╭-°—✞——✞—°-╮

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗘

𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴

╰-°—✞——✞—°-╯

"Continue on O-R Two-Two-Four West," the GPS instructed Dean as he drove down the highway.

Delaney sat in the back of the Impala, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had another vision that morning and woke up in between the two beds in their motel room on the carpeted floor. Yet another vision where someone died and this time from Dean shooting him because the kid was possessed by something. It was hard to tell what though because the blonde boy tied to the chair had begged Dean to ask the doctor if he was okay and for her to tell Dean that whatever was inside of him was gone.

It took Delaney about ten minutes to convince the boys to go to Oregon and found out if anything was happening in the state. Both boys gave her a wary look, but relented and they piled into the Impala to head over to Oregon. By now her two brothers knew not to ignore Delaney's visions, but it still freaked the both of them out and they still found themselves hoping that at least one vision would be wrong.

"There are towns in the United States called Rivergrove," Sam stated, glancing behind him to Delaney who seemed to get the color back in her face. It relaxed him slightly to not see his sister look as if she had just seen a ghost.

"Yeah, how are you so sure that it's in Oregon?" Dean added.

Delaney thought back to her vision where there had been a poster on one of the bulletin boards in what she assumed was either a hospital or doctor's office. It showed a lake with snowy hills and trees surrounding it with photos of people creating snowflakes during the winter or jet skiing in the summer months. Along the top of the poster it read VISIT BEAUTIFUL CRATER LAKE in a white script text. Crater Lake being located in Oregon.

"There was a picture," Delaney responded, snapping back to reality. "Crater Lake."

"Okay. What else?" Dean pried, trying to get as much information out of Delaney as he could. Him nor Sam knew anything about what was happening except Delaney so he needed every detail of her vision if he was going to figure out what was happening. He wanted at least some sort of idea before they got there.

"Um... I saw a dark room, some people, and a guy tied to a chair."

"And I ventilated him?"

Delaney nodded as she fiddled with her fingers. "Yeah and Sam was with you, but he looked just as determined to axe the guy as you did. You both there was something inside of him."

"A demon?" Sam asked, turning to lean his back against the passenger door so he could properly look at his sister without having to turn his neck as if he were in The Exorcist. "Was he possessed?"

"I don't know."

"Well, all your weirdo visions are always tied to the Yellow-Eyed Demon," Dean noted. "Was there any black smoke? Did we try to exorcise him?"

Delaney shook her head with a shrug. "Um, no. Nothing. You just put a bullet into his head. That's it."

"I'm sure had a good reason."

"I sure hope so," Delaney grumbled, not wanting to think her brothers just killed an innocent man. However, she knew nothing of what happened and she wasn't even there in the room with them so that had to mean something. Right?

"What does that mean?" Dean challenged his sister who remained quiet. "I wouldn't waste an innocent man!"

Delaney raised her eyebrows at that. Her brother was the type to shoot first and ask questions later. Not that she saw her eldest brother as a murderer, but he did tend to act before thinking when tensions were high or if he was stubborn enough to believe something before really investigating.

"I wouldn't!"

"I never said you would," Delaney reminded Dean since she had in fact remained quiet.

"Fine."

"Fine," Delaney mocked her brother and quickly backpedaled when Sam shot her a look to knock off the attitude. "Look, we don't know what it is, okay? Whatever it is, that guy in the chair is part of it. SO, let's find him and see what's what."

"Fine," Dean dismissed.

"Fine."

Sam rolled his eyes and sat forward in his seat again. "I swear you're both worse than children."

-°—✞——✞—°-

The Winchesters pulled into town past a large billboard advertising the same exact poster of Crater Lake from Delaney's vision. The town seemed normal as of then. There were a few civilians walking about and one man was to their right cleaning underneath the hood of his car.

Dean pulled up in front of a wooden shop, shutting off the engine. Out front the bald headed man from Delaney's vision sat by the entrance as he cleaned a rifle. He wore a short-sleeved blue shirt with a multi-pocket brown vest. 

"He was there," Delaney announced to her brothers, rapidly slapping both of their shoulders to get out along with her. She hopped out of the car and walked over to the man with her brothers trailing behind her. "Hi, good morning, sir."

The man smiled politely at Delaney as he continued to run his rag along the barrel of his rifle, making it shine in the sun with the dirt now wiped away. "Good morning. How can I help you?"

"Yeah. Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard and Leia Christensen," Dean replied as the three flashed their fake US Marshal badges. "US Marshals."

The man slowly placed the rifle down on the wooden table next to him. "What's this about?"

"We're looking for someone," Sam explained.

"A young man, early 20's. He'd have a thin scar right below his hairline," Delaney informed, placing to a spot about two inches below her hairline where she remembered the scar being. 

Recognition flashed across the man's face as he sat back in his chair. "What did he do?"

"Well, nothing," Delaney responded, placing her hands in her back pockets as she rocked back on her heels. "We're actually looking for someone else, but we think this young man could help us out."

