Contradictions
Chapter Two
15 Hours Earlier: Clinic in Water Lake, Iowa:
"Sam, stop pacing and sit down," Dean Winchester said from the bed he was lying propped up on after they'd arrived at the small, rural clinic in a town that the older Winchester had some distant memory of them driving through years ago when he and Sam had been kids. "I'm fine. We should have just gone on to Bobby's and let him hover."
"Dean! You almost passed out twice since Joliet!" Sam argued back, turning back from where he'd been pacing the small exam room where they'd been led to after he'd helped his brother into the clinic only to have a short, plump nurse quickly take over by planting his muttering sibling in a wheelchair and wheeling Dean down the hall while calling for the doctor. "You…" he paused to look at the door before stepping closer to the bed and dropping his voice. "You lost a lot of blood to that damn Djinn, Dean."
"Yeah. I am really drawing the line about going after monsters that almost suck me dry," Dean sighed, laying his head back to rest but keeping his eyes open enough to watch his brother closely. "Sammy. Sit down before you fall down, and Bobby has to drive down here to pick both of us up," he said, reaching out quickly to catch Sam's wrist before he could move away to pace the room again. "Sit!"
Sam frowned but did finally sit on the edge of his brother's bed to stare at his hands rather than over at Dean. "I'm sorry," he muttered after a couple minutes of silence.
"For what?" Dean asked, still watching Sam from under half-closed lashes and noticing how on edge and tired his brother seemed, suddenly guessing what this was about. "Sam, what happened with the Djinn wasn't your fault," he told him. "I should have followed my own advice about not leaping before looking or not going in solo and called you back with the coordinates of that warehouse. You got there and that's all that matters."
Sam doubted that, but he'd let it go for the moment or until they were in a better place for such conversations. "So… what kind of fantasy world did the Djinn show you?" he asked, glancing over to see a quick flash of something like a frown cross his brother's ruggedly handsome face only to have it go in a second. "My research said Djinn's fantasy worlds are like granting wishes while drinking blood or in this case draining it."
"Yeah, something like that, I guess," Dean muttered, uneasy about this talk since he still hadn't had time or enough clear thought to fully process his 'fantasy' world or why he'd been able to break the Djinn's hold like he had to know it was a fantasy. "It's kind of hard to describe, Sam. I just know that I think I can do without ever going through it again," he added.
"You broke yourself free though, Dean." Sam was glad he had because he really didn't think if Dean had stayed in the Djinn's fantasy world much longer that his brother would have survived. "How'd you do that? I mean, other than seeing that girl we'd been looking for in your vision, how'd you know that world was fake or how to wake up?"
"Oh, the waking up part was easy, little brother," Dean said, lips curving into a tired smile while opening his eyes to watch Sam fully for this reaction. "I killed myself."
Sam knew they needed to do more research into Djinns, especially since he didn't like coming this close to losing his brother, so trying to learn how Dean had broken himself free might be useful in case they ever run across the creatures later on. Then his brother's words registered and Sam jerked his head around to stare at him. "You did what?" he demanded, throwing a look to the door to be sure none of the staff were entering with test results yet. "Dean?"
"The entire thing didn't feel right, Sam. Sure, Mom was alive. We both had the whole normal life thing but we weren't close at all and nowhere in any deep wish or fantasy world of mine would I not be close to my pain in the ass baby brother," Dean told him, blaming being so weak and still suffering the Djinn effects for admitting any of this. "I kept having flashes of the real world that gave me a gut feeling that something wasn't right. Then when I figured out that I was in my own fantasy, that I was probably in the same shape as that girl had been, that I was being drained of blood and life.
"I knew I needed to try to wake up and I remembered the lore that if you kill yourself in a dream that you'll wake up in reality," he paused to think back to blurry memories of that dreamscape warehouse. "When they, it, whatever, realized I'd figured it out, the images tried to convince me I'd be happier in there with them living out a full life for the few hours I might have left out there."
