mia was back at the hospital with a large cardboard box under her arm.

"Is that a Ouija board?" Sam queried when he saw her take the board out.

"Yes, we have to contact Dean's spirit, and this will do it. Me and my friends used to play with these all the time when we were little kids," Mia told him as she set up the board on the floor by Dean's bed.

Dean who was watching nearby rolled his eyes. "Of course you did. You've got to be kidding me."

Sam figured he might as well give it a shot. "Dean," he summoned, "if you're here, please don't make fun of me for this."

Mia and Sam put their fingers on the planchette and pushed it to the center of the board for Dean to use if he was there.

"Dean, are you here?" Mia called.

"This isn't gonna work," Dean muttered as he put his hands on the planchette to move the piece. But to his surprise, the board began moving. He dragged the board to YES. "Well, I'll be damned," He remarked.

Sam and Mia exchanged delighted glances.

"Thank goodness!" Mia sighed in relief.

Sam smiled. "It hasn't been the same without you, man."

"Damn straight," Dean laughed. He then maneuvered the piece to spell out the word HUNT.

"Wait, you're hunting something in the hospital?" Mia asked.

The board slid to YES.

"What is it?" Sam pondered.

Dean slid the board to spell REAP.

"Rea…reap…reaper?" Mia questioned.

YES.

"They collect people and take them onto the next life, whatever that is," Sam explained to Mia before looking down at the board fearfully.

"Is it after you, Dean?"

YES.

Mia frowned apprehensively as she remembered hearing Dean's cries when the doctors had been operating on his dying body. "It tried to get you already, didn't it?"

YES.

"If it's here naturally… then-" Sam trailed off, afraid of finishing the sentence.

Dean finished it for him. "I'm screwed, Sam. There's no way to kill death."

"There's gotta be a way to help," Sam mumbled to himself.

Mia stood up. "Your dad. He might know what to do, I'll ask him."

She ran over to his hospital room and found his bed empty.

"Oh, no," She gasped, "he wouldn't!"

Mia snatched up John's journal and brought it to Sam.

"Where's Dad?" Sam asked her and she replied that his bed was empty.

Both of them knew what he was doing but decided it was Dean who needed their help now the most.

"I remember reading a page on reapers, I think it's here," Mia offered as she flipped to the right page.

"Thank you guys, for not giving up on me. Especially you, Sammy," Dean beamed at the two of them standing over his bedside.

He glanced at the passage they were reading and found something that he hadn't known about reapers.

"Son of a bitch," he cursed as he left the room to find Tessa.

She was standing in an empty room that once housed her 'dying body'. It was now deserted and instead of a hospital gown, Tessa wore a black dress.

"You know, you read the most interesting stuff in books. Like, uh, I dunno. How reapers can change their appearance?! I should've known it was you, all your fate and destiny crap was too calm for a dead chick," Dean snapped at her.

"I only did it so I could talk to you. When you saw my true form, you flipped," The human-shaped reaper sighed.

Dean glared at her. "Talk about what?"

She stood up and walked over to him. "How death is nothing to be afraid of… You're dying, Dean. You need to let go."

In the boiler room of the hospital, John Winchester completed his summoning ritual and the yellow-eyed demon appeared to tease him in the form of a hospital janitor.

"Summoning me? I never took you for the recklessly suicidal, John," He taunted.

"Oh I don't want to kill you," John smiled. "I wanna make a deal with you."

In Dean's hospital room, Mia put down the journal and released a devastated sigh of defeat.

"There's nothing in here that could help, Dean," She said to Sam who was looking over his older brother.

"You know what'd be useful? A manual on monsters with a description of how to defeat them. Like Vampires-decapitation, Reapers- etcetera! Damn, your dad could make a fortune selling books like that to hunters and-" She stopped when she realized Sam wasn't listening to her rambles. Instead, he was watching his brother, miserably.

She looked down at Dean's body and back at Sam. "I'll give you guys a minute."

Sam smiled at her gratefully as she disappeared into the hall.

