Second Nature 11/?
Chapter 11
"Nobody messes with my boys!" Suddenly Baby stood behind Sheriff Justice.
In the split-second before everything got hectic Dean had time to wish she'd just stayed in her room and at the same time wondered if Baby even knew how to fight.
Her chrome eyes were furious and fixed on the broad back of the sheriff and she clearly was determined to rescue her boys but Dean doubted there was much she could do to help them. Barehanded against guns? C'mon, there was a reason Dean was on his knees right now.
At the bar Baby had won the fight the passive way and he doubted the brawls she'd witnessed as a car were enough to teach her how to fight.
To Dean's surprise Baby didn't fight like a human. She fought like a car.
She let out a growl which sounded more like a howling engine than anything else and Dean swore he could smell the fumes.
Then Baby ran the sheriff over.
Baby wasn't two tons of rolling steel anymore, which was the only reason the sheriff survived the impact, however, the force behind her attack was more than enough to sent the man flying.
The sheriff tried to spin around but didn't even manage a half-turn before she barreled into him and he crashed into the opposite wall a second later. Barely missing Sam on his flight, the sheriff went down like a rag doll and didn't get up again.
Stunned by the awesomeness of the attack Dean lost focus on the deputy for a second who dropped the handcuffs and stumbled over his own feet when he tried to turn around. He landed heavily on his ass and his gun went off more by accident than anything else. The shot bellowed through the room and Deputy Junior could only stare dumbfounded at the woman in the doorway before Dean knocked him out with one blow.
"Baby, you're badass." Dean shook his hand and kicked the gun out of the unconscious man's reach. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sam rushing towards Baby and only then Dean noticed how unsteady she was on her legs. Or more precisely on her left leg.
Holding on to the door frame and Sam's shoulder, Baby let out a small cry and now Dean saw the hole in her jeans, surrounded by seeping wetness.
"Baby?" Everything else forgotten Dean took her other side and together they guided her over to the bed.
"How bad is it?" Sam asked.
"It missed the artery." Dean answered after a quick look. "I hope. Went right through."
She was bleeding but not that bad, right? He threw his brother a helpless glance. This wasn't that bad, they could deal with this.
"Give me a towel or something." Dean gestured impatiently while Sam was already rushing towards the bathroom.
"Baby?" He held her face in his hands, leaving bloody marks on her cheek. "I know it hurts but we have to stop the bleeding, okay? Can't let you bleed out on us. Baby?"
"It hurts." The words came out with a cry when Dean put pressure on the wounds.
"I know, I know." Dean reassured her but held the towel in place without mercy.
"We need to leave." Sam reminded him, already carrying their bags outside to their stolen car.
"C'mon, Baby." Dean took her face in his hand again and locked eyes with her. "We gotta leave. Can you get up?"
Her face was crunched in pain but she nodded and tried to stand up on her good leg. Just placing her left foot on the floor made her slump back down on the bed with a cry.
"Okay, not gonna walk." Dean nodded to himself and in one swift move he picked her up and carried her bride-style out of the door. Behind him he heard the sheriff groaning and Dean hurried to get to the car.
We're screwed, we're screwed, we're so screwed was running nonstop through his mind.
Sam held the passenger side door open, worry clearly written on his face but he didn't say anything. Somehow he had Dean's gun in hand and his gaze was fixed on the door behind Dean.
"Hospital?" Sam asked while he tried to smile at Baby.
"Can't risk it." Dean set her down in the seat and pried her hands off his neck. "Shh, it's okay. It's not that bad. You're going to be okay, Baby."
He helped her to arrange her legs in the foot-room. This was the seat with the most room for the legs but it was still cramped and Baby bit back more than one scream. By now she was sweating and tears were running freely down her face but she still managed to give Dean a reassuring smile.
"It's just a flesh wound." She said through gritted teeth. "You had worse, both of you."
"But you haven't." Dean should close the door and get over to the driver's side but he couldn't leave her just yet. Not even for the few seconds it would take to get behind the wheel.
"Semi totaled me." She reminded him. "That was way worse."
Dean couldn't remember the crash and not much of his time in the hospital, except for the fact that his dad had died only minutes after Dean had made a spectacular recovery, but he clearly remembered the totaled Impala. And how he'd added more damage to her.
"I'm fine." She emphasized. "And now get your ass over here and get us out of town before those goofballs wake up."
Dean blinked at her.
"Right." He exchanged an amuse look with Sam and then they were in the car and seconds later the motel with the sheriff's car in front of their room disappeared in the distance behind them.