"Yeah, he's not in any kind of trouble or anything," Dean assured the man and paused when he noticed the tattoo on the man's forearm. It was a tattoo of a bulldog with a studded collar, sergeant hat and two gun rifles crossing each other. "I think maybe you know who he is, Master Sergeant. My dad was in the Corps. He was a Corporal."

"What company?"

"Echo-2-1," Dean answered with a proud smile. "So, can you help us out?"

The man was quiet for a long moment as he debated whether to give the three the information they needed. He eventually nodded and said, "Duane Tanner's got a scar like that, but I know him. Good kid. Keeps his nose clean."

"Oh, I'm sure he does. Do you know where he lives?" Dean questioned.

"With his family, up Aspen Way."

"Thank you," Delaney said with a smile before the siblings bid the man a goodbye and crossed the street to make their way up Aspen Way. As they got to the other side, Delaney bumped into the telephone pole and as she glanced back to look at it, she froze. She grabbed both of her brothers' sleeves and stepped closer to the pole. Written across the pole in a chicken scratch type of handwriting was the word CROATOAN.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the word scratched into the wood. "Croatoan?"

"Yeah," Delaney answered and noticed Dean's lost expression. "Roanoke. Lost Colony. Ring a bell?" She chuckled softly as Dean glanced to the side at Sam who was just as shocked as Delaney that Dean knew nothing about what the word meant. "Dean, did you pay any attention in History class?"

"Yeah. Shot heard 'round the world. How bills became laws."

Delaney snorted in amusement at her brother. He sure was lucky he was a pretty face. "That's not school, you dope. That's Schoolhouse Rock."

"Whatever... same thing," Dean retorted.

"Roanoke was one of the first English colonies in America - late 1500s," Sam informed his not so academically advanced brother.

Dean snapped his fingers as he seemed to catch on to Delaney and Sam. "Yeah, yeah, I remember that. The only thing they left behind was a single word carved in a tree. Croatoan."

"Yeah, and there were theories - Indian raid, disease - but nobody knows what really happened," Delaney continued. "They were just gone, wiped out overnight."

Dean scoffed and shook his head. "No way. You really think that's what is going on here?"

"I don't know, Dean, but whatever I saw in my vision wasn't exactly sunshines and rainbows," Delaney sassed, glancing over her shoulder at the single word again. The word alone sent shivers down her back. "But what do you think could do that?"

Dean sighed when he saw how serious his sister was about all of this. Might as well cover all their bases, especially if Delaney felt so strongly about this one. "Well, I mean, like I said, all your weirdo visions deal with the Yellow-Eyed Demon so..."

"We should get help," Sam suggested softly, scanning the area around them at all the civilians walking about as if it were an average day. "Bobby. Ellen, maybe."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Dean agreed, pulling out his cell phone and froze when NO SIGNAL flashed across the top of his screen. "I have no signal."

Delaney and Sam both retrieved their phones from their pockets and met the same fate as Dean. Even when they tried the payphone a few feet away, the line on that was dead. There was no way any of them could contact Ellen or Bobby for help.

"I'll tell you one thing," Dean said, running a hand over his mouth. "If I was gonna massacre a town, that would be my first step."

-°—✞——✞—°-

The Impala had been parked outside a cabin-like house in the middle of nowhere. The three Winchesters approach the front door where a plaque with fish hanging from three hooks beneath it read, BORN TO FISH; FORCED TO WORK hung on the wall next to it.

Delaney knocked on the door and the three were greeted by a teenage boy with dark, spiky hair. "Um, hi. We're looking for Duane Tanner - he lives here, right?" She asked, flashing the boy her fake Marshal badge along with her brothers on either side of her.

The boy nodded, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets. "Yeah, he's my brother."

"Can we speak to him?" Dean asked.

The boy jerked his head behind him to the inside of the house behind him. "He's not here right now."

"Do you know where he is?"

"He went on a fishing trip down by Roslyn Lake."

"Are your parents home?" Sam asked.

The boy nodded and gestured to the kitchen that was towards the back of the house. "Yeah, they're both inside."

"Jake, who is it?" a male's voice called and a man with salt and pepper hair who had to be Delaney's height stopped next to Jake. "Hello."

"Hi, sir, US Marshals. We are looking for your son Duane," Dean explained to the man, flashing his ID for Mr. Tanner.

Mr. Tanner seemed to grow concerned for his son, worried he had done something wrong which would be out of character for him. "He's not in trouble, is he?"

"No, no, no, no. We just need to ask him a couple routine questions that's all," Dean assured the man with a polite smile.

"Do you know when he's due back from his trip?" Delaney inquired.

Mr. Tanner clicked his tongue as he shrugged. "I'm not really sure."

"Well, I'm sure your wife would know. It would help us out," Delaney stated and, for some reason, the whole encounter was a bit strange to her. She wondered if the boys felt the same way.

"I don't know. She's not here right now."

Okay, yeah this interaction had suspicion practically screaming from it. "Your son said she wasn't home."

"Did I?" Jake asked as if he had never said that both of his parents were in the house.

