Chapter Text
Sam’s eyes shot open, and he grimaced as soon as he tried to move. The soft sound of Bad Moon Rising floated it’s way into his foggy head. He heard foot steps crunching across the gravelly ground towards the driver’s side door, which was swiftly torn off it’s hinges and effortlessly thrown to the side.
“Get back or I’ll kill you, I swear to God.” Sam threatened the black eyed demon standing over him, Colt at the ready.
“You won’t.” he said, grinning, “You’re saving that bullet for someone else.”
Sam cocked the gun, “You wanna bet?”
The demon smirked, but didn’t call his bluff, choosing, instead to smoke out of the poor truck driver it had taken over. The truck driver muttered some ramblings of disbelief at the scene before him, but Sam paid him little mind. He craned his neck to peer over at John who was unconscious in the passenger seat.
“Dad?" Sam called, voice shot. “Dad?”
Then he glanced in the rearview. Dean and Max were both out cold as well and they were in bad shape. Dean was leaning against the car door and Max was leaning on him. It would have been a sweet sight, Max with her head on her brother's shoulder, except that they were both covered in cuts and bruises and a distressing amount of blood.
“Max? Dean?” Sam shouted, once again receiving no answer as his voice echoed into the cool nighttime air.
***
Sam wandered the busy halls of the hospital searching for any sign of his family. He’d come out of the crash relatively unscathed. There were a couple cuts and bruises and it felt like his nose might be broken, but seeing as he had been the only one awake after the crash, he figured he was probably in the best shape.
He was heading towards the front desk to see if somebody could help him find his siblings and dad when he heard a familiar voice shout from a room ahead of him.
“Get off me!” the voice said.
“Miss, I need you to sit still, please.” another voice said.
“My name is Max, just call me Max.”
“Max…please, sit still so I can take your vitals.” the nurse said, exasperated.
“I’m fine. See? Now, where are my brothers?”
Sam finally came to the door, seeing Max trying to stand from her bed while the exhausted nurse tried to get her to lay back down. Sam only stood in the doorway for a second before he caught Max’s eye.
“Sam! Thank God.” Max said, running away from the nurse to get a closer look at her brother. “Are you okay? Have you seen Dean or Dad?”
“Yeah, I’m alright. And no, I only just found you.” he said, giving a sympathetic smile to the nurse who was clearly just trying to do her job.
“I'll be back later to check in with you, Max.” she said, and left the siblings.
Max watched the nurse walk away, and then sat herself back down on the bed, “God, she wouldn't leave me alone.”
“It's kind of her job, Bug.” Sam chuckled, “How are you feeling?” he said, noting the sling around her arm.
“I'm okay, had to get some stitches in my head and my arm’s broken, but I'm alive.” she said, crossing the room and grabbing the pile of her clothes stacked in the corner, “Turn around so I can change and then we can go find Dad and Dean.”
Sam complied and within a couple minutes they were on their way to find their brother’s room. It wasn’t much further down the hallway, it seemed all their rooms were right in a row. The door to Dean’s room was wide open when they got there and Sam stopped short in the doorway, making Max nearly run into him.
“Oh no.” he said, immediately feeling his heart sink in his chest.
“What is it? Is he-” Max’s sentence was cut short as soon as she caught sight of her brother. His eyes were closed, and he laid eerily still. There were tubes coming out of his mouth and nose, and wires all over his hands and under his hospital gown. “Oh God.” she choked, feeling the taste of bile rise into her throat and mouth.
She and Sam stood in silence, together, staring at their brother’s still body, when they heard a voice behind them.
“You’re father’s awake.” the doctor said, “You can go see him, if you like.”
Max nodded, silently, eyes still glued to Dean.
“Doc, what about our brother?” Sam asked.
“Well, he sustained serious injuries. Blood loss, contusions to his liver and kidney. But it’s the head trauma I’m worried about.” the doctor explained, “There’s early signs of cerebral edema.”
“What can we do?” Max asked.
“Well, we won’t know his full condition until he wakes up.” he said, and then added, “If he wakes up.”
“What?” Max said, panicked.
“If?” Sam repeated.
“I have to be honest, most people with his degree of injury wouldn’t have survived this long. He’s fighting very hard. But you need to have realistic expectations.” the doctor said, before leaving them alone again.
“Max, we should go see Dad.” Sam said, quietly.
Max shook her head, “We’re not gonna lose him, right Sammy?”
