Title: Remote Depths

Author: SnowyOwl-17

Category: Roswell/Supernatural Crossover

Pairing: Liz/Dean...any others haven't been decided yet

Rating: This story is being rated Adult for violence, language, imagery and possible sexuality.

Disclaimer: I don't own Roswell or Supernatural. Roswell belongs to their creators, writers, etc., and Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and others.

Summary: This is a dark fic and a challenge that I took up from Jezebel Jinx...which is also posted at www.roswellfanatics.net...

by Jezebel Jinx on Tue May 27, 2008 4:22 pm
#119

I was going to do this one but I won't have the time for it so I'm throwing it out there to see if anyone else wants to take a crack at it.

Supernatural/Roswell

Couple: Dean/Liz

Rating: Adult (for subject matter that'll be explained below)

Summary: Post both season 3 finale's. Dean is in hell, Liz is on the road with the gang. Liz becomes connected to Dean, while on the road she's having visions when she's asleep and a couple times when she's awake, about Dean and his treatment in hell. It becomes so bad that a few times she'll wake up and have similar marks on her body that had been inflicted on Dean.

Soon her friends start to notice that Liz isn't her usual self. She's sleeping more and longer than before, she snaps at her friends, and they occasionally notice the marks left on her skin, even though she does her best to hide them. Eventually Maria gets Liz to confide in her about what is happening but Liz makes her promise not to tell the others until she knows more.

Over the next few months Liz and Dean become closer and closer through their bond and Liz manages to somehow share with Dean happier dreams instead of all the time nightmares giving him some hope of getting out of hell. Through their dream/nightmare sharing she learns about demons and Dean learns about aliens. Meanwhile she and Maria work on getting any information about what is happening to her and why she is connected to Dean.

It is around this time that Liz and Maria bump into Sam while having breakfast and talking about the latest batch of nightmares Liz has had. Sam has become darker, he's become ruthless when dealing with demons and will kill them at a moments notice and his only true mission is to get his brother out of hell. Liz recognizes Sam from some of Dean's nightmares and at some point during the breakfast with Maria goes to sit next to Sam and tells him point blank that she has had contact with his brother and she wants to help him get Dean out of hell.

That's about as far as I got with the plot.

Must Have

-It must be dark, Dean is in hell, I want there to be torture and disturbing images.
-Max and Liz did not marry after Graduation. Instead they broke up but remain friends.
-Sam and Liz don't like each other at first. I want their interactions with each other to be difficult, to be uncomfortable, to be angry.
-After the rest of the Roswell gang is brought in on what's happening to Liz, Isabel agrees to dream walk Liz and see if there's anything that she can find about Liz and Dean's connection that could help them.
-The Roswell gang (except Maria) aren't brought into the loop until after Liz meets Sam.
-Maria tends to play mediator with Sam and Liz. At times she takes Liz's side, other times it's Sam's.

Any questions just PM me.

Prologue:

She looked around furiously. All around her were what looked like spider webs. But these were like no spider webs she had ever seen before in her life. It looked like they were metal chains that she had seen construction workers use on cranes and on tow trucks. What was worse was that she couldn’t tell if build up on them was rust…or dried blood. Her stomach gave a nauseating twist at the very thought.

She felt the bile rise in her throat faster as she saw a guy not much older than herself right in front of her. His face was bloody, scraped and cut up. There was a deep cut running from his right temple all the way down past his ear and then half way down his neck. From where she was and the amount of blood on him she couldn’t tell if that cut had hit some kind of vein or artery or if he had been here for a while…wherever here was.

She brought her hand up to her mouth as she took in his blood soaked t-shirt that was barely hanging on him. His chest had similar gashes, as the one on his face, littering his chest. She knew in her heart that she wouldn’t have to look far to find countless more injuries along the rest of his body. She had hoped with every fiber of her being that she was wrong, but a quick glance down to his legs had proven what she had already known…his entire body was beaten and battered. She wasn’t even sure how he was hanging on to life.

Tears flooded her eyes as she took in the…meat hooks…it was the only thing she could think to call them. They were attached to the chain link spider webs as they spread his body wide. The hooks seemed to be everywhere. There was one in his right shoulder; one in his left forearm; another in his right elbow; one in his left thigh followed by one in his right knee. She couldn’t contain the bile any longer as she noticed that there were still two more…one running through his right calf and the last one was through his left ankle.

Seven.

There were seven meat hooks all together. Seven meat hooks attached to blood rusted chains. Blood rusted chains that were pulling tautly on his wounded flesh at each hook incision.

The horrific sight was too much for her stomach to take any longer. She wrapped her arms around her midsection and leaned over to empty the entire contents of her stomach.

Liz shot up into a sitting position on her bed only to barely hold in the contents of her stomach until she leaned over the side of her bed, she was just happy that the motel trash bucket was there or she would have had a bigger problem than she already had. She spent the next twenty minutes violently heaving as the image of him played through her mind over and over. She breathed in deeply trying to calm down her breathing and her stomach as well. The scene of her dream/vision had been so horrific that whenever she managed to get some kind of grip on her gag reflexes her mind grasped onto his image one more time, which caused her to have another heaving fit.

Eventually she was able to gather herself as calmly as she could possibly be and fell back to the bed and stared up at the ceiling breathing hard. She weakly brought her hand up and waved it in front of her as she cleaned herself and anything else that may have been messed in the process. She couldn’t have been happier that she had her own room. The last thing she needed was to have to explain why she would wake up from a dream heaving any meal she had consumed in the last 24 to 48 hours.

She had had some intense visions and some really dark dreams. But not once had they been disturbing enough that she had woken up vomiting.

It was so real. The blood; the screams; the presence had felt so evil as it surrounded her and that poor guy. She knew that all the screaming she had heard were of others being tortured most likely in the same sense that he had been.
She had no idea how he had not been screaming at the top of his lungs with those hooks pulling at bone, muscle, nerve and tendons. She didn’t have to hear him to know he was in more pain than she could ever comprehend. His face had been distorted in pain, even in his body’s unconscious state.

She wanted so badly to know if he had been a dream or a vision.

In a sense she wanted it to be a dream because she did not want anyone to be in that kind of pain. Yet on the other hand she wanted it to be a vision. If it was a vision and he really was…where ever the hell it was…she wanted to do everything in her power to take his pain away; to get him out of that horrific place.

She wasn’t sure what was bringing on her strange and fierce need to care for him and take his pain away, but it was there and she would be damned if she didn’t figure out what the hell was going on.

tbc....

You already know I loved it and can't wait to read more.

Can't wait to read what's next!

REMOTE DEPTHS



Chapter One:

She sighed as she pulled her hair up into a messy pony tail and grabbed her sun glasses, before she made her way out of her motel room with her duffel bag in hand. The last thing she wanted to do right now was get into the van with her ‘family’. They had become worried about her at the first look of dark circles under her eyes just a few days ago. Isabel was starting to harp on her because she wasn’t eating enough or something like that. Max had practically demanded that she let him heal whatever was wrong with her and Maria was becoming an attachment that she slowly getting fed up with.

She had had another vision last night.

That was bound to make this morning even better. She had been able to escape her ‘family’ for a while as they hadn’t been on the road for a couple of days. Now however she didn’t have much of a choice.

It had been maybe a week or two since she had received her first look at his torn body. Although she couldn’t really be sure; she was having a hard time keeping track of the days…not that she honestly cared what day it was, but that was beside the point.

She had thought she had been able to prepare herself for more visions of that hellish place. But that had been the furthest from the truth that she could have gotten.

He had been worse last night than she had ever seen him before. His right eye had been swollen shut and it looked like a new meat hook had entered his body at the left side of his torso. The hook in his left shoulder looked like it had been ripped out and then savagely shoved back into his body a couple of times.

This time he didn’t even look conscious. At least the night before last he had looked conscious; she didn’t even want to think about the kind of pain he had to be in for him to be knocked unconscious as often as he appeared to be in the majority of her visions.

It wasn’t that she wanted him awake and feeling all of the agonizing pain that he was obviously in. But when she had first seen him in this last vision she had feared that he was already dead. It had taken her a few minutes to calm down enough to see that his chest was still moving with every ragged and shallow breath that he was taking. They were the kind of breaths that you could tell were only adding to the pain he was feeling just by looking at him.

She sighed as she closed the door behind her and tossed her room key to her ‘big brother’. “Here you go, Mikey,” she said with no enthusiasm what so ever.

He simply caught the keys in his hand as he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “Well aren’t you just a glowing bowl of sunshine this morning, Parker.”

She just glared at him from behind her glasses and then flipped him off. This just caused him to laugh, “Go climb in the back of the van and claim the back bench before Kyle does. Get some more sleep, Parker. You look like you could use it.”

Liz rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses, “If I didn’t agree with you I would blast you from here to next Sunday.”

Michael just laughed and gently pushed her toward the van as he moved to go collect the rest of the ‘family’s’ room keys.

She knew Michael was concerned for her, but he didn’t treat her any differently. He didn’t hover like the others were doing. It was something that she was eternally grateful for, thus in return she tried not to snap at him as much as she knew she did the others. So far that arrangement had worked out rather well.



Liz sighed as she pushed the sliding van door open. She forced a small smile at Maria and Isabel who were already in the van, waiting for the rest of their ‘family’.

“Hey, Hon, are you feeling okay? You don’t look so good,” Maria asked her in concern.

Liz sighed and did her best to control her temper. She knew that Maria was just being concerned for her, but with her lack of sleep or the feeling of lack of sleep her nerves were on end, “Yeah, Ria, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep so well last night. I’m going to grab the back bench before Kyle gets out here and snores for the next hundred miles.”

Isabel’s laugh sounded just as forced as her smile to them had been mere moments ago, “Alright, Liz. I’ll see what I can do about keeping the boys on the quiet side.”

She actually felt a genuine smile form on her lips, no matter how slight, at her ‘sister’, “Thanks, Isabel.”

She climbed in the back and put her duffle back at one end of the seat and then proceeded to lay down with her back to the others and her head resting on her duffle bag. She could vaguely hear Maria asking her again if she was alright, but the moment her head had touched the duffle bag she was nearly completely asleep once again.

There he was.

And he was awake.

However, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He was screaming at the top of his lungs. With every scream she was sure that he was causing himself even more pain.

“Sam!!!”

She wanted nothing more than to go over to him and stop him from struggling against the hold of the hooks and chains. Each time he moved against the meat hooks he caused himself to bleed profusely from everyone of his lesions.

