Dream A Little Dream of Me.

CHAPTER SIXTY THREE , DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME

a/n : ITS BEEN TOO LONG!!!!!

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Guilt had such a bitter taste.

It stuck to the roof of her mouth like gum. She wanted to swallow it—push it away. But that annoying sinister voice has crept its way past the back walls of Athena's brain and started to taunt her.

Remember this guilt.

Drown in it.

Athena's finger twitched and she quickly realized they were numb.

How long have they felt like this?

Athena opens and closes her hand. She rolls her wrist and her face scrunches to keep her tears from falling.

The smell of disinfectant stung her nose and the beeping of the monitors throughout the halls of the hospital echoed through her head.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" Sam inquires.

"We've tested everything we can think to test." The doctor speaks. "He seems perfectly heathy."

Dean softly huffs, "Except he's comatose." He snaps his eyes over to the doctor.

"Mr. Snyderson, you're his emergency contact. Anything we should know? Any illnesses?"

Dean immediately shakes his head. "No, he never gets sick. I mean, he doesn't even catch a cold."

"Doctor, is there anything you can do?" Sam questions.

"Look, I'm sorry, we don't know what's causing it, so we don't know how to treat it." The doctor replies. "He just...went to sleep and didn't wake up."

Sam and Dean exchange a look. The doctor gives the siblings a sad smile before walking out of the room. Dean lets out a small breath. "We should go to Bobby's place. Check it out."

Sam nods his head. Simultaneously, the brothers look at their little sister who was quiet the whole time. "Thena?"

The girl swallows the painful lump in her throat. "He isn't waking up."

"Of course he is. We just need to figure out what's going on with him." Sam says.

"Maybe it's something supernatural." Dean adds. "Something we can fix ourselves."

Athena bites her lower lip painfully hard and she pinches her brows together. "And if we can't?" She turns to them. "What then? We won't be able to do anything, but fucking wait." Her eyes sadden and she looks back at Bobby. Her eyes begin to blur with tears.

She was such a brat to Bobby when she last saw him. Athena couldn't let Bobby die thinking she hated him.

"I hate waiting."

"Well, instead of waiting. We could do one thing." Dean tries to gently bring up his and Sam's past idea. She honestly didn't hate anyone. But she was too stubborn to admit that.

Athena closes her eyes and lets out a soft breath. "Yeah...we should look through his room. See if there's anything there."

...

"So, what was Bobby doing in Pittsburgh?"

The three siblings enter the motel room Bobby was staying at.

"I don't know unless he was taking an extremely lame vacation." Dean closes the door behind him.

Athena was still listening to her brothers speak, but she had let her eyes wander the room as well.

"I mean, he must have been working a job, right?" Sam questions.

"Well, you'd think there'd be some sort of sign or something, you know?" Dean pulls open Bobby's drawers. Sam follows Dean's lead and searches through his nightstand. "Research...news clippings."

Athena's eyes shift to the ground. There was dirt scuffle on the ground—making a distinct trail of footprints leading towards the motel closet. She walks beside the unnoticeable dirt trail and stands in front of the closet doors. She pulls the doors open, only to be greeted with a closet full of flannels. Athena softly huffs, her eyes fall on the white outline behind the clothes and she pushes the flannels aside. There was a cork board pinned to the wall of the closet full of what Dean had described.

"Found something."

Sam and Dean turn to their little sister. They walk over to Athena and stand behind her to look inside the closet.

"Athena strikes again: The sequel." Dean voices.

Sam softly hums, "I'm sure it's been more than twice."

Dean looks at Sam, "Duh. That's why I said 'again' at the beginning." He then scoffs.

Sam rolls his eyes and pulls the chain on the lamp, flicking the light on.

"New clippings, research, galore." Athena quips.

"Good old Bobby—always covering up his tracks." Dean looks across the board.

"You make heads or tails of any of this?" Sam asks.

Dean grabs one paper that catches his attention. He looks across the scientific plant name and frowns. "Silene Capesis. Which, of course, means absolutely nothing to me."

"Let me see."

