The boys with no clothes. (yum) Two new allies. And not everyone can be a hero.
Chapter Eight
The cold was so intense that for a moment, Sam thought he’d been frozen beneath the surface. It took his breath straight out of him and the shock from the frigid temperature alone was enough to make Sam’s vision blur for a moment. But he gathered himself quickly, remembering the panicked screams of the mother whose son had fallen into the same icy waters. He kicked his legs, realizing painfully that the freezing water was quickly consuming his energy. He had to make this quick. He’d been in the water less than a few seconds and already he was losing his strength. The little boy needed to be pulled out. Now.
Breaking the surface, Sam pulled in a loud gasp of air, irritated at how painful it sounded. The river was carrying him swiftly in its current and he noticed with concern that he was already shivering and his teeth were already clattering. So maybe it hadn’t been the smartest idea to jump into the river, but there was no turning back now. Painstakingly, he began moving his arms and legs, swimming towards the limp little body of the boy. He wasn’t moving and Sam used that sight to find some new burst of energy and tolerance that he didn’t think he had in him.
Along the bank, Dean ran ahead, along with a few other townspeople, alternating between trying to find a place to pull his brother out of the water and glancing back at Sam to make sure that he wasn’t drowning. He was cussing and slinging derogatory insults towards his brother for being an idiot and jumping into freezing water, though he wouldn’t acknowledge that he had been ready to do the exact same thing. But Sam had stopped him with an authority that he had rarely seen his brother use. Sam had pulled it on him before, most recently when they’d been fighting a demon that was crashing airplanes. That whole venture was something that Dean didn’t want to relive any time soon. He hated admitting weakness and his fear of flying was a goddamn shitty weakness.
Dean watched with admiration as Sam reached the young boy, pulling him in close to his body and struggling to keep both their heads above water. It was time to get them out of there. Dean bounded ahead, ignoring the throbbing pain that was nearly making his head twitch with every beat against his skull. As he saw a set of stairs that lead to a small fishing spot, which was currently under water, Dean darted over to it, absently calling to the five or so people who were following him to do the same. They bounded down the stairs and Dean wasn’t hesitant to get thigh deep into the water, wading out as far as he could go without being swept away.
“Sam!” he yelled. He didn’t know if his brother heard him or not. Sam didn’t respond and seemed to have slowed down his water treading. Their heads kept dipping beneath the surface and coming back up again. Dean felt a spike of panic race through him. He tore off his coat and threw it towards the steps. He fumbled with his belt buckle for a moment before whipping it out of its loops. Then he turned and handed one end to someone behind him, grasping the other tightly in his fist. “Hold this,” he demanded and didn’t wait to see if the man had a strong grip before he stepped off the fishing platform and was completely submerged in the water. He was shocked with the cold, but grit his teeth and pushed himself to the surface.
Sam and the boy, Eric, were floating closer. Dean gave an inward sigh of relief as he saw Sam had started kicking again towards him. Sam’s face looked pained and pale. He must be fucking freezing, Dean thought. He reached out a hand, signaling for his brother to grab hold of it. “Come on, Sammy!” he yelled, hearing his own voice shiver with cold. Sam was making strained grunts with every kick of his legs. For a moment, Dean thought that Sam wouldn’t be close enough for him to grab a hold. But with another strong kick, Sam pushed himself towards Dean. Dean got as firm a hold as possible into Sam’s shirt and immediately he felt himself being pulled back in. His belt buckle was digging painfully into his frozen fingers and he almost lost his grip, but then strong hands grabbed his shoulders.
Dean didn’t let go of Sam, not on his life. Two other people grabbed Sam and one grabbed Eric, immediately taking the boy up the stairs and to the people awaiting up top. Distantly, Dean heard the mother’s cries and pleas for her boy to be all right. He heard counting and realized someone was performing CPR. The hands that held onto Dean’s shoulders lifted him up. A new set of hands tried to get Dean to let go of Sam’s shirt, but he grunted and fought against it. No way. He was not letting go of his brother until they were on safe and dry land.
Sam’s mind was fuzzy. His strength finally failed him and he let the hands that were holding onto him guide him up and out of the water. He was aware that the boy had been taken from his arms and he was now being half carried half dragged up the stairs. Someone was holding onto his shirt but when he tried to lift a hand to feel who it was, his body protested and he went slack, feeling himself slowly drifting to sleep.