Blood was flowing freely and coating nearly his entire body in his own life supply. She wasn’t sure what was worse the fact that his life supply was on the outside of his body instead of inside like it should have been or the ‘drips’ of blood that were moving away from his body as they traveled down the chain link webs.

She felt the tears rapidly pool in her eyes as his pain became profoundly evident in his eyes. She didn’t want to see him in this much pain. It was almost as if she could feel his pain. Her own flesh felt like it was being pulled in different directions. She felt as though her own blood was dripping down her sides and coating her clothing, much as his life supply was doing to him.

She desperately tried calling out to him through her sobbing, “Hey, you have to stop moving. You’re only going to hurt yourself more!!!”

The more she yelled and screamed at him the more she began to panic. He was still screaming for this Sam person and he was thrashing around a little more each time. And each time he moved, more blood would literally gush out of his body. With each movement and each gush of blood she saw his face get paler and paler. She knew that every time he got paler his whole situation became all that more life threatening.

However it was when he stopped moving altogether that she felt the fear and bile surge once again. She was terrified that he had bled so much; that he was slowly and painfully killing himself on those meat hooks.

He was breathing heavily and was far too still for her liking. He would let out a small moan and groan every now and then. But she had a feeling that he either had a really high tolerance for pain or he was far too used of this kind of pain due to the length of time he had been experiencing this. Neither option settled well with her. His face, however, was now in an ever present state of pain. His head was leaning back a bit as if he was looking up almost as if he was looking in the direction that the sky should have been…where heaven should have been. She could see a lone tear escape and make its way through the caked on blood that was both fresh and dried on his face.

“Sam,” he whispered out one more time; but this time his voice had a desperate, pleading tone to it.

She hadn’t heard him sound this defeated the entire time he had been screaming. In every one of her other vision she had seen him in a somewhat of a ‘I’m not going to let you beat me, no matter what kind of shit you put me through’ way.

Before she had been relieved to see that he was a fighter. Now she wasn’t as sure as to how much longer he would last. She knew now that she was running out of time and that if she didn’t find a way to help him soon…she was going to lose him.

She collapsed to her knees when she saw what happened to him next. It was like watching one of those ‘SAW’ movies only a hundred times worse because she actually knew that this was happening to someone…someone she was finding herself caring for more and more as time went on.

Out of nowhere another meat hook flew at him and sunk into his right hip. Whatever was left of his blood supply seemed to spray out as the hook viciously ripped through skin, muscle and bone.

The sound of his screams had her sobbing in helplessness. She wanted nothing more than to go up to him and take all of his pain away; to hold him in her arms and let him know that he was okay and that she wouldn’t leave him. But it was like no matter how close she got to him…he didn’t hear he; he didn’t feel her.

She felt so useless.

She had these powers that could take his pain away and heal him, yet all she could was sit there and watch as unseen forces ripped those blood coated hooks in and out of his tattered flesh again and again.

She wanted to so badly to not see what was happening to him, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away. If she couldn’t help him physically then maybe she could help him by suffering with him.

At the moment that was the only reasoning she could give herself that would allow her to believe that she was helping him in some way even though she couldn’t touch him.

“He can’t see you,” said a voice behind her interrupting her thoughts.

She spun the upper half of her body around to see a blood covered blond female. The woman didn’t look like she was in the best condition, but nowhere near as bad as the poor guy only a few feet from her.

“What is happening to him? Why is this happening to him? And who the hell are you?” she screamed at the blonde woman who wasn’t doing anything to help him.

The blonde woman smiled sadly at her, “I’m Ruby. And that is Dean Winchester.”

Ruby walked up to her and stood by her side as they both looked at Dean and watched him.

“What is this place?” Liz asked softly as more tears fell down at the pain she felt shoot through him.

Ruby looked at her with narrowed eyes before turning her gaze back to Dean almost in a calculating manner, Liz realized as she watched the blonde out of her peripheral vision.

Ruby sighed, “This is Hell. And this is happening because he sold his soul to save his little brother.”

A sob escaped Liz as she thought about the reason behind this brutal punishment that Hell was dishing out on him. Whatever he had needed to protect his little brother from, he had done it and now he was paying the price of ultimate pain and suffering for doing what any good older brother would do.

“How do I stop it?” she asked Ruby through her tears and sobs.

Ruby looked at her sympathetically, “You can’t. Only he can. And to stop the endless torture, the constant pain…no matter what got him here, whether it was selling his soul for Sam or doing something so horrible that he was actually meant to come here after death…he has to keep believing that he can win, that he can beat this and that he can suffer through all of this pain ad come out on top and be all the stronger for it. But he has stopped caring about himself for too long now. He sold his soul to protect Sam. In his mind this is protecting Sam.”
Liz brought her hand to her mouth and forced the bile back down, knowing that if she was going to throw up she had to do it when she woke up so that she would be able to clean it up before any of the others would notice.

The only time she took her eyes off of Dean was when Ruby knelt down in front of her, grabbed her face in both hands and searched her eyes, “You can feel him can’t you? His pain, his suffering; you’re connected to him for some reason that I can’t understand or figure out why, but you are, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.—Why are you here?” she asked curiously.

Ruby smiled slightly, “Looks like Dean has girls falling for him even when he is in hell.”

Liz glared at the blonde through her tears, “If you’re not here to help go away.”

Ruby’s smiled didn’t leave her face, “Look I may not be his groupie or even like him really…” Ruby got serious as she trailed off, “But Dean and Sam have done a lot of good for the world. Even I don’t want to see him here. He should be up in the world fighting alongside his brother and doing more good in the world.”

Liz looked at Ruby and then back at Dean. In all the suffering he had been experiencing during this particular vision his shirt had been pulled completely from his body. Not that his thin cotton t-shirt had been much protection for him against the brutal attacks, but at least something had been taking some of the force from the torture…now there was nothing except his bear skin to take the entire brunt of the painful blows. She could at least be thankful that his jeans were still somewhat intact.

“Is there a way that I can take any of his pain for him?” Liz asked with determination in her voice.

Loved It.

Chapter two:

He had been hearing what he hoped to anything that was good was his own mind him to stop struggling against the hooks that were embedded in his body. Logically he knew that all the thrashing and pulling was causing him even more pain, but his survival instincts wouldn’t allow him to stop trying to escape what was causing him all of this pain.

He wanted so badly to escape this pain; to get back to Sammy and protect him like was supposed to. He wanted nothing more than to take the role of protector, the same role that he had often rebelled against as a child, he now wanted more than anything in the world. He even found himself wishing for a normal life. But from here in hell that wasn’t possible. Hell he had known a normal life was a near impossibility before he had landed himself here, but now it was downright never going to happen.

There weren’t nearly enough women in the world that could handle one supernatural event after another. Even if he did manage to get out of hell, by some miracle, there was no way in heaven that any woman would be able to put up with having a boyfriend/husband that had spent time in hell…literally.

The only thing that had him somewhat at ease, or at least as much as was possible given the circumstances, was that Sam still had Bobby; he himself had taught Sam practically everything he had ever could have, well except how to get Sam to actually get girls, but that was another point altogether, not to mention something Sam had always struggled in picking up and keeping those lessons that well; Sam had his baby, and that car had gotten him through more rough times than he could count; and more importantly the two people that had been after Sam the most were no longer there to put his little brothers life in danger any longer.

He let his head roll to the side as his eyes were moving to their breaking point. The pain was always bad, but at the moment it was at least bearable and bearable meant that his physical and mental exhaustion had been taking a toll on him. He honestly thought that he had known exhaustion before, but nothing compared to this exhaustion. Four hours of sleep in a forty-eight to seventy-two time period was nothing to the sheer exhaustion that he now knew.

He knew that now was definitely the time to allow his body to rest so that he would be able to handle everything else that would be dealt to him, and more likely than not, before he even woke up willingly. While the pain was still excruciating it was at least at a dull roar at the moment, but his body still felt as broken and alight with fire as it had since the beginning. Although he had a feeling that was a normal reaction considering the dozen or two broken bones that he was currently enduring.

Just as sleep was about to take him over…

“Dean!”

He looked around in every direction as far as his body would let him. But he couldn’t see anyone. No one else was attached to meat hooks like he was…at least not within his eyesight. He quickly gave his head a shake to try and clear his mind. He was going crazy that was all there was too it.

“Dean! There is another hook coming for you, from behind!!”

The voice sounded out again. But he couldn’t pin point from what direction it was coming from. The urgent voice just seemed to echo all around him. After a moment of nothing he closed his eyes and took a deep steadying breath. It was just another one of Hell’s tricks. He wanted so badly for someone to care about him and come looking for him, that he was hearing someone who didn’t exist and sure as hell wasn’t coming for him. He was creating his own hell in his mind to try and compensate for the hellish surroundings.

Hell was playing with his mind. It knew what he wanted to so it was playing on his deepest desires and biggest fears…and it was wreaking havoc on his mind. His body was already taking the worst beating he had ever encountered he had to make sure that it didn’t get his mind.
He had to remember what his humanity was…wasn’t that what Ruby had said? She had remembered what it was like to be human?
Before he could try and persuade himself into believing that he hadn’t heard anything to begin with he was pulled out of his thoughts when the dull edges of another hook forced its way into his body…right under his right rib cage…from behind.

He couldn’t stop the scream of pain and surprise that pushed its way past his throat and out of his mouth.




She didn’t even attempt to stop the tears that fell as she watched the hook rip its way through his body. She had been just as surprised as he had when he had started to respond to her whispers. What she had noticed, though, was that he seemed to be able to hear her speaking when he was nearly asleep.

She couldn’t help the pained smile that forced its way to her face as she watched him pass out from a potent mixture of exhaustion and pain. She hated the fact that he was in so much pain that he passed out, but she was also happy that he wasn’t awake to feel this for at least a little while.

She still had no fucking idea how the hell she was supposed to take his pain away and get him out of this place. She hated calling it Hell. It only made what she knew he was feeling worse.

She let her tears flow from her eyes as she stood over his body.

“It’s okay, baby, I’m here and I’ll watch over you while you sleep. I promise,” she whispered to him.

She raised her hand and held it over the new hook in his body. She couldn’t take it out. She couldn’t heal him, but she could take some of his pain for him.

She couldn’t touch him. She had tried many times. She had tried to comfort him when he didn’t even realize that tears were falling down his
face. She wanted to rub a hand up and down his back when he threw up any blood that had settled in his stomach from one injury or another. She just wanted to help him in any way she could that was how she had discovered that she could use the healing power she had gotten from Max.

