Roads of Reckoning

Faith

End of April, 2006
Dean pulls out two tasers from the trunk, a grin on his face.
"What do you got those amped up to?" Sam asks.
"A hundred thousand volts." Dean replies.
I whistle. "Damn."
"Yeah. I want this rawhead extra frickin crispy. And remember, you only get one shot with these things. So make it count." He hands Sam one of the tasers and I take up a shotgun.

We move down into the basement of the abandoned house, stairs creaking under our feet. There is a noise from a cupboard. We brace ourselves as Dean throws open the doors. Inside are a boy and a girl covering their ears.
"Is it still here?" Sam whispers. The children nod.
"Ok, grab your sister's hand, come on. We gotta get you out of here." Dean ushers the kids towards me and we moved back up the stairs, Sam bringing up the rear.
Something grabs onto Sam and sends him tumbling back down the stairs.
Dean shoots one of the tasers but misses.
"Demi get them out of here!" He throws the taser up to me.
Sam gets back to his feet and races up after me.
We get the kids outside, but hear a yell come from Dean. I tell the kids not to move and we scream back inside. In the basement, Dean lays unconscious in the corner.
"Dean!"
I kneel down next to him and check his pulse, sighing in relief.
"We gotta get him to a hospital."

•———————————————————————•
Sam and I stand at the reception desk of the hospital.
"Sir, I'm sorry to ask. There doesn't seem to be any insurance on file." The nurse says.
"Right, uh, ok." He pulls out his wallet and hands over a card.
"Okay, Mr Burkovitz."

Sam and I approach two cops that are warring nearby.
"Look, we can finish this up later." One of the says.
"No, no it's okay." Sam looks to me. "We were just taking a shortcut through the neighbourhood. And um, the windows were rolled down, we heard some screaming when we drove past the house and we stopped. Ran in."
"And you found the kids in the basement?"
"Yes sir." I reply.
"Well thank God you did."
One of the doctors approach us and we excuse ourselves from the cops.
"Hey, Doc. Is he..." Sam starts.
"He's resting. The electrocution triggered a heart attack. Pretty massive, I'm afraid. His heart...it's damaged."
Sam's face drops.
"How damaged?"
"We've done all we can. We can try and keep him comfortable at this point. But I'd give him a couple of weeks, a month at most."
My stomach lurches at this. Dean can't die. Sam shakes his head.
"No. There's, there's...gotta be something you can do. Some kind of treatment."
"We can't work miracles. I'm sorry." And with that the doctor turns away.
Sam looks to me, tears forming in his eyes. I take his hand and pull him into a hug, rubbing his back. We stand like this for a while.

•———————————————————————•
In his room, Dean is watching the TV. He looks terrible. He's got dark circles under his eyes and he looks exhausted.
"Have you ever watched daytime TV? It's horrible." He doesn't look at us as we enter. I stand at the end of his bed, staring him down, trying to think of a solution.
"We talked to tour doctor." Sam says.
"That fabric softening teddy bear. Oh I'm gonna hunt that little bitch down."
"Dean." I say shortly. I know he's trying to lighten the mood but it's not working.
He switches off the TV.
"Yeah alright. Looks like you two are leaving town without me."
"What are you talking about? I'm not gonna leave you here." Sam snaps.
"Hey. You better take care of that car. Or I swear I will haunt your ass."
Sam and I glare at him, unimpressed.
"I don't find that funny." Sam crosses his arms, he's fighting back tears. I just want to reach out and hold him.
"Look Sammy. What can I say, man, it's a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story."
"Don't talk like that alright? We still have options."
"What options? Burial or cremation? And I know it's not easy. But I'm gonna die and you can't stop it."
"Watch me."

•———————————————————————•
Sam and I sit in silence, heaps of books about heart care open across the room. Sam has tried calling John but what a surprise, no answer. I run my hands over my face as there is a knock on the door. Sam and I exchange a glance as he crosses the room.

"What the hell are you doing here?"
Dean pushes his way into the room, leaning on every surface to keep himself up right.
"I checked myself out."
"Are you crazy?" I pipe up. I cross the room and help Sam guide Dean to a chair.
Dean shrugs.
"Well, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot."
Sam huffs a laugh. "You know, this whole 'I laugh in the face of death thing'? It's crap. I can see right through it."
"Whatever dude." He looks between us. "Have you guys even slept? You look worse than me."
I shoot a glare in his direction.
"We've been scouring the internet and every book for the last three days. I even called every contact in Dad's journal."
"For what?" Dean asks, kinda oblivious.
"Fo a way to help you dumbass." I snap.
Sam chuckles at my snide remark.
"One of Dad's friends, Joshua, he called me back. Told me about a guy in Nebraska. A specialist."
"You're not gonna let me die in peace are you?"
"We're not gonna let you die, period. We're going."