A light, yet sharp smack across the face brought Sam instantly back into the waking world. Someone was taking off his shirt and pants. He felt a moment’s panic before something warm and soft was wrapped around his entire body. He realized that he wasn’t outside anymore. He wondered when that had happened. His body was practically convulsing with shivers. Something warm was suddenly pressed to the sides of his neck and on his feet. It stung a bit at first but then sank into a comfortable return of feeling.
After a while, Sam didn’t know how long, he had slowly come back to full awareness. He was stripped down to his boxers, wrapped in a blanket with lukewarm washcloths on his feet and by his neck. He was inside somewhere. It looked like a coffee shop, though he couldn’t tell because his nose was too cold to actually smell anything. Outside, there were flashing red and white lights. Someone was rubbing his arms rapidly through the blanket.
Lifting his head with more strength than it should have taken, he took a quick look around. There were several people there. He didn’t recognize any of them. Two of them were dressed in EMT uniforms. They were talking rapidly with each other only a few feet away from him. Another man stood off to the side, watching whatever commotion that was going on outside. Sam turned his head a little to get a look at who was rubbing his arms. He frowned as he realized who it was.
“Kate?” he asked, his voice still shaky. The blonde woman looked down at him as he said her name. She gave a soft smile. “What are you…” He didn’t get a chance to finish as the EMTs moved in like vultures. Instantly, Kate was moved away from him and one man checked his pulse and pupils as the other bent in front of him and looked him square in the eye.
“Sam?” he asked. Sam could only guess that Kate had told him his name. “Are you with us?” Sam nodded and the EMT smiled warmly. “Good. How do you feel? Does anything hurt? Can you breathe all right?”
So many questions. “I’m cold,” Sam said absently as he suddenly realized that it should have been someone else asking these questions. He looked around, trying to catch sight of his brother. He was instantly worried when he didn’t see him. “Where’s Dean?” he demanded.
The EMT looked at Kate. She moved back into Sam’s line of sight. “He’s fine,” she assured him quickly.
As if on cue, the front door burst open. Everyone in the room turned to see Dean marching himself in, wrapped in a blanket like Sam. Someone had given him a pair of boots that were two sizes too big. He quickly caught sight of Sam and shuffled over. “You’re the biggest idiot I know,” he spat. It wasn’t exactly the concern Sam had expected, but he recognized it as the tail end of some pretty serious worrying on his brother’s part.
Dean reached out from beneath the blanket and put the back of his hand to Sam’s forehead. Instantly, he looked over at the closest EMT. “He’s still cold, you’re supposed to be warming him up.” The venom in his voice made Sam smile. He turned to look at the unusually calm EMT, who Sam guessed was used to dealing with irate family members.
“Sir,” he said, reaching out and guiding Dean into a chair without having to use much force. Sam frowned at that. “We have to warm him up slowly,” he explained. “Too quickly and he could sustain some serious injuries. He’s doing fine, though. Ask him yourself.”
Dean gave one last glare at the medic before turning his head to look at Sam, who smiled at him in answer. “You’re an idiot,” Dean spat again, though he was starting to calm down.
“You’re an asshole,” Sam retorted, though he couldn’t quite keep the smile off his face. He turned his head to look at the EMTs and Kate, who was standing by idly, watching the interaction with slight amusement. “How’s the little kid, Eric?” Sam asked softly.
“They’re taking him to the hospital,” Kate answered. “They think he’ll be all right.” She paused before crossing her arms over her chest. “I didn’t know you were a hero.” When she smiled then, Sam realized it was the first time he’d seen the woman genuinely smile. It didn’t look half bad on her.
“I’m not,” Sam said softly, taking a breath as one of the EMTs crouched in front of him again.
“We should be taking you to the hospital,” he said. “But you seem to be doing all right. We’ll give you one last look over then we’ll stop the poking and prodding, I promise,” he said lightly. Sam nodded.
The other EMT turned to Dean. “Let me have a look at that gash on your head, make sure you didn’t rip open the stitches.” Sam watched as Dean looked at the EMT warily before moving his head to the side. He didn’t miss the wince in his brother’s face as the man fingered the wound. Dean closed his eyes, concentrating on keeping his face calm and placid. Sam thought his brother looked far too pale, but he didn’t know whether to attribute it to the pain or to the near freezing to death.
After a few minutes of final check ups and a recommendation for both of them to stay in bed and get their strength back, the EMTs stood and made their leave. Kate walked around behind the counter and came back with their coats and some clothes that Sam didn’t recognize. She handed them to the brothers. “We found your coats and Ken here has offered to share his wardrobe.”