She watched has her hand glowed green, just slightly. The wounds never looked any better, but if the bruises that she received when doing this were any indication she was at least lessening some of the pain he felt. She could feel the spot under her right rib cage become sore and then downright painful. If she had lifted her shirt she would see an ugly looking bruise rapidly forming.

She could feel herself being forcefully awakened again, but she held on as long as she could to take as much pain from him as possible. She would not let him go through this alone, even if it killed her.

“I’ll be back, baby, I swear. Just hold on for me, okay? Just hold on, I’ll figure out how to get you out of here.”

She wasn’t sure when she had gotten into the habit of calling him Baby, but it just seemed natural for some reason. Plus, he had seemed to relax when she had whispered the endearment to him one time and she had decided to just keep it after that.

She took a breath and one last look at him before she allowed herself to be pulled out of her sleep.

As she allowed the state of wake take over her she winced at the pain that was on her right side. She knew that whoever, was trying to wake her up had seen it, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.

“Liz!”

Ahh…Max. That meant that the others had tried to wake her and it hadn’t worked so they had gotten him so that he could use a bit of his healing powers on her to wake her up. At least she knew that he couldn’t see anything from her visions that way. He could only do that when he connected with her, and over the years his powers had expanded to light healing without any connections.

“Liz, where are you hurt?” he asked urgently.

She sighed and quickly sat up. She had gotten good at hiding the amount of pain when she violently sat up in anger, “Max! I am fine; I just fell asleep in an awkward position!”

“Liz…”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed a hold of her duffle bag and pushed passed Max with all of her strength. Just as she was about to set her feet on the ground he grabbed a hold of her upper left arm. She felt her eyes glaze over in anger, “Maxwell, take your hand off of my arm before I blast you from here all the way back to Roswell.”

She didn’t even look back at him she simply waited for a moment and sure enough after a moments hesitation he removed his hand.

Getting out of the van she put a good distance between her and the others as she stretched her legs and did her best to hold the contents in her stomach. Lately it had been taking even more of her self-control not to start blasting the van and everyone in it. She hadn’t gotten Ruby’s answer as to whether or not she could take some of Dean’s pain away. Unfortunately, Max had shaken her awake much like he had just done. She had had to figure out that whole taking his pain as her own all by herself.

Her meeting with Ruby had taken place a little over a month ago, and she had not seen the other woman in her visions since. It pissed her off to no end. It meant that she was no closer to helping Dean, not to mention she wasn’t sure if the reason she hadn’t seen Ruby was because of something to do with Hell or her visions or simply because the other woman was a bitch and didn’t want to help Dean anymore.

The others were looking at her in concern. And if her mind hadn’t been completely filled with the images of Dean and her constant determination to help then she would probably be doing more to hide her fear and anger at the moment. But since that wasn’t the case she didn’t really care that lately when she woken up in the morning the sun was shining bright and that she would fall asleep again only to wake up once again well after night fall.

She leaned up against the front of the van, while the others stood at the back of the van and simply watched her, as she waited for Isabel to go get the rooms and such. Her mind was too preoccupied as she tried to continue formulateing her plans as to how she was supposed to get Dean out of Hell and rid him of more of his pain.

She could feel Max looking at her in a way that had been rather annoying to her even before these visions had been coming to her. But now with the feeling of helplessness and no sleep at all, he was downright pissing her off. And that was exactly what was happening lately. She was getting no sleep. She would sleep all day as they drove, and at night she would sit in her motel room with ice on her bruises, scrapes, and any wounds she had. Then she would spend the rest of her night writing down and going over any detail she could remember about the vision and then continue to try and piece together anything that she could. It was a tedious process, but it was one that she was happy to endure if it meant getting one step closer to helping Dean.

“Liz, maybe someone should sleep in your room tonight,” he suggested to her, well more like demanded, but it was enough to pull her out of her focused thoughts and spark her short fuse.

“Why because I’m not capable of taking care of myself and sleeping when my body obviously needs it? Max I am fine. I probably just have a bug or virius or something that is making me tired,” she said as she began rubbing her temples.

She was getting a massive migraine from the excessive use her powers to hold down the contents of her stomach, she had gotten good at keeping down any food that she actually got around to eating; she was tired of throwing up and having the others hover over her in concern.
Before Isabel could even get a word out edgewise she grabbed one of the room keys and took off. She completely ignored the frantic calls and worried questions from behind her. She just sped up her steps and made it through her door and then proceeded to seal it shut with her powers before she dropped her bag and ran for the bathroom. Even from the bathroom she could still hear the others at her door calling her to let her in.

Ignoring them she ran to the bathroom and practically through herself on the floor in front of the toilet and released her powers and allowed the bile to leave her stomach. When she was done emptying her stomach once again she fell back against the cool tiled floor as a light coating of sweat glistening on her body and dampened her hair. The vomiting was still bad, but it wasn’t as much of a shock anymore. She still had a hard time watching the pain that Dean went through, but she was able to keep from vomiting every time she saw something horrible happen to him.

However, she wasn’t sure if that was something that she should be happy about. Sure on one hand less vomiting meant less of a physical toll on her body, but it also meant that she was used to the pain that he was suffering from…and it was not a pleasant thought to know that she had seen and felt him in pain so many times that it didn’t shock her or make her physically ill anymore.

She took a few deep breaths to try and keep her stomach from heaving with nothing left to heave. She closed her eyes and steadied her nerves the best she could before she began standing on shaky legs. She flushed the toilet and then went over to the shower and turned on the cold water. As much as she would love to let hot water relax her tense muscles the cold water would be better on her injured body.
She stripped her clothes and looked at her body in the mirror above the bathroom sink. She could see why her friends were worried about her. She was thinner than she had ever been in her life. Not to mention bruises, scrapes and cuts littered her body. But the one that she had just gotten under her right rib cage, looked far worse than the others. She would have to sneak out of her room later during the night and grab some food from a vending machine or something and hope that her body’s natural healing ability would kick in or something.

After another moment she got into the shower. She jumped slightly when the ice cold water hit her skin, but her ribs loved her for the cold that would keep the swelling down. She sighed and leaned her head against the tiled wall and just let the water slide down her body. She tried so hard to just clear her mind for a few moments, but it was impossible. She just kept thinking of ideas of how she was going to help Dean or hell maybe even try and find his brother. Although, she had no fucking idea what she would say to him, ‘Hey, sorry to interrupt what you’re doing but I just wanted to let you know that I see your brother in these visions I have…Demon? No, I swear I’m not a demon.’

Yep, she could see that going over real well and she hadn’t even met him yet…not that she knew what he looked like, but that was besides the point.

She sighed in despair as she pushed herself off of the wall and grabbed some soap to begin washing up. She had a lot of work ahead of her and she was shooting in the dark, it was all trial and error…and it was pissing her off.

tbc...in the next post

Continued from previous Post

She walked out of her shower, her body wrapped in a towel. As she made her way into the main part of her motel room she stopped up short when she saw two blondes sitting on her bed. The one with the curled hair gasped when she saw the bruises and scrapes on display.

Liz ignored the first blonde and glared at the smirking, straight haired blonde, “What the hell are you doing here Ruby? Better yet how the hell did you get in here?”

Ruby just continued to smirk as she stood up and walked up in front of her, “Those spiffy powers of yours don’t keep demons out, honey.”

Liz backed up a step as she saw Ruby’s eye flash black. Liz narrowed her eyes at the blonde demon, “If you’re a demon why are you so anxious for me to help Dean? Shouldn’t you be partying with the other mother fuckers that are over joy that he is in hell, suffering?”

Liz ignored Maria’s gasp at her language. She knew that the swearing wasn’t something that she would normally do, but when it came to keeping Dean safe, her normal flew out the window and in place of little Liz Parker was a fierce protector that she didn’t even know was in her.

Ruby just smiled at her, “I’m different. I didn’t want Dean to go to hell, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about that. Before I was sent back to hell, the only thing I could do was help Dean prepare Sam to fight this war without his big brother.”

“Why do you want Dean and Sam to fight this war so bad? From what I can tell, they’re pretty much at the top of every demon’s list of people they like least and want dead,” Liz growled out.

Ruby narrowed her eyes at Liz, “I told you, I’m different. I remember what it was like to be human. Every demon out there was human at one point until they went to hell. And if you don’t make sure that Dean remembers humanity then he will be another one of those bastards that Sam has to kill. But my job isn’t to worry about Dean anymore. Every time you go to Hell to protect him, it affects you a little bit more. You get sucked into the world of the supernatural a little bit more every time. And I’m not talking about little green men that will kill you for siding with another little green guy, I’m talking demons that will tie you up torture you, rape you, bleed you dry and more if you don’t know how to handle yourself. You are too valuable to Dean and Sam’s survival and to this side of the war to let anything happen to you.”

Liz was silent for a moment as she stood there and took in everything that Ruby had just said. The two of them never broke gazes as Liz assessed the situation, “So, you’re going to protect me?”

Ruby nodded with a sarcastic smirk, “Yeah, I get to play babysitter to Dean’s new girl.”

“I can take care of myself,” Liz glared back.

Ruby smirked in twisted amusement, “And yet notice that you didn’t deny that you were Dean’s girl?”

“And you’ll notice that you didn’t say you wouldn’t help me find out how to protect Dean and get him out of hell?” Liz smirked in equal twisted amusement, “You want to babysit me? Fine, but you damn well better make yourself useful.”

Ruby glared at her but didn’t object.

“Liz?” Maria asked quietly.

Liz sighed and turned to her best friend since childhood. It looks like it was time to face the music. It was going to be a long night.

I love this story

BUMP

Chapter Three

Maria sat in silence. Liz knew it was a mix of shock and complete and utter disbelief. Not that she could really blame Maria…Demons, possession and Hell were a complete different story from the usual that they were used of. And reborn, intergalactic, royalty wasn’t exactly normal…so there was definitely room for skepticism.

The longer Maria sat in silence the more concerned Liz became. After a moment Liz turned to look at Ruby, “Is she okay?”

Ruby looked up from the blade she was twirling in her hands. Taking a look at the silent blonde girl on the bed Ruby shrugged, “You just told her that you spend your sleeping hours watching over a guy that you don’t even know that gets tortured in Hell and that you take some of his injuries on to yourself, so that he suffers less. Plus, you let the cat out of the bag about things that go bump in the night being real…Did you really expect her to take it as well as you did?”