Sam bit his lip, not caring for this at all as it now really told him how close he had been to losing his brother. "If you could have had a normal life, a life where Mom was alive even if we weren't close, if that was what the Djinn must have picked up from somewhere in your mind," he stopped to consider how or if he wanted to ask what was suddenly in his mind when Dean's eyes, slightly clearer than they had been earlier, suddenly locked on his with a smile.
"Why'd I kill myself to come back to reality?" Dean asked the question he had a hunch Sam was hedging toward, reaching up to let his hand rest on the side of Sam's neck. "Because the one image said if I stayed in there with them that I wouldn't have to worry about you anymore because I'd be able to see the you in there, the you that was so not like you, have a full life," he stopped to smirk a little more, letting his fingers squeeze Sam's neck like he always had as kids when needing to offer his brother support. "He wasn't my brother. You are. And I couldn't leave you alone out there to face that thing or whatever else might be coming our way now."
Sam glanced to the side, needing time to get his sudden rush of emotions under control since he knew even hurt or tired how his brother felt about chick-flick moments. Then he felt strong fingers squeeze his neck again and took that as Dean's way of wanting him to look at him, doing so and forcing a shaky smile. "No more disappearing acts though," he said. "I barely found you this time. Promise me, Dean."
"Yeah, Sammy, I promise," Dean replied, giving another quick squeeze to Sam's neck before letting go just as the door to the room opened to allow the short, balding doctor to enter with his chart and several bags of what looked like blood, and one of another form of fluid. "Ugh. I suddenly don't think I like this place, Doc," he muttered while also being quick to latch onto Sam's arm when he saw his brother go to stand as if to put himself between himself and the physician. "Sam."
"What's all that?" Sam asked cautiously. He'd figured his brother might need some blood but he didn't think he'd need as much as what the doctor had brought in and he wasn't sure what was in the other IV bag.
Dr. Ames eyed his patient before moving his eyes to the slightly taller man who'd introduced himself as his brother and immediately picked up on his caution upon seeing what he'd brought in and then the IV poles a nurse rolled in. "We have your blood results back, Mr. Winchester," he said seriously, flipping through the pages to once again review the results. "You are seriously low on your blood count so we're going to be giving you a few liters of that but before we do that, we found something else in your blood that I find a little odd," he told the brothers, missing the look shared between them as he considered the levels of toxin before he looked back up to smile reassuringly. "No worries though. I'll have the nurses run a bag of saline to help clear your system of that and then give you a couple liters of blood before rerunning the tests to see if your levels have come up to a safe level."
Dean sat up, frowning as he took this in. "Yeah, I'm not so sure about any of that, Doc," he said, seeing Sam eyeing the Doctor and him and guessing the threat of too low of a blood level would freak his brother out. "I'm feeling better already and…"
"Mr. Winchester, I assure you that while you might be feeling a little better now if you don't allow us to treat you, especially to give you the saline drip to clear your system of whatever that toxin is and at least one bag of blood, your brother will be admitting you to the next hospital you boys come across when you pass out," Dr. Ames replied seriously, propping the chart on the side of his leg while eyeing his stoic but still pale patient. "I'm going to be quite honest with you, young man. If your brother hadn't brought you in when he had, you might have gone to sleep and never woken up."
Dean groaned, letting his head drop back to the pillow but knew if he'd look now all he'd see would be Sam's wide, alarmed hazel eyes staring at him with silent pleading to let the doctor do what needed to be done. "Doc, have you ever heard the term 'puppy dog eyes times infinity and back'?" he asked with a sigh, knowing Sam was close even before he looked and groaned again.
"Look at him and there's your prime example. Fine! Fine, against my better judgement and because I don't want you to turn those damn eyes up to their higher power, I'll let them use me as a pin cushion," Dean said with a blown out breath of frustration but smirked when Sam shot him a relieved smile. "Yeah. Just remember, geek boy. Payback's a bitch and I will get you back for making me do this one day."
"So long as you're alive so that there is a 'one day', Dean," Sam told him with a smile, turning to then watch the doctor and the same older nurse that had helped him when they first entered the clinic begin to set up the IV drip for saline and then prepare the one with the first bag of blood. He sat down in a chair off to the side so he'd be out of the way but could still see everything that happened.