The other man who had been standing by quietly grinned at that and nodded towards the clothes in the boys’ hands. “My son’s actually. He won’t be needing them anymore.” The last part was said sadly, but Sam didn’t want to pry. He stood slowly, testing his strength. He was happy to find that it was returning, albeit slowly. He was still exhausted from the whole ordeal.
“Couldn’t wait to get our clothes off,” Dean mumbled. Kate turned and gave him a glare as Sam chuckled a bit to himself. They got dressed, moving slowly with achy muscles. When they were done, Kate gave them back the blankets which they wrapped around themselves quickly and Ken handed each of them a cup of coffee which they accepted gratefully.
Sam sat back down, his legs suddenly too tired to keep him up. Kate stood next to him and he looked up at her. She seemed to be watching them protectively and he couldn’t understand why. Their encounters with each other had been less than friendly, but now she seemed almost motherly to them. “Thought you were going to pick up your kids?” Sam asked softly.
Kate looked towards him. “I was but I heard about the accident on the police scanner in my car. I had my husband pick them up.”
“Why do you have a police scanner?” Dean asked.
Kate was quiet and for a moment, Sam thought she was just going to ignore the question. But then she gave quietly, “My husband’s a doctor. He likes to know what’s going on.”
Ken was shuffling about again, bringing out a pot of coffee and refilling the boys’ cups just as soon as they took sips it seemed. Sam finally had to cover the top of his with his hand before the man could fill it up again. Ken gave a hearty chuckle and set the pot down. Sam looked over at his brother and frowned when he noticed Dean watching Ken with scrutiny in his eye. Before he could get his brother’s attention, Dean spoke.
“You wouldn’t happen to be Ken Poland by any chance?” Dean asked.
The man stopped and gave Dean a questioning look. “Yes, as a matter of fact. How did you know?”
Dean set his cup down and pulled the blanket in around him a bit tighter. “You said you’re son wouldn’t be needing his clothes anymore,” he said, looking at the man. “I was talking with the Sheriff today…”
“Wyatt?” Ken broke in with a grin. “Bet that son of a bitch was complaining about how I whooped his ass in poker last night. We’s good hunting buddies.”
Dean smiled patiently and he seemed to hesitate for a second. Sam frowned, wondering what his brother was planning on doing. But he didn’t get a chance to figure it out as Dean went on. “Actually, he told me about the strange noises you were hearing last week at your house.”
Ken didn’t seem fazed, much to both Sam and Dean’s relief. “Oh, them,” he said with a chuckle. “Yeah I had me a visit with the Mothman. Creepy son of a bitch.”
Kate gave a soft scoff and unfolded her arms. “It wasn’t the Mothman, Ken. It was probably an owl or some bird.”
“That was no damn owl, I know owls and that wasn’t one,” Ken all but shouted. He pointed at Dean, who was watching the scene almost detachedly. “This was a damn big monster. Nearly tore my roof off.”
“There is no such thing,” Kate demanded, looking flustered and irritated. “What’s wrong with all you people? Use your common sense.”
Ken shooed her with a swat of his hand and looked at both Sam and Dean. “She just don’t want to admit she had her own little date with our winged buddy.” Sam looked at Kate, now interested. He had suspected that she’d had some type of encounter with the Mothman by the way she reacted to any mention of it. Kate looked ready to break something in half. Sam knew that now was the time to intervene.
Standing slowly, Sam put the blanket that he had wrapped around himself down and held out his hands to both Ken and Kate, telling them to stop their argument. “Kate,” Sam said, turning to her. “I know it doesn’t make any sense for there to be a Mothman. But there is. We’ve both seen it,” Sam swiped his finger between himself and Dean.
Kate’s eyes teared up a bit and Sam couldn’t help but feel a little bad about all of this. But the sooner she accepted the truth, the sooner they could help. And, if she believed them, maybe she could help too. “How do you know it wasn’t just some new species of bird or something?” Dean snorted and Sam blatantly ignored his brother.
“Because I got a call from my girlfriend,” Sam said gently. He hesitated to go on, knowing how much it would hurt to say the next part.
“So?” Kate asked, shaking her head.
Sighing, Sam tried to smile but failed as he said, “She’s dead. Has been for a while.” The room was silent for a bit. Sam was waiting for the information to sink in. Kate looked both horrified and confused. Sam finally decided to go on. “It was the Mothman,” he said, watched Kate’s eyes roam over his face, probably looking for the concealed lies behind his eyes. “He said things that didn’t make sense to me until just this morning when I started hearing the same things being said around town.”
“We think it’s predicting a disaster,” Dean interjected. Sam turned to look at him. They were way out of their league with this one and they both knew it. Sam had known that they’d need help with this. Ken and Kate seemed like as good of people as any. “Just like it did forty years ago.”