Liz half rolled her eyes and half glared at Ruby, “Of course not! She took the whole alien thing pretty badly, but complete silence? I think I would prefer if she started screaming at me.”

Ruby was about to say something when Maria all of the sudden yelled out, “Liz!! –How do you know this guy isn’t some demon trying to trick you or something?—Liz we’ve dealt with enough enemies to know that they are never straight forward and truthful about their intentions!”

Liz sighed and listened to Maria ramble off question after statement after question. Knowing that this is what Maria needed to do before the situation could progress any further.

Liz couldn’t help but smirk slightly when she noticed Ruby glare and roll her eyes at Maria’s rapid speaking.

“Oh yeah, her freak-out rambling is so much better than her shocked silence," Ruby muttered as she pushed off of the wall that she had been leaning against.

Liz couldn’t help the smile that formed on her face. She knew all too well that dealing with the full experience of one Maria Alexandra Deluca took both easing into and getting used of…both of which Ruby did not have the luxury of.

She’d have to remember to thank Maria later.

Hey, Ruby may be helping but that didn’t mean she trusted the blonde female demon. Besides…she was still pissed at the bitch for not trying to help Dean sooner. Whether, her anger was justified or not she couldn’t bring herself to care.

She was about to settle in to listen to Maria rant some more, when her stomach mad a loud protest. It was only then that Liz remembered that what little she had eaten before had been purged from her stomach earlier that night.

Liz rolled her eyes when Maria shut up and looked at her in shock.

“Chica, when was the last time you’ve eaten?” Maria demanded.

Liz shrugged, “I don’t know,” answering Maria honestly was about the only option she had right about now, “But whatever I had eaten, I threw up earlier.”

Ruby seemed to perk up, “Well then I’m going to get some McDonald’s, who wants what?”

After placing their orders with Ruby, the female demon happily escaped the room, but not before handing Liz the blade she had been playing with earlier, “Until we get to go over how to keep demons out, this will kill any demon it cuts.”

Liz nodded and watched as Ruby’s eyes flashed black and she just opened the sealed door and walked out.

“Alright, now that the crazy bitch is gone, Liz we have to tell Max! –Chica, this could be one of our enemies trying to get to you!” Maria said as she reached for the motel phone.

Liz spun around and sent a blast at the phone, “We’re not telling Max, Maria! This had nothing to do with intergalactic wars or something like that! This is about someone being in Hell who doesn’t belong there!”

“How do you know its Hell, Liz?” Maria exclaimed.

Liz glared at Maria before walking over to her duffle bag and pulling out two five subject note books and two drawing pads. She threw them all on the bed next to Maria, “Here Maria. Every vision I’ve had in full detail and some visuals to show you exactly what Dean goes through every second of every day!”

With that Liz grabbed some clothes out of her duffle bag. Arguing with Ruby and telling all to Maria hadn’t allowed her a chance to dress after her shower. She stormed into the bathroom door and slammed the door shut.

There was no way in hell that she was involving any of the others. Michael would go all over protective big brother on her; Max would get into his ‘I’m King, you should have told me and what I say goes’ mood again; and Isabel would dream walk her. She hadn’t even wanted to show Maria her records of her visions, never mind having another of the group see what she saw all the time.

She would leave with Ruby if she had too, but there was no way she was involving anyone else. It’s bad enough that Ruby had went ahead and brought in Maria.
Sighing she dressed and washed her face in an attempt to relax the tension from her body.

Just as she opened the bathroom door to head back into the main part of the motel room, Maria pushed past her and ran to the toilet and emptied her stomach.

Liz sighed and walked over to her friend to pull her hair back and rub soothing circles on her back, “This is why I didn’t want anyone else involved, Ria. There was no way that you read through all of it in that short amount of time and you’re already heaving.”

Maria was breathing heavily, “You see all that in every vision?”

Liz sighed, “See it; feel it; hear it; smell it. I didn’t want anyone else to ever have to know what Hell is like. –But I can’t leave Dean there either. It’s not fair that he’s there.”

Maria coughed and spit into the toilet, “Chica, don’t you have to really evil to get yourself sent to Hell?” Maria asked a bit sarcastically.

Liz sighed once again, “He’s there because he made a deal with a crossroads demon. He sold his soul for his brother’s life.”

Maria looked at her incredulously, “He killed his own brother?”

Rolling her eyes, Liz shook her head, “No, he sold his soul to bring his brother back to life. –Sam died and Dean couldn’t handle his little brother being gone so he sold his soul.”

Maria was silent for a moment, “Ruby, the bitch demon from hell, tell you all that?”

Liz shrugged and ignored Maria’s sarcasm…Michael was seriously rubbing off on her blonde friend, “She told me he sold his soul to save Sam because to him Sam is his responsibility, so ultimately his suffering is protecting Sam.”

Maria cleaned herself off and flushed the toilet, “Alright, say I believe all of this, are you seriously telling me you agree with what he did?”

Liz gave Maria a look, “Can you honestly tell me that after Alex died that if you had known about a crossroads deal that you wouldn’t have sold your soul to bring him back?”

Maria looked away and muttered, “No, I can’t.”

“Neither can I. We’d be hypocrites if we got angry with him for being selfish and loving his brother,” Liz said quietly.

They were both silent as they sat there thinking about everything that had happened that night. after about ten minutes they were brought out of their thoughts by the motel door opening and closing.

Liz looked at the bathroom door and clutched her hand around the handle of the knife Ruby had given her earlier.

Moments later Ruby appeared in the doorway and raised an eyebrow, “Party in the bathroom?”

Liz and Maria rolled their eyes.

“Yeah, some party. Vomiting right before we’re supposed to eat dinner can’t wait to do it again,” Maria mumbled.

Liz raised an eyebrow at her best friend as she hopped off of the bathroom counter and stated an earlier thought she had regarding Maria’s new attitude, “Chica, Michael’s been rubbing off on you.”

Maria glared at Liz as they both began walking out of the bathroom, “You tell him that and I will tell Max you are still in love with him, Chica!”

Before Liz could say anything Ruby laughed, “That would be interesting the little green royal vs. the big bad possessive hunter.”

Maria frowned as the three sat down to eat their dinner, “Dean is possessive?”

Ruby shrugged as she chewed her burger, “He’s not really possessive…its more…only he can be an ass to those he cares about. It’s like with Sam, no one else can beat up his little brother but Dean and vice versa. One time a fellow hunter granted the guy was psychotic, but anyway the guy called Sam ‘Sammy’. Again this guy hated and tried killing Sam a few time and the boys eventually ended up killing Gordon when he was turned into a vampire, but Sam flat out told Gordon that Dean was the only person who could call him ‘Sammy’.”

Liz frowned, “Why’d Gordon want to kill Sam?”

“Because Baby Winchester has visions and telekinetic powers; he could have some more if he practiced but Dean wouldn’t let him,” Ruby said casually.
Maria frowned at that, “What? Did Dean not like Sam having abilities?” After she said that Maria looked at Liz in concern.

Ruby smiled at Maria’s look toward Liz, “If you’re wondering if Dean is going to turn Liz away just because she had powers then the answer is no. Dean didn’t want Sam to practice his powers because he knew more demons would be after Sam if he stronger and more prominent abilities. –I can pretty much guarantee that if we succeed in getting Dean out of hell he’ll be just as protective of Liz, if not more.”

Wanting to steer the conversation away from any possible ‘relationship’ talk about her and Dean, Liz turned to Ruby, “So how do we keep demons out of our motel rooms?”

Maria and Liz listened carefully as Ruby explained what certain herbs and plants could, along with the easier attainable salt lines.

Liz sighed and ran a hand through her hair, “Sure the salt is more attainable but also a lot harder to explain to the rest of the group as too why we are carrying bags of salt around with us all of the time.”

Maria nodded in agreement, “Yeah, that’s for sure.”

The three of them were silent for a good length of time.

Liz finally closed her eyes and looked over at the curtained window, imagining the world outside of it. She had to decide whether or not saving Dean was worth putting the others in danger. If Ruby was right about all her changing a bit more every time she went to Hell then she would most likely start attracting other demons besides just Ruby. Plus, having a demon babysitter was going to be raising some suspicions among the bump in the night community she was sure.
The sooner she left the group the less other demons should be able to associate with her.

Closing her eyes and made her final decision, “I can’t stay here,” she said softly.

Maria looked at her in surprise, “What?’

Liz looked at Maria, “I can’t stay with the group. Sure I will be vulnerable to our…their enemies if I’m by myself. By if I stay I risk bringing my own enemies to them. To keep them safe, I have to leave. I don’t want them to know about these visions; I don’t want them to know about what goes bump in the night. They have enough on their plate with intergalactic wars. If I leave I won’t have to answer to anyone, I won’t have to explain why I need to do research on demons that are after me and I won’t have to explain why I wake up in pain.”

Liz scrubbed her hand over her face, “Ria, you’ve seen me with them lately. I’m biting their heads off for caring about me. I don’t want to have to hide the fact that I wake up in pain; that depending on the injury not only am I going to be vomiting, from what I’ve seen, but that I am also going to be coughing up blood. I need to find Sam and help him get his brother out of Hell…but do you honestly thing that even after I’m done with helping Sam and Dean to the best of my abilities that I’m going to be able to just ignore what goes bump in the night?”

Liz sat silently and watched as Maria took in everything that she said. She knew that her best friend was going to put up a fight. Hell, she didn’t even really want to leave the safety of the group…but with every outcome of this situation running through her head, there was no way that she was willing to put the others through this.

“Liz, they will help…” Maria trailed off when Liz started shaking her head negatively.

“No, Maria, they won’t. Max will try healing me. He will tell me to stop taking on Dean’s pain. He will have Isabel dreamwalk me and then she will be in a similar predicament that I’m in with the vomiting and the sleeping all of the time. Michael and Kyle are the only ones that I can see being even remotely supportive of this and even then it’s a slim chance. And you know just as well as I do…Max won’t listen to either of them…not when it comes to me,” Liz finished quietly. She desperately wanted Maria to see what she knew would happen if they went to the others.

Maria shook her head, “Liz this is insane! You can’t just leave because of some vision you have of a guy you don’t even know! Yes, it sucks that he is in Hell…but you can’t seriously be thinking of doing this?”

