Chapter VII - Save Me

    Leila shuffled through the halls, walking to where all the patients ate, the cafeteria. Some ate together, mainly the ones that didn’t need to talk to their doctors. Most of the people ate breakfast closer to lunch, so they didn’t need any excuse other than ‘I am full’ to not eat lunch. It was good measure too, Leila was forced to eat three meals a day, no thanks to Dean saying she was anorexic.

    Dean. Leila couldn’t even think his name without wanting to smack the arrogant smirk off of his face, and she would had he been with her like he promised. She couldn’t stop thinking about what the two brothers were doing now, probably enjoying life. A bitter chuckle escaped her lips, she dragged everyone down with her. It was probably a good thing that they left her here, hell, they probably celebrated after Dean had ditched her.

    Leila reached the cafeteria and sneered with distaste, it was crowded. There were people. No tables were open and people were actually talking. Leila let a small grown out when she saw it all, but that didn’t stop her from going to the lineup to get the required food she needed.

    After grabbing what she believed was sufficient - an apple and a carton of chocolate milk - she looked around. Food wasn’t allowed in rooms, and Leila was sure to get chewed out by a doctor if she went back. She looked around, trying to find somewhere to sit that people weren’t going to talk to her. She didn’t want to talk, didn’t need to talk. She just wanted to be back with Dean and Sam, she wanted to feel like a part of something. To know that she wasn’t alone. If Dean had really wanted to save her, why’d he do so and then dump her here? Why had she been ditched by the only people she thought that she could trust?

    Sighing sadly, she made her way to the edge of a table that wasn’t too crowded. She sat at the very end, choosing the only spot in the entire cafeteria that didn’t have anyone sitting across from her. That she enjoyed. No one to deal with was just the right amount of people.

    She quietly ate her apple, hearing the buzz of the cafeteria as people talked to friends, acquaintances and people that weren’t actually there. As she bit into her apple, she was still tangled in her thoughts of the Winchesters. It took her by surprise when her doctor sat in front of her. Leila looked up, meeting his eyes.

    Her eyes narrowed, those weren’t her doctor’s eyes those were… He grabbed her arm lightly and walked her down a series of hallways. The other two men were waiting for Leila and him when they rounded the corner. Leila nearly screamed when her eyes met the green eyes of the man she hadn’t seen in weeks.

    “Hey, kid, how’ve you been?” Dean asked, his infamous smirk plastered on his face. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and he leaned against the wall.

    Castiel stood in front of Dean, Leila guessed that they were talking before Sam had directed her around the corner. Sam took off the fake eyeglasses he had been wearing to pretend he was a doctor. He stuck them in the pocket of the lab coat that he had stolen.  Rage filled Leila, and she couldn’t shut it off. What nerve they had coming back!

    “Why you stuck up--” Leila walked towards Dean, a scowl on her face and anger in her strides. “Half-witted--” Leila growled, getting closer to Dean, “Scruffy looking--” Leila stopped in front of Dean. “Nerf herder!” She yelled, her hand drew back and slapped him right across his stubbled cheek. His head snapped in the direction her hand swung.

    Leila growled again, drawing back to slap Dean again. Sam grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms at her sides and lifting her off of the ground. Leila struggled against Sam’s grip, and continued throwing curses Dean’s way. Sam covered her mouth with his arm, only holding her waist with his one arm. One of her arms freed itself and she told Dean that he was number one with her middle finger.

    Dean looked taken aback, rubbing his hand on his red cheek. “Jeez, missed you too, kid.” Dean mumbled, looking at the struggling teenager. “First thing you say is a princess Leia reference?”

    Leila pried Sam’s hand off of her mouth. “Oh, I have a lot more I want to say to you!” She threatened, and Sam clamped his hand back over her mouth until she calmed down.

    Slowly, Sam let Leila down, and she took deep breaths. Castiel stood off to the side, not knowing how to deal with the situation. He mainly kept watch for anyone that was coming. Dean looked at Leila, still rubbing his jaw. Leila swallowed hard, her sadness overtaking her anger.

    “Why’d you leave me?” Leila croaked, looking at Dean. “Both of you. You said you needed me.”

    “Kid, I was trying to help you,” Dean said, his tone edged with sorrow and regret. “I-” Dean stumbled for the right words to say, he licked his lips. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

    “Yeah, well you thought wrong,” Leila snapped.

