Pieces Left Behind 1/?
Title: Pieces Left Behind
Author: candylovinangel
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Seen Jericho Season 1 & 2? Know who Sam, Dean and Gabriel are? You're good.
Word Count: 4,700
Summary: A mushroom cloud in Denver spells panic for the small town of Jericho, and when a storm that is suspected to be radioactive comes upon the town, Bill gets caught in it, even if briefly, and it changes his life along with other peoples' lives from then on...
Part 1 (here) | Part 2| Part 3| Part 4| Part 5 (Coming soon)
The rain came far too fast for Jake to get them inside in time. Well, to Get Bill in. He’d insisted that he could get inside on his own and that had been his mistake as he limped his way to the cellar as the rain started pouring. He didn’t know what was the big fuss about getting out of the rain…He didn’t know anything of what was going on out there ever since the convicts had attacked him and Jimmy. Thus the water got on his cuts as he was yelled at to get inside. He managed to get in a few seconds later and Jake was cursing and Bill just let out a breath as he wiped the rainwater away and onto his shirt.
He would learn later that the rainwater might have been radioactive…and well Stanley got caught in it for twenty minutes and he was fine and Bill himself wasn’t feeling like he might hurl…so he was fine…right?
Yeah…He was fine, he kept telling himself as over the next few weeks, he would go home and collapse onto his bed, feeling more than drained and tired as his wife would watch him in concern. Some of the guys were starting to notice it, but everyone was tired and cranky these days due to the rations and not being able to eat as much as they’d like, not to mention shortages on that precious mood improver; coffee.
There were a few times where he went to the bathrooms and into one of the stalls when he felt a dizzy spell coming on and he would lean against a stall and do his damndest to keep from making a sound. He wasn’t going to let anyone down! He had to help, he was one of two surviving deputies, damn it he had to help keep law and order in this town!
“Bill…this is too much pressure, you can’t keep going on like this, you’re going to kill yourself from all this work!” His wife said one night when Bill was all but passed out on the covers of the bed. He was barely conscious. They had just managed to keep from blowing up the bridge because Jonah had come to their rescue.
“Bill?” She asked softly, threading a hand through his hair and turning him to look at her, “Please…just stay home tomorrow…you feel like you’re running a fever!” She said and Bill shook his head.
“N-no, have to help them, Alyssa…” Bill whispered and Alyssa scowled at him, her pretty face scrunched up with concern and agitation. She pushed brown hair out of her face and then sighs.
“How about this, honey….If you don’t feel well by your shift, I’m going to ask for Mr. Hawkins to take your shift, that okay?” Alyssa asked and Bill looked at her and then nodded as he managed to sit up and start undressing.
“Good. I’m going to go and get some water for you…you really are burning up…” She said as Bill tossed aside his shirt and set his belt on the dresser as he dropped his pants and changed into a fresh pair of boxers. He got back to the bed and stayed on top of the covers as Alyssa came back into the room with a bowl of water, and a wash cloth. She dipped the cloth into the water and she had another bowl for who knows what other reasons but Bill knew it felt good when that cloth was put on his forehead and he let out a relieved breath and sunk into his pillows, eyes fluttering closed, his whole body for the first time in weeks, relaxed…
When he next woke, or more or less was aware of waking, he found he was in the medical clinic and he was alone, people were outside the room, talking and Bill blinked as he looked around. What the hell had happened?
He looked to his arms and saw the starts of blisters and his eyes widened. Oh…oh FUCK! He had radiation poisoning… He closed his eyes and fought the urge to scream out his frustration. It must have been from when the rainwater had hit his cuts…It’s one thing for unbroken skin to get hit…but… He sniffed and realized he had oxygen tubes up his nose. He just stayed like that for a while until his body seized up on him and he knew what was coming seconds before it happened…
“JAKE! JIMMY!” He yelled as quite literally a second later his eyes rolled and he ended up in a full blown seizure and the door burst open and there were the sounds of people rushing to him, gloved hands pinning him down to keep his seizing body from trashing the equipment and yet his seizing body fought against them hard before his body finally settled and he found himself wheezing and he scrunched up his eyes and then blinked them open and saw a mass of worried faces…Jake and Jimmy among them, as well as April, Alyssa, the Mayor, Gray Anderson…Eric… He tried to take a deep breath but found himself coughing and he couldn’t help the partial groan as he leaned back and looked to April.
“I’ve got radiation poisoning don’t I?” He asked hoarsely and she nodded sadly.