Dean hands the paper to Athena and she looks at the plant. She softly hums and softly gnaws on her lower lip—thinking. "I've read about this stuff before. It's a dream root." she turns to her brothers. "What does the obituary say?"

Sam grabs the newsclipping off the corkboard. "Dr. Walter Gregg, 64, Universigy Neurologist..." he pulls his brows together from the words across the paper.

Dean and Athena turn to him, waiting. "How'd he bite it?"

"Actually, they don't know." Sam says. "They say he just went to sleep and didn't wake up."

Athena sucks in a breath and looks back at the picture of the dream root in her hand.

"So, lets say Bobby was looking into the doc's death, you know, hunting for something—"

"That started hunting him." Dean finishes.

Athena holds up the picture in her hand. "And whatever or whoever Bobby was hunting used this to get him to sleep."

Dean slowly nods his head, "All right, you two stay here. See if you can make heads or tails of this."

"Yeah? And what are you gonna do?" Athena squints her eyes.

"I'm gonna look into the good doctor myself." Dean walks over to the front door and leaves without another word.

Athena rolls her eyes and looks back at Sam. "So, what more do you know about this dream root?" Sam asks.

Athena frowns, "Actually...that's all I know about it. And it can put you to sleep giving you these crwzy vivid dreams."

"Like a bad trip."

Sam nods his head, "Right, yeah." he then stops nodiding. Sam registers Athena's last words. "Wait—how do you know what a bad trip?"

Athena snorts and looks at Sam. She then pulls her browsntogerher when she notices that he's serious. "Really?—Sam, Dean is our big brother. Did you just think I didn't pick up ome knowledge about some of the things he did?"

Sam blinks and thinks for a moment. He really shouldn't be surprised by the things Athena picked up when living with them her whole life.

☆

Sam and Athena had figured out all they could about the dream root, they didn't hear back from Dean. But they both knew where he would be.

Sam was the first to enter Bobby's hospital room. Dean was sitting at Bobby's bed side. Athena enters the room behind Sam and her entire body tenses from the feeling in the room. It felt like hopelessness.

"How is he?" Sam asks.

Dean stands up from the chair. "No change. What you got?"

"Well, considering what you told us about the doc's experiments, Bobby's wall is starting to make a hell of a lot more sense." Sam states.

"How so?"

Athena points at the picture of the dream root. "Remember this plant? The African dream root has been used by Shamen and medicine men for centuries."

"Let me guess—they dose up, bust out the didgeridoos, and start kicking around the hacky." Dean sarcastically suggests.

Sam sighs, "Not quite. If you believe the legends, it's used for dream-walking. I mean, entering another person's dreams, poking around in their heads."

"I take it we believe the legends."

Sam and Athena softly laugh which causes Dean to roll his eyes.

"You think we wouldn't?" Athena retorts.

"It was a rhetorical question that would help continue the conversation." Dean defends himself. "Continue."

"Dream-walking is just the tip of the iceberg." Sam continues.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this dream root is some serious mojo. You take enough of it with enough practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger." Sam explains.

Athena shudders, "The most terrifying horror character if you ask me." She then chuckles. "I always rooted for Jason to kill his ass."

"Imagine having that much power..." Athena lets out a breath. "You can make bad dreams good. You can make good dreams bad—"

"And killing people in their sleep." Dean adds.

"Well, yeah." Athena nods. "That too."

"So, let's say this doc was testing the stuff on his patients Tim Leary-style."

"Somebody gets pissed at him, decides to give him a little dream visit, he goes nighty-night." Dean says.

"What about Bobby?" Sam looks at Bobby. Athena looks back at the man in the bed. A lump forms in her throat.

"If the killer came after him, how come he's still alive?" Sam asks.

Dean slightly shakes his head, "I don't know."

"I do."

Sam and Dean turn to their little sister. Her eyes were still on Bobby, but there was a small smile on her lips. "Because Bobby's the toughest son of bitch, I know."

The Winchesters left Bobby's room a few minutes later. They were all walking down the hall when Dean spoke first. "So, how do we find our homicidal little sandman?"

"It could be anyone." Sam says.

Athena huffs, "Yeah. I mean, it could be anyone who knew the doctor, had access to his dream shrooms."