Sam paused for a second, “No. We can’t.”
Sam started towards John’s room, Max following close behind, but just before she left Dean’s room, she felt a small shiver crawl up her spine. And in her scrambled state, she thought that there was almost something familiar about it.
A familiar shiver? Come on, Max. She shook the thought from her head, but still took one more quick glance around Dean’s room. And, just as she thought, it was quiet and empty, so she headed off after Sam.
***
“Alright, here.” John said, pulling a medical insurance card from his wallet and handing it to Sam, “Give them my insurance.”
“Elroy McGillicuddy?” Sam questioned, with a small smile, reading off the card.
“And his three loving kids.” John said, getting the smallest of chuckles from his two youngest. “So, what else did the doctor say about Dean?”
A question that faltered both smiles.
“Nothing.” Sam shook his head, “Look, if the doctors won’t do anything, then we’ll have to, that’s all. I don’t know, I’ll find some hoodoo priest and lay some mojo on him.”
“We’ll look for someone,” John said.
Sam nodded, “Yeah.”
Max felt a big ‘but’ coming, though.
“But, guys…” and there it was, “I don’t know if we’re gonna find anyone.”
Max felt that same taste of bile rise in her throat and she had to squeeze her eyes shut to keep herself from overflowing with emotion.
“Why not?” Sam asked, “We found that faith healer before.”
“Alright, that was one in a million.” John said.
“Not to mention, that it was actually a reaper trading lives.” Max pointed out.
“So, what? We just sit here with our thumbs up our ass?” Sam said, temper rising.
“No, I said we’d look. Alright? I’ll check under every stone.” John said, “Where’s the Colt?”
“You’re son is dying and you’re worried about the Colt?” Sam spat.
“We are hunting this demon and maybe it’s hunting us, too.” John said, “That gun may be our only card.”
“It’s in the trunk of the Impala. They dragged the car to a yard off of I-83.” Sam sighed.
“Alright, you gotta clean out that trunk before some junk man sees what’s inside it.” John said.
“I already called Bobby. He’s like an hour out.” Sam said. “He’s gonna tow the Impala back to his place.”
“Alright,” John said, “You go meet up with Bobby. You get that Colt and bring it back to me. And you watch out for hospital security.”
“I think I’ve got it covered.” Sam said with a small smirk and headed for the door.
“Hey.” John said, grabbing a sheet of paper, “I made a list of things I need. Have Bobby pick ‘em up for me.”
“Acacia? Oil of Abramelin?” Sam read, “What’s this stuff for?”
“Protection.” John answered and Max eyed him suspiciously.
Sam shoved the paper into his pocket, “Max, you coming?”
Max shook her head, “No, you go. I’m pretty beat.”
Just before he stepped out the door, Sam turned back to John, “Hey, Dad…you know, the demon, he said he had plans for me and Max, and children like us. You have any idea what he meant by that?”
“No, I don’t.” John said.
Max gave it a minute after Sam left before she spoke, “What aren’t you telling us?”
“What?” John said.
“You heard me.” Max looked up from where she’d been staring at her hands, to her father, “I told you, it was just matter of time before I wormed my way into your head too.”
“Max…”
“You lied to us, just now. Why?”
“You don’t need to worry about it.” John said.
“Dad, Dean is dying. Now’s not the time for secrets.” Max pressed.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“That’s always the big excuse, isn’t it? That you’re protecting us? Well, I don’t feel very protected right now, Dad.” Max raised her voice and waved her broken arm in the air to make a point, “Why can’t you just let this demon go and move on-”
“Maxine, that’s enough!” John shouted, “You don’t have any idea the lengths I go to in order to keep you kids safe. Now, stop asking questions and stay the hell out of my head.”
Max scoffed and shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut again to keep the angry tears at bay. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, “I’m gonna go check on Dean.” she said softly, before practically running out of the room.
She heard her father call her name once or twice, but she ignored him. Instead, trudging onward to talk to the only person that would listen to her.
Max pause in the doorway, Dean was right where she left him. Not that she was expecting anything else, but a small part of her hoped that maybe he’d woken up in the time she was gone.
She pulled a chair across the floor, wincing at the loud scraping noise it made, since she only had one arm to lift it with. And then she fell into it, exhausted. Her knees came up under her chin and she wrapped her good arm around them.
