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Back to Present Day
Once they left with my little girl, I took Lydia’s hand in mine, the one without all the tubes, and decided to pray in earnest. After a deep cleansing breath, which my wife usually swore by, I closed my eyes. My hands engulfed her small ones as I began. Oh God, I have begged, pleaded, bargained and tried in various ways to get your attention on this matter. I have spent my life fighting evil, just as she has done; we put to death many vile things in our lifetimes. How could this happen to her? I stopped; I did not think that ranting was a way to get God’s favor, so I tried a new approach. The matter of my… heart …my love…that lay before me surviving by a thread. What do I have to do to get your help in this? I want to know… I said before the tears broke through from behind my eyelids and landed on my cheeks. I am all out of persuasive things to say, all out of options to suggest I need her in my life and I really want to believe you can provide the solution. I sighed as I wiped back the tears to see that nothing had changed, at least not anything I could tell at the time.
“Oh, Honey, please wake up, I need you to talk to me. I need to see your eyes light up with that mischievous grin. I love you so much. I know you will be sad for Logan but we can get through this together, I promise. Mackey and I need you. She misses her mommy just like I do,” I said as I stroked her face. I wanted to kiss her, to hold her so badly I could taste it. The tears came again as I put her hand up to my face. I wasn’t aware of a presence in the room at first; I only knew that I felt a wind across my face and peacefulness shot through me, suddenly. I looked around to see an opaque form in the corner. Mom? As I took in the form of the spirit in front of me, I realized it was my mother, Mary Winchester. I could not help but think she looked the same as the last time I had seen her.
The figure became more solid as she floated toward me. Her mouth never moved but I heard her words clearly, as she leaned her face lightly against mine. It felt like a breath instead of a person, gentle as a feather.
“She’s okay, Sammy,” my mother said.
“But Mom”
“Shhhhh, just believe,” she whispered as she faded away, “Believe,” she repeated.
I sat for a moment with my hand still clasping my wife’s, I do want to believe.
I was about to leave the room to find the doctor when he walked in.
“How are you holding up?”
Why did everyone ask me that? I wasn’t the one in the hospital bed.
“I’m fine, but when is she going to wake up?” I asked, my voice laced with concern.
He picked up the charts as he looked over her tubes and the numbers on the monitors beside her bed.
“There is no way to know, but the reports show she is doing better than she looks.”
“Really, I mean be honest with me.”
“Absolutely, you see the bruises and the tubes but she has a strong heart beat, her body is healing itself.”
Healing? That reminded me of Logan, my son who had the gift of healing from the time he was born.
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
“When she wakes up it will be better because we can get her to move around then so atrophy does not set in.”
“When will she wake up?”
“There is no way to know, but the sooner the better. You have been talking to her right? I think it will help though there is no real medical evidence to prove it,” he said with a slight smile.
****
Five years before-Sam & Lydia’s first hunt
I phoned Dean after I walked Lydia to her car. She had kissed me on the cheek before she smiled and drove away. I watched her leave like a kid with his first crush, when I realized what I was doing, I went to the rental and drove back to the motel. I had to laugh to myself, this wasn’t how I had planned my day. I was supposed to be on the way to see Sarah by now. It is a good thing I hadn’t called her but wanted to surprise her.
Dean did not seem all that disappointed to hear that the culprit did not seem to be the yellow-eyed demon. He assured me he would come back whenever I needed him, but other wise he was content to stay with Cassie. He indicated she had welcomed him with open arms, despite the fact that he had not totally given up hunting. I was not certain I believed that Cassie had been all that enthusiastic to have Dean just show up but I did know my brother had his ways of persuading women that I had no desire to hear all the details about.
The next afternoon Lydia arrived at the motel in time so we could drive to the library together. She was casual in blue jeans and a tee shirt worn with sandals, just perfect for the warm day. She brought her duffle bag to change later so we put it in the room before leaving in her older black Nissan Pathfinder. She grinned as she climbed in.
“So Sam Winchester do tell me some fabulous story of a hunt where you were the hero,” she teased me.
I laughed, I loved the way she took what we did in stride. I looked forward to seeing her in action though I was apprehensive that either one of us might get injured.
“Well, I confess my brother has saved me on more than one occasion, but I can think of one incident where I came to his rescue.”
“I am sure you are being modest.”
A little modesty wasn’t bad, right? I told her about the scarecrow incident where Dean and I had argued and I went off with the hope of going to find my father alone. Dean went to the small town to investigate several missing couples that had disappeared in the town. The next day I got a bad feeling because he had stopped answering his phone I went to find him. Though part of me believed, he was only being stubborn.
“So you showed up in time to save the day?”
“Exactly.” I smiled.
“Well I am impressed. I am certain Dean was thankful.”
“You could say so he didn’t want to become a sacrifice to the town legend by any means.”