“Where the hell would you have been exposed to radiation poisoning, Bill?” Jake asked and Bill looked to him and then to Eric.
“Remember when the convicts got me and Jimmy? It started raining and I was a bit slow coming inside…I think the water that got to my cuts…” He shrugged, “Or it could have been exposure to that one guy…I don’t know…”
“Bill! Both of those were weeks ago! Why didn’t you tell us?” Jake asked, looking angry as Jimmy went over to Jake and shook his head.
“How was he supposed to know? We all thought the rain wasn’t radioactive when the rain by townhall wasn’t..” Jimmy said and Jake let out a sound when Jimmy then looked to Bill with a frown.
“I noticed you were sitting more often than standing though and that at least four times a day you were off somewhere isolated…Were you throwing up?” Jimmy asked and Bill shook his head.
“Dizzy spells...Thought it was from fatigue and lack of food…Think it was the radiation poisoning?” He asked and April nodded.
“Yeah, Bill…it was the radiation poisoning. It really hit you hard three days ago, though…Your wife called saying you wouldn’t wake up and that you had a fever…So we brought you here. You’ve been waking up off and on for a few minutes at a time before passing out again…” April said and Stanley came into the room with Bonnie and his eyes widened.
“Bill!” He said with a gasp of shock and Bill gave the farmer a small smile.
“Hey Stanley,” He mumbled and the Mayor, Jake, Eric and Jimmy left the room and Bonnie looked at him, worried.
“How did this happen?” Stanley asked and Bill just looked at him and sighed.
“The rain and an open wound…who thought, huh? I guess that’s why you didn’t get it…” He said quietly as he looks at his arms and the blisters that were forming and he lay back and stared at the ceiling.
“I’m going to die…” He said, voice heavy with sadness and guilt as he looked to Alyssa.
“Take care of the Jessica, okay? Don’t let her go harassing Jimmy…” He said quietly as Alyssa reached out with gloved hands and held his in her hands.
“I love you Bill, don’t forget that, okay?” She said with her voice cracking and tears coming down silently. Bill squeezed her hands lightly.
“I know, and I love you too,” Bill said softly as Bonnie watched all this with Stanley, and Alyssa patted Bill’s head and then left quietly, Stanley watching and Bonnie looks to Bill and he sees the tears in her eyes and he motions her over and very carefully hugs her.
He then signs, “I’m not going to die without a fight, Bonnie, I care for this town too much to just roll over and die. I’ll fight this as best I can,” He smiled at her and watched as Bonnie nodded.
“Fight hard,” She said softly before she left and that left Stanley in there with him and April. Bill looked to April.
“How the hell are we supposed to stop this?”
April shook her head, “We can’t…we tried it’s far too late to do anything but keep you comfortable Bill…I’m sorry,” She said softly and she left the room.
As Bill finally succumbed to the realization he was going to die, Stanley was there and he helped him keep silent as he cried…
--
Two weeks later
--
“This is bullshit! My brother and I are starving and we’ve done nothing but help your town!” Dean Winchester yelled to Constantino, eyes narrowed and Constantino’s eyes narrowed.
“If you don’t like it boy, then go somewhere else!” The leader of New Burn snapped at him angrily. Dean started to pull his gun, but Sam stopped him physically and with a look.
“Can we at least have some gas? You owe us that much for our labor,” Sam said calmly and Constantino hesitated but then nodded and gave them several gallons of gas and then gave them water and a few cans of raviolis and forks.
“That’s all we can spare boys,” he said but Sam nodded.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” He said as Dean grumbled and got into the Impala after putting the gas in the trunk. Lucky for them, Dean and Sam had been sneaking food the last few weeks and had been hiding it where the spare tire was under the false trunk bottom with their guns and ammo they had inherited from their father.
Their father had been in the military and thanks to his paranoia they had been well stocked and armed for the inevitable… They then drove out of town. They didn’t make any stops, Sam holding a shotgun as they drove. They knew about highway robbers…Had been in a few incidents but they’d won and stolen those guys’ stuff instead.
The camps they went through had never thought to check the false bottom of the trunk for anything. They always kept the weapons and canned food down there while on top they had water and maybe a pistol or two…
There was the warbling of the radio all of a sudden before a voice spoke out of it.
“You boys…got out okay I see…” Said the warbled voice and Sam nodded.
“Yeah, we got out with a lot of food, Gabriel…You having any luck finding a new host?” Sam asked the weakened Archangel, whom they had met about a year earlier by chance.