Dr. Ames glanced over to see the younger man watching and offered a calm smile. "Mr. Winchester, this entire process will take at least a couple hours," he told him, going on as Sam looked at him blandly. "I mean, it's actually quite boring to just sit here and watch. You should consider going over to the diner to get yourself a meal and maybe go over to the local motel to book a room in case your brother has to stay overnight or he still needs to rest after he's released," he went on.
"Oh, this should be good," Dean muttered to himself, folding the arm not being poked by the nurse behind his head to watch Sam's reaction to being told this.
"I've got my laptop in the car, Doctor Ames. I have some research on things I need to look into so I won't be bored," Sam assured the doctor, uneasy about the thought of leaving his brother even if it was to go get food and find a room. "I'll be fine."
Dr. Ames frowned, exchanging looks with his nurse as she went back to hooking up the IV line while also checking Dean's pulse. "Oh. Our wi-fi isn't always the best, so you might not get much work done," he remarked. "Actually, the diner is also your best bet for that as well since they have a much newer and fancier set-up than we do here."
Something about that made Sam look up warily since he'd expect a clinic, even a small one like this, to have better wi-fi than a small diner. He started to double down on his refusal to leave when a low cough from the bed made him look over to see Dean staring at him. "Dean…"
"Sammy, the Doc is right," Dean told him, as much as he hated to admit anyone else was ever right he had to this time, going on when he saw Sam winding up for a fight. "This pouring clear stuff in me to rinse out the… toxin and then giving me blood, if it takes a couple hours, you will be bored out of your mind. Especially if that laptop doesn't work," he added.
"I can do other things besides use the laptop, Dean. I can update the journal or work on a puzzle book, or…" Sam paused to think of anything else he could do that would kill time but still give him the excuse to stay with his brother. "I…"
"When was the last time you showered, slept, or ate, Sam?" Dean challenged, smirking as soon as Sam scowled and he knew he'd basically won this battle. "Okay then. I'm stuck here for at least a couple hours according to the Doc. You go grab us a room at whatever motel he mentioned and then go to that diner," he told him, adding, "You can eat there, play on the computer for a while to kill time, call Bobby if you want, and then when you come back make sure you bring me a double bacon cheeseburger with extra onions."
Sam frowned, still debating on arguing this only to sigh when Dean raised an eyebrow that Sam knew was in warning and he sighed again. "Fine, I'll go," he finally agreed, clearly not happy about it as he reached for his jacket but paused by the side of the bed. "If you need me or need me to bring anything else back just call me," he told his brother.
"Sammy, I'm in a clinic. Nothing is going to happen to me and I swear that I will be right here when you get back," Dean reassured his worried brother, grinning. "Besides, if you stayed, you'd probably just pace a hole in the Doc's floor and drive me nuts. Go."
"Your brother will probably just sleep the entire time anyway, Mr. Winchester," Dr. Ames assured him, reaching for his stethoscope so he could listen to Dean's heart again.
Sam had his doubts about that, but figured if Dean could, he would probably be flirting with any nurse that might enter the room to check his vitals so against his better judgement he pulled the Impala's keys out of his pocket and prepared to leave, pausing at the door. "Call me," he said.
"Yeah, I will," Dean assured him, counting to three before choosing to add. "Don't scratch my car."
"Would I dare?" Sam scoffed, laughing but finally leaving. He paused halfway down the hall to look back but made himself head for the front door. He did stop at the nurses' station to be sure if his brother needed anything or anything happened that they had his cell phone number to call him.
"Oh. You're… you're leaving him here?" the nurse, a young brunette who hadn't been there earlier, asked him while looking quickly down the hall.
"Yeah, against my better judgement, I am," Sam muttered, shaking his head while offering her a bland smile. "The doctor and my brother both seem to think I'd be bored here and should go to the diner for food," he told her, turning to leave.
"You shouldn't leave him here," she called out quietly, still looking as if to be sure the older woman wasn't returning to the station. "In fact, you should take him now and get outta this town."
