Stalk Watch 3/6
Stalk Watch
Summary: Sam really doesn't have many friends, which is both depressing and helpful because at least it saves time.
Chapter Three
Sam really doesn't have many friends, which is both depressing and helpful because at least it saves time. Dean tracks down Brady first because he's the only guy Sam actually considers a friend rather than an acquaintance. He's kind of friends with the guys Brady hangs out with but Dean gets the impression that those are friendships of convenience and Sam only knows them because Brady does. None of them are helpful.
Dean roams the campus for a while and checks out the coffee shop Sam frequents. Turns out Jess works there. No wonder Sammy goes so often. Dean briefly considers apologizing to her but she starts whispering something to her co-worker when she catches sight of him and he figures the damage has already been done. He doesn't have time for it anyway because he needs to check out the New Age store Sam told him about, which turns out to be just a little less flaky than he expected. The herbs are the real deal at least.
He chats to the girl working the counter for a bit, making up a story about a wife who's having trouble falling pregnant. The girl - Erica - steers him towards a little book on fertility spells and a couple of crystals that Dean's pretty sure will do exactly nothing but he buys them anyway, just to keep up appearances. Erica's looking at him kind of strange after his, maybe not so subtle, queries about whether anyone else has been in asking about pregnancy spells lately. She says no and tells him that most of her customers are students hoping to make their own luck with herbs and crystals instead of studying.
After the store, he makes a fruitless trip to the library to see if he can find anything like this happening in the past but if this is a recurring problem then no one else has gone public with it. Dean's just gonna go ahead and assume this is a first because he's pretty sure any normal guy who woke up in Sam's condition would have rushed to the hospital and surely there would be records of a spontaneous male pregnancy.
Finally, he stops by the supermarket and picks up some ginger ale, peppermint tea, and crackers, along with a selection of fruit that Sam will hopefully keep down. Whatever is in Sam's stomach is growing fast and probably sucking up a whole bunch of nutrients as it does.
Overall, he's feeling pretty useless as he heads back to Sam's apartment. Half the day is gone and he's no closer to figuring things out than he was this morning. There are no new leads, no suspects and no guarantee that this is even caused by witchcraft. There are creatures out there that use humans to reproduce but it's always with females. Men just aren't designed for it. Anyway, surely Sam would remember getting knocked up by a monster, right? Right. It must be witchcraft.
He unlocks the door with Sam's key and finds his brother sitting bent over on the edge of the couch with his head in his hands.
“You all right, Sammy?” he asks as he double-checks that the door is locked behind him.
“Yeah,” Sam says, entirely unconvincingly. “Find anything?”
Dean grimaces. “Not yet,” he admits, dropping the bag of groceries on the coffee table. “What's wrong?”
“It's nothing,” Sam says, straightening up with a wince. “My back hurts, that's all.”
“Bound to happen with you're carrying that bowling ball around in your stomach,” Dean says. At least he can do something about this. “Move over then.”
Sam frowns up at him questioningly so Dean rolls his eyes and pushes Sam until there's enough space for him to squeeze in behind.
“What are you doing?” Sam asks as Dean flexes his fingers.
“I'm rubbing your back, and I swear, if you try to turn this into a chick flick moment, I'm gonna strike back with every pregnancy joke I can think of.” He places his fingers on the small of Sam's back and begins to rub in firm circles, massaging out the tense muscles. He adds 'heat packs' to his mental shopping list. “No sex noises either,” he adds.
“'kay,” Sam agrees. He's curled over his stomach, head in his hands again. Dean rubs his back for a while in silence, thinking about how freaking happy he is that he's not a girl and doesn't have to worry about going through this, provided, of course, that mystical male pregnancy doesn't strike twice.
“It's speeding up,” Sam says quietly.
“You think so?” Dean cranes his neck to the side to get a look. The bump ripples and Sam flinches. “It been moving a lot?”
“Yeah,” Sam sighs. “Like once it started, it won't stop.”
“Does it feel...” Dean was going to say 'human' but what the hell does a human baby feel like when it's at home? Sam seems to read his mind.
“I don't know. It's not tearing out my insides, at least. It doesn't hurt. It's just uncomfortable.”