"Dean, I know we couldn't find anything but I promise you, we'll keep trying as long as you keep fighting. You, you can't leave us. You know, me and Dad, we'll kill each other if you're gone,"

Sam began to feel the tears coming as he continued to speak. "You can't leave. We just started being brothers again, and who's gonna make fun of Mia's music with me? Huh? I need you, man. Please, hold on."

Dean looked at Tessa. "I know you probably get this all the time. But I can't die now. I-my family needs me. I have unfinished work I need to do."

"Look, you're not the first soldier I plucked from the battlefield. All of you react the same way, but the war is over for you. You've got to let it all go," The reaper told him soothingly.

Dean refused to submit to her will. "My family needs my help, my brother could die without me. My Dad's gonna drive himself crazy with revenge, and Mia… She needs someone to teach her or she'll end up hurting herself."

"Those things may or may not happen, but you can't do anything for them now," Tessa replied.

Dean walked away, trying to come up with a way to make Tessa let him stay with his family.

"It's an honorable death- a warrior's death," Tessa added.

"No," Dean shook his head, "no death is honorable. My family is going to die, and so is my friend if I don't help them. I don't care what you say. I'm staying behind."

Tessa shrugged, "Well you're right. I can't make you come with me. But if you stay, you'll never get back in your body. You'll be stuck here, for decades, and eventually, you'll go mad. You'll become a vengeful spirit, the very things that you hunt."

Dean's eyes widened in shock.

"Look, I'm willing to give you the Colt and the bullet if you save Dean," John offered the yellow-eyed demon.

The Demon frowned. "What makes you think the Colt is more important than his life?"

"You have no interest in him," John replied calmly.

The Demon snarled, "That's not true! He murdered people very dear to me… but you are right. He's not a threat. Neither is your other son. But the girl… has untold potential. She could become a threat to me."

John stared at him quizzically, "Mia? She's just a teenager, a novice hunter at best, how could she possibly be a threat to you?"

The Demon snickered as if she was part of a big joke John wasn't getting.

"But you do know the truth, about Sammy? Of course, you do, but you haven't told him," He taunted.

John glared at him. "Will you bring Dean back, yes or no?"

"It's not a problem, but ah, you still need to sweeten the deal," The Demon said to him.

"What more do you want?" John demanded.

The Demon stared at him. "You know exactly what I want."

Back upstairs, Tessa was coaxing Dean into giving in and moving on. But suddenly, the lights began to flicker and a black smoky substance emitted from the air vents and possessed Tessa's body despite her cries of refusal.

"What's happening?" Dean exclaimed fearfully.

Tessa turned to him, her eyes now yellow. "Today's your lucky day, kid." She touched his forehead and suddenly Dean was back in his body gasping for air with Sam standing over him who was calling for Mia to find a doctor.

The doctor was utterly baffled by Dean's recovery and after conducting various tests, left him alone with Sam and Mia.

"So there was a reaper after me?" Dean questioned the two of them.

"Yeah, and you made a glass of water break, and talked to us through the Ouija board," Mia explained.

Dean frowned. "How'd I ditch the reaper?"

"Beats me," Sam answered.

"You don't remember anything after the crash?" Mia asked in surprise.

Dean shook his head. His father entered the room, still wearing his patient gown, and smiled at his son.

"How are you feeling?" John asked Dean who sat up straighter in bed.

"A lot better,"

Sam glared at his father. "Where were you last night?"

"I had some things to take care of," John replied.

"Sam," Mia nudged her friend towards Dean who was silently pleading with them not to fight again.

"No, I wanna know. You were hunting The Demon, weren't you?" Sam argued.

John smiled. "Look, I don't want to fight. I mean, half the time we're fighting for no reason. I just hope you know, I've done the best that I could."

The three hunters exchanged worried looks. Something was really off.

"Dad, are you okay?" Sam asked, worriedly.

John sighed. "I'm just a little tired, would you mind running down and grabbing me a coffee?"

Sam agreed and disappeared into the hall.

John turned to Mia next who was standing by Dean's bed, rubbing the bandage at the back of her neck.

"Mia, I haven't known you long, but you've got a bright future ahead of you, kid. I hope you stay with my boys because they learn a lot from you, just like you learn a lot from them. You'll be a great hunter, I mean, you already are."