“But this time we’re listening,” Sam said, looking between Kate and Ken. “And we’re going to stop it.”
Ken was the first one to say anything. “Well I believe you,” he said, breaking the solemn mood with the cheerfulness in his voice.
“Good man,” Dean shot at him, giving him a slight punch in the arm.
“What’s the plan?” Ken asked, looking eager.
Sam sighed and smiled at the man, glad finally that someone was willing to help them. He explained to them about the phone call, about Dean’s encounter with the Mothman and then he told them about the accident. “I heard the first part across from the motel. A woman said it to her grandchildren. So I followed her around and that’s when I heard the next one when Eric fell into the river.”
“What do you think it means?” Ken asked, but Sam didn’t turn to him. His eyes were still on Kate, who hadn’t said a word through the whole thing.
Sam finally looked away from her and shrugged. “Well, we followed one to find the next, so I think if we stay with Eric, we’ll find the next one too.”
“And I’ve got the Sheriff making us a list of all the sightings,” Dean said. “I’ll try to ask around and see if I can get anything else to work with.”
“I could help ya with that,” Ken said. “I know most of them people. They’ll talk to me.” Dean nodded.
Sam turned to look at Kate again. She was staring blankly at a spot on the floor. “Kate?” Sam asked, hoping that they had finally won her over. They could use all the help they could get and Kate seemed to have a smart head about her, even if she didn’t believe them about the Mothman.
Kate shook her head and looked up at both of them before sighing. “You’re both exhausted,” she said bitterly. Sam watched her, feeling his spirits drop slightly. “You’re barely staying on your feet,” she shot at Sam. She was half right. He was tired, but if he needed to go on, he would. Winchesters bounced back quickly, for the most part. Kate blew air out of her mouth and then quirked her lips into an almost grimace. What she said next surprised Sam. “I’ll sit with Eric.”
“What?” Sam asked, just to make sure he’d heard her right.
“I’ll sit with Eric,” Kate repeated more firmly. “You two need to get some rest. I know the family, so they won’t mind me being there. I’ll stay with him and watch out for the next clue.”
“Are you sure?” Dean asked.
Kate nodded but didn’t look up at them. “Yeah,” she whispered. “If you’re right, about a disaster coming, I want to help stop it. I’ve known the people in this town since I was a kid.”
“Kate,” Sam said, knowing the feeling. “I’ll come with you. It’s not fair for you to do this by yourself.”
She gave a scoff and looked at him, her normal flare back in her eyes. “You nearly drowned and froze to death. If you want to help us, then get some sleep and help us when you’re not about to collapse.”
“Yeah,” Ken chimed in, clapping Dean on the shoulder. Sam saw Dean wince slightly and any remaining arguments he had about resting suddenly left. Dean needed to rest and he wouldn’t do it if Sam went with Kate. Stubborn ass. “I’ll give you boys a ride.”
Sam nodded his thanks and turned to Kate. “Call me if anything happens,” he said. “Don’t try to do this by yourself.”
Kate smiled smarmily and licked her lips. “What?” she asked cockily. “I can’t be a hero like you?”
Shrugging, Sam smiled as he said, “I’d prefer you leave that to us.”
The two looked at each other for a moment. Sam wasn’t sure what exactly he felt towards Kate. They hadn’t really hit it off at first, but now, he was finding himself feeling more and more like he could trust her. As they were looking at each other, Sam couldn’t help the feeling of familiarity and trust that was creeping into his mind. He realized suddenly why he felt so comfortable with her. She reminded him of Jess.
The moment was ruined though as Dean stood up, ready to make some smart ass remark but instead he suddenly swayed on his feet. Sam turned quickly and reached out a hand to steady him. All thoughts of Jess and Kate were suddenly pushed to the side as he focused on his brother. Dean’s face was still pale, even though they both had been warming up. The bruises stood out horribly on his pale skin. He was blinking his eyes pretty rapidly, trying to fight off the dizziness he’d just felt.
“Dean?” Sam asked, still holding his brother in place.
“I’m good,” Dean said after a moment when he seemed to have collected himself again. He brushed Sam’s hand off and turned to Ken. “Well I’m ready,” he said and was walking towards the door before Sam could protest.
Turning to Kate, he saw her still smiling. “You should get him to bed,” she said softly.
Sam nodded in agreement. “You’ll be okay?”
“I’m always okay,” she answered. Sam hesitated a moment before he accepted the answer and turned to follow Ken and his brother out the door.
Go to Chapter Nine