Her lip quivered as she opened her mouth to speak, “You gotta get better, De. You can’t go yet. I still need you. I don’t know what to do without you bossing me around all the time.” she breathed out a little laugh, “There’s still so many things we gotta do. Who’s gonna fix up that stupid car and teach me to drive if you don’t get better?” she paused, like she was waiting for a response that she knew wasn’t going to come.
“And I need you there for my first real relationship, to protect me from getting my heart broken. Then again, who in their right mind would want a relationship with a girl they can’t even touch? But, you know, theoretically, I guess…if I ever get to find a partner, you need to be there for it.”
Max sniffled, “You can’t leave me with Dad and Sammy. I’ll drown in the madness. I’ll always pick Sam’s side because he’s usually right and I can’t handle adding that to the already very long list of reasons for Dad be disappointed in me-”
“I’m not disappointed in you, sweetheart.”
Max’s head snapped up and the unexpected voice. John rolled himself into the room in a wheelchair and settled it next to Max’s chair. She turned her gaze back on her brother and promptly ignored him.
John sighed, “I know you’ve always felt a little out of place in this family. God knows I haven’t done much to help you in that respect.”
“Dad, I don’t really wanna get into that right now. I’m barely holding it together as it stands. I just…wanna find a way to save Dean.” she said, “We can talk about all of that later.”
John sighed, and Max felt him grow disappointed, but he didn’t push the subject any further.
***
Max was back in her own hospital room when Sam came back. Just as the nurse had promised, she came back to check on Max, and she’d been too tired to argue. She was pleasantly surprised to find the nurses mind nice and quiet, unlike her Dad’s.
Sam marched right past Max’s room, continuing down the hall to John. Max called out to Sam, and when he didn’t come back to her, she followed him down the hall. She hardly made it very far, when she heard shouting. She was still sluggish from all the drugs the nurse had pumped into her, but she trudged along to her dad’s room nonetheless.
“You care more about killing this demon than you do saving your own son!” Sam shouted.
“Do not tell me how I feel. I am doing this for Dean.” John said back.
“How?” Sam questioned. “How is revenge gonna help him?”
Max finally came upon the door and scooted her way inside, shutting it behind her, “You guys need to quiet down, I could hear you down the hall. The last thing we need is for you two to be sent to the psych ward for spouting off about demons.” she said, but was almost immediately shouted over by her brother.
“You’re not thinking about anybody but yourself. It’s the same selfish obsession.”
“That’s funny. I thought this was your obsession, too. This demon killed your mother, killed your girlfriend. You begged me to be part of this hunt. Now, if you’d killed that damn thing when you had the chance, none of this would’ve happened.” John shouted.
“Please, stop arguing,” Max said, “This isn’t helping anybody.”
“It was possessing you, Dad. I woulda killed you too.” Sam shouted over her again.
“Yeah, and your brother would be awake right now.”
“Go to hell.” Sam said.
“You know what, I should’ve never taken you along in the first place. I knew it was a mistake-”
John’s rant was cut of when the glass of water sitting on his table hit the floor and shattered. They all eyed the glass warily, and glances were exchanged between the three as they all thought the same thing.
Before they could question the broken glass any further, they heard shouting in the hall and nurse and doctors ran past the close door.
“Something’s going on out there.” John said and motioned for Sam and Max to go check it out.
Max felt a pit in her stomach grow as they closed in on the source of all the commotion, Dean’s room. There were doctors and nurses crowded around him and his heart monitor was letting out a long flat beep.
Max felt like she was going to puke as she watched her brother flatlining and the swarm of doctors trying to keep him alive. Over and over they used the defibrillator with no effect. Dean’s chest would rise with the shock and then he’d fall back down onto the hospital bed, limp.
Max felt a sudden shift in the air and it felt like that same familiar chill passed right through her. And then she heard, clear as day, Dean’s voice fill her head,
“I said get back!”
She could tell from the way that Sam locked eyes with hers that he’d heard it too.
“We have a pulse. We’re back into sinus rhythm.” one of the nurses, finally, said and Max let out a long sigh, leaning her head against the cool metal of the door frame.
***
Sam brought Max back to her room and she quickly got herself settled into her hospital bed, not without a little struggling to lift herself up into it with only one arm.
“How are you feeling? I haven’t really had a minute to check in with you.” Sam said, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
“It’s fine. We’ve had more important things to sort out.” Max said.
“How’s your arm?”
Max sighed, “It hurts. Although, the drugs they’ve got me taking are pretty strong, so it’s not too bad right now. I’m not gonna be able to draw for a while, though.”
