SPN | R | Can't Find My Way Home | (2/2)
Sam was not even sure what was going on in the hallway, but he could hear a lot of banging and cursing. It was all coming closer to him and he huddled into the corner. He could tell they were rushing closer and then the noise stopped before his door. He held his breath for the few, very long seconds when the doorknob slowly turned. The door slid open, but he still couldn’t see anything.
And that’s when it rushed upon him. “Sam?” Andie nearly cried out, but as quietly as possible because she still wasn’t sure who or what was lurking around. She slid to the floor before him, picking up his head and seeing all the injuries from the torture. The swollen eye, cuts at his cheek and around his mouth, bruises along his temple. “Are you okay?”
His heart pounded in excitement because someone was there to help. He tried to slow his breathing, but being saved, knowing someone was looking for him this whole time really couldn’t compare to any other feeling he’d experienced recently. He was struggling to look up and find the face attached to the worried voice. “I’m great,” he replied with a tip of his head forward.
“Hey, hey, Sam.” She picked his face up again and tried to position herself right in front of his good eye. “Hey, it’s Andie. Remember?”
His hands, still tied at the wrists, reached forward and grabbed at her forearm. “What’re you doing here?”
She frowned at how weak he sounded and how slowly he was moving. “We came for you. Dean and Bobby, too.”
“Where are they?”
Her hands continued to hold his face, but now they were trying to comfort. “I don’t know,” she admitted with a bit of fear.
“How did you find me?”
“I saw it,” she whispered as she felt tears bubbling in her eyes.
“Sam?” Bobby called as he rushed into the room.
“Bobby! Help me, he’s all tied up.”
Bobby went to the ties at his ankles as she worked at his wrists. He broke from his work to pat a hand at Sam’s head. “Boy, it’s so good to see you.”
He moved a bit, showing not much more than all the swelling and unable to see much of anything. “Wish I could say the same.”
She fought laughing at his dry voice, but kept tugging at the ties. She rushed her hands into his armpits once the rope was loose and tried to push up. “C’mon, Sam,” she huffed with a chuckle. “You gotta help a little.”
Bobby helped get him to his feet and they each kept an arm around him, taking a side, and walking him out the door.
*
“That it then? You wanted me all along.”
Zachariah tipped a finger in Dean’s direction. “You really are smarter than you look, you know that?” Then he began to stalk around the room, the figures moving out of his path. “But a little less than Anna gave you credit for.” He laid a hand upon one of the shadows, eyeing it critically. “Thought he wasn’t going to show, huh?”
Dean eyed Zachariah and the figure critically. “Anna?” he asked carefully.
Zachariah tapped his palm at it again. He watched the angel continue his turn through the room, each figure moving carefully out of his way. “Dean, you’re quiet.”
“So you kidnapped Sam just to get at me?”
“You were hiding, and fairly well. Someone cloaked you,” and he looked at the shape of Anna again. “But we had to talk to you.”
“Funny way to do that.”
“I didn’t think you’d answer an Evite.”
*
Bobby had helped Andie get Sam into the backseat of the Impala before racing back into the building to find Dean. Sam slumped against her, breathing low but steadily enough. She picked up his head again to inspect his injuries. “Jesus, Sam.”
“Yeah,” he huffed.
“Are you okay?”
“Doesn’t look that way, does it?”
“What happened?”
Her fingers coasted along his left eye, the one he wasn’t really using at the moment. He winced in return and skated a few inches away. “I don’t really remember.” Then he got anxious. “Where’s Dean?”
“He’s inside.”
Sam started towards the door, trying to move over her. “We have to get him.”
She pushed him back into the seat. “No, you’re not going anywhere.”
“Is this something you saw? Us sitting in the car while Dean is killed?” The nastiness in his voice put her off and she just stared at him. He tipped his head around to use his good eye and see what she was doing. “What? What’s going on?”
“I’m glaring at you. Don’t be a dick.”
“What?” his voice rose a few levels.
“Whether I saw it or not, you’re not going back in. You’re too messed up.”
