Kim pulled a chair up to the edge of the hotel bed and settled as close to Tommy as she could. Sam and Dean were in the adjoining room and had offered to bring her dinner back from some diner that, supposedly, had the best bacon cheeseburgers in the state. She didn't care what they brought her to eat. She didn't care about anything other than Tommy opening his eyes.
She had lost him and gotten him back in the span of twenty four hours and it was so much to process. It was almost too much to feel and try to understand. Tommy had chosen to come back, he had chosen her, even though there was no guarantee that she would still be here for him. He couldn't know when he was going to come back to her, he couldn't know that he was going to get this right. He had just had faith that she would be waiting for him and he was right. He was right that she was waiting for him, she had always been waiting for him.
It had killed her to watch him betray her, to see the evil take him over so completely and to find out that that had always been Mesgog's goal. To break her, because breaking her is what would break Tommy and she kept him broken for years. She wanted to be whole again and she desperately wanted for him to be whole again as well. The only way that could happen was to heal, together and he had made sure that they had a chance to do that.
"Hey, you need some rest," Sam said as he slid some food in front of her and she looked over at him. Apparently he had drawn the short straw of trying to convince her to take care of herself. She knew that she was not going to get any good rest until Tommy woke up, no matter what they said to her. One look at Sam told her that he knew that as well. "If you won't rest, at least eat. You've had a hell of a couple of days. Do you want another sling?"
"Please. Dragging him out didn't make it any better," Kim said as Sam pulled off his outer shirt and folded it before carefully grabbing her arm and placing the sling. She looked at the food in front of her and her stomach grumbled, she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten. She went to reach for the fork and stilled, it had been a long time since she had been forced to do things right-handed. "Crap."
"You're a lefty?" Sam asked as Kim nodded and he grimaced as he took a look at her food. They had gotten her something slightly healthier, but there was no way that she could feed herself a salad right now. He saw the desperation in her eyes that she just be able to do something for herself and he knew then he was going to piss off his older brother. Right now, she was the one that needed comfort food. "Dean got an extra burger and fries, plus some pie. You want any of that?"
"That all sounds great," Kim said as Sam just nodded and then went to wrestle the food away from Dean. He hoped that he'd be able to lean on how clutch Kimberly had been through all of the things from the last few days. "Sam…thank you."
"The two of you protected our world from a threat that we never could defeat and you got stuck here for it. This is the least we can do," Sam said as Kim gave him a confused look as he walked through the door into the other room and she heard Dean grumble as Sam exchanged the food.
"Oh c'mon man," Dean said as he trailed after Sam before he caught a glimpse of Kim with her arm in a sling and then realized why Sam was stealing his burger. "You want someone to stay up with you?"
"There's no reason for all of us to have a sleepless night. Plus with how banged up I am, I'm not going to sleep well anyways. We can't stay here more than tonight…I can sleep while we drive…well, wherever you think we should go," Kim said as she awkwardly grabbed the burger and managed to slosh out a bunch of ketchup and mustard onto her lap, but did get a bite. She closed her eyes as some real food hit her stomach and she let it seep in to her. "Oh this is amazing."
"You want to change?" Dean asked as Sam gave him a look and he just shook his head. Was Dean really going to try to get her naked after everything she'd been through? "Sam- she's been in the same clothes for close to four days. And what- that's your blood, his blood, Lipretere's?"
"Probably some Shikigami as well," Kim muttered as she looked down at her tattered clothing. He was right that she should change, but she didn't know if she could will herself to go through that kind of pain. "My shoulder finally doesn't hurt though…I just…"
"Here," Sam tossed her a pair of boxers and she gave him a look. She highly doubted that Tommy would be thrilled at her wearing another man's clothing, but it would be clean. The clothes that she was in needed to be lit on fire, there was no saving them. "They're clean with no holes- that's more than you can say for your clothes right now."
"Touche," Kim agreed as she stood and started stripping in front of them. Sam and Dean exchanged an uncomfortable glance but Dean found himself staring at her legs. "You have zero chance."
"Doesn't hurt to look," Dean said with a smirk as she locked eyes with him and he looked away. It might not hurt to look, but she was in no mood to be sexualized by anyone except Tommy. "Sorry."
"If you had said that to me six months ago- I would have taken you up on it- to get back at him. Now, I just…" Kim trailed off as she looked between Tommy and the two of them. "Do you have any napkins? I still want to eat."
"I'll see what I can find," Sam said as Dean took up the chair on the other side of the bed and Kim shook her head. Why wouldn't they just leave her alone with him?
"You'll hurt yourself if you pass out and have one of those nightmares. You're exhausted. Sammy got some good rest today and is going to get a good night's sleep- he can drive us out of here tomorrow. Eat. We don't have to talk."
Tommy jerked awake and felt hands firmly hold him against a bed. He was met with green eyes and he tried to scramble away from who was holding him. He hadn't made it back to her. He had gone through all of this trouble and he had not made it back to the woman that he loved. The grip was stronger than any of his friends and he fought to try to figure out how far off he had been.
"Hey, she just got comfortable enough to pass out and she's in a shit ton of pain," Dean whispered as he glanced to the side and Tommy looked over to see Kim in a sling, asleep on the other side of the bed. He immediately relaxed as he realized he had done it. He had managed to make it back to her. "What happened to you?"
"How long was I gone?" Tommy asked as he slowly sat up and Dean hesitantly settled back into the gaudy chair. "Dean."
"A little over 48 hours, but that's not how time passed for you," Dean stated as Tommy gave him a confused look. "I know the look. I've had it happen a time or two. How long was it for you?"
"A year. It took me a year to figure out how to get back to her."
AN: I don't know how much longer .net is going to hold it together. If you're unaware- there have been all sorts of problems from blank pages showing up to all of our stats being down for about two months. I do intend to publish on here until the site dies- but I want to make sure that my readers are aware that my stories are also on AO3 under the same penname- BrookeSHodges. Just in case the day comes and this website becomes completely unusable- I am trying to let my readers know where else they can find me if they want to keep reading.