Sam turned away from the door at that, starting to walk back when suddenly the older nurse was there, shooting the brunette a sharp look while patting his arm and almost physically leading him out of the building while reassuring him that his brother would be fine and that he'd see him soon.
Only once she was certain the boy was gone and had seen the 1967 Chevy Impala pull out of the lot and drive off down the road towards the old diner did the older nurse whirl to pin the younger nurse with a stern look as she marched back towards the desk.
"Now Becca, that wasn't a good thing to do. You know the rules and you know that all we do here is help the sick and less fortunate," she remarked, clicking her tongue in admonishment at her. "Dr. Ames is quite pleased with this patient and…"
"And what will we do when his brother comes back?" Becca demanded, biting her lip. "Nurse Ramsey, these men, they don't seem like the others that come here and well get… helped. His brother will…"
"What brother, sweet girl?" Nurse Ramsey returned with a smile, reaching for the phone under the nurse's station. "That one won't be back. He doesn't serve our needs so he'll have to be handled another way," she added while dialing a number on the old rotary phone. "Ike? It's Clara at the clinic. Clay is sending a visitor your way. A tall, handsome young man in a fancy older car? Clay would like you to serve him your special lunch," she smiled while looking back down the hall to see the doctor step out of the room and nod back at her. "What? Yes, dear. Serve him your very special lunch and the boys at the motel will take care of the rest."
The diner that was suggested to Sam seemed to be one of the few places in Water Lake to eat. It looked like one of those old-fashioned diners and something about it tugged at Sam's memory, but he was still unhappy about leaving Dean at the clinic so he decided not to worry about an old memory just then.
He pulled into the lot, noticing a few cars and trucks there but guessed this might be the local hangout spot for the locals since it didn't look like there was much else in the town to do or many places to go.
Sam decided against taking the laptop in since he didn't really have anything to do on it, but he did take their dad's journal with him. He wanted to give the section about this town a look since Dean said he recalled them driving through it as kids with John Winchester, so he decided to see if his dad had written anything of value about it or even about why he'd been in this area.
As soon as he stepped inside, Sam immediately felt every eye hit him and also guessed that was probably normal too since most small towns always looked at strangers warily. Used to people watching him like that anytime he and Dean hit a small town, he merely smiled politely and slipped into a small booth just inside the door; another thing Sam had learned was always have a quick way to the exit if it was needed.
He'd only sat down and had placed the journal in front of him when a waitress, a tall, thin, woman with long curly red hair stepped up with a pad and pencil, and a smile. "Hello there, darlin'," she greeted him with an accent that Sam could tell wasn't from Iowa but more from the panhandle of Louisiana. "You must be new to Water Lake since I'd remember seeing someone as handsome as you at one of my tables before."
Sam looked up with a smile, pushing his bangs out of his eyes. "Yeah, my brother and I are passing through on the way to Sioux Falls," he admitted, adding while glancing at the menu she offered him. "My brother's at the clinic right now and I got booted to come get food."
"Oh?" The waitress glanced back over her shoulder quickly to see the cook, a large burly man, entering the dining room. "Well, they'll fix him up over there. Don't you worry," she told him, still smiling while tapping an item on the menu. "This here is our special. All the locals rave about it and I'd think a scrapping young man like yourself would like it."
Looking over the special, Sam frowned but shook his head. "A little too heavy on the grease for me though before we leave town I'm sure my brother will be in to try it," he told her with a laugh, looking up and wondering if it was just his own heightened sense of caution now that he thought she looked more nervous than she had when he'd first sat down. "I'll just have a grilled chicken salad, water with lemon, and I'll have a takeout order for a double cheeseburger with extra everything especially the onions."
The waitress took his order, glanced back at the cook who only shrugged. She offered another smile when she happened to look down to see the journal he'd pushed aside to look at the menu. "I'll be back with your drink," she told him, turning to hurry towards the kitchen. "Go talk to that boy," she told the cook who was busy muttering about her not getting him to order the special. "You try but you'd better rethink that plan. Go talk to that boy, Ike, and look at the journal he's got. Think back a few years when you do 'cause if I'm right, the Doc might be setting himself up for some real trouble."