“No…for all I know my vessel’s line died out…and even if I were to inhabit a vessel now…my grace would…merge with his soul…I wouldn’t be all me…” Gabriel sounded distraught and Sam and Dean exchanged looks.
“Gabriel…it would be better than dying…as you are you’re too weak to do much…please…you have to do this or you’ll die…” Dean said softly and Gabriel sighed through the radio.
“There’s a town up ahead that I’ve been watching a while…and…I think I might have a chance up there. The town is called Jericho…first thing you need to do is go to the Med Center…get yourselves taken care of…I...There's a man named bill there, try and find him when you're done...He's my last chance...” And then the radio died and Sam and Dean exchanged sad looks even as they passed by a sign saying that Jericho was 35 miles away… They stepped on it. They needed to get off the road anyway…
--
Five hours later
---
Bill had gotten worse…but not to the point he was losing his hair. He silently thanked God he hadn’t started losing hair yet. He loved his hair… People were constantly checking in on him, and he had more blisters and they’d cuffed him to the bed to stop him from picking at them…
This…this was a living hell. He was so close to just asking someone to blow his brains out…but he wouldn’t do that to anyone…he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have done it to himself…
He eventually fell into a fitful sleep and ended up dreaming the same dream he’d been getting for the past week…A man standing on the hill to Richmond farm, his silhouette odd… But Bill had never approached and neither had the figure…but now Bill decided enough was enough and he approached the figure and he realized what he’d seen was two wings hugging the form of the person there and he was shivering… Was this man an angel?
“Um…hi?” Bill said and that got the ‘angel’ to start.
“Oh…so you finally decided to come over…” The angel shivered and sat down, “I hate seeing all this death, it’s like an icy stab to my being…and I can’t do anything like this…” The angel said softly and Bill looked at him for a long moment, he felt the urge to help this angel, who seemed so down…
“Well…I can do one thing…can save one last person…” The angel said thoughtfully before turning to look at Bill. His eyes were blue and hair a dusty blonde…
“What do you mean?” Bill asked and the angel smiled.
“I-I can save you before I die…yes I’m dying. My family didn’t like that I got so attached to mankind…Though still…I can heal you of your radiation poisoning…but I need you to let me, to say yes and I can help you…You’re basically dead…I can give you life again,” The angel said softly and bill looked him over.
“What’s your name?” Bill asked softly and the angel looked up, a tremor wracking through his body.
“G-Gabriel, my name is Gabriel,” the angel said softly and Bill’s eyes widened.
“Gabriel? The Archangel?” He asked with a gasp and Gabriel nodded, “Holy crap…um…look is there anything I can do to help you?” Bill asked. Gabriel had been right he was already basically dead. Might as well do what he could.
“Say yes…you’d be doing me a favor,” Gabriel said with a shudder, and Bill looked at him and then nodded.
“I…yes…Yes, Gabriel…” He said softly and Gabriel smiled.
“I’m sorry, but this is going to be painful….” Gabriel whispered before putting a hand to Bill’s chest… Bill felt a fire in his chest and it spread through him as he found himself screaming and he was yanked out of the dreams. His chest was still on fire, he was still in pain and all the blisters were healing over and Bill looked wide eyed to the door where he saw two new faces looking to him and Bill let out another scream as pain exploded through his body now and within seconds he passed out…the black a wonderful relief…
--
The pain went down after a while and instead came the images and sounds that were parts of memories and sensations he’ not felt before…had he? A part of him knew he didn’t have wings to fly but another part of him insisted that he did. Those two parts of him eventually melded more into a ‘yes I could fly once but I can’t now’ kind of mindset, and Bill squirmed in his sleep and suddenly found himself knowing more languages than he’d ever known….They’d insisted it would come in handy…it had in so many ways…and then of course was his birth language, Enochian…wait no wasn’t that supposed to be English? And his name…It’s Bill…wait not it’s Gabriel…..no it’s Bill…Once more the two sides fought until there was a compromise. His name is Bill but others have known him as Gabriel…
Sweets, he loved sweets. Well, who didn’t? No, no, he was obsessed with sweets, it’s all he wanted to eat… okay no, come on man not healthy… okay so he wanted to eat them most of the time…okay, better…
Then came the images of people he should know and among them were the two new men to the med center he’d seen before he’d passed out. He knew their names… they were right on the tip of his tongue…
He opened his eyes when he found out he could and he looked around and what confused him was the faint auras of color he saw around everyone…but one minute they were there and the next he couldn’t see anything…He also noticed that for the first time in a few weeks he was completely warm, it was a good feeling to have…even the clinic had held a chill despite their generator…
“Hey, Bill, how are you doing?” Jake was in the room now and for a moment Bill saw a strong green aura around the young man and thought the aura color ironic cause of the kid’s last name… Yet the question gave him a moment to think and look at his arms, there were no ivs, nothing but the oxygen tube up both nostrils. Hey, what had happened to the blisters…the sickness? A part deep inside of him told him it had been fixed and he kinda remembered how, an angel had healed him, it hadn’t wanted to see him die…
He couldn’t help running a hand through his hair and bringing it back and then he grinned.