    “Kid…” Dean said softly. “I’m sorry.”

    “Yeah, well…” Leila looked at the ground and looked back up. “Long as you promise that you won’t dump me off at some hospital again, I think I can forgive you, but only on one condition.”

    “And what’s that?” Dean said, crossing his arms.

    “I get to choose the music when we go on the road.” Leila said.

    “On the road?” Dean asked, humour in his tone. “Where we’re going we don’t need roads.”

    A smile tugged at Leila’s lips. She walked over and hugged Dean. He smiled slightly, hugging her back.

    “Welcome back, kid,” He mumbled so only she could hear it. Then he let go, trying to keep up his douchey façade. Leila caught on quickly, and didn’t say anything when he did so.

    Sam cleared his throat, “Actually, we do need you.”

    “Really?” Leila asked, “For what?”

    “You know this hospital now,” Sam explained, “You can show one of us around. But-” Sam cleared his throat again. “Can I talk to you in private for a minute, Dean?”

    “Uh, sure,” Dean replied, walking down the hall a little ways away and turning the corner. Sam followed, swallowing hard.

    When they’d stopped, Dean turned to Sam. “What’s wrong, little brother?”

    “You told me she wanted to be here.” Sam said, looking his slightly shorter brother in the eyes. “What the hell happened that night?”

    Dean swallowed hard, “I told you, Sammy, she wanted to come because something happened that she didn’t want me to tell you.”

    Sam narrowed his eyes. “Dean, you can’t lie to me twice. I mean, the first thing she does is slap you and you don’t even react? That’s not like you, even when Krissy did something like that, you lashed out at her.”

    “Krissy was a different story, she almost got herself killed by vamps. The kid actually…” Dean trailed off, not wanting to relive that night.

    Sam looked at Dean, his expression reading appalled and slightly betrayed. “Okay, first off, her name is Leila not ‘kid.’ And second, what the hell has gotten you so screwed in the head that you can’t even tell your own brother-” Sam stopped, his mind falling to the only thing that would be so appalling, so inhuman, that Dean wouldn’t tell him. “You didn’t… in the car…”

    Dean caught on quickly, upset Sam would even think he’d do that. “Sam, no. God no. I’d never… why would you think that?”

    “Then what happened, Dean? Cause I’m expecting the worst.” Sam replied, looking away from his brother.

    “She, uh…” Dean stumbled once again. “She tried to off herself…” He mumbled under his breath. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, but the knot in his stomach while he thought about it just tightened.

    “Wait, what?” Sam asked, swallowing hard.

    “Yeah, you heard me.” Dean said, “She tried to friggin’ kill herself when we weren’t home, and I-” Dean’s words caught in his throat as he tried not to cry again.

Every night since it had happened, he had recurring nightmares about it. Most of them ended in tragedy, her succeeding in what she had planned to do and him not making it home in time. He was only seconds too late, all because him and Sam had stopped for food. Other times, he was bound and couldn’t move, he was being forced to sit and watch as she ended it, then that demon showed up again. The one with the slit throat always showed up in his dreams. Dean wondered whether it was only the dream, or the demon was actually there and Dean just couldn’t gank him. Dean hadn’t seen that, or any of the other demons, since Leila had been sent to the hospital, Dean didn’t know whether that was good or not.  He did have the theory they were attached to her, but he could never come to terms with it. He refused to believe it. If it were true, he might have to kill her, and he wasn’t going to let that happen, not if he could help it.

“I couldn’t let that happen,” Dean croaked, looking away. If he was going to, he didn’t want Sam seeing him cry.

Sam’s jaw tightened, “Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped.”

“I didn’t think you’d want that on your shoulders. We both left her there.” Dean whispered. “You got enough to think about without thinking whether the kid is try again.”

“So do you,” Sam reasoned, knowing the heavy burden his brother held on his shoulders. His green eyes could only hide so much. “You could’ve told me, we could’ve helped and you never would’ve dumped her here.”

“I thought it would help her,” Dean defended.

“Don’t you remember when you were here?” Sam asked, “This place made you worse than you were before. It made us both worse. Why do you think sticking a teenager here was a good plan?”

“I don’t know, Sammy, I mean,” Dean shrugged his broad shoulders and finally looked up at his brother. “I didn’t want her getting hurt.”