Mr. Tanner chuckled nervously and placed a hand on Jake's shoulder. "She's out getting groceries. When Duane comes back, there's a number where he can get ahold of you?"

"Oh, no, we'll just check in with you later," Dean responded and he turned around with his siblings to make their way down the steps. 

Delaney waited until the front door was shut and they were a few feet away from the door before voicing her concerns. "That was kind of creepy, right?"

"Big time."

The three seemed to have a silent agreement as they rushed around the side of the house and stealthily peeked into the kitchen window where Mrs. Tanner was tied to a chair with a bandana tied around her mouth to keep her from screaming. 

"It's okay, Mom. It's not gonna hurt," Jake told his mom, squeezing her shoulders gently. He stepped back as Mr. Tanner approached him and handed over a knife. Taking the knife from his father, Jake pulled up his sleeve and dragged the knife along his forearm. He holds his arm above a wound in Mrs. Tanner's shoulder and allows the blood to drip into it.

Delaney pushed away from the window and took her gun from out of the waistband of her jeans. Her brothers followed suit and Dean kicked in the kitchen door to their right, the three rushing in once it banged against the wall. Jake and Mr. Tanner stumbled away from Mrs. Tanner as Dean opened fire on Mr. Tanner.

Jake ran at the sound of the gun fire and Delaney opened fire on him next, but he escaped out the window on the other side of the kitchen and by the time Delaney made it to the window, Jake was already escaping into the woods outside the house.

"Goddammit!"

-°—✞——✞—°-

Dean stopped the Impala outside of the clinic in town and Delaney helped Mrs. Tanner - who she learned was named Beverly - out of the car and into the quiet clinic. "Hello? We need a doctor here!"

A nurse with short blonde hair and a floral printed scrub rushed out of the back room, gasping when she saw the wound on Beverly's shoulder. "Mrs. Tanner, what happened?"

"She's been attacked," Delaney explained, rubbing Beverly's back comfortingly. She could still feel the woman shaking from what she endured in her house.

"Dr. Lee!" the nurse called into the back room from where she came from.

A young woman with wavy dark blonde hair and blue eyes rushed into the waiting area. Her eyes softened when she saw the state of Mrs. Tanner. "Bring her in."

Delaney nodded and gently pushed on Beverly's back to lead her into the back area where all the examination rooms were. She was eventually joined in the room by her brothers while Dr. Lee sat in front of Mrs. Tanner who had the top of her sweater down over one shoulder so Dr. Lee could fix her up. The nurse stood behind Beverly with her hands in her scrub pockets.

"Your son Jake did this to you?" Dr. Lee asked, shocked.

"They both attacked me and tied me up," Beverly whimpered, sniffling. 

"I don't believe it," the nurse whispered, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Pam," Dr. Lee scolded, holding her hand up to stop the girl from speaking any further. "Is there any reason as to why the boys would do this? Any history of chemical dependancy?" Dr. Lee questioned.

Beverly shook her heads as more tears pooled out of her eyes. "I don't know why. One minute, they were my husband and my son, and the next it was as if the devil was in them."

The three siblings shared a look before Dean was motioning for the two follow him out into the waiting area.

"Those guys were whacked out of their gourds."

Delaney frowned as she glanced over her shoulder to where Dr. Lee was finishing patch up Beverly with the help of Pam. It broke her heart to see the woman so distraught and left to wonder what had happened two of the most important boys in her life. She momentarily wondered if Duane was truly at Roslyn Lake. "What do you guys think? Multiple demons, mass possession?"

Dean's mouth twitched as he thought it over. "If it is a possession, there could be more. God knows how many. It could be like a Shriner Convention. Of course, that's one way to wipe out a town. You take it from the inside."

"I don't know, Dee," Delaney sighed, chewing on her lower lip. "We didn't see any of the demon smoke with Tanner or any of the other usual signs."

"Something still turned them into a monster," Sam reminded his sister.

"Yeah and we would have one less to worry about if Delaney had taken out the other one," Dean snapped.

Delaney narrowed her eyes at her brother and felt Sam instinctively grab the back of her leather jacket as if she were going to leap and attack her brother. It wasn't that far fetched because she definitely had the urge to gouge out Dean's eyes with her bare hands. "Oh, I'm sorry that I hesitated, Dean! He is a freakin' kid!"

"NO, it was an it," Dean countered harshly. "It's not the best time for a bleeding heart, Della."

Sam opened his mouth to stop the two from arguing, but was stopped when Dr. Lee walked back out to the waiting room. "Oh, how's the patient?"

"Terrible," Dr. Lee replied. "What the Hell happened out there?"

Dean shook his head. "We don't know."

"Yeah? Well, you just killed my next door neighbor," Dr. Lee huffed, gesturing to one of the back rooms where Mr. Tanner's dead body laid.

"We had no choice," Dean told the doctor, not really caring whether she believed him or not.

"Maybe so, but we need the county sheriff. The coroner..."

"The phones are down," Delaney informed the doctor.