“I’m sorry, Bug.” Sam sympathized, “Oh, actually, that reminds me. When I stopped by Bobby’s I managed to salvage a couple of things from the trunk. It might be insult to injury, but I thought you’d want it back anyway.” he said, pulling out Max’s journal and handing it to her.
“Thanks, Sammy.” Max said, gratefully taking her journal, even though she couldn’t do anything with it quite yet.
“I think you can probably use this though,” Sam said, pulling her tape player and headphones out of his other pocket, “Only need one working hand for this, right?”
“I can’t believe this survived the wreck.” Max gasped, “I thought it was gone for good.”
“Yeah,” Sam chuckled, “You’re lucky you stashed it in the trunk, otherwise it probably woulda been. My laptop wasn’t so lucky.”
“I’m sorry. That sucks.” Max gave her brother a sympathetic look.
“Nah, it’s alright. I can always get a new one.” Sam said, “But, that there, is one of a kind.”
Max smiled down at the beat up old tape player, covered in stickers and sharpie drawings and the tape inside that read ‘The Maxtape.’
“Yeah, it is.” she said, smile faltering just a little, “He’s gonna get better, isn’t he?”
“I want to say yes…”
“But, you can’t.” Max finished.
“I’m sorry, Bug.”
“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault.” she said.
A moment of quiet hung between the two.
“Sam? You heard him too, right?” Max asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, I think so.” he said, “Listen, I was actually on my way to pick something up, but I wanted to drop these off with you first. Are you okay here if I leave?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Max nodded, “What are you going to get?”
Sam chuckled, a little embarrassed, “You’ll see.”
***
Sam came back a while later, a thin brown paper bag in hand.
“Are you gonna tell me what that is yet?” Max asked as she followed Sam to their brother’s room.
“I will.” he said, “But don’t laugh at me, okay?”
When they got to Dean’s room, a heaviness settled in the air again. They’d gotten a lighthearted moment before, but seeing Dean like that again, shifted the atmosphere.
They stood on either side of Dean’s bed.
“Hey,” Sam sighed, talking to Dean, “I think maybe your around. And if you are, don’t make fun of me for this, but, um, there’s one way we can talk.” he said, pulling a Mystical Talking Board out of the bag in his arm.
“He’s totally gonna make fun of you for this.” Max quietly joked.
“Yeah,” Sam said, sitting down on the floor, “I know he will.”
He set the board on the floor and placed his fingers to the planchette, while Max sat just to his left, watching on.
“Dean? Dean, are you here?” Sam said.
They waited quietly and impatiently for their brother to respond. Max felt silly, getting her hopes up, but then the planchette started to move. It moved towards ‘YES.’
“Are you doing that? Tell me you’re not doing that. That would be so fucked up.” Max rambled.
“No. No, it’s not me.” Sam laughed, “It’s good to hear from you, man. It hasn’t been the same without you, Dean.”
“Damn straight.” Max muttered.
The planchette started moving again under Sam’s hands.
“Dean, what? H. U. N. T.” Sam read out as it moved from letter to letter, “What, hunting? Are you hunting?”
‘YES.’
“Dean, is it in the hospital, what you’re hunting? Do you know what it is?” Sam asked, “What is it?”
‘R. E. A. P.’
“A reaper.” Max said, exchanging a worried glance with Sam.
“Dean…” Sam started, “is it after you?”
‘YES.’
Max felt all the air leave her body.
“If it’s here naturally, there’s no way to stop it.” Sam said, “Man, you’re, uh…”
“No, no, no. There’s gotta be something we can do.” Max said.
“Dad. He’ll know what to do.” Sam said, getting off the floor and rushing out of the room, with Max on his tail.
But, when they got to John’s room, he was nowhere to be found.
***
Sam sat on the edge of Dean’s bed, while Max stood just on the other side.
“Hey, so Dad wasn’t in his room.” Sam said, hoping Dean was around to hear him, “But, I got Dad’s journal, so who knows? Maybe there’s something in here.”
Sam shuffled through page after page until he landed on one with the scratchy title ‘Reapers.’ Max looked on scanning the page with him. Line after line, they read, but there was nothing they could use.
“Sam…I don’t think there’s anything here.” Max whispered.
Sam stared at the page, willing it to give them anything to help there brother, but as much as he hated to admit it, Max was right. There was nothing.
