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(12.1) ─ Faith

𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫:
‧⁺˚*‧☾ 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐦𝐞, 𝐤𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝☽‧*˚⁺‧

29 Hours

The black Impala pulled into the driveway of a rundown abandoned house. All three Winchester getting out of the car and moving straight to the trunk. Dean pulled out three tasers, handing one to each of his younger siblings. "What do you got those amped up to?" Sam questioned.

"100,000 volts,"

"Damn," Carmen muttered looking at the two prongs before looking back up at her brothers seeing the look. "Oh come on."

"I want this rawhead extra frickin' crispy. And remember, you only get one shot with these things." The oldest remind slamming the trunk shut. "So make it count."

They started their search going from the top of the house and ending it in the basement. A thud came from inside a cupboard, snapping their heads in it's direction before looking at each other. Both brothers moved to either side while Carmen stood in front as she was gonna open it. "On 3," Dean whispered as she nodded. "1.."

"2.." Sam added both looking back and forth between her and the shut doors.

"3." She finished, flinging the doors open and jumping back as her brother's flooded to the front. There sat 2 terrified children, tears streaming down their scared faces while they covered their ears. "Is it still here?" Carmen whispered, stepping to the front and crouching down to their level. Both nodded their heads.

Dean grabbed the little boy's hand while Carmen grabbed the girls, helping them both out. "Ok. Grab your sister's hand, come on, we gotta get you out of here, Let's go, let's go," He ordered, trying to keep them calm-ish.

"You 2 are gunna have to be brave just for a bit longer, can you do that for me?" She asked in her softest calmest voice. "Good. Let's go." The youngest helped the kids towards the stairs, Sam getting knocked back down to the ground floor. "Sam!" She shouted turning towards him and the kids screaming before running back up the stairs.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, coming around the corner attempting to shoot whatever had a grip on his brother. "Sam, Carmen, get 'em outta here!" He ordered to them.

She helped Sam up to his feet pushing him forward as she threw Dean her taser. "Be careful," Both ran up the stairs, grabbing the kids leading them to Impala. "Stay here, okay? Everything will be okay." She told the kids as they both nodded. "We will be right back!" They both shouted while running back inside of the house.

"Dean!"

Carmen was first down the steps always being the faster one of the three. Something she wished she wasn't in that moment. Dean laid motionless in a puddle of water. "Dean!" She yelled running to his side. Sam followed closely behind quickly checking for a pulse. Carmen's breath quickens as her chest tighten, looking down at Dean and back up at Sam. "He's alive but-but barely breathing." He told her trying as she nodded. "We need to get him to a hospital."

She nodded, helping the older brother up and supported by Sam. While the youngest kept ahead of them making sure to keep the rotting doors open and getting the car started and ready.

💾

Sam had walked turned back after talking to the receptionist, watching Carem who was sitting in a chair, her back against the armrest and her legs pressed up the other while checking the time on her phone. Glancing over at the two cops that were waiting to talk to the two. "They still won't tell me anything." He told her sitting down in the chair next to her.

She stayed silent, just yawning roughly quickly covering her mouth. "You can sleep if you need to. I know you've been awake for a while." He said to her while whipping sleepy tears from her eyes. "36 hours. It was twenty-nine at the house and we've been here for seven."

Sam sighed looking around before his eyes landing on the doctor walking up to them. "Hey, Doc. Is he..." He started both siblings stood up looking at him as they met him halfway.

"He's resting."

"And?" Carmen asked emotionless, Sam wrapped his arm around her shoulder trying to keep her calm.

"The electrocution triggered a heart attack. Pretty massive, I'm afraid. His heart.... it's damaged," He informed them.

"How damaged?"

"We've done all we can. We can try and keep him comfortable at this point. But I'd give him a couple week, at most, maybe a month," Carmen took a breath trying to calm herself down not wanting to break down in the waiting room. Knowing they probably have seen it all, but she didn't want anyone to see her like that. She didn't want everyone to know that she was the reason that her brother was dying. Her knees felt weak, feeling her thumb start to shake. She looked between Sam and the doctor, giving a small smile before walking past them and towards Dean's room. "She's uh... thank you," He told the doctor, not finding any other words, following a couple of steps behind her.

He was sitting up watching tv. He was pale, having dark circles under his eyes that matched hers. Seeing his two different I.V.'s in either arm while wires came from the top of his hospital gown leading to a monitor that was beeping with his heartbeat. She had let out a small shaky breath that got his attention. Glancing at her as a small smirk appeared on his face, "There you are, Daria." She smiled lightly, happy that he was still the same. "Have you ever actually watched daytime TV? It's terrible," He said weakly, looking back at the TV.