Sam points at Athena. "Maybe one of his test subjects or something?" He goes off her idea.

"Possible," Dean agrees. "but his research is pretty sketchy. I mean, I don't know how many subjects he had or who they were."

Sam lets out a heavy sigh that catches his siblings attention. "What?"

"In any other case, we'd be calling Bobby and asking him for help right now." Sam says.

Athena bites the inside of her cheek. Dean raises his brows, a crazy thought in his mind. "Know what? You're right he grabs Sam's arm then Athena's.

She quickly pulls her arm from Dean's grip. "Gross."

"What?" Sam looks at Dean.

"Let's go talk to him."

Sam and Athena look at each other. Athena snorts, "Dumbass."

"Sure. I think we might find the conversation a bit one-sided." Sam tries his best to support Dean's idea, but he was leaning towards Athena's "dumbass" comment.

"Not if we're tripping on some dream root." Dean states.

Athena lets out a small gasp.

"What?" Sam and Athena chorus.

"You heard me."

"You want to go dream-walking inside Bobby's head?" Sam asks.

"That's not happening!" Athena snaps.

"Maybe we could help." Dean defends his idea.

Sam shakes his head, "We have no idea what's crawling around in there."

"How bad could it be?" Dean shrugs.

"Bad!" Athena bites.

Dean brushes off their comments. "Guys, come on, it's Bobby."

Sam exhales, "Yeah, you're right."

Athena folds her arms, "We don't know what's going on through Bobby's head. And we sure as hell don't know who Bobby was when he was younger—"

"What are you saying—"

"All I'm saying is we don't know the kind of life Bobby had when he was younger." Athena explains. "We have different lives."

Sam and Dean look at each other, understanding what she meant. Athena then lets out a heavy sigh. "Nevertheless, Bobby is our family. And I would kill for him." She looks back at her brothers. "So, where do we find this dream root?"

Dean thinks for a moment. Then he closes his eyes once the worse and only idea comes to his head. "Crap."

"What?"

"Bela."

Athena's face lights up.

"Bela?" Sam's face drops. "Crap."

"You're actually suggesting we ask her for a favor?" Sam scoffs.

"Yes." Athena urges. "We ask her for all of the favors in the world."

"I'm feeling dirty just thinking about it." Dean grimaces.

Athens rolls her eyes, "Haters."

☆

"What do you think he's dreaming about?"

Dean looks away from his book and at Sam who was sleeping with his head on the table. Noises were coming from Sam and it caused Dean to laugh. "Trust me, you don't wanna know."

Just from that sentence alone, Athena grimaces. "He's dreaming about dirty things." She shakes her head. "Men are disgusting."

Dean raises his brows in acknowledgment. "You're telling me."

"What you agree with that?" Athena looks at Dean with shock. Enough shock that even Gil lifted his head with a small tilt to the side. Dean rolls his eyes, "What? Just because we butt heads doesn't mean I can't agree with you."

Athena lets out a dry chuckle and looks back at her book. "Right, "butt heads" as if it's so simple to our wonderful relationship." She flips a page in the book.

Dean's eyes sadden, "Athena, I'm really sorry abou—"

"Can you wake him up, please?" Athena sets her book on the table and scoffs. "His noises are weird." She leans back in her seat and looks to the side, avoiding Dean's eye contact.

Athena felt embarrassed talking about her feelings now. She honestly never wanted to do that again. The years she had spent talking about her feelings all she got was ridiculed, made fun of, or ignored. So, to Athena it just felt worthless. And if she was forced to talk about her feelings, she wouldn't tell Sam or Dean.

Sam jolted awake after Dean called his names almost 5 times. He wiped the drool off his face and looks around the room.

"Dude, you were out." Dean chuckles. "And making some serious happy noises."

Athena quirks a brow, "So, who were you dreaming about?"

Sam's heart drops. "What? No one. Nothing

Athena hums and looks back at the book. "Liar."

"Come on." Dean urges. "You can tell me. Angelina Jolie?"

"No,"

Athena smirks, "Brad Pitt?"

"No! No." Sam exhales. "Dude, it doesn't matter."