Dr. Lee sighed with a nod. "Yeah, I know. I tried, too. Tell me you've got a police radio in the car."

Sam gave Dr. Lee a sorrowful expression. "Sorry, it went out just like everything else."

Dr. Lee ran a hand through her hair and puffed out her cheeks in exasperation. "I seriously don't even begin to know what is happening here."

"How far is it to the next town?" Dean asked.

"It's about forty miles down to Sidewinder."

"Okay, we'll go down there to see if we can find some help," Dean offered, gesturing between him and Sam. He placed a hand on Delaney's shoulder and squeezed it assuringly. "Our little partner here will stay behind to keep you girls safe."

Dr. Lee's face fell as her hands fell limp at her side, fear flashing across her face. "Safe from what?"

Sam paused and glanced over his shoulder. "We'll have to get back to you on that."

"Be good, kid!" Dean warned his baby sister before him and Sam were out of sight.

-°—✞——✞—°-

Delaney sat on the examination bed in the lab that Dr. Lee and her sat in with Mr. Tanner laid out on the metal table in the middle of the room. Her brothers were still out in the next town and she couldn't stop worrying about them. The next town over was probably safe, but it didn't help to squelch her anxiety that she had been fighting off ever since her brothers left. It took all her will power to not let it consume her because her brothers weren't here to help talk her down from the anxiety drop. 

Plus, freaking out would do none of them any good. She had to be the strong girl she knew she was. There was no way Delaney Elizabeth Winchester would let her anxiety overpower her. Like Dean had began to tell her lately when it got too much, she was stronger than the anxiety. If she could get through whatever it is the Yellow-Eyed Demon laid out for her, she can get through that. That thought alone helped calm her racing heart.

"Huh."

Delaney's head snapped to the side where Dr. Lee sat at the lab counter, her face in the magnifying glass of the microscope. "What?"

Dr. Lee brought her face back from the microscope and swiveled her chair around to face Delaney. "His lymphocyte percentage is pretty high. His body was fighting off a viral infection."

Delaney perked up, maybe that could help lead them to what was happening to Jake and Mr. Tanner when they attacked Beverly. "What kind of virus?"

"I can't say for sure."

"You don't think a virus could have made him act like that, do you?"

Dr. Lee shook her head and shrugged. "None that I ever heard of. Some can cause dementia, but not that kind of violence. Besides, I've never heard of one that did this to the blood."

"Did what?"

Dr. Lee furrowed her eyebrows as her eyes traveled back to the microscope behind her. "I don't know. There's this weird residue. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was sulfur."

Delaney chewed on the inside of her lip as she glanced over to Mr. Tanner's body that laid under the white sheet. That would explain the demonic like behavior that Mr. Tanner and Jake had been going through. "Great..."

-°—✞——✞—°-

"I don't understand," Beverly whispered, looking between Delaney and Dr. Lee. "Are you saying my husband and Jake had a disease?"

"That's what we are trying to find out," Dr. Lee responded, leaning against the counter a few feet from the stool that Beverly sat on. "Now, during the attack, do you remember - " She walked closer to Beverly and stopped right in front of her. "Did you have any direct contact with their blood?"

Beverly's eyes widened since Jake had spilled his blood into her open wound. "Oh my God. You don't think I've got this virus, do you?"

Dr. Lee exhaled heavily, folding her hands in front of her. "Beverly, I don't know what to think, but with your permission we'll take a blood sample."

Beverly nodded and laid her hand gently on Dr. Lee's, patting it softly. Suddenly, she gabbed Dr. Lee's wrist and yelled in rage, lashing out with her other hand. Delaney gasped and advanced on her and Beverly tosses her against a glass cabinet, which shatters upon impact. Beverly picked up a scalpel as Delaney grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall and she knocked Beverly out just as she leapt to attack her.

"Dean and Sam, please hurry," Delaney groaned, lowering the fire extinguisher and going over to Dr. Lee to make sure she was okay.

-°—✞——✞—°-

"What if we all have it?" Pam whispered, huddled against the medicine cabinet in the lab where her, Dr. Lee and Delaney were. Dr. Lee was once again inspecting blood, but this time it being Mrs. Tanner's blood. 

"You've just got to be calm," Dr. Lee softly advised. "All we can do is wait. The marshals are bringing some help, okay?"

Pam frantically shook her head as her whole body began to shake with fear. "I can't. I've got to go."

Delaney pushed herself off the stool she sat in as Dr. Lee yelled for Pam to come back.

"No, you don't understand. My boyfriend is out there. I have to make sure he is okay," Pam stressed before she rushed out of the lab.

Delaney rushed out of the lab after Pam and grabbed her arm before she could leave the waiting area. "Hey, hey, please wait. Look, I know you're upset. It's safer if you stay here for now, though. Help is coming."

The sound of the Impala rumbling outside sent relief flooding through her. "There it is right now."

"Delly, open up!" Sam yelled from the locked front door of the clinic.

Delaney let her brothers and the same man from her vision into the clinic before quickly locking it behind the three. "Did you guys get to a phone?"