At the library we sat in the back so we could speak above a whisper a we both used the microfiche machines first. She seemed to be comfortable with scanning the pages quietly in concentrated effort. She bit her lip as she focused on her task, while I found myself distracted by her presence, again. I wasn’t convinced that the machine held her complete attention either when I felt her staring at me. I looked over with a smile but she only went back to her search. We were more than a little aware of one another that was obvious.
Three hours passed before we left the library. My back was a bit sore from leaning over the machines and she yawned as we went to her car. At lunch, we talked about what we had found.
“Looks like this thing has been around for a while,” she said.
“And you have not heard about it?”
“I have only lived her about six months.”
“Oh.”
She told me she had lived most of her life in Arizona but decided she needed a change and had moved to Nevada to do that. Her mother had not been happy but at the time she moved she was unsure of her plans so a new start had appealed to her.
“I mean I am single, I hunt and that takes me all over anyway, I did not have anything to lose.”
“I have to ask…”
“What?”
“What about a man in your life? I mean have you been married?” I asked.
“Have you?” she teased.
So I told her about Jessica Moore, my girlfriend who had died because of the demon that killed my mother.
“Oh Sam, I am sorry.”
“Don’t be, I mean it’s not your fault. I honestly believed I could live a normal life at one time.”
“I am not against marriage at all, I have not found anyone who will put up with what I do,” she smiled.
I nodded, “I am in the same boat,” I said as bit into my burger.
We ate and chatted about weapons and hunts she had been on. It was a strange conversation in many ways but comforting in others. Her face lit up before she gave away the punch to the story or how she killed the being. Our shared world seemed to open up to me as I spoke with her about things no other woman had ever discussed with me. Even Sarah only knew as much as we had told her.
“Lydia, would you be willing to go on a date with me when we get this thing taken care of?”
“Oh, so you are convinced we can do this? I like confidence in a man,” she said with a smile on her face and a sparkle in her eyes.
“Hey I am a Winchester,” I teased.
“That you are.”
“So?”
“Yes, of course, I will go out with you,” she said with a radiant smile.
At the hotel, she changed back into her black jeans, a black hoodie over her white shirt, black boots, while Sam waited in the car. I appreciated that she wanted to be warm and not have to worry about comfort while they hunted. As I sat in her car I wondered if she had felt any of the electricity that was flying crazily in the atmosphere each time we had been together. Maybe I imagined it but I was not prone to flights of fantasy so I was ready to bet that I was not the only one aware of it.
Once we were back in the woods we park the car and started out on foot. We both carried guns filled with silver bullets, I had a rock salt gun, she had a knife in her boot and carried a bow and arrow plus other things I was unaware of. We had various other helps in our bags including holy water, the journal, plus small weapons would could need. I was impressed by her stealthiness, she walked light on her feet. We were in a thick patch of woods this time and the darkness enveloped us. I kept close enough to grab her if I saw something but far enough behind that I could watch out for us both.
I was scanning the area when she stopped suddenly in front of me. I saw why a second later. She had almost fallen over a dead body of a young man. His body was torn to shreds. We both knew it had to be an animal that had done it, as hard as it was to leave the victim where he lie we kept moving. There was no flash of grey this time or yellow eyes to give us a clue. Neither of us spoke but the fact was we had come to find who or what had done the killing. I was glad she had not hesitated or panicked.
We walked at least another twenty minutes, I had no idea how large the woods were but we went at an angle to avoid getting lost on the way back since we had no breadcrumbs. In the end, we decided that whoever the culprit was he had done his damage for the night and moved on. We stopped at a pay phone on the way back to make the report about the body. Lydia shook her head, as she frowned.
“Maybe he has changed the plan, now he is killing humans.”
“Not a good sign at all,” I agreed.
Though it was late we both went into my motel room. We needed to try to rethink our ideas about what was going on. I made us both coffees as she sat back on the empty bed with her boots off.
“Hope you do not mind me getting comfortable.”
“No, of course not,” I said as I sat down at the desk in front of the laptop to wait for it to boot up.
“You know I think who ever is doing this is possibly bringing the cattle or in this case the body from another location.”
“I agree, well because we know the cattle are no were near the wood to begin with,” I said.
“Right so, I am thinking that we may have some kind of cult here or ritualistic group.”
“That makes sense. They take the insides and used them for something, maybe the guy tonight is being used by a copy cat as a scare tactic,” I began as I typed a search for cattle rituals.
“I know it sounds insensitive but I think the guy tonight was a fluke. Whoever did it wants us to group them/him/her in with the other mutilations.”
“So you say the cops here have had no idea that this could be a problem until now.”
“My friend at the station said they were trying to ignore it until the reporter put his nose into it.”
“Then the police have to pretend to care what is happening, right?”
“Exactly. The fact that a few farmers lost their bread and butter wasn’t enough to encourage them, “she said with a bit of anger.
I liked her spunky indifference toward the police; it kind of turned me on.
TBC