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“Mother fucker.” Kimberly Hart whispered under her breath as she rolled away from yet another barrage. They’d been living in this world for nearly a decade. Sam and Dean Winchester mostly left them alone- but every once in a while the newest evil decided they wanted to roll around with the ‘legends from the other world’. She just wished they would have waited for a couple more weeks- their house was being destroyed right before Christmas.
“Oh language. You kiss your children with that mouth?”
“And sucks my dick with it.”
She looked over to the side and had to hide her smile. Dean Winchester settled next to her and passed her a weapon. She’d not shattered her power crystal, but had been moments away from it. Tommy and Willow were off on a Girl Scout trip; Hazel was staying at a friend's house. For that- she was grateful- but she knew Tommy was going to flip his shit when he got home.
“Never been so glad for your smart mouth.”
“Ah- you love it.”
“Who is that?”
“Latest prick of the week. Don’t have a name- just heard they were headed for you guys.”
“We need to move.”
She’d always been impressed at Dean’s tactics- at the fact that he had learned each of their strengths and played into them with his own. With Tommy- he would hang back- let him handle any up close action. Tommy was better and the unnatural in this world knew it. She would hang back and snipe- it was something she’d learned back on her world. Tommy needed someone to guard his back and it was something she was amazing at.
They rolled out- she’d feel better if they could get back in the house, but that didn’t exactly seem possible. New goal- kill the being or knock them unconscious. Either would be fine by her. And it was all going well- until something grabbed her and slammed her body into a tree. She let out a scream as the pain lanced through her.
The man stood over here and gripped her chin- she decided that spitting in his face was the best she could do- as she realized part of her body felt numb. The man slammed her against the tree again and she let out another scream. She heard the scrambling- heard either Dean or Sam trying to get to her.
“Go to hell.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you’ll be joining me there soon.”
Black smoke poured out of the man’s mouth as she was dropped to the ground- a whimper of pain came out of her mouth- and she found Sam’s eyes as he tossed the book to the side. A demon. It had been a demon.
“Need. Call. Tommy.”
“Yeah. Fuck. Okay- we’ll call an ambulance and get them to you. I think we need to keep you still.”
“Sure.”
Tommy checked his cell as they finally emerged back into the world of technology. The weekend with Willow had been great- something he never thought he was going to get before Kimberly got stuck in this world. And he’d fought like hell to figure out a way to get back to her. He expected a few messages- what he did not expect was the continuous dinging and buzzing that lasted a couple of minutes.
Missed calls from a co-worker. Missed calls from Tyler’s mother- she’d probably forgot that he was on a camping trip with Willow- hopefully Hazel reminded her to call Kimberly. Missed calls from Dean Winchester- not unheard of….then a shit ton of missed calls and messages from Sam Winchester. That was concerning. He got along with Sam, but the man never really called him.
He opened his texts and scanned the messages from Sam. The phone clattered against the pavement and Willow’s face jerked around to look at him. He forced a smile and helped her pack her things into the back of the jeep. He checked the other messages- many of them were saying how sorry they were for what had happened. He didn’t even know exactly what had happened. He dialed Sam- assuming that if he was messaging- he’d stayed in town.
“Where is she?”
“Sacred Heart Hospital. Hazel is still with Tyler’s family- Kim managed to call and explain this to them. Dean is at your house- he wanted to repair what he could and start on the ramp- you know how he gets if he’s still.”
“Okay- it’s still going to be a few hours.”
“Yeah- we’re not going anywhere.”
************
“Uncle Dean! Uncle Dean!”
Their eldest daughter sprinted for Dean and he smiled. Hazel hung back a bit before she also sprinted over to him. He was glad that they had them- even if it made the world more dangerous than he’d originally expected. She all but tackled Dean and he gave him an imploring look- the guilt on Dean’s face spoke volumes. The damage around the rest of their home filled in many more of the blanks that he had about what had happened- luckily Willow and Hazel didn’t notice.