She walked up to the foot of the bed and moved his legs over and sat next to him "You forget just how little Dad let me go outside with any supervision."

Sam stood in the doorway shaking his head, "We talked to your doctor?"

"That fabric softener teddy bear. Oh, I'm gonna hunt that little bitch down," He joked but neither one smiled, both just looking at him. "Dean," She said softly, making him look at them. Nodding slowly understanding what she was saying with her expression. "Yeah," He started, turning the TV off. "All right, well, looks like you're gonna leave town without me."

"We're not gonna just leave you," She rebuked, jumping off the bed and holding onto the foot board.

"Hey, you two better take care of my car. Or I swear, I'll haunt your asses,"

"We don't think that's funny," Sam said after seeing Carmen run her thumb across her bottom lip, something she did when she was stressed.

"Oh, come on, it's a little funny," Dean said, smiling weakly between the two. "Look, guys, what can I say, it's a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story." She rubbed the corner of her tight and tired eyes, "We still have options."

"What options? Yeah, burial or cremation. And I know it's not easy. But I'm gonna die. And you can't stop it."

"We'll see about that,"

💾

108 Hours

Carmen sat on the floor, her back against one of their motel beds. It had been 3 sleepless days and still not trying to find a solution to their problem. Only leaving the room to visit Dean who was trying to talk them out of doing anything. Sam was doing the same, although he went on food runs and took that time alone to let everything out. "Alright...just wanted you to know." Sam sighed out hanging up the phone and tossing it onto the neighboring bed. Fighting tears from breaking their way through. Thinking that he had to be strong for Carmen who was suffering in silence. "He still hasn't answered."

She stayed silent and just looked back down at the laptop in her lap. To say Sam was worried about her was an understatement. She had gone back to her mute, minimum talking stage. Something she did when her mom left, when he left, and now as Dean is about to leave.

"I already tried him." She stated getting a confused look from him. "We were in a waiting room for 7 hours, I thought he should at least know. I didn't expect him to answer..." She trailed off as her voice showed what little hope, she had for her father was left.

"He's gunna be okay. We'll find a way, okay?" Sam said trying to reassure her.

"Might have already found it." She stated standing up and moving to the small table, setting the laptop down which had John's journal on the keyboard. "Found one of Dad's friends that can help us."

"You did?" He asked a little more hopefully. She gave him a small smile with her brow raised. "You sleep, I don't. Dean is going to be okay, trust me." There was a prominent knock on the door, "Got it," She declared jumping up and walked over to the door, Sam chuckled slightly. She opened the door being met with Dean, leaning against the neighboring wall, looking terrible. "Sorry we don't want any Girl Scout cookies."

"Happy to see you too, Carm." He replied walking inside the room.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asked, standing up. "Better question, why the hell are you here, and not in the hospital?" She asked matching his stands.

"I checked myself out,"

"Check myself out? Are you nuts?" She asked him, letting him lean on her.

"Well, I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot," He joked, making them both roll their eyes. Even on his deathbed Dean was making jokes to hide his emotions.

Sam scoffed as he shut the door, "You know, this whole 'I laugh in the face of death' thing? It's crap. We can see right through it." Dean shrugged, "Yeah, whatever dude." Carmen helped him over to one of the two chairs at the small table. "Have you guys even slept? You both look worse than me, well Sam, you look worse than me."

"We've been scouring the internet for the last three days. Calling every contact in Dad's journal." Sam informed him getting Dean's brow to raise. "For what?"

"For a way to help you." She replied picking up the journal from the table. "One of Dad's friends, Joshua, he called me back. Said something about some guy in Nebraska, I believe. A specialist,"

Dean looked towards Sam who just nodded, before turning to Carmen seeing just how hell bent, she was on this. "You two are not gonna let me die in peace, are you?" She quickly placed the the bookmark into the journal before shutting it. "Neither one of you are dying unless I say so!"

He squinted his eyes at her, "I mean you really look like crap. And are those stress pimples or shark week ones?" She tilted her head crossing her arms, "You wanna reverse that Tweety Bird?"

"I mean...I thought I saw a putty cat," He said in his Tweety Birds voice that always made Carmen laugh. He turned towards Sam, "I did, I did see a putty cat," He said with a wide grin. "That's what I thought,"