"Roadblock," Dean responded and turned to the man next to him. "Mark, we're gonna have a quick word. Doc's inside."

"Sure," Mark nodded and made his way into the clinic while the three siblings stood in the entrance area.

Taking a moment to let her softer side take over, Delaney flung herself at her brothers and hugged them both tightly. The two both placed a gentle hand on her back, Dean kissing the top of her head. "Yeah, we missed you too, kid."

After giving herself a minute to reassure herself that her brothers were truly there, Delaney took a step back and wrapped her arms around herself. "So... what's going on out there, guys?"

Dean stuffed his gun back into the waistband of his jeans and slapped his hands to his sides. "I feel like freakin' Chuck Heston in The Omega Man. I mean, Sarge is the only sane person I could find."

"Do you know what we are dealing with?" Sam questioned his sister.

Delaney licked his lips and gestured to the inside of the clinic where Doc was. "Yeah, Doc thinks it's a virus."

"Okay, great. What do you think?" Dean asked, wanting to hear his sister's opinion and not a doctor who knew nothing of the supernatural.

"I think she's right and I think the infected are trying to infect others with blood to blood contact. Oh, and it gets worse! The virus leaves traces of sulfur in the blood."

Dean's face fell, seeming as if he didn't believe it. "A... demonic virus?"

Delaney scoffed and made a face. "More like demonic germ warfare. At least it explains why I've been having visions."

"It's like a biblical plague," Sam commented.

"Yeah, you don't know how right you are, Sammy. I've been skimming through Dad's journal while I waited for Dr. Lee to review the blood. I found something about the Roanoke colony. He thought it was a demon's name - sometimes known as Daeva or Reshef - a demon of plague and pestilence."

"Well, that's terrific," Dean remarked. "Why here? Why now?"

Delaney gave a pathetic shrug, leaning against the wall behind her. "I don't know, but, guys, who knows how far this thing can spread? We have to get out of here. We have to warn people."

"They've got one in here!" Mark yelled.

Both boys jumped into action and rushed into the waiting area where Mark was stood. "What do you mean?"

"The wife - she's been infected," Delaney informed her brothers. "When Jake dripped his blood over her wound back at the house."

"We have to take care of this. We can't just leave her in there," Mark stressed, pointing over his shoulder to the back rooms where Beverly was. "My neighbors - they were strong. The longer we wait. The stronger she will get."

Dean barely hesitated before pulling out his gun and stalking into the lab with Mark, Sam and Delaney running after him. Delaney made sure to push her brothers and Mark into the lab where Pam and Dr. Lee were, quickly explaining what her brother was doing a gun in his hand.

"You're going to kill Beverly Tanner?!" Pam screeched in shock.

"Doctor, is there any sort of treatment? Some sort of cure?"

Dean stalked closer when she didn't respond to Sam's questions. "Can you cure it?"

"For God's sake, I don't even know what it is!" Dr. Lee exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

"I told you it's a matter of time before she breaks through," Mark reminded the three siblings.

Pam jumped out of her seat and flailed her arms around. "Just leave her in there. You can't shoot her like she's some sort of animal."

"Delaney," Dean ordered and she reluctantly followed after Mark, Dean and Sam towards the utility room that Dr. Lee and Delaney placed Beverly in earlier. She slowly pushed the door open and the three men burst into the room and Delaney stood a bit behind them, glancing over Dean's shoulder at Beverly who was sat huddled in the corner of the room.

Beverly lifted her head from her knees and sat up slightly when she saw Mark. "Mark, what are you doing? Mark, it's - it's them! They locked me in here. They tried to kill me. They are infected, not me. Please, Mark! You've known me all your life. Please."

Dean glanced over his shoulder at Delaney who looked like she wanted to cry at the sight. "Baby girl, you sure she's one of them?"

Delaney's watery eyes trailed over to meet her eldest brother's and she silently nodded. She shut her eyes as Dean stepped forward and heard Beverly cry out before two shots were heard followed by Beverly's body collapsing.

-°—✞——✞—°-

A few hours later, Dean, Delaney and Sam were going through their arsenal and making sure everything was either sharpened or filled and cleaned. The sound of glass shattering caught their attention and they rushed into the lab to see Pam freaking out about dropping a vile of Beverly's blood.

"You're okay," Dr. Lee assured the girl. "You're clean."

"Why are we stating here? Please, let's just go," Pam pleaded, panic starting to settle in.

"No, we can't because those things are everywhere," Dean argued.

Pam whimpered and bent over rubbing her hands over her eyes as her breathing became heavy. Dr. Lee walked over to help calm the poor girl down.

"She's right about one thing," Delaney whispered so only her brothers and Mark heard. "We can't stay here. We have to get out of here, get to the Roadhouse, somewhere. Let people know what's coming."

"That's a good point," Dean agreed. "Night of the Living Dead didn't exactly end too pretty."

