Splatter

4. The Guardian 3683

"We can't take him to a hospital." That annoyed tone could only be Hannah.

"I want him healed." This voice Dean liked. It was familiar and exciting all at once. Novak?

"It won't hurt him." Hannah was insistent.

"He fainted." Novak sounded pissed off.

"Obviously, he's got issues. But we can't risk taking him where they'll figure it out."

"Then we call someone who'll understand," Novak's hand was in his pants, digging for his phone.

Everywhere Novak's hand bumped and touched, Dean was on fire again.

* * *

He was floating in the water. It was putrid and cloudy and his eyes were closed. His hands pressed to the walls of the tank, there was so little air. Every movement reminded him of captivity, so it was better to shrink in on himself and curl up his limbs, touch his nose to his withering tail and wish to sleep.

* * *

"Hey Dean, it's me, Doctor Donna Hanscum. You're in anaphylactic shock. Do you know what you're allergic to? What happened to your arm?"

"I touched," Dean could barely speak, he was still under water, in a chasm too deep to swim out of. "He touched me."

"It's not from touching, what did you eat?"

"My arm ... his hand print"

"It's a swollen mess Dean but I don't see any hand print. What did you put in your mouth? Just before your reaction?"

"He came into contact with my gill excretion. Quite a lot of it."

Who was that talking? Dean could hear every tone of that voice, the timber warm and honey sweet as it trickled into his ears. Then realisation dawned upon him. Novak, he fucking hated Novak. He wished Novak would keep on talking.

"Dean's not allergic to anything. Can you develop anaphylaxis so late in life?"

That was Sammy, who sounded both concerned and fascinated at once.

"Well, depends, is he in the habit of drinking down Mer fluids?" Donna sounded ticked off. "He works in a decontamination environment, he should know better."

"You gonna treat me or tell me off?" Dean said slurringly, he thought Donna might have even understood what he was saying.

"You don't need treatment, your body's had a severe reaction to stimulus but the rush of antihistamines seems to be reducing now. You could try opening your eyes."

Dean's eyes still felt swollen though with some effort he could see a sliver of light. The face centre front was blurry and haloed by Dean's bathroom ceiling light. The fuzzy outline of mouth and eyes moved around and Novak's concerned voice called his name.

The sound of his voice made Dean's heart pulse a little weird but he managed to grunt: "You fucking poisoned me."

"You tried to assassinate an important delegate," Hannah was ranting in the background but Dean could only pay attention to Novak's beatific smile.

"Hello Dean."

Novak's head was pushed out of view by Donna's, she looked into Dean's pupils, her fingertips forcing Dean's eyelids open non-too-gently. She seemed satisfied by whatever she found there and leaned back. Then a mop of damp curls encroached into Dean's vision.

"When you scare off your date, you do it good and proper huh," Sam's expression was exuberant, Dean couldn't figure out what he was so happy about. Maybe he was happy for Dean's recovery or the terrifying/farcical scenario Dean was found in.