Author's Note: Hello, dear readers. Once again, I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get this chapter written and posted. I've been busy with my usual craziness, but I've also not been feeling the urge to write. Apparently, my muse has decided she needed an extended vacation. I've had a rough idea for some of the things that happen in this chapter for a whole, and I finally decided to use them. Plus, I'm starting the set up for the next few chapters. As usual, I have an idea about where I want to go, but I'm not quite sure how I want to get there. I'm also trying to decide which character I want to bring in next – Cas or Crowley. I think either one would be great – maybe both? Who knows where that idea might end up.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Leave a comment or send me a PM. I love hearing from my readers.
Just a little shameless plug, I am starting to upload some of my stories to An Archive of Our Own (AO3) under the username BeauBeauCat. So far, I've only uploaded a couple of my one-shot Supernatural stories. Check them out if you're on that site as well. I may eventually put this story on there as well. Never fear, I'm going to stay around FF as well.
CHAPTER 26
"Come on, Sam. Please, can I go?" Krissy pleaded as she followed him through the door into the kitchen.
Sam stopped so abruptly and spun to face her that she nearly ran into him. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a hard look. "You keep bugging me about it, and the answer is going to be no."
Krissy took a step back and mirrored Sam's stance. "It's not like I'm grounded this time."
"Yet," Dean muttered from where he sat at the table. He glanced up from his computer and took a sip of coffee. "What's up?"
"I want to go to the study hour at the library, but Sam is being an as… um, astonishingly stubborn person about it." At the warning looks both men sent her way, Krissy had quickly reconsidered what she was going to say.
Dean smirked as Sam moved to the refrigerator and began pulling out ingredients for his breakfast. He knew what the teenager had been about to say. He was glad she'd caught herself, since he really didn't want to have to keep his word and bust her ass. It wasn't something either of them enjoyed, and he'd prefer not to have to ever do it again.
Sam, too, knew what Krissy had started to say. Unlike Dean, he chose to ignore it. Instead, he turned to look at her. "Do you want an egg white omelet, or do you want to fix something for yourself?"
Krissy shrugged. She was frustrated with Sam's lack of answer about whether she could meet her classmates at the library that afternoon. She didn't understand why he wasn't letting her go. "I'll fix something later," she responded with a shrug. She started to turn around and leave the kitchen, but Sam's words stopped her.
"You ran five miles this morning, you need to eat something to refuel your body. Now, do you want to make something for yourself or not?"
"Fine," Krissy huffed and moved to grab a box of cereal and a bowl. Sam handed her the milk out of the refrigerator as she passed by.
"Add some fruit to that."
She ignored him as she grabbed a banana from the bowl on the counter and dropped it on the table beside her bowl. She plopped down into her seat and filled the bowl with Frosted Flakes. Picking up the banana, she sighed dramatically as she realized that she hadn't grabbed a knife. Instead of getting up to get one, she peeled the fruit and began breaking pieces of it off and dropping them into the bowl. She ignored the napkin Dean held out to her when she was finished. Instead, she wiped her hands on her jeans.
Dean shrugged and dropped the napkin onto the table before turning his attention back to his computer. "I think I've found another one," he said without looking up from the screen. "This one's in Nebraska."
Sam glanced up from the stove. "Same as before?"
"Pretty much," Dean responded.
"What's going on?" Krissy asked, intrigued by the cryptic conversation going on around her. "Is there another hunt? Is that why you aren't telling me whether or not I can go to the library this afternoon?"
Sam shared a look with his brother before responding. "We're not sure, yet, if there is anything going on. It might just be a coincidence."
Krissy narrowed her eyes and dropped the spoonful of cereal she was about to eat back into the bowl. "But you guys always say there's no such thing as coincidence."
Dean rubbed the back of his head as he sat back in his chair. "Yeah, well, we could be wrong." He hoped they were wrong, he thought bitterly, because he really didn't like the conclusion his mind was drawing from what he had been seeing on the Internet.
"But," Krissy started to protest, but she was stopped when Sam interrupted her.
"We don't have enough information yet to know if what we're seeing are isolated incidents that have nothing to do with the supernatural, or if they're something we need to be worried about." He poured the egg white and herb mixture he'd prepared into a hot skillet and watched as it began to set.
"What are you guys talking about?" she demanded.
Sam sighed and looked at his watch before he folded the omelet over and slid it onto his plate. "You have Earth Sciences in thirty minutes. Finish your breakfast and get set up in the library for class." Although Sam no longer sat with her out of camera range during her classes, he still insisted that she attend the sessions in the library rather than in her bedroom. "We'll talk afterwards."