“I’m not leaving my brother in there.”
His voice was still a bit combative, but at least he wasn’t as nasty as before. So she rested a hand at his chest and tried to soothe. “Bobby’s with him. They’ll figure it out.”
Sam grabbed at her hand and tried to reason. “Andie, I can’t leave them in there alone.”
She tried to soothe again and squeezed his hand back. “I know. But I’m not letting you back in there.”
“So, no one trusts me to take care of myself?”
“Right, because the last time you went off on your own, you really took good care of yourself.”
He moved his head to the side to look at her and she could tell he was doing his best to give a Sam annoyed look. Only, the gashes and swelling hid most of it so he just looked pathetic. She returned the same crabby, pouty face in mockery. Sam sighed. “Look, we have to get him. It isn’t safe for him in there.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s a church. He’s not exactly welcome.”
“Is there any place he’s welcome?”
“Andie.”
“Sam.”
They stared at each other. Well he was doing the best he could with one eye and she used two good ones, so she was kind of winning in that moment. But then her eyes blurred and a sharp pain shot from the back of her head to her forehead. “Shit,” she grumbled and leaned forward.
His hands grabbed her shoulders and he freaked a bit. “What? What’s wrong?”
Andie tipped her head down to his chest, pressing against the pain and pushing fingertips into her temple. “I don’t know.” She made a few whiney noises as the vision flashed before her eyes. Dean and Bobby surrounded by a dozen figures. But then it flashed forward and she was there, and another flash forward, all four were heading away in their cars.
“Andie?” Sam asked frantically. “What is it?”
When it all settled down, she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, fighting off the burning and the tears forming with the pain. “I don’t know,” she lied. “Stay here.” And she jumped out of the car as quickly as possible, slamming the door back at Sam.
*
Andie ran through the hallways, keeping left as Dean had done earlier. She came upon the lighted room and walked inside, Dean and Bobby surrounded by twelve people, all in suits and dresses, as if it were Sunday morning in God’s house.
Zachariah moved easily between the people and raised his hand out towards the door. His voice rang out happily. “Andie, yes! You’ve made it.”
Bobby and Dean turned quickly and spotted her, the face frozen with fright. “Should’ve stayed in the car,” Dean muttered.
“Please come in. Join us.” Zachariah moved closer to her. “We have all been waiting so long to meet you. The prophet. Sam’s prophet. We’ve heard so much about you.”
Her eyes shot to Dean’s, who was just as confused, and then back to Zachariah. “Are you okay?” she asked Dean.
“Just dandy. Sam okay?”
“Yeah.”
As Andie’s eyes floated through the room, taking in each person, she slowed on one particular face, porcelain with strong lips and red, flowing hair. The woman kept eyeing Andie, calm and quiet.
Then Sam appeared in the doorway, still worn out and bloody, but there nonetheless. “Oh, Jesus,” Dean cursed.
Zachariah turned to Dean with a tsk. “Now, now. Jesus has nothing to do with this. It’s just us, our deal.”
Sam cursed out and tried to lunge at him. One flick of his hand sent Sam across the room and to the wall. He slid down the wall and stayed on the ground, barely moving.
Andie flinched and was moving towards him, when she caught the woman’s eyes still on her and she stared back. In her head, she heard a voice, “Stay there.” Her eyebrows furrowed, but she moved down to Sam anyway, arms around him, trying to get him to sit up. “Andie, you need to stay.”
“Sam, who is that?”
“Who’s what?” he grumbled, trying to get up.
She looked to Dean and Bobby, wondering if they heard it, too. But they all kept their eyes on Zachariah, so she knew she was on her own. “Who are these people?”
“Dean seems to know who that guy is.”
Andie crouched next to him, keeping him upright. “What about the others?”
Sam looked up to her. “What others?”
Her voice went high. “You don’t see them?”
“Who?”
“Andie,” Zachariah called out happily. “Please join us.”
She looked down on Sam before she rose and slid next to Dean. “Can you see anyone else here?” she whispered.