Athena slowly nods her head. "Someone we know probably." She shrugs and looks at her book.

"Shut up! You don't know anything." Sam snaps.

Athena and Dean laugh. "Whatever, dude."

"I called Bela." Dean sighs.

Sam's jaw goes slack. He had to reply carefully. As if he wasn't just having a dream about Bela. As far as Athena and Dean knew, Bela was still the annoying selfish thief to Sam.

"Bela? Yeah? Wh-what'd she, you know, say? She's...gonna...help us?"

They must've not picked up on Sam's nervous stammers, because all Athena did was smile and nods her head.

"She said "hi" to me." She corrects herself. "Well, she said "oh, hi, darling."."

"Okay, that's cool..." Sam pulls his brows together. "But what about Bela?"

"No, she's not gonna help us." Dean says. "Which puts us back to square one. Athena and I have been trying to decipher the doctor's notes. Unfortunately, he has worse handwriting than you do."

"You gonna come help us with this stuff?" Athena asks. "Sitting here with dingus all night has been awkward."

"I tried to make conversation! You wouldn't take it!"

As Athena and Dean go back and forth, Sam swallows and glances down. He snaps his eyes back up. "Yeah, yeah. Just give me a sec." Sam stretches.

A knock is heard at the door that causes the siblings to jump. Dean stands up and walks toward the door. He slightly opens the door and he immediately rolls his eyes. Dean pulls the door fully open and looks back at his siblings. "Bela, as I live and breathe."

A smile forms on Athena's lips.

"You called me, remember?" Bela walks into the room.

Dean scoffs, "I remember you turning me down."

"Well, I'm just full of surprises." Bela quips.

"Hey, Bela. What's going on?" Sam timidly waves a hand. Athena turns to him and scoffs, "Lame." She then waves a hand. "Hi, Bela!"

Bela looks at Athena and smiles. She wiggles her fingers, "Hello, darling. How are you today?"

Athena laughs softly, "Can't complain. Well, I could complain about Bobby being in a coma, but that's about it."

"What are you doing here?" Dean asks.

Bela pulls a jar from her bag. "I brought you your African dream root." He holds the jar out to him. Dean grabs the jar.

"Nasty stuff. And not easy to come by."

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Dean asks.

Bela takes her trenchcoat off. "What, I can't do you a little favor every now and again?"

"No. You can't." Dean grumbles. "Now, come on. I want to know what the strings are before you attach 'em."

"You said this was for Bobby Singer, right?" Bela raises her brows. "Well, I'm Doug it for him, not you."

Athena pulls her brows together. "You know Bobby?" She then rolls her eyes. "Everyone knows Bobby."

Bela nods her head, "He saved my life once...in Flagstaff."

Sam and Dean exchanged a look which causes Bela to roll her eyes.

"I screwed up, and he saved me, okay? Are you satisfied?"

Dean shrugs, "Maybe."

"So, when do we go on this little magical mystery tour?" Bela asks.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere." Dean brushes past her. "I don't trust you enough to let you in my car, much less Bobby's head. No offense." He meant all the offense.

Dean opens the safe in the closet and puts the jar of dream root in it before closing it again.

"None taken." Bela rolls her eyes. "It's 2am where am I supposed to go?"

"Get a room." Dean says. "Oh, they got the magic fingers, a little "casa erotica" on pay-per-view. You'll love it."

"You're such an ass." Athena shakes her head with a scoff. "Don't listen to him, he's scum of the earth."

Bela raises her brows, "Noted." She grabs her jacket and walks toward the door.

"Nice to—s-seeing you..."

Bela slams the door shut.

"...Bela."

☆

"What do you mean, I can't go?!"

Dean sighs, "I said you're not going."

"It's the same thing, if it means I'm gonna be here and not in Bobby's head." Athena scoffs and crosses her arms.

"Athena—"

"If Bobby is in trouble, I'm going." Athena presses her finger against the table. "I'll make my own damn tea if I have to—"

"Don't bother, I already made you some." Sam walks over with a tray carrying three cups of tea. Dean's jaw clenches and Athena looks at Dean with a mocking smile.

