S6 E21

"I'm gonna walk to the library," Sophie said, kissing Dean's head as he settled in with their next batch of research, "I've gotta fax something for work. I asked if I could email but apparently not."

"You sure you're okay?" Dean asked.

"It's a ten minute walk. I go all the time. You know this," Sophie assured him, "Jody has the guys look out for me. It's fine."

"Salt, holy water, silver switch blade?" Dean asked.

"Got all three," Sophie said, "Be back in under an hour. Love you."

"Love you babe," he kissed her palm before she walked out the door.

It was less than ten minutes later when his phone rang.

"Miss me already," he joked when he picked up.

"Dean someone's following me," Sophie's breathing was ragged, like she was running.

"Who?" Dean asked, getting to his feet. As though somehow that would get him to her faster.

"No clue," Sophie panted, "Demons? Maybe? Two big guys. Dark suits. I thought maybe they were tailing me so I took a wrong turn to be sure and they are definitely after me. And they're getting close."

"Okay I'll be right there," Dean assured her, "Intersection?"

"Brennan and 3rd. I'm by the high school," Sophie said.

"Okay I'm coming," Dean said, "Just try to loose them."

He heard a crash, people shouting, muffled static.

"Sophie! Sophie!" He called into the receiver.

"I'm afraid she's indisposed at the moment Dean," came Crowley's voice from the other end.

Dean wasn't entirely sure what he was expecting. But when he burst through that door to find Sophie tied down to a table, naked, gagged, with a demon looming over her, knife in hand, he just about lost it.

This was his fault.

How could he have let this happen?

They could've killed her. They might still.

"That anti possession sigil made things tricky," the demon said, tracing its knife over the tattoo on Sophie's chest, "We'd been planning to just take her body rather than guard her."

"But this is more fun," he continued, "Pretty little wholesome thing. Too religious. Too strong willed. And the epilepsy…wouldn't have been a good meat suit anyways."

Dean gripped a flask of holy water in his pocket. Considering his options.

"Oh do please come closer," the demon snarled, "I'd just love to stab her."

Dean started to recite an exorcism and watched as the demon traced its knife along the skin of Sophie's stomach. It wasn't pressing hard enough to draw blood. But it was certainly scaring her. Sophie's eyes were screwed shut. Her breathing was fast and shallow.

"You really don't want to do that," it sneered as Dean continued the Latin incantation, pressing the knife just hard enough to draw a trickle of blood.

Sophie whimpered and Dean stopped short.

"Fine," Dean admitted, gripping the holy water in one hand and the demon-killing knife in the other, "I'll improvise."

And with that he threw the holy water in its face and brought the knife around. But not before it drove its own weapon down through Sophie's navel. Dean froze as the demon dropped. Blood poured from the wound on Sophie's abdomen and he heard her screaming through the gag. It took a moment for him to get his bearings. For him to do something. But when he looked at her face and saw that pleading look in her eyes it cleared his head and jarred him into action.

"You're okay," Dean murmured over and over as he cut the ropes around Sophie's body and pulled the gag from her mouth.

Tears were pouring down her face and he could see blood starting to slick her teeth and tongue.

"I'm gonna get you to a hospital right away," he assured her as he wrapped his coat around her shoulders and bundled her into his arms.

"That's a bad sign right?" Sophie managed to choke out as he picked her up against his chest, "That I might actually be dying?"

She was still cogent enough to curl into him, to try and seek comfort. He took that as a good sign.

"Nobody's dying today," Dean assured her, "Now don't pass out on me."

He cradled Sophie's bleeding body in the back of the truck Sam had stollen. Her pulse was thready under his fingers. So he held her closer and pressed harder to the gushing wound in her stomach. He hoped she would make it out of this. He prayed she would make it out of this. He kept whispering to her that everything would be fine and they'd get her patched up.

But he couldn't make himself believe any of it.

"Sam hurry," Dean urged as he felt Sophie getting weaker by the second.

He sat by Sophie's bedside, holding her hand and watching the heart monitor.

They had all kinds of antibiotics and pain killers in her IV. The knife had nicked her liver and punctured her small intestine. They'd tried to operate and clean things up - since cutting open your guts had a tendency to dump bacteria a lot of places it shouldn't be - but she was bleeding too much to do anything other than sew up the lacerations and cross their fingers. So now they said she was likely to go septic.

They'd told him to anticipate a turn for the worse within the next twenty-four hours. If the antibiotics were strong enough she'd make it. If they weren't…well…

This was all his fault.

"Please be okay," he murmured, squeezing her hand.

"I'm sorry Dean," Castiel's voice came from behind him.

"Too little too late Cas," Dean shook his head, not taking his gaze from his unconscious wife.

"I'm sorry Sophie," Cas whispered.

"She can't hear you Cas," Dean snapped, "Bleeding too much for surgery. So we sit here. Wait for her to go septic and die!"

"I wish it were different," Cas said.

"Me too man," Dean raked a hand through his hair and sat down again, "But here we are."

"But I didn't just come to apologize," Cas added. He bent and touched Sophie's forehead gently. And Dean watched in awe as the color came back into her cheeks and the pulse on the heart rate monitor started to get slower and more even.

"Hey Cas," Dean said as the angel turned to leave.

"Yes?" Cas stopped, "She'll be perfectly fine. If that's what you're asking. Probably a little sore from the tube down her throat. Tired I'm sure. But no lasting…"

"Can you do one more thing for me?" Dean asked.

She woke up almost instantly, gagging on the tube down her throat.

"You're okay," Dean soothed as a team of doctors and nurses descended on them.

"What happened?" Sophie croaked once the room finally cleared.

"You don't remember?" Dean feigned ignorance.

"I remember leaving to go fax something at the library and then…" she shook her head.

"Attacked by a dog on your walk," Dean said simply, "Hit your head pretty bad. Couple cuts on your stomach. You'll be just fine. They're sending you home tonight."

That last part was technically a lie. They didn't want to send her home tonight. They wanted to keep her for observation. Dean knew she was alright. He had an angel's word on it after all. And he knew she'd do better back at Bobby's. Papers were already signed. But she didn't need to know it was against medical advice. Not right now at least.

"What kind of dog?" Sophie asked.

"Huh?" The question startled Dean from his thoughts.

"What kind of dog bit me?" Sophie repeated.

"Rottweiler," Dean improvised.

Sophie shuddered.

"That could've been a lot worse," she murmured.

"Yeah it could've been," Dean agreed, kissing her forehead, "But you're alright. That's all that matters."

"I always liked cats better," Sophie murmured, "Maybe someday we'll have a house again and we can get a cat…"

"I think you're still a little loopy from the pain meds," Dean said gently, stroking her hair.

"I never had a cat at the farm…I should have," a look of irrational panic crossed Sophie's face.

"You're definitely still loopy from the pain meds," Dean said, "Sleep baby."

Dean held Sophie's sleeping form in the back seat of the Impala, unwilling to break contact even for a moment.

"So she won't remember?" Sam asked.

"Everyone," Dean replied, "Including the hospital staff, thinks she was attacked by a dog on her walk and sustained some minor injuries. She'll have a little scar on her stomach. Won't remember a thing."

"That's probably for the best," Sam agreed.

"Just play along," Dean encouraged.

"You're thankful to have her safe?" Sam stated the obvious.

"Thankful doesn't even begin to cover it," Dean kissed Sophie's forehead, "Now get us home."