Krissy growled under her breath in frustration before taking a bite of her now soggy cereal. She knew that any arguing at this point would have the opposite effect, and she really wanted to meet her friends at the library that afternoon.
XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX
Sam watched as Krissy rinsed her dishes and put them in the dishwasher. She grabbed a bottle of water and headed out of the room. He assumed she was going to get her laptop to set up for class in the library. He'd stopped sitting in the library just outside of camera range to make sure Krissy didn't chat with her friends during class after a few days. He still randomly walked through the room, making sure to stay out of the view of the camera, just to check up on her. He figured in a couple of weeks, if she behaved herself, he would let her go back to attending classes in the privacy of her bedroom.
Sam sighed and turned his attention to Dean. "What did you find in Nebraska?" His voice held a note of concern.
Dean rose from his chair and picked up his plate. He took it and his coffee mug to the sink. The plate went into the dishwasher, and he refilled the mug before reclaiming his seat. "There was a lightning storm near Pawnee City a couple of nights ago. Apparently, it popped up outta nowhere. There wasn't anything predicted for that day, and no other storms in the area."
Sam reached across the table and pulled Dean's computer over so he could type in a search. He found the story and read it for himself. The story contained only basic facts and pretty much what Dean had reported. He emailed the story to himself so that he could plot it on the map he had started to track the events and sat back in his seat and rubbed his hand over his face. "It's not much to go on, but my gut is saying something's happening."
"Electrical storms popping up outta the blue in Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado. Cattle mutilations in Oklahoma and Arkansas. My gut agrees with yours. I just don't know what it is yet."
"Have you checked in with Cas or Crowley? One of them has probably heard something," Sam commented.
Dean shook his head. "My call to Cas went straight to voicemail. His inbox was full, so I wasn't able to leave a message." He smirked and continued, "I didn't know he'd given his number to anyone but us. Makes you wonder who else is trying to get in touch with him."
"And Crowley?"
"The limey bastard didn't pick up. I left a message for him. We'll see if he actually gets back to us." Dean paused to take a drink of his coffee and pull his computer back across the table. "Looks like we're going to have to figure this out the hard way."
Sam sighed and rose to his feet. He picked up his plate and carried it to the sink. He used the time it took to wash the skillet and put his plate in the dishwasher to gather his thoughts. "We know how this worked the last time," he commented as he returned to his seat. "What are we going to do about Krissy? She's protected from demonic possession, but there's still a lot that could go wrong."
"Right now we don't know if anything is going on," Dean said as he sat back in his chair. "I say we keep this under wraps until we know something more. If it looks like those asshats are plotting something, we'll figure out what to do with her then."
XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX
"I can't believe you're finally here," Shelby said as she fluffed her hair and tweaked her bangs as she studied her reflection in the restroom mirror. She had dragged Krissy in there roughly fifteen minutes into the study hour. She'd wanted to have a private conversation, away from Devin and Micah.
"Me, either," Krissy said with a smile. She had been afraid that her new friends weren't going to be as accepting of her in person as they had been online. It was a lot easier to fake being friendly through a computer screen. It felt really good to do something so normal as chatting in a public restroom with a friend.
The two teenagers made their way back to the study room that had been reserved for the group. Devin and Micah stopped talking when they entered. Krissy grinned. "Were you talking about us?"
"Now what makes you think that?" Devin asked as the two girls reclaimed their seats at the table.
"How about the fact you both shut up when I opened the door," Shelby picked of the line of conversation.
The boys looked at each other and laughed. "Maybe, but that's for us to know."
Krissy laughed and stuck out her tongue to show there were no hard feelings. "Anybody heard from Zoe?" She was genuinely curious. Zoe hadn't been in class the last few days. The one time she'd been in class, she hadn't chatted with anyone. That, combined with the video Zoe had sent her, made Krissy wonder if more was going on than met the eye.
"Yeah, she's got the flu or something," Devin replied. "She texted me about it on Tuesday. I haven't heard from her since then."
"So, you wanna go over to the coffee shop?" Micah asked before Krissy could do anything more than hum in concern for her friend.
"Coffee shop? I thought we were here to work on homework?" Krissy asked.
Micah shrugged. "We usually stay here for a few minutes, then go across the street. Everyone knows we do it, including Mr. Frazier."
Krissy thought about it for a minute. "My uncle expects me to get my homework done while I'm here. I don't think he'll be very happy if I didn't do it." She hated that she sounded like a prig, but she knew Sam wouldn't let her come back if she didn't meet his expectations. Not to mention the fact that she would be leaving the place where he'd left her.