Mia blushed at her appraisal but her suspicions grew. Something was wrong, and she was gonna figure out what. She left John to allow him to talk to Dean in private and waited outside the room to interrogate John.

"Dean," John began softly to his eldest, "when you were a little kid, and I'd come home from a hunt-wrecked by what I'd seen. You'd take your little hand, put it on my shoulder, and say; 'it's okay, Dad'. I'm so sorry Dean, I should've been saying that to you. I made you grow up too fast, and put too much responsibility on your shoulders. You took care of Sammy and me, and you never complained, not even now."

Dean was completely shocked by his father's words. No praise for nearly twenty-seven years then suddenly all of this? Was his dad possessed again or something?

"Is this really you?" He asked and his father chuckled.

"Yeah, it's me. And I want you to know that I'm so proud of you, Dean." He squeezed his son's shoulder. "Watch out for Sammy, okay? I'd say watch out for Mia too but after yesterday I'm beginning to think that it's her who's watching out for you."

Dean stifled a laugh. "Dad, you know I'll always watch out for Sammy. Why are you saying all this? You're scaring me."

John shook his head as tears fell from his eyes. "Don't be scared, Dean."

Then he leaned in and whispered a secret that Dean could never tell anyone. Not even his own brother. Then he left the hospital room.

Mia ambushed him in the hallway. "What's the deal? You disappear then Dean suddenly gets better, and then you come in with a bunch of parting words and tears. You did something… Something bad."

John sighed and figured he might as well tell her anyways. "I made a deal with the demon. My life and the Colt for Dean's."

Mia's blue eyes went from suspicion to dread. "No, you didn't gamble away your life, John. Please tell me this is some kind of joke."

"It was the only way to save Dean," John affirmed quietly.

Mia choked on her tears. "What about me? Use my life instead, I'd rather be dead than see how much suffering the boys are going to endure from losing their father. My own family was torn apart years ago and I'd give anything not to see that happen to you guys."

"Oh, Mia, you have so much you still need to do. I'm older, I've lived my life." John confided to her as he ruffled her hair.

Mia clutched at her necklace tightly. "So, this is goodbye, then?"

John nodded and extended his arm for a formidable handshake but Mia wrapped her arms around the older man to his dismay.

"Take care of my boys for me, and don't tell them what I've done," John told her when she let go.

Mia gave him a teary salute. "Yes, Sir."

Then she left the room and collapsed to her knees in the hallway outside Dean's bedroom. This day was emotionally exhausting, and right now she just wanted to sleep. But she knew she had to remain alert, she had to comfort the Winchester brothers, and she had to do everything humanly possible to ease the passing of their father.

She looked up to see Sam walking down the hall with the cup of coffee his father would never get to drink.

"Hey, Mia? Where's Dad?" He asked.

"His room," she replied, as she took a deep breath to ready herself for Sam and Dean's reactions.

"Why are you sitting out here?" He asked, settling down beside her.

Mia wiped her eyes. "It's been an exhausting day… Hey, Sam. I…things are going to get better soon. Maybe not today, or even tomorrow but one day, we'll all be okay."

Sam nodded at her vague response before standing up to give his father his coffee.

Mia braced herself and held her breath.

"Dad!" Came Sam's strangled cry when he realized his father was lying on the ground. Unknowing that he had been killed by the Demon who'd killed both his mother and girlfriend.

Mia stood up and ran over to Sam who was freaking out. He called her to get Dean and to find a doctor.

Mia dashed into Dean's room.

"Hey, I wanted to tell you-what's wrong?" Dean asked suddenly noticing her terrified expression.

Mia struggled to speak. "Your dad, he-he, just come with me."

She helped Dean limp over to John's bedroom where doctors were attempting to revive him but Mia knew it was useless. She felt Sam and Dean lean against her for support and she held her breath to keep from sobbing as the two of them willed for their father to live, but it was too late.

John Winchester was dead. Time of death: 10:41 a.m.

A/N: THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR READING! Please keep reviewing! I promise I'll try hard to update more frequently!

Next Chapter: Dean, Sam, and Mia investigate a haunted, clown-infested circus, and discover The Roadhouse while the boys try to come to terms with their father's death.