He wasn't ready to admit it yet, but those bruises on her arms had Dean worried. As he helped Ji-a shower back at the motel, he found a dozen more. On her calves and shins, her lower back.

How had he not noticed this sooner?

Once she was clean and warm and dry, Dean coaxed Ji-a into taking some painkillers then sat doing research in bed beside her.

He had a couple of pages of ultra-obscure apocalypse lore up as a decoy in case she woke up or Sam got a glimpse of his laptop screen. But he was reading up on causes of unexplained bruising.

He wasn't pleased with what he kept finding.

"Maybe she's anemic," he said to Sam when he returned with dinner.

"What?" Sam furrowed his brow.

"Ji-a," Dean explained, "Those bruises. Maybe she's anemic. She's a vegetarian."

"Could be," Sam shrugged, "You worried?"

"I'm sure it's fine," Dean tried to sound casual.

He felt far from casual when she spiked a high fever at two o'clock in the morning. She was so overheated it woke him up. And she was shivering. Not sweating. That was a bad sign.

"Hey," Dean shook Ji-a's uninjured shoulder as he pulled back the blankets, "Come on. Wake up baby."

"Why is it so cold?" Ji-a muttered as she opened her eyes, grasping for the blankets as Dean pulled them back.

"You've got a fever," Dean said, trying to keep his voice gentle rather than frantic, "Let's get you a cold shower and some meds okay?"

"I just need to sleep," Ji-a protested, "I'm sure it's fine."

"Humor me," Dean said, kissing her forehead and pulling her up against him.

"Shoulder hurts," Ji-a mumbled into his chest.

"Let me take a look," Dean offered, "Lay down for me."

She complied.

Dean pulled back the bandages and tried to stifle a gasp, tried to keep is expression neutral.

The wound was hot and red, leaking pus. How had it gotten infected that fast? He'd pulled the bullet out in a sand pit, he reminded himself. That had to be why.

"I'm gonna clean this up and then we'll get you in a cold shower, alright?" Dean said. Ji-a had drifted off again. He kept talking anyways. Trying to ground himself.

Because as he flushed out the wound and reapplied the bandages and antibiotic cream, as he held her shivering body under the cold water for what felt like an eternity, as he coaxed her awake so she could take some fever reducers, he kept remembering what he'd read that afternoon.

Unexplained bruising could have many causes. Unfortunately, at least half of them are some kind of blood cancer.