“I’m good, Jake…I’m good,” He said as he pulled the oxygen tube out of his nose as he noticed the two men quietly talking to themselves and occasionally looking to Bill.
“So…I see we have two new refugees,” He said and he tilted his head at them, the short one is Dean and the tall one is Sam…How did he know that? His mind seemed to be processing what was going on and it seemed to click into place that these were friends of his from a year ago…from Lawrence…
“Yeah, they came into town while you were out of it and arrived here as you made your miraculous recovery…a screaming thrashing recovery…but still one all the same,” Jake said as he motioned April in and had her take the simple tests with bill, reflexes and all. His kick was faster and the way his eyes reacted to the light was the same, even if he could see two auras around April and he was confused by the before he realized…the second aura was that of a child, it was why it was dimmer and smaller…
Bill went through all his tests with flying colors and when she took his temperature it was 99 but when she checked Bill for any fever symptoms there were none.
“Huh…your body temperature went up a degree…that’s unusual…but other than that…everything’s fine, you’re…in excellent shape, your reflexes are above normal, eyes are fine…it’s like you never had radiation poisoning,” April said and Bill just smiled as the people in the room cheered but for the two, Dean and Sam, they seemed to be watching him carefully… It was then that they heard aircraft go over the town and Bill blinked at that even as Jimmy came running in, said hi and pressed his deputy’s uniform to his chest.
“Hey Bill, glad you’re awake and better now come on I need your help,” Jimmy said breathlessly and Jake went running out with Jimmy and the people were cleared from the room, including Sam and Dean so Bill could change. He got into the uniform and felt a sense of relief and ease as he strapped on his belt with his gun and he shrugged on the jacket and left the room, running down the hall, barely noticing his shadows, Dean and Sam as he ran out the doors and stopped and let his eyes adjust to the light as he saw parachutes, twelve of them. His mind immediately started working out where they could possibly be landing and he looked to Jimmy and told him to go check by the Richmond farm and then he got in his patrol car and headed out of town and was the first to run across one of the parachutes. He saw that it was medical supplies when he opened up the parachute and he let out a laugh and leaned back against it as he pulled out his walkie talkie.
“I got medical supplies over by me, what about you guys?” He asked and people were ecstatic over the lines as he heard what was going on and he couldn’t help the joy coursing through him, it was awesome really, the day he somehow gets healed, help falls from the sky… Speaking of the sky… He looked up and he saw the broken air where the planes had gone, could see every little speck of air that had been disturbed and when he heard someone calling for him nearby he shook his head and snapped out of whatever that was, the intense detail still there as he looked around and saw Stanley and Jake come up with their truck.
“Need help loading the stuff? We got more room,” Jake said and Bill nodded, he could see the bags under Jake’s eyes that were beginning to become noticeable and he noticed the small whiskers of stubble and Bill looked to Stanley and saw his eyes were not betraying how tired he was compared to Jake…but then again Jake seemed to get a lot of pressure put on him.
“So which one is this?” Jake asked as bill grinned at them.
“Medical supplies, oh the irony, right?” He chuckles and Jake and Stanley chuckle lightly as they help Bill load up the stuff onto the Trick and then into his trunk when they can’t fit anymore. He then paused when he saw a stack of papers.
“Hey…look at this,” He said as he picked up the paper. It read, Do not fight, China is your friend.’ He looked to Jake and Stanley who frowned.
“China…” He then paused and sighed, “Come on we need to take these back to town and it would be great if you could help with sorting this stuff out,” Jake said, though it seemed more like an order, but Bill nodded anyway as he got into the car and radioed back that he was on his way with Jake and Stanley…
He got back to town first with the supplies and parked outside the Sheriff’s department and went to Mayor Green, he couldn’t help noticing the black Impala that was further down the street with Sam and Dean there, quietly talking and he couldn’t help but get a nagging feeling about them…But he wasn’t sure if the feeling was good or bad…
“Mayor here’s the medical supplies and Jake and Stanley have the food and the bulk of medical supplies,” He said as the Mayor nodded at him.