Mark leant against the doorframe of the lab. "I'm not too sure we have a choice, guys. Lots of folks up here are good with rifles. Even with your hardware, we're easy targets. So, unless you've got some explosives..."

Delaney's eyes landed on the medicine cabinet behind Dean and grinned. "We don't have any, but we sure as shit can make some." She walked over to the shelf and took down the bottle of Potassium Chloride.

Just then, the sound of pounding on the door sounded from the front of the clinic. "HEY, HEY, LET ME IN PLEASE!"

"That's Duane Tanner," Mark announced and he rushed out with Dean, Delaney and Sam following him. He opened the door for Duane who thanked him a dozen times as Mark locked the door behind him. "Duane, you okay?"

Dean followed Duane as he made his way into the clinic. "That's the guy that I..." He trailed off, making the dead motion across his throat.

"Yeah..." Delaney sighed.

"Who else is in here?" Duane asked, making a move to go further into the clinic.

Dean grabbed the kid's elbow and gave him a fake smile. "Whoa, easy there, chief. Hey, Doc, give Duane a good once-over, would you?"

Dr. Lee lead the group into the lab and shouted for Pam to come help her.

"Who are you?" Duane questioned Dean suspiciously.

"Never mind who I am," Dean brushed off, turning to Dr. Lee. "Doc."

"Yeah, okay," Dr. Lee said and got Duane set off to check him out with the help of Pam.

Mark stood across from Duane with his rifle still in his hand. "So, where you been, Duane?"

Duane got comfortable on the lab table, placing his backpack down on the floor at his feet. "I was on a fishing trip up by Roslyn. I came back this afternoon. I saw Roger McGill being dragged out of his house by people we know. They started cutting him with knives. I ran. I've been hiding in the woods ever since. Has anyone seen my mom or dad?"

"Awkward," Dean sang under his breath, earning a punch in the back from his sister. "Ow."

Dr. Lee paused and bent down by Duane's left leg, pinching the torn material with blood soaked into it and long gash on his leg. "You're bleeding."

Dean and Sam instinctively stood a bit more in front of their baby sister as they both tensed up. "Where did you get that?"

"I was running. Must have tripped," Duane replied.

"Tie him up," Dean instructed Mark. "There's rope in there."

"Wait!" Duane yelled defensively, jumping off the bed.

Dean cocked his gun and pointed it at Duane who quickly stumbled back. "Sit down!"

Mark came back with the rope gripped in his hand. "Sorry, Duane, but he is right. We have to be careful."

"Careful? About what?" Duane snapped, eyeing the rope in Mark's hand warily.

"Did they bleed on you?" Dean demanded from Duane.

Duane stared at Dean as if he had gone mental. "What? No! What the hell!"

"Doc, any way to know for sure?" Sam questioned, glancing over to Dr. Lee who was now stood a few feet away from Duane. "Any test?"

"I've studied Beverly's blood work backwards and forwards. It took three hours for the virus to incubate. Sulfur didn't appear in the blood until then, so... no, there would be no way of knowing. Not until after Duane... turns."

Delaney gulped quietly and tugged on both of her brothers' sleeves. "Boys, can I talk to you? Now."

Dean glanced to Mark as if to silently ask if he'd watch Mark, to which the man nodded. "Okay. Duane, sit down!"

Delaney tugged her brothers out of the lab and into another room, shutting the door behind them. "This is my vision, guys. It's happening."

"Yeah, I figured," Dean stated, placing his hands on his hips.

"You can't kill him. Not yet. We don't know if he is infected or not."

Dean gave his sister a look as if she had lost her mind. "I think we're pretty sure, Delaney. I mean, the guy comes stumbling in here with a cut on his leg and his whole family is infected?"

"Then we can keep him tied up for now and then wait and see," Delaney suggested.

"For what, Delly?" Sam chuckled and shook his head, not liking the idea of keeping him breathing any longer than they had to. "For him to go Hulk or inspect someone else? No, thanks. I don't want to take that chance, kid."

Delaney stuck her hand out before Dean and Sam could make their way back towards the lab, giving them both a pleading, puppy dog like look to do as she asked.

"Look, sweetheart, I'm not happy about this, but it's a tough job. You know that," Dean reminded his sister.

Delaney glared at her brother, pissed that he wasn't just listening to her. She just wanted one of her visions to not come true for once. "It's supposed to be tough, we are supposed to struggle with this. That's the whole point!"

"Yeah, and what is that supposed to buy us?" Dean challenged.

"Um, maybe a clear conscience for once?" Delaney shot back at him. "Maybe for once at least one of my damn visions could not come true!"

"Well, it's too late for that."

Delaney scoffed and took a step back from Dean, hoping the distance between them would lessen the urge to strangle him. "What has happened to you, Dean? What happened to you never killing an innocent man, Dean? Huh? You don't even care about it either! You haven't acted like yourself since the night Dad died. Hell, you're acting like one of those things out there!"

Dean rolled his eyes and pushed past Delaney who tried to stop him and Sam again from killing off Duane, but she was quickly tossed the side. He took the handle of the door and shut it behind him, locking his baby sister inside. It was for her own good whether she agreed or not.