"So, we'll work on homework for a while, then we'll go," Devin suggested. He as secretly glad that Krissy had brought it up, as his mom had fussed at him the week before for not using the time to finish his assignments. He reached down and grabbed his backpack, setting it on the table. "What's everybody got to work on?"
Krissy flashed a quick grin of appreciation to Devin, who winked in response. "I'm all caught up except for Earth Sciences. I haven't started the assignment we got today."
"Same here," Devin said. Shelby and Micah confirmed that they, too, still needed to do the assignment. "I think, if we work together, we can get it done in about fifteen minutes or so. That'll still give us time to go get coffee."
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting at a table in front of the big picture window of the coffee shop across the street from the library. Krissy was glad she'd been saving the change from any spending money the Winchesters had given her so she was able to buy herself a salted caramel latte.
The friends were chatting when Micah said, "Holy shit, look at that car," completely out of the blue. "I've seen it around time a few times. Whoever owns is one lucky guy. They don't make cars like that anymore."
Krissy followed his gaze and spotted the Impala parked in a spot in front of the library. She groaned as she watched Sam climb out of the driver's seat and walk into the building.
"What?" Devin asked. "What's wrong?"
"That car belongs to my uncle. He just went inside the library, probably looking for me." She paused to take a sip of her latte to settle her sudden attack of nerves. "I really wasn't supposed to leave the library."
Shelby glanced over and watched as a tall, muscular man exited the library and moved to lean against the back bumper of the Impala. "That's your uncle?"
"Yeah, my Uncle Sam. The car actually belongs to my Uncle Dean, but they both drive it. Dean calls it his baby."
"I can see why," Micah said. "That car is gorgeous. You think your uncle would let me take a look at it some time?" His friends looked at him, gape mouthed at the fact that he'd totally missed the fact that Krissy was worried about being in trouble.
"Really?" Shelby questioned. "That's what you ask?"
"You should have said something," Devin said. "We could have stayed at the library. We just started coming over here because it usually doesn't take us the full hour to finish our homework." He glanced around at the others. "We all have to do the work the same day it's assigned, so the only homework we have on Thursdays is Earth Science. As you saw, it doesn't take that long."
"That's okay," Krissy said. "I'm the new person here, so I didn't want to mess anything up." She shrugged and glanced down at her phone as it lit up with a notification of an incoming text message. She didn't have to look to know it was from Sam, asking where she was. "Besides, I wanted to come over here." She gathered her stuff and stood. "Anyway, I've gotta go."
She started to walk off when Devin rose to his feet and pulled her into a hug. "Good luck," he said into her ear. "I've got strict parents, too. I hope you don't get into too much trouble." He let her go and stepped back. "I hope you come back next week. Oh, and we're probably going to the football game next Friday. Ask your uncle if you can go."
Krissy smiled at his kindness. She could tell he had the possibility of being a good friend. She just hoped she was around long enough to get to know him better. With the hunter life, one never knew where one was going to be at any given time.
Sam didn't say anything as he watched Krissy approach the vehicle. He straightened and moved to the driver's door as she tossed her backpack into the back seat and climbed into the front passenger seat. "So, how was the study hour?" he asked as he backed the Impala out of its parking spot and pulled into traffic. "Did you get any of your homework done?"
"It was good. I enjoyed meeting everyone in person," she responded. "I got my Earth Sciences assignment finished." She glanced in Sam's direction, a bit suspicious of the fact that Sam hadn't said anything yet about the coffee shop. "Zoe wasn't there, though. Micha said she's been sick."
Sam hummed a noncommittal sound in response. However, he did file that information away in the back of his mind. Something was going on with the other teenager and that video, but he just didn't know what it was, yet. Given that, he was just as glad that she hadn't been there.
They were almost back to the bunker when Krissy spoke again. "Sam, about the coffee shop," she said quietly, not sure how he was going to respond.
"What about it?" Sam's voice held a slightly hard note.
"I know I wasn't supposed to leave the library," she began before pausing to swallow back her nervousness. "But, it was just across the street, and I was with the others. I wasn't alone."
Sam nodded and sighed. "Krissy, I'm not happy that you left the library, but I'm not going to punish you for it. Yes, I would have preferred that you'd sent me a text to let me know where you were going. But, you've come a long way since you started living with us, and you've earned some measure of trust." He paused and gave a snort of amusement. "Dean may not agree with me, but I also think you deserve to have somewhat of a normal teenage existence. That includes going places with your friends in the immediate vicinity of where you are supposed to be." He again paused to look over at her. "If you'd gone blocks away, that would have been a different story. But I'm not too worried about you going across the street." His expression grew serious. "If I had called or texted you and asked where you were, what would you have told me? Be honest."