Sam hands his siblings a cup.

"Whatever happen to protecting her, huh?" Dean scoffs.

"Oh, please, you guys weren't doing a good job with that before. Why start now?" Athena snorts.

"Guys, can we focus, please?" Sam sighs.

Dean looks into the cup and his stomach turns a little. "Well, shall we dim the lights and sync up "Wizard of Oz" and "Dark Side of the Moon"?" He looks at Sam, waiting for him to get his joke. But Sam flashes a smile and pulls his brows together. "Why?"

Dean's smile drops, "What did you do during college?"

Sam blinks. Athena rolls her eyes, "He learned. Exactly what you're supposed to do."

Dean chuckles, "Lame." He lifts the cup to his lips but Sam's eyes widen. "Wait, wait, wait!"

Athena grabs Dean's arm, stopping him from drinking the tea. Sam exhales, "Can't forget this." He pulls a small yellow pouch from his shirt pocket. Sam digs in the pouch and holds it out to his siblings. "What the hell is that?"

Sam wrinkles his nose. "Bobby's hair."

As soon as the hair hit Athena's hand, she dry heaves. "We have to drink Bobby's hair?"

"That's how you control whose dream you're entering." Sam informs. "You got to drink some of their, uh...some of their body."

Dean frown, "Well, guess the hair of the dog's better than other parts of the body."

"What about toenail clippings?"

Sam and Dean look at the girl. She lifts her eyes from the drink and looks at them. "Could that be better?"

"No. No way." Dean shakes his head. "They're hard and you could feel it going down your throat—who would want that?"

Athena opens her mouth and nods. "Good point."

"This is such a weird conversation." Sam chuckles. "Definitely not the weirdest, but it's still weird."

Athena hums and lightly shrugs before putting the hair into her drink.

"Bottoms up."

The siblings all clink their cups together before downing their drinks. Athena swallows the mucky drink and her stomach turns. "Oh, I'm gonna be sick!" She covers her mouth to stop herself from throwing up. She swallows once again, to finalize her intake. Athena then exhales and sucks in a deep breath. "Nevermind, I'm good."

"Feel anything?"

Athena frowns and shakes her head.

"Maybe we got some bad schwag." Dean says.

Sam looks at the window, "Hey, when did it start raining?"

Athena looks at the window, noticing the sound. "Whoa..."

Dean walks over to the window and pulls the curtains open, revealing the pouring rain outside. "When did it start raining upside down?"

"Whoa!"

Dean quickly turns to his younger siblings, to see a change in atmosphere. "Okay, I don't know what's weirder—that fact that we're in Bobby's head or that he's dreaming of Better Homes And Gardens."

"Wait...wait a second." Sam speaks. "Imagine the place without the paint job, more cluttered, dusty, books all over the place."

"It's Bobby's house."

Athena's brows shoot up. She takes a closer look at the house and her eyes widen with realization. "Holy shit!"

"Bobby." Dean calls out.

"Dean, I'm gonna go look outside." Sam says.

Athena chuckles, "Yeah, sure..." she then pulls her brows together, registering what he said. "Wait, don't do that!"

"Athena's right, stay close." Dean adds.

"Guys's I'll be fine." Sam reassures. "Just take a look around in here."

Sam could still the hesitance across their faces. "Look, we got to find him."

"Don't do anything stupid." Dean says.

Athena shifts, "Whatever. I'm going upstairs." She turns from them and walks up the stairs.

Then the siblings all go their separate ways, in search for Bobby.

...

They were definitely in Bobby's head. This hallway was so fucking long and there were so many doors. Athena had to lean against the wall to rest her legs far a few minutes.

Athena felt a tightness in her chest thinking about not finding Bobby. She had to tell him how sorry she was for brushing him off. He was honorable and kind enough to take her in every time John sent her away. The least Athena could was be kind to him.

Athena pushes herself off the wall and continues to walk down the hall. As she continues to walk down the hall, a small hum starts in her ears and she raises a brow. With every step she took further down the hall, it got harder to breathe. The air had become thicker. It felt oddly familiar.