"No!" Delaney yelled and pounded against the door, glaring at Dean through the glass in the door. "Dean, open the damn door before I shove my foot so far up your ass you'll taste it!"

Dean ignored her and continued across the hall to where Duane was being kept.

Delaney screeched and banged her fists hard against the door in frustration. She was seriously going to end Dean.

-°—✞——✞—°-

A few hours later, Delaney sat in the lab with Dr. Lee, Pam, Mark, Dean and Sam while they all made explosives from the various meds found in the cabinets. She had been let out merely five minutes after being locked inside the office when Sam came back and informed her Duane was still alive. Dean hadn't been able to pull the trigger on Duane no matter how hard he fought against the urge to pull it. Sam theorized it was Delaney seeping into Dean's conscience and since he hated disappointing her, he lowered the gun.

However, Duane stayed tied up in the utility room just for now. He complied even though he kept expressing how he wasn't infected. It was a lot better than having a bullet in his forehead though.

"It's been four hours and Duane's blood is still clean. I am going to untie him if that's alright," Dr. Lee announced and Delaney nodded for the doc to do as she pleased.

Once Dr. Lee was out of earshot, Delaney's eyes glanced over to Dean. She was still incredibly pissed at him regardless of him shooting Duane or not. He still locked her in the room like he used to when she was little and didn't listen to him. Or when she had been a teenager and gone through that "rebellious teen stage" where Dean was always grounding her for staying out past her curfew and locking her in the motel room when she wasn't at school or had cheer practice.

"I'm going to ask, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Dean replied, funneling liquid into a black bottle and measuring it to make sure he poured enough in.

Delaney leaned against the counter and played with the white rag in her hand. "So, why didn't you do it?"

Dean was quiet for a long moment before he cleared his throat. "We need more alcohol."

Delaney opened her mouth to argue with him but stopped when Sam gave her a look to just get the alcohol for him. "Fine..." she sighed and walked into the dispensary where Pam was. "How you holding up, Pam?"

"Fine. It'll all be over soon," Pam said as she watched Delaney walk over to the cabinets and look for the alcohol that Dean needed. "In fact, I've been waiting for this the whole time."

Delaney turned around with three of the bottles in her hand and furrowed her eyebrows as she walked closer to Pam who was in the middle of the room now. "For what?"

"To get you alone."

Delaney barely had time to react when Pam suddenly lashed out and knocked her to the ground. She straddles Delaney's waist and punched her, hard, across the face. Pam used the scalpel in her hand to slices across Delaney's chest and then across her own palm. She placed her wound over Delaney's newly opened one. 

Dean kicked the door open and shoots Pam three times in the back. She convulses and falls to the floor. Sam reached out a hand to Delaney, but was immediately pulled back by Mark who had wide eyes.

"Pam bled on her. She's infected."

-°—✞——✞—°-

Delaney sat on a stool with a bandage pressed to her collar bone where Pam had cut her, tears welling in her eyes. Dean and Sam paced around the room in a slight panic.

"Doc, check her wound again, would you?" Dean asked Dr. Lee and when she didn't move he barked at her again to move.

"What does she need to examine him for?" Mark argued. "You saw what happened."

"Did her blood actually enter your wound?" Dr. Lee asked Delaney.

Mark barked out a laugh. "Of course, it did!"

"We don't know that!" Sam growled.

"We can't take a chance!" Duane countered.

"You know what we have to do," Mark added.

Dean glared darkly at Duane and Mark, standing protectively in front of his sister. "No one touches my baby sister unless they want to have a brief preview of what Hell feels like."

"She won't be your sister much longer," Duane stated, gesturing to Delaney who just curled in on herself more and more. "You said it yourself."

"No one is shooting anyone!" Sam cut across the two.

"You were gonna shoot me!"

"You don't shut your pie-hole, I still might."

Delaney sighed and tugged on Dean's jacket. "They're right, Dee. I'm infected so just give me the gun and I'll do it myself."

"Forget it," Dean dismissed harshly.

"Dean, I don't want to be one of those things!" Delaney cried, finally allowing the tears to trail down her cheeks. The sight only making Dean's heart fall deeper into his stomach than it already was. "Not happening."

"Delly, we still have time," Sam reminded since it hadn't been three hours yet. They still had a chance of where Delaney hadn't been infected at all.

"Time for what?" Mark challenged, throwing his hands to the side. "I understand that she is your sister, and I am so sorry, okay? I have to take care of this."

Delaney flinched slightly when Mark raised his handgun at her head.

"I swear to God, you make a move and you will be dead before you hit the ground. You understand me? Do I make myself clear?" Dean barked at Mark whose hand dropped back down to his side.

"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Mark huffed.

Dean dug his hand into his jacket pocket and took out the Impala keys, tossing them to Mark who caught them with one hand. "Get the Hell out of here. That's what. Take my car. You got the explosives. There's an arsenal in there," he explained and turned to Dr. Lee and Duane. "You two go with him. You got enough firepower to handle anything now."