“None of us do, Dean, but sticking her here isn’t going to solve a thing, remember what I said about ‘feeling alone’?” Sam said, anger lining his tense tone. “You basically abandoned her when she needed you. No friggin’ wonder she smacked you. I should’ve let her do it again.”

“I don’t need to feel like hell for this, Sam.” Dean deadpanned. “I already know that this was a crap thing to do, no need to rub salt on the friggin’ wound.”

Sam didn’t respond to Dean. All he did was roll his eyes and walk back to where Leila and Castiel were. Leila was in the midst of attempting to explain something to Castiel when Sam came within earshot.

“-- He buys a sports almanac and it literally changes the future, that’s really the past in the year that they’re in. It’s amazing, we can watch it at the hotel.” Leila concluded when she saw Sam out of the corner of her eye.

Sam couldn’t help but smile, the only person that knew Back To The Future better than Dean was Leila. Leila reminded him of a younger, more blonde version of their good friend Charlie. Castiel looked thankful that Sam showing up had made her stop talking about the movie trilogy. He knew that time travel was possible, but travelling in a car? That’d be as absurd as an alien travelling to different locations as well as time periods in nothing more than a police box.

“Everything all good?” Leila asked, looking at Sam.

“Yeah, fine,” Sam lied, Castiel frowned as Dean walked around the corner. He decided not to question it, he would get Dean to tell him later.

Leila narrowed her eyes slightly with skepticism, but she let it go. She looked at Dean, his eyes looked kind of red. The only time she’d seen his eyes looking like that was… that night. Leila ran her finger absentmindedly along the cut that was slowly fading into a scar.

The Doctor’s had all been incredibly impressed with the stitching done on Leila’s arm. They said that her ‘brother’ had good hands. Leila had only half listened. She didn’t want to think about her ‘brother’ at the time. She was mad at him then, and still partially was. But, in light of all the anger she was feeling, Leila had a burning question brewing inside of her. She needed to know the answer, but felt like it wasn’t the right time.

“Why’d you guys come here?” She asked, despite her timing.

“Didn’t Cas tell you?” Dean asked, frowning.

Leila blushed slightly, “I didn’t really let him get any words in, now that I think about it.”

“What were you telling him?” Dean asked, a confused look replacing his frown.

Sam held up his hand for Dean to stop talking. He knew what they were talking about, and Sam didn’t mind. At least she had gotten her mind off of the hospital. “We’re here because--”

“I heard you,” Castiel replied, looking at Leila.

“Y-you heard me?” Leila stumbled, wondering what he meant.

Sam and Dean had never gotten the chance to explain the whole “angel radio” thing to Leila. They knew what Castiel meant as soon as he said it, Castiel thought Leila would know too. She’s the one that wanted somebody to hear her, after all.

“Were you pra--” Dean began.

Sam stuck his hand out again to silence his brother. “What matters is that we’re here now. We’re going to get you out of here.”

Dean swallowed hard. That made him feel even worse about leaving her. Castiel had told them that she was praying not to be alone anymore, and that he’d only just heard her. He’d hoped that other angels would hear her, but the fact was that they were all looking for Saint Dymphna. Castiel had gone as quick as he could to aid Leila - and gotten the Winchesters just as quickly.

Dean slowly shook his head. If he hadn’t have left her there, she wouldn’t have been as bad as Castiel told them she was. He said that since she’d been in the hospital he could sense how bad things were. Which was bad, because Castiel had told Dean how he was being blocked from Leila’s head. If Leila was letting angel’s see inside, even if she didn’t know it was happening, she definitely needed some serious help.

“How’re you going to do that?” Leila asked, snapping Dean out of his thoughts.

“Cas can take us,” Dean said.

Castiel bowed his head as a nod. He grasped the top of Leila’s shoulder lightly, Leila winced. Dean frowned.

“Cas, wait,” Dean said.

Castiel removed his hand. “What is it, Dean?”

“Kid, what happened?” Dean said, looking at her.

“What do you mean?” Leila asked. She hadn’t meant to wince, but Castiel had grabbed her right in the wrong spot.

“You know what I mean,” Dean said. “What’s wrong with your shoulder?”

A lump formed in Leila’s throat. She attempted to swallow it. “Long story,” She mumbled, not wanting to talk about it.