Thank you, Sam, for the mental image of some creature ripping up your insides. Dean totally won't have nightmares about that tonight.
“Should we try another counter-curse?” Sam asks.
Dean frowns at the books still spread over the coffee table. “It would work better if we knew which curse we were countering.”
“I know.” Sam huffs a frustrated sigh. “But we have to do something. This is like having a time bomb strapped to me. What's going to happen when nine months is up?”
“I don't know, but we're not going to find out. We still have time.”
“Not enough of it though.” Sam shakes his head. “I think we need more herbs. I used up most of the stuff I have during the first few spells I tried.”
“You couldn't have told me that this morning before I went out?”
“I didn't think of it then. I swear, this is messing up my head. I can't concentrate properly on anything.”
“People call that 'baby brain',” Dean says, thinking back to the website he looked at. “Something to do with all the extra hormones, I think. Everything seems to be to do with extra hormones.”
“Well, it sucks,” Sam says emphatically. Dean bets it does; Sammy's so used to quick thinking.
“How's your back?”
“Better. Thanks.”
Dean clambers out from behind Sam, shaking his head fondly. “The things I do for you.”
They make a list of herbs for Dean to pick up in the morning, meticulously recording which counter-curses seem the most promising and how much of which herbs they need to use in each spell so they can be sure they have enough of everything. It's a long, tedious process and Dean is relieved when it's over and he can escape to the kitchen to try to think of something to make for dinner that Sam will be able to keep down.
His relief is short-lived, however, because he's barely opened the fridge when three sharp knocks on the door interrupt his search. He hears Sam curse under his breath and abandons the kitchen, heading for the door. He crosses paths with Sam as the kid heads for the bathroom to hide - and now that he's standing up Dean can tell that the bump is definitely bigger than this morning, like it's shoved two weeks worth of growth into a day, and for the first time, Dean sees something else. The light falls on Sam's face, accentuating his cheekbones, sharper than they were yesterday, and Dean realizes with a thrill of fear that the bump isn't just growing; it's stealing weight off of his brother to do so. Add Sam's all-day morning sickness into it and the kid's going to waste away to nothing in no time.
Dean waits until he hears the lock in the bathroom being twisted into place before he opens the door. Jess stands in the hallway. Her blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail and without the abundant curls to steal his focus, he notices how green her eyes are, almost glowing as she narrows them at him, arms folded over her chest. The way she holds herself, tense and determined, lets Dean know that she's ready for a fight of some sort. Maybe she's going to tell him off for his behavior yesterday?
“I want to see Sam,” she demands though, in a tone that gives Dean the impression that most people don't argue with her.
“He's sick,” Dean frowns, planting his feet and hoping like hell that she doesn't try to push past him. “I already told you that.”
“Right, he's sick,” Jess snaps sarcastically. “If he's so sick, why were you stalking around campus, asking questions about him, trying to find out details about his life, instead of looking after him?” She jabs an accusing finger at him. “Sam barely mentions you or his family and suddenly you show up here acting like you're hot shit. You think I haven't figured out that whatever you and his Dad did to him is the reason he left? I don't know what kind of fucked up family you are but I'm not letting you mess up what he has here, and if you've hurt him-”
“Whoa!” Dean raises his arms as if he can physically hold back her rage. “I haven't hurt Sam! Just calm down, okay? You've got it all wrong.”
“Calm down?” Jess exclaims shrilly. “Who the fuck are you? You don't look anything like Sam and you don't know anything about him, judging by the questions you've been asking everyone. So if you're not his brother and Sam's not sick then what the hell are you doing here and where the hell is Sam?” She slips her hand into her pocket. “I've got pepper spray and the police on speed dial, and if I don't see Sam in ten seconds, I swear I'll-”
“Jesus Christ, I am Sam's brother!” Dean tries to protest, backing up just a little. He's pretty sure she's not lying about the pepper spray or the cops and he can't think of any way to get her to leave without proving to her that he hasn't done anything to Sam. “Look, you can come in, but if you catch the 'flu from hell, it's not my fault.” He steps back and holds the door open.