Sam blinked back a couple of tears before facing his sister, “I know.”
“We can keep looking, but I just don’t think the answer’s in here.” Max said, closing John’s journal for him.
“No. No, I’ll keep looking.” Sam said, “You need to rest. It’s well past midnight and you’ve been running around with me all day. You look like you’re gonna collapse.”
“I’m fine.” Max protested.
“No, come on.” Sam said, beckoning her to follow him back to her room, which she reluctantly did.
Max settled herself under the itchy blankets once again, and drifted off to sleep with Sam at her side. Once she was asleep, Sam quietly got back up and made his way back to Dean’s room.
“Dean, are you here?” he asked the quiet room, “We couldn’t find anything in the book. I don’t know how to help you. But I’ll keep trying, alright? As long as you keep fighting.”
Sam sniffled, “I mean, come on. You can’t…you can’t leave me and Max here alone with Dad. Dad and I will kill each other, you know that. And Max, she’ll crumble under the weight of trying to stop us. And you know she’ll try. Dean, you gotta hold on. You can’t go, man, not now. We were just starting to be a family again. Can you hear me?”
The rest of the night crawled along into the early hours of the morning, as Sam paced his brother’s hospital room, grasping for any ideas he hadn’t tried yet. Eventually, the light of dawn slowly crept its way into the room and Sam felt beyond hopeless.
John was still nowhere to be found, Max was sleeping peacefully in her bed, despite much protestation, and Sam was still at a loss for how to help his brother.
He stared absently at Dean’s resting form, stuck in his own neverending downward spiral of thoughts, when he was startled from them by a gasp and a jolt of movement from his brother. Dean’s eyes shot open and he sucked in a breath before immediately choking on the tube stuck down his throat.
“Dean!” Sam shouted, “Help! I need help!”
***
Max rushed from her room to see her brother and nearly collapsed to her knees the moment she saw him upright in bed, awake and alive.
The doctor was there already, going over Dean’s medical chart with him, when Sam came back with Max.
“I can’t explain it.” the doctor said, “The edema has vanished. The internal contusions are healed. Your vitals are good. You gotta have some kind of angel watching over you.” he said in disbelief, flipping the top of his clipboard down.
“Thanks, doc.” Dean said and the doctor left them alone.
“De, how are you feeling?” Max asked as soon as the door shut behind him.
“Hey, kiddo.” he said, softly, “Yeah, I’m- I’m alright.”
“What’s wrong?” Max asked, her eyebrows furrowing, “The doctor said you were totally healed-”
“I am.” he assured her, and turned to Sam, “You said a reaper was after me?”
“Yeah.” Sam answered.
“How’d I ditch it?”
“You got me.” Sam said, “Dean, you really don’t remember anything?”
“No.” he shook his head, “I just have this pit in my stomach. Guys, something’s wrong.”
A knock sounded on the door.
John stood in the doorway, a small smile on his face, “How you feeling, dude?”
“Fine, I guess.” Dean said, “I’m alive.”
“That’s what matters.” John said.
Max found herself with a sudden pit in her stomach. She eyed her father warily, eyebrows still drawn close together.
“Where were you last night?” Sam demanded.
“I had some things to take care of.” John stated, not giving any other details.
“Well, that’s specific.”
“Come on, Sam.” Dean said.
“Did you go after the demon?” Sam questioned John.
“No.” John shook his head and cast a cursory glance at Max, who was as unsatisfied with that answer as Sam. She was just less vocal about it.
“Why don’t I believe you right now?” Sam said.
John pushed himself off the door frame and stepped into the room, “Can we not fight? I mean, half the time we’re fighting, I don’t even know what we’re fighting about. We’re just butting heads.”
That gave Sam pause.
“Look, Sammy…I’ve made some mistakes. But, I’ve always done the best I could. I just don’t wanna fight anymore, okay?”
“Dad, are you alright?” Sam asked, softness present in his voice where it wasn’t before.
“Yeah.” he nodded, “Yeah, I’m just a little tired.”
Max felt the pit in her stomach grow and grow.
“Hey, Sammy, would you mind getting me a cup of caffeine?’ John asked with a smile.
“Yeah. Yeah, sure.” Sam agreed and slowly made his way out of the room.
Max’s back was still to Dean, so he couldn’t see the way her face twisted and she looked up at their dad with fear in her eyes.
“Dad-”
“Max, go wait for me in my room, okay?” John said.