Delaney looked at her brothers in shock as Sam nodded in agreement with Dean. Her watery eyes bounced between her brothers who were determined more than anything to not leave her behind. "Boys..."

"What about you?" Duane questioned the two brothers.

"Boys... go with them. It's your only chance," Delaney whispered.

"You're not gonna get rid of us that easy," Sam told his sister before she could argue any more.

"No, she's right. Come with us," Mark said and waited a beat, but neither boy moved. "Your funeral."

Delaney watched as Dr. Lee walked out of the room with Duane and Mark, thanking the three for what they had done so far for them. Dean forced a smile and closed the examination room door behind her. She brought her knees to her chest and buried her face into her knees, whimpering quietly into them. Sam's hand landed on her back to gently rub her back in soothing circles.

"I wish we had a deck of cards or a foosball table or something," Dean teased.

Delaney sniffled and lifted her head from her knees, exposing her red and swollen eyes from the crying. She ignored Dean's pained expression as he took in the sight of his distraught sister, wanting nothing more than to pull her into his arms and assure her it would be alright. That's what big brothers were for, right? To make everything better. However, he didn't know how to make this better and it sucked.

"Boys, please, don't do this. Just get out of here."

"No way," Sam replied, bringing her into his side and kissed the side of her head.

"Just give me my gun and then you can leave."

Dean stared at his sister for a long moment, narrowing his eyes. "For the last time, Della, no. Not gonna happen."

Delaney let out a shriek of frustration, punching the bed next to her and pushing Sam away from her. "This is the stupidest thing you guys have ever done!"

"I don't know about that. Remember that one waitress at the diner you used to make us go to all the time for your birthday when we were staying with Bobby?" Dean chuckled.

Delaney shook her head and wiped at her soaked eyes. "I'm sick, okay? It's over for me. It doesn't have to be for either of you."

"Who says I want to?" Dean challenged.

"What?"

Dean's jaw ticked as he crossed to the other wall and pulled a handgun out of his waistband before sitting on the file cabinet. "I'm tired, Della. I'm tired of this job... this life... this weight on my shoulders. I'm tired of all of it."

Delaney shook her head as she dropped her hands to her lap. "So, what? The both of you are just going to give up? You're just gonna lay down and die? Look, I know this stuff with Dad had - "

"You're wrong," Dean cut her off. "It's not about Dad. A big part of it, sure, but..."

"Then what is it about?"

Before Dean or Sam could give her a response, there was a noise from outside, followed by a knock on the door. He opened the door to reveal Dr. Lee on the other side.

"You better come see this."

The three siblings followed Dr. Lee outside to where the whole town was deserted. The only sound being from the crickets and slight wind blowing through.

"There's no one. Not anywhere. They've all just . . . vanished."

-°—✞——✞—°-

"Well, it's been five hours. You're clean," Dr. Lee announced to Delaney who sat on the examination bed. "I don't understand, but I think you dodged a bullet."

Delaney furrowed her eyebrows. How could she not be effected? Pam had bled directly into her wound just like Jake had into Beverly. "But... I was exposed. How could I not be infected?"

"I don't know, but you're just not," Dr. Lee replied with a shrug. "I mean, you compare it with the Tanner samples . . ." She paused as she looked into the microscope again. "What the Hell?"

"What?"

"Their blood. There's no trace of the virus. No sulfur, nothing."

Once everything was said and done, Dr. Lee and Delaney exited the clinic to say goodbye to Mark and Duane. The two were heading South to start new since there would be no more life there in Oregon. The men bid their goodbyes before hopping into Mark's truck and drove off.

"What about my sister?" Sam asked as Delaney walked over to Dean and Sam who were leaned against the Impala and leaned against Sam who wrapped his arms around her.

"She is gonna be fine. No signs of infection," Dr. Lee assured Dean and Sam before turning and heading back into the clinic.

Dean turned to look her with an expression that she couldn't read. "I don't know, don't look at me."

"I swear, I'm gonna lose sleep over this one. I mean, why here, why now? And where the hell did everybody go? It's like they just friggin' melted," Dean ranted, pushing off the Impala and walking around to the driver's side.

Delaney stepped back from Sam and glanced between her brothers. "Why was I immune?"

"Yeah, you know what? That is a damn good question, Delaney," Dean said, slamming his hand on the hood of the Impala. "You know, I'm already starting to feel like this is the one that got away?"

"Sam..."

Sam shook his head and opened the back door for her as he opened his own door. "Just... don't, Delly, okay?"

Delaney watched as both of her brothers got in the car. What the Hell was going on with them? They had been acting so weird ever since their father died, and especially now that they found out she was immune to a demon virus.

Delaney was determined to get to the bottom of it.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

SO HI! Update number 2 for today because I am impatient and needed to get to this chapter and the next one already. I cut episode 9 off one scene early because the end scene bleeds also into the next episode, so I decided to just put the whole scene in the next chapter WHICH IS THE ANGST AHHHH!!!!