“What? Besides all the burning smoke bags?”
“Seriously? Am I high?”
His eyes widened at her. “We’re so screwed.”
“No, Dean. Andie’s just finally finding her true sight.” Zachariah turned to her with a thoughtful look. “Right?”
She nearly stuttered. “They can’t? They don’t see them?”
“Your gift is strong. Stronger than you could have imagined. It’s like a crystal ball.” Dean snorted and Andie shot him a look.
“What is all this? Who are you?”
“We’re the angels of the Lord.”
Before she could realize it, she muttered “Fuck,” drawing a sharp glance from Zachariah. She looked to Dean. “You seriously don’t see anyone?”
“No.”
Zachariah closed in on her. “Your vision is quite sharp here.”
“I don’t get it.”
“You see the vessels they last used. No matter what’s happened since.”
She looked from the angel to Dean. “Vessels?”
Dean shook his head awkwardly, like this was the worst time to explain all about the angels and the last year or so. “I’ll explain it later.”
Zachariah spoke up. “We need your crystal ball. We need you.”
With wide eyes, she turned to Dean, not even sure how to answer or what was going on. “Not likely,” Dean replied for her.
“Dean, you could be spared in all this.”
He pushed himself into Zachariah’s space. “No, you wanted me, you take me.”
“It was never about you.”
His voice gritted. “None of this? The seals and Lilith and Lucifer? You were just yanking chains until you got off on the joy of almost killing us?”
Zachariah seemed to think it over then smiled. “No, that was about you. This here? Sam? No. We needed Andie.”
When Dean turned to her, a dark shape was crowding at her side. She seemed a little weirded out, but not nearly as freaked out as he would have figured her to be. And she wasn’t too much gone on it because when she looked, it was the woman who spoke in her head, who told her to remain calm and still. It was Anna. And the angel was again spreading words into her ears without anyone else hearing a thing.
Dean pointed a strict finger at them. “Keep that thing away from her.”
Zachariah leveled a hand at Dean’s shoulder. He tried to move out of it, but the hold was tight and powerful. “Dean, you’re free to go. You and your brother and Bobby. You can all go.”
“No,” Sam called out from the side. “She’s with us.”
Andie looked to Sam then back to Anna, who continued to speak with her silently. They wanted her sight to find where the stray, fallen angels were. The ones who had aided Lucifer in his war. Ones Sam and Dean had failed to find. She looked to Zachariah, who shrugged, as if he was just asking for a ride to the store. “No loose ends. We need to remove the blemishes from our army.”
Dean, Sam, and Bobby looked between Zachariah and Andie, realizing they were having a halted conversation, and waited for someone to fill in the blanks. She looked at Anna and asked her more mental questions, and she finally nodded.
She turned to Zachariah. “I help and you leave them alone.”
“Andie,” Sam cried out.
She stole a quick glance at him, but turned back to Zachariah. “I go with you, and then you let them off this crazy leash and never bother them again.”
“Damnit, no,” Dean cursed. His mind raged on all of the times he and Sam traded their lives and futures for one another. How his father dealt with the Yellow-Eyed Demon. He didn’t want to see anyone else bargain with their lives.
Zachariah looked to the brothers then to her. “Sounds like they don’t want that.”
“To be left alone? I highly doubt they don’t.”
“Take me with you.” Dean stepped back next to Andie, challenging Zachariah. Something hitched inside her, that it wasn’t Sam who did it, but Dean. And while, yeah, Sam wasn’t in the greatest of shape, Dean really wasn’t a fan so it struck her even harder. “We both come and you let Sam and Bobby go.”
“I’m sorry, Dean, but we’re not really up for used items.”
As Dean took quick steps forward, more shadowy figures came forward, grabbing Andie and taking her from the room. Sam’s adrenaline helped him up and forward, firing off a few rounds from his gun at Zachariah. With one quick hand, the angel swept Sam off the ground and back into the wall, his head smacking the ground. He did much the same to Bobby and Dean, quickly taking them out of commission and all consciousness.