Liz looked her best friend since childhood in the eyes, “I’ve done more for Max, and I loved him. Why should I not help someone who needs it, when there is something that I can do about it?”





Continued in Chapter 3b...

....Continued from Chapter 3a

“I know you’re there. I can’t see you, but I can sure as hell feel you looking at me! What are you here to torture me some more?” he spit out as he looked around wildly.

She should have been shocked that he actually knew she was there…but if what Ruby had said was true then she was probably starting to become a staple in Hell for him…just another thing he had to be afraid of.

She made her way over to him slowly, her nerves going crazy the closer she got to him. He wasn’t doing any better; the closer she got the more he more agitated he became as he flailed his body on the hooks, “Stop, baby, you’re hurting yourself more than you need too,” she said desperately. She wasn’t sure if he could hear her, after all he didn’t look any more tired than usual.

“Of course, I’m hurting myself you bitch! I’m attached to fucking meat hooks!” he spit out.

She just let his harsh words slide off her shoulders. He was in pain and he was scared, even if he wouldn’t admit it; besides he couldn’t know whether or not she was a danger to him.

Those thoughts quickly disappeared when she finally realized that he had heard her, “Wait…you can hear me?” she asked him in surprise.

“No, I’m talking to Easter Bunny!” he said sarcastically.

She couldn’t stop the tears that came to her eyes. After months of being able to do nothing but watch him suffer he could finally hear her. She let out a choked laugh, “If that’s who you want to be talking to, that’s fine with me.”

He frowned obviously not expecting that to be her answer. She ignored his frown and let him think about what ever was running through his mind. She hadn’t exactly expected him to be welcoming…after all who would be in a place like this. In the mean time to took inventory of his injuries.

His left rib was bleeding profusely. She would have to try and take some of that injury later…she couldn’t take it now or she would have to wake up and cough up blood…and she wasn’t quite ready to leave him yet.

“So, are you just another one of Hell’s tricks? Let me hear a female voice so that I can get attached and then get tortured some more?” he asked her coldly.

She sighed, “I’m not a part of Hell, Dean. I know you have no reason to believe me and that’s fine. I have a feeling that if the big wigs of Hell knew I was here I would be in more pain than you are at the moment,” she said softly as she let her hand hover over his hair that was matted to his head with both fresh and dried blood.

He laughed humorlessly and shook his head, “Sweetheart, there is no way that you could be in more pain than me.”

She smiled sadly at him even thou he couldn’t see her, “Sure, I could be. All they would have to do is take me away from you before I have a chance to help you with the constant knowledge of the pain you’re in. That would probably kill me,” she whispered.

She hadn’t meant to get all gushy on him, but she couldn’t help it. To know that he could finally hear her and that she could talk to him now, and help him keep a grasp on his humanity as Ruby said he needed to do…it was more than she could have asked for.

He smirked coldly, “What bastard told you I would fall for that?”

She smiled slightly…always the stubborn ass. “Hate me all you want. I won’t make you talk to me. Shit, I’ll tell you about my life and you can ignore me or make all the sarcastic comments you want but I’m not going anywhere until somebody wakes me up,” she said in a tone that would tell him she was just as stubborn as he was.

“Wakes you up?” he asked in annoyed disbelief, “That’s the best shit you can come up with?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Geez, you really are an ass do you know that?”

He smirked sarcastically, “Oh, sweetheart, you’re making me all tingly inside.”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “No, I think that is one of the hooks making your nerves go numb,” she deadpanned.

He said something but she ignored him as she caught a glimpse of another hook coming his way. She looked at him quickly and immediately took her hand in his. She ignored his look of confusion as he stared at his hand, “Baby, you have to relax there is another hook coming in on your right,” she said urgently.

He tensed up at the knowledge causing her eyes to fill, “No, baby, you can’t tense your muscles it will hurt all the more! Please, baby, relax. I know it hurts, but I’m right here.”

She noticed that he seemed confused but not at about the hook coming as he had been a few moments ago. She felt a bubble of encouragement flurry inside her stomach and continued talking to him, “So, I hear that salt lines in front of doors and windows keeps demons out, huh? You know how that works? Or is it just some big mystery that can’t be explained?”

“It’s too pure for them. That’s why you throw salt on bones when you burn them to get rid of a spirit,” he answered in confusion.

She nodded as she felt her tears spill over onto her face just as the ‘new’ hook dug deep into his right hip. He screamed out in pain and unconsciously gripped her hand tighter. It was that unconscious squeeze that actually registered in her brain that she was actually touching him and that he could feel it. He couldn’t see her but he could feel her presence as well as physically.

She let out a shaky breath and lifted her free hand up to his hair and began to slowly smooth her hand over his short locks, “I’m here, baby, hold on as tight as you need to.”

She watched as his jaw clenched through the pain and then after a few minutes he slowly opened his eyes. His eyes moved over toward her, “You’re the one that warned me before about the meat hook that was coming at me from behind,” it wasn’t a question.

She nodded, “Yeah.”

“And you’re the one that I have been hearing. Soft whispers, but nothing concrete, not until that last warning,” he said in confusion.

She was surprised at that, “You could hear me before that last time?”

He looked like he tried to shrug, as if he for a moment forgot that there were meat hooks running through his body. But the movement and the hiss of pain became a blunt and painful reminder.

“Hey, go easy there, baby. Try not to move, the more you move the more pain you cause yourself,” she said softly as continued running her hands through his hair.

He breathed heavily and trying to push the pain away, “Not much. Mostly I would just hear words here and there. I was seriously beginning to think I was losing my mind. Especially, when you would call me that...”

She frowned, “What? ...Baby?”

He nodded slightly, so as not to cause himself too much pain, “Thought the sons a bitches had finally gotten to me when I started relaxing every time I heard it.”

She looked at him sadly, “Hey, I swear on my grandmother’s and my best friend’s grave that I am not here to trick or hurt you. I don’t know how I’m here with you and I honestly do give a shit.”

He let out a painful scoff, if the wince on his face was any indication…but she didn’t have to look at his facial expression to know he was in pain. All while he was talking she had been putting her powers into her hand that was holding his and taking as much pain from him as slowly as she could so that she wouldn’t alert him to what she was doing.

“You better start givin’ a shit, sweetheart. Look around you this isn’t exactly the frickin’ Holiday Inn.”

She had to laugh a little at that, “Trust me, I know. I fell asleep in a Holiday Inn. Compared to my roommates…you’re much better company.”

He smirked, “Going at it like rabbits?”

She wanted to find that funny…really she did. But instead she was sad. He was chained to six meat hooks and he was still cracking jokes…blocking out the pain.
“Ah…No. Get your mind out of the gutter, Dean,” she tried her best to sound somewhat upbeat.

She could tell that he had heard her less than jubilant tone but did his best to keep his smirk in place.

“Aww, come on, sweetheart, what the hell else is a guy supposed to think about with all this free time on his hands?”

She felt like she was failing him. Here he was trying to cheer her up and he was the one being tortured beyond what should be the natural threshold of pain…she was sure she had surpassed that natural threshold years ago. She really needed him to not be so strong. She wanted him to lean on her for support, to scream at her when he was in pain…something…anything…just to let her know that he wasn’t holding all of this turmoil inside of him.

“If you must know I am sharing my room with two very opinionated blond females that dislike each other greatly. Not to mention before I fell asleep I sided with the bitch that my best friend hates over her…she was less than thrilled,” she answered softly.

Dean frowned at that, “Why’d you side with the bitch?”

She shrugged and looked down at their hands, “I didn’t want too. But if I thought rationally she was right. Maria has a habit of thinking with her emotions…it’s what I love about her. Rationality has never been her strong point.”

“Maria is the best friend right?” he asked curiously.

She nodded, “Yeah.—I can feel her trying to wake me up, Baby. I’m going to have to leave soon.”

“You coming back?” he asked.

She could hear in his tone that he both hoped she did and hoped she didn’t.

She smiled at that, “If I don’t come back how will I get to hear your lectures of how I shouldn’t come back?”

He smirked at that, “You really shouldn’t you know. This place is filled with bastards that won’t think twice of doing things to you that will have you screaming in horror.”

She squeezed his hand and leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his hair line and whispered into his ear, “I don’t care. You can’t get rid of me that easy. You’ll soon learn that it takes a lot to scare me away. Rest as best you can, baby. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”




Continued in Chapter 3c....

....Continued from Chapter 3b



She groaned as she woke up. At the rough shake that woke her up she let out a pained whimper.

“Lizzie?” she heard Maria ask her in concern.

She swallowed past her dry throat, “My ribs,” she whispered.

She felt Maria lift her shirt and heard her best friend gasp in shock.

“Oh god, Liz, what happened?”

“A hook punctured must have punctured his lung at some point or something because his rib was wouldn’t stop bleeding. I was surprised he could even speak,” she said as she opened her eyes.

When she looked down she saw Ruby looking at her in concern, “He can here you now?”

She nodded stiffly, “I can touch him now, too.”

Ruby nodded and took a deep breath, “The next step with you becoming visible to him. When that happens the hooks are going to start sensing you. They will start digging into you, Liz. There is no way around that. It may happen the next time to fall asleep, it may not. I have no idea when it will happen, just that it will happen. You have to be prepared. Soon enough you will have your own injuries on top of his. Can you handle that?”

She looked the blonde demon in the eyes, “You let me worry about what my body can and can’t handle. You just help me figure out how to get Dean out of Hell. You had to do it somehow, right?”

Ruby glared at her a bit, “Yeah, I had done it once before. I knew the tricks of getting out. Kill a few hunters, ‘prove’ that I wasn’t a ‘flight risk’ anymore and they let me out. Dean doesn’t have that luxury.”

She was about to say something when Maria glared at Ruby, “How do you know that they believed you? That they didn’t follow you straight to us?”

Ruby smiled, “I just do.”

It was her turn to glare at Ruby again, “How, Ruby? If they find out that I can get to Dean through my visions we’re screwed!”

Ruby sighed, “I told them that I would collect all of the ‘special’ children that I can.—I am saving Sam for last. He’s the strongest…if we have Dean out by the time I have to get to Sam we have a chance at making a dent in the amount of demons that have escaped Hell when the gate was opened as well as the ones that aren’t killed because of the hunters that I took out…we’ll be fine.”

Maria looked at Ruby in disbelief, “What about all of the ‘special’ children that you were talking about?”