“I’m waiting,” Dean said, crossing his arms.

Leila sighed, moistening her lips. “Last week, I got in trouble by some of the doctors. I got in a fight with a girl and they had to pull me off of her when I was about to beat her face in.” She said softly.

“Why were you going to - uh - beat her face in?” Sam asked.

Leila chewed on her bottom lip. “She went to my school. She was here on visiting hours and instead of talking to her brother, she decided that she was going to pick on me.”

Dean’s jaw tightened, “Is the little bitch here right now?”

Leila shooked her head, “She left after I tried to beat the snot out of her. Hasn’t been back since.”

“That still doesn’t explain what happened to your shoulder,” Sam replied.

Leila slid her shirt down so they could see. A purple and yellow bruise was there. It was about an inch all around. “I put up a struggle against them when they were trying to get me off of her. Since I resisted, they decided to put me under for a little while.”

“How many times?” Dean asked, knowing the bruising wouldn’t have happened if it was only once.

“I think it was three times,” Leila managed.

“Leila…” Sam said, skeptical of her number.

“Fine,” Leila replied. “Yesterday was the first day I was awake for a full day.

Dean shook his head. “Well,” He said, knowing if he said anything else, he was going to beat the tar out of the doctors. “We’re going to get you out of here, that I can promise.”

“After you put me here in the first place,” Leila mumbled under her breath.

Dean heard her and felt a pang of guilt resonate inside of him. He was only trying to do what was best for her. He’d just judged it wrong.

Castiel, more carefully, placed his hand on Leila’s shoulder after she’d slid her shirt back into the right place. He summoned his powers, expecting to fly away with the teenager. But nothing happened. He frowned, trying again. Same result.

“Cas,” Dean said, “Please tell me that you’re doing this for dramatic effect.”

Castiel shook his head, “I am afraid that there’s something not allowing me to leave by means of my powers.”

“That’s a joke… right?” Leila asked, “You guys are trying to be funny. We’re not actually stuck here… are we?”

Sam looked at her, “Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s nothing. We can just go out the front doors and get in Dean’s car.” He said, reassuring her.

Dean swallowed hard, “Actually, Sammy…” He said sheepishly, “I called Cas to get me too. Baby’s almost out of gas and I knew that filling her up would take some time.”

“Great,” Sam said sarcastically. “So the freaky mojo acts up, and it’s the one time you leave that stupid car at the hotel.”

“Hey,” Dean defended, “I didn’t think that the car was top priority at the time.” Dean said, motioning to Leila with his hand.

“Uh… guys…” Leila said, looking over Dean’s shoulder at the figure that had appeared out of nowhere.

“What?” They asked at the same time, turning to look at her.

“I think we have company,” She said, nodding to the figure.

There it stood, beckoning Leila once again to come with it. Between reliving the Winchester’s leaving her, she’d had visits by the demon almost every night. It’s solemn face was turned into a terrifying grin. The slit on it’s neck was as bloody as ever. The knife it had held at the hotel was gone, and that freaked Leila out more than anything else. It hadn’t gone in her room, courtesy of one of the boys unnoticably putting salt in her bag, but there seemed to be an uncomfortable lack of salt this time.

Quick as a flash, Sam pulled out his gun. “Get her out!” He demanded, Dean didn’t argue.

Castiel and Dean looked at each other, then Dean yelled something incomprehensible to Leila. They ran around the corner, Leila was pale with fright as her legs carried her down the halls. Those demons… she finally knew what they were. It’d taken all her free time in the three weeks the boys had left her to figure it out, and she’d finally done it. When Dean felt that they were safe from the thing, he stopped, looking at Castiel.

“Okay, seriously,” Dean said, “What the hell is that thing?”

Castiel shook his head, “I have an idea, but Dean--”

He was cut off when another demon appeared near them. This one was the one Leila saw after running into Sam for the first time. It’s tangled black hair was over it’s face. Brittle claws protruded from it’s fingers as it let out an inhuman hiss.

Leila’s eyes widened with fright, “I got a bad feeling about this.”

*****

A.N. And… that’s that. Remember to vote/ comment/ fan! Hope you liked it! An update will definitely come soon, because I know exactly where I’m going! (But, don’t quote me on that because we all know when my “soon” is, lol.)

Until next time, hunters and warriors,

-Thalia