*
It wasn’t the first time. It was the fourth time, maybe? Fifth? But it didn’t make waking up in a hospital bed any easier. Dean grumbled and ambled his way into a seated position, being careful of the pain shooting through his right shoulder and upper arm, which was wrapped tightly to his side with an ACE bandage. His forearm pressed against his stomach to keep him totally immobilized.
He rose from the bed, padding into the hallway and looking around. People rushed around him, not paying much attention and he worried that once again, he was actually in a coma and just waiting for a reaper to take him away. He felt something rub against his good shoulder and when he turned, he heard a ‘sorry’ carry away with a passing man. Okay, good sign. Someone else felt that and knew it happened.
He checked at the nearest nurse’s desk for Sam’s whereabouts. Then Bobby’s and Andie’s. He got two, but not hers. Bobby’s was closest and when he entered, the man was on the bed, fixing his boots. He looked up to Dean. “Oh, hell, son. You’re awake.”
Dean rushed over then halted, fighting the emotion bubbling beneath. “Yeah, you okay?”
“A mean concussion. Nothing I can’t handle.” Bobby slapped a hand at Dean’s bad shoulder, making him wince, “You okay?”
Dean moved away from the hand. “Aside from that, yeah. Have you seen Sam?” He saw Bobby’s face drop. “What is it?”
Bobby went with him to Sam’s room, to find him pale in places that weren’t marked with purple and green bruises. Dean stared, his throat drying out and his eyes wet. Bobby rested a hand on his shoulder. “He’s been out since this morning. They’re watching him though.”
*
Dean wasn’t going to leave Sam’s side for anything. Except the nurses and doctors, who constantly insisted he not hover. So in those moments, he stayed in the hallway, watching from the window. His mind wandered through all the things they’d seen and fought together. All the jaded ghosts, monsters hiding in closets and under the bed, things that go bump in the night. He couldn’t imagine going on without Sam, doing anything with himself if it meant Sam wasn’t safe and alive. For the past five years, through good and bad, he was his only family, his partner, his best friend. It wasn’t right that he had to face this once again, Sam on his deathbed, worrying about being the only Winchester left in the universe.
Even if Sam lived through this, Dean knew he would want to search for Andie. Hell, she was at the bottom of Dean’s list, but it was his job to save people from the supernatural, and if he couldn’t get her out of the clutches of crazy, sadist angels, he didn’t know what the point of this life was. But he didn’t even know where to start. What to consider. Bobby had already been discharged and checked out the Cultural Center, but saw nothing aside from church goers visiting the offices where Zachariah and his angels had held guard days before. Andie was absolutely a needle in a haystack, a mighty large haystack. But they’d done harder things, crazier things. He and Sam would figure out how to find her.
*
Dean rested his forehead on the cool glass of Sam’s window. He watched the nurse take notes in Sam’s chart, logging numbers off the machines. A hand at his back surprised him. As did the voice. “Hey, you’re awake.”
He stared down, taking in the clear eyes, the mellow skin, and the quiet but happy voice. “Holy shit.”
The corner of her mouth hitched up a little. “I know, right?”
He couldn’t take his off of her. Her skin was smooth like porcelain, the long hair shining brighter than ever before, her eyes glossy like marble and clear blue. It was like she’d taken a week-long spa and nutrient treatment and came out of it glowing and fresh and absolutely stunning. This was not the Andie he knew and didn’t love, but had recently vowed to save.
One shoulder hitched up a bit. “Angels aren’t so bad. They’ve got some great vacation spots.”
Dean stuttered, his mind blocked by her appearance and also her words. “What? I, I don’t ...”
She smiled easily, amused by him. Her hand slid to his arm in comfort. “It was a long, strange ride. You have no idea.”
He considered all the possible excuses for her being right there and looking so unbelievably perfect. After the mess the guys dealt with in the whole incident, she had to have a few marks. Had to. “Are you dead?”
“No.”
“You’re not a spirit?”
“Last I checked, no.”
“Am I dreaming?” With a smile, she playfully slapped at his bad shoulder. He gritted through teeth. “I’m going to kill you for that.”