“Willow, Hazel- you good to stay with Uncle Dean for a bit? I need to go get some things from town.”
“Who wants ice cream sundaes for dinner?
“Me!” Both girls screamed and while he’d normally try to convince them that sundaes should be dessert- he couldn’t do that today. Dean was giving the girls a distraction that their mother was not here, a distraction that he couldn’t have as he drove to the hospital.
They’d had their share of close calls and Kimberly had given him shit a time or two at the fact that he was needlessly reckless. She wasn’t the reckless one- she was the one who had to fight smart. Everything that he’d read let him know that the being had just appeared and now she seemed to be paralyzed from the waist down. Sam said they weren’t giving him a lot of information and had outright refused to tell Kimberly. He could guess they didn’t want to cause her to panic- not telling her information was probably making it worse.
“Hey Sam- I should be there in 30.”
“Tommy?” Kim cracked her eyes open, she’d heard the ding of a phone, she hoped it was her husband.
“Yeah- he’s parking and will be up in a few. Kimberly, I’m–” Sam’s guilt bled out of him- none of this was their fault. If anything it was the fault of the being that trapped them in this world, but without being trapped here- she would have never had Tommy again. That was a perk.
“Shut it. Things like this happen. It’s not like you did anything to cause it–a few more hits and it could have been much worse. So much worse.”
“But you’re…”
“Sam- don’t do this to yourself- okay? I promise you that if I blamed you or Dean- I would have sent you to the woods to bring Tommy home.”
“It came for you because you’re connected to us.”
“It came for me because I am one of the most powerful beings on this planet. Our house is a fucking beacon, Sam. No matter what we do. Tommy’s signature just scares the shit out of most things.”
The door creaked open and she forced a smile as Tommy made his way over to her. He hadn’t even bothered to change out of what he’d worn for the camping trip- she wasn’t sure what Sam and Dean had told him- but any hospital trip terrified him. Rightfully so- they didn’t heal the same way here that they did in their home world.
“Hey, beautiful. I…are you…what happened?”
She let Sam catch him up- most of her memory was sketchy. There was only one thing she knew for certain. Paralyzed- from the waist down. She had gotten some sensation back, but not much. The injury was too severe and it was something she still struggled to understand. She’d been through worse. This shouldn’t have been the time that she had a life-altering injury.
His hand found hers and he squeezed, his other hand came up to her cheek- angling her face towards him. Fingers gently brushed away tears. She hadn’t let herself cry before and now that he was here sobs finally bubbled up.
“Oh beautiful. It’s going to be okay- we’ll figure this out. We’ll figure out how to do life with this- I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’re good at hanging in when things get tough. Tommy, I’m shit at that. I’m the one that broke us and continued to break us and ran away every time it got hard and it’s been easy here. What if I run? What if I do that again? What if I can’t stand this and I…I do something…I…”
“We don’t have to figure it out today. We can just sit with it and feel this. I’m so sorry I wasn’t home. I should have…I could have…”
“No- they would have killed you and we wouldn’t have had back up and the girls…the girls would have been left with no one.
“Are they dead?”
“The demon was sent back to hell but the being that started this they…” Sam trailed off as Tommy just nodded. She knew that look. She knew exactly what it meant and she grabbed his face- forced him to look at her. His eyes flashed through his power colors before he shook his head and then nodded. A nod that settled her soul.
“I…I won’t go after them- but if they come back- I will end this.”
“I know, Tommy. Hold me?”
“Yeah, yeah baby.”
He gently shifted her over and she winced. She knew the nurses and doctors would be pissed, but she needed this. She needed him, she needed his body wrapped around hers where she could finally feel a bit like herself again. Their lives had been changed before- this wasn’t an unheard of occurrence for them. And as Tommy cradled her close the weight of it hit her, but so did a bit of certainty- this was not the end for them. It was just life.