"Damn it, Harri. The only trouble that'll be happening is if I don't do what that crazy ass old man wants me to do to who he says to do it to! You remember the last damn time he didn't get what he wanted or I guess I should say who he wanted!" the cook snapped in a hushed tone but did glance out the window separating the kitchen from the dining room to watch the tall young man leaf through pages in a worn looking journal that did jiggle pieces of his memory.
"He said he and his brother were heading for Sioux Falls. You remember another time a man with a journal like that stopped on his way through to Sioux Falls? He had two boys with him then. Two boys that would be about his age and probably one a little older if I remember right," Harri added softly, following his gaze and hearing him curse. "That boy there is one of John Winchester's boys and that means the one at the clinic, his brother, is the older one. He's a damn hunter, Ike," she hissed at him, grabbing for a glass of ice water to take back out to Sam. "Grow a set of balls, man up, and realize this might be a chance for this town to be free and safe!"
Sam was leafing through the journal, trying to find a mention of Water Lake or at least pushing his own memory to when they might have been here when his glass of water was set down. "Thanks, ma'am," he said, still wishing he didn't feel uneasy about leaving Dean.
"My husband, Ike, he's the cook, he'll probably bring your salad out if only to try to talk you into trying his special lunch," Harri said with a tighter smile, looking down at the journal again, as Sam closed it and offered him another smile. "You look like the book type," she told him, nodding to the journal. "I recall another man with a journal like that quite a while back."
"Really?" Sam's eyes snapped up at this, surprised and debating if he should keep his guard up a bit more now. "When was this?" he asked curiously, deciding at least a date would help him look through the journal.
"Oh, probably the mid-to-late 80's if I had to guess," Harri replied, pausing to think back. "Maybe closer to 1987, it was in between summer and fall; right about there," she added, watching him and recalling a father sitting in a booth writing in a journal while the older of his sons played with and got his little brother to eat.
"Harri, leave the boy to his food and to his work," Ike growled at her, setting a large bowl of grilled chicken salad down on the table with a few small containers of various dressings. "This woman forgot to tell me what kind of dressing you wanted for your salad so I brought all of them," he explained, eyeing the journal and scowling. "You sure you don't want to try the special to go too? I can make it up along with that burger?"
Sam started to politely refuse but then thought of Dean's appetite and decided to go for it. "Sure. I'll take it with the burger back to the clinic when I go to pick up my brother. If he doesn't eat it there, he can heat it up later if we stay over a night or so," he told the couple, though if Sam was honest with himself he was getting the feeling that as soon as he had Dean in the Impala they were moving on from this town.
This time Sam was fairly certain it was not his imagination that his mention of the clinic got him more stares, only to have people quickly look away from him as if not wanting to look at him too long or let him look at them.
After the couple left, Sam took a few bites of his salad but despite not having eaten anything but stuff he'd grabbed at that last gas station, he really wasn't hungry and decided to take the rest back to the motel room so he could grab a fast shower before he headed back to the clinic with Dean's burger.
Sam thought he'd located the part of the journal where it might have mentioned their dad's stop here so he marked it for reading later or while if he still had to wait on Dean to be released or even stay overnight in the clinic.
Something about the waitress remembering the journal, remembering his dad and him and Dean caused something uneasy to form in Sam's stomach, but he shrugged it off. He accepted that some people had better memories than others and excused this for being just like that, but still Sam knew he'd feel more comfortable once they were away from this place.
He left their stuff in the Impala for the moment, only taking in what he needed for a fast shower. Sam showered quickly, toweled off and dressed. He sat on the bottom of one of the two double beds in the room to tie his boots when a sudden wave of dizziness hit him.
"What the hell?" Sam muttered, shaking his head and scrubbing a hand over his face while trying to stand only to suddenly fall back on the bed; his legs felt like lead and the room seemed to be spinning dangerously and it quickly became apparent to the hunter that something was wrong when a look over at the diner bag with his leftover salad made his already queasy stomach lurch. "Shit!"