“You’re not dreaming.” Then Andie turned to the window to see Sam. “Nothing new?”
*
Andie tried to ignore how bad Sam looked in the hospital bed. With an IV, oxygen tubes running under his nose, wires tapped into his chest to read his heart. His face was battered and cut, his eye still swollen. It had been another two days and they were still keeping him to wait for an improvement on his brain function. He was so battered after the accident, the doctor’s weren’t sure what would happen next.
She kept her arms crossed, standing in the hallway and leaning against the window to his room. Just watching him, because she didn’t really want to be next to him if he wasn’t going to say anything or move an inch. She preferred to think of it as one of her visions, though they seemed to be gone, thanks to the angels.
“Here,” Dean said quietly, offering up a cup of coffee. “Anything?”
“No,” she mumbled before taking a sip.
He spoke more, but still refused to look at her. “If you need to, you can go. I’ll tell him you were here.”
She blinked fast, trying to reason a response.
“I’m sure you have other things you have to do.”
Andie finally looked at him. “I’m fine.”
He faced her and was taken aback by all he read on her face. It bordered on scared, tired, and annoyance. That last one wasn’t too surprising. “You don’t look fine.”
“Neither do you.”
Dean drank more of the caffeine and kept any smart ass comments to himself. Even though he had already been discharged and was healing, his face was still a little beat up. It took a few minutes of quiet, but he finally broke. “You know how many times he’s sat here in my position, waiting for me to wake up?” When she turned to him again, he went on. “I was electrocuted. And then hit by a car. A djinn had me holed up in a warehouse.”
“You were drunk?” she asked, obviously confused.
“A djinn.”
“Not the liquor?”
“No, it’s like a genie.”
She cut him off with a flat voice. “A genie locked you up in a warehouse?”
“It sucks blood out while making you see an alternate world based on a wish.”
Her eyebrows rose high. “You guys deal with some crazy shit.”
Dean finally chuckled, a tiny smile staying on his face. “Yeah, we do.” He took a sip of coffee and sobered up. “But he always found a way to rescue me. All these years I said I was protecting him, but he did a pretty good job for me.”
Her free hand rested at his upper arm before curling around the bicep and leaning against him. She needed to feel the comfort as much as he seemed grateful for it. “He’ll be fine.”
“Yeah,” he replied, with just as little confidence as she had.
*
In the morning, Andie suffered through more headaches but no new scene. For so long, she saw Sam living with her, them together and happy. But given that he was still out and not responsive to much with the doctors, things weren’t looking so great. She started to wonder if being without the visions was such a good thing. Tears fell instantly, but she steeled herself and headed off to the hospital.
She arrived to find Dean in Sam’s room. She stayed out in the hallway and watched him sit on the bed and talk, which prompted her to lean closer to the window. She smiled a great big, megawatt smile, seeing Sam moving and talking. And his face wasn’t looking so much like a pile of beans anymore.
The nurse marched into the room and spoke briefly before ushering Dean out to check Sam’s vitals and his chart. When he found Andie in the hallway he smiled. “Hey,” she said happily. “Good news.”
“Yeah, he just woke up a few hours ago.”
She elbowed him gently. “I told you it’d be okay.”
“Yeah,” he sighed, looking back at Sam. He could see Andie lean closer to the window and he turned towards her. “What do you see?” She looked to him with raised eyebrows. “For Sam. What is it?”
Her eyes went down and her lips had a tiny smile that she tried to hide. She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, when or how.”
“You two? Together?”
She looked a little uncomfortable to say it but also a little pleased with the idea. “Yeah.”
“Huh,” he sounded, looking a little interested. His eyes went back to his brother, seeing the nurse hold a stethoscope to his chest. “On the road? Or like a real life?”
Her voice was careful, uncomfortable. “It’s mostly my house.”
“No more hunting?”
“Eventually, no.”
“But he’s okay, right?”
“Yeah. Ten toes, ten fingers.” Then she added with a crooked smile, “Two eyes.”