Krissy narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She was sure that Sam was trying to trick her somehow. "I would have told you I was across the street from the library. For all I would have known, there might have been something serious going on."
Sam grinned. "Good answer."
"Are you going to tell Dean?"
"Why would I? Like I said, I don't have a problem with what you did as long as you send me a text message letting me know you're going the next time. I'm not telling you to ask for permission, just to give me a heads up, okay? " He paused as he turned the vehicle into the dirt road that lead to the entrance of the bunker's underground garage.
Krissy grinned. "That's a deal."
"Besides, what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?" Sam asked as he shot a dimpled grin in her direction.
"Right!" Krissy said on a laugh.
XxxxxX XxxxxX XxxxxX
A few days later, Krissy woke up in the middle of the night. Her head was pounding, her stomach was roiling, and she felt like she was drenched in sweat even though there was a chill in the room. A few minutes passed, and she found herself having to swallow back bile as her head swam. She lay in bed, hoping the world would stop spinning so quickly. Suddenly, she leapt from her bed, heedless of the dizziness that threatened to engulf her and ran toward the bathroom across the hall. She prayed she would make it in time.
Dean woke up to the sound of a bedroom door bouncing off the wall as it was shoved open and running feet in the hallway. It took him a minute to realize the sound had come from Krissy's room. He climbed from bed and made his way out into the hallway and frowned when he spotted her open bedroom door. He took a few steps closer and peered into the room, only to find it empty. The sound of violent retching coming from the nearby bathroom told him all he needed to know.
He turned toward the room and briefly considered taking the coward's way out and returning to his room. Blood and guts he could handle with no problem, vomit – not so much. He took a deep breath and readied himself for what he was going to find before he pushed the door open. He was met by a sour smell and the sound of a flushing toilet.
"You okay?" he asked as he moved into the room.
"Go away," Krissy groaned. She just wanted to die in peace. Her stomach spasmed again and she moved to throw herself back over the toilet. By the time she was finished and had slumped back against the wall of the toilet stall, Dean had wet a washcloth in cold water. He handed it to her and watched as she wiped her sweaty face before running it over her mouth.
"You finished?" he asked quietly.
She nodded weakly and allowed Dean to lift her to her feet. She swayed unsteadily, and Dean lifted her into his arms. He carried her back to her bedroom. "You want to rinse your mouth out before you go back to bed?" Krissy nodded weakly, and Dean let her slide to her feet beside the sink in her room. "If you're going to upchuck again, let me know. I'd rather rush back to the john than have to clean up after you."
Krissy grinned slightly. She couldn't blame him. She wouldn't want to clean up puke, either. She filled a cup with water and rinsed out her mouth three times before the foul taste was gone. She'd turned to make her way back to bed when Sam stepped into the room.
"What's going on?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.
Krissy just glanced at him as she made her way unsteadily to her bed. She couldn't seem to find the strength to bother with lowering the covers, but just fell on top of them and curled up on her side facing the room.
"She's sick to her stomach," Dean explained as he moved toward the door. This was more Sam's area than his, and he figured he'd done his part. "I found her upchucking in the bathroom."
Sam stepped around his brother and approached the bed. He gave Krissy a sympathetic smile as he reached forward and laid his hand on her forehead. His smile quickly turned to a frown when he felt the heat radiating from her skin. "I think you're running a fever. I'll go get the thermometer from the first aid kit in a minute. Other than your stomach, is anything else going on?"
Krissy closed her eyes as she swallowed back another wave of nausea. After a few seconds, she nodded. "I have a headache and my throat hurts."
Sam nodded as he stood and moved to the medicine cabinet hanging over her bedroom sink. He opened the door and grabbed the bottle of ibuprofen from the second shelf and shook a couple of pills out into his hand. He ran some water into her cup and took it over to the bed. "Here, take these. Just sip enough water to help you swallow them."
She did as he instructed before handing the glass back to Sam and flopping back on the bed with a groan.
Sam moved across the room and grabbed the trash can from under her desk. He was relieved to see that it had a liner in it. He moved back across the room and placed it beside the bed. "In case you need it. I'm going to go get the thermometer and something to try and settle your stomach some. I'll be back in a few minutes." As he turned to leave the room, he noticed that Dean was nowhere to be seen. Coward, he thought to himself.