“I only go after innately evil ones. There those particular ones that are just born to be evil, no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. While, Sam is still one of the ‘special’ children, he’s not innately evil. But he is one of the strongest, so they want him anyway. There is nothing I can do about that except help you help Dean which ultimately will help Sam and in turn help rid the world of more demons. Trust me you want Sam and Dean fighting the good fight. You want Sam and Dean working together. While they are each other’s weakness, they are each other’s strength. They balance one another…they always have,” Ruby sighed and grabbed an empty bowl on the table, “I’ll go get some water to clean out those gashes on your ribs.”

She watched as Ruby headed to the bathroom before turning to Maria who was looking off into space, “Do you believe me now?”

Maria looked at her with sorrow in her eyes and nodded tightly, “Yeah, you can’t stay here,” she whispered softly, “If you’re going to be injured more often…the others will ask too many questions.”

She looked at her friend. It was killing her to see her long time, childhood friend in such sorrow. They were the last of the three musketeers. And now she was splitting them up, “I’ll be okay, Maria. I promise.”

Maria was silent and took the bowl of water and a face cloth from Ruby, who had just stepped back into the room. Maria looked at her directly in the eyes, with a set determination Liz knew could never be changed.

She frowned, she had no idea why that look was in Maria’s eyes…but it was unsettling.

Maria began gently cleaning the gashes, “I know you will. Because I’m going with you.”


tbc....

Chapter Four

Michael and Kyle,

I know that neither of you are exactly thrilled with me or Maria at the moment. I wish I could say that I regret leaving you all. But the truth of the matter is that I don’t regret leaving. Though I do and will miss all of you greatly.

Michael, I know that you are going to be angry with me for not coming to you with my problems. After all you are the one who seems to be able to handle any situation…I just wasn’t sure how you would handle this one. Know that I didn’t single Maria out on my own. She was pulled into my problems by forces that were outside of my control, but I promise to do everything in my power to keep her as safe as I can.

Of course, I would prefer if she was with you where I know she would be protected all of the time, but you both know how stubborn Maria can be once she has her mind set on something. I wish I could say that she will always be protected at every turn while she is with me…but unfortunately I can’t guarantee that.

Kyle, you have always been there for me no matter what seemed to be wrong…no questions asked…however, trust me when I say…this time you would have asked questions.

You are both so dear to me and have become the brothers that I never had, and for that I am eternally grateful. But this is something that I have to do on my own without the watchful eye of my overprotective big brothers and a man that I know still loves me despite what he says.

I promise that one day I will explain everything…even if it is only in a letter that I manage to get to you and that I will have Maria returned as soon as this is all over or at the first sign I see of her being in more danger than necessary. I can only guess that you both realize that Maria has no idea of this letter or she would be screaming at me for trying to protect her, but I know that it is the right thing to do.

What I will tell you right now is that I have a few things that are new to me, but are potentially very dangerous, and I don’t want to put any of you in the line of fire. You all have your own enemies to deal with; I don’t want to add my own to the pile of complications that you face on a daily basis.

Michael, for the love of God please stop glaring at the letter, you’re going to set it on fire before I get a chance to finish.

……………………..

Thank you.

Now, Kyle…stop playing with the cell phone for a minute and listen to Michael…the cell phone is a prepaid one and untraceable. I recommend always keeping it charged and paid for, seeing as I can’t know exactly when I will be able to reach you. But please know that I will try as much as I can to get a hold of you to let you know how Maria and I are doing. I don’t have a cell number of my own, I plan on using pay phones or picking up cell phones here and there, so I won’t have a steady number for you to call…probably a good thing seeing as how if Max found it he would search me down to the ends of the earth.

I know that neither of you are happy and that asking you for a favor is probably the last thing you want to do right now, but I really need you to do this for me. Maria and I are heading west…I need you to get Max and Isabel heading in…well anyway but west…the choice is up to you. I wouldn’t ask you of this normally, but if they decide to find me…if you find me you all will be in danger. Isabel can NOT dream-walk me. Visions I am having while I am sleeping are far too horrific for her to experience.

Please know that my lack of discloser has nothing to do with a lack of faith or trust in either of you. You both are the people that I trust most in this world. My decision was made from a complete faith and trust in both of you. You see I knew that the minute you found out about what is going on with me neither of you would leave my side nor abandon me. And that option was not something I was willing to test.

You are safe where you are and that is what is important.

Please have faith in me to trust that I know what I am doing and that what I plan on doing I do of my own free will.

I love you both and will miss you greatly. Be on the lookout, you never know when I’ll return, call, write or send Maria home to you.

Take care of each other and keep Max and Izzy off of my trail as much as you can.

Love you both,

Your sister,

Lizzie

P.S.- Michael, I know that this going to be a difficult request to ask of you…but I need you to burn this letter as soon as you and Kyle read it over. The less evidence of contact the better…and I am not just talking about Max or Isabel. Should it get left behind be accident and my new enemies somehow manage to get a hold of it they will you use you four against me. –Please trust that I know what I am doing, Mickey, you have taught me yourself. Everything I know comes from you alone. You’ve taught me well and will be what keeps me safe.

Until we meet again.

For hours after the letter from Liz had been read by both Kyle and Michael the two had sat in silence just taking in what they had learned about what was going on. Both had been fuming in anger and concern for their friend and sister.

Michael had been the one to break the silence by doing as Liz’s last request had been and held the letter in his hand and setting it on fire until it was nothing but ash. Both of them had just sat there and watched Michael’s blasting power warm his hand and ignite the paper into a flurry of dancing red flames.

“I’m going to kill her when she gets back,” was all that Michael said before they both silently grabbed their duffle bags and headed out toward the van that held a waiting Max and Isabel.

Michael whipped open the back door and angrily flung in his duffle bag, before making his way to the back bench and silently fuming.

Isabel raised an eyebrow, “What’s wrong with him?”

Kyle sighed and closed the van door and looking out at the horizon for a second before turning to the two siblings, “He’s a little pissed. We found a letter from Liz saying that she and Maria had taken off for a little girl time. He’s ready to skin them both alive…”

“WHAT!” Max exclaimed as he spun around in the driver’s seat incredulously.

“The letter said they were headed north,” Michael grumbled from the back.

“Where’s the letter maybe I can get a read off of it?” Isabel asked urgently.

Michael looked away sheepishly and Kyle snorted in a humorless tone, “Guerin’s emotions got the better of him. He got to the end and the thing exploded in flames.”

“Well why didn’t you restore it?” Max asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Michael glared at the man he had considered his brother for nearly all his life, “You don’t think I didn’t try that Maxwell? My sister is out there somewhere and I am not there to keep her safe. Not to mention that Maria is with her. Do you honestly think that I just let what was rest of the letter sit there completely destroyed?”

Max looked away sheepishly for a moment, “No, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

Michael didn’t say anything he just turned his head to look out at the scenery.

The four just sat there in silence of what to do next. They didn’t have any picture of one another with them, and Isabel’s powers weren’t that strong that she could just dream-walk Liz or Maria without one.

“The letter said they were headed north…that means they are probably headed east,” Michael said softly.

Isabel looked at him in disbelief, “Why?”

He sighed and looked her in the eyes, “Because it’s what I would do.”

Nobody could argue with that statement. They all knew how close Liz and Michael had become. They were the two that really require close family ties…and they had found that in one another. They had been on the path of becoming as close as any siblings could before they had escaped the FBI, but being on the road together all the time had only strengthened that bond…as it had all of the others as well…but none like the brother-sister bond between Liz and Michael. Thus, if Michael said his sister was heading east…she was heading east.

Max and Isabel turned back around and got headed on the road.

Had they been paying attention they would have noticed that Michael and Kyle share a look. They both were aware of the fact that Max and Isabel understood how close Michael and Liz were…which was why they knew that had the two been paying closer attention they would have known that Michael would have lied to anyone if Liz asked him too…and since Kyle had never hesitated to lie for her…it was almost a stab to the gut for Michael to realize that the two people who he had considered family for longer than anyone else appeared to not know him as well as he or they had thought.

Michael looked away from Kyle and took in the passing scenery and focused his thoughts on where Liz could be and what was going on, rather than what had just transpired between the four of them mere moments ago.



That had been a month and a half ago.

The passing weeks found Michael and Kyle isolating themselves from Max and Isabel a little bit more every day, not that either Max or Isabel seemed to notice.

Kyle and Michael also found it disturbing how as each day passed Max and Isabel seemed just a little bit less concerned for the well fair of Liz and Maria; a fact that angered both Kyle and Michael equally.

Michael sighed and leaned back against the headboard of his bed and watched the hockey game while Kyle was taking a shower. The alone time was both nice and disturbing at the same time. These few minutes alone he always treasured seeing as how he was always around at the most three people all of the time. However, the alone time also gave him time to think up all kinds of problems that could go wrong with Liz and Maria.

The ringing of a phone caused him to jump. He cautiously picked up the motel room phone, “Hello?” when all he got in return was a dial tone he quickly dropped the phone and made his way to his duffle bag and pulled out the cell phone that Liz had left him and Kyle.

“Liz?” he demanded urgently as he answered the phone.

“Hey, Mickey,” he heard her soft voice on the other end.

He sighed in relief. But that was soon pushed aside by frustration and anger, “Don’t ‘Hey, Mickey,” me, Parker! Where the hell are you? Is everything alright? Why the hell didn’t you come to me?”

He could almost hear her rolling her eyes, “I already explained why I didn’t tell you in the letter, and if you answered the phone you already read the letter so let’s not go over that again. As for where I am…I believe we are somewhere in South Dakota. And yes, both Maria and I are fine. Or as fine as one can get when Maria is ready to bitch slap someone.”

Michael sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, knowing well what Maria’s moods could be like, “What happened?”

She gave a laugh at that, “We found someone that could help us with what was going on, and to say that Maria and Ruby clash would be the understatement of the century. I’m surprised I get any sleep with how much those two are at each other’s throats.”

“That good, huh?” he couldn’t help but smirk.

“I swear to God, Michael, I hear one more Guerin-ism come out of Maria’s mouth and I may have to convince you to sue her for copyright privileges,” she said with a hint of teasing in her voice.

He smirked and looked up when Kyle came out of the bathroom in a t-shirt and loose sweat pant, “Hey, Parker, you want to talk to Kyle? He just got out of the shower.”

He heard Liz laugh, “There are so many ways that I could make fun of that statement, Guerin, but yeah put him on. My money is going to run out soon.”

“Alright, be careful, Liz. And try to call more than once every month and a half, would ya?” he asked sarcastically.