Dean nodded thoughtfully and watched the nurse fluff Sam’s pillows before walking out of the room. He saw Sam watch them at the window and Sam smiled lightly, seeing Andie talk to Dean. “You like him? Or you just following the vision?”
She shrugged awkwardly, but he saw a tiny smile. He was reminded of times in the last year that he had snapped at Sam for being on his phone so much. For all the time he wasted talking to and texting with Andie. Apparently they liked each other more than anyone ever let on.
Dean tapped a hand at Andie’s elbow. “I gotta check on something. Go on in there.”
She smiled and watched as his face warped from hopeful into something strange that she couldn’t quite pinpoint.
His hand squeezed at her arm and he fought with his words. “Take care.”
As he went down the hallway, she watched his back, so confused with the weirdness. “Dean?” she called out and took a few steps forward. But he only raised a hand in reply and continued walking. It was the first time in three days that she begged to have instant vision and know what Dean was planning. What he was doing, where he was going. She had been entirely too happy to have the angels take her vision away - so relieved to no longer see people’s downfalls and untimely demises. But something struck her oddly in that moment with Dean’s departure and she had no earthly idea what it was.
“Andie?” Sam called out from the room. When she looked inside, he was doing his best to smile around the bruises and swelling still evident on his face. “Hey,” he said quietly as she entered.
She sat at the edge of the bed and smiled when he took her hand. “How are you?”
“Feel like a million dollars.”
She laughed at the quirky tone. “You look like shit.”
“I feel like it. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” and she fumbled with his hand in hers. “I’m good.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked before she even realized her smile wasn’t as strong as she intended.
“Nothing. You really okay?”
Sam squeezed her hand. “Yeah, I think so. What about you? What happened?” he suddenly rushed out with worried.
Andie half laughed, half sighed, and looked at their hands held together. “It was just crazy. I don’t know really.” He squeezed again for her attention. “I had to find their bad guys,” she said plainly with a shrug. “And then they released me, said they wouldn’t bother any of us again.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.” Sam leaned back into the pillows with a quirk to his lips. “Why’d they keep me?”
“To get me.”
“But they could’ve just gone after you.”
She thought about all the random, weird, and yet prolific conversations she’d had with Zachariah in her time in Heaven. When he told her what they’d done - kidnapped Sam, held him and performed some (in their eyes) necessary torture, waited for her to show up - it all made sense, but now back on the ground, nothing did. She was still just as confused by the whole thing and yet also amazed it even happened. “I don’t know. I think you’re a pretty good incentive.”
“What?”
“Sam, you looked like hell. And they trapped Dean and Bobby. There’s no way I wouldn’t help if I could.”
As well as he could and with as little pain as possible, he tried to sit up. Instead, he gently smiled. “So what next?”
Andie smiled, thinking of the beauty of no longer having to be burdened with other people’s futures in her mind, but then of the strangeness in Dean’s departure. For once, she truly had no idea. “I’m pretty sure number one on the list is for you to get better.”
“Yeah, and Dean’s shoulder.”
“Yeah. I don’t think you’ll be fighting anything for a little while.”
“Yeah.” He watched her for a few moments before continuing carefully. “Maybe we’ll have to stick around for a little while.”
She fought the strength in her smile, so it hitched up on side and she flushed just so. “Yeah, maybe.”
“You’ll have to put up with Dean, too, you know.”
With a laugh, “Yeah, I guess I can try.”
“Three amigos or something.”
Andie continued to watch Sam, thankful that he was finally awake, that he was going to be okay, and that he was staying around. For at least a little bit. It feel like everything was falling into place right then. They were finally to the point of being able to be together. Just the two of them. But then … No Dean.
And it was right then when she replayed his closed face, his caring hand at her elbow, his voice telling her to take care. She suddenly realized the reason she never saw Dean in any of her visions was because he wasn’t around. He left Sam. He left him with her.
Next | Stranger Things Have Happened: When Sam's listless over Dean's disappearance, Andie insists they go out on the road to track him down.