FIFTEEN
At the Truckee General Hospital, Sam sat on the edge of an examination table, wincing as the E.R. doctor injected him with a local anesthetic. She was the same person who had stitched up Dean two nights before. Dean stood next to the bed.
"You boys keep getting into trouble," she said. "You want to tell me about it?"
Sam fumbled in his jacket pocket and pulled out his F.B.I. credentials. "We're undercover. Here working on a homicide case."
Her eyes widened, and she paused before she started stitching, needle hovering over the wound. "And that's who did this to you?"
"We're not sure," Sam told her. "We didn't get a good look at him."
"Have you seen similar wounds to these?" Dean asked.
She began with the curved needle, making tiny, neat stitches. Her brow furrowed. "I don't think so. The other doctors might have. How did you say this happened?"
"Uh... some kind of hooked weapon," Dean said quickly. They always went to great lengths to seem as plausible as possible, which usually wasn't very easy.
"Well, this is bad. Are you up on your tetanus shots?"
"I think so," Sam said.
"Well, I'm giving you another one just in case," she told him.
She finished the row of stitches on Sam's chest. An earlier X-ray had miraculously shown no damage to his collarbones. "I'm going to fill out a painkiller prescription for you and come back with your discharge papers."
When she left the room, Dean whispered, "I'm amazed that thing was able to pick up a Jolly Green Giant like you."
Outside the little examination area, Sam suddenly heard a familiar voice. "That's Bobby," he told Dean.
Dean popped his head out, seeing Bobby talking to an E.R. doctor. When they finished, Dean called him over.
Bobby stepped inside the blue curtain. "What are you two doing here?"
"We had a run in with a... thing," Dean elucidated.
"A thing."
"A flying thing. It had wings."
"And claws." Sam added.
Bobby frowned. "I think that man was its handiwork."
"Naked sleepwalker guy?" Dean asked.
Bobby nodded. "He was full of organs. Other people's organs. And the creepier part is that I think he was already dead when we found him."
Dean grimaced. "You mean walking around dead?"
"Yep."
Sam stood up from the exam table. "What could do that?"
Bobby set his mouth in a grim line. "That's what we need to find out."