“I’ll see what I can do about that, Guerin,” she said with a smile in her voice.

He nodded even though she couldn’t see him and handed over the phone to Kyle before making his way to the bathroom for his own shower. His sister was okay for the time being…that was enough for him at the moment.

________________________________________

Liz sighed as she hung up the phone. Talking to Michael and Kyle was both a relief and a bit of a depressing thing. On one hand she was happy that they weren’t too mad at her and Maria, but on the other hand it made her miss them more than she already had been. Sure Michael and Maria hadn’t been together for a while now, but both men were her ‘brothers’.

She took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes with her fingers trying her hardest to keep her frustrated tears at bay.

She, Maria and Ruby had just been missing Sam by mere days and hours lately, and the added emotional turmoil of talking to Kyle and Michael had just become too much and now the flood gates were ready to open.

She steadied her breath and began making her way to the car that she, Maria and Ruby had been traveling in. She wasn’t exactly sure how Ruby had gotten her hands on a brand new 2008 Dodge Charger, but she wasn’t about to complain. The car purred when it was on the open road.

Kyle had always been trying to get her into cars when they were teenagers…and now that she had her very own car enthusiast…or obsessive Impala owner, which ever you wanted to call it, in hell…well; it was just a matter of time before she had picked up the same love of beautiful cars. Although, her love of newer cars definitely came from Kyle, however, Dean was making a strong effort to bring her over to the dark side of the classic American made muscle cars…and he was slowly but surely doing just that.

She reached into the pockets of her black leather jacket to get her keys. Frowning when she couldn’t find them she opened the driver’s side door and leaned in to look at the ignition. They weren’t there eit…

Stopping mid thought at the sound of a gun loading behind her she tensed.

“Who are you and why have you been following me for the last three states?” demanded an angry voice from behind her.

She slowly backed her body out of the car and turned around to face the person that the voice had come from. And there in front of her with a shotgun pointed point blank at her head was one pissed off Sam Winchester.

Chapter Five A

She just stood there not even paying attention to the barrel of the gun that was pointed at her, but rather at the eyes that were filled with anger, grief and determination.

“Sam…” she whispered his name before she could stop herself. This was Dean’s little brother and he was hurting…all she wanted to do was take that lost look out of her bro…Dean’s brother’s eyes.

His jaw set as he glared at her, “How do you know my name and why have you been following me?”

She felt her heart speed up, but she didn’t move an inch, after all Dean had said that the buck shots were only filled with rock salt…granted it would hurt like a bitch if he actually shot her, but it couldn’t be worse than the last time she was shot. She took a deep breath, “Sam, I’m not going to hurt you. You can yell Christo in my face, shower me in holy water or tie me to a chair in the middle of a devil’s trap or something if it will prove to you I’m not a demon, but I’m not here to hurt you.”

Sam was silent for a few moments before he spoke up, “Okay, so you’re not a demon, but that still doesn’t explain how you know who I am and why you have been following me!”

“My name is Elizabeth Parker and I’ve been following you because of Dean,” she knew that her blunt answer was going to get a bad reaction out of him, but she had a feeling that beating around that bush would be just as bad if not worse.

The fact that within the next nano-second she found her spine smashed into the frame of ‘her’ charger, she figured that she had been spot on with her speculation as to Sam’s reaction; although the fact that the force with which he pushed her into the car was enough to once again bruise and reopen the new wounds she had taken from Dean a couple of nights ago was a pretty good indication as well.

“Who the hell are you and what do you want with Dean?” he gritted his teeth as he glared at her, while he had the barrel of the shotgun jabbed into her abdomen…exactly over the same spot she had been shot in when she was sixteen.

She looked him in the eyes, leaving her intentions and emotions an open book for him to read in her eyes, “I want to help you get Dean out of hell,” she said softly, as she slowly brought her hand up and cupped his face and created a one sided connection and shared with him her entire life.

The only thing she let him see of Dean was a brief look to where Dean was. She didn’t want him to know about everything that Dean experienced; but she knew that he wasn’t stupid. He would be able to put the pieces together and guess just how much Dean was suffering from the glimpses that she had sent him of the injuries that she took from his brother to ease his time in Hell.

Sam gasped and looked at her, mouth agape, in disbelief and shock for a few moments, “What…how…” he tried to form a sentence but didn’t seem to be able too. Then all of the sudden he was quickly and gently turning her around.

“Shit!” he spit out obviously seeing the blood that her shirt had soaked up. “Come on, let’s get you back to my motel room and I’ll stitch you back up.”

She looked at him oddly from over her shoulder. His head was down as he had lifted her shirt to inspect her wound with a frown on his face. She couldn’t help it; this was not the Sam Winchester that she had been hearing about. He was far too accepting of what was going on at the moment, “Christo.”

Sam looked up in surprise and confusion and then rolled his eyes, “Oh, you’re explaining what the hell just happened; however, you bleeding to death doesn’t give me answers.”

She could see some amusement in his eyes, but she could still see his guarded emotion in his eyes. That was more like it. She nodded, “Alright, I’ll come with you. Can I have my keys?”

“I’ll drive you…” he trailed off as she shook her head.

“Sam, my best friends slash big brother is a car junky and I’ve spent the last few months getting to know Dean…do you really think I’m going to just leave my brand new 2008 Dodge Charger here with no one to take care of her?” she asked him with a raised eyebrow and a look of disbelief.

Sam smirked and snorted, “Great, a female version of my brother.”

Now she glared at him, “Hey! Now, I’ll admit he’s a nice guy but he has some serious asshole moments!”

Sam looked at her oddly for a moment before his eyebrows shot up and he lot out a surprised chuckle, “You like him! He’s in Hell and you like him. Unbelievable.”

She rolled her eyes at that, “Oh yeah, you’re definitely Dean’s brother,” she mumbled.

Sam smirked at her with no humor what so ever as he handed her the keys to her car, “You better follow. You do anything I don’t like, say run…and I will find you. You got me?”

She narrowed her eyes, “Yeah, I got you, asshole.”

Sam clenched his jaw and turned around walking toward the Impala and mumbled, “Bitch.”

She laughed slightly as she started getting into her car, “Funny, asshole, that’s what Dean calls you,” she said as she slammed the driver’s side door shut and started the car.

She sat back and waited for Sam to lead her towards his motel. She cringed as she thought of the driver’s seat soaking up her blood and the ruined upholstery that she was going to have to fix later.

As Sam passed her he honked at her. She clenched her jaw and threw the car into drive and gunned the engine as she took off behind the younger Winchester brother. He may be Dean’s brother, but he would be lucky if she didn’t sick Ruby and Maria on him later.

Asshole.

________________________________________

Soon she found herself sitting on Sam’s bed in his motel room while he grabbed the stuff he was going to need to stitch her up. She couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable; first of all, while Sam seemed to be in an asshole mood, he was still Sam…Dean’s brother…and it was going to be rather awkward being half naked in front of him so that he could stitch her up.

Wearing nothing on her top half would be fine…around Dean, Maria or even Ruby…but Sam was an entirely different story. She had been hearing so much about Sam that she had come to think of him like another brother…but he wasn’t and he didn’t know her at all.

Some conciliation was that Sam seemed to be having similar and equally uncomfortable thoughts about what was to come next. And if the red stains on his face that he was trying desperately to conceal were any indication he was fully aware of how badly his next suggestion was could possibly be taken.

“Umm…so I have to clean the wound before I can stitch it up again…” he said as he struggled to get through the statement and obviously not finishing that line of thought out loud.

She nodded and folded her arms over her chest, “Do you have a towel or something that I can cover myself with?”

His blush deepened and his eyes looked somewhat stricken, “Oh. Yeah. Right, sorry about that…” he went over to his bag and pulled out a flannel button down shirt. “Umm…I need the towels to clean you up with so you can use this,” he seemed to pause for a minute before adding, “Its Dean’s.”

A few minutes later found her laying on her stomach on his bed with Dean’s shirt on backwards so that her arms were still in the sleeves and her front was still covered and Sam was working on repairing the damage he had done to her back.

“What was it that you did to me earlier?” he asked though his eyes never left his work.

“I connected with you. Because I was touching you and looking you in the eyes, I was able to form a one sided connection. With connections it is impossible to lie and I figured if you saw my whole life you might trust me more. I have no secrets from you now,” she finished off softly.

He paused in his ministrations and slowly looked up her as she was looking at him from over her shoulder. She could see that pain in his eyes.

“This…you took it from Dean didn’t you?” his voice was choked and tears were gathering in his eyes. She just nodded, not trusting her voice to work at the moment.

They were silent for the rest of the time that he was patching her up. She knew that he needed time to comprehend everything that she had told him. And when he was done he turned his back to allow her some privacy and allow her to fix Dean’s shirt.

Turning back around when she was done he looked at her curiously, “Are the connections some sort of visions or something?”

Liz smiled slightly and nodded, “Yeah, kind of. Usually I get visions from touching something that belonged to the person that the vision is about. But the visions that I’ve been getting of Dean are entirely different. I don’t touch anything of his and lately I’ve been able to talk to him and touch him. That’s never happened before.”

He gave a snort at that, “Dean always did like being difficult.”

She smiled at that, “I don’t know. From what I’ve heard from Dean and Ruby you can be pretty difficult too; must be a male thing.”

Sam shook his head, “Maybe, but in my family…it’s a Winchester thing. By the way, how’d you become friends with Ruby?” he asked her cautiously.

She smiled at his concern about Ruby’s presence in her life, “Friends is such a…strong term. I like to think of Ruby as…the bitch that will hopefully shut up and leave me alone but yet I can’t send her away because she’s the only one who knows what’s gonna happen next when it comes to my visions about Dean. –It’s really annoying to be honest.”

He chuckled a bit at that, “Yeah that sounds about right.”

She frowned slightly at the tone of Sam’s voice. It wasn’t so much that he sounded like he was in love with Ruby or anything but there was definitely a little hitch in his voice when he was talking about her.

She could not believe that she was about to say this, “When was the last time you had sex?”

Sam looked at her completely startled and she just raised an eyebrow at him, “I’m serious here, Sam. Do you know what you’re brother will do to me if I show up in one of my visions and actually have to admit to him that his little brother is having erotic dreams about a demon? I can’t lie to your brother, Sam! He will find out. And I’m sorry but in Hell or not he will find away to kick all three of our asses for one reason or another over this!”

He glared at her, “I am not having erotic dreams about Ruby.”