“Take a break, Bill, you shouldn’t strain yourself, you just got better we don’t need you getting sick again,” He said, concern in his voice but Bill rolled his eyes.
“I’ll go crazy if I sit back on this. Please, just let me help with organizing all this,” He said with a quiet plea in his voice. Green sighed and nodded.
“Go, help sort these then, and find some help for that….and Bill? Those two Refugees…have you ever seen them before?” he asked after a minute and Bill frowned and looked back to the impala.
“Honestly? I don’t know, they seem familiar to me though…” He said with a shrug…and the plate on their car is a Kansas one and it looks like it’s been taken care of, even after all that’s happened…” He trails off and shrugs.
“No bad vibes?” He insisted and Bill looked to him and frowned.
“I don’t know I’m kinda iffy on that part…why you getting bad vibes off of them?” Bill asked and Green just sighed.
“I’m getting some kind of vibe off of them…like they could be trouble…” Green said with some hesitance to his voice and Bill shook his head.
“You don’t know that…” He looks to Sam and Dean and his gut twists a bit, “I’m going to give them a chance…have them wash up and then help with the food, I can get a better read of them then,” He said and Green nodded.
“Sounds like a good idea,” He said before dismissing Bill. He didn’t know how he knew those two by the car even as he snagged some gloves and then some clothes and went over to the boys.
“You two stick out like sore thumbs, just watching like this. Come on, you two look like you could use a hot shower,” He said as he put the clothes in Dean’s arms and the two blinked at him and then looked at each other.
“Alright…that sounds fine….” The man called Dean hesitated for a moment, “…Gabriel…” As Bill was walking away and the name…actually said aloud… He stopped and looked around at Dean.
“What did you just call me?” He asked, he wasn’t mad, he just wasn’t sure he was hearing things right. The taller one, Sam seemed to notice this.
“Gabriel, he called you Gabriel,” Sam said calmly, “That is your name right?” Sam asked and confusion roared through his mind for a moment before it settled.
“Actually…my name is Bill…” He said as Dean let out a small sound of distress at that and it got Bill looking at him oddly, “But…some people have called me Gabriel before…” He says and he sees Sam and Dean both perk up at that, “Though no-one here in town calls me Gabriel…Just Bill.” Bill said as he looked the boys over, “And I don’t know how…but I know you boys are from Lawrence…and that it got hit pretty hard by a bomb. How did you survive?” He asked with a curious headtilt and the boys exchanged looks.
“A friend got us down in our basement in time, we had a fallout shelter down there that our dad had built, he was an ex-marine,” Sam said quietly, “He was at work when the bomb hit…” He trails off and Bill bites his lip and feels incredibly guilty for bringing up the bad memories and decides to take their mind off it…
“…Come on, the offer for warm showers still stands,” He says as he leads the way to the sheriff’s department and they follow quietly. Bill puts the clothes on a bench and then he points out where the shampoo and soap is at and then leaves, making sure people knew it was occupied by sitting outside the door…
--
Dean looks to Sam and then back to the door.
“He responded to his name…” Dean whispered and Sam nodded as he pulled off his boots and started pulling off his socks.
“You notice he seems a little disoriented? Gabriel’s memories and grace must still be adjusting and trying to incorporate themselves into Bill’s? I don’t know it…I don’t know…we may have just lost one of our best friends…” Sam said quietly and Dean looked to him and gave a heavy sigh.
“You might be right, Sammy…but at least he saved that man…” Dean said sadly as he grabbed a towel and put it by the shower on the towel bar near it and then threw the rest of his clothes towards the benches and started the water as he pulled the curtain shut and he saw Sam walk by. They showered and Dean got out first due to lack of longass hair and he dried off and got dressed in a pair of the clothes ‘bill’ had given them and he frowned slightly. It was a perfect fit, what the hell…? He frowned as he went to the mirror and shaved away the beginnings of a beard as Sam got changed.
“Okay, what the fuck? These clothes fit perfectly…do yours, Dean?” Sam asked as he came over to Dean and he also started shaving away the scruff on his cheeks. Dean looked up to Sam.
“Yeah…they do…” he said carefully and they both looked toward the door and then back at each other and then they fell silent…
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