“But-”
“Please.” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Max swallowed the lump in her throat as she pushed his hand away and did what he asked.
He did something. That much she knew. She didn’t know what, but she knew it was bad and that he’d already fully excepted whatever consequences were going to come of it.
Max paced her father's hospital room, anxiously waiting for him to come talk to her, when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. She hardly waited a second for him to shut the door behind him before she bombarded him with her questions.
“Dad, tell me what's going on. What did you do?” Max asked frantically.
“Sweetheart, I need you to calm down-”
“No. No, you don't get to tell me to calm down. What did you do?!” she shouted.
“Max, honey, I can’t- I love you, sweetheart. Listen to me, you've always been stronger than I gave you credit for. And I’m sorry I ever tried to turn you into your brothers. That I tried to strip you of the one thing that made you stronger than anything else. Your heart.”
“No no no. Don't you dare do that. Don't you start saying things like that…like this is some sort of a goodbye. Tell me what you did so we can fix it. Please.” she pleaded, her voice breaking on the last word.
“There's something I have to tell you. Something you deserve to know. Something about your mother.”
“W- what? My mom?”
“The night that I got you was the same night your mother was killed.”
“Killed? No, no she got sick. My mom died because she got sick after having me.”
“No.” John said, looking at his daughter with an expression that could only be described as pity, “Your mother called me three days before you turned six months old. She was raving about how she thought that something was coming for you. I thought she was just paranoid, but of course I had to check it out anyway. I wanted to meet my daughter.” John explained, with a slight, fond smile.
Max wanted more than anything to believe that John was lying to her. That he was spinning some horrible story. But she was cursed to face the reality of what was happening. Two tears fell down her face in unison.
“I left the boys with Pastor Jim for the week I was gone. By the time I got to her, Vivian was dead. I was just barely too late. When I got to the address she gave me, the fire department was already there.”
Max was shaking and hyperventilating, “No.”
“They said a fire started in one of the apartments, the woman inside died in the fire. There was a baby girl inside the apartment too, but she miraculously survived. The firefighters got her out.” John said, “I grabbed you and booked it.”
“No. No.” she held her palm to her forehead, mouth struggling to work. “Oh my god. You- you kept this from me. You lied to me.”
“That's not everything.” John said, regretfully.
Max’s eyes widened even more and she looked like her head was about to explode.
“She tucked this into your cradle.” John said, holding out a yellowing, aged envelope.
Max stared down at it, every word John had said, sinking in at once. This was what sent her over the edge she’d been teetering on all day. Her stomach turned and she couldn’t even get a word out before she was running down the hallway, right past Sam, into a bathroom stall and the entire contents of her stomach emptied itself into the toilet bowl.
She was vaguely aware of Sam's voice calling for her just outside the stall. But she couldn’t focus on anything but the knowledge that everything she’d known about her mother had been a lie and the bitter taste of bile in her mouth.
“Bug.” Sam's voice finally came into focus. “What's going on?”
Max stood up on shaky legs, and opened the stall door. It wasn't locked, Sam could've opened it anytime he wanted. Even in her semi-lucid state, she appreciated that he didn't. “I- I'm not okay, Sam. But…”
“Okay. Okay, Bug. Let's just get you back to-”
“Dad!” Max shouted, unintentionally finishing his sentence. She dashed from the bathroom ignoring the way her stomach protested the sudden movement. Sam was hot on her tail, beyond concerned about her.
“Please be okay. Please be okay.” she muttered, running back down the hallway. She stopped short in front of John's door. “No. No!” she screamed at the sight of her father on the floor of his hospital room. She scrambled on her knees at her father's side, grabbing onto him. Sam wasn't far behind.
She heard Sam shout something, but she couldn't focus on anything except the nothingness she felt when she held her father's body. Because that's all it was now. It was just a body.
“I can't feel him.” she whispered, “I can't feel him.” she repeated it over and over tears falling down her stoic face.
She felt a hand close around her arm, pulling her away from John. It was unfamiliar and it was only there for a moment. Then it was gone and it was replaced by a pair of familiar hands, lifting her up off the floor while numerous doctors and nurses swarmed her father's body.
“They can't do anything.” Max whispered.
Sam asked something, so did Dean.
“He's already gone.” Max answered the question she thought they asked, though she couldn't quite tell. Everything was just muffled noise to her. That was, until a long, high-pitched tone cut through her haze and then she heard one voice clearer than any other.
“Time of death, 10:41am.”