“Then what’s going on Sam? Because I really don’t want to have to be the one to explain to Dean that we’ve all the sudden adopted a demon to the family!” she sighed.

He just sighed and fell back on the bed, “It’s nothing, Liz. It’s just that before Dean…died. She told me she could help me develop my powers.”

Liz shot up at that. She ignored the pain that shot through her back and the blurry vision that she all the sudden had, “Samuel Francis Winchester! So help me if you even think about developing those powers with a demon I will shoot you myself!!!”


The last thing she remembers after that is an annoyed glare on Sam’s face before it quickly turned to a look of deep concern and possibly him calling her name…but other than that everything went black.

________________________________________

Continued in the next post....

...Continued from previous post
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Chapter Five B


This was the first time that she was feeling the sensation that she was falling; although she wasn’t entirely sure if that was from her blood loss or because the situation between her and Hell were once again changing. It was odd that for the first time ever she actually found herself hoping that she was just suffering from too much blood loss. And that was probably a thought that she should never let Dean, Michael, Kyle or Maria ever find out. She would be in for a lecture of the century if that happened.

The sharp pain that shot through her as one of the meat hooks ‘grazed’ her arm.

As she took in the damage that the hook had done to her arm she groaned as she realized that she was probably bleeding pretty badly back in the motel with Sam. ‘Great more explaining’ she couldn’t help but think to herself.

If a hook could give her injuries that were all her own, then the difference this time was probably between her and Hell rather than the blood loss.

‘So much for getting the better of the two scenarios,’ she sighed in defeat. Before she could dwell on the thought of her injuries for too much longer, she was pulled…or rather dropped…out of her thoughts, as she hit the ‘floor’ with a resonating thud.

There was no floor in Hell, at least not one that she had ever seen before, and in all her other visits her powers had allowed her to defy gravity while she was ‘visiting’ with Dean. But now it seemed that things were beginning to become more corporeal than they had originally been for her.

“Shit,” she hissed through as sharp blades of pain shot through her entire body.

“Liz?” she heard Dean ask urgently in concern.

She grimaced slightly as she shifted out of a particularly painful position, “Yeah, Baby, it’s me.”

“What happened? Are you alright?” Dean demanded.

She really didn’t know how he did it. Here he was in Hell and probably in more pain than she could possibly fathom, and yet his main focus at the moment was her well being. If this man didn’t stop being so freaking…unpredictable, she was going to be head-over-heels in love with him.

As it was she had only recently just admitted to herself that she cared about him more than she should or had ever intended, but that didn’t mean she was going to admit that to Sam or Ruby.

“I’m fine. Just a little dizzy from arguing with your brother,” she said softly. She didn’t want to make more of her injuries than it really was. Besides, any mention of injures or blood loss would send Dean into over protective mode.

“You found Sam? Is he alright? What were you two arguing about?”

She let out a humorous laugh and then winced when she felt her newly stitched wound stretch and cut through more skin, “Yeah, I found Sam, or more accurately he found me. Pinned me to my car with a shotgun pointed at me and everything as he demanded why I was following him for three states. You’d have been proud.”

Dean gave a strained chuckle. She knew that it was hard for him to hear about his brother, but she also knew that he wanted more than anything to make sure that his brother was okay.

“That’s my boy,” she rolled her eyes. If she hadn’t known that he was simply proud of Sam for facing an adversary head on, she would have been slightly offended by that comment.

“How’s he doing? Did he look good?” Dean asked quietly.

She closed her eyes and dread shoot through her. She hadn’t been bullshitting Sam when she told him that she couldn’t lie to Dean. She did not want to have to tell him this…but she couldn’t lie to him, “Physically? Yeah he’s fine,” she replied softly.

She slowly pushed herself up to her knees and did her best to find a comfortable position as she kneeled in front of Dean’s horizontally stretched out body. His chest didn’t appear to be anymore ripped up than it had been the last time she had seen him. However, if she looked down his jeans were near shreds.

She lifted one of her hands and ran her fingers through his blood matted hair…there was more blood in it this time around.

She leaned her head forward and pressed a soft kiss to his shoulder, “He misses you, Baby. And I think that I might be facing some complications with train of thoughts. I don’t know if he’s actually contemplating getting Ruby to help him develop his powers or if he just hasn’t gotten laid in awhile, but I’ll try my best to dissuade him from going to Ruby for help…but I’ve been thinking.”

Dean turned his head toward her, but by the way his eyes seemed to be looking past her she knew that he still couldn’t see her, “What, have you been thinking about? That brain of yours never seems to turn off, you know that, Sweetheart?” he asked her with a forced smirk.

She returned the same smirk, “Admit it, Winchester, you wouldn’t have me any other way.”

He lets a real smirk grow, even if it is only slightly, “True. Now what have you been thinking about?”

She bit her lip nervously, “I know that I haven’t explained the entire extent of my abilities, but will you let me try to cleanse him of whatever Azazel did to him? The cleansing would be more like healing whatever is abnormal in his body. He might develop some powers from me cleansing him, but at least those powers wouldn’t be demonic and I could help him develop them or at least control them if he did develop anything from it.”

She was nervous about his reaction. He knew that she had a few powers; she hadn’t explained the extent of the whole alien thing to him yet. She wanted him to be able to look her in the eyes and know that she wasn’t lying or trying to trick him when she told him that whole story.

She knew how he felt about Sam’s abilities, but his feelings on her abilities weren’t so clear to her. When she had first told him about her powers he had been quiet for a good amount of time. She had been relieved when he had spoken to her after her mention of her powers, but ever since it had kind of been the ‘elephant in the room’ that wasn’t really talked about.

The fact that she found herself once again at the receiving end of Dean’s silence in the mention of her abilities didn’t bode to well for his answer.

“Did you tell, Ruby?” he asked sourly.

Ah, yes, another issue that he was less than happy with. The fact that she was letting Ruby help her through her visions while moving back and forth between reality and Hell.

“No. I was getting away from the Ruby and Maria for a little while when he found me. When I mentioned you he accidently reopened one of my injuries and I headed back to his motel room so that he could stitch me back up. We got to talking; I gave him whatever information he needed to know about me and that was when he told me about his thoughts about his powers and Ruby. At first I had thought that he had some kind of crush on her or something. Then when he mentioned using the powers Azazel gave him I wanted to kick his ass, but I figured that’s your job, so I just yelled at him and then came here,” she explained in hopes that it would reassure him that she had no ill intent toward his beloved baby brother.

Dean was quiet in thought again before asking, “Will the cleansing hurt him?”

She smiled slightly, ‘always the over-protective’ big brother,’ she couldn’t help but think, “I would never do anything to put Sam in harm’s way. If it hurts him I won’t do it.”

While he took his time to consider her inquiry she never took her eyes off of his face or stopped running her fingers through his hair. With each move of her fingers she tried to gently remove the dried blood as best she could.

“Yeah, okay. If he agrees you can try,” she could hear the reluctance in his voice.

She smiled softly and leaned forward to press a lingering kiss to his temple, “I swear to you baby, I will keep you updated on everything that happens with him. And I promise, if he doesn’t want to or it hurts him, I won’t do it.”

“Don’t do it if it hurts you either,” he said steadily.

She sighed, “I have a high tolerance for pain, Dean…” she tried to tell him, but he shook his head.

“No! If it hurts you I don’t want you doing it. You are in enough pain because you come here to me all the time. And you said that your powers drain you, I don’t want all of this piling up on you and you stretching yourself so thin that you get hurt so badly that it becomes unfixable or worse killed.”

She sighed but nodded, “Alright, baby, I promise.”

He sighed and nodded, “Good.”

She could feel herself getting lightheaded again. She closed her eyes and shook her head to gently try and clear the fog from her brain, “I think I am going to be leaving soon.”

He nodded and opened his mouth before closing it again.

She frowned, “What baby?”

He was quiet again for a few moments, “Where are you, Liz?”

She frowned in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“I mean you can see me and touch me, but I can only touch you when you touch me…” he trailed off.

She smiled softly and took his hand in her free hand and lifted it to her face, “How’s this?”

He seemed to smile and smirk at the same time as he gently and slowly moved his fingers over her face, “What’s a gorgeous girl like you doing with a guy like me in a place like this anyway?”

She could hear his teasing in his voice, but she could also hear the very real question as well.

She held his hand to her face and leaned over his chest and placed a kiss just below his ear before whispering, “Whatever you want me to, baby.”

She smirked to herself when she saw his eyes widen in shock. She let out a soft giggle and then pressed a chaste kiss to his lips before she felt herself waking up, “I’ll be seeing you soon, baby.”

________________________________________

She groaned in pain as she opened her eyes.

“Jeez! Liz, are you okay?” she heard Sam’s urgently concerned voice demand from her left.

She slowly turned her head toward him and smiled painfully, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Yeah, if fine means you look like shit,” Sam said incredulously. “Did you really take all of these new injuries from Dean?”

She shook her head, “No, I only took a head wound from him. The others are my very own mementoes from Hell.”

Sam looked at her with wide eyes, “You experience what is going on in Hell?”

She grimaced as she sat up, “I do now,” she said as he quickly stood up and helped her sit up.

She sighed as she leaned back against the pillows and breathed deeply, “Before, I only saw what was going on. I could smell the death, and I could feel it in a telepathic kind of way, now I am feeling it physically. My relationship with Hell is getting more and more personal every time I go there. But he’s holding on better than he was when I first started going there, so it’s worth it.”

Sam just sat back in the chair he had been sitting in and looked at her in disbelief. Actually he was kind of looking at her like she had grown another head.

She frowned and all the sudden felt her defenses go up, “What?”

Sam just scoffed and shook his head in disbelief, “You are insane, do you know that? I mean I know my brother does some crazy shit, but this…this is insane. Liz, you have no reason to want to help him, and every time you go back there you are obviously getting closer and closer to death or Hell! Why would you do this to yourself?” he demanded.

She knew that that was probably a question that would be crossing the mind of everyone who ever found out about her decision to do what she was doing. But there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that this was what she was meant to be doing. This was her man and he needed out of hell. He was needed in the world, fighting the good fight and being the big brother he was destined to be.

It was the first time in a very long time that she didn’t despise the word or notion of destiny.

Taking a moment to let her revelation wash over her she smiled at Sam with a slight sheen of tears in her eyes, “Because you were right. I am falling in love with him and I can’t let him stay there. I won’t let him stay there…please don’t ask me to.”