The sudden onset symptoms of nausea, vertigo, the heaviness in his arms and legs, as well as now feeling cold weren't fully unfamiliar to Sam. He knew this wasn't food poisoning. This was something more deliberate.
Sam glanced over on the dresser where his phone and the keys to the Impala were set. "Dean…" he muttered, blinking his eyes a few times when everything started blurring out more but he still struggled to stand again. A gut feeling told him that he needed to try to make it to his phone, that he had to call his brother to warn him that something wasn't right in this town.
Pushing himself up, Sam managed to get to his feet, stay up but the second he took a step he felt his legs suddenly buckle under him like there were jello and he felt himself falling to too plush, 80's-like shag carpeting of the motel room.
The sound of his own heartbeat could be heard echoing in his ears while Sam fought to stay conscious, to get to his phone when he suddenly heard it ring in a tone that was all too familiar to him: Dean's ringtone.
"D-Dean…" Sam mumbled, hearing his phone continue to ring but was powerless to get to it to answer it, much less to warn his brother of the danger they both might be in.
As Sam began to lose consciousness, the words of the young nurse at the clinic repeated themselves in his head and it was with ice cold dread that blackness took him under.
Back at the Clinic:
Dean Winchester decided there was another reason he disliked hospitals or clinics besides every time he was close to one, either he was close to death or someone he cared for died. Now he decided it was because they were boring as hell and he'd about had enough of this one.
He'd accepted that he might have lost too much blood due to that damn Djinn and that maybe he had needed the transfusion. He'd even accepted the bag of saline to clear the toxin found since he was really just glad no one had asked too many questions.
That had been about three hours ago and Dean's acceptance of things was starting to wear thin. The staff of the clinic, or at least the older doctor and head nurse, were friendly enough when they came to check on him or to replace the second bag of blood with a third but it was when the older woman had attached another bag of clear saline but this time in an IV in his other arm that Dean began to question things more.
"Your blood count levels are finally getting to a much more acceptable level but you do seem to still have too much of that toxin in your system so the doctor ordered another bag of saline to finish rinsing it out," Nurse Ramsey explained to him after he'd questioned her a little more firmly, patting his hand in an almost motherly fashion. "Don't worry about anything. Just rest for a bit and try to sleep. Soon everything will be over."
"Yeah. Soon my brother will be back with hopefully my double bacon cheeseburger with extra onion and by then you guys will have my walking papers ready to go," Dean sighed, laying his head back to stare up at the ceiling again with the plan to count the ceiling tile again when he suddenly frowned at the burning in his arm. "Hey. Why does this stuff burn when the other bag didn't?" he asked just as the nurse was ready to leave the room.
"Oh, it's just a different brand of saline. A… stronger dose," Nurse Ramsey told him cheerfully, stepping out with a smile. "There's nothing to worry about, dear. You're a strong, healthy young man."
Dean smirked at that as he was almost certain the older nurse might be flirting with him, but right then, he started not to feel in the mood for that.
He'd started to count ceiling tiles again but suddenly seemed to snap to as if he'd been in a daze. "Okay. What the hell is causing this?" he muttered, reaching for the remote for the bed to push it more into a sitting position so he could look at his watch only to realize his watch, silver ring, and the bronze amulet he always wore had all been removed somehow when he must have been in that daze and looked to be in a bag on the tray near the bed along with his wallet and phone.
Dean wasn't sure how the hell anyone had gotten close to him to remove those items without him knowing it, much less why the hell they'd removed them. He glanced over to see the IVs seemed to have been removed sometime, which was awesome in his opinion, except Dean actually was feeling worse now than he had when he first came into the clinic.
A glance at the clock on the wall also showed him it was well past the time that he'd expected Sam to be back hovering over him, so that gave him more than a little cause for alarm. "Sonuvabitch," he muttered when he went to reach over to the tray to grab his phone but found it was hard to move; his body actually felt like lead and he suddenly seemed to just want to sleep.