First chance Dean saw, he ditched their current Dodge Charger and got another car. Getting Baby from one car to the other hurt him probably more than her, who was he kidding, he knew what a gunshot felt like, but then they were on their way again. This time Dean didn't even know what kind of car he was driving, it could be one of those new rolling plastic balls for all he cared.
"Bobby's waiting for us." Sam announced from the backseat, putting his phone away.
"How are you holding up there?" Dean asked when Baby went too quiet for his liking. She answered with a pressed "fine" which didn't help to put Dean at ease.
From somewhere Sam produced a bottle of water and some painkillers. Dean's eyes were fixed on the road so he couldn't tell what Sam was giving her, however, the good stuff was in their first aid kit so whatever Sam had at hand would have to do for now. Bobby would have better pain meds and by the time they got there, there would be everything they'd need to fix Baby up waiting for them.
At least this time Baby didn't have to sit outside between all that car wrecks while he fixed her, Dean thought with bitter amusement.
With his freakish long arms Sam had even from the backseat no problem holding the towel in place. He'd tucked one end of the towel under her leg so he could apply pressure to both wounds one-handed by simply pressing down on her leg.
Sam placed his free hand on Baby's shaking right shoulder and she grabbed it and held it in an iron grip. From what Dean could see out of the corner of his eye, she was nearly crushing his brother's bones but Sam didn't complain and just held her hand.
Dean wanted to put his foot down and drive as fast as this crappy car would go but he forced himself to stay close to the speed limit. No need to get into more trouble with the law enforces around here. By now they were swarming out like angry hornets, looking for them, Dean had no doubt.
He missed the purr of the Impala's engine, the one sound which in situations like this gave him the reassurance that no matter what they would reach their destination in time. Usually it was Sammy who was bleeding out next to him or sometimes it was Dean himself who lay curled up in the passenger seat while Sam drove like a maniac, however, no matter which position Dean was in, the purr of the engine and the soft vibrations through the steel was always comforting.
Now there was no comforting purr, only the annoying sound from a way too new engine which was just loud enough to be irritating but not loud enough to count as the sound of a real car.
"Just a little while longer." Dean threw Baby a forced smile and if it had been her other leg he would have put his hand on her knee just to give her the feeling that he was there. Sam did a good job at that but Dean wanted, needed, to give her some comfort as well. The only thing he could do, was to drive. Bring her safely to Bobby without ending up in a ditch.
"We'll fix you up, no problem." For a second Dean laid his hand on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze, before he returned to his white-knuckled grip at the wheel. "How's the bleeding?"
Sam leaned forward and lifted the towel to have a look while Baby made a point of staring out of the window. Sam had more experience with injuries like this than Baby anyway, sad but true, and Dean couldn't blame her for not wanting to see the gaping hole in her own leg. Sights like that were unsettling at least, Dean knew that.
The smell of blood lay heavy in the air and as far as Dean could tell her jeans was soaked with blood down to her ankle. At least he didn't have to get all the blood out of the upholstery later, he thought bitterly.
"It stopped." Sam breathed the words out and adjusted his grip on the towel. "For now. Don't move too much, Baby. Just sit still."
"Really?" Dean didn't need to see her face, the eye-roll was clearly in her voice. "I was about to start tap-dancing."
"Do you even know what that is?" Sam shot back but tightened his hold on her hand. She never let go either. Instead she let her head roll back into the corner where the window met the back of the seat, sandwiching their hands between her head and shoulder.
"Hey!" Dean raised his voice when her head sunk farther down and she closed her eyes. "Stay awake. Open your eyes. C'mon, Baby. We're almost there. Stay awake. You can sleep when we've cleaned you up."
The words were a constant stream out of his mouth and half the time Dean didn't know what he was saying. Begging her to open her eyes, to stay awake.
It's just a flesh wound, he reminded himself, and the bleeding has stopped. She's fine.
All the time Sam held her hand and didn't say anything about his brother falling apart right next to him. Maybe Sam understood. His relationship with Baby wasn't as close as Dean's, he knew that and on some level Dean was proud of that fact, but she was Sam's home, too. The only home he'd ever known.
So Sam just held her hand and Dean reassured all of them with nonsense babbling mixed with minutes of grim silence and both brothers knew they would never talk about this ever again.
"Finally." Dean threw a wild grin at Baby when they passed the gates to Singer's Salvage Yard. His grin faltered when he saw her slumped down in the seat next to him, a thin layer of sweat on her ashen face, eyes closed and he couldn't even tell if she was breathing. "Baby?"
Chapter 12
back to Masterpost