He returned a few minutes later with the thermometer, a bottle of ginger ale, and a sleeve of saltine crackers. He placed everything but the thermometer on the nightstand. "Here, put this under your tongue," he instructed as he held the digital device out to her. When she did what she'd been told, he pulled a washcloth out of the pocket of his pajama pants and moved to the sink. By the time he had wet the cloth with cold water, the thermometer beeped.
He moved back to the bed and took the thermometer from Krissy. "Hhhhm," he hummed. "One oh two," he said as he turned the device off. "That's pretty high." He put the thermometer on the nightstand and resumed his earlier seat on the side of the bed. "The pills I gave you should help bring it down." He wiped her face with the damp washcloth, then laid it against the back of her neck. "That should help some, too. Sip the ginger ale and nibble on the crackers, and see if you can get some rest." He'd previously spotted her cellphone on the nightstand. "I'm going to go back to bed, but you text me if you need anything."
Krissy nodded her agreement and closed her eyes. Sam could tell she was feeling pretty miserable. "I mean it, if you need me, text me – or shout out."
Krissy opened her eyes briefly. "Thanks, Sam," she said weakly.
He nodded and leaned down to drop a quick kiss on the top of her head and tucked the bedspread around her shoulders. He paused at the door to turn off the overhead light, leaving a nightlight burning near her sink. She was already drifting to sleep, so he didn't say anything as he left the room, leaving the door open so he could hear if she needed help.
Krissy woke up sick twice during the night. The first time she managed to make it to the bathroom before she vomited bile and the few sips of ginger ale she'd had. The second time, she dry heaved into the trashcan beside her bed. The next morning when Sam checked on her, she was still running a fever and complained about a headache and muscle aches.
"Get up and pull on some clothes, kiddo," Sam said as he pulled out his phone. "I think you need to get some medical attention. There's an urgent care in town, we can go there." He glanced at where she now sat on the side of the bed. "Do you need some help?"
"No, I can do it." The idea of Sam helping her get dressed was just too much for her to consider. "Can't I just go as I am?" She was wearing a pair of grey pajama pants and a t-shirt.
"Yeah, I guess so. Pull on a pair of shoes, though." He pulled up the information for the urgent care and looked at their hours. "We should get there right as the open," he said. "Hopefully, that means we can get you in and out and back in bed quickly." He gave her a small smile.
Thirty minutes later, they were in an exam room at the local urgent care. Sam had tried to get Krissy to lay on the exam table, but she had insisted on insisted on curling up in the plastic chair next to him with her head in his lap. He felt slightly uncomfortable, but tried to sooth her by rubbing his hand up and down her arm.
They were still in that position when the door opened and an older woman walked in. "Hi, I'm Mandy. I understand Krissy is feeling under the weather?"
Sam nudged Krissy. "Come on, time to sit up." He pulled her up so that she was sitting the chair next to him.
"Yes, ma'am," Krissy said weakly once she was in an upright position.
Mandy smiled. "Tell me what's going on." She listened as Krissy described what had happened the night before and how she was feeling.
"She had a fever around three this morning, and I gave her some ibuprofen. I didn't take it again before we left to come over here." He paused. "I haven't given her any more ibuprofen, since I wasn't sure how often she could take it."
"That's fine," Mandy said as she made a note. "She can take 400 mg of ibuprofen every six hours. Let's check to see if you're still running a fever." She pulled an ear thermometer out of her pocket an inserted it into Krissy's right ear. "Hhmm, one hundred two point three. You're definitely running a fever." She removed the disposable covering from the thermometer and tossed it into the trash can. "Hop up on the table and let me take a look at you."
After she completed her exam, Mandy helped Krissy climb down from the table and watched as the teenager made her way back to the plastic chair beside Sam. Krissy leaned into him, and he shifted to wrap his arm around her shoulders.
"I can do a flu test to verify it, but I'm pretty sure that's what you have, Krissy. It's been running rampant around here the last few weeks. I can give you something for the nausea and an anti-viral that can shorten the duration some, but it's still going to have to run it's course. It will probably be three or four days before you really start feeling better."
Krissy groaned at her words. Sam gave her shoulders a squeeze in sympathy. He accepted the prescription slips that Mandy held out to him and helped Krissy to her feet. "Come on, kiddo, let's get you home and back to bed."
Author's Note: I really thought about deleting the last section. I started to erase it several times, thinking nobody really wanted to read about a teenager with the flu. But, I ended up leaving it in. It's such a normal part of life, and we haven't seen Krissy getting to experience that very much. Still, I apologize to anyone who found that section less than pleasant to read.