Then Dean's gaze moved to the trashcan and felt a sudden sick punch to his gut at what he saw. "You goddamn son of a bitch," he growled, throwing a glare over towards the door when he heard it open. "That's why that second bag of 'saline' burned going in. It wasn't saline. It was propofol. You fucking drugged me!" he snapped at Dr. Clay Ames.
"I'm actually impressed, Mr. Winchester. I didn't think someone like you would even know the name of that drug," Dr. Ames remarked calmly as he stepped into the room, frowning a little. "I have to wonder how you would know it?"
"I have a geek for a brother that researches shit like that as a hobby!" Dean shot back, trying to sit up more on his own only to fall back, but he was able to at least grab the tray and pull it closer so he could snatch his phone up. "A brother that should have been back here by now… and will be…"
"Oh, your brother won't be coming back," Dr. Ames told him, seeing this time the way Dean's eyes widened before going to slits. "At least not if others did their jobs correctly. After all, I can't very well have him interfering in my plan for you."
Dean had been more angry that they'd stepped into some kind of trap than worried up until the point when the clearly unhinged doctor mentioned something happening to Sam. Then his anger went to concern for his brother before moving right back to pissed off. "You or anyone working for you even touches my brother, you better pray you kill me because if you don't and I get loose from whatever sick, mad scientist plan you have for me or whatever, I will kill you!" he snarled, seeing the doctor, the room, the phone he was struggling to work began to blur out more.
"Mr. Winchester, I appreciate your bravado, I really do, but by the time the drugs take full effect and you wake up again, you'll be unable to help yourself much less your brother," Dr. Ames told him, not bothering to take the phone away since he knew the man wouldn't get an answer and he knew the propofol should be taking full effect on him soon. "Just let me reassure you by saying that you will be serving a much greater purpose with your useless life by what I have planned for you than you would have normally."
"Oh, I wouldn't bet on that, Doc," Dean muttered, swearing viciously as he struggled to make his fingers work to hit the speed dial button on his phone to dial Sam's phone while starting to feel his eyes get heavier and knew it was the results of that damn drug.
He hadn't lied to the now official creepy doctor. Sam had done every type of research that time he'd been in the hospital for his heart to see what drugs or IVs were being given to him. Dean also knew his brother had asked a thousand questions to staff back then while looking up drugs on his laptop so Dean, who hadn't been asleep a lot of that time, did know that propofol was usually given to induce anesthesia in surgical patients or give sedation for people in ICU units.
The second he'd seen the name on the empty bag in the trash, Dean had known things had gone south. He also knew if he got out of this and got Sam out of this the next time his little brother insisted on not leaving him someplace that he'd never argue with him again.
"C'mon, Sammy," he mumbled, hearing the ringing and then Sam's voicemail message. "Damn it, Sam! Sammy… you get this… creepy… creepy doc. W-watch your back, little… brother. I… I… mmhmh!"
A heavy calloused hand suddenly closed over Dean's mouth, cutting off his words while knocking the phone from his weakening fingers.
Dean had a blurry image of two large, burly men in security guard uniforms as he attempted to struggle, to break free of the hand covering his mouth, to escape but the fingers merely tightened more while the one man's free hand grabbed a wrist while his partner grabbed Dean's other wrist to pin it to the bed.
"Hold him still a moment longer," Dr. Ames' voice was heard but Dean's vision was greying out as he fought the hands now restraining him. "You're strong. You might actually last her longer than others have. And if you please her, you'll last even longer," he added before chuckling. "Though actually lasting longer given the condition you'll be in might not be a good thing either."
Dean's thoughts were foggy so he wasn't sure what was being said when he felt a prick to the side of his neck, recognizing the feel of a needle and almost immediately feeling the darkness start to close in around him.
He felt his body go limp but could still hear enough to hear the doctor issue orders to the guards to chain him in the usual way, put him in the van, and then wait for him to join them.
"It's been longer than usual. We must go give my precious her new toy and see whether she chooses to play or feed first," Dr. Ames said with a smile, tossing the bag of items to his head nurse. "Dispose of his belongings like always and then be sure no signs remain that he was even ever here."