Those green eyes squint warily at him and Dean can tell that Jess is clenching the pepper spray in anticipation as she steps into the apartment, taking a path that curves around him so she's always out of his reach.
“Sam?” she calls anxiously. Looking over her shoulder, Dean realizes the old spell books and their notes are still on the coffee table. This isn't going at all how he'd like it to but hopefully Jess is too preoccupied to notice.
“He's in the bathroom,” Dean says, at the same time as Sam calls out, “Jess?” in a rather convincing fake croak.
“Sam, are you okay?” Jess asks, taking a couple of steps towards the bathroom before she remembers that she's supposed to be watching Dean and stops so she can keep him in her line of sight.
“Urgh, kind of?” Sam replies, adding a little misery to his voice. “I've got the 'flu.”
Jess wavers uncertainly, her confidence visibly dropping. The hand in her pocket clenches and un-clenches. Her eyes slide over Dean a little guiltily but she's not quite ready to let it go. “Who's the guy out here?”
There's a pause from the bathroom. Dean guesses that Sam's confused because he knows Dean and Jess have already met. “It's Dean, my brother. Didn't you meet him yesterday?”
“Yeah, I did...” Jess says, “He hasn't done anything to you?”
“What?” Sam sounds completely baffled now, so maybe he hasn't been so harsh in his stories about his family, maybe Jess just got the wrong end of the stick. “No. Jess, are you okay?”
Dean can see the exact moment Jess is convinced because she turns bright red and stares wide-eyed at him for what feels like an eternity.
“Oh my God,” she finally stammers, pulling her hand out of her pocket quickly. “I'm so sorry. It's just, something didn't feel right yesterday, and then you were asking questions about Sam and I hadn't seen him... um, at least I didn't pepper spray you?”
Dean gives her one of his disarming smiles. He's more impressed than offended anyway. Girl's got guts. “Don't worry about it,” he says, “It's nice to know Sam's got friends willing to take on kidnappers for him.”
Dean doesn't know how it's possible but Jess turns even redder, right to the tips of her ears and spreading down her chest. There's something completely adorable about her blushing, in contrast with the fearless girl who knocked on the door. She'd be so good for Sam, he's sure of it.
“I should go.” She's already heading for the door. “See you when you feel better, Sam,” she calls over her shoulder, sending Dean one more apologetic look before she escapes into the hallway outside.
Sam's peeking round the bathroom door as soon as Dean's twisted the lock into place. “What was that about?”
“She was here to rescue your damsel in distress ass,” Dean says, a smirk breaking out on his face now that the crisis has been averted.
“What?” Sam frowns at him, confusion creasing his forehead.
“I guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought today. She got suspicious about me going round asking questions, thought I was kidnapping you or something.” He tries not to wonder what exactly Sam has told her about him and Dad, and winks at Sam instead. “She's a keeper, Sammy. Willing to take me on with nothing but pepper spray and a cellphone just to make sure you were okay.”
Now Sammy's turning red. “We're not dating,” he says self-consciously. “She's just a friend.”
Dean shakes his head. How can Sam possibly be so oblivious? “Trust me, she definitely wants to be more than friends. If you don't ask her out when this is sorted, I'm gonna hit you.”
Sam shoots him a bitch-face. “That's not very nice.”
“Neither is leaving her hanging. You do like her, right?” Of course Sammy likes her. Dean just wants to hear him say it so he won't have an excuse not to go for it after they've fixed him. Kid tends to get kind of star-struck when he likes someone, and the more Dean sees of Jess, the more determined he is to make sure something happens.
“Well, yeah,” Sam says, ducking his head a little, embarrassed. “Jess is... awesome. You really think she likes me? Like like?”
“Are we in high school? Yes, Sam, she like likes you.”
Sam takes a minute to process that, looks torn between happiness and despair. Dean's pretty sure he's finally got the kid convinced though, so that's something.
Despair wins in the end though. “Why are we even talking about this?” he asks despondently. “There's nothing I can do about it. I don't even know if...”
“If what?” Dean narrows his eyes.
“Nothing.” Sam shakes his head and dismisses the subject. “It doesn't matter. We need to focus on the counter-curses.”
“First thing tomorrow, kid. We'll get you all fixed up.”
Chapter Four