She turns her head to the right and a singular light was down another hall. At the end of that hall was a door. Athena lets out a small whimper. "Fuck, I can't believe I'm doing this..." she follows after the low humming.

Her combat boots echo against the hardwood floor. As she walked closer to the monotone hum, it slowly morphed into a melody. Athena gets to the door and her heart begins to ring in her ears.

Even though her heartbeat was pratically in her ears, she could hear the song clearly. Athena opens the door and her heart drops into her stomach. Tears form in her eye as her eyes look down the basement. Her eyes shift to the crickety old steps she was led down so many years ago.

Athena shakes her head as the song grows louder.

You are my sunshine.

My only sunshine.

Athena's skin crawls and she starts to feel sick to her stomach. She shakes her head and turns to leave. She bumps into a heavy figure, which causes her to stumble back. Before Athena could fall on her back, someone grips her wrist. Athena's eyes snap over to the figure and a small whimper escapes her lips.

"Look how much you've grown."

The teenager shakes her head. "No, no, this isn't real." She tries to pull her wrist from the man's grip.

"I never thought that I would see you ag—"

"Get away—go away!" Athena's voice shakes. The grip on her wrist tightens and she lets out a cry of pain. "This makes no sense—why are you here? Y-You shouldn't be here!"

Why the hell was Victor in Bobby's head?

"You think Bobby just conjured up some random person he's never met before?" Victor chuckles. "Oh, Athy. This was all you."

Athena's eyes blur her vision and she shakes her head. "N-No—"

"You're growing stronger with each passing day. I mean, they didn't think it was possible, but now you're warping other people's minds?" Victor lets out a deep laugh and that causes Athena's skin to prickle. "I'm proud of—"

"Go away, go away, go away..." Athena squeezes her eyes shut.

"Why did you leave me, Athena? Lying on the floor to die—"

"I didn't leave you on the floor to die!" Athena shouts, her eyes fly open. "You were already dead when I left." Her voice was low and threatening.

The man bares a crooked smile that Athena would never forget. "Why did you leave me—"

"Why did you lie to me?!" Athena shouts, tears blurring her vision. "Why did you h-hurt me?!" She scoffs. "Those are questions that I ask myself every night I go to sleep. And that's because of you!"

"You still think of me?"

Athena's back straightens, "It's not anything good, asshat."

Victor's eyes trail to the basement. "Do you remember our place?"

Athena squeezes her eyes shut, "No, it's not...I want to wake up now."

"Oh..." Victor takes a step toward her and cups her face. Athena softly cries and her chest tightens. "Let me help with that..." he twists her wrist and she cries. Victor pivots a foot and shoves Athena down the stairs.

A gut-wrenching scream comes from her lips. As her hands reach forward.

"Athena! Hey!—"

Athena shoots up from the bed and her forehead hits Dean's.

Dean stumbles back with a groan, "Son of a bitch!"

Athena clutches at her forehead and hisses in pain. "What the hell?!"

Sam looks at Dean then Athena and laughs. Athena looks around the room and a small breath of relief escapes her lips. "Oh, thank god..." she lays back down on the bed with her eyes on the ceiling.

Dean rubs his forehead quickly, hoping it would make the pain disappear. "What the hell has gotten into..." he trails off his words when he notices the tears in Athena's eyes. Her body was trembling and her breathing was quick. She was terrified.

Sam and Dean exchange a look of worry.

"Athena, are you okay?"

Athena curls her hands into fists and she inhales a shaky breath—hoping to gain some strength to speak. "I-I'm...I'll be okay." She quickly changes her answer. "Did we save Bobby?"

Sam and Dean stay silent for a moment. Athena sits up and sees the worry for her still on their faces. They didn't want to change the conversation. Athena swipes her tongue across her lower lip. "Can we go to the hospital to check on Bobby? I'll be better when we go check on him." She stands up and rubs her arms, hoping to warm herself up.

Both brothers could see the discomfort across her face. And they didn't want to push Athena towards anything she didn't want to do. So, they did the best and only thing they could do for her.

"Yeah, let's go."

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author's note.

Not the comeback chapter ending with such a DAMAGING scene. I am very sorry

words : 4672