"Of course, Doctor," Nurse Ramsey nodded, handing the bag to the nervous young brunette who chewed her lip as she watched while the guards used heavy cuffs and straps to restrain the unconscious man before hauling him out the back door of the clinic to where a black van was always waiting. "Now Becca, if you don't want to find out first hand what happens to the people the doctor deems worthy of this special privilege, you'll get rid of his things and never mention his name again."
The young woman nodded tightly, taking the bag of items with shaking fingers but when her superior turned to enter the room to clean it, she dropped the bag into her small purse while silently hoping the tall young man who had left, that she'd tried to warn of the danger might return or that somehow she could get these items to someone who might be able to help stop whatever was happening in Water Lake.
Back At The Motel:
A loud sound like a truck muffler backfiring nearby shot straight through Sam's throbbing head like a thousand little jackhammers and he groaned, moving to cover his head with the pillow he knew had to be around him somewhere only to have his fingers touch shag carpeting of the floor he was laying on.
Why was he on the floor? That was something Sam figured he'd ask himself once he was awake fully or he'd ask… "Dean!"
Sam jerked his head up, rolling over to sit up at the same time as things began returning in a rush of memories.
The Djinn in Illinois. Dean's blood loss. Stopping at the little town in Iowa at the clinic. Leaving his brother at that damn clinic for a blood transfusion while he went to get food and a shower and then…
"Goddamn it!" Sam nearly fell when he went to get up but then he glanced at his watch and felt his heart slam into his ribs. "Six hours? I lost six hours? Dean. Damn it. I have to get back to him," he muttered, grabbing his phone, the Impala's keys and bolting out the motel room door without even worrying about the diner food since he was now certain that had been drugged and was why he'd been unconscious and lost so much time.
The drive back to the clinic seemed to take forever for Sam, but he quickly pulled into the lot, shut the Impala off and bolted through the front doors. A glance at the front nurses' station didn't show him either the older head nurse or the younger brunette. There was just a perky little blond that merely shot him a bright smile as he didn't even bother to stop and just ran down the hall to the room where he'd left his brother.
Sam inwardly hoped he'd open the door to his brother's snark but the second he pushed the door open and was hit in the face with the strong smell of antiseptic cleaning solution and didn't see Dean anywhere, the sour ball of fear that had been in his stomach since waking up on the floor of that motel room came back full force.
Then Sam was stalking the halls, ignoring the now stern Nurse Ramsey, and confronting a blank-faced Dr. Ames as he denied even seeing them the day before.
A look at the type of security the doctor had, and knowing he couldn't be in a cell to find his brother left Sam very few options, even if they were ones he hated.
Taking a deep breath to settle his temper, he shot the doctor a glare but slowly stepped back to turn towards the door. "I don't know what happened after I left or where Dean disappeared to, or what you did with him but just so we're clear, Doc, I'm not leaving this town until I find him," he warned, shoving past the guard and stalking out of the clinic and missing the grim looks of the doctor and his head nurse.
After calling Bobby Singer, filling the grizzled older hunter in on what was happening and getting an earful about not doing anything stupid until he got to him, Sam sat back in the Impala to run both hands over his face. He wasn't sure whether to be angry or terrified.
He'd nearly lost Dean to the Djinn but at least there he'd had some idea of where to look, who his enemy was, and how to kill it. This time he didn't know any of that and he had serious doubts if anyone in this town would even talk to him about anything like this happening before at the clinic.
Then a thought hit him and Sam quickly drove to the new motel he'd found outside of Water Lake. He grabbed his duffel, laptop, and his dad's journal to take inside. Locking the door, keeping his weapon handy in case anyone decided to pay a visit since he had doubts his food being drugged was an accident, Sam sat at the table to find the section of journal he'd marked from when he believed his dad had driven with them through the area and almost immediately felt his blood run cold at the first entry.
"'Water Lake, Iowa, June 17, 1987. I nearly lost Dean today.'"
TBC